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.
Note: I had already prepared today’s blog post when President Trump announced yesterday his federal takeover of Washington, DC Metropolitan Police, in spite of the fact that crime is at a 30-year low there. Suffice it to say, this is a dangerous, unprecedented move by a U.S. President, and his threat to do the same in other cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago bears watching. His level of glee in yesterday’s press conference signal a much larger threat to our democracy than the substance of the event which lasted more than an hour.
Now, let’s move on to what I had planned for today’s post.
Beware of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his social media posts. He continues to associate himself with Christian Nationalist preacher Doug Wilson of Moscow, Idaho. Wilson cofounded the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).
As a member of a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation, I find everything about this cringe-worthy. If you go to https://crechurches.org/story/, it will bring up a photograph of 12 white men. Other photographs on the website seem to celebrate families with at least four children.
I gather from the website that the CREC doesn’t like a modification to the Westminster Confession early in the 20th century by Presbyterians, but the website is vague about the group’s conflict with those changes. Several changes were made to the Westminster Confession in 1903.
The CREC website states, “The CREC emerged in the late 20th century seeking to recover a Reformed Catholic vision, emphasizing the importance of creeds, confessions, and liturgies.” I’ve never seen the term “Reformed Catholic” before, so I don’t know what they are saying.
I get the idea from the website that women are to keep silent and just do what men tell them or let them do. No thanks!
Back to Doug Wilson, the CREC Founder
Doug Wilson does not think women should have the right to vote. That’s pretty much all I need to know about him.
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
My thoughts on that: Why should ignorant, misogynistic white men have the right to vote?
Wilson advocates for a “classical Christian education” for everyone (or maybe just for boyss – I’m not clear on that.) He urges parents to remove their children from the public school system. He advocates for education based on the medieval trivium philosophy of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
Back to Pete Hegseth
I’ve seen talk online that Pete Hegseth aspires to be the Governor of Tennessee, so pay attention, America. After he removes all the transgender (and will females be next?) from the U.S. Armed Forces, perhaps he can move on to the State of Tennessee. And who know where he’ll go from there?
Just remember this: The women of Iran used to have an education and careers and freedom to move about as they wished. They don’t any more. It could happen in the United States of America. Don’t kid yourself into thinking it can’t.
When I read Centennial, by James A. Michener, I remember thinking, I’d like to write a book like that someday! When I read Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley, I thought, I’d like to write a book like that someday!
Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley
In 1996, my sister and I published three Morrison genealogy books. Talk about something being a labor of love! I have been interested in my family’s history all of my adult life, so I was drawn to Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley, for its writing and its sense of genealogy.
Alex Haley’s Life Before Roots
Today would have been Alex Haley’s 104th birthday.
Haley was born in Ithaca, New York. He lived in Henning, Tennessee, until the age of five, when his family moved back to Ithaca. His father was a professor of agriculture at Alabama A&M University. His mother was from Henning.
After two years of college, Alex Haley joined the U.S. Coast Guard. He had a 20-years career in that branch of the military. His reputation as a self-taught writer spread among his fellow service members. They often asked Haley to compose love letters for their sweethearts.
After retiring from the Coast Guard, Haley pursued life as a writer. He served as a senior editor for Reader’s Digest magazine. Throughout the 1960s, Haley conducted interviews with famous people for Playboy magazine. It was as a writer for Playboy that he interviewed Muhammad Ali; Sammy Davis, Jr.; Jim Brown; Johnny Carson; Quincy Jones; and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It was Haley who interviewed George Lincoln Rockwell for Playboy. Rockwell was the leader of the American Nazi Party, and he kept a gun on the table throughout Haley’s interview.
When Haley was writing an article about the Nation of Islam for Reader’s Digest, he met Malcolm X. The two met again was Haley interviewed him for Playboy. Haley’s first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965.
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family in 1976. It is a noel based on Haley’s genealogy. He traced his mother’s ancestry back to The Gambia. Haley was a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, a young black man kidnapped in The Gambia in 1767 and brought to Maryland to be sold as a slave.
It took Haley 12 years to do the research for Roots: The Saga of an American Family. He traveled to The Gambia and heard stories of Kunta Kinte’s capture. He went to Annapolis, Maryland, and had the emotional experience of standing where his ancestor had been taken from a slave ship.
It is said that Haley enjoyed sitting at the Savoy (a bistro) in Rome to listen to the piano music and write Roots on a yellow legal tablet. A painting of Haley writing on his legal pad hangs at a special table at the Savoy in honor of the time he spent there and the great work of literature he partially wrote there.
The writing of Roots earned Haley a special Pulitzer Prize in 1977. That was the same year that ABC adapted the book into a miniseries that drew a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers.
Misgivings about Haley’s research
Some genealogists have disputed Haley’s genealogical research and the validity of his story of Kunta Kinte.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is quoted as saying, “Most of us feel it’s highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship.”
Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement
Sadly, Haley was successfully sued for plagiarism and copyright infringement by Harold Courlander. Courlander accused Haley of taking passages from his book, The African, and using them in Roots. The case was settled out of court in 1978 and Courlander was awarded $650,000. Haley’s biographer, Robert J. Norrell, maintains that Judge Robert Ward was hostile to Haley and did not think Haley was capable of writing Roots.
Posthumus novel
At the time of his death in 1992, Haley was writing a novel based on another branch of his family. At his request, David Stevens completed the novel, Alex Haley’s Queen, in 1993 and it was adapted as a television miniseries by that name.
