Readers, Welcome to my blog (formerly Birds, Blooms, Books, etc). I'm entering a new decade taking on the challenge of moving from Maryland after living there 46 years and learning about my new home here in New England in the Live Free or Die state - New Hampshire. Join me as a write this new chapter of my life.

Monday, June 15, 2026

Three Great Pieces from The Contrarian

 

Confirming Blanche Might Finish Off Republicans’ Careers

How voting to promote the Epstein cover-up architect could play out.

Senate Republicans who vote to confirm Todd Blanche for attorney general should take heed: They will be haunted for the rest of their careers (some of which may very well end with the midterms) by the courageous survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s monstrous crimes.

CNN reported that last week 19 Epstein victims “responded to The New York Times’s reporting that Blanche and other senior officials participated in Situation Room meetings to discuss how to respond to growing pressure for more transparency as the issue became a public relations crisis for the administration.” The survivors’ statement read in part:

We are deeply disturbed to learn that so many senior members of the administration gathered in the Situation Room to discuss the release of the Epstein files as a reputational problem, rather than an opportunity to pursue investigative leads and try to figure out what actually happened.

Read the rest here  

A Concept of a Plan for an Iran Deal 

What happened — and did — not so far?

Sunday night, Donald Trump announced an Iran ceasefire deal had been reached. In the days to come, we will learn more, but it will be critical to keep an eye on what is NOT in this memorandum and to understand the ceasefire will not curtail, let alone end, Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Council on Foreign Relations Middle East expert Steven Cook told me that his initial impression of the announcement “is that there is nothing in the agreement on which President Trump can actually claim ‘victory.’” He noted, “Even if there is a return to freedom of navigation in the strait, it is merely a return to the Feb. 27 status quo.” Though we are supposedly going to sit down to talk about the Iranian nuclear program, Cook pointed out, “that is what we were doing before he launched the war.” He asked, “Why did he fight this war? Strategically, the president achieved nothing.”

Read the rest HERE

You Removed the Name — and the Curse — of Donald

Inside our Kennedy Center and slush fund successes: Publisher's Roundup 71

You did it, Contrarians. Out of all the over 300 legal cases and matters that your paid subscriptions have helped make possible, few have garnered more attention than our fights to remove Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center and to stop his $1.8 billion slush fund. Now both are finally happening — and that’s good news for our democracy.

Let’s start with the Kennedy Center, where this happened in the wee hours early on Saturday:

A worker removes a letter from Donald Trump's name from the wall of the Kennedy Center on Saturday. (Cliff Owen/AP)

The removal of Trump’s name was thanks to our client, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), to my colleagues at Democracy Defenders Action, to our co-counsel Washington Litigation Group — and to your paid subscriptions, which help fuel my and my colleagues’ pro-democracy litigation.

Read the rest HERE