Once more, your letter is here to somehow lift our spirits. Hard to realize that Biden made a speech today, but all we hear about is Trump, and his inane, rambling, press conference. The legacy media is gone, and your letter is more important than ever. Thank you Professor 🙏
Once more, your letter is here to somehow lift our spirits. Hard to realize that Biden made a speech today, but all we hear about is Trump, and his inane, rambling, press conference. The legacy media is gone, and your letter is more important than ever. Thank you Professor 🙏
Accurate journalism informs the public, protecting truth and democracy when authoritarian forces seek to manipulate, divide, and suppress. Truth is resistance.
Democracy is as fragile or as strong as our individual and collective dedication to its maintenance.
Plato’s thoughts on democracy can never be understood outside his trauma at the judicial murder of Socrates, his mentor. That murder was carried out not by a tyrant, but by the ignorance of the Athenian citizens who completely misunderstood the value of what Socrates had been trying to teach them for decades, and following the overthrow of the Thirty who had taken power with the help of the Spartans after their defeat of the complacent Athenian fleet at Goat's Creek.
Tyranny follows Democracy if and only if we let it.
Or if enough of us want it. Apparently, roughly 60% of white voters, 70% of white working class voters, and 80% of white evangelicals prefer tyranny to a government that tries to treat black people and other marginalized groups fairly.
I rather think the problem is that far too many of us simply don’t understand what we were designed to be, which makes them nearly perfect prey for a man who is almost wholly ignorant of that design, and disdains what he does understand because it gets in the way of his megalomania.
Yes, ignorance is the culprit. So is pathology. I swear, once a day at least, I find myself saying, "What the ...." at the sheer willful idiocy of the President-elect and his bad boys.
Socrates was a teacher of some of the prominent members of the 30, and Plato thought democracy a great beast incapable, in the end, of governance. He loathed, as did Socrates, democratic governance. The Gorgias is where this is most clearly articulated. Those who overthrew the 30 were the same who put Socrates to death.
If I remember my history/philosophy lessons correctly, Aristotle, too, was not a fan of the pure democracy of Athens, which allowed for mobs to be manipulated. He thought that it was wrong for the masses of poor to redistribute wealth taken from the wealthy. Nor was he a fan of oligarchy, rule by the wealthy. Instead Aristotle proposed the benefits of constitutional democracy that was grounded on a large middle class and governance constituency inducted by the well educated. Without a large middle class, Aristotle theorized, the oligarchs would strive to arrange things to benefit themselves.
Yes, he was. Also of Alcibiades who, like Benedict Arnold was at different times a brilliant commander, a hero, and a traitor.
But that doesn’t mean that Socrates was responsible for them or for the 30. Also, because he wrote nothing down himself, we have to be a bit careful about how we interpret Plato’s interpretation of him, just as the plays about your namesake and about the Trojan War have to be taken with a grain of salt.
No one with any political experience or historical understanding thinks that a pure democracy would be any kind of ideal. The Greeks experimented with it and failed. Our Founders understood that, which is why they tried to create a form of government that would allow for the maximum of individual freedom and rights without a corresponding descent into the maelstrom of demagoguery and the mob. What they did hope, in creating a Republic of virtue, was that enough of us would understand that freedom and individual rights come with an equivalent responsibility to, among other things, maintain a proper balance between those rights and the needs of the community.
We are engaged in the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex experiment in human government ever attempted. We could do with a Socrates to remind us to define our terms far more clearly than we often do, to understand that wisdom is also an acceptance of what we don’t yet understand, and to continually ask ourselves that most difficult question - how should men live - and his answer.
Perhaps size matters. Many Native American tribes seemed to practice government by council and included women. Smaller than states and varying in governance, tribal councils would discuss until a consensus was reached, but on a huge scale, that wouldn't be possible.
Bill, I have been wondering if, in fact, what is happening now is what’s supposed to happen. Oftentimes after a time of chaos things change for the better. We shall see…
After college I dated an economics professor. We talked about different governments and economic systems. It was interesting to know that the government and its economy evolve. It is my hope that we are evolving to a higher level of democracy. We shall see….
