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February 17, 2026

Talbot Spy

Nonpartisan Education-based News for Talbot County Community

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The 2028 Election Campaign in Motion by Al Sikes

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Party platforms are worthless—obsolete. What at one point framed at least policy guideposts is a relic. We are now surrounded by declarations and performers. Could Abraham Lincoln, with his awkward appearance, thoughtful meditations, and succinct explanations, be elected in today’s political bazaar?

We also face an overarching puzzle. Can a billionaire who spends most of his time with tech and finance peers understand or care about the wishes and perils of the other classes of human beings? Elon Musk, Jamie Dimon, or Larry Fink (Tesla/SpaceX, JP Morgan-Chase, and BlackRock) have little feel for the masses, but have more than enough money to buy performers.

As those with a sufficient bankroll to reach large audiences begin to analyze the 2028 Presidential take-off, what is ahead for us? Writ large, will the campaigns result in the U.S. being led by a steadier hand? Or, will hard-edged volatility continue to prevail, whether on the Right or Left?

Okay, I concede, my views are, in part, shaped by my wants. I want a return to sanity. I want the re-emergence of anticipation—predictability—making sense.

On the Left I would prefer the abandonment of Utopianism. It is okay to want progress, but the Left has been awash in debt-funded progressivism without connecting the dots. What, it must be asked or at least should be asked, do we get from whatever program at whatever price? And, assuming a willingness on the Left to raise taxes, how much of the resulting revenue should be used to pay down the $38 trillion dollar national debt? Make no mistake, right now we are leaving our descendants with a heavy burden. Is that progress?

On the Right, I would ask what is the Right? Trumpism? Trump now owns the Republican Party, but his actions do not cohere with conservatism. And if your love affair with our would-be tyrant obscures your vision, what about the 2028 election when he will not be on the ballot? If you point to JD Vance, then you have certainly lost me, because I think temperament has become a policy issue and will be pivotal in the next election. Let me explain.

All politicians that deal in “I hate this, oh, and also you” politics will not be able to lead. And if your modus operandi is to raise hell, count a majority of the public out.

Trump began presiding in the White House on January 20, 2025. At that time his approval level was 49%. Now it is 36%. Trump can’t lead; he can just order and then we must wait around to see what the Courts say about the orders legality. But give him this, he has made Congress superfluous. Is that what we want? And he is undermining the Supreme Court by dragging it into controversies that should be decided by the elected.

If our country’s continuing experiment in democracy is to endure, then we must have leaders that can rally majority support. In a 50-50 electoral framework, leadership on serious issues requires persuasion and negotiation, not just declaration.

So who can do that on the Left? Not Gavin Newsom, the expiring Governor of California. Maybe Governor Josh Shapiro, a leader in a 50-50 State, Pennsylvania. Or maybe Kentucky’s Governor, Andy Beshear, who gains majorities in a Republican state.

On the Right. Well it depends on the provocation. Trump is not a conservative—he is way too impulsive. Take the abrupt embrace of tariffs. Is it a policy or a stick to be used on enemies in the moment? What used to be our close ally, Canada, must suffer a stick beating because Trump doesn’t like its leader, Mark Carney? Trump’s tariff maze is definitional—he is once again punishing our ally, South Korea. Is there a strategy to be found in the maze?

Maybe there will be a gender shift. Niki Hailey, who has avoided an anti-Trump stance since losing to him, will have an interesting opportunity. I like Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox, who calls for a reassertion of “virtue” in politics and governance, recalling Benjamin Franklin.

But my only conclusion that I will be willing to bet on is that it will not be Trump 2. Trumpism without Trump is a losing strategy and script.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

No Sacrifice—No Sacrifice at All By Maria Grant

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When Donald Trump talks about how much the U.S. has given to Europe and Canada and gotten nothing back in return, he gives the impression that he himself has been generous, even magnanimous, and his generosity has not been reciprocated. Trump’s speech at Davos last week was a complete embarrassment. He never acknowledged the many countries in NATO that supported the U.S. during various conflicts. Or the families who had lost children during those conflicts. In short, he did not acknowledge those who had made the ultimate sacrifice.

The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Trump’s comments, “insulting and appalling.” Starmer said he was “not surprised they’ve caused such hurt for the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.” Britain lost 457 service personnel during the war in Afghanistan. 

It got me thinking about exactly what kind of sacrifices Trump himself has made. Let’s not forget that Trump received five deferments during the Vietnam War, including one for bone spurs. He never joined the Peace Corps or VISTA. None of his children served their country, or worked for a nonprofit, or volunteered to help the needy. No sacrifices there.

And it gets worse. In 1988, Trump established the Donald J. Trump Foundation, a New York-based charitable foundation. The foundation was dissolved in 2018 following a New York Attorney General’s investigation that revealed a shocking pattern of illegality, and misuse of funds for personal and business interests. In 2019, Trump was ordered to pay $2 million to eight different charities as part of a settlement regarding the misuse of funds. Eric and Ivanka, who were officers of the foundation, were required to undergo training regarding the duties of officers of charitable organizations. 

I would argue that instead of sacrifice, Trump has ratcheted up the grift machine to line the coffers of the Trump dynasty. 

