The most striking news of the day was not that Trump has suggested he wants his image on Mt. Rushmore but rather that such an outrageous statement has garnered so little attention. That says something about his presidency. This weekend, the New York Times
For the past few months, it has been so painful as the Republicans seemed to be out-gaming the Democrats and we lamented baguettes brought to the gunfight. Now finally, I am relieved to see that much needed swift and pointed arrows are hitting their mark on trumpian bombastic rambling and lies, and the arrows are even bipartisan. Pelosi nailed it by side-stepping the expected legal challenge and instead calling trump’s executive orders “illusions,” as did Republican Sasse in calling trump’s orders “unconstitutional slop.” Great! Sasse followed up this morning by tweeting to trump, “America doesn't have kings." There's hope!
Last week, reporter Paula Reid pressed trump on his lie and single-handedly shut him down. Then reporter Dana Bash forced trump’s lackey Kudlow to back off from saying that trump’s executive order would give an unemployment check of “$1200,” as he stumbled his way to “$800,” then finally “$400.” Woman power!
May more and more people seize such moments to speak truth to power. We needed this invigorating energy!
I am a sculptor. I would, given permission to do so by the Lakota people, volunteer to carve Trump's face on a small pebble from the foot of Mt. Rushmore, that visitors to the site would be invited to kick around. The trouble is I live on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
All power to the NGA. Please, please Americans don't let him wheedle his way into power again!
This is the most hopeful post that you've made so far Heather. It seems like the beginning of the end... finally. Have we as a species finally evolved far enough to actually ignore the tiny man behind the screen?
Nice to hear that the NGA seems to be working together to turn this ship around. I look forward to more news along this line.
I have to admit that I laughed out loud when I read about Trump asking to have his face installed on Mt Rushmore. It was so absurd and such a demonstration of rampant narcissism. And it no doubt is creating a whole range of hilarity among the late-night chat shows.
It is unsurprising that these attempts at neo-Dada theater are falling on deaf and distracted ears. But it has also come far too late--the time when the tweets should have been ignored was three years ago. Media outlets, including ones I actually respect a lot, loved raising everyone's temperature with every toilet-based rambling of the Cheeto. Instead of treating them like the empty-headed musings of an intellectually-challenged child, they have been treated with all the seriousness of an Oval Office address.
However, what is really worrying me is the news of the new postmaster general's determined steps to destroy the post office. Louis Dejoy not only has millions invested in companies that are in competition with the USPS, he is also, according to an NPR report this morning, deliberately removing sorting machines from post offices to make it HARDER to distribute the mail, while at the same time refusing to pay overtime, demanding that mail not sorted in a timely manner should just pile up in the warehouses, and changing the executive structure to make it harder for postal workers to do their jobs.
If we want to talk about treason, this is its face. The purpose of this is not only to suppress and restrict the vote, but also to enrich an individual at the expense of the organization he has sworn to serve and protect. It is being directed from the White House--Dejoy is not smart enough to come up with this kind of nefarious strategy on his own. And Trump is pushing to have his wife named ambassador to Canada.
So Trump continues to act the buffoon because, like all spoiled toddlers, he just doesn't know when to stop and his handlers won't put him in time out. But his minions in the West Wing are working like the devil to do as much damage as possible before November 3rd.
This post gives some hope again. I implore the Democrats to “not snatch defeat from the “jaws of victory” as we get closer the the election. tRump has become a figurehead, it is Barr and Miller and others that we must closely watch and outmaneuver. Thank you, Professor Richardson for your always clear and concise letters.
I smiled for the first time in a long time about the news when I read about how Pelosi and Schumer refused to take the bait on these ineffective Executive Orders. Those of us who live in the tri-state area had, years ago, ceased to pay attention to Trump’s antics as a private citizen - and why so many of us were so incredulous that he was being taken seriously by others. Now, the rest of the country may be catching on, as Professor Richardson indicates. Going forward, the key is to pay attention to the minions - Barr, Mnuchin, Kudlow, Navarro and most of all, McConnell.
