Looking At The Week Ahead With Joyce Vance

The Week Ahead

May 24, 2026

It’s 1984 again.

We have read George Orwell since the beginning of Trump’s first administration. Studied him through the eyes of experts like Ruth Ben-Ghiat, whose scholarship is in the field of authoritarianism. But nothing makes his relevance as plain as living through history in 2026.

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

― George Orwell, 1984

On Friday, NBC’s Ryan J. Reilly and Kyla Guilfoil reported that “The Justice Department has removed press releases detailing the charges against hundreds of individuals who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot from its website.”

DOJ was not ashamed of the reporting on this development; instead, they responded to a tweet claiming they were “quietly” deleting the information by bragging:

Nothing “quiet” about it.

We are proud to reverse the DOJ’s weaponization under the Biden administration. We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ’s website of partisan propaganda.

As acting Attorney General Todd Blanche continues his long, slow audition to get the nomination for the permanent job, there is apparently no service the Justice Department he leads will refuse Donald Trump. That includes the effort Trump launched on day one of his second term in office to erase the insurrection. It began with the pardons of Rudy Giuliani and the fake slates of electors. As Ed Martin put it, “No MAGA left behind.” It went on to include virtually everyone who was present at or involved with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including those charged with insurrection, some of whom received clemency because even Trump, apparently, didn’t believe he could get away with outright pardons.

Blanche was in place at DOJ as Pam Bondi’s number two, overseeing the firing of prosecutors and agents assigned to work cases and leads in the January 6 investigation. Then, as we discussed last week, he signed off on Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” the repurposing of taxpayer dollars Congress allocated to DOJ’s judgment fund as reward payments to Trump friends and allies who “suffered weaponization and lawfare.”

Blanche declined to exclude even defendants convicted of violent offenses in connection with January 6 from eligibility for payment out of Trump’s slush fund. The crescendo of outrage that began with Democrats swelled to include a handful of Republicans. But not all of them. In a mark up meeting before they left town for Memorial Day, every Republican member voted against a measure proposed by California Democrat Mike Levin that would have excluded members of Congress from filing to receive a payout from the fund.

Lawsuits have been filed, and we will be watching to see how quickly the federal judiciary might move to block the payouts from going into effect. Among the lawsuits so far:

A lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (“CREW”), which alleges that “The Slush Fund is a jaw-dropping act of presidential corruption. And it is brazenly illegal. Unlike prior victim compensation funds, it was not authorized by Congress. Nor was the Fund the product of a judicially approved, arm’s length legal settlement.” The complaint is here.
A lawsuit alleging that the “anti-weaponization” fund discriminates against a group of plaintiffs who were mistreated by Republican officials, because it only permits redress of conduct by the Biden administration. You can read the complaint here.
A lawsuit filed by current and former Washington, D.C., police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, arguing the plan should be enjoined because the payouts are illegal and could potentially finance violent insurrectionists and paramilitary groups. You can read the complaint here.

The success of Trump’s effort to rewrite history is not a foregone conclusion. But pushback will require our focus. In January of 2025, the Brennan Center’s Michael Waldman, author of The Briefing with Michael Waldman wrote, “It was an insurrection. Pardoning the perpetrators won’t change that.”

On Friday, former Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Although the topic at hand is her mishandling of the release of the Epstein Files, Bondi could easily face questioning about the origins of the slush fund plan and will undoubtedly be asked about Trump’s single-minded effort to rewrite history to repaint his own efforts to take down democracy.

It’s up to us to make sure Trump doesn’t get away with rewriting our true history. This is an important awareness to carry with us into the weeks and months ahead, especially as we approach the 250th Anniversary of the day the Declaration of Independence was signed, this July 4. In the words of Orwell, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

As I wrote to you last week on the day we first learned about Trump’s creation of a slush fund he could use to divert taxpayer funds into rewards for his friends, we are at a crisis point. It’s a crisis for many reasons, among them the president’s comfort with outright abuse of public funds and his party’s unwillingness to step in and outlaw their use in the absence of a congressional designation of them for this purpose. Trump, the would-be autocrat, is again trying to enlarge the circle of presidential power he can exercise and it will be up to the judicial branch to tell him no, for now, and the voters to do it resoundingly in November. It’s time to pay close attention to developments this week.

