I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
Author: janetsm
In November 2025, I published Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. In the fall of 2025, I published a devotional book: I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter AND I Need The Light! Companion Journal and Diary. I write North Carolina local history and Southern American colonial historical fiction. I enjoy doing extensive research as well as the writing that research supports. My stories and novels-in-progress are about the common people. I'm the author of Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Books 1 and 2 and a vintage postcard book titled The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
I’ve had a net loss of three of my 1,297 blog subscribers in the last two weeks. I don’t know why, but I have a hunch it is because I have either stepped on some toes with my criticisms of Trump, or perhaps the individuals who hit the “unsubscribe” button just did not want to read about Trump anymore.
I understand, if they left for either reason. If I thought Donald Trump hung the moon and the stars and was sent by God to save the United States, I wouldn’t want to read my blog either.
Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash
If I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the rapid dismantling of democracy in the United States, I wouldn’t want to read my blog either.
I get it.
I don’t want to write about the Trump Administration every day. That’s why I took a break from it last week. I only blogged twice.
That break freed up time for me to work on the companion journal/diary I’m creating to go along with my I Need The Light! devotional book.
I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison
It gave me time to edit most of the historical short stories I plan to publish as a collection later this year.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
I needed to take time to do those things for my mental and physical well-being. I hope to have more weeks in which I only blog a couple of times.
When I started blogging more than a decade ago, I was encouraged over every subscriber milestone. The numbers are not that important to me now, but I noticed I was on the verge of having 1,400 subscribers. Then, my numbers started going down. I needed to evaluate the situation and determine if I was doing something wrong.
I concluded that after a decade I have started fearlessly speaking my mind. Perhaps some of my subscribers liked the old me – the me who just blogged once-a-week about the craft of writing or the books I read. The old me struggled to think of something to blog about once-a-week.
But that’s not me anymore. I’m older, but not necessarily wiser. I’m in a place in my life’s journey where I am no longer afraid that I will offend someone who sees politics or other major issues differently than I do.
I am no longer afraid that if I blog about politics I will alienate someone who would have otherwise purchased one of my books.
I blog because it has become part of my identity. I blog because I am deeply concerned about what is happening to and in the government of the United States. I cannot turn my back on my political science degrees and my sense of patriotism.
But most of all, I blog because I thoroughly enjoy forming online relationships with other bloggers and subscribers. Readers and subscribers will come and go. Perhaps I’m finally finding my voice and my niche, and I no longer attempt to reach the masses.
What I write about will not and cannot appeal to everyone. That is a good lesson for me to remember when I publish a book!
Photo by Luis Morera on Unsplash
In conclusion, it’s not really about the numbers. It’s about the relationships I have made and will continue to make through my blog. If my subscribers dwindle down to 100, it won’t bother me now because I have come to understand that it’s just about the relationships and exchange of ideas.
Until this year, I could not imagine a world in which a hurricane could sneak up on a country. I have been blessed to grow up in a country where meteorologists tracked weather systems and, with growing precision every year, could forecast where such a storm would make landfall and how wide an area would likely experience hurricane-force or tropical storm-force wind.
With a few exceptions, with the support of the National Weather Bureau, meteorologists have been able to predict within a margin of error how much rain and the wind velocity localities can expect from a hurricane.
The Trump Administration sees no benefit in science, and that includes the work of the National Weather Bureau. If the National Weather Bureau is dismantled, we will not be much better off than the people of Galveston, Texas were in 1900.
Note: Not the hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900, of course. Photo by NASA on Unsplash
Galveston, Texas, in 1900
Galveston, Texas was a thriving city of 37,700 people in 1900. It claimed to be the “third richest city in the United States in proportion to population.” The seaport was booming. Sixty percent of the cotton grown in Texas was being exported through the port at Galveston.
Victorian mansions and public buildings were being built with elaborate architecture. The banking industry was booming. Grand social events filled the calendars of the elite citizens. All the modern conveniences of the time could be enjoyed in Galveston.
Things couldn’t have been going better!
In fact, things were going so well that residents became complacent, ignoring the fact that their city was on an island in the Gulf of Mexico and it’s highest point was just nine feet above sea level.
September 8, 1900
Although the U.S. Weather Bureau issued a hurricane warning on September 4, most Galveston residents ignored it.
Accustomed to weathering tropical storms, the residents paid little attention to the downpours of rain on the morning of September 8, 1900, even as Isaac Cline, the chief meteorologist at the Galveston Weather Bureau went door-to-door to warn people of the imminent danger. By afternoon, though, the tide was rising at an alarming rate and the wind had picked up.
By mid-afternoon, much of the city was flooded, but the worst was yet to come. It is now estimated that sustained winds reached at least 145 miles per hour that evening and there was a fifteen-foot storm surge.
When the next morning came, the sea was calm but 3,600 houses and businesses were gone. Entire blocks closest to the beach had been wiped away, and more than 6,000 people had died.
With all transportation and communication with the mainland destroyed, Galveston was cut off from the outside world for days as the survivors faced the grim task of disposing of bodies.
After burials at sea turned out to be unsatisfactory, funeral pyres were put up along the beach and bodies were burned for weeks after the storm.
After the Galveston hurricane
A seventeen-foot seawall was constructed in Galveston, which saved the city during future hurricane.
On a wider scope, the hurricane drew focus on the need for improved weather forecasting and warning systems. Weather stations were established through the Caribbean, and ships started tracking storms.
Late-20th-century and early 21st-century technological advances have made hurricane tracking and route predictions more precise, yet Mother Nature is a force stronger than any system of predictions. Even with all the various computer models that predict the path a hurricane will take, they are so large and so powerful that there is still uncertainty.
