HCR highlights how progressives—from Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt and FDR—expanded government to serve the people, curbing corporate abuses, building infrastructure, and ensuring economic fairness. Each era’s reforms were a response to elites who sought to exploit workers and concentrate wealth, proving that democracy depends on a government that protects the public good.
“Government for Sale” https://forgottenfiles.substack.com/p/government-for-sale shows how today’s reactionaries are dismantling those protections, reviving the spoils system to turn government into a tool for the wealthy. Trump and Musk’s purge of officials and privatization of federal agencies isn’t just corruption—it’s an attack on democracy itself. The fight over whether government serves the people or the powerful is the same struggle Lincoln warned about, and once again, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Americans of Lincoln's era valued literacy far more highly than those in our dehumanized schools of today, all of them thrown to the suffocations of testing all to the additional benefit of the social media billionaires. These, today's versions of the enslavers then, now want to keep all jerked around by their algorithms sinking all -- enslaving all -- to endless sensationalism, hate formulas, fear addictions.
Americans of Lincoln's era often quoted Shakespeare. Often quoted the King James version of the Bible. Referred to popular novels of the day as Mark Twain legendarily did himself.
Lincoln signed into law the Justin Morrill land grant bill in 1862 setting in motion the world's greatest high tide of good quality public colleges and universities.
All then totally opposite the neutered language and impersonal conceits Diane Ravitch sees today dominating all the standardized tests and corporate text packages. All totally opposite today's decline in reading as The Atlantic’s Hana Rosin and Rose Horowitch cite in:
Thanks Phil... "Americans of Lincoln's era valued literacy far more highly than those in our dehumanized schools of today, all of them thrown to the suffocations of testing all to the additional benefit of the social media billionaires. These, today's versions of the enslavers then, now want to keep all jerked around by their algorithms sinking all -- enslaving all -- to endless sensationalism, hate formulas, fear addictions." ... Chris Hayes of MSNBC just released a Book, titled, "The Sirens' Call", in this Book, Chris Postulates that the Social Media Heroin Drips, shorten, and fragment Human Attention Spans... Elon Musk controls 'X', and DJT saved Tic-Tock in the USA... Does anybody educated, or sane believe that DJT will have the positive Stature of Lincoln? Lincoln was essentially self taught by Candlelight, and put himself thru Law School... DJT paid someone to take his SAT Exams, and only Audited Classes at Wharton... DJT was born Rich, and squandered Billions of $... DJT has declared Bankruptcy 6 times... DJT is now tearing down the US Gov which Lincoln saw a force for Good for the Citizens of the USA... DJT, and his Puppet-Masters, Elon, Putin, Netanyahu, see the US Gov as Evil... How Far the Republican Party, the Party of Lincoln, TR, and Eisenhower, has Fallen..Both DJT, and Elon, are Parasites more Evil then those that they impugn...
Sadly sir there are many educated people supporting Trump. There are universities, think tanks, and organisations dedicated to the ideals held by Trump. Hillsdale College, Liberty University, The Federalist Society, the American Enterprise Institute to name a few. It's a mistake to think everyone supporting Trump is uneducated or insane. Even Musk is not insane. Yes, he acts in his own best interest, but greed and insanity are different.
Gary, they may be educated, but they are using it for ill. Education does not imply that a person is not capable of great evil. In fact, that may make it worse. However, the little troopers of the cult are often not well educated or they just sneer at anyone who knows anything because you know, they have done research on the internet.
My father described them as "educated fools". As a friend's uncle told him upon his graduation from college, "son, that's an impressive piece of paper you have there, but you need to understand that there is a book, as thick as the Empire State Building is tall, full of shit you don't know."
Truly intelligent people unless they are some kind of savant or polymath realize and acknowledge how much they do not know. I am reading a book on the cosmos right now by an astrophysicist who constantly makes the point that there are many things we do not know and may never know.
This has been happening in full sight though with enough cover sometimes hard to see. If one watched PBS with the various iterations of Bill Moyers and his shows he documented the rise of ALEC and their path toward overtaking state government. In Ohio the process of gerrymandering started slowly but continued gaining strength giving my state Rep . Jim Jordan. His district is a cobbled location no shoemaker would ever be proud of.
Lincoln’s speeches are helpful I think the one at Cooper Union is worth reading during our Black History Month and President’s holiday this month.
The actor Tom Hanks is cremated to Lincoln through Nancy.
Mary, I always proofread my posts and replies before tapping the button. But almost without fail, when I reread my comment after posting, I discover an error I somehow missed. Fortunately, Substack provides the ellipsis in the top right corners of my posts which I can click and choose to edit what I just posted. This has saved me many instances of embarrassment.
That Federalist Society is responsible for an increase in maternal mortality, as well as nonfatal maternal harms following the overturning of Roe V. Wade.
Gary, all you say may well be true; however, one should not conflate “educated”, which too often is well limited in thought, with intellect, which more often than not has proven to be expansive of thought. Those you determined as “educated” in the Trump style are the ones who are limited “intellectually.” That is precisely the problem we now have. Musk’s knowledge in business may be impressive; however, his love for “free speech” has proven to be nothing more than a ruse. It’s only “free speech” if he so approves it. Education is good; intellect is the higher destination. Trump supporters, whether educated or not, haven’t by any means demonstrated the higher level of thought.
I would like to point out that whatever good Eisenhower might have done he and the Dulles brothers orcastraited the overthrow of two democratically elected governments, that of Guatemala and Iran. We have not always stood for democracy in the world and now we are in the process of losing our own.
Yes Pablo and the same year if I am correct and there was Pinochet and Nicaragua and our invasions since 1898 and the persistent School of The Americas at Ft Benning GA and now The Serpents in The White House, Congress and the SC. What has God Wrought?
When I lived in Springfield, IL in the 1980's, there was a story in the State Journal-Register about a math teacher whose small downstate Illinois high school math team had won the state math team competition several years in a row.
The article divulged his secret -- old math textbooks from the 1850's - 1930's. When asked why they were the secret to his championships he answered, "these were the textbooks used in the one room school houses where the one teacher relied on the textbooks to teach math and not on the teacher. To prepare for the tournaments he had the students work through the problems in the old textbooks and to learn the concepts therein.
This is how Lincoln learned and millions of kids across the country. Of course, not all of the students were able to learn this way, so besides the textbooks and the teachers help, the students were expected to teach each other. This reinforced the lessons as well.
When my daughter was in high school, 16 years ago, she struggled with a simple algebra problem, so I showed her how to solve it. Just a couple of steps. She objected saying, "That is not the way the teacher showed us." She showed me their textbook. I read the chapter and could not figure out what they were doing. They had taken a basic concept, made it harder to understand with multiple steps, and got the same answer I did with two simple ones. The old textbooks were better.
My grandson is neurodiverse. He is excelling in geometry. He got points taken off of a recent exam because on the paper where he shows his work, it was different although the answers were all correct. When he protested, he told the teacher, "you showed us how to get to the answer in 8 steps, I can do it in three, my way is easier and smarter".
That has been happening for years. My son graduated in 2012 and I can’t count the number of times I had this conversation with teachers.
Here’s an argument you can use that worked for me.
Math is the ultimate truth and the path to groundbreaking science. You can’t constrict the way you get to the answer or you hinder students’ curiosity and critical thinking.
They adjusted the grade to shut me up. But as we’ve learned, there are many paths to the right answer. 🙂
I noticed that, as well. They say they are trying to get students to understand how mathematics work and the longer methods are supposed to show the theoretical understanding of math that people who take advanced degrees in math use. But what most people want out of math is the end result -the answer. Leave theory to mathematicians. It is interesting and amazing, but not what most people want math for. Don’t expect eleven-year-olds to be mathematical theorists.
My parents were both teachers. My mother taught for a while in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Maine. My dad taught in tiny PA towns during the depression. They taught every subject. Each night, they would study the lessons to stay one step ahead of their students, because evern though they themselves were well-educated, they were not as fluent on ALL subjects. Latin, for instance. My mother even taught a boy how to play the trombone. She herself was a musician, but not with wind instruments. She figured out what pitches were sounding when the slide was at a certain spot and by doing that, the young lad learned enough to continue with his love of music.
This is such a cool history here, Jan. How far a cry from "teach to the test" that we have today. My mom taught her "last chance English class" (kids HAD to pass it, as seniors, to graduate) to read Middle English and read Chaucer in its original form. She had "her kids" visiting her up until she died, some 30 years after she quit teaching; she only taught for 4 years.
Exactly! My children and grandchildren are being taught so that the school system gets a passing grade, but not so that there is any true learning being imparted to the students.
Instead of focusing on our constitutional crisis we have let Balla divert us with how schools (which are not standardized) are run. We have a great crisis going on, can we focus on saving our form of government.
I would suggest that Mr Balla is entirely correct to tie the nature of our formal schooling to the maintenance of the Republic. Indeed, the two are tied inextricably to one another.
I taught elementary school history (grades 4-9) for over 40 years in three very different independent schools. In that setting, one sees and hears a great deal about what one’s colleagues are thinking and doing in their various disciplines. I could go on at a far greater length than anyone here could stomach about the nature of education and the issues surrounding it at that crucial level, but I’ll try to keep within reasonable bounds.
I, like many others here I’m sure, participated in a number of those wonderful late-night college dorm, slightly alcohol fueled ‘discussion’ sessions. One I remember with some clarity for something one of my co-participants said (he was an interesting combination of pedant and down-home clarity). “A good basic education for democratic citizenship should prepare the recipient to able to ask intelligent questions in a number of general areas, and to be able, at least, to have a good sense of when the answers one is getting back are bullshit”
Hard for me to better encapsulate (I’m actually a fan split infinitives!) one of the chief reasons we find ourselves in our current dilemma.
As I’ve said many times here and elsewhere, we are both the interiors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex experiment in human government ever attempted. To be brutally honest, our educational system over time has increasingly failed to impress that on our students in the one place where they are forced to be present to hear it.
Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of our high school graduates would internalize it sufficiently in order to carry that concept, with even a modicum of its implications, as adults into the voting booth where it is crucial. But to assume that enough of us will come to understand that just by ‘picking it up along the way’ is, to be brief, nuts. And that doesn’t even take into account the present vast internet network of those intent on denying it, subverting it, distorting it, and manipulating it in pursuit of their own lust for power and control - starting with the two current would-be oligarchs doing all of the above in pursuit of their own lust for power and control.
We are doing that here. This particular post is a conversation between a couple of friends here on LFAA; we do not lose sight of the importance of our constitutional crisis, and can have thoughts and conversations on other topics.
George, one of the features I enjoyed about my subscription to The Washington Post was the comment utility included at the foot of nearly every article, including the cartoons. Although I learned a lot from WaPo's authors, I learned even more from the readers' comments.
When WaPo went (ironically) to the Dark Side early last spring, I cancelled my long-time subscription and began my search for a different source of news and education. I paused for a while with The Guardian, but among other drawbacks, missed being able to read and post comments.
After chasing up a few more blind alleys, I landed here on HCR's Substack, and from here, discovered a few others with valuable information and insights, such as those authored by Joyce Vance and Tim Snyder.
Phil Balla is definitely focused on the abandonment of humanities in U.S. education, but the topic is relevant. If Balla's comments are insufficiently on-topic for you, rather than complaining, your response should be to scroll past the branch of conversation that doesn't interest you and reconnect to it where you feel more comfortable.
When I was in grade school I was the only girl in my very small class in Nebraska. The teacher sent me (because I could read and "do sums") to the cloak room to teach those having trouble reading, etc. I suspect they were dyslexic. Did not help my education to teach others! I still have trouble with addition when #7 and #9 is involved.
Honey, I never conquered the multiplication tables. Took finite math plus whatever, in college (it was a requirement) I was the best in both classes. Different brain workings. Some solutions came to me without my knowing how I did it. I have never been a memory person.
I can't imagine having you could teach cloak room kids. Were there any desks??
A timely comment given Trump's promise to abolish the Department of Education and Democratic congresswoman Melanie Stansbury's warning that Musk’s employees “are in the building, on the sixth floor, canceling grants and contracts.” AP reports that dozens of education department employees were told on Friday that they had been put on leave immediately, with at least 55 workers losing access to their government email accounts and told not to report to the office pursuant to the DEI executive order. A more wide-ranging emasculation, also by executive order, is currently being considered by the administration according to a variety of news sources.
In TN there is a bill introduced to do away with standards, attendance (such as homeschooling does it) and pretty much any accountability for homeschooling families. Also vouchers were jammed through two weeks ago (so $7k for no accountability, etc.—Disney World field trip here we come!) “Parental choice.” Clearly TN wants more uneducated citizens.
I suspect that it's also a backdoor for religion to be taught in science classrooms, an endeavour that has failed twice in the Supreme Court, and indeed to permeate state curriculums.
N.E. Tn here. I've started reminding maga of the WeLfAre QuEens, and pointing out that they can now get 7-8k per child, just to keep their kids out of school.
My understanding is that before using their wide powers of contempt they will warn the offender once the failure to comply is brought to their notice (usually by the original complainant). That's already happened in at least one case concerning the freeze of federal loans and grants. If the administration continues to defy court rulings then frankly it's anybody's guess. Trump himself said at yesterday's weird press conference with Musk that he will comply with court orders and then appeal against them - but it appears that he has no intention of complying. The belligerent response from Musk and Vance yesterday to five court decisions going against the administration suggests to me that they may be looking for a stand-off with the lower courts and hoping that the Supreme Court, with its in-built right-wing majority will support its stance on the use of executive powers. I'm not an expert and there are plenty of experts commenting on this.
What are standards for ? Goals? We establish a beginning point from which to better ourselves? Measures to compare whether we gain or lose? And, at that instance we are either at status quo , gaining, or losing.
It’s about the HEALTH of whatever we are measuring .
Most everyone recognizes when they’re not ‘feeling good’ and …if not , tries to discern why.
America has come to a point where once we were rated #1 and are no longer. Did someone give us #1 status erroneously? If not , why are we now at what? 18th? America’s health is in decline. What started this . Probably not just one thing , right? So maybe give it the top 5 reasons for the decline.
Honest reasons.
And where would we find or trust the answers?
There’s a tremendous amount of people unable to figure that out by themselves .
We elected people to represent those figures …and paid them…and they are doing quite well…a lot of people aren’t …is this a satisfactory standard..can those who are doing quite well adequately represent those who aren’t?
Was there a time we thought so ?
What changed? …if the answer was yes.
Sometimes we need to start from scratch, rewalk the miles, reevaluate. We should expect working standards are met WHATEVER we are measuring .
Accountability is a direct measure of healthy systems.
How are Americans to judge the performance of the Trump administration when it has effectively begun disabling all the vehicles by which it might be held accountable? The only sure way against the backdrop of continual lies is whether people feel that they are actually better off in their own lives than they were before. Biden failed that test even though he led the country to the most impressive recovery from the pandemic of any developed nation and that's because of the pain Americans suffered, and many continue to suffer, from the effects of the pandemic. Musk and others are calling for massive deregulation i.e. virtually no standards at all. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is warning that inflation is going to rise and has postponed interest rate cuts and Trump's tariff war threatens more price rises for consumers.
I agree. The recent CBS/YouGov poll shows Trump with his highest approval rating at any time during his time in office. The only troubling aspects of the poll are his failure to tackle high prices and inflation and his plan to rebuild Gaza (which seems to have down with the quivering brethren like a cup of cold sick).
The addictive qualities of social media and the mania for testing students into stupidity (the testing companies of course now to politicians not to educations) should be called out by Dems …. Who seem to be flailing about for messaging while missing the messages right under their noses:
1. Take back your mind: get off social media and
2. make schools about learning, not corporate testing.
Our schools are not "dehumanized" - that is a broad attack with no basis in fact except to be alarmist and derogatory. Most schools do fine. The ones that struggle are by and large the ones that are segregated and/or with inadequate resources. The school cannot be dehumanized if the people in the neighborhood have not already been "dehumanized" themselves by the conditions under which the larger society condemns them.
