It's been 27 years, since I had to take my beloved German Shepherd in to be gently put down by our vet.
God have mercy, I still cannot think of it without tearing up. It says a lot of negative about a human that feels so superior over an animal that they shoot and kill on a whim of temper. What if a human pissed her off?!?
I'm glad Biden didn't give an interview to the NY Times. The NY Times political reporting, over the last 10 years, has changed a lot: from a paper written by senior reporters with a deep history in the traditions standard journalism, edited by senior editors with a deep history in the traditions of fairness, to a paper written mostly by 30-something journalists looking to advance their careers in an environment made tumultuous by the rise of Internet Journalism, raised on the importance of the narrative hook, meme-addiction of the readers, social media re-post metrics and click-bating titling/sub-titling, who specialize in attracting readers with various types of psychological manipulation, fictional tropes and other literary devices, mostly based on innuendo and fear.
This may sound harsh, but anyone who has read the NT Times for 20 years knows it's the truth.
In many cases, the real story gets lost inside the manufactured emotional intrigue: "whose mind is going faster, Trump's or Biden's?" What will the country do if the President's mind fails when he is in office? How might the Vice President operate in the office? This is all being spun out like a film to grab your attention.
We can be sure such an interview of Biden, if given to the NY Times, would result in a headline like "Biden's Mind Said To Be Stable," with allusions to his age, yada, yada, yada, thus driving up fear in the public (to which more articles would be written about the public's fear), to which the Trump people would respond, to which the Biden people would respond, to which . . . . All this in order to create a media story which hurts Biden, which we don't need right now, and which is unethical.
If we were living in a country where the senior political executive' mind was slowing down a little, and the citizens of the country were a rock-solid citizenry unanimously unified around all basic government programs underpinning the health and welfare of the nation, then it would be ethical to have an honest conversation about the mental status of the incumbent.
This is not the case.
We live in a country with tens of millions of delusional citizens, who believe nonsense and lies, amongst whom a minority have no problem acting violent in response to their delusions, where the highest court has just said it might be OK for the senior executive to unilateral have political opponents murdered.
Under these circumstances, it is the duty of all patriotic media to oppose the tyrannical impulses of this violent minority. Opposition means not speaking ill of the current leader (Biden).
Do we care that Biden is an old man? We do not. Biden is a compassionate old man who cares about America and her people -- all of them. Trump's MAGA team and the Heritage Foundation judges care about their billionaires and everyone who wants to dismantle the American safety net for poor people.
People need to remember the strategy of Reagan, who started the wave of dysfunction: "Thou shalt not speak ill of your fellow <Insert Party member's name>".
The NY Times is completely untrustworthy to defend democracy. No doubt they have noticed the huge increases in clicks they get on their web site when they publish "The Republic is Going Up in Flames" pieces.
I have written to NY Times reporters and several have written back. When I confront them with the "sensationalizing" of their copy to no apparent end, they all deny it outright, just like the right-wing judges on the Supreme Court deny that they are putting their fingers on the scale to reelect Trump.
I signed up to give money to Heather Cox Richardson for her wonderful written daily summaries. Instead, I am getting something from "SUBSTACK." I don't know what it is, and I don't want it! I don't want audio things coming to me! I don't see any way to reach anyone in charge of this!
Hi - when I click on Letters from an American at the top of this page, I am directed to another page, https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/, on which both the audio version and the print version of the Letters are presented. It seems the audio version appears a few hours earlier than the print version.
I'm not paying for both, just the print version, but sometimes the audio is handy for me.
I very much appreciate your daily explanations of current events in perspective. I feel fortunate to receive your “Letters from an American.”