No one predicted the speed with which Hurricane Hugo would plow across South Carolina and the southern piedmont of North Carolina 200 miles inland in 1989. And no one predicted the extent of flooding and damage Hurricane Helene would do more than 500 miles inland in September 2024.
Even with the best technology, we are still vulnerable to hurricanes, but the warning system we have had in place in the 21st century is light years ahead of the warnings that were possible in 1900.
One hundred and twenty-five years later, the September 8, 1900, hurricane that hit Galveston still holds the record as the worst natural disaster to ever hit the United States, in terms of lives lost.
In 2025, we must fight for the National Weather Bureau to remain intact so no city is walloped with little warning like Galveston was in 1900.
Speaking of hurricanes…
Hurricane Helene Update
As of Friday, 37 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene, which hit the mountains in the western part of the state on September 26, 2024. That count includes five US highways, two state highways, and 30 state roads.
This is a story I have been sitting on since last Tuesday. It is impossible to make sense of what has happened here locally.
I do not personally know the young woman or her family, but hearing this family’s story on WSOC-TV in Charlotte stopped me in my tracks. I have not been able to get the report off my mind.
Her family fled violence in Honduras in 2013 when Allison Bustillo was eight years old. They found a home in North Carolina. Allison studied hard. No one in the family ever broke the law, except for staying in the United States without proper documentation.
Allison wants to be a nurse. At 20 years old, she was studying nursing on a scholarship at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, until February 2025 – the day ICE agents showed up at her house. They were looking for someone who did not live there but, in the process, they took Allison from her home. This was traumatic for her family, which includes her brother who is on the autism spectrum.
Photo by Jennifer Grismer on Unsplash
Allison was taken 350 miles from her home to the ICE Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. She tried to get released. She had broken no laws. She had been brought into the United States as an eight-year-old child.
The Stewart Detention Center is operated by CoreCivic. CoreCivic contracted with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate the prison, which has an official capacity of 1,752 inmates.
The ICE agents who arrested Allison Bustillo did not have to identify themselves. They didn’t have to show a badge or an identification. They didn’t have to show their faces. But Allison Bustillo was not allowed those privileges, so without warning or due process she was taken from her home and placed in a federal detention center hundreds of miles from her family.
But no one in the Trump Administration cared. Not even after her family secured the services of an attorney.
One of the ironies is that Allison was not eligible for voluntary deportation, but she was stuck in that detention center for six months. Imagine! Six months!
Her attorney was finally able to get permission for her to leave the detention center and leave the country without a deportation order. She will board (or already has boarded) a commercial flight to Honduras. Alone.
A 20-year-old nursing student returning to the country she fled 12 years ago as a child whose family sought a safe life.
Allison’s mother said, “The only memory my daughter has of Honduras is when someone put a gun to our heads.”
Trump was elected partly because he promised to get the illegal alien criminals out of our country. Perhaps some of the people who voted for him thought he would use legal means to accomplish that. Perhaps they thought he would only remove the hardened criminals.
They were horribly mistaken.
He has repeatedly said that only “the worst of the worst criminals” will be arrested and deported. That is a lie. Plain and simple.
A case in point is the Guatemalan minor children he tried to deport in the middle of the night this weekend. Fortunately, a judge put a stop to that. Trump needs to understand that even an undocumented child from Guatemala has the right to due process in the United States of America.
What happened to “Give me your tired, your poor… your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” that the high school chorus used to sing?
What happened to “the land of the free and the home of the brave” from our national anthem? We have failed our national anthem this year… or, I suppose we failed it on election day last November. I don’t think I can sing it anymore.
One of these days I hope to be able to enjoy reading fiction again. I miss the days when I wanted to read every historical novel that was published. I can’t remember the last one I read. I’m pretty sure it was before Inauguration Day 2025.
I miss not having books I’ve read to blog about the first Monday of each month. I read parts of several books in August, but I didn’t finish reading any of them.
I settled down at the computer on Friday evening after supper to look for that afternoon’s weekly update on the status of road repairs in western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene a full eleven months ago. I can’t imagine the stress the people who live or work along some of those roads must be under at this point.
For eleven months, I have tried to give an update on Mondays of the progress being made in repairing western North Carolina since the hurricane. Roads are not the most important things being repaired or needing to be repaired. People lost family members, their homes, their businesses, their friends, their communities, and their sense of security. But I don’t know how to report on how those losses are being coped with or healed. I report the progress being made in rebuilding roads and highways because that is something tangible that I can find statistics about. I hope in some way it reminds people in other parts of the United States that just because Hurricane Helene is no longer in the headlines, it doesn’t mean it is over.
On Friday evening, I didn’t know what I was going to blog about today, but I knew I needed to include my weekly update about the roads. I sat down at the computer to get that part of today’s blog written.
But before I could put anything in the search engine, a disturbing piece of breaking news popped up. Although the announcement was put online shortly before 6:30 p.m., the national news channel I watched at 6:30 did not mention it. I guess it was more important to talk about this being Labor Day weekend and how that would specifically bring in lots of business for a particular convenience store chain on steroids.
The free publicity the network gave that convenience store chain was bizarre. It was the kind of story one would expect on “a slow day for news.” But we have not had “a slow day for news” in this country in eight months.
Instead of reporting on how busy the franchises in that convenience store chain would be over the long holiday weekend, I wish that network had reported on what the U.S. Supreme Court did on Friday.
National Institutes of Health
The piece of news that was not reported is devastating to a lot of people. In a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration can indeed cut $783 million in National Institutes of Health grants connected to diversity programs. Thus, the injunction that a federal judge had put on the action has been lifted.
Too bad that 90,000-square foot ballroom that’s going to dwarf the White House isn’t in place. I’m sure lots of people in The White House would love to go dancing to celebrate this victory over medical research and diversity.
