With the group I was with yesterday protesting in my midwestern city, the thing we all had in common: we all read LFAA. Heather, you keep us informed and encouraged. I agree with D4N: “ Only sincerest gratitude”!
Last night, my beloved sister-in-law wrote to tell me that she'd discovered a wonderful writer whose work I might want to read: Heather Cox Richardson. I had to smile since I'm sure that I made the same recommendation to her years ago. Yes, indeed, everyone is learning about LFAA. We are all learning our history, history that we never learned in school, and that reminds us that we have been through scary times before and have found ways to move beyond each set of challenges..
One of many things I love about this newsletter is that it provides us with evidence in lieu of interpretations of evidence. Interpretations are fine if they’re for the right “serve the greater good” reason, but the interpretations of so many other venues seem to be for a self-serving “feed the Outrage Industrial Complex for profit” reason. Besides, from where I’m sitting at this moment in history, the interpretations seem to be speaking for themselves.
I saw at least one handwritten sign listing ‘Actions You Can Take:’ Number 3 was “Read Heather Cox Richardson daily”. It warmed my soul on a cold and rainy day in Boston
I too was in Boston. Several newbie friends and I struck up a conversation about what we thought HCR was doing today, what she was thinking about today. In today's letter we got our answer. As to the point about status quo, I think signs that read: Sic Semper Tyrannis, They're eating the checks, they're eating the balances, We the People of the United States Resist, and the chant, This is what democracy looks like" inform us many in America appreciate our history, our legacy, our foundational texts, and our sacred honor.
Cheryl, that is terrific. I post Heather's letter every day and now I see several friends reading it, posting it, commenting on it, recommending it. I did not make it to a protest because of health issues, but I had an excellent report from my neighbor who went and for the first time in a long time, he was a little optimistic. The turnout was fabulous, more than he had thought. Friends took lots of pictures too, so we could enjoy the signs. There were even pictures from places like Grant's Pass (southern Oregon) although there were a couple guys across the street with a big Trump Vance sign. I also saw a report about a protest close to where death star was playing golf and fund raising. Kudos to all the people across the country and in other countries as well.
Agree all around. Thank you Heather for creating a safe place in a chaotic time. Let's keep it simple, do you want to live under a Constitutional Democracy or one man's rule? Stand up and speak your truth. Join "we the people".
David was listening to an analysis by a couple of political scientists this morning. Their prognosis was that the US would more likely come to resemble Hungary, not Russia, which is quite disheartening, demoralizing and quite frankly so perilous that it will become unlivable.
Ignore those political scientists. With the huge numbers of Americans getting out today all over the land, we're going to look like ourselves again soon.
Perfect sign, "Real Americans respect the Constitution." On 1-6-2021 Trump tried to overturn the Constitution. Why would anyone believe that if he regained power he would respect the Constitution? To believe that he would is naïve, stupid, ill-informed. They didn't care because Trump represents and implements their hatred, crushing those that they hate. But now they're paying the price financially for their shallowness. Let's hope that we can save them from themselves.
Richard, I was on a thread yesterday for traffic, storms, etc.for the local area which was addressing downtown traffic. The moderator is thankfully on the side of those of us who are against death star, et. al. On the thread appeared the usual suspects who think muskrat is saving us money.....no cites for this of course and the usually amount of name calling which is all most of them have...I am a leftist retard. I wrote a long answer to one person and much to my surprise she did not answer. Sometimes when you look at the pages for these people, they have no friends, etc. I finally got rid of one who I could not block in the conventional manner, by reporting him to Facebook who gave me the option of blocking there and ouila, he was gone. I also helped a friend yesterday who had someone throwing around the word Marxism which she used on her response and then she let him have it in uncertain terms. I might also add here that not only do I appreciate Heather very much, but also most of the people who post on the letter. I have had some interesting discussions and I have two friends that I met here, one of whom I have met in person. Kudos all who attended protests and who post and continue the fight.
Great comment but please reconsider your use of the term “retard” which is now seen as very demeaning and insulting to people who learn differently and live with mental/intellectual challenges. I appreciate you meant no harm but a change in how you describe yourself might be considered?
Well, Crone. The use of the word retard was not me, but some MAGA calling me a leftist retard. It seems to me that I should be able to report being called that without being chastised. I spent years in a public school and many challenged students, who always knew who their friends were, felt safe with me always and either hung out in the library or worked as an aide for me. For a long time we had a class for the most challenged students and i did everything I could to support them including buying the many things that they made for Christmas, etc. and always supporting the dedicated staff who worked with them. I am sorry that I did not make clear that it was a MAGA calling me that, although when I reread it, it should have been clear. So if someone calls me that and i am reporting it, I am not going to change it nor should I have to. The MAGAs I encountered had only name calling, of which I gave an example. One of them said I am sorry for your loss and I sometimes get I will pray for you which, in my mind, is wishing bad energy on me.
I am through with this. It was clear that this is what the MAGA was calling me and not me using this phrase. I can't help it if people do not read carefully.
and now he has hung what he believes is the original in the Oval!!! There is a black velvet curtain over it which he only opens briefly for special "guests" ... apparently he repeatedly pestered the National Archives for it, and was refused each time.... so draw your own conclusions....
I was at the protest in Augusta, ME and what struck me the most was the lack of counter protesters. I saw one "tRump/Vance" sign from a passing car, but that was it. I'd like to think that that indicates some people rethinking their previous bad life choices, but maybe I'm dreaming. Did others have similar experiences with few counter-protesters?
How long is it going to take for the undereducated PWT in those dreadfully ignorant red states to realize they've been SCREWED? A few have squealed recently, but they still seem to be victims of their own stupidity. I guess the real morons are too far beyond help...
Remember Musk is not the only billionaire supporting Trump. Tesla boycotts have had an effect, but that’s too limited. We can win this war peacefully by protest. Part of that is finding alternates to Amazon, Meta, and other entities that bent the knee,
A dictator demands loyalty. Break that.
I read Walmart denied Trump in February or March this year and made a multi billion dollar investment in Mexico. Bezos bent the knee. I’ll be shopping Walmart online before referring to Amazon. Already cancelled Amazon Music and likely will not renew Prime.
I have to find an alternate to Meta, but I will.
I am traveling currently in Galapagos so I can’t attend protests, but I will.
I am finding here taxis are small 4 door pickup trucks and a Chinese import is much nicer than offerings from Toyota, Chevy, or Ford. I will continue to bias toward buying American at home, if I buy any more vehicles. At 67, and completely immune to the need to show off status with a new ride every couple years, I expect my current vehicles may out live me.
Stop buying the newest to establish false status every few years.
Billionaires will feel your pain through boycott of their offerings.
Peaceful protest does not just mean carrying around a sign.
UNITED WE STAND; divided we fall. Couldn't be more accurate. We always USED to unite easily when collectively threatened by a common enemy. It's empowering to sense that we may have found our "roots" again.
Lol i like Canadian Tire myself, being Canadian, but its the chain so many dump on as cheating its customers. Can't say i've ever had the problem, a least generally. Years ago they priced me a $1500 motor vehicle inspection, mainly overhaul the emergency brake system, seemed fine to me, took it down to a local guy who told me i needed a brake like bulb changed, cost a couple bucks. Never told the guy about brakes. They worked fine for the rest of the life of the car.
Not good 🤷♂️, I’ve been a prime customer for years, the prices are very good, but the packaging, ie the shipping from Amazon sucks big time, they don’t care. Now I think twice before I order from them.
Yes of course. Sam Walton is/was (I don't know if he's still alive) a very conservative man and his policies show in how he ran his empire. I imagine many big companies tried to play both sides when they contributed, and with that guy's threats to retaliate against anyone who doesn't support him, many of them will capitulate. It's the worst thing they can do. I really bristle when I hear the phrase "it's just business" as it often means engaging in unethical and cruel behavior. Since when is "it's just business" an acceptable argument for not being a decent human being?
Canadian Tire sounds like a tire company. Does it have the diverse stuff that Amazon has? If so, any reason why an American can't buy flashlights and other useful stuff from Canadian Tire?
Canadian Tire does car repair and sells car parts and also a whole store full of almost anything you can imagine. The only things it doesn't have that Amazon does are books and music. I because there are no Canadian Tires in the US I don't know if you could order internationally from them. But if you live close to the border almost any town of any size will have a Canadian Tire.
Hope you continue to have a wonderful vacation and thanks for the information on Walmart. Amazon/Walmart where do I go? That is the question. I've read that Walmart has supported the Heritage Foundation for years, but Walmart heiress, Christy Walton, recently placed an ad in the NYT and several local newspapers (including my own). The ad pictures the Statue of Liberty and concludes with: "We are the people of the United States of America. The honor, dignity, and integrity of our Country is not for sale. Show up, attend your town halls, be civil." Here is a link and I had a very difficult time finding one showing the ad using Google: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220176364
Local stores are first choice when that’s possible. Often an online search for your item finds a smaller company. For example: housewares from webrestaurant, supplements from iherb, books from bookshop.org. Some people use Amazon to find a product, then order directly from the seller’s own website.
That ad was in the Chicago Tribune two weeks ago, also.
Tblack, you verbalized my concern regarding shopping--where do I go? I live in a close Chicago suburb and I have ample places to shop. The issue is not being able to find something I want without driving from place to place to place, thus using a lot of gas. (I drive a hyrbrid, group my errands to one day, and try to plan a route, but still.) I also struggle with knowing which company has the "best" policies. I needed some crafting supplies and the local Michaels didn't carry it. Joann's went out of business. My choice is Hobby Lobby or Amazon. Which do I choose?
I could go on and on about the dilemma of purchasing--where and what to buy. It's a real challenge for seniors to be ethical/politically correct/green/support small business/be frugal all at once. :-(
Never Hobby Lobby for me. The owners were caught smuggling Syrian artifacts into the US for their Museum of the Bible. Stealing a country’s heritage. I remember they listed some as “sample tiles” on the Customs forms. Very deliberate. For details I just Google “Hobby Lobby Syrian artifacts”
The Micheal's by me is very small, poorly stocked, messy and very few workers. It's been this way for at least 10 years (one if my kids worked there back then)
It has looked on the verge of closing since pandemic. I could shop them online, but I'm a person who needs to see my craft supplies in person.
Thanks to all the responses and suggestions from readers. I used to do quilling until the hands gave out. Mostly, I do scrapbooking (maybe one album a year) and I like to see the papers and stickers and such. Hard to know what to look for online when you don't know it exists, which is why I like to shop in store.
I face a real conundrum regarding both Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A! The suburb adjacent to me has a mosque and many, many Muslim residents. You'd be surprised to walk into either of those two establishments and see the number of employees and customers who wear a hijab. I have no problem, for instance, in not purchasing Goya foods in the grocery store. But on the other hands, HL and Chick fil a and contributing to our local community. Please don't scream at me, I DO understand the reasons to avoid them. As I posted elsewhere today, it is very hard to know how to shop ethically/morally/green/frugally, etc. I avoided purchasing something from Amazon last month, instead ordering from Home Depot, and I was told Home Depot is bad as well. :_(
Ugh not Hobby Lobby please!! Uber right-wing who went to court to protest (and won!) having to cover their women employees’ reproductive health care and abortions in their health insurance. A truly repugnant operation!
(And while I’m at it LOL a note to everyone to please find an alternative to Chik-fil-A [sp?] owned by a massively homophobic huge Republican donor).
There are many strange people in this country whose religion is really a cult…and this cult’s practices hurts people, foments lies, and builds walls. The worst are the millionaire preachers selling anti-science, anti-history, even anti-Jesus! (Is this the anti-Christs we were warned about?) While they claim that their creation science museums are real!
No humans walked with dinosaurs, the Earth, by multiple measures, is around 4.54 billions years old, evolution happens every day, physics predicts things fairly well, creationism doesn’t predict anything! Support the spiritual centers who tell the whole truth!
Well, I don't have to prove there is no God; the others need to prove there is. Pascal says people can believe in God or a tooth fairy. He also adds that we can't know anything about an incomprehensible deity who can reward believers and punish nonbelievers. And can this God distinguish between genuine and feigned belief, or would he simply reward hypocrites pretending to have faith? Is this the kind of God one could respect? The Bible is no guide to morality. Here's one: Whenever children get out of line, we should beat them with a rod - Proverbs 13:24, 20:30 and 23:13-14. The Bible also counsels that we must stone people to death for heresy, adultery, homosexuality, working on the Sabbath, worshipping graven images, etc. etc. More information that you were looking for.....
The only portion I read is really the Jeffersonian Bible portion, the direct words of the human “Jesus”…no proverbs, nor any miracles. And yes, all fealty to violence and hate just drops out…I think people invent ‘gods’ for a couple of reasonable reasons, to help explain nature, to give meaning to life, and as mantras to help us through the day…a sense that it isn’t just random.
Love, empathy, hope, awe…and then there are the reasons awful people take this over…wealth, power, hoarding, hate, tribalism, sexism, violence, slavery...
When I look at a starry sky, a child’s smile, my wife, I feel awe and love…I don’t need to justify it. Science works for that, although always an exploration, a new frontier.
That’s awesomely human too! Till the same powers try to pervert it too.
Nothing in the New Testament is written by anyone who personally saw or talked with Jesus. It's all hearsay, people writing what others have told them what happened or was said. For that, and other reasons, there is no proof that someone named Jesus actually existed. Some, in fact most, of the New Testament is written decades after Jesus' alleged existence. We have the same issue with Islam, Mormonism, etc. It's all hearsay, which is inadmissible in a court of law because it is unreliable.
I cannot disagree with your reverence for nature; the human connections you make are profound and admirable. As Joseph Campbell would say, it's important to have faith in one's experience of life. You have probably found your sacred place and have affirmed it. In the past religion was a search for meaning to explain mysteries. Today religion is too often divisive and dogmatic.
Stephanie—I admire lots of attempts to make sense…but I judge them their impact. Increase knowledge or just increase dogma…and I accept the idea there may be spirits, keepers of wisdom, medicine, bury hint babies, predicting/forecasting based on nature’s patterns, and in these feel a sense of belonging, connections. No matter how you slice it, babies are amazing…! Each links back to the very first spark of life, apparently a one-time event, carried for over two billion years. This is cool! Wonderful! Literally mind-boggling… Just not magically derived...unless you are, like I, a fan of science fiction…
There are plenty of other craft suppliers. Dick Blick is one I use, also Wewak. Some quilting shops are expanding their crafts offerings now that Joanne's is gone.
We all have to do the best we can with what we’ve got and that includes shopping at places we loathe for many reasons, especially when on fixed incomes in the face of insane rises in the cost of everything.
I read that Chrissy Walton inherited billions when her husband died, but does not have a share in WalMart. So, good for her for speaking out, but no credit here goes to WalMart.
Walmart was the first Amazon, they destroyed small businesses all across America. My union, the International Cinematographers Guild, fought to keep them out of LA in the early 2000’s and was successful, it was mainly to protect our grocery stores who were all big chains.
Costco is alternative to Walmart. I haven't been in a Walmart for 35 years. I have never liked the way they do business...ver poor treatment of employees.
I’ll add, for books, I have switched over to purchasing books mostly using https://www.abebooks.com/
And someone mentioned Powell’s books in Portland, my old home, also does mail order. I still yearn for a good source of music CDs, esp jazz and classical; Amazon has declined on selection for at least 10 years. I won’t usevstreaming for music, Imwant tomown the physical copy of it.
AbeBooks is a clearinghouse, they link your book search to a list of little book sellers across the nation.. often i can find a good used copy. the sellers generally use USPS shipping to my PO box, the book-rate media mail is cheap and seems to be largely free from the many mail delivery issues that have plagued the Kansas City regional processing center.
My KIA is 21 years old and going strong. Also really efficient on gas. She looks her age, but then, so do I, and I'm still going strong. Upkeep and maintenance are the key.
Americans buy an awful lot of stuff they really don't need...re-use, reduce and recycle are words to live by.
Buy second hand when possible. My husband and I frequented flea markets, thrift stores and were avide yard-salers. when we got married. Twenty-five years later, I told the manager of our local thrift store (proceeds go to local schools), "I don't buy my clothes anymore, I rent them (from here). I still shop there now, over 30+ years later. I know that doesn't work for some needs, especially immediate and/or mechanical, but I'm still using kitchen equipment that was old when I bought it for a quarter or so, in 1980. The 1982 recession ended, according to my friend, because my fridge died and I had to buy a NEW one. My friend said, "I know the recession is ending because Don & Sandi bought something NEW.'
I drove my little Honda Fit, "Hope," for 15 years. Then she got rear ended, and totalled. I'm still sad. But we found a used Subaru, pre-tariff, so that's the up-side.
There are a lot of memes about the Penguins protesting the tariffs on their islands where no people live. I'm wondering if the Galapagos Islands are feeling the tariffs pinch & if you saw any Iguanas carrying protest signs?
We had a grown man in a penguin suit at our protest here in Naples Florida. His sign read.” Trumps tariffs are for the birds” Now let me tell you it was 90+ degrees and this guy could have used an ice bath!
Peaceful, so glad that there was a protest in Naples. I have an ex-classmate who lives there and when we were communicating, used all caps. She did cite KBOO in Portland once, not knowing it is slit your wrist far left radio. I enjoyed explaining that to her.
Just saw pic of about 15 people in Talkeetna Alaska with a big HANDS OFF sign, a dog, and snow. PLEASE MAKE A SMALL HANDS OFF SIGN AND TAKE A PIC NEXT TO GALAPAGOS SIGN OR ANIMAL AND SHARE. That would amazing.
After I set Amazon Prime to non-renew online, I called them on the phone to cancel entirely and ask for a refund for my remaining time. It took two calls, but they gave me the refund. No point in keeping Prime if you’re not going to use it.
Pat: Great comments and advice. My wife and I live in a remote rural area and depend on online shopping. But we have cut off Amazon and switched to Costco, Walmart, Newegg, etc. We, too, are not looking to buy new cars - I still drive my trusty '06 Tacoma and my wife still loves her '14 Forester (we need 4WD or AWD in our area). As for Meta, we use Firefox instead of Google Chrome and DuckDuckGo instead of Google Search. Months ago we cancelled our subscriptions to the NYT and WaPo and instead get our news from NPR, Reuters, AP, Substack and Democracy Docket Yes, we are only one elderly couple, but if we ALL do it, it WILL make a difference! Stay sane and - as Dan Rather says - Steady.
I said "Meta" instead of Alphabet/Google when referring to Chrome and Google Search. As for Meta, try BlueSky instead of Facebook and Instagram, since Meta is eliminating all fact-checking on those platforms.
Pat: I think it would be hilarious if you posted a pic of a resistance poster on its own stand in the middle of some Galapagos penguins in way that the viewer would know geo. location.....
Pat, we have long avoided Amazon and I have reminded people that Powell's in Portland had books for example. I wish I could find an alternative to Facebook which if you find one that works to keep in contact with people, please let us know. We are in our early 80s, down to one car, with our house long paid for. We try to support local businesses. However, I buy my spices from Burlap and Barrel who pay a fair price to farmers all over the world, have relationships with them, and have incredible spices. There was a note yesterday from someone about the effect of the tariffs on this kind business. Some cinnamon was already on its way from Vietnam for example.
As I read ,hear, watch people of great wealth live, act, and render to research, philanthropy at large, endow to charities /institutions doing incredibly support ( including Alice Walton) I note sharing , is noble. Though many more do -would our ‘troubles’ be solved by just they …paying more taxes?
Certainly it would help, but the crux is far deeper and harder ,me thinks , to enable.
Laws can not legislate morals obviously, nor does money. In fact , several studies have indicated human’s change with increasing wealth wanting -for lack of a more lengthy discussion-more. Greed fits a description but also lacks depth.
To expect fair representation ,encompassing all I fail to point out ,is -with 330+million pop in the US alone -a tall order.
So ..I proffer..educating (not indoctrinating) those that can carry forth and are capable to implement good representation -be it to one’s neighbors/community/district/country or globally requires a good education PLUS giving,sharing,willingness to think of the whole vs self.
Many know of the ‘blank slate’, so with the givens we have -our knowledge- we can and should educate all to their highest potential.
The givens also include bad parenting, mental illness, and trauma…there with teachers knowing eyes and lots of tests (IQ etc)the knowledge and signs can lend to teaching the highest an intervention ,per se, to any -what their potential is capable of ..for their best growth.
Teachers are the best to know how to implement.
Most of us will attest to the one or luck says ‘more’ of teachers making the difference in our lives. Thank you every one of them.
And, I’ll go back to this lesson -currently here ( historically many times) on its second round- AND which many did NOT heed.
The tabled seductions of promise include the manipulation of riches especially when waived by deceptive silvered tongues to the hungry.
Lends greatly to the integrity of “equality for all” …carry on tribe🫶
Not a wealth hater. I’m probably in the top 15% myself, but I do hate greed. Yes, 50% tax on earnings over 1 mil is 500K, which sounds onerous, but, folks still kept the other 500K. I know those numbers are fictitious, but the thought is valid.
Additionally, every break those making typical incomes get is also used by the billionaires. But the guy supporting a family on 80K is living an entirely different life. When a family has the wealth to pay multi millions on staff to maintain their yachts, multiple houses, safety, and attend to their kids, they have too much.
It is ridiculous to say Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are going bankrupt but limit taxed wages to the first 171K. Raise that limit to 400 or 500K and create a level of benefit for anyone who pays that additional tax for a minimum of 20 quarters such that their maximum benefit is 150% of the current maximum benefit. Then lower retirement age to 62.
There are many other modifications to be fought for.
I saw a recent post that sec-sec is taken out up to, like, $167k annual salary. The 17k, unless you meant monthly $17k ?
I’ve also read that it that threshhold kept up with inflation, soc-sec would be funded just fine: congress people aren’t introducing and passing those fixes for whatever reason. But the megawealth is going majorly untaxed - that wealth buys loopholes for misers.
Education is good; ignorance is not helpful to any of us. But the tremendous wealth inequity, which has grown since Reagan, will only be made equitable for the majority through legislation. Taxing those with great wealth must be legislated to bring this fairness, to better the lives of the majority of Americans and to take the moral and political stand that greed is not acceptable, particularly when it daily harms others. The upper echelon of those personally having wealth (whether by inheriting assets or by owning/running corporations) has paid less and less of a fair share of taxes over the last 50+ years and Trump is pushing for more reduction in taxes for the most wealthy. Finance campaign reform is also needed to keep wealthy people (like Musk and others) from controlling our democracy. This includes setting how much can be spent on campaigns, declaring that corporations are not "people," making PACS and so called "dark money" totally transparent by laws making donors names public.
We want people to see that going through a red light is dangerous, we
believe in educating re this but without law as back-up certain ego-centric, reckless drivers in a hurry will ignore red lights. Cameras and fines and losing one's license are added to education in order to protect all of the community. Greed is so much out of control and so strongly supported by this administration that reining in these truly greedy people is not going to happen voluntarily or through education. The rest of us desperately need protection from that greed in 2025. Pass laws!
I had a small business that advertised mostly in the fall. Every election year the cost of advertising ballooned to the point it was not worth the cost. I asked ad execs why. They said the politicians will gladly pay the higher rates.
It’s not about the wealth itself but how it was achieved - rarely not off the backs of those who actually produce the surplus value that creates the wealth, even generations down the line.
And about how it is used - philanthropy is critical and you have to have money to do it; at least some measure of giving back. Quite a difference from the Adleson, Bezos and Musk models.
But it’s also important to note that not all philanthropy is without strings often narrowly limiting on what the money can be spent and of course, as we’ve seen so blatantly recently, on the perceived political “biases” of the institutions receiving the largesse.
As an interesting report on NPR recently explained (not that I’m weeping any tears for Harvard) even schools and institutions with large endowments are not necessarily able to spend the cash outside of the specific purposes for which the endowment was made which rarely include operating expensive and only sometimes actual student financial support.
I did try to research these statistics. Not an easy search but some rough concurrence about half and half..half inheritance ,half worked (inventions /tech/entrepreneurs (sp?). Within that subsets some do great things, some get foolish, some get greedy, some get scammed.
I see pretty same ratios in about any given group , percentage of basics ..about 25% of the above mentioned. The definitions vary for reasonings but basics covered-poor( below poverty line), average ( below 200K), mid class ( 300 K -500K) , and the rich. The ultra rich only some .0003% of US pop, whose combined income grew 13% ….49TRILLION $$$$ expected to reach a 38% growth …(did not find the time frames).
But without a doubt having lived it 80+ years, 90% of those having lived ‘richly’ ain’t got a clue what the bottom 3/4 of the world faces day after day…but they’re running the show.
I have a 2008 Honda Civic which I bought early in 2012. It's my favorite car that I've ever owned, because it drives really nicely. The rubber snake on the dashboard with the cigarette in its mouth--I call it Hazmats II--gives me the status.
As for Galapagos, are the giant tortoises protesting? Or are they too far away to care?
OMG yes! Can we enforce a week or two vacation on this holy roller?? I promise to work very hard at not breaking down at the absence of her daily posts. I will maintain the faith that she will return to us, energy restored.
My nephew works for the USPS delivering mail, one of many, to us all. Today, whilst gathering in protest against Trump and his powers that be in Washington DC, I was encouraged by the power of many of us out in the hinterlands.
I have so many fav signs, and must tell you one of my absolute tops was Hands off the USPS! Great thanks to your nephew and all those other myriad civil servants who serve us every day, and heaps of foul-smelling shame to those that give them grief, including stealing their livelihoods!!!
Frequent commentor on LFAA and great substack author (and published author of many military history books) TCinLA has his readers sending in photos and their stories to his substack. He's published quite a few of them already.
Look for "That's Another Fine Mess" substack to view them. And hats off to Tom for doing this, I think it's a wonderful idea.
Somewhat understanding the energy required for the depth of insight and detail that go into your daily Letters, I too offer my sincerest gratitude, for simple appreciation just doesn't cover it. We are all so very thankful you are here for us and with us and so, we are for and with you as well. Rest well!
I love knowing you were at the protest in San Francisco, Heather! I so wanted to join the protest in Phoenix, but age and disability did not permit. I did support them by way of $$ and reposting information. We all do what we can. Thank you!!
Thank you for the daily wisdom, history and keeping us sane. Big rally in Boise, Idaho yesterday, A real family affair for my nieces, brother and I. Even Ruby Red Idaho can make a difference!