Since Trump’s reelection in 2024, the Trump family has pocketed more than $1.8 billion in cash and gifts from leveraging the presidency for personal gain, including more than $1.2 billion in crypto gains alone. No sacrifices there. 

And it gets worse. Trump recently pardoned Binance founder Changping Zhao who previously pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program which allowed money to flow to terrorist cybercriminals and child abusers through the Binance platform. Last year the Trump administration announced that it would deliver hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That deal followed a UAE investment in a Trump crypto venture via Binance. (The UAE is expected to deliver those chips to China, thereby circumventing an advanced AI chip embargo.)

At the beginning of his second term, Trump owed nearly $500 million to New York State which had sued him for fraud, and more than $88 million to E. Jean Carroll who had sued him for sexual assault and defamation. (The fraud financial penalty has been revoked, and Trump is appealing the E. Jean Carroll verdict.) 

In summary, thanks to this second term, Trump’s finances have taken a very positive turn. No sacrifices there.

In addition, Trump has capitalized on the whole Mar-a Lago situation. Not that many years ago, initiation fees were about $20,000. After the 2016 election, Trump jacked up the initiation fee to $100,000. Last fall, it was set to rise to $1 million. According to the New York Times, thanks to the presidency, Trumps gains from Mar-a Lago are estimated at $125 million.

Plus, Trump’s namesake, Donald Trump Jr. has co-founded his own private club in DC creatively named The Executive Branch which charges an initiation fee of $500,000. 

Then, of course, there are the profits from the Trump Store and all the tchotchke associated with it. Add to that the $400 million jet that Trump accepted from Qatar and plans to take with him when he leaves office, and the $27 million profit from the Amazon-funded film Melania. 

There has never been a presidency that has sacrificed so little and brazenly profited so much. 

And it gets worse. The Washington Post has reported that many pledged donations that Trump made were not delivered, and his charitable donations had dropped to $0.

Many articles have been written stating that Trump has normalized selfishness. Such selfishness is pretty much the opposite of sacrifice, which is especially galling from a guy who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Perhaps that’s why last week’s speech in Switzerland was so difficult to hear from a man who has been given so much and sacrificed so little. 

Abraham Lincoln once said, “There is no success without sacrifice. If you succeed without sacrifice, it is because someone has suffered before you.”  It behooves all of us to remember the sacrifices of those who came before us. Especially if you’re the one occupying the oval office. 

Maria Grant, formerly principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm, now focuses on writing, reading, music, bicycling, and nature.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

How We Got Here By Jamie Kirkpatrick

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Wednesday, four days out…

The American and European models weren’t converging. Really? I’m shocked! The American model drew the snow/ice line just to the north of us, the Europeans placed it slightly to the south. Neither was anywhere near Greenland. Snowfall amounts varied: an inch or two to several feet. Your guess was as good as mine. Nevertheless, the madness had already begun: grocery stores were war zones, gas stations were crammed with guzzlers, and hardware stores sold shovels, rock salt, and candles out in the parking lot. Tempers flared, nerves were frayed. Weather reports came in in every other minute while the phone lines to heaven were jammed with kids and teachers calling about school cancellations. Here we go…

 

Thursday, three days out…

It was a lovely, mild afternoon. I was humming a line from a Paul Simon song: “I get all the news I need on the weather report.” But we all know that despite the best of equipment and intentions, weather prognosticators don’t really have a clue about the when or where or accumulation of snow or ice. I’m sure they were trying their best, but just like the rest of us, they were looking out the window and sniffing the air. Nevertheless, they were giddy with excitement; this is why they became meteorologists in the first place. Six inches…ten inches…fourteen inches: did anybody really know what time it was or how much snow or ice we would get? Place your bets and get out your measuring sticks. At that point, all I really knew for sure was that it was freezing cold in Davos, Switzerland…

 

Friday, two days out…

It has started to snow in Dallas. Memphis was preparing for lots of ice. In the Florida panhandle, iguanas were dropping from the trees, stunned with cold. Maryland’s truth was still twenty-four hours away. “Power outages” was added to the script; “below zero wind chill” became part of the lexicon. Just as when the Maestro picks up the orchestra’s tempo, the beat quickened and the audience leaned in, rapt with a mix of anticipation and dread. Out in the streets, people were walking around, looking up at the sky; What’s on its way now?  Meanwhile, down at Mar-a-Lago, it was sweater weather on the links, but then spring training was only a month away.

 

Late Saturday afternoon…

All the shelves in the grocery store are now bone-bare; the first few flakes are just hours away. Or not, nobody really knows. Maybe it will depend on which side of the street you live. For some families, tomorrow will be Armageddon, for others, all the preparation might be for naught. But down at the local television station, the meteorologists were either crowing or hiding in the bathroom, while the general manager was in the back room counting her ad revenue dollars. Kids were either nervous about all the homework they hadn’t done or were waxing the runners on their sleds. I don’t know about you, but I vividly remember how it felt to wake up on a frosty morning and see the world washed white. Snow day! Much to my parents’ chagrin, I was too excited to roll over and go back to sleep, so I would run downstairs, put on my goofy hat with earflaps, buckle my galoshes, pull on my fingerless mittens, and dash outside to pack my first snowball of the day. For a kid (or a teacher—believe me, I know!), nothing can beat a snow day. Except a second snow day.

