On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress passed a “Resolution for Independence” declaring “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
"...the Lee Resolution marked the delegates’ ultimate conviction that a nation should rest not on the arbitrary rule of a single man and his hand-picked advisors, but on the rule of law."
Are you listening Trump, you wannabe dictator? And you too, Supreme Court justices intent on paving the way for Trump to put himself above the law?
We the people are coming for you, before you take away our right to vote and self-govern — and so much more. Nov. 5th is your day of reckoning.
That was sour grapes after the Confederacy was defeated, a futile gasp. We are now at the Fort Sumter point in the present civil war. It will be a long fight. Many battles to come, many casualties. We must find our Thomas Paines, Abraham Lincolns, and Franklin Delano Roosevelts. They will appear.
Yes, they will appear, esp. if we continue to express ourselves in creative, non violent ways that appeal to others who also want the greatest good. The messaging and how we rspond to the opposition is very important. And THE most important thing to remember, change is the only constant in life..
For now we might just end up with angry mobs making ropes with the black robes of the Supreme Court. What we've been taught as the rule of law will eventually take its honorable place again after much pain.
Is this Virginian the only one who remembers Lighthorse Harry Lee? He was one of George Washington’s Calvary generals. Robert Edward Lee, the much maligned was his son.
We here know who the real patriots are...they are not the mob that stormed the capitol on J6, with their Rebel Battle flags and Trump banners...they are Rush's "snowflakes"...who together can become an avalanche. We must defeat DJT. It matters not, who the candidate is.
Don’t count on it. We need to have a back up plan. They already have one in place to put Trump in office regardless of the outcome of the vote on Nov 5th.
We need something in place (perhaps as did those minutemen in Concord/ Lexington) to counter their intent, their plan to take over our country. Worse they’ve already stated there will be blood shed if democrats (“the left”) show any resistance to their takeover. So… what do we do? Scary stuff.
And we should critically realize that in Robert’s admonition of their justified dissent, -his accusation that the women were “Fear mongering” - Robert’s represented the destructiveness, and active grip of patriarchy. Enough!
I believe with everything in me that the current onslaught we are witnessing will fail just like it did 200years and 150 years ago in the civil war. I believe there are enough men and women of all races in this country who will turn out to vote and turn back this latest onslaught on our freedoms and liberties,
Exactly, and keep in mind there are trolls here who will pick up on our vulnerabilities and use them against us. Like the threat of there not being an election. Remember, T WILL DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO CREAT INSECURITY AND CHAOS so keep your messages confident so he cannot tell the difference!
Here’s a Heritage guy on Twitter. They’re openly declaring war on our rights. They’ve already dropped bombshells via SCrOTUS, so they’re clearly comfortable telling us the rest of the coming attractions they’re bought with bribes.https://x.com/mikefreemannfl/status/1808493772902125809?s=46
I am trying to imagine, right now, what will happen in the Democratic National Convention, if the debate over Joe Biden is not mainly resolved by that point. I think Biden was both ill and ill prepared for Trump's onslaught, a huge exception to his usual pose and energy, but only a supportive and mainly unified party will carry him forward. What terrifies Dems right now is how will the polls weigh out across the country. Dems infighting over Joe will not help their case. If he's replaced, the best i can see is for an internal unifying effort to collect around a "best chance" candidate, so that the convention doesn't become a prolonged contest with multiple votes whittling down to a winner few backed in the first place.
Who ever “debated” trump and came out looking strong? Who?!? Replacing Biden guarantees a loss. Sticking with BIden got a lot harder after the debate, for sure. Biden was elected because Rep Jim Clyburn gave black people the confidence Biden was the best choice for them. Biden honored that confidence by choosing the first black female VP, AND the first black female SCOTUS. Unless this “unified decision” has Harris at the top of the ticket, we are sunk. If Harris is at the top of the ticket, white liberals will suddenly not be sooooo liberal, because of course “Harris is not quite right.” And the MAGA crowd laugh all the way to the ballot box because they KNOW we are our own worst enemy. Like it or not, Biden is our only hope to kill this Death Star called MAGA.
At this point is it a very bad idea to replace J, however we the people need to send a specific message to J that we need and want bolder action. I would think would listen to 200 million people. Also, keep in mind this is the year 2024 and a march needs to be updated and tweaked to be as effective as it was in earlier years. If there is to be planning for this it should be on an encrypted platform.
This July 4th and the anti-American acts that surround it certainly feel like rain on your wedding day, a free ride when you already paid, the good advice that you just didn’t take. Sorry. Alanis Morrisette in town here in Philly tonight. Trying to keep the mood light because I’m actually devastated.
This democracy, can we keep it?
One thing is for certain… the historians will be writing about these times in the future.
Let us not be the sunshine patriots.
And PS to anyone who is still Covid conscious. Another wave predicted this month, so be careful out there and be prepared to treat:
I had Covid a couple of weeks ago. I believe that, because I have been vaccinated and had several boosters, it wasn't bad. My only risk factor is that I am over 50. Still, it's nothing to fool with, so be careful!
As Trump brags about his performance on the cognitive testing, I keep wondering if Biden has done MMSE or neuropsychometric testing. If his performance is good, certainly this can be documented. If he is seriously in decline 4 more years of this demanding position would be a disaster for him.
You and Mr Graham are reminding me to write that Covid will be enhanced by the bugs coming from melting permafrost. Climate change will drive us into one epidemic after another. Attention to scientists’ recommendations will become increasingly important. Current blame on isolation as the reason for lack of motor and cognitive skills I find questionable, particularly if their mothers were exposed to or were sick with Covid. Good nutrition is important, less prevalent with climate change. I’m watching the growing season here in IL and not seeing enough sun for many vegetables and fruits to mature. Calling on DC for price controls on fresh produce and, if necessary, rationing of some. It is time for Americans to relearn food in the world of climate change.
