“My father told me when I was a little boy that people in authority lie and the job in a democracy is to remain skeptical. I’ve been science-based since I was a kid. Show me the evidence and I’ll believe you, but I’m not going to take the word of official narratives. The way you do research is not by asking authoritative figures what they think. Trusting experts is not a feature of science, and it’s not a feature of democracy.”
— Robert F Kennedy Jr
October 18th, 2024
“The Democrats have been telling us Trump’s reelection is a threat to democracy. In fact, they were so concerned of this threat, they staged a coup, ousted their democratically elected incumbent, and installed Kamala Harris.”
— Jim Gaffigan, at the Al Smith Dinner
October 16th, 2024
Apparently this is the way I look when I’m “in the zone.” Thanks to Joe F for the photo. Monday was a splendid day on the Knob, but a contrast from when I began a collage painting there a year ago. I could never bring myself to touch that “start” in the studio, so I decided to sit in the same spot and to pick up where I had left off. Now I’m finally eager to finish it inside without ruining it.
September 11th, 2024
“I honestly believe that the rise of alternative media in this country, and the legacy media’s track record of horrific embarrassments, like covering up the Hunter Biden laptop story and lying to the American people about the mental acuity of President Joe Biden, have built up a bullshit tolerance for media spin in the average American.
More people know today that the left-leaning media has a narrative and lies to them than ever before. This debate will be different from other ones because it’ll eventually be looked at in that context. And when people go back and watch how the moderators constantly argued the merits with Trump while leading Harris in her answers to multiple questions, this debate will be revealed for the biased farce that it was. And then — mark my words — it will do more harm than good for Kamala Harris.”
September 5th, 2024
“In sum, for some nine years, the media and the left have successfully fed the country a succession of rank deceptions and conspiracies. They did so because they proclaimed Donald Trump too dangerous to be president and therefore any means they employed to stop him were to be justified. And they are doing so yet a third time in 2024. As they continue, they have all but destroyed democracy, ruined the reputation of the media, alienated the public — and embarrassed their country before the world.”
— Victor Davis Hanson, 9/5/24
Watch my LITTER-ALLY KENTUCKY show promo!
September 1st, 2024 
My sincere thanks to Brett Smith and Diane Dehoney for bringing this video to YouTube and for promoting the show at Paul Sawyier Public Library. My collage landscapes infused with litter are on display in Frankfort for three more weeks.
August 31st, 2024
“Whether or not Putin is acting in the best interests of Russia doesn’t really matter. The war was inevitable anyway because NATO made sure it was impossible to avoid. But what purpose does such a proxy war serve? Well, it doesn’t serve much purpose at all…unless the goal is to instigate a wider world war between the East and the West. In that scenario the globalists benefit greatly.
They get a scapegoat for the economic collapse they’ve already set in motion. They multiply the global fear factor and make the public desperate for the political elites to step in and solve all their problems. And, they can get rid of their domestic enemies (conservatives and patriots) by accusing them of ‘working with Russia’ to undermine the war effort if they dare to rebel against unconstitutional mandates.”— Brandon Smith
August 1st, 2024
“Three years ago, other dissidents and I told the public that Covid-19 likely originated in a lab leak. Public health officials, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, said that our concerns were unscientific, that they were ‘misinformation’ and ‘conspiracy theories.’ Now, Congress, the mainstream media, and those same public health officials have cast doubt on Dr. Fauci’s actions, saying not only that he was wrong, but that he deliberately misled the public.”
— Robert F Kennedy Jr
July 30th, 2024
“The evidence was in plain sight. The question for historians is ‘Who knew the fix was in?’ And equally importantly, how could these powers behind the throne unseat Joe Biden the candidate and still leave the nation in the hands of Joe Biden the president for another six months?
That dangerous proposition is why we can’t wait for history’s verdict, and why it is imperative for journalists to dig down immediately and unravel the plot that sought to undermine not just Biden but America’s democracy and left us weaker and wounded on the international stage.