Voice of America
Photo by Jono Hirst on Unsplash
Another thing Trump could celebrate over the Labor Day weekend was the firing of more than 500 employees of Voice of America and its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, on Friday night. It comes across as, “Happy Labor Day! You’re fired!”
Voice of America was founded by the United States in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda. Every week for 83 years, it has delivered news to 420 million people in 63 languages in more than 100 countries.
But the Trump Administration does not see the need for it and has been working for eight months to destroy it. One of his Executive Orders in March placed more than 1,000 journalists on indefinite administrative leave.
Kari Lake, an Arizona politician, is tasked by Trump to dismantle Voice of America. She fired 500 contractors in May and tried to fire 600 federal employees in June.
Trump says the Voice of America is speaking for our adversaries and not for the American people. He has produced no evidence. By “our adversaries” does he mean North Korea, China, and Russia? Or does he mean his Democratic political adversaries? I tend to think he means the Democrats. He cannot tolerate people speaking the truth.
Some tariffs ruled illegal
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
A Federal Appeals Court has ruled that some of the tariffs ordered by the Trump Administration are illegal. We haven’t heard the last of this. Like a dog with a bone, Trump won’t let go without a fight.
Chicago prepares for Trump
Photo by Sawyer Bengtson on Unsplash
The City of Chicago and the Governor of Illinois prepare for an invasion by Trump’s military this week. The mayor of Chicago vows to not roll over and play dead.
Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an order on Saturday stating that the Chicago police will not “collaborate with federal agents on joint law enforcement patrols, arrest operations, or other law enforcement duties including civil immigration enforcement.”
The mayor’s order “urges” federal officers in Chicago “to refrain from wearing masks, to wear and use body cameras and to identify themselves to members of the public with names and badge numbers.”
That is what local law enforcement officers do, so why shouldn’t federal officers be required to do the same? The argument that Trump’s thugs must wear masks because their lives are in danger doesn’t hold water. Every law enforcement officer’s life is in danger when they are on the job, but they don’t get to hide behind masks like Trump’s people or the Ku Klux Klan.
Hurricane Helene Update
As of Friday, of the 1,469 roads and highways that had to be closed in western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene, 33 were still closed and 38 have partial access.
A temporary US-64/US-74 between Chimney Rock and Bat Cave opened last week.
Another section of the Blue Ridge Parkway reopened on Friday, meaning that the 85 miles from Asheville to the parkway’s southern terminus near Cherokee are now open! Work continues on various sections of the road north of Asheville.
It was announced last Thursday that the rebuilding of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge North Carolina at the Tennessee line is expected to be completed by the end of 2028. That’s not a typo. 2028.
The NC Department of Transportation is constructing a retaining wall along the Pigeon River below the highway, which will be 30 feet thick and 100 feet tall in some places.
A temporary wall now allows two lanes (one in each direction) to be open with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit. Monitoring devices are in place to alert drivers to possible landslides.
The reconstruction of five miles of the interstate in the gorge is expected to cost $1.3 billion.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Alert Update
US-441/Newfound Gap Road in the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park is expected to be repaired and reopened by September 30. Earlier estimates were in October. Heavy rainfall caused the undercutting a section of the road between Mile Marker 12 and Mile Mark 13 during flooding on August 2.
Hurricane Erin Update
NC-12 on the north end of Ocracoke Island, NC reopened last Monday and ferry service to Hatteras Island resumed. By the end of last week, what was left of Hurricane Erin was lashing the Butt of Lewis on the northern tip of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Erin did not give up easily.
Too much news
In less than 24 hours from Friday night until midday on Saturday, I went from not knowing what I could blog about today to having an abundance of topics vying for my attention. I miss the good old days of 2024 when there wasn’t much news on weekends.
On live TV from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said many things. There were so many things that did not make any sense that I grabbed a pen and started making notes. I know I missed some things, but today’s blog post is a sampling.
I you think Donald Trump is a stable person after you read the following, then maybe you need to see a medial professional and get checked out.
The White House, Washington, D.C. Photo by Kristina Volgenau on Unsplash
Trump said, “Maybe some people are saying they like a dictator. I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense. I’m a smart person.” How many more times must he say that before we all fall for it?
Was it a coincidence that the same day Trump talked about dictators a giant banner of his portrait was hung on the outside of the offices of the U.S. Department of Labor? How dictatorship-like!
He said Washington, D.C. will be “spotless.” He said people have been spending millions of dollars repaving the streets, but he is going to do it for two dollars. I hope Clark Construction was listening. He just said they’re only getting two dollars.
In the same rambling remarks, Trump said that some of the people that have been arrested in Washington, D.C. are in “solid confinement.” I wonder if that is anything like solitary confinement.
He signed several Executive Orders and bragged about his signature. He turned to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and asked her to confirm that his is a great signature.
He called Governor Pritzker of Illinois “a slob” and said he needed to spend more time at the gym. He said he would send troops to Chicago and end crime there in three days, but then he said he won’t send troops to Chicago.
One of the Executive Orders is for Hegseth to set up specialized National Guard units around the country to “deal with public order issues.”
He claimed that people are burning the American flag all over the country. One of his Executive Orders says if you burn the flag, you will spend one year in jail. He claimed that many flag burners are paid by the “radical left.” What about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that burning the U.S. flag is a legal act of protest?
He said the United States is the most respected country in the world now.
He said he is being called “the President of Europe” and he considers that “a great honor.” I have no idea who called him that!
As he has said hundreds of times recently, he repeated that the U.S. was “dead” a year ago and now it is “the hottest country in the world.” I don’t know what that means.