Thank you, Anne Marie. The endless ads for meat dishes drive me as wild as the asks for the president to quit. Reality is climate change and only one candidate is concerned about it. PS I ate what I called “climate change lettuce” in France in 2008 and have friends there who grow more wheat and have fewer cows and sheep because the EU has asked that they grow more wheat (2018).
Last week was a banner week for Covid in my circle. On Thursday evening, both one of our tuba players and one of our euphonium player's wife tested positive. On Saturday, my best friend's brother (visiting from Alaska) and their 92 year old mother both tested positive. It took until yesterday for my friend to test "faintly positive". All involved were vaccinated. Mom got her antivirals yesterday.
My wife and I got all the vaccines shots (two types), masked up more than about 90 % of the people, and I always carry a mask to put on if anyone else is wearing one (assuming they may be more vulnerable, as I assume I will become on my new prescription for a clinical trial followup).
We were able to dodge the virus until 4 days after they declared the pandemic over, then we both got positive Covid test results, though the symptoms were mild enough that they could have passed for a light to medium impact flu.
We're totally convinced the vaccines made the cases so much milder then the ones that we lost friends and relatives to before vaccines became available. Other friends and relatives caught Covid either before vaccines became available, or in one case, got symptoms within a day of the first available shot they could get (no where near enough time to get adequate immunity). At least two ended up with Long Covid and multiple repeat cases. We found out 2 years after the fact that the first reported Covid death in Maine was a distant relative we had met a few times at reunions or other events at the Norlands Living History Museum.
"If we omit it now, some [dictator] may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.” Thomas Paine seems to have been clairvoyant unto today. Like Sotomeyer, I fear for our freedom, our way of life, and for any chance that America is what it has said it was--an instrument for human dignity.
The true effect of the Supreme Court decision on immunity is a declaration that our country is a country run by outlaws, governed by wealth not laws, and caring not for the common sense of which Paine wrote, nor for the common man and woman.
Against these great odds, we will continue the fight, but truly only with God's help will we win. You can define "God" however you wish, but it is clear that the moral strength to prevail must come from some force greater than human rationality which is so prone to manipulation by the influence of others. It must come from a deep and compelling, intrinsic and undeniable awareness of survival.
Damn, I was wrong. I thought that the SC decision giving chump a get-out-of-jail-free card would wipe the debate off the headlines. Instead the entertainment-for-profit news is ignoring the SC treason and continuing to savage Joe with increased venom. Damn the country, we’ve got a bottom line to boost.
They certainly have a set narrative, and it’s all about Joe. It’s not coming from The Lincoln Project but it’s certainly coming from The Bulwark, CNN, MSNBC.
It’s like they are deliberately blind to the 200% existential threat versus the not perfect but capable, decent candidate. I know many are undone by the possibility of chump (as am I), but turn off your amygdala, turn on your reasoning ability and drop any pretenders and rally around our man. Divided we fall.
I was so disappointed in MSNBC....the channel I thought was the most fair of all. Joy Reid (will she ever shut up?), Ari Melber. Joe Scarborough. And the ridiculous Claire McCaskill.
I suspect the problem of those who devise to subjugate is older that the stone age, and democracies of one sort or another hark back to tribal life, but I think that Paine and other influential people in the colonies had a particular pragmatic clarity about a common-person-centered version of governance.
That's why We The People need to work our butts off to register voters, educate them on the down ballot, and Get Out The Vote to achieve a Democratic super-majority in the Senate, majority in the House, and of course Biden/Harris at the top. Then Congress can right the ship with expanding the Court, establishing ethics code for SCOTUS, and impeaching at least Thomas.
We don't really need a Dem super-majority in the Senate. We just need fifty-one REAL Democrats with the courage to suspend filibuster rules and add four justices to the SCOTUS. Of course, a super majority would be nice if it enabled us to investigate and impeach the play-for-pay gang. Sheldon Whitehouse for Senate Judiciary chair!
And lets talk about corruption. Political corruption, which I define as abuse of power, haas become so commonplace and so deep in the "GOP" we seem to be inured to it. Certainly the press seems to take it for granted. The buzz around Watergate was a different era.
Abuse has indeed been 'normalized'. We went from not long speaking of such things, considering them such ugly anomalies, directly to enabling them further by saying it's 'human nature' & business as usual. A hell of an escalation in 50 years. It's time to stop the buzz of scandal & address corruption. Good point.
Thank you! And start with Roberts. He’s the most evil. Smiling and pretending he’s not part of the group Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Barrett. He’s the leader.
With the GOP - impeachment has died. It is a political process. The GOP has now corrupted the legal ability to hold their people accountable with all the recent court rulings. Bribery - okay, insurrection okay, using the POTUS office to plan illegal acts- okay.
I email my Congressman every week asking him o draw up Articles of Impeachment against Alito and Thomas, on failure to keep their oaths of office, accepting bribes of more than $400 in value, and denying the Constitution as written. I will continue to do so. I have told Congressman Bera I do not expect the Articles to be heard in the House this year but if the Dems will publicize those Articles it might help to convince undecideds and independents to think about their vote,.
And also that ' to secure these (unalienable) rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,"
No king nor royal jurist has legitimate power to tr#mp that.
Unfortunately, lovely though it is as a phrase, "the consent of the governed" is not part of the law because it's in the Declaration of Independence, not in the Constitution. So it can be ignored, as we are finding out.
Great job tonight, Heather, speaking truth to power on the PBS News Hour! Thank you for being so emphatic and so clear about this momentous Supreme Court decision and the potential danger and great fall out for our nation and democracy that may result from it.
" . . . that a nation should rest not on the arbitrary rule of a single man and his hand-picked advisors, but on the rule of law."
