682 Comments

And without gerrymandering and now, changing election laws and rules, and the electoral college, we know and they know, they would never be elected. That criminal Paxton in Texas should share a cell with Defendant Trump… I can’t bear this.

Expand full comment

Carla, yes you can bear this. You can make phone calls and send texts and write postcards and donate. You can talk to people about 2025, just one point at a time. I talk about my grandkids who need clean air and water. People agree. We can do this together.

Let me tell you a story. At the gas station today, I met Tim Walz. I pulled in on the wrong side of the pump, and as I get back into the car to do a three-point turn, a man came over to me and, very gently, urged me to put my seatbelt on. When I explained that I was just turning around, he started back to his car. Then I got back out of my car and thanked him for caring about my safety. And he smiled and said, "We have to take care of each other. We're just one community." Wow! Tim Walz is alive and well all over the country, including at a gas station on Cape Cod.

Sleep well, friends, and wake up in the morning ready to fight and win.

Expand full comment

Oh man, Betsy…that’s one great story!! I am surprised you didn’t give him a big hug!

Expand full comment

Because Tim is alive in each of us, we just might see him elected VP? You betcha!

Expand full comment

Complete sidebar re: you betcha: I went through a fast food drive up the other day (in Oregon). At the completion of the order, and my agreement to "round up and add a dollar for community food banks", the order taker said "thank y'all". I said "you betcha". When I got to the window we shared a good laugh over the personal colloquialisms we had shared.

Expand full comment

Fred, I like that we are all part of one another and the kindness of a stranger does make a difference and is not petty or ridiculous, but what life really is about. It's something we all can participate in. It feels so much better than trying to live with the negativity.

Expand full comment

Here's one thing anyone with spare money can do, and a second thing everyone can do. The first is donate to an initiative headed by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, editor and contributor to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (2017). The initiative is an all-day Washington conference intended to expose the dangers of a second Trump presidency presented from a psychiatric perspective. The second is to simply pay attention to the September 24 conference.

Here's the link: https://bandylee.com/

Expand full comment

Thank you fir the info & link!

Expand full comment

Partner with FT 6.

https://www.fieldteam6.org/

Expand full comment

I just finished writing 50 postcards to my home state and I am happy, proud, and excited. Today I signed up for another 50. Field Team 6 made it easy. Feel the hope! Join us! https://www.fieldteam6.org/

Expand full comment

Our Dem Women's Club had 2 events this past week. The watch party where we wrote postcards and watched from 6-9 30. 2ndly Sunday from 4-6 at another locally owned restaurant. A total of close to 100 people showed up and we wrote 2500 postcards! And we'll have another party to finish up the last batch and still have packs of 20 that people took home to write till we finish the total of 7000 we'll mail. It's so thrilling and hope-inspiring!

Expand full comment

This is so encouraging, Sandra. Thanks and let's keep going. Yippee!

Expand full comment

Way to go Sandra.

Expand full comment

I have 200 postcards to send to 8 states other than my own We can do this!

Expand full comment

Me too! I got the addresses from Postcards to Swing States. FAQ: turnoutpac.org/postcards-faq The handwritten postcards are due to be mailed Oct. 24. Plenty of time to do 200! Like I said, Yippee!

Expand full comment

Dee, yes, that's what community is, sharing the good news of a movement that can make a positive difference for everyone, not just those involved.

Expand full comment

I admire your persistence and it does influence me.

Expand full comment

Thanks so much for the link.

Expand full comment

Fantastic interview on MeidasTouch with Heather Cox Richardson!!!!! (12 hours ago)

An hour plus worth every second!!!!! Politics Girl puts it all on the line!!!! WOW!!

Trump THROWN OFF Course by BIGGEST Kamala Event | PoliticsGirl

Expand full comment

I agree. Awesome and insightful interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY_8fbEvxqo.

Expand full comment

Margaret, thanks for the link!

Expand full comment

Thank you, a must watch! She speaks so coherently and cogently.

Expand full comment

It’s a damn scary wake up call.

Expand full comment

WJB, thanks for the heads up! Did you find out about it ahead of time?

Expand full comment

Meidas Touch...Stephanie Miller.....John Fuglesang make up my standard everyday media update. I cancelled my cable 5 years ago

Expand full comment

Wow! What an incredible episode. PoliticsGirl and HCR are a force. Not shy to say what's at stake but also full of hope.

Expand full comment

Yesterday afternoon when I was getting back into my car at the grocery store, a woman saw all my Dem bumper stickers and yelled "Go Kamala" and I turned around to see her smile her thumbs up! YES WE CAN!

Expand full comment

Coach - he inspires and on a daily basis reminds us how we should all aspire being.

Expand full comment

Right on Betsy!

Expand full comment

Betsy, what a wonderful story to start my day! Thank you for sharing this “Mr. Rogers” story. That man was definitely one of “the helpers” that he told us to look for.

Expand full comment

What a great attitude. I hear it's catching on quickly. Not going back!

Expand full comment

Magamandering has replaced gerrymander in the dictionary since maga is more synonymous with malicious meddling and tinkering with democracy. The term gerrymandering is a portmanteau of a salamander and Elbridge Gerry,[a][5] Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a mythological salamander. The term has negative connotations, and gerrymandering is almost always considered a corruption of the democratic process.

Expand full comment

Trump claimed out loud that if more people voted "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again".

Expand full comment

MAKE IT SO!!!

Expand full comment

He stoled that quote from Eugene Debs over 20 or 30 years ago.

Expand full comment

One of the few times he was right.