I hadn't heard that quote so I looked it up and discovered that there was more implied in his quote: “Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequal's alike.” “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.” A couple of things...Ron Paul wrote a missive entitled "Sorry Mr. Franklin, we are all democrats now." Paul refers to a Ben Franklin response to a reporter's question regarding the form of government the framers agreed on. He said: " “A republic, if you can keep it". You think Franklin was of a like mind with Plato? We lefties here love our 20th century progressive governance, I do anyway but the unrestricted accumulation of wealth has taken hold and is contradictory to equality, human rights, minimum sustainable income and all the rest. And to drive my point home, we fight wars to prevent communism, socialism, and the redistribution of wealth from taking hold. I was a Marine in one of those wars, Vietnam. Remember, the domino theory? Stopping communism from spreading. Some vets take pride in their effort and I don't blame them but there were three sixties songs Dylan's "Master's Of War", Buffy Saint Marie's "Universal soldier" and Fogerty's "Fortunate Son". If you know them, they describe what was wrong wit war. Those vets were not defending against a threat to our Country, we were fighting to protect our system of economics, capitalism and market economies.
Karl Marx also thought that capitalism is a cycle of prosperity and decline. He predicted that eventually the proletariat would rise up and revolt with world communism as the ultimate result. I don't advocate communism, but I do find it interesting that Plato and Marx agree about the cyclical nature of capitalism. I hope that rather than communism we end up with a mixed economy modeled after Sweden's.
Yeah, my wife identifies with the economic systems of the Scandinavian countries (Maiden name Knudsen). We like how they blend market economy with government controlled social services. Bernie suggested that we should look to the Norse for ideas about how to run an economy. I don't think that the Scandinavian systems will work in our country, I want them to. George Carlin had a great bit about us and our "wealthy owners". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT03vCaL-F0 Take a look. It is human nature to be dumb, at least half of us. The average IQ score is around 100. Think of it this way: at least half of the people in our country are below that number. Don't get me wrong, I am not arrogant, I don't scoff at these folks, I don't mock them. I am one of them but I've wised up some. I don't mock Donald Trump. He's baffling, and if he causes harm to people, I am angry at him, but the progressive ideas I/we believe in are not attractive to these people. It's something simpler they are attracted to: unrestricted freedom.
That's a nice thought, but for that to happen we'd have to be way closer to income equality than we are now. We give way too much political power to those who have a ton of money in this country. We gave up on all men are created equal a long, long time ago.
Sharing on Facebook: at the bottom of the column, under the citations, there is a "share" button. On my screen it's a sort of turquoise color. When you click on that, it gives you several options, and one of them is Facebook. Click on that, and that should do it. Thanks! I need to share too.
Yes, we need to instill the reasons why we common folks should hate and detest the MAGA oligarchs and their theft of our security, our rights to a better life.
Hello Rex, as I mentioned earlier, and the reason the majority of white Americans reject the truth is because in the recent words of Lucian Truscott IV, “Facts leave bite marks.”
Truth is resistance, indeed. Let me know when the bumper stickers are available for purchase. I don't put bumper stickers on my vehicle but I'd slap one of these on in half a second!
President Biden has been expediting the appointment of federal U.S. District Judges in the last days of his Presidency with success. Every lifetime trial level appointment counts as thousands of yearly federal cases that are adjudicated at local district court level. Only 80 or so make it to SCOTUS.
Biden just placed SERENA RAQUEL MURILLO on the Senate Executive Calendar. Judge Murillo is headed for the Central District of California a very active federal Bench in CA.
Finally, a National Monument for FRANCES PERKINS whose public works projects are still the living flesh & bones of many New Deal projects across the land! Check out the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico; the Perkins' building is architectural art & the aerial photo of the construction of the Norris Dam above the Tennessee River.
Many historical photos, graphs & data of Frances' government work are still with us & are collected in the August 2010 IRLE Working Paper: "The Living New Deal: the Unsung Benefits of the New Deal for the United States & California" by RICHARD WALKER & GRAY BRECHIN. Those benefits are not unsung now.
You can access the history & photos including well executed photographs of Gray Brechin at https/:/www.irle.berkeley.edu/workingpaper. Tel or Cell: (510) 643-8140.