We’re in this together,

Joyce

Clay Jones, Open Windows

Memorial Day 2026

They didn’t give their lives for an autocracy

Ann Telnaes

Here’s Byron

(Note Please that this is not a dig on Byron Allen per se. It’s about the vast difference in material. I’ve watched “Comics Unleashed”, and “Funny You Should Ask,” both are fine, but are not what people are used to at night; I’ve watched them while doing my 10AM jog on the trampoline, instead of a game show that may be on. Of course, well, viewership’s been dropping in that nighttime time slot, so. Clay explains how Byron Allen makes it work.)

Replacing Stephen Colbert with Byron Allen would be like replacing Pat Oliphant with Garfield

Clay Jones

Daryl Cagle distributes more political cartoons than any other syndicate in the business, and each week he publishes the top ten cartoons from his service that are being published by his newspaper clients. I normally don’t look at it because it makes me sick.

This is not meant as a criticism of Cagle, even though I believe he’s doing everything in his power to destroy our industry just to make a nickel, nor is it a criticism of the cartoons that make his top ten list. A lot of cartoonists who draw hard-hitting cartoons often draw something nice, or even bland, on occasion. It doesn’t mean that they’re not good cartoonists. Although there are cartoonists who do nothing but draw boring, bland, generic, copy-and-paste cartoons, like Dave Granlund. (snip-MORE, and he gets to the point)

Stupid on Stilts

Corruption on stilts

Clay Jones

The only weaponization of the Justice Department that comes to mind is that which has been committed by Donald Trump and his goons. Going after goons who attacked the capital is not weaponization. Going after Donald Trump for sending those goons or for stealing classified documents is not weaponization. Going after people who try to overturn the election is not weaponization.

The $1.8 billion slush fund that Donald Trump is going to give to the so-called victims of the so-called weaponization of the Justice Department under Joe Biden is bogus. It’s not for victims as much as for political allies who would do Donald Trump’s bidding. Trump isn’t trying to reward people who work for him; he’s recruiting them. When he pardoned the J6 terrorist, it was to recruit them.

Polls on the slush fund have not come out yet, but I expect them to next week. And I also expect that they are going to be very negative about the Donald Trump slush fund. I expect public opinion to be very much against the slush fund. The slush fund is so unpopular that even some Republicans are speaking out against it, and not anonymously either. (snip-MORE)

Pedo Protectors

Why is protecting the pedophiles in the Epstein files so important to Donald Trump supporters

Clay Jones

And this is why I do not want to live in a red state or a red congressional district. I don’t want to live in a place where the majority of people are so loyal to Trump that they will punish a man for not protecting pedophiles. It’s bad enough that the blue city I live in now borders what we affectionately call Spotsyltucky.

Even while he has the lowest approval ratings of any president in the history of approval ratings, Trump’s MAGA base will go to any lengths to serve him, even if it means ousting a guy because he would not protect pedophiles.

Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky had been a thorn in Trump’s side for a while, even though he was a staunch conservative. It’s not like Massie wanted equal rights for black Americans, for women to be free to make health decisions regarding their own bodies, or that he wanted free lunches for children in poverty.

Massie voted against Trump’s signature tax-and-spending package and moved to rein in his war powers over Iran, but the final straw was his leadership of the bipartisan effort to release the Epstein files, in which Trump is mentioned thousands of times. Republicans spent $33 million to defeat Massie in a primary. This was $33 million to defeat one of their own. This was $33 million spent on a safe red seat. And they invested all of it in a failed state Senate candidate, whom many believe is dumber than a doorbell. (snip-MORE)

From Keith, Who’s Not Really An Old Fart:

Pay it forward – speak out and reach out

One Of The Many Things U.S. Reps Do

for their constituents (or are supposed to!), and not posted as a dig on the National Weather Service, which is doing what it can with what it has, and has very little leeway to talk about why they don’t get everything done as they used to in the Before Times.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids urges NWS to be transparent about data collection shortcomings

Democrat renews alarm at missed Kansas balloon flights that assist forecasting

By:Tim Carpenter-May 22, 2026

TOPEKA — U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids expressed frustration Friday with the National Weather Service’s failure in the last month to launch three-fourths of the balloons typically sent aloft in Kansas to assess atmospheric conditions and assist with weather forecasting.

Davids, a Democrat representing the 3rd District in eastern Kansas, said publicly available records indicated NWS didn’t conduct on 25 of the past 30 days the standard 7 a.m. weather balloon flight dedicated to collecting atmospheric data in Kansas.

“That’s unacceptable,” she said. “Kansans deserve transparency about what’s happening, why it’s happening and what’s being done to fix it. Kansans deserve confidence that the systems meant to keep them safe are fully operational during tornado season and meteorologists deserve the reliable data they need to do their jobs.”