Heather knock one out of the park. This Letter Is like a salve to my/our psychological wounds. It is spot on for what ails us. Phil, on this site, I often refer to those of us, left of center, as "like-minded". That's a misnomer though. If some of us consider themselves as independent thinkers, they will often disagree with their like-minded compatriots. In the movie: Fidler On The Roof, in a scene where Tevya , the protagonist, is in a conversation with a group of fellow villagers who are discussing disturbing events beyond their village. Tevya agrees with differing and contradictory opinions. a great scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UiF7BsC1Ig
You gotta watch. Me, I agree with Heather, Peter and yourself. I am literally making an argument against my own precept of likemindedness. My take is that America has been dumbed down...purposefully. A good book written in '91 by John Taylor Gatto is called Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. You have to be NOT dumb to relate to what Heather is saying. That guy was a libertarian and didn't trust government. and I agree but I trust our constitutional process. Yeah, you have to read books. In the 80s I used to think that being liberal minded made you part of a minority. Now I believe it is a fact (a contradiction in terms). We lefties are becoming a small percentage of the population. You know who's likeminded? It's the other guys. For them, it's about loyalty and tribalism. Anti-intellectualism, misogyny, racism, a rejection of objectivity, facts, laws and science and medicine... BOOKS!. In 2016, I was wondering "Who are all these people?". Now I think I know but 77,301,997 voters have let us know that democracy, literacy and progressivism is not the point any more.
Phil, yes indeed it matters. I once was at a school board meeting where our curriculum coordinator dissed the English department for teaching novels. She was also the head of our special ed department and the materials she used with some of them were so bad that even I had problems helping them. They were poorly written with bad grammar. The back story is that she once was a part of the English department and a couple of them were merciless about her conservative Christianity. She used her administrative position to get back at them and supported the principal who was sorta like a mini death star. But I had one of her students assigned to me who was in regular English class to give him some extra help. The book was Jane Eyre and I thought crap. It turned out that he loved it and was reading ahead of the class. I also just had a round with someone on another thread who thinks the dismantling of the Dept of Ed is fine because the state Dept of Ed. could do all that the federal one does. I took him to task over the special ed part and "insulted" him by saying that he was naive and not well informed about this. He even accused me of gaslighting him although I am not sure he really knows what that word means. Surprisingly he quit when I told him we were done. Also I doubt he reads other than maybe some wing nut site on his devices.
Didn’t Bush champion “No Child Left Behind?” This has led to an over emphasis on “standardized” tests and pressure on schools to lower standards. Perhaps there should be a country wide discussion. It is easier to support policies and procedures when the rationale behind them has been shared. Educators could do a better job of explaining and others could do a better job of listening and contributing their ideas in a civil way. No one should be told what to think but how to think.
How can a man and others who like him are amassing fortunes be bothered with the needs of our citizenry.
Half a billion dollar yacht, underground Hawaiian island shelter, thousands of acres in Texas and more money than can be personally used in a life time, all while people here
Capitalism has a built-in error: there's no upper limit. We should have said: every dollar above 1 billion will be taxed 100%. Zelda-style-taxes: you cannot pick up more than 999 rupees, the rest will be left lying for someone else to pick up.
Thanks for the smile today, Dutch Mike. My wife got through grad school in the late 1980's on "The Legend of Zelda" up through "The Ocarina of Time". That music is imprinted on my brain.
Speaking of the music, you ain't heard it until you've heard the tuba ensemble cover it!
Well-said! Many decades ago I said no one should be allowed to have over one million dollars. There has been quite a lot of inflation since then so I grudgingly accept one billion dollars as the upper limit.
Let's be a bit more radical and just say that total annual income (wages, salaries, tips and perks like free use of the company car, a free midday meal etc. plus interest and dividends from investments, plus capital gains, plus windfalls of any sort, inheritances, gambling proceeds etc.) should replace gross incomes and adjusted incomes and delayed incomes and deductions and exemptions and should be considered, simply, as income. If it is money or can be converted into money, if it comes into our possession and we can spend it as we like, then it is income, no matter the source.
Then, let's say that no annual income below $ 50,000 (per individual) will be taxed, but that all income above that amount will be taxed on a progressive curve of tax brackets from zero to 100% tax on every dollar of income above... $10 million? 20 million? Or maybe "only" 2 or 3 or 5 million? The idea is to establish the concept of excessive income, morally distinguish it from high incomes justified by hard work, good study habits, strokes of genius, selfless service to others, or just a lucky break.
In other words, let's establish a level of income that is morally and legally unjustifiable in a world in which some people are starving or living on the street or dying of easily curable diseases or for whatever reason unable to stay afloat in our materialistic, money-loving and often corrupt world.
Capitalism is a great engine for economic growth, but it appears to carry the seeds of its own destruction and can rapidly destroy our cute little democracies many of us are fond of, lately in an unpleasantly nostalgic way, to say nothing of the green planet Earth to which we owe our very existence.
And let's add what can and cannot be bought and sold. For instance, our natural resources, unlimited property. I never did like playing Monopoly because of overthinking what could happen if the majority of players were beholden to an evil landlord. Any other examples?
?Lincoln later mused, “The legitimate object of government is ‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves,’… as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself.”"
This is what Trump, Musk and the evil oligarchs want to destroy. Under Biden, Pete Buttigieg oversaw around 75,000 new infrastructures a good portion of which were completed. I believe Trump froze the funding for all of the projects in process. This would include the replacement bridge in Baltimore as well as thousands of others.
In the 1990's Ted Turner started his own foundation -
Many other oligarchs have done the same, most famously Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and others.
Even Trump had a foundation which, of course he used as a tool to enrich himself and there is no record of him actually helping others.
Ted Turner publicly challenged his fellow Oligarchs to do charitable works and dozens actually did. The book of foundations is heartwarming as many of you know.
This is the time for the oligarchs to challenge one another to do charitable works. There are so many people in need and they have the ability to help so many people.
It is way past time that we have a financial revolution. A redistribution of wealth. The morbidly rich have crafted laws that send money to a few and milk the poor and what was once a middle class.
And now...Musk and $trump are saying "let them eat cake".
According to Biden, there are around 2000 billionaires in the US. Even if 90% of them were greedy bastards (and bitches) that leaves 200 billionaires that could fund humanitarian and charitable causes. Many of these people already have charitable trusts but many more should. Like I said, Ted Turner shamed them into giving in the 1990's, it's time Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or others did it now.
I think for myself, it’s time to start questioning our fixation on wealthy men to “get things done”. Let’s start really highlighting their flaws of ego, entitlement, narrow-mindedness, classism, moral failure, duplicitousness, and ignorance. I mean really, really, really shine a constant light on it all.
Hakeem Jeffries can identify about 20 House Republicans who possibly could flip. Three are Cuban Americans from Miami. Here's a letter from a MAGAT, my rep, who represents a majority Dem district.
“Although President Biden originally created this new program on dubious legal grounds and brought individuals here without a plan for their future, they were still enrolled under programs offered to them.” Such pandering. Looks like she needs to write DeSantis who will have his own little system going in place of ICE, at taxpayer expense.
I've written her several times. I also reminded her about the prooblem with Treasury, and about the Ukraine vs Putin problem. She is a member of the Foreign Affairs committee.
I also reminded her that there are about a million humanitarian visas and most of the sponsors are in Miami, many in her district.
We have two others. Gimenez was our Democratic mayor until 2020 when he flipped for Trump. Diaz Barlart's brother, Jose, is a MSNBC talking head.
We have a Democratic majority, county wide. Psy ops was effective and many Dems voted for Trump and the 3 amigos.
As we all know, Trump only helps himself, and it's called gluttony and it doesn't matter what he's consuming, people, hatred, money, food, land, power, the list is long.
.likely after, because Rupert will still be painting the most alluring picture and people are giving chump an A for this disaster. Just keep hating the same people…
Woke up this morning to pictures of Fogel in the Oval Office with Trump. His sister was kvelling about someone in the family speaking to Trump at the rally where he was shot. As you may remember, Fogel was detained about the same time as Brittany Griner for a similar offense, and I can't figure out why the State Department didn't mark Fogel as wrongfully detained then, rather than over the past summer.
But what I don't understand is why the Republicans let Musk have the key to the US government. Why should they hesitate to push through unpopular measures, but "let Musk do it"? The GOP controls all branches of government, what should they care if their measures are impopular? They could say: "Screw you, people of America, we own the government and we are going to push all of this through, if you like it or not - you can't 'serve us off' in the next elections because there won't BE any elections anymore: we rule this place!" So why the hesitation? It can't be any moral or principle that's holding them back...
P.S.: Everybody should know this: THIS is why Musk is so hell-bent on going to Mars: he needs to show his heroes that he can do the same, no even BETTER than them - all to save his bruised ego: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MoACklnnxk
Yes, it's a confluence of huuuuge egos. And greed, on a global scale. "I wanna go to Mars" says one, while the other says "I will own Gaza". Could it be it's all just the same old "FOLLOW THE MONEY" rule?
This is “disaster capitalism.” People with money take over when there are disasters that they can take advantage of. Trump wants hotels on the Mediterranean in Gaza. Despite his “concern” for the terrible condition of the Gazan’s this is what he is after— to make more money. Do you think that if the populations are moved away so that the land can be developed, that they will ever be allowed to come back?
I'm willing to bet my income tax refund (I am owed one, but recent events indicate it will be some time before I receive it - if at all) that some of the the same people who are making billions from the COVID-19 pandemic will make trillions supplying shoddy goods and crappy services once they are sold to the highest bidder - or, more accurately, the bidder who gives the biggest kick-back.
He has already said, on camera, that the Palestinians would not be allowed back. Because they will have beautiful, clean, safe homes-elsewhere. Egypt or Jordan? You betcha, since they will lose all US government aid unless they open their arms to just a few million more….
He is flying way too close to the sun. Could it be that others let him do it because it because it works to their advantage that it is he who will be brought down, not they?
"Republicans" control the executive, legislative, and highest echelon of the judicial branch. They could ram the project 2025 agenda through via legal means. They choose not to because: (1) Musk, et. al., provides political cover for what is actually deeply unpopular and (2) they are lazy and cowardly.
If they truly had the courage of their convictions, there would be no need of the constant lying and obfuscations. No need to break the law and create a constitutional crisis in the process. This may be their undoing.
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.” 25th Amendment to US Constitution.
This would be quite advantageous to the TechBros, as they would then have their chosen president JD Vance. Trump needs to be publicly nuts enough to enable the real plan to be executed.
I’m concerned about Musk’s young son that he drags around with him at all hours of the day and night. Who looks after the child? Musk is using the kid as a prop. He’s displaying and exploiting his own child. Maybe he’s “guarding”
I've been wondering exactly the same thing. P.S. Le Monde features big photo of the incredible scene in the Oval Office. Here's one reader's comment: "So sweet! It reminds you a bit of the mother chimpanzees which go everywhere with their young on their shoulders or on their back."
But why? Why should they be scared? They have nothing to fear. Their power is consolidated, they don't have to relinquish it anymore, it's safely secured by the Supreme Court. And what are the people going to do? Protest in the streets? If the repubs feel unsafe, they can simply sicc the military on the protesters. So what DO they fear? Not any morals, their own conscience or any retribution from God, that's for sure.
They are way more vulnerable, they think. They don’t want to hang their names on laws that are widely unpopular because they have their next election to win. And, they are quakingly afraid of tfg.
I still don't understand why they are scared. There is no more election to win, they won the long game. So the voters cannot 'punish' them in the next elections because there will _be_ no more elections. Remember, Donny said he will fix that. From here on, it's just: do what the fat orange guy tells you and get rich off it - in other words: be a sycophant. And they are very good at that, so they have nothing to be scared of.
The midterms, they can’t do it through legislation. All the congressmen and women would be voted out long before they passed legislation. That is why they are “flooding the zone “. They know it is illegal.
''Lincoln warned in his era, is “the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race,
it is all the same old serpent.”''
The devil you say? Same spirit, same outcome; destruction and then resurrection. What we the people do, and how we respond will dictate how long the misery will last before the resurrection of democracy.
Timothy Snyder published this is his substack today, written as he rode a train in Ukraine: "As I close my tablet and go to sleep, I am safer than every single one of you reading this in the United States, and indeed safer than I would be in the United States. My train will stop in five hours. But America will keep hurtling. "
Lincoln did not have the scourge of a dishonest press spreading misinformation to the ignorant and grasping mass of receptive people. This country will not survive until those forces are brought under control. Our constitution needs major revision if we are going to prevail. It offers too many loopholes to allow the rich and powerful to have their way.
Petter Pappas, you sum it up perfectly by writing: “democracy depends on a government that protects the public good.” That succinct summary does me good today to remind myself I am not crazy in my grief.
I would like to propose a national assignment to Professor. That is, Professor writes a new book titled "Government of the People, by the People and for the People." The book is to add facts and figures to this letter of Februaru 12, 2025. The book must be read by all political appointees. The book will explain it is a great career to serve citizens, protecting and promoting individual freedom. The book will also teach it is every citizen's responsibility to use the freedom to serve naighbors and communities. The book will teach how a democratic country should operate as planned by the founding fathers and God. Again, thank you Professor.
I am thinking of the 1939 Watty Piper book The Little Engine that Could. Concern for the needs of children and female sunniness to get over a hard task because amazing the engine cared enough to help children.
The Democrats Manifesto: The Gas-lighters are the enemy of the Republic, the Truth and the People. When in power again 2026 and 2028 The Democrats must promise to: (Hell call it contact with America"_) 1) Impeach Supreme Court Justices who gaslight as "originalists". Citizens United was the beginning of the corruption of dark big money into politics, and now we have Elon Musk and a thoroughly ignorant and incompetent Administration nominating Hegseth, Kennedy, Gabbard and others. " "Originalists", nonsense- corporations are not mentioned in the Constitution. A Corporation can not be drafted and sent to war. A corporation is a legal entity. It is not a citizen. "Three-fourths of survey respondents want to kill Citizens United by Amendment including 66 percent of Republicans back a constitutional amendment ." Justices have been bribed in the common understanding of the term. Some have broken the law by refusing to recuse themselves from cases as is required by 28 U.S. Code § 455. Promise to overturn "Presidential Immunity" decision, another gas lighting decision by the radical majority in SCOTUS. And call it gas lighting! 2.) Impeach Trump again. 3.) Impeach Judges like Eileen Cannon for all too obvious reasons. 4.) Demand that Federal Employees including the Military now not to not follow executive orders that have been Deemed illegal by the courts 5.) Take a tough, rational stand on immigration. Serious criminal penalties and fines for those who employ illegals. Bring back seasonal visas or short term visas for laborer's. Better for us better for the stability of the Central and South American Countries. Attract the best and brightest to young students and scientists to immigrate. We need immigrants to grow. Revisit birthright Citizenship which is being abused. 6.) Promote a large tax cut for most people with a hefty tax on the Oligarchs. Divide and conquer the divisions within the GOP. 7.) Promise a Federal Law guaranteeing Women's reproductive rights 8.) Run ads promising all this on popular GOP TV shows. Ads showing Jan 6th violence with Trump calling the Patriots. Tell them Trumps is a gas lighting about the 2020 election and knows it. 9.) Get rational about Gender identity. People care about this despite how miniscule the numbers. Spend and raise Democratic money on these promises.
I have never seen this Lincoln quote before. It’s as relevant today as it was in the 1860’s.
While history doesn’t “repeat” itself it certainly warns us of our past mistakes
Lincoln warned “the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent.”
It was Heraclitus (one of my favorites) who came up with the metaphor of never being able to step in the same river twice, since the water always flows (a central concept to the scattered records of his philosophy). And we see from nature that while rivers may exist for eons, even their course can change; sometimes dramatically. Principles (such a the "serpent" side of human nature) seem to persist from way back, but at different times, in different ways to different degrees.