"IRLE" stands for Institute of for Research on Labor & Employment. Well done.
Thank you Barbara, one of the many Substack’s I look for and read every day.
Thank you Joe Biden for the best example of Best President ever🙌
Getting rich gets so much more thought than being fair
Avoiding accountability costs far surpass waste, your donations pay for it . Not fair, but elected regardless.
Word salads, double talk, broken trust, lies upon lies, ethics tossed for egos sake..grew out of the promise to …Make America Great Again which became known as…
MAGA
What has come of this is what caused it in the first place …fairness ,equality, laws ,established rights ..broken, greed bringing the richest county - once upon a time #1 ….to laughing supreme stocks of the world courted treasonously/sadly …to its knees …no longer ‘The Dream’ .
Oh, people are thinking where can I move that’s safe from this ?
But wait…we got 600 millionaires …plus some billionaires …rolling ,shaking up, replacing YOUR fair for the now acceptable ‘fuck you’ face of failure .
Be sure to thank those 49% voters , the stink tanks Heritage /Federalist/Facists for the next 4 or more year’s ride delivered by the groveling whittled out gop.
Ugh! Haven’t seen those yet. In my town, there’s a billboard that the religious right keeps trying to put up about protecting babies but nothing about protecting mothers. Someone, bless them, keeps tearing them down! I hope it’s a woman doing that.
The hope that keeps me from utter despair are the midterms. If what is outlined in Project 25 is implemented, this country will swiftly be seeing rock bottom. Maybe then those 49% voters will wake up....
Me too Frank, being on a limited fixed income I am unable to afford a paid subscription to most SubStacks—I was a free subscriber to LFAA for a time until I was able to budget it in—and orgs/causes I’d like to support. The least I could do is spread the word so others could discover the resource.
Thats abt the size of it. I wouldn't mind seeing some consolidation. Likely i'm returning to LFAA free to me in April, been 2 years of paid. Maybe 3? After all for me its abt $7 CAD monthly. A TH meal equivalent.
Thank you for the other readers. I’ve been following this Substack for about two years and always find solace in it. Can anyone imagine 47 having such a daily statement made about him? Hah!!
What did JoeBiden do today is committed to doing the same for the next president, so I subscribed. It’s amazing how little of Biden’s actions are mentioned in the press. Trump is so much more entertaining, I guess.
Thank you for noting the absence of the press today at Biden's speech. This has been happening for months, though. And thank you Professor Richardson for reminding us of the great work this country has accomplished at the hands of true civil servants, which unfortunately are mostly Democrats.
What a revealing letter of the struggle of a government for the people. all the people. Biden's phrase "decent and fair" so applies to him as well. It hurts so much to keep reading now of the many important things Biden has done and keeps doing. We are down river of a giant dam that has broached.
Remember, too, Martine, Trump 2.0 is a resurgence of white, patriarchal power anchored to evangelical beliefs. This is what's sweeping into Washington and elsewhere already in the wake of Harris' political defeat. Despite the overall narrow margins, they will run to the limit, and as fast as possible, to cement themselves into Washington. As Miller remarked, like a "lightning bolt".
Here's a snippet from the DNI ... The movement's founding nucleus—the word “Taliban” is Pashto for “students”—was composed of peasant farmers and men studying Islam in Afghan and Pakistani madrasas, or religious schools. The Taliban found a foothold and consolidated their strength in southern Afghanistan.
Remember too USA pumped $$$ and materiel into the resistance to the Russian invasion of the country when its socialist regime imploded thanks to local resistance. We may not be comfortable with some of the conservative, Islamically derived social mores esp on women, but this was largely the nature of the country before AHBL when the Americans invaded.
Frank, this is exactly what I noted when I posted Heather's letter to my Facebook page as I do daily. I told my husband just after the election that it was a win for the patriarchy and he agreed. I read threads all over where especially women are worried about everything from finances to safety to their children. I also read of people stocking up on nonperishable foods. And yes, they will try to make things as awful as possible as quickly as possible. Notice that all the pariahs are back even Devin Nunes. I do see some pushback, it actually sounds like mewing, from entities who have realized that their businesses could suffer especially from deportation of the undocumented. And of course there are the corn and soy growers who are worried about wormhead. Now I am seeing stories about polio and pictures of iron lungs.