Director of the U.S. Marshall Service presented Trump with an honorary U.S. Marshall service badge and a handcuff key. He profusely thanked Trump for everything he’s done and claimed that all law enforcement personnel in the country thank him.
He said he prefers for cities to invite him to send in the National Guard because otherwise he will go in and then be criticized. The guy doesn’t want to be criticized! But a few minutes later, he said he didn’t want to send troops into cities because then he would be praised.
He claimed there hadn’t been a murder in D.C. in 11 days and that hasn’t happened “in 200 years.” (Actually, it happened in February/March of this year.) He said, “The real people” in D.C. “want us here.” (Who are the “real people”?)
He went on and on about fake news. He talked about how he won the election. He said the reporters in the room know he is right but they won’t report it that way.
He bragged that the U.S. is not sending any money to Ukraine now and he got $1 trillion in rare earth minerals from Ukraine for the U.S. No other U.S. President in my lifetime would have blackmailed Ukraine into giving up its rare earth minerals, much less boast about it.
He called former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie “a slob.” He said, “I think he got away with murder.” He said he might have Pam Bondi investigate him. (Christie used to support Trump. In fact, Christie helped prep Trump for at least one of his debates. But now Christie is critical of Trump, so it is not surprising that Trump is threatening to investigate him.”
He repeated that he’s going to decrease prescription drug prices “by 1,400 or 1,500 percent.” I’m not very good at math but, no matter how many times Trump says that, it still doesn’t make sense to me.
He said that Putin said if Trump had been President, there never would have been a war with Ukraine.
He said that he has stopped seven wars by using tariffs this year. He says that some people saw he has stopped ten wars this year. He claims the U.S. is making billions of dollars from the tariffs. He also said that “tariff” was not a word until the 1870s. One of my sources says the word dates by to before 1595.
Before the day was over, as he met with the President of South Korea in the Oval Office, he bragged about what a great relationship he has with Kim Jong Un.
He said Obama “used to talk about the O-zone layers but then he would fly to Hawaii in a 747.”
He said he has a feeling he and Hegseth will be changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. He said that will probably happen in the next week. He said “everybody wants it.” He also then insinuated that the U.S. won World War I and World War II because it was called the Department of War then.
He called John Bolton “a stupid person who liked killing people.”
He repeated, “We are the hottest country in the world. By far.” Whatever that means.
He said, “Nobody can forget October 7th, but a lot of people forget about it.” He said he thinks the war between Israel and Gaza will probably end in two or three weeks.
He said, “We will soon have more magnets than we know what to do with.”
You can’t make this stuff up. But Trump can.
Then came Tuesday…
Trump voluntarily brought up the word “dictator” twice on Tuesday. He uses the word lightly. He uses is often now. On Tuesday, he said that people are saying they don’t care if he is a dictator as long as he is stopping crime.
I don’t know who these people are who are saying that. If they exist, it is frightening that they value freedom and democracy as little as Trump does. If they want to live in an autocracy, perhaps they should live in North Korea for a while and see how they like it before advocating for a dictatorship in the United States. I heard a couple of Trump supporters on TV saying on Tuesday night that they didn’t care what it was called as long as crime was eliminated.
It is a sad thing to see people being brainwashed.
And the Love Fest at the White House on Tuesday afternoon lasted three hours and seventeen minutes. Trump said he would lose his political career if he called U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi “beautiful.” How demeaning and completely inappropriate! It was officially called a Cabinet Meeting, but it was nothing but a love fest as each Cabinet member praised Dear Leader ad nauseam.
It was the kind of thing one would expect if Kim Jong Un got all his staff around a table to prop up his ego and avoid being executed.
It was an alarming thing to see at the White House. Cabinet members’ blind loyalty is a dangerous thing. Tuesday’s meeting was alarming and indicative of the state of the U.S. Government.
Trump also took an opportunity to belittle federal employees (which includes the Secret Service agents who put their lives on the line for him) when he said that federal employees are “not very productive” and they get paid to “do nothing.” As if morale among federal employees could get any lower than it already is as he gleefully fires them without cause or thought. I hope every Secret Service Agent and every White House staff member now knows how little he thinks of them and the work they do.
On Tuesday, Trump also said that he is President of the United States and he can do anything he wants to. I think we’ve all known that since January 20th.
There is nothing normal about anything in this blog post. Absolutely nothing.
Here are some snippets of just a few of the things that have taken place in and around Washington, D.C. in the last ten days or so. Most of them aren’t getting much coverage by the mainstream news media.
I’m sorry this is so long. I’m only the messenger, and it’s only Wednesday night as I put the finishing touches on this. It just might be my longest blog post ever. That in itself is indicative of the state of things in America today.
The White House, Washington, D.C.
Another mass school shooting in America
Yesterday’s mass shooting at a school in Minnesota was met with “thoughts and prayers” and flags lowered to half-staff at the White House. Isn’t it a shame that is all politicians can do? Their “thoughts and prayers” are not stopping the bullets.
Cruelty at the highest level
I mentioned the mysterious influence that Laura Loomer has over President Trump in my August 19, 2025, blog post, Trump and one of his “advisors”.
It seems Loomer has not gone away or tamped down her hatred for certain groups of people. She was upset that a few severely injured Palestinian children from Gaza were being brought to the United States for medical care. Children who were missing arms and legs, children with severe burns, etc. Loomer called them a “national security threat” and “Islamic invaders.”
On Friday, August 15, Loomer spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the next day the State Department announced it was pausing all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza.
Guns for National Guard Troops in Washington, DC
Last Friday evening, U.S Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC to start carrying their weapons.
National Guard troops are trained for war, not for everyday crime control on the street of America.
Trump has turned our nation’s capital into a police state and his followers think it is a beautiful thing. To them, the ends always justify the means.
