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.
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 agree with everything you are saying except Ben Sasse. He is on the ballot in 2020 so this is all in bad faith to make sure he wins his seat. Where was his outrage when he voted to acquit trump without even asking for witnesses?
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.
Perhaps I am a "pollyanna", but I believe that the American people want to have a free and fair election. The destruction of the postal service by DeJoy, who has a clear conflict of interest with the postal system, has not been made clear to the general public. I have to ask myself "Why?" I feel like there would be a massive public outcry against this, but all I hear from the media is "crickets".
Oh, I think that most media outlets have abdicated their roles as the "fourth estate" completely. I get plenty of outcry coming through my FB feed, but it is mostly stupid petitions and superPAC begging. I don't watch TV or cable news; I read newspapers and listen to NPR mostly. And HCR of course (!) The coverage of this issue has been a drumbeat on NPR but no one else is really paying attention because the USPS isn't sexy enough for TV.
When we on medicare start missing our medications account poor delivery by the USPS there will be an outcry from the elderly! Right now I've been waiting a week for my delivery!
well said. that is how I feel as well. I read somewhere that 70-80 million people will/couild be voting by mail . Pelosi and crew will do well to find an effective way to counter Dejoy's actions than wasting their time and giving more oxygen to hallucinations of this stunted hominid who shall not be named
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.
Did you see Barr’s interview yesterday talking about the “radical left” and Black Lives Matter as terrorist groups trying to take down the country? I almost threw something at the TV.
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.
And Miller .. no doubt the driving force behind Trump’s signal that he would bar Covid pos US citizens and legal residents from reentering the US... at the Southern border. That stinks of the maniac Miller
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 can’t even listen to him anymore and as soon as he opens his mouth I either mute him or go to another channel. Luckily ABC news doesn’t cover these “briefings” so that is a safe port for me.
I love his new TV ad with the woman silently holding us signs with false statements (she looks Hispanic as if he actually cares about their plight). It has soothing music only, so I don’t have to watch it. It is good until the end when we hear him say something like “I am Donald J. tRump and I approve of these lies.”
Have you seen what the Lincoln Project did with that ad? They have different signs saying bad things about Trump with the caption “Fixed it!” See if you can google it.
The shooting incident outside the WH during the briefing prompted many stations to televise the briefing when he returned to the podium, my own local news included until they realized he had NOTHING newsworthy to offer. I find it disconcerting that so few details are emerging in the aftermath of that incident. A citizen was shot by the USSS, yet nothing. No name of the person, no update on his condition, and in an area where thousands of cell phones and security cameras capture every little detail on video, not a single clip of the incident. The saddest statement of all is that I have so little confidence in news and statements from this administration that I must consider the possibility that it might have been made up to garner attention.
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.
I don’t think he distinguishes between a campaign and an administration. He started holding rallies directly after he was inaugurated – that, and the fact that he sees no distinction between the office and himself.
The Executive branch exists to serve his whims, quirks, appetites and pocketbook. It exists to cover his considerable butt, keep him out of jail, and persecute (and prosecute, if possible) his enemies.
America elected a narcissistic tyrant and we got what we paid for. And we will continue paying for it for a long, long time.
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 most certainly is reminiscent of the Taliban's destruction of the Buddist statues but not in the way you mean. Mt Rushmore and the Black Hills were sacred to the Lakotas and the Cheyenne and the sculpter and those paying him desecrated this sacred place and destroyed its religious significance.
This was on land that, in principle, was "given" to the Lakotas in perpetuity by Treaty...thus recognizing that they are its guardian..."owner" is not a term they would recognize!
To add insult to injury they had the heads of 4 Presidents who had aided and abetted the dispossession, slaughter and degradation of the Native peoples. Just take a look at the 4 in question:
George Washington...slave owner and important land speculator who basically considered that the indians had a choice....sell their lands or face total destruction by warfare....
Thomas Jefferson...slave owner and follower of the Washington philosophy with regard to Native Americans...who believed "Indian land belong in white hands" and the removal of Indians west of the Mississippi was imperative. (Indian-country-today.com and James Rhonda's 1997 book, Thomas Jefferson and the Changing West)
Abe Lincoln and the passage of the 1862 Homestead Act which essentially gave white settlers the green flag to confiscate Indian lands.