Why did the Clarence court betray the very best underpinning of the new America? Of course it's a corrupt, bribed, perjured court -- but something worse has been going on -- how total lack of humanities allows the corrupt, bribed, and perjured all the more their madness.
Billionaires, despots, and the corrupt serving them all want us to avoid individuals, to have no respect for them, not even see them.
The 1971 Powell memo and its far-right foundations engineered humanities out of our schools. Dems acceded to that removal, and agreed to the herding of all instead into standardized testing’s neutered, linear, group, categorical regimes. Shorn themselves, too, of any humanities for public use, Dem elites never saw the mass human hurt from the billionaires and corporations offshoring millions of American working-class jobs.
American novelists, composers, film makers, and memoirists, saw the human hurt. Elites blinded without humanities did not, could not.
More untethered from humanities, Clarence court theocrats ruled packaging of American women. Congressional Republicans upped inflation by historic tax-cuts to billionaires. MAGA world fed ignorance-based hatreds of immigrants.
If any have humanities, just seeing others could check the madness. And I hope our best Dems will refer well to our humanities for the human, humane energy needed before us.
"In early January 2000, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was at a five-star beach resort in Sea Island, Georgia, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt."
A five-star beach resort is a great place to worry about being deep in debt.
"At the time, Thomas’ salary was $173,600, equivalent to over $300,000 today. But he was one of the least wealthy members of the court, and on multiple occasions in that period, he pushed for ways to make more money. In other private conversations, Thomas repeatedly talked about removing a ban on justices giving paid speeches."
It's hard to scrape by. Maybe with "food stamps"?
"George Priest, a Yale Law School professor who has vacationed with Thomas and Crow, told ProPublica he believes Crow’s generosity was not intended to influence Thomas’ views but rather to make his life more comfortable. “He views Thomas as a Supreme Court justice as having a limited salary,” Priest said. “So he provides benefits for him.”
Thanks, J L. Good, your ironic comments accompanying.
Though of course not a single reader here will shed any tears for the inordinate luxury poor Clarence needs, feels he's entitled to.
The bastard has no sympathy for any other human beings. He's illiterate as to humanities -- never in any of his opinions any couching of opinion with any awareness of any similar human being in any novel, film, song, or other arts.
Arts? The corrupt bastard knows only porn. Remember his notorious bothering women in his office with constant and crude references to Long Dong Silver?
Suck-up to the rich, especially the criminal rich, Long Dong Clarence. Traitor to American democracy.
Human, humane energy. Needed but energy used for infighting only aids the Billionaires and despots. Are we our own worst enemy.
Phil, you are a one-trick dog and pony show. And a great one. I’m not complaining because what you say desperately needs to be acknowledged. Our citizenry has been dumbed-down in a sense by the focus on vocational/practical instead of liberal arts. For lack of a better term, a back up plan (as many parents want for their creative children). As Einstein said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Can’t live on fun, can we? But I remember poetry from my high school and jr college days. No Ivy League here, but just inspired teachers. I always watched CBS Sunday Morning (a show with art, music segments and stories not found anywhere else). Even 60 Minutes even has some art and music segments. Bill Moyers was not only a great political analyst, but his shows on literature and poetry were awesome, and I always came away enlightened. Now, it’s streaming bs or network bs. PBS (due to Repub budget cuts) no longer is the beacon for what TV could be, but has joined the begging crowd and is careful not to offend the money bags. CBS still has my favs, but their focus is on reality crap which is anything but. The stage on which we Americans live our lives has changed as you say. And the scripts are propaganda at the Goebbels level.
We may have to leave the stage if we can’t change the script. Our short term goal is an emergency rewrite. But a long term goal is remake of a play conceived and written for us at our conception. Thank you for your focus on who we have been and who we want to be.
I think there is also the very big problem that many (most? all?) conservative lawyers and judges hail from the Federalist Society. I'm no expert, but I think that is where the theory of the "Unitary Executive" arises, in other words a King above the law.
The cognitive dissonance regarding the worship of the Founding Fathers among conservatives, given the above, is so astounding.
I've called on my brass quintet to get together to discuss, and then play the hell out of Ewald, for whatever that is worth. I do think, though, that civil relentless discourse is needed.
But look again at what the far-right foundations sought following the 1971 Powell memo.
Of course it was to put the interests of commercial America above all other interests. That also meant treating all Americans as but units in the great assembly lines of profit taking.
To reduce America to such vulgarity meant systemic disregard for people as people. Makes sense that by the time those far-right foundations had killed humanities in schools (and substituted standardized testing) a Federalist Society should next seek to kill all law which yet nurtured equal opportunities among diverse peoples, and to kill all law which aimed to preserve and protect individuals and communities from our most rapacious.
Sorry, Americans, but with that Federalist Society, democracy was doomed as were first its schools.
The most corrupt, the most abstracted in their madnesses, the most adept in lying and raping, would rule.
It’s true that 2 ships with EIC tea turned back to England (Philly, NYC) but a ship landed in Charleston where its tea was confiscated by customs officers. Also a ship headed for Boston wrecked on Cape Cod. The full story of the 1773 tea ships can be followed in recent books by myself, Mary Beth Norton, and by James Fichter.
Professor Norton, with your expertise on the Founding Era of breaking away from the repressive monarchy, you remind me that infuriatingly, the reactionary Republican justices disregarded the amicus brief submitted by 9 historians who argued that "Trump’s claim of criminal immunity would transform the presidency into a monarchy—exactly what the Framers of the Constitution sought to avoid."
Thanks to HCR's Letters and a very concerted effort to remain optimistic, I have been OK the past 9 years...until yesterday. It's so hard. So very hard to believe how we are in this position. Part of me wants to give the MAGATS what they ask for, so they can see how it will most certainly backfire...only if we could then rewind and try again once they are no longer indoctrinated. UGH!
