On February 1, 1862, in the early days of the Civil War, the Atlantic Monthly published Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” summing up the cause of freedom for which the United States troops would soon be fighting.
Thank you for starting the month with some extremely important history. I recently learned more about my own state’s history (Oregon) and was appalled. It’s so important to learn.
And my normal comment -
Be LOUD 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
I have studied history since, well, it's beginning to feel almost like since history began. I get it that some people can be appalled by what life use to be like. I focus on the fact that our founders, what ever else people want to get up about, left us the best Constitutional Republic on Earth with, now get this, the power to amend it, fix it. That means what ever appalls us about what life is like now is on us, not them. We must Unite and Amend to Save Democracy.
Yes. We need a lot of fixing. I was shocked to learn that the Oregon Constitution still had racist language until a vote in 2002 took it out. A vote in which only 70% of people voted to remove the language! Said language - “This included repealing the "Exclusion Clause" (originally Article I, Section 35), which had prohibited Black people from living, working, or owning property in the state.”
^^ I am disappointed I didn’t know the history earlier than the age of 35. I am trying to do better and keep encouraging others to accept the past and let it fuel us for the changes we need now
I am inspired and touched by your post. And I got involved with my local Dem committee right after trumps first election because I woke up to the news of his presidency appalled at my own part in it. I had always voted but had only pitched in here and there, allowing the burden of elections and civics to fall on the shoulders of others. “It’s not my thing..” “I’m too busy”. Ok well…so now you have Trump and neutrality is no longer an option. I dove in head first and deep and with ever growing reverence for what we have if we can keep it. The past ten years, against the backdrop of horror that MAGA creates, have also been the best in my life because I finally feel part of my Democracy and my country. Civics is not a hobby. Like voting, it’s the way this whole mechanism works.
Did complacency remove this important course from our schools, or did STEM or catchy phrases (like No Child Left Behind) and other trendy movements supplant it?
Likewise, I joined the local League of Women Voters and our local democratic party association, to which I have donated money to each of their causes so they can continue the valiant fight.
I just completed my Memo re: Amending the Constitution. In it I mention, "...it was not until after the Civil War that the first African American Representative was elected, Joseph Rainey, 1870: first Native American Representative, Charles Curtis, 1892: first female Representative, Jeannette Rankin, 1916: first Asian American Representative, Dalip Singh Saund, 1956: first openly LGBTQ+ Representative, Stewart McKinney, 1971: first openly transgender Representative, Sarah McBride, 2024: and, the first African American president of the United States, Barack Obama, 2008." My proposed Amendment addresses over two dozen problems caused by the Roberts Six, Trump, and members of Congress.
And in 1966, Ed Brooke, from my home state of Massachusetts, became the first Black American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote. Notably, he was elected as a Republican, suggesting that at this point the GOP was still "the party of Lincoln." It also had something to do with the white leaders of the anti-school-busing movement being mostly Democrats. Several of the political leaders I admired most as a young person were Republicans: Brooke, Elliot Richardson, Frank Sargent, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, Charles "Mac" Mathias of Maryland . . .
I have to mention the recent governorship of Republican Charlie Baker. Our state has a history of "divided" government that has worked well. Having a GOP governor had been a balance against a Democratic legislature that seems to be on vacation as often as not.
MA is indeed and gratefully Blue. I feel safe here. Mostly.
But it's instructive to remember that not too long ago there were Republican politicians who were reasonable, decent and humane.
And now...an entire political party has been captured by folks who have abandoned the Constitution, the rule of law and any sense of fairness. They have enthusiastically embraced racism, bigotry, violence, police state tactics, corruption ($4 Billion to the Trumps) and international chaos - bowing to the dictates of the murdering genocidal dictator of Russia.
Did I mention the rape of children? And covering it up - endlessly. Drip, drip, drip. Releasing the names of victims but not the rapists? How can any human being defend a party that does this?
I do like "Good Old Pedophiles," but I've stopped using "GOP" when referring to the Republican Party. It's a moniker from another time. "Grand" this party is not, and "Old" suggests continuity with what happened before Reagan, and maybe before Nixon. As to "the party of Lincoln" -- if the 16th president could rise from the grave and sue for libel, I like to think he would.
I was a Republican before Trump. My heart broke that such a "once great and honorable political party" could fall for such an empty, self-centered human being!!!!
The Republican Party has lost its soul and, in my opinion, its reason for existing.
Reasonable, descent, humane. That should be our motto. Our goal. We have to define what each word means, though. What's reasonable to one isn't necessarily reasonable to another. I read a comment somewhere where someone asked what was wrong with raping children. How do you even respond to that? Obviously, what was reasonable to him was not reasonable to me, or, I hope, to most people.
Bill, I grew up in a R household and I do wonder what my parents would have done with the current R party. My dad listened to Rush, so I am not very hopeful.
I think one of the worst phrase (I believe from Reagan's time) was welfare queen. They blamed those in need and put that label on them. I work with families in need and realize the Elon Musks and Trumpers have no idea. It is always so terrible to take one example, generalize, and use that excuse to "save money."
Susanna I had the occasion to be seated next to Senator Brooke in 1968 when he was flying down to NYC. He had lots on his mind and spoke out openly. After earlier snubbing Nixon, for political reasons he was going to Nixon’s residence to eat humble pie. My cab dropped him off.
In 1969, when I resigned from the Foreign Service, Acting Secretary of State Eliot Richardson kindly conducted my exit interview personally. He spent a focused hour, writing on a yellow legal pad. He was eager to learn why I (and other promising young diplomats) chose to resign from the Foreign Service.
Four years later, when i witnessed Attorney General Richardson trigger the Saturday Night Massacre, I applauded him. (I was on the Nixon White House Enemies List.)
You’re not listed in Wikipedia’s short or long list of the enemies, but neither is journalist Anthony Lewis, who I’ve believed for decades was on it. So I wonder how complete it is. A major thrill of my younger days was getting to watch Nixon resign on a little battery-powered TV at the summer “camp” of the Lewis family. “Tony” and my father had been colleagues on the Harvard Crimson together, hence the connection. (My father became an architect, not a journalist.)
New Hampshire: The “open sore of conservative mindset” in New England. And the only state of the six states that make up New England with this mindset. No matter what, a dem governor, two dem senators, two dems in the House, it always maintains it being this only open sore on New England.
How is it that the Chief Justice of the most powerful nation on Earth lacks an elementary school level understanding of the "justice" concept? Mr. Roberts ... justice is not a "heads I win and tails you lose" combination of retribution and enabling. Who'd a thunk.
Power and money, then preservation (conservatism). 3 basic things that humans can always count on to find when corruption becomes the norm. The preservation/protection thing is what the Epstein files cover up is all about.
Resolving the conflicts between progressives who challenge the status quo and conservatives who protect the status quo has been essential to every healthy human social system since the first hunter-gatherer bands emerged roughly 12,000 generations (3,000 centuries) ago at the origin of our species.
The problem isn't progressives or conservatives. The problem is PROGINOs (progressives in name only) and CONSINOs (conservatives in name only) who don't seize the opportunity by resolving a conflict and instead "neutralize" the opportunity that they've misperceived as a threat.
That having been said, I assume we agree that the perception of the Republican Party as a threat to the survival of the last best hope of the Earth (America) is accurate.
Thanks for the reference. Ask your friend why he refers to the court as "right wing." If I start at top-dead-center, and then I keep going right until I'm at bottom-dead-center, have I gone to the right wing, or have I gone to the dark side?
No, I don't agree with that. Justice isn't gray matter, it is as visceral as pain in my guts when it isn't present, I can't call that subjective, I call it the real truth, and is what connects us to each other. In Heather's article what pops up and touches us is the elan, the joy of having faced the enemy racism and put it to it's death.
Is justice subjective? It depends on what interest is being served. If the interest being served is the common good, then justice is subjective within that constraint. If the interest being served is "our" limited interest at the expense of the common good (and "their" interest), then the "justice is not being served" conclusion is no longer subjective. Instead, it is a readily observable and therefore irrefutable phenomenon.
Great contribution....the power of "HOPE" in action!!! Inspite of those who want to build up "hate" and feed "prejudices", we will move forward as a nation.
The "Statue of Liberty" welcomes everyone to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! We make one another better. Those who come to our shores should be able to live out their lives in freedom. We should give a "hand up" as each of us has received at one time or another.
I know we can 'amend' our constitution but consider that while many lands have applauded tit practically none have implemented it; rather they have usually tried something closer to a parliamentary system. That system has some problems too but it does have a way to dismiss a wayward senior executive quite expeditiously. Something that would be useful this week.
Albert, and what we are seeing now is resentment against progress for these groups especially the election of Obama. We were in Charlestown, South Carolina, the night he was elected.
I agree that among the bigoted whites it is like a resentment, a hate and fear. But IMO the changes in the way our Constitution is applied to cases by the Roberts Court is a response to the fact that once Obama was sworn into office in signaled the Southern strategy of validating hate and fear to win votes for the Republican party no longer worked. Citizens United came down exactly one year later and then the following year Republicans were able to steal back control of Congress. The Roberts Six is not having a feast of the Constitution.
Albert, we do not disagree. The election of Obama gave impetus to get the regressive ball really rolling. I have utter contempt for the Roberts Court, but apparently he does not mind having his name on this fiasco of a court.
At this time the text of my memorandum which argues why we need to unite and amend and the model amendment at the end is being proofed, polished and put onto a web page of its own. It will be ready to share soon. I do not claim it to be perfect but only a tool for discussion about the problem we face and the remedy we need. The paper is nearly 50 pages. However, the length of this memorandum is brief in size compared to the extent of the damage our Constitution has sustained from the Attack upon. The amendment has five sections. Section one is below. Note that is begins with a all inclusive ERA using language from the Declaration of Independence. Then repels corporate personhood, Citizens United and defines Republican form of government. That language should also repeal Trump v. United States (603 U.S. ___ , 2024), decided July 1, 2024. The Roberts 6, established that former presidents hold absolute immunity for core official acts and presumptive immunity for all official acts. IOW, made Trump a king.
Section 1
We hold these truths to be self-evident, All individual persons are endowed with equal non-transferable rights, To secure these rights the Government of the United States of America has been granted just powers from the consent of the governed, The Governments of the United States, every State, and every insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States has no powers to create, grant, apply or transfer any of these equal non-transferable rights of individual persons to an assembly thereof, or to property, private sector enterprises, creatures of the state, anything manufactured, artificial intelligence, or to allow any property, private sector enterprises, or creatures of the state to endorse or provide support for, or against, any candidate for public political or judicial office or ballot measure, or to engage in any form of political expression within the United States, every State, and every insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States.
The legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Government of the United States of America shall jointly and severally assure that this government, and all State governments and every insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States, are a Republican Form of Government in which power is held by the citizens thereof, and the powers granted to these governments by the people thereof shall be separated among a legislative, executive and judicial branches, to the end it shall be a government of laws and not of any persons, thus no monarch, dictator, or tyrant shall exist therein, and through secure, fair, open and transparent democratic elections elect officials to make laws, and the enforcement and application of the laws are to be of Blind and Equal Justice under the law, and this Constitution shall, and the Courts of the United Sates Shall, secure the equal non-transferable rights of all individual persons within the jurisdiction of the United States against any majority vote.
All laws and judicial holdings and decisions of the United States, every State and every insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States inconsistent with this section are hereby repealed. Neither the United States nor any State or any insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States shall assume or pay any claim of loss by this repeal; but all such asserted debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. Nothing in this section shall be construed to interfere with or deny any of the equal non-transferable rights of individual persons enumerated in this Constitution or disparage other equal fundamental non-transferable substantive rights including the rights of life – the pursuit of happiness, retained by individual persons.
Megan, I remember a governor of Oregon loudly proclaiming they were open to people visiting Oregon, but don't stay. I don't even remember when that was, but I am thinking in the early '70s. I was appalled because I had never heard anyone say that before and seem to mean it. I knew about the racist "keep out" signs for Black Americans and immigrants all over the country, but not just dismissing anyone who might want to move into Oregon (or anywhere else). I have a sister and sister-in-law who live in Beaverton and love Oregon, but are both "immigrants" from other states. I am glad the "welcome mat" was eventually put out for newcomers. I would have stayed in Oregon if I had been able to get a job. It seems there is a lot of history we don't know, and when whiny white boys with too much power for anyone's good get it into their little heads to want to wipe out everyone's history but their own, it should disturb everyone and have us all yell to them "NO, NOT ON OUR WATCH!" Then we need to sing together "We the People stand together. Together we are strong."
Ruth, that was Tom McCall and it was not about race, but people from California and development. There was a slogan: Don't Californicate Oregon. It had to do with urban sprawl and the environment. We have here in Oregon Senate Bill 100 which passed, I think, under McCall and is an attempt to protect farmland. The fight continues to this day as developers try to find ways to get around it. Our Marion(one of the state's foremost ag counties) county commissioners have never seen a development that they do not love. We belong to the 1000 Friends of Oregon who have a Tom McCall dinner annually and Friends of Marion County. One current issue is Veteran Affairs wants to put a 300 acre cemetery on EFU land (exclusive farm use) in the county. The locals are outraged and most of them who live nearby are Rs who suddenly find that their water is at risk along with traffic and noise out in the country. There are other problems as well. Nobody knew a thing about this until the Scoping Notice came out. My husband has done a lot of research for the local group who have come out swinging. They are not against veterans, but suggest there are better sites than EFU land. They are well organized and on it and as I said, most of them are Rs. I hope this helps you understand Tom McCall, a R, by the way, better.
I think the Governor was Mark Hatfield, a moderate Republican. His comment about come to visit but don't stay, was not racist, but was for preserving an uncrowded, not overdeveloped way of life in Oregon. It wasn't a hateful remark, and no laws were passed to make it harder to come to live in OR that I know of.
Thank you. There are plenty of people on here from all different backgrounds who bring their own information based on their education or experience, and it adds so much value to whatever is being discussed.
Megan, when I was probably about the age you are now I was shocked to learn that Oregon, the state I thought of as somewhere between God's Green Acre and best place on earth, also was home to a large contingent of KKK members and had also had a place in putting forward the John Birch Society. So, even in the vast western part of our country intolerance also held a place. It surrounds us and that is why it is so important to be vigilant and to act in any way we can.
Growing up in the backwards Midwest of Kansas, I had always thought places like California, Oregon, and Washington were practically liberal utopias. My first engineering job, in the late 1970s, often took me to Eastern Oregon and Washington as in agricultural equipment engineer. I was stunned to discover that the worst of Kansas (which is pretty horrible) existed on the east side of those mountains all down the West Coast.
In the northern Midwest I had the confusing sense growing up things did not match up well. My NEO city very segregated in many ways. It was more clear much later and to this very day that I can see of the pieces of the puzzle coming together. It was almost every system. My father’s American Lit textbook approved by the RC church a huge swath of confederate poets and lost cause ratings! He subsumed them because he loved poetry but he really was swept into the stream. I happened to have a good school librarian a volunteer who selected wide ranging diverse books abd just a curious out of the box mind. Not great for a happy childhood teen time. I understand more and more just how ingrained and multilayered racist, sexism , ableist paradigms were.
Yes! We were told that about the largest contingent of KKK members at the training I attended as well and I was so confused as to why I had no idea (I’m 35). I feel like my high school education should have had updated curriculum to teach more about the truth of Oregon’s history, but definitely not. While it’s hard to learn, it’s crucial.
I cannot remember where I first learned of the racist leanings of Oregon, but I am sure it was here in one of Dr. Richardson's letters or maybe her book How the South Won the Civil War.
Megan Rothery -- "I was shocked to learn that the Oregon Constitution still had racist language until a vote in 2002 took it out."
It is true that Oregon’s constitution once contained racist language barring Black people from residing in the state and that this was part of the original 1857 document.
It is also true that racist wording remained in the constitution until a voter measure in 2002 cleaned up outdated language.
However, the specific exclusion clause banning Black settlement was officially removed much earlier — in 1926, not just in 2002.
Yes, while anyone could settle here before the language was removed in 2002, it’s still really eye opening that it was in there until 2002 and that so many people voted No to removing it.
Megan, I often see heinous racism in posts about immigration and ICE. Our English department banned the use of the N word and had trouble with parents who wanted to defend that. Once in an English class, they were reading something with the N word and many of the students did not want to read that word. They were rescued by one of the overtly obnoxious Christians in the class who had no problem.
We have a new not quite “curriculum” but well thought out mini lessons for different grade level bands in my school district called “#Not at my school” and it started due to an increase in the N word. We teach the lessons 2 times/year (each time with enough lessons for about a week to be covered during our Content block in elementary school). I am really proud of what my district is doing with it
Nothing beats Steven Spielberg's wonderful re-enactment of the House vote to pass the 13th Amendment in "Lincoln" when George Yeaman, a Unionist opponent of slavery but fearful of emancipation, suddenly changes his mind to vote his conscience, becoming the 118th vote to pass the Amendment. Speaker Colfax adds his own vote (an unprecedented move then) to then send the Amendment to the legislatures to secure the necessary 2/3 majority for ratification.
* MS NOW Anchor, CHRIS JANSING, just reported a measles outbreak at the horrid Gilley TX Prison. Confirmed tonight 2/2/26 by TRMS.
Everybody: 4 more children from Liam's School District have been taken to including "ELIZABETH". Elizabeth has a Guardian Ad Litem, ADRIAN CONEJO ARIAS who has filed a right-on-target lawsuit in U.S. District Court Texas.
BREAKING:
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Pro Publica has just identified the killers of Alex Pritti:
* 43 year old Jesus Ochoa
* 35 year old Raymondo Guiterrez
Justice for Alex & Renee!
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Earlier LFAA Post:
Heather: On Saturday [1/31], in Minneapolis, where agents where agents from Immigration & Customs Enforcement & [ICE] Border Control are attacking immigrants & those marching to end the violence of the federal agents ..."
Albert R. Killackey, Esq: About "the best Constitutional Republic on Earth with, now get this, the power to amend it & fix it."
*****
We can take much more immediate tactics than march or amend the Constitution.
On Velshi's 1/31 /26 Saturday morning MS NOW show titled "The Power You Have" Ali got 238,000 views taking a sharp "Look at the CORPORATIONS enabling ICE."
You can de-ICE the corporations creating & supporting ICE.
Numerous U.S. corporations support U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in many, many ways through tech, detention centers like the one where Liam & his Father were imprisoned & data contracts.
FYI, data & databanks in California can be controlled by the California law the "CCPA" the California Privacy Act effective 1/1/2020. A California state agency polices the law NOT the consumer.
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Major & active ICE partners include but, are not limited to the following:
GEO Group, Core Civic along with Tech giants Palantir, Amazon, Dell, Booz Allen Hamilton, AT&T& Motorola Solutions & ripoffs.
Stop ICE from approaching driver occupied cars with guns drawn only to release the occupants. Melt ICE now!
Apparently another terror tactic used by ICE is to use license plate #, facial recognition software, etc to get the names and addresses of protesters, then go to their houses late at night and call their names. Creepy. Deserves a very loud response such as "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" or Jimmy Hendrix's version of "The Star Spangled Banner".
a lot of the people pressing for a constitutional convention are far-right, Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 people who think it will be their opportunity to impose Christian nationalism and a dictatorial president on the country. So one should approve the idea of a convention with GREAT care.
you have that right. The Heritage group leads this push. That tells you everything by the group lead by Kevin Roberts, the man that said "bloodless, if the left allows."
