CORRUPTION IS STILL A FAMILY BUSINESS, WHEREVER – We wonder why Trump objects to the maintenance of political power as a family business  -- he thinks it is “unacceptable” that the son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Khamenei should succeed his father. How does Don Jr. feel about that? Trump’s inside-outside game -- where huge parts of his policy objectives and machinations in areas like crypto, real estate deals and generally corrupt gains enabled by deregulation and no-bid contracts enrich his family empire -- fits right into politics as a family business. What could go wrong? In this game of “Succession,” as it turns out, a Middle East war is required to create the vacancy, and plenty could go wrong. Lessons unlearned, one more time.

We remaining VVAW members (fewer and fewer) mourn the death of Country Joe McDonald, whose “Fixin’ to Die Rag” set the tone for our resistance.

And yes, the News You Can Use, as progressive Marylanders, happens in Maryland mostly -- the general assembly is approaching a month to go till sine die, and still lots to do. Make sure it is done on your behalf; check this week's memo for avenues to ensure that. And all over the state citizens are fighting ICE and its plan to house detainees in warehouses (seriously -- that's how DHS feels about anyone they collar). And as we scuffle over these issues, the Chesapeake Bay is shrinking the state, acre by acre, because, well, the land is sinking as the water rises. So much to do. It's News You Can Use.

A Monday morning note from the Associated Press about the (according to Trump) affordability “hoax”: “A barrel of Brent crude [oil], the international standard, was trading at $79.41 per barrel early Monday, according to FactSet, up 9% from its trading price of $72.87 on Friday, at the time a seven-month high. Higher global energy prices mean consumers will pay more for gasoline at the pump and have to shell out more for groceries and other goods at a time when many are already feeling the impacts of elevated inflation.”

So, back to forever wars (see Megan E's national report below). It's a good distraction, if you are Donald Trump, from the failure of his claims of affordability, the continued fascist brutality of ICE in Maryland and elsewhere, and the menace of Trump's threats to take over the way elections are run (constitutionally a job that states do.)

Working families have learned to duck and cover to preserve their already shaky jobs and livelihoods while the wars of choice flicker overhead. Marylanders' control and influence over the work of their own government and lawmaking remain, so don't duck so far you miss opportunities to increase our power and agency at our own level. Those options are always there, as we see each week in the Memo.

It's News You Can Use, peacetime or not.

The memo will be posted here after the email has been sent.

One of the peskiest problems that Gov. Moore and the General Assembly face in trying to balance the state's budget is protecting the Blueprint for school improvement against being chipped away or delayed in its implementation plan by other urgent priorities. Full funding for a critical area, Community Schools with wraparound child and family support, has been delayed several times. And that effort is related to many other child-centered concerns, such as the embattled foster-care system and professional support for kids in school (all of which see below). It's easy to get distracted by national arguments and the shenanigans of Donald Trump (the Master of Distraction; bombs may be falling on Iran as you read this).

But the kids who are coming up now need more help -- from us -- than they are getting, and that is a due-bill that we will keep on paying at considerable interest.

It's News You Can Use.

The Big Ugly Bill that Trump oddly refers to as "Beautiful" included quite a few provisions that added tons of tax deductions for the wealthy by looting state treasuries and their revenue systems. A number of bills are quietly getting traction in the Assembly to choke off that loot-fest, as noted atop our HERE IN MARYLAND roundup.

The Assembly has also passed, and Gov. Moore signed today, a measure preventing ICE and border control goons from co-opting the efforts of local law enforcement through an agreement that looks good for local governments but puts everyone at risk -- as we know from the depredations of those same masked, unidentified ICE goons around the country.

So far so good -- but, as one veteran legislator used to say, it takes three or four years to get a good bill through the Assembly -- but only one year for a bad one. How can you make a difference?

Many Marylanders find themselves surprised by how much they can learn, and do, at https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite  -- the website of the Maryland General Assembly. All the bills are there and all the hearings where the fate of those bills may be decided. You can be heard in those hearings, and without going to Annapolis to do so. The website language is carefully neutral and therefore a little deceptive about which bills are important and highly supportable. That's where outfits like Progressive Maryland and the Maryland Legislative Coalition step in. You can get weekly accounts of the bills that need passing at our Weekly Memo (you can get it in your inbox here ) or get our virtual Annapolis Task Force briefing on how to be heard on bills here. The Maryland Legislative Coalition's weekly roundups during session keep you up on the bills and hearings that really matter. Advocacy organizations in climate/environment, social justice, education and community solidarity all have ways of keeping you up during our top-speed legislative sessions. The legislature is entering one of the most active parts of their session, so don't get ambushed after April by bills that are bad for you and your community.

Below you can see how states (and the feds) are managing their governance, for better or worse. Might be some lessons there, pointing in both directions. That's why we call it News You Can Use.

Maryland, not heavily engaged with ICE enforcement at the battleground scale of Minnesota and some other states, is nevertheless ramping up its defenses. Trump's wholly vindictive assault against Minneapolis-St. Paul is showing signs of wear but state and national officials -- including some in Congress -- are still trying to temper the damage by legal means. Judges, however, are making long lists of the number of legal rulings that the mock-warriors of DHS are routinely ignoring. Congress is near-deadlock on funding the Department of Homeland Security unless Democratic requirements for controlling ICE tactics get some satisfaction. If it gets more intense we might have to do this twice a week. It's News You Can Use, but don't look away too fast or you might miss something.

