Tonight, while those who observe watched the Los Angeles Rams win the Super Bowl, we are in a holding pattern waiting to see if Russian president Vladimir Putin launches a major European invasion, and supporters of the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, are insisting that Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, committed treason by spying on his campaign.
I have for several years felt what we needed was a President Teddy Roosevelt in our time. Someone with the strength to break up the big tech monopolies who are manipulating people with algorithms to get clicks for their greed rather than any consideration for the well being of young girls and people vulnerable to misinformation. Someone who would address the climate the way Roosevelt created the National Parks and our natural resources. Someone would would measure America by its Well Being Index rather than its Gross National Greed. Someone also who would protect the rights of all of us, this time. What happened to that moment after George Floyd's murder when many of us wanted to come together and make a movement for a new multi-cultural democracy where all of would thrive and support each other. Personally, I think it is time for a new women's movement to restore women's rights and the rights of all of us. Love to quote Benjamin Franklin on "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." I'm outraged. How about you?
Thanks, Gailee. My sentiments precisely. Joe Biden should be recognized for doing everything humanly possible, but fettered by the obstructionist thugs and Manchin and Sinema.
I just don't understand it! Fareed Zakaria addressed Biden's low approval ratings, and did blame the media and most people's fatigue from the pandemic and political chaos, pointing out that our economy is the best it's been in decades! At least one commentator got it right. With the press and many others, everything is judged by style over substance, and of course, bad news sells.
I never miss Fareed. His credibility is great - no fluff or sensationalism. He attracts every expert and serious scholar, as well as heads of state. Yesterday, he interviewed Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan. He's not just a talking head.
Please, not to forget that the GOP, and the big money behind it, deserve most of the opprobium here. I'm afraid that the U.S. electorate, knowing little about economics and remembering little about the last administration, will add inflation to Covid impatience and decide it's OK to give the Trumpers another chance. Please, everybody, do what you can to counter this, wherever you live and however you can.
I can't imagine any sane person who could possibly forget what Trump and his GOP enablers, aided by oligarchs, did to this country, but then, I couldn't believe that TFG ever made it to the primaries. Definitely, money talks.
There are several people commenting right here on this Substack that President Biden is of the same ilk as TFG, and whose view of presidential powers seems akin to that of former AG Bill Barr, he of the all-powerful executive. You don't have to imagine. They're here.
I haven't had time to read most of the posts today. Thanks for the heads up - now I won't bother. These trolls are either so stupid that they should be sent to a gulag, or they're bots from putin or xi.
Biden. No to student loan forgiveness. Yes to more oil and gas leases ever in the Gulf. No to using Presidential power - or Rooseveltian cowboy power - to cower Man-chin and Ms Pearls Sinema into line to serve the essence of representative government - the right to vote. Nor using cowboy power to haul neoliberal corporate democrats into line to pass full and complete government bargaining power over all prescription drugs. No to wielding presidential power to eviscerate the filibuster. No to expanding the far right Supreme Court into a more balanced judicial body. His vicious sanctions on Afghanistan and Cuba. His no to waiver patent protections on publicly financed Covid vaccines to bring succor to poor nations so our poverty stricken Big Pharma Can make big profits.His NATO manipulation inducing troops close to the Russian border thereby breaking an international agreement against NATO expansion. How did we react when Cuba got Soviet missiles? And then too there is his nasty attitude - like a sharp toothed little dog’ s - toward the inevitable predominance of China. There is more. Biden has hardly the depth of genuine intelligent concern, passion and political will and concern to foster a good citizenry that Roosevelt had. Please. Research more deeply. Because the more truth we muster - as in consciousness or awareness - the more expanded and discriminating our eye, the greater the chance we the citizenry can unwind the corporate lens and initiate a perspective that drives the public good over the corporate profit at any human and environmental cost.
In all fairness, his hands are tied due to obstructionist Republicans. And I suspect his reluctance to push executive privilege is partially due to his fear of setting a precedent for future tyrants. He's not perfect, but he sure as heck beats what the Republicans have to offer. Just sayin'.
Yes, and no need to be shy about it, Carol. I also understand Selina's frustration, but have one question in rebuttal to Selina, think of where we were just 16 months ago and still must live in that ever dark shadow, thanks to media hype, of such a tyrant. Let us all exhibit patience and fortitude for America's sake (never perfect). Resisting in an impatient way, will only thwart our democracy. Speak your thoughts and perhaps do something to change for the better of our country trying hard to "form a more perfect union"
Do you have any solutions to offer, Selina? We are, kinda, in a situation of completely losing our democracy to corporatocracy/oligarchs after the installation of a tyrant king, and decades long planned coup on our government by a rogue, terrorist party—still in power, paid via our taxes. Would love some solutions from those who are quick to bring down one who is doing his best to navigate the destructiveness of a new kind of warfare and propaganda being inflicted on us and around the world.
Exactly my position Pensa. We can't always arrive at perfect solutions in the current environment, so we need to continue to push for less perfect ones that continue to move us in the right direction. President Biden has been doing that so far. It would be nice if we always used President in front of our President's name.
Agree so much with this. This must be the most difficult and dangerous time to be a president in American history. Through Heather's teachings, I've learned so much. I belong to a book club here in Spain that is in English. I'm the only American. Everyone else is Spanish. We are going to be reading Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which was an allegory for McCarthyism - another dark time for Americans, and the time when the Republicans began using terms like ¨socialism and ¨communism¨ to scare the educationally malnourished. And, Selina if I may. We live in a very different time now from the 60s, 70s, 80s, even 90s. Biden's decisions then were determined by those times and information given in those times. He has even made statements about that. It's so easy to be a couch coach when you don't have all the facts of the moments as they are being lived live and don't spend hours delving into what was fact and fiction. You are right about our government. The U.S. is a war nation. Our economy is based upon war and war machinery. We have been engaged in or initiated a war since the end of WWII. We have disrupted governments around the world. This is shameful. Until we, as a people, learn this and determine who goes to Washington with a new construct for who and what we are......
Great insights, Gailee. We are living in times that are confounded daily by more than any one president can handle, so it is irrelevant to compare LBJ and former historical presidents to the 21st century. More importantly, Heather's history scholarship in these letters coupled with her presentation of current events far exceeds any one person's anger toward's one's own country which solves little. We are still learning and better do so quickly now more than ever.
I'm sorry your President has disappointed you. Mine is a super hero. I started a list of his accomplishments -all in his first year! And there are so many more: Here are a few of the Biden administration's most outstanding achievements:
American Rescue Plan
Infrastructure bill- bipartisan
Strengthen NATO Alliance
Gathered allies to challenge Putin's aggression
Ended 10-year Afghan War
Reduced troops in Iraq
Negotiations that begin with sanctions, not soldiers
Rejoined WHO and Paris Climate Accord
Jobless rate reduced by 2%
Increased American jobs by 6 million 2021
5.7% economic growth in 2021
Appointed the most diverse, highly qualified cabinet in U.S. history
Reduced child poverty by 40%
increased by 4 million # of Americans with healthcare
vaccinated 210 million Americans.
Provides access to daily White House Press conferences, speeches, panels and CDC updates on national t.v. White house.gov/live -genuine transparency
Established a minimum international tax to end foreign tax shelters
Formed a committee to address supply chain issues
Created policies to increase renewable energy and energy efficiency
Recruited Federal and military assistance to aid hospitals overwhelmed with Covid cases
Made masks and at home tests available to all Americans
Worked directly with American mayors to put funding for local initiatives to immediate use.
Engaged Defense Production Act to buy more vaccines, worked with states to establish vaccine sites and Transportation to them; established vaccine centers in pharmacies across the country.
This week, the entire city of Newark announced the eradication of all lead pipes. Amazing testimonies from citizens about the efficient, cost free process.
I'm with you. Biden has shown incredible results with all the GOP/Tump supporters doing everything in the power to stop him. I wish the Republicans would wake up and open their eyes for 5 minutes. If they hate wearing a mask, they will really hate living in an autocratic government. They will be allowing their future generations. to become enslaved for who knows how long. Loosing our democracy
has real life consequences. If we loose our democracy, our votes won't matter. The select few will decide for the masses.
PLEASE, President Biden keep up your fight for America's future. Maybe he's not perfect but look what a mess he walked into. I wouldn't wish his clean up job on anyone. All the destructive things that happen in trumps administration cannot be fixed with the snap of your fingers.
Thank you for this list! I lost track. But maybe that's because the media is falling short and only reporting short comings, they sell more.
This should be published on front page of NYT and WashPo everyday Here What President Biden accomplished. I would also include brought NATO together like we haven't seen since 2016.
It puzzles me that effusions over Biden seem based on comparing him to his cunning megalomaniac sociopathic predecessor. Put him side by side either Roosevelt or LBJ and how does he fare? Do you honestly believe Biden is altering the very structures and conditions that paved the way for such a snake oil salesman to become President thanks to millions voting for him? Our earth house is burning up. “As of July 2021, the United States had the highest number of incarcerated individuals worldwide, with almost 2.1 million people in prison. The U.S. was followed by China, Brazil, India, and the Russian Federation” (google)
You lost me. Just how many U.S. Presidents have faced wanton destruction of precedent, a pandemic, an active anti-science propaganda machine, while simultaneously “ altering the very structures and conditions that paved the way for such a snake oil salesman to become President (Trump) thanks to millions voting for him?” Oh, and “Our earth house is burning up” due to decades under several presidents who kowtowed to corporate dollars instead of regulating their poisonous emissions. Really?
Selina, considering that President Biden is dealing with total obstructionism and constant lies and disinformation on right wing media, which neither Roosevelt nor LBJ had to deal with, it is miraculous that he has accomplished as much as he has. If one person was able to cure all of Earth's ills, he would have to be superhuman. I believe that you are being both unfair and unrealistic.
Selina, I hear everything you're saying. And yet... what are our alternatives? If you want to get down to brass tacks, they were Bernie or RTrump. I would LOVE if Bernie were president (if not Ralph Nader!), but then what? My guess is Manchin and SINema would have several more Democrats in their camp. RTrump? Say no more (shudder). We need to play the hand we've got. Middle of the Road Joe may not be the second coming of TR, or FDR, but he's what we've got. He's done a fair bit of good against strong headwinds. And he may surprise us yet. I don't mind showing him some Love. He deserves and needs it.
So Biden is your superhero. Please take another assessment of your listing by asking - Is this a structural change primarily enhancing the material and educational well being today and tomorrow of the 99.9 percent%? Or of the 1% at the expense of the 99.9% as has been the reality for at least since Reagan? For the long term strengthening of our democracy (democratic institutions), is the Infrastructure Act or For the People Act more instrumental? Why would corporations and the oligarchs be opposed to the latter? Negotiations with sanctions instead of war: have we sunk so low that we admire starving the people of Afghanistan and impoverishing Cubans for what? That our ethical moral reference is: Either bend to our empiric demands or we will kill you by starvation and impoverishment or bullets, bombs and drones?but be grateful that we are “negotiating” (telling you that in person)? Your superhero has assured the oligarchs, the bankers their status will remain unchanged.A stunning statement for its candidness. Stunning too because at root of the extant spiritual decay and obscene wealth abyss are the laws and structures largely bent by and for corporate hegemony. Your superhero disappears on material matters that would shift that imbalance. Please see Gilens and Page research conclusions. Your superhero - a man with the power to enact waivers for Covid patents so the whole world has access to the vaccines (developed with our tax money) opts to assure Big Pharma gets its mega profits. Were you alive when polio was killing and crippling the children? Until the Saulk polio vaccine was given to the whole world. Superhero?
When was POTUS given a magic wand and panacea to right all the wrongs and solve all the problems. Your sentence "Negotiations with Sanctions...." is an incoherent ramble! why limit starvation to only Afghanistan and poverty to Cuba? Pfizer vaccine was not developed with federal $$!!!! Namaste
I admire the strength and wisdom of your conviction! I can't disagree with anything you're saying. The problem is we are stuck on the shoals of pragmatism, as always. We're in a delicate position. How far can we realistically push President Biden without subjecting him and the Dems to electoral backlash? They have a bare majority as it is, if you care to call it that. And even that would not exist without the two stunning Senate wins in Georgia. I will say, those wins are instructive. By showing how popular and progressive legislators can win elections if the left energizes its base. But hasn't that always been the case? I am confident that a comfortable, maybe even large, majority of citizens prefer progressive ideas in government. We can talk all we want about what is best, but how do we get them to show up at the polls?
I feel your pain Selina. I think. But I also think that you bestow on Biden more power than he has. Teddy would be doing no better I suspect. Biden is the first president who has elevated climate change as one of the primary issues to work. Which is my big thing. He must do all this, and do it in such a way that his party doesn't lose power (god almighty that cannot happen), so he has to appease all of his party, not just the most progressive. We must keep in mind that we hold the majority by the slimmest of margins. Only with healthy majorities can we really move forward, I think. He must do all this in the face of a Republican party that is perhaps the most offensive anti-democratic political party this county has ever encountered. Lastly he must accomplish his agenda in a country that has just been through the worst, most toxic administration of all time, with resulting wounds to society and our political institutions that take a long time to heal, if ever. I hear similar stuff from frustrated young folks, mostly young folks, who are looking for instant action, instant cures. They don't see it and they plan on staying home next election as a statement. Now that is scary. That is the best thing you can do to guarantee a quick return to Trumpism and a Republican autocracy, where not one smidgeon of what you want done will get done.