 

First light, Sunday morning…

When I woke up, it was the utter silence I heard first. Then from across the street, I heard the scrape, scrape, scrape of a solitary snow shovel. I ran—no, limped—to the window and peered out on a grey polar landscape. There were several inches of fresh snow and more was coming down by the minute,  Across the street, a Sisyphean neighbor was already shoveling his sidewalk. There was nary a snowplow in sight, but then we live on a secondary street, hardly a priority job on this winter morning—the DOT had bigger bigger fish to fry. I relished the silence: for a few heartbeats, this busy world was stilled and hushed under a blanket of pure white snow. All too soon, the digging out would begin, the snow would turn to slush, but for that one dreamy, breathless moment, it really was a winter wonderland.

 

I’ll be right back.

PS: Monday…

All schools cancelled!

Jamie Kirkpatrick is a writer and photographer who lives on both sides of the Chesapeake Bay. His editorials and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Washington College Alumni Magazine, and American Cowboy Magazine. His most recent novel, “The Tales of Bismuth; Dispatches from Palestine, 1945-1948” explores the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is available on Amazon and in local bookstores. His newest novel, “The People Game,” is scheduled for publication in February, 2026. (It’s available for pre-order now on Amazon. His website is musingjamie.net.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

A Maryland Way to Help the Bay by David Reel

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The prospect of the Chesapeake Bay surviving and thriving is regularly threatened by events that negatively impact its ecology.

They include, but are not limited to, periodic overflows from wastewater treatments in Baltimore, periodic discharges of silt from the Conowingo Dam, stormwater runoff from farmland, residential, commercial, and industrial properties, and the always unpredictable, naturally recurring changes in weather by season of the year.

The current most serious threat to the Bay’s rich diversity of native inhabitants occurs every day. It is the steadily increasing number of blue catfish. They are an invasive species that first appeared in the Bay over fifty years ago after they were introduced into rivers on Virginia’s Western Shore by recreational fishing enthusiasts. It was expected that they would remain in those rivers, since conventional thinking held that blue catfish prefer a freshwater environment.

Defying expectations, blue catfish migrated to the Chesapeake Bay and adapted to higher salinity levels there. Their numbers in the Bay and beyond continue to expand. They are also in every major tidal river in Maryland.

Blue catfish are voracious predators of native Bay species such as blue crabs, clams, mussels, oysters, striped bass (rockfish), menhaden, American eel, and other critically economically and ecologically important species. After they reach maturity, natural predators for blue catfish are limited to humans, osprey, and bald eagles. Mature blue catfish, other fish, turtles, and raccoons may also eat juvenile blue catfish.

Scientists who study the Bay ecosystem have concluded that completely eradicating blue catfish in the Bay is not realistic. Instead, they suggest a realistic goal is reducing their numbers to a point where native species can coexist with them. They also further suggest a way to achieve that goal is harvesting more blue catfish for public consumption.

To date, that goal has yet to be achieved. In fact, we are far from it.

There are a variety of reasons:

Widespread negative public perceptions that catfish are foul-tasting bottom feeders.

Marketing efforts by Maryland’s Department of Agriculture to promote eating blue catfish to chefs, consumers, restaurants, and grocery stores, that blue catfish are delicious and nutritious, have not made a meaningful increase in public demand.

Unnecessary and cumbersome federal mandates for inspections of freshly harvested blue catfish (the only harvested seafood in Maryland requiring such inspections).

Reluctance by state regulators to revise current regulations that limit the manner of harvesting blue catfish by watermen and waterwomen, and to allow commercial electrofishing, a blue catfish harvesting technique permitted in Virginia.

Less than projected surplus blue catfish caught and sent to seafood processing plants by recreational fishing clients on charter boat excursions.

Winston Churchill once said, “In times of great uncertainty, look for great opportunities.”

Recent news from former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin provides a suggestion for a great opportunity for Maryland.

Youngkin announced his approval of a $3,500 planning grant for an Eastern Shore Hub Opportunity Assessment for two Eastern Shore Virginia counties, Accomack and Northampton, and three Eastern Shore of Virginia towns, Wachapreague, Parksley, and Onancock.

The planning grant will help fund a feasibility study on renovating the former Robert S. Bloxom Shore Agriculture Complex in Accomack County. The complex includes an abandoned 35,411 square-foot building once used for seafood processing, marketing, and storage. One renovation option is turning the property into a blue catfish processing plant.

Now is the time for Maryland to explore funding a grant on the costs and benefits of building new or upgrading existing seafood processing plants in Maryland.

Some may say state funding for such a grant is unrealistic, given the ongoing debates and deliberations in Annapolis over spending cuts to address a state budget deficit.

Maybe so, but there may be another unexpected funding source available for a similar feasibility study in Maryland.