But may I offer a suggestion. Would you consider also writing an abridged “Letters from an American,” geared to those who don’t follow current events, who aren’t readers, who might learn develop their opinions from their neighbors, opinion shows, or scuttlebutt. My reasoning: Those who I talk with about changing the minds of MAGA-Republicans say, “They’ve made up their minds, they won’t listen, you can’t talk to them, they don’t listen to logic, you can’t break through, don’t waste your time, they are a lost cause.” But I don’t entirely agree. For six years I worked in central Pennsylvania in a rural, mostly Republican part of the state. I have a sense of who these voters are. They do make up their minds, but when they understand a new reality, they embrace it as strongly as anyone. I’ve seen it. To help them easily understand, I suggest images, short stories, and one-liners similar to Trump’s, “Build a Wall, Ban Muslims!” I call them ‘Antitheticals.’ When voters see these images and read one-liners, accurate information may start to penetrate, the sands may begin to shift, the glacier may begin to move.
We must deliver information so that everyone can understand. If only 5% of Republicans change their mind about ex-President Trump, it could change the course of history and save our democracy.
An example of an ‘antithetical.’ Trump points to members of the crowd as if he knows them, as if he understands what they’re going through, as if he is their friend, as if he cares about them. The Facts are: Trump has nothing in common with them, they have nothing in common with him. He doesn’t know them, they don’t know him. He doesn’t have their interests at heart, he doesn’t care about them at all, at all. Antithetical: Who Trump Is vs. Who His Crowd-Attendees Are
The goal of an antithetical is (a) to show the ironies and (b) to contrast Trump’s and Biden’s policies to offer a clear choice. An example of the first ‘Antithetical’ is to show that Trump’s policies would actually undermine his followers’ security, to make their lives worse.
I have been developing an ‘information grid” for producing powerful images and one-liners. If you ask, I will be happy to e-mail it to you for your cooperation.
Please help me, us, all!
Thank you.
-- Buck
P.S. For Biden to be re-elected, I strongly believe that (1) he must acknowledge that Israel has been killing Palestinians and illegally settling their land since 1948, immediately stop what is clearly ‘ethnic cleansing’ if not genocide, and develop a new model for peace because a two-state solution today is practically impossible due to more than 500,000 illegal settlers on the West Bank. Where would they go? and (2) take executive action to stop illegal migration at the border.
If Heaven & Hell are real, please let there be a special place in Hell for those who harm children and animals.
It's been 27 years, since I had to take my beloved German Shepherd in to be gently put down by our vet.
God have mercy, I still cannot think of it without tearing up. It says a lot of negative about a human that feels so superior over an animal that they shoot and kill on a whim of temper. What if a human pissed her off?!?
I'm glad Biden didn't give an interview to the NY Times. The NY Times political reporting, over the last 10 years, has changed a lot: from a paper written by senior reporters with a deep history in the traditions standard journalism, edited by senior editors with a deep history in the traditions of fairness, to a paper written mostly by 30-something journalists looking to advance their careers in an environment made tumultuous by the rise of Internet Journalism, raised on the importance of the narrative hook, meme-addiction of the readers, social media re-post metrics and click-bating titling/sub-titling, who specialize in attracting readers with various types of psychological manipulation, fictional tropes and other literary devices, mostly based on innuendo and fear.
This may sound harsh, but anyone who has read the NT Times for 20 years knows it's the truth.
In many cases, the real story gets lost inside the manufactured emotional intrigue: "whose mind is going faster, Trump's or Biden's?" What will the country do if the President's mind fails when he is in office? How might the Vice President operate in the office? This is all being spun out like a film to grab your attention.
We can be sure such an interview of Biden, if given to the NY Times, would result in a headline like "Biden's Mind Said To Be Stable," with allusions to his age, yada, yada, yada, thus driving up fear in the public (to which more articles would be written about the public's fear), to which the Trump people would respond, to which the Biden people would respond, to which . . . . All this in order to create a media story which hurts Biden, which we don't need right now, and which is unethical.
If we were living in a country where the senior political executive' mind was slowing down a little, and the citizens of the country were a rock-solid citizenry unanimously unified around all basic government programs underpinning the health and welfare of the nation, then it would be ethical to have an honest conversation about the mental status of the incumbent.
This is not the case.
We live in a country with tens of millions of delusional citizens, who believe nonsense and lies, amongst whom a minority have no problem acting violent in response to their delusions, where the highest court has just said it might be OK for the senior executive to unilateral have political opponents murdered.
