Good work - your play, the Light Brigade, ProPublica, (sp?) and reminder links to the Senate. Shocking to hear that existing clubs/groups at West Point got caught in the crosshairs of the fears from maga(a rather diverse group of extremists, IMO).
My military.com website reported Thursday that access to both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army Military Women’s History websites had been shut down…essentially “erasing” our contributions to our country.
A few hours later, I learned Musk’s hackers had gained access to our VA computer system…essentially “exposing” my medical records/service-connected disability benefits…along with massive numbers of other military veterans once-private information.
Pete Hegseth’s well-documented contempt for active duty/former and retired women veterans was rewarded with the position of Secretary of Defense by our Congress and Senate. I will find ways to survive this emotional assault…but imagine how “defense-less” current active duty women are feeling now with both their Bosses…the Prez and SECDEF …having charges of sexual assault “dismissed” in the minds of other military/government men.
What a travesty, Susan. I am so sad for you and your courageous service men and women colleagues. Thank you for your service! I hope we find a way to end the madness.
Ken, I’m so proud to call you a friend , a colleague. What an accomplishment! You have dedicated your life to journalism , to providing topics of interest, of importance to our community. And now your play will b performed for us!
I also ran into people from GF at a protest held at the Capitol on Wednesday.
People are showing up and doing their part!
It has been difficult to get through to our representatives- keep trying! It took quite awhile but I got to say my thoughts on their confirmation votes.
It looks to me that RFK may just be appointed....I've lost hope someone will stand up and scream - which is what they should be doing - and realize that it is on us as communities to figure all this out.
At least in NYS we have officials who comprehend we are in danger here and are setting up protections for us against trump.
I read a report today - Heather Cox Richardson I believe - that the phone systems are overwhelmed in Washington. They usually get 40 calls a minute and they are receiving 1600 a minute.
Thank you, Ken. I feel blessed to be part of this community formed around your writing. As a relatively newcomer to the area (moved here 3 years ago), I have found a lot of good and relevant information in your books, and also in Will's and your articles. You are both engaged in the community and brave to tackle serious issues that affect us. I admire the Light Bridage's work and their dedication to activism.
What West Point has done will be sadly copied around the country.
I read that NASA had been directly targeted for immediate changes, too.
Congratulations on the adaptation of your book. Innovative - and it should be a very good draw this July.
Re the “stature” of the Post Star, I can attest to the fact that the paper has had a long, great tradition of excellence and objectivity. In the 50s, nearly 70 years ago, I had the thrill of working Part-time during the school year - and full time during a couple of summers - with real pros at the paper. I learned a lot from veterans like Burr Patton, Ed Sherman (he sat on a high director’s chair with a green eye shade, looking slightly down on the news bullpen), Hermine Sherman, Florence McIlvane and Lindy Strout. All A class act. Fast forward 60 years and in semi retirement I was delighted to collaborate as a volunteer with the brilliant Maury Thompson on a variety of major stories on people like Nobel Prize winner Ed (Chris) Prescott of GF and Sally Bixby Defty of Bolton Landing, whose family back in St. Louis bankrolled Charles Lindbergh.
"This past week, it was reported that because the Trump administration was ending all DEI initiatives, West Point was disbanding the following clubs…."
A so-called "colorblind society" as advocated and implemented by Donald Trump is code for perpetuating a white-dominated society. It’s simply business-as-usual.
I prefer to use words that express what’s really happening here: resegregation. Trump’s "D.E.I. ban" is nothing less than an effort at resegregation.
Obviously the conflict at the EPA is between government oversight and corporate polluters, so people are focused on the fossil fuel industry, but there is another thread to be teased from this ball of yarns, Musk and Doge.
SpaceX has an EPA problem.
Musk also has a Starlink problem, in that his satellites are falling out of the sky at an alarming rate 1.7% fell out orbit in January alone and with solar flares at solar maximum for months ahead of us Starlink could lose too many to replace and continue to be profitable while at the same time SpaceX faces potential grounding due to environmental problems. And the burning up of so many satellites in the upper atmosphere could radically change the atmosphere in ways that are unknown and unstudied.
