Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD

Yes!

Tornado

Sun

These photos are 20 minutes apart, the first is from THE TORNADO that just hit St Louis!

Trump and his cohort embody the “deep state” they claim to fight, and the FBI embodies the corruption they claim to counter. Their decades-long, mutually beneficial relationship has been extremely damaging to the US. The roots of it need to be examined — and pulled out.

Why thank you -- I do think it was nice of me to provide a large free excerpt of a book you'd normally have to pay for! No I'm not copying it all out manually. If you want to go ahead.

Hiding in Plain sight book cover

From 2020: Comey doesn't want Trump to be investigated because doesn't want his own activity to be investigated. Comey spent his tenure at the FBI protecting a mafia syndicate linked to the Kremlin -- a mafia syndicate two other former FBI heads went on to serve.

-- HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020)

It's bizarre how pundits and politicians cover Trump's second term with little mention of the first term, even though it's a direct extension. Just as they covered his first term as if it weren't a continuation of a lifetime in organized crime. They treat everything as disparate when it's one story.

It became much easier for them to do this when paywalls were instituted and many outlets and archives were deleted in 2021, soon after Trump left office. This trend has since accelerated and led to the erasure of history and in turn, memory. The deletion of Twitter accounts also contributed to it.

A must read if you’re interested in learning how we got here

From my book HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT:
"Trump covers up crime with scandal. That is his main propaganda tactic, the one few seem to be able to discern...The crimes are much worse than the scandals, but the media will always take the scandal bait."

Exactly!

Twelve Migrants Sharing a Queens Apartment In New York City, a shadow economy helps new arrivals find a place to sleep. Sometimes it’s just a bed and a curtain.

In February, the journalist Jordan Salama paid for a bed in an overcrowded East Elmhurst apartment shared by 12 migrants, all from Ecuador. What he witnessed was a community “focussed on the day-to-day difficulties of surviving.”

Montgomery AL New South bookstore event 5/6 at 5:30 pm THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP

Hey MONTGOMERY! I'll be at NewSouth Bookstore 5/6 at 5:30 pm to talk about THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP and more! I'll be taking questions and signing books. See you soon, Alabama! newsouthbookstore.com/event/bestse...

“End Times Fascism”: Naomi Klein on How Trump, Musk, Far Right “Don’t Believe in the Future” An alliance between the far right and Silicon Valley oligarchs has given rise to a form of “end times fascism,” says journalist Naomi Klein, who details in a recent essay co-authored with Astra Taylor...

"End Times Fascism": Naomi Klein on How Trump, Musk, Far Right "Don't Believe in the Future"

Related: bsky.app/profile/sara...

Yep. I was thinking about Marx and Engels en route to work this morning. I never doubted that they were wrong, but their predictions are ever so salient in this historical moment on the US.

The sleepy, old guy saw nine straight quarters of record stock gains and job growth. The smartest businessman in the world fucked it all up in eight weeks.

I hope DC, specifically Politics and Prose is on your tour.

List of tour dates, same info here as in the links in the post

Updated graphic for the LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP Tour. Kenny Mayne is my conversation partner in Seattle! Come join us!

Information here: sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/my-book-to...

And here: www.sarahkendziorbooks.com

The Last American Road Trip by Sarah Kendzior

Just picked up my pre-ordered copy of @sarahkendzior.bsky.social’s The Last American Road Trip from my fantastic local independent bookstore, @audreysbooksyeg.bsky.social.

I’m excited (if a bit apprehensive) to read this.

The clearest eyed, most perceptive chronicler (and predictor) of America's slide into authoritarian dystopia. She's there in flyover country, saw what was hiding in plain sight, and proved that they knew.

Now this.

Can't wait to pick it up...

I've been following for just about 10 years. The foresight to our current state has been eerie and incredible. Will be buying!

In case you are confused by recent events this may help clarify a few things.

Mahmoud Khalil’s Constitutional Rights and the Power of ICE A legal scholar explains the unusual justification for the Columbia graduate’s arrest, and what it could augur for immigration enforcement in Trump’s second term.

“The idea that ICE can detain people on the basis of its own conclusions or biases, and then decide later how it wants to charge the person, is extremely problematic,” a legal scholar says, about the arrest of the Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil.

The Dangers of R.F.K., Jr.,’s Measles Response The H.H.S. Secretary has touted over-the-counter remedies and stressed that the decision to vaccinate is “personal.”

When R.F.K., Jr., says that Americans are “the sickest people on earth,” he does not acknowledge that the nations at the top of the health-care rankings all have two things he doesn’t like: universal health care and comprehensive vaccine programs.

Keep Writing, Even If No One's Reading If words fall on a page, they have meaning

open.substack.com/pub/rashabar...

Let’s Create “Town Hall Night in America” It’s time for Democrats to institutionalize our oldest form of democracy

excellent piece! oldgoats.substack.com/p/lets-creat...

Ha, except if you close your eyes at the Martin Luther King Jr library in Washington DC, the guard will walk up and tell you there is no sleeping in the library. Snoring is all about the population patronizing the library: some folks can snore others can’t close their eyes. Absurd!

Book giveaway for Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea by Marcus Rediker Mar 02-Mar 31, 2025 Enter to win one of 40 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Mar 02-Mar 31, 2025. We're giving away 40 early copies of FREEDOM SHIP, a gripping acco...

Goodreads is giving away forty free copies of my forthcoming book *Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea*, to be published in May by Viking Books (@vikingbooks.bsky.social). More info here:

www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...

Totem and Taboo On nostalgia for the future and invaders of the present.

From October 2024: "The USA is on a crime spree against foreign civilians and against its own people... It is a controlled demolition led by kleptocrats and billionaires."
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/totem-and-...

I've got a new book out in April! Enter the giveaway below or preorder a copy here: www.thelastamericanroadtrip.com

When an American Town Massacred Its Chinese Immigrants In 1885, white rioters murdered dozens of their Asian neighbors in Rock Springs, Wyoming. A hundred and forty years later, the story of the atrocity is still being unearthed.

In 1885, in one of the most gruesome episodes of racial terror in U.S. history, a white mob killed at least 28 Chinese residents of Rock Springs, Wyoming, and burned down the town’s Chinese quarter. @michaelluo.bsky.social writes about the little-known atrocity.