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flags to April's wind unfurled, here the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world"
Ole Ralph Waldo earned his perpetual keep within the primers of schoolchildren forever more, did he not?
Cast against the ossified corruption of Sullen Sam Alito and his not-so-Calpurnian wife, the first flag (in the face of April's wind) that truly represented American roots was the flag of Massachusetts and/or the "Bedford" flag. No Kingdom of Heaven silliness for these rough hewn children of the Enlightenment.
Thomas Paine, perhaps the most famous and certainly the most eloquent corset maker in history, was a magnificent bundle of buzzing contradictions. A free thinker, who did more to fulfill the zealotry of the Puritan concept of the "City on the Hill" than anyone else; a commoner who both hobnobbed with, and was a close friend and influence upon both the Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington; and a man whose perpetually burning revolutionary nature took him from Europe to the Americas and back again as a true man without a Country---was perhaps beyond Washington himself--the most indispensable American in the Revolutionary era.
Without the publication of "Common Sense", the first American best seller, the Tories would most likely have held sway, Sam Adams and John Hancock would have been hanged from the highest yardarm (depriving future Americans not only of their independence, but also a good lager and a perpetual guide for flairing signatures), and the Revolution would have petered out not with a bang, but a whimper.
Paine was also, as the greatest of writers oft are, unusually prescient, as Heather points out.
Warning of "...laying hold of popular disquietudes" and "collecting together the desperate and discontented, by assuming to himself the powers of government, may SWEEP AWAY THE LIBERTIES OF THE CONTINENT LIKE A DELUGE."
Batten down the hatches. It feels like rain. Or perhaps better described as Roberts' Rules of DISORDER
HCR spoke Truth to PBS Newshour correspondent Jeffrey Brown yesterday, leaving him speechless and quickly ending the interview. Thank you Dr Richardson for speaking clearly and precisely to the seriousness of this decision of the Supreme Court. Certainly worth watching if you missed it.
Bravo, HCR, for the perfect history lesson to remind us all of the true beginnings of our great nation. Take heart, true patriots, and prepare to stand up!
This is a great and timely reminder of rejection of rule by an all powerful and his privileged few. The rule of law and the mantra that no one is above the law has been our primary inspiration for 248 years! Unfortunately, two days ago, six corrupt and idiotic Justices ruled that
Donald J. Trump is immune from the law and you cannot look into his motives for the CRIMES he commits. It is clear that this is the
long-sought objective of Republicans and the Federalist Society. God save the USA.
Yes exactly. All conservatives and lawyers are members of the Federalist Society. (Seriously, ok most, I'm not trying to be sarcastic.) This is an organization that needs to be investigated, coming up with the King theory of the "Unitary Executive". I mean, it is almost like all members of the Federalist Society just want to bestow absolute powers on the President because they don't have them themselves!
"...the Lee Resolution marked the delegates’ ultimate conviction that a nation should rest not on the arbitrary rule of a single man and his hand-picked advisors, but on the rule of law."
Are you listening Trump, you wannabe dictator? And you too, Supreme Court justices intent on paving the way for Trump to put himself above the law?
We the people are coming for you, before you take away our right to vote and self-govern — and so much more. Nov. 5th is your day of reckoning.
Inappropriately declared by a mad, partisan extremist, now maybe the appropriate era to declare and enforce "sic semper tyrannis" !
That was sour grapes after the Confederacy was defeated, a futile gasp. We are now at the Fort Sumter point in the present civil war. It will be a long fight. Many battles to come, many casualties. We must find our Thomas Paines, Abraham Lincolns, and Franklin Delano Roosevelts. They will appear.
President Biden is our FDR.
if we recognize them.
They will be obvious. History demands it.
Look in the mirror.
I wish. Rest assured I'll keep my eyes open! :-)
Yes, they will appear, esp. if we continue to express ourselves in creative, non violent ways that appeal to others who also want the greatest good. The messaging and how we rspond to the opposition is very important. And THE most important thing to remember, change is the only constant in life..
For now we might just end up with angry mobs making ropes with the black robes of the Supreme Court. What we've been taught as the rule of law will eventually take its honorable place again after much pain.
1776
The Lees of Old Virginia
https://youtu.be/h5p5PvYGB4w?si=BTIVGoLoi0zNiEKB
Clever-Lee done!
Is this Virginian the only one who remembers Lighthorse Harry Lee? He was one of George Washington’s Calvary generals. Robert Edward Lee, the much maligned was his son.
😁
Every line a gem. And I also immediately thought of 1776 when Heather mentioned Richard Henry Lee. Thanks, Lin.
Thank you for making me laugh out loud. Needed it.
One of my favorites! Thank you, lin•
Thanks for the smile this morning!
We here know who the real patriots are...they are not the mob that stormed the capitol on J6, with their Rebel Battle flags and Trump banners...they are Rush's "snowflakes"...who together can become an avalanche. We must defeat DJT. It matters not, who the candidate is.
“Nov. 5th is your day of reckoning.“
Don’t count on it. We need to have a back up plan. They already have one in place to put Trump in office regardless of the outcome of the vote on Nov 5th.
We need something in place (perhaps as did those minutemen in Concord/ Lexington) to counter their intent, their plan to take over our country. Worse they’ve already stated there will be blood shed if democrats (“the left”) show any resistance to their takeover. So… what do we do? Scary stuff.
In all the anger, we should take time to thank, with respect, the three associate justices who stood up to fight for our freedom.
Yes, agreed.
In her blistering dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the Supreme Court majority just made the president "a king above the law"
"With fear for our democracy," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, "I dissent."