I wish responsible journalism and media would just stop covering his “briefings.” He is never brief and rarely says anything worthy of news coverage. He spends most of his time rambling incomprehensibly about how bad Democrats and Joe Biden are for America. He craves attention and is willing to say or do anything simply to take up air time. We all have better things to take up our time than spending time trying to parse his nonsense. Please just make the bad man go away.
I just got a long-distance call from President Lincoln. He's most awfully disturbed and curious to know how a mentally ill, narcissistic fascist (President Lincoln keeps up with the times) became POTUS. He also said that he's more than a little creeped out by trump's weird attachment to him. He said that he was there in spirit, seated in his spectacular monument's chair, when trump used him for a campaign prop. He has heard about trump's stated desire to become the fifth POTUS carved into Mount Rushmore. "I think not," he said. He is appalled by the shallow idea of that petty pretender (his words, not mine) celebrating himself at the Gettysburg National Cemetery. And he cringes every time trump speaks the words "party of Lincoln." He wondered out loud whether trump's Lincoln attachment is possible because he's dead and cannot speak truth to drivel. His final words before the call ended were these: "Please tell the people, in the name of all that's holy and precious to the United States of America, to vote blue. God bless America."
What stood out from your letter today was trump’s statement, “the Obama campaign spied on our campaign, and they've been caught, all right?.... It's probably treason. It's a horrible thing they did.... They used the intelligence agencies of our country to spy on my campaign, and they have been caught."
Barr has briefed him on the Durham investigation results and now he is preparing the ground for its release. Look at what Barr was able to accomplish with his spin-release of the Mueller report – I don’t even want to speculate on how the output of this investigation will be framed.
the notion that he will make his speech accepting the Republican nomination for his reelection either at the White House or at “The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg,
Heather, thanks for getting my morning started with a huge guffaw! Good thing I hadn't just taken a sip of my morning coffee when I read this.
Heather, I read your letters every day. I have shared them with a dozen people. I think your voice and insights are important. However; I respectfully suggest that the most striking news of the day yesterday was about the EPA lifting controls limiting the release of methane gas. Presidents ultimately come and go. Our environment is here to stay. Although we may be exhausted with tRump, our outrage at willful harm to our environment needs resurgence fueled by information and science.
Well perhaps our current "Confederate" leader is about to experience, like General Lee somewhat before him, his Appotomax. Although it is difficult to imagine at this stage Biden as General Grant or Abe Lincoln.The issue of Trump's growing "inaudibility" is indeed a very positive sign.
Trump is not alone in suffering such "dumbness" as BOJO and Macron have the same self imposed problems over on this side of the pond. Others, like the Belorussian dictator are more seriously worried about rendering all opposition "inaudible" after stealing Sunday's Presidential election
On the question of Mt Rushmore, I feel that we should follow the precedent of the toppling of "Southern Traitors" statues, dynamite the likenesses of the 4 past Presidents and return the stolen land to the Lakotas. It would represent a real sign of the nation maturing to adulthood by truly recognizing its own history. Perhaps Biden could do this to mark a new beginning after the defeat of the fascists.
It appears with 45's ebbing ability to shock and distract, his minions are busy trying to buoy his messages, while watching C-Span I was aghast at comments made by Barr that sounded like 45's talking points, and similarly the comments of a panel discussion at Liberty University (I think) as they repeated misinformation so illogical it is hard to understand how anyone can hear it and take it seriously. I love that Cuomo was elected to chair NGA since he has given better leadership of the pandemic than any of those at the federal level that should have done. If 45 were smarter he would have tapped Cuomo to lead it nationally, but instead I'm sure he'll pout and whine about this selection.
I also listened to the 8/4th Cyber Security Subcommittee session and was please to hear it sounds like they are actually accomplishing some good results, presuming their efforts don't get sabotaged by 45 or his followers before they can be put in practice.
