What’s been happening since last week – Part II

Yesterday’s blog post (https://janetswritingblog.com/2026/06/04/whats-been-happening-since-last-week-part-i/) got to be too long, so I had to divide it.

Today’s blog post got even longer after the news broke about the removal of 900 scientific deep-sea instruments and Trump’s plans for the Lincoln Memorial.

Pour yourself a glass of sweet tea and settle in for a wild ride.

Golf Resort in Vietnam

Not satisfied just to destroy farmland and forests, etc. and rip people off in the United States, the Trumps are developing a $1.5 billion golf resort in the Hung Yen province in Vietnam.

Besides farmers being forced off their land for very little compensation, they are also having to exhume the bodies of their ancestors and bury them somewhere else.

It seems that Eric Trump is in charge of this project, which he says will be “the envy of all of Asia and of the entire world,” according The Daily Beast, which included a photo of Eric at the indoor ground-breaking ceremony.

Can Gaza be far behind?

Kushner’s Resort in Albania

Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners firm is building a $4 billion luxury resort, including 10,000 hotel rooms in the Vjosa-Narta “protected” coast in southern Albania.

At the mouth of the Vjosa River, the land became a protected national park three years ago. Flamingos, Mediterranean monk seals, loggerhead turtles, 200+ species of birds. Sounds like a beautiful place. No wonder it was given “protected” status.

But blatant corruption is not limited to Washington, DC. The Albanian Parliament conveniently changed the rules just weeks before Kushner submitted his resort plans. Would you believe the rules were changed to only allow five-star resorts? Surely that had nothing to do with Kushner’s father-in-law being the U.S. President.

You can’t make this stuff up!

Thousands of Albanians are protesting in the streets of the capital city of Tirana. They are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Power to the people!

CBS fires Scott Pelley

The Trump Administration did not fire Scott Pelley… directly. However, the current leadership at CBS has cow-towed to the Trump Administration on every turn.

“60 Minutes” was the longest running new magazine on TV. It was a highly-respected broadcast. CBS is destroying it. Bit by bit. Piece by piece. And with it goes a bastion of exceptional investigative journalism.

Long-time CBS journalist and regular “60 Minutes” contributor Scott Pelley dared to stand up to the CEO of CBS on Monday, so he was fired on Tuesday.

CBS fired one of its giants. I hope a more wise and honest television broadcast company will give him a job, if he wants it.

I include this news item in today’s blog because it is one more piece of evidence that Donald Trump’s campaign to rid our nation of truth in journalism and truth in history is trickling down into the corporations that for nearly 100 years stood for integrity. The example he sets as an alleged businessman now stands as the example the wealthy and influential capitalists in our country aspire to emulate.

Seeing the collapse of CBS in real time is sad. It is also infuriating, because it is being done on purpose by either short-sighted or evil people. I don’t know which.

Another thing that infuriates me

This month, the National Science Foundation will begin (or perhaps has begun) to bring up more than 900 deep-sea instruments that track the collapse of climate as we have enjoyed it.

The instruments, placed and monitored by the Ocean Observatories Initiative are off the coast of North Carolina (where the Gulf Stream famously collides with the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean), and off the coasts of Oregon and Alaska. They are also in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland.

These instruments were collecting and transmitting data in real time about ocean temperatures, carbon absorption, chemicals, and geological and biological conditions.

But the Trump Administration is not interested in people knowing about trends in the climate or the conditions in the world’s oceans. After all, Trump hasn’t figured out yet how to build a money-making resort on the ocean floor.

He isn’t interested in people knowing about hurricanes until they hit. We saw that demonstrated in the Oval Office when Trump took a Sharpie pen and literally thought he could thereby change the path of a hurricane.

Congress tried twice to try to stop Trump from slashing the Ocean Observatories Initiative’s budget by 80%. By ordering the more than 900 climate measuring instruments to be hauled up from the oceans, he is essentially giving Congress the middle finger. Again.

“Theatened” Grizzly Bears are now threatened by U.S. Government

Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states were already officially “threatened,” but that did not satisfy the U.S. Government when it came to the grizzlies living in the Helena – Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana.

For decades, scientific research has proven that a female grizzly bear needs 2,500 acres of land that is free of roads and other human activity, but the U.S. Government has decided that in order to cut down part of the forest, a female grizzly in the Helena – Lewis and Clark National Forest only needs just one acre.

The 2,500-acre policy still stands elsewhere… for now.

That particular area is crucial to the healthy genetic exchange between the grizzlies in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

Cut down the forest and squeeze a huge grizzly bear onto one acre of land surrounded by logging roads and see what you get. For starters… starving bears run over by logging trucks.

Maybe that’s the goal?

The “Greatest Show on Earth” invitation has a catch

Trump says he loves the military. He says he has done more for the military than any other U.S. President. (He also says he has done more for people of color, Puerto Ricans, children, the elderly, the poor, the middle class….)

He issued an invitation of sorts to our military personnel. He wants hundreds of them to come watch the display of men fighting on the White House grounds on his birthday. They must have a waist to height ratio of .55 or less. They must wear short sleeve dress uniforms. They cannot be stationed in the Washington, DC area, and … there’s just one other thing. They must pay for their own transportation.

Thank you for the invitation, Sir!

Too bad thousands of them were deployed to the War with Iran in March and April and won’t be able to make it to Washington on June 14. Of course, where they are, they’ll probably take a moment to remember that it is Flag Day.

“Rally to End all Rallies!”

I was ready to schedule this blog post last night when I read Trump’s announcement about his celebration of America’s 250^th birthday has changed names. It is no longer “The Great American State Fair” or whatever he was calling it a few days ago. It is now, “the Greatest Rally, EVER! It will be special at every level – A Rally to end all Rallies!”

All I can say is, “I hope it is the rally to end all rallies. We don’t need any more Trump rallies.”