That unexpected source is the Federal government. In a rare display of bipartisanship in Washington, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives approved and sent a bill to President Trump that includes $2 million to address blue catfish in Maryland. The bill is before President Trump for a signature, which should occur, given the Senate vote on the bill was eighty-two yes votes and only eighteen no votes.

Regardless of the final outcome on any federal funding on the Chesapeake Bay, a Maryland version of an Eastern Shore Hub Opportunity is an idea that merits further immediate and serious consideration.

This hub could:

•    Generate jobs.
•    Generate local tax revenue.
•    Generate state tax revenue.
•    Help preserve the historical and unique lifestyle of Maryland’s watermen and waterwomen with greater incentive for harvesting blue catfish.
•    Increase the markets for the distribution of Maryland blue catfish beyond Maryland.

Most importantly, it is a way for Maryland to help native species in the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland rivers survive and thrive by harvesting and processing more blue catfish.

David Reel is a public affairs consultant and public relations consultant who lives in Easton. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Landscape of Fear by Angela Rieck

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Fear. Politics depends on it. The conservative news stations sell it. PBS and NPR give it away. And it invades us and causes us to lose our ability to process rationally.

Fear causes an automatic reaction in the limbic system. The reaction begins in the thalamus of the brain, which receives the signals, then the amygdala alerts the pre-frontal or sensory cortex. The cortex alerts the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, and it heightens our senses to an almost superhuman degree and triggers fight-or-flight response. Once the fear pathways are ramped up, the brain short-circuits more rational processing paths and reacts immediately to signals from the amygdala. 

When in this overactive state, the brain perceives events as negative and remembers them that way. Constant exposure to fear can weaken long-term memory and cause constant feelings of anxiety. Fear can also have long-term consequences on our health, including “fatigue, chronic depression, accelerated ageing and even premature death,” again according to the University of Minnesota. And that’s only the start of their bad news:

If we stay attached to these fear stimuli, the world can be a scary place, the fear interrupts our ability to regulate emotions, read non-verbal cues, process information rationally, overreact and reduce our ethical brain. So being inundated with messages of fear and constantly processing them prompts tons of negative consequences for our body and psyche. But we don’t have to accept them. We can beat fear; we just need to train ourself.

We have several choices, we can recognize this fear and refuse to be stimulated by it, we can set up our own resolutions to address them, or we can learn to control our response to these stimuli.

That is not what the news and politicians want from us, so they continue to ratchet up the fear.

I watch PBS, especially NOVA, Nature, American Experience, and pretty much all of the documentaries that they produce. But it seems that at the end of every Nature show, I am bombarded with the bleak future for our planet, extinction, climate change, poachers, these things that I just fell in love with will be gone. 

Admittedly, organizations such as PBS are trying to send an alarm to politicians and decision makers…climate change is real, and there are real dangers. But politicians aren’t listening. (Fortunately, the military has recognized climate change as a fundamental threat to American security and is funding research on it.)

What do we do? After many sleepless nights about our political situation, climate change, and its implications for the next generation, I decided to stop worrying and to start thinking about what I could do. I have committed to buying only hybrid vehicles, voting every election for candidates who share my concerns, driving fewer than 10,000 miles per year, buying recycled paper and plastics, buying organic, and trying to eliminate my use of single-use plastics. My resolutions matter very little, but what if everyone fulfilled their own resolutions? In the absence of coherent leadership, we can still make changes.

We have other choices, we can stop listening to fear-based stories; or we can “feel the fear”, then question the story using facts (and not Internet or AI misinformation). Afterall, addressing fear is important to our health and well-being. If we continue to be products of fear-based thinking, we will become more polarized, less objective and continue the current path that we are on.

Admittedly, it is easier said than done.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St. Michaels and Key West, Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Unnerved by Al Sikes

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In what would be perceived as a heretical act, Senator John Thune should attempt to save the Trump Presidency. The President needs pushback from people who have supported him and hold positions of respect and power.

Thune, 65, a Senator from the solidly Republican state of South Dakota, is the Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate. He has been in the Senate since 2005 and has enjoyed wide bipartisan respect. His stature now hangs in the balance. As does President Trump’s presidency. As does the Western Alliance known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Understandably, Thune has been broadly supportive of Trump. After all they are both Republicans and I suspect Thune generally supports Trump’s directions, if not his style. And to the degree he might have misgivings, his Party’s leader is the President, and to compromise his power is a fraught exercise.

But what should he do when Trump begins to act like Vladimir Putin? Putin has immeasurably weakened Russia in pursuing his Ukraine obsession. Russian deaths, the alienation of many of Russia’s best and brightest, the sapping of financial strength, and beyond are the prices Russians are paying. So even though Trump has thrown Putin a lifeline, since it doesn’t include dominance over the whole of Ukraine, Putin continues to pursue his mad obsession.

The President, likewise. has for some years eyed Greenland and I take Greenland’s potential as a strategic asset in geopolitics at face value. But I also take at face value that the coalition of Western nations could enhance Greenland’s military posture and therefore the West’s geopolitical protection and leverage.

Trump’s obsession stands in the way. He wants credit. He wants the history books to declare his greatness. Treaty-making to achieve important ends would be a lengthy process—tedious and without the promise of star power.

