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Apr 28, 2022·edited Apr 28, 2022

Here's what I wish: I wish investigative journalists, particularly those investigating the Trump presidency, The Big Lie, January 6, etc, would recognize the urgent need for information to be released in order to save our democracy rather than release information in dribs and drabs to generate prepublication interest the book. I'm just saying.

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Apr 28, 2022·edited Apr 28, 2022

Thank you, Professor, for providing a lens for us to clearly see the repubs doing their job, which appears to be fighting among themselves, lying and not working for the voters who sent them to Washington. In the meantime, millions of people are suffering from Russia’s war in Ukraine, gas prices and sources are a concern, we’re worried about Putin’s next move, we have diplomats and professionals including our president, Joe Biden, working with NATO trying to prevent a World War. At home the Democrats are governing. But our Democracy depends on our representatives working for the people, a two party system that requires the cooperation and attention of both parties. While one party attempts to govern, the other is focusing on reelection in 2024 and the last election. It seems there’s an addiction to repub political drama and corruption that is clearly interfering with necessary progress in our government. We should be worried. I am.

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The last three LFAA have been a virtual informational firehose of information. I think that the next 6 months will be critical in the outcome of our country and whether we get to keep our democracy, have another civil war, or self-destruct.

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The more internal dissent within the GOTP, the better.

"Let them fight"

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This is exactly what Goldwater predicted would happen when he warned the GOP to not court the evangelicals. What he didn't foresee, of course, was Fox News. The cult members will never change their minds; they are the very definition of sunk cost fallacy. And the business wing of the GOP will continue to kowtow to them. Meanwhile, nationwide, local elections have installed cultists in school boards, mayor's offices, and city councils. The cancer runs deep now.

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Good Morning, All! I’m wondering if anyone else had difficulty finding Heather’s letter today (Wednesday April 27)? Considering the very low amount of likes and comments, I’m thinking there’s definitely an issue on Substack.

I didn’t find the letter in my inbox (or spam) either in my email or in my Substack app. I had the go to my library and then find it under “latest”.

This letter is too important not to be found easily.

If I’m mistaken, I’m sorry for the alarm. But to have less than 50 likes by this time indicates a wider problem.

Thanks for your help! ❤️

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On The Elon Musk Razzmatazz

Josh Marshall/TPM

Twitter is not the digitized public square: "The actual digital public square is the open Internet."

"The simple truth is that content moderation is much, much less about “free speech” or unpopular opinions than some random guy DMing pictures of his penis every day for a year to a woman he’s harassing, or hoaxes about people dying, or copyright infringement. Of course, as Musk knows as well as anyone, Twitter is also a great tool for market manipulation and securities fraud. In other words, it’s less about “speech” than the digital amplification of the predatory dimensions of people’s personality disorders."

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/on-the-elon-musk-razzmatazz/sharetoken/gAzGnJRH0kSs

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Thank you Heather.

I think I am becoming numb by what news is breaking regarding January 6th. At this point, nothing surprises me. I know I'm not in the minority. How sad is that?

I do find it interesting, disturbing, disgusting that 18 Republicans strong armed Twitter to sell to Elon Musk. If, that sale goes to the finish line it will prove that extortion is what will potentially bring Trump back to the social media limelight.

I read on Reuters last night that the transaction may not actually happen.

Be safe. Be well.

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When SecState Blinken and SecDef Austin met Zelensky in Kyiv, they publicly said something that I haven’t heard since FDR/Churchill’s demand for ‘unconditional surrender’ in 1943.

Blinken/Austin spoke of a commitment to winning and a strategy to severely lessen Putin. WOW!

In Korea, except for Dugout Doug McArthur’s proposal to ‘nuke China,’ there was no winning strategy. When SecDef Clark Clifford asked his generals in early 1968 what was their winning strategy in Vietnam, they had none. Ditto in Iraq and Afghanistan.

President Biden and his key team members remind me of President Truman on the Cold War—unceasingly firm in confronting Stalin (Putin). My sense is that there is no face-saving-deal in the offing for Putin.

Biden is Trumanesque in seeking to confront Killer Putin. This means a total commitment to expelling Russian troops from Ukraine and returning Russian satellite provinces to the government of Ukraine.

President Biden has a tough task to keep this 40-country coalition committed to preserving Ukrainian sovereign independence and to counter Putin’s threats and shenanigans.