Teddie Roosevelt and his vigorous prosecution of the infamous Dawes Act and the creation of National Parks on the lands that he could thereby "liberate" from the Native tribes. One might also consider a couple of quotes from him given in a speech in New York in January 1886 "I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.” and of course in the same speach “the most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian.” ((Indian-country-today.com). Then again I haven't even mentioned what he and his "Rough Riders" got up to in the West with the Indians before they became more respectable or his desire to see all male native Americans to have their hair cut "decently"! (letter to Superintendants of Federal Agencies)
And commemorated still every year by their descendants.
Let's not forget either the "crimes" they were charged with (complaining that they were not being given the food they were guaranteed by treaty, forcibly resisting robbers who were stealing their lands, despoiling their women and killing their children) and the 264 other accused whose sentences were commuted. The result was the expulsion of the whole Native population to reservations in Nebraska and Dakota and their reservation abolished. When the State Govenor complained to Lincoln that 38 were not enough he responded "I cannot afford to hang people for votes" (wikipedia and David Herbert Donald's 1995 book on Lincoln)
Yes, thank you for adding the rest of the story. I have great admiration for Lincoln, particularly the fact that he was almost entirely self-educated, but his record is certainly far from perfect. I have attended commemoration events on December 26 and the rage and sorrow are understandably still raw for many Native people.
He was nonetheless well ahead of his time in most repects and even with regard to Native Americans. On the one hand, he had a respect for the law which was uncommon at the time and regretted the necessity of the act but on he other hand he had a limited understanding of what the rush to the west would mean. Genocide and ruin of nature are not words he would have suffered lightly if he had had a glimpse of the human and environmental disasters his acts set in motion.
Great back up to your statement about Mount Rushmore. This detail about each of these presidents’ respective views on Native Americans shows the monument to be even more than about taking the land. It is in your face insult added to injury. This information should be printed on gigantic banners and hung around the necks of the sculptures. But let’s return the land first and let the Lakotas decide what to do about the monument—all expenses of their decision to be paid by the US government.
May I borrow this? I follow a columnist who is such a good guy and good writer, now retired from his newspaper and carrying on with a blog. He just returned from a road trip with his teenage son and gushed about Mount Rushmore. Zero mention of trump’s recent rally there. I planned to enlighten him and his platform of followers with HCR’s Letter on the topic, and this is icing on the cake.
Be my guest and i'd be delighted to hear more about your friend's blog.
In mediaeval times one punishment was called the stocks in which the culprit was chained to a wooden structure in a public place with a description of his crimes. Apart from the humiliation, the "sufferer" would be pelted with rotten fruit and vegetables. We could use your banners in that sense for certain on Mt. Rushmore. We might also consider attaching Trump to a post in Dupont Circle (where incidentaly both T. Roosevelt and William Taft both lived initially when starting in on the Washington circus) with his crimes noted around him. I'm not sure the roundabout would be big enough though but there would be plenty of place for everybody to vent their feelings about him and then to take a celebratory drink in the local taverns thereafter.
I don’t know Chris Erskine personally but have read his columns for 25 years. He writes with wry humor from the point of view of his family and is on Facebook.
A sign around one’s neck also called to mind how as Germany faced defeat at the end of WW II, when perceived defectors from the army were captured, they were hung with a sign that read “traitor” and left hanging to dissuade others from defecting. These were often young boys, as young as 10, conscripted at the end of the war in desperation.
I don’t endorse hanging or pillory. I do endorse education so as not to repeat mistakes of the past! Maybe have holograms of the 4 presidents reckoning with their misdeeds, asking for forgiveness, saying what they should have done instead.
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 agree with everything you are saying except Ben Sasse. He is on the ballot in 2020 so this is all in bad faith to make sure he wins his seat. Where was his outrage when he voted to acquit trump without even asking for witnesses?
I agree about Ben Sasse. He’s a younger, male, version of Susan Collins. I guess he’s too young to show any permanent furrowing of his brow.
And he is positioning himself for 2024.
Yup. Like Mitt Romney..No one does anything unless there is something to be gained personally
Good points about Sasse—thanks.
I wouldn’t vote for them, but do Sasse and Romney represent a loyal opposition?
Dana Bash was outstanding. Kudlow didn’t know which way to go.
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!
And a pebble would visually show Trump’s relationship to the great men carved above!
And great women not depicted !
Male presidents. Biden is laying the groundwork for first female, who is destined for greatness!
Your proposal is hilarious! And I love it!
Trying our best
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.
That is what worries me
Perhaps I am a "pollyanna", but I believe that the American people want to have a free and fair election. The destruction of the postal service by DeJoy, who has a clear conflict of interest with the postal system, has not been made clear to the general public. I have to ask myself "Why?" I feel like there would be a massive public outcry against this, but all I hear from the media is "crickets".
