In 1974, music writer Jon Landau saw a relatively unknown musician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and wrote for an alternative paper: "Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theater, I saw rock'n'roll past flash before my eyes.
You really need to take it in on streaming, preferably with a big enough screen and good sound. This thing exudes sincerity and enthusiasm, and most of all, it keeps its messages open to all Americans, challenges notwithstanding. Whatever else the Democratic Party is, the past few nights have cemented the impression for me of just how much it is the centrepiece of a broad movement in American society. Just watching it creates such an upbeat feeling, and I'm not even an American citizen. Of course, it pays to cherry pick some of the more outstanding moments, but really, I haven't seen American joy like this in a well, very long time. Obama's nomination blew my proverbial socks off. USA is such a strange, multivariant place, i just know my own preferences.
Yes! Democrats have a huge advantage in staging a show: the entire entertainment industry, with very few exceptions, is on their side. Finally, they’re putting it to good use.
I liked the disc jockey during the roll call. Also the fact that Harris was essentially doing TWO rallies at once, both to packed audiences. One ups manship to the nth degree.
Wasn't trump in front of some police station giving his speech? I knew FOX would show the empty seats before the convention started. They did not disappoint.
Love Neil Young's music and lyrics! Promptly after the closing speech last night I ran out of the room. My husband guessed that I was going to pump out Rockin' in a Free World on my guitar 🎸. Neil has dual citizenship.
True - but he was born in Toronto and got dual citizenship in 2020. It's just that so many talented Canadians had to go south to make it big in the fifties and sixties and American media don't usually acknowledge Canadian origins of big stars.
Neil Young was one of the first musician's to file legal action to stop the Fascist Diaper Rapist from using his music.....Hats of to Dems for playing the entire "Rockin in the Free World!!"...........Let Donable Lector play bullshit garbage Kid Rock all the way to prison.
RUSH are from Toronto........Steppenwolf also from Toronto...Joni Mitchell also Canadian....By the way Kamala Harris's mother was a professor at McGill in Montreal.....
Frank Loomer, yes! I have been streaming it live each day on YouTube, without the incessant commentary from newscasters, and I have to say the exuberance it has brought me has been palpable! I danced along with fellow Georgians and other states during the delegate roll call, laughed out loud and cried from the many speeches, It has been the best way for this 73 year old to take in this convention!
Agreed, I went to direct feeds to avoid the truly "incessant commentary" almost more abt them than the convention itself. Msnbc was esp awful even tho i otherwise enjoy the hosts.
I enjoyed and appreciated the brief intervals with the hosts on MSNBC. After others made comments like yours, I paid particular attention last night. Each time they appeared, it was during a brief hiatus in convention activity. As soon as a new speaker or entertainer appeared on screen, the hosts 'departed'. At no point did I feel there was "incessant commentary", and the commentary was informed by many years of experience in the politics.
Thanks Judith, I may have to renege on my comment, i guess it seemed too often when i tuned in the hosts were talking, seems like a mistaken impression. Anyway, i did enjoy the straight-through of presentations on the floor, perhaps edited to remove the quiet moments.
I am so worried for the fellow Georgians who will get bamboozled by the republicans questioning the voting process in Georgia - just listened to The Daily on this topic.....
Tamar, I am also worried, because recently three unelected, election denying officials on the State Election Board have out-voted its other two members in passing more unreasonable and outrageous revisions to Georgia’s election rules. This late in the process, these revisions are obviously intended to delay and disrupt the reporting of final counts in all precincts. It serves to further undermine voter confidence and burdens precincts. Our only recourse is to not only have a blue wave in Georgia, but a deluge to counteract the suppression tactics!
Kamala is already on it. She has a top-tier election lawyer on speed dial. The Rethuglicans aren't the only ones who can plan ahead and the Democrats have a secret weapon - they don't cook the books, stack the racks or bamboozle the ballots... they go by the book. It pays off in the long run.
Frank, when I was nervous about the Democrats' messaging in 2020, I stayed up and watched the whole 2029 DNC. This year, their messaging is right on, feeling as comfortable to me like a well worm flannel shirt. I went to sleep early and am more than satisfied with HCR's recount.
Oooooops. I'm reading your comment on the Substack app, which doesn't seem to allow me to edit my error. I take comfort in the hope that few folk will read my comment.
a LOT of cross border voyeurs, Sharon :) Much more drama "down south" than here, though... lately FB has been pushing political ads, including a Conservative one pushing "woke" garbage. I suggested they emigrate, so to speak. Im sometimes almost amazed at how much "pickup" Canadian politics get, esp on the Conservative side of things.
Hum… a personal remembrance. About 1983, I was sitting in a hotel bar next to the civic center where Bruce Springsteen was playing. Who wound up sitting next to me was non other than Bruce. At one point we looked at each other and nodded and I offered to buy him a beer. He looked at the bar table where there was already a bunch of bottles others had bought and kindy refused. That was my one moment with The Boss.
Very cool. My closest celebrity encounters were Hillary herself. I worked on her campaign and met her personally several times. Most brilliant politician ever, and tragically our country missed an epic opportunity. Her campaign was long and arduous; unlike Kamala’s and Tim’s. She’s a foreign policy wonk, and I never heard her mispronounce one foreign leader’s name. As Sec. of State perhaps our nation did benefit from her unfaltering hard work and dedication but what a prez she would have been. None of that dampens my joy for and support of Kamala and Tim. Onward Together!
In Idaho there were so few Democrats (in our very RED county) that I, my husband and son, were invited to be in the greeting line when President Clinton, Hillary and Chelsea landed at our airport heading back to D.C. from Jackson Hole. My son was dressed in his best, including a Micky Mouse tie. The VERY TALL President got down to the 8 year old's height and told him he wished he could wear a tie like that. The thrill of meeting them in person has never worn off. Their relatability and kindness never forgotten. We received photos of our meeting a few weeks later. I cannot imagine TFG EVER kneeling down to meet a child.
I saw Pete Buttigieg in a campaign in NH. I didn't get to speak with him, but my celebrity contact was with Michael J. Fox! What a great guy. I always thought I would never ask for an autograph or a picture with a celebrity, but there I was in line. He was very gracious even though he was ill.
Gary, I read this letter this am with the feeling of joy and energy and I thank Dr. Richardson for conveying that joy and energy. It is refreshing to read something positive while feeling the incentive to do whatever is possible for each of us to do. And gosh, the Ds got permission to use Neil Young's song in contrast to Rs just using it without permission and making it other than what it is.
HCR has truly been an inspiration, particularly in her Tuesday political chats on FB. She has encouraged us to "take back" the American flag from the right. As a result many of us in our postcard group now wear small American flag pins daily on our lapels or ball caps.
She has encourage us to "do what you are good at" in support of democracy. For the more outgoing, that means phone banking or canvassing. For others, it means writing letters to the editor, or ad-copy for newspapers/radio. Our artistic members design flyers to hand out at parades. Of course, we all write get-out-the-vote postcards into each election.
Back in the early 1970's my mother urged me to display the flag on the Fourth so as to not let the right wing misappropriate the emblem. I don't worship the flag as some do, nor molest it like Trump, but understand it to be a reminder of my role in the republic for which it stands.
Nope. She does a live "chat" on Facebook on Tuesdays, talking about whatever is going on, and people can send her questions while she's talking. It's pretty cool.
We have definitely reached a turning point. Whether it will be enough to fight the forces of gerrymandering, election denialism, and a partisan Supreme Court is what we'll discover in 76 days. Work, Pray, Vote.
I have loved the camera scans of the crowds with that wonderful “sea of diversity!” I did not watch any of the RNC… I wonder if their crowd was as diverse???
I bought a "Voting is My Black Job!" and a White friend here in Germany ordered one too to wear in solidarity. Voting is Everyone's Black Job! And President of the United States will be Harris' Black Job!
Complacency is our enemy.We need to get the "Yutes" to vote. College campuses need to be flooded with information on how to register and how to vote. The Democrats need their vote.
I pray you succeed in turning FL at least purple. But the dark forces behind DeSantis, Scott, Gaetz are not going to go down without a fight, supplemented by all the chicanery their captive state legislators and courts will support.
I am not just encouraging my nieces and nephews in the USA, but my daughter in Germany to Vote from Abroad. In fact, we have been spending the past two weeks writing and trying to figure out if she can get her ballot by email, even though we are in a backwards state that requires us to snail mail it back. Still, whatever it takes. I have done this by nagging them to be registered to vote where they live and go to college, or sign up for vote by mail. Then, I have asked what their voting plan is in either case. I will be giving them reminders, and I discuss the issues with them so they all stay engaged.
Yes I think we are heading for a titanic blue wave (sounds like a contradiction in terms) but and unless the Middle East erupts and Netanyahu extends his rule by avoiding prison and igniting the region and drawing in the US into a humongous new war which he is likely to do with Biden rushing more weapons to kill more Arabs and American war planes bombing Iran…Oh ya, count on the curve ball being tossed.
