November 9, 2026
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Deep Something

The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters

Author: B. John

Featured Stoicism General Deep Thoughts 

You Can Be Right and Still Handle Something Badly

B. John 64 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism
This entry is in the series Lessons for Living Better

What would you do if doing the right thing might cost you your job? Early in my career, I faced an ethical dilemma involving a lucrative contract and a client who wanted us to deliberately make legal evidence difficult to find. We walked away from the opportunity, and I’ve never regretted that decision. But one question has stayed with me. What would I have done if the company’s owner had disagreed?

That experience got me thinking about the choices we make when we’re convinced we’re right. Sometimes the stakes are high, involving our livelihood or our principles. More often, they show up in everyday conversations, little white lies, and disagreements where our desire to win gets the better of our judgment. The Stoics understood that knowing what’s right is only part of the challenge. How we act on that knowledge matters just as much.

In You Can Be Right and Still Handle Something Badly, I explore the sometimes uncomfortable distance between our convictions and our conduct. Drawing on Stoic wisdom, a lesson from my professional life, and a little honest self-examination, I consider what it means to act with integrity when circumstances test us. And I leave readers with a question worth considering before their next difficult conversation. When you’re certain you’re right, will you also be proud of how you behaved?

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Election Deep Thoughts Featured Politics 

The Work That Begins After Election Day

B. John 99 Views 0 Comments , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Election Day is when we choose our leaders. What happens the next morning may matter even more.

As a boy growing up in North Carolina, I remember standing with my father beneath a huge chalkboard outside the local newspaper office, watching election returns arrive precinct by precinct. Neighbors gathered, candidates waited, and everyone shared in the outcome. Those memories still remind me of something almost sacred about democracy. But I’ve come to realize that the responsibilities of citizenship go well beyond the moment we cast our ballots.

American history offers some uncomfortable lessons about what happens when a nation tries to return to normal without confronting abuses of power. From the betrayal of Reconstruction to the aftermath of Watergate, we’ve seen how easily the desire to move on can leave deeper problems unresolved. Today, those lessons deserve our attention, particularly as wealth and political influence threaten to diminish the voices of ordinary citizens.

In The Work That Begins After Election Day, I consider the difference between restoring familiar institutions and making them worthy of our trust. Thomas Paine believed we had the power to begin the world over again. That promise still belongs to us, along with the obligation to act upon it. Voting gives us a voice in who governs. What we do afterward helps determine what kind of country we become.

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Featured Places Tampa Politics Legislature 

Who Really Wants Government Making More of Your Decisions?

B. John 119 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Josie Tomkow’s political allies would apparently like voters to know that Brian Nathan once registered with something called the National Atheist Party. They also want you frightened by the word “socialist.” Before anyone begins checking the neighborhood for Marxists hiding behind the recycling bins, perhaps we should look at what the two candidates have actually done.

Nathan supports a woman’s right to make decisions about her own pregnancy. Tomkow voted for Florida’s 15-week abortion restriction and later for the six-week restriction. She also supported laws that moved authority from local communities to Tallahassee and backed state restrictions on medical care, classrooms, books, pronouns, and public facilities. If government control is the issue, there is a lot in the voting record to consider.

Campaign labels are wonderfully convenient. “Socialist.” “Radical.” “Atheist.” They fit easily on mailers and take much less effort than reading voting records. This time, we read the records.

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Economy Featured Places Tampa Politics County Commission 

I’d like to keep the Rays – I’d also like to see the whole bill

B. John 157 Views 0 Comments , , , , ,

I want to keep the Rays, but I also want to know what we’re buying before the public gets stuck with a bill close to a billion dollars, and some assembly required. The City and County have promised about $876 million for construction, but borrowing costs, the full College relocation budget, and other public costs are still up in the air.

After going through agreements, financial projections, and more acronyms than I can count, I still haven’t found proof that this deal pays for itself. The possible benefits include a County-owned stadium and future tax revenue. But some important agreements are still missing or not easy to find, and the projections depend on the development actually happening. As my grandfather might have said, this feels like “hide the weeny.”

Based on what I know today, I’m a “no” on this deal. I’m open to changing my mind if officials can fill in the gaps, particularly around the full taxpayer cost and the impact of the property-tax amendment. Keeping the Rays is a good goal, but it deserves a deal the community can understand, with enough time to read the paperwork before somebody points to the signature line.