Perhaps Biden’s greatest challenge is to sustain this commitment within the United States, where many Americans seem more concerned with the price of gas and short-term inflation than the Western fight against brutal autocracy.

On this, I do not expect bipartisanship, as Republican sleaze balls wage their anti-Biden election campaign.

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The Death of Bishop Evans: Per The Guardian's Ramon Antonio Vargas reporting on 4/24 & 4/25 covering Governor Abbott's grandstanding deployment of the Texas National Guard to the Rio Grande, "field artilleryman", Bishop E. Evans shed his radio & "body armor" and dove into the river attempting to save 2 persons crossing the river that Bishop thought were in trouble. Bishop the soldier, the human being's body was recovered earlier this week after a lengthy search. Bishop was 22 years old, Artillery Regiment, New Braunfels.

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Often in these letters and in your Facebook chats you have provided evidence that Joe Biden is doing a good job (e.g., jobs are up, American’s international standing on the rise). Yet, Fox News Channel and main stream media generally seem not to report much on these issues and seem to focus on casting his presidency as weak, directionless, and ineffective. And the Democratic Party offers little in his defense.

Last night I finished reading Mark Bowden’s The Three Battles of Wanat and Other True Stories, a collection of some of his Vanity Fair and Atlantic articles. One of them, Abraham Lincoln Is an Idiot, was perhaps the most interesting. In it Bowden wrote about the contemporary reporting on Lincoln. Among the general criticisms are that he “is universally considered a failure, has no will, no courage, no executive capacity” (from Ohio Republican William M. Dickson in 1862); he is “weak as water” (from Maine Republican William P. Fessenden; the Jersey City American Standard criticized his first Inaugural Address as “ involved, coarse, colloquial, devoid of ease and grace, and bristling with obscurities and outrages against the simple rules of syntax”. A local Gettysburg newspaper critiqued his famous address by saying “we pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them, and they shall be no more repeated or thought of.” His second Inaugural Address was called “one of the most awkwardly expressed documents I have ever read.” And the Chicago Times wrote “We did not conceive it possible that even Mr. Lincoln could produce a paper so slip-shod, so loose-jointed, so puerile, not alone in literary construction, but in ideas, sentiment, and grasp.” With friends and party members like these, who needed enemies?

It seems to me that Joe Biden is doing A very good job in the face of a 50-50 Senate a slim majority in the House, traitorous behavior on the part of the GOP, and damned little vocal support from his party or balanced coverage inform the media. He is getting the Lincoln treatment. I fear that he will not get the support he needs to help us recover from the previous administration and only when history looks back on his presidency from a distance of several decades will see his competency and leadership be more widely appreciated.

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I struggle to think what would be worse: tfg as president again or Tuckums. I can’t stand the voices of either (talk about whining) and one worships Putin and the other worships Orban. And McCarthy showed a spark of conscience right after the insurrection and then the spark was extinguished. McCarthy is. ⚽️🏀🎾-less piece of masculinity.

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Recently came across this utterly prescient quote from our 18th President, Ulysses S Grant:

"If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other."

Thank you Prof Richardson for another day with another spot-on read. I hope to engage with at least one crazy person today, not because I expect to change their mind but because I hope to drop the smallest seed of doubt in their otherwise fetid swamp of ambition and ignorance.

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Zelensky is showing them how precious democracy is and we have to fight for it and humanity, kindness and leadership.

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I'm really glad I'm not a Republican campaign and media operative any more. I actually worked helping Republican candidates craft TV spots and media messages back in the 80's. These were mostly local & state level races, but one was a first time Congressional candidate. Compared to this current group, these were pretty decent people...but I got to see first hand what the pressure to win does to people. 3 of them literally "melted down" during their races and could not function for awhile from the stress. One ended up in the hospital and that became national news, because his top campaign people would not tell anyone where he was. He lost a race that he was 20 points ahead in. The other 2 happened in the week before the elections and we were able to contain the fact, they could not make a personal appearance. They both won. There came a time I became disgusted with the whole thing. It was fun at first...a sort of "bloodless war". But honestly the Christian Right did me in. The most petty and juvenile people I ever dealt with. After staying away from politics I came to my senses and now am here and love this forum. These current Republican "leaders" are a train wreck...and I know one when I see it.

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