Frances Perkins is one of the most important persons to serve in our government. Her theory of government is tacked to the wall in my home office, as is her photo with FDR. Her programs have benefited hundreds of millions of Americans. Yet few know her name. We need a new New Deal. Right now the oligarchs are winning.
She is well known at Cornell University where I was an undergraduate 1953-57. I believe she taught at Cornell and the Industrial and Labor Relations building is named for her.
Actually, Daniel these writings are revolutionary's way of giving the finger to the politicians who think they can erase history and have us pretend we never had these rights. President Biden actions concerning Frances Perkins are another way of giving the finger to the people who are salivating come January 20 to strip us of all these rights. I see you have a Substack site. Perhaps you could write about your topic there and share parts of it with us all in these comments.
Actually I worked 20 + years in DC for the Department of Labor, and I fear all for naught. In 2017 Trump attacked the "deep state" by elimination of "merit selection" to hire people like me. From there it got worse.
I supported Biden and everything, but I'm afraid he was ineffective in stopping the death of my subect. federal administrative law, and next will be collective bargaining as Musk and Bezos have a consttutional attack of the National Labor Relations Board.
If MAGATs turn the FBI into a Fascist musieum. they will level the Frances Perkins Building, and salt the ground like the Romans did Carthage. Thats where my former colleagues work -- euphemistically judicial dodo birds or mastadons, awaiting extinction.
The Russian takeover is a hell of a lot more important!
Then write about it in your Substack. Dr. Richardson is a self-avowed historian. Commanding an esteemed author to write about what you want is just plain rude. Again. Sounds like you have some background to write about what you want.
Socrates once noted that he was the wisest of men because he knew how little he knew.
Dr Richardson’s writings, like those of the best of our other historians proves his point in showing those of us who have at best an amateur’s grasp of our history how much about it we still don’t know. Our response ought constantly to be, “Tell me more” rather than, “Let me be, I already think I know enough”'
The latter response is, of course, the essential Trumpist response.
It doesn’t have to if the voting populace is educated and not easily boon/swoggled by billionaires. (And Now the close-the- gov’t -scheme will play out… forcing millions of citizens & their families to deal with no paychecks for an uncertain number of weeks ..
Once more, your letter is here to somehow lift our spirits. Hard to realize that Biden made a speech today, but all we hear about is Trump, and his inane, rambling, press conference. The legacy media is gone, and your letter is more important than ever. Thank you Professor 🙏
Accurate journalism informs the public, protecting truth and democracy when authoritarian forces seek to manipulate, divide, and suppress. Truth is resistance.
TRUTH IS RESISTANCE.
H A L L E L U J A H 🇺🇸
Just made a beautiful tee shirt saying that on lines waving amidst amber waves of grain. Doesn't matter that it's imaginary, I'm wearing it.
Democracy is fragile. Perhaps there is some truth to the quote from Plato: “Tyranny follows Democracy.”
Democracy is as fragile or as strong as our individual and collective dedication to its maintenance.
Plato’s thoughts on democracy can never be understood outside his trauma at the judicial murder of Socrates, his mentor. That murder was carried out not by a tyrant, but by the ignorance of the Athenian citizens who completely misunderstood the value of what Socrates had been trying to teach them for decades, and following the overthrow of the Thirty who had taken power with the help of the Spartans after their defeat of the complacent Athenian fleet at Goat's Creek.
Tyranny follows Democracy if and only if we let it.
Or if enough of us want it. Apparently, roughly 60% of white voters, 70% of white working class voters, and 80% of white evangelicals prefer tyranny to a government that tries to treat black people and other marginalized groups fairly.
I rather think the problem is that far too many of us simply don’t understand what we were designed to be, which makes them nearly perfect prey for a man who is almost wholly ignorant of that design, and disdains what he does understand because it gets in the way of his megalomania.
Well, they will have to live under it until they realize it is not really all it was cooked up to be.
Yes, ignorance is the culprit. So is pathology. I swear, once a day at least, I find myself saying, "What the ...." at the sheer willful idiocy of the President-elect and his bad boys.