Heather are you able to post on substack that you have a new politics chat on YouTube? I say this because I’m not getting just about anything on FB from you. I want to get rid of FB anyway and not support Zuckerberg. But I don’t know when you post on YouTube. Thanks for considering! And thank you so much for all you do!! ❤️
Heather, what does history tells us about the SCOTUS using an Overruling Precedent? Let’s say, maybe applying to the monster unleashed on the July 1st, 2024 decision.
Speaking of being tired, I have been in awe of your ability to turn out such detailed, informed and well-thought-out letters, both written and recorded, on a daily basis, and still carry out whatever other personal and professional responsibilities you have. Out of concern for your well being I will be obnoxious enough to suggest that maybe a letter every other day or three days a week could be enough to accomplish your really valuable contribution. I would mourn the loss of your letters because of burnout.
I’ve been waiting for this for the last couple hours; the day that we don’t hear from HCR is a day I know we’re in real trouble! Deepest gratitude to you, Heather! 🙏🏻
I’m the same! I can’t rest until I read THE Newsletter. Tonight, I realized I had been holding my breath until the letter came in. Love to you, Heather Cox Richardson! I hope you can rest now, too. Good Night!
I'm an HCR addict as well. Yesterday, at one of the 20 protests in Maine, I asked a few of the other protestors if they read HCR's daily newsletter. And none of them had heard of her. I need to redouble my efforts to introduce people to Heather. What she relay's to us everyday is good for my mental health and hopefully millions of others.
Sharing time with other sufferers was cathartic. For the first time, I understand why many people attended Trump rallies. It wasn't about worshiping Trump, it was about the fellowship. Maybe that's part of the reason I read all of your wonderful comments everyday.
I couldn’t make any of the protests here in southern New Hampshire, Southern Maine, I was in a very small business yesterday. I mumbled something about. I am now starting to use only cash versus credit card for purchases and mention something about privacy. The two ladies behind the counter Agreed about the privacy part. I then told them about.MeidasTouch Network, and Substack. I then asked them if they had heard of Dr. Richardson and neither had. This is the southern main community! So I gave them her name and all of the information that I have and they were thrilled to pieces to learn about these new independent media sources. I keep spreading the word when I can!That’s my protest.
Maybe we need to have HCR “cards” to hand out to those who are unfamiliar with her Substack.
Heather, could you come up with a prototype that you would endorse for us to personally distribute to broaden your reach? I would be honored to endorse you as I can in my daily encounters.
MeidasTouch Network is thriving! Those three brothers have our backs.Have you discovered Aaron Parnas yet? He's a 25 year old who has an amazing resume and has become a full time journalist thanks to his subscribers. He was the the first after Rachael Maddow to interview Cory Booker. He is the future of journalism in this country and we need people his age getting involved.
I was at the Billings, Montana protest yesterday with about 1000 other people. One person had a sign that included "HCR" in the corner so we got to talking about LFAA and how much we appreciate this newsletter. And that was way out in deep red Montana.
Gary, you’re exactly right. Some time ago I read an article by an author who’d traveled to many tfg rallies and I interviewed the rallygoers. They’d become friends and looked for each other and arranged to get together at the rallies. It was a community. You know, like Deadheads.
I talked to one woman at our protest who was happy to be together. She used a walker and said her arm was quite painful so she took painkillers and came anyway. If all the honks we got turn into votes next year, we’re good.
Let's get started now. We need to pay attention ALL of the elections in our communities and states. And all of the appointments my state and local governments. Remember, over 100,000 elections in 2025 somewhere in the US.
I was one of the founders of an organization called Blue Tennessee, which crowdfunds candidates for state offices, starting with the nominees who have the least; ideally every race has an opponent. It’s a long game, building a bench and I may well be dead before it comes to fruition. But we have people in other states who recognize their luck (for now) and have joined. www.BlueTennessee.org (or text Blue TN to 33777).
There was a rally held in Salisbury Ct. Saturday. About 300 to 400 people attended. The small village green was packed. I got to to see many people I had not encountered in years. For the past 30 years several local concerned citizens have been standing for Peace at the same spot almost every Saturday morning. Joining them and maybe extending the spirit of the 4/5 rally is necessary. Anything we can do to fight this horror is needed.
I've never had social media accounts, and think people "friending" others they've never met to be ridiculous---until I "met" people on here. I've come to "know" many people by reading their comments, and over the years, little tidbits about their personal lives has truly fleshed them out in my mind. I am awed by the intelligence and expertise that they offer which enriches Heather's Letter.
I've related personal stories of my own. The outpouring of support when my brother died of dementia exacerbated by COVID was truly touching.
I may be forced into having social media accounts and the thought of trolls scares me. The rare troll on here is bothersome enough.
In no means was I trying to diminish the mental health benefits I get from this group. I used to travel for work about 30-40% of the time. A few times a month, I would have a great conversation with the person sitting next to me. I started calling them my "one time friends."
One day, I was sitting next to a retired US special forces sniper. This 2 hour conversation literally changed my life. He told me so much that was classified information, but I'm a nobody, so it didn't matter.
I'm sorry to hear about your brother's passing Miselle.
I love the "block" feature in Substack. I've only used it a few times, but it sure is nice.
Gary, my brother's dementia first manifested with aphasia. Every time I watch clips of Trump, I see the exact same issue in early stages. The repetition of certain ideas or themes, the lack of vocabulary--the real chiller was the brief flash of confusion when he was questioned about "Signalgate" and you could see he didn't understand either the word or what it referred to. My brother tried to cover for himself due to being frightened and embarrassed. Trump's time is coming--it might already be here.
My best friend died after rejecting a bone marrow transplant. However, a couple of years before this, he had a stroke and had aphasia following the stroke. Fortunately, he mostly recovered. It was very scary for him and embarrassing as you mentioned.
My husband and I were in Bangor yesterday. People at that protest knew Heather. Lately, whenever I mention her, she's well known already. She's a national treasure!
Gary, I try to introduce HCR readers to Decoding Fox News. When we read Heather we cannot fathom how Trump remains popular. Decoding Fox News on Substack is a week of Fox in 45 min. One listen and you UNDERSTAND what (and why) Trump fans do not understand. Https://decodingfoxnews.substack.com?r=4j5a4
I would love to Ally. I miss the west coast. My wife mentioned this morning that California is negotiating tariffs with several countries starting with China.
I love it. I hope other states do the same thing. What is Trump going to do about it? It would be great to see him on the defensive for a change.
I've always had cats (more independent than dogs, and early on I did a lot of umpiring travel). My best friend adopted a rescue dog, and she became my niece dog; the first dog I got to know well, and she bonded with me. I still cannot, in good faith, have a dog since we still travel quite a bit.
Gary, with all due respect, I don't think we should be compared to an indifferent to official cruelty horde. There're totally different reasons for us to get and pull together. Please reconsider.
Not all the reasons are so opposite. I remember tagging along with the (current term, child care group) of kids a neighbor took care of after an injury limited other work. They got a lot of free passes to movies but also took the entire group to different churches every Sunday since the families of the kids attended different churches. Most were Free Will Baptist churches back in the mid 1950s, with independent views of the typical fire and brimstone preachers in each church, each one often describing how the attendees of the other churches were bound for Hell. For all their differences, they had the best times at church ice cream socials where they all mixed really well (though not with the Black church groups in Sedalia). It seemed idyllic (if you were white), though I, at 11, (having spent the previous 4 years in Hawaii and in a family that treated/appreciated all the same) was innocent enough to wander into the what I later thought of as the Black quarter of town. A very nice elderly Black man escorted me back to the area he said it was less likely to risk upsetting the white people who never ventured into the area.
"...In 1886, the Salvation Army established a post in Sedalia, and the Army’s founder, William Booth, traveled from London to attend the event. When Captain George Parks was asked by The Sedalia Democrat why William Booth had purposed to locate “his salvation army” in Sedalia, Parks responded,
“Because Sedalia is a desperately wicked city, and if souls can be won to Christ in Sedalia, they can be won to Christ anywhere.”
Parks was later beaten severely in downtown Sedalia; he traveled home to Chicago, where he died nearly a year later from his wounds, making him the first martyr for The Salvation Army in the United States..."
I doubt the Hillsdale College/Trump "historians" of "1776 Project" would want to include that history.
It's just the fellowship Ricardo. My mood and mental health are so much better today after talking to only about 10 other people at the protest. And it also helped to realize that most of the Trump rally goers don't go to listen to Trump's stale message but to meet up with other MAGAs.
5.5 million protesters yesterday and millions more that would love to have attended but couldn't. That's a lot of fellowship Ricardo.
Cathartic was certainly the adjective at yesterday's protest here in the City of the Angels, Gary. We could feel the pent up frustration being released, as the collective call for constitutional adherence was joyfully proclaimed
We attended the first 5 of the Portland Maine Monument Square protests before we went to Florida for 2 weeks to help get better treatment arranged for a relative, and will go as often as we can (this past Saturday was an exception for Augusta). Buying markers at Sherman's, for the Augusta event, let me see the tail end of a protest here in Freeport, so we will start attending as many non-conflicting ones as we can, starting with those within walking distance.
I echo that 100% -- the first email I look for in the morning and my first read of the day -- even before my first sip of coffee (which I will now enjoy!)
Your voice Heather, helps keep me sane. And, I'm learning about our history in a way that makes me feel connected. That rarely happened in my school classes.
Frank. I didn't realize that. My wife was wondering about buying a small cabin close to the coast in NB just in case things go to shit here in Maine. We are both US citizens only. Would we be allowed?
CONTACT Mike Johnson and tell him to let the Republicans and Democrats VOTE on the tariffs and let the VOTE be CONFIDENTIAL. Let it come to the floor for a VOTE! This is STILL a democracy! Congress represents ALL the people, NOT just one person or party.
202-224-3121
Call every day. Also call the Representatives & Senators. You can use the same number.
“Malignant Stupidity”
“The Trump formula is apparently what you get if you ask ChatGPT and other AI models to make tariff policy:
Elon Musk’s Dunning-Kruger kids might be responsible for those tariff numbers. That now looks like a distinct possibility.”
Confidential voting (and confidential holds) so often done in the Senate.
I could go for at least making a chamber wide pre-vote confidential with just the numbers revealed, before a vote for the record, with each member's position recorded (along with a brief indication any might want to make about it being voted that way because of intolerable poison pill provision(s).
For those who have been following Feathers of Hope, Jerry Weiss has stage 4 cancer.....in his honor (and to save our country) please protest to Congressional Republicans, and their donors and constituents..
I did not take it that way, but, I deleted my comment after you edited yours. To me it meant you thought if she didn't write, something was very wrong, and if that thing was she was too tired, then she would be very wrong to be tired and not write you. I didn't think that was very nice. I also read Heather daily right off the bat...in the morning. Sometimes after coffee, sometimes before. Today I was home sick with a chest cold (the Santa Fe "Hands Off" happened in the snow) and without coffee. This likely contributed to my lack of levity. We both clearly value what Heather does, Jean, and adding that last part changed everything.
Heather concluded hers yesterday how the president of Lithuania, and large numbers of its citizens, in a “dignified departure” saw off the remains of four U.S. service members killed in a training accident there. And how Trump, who could have met that plane arriving in the U.S., only blew it off.
We’ve all long known the history of this pussy-grabber, rapist, convicted criminal, longtime mob associate, vulgarian, racist, fat, orange-make-up-caked-face narcissist.
But now, contrasting him, it, to the decencies of the president and people of Lithuania – and in light of the newest way he has again sucked up for mass murderer pal Putin – it embarrasses me more how Republicans yet cover for his bottomless indecencies, recklessness, and worse.
We’ve got to get those standardized tests out of U.S. schools. Have got to return the arts and humanities that at least give us a chance to learn some personal standards, which too many “adults” just never show.
That testing teaches too many that life’s only value is getting the cold-blooded skills to out-score others, climb into the meritocracy, and for the rest of one’s life climb over more, more others.
Anyone else embarrassed at our entrenched status quo?
I am not embarrassed. I am angry and disgusted, and a bit terrified. I didn’t make the world this way. In fact I have fought for most of my 68 years for a better country and better world.
For a little while it looked like we were going in that direction, but it was a chimera.
I hope this mass protest is a sign that the sleeping giant is reawakening.
Same here, Annabel, but definitely in the camp of “furious.” I’ve been furious since November 6, 2024, first at the ignorant voters who cast their ballots for this monstrously stupid criminal, and also those who couldn’t bother to vote at all. For som reason these people mostly get a pass for what they have done. No excuses, we all lived through the first four years of his rule, and if that and his actions on January 6 didn’t clue you in to who he is, then you own this lock, stock and barrel. Since noon January 20, it’s been a constant stream of cruelty, stupidity, incompetence, senseless destruction, cowardice and complicity from too many quarters with no end in sight. Not embarrassed, not afraid, still furious.
John, I am with you on the "it doesn't matter" non-voters. Don't forget that a percentage of that larger block were prohibited from voting, either by design or circumstance.
Check TCinLA for a great round up of demonstrations. He opened his Substack to his followers and the reporting and pics came from around the country. Great pics of signs. And an absolutely marvelous report from the brilliant writer Gloria Horton - Young on the Las Vegas protest. Fabulous read!!!
Why shouldn’t voting always be confidential? We elect leaders based on perceived character and ability to serve. We should trust our elected leaders to vote in our best interest, right?
It would be like betting on your team once the team was put together. If your team keeps losing, you need to ask questions of each representative and get clear answers. From the right questions, we should be able to infer correctly the answers we are seeking.
It’s personal CHARACTER and the FACTS that matter. We make choices in all of our relationships. Ultimately we must trust the leaders we elect to vote in our best interest…and sometimes we will be disappointed, but there will be another day. Even the election of the Pope by the Cardinals of the Catholic Church is done by secret ballot, is it not? At some point, don’t we have to trust our own conscience?
That’s a good question Jane, the answer unfortunately that comes to mind, is that half of the people in the House couldn’t be trusted to empty a litter box. A long time ago the repugnantkins stopped offering ideas that people could support.
Jane, I have wondered the same regarding your comment about teams. The "top" states rankings for poverty, maternal health, industry, welfare recipients, failing infrastructure, etc, always seem to be RED STATES.
Why do people CONTINUE to vote the same people in, over and over? Why are these GOP voters content with what they have?
I discovered and highly recommend Tennessee Brando, who has youtube clips and is part of the Meidas Network. He was raised poor in a small town, is a recovered addict, and he truly tells it like it is. In about a year, his channel has gone from hitting 100,000 to today a hair away from 700,000. He frequently says that he gets a lot of MAGA viewership. His channel is reaction based, but another channel that gets a lot of MAGA viewership is "Belle of the Ranch". Her clips are informational/news reporting and well worth subscribing to.
"Why do people CONTINUE to vote the same people in, over and over? Why are these GOP voters content with what they have?"
Isn't it a cultural issue? The history of those Southern Red states is different from the history of, say, New England or the states around the Great Lakes, especially in the size of enslavement (small vs large), with all the outsized sense of superiority and entitlement that the trafficking and enslavement of black Africans brought to the South, even to poor whites; and the history of unions that grew alongside industrialisation in the North, and which taught workers, and then citizens, to stand up for their rights.
The LFFA comments often provide what I call a book club. This book was recommended probably two years ago, and it is a MUST read! I've given copies to probably 8 or so folks now, they all agreed it is an important book.
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America written by Colin Woodward.
All the LFAA should read it, as it explains a lot of why we are who we are and what we believe.
Sophie, you are welcome! I hope you enjoy it, but if you enjoy HCR then I think you will enjoy the book as well. One of my favorite pleasures in life is learning something new. Like Heather does, this book provides a great deal of history. It is fascinating.
I'm familiar with these cultural-regional concepts in Europe. I am a citizen of two European countries and live in a third, and in each of them, such different regions exist, and even cross country boundaries; they aren't unitary either - political cultures, religious cultures, literary cultures and scientific cultures might have different boundaries. I am less familiar with such regions in the USA, although through my rather limited knowledge of your history and extended visits over several decades, I felt these must have developed too.
I support Americans acting against this madness. Some are friends and relatives, and I care for them. For MAGA… well, we have our own crazies, so I don’t blame you for them. But I wish they didn’t dominate US politics.
Thanks, Miselle, I have been encouraged by Belle of the Ranch too.
I’m not familiar with Tennessee Brando, but I will check him out! It’s so important that we break out of our bubble and find common ground with our fellow Americans. We really do all want the same thing…a future for our children where opportunity and kindness prevails.
Yea, Libby, that’s true. But at some point we have to make a judgement call, “Do I trust this person or not?”.
It’s kind of like getting married. We can’t hold another person 100% accountable. We will be disappointed sometimes. But there is always change in the wind. And change can be good….
I noticed the names of the four young men as well and wondered what their short life story was.
I live near a military base and was on a commercial flight years ago when a large contingent of service personnel boarded the plane from another airport back to this area. I remember being surprised at the number of individuals who were not “Anglo” looking…whatever that means.
(I will interject here that as a former English as a Second Language teacher, I seek out anyone with a tinge of diversity because I know I have much to learn from them.)
The group that boarded that plane made me wonder: What per cent of our current active military are first or second generation Americans? Does anybody here know that figure? It seems like a good way to earn citizenship for those inclined to do so.
My ESL students changed my life in so many ways. I am a homebody and do not like air travel, but I love learning about people and places beyond the place where I was planted. I have been fortunate to have gotten to know amazing people from far away places…I’m glad everybody is NOT just like me!
We have always honored our brave military dead. It is the least we can do. They gave their last full measure of devotion. As an Army brat, this breaks my heart.
Just to keep things factual Phil, Lithuania uses standardized testing for all of its students. Graduation from high school is focused on passing the Matura exams, a standardized test used in many European countries.
I believe Finland only uses a final standardized test for those High School graduates that want to use the scores to apply for higher education entities.
I am more intrigued by students creating portfolios of what they have learned, researched, or accomplished, with very much emphasis on standardized testing.
I always encouraged students to at least be able to play back what they thought some teachers were trying to teach them (as sort of a nod to standardized testing), but think about a portfolio of as much beyond what was being taught as they could manage.
Know the test but don't be limited by it.
The best example for me was a Naval Academy graduate with his own flight school taking our Aircraft Powerplant and Airframe Technician certificate courses so he could work on his own aircraft. He complained that we taught 3 times what the FAA required, to which I responded with a comment that I was shocked by the accusation since we were trying to teach 9 times what the FAA required.
It was a bit of a problem for some, even me, since so many feared the difficulty of the FAA written tests and especially the Oral and Practical test (which I took right after finally getting back from Florida following the 9/11 attacks). I was approaching the time limit trying to perfect a few imperfect rivets when the Designated Examiner pointed out the test requirement was only 70%, far less than the standards we had to meet in the coursework.
We could "Pass" very easily, but the difficulty in achieving the highest scores in the final testing allowed more meaningful discrimination by the job market. The background of the students mattered less, and we were especially proud of the young (and older) women that outscored (and later outworked) so many of the others.
The one I was proudest of, though, was one immigrant young man who worked so hard outside the school, while living in an abandoned house with no electricity or running water, and came to me admitting he couldn't afford the tuition and expensive tests for the last quarter. I advised him that he was a real asset to the rest of his team and I'd never say anything about his inability to pay (yet), since the only time that would have to become a problem was when the Certificate to take the FAA tests would be withheld until he paid in full. He would have all the knowledge he could gain as he helped the team do the same, so he could at least work as a well skilled A&P under the supervision of certified ones. We had helped pay for other students, and would have helped him if needed, but others unknown to us (suspected to be Tom Wathen Center connected or beneficiaries) probably did that. He went on to a well paying job as a tax paying beneficiary that benefits the rest of our society.
For the record, I am not personally thrilled with the over-emphasis on standardized testing, either. At the same time, in a large education system (or, for that matter, in 50 large educational systems), it is not easy or cheap to provide a program by which every student can be evaluated one-on-one or even one-on-a-few as you could in a much more intimate system.
I went to school in the 1950s and 1960s, and we were already subjected to a fairly large battery of standard tests starting in grade school and continuing through to the SATs and ACTs which preceded college. We also had teachers in our schools who did great work and didn't rely on those test batteries. I realize things in our educational system these days have gotten worse, but I am not convinced that standardized testing is the sole reason for that.
Education funding per student has decreased. Teachers are struggling to be paid well enough to stay in their chosen careers. Administrators have become security guards in their schools, more worried about shoot-outs than education. It's a mess and needs to be fixed with lots more money and attention, but I do not believe that eliminating standardized testing is a panacea.
I find Phil's repetitive litany (is that redundant?!) about "standardized testing" tedious and unsatisfying. He offers nothing in the way of a replacement that would work well in a system like we have today or even in a highly modified system. He just attacks standardized testing as a boogieman, which he can flog unmercifully in hopes of raising eyebrows and getting "heart"-clicks, which, of course, he does.
So many times, Jon, you are just recklessly wrong.
Last time, you erred about what the 14th Amendment, Section Three said. As if you'd ever read its text, or knew any law, you claimed it required adjudication. I replied with its full (short) text which clearly requires no adjudication, just congressional action.
No apology from you.
This has happened before from you.
Now you claim I've "offered nothing in the way of a replacement" when many times here I have offered a program I've had online for more than 20 years: www.EssayingDifferences.com .
I like to hear both perspectives, viewing one as more difficult to accomplish "idealism" but requires so much preparation and careful maintenance while the other as the more pragmatic view of reality that limits what the public servants can do in the shorter term with the current mood swings of the population.
I credit Lincoln and FDR with the most progress, but also others like Teddy Roosevelt, and even Herbert Hoover for some progress during the Harding/Coolidge years (though spoiled by the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs I seem to recall as being forced upon him. My brother's high school classmate, George H Nash, another honor roll student like my brother were a year ahead of me. George went on to become what Wikipedia describes as:
"...an American historian and interpreter of American conservatism. He is a biographer of Herbert Hoover. He is best known for The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, which first appeared in 1976 and has been twice revised and expanded...
...From 1975 to 1995, he lived in Iowa to work at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, where he wrote three volumes of a definitive, scholarly biography, ending in 1918, commissioned by the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association. He researched in hundreds of manuscript collections and archival sources in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Nash published numerous essays on Hoover..."
I'm no where near a history major but I did loosely follow what George was doing through the years and learned to appreciate many of the things Hoover did throughout his life, especially after he was out of office and secretly helping Harry Truman plan relief efforts after the war.
I doubt I would agree with everything he wrote as far as practical balances on issues but am always willing to listen to people I know I can trust to honestly express their views.
I went to law school Phil. I doubt you did. You obviously can't read a law or amendment and understand its meaning. if what you say is true then I am sure SOMEONE would have brought that case to court to keep Trump out of the White House. But look around. Trump is in the White House, jack Smith is gone. The US is in a crisis and all you do is stand around talking nonsense. Sigh.
Sorry you are just ridiculous and I've completely lost patience with your ignorance. No apology offered. You may have some of the people fooled here but not everyone.
Most people are too polite to challenge you or they don't know any better. But I know what I am talking about and as best as I can see, no one is following your view and the world seems to be consistent with mine at least as far as Trump's "right" to be President.
So until something changes, ib will stick with my view point and not yours which I consider to be legally ignorant.
I feel sorry for you because you seem to believe all the nonsense you spout. I expect you sincerely believe it is true,
I like to hear both perspectives, as in liking the goals of Bronson Alcott no matter how impractical they might have been at the time. That said, I do want to be an optimistic realist, perhaps using more little known histories of how hard times sometimes motivated people to make changes they would not otherwise been motivated to try.
At least that's what I hope can be better described by some history I found yesterday starting with a movie, "War for the Woods - the New England Timber Salvage Administration and the Disaster Loggers of 1938."
(Government crash program that converted potential disaster into new forests. Why we have different, more fire resistant forests that make Fall in New England so much more colorful after much of the white pine was lost and hardwoods came to the fore?]
"...When the Hurricane of 1938 struck New England, it was a disaster of proportions unknown to the region at that point. No storm in modern history had wrought more destruction or devastation than that one. Beyond the cities and towns, past the population centers, there was another looming nightmare...the forests.
Nearly 1,000 square miles of New England Pine Forest were blown down, placing nearly 2 billion board feet in logs and lumber in jeopardy of not only waste but of becoming a massive fire hazard. No salvage logging operation on the planet before or since has been as large or as robust as that of the New England Timber Salvage Administration of 1938.
In this video we tell the story of the hurricane, the aftermath, the plan, and the execution of this most audaciously bold plan. Somehow a Hurricane helped restore the forests, prepare the country for WWII, and in a plot twist has had a very pleasant after-effect on modern life in New England.
The story of this amazing and massive collaborative effort has been largely forgotten until now. If you love American history, you'll love this tale of grit, gumption, and communities rising up to take on a problem the likes of which the world had never tried to tackle before..."
Thank you for this. I have shared it. How any human being can still support the creature stumbling around the white house is beyond me. That he speaks for us is sickening. That’s why we were on the streets Saturday! We had a HUGE crowd in our town. The biggest question on everyone’s mind these days is, WTAF?
What Lithuania did for our service members brought me to tears. What an embarrassment the felon is to our country and to our allies. Thank you Lithuania for your kindness.
Thank YOU, Molly....I have reposted on my personal FB page....news reports said that Trump was on a flight to his golf resort when they landed back at Dover!!!! :-(
5-Apr-2025: It has come across the Wires that Netanyahu will be hosted at the White House by DJT on Monday. 7-April-2025, when DJT returns from Golfing in Florida..... Is this an attempt by DJT to shore up his support among the Israel Lobby?.. To Distract from DJT's Ruinous Week for the USA?.. I don't see how the USA benefits from supporting Netanyahu as a whole... Netanyahu needs DJT's support... Both DJT, and Netanyahu must stay in Power to survive, and Popular Resistance is arising against both Netanyahu, and DJT... Netanyahu has 'Orange Envy'... Netanyahu has been in, and out, Power for over 20years, and envies DJT's Dictatorial Powers... I don't see the benefit as a whole for Israel, or the USA, in the long-term...
Netanhyahu is facing mass protests every Saturday in Israel itself. He's prolonging this war in order to avoid both prison and an embarrassing internal inquiry about the failures of October 7th. Many Israelis are furious with him.