Returning to NATO. It is a valuable combination of political and defense assets that gives its Member States protection. And it costs each Member a whole lot less since the costs are shared. And going it alone could never be the power equivalent of the coalition.

The whole of NATO’s leadership rejects Trump’s unilateral moves on Greenland. And the whole of NATO leadership is not a humble combination. Heels are dug in—understandably. France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden are moving troops to Greenland. And as history verifies when ego-centric leaders begin to loudly maneuver, bad things often happen.

This unfolding affair brings to mind Trump’s broader vulnerability. Unnerving Americans! People do not like to be unnerved. For most, politics, even governance, is something preferred in the rear-view mirror. Stuff happens, and then a year or so later, we get to express ourselves in the voting booth. If we don’t like, say, a tax, then we vote the Party out that championed it.

Back to John Thune. Blowing up NATO is not a tax that can be easily reversed. International politics are enormously complex turning on a range of assessments and temperamental Heads of State. NATO needs to be protected and protect is what real leaders do.

According to voter polls, the Republican Party has enjoyed a perceptual advantage. Trump is threatening that popularity with unnerving moves, some superficial and others anything but.

He decided to put his name on the Kennedy Center. He bulldozed the East Wing of the White House. He began using the tax code to buy votes. All of this is happening and much more as people worry about the implications of artificial intelligence in their own lives. And while trying to understand cryptocurrencies, they run into the Trump family with their massive stake. Or, find their favorite consumer goods more and more expensive.

Trump is at the edge, the cliff’s edge. Blowing up NATO in a volatile, even toxic environment, will evoke harm that even the less engaged will intuitively understand.

John Thune can quietly let the White House know he does not support taking Greenland by force. That Trump better use the force of diplomacy, not troops on the ground.

Relatedly, the Supreme Court must wake up. While I understand the Court’s studious pace, the Nation faces a use of executive power that is not just unconstitutional but perverse. When a country does something the President doesn’t like, he lashes out with a tariff. He doesn’t even pretend to get Congressional approval, even though the authority to use tariffs as broadly as the President has done is clearly a Congressional prerogative. The arguments before the Court’s Justices were in early November. It is time for a decision; the failure to act on a timely basis engages an institutional risk that is not acceptable.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Some Novel Ideas to Soothe your Soul by Maria Grant

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During troubled times like these, it’s a good idea to take a break and read a novel. Why? Because this pastime forces you to think about life in its totality–the world’s history, misdeeds, progress, and sometimes offers the possibility of hope.

I have found solace in novels this past year. Here are some of my favorites.

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. I’m a huge fan of all her work. I loved Demon Copperhead and The Poisonwood Bible. Unsheltered does not disappoint. It’s about two families who live next door to each other in New Jersey, 145 years apart. In both cases, their homes are falling apart, and no one has the wherewithal to shelter their family from within. This construct allows Kingsolver to contrast the fear of a Trump presidency (well-founded, I might add) with the controversy that ensued over Darwin’s ideas, considered radical at the time. Such a construct confronts the possibility of the collapse of not only our societies, but our shelters and the social order. This theme encourages readers to think about how to seek their own shelters as the world shifts around us. 

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. I was a bit skeptical about this novel as the story is told through letters, emails, and journal entries. I ended up loving it. The story is about a retired law clerk named Sybil who writes to family, friends, authors, and academics. These correspondences illustrate the power of connection while grappling with the human condition, grief, joy, aging, and the power of forgiveness. NPR named it the best book of the year. I agree. 

Heart the Lover by Lily King. As a former undergraduate and graduate student of English literature, I’m a sucker for novels with tons of literary references. Heart the Lover is chock full of them. While reading the novel, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much research went into all the back stories about authors, their plots, and famous sentences. Heart the Lover is about a woman who ultimately wants to be a writer. It’s about what happens when friends turn into lovers, when friends screw up, wise up, find themselves, and realize what they have lost in the process. Literary references in the novel include The Great Gatsby, The Magic Mountain, Ulysses, Finnegan’s Wake, Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Aeneid, Othello, Macbeth, Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, As I Lay Dying, The Sun Also Rises, and The Golden Bowl. In referencing these novels, King emphasizes how literature shapes the characters’ understanding of love, loss, and personal identity. 

An Inside Job by Daniel Silva. If you are seeking a delightful escape into the world of art, finance, and Italy, this is the novel for you. An Inside Job is Silva’s 25th book in the Gabriel Allon series. I have read all of them. They are a great way to learn more about Renaissance art, the art dealing industry, and espionage tactics. Plus, the novel is just a good old-fashioned engaging “who-done-it” page turner. In this novel, a painting in the Vatican that may have been painted by da Vinci goes missing, and a young intern in the Vatican’s art department turns up dead. Allon uncovers a network of lies stretching from the Vatican to financial brokers to the Italian mafia. 

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott. This novel is about two families whose long-term friendship is shattered by a shocking betrayal during a birthday celebration at a New York country house. It dives deep into the fascinating exploration of what happens when you are betrayed by your best friend. How do you recover? Can you recover? Can you mentally convince yourself that everything can return to the way it was? I read this novel a few months ago, and its major themes continue to haunt me. I find myself thinking about the characters and their reactions to various events a crazy amount of time. I’m glad I read this book. 

