Much of the media is the enemy of the people, and swung the last election to Trump via daily barrages that overlooked a felon, a sexual abuser, a grifter, a noted crook as if equal to the other candidate. This was criminal, and they should be treated as such. Boycotted. ABC has pointed Trump to a very lucrative market where people obey in advance. Sue the media, a brand new market for the grifter. Graft is Donald Trump’s agenda and intention. Legal graft is best, but not the BIG buck$. That is a distraction from what is really in play. How about privatizing the post office? An illegal graft pipeline. How about privatizing schools? An illegal graft pipeline. How about building and operating detention centers? An illegal graft pipeline. Kickbacks that you will never see: the bitcoin exchange, the Kushner-Saudi lashup, etc. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/rape-the-us-treasury?r=3m1bs
Yes, the looting of the wealth of America has started. You didn't mention the proposal to get rid of the FDIC, which was created to prevent another Great Depression. People forgot and many of the financial system guardrails were eliminated before 2008 in order for a few to make enormous amounts of money (that they can't possibly spend). A worse result from the events of 2008 was avoided only because some of the financial guardrails were still in place (a student of mine wrote a thesis analyzing these events). But the push now is to get rid of all of them. Another Great Depression, with Hoovervilles, etc., will be the result if they are successful. We need to stop letting our leaders ignore history and instead we and them need to learn from it. That is the incredibly important contribution that Heather Cox Richardson is making. We all know George Santayana's warning that "those that forget their history are doomed to repeat it."
I am searching for the new mega businesses. Those made from whole cloth simply with a con game. Privatize the postal service to what end? So service will cease in remote areas? No to create a huge sale and rake up some proceeds through a directed (wired) procurement. Things like that.
Thank you for today’s lesson on recognizing women’s contributions, Heather. As a retired history teacher I so look forward to staying a life long learner thanks to your podcast.
And yet, so many women voted for this... It shocks me how many women in this country are still sexist. Two women in line when I voted were discussing how "a woman could never handle the Middle East." I was, and still am, baffled.
Excellent. From Francis Perkins to today we moved forward in fits and starts not without resistance. Steps forward are resisted by reactionaries and those taking advantage politically- backward looking (Make America Great Again). Charting the moral course is difficult. Biden, no question, has accomplished a lot. Trump will work in the opposite direction. What will be left? Maybe a very slow movement forward.
I heard that one view that Biden will be the last liberal/FDR president in the march toward authoritarian, reactionary politics here..the march to the right. On the other hand I believe history has shown that people are willing and want to move forward. But ever so slowly. Progressive is made into a dirty word now. Liberal was the "L" word. "The far left" is blamed for our ills.
How many will know what is reported in these letters and elsewhere of Biden's quiet progressivism? Harris would have taken us further, but I guess for this country, it was too much too soon.
As a former history teacher, I find HCR's letters to be exceptionally succinct and thorough at the same time. Central to all of our history is our actions and reactions to those the hegimonic class perceives as the "other?" It's all how we choose to construct our society and culture; both a strength and weakness of a democracy.
Thank you Heather and Joe Biden to recognize the value of women in society not as the handmaidens. Frances Perkins was a brilliant woman with a spectacular vision supported by a beloved democrat that changed the course of so many lives. Trump could not and cannot make America any greater than she is. There is a reason the statue in NY harbor is LADY LIBERTY.
Women of America stand up and be counted and let the felon and his sycophants know We Are Not Going Back. We Will Not Go Quietly Into the Night.
Wow … had no idea we stepped so far back in time … as a woman …. Women’s right to have a credit card in their own name happened when I was 15 …. And I needed no co-signer for my first card at 18…. My Mom got her first 36 yo …. It is amazing (not in a good way either) we are back to fighting that fight …. Well apparently this is how Hitler got his power and followers …. Pure EVIL!!!
Yes, so many are down on women at the moment. I think women are more susceptible to fearmongering, or is that me being sexist. At any rate, fear is the most powerful of all human emotions. It is at the root of virtually all of our decision making. That is how the demagogues whip up the crowds. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/emotion-turned-the-tide?r=3m1bs
Excellent podcast. For more on Frances Perkins, read the well researched historical fiction work Becoming Madame Secretary by Stephanie Dray. Building on FP’s public papers Dray uses “surviving correspondence, accounts of those who knew her, and other circumstantial clues” to create a personal context for the extraordinary professional contributions she championed with FDR and his administration.
