41 Comments

Thank you for the recorded version of each day's letter. Thanks for sticking with us through these challenging times.

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I always knew Reagan was a greedy bastard

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Reagan was a criminal...

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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.

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“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💙

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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.

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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.

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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!!!!)

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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Unless their votes are hacked like I believe they have been for years.

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I have been sick for a while. Am waiting for a procedure to help me improve health. Your writing is well said. Thank you.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Oh, no. If they cut our benefits, I might as well be dead.

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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.

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Been in the works since Reagan 😢💔.

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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.

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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.

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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

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