That’s how far we have moved away from understanding the Constitution of the United States of America, the law, and the spirit of the law. The “party of law and order” has lost its way and lost sight of the law and is only interested in their idea of “order.”
The Posse Comitatus Act limits the federal government in the use of U.S. military personnel in the enforcement of domestic policies within the United States. First signed into law in 1878, the bill has been updated in 1956, 1981, and 2021.
The Posse Comitatus Act does not prevent the Army or the Air National Guard from acting in a law enforcement capacity in its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state’s governor.
But, at the invitation from Trump, various state governors have fallen in line and sent their National Guard troops or promised/offered to send their National Guard troops to Washington, DC or wherever Trump chooses to send them. The letter of the law: “home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state’s governor” has fallen by the wayside.
In the meantime, National Guard personnel are being called upon to leave their families, their businesses, and their jobs to deploy to Washington, DC to do whatever Trump decides they should do.
The National Guard is being turned into a political pawn, which absolutely goes against the United States Constitution and all federal laws regarding the military.
I’ll have more about the National Guard and various other topics in my blog post tomorrow.
Hegseth fires more top military personnel
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. It just so happens that Gen. Kruse issued a report saying that the U.S. airstrikes against Iran several months ago only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. His report contradicted Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims that Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated.”
This is proof once more that Trump does not want the truth. He wants unquestioning loyalty like he sees dictators in North Korea, China, and Russia getting.
Hegseth also fired Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore and Rear Admiral Milton Sands. Lacore was chief officer of the Navy Reserve. Sands oversaw Naval Special Warfare Command and was a Navy SEAL.
No reasons were given for the firings, and no public announcements were made by the Defense Department. They were just quietly done late on a Friday when the public is not supposed to be paying attention.
600+ cuts at CDC
More than 600 researchers and other employees of the Centers for Disease Control are expected to receive their notices of termination this week. This is all part of the Trump Administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
It is ironic that the entire CDC Division of Violence Prevention is being eliminated as part of this wave of firings just days after a gunman who thought the COVID vaccine had made him sick sprayed the campus of the CDC with more than 500 bullets.
New CDC Director fired
Centers for Disease Control Director Susan Monarez was fired yesterday just four weeks and one day after obtaining Congressional approval for the position. In her confirmation hearings she seemed to struggle to champion vaccines, knowing that was contradicting the long-held beliefs Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., holds.
New CDC Director fired
Centers for Disease Control Director Susan Monarez was fired yesterday just four weeks and one day after obtaining Congressional approval for the position. In her confirmation hearings she seemed to struggle to champion vaccines, knowing that was contradicting the long-held beliefs Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., holds.
Within minutes of Monarez’s firing, Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis, and Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases turned in their resignations.
Established on July 1, 1946, the Centers for Disease Control has saved countless lives around the world. It is truly a global tragedy to see what the Trump Administration has done to it.
Threats of ABC and NBC broadcast licenses revoked
On social media on Sunday, Trump all but called for ABC and NBC to lose their broadcast licenses. He said he would support that move by the Federal Communications Commission. He called the two TV networks arms of the Democratic Party and claimed that their reporting is 97% negative about him.
We are moving into extremely dangerous territory as Trump wants to eliminate the free press.
Meanwhile, my Congressman’s newsletters get more disgusting
My “Representative” in the U.S. House of Representatives is on a tear now to stop parents from taking their minor daughters across state lines to get an abortion. It is called the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. He says, “this should be the first of many steps Congress takes to end the tragedy of abortion and preying on the vulnerable.”
If he cared one iota for that pregnant minor child, he would work on legislation to go after the low life man who got that child pregnant. But no! He wants to go after her parents and he wants to force that child to have a baby.
In the same newsletter he claimed that Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will result in “annual wages in North Carolina rising by roughly $5,500 to $10,500 in the long term.” He does not explain how the “big, beautiful bill” will make that happen, nor does he define “long term.” Ten years? 45 years?
That probably sounds great to his constituents who hang on his every word and trust him since he is a Southern Baptist preacher.
This is the same man I could not email about the starving children in Gaza or any of my other concerns while Congress was on vacation the last week of July and the entire month of August because there was “no server available to receive your email.”
He disgusts me.
Russia bombs American manufacturing plant in Ukraine
Two Russian missiles hit an American-owned electronic manufacturing plan in Ukraine.
Ever the tough guy against Russia, Trump responded: “I told [Putin] I’m not happy about it.”
Wow! Putin will be afraid to do that again!
$4 billion wind farm halted by Trump Administration
Trump continues to spit in the face of sources of renewable energy.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cited “national security interests” when it ordered the developers of Revolution Wind to “halt all ongoing activities” off the coast of Rhode Island.
The Department of the Interior does not recognize windmills as a “reasonable use of the exclusive economic zone.”
Plans to the 65-turbine windfarm were approved on November 17, 2023, and the project is 80% complete.
If the windfarm’s construction had been allowed completion, beginning in the spring of 2026 it would have generated enough electricity to power 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Another crypto scheme
I use the word “scheme” in the true American use of the term. In the U.S., the word “scheme” carries negative connotations.
It seems that Trump keeps tricking his supporters into investing in crypto. I do not feel sorry for them. The pattern is that he promotes a new crypto investment, calling it a “crypto treasury” firm. People invest, Trump cashes out, and everyone else loses.
The Wall Street Journal commented that there is a pattern here.
Trump invests in corporate and government bonds
It has been reported that Trump has invested more than $100 million in corporate and government bonds since January 20. No wonder he keeps pressuring The Fed to lower interest rates. When that happens, he will make out like a bandit.
Can anyone say, “blackmail”?