Trump said that Christopher Macchio will sing “Ave Maria”. I don’t know what “Ave Maia” has to do with the 4^th of July. Am I missing something here?

There is no end to the tacky or the expense

It was revealed on Friday that without going out for competitive bids or getting permission from Congress or anyone, Trump had the two matching bronze statues of horses on either side of the street from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery… you guessed it… painted with 23.75 karat gold leaf. They and two other bronze statues were painted gold by a company in Maryland.

Want to know what we, the American taxpayers paid for this? A mere $5 million.

How does that sit with you?

They look like something one would see in China… or the Land of Oz.

This is the same Administration that created DOGE to rid the government of all waste. That was just a year ago. Thousands of medical and scientific researchers were fired and the USAID program was ended, but I don’t think we were ever told how much waste was identified by the teenagers Trump and Elon Musk hired to do the job.

The price for painting of the bottom of the Reflecting Pool bright blue has increased from $13 million to $20 million.

Even tackier than that…

I didn’t know until yesterday that the tacky arch on the White House lawn over where the big birthday fights are going to be held has a name. It is “The Claw” and it holds the lights so the men can fight all night if they want to, I suppose.

“The Claw” is huge, tacky, and ugly. It dwarfs the White House and makes the place look like a poorly planned amusement park.

It prevents the Marine One helicopter from landing at the White House, which seems like a National Security issue to me. (The President must now be transported via motorcade to and from Andrews Joint Air Force Base for his weekly excursions to play golf.)

Lo and behold, Trump thinks it is so beautiful that maybe it will never be torn down. He even compared it to the Eiffel Tower, saying it was supposed to be there temporarily but the people liked it so much they left it up.

“The Claw,” Mr. President, is no Eifel Tower.

Comparing apples and oranges?

Was I the only one who found it bizarre that Trump displayed a large poster in the Oval Office on Wednesday to show us that the Reflecting Pool is longer than some skyscrapers are tall?

He also said it had never worked since it was built in 1922. Who knew? I’ve seen it several times. I didn’t realize it wasn’t working.

Trump takes aim at Lincoln Memorial

Photo of the Lincoln Memorial, apparently in the pre-Trump days when the reflecting part wasn’t working?
(Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash.)

Yesterday, in addition to claiming to know about numerous times someone attempted to build an arch in Washington, DC, Trump spilled the beans on his latest project: Corrections made to the Lincoln Memorial.

He claimed from the Oval Office yesterday afternoon that the Lincoln Memorial is facing the wrong direction and two streets were built that shouldn’t have been built so he is going to add a promenade to the Lincoln Memorial. He, of course, sneaked in his favorite phrase: “some are even calling it the Trump Promenade.”

At that point I was literally in tears. The Lincoln Memorial is my favorite building in Washington, DC. It is devastating to think of what it will look like when TACO gets through with it.

Will it resemble the current East Wing of the White House? (A big hole in the ground.)

Will it have gold paint poured all over it? (Like the bronze horses at the entrance to Memorial Bridge.)

Will it be 80 stories high? (So it can be a tall as the Reflecting Pool is long.)

Will the exquisite statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln be replace with a triumphal statue to Trump with his fist in the air and that ever-present scowl on his orange face?

Ending this post on three positive notes…

On Friday, a federal judge ordered that Donald J. Trump’s name must be removed from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts because it is a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy!

Trump’s minions have two weeks to remove his name from the building and all signage.

The judge also called a halt to the two-year long “complete rebuilding” of the Kennedy Center that had been announced by Trump after he appointed himself as Director of the Board of the Center. That was set to begin after the 4^th of July.

Thank goodness parts of our judicial system are still working for the American people and not for the sitting U.S. President!

That was the best news I’d heard in a long time.

Then, on Monday, June 1, the White House announced that it will abide by the federal court ruling that paused Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund! He’s going to have to find another way to financially compensate his people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Of course, when asked by CNN’s Caitlin Collins on Wednesday if the fund is dead or just on hold, he said he did not know… he’ll have to ask his lawyers.

Also on Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (215 to 208) to force Trump to end the war against Iran if he fails to get Congressional approval for the war he threw us into without Congressional approval. Will the Republicans in the Senate have as much courage?

Light at the end of the tunnel? It’s too early to tell whether it is the light of justice on the horizon or an on-coming train. I know one thing: this is exhausting.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

What’s been happening since last week – Part I

The fire hose of corruption and trickery continues from the White House. I’m trying to keep up, but it’s impossible.

The New Acting Director of National Intelligence

Saying that Bill Pulte, who Trump named as Acting Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday has no intelligence experience is not a joke. It’s true.

When the position of Director of National Intelligence was created by the U.S. Congress in 2004, the law stated that the holder of that title “shall have extensive national security expertise.” That seems like a no-brainer, right?

So much for the law.

We learned during Trump’s first term in office that he prefers to have “acting” directors because “acting” directors and “acting” secretaries of departments of the Executive branch do not have to go through a Congressional confirmation process.

Pulte is the grandson of the Pulte Group’s founder. The company is the nation’s largest residential developer. (In fact, it is developing an 1,100-home development near my home.)

His genealogy and Mr. Pulte’s loyalty to Trump (such as a social media campaign to oust Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve and pushing to get Trump’s non-supporters like Lisa D. Cook, a Federal Reserve Board of Governors member, prosecuted for fraud – which hasn’t panned out) landed him his current position as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. In other words, he oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

According to a June 2, 2026 New York Times report, Pulte will continue in that position while he also serves as Director of National Security.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Trump chose not to visit 14 veterans wounded in the Iran War

While Trump was at Walter Reed Medical Center last Tuesday for a physical examination, he chose not to visit 14 veterans who were wounded in the Iran War.

Trump has downplayed the sacrifices made by our military personnel and their families. He still prefers to call the war “an excursion.”