But also, Starlink was being investigated by USAID because of shutting down access to Ukraine at critical moments in its war with Russia.
Makes you wonder about why Musk’s teams were attacking USAID among the first agencies in order to create government efficiency despite USAID being less that 1% of the total government budget. Was there some complicity between Musk and Putin that a USAID investigation might have uncovered?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand your fact-based decades-long reporting of history Mike (which many of us have read about in articles over the past year)…and to recognize that all the corporate connections which Musk, (since he left South Africa, left Canada, gained U.S. citizenship/then dropped out of Stamford U.) co- created with the already known “tzars” of enemy countries…paved the way for financing so many of his failed adventures on land and in space.
China, Russia, North Korea and other commie-corrupt regimes truly OWN Musk…just as they “own” Trump and his family…and many of our previous and current elected officials which the Bannon -Breitbart team and other deep-dive info hires have used to blackmail cowardly sex-offenders, money launderers and other GOP offenders/some DEMS into bending their knees with their votes to avoid Divorces/firings/prison etc.
The sudden surge in crashing of Starlink satellites is being blamed on the mass retirement of the first-generation (Gen1) Starlink satellites, which are making way for newer models, with over 500 of the 4,700 Gen1 satellites already reaching the end of life."
The article also explains why scientist are concerned.
Mike, you write “Starlink was being investigated by USAID because of shutting down access to Ukraine at critical moments in its war with Russia.” Do you have a source? The following link appears to go against what you claim. “Elon Musk's Starlink Signs Major Deal With Ukraine” https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-satellite-company-starlink-urkaine-2007405
How much of USAID goes South Africa? Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa's administrative capital. Perhaps his attack on USAID has something to do with his past not Ukraine and Russia.
Thank you for reinforcing the validity of what I wrote.
I had not considered that Musk may also hold some childhood grudge against USAID, but while that could also be true USAID was in fact investigating Starlink.
Nice spin and side stepping the question also. Mike, I believe the Democrats already made their choice. It validates the negative effects in the upper atmosphere, that is it. The rest of what write is up to the readers perspective and brings to my mind the rhetoric of a politician.
What did I sidestep? The fact that Elon Musk grew up in an apartheid state? I’m not sure what that has to do with anything except his willingness to be a Nazi.
The question of the atmosphere is that we do not have scientific research on the effects of hundreds of satellites burning up and we should be careful about running an experiment on this scale. That is called prudent.
But if you are accusing me of sidestepping the question of USAID investigating Starlink you should be aware that USAID was performing the exact function Musk claims DOGE is doing - protecting the resources of taxpayer funding by investigating how government monies were used by a Pentagon contractor: Starlink.
That would be the question in question Mike. It is a simple question, what is your source for your statement “Starlink was being investigated by USAID”?
While certainly not the first woman to enter medical school, I was among the first year (1970, the year of riots that closed many campuses) that allowed more than 2-4 women/class. SUNY Buffalo was forced through sit-ins and student protests to expand from 100 students to 120 in their freshman class, the extra 20 all being Black, Hispanic, Asian and/or women (so a Black Woman was a 2-fer!). That increase in diversity was a sudden shift but it ultimately led to women now, nearly 50 years later, making up most of each medical school class. Black and other minority students are still not as fully represented as they should be, and stopping DEI will further set back that progress.
Sounds good. A trip to NY may be on my summer agenda.
BTW And then struggling papers must fight this:Lee Enterprises, the parent company of (Waterloo, Iowa) The Courier ( and Richmond Virginia Times)and 76 other newspapers across the nation, was the victim of a cybersecurity event that shut down many of its networks this week, the company announced Friday.
In a statement to employees, Lee President and CEO Kevin Mowbray said the company is focused on investigating what information, if any, was affected. Lee has notified law enforcement. The company is working to identify and implement steps to prevent this from happening again.
Mowbray thanked employees for “above-and-beyond efforts to continue reporting the news and maintaining our operations under challenging circumstances.”