The "same old serpent" never goes away, but ebbs and flows, along with the "better angels of our nature". I think we are wise to pay attention to abiding principles alongside current circumstances, and, yes, see what the can tell us as we make choice that affect our likely future.
Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo People, declared her Candidacy for Governor of New Mexico today... She was a Working Single Mother who had to make choices between Groceries, and Rent, a Community Organizer, a Congressperson, and finally Secretary of the Interior under Joe Biden... Deb is also First Indigenous Person to serve as a US Cabinet Member... Maybe the High-Priced DNC Consultants should have listened to Deb in 2024....
My roots in New Mexico run 35 generations deep. The Pueblo people were the first farmers in the high deserts of New Mexico, an agriculture tradition that still continues today.
I am here because of my grandfather, who worked for decades as a diesel mechanic on the railroad. Somehow he also kept a field — picking worms off the corn as it grew, like the generations before him.
I am here because of my grandmother, a survivor and a caretaker who woke up every day before the sun. She was the one who gave me my true love of cooking New Mexican cuisine. (She wouldn’t let us in the kitchen while she cooked, but I’d perch myself outside and watch her through the window for hours.)
I am here because of my parents and their sacrifice. My mother, a Pueblo woman, served in the Navy. My father, a Marine, received a Silver Star for his service in Vietnam. He now lies in honor at Arlington.
I am here because of my beloved child, who I raised on my own. I started a small business to pay the bills, but it still wasn’t always enough. We relied on food stamps to get on our feet. I sometimes had to decide between paying rent and buying groceries to feed our family. I will never forget how that felt or the kindness of those who helped us – strangers who became community. When I look at my Somah, I see perseverance, strength and hope.
These are my stories. I got this fundraising letter from her yesterday. This is the gist of it, minus her personal request to me and the fundraising part:
I cannot seem to edit this right.
This is disjointed as all get out. I cannot seem to edit this, but mostly, this is what she said:
These are stories of New Mexico.
These days, our differences are blown so far out of proportion. We lose sight of a simple fact: we all live in the same state, together. All of us in New Mexico come from love, survival, and sacrifice. We all want to live good lives — and we want even more for our children.
The current president and his billionaire friends look at the lands and the people of this country and think: what can I exploit?
I am running to ask: if we come together in New Mexico, what good can we do for each other and for the next generation?
We have our work cut out for us. The cost of living is crushing our families. Our economy is growing, but we need to make sure everyone shares in our progress. Our families need more. Our farmers and ranchers need more. New Mexico’s children need so much more. And we must be good stewards of the Earth, and preserve the rivers, mesas, farmlands, and forests whose beauty sustains our communities.
I am running to do all this and more. I am running to serve all New Mexicans and make sure we’re leaving a better future for our children.
Compare Hitler's assets and liabilities with those of Trump/Musk. And take note of how Hitler ended up in failure.
I can repeat some of what I've said before on this subject if anyone is interested. I cut and paste my commentaries into a daily document for editing and spell checks and then save it for my record.
The world gave Hitler years to build the strength which we paid to defeat.
We are just beginning to count the weeks with Trump/Musk. Soon it will be months as our Democratic leaders fiddle and pray that the lawyers and judges will save the day.
Meantime the enemy is taking over our last bastion of strength, the military. And all is quiet on that front save a couple of egotistical comments by Trump. (stupid for them; valuable for us if we listened carefully and critically).
We need real leaders while watching our 20th century style leaders crumble into the dust that is their destiny. Divide and conquer is an important strategy in a conflict and our enemy is doing just that as they scorn our peaceful demonstrations knowing that Americans are mostly weak, fearful and ignorant.
So who is Ed Weldon making such bold statements? Nobody but a noisy old man of no special reputation who once swore an oath to protect the Constitution and still has one life to give to his country and as good an account of himself as he is able to.
Trump and “friends” have had well over a generation to not only build strength but implement deconstruction. More likely, several generations, well before Hoover.
And I do think you may underestimate what Americans mostly are. Easily done when daring to estimate the character of a few hundred million people. Nevertheless, the sentiment is not grievous but too easily assumed. The human heart is dark and many chambered. Yet it is strong and, as I have learned, in most it is true.
You are right on regarding careful listening to the noise and misdirection employed by those who are now sacking the nation.
You’re a good man, Ed. My remarks are simply asides as we walk on this journey.
I value your comment. Power often comes in small increments. Not always uniform or orderly. The disorder can be valuable when employed strategically. I'm reminded here of Roman concrete and its unusual strength and resilience as a building material.
Our strength comes from our apparent disorder. But it is the strength of love. Our enemy depends on a fragile structure of control to hold its position. The current blitzkrieg is not enough.
I am but one intuitive mind among many; our numbers are legion.
The upside is that elimination of air traffic control will hamper the ruler's ability to conduct administrative functions at long distances. And they shoot at their feet; but their aim is poor.
I felt when the new administration jumped into a news conference after the DCA disaster, and Drumpf jumped up and said this investigation will not go on for years, we’re going to know within weeks. It sounded like setting the stage for a possible coverup. Like someone who feared he might find two of his fresh appointments could be implicated. Donny’s gotta be careful. He’s developed the pre-lie. He begins lying long before he even knows what happened.
So much death and destruction caused by Homo hubris to “smite the other” for *reasons* during our time on this pale blue dot…don’t know if we have the collective will to remedy this and live in harmony with each other and all our fellow species and ecosystems. Sad indeed. This presidency is one The Onion or Saturday Night Live could hardly have conceived of….it’s unreal to witness.
There are some clever people involved in the coup. Yes, tyrants persecute "intellectuals", but what really scares the architects of MAGA is "the truth", and any who tell it. A lot of fundamental truths (so far as our honest effort can identify them) are not really "rocket science". It's more a matter of paying attention and eschewing lies.
And maybe muzzle the main lying bastard, Rupert. He is now the most trusted man in America, replacing Walter. Even though he is behind the scenes, pulling the strings and orchestrating the script and action of the oligarchs. He has certainly fascinated the fools. And slandered the intelligent, all the while that muzzle makes me think that any opposition had been struck dumb.
I think the democrats got him elected. We spent so much time fighting about Trump we forgot to develop and promote our own leadership. Where are the top ten things Biden accomplished. Now is the time to give an alternative
I have seen very long lists of Biden's accomplishments. He was very reluctant to blow his own horn, and he's not dynamic, so a bit boring, so the media did not pick it up for him or look for ways to tell people about the good things he was doing.
Lots of evidence in Heather's writings about the good.
A few:
* managing the distribution of Covid vaccines
* ending the voodoo economics of 'trickle down' prosperity
* bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US
* stimulating the creation of millions of small businesses
* strengthening international alliances that Trump had neglected or actively undermined
* apppointing a Cabinet full of honest, competent people
* (with Harris doing the legwork) creating a network of Latin American countries willing to take refugees from other such countries so they would not all want to come to the US.
* vastly reducing the flow of immigrants through Mexico by humane measures, not by putting children in cages as deterrents.
* allowing Americans (and people in the rest of the world) to go about their daily lives without wondering every morning what lunacy had been committed overnight by the president of the US.
Yes, Biden's accomplishments were many. But while the media ignored all the good he was doing for this country, it sure didnt hesitate to continually harp on Biden's age, which oddly they didn't ever attack trump about, even after Biden stepped down. I totally hold the media responsible for allowing trump's win to happen. Infuriating!
Okay, not good, at all, but hold on a second. Over on Bsky I just reposted that 3,600 FBI agents and those not yet agents will soon not be part of this regime, as they are going to be fired. That's 3,600 former operatives, highly skilled and trained in covert operations, surveillance, investigations, tracking, security, enforcement... do I really have to say the rest of this?
I have thought of late, Rebel, that the “MUMP” (hat-tip to Timothy Snyder for the moniker) presidency should think hard, very hard, about pissing off so many FBI/CIA (trained experts) employees. What could possibly go wrong?
That Bertrand Russell quote is fantastic, and palpably prescient.
I feel like sinking back in a musty tweed suit, with collar starched so tightly on the neck that Luca Brasi would relate, lighting up a pipe and waxing nostalgic about the old Cambridge quad!
The power of the courts is deeply insinuated into America, and we will have to see how this game of Chicken plays out. For sure we live in a decidedly "interesting time" where the center isn't holding. Nobody, including Mump, knows how this will all play out.
Careful, J L. Don't say "Nobody . . . knows how this will all play out."
George Conway went on record today to guarantee that the criminal in the White House will simply disregard, ignore all court rulings that do not prop him further in the immunities and lack of accountability which the corrupt Clarence court began for him.
He will use all his Project 2025 stooges to commit further destruction of the institutions nurturing what we have of democracy -- killing off in brazen illegality what Elon Musk has cavalierly begun to kill.
Of course Conway said that. It was plain for everyone to see what Trump would do. You have to be pretty damn naive (stupid) not to see what would be the result of electing a rapist, a con man, a fraudster, a pathological liar, a cheat, and a money grubbing convicted felon as president.
Technically, it is the "Roberts Court", as he is Chief Justice. His name is spelled "Roberts" and is not the possessive of Robert (i.e. Robert's). It is often referred to as "the Clarence court" because of Clarence Thomas's absolute graft and corruption (in addition to being a sexual predator).
I remember early on in his term as Chief Justice, John Roberts musing about how "The Roberts Court" would be noted in history (passing reference to the Warren Court, where individual liberties and protections were articulated into law). Initially, I had thought that it would be a hard push for this court to be worse than the Taney Court of the 1830's-1860's. I was so wrong. The Roberts Court will go down as the SCOTUS that destroyed the US.
The power of courts in a real government rests on commitment to enforce judgments based on rule of law. We are about to discover whether we have an actual government or are under rule by a bunch of gangsters with obscene wealth who reinvented the "gang" as a "political party" that bought and bribed its way to power. There isn't any rationalizing of one as the other.
Have you seen any push back from the courts? Trump caused an insurrection, colluded with Russia and consistently lies. Now these lawsuits will go to the Supreme Court and we know who controls that
There are many intelligent Republican members of Congress who know very well that what Trump is doing is unconstitutional. Some have even admitted it openly - like senators Lindsey Graham and Thomas Tillis who recently said that although Musk's activities were unconstitutional “...nobody should bellyache about that." In reality, they're terrified of the power that Musk is wielding and his ability to use his wealth to settle vendettas (he's threatened to fund primary challenges to any Republican member of Congress who resists Trump). I disagree that the courts cannot enforce their orders. They're contempt powers are wide-ranging. One federal judge has already given a last warning to the administration to lift the freeze on federal grants and loans. Trump may be inviolate, but his minions are not.
Both Norm Eisen at The Contrarian and Marc Elias at Democracy Docket have explained the power of our federal judges in the past day or two. I have found their words and expertise heartening as this game of chicken between t***p and our courts ramps up.
While I appreciate that we are experiencing chaotic and uncertain times right now, I refuse to use any terms of despair or hopelessness which might bring satisfaction to the Project 2025 acolytes. I will not write anything that could make those unpatriotic wanna-be despots feel they’re beating me.
I agree that it's unlikely, but his minions are not protected by his cloak of immunity. What we may end with is the farce of people being jailed for contempt and then pardoned by Trump. Trump said during his very odd press conference with Musk that the administration would comply with court orders (even though it has already defied court orders) and would instead launch appeals, hoping to secure victory in the Supreme Court where the right-wing majority might feel more inclined to allow him a wide latitude in exercising the powers of his office. Liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor yesterday said: "Court decisions stand, whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not. It doesn’t change the foundation that it’s still a court order that someone will respect at some point." That doesn't sound to me like the court will want to overrule Trump when push comes to shove.
I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that Republican members of Congress are aware that Trump is pushing the boundaries of his executive powers, especially as I have pointed out that some have publicly acknowledged this. But, as I said before, none so far dares to oppose Trump and Musk because of the power they wield. It may be that as the mid-terms loom closer and if the economy remains in the doldrums and other things are not going quite as planned there may be less reticence on the Republican side about criticising the administration. I appreciate that now seems quite a long way off. For the time being, public protest, a more vigorous approach in Congress from Democrats and challenges in the courts are the only way to resist the administration.
Indeed, I wrote about this on my free substack blog. The short article is about the need to make the Justice Department independent of the Executive Branch. Perhaps it could be independent in the same way that the Federal Reserve is independent.
Matt, I was contemplating that recently as well…my (very) limited research (School of Google) indicated it would take a Constitutional amendment to effect such a change. So much for an independent judiciary under a despot!!! I wonder if our founders thought of such a cabal of bad actors!!!
The courts are not the justice department. The judiciary branch was established in the constitution. The Justice Department was established in 1870. That said, the courts depend on the executive branch to enforce rulings. So though your facts were slightly off, if Trump ignores the law, we’re thoroughly screwed anyway.
I guess that’s was the point I was trying to make…if the executive branch is “compromised” (ie; doing blatantly illegal/unconstitutional stuff) and putting its thumb on the scale of the DOJ, I fear court rulings will just be words on a paper if there is no real enforcement. Scary to me. That’s why the idea (be careful what you wish for tho’….unintended consequences and such) of Justice being a “4th” co-equal branch is thought provoking.
Heather, I think in more normal times you have tried to take off at least one night a week, substituting a beautiful photo for your fuller letter. I think in these horrific and scary times you have not taken a day off for weeks on end. Things are moving so fast that it is hard to find the time to even breathe.
I am sure I speak for all of your readers in expressing my gratitude for all your efforts to help us understand all that is going on and put it in historical perspective. But I hope you are carving out time to care for yourself. As my pastor often says when inviting the congregation to stand, please sit if you need to sit. We would rather have you sit than fall.
And so too with your readers, Heather. We would rather that you sit than fall. Please take the time you need periodically for self care.
Heather's political chats are happening maybe twice a week also right now. And I feel the emotional space she creates as she explains the constitutional crisis we are in. It is scary.
2025: “The illegitimate object of government is ‘to do for Trump and his minions what they desire to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves’.
Imagine any modern "Republican" echoing Lincoln's words? Or a modern Republican TR? Teddy's family admired Lincoln. In Northern Ohio in the 1950's and '60's anyone who poke to kids seemed to admire him too. Then it seemed that in the public conversions, his personal legacy got left behind. Eliminating Lincoln's Birthday as a holiday seemed to help change the focus.
To the idea that government has the possibility, and therefore the responsibility, to provide what a single person is unable to accomplish alone, I'd like to add the idea that unions can make the same difference in the workplace. One voice can make a difference, but multiple voices can accomplish much more. Are we having a rebirth of unionism, with Starbucks and Amazon and workers in many other businesses coming together to effect change? In MA, doctors are forming a union, something previously unimaginable. While I find little to comfort me in what is going on in our country today, I find the move towards unionism to be a very heartening development.
This will likely be a very naive question since I have no experience of any kind with unions, but why don't we have a national United Workers Union, like a union for everyone who works? Edit: or a union for everyone who works who don't already have a union to join.
Their interest fields are too diverse. Their might likely be huge commercial pushback alleging the Unions had become a monopoly themselves. The closest the U.S. has come is the AFL-CIO umbrella of different member unions. Even with that they have been checkmated in the past. When Reagan fired the PATCO air traffic controllers, the AFL called for a national strike to shut down the nation. The Teamsters, who supported Reagan wouldn't join in for even a limited strike. The strike didn't happen as a result - other reasons as well untold. The AFL did the next thing they could pull off, which was massive demonstrations in D.C. I was in on those shenanigans; I've never seen so many people at one time again in my entire life.
The Labor Department (which Robert Reich once occupied) used to try to represent the interests of all workers. Part of doing what the public need done. Perhaps a universal union is possible. It's been though of before. It has seemed to me that unions were more popular when (it seemed to me) they were more visibly protecting all workers rights, along with those of their own membership.