I listened to an interview Heather did a few days ago with Jeff Clements, CEO of American Promise. He said right away amending the constitution concerns people immediately for the reason you state. HOWEVER, most amendments are approved by the states, not by a convention, he said.
I've read elsewhere of the high level prisoners captured earlier in the war that were treated well and indoctrinated in ways to establish a democracy in line with our principles, but the Saturday Evening Post article, to me shows the more realistic situation.
To me it was more like after our Civil War and the Pardon Maryland, Pardon Camp where prisoners from both sides were held and many exchanged or pardoned. The rules were lax, many were released knowing they would violate their conditions for release, supposedly so they could go back home and work their farms and avoid any future contributions to or service in their military.
Snippets from the article:
"...The original idea was to hold all Nazis accountable, but this proved impractical. There were simply too many to investigate. And the U.S. military was bringing 785 top Nazi scientists and engineers to America without any inquiry into their politics.
In the American sector of Germany, over 170,000 Germans could be held until their case could be heard by a tribunal of American officials. Following their hearing, they were assigned to one of four groups.
Group I: Major offenders, who were subject to arrest, trial, and a possible sentence of death or long imprisonment. Their public trials, like those held in Nuremburg, were meant to discredit them, publicize their atrocities, and justify Allied justice to the German people.
Group II: Offenders — activists, militants, and profiteers. They would be sentenced to imprisonment.
Group III: Lesser Offenders who weren’t imprisoned but placed on probation, with restricted rights, for up to three years.
Group IV: Followers, who were prohibited from holding public office, fined, and limited to performing manual labor. Young adults in this category were barred from university admission.
The remainder were classified as “Exonerated.”...
...The process was laborious and time consuming, and the American soldiers who worked on the tribunals wanted to go home. The Americans gradually handed the job over to the Germans.
Meanwhile, in the French sector, the screening for Nazis became more lax, and the British were soon loosening their standards for prosecution as well. Many war criminals in the American sector fled to the British zone and escaped punishment...
...After several more interviews with suspected Nazis, Hauser wrote, “I’m glad to report that they are the world’s most innocent and harmless people — they told me so themselves.” ["They told me so themselves"]
Inmates who hoped to be classified as a Category III or IV had to provide evidence they were one of the “good” Nazis. The best approach, Hauser wrote, was to claim they had secretly helped Jews. “In hearing the prisoners talk about the kindly interest they always took in their Jewish compatriots,” he wrote, “one might easily think that the Nazi Party was a society for the care and protection of Judaism.”...
...In truth, their expertise was sorely missed in a country where inexperienced civilians were trying to revive the country. Immediately after the fighting had stopped, the allies had dismissed nearly half of all Germany’s public officials.
American officers admitted to Hauser that war criminals were slipping through their hands. The guards were underpaid German civilians who, for as little as three packs of cigarettes, would look the other way as a prisoner slipped out..."
My mentor, who had been captured at Corregidor, told me we had one Military Police Officer for every 40 Japanese Police Officer after WWII to help make sure the competent people that still had the respect of the population stayed on the job but in compliance with their new constitution and principles.
I think it was the best we could do under the circumstances and reminds me of my mentor's appreciation of the changes the Japanese made in large part due to the totally unexpected leniency shown to so many as we helped them rebuild their country into a trusted democratic ally.
He had been a POW, captured at Corregidor at the end of extreme fighting that delayed the Japanese long enough to keep them from going past Guadalcanal and cutting off sea links to New Zealand and Australia. Those captured at the end were not subject to the murderous marches like the Bataan Death March. He ending up in a work camp at the Wakayama docks, often getting to talk to an ancient (60 year old), guard often. I best remember him saying the guard thought Japan was doing the same thing the European colonial powers were doing and that they thought they were the equals of any European power after defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
Heather did an interview a few days ago with the CEO of American Promise, working to return campaign contribution law to Congress by constitutional amendment. He said 27 states have signed on along with a bipartisan group in congress. I bet we’ll hear more from her—she was excited.
I have to throw this into the mixture: Did you learn that trump is closing down the Kennedy Center for two years!!!! probably to embellish it with gold toilets and diamond studded wallpaper. He announced there was funding -- but he didn't say where it was coming from. Again...no transparency, more deception, dishonesty, obfuscation.....
Bryan, I hear the names and notice they are Hispanic names. Isn't it interesting that the two they named are both Hispanic. It makes it look like Alex Pretty, a white man was murdered by 2 Hispanic men, some kind of proof that Hispanics even working for our government would kill white people. I would not believe a word of this because just like everything else that comes out of the mouths or pens of this regime, it is most likely, almost guaranteed to be a lie! More propaganda for their lying machine that just keeps on running.
Oh for goodness sake, the last time you amended that sclerotic document was in 1992 regarding congressional pay (and that was proposed in 1789). Constitutional lawyers make a good living arguing about what the blazes half of the Constitution's provisions even mean. It's as though we here in the UK chose to be faithful to the Magna Carta. You need to re-write the damn thing in modern English so that you can finally dispense with preposterous and poisonous legal doctrines like Originalism and the Unitary Executive theory for once and for all.
If you keep telling yourself that you have the best Constitution in the world you'll never lift yourselves out of this unholy mess you've landed yourselves in. You have a president and an administration that is flagrantly breaking the law, acting arbitrarily, defying the courts and threatening your country's neighbours and allies and there's fuck all you can do about it.
And pass laws to enforce so many things Trump has crashed through that were once accepted norms of behavior. POTUS releasing personal tax returns to the public prior to election; acceptance and adherence to separation between branches of government (especially DOJ and President!);adherence to court rulings and subpoenas; adherence to emoluments clause preventing POTUS from taking foreign money; and adherence to the rules to not personally profiting from being President! The list could go on and on. We need to legally prevent this from happening again. Partisan SCOTUS is the real problem here. Without this courts cockamamy rulings without any basis in OUR law or Constitution we would not have this crook in power. They have enabled him at every turn, just like they were/are being paid to do! STACK the COURT first thing or install term limits that knock out 2-3 of them at once!
Kathryn, a couple of things I would recommend as many others have, related to the Supremes: term limits, yes; expand the court to have one justice for each circuit (13); all nominees would have to be approved by at least 3 independent legal organizations like the ABA (not the Federalist Society because it is not in any way independent); have the justices be expected to live the same ethics rules that all judges in the federal court system have to follow with strong penalties for breaking them; no gifts from anyone outside family and close friends for birthdays, holidays, etc. which must be reported, none from corporations PACs, foreign entities, etc. These would be a few to start with that could make a big difference.
That is exactly my point. We have no room to bad talk any of the founders of 250 years ago when we have the power they gave us to amend the problems we face with DEI (which in itself means "WE the People") and yet have not done so. I thank them but shame on us.
Megan, we need to challenge our Congressfolk and Senators to meet with their constituents. If the cowardly Republicans refuse to hold PUBLIC meetings they need to be replaced.
Ask them what have they done for us lately? Some of these Republicans have been in Congress and/or the Senate for several decades and have done NOTHING for WE THE PEOPLE. They work for us, every one of us, not for Donald Trump and certainly not for the Elon Musk or Peter Thiel.
2025 saw the largest addition to the national debt ever, thanks to Donald Trump -- $2.5 trillion. This is not sustainable.
Many of us get discouraged and depressed by Trump/MAGA's daily assault on American values and our constitutional government. It's appalling. Trump's premeditated War mirrors Hitler's White Nationalist Nazi party's tyranny that ironically, copied the terror tactics of the Klu Klux Clan.
Starting with tsunamis of lies and propaganda about American decline, like a coward, he attacked soft targets, intellectuals, lawyers, aid agencies and researchers who depend on government funding. Then he blamed minorities as the source of national ruin and created a secret army to terrorize the evil minorities, deport a few victims and tried to cower the resistance.
And like Hitler, he loaded his government with true believers to carry out his war with complete loyalty and supposed impunity. With our tax dollars, Vance, Miller, Hegseth, Homan, Bessent, Noem do terrible things to Americans everyday
The message from Minneapolis has been heard loud and clear all across America. Trump's game is over. His POTUS show is cancelled. His popularity continues to plunge We the People have a power MAGA can't imagine or hold in their hearts.
After 250 years, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States"
Our radical aspirations are as true today as they were at our founding. We have just begun to fight!
And that this is just more bullshit, their cover-up of how determined ICE is, really Trump and his whole team, to murder more and more people while filling the airwaves with rhetoric designed to quash our demand that they END MARTIAL LAW!!! I want to believe that ALL of us flooding Waltz and AG with our DEMAND that they STOP protecting ICE and DEMAND Humanitarian groups start the return of law and order to their streets would be a viable alternative approach to what we have now.
Do you know that Governor Waltz, the State AG and the police departments of Minneapolis and St. Paul are all involved in the mayhem of the ICE deployment?
I agree. Some have changed office locations to not be bombarded as much. I’ve had people email me about address changes for the spreadsheet and appreciate the checks and updates!
The phone number is the same but the new physical office is a short walk away from the District Court (and park area we still protest at across from her old office), to a building listed as 184 Maine Street on the corner of Maine and Chapel Streets. There is a lot more traffic past her old office with many people in cars honking.
The Police seem to have given up on enforcing the law against such honking other than trying to discourage it because of the business complaints. I do try to discourage people with signs encouraging honking there since it seems counterproductive and alienating.
Freeport is the opposite with many happy honkers and friendly waves, with no complaints from the local businesses that I'm aware of.
Congresswoman Omar was doing exactly that when some dickhead sprayed her with vinegar. She turned on him with fist raised before security saved him from HER.
For me, the most important part of today's letter is the throughline that ties moral language to moral action, and then measures the nation by whether it lives up to its own words.
It is not really about a song, or even about history. It is about how often Americans declare freedom sacred, and how often power moves to hollow that declaration out once it becomes inconvenient.
Julia Ward Howe’s hymn framed freedom as a moral obligation, not a branding exercise. The Thirteenth Amendment moment showed what it looks like when government uses its authority to expand human dignity. The sit ins of 1960 showed that when the state fails, ordinary people can force the country back toward its stated ideals. Tyre Nichols’ death shows the cost of pretending those ideals are already fulfilled. The removal of the enslavement exhibit shows how power now seeks to manage memory itself, not by arguing history, but by erasing it.
The most urgent message is this: freedom in America does not survive on sentiment, symbolism, or nostalgia. It survives only when people insist that truth be told publicly, even when it is uncomfortable, and when they are willing to act on that truth rather than sing it safely.
The final image matters most. Protesters singing new words to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” inside a Target store are doing exactly what the song has always done at its best. They are reclaiming moral language from authority and returning it to the people. That is the warning and the invitation. When the state abandons truth, history shows that the burden of keeping it alive falls back on citizens, again. More @👉 https://essayx.substack.com/
Excellent post, Michael. B. Franklin’s response, “A Republic, if you can keep it” becomes more prescient by the day. If YOU can keep it…….holding on to a democracy is not a job for the weak, the lazy, the uncaring, the selfish. It is up to all of us. Thank you for this.
Yes, I grew up in Medford, Oregon in the late 1940's and %0's. As an adult I learned of the Klan's activity there and the fact that we were a 'sun downer" town. When an African American (Black) weather man and his family came to town, they had a cross burned on their lawn and were run out of town. The first Black person I ever saw was in Portland, Oregon and I must have been at least 10 years old. Sad commentary.
We moved to McMinnville in 1991 and lived in Oregon for twenty six years, half in Mac and half in SW Portland. We were horrified to learn that housing in Yamhill County was segregated until 1972.
Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., where Julia Ward Howe is buried is a must-visit site when one visits Boston, Lexington, Concord, etc. Also buried there are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Sumner, Buckminster Fuller,B.F. Skinner, Felix Frankfurter, and more. We've heard the claim since we were young that "the pen is mightier than the sword." "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" inspires us still, 164 years later. The song by Mrs. Howe brings to my mind the saying by Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Megan, in early 2020's Eugene finally named "Sam R" street to "Sam Reynolds" street. It was named for a Black pastor in Eugene, and the Episcopal Methodist church is there. I grew up in Medford, which was still a sundown town in the 1960's.
Megan, yes: it's great to be a nice liberal state now that conveniently, because of its racist past, has got so few people of color--especially Black people--that the kind of quotidian interactions between white people and others that happen elsewhere simply do not occur. Oregon as a state doesn't mention its No Blacks laws when championing its "inclusivity".
Megan, Yes, Oregon's history in this respect is appalling as it is in many other states including my home state of Indiana. Read Fever in the Heartland about the KKK in Indiana and also here in Oregon. Just this week we had an incident in Salem where the ICE jackboots stopped a woman(I assume she is Hispanic), broke her window, threw her on the ground, injuring her, dumped out her purse, and discovered her US passport, then left. She called the Salem police who told her to call the F.B.I. We donated to a go fund page for her as she is not only injured, but has other medical problems. Her crime was driving while brown. As an aside, I saw several posts from Minneapolis where people were singing in church about the problem there and also in front of a hotel where ICE supposedly was staying.
I read The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe, a biography, by Elaine Showalter. It goes beyond her marriage (which ends and her husband took all the money she brought into the marriage) and the writing of the hymn. She was also very involved in the early women's movement and other social reforms. I recommend it....
It's very interesting and an enjoyable read. I love recommending and receiving recommendations as well. Always looking for the next book to add to the pile by the bedside.
Taken together, these essays show how damage is done and how much damage has been done. Flooding the zone has worked, at least for suckers like me. What is stunning is how fast things have disintegrated. 💔
If someone asks me what I’m thinking about in the political realm these days, I just tell them I’m listening to Heather Cox Richardson and leave it at that.
Her videos are like me having a bull horn to say what I have thought for years. Not stealing a thing from her, but boy, is it great after thinking I was the crazy one all these years.
I feel Dr Richardson found us right where we are and that is exactly why she caught our attention. Our national treasure. I want HCR to receive an honor like the peace prize.
I sent him this tThank you, Heather for bringing clarity, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, compassion and light into this topsy turvy heart breaking time.
I am sending Brendan this letter and the story of St Brendan.
Taken together, these essays show how damage is done and how much damage has been done. Flooding the zone has worked, at least for suckers like me. What is stunning is how fast things have disintegrated. 💔
Many of us get discouraged and depressed by Trump/MAGA's daily assault on American values and our constitutional government. It's appalling. Trump's premeditated War mirrors Hitler's White Nationalist Nazi party's tyranny that ironically, copied the terror tactics of the Klu Klux Clan.
Starting with tsunamis of lies and propaganda about American decline, like a coward, he attacked soft targets, intellectuals, lawyers, aid agencies and researchers who depend on government funding. Then he blamed minorities as the source of national ruin and created a secret army to terrorize the evil minorities, deport a few victims and tried to cower the resistance.
And like Hitler, he loaded his government with true believers to carry out his war with complete loyalty and supposed impunity. With our tax dollars, Vance, Miller, Hegseth, Homan, Bessent, Noem do terrible things to Americans everyday
The message from Minneapolis has been heard loud and clear all across America. Trump's game is over. His POTUS show is cancelled. His popularity continues to plunge We the People have a power MAGA can't imagine or hold in their hearts.
After 250 years, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States"
Our radical aspirations are as true today as they were at our founding. We have just begun to fight!
At our regular Saturday morning protest, I was very pleased to see younger people - ages 14 - 35 - participating. Their energy was inspiring. Minnesotans have shown the way: the People are finally rising up.
Thank you, JaKsaa, for observing that we endanger democracy when we bow to bully threats like invocation of the Insurrection Act. The orange thug may well do that, and it would be a setback for the forces of human decency, but it would not end democracy in the US. We will have to march on, regardless. The forces of bigotry have been with us from the beginning, and every step that put a dent in bigotry as a political force has been overcome within a decade or two by the return of bigotry as the dominant political force. Reconstruction, had it been continued for several decades after the Civil War, might have banished bigotry to a political backwater, but Reconstruction was entirely dismantled in a couple decades.
Likewise, the policies of forced K12 desegregation built a generation of adults who were less bigoted than their elders, but the forces of bigotry still rampant in those elders reẽstablished K12 segregation. Today, K12 segregation has taken firm hold of K12 education. As a result we are now building new generations of bigots. Today the bigots are in charge, dismantling democracy to make it extremely difficult to get back in the right side of history.
We had a chance. We failed. But we must not give up. The Union forces did not give up in the 1860s. They brought a new democracy to the US. It didn’t stay long in power, but it permanently changed the landscape. We are now in danger of losing not only democracy but all manner of human decency in US governance. We must do all we can to bring US government back from the brink like the Union Army did over a century ago. Not with the same methods, we hope, but with all methods within our power.
The thing that absolutely infuriates me is that Trump and his acolytes think we are unable to understand complexity and nuance. According to them, our history must be transmitted as "we only did good stuff and were winners all the time". Ridiculous. Lots of stuff happened that was terrible. The 3/5ths compromise, the Trail of Tears, Jim Crow--all happened and all were bad. BUT, due mostly to the persistence of ordinary citizens, we as a nation grew and changed and got closer to our stated ideals. I taught 8th grade U.S. history in an ordinary American public school and my students got it. If ordinary 13-year-olds can understand the trajectory of our history as flawed but reaching to be better, so can ordinary American adults. We can be proud of being citizens of a nation that got better over time. To me, that's true patriotism.
Well said, Ms. Rothschild. The fact "we as a nation grew and changed and got closer to our stated ideals" is precisely the dynamic Trump and his high-tech/ChristoNazi masters intend not just to prohibit but to actually reverse. And that is only the beginning; their long-term intent is to fulfill the ultimate function of patriarchy -- the destruction of every humanitarian advancement our species has ever achieved. (Thus my oft-repeated assertion that patriarchy -- which has afflicted us for only about six or seven thousand years -- is the cosmic equivalent of smallpox-poisoned blankets.)
It is stated plainly in one of the founding documents of our Nation and should be evident to anyone that has read just the Preamble to the Constitution: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union"...
America is a work in progress, it always has been. Right from the beginning it was flawed with many of the Founding Fathers owning slaves, land theft, betrayal and annihilation of entire Native American tribes, denying women and Black people the right to vote, racial violence and prejudice against immigrants, an endless list of past sins and crimes. But we have also made so much progress, we've been an inspiration to the world of what a free democratic society can achieve and offer hope and goodwill.
Our Nation has so much potential to be better only now we're being gaslighted and steamrolled by a lawless, fascist regime. I am not proud of this Nation right now and fear for it's future, one of the reasons being that this Trumpian regime is trying to censor and whitewash American history.
This regime is forcing us in the absolute the wrong direction, we have to course correct, take our country back and make America Constitutional again.
But propaganda is designed to, deliberately, and with malice, distort, skew, change what the factual truth of history tells us. Rupert’s mission statement, per Ronnie.
This is nothing more than the projection of the insecurities and the resultant bigotry of this bunch of third rate individuals who have captured our government. Of course they can never admit that they have ever been wrong about anything. That would destroy their carefully constructed facade of being brilliant and being the real leaders who know better than the majority of us who believe our own eyes.
But I'd like to go back to yesterday, where one key part of hers then was her reference to “mudsills.”
As she explained more fully in her 2023 “Democracy Awakening,” the envisaging of mudsills derogates entire classes of persons to serving the enslaving aristocracy only. White peons or serfs, or black slaves – doesn’t matter. None has individuality.
The U.S. has had this class of arrogant super lords for a long time. Now, however, they’re on steroids promoting their police state fascism, mouthing the lies of all Donald’s most despicable at the top, the criminal Donald himself ruled by a corrupted “supreme” court immune to law.