The Memo will be posted here after the email version has been sent.

Right here in Maryland, the slow-building catastrophe of Trump retribution against Blue states adds up, as our legislature works to manage its way through Gov. Moore's proposed tough-love budget. Federal pullbacks in a wide variety of public benefits, from medical care to food assistance to education to the loss of hundreds of thousands of federal jobs by state residents, leave the cupboard pretty bare. Two years in a row of wrenching deficit solutions have shaken the typical good-natured rivalry between progressive groups seeking funding and legislators holding out on funds. Meanwhile, Trump's ICE paramilitary goon squad continues to terrorize populations, not only in Minnesota but in many cities around the nation. And the response is resistance: "ICE out" in Baltimore and at the Grammies, and 9,000-plus Chicagolanders voted to name their newest snowplow "Abolish Ice" -- nearly three-quarters of those who suggested names. It's all News You Can Use.

Anyone, including your correspondent, approaches the keyboard with a heavy heart this week. It feels punk to tap out sentences about resistance while thousands of our fellow humans  are out in subzero temperatures in Minnesota (and this week, everywhere) fighting back against  occupation and terrorism by a  poorly-trained gang of thugs.

Here in Maryland we are much less troubled by that Minnesota not-nice brand of oppression but suffering from the Trump Gang’s discriminatory persecution of many of our fellow citizens and immigrants of various status who don’t look like white billionaires. On top of that, our state budget took a mighty hit from the Big (Un)Beautiful Bill that diverted so much of our tax money to ICE (Trump’s personal armed force) and away from the public-health and premium subsidies that have allowed families to have medical insurance since the Obama administration (as the stories below detail). Our General Assembly is wrestling with the resulting deficit in its session right now (or, actually, after the snow and ice are cleared somewhat). It already looks as though the state’s commitment to a clean energy future will be slowed and the out-of-pocket cost of going to college in Maryland increased.

It’s News You Can Use, sometimes better, sometimes not so great.

We’ll lead by passing along Megan E’s abbreviated message for today.

“Hello People’s Action,

”I hope you’re all hanging in there. I’m in a convening today so this will be short but there are a bunch of mass calls and webinars [involved with People’s Action initiatives to fight back] listed below.

“The Senate is on recess. The House is trying to pass government funding bills. 

“And no, I don’t know if we’re going to invade Denmark. From Punchbowl “As tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Copenhagen Saturday to protest Trump’s threats toward Greenland, the president announced he planned to impose new tariffs on Denmark and seven other European nations for opposing his drive to acquire Greenland.”  Republicans in Congress are pretty much uniformly opposed to this plan but  almost uniformly unwilling to speak up against it (with a couple notable exceptions). “ [Megan is People's Action federal affairs director.]

We can’t beat Megan’s account of GOP fearful subservience to the Glorious Leader at this point. Denmark? Yes, invading Greenland is like invading Denmark. Copenhagen, all that. See our several articles on the one-year “Move Fast and Break Things” behavior Trump has used to keep our eyes fixed on him (in self-defense). Trump is crashing the big billionaires’ party in Davos as we write, and Bloomberg reports that many of those hardnosed billionaires are getting scammed by sharpsters selling elite access passes supposed to bring them within ring-kissing range of Himself. Alas, they’ll be out of pocket and disappointed.

Watch this (Trump) space, as if we could safely ignore it. It’s News You Can Use.

The Memo will be posted here after the email version has been sent.

As the General Assembly begins its three-month gallop of a session, the new Speaker builds a distinctly more progressive team in the House while Gov. Moore vows to make the state less dependent on the vagaries of federal employment. As the legislators head for Annapolis, events in Minnesota and elsewhere bring nationwide protests against the savagery of ICE agents and the buttheadedness of its leadership (yes, the one under the oversized cowboy hat).

It all comes from the top, of course. The lunatic decrepitude of Trump is more apparent each time he realizes a fantasy (briefly) with an executive order or (violently) by directing military action against Venezuela and threatens others, including NATO allies. We frankly haven't had the fortitude to read through the transcript of his two-hour interview with NYT reporters; when we do, we'll be better able to decide just how far over the cliff he has gone.

States -- including Maryland -- are fighting back, including through the courts.  Much of Trump's worst activity is stuck in traffic and he increasingly voices fear that he will lose control of the US House in the midterms. He is afraid of being impeached but he probably needs to worry less about that than becoming irrelevant. So 2026 is brightening. It's News You Can Use.

So much excitement for 2026's first News You Can Use. Trump finally has an "Osama bin Laden moment" to top Obama's (and distract from Epstein stuff)  although Mar-a-Lago doesn't really have a Situation Room We bet he's building one there now as we speak. States, we see below, are trying to find work-arounds for all the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies now last year's news; many  states (like Maryland) are about to begin legislative sessions and find out how many other things they/we really have to worry about.

But News You Can Use has made it to 2026 and promises to keep you up on outrages and attafolkses at the global/federal, state and local level.