Unions often support each other, but they usually are composed of members of a certain specific kind of job. A big union can have many locals. As a teacher, the NEA is our national union, the MTA is our state affiliate, and the MCCC is the local for the community colleges. I have walked picket lines with grocery store workers and with a local of The Union of Benevolent Electrical Workers. Big unions often work to bring together workers in a field that is different from the parent union. For example, there are eight different unions at UMass Lowell: https://www.uml.edu/hr/labor-relations/. I hope that that answers your questions at least in part.
Our local law enforcement union (agency only) would defend deputies/records staff that were being targeted by the County whether or not they were union members. We had a "no strike" clause since we were "essential". The only time I can recall being able to support striking unions was when our local Teachers Union was on strike; I would not umpire any of that district's softball games, as that would be crossing their picket line.
In a way, we are having to create something similar to a union right now. There will be a “24 Hour Economic Blackout” on Friday, February 28. This will be an opener. Then there will be a 3 day blackout, then 5. It will escalate til big money realizes they actually don’t hold all the power.
" Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows. or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Frederick Douglass One of the best ways to make that demand to power is through a labor union. The labor movement has been under attack for 40 years. Why do you suppose that is? There are possibilities. Strive toward solidarity of purpose! Si! se pueda
I think, if we double check, the labor movement has been under attack since it was first proposed and ever since. I suspect it may have something to do with tha old serpent thing.
We could use another Abraham Lincoln. Thank you professor.
Speaking of serpents, we could also use an army made up of mongooses.
The mongoose is a small animal known for its ability to kill snakes. It is fast, agile, and has a natural resistance to some snake venom. Mongooses are famous for hunting venomous snakes like cobras by using their quick reflexes and strategic attacks.
Veronica, it's so hard to grab onto and sustain hope right now. Thank you for your uplifting, humorous metaphor. I can picture many wily, strategic, non-violent mongooses finding each other. Long live mongooses!
Lol Veronica ; Hoping you may have coined a name for resistance. Hopefully that happens before the opposition co-opts these great ideas. They do painstaking opposition research,, even here.
MSNBC's indefatigable Rachel Madow tells a wonderful story about how when Trump purchased Mar a Lago the original owner left behind a family crest of arms. Trump liked it and adopted it as his own with one telling exception, replacing a word on the crest with his name - the word that was removed was 'Integritas' - how fitting! The BBC reports that an application to trademark the Trump copy with the College of Arms, the authority for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, was rejected after the college noted that the design had been lifted from an existing coat of arms. It nevertheless now adorns his new bitcoins and much of his tacky merchandise from socks to golf carts.
Thanks for putting Rachel Maddow’s research into the family crest that was confiscated from the original owners of Mar-a-Lago by the Trump family. I had read about Maddow’s research and thought how hubris grows deeply from within and spreads like the most aggressive cancer.
My daddy used to say, “The higher they fly, the lower they fall”…my daddy’s kind voice never leaves me.
Trump has fallen just about as low as any US president in history (two impeachments and a criminal conviction) and yet he continues to plumb new depths of unserious and depraved behaviour. We all here fervently hope for a dramatic collapse of this hideous administration.
A apologies for posting this many times but it just seems so cogent and so relevant:
"That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings.” - Lincoln
Judy, I’m thrilled to see, across the nation…in all kinds of inclement weather, folks gathering to protest….seems to me the ground-swell is growing….let’s hope it is seismic*!
*metaphorically speaking….but NO real life huge earthquakes/seismic events!!!!
I ask this because I don't know. (Indivisible has done some things close to this.):
"Is a nationwide "demonstration calendar" associated with all aspects of Trump's unfolding constitutional challenges being proposed or maintained that we can access to keep up with and participate in local expressions as they unfold??
Good question, Hendrik, I don’t know the answer—but is a great idea. I live in a very rural area, minimum of 4 hours to get to a sort of big city (to me anyway)…even more hours to get to the state capitol or major city. The big city in my county has about 35,000 people, my town has 1200. Still, on occasion, we DO pull off a gathering or short march, but I’ve heard of no local organizing…yet!
BUT - I think it's crucial to remember that Lincoln wasn't born an abolitionist. He had to be galvanized by activists to become the leader we needed him to be. At first the morality of freedom and equality didn’t seem to factor into his decisions as President at all. He only used Emancipation as a threat to seceded Southern states, dangling a carrot in front of Confederate leaders that if they returned to the Union, they’d get to keep “their” enslaved.
Black leaders, especially Frederick Douglass, Black newspaper editors, Black and white abolitionists, all worked tirelessly and relentlessly to put pressure on Lincoln in various ways before he moved from a legal stance to a moral one.
I’m not for one second saying that there’s a hope in hell of persuading the malignant narcissist occupying the Oval Office of anything resembling morality. But I’m hearing (reading) a lot of activists looking at Democratic leaders and lamenting “Where’s our Lincoln?”
It was the work of we the people who created that tipping point, and looking for ONE leader to do it for us is not going to get it done.
You make a great point, and give some hope in a dark moment. No, there’s no redeeming Trump or Musk, but there are Republican senators who can turn around with
relentless reminders of their Constitutional obligations.
As an elementary student way back in the 1960s, the month of February held three special days. Valentine’s Day, of course, but also the birthdays of presidents Lincoln on the 12th and Washington on the 22nd. The latter two were school holidays - yippee! - but the February curriculum also focus on these important men. Age appropriate biographies were read, plays were performed and we students felt connected to our nation’s history. As a 9 year old, a big thrill for me was a trip to Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenville, KY while visiting my aunt in Louisville. I think my love of history and reading came from learning about Abraham Lincoln as a 3rd grader. I ended up a History and English major in college.
Today, we nominally celebrate a generic Presidents Day. For many school districts in California, it is the first day of the Ski Week holiday, so any president is a passing thought between lift tickets and lift lines. And I am the guilty parent who did just that without impressing upon my children the importance of the day, and also the two men I celebrated as a young student.
The prescient words of George Santayana still ring true: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Yes, yes, yes. I was an elementary student in the 1950's and the life and accomplishments of Lincoln were always a focus around his birthday. He was the most inspiring figure a can recall hearing of in the primary grades. The founders got a lot right in their aspirational creation. Lincoln removed some of the most serious "bugs" that sabotaged that dream. Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men (sic) are created equal.
And I grew up in Illinois. Lincoln's birthday was a monthlong celebration of plays with terrible costumes, recitations of his speeches using fake deep voices by both boys and girls, songs, I know there were songs but I can't remember a one of them anymore. And drawing, lots of drawings on construction paper with crayons of a tall, tall man with an even taller hat. Oh, but my favorite was cutting out pieces of different colors of construction paper and sticking them together in just the right way to make a bust of him or sometimes just a silhouette. Yeah, it was good. We celebrated Washington too but not like OUR president.
Amen to that. You make me think of my grandchildren. Ski week, or Dizzyworld. Neither of which were around or affordable in Michigan in the '50s. One generic holiday that teaches nothing to the new generation. And my children, their parents, are too busy to see what is going on around them.
Halfway through tonight's beautifully crafted letter, my brain started itching like one of those itches you can't scratch. And then goosebumps arrived and nearly a tear. Then a small smile. Then a, YES, I remember this, I know this, what a government can be! As lovely as that remembrance was, the itch in my brain remained. And then I started the comments and one after another after another reminded me that the evil and hatred for humanity currently tainting our government is still there tonight, perverting it, and dirtying it up with their sticky, greedy fingers. Okay, that's anger. But the itch just got itchier. Then interspersed among the condemnations of those rapists of our government, I started reading praise and more fond details of a man so strong he stopped a nation from cleaving apart practically with his bare hands. And you know, that's when the itching stopped. I got it. My brain had been trying to tell me to stop fearing those frauds who are anything but strong. They are weak men with weaker souls and weak brains that are infected beyond all recognition with cruelty and wantonness. And that itch had been asking me why aren't we acting? These cowardly boys and goons and charlatans will fold like paper dolls made of the bills they so revere if we show show them our flesh and blood and heart strength. We can, but we have to stop being so nice, so proper, so willing to follow the rules they expect us to follow because, well, they are rules and we've gotten too used to following those. But there are higher rules to follow that tonight came floating out of this letter and back into our battered hearts. Our strength is in those hearts, the ones that bring us together here each night to look for hope and reason and a way forward. Yeah, we CAN do this. And we can still be good and still be our best human selves while at the same time standing up tall and walking right around the rules they are trying to strap us with and say, no, we will not let you do this. You, sir, and you, and you too, you will cease and desist NOW. And if you will not willingly yield, have no doubt we will move you.
"They are weak men with weaker souls and weak brains that are infected beyond all recognition with cruelty and wantonness." Such a precise, exact description of these ruthless despots.
Wonderful essay, thank you. As Lincoln said: “The legitimate object of government is ‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves,’… as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself.” As I wrote recently, Lincoln would today be called a democratic socialist, not a Republican. Today, Republicans are Nazis.
In Plato’s Republic, Socrates questions Thrasymachus on the nature of good government. Thrasymachus insisted that justice was nothing other than the self-interests of the stronger. And so the shepherd fleeces his sheep. But Socrates objected the shepherd’s job is to protect the flock, anticipating what Jesus told Peter: ‘If you love me, feed my sheep.‘
HCR highlights how progressives—from Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt and FDR—expanded government to serve the people, curbing corporate abuses, building infrastructure, and ensuring economic fairness. Each era’s reforms were a response to elites who sought to exploit workers and concentrate wealth, proving that democracy depends on a government that protects the public good.
“Government for Sale” https://forgottenfiles.substack.com/p/government-for-sale shows how today’s reactionaries are dismantling those protections, reviving the spoils system to turn government into a tool for the wealthy. Trump and Musk’s purge of officials and privatization of federal agencies isn’t just corruption—it’s an attack on democracy itself. The fight over whether government serves the people or the powerful is the same struggle Lincoln warned about, and once again, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Not quite "the same struggle," Peter.
Americans of Lincoln's era valued literacy far more highly than those in our dehumanized schools of today, all of them thrown to the suffocations of testing all to the additional benefit of the social media billionaires. These, today's versions of the enslavers then, now want to keep all jerked around by their algorithms sinking all -- enslaving all -- to endless sensationalism, hate formulas, fear addictions.
Americans of Lincoln's era often quoted Shakespeare. Often quoted the King James version of the Bible. Referred to popular novels of the day as Mark Twain legendarily did himself.
Lincoln signed into law the Justin Morrill land grant bill in 1862 setting in motion the world's greatest high tide of good quality public colleges and universities.
All then totally opposite the neutered language and impersonal conceits Diane Ravitch sees today dominating all the standardized tests and corporate text packages. All totally opposite today's decline in reading as The Atlantic’s Hana Rosin and Rose Horowitch cite in:
Why Reading Books in High School Matters .
Thanks Phil... "Americans of Lincoln's era valued literacy far more highly than those in our dehumanized schools of today, all of them thrown to the suffocations of testing all to the additional benefit of the social media billionaires. These, today's versions of the enslavers then, now want to keep all jerked around by their algorithms sinking all -- enslaving all -- to endless sensationalism, hate formulas, fear addictions." ... Chris Hayes of MSNBC just released a Book, titled, "The Sirens' Call", in this Book, Chris Postulates that the Social Media Heroin Drips, shorten, and fragment Human Attention Spans... Elon Musk controls 'X', and DJT saved Tic-Tock in the USA... Does anybody educated, or sane believe that DJT will have the positive Stature of Lincoln? Lincoln was essentially self taught by Candlelight, and put himself thru Law School... DJT paid someone to take his SAT Exams, and only Audited Classes at Wharton... DJT was born Rich, and squandered Billions of $... DJT has declared Bankruptcy 6 times... DJT is now tearing down the US Gov which Lincoln saw a force for Good for the Citizens of the USA... DJT, and his Puppet-Masters, Elon, Putin, Netanyahu, see the US Gov as Evil... How Far the Republican Party, the Party of Lincoln, TR, and Eisenhower, has Fallen..Both DJT, and Elon, are Parasites more Evil then those that they impugn...
Sadly sir there are many educated people supporting Trump. There are universities, think tanks, and organisations dedicated to the ideals held by Trump. Hillsdale College, Liberty University, The Federalist Society, the American Enterprise Institute to name a few. It's a mistake to think everyone supporting Trump is uneducated or insane. Even Musk is not insane. Yes, he acts in his own best interest, but greed and insanity are different.
Gary, they may be educated, but they are using it for ill. Education does not imply that a person is not capable of great evil. In fact, that may make it worse. However, the little troopers of the cult are often not well educated or they just sneer at anyone who knows anything because you know, they have done research on the internet.
The "Little Troopers" are both white Christian Nationalists and racists, i.e., KKK though abortion is also a major issue.
On paper, many people look "educated" but , in reality, are neither intelligent nor compassionate.
My father described them as "educated fools". As a friend's uncle told him upon his graduation from college, "son, that's an impressive piece of paper you have there, but you need to understand that there is a book, as thick as the Empire State Building is tall, full of shit you don't know."
Truly intelligent people unless they are some kind of savant or polymath realize and acknowledge how much they do not know. I am reading a book on the cosmos right now by an astrophysicist who constantly makes the point that there are many things we do not know and may never know.
This has been happening in full sight though with enough cover sometimes hard to see. If one watched PBS with the various iterations of Bill Moyers and his shows he documented the rise of ALEC and their path toward overtaking state government. In Ohio the process of gerrymandering started slowly but continued gaining strength giving my state Rep . Jim Jordan. His district is a cobbled location no shoemaker would ever be proud of.
Lincoln’s speeches are helpful I think the one at Cooper Union is worth reading during our Black History Month and President’s holiday this month.
The actor Tom Hanks is cremated to Lincoln through Nancy.
Related not cremated!!!!
Good for a morning chuckle though :)
Mary, I always proofread my posts and replies before tapping the button. But almost without fail, when I reread my comment after posting, I discover an error I somehow missed. Fortunately, Substack provides the ellipsis in the top right corners of my posts which I can click and choose to edit what I just posted. This has saved me many instances of embarrassment.
That Federalist Society is responsible for an increase in maternal mortality, as well as nonfatal maternal harms following the overturning of Roe V. Wade.
Three pregnant women recently died in Texas because the medical professionals withheld treatment fearing prosecution.
Trump holds ideals? The Federalist Society doesn't support Trump - he's their Trojan Horse - most definitely Musk's Trojan Horse.
Gary, all you say may well be true; however, one should not conflate “educated”, which too often is well limited in thought, with intellect, which more often than not has proven to be expansive of thought. Those you determined as “educated” in the Trump style are the ones who are limited “intellectually.” That is precisely the problem we now have. Musk’s knowledge in business may be impressive; however, his love for “free speech” has proven to be nothing more than a ruse. It’s only “free speech” if he so approves it. Education is good; intellect is the higher destination. Trump supporters, whether educated or not, haven’t by any means demonstrated the higher level of thought.
Ignorance has to be factored in.
I would like to point out that whatever good Eisenhower might have done he and the Dulles brothers orcastraited the overthrow of two democratically elected governments, that of Guatemala and Iran. We have not always stood for democracy in the world and now we are in the process of losing our own.
Yes Pablo and the same year if I am correct and there was Pinochet and Nicaragua and our invasions since 1898 and the persistent School of The Americas at Ft Benning GA and now The Serpents in The White House, Congress and the SC. What has God Wrought?
He also instituted OPERATION WETBACK!!
Apache, yes, social media.
When I lived in Springfield, IL in the 1980's, there was a story in the State Journal-Register about a math teacher whose small downstate Illinois high school math team had won the state math team competition several years in a row.
The article divulged his secret -- old math textbooks from the 1850's - 1930's. When asked why they were the secret to his championships he answered, "these were the textbooks used in the one room school houses where the one teacher relied on the textbooks to teach math and not on the teacher. To prepare for the tournaments he had the students work through the problems in the old textbooks and to learn the concepts therein.
