So why don't we all lobby our local NPR stations to air Letters from an American? I just called OPB to do just that and the member experience manager was open to learning more. While on the phone he opened Heather's substack and promised to speak to the programmers about airing the podcast. I will be following up. Now I plan to call each local college radio station with the same suggestion. We need Heather's voice permeating the airwaves with the reality of who America really is. An authoritarian theocracy we are not.
Project 2025 has specific plans laid out for NPR and you can read them in that document. Check the table of contents for page numbers. The have plans to "reform" education at all levels.
‘For my part,’ over the last few days, listening to HCR here at LFAA, watching her ‘Politics Chat, July 2, 2024’ on Facebook, viewing some of the professor’s recent press interviews, as well as contemplating posts of Substack author Robert B. Hubbell of Today's Edition Newsletter, among those of others, including thoughtful comments of readers along the way—I knew the time had come to cancel my NY Times subscription. So last night, I wrote a letter to the editorial board expressing the cause for my exit.
For those who may be inclined to express themselves about the media frenzy and lethargy, following is an email address to The NY Times editorial board, as one option: editorial@nytimes.com
My letter read as follows, where my email and mailing address were also provided:
July 4, 2024
Dear Editorial Board of The New York Times,
The NY Times has lost its way. This is not new although the degree to which it has fallen is grave. It will be a tragic day if Trump is elected in November—for the press, and for the American people. Although apparently, The Times is advocating for this, for its temporary profitable gain, to its ultimate loss of integrity.
Sowing chaos about Biden's age and fitness for office, with a torrent of disinformation about he who is the most effective president in 75 years is unconscionable. The voice of the editorial board, its editor and publisher dutifully covers up the misdeeds of a convicted felon and his remarkable ineptitude to ever again hold the office of president. The silence is deafening, and lays bare the truth of the fall of The NY Times journalism.
On this day when we commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, its endurance is not promised. The dereliction of duty by the media threatens this covenant “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
How profoundly The New York Times has strayed from illuminating the truth and abdicated its commitment to serving as ‘the newspaper of record.’ At this perilous time in its history, and in the history of our nation—a grave moment indeed.
It is therefore fitting today that I cancel my subscription to The New York Times.
Regrettably,
Jean Tesoriero
_______________________________________
And then by going to the ‘manage subscription’ section of my online account, I proceeded to complete my cancellation where I included an abbreviated version of my letter given its 400-character limit.
At the end of your first paragraph I thought you were going to say: No idea where she gets the time and energy and sheer intellectual ability and clarity of mind to do all that.
"We are taking our country back. . ." Back to the Middle Ages.
Thank you, Heather, for showing us with painful clarity who the enemy is. Now, the question is, how do we go about destroying that enemy, so it can never rise up again in this country?
Hopefully it will be possible, at the very least, to halt the flow of funds from Hungary into the U.S.
What else can we do about this fascist government and its attempt to destroy democracy in North America? My father and many other fathers and uncles of readers of this column fought against the axis in WW II. Now, Roberts, Heritage, and Orban would make the U.S. part of a new Axis.
The attempt must be stopped by any means necessary!
How does Biden expect to survive when he isn't even willing to use all the powers available to him pre-immunity-decision? For all that we've heard, he appears to be prepared to sit idly by while Roberts, Orban, and their fascist ilk openly plan a coup d'etat against democratic governance in the U.S.
Even without invoking immunity, which in my view he would have ample ground to do, he can do a lot to block this proposed coup. Among other things, he can have Orban declared a terrorist and the Hungarian government declared a terrorist organization. Needless to say, he should recall the American ambassador from Budapest and break off diplomatic relations. And he can impose tough economic sanctions. In addition, he can block any transfer of funds from the Hungarian government to the U.S., and have any agents of the Hungarian government still in the U.S. deported. As for Roberts, who has issued a threat right out of a Grade "D" Western--everybody get up against the wall with your hands up and nobody will get hurt--he has already committed a felony in my view. Biden would have ample grounds for having him held without bail for issuing threats. . .even without using immunity.
Are Biden and the wood pussies in the Attorney General's office even aware of the gravity of this situation? Nothing about their conduct to date would suggest they are. Have these people no sense of self-preservation? Are we going to be held hostage by a 4th rate punk dictator? Joe, for Jesus Christ's sake, DO SOMETHING.