We can’t look to our schools to have been educating us with any centrality for the humanities that could enshrine how to see “others” among us as individuals in our complicated contexts. For the managerial classes that see the masses of us only as units, numbers, and demographic groupings for them to package, schools do one thing only. They administer tests.
Have we sunk yet to the worst of what criminal Donald, mass murderer Putin, the billionaire rapists, and our armed, white supremacist goons intend?
Phil everything you say is true, but it’s also important to remember that many os humanities greatest accomplishments are achieved by people working together with others. The plan of would be overlords is always to divide. United we must stand!
Somewhere along the line people got the idea that our great novels, memoirs, histories, and other arts were just isolated consumer products, of no particular value other than just more marginality among people themselves marginalized, too.
The reason the far right foundations ensuant to the Powell memo got humanities exiled from K-12 and set in neutered silos in "higher" ed was that, before 1971, the great songs, films, books, and other arts united Americans furiously for anti-war energy, for women's rights, civil rights, farm workers, the environment.
America after 1971 would be pushed into the priorities instead of our dehumanized and dehumanizing (i.e., raping) rich.
Phil you said it better than me. My subconscious use of humanities for humanity’s is an interesting mistake. I grew up in the era of the National Endowment for Humanities. This shaped my education and my life. It is a shame that we now live in a brazen Plutocratic gilded age.
The humanities teach us about community, understanding - and a recognition that those other than ourselves are not lesser tot us but equal to. And that diversity broadens us all. This is why I love living in NYC so very much. The GOP's focus on the individual strips away at this -- and their embrace of the individual (me, me, ME!) over the community is most often coupled with "good for me, but not for thee"
If Republicans would "focus on the individual," laurie, they'd see "others."
But they do not at all "focus on the individual." They stick to groups, group labeling, stereotyping.
And, sorry to say, Dems do this also. Dems went to the same schools. Focused only on numbers gotten from the same standardized tests. Learned no humanities they can draw on today.
For six years I taught art at a very interesting university in Japan, iCLA - International College of Liberal Arts (iCLA).
“iCLA takes pride in bringing together a very diverse student body through its extensive partnership program extending across over thirty countries. This diversity uniquely trains our students to grow, makes them adaptable to new cultures, helps in refining their perspective, and in bringing a better understanding of one’s own belief by considering diverse and dissenting opinions. As a liberal arts college, we are committed to a broad education with a curriculum that is both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary. The traditional majors in Economics and Political science are enriched by integration with courses in Business and Sociology, respectively, providing depth and breadth. Courses in Arts, Music, Language Arts, Performing Arts, are given a symbiotic relationship in the majors of Japan Studies and Interdisciplinary Arts. The unique nature of Humanities is brought out by our “design your own major” philosophy where a student can choose a wide variety of courses from different disciplines and design their own study path. This places us at the exact opposite of traditional university education where students are forced through a narrow education funnel.”
If you have a chance to visit them, I’m sure you’ll be inspired.
Sanjay Jhingan, the Dean of iCLA is a physicist who specializes in gravitational collapse in general relativity, observational cosmology, gravitational wave theories and gravitational theories in higher-dimensional spacetimes. He’s great!
I suspect AI will play a huge roll in our deteriorating society, a form of slavery. Right now I am just sick to my stomach because I purchased a couple of items on Amazon ! I vowed not to do that anymore and I got lazy! Ugh ugh ugh ugh
I think I will, it will of course be a pain in my butt, because all items come from different sellers, they are things I can get at, hum....Walmart (ugh), CVS (ugh), Walgreens (ugh), Dollar Tree, probably not available, I'll go directly to the company, which just might cost more, but hell it's all rigged against us!
Thanks for responding to my "oh poor me" post . Many have it much worse than me.
I appreciate your willingness to do that! There are an increasing number of alternatives. Check out the Substack, Cut off the Spigot, and also the app, GoodsUniteUs. It is definitely more time-consuming to find other options but they are out there! If nothing else, it makes us examine our consumption habits, and perhaps cut back. The decrease in profits will make the big corporations rethink their positions.
Yes, many do fall short of embracing what so many have fought and some died for. Some, and some many, have turned to a contrary view. It’s unnecessary to observe how long that element of human inclination has persisted. We have always known it.
Our struggle is a timeless one. It is the honor and the duty of the freedom loving here in these States to carry the light of freedom, human rights and dignity before us.
We are not America. We are of America. We, despite the contrary claim of the ‘superior’ few, are a United States. We stand for common human rights, not just in our land but across the Earth. Daily we reject the forces of fear and self-dealing that enlarge some only to diminish others. We bear a light of hope and call it reason.
Sounds like Hegseth aesthetic. Taco-fold might choose the States of Drumpf. I suspect he’s already planing on renaming all major airports and rail stations.
As a musician who serves a Christian church, February always includes a singing of The Battle Hymn. And with it comes a written explanation of its importance. As always, I get a comment or two from a member about how nice it is to sing something patriotic. My corrective answer is always kind but brief. Battle Hymn is not a feel good, patriotic song for a nation doing things right during the civil war. It is a hymn about Gods restorative justice for a nation that practiced the injustice of enslavement and continues to practice injustice to this day. It is a reminder to do better and to remember the source of our strength to do better.
I'm copying a comment by Craig Dupler in case you might not have seen it yet, Prophet. It might be a great coda for your church's singing of Julia Ward Howe's anthem.
Craig Dupler:
"I should add, that if you haven't watched the Marsh Family's video of their updated version of The Battle Hymn of The Republic, it is worthwhile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8saU0WeocP0"
The Marsh Family is totally amazing! All of their songs speak to what is in our hearts about what is happening in and to our country. This very talented family is in the UK!
Cheeto And the Nazi Economic Game: Screw Everybody Except The Wealthy
It has been clear since the 1980’s and Reagan that the main economic policy was to hand their wealthy donor class tax breaks and make the rest of the electorate pay for it It’s the story of the privileged class, superior genetics(RFK Jr and his eugenics crap), and “we deserve to rule” kind of policy that led eventually to the political strategy of “trickle down economics(TDE)” Give the wealthy a bunch of money out of the pockets of the middle class and then that money will be distributed to the inferior human beings “below them” The Republican gambit has always been “we’re better than everyone else” so join us….we’ll elevate your game
A couple of studies have now shown that TDE doesn’t work and that the wealthy just become wealthier with an ever increasing wealth gap and as a result everybody else gets poorer It’s now clear that that Cheeto and the Nazis are living Greed/Power Corrupts, and Absolute Greed/Power Corrupts Absolutely
Yes, there is societal unrest which has underpinnings in the economic inequality that is being foisted on the American people by the current Nazi regime in the guise of inflation WE the People have had enough and it’s French Revolution 2.0(21st century style) and the way to screw the wealthy is to tax them and level the playing field(in the 1950’s the effective tax rate for top 1% was 42 to 45% and now 26 to 28%!!!)
$75+ Billion for a secret police operation. Yet Medicare, Medicaid, Food for Kids are slashed. $4 billion funneled to the Trump family. Yet USAID lost a similar amount - KILLING 100s of thousands of people.
This is diabolical, cruel insanity. Deliberate reassignment of resources to a few as millions suffer. Criminals dream of such success.
And because the incompetence and thievery is so vast, America is $2.5 Trillion deeper in debt. Guess we need to starve some more kids. Repossess some wheelchairs, cut off more support for the disabled. And those lazy poor people. All they do is whine.
"The problem with America is that the poor have too much money and the rich don't have enough..." Tom Rush
I will never understand: If one billion is not enough, how many billions would be enough? For some in that class, it appears NOTHING ever satisfies their infinite greed. Incomprehensible.
It is incomprehensible to humans who haven't denied their SOUL. The emptiness they feel (which can never be filled by material things) is the rotting flesh inside where their SOUL used to reside. A soul has the wonderous ability to recognize another soul's basic goodness (to wish for life for all living things, to nurture, to create, to love and protect.)
These soulless entities are not human; they are the epitome of evil. They wish death, cruelty, suffering and despair on all other living beings that they cannot dominate, control, enslave or f*ck.
Remember the reptilian brain? It goes like this: Can I eat it? No. Can I f*ck it? No. Well, then I'll kill it. That's what we are dealing with.
AI Overview of "Trump promised to reveal his tax returns"
Donald Trump promised on multiple occasions, starting as early as 2014, that he would release his tax returns. However, he consistently broke these promises throughout his 2016 campaign, his presidency, and his 2020 reelection bid.
Key Details Regarding the Promise
Initial Promise (2014): In May 2014, before officially running for office, Trump said, "If I decide to run for office, I'll produce my tax returns, absolutely. And I would love to do that".
The Audit Excuse: During the 2016 campaign, Trump shifted his position, claiming he could not release his tax returns because he was under "routine audit" by the IRS. While he promised to release them once the audit was complete, he did not do so, even though nothing prohibits a person from releasing tax returns under audit.
Post-Election Position: After winning the election, Trump stated, "The only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters," and his staff argued that the public did not care.
Continued Refusal: Throughout his presidency, he continued to withhold the documents, frequently citing the ongoing audit or stating it was "none of your business".
Release of Tax Returns (2022)
Following a years-long legal battle that reached the Supreme Court, the House Ways and Means Committee obtained six years of Donald Trump's tax returns (2015–2020) and released them to the public on December 30, 2022.
Findings: The records revealed that Trump paid little to no federal income tax in several years, including 2016 and 2017, by claiming large business losses.
Audit Lapses: The committee's investigation found that the IRS did not start mandatory audits on his taxes during the first two years of his presidency.
Subsequent Actions
In January 2026, Donald Trump and his family sued the IRS and the Treasury Department for $10 billion, alleging that the 2022 release of their tax information, which stemmed from a 2018–2020 leak by a contractor, caused them financial and reputational harm.
The corruption flows like water over the falls...and not a single Republican blinks.
That would be correct J L, and the libertarians and conservatives leave that out as when the flipside of that is what they use to cut their taxes. The percentage of the taxes collected the rich pay is somewhere around 60% and the large number of people that pay nothing in income tax because they do not have enough income. Robert Reich reminds us how much of the wealth the top 1% own to drive home that they could pay much, more in taxes, still live like kings. I believe it was an Interview with Art Linkletter I read back in the 1990s(?) when asked why he was buying some property he did not need to increase his wealth and his response was "It's how we keep score." Even though his purchase would hurt others, it was going to raise his wealth score in his circle. Essentially, that is what the Epstein files are about, as well as the Panama Papers.
The top 5% of people by income, paid 61% of all the federal income taxes paid in the US in 2022. The top federal income tax marginal rate is 37%, for couples making more than $768,000 in 2026. On top of that, there is a 3.8% tax on their net investment income. Nearly half of people in the US pay no federal income tax at all, because their income is low. About 40 states also have a state income tax.
And yet the combined wealth of a few individuals exceeds the combined wealth of of all other citizens combined, and there are many legal, marginally, flat out illegal bit rarely enforced (see Panama, Paradise, and Pandora Papers) illegal tax dodges that only benefit the wealthy. Warren Buffet and a few other very wealthy people have complained that the system is too weighted toward protecting hyper-wealth.
HCR his repeatedly mentioned that Republicans created the first federal income tax system to pay for the Civil War, and made the tax rates highest on the wealthiest. In my lifetime taxes on very wealthy individuals and corporations was much higher, yet the wealthy still managed to be wealthy. What thy did not manage to do, at least to the same extent, is dictate national policy. They did not pay hundreds of millions (even corrected for inflation) to buy legislation and election outcomes.
No modern "Republican" would ever say, and certainly not act on Lincoln's conviction that:
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits."
Mutual benefits requires what Teddy Roosevelt called a "Square Deal". That's what laws protecting workers and consumers (usually twin roles of the same persons) such as now only very weakly enforced antitrust legislation. Monopolies or oligopolies of money and political power (and the two tend to go together) are exactly what a free society and truly free market is not. No?
I started out writing my comment above because someone had posted that the top rate was 28%. But it's really 40.8% (37+3.8). I think tax rates on the wealthy will increase in next 10 years or so, to pay for Social Security shortfall and other programs. The Dems will be in charge soon enough to do that. But the well will run low at some point.
I like the last sentence of your Lincoln quote, and some R's in Congress, more than a few, would agree. After the 2026 election, most will be voted out in favor of more "progressive" candidates, due to R's being in swing districts. Some voted for impeachment in 2021.
A lot of the wealthy, including Michael Bloomberg, lower their taxes by contributing to charities. That's a good thing I believe. Bill Gates is going to give away more than half his fortune by age 90.
T. Roosevelt was a good President...proposed anti-trust legislation as part of Square Deal. Also proposed "New Nationalism" and I believe won Nobel Peace Prize for helping mediate end to Russo-Japanese war in 1905.
In 1980 I was working for what I like to call a "flakey tax shelter" firm that specialized in selling K-1 losses at $0.25 on the dollar for Section 8 housing limited partnerships. Reagan's election was heralded by the company because of what they already knew was going to happen to the IRS even before he was sworn in as president. At that time, in most major cities there was an IRS office in the local federal building. They provided a number of services and had offices for the local audit staffs. Most of these offices were closed with the active audits being moved to the regional IRS offices. The auditors were given the option of moving, but most did not, which was expected. Most of those audits were never completed. As the war on the IRS audit staffing has continued over the past 45 years, the percentage of audits has gone down dramatically.
Earlier studies showed that in order to get good compliance with the tax code, we needed to audit about 2% of all returns. The rate has now fallen to around 0.4%, which is basically an open invitation to cheat. It gets worse. The R's have consistently supported the current legislative condition that prevents the IRS from supporting direct efile. Instead, we are forced to share our data with private companies just to talk to our own government (i.e. file a return). However, one can still file a paper return. That's the intended result.
Current data is hard to come by, but as of May 2023, the IRS still had 4.2 million unprocessed returns. They don't have enough people to do the work. So, if you are clever and want to slide something by the IRS, just make sure that any automatically reported stuff is on your return, then add whatever nonsense you like that is outside of standard audit flag ranges, and file your return using paper forms. The system as currently designed is configured to make cheating reasonably easy for someone who knows how to work it.
I should add, that if you haven't watched the Marsh Family's video of their updated version of The Battle Hymn of The Republic, it is worthwhile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8saU0WeocP0
This is magnificent and heartbreaking. If only this could be 'liked' enough to be at the top of this page, Craig. This is the anthem we need. To march us to war if necessary. Thank you.
Thanks for this, Craig, and Donna for promoting. A terrific song, though a mouthful, as they say. I've tried to write something more learn-and-singable, with call-and-response opportunities and unison singing, too. I have posted it with permission for anyone to sing at No Kings or any related peaceful rally. I hope you'll have a listen and perhaps learn and sing it—it comes with lyrics, guitar tabs, karaoke versions, and more. Keep fighting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ga2CMEcIgo (or www.tinyurl.com/no-kings-song).
Yes, Adam, your anthem deserves to join the playlist of our 2026 protest anthems. We need protest and we need music to pipe us off to protests. Power to the People!
If only I could get Heather—and Joyce and Jay and Dan and Jen et al.—to mention it once or twice in their feeds, it might reach the people it should reach. :-) If you know anyone to pass it to, please do! P.S. Is there an actual playlist?
It's part of it. The (anti-) "Republican" party now preaches impunity for MAGA, subjugation for everyone else. Classic tyranny. The poor saps who worship Trump think they're invited to the party, just as poor whites where inspired to fight and die on behalf of wealthy slave owners, even though the unpaid labor of slaves depressed their own share of income. Divide and conquer has kept a lid on the common weal for eons.
We could get into a very long and detailed discussion about money at this point. The short version of what I would add is that taxes are not really necessary to "fund" a government that is big enough to have a viable central bank. In the old soviet system and in some countries that have gone through a hyper inflation cycle, effectively they went another way. Having the money creation process set such that it flows out into and through the larger economy and then back into the government in the form of taxes does two things. One is that it keeps the government from trying to buy things that don't exist in sufficient amounts, and it encourages people to be involved in the political processes that lead to governmental spending decisions. The old phrase "taxes are the price of freedom" is a literal truth. Provided that the rates are fair and enforced, tax cheating is an assault on both our system and way of life.
This is the MMT(Modern Monetary Theory) which is the central bank's print to your heart's content The problem is that it's an inflationary theory that in terms of gold which is real money without counterparty risk currently has devalued the dollar to 6 cents as to what it was in 1971 All currencies that have been debased by governments historically have gone belly up
That's why the Fed is locked into a debt trap with no where to hide since foreign investors are all aware where this is headed and if they decide to stop funding our debt then it's game over
Yes but, the only reason that certain bright shiny metals that are relatively rare are equated with money is based on two things, neither of which stand up to close scrutiny. The first is a bit of an absurdity about the human condition. For some curious reason we share an attraction to the little bits of bright shiny metal with crows and trout. Other than that, this attraction is quite rare among animal species.
The other is that the use of these metals in lieu of the our original solution which was little clay tokens of various shapes were too easy to counterfeit. That said, the very notion that the total amount of little bits of bright shiny metal in the world would be exactly equal to the human need for representing accumulated stored work is absurd on its face.
If one studies the history of stored work or value, freedom from this absurd attraction to bright shiny metal really came in 1279 when a paper mill went into production in Florence. The merchant families of Northern Italy almost immediately invented written binding business contracts and negotiable instruments. Virtually overnight, their wealth and that over everyone with whom they interacted began to skyrocket. It also made it rather easy to move money among their various branch offices without fear of being robbed. The same thing happened a few years earlier in Moorish Spain. Since 1960 when we began our conversion of banking records from paper to stored 1s and 0s, we have almost completely become unfettered from this nonsensical attraction to shiny metals.
If one reads a bit about the decline of the Western Roman Empire, one of the most serious problems the emperors faced was insufficient bits of shiny metal to cover the economic needs of the empire. They were literally trapped by the fantasy that the only real money is bits of shiny metal. That said, if enough people believe a thing and act on that belief, humans are capable of doing all sorts of absurd things, like electing a would be tyrant as president of the United States.
Trout and other fish should approach shiny metal with caution. Crows have a reputation as tricksters. So do 1s and zeros. Accountable audits help keep records straight.
The use of a metallic standard for currency dates back to 450BC established by Rome Before that time trade was done in metals So currency is a form of credit which in responsible governments is backed by a metallic standard The US Constitution establishes a bimetallic standard(Article One Section 8 authorizes Congress to coin money and Article One Section 10 prohibits states from making anything but "gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts,") but Nixon violated that by taking the US off the standard due to the run on the US gold reserves led by DeGaulle of France Macleod Finance substack is a good resource
Most of our representatives in Congress deserve blame for this. But if I recall correctly, didn't AOC tout MMT, on the grounds that our deficit could be as high as we wanted as long as the US could borrow money. Then, she thought, hoping and wishing, we would take other steps if we could no longer borrow money or if the interest was choking us.
In my view, John Maynard Keynes provided the single most succinct explanation of macro economics when in 1942 he said something to the effect that "Anything we can do, we can afford." There are at least two slightly different contemporaneous reports of his exact wording. His point was that in the broadest sense (think the old concept of M3 regarding the money supply). is that all money really is, is a way of assigning value to the productive output of everyone in an economy that is producing something that someone else values, and is able to connect with them in the marketplace. The total amount of money that is needed at any given time is exactly the sum of all of those values. This is a current activity view of money and ignores stored wealth, which is a call on the future productivity in the economy. When he said that during WWII, The idea was that by stepping on the markets with such controls as artificial wage and price controls, and removing vast amounts of consumer demand by selling people bonds so as to keep them from spending what they were earning, that the productive capacity of the country could be targeted at whatever the wartime emergency conditions required. The concept of M# is just that, the supposed total of that productive capacity. For a long time the Fed would try to calculate M3 and publish their results, but it became so complicated with so many estimates and assumptions, that the number was really just guesswork, so in 2006 they gave up trying. That said, the concept is very instructive. It explains quite effectively what the problem is with the notion that so-called hard currencies are the only money, which was absurd, and self defeating from the get go. OH, and by the way, it was not the Romans that invented standardized hard currency, it was the Lydians, but that is another story that also has its roots in stone age economics.