And we should critically realize that in Robert’s admonition of their justified dissent, -his accusation that the women were “Fear mongering” - Robert’s represented the destructiveness, and active grip of patriarchy. Enough!
Women, all three. And even Amy Barrett had something good to add.
Yes to the 3. Nope to the handmaiden
I'm curious to know what Amy Barrett had to add, but obviously she should have voted against.
What, pray tell, was that utterance by Amy?
Absolutely!
Bravo, William!
I believe with everything in me that the current onslaught we are witnessing will fail just like it did 200years and 150 years ago in the civil war. I believe there are enough men and women of all races in this country who will turn out to vote and turn back this latest onslaught on our freedoms and liberties,
If they are allowed to vote and the votes get counted. Yes.
Big if’s
You don’t believe SCrOTUS will allow an election this year either?
Exactly, and keep in mind there are trolls here who will pick up on our vulnerabilities and use them against us. Like the threat of there not being an election. Remember, T WILL DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO CREAT INSECURITY AND CHAOS so keep your messages confident so he cannot tell the difference!
They’ve already won. No point in worrying over spilt milk when they’ve poisoned all the cows.
For all their talk of election fraud, I have no doubt that the MAGAs will do everything they can to suppress the vote.
They’re already doing it with success. It’s ongoing.
Here’s a Heritage guy on Twitter. They’re openly declaring war on our rights. They’ve already dropped bombshells via SCrOTUS, so they’re clearly comfortable telling us the rest of the coming attractions they’re bought with bribes.https://x.com/mikefreemannfl/status/1808493772902125809?s=46
I am trying to imagine, right now, what will happen in the Democratic National Convention, if the debate over Joe Biden is not mainly resolved by that point. I think Biden was both ill and ill prepared for Trump's onslaught, a huge exception to his usual pose and energy, but only a supportive and mainly unified party will carry him forward. What terrifies Dems right now is how will the polls weigh out across the country. Dems infighting over Joe will not help their case. If he's replaced, the best i can see is for an internal unifying effort to collect around a "best chance" candidate, so that the convention doesn't become a prolonged contest with multiple votes whittling down to a winner few backed in the first place.
I am so sick of the media. Have they ever asked Trump to step down?
Nyet, as Putin might say
Susan, brilliant. Media as Medea. Conspirators to gain attention have aided rump’s spewing while ignoring Biden’s many achievements.
Who ever “debated” trump and came out looking strong? Who?!? Replacing Biden guarantees a loss. Sticking with BIden got a lot harder after the debate, for sure. Biden was elected because Rep Jim Clyburn gave black people the confidence Biden was the best choice for them. Biden honored that confidence by choosing the first black female VP, AND the first black female SCOTUS. Unless this “unified decision” has Harris at the top of the ticket, we are sunk. If Harris is at the top of the ticket, white liberals will suddenly not be sooooo liberal, because of course “Harris is not quite right.” And the MAGA crowd laugh all the way to the ballot box because they KNOW we are our own worst enemy. Like it or not, Biden is our only hope to kill this Death Star called MAGA.
At this point is it a very bad idea to replace J, however we the people need to send a specific message to J that we need and want bolder action. I would think would listen to 200 million people. Also, keep in mind this is the year 2024 and a march needs to be updated and tweaked to be as effective as it was in earlier years. If there is to be planning for this it should be on an encrypted platform.
I meant 100 million but 200 would be even better 😉
The wagons circle. All rifles and muskets aimed inward. The disquise must have worked. The enemy that surrounds us are all having tea.
Yeah a circular firing squad is a really bad idea right now, and that's what an open convention would be. Let's not kid ourselves.
Not amusing....they are on the wrong side of history, chosing ratings over democracy
I sure hope you are right, it doesn’t help with all the naysayers about President Biden. He is fully capable of continuing to lead our country!
This July 4th and the anti-American acts that surround it certainly feel like rain on your wedding day, a free ride when you already paid, the good advice that you just didn’t take. Sorry. Alanis Morrisette in town here in Philly tonight. Trying to keep the mood light because I’m actually devastated.
This democracy, can we keep it?
One thing is for certain… the historians will be writing about these times in the future.
Let us not be the sunshine patriots.
And PS to anyone who is still Covid conscious. Another wave predicted this month, so be careful out there and be prepared to treat:
https://mccormickmd.substack.com/p/june-in-covidlandia
COVID has hit my circle. I'm still holding out (aided by vaccination) but have been massively exposed.
I had Covid a couple of weeks ago. I believe that, because I have been vaccinated and had several boosters, it wasn't bad. My only risk factor is that I am over 50. Still, it's nothing to fool with, so be careful!
Very glad to hear that!
I hope it doesn’t get too severe in any of you!
My wife and her brother (who is here visiting) both got it but took an antiviral that seemed to help a lot. (Langevrio)
Please let us know how. Vaccinations? Where are you? Do you have all 6 vaccinations?
There have been seven (7) Covid vaccinations to date. I expect there will be another one in the fall.
I have had all the vaccinations. Pacific NW.
Same here. Keep safe J L Graham.
As Trump brags about his performance on the cognitive testing, I keep wondering if Biden has done MMSE or neuropsychometric testing. If his performance is good, certainly this can be documented. If he is seriously in decline 4 more years of this demanding position would be a disaster for him.
We've got it here too. Midwinter in Melbourne, Australia.
You and Mr Graham are reminding me to write that Covid will be enhanced by the bugs coming from melting permafrost. Climate change will drive us into one epidemic after another. Attention to scientists’ recommendations will become increasingly important. Current blame on isolation as the reason for lack of motor and cognitive skills I find questionable, particularly if their mothers were exposed to or were sick with Covid. Good nutrition is important, less prevalent with climate change. I’m watching the growing season here in IL and not seeing enough sun for many vegetables and fruits to mature. Calling on DC for price controls on fresh produce and, if necessary, rationing of some. It is time for Americans to relearn food in the world of climate change.