James thank you for this crucial piece of history.
Socrates was a teacher of some of the prominent members of the 30, and Plato thought democracy a great beast incapable, in the end, of governance. He loathed, as did Socrates, democratic governance. The Gorgias is where this is most clearly articulated. Those who overthrew the 30 were the same who put Socrates to death.
If I remember my history/philosophy lessons correctly, Aristotle, too, was not a fan of the pure democracy of Athens, which allowed for mobs to be manipulated. He thought that it was wrong for the masses of poor to redistribute wealth taken from the wealthy. Nor was he a fan of oligarchy, rule by the wealthy. Instead Aristotle proposed the benefits of constitutional democracy that was grounded on a large middle class and governance constituency inducted by the well educated. Without a large middle class, Aristotle theorized, the oligarchs would strive to arrange things to benefit themselves.
Yes, he was. Also of Alcibiades who, like Benedict Arnold was at different times a brilliant commander, a hero, and a traitor.
But that doesn’t mean that Socrates was responsible for them or for the 30. Also, because he wrote nothing down himself, we have to be a bit careful about how we interpret Plato’s interpretation of him, just as the plays about your namesake and about the Trojan War have to be taken with a grain of salt.
No one with any political experience or historical understanding thinks that a pure democracy would be any kind of ideal. The Greeks experimented with it and failed. Our Founders understood that, which is why they tried to create a form of government that would allow for the maximum of individual freedom and rights without a corresponding descent into the maelstrom of demagoguery and the mob. What they did hope, in creating a Republic of virtue, was that enough of us would understand that freedom and individual rights come with an equivalent responsibility to, among other things, maintain a proper balance between those rights and the needs of the community.
We are engaged in the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex experiment in human government ever attempted. We could do with a Socrates to remind us to define our terms far more clearly than we often do, to understand that wisdom is also an acceptance of what we don’t yet understand, and to continually ask ourselves that most difficult question - how should men live - and his answer.
Perhaps size matters. Many Native American tribes seemed to practice government by council and included women. Smaller than states and varying in governance, tribal councils would discuss until a consensus was reached, but on a huge scale, that wouldn't be possible.
Bill, I have been wondering if, in fact, what is happening now is what’s supposed to happen. Oftentimes after a time of chaos things change for the better. We shall see…
I hope you are on to something
After college I dated an economics professor. We talked about different governments and economic systems. It was interesting to know that the government and its economy evolve. It is my hope that we are evolving to a higher level of democracy. We shall see….
I’d like to see the stats on that issue. My guess is that something worse emerges from chaos more often than something better.
Hope so. But not optimistic. Our nemesis is the agent of chaos, and he's been really really good at it. For a very long time.
I hadn't heard that quote so I looked it up and discovered that there was more implied in his quote: “Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequal's alike.” “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.” A couple of things...Ron Paul wrote a missive entitled "Sorry Mr. Franklin, we are all democrats now." Paul refers to a Ben Franklin response to a reporter's question regarding the form of government the framers agreed on. He said: " “A republic, if you can keep it". You think Franklin was of a like mind with Plato? We lefties here love our 20th century progressive governance, I do anyway but the unrestricted accumulation of wealth has taken hold and is contradictory to equality, human rights, minimum sustainable income and all the rest. And to drive my point home, we fight wars to prevent communism, socialism, and the redistribution of wealth from taking hold. I was a Marine in one of those wars, Vietnam. Remember, the domino theory? Stopping communism from spreading. Some vets take pride in their effort and I don't blame them but there were three sixties songs Dylan's "Master's Of War", Buffy Saint Marie's "Universal soldier" and Fogerty's "Fortunate Son". If you know them, they describe what was wrong wit war. Those vets were not defending against a threat to our Country, we were fighting to protect our system of economics, capitalism and market economies.
Karl Marx also thought that capitalism is a cycle of prosperity and decline. He predicted that eventually the proletariat would rise up and revolt with world communism as the ultimate result. I don't advocate communism, but I do find it interesting that Plato and Marx agree about the cyclical nature of capitalism. I hope that rather than communism we end up with a mixed economy modeled after Sweden's.
