Dear Internet,

Well son of a bitch. I almost missed this week’s issue. I thought it was this upcoming Sunday, not yesterday.

A day late but never a dollar short.

Mr. Lisa and I have always been bit of hippies. We compost and recycle. We return pop cans and bottles. We use reusable bags when shopping. We try to buy food when it’s in season from local farmers (difficult when the seasons up here are so short), and if we can’t, that the food was ethically produced and raised. We’ve started being more conscious of what services we use (we’ve canceled Amazon). I even wear patchouli on occasion.

(I spelled “patchouli” without looking it up. Go me!)

But in the last few months or so, we’ve been really looking at how are dollars are supporting the genocide of Palestinian peoples, the environment, data centers, and other terrible causes. We began by boycotting Eurovision, which is the first year we haven’t watched in nearly two decades we started watching (stoned in Amsterdam), since Israel was performing. I’ve started researching products we use from hair and body to cleaning and laundry, tracing back their parent companies, and see where their support of Israel lays. (Blackrock and Vanguard can go fuck themselves into hell.) I’ve spent hours looking for a replacement face wash as an example. There is a local company, Bee Joyful, who use beeswax and honey from their own hives to create body products. We use their lip balm, beard stick (well, Mr. Lisa does), soaps, candles, and deodorant.

(While FIFA gave Trump a peace prize (?!), and they are also a terrible organization, I opted to watch the games because Israel was not playing. The teams I supported (in order of favoritism) is Croatia, Canada, Scotland, New Zealand, and Norway (because in their group photo, they were dressed as Vikings). Also, Erling Haaland (Norwegian striker) is phenomenal. I watched all the Croatia games and they were the last (I believe, too lazy to look up) of my teams to get knocked out. My “Croatia” t-shirt arrived after their last game as a loss to Portugal 2-1. I am still pissed that the second goal by Croatia was rejected. Anyway, Spain v Argentina plays this Sunday (July 19) and I’ll update who won at the end of this issue since I’m pre-loading this issue’s content. Anyway, we’re supporting Spain as they are boycotting Israel and did not participate in Eurovision this year as Israel was still allowed to compete despite their genocide of the Palestinian peoples. Also, if our watching Argentinian TV has is vaguely correct, the people are racist as fuck.)

Looking for companies that are corporate free, not destroying the earth, or do not support Israel or other nefarious ways in some form or fashion is hard. I just can’t in good conscious continue to buy products that end up in the coffers of the Israeli government and military who are using it to bomb innocent people or to companies who are destroying the planet, anti-Civil Rights, etc.

A few weeks ago, I stood in front of the groomer’s debating if I should by Mr. Lisa’s conditioner (ethically made) at Target or Sally’s Beauty which were located right next to each other. Both took money from Blackrock and Vanguard, so I choose the lesser of two evils, Sally’s.

This has become my life.

We’re nowhere near being perfect. I still drink Coke, we do buy from Amazon on occasion (even though we canceled the service) if we can’t find what we need locally and there is no other option; we both use AI (though very sparingly), and a hundred other things that may directly or inherently cause harm to the environment, support terrible causes, or even worse. I’m not standing on my soapbox saying “If you don’t do what I’m doing, you’re a terrible person,” because I would also be talking about myself.

But I’m trying.

Mr. Lisa and I talk about late stage capitalism a lot. We are both tired that what was considered a good income 10 years ago is now you can barely live on. I detest having to have a car and Mr. Lisa is pretty virulent that we live in an area with piss poor public transportation. While our combined incomes is really good, we can’t afford to move somewhere that supports the lifestyle we want because even if we sell Throbbing Cabin at a ridiculous good price, we cannot afford the ridiculous house prices elsewhere. The cost of everything is rising so fast that what I spend for face wash is inherently much more expensive (sometimes twice as much) than say a year ago. Plus, with the use of AI killing bunnies, just existing sometimes hurts.

A lot of this recent trend of mine to living a more ethical life is not by my own research, but also helped by my activist in love, Steph. She’s been handing me details on ways I can make a difference and that has really helped a lot.

I started following the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement awhile ago, which is a Palestinian run organization to put big pressure on The Man to stop funding Israeli military. In their subreddit, there is always a lot of discussion on going beyond just The Man such as boycotting smaller companies and and swapping out products to more ethical companies. BDS, and other similar resistance orgs, are not opposed to this but they do understand you can only do so much. No one is perfect in their ideological belief systems, which is something I struggle with because intellectually, I know this to be true but emotionally, I want to do more.

I recently learned that Michigan Dem Senator, Elisa Slotkin, is a Zionist, took PAC money, and approved giving money to Israeli military. I was not able to vote for her as I was not registered in Michigan at the time she was running but I probably would have as she’s a Dem (default reaction not great, I know) and her policies towards Israel were not quite known then. A lot of people who vote Dems argue she’s a Republican in sheep’s clothing. I volunteered with our local Dem group and I recalled recently that they supported Slotkin on her bid for Senator. I emailed one of the co-chairs and said hey, are you supporting Slotkin? I also said I was uncomfortable with them if they were and why. The response I got back was Slotkin was not on their radar as she is not currently running and they would address her Israeli ties when re-election comes up. I did not find this to be an acceptable answer so I asked them to remove me from all email and print mail lists and void my membership. The chair thought I was crazy rejecting the Dems so widely. Jokes on her, I found the Democratic Socialists of America.