What I love about all these novels are the themes of the devastating ramifications of our decisions, our mistakes, and the difficulties of leading a truly moral life. 

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde wrote, “Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one’s age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality.” 

Something to think about in 2026. 

Maria Grant, formerly principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm, now focuses on writing, reading, music, bicycling, and nature.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Recovery by Jamie Kirkpatrick

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Up until a week ago, I still had all my original parts. But that was then; now, thanks to one of the minor miracles of modern medicine, I have a new (left) knee. The surgery itself went well, and heartfelt thanks go out to my surgeon and all the selfless people in the OR and the Recovery Room who took such good care of me. I didn’t know it at the time, but surgery was the easy part. The real journey was yet to come…

Friends who had been there before told me. “Stay ahead of the pain.” “Take all your meds, even the scary ones,” they said. “Be sure to do all your physical therapy,” they advised. They were right, of course, but there was something else they didn’t tell me: “Don’t get discouraged. Recovery takes time so be patient and be a good patient. You’ll need a lot of help.” Now, a week into recovery, I know that to be true.

Trauma, even when it’s planned in advance and carried out by caring professionals, is, well, traumatic. Maybe you think you can see the pain coming, maybe you even intellectually understand it, but you don’t really feel it ’til it hits you in the solar plexus, or, as in my case, in the left knee. And, sadly, you have to feel it to truly understand it. It has to hurt to heal.

The first day after my surgery was a seductive honeymoon. The cutting was done, the worst was over. Wrong! On that second day, the pain blockers were still conscientiously doing their job so it felt like my recovery would be a piece of cake. Not only would I be able to stay ahead of the pain, there wasn’t that much of it. I ditched the walker, put away the heavy duty pain meds. Little did I know…

Since that day, life has slowed to a crawl, or, to be more precise, to a limp with a cane. Existence lies somewhere between a chair, the couch, and bed. Time is measured in twenty minute increments of ice therapy. Every six hours, there are two Extra Strength Tylenol; at other intervals, there’s an antibiotic, an anti-inflammation pill, low-dose aspirin for my heart, and a little pink pill to help keep me regular. (Sorry! Too much information?) There’s not much I can do for myself: the heavy lifting—literally, figuratively— falls squarely on my wife. Were it not for her, someone would undoubtedly find me covered in cobwebs when the snow melts. If there is a special line reserved for caregivers to enter heaven, she’s at the front of it.

Some day soon, I know I will turn the proverbial corner and begin to feel better. I wish I felt so certain about that other pain we’re all feeling: the endless turmoil and duplicity, the ugly viciousness on the streets of Minneapolis, the storm clouds over Greenland that threaten to unravel NATO from within. No unearned, gifted Nobel Prize can ever ease the pain of all the trauma we are suffering from a botched surgery performed by a glowering, demented quack and his twisted team of enablers. Should we somehow survive this mess, our recovery will be long and painful. But this I know: it will be worth it.

I’ll be right back.

Jamie Kirkpatrick is a writer and photographer who lives on both sides of the Chesapeake Bay. His editorials and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Washington College Alumni Magazine, and American Cowboy Magazine. His most recent novel, “The Tales of Bismuth; Dispatches from Palestine, 1945-1948” explores the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is available on Amazon and in local bookstores. His newest novel, “The People Game,” is scheduled for publication in February, 2026. (It’s available for pre-order now on Amazon.) His website is musingjamie.net.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Thoughts on the 2026 State Budget by David Reel

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The ninety-day 2026 regular session of the Maryland General Assembly is now underway.

There is almost universal consensus that the top priority before they adjourn is to enact a balanced state budget when a $2.6 billion deficit is currently projected. It could be more.

The options to reach a balanced budget this session are comparable to the options considered last session. Then and now, they include new taxes, tax increases, new fees, fee increases, transfers from the state’s “rainy-day” reserve fund, borrowing money, shifting the funding for state-mandated programs and services from the state government to county governments, and spending cuts. There is no consensus yet on any of these options this session.

Governor Moore has said there will not be tax increases. He said much the same last year, calling for a “high bar” on tax increases. When all was said and done, he approved a balanced budget funded with a package that included the above budget balancing options.

New to the dialogue and deliberations budget debates this year is Delegate Joseline Pena Melnyk who was unanimously elected last month to serve as Speaker of the House.

Speaker Melnyk has delivered mixed messages so far in the session. She has said she “doesn’t expect” any tax changes this session from her chamber. She followed that with, “I’m not sure about that. I hope not.” Then she said “But to be honest, I haven’t had an opportunity yet to talk to my committees about those issues. Session hasn’t even started, but I can tell you the taxes [are] definitely off the table.”

Senate President Bill Ferguson has said, “Our focus is going to be on living within our means. He has said his chamber won’t be the ones to put forward a plan to increase the cost of living for Marylanders. When asked if he’s concerned the House of Delegates may float proposals to raise taxes and fees, Ferguson said he can’t speak for the members in the lower chamber, just that he knows “where the Senate will be.”