Expand full comment

From his mouth to heaven’s ears.

Expand full comment

He stoled that quote from Eugene Debs over 20 or 30 years ago

Expand full comment

As someone who has often pointed out, that tRump speaks the truth, except it is exactly the opposite of the truth. Every once in a while he will drop a pearl like the one you quoted. Here is one other of his very rare pearls: "People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you."

Expand full comment

So that's where it came from! Thank you.

Expand full comment

I live in Australia which is one of the few countries that has compulsory voting. Voting is a duty we discharge to maintain the health of our democracy. Compulsory jury service is also such a duty. I would be interested to know whether compulsory voting has ever been seriously debated in the US.

Expand full comment

Mark, ask and receive. I speed read but have marked it for more in-depth later. Great question and I get further enlightenment. A bit lengthy, but informative https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-137/compulsory-votings-american-history/

Conclusion

Compulsory voting may not yet be on the horizon. But the recent wave of advocacy has given the issue a greater spotlight than it has had in a century. Amid this momentum, we have much to learn from exploring compulsory voting’s overlooked American history. From the colonies to the Progressive Era to the twenty-first century, Americans have seriously considered making voting a duty of citizenship. That history helps illuminate the depth of democratic creativity in our Progressive past. And, given our crises of democracy today, that past should push us to keep reviving this powerful policy today.

Expand full comment

Hoyt, thanks for the illuminating reference. It is instructive to read the arguments deployed historically for and against compulsory voting in light of the circumstances in 2024. The fundamental question remains unchanged: Is voting a "privilege" or is it a "duty". The exercise of a "privilege" cannot be compelled. The discharge of a duty can be compelled.

Expand full comment

Thank you, Hoyt. I will read this with much interest. Compulsory voting may suppress voter suppression.

Expand full comment

My only concern Mark is that unfortunately many potential voters do not have the capacity for making voting decisions and the information they use to make their decision on who to vote for will be disastrous. Compulsory voting may leave us with more trumps in our future.

Expand full comment

Hoyt, it is worth considering that around 75-80 million eligible citizens did not vote in the 2020 presidential election. If it is likely that the majority of those citizens would have the capacity to make informed voting decisions, compulsory voting may leave us with less Trumps in the future. A complex issue to be sure, but a debate worth having.

Expand full comment

Jury duty was compulsory when I lived in California, although you could ask to be excused under certain circumstances. I was called every single year, and couldn’t figure it out (originally from Canada, so only had to actually go to jury duty after I got citizenship). I finally asked someone and they told me it was because people simply don’t show up. You can be charged with contempt of court if you don’t show up, but apparently people know the courts are too busy to chase them. I was taught growing up that it was my responsibility to vote, and to show up if you were called to jury duty. I never did have to be seated on a jury, but came close a couple of times.

Expand full comment

I finally reminded the court when I was 75 and received a jury summons that I was too old. And the court apologized.

Expand full comment

Our ancestors were good friends of U.S. Grant (actually Hiram Ulysses Grant until West Point got his name wrong), and passed on the story of his first vote for President. He said he voted for Buchanan because he didn't know him, and against Fremont (the first Republican candidate for President), because he did know him.

Expand full comment

Not sure, but think jury duty, until business interests intervened, was also compulsory in the US. Certainly it was as recently as the 1970’s. I was called perhaps four times in five years.

Expand full comment

Every Canadian citizen can be called as a prospective juror. You have to show up but you can be excused for a number of reasonable reasons - you are disabled in a way the duty would impose a hardship, you care for someone who needs care, you have vacation reservations (you have to show your tickets), you have a profession which may cause a conflict of interest (such as journalism), or the granddaddy excuse - that you are biased and would not be able to be objective. Also, if the court runs short of prospective jurors, the Sheriff can go out on the street and find random people and they have to come to court and if you don't have a valid reason and both the defence and Crown have no objection, then, by gum, you're a juror.

Expand full comment

At least in Georgia, jury duty is compulsory. The state compensates jury members at a $15/hour rate and failure to appear can result in a fine, although I don't know how often it's enforced. Compulsory voting? 'Sounds interesting and since whether someone voted is a matter of public record here, it could lead to some curious questions for candidates: "Mr. Candidate, isn't it true that you illegally failed to vote in four elections over the last 10 years?"

Expand full comment

Gerrymandering, whether mainly the fault of Republicans, has been countered by Democrats to a fair degree I've read, and just didn't start the other day. Here's a Wiki on it, maybe not the best, but opinions suggest it's become a bit of a mixed bag. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Gerrymandering_in_the_United_States#Democracy

Expand full comment

Unfortunately we can either sit back and let them go all out fascist or we can counter in heavily blue states to insure this does not happen. And yes, both parties had been doing it for years but to the degree and the addition of undermining a semi-democratic system has weighted the electoral college on top of magamandering to the point that we may need ten million more votes this time to win.

Expand full comment

Given a Harris/Congress win, USA needs major electoral reform, incl esp gerrymandering. I believe that's on the Harris policy ticket. Internationally, US is rated as an "imperfect democracy".

Expand full comment

But just heavily blue states has little punch. The Dems could win by ten million votes but it is only the electoral college that matters - sadly and wrongly.

Expand full comment

Hoyt, I’d like to see a national law passed that Congressional district maps and state district Representative and Senate maps have to be drawn by an impartial (equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans) committee hired by the state.

Expand full comment

See how California selected the 2020 Commisisoners at https://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/about-us/

Expand full comment

Mary, I believe some states, not sure who have a more even handed approach to this process. Republican legislatures and courts have of course perverted that process and we know the repugs are not willing to say impartial much less act on the possibility of that occurring. This is why we can not have nice things. Honestly.