Hello Sophie.... Little Bits & Pieces have been visible in Plain-Sight of the Israeli Systemic Security Failures on October 7th. 2023... The Israeli Papers have done a Good Job exposing them... Netanyahu bears most of the Blame... Again, The Innocents Suffer The Most.... OBW: I too, Walk-Between-Worlds....
Apache, for some reason you forgot to blame the main guilty party in this horror story, Hamas. At least the Palestinian people is recognizing whom to blame most.
Ricardo, I admit (and own) a complete ignorance of the situations in the Middle East. I do have beliefs and opinions that are based on the little that I know about that area of the world, and cannot help but think that, while what Hamas did was flat wrong, what was it that created the situation where Hamas came to be an opposition to Israel? What led them to initiate such an awful attack, and why has Israel's response been to both ignore the intel they had about the attack, and then to attempt to utterly destroy the entire region?
What was it that created the situation? They want to exterminate Jews ... and their OWN PEOPLE.
Background:
Gaza: Palestinians tortured, summarily killed by Hamas forces during 2014 conflict
Hamas forces carried out a brutal campaign of abductions, torture and unlawful killings against Palestinians accused of “collaborating” with Israel and others during Israel’s military offensive against Gaza in July and August 2014, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
"‘Strangling Necks’: Abduction, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict highlights a series of abuses, such as the extrajudicial execution of at least 23 Palestinians and the arrest and torture of dozens of others, including members and supporters of Hamas’s political rivals, Fatah."
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, the PA said that Hamas had to stop aligning itself with "foreign agendas" and to "prioritise the interests of the Palestinian people", in a reference to alleged Iranian support for the group.
Disengagement Plan Implementation Law in June 2004. In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements there. As part of this process, four Israeli settlements in the West Bank were dismantled as well.
As of 2023, approximately 1.782 million Muslims, or 18.1% of the total population, were Israeli citizens. Some voluntarily serve in the Israeli military. There is a Arab party that has seats in the Knesset.
Some of the people killed in the masacre were Moselms, mainly Bedouins. At least one of the hostages was an Israeli Moslem.
Ally, in simple terms, everything boils down to two people trying to occupy the same piece of real state. They had a chance of sharing and living side by side and they were partially successful if you consider that many Palestinians live freely in Israel, they voted i every election and have representatives in the Kneset (Congress). On the other hand, there are extremist on both sides that want to be the exclusive rulers of the same piece of land either based on an almost prehistoric old history of their presence there or, due the absence of the original population due the Roman's expulsion of the Jewish people, two thousand years ago, the Arabs, now a day Palestinians, took possession of the land. What I just explained it a total simplication of a complex situation. What happened on October 7 2023 (?)
was a clash of the two extremist sides of this forever conflict. But that's another, related, story Ally. Hope my expiation is of any help to your group of nice and intelligent people. We'll keep this conversation going 😁
Both the Israelis and Palestinians could have moved into full respect and cooperation.
So many -- on both sides, as you well know, Rabbi -- have been long inclined to such civilized rapprochement. Schools could have been the venue for this.
U.S. so-called "Christian" far right evangelicals for The Rapture have instead wanted the hatreds continued, upped, and fed arms (at least one side fed arms, U.S. arms) to guarantee only more killing, more seizures of West Bank land, more road blocks, more intimidation.
And, too, the orange felon and too many others like AIPAC money.
Thanks Phil... Switzerland is a Good Example of Enemies learning how to become Friends... Switzerland is mostly composed of Descendants of French, German, Italian, and Native Helvetians... Read up on how Julius Caesar Conquered the Helvetians... When People Are Willing To Do The Hard-Work, Peace Is Always Possible...
There are many people who although inhabiting adult bodies never learn to think like adults. So they remain in their absolutist thinking or rather non-thinking, the us and them, black and white view which is the hallmark of so many religions. It's simplistic, just plain lazy and contributing to a lot of pain and suffering. I hold religious leaders responsible for discouraging their flocks from learning how to think.
Ah yes. If you have an authoritarian parent, who of course discourages you from having any thoughts of your own, you are more likely to grow up not being able to think complexly and end up being either authoritarian yourself, or a victim of other people.
It's a complicated world, Ricardo. People are complicated.
Rather than standardized testing (which relies on simpleton categories, abstracted groupings, and a-b-c, 1-2-3 linearity), schools could stress essay writing. Especially essay writing which quotes others. Others in the room. Others on the campus. Others in other cultures.
A bit of mutual back-rubbing. He's also clinging to "power" to escape justice. Netanyahu should have the opportunity of observing an American protest - even scaled-down, if there's no time to repeat today's showing immediately. No comfort! Embarrassment! Lots of signs.
I am embarrassed when I and my society looses track of the experiences of others, especially for self-serving reasons. We human have the potential, as individuals and as societies to become monsters, or at least partly monstrous. We see too much of that played out these days.
I was once proud to be an US citizen, not so long ago, and I hope to be again. Now, every day, one of my friends from around the world asks me to explain, and thanks to much of what has been written and experienced, I can. But it hurts. I am convinced by history that the Orange Idiot will continue to double down on his folly until he, once again explodes. But the damage this time is just so unthinkably heinous. He and his enablers must pay, this time.
Problem being, even if dems retake, which i trust they will, unless Maga self-destructs as a political entity and some sort of more normal Republican party resurrects, USA will have lost any trust or leadership appeal for decades if not longer.
Ain't that the truth, Frank. Maybe we'll use that time well and put things right. It's not like our government made no mistakes before the Dumpster. Electoral voting, Gerrymandering, allowing huge donations for elections, ineffective wars, cost of and right to healthcare, economic divide etc etc. are just a few things.
Restoration to an alliance and commercial trust depends on Maga demolition. US just went from a Trump 1.0 to an immensely magnified 2.0 breaking existing treaties and connections wrecking ball style. Who's going to trust US again?
Whoever trusted the US before was probably sorely disappointed too. When in the last 40 years did we not pull NATO allies into our wars? When did we really help our allies solve important issues? Israel?
Whoever trusted the US before was probably sorely disappointed too. When in the last 40 years did we not pull NATO allies into our wars? When did we really help our allies solve important issues? Israel?
I fear that all the king's horses and all the king's men will not be able to restore a lot we a losing. Plutocrats are counting on that. Republic and country be damned so long as plutocrats can answer to no one.
I’m traveling to France in July. (France is one of my very favorite places.) I think I’m going to have t-shirts made that say “Je n’ai pas voté pour lui.”
I’m clearly not ☺️. On another note, when I was in England last summer and wore my “if you can’t pronounce Kamala call her Madam President” t-shirt, I got LOTS of positive comments.
More than pay, is the demonstration that certain lines cannot be crossed without legal consequences. Don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time. "Blind Justice" is not supposed to ignore the truth (and cannot be legitimately called justice if it does). Justice is supposed to be indifferent to social position.
Those of us who were teaching when the Standardized Not-Really-Tests of Anything came along. It was quite the industry--an insidious corporate take-over of education, and thus, of the American thinking process. Those of us who saw through them were criticized for not being "open to change."
Joanne, as an educator in higher education who has had students from both before and after the idiocy of "*every* child left behind" in the last 40 or so years, I can safely say that I watched the deterioration of students' abilities to read, write, think critically, and be open to change in that time. It really is astonishing how thoroughly the education system in the USA in the last 24 years has been gutted. With the support and consent of parents whose ignorance is equally appalling. I am officially "old" because when I talk about stuff my students should know--and don't--they are amazed at the amount of information my tired brain still holds.
What does it mean to be "well educated" and what are we wise to aim for in that effort? It appears to me that we as a society are not often encouraged to ask long-chain questions. What, for me in retrospect, are the skills and basic information that most shapes my ongoing experience? That maximize the fruitfulness, fecundity, of my choices? Reinforces my productivity; my resilience?
All those aspects of life education cannot be folded into one school curriculum, but a perceptive school curriculum can lay the ground for fertile ongoing education. Yes, we need to impart a kit to help a kid make a living, but also to successfully negotiate society and life. Why the hell not?
To lay the ground for wise and responsible choices? I am not saying that just hasn't been done, but that much of that involves integrative complexities that don't fit linear testing regimes. "We" like the fact that standardized testing generates a "number", but insufficiently ask what the number actually means.
In a satirical Si-Fi fantasy, the answer to life, the Universe and everything turns out to be "42". What would that really tell us?
Life is change, but change is often (at least by a given standard) it depends on whose ox is getting gored. Changes that please some of the 1% are (obviously) not in everyone else's interests, and of course, fools often rush in. I have a vague recollection of a LA school board spending huge sums on iPads. that was mostly a disaster, that showed that no one in a position of power was actually doing homework and thinking ahead.
embarrassed and horrified. Trump has long viewed service men and women as "losers and suckers" -- the concept of self sacrifice is completely foreign to him. But to be heading off to "win" a tournament on his own property (and cash in on that) while the markets plunge, peoples' savings evaporate, agencies we depend upon are shuttered and service members are flown home is a new level of bottom feeder. I hope they put up billboards with that picture of him in the golf cart and juxtapose it with the market graph and the caskets. And yet the GOP acts like it's just another day - and a good one at that.
I'm a retired school librarian. I'm SO proud of my profession, and of the dedicated teachers who have been buried under politicos---people who never spent a day teaching, yet fashioned "No Child Left Untested" and are now criminalizing librarians and teachers--- as these dedicated educators do their best. I taught about authoritative information--even my third graders knew that phrase!--and rejoiced in inspiring a love of reading and learning. In the limited time they have, the great teachers (and I've been privileged to know many of them) spend hours fashioning ways to make history and other subjects come alive. In spite of cuts to art, music, drama, and PE, we all persisted. Please all of you, stop blaming teachers--especially now as they are deal ing with the still reverberating consequences of covid and Trump's cruel cuts----and SUPPORT us! Thank you.
Those who are blaming teachers have misplaced blame. Teachers have no choice but to comply or be fired. Some, however, are subversive—my favorite characteristic—despite the pressure. Librarians too (I should have majored in that…I lived in my local library branch as a kid and even got a card at the one in the neighboring town).
Thank you for your support, MMinET, it means a lot! Librarians question and research. We help everyone in our school, regardless of age, ethnicity, or beliefs. Even the young teachers, who never had a school librarian, told me that they learned along with their kids! And thus, doing this type of work, we are dangerous to the fascists. So school librarians, who reach EVERY child in a school, are the first ones to be cut when budgets are squeezed. I was subversive with a smile. I would come up with a creative program, and only afterward would I look at the "standards" to see where they aligned, so I could satisfy the administrative overlords. I founded and chaired an organization of school librarians in the Chicago area (110 at our peak) and as a result, I met the most outstanding and dedicated librarians, who also placed children first, not test scores. And don't even get me started on the awful "so many points for reading this or that randomly selected book"!!
My kind of teacher! The kind I would be. Mrs. Gherke, our branch librarian, knew us kids by name, and we had checkout cards at that time that showed who else we knew who had also checked out the same book! It was a friendly, cool (as in temp) place and I was a regular. Btw, I grew up just south of Chicago, just over the state line.
I have two adult kids who are English Teachers. They both teach in rural schools. It is a travesty what they make (under $50K/yr, no joke.) They COULD move and teach in urban/suburban schools and nearly double their salaries--but don't rural kids deserve good teachers as well? The challenges teachers face now--I've written long, long posts about that.
To get her students to actually READ the 4 novels that she taught, last year my daughter spent countless hours (seriously, weeks of nights and weekends) to devise an "Escape Room" theme. While they weren't actually in rooms, she did scour the grocers for cardboard to make props. The students worked in teams (5 groups of 3 or 4 kids) and had to have read the books to know the clues. They had an absolute blast. (The winning team got out in 15 minutes. I told her that all her hard work was like prepping for a Thanksgiving dinner, lol.)
You cannot imagine, Miselle, the struggles I have experienced in getting students at the university level to read. I have actually had students fail tests and when they have complained, and I asked "did you read the material? Because if you had done, this would have been easy" they replied, "I refuse to read anything that is assigned to me." As you can imagine, my response was "Well, then: you had better either drop the class or be resigned to getting an F."
Linda, I CAN imagine! One daughter told me she has a freshman who told her that she was "going to be a millionaire internet influencer" so she doesn't need school.
She also gives out review packets before the finals, and has said that she literally puts many of the final test questions IN the review. IF they do the review, they will be ready. But many don't do the review.
I used to see our country divided by race, ie black vs white. Then I thought it was divided by wealth (which it is). I told her that I see a future of people divided by education. I don't mean college educated, I mean people who just never learned enough to rise above a minimum wage job. Going to be very hard to man those fryer with one hand while the other scrolls the smartphone!
Thank you SO much, Ellen! Libraries have such an ancient history, and we are fighting! Marian the Librarian was a radical---she read Balzac!:-) I participated yesterday in Chicago's march, and have been an activist, as so many people here have been, for most of my life. As one sign said, "I don't want to tell my grandchildren that I stayed silent when it counted the most."
Thank you for the work you did. My elementary and junior high librarians were top notch; by high school I was using the public library for almost all of my research (the public library was 5 blocks from my house, and a basically grew up either in the library or on the softball diamond). I was a library aide until high school and organized sports and band took up all my "electives" and "free time".
Thanks for all your work in supporting libraries! My district's administration proposed eliminating our entire library department, and at the subsequent community meeting, SO many outraged people rose up and supported us: "Get rid of your administrators, keep our fantastic librarians!" and they cancelled their plans!
I have a dear friend (another musician, although she does play the trombone) who got a library science degree, and Dums now a librarian in a Seattle suburb. She does a boatload of community work up there!
Shelley, we are now forced to engage in practices that should never have been necessary: using non-official networks to provide information and sustain the institutions (libraries and archives especially) that these appalling wankpuffins want to destroy. I worked in libraries all through my schooling and beyond. I am also an historian who works in archives. I can tell you that it is really scary out there.
Liked for the concept of bottomless indecency. I have been saying that Trump and the Republicans lack basic decency, but this is stronger, and more accurate.
Canadian, more cringing than embarrassed, still feels akin to a nightmare not woken from, and, to be honest, some real fear. Canada will suffer most from Trump tariffs, possibly have its auto industry destroyed. Trust tanks won't sometime be rolling across the borders!
Phil, I hope you were able to attend one of the 1200+ protests held across the country. I was heartened by the diversity of ages in the 175 attendees of the protest in Blue Hill, Maine. Hundreds of people drove by as we waved our signs. Most people honked or waved or gave a thumb's up. Angus King spoke to the crowd of 3000+ in Portland which had the largest crowds in Maine.
Gary, our protest in Eugene had several thousand people. I'd say reaction to the drive-by motorists was roughly 90% positive (we lined the main surface street that bridges the Willamette River, and connects the north and south sections of town that the river bisects.)
A big yes to all who attended April 5 marches, Gary.
And all who've read any Thoreau.
I live in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan -- very far from any city, and with responsibilities for kids and adults to whom I teach every day. (My small town, Taketa, lies in the valley of two mountain rivers, with 16,000 people in it and in adjoining much-smaller towns, farm villages.)
I hope some of what I post here may make up for what I may miss from good, valuable, and necessary marches elsewhere.
That is not what standardized testing teaches. In addition, those who follow Trump are not there because they have learned to out-score others or climb into the meritocracy. They are there because of grievances and as members of a cult, based on emotion rather than reason. Our entrenched status quo might apply to some folks but it sure didn't apply to all the folks who showed up to yesterdays rallies. I am embarrassed by the behavior and actions of the POTUS (or whatever he is) but proud of the folks who stood up for the Constitution 5 million strong and were supported by others who were unable to show up.
We had around 5K in Rochester with speeches centered on what America is at her best and how this regime is destroying that. My sign said No Oligarchs No Kings!
They say 3k marched in Augusta where we spent the early part of my wife's 75th Birthday. Six family members, two family friends met up there,and found a few more had gone on their own. We did two laps of the route starting the second (half lap) after a long coffee/nature break, since the crowd at the State House was still so large.
We left Freeport early enough to get there 15 minutes early in normal traffic but barely were able to get off the turnpike by the noon start time, due to a 15 minute delay creeping along the last 1/3rd of a mile on the shoulder before the exit, another 20 minutes in the traffic jam to the State House area, and finding a parking place a 1/3rd of a mile back south of State House.
Was a great birthday party later in the company of more family and friends, especially since we chose the State Capital protest over the Washington DC one we would have otherwise gone to.
So many great signs like "Porsche - Fast, Ferrari - Faster, Tesla - Fascist"
My humble offerings (one for the Hands Off theme) were:
(Picture of Liberty Enlightening the World, with rare detail of the broken chain under her right foot)
HANDS OFF the CHAINSAW Some thought they voted a "Haircut" not a head removal. Cutting Taxes for the Rich makes the Debt worse, no matter how much less you do for the rest. Restore Tax Rates and Services that Worked Best for ALL of US.
The flip side (the first part borrowed from an anthropologist in 2016), was: Who You Voted For - is not as important now, as - What You Stand For. Competent, Law Abiding, Civil Service over Incompetent, Malicious, Political Appointees.
The last part inspired by the Michael Lewis interview with Jon Stewart on his book "Who is Government"
Still trying to catch up on reading the LFAAs and comments from both days.
Reports are that over 5 million Americans participated from coast to coast and border to border. There was no violence, and no arrests were made. It's the largest civic action in American history.
While my attempt at cacio e pepe may have failed, I did not fail in showing up yesterday. I Will redeem myself on the cacio e pepe and continue until i get it right!
Two of us taking respite in the shade discussed why it was mostly “older” adults at the protest. First, we still had our anti-war reflexes and second, it would have been more difficult to devote the time when I was still working and had young kids. There was a young woman maybe college age standing alone during the whole protest and I thanked her and told to bring more friends next time. And I’m sure there will be a next time.
Our 22 and 25 year old protested a number of things in their teens and early 20s. They seem more numb this time. I talked to them and they said that DJT is what they experienced most of their politically aware life. They don’t think he is normal but in some ways the chaos has become normal. I think they need a younger activist to start rallying them. Us older folks are activated by the loss of money and services along with the loss of ideals of democracy. They are activated by the loss of reproductive/marital rights and the destruction of our environment. These things feel like they can’t get as much traction because of the larger crisis happening.
I am pretty sure I was the oldest person in the area where we were. Most were far younger than I am. There were at least three of us tuba players there; I ended up almost directly across the street from the guy I sit next to in the ensemble.
"Reports are that over 5 million Americans participated from coast to coast and border to border. There was no violence, and no arrests were made. It's the largest civic action in American history."
Yes, and people in many other countries joined the protest, too. It's a great start, with more protests planned.
TCinLA - My sister-in-law and I attended a protest in Blue Hill, ME. We lined both sides of Main Street waving our signs and chanting from time to time. Hundreds of cars drove by in the hour or so we were out there. My sister-in-law wearing her multi-colored flag on her hat counted the nay-sayers. They all gave the middle finger salute, drove full-size pick-up trucks, were alone and were men between the age of 30 and 60. There were 8 of them.
I suspect the corporate media will write very little about the protests and include the hateful and jaded comments from the Trump administration.
A post on X yesterday said, "Hey Trump, get your fucking fat ass off the golf course and cancel the tariffs."
Note: I am not on X or Facebook Never have been never will be.
I didn’t count how many but we were observing the same thing here in the Panhandle of Florida. Many, if not all, were white males in trucks and they were visibly upset. I must say, for our area, I was so happy to see so many turn out and show support for our Constitution and our dedicated institutions. Thank you for this group and HCR, we must keep the momentum going!!
We had a great turnout of about 300 down here in Marathon, many more thumbs up and supportive horns honking than middle fingers. It was unexpected! The observation about the pickup guys is apt: we had one asshole who made a few passes deliberately spewing clouds of diesel smoke but with 30 mph winds he soon gave up. It was a happy gathering! Smiles all around!
Even Mother Nature was weighing in on the side of the protesters! Here in Tulsa, the rain and heavy north wind protected them in case some idiot had tried to pepper spray them. Fortunately, none of that happened, and what I saw and heard on the news report was a lot of friendly horn-tooting and shouts of encouragement in support. Unfortunately, only one local news covered the event, the rest were obsessed with covering basketball and late season football instead. Oh well, there's an old bible proverb about mustard seeds. . .We're planting great seeds.
Here in New London CT, in filing the site permit for the protest, a prospective number of attendees was projected, 500 was the projected number. We easily had over 1,000!! It was a joyous raucous non-violent celebration!! Senator Blumenthal attended and sang a Patti Smith song, People have the Power with a soloist and choir. An absolutely day to remember!! Let’s hope the tide is turning!
This and the many more civil actions to come ring the death knell of the “Malignant Maga-Mad” Republican Party and birth of a new party for those who are conservative in their views but honour the Constitution, Democracy, the Rule of Law!
Go Americans 🇺🇸with your “Hands Off!” Canadians 🇨🇦stand with you with our “Elbows Up!” Together we will win the battle against those who seek to rule only for their own benefit….
And it will advance what? It made us all feel good--and I am very glad the crowds were huge and loud--but unless Congress and SCOTUS both get with the program, nothing will happen. Except maybe all of us being rounded up by brown shirts.
Linda - Visibility is still important. What I think was interesting was the number of signs that said Hands Off: social security, Medicaid, education, constitution, freedom, books, libraries, public lands, national weather service … how could any MAGA disagree with these? Am I idealistic in thinking that all the “People” could unite behind these basic services that Trump/Elon/billionaires are trying to take from the people?
I don’t disagree Cathy, I just question how much the people in power really care. We just saw the SCOTUS pause the demand to return the prisoners from El Salvador. The AG of Missouri is DEDICATED (and I mean this sincerely) to the idea that when someone is exonerated they should nevertheless remain in PRISON. The people in power are the problem.
These people in power are a huge problem. I can’t believe the disregard for the law and complete lack of competence.
The US is a failed state and laughingstock of the world. Corruption and greed, run by billionaires/corporations and Fox News, have rotten the US to the core.
What will the people do? What power do the people have?
Bravo to you, Tom, for posting many protest photos and stories submitted to your from readers to your own EXCELLENT Substack "THAT'S ANOTHER FINE MESS".
Folks, click on his substack for the many wonderful photos of protests. It will do your heart good. (As well as his daily substacks where he kindly posts kitty photos. We need those, too)
Mine also said, "We the People" and from it, I hung 3 ACLU booklets of the Constitution. A highlight of the day was speaking to some young girls (maybe 7 or 8) who asked about it and I showed them the bolded "We the People" lead sentence (in the same text style of my sign) and their faces lit up. Months ago I bought 40 from the ACLU and began giving them away. It's time for another batch.
The old racist bastard Strom Thurman was speaking against civil rights. Cory was speaking for us, for civil rights. I’m with Cory. I am willing to fight… there is no choice if you believe in freedom and democracy.
I attended a Hands Off protest in Eau Claire, WI today. It was respectful but uplifting. Just coming off hip surgery so I was using a Walker. People were so kind. Gives one hope to see all these people.
I was surprised at the large number of people in wheelchairs, like myself, who made the effort to turn out. The good side of understanding what a handicap is, and how the repubs are handicapping everyone's future.
I had to walk about 1.5 miles each way to get to the rally here in Atlanta, every step hurt like hell in my hips, but I managed it. In the future maybe less walking 🤷♂️. FDT 💥
This Is Not a Drill: Trump’s Day-One Order Sets the Stage for Martial Law
By Tony Pentimalli
On January 20, 2025, while the press focused on the optics of Donald Trump’s indoor inauguration, something far more dangerous was set in motion—off-camera, away from ceremony, and beneath the radar of a public lulled by spectacle.
Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border. But the most alarming part? It gave the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security just 90 days to deliver a joint report on whether he should invoke the Insurrection Act.
That deadline is April 20.
This wasn’t about immigration. It was about power.
The Insurrection Act, passed in 1807, gives the president the authority to deploy the U.S. military on American soil. That means troops in our cities. That means bypassing governors. That means suspending protest rights. That means the death of democratic dissent—under the false pretense of restoring “order.”
And Trump’s not hiding it. He’s preparing it.
We’ve seen this before. In June 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, millions of Americans rose up in protest. Trump didn’t respond with compassion—he called for “domination.” When the military hesitated to invoke the Insurrection Act, Trump sent federal forces to violently clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square so he could wave a Bible in front of a church. Not an ounce of remorse followed. He was angry the generals didn’t go far enough.
This time, he’s made sure they won’t hesitate.
Since returning to power, Trump has purged the Pentagon of independent thinkers. In their place? Loyalists. Pete Hegseth is now Secretary of Defense. Tulsi Gabbard runs intelligence. And J.D. Vance—Vice President—is openly on board with using military force against Americans on American soil.
Then, on March 19, those three—Vance, Gabbard, and Hegseth—staged a photo op at the southern border. Not a routine visit. Not a strategy session. A performance.
Think about it. Why would the Vice President, the head of military intelligence, and the Defense Secretary all need to go to the border together? Why make a media spectacle of it?
Because it wasn’t about the border. It was about the optics. It was about laying the emotional groundwork for invoking the Insurrection Act. They were building the narrative. “We had to act.” “We had no choice.” “The crisis was too big.”
And what comes next?
It’s June 2025. Trump goes on national TV and declares that Democratic cities are under siege by “radicals” and “illegals.” He signs the Insurrection Act order. Troops hit the streets of Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia. Protesters are arrested under “emergency provisions.” Journalists are detained. Social media accounts vanish. Immigrants are swept into detention centers. The press is told to stand down. The public is told to shut up.
And it’s all legal.
Some of you might think, “He’s bluffing. The military won’t go along. The courts will stop him.”
Really?
Were they bluffing when federal agents brutalized peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square?
Did the military refuse? No. The National Guard was deployed. Many in uniform carried out the order. It was only later that a few expressed regret—after the damage was done.
Did the courts stop January 6? No. They prosecuted rioters after the fact, but the attack happened. Congress fled. Democracy was nearly strangled live on TV.
Did they stop the family separation policy? No. Thousands of children were taken from their parents before courts intervened—long after the trauma was inflicted.
Did they stop the Muslim ban? No. The Supreme Court upheld it. Entire families were stranded or banned simply because of where they came from.
Did they stop ICE raids or CBP abuses? Rarely. A handful of rulings. A few headlines. But the system kept grinding, unchecked and cruel.