To admit that 13 American military personnel have been killed and somewhere between 140 and 400 American military personnel have been wounded would be a negative reflection on him and his perfect deal making and war-ending prowess. It is such a distasteful admission from Trump or the Pentagon to make that the public cannot find out how many have been wounded. Hence, the 140 to 400 figure. Just try finding a definitive number in an online search.

I remember back in the 1960s and 1970s when the Pentagon released such information weekly. Some said later that those reports were inaccurate, but at least they made an effort to keep the American people informed about war casualties.

Then there’s the 250^th Birthday of America Great American State Fair

For starters, Trump wouldn’t know a state fair if he fell into one. This 10-day or 16-day celebration of the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was organized by Donald Trump’s nonprofit Freedom 250.

(“Donald Trump’s nonprofit…,” sounds like an oxymoron to me, but that is how Freedom 250 is described.)

Many singers and artists were invited to perform. Some of them, like Martina McBride, signed on because they thought it was a nonpartisan event.

Most of them, including Trump’s buddy, Kid Rock, have announced they aren’t going to participate. It’s pretty bad if Kid Rock won’t even show up.

I guess it will just be Lee Greenwood singing “I’m Proud to Be an American” over and over and over and over….

Of course, now Trump is calling the performers who have cancelled “third rate.” He wrote on social media that they were “overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain.”

So why did his nonprofit organization invite them?

He now says he might just host the whole thing and turn it into a MAGA Rally… as if that wasn’t what he wanted all along. It’s all about him.

The 4^th of July was a nonpartisan celebration of freedom for 249 years. Of course, Trump had to do everything imaginable to try to ruin it this year. Of all the years for him to be in office!

This year’s celebration of a week or two won’t hold a candle to our bicentennial celebration in 1976, which lasted all year – no matter how Trump claims otherwise.

Don’t let him ruin our nation’s 250^th birthday for you!

I wonder who told Trump this was our nation’s 250^th birthday. I wish they hadn’t told him.

A spelling lesson

It was so classy for the U.S. President to spell “dumb” for us last week. He was excited to point out that “most people” don’t’ know that “dumb” ends in a “b,” then he went on and to claim he had coined the word “dumocrat.” In fact, he went into detail to explain to us exactly what he did to transform “democrat” to “dumocrat,” as if it rocket science.

Mr. President, I’ve heard the word “dumocrat” before you so proudly said it and explained to us in detail how you came up with it. I even had a cousin call me and my grandfather dumocrats in an email to me during Trump’s first term after she found out that I did not support his policies.

To say that I found that offensive is a gross understatement. My grandfather (her great-grandfather) died in 1956 when I was three years old. Frankly, I had no idea of Grandpa’s political leanings, and I don’t know if my cousin knows what she’s talking about. It does not matter to me how Grandpa voted. He’s the only one of my four grandparents who was still alive when I was born. I have only faint memories of him. It brings tears to my eyes as I type these words. For anyone to call him a “dumocrat” when he was a farmer born in the 1870s is abhorrent.

Trump thinking it was cute, clever, funny, mean – whatever his motivation – last week in bringing the word “dumocrat” back to my attention was like pouring gasoline into an old wound and then striking a match. The saddest part, though, is that this example of Trump’s name calling is probably the least offensive one he’s ever used. He is normalizing bad behavior. The derogatory names he calls and things he says about women, for starters.

Microsoft Word is even offended, for it keeps automatically changing “dumocrat” to “democrat” every time I type it. It will be a miracle if I get this published on WordPress the way I’ve written it.

Words are weighty. Words can be used like daggers. The “leader of the free world” should choose his words carefully. They perhaps carry more weight than those of anyone else in the world. And the world is watching and listening.

I cringe to imagine what horrors loom in the 10 days until Trump’s birthday and then the remaining three weeks until the 4^th of July.

By the way, we have troops who were sent to the Middle East with very little notice in March and more were sent on April 19 for the war in Iran. No one is talking about them, but they were deployed, and they have no idea when they’ll get to come home.

Trump says he is in no hurry to reach a peace agreement (which he incorrectly calls “a deal.) He keeps drawing a line in the sand. A few minutes later, he moves the line. A businessman conducting a war….

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Is Mail-In Voting in Danger?

Maybe I’m naïve, but I don’t think thousands of illegal immigrants vote in the United States.

Maybe I’m naïve, but I don’t think thousands of dead people vote twice in every election.

As the Republicans get increasingly nervous about their loss of control over the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives if Democrats and Independents turn out to vote in the November mid-term elections, Trump issued an Executive Order to try to plant more doubt in American’s minds about the integrity of our elections.

Trump and his supporters do more than hint that he should run for a third term in 2028. (Oh, why not? Just because that is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution and just because in November 2028 he will be 82 years old?)

On March 31, 2026, he issued an Executive Order that puts onerous responsibilities on certain parts of our government regarding mail-in voting and introduces a whole new national database. It’s more than a bit Orwellian.

The irony is that Donald Trump usually mails in his ballot. He says there is a lot of fraud in the practice.

A little history

Trump was shocked to learn in 2020 that in many states mail-in ballots are not tabulated until election night. This can result in an election that looks like it is going in favor of one candidate an hour after the polls close going in favor of the other candidate by the end of the night. He was appalled and called it corruption.

In some states, mail-in ballots are counted as long as they are postmarked by the date of the election. Trump doesn’t like that. He wants all 160 million+ votes in the nation to be tabulated instantaneously.

He has famously accused Fulton County, Georgia poll workers of cheating, and in the process has ruined peoples’ lives. All that because he didn’t have a clue that ballots are put into containers for safekeeping.

He famously called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to “find” him 11,780 votes on January 2, 2021. I can’t think of anything more corrupt than that in an election. Thank you, Mr. Raffensperger for not caving into the pressure of a sitting U.S. President!

And yet… even though every American has heard the recording of that phone call, 81 million of them voted for Trump to be their President again in 2024.

