Letters from an American
Heather Cox Richardson's narrated newsletter about the history behind today's politics.
Heather Cox Richardson's narrated newsletter about the history behind today's politics.Listen on
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Heather Cox Richardson
Thank you for the recorded version of each day's letter. Thanks for sticking with us through these challenging times.
I always knew Reagan was a greedy bastard
Reagan was a criminal...
The worst part of this is that people like me, who depend on social security, are going to waffle on becoming involved in a movement that places Congressional representatives on notice that their prospects of re-election will be in a perilous place if they support the slashing of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, that Musk and 'Swami' will likely propose. It is interesting to me that billionaires can recommend what happens to the sustenance that millions of Americans depend upon to live.
“We know what to do”? …It’s going to be great …in about 2 weeks…( or two months?) 😉
The actual track record isn’t any indication this is anything but again a double down on the same ol’ repetitive brainwashing, the track record is bleak proof after proof of 1) talking it up, 2) sensationalizing ‘the plan’ ,3) announcing candidates who either withdraw or get fired shortly after taking office, 4) the promises get sidelined/forgotten, 5) the story gets changed/what he really meant is…6/ he never said that/doesn’t know that person at all….7/ raising taxes on the ultra rich IS NEVER MENTIONED NOR WILL IT BE…..and the rich get richer. SCOTUS gave blank reasoning again to .02% of our population , whittling away still at what doctors deem life saving surgery/care and a population of needy people on SS/Disability are again labeled ‘lazy’.
Yes there ARE lazy people and a professional guestimate would be .02% of that target group..so vetting properly - you know that careful experienced assessment of NEED vs a played ‘gamer’ doing the gamut well…could be beefed up to adequately cut the leech lackeys , same on the immigration issue.
Believe me the majority of politicians haven’t even a close clue what being poor and needing a hand up is about.
We DO have a lot to improve for sure .
The cracks are poignantly obvious, the lesson is about to be the finals on Democracy.
Staying The Blue💙
I'm not sure what your point is, but I will say we need to do something, via the creation of like-minded groups or through significant activity of the same like-minded individuals. Such activity might include written letters to our Congressional representatives, find out the cost of broadcast time on Cable, especially during 'dead air' time, inquire of outdoor advertisement companies in our respective areas, about costs and message development, radio ads during key broadcast times (I. e. Drive time), putting simple but clear messages that people see and hear over and over again. There's already plenty of material being generated by the Trump camp. Turn it around on them. Such messaging hits both a person's conscious and sub-conscious state. I'm getting a callous on my Index finger so I will stop. I hope I've made sense.
Oh you have…made sense. Wonder why some brilliant Democrat hasn’t come across to do that, though I thought Kamala/Waltz did a fine job on the campaign trail, short lived , little coverage here.
I live in a state that 70.2% ( up from 66% in 2020) voted TFG. Near the poorest state in America. It’s highly unlikely many would hear/believe/change party.
It’s hard to find common ground with lies and disinformation saturating the airways . It’s Fox , Wrestling, Dr.Oz , Bible Belt Warnings and Promises which have long bought J.Q.Public and the Politicians (especially in the south). Substack is virtually unknown but by a few here ..though we share extensively.
Facts here have alternate reality and they won..hook or by a crook.
When it happened in the 70’s I moved back to the woods/land/basics. Hoping it will suffice for my remaining years , hoping we can find a way for the American Dream to survive , even flourish, I’m in and will help best as I can.
The 1% who are retired increased their income by filing for Soc.Security. It matters not one whit, if they are cut off, just so they can get that tax break Drumpf has promised them in their closed-door meetings. (They financed all those ridiculous rallies he had. Hannibal Lector indeed!!!!)
Heather i really enjoy hearing you read your letter. I spend a lot of time on computer and at 72 my eyes start giving up. Being able to obtain your knowledge and wisdom through the audio is priceless. Thanks for all you do and for keeping many of us sane. Peace and light to you and yours.
I have friends with service- related disabilities that use their benifits to at least eat. So, what will happen to them when the billionaires club @ the White House starts cutting benefits? And people like me who cannot 'go back to work' because of worn out & broken body parts, who depend on SS to pay my mortgage & eat? Lots of us didn't have the benefit of being able to stash untold amounts of cash for 'old age' for lots of reasons. I'm not greedy. I just would like to live out my life without the stress/ worry of losing the benifits I EARNED.
