CLN SL8 · Clean Slate
You don’t have to wait until Monday.
Not the first of the month. Not New Year’s. A clean slate starts the moment you decide to tell the truth, turn around, and do the right thing next. That’s what this site is about, in my own life and in the news.
What it actually takes
A clean slate isn’t a fresh coat of paint.
Feeling bad isn’t the same as changing. Getting caught isn’t the same as owning it. For me, a real clean slate has five parts, and I don’t get to skip any of them.
- Recognize it.Stop explaining it away. See what you did and who it touched.
- Own it out loud.Confess it, to yourself, to God, to whoever you need to. No “but.”
- Turn away.Make it clear you are no longer that person, and mean it.
- Make it right.Take real steps toward the people you hurt.
- Show up again.Every day, especially on the days you want to hide.
Paying a price isn’t the same as owning it. And a pardon isn’t the same as a clean slate.
Three lanes
I’m going to be all over the place. Here’s how it’s organized.
Accountability
Reckonings
Who did harm, who owned it, and who walked away clean without ever earning it. Pardons, plea deals, and the people left holding the bill.
The news, explained
Behind the Headlines
Trending stories, from AI data centers to federal court to your polling place, broken down for regular people who are busy living their lives.
Personal
Starting Over
My own story. Telling the truth about who I am, letting people down, and choosing to show up anyway. Probably the most honest thing on here.
Latest
New on Clean Slate
- Follow the Money: The Business Behind the Immigration Crackdown
Taxpayers fund ICE. ICE pays private detention companies. Detained people work for about $1 a day. Here is the documented money loop behind the immigration crackdown, and the one link nobody can prove. - Children Behind Fences, and the Bill We Are PayingThousands of children have been held in immigration detention since January 2025, in conditions described in court filings, while private prison companies collect more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer contracts. Here is what I found, and why I use the words I use.
- American Citizens Detained by ICE, and What It Costs All of UsICE is not supposed to have authority over U.S. citizens. Yet reporters and a Senate subcommittee have documented hundreds of citizens held by immigration agents, 506 by ProPublica’s October 2026 count. Here are their stories, and the bill.
- ICE at the Polls? What Bannon Said and What the Law Actually SaysSteve Bannon said ICE would “surround the polls.” Here is exactly what he said, what federal law says about armed agents at polling places, and why that law exists in the first place.
- How I Contact My Elected Officials (And How You Can Start Today)I sat down one afternoon and sent dozens of messages to my senators, my congressman, my governor and my state legislators. Here is exactly how I did it, and how you can too.
- The Truth Is Horrific Enough. Stop Embellishing It.To every creator, left or right, who stretches the facts to make their side look better: your audience trusts you, and when you lie to them, you take away their voice too.
Coming soon
Who got a clean slate they didn’t earn?
A pardon wipes the record. It doesn’t ask for a confession, it doesn’t pay anybody back, and it doesn’t require you to change. I’m going case by case through recent pardons of people convicted of fraud and taking other people’s money, and asking a simple question: who got hurt, and were they ever made whole?
Get it in your inbox
New pieces go out through my free Substack newsletter. That is also where comments and conversation happen.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
Clean Slate is my personal passion project. It is separate from my professional work, and every opinion here is my own.