DSA are Dems on steroids and they practice what they preach. “Socialist” is attached to their ideology because they believe they can work within the system to fix it rather than reject the system and start fresh (Marxism). I’m so tired of Dems being wishy washy group who kowtow to the Republicans and non-progressive causes that I had to leave them. My soul was crushed and I was tired of arguing with the Dems in my head about their choices.

(If you’re looking for examples of contemporary DSA politicians, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, and Zohran Mamdani are all elected Dem Socialists. Also, Cornel West, who is a American philosopher and intellectual is a Dem Socialist. I mention him because I studied him in my philo classes in undergrad and just love him. His work is accessible and easy to understand. Also, he was in The Matrix movie franchise as a councilor.)

I was honestly surprised to find that there was a DSA chapter in my area and I reached out to them. I’m now on their mailing list, I’ve started a monthly donation to DSA (portion of the funds go to my chapter), I’ve got the local chapter’s calendar synched in my Google Calendar, and at some point, I hope to volunteer with the org. (Right now, I’m on volunteer fatigue rest.)

Now, the thing is, DSA members do not run as independents but under the Democratic ticket because they are still seen as Dems, not Independents. Personally, I don’t care per se what banner they run under as long as their goals align with mine. However, when it comes to primaries, Independents don’t have one so it’s just Dems vs Republicans.

And Michigan’s is August 4.

Right now slots for Governor, Legislative State Senator for my district, Representative for my district, and Congressional Senator are all up for grabs (plus a few local offices that are running in my area). Congressional Senator, Legislative Senator, and Rep were easy to pick; all three are DSA or DSA adjacent. None take PAC money and they are endorsed by a lot of groups I believe in. Governor is difficult. She’s pro-Israel, pro-data centers, and takes PAC money. No mention of Civil Rights on her website. Her opponent’s website is a bullshit agenda items so he’s a definite no. The female candidate is currently the Secretary of State for Michigan thus she’s picking up the mantle of current Governor, Big Gretch (or as you may know here, “That woman from Michigan”). Is this going to be another case of picking the lesser of two evils? I emailed my DSA chapter to see who they are endorsing but based on my research, I know who I’m voting for.

In a few weeks, my township’s board is having their monthly meeting and on the agenda is that a local farm is accepting human sewage to be dumped on their farm and then growing food in the adjacent fields. The location of where they are dumping the sewage is near our house so often we smell sulfur and rotting trash. Our concern is that if the sewage gets into our water supply (we have a well), we’re fucked. Mr. Lisa and I are going to the meeting.

Viva la revolución!

Spain won the World Cup 1-0! 🇪🇸

If you’ve been keeping up with the news, the upper Midwest, all of Michigan, and most of the Northeast were covered in smoke plumes from the Canadian wildfires. Our air quality index was in the 300s so we stayed indoors due to Mr. Lisa’s asthmatic symptoms so that meant a lot of local places who were showing the games, which were outdoors, was a no-go.

Spain had something like 60% possession through the game and they were knocking on Argentina’s door hard. The Argentina team were massive assholes by pulling on jerseys, tripping, and other nasty stuff and were rarely called out on it. Messi is a flaming asshole and terrible person. He faked, I swear, at least one “injury” to get a free kick (which he missed).

Spain got two goals in during the course of the game but they were disqualified. Online chatter was the refs were disallowing the goals so that Argentina could catch up. There were also a few offside calls on Spain, which were bullshit. On top of extra time, the game went into another 30 minute period with Spain getting in a goal they could not dispute at the 12’ mark leaving 8’ in the game. (Periods are 45 minutes long not including added time so this game, with the added time and additional period, was about 150 minutes.) At the end of period, it was clear Spain won, and thank fucking god for that!

Mr. Lisa was giving me shit because at the beginning of the World Cup, I was rooting for Croatia (as I said earlier in this missive), and when they got knocked out, I went down my other teams forgetting Spain’s politics. In terms of national teams, it’s now Croatia and Spain and if they play against each other, I have to vote Croatia because Zagreb is amazing and I want to move there.

According to Mr. Lisa, you cannot root for two teams in the same league and that “everyone knows that.” Like, what’s going to happen? They strip away my team t-shirts? I told him to fuck off and I’ll root for whoever I want to root for.

This missive is quite long and I had to cut some stuff to not be obnoxiously long!

Take care and I’ll see you in a few weeks!

lisa x

I’m fundraising for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for the Out of Darkness walk again with the walk on September 19, 2026. As most of you know, a very beloved person in my life, the selfish bastard Brendan McAdams, killed himself on January 10, 2025. He would have been 47 this year.

(Note: Last year they had bibs for your back for you to write down who has suffered or died from suicide. I had ten people written down including me, my mom, and others I knew. This is a fucking epidemic.)

My goal is to raise $1250 USD. I’ve got around a lot more more to go as I’ve been a lazy git and haven’t been fundraising as I should have been.

This year I’ll be wearing my Team Otter Lee Ridiculous (name of Brendan’s Corgi) in solidarity. I’m also walking in N. Michigan rather than in Grand Rapids (if you’re in the area and want to come say hi!).

Even if you only have $5, please consider donating via ASFP’s website or Facebook (if that’s your jam). Since AFSP is a non-profit, you can write this of on your taxes if you itemize.

Note to Lee: You’ve already donated. Twice! Put the credit card down.

And in the grand words of Bartles & Jaymes, thank you for your support.