Haley’s property
Haley lived on a farm at Clinton, Tennessee during his last years. After his death, the Children’s Defense Fund purchase the property and it is used as a national training center and retreat.
In conclusion
I had forgotten the controversies surrounding Alex Haley after his acclaim for Roots: The Saga of an American Family until I started doing research for writing this blog post.
Nevertheless, that does not change the fact that I was inspired by reading Roots and watching it’s TV adaptation. Along with James A. Michener’s Centennial, it was Roots that planted the seed in my head that I might write books someday.
Hurricane Helene Weekly Update
As of Friday, of the 1,457 roads that were closed in western North Carolina last September due to Hurricane Helene, 35 were closed, which is one more than the number reported the week before. The NC Department of Transportation reports 39 roads have just partial access, which is a decrease of one road since the previous Friday.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Alert Update
On Saturday, August 2, US-441/Newfound Gap Road – the only road that crosses the entire Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Cherokee, North Carolina to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, was closed due to heavy rainfall causing the undercutting of a section of the road in Tennessee by Walker Prong Camp Creek between Mile Marker 12 and Mile Marker 13.
By the next day, a portion of Newfound Gap Road from near Cherokee, North Carolina into the park reopened; however, the National Park Service announced on Friday that the Tennessee portion of Newfound Gap Road will remain closed until early October so repairs can be made at the site of the washout/landslide.
The stated detour route is I-40, which is still just two lanes and 35 mph due to the massive damage done last September by Hurricane Helene.
This road closure in the most-visited park in the United States is yet another blow to the tourism-dependent economy of the southern Appalachian Mountains.
President Trump just can’t help himself, and I’m going to keep talking about it on my blog as long as I can. The day may come when I don’t have the freedom to do that.
This week has been brutal!
Let’s stop training mental health counselors
Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash
Even though every time there is a “lone wolf” terrorist attack or mass shooting in the U.S., there is an outcry for more mental health facilities and more mental health counselling.
So why did Trump stop a $10 million grant program to train mental health counselors?
Trump says he won’t run for a third term
Section 1 of the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution seems straightforward to me: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
Trump announced on Tuesday that he does not plan to run for a third term as U.S. President.
That’s big of him!
It isn’t known whether he plans to move out of the White House at the end of his second term, or whether he plans to just never leave office.
Anti-Science Trump
Trump has ordered NASA to destroy two satellites that provide detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. Just because Trump thinks climate change is a hoax does not make it so.
Farmers, scientists, oil and gas companies, among others, depend on the data gathered by those two satellites.
The American taxpayers paid $750 million for those satellites.
Trump on human biology
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Trump was truly on a roll Tuesday. He appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box and talked about how he believes undocumented immigrants are naturally made for farm work and people who live in inner cities can’t do it.
You can’t make this stuff up!
Here’s a quote from the show:
“We can’t let our farmers not have anybody,” Trump added of undocumented farm laborers, primarily of Hispanic origin, who are being targeted for deportation by his Department of Homeland Security. “These [are] people that you can’t replace them very easily – you know, people that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’re just not doing that work. And they’ve tried – we’ve tried, everybody tried. They don’t do it. These people do it naturally, naturally.”
I love how Rolling Stone summed up the incident: “It should go without saying that no group of people feels an intrinsic urge to cultivate the land for sub-livable wages and at constant risk of detainment and deportation, but the president doubled down.”
mRNA vaccine research cancelled
Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced on Wednesday that the Trump Administration is cancelling $500 million in mRNA vaccine research. Kennedy, a lifelong vaccine-denier, claims there is a more high-tech way to develop vaccines. He also said there is no proof that mRNA vaccines work against respiratory viruses. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) beg to differ, saying the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine saved an estimated 14.4 million lives.
Twenty-two different research projects are being halted, including those studying the possibility of using mRNA vaccines in the treatment of cystic fibrosis and pancreatic cancer.
Who put RFKjr in charge of vaccines? Oh yeah… Donald Trump and the United States Senate.
This decision could wreak havoc with our health and our economy.
Trump pulls United States out of UNESCO
The White House announced yesterday that Trump is withdrawing the United States from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Trump considers UNESCO to have a “woke” and politically divisive agenda.
This outrageous!
When I wrote The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina for Arcadia Publishing in 2014, I proudly included the following: “The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization named Grandfather Mountain a member of the international network of Biosphere Reserves in 1992 because it supported 42 rare and endangered species.”
If Trump thinks by pulling the United States out of UNESCO he can erase that, he is wrong. My book stands as is, and I will not edit Grandfather Mountain’s UNESCO designation out of it!
How can one person encapsulate such a level of hatred for the beauty and wonder of the world?
ICE having trouble with recruitment?
Photo by Logan Weaver |on Unsplash
It warms my heart to learn that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is having trouble recruiting people to be Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, but Secretary Kristi Noem has come up with a solution. She announced the lifting of the maximum age cap and the lowering of the minimum age to 18.
Until this week a person could be no older than 40 years old to apply for the job. According to Noem, there is now no age limit and she welcomes teenagers to apply.
What could possibly go wrong with 18- and 80-year-old ICE agents?
Ex-Acting FBI Director Fired
Brian Driscoll was Acting Director of the FBI at the beginning of Trump’s second term, but Driscoll refused to give Trump a list of the FBI agents who worked on the January 6, 2021 attempted coup.
Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash
Kash Patel was eventually named FBI Director, but Driscoll had returned to serve in the agency in another position. That was until yesterday when Trump fired him.
All federal employees take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. But Trump demands loyalty to Donald J. Trump alone. If you remain loyal to the U.S. Constitution, he will fire you.
This is not the way things are supposed to be. Will Americans wake up before it is too late?
Breaking the Constitution to have another census
To add a measure of legitimacy to the rigging of the 2026 mid-term elections, Trump is calling for a federal census to be taken this year in which only U.S. citizens will be counted.
Under the law, the census has been taken every 10 years since 1790 and everyone has been counted – not just U.S. citizens.
I guess I need to dust off my passport application and get it submitted as soon as possible, in case my birth certificate does not prove I’m a citizen.
You see, in Texas the Republicans are trying to redraw the U.S. House Districts before the 2026 Congressional election and gerrymander the map to take away five predominantly Democratic districts and convert them into predominantly Republican districts. The bottom line is that Trump does not want to lose the Republican majority currently in the U.S. House.
There has been quite a stir over this very issue in Texas this week, and the U.S. House of Representatives hangs in the balance.
“Why Jefferson, Madison and the Founders Enshrined the Census in our Constitution”
“The U.S. Constitution empowers the Congress to carry out the census in “such manner as they shall by Law direct” (Article I, Section 2). The Founders of our fledgling nation had a bold and ambitious plan to empower the people over their new government. The plan was to count every person living in the newly created United States of America, and to use that count to determine representation in the Congress.
“Enshrining this invention in our Constitution marked a turning point in world history. Previously censuses had been used mainly to tax or confiscate property or to conscript youth into military service. The genius of the Founders was taking a tool of government and making it a tool of political empowerment for the governed over their government.
“They accomplished that goal in 1790 and our country has every 10 years since then. In 1954, Congress codified earlier census acts and all other statutes authorizing the decennial census as Title 13, U.S. Code. Title 13, U.S. Code, does not specify which subjects or questions are to be included in the decennial census. However, it does require the Census Bureau to notify Congress of general census subjects to be addressed 3 years before the decennial census and the actual questions to be asked 2 years before the decennial census.”
Also: “Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution mandates that an apportionment of representatives among the states must be carried out every 10 years. Therefore, apportionment is the original legal purpose of the decennial census, as intended by our Nation’s Founders. Apportionment is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states, based on the state population counts that result from each decennial census. The apportionment results will be the first data published from the 2020 Census, and those results will determine the amount of political representation each state will have in Congress for the next 10 years.”
That’s a long explanation, but it is really rather simple that the census be taken every ten years. If Trump thinks it will be simple for every U.S. citizen to produce documented proof of citizenship, he is woefully mistaken.
Someone needs to tell him that the U.S. Congress controls the taking of the U.S. Census – not the temporary occupant of the White House.
Resurrection of Confederate statues
Americans will never be able to move on from it’s 1861-1865 civil war as long as people like Donald Trump keep stoking the fire.
The National Park Service, which is operating with a skeleton crew after Trump eliminated thousands of park staff this year, apparently has enough employees left to reinstall the statue of a member of the Ku Klux Klan on the grounds of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department.
There had been requests made to Congress since 1992 to have the 11-foot statue of Confederate Army Gen. Albert Pike removed, but it stayed in place until the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Pike once wrote about the white race, “white race, and that race alone, shall govern this country. It is the only one that is fit to govern, and it is the only one that shall.”
It sends a chilling message that the Trump Administration is having Pike’s statue put back in place. It sends a strong message to all people of color: Racism is alive and well in the White House.
But that’s not all…
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in response to Trump’s “Executive Order On Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” is having a 32-foot bronze “Confederate Memorial” rebuilt and reinstalled in Arlington National Cemetery.
Sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the statue was installed in 1914 and depicts slaves supporting Confederate soldiers. The statue perpetuates the myth that slaves supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.
But Hegseth didn’t stop by just quietly having the Confederate Memorial reinstalled in Arlington National Cemetery. Apparently not knowing when to stop talking, Hegseth said, “It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it.”
That’s rich, coming the week after Trump’s two impeachments were removed from the Presidential Impeachments exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History.
You can’t make this stuff up!
Price of prescription drugs
Photo by Ali Rezaei on Unsplash
If someone in my family or circle of friends said that the price of drugs will decrease by 1,500%, I would assume that person had either had a stroke or had some form of dementia.
So why is it that the President of the United States can say that he is decreasing the price of prescription drugs by 1,500% and no one blinks an eye? He has said this several times.
I fear we have become so accustomed to Trump’s lies and nonsensical proclamations and rantings that we just accept it as, “That’s just the way he is.”
This is not something an adult with any level of intelligence or mental capabilities would say. Any fourth grader knows a 1,500% drop in the cost of a candy bar is a mathematical impossibility.
In conclusion
That’s just eleven things the Trump Administration did this week that I thought you might not have heard about.
I’m sorry this post is so long. Don’t blame the messenger.
The justice system in the United States is under attack. This is not a totally silent assault.
Photo on Unsplash
President Trump and his minions freely call judges names. Calling federal judges such things as “leftist” or “radical” or “deranged” or “monsters” or “idiots” has been a Trump rallying cry.
I don’t know if Trump understands the danger in doing this or whether he is just following the lead of his people like Stephen Miller who know it is a basic way to erode confidence and ultimately destroy the rule of law in our country.