As always, your overview of the day's news is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
He has told so many lies and made so many outrageous statements that finally, it seems that the media and the American people have begun to ignore his attention-grabbing whining, fussing and tweet-storming. Now we just need to continue to work towards getting him out of office, and supporting the USPS so that mail-in voting will still be feasible.
The contents of this letter do give more reason for hope. It's like people are finally catching on that Trump is a complete and utter fool. Most of us have known this since well before 2016 (I've despised him since the '80s...), but it is apparent now that the voices against him within the Republican party are starting to come to the fore. What is particularly alarming is that it has taken them this long to realise just how insane he really is. There are still some hold-outs, but with each new outrage and off-the-wall antic they will come around. I saw John Kasich, long an anti-Trump Republican, of Ohio on CNN last night and he announced he would be speaking at the Democratic convention. Not that many in the Trump base would deign to watch the Democrats--far from it--but it does show there are some widening cracks in the GOP wall. The man is an insult to anybody with half a brain. I still think that the bulk of these idiotic antics are devised by people around Trump, and that is what is most worrisome. They just keep him fed and burped, change his nappies, and then let him run around in his play pen. Everything he says is decided for him, with occasional off-the-cuff riffing that he does--usually involving the words "incredible", "wonderful", "unbelievable", or "beautiful". Adjectives usually employed by a 4th grader. The man is far and away too much of a mental midget to come up with this stuff on his own. It's a shame that the Office of the Presidency, along with our country, is being drug through the mud like this, but while it may take us a long time to recover, I do think there are glimmers of hope in all the doom & gloom--at least, those glimmers are what I'm living for! Slow and steady wins the race, y'all.
The next 85 days are going to be painful, as this incompetent, ignorant, malicious, mendacious, malevolent moron flails away as he screams "I do NOT have my hand in that cookie jar!" But everyone knows he does have his hands - both of them - in the cookie jar. If we can all just hang together like the BLM protesters, the Wall of Moms, the Wall of Dads and the Wall of Vets did in Portland when the little green gremlins came out each night, Trumpie's not going to be any more successful than his gremlins were.
For the past few months, it has been so painful as the Republicans seemed to be out-gaming the Democrats and we lamented baguettes brought to the gunfight. Now finally, I am relieved to see that much needed swift and pointed arrows are hitting their mark on trumpian bombastic rambling and lies, and the arrows are even bipartisan. Pelosi nailed it by side-stepping the expected legal challenge and instead calling trump’s executive orders “illusions,” as did Republican Sasse in calling trump’s orders “unconstitutional slop.” Great! Sasse followed up this morning by tweeting to trump, “America doesn't have kings." There's hope!
Last week, reporter Paula Reid pressed trump on his lie and single-handedly shut him down. Then reporter Dana Bash forced trump’s lackey Kudlow to back off from saying that trump’s executive order would give an unemployment check of “$1200,” as he stumbled his way to “$800,” then finally “$400.” Woman power!
May more and more people seize such moments to speak truth to power. We needed this invigorating energy!
I am a sculptor. I would, given permission to do so by the Lakota people, volunteer to carve Trump's face on a small pebble from the foot of Mt. Rushmore, that visitors to the site would be invited to kick around. The trouble is I live on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
All power to the NGA. Please, please Americans don't let him wheedle his way into power again!
This is the most hopeful post that you've made so far Heather. It seems like the beginning of the end... finally. Have we as a species finally evolved far enough to actually ignore the tiny man behind the screen?
Nice to hear that the NGA seems to be working together to turn this ship around. I look forward to more news along this line.
I have to admit that I laughed out loud when I read about Trump asking to have his face installed on Mt Rushmore. It was so absurd and such a demonstration of rampant narcissism. And it no doubt is creating a whole range of hilarity among the late-night chat shows.
It is unsurprising that these attempts at neo-Dada theater are falling on deaf and distracted ears. But it has also come far too late--the time when the tweets should have been ignored was three years ago. Media outlets, including ones I actually respect a lot, loved raising everyone's temperature with every toilet-based rambling of the Cheeto. Instead of treating them like the empty-headed musings of an intellectually-challenged child, they have been treated with all the seriousness of an Oval Office address.