Good compliance with the tax code should be a priority. The IRS should have the funding it needs to get the audit rate back up. I heard that noncompliance is costing the Treasury about $100 billion per year.
Back some years ago when Obama was in office a lawyer told me that the IRS was focusing on people getting a low income credit because they often had gig employment and kept poor records. The IRS was finding it too expensive to fight most of the lawyered-up rich.
Yes, I think the technique that we were taught in school in the 70's for going after the rich was taken away under Reagan. What an auditor used to be able to do when a tax return was either not filed, or the one that was was an obvious mismatch to the taxpayer's lifestyle was to do a lifestyle audit. One would carefully document visible and easily inferred spending, and then calculate the income required to support that. This would then be presented to the taxpayer in the form of a proposed assessment, which they were welcome to refute by supplying contradictory evidence. The process was one of forcing them to cough up the obviously missing records, or just pay the assessment. This same approach can be applied to other kinds of taxes.
A well funded revenue audit team more than pays for itself. I did audit work for the State of Washington for two years back in the early 80s. At that time, our state legislature took the approach of funding the Department of Revenue such that each additional auditor hired would end up adding 10x their employment cost to the state's tax receipts. Every business was on a schedule based on its size. The largest businesses (e.g. Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, etc.) had permanent audit teams assigned to them. Your typical mom and pop business might see an auditor once every ten or fifteen years, if ever. Washington doesn't have an income tax, so we didn't get into that kind of work.
Way better, IMO. Emotionally among our most powerful songs of defiance. Flawless, irresistibly compelling art direction on the video as well. (Credential: I was editor-in-chief of Art Direction Magazine c. 1985-1986.)
Thanks for the link. The song, We are a North Star blazing in the Cold, is good, but do you realize according to its YouTube site, it was written by AI. I admit the beat is amazing, reminds me of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The lyrics, well it's not an Autumn moon and there are no mountains in Minneapolis. I only listened once and these are the obvious flaws my poor human brain discerned. There are numerous comments on this Letter's thread about the demise of the Humanities. I feel the need to point out this was not written by a human.
Your subtle effort to trash the song fails, at least with those of us savvy enough to read its production credits (which because they are a monumental.,10-minute, copy-separately-by-hand-and-then-paste-and-re-copy-here-pain-in-the-ass), I bet you imagined nobody would do. But here they are: 'Music Credit: "Minnesota Anthem" created by Jimmy Wahlberg -- Stockholm, Sweden and AI -- www.suno.com’ Since Wahlberg is “a singer songwriter artist from Sweden” (https://www.youtube.com/@WahlbergOfficial) and the AI link is (not) hidden, obviously he's not ashamed of using it as a creative tool. And for the wretchedly burdensome task of assembling the video footage and requisite permissions – which in my day would literally take weeks of phone-calling by one’s already-overburdened secretary – AI is truly a labor-saving device. Apropos your effort to fault the reference to the mountains, neither is the Pole Star in Minnesota, but there are most assuredly mountains west, north and east of the state, all of them to one degree or another sacred to the land’s original inhabitants, just as the North Star was a sacred symbol of my Celtic and Norse ancestors, so I took both references as invocations entirely justified by poetic license; “the stories that the mountains told” are their lessons of indomitable presence reflected in the valor of the Minnesotans. For the record, I am as terrified as anyone I know by the tyranny-enhancing purpose – say again (purpose) – for which our masters invented AI, another classical example of how under patriarchy the technology-bolstered curve of history arcs exclusively and unstoppable toward ever-more-omnipotent tyranny; therefore I am overjoyed to see that purpose subverted by some modern artist who dares follow in the footsteps of the valiantly rebellious bards and witches who preserved our humanitarian consciousness from total extermination during the previous millennia of patriarchal darkness.
Heather, the reminder that a woman wrote the battle cry for the Union is remarkable. She was respected which is a far cry from what we have seen that the Trumpstein victims have had to deal with. They are not backing down and neither are we.
She was in an abusive relationship with a man who beat her regularly. There were no domestic abuse laws then, and she was legally considered her husband's property, to do with as he wished the same as if she was black slave.
My Mom was born in 1922. Her Mom was born in 1886. Many of us knew women who lived during a time when women could not vote. For our grandchildren, it just seems normal and natural -- of course women should be able to vote.
HERE'S HOW THE CHRISTONAZIS ARE ALREADY STEALING OUR ELECTIONS
(A Thom Hartmann Exclusive)
To enlarge upon Dr. Richardson's oft-repeated warnings about stolen elections, here is vital information from Thom Hartmann about how the thievery is accomplished, including credible statistical evidence showing how the ChristoNazis' purging of Blacks, Hispanics and white progressives from the 2024 voter rolls put Trump in the White House. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-q1lWsnlhg&t=5s (Election discussion starts at 9:09)
Lest we succumb to delusional over-confidence about the mid-term elections -- that is, assuming any of us are still allowed to vote -- note the contradictory indications in two breaking Associated Press reports.
Heather, thank you for your letter tonight. Understanding history and your skills reminding us of the importance of the words of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Julia Ward Howe.
Knowing Franklin McCain and the impact he has, along with the others who sat at that lunch counter in Greensboro was an honor for me. Franklin never stopped his work fighting for equal rights. His memory is always a blessing.
From Julia Ward Howe back then to Bruce Springsteen's "The Streets of Minneapolis" today. Music has managed to grace almost every one of our past and present movements for greater freedom, liberty, and equality.
The history of race in our country is terrible. From the invasion of the white Europeans to the slavery of black Africans. And now we are witness to the ongoing attempt to destroy our county by the super rich.
Because the battles being waged now are not to save only democracy. The super rich are working to destroy America. This is about much more than "saving democracy". And you can bet the inbred racism will expand to classism.
Democracy is just a small part of the war. This is about American lives. This is about American children falling sick and dying as a result of contagious stupidity. It's about Americans dying for lack of healthcare. This is cancer causing air and water resulting from corporate greed.
Let us not forget the sexual victimization of terrorized children by the Trumpstein Cult is the immediate predecessor, perhaps even a test run, of the terror the MAGAstapo is now unleashing on anyone who refuses to kowtow to the ChristoNazi theocracy. Thus the vital, know-our-enemy relevance of the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn in response to credible death threats against the plaintiff: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf Please let us ensure this text is linked early (and therefore prominently) on as many Resistance sites as possible every day until the traitorous regime of ecogenocidal ChristoNazi pedophiles is no more. (I'll do my best to be responsible for this posting, but I am 85 years old and terminally ill, which means others need be ready to pick up the torch on days I am absent and after I am no more.)
Black history after the Civil War provided a template for Hitler’s rise of authoritarianism in Europe. The Trump administration is actively trying to erase that history.
In a post-Trump era, we need to build back our democracy so that it is free of racism and all forms of “othering.” We need to be clear-eyed about our history, or it will repeat yet again.
Democracy without true equality is democracy at risk.
There are days I think the world would be a better place if the Black Death of the 14th Century had been more thorough in its work on the European peninsula.
Being middle class, dealing with technology, being older, dealing with traffic congestion crowds unreasonable people, very difficult, esp since life expectancy and health are zooming.
Many of us get discouraged and depressed by Trump/MAGA's daily assault on American values and our constitutional government. It's appalling. Trump's premeditated War mirrors Hitler's White Nationalist Nazi party's tyranny that ironically, copied the terror tactics of the Klu Klux Clan.
Starting with tsunamis of lies and propaganda about American decline, like a coward, he attacked soft targets, intellectuals, lawyers, aid agencies and researchers who depend on government funding. Then he blamed minorities as the source of national ruin and created a secret army to terrorize the evil minorities, deport a few victims and tried to cower the resistance.
And like Hitler, he loaded his government with true believers to carry out his war with complete loyalty and supposed impunity. With our tax dollars, Vance, Miller, Hegseth, Homan, Bessent, Noem do terrible things to Americans everyday
The message from Minneapolis has been heard loud and clear all across America. Trump's game is over. His POTUS show is cancelled. His popularity continues to plunge We the People have a power MAGA can't imagine or hold in their hearts.
After 250 years, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States"
Our radical aspirations are as true today as they were at our founding. We have just begun to fight!
So we're now erasing 250 years of progress. And building a huge arch to 'celebrate' the end of the American democracy? And putting huge sums of money into a movie about the 1st lady's shoes and outfits to show she foesnt care? While her husband gives himself millions from the treasury in violation of the constitution, the American Republic and the millions who died to create and preserve it? RIP.
America was founded on trust in wisdom and good faith of leaders. No need to spell out everything. Hence guidance is shorthand. For was give 4 terms because of trust in him if I recall. There was no need to say dont take bribes, dont pardon crooks in return for bribes, don't take gifts from foreign countries, dont kill innocent citizens and on and on. Slavery was a sin but it had its roots in the country, it was economic, and finally it was changed. Now its like leaders just spitting on the system.
Timothy Snyder writes about JD Vance and his close association with American Nazis. It blew me away. His newsletter gets us prepared for ICE's invasion of Ohio.
Lynell, I had a similar reaction as I read Timothy’s piece.
A particularly chilling excerpt:
“After Vance’s speech, Blood Tribe took its cue. Blood Tribe had marched in other cities in the previous two years, wearing masks, distinctive uniforms, and carrying banners with swastikas. These marches were unmistakably Nazi. Vance’s speech drew the attention of Blood Tribe to Springfield. On 10 August 2024, members of Blood Tribe carried out their usual performance in the city’s downtown, two of them carrying banners with swastikas and another two brandishing automatic rifles.”
The line between the Vance/Trump regime and Nazism is thin… and as we are observing daily, dangerous.
Prof Snyder….he is another historian just on fire with reporting the truth that lies in history. I referenced this letter yesterday that just cuts straight through Stephen Miller and VP Eyeliner and their hate filled rhetoric. Important read. Thank you and…
Trump's order "hat national historic sites should 'focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.' " shows his lack of understanding of the meaning of "progress." Progress necessitates moving from one stage to another, from a less perfect union to a more perfect union. Without a starting point that is less than great, there can be no progress towards greatness. Ignoring and trying to obliterate our less than perfect past contradicts the idea of progress.
The MAGA movement itself seems to lack the understanding of progress and Donold more than anyone. Saying "make America great...again" implies regression not progress. Perhaps many of them don't even care about progress, which evolutionarily might mean more than I can write about at the moment.
As Donold is obsessed with taking America back to some unknown time again and an even less obvious greatness that can be seen or known, it is just another crazed fantasy of his, another hustle and grift. He does seem to want to go back in time, regressing back to the days of tariffs, and coal, and imperialistic domineering, eventually taking the vote and rights away from those that were deprived of it before, maybe even wanting to bring back slavery.
Bring back slavery? I think anyone who works for a large corporation in America is essentially a slave. Yes we can quit but since we don’t have universal healthcare or other benefits, many of us are tethered to our jobs. It’s all be design by the corporations.
Trump removed an exhibit on enslavement from Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, declaring national historic sites should “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.” Trump is too bigoted and ignorant to know that the struggle of Black Americans to free themselves from slavery and their success in doing so is one of the greatest achievements and sign of hope and progress for the American people as a whole.
Music has the capacity to touch the heart and soul of what it means to be human. The opening of your sharing/pondering today causes a range of feelings in my heart- gratitude, beauty, resolve, poignancy, sadness, loss. We have the opportunity to honor all human beings, to feel deep remorse for the profound pain caused by slavery, and to hold deep gratitude for the 4 young men who sat at Woolworth’s so long ago. And…. deep gratitude for the resolve of so many, to honor the contributions of Black people. As you shared, we had president Ford officially recognizing February 1 as the first day of Black History Month- and now- Donald Trump removing an exhibit on enslavement. It is a shameful act of refusal to acknowledge our shameful and immoral history. Thank you for reminding us, through the reference to Julia Ward Howe, that there are so many ways to make a difference in our world.
"I should add, that if you haven't watched the Marsh Family's video of their updated version of The Battle Hymn of The Republic, it is worthwhile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8saU0WeocP0
When my chamber group plays "Battle Hymn of the Republic", we usually charge right through, playing two verses. I now want to add us playing a third verse; I want to add a descant, and play it slowly and softly at the beginning, and with more intensity and a crescendo (dynamic and an accelerando) when the lyrics "as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free" and finish with a strong refrain.
Thank you for starting the month with some extremely important history. I recently learned more about my own state’s history (Oregon) and was appalled. It’s so important to learn.
And my normal comment -
Be LOUD 💔🤍💙
Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) to contact members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly.
Reach out (beyond your own) to as many in the Senate and House as you can. All of this is bigger than “I only represent my constituents” issues.
I have studied history since, well, it's beginning to feel almost like since history began. I get it that some people can be appalled by what life use to be like. I focus on the fact that our founders, what ever else people want to get up about, left us the best Constitutional Republic on Earth with, now get this, the power to amend it, fix it. That means what ever appalls us about what life is like now is on us, not them. We must Unite and Amend to Save Democracy.
Yes. We need a lot of fixing. I was shocked to learn that the Oregon Constitution still had racist language until a vote in 2002 took it out. A vote in which only 70% of people voted to remove the language! Said language - “This included repealing the "Exclusion Clause" (originally Article I, Section 35), which had prohibited Black people from living, working, or owning property in the state.”
^^ I am disappointed I didn’t know the history earlier than the age of 35. I am trying to do better and keep encouraging others to accept the past and let it fuel us for the changes we need now
I am inspired and touched by your post. And I got involved with my local Dem committee right after trumps first election because I woke up to the news of his presidency appalled at my own part in it. I had always voted but had only pitched in here and there, allowing the burden of elections and civics to fall on the shoulders of others. “It’s not my thing..” “I’m too busy”. Ok well…so now you have Trump and neutrality is no longer an option. I dove in head first and deep and with ever growing reverence for what we have if we can keep it. The past ten years, against the backdrop of horror that MAGA creates, have also been the best in my life because I finally feel part of my Democracy and my country. Civics is not a hobby. Like voting, it’s the way this whole mechanism works.
Civics is not a hobby………
And politics is NOT a spectator sport.
But George Soros doesn’t have me on his paid protester list. I protest for free, but doubt that many MAGAts do.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Ballad of Trayvon Martin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq1IFjYlZrM
Guess the Museum for African-American Studies is our Holocaust memorial. Doubt either will survive the next three years. But a six-shooter museum…
Just listened twice now, and know I will some more. Shared it with my spouse. Thanks so much for the link. Bravo!
Did complacency remove this important course from our schools, or did STEM or catchy phrases (like No Child Left Behind) and other trendy movements supplant it?
Calls for "private schools" were a shallow cover for 'let's teach our kids to hate those whom we hate.'
The history in curriculums are very white washed - updated curriculums are changing so there’s hope.
👏🏼👏🏼
Likewise, I joined the local League of Women Voters and our local democratic party association, to which I have donated money to each of their causes so they can continue the valiant fight.
I just completed my Memo re: Amending the Constitution. In it I mention, "...it was not until after the Civil War that the first African American Representative was elected, Joseph Rainey, 1870: first Native American Representative, Charles Curtis, 1892: first female Representative, Jeannette Rankin, 1916: first Asian American Representative, Dalip Singh Saund, 1956: first openly LGBTQ+ Representative, Stewart McKinney, 1971: first openly transgender Representative, Sarah McBride, 2024: and, the first African American president of the United States, Barack Obama, 2008." My proposed Amendment addresses over two dozen problems caused by the Roberts Six, Trump, and members of Congress.
And in 1966, Ed Brooke, from my home state of Massachusetts, became the first Black American elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote. Notably, he was elected as a Republican, suggesting that at this point the GOP was still "the party of Lincoln." It also had something to do with the white leaders of the anti-school-busing movement being mostly Democrats. Several of the political leaders I admired most as a young person were Republicans: Brooke, Elliot Richardson, Frank Sargent, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, Charles "Mac" Mathias of Maryland . . .
Thank you!
I have to mention the recent governorship of Republican Charlie Baker. Our state has a history of "divided" government that has worked well. Having a GOP governor had been a balance against a Democratic legislature that seems to be on vacation as often as not.
MA is indeed and gratefully Blue. I feel safe here. Mostly.
But it's instructive to remember that not too long ago there were Republican politicians who were reasonable, decent and humane.
And now...an entire political party has been captured by folks who have abandoned the Constitution, the rule of law and any sense of fairness. They have enthusiastically embraced racism, bigotry, violence, police state tactics, corruption ($4 Billion to the Trumps) and international chaos - bowing to the dictates of the murdering genocidal dictator of Russia.
Did I mention the rape of children? And covering it up - endlessly. Drip, drip, drip. Releasing the names of victims but not the rapists? How can any human being defend a party that does this?
GOP. Good Old Pedaphiles
Republican = Child Rape
I do like "Good Old Pedophiles," but I've stopped using "GOP" when referring to the Republican Party. It's a moniker from another time. "Grand" this party is not, and "Old" suggests continuity with what happened before Reagan, and maybe before Nixon. As to "the party of Lincoln" -- if the 16th president could rise from the grave and sue for libel, I like to think he would.
Bill Alstrom (MA/Maine/MA),
Great comment ....thank you for sharing.
I was a Republican before Trump. My heart broke that such a "once great and honorable political party" could fall for such an empty, self-centered human being!!!!
The Republican Party has lost its soul and, in my opinion, its reason for existing.
Reasonable, descent, humane. That should be our motto. Our goal. We have to define what each word means, though. What's reasonable to one isn't necessarily reasonable to another. I read a comment somewhere where someone asked what was wrong with raping children. How do you even respond to that? Obviously, what was reasonable to him was not reasonable to me, or, I hope, to most people.
There is nothing good about a pedophile - grotesque would be more appropriate
Bill, I grew up in a R household and I do wonder what my parents would have done with the current R party. My dad listened to Rush, so I am not very hopeful.
Yeah , the script flipped in the 60s. You can call the party's what you want. But it will always be Good vs. Evil.
I think one of the worst phrase (I believe from Reagan's time) was welfare queen. They blamed those in need and put that label on them. I work with families in need and realize the Elon Musks and Trumpers have no idea. It is always so terrible to take one example, generalize, and use that excuse to "save money."
Howard Baker is from just up the highway. He was a real statesman and gentleman.
Susanna I had the occasion to be seated next to Senator Brooke in 1968 when he was flying down to NYC. He had lots on his mind and spoke out openly. After earlier snubbing Nixon, for political reasons he was going to Nixon’s residence to eat humble pie. My cab dropped him off.
In 1969, when I resigned from the Foreign Service, Acting Secretary of State Eliot Richardson kindly conducted my exit interview personally. He spent a focused hour, writing on a yellow legal pad. He was eager to learn why I (and other promising young diplomats) chose to resign from the Foreign Service.
Four years later, when i witnessed Attorney General Richardson trigger the Saturday Night Massacre, I applauded him. (I was on the Nixon White House Enemies List.)