In the past year, Davids and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, have raised questions about staff shortages and other issues at NWS bureaus in Kansas.

Moran recently said staffing problems persisted despite Congress appropriating sufficient funding for 24/7 operation of Kansas weather offices in Topeka, Wichita, Dodge City and Goodland.

Davids said she requested explanations one month ago from NWS about disruptions in gathering data after an outbreak of severe weather. NWS didn’t respond to the inquiry, the congresswoman said, despite seven more tornadoes touching down in Kansas last week.

NWS has an obligation to be transparent with the public about data collection failures, Davids said.

“These are not abstract bureaucratic problems,” Davids said. “You don’t get to quietly scale back something this important without transparency, especially in a state where severe weather can turn deadly fast. The administration owes the public answers and immediate action to address these reported failures before tragedy strikes.”

Davids said weather balloons provided forecasters real-time measurements, including temperature, humidity, pressure and wind conditions useful in anticipating storm intensity. Missed launches limited information available to meteorologists, she said.

She previously asked NWS to share details about reasons for missed balloon launches and how missing data contributed to delayed tornado advisories.

“For decades, 7 a.m. weather balloon launches have been a standard part of how we track severe weather and protect communities. If that standard has changed, the National Weather Service owes Kansans clear answers about why and the science and data behind that decision,” she said.

Eco-News

It was actually some Canadian-made little-kids’s science TV show on The Learning Channel (when it actually was!) that first got me acquainted with Dr. Suzuki, then I read more in a “The Nation” interview. I’m glad he’s still out here kickin’.

David Suzuki Turns 90, Says We’re All Screwed!

It’s not easy being green.

Andrew Fleming

Dr. David Takayoshi Suzuki — an author, environmental A-lister and original host of CBC’s long-running documentary series The Nature of Things — marked his 90th spin around the sun at a star-studded gala Friday night in Vancouver. Jane Fonda and Al Gore were among the VIPs who flew in to show the old tree-hugger some love and enjoy performances from Sarah McLachlan, Bruce Cockburn, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, and even a surprise set from Neil Young.

Dr. Suzuki may not be a household name outside of Canada and maybe Japan but he came in a solid fifth place in a big CBC contest back in the early aughts to name the best Canadian ever, ahead of the more problematic Don Cherry and Wayne Gretzky, the only other living finalists to make the top 10.

Imagine if Bill Nye the Science Guy and Sir David Attenborough had a baby and you’re on the right track. The hot ticket event was livestreamed for free but hasn’t yet been uploaded anywhere, presumably to cut down on the footprint from permanent data storage, so we may never know if he had anything interesting to say about attending a lavish celebration of his life’s work when it has widely fallen on deaf ears.

He was pretty blunt when asked about his hopes for the future in a recent interview with Piya Chattopadhyay where he said hunkering down in communities is our best shot at survival now that we’ve reached the point of no return:

For years I was told on The Nature of Things, “you can’t say that, that’s too depressing.” So I’ve been held back from telling the truth. And now, when the science has said “we have passed a tipping point, we cannot go back,” people are going “oh well, what the hell, it’s too late.” It’s true we are now headed for a catastrophic way and it’s unavoidable. The science is telling you that. So do you just throw up your hands? If you have children or grandchildren, you can’t do that. So you have to hunker down and say “it’s coming.” Because when the emergency comes, we don’t know what it will be. Government won’t be able to respond with the speed and the scale that you’re going to need so get your act together. The reality is the science says we’ve come to that point, and so I believe that the unit of survival is going to be your local community.

This is coming from a father of five who watched Justin Trudeau sign the Paris Climate Accords to limit the rise of global temperatures and then turn around to buy a new frickin pipeline two years later. And now the new prime minister has essentially declared war on the environment by tossing regulations aside to fast-track new projects because Donald J. Trump poses a more immediate threat to the country than Mother Nature does.

Mark Carney recently announced plans for a potential new bitumen pipeline from Alberta to somewhere in the Pacific, with construction expected to begin as early as September 2027 if they can find anyone to put build it. “This is Canada working, this is co-operative federalism, this is Canada building,” he told reporters at a press conference with Alberta preem Danielle Smith. “In effect, it creates an energy transition — all aspects of energy — but really sets the stage for an industrial transformation.”

Mentions, We Get Mentions!

Also linked are a couple of great blogs, which we appreciate as well!