Yeah, my wife identifies with the economic systems of the Scandinavian countries (Maiden name Knudsen). We like how they blend market economy with government controlled social services. Bernie suggested that we should look to the Norse for ideas about how to run an economy. I don't think that the Scandinavian systems will work in our country, I want them to. George Carlin had a great bit about us and our "wealthy owners". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT03vCaL-F0 Take a look. It is human nature to be dumb, at least half of us. The average IQ score is around 100. Think of it this way: at least half of the people in our country are below that number. Don't get me wrong, I am not arrogant, I don't scoff at these folks, I don't mock them. I am one of them but I've wised up some. I don't mock Donald Trump. He's baffling, and if he causes harm to people, I am angry at him, but the progressive ideas I/we believe in are not attractive to these people. It's something simpler they are attracted to: unrestricted freedom.
That's a nice thought, but for that to happen we'd have to be way closer to income equality than we are now. We give way too much political power to those who have a ton of money in this country. We gave up on all men are created equal a long, long time ago.
Democracy takes constant courage and commitment to truth.
Which is why, on a daily basis, I share the Professor's letters on Facebook, with the title, "Today's truth".
Good for you…great idea!
Good going, Daniel.
Daniel. How do you put it on Facebook. Can you enlighten me?
Sharing on Facebook: at the bottom of the column, under the citations, there is a "share" button. On my screen it's a sort of turquoise color. When you click on that, it gives you several options, and one of them is Facebook. Click on that, and that should do it. Thanks! I need to share too.
That's exactly how I get it out there!!
Resistance is what these criminals are doing.
These authoritarian forces are the resistance.
They’re trying to foist lies on people’s natural impulse toward simple common sense.
It’s an onslaught against truth and facts.
It’s truth and facts that stand immovable. Truth and facts don’t need to resist anything.
They need to be fought for.
Yes, we need to instill the reasons why we common folks should hate and detest the MAGA oligarchs and their theft of our security, our rights to a better life.
That tactic hasn’t been effective. His lies are stronger than our reasons. I don’t waste energy on hate. My drive is to end their terrorism.
Thank you Susan Burgess. I’m sending your writing on to as many people as are in my Substack email list in my cell phone.
Past time for us all to “walk our walk.”
Truth is resistance.
A majority of white Americans have no interest in truth. The opposite. They go out of their way to reject it.
Hello Rex, as I mentioned earlier, and the reason the majority of white Americans reject the truth is because in the recent words of Lucian Truscott IV, “Facts leave bite marks.”
Yes, and . . .
Truth is resistance, indeed. Let me know when the bumper stickers are available for purchase. I don't put bumper stickers on my vehicle but I'd slap one of these on in half a second!
And, "still she persisted"!!
Martine, I posted a link to this SubStack recently here, but never know who all sees it, so will post again…covers a lot that the MSM doesn’t: What Did Joe Biden Do Today? https://whatdidbidendotoday.substack.com/p/what-did-joe-biden-do-today-e54?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=954002&post_id=153241499&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=6wq7j&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Superlative links Barbara Keating. 🙏
President Biden has been expediting the appointment of federal U.S. District Judges in the last days of his Presidency with success. Every lifetime trial level appointment counts as thousands of yearly federal cases that are adjudicated at local district court level. Only 80 or so make it to SCOTUS.
Biden just placed SERENA RAQUEL MURILLO on the Senate Executive Calendar. Judge Murillo is headed for the Central District of California a very active federal Bench in CA.
Finally, a National Monument for FRANCES PERKINS whose public works projects are still the living flesh & bones of many New Deal projects across the land! Check out the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico; the Perkins' building is architectural art & the aerial photo of the construction of the Norris Dam above the Tennessee River.
Many historical photos, graphs & data of Frances' government work are still with us & are collected in the August 2010 IRLE Working Paper: "The Living New Deal: the Unsung Benefits of the New Deal for the United States & California" by RICHARD WALKER & GRAY BRECHIN. Those benefits are not unsung now.
You can access the history & photos including well executed photographs of Gray Brechin at https/:/www.irle.berkeley.edu/workingpaper. Tel or Cell: (510) 643-8140.
"IRLE" stands for Institute of for Research on Labor & Employment. Well done.
