Quick Share to Vagabond Scholar's Annual Jon Swift Memorial

Many thanks to Batochhio, who blogs on his own at Vagabond Scholar as well as working every so often at Crooks & Liars to promote their blog round-ups. He does an annual memorial sharing of political blogs in honor of a well-known blogger from the early years who went by Jon Swift (no, not the original guy) and who passed away in 2009.

So here's a link to this year's memorial round-up, of which I contributed one of my articles. I ask you to take the time to read all the other bloggers listed there, and get used to keeping up with them from time to time especially in 2025 when any oasis of sanity will be welcome.

Input for the 2023 Royal Palm Awards, Please and Thanks

Hello, nine followers of this blog. You know what time it is?

It's time to figure out which articles to submit to the Florida Writers' Association's Royal Palm Literary Awards for their category of Nonfiction - Published Article or Blog.

Given the submission limitations, I can only send in five written items for judging. Since I'm planning on submitting my self-published story collection in one of the other categories, that narrows down the blog article choices to four.

I've personally whittled the choices down to these fifteen articles listed here:

Why It Matters - my argument in favor of putting trump on trial for all his sins

The Threat of Another War Of The (MAGA) Posers

The Mouse Knows How to Play (w/ Updates) - this one will require a lot of cleanup, but it's both whimsical and serious and I hope it has a chance

What Was Bought, What Was Sold

Losing It All In the Dirt Digging 

The Sins of Conservatism - one of the rants I'm incorporating into my -Isms book, but as a standalone essay it might convince

A Simple Question (w/ Update) - arguably my most direct critique of the GOP's failures at ethics and leadership

The Racism That SCOTUS Just Allowed

The Whitewash of History, on DeSantis' Orders - I'm very tempted to keep this one, very blunt about racism and very argumentative about the disastrous effects DeSantis' anti-Woke agenda is working out 

What If: How 2024 Could Play Out - on a par with my winning essay about NOT invading Iran

Punching Themselves Just a Little Bit More - THIS is the one I submitted to Batocchio for the Jon Swift Memorial, so this might be a keeper

Roma Invicta - My silliest ode to ROME ROME ANCIENT ROME FIVE TIMES A DAY IT POPS INTO MY DOME, WHICH REMINDS ME, THEY INVENTED THE DOME, IT'S ONE OF THE REASONS THAT I THINK ABOUT ROME ...ah sorry, earworm...

The Bare Minimum of Congressional Standards

Every Culture War Warrior a Hypocrite - it's a regional (Florida politics) essay with relevance

Never the Honest Answer from Republicans - similar to The Whitewash of History, but with a broader approach about the GOP's inability to admit how wrong slavery and racism are.

I know people don't like to use the Comments section below, but please let me know your suggestions. If you're on Twitter (fuck X) or Bluesky please send me direct messages that way, I am @PaulWartenberg at both sites. If any of my fellow bloggers in the circle of Crooks & Liars can share my request for input, please get the word out.

I'm looking to get my submissions in the first week of February, if you can let me know what you think before then, thank you.

Update: I've bitten the bullet and I am submitting The Sins of Conservatism, The Whitewash of History, What If: 2024..., and Punching Themselves... as my blog entries for RPLA. I'll be submitting them the first day of February. Here's hoping I get fair-minded judges. ;-)

Update 7/28/24: Just got the email from the Royal Palm coordinator.

NONE of the submissions reached Semifinalist stage.

This is not helping my mood at the moment.

After getting the Gold for last year's submissions, to draw a complete Zero this year... Frustrating. I'd cry if I could (I am finding it hard to even do that in my current mindset).

Input For Another Round of Blog Award Submissions for 2023

In what is now becoming an annual tradition involving this blog:

Well, it's a new year started and already I gotta think about what to submit to the Florida Writers Association's Royal Palm Literary Awards for their Non-Fiction / Blogging category.

Last year, I had looked at submitting five articles from this blog to contend, but found out that FWA was capping ALL submissions to five total. Meaning if I wanted to submit to any of the Short Story categories, I need to limit my Blog submissions to make room.

Well, I do have at least one short I'd like to submit - maybe have something novel-wise to submit in the unpublished categories as well - so I do need to make some hard choices here and weed down aggressively to maybe three blog articles. It doesn't help me that this 2022 was in my personal opinion one of my better blogging years: Unlike previous years where I could easily narrow down to ten or so articles to consider, I have a ton of articles this time I feel are quality work. 

I need a lot more input than usual on this.