This is how Lincoln learned and millions of kids across the country. Of course, not all of the students were able to learn this way, so besides the textbooks and the teachers help, the students were expected to teach each other. This reinforced the lessons as well.
When my daughter was in high school, 16 years ago, she struggled with a simple algebra problem, so I showed her how to solve it. Just a couple of steps. She objected saying, "That is not the way the teacher showed us." She showed me their textbook. I read the chapter and could not figure out what they were doing. They had taken a basic concept, made it harder to understand with multiple steps, and got the same answer I did with two simple ones. The old textbooks were better.
My grandson is neurodiverse. He is excelling in geometry. He got points taken off of a recent exam because on the paper where he shows his work, it was different although the answers were all correct. When he protested, he told the teacher, "you showed us how to get to the answer in 8 steps, I can do it in three, my way is easier and smarter".
Kudos to your grandson!
That has been happening for years. My son graduated in 2012 and I can’t count the number of times I had this conversation with teachers.
Here’s an argument you can use that worked for me.
Math is the ultimate truth and the path to groundbreaking science. You can’t constrict the way you get to the answer or you hinder students’ curiosity and critical thinking.
They adjusted the grade to shut me up. But as we’ve learned, there are many paths to the right answer. 🙂
AMEN! I have the same experience with the "modern" textbooks and methods with which my own children and grandchildren are forced to deal.
I noticed that, as well. They say they are trying to get students to understand how mathematics work and the longer methods are supposed to show the theoretical understanding of math that people who take advanced degrees in math use. But what most people want out of math is the end result -the answer. Leave theory to mathematicians. It is interesting and amazing, but not what most people want math for. Don’t expect eleven-year-olds to be mathematical theorists.
But those 11 year olds who ARE mathematical theorists should absolutely not be penalized for it.
My parents were both teachers. My mother taught for a while in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Maine. My dad taught in tiny PA towns during the depression. They taught every subject. Each night, they would study the lessons to stay one step ahead of their students, because evern though they themselves were well-educated, they were not as fluent on ALL subjects. Latin, for instance. My mother even taught a boy how to play the trombone. She herself was a musician, but not with wind instruments. She figured out what pitches were sounding when the slide was at a certain spot and by doing that, the young lad learned enough to continue with his love of music.
This is such a cool history here, Jan. How far a cry from "teach to the test" that we have today. My mom taught her "last chance English class" (kids HAD to pass it, as seniors, to graduate) to read Middle English and read Chaucer in its original form. She had "her kids" visiting her up until she died, some 30 years after she quit teaching; she only taught for 4 years.
Exactly! My children and grandchildren are being taught so that the school system gets a passing grade, but not so that there is any true learning being imparted to the students.
Instead of focusing on our constitutional crisis we have let Balla divert us with how schools (which are not standardized) are run. We have a great crisis going on, can we focus on saving our form of government.
I would suggest that Mr Balla is entirely correct to tie the nature of our formal schooling to the maintenance of the Republic. Indeed, the two are tied inextricably to one another.
I taught elementary school history (grades 4-9) for over 40 years in three very different independent schools. In that setting, one sees and hears a great deal about what one’s colleagues are thinking and doing in their various disciplines. I could go on at a far greater length than anyone here could stomach about the nature of education and the issues surrounding it at that crucial level, but I’ll try to keep within reasonable bounds.
I, like many others here I’m sure, participated in a number of those wonderful late-night college dorm, slightly alcohol fueled ‘discussion’ sessions. One I remember with some clarity for something one of my co-participants said (he was an interesting combination of pedant and down-home clarity). “A good basic education for democratic citizenship should prepare the recipient to able to ask intelligent questions in a number of general areas, and to be able, at least, to have a good sense of when the answers one is getting back are bullshit”
Hard for me to better encapsulate (I’m actually a fan split infinitives!) one of the chief reasons we find ourselves in our current dilemma.
As I’ve said many times here and elsewhere, we are both the interiors of and the participants in the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex experiment in human government ever attempted. To be brutally honest, our educational system over time has increasingly failed to impress that on our students in the one place where they are forced to be present to hear it.
Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean that all of our high school graduates would internalize it sufficiently in order to carry that concept, with even a modicum of its implications, as adults into the voting booth where it is crucial. But to assume that enough of us will come to understand that just by ‘picking it up along the way’ is, to be brief, nuts. And that doesn’t even take into account the present vast internet network of those intent on denying it, subverting it, distorting it, and manipulating it in pursuit of their own lust for power and control - starting with the two current would-be oligarchs doing all of the above in pursuit of their own lust for power and control.
We are doing that here. This particular post is a conversation between a couple of friends here on LFAA; we do not lose sight of the importance of our constitutional crisis, and can have thoughts and conversations on other topics.
George, one of the features I enjoyed about my subscription to The Washington Post was the comment utility included at the foot of nearly every article, including the cartoons. Although I learned a lot from WaPo's authors, I learned even more from the readers' comments.
When WaPo went (ironically) to the Dark Side early last spring, I cancelled my long-time subscription and began my search for a different source of news and education. I paused for a while with The Guardian, but among other drawbacks, missed being able to read and post comments.
After chasing up a few more blind alleys, I landed here on HCR's Substack, and from here, discovered a few others with valuable information and insights, such as those authored by Joyce Vance and Tim Snyder.
Phil Balla is definitely focused on the abandonment of humanities in U.S. education, but the topic is relevant. If Balla's comments are insufficiently on-topic for you, rather than complaining, your response should be to scroll past the branch of conversation that doesn't interest you and reconnect to it where you feel more comfortable.
When I was in grade school I was the only girl in my very small class in Nebraska. The teacher sent me (because I could read and "do sums") to the cloak room to teach those having trouble reading, etc. I suspect they were dyslexic. Did not help my education to teach others! I still have trouble with addition when #7 and #9 is involved.
Honey, I never conquered the multiplication tables. Took finite math plus whatever, in college (it was a requirement) I was the best in both classes. Different brain workings. Some solutions came to me without my knowing how I did it. I have never been a memory person.
I can't imagine having you could teach cloak room kids. Were there any desks??
Excellent. We forget that many people stopped school at eight grade. High school classes were Very small.
To go to school until 8th grade for many was an accomplishment.
One had to learn all they could by 8th grade so what was taught in class was most important.
A timely comment given Trump's promise to abolish the Department of Education and Democratic congresswoman Melanie Stansbury's warning that Musk’s employees “are in the building, on the sixth floor, canceling grants and contracts.” AP reports that dozens of education department employees were told on Friday that they had been put on leave immediately, with at least 55 workers losing access to their government email accounts and told not to report to the office pursuant to the DEI executive order. A more wide-ranging emasculation, also by executive order, is currently being considered by the administration according to a variety of news sources.
In TN there is a bill introduced to do away with standards, attendance (such as homeschooling does it) and pretty much any accountability for homeschooling families. Also vouchers were jammed through two weeks ago (so $7k for no accountability, etc.—Disney World field trip here we come!) “Parental choice.” Clearly TN wants more uneducated citizens.
I suspect that it's also a backdoor for religion to be taught in science classrooms, an endeavour that has failed twice in the Supreme Court, and indeed to permeate state curriculums.
Another reason Tennessee keeps sending the stupid to congress.
😭 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭Retired Tennessee teacher here.
Remember - Trump says he “loves the uneducated”. He has his reasons. They don’t question his motives or methods so he gets away with the steal.
N.E. Tn here. I've started reminding maga of the WeLfAre QuEens, and pointing out that they can now get 7-8k per child, just to keep their kids out of school.
Why are the restraining orders against Musk not being enforced.
Who would do it? Federal Marshall’s are controlled by Pam Bondi.
I think judges have control over enforcement. I'm not sure what policing agencies are available to them. That haven't been corrupted
My understanding is that before using their wide powers of contempt they will warn the offender once the failure to comply is brought to their notice (usually by the original complainant). That's already happened in at least one case concerning the freeze of federal loans and grants. If the administration continues to defy court rulings then frankly it's anybody's guess. Trump himself said at yesterday's weird press conference with Musk that he will comply with court orders and then appeal against them - but it appears that he has no intention of complying. The belligerent response from Musk and Vance yesterday to five court decisions going against the administration suggests to me that they may be looking for a stand-off with the lower courts and hoping that the Supreme Court, with its in-built right-wing majority will support its stance on the use of executive powers. I'm not an expert and there are plenty of experts commenting on this.
What are standards for ? Goals? We establish a beginning point from which to better ourselves? Measures to compare whether we gain or lose? And, at that instance we are either at status quo , gaining, or losing.
It’s about the HEALTH of whatever we are measuring .
Most everyone recognizes when they’re not ‘feeling good’ and …if not , tries to discern why.
America has come to a point where once we were rated #1 and are no longer. Did someone give us #1 status erroneously? If not , why are we now at what? 18th? America’s health is in decline. What started this . Probably not just one thing , right? So maybe give it the top 5 reasons for the decline.
Honest reasons.
And where would we find or trust the answers?
There’s a tremendous amount of people unable to figure that out by themselves .
We elected people to represent those figures …and paid them…and they are doing quite well…a lot of people aren’t …is this a satisfactory standard..can those who are doing quite well adequately represent those who aren’t?
Was there a time we thought so ?
What changed? …if the answer was yes.
Sometimes we need to start from scratch, rewalk the miles, reevaluate. We should expect working standards are met WHATEVER we are measuring .
Accountability is a direct measure of healthy systems.
Who is , who isn’t …following the steps .
How are Americans to judge the performance of the Trump administration when it has effectively begun disabling all the vehicles by which it might be held accountable? The only sure way against the backdrop of continual lies is whether people feel that they are actually better off in their own lives than they were before. Biden failed that test even though he led the country to the most impressive recovery from the pandemic of any developed nation and that's because of the pain Americans suffered, and many continue to suffer, from the effects of the pandemic. Musk and others are calling for massive deregulation i.e. virtually no standards at all. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is warning that inflation is going to rise and has postponed interest rate cuts and Trump's tariff war threatens more price rises for consumers.
They’re NOT going to know Russell because people are gullible ,often misled - horrifically : here’s a great example..(thank you)
I would have written : Biden proved (“how”) that test by leading the country to the most impressive recovery…
The 2024 election is over… and to the rest of the story? …be sure to thank all who voted for Liar in Chief and all the complicit.
We are now dealing with it.
I agree. The recent CBS/YouGov poll shows Trump with his highest approval rating at any time during his time in office. The only troubling aspects of the poll are his failure to tackle high prices and inflation and his plan to rebuild Gaza (which seems to have down with the quivering brethren like a cup of cold sick).
Yes, we are now in crisis mode.
Reading the "banned books" in high school is especially valuable.
Before this year ends, I expect to see book burnings and raids on public libraries touted as displays of "patriotism."
The USA is going to be renamed "Trumpystan" and our neighbor to the south as "Musckyto" on the next edition of Google Maps.
Huge fan of Ravitch’s. Couldn’t agree more. Now more than ever, we need reading to develop empathy in our young people.
The addictive qualities of social media and the mania for testing students into stupidity (the testing companies of course now to politicians not to educations) should be called out by Dems …. Who seem to be flailing about for messaging while missing the messages right under their noses:
1. Take back your mind: get off social media and
2. make schools about learning, not corporate testing.
Our schools are not "dehumanized" - that is a broad attack with no basis in fact except to be alarmist and derogatory. Most schools do fine. The ones that struggle are by and large the ones that are segregated and/or with inadequate resources. The school cannot be dehumanized if the people in the neighborhood have not already been "dehumanized" themselves by the conditions under which the larger society condemns them.
Heather knock one out of the park. This Letter Is like a salve to my/our psychological wounds. It is spot on for what ails us. Phil, on this site, I often refer to those of us, left of center, as "like-minded". That's a misnomer though. If some of us consider themselves as independent thinkers, they will often disagree with their like-minded compatriots. In the movie: Fidler On The Roof, in a scene where Tevya , the protagonist, is in a conversation with a group of fellow villagers who are discussing disturbing events beyond their village. Tevya agrees with differing and contradictory opinions. a great scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UiF7BsC1Ig
You gotta watch. Me, I agree with Heather, Peter and yourself. I am literally making an argument against my own precept of likemindedness. My take is that America has been dumbed down...purposefully. A good book written in '91 by John Taylor Gatto is called Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. You have to be NOT dumb to relate to what Heather is saying. That guy was a libertarian and didn't trust government. and I agree but I trust our constitutional process. Yeah, you have to read books. In the 80s I used to think that being liberal minded made you part of a minority. Now I believe it is a fact (a contradiction in terms). We lefties are becoming a small percentage of the population. You know who's likeminded? It's the other guys. For them, it's about loyalty and tribalism. Anti-intellectualism, misogyny, racism, a rejection of objectivity, facts, laws and science and medicine... BOOKS!. In 2016, I was wondering "Who are all these people?". Now I think I know but 77,301,997 voters have let us know that democracy, literacy and progressivism is not the point any more.
Phil, yes indeed it matters. I once was at a school board meeting where our curriculum coordinator dissed the English department for teaching novels. She was also the head of our special ed department and the materials she used with some of them were so bad that even I had problems helping them. They were poorly written with bad grammar. The back story is that she once was a part of the English department and a couple of them were merciless about her conservative Christianity. She used her administrative position to get back at them and supported the principal who was sorta like a mini death star. But I had one of her students assigned to me who was in regular English class to give him some extra help. The book was Jane Eyre and I thought crap. It turned out that he loved it and was reading ahead of the class. I also just had a round with someone on another thread who thinks the dismantling of the Dept of Ed is fine because the state Dept of Ed. could do all that the federal one does. I took him to task over the special ed part and "insulted" him by saying that he was naive and not well informed about this. He even accused me of gaslighting him although I am not sure he really knows what that word means. Surprisingly he quit when I told him we were done. Also I doubt he reads other than maybe some wing nut site on his devices.
Didn’t Bush champion “No Child Left Behind?” This has led to an over emphasis on “standardized” tests and pressure on schools to lower standards. Perhaps there should be a country wide discussion. It is easier to support policies and procedures when the rationale behind them has been shared. Educators could do a better job of explaining and others could do a better job of listening and contributing their ideas in a civil way. No one should be told what to think but how to think.
Well said!
How can a man and others who like him are amassing fortunes be bothered with the needs of our citizenry.
Half a billion dollar yacht, underground Hawaiian island shelter, thousands of acres in Texas and more money than can be personally used in a life time, all while people here
are going hungry.
When are we and they going to come to our senses?
Before or after whatever seems fated to happen?
Capitalism has a built-in error: there's no upper limit. We should have said: every dollar above 1 billion will be taxed 100%. Zelda-style-taxes: you cannot pick up more than 999 rupees, the rest will be left lying for someone else to pick up.
Thanks for the smile today, Dutch Mike. My wife got through grad school in the late 1980's on "The Legend of Zelda" up through "The Ocarina of Time". That music is imprinted on my brain.
Speaking of the music, you ain't heard it until you've heard the tuba ensemble cover it!
Well-said! Many decades ago I said no one should be allowed to have over one million dollars. There has been quite a lot of inflation since then so I grudgingly accept one billion dollars as the upper limit.
Nope. Even now a million is a lot of dollars for most people, and a billion is utterly obscene. And then there is Musk...
Imagine it - Musk bought power over the U.S. government for the bargain price of $270 million. A steal.
Let's be a bit more radical and just say that total annual income (wages, salaries, tips and perks like free use of the company car, a free midday meal etc. plus interest and dividends from investments, plus capital gains, plus windfalls of any sort, inheritances, gambling proceeds etc.) should replace gross incomes and adjusted incomes and delayed incomes and deductions and exemptions and should be considered, simply, as income. If it is money or can be converted into money, if it comes into our possession and we can spend it as we like, then it is income, no matter the source.