We have had decades of Bidenism (Clinton/Obama-ism). Could it be possible that the conditions that fostered The phenomena of President Chaos and the exponential freaking obscene wealth gap have something to do with his appearance and popularity? Good heavens he is not a deux a machina, sprung out of nothing, in an instant! There are decades of reasons building for his appearance. Millions voted for him. We have an enormous problem if we cannot see the conditions that helped and continue to help him maintain allegiance. Perseverating on him instead of on the conditions that made him inevitable and a more coherent one inevitable again is to collude - consciously or unconsciously - with the very forces that empower him and disempower the citizenry. You bet. I want people to wake up.
Actually, Selina, I think these phenomena have a lot to do with the fact that many people -- I count myself one of them, and dare I think you were one too? -- were going about our lives before 2016 woke us up big-time. Stop flailing around. Get off your high horse and come down in the ditches with the rest of us. Thank you.
Susanna J. Sturgis - Some of us actually cringed when we saw Obama bring in the Wall Street bros for his cabinet, giving banks their bailout while the people's homes were foreclosed upon and those same people had their retirement funds ransacked. Some of us saw what Clinton did to the least of those able to live healthy, fruitful lives, his concentration of black men taken from their families for the new private prisons-for-profit entrepreneurs to use slave labor through incarceration (which Biden promoted and voted for) then at the end of Clinton's days in office, removed the very ruling (The 1933 Glass-Steagall Act) which effectively separated commercial banking from investment banking, which after the Depression, ensured that banks had to safeguard the people's money/savings, rather than take risks with it. So you see what happened in 2008, in just a few years after Clinton's action in guaranteeing his and Hillary's future. Some of us have been watching both parties and their mouthpiece news sources for a long time. That a mentally, emotionally impaired, narcissistic, sociopathic and shallow grifter like Donald Trump got elected just shows the extent of the rot in this country's political system, which has long existed, but perhaps is shown most clearly with our might-makes-right decision to make and detonate the atomic bomb, creating wars-for-profit in perpetuity since then. How anyone can believe in our institutions at this point is beyond me, considering our totally bought Supreme Court, the lawyers who make our laws through donation-bribes to congress, serving the wealthiest corporations and our wretched disease-for-profit medical model serving Big Pharma. The time has come that either we stand solidly for life in all its manifestations, or we stand for nothing. My vote for any public figure is not a reaction to how bad the previous one was and how much he/she disrupted my peace.
I want life on this planet to be honored and respected as the most important thing. All life. Incrementalism should not be an option to make ourselves feel good, because the earth is showing us where that tactic has brought us. We no longer have time for incrementalism, halfway measures, and 'a little better' than the last one in office. We just don't. Because the earth won't stand for it and we humans are expendable. We must know it and act like it by demanding more from those we elect as supposed 'leaders'.
Wow I have had almost identical discussions with my very smart daughter (age 27). That is not a cut. One way to fix this is a nuclear holocaust. Or a pandemic that kills off 90% of us. Or, maybe give power to a dictator for life, who has absolute power to do anything, and just happens to be benevolent and does the right thing always. Then maybe human society can start over and perhaps correct some wrongs before they take root. Well, the only other way is step by step. I see no other way to overcome the inertia of what already is. I think our current leader and his party are one of those steps. The next step is the midterm elections.
I get that much of what is happening is not ideal...and everyone reading this sub stack has a different idea of what they would like to see happen. For me, my hope was that Biden would be the (much needed) calm after the storm...but oh, he is so much more than that! I am now of the opinion that he is exactly what is needed in this time and this place. Could he do more? Probably. Just can't imagine there is enough time in a day in which to do it.
Agree 100%. I'm old enough to remember how the pundits rhapsodized about the "best and the brightest" that JFK brought into his administration. "Best and brightest" was narrowly defined in those days. Nearly all of them were white, male Harvard graduates. The team that Biden has assembled is best and brightest, accomplished and *diverse* -- they know more about how real people live than most of the Kennedy administration did. That matters. The GOP still doesn't get that "diversity" isn't just a slogan -- it's a source of strength. If only our "democracy" survives long enough to make it clear to the general population.
Well, he hasn’t although he says he’s going to try. Just like he said when a candidate that he was going to fight for a $15 federal minimum wage, and a list of other stuff all of which he’s turned his back on since becoming president. But of course he hasn’t a magic wand and besides a man can change his mind, right, and too, he shouldn’t have to address every little and big want that people have. There are a lot of excuses he could or others could make for him not to do the things he said he was going to do if you voted for him. Right?!
Yup..,it certainly is all out there. Is it sufficient to cast Biden as the "worst President"...? GMAB!
Looking at the miserable lying souls in the senate., the babbling nonsense flowing from MT Green and the rest of those dancers. Plus the good Americans who would fraudulate any sacred papers as called for. Gimme Joe Biden. He's trying to get re-elected.The alternative, I am truly afraid, would be a long haul disaster.
Or is he just "Biden" his time? I don't think all those projects are closed, by any means. As others have pointed out, the tendency of passive-aggressive reactions by the Republicans bear responsibility, too. Teddy Roosevelt also had some questionable or mixed-outcome decisions in his presidency, in part due to his cowboy mentality. I'm pretty sure of one thing: Biden is not lining his own pockets as did TFG.
The times of Teddy Roosevelt are long gone and it is impossible to hold the Republicans responsible for anything, look at the willingness of Dems to let them blow off subpoenas without real consequence. I believe there is still a brigg underneath capitol quarters for just this purpose.
Selina, you mentioned Big Pharma. Everybody should know that Biden has so often said that he doesn't want healthcare for all. He said that in his campaign for president and only said he might consider a Public Option. We all know that that is just more not affordable ACA insurance that does no good for most people. And now he acts like he doesn't know that Medicare Advantage is not real Medicare, but more private insurance. Not to mention that CMS is in the process of privatizing all of Medicare. It appears that Biden is actually working for private insurance and private fossil fuel companies. As a person who voted for him, I am deeply disappointed in much of what he's doing.
I'm with you Selina. In spite of his rhetoric, it is clear he will always be tied to the banks and corporations first, which is why he was put in place to win the last election.
Carol Lewandowski, how does anyone in this country NOT know how this works? I marched against Vietnam, I have watched what the MIC, corporations, banks, and wealthiest have been doing to our country and our environment for the whole of my life. Joe Biden's career has served all those I've just named in full measure and that is why Joe was miraculously and suddenly ALL IN in the primary when the week before, he couldn't get a handshake. Bernie had been leading handsomely right up until that time, but as we know, Corporate media, Wall Street, and the wealthiest would have none of that, it had to be 'their guy', which he will always be. He doesn't have the mind, the fire, or the record to draw upon when it comes to leading for the people. Give him a war, Big Pharma, a bank or credit card concern to fight for and he's right there. And good grief, our MSM in this country is just nonsense, as bereft and bought as Fox Fairy Tales. Fiat money = Fiat news.
Direct, clear and right on point. For those of us with more than 50 or 60+ years under our belts and have been living witnesses of the evolving, ever progressing corporate coup of ourgovernment and Biden’s contributions to that effort (on every level of life, materially and spiritually), to encounter others who must see the environmental, societal, urban, degradation (houselessness, falling bridges, etc) and the degradation of democratic institutions (right to vote, a bought Supreme Court,) all about them and not link the dots between our current mess and whose been in power since Reagan leaves one dumbfounded, especially this one.
Roosevelt did appear at a time in history similar to our time (monetarily) during a "Gilded age" of true wealth for a very small number of people. He was fortunate to be one of the members of that wealthy crowd.
However, Roosevelt had something many of the wealthy do not have anymore: He was "from a traditional Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed youthful faith (but moved) to a more detached but still respectful outlook as an adult. As a college student he wrote explicitly of his faith in Jesus Christ and his hope of heaven".
Independent of the existence of God, the ethics taught by Jesus Christ, and bequethed to Roosevelt from the Presbyterian view: Value those who are different, reach out to those who are scorned, forgive those who tresspass against you, those ethics DID permeate much of society at the time Roosevelt pushed himself into leadership. That does matter.
However, today? Much of that ethic contained in Christ's Sermon on the Mount? Is not widely shared and certainly not in the very wealthy.
Roosevelt believed in that ethic having been taught that ethic from a young age and so did many others of that time.
Good luck finding that in a majority of Americans today. Just look at the standard approach the Republican Party takes now:
DEMONIZE TO MONETIZE. (FOX news).
So, EVEN if Roosevelt showed up to this party right now??? He might find his influence sorely lacking.
We have, and we have had, some very good Presidents during my lifetime. Joseph R. Biden subscribes to a somewhat different view of Christ than did Teddy Roosevelt, but his commitment to social welfare is clear. Barack Obama's faith also differed from that of Roosevelt, but his profound ethical beliefs were always apparent to those not blinded by hatred. And, who can argue with Jimmy Carter's determination to live his faith. The faults in our politics lies not in the leadership of the Democratic Party, but in ourselves. Hillary called those who would form TFG's cult "deplorables" and said it comprised about half of the Republican voters. She was too generous. We see the Trump years, and the 1/6 insurrection as a horror, not to be repeated. Those deplorables see the same thing as a good start. How to reconcile those competing views is the challenge facing those who would save our nation. I have people living just down the street who vigorously and profanely proclaim themselves deplorable. They are not going to engage in normal discourse, reason with their political opponents, and come to an accommodation with the majority - especially with a multi-racial majority. This is where the Rooseveltian example is most useful though; what is wanted is a muscular assertion of the public interest. And, we don't have years to dither before we do.
An aside. I have felt much discomfort is Ms Clinton's use of deplorable to describe her opposition. Not so much for the truth of the word, but that our message and goals do not either reach them or worse, include them. Somehow, our characterizations and beliefs require alignment if we are in fact, not merely theory, to become one people united.
Outside of the fact that her use of the word deplorable on an open mike was sort of a test of practical intelligence (she failed), it also revealed a disdain toward the common man that Teddy Roosevelt did not have apparently.
"The faults in our politics lies not in the leadership of the Democratic Party, but in ourselves"
Agree. That is what I mean with: "Much of that ethic contained in Christ's Sermon on the Mount? Is not widely shared and certainly not in the very wealthy."
I agree. It was just such a political blunder that she spoke this out loud on television. It, along with the Comey letter cost her, and us, her election.
Yes, indeed. Well expressed. Something has been lost...
Even George H W Bush had that ethic of "service". Sure he had an enormous ego - you have to in order to rise to that level. But people like this believed they could improve the lot of all. And at least tried. I am no fan of the Bushes, but read Meachams book on Bush the senior to get a real feeling for what we used to call "public service".
Roosevelt wouldn't come close to the success he achieved early in the last century if he was president now. He enjoyed much larger majorities in Congress, there was no filibuster, and mammoth amounts of campaign money hadn't infected both parties. That said, his out-sized strength of personality and will would help matters.
Yes, my mistake. It wasn't used often back then or until several decades ago when Republicans began rejecting the basic principles of negotiating and comprise that had alway been the norm in Congress. Their my-way-or-the-highway approach shows their utter disdain for governing. "Weaponization" of the filibuster is a good way to describe what they have wrought..
Cathy, Ironically enough, I attended Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, which stands roughly four miles east and south from the corner where Floyd was murdered. I admired Teddy Roosevelt even as a kid if only because of his work to establish the National Park System in the U.S. (I worked several summers in Yellowstone.)
I can assure you that outrage in the Powderhorn neighborhood remains high. There have been many protests in the city since Floyd was killed and activists work very hard to keep the many disparities residents there experience front and center with city leadership. But like all big cities, there are myriad problems and never enough resources.
Outrage alone solves nothing. Its the daily work afterwards that can lead to solutions. But it is the toughest work in the world to work to resolve issues and take two steps forward, only to be pushed three steps back. I know that you know this- you live in Texas! And sadly, racism is alive and well here in the frozen North.
We here need to take our outrage and channel it into daily effort towards solutions. Chop wood, carry water. Roosevelt actually understood that. Most of us do too. Just seems harder than it used to for me.
As you often say;”We the People; All of us this time!”
Yes, Sheila, absolutely, Cathy — you both are among my role models.
Let’s all take a little step back and remember to temper our effusiveness for Teddy Roosevelt contributions with the recognition that he was a flaming racist. Against Cubans and Puerto Ricans and other Spanish-speakers, anti-Asian, nasty to African-American soldiers whom he served with in the Spanish-American War — Teddy most certainly contributed to the white-supremacist government system we’re struggling with today.
Don’t mean to be the cooler of ice water this morning, just pointing out he wasn’t the shining example of a hero for ALL of us.
It's important not to throw the baby out with the bath water when reviewing our ancestors. We all grow more wise and informed as we grow older. And so it is as we look back on history. It's important to both applaud the progress and achievements of great leaders, as well as acknowledge their weaknesses and failures. Where we have a problem is when people erect statues, praise and stories for leaders for their damage, destruction and demagoguery such as Confederate Civil War leaders or a President and elected representatives who defy our elections.
