Letters from an American
Heather Cox Richardson's narrated newsletter about the history behind today's politics.
Heather Cox Richardson's narrated newsletter about the history behind today's politics.Listen on
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Heather Cox Richardson
Thank you, professor Richardson. I love listening. I have to take a pepcid after this one. What a despicable lunatic child. I will never forgive the imbeciles who installed him in our white house…again.
Wow, the sh*t storm has begun! So many people will be hurt by his actions. Prof.Snyder also showed deep concern over the J6 pardons. He recalled Hitler’s paramilitaries, who knew they wouldn’t be held accountable. It’s only day 2! Help!
I am curious if you or any writer you know of and respect has written extensively about Trump's comment yesterday about Elon's vast knowledge about computers--election computers specifically and winning by a land slide in PA. I've read about bullet ballots. The conclusion that the 2024 election was not compromised is not quite settled in my mind and yesterday's comment raised it again. I'm not convinced that Trump did win fairly.
I have this same feeling, but because I have no proof it's just a conspiracy theory, although history will tell.
This particular association of Musk with the PA win is, I believe, designed to sow more Trump-style chaos. The more he can shake our foundation, individually and as a democracy, the more he and his cronies can cheat, lie, and steal - just to name a few of their virtues.
I feel the same way. I believe the computers were somehow hacked by Musk. Don’t know how but I really believe it to be something to think about
Paid subscriber. I prefer to read not listen. Is that possible?
Yes she sends out both a transcript and the recording. go to her substack home page and you should see both available
Didn't. There was a podcast option, and a button that said "read in app." Like Steve, I prefer to read, but not through an app as my phone screen is too small for my 75-year-old eyes to read comfortably. The Substack chatbot was surprisingly helpful and gave me a link to the homepage. I've bookmarked it since it seems I won't get a link in the emails.
I have a Transcript button on the line with Like Reply Share on the left and between Share and … on the right. I opened it and it works.
Thank you Heather for such concise reporting on such a historic day. Why would Trump want to leave the World Health Organization (WHO) so quickly? The climate accords, yes since he is sold out to the fossil fuels industry, yet why WHO? Could it be that the WHO is still seeking the cause of his bio-terrorism, the "China Flu", his COVID outbreak cabal (Trump, Navaro, O'Brien)? Could it be Trump's COVID plot that still haunts him?
I think it's rather more likely because somebody told him that the US provided one-fifth of the WHO's annual budget. It's hardly surprising since under his first administration he had began the process of formal withdrawal during the Covid pandemic (it apparently takes a full year to complete) and Biden halted the process.
This is just crazy.
Thank You Heather! Keep up the great work.
I still have a problem coming to terms with his election. Not challenging the vote but how 77 million Americans could have possibly overlook this man’s needs. Recent NYT interview of 12 men who voted for Trump had a common theme….he’s a man’s man. They blows me away. Their Idea of a man’s man….are they saying someone who raped women, who work hard creating a false self image, who evicted people of color when purchased apartments buildings, who call men and women who died defending our Democracy as suckers. I stop there.
Yet, should we question? He repeatedly stated, "don't vote, I don't need you to vote, we have all the votes we need". I moved from mid Florida region to NWFL in 2023. I voted early, yet for both the primary and Nov election- I went in line and there was a statement of my NOT voting. I am not alone in the discovery that their vote did not get counted.
Why stop? His choice of tenor (Christopher Macchio) was one of the most hilarious parts of the day. He reminded me of Leslie Nielsen singing the national anthem in one of the 'Naked Gun' movies.
We have two strengths …. education and vote. The consequences.are too great if we don’t.. I often think of citizens of other countries living under Oligarchs and their control of the ballot box. No doubt the Party of Trump ultimate dream is the same as these other countries. Have you noticed the ranking of the freest nations of the world? Believe it or not, the top are mostly Northern Europe. The one exception being the beautiful country of New e
You also have your institutions which resisted Trump last time and may yet do so again. An early example is Judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court who point-blank refused to dismiss with prejudice the cases brought against Proud Boys Nicholas Ochs and Nicholas DeCarlo (which in effect means that they could still be prosecuted for the offences which they admitted to). In her judgement she said that to do so would “let stand the revisionist myth” relayed in Trump’s proclamation granting pardons to nearly all Jan. 6 defendants. She went out of her way to excoriate Trump's decision to pardon these reprobates.
Truth, Clarity,Strength
If there is Magic it can be found in the actions and words spoken in the voice of a strong and Brave women.
Thanks again
Thank you for cluing me into the events of the Inaugural events of January 20th. Heather did a brilliant job of discussing these difficult to accept behaviors. We must tighten our mental health and take the one day at a time posture and see what happens as time goes by.
Our president is insane. Too much and never enough.
If someone wrote a fictional paperback with this plot to be sold at airport news stands reviewers would skewer it as unrealistic, too fantastical to be believed.
I am a paid subscriber. I also would prefer to read the Substack articles, if possible.
keep it up !!!!!!
I am surrounded by people who love him. Some of these people are family, young and old. Some are friends. I don’t know where to put my disbelief. TY professor for your wisdom. I will just have to keep my own brain turned in and do what I can do. My eternal question will be … why did they not know?
The small print you noted in the crypto transactions underscores the deception and mendacity which has been Trumps stock in trade for the whole of his life. I feel helpless as against the tidal wave of insanity coming our way.
My Aunt Jean Baker studied with you and is fascinated by your newsletter.
I like to read her letters and also listen to the audio.
Dr. Cox Richardson, I have subscribed to get your daily letters. They keep going to substance or to recording for listening.
I want to read the daily letters, please. What do I need to do?
There is a name for the one arm salute that Elon Musk gave, it is spelled N A Z I.
Trump's displaying of those executive orders he had just signed with a sharpie reminded me of a toddler showing his colouring book to his mother. His staff would have had to print out 100 executive orders each leaving at least one-third of a page clear for that ridiculous signature. It would either require very careful drafting or the use of different fonts depending on the length of each order. The first time I saw him signing one of those things I thought 'Whoa! is he drawing on that thing?'
It’s ironic that one of the recent DEI outreaches by the Coast Guard was to encourage OLDER people to join up.
Thank you for this letter! It is very instructive! 🌺
There were so many things one could enjoy about this inauguration from a distance (I live in the UK). The yowling of Christopher Macchio, the rictus smile of Usha Vance, that hat that defied Trump's attempts to plant a kiss. As for Trump's apparent espousal of Elon's crazed ambition to launch a colony on Mars, do read the Weinersmith's 'A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space And Have We Thought This Through', a really fun read showing how preposterous this is. I know this all very serious, but the comic elements of another Trump term will I fear be irresistable.
Trump promised to 'Drill, baby, drill' in his Inauguration speech, but last year a report (Fast, scalable, clean, and cheap enough -How off-grid solar microgrids can power the AI race) produced by a Silicon Valley team that included David Robertson, project management engineer from Tesla, concluded: “Off-grid solar microgrids offer a fast path to power AI datacenters at enormous scale. The tech is mature, the suitable parcels of land in the US Southwest are known, and this solution is likely faster than most, if not all, alternatives.” Are Trump and Musk on the same page?
I have read her letters for many years.