Trump thought he was going to beat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and it angered him when Biden defeated him. He quickly blamed voter fraud and mail-in voting. The irony is that many Republicans won their races in that election; however, somehow it was only Donald Trump who got cheated. How can that be?

The Executive Order titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections” was issued by the President on March 31, 2026. It was met with opposition, but on Thursday, May 28, 2026, a federal judge declined to block it.

Although states hold the authority and responsibility to run elections and that trickles down to local election boards, this judge essentially ruled that the U.S. President has the right to tighten rules governing elections and necessitate new expenses and work for state and local governments.

The wording of Executive Order: “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections”

I was going to quote the entire Order, but it is 1,770 words long. If you want to read it in its entirety, it can be found on the White House website at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/ensuring-citizenship-verification-and-integrity-in-federal-elections/.

Excerpts:

“Sec. 2. Establishment and Transmission of State Citizenship Lists and Prioritization of Investigations and Prosecutions Related to Election Fraud. (a) To the extent feasible and consistent with applicable law, including but not limited to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), the Secretary of Homeland Security, through the Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and in coordination with the Commissioners of SSA, shall take appropriate action to compile and transmit to the chief election official of each State a list of individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State (State Citizenship List). The State Citizenship List shall be derived from Federal citizenship and naturalization records, SSA records, SAVE data, and other relevant Federal databases. The State Citizenship List shall be updated and transmitted to State election officials no fewer than 60 days before each regularly scheduled Federal election or promptly upon request by a State in connection with any special Federal election.”

“Sec. 3. United States Postal Service Rulemaking on Mail-In and Absentee Ballots” goes into great detail about the envelopes to be used.

“Sec. 4. Implementation.” spells out the responsibilities of the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration relating to this Executive Order. The Secretary of Homeland Security, for instance, “shall,within 90 days of the date of this order, establish the infrastructure necessary to compile, maintain, and transmit the State Citizenship List described in section 2(a) of this order and shall designate a point of contact within DHS to receive and process requests from individuals and State election officials regarding the relevant State Citizenship List. The Commissioners of SSA shall provide all necessary citizenship and identity data to the Secretary of Homeland Security in support of this requirement, consistent with applicable law, the Privacy Act, and all applicable use agreements.”

“Sec. 5. Enforcement.” spells out how “the Attorney General and the heads of executive departments and agencies (agencies) with relevant authority shall take all lawful steps to deter and address noncompliance… including withholding Federal funds from noncompliant States and localities…. States or localities, including any instrumentalities thereof; contractors; individuals involved in the administration of Federal elections; or public or private entities engaged in the printing, production, shipment, or distribution of ballots may be referred to the Department of Justice for consideration of investigation or charges…. States and localities should preserve, for a 5-year period, all records and materials – excluding ballots cast – evidencing voter participation in any Federal election (e.g., ballot envelops, regardless of carrier).”

“Sec. 6. Severability.” says if any part of this order “is held to be invalid,” that won’t have any bearing on the rest of the order.

“Sec. 7. General Provisions.” addresses functions of the government that will not “be construed to” be impaired or otherwise affected by this Order.

What the opposition says

The arguments against the Executive Order maintained using the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to build “state citizenship lists” risks preventing some citizens from voting as data sources can contain errors and be out of date.

More worrisome is that at the direction of one person, individual states’ rights to regulate elections are being infringed upon. After all, according to the U.S. Constitution, states regulate elections.

The judge was asked to issue a preliminary injunction to block the Executive Order. It was reported that he seemed sympathetic to arguments against the Order on May 14; however, last Thursday he ruled that the Executive Order can go forward.

My take

Considering all the layers of data gathering, the detailed rules the United States Postal Service must follow, and the mere fact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is the lead agency in this, what could possibly go wrong?

All one must do is remember that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is part of Homeland Security’s operations.

Since March 31, Trump kicked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to the curb and replaced her with former U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin, so I don’t know what that does to the Homeland Security chief’s directive in Section 4 which has a June 29, 2026 deadline.

I hope the judge’s decision on May 28 will be appealed. I hope when the case goes to the U.S. Supreme Court, some common sense will prevail.

President Trump continues to claim that there was widespread organized voter fraud in the 2020 election. He still believes that he won that election, although it has been proven repeatedly that he lost. Nothing makes him angrier than to be known as a loser.

President Trump started saying the only way he could lose an election is if the opposition cheated. When he lost, he doubled down on his claims of voter fraud. He was never able to prove voter fraud in the courts.

Supporters of Trump like to claim that dead people voted in the 2020 election and, apparently, they all voted for Joe Biden.

What we have in the Executive Order highlighted in today’s blog post is another case of issuing a solution – a very cumbersome and expensive solution — for a problem that does not exist.

I’d rather see the overturning of the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision to take big business and billionaire supporters from buying our elections.

I’d rather see AI-generated political campaign TV ads outlawed.

I’d rather see our government try to block the ability of China and Russia to flood the internet and social media with bogus claims about political candidates and political parties.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress continues to roll over and play dead. That institution used to be a co-equal branch of the government. The U.S. Congress used to be a formidable balance against the power of the President.

On paper (the U.S. Constitution) it is legislative branch, but what we have now is rule by Executive Order instead of legislation debated and voted on by our Senators and Representatives.

I guess all my political science textbooks from the early 1970s are obsolete.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Hurricane Helene Recovery Update

Heavy rain in the Fairview, Bat Cave, Gerton area in North Carolina on Memorial Day resulted in flooding and several roads were washed out, including US-74 Alt. near Fairview. NC-9 had to be closed due to flooding at Bat Cave. The people in the Bat Cave area (between Chimney Rock and Asheville) just can’t get a break.

It must be frightening when it rains now in the areas that were severely damaged by the flooding caused by up to 30 inches of rain that Hurricane Helene brought in September 2024. I imagine the residents will have flashbacks and feel panicky, especially during a downpour, for the rest of their lives.