A federal judge takes a vow “to follow the rule of law without fear or favor.”
The unique U.S. judiciary
We have a unique judicial system in the United States. Judges are independent of politics – or they used to be. Our judicial system is the envy of other countries where a national leader can call a judge and dictate how they rule on a case. Law students in the former Soviet Union marvel at our independent judiciary.
Attack on Judge Salas’ family
In July 2020, Judge Esther Salas opened the front door of her home in New Jersey and was met with an angry young man with a gun. Salas’ husband was shot and her son, Daniel, was shot and killed.
The cowardly assailant then turned the gun on himself and was dead when police arrived.
But the killer didn’t just wake up one day and decide to try to murder Judge Salas or her family. He was spoon fed hate speech from the President of the United States. If the President says judges are terrible people, it must be true. Right?
But it did not stop there. Not only has it not stopped; it is escalating.
Intimidation by Pizza
After Daniel’s murder, federal judges across the nation started receiving pizza deliveries – pizzas they had not ordered. Pizzas were being delivered “from Daniel.”
The message was clear: “Judge _____, we know where you live.”
Some adult children of federal judges who don’t even live in the same state as their parents have received such pizzas “from Daniel.”
The message to judges is clear: “Judge ____, we know who your children are and we know where they live.”
At least 50 federal judges have received unwanted pizzas “from Daniel.”
It goes beyond Intimidation by Pizza
Federal Judge Jack McConnell has received six death threats. Laura Loomer, one of Trump’s unofficial advisors, and Elon Musk have launched verbal attacks on his daughter.
Judge McConnell has been wrongly accused of judicial misconduct. A member of Congress went so far as posting a “Wanted!” poster in the halls of the U.S. Capitol with Judge McConnell’s photograph. There are unfounded articles of impeachment pending against Judge McConnell.
Federal Judge Robert Lasnik is being asked by younger judges, “How can I keep my family safe?” Judge Lasnik and his adult children have received pizzas “from Daniel.”
Federal Judge John Coughenour says he signed up for this, but his family did not. A SWAT team was sent to his home when someone told police that the judge had murdered his wife. Of course, it was not true. He has been the victim of bomb threats.
Federal Judge Esther Salas grieves that her dead son’s name is being weaponized by the people who hear Trump call judges names and take that as a call to action to intimidate and threaten the lives of judges. She says we need to recognize this for what it is: A real threat to our democracy.
Attacks from the White House are unprecedented
In the decade after the Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1954, some judges who tried to enforce the desegregation of public schools ruling were victims of verbal assault; however, Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy supported the Supreme Court ruling.
For President Trump to now brazenly and proudly criticize court rulings and the judges who make them is unprecedented. Federal judges have never before been attacked by the U.S. President or White House staff.
This is serious. This is unacceptable.
This is a concerted attack on the independent judicial system in the United States of America.
What can we do?
We can educate ourselves about what is happening.
We can tell our friends and relatives what is happening, because this is more widespread than most of us realize.
We can explain to teens and young adults who are too young to know that attacks on judges is not normal that this is a direct result of the reckless behavior of President Trump and those who follow his lead.
We can speak up for justice and the rule of law every time we know it if being attacked.
“We the people” are the United States of America. It behooves each of us to defend the rule of law.
It’s hard to feel sorry for a wealthy university like Duke University that has an enormous endowment; however, the Trump Administration’s current little-publicized attack on the institution raises a larger issue.
Duke University will survive without federal grants, at least for a while. Its endowment can pick up the slack, at least for a while.
Exterior of Duke Chapel. Photo credit: Chuck Givens on unsplash.com
The larger issue is the Trump Administration’s continual attack on education on all levels. I believe Trump has no interest in education. He has no interest in what any school, college, or university teaches. He says, “I love the uneducated.” It might be the only truth he has ever spoken.
In a democracy, a president does not dictate university admissions or curriculum in public schools or private schools. In today’s United States, though, Trump believes he has that authority.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent Duke University a letter. Specifically, Kennedy and McMahon threatened the Duke University Medical School and Duke Health (the entire Duke Health healthcare system). If writing letters to threaten universities for having diversity, equity, and inclusion is the only thing the U.S. Department of Education is going to do now, perhaps it needs to be abolished.
The letter alleges that the medical school and healthcare system engage in “wrongful racial preferences” in hiring and admissions. The letter reportedly states, “This vile racism carries a host of excuses and hides behind a smug superiority that such ‘benefitted’ races cannot compete under merit-based consideration.”
Furthermore, the letter says, “Like all racism, ‘affirmative action’ undermines America’s commitment to merit-based justice and violates the nation’s civil rights laws.”
North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC, reports, “Kennedy and McMahon urge Duke administrators set up a ‘Merit and Civil Rights Committee’ to review its diversity policies ‘to avoid invasive federal engagement.’ The secretaries warn the university’s federal funding could be at risk if it doesn’t change course. ‘It is our hope that Duke Medical School and other components of Duke Health will either demonstrate that they merit the privilege of receiving taxpayer support or will enact reforms that make further enforcement efforts unnecessary,’ the letter said.
“McMahon and Kennedy ask the university to respond to the letter within ten business days.”
Earlier this year, nearly 600 Duke employees took voluntary buyouts after Trump slashed research funding. According to WUNC, “Cuts at the National Institutes of Health, along with reductions in Medicare/Medicaid funding could cost the university $350-600 million annually.
Duke plans to lay off more employees between August 5 and August 19.