So if you’re waiting for “the system” to save us, you’re waiting for something that has already failed.
The April 20 report is coming. If it recommends using the Insurrection Act—and let’s be honest, it will—Trump will frame it as a reluctant but necessary move. He’ll say he tried everything else. He’ll claim it’s about protecting America.
But what he’s really protecting is his own authority.
This is how authoritarianism arrives: not with tanks, but with legal memos, press events, and a scared public hoping someone else will stop it.
So what do we do?
We speak now. Loudly. Forcefully.
Call your representatives and demand they investigate Trump’s January 20 order.
Push the media to report on the Insurrection Act report before it’s too late.
Demand public statements from military and intelligence leaders—now, not after.
Organize. Educate. Resist.
If you’ve never joined a protest before, this is the moment.
If you’ve never spoken up politically, this is the time.
If you’ve never thought it could happen here—it already is.
The threat isn’t coming.
It’s here.
And silence is exactly what Trump is counting on.
*Tony Pentimalli is a political analyst and commentator fighting for democracy, economic justice, and social equity. Follow him for sharp analysis and hard-hitting critiques.*
Yes this! In a previous letter's comments, someone posted to call Senator Crap's office and demand a public explanation of this Executive Order and what the end game is. I called, I hope orhers did also. There is so much underhanded "crap" being done by this administration they all need to be disappeared before it's too late. My husband went to our city's Hands Off as I was am ill.
The stage is set for the insurrection act, for sure. It’s the logical progression of his power grab, and they have been testing the waters on many fronts.
Jim Stewartson has been writing about this as well:
"Democracy is like a builder's workshop where many hands contribute to constructing the common good. The strength of the building depends on the participation of all the craftspeople, not just the architect's initial blueprint."
(Emphasizes the collaborative effort in shaping society.)
Being in London yesterday and unable to attend the Hands Off protests at home, I instead visited Runnymede, the site where King John, in 1215, signed the Magna Carta, the source of our liberties. A sign at the entrance to the trail reads as follows:
“King John was an unusually cruel and corrupt king, whose punishments were swift and extreme…. King John’s reputation for cruelty did not follow him onto the battlefield, where he was as likely to free as he was to fight.”
[After describing the scene and how the barons forced the king to sign the Magna Carta, the sign concludes:] “For the first time in British history it was laid down that a Monarch—a King of Queen—should also obey the law.”
In addition to that principle, the text of the Charter itself resonates today:
[Excerpt from the British Library translation:]
“In the future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.” (Source of our Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination)
“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” (Source of our due process requirement.)
“To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.”
May the barons of today confront the king and demand that he obey the law, cease any corruption, and provide due process to all.
Where is OUR Projekt 2026? I ask, challenge and implore the DNC. Get on with it, or become/stay irrelevant! Ken Martin and the rest of you, listen! You are elected and appointed by us. Look and listen around you and take an organized and powerful fighting stand.
Great to learn that you were nearby, up in San Francisco! We’re in Palo Alto, but some friends were up in SF. Sent pictures. Lots of good and people realizing they are not alone, that our tribe is a huge one and the connection strengthens the activity and the resolve that we can do this! Yes, here we are… But we can do this! Thank you, Heather. Hope you’re enjoying your time out here. Granted, your home stomping ground is gorgeous. We Americans are blessed. Protecting and living by our constitution is one of the greatest blessings. We shall preserve this.
Our Constitution lays out a civil infrastructure, provided by approach it and each other in good faith. It's a seeming paradox and yet seemingly obvious that we cannot maintain liberty and justice without a commitment that is ours alone, as well as to one another. Of necessity a free society is one that differs yet collaborates.
YES. Pythagoras claimed that "there is music in the spacing of the spheres,", and I don't think it just gets woo-woo to see something profound in that. Einstein is supposed to have said that “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.” Emerson that "Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old well-known air through innumerable variations. Nature is full of a sublime family likeness throughout her works...".
The Periodic Chart is the ultimate scale; and fundamental formulations of physics border on the symphonic, as well as the Phylogenetic Tree, or whatever you want to call that master pattern of genealogy. It is tangible in a close attending walk in wildflower meadow.
A great jazz combo is spontaneously inventive, and collectively, they know certain rules; as does the audience. A drum solo is a particularly minimalist form of music, and yet an audience can rise to cheering a riff that is perceived as precisely "right on", yet innovates in unfamiliar ways. Jazz musicians, so far as I can tell, do that in collaboratively in tandem, in a way that excites the human soul; (whatever that may be, but I think, we experience as an essence of our beingness that eludes adequate description). Music is a part of every tribal society I am aware of (admittedly not that many) and is, I think, more core to our humanness than we fully grasp. I am sure there are lessons in music for all of us, the further into it we see, and that, at least in some sense, truth is beauty.
And yet and also there are unalienable right to which we all, even as a social minority, or even as a minority of one, deserve and retain. All for one and one for all. Solidarity in diversity. E Pluribus Unum.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy." -- Lincoln
I was touched, as a European, by the signs that included "our allies" in the 'hands off' lists.
US allies will never be entirely the same towards the US - a future, democratic, US government will have to regain our trust and I think there will need to be more interdependence and less dependence. But a healthy new relationship starts with these small signs that there are US citizens who recognise that the damage done by Trump and his government is not only to the US itself, but to all its relationships, to world security and the world economy. On a personal level, my American friends and relatives took part and I'm all in with them. Thank you.
Don’t mistake the position of our “leaders” with the opinions of ordinary Americans, especially THESE leaders. I grew up in an area of my state full of Eastern European immigrants who came after WWI and II. Some of my friends’ grandparents still spoke Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, etc. And there were fraternal organizations for each, as well as the “Polish” Catholic Church, “Irish,” etc. (And my town was only about 6,000 people!) I value my upbringing and the variety of foods!
77 million of American voters voted for these leaders, in full knowledge of what they proposed to do, as they spoke openly about it. 74 million voted for the Democrats. The highest figure was actually the non-voters who were eligible: 90 million. A small number voted for third parties.
So 70% of American voters either chose these leaders or didn't care either way.
Can you see how that makes your allies feel about the US citizenry as a whole? That's why these protests are important. It's time to turn the tide and it's time to show the world that some of you don't accept this, and that more will join you. I know that there are some who are regretting either their vote, or having not voted.
I understand. We continually heard “oh that’s Trump being Trump “ or “I didn’t think he’d REALLY do that.” What’s particularly unfathomable is he was president once already! Because I work in and believe passionately in our election process, I had to accept the results of this one which I still can’t understand. Additionally, we have a virulently destructive Fox “News” whose attraction I can’t understand either.
Whenever I have traveled overseas, I work hard to not be the Ugly American and to ask people about themselves (because I’m genuinely curious). I only ask that in return we Americans be judged as individuals who by FAR do not agree with this madman and his enablers—one of the flaws of our system.
But a country can't be judged "as individuals" when it comes to its foreign policy - or to domestic policy, for that matter. By its nature, policy represents the collective will of the voters. Tariffs, ICE actions, the brutal shrinking of the government, the friendship with Russia: all these were campaigned on by the GOP and Trump. If citizens change their minds about them (because, for instance, they hadn't realised just how far it would all go), or believe that their government is abusing the power they gave it, then they must say so very clearly: through court cases, collective actions of civil disobedience, peaceful protests; and of course, at the ballot box. It's collective action that wins the day, though individual acts (by judges, or a senators, etc.) will rally or support that collective will.
This is only true, however, in countries that aren't fully autocratic. And preventing the slide into autocracy is also something that collective action can do, in concert with the sections of government not yet taken over by the dictatorship.
We can work only in the system we have. It’s in the nature of thinking people to watch and evaluate and then make a decision. You are seeing the public effects of those actions beginning to surge.
One thing Trump has going for him is his penchant for hyperbole. He showed it when he ran in 2016, all through 2020 and now. The zone is flooded, we are tired and we have to pick our battles. I don’t know anyone who isn’t pained at his treatment of our allies. But since he’s a perpetual victim and protects his extremely fragile self-esteem by spinning every event into a wrong committed against him, here we are.
Oh, absolutely, and that's why I support any green shoot of hopeful action I see reported!
Trump is whatever the opposite of a mensch is. Part Arturo Ui, part Ubu Roi (sometimes translated as King Turd!) and part Robert Hanssen, he encourages both his followers and his opponents to treat him differently from every other leader. Not much you can do about the True Believers, but just as everyone eventually saw that the naked emperor was without clothes, so it's worth pointing out again and again that he's naked. It's part of the reason I read this newsletter: it's clear, detailed, unhysterical, and unrelenting. Everyone should read it!
I wish we could switch over to the Aussie sytem by requiring citizens to vote. It would be a great reversal, where the US started out with only land-owning white men ‘allowed’ to vote… to then squash voter discrimination and disenfranchisement and restrictions on registration (much worse forms coming soon to your state, as Kansas has already seen under kris kobach and [all of our states] will see more [voter discrimination and disenfranchisement] under Project 2025 guidance).
In the Aussie system, failure to vote without a justifiable reason (in hospital, competence issues) is faced with… something like a parking fine. And they turn it into a weekend bbq event - how civilized is that!!!
“ Voting is a legal requirement and failure to do so comes with a penalty.
Fines range from 20 Australian dollars for missing a federal election, up to 79 Australian dollars for skipping a state poll. Voters, however, are allowed to appeal a fine and explain why they failed to participate. “I once accidentally missed a local election. I was sent a letter asking me what I didn’t vote. I wrote back, explaining I was commuting out of town for work and missed the local ads, and they didn’t fine me.” — Heather Pate from Perth, Western Australia”
I don't think they've ever entirely trusted us, Sophie. Clinton, Obama and Biden never adopted the hectoring tone of Hegseth and Vance, but they also complained occasionally about a lack of European commitment to NATO. History shows that Americans have from time to time lost interest in Europe and other continents, separated as they are by two vast oceans. Europe needs to be mindful of the burden of responsibility we always assume the US will shoulder for the protection of western society and democratic values. Europeans also need to look to their own backyards where anti-democratic parties like the National Rally, the AfD, Fidesz and Vox stubbornly persist in our political spaces. Here in the UK we have the Reform party, whose autocratic leader, Nigel Farage, has close links with MAGA Republicans.
You need to know what was actually expected of Europe. And it was never strategic independence or our own integrated European defence industry (we have country-based defence industries, and Airbus, a joint venture between several countries for civilian and defence aeronautics). What US Presidents have alway meant when they said "Europe must spend more" is "Europe must spend more on buying US-made weapons systems". Whenever we develop some of our own independently or work on more strategic independence, US presidents (including Obama and Biden) have always given that idea the cold shoulder, and worked to scupper the idea. France even had to leave the unified NATO command over this issue, until 2009.
But is that so unreasonable, Sophie? US military expenditure exceeds the combined expenditure of the next thirty highest-spending allies. They maintain around 800 overseas bases in Europe and elsewhere. France does a lot of complaining. Macron six years ago told reporters that NATO was experiencing 'brain death' over Trump's unilateral decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria but how often has France led on any military action? I can only think of one instance - Libya - and look how well that went. The US has been criticised, fairly I think, for ignoring genocides in Cambodia, Iraq and Rwanda, but what were the europeans doing when all those events were occuring?
It's entirely unreasonable on the one hand to ask us to do more for our own defence, but in fact only mean "as long as you buy American", or "as long as you don't develop your own strategic independence." Especially since 1990, but even before that it was stretching reasonableness, as the General De Gaulle believed, which is why France has an independent nuclear deterrent.
And as we've seen, since 2017 it's put us at risk of what Trump has been doing - a shakedown.
France has led many actions in Africa, especially the Sahel, where it has the largest base outside France (it also has bases in the Pacific), although there's been a pullback since 2022 after a series of Russian-sponsored coups in countries there. What a strange question. Didn't you know about Operation Barkhane?
In a military alliance like NATO, strategic independence of partners is not really a good idea. My question related to the genocides in Cambodia, Iraq and Rwanda, not the Sahel, where French involvement has largely been a relic of its brutal colonial history there, and which in any case has now finally ended.
Within NATO, of course not, although there’s no reason to privilege the US weapons industry within NATO. But NATO is not the only way European countries can or should defend ourselves. Yet every time EU countries have spoken of extending the EU competencies to defence coordination, the US has thrown a strop. And now, frankly, the desire to pay the US weapons industry more when there’s no guarantee that American systems won’t be disabled when we need them (see the stunt played on Ukraine) has turned to rejection.
Well, the American pivot from Europe started under Obama, who was popular in Europe, so it's not really a personality issue, although Trump's personality is loathed by 80% here. But there's no doubt that Obama under-reacted in 2014 (he's intelligent, so I believe it was deliberate), and that Europe should have picked up the slack against Russia at that time. Alas, Germany was led by Angela Merkel at that time, a Chancellor who was far too forgiving of Russia (although nothing as bad as her predecessor Schröder!), Hollande of France is a weasel who didn't really have the kind of leadership skills needed for a French president in a time of European crisis, and Poland was still under the boot of PiS, which started to rearm Poland, but which both hated Obama and had no interest in a Europe-wide strategy. Cameron, the PM of the UK at the time, just followed the US. He has no defence or international understanding whatsoever anyway.
The melting of the Artic Sea is making Northern Europe a geopolitical hotspot (if you forgive the pun) and our region is taking that new reality into consideration, including its defence dimensions. And the idea that the liberal and independent-minded Scandis and the Baltics, who know Russia all too well, would give Trump the benefit of the doubt in their own defence simply won't fly, especially now with the overt threat on Greenland and the bullying treatment of Ukraine. So I expect we'll do a lot more with our Canadian allies, and with Greenland, which isn't quite prepared to vote for independence but which I can see eventually in a kind of defence pact with Canada and Europe.
I think the issue - the accusations of 'freeloading' - has come partly from a misunderstanding of European cultures and histories in the USA (we aren't a monolith, any more than you are), and partly from a disinclination amongst many in Europe to take part in American war adventurism in the 1960s-70s, then again in the 2000s (apart from Afghanistan, which started off as a NATO operation; and apart from Tony Blair in Iraq). Not because we're angels, but because we did our share of war adventurism (colonial wars) before that and got clobbered. I still remember the nastiness in the US against France when it refused to participate in the invasion of Iraq. It reflects the older anger against the UK when it refused to take part in the Vietnam War. Yet these were entirely rational decisions, and in no way "freeloading".
Incidentally, I live in the UK, Sophie (and I didn't vote for Brexit - just to park that at the outset!). Strengthening political ties with Canada would be a very smart move for the EU. The Commission has long needed to beef up its foreign policy competences. I don't agree with the US accusations of freeloading. Trump's team need to be reminded that the only time Article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty has been invoked was by the US, after 9/11 and the call was answered immediately by NATO allies. Seven NATO AWACS were flown by 830 crew members of 13 nationalities to patrol and protect American skies. A second operation to deter terrorist activities on the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, dubbed “Operation Active Endeavor,” soon followed. In addition, the North Atlantic Council unanimously adopted eight measures to promote intelligence-sharing, increase security, backfill assets, and provide further support against terrorist activities.
This accusation of ‘freeloading’, which Tory politicians in the UK and far right politicians around Europe are repeating, to their shame, isn’t made in good faith. It’s part of a greater campaign of economic imperialism. We must hit back (but smartly).
And as far as I can see the Constitution has grown to the degree that a government of, for, and by the people, is instituted among us, deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed.
Obviously that is only realized to the degree unalienable rights are universal, and to the degree that the electoral process is fully inclusive, free and fair.
When individually and collectively we strive to to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
My thanks to everyone who showed up to protest. Millions showed up nationwide. The turnout in Chicago alone was larger than Trimp's inauguration crowd!
Now that we're all back home I suggest we write our senators & representatives to point out just how many citizens came out to make a statement.
Silence and inaction from Congress on this would be unacceptable - they owe us a response!
So tired I forgot to attach tonight's notes. Sorry about that.
Notes:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/05/us/hands-off-protests-trump-musk/index.html
YouTube:
watch?v=uCjQUOT-rXQ
No critics here Doc. *Only sincerest gratitude.
With the group I was with yesterday protesting in my midwestern city, the thing we all had in common: we all read LFAA. Heather, you keep us informed and encouraged. I agree with D4N: “ Only sincerest gratitude”!
Last night, my beloved sister-in-law wrote to tell me that she'd discovered a wonderful writer whose work I might want to read: Heather Cox Richardson. I had to smile since I'm sure that I made the same recommendation to her years ago. Yes, indeed, everyone is learning about LFAA. We are all learning our history, history that we never learned in school, and that reminds us that we have been through scary times before and have found ways to move beyond each set of challenges..
One of many things I love about this newsletter is that it provides us with evidence in lieu of interpretations of evidence. Interpretations are fine if they’re for the right “serve the greater good” reason, but the interpretations of so many other venues seem to be for a self-serving “feed the Outrage Industrial Complex for profit” reason. Besides, from where I’m sitting at this moment in history, the interpretations seem to be speaking for themselves.
I saw at least one handwritten sign listing ‘Actions You Can Take:’ Number 3 was “Read Heather Cox Richardson daily”. It warmed my soul on a cold and rainy day in Boston
WOW! How great! Good idea for a sign for the next one…
I was in Boston too - it was inspiring, energizing - and on we go!!!!
I too was in Boston. Several newbie friends and I struck up a conversation about what we thought HCR was doing today, what she was thinking about today. In today's letter we got our answer. As to the point about status quo, I think signs that read: Sic Semper Tyrannis, They're eating the checks, they're eating the balances, We the People of the United States Resist, and the chant, This is what democracy looks like" inform us many in America appreciate our history, our legacy, our foundational texts, and our sacred honor.
Dave and I were in DC as proud demonstrators, defenders of everything decent and moral and.....hopeful!
Cheryl, that is terrific. I post Heather's letter every day and now I see several friends reading it, posting it, commenting on it, recommending it. I did not make it to a protest because of health issues, but I had an excellent report from my neighbor who went and for the first time in a long time, he was a little optimistic. The turnout was fabulous, more than he had thought. Friends took lots of pictures too, so we could enjoy the signs. There were even pictures from places like Grant's Pass (southern Oregon) although there were a couple guys across the street with a big Trump Vance sign. I also saw a report about a protest close to where death star was playing golf and fund raising. Kudos to all the people across the country and in other countries as well.
Me too, Michele! I post LFAA everyday, recommend it to friends, and read it first thing each morning myself. I am so appreciative for it.
Penny: I read it before going to bed, I can't wait till the morning!
I forward LFaA frequently to my regional newspaper, adding a note of summary and comment, always favorable.
I connected with a woman at an event in Maine yesterday. Our common bond was LFAA. You bring people together! As D4N said, "Only sincerest gratitude"!
Agree all around. Thank you Heather for creating a safe place in a chaotic time. Let's keep it simple, do you want to live under a Constitutional Democracy or one man's rule? Stand up and speak your truth. Join "we the people".
At the protest yesterday in front of the federal building in downtown Milwaukee, one of the signs was recommending LFAA to the crowd.
Another read "So many issues; so little cardboard."
LFAA is a great way to keep up without using up any trees at all!
Christopher: My wife had me make a flip chart for her many grievances!
David was listening to an analysis by a couple of political scientists this morning. Their prognosis was that the US would more likely come to resemble Hungary, not Russia, which is quite disheartening, demoralizing and quite frankly so perilous that it will become unlivable.
Ignore those political scientists. With the huge numbers of Americans getting out today all over the land, we're going to look like ourselves again soon.
So well said! -- "We're going to look like ourselves again soon."
Great thought!
Viktor Orban of Hungary has quite a following here.
Perfect sign, "Real Americans respect the Constitution." On 1-6-2021 Trump tried to overturn the Constitution. Why would anyone believe that if he regained power he would respect the Constitution? To believe that he would is naïve, stupid, ill-informed. They didn't care because Trump represents and implements their hatred, crushing those that they hate. But now they're paying the price financially for their shallowness. Let's hope that we can save them from themselves.
Richard, I was on a thread yesterday for traffic, storms, etc.for the local area which was addressing downtown traffic. The moderator is thankfully on the side of those of us who are against death star, et. al. On the thread appeared the usual suspects who think muskrat is saving us money.....no cites for this of course and the usually amount of name calling which is all most of them have...I am a leftist retard. I wrote a long answer to one person and much to my surprise she did not answer. Sometimes when you look at the pages for these people, they have no friends, etc. I finally got rid of one who I could not block in the conventional manner, by reporting him to Facebook who gave me the option of blocking there and ouila, he was gone. I also helped a friend yesterday who had someone throwing around the word Marxism which she used on her response and then she let him have it in uncertain terms. I might also add here that not only do I appreciate Heather very much, but also most of the people who post on the letter. I have had some interesting discussions and I have two friends that I met here, one of whom I have met in person. Kudos all who attended protests and who post and continue the fight.
Great comment but please reconsider your use of the term “retard” which is now seen as very demeaning and insulting to people who learn differently and live with mental/intellectual challenges. I appreciate you meant no harm but a change in how you describe yourself might be considered?
Well, Crone. The use of the word retard was not me, but some MAGA calling me a leftist retard. It seems to me that I should be able to report being called that without being chastised. I spent years in a public school and many challenged students, who always knew who their friends were, felt safe with me always and either hung out in the library or worked as an aide for me. For a long time we had a class for the most challenged students and i did everything I could to support them including buying the many things that they made for Christmas, etc. and always supporting the dedicated staff who worked with them. I am sorry that I did not make clear that it was a MAGA calling me that, although when I reread it, it should have been clear. So if someone calls me that and i am reporting it, I am not going to change it nor should I have to. The MAGAs I encountered had only name calling, of which I gave an example. One of them said I am sorry for your loss and I sometimes get I will pray for you which, in my mind, is wishing bad energy on me.
Michele--I understood clearly who had used that word in your original post.
Thank you. I think certain words just catch someone's eye without regard to usage and content.
Yes, and also, I may not be alone in occasionally "speed reading" then misinterpreting!
I am guilty of that.
I think the use of "quotation marks" would have made it clearer.
I am through with this. It was clear that this is what the MAGA was calling me and not me using this phrase. I can't help it if people do not read carefully.
It was a big tell the day he took over and the first thing removed from the White House website was the Constitution.
and now he has hung what he believes is the original in the Oval!!! There is a black velvet curtain over it which he only opens briefly for special "guests" ... apparently he repeatedly pestered the National Archives for it, and was refused each time.... so draw your own conclusions....
You don't know what you've got until it's gone! Song lyrics from another time of turmoil we older folks remember well
Take paradise & put up a parking lot!
Paved Paradise
I was at the protest in Augusta, ME and what struck me the most was the lack of counter protesters. I saw one "tRump/Vance" sign from a passing car, but that was it. I'd like to think that that indicates some people rethinking their previous bad life choices, but maybe I'm dreaming. Did others have similar experiences with few counter-protesters?
Same in Asheville, NC
I was there as well. Saw a handful of police and personally saw no MAGAs. Enjoyed the crowd size, signs and march. Perfectly peaceful.
How long is it going to take for the undereducated PWT in those dreadfully ignorant red states to realize they've been SCREWED? A few have squealed recently, but they still seem to be victims of their own stupidity. I guess the real morons are too far beyond help...
He has no concept of respect!
Good Grief…. Just THANK YOU!!!!! Indeed D4N!
Indeed. 🫶
THIS!!!!
I second. Professor’s daily letter is one of blessings Trump gives to voters.
Remember Musk is not the only billionaire supporting Trump. Tesla boycotts have had an effect, but that’s too limited. We can win this war peacefully by protest. Part of that is finding alternates to Amazon, Meta, and other entities that bent the knee,
A dictator demands loyalty. Break that.
I read Walmart denied Trump in February or March this year and made a multi billion dollar investment in Mexico. Bezos bent the knee. I’ll be shopping Walmart online before referring to Amazon. Already cancelled Amazon Music and likely will not renew Prime.
I have to find an alternate to Meta, but I will.
I am traveling currently in Galapagos so I can’t attend protests, but I will.
I am finding here taxis are small 4 door pickup trucks and a Chinese import is much nicer than offerings from Toyota, Chevy, or Ford. I will continue to bias toward buying American at home, if I buy any more vehicles. At 67, and completely immune to the need to show off status with a new ride every couple years, I expect my current vehicles may out live me.
Stop buying the newest to establish false status every few years.
Billionaires will feel your pain through boycott of their offerings.
Peaceful protest does not just mean carrying around a sign.
Yes. I was a good customer of Amazon, but Bezos will no longer get my money. Living in Canada I've found that Canadian Tire is a great alternative.
Such wonderful energy at my Albuquerque Hands Off protest. I love seeing the same from around our nation. We the people are not alone!
UNITED WE STAND; divided we fall. Couldn't be more accurate. We always USED to unite easily when collectively threatened by a common enemy. It's empowering to sense that we may have found our "roots" again.
Pogo-"We have met the enemy, and he is us..." Worse American Fascist Regime EVER!
Lol i like Canadian Tire myself, being Canadian, but its the chain so many dump on as cheating its customers. Can't say i've ever had the problem, a least generally. Years ago they priced me a $1500 motor vehicle inspection, mainly overhaul the emergency brake system, seemed fine to me, took it down to a local guy who told me i needed a brake like bulb changed, cost a couple bucks. Never told the guy about brakes. They worked fine for the rest of the life of the car.
Not good 🤷♂️, I’ve been a prime customer for years, the prices are very good, but the packaging, ie the shipping from Amazon sucks big time, they don’t care. Now I think twice before I order from them.
I've had, literally, almost no problems. One never arrived, they sent a substitute. Canada, mind you.
Regrettably I have read that Walmart was a huge contributor to Trump and backer of Project 2025, so proceed with caution. Target is also very bad.
Yes of course. Sam Walton is/was (I don't know if he's still alive) a very conservative man and his policies show in how he ran his empire. I imagine many big companies tried to play both sides when they contributed, and with that guy's threats to retaliate against anyone who doesn't support him, many of them will capitulate. It's the worst thing they can do. I really bristle when I hear the phrase "it's just business" as it often means engaging in unethical and cruel behavior. Since when is "it's just business" an acceptable argument for not being a decent human being?
J. Nol -- Sam Walton died April 5th (interesting coincidence) 1992, at age 74.
Very interesting. Thanks for this info.