So to the nine regular followers to this blog, lemme know which of these articles I ought to submit to the FWA judges:

Deep Scars

The Darkest Habit That Could End trump's Reign of Error

Say It Florida, Gays Exist

Ukrainian Paradox

War Crimes - I do like this personally, it's one of my more heartfelt essays

Grooming Hypocrisy

The Day When Women Become Second-Class Citizens

Dreading the Oncoming Storm - This is the one I submitted to Batocchio for the annual Jon Swift Memorial

DeSantis vs The Right to Think

What Did the Secret Service Know...?

Who's Dat Knocking at Mar-A-Lago? It's the Feds With a Warrant, Go Figure

Emperor Norton versus The Madman - I have a personal fondness for this one, but doubt it will appeal to others

Hoping for trump's Last Chapter - arguably the longest blog article I've ever written, but also one that's all over the place in projection and prediction, it might be too much

All Which Wicked Designs - maybe a more concise anti-trump blog article than the previous one, arguably more poetic

Picture This: trump Is Toast 

Radioactive 

Mississippi Stealing

DeSantis' Cruelty, and Florida's Ruin

The Great Russian Skedaddle

What the Hell We Waiting For

The Mindset of My Schizoid Generation

Escalation and Evasion

The Revolutions Will Not Be Localized

Let the Guilty Verdicts Be Read...

The Hypocrisy of Pickpockets in Florida

Thoughts About the 2022 Midterms

Russia's Dying Dreams

Damn, that's a lot - 27! - to whittle down. Last year, I easily knocked the considerations down to a simple top ten, but this 2022 well it demanded a lot to comment on. Looking back, there was a lot to say about the Russian-Ukrainian war, and a lot more to say about donald trump as his legal woes - and exposure to documents theft and espionage charges! - kicked into high gear around August 2022.

I am thinking "War Crimes" is a lock, I am partial to "Oncoming Storm," but I am keen on a good third essay to submit. Maybe a fourth.

Let me know what you think, please. Comment here if you can, email me your suggestions, make sure there's a subject line in the email so my spam filter won't catch it by mistake, thanks.

Happy new year, peeps!

Update 1/29/23: I've thought it over, my current preferences are "War Crimes," "Day When Women...," "Oncoming Storm," "All Which Wicked Designs," "Great Russian Skedaddle," and "Schizoid Generation." Thing is, I still need to wheedle it down to four of those (the fifth RPLA submission will be my published short story "The Brides of WiFi.").

Update 7/25/23: It's about time for the judging to wrap up for the Semi-finalist grades, and... I just got emails back that "War Crimes" and "Schizoid Generation" did not achieve Semi-finalist status. The first is a bit of a stunner: I consider "War Crimes" one of my more passionate writings I've done. There are no guarantees on how the other submissions are going: some delays can occur if a particular judge is not making deadlines, and it can depend on the volume of submissions they're reading.

Update 7/29/23: I did receive word a few days ago that both "Dreading the Oncoming Storm" and "All Which Wicked Designs" blog articles DID achieve Semi-Finalist status, so I'm feeling better about that. 

Alas, I just got the email today for my published short story "The Brides of WiFi" and that DID NOT achieve Semi-Finalist. I know, I know, short stories are insanely competitive, everybody in FWA has at least one short every year and they all probably submit theirs for judging. It's just... Sigh, being a fiction writer is a dream for me, whereas the blogging is me getting some anger issues off my chest. If I'd gotten even a Semi-Finalist for a work of fiction I submitted for judging, I'd be over the moon.

Update 8/31/23: Heard back from the judges about the remaining two articles in competition. "Dreading the Oncoming Storm" did NOT reach Finalist status. 

That means "All Which Wicked Designs" DID reach Finalist status and that I can be up for another Top Three prize for the Royal Palm Literary Award in Non-Fiction / Published Blog or Article category! We will find out this October at the dinner ceremony how it goes.

Update 10/22/23: Reasonably thrilled to return from the Royal Palms awards banquet as a GOLD winner in the Non-Fiction / Published Blog or Article category! Hopefully they'll email me the digital award thumbnail as soon as the conference ends today.

Here is the award icon! 

Input For Another Round of Blog Award Submissions for 2022

Well, it's a new year started and already I gotta think about what to submit to the Florida Writers Association's Royal Palm Literary Awards for their Non-Fiction / Blogging category.

There's a limit to the submissions - Five per category - so I'd like to narrow down my favorite 2021 articles some time before February when the early bird submission prices aren't so bad.