Very good observation, Virginia.
Thank you, Anne Marie. The endless ads for meat dishes drive me as wild as the asks for the president to quit. Reality is climate change and only one candidate is concerned about it. PS I ate what I called “climate change lettuce” in France in 2008 and have friends there who grow more wheat and have fewer cows and sheep because the EU has asked that they grow more wheat (2018).
Last week was a banner week for Covid in my circle. On Thursday evening, both one of our tuba players and one of our euphonium player's wife tested positive. On Saturday, my best friend's brother (visiting from Alaska) and their 92 year old mother both tested positive. It took until yesterday for my friend to test "faintly positive". All involved were vaccinated. Mom got her antivirals yesterday.
My wife and I got all the vaccines shots (two types), masked up more than about 90 % of the people, and I always carry a mask to put on if anyone else is wearing one (assuming they may be more vulnerable, as I assume I will become on my new prescription for a clinical trial followup).
We were able to dodge the virus until 4 days after they declared the pandemic over, then we both got positive Covid test results, though the symptoms were mild enough that they could have passed for a light to medium impact flu.
We're totally convinced the vaccines made the cases so much milder then the ones that we lost friends and relatives to before vaccines became available. Other friends and relatives caught Covid either before vaccines became available, or in one case, got symptoms within a day of the first available shot they could get (no where near enough time to get adequate immunity). At least two ended up with Long Covid and multiple repeat cases. We found out 2 years after the fact that the first reported Covid death in Maine was a distant relative we had met a few times at reunions or other events at the Norlands Living History Museum.
Thank you for sharing this. First person accounts are very important in this crazy vaccination fight.
I have it now. Should be fine in a couple more days as the rest of my household has recovered.
Covid hit us 4 days ago. First time for me.
Congratulations on holding out this long! I believe (and studies support) that the fewer times we get this the better.
"If we omit it now, some [dictator] may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.” Thomas Paine seems to have been clairvoyant unto today. Like Sotomeyer, I fear for our freedom, our way of life, and for any chance that America is what it has said it was--an instrument for human dignity.
The true effect of the Supreme Court decision on immunity is a declaration that our country is a country run by outlaws, governed by wealth not laws, and caring not for the common sense of which Paine wrote, nor for the common man and woman.
Against these great odds, we will continue the fight, but truly only with God's help will we win. You can define "God" however you wish, but it is clear that the moral strength to prevail must come from some force greater than human rationality which is so prone to manipulation by the influence of others. It must come from a deep and compelling, intrinsic and undeniable awareness of survival.
Damn, I was wrong. I thought that the SC decision giving chump a get-out-of-jail-free card would wipe the debate off the headlines. Instead the entertainment-for-profit news is ignoring the SC treason and continuing to savage Joe with increased venom. Damn the country, we’ve got a bottom line to boost.
They certainly have a set narrative, and it’s all about Joe. It’s not coming from The Lincoln Project but it’s certainly coming from The Bulwark, CNN, MSNBC.
It’s like they are deliberately blind to the 200% existential threat versus the not perfect but capable, decent candidate. I know many are undone by the possibility of chump (as am I), but turn off your amygdala, turn on your reasoning ability and drop any pretenders and rally around our man. Divided we fall.
I was so disappointed in MSNBC....the channel I thought was the most fair of all. Joy Reid (will she ever shut up?), Ari Melber. Joe Scarborough. And the ridiculous Claire McCaskill.
Add Katie Tur and Andrea Mitchell. Tur meant I was listening to yacht rock on the radio. 😂
Thought the immunity crap would take the headlines, but not happening. Unreal
Gina, they’re harping because that’s all they have. Its pathetic how they attempt to squeeze the last drop of juice out of it.
I suspect the problem of those who devise to subjugate is older that the stone age, and democracies of one sort or another hark back to tribal life, but I think that Paine and other influential people in the colonies had a particular pragmatic clarity about a common-person-centered version of governance.
Well said, KEM. Thanks so much. I'm reaching out to friends and family to discuss what can be done. Maybe some collective brainstorming will help.
Heather,
Let's talk about impeaching Supreme Court justices.
That's why We The People need to work our butts off to register voters, educate them on the down ballot, and Get Out The Vote to achieve a Democratic super-majority in the Senate, majority in the House, and of course Biden/Harris at the top. Then Congress can right the ship with expanding the Court, establishing ethics code for SCOTUS, and impeaching at least Thomas.
We don't really need a Dem super-majority in the Senate. We just need fifty-one REAL Democrats with the courage to suspend filibuster rules and add four justices to the SCOTUS. Of course, a super majority would be nice if it enabled us to investigate and impeach the play-for-pay gang. Sheldon Whitehouse for Senate Judiciary chair!
And lets talk about corruption. Political corruption, which I define as abuse of power, haas become so commonplace and so deep in the "GOP" we seem to be inured to it. Certainly the press seems to take it for granted. The buzz around Watergate was a different era.
Abuse has indeed been 'normalized'. We went from not long speaking of such things, considering them such ugly anomalies, directly to enabling them further by saying it's 'human nature' & business as usual. A hell of an escalation in 50 years. It's time to stop the buzz of scandal & address corruption. Good point.
Thank you! And start with Roberts. He’s the most evil. Smiling and pretending he’s not part of the group Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Barrett. He’s the leader.
With the GOP - impeachment has died. It is a political process. The GOP has now corrupted the legal ability to hold their people accountable with all the recent court rulings. Bribery - okay, insurrection okay, using the POTUS office to plan illegal acts- okay.
Not sure where we go now.