We Hate To Intrude Upon Your Weekend…

It’s That Saturday Bird Post-

Red-naped Sapsucker

Sphyrapicus nuchalis

Néʼézhiin (Diné / Navajo)

Also Known As

Chupasavia Nuquirroja (Spanish)
Carpintero Nuca Roja (Spanish)

About

The Red-naped Sapsucker is one of four species in the genus Sphyrapicus, the sapsuckers, which are a distinctive group of North American woodpeckers with a peculiar and unique foraging strategy. The sapsuckers are accurately named in that they do, in fact, drink sap, but not by sucking. Rather, these industrious birds create rows of small openings in the bark of specific trees to allow the sweet, nutritious sap to flow, much like a syrup maker tapping a maple tree. They then drink the sap directly from these wells, lapping it up with their specialized feathery tongues. Sapsuckers maintain these openings or “wells” throughout the breeding season, regularly expanding existing holes and opening new ones to take advantage of changes in sugar flow through the season. Their sign on trees is conspicuous: Neat grids of shallow holes that create rings around the trunks of thin-barked trees such as aspen, willow, alder, birch, lodgepole pine, and young Douglas-fir.

In creating these wells, Red-naped Sapsuckers also open an irresistible opportunity for other animals with a taste for sweets. Many birds, especially warblers and hummingbirds, are drawn to sapsucker wells. Researchers have also reported a range of mammals visiting wells, including chipmunks, squirrels, mice, deer, and even bears. Insects feed at these wells too, especially butterflies, moths, flies, wasps, and ants. In turn, the insect activity can attract additional birds that prey on insects, such as flycatchers. (snip-MORE)

A Quick Newsy Tidbit

Judge dismisses human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported

By TRAVIS LOLLER Updated 2:38 PM CDT, May 22, 2026

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation helped galvanize opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, was thrown out Friday.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador last year became an embarrassment for Trump officials when they were ordered to return him to the U.S. Abrego Garcia claimed that both the timing of the criminal charges and inflammatory statements about him by top Trump officials demonstrated that the prosecution was vindictive.

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, ruling from Nashville, granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss for “selective or vindictive prosecution.”

Without Abrego Garcia’s “successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution,” said Crenshaw, dismissing claims of “new evidence” against him.

In earlier court filings, Crenshaw wrote he had found some evidence that the prosecution against Abrego Garcia “may be vindictive.” The judge said many statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern.” He cited a statement by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that seemed to suggest the Justice Department charged Abrego Garcia because he won his wrongful-deportation case.

Happy/Sad Friday Lunch

Over lunch a bit ago, I watched the finale of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” What a mix of happy and sad. Joy Reid gives us a good rundown on her Substack, along with pertinent history. I subscribe for free, so do give her a click to finish reading and watching; I promise you’ll be happy you did! And sad, too.

A Daily Reid

Stephen Colbert was too good for Paramount CBS

The end of Late Night is a shameful moment in history, but it’s also a pivot point

Joy-Ann Reid May 22, 2026

Late night TV is all but dead, anyway, right? Colbert made it into the lifeboats before the ship went down.

Viewership of the three major network offerings is down 70-80 percent in the “money demo” (18-49) and 9 percent overall versus the peak year for the genre, 2015; the year Colbert took over The Late Show from David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon succeeded Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel moved to 11:35 p.m. That said, Colbert was the highest rated late night show and still brought in an audience north of 2.4 million every night; a number CNN would kill for.

In reality, the declines in viewership really only account for the very much dying medium of network (and cable) television. The realty is, most people who watched Colbert, and still catch Kimmel, Fallon and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, watch on YouTube or catch (and share) the clips on social media (well not the clips – since these geezer broadcast companies will ding any creator who posts their clips on a YouTube channel – as if sharing their content hurts them…) Or they subscribe to the app where John Oliver’s show runs. The real death of the genre has nothing to do with the talents of the hosts. It’s about the audience moving online (and the younger audience choosing streamers over everyone): (snip; skipping to a fun part, but seriously do go read and watch in the entirety!)

Still, for the Ellisons to unceremoniously end not just Colbert’s tenure on The Late Show, but to end the show altogether, is a sign. It’s a sign of the right wing billionaire stranglehold on our media — with the MAGA Zionist family in control of Paramount CBS and soon of Warner Bros and CNN, too, Jeff Bezos ruining the Washington Post, and the Murdochs controlling Fox, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. Between that and the rotten billionaire boys club that controls every social media app, we live in a MAGA hellscape that answers the question: what would happen if old time South African apartheid went global?