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Congress Constitution Election Presidency Society Crack Pots Featured Politics 

We the People Means More of Us

B. John 113 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

There is something remarkable about the American Constitution that we rarely stop to consider. Across more than two centuries, Americans have repeatedly amended our founding document to expand the right to vote. Each generation inherited a democracy that excluded too many people, and successive generations worked to open its doors wider.

The 15th Amendment prohibited denying citizens the vote because of race. The 19th Amendment extended constitutional protection to women. The 24th Amendment outlawed poll taxes in federal elections. The 26th Amendment protected the voting rights of citizens 18 and older. Other amendments expanded the people’s direct participation in choosing their representatives and president. Each represented another step toward a more inclusive democracy.

But that constitutional history stands in troubling contrast to the current administration’s actions and rhetoric. From federal seizures of election records to discussions of deploying federal agents at polling places, President Trump and his administration have raised serious concerns about government interference in the democratic process. And when a pastor who advocates repealing women’s voting rights is invited to preach at the Pentagon, we are reminded that even long-established constitutional protections cannot be taken for granted.

We the People has never just meant those in power. The late Congressman Barney Frank said government is what we choose together. That “together” means everyone. Our constitutional history tells a remarkable story of Americans working to expand democracy, not restrict it. As another election approaches, that promise is worth remembering

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Culture Deep Thoughts Featured Stoicism 

Oh, The Stories We Tell Ourselves

B. John 140 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Lessons for Living Better
This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

Have you ever thought someone was angry with you, disappointed in you, or avoiding you, only to find out you were wrong? Our minds are great at filling in the blanks, especially when the people or relationships matter a lot to us. Sometimes we get so attached to our own explanations that we start treating them as facts.

For years, I worried that I’d somehow upset an old friend whose simple act of love and acceptance had meant more to me than he probably ever realized. When my occasional attempts to reconnect mostly went unanswered, I started to wonder what I’d done wrong. Eventually, I sent a heartfelt note, apologizing for anything that might have happened. His reply showed me how wrong my assumptions were.

Almost 2,000 years ago, the Stoic philosopher Epictetus warned us not to treat our judgments about events as if they were the events themselves. I was surprised to learn how much modern psychology agrees with this old idea. The founders of cognitive behavioral therapy were influenced by Stoic thinking, and years of research show the value of questioning the assumptions that cause us stress. It seems those old Stoics were onto something.

In The Stories We Tell Ourselves, the first essay in my new Ten Lessons in Living Well series, I look at how easily our thoughts can mislead us, especially when love, friendship, and uncertainty get mixed together. It’s a personal story about a friendship that still means a lot to me, and a reminder that not every thought in our minds deserves our belief or attention. Read the full essay and think about how often you’ve worried about a story your own mind made up.

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Featured Stoicism 

Joy in an Unfinished World

B. John 238 Views 2 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series Journey Through Stoicism

What do we do when good people suffer, when injustice wins out, and when doing everything right still doesn’t give us the results we hoped for? And how do we make space for happiness when so much around us feels wrong?

Those questions were at the center of Rev. Sally Campbell-Evans’ sermon this past Sunday at Hyde Park United Methodist Church. She was continuing a series on Ecclesiastes that Rev. Magrey deVega started the week before. Magrey had mentioned the Stoics, which caught my attention. Sally didn’t talk about Stoicism directly, but as I listened, I was struck by how closely her message matched ideas I’ve been studying and writing about for the past eighteen months.

One statement really stuck with me. “You are responsible for your faithfulness. Yes. But you are not responsible for controlling the outcomes.” That’s very close to what Epictetus taught almost two thousand years ago. We can choose how to act, what principles to follow, and how much effort to give. But we can’t guarantee the world will respond as we hope. I’ve learned that lesson through professional uncertainty, and I’ve encountered it just as often in my civic and social justice work.

But Sally took the discussion in a direction I found especially meaningful. She reminded us that seeing injustice means we have a responsibility to act, even if we can’t fix everything. And while we do that work, we still have lives worth enjoying. We have friends to spend time with, meals to share, everyday moments of happiness, and people whose presence makes hard days easier.