Democrat Governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, invited the President to came to Baltimore and join in a “public safety walk” with him and the city’s mayor and other law enforcement officials. In response, Trump said Moore needed to clean up the crime in the city or he would send in the National Guard and possibly withhold federal funds for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key bridge that was rammed and heavily damaged by a barge last year.
Trump quietly stations U.S. military off the coast of Venezuela
Three U.S. Navy Aegis guided-missile destroyers and other military ships and planes have been sent to the coast of Venezuela. The official White House explanation is that it is an anti-illegal drug operation, but it is no secret that Trump wants to overthrow the Maduro regime. After all, this month he issued a $50 million bounty for Maduro’s capture. Trump tried unsuccessfully to overthrow Maduro during his first term in office.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security in violation of the law
In violation of the Federal Records Act, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is not maintaining any text messages generated since April 9, 2025. All federal agencies are required to keep all records of government operations and transactions. So far, though, there are no ramifications.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wanted her own plane several months ago. Now she wants the department to have its own fleet of planes to use to deport people.
Alligator Alcatraz closing?
The “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in Florida was built and operated at a cost of $400 million. After being operational for two months, Gov. DeSantis says it isn’t needed any more because Homeland Security has done such a great job of deporting people.
I plan a blog post on Tuesday about one of those individuals who has been forced to leave the United States.
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
On Monday, Trump attempted to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Board of Governors of the quasi-private Federal Reserve. She said she isn’t leaving her position and is suing the Trump Administration. Ms. Cook is the first African-American woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
FEMA employees put on administrative leave
A letter signed by 180 current and former employees of the Federal Emergency Management Administration went to the FEMA Review Council and Congress on Monday. The letter sounded the alarm that recent cuts to FEMA staff and programs have greatly diminished the government’s capacity to respond to a major disaster.
On Tuesday night, at least two of the signers of the letter were placed on administrative leave indefinitely.
Still attacking Harvard University
On Tuesday, Trump instructed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to get $500 million from Harvard University and not to negotiate that figure.
Union Station in Washington, DC
A week after Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth, and White House Assistant Chief of Staff Stephen Miller were booed at a photo op with National Guard troops at the train station in Washington, DC, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced that the federal government is taking control of the train station.
White House Tours Suspended
Without any advance warning, all public tours of the White House have been halted indefinitely.
The White House tours webpage of the National Park Service has been taken down and replaced with, “We’re working on this page. Please check back later.”
This means that school groups and tourists will not be allowed inside the White House until further notice. It does not matter to Trump that these tours are usually schedule months in advance.
There is speculation this came about due to the start of construction of Trump’s 90,000-square-foot $200 million ballroom slated for September 1.
So, “The People’s House” is now closed to “The People.” I can’t help but wonder if it will ever be open to “the people” again. If Trump can figure out a way to charge admission, I’m sure he will.
Just when we thought the baseball caps couldn’t get worse…
Last Friday, Trump paraded around Washington and inside the Oval Office in front of TV cameras wearing a new edition of his baseball caps. “Make America Great Again” wasn’t bad enough.
Trump’s new bright red cap screams out in all capital letters, “Trump Was Right About Everything.”
How sad it is to see a U.S. President wearing a baseball cap so much of the time. Apparently, his wealthy up-bringing failed to tell him that men should not wear a hat inside a building… much less a baseball cap with a ridiculous falsehood on it – inside the Oval Office. I cannot un-see it.
This is the same man who publicly berated Ukrainian President Zelenskyy earlier this year for not wearing a suit to the White House. Yet, he thinks wearing a bright red baseball cap with a huge lie on it while wearing a navy blue suit and sitting behind his desk is appropriate attire for the U.S. President. The only thing that could make it worse would be a bright red suit.
There is apparently a new MAGA cap. It says, “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again.” MASGA. Please tell me this is a joke.
How embarrassing for those of us who see all this for the farce it is. This is tackiness on steroids.
My apologies for the things I forgot to mention, the things I don’t know about, and the things that happened since I scheduled this post last night.
I am thrilled to announce that my book, I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter is now available!
I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison
Even if you love the fall and winter, I think you will benefit from reading this book.
Why I Wrote I Need The Light!
I wrote it from a place of physical challenges in cold weather, so I think people who have such illnesses and conditions as Seasonal Affective Disorder, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis will be able to identify.
I settled on writing 26 weekly devotionals because with the onset of fall, I start dreading winter. Seasonal Affective Disorder affects me half the year.
What Does the Title I Need The Light! Mean?
To help me combat the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder and sleep problems, my former physician’s assistant told me that I needed to get out in the natural light early every morning. I needed natural sunlight.
I’m not a morning person, so I had to force myself out of bed and outdoors in the morning – even in cold weather. As I walked, I repeated in my head the words, “I need the light. I need the light. I need the light. I need the light.” On about the fifth repetition, I had an epiphany: I realized I also needed The Light – Jesus Christ – “The Light of the World.”
I’ve been a Christian all my life, so it wasn’t a new concept for me that I needed Jesus Christ in all aspects of my life, but the sudden connection between “the light” and “The Light” was startling! It was then and there that God planted the idea in my mind and heart to write a book about the light and The Light.
That day, I started looking for all the references to light and The Light in the Bible.
Format of I Need The Light!’
Each week’s devotional follows this basic pattern:
The week’s Scripture reference is stated.
“Setting the Stage” in which I give a little background for that Scripture.
The week’s Scripture is then presented from The Message, The Good News Bible, The Living Bible, The New Oxford Annotated Bible (New Revised Standard Version), and TouchPoint Bible. The second week has the bonus of including the Bible verse from my great-great-grandmother’s 1849 The Psalms of David in Metre.
Insight from a Bible commentary, such as the series by Rev. William Barclay.
“My Thoughts” – Then, I usually share my thoughts about the Scripture.