You can bet the mainstream media won’t take up the challenge. They have bought wholeheartedly into the narrative that Biden is an American hero for resigning his campaign, so it will depend on a fearless outsider like Sy Hersh or Bari Weiss to get to the truth. Let’s hope they get to it before Election Day.”— Frank Miele
July 14th, 2024
“We are seeing how, in broad daylight, it is not actually Joe Biden making the decisions and calling the shots — whether it be related to economic or foreign policy — it’s the Tony Blinkens and the Jake Sullivans and the Hillary Clintons and Lloyd Austins who are making these decisions, which should be troubling to every American because we didn’t vote for any of those people …. a huge problem for us as Americans to have someone in that position who is incapable of fulfilling that responsibility. He should not be in that position, but we also shouldn’t be under any kind of illusion that, should he be forced out or choose to leave, that anything will be different with a President Kamala Harris or anyone else that they choose to fill that position. The Deep State — the military industrial complex — they will continue calling the shots. They only care about power. They don’t care whose face, whose picture is hanging on the wall.”
— Tulsi Gabbard
July 11th, 2024
“So, for multiple reasons, Murthy is probably the worst speech decision in American history. In the face of the most sweeping censorship in American history, the decision fails to recognize either the realities of the censorship or the constitutional barriers to it. In practical terms, the decision invites continuing federal censorship on social media platforms. It thereby nearly guarantees that yet another election cycle will be compromised by government censorship and condemns a hitherto free society to the specter of mental servitude.”
— Philip Hamburger
April 29th, 2024
“For each thorn, there’s a rosebud… For each twilight – a dawn… For each trial – the strength to carry on, For each storm cloud — a rainbow… For each shadow — the sun… For each parting — sweet memories when sorrow is done.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
When the world gets weird, build a greenhouse.
March 31st, 2024The March X ends today, and among the things accomplished: a new greenhouse kit was assembled at the back line of our yard. My thanks to Russ for his catalytic inspiration, Terie and Marty for their help, and Dana for her reliable support.
Happy Easter!
Facing another March X challenge!
February 29th, 2024“Everyone has now seen that pandemics are another way for the military, intelligence, and public health services to expand their budgets and their power. In 2020, public health, defense, and intelligence agencies weaponized a [Covid-19] pandemic, resulting in unprecedented profits to Big Pharma and the dramatic expansion of the security/surveillance state, including a systemic abandonment of constitutional rights — effectively a coup d’état against liberal democracy globally.”
– Robert F Kennedy, Jr / The Wuhan Cover-Up: And the Terrifying Bioweapons Arms Race (Kindle edition, p. 385)
I am recovered from an unnamed health ordeal that hit me the day after Christmas and lasted a month before I felt reasonably well. Then another month before I felt like myself. My recent article in Clandestiny will be all I say about it any time soon. So now it’s Leap Day and the eve of another March X. I won’t be recording regular notes about my heightened activity this time. Priorities to be confronted: 1) completing a “legacy collage” commission for a Dominican Sister of Peace: 2) building a greenhouse in the backyard of the Town House; 3) preparations for a new gardening season; 4) physical conditioning to ready myself for a decent bicycling program in 2024. Be seeing you in April!
February 20th, 2024
“NATO, and the plans to morph it into a global police force under UN control, is the reason for all of this (the debate surrounding the Ukraine-Russia War). Europe wants the US to be a vassal after spending itself to death fighting the phantom menace of Putin. Eurobonds are the real story. The rest is just noise.”
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
December 25th, 2023
The benefit of cropping exercises
December 20th, 2023“Accepting the familiar is the enemy of seeing… Seeing takes work and patience and concentration and focus otherwise we are always walking around in a fog only seeing what we think we know but not actually seeing anything at all.”
— Cecil Touchon
Cropping exercises always offer some insights about internal composition and color relationships. The more I internalize spatial decisions and color judgments, the less reason there is to think about them when I seek spontaneity in pasting ingredients. Please take a look at the entire collection that I call LITTER-ALLY KENTUCKY.
Nine Details, LITTER-ALLY KENTUCKY
collage en plein air by J A Dixon
giclée prints of originals are available
December 13th, 2023
“Indeed, it is perhaps the notion of possessiveness that characterizes the fundamental problem of the human being. True freedom involves a kind of self-dispossession, and a letting go of the attachment to the ‘mine-ness’ of one’s actions… We need to be ‘still,’ to empty ourselves of worldly distractions and illusory attachments, to be able to ‘hear’ and come to understand the Word that is eternally communicated by the Father in the ground. In this sense, it is not as though God is absent in us and then becomes present due to some action of ours that we undertake of our own initiative. Rather, for Eckhart, our task as human beings is to come to be able to listen to — and thereby apprehend — the Word that is eternally and always poured out into us.”
— Amber Griffioen, on Meister Eckhart, 5/1/23