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.
I may as well live in the 7th Congressional District of Arizona.
I’m not represented in the U.S. House of Representatives any more than the residents of the 7th District of Arizona. That’s the district in which Adelita Grijalva was elected on September 23, 2025, but Speaker of the House Mike Johnson refuses to install her because she is a Democrat and she will vote to have the Epstein files released.
Johnson might lose his position as Speaker of the House if he allows the truth to come out. At the very least Trump will have him “primaried” in 2026. But that’s enough about him.
Photo by Kyle Mills on Unsplash
My Representative in Congress
Three weeks ago, on October 10, I blogged about some of my frustration with my U. S. Representative: My Congressman sent a newsletter.
I’m still frustrated with him. I requested a response from him when I emailed him on October 10, but I haven’t received a reply yet. Of course, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson gave my Congressman a nice paid vacation the last week of September, all of October, and the foreseeable future.
My Congressman’s newsletters set my hair on fire. At least I know where he stands. He stands with Donald Trump. And he despises the likes of me because I don’t stand with Donald Trump. No doubt about it.
His newsletter on October 18 opened this way: “Dear Janet, Pro-crime Democrats continue to release dangerous criminals onto the streets to roam our neighborhoods.”
This guy represents me in no way, shape, or form.
Any U.S. Senator or U.S. Representative who spews hate against everyone in their opposition political party has no right to “serve.” Such people have lost sight of their job description and oath of office.
My Congressman went on in his October 18 newsletter to call on the City of Charlotte to ask for the National Guard to descend upon us.
The subject line of his October 25 newsletter was “The Democrats are Using the Troops as Leverage!” That pretty much set the tone for the entire newsletter.
In the meantime, I will not receive a response to my October early October letter to him. My Congressman will keep preaching. (Jesus must be so proud!) After all, that’s his “calling” and I guess he will represent the people of the 8th District of North Carolina in his spare time or whenever he decides to take that $174,000-a-year job which also gives him a $79-per-day food allowance and lifetime retirement and health insurance seriously.
I don’t think the mothers with young children or the elderly individuals who get the equivalent of $6.00-per-day in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits are the problem – especially since SNAP benefits end at midnight tonight, thanks to President Trump refusing to turn loose the $6 billion “rainy day” fund Congress earmarked for SNAP in the event of a government shutdown.
I don’t think the members of Congress know how disgusted Americans are. This “Mexican Stand-off” between the Republicans and Democrats must stop! I think both parties are to blame for the shutdown.
Starting tomorrow, a lot of people aren’t going to have any money for food, here in the richest nation in the world. The “Pro-Life” Republican Party is obviously only interested in babies being born. They don’t care whether they have anything to eat once they exit the womb. We’ve always known that, but starting tomorrow it will be blaringly obvious for the whole world to see.
I wonder what my Congressman and President Trump are eating this weekend.
When I planned my blog’s editorial calendar for 2025, I thought I would be writing today about the 233rd anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the White House.
I thought I would write about the construction of the White House; how it survived the flames at the hands of the British on August 24, 1814; and its current transformation during the Trump Administration.
That’s what I thought until Friday. So much happened on Friday, I decided to ditch my earlier plans and focus today on more pressing concerns. I also want to catch you up on some of my writing projects.
Ramifications of the federal government shutdown
Photo by the blowup on Unsplash
More than 4,000 federal government employees were fired on Friday by the Trump Administration as the White House continues to blame the Democrats for the shutdown. President Trump announced that the “layoffs” would be “in Democrat programs” and the Democrats need “a dose of its own medicine.”
I’ve always thought that federal programs were for all Americans, regardless of their political leanings or voter registration. In 2025, though, it appears that the programs and services provided by the federal government are being labeled as “Democrat” and “Republican.”
The ones seen by President Trump as being “Democrat” are now fair game for being slashed and the employees who implement those services will be fired.
I thought it was against federal law for government employees to be fired based solely on the existence of a government shutdown, but I guess I was misinformed.
As the federal government shutdown continued and neither side showed the will to compromise, we entered the weekend anticipating something we usually don’t see during a government shutdown: 1.3 members of our military not getting a paycheck on the 15th of the month. However, President Trump said on Saturday that he had found the money somewhere to pay the military.
Democrats in Congress attempted to bring a bill to a vote on Friday for the military to be paid, but Republicans blocked the vote. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said the Republicans voted three weeks ago on the budget, which would have provided pay for the military. Johnson’s paycheck not being affected by the shutdown, he seemed unable to consider the hardship his actions/inactions would cause most military families.
The weekly newsletter I received from my U.S. Representative on Saturday plainly illustrates the standoff between the two political parties in the U.S. Congress. I will share that newsletter with you in tomorrow’s blog post as we sink deeper into this shutdown and all the uncertainties and hardship it causes.