Oh, I think that most media outlets have abdicated their roles as the "fourth estate" completely. I get plenty of outcry coming through my FB feed, but it is mostly stupid petitions and superPAC begging. I don't watch TV or cable news; I read newspapers and listen to NPR mostly. And HCR of course (!) The coverage of this issue has been a drumbeat on NPR but no one else is really paying attention because the USPS isn't sexy enough for TV.
A sad state of affairs as this is such an important issue.
When we on medicare start missing our medications account poor delivery by the USPS there will be an outcry from the elderly! Right now I've been waiting a week for my delivery!
well said. that is how I feel as well. I read somewhere that 70-80 million people will/couild be voting by mail . Pelosi and crew will do well to find an effective way to counter Dejoy's actions than wasting their time and giving more oxygen to hallucinations of this stunted hominid who shall not be named
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.
Miller is particularly menacing and evil
Did you see Barr’s interview yesterday talking about the “radical left” and Black Lives Matter as terrorist groups trying to take down the country? I almost threw something at the TV.
Barr is a liar.
"Take down the country? No, Mr. Barr, just you."
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.
And Miller .. no doubt the driving force behind Trump’s signal that he would bar Covid pos US citizens and legal residents from reentering the US... at the Southern border. That stinks of the maniac Miller
I’ve often said that Miller has Hitler’s eyes. Oh, the irony.
He’s a psychopath.
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 can’t even listen to him anymore and as soon as he opens his mouth I either mute him or go to another channel. Luckily ABC news doesn’t cover these “briefings” so that is a safe port for me.
I love his new TV ad with the woman silently holding us signs with false statements (she looks Hispanic as if he actually cares about their plight). It has soothing music only, so I don’t have to watch it. It is good until the end when we hear him say something like “I am Donald J. tRump and I approve of these lies.”
Have you seen what the Lincoln Project did with that ad? They have different signs saying bad things about Trump with the caption “Fixed it!” See if you can google it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4UX8bQGly4
Thanks!!
Me, too!
The shooting incident outside the WH during the briefing prompted many stations to televise the briefing when he returned to the podium, my own local news included until they realized he had NOTHING newsworthy to offer. I find it disconcerting that so few details are emerging in the aftermath of that incident. A citizen was shot by the USSS, yet nothing. No name of the person, no update on his condition, and in an area where thousands of cell phones and security cameras capture every little detail on video, not a single clip of the incident. The saddest statement of all is that I have so little confidence in news and statements from this administration that I must consider the possibility that it might have been made up to garner attention.
Amen
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."
👍
Just LOVE this!!
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.
I'm confused. Obama wasn't even campaigning in 2016, so how did "the Obama campaign" spy on the Trump campaign?
Also, Barr is a political operative, not an attorney general, and he should be removed.
Nice catch, Cathy.
I don’t think he distinguishes between a campaign and an administration. He started holding rallies directly after he was inaugurated – that, and the fact that he sees no distinction between the office and himself.
The Executive branch exists to serve his whims, quirks, appetites and pocketbook. It exists to cover his considerable butt, keep him out of jail, and persecute (and prosecute, if possible) his enemies.
America elected a narcissistic tyrant and we got what we paid for. And we will continue paying for it for a long, long time.
But I would argue: America didn't "elect" him. He lost the popular vote by some three-million votes.
Americans may not have - but America did. And until the rules are changed, it could happen again.
Wisconsin's FAKE senator, Ron Johnson, is contributing his energies to this proposition. He is such a disgrace.
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.
He really does see himself in that delusional light. He’s a maniac. Heather why has no one suggested invoking the 25th? If not now.. when?
I think because the cabinets members are profiting from his continued manipulation.
Yes. I’m sure that is true. Chao for instance.. w the” grim reaper” feasts like a buzzard over the dead carcass of democracy .
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.
It says something important when it isn’t even hardly mentioned in the news cycle. 😳
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.
I am surprised at your last paragraph. It is reminiscent of the destruction of Buddhist statues by the Taliban.
It most certainly is reminiscent of the Taliban's destruction of the Buddist statues but not in the way you mean. Mt Rushmore and the Black Hills were sacred to the Lakotas and the Cheyenne and the sculpter and those paying him desecrated this sacred place and destroyed its religious significance.
This was on land that, in principle, was "given" to the Lakotas in perpetuity by Treaty...thus recognizing that they are its guardian..."owner" is not a term they would recognize!
