This is a portrait I painted of one of many heroes of mine from the Civil Rights movement. The Rev. James Zwerg, circa 1961. He was one of the Freedom Riders, along with John Lewis, William Barbee, Catherine Burks, and many others, who pulled into Montgomery, AL on a bus May 20, 1961. He volunteered to step off first. The mob was waiting with baseball bats, chains, and clubs. They beat him until three of his vertebrae cracked, his nose broke, and every tooth in his head was fractured. They beat him unconscious on the pavement. A Black stranger in coveralls walked up and said, “Stop beating that kid. If you want to beat someone, beat me.” And they did. He saved Zwerg’s life. White ambulances refused to take him. He lay in the street for over an hour. That is the moment I painted. Bloodied suit. Head bowed. At Martin Luther King Jr.’s urging, Zwerg later went to seminary and was ordained in the United Church of Christ. Rev. Zwerg is now 86 and lives in Tucson, Arizona. His courage and conviction, alongside that of countless others, helped save this nation. These are the people I celebrate as we near our 250th anniversary as a nation.

Mike Lee has posted 37 times in the last 24 hours about Hegseth removing the Mormons from the Pentagon’s approved list of recognized Christian denominations.

Much of what you're seeing from @HunterBiden — the humility, candor, and charisma — was sourced from an Absolute Unit of a father. His dad, Joe Biden. God, I miss him.

WOW -- Trump crashes out and cuts his interview with Welker short as she presses him on his lack of evidence for claiming elections are rigged "You're either crooked or you're stupid. Let's call it quits. Because I've had enough. Thank you darling," he tells her." "I traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview," she pleads.

Welker: "You insisted no new wars." Trump: "First of all, I didn't guarantee no war." Welker: "You said it over and over again."

Today is the 82nd anniversary of D-Day – the Allied landings in Normandy, which significantly hastened the countdown to the Nazis' collapse in World War II. It is one of the most important moments of unity among the defenders of life in human history, and it was less than a year until the peoples’ aspiration for freedom and the hope of peace prevailed in May 1945. It happened then. We are working to make it happen again today. And although yesterday in Petersburg another cynical order to continue killing was issued for the army trying to destroy our freedom, history has seen this before. The Nazis also had their own hopes after D-Day. But freedom still wins. And even in the darkest circumstances, people find ways to come together to protect life. I thank all those who are now helping to protect the values that prevailed in World War II. I thank everyone who is defending life. Glory to Ukraine!

If you think I’m trashing MAGA (whatever that is now) I really am sorry. I know for certain there are millions of Americans who voted for Donald Trump that love this country and love their neighbors and love their families and struggle and succeed and fail just like me and you and everyone. And I don’t begrudge them their political affiliation in any way. I just abhor the hate. The meanness for the sake of being mean. No matter where it’s coming from. I’m not your enemy man. I’m really not. They’re trying to get us to fight among ourselves while they pick our pockets and piss on our legs and tell us it’s raining. I’m not doing that to you and I sure as hell know you’re not doing that to me. What could we possibly gain by hating each other as they walk off with all the food on the table. We can disagree with each other without hating each other. We just all need to break the algorithm man. It’s so much more fun finding a reason to love someone than it is finding a reason to hate them.