In that Case of that Happening... I don't see the Benefit for the USA... How many of Us want to send our precious Sons & Daughters to fight Netanyahu's War?
More Like The Fleas on the Tail... We have given the Israelis over a $150,000,000,000, and what have they done for Us? Have they ever stood aside Us on the '5-Yard Line' in any of our Foreign Endeavors? They DO however manipulate our Domestic Politics VERY WELL to their Benefit...
I hope so but I’m fighting till the end. I’m celebrating along with this convention so packed with joy by writing as many postcards as I can. Let’s win this by a landslide and not look back.
David, to use your last name, I think there has been a SEA change, with a massive blue wave building. If we turn up, this tide will turn out the evil fearmonger and his minions and reclaim the flag, the word 'patriot', and the chant 'USA!'
I think the turning point will be election day and the days that follow. If it’s a landslide, I still expect the GOP to claim it was stolen. How the country as well as the Biden administration responds to that claim will determine the fate of The Nation as deeply as the voting itself does in my opinion.
Yes, I am already preparing myself for the mess that will happen if Harris and Walz win. I pray that they do, as the alternative is truly dreadful, but I think that Election night will not be the end if we prevail then. So—we need to win in November at the ballot box, and in the courts and legislatures afterwards.
I was attending a morning webinar today (8/22) 9am PST with (EVP) Environmental Voter Project who had current & sophisticated software about the registered youth (18-30yr old) who do not participate in 5 states (AZ, PA, NC, NV and GA). It was astonishing how many polled said they would support Trump if they voted, they do not understand Project 2025, and only slightly understand voting rules (all states can vote early, by mail, vote absentee BUT they don't know this).
And many would support RFK or Progressives if they did vote. I thought I heard that RFK will ask his supporters to vote RED, cuz Trump may give RFK a job and Kamala said BLUE won't. We have our work cut out. I'm gonna sign up with ENVIRONMENTAL VOTER PROJECT to do Phone Banking.
The EVP have scripts and data research ready for volunteers.
As Democrats with Kamala and Tim leading us, we are determined to overcome and not go back because we shall overcome starting today. As our good Professor said tonight. “It is about ending the darkness, not indulging in it, and it requires the hard work of everyone who believes that we deserve the freedom to determine our own lives.”
Oh, Peace Train sounding louder. Everyone get on the Peace train. Peace Train saved this country. Cat Stevens. No doubt, he was raised by a loving and beautiful CAT LADY.
Apologies. "We Shall Overcome" is a gospel song that is associated heavily with the U.S. civil rights movement. The origins of the song are unclear; it was thought to have descended from "I'll Overcome Some Day," a hymn by Charles Albert Tindley, while the modern version of the song was first said to have been sung by tobacco workers led by Lucille Simmons during the 1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike in Charleston, South Carolina.
Another search found, "Louise Shropshire, a music minister and entrepreneur, has now been given credit for creating the iconic song, which was made famous by mid-century folk singers like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. Seeger has said he first heard the song during a strike of black tobacco workers in the 1940s, and told a musician researching the song's origins in 2006, "nobody knows exactly who wrote the original."
Shropshire's song "If My Jesus Wills," which begins with the lyrics "I'll overcome/I'll overcome/I'll overcome someday/If my Jesus wills," was written in 1942. She worked as the music minister for Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati, and wrote a number of songs for her church that went on the be sung in houses of worship across the country.
It makes me think of the Simsbury, CT, Cullman Brothers shade tobacco farm where Martin Luther King, Jr. worked at 15 years old in 1944 and later in 1947.
See Coming Out Of The Shade: Connecticut tobacco farm where MLK Jr. worked as a summer laborer will be preserved, at:
The way the workers were treated in the community had much to do with MLK's later life. I have to believe he knew of the strike and the song in the two years between his summers spent in Connecticut.
My brother and I worked a few summers in Granby and Suffield, CT shade tobacco fields (the next towns north of Simsbury), in the early 60s
Looking at Google maps, I see an encouraging sign in that the tobacco barns being preserved are only about 5/8ths of a mile from the Tobacco Valley Solar Farm. I like that kind of progress, too.
At 12 or 13 in Hartford, I erased my birth date on my birth certificate in order to work in the tobacco fields in Windsor. I was picked up by bus on Park Street as others. It lasted all of three hours when I was called in to the office and exposed having marked up my birth certificate. Fired from my first job.
Thank you for reporting on your “misspent” youth. My husband used to say “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” You probably haven’t tried again to change your birth certificate.
Yes, I had to wait until I was 14. The minimum wage was $1.00/hour, except for farm workers. We started at the farm laborer's minimum of $0.78 an hour.
I bet many of the 300,000 children the Harris/Biden administration has lost track of are now involved in child slave labor both here and abroad. No documentation showing proof of age, though that doesn’t matter. Sadly no one talks of this.
Having lived in Simsbury for 34 years, before moving on, I can attest to the fact that not only did Simsbury affect MLK, MLK had a profound impact on Simsbury. It is a pretty affluent community, but doesn't shy away from recognizing their responsibility toward people who have less, especially kids from inner city Hartford, nearby.
I am always amazed at how varied a search can be, leading you to places you never thought existed. Report back if you discover the story behind what is one of the best known songs of my 73 years.
Hakeem Jeffries was full of joy in his delivery in his spin on "Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning" ( Psalm 30:5, NASB). I haven't seen him happy and at ease for many months.
So good to hear this again --- we must not give in to negativity, but instead assert our hope and willingness to fight on until we taste and savour and enjoy the bounty of hard work and freedom!
I always look forward to the creative and enlightening ways that Dr. Richardson frames current events in a historical context, especially her final sentences, which are often humorous and/or ironic. My guess is that the Walz/Harris campaign went through proper channels to use the Neil Young song for their campaign, while Trump just claimed it without bothering to ask for permission. An apt metaphor for him personally and politically.
And likewise the DNC received permission to use the songs chosen to be played by the DJ during the roll call of states and territories on Tuesday evening.
That was the greatest roll call of the states at any convention ever. And I've seen a lot of them. Pure joy and enthusiasm from every state delegation. With a shout out to my NJ Governor Phil Murphy. You got a problem with that?
I doubt Neil Young even had the chance to say no until after the fact. Trump just takes and takes, including using campaign contributions for legal fees.
God help us. Just about everyone who is not a straight white Christian male should be running down to their town clerk's office or registrars and making sure they are all teed up to vote, in person or absentee. Here's an excerpt from your article:
In the book, Up from Conservatism, the authors advocate for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act, for politicians to conduct “deep investigations into what the gay lifestyle actually does to people”, that college and childcare be defunded and that rightwing governments “promote male-dominated industries” in order to discourage female participation in the workplace.
Vance’s endorsement of the book may raise further questions about his extremism, and that of his networks. The Guardian emailed Vance’s Senate staff and the Trump and Vance campaign with detailed questions about his appearance at the launch, but received no response.
Swift is a private person AND a brand. Worthy of a Dominion Voting Systems sized lawsuit at the very least, or I would think, some sort of legal action.
Thank you, Heather, for YOUR powerful, authentic voice that has led us through these dark times. We're stepping into the light and feeling the joy emanating from the Democratic National Convention this week. Now for the hard work of the next 75 days and electing Harris-Walz!
Wyclef Jean said it: "You know what makes America great? We’re a bunch of immigrants.” This is why my ancestors came to America, from Scotland in the 1700's and Germany in the late 1800's, who got the opportunity to read these words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” American history is, on the one hand, beautiful, and on the other hand, brutal. What we did to the indigenous population and to the people whom we imported from Africa is ugly. The war that we're now fighting against the wealthy oligarchs who control and manipulate the MAGA folks with their wedge issues (racist, misogynistic, xenophobic and homophobic individuals, along with abortion, to name a few) has the survival of democracy on the ballot. Make no mistake about it, for females and for minorities in the U.S. in particular, and the rest of us in general, this is the most important election since the founding of this nation.
We have a long way to go to face our mistakes, cruelty, neglect of our fellowmen and women as well as misusing our earth home and its resources. We can do better, we must!!! We can not just point out the wrong in our neighbor but must face our own self centeredness and lack of taking responsibility. We must "DO SOMETHING"!
Agree. With Harris and Walz in the White House and Democrats leading the House and Senate we have the realistic opportunity to Do Something Better. The alternative will leave us all soaking in the myths and false history of a wanabee. America will either serve and be served or die in a false theocracy of 2025.
" but must face our own self centeredness and lack of taking responsibility."
It seems to me that the above is the essence to foreseeable threats to our (and many other) species, and to "Liberty and Justice for All". We have all sorts of agendas an plans, but seemingly very little time for reflecting on our own true human nature, and/or our real world circumstances.
