Nowadays, if the biggest and most ridiculous thing about your local representative is that they write and publish romance novels, that seems pretty sane compared to other local officials’ hobbies and delusions. Growing up, I loved Barbie. Yes, her fashion was on point, but I don’t think that’s what I loved about her. Yes, I…
Author: Chardaé Jones
I Will Make You a Flyer for 25 American Dollars
Recently I started calling my friends out for their AI flyers. They all look the same; they’re diluting their brand, and most importantly, they’re wreaking havoc on the environment and poor communities in the United States. Americans’ individualistic views get in the way of progress and accountability, and the billionaires know this. Elon Musk’s Grok…
The United States of Green
If you give a senator a quarter of a million dollarsyou can dirty up the airno legislation to stop itand it’s almost if they don’t even care. If you give a congressperson a quarter of a million dollarsyou can hold up legislationinstead of paying your fair share. If you give a senator a million dollarsyou…
A Year After the Lights Went Out & the Electricity Rates Went Up
Has anything really changed besides the price since the outage in April 2025? “Duquesne Light did a great job.” I’ll never forget sitting in a room with Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) a month after helping people without electricity for almost a week, and hearing those words strung together in that order frustrated me to…
Once Upon a Black Woman: The Millennials Ruined the Economy
44 Percent of Millennials Don’t Have or Want Kids, and How They Killed an Entire Economy The millennials were always being blamed for killing industries, but they did their big one with the economy. 44 percent of millennials don’t have children and/or don’t want any. This is my Roman Empire. Millennials are the largest generation…
Once Upon a Black Woman: Are You Human
Is Being *Unhinged and Authentic the New Captcha for the Anti-AI Movement *A little less hinged. “Showing up online a little unhinged proves that you aren’t using AI, and it’ll set you apart.” A post on LinkedIn read, and it got me thinking. They’re not wrong! Being a little unhinged or quirky, leaning into your…
Confessions of an Ex-Millennial Mayor: Money Fixes Everything, Intentions Lead the Way, & Other Lies We Tell Ourselves
How believing in everyone who has big dreams, big pockets, and great intentions to make your community better could be detrimental to small communities. If I had a quarter for every time that I heard, “The last mayor didn’t do x, y, z,” and “You have big shoes to fill,” I would have more than…
Confessions of a Millennial Mayor: The Pandemic, PA, and the Big Bad Wolf
The pandemic, the response, the local government academy classes canceled, and the mayor’s first lawsuit “We’ll flatten the curve,” those words still haunt me. The hair on my arms still raises when those words are arranged in that order. I had just gotten back from a New Orleans Mardi Gras Trip for my birthday when…
Because of the Internet: Social Media Innovated Groupthink
The internet right now feels very much like, “If your friend jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?” Algorithms give way to groupthink, which is dangerous on so many levels. When your feed is heavily curated to feed you what you want to hear (and monetized for doing so), it’s creating a bubble…
Once Upon a Black Woman: Unemployment, Maturity, Peace, and Self-Worth
I found out April 1st that, come April 30th, my full time employment would be eliminated. My car decided that it wanted to make the sound that could only be compared to the whale in Finding Nemo. And that’s okay because gas is now more than the 412 area code that Pittsburgh resides in. It’s…