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Jan 18, 2022·edited Jan 21, 2022

Heather, I've been reading your synopses for months now, as well as viewing your video chats. I have just now become a subscriber to your "Letters from an American." It's about time I did so. Why? First, I now feel that I am part of a very special community, and being in community is very important to me. Second, I truly appreciate your hard work in pursuit of getting the truth out about contemporary political events against the backdrop of American history. You are clearly a person of great integrity and are performing such a valuable service to me and many others whose understanding of the political underpinnings of American history needs boosting. I was raised in a small farming community in Western Minnesota (famous only as the home town of the renowned poet, translator, and social critic Robert Bly, who was also a Harvard alum). Growing up in relative isolation from national events, much less world events, I received (like many others) a very inadequate education regarding the history of our country. Thankfully, my horizons were broadened significantly by my higher education at the University of Minnesota, Union Theological Seminary in NYC, Penn State, Indiana University, a German university, and considerable travel throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Nevertheless, it is YOU I want to thank for providing me, on an ongoing basis, with a deeper understanding of our nation's great achievements and its oft-hidden flaws. I am truly grateful for your insights. I wish you good energy as you persevere in sharing your perspectives and your vision for a renewal of our democracy as one that is "of the people, by the people, for the people."

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Jan 18, 2022·edited Jan 18, 2022

Beautiful, succinct and frightening. I have been a lawyer for more than 50 years, and involved in politics for longer than that, but I did not fully realize how close we came to the precipice last year. As a certain former president would say, “Lock them up!” And as another former president would say, these events present us with the question of whether any nation so conceived and so dedicated as the United States can long endure.

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Attributed to Stalin “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how, but what is extraordinarily important is this - who will count the votes, and how.” The Memoirs of Stalin’s Former Secretary. The republicans are well-versed in fascists verbiage and evil actions. All in the open, there is not an innocent among them. Thanks to Heather for distinguishing between voter fraud and election fraud, now tell Rupert and the MSM. Way past time for them to acknowledge what we see with our own eyes. Well, those of us, not in the cult.

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I was having a fairly decent day, but of course, reality set in as I was reading today's column. Like many others, I don't understand why DOJ isn't going after the lead seditionists. I don't understand why more Americans aren't raising hell about the open planning for election fraud, seemingly aided these days by SCOTUS. Why are Congressional Republicans so scared of Trump and his extremist base? Then there's Mike Pence, who apparently was ready to go along w/ the insurrection plans until he realized he'd be blamed if it went wrong. I need chocolate. Or vodka. Or both.

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Our democracy hinged on: the military brass stepping back from Trump's attempt to mobilize them on American soil; election officials refusing GOP commands to hand Trump a win out of thin air; DOJ officials threatening to quit en masse rather than violate their oaths; and Capitol police refusing to be goaded into opening fire and giving Trump the bloodbath he so craved as an excuse to declare martial law.

Meanwhile, the entire apparatus of the GOP is at Trump's beck and call.

And Mancin and Sinema are obstructing passage of bills their party ran on. Mancin and Sinema are hell bent, or plain old bent, or GOP bound to let the rare opportunity to do good, necessary big things which we worked so hard for, slip away,

We cannot and many are not just spectators or commenters. We need to turn out in overwhelming numbers to vote. Meanwhile for every comment to the choir, please let's write more letters to the editors.

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Powerful letter. they were closer to overturning the election than any of us knew. Amazing that Pence stood up to them and did do the right thing. Praying voting rights bill passes. There has to be somewhere a republican senator who is honorable. Thanks so much. The details are shocking thanks for digging and bringing them out to us

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It’s becoming more and more evident that Frump and his mates conspired to commit sedition through every avenue possible — and are still at it. The law is clear on the consequences for such actions. Every single person proven to be involved needs to be jailed for significant terms and never allowed to seek public office again.

There is no other option that won’t leave America vulnerable.

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El Blobbo reveals his true self by approvingly quoting Joe Stalin about vote counting. And the collection of lunatics performing for the drooling morons on Saturday night showed how dangerous things are. The reporter for the Atlantic who was there called it "sinister."

As I said elsewhere today, Trump is a lifelong loser, the kid with his nose pressed to the glass who will never be invited inside. Who will always be looked down on by the ones whose approval he so desperately seeks. And that's his base - the people most other people laugh at behind their backs, the morons who think they're geniuses. They don't give a damn about policy, they just want to get back at all the people who have looked down at them, askance at them all their lives. They see Trump as one of them, and they saw this "victory" in 2016 as their victory against their betters, and then his victory was stolen from him by "those people."