“Remember” – one sentence of encouragement to ponder.
“Thought Pattern Interrupter” – One sentence to help you put a positive spin on that week.
“Activity Suggestion” – An activity you might choose to do that week to get you out of your own head/situation.
“Comfort Recipe” – A recipe that I consider a fall or winter “comfort food” from my own experience.
How to Use I Need The Light!
Readers are encouraged to read the devotional book as they choose. You don’t have to read it over a 26-week period. And each week, you can read the entire chapter in one sitting, or you can string it out over the week. It’s totally up to you to read the book in the way that best helps you.
Where to Find I Need the Light!
If you think I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter would help you, or if you know someone who might benefit from the book, it can be purchased at your favorite independent bookstore. If you don’t find it there, please ask them to order the book from IngramSpark.
The book is available in paperback and as an e-book.
Click on “Read more” under the photo of the book cover.
At the end of the book’s description there, click on the BookShop.org buy button, which takes you to BookShop.org (a site that supports independent bookstores throughout the U.S.)
Put my book in your basket.
Select the independent bookstore you wish to support.
Place your order and have the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting an independent bookstore!
So far, Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC; Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville, NC; and Highland Books in Brevard, NC have been very supportive of my book so I’ll give them a shout-out.
Available for your cell!
The book is also available on Amazon and from Barnes & Noble.
Here’s a Sneak Peek at I Need The Light!
From Week 12, here’s the “Setting the stage” introduction to that week’s devotional about the Parable of the Lost Coin:
“In Halley’s Bible Handbook, Henry H. Halley describes the fifteenth chapter of Luke as ‘the calm before the storm’ in Luke 14. In the fourteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush as He talks about the price people will pay for following Him. He goes on to explain that He must be first in our lives. We must love Him more than we love anyone else. It’s enough to make a person question the wisdom of following Jesus!
“But then we come to Luke 15. It is a beautiful chapter about the tender, forgiving grace of Jesus. The chapter includes the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the passage we’re looking at this week: The Parable of the Lost Coin.”
Does this sound like something you or a friend would like to read?
I wrote I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter in a conversational tone as I imagined I was talking one-on-one with a good friend. If this approach to the Bible appeals to you, I hope you will look for my book.
I’m not an “in your face” kind of Christian. I’m a lifelong Presbyterian, so I’m not going to scare you into being a Christian. That’s not the Presbyterian way!
Even if fall and winter are your favorite seasons of the year, I believe you will find something of benefit in my 188-page devotional book.
I invite you to look for it!
If you read it and like it, your rating and/or brief review on such sites as Goodreads.com and Amazon will be greatly appreciated.
Today is National Dog Day. It falls on August 26 every year, but without being aware of the “holiday,” my sister and I adopted a rescue dog named Silas on August 26, 2013.
Silas just days after he adopted us.
Silas kissing me the day “our” vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, arrived on July 23, 2014.
Silas died on Feb. 14, 2022, after a valiant struggle with several health problems, including insulin shots every 12 hours.
I still miss him every single day, so on this National Dog Day I remember Silas on my blog as I repurpose my blog post (My Little White Dog) from the week after he died:
2/21/22 Blog Post: “My Little White Dog”
My little white dog died last Monday. He was the perfect dog for my sister and me, and we will forever miss him. It’s been a difficult week, but each day gets a little bit easier as we deal with our loss.
Those of you who are “dog people” understand. Those of you who aren’t, I can’t explain to you how sad it is to lose one.
Notice his Carolina Panthers pillow in the background.
He was a rescue dog, and we’ll never understand how his former family turned him out to fend for himself in a city until he was picked up by the county’s animal control personnel. He was rescued from the animal shelter by a dog rescue organization, and it was through that organization that this sweet little white dog adopted my sister and me.
He took us on as his project. I guess we were his “purpose.” He helped us do everything and was our constant companion and caregiver. I think he thought we were helpless, and that’s why it was so hard for him to let go last Monday afternoon.
He was so proud the day in 2014 when my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina arrived!
I tried to determine if the poem, “My Little White Dog,” by Nell Gay White was in the public domain, but I couldn’t find any information about Ms. White or her poem. I’m going out on a limb here and sharing that poem with you today. I copied it years ago because it touched my heart. I didn’t even have a little white dog at that time, but the one pictured in this blog post has given my sister and me joy every single day of the last eight and one-half years.
My Little White Dog, by Nell Gay White
“I wonder if Christ had a little white dog,
All curly and wooly like mine,
With two silly ears and a nose round and wet,
And two tender brown eyes that shine?
“I’m sure if he had, that little white dog
Knew right from the first he was God.
He needed no proof that Christ was divine –
But just worshipped the ground where he trod.
“I’m afraid that he hadn’t because I have read
That he prayed in the garden alone;
For all of his friends and disciples had fled
Even Peter, the one called a stone.
“And, Oh, I am sure that a little white dog
With a heart so tender and warm,
Would never have left him to suffer alone
But creeping right under his arm.
“Would have licked those dear fingers, in agony clasped,
And counting all favors but loss,
When they took him away, would have trotted behind
For today’s blog post, I’m taking advantage of a local history column I wrote for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper on August 23, 2006.
If you enjoy this post, you might enjoy the books in which I published the local history column articles I wrote from 2006 through 2012, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2. The story I’m sharing today is found in Book 1.
Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1, by Janet Morrison
Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2, by Janet Morrison
The articles I wrote for the newspaper came primarily from the history of Township One in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, but many topics would be of general interest to anyone who enjoys reading about history. They are specific to Cabarrus County, yet many of them are indicative of life in rural and small-town America since the 1700s.
My books are available at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC and on Amazon.
