Antebellum Before Postmortem

TUCSON — Occasional notes tell me my free-lunch dispatches taste terrible — and the portions are too big. But an old pro National Geographic star who has watched global ups and downs for generations caught the essence of the last one.

He wrote: "I shall memorize and repeat this line as often as possible: "But there is no easy fix for American crises that have developed over decades. In the wider world, threats are beyond description. Doing anything helps. Doing nothing is unthinkable."

And he added a kind closer. "Let me know, please, when you are next passing the hat." In fact, I am.

As Yogi Berra, the malaprop-prone New York Yankee stalwart, once put it, "When you've come to a fork in the road, take it." That's my conundrum, and I need help.

I worked in the golden age of dinosaur correspondents — all-terrain vehicles who could live off the land. They knew where commas go in such phrases as "eats shoots and leaves." The longer they stomped through swamps and jungles, the more they learned.

My plan was to knock off at 80, if I was lucky enough to still be around. I would appreciate family and friends, commute between Emiliano the Olive Tree in Provence and Solomon the Saguaro in Arizona. And finish that book still trapped in a trunk.

But in 2016, a different sort of dinosaur, a rapacious T-rex, set about destroying the world. If he is not stopped now, we humans are toast. This is no time for old hands who have seen the reasons for this in up-close detail to sink into tarpits.

I want to stay at the keys at a time when reliable information is so hard to find. More than ever, long-time reporters with proven credibility who have seen how and why democracies fall apart must unscramble complex global realities.

On balance, I am scared witless yet still optimistic. I remember Michael Getler, a much-missed editor, ombudsman and mentor to young reporters: you can go awfully wrong betting against the American people.

Time remains to do the right thing. But only if enough people know what that is.

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I aim to keep at the Mort Report, spending more time on the road in the old way: up close, with trusted sources, cultural backdrops and non-alternative facts.

My volunteer editors and I intend to keep it free for a wide reach. Each dispatch gets to more readers than a brisk-selling book, including top-level people in governments and news organizations across the world. It is growing fast.

But it requires substantial wherewithal. Trump's jihad on honest reporting means legal support, factcheckers and documentation. Travel costs soar. Funds I saved during well-paid days for later nonprofit work are dwindling. I can no longer subsidize shortfalls.

Most everyone is punching new holes to tighten belts. The crunch will likely worsen as a wealthy few dismantle America to pay for a $4.5 trillion tax cut. But if you are able, or know others who are, please consider pitching in.

The Donate tab below offers an option to bypass the clutches of PayPal with a credit card. It accepts a one-time donation but also continuing monthly support. The latter is extremely helpful for long-term planning and for scaling crucial research paywalls.

Checks to Reporting Unlimited reach me at Mort Rosenblum, 2114 W. Grant Road, PMB 38, Tucson, Arizona 85745. For a larger tax-deductible contribution, please email me: mort.rosenblum@gmail.com.

This is no longer about Republicans and Democrats. Sustained protests need to remind faithless legislators and public servants who they are sworn to serve. A third of registered voters opted out in November. Their own families will suffer for it.

Only a thundering landslide can overcome election tampering, voter suppression and Elon Musk chicanery. The challenge is to persuade the persuadable with fact-based conversations that explain how much distant global crises directly impact Americans.

I am heading back to France this weekend across an ocean that has never been wider. My next dispatch will frame a mosaic of what we all face in a world Trump is handing over to Russia, China and authoritarians of every stripe.

Other reports will focus on Ukraine, the unholy land, climate collapse, oceans, migration, poverty and an Africa in violent turmoil that will be more populous than China and India combined by the time a kid born today is old enough to vote.

That long-promised guide to today's tower of media babble is in the works. For all that is wrong, much of it is excellent, with multimedia formats, data sets and words that -- more than ever -- are worth a thousand pictures.

For reasons we all know too well, digging down to ground truth is like panning for gold in the Yukon. With so much at stake, that demands commitment. Please help us to help you make that easier.

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This note just came in from an old-school reporter and educator I deeply admire:

"...Another breathtaking summary of the destruction of democracy...In the future, scholars will thank you for being an unflinching eyewitness to this sad history of the decline and death of institutions and norms, and their terrible consequences for this country and the world.

"I urge you to write another book, which can sit in libraries and on bookshelves forever, in physical form. You have so much to say, and it is so urgent that you say it in a form that will resonate as widely as possible in the future."

I'll write that book, but for now the present is in peril. Some "news outlets" pump out raw sewage. But others confirm Louis Brandeis's words from a time when the Supreme Court valued integrity: "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."

Just follow Jeffrey Goldberg's earthshaking scoop about unconscionable secrecy violations rivaled in memory only by the cache of top secrets at Mar-a-Lago that Trump tried to hide from the FBI.

Start with the link below, then work backward and forward to follow the story. Sample You-Tube videos of official lies and distortions.

Karoline Leavitt, Trump's Bad Barbie press secretary, stumbled through a script like an old-time Soviet shill spewing transparent propaganda. She blamed a reporter she slimed as a leftist hack at a failing magazine known for baseless conspiracy stories.

Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, profitable and as respected as magazines get. He reported Trump's "suckers and losers" 2020 remark at a French war cemetery about U.S. troops. That sparked outraged denials, but Gen. John Kelly confirmed it later.

His first report was pitch perfect. He described security breaches serious enough for a prison term without revealing any of the damaging details. Steve Witkoff, Trump's real estate buddy, was apparently in the Kremlin with a phone that could tapped.

Amy McGrath, a retired Marine colonel who flew combat missions, was livid. In what universe, she asked, is revealing exact times and routes of air strikes a half-hour ahead of time not classified information?

Trump denied responsibility and called it a minor mistake. He said Pete Hegseth was doing a great job. Aides blatantly lied, at times under oath, to minimize the significance. Goldberg then released the full transcript. The New York Times put it on its frontpage.

My next dispatch from Paris will add perspective, including fallout among European allies. For now, the point is clear. We still have a free press, and Trump knows it is the greatest threat to his creeping coup d'etat. This is no time for reporters to stand down.

I started school when a president declared, "The buck stops here." My goal now is to do all I can to shed light on a president and his kleptocrats who put every buck they can into their own pockets, destroying America while crippling a still reasonably good world.

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New York Times details The Atlantic's Signal breach reporting