The outage prevented The Courier from producing a printed paper on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as E-editions. Efforts are under way to deliver all editions as soon as possible.
Printed papers were also delayed at Lee’s other Iowa papers in Council Bluffs, Davenport, Mason City and Sioux City. Those papers will be delivered in the coming days.
So many people have been asking me why there was no delivery this week. The Post-Star was very vague about the reasons. Thanks for the update. Their latest financials were not good either.
Thank you for explaining what many if us local pre-paid subscribers suspected re: absence of our paper deliveries/online subscriptions over the past week. Guess that means one more domestic White House terrorist group may now have access to our no-longer-private information/credit card accounts.
Given the uncertainties, yesterday I mailed a thank you card/note to “All Post Star Reporters,” (who may or may not still be employed at The Post Star) for their tireless efforts over the past year in attending meetings and events, interviewing local officials and citizens, and honoring the field of journalism as best they could, for as long as they could, considering all the restraints by the parent company on what local articles actually made it into our local newspaper. And I wished them all well in promoting good citizenship in all the days ahead…if they lose their jobs.
Ken wrote: "That's a lot of responsibility and with newspapers diminished in so many ways, it is critical to remind citizens of the value they once held in our communities."
I’m reminded every day of what we’ve lost locally, over the past decade or more, in daily newspaper coverage of our village, town, and county events — both government and the broader community. I do appreciate The Front Page for filling-in some of the gaps.
Thank you for reading. I do fear that the lack of that central communications tool has hurt our community in ways we do not even know. I often said the newspaper was the glue that held everything together.
From 15 to 65, newspapers small and large were the only jobs I ever had. I loved my family and newspapers. I've been copy boy to publisher. Now at 88 our lives are nearing the end. It's been a great time.
Thank you, Ken, for your work through the years...and now in your substack. I am going i to the Adirondack Theatre festival next week with friends from the farmers' market--our glens falls market another local experience of kindness and goodness...and i look forward to July and your play. I have been calling stec who has been silent about the destruction of Trump and Musk and the EPA. i think we should have a local action at his office because silence with evil is complicity--lStefanik a perfect example of someone who sold her soul--as did the whole Republican party. Everyday i thought to call some in the house and senate asking them to stop some of the dangerous appointments for the cabinet and some of the illegal actions of Musk and the dictatorial and disgusting words of Trump, but they are loyal to Trump and continue their lies...my last calls just said SHAME. And thank you for ProPublica because they do such good work. And thank you for your continual coverage of the light brigade--and even coming to the overpass with Gillian and with your dog. And last for your writing about diversity--the richness of different cultures, the history we need to know, the celebration of life,...I belong to Center for biodiversity--diversity as the principle and center of life on our earth, ). The literal vendetta against DEI shows how dangerous and sterile this now government in its suppression of words, actions, values, art, culture..........
Good work - your play, the Light Brigade, ProPublica, (sp?) and reminder links to the Senate. Shocking to hear that existing clubs/groups at West Point got caught in the crosshairs of the fears from maga(a rather diverse group of extremists, IMO).
My military.com website reported Thursday that access to both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army Military Women’s History websites had been shut down…essentially “erasing” our contributions to our country.
A few hours later, I learned Musk’s hackers had gained access to our VA computer system…essentially “exposing” my medical records/service-connected disability benefits…along with massive numbers of other military veterans once-private information.
Pete Hegseth’s well-documented contempt for active duty/former and retired women veterans was rewarded with the position of Secretary of Defense by our Congress and Senate. I will find ways to survive this emotional assault…but imagine how “defense-less” current active duty women are feeling now with both their Bosses…the Prez and SECDEF …having charges of sexual assault “dismissed” in the minds of other military/government men.
Sadly, with all that is going on, we forget that.
So sad, Susan…
What a travesty, Susan. I am so sad for you and your courageous service men and women colleagues. Thank you for your service! I hope we find a way to end the madness.
Truly outrageous.