Expand full comment

I agree gerrymandering has been used, or abused, by both sides. It is the picking of voters by the professional politicians.

Expand full comment

Stay the course and stay strong. I can see trouble ahead.

Expand full comment

Me too. It’s going to be ugly.

Expand full comment

Carla: it will also be glorious because a national wave of voter registrations by understandably proud Black populations in NC, GA, and even FL already have been, and will be, will be registering to vote and voting in spectacular numbers, as well as in the battleground states! At the same time, massive numbers of Republican women as well as Democratic and Independent women each will be registering and voting to protect reproductive rights and to elect Democrats up and down the ballot who make it possible! Younger voters in record numbers are already starting the process!

Everyone: please play your part in this glorious process as a volunteer, or as a generous contributor to www.TurnUp.US which is leading the way in 23 “truly competitive” Congressional Districts and four key Senate elections as a nonpartisan taxdeductible defender of abortion and our Democracy!

Expand full comment

I was reading an article in the Bulwark this morning about how the Harris campaign is redefining what it means to be masculine

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/kamala-harris-wants-to-redefine-masculinity-and-demolish-trumps?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

and they mentioned DL Hugely's speech. Here is a link to that speech.

https://youtu.be/oF3LcW9QDHA?si=xOBuWZXH7eSToTbY

I noticed in the beginning that he mentions the AKA's which is the Black sorority that Harris belongs to. I looked up their membership, which is 360,000, and I am sure this year all of them are going to be working tirelessly to get out the vote for Harris. https://aka1908.com/membership/

However, getting people registered to vote is just part of the whole equation. Showing them how to vote is just as important. The Democratic party is well advised to get a ballot and make an ad that shows how to vote from planning in the time, what the poll hours are, what your rights are, and the different methods of how you vote, and then how to fill it out. They can make versions for each state. As a lifelong teacher, I guarantee that this is the final piece in getting the youth vote out. I have 4 Gen Zers that I am supporting in voting this fall. Not easy. One just graduated college, one is working on his PhD, one is an undergraduate in a city away from home, and one is voting from Germany where she is going to University, through Democrats Abroad. All of them need support. I recommend everyone take a Gen Zer under your wing and offer them support to vote, starting with them checking whether they are registered, and then checking what their voting plan in on voting day. If it is complicated, they should get a mail in ballot. Then, check with them around the time of your state sending them out, and then check that they have filled it in, and posted it. Many really need this level of support. I think voting numbers will go up if there is help like this.

Expand full comment

Absolutely right, Linda. Even here in Australia, where voting is compulsory, and everything is very clear and above board, party campaigners send out dummies of the ballots showing exactly how to fill them out.

Expand full comment

And Anne-Louise, planning in the time is a problem too. For example, since US has elections during the school and work week, unlike Germany where I am living now, my nephew had classes until 6 pm, polls were open until 7 and it would take him 2 hours to get to where he was registered at his parents house, because he had moved a week before and had not reregisted where he votes. When that happened, it illustrated for me how much organization, and extra effort it is to vote in person when you do not plan out how to do it.

Expand full comment

My partner (who is ex-USA) told me that the day of voting is "High Ritual" - and as a result is unchangeable - here in Australia, Saturdays are always voting days - and schools are the usual polling locations. Sausage sizzles at the venue are mandatory!

Expand full comment

For those in the U.S., Joyce Vance had her five questions with Laura Brill, CEO of the Civics Center, on how to register young voters:

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/five-questions-with-laura-brill-how

https://www.thecivicscenter.org/

Expand full comment

Yes. I read that one and commented much like I am now.

Expand full comment

That was excellent! Morning, Lynell!

Expand full comment

Lynell, thanks for the link! I’d missed it.

Expand full comment

This is excellent. For decades, Democrat success has always depended on "getting out the vote".

Expand full comment

given the use of social media vs paper or tv ads, I'd say have multiple influencers (am I the only one put off by this moniker) produce a tik tok video and share widely.

Expand full comment

Thank you for the link. It is very important we reassure the white guys following t that they won’t be ignore. Their real, sometimes out of ignorance, fears need to be listened to and addresses. Don’t know how many will get it but we must try. Very pleased Kamala and Tim are campaigning in Georgia.

Expand full comment

Thank you for gifting this, Linda!

Expand full comment

Thank you, Linda! Good idea. I will be in touch with grandchild and his wife and be sure they know all they need to know. Meanwhile writing postcards, learning the counties of Florida through TonyTheDemocrat!

Expand full comment

Thank you… yes, it will be a beautiful thing in the end… I could do without the mayhem in the middle

Expand full comment

Female voters over all are going to be a force like no other in 2024. And nicely, Kamala as stimulated a wave of younger voters who overall lean Democrat I believe.

Expand full comment

Carla, my sister lives in rural Michigan not far from Lansing. Her weekends, she says, are filled with distant machine gun fire. That has her worried sick about the anniversary of January 6.

My experience in Florida has been the opposite. In 2020, Trump flags were everywhere. In 2024, they have all but disappeared.

The pendulum swing of Barack Obama was met with the surprisingly forceful swing to Trump. When Harris wins, we must set our eyes on 2028 and 2032 to blunt the kickback that follows progress.

Complacency was the dropped ball of the Obama years. The calls to “be confident but not complacent” are wise and encouraging.