Trump, the Lord of the Lies, cares not at all about disabled vets. Do you remember when he said "disabled children should just be aloud to die."? He, no doubt feels that way about vets as well. My husband is 100% disabled with congestive heart failure thanks to his tour in Viet Nam. He does not resent serving his country. He resents an idiot (narcissist) taking away lifesaving benefits. Without the surgeries and drugs (that cost a fortune), and doctors constant vigilance, I would be his widow, not his wife!
I'm in the middle of writing a post for my own Substack (about high intelligence) that tries to explain how student loan debt has, of course, affected students and their families who are not well-off enough to cover the costs of higher education. Today's LFAA post got me all riled up because it lays out, once again, why we even have such a condition here. We are a classist society. It's resulted in many people believing they aren't gifted when they are. Even people who are incredibly smart have been -- for a number of reasons -- kept down and out by our classist system. Before WWII my father was one of those boys who absolutely didn't think he was smart and absolutely wasn't going to college. The GI Bill changed his life hugely! Not only the free college but the veteran's loan program for buying our first house. The interesting part, though, is that he still was left with the sense that the doctors and lawyers and company CEOs who surrounded him as his yacht club and later in his gated golf community were smarter than he is. In the last two years (Dad's a feisty and cogent super-ager at 100.5 years old) I've finally been able to get him to see that he is one of the most innately, born-with-it, smartest people in the room wherever he happens to be. And what really got through to him was when I said, "And those people you admire so much? They know that about you." I'm in MN and Dad lives in south Florida. When I was alone with him last June for his 100th birthday, he teared up and told me how the conversation we'd had affected him, and now he feels he could have done more with his life. I put my hands on his hands and said, "Dad, you're a good man. And you've always done the best you could." He needed that. It made me cry, too.
If Republicans want to commit political suicide, they will cut social security. They might be able to tinker with it around the edges -- raise the retirement age to 70 for those in their 40s or younger, for example -- but cutting benefits of those who already receive it is a non-starter. Even Republican members of Congress know this. Senior citizens vote in the largest numbers.
Unless their votes are hacked like I believe they have been for years.
I have been sick for a while. Am waiting for a procedure to help me improve health. Your writing is well said. Thank you.
Thank you Heather for making clear what these super rich, ruthless billionaires plan to do to so many hard working Americans. Medicare, medicaid, social security are some of the social services that help so many. Since FDR government programs have been essential to our society. I like to think it will be political suicide if any are eliminated. But maybe that IS the wake-up call for even Trump supporters! We are witnessing the MAGAS hoped for unraveling of our most beloved, well-functioning institutions.
Thanks for addressing this fundamental problem head on. Whether Americans, long accustomed to liberty, will knuckle under to an oligarchy headed by a dictator remains to be seen. It'll depend on when they awaken to the consequences.
They teach this in American History, yet people are either not paying attention or failing that subject because the young people liked the robber baron goals of trump and not the leveling of the playing field by Harris. Even the news moderators on MSNBC side with the MAGAts in blaming the Democrats for the loss. trump has reason to love the poorly educated.
Oh, no. If they cut our benefits, I might as well be dead.
These are the best summaries of history reflected in our current times. My God, if only it wasn't so depressing and scary. I wish every single American would listen to these.
I agree. I sent them to all the friends I have that would be receptive.
Once again with Trump coming back as the president, we have the big story, which is the rich getting richer and the poor growing poorer.
Been in the works since Reagan 😢💔.
Thank-you for putting out this information daily and keeping us informed. Our awareness will help us to do what we can to resist what appears to be the taking apart of systems that benefit those citizens who need them and the transference of wealth to citizens who already have more than what they need.