I email my Congressman every week asking him o draw up Articles of Impeachment against Alito and Thomas, on failure to keep their oaths of office, accepting bribes of more than $400 in value, and denying the Constitution as written. I will continue to do so. I have told Congressman Bera I do not expect the Articles to be heard in the House this year but if the Dems will publicize those Articles it might help to convince undecideds and independents to think about their vote,.
Very sad 4th this year. But history teaches us not to give up.
And also that ' to secure these (unalienable) rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,"
No king nor royal jurist has legitimate power to tr#mp that.
Unfortunately, lovely though it is as a phrase, "the consent of the governed" is not part of the law because it's in the Declaration of Independence, not in the Constitution. So it can be ignored, as we are finding out.
Great job tonight, Heather, speaking truth to power on the PBS News Hour! Thank you for being so emphatic and so clear about this momentous Supreme Court decision and the potential danger and great fall out for our nation and democracy that may result from it.
HCR at 16:00
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=crmas_sfp&p=pbs+newshour+today+full+episode#action=view&id=2&vid=9ab04f660e3798f30e9c8bd99673a6a5
Thank You Ellie Kona for posting this. It’s a must watch!
This video is an essential ingredient to our position.
Thanks Ellie! Chilling.
Thanks. Powerful.
On the July 2, 2024 episode
Beautiful brief history. Beautiful last sentence:
" . . . that a nation should rest not on the arbitrary rule of a single man and his hand-picked advisors, but on the rule of law."
Why did the Clarence court betray the very best underpinning of the new America? Of course it's a corrupt, bribed, perjured court -- but something worse has been going on -- how total lack of humanities allows the corrupt, bribed, and perjured all the more their madness.
Billionaires, despots, and the corrupt serving them all want us to avoid individuals, to have no respect for them, not even see them.
The 1971 Powell memo and its far-right foundations engineered humanities out of our schools. Dems acceded to that removal, and agreed to the herding of all instead into standardized testing’s neutered, linear, group, categorical regimes. Shorn themselves, too, of any humanities for public use, Dem elites never saw the mass human hurt from the billionaires and corporations offshoring millions of American working-class jobs.
American novelists, composers, film makers, and memoirists, saw the human hurt. Elites blinded without humanities did not, could not.
More untethered from humanities, Clarence court theocrats ruled packaging of American women. Congressional Republicans upped inflation by historic tax-cuts to billionaires. MAGA world fed ignorance-based hatreds of immigrants.
If any have humanities, just seeing others could check the madness. And I hope our best Dems will refer well to our humanities for the human, humane energy needed before us.
From Pro Publica:
"In early January 2000, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was at a five-star beach resort in Sea Island, Georgia, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt."
A five-star beach resort is a great place to worry about being deep in debt.
"At the time, Thomas’ salary was $173,600, equivalent to over $300,000 today. But he was one of the least wealthy members of the court, and on multiple occasions in that period, he pushed for ways to make more money. In other private conversations, Thomas repeatedly talked about removing a ban on justices giving paid speeches."
It's hard to scrape by. Maybe with "food stamps"?
"George Priest, a Yale Law School professor who has vacationed with Thomas and Crow, told ProPublica he believes Crow’s generosity was not intended to influence Thomas’ views but rather to make his life more comfortable. “He views Thomas as a Supreme Court justice as having a limited salary,” Priest said. “So he provides benefits for him.”
All on the up and up then.
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-money-complaints-sparked-resignation-fears-scotus
Thanks, J L. Good, your ironic comments accompanying.
Though of course not a single reader here will shed any tears for the inordinate luxury poor Clarence needs, feels he's entitled to.
The bastard has no sympathy for any other human beings. He's illiterate as to humanities -- never in any of his opinions any couching of opinion with any awareness of any similar human being in any novel, film, song, or other arts.
Arts? The corrupt bastard knows only porn. Remember his notorious bothering women in his office with constant and crude references to Long Dong Silver?
Suck-up to the rich, especially the criminal rich, Long Dong Clarence. Traitor to American democracy.
It's possible to be comfortable on $173, 600 if you live within your means. People get into personal debt because they spend money they don't have.
should be a legal problem, but the just legalized bribery formally.
Human, humane energy. Needed but energy used for infighting only aids the Billionaires and despots. Are we our own worst enemy.
Phil, you are a one-trick dog and pony show. And a great one. I’m not complaining because what you say desperately needs to be acknowledged. Our citizenry has been dumbed-down in a sense by the focus on vocational/practical instead of liberal arts. For lack of a better term, a back up plan (as many parents want for their creative children). As Einstein said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Can’t live on fun, can we? But I remember poetry from my high school and jr college days. No Ivy League here, but just inspired teachers. I always watched CBS Sunday Morning (a show with art, music segments and stories not found anywhere else). Even 60 Minutes even has some art and music segments. Bill Moyers was not only a great political analyst, but his shows on literature and poetry were awesome, and I always came away enlightened. Now, it’s streaming bs or network bs. PBS (due to Repub budget cuts) no longer is the beacon for what TV could be, but has joined the begging crowd and is careful not to offend the money bags. CBS still has my favs, but their focus is on reality crap which is anything but. The stage on which we Americans live our lives has changed as you say. And the scripts are propaganda at the Goebbels level.
We may have to leave the stage if we can’t change the script. Our short term goal is an emergency rewrite. But a long term goal is remake of a play conceived and written for us at our conception. Thank you for your focus on who we have been and who we want to be.
Good, Jeri, for the fine nurturing, decency you've been so blessed to have experienced.
I think there is also the very big problem that many (most? all?) conservative lawyers and judges hail from the Federalist Society. I'm no expert, but I think that is where the theory of the "Unitary Executive" arises, in other words a King above the law.
The cognitive dissonance regarding the worship of the Founding Fathers among conservatives, given the above, is so astounding.