From my perspective we are, in aggregation, well supplied with "better angels", but also many "fallen" ones; as in Jekyll and Hyde; and we still have choices. Thoreau claimed that the ancestor of every action is a thought.
Anne-Louise, I worry that we are still in the crucible -- I absolutely LOVE the joy the DNC has spread these past few evenings, but we know that evil still lurks in bunkers, basements and under red hats. They will not give in to this joy.
They fear the cleansing heat, therefore its strengfh is denied them. They are using trickery and dishonesty - to survive. Yes, like lurking cockroaches, you have to be aware of their presence, and eradicate them by giving them nothing to feed on.
It could be considered another major course correction, possibly as important or second only to the course correction started with the 1854 election and running through the Civil War.
That course correction ended slavery as an assumed legitimate course of acceptable government supported abuse of human rights. It also gave us land grant colleges and a better path to educating most of our citizens to higher levels of opportunity.
Perhaps this election can be seen as a particularly crucial course correction towards the goals of our Declaration of Independence with an even greater chance to advance further given what we have learned through all our trials by fire.
Dare I compare it as critical course corrections to the upcoming Jupiter moons JUICE Probe’s 1st ever double gravity assist/slingshot course? It is carefully designed for minimal fuel use, fine course tweak/corrections, and expected to preserve the most fuel for maneuvering around the moons of Jupiter. Hopefully a space nerd's comparison to better thought out, more timely, and easier course corrections for our Democracy?
See “Today’s double gravity fly-by gives JUICE the juice to reach Jupiter” at:
An under recognized, now deceased (September 16, 2022) Dr, Michael A Minovitch developed the previously unimagined theory of gravity assisted space travel in his spare time while doing other work at JPL
Your last sentence is spot on Jim, geniuses are sprinkled all throughout the genetic pool, if everyone is given the opportunity to excel we all will be the beneficiaries. 🙏
It's a very important election. If Project 2025 is fully implemented, and with the Supreme Court as partisan as it is, there'll be no return. Applications for residency in some other country will surge (at least, I think they will and I'll be interested to see if it's accurate).
He's said it beautifully. I am a second generation immigrant, so proud. My grandpa was white Norwegian, no one has ever suspected I might not be "Americn".
So I know a great part of the angst for other migrants is their skin color.... American people need to cut that crap about migrants. Wneed to be the people if the Statue of Liberty poem to succeed in the future.
Unless you are Indigenous American, you are either descended from an immigrant or a kidnapped African (depending on your heritage, possibly both of the latter, or some mixture of all three).
Immigrant here...I know at least one complete of four. My grandfather came from Dudley, England after his mother died with ?family or friends to be with his father, my great-grandfather, that had already arrived previously.
May I just point out that those you pointed out who are in *(……..) are entitled to those beliefs…….They are not entitled to shove those beliefs down the throats of every American in order to gain power over them. (I hope I said that right)
I’m reading these comments 24 hours later, after having witnessed Kamala Harris say exactly that in her acceptance speech. This election is the most important of all time, not because we will elect the first woman president or that she is of color, but to save us from Donald and Project 2025’s destruction of our Democracy.
I'd forgotten what tears of joy feltl like until I heard Tim Walz and saw his beautiful family--his wife, son and daughter, embrace him. His son and daughter with tears in their eyes. Without IVF his daughter would not have been on that stage. It's also personal: I have a beautiful granddaughter who just began life as a college student–who would not have been able to experience this joy without IVF. Tell me once when any of you have seen tears of joy on anyone's face in the Trump family. We cannot let him win.
I have an IVF grand-daughter too. She's a wonder. Is the GOP nuts? They've surrounded themselves with strategists from the old South who want women returned to where they were before they had the vote, before they had Roe vs Wade. The same forces who have stalled the ERA for 50 years. The GOP needs a run through the car-wash of a lost election to change their despicable ways.
What a difference between this, and the glassy-eyed hysteria of the other one, hurrying to stick white patches on one ear, lifting their arms as if to the god Baal.
Aside from making sure we get a landslide -- we have to keep the Electoral College in line, to hold the Senate, reclaim the House, and keep the barking-mad MAGAts from messing with the election. That's a lot of work. Let's get it done!
We also need to be sure to elect Democrats to the House and Senate in order to create the great programs being proposed. Wish that was being emphasized more in this convention.
I so agree with you, Betsy. It pains my heart to watch my former cop cohort (MAGAts, many of them) find ways to denigrate and belittle him. He represents everything they stood for before they drank the MAGA Kool-Aide and that they now follow their "dear leaders" method of name calling and denigrating his service, his coaching experience, and just about anything else they're told to. It is heartbreaking to me to see where these comrades in arms have gotten to.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of law enforcement officers are Trumpers, probably by a 50-point margin. Law enforcement is, by and large, not in our side, to put it mildly. I admire your ability to represent the forces of decency in that community for so long.
Here’s a quote from Tim Walz’s speech at the Convention last night that gets right to this same point-“When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations — free to pollute your air and water. And banks — free to take advantage of customers.” Love how he can get right to the point.
After moving back to my native Massachusetts 37 years ago, I registered as Unenrolled. I did this so that I could reserve the ability to vote in the Republican presidential primaries, largely to register a protest vote against increasingly radical candidates (by the time we get to vote here, the decision has largely been made). This convention, however, has made me rethink this choice. There are no longer any Republicans that represent anything like an alternative to the fascist radicalism they represent. The Democratic Party, while not perfect, has shown itself in this election year to be a muscular voice of those things that make us uniquely American. I may just re-register. This convention has given me joy and hope for the first time in a long time.
Frank, I've always thought of myself as an Independent voter, but the truth of the matter is I've never found a Republican who shares my beliefs. I think though that if the parties were flipped, and the Dems had a candidate like the convicted felon, I'd vote Republican to preserve the country.
Still Independent after leaving the Republican party of ancestors when I was 50 and the same time Elizabeth Warren left to become a Democrat.
I did see some pragmatic advantage in Bill Clinton's Third way, but wanted something more liberal, eventually trying to move the "Overton Window" back towards the middle or left of center by supporting Warren and Bernie, even signing on as a Democrat that campaigned for Bernie and eventually voted for Hillary. I can appreciate having to play to the conservatives that I could still consider egalitarian conservative like the old Republicans I knew.
Some of that appreciation for Clintons:
If you watched the DNC convention and Bill Clinton's speech, you might have noticed it was slower and less forceful in tone than in his better speaking days, but still very thorough and insightful if you paid attention to the details. He is 23 days younger than me but really made me think about what sharpness I may have lost less, percentage wise, (a good thing since I never felt I had much excess sharpness to lose). Could the exact same speech been read by a younger Bill Clinton with a lot more enthusiasm to inspire with pace and youthful emotion?
How would a voice actor be able to do, reading exact copies of Bill Clinton’s speech and any of Trump’s from this year. Which would sound more rational? What would AI auto transcript do with the speeches of each?
In discussions about the seemingly worse than ever auto generated transcripts (in yesterday’s LFAA responses, we imagined what people like Arte Johnson of Laugh In, with the ability to repeat syllable by syllable the speech of anyone in the same language, would encounter trying to follow Trumps much more erratic speech this year. I also thought about the seeming switch to totally uncorrected AI attempts at auto-transcription. What I did notice is Bill Clinton stuck very closely to the text of his speech as it was provided before he spoke. Perhaps he was slower because he was so determined to avoid risking his great adlibbing ability and missing any key points.
“…Now, let’s cut to the chase: The stakes are too high and I’m too old to gild the lily. I actually turned 78 two days ago. And I’m still not quite as old as Donald Trump.
Last night we nominated Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to be the next president and vice president. Two leaders with improbable, all-American life stories that could only happen here, with careers starting in community courtrooms and classrooms. Two leaders who have spent a lifetime getting the job done.
A presidential election is a job interview for the greatest job in the world. What questions will you ask—because you’re doing the hiring. Will a president take us forward or backward? Will she give our kids a brighter future? Will she make us more united or more divided? Will we all feel heard, seen, and valued, regardless of who we voted for?
We, the people, are the employers, charged by our Constitution to hire a president to do a job that we get to redefine every four years. In effect, the American people say, “Here are our problems; solve them. Here are our opportunities; seize them. Here are our fears; ease them. Here are our dreams; help us make them come true.” A president can answer that call by leading us to work together—or dodging what needs to be done by dividing, distracting, and deceiving us...
…We should not despair about America’s divisions, because we move from happiness to heartbreak, from building and breaking to rebuilding and making. We do the best we can. Until, in God’s good time, there comes a new generation to pick up where we left off. That’s the opportunity we’re given now. To pick an extraordinary woman, clearly up to the job, who’ll bring us together and move us forward.