In the US, I'm pledging to only purchase Irving Gas.
Canadian Tire sounds like a tire company. Does it have the diverse stuff that Amazon has? If so, any reason why an American can't buy flashlights and other useful stuff from Canadian Tire?
Canadian Tire does car repair and sells car parts and also a whole store full of almost anything you can imagine. The only things it doesn't have that Amazon does are books and music. I because there are no Canadian Tires in the US I don't know if you could order internationally from them. But if you live close to the border almost any town of any size will have a Canadian Tire.
Hope you continue to have a wonderful vacation and thanks for the information on Walmart. Amazon/Walmart where do I go? That is the question. I've read that Walmart has supported the Heritage Foundation for years, but Walmart heiress, Christy Walton, recently placed an ad in the NYT and several local newspapers (including my own). The ad pictures the Statue of Liberty and concludes with: "We are the people of the United States of America. The honor, dignity, and integrity of our Country is not for sale. Show up, attend your town halls, be civil." Here is a link and I had a very difficult time finding one showing the ad using Google: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220176364
Local stores are first choice when that’s possible. Often an online search for your item finds a smaller company. For example: housewares from webrestaurant, supplements from iherb, books from bookshop.org. Some people use Amazon to find a product, then order directly from the seller’s own website.
I do that - order from the company if the company has a website. Don't mind paying shipping. I buy locally unless that's nit possible.
That ad was in the Chicago Tribune two weeks ago, also.
Tblack, you verbalized my concern regarding shopping--where do I go? I live in a close Chicago suburb and I have ample places to shop. The issue is not being able to find something I want without driving from place to place to place, thus using a lot of gas. (I drive a hyrbrid, group my errands to one day, and try to plan a route, but still.) I also struggle with knowing which company has the "best" policies. I needed some crafting supplies and the local Michaels didn't carry it. Joann's went out of business. My choice is Hobby Lobby or Amazon. Which do I choose?
I could go on and on about the dilemma of purchasing--where and what to buy. It's a real challenge for seniors to be ethical/politically correct/green/support small business/be frugal all at once. :-(
Never Hobby Lobby for me. The owners were caught smuggling Syrian artifacts into the US for their Museum of the Bible. Stealing a country’s heritage. I remember they listed some as “sample tiles” on the Customs forms. Very deliberate. For details I just Google “Hobby Lobby Syrian artifacts”
Yes, despicable company! No way will I shop there, either!
Kris, was that the original owner or the new one? If new one I will stop buying there.
I don’t know. Is the trust Green set up a couple of years ago the new owner?
Now that my taxes are done, I will have to do a bit of research. I will let you know.
For crafting supplies, check out Etsy.
Michaels
The Micheal's by me is very small, poorly stocked, messy and very few workers. It's been this way for at least 10 years (one if my kids worked there back then)
It has looked on the verge of closing since pandemic. I could shop them online, but I'm a person who needs to see my craft supplies in person.
Can the store order something for you? What kind of crafting are you doing? There are crafty people here who might have suggestions! Bon courage!
The overwhelming scents when you enter Michael's drove me off from shopping there. Local fabric and yarn shops often stop craft supplies too.
Thanks to all the responses and suggestions from readers. I used to do quilling until the hands gave out. Mostly, I do scrapbooking (maybe one album a year) and I like to see the papers and stickers and such. Hard to know what to look for online when you don't know it exists, which is why I like to shop in store.
I face a real conundrum regarding both Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A! The suburb adjacent to me has a mosque and many, many Muslim residents. You'd be surprised to walk into either of those two establishments and see the number of employees and customers who wear a hijab. I have no problem, for instance, in not purchasing Goya foods in the grocery store. But on the other hands, HL and Chick fil a and contributing to our local community. Please don't scream at me, I DO understand the reasons to avoid them. As I posted elsewhere today, it is very hard to know how to shop ethically/morally/green/frugally, etc. I avoided purchasing something from Amazon last month, instead ordering from Home Depot, and I was told Home Depot is bad as well. :_(
Lowes
Lowes
Ugh not Hobby Lobby please!! Uber right-wing who went to court to protest (and won!) having to cover their women employees’ reproductive health care and abortions in their health insurance. A truly repugnant operation!
(And while I’m at it LOL a note to everyone to please find an alternative to Chik-fil-A [sp?] owned by a massively homophobic huge Republican donor).
Both are on my "Do Not Go" list.
There are many strange people in this country whose religion is really a cult…and this cult’s practices hurts people, foments lies, and builds walls. The worst are the millionaire preachers selling anti-science, anti-history, even anti-Jesus! (Is this the anti-Christs we were warned about?) While they claim that their creation science museums are real!
No humans walked with dinosaurs, the Earth, by multiple measures, is around 4.54 billions years old, evolution happens every day, physics predicts things fairly well, creationism doesn’t predict anything! Support the spiritual centers who tell the whole truth!
Please!
Start with the Supreme Voldemort!
Well, I don't have to prove there is no God; the others need to prove there is. Pascal says people can believe in God or a tooth fairy. He also adds that we can't know anything about an incomprehensible deity who can reward believers and punish nonbelievers. And can this God distinguish between genuine and feigned belief, or would he simply reward hypocrites pretending to have faith? Is this the kind of God one could respect? The Bible is no guide to morality. Here's one: Whenever children get out of line, we should beat them with a rod - Proverbs 13:24, 20:30 and 23:13-14. The Bible also counsels that we must stone people to death for heresy, adultery, homosexuality, working on the Sabbath, worshipping graven images, etc. etc. More information that you were looking for.....
The only portion I read is really the Jeffersonian Bible portion, the direct words of the human “Jesus”…no proverbs, nor any miracles. And yes, all fealty to violence and hate just drops out…I think people invent ‘gods’ for a couple of reasonable reasons, to help explain nature, to give meaning to life, and as mantras to help us through the day…a sense that it isn’t just random.
Love, empathy, hope, awe…and then there are the reasons awful people take this over…wealth, power, hoarding, hate, tribalism, sexism, violence, slavery...
When I look at a starry sky, a child’s smile, my wife, I feel awe and love…I don’t need to justify it. Science works for that, although always an exploration, a new frontier.
That’s awesomely human too! Till the same powers try to pervert it too.
Nothing in the New Testament is written by anyone who personally saw or talked with Jesus. It's all hearsay, people writing what others have told them what happened or was said. For that, and other reasons, there is no proof that someone named Jesus actually existed. Some, in fact most, of the New Testament is written decades after Jesus' alleged existence. We have the same issue with Islam, Mormonism, etc. It's all hearsay, which is inadmissible in a court of law because it is unreliable.
Okay, true, and everyone had an agenda…but there are things directly attributed to him.
I cannot disagree with your reverence for nature; the human connections you make are profound and admirable. As Joseph Campbell would say, it's important to have faith in one's experience of life. You have probably found your sacred place and have affirmed it. In the past religion was a search for meaning to explain mysteries. Today religion is too often divisive and dogmatic.
This was in response to Mr. Collay....
Stephanie—I admire lots of attempts to make sense…but I judge them their impact. Increase knowledge or just increase dogma…and I accept the idea there may be spirits, keepers of wisdom, medicine, bury hint babies, predicting/forecasting based on nature’s patterns, and in these feel a sense of belonging, connections. No matter how you slice it, babies are amazing…! Each links back to the very first spark of life, apparently a one-time event, carried for over two billion years. This is cool! Wonderful! Literally mind-boggling… Just not magically derived...unless you are, like I, a fan of science fiction…
There are plenty of other craft suppliers. Dick Blick is one I use, also Wewak. Some quilting shops are expanding their crafts offerings now that Joanne's is gone.
And yes, Etsy and Ebay too.
You could try Etsy for craft supplies. There's a resource called GoodsUniteUS that has a list of products and suppliers that hold our values. I don't see craft supplies there, yet. Here's their g-doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRoA2b9U0SD0StsVtOqMXAq4XB35aLxv5bvbBpISYImoCnbh7ikq_mITaZSAmQQmbqz8HB8W6QE_0YL/pub
Try going directly to the brand you need. Pentel, Lion Brand or Red Heart, etc. Avoid the corporate greed.
And do not shop Home Depot! Not quite as bad as Hobby Lobby.
We all have to do the best we can with what we’ve got and that includes shopping at places we loathe for many reasons, especially when on fixed incomes in the face of insane rises in the cost of everything.
Sometimes the store where you can buy vacuume cleaners & sewing machines have fabric & such.
Many thanks for walmart info!
I read that Chrissy Walton inherited billions when her husband died, but does not have a share in WalMart. So, good for her for speaking out, but no credit here goes to WalMart.
Walmart was the first Amazon, they destroyed small businesses all across America. My union, the International Cinematographers Guild, fought to keep them out of LA in the early 2000’s and was successful, it was mainly to protect our grocery stores who were all big chains.
True. Walmart is the largest employer throughout the South. There has been talk about breaking Walmart up, but it won't happen under Trump.
Costco is alternative to Walmart. I haven't been in a Walmart for 35 years. I have never liked the way they do business...ver poor treatment of employees.
Great visual. I see she married into the family, wasn't raised there. That might have made the difference.
I’ll add, for books, I have switched over to purchasing books mostly using https://www.abebooks.com/
And someone mentioned Powell’s books in Portland, my old home, also does mail order. I still yearn for a good source of music CDs, esp jazz and classical; Amazon has declined on selection for at least 10 years. I won’t usevstreaming for music, Imwant tomown the physical copy of it.
AbeBooks is a clearinghouse, they link your book search to a list of little book sellers across the nation.. often i can find a good used copy. the sellers generally use USPS shipping to my PO box, the book-rate media mail is cheap and seems to be largely free from the many mail delivery issues that have plagued the Kansas City regional processing center.
My KIA is 21 years old and going strong. Also really efficient on gas. She looks her age, but then, so do I, and I'm still going strong. Upkeep and maintenance are the key.
Americans buy an awful lot of stuff they really don't need...re-use, reduce and recycle are words to live by.
Buy second hand when possible. My husband and I frequented flea markets, thrift stores and were avide yard-salers. when we got married. Twenty-five years later, I told the manager of our local thrift store (proceeds go to local schools), "I don't buy my clothes anymore, I rent them (from here). I still shop there now, over 30+ years later. I know that doesn't work for some needs, especially immediate and/or mechanical, but I'm still using kitchen equipment that was old when I bought it for a quarter or so, in 1980. The 1982 recession ended, according to my friend, because my fridge died and I had to buy a NEW one. My friend said, "I know the recession is ending because Don & Sandi bought something NEW.'
I have a 16 year old Hyundai. Same situation as you. Proud of it!
I drove my little Honda Fit, "Hope," for 15 years. Then she got rear ended, and totalled. I'm still sad. But we found a used Subaru, pre-tariff, so that's the up-side.
I stil get compliments on my 2005 Dodge Magnum Staion wagon. Purrs like a kitten!
There are a lot of memes about the Penguins protesting the tariffs on their islands where no people live. I'm wondering if the Galapagos Islands are feeling the tariffs pinch & if you saw any Iguanas carrying protest signs?
😁🐧🐧🐧🦎🦎🦎😁
We had a grown man in a penguin suit at our protest here in Naples Florida. His sign read.” Trumps tariffs are for the birds” Now let me tell you it was 90+ degrees and this guy could have used an ice bath!
I love this! 30 mph winds down here in Marathon made signs more like sails!
We had a guy in a unicorn costume (so cute!) jogging up & down the street. But it was only in the 70s here.
Peaceful, so glad that there was a protest in Naples. I have an ex-classmate who lives there and when we were communicating, used all caps. She did cite KBOO in Portland once, not knowing it is slit your wrist far left radio. I enjoyed explaining that to her.
We had a T-Rex at our protest here in Santa Cruz!
I didn’t see penguins carrying signs. Sharks look like they’d eat liberals and poop Tesla’s.
In all honesty, the tortoises are handling it best. Lay in the sun, eat guava, and procreate as often as possible.
Tortoises are cool!
https://yadontknow.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-tortoise.html
One we have at the Knoxville Zoo, Big Al, is older than anyone alive on earth today—150 years! He’s very sweet and likes neck rubs.
Well, I hope he is NOT collecting Social Security!!!! ; )
He’s not and he IS an immigrant!
And a 100 year old tortoise just became a first time mom!
Fun! But you know the tariffs are only leverage to get deals. Trump wants those islands for resorts.
Just saw pic of about 15 people in Talkeetna Alaska with a big HANDS OFF sign, a dog, and snow. PLEASE MAKE A SMALL HANDS OFF SIGN AND TAKE A PIC NEXT TO GALAPAGOS SIGN OR ANIMAL AND SHARE. That would amazing.
Glad for 🤣🤣🤣
LOL
Bluesky is your alternative to Meta.
After I set Amazon Prime to non-renew online, I called them on the phone to cancel entirely and ask for a refund for my remaining time. It took two calls, but they gave me the refund. No point in keeping Prime if you’re not going to use it.
Enjoy galapagos....its the most wonderful place. Unspoiled...
As far as you know, are the iguanas and finch in Galapagos affected by the scumbag president's tariff?
I don't think they give a guano. The islands are part of Ecuador (edit) .
Ecuador actually.
Thanks Pat! I didnt google.
Ecuador,Frank
I don’t think so, and the tortoises are much more interested in Guava and Procreation right now.
Pat, my issue with Walmart is the pitiful wages their employees earn!
Pat: Great comments and advice. My wife and I live in a remote rural area and depend on online shopping. But we have cut off Amazon and switched to Costco, Walmart, Newegg, etc. We, too, are not looking to buy new cars - I still drive my trusty '06 Tacoma and my wife still loves her '14 Forester (we need 4WD or AWD in our area). As for Meta, we use Firefox instead of Google Chrome and DuckDuckGo instead of Google Search. Months ago we cancelled our subscriptions to the NYT and WaPo and instead get our news from NPR, Reuters, AP, Substack and Democracy Docket Yes, we are only one elderly couple, but if we ALL do it, it WILL make a difference! Stay sane and - as Dan Rather says - Steady.
👏Ed, good advice too. Thanks
I said "Meta" instead of Alphabet/Google when referring to Chrome and Google Search. As for Meta, try BlueSky instead of Facebook and Instagram, since Meta is eliminating all fact-checking on those platforms.
https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/meta-s-fact-checking-program-in-us-ends-monday-community-notes-incoming/story
Amazon=GONE for me!
Pat: I think it would be hilarious if you posted a pic of a resistance poster on its own stand in the middle of some Galapagos penguins in way that the viewer would know geo. location.....
Luv de humor..🫶
Agreed 👍
Always wanted to go to Galapagos. Not sure if I'm still up for it at my age. 79.
But send me travel info if you can. Thanks
Cristina@galawy.com.ec
WhatsApp +593 99-870-0108
FB/Insta Galway,Galapagos
We started in Santa Cruz at Semilla Verde Boutique hotel. Website: gps.ec
Pat, we have long avoided Amazon and I have reminded people that Powell's in Portland had books for example. I wish I could find an alternative to Facebook which if you find one that works to keep in contact with people, please let us know. We are in our early 80s, down to one car, with our house long paid for. We try to support local businesses. However, I buy my spices from Burlap and Barrel who pay a fair price to farmers all over the world, have relationships with them, and have incredible spices. There was a note yesterday from someone about the effect of the tariffs on this kind business. Some cinnamon was already on its way from Vietnam for example.
Many who have left FB (including msnbc's Rachel and Lawrence) have been very happy on Bluesky.... https://bsky.app/
I have a Bluesky account and so far have never used it. My fault. I keep up with a lot of people on Facebook and it is too easy to do.
Well prescribed, Pat.TY
Is the wealth the issue?
As I read ,hear, watch people of great wealth live, act, and render to research, philanthropy at large, endow to charities /institutions doing incredibly support ( including Alice Walton) I note sharing , is noble. Though many more do -would our ‘troubles’ be solved by just they …paying more taxes?
Certainly it would help, but the crux is far deeper and harder ,me thinks , to enable.
Laws can not legislate morals obviously, nor does money. In fact , several studies have indicated human’s change with increasing wealth wanting -for lack of a more lengthy discussion-more. Greed fits a description but also lacks depth.
To expect fair representation ,encompassing all I fail to point out ,is -with 330+million pop in the US alone -a tall order.
So ..I proffer..educating (not indoctrinating) those that can carry forth and are capable to implement good representation -be it to one’s neighbors/community/district/country or globally requires a good education PLUS giving,sharing,willingness to think of the whole vs self.
Many know of the ‘blank slate’, so with the givens we have -our knowledge- we can and should educate all to their highest potential.
The givens also include bad parenting, mental illness, and trauma…there with teachers knowing eyes and lots of tests (IQ etc)the knowledge and signs can lend to teaching the highest an intervention ,per se, to any -what their potential is capable of ..for their best growth.
Teachers are the best to know how to implement.
Most of us will attest to the one or luck says ‘more’ of teachers making the difference in our lives. Thank you every one of them.
And, I’ll go back to this lesson -currently here ( historically many times) on its second round- AND which many did NOT heed.
The tabled seductions of promise include the manipulation of riches especially when waived by deceptive silvered tongues to the hungry.
Lends greatly to the integrity of “equality for all” …carry on tribe🫶
Not a wealth hater. I’m probably in the top 15% myself, but I do hate greed. Yes, 50% tax on earnings over 1 mil is 500K, which sounds onerous, but, folks still kept the other 500K. I know those numbers are fictitious, but the thought is valid.
Additionally, every break those making typical incomes get is also used by the billionaires. But the guy supporting a family on 80K is living an entirely different life. When a family has the wealth to pay multi millions on staff to maintain their yachts, multiple houses, safety, and attend to their kids, they have too much.
It is ridiculous to say Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are going bankrupt but limit taxed wages to the first 171K. Raise that limit to 400 or 500K and create a level of benefit for anyone who pays that additional tax for a minimum of 20 quarters such that their maximum benefit is 150% of the current maximum benefit. Then lower retirement age to 62.
There are many other modifications to be fought for.
I saw a recent post that sec-sec is taken out up to, like, $167k annual salary. The 17k, unless you meant monthly $17k ?
I’ve also read that it that threshhold kept up with inflation, soc-sec would be funded just fine: congress people aren’t introducing and passing those fixes for whatever reason. But the megawealth is going majorly untaxed - that wealth buys loopholes for misers.
I googled that limit, it’s 171K in 2025.
The other issue is identifying income, which I have not researched. Do the bonuses brokers, sales people, and managerial staff get taxed for FICA?
I don’t know.
That’s a bill I’d sign 🙌
Education is good; ignorance is not helpful to any of us. But the tremendous wealth inequity, which has grown since Reagan, will only be made equitable for the majority through legislation. Taxing those with great wealth must be legislated to bring this fairness, to better the lives of the majority of Americans and to take the moral and political stand that greed is not acceptable, particularly when it daily harms others. The upper echelon of those personally having wealth (whether by inheriting assets or by owning/running corporations) has paid less and less of a fair share of taxes over the last 50+ years and Trump is pushing for more reduction in taxes for the most wealthy. Finance campaign reform is also needed to keep wealthy people (like Musk and others) from controlling our democracy. This includes setting how much can be spent on campaigns, declaring that corporations are not "people," making PACS and so called "dark money" totally transparent by laws making donors names public.
We want people to see that going through a red light is dangerous, we
believe in educating re this but without law as back-up certain ego-centric, reckless drivers in a hurry will ignore red lights. Cameras and fines and losing one's license are added to education in order to protect all of the community. Greed is so much out of control and so strongly supported by this administration that reining in these truly greedy people is not going to happen voluntarily or through education. The rest of us desperately need protection from that greed in 2025. Pass laws!
As long as it costs multiple millions to get elected to a temp job that pays thousands ideas like yours and mine are doomed to the circular file.
Cap campaign costs at the equal of one years earnings for that position and fund that through taxes.
I had a small business that advertised mostly in the fall. Every election year the cost of advertising ballooned to the point it was not worth the cost. I asked ad execs why. They said the politicians will gladly pay the higher rates.
Great input. Thanks
It’s not about the wealth itself but how it was achieved - rarely not off the backs of those who actually produce the surplus value that creates the wealth, even generations down the line.
And about how it is used - philanthropy is critical and you have to have money to do it; at least some measure of giving back. Quite a difference from the Adleson, Bezos and Musk models.
But it’s also important to note that not all philanthropy is without strings often narrowly limiting on what the money can be spent and of course, as we’ve seen so blatantly recently, on the perceived political “biases” of the institutions receiving the largesse.
As an interesting report on NPR recently explained (not that I’m weeping any tears for Harvard) even schools and institutions with large endowments are not necessarily able to spend the cash outside of the specific purposes for which the endowment was made which rarely include operating expensive and only sometimes actual student financial support.
I did try to research these statistics. Not an easy search but some rough concurrence about half and half..half inheritance ,half worked (inventions /tech/entrepreneurs (sp?). Within that subsets some do great things, some get foolish, some get greedy, some get scammed.
I see pretty same ratios in about any given group , percentage of basics ..about 25% of the above mentioned. The definitions vary for reasonings but basics covered-poor( below poverty line), average ( below 200K), mid class ( 300 K -500K) , and the rich. The ultra rich only some .0003% of US pop, whose combined income grew 13% ….49TRILLION $$$$ expected to reach a 38% growth …(did not find the time frames).
But without a doubt having lived it 80+ years, 90% of those having lived ‘richly’ ain’t got a clue what the bottom 3/4 of the world faces day after day…but they’re running the show.
Harvard recently announced free tuition for acceptable candidates from families with less than 200K income.
Within 2 weeks Trump slapped them.
I have a 2008 Honda Civic which I bought early in 2012. It's my favorite car that I've ever owned, because it drives really nicely. The rubber snake on the dashboard with the cigarette in its mouth--I call it Hazmats II--gives me the status.
As for Galapagos, are the giant tortoises protesting? Or are they too far away to care?
Please rest, you amazing Human Being! We need you more than you can imagine! No pressure; just LOVE! ❤️ 💕
OMG yes! Can we enforce a week or two vacation on this holy roller?? I promise to work very hard at not breaking down at the absence of her daily posts. I will maintain the faith that she will return to us, energy restored.
You are excused.
My nephew works for the USPS delivering mail, one of many, to us all. Today, whilst gathering in protest against Trump and his powers that be in Washington DC, I was encouraged by the power of many of us out in the hinterlands.
I have so many fav signs, and must tell you one of my absolute tops was Hands off the USPS! Great thanks to your nephew and all those other myriad civil servants who serve us every day, and heaps of foul-smelling shame to those that give them grief, including stealing their livelihoods!!!
Frequent commentor on LFAA and great substack author (and published author of many military history books) TCinLA has his readers sending in photos and their stories to his substack. He's published quite a few of them already.
Look for "That's Another Fine Mess" substack to view them. And hats off to Tom for doing this, I think it's a wonderful idea.
Hopefully, this link will work:
https://tcinla757.substack.com/
Well, yes! E pluribus unum.
One of our most enthusiastic drive bys was a postal truck!
Somewhat understanding the energy required for the depth of insight and detail that go into your daily Letters, I too offer my sincerest gratitude, for simple appreciation just doesn't cover it. We are all so very thankful you are here for us and with us and so, we are for and with you as well. Rest well!
No apology necessary! We love you! 🙏🏻😊❤️🇺🇸☮️
I love knowing you were at the protest in San Francisco, Heather! I so wanted to join the protest in Phoenix, but age and disability did not permit. I did support them by way of $$ and reposting information. We all do what we can. Thank you!!
Today we were many heroes. You, Heather, are everyday. We are so grateful…and dare I say, all ready to help you should you need us.
Thank you for the daily wisdom, history and keeping us sane. Big rally in Boise, Idaho yesterday, A real family affair for my nieces, brother and I. Even Ruby Red Idaho can make a difference!
Heather are you able to post on substack that you have a new politics chat on YouTube? I say this because I’m not getting just about anything on FB from you. I want to get rid of FB anyway and not support Zuckerberg. But I don’t know when you post on YouTube. Thanks for considering! And thank you so much for all you do!! ❤️
The laughs were for the iguanas with signs. What a glorious imagination! Children’s books, when I was a kid, would have grabbed the idea.
You get a pass. In fact, go put your feet up and pet Ned. You deserve some time off.
Heather, what does history tells us about the SCOTUS using an Overruling Precedent? Let’s say, maybe applying to the monster unleashed on the July 1st, 2024 decision.
Speaking of being tired, I have been in awe of your ability to turn out such detailed, informed and well-thought-out letters, both written and recorded, on a daily basis, and still carry out whatever other personal and professional responsibilities you have. Out of concern for your well being I will be obnoxious enough to suggest that maybe a letter every other day or three days a week could be enough to accomplish your really valuable contribution. I would mourn the loss of your letters because of burnout.
Next to God I trust you the most!!! No worries!
I attended a protest in Glendale CA.
I’ve been waiting for this for the last couple hours; the day that we don’t hear from HCR is a day I know we’re in real trouble! Deepest gratitude to you, Heather! 🙏🏻
I’m the same! I can’t rest until I read THE Newsletter. Tonight, I realized I had been holding my breath until the letter came in. Love to you, Heather Cox Richardson! I hope you can rest now, too. Good Night!
I'm an HCR addict as well. Yesterday, at one of the 20 protests in Maine, I asked a few of the other protestors if they read HCR's daily newsletter. And none of them had heard of her. I need to redouble my efforts to introduce people to Heather. What she relay's to us everyday is good for my mental health and hopefully millions of others.
Sharing time with other sufferers was cathartic. For the first time, I understand why many people attended Trump rallies. It wasn't about worshiping Trump, it was about the fellowship. Maybe that's part of the reason I read all of your wonderful comments everyday.
I couldn’t make any of the protests here in southern New Hampshire, Southern Maine, I was in a very small business yesterday. I mumbled something about. I am now starting to use only cash versus credit card for purchases and mention something about privacy. The two ladies behind the counter Agreed about the privacy part. I then told them about.MeidasTouch Network, and Substack. I then asked them if they had heard of Dr. Richardson and neither had. This is the southern main community! So I gave them her name and all of the information that I have and they were thrilled to pieces to learn about these new independent media sources. I keep spreading the word when I can!That’s my protest.