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Jan 18, 2022·edited Jan 18, 2022

I am currently reading Jamin Raskin's book "Unthinkable." In it he describes how they began in MAY 2020 using Game Theory to prepare their opposition to the anticipated objections on Jan 6. They nailed it...they correctly predicted every move the Trump administration would make. From pressuring local officials to delivering false slates of electors to throw the election to the states. They were playing chess while the Trumpet Team was playing checkers. They predicted everything but the actual physical assault on the House and Senate. They didn't imagine such an event because they did not think it even possible.

These false ballots are the smoking gun. I am curious, we all assumed Barr resigned. Now I wonder if he simply was removed by Trump who announced his resignation. It is a small detail, but if Barr was informed on Dec 16 that he was resigning does this action become part of Trumps plan? It clearly tracks with his previous behavior with announcing high official resignations just because they refused to hold his highness's small peter. Is the Eastman memo similar to the one written by Rod Rosenstein to oust Comey? Did Eastman write what Miller (or Trump) asked hoping to become AG? Trump NEVER fired anyone. Steven Miller....the person who was never fired or resigned, always helping Trump...it gets curiouser and curiouser. Has he talked yet? We need to know. I think Miller/Eastman/Clark was at the heart of this...Trump does not have the knowledge to have concocted this on his own. The disgraceful Senators and Representatives don't either...they willingly, dare I say joyfully(?) advised and consented to helping perpetrate the insurrection knowing they would be rewarded with power....they would have taken over and put the last stake in the Lady Liberty's heart.

That Trump tweeted four times about the real electors on Jan 6, twice while watching and not stopping the attack, shows he knew all of this all along. How did the Senate fail to take action during two impeachments? This needs to be looked at a little closer. They all knew Trump is a snake.

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It has been said here many times, many ways, but with today’s letter I have to say it one more time: THANK YOU, Heather, for so eloquently and concisely and penetratingly peeling the scales off my eyes with an alacrity I find nowhere else. You are a national treasure that history will remember kindly.

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Thank you, Heather. You have clarified an important contrast between voter fraud and election fraud. Apparently, the republicans are bent on corrupting the minds of their base by legislating dynamic policies of election fraud. The difference must be made clear. Democrats (and any Republicans) who support the Constitution should deliver this message loud and clear across every communication option: voter fraud is not the problem. Devious election fraud is the problem. Those two phrases should appear juxtaposed beside each other on posters, billboards, news outlets, and conversations until everyone understands the difference.

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Jan 18, 2022·edited Jan 18, 2022

One would think that Heather was describing a Tom Clancy book, with the proposed assassination plot coming in the next chapter.. I find it appalling and astonishing that Trump and his sycophants in the White House (Stephen Miller), the Department of Justice (Clark), and in Congress could weave such an unConstitutional web of intrigue AND ARE CONTINUING THIS SKULLDUGGERY TODAY.

What if Donahue and Rosen at DOJ and Vice President Pence had participated in this Constitutional conspiracy? Were we on the edge of a coup d’etat? Some of the Trumpamania scum buckets are still, to use a Churchillian phrase, working their wicked ways. The Republicans have nominated Secretaries of State in number Republican-controlled states who are empowered to determine the validity of Electoral College votes. Indeed, in several states, the Republican legislature could validate the state’s Electoral College vote.

At a time when we are debating the need for above-board voting nationally, Republican are establishing a political mechanism where the valid Electoral College presidential vote in key states could be overturned by a local Secretary of State and/or a Republican legislature. I fear, in more than half a dozen states, that, perhaps, this electoral horse is already out of the barn. It should be a principal up-front issue in the 2022 and 2024 elections..

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"Miraculously, the plan failed, but Trump loyalists have been working ever since to make sure a repeat will not fail, passing new laws to suppress Democratic voters and take the counting of electoral votes out of the hands of nonpartisan officials and give it to Trump supporters."

"Miraculously," indeed, Heather! Their deception almost succeeded! I can't even begin to think of another four years with tfg! Surely, the DOJ must have enough evidence with all this information out there. It blows the mind that this group of malefactors and scofflaws have not been arrested to date!

"Voter fraud in America is vanishingly rare and has not affected the outcome of elections, and it is almost always prosecuted. But Trump loyalists used cries of voter fraud as an excuse to commit election fraud. Whether they will be prosecuted for it is an open question."

And a critical one, Heather. How can it not be? Each and every one of these nefarious and depraved scoundrels, knew exactly what they were doing and were willing to do so with ne'er a care and no sense of conscience. Was it tfg who brought the evil out in them, or were they just plain wicked and vile human beings hungry for the opportunity to commit any transgression or abomination beckoning them? A little of both, possibly?

Thank you, Heather, for your informative columns which never cease to amaze and to necessitate more rumination and thought.