Sit back, and prepare to be transported to a simpler time in the 1870s.
“Pioneer Mills: No Place For a Preacher’s Son”
Did you know that there is a written account of a child’s memories of the Harrisburg area in the 1870s?
The Rev. Joseph B. Mack came from Charleston, South Carolina in 1871 to be the pastor of Rocky River Presbyterian Church. When he and his family arrived, the manse the congregation was building for his family to live in was not completed.
Church member Robert Harvey Morrison moved his own family into a tenant house and gave the new minister’s family his home in the Pioneer Mills community. Pioneer Mills was a gold-mining boom town in the early- to mid-19th century. It was apparently still a rip-roarin’ place in 1871.
Robert Harvey Morrison House
A special homecoming was held at the church on August 12, 1912. Rev. Mack’s son, Dr. William Mack, was unable to attend. He sent his regrets from New York and put some of his childhood memories on paper. Fortunately for us, his letter to homecoming master of ceremonies Mr. Morrison Caldwell was printed in the Concord newspapers the following week.
Dr. Mack wrote, “My first Rocky River recollection is getting off the train at Harris Depot and going in the dark to the home of Uncle Solomon Harris.” I don’t believe Dr. Mack was related to Mr. Harris. This was probably a term of endearment and respect.
He continued, “There we met Ed and ‘Little Jim’ (to distinguish him from ‘Big Jim,’ the son of Mr. McKamie Harris.) Uncle Solomon had the biggest fire-place I ever saw; it seemed as big as a barn door.
“Shortly afterwards we went to Pioneer Mills…. There… was the old Gold mine, Barnhardt’s store and McAnulty’s shoemaker shop…. While there I decided to become either a merchant or shoemaker, for Barnhardt’s store and McAnulty’s shop kindled young ambitions; better to ‘keep store’ or ‘mend shoes,’ than as a preacher’s son to be moving around from place to place.
“But Pioneer Mills was ‘no place for a preacher’s son.’ Soon we moved again; this time to the brand new brick parsonage, close by the church. We used to go to church in a big closed carriage drawn by two mules; now, every Sunday, we walked to church, going down a steep hill, across a branch, and through the grove to the famous old house of worship.”
Dr. Mack’s letter also read, “Those were happy years; happy in springtime with its apple blossoms, song birds, morning-glories and Tish McKinley’s Sassafras tea; happy in the summertime with its blackberries and plums, its bob-whites in the wheat fields, its lightning and thunder storms, its bare-footed boys and girls, and its bitter quinine to keep off third-day chills; happy in the autumntime, with its white fields of unpicked cotton and its beautiful trees with leaves of myriad hues; and happy in the wintertime, with its snows, its big hickory back-logs, its boys in boots red-topped and toes brass-tipped, its red-cheeked girls in wraps and ‘choke rags,’ and its Christmas Holidays and turkeys.”
Dr. Mack’s colorful memories paint an idyllic picture of life in Township #1 in the early 1870s. Will the children of 2006 have equally as wonderful memories?
(Published in Harrisburg Horizons newspaper, August 23, 2006.)
Resources: The Presbyterian Congregation on Rocky River, by Thomas Hugh Spence, Jr., 1954; The Concord Daily Tribune, August 16, 1912; and The Concord Times, August 19, 1912.
Hurricane Helene Update
As of Friday, of the 1,468 road closures in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene last September, 33 are still closed and 39 have partial access. Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line will be limited to one lane traffic in each direction with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit for the foreseeable future.
On a happy note, on Friday, a 38-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway opened from Asheville to Graveyard Fields and Mount Pisgah! This is south of Asheville.
Hurricane Erin
On the other end of the state, Hurricane Erin skirted the Outer Banks of North Carolina last week, dumping tons of sand and water on NC Highway 12. NC-12 is the only highway connecting Hatteras Island to the islands to the north. Crews are working to reopen the highway as soon as possible as the summer tourist season is winding down.
If you read my blog post yesterday, you expected me to blog about something “good and exciting” today. Unfortunately, I must postpone that post due to some technical difficulties. I have an announcement to make, but I want everything to be in place before I make it. Stay tuned!
A Town Hall for U.S. Senator Thom Tillis
I do have something timely to blog about today instead.
Last night I went to my very first “town hall” held for a United States Senator. It was sponsored by a variety of non-partisan civic organizations and not by the Senator’s office. I prepared a question to ask Senator Thom Tillis.
Unfortunately, Senator Tillis did not show up.
Lots of concerned citizens showed up.
A panel of people representing everything from veterans — to education — to health coverage — to a group that works to try to get the North Carolina General Assembly to pass the budget they were required by law to pass before July 1, 2025, but haven’t passed yet – to immigrant issues – to voter rights — all showed up.
The panelists fielded questions from the moderator and from the audience. Then, members of the audience were given the opportunity to ask Senator Tillis questions. The meeting was video taped and will be sent to Senator Tillis. Those of us who wanted to ask Mr. Tillis a question went to the microphone and addressed our questions to a cardboard cutout of the Senator.
Cardboard cut-out of U.S. Senator Thom Tillis at Town Hall
Questions ran the gambit from Congress relinquishing its responsibilities and power to the Executive Branch – to how can transgender citizens feel safe to continue to live in North Carolina – to what can a young person who went to college and has the credentials to do research do now that all federal research funds have been eliminated – to how to mentor and encourage young people to exercise their right and responsibility to vote — to how can we as Americans of all colors, ages, and backgrounds work together to stop the destruction of the U.S. Government as we knew it before January 20, 2025? After all, we all have so much in common.
Of course, the cardboard cutout of our United States Senator did not have any answers.
It was an interesting evening. It was encouraging to hear the passion and determination in the voices of the panelists and the members of the audience.
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