www.npr.org/2025/11/03/nx-s1-5593112/national-guard-mass-deportations-trump-2026
Thanks Gene for suggesting music as therapy. I play favorite classical music on a loop all night long and it really helps me. Sticks in my head during the day too 😉
And for the expose on how Trump is informed (not). He of course lives by TV, notoriously so during Jan 6. Lacking education, which he disdains, he learned to shape reality with performance and playing to audience reaction.
I make recurring donations to ProPublica, they do great work, but learned about the misleading Fox News story back when it happened by reading Australia’s ABC website. At the time no US media were reporting it, just focusing on what Trump was saying about Oregon.
Recently there’s been hope the Epstein scandal will bring down Trump. It won’t – haven’t we learned anything? I think the most effective strategy is to expose what’s behind the curtain (a la Wizard of Oz) like ProPublica did. We need much more of that. One problem is media’s reluctance to report speculation…. Then just label it as speculation to avoid legal hassles. It would still better inform the public than all the free airtime they now gift the administration’s deceptions.
Finally, thanks to Patty for the Astorian article. Current federal agency tactics are abhorrent and unnecessary. The cruelty is unamerican, and I think we’d be more effective countering the administration’s narrative by mainstreaming that term – CRUELTY (and GREED) – rather than talking about less relatable terms like authoritarianism. Also, the total lack of any responses to a plethora of media questions is clearly part of the overall strategy. Tech companies, notably Tesla, have long shown it works for entities with less than honorable intentions.
-Dave