Thank you Bryan
The link didn't work for me, but this one did where you can download the file. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6c1115sm
Thank you Lee. I must get better rather than post the URL.
Thank you Barbara, one of the many Substack’s I look for and read every day.
Thank you Joe Biden for the best example of Best President ever🙌
Getting rich gets so much more thought than being fair
Avoiding accountability costs far surpass waste, your donations pay for it . Not fair, but elected regardless.
Word salads, double talk, broken trust, lies upon lies, ethics tossed for egos sake..grew out of the promise to …Make America Great Again which became known as…
MAGA
What has come of this is what caused it in the first place …fairness ,equality, laws ,established rights ..broken, greed bringing the richest county - once upon a time #1 ….to laughing supreme stocks of the world courted treasonously/sadly …to its knees …no longer ‘The Dream’ .
Oh, people are thinking where can I move that’s safe from this ?
But wait…we got 600 millionaires …plus some billionaires …rolling ,shaking up, replacing YOUR fair for the now acceptable ‘fuck you’ face of failure .
Be sure to thank those 49% voters , the stink tanks Heritage /Federalist/Facists for the next 4 or more year’s ride delivered by the groveling whittled out gop.
I’m disappointed…and NOT done😉
Patricia. You and Many others are not only disappointed WE ARE DEVASTATED. so much ignorance about who the orange idiot is, I call him dumpster😡.
I have noticed more flags saying "Take America Back" rather than the usual MAGA. Chilling to me.
Ugh! Haven’t seen those yet. In my town, there’s a billboard that the religious right keeps trying to put up about protecting babies but nothing about protecting mothers. Someone, bless them, keeps tearing them down! I hope it’s a woman doing that.
Ugg. What town? Anywhere near the “State of Jefferson”?
MAGA - make America gag again. The vomit follows.
The hope that keeps me from utter despair are the midterms. If what is outlined in Project 25 is implemented, this country will swiftly be seeing rock bottom. Maybe then those 49% voters will wake up....
Hooray for this, Patricia !
I also subscribe to what did joe biden do today.
Me too.
Thanks, Barbara, signed up, free to me though!
Me too Frank, being on a limited fixed income I am unable to afford a paid subscription to most SubStacks—I was a free subscriber to LFAA for a time until I was able to budget it in—and orgs/causes I’d like to support. The least I could do is spread the word so others could discover the resource.
Thats abt the size of it. I wouldn't mind seeing some consolidation. Likely i'm returning to LFAA free to me in April, been 2 years of paid. Maybe 3? After all for me its abt $7 CAD monthly. A TH meal equivalent.
Thank you for the other readers. I’ve been following this Substack for about two years and always find solace in it. Can anyone imagine 47 having such a daily statement made about him? Hah!!
What did JoeBiden do today is committed to doing the same for the next president, so I subscribed. It’s amazing how little of Biden’s actions are mentioned in the press. Trump is so much more entertaining, I guess.
Barbara. Thank you. I subscribed !
Thank you for noting the absence of the press today at Biden's speech. This has been happening for months, though. And thank you Professor Richardson for reminding us of the great work this country has accomplished at the hands of true civil servants, which unfortunately are mostly Democrats.
What a revealing letter of the struggle of a government for the people. all the people. Biden's phrase "decent and fair" so applies to him as well. It hurts so much to keep reading now of the many important things Biden has done and keeps doing. We are down river of a giant dam that has broached.
Remember, too, Martine, Trump 2.0 is a resurgence of white, patriarchal power anchored to evangelical beliefs. This is what's sweeping into Washington and elsewhere already in the wake of Harris' political defeat. Despite the overall narrow margins, they will run to the limit, and as fast as possible, to cement themselves into Washington. As Miller remarked, like a "lightning bolt".
That "white, patriarchal power" is nothing more than the American Taliban.
Yep and in case you haven't noticed, the Taliban is still in control in Afghanistan.