You’re not listed in Wikipedia’s short or long list of the enemies, but neither is journalist Anthony Lewis, who I’ve believed for decades was on it. So I wonder how complete it is. A major thrill of my younger days was getting to watch Nixon resign on a little battery-powered TV at the summer “camp” of the Lewis family. “Tony” and my father had been colleagues on the Harvard Crimson together, hence the connection. (My father became an architect, not a journalist.)
Though I disagreed with many of his positions, I had a great deal of respect for NH senator Warren Rudman.
New Hampshire: The “open sore of conservative mindset” in New England. And the only state of the six states that make up New England with this mindset. No matter what, a dem governor, two dem senators, two dems in the House, it always maintains it being this only open sore on New England.
How is it that the Chief Justice of the most powerful nation on Earth lacks an elementary school level understanding of the "justice" concept? Mr. Roberts ... justice is not a "heads I win and tails you lose" combination of retribution and enabling. Who'd a thunk.
Power and money, then preservation (conservatism). 3 basic things that humans can always count on to find when corruption becomes the norm. The preservation/protection thing is what the Epstein files cover up is all about.
Resolving the conflicts between progressives who challenge the status quo and conservatives who protect the status quo has been essential to every healthy human social system since the first hunter-gatherer bands emerged roughly 12,000 generations (3,000 centuries) ago at the origin of our species.
The problem isn't progressives or conservatives. The problem is PROGINOs (progressives in name only) and CONSINOs (conservatives in name only) who don't seize the opportunity by resolving a conflict and instead "neutralize" the opportunity that they've misperceived as a threat.
That having been said, I assume we agree that the perception of the Republican Party as a threat to the survival of the last best hope of the Earth (America) is accurate.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/john-roberts-supreme-court-alito-thomas-corruption-review/ Read this. A friend of mine, who is a legal scholar, wrote a review of a book about the supreme court. It's definitely not flattering.
Thanks for the reference. Ask your friend why he refers to the court as "right wing." If I start at top-dead-center, and then I keep going right until I'm at bottom-dead-center, have I gone to the right wing, or have I gone to the dark side?
Yet justice is subjective...
No, I don't agree with that. Justice isn't gray matter, it is as visceral as pain in my guts when it isn't present, I can't call that subjective, I call it the real truth, and is what connects us to each other. In Heather's article what pops up and touches us is the elan, the joy of having faced the enemy racism and put it to it's death.
Is justice subjective? It depends on what interest is being served. If the interest being served is the common good, then justice is subjective within that constraint. If the interest being served is "our" limited interest at the expense of the common good (and "their" interest), then the "justice is not being served" conclusion is no longer subjective. Instead, it is a readily observable and therefore irrefutable phenomenon.
Albert R. Killackey, Esq.,
Great contribution....the power of "HOPE" in action!!! Inspite of those who want to build up "hate" and feed "prejudices", we will move forward as a nation.
The "Statue of Liberty" welcomes everyone to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! We make one another better. Those who come to our shores should be able to live out their lives in freedom. We should give a "hand up" as each of us has received at one time or another.
Minority view is that Harding was the first Black president.
Interesting
Some also say Clinton was the first.
I know we can 'amend' our constitution but consider that while many lands have applauded tit practically none have implemented it; rather they have usually tried something closer to a parliamentary system. That system has some problems too but it does have a way to dismiss a wayward senior executive quite expeditiously. Something that would be useful this week.
I think we need to repeal the single executive and divide the executive Departments among seven executives.
Albert, and what we are seeing now is resentment against progress for these groups especially the election of Obama. We were in Charlestown, South Carolina, the night he was elected.
I agree that among the bigoted whites it is like a resentment, a hate and fear. But IMO the changes in the way our Constitution is applied to cases by the Roberts Court is a response to the fact that once Obama was sworn into office in signaled the Southern strategy of validating hate and fear to win votes for the Republican party no longer worked. Citizens United came down exactly one year later and then the following year Republicans were able to steal back control of Congress. The Roberts Six is not having a feast of the Constitution.
Albert, we do not disagree. The election of Obama gave impetus to get the regressive ball really rolling. I have utter contempt for the Roberts Court, but apparently he does not mind having his name on this fiasco of a court.
What is your proposed amendment?
At this time the text of my memorandum which argues why we need to unite and amend and the model amendment at the end is being proofed, polished and put onto a web page of its own. It will be ready to share soon. I do not claim it to be perfect but only a tool for discussion about the problem we face and the remedy we need. The paper is nearly 50 pages. However, the length of this memorandum is brief in size compared to the extent of the damage our Constitution has sustained from the Attack upon. The amendment has five sections. Section one is below. Note that is begins with a all inclusive ERA using language from the Declaration of Independence. Then repels corporate personhood, Citizens United and defines Republican form of government. That language should also repeal Trump v. United States (603 U.S. ___ , 2024), decided July 1, 2024. The Roberts 6, established that former presidents hold absolute immunity for core official acts and presumptive immunity for all official acts. IOW, made Trump a king.
Section 1
We hold these truths to be self-evident, All individual persons are endowed with equal non-transferable rights, To secure these rights the Government of the United States of America has been granted just powers from the consent of the governed, The Governments of the United States, every State, and every insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States has no powers to create, grant, apply or transfer any of these equal non-transferable rights of individual persons to an assembly thereof, or to property, private sector enterprises, creatures of the state, anything manufactured, artificial intelligence, or to allow any property, private sector enterprises, or creatures of the state to endorse or provide support for, or against, any candidate for public political or judicial office or ballot measure, or to engage in any form of political expression within the United States, every State, and every insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States.
The legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Government of the United States of America shall jointly and severally assure that this government, and all State governments and every insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States, are a Republican Form of Government in which power is held by the citizens thereof, and the powers granted to these governments by the people thereof shall be separated among a legislative, executive and judicial branches, to the end it shall be a government of laws and not of any persons, thus no monarch, dictator, or tyrant shall exist therein, and through secure, fair, open and transparent democratic elections elect officials to make laws, and the enforcement and application of the laws are to be of Blind and Equal Justice under the law, and this Constitution shall, and the Courts of the United Sates Shall, secure the equal non-transferable rights of all individual persons within the jurisdiction of the United States against any majority vote.
All laws and judicial holdings and decisions of the United States, every State and every insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States inconsistent with this section are hereby repealed. Neither the United States nor any State or any insular area within the jurisdiction of the United States shall assume or pay any claim of loss by this repeal; but all such asserted debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. Nothing in this section shall be construed to interfere with or deny any of the equal non-transferable rights of individual persons enumerated in this Constitution or disparage other equal fundamental non-transferable substantive rights including the rights of life – the pursuit of happiness, retained by individual persons.
Megan, you’re doing great work! Thank you 🩷🤍💙
Thank you 💜✊
Megan, I remember a governor of Oregon loudly proclaiming they were open to people visiting Oregon, but don't stay. I don't even remember when that was, but I am thinking in the early '70s. I was appalled because I had never heard anyone say that before and seem to mean it. I knew about the racist "keep out" signs for Black Americans and immigrants all over the country, but not just dismissing anyone who might want to move into Oregon (or anywhere else). I have a sister and sister-in-law who live in Beaverton and love Oregon, but are both "immigrants" from other states. I am glad the "welcome mat" was eventually put out for newcomers. I would have stayed in Oregon if I had been able to get a job. It seems there is a lot of history we don't know, and when whiny white boys with too much power for anyone's good get it into their little heads to want to wipe out everyone's history but their own, it should disturb everyone and have us all yell to them "NO, NOT ON OUR WATCH!" Then we need to sing together "We the People stand together. Together we are strong."
I still love my state (born here), but will make sure I teach others about our history. And of course I am still learning a lot about it myself.
I grew up in Beaverton and didn’t move far, just nearby in Hillsboro :)
Ruth, that was Tom McCall and it was not about race, but people from California and development. There was a slogan: Don't Californicate Oregon. It had to do with urban sprawl and the environment. We have here in Oregon Senate Bill 100 which passed, I think, under McCall and is an attempt to protect farmland. The fight continues to this day as developers try to find ways to get around it. Our Marion(one of the state's foremost ag counties) county commissioners have never seen a development that they do not love. We belong to the 1000 Friends of Oregon who have a Tom McCall dinner annually and Friends of Marion County. One current issue is Veteran Affairs wants to put a 300 acre cemetery on EFU land (exclusive farm use) in the county. The locals are outraged and most of them who live nearby are Rs who suddenly find that their water is at risk along with traffic and noise out in the country. There are other problems as well. Nobody knew a thing about this until the Scoping Notice came out. My husband has done a lot of research for the local group who have come out swinging. They are not against veterans, but suggest there are better sites than EFU land. They are well organized and on it and as I said, most of them are Rs. I hope this helps you understand Tom McCall, a R, by the way, better.
I think the Governor was Mark Hatfield, a moderate Republican. His comment about come to visit but don't stay, was not racist, but was for preserving an uncrowded, not overdeveloped way of life in Oregon. It wasn't a hateful remark, and no laws were passed to make it harder to come to live in OR that I know of.
Don't be disappointed, no one is born with all knowledge, it's something we learn along the way. Celebrate that you are learning.
A good citizen is always learning.
...and unlearning then relearning....
AH, yes! My personal motto "learn something new and do a good deed every day".
I love that - and you live up to it from what I see with your interactions on here!
Thank you. There are plenty of people on here from all different backgrounds who bring their own information based on their education or experience, and it adds so much value to whatever is being discussed.
Megan, when I was probably about the age you are now I was shocked to learn that Oregon, the state I thought of as somewhere between God's Green Acre and best place on earth, also was home to a large contingent of KKK members and had also had a place in putting forward the John Birch Society. So, even in the vast western part of our country intolerance also held a place. It surrounds us and that is why it is so important to be vigilant and to act in any way we can.
Growing up in the backwards Midwest of Kansas, I had always thought places like California, Oregon, and Washington were practically liberal utopias. My first engineering job, in the late 1970s, often took me to Eastern Oregon and Washington as in agricultural equipment engineer. I was stunned to discover that the worst of Kansas (which is pretty horrible) existed on the east side of those mountains all down the West Coast.
In the northern Midwest I had the confusing sense growing up things did not match up well. My NEO city very segregated in many ways. It was more clear much later and to this very day that I can see of the pieces of the puzzle coming together. It was almost every system. My father’s American Lit textbook approved by the RC church a huge swath of confederate poets and lost cause ratings! He subsumed them because he loved poetry but he really was swept into the stream. I happened to have a good school librarian a volunteer who selected wide ranging diverse books abd just a curious out of the box mind. Not great for a happy childhood teen time. I understand more and more just how ingrained and multilayered racist, sexism , ableist paradigms were.
Yes! We were told that about the largest contingent of KKK members at the training I attended as well and I was so confused as to why I had no idea (I’m 35). I feel like my high school education should have had updated curriculum to teach more about the truth of Oregon’s history, but definitely not. While it’s hard to learn, it’s crucial.
I cannot remember where I first learned of the racist leanings of Oregon, but I am sure it was here in one of Dr. Richardson's letters or maybe her book How the South Won the Civil War.
Thanks for sharing a book - I put it on my reading list!
Megan Rothery,
The truth is that most of us are prejudice about one thing or another...often influenced by our "up bringing".
Something else I know is that we can grow up and grow out of mistaken understandings if we allow ourselves to grow our hearts and minds.
I believe love is more powerful than hate. Love is not soft...it endures disappointments and heartbreaks and tragedies and poverty.
Let's put love on!!! Let's wear love wherever we go....the places in which we are welcomed and those places where love is difficult to wear.
We can not afford to allow "hatred and prejudice" to win!!!!
Megan Rothery -- "I was shocked to learn that the Oregon Constitution still had racist language until a vote in 2002 took it out."
It is true that Oregon’s constitution once contained racist language barring Black people from residing in the state and that this was part of the original 1857 document.
It is also true that racist wording remained in the constitution until a voter measure in 2002 cleaned up outdated language.
However, the specific exclusion clause banning Black settlement was officially removed much earlier — in 1926, not just in 2002.
https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/black-history/Pages/context/later-developments.aspx?utm_source=chatgpt.com
FWIW: Here are the exact statewide results for Oregon Measure 14 (Nov. 5, 2002) (“Removes Historical Racial References…”):
Yes: 867,901 votes (71.14%)
No: 352,027 votes (28.86%)
Ballotpedia
Yes, while anyone could settle here before the language was removed in 2002, it’s still really eye opening that it was in there until 2002 and that so many people voted No to removing it.
Megan, I often see heinous racism in posts about immigration and ICE. Our English department banned the use of the N word and had trouble with parents who wanted to defend that. Once in an English class, they were reading something with the N word and many of the students did not want to read that word. They were rescued by one of the overtly obnoxious Christians in the class who had no problem.
We have a new not quite “curriculum” but well thought out mini lessons for different grade level bands in my school district called “#Not at my school” and it started due to an increase in the N word. We teach the lessons 2 times/year (each time with enough lessons for about a week to be covered during our Content block in elementary school). I am really proud of what my district is doing with it
Nothing beats Steven Spielberg's wonderful re-enactment of the House vote to pass the 13th Amendment in "Lincoln" when George Yeaman, a Unionist opponent of slavery but fearful of emancipation, suddenly changes his mind to vote his conscience, becoming the 118th vote to pass the Amendment. Speaker Colfax adds his own vote (an unprecedented move then) to then send the Amendment to the legislatures to secure the necessary 2/3 majority for ratification.
UPDATE on Gilley Texas Prison:
*******************************
* MS NOW Anchor, CHRIS JANSING, just reported a measles outbreak at the horrid Gilley TX Prison. Confirmed tonight 2/2/26 by TRMS.
Everybody: 4 more children from Liam's School District have been taken to including "ELIZABETH". Elizabeth has a Guardian Ad Litem, ADRIAN CONEJO ARIAS who has filed a right-on-target lawsuit in U.S. District Court Texas.
BREAKING:
***********
Pro Publica has just identified the killers of Alex Pritti:
* 43 year old Jesus Ochoa
* 35 year old Raymondo Guiterrez
Justice for Alex & Renee!
*************************
Earlier LFAA Post:
Heather: On Saturday [1/31], in Minneapolis, where agents where agents from Immigration & Customs Enforcement & [ICE] Border Control are attacking immigrants & those marching to end the violence of the federal agents ..."
Albert R. Killackey, Esq: About "the best Constitutional Republic on Earth with, now get this, the power to amend it & fix it."
*****
We can take much more immediate tactics than march or amend the Constitution.
On Velshi's 1/31 /26 Saturday morning MS NOW show titled "The Power You Have" Ali got 238,000 views taking a sharp "Look at the CORPORATIONS enabling ICE."
You can de-ICE the corporations creating & supporting ICE.
Numerous U.S. corporations support U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in many, many ways through tech, detention centers like the one where Liam & his Father were imprisoned & data contracts.
FYI, data & databanks in California can be controlled by the California law the "CCPA" the California Privacy Act effective 1/1/2020. A California state agency polices the law NOT the consumer.
*******************
Major & active ICE partners include but, are not limited to the following:
GEO Group, Core Civic along with Tech giants Palantir, Amazon, Dell, Booz Allen Hamilton, AT&T& Motorola Solutions & ripoffs.
Stop ICE from approaching driver occupied cars with guns drawn only to release the occupants. Melt ICE now!
Bryan, Esq with 2 Grandchildren
Apparently another terror tactic used by ICE is to use license plate #, facial recognition software, etc to get the names and addresses of protesters, then go to their houses late at night and call their names. Creepy. Deserves a very loud response such as "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" or Jimmy Hendrix's version of "The Star Spangled Banner".
Follow the money, always.
This is great information, thanks Bryan
It's news to me that many people are speaking for a constitutional redo and this constitutional law professor suggests we look to Germany. From The Hill, by Kimberly Wehle: https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/5684764-we-need-a-new-constitution-look-to-germany-for-our-example/
a lot of the people pressing for a constitutional convention are far-right, Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 people who think it will be their opportunity to impose Christian nationalism and a dictatorial president on the country. So one should approve the idea of a convention with GREAT care.
you have that right. The Heritage group leads this push. That tells you everything by the group lead by Kevin Roberts, the man that said "bloodless, if the left allows."
I listened to an interview Heather did a few days ago with Jeff Clements, CEO of American Promise. He said right away amending the constitution concerns people immediately for the reason you state. HOWEVER, most amendments are approved by the states, not by a convention, he said.
I was going to suggest the same at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/american-conversations-american-promises
It is particularly good at explaining the differences in method selected.
I just watched -- https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/american-conversations-american-promises
great news and, for people who want something to DO, there's direction. They've made lots of progress!
YES—good point! I realized that today when I googled the topic. That can be a reason for massses of people to be aware and proactive.
Caution required, see https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/05/how-the-allies-tried-to-exorcise-nazism/
I've read elsewhere of the high level prisoners captured earlier in the war that were treated well and indoctrinated in ways to establish a democracy in line with our principles, but the Saturday Evening Post article, to me shows the more realistic situation.
To me it was more like after our Civil War and the Pardon Maryland, Pardon Camp where prisoners from both sides were held and many exchanged or pardoned. The rules were lax, many were released knowing they would violate their conditions for release, supposedly so they could go back home and work their farms and avoid any future contributions to or service in their military.
Snippets from the article:
"...The original idea was to hold all Nazis accountable, but this proved impractical. There were simply too many to investigate. And the U.S. military was bringing 785 top Nazi scientists and engineers to America without any inquiry into their politics.
In the American sector of Germany, over 170,000 Germans could be held until their case could be heard by a tribunal of American officials. Following their hearing, they were assigned to one of four groups.
Group I: Major offenders, who were subject to arrest, trial, and a possible sentence of death or long imprisonment. Their public trials, like those held in Nuremburg, were meant to discredit them, publicize their atrocities, and justify Allied justice to the German people.
Group II: Offenders — activists, militants, and profiteers. They would be sentenced to imprisonment.
Group III: Lesser Offenders who weren’t imprisoned but placed on probation, with restricted rights, for up to three years.
Group IV: Followers, who were prohibited from holding public office, fined, and limited to performing manual labor. Young adults in this category were barred from university admission.
The remainder were classified as “Exonerated.”...
...The process was laborious and time consuming, and the American soldiers who worked on the tribunals wanted to go home. The Americans gradually handed the job over to the Germans.
Meanwhile, in the French sector, the screening for Nazis became more lax, and the British were soon loosening their standards for prosecution as well. Many war criminals in the American sector fled to the British zone and escaped punishment...
...After several more interviews with suspected Nazis, Hauser wrote, “I’m glad to report that they are the world’s most innocent and harmless people — they told me so themselves.” ["They told me so themselves"]
Inmates who hoped to be classified as a Category III or IV had to provide evidence they were one of the “good” Nazis. The best approach, Hauser wrote, was to claim they had secretly helped Jews. “In hearing the prisoners talk about the kindly interest they always took in their Jewish compatriots,” he wrote, “one might easily think that the Nazi Party was a society for the care and protection of Judaism.”...
...In truth, their expertise was sorely missed in a country where inexperienced civilians were trying to revive the country. Immediately after the fighting had stopped, the allies had dismissed nearly half of all Germany’s public officials.
American officers admitted to Hauser that war criminals were slipping through their hands. The guards were underpaid German civilians who, for as little as three packs of cigarettes, would look the other way as a prisoner slipped out..."
My mentor, who had been captured at Corregidor, told me we had one Military Police Officer for every 40 Japanese Police Officer after WWII to help make sure the competent people that still had the respect of the population stayed on the job but in compliance with their new constitution and principles.