So to the nine regular followers to this blog, lemme know which of these articles I ought to submit to the judges:

• Irrational (Already submitted to Batocchio's annual Jon Swift Roundup, and one I've already decided to submit to RPLA no matter what. I just need re-affirmation (grin))
• Hark! A Ranking of Nirvana Albums (I didn't get through even Semi-Finalist status last year with the four I ended up submitting, and I think part of the reason was that they were too partisan in tone. So throwing in a non-political article might help balance things out)
• The Battle of GameStop
• It's the Stuff That's Legal That Should Worry You
• The Big Lie And the One Truth
• Let The Rock Cry Out to Gaetz, No Hiding Place
• The Tragedy In Surfside
• What Would You Have the Ladies Do, O Sexists?
• The Fall of Afghanistan
• Strange Days Inside the Job Lines
• Oakland High Shooting: Red Flags Everywhere

Okay, I know I've got a clunky Comments section here, but if you don't want to post a comment on which ones you'd like submitted, you can tweet me @PaulWartenberg or email p.warten AT gmail. I need to know before the first week of February.

Thank ye, and Happy New Year!

Update 1/30/22: Okay, I've narrowed the choices down to:

• Irrational
• Hark! A Ranking of Nirvana Albums
• The Big Lie and the One Truth
• The Tragedy In Surfside
• Strange Days Inside the Job Lines

Thank you all... um, actually I only got one of you to comment so... I really need to see about making comment posting easier (while avoiding the Chinese spammers).

Update 7/20/22: Bad news, Big Lie and Strange Days did not make the Semifinalist cut. Irrational, Hark!, and Surfside articles did reach Semifinalist status and will now get judged for the Finalist round!

Nice new logo from FWA by the by: 

Update 8/12/22: The Finalist results are in and Holy Forking Shirtballs, people. Irrational and Hark! A Ranking of Nirvana Albums 
made it to the Finalists. I'm a bit surprised/disappointed Tragedy of Surfside did not make the cut, alas. But now I have a reason to attend the Writers' Conference for the awards banquet.

Update 10/23/22: Holy forking shirtballs, Irrational won a silver!

Question to My Nine Blog Readers

So you might notice that I submit entries to the Florida Writers' Association's annual Royal Palm Literary Awards. I did well last year with earning a Silver in the Non-Fiction Blogging category (and there was much rejoicing).

This year, I feel confident enough to submit around nine of the blog articles I wrote in 2020, although there IS a cost to submitting. In that regard, I am keen on narrowing down my submissions to five this year... and of course I can't agree with myself on which ones to go with.

So I need your input, please and thanks.

Consider from this list of nine articles the five I should submit to RPLA for their Blogging award:

• trump's Public Coup
• This Dark Memorial In Some Discarded Corner of America (I *do* consider this my best possible submission)
• The Five Reasons trump Refuses to Concede
• The trumpian Failure At Presidential Accountability
• Predicting Character: Warren Is Planning For That
• A trumpian Plague of Madness
• Not All Heroes Wear Capes
• Republicans Without a Plan
• How America Fell Into the Darkest Timeline of 2020  

Let me see if I can insert a Poll into this article, otherwise I will request you Add a Comment below to tell which ones you think would pass moral and aesthetic judgment. Email me otherwise, no spam you Chinese marketing bastards.

Sad to say, my Murder Hornet articles won't make the cut...

Asking to Help a Blogger Out

Okay, I've mentioned before that I've been struggling with taking care of the bills and balancing out my income. The long years between 2009 to 2013 while unemployed and looking for work, tied in with a job now that's great but low on pay, has pretty much got me living paycheck to paycheck with few other means of additional income.

So woe on me when there's a week where I get caught with an additional cost on something - even a co-pay on a doctor's visit - that throws me into the red with additional costs on the way. Like this one. :(

I've got family that helps keep the checkbook balance, but like I've mentioned before my parents are both retired and both helping another brother with HIS unemployment situation - he's apparently found a part-time job now, but yeah it's part-time - so I really shouldn't be relying on them to bail me out (which they kinda have to do this weekend, but it sucks all around).

So here I am, asking for some help from the audience to leave a little bit in the donation box.

Please take a moment to help out. I know we're all coping with balancing our own personal finances, and hoping the day would come when our wages finally rose high enough to cover our needs. If you do, thank you. I'll do what I can here with the blogging and the anti-Trump ranting to earn your continuing readership.