Lake Lure was opened to the public just in time for the Memorial Day weekend. The lake was full of debris after the hurricane. If not for the hard and tedious work of the Army Corp of Engineers, local companies, and local volunteers, the lake could not have been drained, cleaned up, and refilled. The tourist Town of Lake Lure is now open for business!

Visitors are welcome to return to Lake Lure, Chimney Rock, Bat Cave, and all the other little towns and nooks and crannies in the mountains of North Carolina. All the businesses have not been rebuilt, and thousands of residents are still living in temporary homes, but the region is sorely in need of the tourist dollars it heavily depends on. So, if you can afford the gasoline, plan a trip to western North Carolina.

In Asheville…

I received an exciting email on May 20 from Brother Wolf Animal Rescue in Asheville. Its buildings were wiped out by Hurricane Helene, but its work has continued nonstop as the organization has looked for a new location. The May 20 email read in part: “Brother Wolf Animal Rescue has officially purchased a building to renovate into our rebuilt Adoption Center! We’ve been waiting a long time to say that sentence, and it feels AMAZING to share it with YOU, our caring community who have gotten us here!

“Located on Tunnel Road, near downtown Asheville and known as the former home of Black Dome Mountain Sports, the building will become a vibrant, high-impact space dedicated to saving lives and connecting animals with the people who love them….

“While Brother Wolf has continued to operate as a foster-based organization after the loss of our campus to floodwaters, this rebuilt Adoption Center will expand our ability to serve at a larger scale.”

In Morganton…

A large supermarket in Morganton, NC was in the news again last week because it is still sitting empty and closed since it was flooded during the hurricane.

I-40 and other roads…

Just a reminder… I-40 near the Tennessee border is still just one lane in each direction with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit until reconstruction can be completed through the Pigeon River Gorge in 2028.

The NCDOT Helene Recovery Dashboard can be accessed at https://www.ncdot.gov/helene-recovery/helene-dashboard/Pages/default.aspx. There, you can find total cost of damages, how much has been spent, and how much has been reimbursed by the U.S. Government. (This just reflects damages to roads and bridges.)

The Blue Ridge Parkway…

Also, sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway remain closed. Check for frequent updates online at https://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm.

Janet

All history is local, but no history is just local

Books I Read in May 2026

I read (or attempted to read) four good books last month, and I’m happy to share my thoughts about them with you today.

The Creek, The Crone, and The Crow, by Leah Weiss

This historical novel with an element of magical realism held my attention throughout. It’s the first book in regular size print I’ve been able to read in a long time. The story line and Ms. Weiss’ writing style played a big part in making that possible. The setting in a fictional community in the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina drew me in. I would say that the setting was as much a character as the people who populated the book.

Alternating chapters between two main characters is not typically my favorite format for a novel, but it worked for me in this book.

In a nutshell, Kate Shaw taught at the last one-room schools in North Carolina in 1980. She and the community are not happy when the county decides to close their school and bus the students miles to a bigger school.

Then, Lydia Brown, a psychic who wants to know more about her birthmark and the visions she had as a child, comes to Baines Creek looking for local recluse Birdie Rocas. Most people are afraid of Birdie and want to avoid her at all cost.

A professor from nearby Asheville gets brought into the story to help interpret Birdie’s writings. There are things hidden in the journals and there are things hidden underground.

Everyone’s story is woven together and things get more and more interesting as the contents of Birdie’s journals come to light.

I almost told too much. I don’t want to spoil the story for you.

Although it is historical fiction, the location is fairly well pinpointed to be near the real community of Little Switzerland, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have eaten lunch in the restaurant there several times, so it was interesting when it and the building it is in showed up in a number of scenes.

The Immigrant and The Outlaw, by Joy Neal Kidney

This is a delightful collection of newspaper and magazine articles Ms. Kidney has written about her childhood and the ancestors and other characters that have filled her life.

So much many of Ms. Kidney’s memories matched mine, I thought at times she was writing about my childhood. I did not grow up on a farm and I did not have grandparents, but there were lots of little details that I could identify with – like a linoleum floor, going outside to watch Sputnik go by, the oil stove in the living room, and even my Daddy’s “ashtray on a stand” by his chair.

Along with childhood memories of growing up out in the country, there were memories of helping to assimilate Bosnian immigrants and their first Thanksgiving in Iowa.

The last piece in the collection, “A Housewife’s Best Friend” made me stop and think about the difficult lives of my grandmothers. Although they died long before I was born, they lived and raised farm families without the luxury of electricity. I take electricity for granted every day, and even a momentary power surge or a limb falling on the power line sends me into a frenzy. I am so spoiled!

I recommend this book to people of all ages.

The Astral Library, by Kate Quinn

This is quite a change from Kate Quinn’s usual novels, but I must say I enjoyed it.

Let me clarify that. I enjoyed the first four of the eight CDs. The skipping got so bad on disc 4 that I finally gave up and went on to disc 5. I listened to it until it just stopped playing.

This novel has an interesting premise. When someone is at the end of their rope, they can be invited to the Astral Library. In the Astral Library, a person can enter and live in a book.

It was by coincidence that I ended up reading (or trying to read) two books in May that involved magical realism. I’d never even heard that term before, but The Astral Library and The Creek, The Crone, and The Crow both fall in that category.

Something I found extremely irritating – which I’d forgotten about books on CD – is that there is a tremendous range in the volume. Some characters almost whisper and some characters yell all the time. And sometimes one character whispers part of the time and yells part of the time. I had forgotten that was a problem I’ve had before in listening to a book on CD. I’ll try not to make that mistake again.

Ironically, I had planned to begin today’s blog post wishing everyone a happy “Audiobook Appreciation Month.”