For every one you tell about HCR, and they take to her, that's likely a multiplier effect of ... who knows? 10X? hey!
Maybe we need to have HCR “cards” to hand out to those who are unfamiliar with her Substack.
Heather, could you come up with a prototype that you would endorse for us to personally distribute to broaden your reach? I would be honored to endorse you as I can in my daily encounters.
Cards are a great idea. Also, how about an HCR hat to counter the MAGAs?
MeidasTouch Network is thriving! Those three brothers have our backs.Have you discovered Aaron Parnas yet? He's a 25 year old who has an amazing resume and has become a full time journalist thanks to his subscribers. He was the the first after Rachael Maddow to interview Cory Booker. He is the future of journalism in this country and we need people his age getting involved.
Yes, and if you're not a subscriber, may I suggest adding Marisa Kabas who writes The Handbasket to the list.
I was at the Billings, Montana protest yesterday with about 1000 other people. One person had a sign that included "HCR" in the corner so we got to talking about LFAA and how much we appreciate this newsletter. And that was way out in deep red Montana.
Good for you. I think Bozeman had a good turnout also. Maybe everywhere did. I was in tiny Homer, Alaska, and astounded by the turnout. Good trouble.
All true for me too, Gary, and I must say that seeing your posts comforts me too!
🥰
Gary, you’re exactly right. Some time ago I read an article by an author who’d traveled to many tfg rallies and I interviewed the rallygoers. They’d become friends and looked for each other and arranged to get together at the rallies. It was a community. You know, like Deadheads.
I talked to one woman at our protest who was happy to be together. She used a walker and said her arm was quite painful so she took painkillers and came anyway. If all the honks we got turn into votes next year, we’re good.
Let's get started now. We need to pay attention ALL of the elections in our communities and states. And all of the appointments my state and local governments. Remember, over 100,000 elections in 2025 somewhere in the US.
I was one of the founders of an organization called Blue Tennessee, which crowdfunds candidates for state offices, starting with the nominees who have the least; ideally every race has an opponent. It’s a long game, building a bench and I may well be dead before it comes to fruition. But we have people in other states who recognize their luck (for now) and have joined. www.BlueTennessee.org (or text Blue TN to 33777).
There was a rally held in Salisbury Ct. Saturday. About 300 to 400 people attended. The small village green was packed. I got to to see many people I had not encountered in years. For the past 30 years several local concerned citizens have been standing for Peace at the same spot almost every Saturday morning. Joining them and maybe extending the spirit of the 4/5 rally is necessary. Anything we can do to fight this horror is needed.
Gary, AMEN TO THAT!
I've never had social media accounts, and think people "friending" others they've never met to be ridiculous---until I "met" people on here. I've come to "know" many people by reading their comments, and over the years, little tidbits about their personal lives has truly fleshed them out in my mind. I am awed by the intelligence and expertise that they offer which enriches Heather's Letter.
I've related personal stories of my own. The outpouring of support when my brother died of dementia exacerbated by COVID was truly touching.
I may be forced into having social media accounts and the thought of trolls scares me. The rare troll on here is bothersome enough.
In no means was I trying to diminish the mental health benefits I get from this group. I used to travel for work about 30-40% of the time. A few times a month, I would have a great conversation with the person sitting next to me. I started calling them my "one time friends."
One day, I was sitting next to a retired US special forces sniper. This 2 hour conversation literally changed my life. He told me so much that was classified information, but I'm a nobody, so it didn't matter.
I'm sorry to hear about your brother's passing Miselle.
I love the "block" feature in Substack. I've only used it a few times, but it sure is nice.
Gary, my brother's dementia first manifested with aphasia. Every time I watch clips of Trump, I see the exact same issue in early stages. The repetition of certain ideas or themes, the lack of vocabulary--the real chiller was the brief flash of confusion when he was questioned about "Signalgate" and you could see he didn't understand either the word or what it referred to. My brother tried to cover for himself due to being frightened and embarrassed. Trump's time is coming--it might already be here.
You know Fred Trump died of Alzheimer’s, right?
Yes, I do. I could be wrong, but I think there are several members of his family who were afflicted.
My best friend died after rejecting a bone marrow transplant. However, a couple of years before this, he had a stroke and had aphasia following the stroke. Fortunately, he mostly recovered. It was very scary for him and embarrassing as you mentioned.
My husband and I were in Bangor yesterday. People at that protest knew Heather. Lately, whenever I mention her, she's well known already. She's a national treasure!
Gary, I try to introduce HCR readers to Decoding Fox News. When we read Heather we cannot fathom how Trump remains popular. Decoding Fox News on Substack is a week of Fox in 45 min. One listen and you UNDERSTAND what (and why) Trump fans do not understand. Https://decodingfoxnews.substack.com?r=4j5a4
Thanks, Shawn - I hadn't heard of it. I like that TCinLA calls it 'Faux Snooze'. ;0)
I'm with you, Gary. Gotta come and have coffee with my friends here every morning.
I would love to Ally. I miss the west coast. My wife mentioned this morning that California is negotiating tariffs with several countries starting with China.
I love it. I hope other states do the same thing. What is Trump going to do about it? It would be great to see him on the defensive for a change.
And always good to see you, Ally!
No coffee for me, but I raise my water bottle with Crystal Light Strawberry with Caffeine to you!
And as aside, while I do love dogs, there sure are a lot of cat lovers in this forum.
I've always had cats (more independent than dogs, and early on I did a lot of umpiring travel). My best friend adopted a rescue dog, and she became my niece dog; the first dog I got to know well, and she bonded with me. I still cannot, in good faith, have a dog since we still travel quite a bit.
Gary, with all due respect, I don't think we should be compared to an indifferent to official cruelty horde. There're totally different reasons for us to get and pull together. Please reconsider.
Not all the reasons are so opposite. I remember tagging along with the (current term, child care group) of kids a neighbor took care of after an injury limited other work. They got a lot of free passes to movies but also took the entire group to different churches every Sunday since the families of the kids attended different churches. Most were Free Will Baptist churches back in the mid 1950s, with independent views of the typical fire and brimstone preachers in each church, each one often describing how the attendees of the other churches were bound for Hell. For all their differences, they had the best times at church ice cream socials where they all mixed really well (though not with the Black church groups in Sedalia). It seemed idyllic (if you were white), though I, at 11, (having spent the previous 4 years in Hawaii and in a family that treated/appreciated all the same) was innocent enough to wander into the what I later thought of as the Black quarter of town. A very nice elderly Black man escorted me back to the area he said it was less likely to risk upsetting the white people who never ventured into the area.
I was, and for many years have been, oblivious to the carefully maintained segregation of Sedalia, but did find some history at https://www.legendsofamerica.com/sedalia-missouri/
"...In 1886, the Salvation Army established a post in Sedalia, and the Army’s founder, William Booth, traveled from London to attend the event. When Captain George Parks was asked by The Sedalia Democrat why William Booth had purposed to locate “his salvation army” in Sedalia, Parks responded,
“Because Sedalia is a desperately wicked city, and if souls can be won to Christ in Sedalia, they can be won to Christ anywhere.”
Parks was later beaten severely in downtown Sedalia; he traveled home to Chicago, where he died nearly a year later from his wounds, making him the first martyr for The Salvation Army in the United States..."
I doubt the Hillsdale College/Trump "historians" of "1776 Project" would want to include that history.
It's just the fellowship Ricardo. My mood and mental health are so much better today after talking to only about 10 other people at the protest. And it also helped to realize that most of the Trump rally goers don't go to listen to Trump's stale message but to meet up with other MAGAs.
5.5 million protesters yesterday and millions more that would love to have attended but couldn't. That's a lot of fellowship Ricardo.
Cathartic was certainly the adjective at yesterday's protest here in the City of the Angels, Gary. We could feel the pent up frustration being released, as the collective call for constitutional adherence was joyfully proclaimed
We attended the first 5 of the Portland Maine Monument Square protests before we went to Florida for 2 weeks to help get better treatment arranged for a relative, and will go as often as we can (this past Saturday was an exception for Augusta). Buying markers at Sherman's, for the Augusta event, let me see the tail end of a protest here in Freeport, so we will start attending as many non-conflicting ones as we can, starting with those within walking distance.
I echo that 100% -- the first email I look for in the morning and my first read of the day -- even before my first sip of coffee (which I will now enjoy!)
Same here.
Your voice Heather, helps keep me sane. And, I'm learning about our history in a way that makes me feel connected. That rarely happened in my school classes.
Read her books too, if you get the chance, but there are other informative historians out there too!
I don't do FB, but I listen to her Politics Chat on youtube.
likewise.
Yes, I have read her books and saw her at a book signing. Hoping to bump into her one day as I also live on the coast of Maine.
I live "up the coast in New Brunswick, a few hours away.
Frank. I didn't realize that. My wife was wondering about buying a small cabin close to the coast in NB just in case things go to shit here in Maine. We are both US citizens only. Would we be allowed?
Agreed! Heather in the morning with a cappuccino and the comedians at night to underscore the absurdity of this current “Dumb & Dumber” regime.
For me its Heather first thing apart from a messenger hello / phone call, coffee, kitty on lap (like now), Wordle.
Reading Heather’s column while sipping my morning coffee is the chief pleasure in my daily routine.
As Ken Burns said in an interview with HCR, "I wake up with Heather every morning."
Likewise! Doing that now, as a matter of fact.
Likewise, Ally and Dick--and so many others. A great way for Americans to start their day!
I’m doing that right now 👍🏻👍🏻
CONTACT Mike Johnson and tell him to let the Republicans and Democrats VOTE on the tariffs and let the VOTE be CONFIDENTIAL. Let it come to the floor for a VOTE! This is STILL a democracy! Congress represents ALL the people, NOT just one person or party.
202-224-3121
Call every day. Also call the Representatives & Senators. You can use the same number.
“Malignant Stupidity”
“The Trump formula is apparently what you get if you ask ChatGPT and other AI models to make tariff policy:
Elon Musk’s Dunning-Kruger kids might be responsible for those tariff numbers. That now looks like a distinct possibility.”
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/will-careless-stupidity-kill-the
Excellent suggestion to contact Mike Johnson to VOTE NO on tariffs. I now have his phone # and will call daily.
And call your Senators and House Reps, daily, to protest. It truly takes 5 minutes.
And you might get the 5 CALLS app on your phone.
Thank you ALL for your suggestions. We can do this~
Would COFIDENTIAL voting make a difference in the Congress? What an interesting question………?
Confidential voting (and confidential holds) so often done in the Senate.
I could go for at least making a chamber wide pre-vote confidential with just the numbers revealed, before a vote for the record, with each member's position recorded (along with a brief indication any might want to make about it being voted that way because of intolerable poison pill provision(s).
confidential you mean, i.e., anonymous?
There is also an app- 5calls- check it out! Super handy for those of us who get tongue tied and cant think of what to say.
Marlo, congratulations, you are inciting to create "good troubles" and I'm ready to follow you and start calling. Thanks .
For those who have been following Feathers of Hope, Jerry Weiss has stage 4 cancer.....in his honor (and to save our country) please protest to Congressional Republicans, and their donors and constituents..
MS in a MAGA specific dictionary - "Malignant Stupidity"
I still have my sanity (or so I think) thanks to 9 years of reading you every morning, dear Professor!
"We seem to be at it Again"
"Citizens Protect Self Government"
***** HANDS OFF! *****
🙏🏿🤞😘
Yes, yes, indeed.
Lighten up, it was a compliment! 😊✌🏻
I did not take it that way, but, I deleted my comment after you edited yours. To me it meant you thought if she didn't write, something was very wrong, and if that thing was she was too tired, then she would be very wrong to be tired and not write you. I didn't think that was very nice. I also read Heather daily right off the bat...in the morning. Sometimes after coffee, sometimes before. Today I was home sick with a chest cold (the Santa Fe "Hands Off" happened in the snow) and without coffee. This likely contributed to my lack of levity. We both clearly value what Heather does, Jean, and adding that last part changed everything.
I’m embarrassed.
Heather concluded hers yesterday how the president of Lithuania, and large numbers of its citizens, in a “dignified departure” saw off the remains of four U.S. service members killed in a training accident there. And how Trump, who could have met that plane arriving in the U.S., only blew it off.
We’ve all long known the history of this pussy-grabber, rapist, convicted criminal, longtime mob associate, vulgarian, racist, fat, orange-make-up-caked-face narcissist.
But now, contrasting him, it, to the decencies of the president and people of Lithuania – and in light of the newest way he has again sucked up for mass murderer pal Putin – it embarrasses me more how Republicans yet cover for his bottomless indecencies, recklessness, and worse.
We’ve got to get those standardized tests out of U.S. schools. Have got to return the arts and humanities that at least give us a chance to learn some personal standards, which too many “adults” just never show.
That testing teaches too many that life’s only value is getting the cold-blooded skills to out-score others, climb into the meritocracy, and for the rest of one’s life climb over more, more others.
Anyone else embarrassed at our entrenched status quo?
I am not embarrassed. I am angry and disgusted, and a bit terrified. I didn’t make the world this way. In fact I have fought for most of my 68 years for a better country and better world.
For a little while it looked like we were going in that direction, but it was a chimera.
I hope this mass protest is a sign that the sleeping giant is reawakening.
Same here, Annabel, but definitely in the camp of “furious.” I’ve been furious since November 6, 2024, first at the ignorant voters who cast their ballots for this monstrously stupid criminal, and also those who couldn’t bother to vote at all. For som reason these people mostly get a pass for what they have done. No excuses, we all lived through the first four years of his rule, and if that and his actions on January 6 didn’t clue you in to who he is, then you own this lock, stock and barrel. Since noon January 20, it’s been a constant stream of cruelty, stupidity, incompetence, senseless destruction, cowardice and complicity from too many quarters with no end in sight. Not embarrassed, not afraid, still furious.
Yes. One of my favorite signs at the rally at the MN Capitol yesterday was, “If you’re not pissed off, you are part of the problem.”
✅
John, I am with you on the "it doesn't matter" non-voters. Don't forget that a percentage of that larger block were prohibited from voting, either by design or circumstance.
Yep!
Check TCinLA for a great round up of demonstrations. He opened his Substack to his followers and the reporting and pics came from around the country. Great pics of signs. And an absolutely marvelous report from the brilliant writer Gloria Horton - Young on the Las Vegas protest. Fabulous read!!!
Why shouldn’t voting always be confidential? We elect leaders based on perceived character and ability to serve. We should trust our elected leaders to vote in our best interest, right?
It would be like betting on your team once the team was put together. If your team keeps losing, you need to ask questions of each representative and get clear answers. From the right questions, we should be able to infer correctly the answers we are seeking.
It’s personal CHARACTER and the FACTS that matter. We make choices in all of our relationships. Ultimately we must trust the leaders we elect to vote in our best interest…and sometimes we will be disappointed, but there will be another day. Even the election of the Pope by the Cardinals of the Catholic Church is done by secret ballot, is it not? At some point, don’t we have to trust our own conscience?
That’s a good question Jane, the answer unfortunately that comes to mind, is that half of the people in the House couldn’t be trusted to empty a litter box. A long time ago the repugnantkins stopped offering ideas that people could support.
Jane, I have wondered the same regarding your comment about teams. The "top" states rankings for poverty, maternal health, industry, welfare recipients, failing infrastructure, etc, always seem to be RED STATES.
Why do people CONTINUE to vote the same people in, over and over? Why are these GOP voters content with what they have?
I discovered and highly recommend Tennessee Brando, who has youtube clips and is part of the Meidas Network. He was raised poor in a small town, is a recovered addict, and he truly tells it like it is. In about a year, his channel has gone from hitting 100,000 to today a hair away from 700,000. He frequently says that he gets a lot of MAGA viewership. His channel is reaction based, but another channel that gets a lot of MAGA viewership is "Belle of the Ranch". Her clips are informational/news reporting and well worth subscribing to.
"Why do people CONTINUE to vote the same people in, over and over? Why are these GOP voters content with what they have?"
Isn't it a cultural issue? The history of those Southern Red states is different from the history of, say, New England or the states around the Great Lakes, especially in the size of enslavement (small vs large), with all the outsized sense of superiority and entitlement that the trafficking and enslavement of black Africans brought to the South, even to poor whites; and the history of unions that grew alongside industrialisation in the North, and which taught workers, and then citizens, to stand up for their rights.
Absolutely it IS cultural!
The LFFA comments often provide what I call a book club. This book was recommended probably two years ago, and it is a MUST read! I've given copies to probably 8 or so folks now, they all agreed it is an important book.
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America written by Colin Woodward.
All the LFAA should read it, as it explains a lot of why we are who we are and what we believe.
Thank you for the book recommendation :-)
Sophie, you are welcome! I hope you enjoy it, but if you enjoy HCR then I think you will enjoy the book as well. One of my favorite pleasures in life is learning something new. Like Heather does, this book provides a great deal of history. It is fascinating.
I just listened to the audio sample - I'm sold!
I'm familiar with these cultural-regional concepts in Europe. I am a citizen of two European countries and live in a third, and in each of them, such different regions exist, and even cross country boundaries; they aren't unitary either - political cultures, religious cultures, literary cultures and scientific cultures might have different boundaries. I am less familiar with such regions in the USA, although through my rather limited knowledge of your history and extended visits over several decades, I felt these must have developed too.
Sophie, I hope that by being on this forum, you realize we aren't all crazy over here. There's plenty of good people. Please stick up for us!
I know 😊
I support Americans acting against this madness. Some are friends and relatives, and I care for them. For MAGA… well, we have our own crazies, so I don’t blame you for them. But I wish they didn’t dominate US politics.
Thanks, Miselle, I have been encouraged by Belle of the Ranch too.
I’m not familiar with Tennessee Brando, but I will check him out! It’s so important that we break out of our bubble and find common ground with our fellow Americans. We really do all want the same thing…a future for our children where opportunity and kindness prevails.
There is no transparency or accountability in confidential voting.
Yea, Libby, that’s true. But at some point we have to make a judgement call, “Do I trust this person or not?”.
It’s kind of like getting married. We can’t hold another person 100% accountable. We will be disappointed sometimes. But there is always change in the wind. And change can be good….
Right On, Annabel!!❤️❤️❤️
Watch the definite loving farewell from Lithuania to our service men. https://youtu.be/0qgjvS8-PHI?si=8lS3E5t9PG3osvt4
So very fitting, so decent, dignified, sincere, Molly.
And the four so well represent the ethnic variety for which America is so justly renown.
Variety, diversity which our embittered, vicious, fat, orange criminal-in-chief so hates, as do all his fellow-embittered, uneducated fascists
I noticed the names of the four young men as well and wondered what their short life story was.
I live near a military base and was on a commercial flight years ago when a large contingent of service personnel boarded the plane from another airport back to this area. I remember being surprised at the number of individuals who were not “Anglo” looking…whatever that means.
(I will interject here that as a former English as a Second Language teacher, I seek out anyone with a tinge of diversity because I know I have much to learn from them.)
The group that boarded that plane made me wonder: What per cent of our current active military are first or second generation Americans? Does anybody here know that figure? It seems like a good way to earn citizenship for those inclined to do so.
My ESL students changed my life in so many ways. I am a homebody and do not like air travel, but I love learning about people and places beyond the place where I was planted. I have been fortunate to have gotten to know amazing people from far away places…I’m glad everybody is NOT just like me!
We have always honored our brave military dead. It is the least we can do. They gave their last full measure of devotion. As an Army brat, this breaks my heart.
Just to keep things factual Phil, Lithuania uses standardized testing for all of its students. Graduation from high school is focused on passing the Matura exams, a standardized test used in many European countries.
I believe Finland only uses a final standardized test for those High School graduates that want to use the scores to apply for higher education entities.
I am more intrigued by students creating portfolios of what they have learned, researched, or accomplished, with very much emphasis on standardized testing.
I always encouraged students to at least be able to play back what they thought some teachers were trying to teach them (as sort of a nod to standardized testing), but think about a portfolio of as much beyond what was being taught as they could manage.
Know the test but don't be limited by it.
The best example for me was a Naval Academy graduate with his own flight school taking our Aircraft Powerplant and Airframe Technician certificate courses so he could work on his own aircraft. He complained that we taught 3 times what the FAA required, to which I responded with a comment that I was shocked by the accusation since we were trying to teach 9 times what the FAA required.
It was a bit of a problem for some, even me, since so many feared the difficulty of the FAA written tests and especially the Oral and Practical test (which I took right after finally getting back from Florida following the 9/11 attacks). I was approaching the time limit trying to perfect a few imperfect rivets when the Designated Examiner pointed out the test requirement was only 70%, far less than the standards we had to meet in the coursework.
We could "Pass" very easily, but the difficulty in achieving the highest scores in the final testing allowed more meaningful discrimination by the job market. The background of the students mattered less, and we were especially proud of the young (and older) women that outscored (and later outworked) so many of the others.
The one I was proudest of, though, was one immigrant young man who worked so hard outside the school, while living in an abandoned house with no electricity or running water, and came to me admitting he couldn't afford the tuition and expensive tests for the last quarter. I advised him that he was a real asset to the rest of his team and I'd never say anything about his inability to pay (yet), since the only time that would have to become a problem was when the Certificate to take the FAA tests would be withheld until he paid in full. He would have all the knowledge he could gain as he helped the team do the same, so he could at least work as a well skilled A&P under the supervision of certified ones. We had helped pay for other students, and would have helped him if needed, but others unknown to us (suspected to be Tom Wathen Center connected or beneficiaries) probably did that. He went on to a well paying job as a tax paying beneficiary that benefits the rest of our society.
See https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2016/june/27/tom-wathen-mourned
For the record, I am not personally thrilled with the over-emphasis on standardized testing, either. At the same time, in a large education system (or, for that matter, in 50 large educational systems), it is not easy or cheap to provide a program by which every student can be evaluated one-on-one or even one-on-a-few as you could in a much more intimate system.
I went to school in the 1950s and 1960s, and we were already subjected to a fairly large battery of standard tests starting in grade school and continuing through to the SATs and ACTs which preceded college. We also had teachers in our schools who did great work and didn't rely on those test batteries. I realize things in our educational system these days have gotten worse, but I am not convinced that standardized testing is the sole reason for that.
Education funding per student has decreased. Teachers are struggling to be paid well enough to stay in their chosen careers. Administrators have become security guards in their schools, more worried about shoot-outs than education. It's a mess and needs to be fixed with lots more money and attention, but I do not believe that eliminating standardized testing is a panacea.
I find Phil's repetitive litany (is that redundant?!) about "standardized testing" tedious and unsatisfying. He offers nothing in the way of a replacement that would work well in a system like we have today or even in a highly modified system. He just attacks standardized testing as a boogieman, which he can flog unmercifully in hopes of raising eyebrows and getting "heart"-clicks, which, of course, he does.
So many times, Jon, you are just recklessly wrong.
Last time, you erred about what the 14th Amendment, Section Three said. As if you'd ever read its text, or knew any law, you claimed it required adjudication. I replied with its full (short) text which clearly requires no adjudication, just congressional action.
No apology from you.
This has happened before from you.
Now you claim I've "offered nothing in the way of a replacement" when many times here I have offered a program I've had online for more than 20 years: www.EssayingDifferences.com .
I like to hear both perspectives, viewing one as more difficult to accomplish "idealism" but requires so much preparation and careful maintenance while the other as the more pragmatic view of reality that limits what the public servants can do in the shorter term with the current mood swings of the population.
I credit Lincoln and FDR with the most progress, but also others like Teddy Roosevelt, and even Herbert Hoover for some progress during the Harding/Coolidge years (though spoiled by the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs I seem to recall as being forced upon him. My brother's high school classmate, George H Nash, another honor roll student like my brother were a year ahead of me. George went on to become what Wikipedia describes as:
"...an American historian and interpreter of American conservatism. He is a biographer of Herbert Hoover. He is best known for The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, which first appeared in 1976 and has been twice revised and expanded...
...From 1975 to 1995, he lived in Iowa to work at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, where he wrote three volumes of a definitive, scholarly biography, ending in 1918, commissioned by the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association. He researched in hundreds of manuscript collections and archival sources in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Nash published numerous essays on Hoover..."
I'm no where near a history major but I did loosely follow what George was doing through the years and learned to appreciate many of the things Hoover did throughout his life, especially after he was out of office and secretly helping Harry Truman plan relief efforts after the war.
I doubt I would agree with everything he wrote as far as practical balances on issues but am always willing to listen to people I know I can trust to honestly express their views.
I went to law school Phil. I doubt you did. You obviously can't read a law or amendment and understand its meaning. if what you say is true then I am sure SOMEONE would have brought that case to court to keep Trump out of the White House. But look around. Trump is in the White House, jack Smith is gone. The US is in a crisis and all you do is stand around talking nonsense. Sigh.
Sorry you are just ridiculous and I've completely lost patience with your ignorance. No apology offered. You may have some of the people fooled here but not everyone.
Most people are too polite to challenge you or they don't know any better. But I know what I am talking about and as best as I can see, no one is following your view and the world seems to be consistent with mine at least as far as Trump's "right" to be President.
So until something changes, ib will stick with my view point and not yours which I consider to be legally ignorant.
I feel sorry for you because you seem to believe all the nonsense you spout. I expect you sincerely believe it is true,
but it's not.
Good luck with that.
I like to hear both perspectives, as in liking the goals of Bronson Alcott no matter how impractical they might have been at the time. That said, I do want to be an optimistic realist, perhaps using more little known histories of how hard times sometimes motivated people to make changes they would not otherwise been motivated to try.
At least that's what I hope can be better described by some history I found yesterday starting with a movie, "War for the Woods - the New England Timber Salvage Administration and the Disaster Loggers of 1938."
(Government crash program that converted potential disaster into new forests. Why we have different, more fire resistant forests that make Fall in New England so much more colorful after much of the white pine was lost and hardwoods came to the fore?]
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C17Jc85Ts0M
"...When the Hurricane of 1938 struck New England, it was a disaster of proportions unknown to the region at that point. No storm in modern history had wrought more destruction or devastation than that one. Beyond the cities and towns, past the population centers, there was another looming nightmare...the forests.
Nearly 1,000 square miles of New England Pine Forest were blown down, placing nearly 2 billion board feet in logs and lumber in jeopardy of not only waste but of becoming a massive fire hazard. No salvage logging operation on the planet before or since has been as large or as robust as that of the New England Timber Salvage Administration of 1938.