Please talk about the Gish Gallop, a questionable format that was used in the debate with Trump. I am also curious as to how the draw was conducted and why the Biden administration agreed to it.
The 'Gish Gallop' is SOP for DJT... A profoundly Ignorant Cartoon Caricature of a 'Leader'... DJT has been elevated, and produced by the MSM in the interest of short-term profits, and not the Common-Good... The 'Gish-Gallop' is proof of the old saying, 'If You Can't Dazzle Them With Brilliance, Than Baffle Them With B*S*t!!!'
I have to wonder then why the administration agreed to it. I mean you really have to be on your toes on almost every subject to be the #2 to answer the question.
I had never heard the word Gish Gallop until HCR called it out here. I'm horrified that the DEM speech coaches didn't prep Biden for it!!! Unbelievable! Did they really not foresee that Trump would not follow rules? Heather says you CAN talk back to Gish gallop but you have to be prepared.
Honestly, all Biden would have had to do was to not be so decent! Because he was off guard, he got frustrated. He could have started every response with a forcefull:
"Stop it! Your lying again!"
" Can you say nothing but lies, lies and more lies?"
"Lies again! Don't you have anything else to offer?".
"Come on man, stop with the lies!"
Etc, etc., etc. Every time!
Biden needed to verbally slap Trump down with one of the above, then go forward in normal tone of voice to say want he wanted to say:. I say "Grrr, to his coaches!"
That format never should have been agreed to, if it was agreed to. The questions should have alternated between both parties. I am trying to find out how the debate was structured and why.
True, someone wasn't on the ball with this and should be fired. I'm not sure about the hubris part, Biden has been doing a job even a young president couldn't manage. He does need to stop trying to do it all himself. I think that's the problem.
What is key, is the level of unhappiness among the Populi.... The DJT reign basking in a Golden Glow? How can that be? Someone should have helped prepare Biden by playing DJT with his lack of listening, and Gish-Gallop... The most spirited segment was when they were arguing over their Golf Scores... Pathetic...
Perhaps, but it's always easy to criticize when you are not in the game. Debating is hard even on a good day, and if you really watch objectively all Trump did was run his mouth and lie. He had to be reminded three times to answer the question. The level of happiness among the Populi? Right now, yes. In two weeks? Maybe not so much depending on how things play out. Humans have very short memories. On my planet we are not like that. :P
Project 2025 "toxic" to voters? I should hope so! We are really in a bad way if a plan to make the U.S. in effect a member of the Putin-Orban axis isn't toxic to most. My concern is that such a demented project could even have been seriously broached in the first place. I'm sure no one would have dared raise the topic during the Roosevelt years, or during the Kennedy years, or even during the Clinton or Obama years.
There is a lesson to be learned from this, however, and it may come as a bit of a silver lining to those of us who have for many years been critical of the U.S.' massive defense spending. The U.S. has never spent more on defense than it is spending now. . .and it has never been less secure, at least since the Second World War. (Perhaps even then). The total defense budget for the most recent fiscal year, 2024, was $883.7B, a sum I find shocking even to contemplate. This $883.7B is more than the total spent on defense by the next ten biggest defense spenders COMBINED, including Russia, France, Germany, and the U.K. It is also the largest single discretionary spending item in the U.S.' budget. And yet, for all this massive amount spending, the country is less secure than it has been for the past 79 years--for the lifetimes of most readers of your column, Heather.
Conclusion? The degree of security enjoyed by any given society bears little if any relationship to the amount it spends on defense or to the proportion of its resources devoted to defense. What I would suggest is that security will be found when we have an educated populace, we do not have gross economic inequalities to promote serious internal conflict, and we have broad consensus on the country's basic values and on what the country is prepared to do to maintain those values. The proportion of its resources a society devotes to education is likely a better indicator of its security than the proportion devoted to military spending. From the 1940s through the 1960s, most of those things cited above applied to most of the country, with the notable exception of Black people. Now, however, education has greatly deteriorated, economic inequality has greatly increased, and there is little consensus even about the most basic values, such as adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law and the notion that no one should be above the law. With a bitterly divided populace, many of whom are poorly educated and far too many of whom live in abject poverty, conditions are ripe for dictatorship an demagoguery of all sorts.
