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 — Now they are coming for the journalists, and we won't know what happens next. If these pigs who walk on two legs prevail, before long no one will be around to write "Animal World," a non-fiction sequel to George Orwell's farmyard allegory.
Even if our overheating planet does not slough off us hapless humans like dead skin, those tempted to "speak truth to power" will have a hell of time finding safe exile in an authoritarian world.
Last week while Donald Trump was making crystal clear that he is the worst U.S. president ever, a quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt went viral. The man who ended the Great Depression and led allies to beat back Nazi Germany declared:
"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."
As an old hand still able to jump out of a jeep and navigate hostile territory, I am shifting modes from Quixote to Zapata. Upcoming dispatches will shape big-picture mosaics of global challenges — and ways to confront them.
But this is drop-dead urgent. A senile, malignant narcissist president is siccing masked goons onto American streets to summarily execute good-hearted citizens, label them "domestic terrorists" and then flip a middle finger at anyone who objects.
TUCSON — Renee Good was the last straw. The snap of that figurative camel's back echoes loudly across every part of the globe.
Democracy is on its last legs when masked goons storm peaceful streets with apparent impunity to open fire on terrified, law-abiding young mothers trying to elude them after taking their kids to school — and then a president blames the victim.
Beyond so many Americans' narrow line of sight, decent people across the world watch Donald Trump with visceral contempt. Dictators, no longer constrained by values America once defended, pop champagne corks and make plans.
Today's headlines say Donald Trump threatens 25 percent tariffs on European allies who won't give him Greenland. Americans would pay more sales sales in exchange for risking a hot war with NATO, which has kept the peace since 1949.
He has mugged a southern neighbor for its oil, allowed Russia to run roughshod in Europe, tossed fuel on Middle East flames, and he continues to chest bump China toward a global war it might win. A "free world" cannot last long like that.
For a decade, he has exploited the gullible with guile, reshaping America in his own despicable image. The Grand Old Party no longer suits its nickname. Greed-driven faithless Republicans fall in line.
Trump thumps a bible he has likely never read. His text is "Mein Kampf." A Kool-Aid cult parrots outrageous Big Lies. An old proverb explains why so many others watch in silence: "There are none so blind as they who will not see."
Fearing a Republican rout in November, he is going for broke. His bogus "insurrections" presage martial law to thwart elections. Stephen Miller, his junkyard-dog deputy chief of staff, is blunt: We're in charge so shut up. Might makes right.
Polls say just over half of Americans believe Renee Good's death was unjustified. What in hell are the rest of them thinking?