Blaming "legacy media" for the lack of coverage of Biden's economic plan and for Trump's win in 2024, as Jennifer Rubin seems to do, is questionable. The knowledge was there in the leading mainstream publications and broadcast outlets for all to read or see if they wanted to. As someone who has studied elections since 1960 -- the mass media age -- I'm skeptical that media determines election results. Political scientists and media scholars also tend to be skeptical. Blaming the media, or bias, is always the first refuge of losers, mostly Republicans. At best, it is one factor among many. "Kitchen table issues" -- the difficulty of working-class people to make ends meet -- were probably the deciding factor in this election. When Democrats responded to those struggling with a flyer of statistics showing the economy was much better than swing voters thought it was, that voter was lost. https://open.substack.com/pub/jimbuie/p/why-did-democratic-senate-candidates?r=7j6hq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I was happy to notice that I could listen to your letters. My eyesight is failing and I just knew I was missing some really important information. I often wonder how the very rich became so self-serving. Perhaps it's because those who work hard for their money are more willing to share. Or perhaps were raised to honor the values of empathy, social justice, kindness, options for the poor, etc. I could go on and on naming words and actions that make us humane.
It just amazes me the people or I should say a majority of the people that voted for Trump are the ones who will be hurt the most by his actions. Family members that believe things will be better under Trump than they are now because they can’t afford to buy the things they need, whether it’s medicine or groceries or the gas to go anywhere. I have family members in the military that were excited to be able to vote for Trump and are the ones complaining about the talk of cuts to military benefits. So shall you sow so shall you reap. Don’t complain about anything you got what you voted for, this is on you.
Heather, I also worry about the safety net for poorer Americans--especially after the COVID year lockdowns caused the closure of so many small businesses and also the numbers of homeless people to grow at frightening rates. Do not forget that Biden encouraged these lockdowns. I'd also like to ask why some of the Billions that Biden has been lavishing on an unwinable war in the Ukraine are not made available to help the many people in W. North Carolina who are receiving so little help to clean up the awful mess left by the freak hurricane that hit these mountain communities. FEMA claims to have no funds and it is obvious that much of the monies that should be available have been spent for housing illegal immigrants. Biden has made some very poor decisions in directing our tax payer money and has left many people hurting. The out of control inflation caused by his simply printing more Billions for the Ukraine--even though our country is trillions of dollars in debt--has been a very poor choice and one of the big reasons that Biden/Harris lost the election. I do not believe in "trickle down" economics either, but I also believe the President need to be fiscally responsible--and Biden has definitely not been that.
I agree that spending on military conflicts is generally a poor use of our tax dollars.There is much need and also opportunity to do good with those funds here at home.
However, in this situation, I strongly support Ukraine's defense of its sovereign borders and democratically-elected government -- and I'm okay with our U.S. government's support of them in their efforts.
Each nation should have the right to self determination, and I am glad that oue government can provide Ukraine some support. Beyond that though, there are benefits to the U.S. that result from us providing support to an ally & democracy under attack. As I see it, these are:
*A weakening of Russia as it drains it's coffers and expends its military in the ongoing war that it started;
*That this weakening occurs without any American military service members risking their lives in battle;
*that this struggle, which is expending Russia's military assets, is being wages on other shores;
*and that when we provide aging, yet still effective, items from U.S. arsenal stockpiles, we also effectively spend the cost of our support of Ukrainian defense efforts on needed refreshing and refilling of our stockpiles with up-to-date items.
I appreciate your reply, Kari. I had this sentiment before I heard several people with different perspectives providing info that made me look differently at our involvement in this conflict. Our Washington Neocons--war mongers--were very active in unseating the elected head of the Ukraine in 2014. Russia noted this but did not rush in to take charge at that time. It was not until the US and NATO began pressuring the old USSR countries to join NATO--when we had promised not to encourage any further reach of NATO eastward--and especially not in the Ukraine. We betrayed Russia--Gorbachev--at that time by not keeping our word. When Russia was threatening to install missiles in Cuba during the Bay of Pigs--our military threatened to use the nuclear option against them. What is the difference with Russia and the threat of the Ukraine becoming a NATO country right on its doorstep? There is also the document that Biden just signed allowing the US, the UK and NATO to shoot missiles deep into Russian territory. Putin has stated that there is now no doubt that the US and UK are 'at war' with Russia. This is no longer a 'proxy war' but it is now an absolute provocation of nuclear war on the part of our country. It is so important to know both sides of the story. Scott Ritter was a Nuclear Weapons Inspector during the Cold War with Russia. He came to love and trust the Russian people. If you fact check him, you will find they call him a pedophile. It is so easy to break any meaningful communication by throwing out labels like this. If he hasn't been indicted for this crime, I suggest this is meant to deter you from giving this man a chance to tell a different narrative. When will we allow our 1st Amendment right to Free Speech to actually be reinstated??? https://scottritter.substack.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=i0zxc&next=https%3A%2F%2Fscottritter.substack.com%2Fp%2Fno-nuclear-war-a-call-for-reason&utm_medium=email Subscribe for Free and listen to another narrative. Thanks for your engagement with me--and also for listening to my side.