So, talk to your neighbors. Meet people where they are. Don’t demean them. Ask them for their help. And ask them, as Kamala still does, “How can I help you?” We’ve got a lot of hay in the barn—we just need to saddle up and ride with strength through November. If America hires Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, we will never regret it…”
What came across most strongly though was his encouraging us to really talk to all our neighbors and reach out to see the common things we can appreciate and agree upon. To me it was a reminder that he tried in 2016 to get Hillary and her campaign staff to make greater efforts in Wisconsin and other states they never wanted to set foot in, effectively alienating too many they could ill afford to ignore. It is crucial to winning the foul Electoral college votes so warped by my old party's twisted variations in winner take all rules in states they think they can win by 51%, winners take most in some states, and the rarer assignment of electoral votes proportioned to popular votes in states they know they can't win Popular votes in.
Some more personal memories of Bill Clinton and his mother. - I remember visiting my parents after they retired in Hot Springs, Arkansas, shortly after Bill Clinton had visited. Everywhere in town my dad introduced me to former classmates or others who knew him, I was amazed by their descriptions of how well he remembered so much about everyone of them, names especially, and their families. I can’t imagine another person who knew a community so well, and so many of the individuals within it.
Two or three times, I also got to meet Virginia Kelly, Bill Clinton’s mother since her Doctor’s appointments were usually right after my mother’s. She and my dad had a friendship that started well before we got there and started going with my parents to the appointments. It seemed she always came early so they had more time to talk. I knew her as a joyful person, lively and engaged in a happy life (despite what my old party operatives tried to portray her as).
Most important point to me is Bill Clinton may be old now, but he still knows what is important, even critical to making it through a tough election.
Yes, that age zinger was pretty good, but Clinton’s best line was the statisic on job creation: the US economy over the past few decades has created 51 million jobs, 50 million of which were created during Democratic administrations and only one million during Republican administrations. What should seem obvious to anyone who has followed the effects of Republican, trickle-down policies is that Republicans are bad for the economy, and Democrats are good for it.
I've just seen a news program where they said Bill Clinton's teleprompter wasn't working. I had wondered why he seemed to look at notes a lot during the speech, so that may explain the slower and more careful pace.
Looking at the prepared text version it seems he was nearly perfect (in wording if not old pace and fervor) compared to the auto generated transcript I looked at this morning to see how close it came to the prepared text.
Compare that to Trump trying to use a teleprompter to say what he didn't want to say but was advised he had to. It took him several takes to make it even half way believable in the case I remember.
I thought he was reading from text on paper, which if well done, is better, I think, than usung a teleprompter. With a teleprompter, the speaker is never quite looking at the audience. It’s hard to figure out who they are speaking to, but it’s for sure not you. With a paper text for reference, you at least know what the speaker is looking at when mot looking directly at the audience.
What a night. What a week. Love wins....and with a good sound track you can't be beaten...talk about history in the making...this turn of events will get a lot of attention for a long time. Thanks HCR...glad you are there
Thank You Anne-Louise Luccarini! I agree. When the history of this long road out of darkness and strife gets written, I believe Heather Cox-Richardson will be a prominent reason the light of truth stayed alive. She steadfastly wrote her newsletter informing us, educating us, encouraging us, and reaffirming us. She called out the gaslighting we were asphyxiated by. In short: She Kept Us Sane and Inspired. God Bless Heather Cox-Richardson and all who keep the faith in American Democracy with her!
‘…the character of the people we put into leadership will determine what that government does.’ Wonderful point. But some work needs to be done first. The citizens may elect their representatives in government, but in some cases those representatives are so heavily influenced by their corporate sponsors with their huge donations of money, that the electorate recede into the background.
Citizens United needs to be overturned. A modest cap of, say $10,000 must be put on all political donations, no matter what the source. Then we will have democracy and representative government. Move away from a culture of constant campaigning and fundraising to a culture of real representative governing. That way, the character of elected representatives would be an effective determinant of good government.
Terry, the only "citizens united" should be in the counting of votes for presidential elections: eliminate the Electoral College and count the popular vote.
Extraordinary and joyful rendition, Heather. Thank you for this. You intertwine history with the present in a way that jogs our long ancestral memories. We come back to remembering who we are.
It has been electrifying! And so very hopeful! And HCR, you have so much to do with helping this wave happen! Truly! Thank you.
Thank you Dr. Richardson for your first hand account of the DNC events. I felt like I was there as I read tonight's letter.
It is so refreshing to read something with only a solitary reference to the candidate that should not be named.
You really need to take it in on streaming, preferably with a big enough screen and good sound. This thing exudes sincerity and enthusiasm, and most of all, it keeps its messages open to all Americans, challenges notwithstanding. Whatever else the Democratic Party is, the past few nights have cemented the impression for me of just how much it is the centrepiece of a broad movement in American society. Just watching it creates such an upbeat feeling, and I'm not even an American citizen. Of course, it pays to cherry pick some of the more outstanding moments, but really, I haven't seen American joy like this in a well, very long time. Obama's nomination blew my proverbial socks off. USA is such a strange, multivariant place, i just know my own preferences.
This is the place I say - this DNC rocks....there's a new day dawning in America.... and just for the record - Neil Young is Canadian.
Yes! Democrats have a huge advantage in staging a show: the entire entertainment industry, with very few exceptions, is on their side. Finally, they’re putting it to good use.
I liked the disc jockey during the roll call. Also the fact that Harris was essentially doing TWO rallies at once, both to packed audiences. One ups manship to the nth degree.
Wasn't trump in front of some police station giving his speech? I knew FOX would show the empty seats before the convention started. They did not disappoint.
Love Neil Young's music and lyrics! Promptly after the closing speech last night I ran out of the room. My husband guessed that I was going to pump out Rockin' in a Free World on my guitar 🎸. Neil has dual citizenship.
True - but he was born in Toronto and got dual citizenship in 2020. It's just that so many talented Canadians had to go south to make it big in the fifties and sixties and American media don't usually acknowledge Canadian origins of big stars.
Neil Young was one of the first musician's to file legal action to stop the Fascist Diaper Rapist from using his music.....Hats of to Dems for playing the entire "Rockin in the Free World!!"...........Let Donable Lector play bullshit garbage Kid Rock all the way to prison.
So is Elon Musk.... but also William Shatner, Donald Sutherland, and others... wow, what a list! https://www.google.ca/search?q=hollywood+canadian+actors&newwindow=1&sca_esv=ea2cb3181ae7dcdc&sxsrf=ADLYWIKG4v1EAGCtKO5K8wiG-XY4IrAIHw%3A1724360990046&source=hp&ei=HqnHZtZL9amm1A-K9e4Y&iflsig=AL9hbdgAAAAAZse3LjvcirBHIa-r2xFItIdLT3zvw6z5&oq=Hollywood+canadian&gs_lp=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-YAwCSBwQ0LjE2oAfEjgI&sclient=gws-wiz
RUSH are from Toronto........Steppenwolf also from Toronto...Joni Mitchell also Canadian....By the way Kamala Harris's mother was a professor at McGill in Montreal.....
The Guess Who and BTO........
Elon Musk is South African, I believe. Not Canadian.
yes born, then immigrated to Canada at 18 with his Canadian born mother acquired Can citizenship. Then US.
Frank Loomer, yes! I have been streaming it live each day on YouTube, without the incessant commentary from newscasters, and I have to say the exuberance it has brought me has been palpable! I danced along with fellow Georgians and other states during the delegate roll call, laughed out loud and cried from the many speeches, It has been the best way for this 73 year old to take in this convention!
Agreed, I went to direct feeds to avoid the truly "incessant commentary" almost more abt them than the convention itself. Msnbc was esp awful even tho i otherwise enjoy the hosts.
I enjoyed and appreciated the brief intervals with the hosts on MSNBC. After others made comments like yours, I paid particular attention last night. Each time they appeared, it was during a brief hiatus in convention activity. As soon as a new speaker or entertainer appeared on screen, the hosts 'departed'. At no point did I feel there was "incessant commentary", and the commentary was informed by many years of experience in the politics.
Thanks Judith, I may have to renege on my comment, i guess it seemed too often when i tuned in the hosts were talking, seems like a mistaken impression. Anyway, i did enjoy the straight-through of presentations on the floor, perhaps edited to remove the quiet moments.
I am so worried for the fellow Georgians who will get bamboozled by the republicans questioning the voting process in Georgia - just listened to The Daily on this topic.....
Tamar, I am also worried, because recently three unelected, election denying officials on the State Election Board have out-voted its other two members in passing more unreasonable and outrageous revisions to Georgia’s election rules. This late in the process, these revisions are obviously intended to delay and disrupt the reporting of final counts in all precincts. It serves to further undermine voter confidence and burdens precincts. Our only recourse is to not only have a blue wave in Georgia, but a deluge to counteract the suppression tactics!