Ken, I’m so proud to call you a friend , a colleague. What an accomplishment! You have dedicated your life to journalism , to providing topics of interest, of importance to our community. And now your play will b performed for us!
Bravo! 😉👍👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Humbling words, Gloria. I'm glad to call you a friend and colleague as well.
I'm so fortunate to know the Light Brigade!
I also ran into people from GF at a protest held at the Capitol on Wednesday.
People are showing up and doing their part!
It has been difficult to get through to our representatives- keep trying! It took quite awhile but I got to say my thoughts on their confirmation votes.
It looks to me that RFK may just be appointed....I've lost hope someone will stand up and scream - which is what they should be doing - and realize that it is on us as communities to figure all this out.
At least in NYS we have officials who comprehend we are in danger here and are setting up protections for us against trump.
I look forward to your play .
I read a report today - Heather Cox Richardson I believe - that the phone systems are overwhelmed in Washington. They usually get 40 calls a minute and they are receiving 1600 a minute.
Yes, but a little over half the elected officials are not listening. They already have their marching orders.
Thank you, Ken. I feel blessed to be part of this community formed around your writing. As a relatively newcomer to the area (moved here 3 years ago), I have found a lot of good and relevant information in your books, and also in Will's and your articles. You are both engaged in the community and brave to tackle serious issues that affect us. I admire the Light Bridage's work and their dedication to activism.
What West Point has done will be sadly copied around the country.
I read that NASA had been directly targeted for immediate changes, too.
https://www.flyingmag.com/nasa-asked-to-scrub-women-in-leadership-other-dei-terms-from-websites/
DEI programs largely supported women. We are going backward at full speed. It feels like the EPA workers say, "we are being terrorized." 😣
PS. Email works well to reach out to senators. They are reporting being flooded with calls and emails 🙌
Congratulations on the adaptation of your book. Innovative - and it should be a very good draw this July.
Re the “stature” of the Post Star, I can attest to the fact that the paper has had a long, great tradition of excellence and objectivity. In the 50s, nearly 70 years ago, I had the thrill of working Part-time during the school year - and full time during a couple of summers - with real pros at the paper. I learned a lot from veterans like Burr Patton, Ed Sherman (he sat on a high director’s chair with a green eye shade, looking slightly down on the news bullpen), Hermine Sherman, Florence McIlvane and Lindy Strout. All A class act. Fast forward 60 years and in semi retirement I was delighted to collaborate as a volunteer with the brilliant Maury Thompson on a variety of major stories on people like Nobel Prize winner Ed (Chris) Prescott of GF and Sally Bixby Defty of Bolton Landing, whose family back in St. Louis bankrolled Charles Lindbergh.
The Post-Star birthed many long and productive journalism careers throughout the Capital District and beyond.
I suspect you were the midwife in many of those births. :)
Never thought of it that way as well as other editors.
Great! Congrats! When do the tickets go on sale?
I believe the season tickets are on sale now - for all the shows - and I believe individual tickets will come later. I will keep you posted.
Thanks. I saw single tix go on sale May 1. I have an alert on my calendar to get (at least) 7 for our contingent then.
Wow, that is awesome!
"This past week, it was reported that because the Trump administration was ending all DEI initiatives, West Point was disbanding the following clubs…."
A so-called "colorblind society" as advocated and implemented by Donald Trump is code for perpetuating a white-dominated society. It’s simply business-as-usual.
I prefer to use words that express what’s really happening here: resegregation. Trump’s "D.E.I. ban" is nothing less than an effort at resegregation.
Appears to be a MALE white-dominated society, doesnt it?
Yes. The not-so-hidden message from MAGA is, I think, women should be barefoot and pregnant, preferably in the kitchen.
Ah yes I remember those days - and they were NOT "great"!
“Follow the money.”
Obviously the conflict at the EPA is between government oversight and corporate polluters, so people are focused on the fossil fuel industry, but there is another thread to be teased from this ball of yarns, Musk and Doge.
SpaceX has an EPA problem.
