★★ My Country, 'Tis of Thee mikepasini.com My Country
A S C R A P B O O K O F R E P O R T I N G O N T H E C O U N T R Y
The site banner displays a crop of the U.S. flag upside down, "a signal of dire distress in instance of extreme danger to life or property." We hope one day to fly it right side up again. Subscribe to the RSS feed for updates in the meantime.
Click a closed triangle to display the answer. Click an open one to hide the answer.
Why did you start this site?
I've long suspected that the difference between so-called liberal political positions and the right-wing perspective that twice elected Donald Trump boils down to how informed you are. But it's never been harder to access good information with the extraordinary noise polluting information channels since the advent of talk radio.
It's only gotten worse with social media. You may have noticed.
That noise makes it impossible for people with opposing views to discuss the issues with any kind of civility.
But the manipulation of half the population has to be addressed. They need to see and appreciate the evidence gathered by legitimate news organizations to make decisions that do not blow up their lives or their 401(k).
Rather than argue with people who don't agree with me, I decided to list some of the things I've read and listened to and watched that have informed me. If you want to disagree with me, read what I've read. Then disagree (if you can in good faith). After all, it used to be a free country.
What topics do you cover?
All the subjects that affect people's lives in this country that they can also do something about at the polls. In 2025 that is mainly alarmingly bad news so our logo flies the flag upside down to signal distress.
When did the strength of our diversity become a liability, when did equity among citizens of this country become unfair, when did inclusion of people not exactly like us become bad manners? When did free speech become hazardous to our health? When did flouting anti-semitism become a cover for racism?
I remember a time not long ago when the man in the Oval Office was not a convicted felon and things were better for everyone. And I expect one day that will again be the case. So I have a version of the logo in which the flag is not flying upside down. I'm saving it for then.
Where do you find this stuff?
From my daily reading. I post each headline I found informative as a link to the full story published by the respected news source cited in the listing. If there is a video segment, that follows the description, which is often an edited encapsulation of the article.
With the exception of the New York Times, links go to freely available information. The San Francisco Public Library provides a three-pass to the New York Times, which is why I'm able to reference it. I try to summarize the gist of these articles for those who can't access the site.
Because I want this information to be accessible to anyone who visits the site, publications that provide free access are preferred.
Is the phone version the same as the desktop version?
By necessity, the phone version in narrow portrait mode does not print the author or speaker featured in the article. There just isn't room on the page. But you can get exactly the same experience by rotating your phone to a landscape orientation.
What's the QR code in the left column?
That's the URL for this site. To make it easy to access to this site, just point your phone's camera to the code and Bob's your uncle. The idea is that you can display the site on your phone and share it with someone else just by showing them the QR code to photograph.
How often do you update the site?
As many as four times a day (mornning, midday, afternoon, evening Pacific time) but here's really no publication schedule. When I read something I find insightful, it takes only a few seconds to pass along.
So the best way to follow developments is to rely on the RSS feed to track developments. Just plug that URL into a feed reader like NetNewsWire and let the feed reader alert you to new posts.
Can you explain the format?
I prefer to simply copy and paste headlines, bylines and introductory text. But I am occasionally obliged to condense headlines. And I prefer to name names in bylines (skipping generics like "and agencies").
The remaining text always gets passed through a filter that applies my preferred style (U.S. rather than US, for example). I don't rewrite the text but I do edit it, sometimes skipping a vague lede for the meat of the second and third paragraphs, condensed a bit. Particularly true of New York Times articles for those who don't have subscriptions.
Why aren't the stories dated?
I use teal dotted lines between stories and red dotted lines between days with a larger break between today's new stories and previously posted stories.
But because these are ongoing issues, I don't want to give the impression that anything is "old." Something may have happened a week ago but it shouldn't be forgotten.
Of course each publication dates its own stories so the information is always no more than a click away.
I am citing a lot of material, however (all of which I've consumed myself). So I've had to archived each month as it ends to keep the file size a reasonable download. Which should also tell you something about what's going on.
Why is the display sometimes broken?
I'm unable to see normally at the moment (double vision), which makes routine operations like cutting, copying and pasting unreliable. I work directly on the HTML with some helpful CSS and I do check the HTML display but some things somehow manage to get by me. Apologies in advance and thanks for your patience while I find ways to work around my issue.
This particular project was coded as it was being published, which also made it challenging. We started with the HTML file of curated links, developed an RSS feed for updates, added CSS for a phone display and wrote a Keyboard Maestro macro to facilitate data entry and enforce style conventions. All that is a work in progress, although less work and more progress than it has been.
Do you publish comments?
Nope. This is about disseminating quality information, not having a discussion. But if you find yourself having a frustrating discussion, use the QR code to refer your combatant to this library of overwhelming evidence.