That’s not just what Duke as an institution and business will lose: Duke Health operates Duke Children’s Hospital, Duke Health Lake Norman Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, and Duke University Hospital, as well as 12 urgent care facilities.
But that’s not the only attack on Duke University
The U.S. Department of Education also sent Duke University a letter last week threatening the Duke School of Law’s student-edited Law Journal.
It seems that the law students are too open to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
We have gone from recognizing that the playing field is not level to declaring that it is so level that to give anyone a hand up is a violation of everyone’s civil rights.
The playing field in the United States is not level, folks. For an alleged billionaire living in the White House to proclaim that it is level does not make it so. Someone who was born with a silver (or gold?) spoon in his mouth does not have the right to say that every person in America has an equal opportunity.
Those who say that white privilege does not exist are only fooling themselves. This falls into the category of “alternative facts” that the first Trump White House was famous for giving us.
It is easy in the United States today to place all the blame for our current demise of democracy squarely on Donald J. Trump’s shoulders; however, the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate and U.S. House are equally to blame now because both houses of Congress have supported every single thing Trump has done.
But to blame Trump and the U.S. Congress would be the easy way out.
You Voted or You Didn’t Bother to Vote
Photo by Mike Doherty on Unsplash
The American people voted. They elected Trump. In the 50 states, they elected the 100 U.S. Senators for staggered six-year terms. (One-third of the Senators are elected every two years.) In the 435 Congressional districts, they elected the 435 members of the House of Representatives last November. (They serve two-year terms.)
The American people voted for this, either by casting a vote last November or by not casting a vote last November.
This is on us, y’all.
Us.
The American people: those who either through a place of hate or through ignorance, voted for Trump and Republican Senators and Representatives AND those who were too lazy to cast a vote so they let those who did vote decide my future and yours.
If you voted for Trump and any other Republican, you are complicit. If you did not vote, you are complicit. You relinquished your vote and gave it to your crazy neighbor.
Perhaps you thought “my one vote won’t matter.” People have died to give YOU the right to vote. Don’t EVER take your right to vote for granted.
I say all this to get your attention so I can tell you how the way you voted or the fact that you didn’t bother to vote last November has real world ramifications.
Here’s One Example of Real-World Ramifications
The Trump Regime took control of the Smithsonian Institution in March. Trump claimed that some exhibits were “woke” and, in some instances, showed that the United States is not a perfect country.
Taking books off public school library shelves is not enough for Trump and his ilk. They are actively re-writing history.
The Removal of Trump’s Two Impeachments
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has now removed Trump’s name from the list of four U.S. Presidents who have been impeached. The reason? For aesthetic reasons. Museum officials say his name will be included in the list when the exhibit is redone.
Trump is the only U.S. President to have been impeached twice, but according to the Smithsonian Institution in August 2025, Trump was never impeached at all.
Let that sink in, my fellow Americans.
My Two Questions
If someone who lived in Germany in the 1920s through the 1940s were here today, I would ask them the following question: Does this behavior sound familiar to you?
If you live in the United States of America today, I ask you the following question: How can we make it stop, since we have elected a complicit U.S. Congress?
Just to be clear
Donald J. Trump was impeached on December 18, 2019, on grounds of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Donald J. Trump was impeached a second time on January 13, 2021, on grounds of inciting an insurrection.
But nothing happened to Trump. Nothing.
Trump ran for President again in 2024 and was elected to a second four-year term beginning January 20, 2025.
Trump signed an Executive Ordered called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” on March 27, 2025, in which he directed Vice President J.D. Vance to “remove improper ideology” from every place under the Smithsonian Institution — the museums, research centers, and the National Zoo.
I Have Two More Questions
Don’t you just hate it when the National Zoo includes “woke left-wing radical lunatic” animals?
And don’t you just hate it when the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History tells you the truth?
Next up?
We’ll probably get a new and improved jobs report for the month of July. Trump didn’t like the one issued by Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so he fired her. A clear case of “shoot the messenger.”
You know a reader is in trouble when the only book she read in the month of July was a cookbook!
The Scottish Cookbook: Hebridean Baker, by Coinneach MacLeod
The Scottish Cookbook: The Hebridean Baker, by Coinneach MacLeod
This was a fun read. I doubt I’ll try any of the recipes, but the recipes are interspersed with stories about the islands in the Outer Hebrides. They were interesting and the photographs brought back memories of my visit to Lewis and Harris.
Some of the recipes sounded interesting, but I was primarily drawn into the stories MacLeod shared. The photographs were beautiful and took me back to my wonderful trips to the Outer Hebrides and my dear friends on the Isle of Lewis.
More than a reading slump
Those of you who have followed my blog over the years have, no doubt, noticed that I have read very few books this year. In one or more blog posts I have blamed my slump on the current threats to our American democracy. That was not an idle excuse. It is very much the reason I have read almost no fiction in 2025. In conjunction with that same reason, I have spent an inordinate amount of time writing blog posts up to six times a week instead of my former usual of once a week.
However, this summer there has been a third reason for my lack of reading novels. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you know what I’m talking about.
I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter
A couple of years ago, I started writing a devotional book. Imposter Syndrome set in, and I put it away.
Imposter Syndrome tells a person that they aren’t good enough. It says to a writer, “Who do you think you are? You can’t write a book!” It says to the writer of a devotional book, “You’ve got to be kidding! You have no formal religious training! You have no degrees in theology!”