The Nobel Prize for Peace
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
President Trump will whine about the Nobel Peace Prize for the rest of his life. He claims Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan woman who won it on Friday, called him that day and told him he “really deserved it.” He claims to have ended eight wars since January 20.
A detail that seemed to be missed by Trump was that nominations had to be submitted by January 31, 2025. That was just ten days into his second term. He has campaigned to receive the Nobel Prize all year. Most people who are awarded the prize don’t do that. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of anyone else who has openly begged for it.
True to form, a few days ahead of the announcement of the award, Trump said that it was rigged and he probably not receive it. After the announcement on Friday, Trump said that the Nobel Committee “put politics above peace” in awarding it to Maria Corina Machado. He also once again claimed that President Barack Obama received it “for doing nothing but destroying our country.”
Has anyone ever seen a 79-year-old be such a sore loser?
Qatari Air Force coming to Idaho
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made a stunning announcement on Friday. He said that Qatar is going to build an air base at Mountain Home, Idaho. These was shocking, especially in light of the fact that in 2027 President Trump called Qatar “a big funder of terrorism.”
A few hours later, on Friday night, Hegseth had to clarify his announcement – which had been heard around the world. Actually, Qatar is NOT building an air base in Idaho or anywhere else in the United States. They will send fighter pilots to the U.S. Air Force Base in Idaho to train.
Whew! That’s a relief!
We knew there would have to be a payoff after Qatar gave Trump that $400 million plane that the U.S. taxpayers are paying $1 billion to rehabilitate so Trump can take it with him if he ever moves out of the White House. Perhaps this is the beginning of the payoff.
I don’t think Hegseth majored in communications in college.
President Trump’s semi-annual annual physical
Photo by shahreboye on Unsplash. (I tried to find a picture of an x-ray of a fist. That would have been more appropriate!)
President Trump had his second “annual” physical exam on Friday and was once again pronounced to be “in excellent health” even though he doesn’t appear to be and he doesn’t speak like a person in “excellent health.”
Additional tariffs on China
President Trump announced tariffs imposed on China amounting to 130%. Since most things American buy were manufactured in China, the coming months or years should be interesting.
I’m fortunate because I already have everything I need. I shouldn’t need to buy anything but food and medicine for the foreseeable future.
As an aside, I noticed last week that the cereal I often eat for breakfast came from Germany instead of Canada. It’s been coming from Canada for years. I’m still trying to figure out how it can be cost effective for a box of cereal to be shipped all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Perhaps it is grown in Germany and packaged in the United States. It is a wheat product. I don’t have anything against Germany, but I’d prefer to get my wheat from farmers in the United States or Canada. It just makes more sense.
A Quote from Sunday
If I hadn’t heard it, I wouldn’t have believed it. The 4th Congressional District of Ohio must be so proud of their U.S. Representative, Jim Jordan. Yesterday on TV, Representative Jordan said, “I think the ICE agents are doing the Lord’s work.”
What a horrible thing to say about Jesus Christ!
The Christ that I worship would never condone masked men going around snatching people on the street or out of their beds in the middle of the night, pepper spraying a Presbyterian pastor who was praying for them and their detainees, detaining people for months on end, then deporting them (or not – perhaps just detaining them indefinitely) to random countries where they don’t speak the language.
I think Mr. Jordan needs to read the New Testament. He has been misinformed if he thinks ICE agents are doing “the Lord’s work.”
My writing projects
I continue to try to spread the word about my devotional book and the companion Journal and Diary on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter AND I Need The Light! Companion Journal and Diary are available on Amazon and from your favorite bookstore. We need all the help we can get as we navigate the next six months.
I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison
I Need The Light! Companion Journal and Diary, by Janet Morrison
I edited several of the historical short stories I have written for my upcoming book: Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. My sister and I are doing one more proofread. I created a bookmark for the book on Bookbrush.com. I also created an information sheet about it to distribute to independent bookstores and the public library system here in Cabarrus County.
Want to see what part of the cover looks like?
Partial cover of Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories
I hope to have the book ready to self-publish through IngramSpark and Kindle Direct Publishing before the end of October, so stay tuned!
See – I don’t spend ALL my time tracking the political news. Each of us must find a way to put one foot in front of the other every single day as we navigate unchartered ground.
It is getting more difficult by the week to blog about the things going on in our federal government. I have just about run out of words.
I know I’m “preaching to the choir” because people who read my blog either already agree with me or I’m “spitting in the wind” if they don’t. None of you are going to change your minds at this point. You either acknowledge what has happened to our country or you don’t.
If you have not seen and heard enough since January 20, 2025, to join the Resistance, you never will.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Violent rhetoric
In case you thought all the nasty people were “on the left,” I will just take a moment to point out that it was John Gillette, a Republican Arizona State Representative who posted a threatening statement on X in response to an old YouTube video clip from March in which Democrat U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal talked about preparations for street protests against the Trump administration.