I think it was the best we could do under the circumstances and reminds me of my mentor's appreciation of the changes the Japanese made in large part due to the totally unexpected leniency shown to so many as we helped them rebuild their country into a trusted democratic ally.
He had been a POW, captured at Corregidor at the end of extreme fighting that delayed the Japanese long enough to keep them from going past Guadalcanal and cutting off sea links to New Zealand and Australia. Those captured at the end were not subject to the murderous marches like the Bataan Death March. He ending up in a work camp at the Wakayama docks, often getting to talk to an ancient (60 year old), guard often. I best remember him saying the guard thought Japan was doing the same thing the European colonial powers were doing and that they thought they were the equals of any European power after defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
Heather did an interview a few days ago with the CEO of American Promise, working to return campaign contribution law to Congress by constitutional amendment. He said 27 states have signed on along with a bipartisan group in congress. I bet we’ll hear more from her—she was excited.
Thank you, I found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWhSVDCKIfc
I have to throw this into the mixture: Did you learn that trump is closing down the Kennedy Center for two years!!!! probably to embellish it with gold toilets and diamond studded wallpaper. He announced there was funding -- but he didn't say where it was coming from. Again...no transparency, more deception, dishonesty, obfuscation.....
PRO PUBLICA has identified the killers of Alex PittIi:
* 43 year old Jesus Ochoa
*. 35 year old Raymond Gutierrez
The state of Minnesota's investigation has made much progress & will indict in considered time.
Justice for Alex & Renee
Bryan, I hear the names and notice they are Hispanic names. Isn't it interesting that the two they named are both Hispanic. It makes it look like Alex Pretty, a white man was murdered by 2 Hispanic men, some kind of proof that Hispanics even working for our government would kill white people. I would not believe a word of this because just like everything else that comes out of the mouths or pens of this regime, it is most likely, almost guaranteed to be a lie! More propaganda for their lying machine that just keeps on running.
Oh for goodness sake, the last time you amended that sclerotic document was in 1992 regarding congressional pay (and that was proposed in 1789). Constitutional lawyers make a good living arguing about what the blazes half of the Constitution's provisions even mean. It's as though we here in the UK chose to be faithful to the Magna Carta. You need to re-write the damn thing in modern English so that you can finally dispense with preposterous and poisonous legal doctrines like Originalism and the Unitary Executive theory for once and for all.
If you keep telling yourself that you have the best Constitution in the world you'll never lift yourselves out of this unholy mess you've landed yourselves in. You have a president and an administration that is flagrantly breaking the law, acting arbitrarily, defying the courts and threatening your country's neighbours and allies and there's fuck all you can do about it.
And pass laws to enforce so many things Trump has crashed through that were once accepted norms of behavior. POTUS releasing personal tax returns to the public prior to election; acceptance and adherence to separation between branches of government (especially DOJ and President!);adherence to court rulings and subpoenas; adherence to emoluments clause preventing POTUS from taking foreign money; and adherence to the rules to not personally profiting from being President! The list could go on and on. We need to legally prevent this from happening again. Partisan SCOTUS is the real problem here. Without this courts cockamamy rulings without any basis in OUR law or Constitution we would not have this crook in power. They have enabled him at every turn, just like they were/are being paid to do! STACK the COURT first thing or install term limits that knock out 2-3 of them at once!
Kathryn, a couple of things I would recommend as many others have, related to the Supremes: term limits, yes; expand the court to have one justice for each circuit (13); all nominees would have to be approved by at least 3 independent legal organizations like the ABA (not the Federalist Society because it is not in any way independent); have the justices be expected to live the same ethics rules that all judges in the federal court system have to follow with strong penalties for breaking them; no gifts from anyone outside family and close friends for birthdays, holidays, etc. which must be reported, none from corporations PACs, foreign entities, etc. These would be a few to start with that could make a big difference.
Albert, agreed. They did the best they could under the circumstances. Many people now are failing them like Rs in Congress and the Supreme Court.
That is exactly my point. We have no room to bad talk any of the founders of 250 years ago when we have the power they gave us to amend the problems we face with DEI (which in itself means "WE the People") and yet have not done so. I thank them but shame on us.
Megan, we need to challenge our Congressfolk and Senators to meet with their constituents. If the cowardly Republicans refuse to hold PUBLIC meetings they need to be replaced.
Ask them what have they done for us lately? Some of these Republicans have been in Congress and/or the Senate for several decades and have done NOTHING for WE THE PEOPLE. They work for us, every one of us, not for Donald Trump and certainly not for the Elon Musk or Peter Thiel.
2025 saw the largest addition to the national debt ever, thanks to Donald Trump -- $2.5 trillion. This is not sustainable.
We also need to understand that Trump, the ChristoNazi conquest and its MAGAstapo terrorism is the triumph of a multi-generation, bi-partisan scheme more than a century in the making. To discover the carefully hidden poisonous roots of Trump's "Unified Reich," go here: https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/january-25-2026?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=205274486
TheracistrapistRUMP is not an aberration;rather, he is the CULMINATION of the republiKKKon party!
To be much more specific, the conservative leadership that has been slowly and systematically overwhelmed by the racists.
Willingly duped!
Many of us get discouraged and depressed by Trump/MAGA's daily assault on American values and our constitutional government. It's appalling. Trump's premeditated War mirrors Hitler's White Nationalist Nazi party's tyranny that ironically, copied the terror tactics of the Klu Klux Clan.
Starting with tsunamis of lies and propaganda about American decline, like a coward, he attacked soft targets, intellectuals, lawyers, aid agencies and researchers who depend on government funding. Then he blamed minorities as the source of national ruin and created a secret army to terrorize the evil minorities, deport a few victims and tried to cower the resistance.
And like Hitler, he loaded his government with true believers to carry out his war with complete loyalty and supposed impunity. With our tax dollars, Vance, Miller, Hegseth, Homan, Bessent, Noem do terrible things to Americans everyday
The message from Minneapolis has been heard loud and clear all across America. Trump's game is over. His POTUS show is cancelled. His popularity continues to plunge We the People have a power MAGA can't imagine or hold in their hearts.
After 250 years, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States"
Our radical aspirations are as true today as they were at our founding. We have just begun to fight!
Right now it looks like all government is playing a waiting game on our resolve to bring our people's security and well being back to being civilized.
And that this is just more bullshit, their cover-up of how determined ICE is, really Trump and his whole team, to murder more and more people while filling the airwaves with rhetoric designed to quash our demand that they END MARTIAL LAW!!! I want to believe that ALL of us flooding Waltz and AG with our DEMAND that they STOP protecting ICE and DEMAND Humanitarian groups start the return of law and order to their streets would be a viable alternative approach to what we have now.
Do you know that Governor Waltz, the State AG and the police departments of Minneapolis and St. Paul are all involved in the mayhem of the ICE deployment?
Nicely put.
I agree. Some have changed office locations to not be bombarded as much. I’ve had people email me about address changes for the spreadsheet and appreciate the checks and updates!
Like Susan Collins Lewiston Office
Yes, I believe she’s one I changed but I will double check!
The phone number is the same but the new physical office is a short walk away from the District Court (and park area we still protest at across from her old office), to a building listed as 184 Maine Street on the corner of Maine and Chapel Streets. There is a lot more traffic past her old office with many people in cars honking.
The Police seem to have given up on enforcing the law against such honking other than trying to discourage it because of the business complaints. I do try to discourage people with signs encouraging honking there since it seems counterproductive and alienating.
Freeport is the opposite with many happy honkers and friendly waves, with no complaints from the local businesses that I'm aware of.
This economy will kill the Republic just like it killed the crew of the Challenger.
Congresswoman Omar was doing exactly that when some dickhead sprayed her with vinegar. She turned on him with fist raised before security saved him from HER.
For me, the most important part of today's letter is the throughline that ties moral language to moral action, and then measures the nation by whether it lives up to its own words.
It is not really about a song, or even about history. It is about how often Americans declare freedom sacred, and how often power moves to hollow that declaration out once it becomes inconvenient.
Julia Ward Howe’s hymn framed freedom as a moral obligation, not a branding exercise. The Thirteenth Amendment moment showed what it looks like when government uses its authority to expand human dignity. The sit ins of 1960 showed that when the state fails, ordinary people can force the country back toward its stated ideals. Tyre Nichols’ death shows the cost of pretending those ideals are already fulfilled. The removal of the enslavement exhibit shows how power now seeks to manage memory itself, not by arguing history, but by erasing it.
The most urgent message is this: freedom in America does not survive on sentiment, symbolism, or nostalgia. It survives only when people insist that truth be told publicly, even when it is uncomfortable, and when they are willing to act on that truth rather than sing it safely.
The final image matters most. Protesters singing new words to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” inside a Target store are doing exactly what the song has always done at its best. They are reclaiming moral language from authority and returning it to the people. That is the warning and the invitation. When the state abandons truth, history shows that the burden of keeping it alive falls back on citizens, again. More @👉 https://essayx.substack.com/
Excellent post, Michael. B. Franklin’s response, “A Republic, if you can keep it” becomes more prescient by the day. If YOU can keep it…….holding on to a democracy is not a job for the weak, the lazy, the uncaring, the selfish. It is up to all of us. Thank you for this.
Well said.
Thank you, Megan. Everyday you shine a light that can lead us forward from darkness.
Yes, I grew up in Medford, Oregon in the late 1940's and %0's. As an adult I learned of the Klan's activity there and the fact that we were a 'sun downer" town. When an African American (Black) weather man and his family came to town, they had a cross burned on their lawn and were run out of town. The first Black person I ever saw was in Portland, Oregon and I must have been at least 10 years old. Sad commentary.
We moved to McMinnville in 1991 and lived in Oregon for twenty six years, half in Mac and half in SW Portland. We were horrified to learn that housing in Yamhill County was segregated until 1972.
I had no clue! Medford was a Sundown Town when I was growing up in the 1960's.
When I call Thune & Johnson I include that I am an American citizen & my taxes help pay your salary!
Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., where Julia Ward Howe is buried is a must-visit site when one visits Boston, Lexington, Concord, etc. Also buried there are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Sumner, Buckminster Fuller,B.F. Skinner, Felix Frankfurter, and more. We've heard the claim since we were young that "the pen is mightier than the sword." "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" inspires us still, 164 years later. The song by Mrs. Howe brings to my mind the saying by Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Megan, in early 2020's Eugene finally named "Sam R" street to "Sam Reynolds" street. It was named for a Black pastor in Eugene, and the Episcopal Methodist church is there. I grew up in Medford, which was still a sundown town in the 1960's.
Megan, yes: it's great to be a nice liberal state now that conveniently, because of its racist past, has got so few people of color--especially Black people--that the kind of quotidian interactions between white people and others that happen elsewhere simply do not occur. Oregon as a state doesn't mention its No Blacks laws when championing its "inclusivity".
You’re right, the past laws are not mentioned. We have work to do in the state still.
Thank you for the Goodtrouble info, I’ll be using it!
You’re welcome! Thank you for speaking up right now!
Megan, Yes, Oregon's history in this respect is appalling as it is in many other states including my home state of Indiana. Read Fever in the Heartland about the KKK in Indiana and also here in Oregon. Just this week we had an incident in Salem where the ICE jackboots stopped a woman(I assume she is Hispanic), broke her window, threw her on the ground, injuring her, dumped out her purse, and discovered her US passport, then left. She called the Salem police who told her to call the F.B.I. We donated to a go fund page for her as she is not only injured, but has other medical problems. Her crime was driving while brown. As an aside, I saw several posts from Minneapolis where people were singing in church about the problem there and also in front of a hotel where ICE supposedly was staying.
thank you!
I read The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe, a biography, by Elaine Showalter. It goes beyond her marriage (which ends and her husband took all the money she brought into the marriage) and the writing of the hymn. She was also very involved in the early women's movement and other social reforms. I recommend it....
Thank you! I added it to my reading list!
It's very interesting and an enjoyable read. I love recommending and receiving recommendations as well. Always looking for the next book to add to the pile by the bedside.
Thanks, Megan. I know I've asked but forgotten your answer: Where in Oregon? I'm in Eugene, grew up in Medford.
I grew up in Beaverton and have stayed close in my adult life whether that be in Portland or Hillsboro (current)
Thanks. Grew up in Medford, moved to Eugene when my wife started grad school in 1984, been here ever since.
Yes, reaching out is important, if seemingly insignificant. This article require a half-hour well worth investing. https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/the-doge-disaster-one-year-later 😥
Mitch Jackson's zeroing in on a single BIG point of BIG corruption as an example. https://mitchthelawyer.substack.com/p/a-foreign-security-chief-quietly 😱
Taken together, these essays show how damage is done and how much damage has been done. Flooding the zone has worked, at least for suckers like me. What is stunning is how fast things have disintegrated. 💔
If someone asks me what I’m thinking about in the political realm these days, I just tell them I’m listening to Heather Cox Richardson and leave it at that.
She is a gift to society!
Her videos are like me having a bull horn to say what I have thought for years. Not stealing a thing from her, but boy, is it great after thinking I was the crazy one all these years.
Brilliant, Mr Hammer. Aren’t we lucky to have her — to have found her?
To Dr Richardson: Thank you for ALL you do.
I feel Dr Richardson found us right where we are and that is exactly why she caught our attention. Our national treasure. I want HCR to receive an honor like the peace prize.
February 1st is also our son, Brendan’s’ 40th birthday. He was named Brendan after St Brendan the Navigator https://faith.nd.edu/saint/st-brendan/
I sent him this tThank you, Heather for bringing clarity, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, compassion and light into this topsy turvy heart breaking time.
I am sending Brendan this letter and the story of St Brendan.
She is the toolbox. We are the carpenters.
Dr Richardson paints the guiding back-story to essays that analyze the fraying of morality, public and private. This article require a half-hour well worth investing. https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/the-doge-disaster-one-year-later 😥
Mitch Jackson's zeroing in on a single BIG point of BIG corruption as an example. https://mitchthelawyer.substack.com/p/a-foreign-security-chief-quietly 😱
Taken together, these essays show how damage is done and how much damage has been done. Flooding the zone has worked, at least for suckers like me. What is stunning is how fast things have disintegrated. 💔
Rather than leave it at that, click the link Michael Corthell added to the bottom of his comment above.
I did, and read his essay and joined his Substack and I already feel smarter for it!
I have told so many people about her in the past few weeks. I cannot say enough good about her and I am so grateful to her for the work she’s doing.
“If we do something then he will use the Insurrection Act”
“That's what abusers do. They say “comply or I will hurt you and the people you love.”
And they do that forever and it continues and gets worse.
The Insurrection Act is not the destruction of the USA.
Surrender of our morals and values is destruction of the USA.
We don't have ANYTHING worth saving if we aren't willing to stand up and defend it.
The time for justice is always immediate because the cost of injustice is our soul.”
. ~Christopher Armitage (02/01/26)
https://substack.com/@chrisarmitage1/note/c-207759005?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
.
Here for the forces of Liberation is a legal, non-violent weapon said to have proven extremely effective in the battles of Portland: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!n0kd!,w_568,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb28deee-afca-41b1-ba93-aa5111f4cf3b_1170x841.jpeg (With thanks and a salute to Adrienne.)
Blowback.
Many of us get discouraged and depressed by Trump/MAGA's daily assault on American values and our constitutional government. It's appalling. Trump's premeditated War mirrors Hitler's White Nationalist Nazi party's tyranny that ironically, copied the terror tactics of the Klu Klux Clan.
Starting with tsunamis of lies and propaganda about American decline, like a coward, he attacked soft targets, intellectuals, lawyers, aid agencies and researchers who depend on government funding. Then he blamed minorities as the source of national ruin and created a secret army to terrorize the evil minorities, deport a few victims and tried to cower the resistance.
And like Hitler, he loaded his government with true believers to carry out his war with complete loyalty and supposed impunity. With our tax dollars, Vance, Miller, Hegseth, Homan, Bessent, Noem do terrible things to Americans everyday
The message from Minneapolis has been heard loud and clear all across America. Trump's game is over. His POTUS show is cancelled. His popularity continues to plunge We the People have a power MAGA can't imagine or hold in their hearts.
After 250 years, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States"
Our radical aspirations are as true today as they were at our founding. We have just begun to fight!
Well said!!!
At our regular Saturday morning protest, I was very pleased to see younger people - ages 14 - 35 - participating. Their energy was inspiring. Minnesotans have shown the way: the People are finally rising up.
I will make a bandolier for my spare batteries. I think I'll go with a gillie net instead of painting mine. DeWalt yellow really sticks out.
Amazing.
Thank you, JaKsaa, for observing that we endanger democracy when we bow to bully threats like invocation of the Insurrection Act. The orange thug may well do that, and it would be a setback for the forces of human decency, but it would not end democracy in the US. We will have to march on, regardless. The forces of bigotry have been with us from the beginning, and every step that put a dent in bigotry as a political force has been overcome within a decade or two by the return of bigotry as the dominant political force. Reconstruction, had it been continued for several decades after the Civil War, might have banished bigotry to a political backwater, but Reconstruction was entirely dismantled in a couple decades.
Likewise, the policies of forced K12 desegregation built a generation of adults who were less bigoted than their elders, but the forces of bigotry still rampant in those elders reẽstablished K12 segregation. Today, K12 segregation has taken firm hold of K12 education. As a result we are now building new generations of bigots. Today the bigots are in charge, dismantling democracy to make it extremely difficult to get back in the right side of history.
We had a chance. We failed. But we must not give up. The Union forces did not give up in the 1860s. They brought a new democracy to the US. It didn’t stay long in power, but it permanently changed the landscape. We are now in danger of losing not only democracy but all manner of human decency in US governance. We must do all we can to bring US government back from the brink like the Union Army did over a century ago. Not with the same methods, we hope, but with all methods within our power.
The thing that absolutely infuriates me is that Trump and his acolytes think we are unable to understand complexity and nuance. According to them, our history must be transmitted as "we only did good stuff and were winners all the time". Ridiculous. Lots of stuff happened that was terrible. The 3/5ths compromise, the Trail of Tears, Jim Crow--all happened and all were bad. BUT, due mostly to the persistence of ordinary citizens, we as a nation grew and changed and got closer to our stated ideals. I taught 8th grade U.S. history in an ordinary American public school and my students got it. If ordinary 13-year-olds can understand the trajectory of our history as flawed but reaching to be better, so can ordinary American adults. We can be proud of being citizens of a nation that got better over time. To me, that's true patriotism.
Well said, Ms. Rothschild. The fact "we as a nation grew and changed and got closer to our stated ideals" is precisely the dynamic Trump and his high-tech/ChristoNazi masters intend not just to prohibit but to actually reverse. And that is only the beginning; their long-term intent is to fulfill the ultimate function of patriarchy -- the destruction of every humanitarian advancement our species has ever achieved. (Thus my oft-repeated assertion that patriarchy -- which has afflicted us for only about six or seven thousand years -- is the cosmic equivalent of smallpox-poisoned blankets.)
It is stated plainly in one of the founding documents of our Nation and should be evident to anyone that has read just the Preamble to the Constitution: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union"...
America is a work in progress, it always has been. Right from the beginning it was flawed with many of the Founding Fathers owning slaves, land theft, betrayal and annihilation of entire Native American tribes, denying women and Black people the right to vote, racial violence and prejudice against immigrants, an endless list of past sins and crimes. But we have also made so much progress, we've been an inspiration to the world of what a free democratic society can achieve and offer hope and goodwill.