In this video we tell the story of the hurricane, the aftermath, the plan, and the execution of this most audaciously bold plan. Somehow a Hurricane helped restore the forests, prepare the country for WWII, and in a plot twist has had a very pleasant after-effect on modern life in New England.
The story of this amazing and massive collaborative effort has been largely forgotten until now. If you love American history, you'll love this tale of grit, gumption, and communities rising up to take on a problem the likes of which the world had never tried to tackle before..."
Any other good thing coming out of deep red Louisiana Jon?
Louisiana?! I have no idea! Lithuania is in Europe lol!
Uuuups!! My dyslexia is acting up today. Seriously. I'm sorry 😞.
Unconscious, I knew nothing good would come out of Louisiana Jon. I should have trusted that feeling instead.
ROFLMAO! No problem it happens with age :-)
You are right Jon, I noticed because I'm getting younger and those incidents are occurring more frequently. Thanks 😁
Thanks Phil for posting only a hugely reduced version of the scumbag president's physical and mental characteristics. I just had breakfast.
Thank you for this. I have shared it. How any human being can still support the creature stumbling around the white house is beyond me. That he speaks for us is sickening. That’s why we were on the streets Saturday! We had a HUGE crowd in our town. The biggest question on everyone’s mind these days is, WTAF?
I cried right along with the Lithuanians when this was posted yesterday.
Thank you Molly; That's needs to be spread far and wide. All should showcase this.
Am posting on my personal FB page
I am so thankful to the good people and leadership of Lithuanian for honoring our fallen soldiers.
Meanwhile when our soldiers remains arrived at Dover AFB, Trump was golfing. Where was Hegseth, JDVance? Completely shameful.
What Lithuania did for our service members brought me to tears. What an embarrassment the felon is to our country and to our allies. Thank you Lithuania for your kindness.
Thank you, Molly. I shared this moving tribute.
Thank YOU, Molly....I have reposted on my personal FB page....news reports said that Trump was on a flight to his golf resort when they landed back at Dover!!!! :-(
5-Apr-2025: It has come across the Wires that Netanyahu will be hosted at the White House by DJT on Monday. 7-April-2025, when DJT returns from Golfing in Florida..... Is this an attempt by DJT to shore up his support among the Israel Lobby?.. To Distract from DJT's Ruinous Week for the USA?.. I don't see how the USA benefits from supporting Netanyahu as a whole... Netanyahu needs DJT's support... Both DJT, and Netanyahu must stay in Power to survive, and Popular Resistance is arising against both Netanyahu, and DJT... Netanyahu has 'Orange Envy'... Netanyahu has been in, and out, Power for over 20years, and envies DJT's Dictatorial Powers... I don't see the benefit as a whole for Israel, or the USA, in the long-term...
Netanhyahu is facing mass protests every Saturday in Israel itself. He's prolonging this war in order to avoid both prison and an embarrassing internal inquiry about the failures of October 7th. Many Israelis are furious with him.
Hello Sophie.... Little Bits & Pieces have been visible in Plain-Sight of the Israeli Systemic Security Failures on October 7th. 2023... The Israeli Papers have done a Good Job exposing them... Netanyahu bears most of the Blame... Again, The Innocents Suffer The Most.... OBW: I too, Walk-Between-Worlds....
Apache, for some reason you forgot to blame the main guilty party in this horror story, Hamas. At least the Palestinian people is recognizing whom to blame most.
Ricardo, I admit (and own) a complete ignorance of the situations in the Middle East. I do have beliefs and opinions that are based on the little that I know about that area of the world, and cannot help but think that, while what Hamas did was flat wrong, what was it that created the situation where Hamas came to be an opposition to Israel? What led them to initiate such an awful attack, and why has Israel's response been to both ignore the intel they had about the attack, and then to attempt to utterly destroy the entire region?
What was it that created the situation? They want to exterminate Jews ... and their OWN PEOPLE.
Background:
Gaza: Palestinians tortured, summarily killed by Hamas forces during 2014 conflict
Hamas forces carried out a brutal campaign of abductions, torture and unlawful killings against Palestinians accused of “collaborating” with Israel and others during Israel’s military offensive against Gaza in July and August 2014, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/05/gaza-palestinians-tortured-summarily-killed-by-hamas-forces-during-2014-conflict/
"‘Strangling Necks’: Abduction, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict highlights a series of abuses, such as the extrajudicial execution of at least 23 Palestinians and the arrest and torture of dozens of others, including members and supporters of Hamas’s political rivals, Fatah."
2025. The Fatah-run Palestinian Authority (PA) has called on Hamas to respond to the demands of protesters in the Gaza Strip who are calling for the group to abandon its control over the territory. https://www.newarab.com/news/pa-breaks-silence-anti-hamas-protests-gaza
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, the PA said that Hamas had to stop aligning itself with "foreign agendas" and to "prioritise the interests of the Palestinian people", in a reference to alleged Iranian support for the group.
Disengagement Plan Implementation Law in June 2004. In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements there. As part of this process, four Israeli settlements in the West Bank were dismantled as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_the_Gaza_Strip#:~:text=In%202005%2C%20Israel%20disengaged%20from,Bank%20were%20dismantled%20as%20well.
Instead of investing in their economy, Hamas chose total war.
2025. Palestinian man tortured to death by Hamas militants after criticizing group and attending protests, family says https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/01/middleeast/uday-rabie-palestinian-tortured-hamas-intl-latam/index.html
Anti Hamas Palistinian protests.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2025/04/04/gaza-protests-hamas-palestinians-terror/82774426007/
As of 2023, approximately 1.782 million Muslims, or 18.1% of the total population, were Israeli citizens. Some voluntarily serve in the Israeli military. There is a Arab party that has seats in the Knesset.
Some of the people killed in the masacre were Moselms, mainly Bedouins. At least one of the hostages was an Israeli Moslem.
Ally, in simple terms, everything boils down to two people trying to occupy the same piece of real state. They had a chance of sharing and living side by side and they were partially successful if you consider that many Palestinians live freely in Israel, they voted i every election and have representatives in the Kneset (Congress). On the other hand, there are extremist on both sides that want to be the exclusive rulers of the same piece of land either based on an almost prehistoric old history of their presence there or, due the absence of the original population due the Roman's expulsion of the Jewish people, two thousand years ago, the Arabs, now a day Palestinians, took possession of the land. What I just explained it a total simplication of a complex situation. What happened on October 7 2023 (?)
was a clash of the two extremist sides of this forever conflict. But that's another, related, story Ally. Hope my expiation is of any help to your group of nice and intelligent people. We'll keep this conversation going 😁
Just shameful...so many innocent people suffering and dying.
He and DJT are cut from the same cloth.
Both the Israelis and Palestinians could have moved into full respect and cooperation.
So many -- on both sides, as you well know, Rabbi -- have been long inclined to such civilized rapprochement. Schools could have been the venue for this.
U.S. so-called "Christian" far right evangelicals for The Rapture have instead wanted the hatreds continued, upped, and fed arms (at least one side fed arms, U.S. arms) to guarantee only more killing, more seizures of West Bank land, more road blocks, more intimidation.
And, too, the orange felon and too many others like AIPAC money.
Thanks Phil... Switzerland is a Good Example of Enemies learning how to become Friends... Switzerland is mostly composed of Descendants of French, German, Italian, and Native Helvetians... Read up on how Julius Caesar Conquered the Helvetians... When People Are Willing To Do The Hard-Work, Peace Is Always Possible...
"Do I not destroy my enemy when I make him my friend?" --Abraham Lincoln
There are many people who although inhabiting adult bodies never learn to think like adults. So they remain in their absolutist thinking or rather non-thinking, the us and them, black and white view which is the hallmark of so many religions. It's simplistic, just plain lazy and contributing to a lot of pain and suffering. I hold religious leaders responsible for discouraging their flocks from learning how to think.
J, your description of adult bodies reminds me of certain scumbag president main characteristics.....
Ah yes. If you have an authoritarian parent, who of course discourages you from having any thoughts of your own, you are more likely to grow up not being able to think complexly and end up being either authoritarian yourself, or a victim of other people.
Well said Phil, it's not conductive to blame only Netanyahu. Blame should be spread wide and deep.
I would almost call it responsibility rather than blame.
I think I picked that word from someone 's else's comment but you are right Ally.
It made me think! Always a good thing to happen, especially before the caffeine has a chance to do its magic.
It's a complicated world, Ricardo. People are complicated.
Rather than standardized testing (which relies on simpleton categories, abstracted groupings, and a-b-c, 1-2-3 linearity), schools could stress essay writing. Especially essay writing which quotes others. Others in the room. Others on the campus. Others in other cultures.
Remember the Crusades????
Read Anne Applebaum. This is what the Autocrats do for each other. Orban is and did the same.
Anne Applebaum is one of my go-to sources. She just did an interview at the New Orleans book festival with Jeffrey Goldberg. It’s on YouTube.
Here is link to AA and JG: https://youtu.be/II23tRoT3IA?si=4OYwhF01SCdjTot4
saw it, wonderful
Apache: The goal has never been to benefit the USA or Israel.
A bit of mutual back-rubbing. He's also clinging to "power" to escape justice. Netanyahu should have the opportunity of observing an American protest - even scaled-down, if there's no time to repeat today's showing immediately. No comfort! Embarrassment! Lots of signs.
Agree Apache
gotta arrange the Gaza Mediterranean resort palaces.
I am embarrassed when I and my society looses track of the experiences of others, especially for self-serving reasons. We human have the potential, as individuals and as societies to become monsters, or at least partly monstrous. We see too much of that played out these days.
I was once proud to be an US citizen, not so long ago, and I hope to be again. Now, every day, one of my friends from around the world asks me to explain, and thanks to much of what has been written and experienced, I can. But it hurts. I am convinced by history that the Orange Idiot will continue to double down on his folly until he, once again explodes. But the damage this time is just so unthinkably heinous. He and his enablers must pay, this time.
Problem being, even if dems retake, which i trust they will, unless Maga self-destructs as a political entity and some sort of more normal Republican party resurrects, USA will have lost any trust or leadership appeal for decades if not longer.
Ain't that the truth, Frank. Maybe we'll use that time well and put things right. It's not like our government made no mistakes before the Dumpster. Electoral voting, Gerrymandering, allowing huge donations for elections, ineffective wars, cost of and right to healthcare, economic divide etc etc. are just a few things.
Restoration to an alliance and commercial trust depends on Maga demolition. US just went from a Trump 1.0 to an immensely magnified 2.0 breaking existing treaties and connections wrecking ball style. Who's going to trust US again?
Whoever trusted the US before was probably sorely disappointed too. When in the last 40 years did we not pull NATO allies into our wars? When did we really help our allies solve important issues? Israel?
Whoever trusted the US before was probably sorely disappointed too. When in the last 40 years did we not pull NATO allies into our wars? When did we really help our allies solve important issues? Israel?
This one is a magnitude order of change, not that that the war against Iraq eg wasn't a massive creator of problems esp emergence of ISIS
I can't really disagree. Although Bush Jr. was not much better. Gotta avenge my Papa.
W compared unfavorably to Nixon. I thought US leadership would not be any worse in my lifetime. Silly me.
I fear that all the king's horses and all the king's men will not be able to restore a lot we a losing. Plutocrats are counting on that. Republic and country be damned so long as plutocrats can answer to no one.
I’m traveling to France in July. (France is one of my very favorite places.) I think I’m going to have t-shirts made that say “Je n’ai pas voté pour lui.”
or "Je ne suis pas Trump"
I’m clearly not ☺️. On another note, when I was in England last summer and wore my “if you can’t pronounce Kamala call her Madam President” t-shirt, I got LOTS of positive comments.
love it
More than pay, is the demonstration that certain lines cannot be crossed without legal consequences. Don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time. "Blind Justice" is not supposed to ignore the truth (and cannot be legitimately called justice if it does). Justice is supposed to be indifferent to social position.
Those of us who were teaching when the Standardized Not-Really-Tests of Anything came along. It was quite the industry--an insidious corporate take-over of education, and thus, of the American thinking process. Those of us who saw through them were criticized for not being "open to change."
As a 38 year now retired school librarian---your comment, Joanne, is completely accurate.
Joanne, as an educator in higher education who has had students from both before and after the idiocy of "*every* child left behind" in the last 40 or so years, I can safely say that I watched the deterioration of students' abilities to read, write, think critically, and be open to change in that time. It really is astonishing how thoroughly the education system in the USA in the last 24 years has been gutted. With the support and consent of parents whose ignorance is equally appalling. I am officially "old" because when I talk about stuff my students should know--and don't--they are amazed at the amount of information my tired brain still holds.
What does it mean to be "well educated" and what are we wise to aim for in that effort? It appears to me that we as a society are not often encouraged to ask long-chain questions. What, for me in retrospect, are the skills and basic information that most shapes my ongoing experience? That maximize the fruitfulness, fecundity, of my choices? Reinforces my productivity; my resilience?
All those aspects of life education cannot be folded into one school curriculum, but a perceptive school curriculum can lay the ground for fertile ongoing education. Yes, we need to impart a kit to help a kid make a living, but also to successfully negotiate society and life. Why the hell not?
To lay the ground for wise and responsible choices? I am not saying that just hasn't been done, but that much of that involves integrative complexities that don't fit linear testing regimes. "We" like the fact that standardized testing generates a "number", but insufficiently ask what the number actually means.
In a satirical Si-Fi fantasy, the answer to life, the Universe and everything turns out to be "42". What would that really tell us?
Life is change, but change is often (at least by a given standard) it depends on whose ox is getting gored. Changes that please some of the 1% are (obviously) not in everyone else's interests, and of course, fools often rush in. I have a vague recollection of a LA school board spending huge sums on iPads. that was mostly a disaster, that showed that no one in a position of power was actually doing homework and thinking ahead.
embarrassed and horrified. Trump has long viewed service men and women as "losers and suckers" -- the concept of self sacrifice is completely foreign to him. But to be heading off to "win" a tournament on his own property (and cash in on that) while the markets plunge, peoples' savings evaporate, agencies we depend upon are shuttered and service members are flown home is a new level of bottom feeder. I hope they put up billboards with that picture of him in the golf cart and juxtapose it with the market graph and the caskets. And yet the GOP acts like it's just another day - and a good one at that.
Great idea for billboards. Not just one!
Yes. Golfing while Rome burns...
I'm a retired school librarian. I'm SO proud of my profession, and of the dedicated teachers who have been buried under politicos---people who never spent a day teaching, yet fashioned "No Child Left Untested" and are now criminalizing librarians and teachers--- as these dedicated educators do their best. I taught about authoritative information--even my third graders knew that phrase!--and rejoiced in inspiring a love of reading and learning. In the limited time they have, the great teachers (and I've been privileged to know many of them) spend hours fashioning ways to make history and other subjects come alive. In spite of cuts to art, music, drama, and PE, we all persisted. Please all of you, stop blaming teachers--especially now as they are deal ing with the still reverberating consequences of covid and Trump's cruel cuts----and SUPPORT us! Thank you.
Those who are blaming teachers have misplaced blame. Teachers have no choice but to comply or be fired. Some, however, are subversive—my favorite characteristic—despite the pressure. Librarians too (I should have majored in that…I lived in my local library branch as a kid and even got a card at the one in the neighboring town).
Thank you for your support, MMinET, it means a lot! Librarians question and research. We help everyone in our school, regardless of age, ethnicity, or beliefs. Even the young teachers, who never had a school librarian, told me that they learned along with their kids! And thus, doing this type of work, we are dangerous to the fascists. So school librarians, who reach EVERY child in a school, are the first ones to be cut when budgets are squeezed. I was subversive with a smile. I would come up with a creative program, and only afterward would I look at the "standards" to see where they aligned, so I could satisfy the administrative overlords. I founded and chaired an organization of school librarians in the Chicago area (110 at our peak) and as a result, I met the most outstanding and dedicated librarians, who also placed children first, not test scores. And don't even get me started on the awful "so many points for reading this or that randomly selected book"!!
My kind of teacher! The kind I would be. Mrs. Gherke, our branch librarian, knew us kids by name, and we had checkout cards at that time that showed who else we knew who had also checked out the same book! It was a friendly, cool (as in temp) place and I was a regular. Btw, I grew up just south of Chicago, just over the state line.
I have two adult kids who are English Teachers. They both teach in rural schools. It is a travesty what they make (under $50K/yr, no joke.) They COULD move and teach in urban/suburban schools and nearly double their salaries--but don't rural kids deserve good teachers as well? The challenges teachers face now--I've written long, long posts about that.
To get her students to actually READ the 4 novels that she taught, last year my daughter spent countless hours (seriously, weeks of nights and weekends) to devise an "Escape Room" theme. While they weren't actually in rooms, she did scour the grocers for cardboard to make props. The students worked in teams (5 groups of 3 or 4 kids) and had to have read the books to know the clues. They had an absolute blast. (The winning team got out in 15 minutes. I told her that all her hard work was like prepping for a Thanksgiving dinner, lol.)
You cannot imagine, Miselle, the struggles I have experienced in getting students at the university level to read. I have actually had students fail tests and when they have complained, and I asked "did you read the material? Because if you had done, this would have been easy" they replied, "I refuse to read anything that is assigned to me." As you can imagine, my response was "Well, then: you had better either drop the class or be resigned to getting an F."
Linda, I CAN imagine! One daughter told me she has a freshman who told her that she was "going to be a millionaire internet influencer" so she doesn't need school.
She also gives out review packets before the finals, and has said that she literally puts many of the final test questions IN the review. IF they do the review, they will be ready. But many don't do the review.
I used to see our country divided by race, ie black vs white. Then I thought it was divided by wealth (which it is). I told her that I see a future of people divided by education. I don't mean college educated, I mean people who just never learned enough to rise above a minimum wage job. Going to be very hard to man those fryer with one hand while the other scrolls the smartphone!
You're not just supported, you are revered...and loved.
Thank you SO much, Ellen! Libraries have such an ancient history, and we are fighting! Marian the Librarian was a radical---she read Balzac!:-) I participated yesterday in Chicago's march, and have been an activist, as so many people here have been, for most of my life. As one sign said, "I don't want to tell my grandchildren that I stayed silent when it counted the most."
Thank you for the work you did. My elementary and junior high librarians were top notch; by high school I was using the public library for almost all of my research (the public library was 5 blocks from my house, and a basically grew up either in the library or on the softball diamond). I was a library aide until high school and organized sports and band took up all my "electives" and "free time".
Thanks for all your work in supporting libraries! My district's administration proposed eliminating our entire library department, and at the subsequent community meeting, SO many outraged people rose up and supported us: "Get rid of your administrators, keep our fantastic librarians!" and they cancelled their plans!
Outstanding!!!
I have a dear friend (another musician, although she does play the trombone) who got a library science degree, and Dums now a librarian in a Seattle suburb. She does a boatload of community work up there!
Shelley, we are now forced to engage in practices that should never have been necessary: using non-official networks to provide information and sustain the institutions (libraries and archives especially) that these appalling wankpuffins want to destroy. I worked in libraries all through my schooling and beyond. I am also an historian who works in archives. I can tell you that it is really scary out there.
Not embarrassed. Deeply, deeply angry.
Liked for the concept of bottomless indecency. I have been saying that Trump and the Republicans lack basic decency, but this is stronger, and more accurate.
Well said, Phil. We are the ones who must “take America back”—not “backwards”.
Canadian, more cringing than embarrassed, still feels akin to a nightmare not woken from, and, to be honest, some real fear. Canada will suffer most from Trump tariffs, possibly have its auto industry destroyed. Trust tanks won't sometime be rolling across the borders!
Well, we Americans got our asses handed to us the last couple times we tried that. Take comfort and courage in that.
Phil, I hope you were able to attend one of the 1200+ protests held across the country. I was heartened by the diversity of ages in the 175 attendees of the protest in Blue Hill, Maine. Hundreds of people drove by as we waved our signs. Most people honked or waved or gave a thumb's up. Angus King spoke to the crowd of 3000+ in Portland which had the largest crowds in Maine.
Phil, you often speak of the humanities. I started reading Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" just now. Here is a link - https://blogs.law.columbia.edu/uprising1313/files/2017/10/Civil-Disobedience-by-Henry-David-Thoreau.pdf
Gary, our protest in Eugene had several thousand people. I'd say reaction to the drive-by motorists was roughly 90% positive (we lined the main surface street that bridges the Willamette River, and connects the north and south sections of town that the river bisects.)
A big yes to all who attended April 5 marches, Gary.
And all who've read any Thoreau.
I live in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan -- very far from any city, and with responsibilities for kids and adults to whom I teach every day. (My small town, Taketa, lies in the valley of two mountain rivers, with 16,000 people in it and in adjoining much-smaller towns, farm villages.)
I hope some of what I post here may make up for what I may miss from good, valuable, and necessary marches elsewhere.
Uuuuuuh Phil, I love it when you get angry. The most eloquent takedowns in America! Stay angry my friend. It's that time for all of us.
That is not what standardized testing teaches. In addition, those who follow Trump are not there because they have learned to out-score others or climb into the meritocracy. They are there because of grievances and as members of a cult, based on emotion rather than reason. Our entrenched status quo might apply to some folks but it sure didn't apply to all the folks who showed up to yesterdays rallies. I am embarrassed by the behavior and actions of the POTUS (or whatever he is) but proud of the folks who stood up for the Constitution 5 million strong and were supported by others who were unable to show up.
Can you just imagine the howls of MAGA if Biden hadn't met that plane?
We had around 5K in Rochester with speeches centered on what America is at her best and how this regime is destroying that. My sign said No Oligarchs No Kings!
They say 3k marched in Augusta where we spent the early part of my wife's 75th Birthday. Six family members, two family friends met up there,and found a few more had gone on their own. We did two laps of the route starting the second (half lap) after a long coffee/nature break, since the crowd at the State House was still so large.
We left Freeport early enough to get there 15 minutes early in normal traffic but barely were able to get off the turnpike by the noon start time, due to a 15 minute delay creeping along the last 1/3rd of a mile on the shoulder before the exit, another 20 minutes in the traffic jam to the State House area, and finding a parking place a 1/3rd of a mile back south of State House.
Was a great birthday party later in the company of more family and friends, especially since we chose the State Capital protest over the Washington DC one we would have otherwise gone to.
So many great signs like "Porsche - Fast, Ferrari - Faster, Tesla - Fascist"
My humble offerings (one for the Hands Off theme) were:
(Picture of Liberty Enlightening the World, with rare detail of the broken chain under her right foot)
HANDS OFF the CHAINSAW Some thought they voted a "Haircut" not a head removal. Cutting Taxes for the Rich makes the Debt worse, no matter how much less you do for the rest. Restore Tax Rates and Services that Worked Best for ALL of US.
The flip side (the first part borrowed from an anthropologist in 2016), was: Who You Voted For - is not as important now, as - What You Stand For. Competent, Law Abiding, Civil Service over Incompetent, Malicious, Political Appointees.
The last part inspired by the Michael Lewis interview with Jon Stewart on his book "Who is Government"
Still trying to catch up on reading the LFAAs and comments from both days.
Reports are that over 5 million Americans participated from coast to coast and border to border. There was no violence, and no arrests were made. It's the largest civic action in American history.
And we the people did it.
And must do it again. As much as necessary, as it says in Italian cooking recipes.
While my attempt at cacio e pepe may have failed, I did not fail in showing up yesterday. I Will redeem myself on the cacio e pepe and continue until i get it right!
(Laughter) Remember: quanto basta. Like a lot of things in life, it depends on you.
I like to say I’m developing a “muscle memory” as I help organize a rally after a rally. It’s becoming my retirement work.
Thank goodness! That many participants showed and that there was no violence! That's really important!
Two of us taking respite in the shade discussed why it was mostly “older” adults at the protest. First, we still had our anti-war reflexes and second, it would have been more difficult to devote the time when I was still working and had young kids. There was a young woman maybe college age standing alone during the whole protest and I thanked her and told to bring more friends next time. And I’m sure there will be a next time.
I said the same to two high school girls standing next to me. "Bring all your friends next time, and there will need to be a next time."
Our 22 and 25 year old protested a number of things in their teens and early 20s. They seem more numb this time. I talked to them and they said that DJT is what they experienced most of their politically aware life. They don’t think he is normal but in some ways the chaos has become normal. I think they need a younger activist to start rallying them. Us older folks are activated by the loss of money and services along with the loss of ideals of democracy. They are activated by the loss of reproductive/marital rights and the destruction of our environment. These things feel like they can’t get as much traction because of the larger crisis happening.
Good point. Thinking AOC, Pete Buttigieg.
I am pretty sure I was the oldest person in the area where we were. Most were far younger than I am. There were at least three of us tuba players there; I ended up almost directly across the street from the guy I sit next to in the ensemble.
"Reports are that over 5 million Americans participated from coast to coast and border to border. There was no violence, and no arrests were made. It's the largest civic action in American history."
Yes, and people in many other countries joined the protest, too. It's a great start, with more protests planned.
TCinLA - My sister-in-law and I attended a protest in Blue Hill, ME. We lined both sides of Main Street waving our signs and chanting from time to time. Hundreds of cars drove by in the hour or so we were out there. My sister-in-law wearing her multi-colored flag on her hat counted the nay-sayers. They all gave the middle finger salute, drove full-size pick-up trucks, were alone and were men between the age of 30 and 60. There were 8 of them.
I suspect the corporate media will write very little about the protests and include the hateful and jaded comments from the Trump administration.
A post on X yesterday said, "Hey Trump, get your fucking fat ass off the golf course and cancel the tariffs."
Note: I am not on X or Facebook Never have been never will be.
I didn’t count how many but we were observing the same thing here in the Panhandle of Florida. Many, if not all, were white males in trucks and they were visibly upset. I must say, for our area, I was so happy to see so many turn out and show support for our Constitution and our dedicated institutions. Thank you for this group and HCR, we must keep the momentum going!!
We had a great turnout of about 300 down here in Marathon, many more thumbs up and supportive horns honking than middle fingers. It was unexpected! The observation about the pickup guys is apt: we had one asshole who made a few passes deliberately spewing clouds of diesel smoke but with 30 mph winds he soon gave up. It was a happy gathering! Smiles all around!