I can see no reason why defense spending has been allowed to dominate the economy as it has. The only possible rationale I can find, and it is a flimsy one, is that defense spending is the one acceptable form of large-scale federal spending to many people (mostly right-wingers). And defense spending did help break us out of the Great Depression. But that was 85 years ago. Now, it is generally acknowledged that defense spending is among the least effective ways of creating employment. A farsighted economist named Seymour Melman, who would have been Treasury Secretary had George McGovern been elected President, did a whole series of calculations and found that infrastructure, health care, and education all gave a good deal more "bang per buck" than military spending. And yet it is these areas that have been cut to the bone, while defense spending has been allowed to soar, to the point that it will soon pass the $1 TRILLION mark.
Hopefully there are a few folks out there willing and able to make the connection, and to translate it into practical policy terms. We simply cannot go on as we have been.The economy must be weaned off defense spending through widespread conversion plans, so that the people's real needs can at last be met
Whether true or not? I would say "looks and acts old" is an accurate description. He IS old--already four years older than anyone else who ever served. (That President, Ronald Reagan, was hardly a poster boy for older Presidents.. . .his dementia was well advanced by the end of his second term).
I will vote for whomever the Democrats nominate, but I hope and pray it is NOT Harris. She has not inspired in any way in her time as VP, though she was a very good Senator. A far better choice for the country's first female President would be Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has consistently outpolled Biden in Michigan and who demonstrated courage aplenty during the COVID pandemic.
I like reading the columns AND then hearing them read. Heather, your basic sanity, decency, and sturdy good sense come through loud and clear in your voice.
I read the print copy andmust of somehow signed up for the audio .I do NOT need it and do not want to jeopardize my email version but making a mistatke in how unsibscriber for the podcast?
Look at what General Marshall did to hold Communism at bay in Europe after WW II--you will find lots of good possibilities for restoring some degree of order, sanity, decency and civility to the U.S.
There's something seriously wrong when a country spends over $880B annually on defense, as the U.S. does, and something like Project 2025 is able to emerge. If even 10% of this monstrous defense budget were added to education, you might have a citizenry educated enough that no one would dare introduce such a monstrous idea into public debate.
So why don't we all lobby our local NPR stations to air Letters from an American? I just called OPB to do just that and the member experience manager was open to learning more. While on the phone he opened Heather's substack and promised to speak to the programmers about airing the podcast. I will be following up. Now I plan to call each local college radio station with the same suggestion. We need Heather's voice permeating the airwaves with the reality of who America really is. An authoritarian theocracy we are not.
Will we have NPR in a second Trump administration?
Very good question. Exactly why we should all speak up NOW.
To save our democracy & the environment.
Project 2025 has specific plans laid out for NPR and you can read them in that document. Check the table of contents for page numbers. The have plans to "reform" education at all levels.
‘For my part,’ over the last few days, listening to HCR here at LFAA, watching her ‘Politics Chat, July 2, 2024’ on Facebook, viewing some of the professor’s recent press interviews, as well as contemplating posts of Substack author Robert B. Hubbell of Today's Edition Newsletter, among those of others, including thoughtful comments of readers along the way—I knew the time had come to cancel my NY Times subscription. So last night, I wrote a letter to the editorial board expressing the cause for my exit.
For those who may be inclined to express themselves about the media frenzy and lethargy, following is an email address to The NY Times editorial board, as one option: editorial@nytimes.com
My letter read as follows, where my email and mailing address were also provided:
July 4, 2024
Dear Editorial Board of The New York Times,
The NY Times has lost its way. This is not new although the degree to which it has fallen is grave. It will be a tragic day if Trump is elected in November—for the press, and for the American people. Although apparently, The Times is advocating for this, for its temporary profitable gain, to its ultimate loss of integrity.
Sowing chaos about Biden's age and fitness for office, with a torrent of disinformation about he who is the most effective president in 75 years is unconscionable. The voice of the editorial board, its editor and publisher dutifully covers up the misdeeds of a convicted felon and his remarkable ineptitude to ever again hold the office of president. The silence is deafening, and lays bare the truth of the fall of The NY Times journalism.
On this day when we commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, its endurance is not promised. The dereliction of duty by the media threatens this covenant “of the people, by the people, for the people.”