Under these circumstances, it is the duty of all patriotic media to oppose the tyrannical impulses of this violent minority. Opposition means not speaking ill of the current leader (Biden).
Do we care that Biden is an old man? We do not. Biden is a compassionate old man who cares about America and her people -- all of them. Trump's MAGA team and the Heritage Foundation judges care about their billionaires and everyone who wants to dismantle the American safety net for poor people.
People need to remember the strategy of Reagan, who started the wave of dysfunction: "Thou shalt not speak ill of your fellow <Insert Party member's name>".
The NY Times is completely untrustworthy to defend democracy. No doubt they have noticed the huge increases in clicks they get on their web site when they publish "The Republic is Going Up in Flames" pieces.
I have written to NY Times reporters and several have written back. When I confront them with the "sensationalizing" of their copy to no apparent end, they all deny it outright, just like the right-wing judges on the Supreme Court deny that they are putting their fingers on the scale to reelect Trump.
They examine themselves and find no ill-motive.
I signed up to give money to Heather Cox Richardson for her wonderful written daily summaries. Instead, I am getting something from "SUBSTACK." I don't know what it is, and I don't want it! I don't want audio things coming to me! I don't see any way to reach anyone in charge of this!
Hi - when I click on Letters from an American at the top of this page, I am directed to another page, https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/, on which both the audio version and the print version of the Letters are presented. It seems the audio version appears a few hours earlier than the print version.
I'm not paying for both, just the print version, but sometimes the audio is handy for me.
Thank you!
If you go to her main page, you can select to receive either the written or audio or both.
The audio comes out the morning after the written.
Good luck.
Dear Heather,
I very much appreciate your daily explanations of current events in perspective. I feel fortunate to receive your “Letters from an American.”
But may I offer a suggestion. Would you consider also writing an abridged “Letters from an American,” geared to those who don’t follow current events, who aren’t readers, who might learn develop their opinions from their neighbors, opinion shows, or scuttlebutt. My reasoning: Those who I talk with about changing the minds of MAGA-Republicans say, “They’ve made up their minds, they won’t listen, you can’t talk to them, they don’t listen to logic, you can’t break through, don’t waste your time, they are a lost cause.” But I don’t entirely agree. For six years I worked in central Pennsylvania in a rural, mostly Republican part of the state. I have a sense of who these voters are. They do make up their minds, but when they understand a new reality, they embrace it as strongly as anyone. I’ve seen it. To help them easily understand, I suggest images, short stories, and one-liners similar to Trump’s, “Build a Wall, Ban Muslims!” I call them ‘Antitheticals.’ When voters see these images and read one-liners, accurate information may start to penetrate, the sands may begin to shift, the glacier may begin to move.
We must deliver information so that everyone can understand. If only 5% of Republicans change their mind about ex-President Trump, it could change the course of history and save our democracy.
An example of an ‘antithetical.’ Trump points to members of the crowd as if he knows them, as if he understands what they’re going through, as if he is their friend, as if he cares about them. The Facts are: Trump has nothing in common with them, they have nothing in common with him. He doesn’t know them, they don’t know him. He doesn’t have their interests at heart, he doesn’t care about them at all, at all. Antithetical: Who Trump Is vs. Who His Crowd-Attendees Are
The goal of an antithetical is (a) to show the ironies and (b) to contrast Trump’s and Biden’s policies to offer a clear choice. An example of the first ‘Antithetical’ is to show that Trump’s policies would actually undermine his followers’ security, to make their lives worse.
I have been developing an ‘information grid” for producing powerful images and one-liners. If you ask, I will be happy to e-mail it to you for your cooperation.
Please help me, us, all!
Thank you.
-- Buck
P.S. For Biden to be re-elected, I strongly believe that (1) he must acknowledge that Israel has been killing Palestinians and illegally settling their land since 1948, immediately stop what is clearly ‘ethnic cleansing’ if not genocide, and develop a new model for peace because a two-state solution today is practically impossible due to more than 500,000 illegal settlers on the West Bank. Where would they go? and (2) take executive action to stop illegal migration at the border.