My brain has been on a merry-go-round, but it has not been a fun ride. There is and has been SO MUCH to write about. Yet, I struggle to grasp what’s meaningful that isn’t already in your face. Also, I had a bad fall in early February, in which I mashed up my face, my brain a little, and broke my neck, not too badly as 6 weeks later I was out of my neck brace and on my way to Scotland with my husband on a previously planned trip. ALWAYS turn on a light when finding your way in the dark. Actually I was reaching for a light switch, but the one at the top of the stairs, not before, and I missed.
I haven’t even written about my trip to Norway, Finland, and a little bit of Sweden last October, except for Edvard Munch and the marvelous museum dedicated to his work in Oslo, nor the recent trip to Scotland. Given that I share Edward Hoagland’s view that “to live is to see and traveling sometimes speeds it up,” Why have I not shared some of my insights on those trips?
Anyone who knows me personally or just through my posts on this blog, knows how political I am. For those of us who passionately care about our great experiment in democracy through a Republic, we have two choices: roll up our sleeves and get to work or become numb. Frankly, I vacillate between the two. There is no question anymore, if there ever was after the publication of Project 2025, that this administration is bent on destruction of that democracy in favor of a corrupt autocracy/oligarchy/fascist state: whatever you want to call it.
As they told us, and planned for years with billions of dollars behind them, they are proceeding with that destruction at ever increasing breakneck speed. Here are a couple of resources for reliable information, even if you’re in the numb stage. The mainstream media is now mostly controlled by Trump’s billionaire buddies, which is fairly obvious by the lack of news on so much of the negative actions of the administration as well as the cancellation and muffling of outspoken critics. The New York Times and The Atlantic magazine are exceptions, and, of course, others, like Rolling Stone, and you will occasionally find some opposing viewpoints in the Wall Street Journal and even The Washington Post. Be wary of ABC, CNN, and CBS.
Here are a few reliable sources:
Popular Information (PI): founded and run by Judd Legum, U.S. investigative journalist and lawyer, winner of various awards. Stories often broken by PI later run in mainstream media. His Substack (that’s where you’ll find independent, truth-telling journalism, as well as the other kind) address is https://popular.info/ He was the first to break the story that the so-called slush fund rewarding insurrectionists and others was NOT dead as major media reported. His Substack posts are free, but PI is totally supported by memberships. After checking it out, I recommend joining. It’s worth it. He focuses on what’s called “deep-dive reporting,” taking one story at a time and following it to the bitter end.
On June 4, PI staffers, Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims, wrote: “On Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House committee that the DOJ was ‘not moving forward’ with the fund. Many major media outlets, citing Blanche’s comments, quickly published headlines claiming that the fund was ‘dead’ or had been ‘scrapped.’ The settlement agreement between Trump and the DOJ, which created the weaponization fund, states, ‘This Settlement Agreement may be modified only with the written agreement of the Parties.’ During his testimony, Blanche repeatedly declined to reverse the settlement in writing. Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY): ‘You and Associate Attorney General Woodward signed earlier documents regarding the settlement and this fund. Would both of you now sign and release documents reversing the DOJ’s position on the fund?’
Blanche: ‘We’re not moving forward with the fund. I’m not sure what that means to sign documents reversing. There’s nothing to reverse. We’re not moving forward with the fund.’
Later, Meng said, ‘You established it in writing. So it just makes sense to rescind it in writing.’ Blanche responded, ‘I’m not committing to doing anything in writing.’…During his testimony, Blanche indicated the Trump administration would continue to defend the fund against legal challenges, saying the administration would be ‘defending our rights and making sure our rights are protected.’” https://popular.info/p/no-trumps-1776-billion-slush-fund
Heather Cox Richardson, Ph.D., political American historian, author, professor, and commentator. She provides a broader view of what’s happening, frequently connects it to threads of our country’s history, and, more recently, provides a spark of hope. Her Substack address is https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ You may also hear her on various news and talk shows as a commentator. She is well-respected and can also be seen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson
Richardson covers many aspects of current issues, but often “follows the money.” Most recently, she emphasized the importance in the Constitution that Congress is supposed to control how federal money is spent and how that is not happening in so many areas, not the least of which is the War against Iran, which is estimated to be costing about $1billion/day according to the Pentagon, with the first 6 days at $1.9 billion/day. She also has emphasized that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is unusual in that (pay attention to the words) it’s the Office of the Director, not merely the ONI. That position is held by Trump appointee, Bill Pulte, as Acting Director, meaning he has the position for 210 days after his taking office without need for confirmation, hearings by Congress on his fitness for the position, etc.; 210 days is after the mid-terms. There are concerns about the use of surveillance power and tools by the ODNI in election interference by Pulte who lacks any intelligence background and is beholden to Trump for his position. The difference between a Director and an Acting Director can be monumental. The Senate on June 5, 2026 in a procedural vote, blocked a move to extend a part of the surveillance program that allows collection of data of “foreign targets,” which could include incidental U.S. citizens, without a warrant.
Anne Applebaum and SNF Fellows, Kleptocracy Tracker follows specific actions of the administration and the Trump family: https://snfagora.jhu.edu/our-work/research-projects/kleptocracy-tracker-timeline/ Managed under the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) of Johns Hopkins University, the Kleptocracy Tracker began with Applebaum’s The Atlantic article, “Kleptocracy, Inc.”, April 14, 2025, “describing a governing model shaped not by ideology but by self-interest.” For me, the transparent corruption and outright “selling of the presidency” is appalling with horrendous results for the American people with its impact on foreign trade and policy, tariffs, cost of living, and national debt. As Applebaum wrote in her article: “Before it’s too late, everyone who can do so must communicate what is happening: American government, American foreign policy, and American trade policy are slowly being transformed, not to benefit Americans but to benefit the president, his family, and his friends. Only voters can stop them.”
Remember who the most obvious attendees of his 2nd Inauguration were: billionaire CEOs. World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency company established by Donald Trump and his sons, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Barron Trump in partnership with Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, and Zach Witkoff (son of Trump buddy and Iran negotiator, Steve Witkoff) even before his inauguration, is the perfect entity for laundering money. According to investigations by the New York Times in an April 25, 2025 article: “Mr. Trump’s return to the White House has opened lucrative new pathways for him to cash in on his power, whether through his social media company or new overseas real estate deals. But none of the Trump family’s other business endeavors pose conflicts of interest that compare to those that have emerged since the birth of World Liberty….World Liberty Financial has eviscerated the boundary between private enterprise and government policy in ways without precedent in modern American history.” As well, “The Wall Street Journal discovered that executives from Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange, met with Treasury officials to ask for looser oversight, even while they were at the same time negotiating a private business deal with World Liberty Financial. In the past, Binance has been fined $4.3 billion, a record, for letting terrorists, drug traffickers, and people under sanction use its exchange, so the company’s interest in looser oversight is not theoretical.”
League of Women Voters (LWV) and Voting Rights: VOTE411.org: “All the election information you need, available in English and Spanish. Check your voter registration, find your polling place, learn about candidates, and more.” You can also contact your local LWV or your County Clerk for voting information. Be sure you’re registered and your registration is current, and then, of course, VOTE. Voting is what democracy is all about. I’m not going to itemize all the ways the administration has tried to curtail our voting rights. It’s enough that Trump didn’t accept his previous loss and continues to try to subvert the truth about that election, as well as his attempts to overturn it.
LWV “is a political grassroots network and membership organization that believes the freedom to vote is a nonpartisan issue. For more than a century, we’ve worked to empower voters and defend democracy.” Note that I am a member, as was my mother.