Late this spring, I decided to publish my devotional book anyway. Due to the nature of the subject matter, I needed to get it out before winter set in.
Self-publishing a book requires one to jump out of the boat and into the water at the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim.
I’ve done that before. I self-published two local history books, two historical short stories, and a cookbook through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). However, KDP being part of Amazon, I soon learned that bookstores are not interested in selling your books. Amazon is seen as a bookstore’s enemy.
You live and learn. It just takes some of us longer to learn than it takes others.
In the spring I started researching IngramSpark. A book self-published through IngramSpark can be ordered by bookstores and libraries!
Those of you who know me well, know that I am not computer literate. Those of you who know me very well know that I have memory problems that make it incredibly difficult to learn new things. Having to learn a new computer program, for instance, is just about my worst nightmare.
It was with more than a little apprehension that I created an account with IngramSpark and jumped into the deep end of a new pool.
My summer has been a whirlwind of learning new things, editing words I wrote a while back, and adding contemporary examples. I learned new marketing techniques and have tried my best to implement them.
In my July newsletter, I offered Advanced Review Copies (ARCs) for the first time in my life. There was a learning curve there as I had to create a special ARC book cover. I also learned who in my small circle were willing to accept a free ARC and who were not. The timing wasn’t right for some people. It is all part of the process. Writers are required to have thick skin.
I anticipate the release in early September of I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter.
I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison
Be on the lookout for more specific announcements!
Hurricane Helene Update
As of Friday, of the 1,457 roads that were closed in western North Carolina last September due to Hurricane Helene, 34 remain closed, which is the same number reported for the last three weeks. The NC Department of Transportation reports 40 roads have just partial access, which is a decrease of two roads since the previous Friday.
In case you missed my weekly update on July 26, here’s a link to that blog post in which I gave the National Park Service’s three-phase plan for reopening the Blue Ridge Parkway: Books Banned at U.S. Department of Defense Schools.
Great Smoky Mountains National ParkAlert!
In a related story, on Saturday, US-441/Newfound Gap Road – the only road that crosses the entire Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Cherokee, North Carolina to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, was closed due to heavy rainfall causing the undercutting of a section of the road in Tennessee by Walker Prong Camp Creek between Mile Marker 12 and Mile Marker 13.
The entire road was closed for evaluation, but part of it in the North Carolina part of the park has reopened. There is no estimate of when the Tennessee portion of the road will reopen. The stated detour route is I-40, which is still just two lanes and 35 mph due to the massive damage done last September by Hurricane Helene.
Until my next blog post
I hope you have time and are in the mood to read a good book – fiction or nonfiction.
Remember the people of Ukraine, the starving children in Gaza, and the people of western North Carolina still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene last September.
I would love to rant about the 90,000-square-foot $200 million gold ballroom that is to replace the East Wing of the White House beginning in September, but I won’t chase that rabbit today. I had already planned to write about artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright infringement today.
Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash
I hate to have to “beat a dead horse,” as the saying goes, but AI is on my mind. I’m just a novice author, but this hits home.
What could Mark Twain possibly have to do with AI? Trust me. I’ll get to that.
I’m just small potatoes in the big scheme of things in the publishing industry, but even some of the most famous authors are being taken advantage of my AI.
David Baldacci
I will mention David Baldacci as an example. Many of you are, no doubt, fans of his novels.
Baldacci has testified before a Congressional committee because even he has been victimized by AI.
You can tout the wonders and benefits of AI all day long, but when it steals your intellectual property, you might change your tune.
Baldacci said to that Congressional committee, “I truly felt like someone had backed up a truck to my imagination and stolen everything I’d ever created.”
Along comes the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
The Trump Administration has a long track record of using intellectual property without the creator’s permission. They use music without permission and First Lady Melania Trump gave a speech that was almost verbatim a speech First Lady Michelle Obama had given.
The latest incident occurred on July 1, 2025, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted a painting by the late Christian artist, Thomas Kinkade on X without his estate’s permission.
The Kinkade Family Foundation has asked Homeland Security to take the image down from X.
Furthermore, his estate says, “At The Kinkade Family Foundation, we strongly condemn the sentiment expressed in the post and the deplorable actions that DHS continues to carry out,” Kinkade’s family wrote, “Like many of you, we were deeply troubled to see this image used to promote division and xenophobia associated with the ideals of DHS, as this is antithetical to our mission.”
When will the Trump Administration learn that everything in the world does not belong to them?
Pending AI Court Cases
As of July 25, 2025, there were 29 “literary works” ongoing cases before the federal courts. Other AI cases before the federal courts were 11 “visual works” cases, five “musical works” cases, three “sound recording” cases, one “audiovisual” case, and one “computer program” case about copyright infringement.
Wise words on the subject from Mark Twain
You might be asking, “How could Mark Twain have said anything about AI?”
Artificial Intelligence was pure science fiction in Mark Twain’s day – if it was even fanaticized at all, but he said something about a machine writing a story. It precisely captures my feelings about AI and literature.
Photo of Samuel Clemmons (a.k.a. Mark Twain) from Library of Congress
I just happened to be reading “How to Tell a Story,” by Mark Twain Tuesday afternoon. (Disclaimer: Mark Twain has been one of my favorite authors since I was in elementary school.)
The point of Twain’s essay is the oral telling of a story and not the writing of one, but I think his main point applies perfectly to the conflict in 2025 between the creative writing by a human and the collection of words generated by AI.