We will have nothing, if we put real heros in the same camp as criminals, because they failed to achieve perfection based on today's benchmarks.
That's why I thought it best to at least mention Teddy Roosevelt's significant racial failures. So as to not perpetuate white culture's propensity to ignore the ugly parts.
I learned of that side of Teddy's profile when I was much, much older, certainly not during my mid-century public education in the Midwest, when I was taught that the United States of America was the Greatest Nation the world had ever known, its citizens the best and smartest and kindest and cleverest of any other, that non-white people did not quite measure up (and might not even really BE citizens), that people were poor because they were lazy -- you see where I'm going with this.
It has taken me a lifetime, and more, to learn what is the wholer truth, to try to overcome MY instilled racism, to accept that many of my beliefs were DEAD WRONG, to attempt to no longer condone this ignorance.
Therefore, my mention of Ted's uglier contributions.
It takes a village, SL. Didn’t know that about Teddy so thank you. I learn something new every day here from HCR and the comments! (Excuse me while I to go shovel the frozen accumulation again-smile.)
I was listening to my favorite radio station today - WPKN 89.5 - and they played Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddamn. But the DJ said he was renaming it Minneapolis Goddamn.
Yep. Outraged and depressed. I teach at the college level and I have had many motivated, intelligent, passionate, and globally-minded students who hate how our country works (or doesn't) and who want to make it a better place for all. They give me hope.
I do believe it is time for the younger generations to step up and take the baton of government. If they don't step up now I'm afraid of what they will have to live through and deal with in climate conflagration and despotism!
Carol, what is your opinion about student participation in supporting in every way possible voter turn out by voters who understand the issues, and are confident about the people they are voting for re-election and new candidates trustworthiness?
Cathy When Teddy was great, he was magnificent. Marvelous in accumulating national parks and other environmental preserves. Rambunctious in foreign affairs (Nobel Peace Prize), while he shamelessly tore the Panama Canal Zone from its sovereign owner, Nicaragua. He was more visually anti-trust than President Taft, who was a more effective anti-trustee. While he railed against big business, he covertly sought and received their financial largesse in his 1904 presidential election.
His position on Blacks I found reprehensible (despite his closeness and admiration for the Black 9th and 10th regiments that were essential in capturing Kettle (San Juan) Hill), especially in his ill-considered approval of dishonorable discharges for all the Black soldiers after the Brownsville incident.
Teddy was perhaps the best-read American president, an authority on birds, and the author of many books. He had a knack for capturing headlines and was shameless in his manipulation of the press. When America faced a major financial crisis (economics bored him), he was ready to have his purported nemesis, Morgan of JP Morgan, bail him out.
When he no longer was president his ego led him to split the Republican Party. During WW I his attacks against ‘hyphenated Americans’ were deplorable.
Overall I say ‘bully’ to Teddy, with his great strengths and weaknesses. I was appalled to see that a statue of Teddy recently was removed from a museum. I would love to have dinner with him, though I doubt that I could get a word in. No matter, he would be extremely entertaining and unconventional.
I believe every word to be true, the praise and the criticism. Deeply flawed, but I like more than I hated. Ken Burns docuseries on the Roosevelts was most interesting. I am very fond of this quote, which I posted a lot on FB before departing. “Patriotism means to stand with the country. It does not mean to stand with the president.” Take that chump…
Oh, yeah. I'm outraged. I am also acutely aware that most of my "support system" of friends, neighbors, and relatives are not so outraged that they are even willing to keep up on news or newsletters. It's like they really can't fathom another Third Reich or something like it. They can't think about putting themselves in someone else's shoes who will be first on the victim list after all those who are already on the victim list and have been for their entire lives. I have become an irritant (no one has said that, but ...) everyone I know seems to believe they can't handle the information without being too uncomfortable, so they avoid it. I got news today that I have "won the lottery" of those who volunteered to be delegates for local conventions (called DFL here in Minnesota)to select candidates to support and also select election and polling workers. I haven't done this before. It is time. Rather than join me, so far, the people in my life ask me when I will have time to do this or that with them ... all acting as though life not only just "goes on" but they crave "normal" so badly that they can't put together that there is no hope for any kind of normal if we don't get our politics and human rights straightened out! So, hang in there my new friends. We need each other.
Boy, do they need this, but it will never even cross their minds “Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1933-1945. “Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well-explained, or on occasion, regretted, that unless (one) saw what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘’little measures’ must someday lead to, one no more saw it developing day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing - each act is worse than the last - but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.
You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone, you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ But the one great shocking occasion, when tens, or hundreds, or thousands, will join you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays, But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves, when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father never could have imagined.”
Thanks for this, Jeri. I know it is true, and yet I am encouraged by recent news indicating some of the villains will finally be derailed. Chris Hay on MSNBC tonight featured this story: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/sequim-qanon/. A small town, Sequim, that almost lost itself to inaction.
Thank you for this. How do we light the fire? It is as though everyone is sitting in the warm bath before becoming frog legs for dinner. (Which is not true - frogs sitting in warm water as the heat is turned up.) We must begin organizing women across the country with the same vision and plan.
Cathy, I thought of your post when I read Elizabeth Kolbert’s article in the current New York Review of Books. Who’e going to take the necessary and obvious steps to act on her warnings… the Department of Agriculture? Not any Department of Agriculture that we’ve seen in my lifetime.
But what if we could entice Kolbert to lead a team that uses this knowledge to write a platform for addressing all the problems that she has analyzed, and create a new political party to wave that flag, that will start by reforming the Department of Agriculture to tackle these problems before we are crushed by them… a platform that entices the younger generations, and gives them their Teddy Roosevelt.
I’m not a biologist or horticulturist, and I wasn’t able to read the entire article that you posted, due to the paywall, but I want to point out that it has come to light in the last couple of years that the spreading of sludge from waste water treatment plants has caused enormous toxicity on farms in Maine. This was a practice encouraged by the State of Maine many years ago, but ‘lo and behold, the result is that the soils now contain highly toxic levels of PFAS and PFOS, commonly referred to as forever chemicals. There has been extensive coverage of this issue in Maine media sources, but here’s a little bit of information:
That said, we definitely need to be looking for creative solutions that include methods to use what we have to enhance our agricultural practices, as well as growth in urban centers. Wider application of permaculture practices would be a good start.
Thanks for this information, Mary Anne. That’s a scary article about the Maine waste water treatment plants. But it curiously mentions the Nordell's water supply as a potential source of the toxins… I wonder if we have been presented the clearest picture of the entire predicament.
Jeff-Their source for drinking water is from a well, so the contamination in the soil seeps into the well water. This is typical for most Maine farms. PFAS and PFOS chemicals have been found in milk, eggs, meat and other fresh food products. Several farms in Maine have had to shut down in the past year, as a result of the discovery of the toxins.
There are other sources of these “forever chemicals,” but one thing that makes the contamination in Maine so astounding and egregious is that the Department of Environmental Protection actually endorsed and promoted the use of the sludge from wastewater treatment facilities for fertilizing and, now, 20 years later, it turns out that the sludge fertilizer has caused massive toxicity in the soils and, by extension, the water sources. So it is becoming increasingly clear that the entire predicament is widespread and devastating.
Betsy DeVos is the sister of ‘Blackwater’ Eric Prince, whose murky military gang seems aligned with the Proud Boys. The only good thing that Betsy could do is to expire. I would be delighted to send flowers.
I doubt that Betsy Devos would ever give up her privileges of wealth and holier than thou attitude to be part of an egalitarian movement which is what I am envisioning.
I'm in day 8 of getting over Omicron and am a bit cranky, but that has little bearing on why TR is the worst kind of leader for this nation today.
Raised a sickly little rich kid he showed up in the New York State Legislature entering politics, wearing not a Cowboy or military outfit at that point, but a purple velvet frock with frilly white neck attire that made him an instant target of derision.
His action in Cuba subverted the ability of the actual Cubans to throw off their oppressors the Spanish. This really set the stage for our constant Imperial intervention by the U.S. that included support for Batista and you know the rest of where that led things…
His later support of the genocidal actions of American occupation of the Philippines (blatant imperialism) the annexation of Hawaii to support Dole and his gunboat diplomacy in China (Opium Wars) and encouragement to Japan to be exercise their own “Monroe Doctrine” that ld to the invasion of China.
National Parks - Considering that he was a one man slaughterhouse when it came to “hunting” wild animals his real interest in “conservation” at that time was to insure that there would always be plenty of animals to hunt and kill.
The “Teddy Bear” story: He was given the honor of shooting a mangy black bear in Louisiana that had been run to ground by dogs and clubbed by the guide for the hunting party. Roosevelt was given the honor to deliver the kill shot at point blank range. He looked at the bear and waved it off as he walked away.
Given the entire wing of taxiderm mounted wild game in dioramas filling a wing of the Smithsonian that I saw as a kid. I’d say whatever squeamishness he had for “conservation” or animal cruelty had long subsided by the time he returned from Africa.
All that "Rough Rider" macho stuff was a clearly a cover for feelings he had of being weak and inadequate as a man.
I agree with everything you have said. I have read several books about him. Teddy was a complicated guy. But he, like so many others, offered us change when it was most needed.
I do take issue with your view of him as "weak". Au contraire. When faced with being a "runt" he taught himself strength, discipline and endurance. As one who faced a not too dissimilar childhood, he has my admiration.
The "Rough Rider" scenario makes my stomach turn. He was a war monger. The hunting thing was disgusting. But he shook up the trusts and set a tone for the nation that was so powerful...it bordered on worship. Of course, he was so full of himself that he did the Bull Mouse Party dance - and was humiliated. Good. And then there was the trip down a river in South America. Oy.
Hate him or love him or both. He knew how to gain public support like no other.
Ol’Flaw Hope you have recovered from Omicron. I didn’t consider your commentary ‘cranky.’ As an historian I might fine tune several of your points: the Opium War was around 1840; the Hawaii ‘situation’ was settled before Teddy.
He clearly was a catalyst for for Spanish-American War, though his Rough Rider involvement was not decisive. He had to send SecWar William Taft to sort out the mess he inherited and then exacerbated. During the 1900 Chinese brouhaha, my recollection is that the Americans benefited from what the Europeans negotiated (55 days in Peking and Carlton Heston not withstanding).
As I have written earlier today, TR has lots of positive aspects. How they balance is up to the eye of the beholder. Overall, I give Teddy high markets, with a number of demerits. I found the description of his arrival at the NY Assembly hilarious—a complete duck out of water. However, he worked far harder than the others and became highly respected.
Thanks for helping me with conflation of TR with the “Opium Wars” - Brain Fog is sneaky.
As a historian I thought this regarding TR’s attitude about Chinese immigrants who after the Opium Wars fled a devastated China to the West Coast to work on the Transcontinental Railroad:
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 - First legislation targeted to a specific race of immigrants.
September 1, 1885, Rock Springs, Wyoming
ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING, WAS a mining town that produced almost half the coal that fueled the transcontinental railroad. Approximately six hundred Chinese and three hundred Whites lived in the dust-blown settlement.
With a population of 300 White miners the “Knights of Labor” held a meeting to launch an attack on approximately six hundred Chinese
The first Wyoming state official to arrive in Rock Springs described the scene: “Not a living Chinaman—man, woman or child—was left in the town… and not a single house, shanty, or structure of any kind, that had ever been inhabited by a Chinaman was left unburned.” (Bradley)
This event earned the name the The Rock Springs Massacre.
“The 23 year old recent graduate of Harvard, Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “No greater calamity could now befall the United States than to have the Pacific slope fill up with a Mongolian population.” Harper’s Weekly, September 26, 1885. (Library of Congress)” (Bradley)
Roosevelt became - Asst Secty of the Navy
April 19, 1897– May 10, 1898
Source: (“Imperial Cruise” - James Bradley)
I know give the kid a break. At this age I was Vietnam, a place where Asian life, friend or foe was considered to be generally less than human. To this day I feel fortunate that I never harmed a civilian. I mention this because racism in war with non-whites was an accepted norm even then. The difference in character is whether you reject it or join in.
We can talk about "Big Tech" another time, but I agree with the need for a vigorous, active President who will challenge the Congress to do its job and lead the way to an effective approach to the environmental and social challenges we face as a nation.
We have had such a candidate in our last two election cycles. We will need to primary out scores of corporate Democrats before we can ever again have a party that would not do the same job on a Teddy Roosevelt that the current Democratic Party operatives did on Bernie Sanders.
His base--and too many others--thought the former president was their Teddy and didn't care about incompetence, corruption, graft, or lying. And apparently still don't.
I see little in commonality between TR and Trump that holds relevance to our current situation. I just don’t feel that holding TR up as an ideal President to pull the nation out of becoming a Fascist state is the right guy at the right time. In short everything TR got obsessed about generally was made worse, largely because he was trapped in a racist, Imperialist world view and he had real identity issues that called for constant propping up as a macho Cowboy.