Then, let's say that no annual income below $ 50,000 (per individual) will be taxed, but that all income above that amount will be taxed on a progressive curve of tax brackets from zero to 100% tax on every dollar of income above... $10 million? 20 million? Or maybe "only" 2 or 3 or 5 million? The idea is to establish the concept of excessive income, morally distinguish it from high incomes justified by hard work, good study habits, strokes of genius, selfless service to others, or just a lucky break.
In other words, let's establish a level of income that is morally and legally unjustifiable in a world in which some people are starving or living on the street or dying of easily curable diseases or for whatever reason unable to stay afloat in our materialistic, money-loving and often corrupt world.
Capitalism is a great engine for economic growth, but it appears to carry the seeds of its own destruction and can rapidly destroy our cute little democracies many of us are fond of, lately in an unpleasantly nostalgic way, to say nothing of the green planet Earth to which we owe our very existence.
And let's add what can and cannot be bought and sold. For instance, our natural resources, unlimited property. I never did like playing Monopoly because of overthinking what could happen if the majority of players were beholden to an evil landlord. Any other examples?
It has always been this way: capital vs. labor. HCR's book: "How the South Won the Civil War."
Amen🙏
?Lincoln later mused, “The legitimate object of government is ‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves,’… as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself.”"
This is what Trump, Musk and the evil oligarchs want to destroy. Under Biden, Pete Buttigieg oversaw around 75,000 new infrastructures a good portion of which were completed. I believe Trump froze the funding for all of the projects in process. This would include the replacement bridge in Baltimore as well as thousands of others.
In the 1990's Ted Turner started his own foundation -
https://www.philanthropy-impact.org/why-philanthropy-and-impact-investment/inspiring-stories/ted-turner/
Many other oligarchs have done the same, most famously Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and others.
Even Trump had a foundation which, of course he used as a tool to enrich himself and there is no record of him actually helping others.
Ted Turner publicly challenged his fellow Oligarchs to do charitable works and dozens actually did. The book of foundations is heartwarming as many of you know.
This is the time for the oligarchs to challenge one another to do charitable works. There are so many people in need and they have the ability to help so many people.
I say tax the billionaires into the middle class - we don't want charity from bloated egos...
It is way past time that we have a financial revolution. A redistribution of wealth. The morbidly rich have crafted laws that send money to a few and milk the poor and what was once a middle class.
And now...Musk and $trump are saying "let them eat cake".
According to Biden, there are around 2000 billionaires in the US. Even if 90% of them were greedy bastards (and bitches) that leaves 200 billionaires that could fund humanitarian and charitable causes. Many of these people already have charitable trusts but many more should. Like I said, Ted Turner shamed them into giving in the 1990's, it's time Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or others did it now.
I think for myself, it’s time to start questioning our fixation on wealthy men to “get things done”. Let’s start really highlighting their flaws of ego, entitlement, narrow-mindedness, classism, moral failure, duplicitousness, and ignorance. I mean really, really, really shine a constant light on it all.
Hakeem Jeffries can identify about 20 House Republicans who possibly could flip. Three are Cuban Americans from Miami. Here's a letter from a MAGAT, my rep, who represents a majority Dem district.
https://files.constantcontact.com/1849eea4801/cd2e90be-43c8-4171-b3c6-a357621f7db9.pdf?_gl=1*uo1jgf*_ga*MDMwMjhjMzctZTFlNy00YzExLWE3NTEtZGUxMmY1OGY0YjEw*_ga_14T5LGLSQ3*MTczNzc0NTk1My4zLjEuMTczNzc0Njg2Ny44LjAuMA..
Please identify all these reps and interview them. Pressure them.
The Three most obvious Republicans that we should focus on are
Don Bacon (NE)
Mike Lawler (NY)
Brian Fitzpatrick (PA).
They know they have power
“Without us three, we’d have a Democrat Speaker,” Bacon said
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5100246-trump-meeting-gop-moderates-bacon-lawler-fitzpatrick/
“Although President Biden originally created this new program on dubious legal grounds and brought individuals here without a plan for their future, they were still enrolled under programs offered to them.” Such pandering. Looks like she needs to write DeSantis who will have his own little system going in place of ICE, at taxpayer expense.
I've written her several times. I also reminded her about the prooblem with Treasury, and about the Ukraine vs Putin problem. She is a member of the Foreign Affairs committee.
I also reminded her that there are about a million humanitarian visas and most of the sponsors are in Miami, many in her district.
We have two others. Gimenez was our Democratic mayor until 2020 when he flipped for Trump. Diaz Barlart's brother, Jose, is a MSNBC talking head.
We have a Democratic majority, county wide. Psy ops was effective and many Dems voted for Trump and the 3 amigos.
Now thery are screwed.
As we all know, Trump only helps himself, and it's called gluttony and it doesn't matter what he's consuming, people, hatred, money, food, land, power, the list is long.
Their greed and power needs cannot be met. Add to that tfg’s need for personal revenge.
Coming to our senses is a great question. I think once we start regulating social media, possibly breaking their monopolies up.
‘Cuz Surveillance Capitalism is not freedom.
https://www.techpolicy.press/anatomy-of-an-ai-coup/
Thank you for your insight on this subject over the past few days, and the link. Pretty terrifying
.likely after, because Rupert will still be painting the most alluring picture and people are giving chump an A for this disaster. Just keep hating the same people…
Ian & Everyone: BREAKING, Marc Fogel, a wrongfully held U.S. citizen & English language Teacher, has been "swapped" for ... for ... we don't know.
FORBES says this AM, "It is unclear what the U.S. government [Trump] gave up for the exchange for Marc Fogel".
FORBES Follow Up: "No comment from he Kremlin [Putin]".
FORBES persistent Follow-Up: "the Russian Embassy in Washington DC did not respond to a request for comment."
Hmmm ... Trump will not tout the "deal".
*****
In the Oval Office, Trump to reporters, "I very much appreciate what they [Putin]
did ..."... "to end the War Ukraine". What another unspoken "deal" ??
Well agent orange still kept a few boxes of those confidential government documents to bargain with....
That’s always been my suspicion.
And now he has access to even more secrets to sell. He must be rubbing his tiny hands together imagining the crypto laundering to come.
AP reporting it may be a crypto guy, extradited from Greece and sentenced in the US, Alexander Vinnik.
Apparently, Trump has moved against the Associated Press ... associated with truthful facts.
I was also wondering about this.
All "inquiring minds" are wondering.
I just read that a Russian cyber criminal was released from US
Woke up this morning to pictures of Fogel in the Oval Office with Trump. His sister was kvelling about someone in the family speaking to Trump at the rally where he was shot. As you may remember, Fogel was detained about the same time as Brittany Griner for a similar offense, and I can't figure out why the State Department didn't mark Fogel as wrongfully detained then, rather than over the past summer.
Good question
Reading the letter was especially difficult today given all that's happened in just three weeks.
Ain't that the truth...
But what I don't understand is why the Republicans let Musk have the key to the US government. Why should they hesitate to push through unpopular measures, but "let Musk do it"? The GOP controls all branches of government, what should they care if their measures are impopular? They could say: "Screw you, people of America, we own the government and we are going to push all of this through, if you like it or not - you can't 'serve us off' in the next elections because there won't BE any elections anymore: we rule this place!" So why the hesitation? It can't be any moral or principle that's holding them back...
P.S.: Everybody should know this: THIS is why Musk is so hell-bent on going to Mars: he needs to show his heroes that he can do the same, no even BETTER than them - all to save his bruised ego: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MoACklnnxk
Yes, it's a confluence of huuuuge egos. And greed, on a global scale. "I wanna go to Mars" says one, while the other says "I will own Gaza". Could it be it's all just the same old "FOLLOW THE MONEY" rule?
This is “disaster capitalism.” People with money take over when there are disasters that they can take advantage of. Trump wants hotels on the Mediterranean in Gaza. Despite his “concern” for the terrible condition of the Gazan’s this is what he is after— to make more money. Do you think that if the populations are moved away so that the land can be developed, that they will ever be allowed to come back?
I'm willing to bet my income tax refund (I am owed one, but recent events indicate it will be some time before I receive it - if at all) that some of the the same people who are making billions from the COVID-19 pandemic will make trillions supplying shoddy goods and crappy services once they are sold to the highest bidder - or, more accurately, the bidder who gives the biggest kick-back.
He has already said, on camera, that the Palestinians would not be allowed back. Because they will have beautiful, clean, safe homes-elsewhere. Egypt or Jordan? You betcha, since they will lose all US government aid unless they open their arms to just a few million more….
Oh, hell no.
He is flying way too close to the sun. Could it be that others let him do it because it because it works to their advantage that it is he who will be brought down, not they?
"Republicans" control the executive, legislative, and highest echelon of the judicial branch. They could ram the project 2025 agenda through via legal means. They choose not to because: (1) Musk, et. al., provides political cover for what is actually deeply unpopular and (2) they are lazy and cowardly.
If they truly had the courage of their convictions, there would be no need of the constant lying and obfuscations. No need to break the law and create a constitutional crisis in the process. This may be their undoing.
Gods, I hope you're right that this could be their undoing. Your assessment of "lazy and cowardly" is 100% accurate.
That's what I'm thinking.
Interesting thought...
James, I agree.
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.” 25th Amendment to US Constitution.
This would be quite advantageous to the TechBros, as they would then have their chosen president JD Vance. Trump needs to be publicly nuts enough to enable the real plan to be executed.
Because they think he's a genius and really does know better. They do know how limited their own intellectual development is.
If they think Musk is really a genius, then their intellectual development is really limited...
Precisely.
I’m concerned about Musk’s young son that he drags around with him at all hours of the day and night. Who looks after the child? Musk is using the kid as a prop. He’s displaying and exploiting his own child. Maybe he’s “guarding”
I've been wondering exactly the same thing. P.S. Le Monde features big photo of the incredible scene in the Oval Office. Here's one reader's comment: "So sweet! It reminds you a bit of the mother chimpanzees which go everywhere with their young on their shoulders or on their back."
Gross behavior!
The repubs are actually scared to do this themselves bc a majority of Americans don't want what they are forcing on us.
But why? Why should they be scared? They have nothing to fear. Their power is consolidated, they don't have to relinquish it anymore, it's safely secured by the Supreme Court. And what are the people going to do? Protest in the streets? If the repubs feel unsafe, they can simply sicc the military on the protesters. So what DO they fear? Not any morals, their own conscience or any retribution from God, that's for sure.
They are way more vulnerable, they think. They don’t want to hang their names on laws that are widely unpopular because they have their next election to win. And, they are quakingly afraid of tfg.
I still don't understand why they are scared. There is no more election to win, they won the long game. So the voters cannot 'punish' them in the next elections because there will _be_ no more elections. Remember, Donny said he will fix that. From here on, it's just: do what the fat orange guy tells you and get rich off it - in other words: be a sycophant. And they are very good at that, so they have nothing to be scared of.
The midterms, they can’t do it through legislation. All the congressmen and women would be voted out long before they passed legislation. That is why they are “flooding the zone “. They know it is illegal.
They didn’t let Musk have the key, he made a deal to BUY the key. Now they have to sit on it, swallow it etc. He BOUGHT the election for the GOP.
Musk as Fall Guy when it all blows up.
Congress (as Captain Renault) : I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here. Croupier : Your winnings, sir.
"... reviving the spoils system..." A 'spoils' system in the guise of meritocracy that they alone craft to their liking - bias's and all.
Here’s the current serpents plan part b ( after this purging is done they move to the AI replacement phase). Be ready.
https://www.techpolicy.press/anatomy-of-an-ai-coup/
Holy shit.
They are right...
- Pulled Quote -
''Lincoln warned in his era, is “the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race,
it is all the same old serpent.”''
The devil you say? Same spirit, same outcome; destruction and then resurrection. What we the people do, and how we respond will dictate how long the misery will last before the resurrection of democracy.
Timothy Snyder published this is his substack today, written as he rode a train in Ukraine: "As I close my tablet and go to sleep, I am safer than every single one of you reading this in the United States, and indeed safer than I would be in the United States. My train will stop in five hours. But America will keep hurtling. "
Lincoln did not have the scourge of a dishonest press spreading misinformation to the ignorant and grasping mass of receptive people. This country will not survive until those forces are brought under control. Our constitution needs major revision if we are going to prevail. It offers too many loopholes to allow the rich and powerful to have their way.
Petter Pappas, you sum it up perfectly by writing: “democracy depends on a government that protects the public good.” That succinct summary does me good today to remind myself I am not crazy in my grief.
I would like to propose a national assignment to Professor. That is, Professor writes a new book titled "Government of the People, by the People and for the People." The book is to add facts and figures to this letter of Februaru 12, 2025. The book must be read by all political appointees. The book will explain it is a great career to serve citizens, protecting and promoting individual freedom. The book will also teach it is every citizen's responsibility to use the freedom to serve naighbors and communities. The book will teach how a democratic country should operate as planned by the founding fathers and God. Again, thank you Professor.
Grin …
It is a struggle against democracy, and against the Constitution.
I am thinking of the 1939 Watty Piper book The Little Engine that Could. Concern for the needs of children and female sunniness to get over a hard task because amazing the engine cared enough to help children.
The Democrats Manifesto: The Gas-lighters are the enemy of the Republic, the Truth and the People. When in power again 2026 and 2028 The Democrats must promise to: (Hell call it contact with America"_) 1) Impeach Supreme Court Justices who gaslight as "originalists". Citizens United was the beginning of the corruption of dark big money into politics, and now we have Elon Musk and a thoroughly ignorant and incompetent Administration nominating Hegseth, Kennedy, Gabbard and others. " "Originalists", nonsense- corporations are not mentioned in the Constitution. A Corporation can not be drafted and sent to war. A corporation is a legal entity. It is not a citizen. "Three-fourths of survey respondents want to kill Citizens United by Amendment including 66 percent of Republicans back a constitutional amendment ." Justices have been bribed in the common understanding of the term. Some have broken the law by refusing to recuse themselves from cases as is required by 28 U.S. Code § 455. Promise to overturn "Presidential Immunity" decision, another gas lighting decision by the radical majority in SCOTUS. And call it gas lighting! 2.) Impeach Trump again. 3.) Impeach Judges like Eileen Cannon for all too obvious reasons. 4.) Demand that Federal Employees including the Military now not to not follow executive orders that have been Deemed illegal by the courts 5.) Take a tough, rational stand on immigration. Serious criminal penalties and fines for those who employ illegals. Bring back seasonal visas or short term visas for laborer's. Better for us better for the stability of the Central and South American Countries. Attract the best and brightest to young students and scientists to immigrate. We need immigrants to grow. Revisit birthright Citizenship which is being abused. 6.) Promote a large tax cut for most people with a hefty tax on the Oligarchs. Divide and conquer the divisions within the GOP. 7.) Promise a Federal Law guaranteeing Women's reproductive rights 8.) Run ads promising all this on popular GOP TV shows. Ads showing Jan 6th violence with Trump calling the Patriots. Tell them Trumps is a gas lighting about the 2020 election and knows it. 9.) Get rational about Gender identity. People care about this despite how miniscule the numbers. Spend and raise Democratic money on these promises.
Peter, I loved the way you incorporated the Nast cartoons in the file TCinLA reposted.
Today's editorial cartoonists and satirists are stepping up with energy we have not seen for awhile!!
Fabulous essay and so pertinent today! Thanks Heather
I have never seen this Lincoln quote before. It’s as relevant today as it was in the 1860’s.
While history doesn’t “repeat” itself it certainly warns us of our past mistakes
Lincoln warned “the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent.”
It was Heraclitus (one of my favorites) who came up with the metaphor of never being able to step in the same river twice, since the water always flows (a central concept to the scattered records of his philosophy). And we see from nature that while rivers may exist for eons, even their course can change; sometimes dramatically. Principles (such a the "serpent" side of human nature) seem to persist from way back, but at different times, in different ways to different degrees.