However, what is really worrying me is the news of the new postmaster general's determined steps to destroy the post office. Louis Dejoy not only has millions invested in companies that are in competition with the USPS, he is also, according to an NPR report this morning, deliberately removing sorting machines from post offices to make it HARDER to distribute the mail, while at the same time refusing to pay overtime, demanding that mail not sorted in a timely manner should just pile up in the warehouses, and changing the executive structure to make it harder for postal workers to do their jobs.
If we want to talk about treason, this is its face. The purpose of this is not only to suppress and restrict the vote, but also to enrich an individual at the expense of the organization he has sworn to serve and protect. It is being directed from the White House--Dejoy is not smart enough to come up with this kind of nefarious strategy on his own. And Trump is pushing to have his wife named ambassador to Canada.
So Trump continues to act the buffoon because, like all spoiled toddlers, he just doesn't know when to stop and his handlers won't put him in time out. But his minions in the West Wing are working like the devil to do as much damage as possible before November 3rd.
This post gives some hope again. I implore the Democrats to “not snatch defeat from the “jaws of victory” as we get closer the the election. tRump has become a figurehead, it is Barr and Miller and others that we must closely watch and outmaneuver. Thank you, Professor Richardson for your always clear and concise letters.
I smiled for the first time in a long time about the news when I read about how Pelosi and Schumer refused to take the bait on these ineffective Executive Orders. Those of us who live in the tri-state area had, years ago, ceased to pay attention to Trump’s antics as a private citizen - and why so many of us were so incredulous that he was being taken seriously by others. Now, the rest of the country may be catching on, as Professor Richardson indicates. Going forward, the key is to pay attention to the minions - Barr, Mnuchin, Kudlow, Navarro and most of all, McConnell.
I wish responsible journalism and media would just stop covering his “briefings.” He is never brief and rarely says anything worthy of news coverage. He spends most of his time rambling incomprehensibly about how bad Democrats and Joe Biden are for America. He craves attention and is willing to say or do anything simply to take up air time. We all have better things to take up our time than spending time trying to parse his nonsense. Please just make the bad man go away.
I just got a long-distance call from President Lincoln. He's most awfully disturbed and curious to know how a mentally ill, narcissistic fascist (President Lincoln keeps up with the times) became POTUS. He also said that he's more than a little creeped out by trump's weird attachment to him. He said that he was there in spirit, seated in his spectacular monument's chair, when trump used him for a campaign prop. He has heard about trump's stated desire to become the fifth POTUS carved into Mount Rushmore. "I think not," he said. He is appalled by the shallow idea of that petty pretender (his words, not mine) celebrating himself at the Gettysburg National Cemetery. And he cringes every time trump speaks the words "party of Lincoln." He wondered out loud whether trump's Lincoln attachment is possible because he's dead and cannot speak truth to drivel. His final words before the call ended were these: "Please tell the people, in the name of all that's holy and precious to the United States of America, to vote blue. God bless America."
Thank you, Professor Richardson.
What stood out from your letter today was trump’s statement, “the Obama campaign spied on our campaign, and they've been caught, all right?.... It's probably treason. It's a horrible thing they did.... They used the intelligence agencies of our country to spy on my campaign, and they have been caught."
Barr has briefed him on the Durham investigation results and now he is preparing the ground for its release. Look at what Barr was able to accomplish with his spin-release of the Mueller report – I don’t even want to speculate on how the output of this investigation will be framed.
the notion that he will make his speech accepting the Republican nomination for his reelection either at the White House or at “The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg,
Heather, thanks for getting my morning started with a huge guffaw! Good thing I hadn't just taken a sip of my morning coffee when I read this.