Valentine's Day is very special for me. In 1965 my best friend asked me to be his Best Man and attend his engagement party. As encouragement he told me that "Tammy" would be there, a beautiful bomb shell and friend of his fiance Holly. After meeting Holly's folks in the kitchen my best friend nudged me with, "Let's go meet 'Tammy'!" On the way we stumbled across a young woman filling out engagement notices while sitting "indian" style on the hallway floor. My best friend paused to introduce Holly's Maid of Honor, Marti Belcher. Marti looked up at me with a mouth full of braces, horn rimmed glasses, and her hair in a French Curl. I looked into her beautiful green eyes and lost any intention of going any further down the hall. Within moments of talking with her, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with woman. That was February 14th, 1965. We will be celebrating our 57th year together tomorrow.
Happy Anniversary. It was always the eyes ... for my bride of 58 years. May the Marti be with you to the end. I'd be Ruthless without blue eyes shining light I to my life.
So many thank you’s for this very tragic history which became the force for good planning & construction of public works. I so appreciate your gifts for true stories from our country’s history. Again, your talent for truth-telling inspires hopefulness in our current world of desperate behaviors and treachery.
While Lincoln, about whom you wrote yesterday, has always been my greatest hero and my favorite president, I have found Theodore Roosevelt's ability to overcome such monumental grief and turn it into action for the public good to be another remarkable example of how history somehow provides us with just the right men (so far) that we need at the right time in the presidency. Thanks for the reminder.
History sure does rhyme. Joe is fighting a pandemic, Roosevelt fought typhoid and conditions of filth and overcrowding. And there's more....wages, and clean water.
Andrea, think of Joe Biden's monumental grief -- was anyone else making that connection while reading Dr. Richardson's LFAA?
Joe has/had everything it takes to effect change on Roosevelt's scale, except for the votes of two democrats. And a cowboy hat....
We must make up the difference with votes. We Georgians -- with help from so many other Americans, including so many in this group -- did our best to give him the senate. We were all betrayed by two members of our own party and the cowards in the other party.
Hershel Walker is the clown anointed that’s going to run against our Reverend Warnock. He who threatened to kill his wife and had to have a restraining order to keep him away from her, has lived his adult life in Texas, not in Georgia. This is a match made in heaven, a voter will have to be stone cold stupid to vote for Hershel, that’s not to say we don’t have quite a lot of them, we got rid of one POS when we elected our senator, I don’t think we will replace him with another, not if I can help it.
Dick, Yes. All of what you said makes Herschel a designer candidate for -- how can I say it -- a very substantial number number of voters in our state. Must consider him a major threat. The Rev. Warnock is right from the git-go one of the finest states'men' in Washington, a potential lion of the senate. We will keep him there, as long as he will serve....
Not to take anything away from Dr. Richardson’s beautifully written history of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, “Leadership in Turbulent Times” by Doris Kearns Goodwin describes the strengths of our most valued and respected Presidents during some of our most difficult times. Joe Biden could be an addition to this group.
Jamie Raskin has overcome monumental grief, too. Most of us know that he was in the Capitol on January 6 to perform his Constitutional duty, despite having lost his beloved son to suicide less than a week before, on New Year's Eve. He is now on the Select Committee to investigate the insurrection. I'm reading and recommend his book, "Unthinkable."
Even though he doesn't have the oratory talent of a Kennedy or a Warnock, he more than makes up for it with his dedication, his awesome mind, and his passion. I am so glad Rep. Raskin is serving this country.
This is beautiful. A very fitting tribute to the women in Roosevelt's life. It's wonderful to know the positive way he changed his life and the lives of so many others as well.
You say this well; our history that was "taught to us in school" is boring and lifeless as well as misrepresented, falsified, omitted, and incomplete. Whitewashed, if you will.
I was born in England, was taught American history in high school in then-Rhodesia by an American nun. She was a brilliant teacher and brought it all alive. It was one of my favourite subjects, lucky me! Another favourite subject was "Ethics", I don't know if it is taught in the US now.
Thank you, Dr. Heather, for another piece of history that I had not learned until now. What a terrible tragedy for President Roosevelt. I knew of the positive changes he brought about during his administration but nothing of his personal life.
Out of curiosity I looked up his daughter Alice and was pleasantly surprised to read about her life, although coincidentally she also passed away in the month of February in 1980, 6 days after she turned 96. She made famous the quote, "If you have nothing good to say about someone, come sit right here beside me."
I also learned that one of her half brothers was named "Kermit," which until now I thought was a made-up unique name for a Muppet. 😉
I love the one were TR told advisors he could deal with Alice “issues” or the the country’s “issues”. Not shockingly the country’s “issues” appeared easier to deal with.
There was a Kermit Roosevelt (same family) who was the CIA go-to-man in the 1953 effort to oust Mossadaq (sp?0 and bring the shah back from his safe haven in Rome. In fact the coup failed and a general (Zahedi?) on mostly his own initiative pulled it off. (I met Kermit in a different capacity in 1959 or 1960–he was ‘working’ for Gulf Oil. The father of one of my friends was Dick Helms, Director of CIA at the time of Watergate (he refused to cover up for Tricky Dick) and was our ambassador to Iran in the late 1970s. Sounds like a shaggy Shah story.
“ The diseases that killed his wife and mother were diseases of filth and crowding…” I knew this story, but not that typhoid and Bright’s disease were looked at this way. Thank you for teaching us a fuller account of history.
I did not know this history. Did his daughter, Alice, survive?
I hope we turn climate change around in time so that future generations will be able to read about our times. About how Biden persevered in making lives better for ordinary Americans in a time when the opposing party spread misinformation and propaganda. And how a former President went to prison for his many crimes.
ScannyDo, Professor Heather wrote a comment on FaceBook about his daughter, Alice Roosevelt, that will likely interest you and others “[she] became a force in her own right. He left her with a relative, then reclaimed her when she was about three and he had remarried. She must have been traumatized to be suddenly transplanted into a new family. She grew up to be an outspoken, powerful woman, who pretty much did as she wished, breaking the gender norms of her era. She definitely had an edge-- she's the one who said that Harding wasn't a bad man... "he was just a slob"-- but she had reason to be that way, and a personality that has echoed down the ages. Very much like her father, actually.”
Alice was cared for by her Aunt “Bamie” who was Theodore’s older sister. Bamie also sometimes cared for another orphaned niece, Eleanor, who was also born in 1884. Alice and Eleanor were often rivals in later life. Alice remained a staunch Republican for her entire life. Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt became a prominent Democrat. 😉😉
“On Valentine’s Day in 1884, Theodore Roosevelt lost both his wife and his mother.”
“I’m glad we had the times together just to laugh and sing a song, seems like we just got started and then before you know it, the times we had together were gone.” – Dr. Seuss
Sometimes when looking for a good story you may find a gold mine or opportunities to connect with people who are helping others. Take the following excerpted article that appeared in the Gonzaga Bulletin. I saw it online last night.
'Little Free Food Pantries (LFFP) have sprouted up in Spokane neighborhoods to combat street hunger.'
'There are approximately 46 little pantries of food that are free to the community. Neighbors helping neighbors with food isn't an unusual concept, but the national LFP (Little Food Pantry) development started in approximately 2016 in Fayetteville, AR by Jessica McClard. The pantries are starting to pop up all around the country aiming reduce the hunger rates of neighboring people'.
'The LFFPs were inspired by the Free Little Libraries that have been around for many years. While there are many people who aren’t big fans of books, there are many benefits that come from these LFFPs. Community members from all over the city have come together to collect, build and stock each LFFP to support the larger endeavors of nearby food banks.'
“LFFPs have 24/7 public access for those who cannot get to a formal food pantry during its operating hours. LFFPs are also hyper local to neighborhoods, removing the need for costly transportation,” said Kelsie Rowland, manager for one of the LFFP at Caritas.
“We currently stock 15 pantries in Spokane and there are now an additional 33 pantries with private hosts that have popped up with more in the works,” Rowland said.' (gonzagabulletin) See link below.
The Gonzaga Bulletin is connected to Gonzaga University, a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington
'For over 100 years The Gonzaga Bulletin has worked and continues to work incredibly hard to bring the week’s news in a way that is relevant and interesting to the Gonzaga and Spokane community.'
The Bulletin staff is always working to innovate both this publication and the field of journalism as well. Through traditional print, live social media updates and interactive multimedia The Bulletin works to teach its staff both the traditions of journalism as well as the groundbreaking technology in the field. It also strives to present content to readers in an in-depth and accessible way.'
The Democratic Party, grassroots organizations, political activists and most of the rest of us need to have strong local connections to spread the word about what the Biden administration and the party are doing. It is also a way to work in concert with local people in their communities. College journalism departments, bulletins, newsletters, radio broadcasts, etc., are outlets for news that is not available on social media or on Fox. How many Americans don't get the news? The wall between people with or without it is very high and exceedingly dangerous. It is the wall serving authoritarian and autocratic forces, one even more difficult to get around than the wall Trump didn't quite get built. We have to find ways to create bridges between two worlds in America, which have grown very far apart.
I have for several years felt what we needed was a President Teddy Roosevelt in our time. Someone with the strength to break up the big tech monopolies who are manipulating people with algorithms to get clicks for their greed rather than any consideration for the well being of young girls and people vulnerable to misinformation. Someone who would address the climate the way Roosevelt created the National Parks and our natural resources. Someone would would measure America by its Well Being Index rather than its Gross National Greed. Someone also who would protect the rights of all of us, this time. What happened to that moment after George Floyd's murder when many of us wanted to come together and make a movement for a new multi-cultural democracy where all of would thrive and support each other. Personally, I think it is time for a new women's movement to restore women's rights and the rights of all of us. Love to quote Benjamin Franklin on "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are." I'm outraged. How about you?
And our President Biden is taking on more than anyone can imagine right now. You are living in this moment.
Thanks, Gailee. My sentiments precisely. Joe Biden should be recognized for doing everything humanly possible, but fettered by the obstructionist thugs and Manchin and Sinema.
And the damn MSM. Sure wish they would start heaping some praise on this hardworking and conscientious President!
I just don't understand it! Fareed Zakaria addressed Biden's low approval ratings, and did blame the media and most people's fatigue from the pandemic and political chaos, pointing out that our economy is the best it's been in decades! At least one commentator got it right. With the press and many others, everything is judged by style over substance, and of course, bad news sells.
Like Fareed Zakaria! Glad to hear this. Thanks Nancy.
I never miss Fareed. His credibility is great - no fluff or sensationalism. He attracts every expert and serious scholar, as well as heads of state. Yesterday, he interviewed Imran Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan. He's not just a talking head.
Please, not to forget that the GOP, and the big money behind it, deserve most of the opprobium here. I'm afraid that the U.S. electorate, knowing little about economics and remembering little about the last administration, will add inflation to Covid impatience and decide it's OK to give the Trumpers another chance. Please, everybody, do what you can to counter this, wherever you live and however you can.
I can't imagine any sane person who could possibly forget what Trump and his GOP enablers, aided by oligarchs, did to this country, but then, I couldn't believe that TFG ever made it to the primaries. Definitely, money talks.
I don't recall sanity being part of the mix in RTrump's popularity.
You're right, and I realize that my giving them the benefit of the doubt on that was my first mistake. 😒
There are several people commenting right here on this Substack that President Biden is of the same ilk as TFG, and whose view of presidential powers seems akin to that of former AG Bill Barr, he of the all-powerful executive. You don't have to imagine. They're here.
I haven't had time to read most of the posts today. Thanks for the heads up - now I won't bother. These trolls are either so stupid that they should be sent to a gulag, or they're bots from putin or xi.
Biden. No to student loan forgiveness. Yes to more oil and gas leases ever in the Gulf. No to using Presidential power - or Rooseveltian cowboy power - to cower Man-chin and Ms Pearls Sinema into line to serve the essence of representative government - the right to vote. Nor using cowboy power to haul neoliberal corporate democrats into line to pass full and complete government bargaining power over all prescription drugs. No to wielding presidential power to eviscerate the filibuster. No to expanding the far right Supreme Court into a more balanced judicial body. His vicious sanctions on Afghanistan and Cuba. His no to waiver patent protections on publicly financed Covid vaccines to bring succor to poor nations so our poverty stricken Big Pharma Can make big profits.His NATO manipulation inducing troops close to the Russian border thereby breaking an international agreement against NATO expansion. How did we react when Cuba got Soviet missiles? And then too there is his nasty attitude - like a sharp toothed little dog’ s - toward the inevitable predominance of China. There is more. Biden has hardly the depth of genuine intelligent concern, passion and political will and concern to foster a good citizenry that Roosevelt had. Please. Research more deeply. Because the more truth we muster - as in consciousness or awareness - the more expanded and discriminating our eye, the greater the chance we the citizenry can unwind the corporate lens and initiate a perspective that drives the public good over the corporate profit at any human and environmental cost.
In all fairness, his hands are tied due to obstructionist Republicans. And I suspect his reluctance to push executive privilege is partially due to his fear of setting a precedent for future tyrants. He's not perfect, but he sure as heck beats what the Republicans have to offer. Just sayin'.
Yes, and no need to be shy about it, Carol. I also understand Selina's frustration, but have one question in rebuttal to Selina, think of where we were just 16 months ago and still must live in that ever dark shadow, thanks to media hype, of such a tyrant. Let us all exhibit patience and fortitude for America's sake (never perfect). Resisting in an impatient way, will only thwart our democracy. Speak your thoughts and perhaps do something to change for the better of our country trying hard to "form a more perfect union"
Grateful every minute of every day, the orange clown is still around, but not in the WH
Heart!