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Excellent point and analysis, Heather! The MAGAhats' complaining about 'voter fraud' is a false flag and a red herring. The real crime is election fraud committed by state election officials whose scaremongering has gotten the Trump base all riled up over election law violations that are virtually nonexistent. The real problem here is that the Supreme Court has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to what is really going on. That's happened before in American history, but never on the scale that the radicals have been employing over the past 20-odd years. Unlike voter fraud, where the offenders are typically misguided individuals, the commission of election fraud is inherently the result of a criminal conspiracy, because no one person is able to manipulate governmental election machinery all by themselves.

As for the legislation currently pending before Congress, it looks as if President Biden and Majority Leader Schumer are going to force the two Democratic holdouts, Senators Manchin and Sinema, to actually cast a vote against their party's core interests. We saw the flipside of that when John McCain voted against repealing the Affordable Care Act. I can see Joe Manchin making a calculated bet that his career as a working senator is effectively over now that he's burned all his bridges behind him with the Democrats. I haven't figured out how Kyrsten Sinema came to the conclusion that the Senate's 60-vote minimum requirement to even debate the pending voter rights legislation is too sacrosanct to be adjusted to protect the right to vote. This was a procedural rule adopted by southern white supremacists in order to protect their political and social positions in the former Confederacy. Here's a woman with an MSW degree and PhD in social work, who also has a law degree. Nothing to sneeze at; and yet, here she is, breaking bread with fifty recalcitrant Republican senators with whom she apparently has little or nothing in common. I suspect, however, that we haven't examined Kyrsten Sinema close enough to find a loose thread that, when pulled, will unravel the invisibility cloak that she has cast over herself. There is a reason why she is doing this, it's just that the answer is hidden from view, because nobody has taken the trouble to do the deep down digging that's going to be required. So, if she does walk away from the Democrats, what's her payoff? Sinema's career as a state representative and State Senator, and three terms as a Member of the House of Representatives, all as a Democrat, would seem to be the antithesis of the behavior she is exhibiting now. Even a 'blue dog Democrat' would understand that nothing gets done in Congress without compromise and persuasion, giving up a little, to get something worthwhile back in return.

I don't think for a moment that anyone believes the rationale she offered for her opposition to changing the filibuster rule; it doesn't make sense when 48 of her Democratic colleagues have stepped forward to allow a simple majority of Senators present and voting to carry the day on any legislative measure under consideration. Given the stakes involved, there has to be a monster-sized interest involved that is causing Sinema to hold back.

I also agree with those who argue that the real problem is that the national Democrats are too wedded to a Washington solution, with its one-size-fits-all solutions to our country's perennial problems in achieving voting equity. It may be too late to do anything about that. My email inbox is overflowing with appeals from apoplectic Democratic-leaning advocacy groups begging for money. As the late California politician Jesse Unruh once said, "Money is the mother's milk of politics." That was sixty years ago, and since then politics have been monetized to an exponential degree. In this upcoming election, and in 2024, I think what is going to count is the passion of voters to preserve whatever democratic form of government we have left. If the passion is there the money will flow to the right places.

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Jan 18, 2022·edited Jan 18, 2022

TFG convinced dozens maybe 100’s of underlings from almost every red corner, to commit numerous acts of fraud through many small and large acts, behaviors, & state forgeries, integral team of teams and solo assignment’s, some siloed off, others in the know, it’s like an complex and layered Ocean Eleven like con job, with an all out fail safe …( have the Supreme Court to decide) to steal a presidential election. That this development materialized on MLK day, the irony is almost too much.

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Thanks, HCR, for making it increasingly clear how election fraud was conceived and executed, and how it failed. To some degree, forewarned is forearmed and all eyes will be focused on the electoral process in the coming presidential election, as well as conduct during the the mid-terms in swing states. However, laying 2020's crimes completely bare and prosecuting the perps may go a long way towards constraining elected state officials in upcoming elections. Not everyone has the stomach to withstand investigations and prosecution for election fraud. Precisely who was it in several states that manufactured fake electoral votes? At whose direction? Who dreamed up the scheme in the first place? In the hours and days before 1/6/21, TFG reiterated over and over that "Pence needs to do the right thing, needs to have the courage, etc. etc.", so he obviously understood the architecture of the planned electoral fraud prior that date. It's ironic that his persistent claims of massive fraud are turning out to be true, only the actual fraudulent activity being uncovered is not what the voters intended, but what their party and elected officials attempted to do instead. While a corrupt and spineless senate couldn't impeach him for attempting to interfere with the Georgia vote, perhaps a federal grand jury will be willing to indict him and the Atty General will have the courage to prosecute him for his role in the attempt to defraud the American electorate? One can hope...

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