Another matter that merits watching in the 2026 session is how the relationship between the Democratic super majority and the Republican minority in the House of Delegates may change with Speaker Penya Melnik’s approach to leadership.

One reporter covering the opening day of the new session observed that the new speaker ushered in a new era with a leadership style geared toward bipartisanship, civility, and finding solutions that involve delegates from across the state, including Republicans, to ensure everyone’s ideas are heard.

If that occurs, it will be a major change from the historic pattern of decision-making in Annapolis. Republican minorities in the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate have long endured legislative decision-making where the minority caucus has had their say, but the majority caucus has not seriously considered what the minority has to say, and the majority caucus has always had their way.
We will know soon if and how these changes play out.

Speaker Melnyk has also expressed a desire for further accountability in state government spending.

This is not surprising given recent widespread and regular media coverage of two audit reports conducted by the bipartisan Office of Legislative Audits (OLA) in the Maryland Department of Legislative Services.

In one audit, OLA auditors reported Maryland’s overpayment of $807.4 million in unemployment benefits, $760 million of which the auditors have deemed unrecoverable because the state did not act in time to pursue recovery.

In another audit, OLA auditors reported the State Highway Administration (SHA) overcharged $360 million in unauthorized expenses to federally funded projects that need to be paid back.

Last week, there were media reports that the OLA, Maryland Department of Human Services’ inspector general, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s inspector general have been made aware of allegations by two former state employees of payment errors in Maryland’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly referred to as food stamps.

Pursuing greater transparency and accountability on state spending is not new. In 2020, a Maryland Efficient Grant Application Council was created and charged with developing recommendations for greater oversight and accountability on state grants to not-for-profit organizations in Maryland. The deadline for their recommendations was originally July 1, 2024. Now the deadline is July 1, 2027. It remains to be seen if this new deadline will be met.

Last week, Maryland General Assembly Republicans called for creating a special investigative committee with subpoena power to discuss the SHA audit, the unemployment overpayment audit, and the whistleblower allegations on the SNAP program. Such a committee is not unprecedented, but the last one was put in place at least twenty years ago.

Time will tell if and how Speaker Pena Melnyk will achieve success in her expressed desire for further accountability in state government spending.

Time will also tell if and how Speaker Pena Melnyk will achieve success in ushering in a leadership style characterized by bipartisanship, civility, and finding solutions that involve delegates from across the state, including Republicans, to ensure everyone’s ideas are not only heard but are also respected and given serious consideration.

Going forward, President John F. Kennedy’s thinking on bipartisanship is a great model for Governor Moore and every member of the General Assembly.

JFK said — “Let us not seek the Democratic answer or the Republican answer, but the right answer.”

David Reel is a public affairs and public relations consultant who lives in Easton.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Chicken Scratch: Sharp Shards — by Elizabeth Beggins

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Photo of artwork created by the author, a linoleum cut print of a squirrel climbing a tree.

The Climb: A linoleum cut print I made as a teenager.

 

“I’m going to have to deal with some of these guys soon,” my husband says after a cadre of squirrels makes quick work of the chicken wire I’ve secured over my potted kale plants. I grow hardy greens in these pots every winter, but this year the fuzz-tailed Houdinis are decimating them before my eyes. It feels like a losing proposition.

I live in a small, rural town where critters with abundant food supplies flourish in the absence of natural predators. The more prolific they become, the more damage they do, ravaging gardens, stripping bark from young trees, chewing table legs. My husband is inclined to control them precisely, reducing the population until we reach a better balance.

The first few times he mentions it, I mutter and make disagreeable faces. Eventually, he’s winning me over. “Only if we can find someone who’ll take them for food,” I say, because I hate the idea of killing something just to kill it. I spend a few minutes browsing recipes for traditional Brunswick stew but can’t quite justify learning how to clean squirrels given how little there is to work with.

Later, prefacing her comment with sufficient sensitivity, one of my kids notes that they’ll be food for something whether we eat them or not.

I am thirteen, and my family has just moved into a new house on a wooded lot in suburban North Carolina. My mother, only forty-seven, has lost both of her parents just three weeks apart. She uses the inheritance to build what she thinks will be her forever home. Creating something lasting from that kind of loss serves as a stand-in for the therapy she never seeks.

The house itself seems to understand this, not dominating the land so much as settling into it. One tree in particular, a substantial hickory, stands exactly where the deck is meant to go. Instead of cutting it down, they build around it.

“I can still conjure the sound of the squirrel dropping onto the deck with a sickening thud.”

To my young self, this feels logical—obviously the tree should be saved. Only later do I realize how rarely people opt into that kind of accommodation. Every fall, in its wide, waving arms that arch above the deck, the hickory produces an abundance of nuts, and every fall, the squirrels cut them into sharp shards that wedge between boards. My parents spend untold hours on their hands and knees, using table knives to pry them out one by one. It is tedious, physical, deeply unglamorous work that is never quite finished.

At some point, my father decides there is a better solution.

He frames his assault on the resident rodents as a necessity and takes up a post inside the barely-open sliding door, a few feet away from that stately tree. My tender heart and I wander into the kitchen just as he fires a shot, and I can still conjure the sound of a squirrel dropping onto the deck with a sickening thud. My protests annoy my father who tells me to take myself to another part of the house.