Expand full comment

Seeing the years 2028 and 2032 in print hit home and I'm all for scenarios and visualizations so I'll fall back on a metaphor of being in a rocking canoe. Tipping one way and another before balancing toward forward movement is a process happening in time. I'm setting my sights on staying in balance in elongated time, gliding with skill, humans, and nature together. Can we stay there for a decade or two while we streamline?

Expand full comment

Streamline and pull together!

Expand full comment

Indeed! My focus is 11/5. On 11/6, I'll start rocketing toward 2032.

Expand full comment

Shawn, I'm in Florida also and see the same swing while seeing more and more Harris/Walz signs and bumper stickers.

A sign supporting the indicted scammer has become an embarrassment for all but the most deluded among us, poor souls that they are.

If anyone gets a pardon, it should be they as without the Fairness Doctrine in place Fox and selfish politicians have been allowed to scare the bejesus out of them all.

Expand full comment

Ralph, I highly recommend the substack Decoding Fox News. It's a snapshot of what Fox watchers watch. Once you see the world through their eyes, the delusions they believe make sense https://open.substack.com/pub/decodingfoxnews?r=4j5a4&utm_medium=ios

Expand full comment

I was so excited when we drove past a house in our Fl neighborhood yesterday and saw another Harris/Walz sign so yelled out to the guy in the yard…”I Love Your Sign!” My hubby,” That was the Amazon delivery guy.” 🤣

So now we have two H/W signs in my peninsula community of nearly 800 and more Trump signs going up every day.Yesterday it was the pink Women For Trump…sigh.Although I truly don’t despair because it actually fires me up to GOTV! Of course, while wearing my new Harris/Walz t.

Please join our lonely Harris/Walz signs! 🪧🇺🇸

Expand full comment

Yesterday I noticed Trump signs in front of two different businesses. Bad idea, guys. I will take my dollars elsewhere.

Expand full comment

Ellen, business owners who are smart don't put up political signs. Also a lot of people avoid businesses like Hobby Lobby and Chik-Fil-A. I also assume, based on experience, that many small businesses are R. I once had a conversation with the man who had just done our floors. First, he attacked public employees and I told him he had just finished floors for two public employees. Then he attacked public education and I informed him that one of us was a public school educator. Then it was the ACLU and I wanted to tell him we were members, but I was fed up talking to him.

Expand full comment

Excellent points

Expand full comment

Well said Shawn.

Expand full comment

Thanks. The ricochet from Obama to Trump has scarred me. Fortunately scars are life lessons that never leave you.

Expand full comment

But we will fight and when we fight We Win!

Expand full comment

Linda, following your lead and agree on providing a level of support for GenZ. I’ve taken on my nephew and niece, one works full-time while attending college, the other is a teen-age mom, also working full-time.Both are living on their own so life gets complicated.Frequent contact,providing links by text and encouraging VBM,recruiting older nephew to assist sister,

and sharing Fl political news that directly affects them. My nephew is getting fired up and wants to be more involved. So proud when he recently sent ME a link for actions to take on DeSantis’ recent stealth plan to develop state parks!

Expand full comment

The DeSantis plan for Florida State Parks needs to be condemned far and wide. It is so appalling as to be almost unbelievable—except that we know DeSantis.

Expand full comment

Gerrymandering, stacking & diluting has been defeated in several important States where fair districts have been drawn such as 2 new non-racist minority voter controlled districts in Georgia, fairly drawn districts in Michigan, blue districts in North Carolina turning bright blue based on hard 2020 data like Durham NC & the NC 'Triangle' strongly-for-Biden, plus the data supplied by HCR. Prodemocracy, strong movements are growing fast, including young people, women voters & others.

We have a new political landscapes folks -- ready for a lot of hard work. Harris & Walz opportunities abound through 11/5/2024.

Go for it!

Expand full comment

I’d love a bill where AI could “Fair-Mander—every district to be 50/50 so every politician had to earn their victory. (I like Dems’ chances in 100% of those races.)

Add to that federally funded elections, a 3-month campaigning season, and overturn Citizens United and a lot of issues would be fixed. The arc of history would whip toward justice.

Expand full comment

I wish we could just elect a President by popular vote. Period. The fact that a vote in less populated areas counts more than one from a city drives me crazy.

Expand full comment

Only election anywhere where the one who gets the most votes loses.

Expand full comment

That's what's nice about ranked choice voting. In 2016 if we had had ranked choice voting, Hillary would have probably won since Jill Stein had more than enough votes to get Hillary over 50%. And even with the electoral college instead of the popular vote Hillary would have taken PA, WI and MI. That would have been enough for her to win.

Expand full comment

Anything would be an improvement over current system. Easily manipulated and outright bought.

Expand full comment

Laurie, without a constitutional amendment, the best that we can do is a form of the 270 Compact, in which each each state awards their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote.

Expand full comment

More info on that which you would share Mary ?

Expand full comment

Fair-mander, let’s go for it. Agree with you 209%

Expand full comment

209%! Such a specific sum. I love the enthusiasm 1027%

Expand full comment

I have to give credit to auto-fill. It gets creative sometimes. Probably like AI. One never knows what to give or take credit for, or who to blame. I just didn’t correct when I saw it. Thanks for the humor.

Expand full comment

I'll never forget the author of my economics textbooks quote, "The stock market has predicted 9 of the last 5 recessions."

See https://www.azquotes.com/author/12933-Paul_Samuelson#google_vignette

Some new to me:

"Good Questions outrank easy answers"

"Every good cause is worth some inefficiency."