Musk also has a Starlink problem, in that his satellites are falling out of the sky at an alarming rate 1.7% fell out orbit in January alone and with solar flares at solar maximum for months ahead of us Starlink could lose too many to replace and continue to be profitable while at the same time SpaceX faces potential grounding due to environmental problems. And the burning up of so many satellites in the upper atmosphere could radically change the atmosphere in ways that are unknown and unstudied.
But also, Starlink was being investigated by USAID because of shutting down access to Ukraine at critical moments in its war with Russia.
Makes you wonder about why Musk’s teams were attacking USAID among the first agencies in order to create government efficiency despite USAID being less that 1% of the total government budget. Was there some complicity between Musk and Putin that a USAID investigation might have uncovered?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand your fact-based decades-long reporting of history Mike (which many of us have read about in articles over the past year)…and to recognize that all the corporate connections which Musk, (since he left South Africa, left Canada, gained U.S. citizenship/then dropped out of Stamford U.) co- created with the already known “tzars” of enemy countries…paved the way for financing so many of his failed adventures on land and in space.
China, Russia, North Korea and other commie-corrupt regimes truly OWN Musk…just as they “own” Trump and his family…and many of our previous and current elected officials which the Bannon -Breitbart team and other deep-dive info hires have used to blackmail cowardly sex-offenders, money launderers and other GOP offenders/some DEMS into bending their knees with their votes to avoid Divorces/firings/prison etc.
Hi Mike, "Elon Musk's Starlinks are crashing: 120 satellites fell from space in January 2025" https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/elon-musks-starlinks-are-crashing-120-satellites-fell-from-space-in-january-2025-2675649-2025-02-06
"WHY ARE STARLINKS CRASHING DAILY?
The sudden surge in crashing of Starlink satellites is being blamed on the mass retirement of the first-generation (Gen1) Starlink satellites, which are making way for newer models, with over 500 of the 4,700 Gen1 satellites already reaching the end of life."
The article also explains why scientist are concerned.
Mike, you write “Starlink was being investigated by USAID because of shutting down access to Ukraine at critical moments in its war with Russia.” Do you have a source? The following link appears to go against what you claim. “Elon Musk's Starlink Signs Major Deal With Ukraine” https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-satellite-company-starlink-urkaine-2007405
How much of USAID goes South Africa? Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa's administrative capital. Perhaps his attack on USAID has something to do with his past not Ukraine and Russia.
Thank you for reinforcing the validity of what I wrote.
I had not considered that Musk may also hold some childhood grudge against USAID, but while that could also be true USAID was in fact investigating Starlink.
Nice spin and side stepping the question also. Mike, I believe the Democrats already made their choice. It validates the negative effects in the upper atmosphere, that is it. The rest of what write is up to the readers perspective and brings to my mind the rhetoric of a politician.
What did I sidestep? The fact that Elon Musk grew up in an apartheid state? I’m not sure what that has to do with anything except his willingness to be a Nazi.
The question of the atmosphere is that we do not have scientific research on the effects of hundreds of satellites burning up and we should be careful about running an experiment on this scale. That is called prudent.
But if you are accusing me of sidestepping the question of USAID investigating Starlink you should be aware that USAID was performing the exact function Musk claims DOGE is doing - protecting the resources of taxpayer funding by investigating how government monies were used by a Pentagon contractor: Starlink.
Read: https://apnews.com/article/spacex-ukraine-starlink-russia-air-force-fde93d9a69d7dbd1326022ecfdbc53c2?utm_source=www.thehandbasket.co&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=elon-musk-crosses-the-border-to-nazi
That would be the question in question Mike. It is a simple question, what is your source for your statement “Starlink was being investigated by USAID”?
1) USAID announcement.
2) news stories like this: https://www.newsweek.com/usaid-elon-musk-starlink-probe-ukraine-2027054
While certainly not the first woman to enter medical school, I was among the first year (1970, the year of riots that closed many campuses) that allowed more than 2-4 women/class. SUNY Buffalo was forced through sit-ins and student protests to expand from 100 students to 120 in their freshman class, the extra 20 all being Black, Hispanic, Asian and/or women (so a Black Woman was a 2-fer!). That increase in diversity was a sudden shift but it ultimately led to women now, nearly 50 years later, making up most of each medical school class. Black and other minority students are still not as fully represented as they should be, and stopping DEI will further set back that progress.
