What a president looks like. Or should.

Posted on December 30, 2025 by Steve Mahaley
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – 2025 © Kyodo News

I first drafted this back in March, 2025, but have now returned to this after what continues to be an unmitigated dumpster-fire of affronts to the US Constitution, domestic, foreign, economic and social policies by the current US president.

Zelenskyy is the president of Ukraine having been elected in April 2019 by popular, democratic and uncontested voting. He has presided, of course, during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that started in 2022.

He has been on the front lines, and is a popular leader who embodies courage, resolve, and commitment to the ideals of democracy. Sure, he has his struggles with corruption and certainly bears responsibility for correcting that.

But wow. Where Zelenskyy is struggling with 2 years of attacks to his country by Russia AND works to address his issues, OUR country carries on with our heads collectively buried as Donald Trump and his cronies overwhelm us with their exhausting and unbelievable rain of corruption. Elizabeth Warren did us all a favor in April 2025 by reading in 100 (ONE HUNDRED) examples of Trump corruption:

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Machino Bambino: 2 month update!

Posted on November 13, 2025 by Steve Mahaley
Machino Bambino on Cribs

MUCH has happened, although it may not be a lot to look at.

A came from Oregon to spend a few days with me working on this! In preparation, I built some cribs to get it in the air, and L came by (my surreptitious planning) and we had a fun reunification of the Integrenader Race Team.

Among other things, my wife asked about how to say Baby Car in Italian. That led us to this car’s new name: Machino Bambino.

Here are some update photos that show some of the updates. Updates performed include:

  • Cleaning / refurbishing heater core box and sourcing new heater core and valve
  • Disassembling seats, refurbishing with some replacement metal, and reassembling for installation.
  • Cleaning, prepping, filling, sanding and painting the dash to eliminate cracks
  • Cutting, grinding, metal fabrication, installation, seam sealing, priming and painting floor pan holes. THIS WAS A BIG JOB!
  • Removing, cleaning and priming rocker panel covers.
  • Removing, cleaning, refurbishing brake booster, and sourcing new brake master cylinder.
  • Removing, cleaning, refurbishing windshield wiper mechanism.
  • Removing, cleaning and POR-15 on windshield mounting brackets
  • Cleaning engine bay – getting close to reinstalling!
  • Bench testing starter, and sourcing a new one.
  • Bench testing the alternator.
  • Installing new valve shims on motor
  • Sourcing insulating layer for floorboard – to be installed soon
Original dash cracks
Finished repair
Broken seat rails
New metal in seat pan
New heater core in clean housing
A underneath adding metal
A masterfully fabricating
After cleaning, and cutting
Ugly!

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Control the Media… continued

Posted on September 18, 2025 by Steve Mahaley

In an earlier post I commented on the dangers of fascism and its growing rise in the United States, parading and invading under the banner of MAGA and Donald J. Trump Jr.

So now the Trump regime, via the FCC’s Chairman Brendan Carr (who, by the way, authored the section of Project 2025 on the FCC) has pushed ABC to cancel Jimmy Kimmel Live. And ABC (owned by Disney) caved in and cancelled his show immediately. Not even a runway for a sort-of graceful exit. Just cancelled.

You know, for a party that has gotten up in arms about being ‘cancelled’ this is yet another exhaustingly familiar example of the hypocrisy that is core to the MAGA regime. If you are reading this and are not yet alarmed by what is happening – JUST with media control – then I hope you will stop and consider the possible awful future these acts portend. And what are other countries that tightly control their media so as to suppress rights and voices? Thankfully, independent experts at Reporters Without Borders are watching:

map of globe with darker colors indicating countries that have low media freedom
Reporters Without Borders

Notice how orange (weirdly applicable) the U.S. has gotten?

Please visit their page, and use their interactive graphic to see what press freedom looks like in the U.S. and elsewhere over time. Then think about the rise of authoritarians and fascism.

Then think about yourself, your kids, your friends. In a world of controlled press, knowledge and dialogue is constrained. Education suffers. An educated citizenry becomes a wish, rather than a reality.

As the two newspapers in Moscow years ago were called, Truth and News – my Russian professor in the 1980’s quipped that “there is no News in Truth, and no Truth in News”.

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