God’s name is taken in vain repeatedly in at least the first half of the book. (I can’t vouch for the second half, since I didn’t get to listen to it.) I think this would be less offensive if reading the printed word. I found it quite offensive as I listened to the novel being read aloud. When profanity is used just for the sake of using it – and not something a character needs to say over and over again – it just ends up being irritating, and after a while it loses its impact. I was surprised and disappointed to find this in a Kate Quinn novel.

The excessive use of vulgarity did not feel necessary to the story. It had a lovely and intriguing premise.

Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, by poet Maggie Smith

*Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life*,
by Maggie Smith

In the “Introduction,” Ms. Smith offers “ten principles of creativity: attention, wonder, vision, surprise, play, vulnerability, restlessness, connection, tenacity, and hope.”

She wrote, “You have to do it to learn how to do it.”

There is a helpful chapter in the book for people like me who are writing their (hopefully!) debut novel. That chapter is about choosing a title for your book. She talks about the different responsibilities a book title has.

I identified with the author when she wrote about loving “the idea of writing every day” but not doing it. She followed that a few pages later with, “Commit to doing at least one thing in service of your writitng every day.”

I agree with her, and I try to do that – something that serves my writing every day. It might be reading an article about the craft of writing, reading in my genre, listening to a webinar, reading a poem, planning a future blog post, or doing historical research. My favorite days, though, are the ones in which I get to work on my novel.

I hope you’ll be inspired to read one of the books I read in May.

Janet

Never take your right to read for granted.

National Speak in Complete Sentences Day

I was tempted to illustrate today’s blog post with a picture of Donald Trump, but I can’t stand the thought of it.

With his self-described “weavings,” he could be the poster boy for National Speak in Complete Sentences Day.

It reminds me of the saying, “No life is wasted. You can always serve as a bad example.”

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Bees, Apps, and Service Animals

Now that I have your attention….

Bees and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center

The Trump Administration is closing the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.

When 1.6 million bee colonies collapsed between June 2024 and March 2025, the scientists working there immediately looked into the situation. In six months, they determined that the cause was a virus spread by pesticide-resistant mites.

Would someone please tell Trump that 80% of the crops in the U.S. are pollinated by bees? Please tell him that food does not originate in the kitchens manned by his chefs. It comes from farms.

This is a man who marveled recently over the “old-fashioned” word “groceries” and didn’t know what a “corner store” was.

The safeguards for our nation’s health are falling like dominoes at Trump’s command. I guess he was serious last week when he said he might run for Prime Minister of Israel when he is through here – I guess when there is nothing left to break or destroy.

And some of y’all thought I was being overly dramatic when I accused Trump of hating nature.

A White House App

Government phones will now have a White House app installed per White House mandate. It includes a feed of the President’s social media posts and a button with a pre-written text message: “Greatest President Ever” to be sent to Trump.

The app reportedly also includes “Stuck in line at La Guardia? Blame a Democrat.”

The Hatch Act of 1939 is not being enforced. Perhaps it will be again after the mid-term elections.

U.S. Government is asking for Volunteers

With fears that the Ebola virus will enter the United States on someone entering the country via one of four major airports, yesterday the government asked for volunteers to screen people.

What could possibly go wrong?

This is what happens when your alleged-businessman President decimates the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health.

Nondisclosure Agreements

The Trump Administration is laying plans for all federal employees to be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

Trump claims that his regime is the “most transparent” ever, so what is it that he does not want us to know?

The U.S. Government is not a business. People within the government who work with classified information already know that they are to never disclose state secrets, etc.

Trump wants to silence everyone who works in the government.

This is what you get when you elect a corrupt businessman.

The University of North Carolina (UNC) Board of Governors goes off the rails!

All the crazies aren’t in Washington, DC.

The 24 members of the UNC Board of Governors are appointed by the North Carolina General Assembly (our state legislature).

Peter Hans. the President of the UNC System oversees 16 universities, a specialized high school (The NC School of the Arts), the UNC Healthcare system, and a statewide public TV network.

He has a lot of responsibility and, for all I know, he is doing a fine job.

His annual salary is $600,000. Apparently, Mr. Han is having trouble making ends meet – even as each of the member institutions of higher learning in the system he oversees are constantly having to tighten their belts, layoff underpaid professors, eliminate some vice-chancellor positions, slashing some degree program, and the UNC-TV network is reeling from Trump taking an ax to public TV.

This week, the UNC Board of Governors gave Mr. Han a bonus of $493,500.

I don’t know of any printable words to say to that.

Support animals and HUD

The New York Times obtained a memo sent out by the U.S. Department of Housing and Development’s (HUD) Fair Housing Office last Friday.

HUD will immediately stop recognizing emotional support animals and will tighten its definition of what qualifies as a service animal for disable tenants.

The Trump Administration is hard at work protecting the American people… at least, that’s what Trump says.

We have a U.S. President who wants $1.776 billion for a slush fund to reward his minions who attempted a coup for him on January 6, 2021, and he wants $1 billion for a ballroom. He has gotten us into an endless war in Iran.

But the biggest problem we have in America today is apparently too many military veterans with PTSD are living in subsidized housing with a support dog?

Anything to draw our attention away from the Epstein Files.

How does anyone still defend and support this?

The Republican “talking heads” on TV still defend everything Trump says and everything he does.

They laugh when other guests on talk shows express concern over the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, the $1.4 billion ballroom, the 250-foot tall Trump Arch, the $1.775 billion Trump slush fund, Trump’s face to go on the proposed $250 bill – although it is against the law for a living person’s likeness to be put on our currency, his weekly flights on Air Force One to Florida to play golf, his falling asleep regularly during Cabinet meetings, his vulgar mouth, his sweet deal that he and his family are forever immune from Internal Revenue Service audits, his more than 3,700 personal stock trades in the first quarter of 2026, his desecrating the grounds of the White House for pugilists to perform for his birthday, the cementing over of the White House Rose Garden, the tackying-up of the entire White House with gaudy gold doo-dahs, directing his personal law firm (formerly known as the United States Department of Justice) to go after anyone and everyone who has ever hurt his feelings (such as E. Jean Carroll), and his inability to speak in a complete sentence.