Expand full comment

Shawn, love your words. 🎯 I will use "Fair-Mander" . That is a good one as in 'Fairmandering' Congressional Districts. 👍🏻

Expand full comment

Absolutely Shawn. Your thought/solution priorities mirror mine. Great ideas friend ! 🎯

Expand full comment

While the Constitution allows the states to figure out how to go about voting, one would think that even unintentional voter suppression would be seen as knife in the heart of the most fundamental axioms of the republic.

Expand full comment

MAGAs don’t really like the fundamental axioms on which the Republic was founded as expanded by various Amendments to the founding document, the Constitution. Most prefer the country as it was before, say, 1845.

Expand full comment

One would think … I suspect they’re too busy hating to think.

Expand full comment

I have read that Trump's strategy is not to win the popular vote, which sucks for his party members who are running, but to win the electoral college. Let us work on defeating that plan. Since it is the plan that counts. For Harris both count.

Expand full comment

I think he may have given up on the electoral college and is proceeding to election interference and fraud. Next step, violence.

Expand full comment

That is clearly a large part of the plan. Gerrymandering is how his MAGA Project 2025 implementing colleagues are helping him.

Expand full comment

I like our friends idea to make it personal and call it "magamandering" or perhaps alternatively "gopmandering."

Expand full comment

All the above, they will leave no evil stone unturned.

Expand full comment

Hence the welcome for Kennedy - hope that he'll swing the balance and win the Electoral College. He'd better not. This is like Russian roulette.

Expand full comment

Yes, and the MAGAs would not know how to play fair if it hit them on the head. So, they are losing people who are tired of being with losers, who can only win by stealing. Popularity counts, even though I am reading in the Guardian this morning they are going after Walz like the bully boys they are. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/27/trump-supporters-attack-tim-walz-campaign-military-coaching-background?utm_term=66cdb1b2d51a97680e025d6bce83b4b6&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email

Nothing about policy though, other than claims that Kamala's policy makes her a Marxist. Wonder what old Karl would have to say about that.

Expand full comment

I keep seeing media calls for Harris to lay out her policy plans...but absolutely no calls for tfg to do the same (since he is publicly disavowing Project 2025, which clearly contains his intentions and policies).

Expand full comment

There a great You-Tube video that "highlights" CFDT's attempt at giving an intellectual speech (as he called it). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90C5rZPTy5g

This is from Comedy Central and is very funny in my opinion.

Expand full comment

Gary-Thanks for the laugh about Trump’s intellectual speech. I can’t believe that people really want him to be America’s leader.

Expand full comment

I needed that this morning!!!

Expand full comment

Gary, thanks for the link!

Expand full comment

That link inspired me to look at more of the 2025 related stuff while also considering the impact and counter arguments about what the plans are for Civil Service in light of the book, "The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience" I'm currently reading. Besides Chapter 9 - Motherhood and all the issues that led to so many women dying in childbirth, it describes her becoming the executive secretary of the Maternity Center Association and helped reduce the maternal death rate by 60 percent in the areas they were able to reach. That to me can be compared to the cruel fight to return to the pre-Roe days, the health risks to women and the economic consequences of the lack of principled care for women (briefly implied to be a primary issue, abortion, in today's LFAA).

I was tickled by her response to Al Smith who had hired her without realizing she wasn't a Democrat. She told him she, then nearly 40, wasn't allowed to vote so why should she join a party.

The following is what I sent to conservative friends on what I consider another very important threat related to their plans:

Preliminary, perhaps imperfect notes on the Frances Perkins biography I'm currently reading.

A couple of takes on Project 2025 and Trump’s avoidance of it (from the Daily show and then Wall Street Journal).

My own immediate interest was in the gutting of Civil Service that started with Lincoln’s difficulties in finding honest agent appointees based on abilities and free of undo control by politicians.

The Civil Service Commission didn’t get started until the Grant administration and was unfunded after two years but revived under the following Presidents before Chester Artur got the Pendleton Act passed. “The Pendleton law required certain applicants to take the civil service exam in order to be given certain jobs; it also prevented elected officials and political appointees from firing civil servants, removing civil servants from the influences of political patronage and partisan behavior”

It was not always as effective as it should have been, but it did manage to keep a lot more dedicated, experienced and capable people in most jobs that could be otherwise be replaced at the whim of corrupt officials.

In “The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience,” I found out a lot of favorable information about Al Smith, and some of the weakness of Hebert Hoover (whom I’d always had a greater appreciation of). Joe Galloway told me his parents helped him form a better appreciation for Al Smith,

[This is a faulty memory, it was actually Alf Landon, whom Joe Galloway met some years later]

which I never understood until I read about how he gave Frances Perkins one of the most important opportunities in her life, leading eventually to her appointment by FDR to be Secretary of Labor for 12 years.

She found the department neglected by Hoover and corrupt. AN NYC policeman told her gangsters had gotten control of the agency and were using their enforcement powers to shake down frightened newcomers. “They were raiding private parties and arresting those in attendance, including foreigners lawfully in the country, threatening to deport them if they did not pay fines.” “Top department officials knew about their activities and were either taking a cut of the profits or looking the other way.”

I believe she understood corruption, but like Al Smith, was more interested in the correcting the dysfunction that caused the most damage. One quick fix was rotating inspectors so it was harder for dishonest ones to collude with those they were inspecting.

It sheds new light for me to reevaluate my previous beliefs (and understand why Joe Galloway thought differently from me about them). We seemed very much in agreement on other issues as I appreciated him being more like Ernie Pyle in looking at the views of the common soldiers.

