Mort Report is a labor of love by old-style correspondents with lifetimes on the road and young ones with fresh eyes. Our philosophy is simple: we report at first hand with analysis based on non-alternative fact, not opinion. If we get something wrong, we fix it.
TUCSON — It only takes a minority of heedless people who blindly follow a demagogue like dumb, fearful buffalo to trample democracy. Hitler and his Brown Shirts took control of the Reichstag to impose tyranny in 53 days.
Mussolini's Black Shirts only had to bully a king into ceding total power. Like Hitler, he was well-read with military seasoning. Both dictators had grand plans to rule an orderly world under fascist domination.
America's "strong man" is a barely literate self-obsessed draft dodger who seems more like Caligula every day. His unelected sidekick, Elon Musk, a Bozo the Clown with a chainsaw, shreds the U.S. government and tells people in other countries how to vote.
The Führer conquered Germany with a few newspapers and crackling radio signals. Donald Trump's big lies rile up his Red Hats with AI-enhanced anti-social media, high-tech computer chicanery and oligarchs' vast cash reserves.
Waiting until 2026 is too late. America is threatened with history's most ignominious capitulation of free people. Urgent action needs to scare the crap out of every faithless legislator and elected official, from Congress on down to local magistrates.
No one with half an eye on the news needs to see more of Trump's wrecking crew. A self-crowned king is moving to "flood the zone" at breakneck speed. If he is not stopped soon, there will likely be no do-over.
TUCSON — America is far beyond a "constitutional crisis." It faces blatant smash-and-grab plunder by grasping narcissists bent on stripping away human decency. Truculent ignorance among those who support them is breathtaking.
Donald Trump flouts every check and balance that kept a United States together for most of its 250 years. A weekend X-tweet worthy of Napoleon made that clear: "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law."
He sets the world ablaze, yet few Americans seem alarmed at distant bonfires they don't believe concern them. Europeans see the end of an 80-year Atlantic alliance. Lisbon's Correio da Manhã captured the mood: Trump treats Europe like Puerto Rico.
In Saudi Arabia, his aides are negotiating "peace" in Ukraine with Russians. Europeans are excluded. Volodymyr Zelensky rejects any agreement without his participation. "It seems the most powerful member of NATO," he said bitterly, "is Russia."
And out of the blue, Trump now suddenly demands half of all future income from Ukraine's mines and resources in exchange for nothing. By his delusional estimate, that would be a $500 billion mugging.
I asked Alan Weisman to sum up the challenge. His last book, "The World Without Us," examined how Earth would restore itself if humans weren't in the way. He crisscrossed the globe for his upcoming "Hope Dies Last." He replied:
"Given runaway climate change and accelerating species extinction that eventually must include ourselves, how do we explain presidential decrees bound to hasten both these existential threats?
"Simple: Faced with the approaching end of his own sordid, bloated life, Trump’s ultimate petulant intention is to drag the rest of us down with him."
The question echoes everywhere: What can one person do? Three things: get informed; get outraged; get involved. The hardest, by far, is the first.
Voters need to know why "breaking news" broke -- and what might come next. New technology helps inform people. It also allows demagogues to bury reality under bullshit.
The Associated Press has been a reliable source since the 1800s, in recent years covering dramatic upheaval and daily doings in a disparate world. Trump is trying to kill it. A Washington Post op-ed was headlined: "This is a perfectly fine hill for the AP to die on."
No, this is a hill on which America might die.