“ He's not perfect, but he sure as heck beats what the Republicans have to offer. Just sayin'.”
‘Nuff said.
What a low bar we've come to then. Trump has done his work.
AMEN!!!!
AMEN!!!!!!
Do you have any solutions to offer, Selina? We are, kinda, in a situation of completely losing our democracy to corporatocracy/oligarchs after the installation of a tyrant king, and decades long planned coup on our government by a rogue, terrorist party—still in power, paid via our taxes. Would love some solutions from those who are quick to bring down one who is doing his best to navigate the destructiveness of a new kind of warfare and propaganda being inflicted on us and around the world.
Exactly my position Pensa. We can't always arrive at perfect solutions in the current environment, so we need to continue to push for less perfect ones that continue to move us in the right direction. President Biden has been doing that so far. It would be nice if we always used President in front of our President's name.
well said!
Agree so much with this. This must be the most difficult and dangerous time to be a president in American history. Through Heather's teachings, I've learned so much. I belong to a book club here in Spain that is in English. I'm the only American. Everyone else is Spanish. We are going to be reading Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which was an allegory for McCarthyism - another dark time for Americans, and the time when the Republicans began using terms like ¨socialism and ¨communism¨ to scare the educationally malnourished. And, Selina if I may. We live in a very different time now from the 60s, 70s, 80s, even 90s. Biden's decisions then were determined by those times and information given in those times. He has even made statements about that. It's so easy to be a couch coach when you don't have all the facts of the moments as they are being lived live and don't spend hours delving into what was fact and fiction. You are right about our government. The U.S. is a war nation. Our economy is based upon war and war machinery. We have been engaged in or initiated a war since the end of WWII. We have disrupted governments around the world. This is shameful. Until we, as a people, learn this and determine who goes to Washington with a new construct for who and what we are......
Great insights, Gailee. We are living in times that are confounded daily by more than any one president can handle, so it is irrelevant to compare LBJ and former historical presidents to the 21st century. More importantly, Heather's history scholarship in these letters coupled with her presentation of current events far exceeds any one person's anger toward's one's own country which solves little. We are still learning and better do so quickly now more than ever.
The faster we can learn and share what we learn...
❤
I “heart” this!
Kinda, Yup! Thanks Pensa.
I'm sorry your President has disappointed you. Mine is a super hero. I started a list of his accomplishments -all in his first year! And there are so many more: Here are a few of the Biden administration's most outstanding achievements:
American Rescue Plan
Infrastructure bill- bipartisan
Strengthen NATO Alliance
Gathered allies to challenge Putin's aggression
Ended 10-year Afghan War
Reduced troops in Iraq
Negotiations that begin with sanctions, not soldiers
Rejoined WHO and Paris Climate Accord
Jobless rate reduced by 2%
Increased American jobs by 6 million 2021
5.7% economic growth in 2021
Appointed the most diverse, highly qualified cabinet in U.S. history
Reduced child poverty by 40%
increased by 4 million # of Americans with healthcare
vaccinated 210 million Americans.
Provides access to daily White House Press conferences, speeches, panels and CDC updates on national t.v. White house.gov/live -genuine transparency
Established a minimum international tax to end foreign tax shelters
Formed a committee to address supply chain issues
Created policies to increase renewable energy and energy efficiency
Recruited Federal and military assistance to aid hospitals overwhelmed with Covid cases
Made masks and at home tests available to all Americans
Worked directly with American mayors to put funding for local initiatives to immediate use.
Engaged Defense Production Act to buy more vaccines, worked with states to establish vaccine sites and Transportation to them; established vaccine centers in pharmacies across the country.
This week, the entire city of Newark announced the eradication of all lead pipes. Amazing testimonies from citizens about the efficient, cost free process.
That's my guy!
I'm with you. Biden has shown incredible results with all the GOP/Tump supporters doing everything in the power to stop him. I wish the Republicans would wake up and open their eyes for 5 minutes. If they hate wearing a mask, they will really hate living in an autocratic government. They will be allowing their future generations. to become enslaved for who knows how long. Loosing our democracy
has real life consequences. If we loose our democracy, our votes won't matter. The select few will decide for the masses.
PLEASE, President Biden keep up your fight for America's future. Maybe he's not perfect but look what a mess he walked into. I wouldn't wish his clean up job on anyone. All the destructive things that happen in trumps administration cannot be fixed with the snap of your fingers.
Heart!
Heart, heart!
Thank you for this list! I lost track. But maybe that's because the media is falling short and only reporting short comings, they sell more.
This should be published on front page of NYT and WashPo everyday Here What President Biden accomplished. I would also include brought NATO together like we haven't seen since 2016.
It puzzles me that effusions over Biden seem based on comparing him to his cunning megalomaniac sociopathic predecessor. Put him side by side either Roosevelt or LBJ and how does he fare? Do you honestly believe Biden is altering the very structures and conditions that paved the way for such a snake oil salesman to become President thanks to millions voting for him? Our earth house is burning up. “As of July 2021, the United States had the highest number of incarcerated individuals worldwide, with almost 2.1 million people in prison. The U.S. was followed by China, Brazil, India, and the Russian Federation” (google)
You lost me. Just how many U.S. Presidents have faced wanton destruction of precedent, a pandemic, an active anti-science propaganda machine, while simultaneously “ altering the very structures and conditions that paved the way for such a snake oil salesman to become President (Trump) thanks to millions voting for him?” Oh, and “Our earth house is burning up” due to decades under several presidents who kowtowed to corporate dollars instead of regulating their poisonous emissions. Really?
Selina, considering that President Biden is dealing with total obstructionism and constant lies and disinformation on right wing media, which neither Roosevelt nor LBJ had to deal with, it is miraculous that he has accomplished as much as he has. If one person was able to cure all of Earth's ills, he would have to be superhuman. I believe that you are being both unfair and unrealistic.
Selina, I hear everything you're saying. And yet... what are our alternatives? If you want to get down to brass tacks, they were Bernie or RTrump. I would LOVE if Bernie were president (if not Ralph Nader!), but then what? My guess is Manchin and SINema would have several more Democrats in their camp. RTrump? Say no more (shudder). We need to play the hand we've got. Middle of the Road Joe may not be the second coming of TR, or FDR, but he's what we've got. He's done a fair bit of good against strong headwinds. And he may surprise us yet. I don't mind showing him some Love. He deserves and needs it.
Brava Nancy!
Thank you so much for this list. It should be sent to local papers and posted on all personal social media.
So Biden is your superhero. Please take another assessment of your listing by asking - Is this a structural change primarily enhancing the material and educational well being today and tomorrow of the 99.9 percent%? Or of the 1% at the expense of the 99.9% as has been the reality for at least since Reagan? For the long term strengthening of our democracy (democratic institutions), is the Infrastructure Act or For the People Act more instrumental? Why would corporations and the oligarchs be opposed to the latter? Negotiations with sanctions instead of war: have we sunk so low that we admire starving the people of Afghanistan and impoverishing Cubans for what? That our ethical moral reference is: Either bend to our empiric demands or we will kill you by starvation and impoverishment or bullets, bombs and drones?but be grateful that we are “negotiating” (telling you that in person)? Your superhero has assured the oligarchs, the bankers their status will remain unchanged.A stunning statement for its candidness. Stunning too because at root of the extant spiritual decay and obscene wealth abyss are the laws and structures largely bent by and for corporate hegemony. Your superhero disappears on material matters that would shift that imbalance. Please see Gilens and Page research conclusions. Your superhero - a man with the power to enact waivers for Covid patents so the whole world has access to the vaccines (developed with our tax money) opts to assure Big Pharma gets its mega profits. Were you alive when polio was killing and crippling the children? Until the Saulk polio vaccine was given to the whole world. Superhero?
When was POTUS given a magic wand and panacea to right all the wrongs and solve all the problems. Your sentence "Negotiations with Sanctions...." is an incoherent ramble! why limit starvation to only Afghanistan and poverty to Cuba? Pfizer vaccine was not developed with federal $$!!!! Namaste
Heart!
I admire the strength and wisdom of your conviction! I can't disagree with anything you're saying. The problem is we are stuck on the shoals of pragmatism, as always. We're in a delicate position. How far can we realistically push President Biden without subjecting him and the Dems to electoral backlash? They have a bare majority as it is, if you care to call it that. And even that would not exist without the two stunning Senate wins in Georgia. I will say, those wins are instructive. By showing how popular and progressive legislators can win elections if the left energizes its base. But hasn't that always been the case? I am confident that a comfortable, maybe even large, majority of citizens prefer progressive ideas in government. We can talk all we want about what is best, but how do we get them to show up at the polls?
I know I'm dreaming, but it certainly would be gratifying if TFG could be held accountable also.
I feel your pain Selina. I think. But I also think that you bestow on Biden more power than he has. Teddy would be doing no better I suspect. Biden is the first president who has elevated climate change as one of the primary issues to work. Which is my big thing. He must do all this, and do it in such a way that his party doesn't lose power (god almighty that cannot happen), so he has to appease all of his party, not just the most progressive. We must keep in mind that we hold the majority by the slimmest of margins. Only with healthy majorities can we really move forward, I think. He must do all this in the face of a Republican party that is perhaps the most offensive anti-democratic political party this county has ever encountered. Lastly he must accomplish his agenda in a country that has just been through the worst, most toxic administration of all time, with resulting wounds to society and our political institutions that take a long time to heal, if ever. I hear similar stuff from frustrated young folks, mostly young folks, who are looking for instant action, instant cures. They don't see it and they plan on staying home next election as a statement. Now that is scary. That is the best thing you can do to guarantee a quick return to Trumpism and a Republican autocracy, where not one smidgeon of what you want done will get done.
We have had decades of Bidenism (Clinton/Obama-ism). Could it be possible that the conditions that fostered The phenomena of President Chaos and the exponential freaking obscene wealth gap have something to do with his appearance and popularity? Good heavens he is not a deux a machina, sprung out of nothing, in an instant! There are decades of reasons building for his appearance. Millions voted for him. We have an enormous problem if we cannot see the conditions that helped and continue to help him maintain allegiance. Perseverating on him instead of on the conditions that made him inevitable and a more coherent one inevitable again is to collude - consciously or unconsciously - with the very forces that empower him and disempower the citizenry. You bet. I want people to wake up.
Actually, Selina, I think these phenomena have a lot to do with the fact that many people -- I count myself one of them, and dare I think you were one too? -- were going about our lives before 2016 woke us up big-time. Stop flailing around. Get off your high horse and come down in the ditches with the rest of us. Thank you.
Susanna J. Sturgis - Some of us actually cringed when we saw Obama bring in the Wall Street bros for his cabinet, giving banks their bailout while the people's homes were foreclosed upon and those same people had their retirement funds ransacked. Some of us saw what Clinton did to the least of those able to live healthy, fruitful lives, his concentration of black men taken from their families for the new private prisons-for-profit entrepreneurs to use slave labor through incarceration (which Biden promoted and voted for) then at the end of Clinton's days in office, removed the very ruling (The 1933 Glass-Steagall Act) which effectively separated commercial banking from investment banking, which after the Depression, ensured that banks had to safeguard the people's money/savings, rather than take risks with it. So you see what happened in 2008, in just a few years after Clinton's action in guaranteeing his and Hillary's future. Some of us have been watching both parties and their mouthpiece news sources for a long time. That a mentally, emotionally impaired, narcissistic, sociopathic and shallow grifter like Donald Trump got elected just shows the extent of the rot in this country's political system, which has long existed, but perhaps is shown most clearly with our might-makes-right decision to make and detonate the atomic bomb, creating wars-for-profit in perpetuity since then. How anyone can believe in our institutions at this point is beyond me, considering our totally bought Supreme Court, the lawyers who make our laws through donation-bribes to congress, serving the wealthiest corporations and our wretched disease-for-profit medical model serving Big Pharma. The time has come that either we stand solidly for life in all its manifestations, or we stand for nothing. My vote for any public figure is not a reaction to how bad the previous one was and how much he/she disrupted my peace.
I want life on this planet to be honored and respected as the most important thing. All life. Incrementalism should not be an option to make ourselves feel good, because the earth is showing us where that tactic has brought us. We no longer have time for incrementalism, halfway measures, and 'a little better' than the last one in office. We just don't. Because the earth won't stand for it and we humans are expendable. We must know it and act like it by demanding more from those we elect as supposed 'leaders'.
Wow I have had almost identical discussions with my very smart daughter (age 27). That is not a cut. One way to fix this is a nuclear holocaust. Or a pandemic that kills off 90% of us. Or, maybe give power to a dictator for life, who has absolute power to do anything, and just happens to be benevolent and does the right thing always. Then maybe human society can start over and perhaps correct some wrongs before they take root. Well, the only other way is step by step. I see no other way to overcome the inertia of what already is. I think our current leader and his party are one of those steps. The next step is the midterm elections.
Hear hear!!!
