With the constant spewing forth of lies, misinformation, make-believe crises to hide the real goings-on from this administration, it’s difficult to keep track of what’s actually important. Note that the best and often most accurate news is not coming from mainstream news media, but from substack columns by various experts including Joyce Vance, Heather Cox Richardson, Judd Legum, and many others. Note that substack URLs are not direct links; rather copy the address into your search dialogue box and then subscribe to the substack. You can cancel at any time, after you’ve had a chance to evaluate it. Most substacks request that you become a paid subscriber, but you can remain as a free subscriber. Needless to say, if you find it useful, it’s appropriate to pay something. Sometimes there are additional perks with that.
Here are some suggestions for factual information collected and collated for those of us who can’t follow everything everywhere all at once.
To view the constant attacks on democracy: subscribe to This Week in Democracy zeteo+this-week-in-democracy@substack.com This provides a week’s day-by-day bulleted list of the administration’s attacks on democracy. It’s frighteningly helpful and well researched.
See also Judd Legum’s Popular Information substack (he also has one called Musk Watch) about the attack on free speech hidden in the 389-page budget bill. This one is a direct link: https://substack.com/home/post/p-163592810
To understand the judicial actions: subscribe to Joyce Vance’s Civil Discourse, joycevance@substack.com
This substack column is informative on many levels, but scroll through the May 17, Publisher’s Roundup, 18 for multiple judicial comments: contrarian+publishers-roundup@substack.com
To follow the corruption and grift: For ongoing data on this topic see Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum anneapplebaum@substack.com and scroll down to The Kleptocracy Tracker. She also uses a day-by-day, bulleted list format. I recommend her entire substack email for more information.
For background on this aspect of Trump 2.0, see this direct link: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/qatar-plane-trump-corruption.html
If you want a quick rehash of this in Trump 1.0, see this direct link: https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/president-trump-legacy-corruption-3700-conflicts-interest/