Kamala is already on it. She has a top-tier election lawyer on speed dial. The Rethuglicans aren't the only ones who can plan ahead and the Democrats have a secret weapon - they don't cook the books, stack the racks or bamboozle the ballots... they go by the book. It pays off in the long run.
Frank, when I was nervous about the Democrats' messaging in 2020, I stayed up and watched the whole 2029 DNC. This year, their messaging is right on, feeling as comfortable to me like a well worm flannel shirt. I went to sleep early and am more than satisfied with HCR's recount.
Jerry did you mean 2024? Hopefully, I haven't missed 5 years....I know time flies but.....help!!!!
Oooooops. I'm reading your comment on the Substack app, which doesn't seem to allow me to edit my error. I take comfort in the hope that few folk will read my comment.
I easily made the mental correction to 2024.
Thank you, Frank for your opinion! I had no idea that you were not an American citizen, friend!
a LOT of cross border voyeurs, Sharon :) Much more drama "down south" than here, though... lately FB has been pushing political ads, including a Conservative one pushing "woke" garbage. I suggested they emigrate, so to speak. Im sometimes almost amazed at how much "pickup" Canadian politics get, esp on the Conservative side of things.
Interesting re FB and political ads. I'm not seeing any on my feeds. If they're in the right-hand frame, I just tune them out.
Hum… a personal remembrance. About 1983, I was sitting in a hotel bar next to the civic center where Bruce Springsteen was playing. Who wound up sitting next to me was non other than Bruce. At one point we looked at each other and nodded and I offered to buy him a beer. He looked at the bar table where there was already a bunch of bottles others had bought and kindy refused. That was my one moment with The Boss.
Very cool. My closest celebrity encounters were Hillary herself. I worked on her campaign and met her personally several times. Most brilliant politician ever, and tragically our country missed an epic opportunity. Her campaign was long and arduous; unlike Kamala’s and Tim’s. She’s a foreign policy wonk, and I never heard her mispronounce one foreign leader’s name. As Sec. of State perhaps our nation did benefit from her unfaltering hard work and dedication but what a prez she would have been. None of that dampens my joy for and support of Kamala and Tim. Onward Together!
In Idaho there were so few Democrats (in our very RED county) that I, my husband and son, were invited to be in the greeting line when President Clinton, Hillary and Chelsea landed at our airport heading back to D.C. from Jackson Hole. My son was dressed in his best, including a Micky Mouse tie. The VERY TALL President got down to the 8 year old's height and told him he wished he could wear a tie like that. The thrill of meeting them in person has never worn off. Their relatability and kindness never forgotten. We received photos of our meeting a few weeks later. I cannot imagine TFG EVER kneeling down to meet a child.
I saw Pete Buttigieg in a campaign in NH. I didn't get to speak with him, but my celebrity contact was with Michael J. Fox! What a great guy. I always thought I would never ask for an autograph or a picture with a celebrity, but there I was in line. He was very gracious even though he was ill.
Gary, I read this letter this am with the feeling of joy and energy and I thank Dr. Richardson for conveying that joy and energy. It is refreshing to read something positive while feeling the incentive to do whatever is possible for each of us to do. And gosh, the Ds got permission to use Neil Young's song in contrast to Rs just using it without permission and making it other than what it is.
HCR has truly been an inspiration, particularly in her Tuesday political chats on FB. She has encouraged us to "take back" the American flag from the right. As a result many of us in our postcard group now wear small American flag pins daily on our lapels or ball caps.
She has encourage us to "do what you are good at" in support of democracy. For the more outgoing, that means phone banking or canvassing. For others, it means writing letters to the editor, or ad-copy for newspapers/radio. Our artistic members design flyers to hand out at parades. Of course, we all write get-out-the-vote postcards into each election.
Back in the early 1970's my mother urged me to display the flag on the Fourth so as to not let the right wing misappropriate the emblem. I don't worship the flag as some do, nor molest it like Trump, but understand it to be a reminder of my role in the republic for which it stands.
Unfortunately I work on Tuesdays, so I don't get to watch her FB chats. It did work out once, and it was really good. Of course.
We can view HCR's recorded video chats on her FB page or later on her YouTube.
https://fb.watch/u7v36aL7_-/
I think you're referring to chats that are available on YouTube. That's how I get them.
Nope. She does a live "chat" on Facebook on Tuesdays, talking about whatever is going on, and people can send her questions while she's talking. It's pretty cool.
They do end up on YouTube also, I think.
https://youtu.be/QsAm6kPUISc?si=jfvEaRWYSRT4w1c6
I often watch them on FB later. They're all right there chronologically as you scroll down her page.
So! Have we reached a turning point in this election?
We have definitely reached a turning point. Whether it will be enough to fight the forces of gerrymandering, election denialism, and a partisan Supreme Court is what we'll discover in 76 days. Work, Pray, Vote.
SWBV,
What a beautiful "sea of diversity"....what a beautiful swath of America ...."Home of the free because of the Brave"!!!!
Beautiful music, poetry, testimonies, words of encouragement!!!!
WE SHALL ALL "RISE UP!!!"
Last night was America at its best....a sampling of each and all...together as ONE!!!!
I look forward to more....not just to "take in"...not just to "receive" but to invite my neighbors and friends TO JOIN IN!!!!
I have loved the camera scans of the crowds with that wonderful “sea of diversity!” I did not watch any of the RNC… I wonder if their crowd was as diverse???
I wonder if they had the viewership for the convention that Harris had. It was said her viewership was millions more than trump's on the first night.
Work, Pray, Vote ought to be a bumper sticker! Love it!
I bought a "Voting is My Black Job!" and a White friend here in Germany ordered one too to wear in solidarity. Voting is Everyone's Black Job! And President of the United States will be Harris' Black Job!
Michelle Obama nailed that one. Well, i think it was Michelle that is! Some many great zingers which go right to be point
Yes it was Michelle who then followed it with a look only she can give to cement the statement.
Agreed...we cannot assume we have it in the bag. We have to be prepared to preempt what may be on the horizon.
Complacency is our enemy.We need to get the "Yutes" to vote. College campuses need to be flooded with information on how to register and how to vote. The Democrats need their vote.
The Obamas particularly stressed this, and not just them.
if we lose in a close race, are the democrats going to pull a trump and protest and bring it to the courts and demand recounts?
And write those postcards. TonyTheDemocrat will help us turn Florida blue!
I pray you succeed in turning FL at least purple. But the dark forces behind DeSantis, Scott, Gaetz are not going to go down without a fight, supplemented by all the chicanery their captive state legislators and courts will support.
Grandmothers for a Brighter Future sent me 50 names and addresses of women in Arizona so I can try to get votes for Ruben Gallego.
Sending 300 to Georgia. They can make all the difference!
We must not allow them to determine that, we can determine it too.
Encourage your kids to vote too
I am not just encouraging my nieces and nephews in the USA, but my daughter in Germany to Vote from Abroad. In fact, we have been spending the past two weeks writing and trying to figure out if she can get her ballot by email, even though we are in a backwards state that requires us to snail mail it back. Still, whatever it takes. I have done this by nagging them to be registered to vote where they live and go to college, or sign up for vote by mail. Then, I have asked what their voting plan is in either case. I will be giving them reminders, and I discuss the issues with them so they all stay engaged.
Well done!
She certainly can. My son in Brussels votes from there.
If we get out the millions of unregistered folk who trend Democratic, and those that failed to vote in 2020, we win.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Need help phone banking today. https://www.mobilize.us/ft6/?q=phone%20banks&tag_ids=20038
Yes I think we are heading for a titanic blue wave (sounds like a contradiction in terms) but and unless the Middle East erupts and Netanyahu extends his rule by avoiding prison and igniting the region and drawing in the US into a humongous new war which he is likely to do with Biden rushing more weapons to kill more Arabs and American war planes bombing Iran…Oh ya, count on the curve ball being tossed.
In that Case of that Happening... I don't see the Benefit for the USA... How many of Us want to send our precious Sons & Daughters to fight Netanyahu's War?
The Israelis are the case of the tail wagging the dog.
More Like The Fleas on the Tail... We have given the Israelis over a $150,000,000,000, and what have they done for Us? Have they ever stood aside Us on the '5-Yard Line' in any of our Foreign Endeavors? They DO however manipulate our Domestic Politics VERY WELL to their Benefit...
Not I!
I hope so but I’m fighting till the end. I’m celebrating along with this convention so packed with joy by writing as many postcards as I can. Let’s win this by a landslide and not look back.
Exactly - by over 10million votes…a crushing defeat that wakes people up…
Susan, yes, doing the same in Georgia!
Thank You, Susan!
David, to use your last name, I think there has been a SEA change, with a massive blue wave building. If we turn up, this tide will turn out the evil fearmonger and his minions and reclaim the flag, the word 'patriot', and the chant 'USA!'