And the number of CBS employees who are now unemployed because a Zionist family and their MAGA claque wants to give a weak, whiny president who can’t take a joke comfort TV to watch as he drools himself to sleep in his gold-covered Barcalounger every night is both sad and infuriating. (snip-skipping again)

My next appearance, and the first time we met in person was in July 20 2021:

(snip-skipping again)

But beyond the personal, I think it’s important to recall that Colbert has been, alongside people like Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Myers and others outside the very white, male confines of network late night — a brave voice of resistance against Trumpism and autocracy. And that voice will be missed. Silencing Stephen was clearly the Ellisons’ goal. But in this new world of independent media, silencing people isn’t so easy.

Good reads:

This throwback piece on the initial Colbert announcement is great, and not just because it also mentions me. And I love the title:

The Uppity Minority: Stephen Colbert and Joy Reid—Fired, Freed, and Unleashed

Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ ends with a swan song and a giant wormhole

NYT: Colbert’s exit marks the end of an era (gift link)

Colbert exited the way he entered: feisty

(snip-MORE, and it’s fun!)

A Bit Of An Antidote To Daily News:

Tennessee Officials Find Out About First Amendment The Hard Way

They have to pay retired cop Larry Bushart $835,000 for sharing a post disparaging Donald Trump after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, which it turns out is not illegal.

Robyn Pennacchia

We’re hearing a lot this week about how the DOJ is going to take over a billion dollars of our tax money and give it to those whose feelings were, like, really hurt when they got in trouble just for doing a little insurrection and maybe pooping on Nancy Pelosi’s desk. So you know what we need? We need a palate cleanser. And, thankfully, the state of Tennessee has deigned to provide us with one. Rejoice!

Officials in the state will have to pay 61-year-old retired police officer Larry Bushart $835,000 in restitution after having imprisoned him for 37 days over a meme he shared to Facebook following the death of Charlie Kirk — which caused him to lose his job and miss both his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter.

Bushart was arrested back in September after he refused to take down a bunch of posts disparaging Kirk after his assassination, specifically over one that actually just criticized Donald Trump. Because, reportedly, people in his community thought it meant he was threatening to shoot up a school, as I guess they are not very good at reading comprehension.

The post he shared in the Perry County, Tennessee, community Facebook page was a meme that existed long before Kirk was assassinated and featured a picture of Donald Trump along the famous words of comfort he shared after the 2024 school shooting in Perry, Iowa: “We have to get over it.”

Yes, just one day after 17-year-old Dylan Butler shot eight people, injuring six and ultimately killing two (a sixth-grader died the day of, the school principal died 10 days later from his injuries), Donald Trump said to Iowans at a campaign event in Sioux Center, “It’s just horrible — so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it. We have to move forward.”

You know, because godforbid we start thinking that gun control might be a good idea.

Anyway, the aforementioned not-very-good-at-reading-comprehension people saw the meme and thought that this was Larry Bushart threatening a mass shooting at Perry High School in Tennessee. Or at least claimed that they did.

Via The Tennessean:

Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems told The Tennessean in September that participants on the page were planning to host a Charlie Kirk vigil in Linden, Tennessee on Sept. 23.

Bushart posted multiple photos in the comments referencing Charlie Kirk’s death, which Weems called “hate memes,” but stated were “not against the law and would be recognized as free speech.” […]

Weems said Bushart posted the picture “to indicate or make the audience think it was referencing our Perry High School.”

“This led teachers, parents and students to conclude he was talking about a hypothetical shooting at our school,” he said. “Numerous reached out in concern.”

According to the statement, “investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community.”

Yeah, I’m pretty certain that was not at all the point of posting that meme. It seems fairly clear that Bushart had the same reason for sharing it as the millions of other people who shared it that week had — to point out how very callous Trump has been when people who are not his rabid supporters are killed. Nevertheless, Bushart was arrested, held on $2 million bail and imprisoned for over a month.

Weirdly enough, however, the Constitution does not actually have any kind of clauses specifying that the First Amendment can be thrown out the window in cases involving the hurting of Republican feelings, so now the officials involved with his arrest have to pay.

“It’s in times of turmoil and heightened tensions that our national commitment to free speech is tested the most,” said Bushart’s attorney, Cary Davis of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “When government officials fail that test, the Constitution exists to hold them accountable. Our hope is that Larry’s settlement sends a message to law enforcement across the country: Respect the First Amendment today, or be prepared to pay the price tomorrow.”

Yes, and while many conservatives believe that the First Amendment only exists to keep other people from calling them assholes on social media or kicking them off social media sites for being assholes, it’s actually meant to keep the government from punishing people for speech — which is why these government officials now owe Larry Bushart almost one million dollars. Whoops!