Heather, I read your letters every day. I have shared them with a dozen people. I think your voice and insights are important. However; I respectfully suggest that the most striking news of the day yesterday was about the EPA lifting controls limiting the release of methane gas. Presidents ultimately come and go. Our environment is here to stay. Although we may be exhausted with tRump, our outrage at willful harm to our environment needs resurgence fueled by information and science.
Well perhaps our current "Confederate" leader is about to experience, like General Lee somewhat before him, his Appotomax. Although it is difficult to imagine at this stage Biden as General Grant or Abe Lincoln.The issue of Trump's growing "inaudibility" is indeed a very positive sign.
Trump is not alone in suffering such "dumbness" as BOJO and Macron have the same self imposed problems over on this side of the pond. Others, like the Belorussian dictator are more seriously worried about rendering all opposition "inaudible" after stealing Sunday's Presidential election
On the question of Mt Rushmore, I feel that we should follow the precedent of the toppling of "Southern Traitors" statues, dynamite the likenesses of the 4 past Presidents and return the stolen land to the Lakotas. It would represent a real sign of the nation maturing to adulthood by truly recognizing its own history. Perhaps Biden could do this to mark a new beginning after the defeat of the fascists.
It appears with 45's ebbing ability to shock and distract, his minions are busy trying to buoy his messages, while watching C-Span I was aghast at comments made by Barr that sounded like 45's talking points, and similarly the comments of a panel discussion at Liberty University (I think) as they repeated misinformation so illogical it is hard to understand how anyone can hear it and take it seriously. I love that Cuomo was elected to chair NGA since he has given better leadership of the pandemic than any of those at the federal level that should have done. If 45 were smarter he would have tapped Cuomo to lead it nationally, but instead I'm sure he'll pout and whine about this selection.
I also listened to the 8/4th Cyber Security Subcommittee session and was please to hear it sounds like they are actually accomplishing some good results, presuming their efforts don't get sabotaged by 45 or his followers before they can be put in practice.
As always, your overview of the day's news is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
He has told so many lies and made so many outrageous statements that finally, it seems that the media and the American people have begun to ignore his attention-grabbing whining, fussing and tweet-storming. Now we just need to continue to work towards getting him out of office, and supporting the USPS so that mail-in voting will still be feasible.
The contents of this letter do give more reason for hope. It's like people are finally catching on that Trump is a complete and utter fool. Most of us have known this since well before 2016 (I've despised him since the '80s...), but it is apparent now that the voices against him within the Republican party are starting to come to the fore. What is particularly alarming is that it has taken them this long to realise just how insane he really is. There are still some hold-outs, but with each new outrage and off-the-wall antic they will come around. I saw John Kasich, long an anti-Trump Republican, of Ohio on CNN last night and he announced he would be speaking at the Democratic convention. Not that many in the Trump base would deign to watch the Democrats--far from it--but it does show there are some widening cracks in the GOP wall. The man is an insult to anybody with half a brain. I still think that the bulk of these idiotic antics are devised by people around Trump, and that is what is most worrisome. They just keep him fed and burped, change his nappies, and then let him run around in his play pen. Everything he says is decided for him, with occasional off-the-cuff riffing that he does--usually involving the words "incredible", "wonderful", "unbelievable", or "beautiful". Adjectives usually employed by a 4th grader. The man is far and away too much of a mental midget to come up with this stuff on his own. It's a shame that the Office of the Presidency, along with our country, is being drug through the mud like this, but while it may take us a long time to recover, I do think there are glimmers of hope in all the doom & gloom--at least, those glimmers are what I'm living for! Slow and steady wins the race, y'all.
The next 85 days are going to be painful, as this incompetent, ignorant, malicious, mendacious, malevolent moron flails away as he screams "I do NOT have my hand in that cookie jar!" But everyone knows he does have his hands - both of them - in the cookie jar. If we can all just hang together like the BLM protesters, the Wall of Moms, the Wall of Dads and the Wall of Vets did in Portland when the little green gremlins came out each night, Trumpie's not going to be any more successful than his gremlins were.