Francis Perkins came to FDR with a plan. She had a lifetime of relevant experience and full of ideas how to improve the lives of Americans. She epitomized everything a cabinet secretary should be. Watch how many of Trumps cabinet picks are the opposite of Perkins. So far, they lack experience, don’t have plans nor ideas on how to improve America nor its standing in the world. The few ideas they do have, are based in tearing down the work of people like Francis Perkins, and in every department. Project 2025 reminds me about what Hemingway said about bankruptcy. “First gradually, then suddenly. The Libertarians have been at this tearing down of FDR’s new deal since the1930’s. It’s been gradual, so slow many haven’t noticed the trickle eroding away the ways government supports its regular citizens. Trump’s 2nd term, the hard right is going to now finish the job.
The dog caught the car in 2016. Now, impossible as it seems the dog is driving the car. But there’s no dog trainer coaching this dog. And he’s picking up the people that gave him the most treats ( current cabinet picks). Watching the dog careening out of control crashing into things is a little like watching OJ in his white bronco, we can’t look away. Trumps a d list actor, but he can perform. But just as a dog is not capable of driving, Donnie cannot lead. He can only manipulate, project, blame, accuse, deflect, and lie. He’s not even a good manager, he is a horrible one. Unlike 2016, The advisors and cabinet secretaries are d listers too, leaving the oligarchs as the guardrails. But they lack the knowledge and experience of governing and mitigating diplomacy and hostile states with real weapons, both material and psychological. History teaches us that the future can be hard to impossible to predict. How many predicted the fall of the USSR? How many predicted Assad’s fall? And there are 100’s of other world altering examples. So what could go wrong when loyalty to the king is paramount? The answer is unnerving. Anything can happen now. Everything that could go wrong, might very well go wrong and Elon’s $400 B won’t be able to stop it.
Found myself seven days behind, this eve I binged listened to catch up. Santa in morning for preschoolers, then library meeting. Next day I'm Grinch at the Elementary School, followed by Santa the next day. This time of year for me is busy but after listening to Heather I feel so much better knowing that there is someone with a voice that speaks the truth. So glad I found you. While so many children who sit on my lap have trouble believing in Santa and at the age where they no longer buy the story, when asked "are you the real Santa?" I say, 'I'm as real as they get.' Heather Cox Richardson is as real as they get!
David Porter Misso, TuleLake, California
"Heap on more wood
The wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will
We'll keep our Christmas Merry still." Walter Scott
A wonderful commentary that hits the nail right on the head: human equality is the prime issue, woman equality, the prime struggle (And now I've got to read up on Frances Perkins. Shame on my ignorance!). I would like to attract the attention of my fellow readers to Putin's aggression against Ukraine and continued and strengthened MAGA support for it. This war, Putin says, and MAGA believes this too, is about the New Holy Russia's defense of "white christian values". In short, for Putin and MAGA alike, women are women and men are men and the former should not be paid overmuch and have more babies! Look a little harder at Putin and MAGA and you'll see Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Christians lined up with Muslim conservatives. You see Putin backed by Iran, where a stray lock of hair can get a girl killed, China, whose government is, not accidentally, has put in place a campaign to force pregnancy on its woman population, and North Korea, a slave state. Losing, even seeming to lose, in Ukraine, friends, is a big win for retrograde patriarchy. Don't let it be a second Afghanistan.
I had no idea that Frances Perkins was the political engineer of so many fundamental political changes that continue to this very day. Thank you for making us aware of her and her role in creating the New American ideal.
So, as a retired hospitalist and palliative care physician, I don't have the fiscal nor political insight that some of our commentators have. I really respect their comments. However, it seems a ruse to me when MAGA politicians claim the reason Social Security benefits needs to be ' revisited' is because of our national debt. This seems a complete farce and joke to me. The SSA benefits give a meager life line protection to the vast majority of Americans who invest or spend this money to make ends meet. The MAGA, have pulled the wool over their supporters eyes, who are misguided by the social media and their lack of education, simple as that. The moneys to be saved, or earned, depending on ones perspective, need to come from fabulously wealthy companies and 'to be American oligarchs', who are replicating the Putin playbook.