The "same old serpent" never goes away, but ebbs and flows, along with the "better angels of our nature". I think we are wise to pay attention to abiding principles alongside current circumstances, and, yes, see what the can tell us as we make choice that affect our likely future.
Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo People, declared her Candidacy for Governor of New Mexico today... She was a Working Single Mother who had to make choices between Groceries, and Rent, a Community Organizer, a Congressperson, and finally Secretary of the Interior under Joe Biden... Deb is also First Indigenous Person to serve as a US Cabinet Member... Maybe the High-Priced DNC Consultants should have listened to Deb in 2024....
The “high priced consultants” are the serpents within our own party. We need to drive them out and start listening to ordinary Americans once again.
What did she say?
Trying again:
My roots in New Mexico run 35 generations deep. The Pueblo people were the first farmers in the high deserts of New Mexico, an agriculture tradition that still continues today.
I am here because of my grandfather, who worked for decades as a diesel mechanic on the railroad. Somehow he also kept a field — picking worms off the corn as it grew, like the generations before him.
I am here because of my grandmother, a survivor and a caretaker who woke up every day before the sun. She was the one who gave me my true love of cooking New Mexican cuisine. (She wouldn’t let us in the kitchen while she cooked, but I’d perch myself outside and watch her through the window for hours.)
I am here because of my parents and their sacrifice. My mother, a Pueblo woman, served in the Navy. My father, a Marine, received a Silver Star for his service in Vietnam. He now lies in honor at Arlington.
I am here because of my beloved child, who I raised on my own. I started a small business to pay the bills, but it still wasn’t always enough. We relied on food stamps to get on our feet. I sometimes had to decide between paying rent and buying groceries to feed our family. I will never forget how that felt or the kindness of those who helped us – strangers who became community. When I look at my Somah, I see perseverance, strength and hope.
These are my stories. I got this fundraising letter from her yesterday. This is the gist of it, minus her personal request to me and the fundraising part:
I cannot seem to edit this right.
This is disjointed as all get out. I cannot seem to edit this, but mostly, this is what she said:
These are stories of New Mexico.
These days, our differences are blown so far out of proportion. We lose sight of a simple fact: we all live in the same state, together. All of us in New Mexico come from love, survival, and sacrifice. We all want to live good lives — and we want even more for our children.
The current president and his billionaire friends look at the lands and the people of this country and think: what can I exploit?
I am running to ask: if we come together in New Mexico, what good can we do for each other and for the next generation?
We have our work cut out for us. The cost of living is crushing our families. Our economy is growing, but we need to make sure everyone shares in our progress. Our families need more. Our farmers and ranchers need more. New Mexico’s children need so much more. And we must be good stewards of the Earth, and preserve the rivers, mesas, farmlands, and forests whose beauty sustains our communities.
I am running to do all this and more. I am running to serve all New Mexicans and make sure we’re leaving a better future for our children.
Wow, Ally. Just wow. She sounds like a wonderful leader.
And thanks for sharing some personal history. Powerfully phrased. Beautifully expressed.
Bill, this is all Ms. Howland's writing. I tried to find a link, couldn't, and copy pasted, but I couldn't edit it. Sigh.
Thank you. This country desperately needs to hear stories like this.
Beautiful comment, touched my heart.
I might consider moving to NM just to vote for her!
Scattered reports of the serpent's behavior are valuable lessons. But we must fully understand the enemy.
Examine the serpent in scientific detail if your mindset supports that.
Know your enemy well. Especially their weaknesses. This is one of the foundation supports of a successful offensive.
We have a long and complex history of human behavior. Technology has recently changed some of it. But most of the original character still remains.
Have you read about Hitler? Because history IS REPEATING ITSELF AT A SPIRILING SPEED!
Compare Hitler's assets and liabilities with those of Trump/Musk. And take note of how Hitler ended up in failure.
I can repeat some of what I've said before on this subject if anyone is interested. I cut and paste my commentaries into a daily document for editing and spell checks and then save it for my record.
Yes, Ed, he failed in the end….but at staggering, horrific, cost.
The world gave Hitler years to build the strength which we paid to defeat.
We are just beginning to count the weeks with Trump/Musk. Soon it will be months as our Democratic leaders fiddle and pray that the lawyers and judges will save the day.
Meantime the enemy is taking over our last bastion of strength, the military. And all is quiet on that front save a couple of egotistical comments by Trump. (stupid for them; valuable for us if we listened carefully and critically).
We need real leaders while watching our 20th century style leaders crumble into the dust that is their destiny. Divide and conquer is an important strategy in a conflict and our enemy is doing just that as they scorn our peaceful demonstrations knowing that Americans are mostly weak, fearful and ignorant.
So who is Ed Weldon making such bold statements? Nobody but a noisy old man of no special reputation who once swore an oath to protect the Constitution and still has one life to give to his country and as good an account of himself as he is able to.
True what you say.
Trump and “friends” have had well over a generation to not only build strength but implement deconstruction. More likely, several generations, well before Hoover.
And I do think you may underestimate what Americans mostly are. Easily done when daring to estimate the character of a few hundred million people. Nevertheless, the sentiment is not grievous but too easily assumed. The human heart is dark and many chambered. Yet it is strong and, as I have learned, in most it is true.
You are right on regarding careful listening to the noise and misdirection employed by those who are now sacking the nation.
You’re a good man, Ed. My remarks are simply asides as we walk on this journey.
I value your comment. Power often comes in small increments. Not always uniform or orderly. The disorder can be valuable when employed strategically. I'm reminded here of Roman concrete and its unusual strength and resilience as a building material.
Our strength comes from our apparent disorder. But it is the strength of love. Our enemy depends on a fragile structure of control to hold its position. The current blitzkrieg is not enough.
I am but one intuitive mind among many; our numbers are legion.
I don’t think General CQ Brown, Jr. will kowtow.
We are seeing staggering cost, on a smaller scale, with 5 fatal air accidents in the last few weeks. We need the FAA again.
The upside is that elimination of air traffic control will hamper the ruler's ability to conduct administrative functions at long distances. And they shoot at their feet; but their aim is poor.
I felt when the new administration jumped into a news conference after the DCA disaster, and Drumpf jumped up and said this investigation will not go on for years, we’re going to know within weeks. It sounded like setting the stage for a possible coverup. Like someone who feared he might find two of his fresh appointments could be implicated. Donny’s gotta be careful. He’s developed the pre-lie. He begins lying long before he even knows what happened.
Barbara - 73,000,000 lives
So much death and destruction caused by Homo hubris to “smite the other” for *reasons* during our time on this pale blue dot…don’t know if we have the collective will to remedy this and live in harmony with each other and all our fellow species and ecosystems. Sad indeed. This presidency is one The Onion or Saturday Night Live could hardly have conceived of….it’s unreal to witness.
When asked how Fascism starts, Bertrand Russell once said:
“First, they fascinate the fools. Then, they muzzle the intelligent.”
Fraud Trump has no intention, at all, of complying with court orders. And, the court system has no way to enforce court orders.
I have a feeling that liar, fraud, con, convicted felon, racist Trump and his band of Nazis is going to provoke a massive, very violent response.
I have a “money saving” suggestion!
Can Fraud Trump’s Secret Service security detail. That would save billions of taxpayer dollars!
"Fascinating the fools" got him elected. Now they are trying to "muzzle the intelligent". We must not let that happen.
There are some clever people involved in the coup. Yes, tyrants persecute "intellectuals", but what really scares the architects of MAGA is "the truth", and any who tell it. A lot of fundamental truths (so far as our honest effort can identify them) are not really "rocket science". It's more a matter of paying attention and eschewing lies.
And maybe muzzle the main lying bastard, Rupert. He is now the most trusted man in America, replacing Walter. Even though he is behind the scenes, pulling the strings and orchestrating the script and action of the oligarchs. He has certainly fascinated the fools. And slandered the intelligent, all the while that muzzle makes me think that any opposition had been struck dumb.
I think the democrats got him elected. We spent so much time fighting about Trump we forgot to develop and promote our own leadership. Where are the top ten things Biden accomplished. Now is the time to give an alternative
I have seen very long lists of Biden's accomplishments. He was very reluctant to blow his own horn, and he's not dynamic, so a bit boring, so the media did not pick it up for him or look for ways to tell people about the good things he was doing.
Lots of evidence in Heather's writings about the good.
A few:
* managing the distribution of Covid vaccines
* ending the voodoo economics of 'trickle down' prosperity
* bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US
* stimulating the creation of millions of small businesses
* strengthening international alliances that Trump had neglected or actively undermined
* apppointing a Cabinet full of honest, competent people
* (with Harris doing the legwork) creating a network of Latin American countries willing to take refugees from other such countries so they would not all want to come to the US.
* vastly reducing the flow of immigrants through Mexico by humane measures, not by putting children in cages as deterrents.
* allowing Americans (and people in the rest of the world) to go about their daily lives without wondering every morning what lunacy had been committed overnight by the president of the US.
Lots to see there.
Yes, Biden's accomplishments were many. But while the media ignored all the good he was doing for this country, it sure didnt hesitate to continually harp on Biden's age, which oddly they didn't ever attack trump about, even after Biden stepped down. I totally hold the media responsible for allowing trump's win to happen. Infuriating!
For those who expect commercial media to hawk Truth, I have a big, so very beautiful, bridge to sell ya!
But that's all REAL. The lies and exaggerations are attention-grabbing.
Besides, the adage "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on" is very, very applicable.
Love that last one
Yes, it's good, isn't it!
Well done. I’m so sick of the constant chaos.
Surprisingly, Tom Hartmann, one of the bluest of Democrat true-believers said the same thing today on his morning program.
Because it's true.
You keep asking for someone else to provide you with a list. More like a demand.
Not only has this substack itself provided scores of lists, if you actually cared. HCR has also provided a great many.
Perhaps you’ll finally be satisfied if you simply pull yourself together and compile your own. At least then, perhaps you’ll be able to locate it.
Okay, not good, at all, but hold on a second. Over on Bsky I just reposted that 3,600 FBI agents and those not yet agents will soon not be part of this regime, as they are going to be fired. That's 3,600 former operatives, highly skilled and trained in covert operations, surveillance, investigations, tracking, security, enforcement... do I really have to say the rest of this?
I have thought of late, Rebel, that the “MUMP” (hat-tip to Timothy Snyder for the moniker) presidency should think hard, very hard, about pissing off so many FBI/CIA (trained experts) employees. What could possibly go wrong?
And let’s not forget all those generals and officers and…
👆👆👆
Great thought Rebel !
Thanks for that Russell quote, Joel. Chilling.
I saw someone else post what Russell said…..and I thought I should blast it everywhere I can.
Yeah, that one's worth making a Canva card for! I'll be blasting it, too.
I totally concur with Alexandra the Great!
That Bertrand Russell quote is fantastic, and palpably prescient.
I feel like sinking back in a musty tweed suit, with collar starched so tightly on the neck that Luca Brasi would relate, lighting up a pipe and waxing nostalgic about the old Cambridge quad!
The power of the courts is deeply insinuated into America, and we will have to see how this game of Chicken plays out. For sure we live in a decidedly "interesting time" where the center isn't holding. Nobody, including Mump, knows how this will all play out.
Careful, J L. Don't say "Nobody . . . knows how this will all play out."
George Conway went on record today to guarantee that the criminal in the White House will simply disregard, ignore all court rulings that do not prop him further in the immunities and lack of accountability which the corrupt Clarence court began for him.
He will use all his Project 2025 stooges to commit further destruction of the institutions nurturing what we have of democracy -- killing off in brazen illegality what Elon Musk has cavalierly begun to kill.
Of course Conway said that. It was plain for everyone to see what Trump would do. You have to be pretty damn naive (stupid) not to see what would be the result of electing a rapist, a con man, a fraudster, a pathological liar, a cheat, and a money grubbing convicted felon as president.
Correction. It’s the Robert’s court…Clarence is just Robert’s distraction from his agenda
Technically, it is the "Roberts Court", as he is Chief Justice. His name is spelled "Roberts" and is not the possessive of Robert (i.e. Robert's). It is often referred to as "the Clarence court" because of Clarence Thomas's absolute graft and corruption (in addition to being a sexual predator).
I remember early on in his term as Chief Justice, John Roberts musing about how "The Roberts Court" would be noted in history (passing reference to the Warren Court, where individual liberties and protections were articulated into law). Initially, I had thought that it would be a hard push for this court to be worse than the Taney Court of the 1830's-1860's. I was so wrong. The Roberts Court will go down as the SCOTUS that destroyed the US.
Ally, I did have some hope with this post from Lucien Truscott. https://open.substack.com/pub/luciantruscott/p/how-the-looming-trump-constitutional?r=6ptqj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Thanks for the link.
Gail, really interesting and wholly terrifying!! TY
The power of courts in a real government rests on commitment to enforce judgments based on rule of law. We are about to discover whether we have an actual government or are under rule by a bunch of gangsters with obscene wealth who reinvented the "gang" as a "political party" that bought and bribed its way to power. There isn't any rationalizing of one as the other.
Have you seen any push back from the courts? Trump caused an insurrection, colluded with Russia and consistently lies. Now these lawsuits will go to the Supreme Court and we know who controls that
Yeah, it's very nerve-wracking to be counting on Amy Coney Barrett's conscience, here. However, there is some hope there...
“Nobody, including Mump, knows how this will all play out.”
How deeply can he care? He knows he’ll never live long enough to see it.
There are many intelligent Republican members of Congress who know very well that what Trump is doing is unconstitutional. Some have even admitted it openly - like senators Lindsey Graham and Thomas Tillis who recently said that although Musk's activities were unconstitutional “...nobody should bellyache about that." In reality, they're terrified of the power that Musk is wielding and his ability to use his wealth to settle vendettas (he's threatened to fund primary challenges to any Republican member of Congress who resists Trump). I disagree that the courts cannot enforce their orders. They're contempt powers are wide-ranging. One federal judge has already given a last warning to the administration to lift the freeze on federal grants and loans. Trump may be inviolate, but his minions are not.
“I disagree that the courts cannot enforce their orders. Their contempt powers are wide-ranging.”
Would you please kindly tell me how the court’s “wide ranging powers” work, ENFORCEMENT wise?
Both Norm Eisen at The Contrarian and Marc Elias at Democracy Docket have explained the power of our federal judges in the past day or two. I have found their words and expertise heartening as this game of chicken between t***p and our courts ramps up.
While I appreciate that we are experiencing chaotic and uncertain times right now, I refuse to use any terms of despair or hopelessness which might bring satisfaction to the Project 2025 acolytes. I will not write anything that could make those unpatriotic wanna-be despots feel they’re beating me.
From my own experience of the law in the UK (and US law broadly follows the same precepts in relation to contempt) a judge can impose a fine, jail or some form of community service. S/he could also require a named individual to come to the court and purge the contempt i.e. apologise to the court and show that the court's order has been complied with. The powers are not unlimited, but they are certainly sufficient https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artIII-S1-4-3/ALDE_00013522/#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20has%20repeatedly%20held%20that%20federal,on%20parties%20or%20attorneys%20who%20engage%20in%20misconduct.
No one will arrest Trump.
Even if he shoots one of his enemies on Fifth Avenue.
The courts have no way to enforce their orders.
I agree that it's unlikely, but his minions are not protected by his cloak of immunity. What we may end with is the farce of people being jailed for contempt and then pardoned by Trump. Trump said during his very odd press conference with Musk that the administration would comply with court orders (even though it has already defied court orders) and would instead launch appeals, hoping to secure victory in the Supreme Court where the right-wing majority might feel more inclined to allow him a wide latitude in exercising the powers of his office. Liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor yesterday said: "Court decisions stand, whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not. It doesn’t change the foundation that it’s still a court order that someone will respect at some point." That doesn't sound to me like the court will want to overrule Trump when push comes to shove.
Trump is a serial liar.
