By my count, today is the 250th day since the inauguration of the 47th president Jan. 20, 2025.

Months ago, I had a fantasy that maybe it was true he would be dictator for only one day; or that it might be true he really had no idea that there was such a thing as Project 2025.  But I decided on Day One to begin keeping the A section of the Minnesota Star Tribune for his first 100 days (photo below).  If someone ever looks they’ll find all but a tiny few of the A sections there.  The missing ones were inadvertent.  The box has near 250 of those A sections.  September 30, 2025, will be the final addition.

I will continue to be informed and in action, but if somebody else wants to start the next 250 days collection, be my guest.  Here’s my collection (and what your box would look like 250 days from now):

There is an immense amount of readily available and credible information available of what is happening on a daily basis.  We, together, are an immense resource for good but only if we get into action in the millions of ways available to every one of us wherever we live, on whatever issues are important to you.

We know the reality, now is time to get into, and stay in, action.

I plan to keep writing and staying informed and in action, but my emphasis here will be other topics.  The most recent are these:

September 11 was the gun death at Utah Valley University.  There has been immense attention to this since, culminating with a Memorial service in Glendale Arizona September 21.  I decided to do an alternative post entitled “A Gun” on September 18.  It speaks for itself, and I think it’s worth your time.

A long-time passion of mine is family history, and a recent book about over 100 French-Canadian immigrants to the small community of Dayton MN caught my attention since my Dad was 100% French-Canadian, and more than one reference in the book was to some of our ancestors.  Take a look: A French-Canadian Enclave in Twin Cities Minnesota.

September 23 I added a postnote to an earlier post from April, 2024, entitled “Consequences”.  It refers to the conviction of my former State Senator in a heavily publicized case that began in April 28, 2024.  I suggest you scroll to the end to the Postnote for September 23, 2025, and I further suggest you read the link there which was my personal letter to the Judge in the matter.

Back on July 12 and 28 I recommended and saw the new film “Superman”.  It took a while, but Tim Snyder recommended it in his post on September 23.  (I only wonder why he didn’t mention The Rift)….  If you’ve got the time, check the film out.  It speaks in one way or another to today.

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FYI:  Among those I personally depend on for fact-based news, most on Substack (alpha listing):  Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Garrison Keillor, Paul Krugman, Minnesota Star Tribune, Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson, Timothy Snyder, Mary Trump, Joyce Vance.  There are many more whose writings I see on occasion, forwarded by someone I know.

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Brief Reflection Sep 26, 2025: After I had completed the above post, I opened Mary Trumps post for September 26.  Mary is Donald J’s niece, and she knows her uncle very well.  Take a moment to read the first five paragraphs (if you’re a subscriber, you can hear her tell the same story.)

Mary’s five paragraphs are a bullying story, from a TV show she saw as a youngster.  She describes the show and its main character, a youngster who terrorizes everyone else, adults and all.  She relates the character to her Uncle Donald, both then and now.

At a point in time in my teacher representation career, there was a strong push to rein in bullying in public schools.  Anyone who’s had a normal life knows bullying from real life, maybe as a victim, possibly as a perpetrator.  I don’t need to cite examples.  Where there’s people, there are bullies.  Each of us can identify our own.

In the instant situation, today, we as a country for some reason have elected a bully, twice, to be President of the United States.  For some reason the United States Supreme Court has further empowered this bully.  We are living through the implementation of a bully-run society, and in recent days it perhaps reached its current zenith in a speech at the United Nations, and it is possibly connected in some way to the upcoming and surprise short-notice meeting of all of the major U. S. military officers in Virginia, called by the Secretary of Defense.  At this writing, no one knows for sure what this meeting is even about, but it comes soon.

The principles and consequences of bullying are simple and well known to all of us from life experience.  A bully has allies who enable his (or her) behavior.  So it is today in our national conversation.

But so do the victims of bullies, and if and when they make the decision to strike back, there are also peaceful strategies to neutralize and defeat the offenders.

During the time when tamping down bullying became an important public school initiative in my state there were lots of positive results.  I’ve been retired 25 years, so I don’t know the current reality.  But I do know that bullies can be handled by their victims, but it takes courage to say and mean “enough!”.

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A few weeks ago – a postnote to the Sep 7 post “The Hangman” – I offered a musical memory: “POSTNOTE September 8, 2025:  For some reason, the old standard of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes is running through my head: “If you don’t know me by now“.  If we don’t know the issues that face us now in the United States, we will never….  When will we wake up and get into action as individuals – the only real solution ia each and every one of us.”