Our Nation has so much potential to be better only now we're being gaslighted and steamrolled by a lawless, fascist regime. I am not proud of this Nation right now and fear for it's future, one of the reasons being that this Trumpian regime is trying to censor and whitewash American history.
This regime is forcing us in the absolute the wrong direction, we have to course correct, take our country back and make America Constitutional again.
I totally agree.
But propaganda is designed to, deliberately, and with malice, distort, skew, change what the factual truth of history tells us. Rupert’s mission statement, per Ronnie.
My son actually said to me recently, “think how much better things would be if Rupert Murdoch had never existed.”
This is nothing more than the projection of the insecurities and the resultant bigotry of this bunch of third rate individuals who have captured our government. Of course they can never admit that they have ever been wrong about anything. That would destroy their carefully constructed facade of being brilliant and being the real leaders who know better than the majority of us who believe our own eyes.
Good for Heather super positive today.
But I'd like to go back to yesterday, where one key part of hers then was her reference to “mudsills.”
As she explained more fully in her 2023 “Democracy Awakening,” the envisaging of mudsills derogates entire classes of persons to serving the enslaving aristocracy only. White peons or serfs, or black slaves – doesn’t matter. None has individuality.
The U.S. has had this class of arrogant super lords for a long time. Now, however, they’re on steroids promoting their police state fascism, mouthing the lies of all Donald’s most despicable at the top, the criminal Donald himself ruled by a corrupted “supreme” court immune to law.
We can’t look to our schools to have been educating us with any centrality for the humanities that could enshrine how to see “others” among us as individuals in our complicated contexts. For the managerial classes that see the masses of us only as units, numbers, and demographic groupings for them to package, schools do one thing only. They administer tests.
Have we sunk yet to the worst of what criminal Donald, mass murderer Putin, the billionaire rapists, and our armed, white supremacist goons intend?
Phil everything you say is true, but it’s also important to remember that many os humanities greatest accomplishments are achieved by people working together with others. The plan of would be overlords is always to divide. United we must stand!
Exactly, Daphne.
Somewhere along the line people got the idea that our great novels, memoirs, histories, and other arts were just isolated consumer products, of no particular value other than just more marginality among people themselves marginalized, too.
The reason the far right foundations ensuant to the Powell memo got humanities exiled from K-12 and set in neutered silos in "higher" ed was that, before 1971, the great songs, films, books, and other arts united Americans furiously for anti-war energy, for women's rights, civil rights, farm workers, the environment.
America after 1971 would be pushed into the priorities instead of our dehumanized and dehumanizing (i.e., raping) rich.
Phil you said it better than me. My subconscious use of humanities for humanity’s is an interesting mistake. I grew up in the era of the National Endowment for Humanities. This shaped my education and my life. It is a shame that we now live in a brazen Plutocratic gilded age.
The humanities teach us about community, understanding - and a recognition that those other than ourselves are not lesser tot us but equal to. And that diversity broadens us all. This is why I love living in NYC so very much. The GOP's focus on the individual strips away at this -- and their embrace of the individual (me, me, ME!) over the community is most often coupled with "good for me, but not for thee"
Just what Jesus said, right??
If Republicans would "focus on the individual," laurie, they'd see "others."
But they do not at all "focus on the individual." They stick to groups, group labeling, stereotyping.
And, sorry to say, Dems do this also. Dems went to the same schools. Focused only on numbers gotten from the same standardized tests. Learned no humanities they can draw on today.
For six years I taught art at a very interesting university in Japan, iCLA - International College of Liberal Arts (iCLA).
“iCLA takes pride in bringing together a very diverse student body through its extensive partnership program extending across over thirty countries. This diversity uniquely trains our students to grow, makes them adaptable to new cultures, helps in refining their perspective, and in bringing a better understanding of one’s own belief by considering diverse and dissenting opinions. As a liberal arts college, we are committed to a broad education with a curriculum that is both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary. The traditional majors in Economics and Political science are enriched by integration with courses in Business and Sociology, respectively, providing depth and breadth. Courses in Arts, Music, Language Arts, Performing Arts, are given a symbiotic relationship in the majors of Japan Studies and Interdisciplinary Arts. The unique nature of Humanities is brought out by our “design your own major” philosophy where a student can choose a wide variety of courses from different disciplines and design their own study path. This places us at the exact opposite of traditional university education where students are forced through a narrow education funnel.”
https://www.icla.ygu.ac.jp/en/icla/
If anyone fleeing America is in search of a good education, I highly recommend it.
Where is this, Kristin? Tokyo?
And how large is it?
I love its goals, as you cite them. But I dread the larger reality of how testing, as imported from the U.S., has killed everything you cite.
Hi Phil,
It’s in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture. iCLA is part of Yamanashi Gakuin University.
YGU - International College of Liberal Arts (iCLA)
https://www.icla.ygu.ac.jp/en/ygu/
Please explore their websites.
iCLA https://www.icla.ygu.ac.jp/en/icla/
If you have a chance to visit them, I’m sure you’ll be inspired.
Sanjay Jhingan, the Dean of iCLA is a physicist who specializes in gravitational collapse in general relativity, observational cosmology, gravitational wave theories and gravitational theories in higher-dimensional spacetimes. He’s great!
I suspect AI will play a huge roll in our deteriorating society, a form of slavery. Right now I am just sick to my stomach because I purchased a couple of items on Amazon ! I vowed not to do that anymore and I got lazy! Ugh ugh ugh ugh
You could always return those items with a note explaining why you don't want to do business with House of Bezos Bozos.
I think I will, it will of course be a pain in my butt, because all items come from different sellers, they are things I can get at, hum....Walmart (ugh), CVS (ugh), Walgreens (ugh), Dollar Tree, probably not available, I'll go directly to the company, which just might cost more, but hell it's all rigged against us!
Thanks for responding to my "oh poor me" post . Many have it much worse than me.
I appreciate your willingness to do that! There are an increasing number of alternatives. Check out the Substack, Cut off the Spigot, and also the app, GoodsUniteUs. It is definitely more time-consuming to find other options but they are out there! If nothing else, it makes us examine our consumption habits, and perhaps cut back. The decrease in profits will make the big corporations rethink their positions.
Super Lords on steroids, well said Phil. They deserve our contempt, and not for any to deny that they are murderers, rapists, goons, thieves and thugs
Yes, many do fall short of embracing what so many have fought and some died for. Some, and some many, have turned to a contrary view. It’s unnecessary to observe how long that element of human inclination has persisted. We have always known it.
Our struggle is a timeless one. It is the honor and the duty of the freedom loving here in these States to carry the light of freedom, human rights and dignity before us.
We are not America. We are of America. We, despite the contrary claim of the ‘superior’ few, are a United States. We stand for common human rights, not just in our land but across the Earth. Daily we reject the forces of fear and self-dealing that enlarge some only to diminish others. We bear a light of hope and call it reason.
I just had a horrible vision of him trying to rename the United States to the Warring States.
Sounds like Hegseth aesthetic. Taco-fold might choose the States of Drumpf. I suspect he’s already planing on renaming all major airports and rail stations.
As a musician who serves a Christian church, February always includes a singing of The Battle Hymn. And with it comes a written explanation of its importance. As always, I get a comment or two from a member about how nice it is to sing something patriotic. My corrective answer is always kind but brief. Battle Hymn is not a feel good, patriotic song for a nation doing things right during the civil war. It is a hymn about Gods restorative justice for a nation that practiced the injustice of enslavement and continues to practice injustice to this day. It is a reminder to do better and to remember the source of our strength to do better.
I'm copying a comment by Craig Dupler in case you might not have seen it yet, Prophet. It might be a great coda for your church's singing of Julia Ward Howe's anthem.
Craig Dupler:
"I should add, that if you haven't watched the Marsh Family's video of their updated version of The Battle Hymn of The Republic, it is worthwhile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8saU0WeocP0"
The Marsh Family is totally amazing! All of their songs speak to what is in our hearts about what is happening in and to our country. This very talented family is in the UK!
Cheeto And the Nazi Economic Game: Screw Everybody Except The Wealthy
It has been clear since the 1980’s and Reagan that the main economic policy was to hand their wealthy donor class tax breaks and make the rest of the electorate pay for it It’s the story of the privileged class, superior genetics(RFK Jr and his eugenics crap), and “we deserve to rule” kind of policy that led eventually to the political strategy of “trickle down economics(TDE)” Give the wealthy a bunch of money out of the pockets of the middle class and then that money will be distributed to the inferior human beings “below them” The Republican gambit has always been “we’re better than everyone else” so join us….we’ll elevate your game
A couple of studies have now shown that TDE doesn’t work and that the wealthy just become wealthier with an ever increasing wealth gap and as a result everybody else gets poorer It’s now clear that that Cheeto and the Nazis are living Greed/Power Corrupts, and Absolute Greed/Power Corrupts Absolutely
Yes, there is societal unrest which has underpinnings in the economic inequality that is being foisted on the American people by the current Nazi regime in the guise of inflation WE the People have had enough and it’s French Revolution 2.0(21st century style) and the way to screw the wealthy is to tax them and level the playing field(in the 1950’s the effective tax rate for top 1% was 42 to 45% and now 26 to 28%!!!)
ProPublica claimed (in 2022) that "Wealthiest Americans pay just 3.4% of income in taxes, investigation reveals"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/13/wealthiest-americans-tax-income-propublica-investigation
Some billionaires who live kings pay no income tax at all, Trump among them.
The selfsame individuals who have made several attempts to cut off food assistance and school lunch to the poorest among us.
Yup. "Let them eat cake" time.
$75+ Billion for a secret police operation. Yet Medicare, Medicaid, Food for Kids are slashed. $4 billion funneled to the Trump family. Yet USAID lost a similar amount - KILLING 100s of thousands of people.
This is diabolical, cruel insanity. Deliberate reassignment of resources to a few as millions suffer. Criminals dream of such success.
And because the incompetence and thievery is so vast, America is $2.5 Trillion deeper in debt. Guess we need to starve some more kids. Repossess some wheelchairs, cut off more support for the disabled. And those lazy poor people. All they do is whine.
"The problem with America is that the poor have too much money and the rich don't have enough..." Tom Rush
https://youtu.be/nOqAj_n7IN0
Tom Rush is the best!
I will never understand: If one billion is not enough, how many billions would be enough? For some in that class, it appears NOTHING ever satisfies their infinite greed. Incomprehensible.
It is incomprehensible to humans who haven't denied their SOUL. The emptiness they feel (which can never be filled by material things) is the rotting flesh inside where their SOUL used to reside. A soul has the wonderous ability to recognize another soul's basic goodness (to wish for life for all living things, to nurture, to create, to love and protect.)
These soulless entities are not human; they are the epitome of evil. They wish death, cruelty, suffering and despair on all other living beings that they cannot dominate, control, enslave or f*ck.
Remember the reptilian brain? It goes like this: Can I eat it? No. Can I f*ck it? No. Well, then I'll kill it. That's what we are dealing with.
Linda, you are so right. On all counts.
AI Overview of "Trump promised to reveal his tax returns"
Donald Trump promised on multiple occasions, starting as early as 2014, that he would release his tax returns. However, he consistently broke these promises throughout his 2016 campaign, his presidency, and his 2020 reelection bid.
Key Details Regarding the Promise
Initial Promise (2014): In May 2014, before officially running for office, Trump said, "If I decide to run for office, I'll produce my tax returns, absolutely. And I would love to do that".
The Audit Excuse: During the 2016 campaign, Trump shifted his position, claiming he could not release his tax returns because he was under "routine audit" by the IRS. While he promised to release them once the audit was complete, he did not do so, even though nothing prohibits a person from releasing tax returns under audit.
Post-Election Position: After winning the election, Trump stated, "The only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters," and his staff argued that the public did not care.
Continued Refusal: Throughout his presidency, he continued to withhold the documents, frequently citing the ongoing audit or stating it was "none of your business".
Release of Tax Returns (2022)
Following a years-long legal battle that reached the Supreme Court, the House Ways and Means Committee obtained six years of Donald Trump's tax returns (2015–2020) and released them to the public on December 30, 2022.
Findings: The records revealed that Trump paid little to no federal income tax in several years, including 2016 and 2017, by claiming large business losses.
Audit Lapses: The committee's investigation found that the IRS did not start mandatory audits on his taxes during the first two years of his presidency.
Subsequent Actions
In January 2026, Donald Trump and his family sued the IRS and the Treasury Department for $10 billion, alleging that the 2022 release of their tax information, which stemmed from a 2018–2020 leak by a contractor, caused them financial and reputational harm.
The corruption flows like water over the falls...and not a single Republican blinks.
That would be correct J L, and the libertarians and conservatives leave that out as when the flipside of that is what they use to cut their taxes. The percentage of the taxes collected the rich pay is somewhere around 60% and the large number of people that pay nothing in income tax because they do not have enough income. Robert Reich reminds us how much of the wealth the top 1% own to drive home that they could pay much, more in taxes, still live like kings. I believe it was an Interview with Art Linkletter I read back in the 1990s(?) when asked why he was buying some property he did not need to increase his wealth and his response was "It's how we keep score." Even though his purchase would hurt others, it was going to raise his wealth score in his circle. Essentially, that is what the Epstein files are about, as well as the Panama Papers.
thanks good to know
The top 5% of people by income, paid 61% of all the federal income taxes paid in the US in 2022. The top federal income tax marginal rate is 37%, for couples making more than $768,000 in 2026. On top of that, there is a 3.8% tax on their net investment income. Nearly half of people in the US pay no federal income tax at all, because their income is low. About 40 states also have a state income tax.
And yet the combined wealth of a few individuals exceeds the combined wealth of of all other citizens combined, and there are many legal, marginally, flat out illegal bit rarely enforced (see Panama, Paradise, and Pandora Papers) illegal tax dodges that only benefit the wealthy. Warren Buffet and a few other very wealthy people have complained that the system is too weighted toward protecting hyper-wealth.
HCR his repeatedly mentioned that Republicans created the first federal income tax system to pay for the Civil War, and made the tax rates highest on the wealthiest. In my lifetime taxes on very wealthy individuals and corporations was much higher, yet the wealthy still managed to be wealthy. What thy did not manage to do, at least to the same extent, is dictate national policy. They did not pay hundreds of millions (even corrected for inflation) to buy legislation and election outcomes.
No modern "Republican" would ever say, and certainly not act on Lincoln's conviction that:
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits."
Mutual benefits requires what Teddy Roosevelt called a "Square Deal". That's what laws protecting workers and consumers (usually twin roles of the same persons) such as now only very weakly enforced antitrust legislation. Monopolies or oligopolies of money and political power (and the two tend to go together) are exactly what a free society and truly free market is not. No?
I started out writing my comment above because someone had posted that the top rate was 28%. But it's really 40.8% (37+3.8). I think tax rates on the wealthy will increase in next 10 years or so, to pay for Social Security shortfall and other programs. The Dems will be in charge soon enough to do that. But the well will run low at some point.
I like the last sentence of your Lincoln quote, and some R's in Congress, more than a few, would agree. After the 2026 election, most will be voted out in favor of more "progressive" candidates, due to R's being in swing districts. Some voted for impeachment in 2021.
A lot of the wealthy, including Michael Bloomberg, lower their taxes by contributing to charities. That's a good thing I believe. Bill Gates is going to give away more than half his fortune by age 90.
T. Roosevelt was a good President...proposed anti-trust legislation as part of Square Deal. Also proposed "New Nationalism" and I believe won Nobel Peace Prize for helping mediate end to Russo-Japanese war in 1905.
In 1980 I was working for what I like to call a "flakey tax shelter" firm that specialized in selling K-1 losses at $0.25 on the dollar for Section 8 housing limited partnerships. Reagan's election was heralded by the company because of what they already knew was going to happen to the IRS even before he was sworn in as president. At that time, in most major cities there was an IRS office in the local federal building. They provided a number of services and had offices for the local audit staffs. Most of these offices were closed with the active audits being moved to the regional IRS offices. The auditors were given the option of moving, but most did not, which was expected. Most of those audits were never completed. As the war on the IRS audit staffing has continued over the past 45 years, the percentage of audits has gone down dramatically.
Earlier studies showed that in order to get good compliance with the tax code, we needed to audit about 2% of all returns. The rate has now fallen to around 0.4%, which is basically an open invitation to cheat. It gets worse. The R's have consistently supported the current legislative condition that prevents the IRS from supporting direct efile. Instead, we are forced to share our data with private companies just to talk to our own government (i.e. file a return). However, one can still file a paper return. That's the intended result.
Current data is hard to come by, but as of May 2023, the IRS still had 4.2 million unprocessed returns. They don't have enough people to do the work. So, if you are clever and want to slide something by the IRS, just make sure that any automatically reported stuff is on your return, then add whatever nonsense you like that is outside of standard audit flag ranges, and file your return using paper forms. The system as currently designed is configured to make cheating reasonably easy for someone who knows how to work it.
I should add, that if you haven't watched the Marsh Family's video of their updated version of The Battle Hymn of The Republic, it is worthwhile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8saU0WeocP0
This is magnificent and heartbreaking. If only this could be 'liked' enough to be at the top of this page, Craig. This is the anthem we need. To march us to war if necessary. Thank you.
Thanks for this, Craig, and Donna for promoting. A terrific song, though a mouthful, as they say. I've tried to write something more learn-and-singable, with call-and-response opportunities and unison singing, too. I have posted it with permission for anyone to sing at No Kings or any related peaceful rally. I hope you'll have a listen and perhaps learn and sing it—it comes with lyrics, guitar tabs, karaoke versions, and more. Keep fighting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ga2CMEcIgo (or www.tinyurl.com/no-kings-song).
Yes, Adam, your anthem deserves to join the playlist of our 2026 protest anthems. We need protest and we need music to pipe us off to protests. Power to the People!
If only I could get Heather—and Joyce and Jay and Dan and Jen et al.—to mention it once or twice in their feeds, it might reach the people it should reach. :-) If you know anyone to pass it to, please do! P.S. Is there an actual playlist?
Just what republicans ordered. Taxes paid by the ignorant and the trusting…
Well …. taxes paid by W-2 employees. Still a lot of self employed who cheat. If those at the top cheat, the message is clear. Only saps pay taxes.
Chump’s message from the gitgo. He thinks that is why he is popular with MAGAts. May be
It's part of it. The (anti-) "Republican" party now preaches impunity for MAGA, subjugation for everyone else. Classic tyranny. The poor saps who worship Trump think they're invited to the party, just as poor whites where inspired to fight and die on behalf of wealthy slave owners, even though the unpaid labor of slaves depressed their own share of income. Divide and conquer has kept a lid on the common weal for eons.
Those that Leona Helmsley called "the little people".
We could get into a very long and detailed discussion about money at this point. The short version of what I would add is that taxes are not really necessary to "fund" a government that is big enough to have a viable central bank. In the old soviet system and in some countries that have gone through a hyper inflation cycle, effectively they went another way. Having the money creation process set such that it flows out into and through the larger economy and then back into the government in the form of taxes does two things. One is that it keeps the government from trying to buy things that don't exist in sufficient amounts, and it encourages people to be involved in the political processes that lead to governmental spending decisions. The old phrase "taxes are the price of freedom" is a literal truth. Provided that the rates are fair and enforced, tax cheating is an assault on both our system and way of life.