And in case either of you didn't notice, the Taliban belong to the Pashtun, by far Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, who are also spread into Pakistan, where I believe the Taliban originally developed. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Ethnic_groups_in_Afghanistan#Pashtuns
Here's a snippet from the DNI ... The movement's founding nucleus—the word “Taliban” is Pashto for “students”—was composed of peasant farmers and men studying Islam in Afghan and Pakistani madrasas, or religious schools. The Taliban found a foothold and consolidated their strength in southern Afghanistan.
Remember too USA pumped $$$ and materiel into the resistance to the Russian invasion of the country when its socialist regime imploded thanks to local resistance. We may not be comfortable with some of the conservative, Islamically derived social mores esp on women, but this was largely the nature of the country before AHBL when the Americans invaded.
Frank, this is exactly what I noted when I posted Heather's letter to my Facebook page as I do daily. I told my husband just after the election that it was a win for the patriarchy and he agreed. I read threads all over where especially women are worried about everything from finances to safety to their children. I also read of people stocking up on nonperishable foods. And yes, they will try to make things as awful as possible as quickly as possible. Notice that all the pariahs are back even Devin Nunes. I do see some pushback, it actually sounds like mewing, from entities who have realized that their businesses could suffer especially from deportation of the undocumented. And of course there are the corn and soy growers who are worried about wormhead. Now I am seeing stories about polio and pictures of iron lungs.
Thanks Michelle. Any Kennedy Jr denials about not cutting off polio and other vaccination policies likely can be taken with a grain of salt.
I take any denials from this group as lies.
Frances Perkins is one of the most important persons to serve in our government. Her theory of government is tacked to the wall in my home office, as is her photo with FDR. Her programs have benefited hundreds of millions of Americans. Yet few know her name. We need a new New Deal. Right now the oligarchs are winning.
She is well known at Cornell University where I was an undergraduate 1953-57. I believe she taught at Cornell and the Industrial and Labor Relations building is named for her.
so true
Another deflction to aviod talking about the Russian takeover.
Actually, Daniel these writings are revolutionary's way of giving the finger to the politicians who think they can erase history and have us pretend we never had these rights. President Biden actions concerning Frances Perkins are another way of giving the finger to the people who are salivating come January 20 to strip us of all these rights. I see you have a Substack site. Perhaps you could write about your topic there and share parts of it with us all in these comments.
Actually I worked 20 + years in DC for the Department of Labor, and I fear all for naught. In 2017 Trump attacked the "deep state" by elimination of "merit selection" to hire people like me. From there it got worse.
I supported Biden and everything, but I'm afraid he was ineffective in stopping the death of my subect. federal administrative law, and next will be collective bargaining as Musk and Bezos have a consttutional attack of the National Labor Relations Board.
If MAGATs turn the FBI into a Fascist musieum. they will level the Frances Perkins Building, and salt the ground like the Romans did Carthage. Thats where my former colleagues work -- euphemistically judicial dodo birds or mastadons, awaiting extinction.
The Russian takeover is a hell of a lot more important!
Then write about it in your Substack. Dr. Richardson is a self-avowed historian. Commanding an esteemed author to write about what you want is just plain rude. Again. Sounds like you have some background to write about what you want.
Socrates once noted that he was the wisest of men because he knew how little he knew.
Dr Richardson’s writings, like those of the best of our other historians proves his point in showing those of us who have at best an amateur’s grasp of our history how much about it we still don’t know. Our response ought constantly to be, “Tell me more” rather than, “Let me be, I already think I know enough”'
The latter response is, of course, the essential Trumpist response.
Amen!
The Russian takeover of what?
Of Donald Trump, lol.
These LFAA are where I get my news. I had no idea that President Biden did this wonderful support of American women. Thank you HCR!
Many of us have fallen for Donnie’s long con, the performance President and Demagoguery vs reality of substance and leadership of President Biden.
DJT is a sugar high, the excessive comfort the Greeks warned about.
And to add, please don’t stop writing your letter Professor HCR. It’s like a candle flame of light in the darkness some days.
It doesn’t have to if the voting populace is educated and not easily boon/swoggled by billionaires. (And Now the close-the- gov’t -scheme will play out… forcing millions of citizens & their families to deal with no paychecks for an uncertain number of weeks ..
Truly carrying our torch of freedom and integrity for both men and women. This has always been Letters from an American!
Agreed, 100%. Thank you, Heather.