Then she shared a remarkable story from her time in Nicaragua during the Contra War. She was at a gathering of women when news came that one woman’s third son had been killed. The room filled with grief. After a while, another woman stood up and reminded everyone that life was still a gift worth celebrating. She invited them to dance, and they did. For the rest of the evening, those women danced together while grieving a terrible loss.

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Society Education Gay Issues Hate Groups Racism Featured Election 

Birds of a Feather-A New Arrival

B. John 120 Views 0 Comments , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

The flock around Ken Gay just got another member. Former Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback has endorsed Gay for Hillsborough County School Board District 6, calling him a “conservative” candidate in a post on his X account.

Fishback spent much of his 2026 campaign building attention through inflammatory rhetoric. Axios reported him saying, “White genocide is real.” At the same time, other coverage documented his use of “Great Replacement” themes and his support from far-right figures and online communities. He ultimately finished third in the Republican gubernatorial primary with 10.5% of the vote.

An endorsement doesn’t mean Gay shares every belief Fishback holds. But when you add Fishback to the list of conservative figures already lining up behind Gay, the old phrase keeps coming back: birds of a feather. At some point, you have to look at the flock. 

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Featured Politics Election Society Education Gay Issues Hate Groups Racism 

When the Culture War Comes for the School Board

B. John 314 Views 0 Comments , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections
This entry is in the series Education

The 1776 Project PAC says it is deeply concerned about reading scores. Fair enough. It also wants school-board candidates to answer for CRT, DEI, social-emotional learning, gender policy, and whether they will replace “equity-based” curriculum. Apparently phonics now comes with a political questionnaire.

The group has endorsed exactly one Hillsborough County School Board candidate: Brittany Lyssy. It has also reported nearly $72,000 in Hillsborough school-board spending on texting, mail production, and postage. That is a lot of national political money for a race that is supposed to be nonpartisan.

So the obvious question is not whether the 1776 Project cares about schools. It clearly does. The question is what kind of school board it wants to build here, and what it expects from the only Hillsborough candidate it chose to support.

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General 

Two Candidates, Two Very Different Ways of Paying In House District 64

B. John 220 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

How much does it cost to send someone to Tallahassee? And more importantly, who’s picking up the tab? Campaign finance reports may not be exciting, but the numbers in Florida House District 64 reveal a clear story. One candidate has raised most of his money from individual donors, while the other has received most of his support from political committees and Republican Party groups. The difference is striking.

Democrat Luis Salazar has raised over $64,000 from individuals, with hundreds of small donations. Republican Dan Weldon has raised about $12,000 from individual donors. At the same time, Republican Party organizations have given Weldon about $106,500 in cash and campaign services, such as staff, polling, research, and consulting. That’s about 62% of his total reported campaign resources. It seems Tallahassee provides more than just legislative advice.

It’s no surprise that political parties back their candidates. But how much support they give, compared to money from regular people, is worth a closer look. We’ve reviewed both candidates’ campaign finance reports, including where their money comes from and who pays for professional help. The results raise an important question for voters: Who is paying to put your next state representative in office?

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Featured Politics Congress Legislature 

Mike Beltran’s Voting Record Deserves a Closer Look

B. John 224 Views 0 Comments , , , , , , ,
This entry is in the series 2026 Elections

Mike Beltran wants to represent Hillsborough County in Congress. Before voters send him to Washington, they may want to look more closely at what he did during his six years in Tallahassee. From local zoning and tenant protections to public schools and nursing homes, Beltran often voted for laws that changed what local communities could decide for themselves.

He supported laws that lowered minimum nursing-home staffing requirements, expanded taxpayer-funded private-school vouchers, and required school districts to share more of their local construction funds with charter schools. He also backed limits on what teachers could teach about race and discrimination, as well as Florida’s abortion restrictions. It seems Tallahassee believed it knew what was best for almost everyone.

Meanwhile, Congresswoman Kathy Castor helped secure nearly $1.47 billion in federal grants for the Tampa Bay region, along with more funding for local infrastructure, housing, and community projects. Beltran’s record shows a different set of priorities. If he believed Tallahassee should have so much control over Hillsborough County, it raises questions about what he might do in Washington.

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