I get that much of what is happening is not ideal...and everyone reading this sub stack has a different idea of what they would like to see happen. For me, my hope was that Biden would be the (much needed) calm after the storm...but oh, he is so much more than that! I am now of the opinion that he is exactly what is needed in this time and this place. Could he do more? Probably. Just can't imagine there is enough time in a day in which to do it.
Agree 100%. I'm old enough to remember how the pundits rhapsodized about the "best and the brightest" that JFK brought into his administration. "Best and brightest" was narrowly defined in those days. Nearly all of them were white, male Harvard graduates. The team that Biden has assembled is best and brightest, accomplished and *diverse* -- they know more about how real people live than most of the Kennedy administration did. That matters. The GOP still doesn't get that "diversity" isn't just a slogan -- it's a source of strength. If only our "democracy" survives long enough to make it clear to the general population.
Perhaps he ‘hasn’t cured cancer’ should be listed!
Well, he hasn’t although he says he’s going to try. Just like he said when a candidate that he was going to fight for a $15 federal minimum wage, and a list of other stuff all of which he’s turned his back on since becoming president. But of course he hasn’t a magic wand and besides a man can change his mind, right, and too, he shouldn’t have to address every little and big want that people have. There are a lot of excuses he could or others could make for him not to do the things he said he was going to do if you voted for him. Right?!
Selina, he in fact has instituted the $15 federal minimum wage. Not sure what you’re complaining about here.
Yup..,it certainly is all out there. Is it sufficient to cast Biden as the "worst President"...? GMAB!
Looking at the miserable lying souls in the senate., the babbling nonsense flowing from MT Green and the rest of those dancers. Plus the good Americans who would fraudulate any sacred papers as called for. Gimme Joe Biden. He's trying to get re-elected.The alternative, I am truly afraid, would be a long haul disaster.
Selina, it sounds like you're looking for a dictator. Didn't the last wannabe show you something about how that works, or doesn't?
So, how do you like Putin’s regime? Is he your type of hero? Do you think you would like to be in the Ukraine right now, or Moscow?
The level of your insult reveals that of your understanding.
Or is he just "Biden" his time? I don't think all those projects are closed, by any means. As others have pointed out, the tendency of passive-aggressive reactions by the Republicans bear responsibility, too. Teddy Roosevelt also had some questionable or mixed-outcome decisions in his presidency, in part due to his cowboy mentality. I'm pretty sure of one thing: Biden is not lining his own pockets as did TFG.
The times of Teddy Roosevelt are long gone and it is impossible to hold the Republicans responsible for anything, look at the willingness of Dems to let them blow off subpoenas without real consequence. I believe there is still a brigg underneath capitol quarters for just this purpose.
The entire Republican agenda js to treat President
Biden’s program as badly as possible.
Selina, you mentioned Big Pharma. Everybody should know that Biden has so often said that he doesn't want healthcare for all. He said that in his campaign for president and only said he might consider a Public Option. We all know that that is just more not affordable ACA insurance that does no good for most people. And now he acts like he doesn't know that Medicare Advantage is not real Medicare, but more private insurance. Not to mention that CMS is in the process of privatizing all of Medicare. It appears that Biden is actually working for private insurance and private fossil fuel companies. As a person who voted for him, I am deeply disappointed in much of what he's doing.
Could you provide your sources for "CMS is in the process of privatizing all of Medicare"? Thank you.
I'm with you Selina. In spite of his rhetoric, it is clear he will always be tied to the banks and corporations first, which is why he was put in place to win the last election.
What do you mean by "put in place"? I hope you have evidence.
Carol Lewandowski, how does anyone in this country NOT know how this works? I marched against Vietnam, I have watched what the MIC, corporations, banks, and wealthiest have been doing to our country and our environment for the whole of my life. Joe Biden's career has served all those I've just named in full measure and that is why Joe was miraculously and suddenly ALL IN in the primary when the week before, he couldn't get a handshake. Bernie had been leading handsomely right up until that time, but as we know, Corporate media, Wall Street, and the wealthiest would have none of that, it had to be 'their guy', which he will always be. He doesn't have the mind, the fire, or the record to draw upon when it comes to leading for the people. Give him a war, Big Pharma, a bank or credit card concern to fight for and he's right there. And good grief, our MSM in this country is just nonsense, as bereft and bought as Fox Fairy Tales. Fiat money = Fiat news.
Direct, clear and right on point. For those of us with more than 50 or 60+ years under our belts and have been living witnesses of the evolving, ever progressing corporate coup of ourgovernment and Biden’s contributions to that effort (on every level of life, materially and spiritually), to encounter others who must see the environmental, societal, urban, degradation (houselessness, falling bridges, etc) and the degradation of democratic institutions (right to vote, a bought Supreme Court,) all about them and not link the dots between our current mess and whose been in power since Reagan leaves one dumbfounded, especially this one.
Can you even imagine Bernie dealing with what Biden is dealing with now? OMG!!
Cathy, Excellent post. Thank you.
Roosevelt did appear at a time in history similar to our time (monetarily) during a "Gilded age" of true wealth for a very small number of people. He was fortunate to be one of the members of that wealthy crowd.
However, Roosevelt had something many of the wealthy do not have anymore: He was "from a traditional Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed youthful faith (but moved) to a more detached but still respectful outlook as an adult. As a college student he wrote explicitly of his faith in Jesus Christ and his hope of heaven".
https://blog.oup.com/2021/04/theodore-roosevelts-religious-tolerance/#:~:text=Although%20his%20own%20interior%20religious,and%20his%20hope%20of%20heaven.
Independent of the existence of God, the ethics taught by Jesus Christ, and bequethed to Roosevelt from the Presbyterian view: Value those who are different, reach out to those who are scorned, forgive those who tresspass against you, those ethics DID permeate much of society at the time Roosevelt pushed himself into leadership. That does matter.
However, today? Much of that ethic contained in Christ's Sermon on the Mount? Is not widely shared and certainly not in the very wealthy.
Roosevelt believed in that ethic having been taught that ethic from a young age and so did many others of that time.
Good luck finding that in a majority of Americans today. Just look at the standard approach the Republican Party takes now:
DEMONIZE TO MONETIZE. (FOX news).
So, EVEN if Roosevelt showed up to this party right now??? He might find his influence sorely lacking.
PS: You have great posts.
We have, and we have had, some very good Presidents during my lifetime. Joseph R. Biden subscribes to a somewhat different view of Christ than did Teddy Roosevelt, but his commitment to social welfare is clear. Barack Obama's faith also differed from that of Roosevelt, but his profound ethical beliefs were always apparent to those not blinded by hatred. And, who can argue with Jimmy Carter's determination to live his faith. The faults in our politics lies not in the leadership of the Democratic Party, but in ourselves. Hillary called those who would form TFG's cult "deplorables" and said it comprised about half of the Republican voters. She was too generous. We see the Trump years, and the 1/6 insurrection as a horror, not to be repeated. Those deplorables see the same thing as a good start. How to reconcile those competing views is the challenge facing those who would save our nation. I have people living just down the street who vigorously and profanely proclaim themselves deplorable. They are not going to engage in normal discourse, reason with their political opponents, and come to an accommodation with the majority - especially with a multi-racial majority. This is where the Rooseveltian example is most useful though; what is wanted is a muscular assertion of the public interest. And, we don't have years to dither before we do.
An aside. I have felt much discomfort is Ms Clinton's use of deplorable to describe her opposition. Not so much for the truth of the word, but that our message and goals do not either reach them or worse, include them. Somehow, our characterizations and beliefs require alignment if we are in fact, not merely theory, to become one people united.
Outside of the fact that her use of the word deplorable on an open mike was sort of a test of practical intelligence (she failed), it also revealed a disdain toward the common man that Teddy Roosevelt did not have apparently.
"The faults in our politics lies not in the leadership of the Democratic Party, but in ourselves"
Agree. That is what I mean with: "Much of that ethic contained in Christ's Sermon on the Mount? Is not widely shared and certainly not in the very wealthy."
I agree. It was just such a political blunder that she spoke this out loud on television. It, along with the Comey letter cost her, and us, her election.
Well stated.
Yes, indeed. Well expressed. Something has been lost...
Even George H W Bush had that ethic of "service". Sure he had an enormous ego - you have to in order to rise to that level. But people like this believed they could improve the lot of all. And at least tried. I am no fan of the Bushes, but read Meachams book on Bush the senior to get a real feeling for what we used to call "public service".
PS: You have great posts, too. :)
Have you watched ¨Vice¨? There's the truth regarding Bush.
Thank you. As do you Bill.
Roosevelt wouldn't come close to the success he achieved early in the last century if he was president now. He enjoyed much larger majorities in Congress, there was no filibuster, and mammoth amounts of campaign money hadn't infected both parties. That said, his out-sized strength of personality and will would help matters.
The filibuster was there; it just hadn’t been weaponized yet.
Yes, my mistake. It wasn't used often back then or until several decades ago when Republicans began rejecting the basic principles of negotiating and comprise that had alway been the norm in Congress. Their my-way-or-the-highway approach shows their utter disdain for governing. "Weaponization" of the filibuster is a good way to describe what they have wrought..
correct.
I agree.
Cathy, Ironically enough, I attended Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, which stands roughly four miles east and south from the corner where Floyd was murdered. I admired Teddy Roosevelt even as a kid if only because of his work to establish the National Park System in the U.S. (I worked several summers in Yellowstone.)
I can assure you that outrage in the Powderhorn neighborhood remains high. There have been many protests in the city since Floyd was killed and activists work very hard to keep the many disparities residents there experience front and center with city leadership. But like all big cities, there are myriad problems and never enough resources.
Outrage alone solves nothing. Its the daily work afterwards that can lead to solutions. But it is the toughest work in the world to work to resolve issues and take two steps forward, only to be pushed three steps back. I know that you know this- you live in Texas! And sadly, racism is alive and well here in the frozen North.
We here need to take our outrage and channel it into daily effort towards solutions. Chop wood, carry water. Roosevelt actually understood that. Most of us do too. Just seems harder than it used to for me.
As you often say;”We the People; All of us this time!”
Yes, Sheila, absolutely, Cathy — you both are among my role models.
Let’s all take a little step back and remember to temper our effusiveness for Teddy Roosevelt contributions with the recognition that he was a flaming racist. Against Cubans and Puerto Ricans and other Spanish-speakers, anti-Asian, nasty to African-American soldiers whom he served with in the Spanish-American War — Teddy most certainly contributed to the white-supremacist government system we’re struggling with today.
Don’t mean to be the cooler of ice water this morning, just pointing out he wasn’t the shining example of a hero for ALL of us.
It's important not to throw the baby out with the bath water when reviewing our ancestors. We all grow more wise and informed as we grow older. And so it is as we look back on history. It's important to both applaud the progress and achievements of great leaders, as well as acknowledge their weaknesses and failures. Where we have a problem is when people erect statues, praise and stories for leaders for their damage, destruction and demagoguery such as Confederate Civil War leaders or a President and elected representatives who defy our elections.
We will have nothing, if we put real heros in the same camp as criminals, because they failed to achieve perfection based on today's benchmarks.
So very true, David.
That's why I thought it best to at least mention Teddy Roosevelt's significant racial failures. So as to not perpetuate white culture's propensity to ignore the ugly parts.
I learned of that side of Teddy's profile when I was much, much older, certainly not during my mid-century public education in the Midwest, when I was taught that the United States of America was the Greatest Nation the world had ever known, its citizens the best and smartest and kindest and cleverest of any other, that non-white people did not quite measure up (and might not even really BE citizens), that people were poor because they were lazy -- you see where I'm going with this.
It has taken me a lifetime, and more, to learn what is the wholer truth, to try to overcome MY instilled racism, to accept that many of my beliefs were DEAD WRONG, to attempt to no longer condone this ignorance.
Therefore, my mention of Ted's uglier contributions.
It takes a village, SL. Didn’t know that about Teddy so thank you. I learn something new every day here from HCR and the comments! (Excuse me while I to go shovel the frozen accumulation again-smile.)
I was listening to my favorite radio station today - WPKN 89.5 - and they played Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddamn. But the DJ said he was renaming it Minneapolis Goddamn.
I am with you, Cathy Learoyd 🌹
Me too! Let's grow this.
Yep. Outraged and depressed. I teach at the college level and I have had many motivated, intelligent, passionate, and globally-minded students who hate how our country works (or doesn't) and who want to make it a better place for all. They give me hope.
I do believe it is time for the younger generations to step up and take the baton of government. If they don't step up now I'm afraid of what they will have to live through and deal with in climate conflagration and despotism!
Carol, what is your opinion about student participation in supporting in every way possible voter turn out by voters who understand the issues, and are confident about the people they are voting for re-election and new candidates trustworthiness?
I with you - I'm outraged and boiling in TEXAS
Cathy When Teddy was great, he was magnificent. Marvelous in accumulating national parks and other environmental preserves. Rambunctious in foreign affairs (Nobel Peace Prize), while he shamelessly tore the Panama Canal Zone from its sovereign owner, Nicaragua. He was more visually anti-trust than President Taft, who was a more effective anti-trustee. While he railed against big business, he covertly sought and received their financial largesse in his 1904 presidential election.
His position on Blacks I found reprehensible (despite his closeness and admiration for the Black 9th and 10th regiments that were essential in capturing Kettle (San Juan) Hill), especially in his ill-considered approval of dishonorable discharges for all the Black soldiers after the Brownsville incident.