Twain begins this essay with the words, “I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only claim to know how a story ought to be told, for I have been almost daily in the company of the most expert story-tellers for many years.”
He goes on to say that there are various kinds of stories but the only one that is difficult to write or tell is the humorous one. He maintains that, “The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter.”
Twain explains that the humorous story meanders before getting to the point and, in fact, might have no point other than to entertain. On the other hand, he says the comic and witty stories “must be brief and end with a point.”
He says, “The humorous story is strictly a work of art – high and delicate art – and only an artist can tell it; but no art is necessary in telling the comic and the witty story; anybody can do it. The art of telling a humorous story – understand, I mean by word of mouth, not print – was created in America, and has remained at home.”
I won’t go into Twain’s detailed description of how a humorous story is told, for that would take you down a rabbit hole and distract you from the point of my blog post.
Suffice it to say that Twain claims that an American storyteller meanders and gives the impression that he or she is not even aware that the story is funny, while the teller of the comic or witty story across the pond not only tells the audience in the beginning that they are going to tell a comic or witty story but also starts to laugh at the punch line before they even reach it. Twain says, “It is a pathetic thing to see.”
In “How to Tell a Story,” Twain relates a story about a wounded soldier. First, he presents it in the straight forward way the story teller in England, France, Germany, or Italy would tell it.
Then, he tells it like someone in America would tell it in a simple and innocent yet sincere way by going off track and possibly adding details that were not in the original or are not necessary to the story.
Twain says, “This is art and fine and beautiful, and only a master can compass it; but a machine could tell the other story.”
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read.
Remember the people of Ukraine, the starving children in Gaza, and the people in western North Carolina who are still recovering from Hurricane Helene.
Here are some items I did not have room to include in this morning’s blog post.
Artist cancels showing at Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery
Photo by Sung Jin Cho on Unsplash
The artist of a 2018 portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama has withdrawn from her schedule showing at the National Portrait Gallery after being told one of her paintings was not acceptable in light of President Trump’s March Executive Order regarding museums.
Amy Sherald’s painting “Trans Forming Liberty” depicts the Statue of Liberty as a transgender woman. After being told she could not include the painting in her show, Sherald informed the secretary of the Smithsonian in writing that, “it has become clear that the conditions no longer support the integrity of the work as conceived.”
This would have been the first National Portrait Gallery’s showing… ever… by a Black contemporary artist.
The Smithsonian is “disappointed,” but not as disappointed as I am about what the Trump Administration is doing to free expression, science, medical research, and the treasure that was the Smithsonian Institution.
Columbia University caved in to Trump
Photo of part of the Columbia University campus in New York City. Photo by Tobias Pfeifer on Unsplash
So it can continue to admit international students and receive federal funds, Columbia University caved in to the bully. Under the guise of being concerned about Jewish students being discriminated against on Columbia’s campus, the Trump Administration strong-armed the university into bending a knee and paying $220 million for alleged violation of U.S. antidiscrimination laws.
In the agreement last Wednesday, Columbia is supposed to get to keep billions of dollars for research grants. Columbia must revise its admissions policies, campus protest policies, and its curriculum.
The university’s acting president, Claire Shipman, says the agreement protects Columbia’s values and autonomy, but it isn’t clear how that is possible with the Trump Administration dictating admissions, protests, and curriculum.
The Trump Administration calls the agreement “a road map for settlements” as it eyes other colleges accused of not addressing antisemitism.
When the students return to camp in September, it will be interesting to see if they are allowed to protest Israel’s bombing of Gaza and starving the Gazans by restricting food aid.
As I recall, that’s what started this whole thing.
And now Trump has turned his sights on the medical and law schools at Duke University. Anything to disrupt medical care and medical research, I guess. Some 600 Duke University staff have taken early retirement buyouts so far.
A reversal from the U.S. Department of Education
This is the first positive thing I’ve been able to report about the U.S. Department of Education since Inauguration Day. After North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and 19 other state attorneys general and governors sued the U.S. Department of Education for freezing $5.5 billion nationally, the Department Secretary caved! That means North Carolina will get the $165 million it had counted on until the Trump Administration pulled the plug.
U.S. Aid to Gaza
While in Scotland on Sunday, Trump whined for several minutes because nobody thanked the United States for giving $60 million in aid to Gaza. He claimed that no other country had given Gaza anything.
No one wants to see a U.S. President whine. Of course, he also cheated at golf while in Scotland, too. And he bad-mouthed President Biden, the mayor London, and a bunch of other people.
Is Netanyahu delusional or what?
Netanyahu says there is no starvation in Gaza. The whole world sees it. Even U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia admits it is true. It has to be pretty horrific for Marjorie Taylor Green to admit something.
Sadly, the United States is complicit because it continues to support Israel in its war on Gaza. This stopped being “self-defense” a long time ago, Netanyahu. It stopped with the indiscriminate bombing of schools, hospitals, and residential areas. It stopped being self-defense when Israel stopped allowing food and medicine to enter Gaza. The food drop last week was too little, too late – and that’s the nicest thing I can say about it. Israel only did that to try to appease the growing public outcry about the starving children.
Meanwhile, U.S. Representative Randy Fine of Florida, who happens to be Jewish, put this on X on June 2: “Tell your fellow Muslim terrorists to release the hostages and surrender. Until then, #StarveAway.” As far as I can determine, he has not changed his anti-Gaza stance. He would probably say he is just anti-Hamas, but it is the total population of Gaza that is bearing the horrors of this war.