This is the MMT(Modern Monetary Theory) which is the central bank's print to your heart's content The problem is that it's an inflationary theory that in terms of gold which is real money without counterparty risk currently has devalued the dollar to 6 cents as to what it was in 1971 All currencies that have been debased by governments historically have gone belly up
That's why the Fed is locked into a debt trap with no where to hide since foreign investors are all aware where this is headed and if they decide to stop funding our debt then it's game over
Yes but, the only reason that certain bright shiny metals that are relatively rare are equated with money is based on two things, neither of which stand up to close scrutiny. The first is a bit of an absurdity about the human condition. For some curious reason we share an attraction to the little bits of bright shiny metal with crows and trout. Other than that, this attraction is quite rare among animal species.
The other is that the use of these metals in lieu of the our original solution which was little clay tokens of various shapes were too easy to counterfeit. That said, the very notion that the total amount of little bits of bright shiny metal in the world would be exactly equal to the human need for representing accumulated stored work is absurd on its face.
If one studies the history of stored work or value, freedom from this absurd attraction to bright shiny metal really came in 1279 when a paper mill went into production in Florence. The merchant families of Northern Italy almost immediately invented written binding business contracts and negotiable instruments. Virtually overnight, their wealth and that over everyone with whom they interacted began to skyrocket. It also made it rather easy to move money among their various branch offices without fear of being robbed. The same thing happened a few years earlier in Moorish Spain. Since 1960 when we began our conversion of banking records from paper to stored 1s and 0s, we have almost completely become unfettered from this nonsensical attraction to shiny metals.
If one reads a bit about the decline of the Western Roman Empire, one of the most serious problems the emperors faced was insufficient bits of shiny metal to cover the economic needs of the empire. They were literally trapped by the fantasy that the only real money is bits of shiny metal. That said, if enough people believe a thing and act on that belief, humans are capable of doing all sorts of absurd things, like electing a would be tyrant as president of the United States.
Trout and other fish should approach shiny metal with caution. Crows have a reputation as tricksters. So do 1s and zeros. Accountable audits help keep records straight.
The use of a metallic standard for currency dates back to 450BC established by Rome Before that time trade was done in metals So currency is a form of credit which in responsible governments is backed by a metallic standard The US Constitution establishes a bimetallic standard(Article One Section 8 authorizes Congress to coin money and Article One Section 10 prohibits states from making anything but "gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts,") but Nixon violated that by taking the US off the standard due to the run on the US gold reserves led by DeGaulle of France Macleod Finance substack is a good resource
Most of our representatives in Congress deserve blame for this. But if I recall correctly, didn't AOC tout MMT, on the grounds that our deficit could be as high as we wanted as long as the US could borrow money. Then, she thought, hoping and wishing, we would take other steps if we could no longer borrow money or if the interest was choking us.
In my view, John Maynard Keynes provided the single most succinct explanation of macro economics when in 1942 he said something to the effect that "Anything we can do, we can afford." There are at least two slightly different contemporaneous reports of his exact wording. His point was that in the broadest sense (think the old concept of M3 regarding the money supply). is that all money really is, is a way of assigning value to the productive output of everyone in an economy that is producing something that someone else values, and is able to connect with them in the marketplace. The total amount of money that is needed at any given time is exactly the sum of all of those values. This is a current activity view of money and ignores stored wealth, which is a call on the future productivity in the economy. When he said that during WWII, The idea was that by stepping on the markets with such controls as artificial wage and price controls, and removing vast amounts of consumer demand by selling people bonds so as to keep them from spending what they were earning, that the productive capacity of the country could be targeted at whatever the wartime emergency conditions required. The concept of M# is just that, the supposed total of that productive capacity. For a long time the Fed would try to calculate M3 and publish their results, but it became so complicated with so many estimates and assumptions, that the number was really just guesswork, so in 2006 they gave up trying. That said, the concept is very instructive. It explains quite effectively what the problem is with the notion that so-called hard currencies are the only money, which was absurd, and self defeating from the get go. OH, and by the way, it was not the Romans that invented standardized hard currency, it was the Lydians, but that is another story that also has its roots in stone age economics.
AOC is walking down a dangerous path...hope she reconsiders when she does more research on MMT
Good compliance with the tax code should be a priority. The IRS should have the funding it needs to get the audit rate back up. I heard that noncompliance is costing the Treasury about $100 billion per year.
Back some years ago when Obama was in office a lawyer told me that the IRS was focusing on people getting a low income credit because they often had gig employment and kept poor records. The IRS was finding it too expensive to fight most of the lawyered-up rich.
Yes, I think the technique that we were taught in school in the 70's for going after the rich was taken away under Reagan. What an auditor used to be able to do when a tax return was either not filed, or the one that was was an obvious mismatch to the taxpayer's lifestyle was to do a lifestyle audit. One would carefully document visible and easily inferred spending, and then calculate the income required to support that. This would then be presented to the taxpayer in the form of a proposed assessment, which they were welcome to refute by supplying contradictory evidence. The process was one of forcing them to cough up the obviously missing records, or just pay the assessment. This same approach can be applied to other kinds of taxes.
A well funded revenue audit team more than pays for itself. I did audit work for the State of Washington for two years back in the early 80s. At that time, our state legislature took the approach of funding the Department of Revenue such that each additional auditor hired would end up adding 10x their employment cost to the state's tax receipts. Every business was on a schedule based on its size. The largest businesses (e.g. Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, etc.) had permanent audit teams assigned to them. Your typical mom and pop business might see an auditor once every ten or fifteen years, if ever. Washington doesn't have an income tax, so we didn't get into that kind of work.
Beautiful reminder, Heather. You are so wonderful!
Apropos "beautiful reminders":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uozLlmUhzZY&list=RDuozLlmUhzZY&start_radio=1
"We are the North Star blazing in the cold..."
Better than Springfield's in my opinion. The lyrics are more uplifting and I am seriously in need of uplift these days.
Way better, IMO. Emotionally among our most powerful songs of defiance. Flawless, irresistibly compelling art direction on the video as well. (Credential: I was editor-in-chief of Art Direction Magazine c. 1985-1986.)
Beautiful. Inspired and inspiring.
What a beautiful and inspiring song!
Thanks for the link. The song, We are a North Star blazing in the Cold, is good, but do you realize according to its YouTube site, it was written by AI. I admit the beat is amazing, reminds me of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The lyrics, well it's not an Autumn moon and there are no mountains in Minneapolis. I only listened once and these are the obvious flaws my poor human brain discerned. There are numerous comments on this Letter's thread about the demise of the Humanities. I feel the need to point out this was not written by a human.
Your subtle effort to trash the song fails, at least with those of us savvy enough to read its production credits (which because they are a monumental.,10-minute, copy-separately-by-hand-and-then-paste-and-re-copy-here-pain-in-the-ass), I bet you imagined nobody would do. But here they are: 'Music Credit: "Minnesota Anthem" created by Jimmy Wahlberg -- Stockholm, Sweden and AI -- www.suno.com’ Since Wahlberg is “a singer songwriter artist from Sweden” (https://www.youtube.com/@WahlbergOfficial) and the AI link is (not) hidden, obviously he's not ashamed of using it as a creative tool. And for the wretchedly burdensome task of assembling the video footage and requisite permissions – which in my day would literally take weeks of phone-calling by one’s already-overburdened secretary – AI is truly a labor-saving device. Apropos your effort to fault the reference to the mountains, neither is the Pole Star in Minnesota, but there are most assuredly mountains west, north and east of the state, all of them to one degree or another sacred to the land’s original inhabitants, just as the North Star was a sacred symbol of my Celtic and Norse ancestors, so I took both references as invocations entirely justified by poetic license; “the stories that the mountains told” are their lessons of indomitable presence reflected in the valor of the Minnesotans. For the record, I am as terrified as anyone I know by the tyranny-enhancing purpose – say again (purpose) – for which our masters invented AI, another classical example of how under patriarchy the technology-bolstered curve of history arcs exclusively and unstoppable toward ever-more-omnipotent tyranny; therefore I am overjoyed to see that purpose subverted by some modern artist who dares follow in the footsteps of the valiantly rebellious bards and witches who preserved our humanitarian consciousness from total extermination during the previous millennia of patriarchal darkness.
Heather, the reminder that a woman wrote the battle cry for the Union is remarkable. She was respected which is a far cry from what we have seen that the Trumpstein victims have had to deal with. They are not backing down and neither are we.
She was in an abusive relationship with a man who beat her regularly. There were no domestic abuse laws then, and she was legally considered her husband's property, to do with as he wished the same as if she was black slave.
Thanks for the background, TC. I did not know.
And women didn't get the right to vote till early 1900. 60 yrs post civil war.
Actually, it was 1920.
My Mom was born in 1922. Her Mom was born in 1886. Many of us knew women who lived during a time when women could not vote. For our grandchildren, it just seems normal and natural -- of course women should be able to vote.
HERE'S HOW THE CHRISTONAZIS ARE ALREADY STEALING OUR ELECTIONS
(A Thom Hartmann Exclusive)
To enlarge upon Dr. Richardson's oft-repeated warnings about stolen elections, here is vital information from Thom Hartmann about how the thievery is accomplished, including credible statistical evidence showing how the ChristoNazis' purging of Blacks, Hispanics and white progressives from the 2024 voter rolls put Trump in the White House. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-q1lWsnlhg&t=5s (Election discussion starts at 9:09)
Thom is right, it is well underway, just not on the streets for us to see.
The SAVE Bill would erode the female vote by leaps and bounds. Is it still in the works???
Yes, unfortunately.
David My grandmother attended the 1920 democratic Convention I have her delegate pin.. The first time women could vote....
Close. 15 yrs.
Lest we succumb to delusional over-confidence about the mid-term elections -- that is, assuming any of us are still allowed to vote -- note the contradictory indications in two breaking Associated Press reports.
The first report tells us the Republicans are miles ahead of the Democrats on pre-election fund-raising; though the report does not specify the funding sources, we know the tsunami of money comes mostly from the plutocracy and is therefore a direct order to the Regime to escalate its terrorism: https://apnews.com/article/elections-house-senate-congress-midterms-trump-387549d4d5e682cf8ce8205d96d07ca7
The second report's headline -- that the Trumpites are becoming unhappy with that terrorism -- seems encouraging, but the text tells it's (not) for humanitarian reasons; it's merely their concern that publicly murdering protestors and torturing children might cost the Republicans midterm votes: https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-enforcement-midterms-republicans-congress-54c3c13552d08605bd90a8ac451d9ba1
Correct
Even sadder, Native Americans did not get the vote until 1958.
So horrible. They should and must be revered.
Heather, thank you for your letter tonight. Understanding history and your skills reminding us of the importance of the words of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Julia Ward Howe.
Knowing Franklin McCain and the impact he has, along with the others who sat at that lunch counter in Greensboro was an honor for me. Franklin never stopped his work fighting for equal rights. His memory is always a blessing.
From Julia Ward Howe back then to Bruce Springsteen's "The Streets of Minneapolis" today. Music has managed to grace almost every one of our past and present movements for greater freedom, liberty, and equality.
https://sylvestercat.substack.com/p/it-isnt-nice
I hope you'll click on the link Craig Duper has given us, ICTT. It's just above.
I do love your writing.
The history of race in our country is terrible. From the invasion of the white Europeans to the slavery of black Africans. And now we are witness to the ongoing attempt to destroy our county by the super rich.
Because the battles being waged now are not to save only democracy. The super rich are working to destroy America. This is about much more than "saving democracy". And you can bet the inbred racism will expand to classism.
Democracy is just a small part of the war. This is about American lives. This is about American children falling sick and dying as a result of contagious stupidity. It's about Americans dying for lack of healthcare. This is cancer causing air and water resulting from corporate greed.
No, this is far, far beyond saving democracy.
Let us not forget the sexual victimization of terrorized children by the Trumpstein Cult is the immediate predecessor, perhaps even a test run, of the terror the MAGAstapo is now unleashing on anyone who refuses to kowtow to the ChristoNazi theocracy. Thus the vital, know-our-enemy relevance of the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn in response to credible death threats against the plaintiff: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf Please let us ensure this text is linked early (and therefore prominently) on as many Resistance sites as possible every day until the traitorous regime of ecogenocidal ChristoNazi pedophiles is no more. (I'll do my best to be responsible for this posting, but I am 85 years old and terminally ill, which means others need be ready to pick up the torch on days I am absent and after I am no more.)
You will leave a huge footprint to point the way. Keep it up…
Thank you.
I’m older than dirt too.
Thanks, as always, Loren.
Black history after the Civil War provided a template for Hitler’s rise of authoritarianism in Europe. The Trump administration is actively trying to erase that history.
In a post-Trump era, we need to build back our democracy so that it is free of racism and all forms of “othering.” We need to be clear-eyed about our history, or it will repeat yet again.
Democracy without true equality is democracy at risk.
There are days I think the world would be a better place if the Black Death of the 14th Century had been more thorough in its work on the European peninsula.
These are really tough times.
But let's work together to turn things around. And let's be in this for the long haul. Let's help each other to keep on keeping on.
Being middle class, dealing with technology, being older, dealing with traffic congestion crowds unreasonable people, very difficult, esp since life expectancy and health are zooming.
Many of us get discouraged and depressed by Trump/MAGA's daily assault on American values and our constitutional government. It's appalling. Trump's premeditated War mirrors Hitler's White Nationalist Nazi party's tyranny that ironically, copied the terror tactics of the Klu Klux Clan.
Starting with tsunamis of lies and propaganda about American decline, like a coward, he attacked soft targets, intellectuals, lawyers, aid agencies and researchers who depend on government funding. Then he blamed minorities as the source of national ruin and created a secret army to terrorize the evil minorities, deport a few victims and tried to cower the resistance.
And like Hitler, he loaded his government with true believers to carry out his war with complete loyalty and supposed impunity. With our tax dollars, Vance, Miller, Hegseth, Homan, Bessent, Noem do terrible things to Americans everyday
The message from Minneapolis has been heard loud and clear all across America. Trump's game is over. His POTUS show is cancelled. His popularity continues to plunge We the People have a power MAGA can't imagine or hold in their hearts.
After 250 years, "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States"
Our radical aspirations are as true today as they were at our founding. We have just begun to fight!
I have those days, but genealogy research tells me that some survivors were keepers…
So we're now erasing 250 years of progress. And building a huge arch to 'celebrate' the end of the American democracy? And putting huge sums of money into a movie about the 1st lady's shoes and outfits to show she foesnt care? While her husband gives himself millions from the treasury in violation of the constitution, the American Republic and the millions who died to create and preserve it? RIP.
You surrender in advance. Perhaps it’s simply a tone of warning. Perhaps reasonable.
Take heart. Wear resolve. Raise a light.
America was founded on trust in wisdom and good faith of leaders. No need to spell out everything. Hence guidance is shorthand. For was give 4 terms because of trust in him if I recall. There was no need to say dont take bribes, dont pardon crooks in return for bribes, don't take gifts from foreign countries, dont kill innocent citizens and on and on. Slavery was a sin but it had its roots in the country, it was economic, and finally it was changed. Now its like leaders just spitting on the system.
I need lessons.
Performance without an iota of reality. Definition of chump
Timothy Snyder writes about JD Vance and his close association with American Nazis. It blew me away. His newsletter gets us prepared for ICE's invasion of Ohio.
https://snyder.substack.com/p/ethnic-cleansing-in-ohio
Lynell, I had a similar reaction as I read Timothy’s piece.
A particularly chilling excerpt:
“After Vance’s speech, Blood Tribe took its cue. Blood Tribe had marched in other cities in the previous two years, wearing masks, distinctive uniforms, and carrying banners with swastikas. These marches were unmistakably Nazi. Vance’s speech drew the attention of Blood Tribe to Springfield. On 10 August 2024, members of Blood Tribe carried out their usual performance in the city’s downtown, two of them carrying banners with swastikas and another two brandishing automatic rifles.”
The line between the Vance/Trump regime and Nazism is thin… and as we are observing daily, dangerous.
Is there a line, Mein Kampf seems the basis.
Vance chump with more control and less bravado. Same soul, I fear
Prof Snyder….he is another historian just on fire with reporting the truth that lies in history. I referenced this letter yesterday that just cuts straight through Stephen Miller and VP Eyeliner and their hate filled rhetoric. Important read. Thank you and…
Salud, Lynell!
🗽💜✌🏼
Morning, Christine!
Agree about Prof Snyder. I found this particular piece of his to be a bit unusual for him to write. But I believe every word of it!
More than unusual. It was 4 alarm fire.
I absolutely believe it and have thought about a lot of it privately!
Morning, Lynell! Thanks for mentioning this piece. I'll read it after my daily hangout here in the comments section.
😊
Trump's order "hat national historic sites should 'focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.' " shows his lack of understanding of the meaning of "progress." Progress necessitates moving from one stage to another, from a less perfect union to a more perfect union. Without a starting point that is less than great, there can be no progress towards greatness. Ignoring and trying to obliterate our less than perfect past contradicts the idea of progress.
The MAGA movement itself seems to lack the understanding of progress and Donold more than anyone. Saying "make America great...again" implies regression not progress. Perhaps many of them don't even care about progress, which evolutionarily might mean more than I can write about at the moment.
As Donold is obsessed with taking America back to some unknown time again and an even less obvious greatness that can be seen or known, it is just another crazed fantasy of his, another hustle and grift. He does seem to want to go back in time, regressing back to the days of tariffs, and coal, and imperialistic domineering, eventually taking the vote and rights away from those that were deprived of it before, maybe even wanting to bring back slavery.
Should be a national suicide site. MADA! HE MADE AMERICA DISGUSTING. The 2nd a is silent, like a prayer for the dead. Or as in Arg!!!
Deliberately and with malice
Bring back slavery? I think anyone who works for a large corporation in America is essentially a slave. Yes we can quit but since we don’t have universal healthcare or other benefits, many of us are tethered to our jobs. It’s all be design by the corporations.
Trump removed an exhibit on enslavement from Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, declaring national historic sites should “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.” Trump is too bigoted and ignorant to know that the struggle of Black Americans to free themselves from slavery and their success in doing so is one of the greatest achievements and sign of hope and progress for the American people as a whole.
Music has the capacity to touch the heart and soul of what it means to be human. The opening of your sharing/pondering today causes a range of feelings in my heart- gratitude, beauty, resolve, poignancy, sadness, loss. We have the opportunity to honor all human beings, to feel deep remorse for the profound pain caused by slavery, and to hold deep gratitude for the 4 young men who sat at Woolworth’s so long ago. And…. deep gratitude for the resolve of so many, to honor the contributions of Black people. As you shared, we had president Ford officially recognizing February 1 as the first day of Black History Month- and now- Donald Trump removing an exhibit on enslavement. It is a shameful act of refusal to acknowledge our shameful and immoral history. Thank you for reminding us, through the reference to Julia Ward Howe, that there are so many ways to make a difference in our world.
A comment earlier this morning by Craig Dupler:
"I should add, that if you haven't watched the Marsh Family's video of their updated version of The Battle Hymn of The Republic, it is worthwhile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8saU0WeocP0
I love their "monogram". Mezzo forte my arse; double forte!!
Great catch!
"what is this mezzo forte of which you speak" as uttered by every trombone player I have ever known.
Full disclosure: I started playing on trombone, but have played tuba now twice as long as I played trombone.
When my chamber group plays "Battle Hymn of the Republic", we usually charge right through, playing two verses. I now want to add us playing a third verse; I want to add a descant, and play it slowly and softly at the beginning, and with more intensity and a crescendo (dynamic and an accelerando) when the lyrics "as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free" and finish with a strong refrain.
Sounds like a terrific chamber group! Wish we could hear your music, is it posted anywhere?
Not right now: we aren’t very tech savvy. We’re going to be in concert in a month; I’ll see if I can get a video / audio then.
Good luck!