Much of the media is the enemy of the people, and swung the last election to Trump via daily barrages that overlooked a felon, a sexual abuser, a grifter, a noted crook as if equal to the other candidate. This was criminal, and they should be treated as such. Boycotted. ABC has pointed Trump to a very lucrative market where people obey in advance. Sue the media, a brand new market for the grifter. Graft is Donald Trump’s agenda and intention. Legal graft is best, but not the BIG buck$. That is a distraction from what is really in play. How about privatizing the post office? An illegal graft pipeline. How about privatizing schools? An illegal graft pipeline. How about building and operating detention centers? An illegal graft pipeline. Kickbacks that you will never see: the bitcoin exchange, the Kushner-Saudi lashup, etc. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/rape-the-us-treasury?r=3m1bs
Yes, the looting of the wealth of America has started. You didn't mention the proposal to get rid of the FDIC, which was created to prevent another Great Depression. People forgot and many of the financial system guardrails were eliminated before 2008 in order for a few to make enormous amounts of money (that they can't possibly spend). A worse result from the events of 2008 was avoided only because some of the financial guardrails were still in place (a student of mine wrote a thesis analyzing these events). But the push now is to get rid of all of them. Another Great Depression, with Hoovervilles, etc., will be the result if they are successful. We need to stop letting our leaders ignore history and instead we and them need to learn from it. That is the incredibly important contribution that Heather Cox Richardson is making. We all know George Santayana's warning that "those that forget their history are doomed to repeat it."
I am searching for the new mega businesses. Those made from whole cloth simply with a con game. Privatize the postal service to what end? So service will cease in remote areas? No to create a huge sale and rake up some proceeds through a directed (wired) procurement. Things like that.
An excellent analysis of the trumpian universe of deflecting attention from reality to his version of “leadership”
Thank you for today’s lesson on recognizing women’s contributions, Heather. As a retired history teacher I so look forward to staying a life long learner thanks to your podcast.
And yet, so many women voted for this... It shocks me how many women in this country are still sexist. Two women in line when I voted were discussing how "a woman could never handle the Middle East." I was, and still am, baffled.
It all depends on which news the women listened to. The propaganda from Fox News is very compelling!
No one can figure out women.
Excellent. From Francis Perkins to today we moved forward in fits and starts not without resistance. Steps forward are resisted by reactionaries and those taking advantage politically- backward looking (Make America Great Again). Charting the moral course is difficult. Biden, no question, has accomplished a lot. Trump will work in the opposite direction. What will be left? Maybe a very slow movement forward.
I heard that one view that Biden will be the last liberal/FDR president in the march toward authoritarian, reactionary politics here..the march to the right. On the other hand I believe history has shown that people are willing and want to move forward. But ever so slowly. Progressive is made into a dirty word now. Liberal was the "L" word. "The far left" is blamed for our ills.
How many will know what is reported in these letters and elsewhere of Biden's quiet progressivism? Harris would have taken us further, but I guess for this country, it was too much too soon.
As a former history teacher, I find HCR's letters to be exceptionally succinct and thorough at the same time. Central to all of our history is our actions and reactions to those the hegimonic class perceives as the "other?" It's all how we choose to construct our society and culture; both a strength and weakness of a democracy.
Thank you Heather and Joe Biden to recognize the value of women in society not as the handmaidens. Frances Perkins was a brilliant woman with a spectacular vision supported by a beloved democrat that changed the course of so many lives. Trump could not and cannot make America any greater than she is. There is a reason the statue in NY harbor is LADY LIBERTY.
Women of America stand up and be counted and let the felon and his sycophants know We Are Not Going Back. We Will Not Go Quietly Into the Night.
Wow … had no idea we stepped so far back in time … as a woman …. Women’s right to have a credit card in their own name happened when I was 15 …. And I needed no co-signer for my first card at 18…. My Mom got her first 36 yo …. It is amazing (not in a good way either) we are back to fighting that fight …. Well apparently this is how Hitler got his power and followers …. Pure EVIL!!!
Dr. Richardson, Thank you for this perspective on some recent events and the history leading to this point, especially how they relate to women.
Yes, so many are down on women at the moment. I think women are more susceptible to fearmongering, or is that me being sexist. At any rate, fear is the most powerful of all human emotions. It is at the root of virtually all of our decision making. That is how the demagogues whip up the crowds. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/emotion-turned-the-tide?r=3m1bs
Excellent podcast. For more on Frances Perkins, read the well researched historical fiction work Becoming Madame Secretary by Stephanie Dray. Building on FP’s public papers Dray uses “surviving correspondence, accounts of those who knew her, and other circumstantial clues” to create a personal context for the extraordinary professional contributions she championed with FDR and his administration.
