Dale Batko MBA M.Ed. 🇺🇸

My God, this is magnificent! 🇺🇸

@Th_Midwesterner Tell me about it! We've had to tighten our belts increasingly in recent years.

Whitmer’s Legacy: Michigan slides from 18th to 40th in per capita income since 2000 themidwesterner.news/2026/03/whitme…

@SomeFarker @GrrrGraphics You are unabashedly honest, which in itself is admirable. I try to block all of the crap followers I get that look like scams. I do enjoy reading the posts of those I follow though.

@GrrrGraphics Nah. I think I have maybe a dozen or so "real" followers. The rest are either Elon, his mom, his assistants, lottery winners looking to give me money, crypto "investors" want to take my money, etc., etc., etc. "Reach" is something I don't worry about.

@GrrrGraphics I have almost no reach, @GrrrGraphics. My original posts here on @x are virtually invisible. My replies get little interaction. Tagging who I'm replying to gets a bit more attention. Still, it's almost always single digits.

Is anyone else experiencing lower reach? Like only 2% of your followers?

@benonwine Yes, very much so, @benonwine! My wife and I listened to all 70s, 80s, and 90s music last week on our 1,919 mile road trip vacation. We got to hear lots of gems, some of which we hadn't heard in quite a while.

People may not agree with me, but... music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s is better than anything today.

@miles_commodore There's maybe 2-3 good movies per year now. It used to be 1-2 good movies every week.

I used to love movies, I’ll watch my favorites over and over again. I can’t believe how bad the movies today are. It really is amazing to me.

@The_JBS On election day, people vote with their wallets, @The_JBS! It's always about the economy. Other big issues like the ones you listed matter, but the economy is the first among equals.

What's the impactful event of 2026 so far?

@midwestern_ope I drove 1,919 miles last week, @midwestern_ope!

If you live in this region you are 90% more likely to drive instead of fly to your destination

@Arrowheadbroken The debut year for the Lincoln Memorial reverse!

Another toned up roll ender for the album. It's pretty wild looking.

@joeljmiller Reading allows us to have conversations across both time and place with the best minds of humanity, @joeljmiller! 📚

If you reduce reading to the utility it provides, you’ll eventually find other things to do. But if you read because you love the adventure of taking up temporary residence in the mind and heart of another human being, you’ll never stop.

@WriteAlready Well-said, @WriteAlready! There is a fine line between a Hobby and a Job. We have a hobby because we enjoy it. We have a job because we earn money at it. When a hobby becomes a job it changes our relationship with it. Michael Gerber wrote an excellent book about this. 👇

I write a lot. I honestly couldn’t tell you how many words I’ve written in the last year, but it’s a lot. Hundreds of thousands, easily. Around 15 clients. Every day, I sit down and write for someone else. Some of it’s done really well too. Posts that reach a couple hundred thousand people. Millions of impressions across everything. The kind of results I used to chase when I first started. And somewhere in all of that, I stopped writing for myself. Not all at once. It wasn’t some dramatic decision. It just sort of faded. I used to write constantly. A weekly newsletter. Posts every day. I even wrote a full manuscript that’s still sitting untouched. It was never about performance back then. I just liked putting things into words. Now when I sit down to write, there’s this voice that shows up almost immediately. What’s the hook? Where’s the payoff? Why would someone keep reading this? And it’s not wrong. That voice is the reason I get paid to do this. It’s the reason the work performs. But it’s also the reason I don’t really feel like I’m writing anymore. I’m constructing something, shaping it, positioning it, making sure it lands. Which is useful, just not always honest. I think what I’ve been missing is a place to write without any of that. No hook. No lesson. No reason for you to read this. Just the act of sitting down and putting something on the page because I feel like it. Even saying that feels strange, because I’m still posting it, which means some part of me does care if people read it. I don’t think that ever fully goes away. But I also know that the moment I start thinking about likes or replies or whether this is good, something shifts. The writing tightens up. It becomes more careful, more aware of itself. And that’s the part I don’t want right now. I just want somewhere I can show up and write like this. A little messy, a little unfinished, maybe even something I don’t fully understand yet. Not because it’s valuable, just because it’s mine.

@BrianRoemmele He's also in great shape. Probably getting 50,000 steps per day. He's figured out the art of living well.

The goal is to love life every minute as this gent does.

@CarlBovisNature I saw this awesome bird last week on my vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA, @CarlBovisNature!

Sorry for my absence everyone, I've not been feeling well for a while. Here's a male Blackbird as the light faded last week in my Somerset village. 🐦

@catturd2 Me too, @catturd2! I just did a 1,919 mile road trip down south with my with my wife. We got to listen to lots of '70s, '80s, and '90s music, saw some beautiful landscapes, and met many nice people!

I love to drive on road trips. Flying sucks.

Had some lovely walks down south over the past few days!

@JoshPhillipsPhD We watched, read, and discussed King Lear in my undergraduate literature class. It was an amazing experience. The story came alive.

Time to get serious. Get yourself the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Watch the plays on YouTube. Listen to audio. Follow along with the text. Study free lectures online. These works will die if we do not get them deep into our bones.

@RonaldReagan The humorous clips are fun.

Let us know your ideas in the comments. We're listening!

@PrezWisdom Both had a 4-1 record on a potus/vpotus ticket. That's a lot of time in the national spotlight! FDR is synonymous with the '30s and '40s. Nixon is synonymous with the '50s, '60s, and '70s.

DID YOU KNOW? FDR 🇺🇸 and Richard Nixon 🇺🇸 are tied at “5” for the most times being on a top ticket for VP and/or President FDR was on the 1920 Cox/FDR ticket, then went on to win the Presidency 4 times Nixon was VP twice, and ran for President 3 times NOW YOU KNOW! #POTUS

@JoshPhillipsPhD Damn, that's a lot of iron. Good job! 💪

Read classic books. 📚 Lift heavy weights. 🏋️ 480 - 1 rep PR max

@PrezWisdom Mayor, County Executive, Governor, and President are all executive positions. The skills to do each job are transferable and scalable.

Grover Cleveland 🇺🇸 is one of three people to serve as mayor (Buffalo, NY) before becoming President. The others: - Andrew Johnson 🇺🇸 Greeneville, TN - Calvin Coolidge 🇺🇸 Northampton, MA #POTUS 🎂🎈

@TheMonologist Thoroughly watchable. Like a quirky history book come to life.