I think the turning point will be election day and the days that follow. If it’s a landslide, I still expect the GOP to claim it was stolen. How the country as well as the Biden administration responds to that claim will determine the fate of The Nation as deeply as the voting itself does in my opinion.
Well, they claimed the LAST landslide was stolen, so ...
Also, SCOTUS might have their corrupt, unaccountable grubby fingers in a coup attempt, so we need to be mindful of that as well.
The Dems need to take back the House and like Schumer says expand the Senate.
They have laid the ground work for election denial if they lose. Just like trump said that he might lose the debate on purpose.
Yes, I am already preparing myself for the mess that will happen if Harris and Walz win. I pray that they do, as the alternative is truly dreadful, but I think that Election night will not be the end if we prevail then. So—we need to win in November at the ballot box, and in the courts and legislatures afterwards.
And let's just show much "the ship will turn"... harder the better
HCR - great history connections, thank you.
I was attending a morning webinar today (8/22) 9am PST with (EVP) Environmental Voter Project who had current & sophisticated software about the registered youth (18-30yr old) who do not participate in 5 states (AZ, PA, NC, NV and GA). It was astonishing how many polled said they would support Trump if they voted, they do not understand Project 2025, and only slightly understand voting rules (all states can vote early, by mail, vote absentee BUT they don't know this).
And many would support RFK or Progressives if they did vote. I thought I heard that RFK will ask his supporters to vote RED, cuz Trump may give RFK a job and Kamala said BLUE won't. We have our work cut out. I'm gonna sign up with ENVIRONMENTAL VOTER PROJECT to do Phone Banking.
The EVP have scripts and data research ready for volunteers.
https://www.environmentalvoter.org/about
The contrast between the two parties can’t possibly be more glaring. TRUE hope….
Yes, that's exactly right 💯💯💯
We Shall Overcome
Song by Joan Baez
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome, someday
Oh, deep in my heart
I know that I do believe
We shall overcome, someday
We shall be alright
We shall be alright
We shall be alright, someday
We shall live in peace
We shall live in peace
We shall live in peace, someday
We are not afraid
We are not afraid
We are not afraid, today
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome, someday
Oh, deep in my heart
I know that I do believe
We shall overcome, someday
As Democrats with Kamala and Tim leading us, we are determined to overcome and not go back because we shall overcome starting today. As our good Professor said tonight. “It is about ending the darkness, not indulging in it, and it requires the hard work of everyone who believes that we deserve the freedom to determine our own lives.”
Oh, Peace Train sounding louder. Everyone get on the Peace train. Peace Train saved this country. Cat Stevens. No doubt, he was raised by a loving and beautiful CAT LADY.
"Oh, baby baby its a wild world"
Great song but she didn’t write it.
Apologies. "We Shall Overcome" is a gospel song that is associated heavily with the U.S. civil rights movement. The origins of the song are unclear; it was thought to have descended from "I'll Overcome Some Day," a hymn by Charles Albert Tindley, while the modern version of the song was first said to have been sung by tobacco workers led by Lucille Simmons during the 1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike in Charleston, South Carolina.
Another search found, "Louise Shropshire, a music minister and entrepreneur, has now been given credit for creating the iconic song, which was made famous by mid-century folk singers like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. Seeger has said he first heard the song during a strike of black tobacco workers in the 1940s, and told a musician researching the song's origins in 2006, "nobody knows exactly who wrote the original."
Shropshire's song "If My Jesus Wills," which begins with the lyrics "I'll overcome/I'll overcome/I'll overcome someday/If my Jesus wills," was written in 1942. She worked as the music minister for Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati, and wrote a number of songs for her church that went on the be sung in houses of worship across the country.
Hoyt, if I'm recalling correctly Pete Seeger changed the line from "We will overcome" to "We SHALL overcome" in the early 60s.
Frank Hamilton, who sang with The Weavers told me the same thing.
Thanks Doug, I had it in my mind that Joan Baez had her own modified version but it did not come up in a quick search.
It makes me think of the Simsbury, CT, Cullman Brothers shade tobacco farm where Martin Luther King, Jr. worked at 15 years old in 1944 and later in 1947.
See Coming Out Of The Shade: Connecticut tobacco farm where MLK Jr. worked as a summer laborer will be preserved, at:
https://www.archpaper.com/2021/10/connecticut-tobacco-farm-martin-luther-king-jr-worked-will-be-preserved/
The way the workers were treated in the community had much to do with MLK's later life. I have to believe he knew of the strike and the song in the two years between his summers spent in Connecticut.
My brother and I worked a few summers in Granby and Suffield, CT shade tobacco fields (the next towns north of Simsbury), in the early 60s
Looking at Google maps, I see an encouraging sign in that the tobacco barns being preserved are only about 5/8ths of a mile from the Tobacco Valley Solar Farm. I like that kind of progress, too.
At 12 or 13 in Hartford, I erased my birth date on my birth certificate in order to work in the tobacco fields in Windsor. I was picked up by bus on Park Street as others. It lasted all of three hours when I was called in to the office and exposed having marked up my birth certificate. Fired from my first job.
Thank you for reporting on your “misspent” youth. My husband used to say “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” You probably haven’t tried again to change your birth certificate.
Yes, I had to wait until I was 14. The minimum wage was $1.00/hour, except for farm workers. We started at the farm laborer's minimum of $0.78 an hour.
I bet many of the 300,000 children the Harris/Biden administration has lost track of are now involved in child slave labor both here and abroad. No documentation showing proof of age, though that doesn’t matter. Sadly no one talks of this.
Huh? Do you mean the Trump administration and his family separation policy? Our current administration has been working to reunite those families.
Those numbers (via a PR release from the House GOP) include FY 2019 - FY 2023, so the orange felon had a hand in these "lost UC's" as well.
Having lived in Simsbury for 34 years, before moving on, I can attest to the fact that not only did Simsbury affect MLK, MLK had a profound impact on Simsbury. It is a pretty affluent community, but doesn't shy away from recognizing their responsibility toward people who have less, especially kids from inner city Hartford, nearby.
Check out Louise Shropshire - she wrote it.
Thank you.
Great historical threads - didn't know any of this. Now I'll do a little of my own digging, just for fun!
I am always amazed at how varied a search can be, leading you to places you never thought existed. Report back if you discover the story behind what is one of the best known songs of my 73 years.
I am reminded of the quote
“success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan” attributed to John F. Kennedy
But she made it very popular!
this song makes me cry
ZB, Going forward i hope it will be tears of joy.
Hakeem Jeffries was full of joy in his delivery in his spin on "Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning" ( Psalm 30:5, NASB). I haven't seen him happy and at ease for many months.
He's beautiful!!
A member of the Democrat deep bench, sitting close to the coach.
Being as I followed the works of Studs Terkel while he lived, I hear the song We Shall Overcome coming from Mahalia Jackson.
Have always loved that song - going right back to the 60s❤️
So good to hear this again --- we must not give in to negativity, but instead assert our hope and willingness to fight on until we taste and savour and enjoy the bounty of hard work and freedom!
Hear, hear!
I always look forward to the creative and enlightening ways that Dr. Richardson frames current events in a historical context, especially her final sentences, which are often humorous and/or ironic. My guess is that the Walz/Harris campaign went through proper channels to use the Neil Young song for their campaign, while Trump just claimed it without bothering to ask for permission. An apt metaphor for him personally and politically.
And likewise the DNC received permission to use the songs chosen to be played by the DJ during the roll call of states and territories on Tuesday evening.
Another example of which party has the real claim to being law abiders
Robber Barons assert the right to take whatever they fancy. Sometimes, even other countries.
That was the greatest roll call of the states at any convention ever. And I've seen a lot of them. Pure joy and enthusiasm from every state delegation. With a shout out to my NJ Governor Phil Murphy. You got a problem with that?
agree!
It's True. Young said "Yes" to the Harris Campaign. And he had said "No" to tfg's.
I doubt Neil Young even had the chance to say no until after the fact. Trump just takes and takes, including using campaign contributions for legal fees.
He'll be the gold standard of self-dealing and corruption against which other politicians are measured.
Pride before (I hope) a fall. The plutocrats now feel bold enough to say the quiet part out loud:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/22/jd-vance-speech-extremist-far-right-book
God help us. Just about everyone who is not a straight white Christian male should be running down to their town clerk's office or registrars and making sure they are all teed up to vote, in person or absentee. Here's an excerpt from your article:
In the book, Up from Conservatism, the authors advocate for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act, for politicians to conduct “deep investigations into what the gay lifestyle actually does to people”, that college and childcare be defunded and that rightwing governments “promote male-dominated industries” in order to discourage female participation in the workplace.
Vance’s endorsement of the book may raise further questions about his extremism, and that of his networks. The Guardian emailed Vance’s Senate staff and the Trump and Vance campaign with detailed questions about his appearance at the launch, but received no response.