Teddy was perhaps the best-read American president, an authority on birds, and the author of many books. He had a knack for capturing headlines and was shameless in his manipulation of the press. When America faced a major financial crisis (economics bored him), he was ready to have his purported nemesis, Morgan of JP Morgan, bail him out.
When he no longer was president his ego led him to split the Republican Party. During WW I his attacks against ‘hyphenated Americans’ were deplorable.
Overall I say ‘bully’ to Teddy, with his great strengths and weaknesses. I was appalled to see that a statue of Teddy recently was removed from a museum. I would love to have dinner with him, though I doubt that I could get a word in. No matter, he would be extremely entertaining and unconventional.
I believe every word to be true, the praise and the criticism. Deeply flawed, but I like more than I hated. Ken Burns docuseries on the Roosevelts was most interesting. I am very fond of this quote, which I posted a lot on FB before departing. “Patriotism means to stand with the country. It does not mean to stand with the president.” Take that chump…
There are no words…
Oh, yeah. I'm outraged. I am also acutely aware that most of my "support system" of friends, neighbors, and relatives are not so outraged that they are even willing to keep up on news or newsletters. It's like they really can't fathom another Third Reich or something like it. They can't think about putting themselves in someone else's shoes who will be first on the victim list after all those who are already on the victim list and have been for their entire lives. I have become an irritant (no one has said that, but ...) everyone I know seems to believe they can't handle the information without being too uncomfortable, so they avoid it. I got news today that I have "won the lottery" of those who volunteered to be delegates for local conventions (called DFL here in Minnesota)to select candidates to support and also select election and polling workers. I haven't done this before. It is time. Rather than join me, so far, the people in my life ask me when I will have time to do this or that with them ... all acting as though life not only just "goes on" but they crave "normal" so badly that they can't put together that there is no hope for any kind of normal if we don't get our politics and human rights straightened out! So, hang in there my new friends. We need each other.
Boy, do they need this, but it will never even cross their minds “Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1933-1945. “Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well-explained, or on occasion, regretted, that unless (one) saw what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘’little measures’ must someday lead to, one no more saw it developing day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing - each act is worse than the last - but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.
You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone, you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ But the one great shocking occasion, when tens, or hundreds, or thousands, will join you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays, But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves, when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father never could have imagined.”
Makes my blood run cold every time I read it.
Thanks for this, Jeri. I know it is true, and yet I am encouraged by recent news indicating some of the villains will finally be derailed. Chris Hay on MSNBC tonight featured this story: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/sequim-qanon/. A small town, Sequim, that almost lost itself to inaction.
Thank you for this. How do we light the fire? It is as though everyone is sitting in the warm bath before becoming frog legs for dinner. (Which is not true - frogs sitting in warm water as the heat is turned up.) We must begin organizing women across the country with the same vision and plan.
Cathy, I thought of your post when I read Elizabeth Kolbert’s article in the current New York Review of Books. Who’e going to take the necessary and obvious steps to act on her warnings… the Department of Agriculture? Not any Department of Agriculture that we’ve seen in my lifetime.
But what if we could entice Kolbert to lead a team that uses this knowledge to write a platform for addressing all the problems that she has analyzed, and create a new political party to wave that flag, that will start by reforming the Department of Agriculture to tackle these problems before we are crushed by them… a platform that entices the younger generations, and gives them their Teddy Roosevelt.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/02/24/the-waste-land-sewage-treatment/?utm_source=nybooks&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share
I’m not a biologist or horticulturist, and I wasn’t able to read the entire article that you posted, due to the paywall, but I want to point out that it has come to light in the last couple of years that the spreading of sludge from waste water treatment plants has caused enormous toxicity on farms in Maine. This was a practice encouraged by the State of Maine many years ago, but ‘lo and behold, the result is that the soils now contain highly toxic levels of PFAS and PFOS, commonly referred to as forever chemicals. There has been extensive coverage of this issue in Maine media sources, but here’s a little bit of information:
https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/tech/science/environment/pfas/more-maine-farms-contaminated-by-pfas-chemicals/97-f0b17c9a-2996-4404-88fe-936cb4835228
That said, we definitely need to be looking for creative solutions that include methods to use what we have to enhance our agricultural practices, as well as growth in urban centers. Wider application of permaculture practices would be a good start.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture
Thanks for this information, Mary Anne. That’s a scary article about the Maine waste water treatment plants. But it curiously mentions the Nordell's water supply as a potential source of the toxins… I wonder if we have been presented the clearest picture of the entire predicament.
Jeff-Their source for drinking water is from a well, so the contamination in the soil seeps into the well water. This is typical for most Maine farms. PFAS and PFOS chemicals have been found in milk, eggs, meat and other fresh food products. Several farms in Maine have had to shut down in the past year, as a result of the discovery of the toxins.
There are other sources of these “forever chemicals,” but one thing that makes the contamination in Maine so astounding and egregious is that the Department of Environmental Protection actually endorsed and promoted the use of the sludge from wastewater treatment facilities for fertilizing and, now, 20 years later, it turns out that the sludge fertilizer has caused massive toxicity in the soils and, by extension, the water sources. So it is becoming increasingly clear that the entire predicament is widespread and devastating.
Sorry to hear this, Mary Anne. Thanks for your further information on the predicament.
Great article Jeff. Thanks for posting it. I'd be fertilizing with Milorganite if I could still find it.
See my other response, but, this just occurred to me with a smile, and, I apologize:
"I think it is time for a new women's movement to restore women's rights and the rights of all of us."
Right away, for no reason, I started thinking of Betsy Devos. I am sure she will jump right into your effort with you.
:-)
I hope that :-) is a sarcasm. I can't imagine her doing such a thing as opposing the patriarchy, which is the source of her "privilege".
Betsy DeVos is the sister of ‘Blackwater’ Eric Prince, whose murky military gang seems aligned with the Proud Boys. The only good thing that Betsy could do is to expire. I would be delighted to send flowers.
yo también
Sarcasm it was.
I doubt that Betsy Devos would ever give up her privileges of wealth and holier than thou attitude to be part of an egalitarian movement which is what I am envisioning.
Every social movement needs We, not just They.
I'm in day 8 of getting over Omicron and am a bit cranky, but that has little bearing on why TR is the worst kind of leader for this nation today.
Raised a sickly little rich kid he showed up in the New York State Legislature entering politics, wearing not a Cowboy or military outfit at that point, but a purple velvet frock with frilly white neck attire that made him an instant target of derision.
His action in Cuba subverted the ability of the actual Cubans to throw off their oppressors the Spanish. This really set the stage for our constant Imperial intervention by the U.S. that included support for Batista and you know the rest of where that led things…
His later support of the genocidal actions of American occupation of the Philippines (blatant imperialism) the annexation of Hawaii to support Dole and his gunboat diplomacy in China (Opium Wars) and encouragement to Japan to be exercise their own “Monroe Doctrine” that ld to the invasion of China.
National Parks - Considering that he was a one man slaughterhouse when it came to “hunting” wild animals his real interest in “conservation” at that time was to insure that there would always be plenty of animals to hunt and kill.
The “Teddy Bear” story: He was given the honor of shooting a mangy black bear in Louisiana that had been run to ground by dogs and clubbed by the guide for the hunting party. Roosevelt was given the honor to deliver the kill shot at point blank range. He looked at the bear and waved it off as he walked away.
Given the entire wing of taxiderm mounted wild game in dioramas filling a wing of the Smithsonian that I saw as a kid. I’d say whatever squeamishness he had for “conservation” or animal cruelty had long subsided by the time he returned from Africa.
All that "Rough Rider" macho stuff was a clearly a cover for feelings he had of being weak and inadequate as a man.
I’m fine with FDR and we need him more than ever.
I agree with everything you have said. I have read several books about him. Teddy was a complicated guy. But he, like so many others, offered us change when it was most needed.
I do take issue with your view of him as "weak". Au contraire. When faced with being a "runt" he taught himself strength, discipline and endurance. As one who faced a not too dissimilar childhood, he has my admiration.
The "Rough Rider" scenario makes my stomach turn. He was a war monger. The hunting thing was disgusting. But he shook up the trusts and set a tone for the nation that was so powerful...it bordered on worship. Of course, he was so full of himself that he did the Bull Mouse Party dance - and was humiliated. Good. And then there was the trip down a river in South America. Oy.
Hate him or love him or both. He knew how to gain public support like no other.
Ol’Flaw Hope you have recovered from Omicron. I didn’t consider your commentary ‘cranky.’ As an historian I might fine tune several of your points: the Opium War was around 1840; the Hawaii ‘situation’ was settled before Teddy.
He clearly was a catalyst for for Spanish-American War, though his Rough Rider involvement was not decisive. He had to send SecWar William Taft to sort out the mess he inherited and then exacerbated. During the 1900 Chinese brouhaha, my recollection is that the Americans benefited from what the Europeans negotiated (55 days in Peking and Carlton Heston not withstanding).
As I have written earlier today, TR has lots of positive aspects. How they balance is up to the eye of the beholder. Overall, I give Teddy high markets, with a number of demerits. I found the description of his arrival at the NY Assembly hilarious—a complete duck out of water. However, he worked far harder than the others and became highly respected.
Thanks for helping me with conflation of TR with the “Opium Wars” - Brain Fog is sneaky.
As a historian I thought this regarding TR’s attitude about Chinese immigrants who after the Opium Wars fled a devastated China to the West Coast to work on the Transcontinental Railroad:
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 - First legislation targeted to a specific race of immigrants.
September 1, 1885, Rock Springs, Wyoming
ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING, WAS a mining town that produced almost half the coal that fueled the transcontinental railroad. Approximately six hundred Chinese and three hundred Whites lived in the dust-blown settlement.
With a population of 300 White miners the “Knights of Labor” held a meeting to launch an attack on approximately six hundred Chinese
The first Wyoming state official to arrive in Rock Springs described the scene: “Not a living Chinaman—man, woman or child—was left in the town… and not a single house, shanty, or structure of any kind, that had ever been inhabited by a Chinaman was left unburned.” (Bradley)
This event earned the name the The Rock Springs Massacre.
“The 23 year old recent graduate of Harvard, Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “No greater calamity could now befall the United States than to have the Pacific slope fill up with a Mongolian population.” Harper’s Weekly, September 26, 1885. (Library of Congress)” (Bradley)
Roosevelt became - Asst Secty of the Navy
April 19, 1897– May 10, 1898
Source: (“Imperial Cruise” - James Bradley)
I know give the kid a break. At this age I was Vietnam, a place where Asian life, friend or foe was considered to be generally less than human. To this day I feel fortunate that I never harmed a civilian. I mention this because racism in war with non-whites was an accepted norm even then. The difference in character is whether you reject it or join in.
Ol’ Flawriduh Cracker
Always good to get a big dollop both sides to all stories.
We can talk about "Big Tech" another time, but I agree with the need for a vigorous, active President who will challenge the Congress to do its job and lead the way to an effective approach to the environmental and social challenges we face as a nation.
All of that with determined intelligent voting support effort in every way possible, Eh!?
I can't 'Like' your comment George but I do like it.
If you clicked on the Heart button and nothing showed you did, refresh your page and it should appear. It's a Substack glitch.
We have had such a candidate in our last two election cycles. We will need to primary out scores of corporate Democrats before we can ever again have a party that would not do the same job on a Teddy Roosevelt that the current Democratic Party operatives did on Bernie Sanders.
His base--and too many others--thought the former president was their Teddy and didn't care about incompetence, corruption, graft, or lying. And apparently still don't.
Only a cult nut would think there was ANYTHING comparable between TR and tfg. Jesuzzzz
And there are a fair number of them out there.
I see little in commonality between TR and Trump that holds relevance to our current situation. I just don’t feel that holding TR up as an ideal President to pull the nation out of becoming a Fascist state is the right guy at the right time. In short everything TR got obsessed about generally was made worse, largely because he was trapped in a racist, Imperialist world view and he had real identity issues that called for constant propping up as a macho Cowboy.
Another Teddy to attack our typhoid tenements of technology! Hear, hear!
Tut! Tut!
Valentine's Day is very special for me. In 1965 my best friend asked me to be his Best Man and attend his engagement party. As encouragement he told me that "Tammy" would be there, a beautiful bomb shell and friend of his fiance Holly. After meeting Holly's folks in the kitchen my best friend nudged me with, "Let's go meet 'Tammy'!" On the way we stumbled across a young woman filling out engagement notices while sitting "indian" style on the hallway floor. My best friend paused to introduce Holly's Maid of Honor, Marti Belcher. Marti looked up at me with a mouth full of braces, horn rimmed glasses, and her hair in a French Curl. I looked into her beautiful green eyes and lost any intention of going any further down the hall. Within moments of talking with her, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with woman. That was February 14th, 1965. We will be celebrating our 57th year together tomorrow.
To your very loving day, Robert and Marti! You are a special guy, Robert, to have seen beyond Marti's braces and eye glasses!
Green eyes…they get you every time.
Wow. Great story, Robert. Isn’t it the truth, though? Love finds us, not the other way around. Happy Valentine’s Day to you and Marti. 👩🏻❤️👨🏻
Happy Anniversary!