Harry Truman knew she had personal issues with her mentally challenged husband’s care and appointed her to the Civil Service Commission. Though not in the book as far as I have read, I appreciate her contributions in getting honest and competent hiring practices as well as protection for Civil Servants from those who don’t want any but personal or party loyalists retained. I suspect a big unmentioned part of that is an intention to eliminate as many Black or other minorities as possible.

The two takes, one biting revelatory comedy, and the other more traditional, more financial issues perspective.

Project 2025 Leaks Reveal Trump Connection, While He Continues to Play Dumb -| The Daily Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-jvD0SgPY

Watch from 3:24 to 4:09

Perhaps someone can identify the unidentified speaker in those 45 seconds for me.

From the transcript:

[Unidentified speaker]

“…But they won't just hire anyone.

If you've been convicted of a crime, you will not be serving in the federal government.

Crimes, such as fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion, show a lack of moral character…”

[Desi Lydic]

“Yeah, we'd hate to have fraudsters and tax evaders work for the Trump administration, go on”

[Unidentified speaker]

“To obtain employment in government, it is not favorable if you have accumulated debt and filed for bankruptcy.”

[Desi Lydic]

“You might want to run this up the chain to the boss, because it's starting to feel personal, no tax evasion, no bankruptcies, no weird hairstyles, no one who had a cameo in Home Alone 2.”z

Of course watching the whole thing will also enable you to see the Hillsdale ads interspersed in and around it. Same as with the more serious Wall Street Journal take on Project 2025 at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y16SZhZJHkI

Expand full comment

That is what I just read in the Guardian. Which is why I read somewhere recently that it was brilliant in Kamala's speech that she pointed out that Trump was silly but the effects of his behavior are serious and dangerous, to get around people saying not to take him seriously. Trump cannot disavow Project 2025 if you read it. It has made for Trump written all over it. Trump as puppet to the fascists at the Heritage Foundation while his Chief of Staff acts as gatekeeper and policy enforcer. However Tech Bros want to also run the White House through Trump as their proxy president. That is why Vance is supposed to use Article 25 to call Trump unfit and then take his place. That would be a fine mess like Ronald Reagan was, who at least had governed a State although I don't think he did a good job, but others do. He certainly messed us up, but Trump will do more. Anyway, we should all be writing to anyone we see calling for this without calling for it from Trump too.

Expand full comment

The longer it's been since Reagan was in office, the bleaker his legacy. His tax cuts for the rich sent the deficit skyrocketing. And perhaps even worse was breaking the air traffic controllers union and allowing mergers of large corporations with other corporations in the same field. Competition is good as are small agile innovative start-ups. Check out Food Inc 2 which outlines the anti-competitive large corporations like Walmart, Tyson, Perdue, Kellogg's, etc.

Expand full comment

Linda, I'm not *unconvinced that both parties "stretch" reality and fair-play.

Expand full comment

Today, the NYT reported that years ago RFK Jr’s daughter reported that her father sawed off the head of a dead whale and strapped it to the family’s minivan. An environmental group is now calling for an investigation. This guy is just weird. A perfect addition to the group of Trump endorsers.

Expand full comment

Bear it we must, although it hurts my soul like nothing else. My country looking like pre-war Germany in more ways than I can count. It’s hard to laugh at the insane weirdness of the cult repubs, but we must mock, resist, donate what we can, and work our tails off. Wish the MSM would help but it’s on us. For my kids and yours. And sadly, for the world…

Expand full comment

JD, I visited Germany for the first time in 2012. As I walked through a timeline set up in a museum, I was struck by the similarities in 1930 Germany and 2012 USA. It has only gotten worse in the last 10 years.

Expand full comment

I started noticing it when Obama was reelected. My s-I-l spoke at her church with such venom. Lost any respect I had for her. I just thought that the number of haters was way lower than became obvious when chump reared his phony putrid self and the cult became loud and proud.

Expand full comment

You can't bear this Carla, BUT, WE can bear this. You are not alone! You are an important part of a WE now. Take a break, take a walk, breathe. The law of impermanence insures that this crazy-maker parasite trump will be going through more rough times ahead. Far more. We will succeed at ridding ourselves of this dangerous menace so long as we remain a WE !

Expand full comment

Vote. Tell your kids to vote. Tell your friends' kids to register to vote. Paxton and Abbot and Cruz and Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk will sometime pass from the front pages. They'll be shown the door. Voted out, removed or impeached. Paxton can go to jail. Texas's fever dreams will abate.

Expand full comment

My Millennial nephew just moved in with us. He's getting his documentation in place to change his ID to his current address so he can register to vote in our county.

Auntie has been relentless in prodding him.

Expand full comment

Good for you!

Expand full comment

Thank you Auntie ! (- ;

Expand full comment

Are you sure…

Expand full comment

Well - - TX is the 2nd most populous state with 30 mio residents. They aren't all MAGA. Gerrymandering, RedMap, those connivances have distorted representation.

Expand full comment

So true, but I have had first hand experience in rural areas since early 60’s. The shift has been seismic, started in 1994 with Rove’s bull Schittery with W. I’m surrounded by purple now, but red is all around. Albeit a corruption of a beautiful color. Hope Rove pays for his treachery…

Expand full comment

Ambition unchanged. Tom Delay hugely helped things along. Now you've got Cruz, Abbott and Paxton. I believe the world will tire of these self serving charlatans.

Expand full comment

Even waiting for much Of my long life, they just seem to metastasize

Expand full comment

Both Paxton and TUMP should be put under a prison along with all of the other vermin under there. There are some very horrible people in the Domestic Terrorist Party, formerly the GQP. It's truly sickening that these corrupt criminals are even being allowed to run for any political office!