Or his Smaug cave.
Well, how very true! Well said.
Maureen, I’m waiting for Beyonce to sue the Trump campaign for using “Freedom” without permission.
And Celine Dion, and Taylor swift.
And that Trump reshared a fake Swift endorsement saying "I accept"
Swift is a private person AND a brand. Worthy of a Dominion Voting Systems sized lawsuit at the very least, or I would think, some sort of legal action.
It seems a whole lot easier for companies to stop defamation than individuals.
Thank you, Heather, for YOUR powerful, authentic voice that has led us through these dark times. We're stepping into the light and feeling the joy emanating from the Democratic National Convention this week. Now for the hard work of the next 75 days and electing Harris-Walz!
Wyclef Jean said it: "You know what makes America great? We’re a bunch of immigrants.” This is why my ancestors came to America, from Scotland in the 1700's and Germany in the late 1800's, who got the opportunity to read these words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” American history is, on the one hand, beautiful, and on the other hand, brutal. What we did to the indigenous population and to the people whom we imported from Africa is ugly. The war that we're now fighting against the wealthy oligarchs who control and manipulate the MAGA folks with their wedge issues (racist, misogynistic, xenophobic and homophobic individuals, along with abortion, to name a few) has the survival of democracy on the ballot. Make no mistake about it, for females and for minorities in the U.S. in particular, and the rest of us in general, this is the most important election since the founding of this nation.
Richard Sutherland,
We have a long way to go to face our mistakes, cruelty, neglect of our fellowmen and women as well as misusing our earth home and its resources. We can do better, we must!!! We can not just point out the wrong in our neighbor but must face our own self centeredness and lack of taking responsibility. We must "DO SOMETHING"!
Agree. With Harris and Walz in the White House and Democrats leading the House and Senate we have the realistic opportunity to Do Something Better. The alternative will leave us all soaking in the myths and false history of a wanabee. America will either serve and be served or die in a false theocracy of 2025.
" but must face our own self centeredness and lack of taking responsibility."
It seems to me that the above is the essence to foreseeable threats to our (and many other) species, and to "Liberty and Justice for All". We have all sorts of agendas an plans, but seemingly very little time for reflecting on our own true human nature, and/or our real world circumstances.
From my perspective we are, in aggregation, well supplied with "better angels", but also many "fallen" ones; as in Jekyll and Hyde; and we still have choices. Thoreau claimed that the ancestor of every action is a thought.
In a way, it's the first one. It's taken this long for the meaning to be clear. The nation has been through the crucible.
Anne-Louise, I worry that we are still in the crucible -- I absolutely LOVE the joy the DNC has spread these past few evenings, but we know that evil still lurks in bunkers, basements and under red hats. They will not give in to this joy.
They fear the cleansing heat, therefore its strengfh is denied them. They are using trickery and dishonesty - to survive. Yes, like lurking cockroaches, you have to be aware of their presence, and eradicate them by giving them nothing to feed on.
You are right and we cannot forget that. Ever.
It could be considered another major course correction, possibly as important or second only to the course correction started with the 1854 election and running through the Civil War.
That course correction ended slavery as an assumed legitimate course of acceptable government supported abuse of human rights. It also gave us land grant colleges and a better path to educating most of our citizens to higher levels of opportunity.
Perhaps this election can be seen as a particularly crucial course correction towards the goals of our Declaration of Independence with an even greater chance to advance further given what we have learned through all our trials by fire.
Dare I compare it as critical course corrections to the upcoming Jupiter moons JUICE Probe’s 1st ever double gravity assist/slingshot course? It is carefully designed for minimal fuel use, fine course tweak/corrections, and expected to preserve the most fuel for maneuvering around the moons of Jupiter. Hopefully a space nerd's comparison to better thought out, more timely, and easier course corrections for our Democracy?
See “Today’s double gravity fly-by gives JUICE the juice to reach Jupiter” at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ni2TEbXII0
An under recognized, now deceased (September 16, 2022) Dr, Michael A Minovitch developed the previously unimagined theory of gravity assisted space travel in his spare time while doing other work at JPL
See http://www.gravityassist.com/
You never know who is going to make some of the greatest breakthroughs.
Your last sentence is spot on Jim, geniuses are sprinkled all throughout the genetic pool, if everyone is given the opportunity to excel we all will be the beneficiaries. 🙏
It's a very important election. If Project 2025 is fully implemented, and with the Supreme Court as partisan as it is, there'll be no return. Applications for residency in some other country will surge (at least, I think they will and I'll be interested to see if it's accurate).
He's said it beautifully. I am a second generation immigrant, so proud. My grandpa was white Norwegian, no one has ever suspected I might not be "Americn".
So I know a great part of the angst for other migrants is their skin color.... American people need to cut that crap about migrants. Wneed to be the people if the Statue of Liberty poem to succeed in the future.
Unless you are Indigenous American, you are either descended from an immigrant or a kidnapped African (depending on your heritage, possibly both of the latter, or some mixture of all three).
Immigrant here...I know at least one complete of four. My grandfather came from Dudley, England after his mother died with ?family or friends to be with his father, my great-grandfather, that had already arrived previously.
May I just point out that those you pointed out who are in *(……..) are entitled to those beliefs…….They are not entitled to shove those beliefs down the throats of every American in order to gain power over them. (I hope I said that right)
Thank you Richard, well said!
May I share your comment verbatim?
I’m reading these comments 24 hours later, after having witnessed Kamala Harris say exactly that in her acceptance speech. This election is the most important of all time, not because we will elect the first woman president or that she is of color, but to save us from Donald and Project 2025’s destruction of our Democracy.
I'd forgotten what tears of joy feltl like until I heard Tim Walz and saw his beautiful family--his wife, son and daughter, embrace him. His son and daughter with tears in their eyes. Without IVF his daughter would not have been on that stage. It's also personal: I have a beautiful granddaughter who just began life as a college student–who would not have been able to experience this joy without IVF. Tell me once when any of you have seen tears of joy on anyone's face in the Trump family. We cannot let him win.
I have an IVF grand-daughter too. She's a wonder. Is the GOP nuts? They've surrounded themselves with strategists from the old South who want women returned to where they were before they had the vote, before they had Roe vs Wade. The same forces who have stalled the ERA for 50 years. The GOP needs a run through the car-wash of a lost election to change their despicable ways.
Car wash or the scrap yard? Time to build a new car.
Car wash. There are still loyal GOPers like Duncan from Georgia that just need someone to vote for, not run away from
It would spoil the makeup.
You are right. Actually it I wonder whether they know how to be happy.
Actually she did not use IVF, she used IUI, let’s not spread misinformation.
OK, that does it. The circle is complete. Swiftys and Neil Young Lovers - all together now.
"Old man, take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you
I need someone to love me the whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes and you can tell that's true...
Old man, look at my life
I'm a lot like you were
Old man, look at my life
I'm a lot like you were"
Keep on rockin' in the free world!
Or The Circle Game. "We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came..."
I was thinking the same thing! (I am 70, BTW and still love the music!)
Beautiful.
Although I didn't know who Mindy Kaling is, I'm friends with a 16-year-old who "created" Nostalgia in Inside Out 2. (https://www.southsoundmag.com/arts-entertainment/inside-out-2-tacoma-riya-richardson/article_47c0c3bc-3e43-11ef-8266-13c0ef96db53.html) I'm SO happy that young people are getting excited and involved with this campaign! And I'm SO excited that there's JOY in the air, once again!!
What a difference between this, and the glassy-eyed hysteria of the other one, hurrying to stick white patches on one ear, lifting their arms as if to the god Baal.
Good grief, yes...you hit this nail on the head!!
Wonderful recap, thank you!
Aside from making sure we get a landslide -- we have to keep the Electoral College in line, to hold the Senate, reclaim the House, and keep the barking-mad MAGAts from messing with the election. That's a lot of work. Let's get it done!
Bronwyn: And then let's GET RID OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND LET ALL THE PEOPLE DECIDE AS ONE GROUP, NOT 50 SEPARATE ONES.
(Apologies for my brief rant.)
We also need to be sure to elect Democrats to the House and Senate in order to create the great programs being proposed. Wish that was being emphasized more in this convention.
The Coach is a mensch! Politics is rediscovering its roots as public service. Tears of joy, indeed!
I so agree with you, Betsy. It pains my heart to watch my former cop cohort (MAGAts, many of them) find ways to denigrate and belittle him. He represents everything they stood for before they drank the MAGA Kool-Aide and that they now follow their "dear leaders" method of name calling and denigrating his service, his coaching experience, and just about anything else they're told to. It is heartbreaking to me to see where these comrades in arms have gotten to.
Wonder how many of them got to where they are (or were?) because of a coach or a sergeant or a miracle pregnancy..... Indeed, heartbreaking.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of law enforcement officers are Trumpers, probably by a 50-point margin. Law enforcement is, by and large, not in our side, to put it mildly. I admire your ability to represent the forces of decency in that community for so long.