Even Mother Nature was weighing in on the side of the protesters! Here in Tulsa, the rain and heavy north wind protected them in case some idiot had tried to pepper spray them. Fortunately, none of that happened, and what I saw and heard on the news report was a lot of friendly horn-tooting and shouts of encouragement in support. Unfortunately, only one local news covered the event, the rest were obsessed with covering basketball and late season football instead. Oh well, there's an old bible proverb about mustard seeds. . .We're planting great seeds.
Gary, most of our naysayers were driving full size pickups as well. Got a lot of thumbs up from transit bus drivers and two fire guys.
So X does have its uses.
Bravo TC for your reporting. I can't comment on your site, but I followed today. More pictures please.
Here in New London CT, in filing the site permit for the protest, a prospective number of attendees was projected, 500 was the projected number. We easily had over 1,000!! It was a joyous raucous non-violent celebration!! Senator Blumenthal attended and sang a Patti Smith song, People have the Power with a soloist and choir. An absolutely day to remember!! Let’s hope the tide is turning!
Sounds terrific!
What a short stark way to put what happened across America 🇺🇸 yesterday. Especially, the NO Violence and NO arrests.
Your final line says it all TC:
That's exciting!! I was so thrilled to be a small part of it. Thanks Tom. ❤️
Didn't make it to downtown LA, but we have an outing every Sunday to tesla in Burbank.
Bravo to all who protested and thank you!
Can you link us to a site reporting this number?
This and the many more civil actions to come ring the death knell of the “Malignant Maga-Mad” Republican Party and birth of a new party for those who are conservative in their views but honour the Constitution, Democracy, the Rule of Law!
Go Americans 🇺🇸with your “Hands Off!” Canadians 🇨🇦stand with you with our “Elbows Up!” Together we will win the battle against those who seek to rule only for their own benefit….
Jouons des coudes! the maple leaf forever!
Wow!
And it will advance what? It made us all feel good--and I am very glad the crowds were huge and loud--but unless Congress and SCOTUS both get with the program, nothing will happen. Except maybe all of us being rounded up by brown shirts.
Linda - Visibility is still important. What I think was interesting was the number of signs that said Hands Off: social security, Medicaid, education, constitution, freedom, books, libraries, public lands, national weather service … how could any MAGA disagree with these? Am I idealistic in thinking that all the “People” could unite behind these basic services that Trump/Elon/billionaires are trying to take from the people?
I don’t disagree Cathy, I just question how much the people in power really care. We just saw the SCOTUS pause the demand to return the prisoners from El Salvador. The AG of Missouri is DEDICATED (and I mean this sincerely) to the idea that when someone is exonerated they should nevertheless remain in PRISON. The people in power are the problem.
These people in power are a huge problem. I can’t believe the disregard for the law and complete lack of competence.
The US is a failed state and laughingstock of the world. Corruption and greed, run by billionaires/corporations and Fox News, have rotten the US to the core.
What will the people do? What power do the people have?
They will. And they too need support.
Bravo to you, Tom, for posting many protest photos and stories submitted to your from readers to your own EXCELLENT Substack "THAT'S ANOTHER FINE MESS".
Folks, click on his substack for the many wonderful photos of protests. It will do your heart good. (As well as his daily substacks where he kindly posts kitty photos. We need those, too)
My sign said “ Hands off our Constitution! “. And “ We the People!” It was glorious to be part of this global protest !
Mine also said, "We the People" and from it, I hung 3 ACLU booklets of the Constitution. A highlight of the day was speaking to some young girls (maybe 7 or 8) who asked about it and I showed them the bolded "We the People" lead sentence (in the same text style of my sign) and their faces lit up. Months ago I bought 40 from the ACLU and began giving them away. It's time for another batch.
I like the one about real Americans respecting the Constitution.
The first one.
Spring is here.
A great time to be outside and to join in on some political demonstrations!
It was at least 82 here yesterday.
The old racist bastard Strom Thurman was speaking against civil rights. Cory was speaking for us, for civil rights. I’m with Cory. I am willing to fight… there is no choice if you believe in freedom and democracy.
I attended a Hands Off protest in Eau Claire, WI today. It was respectful but uplifting. Just coming off hip surgery so I was using a Walker. People were so kind. Gives one hope to see all these people.
I'm blown away by the patriots, real patriots in Wi. ! Wisconsin is 'not' for sale !
Thank you WI voters and to Cory Booker! The support you showed and the power of your vote really turned it up for me to start making “Good Trouble!”
A sign at our demonstration in Canton, Ohio, said "Be like Cory!"
We had a few of those as well!
Wow, well done for turning up with your walker!
American people are awe-inspiring when they put their mind to stand up for the right thing. You are a credit to the good parts of your history :-D
I was surprised at the large number of people in wheelchairs, like myself, who made the effort to turn out. The good side of understanding what a handicap is, and how the repubs are handicapping everyone's future.
As the daughter of a disabled Mum, I completely support you!
I was gimping about on my shiny six weeks old new knee. Having a friend drop us off less than 150 feet from our march location made it doable.
I had to walk about 1.5 miles each way to get to the rally here in Atlanta, every step hurt like hell in my hips, but I managed it. In the future maybe less walking 🤷♂️. FDT 💥
Great job and thanks for what you did regarding the political demonstration...we need more people and more demonstrations/protests. Thanks, again.
Why aren’t we talking about this? HCR: heads up! I’m terrified.
From FB
If you STILL haven’t heard what’s supposed to happen on April 20 and why it matters to every American, here’s a great (and terrifying) overview.
***************************************************
Credit to: Tony Pentimalli
This Is Not a Drill: Trump’s Day-One Order Sets the Stage for Martial Law
By Tony Pentimalli
On January 20, 2025, while the press focused on the optics of Donald Trump’s indoor inauguration, something far more dangerous was set in motion—off-camera, away from ceremony, and beneath the radar of a public lulled by spectacle.
Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border. But the most alarming part? It gave the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security just 90 days to deliver a joint report on whether he should invoke the Insurrection Act.
That deadline is April 20.
This wasn’t about immigration. It was about power.
The Insurrection Act, passed in 1807, gives the president the authority to deploy the U.S. military on American soil. That means troops in our cities. That means bypassing governors. That means suspending protest rights. That means the death of democratic dissent—under the false pretense of restoring “order.”
And Trump’s not hiding it. He’s preparing it.
We’ve seen this before. In June 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, millions of Americans rose up in protest. Trump didn’t respond with compassion—he called for “domination.” When the military hesitated to invoke the Insurrection Act, Trump sent federal forces to violently clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square so he could wave a Bible in front of a church. Not an ounce of remorse followed. He was angry the generals didn’t go far enough.
This time, he’s made sure they won’t hesitate.
Since returning to power, Trump has purged the Pentagon of independent thinkers. In their place? Loyalists. Pete Hegseth is now Secretary of Defense. Tulsi Gabbard runs intelligence. And J.D. Vance—Vice President—is openly on board with using military force against Americans on American soil.
Then, on March 19, those three—Vance, Gabbard, and Hegseth—staged a photo op at the southern border. Not a routine visit. Not a strategy session. A performance.
Think about it. Why would the Vice President, the head of military intelligence, and the Defense Secretary all need to go to the border together? Why make a media spectacle of it?
Because it wasn’t about the border. It was about the optics. It was about laying the emotional groundwork for invoking the Insurrection Act. They were building the narrative. “We had to act.” “We had no choice.” “The crisis was too big.”
And what comes next?
It’s June 2025. Trump goes on national TV and declares that Democratic cities are under siege by “radicals” and “illegals.” He signs the Insurrection Act order. Troops hit the streets of Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia. Protesters are arrested under “emergency provisions.” Journalists are detained. Social media accounts vanish. Immigrants are swept into detention centers. The press is told to stand down. The public is told to shut up.
And it’s all legal.
Some of you might think, “He’s bluffing. The military won’t go along. The courts will stop him.”
Really?
Were they bluffing when federal agents brutalized peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square?
Did the military refuse? No. The National Guard was deployed. Many in uniform carried out the order. It was only later that a few expressed regret—after the damage was done.
Did the courts stop January 6? No. They prosecuted rioters after the fact, but the attack happened. Congress fled. Democracy was nearly strangled live on TV.
Did they stop the family separation policy? No. Thousands of children were taken from their parents before courts intervened—long after the trauma was inflicted.
Did they stop the Muslim ban? No. The Supreme Court upheld it. Entire families were stranded or banned simply because of where they came from.
Did they stop ICE raids or CBP abuses? Rarely. A handful of rulings. A few headlines. But the system kept grinding, unchecked and cruel.
So if you’re waiting for “the system” to save us, you’re waiting for something that has already failed.
The April 20 report is coming. If it recommends using the Insurrection Act—and let’s be honest, it will—Trump will frame it as a reluctant but necessary move. He’ll say he tried everything else. He’ll claim it’s about protecting America.
But what he’s really protecting is his own authority.
This is how authoritarianism arrives: not with tanks, but with legal memos, press events, and a scared public hoping someone else will stop it.
So what do we do?
We speak now. Loudly. Forcefully.
Call your representatives and demand they investigate Trump’s January 20 order.
Push the media to report on the Insurrection Act report before it’s too late.
Demand public statements from military and intelligence leaders—now, not after.
Organize. Educate. Resist.
If you’ve never joined a protest before, this is the moment.
If you’ve never spoken up politically, this is the time.
If you’ve never thought it could happen here—it already is.
The threat isn’t coming.
It’s here.
And silence is exactly what Trump is counting on.
*Tony Pentimalli is a political analyst and commentator fighting for democracy, economic justice, and social equity. Follow him for sharp analysis and hard-hitting critiques.*
I have posted this a couple of times on Facebook. Of course we have to prepare for what is coming. These protests were the easy ones.
It won’t stay easy.
But this is how we build the ground force we will need.
Check out Joyce Vance's SubStack 'Civil Discourse' which discusses this issue - https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-insurrection-act?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=607357&post_id=153057160&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=9sm91&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The Brennan Center for Justice also has articles about this threat - https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trumps-insurrection-act-threat
Yes this! In a previous letter's comments, someone posted to call Senator Crap's office and demand a public explanation of this Executive Order and what the end game is. I called, I hope orhers did also. There is so much underhanded "crap" being done by this administration they all need to be disappeared before it's too late. My husband went to our city's Hands Off as I was am ill.
The stage is set for the insurrection act, for sure. It’s the logical progression of his power grab, and they have been testing the waters on many fronts.
Jim Stewartson has been writing about this as well:
https://www.mind-war.com/p/martial-law-on-420
"Democracy is like a builder's workshop where many hands contribute to constructing the common good. The strength of the building depends on the participation of all the craftspeople, not just the architect's initial blueprint."
(Emphasizes the collaborative effort in shaping society.)
Thank You Professor Heather Cox Richardson
Exactly. Words can describe a civil society, but the thing in itself has to be lived, by it's citizens.
Yes, JaKsaa -- synergy, community, citizening ....................
OUR LIBERTIES
Being in London yesterday and unable to attend the Hands Off protests at home, I instead visited Runnymede, the site where King John, in 1215, signed the Magna Carta, the source of our liberties. A sign at the entrance to the trail reads as follows:
“King John was an unusually cruel and corrupt king, whose punishments were swift and extreme…. King John’s reputation for cruelty did not follow him onto the battlefield, where he was as likely to free as he was to fight.”
[After describing the scene and how the barons forced the king to sign the Magna Carta, the sign concludes:] “For the first time in British history it was laid down that a Monarch—a King of Queen—should also obey the law.”
In addition to that principle, the text of the Charter itself resonates today:
[Excerpt from the British Library translation:]
“In the future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.” (Source of our Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination)
“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” (Source of our due process requirement.)
“To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.”
May the barons of today confront the king and demand that he obey the law, cease any corruption, and provide due process to all.
The Magna Carta was signed on an island in the Thames.
I hope that when Congress gets together to make trump toe the line, they do it on an island on the Potomac - and then kick him in. . .
Lol ! One of the signs today read "Project 2026; trump and musk behind bars" !
Where is OUR Projekt 2026? I ask, challenge and implore the DNC. Get on with it, or become/stay irrelevant! Ken Martin and the rest of you, listen! You are elected and appointed by us. Look and listen around you and take an organized and powerful fighting stand.
Great to learn that you were nearby, up in San Francisco! We’re in Palo Alto, but some friends were up in SF. Sent pictures. Lots of good and people realizing they are not alone, that our tribe is a huge one and the connection strengthens the activity and the resolve that we can do this! Yes, here we are… But we can do this! Thank you, Heather. Hope you’re enjoying your time out here. Granted, your home stomping ground is gorgeous. We Americans are blessed. Protecting and living by our constitution is one of the greatest blessings. We shall preserve this.
Our Constitution lays out a civil infrastructure, provided by approach it and each other in good faith. It's a seeming paradox and yet seemingly obvious that we cannot maintain liberty and justice without a commitment that is ours alone, as well as to one another. Of necessity a free society is one that differs yet collaborates.
Well said, as usual JL.
J L Graham: Like a great jazz combo . . .
YES. Pythagoras claimed that "there is music in the spacing of the spheres,", and I don't think it just gets woo-woo to see something profound in that. Einstein is supposed to have said that “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.” Emerson that "Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old well-known air through innumerable variations. Nature is full of a sublime family likeness throughout her works...".
The Periodic Chart is the ultimate scale; and fundamental formulations of physics border on the symphonic, as well as the Phylogenetic Tree, or whatever you want to call that master pattern of genealogy. It is tangible in a close attending walk in wildflower meadow.
A great jazz combo is spontaneously inventive, and collectively, they know certain rules; as does the audience. A drum solo is a particularly minimalist form of music, and yet an audience can rise to cheering a riff that is perceived as precisely "right on", yet innovates in unfamiliar ways. Jazz musicians, so far as I can tell, do that in collaboratively in tandem, in a way that excites the human soul; (whatever that may be, but I think, we experience as an essence of our beingness that eludes adequate description). Music is a part of every tribal society I am aware of (admittedly not that many) and is, I think, more core to our humanness than we fully grasp. I am sure there are lessons in music for all of us, the further into it we see, and that, at least in some sense, truth is beauty.
There are WAY more of us than them!!! THIS is what democracy looks like :-)
And yet and also there are unalienable right to which we all, even as a social minority, or even as a minority of one, deserve and retain. All for one and one for all. Solidarity in diversity. E Pluribus Unum.
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy." -- Lincoln
I was touched, as a European, by the signs that included "our allies" in the 'hands off' lists.
US allies will never be entirely the same towards the US - a future, democratic, US government will have to regain our trust and I think there will need to be more interdependence and less dependence. But a healthy new relationship starts with these small signs that there are US citizens who recognise that the damage done by Trump and his government is not only to the US itself, but to all its relationships, to world security and the world economy. On a personal level, my American friends and relatives took part and I'm all in with them. Thank you.
Don’t mistake the position of our “leaders” with the opinions of ordinary Americans, especially THESE leaders. I grew up in an area of my state full of Eastern European immigrants who came after WWI and II. Some of my friends’ grandparents still spoke Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, etc. And there were fraternal organizations for each, as well as the “Polish” Catholic Church, “Irish,” etc. (And my town was only about 6,000 people!) I value my upbringing and the variety of foods!
77 million of American voters voted for these leaders, in full knowledge of what they proposed to do, as they spoke openly about it. 74 million voted for the Democrats. The highest figure was actually the non-voters who were eligible: 90 million. A small number voted for third parties.
So 70% of American voters either chose these leaders or didn't care either way.
Can you see how that makes your allies feel about the US citizenry as a whole? That's why these protests are important. It's time to turn the tide and it's time to show the world that some of you don't accept this, and that more will join you. I know that there are some who are regretting either their vote, or having not voted.
I understand. We continually heard “oh that’s Trump being Trump “ or “I didn’t think he’d REALLY do that.” What’s particularly unfathomable is he was president once already! Because I work in and believe passionately in our election process, I had to accept the results of this one which I still can’t understand. Additionally, we have a virulently destructive Fox “News” whose attraction I can’t understand either.
Whenever I have traveled overseas, I work hard to not be the Ugly American and to ask people about themselves (because I’m genuinely curious). I only ask that in return we Americans be judged as individuals who by FAR do not agree with this madman and his enablers—one of the flaws of our system.
But a country can't be judged "as individuals" when it comes to its foreign policy - or to domestic policy, for that matter. By its nature, policy represents the collective will of the voters. Tariffs, ICE actions, the brutal shrinking of the government, the friendship with Russia: all these were campaigned on by the GOP and Trump. If citizens change their minds about them (because, for instance, they hadn't realised just how far it would all go), or believe that their government is abusing the power they gave it, then they must say so very clearly: through court cases, collective actions of civil disobedience, peaceful protests; and of course, at the ballot box. It's collective action that wins the day, though individual acts (by judges, or a senators, etc.) will rally or support that collective will.
This is only true, however, in countries that aren't fully autocratic. And preventing the slide into autocracy is also something that collective action can do, in concert with the sections of government not yet taken over by the dictatorship.
We can work only in the system we have. It’s in the nature of thinking people to watch and evaluate and then make a decision. You are seeing the public effects of those actions beginning to surge.
One thing Trump has going for him is his penchant for hyperbole. He showed it when he ran in 2016, all through 2020 and now. The zone is flooded, we are tired and we have to pick our battles. I don’t know anyone who isn’t pained at his treatment of our allies. But since he’s a perpetual victim and protects his extremely fragile self-esteem by spinning every event into a wrong committed against him, here we are.
Oh, absolutely, and that's why I support any green shoot of hopeful action I see reported!
Trump is whatever the opposite of a mensch is. Part Arturo Ui, part Ubu Roi (sometimes translated as King Turd!) and part Robert Hanssen, he encourages both his followers and his opponents to treat him differently from every other leader. Not much you can do about the True Believers, but just as everyone eventually saw that the naked emperor was without clothes, so it's worth pointing out again and again that he's naked. It's part of the reason I read this newsletter: it's clear, detailed, unhysterical, and unrelenting. Everyone should read it!
I wish we could switch over to the Aussie sytem by requiring citizens to vote. It would be a great reversal, where the US started out with only land-owning white men ‘allowed’ to vote… to then squash voter discrimination and disenfranchisement and restrictions on registration (much worse forms coming soon to your state, as Kansas has already seen under kris kobach and [all of our states] will see more [voter discrimination and disenfranchisement] under Project 2025 guidance).
In the Aussie system, failure to vote without a justifiable reason (in hospital, competence issues) is faced with… something like a parking fine. And they turn it into a weekend bbq event - how civilized is that!!!
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/world/australia/compulsory-voting.html?unlocked_article_code=1.904.6y9q.oKtcHGYFGj4Y&smid=url-share
“ Voting is a legal requirement and failure to do so comes with a penalty.
Fines range from 20 Australian dollars for missing a federal election, up to 79 Australian dollars for skipping a state poll. Voters, however, are allowed to appeal a fine and explain why they failed to participate. “I once accidentally missed a local election. I was sent a letter asking me what I didn’t vote. I wrote back, explaining I was commuting out of town for work and missed the local ads, and they didn’t fine me.” — Heather Pate from Perth, Western Australia”
I don't think they've ever entirely trusted us, Sophie. Clinton, Obama and Biden never adopted the hectoring tone of Hegseth and Vance, but they also complained occasionally about a lack of European commitment to NATO. History shows that Americans have from time to time lost interest in Europe and other continents, separated as they are by two vast oceans. Europe needs to be mindful of the burden of responsibility we always assume the US will shoulder for the protection of western society and democratic values. Europeans also need to look to their own backyards where anti-democratic parties like the National Rally, the AfD, Fidesz and Vox stubbornly persist in our political spaces. Here in the UK we have the Reform party, whose autocratic leader, Nigel Farage, has close links with MAGA Republicans.
You need to know what was actually expected of Europe. And it was never strategic independence or our own integrated European defence industry (we have country-based defence industries, and Airbus, a joint venture between several countries for civilian and defence aeronautics). What US Presidents have alway meant when they said "Europe must spend more" is "Europe must spend more on buying US-made weapons systems". Whenever we develop some of our own independently or work on more strategic independence, US presidents (including Obama and Biden) have always given that idea the cold shoulder, and worked to scupper the idea. France even had to leave the unified NATO command over this issue, until 2009.
But is that so unreasonable, Sophie? US military expenditure exceeds the combined expenditure of the next thirty highest-spending allies. They maintain around 800 overseas bases in Europe and elsewhere. France does a lot of complaining. Macron six years ago told reporters that NATO was experiencing 'brain death' over Trump's unilateral decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria but how often has France led on any military action? I can only think of one instance - Libya - and look how well that went. The US has been criticised, fairly I think, for ignoring genocides in Cambodia, Iraq and Rwanda, but what were the europeans doing when all those events were occuring?
It's entirely unreasonable on the one hand to ask us to do more for our own defence, but in fact only mean "as long as you buy American", or "as long as you don't develop your own strategic independence." Especially since 1990, but even before that it was stretching reasonableness, as the General De Gaulle believed, which is why France has an independent nuclear deterrent.
And as we've seen, since 2017 it's put us at risk of what Trump has been doing - a shakedown.
France has led many actions in Africa, especially the Sahel, where it has the largest base outside France (it also has bases in the Pacific), although there's been a pullback since 2022 after a series of Russian-sponsored coups in countries there. What a strange question. Didn't you know about Operation Barkhane?
In a military alliance like NATO, strategic independence of partners is not really a good idea. My question related to the genocides in Cambodia, Iraq and Rwanda, not the Sahel, where French involvement has largely been a relic of its brutal colonial history there, and which in any case has now finally ended.
Within NATO, of course not, although there’s no reason to privilege the US weapons industry within NATO. But NATO is not the only way European countries can or should defend ourselves. Yet every time EU countries have spoken of extending the EU competencies to defence coordination, the US has thrown a strop. And now, frankly, the desire to pay the US weapons industry more when there’s no guarantee that American systems won’t be disabled when we need them (see the stunt played on Ukraine) has turned to rejection.
Yes, I think on that we certainly can agree. It's a whole new ball-game now for europeans. I suspect that even after Trump's term in office ends there may be no way back to the status quo ante. The melting of Arctic sea ice has created a whole new set of geopolitical headaches - https://theconversation.com/us-and-russia-squabble-over-arctic-security-as-melting-ice-opens-up-shipping-routes-253493?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%204%202025%20-%203329533956&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%204%202025%20-%203329533956+CID_7af15972678befa30a429b5ccdda9a7a&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=US%20and%20Russia%20squabble%20over%20Arctic%20security%20as%20melting%20ice%20opens%20up%20shipping%20routes
Well, the American pivot from Europe started under Obama, who was popular in Europe, so it's not really a personality issue, although Trump's personality is loathed by 80% here. But there's no doubt that Obama under-reacted in 2014 (he's intelligent, so I believe it was deliberate), and that Europe should have picked up the slack against Russia at that time. Alas, Germany was led by Angela Merkel at that time, a Chancellor who was far too forgiving of Russia (although nothing as bad as her predecessor Schröder!), Hollande of France is a weasel who didn't really have the kind of leadership skills needed for a French president in a time of European crisis, and Poland was still under the boot of PiS, which started to rearm Poland, but which both hated Obama and had no interest in a Europe-wide strategy. Cameron, the PM of the UK at the time, just followed the US. He has no defence or international understanding whatsoever anyway.
The melting of the Artic Sea is making Northern Europe a geopolitical hotspot (if you forgive the pun) and our region is taking that new reality into consideration, including its defence dimensions. And the idea that the liberal and independent-minded Scandis and the Baltics, who know Russia all too well, would give Trump the benefit of the doubt in their own defence simply won't fly, especially now with the overt threat on Greenland and the bullying treatment of Ukraine. So I expect we'll do a lot more with our Canadian allies, and with Greenland, which isn't quite prepared to vote for independence but which I can see eventually in a kind of defence pact with Canada and Europe.
I think the issue - the accusations of 'freeloading' - has come partly from a misunderstanding of European cultures and histories in the USA (we aren't a monolith, any more than you are), and partly from a disinclination amongst many in Europe to take part in American war adventurism in the 1960s-70s, then again in the 2000s (apart from Afghanistan, which started off as a NATO operation; and apart from Tony Blair in Iraq). Not because we're angels, but because we did our share of war adventurism (colonial wars) before that and got clobbered. I still remember the nastiness in the US against France when it refused to participate in the invasion of Iraq. It reflects the older anger against the UK when it refused to take part in the Vietnam War. Yet these were entirely rational decisions, and in no way "freeloading".
Incidentally, I live in the UK, Sophie (and I didn't vote for Brexit - just to park that at the outset!). Strengthening political ties with Canada would be a very smart move for the EU. The Commission has long needed to beef up its foreign policy competences. I don't agree with the US accusations of freeloading. Trump's team need to be reminded that the only time Article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty has been invoked was by the US, after 9/11 and the call was answered immediately by NATO allies. Seven NATO AWACS were flown by 830 crew members of 13 nationalities to patrol and protect American skies. A second operation to deter terrorist activities on the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, dubbed “Operation Active Endeavor,” soon followed. In addition, the North Atlantic Council unanimously adopted eight measures to promote intelligence-sharing, increase security, backfill assets, and provide further support against terrorist activities.
Lol, well you know what I’m talking about, then 😄
This accusation of ‘freeloading’, which Tory politicians in the UK and far right politicians around Europe are repeating, to their shame, isn’t made in good faith. It’s part of a greater campaign of economic imperialism. We must hit back (but smartly).
Agree 100% on closer ties to Canada.
Please God, maybe we have the beginning of something after all…
Beginning we have. Now may it grow.
Yes, hmmm, grow it must or we will wither.
(Channeling my inner Yoda)
And as far as I can see the Constitution has grown to the degree that a government of, for, and by the people, is instituted among us, deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed.
Obviously that is only realized to the degree unalienable rights are universal, and to the degree that the electoral process is fully inclusive, free and fair.
When individually and collectively we strive to to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
No?
What does that really look like;
and what pretty obviously degrades that?
My thanks to everyone who showed up to protest. Millions showed up nationwide. The turnout in Chicago alone was larger than Trimp's inauguration crowd!
Now that we're all back home I suggest we write our senators & representatives to point out just how many citizens came out to make a statement.
Silence and inaction from Congress on this would be unacceptable - they owe us a response!
Thanks for protesting