Gillette’s post: “Until people like this, that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried, convicted and hanged … it will continue.”
Congress member Jayapal in no way advocated for the overthrow of the American government. As far as I know, peaceful protests are still protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
No rule of law on international waters
Trump has put U.S. military personnel in violation of criminal and military law by ordering them to kill 17 people in boats in international waters. Just because Trump says those 17 people were smuggling drugs into the United States doesn’t make it true.
Traditionally, drug smugglers who are caught in the act are arrested and tried in a court of law. Trump’s tactic this year of ordering the military to blow up boats, the boats’ occupants, and all possible evidence of a crime is reckless and wrong.
What the meeting at Quantico cost us
It was a meeting that could have been securely held via Zoom. In an apparent show of power, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of Generals and Admirals to Quantico, Virginia, for a meeting yesterday.
They had to leave their command posts from all over the world with one week’s notice for what was reported to be a 71-minute meeting. Or, maybe that was how many minutes Trump rambled on about how he loves his signature, about President Obama and President Biden, and about the multitude of wars no one can identify that Trump claims to have ended this year.
The parts of his talk that I heard were incoherent ramblings. If anything, they were worse than his usual “weavings.”
I heard the cost of the meeting for taxpayers was $6 million, which is pocket change for Trump and his ilk. No big deal.
But the monetary cost of the meeting is the least of our worries.
If I get started writing about the remarks Secretary of Defense Hegseth said about women in the military, social justice, and climate change, I will say some things I should not put in print. I know some women in the military who could fight just as hard and effectively as Hegseth. Just sayin’.
Every American should be horrified by the words of Hegseth and Trump. When the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America announces to the world that we will no longer abide by “the rules of engagement,” it is indeed a dark day in our country and the world at large.
If the United States military is no longer going to abide by the international laws and norms for the conduct of war, then no one in the world is safe.
When a United States President thinks it is a good idea to send troops into our cities to train, it is a dark day for our country.
When a United States President cannot tell the difference between a live news report (i.e., reality) and an old video clip of a civil unrest and declares war on Portland, Oregon, we should all be very, very afraid.
When the United States President posts an AI-generated racially-doctored and derogatory meme of the Minority Leader of the United States Senate and the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives on social media, one is led to ask if he is 79 years old or 12 years old. (I apologize to all the 12-year-olds of the world. That was unfair to you.)
All this from this week, folks. And it was only Tuesday evening as I wrote this.
The Federal Government Shutdown
Here we go again. The United States Congress cannot figure out a budget for more than three months at a time. Regular people should be so lucky!
It is sad that so many of the members of Congress think this is a game. They are playing with peoples’ lives and livelihood. Trump glibly said he will just fire a lot of federal government employees. That’s a great attitude, isn’t it?
As if the National Park Service employees remaining in the mountains of North Carolina haven’t already taken it on the chin since Hurricane Helene twelve months ago… as if the basket weavers, glass blowers, quilters and other textile artists, potters, furniture makers, wood crafts persons, and jewelry artisans of the Southern Highland Craft Guild haven’t already nearly gone bankrupt… the United States Congress just shut down the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville as part of the federal government shutdown. At least, that’s what has happened during prior shutdowns.
So, Senators and Representatives, why did you choose to kick the people of western North Carolina when they were already down?
It is the very beginning of the fall tourist season in those mountains. Countless people have worked to reopen and reconstruction roads and businesses to serve tourists and residents alike. They have pinned their hopes on the 2025 fall tourist season to help them hang onto the businesses they lost or nearly lost to the hurricane.
Members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild greatly depend on selling their unique creations at the Folk Art Center. To say it is a shame that it will be closed for the duration of the government shutdown would be the understatement of the year.
The Folk Art Center is also the home of the 20,000-volume Robert W. Gray Library of “books, exhibition catalogs, video, and more relating to craft from around the world.” (https://southernhighlandguild.org/folkartcenter/)
And this, America, is just one small victim of the federal government shutdown – all because Republicans and Democrats no longer talk to each other – and most of them on both sides of the aisle apparently couldn’t care less about you and me. They have forgotten who they work for, and they have forgotten their oaths of office.
In closing…
I think most of us in the United States are weary. The reckless attacks on our democracy are taking a toll on many of us. It’s like trying to stand up to the unrelenting force of a fire hose.
I am so old that I remember the decades when women and people of color almost had equal rights.
I remember when members of our military could be proud of their service and could have respect for their Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of Defense, even if they did not agree with some of the decisions made and orders issued.
I remember when we could depend on the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court to protect us.
I remember when politicians had the skill and desire to compromise to make our 249-year-old experiment in democracy work.
It’s sad to feel like the best years of the United States America are behind us.
Janet's Writing Blog 