Accidental Retiree
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cheryleross.bsky.social
Accidental Retiree
@cheryleross.bsky.social
26 followers 32 following 21 posts
I'm a tolerant person, but I don't suffer fools ...
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cheryleross.bsky.social
I can't recall the last time I listened to a Sunday Sermon, but this is something every American needs to see:
youtu.be/Blph_2RSBno?...
James Talarico Delivers Sermon Against Christian Nationalism
YouTube video by James Talarico
youtu.be
November 16, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Accidental Retiree
redhibiscus23.bsky.social
Indeed
November 3, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Accidental Retiree
carceralabolition.bsky.social
A smuggled book changed his life. Now he’s built 500 prison libraries.

Reginald Dwayne Betts was locked up as a teenager for carjacking. Books were his escape, and he went on to be a poet, lawyer and founder of Freedom Reads www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/20...
A smuggled book changed his life. Now he’s built 500 prison libraries.
Reginald Dwayne Betts was locked up as a teenager for carjacking. Books were his escape, and he went on to be a poet, lawyer and founder of Freedom Reads.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:51 AM
cheryleross.bsky.social
This is Portland: www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/sna...
Portland coffee shop offers free SNAP breakfast 'until everyone’s benefits are reinstated, or we go broke doing it'
The Heretic Coffee owner said Portland has recently been depicted as “some kind of rioting, looting, burning-down city” and “this act is just one small glimpse of the real Portland.”
www.goodgoodgood.co
October 27, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Accidental Retiree
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)
For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary. Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from). The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe. Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky. Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat? This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight: * Waste of public resources on military theatrics. * Fraud in the name of “public safety.” * Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect. Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation. Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here. When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness. Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy. A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control. Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard. Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.
October 12, 2025 at 1:02 AM
cheryleross.bsky.social
It's a beautiful Fall day in Portland, Oregon, just a few minutes drive from the ICE building.

I had to wait 5 minutes (THE HORROR) for my oatmilk latte' this morning because so many people were out enjoying the day.

#JIMMYKIMMEL #SHOWMEYOURHELLHOLE
#PORTLANDISJUSTFINE
#STOPWASTINGOURTAXDOLLARS
An intersection in Portland Oregon in the Multnomah Village neighborhood.
October 13, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by Accidental Retiree
soupmuse.bsky.social
also, a tourist asked to take a selfie with my friend and me (his phone, alas) & then goes “would love to stay but I’ve got to go to the pot store!”

so Portland is very much alive
Two young women with dark hair stand in front of a protest with signs that say “No war in portland”
October 5, 2025 at 10:58 PM
cheryleross.bsky.social
For over a week now, these helicopters have been flying over our usually quiet Portland suburb.

#portland #yourtaxdollarsatwork
October 7, 2025 at 2:46 AM
cheryleross.bsky.social
We truly do live in the DUMBEST TIMELINE.
#idiocracy #firehim
October 5, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Accidental Retiree
dianesf.bsky.social
October 4, 2025 at 12:27 AM
cheryleross.bsky.social
Part 2 of how I would up early Retired:

open.substack.com/pub/accident...
My (accidental) retirement story - Part 2
The Great Unraveling
open.substack.com
October 4, 2025 at 10:20 PM
cheryleross.bsky.social
The constant helicopters and planes circling around SW Portland are the talk of the town. I can hear them from my suburb too, day and night for days now. 🙄

Your tax dollars at work!

#healthcarenotwarfare #standwithportland
October 4, 2025 at 8:56 PM
cheryleross.bsky.social
Republicans Run 8 of America’s 10 Poorest States. Maybe They Should Stop.
open.substack.com/pub/cmarmita...
Republicans Run 8 of America’s 10 Poorest States. Maybe They Should Stop.
The correlation between party control and state prosperity is hardly unsurprising for people paying attention.
open.substack.com
October 1, 2025 at 10:14 PM
cheryleross.bsky.social
Second post is up!

Accidental Retiree
accidentalretiree.substack.com?r=1rdp7&utm_...
Accidental Retiree | Substack
Just a 50-something retired from corporate life, shaking my fist at the sky. Click to read Accidental Retiree, a Substack publication. Launched 21 hours ago.
accidentalretiree.substack.com
October 1, 2025 at 7:03 PM
cheryleross.bsky.social
I've officially pulled the plug on Facebook and Instagram. Should have done it years ago, they are absolute garbage now.
October 1, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Reposted by Accidental Retiree
snarkysillysad.bsky.social
First time meeting: #AGoodPlace

Source: www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmil...
September 26, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Reposted by Accidental Retiree
profgalloway.com
👇🏻👇🏻
September 23, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Accidental Retiree
pivotpod.bsky.social
“I think the only thing that moves the needle here… is some sort of national economic strike.”

@profgalloway.com proposes using consumer power to push back against autocracy.
September 19, 2025 at 3:42 PM
cheryleross.bsky.social
Hello world.
September 19, 2025 at 12:21 PM