To add insult to injury they had the heads of 4 Presidents who had aided and abetted the dispossession, slaughter and degradation of the Native peoples. Just take a look at the 4 in question:
George Washington...slave owner and important land speculator who basically considered that the indians had a choice....sell their lands or face total destruction by warfare....
Thomas Jefferson...slave owner and follower of the Washington philosophy with regard to Native Americans...who believed "Indian land belong in white hands" and the removal of Indians west of the Mississippi was imperative. (Indian-country-today.com and James Rhonda's 1997 book, Thomas Jefferson and the Changing West)
Abe Lincoln and the passage of the 1862 Homestead Act which essentially gave white settlers the green flag to confiscate Indian lands.
Teddie Roosevelt and his vigorous prosecution of the infamous Dawes Act and the creation of National Parks on the lands that he could thereby "liberate" from the Native tribes. One might also consider a couple of quotes from him given in a speech in New York in January 1886 "I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.” and of course in the same speach “the most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian.” ((Indian-country-today.com). Then again I haven't even mentioned what he and his "Rough Riders" got up to in the West with the Indians before they became more respectable or his desire to see all male native Americans to have their hair cut "decently"! (letter to Superintendants of Federal Agencies)
Also, Lincoln ordered the mass hanging of 38 Dakota men on Dec. 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota - the largest mass execution in U.S. history.
And commemorated still every year by their descendants.
Let's not forget either the "crimes" they were charged with (complaining that they were not being given the food they were guaranteed by treaty, forcibly resisting robbers who were stealing their lands, despoiling their women and killing their children) and the 264 other accused whose sentences were commuted. The result was the expulsion of the whole Native population to reservations in Nebraska and Dakota and their reservation abolished. When the State Govenor complained to Lincoln that 38 were not enough he responded "I cannot afford to hang people for votes" (wikipedia and David Herbert Donald's 1995 book on Lincoln)
Yes, thank you for adding the rest of the story. I have great admiration for Lincoln, particularly the fact that he was almost entirely self-educated, but his record is certainly far from perfect. I have attended commemoration events on December 26 and the rage and sorrow are understandably still raw for many Native people.
He was nonetheless well ahead of his time in most repects and even with regard to Native Americans. On the one hand, he had a respect for the law which was uncommon at the time and regretted the necessity of the act but on he other hand he had a limited understanding of what the rush to the west would mean. Genocide and ruin of nature are not words he would have suffered lightly if he had had a glimpse of the human and environmental disasters his acts set in motion.
Great back up to your statement about Mount Rushmore. This detail about each of these presidents’ respective views on Native Americans shows the monument to be even more than about taking the land. It is in your face insult added to injury. This information should be printed on gigantic banners and hung around the necks of the sculptures. But let’s return the land first and let the Lakotas decide what to do about the monument—all expenses of their decision to be paid by the US government.
May I borrow this? I follow a columnist who is such a good guy and good writer, now retired from his newspaper and carrying on with a blog. He just returned from a road trip with his teenage son and gushed about Mount Rushmore. Zero mention of trump’s recent rally there. I planned to enlighten him and his platform of followers with HCR’s Letter on the topic, and this is icing on the cake.
Be my guest and i'd be delighted to hear more about your friend's blog.
In mediaeval times one punishment was called the stocks in which the culprit was chained to a wooden structure in a public place with a description of his crimes. Apart from the humiliation, the "sufferer" would be pelted with rotten fruit and vegetables. We could use your banners in that sense for certain on Mt. Rushmore. We might also consider attaching Trump to a post in Dupont Circle (where incidentaly both T. Roosevelt and William Taft both lived initially when starting in on the Washington circus) with his crimes noted around him. I'm not sure the roundabout would be big enough though but there would be plenty of place for everybody to vent their feelings about him and then to take a celebratory drink in the local taverns thereafter.
I don’t know Chris Erskine personally but have read his columns for 25 years. He writes with wry humor from the point of view of his family and is on Facebook.
A sign around one’s neck also called to mind how as Germany faced defeat at the end of WW II, when perceived defectors from the army were captured, they were hung with a sign that read “traitor” and left hanging to dissuade others from defecting. These were often young boys, as young as 10, conscripted at the end of the war in desperation.
I don’t endorse hanging or pillory. I do endorse education so as not to repeat mistakes of the past! Maybe have holograms of the 4 presidents reckoning with their misdeeds, asking for forgiveness, saying what they should have done instead.
Many thanks! I'll check out his work
This is tragic. Criminal behavior . Our country is steeped in white supremacy
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.