How can someone who is wealthy enough and well enough connected to be elected to the United States Congress and live in the richest country in the world – and probably never missed a meal in his life — have no compassion for starving children?
The level of white privilege and hatred in so many Americans who are in positions of power boggles the mind.
The First Lady Melania Trump Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Photo by Santeri Liukkonen on Unsplash
Yes, you read that correctly. U.S. Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho is chair of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee. He tucked the provision into the fiscal year 2026 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, which passed the Committee on Appropriations 33 to 28.
The proposal was written into the fiscal year 2026 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. The measure was approved by the Committee on Appropriations with a vote of 33 to 28.
One has to wonder how long it will be before the name “TRUMP” will be plastered on the outside of the building in giant gold letters. How long will it be before the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is painted gold?
Two Items of Good News
President Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is not running for the United States Senate from North Carolina in 2026.
Former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is running for the United States Senate to fill the seat vacated by Thom Tillis in 2026.
Until my next blog post
I hope you are reading a good book.
Don’t forget the people of Ukraine and western North Carolian.
For those of you who cannot watch the news any more “because it’s too sad,” I apologize. You might not want to read this blog post.
There is just something deep down inside me that compels me to comment on the continuing dismantling of our democracy.
Some doctors in the United States are now telling their patients not to keep up with current events because it’s not good for their health. Mine hasn’t told me that yet, so I’m steamrolling forward.
(I am making a point to listen to relaxing music every day now though, so that’s a positive result of Donald Trump’s reelection. I highly recommend the hammered dulcimer and guitar instrumentals of Steve and Ruth Smith.)
What’s in store for CBS?
Last Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the merger/takeover of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, by Skydance. The new company will apparently be called New Paramount.
It seems to me a more accurate name would be 19th Century Paramount, for that’s what the FCC chair and the folks at Skydance plan to do.
I’m going to quote FCC chair Brendan Carr, because I want those of you who missed it to see just what kind of person we have in charge of the FCC, which issues all TV and radio broadcast licenses. Aa thinking person, I find Mr. Carr’s attitude to be beneath the level of trust and integrity his office holds (or used to). Here’s what Mr. Carr said in a statement issued along with the FCC’s decision:
“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change. That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.”
Carr also stated, “In particular, Skydance has made written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum. Skydance will also adopt measures that can root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media.”
From what I gathered online and on news broadcasts, among other things, Skydance promised not to have any diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at New Paramount. And Paramount promised to donate $16 million to the Trump Presidential Library. (That’s the greatest oxymoron I’ve ever heard!)
Will all the people of color and all the women at CBS and all the other media Skydance will now own need to find employment elsewhere? Will there be no more people of color or women in the movies made by Paramount Studios?
One can’t help but wonder what the future of broadcasting will be in the United States with Trump and his ilk in charge.
If you voted for Trump last November, is that what you wanted? If it is, please don’t tell me. I really don’t want to know that about my blog readers.
National Science Foundation
Photo by Ousa Chea on Unsplash
We know from many things the Trump Administration has done that he is anti-science. I mean, you can’t fire medical researchers at the National Institutes of Health and be pro-science. Simple as that.
The National Science Foundation is speaking out about politically motivated actions that have been taken to derail the traditional peer-review process related to grants. Instead of outside peers reviewing grant applications, Trump has directed grant proposals to be screened for political compliance first. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff will now decide which scientific research proposals are approved for federal grants.
We can safely assume there will be no grants approved for scientific research related to race, climate, or LGBTQ+ health.
More than 1,600 National Science Foundation grants were suddenly cancelled by DOGE on July 3, 2025.
The long-range ramifications of three-and-a-half more years of Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of both houses of Congress cannot even be imagined in the area of scientific research in the United States. I hope other countries will fill in the gap.
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule came about in 2001 because there was a backlog in repairs to roads in our national forests. Repairs and maintenance of park roads were too expensive, so this rule was adopted under which no new roads were to be developed in national forests to save money and to protect the environment.
Guess what the Trump Administration wants to do.
Contact your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative, even if you know it will do no good. Be able to tell your children and grandchildren that you tried to save the national forests.
Federal lands in New Mexico to be drilled
Photo by Documerica on Unsplash
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced last Thursday the federal government’s profit of $58,260,929 from the gas and oil leasing of 7,502.76 acres of “our” land in New Mexico.
The press release from the Bureau of Land Management did not use the word “profit.” The statement referred to the 58 million dollars as “revenue.” That sounds so much better than calling it “profit” or “blood money.”
New Acting President of U.S. Institute of Peace
The new Acting President of the U.S. Institute of Peace – a taxpayer-funded agency – is white supremacist Darren Beattie. So now the person overseeing the U.S. State Department’s efforts to fight extremist rhetoric is a man who actively traffics in it.
His website publishes January 6 conspiracy theories. He lost his job with the first Trump Administration because he attended a white supremacist conference, so why is he back?
Confirmation of Emil Bove
The Senate confirmed former Trump lawyer Emil Bove in a 50-49 vote for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge yesterday, ignoring complaints about his conduct from Justice Department employees.
Bove was one of Trump’s personal lawyers. The message this sends to his other attorneys is that if they remain loyal to him, they can look forward to a lifetime appointment as a federal judge, too.
Someone, please stop the madness.
Until my next blog post
Keep reading whatever you can.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.
Remember the people of Ukraine, the people of western North Carolina, and the starving children of Gaza.
Janet's Writing Blog 