Francis Perkins came to FDR with a plan. She had a lifetime of relevant experience and full of ideas how to improve the lives of Americans. She epitomized everything a cabinet secretary should be. Watch how many of Trumps cabinet picks are the opposite of Perkins. So far, they lack experience, don’t have plans nor ideas on how to improve America nor its standing in the world. The few ideas they do have, are based in tearing down the work of people like Francis Perkins, and in every department. Project 2025 reminds me about what Hemingway said about bankruptcy. “First gradually, then suddenly. The Libertarians have been at this tearing down of FDR’s new deal since the1930’s. It’s been gradual, so slow many haven’t noticed the trickle eroding away the ways government supports its regular citizens. Trump’s 2nd term, the hard right is going to now finish the job.
The dog caught the car in 2016. Now, impossible as it seems the dog is driving the car. But there’s no dog trainer coaching this dog. And he’s picking up the people that gave him the most treats ( current cabinet picks). Watching the dog careening out of control crashing into things is a little like watching OJ in his white bronco, we can’t look away. Trumps a d list actor, but he can perform. But just as a dog is not capable of driving, Donnie cannot lead. He can only manipulate, project, blame, accuse, deflect, and lie. He’s not even a good manager, he is a horrible one. Unlike 2016, The advisors and cabinet secretaries are d listers too, leaving the oligarchs as the guardrails. But they lack the knowledge and experience of governing and mitigating diplomacy and hostile states with real weapons, both material and psychological. History teaches us that the future can be hard to impossible to predict. How many predicted the fall of the USSR? How many predicted Assad’s fall? And there are 100’s of other world altering examples. So what could go wrong when loyalty to the king is paramount? The answer is unnerving. Anything can happen now. Everything that could go wrong, might very well go wrong and Elon’s $400 B won’t be able to stop it.
Found myself seven days behind, this eve I binged listened to catch up. Santa in morning for preschoolers, then library meeting. Next day I'm Grinch at the Elementary School, followed by Santa the next day. This time of year for me is busy but after listening to Heather I feel so much better knowing that there is someone with a voice that speaks the truth. So glad I found you. While so many children who sit on my lap have trouble believing in Santa and at the age where they no longer buy the story, when asked "are you the real Santa?" I say, 'I'm as real as they get.' Heather Cox Richardson is as real as they get!
David Porter Misso, TuleLake, California
"Heap on more wood
The wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will
We'll keep our Christmas Merry still." Walter Scott
A wonderful commentary that hits the nail right on the head: human equality is the prime issue, woman equality, the prime struggle (And now I've got to read up on Frances Perkins. Shame on my ignorance!). I would like to attract the attention of my fellow readers to Putin's aggression against Ukraine and continued and strengthened MAGA support for it. This war, Putin says, and MAGA believes this too, is about the New Holy Russia's defense of "white christian values". In short, for Putin and MAGA alike, women are women and men are men and the former should not be paid overmuch and have more babies! Look a little harder at Putin and MAGA and you'll see Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Christians lined up with Muslim conservatives. You see Putin backed by Iran, where a stray lock of hair can get a girl killed, China, whose government is, not accidentally, has put in place a campaign to force pregnancy on its woman population, and North Korea, a slave state. Losing, even seeming to lose, in Ukraine, friends, is a big win for retrograde patriarchy. Don't let it be a second Afghanistan.
I had no idea that Frances Perkins was the political engineer of so many fundamental political changes that continue to this very day. Thank you for making us aware of her and her role in creating the New American ideal.
Adam what took you to Texas from Illinois?
So, as a retired hospitalist and palliative care physician, I don't have the fiscal nor political insight that some of our commentators have. I really respect their comments. However, it seems a ruse to me when MAGA politicians claim the reason Social Security benefits needs to be ' revisited' is because of our national debt. This seems a complete farce and joke to me. The SSA benefits give a meager life line protection to the vast majority of Americans who invest or spend this money to make ends meet. The MAGA, have pulled the wool over their supporters eyes, who are misguided by the social media and their lack of education, simple as that. The moneys to be saved, or earned, depending on ones perspective, need to come from fabulously wealthy companies and 'to be American oligarchs', who are replicating the Putin playbook.