Expand full comment

Stagger breathe, Carla. Let us carry the line while you catch your breath, and come back in when you can. The line stays strong when we help each other out.

Expand full comment

My oldest (who lives in TX) and I (who lives in IN) have had to be back and forth with involvement due to health issues caused by stress… this is ridiculous. Generally, I am empathetic and would prefer to assist, but I’m just OVER these unintelligent, hateful people. How dare they inflict this toxic scourge on the rest of us!? Trying to keep my eyes on the light beyond the slog through 💩 that will be the challenge of this election… up to the swearing in of President Harris.

Expand full comment

What's 'stagger breathe Ally ? Btw, I've not heard from you in a bit..

Expand full comment

LOCK’em UP !

Expand full comment

Paxton, the one who knows all about women's health and overturned an abortion verdict. Abbott is no winner either.

Expand full comment

It is horrible. But Betsy is right.

Hold yourself in resolve, and let's do this thing.

Expand full comment
Aug 28Liked by Heather Cox Richardson

I know we are not supposed to be able to understand tRumpf supporters, but I can't help myself. How on earth does someone look at those trading cards and think "oh my goodness, this gentleman would make a great prez"! Imagine the stats on the back...indictments, impeachments and convictions, oh my! disgusting.

Expand full comment

Remember all those boomer dumbasses you knew in High School? The ones you couldn'tget away from fast enough?

They got worse.

Expand full comment

I've bent over backwards to try to understand, to empathize while educating, to seek common ground while consoling, yet these "dumbasses" as you call them TC, remain stubbornly, just that.

They did get worse indeed

Expand full comment

Was their 'middle ground' with Confederacy, Sen. Joe McCarthy, Mao, Hitler et al?

Some things are 'black and white'.

Expand full comment

John Birch society? Anyone remember them? Extremist reactionaries.

Expand full comment

At one point, they were a force in North Georgia in the area represented now by Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Expand full comment

Do you think the Harris Waltz bus will go through there? My family lives in that area and the signs are sickening. I imagine (hope?) MTG p lans to show up. I hope her democratic opponent does. Die hard Republican area now, in the worst way. My relatives are republicans as well, and will hold their noses and continue to vote that way. They don’t like big government.

Expand full comment

Meeting my first one was why I became a Democrat. He oozed hate and venom

Expand full comment

Hate and venom seems to be all they have. I became a Democrat while i was still in high school while taking the Government class and learning all about the evils of the Rethuglican party and their selfish and greedy principles.

Expand full comment

JD-Dr. MLK said it well- “I decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

Expand full comment

My parents were John Birchers

Expand full comment

Damn Sooz.....

Expand full comment

🙈

🙉

🙊

Expand full comment

As a tag end boomer (really generation Jones, but I digress) I didn't go to high school with many of them, but I sure worked with a bunch. It is so sad to see a bunch of retired cops bending over backwards to justify his criminal conduct...

Expand full comment

That's gotta be disappointing as all hell - watching them sell out everything they said they stood for.

Expand full comment

The stupid is sooooo strong in some . . .

Expand full comment

I knew some damaged souls when I worked at high school. Most are dedicated MAGAts. Seems that damage seeks damage. Rational they ain’t

Expand full comment

Damage is what they know and how they are conditioned. Yes, damaged seek damaged...

Expand full comment

Some were sort of pitiful in 7th grade, became obnoxious by 11th. Help needed early on, or parent transplant. That stretch from intermediate through graduation taught me a lot.

Expand full comment

The ones who ate paste?

Yes.

Expand full comment

...and I'm at the "tail"end of that Boomer...wagging the dog as much as I can.

Expand full comment

Post Reagan, the rich wag the dog a whole lot more. We all have try to do as you are doing, but it's going to be a big deal to stuff the evil genie back into the bottle, at least most of the way. Humanity keeps playing this out again and again, and now the stakes are higher.

Expand full comment

I agree JL, even if we win by large numbers (which I don't believe) the going is going to stay tough. The Nazi's are awake!

Expand full comment

I went to UGA with Dan Mitchell who was formerly with The Heritage Foundation. He was a horror of a human being in college, but his power was limited. He's still a horror of a human being, but now has power to destroy.

Expand full comment

I graduated high school in 1966 in a small town in north eastern Pennsylvania. I can honestly say that I cannot remember any one who would even associate with someone like Trump. I maintain that at least once upon a time ( and I hope it can be said today) there was a basic sense of decency and empathy among children and adolescents and the courage to do the right thing especially when it came to looking out for the little guy.

Expand full comment

Actually, it was the last classes before the Boomers that were the real dumbasses. I graduated in 1964, the first class of Boomers, born in late 1945 and early 1946. We were the biggest class ever seen and the class behind us was bigger yet.

At every protest against the Vietnam War that I ever took part in (including the First March in Washington DC in April of 1965) the Anti protestors that lined the way were from the Silent Generation and their children.

The difference between those who had stayed at home and those who went off to war was huge. Especially for the men like my father who grew up in small agricultural towns, the experiences of being introduced to a much wider world gave his expectations a jolt that he passed on to his children. The men who were too old for the service didn't get that jolt and were disappointed/angry /frustrated that the world was forever changed.

So, the boomers you talk about may have been the same age, but were the younger children of the Silent generation, not the children of the young men and women who were changed by the War. Those, IMNSHO, were the ancestors of today's MAGA freaks.