Dad is an avid waterfowl hunter and sometimes travels west to hunt larger game. Guns are familiar to me, insofar as I am accustomed to their polished, upright presence in the glass-front cabinet in the basement. I think nothing of eating what my mother prepares from the spoils of his outings: tiny quail smothered in mushroom gravy, hearty roasted duck or goose glazed with sweet fruit, moose burgers, elk steaks.

What’s unfamiliar is witnessing the moment when an animal goes from living to dead. There is no discussion, no acknowledgment that something irreversible has happened. The squirrel is a problem; the problem is addressed, and my unease is treated as an inconvenience, leaving a persistent impression that I won’t understand for a very long time.

My husband and I consider ourselves fortunate to raise our children on a farm. We live there for thirteen years, long enough for the rhythms of tending and loss to become intuitive. He is busy running a furniture-making business, so the garden and the flock of laying hens are mostly mine to manage. Death is everywhere—chickens sick beyond saving, chickens beheaded or carried off by predators, reptiles, insects, garden plants, weeds, and every kind of creature our part-feral cat takes pleasure in offing. When you are that close to it, life is always brushing up against its end, and stewardship requires constant acknowledgment of what is fragile and finite.

“I never love any part of it. I don’t even like it, but I do it with honor for the life being given and the sustenance it allows.”

When the hens grow too old to lay productively, we cull them ourselves, with a small group of helpers. Once a year, fifty birds in a single day are then sold as stewing hens to our devoted market customers. It is nothing compared to what many farmers do, but it feels like plenty to me. I don’t sleep for days beforehand as I rehearse the reasoning over and over again: this is part of eating; this is part of care; everything we consume involves the death of something.

I tell myself that if I am going to eat meat, I must be willing to kill it, and that there is something dishonest about outsourcing the violence while enjoying the benefits. I think I’ll learn how to do it quickly, cleanly, with as little suffering as possible, but I only use the knife on a chicken’s throat once. It takes me two tries, and I feel horrible for the bird. From then on, I maintain other positions on the processing line, leaving the sticking, as we call it, to those more confident.

I never love any part of it. I don’t even like it, but I do it with honor for the life being given and the sustenance it allows. After several seasons of second guessing my hesitations and wondering why this continues to weigh on me, I realize that complete acceptance would dull the gravity of the sacrifice. I don’t want that. I want the act to stay difficult, weighty, acknowledged.

Though I can’t identify it the day he decides to take charge of the squirrels, what I feel in the gruff exchange with my father is a tension between his need to solve problems and my own need to appreciate life. His irritation with me is human, shaped by the expectations of his generation and gender—the demand to act decisively, without visible emotion—but it unsettles me with how it pushes past the caregiving I so desperately want to preserve. It’s not malice, only a difference in how we approach what we owe to living beings, a distinction in moral awareness that has been alive in me for as long as I can remember.

In our backyards, squirrels can be treated as problems to be managed—aggravating, low-stakes.

Beyond the property line, that same lack of regard can be catastrophic.

Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, a wife, a friend and neighbor, someone with a whole life, loved ones, and dreams, is shot at close range, in broad daylight, by a man authorized to carry a gun in the name of the state. She is neither verbally aggressive nor armed. I read account after account of how she is killed. I don’t watch the videos, because I already understand the magnitude of a life ended, and I want to keep my attention on what it takes to bear that responsibility.

“I do not know if respect—for life, for the inherent worth of a human being—can ever be fully restored once it has been discarded…”

Around the world, and with horrifying frequency in this country, lives are taken with guns backed by authority, and the deaths are folded into policy debates before grief has even begun. Renee’s is one such life among many. I do not know if respect—for life, for the inherent worth of a human being—can ever be fully restored once it has been discarded, once someone sees it as expendable.

What I do know is that the work of bearing witness to what unfolds when care is abandoned, of acting with integrity and attention, is ours to do, even when it is exhausting, even when what we are able to do feels impossibly small. I know that when we go looking for leaders the criteria for selection should extend far beyond political affiliations and what we want to believe. The capacity to lead should be measured by moral courage, by a willingness to not just acknowledge harm but also take responsibility for it rather than deflect or deny it.

So many of us are out of balance, teetering between paralysis and rage, undone by what’s been lost. We can’t do much, but we are doing what we can. Is it enough—to notice, to care, to tend what remains worthy, to honor the goodness that persists despite it all? In the face of so much destruction and suffering at the hands of those in power, I’m not sure. But I am certain that if we look for them, opportunities to act with respect, even reverence, are never hard to find. And, in the absence of the tectonic shifts we hope for, they become everything.

An audio version of this essay, read by the author, is available here.

Elizabeth Beggins is a communications and outreach specialist focused on regional agriculture. She is a former farmer, recovering sailor, and committed over-thinker who appreciates opportunities to kindle conversation and invite connection. On “Chicken Scratch,” a reader-supported publication hosted by Substack, she writes non-fiction essays rooted in realistic optimism. To receive her weekly posts and support her work, become a free or paid subscriber here.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.