I could go on. The things I have listed off the top of my head are the tip of the iceberg.

I feel like we are on a ship of fools heading straight for that iceberg.

It is baffling. I will never understand it. Never.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Insidious tactics of politicians – Part II

If you missed Part I, here’s a link to it: https://janetswritingblog.com/2026/05/27/insidious-tactics-of-politicians-part-i/.

If you are a woman, you have been subjected to unwanted comments in a work environment and/or in public. You have had a man you did not know press himself up against you in an elevator. You have experienced other unwanted touching by a man.

If you are a woman of a certain age… say 73 … you have probably experienced a man saying to you in a job interview, “I don’t think a woman can handle this job” even though you held a master’s degree in the field in which you were being interviewed.

Carefully read the words of Project 2025. Look at the policies being pushed by The Heritage Foundation. They are anti-female. In the Trump Era, it is becoming increasingly acceptable for men in high positions or those seeking positions of influence and responsibility to say that they don’t think women should have the right to vote.

Before you cast a vote in November for a U.S. Representative or U.S. Senator… or a Governor… or a city council member… or a county commissioner… or a school board member, find out where they stand on gender equality and racial equality.

Don’t blindly vote for a state’s constitutional amendment or for anyone of any political party without knowing their opinions on these things. Your future and the future of your descendants hang in the balance.

I hate to throw North Carolina under the bus again, but here we go.

Keith Kidwell represents the 79^th State House District in eastern North Carolina. He is out to imprison a lot of women in the state.

Kidwell, who will be 65 years old in June, was born in Passaic, New Jersey. (I don’t want North Carolina to take all the blame for his existence.) He has represented the 79^th State House District since January 1, 2019

Kidwell is a member of the Oath Keepers. Need I say more?

Even if that’s all you need to know about him, I’m going to tell you more.

He is a health and life insurance salesman. That seems a strange occupation for a member of the Oath Keepers but, for all I know, that’s what they all claim to do for a living. You know… taking care of people.

On May 14, 2026, Kidwell filed House Bill 1232 in Raleigh. It proposes an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that states that human life begins at the moment of fertilization – and that microscopic embryo is a person under the law.

Anyone doing anything to stop that embryo in its tracks will be charged with murder

It doesn’t stop there.

It goes on to legalize the “use of deadly force” against the woman or the person performing an abortion.

The wording is, “Any person has the right to defend… the life of another person, even by the use of deadly force… from willful destruction by another person. The State has an interest and a duty to defend innocent persons from willful destruction of their lives and to punish those who take the lives of persons, born or unborn, who have not committed any crime punishable by death.”

The bill makes no allowances for rape, incest, ectopic pregnancy, profound deformity of a fetus, or the mother’s age or health. The mother is fair game for anyone who wants to kill her.

Bottom line: The embryo has the right to live, but the mother does not have the right to live. In the split-second of its inception, an embryo has more rights than the woman carrying that embryo, regardless of the circumstances under which that embryo came into existence.

If this bill is approved, it will be effective as of January 1, 2027, and an amendment to the Constitution of the State of North Carolina will be on the ballot on November 3, 2026.

Kidwell was defeated in the Republican Primary in March; however, he will serve in the North Carolina House of Representatives until his term expires in January 2027.

The State of North Carolina might soon codify that a one-second-old embryo is a person with all the rights of a person. The United States Supreme Court has already ruled that a business is a person.

The people making such laws and rulings apparently only see the world in terms of black or white. It must be nice to not be bothered by any gray areas or “spirit of the law” considerations. Or common sense. Or humanity.

It must be nice to be a defeated old white man in the state legislature proposing laws that have nothing to do with you or your body.

I’m merely advocating for women’s rights. The trend I’m seeing in America in 2025 and 2026 is a serious widespread effort to take our rights away from us. Men don’t seem to understand that women were also made in God’s image, and Jesus Christ never belittled or pushed women and their concerns off into a corner. So don’t start quoting the Bible to me to try to prove me wrong.

If you would like to read NC House Bill 1232, here’s a link to it: https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewBillDocument/2025/9070/0/DRH10579-NJy-55.

Trump brags that Republicans won in the Republican primaries

Did you catch it?

In yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump bragged that lots of Republicans won in the Republican primaries on Tuesday.

I guess he didn’t see that coming.

I have five questions

Why do we have to keep paying for new baseball caps for all the Cabinet members?

Why is Mount Rushmore gold on yesterday’s new baseball caps for the Cabinet members?

Does Trump plan to pour gold paint all over Mount Rushmore?

Why does a baseball cap sell for $55?

Who gets the money?

In what country were these caps made?

Asking for a friend. Nothing says redneck quite like a Trump baseball cap.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

P.S. My life would be so much simpler if I didn’t care.

Insidious tactics of politicians – Part I

It would be helpful for you to read my blog post from yesterday before you read today’s. Here’s the link to yesterday’s post: Public education is still under attack.

November 3, 2026 is Election Day in the United States. Political campaign ads will start any day now. We will be bombarded by hundreds of hours of smear campaigns

The GOP reportedly plans to spend $100 million to campaign against former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina as he runs for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Thom Tillis.

I think the right-wing conservatives have taken an ounce of misinformation and grotesquely twisted it to fit their agenda. What we have now are members of Congress making statements and laws denigrating public education. They probably don’t personally know a public-school teacher, a public-school administrator, or a public-school student.

That’s been part of the grand plan ever since the birth of the Tea Party. Day-by-day, these people chisel away at public education. We’ve certainly seen it played out by the North Carolina General Assembly!

I happen to know some public-school teachers. They are too busy trying to teach Johnny and Jane how to read and do basic math to spend time trying to force Johnny to become Jane or Jane to become Johnny.