Here lies some answers to your question. https://open.substack.com/pub/luciantruscott/p/how-the-looming-trump-constitutional?r=6ptqj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Well, today, there is a clear demarcation between the governance mindset and the gangster mindset. The federal employees are clearly in the former and showing it with action. https://popular.info/p/breaking-nih-admits-funding-freeze?publication_id=1664&post_id=157015583&isFreemail=false&r=rdp7&triedRedirect=true
The f'ing political parties?? ACTION?????
"There are many intelligent Republican members of Congress who know very well that what Trump is doing is unconstitutional."
Is this hyperbole or do you have a list you could offer us and that we could 'work'?
I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that Republican members of Congress are aware that Trump is pushing the boundaries of his executive powers, especially as I have pointed out that some have publicly acknowledged this. But, as I said before, none so far dares to oppose Trump and Musk because of the power they wield. It may be that as the mid-terms loom closer and if the economy remains in the doldrums and other things are not going quite as planned there may be less reticence on the Republican side about criticising the administration. I appreciate that now seems quite a long way off. For the time being, public protest, a more vigorous approach in Congress from Democrats and challenges in the courts are the only way to resist the administration.
Indeed, I wrote about this on my free substack blog. The short article is about the need to make the Justice Department independent of the Executive Branch. Perhaps it could be independent in the same way that the Federal Reserve is independent.
https://tubacalc.substack.com/p/should-the-us-federal-justice-department
Matt, I was contemplating that recently as well…my (very) limited research (School of Google) indicated it would take a Constitutional amendment to effect such a change. So much for an independent judiciary under a despot!!! I wonder if our founders thought of such a cabal of bad actors!!!
The courts are not the justice department. The judiciary branch was established in the constitution. The Justice Department was established in 1870. That said, the courts depend on the executive branch to enforce rulings. So though your facts were slightly off, if Trump ignores the law, we’re thoroughly screwed anyway.
Posting this again for what hope it may bring. https://open.substack.com/pub/luciantruscott/p/how-the-looming-trump-constitutional?r=6ptqj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
I guess that’s was the point I was trying to make…if the executive branch is “compromised” (ie; doing blatantly illegal/unconstitutional stuff) and putting its thumb on the scale of the DOJ, I fear court rulings will just be words on a paper if there is no real enforcement. Scary to me. That’s why the idea (be careful what you wish for tho’….unintended consequences and such) of Justice being a “4th” co-equal branch is thought provoking.
Would be good changes.
BUT, our government is already on fire. And it’s a five alarm fire.
Heather, I think in more normal times you have tried to take off at least one night a week, substituting a beautiful photo for your fuller letter. I think in these horrific and scary times you have not taken a day off for weeks on end. Things are moving so fast that it is hard to find the time to even breathe.
I am sure I speak for all of your readers in expressing my gratitude for all your efforts to help us understand all that is going on and put it in historical perspective. But I hope you are carving out time to care for yourself. As my pastor often says when inviting the congregation to stand, please sit if you need to sit. We would rather have you sit than fall.
And so too with your readers, Heather. We would rather that you sit than fall. Please take the time you need periodically for self care.
Thank you!!
I think about this daily.
Heather, I agree so much with Allen!
Heather's political chats are happening maybe twice a week also right now. And I feel the emotional space she creates as she explains the constitutional crisis we are in. It is scary.
2025: “The illegitimate object of government is ‘to do for Trump and his minions what they desire to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves’.
Imagine any modern "Republican" echoing Lincoln's words? Or a modern Republican TR? Teddy's family admired Lincoln. In Northern Ohio in the 1950's and '60's anyone who poke to kids seemed to admire him too. Then it seemed that in the public conversions, his personal legacy got left behind. Eliminating Lincoln's Birthday as a holiday seemed to help change the focus.
It is so very sad!
To the idea that government has the possibility, and therefore the responsibility, to provide what a single person is unable to accomplish alone, I'd like to add the idea that unions can make the same difference in the workplace. One voice can make a difference, but multiple voices can accomplish much more. Are we having a rebirth of unionism, with Starbucks and Amazon and workers in many other businesses coming together to effect change? In MA, doctors are forming a union, something previously unimaginable. While I find little to comfort me in what is going on in our country today, I find the move towards unionism to be a very heartening development.
This will likely be a very naive question since I have no experience of any kind with unions, but why don't we have a national United Workers Union, like a union for everyone who works? Edit: or a union for everyone who works who don't already have a union to join.
Their interest fields are too diverse. Their might likely be huge commercial pushback alleging the Unions had become a monopoly themselves. The closest the U.S. has come is the AFL-CIO umbrella of different member unions. Even with that they have been checkmated in the past. When Reagan fired the PATCO air traffic controllers, the AFL called for a national strike to shut down the nation. The Teamsters, who supported Reagan wouldn't join in for even a limited strike. The strike didn't happen as a result - other reasons as well untold. The AFL did the next thing they could pull off, which was massive demonstrations in D.C. I was in on those shenanigans; I've never seen so many people at one time again in my entire life.
Were you an air traffic controller?
The Labor Department (which Robert Reich once occupied) used to try to represent the interests of all workers. Part of doing what the public need done. Perhaps a universal union is possible. It's been though of before. It has seemed to me that unions were more popular when (it seemed to me) they were more visibly protecting all workers rights, along with those of their own membership.
Unions often support each other, but they usually are composed of members of a certain specific kind of job. A big union can have many locals. As a teacher, the NEA is our national union, the MTA is our state affiliate, and the MCCC is the local for the community colleges. I have walked picket lines with grocery store workers and with a local of The Union of Benevolent Electrical Workers. Big unions often work to bring together workers in a field that is different from the parent union. For example, there are eight different unions at UMass Lowell: https://www.uml.edu/hr/labor-relations/. I hope that that answers your questions at least in part.
Our local law enforcement union (agency only) would defend deputies/records staff that were being targeted by the County whether or not they were union members. We had a "no strike" clause since we were "essential". The only time I can recall being able to support striking unions was when our local Teachers Union was on strike; I would not umpire any of that district's softball games, as that would be crossing their picket line.
In a way, we are having to create something similar to a union right now. There will be a “24 Hour Economic Blackout” on Friday, February 28. This will be an opener. Then there will be a 3 day blackout, then 5. It will escalate til big money realizes they actually don’t hold all the power.
AFL-CIO
" Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows. or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Frederick Douglass One of the best ways to make that demand to power is through a labor union. The labor movement has been under attack for 40 years. Why do you suppose that is? There are possibilities. Strive toward solidarity of purpose! Si! se pueda
I think, if we double check, the labor movement has been under attack since it was first proposed and ever since. I suspect it may have something to do with tha old serpent thing.
Certainly so. sir. Certainly so.
A great piece of writing. Thank you.
We could use another Abraham Lincoln. Thank you professor.
Speaking of serpents, we could also use an army made up of mongooses.
The mongoose is a small animal known for its ability to kill snakes. It is fast, agile, and has a natural resistance to some snake venom. Mongooses are famous for hunting venomous snakes like cobras by using their quick reflexes and strategic attacks.
Maybe we could have some very patriotic ones.
Veronica, it's so hard to grab onto and sustain hope right now. Thank you for your uplifting, humorous metaphor. I can picture many wily, strategic, non-violent mongooses finding each other. Long live mongooses!
Lol Veronica ; Hoping you may have coined a name for resistance. Hopefully that happens before the opposition co-opts these great ideas. They do painstaking opposition research,, even here.
Ay, Mon!
Goose!!
Could be a second factor validation for the resistance…
😉
I repeat:
Shattered
She was beautiful, fragile
made hundreds of years ago
by a master artist at the top of his craft.
One day a big man with a red tie
lusting after her, wanting to own her,
reached quickly to grab her body
sending her crashing to the floor.
It took no brains, training or talent,
It was so easy to destroy the irreplaceable.
Now men of money lick the floor
for her tailings, what money can’t buy,
integrity and beauty are in short supply.
MSNBC's indefatigable Rachel Madow tells a wonderful story about how when Trump purchased Mar a Lago the original owner left behind a family crest of arms. Trump liked it and adopted it as his own with one telling exception, replacing a word on the crest with his name - the word that was removed was 'Integritas' - how fitting! The BBC reports that an application to trademark the Trump copy with the College of Arms, the authority for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, was rejected after the college noted that the design had been lifted from an existing coat of arms. It nevertheless now adorns his new bitcoins and much of his tacky merchandise from socks to golf carts.
Heh, ever the thief and co-opter of ideas. He probably could have made a decent living as a street huckster in NYC…he has that “gift”.
He's a guy who sticks his brand on other people's buildings. What else should one expect of such a person.
Thanks for putting Rachel Maddow’s research into the family crest that was confiscated from the original owners of Mar-a-Lago by the Trump family. I had read about Maddow’s research and thought how hubris grows deeply from within and spreads like the most aggressive cancer.
My daddy used to say, “The higher they fly, the lower they fall”…my daddy’s kind voice never leaves me.
Trump has fallen just about as low as any US president in history (two impeachments and a criminal conviction) and yet he continues to plumb new depths of unserious and depraved behaviour. We all here fervently hope for a dramatic collapse of this hideous administration.
🤬🤢
Very apt writing.
💔
Keep writing, calling, showing up, protesting. It’s up to us to preserve our government and demand it work for all—not just the billionaires.
A apologies for posting this many times but it just seems so cogent and so relevant:
"That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings.” - Lincoln
And continue is does. And so do we.
Thanks for posting it (again). “One never steps in the same river twice.”
And different people flow this way each day.
Great insight....thanks.
Judy, I’m thrilled to see, across the nation…in all kinds of inclement weather, folks gathering to protest….seems to me the ground-swell is growing….let’s hope it is seismic*!
*metaphorically speaking….but NO real life huge earthquakes/seismic events!!!!
I ask this because I don't know. (Indivisible has done some things close to this.):
"Is a nationwide "demonstration calendar" associated with all aspects of Trump's unfolding constitutional challenges being proposed or maintained that we can access to keep up with and participate in local expressions as they unfold??
Good question, Hendrik, I don’t know the answer—but is a great idea. I live in a very rural area, minimum of 4 hours to get to a sort of big city (to me anyway)…even more hours to get to the state capitol or major city. The big city in my county has about 35,000 people, my town has 1200. Still, on occasion, we DO pull off a gathering or short march, but I’ve heard of no local organizing…yet!
BUT - I think it's crucial to remember that Lincoln wasn't born an abolitionist. He had to be galvanized by activists to become the leader we needed him to be. At first the morality of freedom and equality didn’t seem to factor into his decisions as President at all. He only used Emancipation as a threat to seceded Southern states, dangling a carrot in front of Confederate leaders that if they returned to the Union, they’d get to keep “their” enslaved.
Black leaders, especially Frederick Douglass, Black newspaper editors, Black and white abolitionists, all worked tirelessly and relentlessly to put pressure on Lincoln in various ways before he moved from a legal stance to a moral one.
I’m not for one second saying that there’s a hope in hell of persuading the malignant narcissist occupying the Oval Office of anything resembling morality. But I’m hearing (reading) a lot of activists looking at Democratic leaders and lamenting “Where’s our Lincoln?”
It was the work of we the people who created that tipping point, and looking for ONE leader to do it for us is not going to get it done.
He also learned what working despite blistered hands is not such a pleasant thing.
You make a great point, and give some hope in a dark moment. No, there’s no redeeming Trump or Musk, but there are Republican senators who can turn around with
relentless reminders of their Constitutional obligations.
As an elementary student way back in the 1960s, the month of February held three special days. Valentine’s Day, of course, but also the birthdays of presidents Lincoln on the 12th and Washington on the 22nd. The latter two were school holidays - yippee! - but the February curriculum also focus on these important men. Age appropriate biographies were read, plays were performed and we students felt connected to our nation’s history. As a 9 year old, a big thrill for me was a trip to Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenville, KY while visiting my aunt in Louisville. I think my love of history and reading came from learning about Abraham Lincoln as a 3rd grader. I ended up a History and English major in college.
Today, we nominally celebrate a generic Presidents Day. For many school districts in California, it is the first day of the Ski Week holiday, so any president is a passing thought between lift tickets and lift lines. And I am the guilty parent who did just that without impressing upon my children the importance of the day, and also the two men I celebrated as a young student.
The prescient words of George Santayana still ring true: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Yes, yes, yes. I was an elementary student in the 1950's and the life and accomplishments of Lincoln were always a focus around his birthday. He was the most inspiring figure a can recall hearing of in the primary grades. The founders got a lot right in their aspirational creation. Lincoln removed some of the most serious "bugs" that sabotaged that dream. Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men (sic) are created equal.
And I grew up in Illinois. Lincoln's birthday was a monthlong celebration of plays with terrible costumes, recitations of his speeches using fake deep voices by both boys and girls, songs, I know there were songs but I can't remember a one of them anymore. And drawing, lots of drawings on construction paper with crayons of a tall, tall man with an even taller hat. Oh, but my favorite was cutting out pieces of different colors of construction paper and sticking them together in just the right way to make a bust of him or sometimes just a silhouette. Yeah, it was good. We celebrated Washington too but not like OUR president.
Your recollections bring back memories for this Chicago native, who did the construction paper Lincoln in the 1960s.
Ad there was always a picture of Lincoln on the classroom wall, all year.
Amen to that. You make me think of my grandchildren. Ski week, or Dizzyworld. Neither of which were around or affordable in Michigan in the '50s. One generic holiday that teaches nothing to the new generation. And my children, their parents, are too busy to see what is going on around them.
I honor both the 12th and the 22nd. I call "President's Day" by a different name: "Birthingtons Washday".
😂👏
Halfway through tonight's beautifully crafted letter, my brain started itching like one of those itches you can't scratch. And then goosebumps arrived and nearly a tear. Then a small smile. Then a, YES, I remember this, I know this, what a government can be! As lovely as that remembrance was, the itch in my brain remained. And then I started the comments and one after another after another reminded me that the evil and hatred for humanity currently tainting our government is still there tonight, perverting it, and dirtying it up with their sticky, greedy fingers. Okay, that's anger. But the itch just got itchier. Then interspersed among the condemnations of those rapists of our government, I started reading praise and more fond details of a man so strong he stopped a nation from cleaving apart practically with his bare hands. And you know, that's when the itching stopped. I got it. My brain had been trying to tell me to stop fearing those frauds who are anything but strong. They are weak men with weaker souls and weak brains that are infected beyond all recognition with cruelty and wantonness. And that itch had been asking me why aren't we acting? These cowardly boys and goons and charlatans will fold like paper dolls made of the bills they so revere if we show show them our flesh and blood and heart strength. We can, but we have to stop being so nice, so proper, so willing to follow the rules they expect us to follow because, well, they are rules and we've gotten too used to following those. But there are higher rules to follow that tonight came floating out of this letter and back into our battered hearts. Our strength is in those hearts, the ones that bring us together here each night to look for hope and reason and a way forward. Yeah, we CAN do this. And we can still be good and still be our best human selves while at the same time standing up tall and walking right around the rules they are trying to strap us with and say, no, we will not let you do this. You, sir, and you, and you too, you will cease and desist NOW. And if you will not willingly yield, have no doubt we will move you.
"They are weak men with weaker souls and weak brains that are infected beyond all recognition with cruelty and wantonness." Such a precise, exact description of these ruthless despots.
Wonderful essay, thank you. As Lincoln said: “The legitimate object of government is ‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves,’… as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself.” As I wrote recently, Lincoln would today be called a democratic socialist, not a Republican. Today, Republicans are Nazis.
In Plato’s Republic, Socrates questions Thrasymachus on the nature of good government. Thrasymachus insisted that justice was nothing other than the self-interests of the stronger. And so the shepherd fleeces his sheep. But Socrates objected the shepherd’s job is to protect the flock, anticipating what Jesus told Peter: ‘If you love me, feed my sheep.‘