I've called on my brass quintet to get together to discuss, and then play the hell out of Ewald, for whatever that is worth. I do think, though, that civil relentless discourse is needed.
Maybe, Matt. Maybe.
But look again at what the far-right foundations sought following the 1971 Powell memo.
Of course it was to put the interests of commercial America above all other interests. That also meant treating all Americans as but units in the great assembly lines of profit taking.
To reduce America to such vulgarity meant systemic disregard for people as people. Makes sense that by the time those far-right foundations had killed humanities in schools (and substituted standardized testing) a Federalist Society should next seek to kill all law which yet nurtured equal opportunities among diverse peoples, and to kill all law which aimed to preserve and protect individuals and communities from our most rapacious.
Sorry, Americans, but with that Federalist Society, democracy was doomed as were first its schools.
The most corrupt, the most abstracted in their madnesses, the most adept in lying and raping, would rule.
It’s true that 2 ships with EIC tea turned back to England (Philly, NYC) but a ship landed in Charleston where its tea was confiscated by customs officers. Also a ship headed for Boston wrecked on Cape Cod. The full story of the 1773 tea ships can be followed in recent books by myself, Mary Beth Norton, and by James Fichter.
Professor Norton, with your expertise on the Founding Era of breaking away from the repressive monarchy, you remind me that infuriatingly, the reactionary Republican justices disregarded the amicus brief submitted by 9 historians who argued that "Trump’s claim of criminal immunity would transform the presidency into a monarchy—exactly what the Framers of the Constitution sought to avoid."
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/historians-amicus-brief-trump-v-united-states
Thanks to HCR's Letters and a very concerted effort to remain optimistic, I have been OK the past 9 years...until yesterday. It's so hard. So very hard to believe how we are in this position. Part of me wants to give the MAGATS what they ask for, so they can see how it will most certainly backfire...only if we could then rewind and try again once they are no longer indoctrinated. UGH!
Never. They will not see it.
Lauren, this is exactly what they want.
Fair point...but don't worry...we are not giving up, and we will not lose.
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flags to April's wind unfurled, here the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world"
Ole Ralph Waldo earned his perpetual keep within the primers of schoolchildren forever more, did he not?
Cast against the ossified corruption of Sullen Sam Alito and his not-so-Calpurnian wife, the first flag (in the face of April's wind) that truly represented American roots was the flag of Massachusetts and/or the "Bedford" flag. No Kingdom of Heaven silliness for these rough hewn children of the Enlightenment.
Thomas Paine, perhaps the most famous and certainly the most eloquent corset maker in history, was a magnificent bundle of buzzing contradictions. A free thinker, who did more to fulfill the zealotry of the Puritan concept of the "City on the Hill" than anyone else; a commoner who both hobnobbed with, and was a close friend and influence upon both the Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington; and a man whose perpetually burning revolutionary nature took him from Europe to the Americas and back again as a true man without a Country---was perhaps beyond Washington himself--the most indispensable American in the Revolutionary era.
Without the publication of "Common Sense", the first American best seller, the Tories would most likely have held sway, Sam Adams and John Hancock would have been hanged from the highest yardarm (depriving future Americans not only of their independence, but also a good lager and a perpetual guide for flairing signatures), and the Revolution would have petered out not with a bang, but a whimper.
Paine was also, as the greatest of writers oft are, unusually prescient, as Heather points out.
Warning of "...laying hold of popular disquietudes" and "collecting together the desperate and discontented, by assuming to himself the powers of government, may SWEEP AWAY THE LIBERTIES OF THE CONTINENT LIKE A DELUGE."
Batten down the hatches. It feels like rain. Or perhaps better described as Roberts' Rules of DISORDER
Eloquently written Daniel.
Thank you, Annie. Most kind of you!
Bravo, Dan.
Thank you, James. I truly appreciate that
Cheers Dan!
Thanks, Gail. Right back atcha!🥂
HCR spoke Truth to PBS Newshour correspondent Jeffrey Brown yesterday, leaving him speechless and quickly ending the interview. Thank you Dr Richardson for speaking clearly and precisely to the seriousness of this decision of the Supreme Court. Certainly worth watching if you missed it.
HCR's statement on how SCOTUS ripped up the rule of law is hair on fire and useful for sharing with others.
Thank you for that! Here's the link:
https://www.thirteen.org/programs/pbs-newshour/immunity-fallout-1719959619/
Thanks for the link. I listened to it, and I saved the link. Heather did a wonderful clear description of what SCOTUS has done.
If anyone wants to watch this without the gigantic invasion of privacy, here's the link directly to the Newshour site:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/historian-discusses-supreme-courts-immunity-decision-and-shift-in-presidential-powers
Bravo, HCR, for the perfect history lesson to remind us all of the true beginnings of our great nation. Take heart, true patriots, and prepare to stand up!
This absolutely breaks my heart.
This is a great and timely reminder of rejection of rule by an all powerful and his privileged few. The rule of law and the mantra that no one is above the law has been our primary inspiration for 248 years! Unfortunately, two days ago, six corrupt and idiotic Justices ruled that
Donald J. Trump is immune from the law and you cannot look into his motives for the CRIMES he commits. It is clear that this is the
long-sought objective of Republicans and the Federalist Society. God save the USA.
Yes exactly. All conservatives and lawyers are members of the Federalist Society. (Seriously, ok most, I'm not trying to be sarcastic.) This is an organization that needs to be investigated, coming up with the King theory of the "Unitary Executive". I mean, it is almost like all members of the Federalist Society just want to bestow absolute powers on the President because they don't have them themselves!
Oh they have the power. Trump is a useful idiot and placeholder. Peter Thiel will I’m sure elevate JD Vance once Trump has served his purpose.
Yet.
It suits the power-mad billionaires.