Here’s a quote from Tim Walz’s speech at the Convention last night that gets right to this same point-“When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations — free to pollute your air and water. And banks — free to take advantage of customers.” Love how he can get right to the point.
Freedom "to" or freedom "from"
After moving back to my native Massachusetts 37 years ago, I registered as Unenrolled. I did this so that I could reserve the ability to vote in the Republican presidential primaries, largely to register a protest vote against increasingly radical candidates (by the time we get to vote here, the decision has largely been made). This convention, however, has made me rethink this choice. There are no longer any Republicans that represent anything like an alternative to the fascist radicalism they represent. The Democratic Party, while not perfect, has shown itself in this election year to be a muscular voice of those things that make us uniquely American. I may just re-register. This convention has given me joy and hope for the first time in a long time.
Frank, I've always thought of myself as an Independent voter, but the truth of the matter is I've never found a Republican who shares my beliefs. I think though that if the parties were flipped, and the Dems had a candidate like the convicted felon, I'd vote Republican to preserve the country.
Still Independent after leaving the Republican party of ancestors when I was 50 and the same time Elizabeth Warren left to become a Democrat.
I did see some pragmatic advantage in Bill Clinton's Third way, but wanted something more liberal, eventually trying to move the "Overton Window" back towards the middle or left of center by supporting Warren and Bernie, even signing on as a Democrat that campaigned for Bernie and eventually voted for Hillary. I can appreciate having to play to the conservatives that I could still consider egalitarian conservative like the old Republicans I knew.
Some of that appreciation for Clintons:
If you watched the DNC convention and Bill Clinton's speech, you might have noticed it was slower and less forceful in tone than in his better speaking days, but still very thorough and insightful if you paid attention to the details. He is 23 days younger than me but really made me think about what sharpness I may have lost less, percentage wise, (a good thing since I never felt I had much excess sharpness to lose). Could the exact same speech been read by a younger Bill Clinton with a lot more enthusiasm to inspire with pace and youthful emotion?
How would a voice actor be able to do, reading exact copies of Bill Clinton’s speech and any of Trump’s from this year. Which would sound more rational? What would AI auto transcript do with the speeches of each?
In discussions about the seemingly worse than ever auto generated transcripts (in yesterday’s LFAA responses, we imagined what people like Arte Johnson of Laugh In, with the ability to repeat syllable by syllable the speech of anyone in the same language, would encounter trying to follow Trumps much more erratic speech this year. I also thought about the seeming switch to totally uncorrected AI attempts at auto-transcription. What I did notice is Bill Clinton stuck very closely to the text of his speech as it was provided before he spoke. Perhaps he was slower because he was so determined to avoid risking his great adlibbing ability and missing any key points.
A copy of the prepared text is at: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/bill-clinton-full-speech-text-dnc-chicago-2024/5726448/
“…Now, let’s cut to the chase: The stakes are too high and I’m too old to gild the lily. I actually turned 78 two days ago. And I’m still not quite as old as Donald Trump.
Last night we nominated Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to be the next president and vice president. Two leaders with improbable, all-American life stories that could only happen here, with careers starting in community courtrooms and classrooms. Two leaders who have spent a lifetime getting the job done.
A presidential election is a job interview for the greatest job in the world. What questions will you ask—because you’re doing the hiring. Will a president take us forward or backward? Will she give our kids a brighter future? Will she make us more united or more divided? Will we all feel heard, seen, and valued, regardless of who we voted for?
We, the people, are the employers, charged by our Constitution to hire a president to do a job that we get to redefine every four years. In effect, the American people say, “Here are our problems; solve them. Here are our opportunities; seize them. Here are our fears; ease them. Here are our dreams; help us make them come true.” A president can answer that call by leading us to work together—or dodging what needs to be done by dividing, distracting, and deceiving us...
…We should not despair about America’s divisions, because we move from happiness to heartbreak, from building and breaking to rebuilding and making. We do the best we can. Until, in God’s good time, there comes a new generation to pick up where we left off. That’s the opportunity we’re given now. To pick an extraordinary woman, clearly up to the job, who’ll bring us together and move us forward.
So, talk to your neighbors. Meet people where they are. Don’t demean them. Ask them for their help. And ask them, as Kamala still does, “How can I help you?” We’ve got a lot of hay in the barn—we just need to saddle up and ride with strength through November. If America hires Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, we will never regret it…”
What came across most strongly though was his encouraging us to really talk to all our neighbors and reach out to see the common things we can appreciate and agree upon. To me it was a reminder that he tried in 2016 to get Hillary and her campaign staff to make greater efforts in Wisconsin and other states they never wanted to set foot in, effectively alienating too many they could ill afford to ignore. It is crucial to winning the foul Electoral college votes so warped by my old party's twisted variations in winner take all rules in states they think they can win by 51%, winners take most in some states, and the rarer assignment of electoral votes proportioned to popular votes in states they know they can't win Popular votes in.
Some more personal memories of Bill Clinton and his mother. - I remember visiting my parents after they retired in Hot Springs, Arkansas, shortly after Bill Clinton had visited. Everywhere in town my dad introduced me to former classmates or others who knew him, I was amazed by their descriptions of how well he remembered so much about everyone of them, names especially, and their families. I can’t imagine another person who knew a community so well, and so many of the individuals within it.
Two or three times, I also got to meet Virginia Kelly, Bill Clinton’s mother since her Doctor’s appointments were usually right after my mother’s. She and my dad had a friendship that started well before we got there and started going with my parents to the appointments. It seemed she always came early so they had more time to talk. I knew her as a joyful person, lively and engaged in a happy life (despite what my old party operatives tried to portray her as).
Most important point to me is Bill Clinton may be old now, but he still knows what is important, even critical to making it through a tough election.
Yes, that age zinger was pretty good, but Clinton’s best line was the statisic on job creation: the US economy over the past few decades has created 51 million jobs, 50 million of which were created during Democratic administrations and only one million during Republican administrations. What should seem obvious to anyone who has followed the effects of Republican, trickle-down policies is that Republicans are bad for the economy, and Democrats are good for it.
I've just seen a news program where they said Bill Clinton's teleprompter wasn't working. I had wondered why he seemed to look at notes a lot during the speech, so that may explain the slower and more careful pace.
Looking at the prepared text version it seems he was nearly perfect (in wording if not old pace and fervor) compared to the auto generated transcript I looked at this morning to see how close it came to the prepared text.
Compare that to Trump trying to use a teleprompter to say what he didn't want to say but was advised he had to. It took him several takes to make it even half way believable in the case I remember.
I thought he was reading from text on paper, which if well done, is better, I think, than usung a teleprompter. With a teleprompter, the speaker is never quite looking at the audience. It’s hard to figure out who they are speaking to, but it’s for sure not you. With a paper text for reference, you at least know what the speaker is looking at when mot looking directly at the audience.
What a night. What a week. Love wins....and with a good sound track you can't be beaten...talk about history in the making...this turn of events will get a lot of attention for a long time. Thanks HCR...glad you are there
And I'm grateful that HCR still makes time to sit down and tell us all about it.
Thank You Anne-Louise Luccarini! I agree. When the history of this long road out of darkness and strife gets written, I believe Heather Cox-Richardson will be a prominent reason the light of truth stayed alive. She steadfastly wrote her newsletter informing us, educating us, encouraging us, and reaffirming us. She called out the gaslighting we were asphyxiated by. In short: She Kept Us Sane and Inspired. God Bless Heather Cox-Richardson and all who keep the faith in American Democracy with her!
I always have present in my inward eye, the image of her sitting by the fireside, facing
President Biden, as they warmly and respectfully confided in each other.
Napping on and off all day so I can hoot and holler all evening and night!
‘…the character of the people we put into leadership will determine what that government does.’ Wonderful point. But some work needs to be done first. The citizens may elect their representatives in government, but in some cases those representatives are so heavily influenced by their corporate sponsors with their huge donations of money, that the electorate recede into the background.
Citizens United needs to be overturned. A modest cap of, say $10,000 must be put on all political donations, no matter what the source. Then we will have democracy and representative government. Move away from a culture of constant campaigning and fundraising to a culture of real representative governing. That way, the character of elected representatives would be an effective determinant of good government.
Better yet, have federal funding for campaigns, and a much shorter window for campaigning. Harris/Walz are showing us how well that can be done.
Great Points!
Terry, the only "citizens united" should be in the counting of votes for presidential elections: eliminate the Electoral College and count the popular vote.
Ooo yes! Excellent addition to this celebration!
Fabulous recap! I can feel the enthusiasm! Great night!
Extraordinary and joyful rendition, Heather. Thank you for this. You intertwine history with the present in a way that jogs our long ancestral memories. We come back to remembering who we are.