That was indeed a fateful day! I hope you continue to have many wonderful years together.
Happy Anniversary! Today is my 4th. I raise my coffee cup to you!
I’ll admit that this made me a little teary. Congratulations!
Happy Anniversary
Happy anniversary !
Robert, Many congratulations.
Yay.
Happy Anniversary. It was always the eyes ... for my bride of 58 years. May the Marti be with you to the end. I'd be Ruthless without blue eyes shining light I to my life.
SWEET!
Congratulations! Glad you found "the one" in such a charming manner!
What a wonderful VAlentine's Day story. Thank you, Robert....and happy anniversary.
This is such a great story, Robert. Thanks for sharing it today. And congratulations to you both!
Happy 57th, Robert and Marti. Here's to many more years of happiness together.
So many thank you’s for this very tragic history which became the force for good planning & construction of public works. I so appreciate your gifts for true stories from our country’s history. Again, your talent for truth-telling inspires hopefulness in our current world of desperate behaviors and treachery.
Dear HCR, YOU are a light that continues to guide!
Yupyupyup
While Lincoln, about whom you wrote yesterday, has always been my greatest hero and my favorite president, I have found Theodore Roosevelt's ability to overcome such monumental grief and turn it into action for the public good to be another remarkable example of how history somehow provides us with just the right men (so far) that we need at the right time in the presidency. Thanks for the reminder.
Just like Joe Biden has overcome monumental grief and served the country.
Sherri, At least two of us got it.
History sure does rhyme. Joe is fighting a pandemic, Roosevelt fought typhoid and conditions of filth and overcrowding. And there's more....wages, and clean water.
... and fresh air and fertile soil ...
More than two!
Yes!
Andrea, think of Joe Biden's monumental grief -- was anyone else making that connection while reading Dr. Richardson's LFAA?
Joe has/had everything it takes to effect change on Roosevelt's scale, except for the votes of two democrats. And a cowboy hat....
We must make up the difference with votes. We Georgians -- with help from so many other Americans, including so many in this group -- did our best to give him the senate. We were all betrayed by two members of our own party and the cowards in the other party.
We are marching into the breach again.
Well said Gus, my fellow Georgian! Let’s do it again for the midterms!
Hershel Walker is the clown anointed that’s going to run against our Reverend Warnock. He who threatened to kill his wife and had to have a restraining order to keep him away from her, has lived his adult life in Texas, not in Georgia. This is a match made in heaven, a voter will have to be stone cold stupid to vote for Hershel, that’s not to say we don’t have quite a lot of them, we got rid of one POS when we elected our senator, I don’t think we will replace him with another, not if I can help it.
Dick, Yes. All of what you said makes Herschel a designer candidate for -- how can I say it -- a very substantial number number of voters in our state. Must consider him a major threat. The Rev. Warnock is right from the git-go one of the finest states'men' in Washington, a potential lion of the senate. We will keep him there, as long as he will serve....
Hey, Sharon! I'm 50 miles away, up here in 89% republican Jackson County, and you're neck-deep in it all down there....let's DO this!
❤
Well said, Gus!
I lived in GA from 1973-1976 (Floyd Co.) I liked living there, but if I were in the same place now, MTG would be my representative!! God forbid.
In the meantime, I just came across this article from the Atlanta Constitution-Journal. https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-senate-bill-would-put-limits-on-fundraising-by-challengers/YU3I27QAVRDALIA7QSTN5LBOWM/
Yeah, Judith, and there are even worse things that are yet to come out of the sewer pipes in the state capitol. Plenty of session left to go....
Not to take anything away from Dr. Richardson’s beautifully written history of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, “Leadership in Turbulent Times” by Doris Kearns Goodwin describes the strengths of our most valued and respected Presidents during some of our most difficult times. Joe Biden could be an addition to this group.
Yes, a well researched and written book. LBJ showed up in time also.
Jamie Raskin has overcome monumental grief, too. Most of us know that he was in the Capitol on January 6 to perform his Constitutional duty, despite having lost his beloved son to suicide less than a week before, on New Year's Eve. He is now on the Select Committee to investigate the insurrection. I'm reading and recommend his book, "Unthinkable."
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/04/1070032923/jamie-raskin-jan-6-capitol-unthinkable
Even though he doesn't have the oratory talent of a Kennedy or a Warnock, he more than makes up for it with his dedication, his awesome mind, and his passion. I am so glad Rep. Raskin is serving this country.
This is beautiful. A very fitting tribute to the women in Roosevelt's life. It's wonderful to know the positive way he changed his life and the lives of so many others as well.
an incredible story- thank you.
I was & have been always fascinated by history- and as a kid wondered why American history was so boring & cololess compared to other countries.
Thanks to you , I am seeing our country come alive- it’s staggering how little we were told & how much has been omitted.
You do such an amazing job of finding the truth in the daily deluge of information .
You are the shining star of reason & sanity !
Thank goodness for you!
You say this well; our history that was "taught to us in school" is boring and lifeless as well as misrepresented, falsified, omitted, and incomplete. Whitewashed, if you will.
I was born in England, was taught American history in high school in then-Rhodesia by an American nun. She was a brilliant teacher and brought it all alive. It was one of my favourite subjects, lucky me! Another favourite subject was "Ethics", I don't know if it is taught in the US now.
I had one course in my college psychology degree curriculum. Loved it.
Not in any curriculum with which I am familiar.
And looking at the mess we are and have been in, that oversight is quite apparent!
:( I am ever grateful for those years of a fine education. My mother took a job so my parents could afford to send me to the school.
ethics is currently considered college-level philosophy which is just bonkers
Wow!
Perfectly stated — my POV as well.
I feel the same.
Hi Krissy and happy birthday to u and Dunc.
Thank you, Dr. Heather, for another piece of history that I had not learned until now. What a terrible tragedy for President Roosevelt. I knew of the positive changes he brought about during his administration but nothing of his personal life.
Out of curiosity I looked up his daughter Alice and was pleasantly surprised to read about her life, although coincidentally she also passed away in the month of February in 1980, 6 days after she turned 96. She made famous the quote, "If you have nothing good to say about someone, come sit right here beside me."
I also learned that one of her half brothers was named "Kermit," which until now I thought was a made-up unique name for a Muppet. 😉
Love these nuggets.
I love the one were TR told advisors he could deal with Alice “issues” or the the country’s “issues”. Not shockingly the country’s “issues” appeared easier to deal with.
Alice Roosevelt was the "Mrs. Ascot" of Washington DC.
I did the same thing. What a shocker! Well, as they say: "There's a little bad in the best of us
and a little good in the worst of us."
Edgar Casey
There was a Kermit Roosevelt (same family) who was the CIA go-to-man in the 1953 effort to oust Mossadaq (sp?0 and bring the shah back from his safe haven in Rome. In fact the coup failed and a general (Zahedi?) on mostly his own initiative pulled it off. (I met Kermit in a different capacity in 1959 or 1960–he was ‘working’ for Gulf Oil. The father of one of my friends was Dick Helms, Director of CIA at the time of Watergate (he refused to cover up for Tricky Dick) and was our ambassador to Iran in the late 1970s. Sounds like a shaggy Shah story.
Poignant story, and powerful, Dear Heather.
What are we to make of our current stories? Where do we go with the vile brew of current propaganda?
Onward, I say, to the 2022 midterms, where the thoughtful "silent" majority will turf the termites of idjt...where we will say YES to democracy.
Where we will eliminate the McTurtle favorites and see the primaries bereft of true candidates.
Where we will support democratic folks who will represent the people rather than the moneyed interests...
Onward!
I want to believe that’s possible.
Then believe it. Only then can it happen.
Always remember “Thoughts become things, words MATTER”!!!
Yes, and I Am a true believer in the power of our thoughts!
Need to constantly remind myself!
It is hard to be positive in these times of crimes with no consequence.
Agreed! I know this to be true. I do my best to think only about what I WANT. Thanks.
💙
This is a lovely story for Valentine's eve. This is one of the reasons i come here....to learn and appreciate history.
I've always felt an epiphany comes when you can see, feel, and understand from another's viewpoint.
It's called "empathy" which seems to be lacking these days.
“ The diseases that killed his wife and mother were diseases of filth and crowding…” I knew this story, but not that typhoid and Bright’s disease were looked at this way. Thank you for teaching us a fuller account of history.
Thanks for history lessons that help us understand our country's past.
I did not know this history. Did his daughter, Alice, survive?
I hope we turn climate change around in time so that future generations will be able to read about our times. About how Biden persevered in making lives better for ordinary Americans in a time when the opposing party spread misinformation and propaganda. And how a former President went to prison for his many crimes.
ScannyDo, Professor Heather wrote a comment on FaceBook about his daughter, Alice Roosevelt, that will likely interest you and others “[she] became a force in her own right. He left her with a relative, then reclaimed her when she was about three and he had remarried. She must have been traumatized to be suddenly transplanted into a new family. She grew up to be an outspoken, powerful woman, who pretty much did as she wished, breaking the gender norms of her era. She definitely had an edge-- she's the one who said that Harding wasn't a bad man... "he was just a slob"-- but she had reason to be that way, and a personality that has echoed down the ages. Very much like her father, actually.”
"If you have nothing good to say about someone, come here and sit by me." - Alice Roosevelt
Ha.
Thank you. I will find a good book about Teddy to read after I finish two classes I’m taking.
There’s actually a book about Alice, whose title I cannot remember.
Alice was cared for by her Aunt “Bamie” who was Theodore’s older sister. Bamie also sometimes cared for another orphaned niece, Eleanor, who was also born in 1884. Alice and Eleanor were often rivals in later life. Alice remained a staunch Republican for her entire life. Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt became a prominent Democrat. 😉😉
As I said above, she was a "formidable presence" in Democratic politics and Washington DC society from the 1920s on.
Republican politics
She inspired the song ¨Alice Blue Gown.¨
She lived to be 96 years old, in February 1980.
That’s wonderful! Thank you. I’m glad for Theodore.
She lived well into her 90’s. A prominent socialite in NYC.
“On Valentine’s Day in 1884, Theodore Roosevelt lost both his wife and his mother.”
“I’m glad we had the times together just to laugh and sing a song, seems like we just got started and then before you know it, the times we had together were gone.” – Dr. Seuss
Tell someone you love them while you can.
Sometimes when looking for a good story you may find a gold mine or opportunities to connect with people who are helping others. Take the following excerpted article that appeared in the Gonzaga Bulletin. I saw it online last night.
'Little Free Food Pantries (LFFP) have sprouted up in Spokane neighborhoods to combat street hunger.'
'There are approximately 46 little pantries of food that are free to the community. Neighbors helping neighbors with food isn't an unusual concept, but the national LFP (Little Food Pantry) development started in approximately 2016 in Fayetteville, AR by Jessica McClard. The pantries are starting to pop up all around the country aiming reduce the hunger rates of neighboring people'.
'The LFFPs were inspired by the Free Little Libraries that have been around for many years. While there are many people who aren’t big fans of books, there are many benefits that come from these LFFPs. Community members from all over the city have come together to collect, build and stock each LFFP to support the larger endeavors of nearby food banks.'
“LFFPs have 24/7 public access for those who cannot get to a formal food pantry during its operating hours. LFFPs are also hyper local to neighborhoods, removing the need for costly transportation,” said Kelsie Rowland, manager for one of the LFFP at Caritas.
“We currently stock 15 pantries in Spokane and there are now an additional 33 pantries with private hosts that have popped up with more in the works,” Rowland said.' (gonzagabulletin) See link below.
The Gonzaga Bulletin is connected to Gonzaga University, a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington
'For over 100 years The Gonzaga Bulletin has worked and continues to work incredibly hard to bring the week’s news in a way that is relevant and interesting to the Gonzaga and Spokane community.'
The Bulletin staff is always working to innovate both this publication and the field of journalism as well. Through traditional print, live social media updates and interactive multimedia The Bulletin works to teach its staff both the traditions of journalism as well as the groundbreaking technology in the field. It also strives to present content to readers in an in-depth and accessible way.'
The Democratic Party, grassroots organizations, political activists and most of the rest of us need to have strong local connections to spread the word about what the Biden administration and the party are doing. It is also a way to work in concert with local people in their communities. College journalism departments, bulletins, newsletters, radio broadcasts, etc., are outlets for news that is not available on social media or on Fox. How many Americans don't get the news? The wall between people with or without it is very high and exceedingly dangerous. It is the wall serving authoritarian and autocratic forces, one even more difficult to get around than the wall Trump didn't quite get built. We have to find ways to create bridges between two worlds in America, which have grown very far apart.
Contact us at bulletin@zagmail.gonzaga.edu and follow us @GonzagaBulletin across all social media platforms
I'm a regular contributor to several "LFP''s in my area. I also include TP in them.
Thanks for reminding us of why we are here Fern. Peace and Lovingkindness.
Steve, and Light to you and Fern! And to all of us.
Gus, to YOU for your wisdom, care and support.
Thank you for your inspiring story about helping the community through the LFFPs. That’s Love. ❤️
Fern, thanks. Looks like the GB has something to teach all of us about local media getting the job done!
https://www.gonzagabulletin.com/