It doesn’t help when we have a U.S. President who says that you send your son to school in the morning and he comes home that afternoon as a girl.

I know that transgenderism is an issue. I know that there are children and adults who feel trapped in a body with genitalia that does not feel right for them. My heart breaks for them. It has to be miserable to feel like you are not living in your authentic body.

Transgender people do not scare me, but right-wing regular folks and right-wing politicians who hate and fear transgender people do scare me.

As for their fear that a transgender person might enter a public restroom? That does not bother me as much as the time I was in a public women’s restroom when a man walked in and urinated in the sink.

The usage of keywords and catch phrases in campaign material should give you a clue where a candidate stands on a lot of issues.

I believe the Republican Party’s favorite word is indoctrination. Sadly, the “indoctrination” they seem most afraid of is that students might learn to be accepting of others.

They might learn that it is not right to bully others, even though the U.S. President does that daily.

They might learn that each individual should be allowed to aspire to and attain whatever occupation and level of achievement they strive for, even though daily the U.S. President berates journalists – especially those who are female and those who are female and of skin color other than white.

They might learn that girls have an equal opportunity to excel in education even though the U.S. President brags about grabbing women by their genitalia.

Politicians who spend their time worrying about non-existent problems while turning a blind eye to the horrendous corruption of the Trump Administration and its evil actions that cause the deaths of innocent people and animals do scare me.

All this right-wing broken record hoopla is pushed through the use of catch-words like “indoctrination,” “transparency,” and “parental rights.” But those hot-button words are not what’s behind this. They are just convenient ways the right-wing conservatives rely on to get our attention and try to scare us.

It will be tempting to turn off the TV from now until November 3 to avoid hearing the thousands of campaign ads. Don’t rely on what the ads say. Research a candidate’s track record. Look into the things they say when they think the microphones are muted. Look at their voting record if they’ve held public office before.

You owe it to yourself and everyone else living in the United States today and in the future.

Watch for my blog post tomorrow when I will write about a proposed anti-abortion bill under consideration in North Carolina.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Public education is still under attack

The right-wing conservatives are hell-bent on destroying public education through conspiracy theories.

My “representative” in the U.S. House of Representatives sent out an email last week that demonstrated how he has bought into all the lies being spread about public education. On May 20 he took to the House floor and waxed poetic about the indoctrination of “kids” in our public schools.

Are we talking about baby goats?

I’m sorry, but my mother was an English teacher and one of her pet peeves was people referring to children as “kids.” A “kid” is a baby goat.

I’m splitting hairs here, but our command of the English language has deteriorated to the point that Acts of Congress now use “Kids” instead of “Children.”

Last Wednesday, my congressman spoke on the House floor in support of H.R. 2616, the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act. SIAPKA for short, I guess? (I was just trying to figure out a possible reason why “Kids” was used instead of “Children,” but the formation of a catchy acronym does not appear to fit the bill. Sorry for the pun.)

I find the wording irritating and indicative of the overall deterioration of the U.S. Congress as an institution. Why must they use slang when they name a piece of legislation?

But that’s not the point of my rant today.

My congressman’s speech on May 20 & weekly newsletter

In his remarks, my congressman made the following indictment of public education in America:

“For far too long, our education system has prioritized activism over fundamentals. Parents want their kids to learn how to read, write, solve math problems, and reach their God-given potential. Unfortunately, schools across the country have abandoned biological realities in favor of curriculum that’s infused with gender ideology, sexual education, and transgenderism. This is not education, this is indoctrination. What is equally concerning is the effort schools have put into leaving parents out of important discussions regarding their children. Parents have the right to know what their kids are being taught and what is happening to their children in schools. That’s why I am proud to stand against the indoctrination of our kids and for parents’ rights and I strongly urge my colleagues to do the same by joining me in supporting this bill.”

In his weekly e-newsletter on Saturday, he stated the following:

“Ahead of its passage this week, I spoke on the House floor in support of the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act because our children deserve an education focused on academic excellence, not political indoctrination.

“This bill stands up for parents’ rights and reinforces a simple principle: classrooms should focus on teaching students how to read, write, think critically, and succeed in life—not pushing gender ideology, inappropriate sexual content, or radical left-wing activism.”

No doubt, Virginia Foxx will join him

Something I considered blogging about earlier this month but decided against is the written response U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx sent to a fourth grader in response to the essay he shared with her.

The boy’s mother, Emily Mango, of Greensboro, NC was furious about Ms. Foxx’s letter, so she went public with it. Her son’s school assignment was to write a persuasive essay about a topic of his choice. He wrote in favor of electric vehicles. He expressed his opinion that they were good for the environment.

In Ms. Foxx’s response to the ten-year-old, she wrote, in part, the following on May 9, 2026:

“Ask your teacher to explain propaganda to you. While I will never be able to know, my guess is that your teachers will not give you a good educational experience and help you learn to think as they are too interested in indoctrinating you. How sad.”

How dare she write that to a ten-year-old child!

My take

The right-wing conservations want to dictate what can and cannot be taught in our public schools. That’s what this comes down to. This proposed legislation falls in line with Trump’s Executive Orders 14168 and 14190 issued last year. That’s when he and his Department of Education went after schools and universities.

Federal grants disappeared if they supported DEI, science, or medical research. I won’t take time today to repeat those details.

It comes down to a few people who want to control what everyone studies and what everyone reads. They aren’t satisfied to control what their own children are exposed to. They want to control what your children are exposed to under the guise of “indoctrination” and “parental rights.”

Politicians who want to force their narrow-minded views on all of us? They scare me.

Politicians who were more interested in taking a couple of weeks away from Washington, DC on Friday than staying to address Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund? They scare me.

I’ll tell you how I really feel tomorrow

Tune in for how I really feel about this and some related topics in my blog post tomorrow.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

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