The fantasy of returning to "the good old days" is much older than the boomers.

Expand full comment

I'm cl;ass of '62, so next-to-last of the war babies. Interestingly - and I say this as someone who was a pretty serious participant in the events of the Sixties, only some 15% of the generations took part in "the Sixties." For the rest, the Fifties never stopped. And that is the boomers I am talking about - the people not from the big cities.

Expand full comment

They are white people who are desperate to preserve their systemic political, legal, economic, and social advantages. It’s as simple as that. All other factors are down somewhere in the noise.

Expand full comment

It amazes me that there are women, blacks and Hispanics among Trump groupies. Truly sad. Voting against their futures.

Expand full comment

Terry-Racism seeps into all of us. women, Black and Hispanic folks all want to be accepted and part of the privileged crowd. Racism is insidious.

Expand full comment

I think Big Religion has a major roll in that.

Expand full comment

So, I may offend some with what I have to say. There is a lot of difference between and religion. The definition of faith in the Oxford dictionary “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”“strong belief in (a) (g)od or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. And of religion it says “the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods”. Religiosity in the US has twisted the faith of those in a that particular religious practice. It is my opinion that people who ascribe to a religious practice become enthralled by the leader of their religious sect and that leads to abandonment of their faith to the words of the religious leader. There are example through out history where societies have been manipulated by leaders that have lead the faithful into the belief that the other is evil (different race, gender, ethnicity, place of origin, faith, class, education, etc) are the faithful are better than the others. I am of the opinion that it requires a suspension of critical thinking to fall under the thrall of such “leaders” and into their fantasies. We are seeing in our country today the rise of the religion of tRumpism. History will judge this period, depending on how our election turns out, as the completion of the rise of fascism or the end of the rise of fascism in the US. My HOPE is that we will survive this time with democracy intact. This requires free and fair elections with all voters being able to access ballots and have their vote counted. My hope is that the religion of trump will go down in flames!

Expand full comment

I realize that people in the name of religion have done good things for others. However, religions are run by people and people are imperfect. Religions have their dark side.

Religions have survived since antiquity by being an ally of the Elite.

Elites & Religious have had a partnership since elites figured out how to use it to their advantage.

Elites permit religion to survive. They fund Religions (eg. tax breaks and donations), they make a show of their respect for and tout their good standing within a religion, and have the ear of top religious leaders.

Religions in turn, show deference and give preferential treatment to the elite, which in the eyes of the religious community, would elevate the elite to being closer to their deity than commoners. The elite would be an authority over them.

Religions teach a social order which benefit both themselves and the elite (eg. women’s place in society).

Both elites and religions cover each other’s sins. Look at how sexual crimes by religious leaders gets treated and is not part of the laws of the land (such as they are).

Changes in the political power structure is often accompanied by the rise in power of different branches of a religion or a different religion entirely. They approve each other which allows for greater acceptance by the people.

Here’s an example of the relationship between elites and religion:

https://time.com/6167332/putin-russian-orthodox-church-war-ukraine/

There is no reason to give up religion, but people should be aware that it can mislead and that it is beholden to elites.

Expand full comment

I guess the other word for that goal is racist, perhaps. Let’s keep the country white, let’s keep the power with white men only and let’s all be Christians.

Expand full comment

White Christian Nationalism...it is what they crave.

Expand full comment

We are all desperate to preserve our systemic political, legal, economic, and social advantages. The only question is who do "we" include versus exclude. "Everyone" is the right answer, and "not everyone" is the MAGA Republican answer.

Expand full comment

It is sophistic to equate the oppression perpetrated by a dominant class to the aspirations of the oppressed. The opressed seek fair treatment. The oppressors seek to preserve a shameful system.

Expand full comment

An individual either cares about the people who are influenced by the individual's behavior, or they don't. Oppressors oppress because they don't care. If everyone cared, it would still be less than perfect, but everyone would be trying to give everyone fair treatment, and there wouldn't be any oppression. That's not sophism. That's logic.

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." - MLK

Expand full comment

Doubling down on sophism doesn’t turn it into logic.

Expand full comment

On that, we agree.

Expand full comment

No argument here.

Expand full comment

Rex-Thanks for saying it plainly. It’s too bad people don’t understand the detrimental impact of sorting people by skin color to keep us divided against each other.

Expand full comment

I like the way you cut straight through to the obvious, fundamental truth behind everything, Rex.

Expand full comment

Plus a little bit cut out from his SUIT! It's like the holy relics of antiquity. I wonder if there's a sliver of ear, mounted on gauze? Extra special price, cannot be duplicated.

Expand full comment

"cannot be duplicated."

Don't you believe it, if it will make trump money.

there are THOUSANDS of pieces of "the true cross" in existence - plus Jesus' toenails, John the Baptists foreskin, St. Peter's eyelashes. . . . you could reconstruct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from all the remains.

Expand full comment

Thanks for my 4am laugh out loud.

Expand full comment

You're welcome - that's when we need them most.

Expand full comment

Truth in humor

Expand full comment

I've seen St Catherine's FINGER in the church of San Domenico in Siena. And St Stephen's hand (found miraculously a couple of centuries after his death) in the cathedral in Budapest!

Expand full comment

Me too. It was amazingly creepy.

Expand full comment

The Buddha’s Tooth is enshrined at a temple in Singapore!

Expand full comment

Oh, Good Grief! - Don't say the Buddhists have got into this as well?

I thought they were supposed to be above all that. . .

Expand full comment

Expect him to start selling indulgences soon.

Expand full comment

He hasn't already?

Expand full comment