I would never follow a bunch of obvious links to Russian propaganda. If you’re not working for them already, you should ask RT for a job.
I'd love to read what Heather Cox Richardson thinks about our medical system, and the absence of initiative to incentivize readers to improve their health status by doing much more that most currently do in order to stay well longer.
This month, in my REAL Wellness Report, I focus on the fourth dimension of REAL wellness, namely, liberty. In the realm of a philosophy and lifestyle of REAL wellness, liberty entails an embrace of personal freedoms to think, act and express ideas and opinions, and to reassess early programming that may have obscured choices that now better suit your evolving mindset, desires and practices.
I'll order a personal example, though the possibilities might just as well relate to countless other life notions, beliefs and principles. By this I mean lessons learned, by observation or instruction, that no longer support or enrich your evolved being given amply diverse life education and reflection. Some of what was ingrained in childhood or later might no longer seem desirable or consistent with freedoms you've come to appreciate.
My example of this phenomenon is stark and simple, related to my Catholic upbringing and parochial school years. At some point between twelve and fifteen years of age, I began to form my own ideas on a wide range of topics, including those somewhat in the existential realm. Gradually thereafter, views about certain realities changed, none stronger than convictions about the toxic nature of religion. There is no shortage of former Catholics who have abandoned not just their assigned faith, but all religions. Evidently, there's something about innumerable bible verses that appall or stretch credulity, endless superstitions, sins original, venial, mortal and thermonuclear, dogmas and creeds that enslave the mind, reliance upon faith without evidence, miracle claims, angles and demons, and the stress inducing, fear of death-enhancing of one or the other of two eternities:
1--Pie in the sky bliss (light on details) bliss akin to orgiastic non-stop joy and delirious, substance-free bliss beyond the imagination of mere mortals, or
2--Ceaseless tortures forever involving burning flesh, screams, thirst and horrors the likes of which the 16th century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch only previewed, all of this and more, non-stop until the end of time! Alas, there is no end of time.
For me, some things about religions just didn't hold up so well.
You probably had a range of other reasons that led to course corrections in order to live your life with maximum independence of thought, deed and expression, even if some adjustments were a difficult break from early programming.
This edition is about a specific topic vital to personal freedoms, one that has been an obstacle to thinking freely for thousands of years. The topic has been a tool of oppression in nearly all nations, but which, despite being rare in Western societies for the past several decades, threatens to make a major comeback. This concern is due to the election of Donald Trump and his MAGA minions, particularly the strain of Christian fundamentalism foreshadowed by the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.
The focus on blasphemy is about personal freedoms vital to REAL wellness.
(For a complementary copy of this RWR edition, send a request to awr.realwellness@gmail.com)
Could someone please contact me regarding how to READ the lecture/talk? I don’t have time to listen to the audio.
Thank you,
Keith
Keithrmillsmd@gmail.com
I receive the text version of the letter in my inbox from Substack each morning, and generally read it before going to work. The audio version shows up in my inbox from Substack later in the day, and I listen to HCR read her letter whenever I get the chance.
I clicked the "transcript" tab up on the right.
The audio version is what she sent out the day prior in her newsletter! So I get two emails a day - written version and audio which was yesterdays written. I wait until the next day to listen!
Why were the Dems not able to get this message out? Oh yeah, the mainstream media didn’t cooperate!!
i paid $50 back in June and got it for two months and then it stopped coming. Could you review your files and send it to me again. kuykendallmary340@gmail.com
Read in App is not available
Thank you Heather. So unnerving but important to understand how this happened. 😢💔
Don’t bring in the Democrats to talk about taxes on the wealthy, no let’s screw the low and middle class.
I am getting your requests for the past 2 weeks - PLEASE STOP!!!
All I want is Heather's morning update - everything else is not wanted or appreciated!!!