Sounds good. A trip to NY may be on my summer agenda.
BTW And then struggling papers must fight this:Lee Enterprises, the parent company of (Waterloo, Iowa) The Courier ( and Richmond Virginia Times)and 76 other newspapers across the nation, was the victim of a cybersecurity event that shut down many of its networks this week, the company announced Friday.
In a statement to employees, Lee President and CEO Kevin Mowbray said the company is focused on investigating what information, if any, was affected. Lee has notified law enforcement. The company is working to identify and implement steps to prevent this from happening again.
Mowbray thanked employees for “above-and-beyond efforts to continue reporting the news and maintaining our operations under challenging circumstances.”
The outage prevented The Courier from producing a printed paper on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as E-editions. Efforts are under way to deliver all editions as soon as possible.
Printed papers were also delayed at Lee’s other Iowa papers in Council Bluffs, Davenport, Mason City and Sioux City. Those papers will be delivered in the coming days.
So many people have been asking me why there was no delivery this week. The Post-Star was very vague about the reasons. Thanks for the update. Their latest financials were not good either.
Thank you for explaining what many if us local pre-paid subscribers suspected re: absence of our paper deliveries/online subscriptions over the past week. Guess that means one more domestic White House terrorist group may now have access to our no-longer-private information/credit card accounts.
Given the uncertainties, yesterday I mailed a thank you card/note to “All Post Star Reporters,” (who may or may not still be employed at The Post Star) for their tireless efforts over the past year in attending meetings and events, interviewing local officials and citizens, and honoring the field of journalism as best they could, for as long as they could, considering all the restraints by the parent company on what local articles actually made it into our local newspaper. And I wished them all well in promoting good citizenship in all the days ahead…if they lose their jobs.
Considering the musk-douche bunch, it becomes worrisome!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!! If my schedule allows, I'll be there!!!
Ken wrote: "That's a lot of responsibility and with newspapers diminished in so many ways, it is critical to remind citizens of the value they once held in our communities."
I’m reminded every day of what we’ve lost locally, over the past decade or more, in daily newspaper coverage of our village, town, and county events — both government and the broader community. I do appreciate The Front Page for filling-in some of the gaps.
Thank you for reading. I do fear that the lack of that central communications tool has hurt our community in ways we do not even know. I often said the newspaper was the glue that held everything together.
From 15 to 65, newspapers small and large were the only jobs I ever had. I loved my family and newspapers. I've been copy boy to publisher. Now at 88 our lives are nearing the end. It's been a great time.
I suppose that is why Will and I keep writing. We can’t let go.
Congratulations on the play! Looking forward to July’s production.
Thank you, Ken, for your work through the years...and now in your substack. I am going i to the Adirondack Theatre festival next week with friends from the farmers' market--our glens falls market another local experience of kindness and goodness...and i look forward to July and your play. I have been calling stec who has been silent about the destruction of Trump and Musk and the EPA. i think we should have a local action at his office because silence with evil is complicity--lStefanik a perfect example of someone who sold her soul--as did the whole Republican party. Everyday i thought to call some in the house and senate asking them to stop some of the dangerous appointments for the cabinet and some of the illegal actions of Musk and the dictatorial and disgusting words of Trump, but they are loyal to Trump and continue their lies...my last calls just said SHAME. And thank you for ProPublica because they do such good work. And thank you for your continual coverage of the light brigade--and even coming to the overpass with Gillian and with your dog. And last for your writing about diversity--the richness of different cultures, the history we need to know, the celebration of life,...I belong to Center for biodiversity--diversity as the principle and center of life on our earth, ). The literal vendetta against DEI shows how dangerous and sterile this now government in its suppression of words, actions, values, art, culture..........
Thank you, Ken, for all your work.....
Can’t wait for July!!