How profoundly The New York Times has strayed from illuminating the truth and abdicated its commitment to serving as ‘the newspaper of record.’ At this perilous time in its history, and in the history of our nation—a grave moment indeed.
It is therefore fitting today that I cancel my subscription to The New York Times.
Regrettably,
Jean Tesoriero
_______________________________________
And then by going to the ‘manage subscription’ section of my online account, I proceeded to complete my cancellation where I included an abbreviated version of my letter given its 400-character limit.
Liberating actions. With more awaiting me.
I did this same thing months ago. I suspect there will be quite a few more who drop them.
Your words help a lot, Jean. Thank you. I, too, now know how to cancel my NYT subscription.
Just canceled.
At the end of your first paragraph I thought you were going to say: No idea where she gets the time and energy and sheer intellectual ability and clarity of mind to do all that.
On a positive note, the Times still makes good kindling.
"We are taking our country back. . ." Back to the Middle Ages.
Thank you, Heather, for showing us with painful clarity who the enemy is. Now, the question is, how do we go about destroying that enemy, so it can never rise up again in this country?
Hopefully it will be possible, at the very least, to halt the flow of funds from Hungary into the U.S.
What else can we do about this fascist government and its attempt to destroy democracy in North America? My father and many other fathers and uncles of readers of this column fought against the axis in WW II. Now, Roberts, Heritage, and Orban would make the U.S. part of a new Axis.
The attempt must be stopped by any means necessary!
How does Biden expect to survive when he isn't even willing to use all the powers available to him pre-immunity-decision? For all that we've heard, he appears to be prepared to sit idly by while Roberts, Orban, and their fascist ilk openly plan a coup d'etat against democratic governance in the U.S.
Even without invoking immunity, which in my view he would have ample ground to do, he can do a lot to block this proposed coup. Among other things, he can have Orban declared a terrorist and the Hungarian government declared a terrorist organization. Needless to say, he should recall the American ambassador from Budapest and break off diplomatic relations. And he can impose tough economic sanctions. In addition, he can block any transfer of funds from the Hungarian government to the U.S., and have any agents of the Hungarian government still in the U.S. deported. As for Roberts, who has issued a threat right out of a Grade "D" Western--everybody get up against the wall with your hands up and nobody will get hurt--he has already committed a felony in my view. Biden would have ample grounds for having him held without bail for issuing threats. . .even without using immunity.
Are Biden and the wood pussies in the Attorney General's office even aware of the gravity of this situation? Nothing about their conduct to date would suggest they are. Have these people no sense of self-preservation? Are we going to be held hostage by a 4th rate punk dictator? Joe, for Jesus Christ's sake, DO SOMETHING.
How is it that the Heritage Foundation qualifies as a 501(3)c charitable organization?
Given the threat its President just issued, it could more properly be classified as a terrorist organization. And should be.
Please talk about the Gish Gallop, a questionable format that was used in the debate with Trump. I am also curious as to how the draw was conducted and why the Biden administration agreed to it.
The 'Gish Gallop' is SOP for DJT... A profoundly Ignorant Cartoon Caricature of a 'Leader'... DJT has been elevated, and produced by the MSM in the interest of short-term profits, and not the Common-Good... The 'Gish-Gallop' is proof of the old saying, 'If You Can't Dazzle Them With Brilliance, Than Baffle Them With B*S*t!!!'
I have to wonder then why the administration agreed to it. I mean you really have to be on your toes on almost every subject to be the #2 to answer the question.
I had never heard the word Gish Gallop until HCR called it out here. I'm horrified that the DEM speech coaches didn't prep Biden for it!!! Unbelievable! Did they really not foresee that Trump would not follow rules? Heather says you CAN talk back to Gish gallop but you have to be prepared.
Honestly, all Biden would have had to do was to not be so decent! Because he was off guard, he got frustrated. He could have started every response with a forcefull:
"Stop it! Your lying again!"
" Can you say nothing but lies, lies and more lies?"
"Lies again! Don't you have anything else to offer?".
"Come on man, stop with the lies!"
Etc, etc., etc. Every time!
Biden needed to verbally slap Trump down with one of the above, then go forward in normal tone of voice to say want he wanted to say:. I say "Grrr, to his coaches!"
That format never should have been agreed to, if it was agreed to. The questions should have alternated between both parties. I am trying to find out how the debate was structured and why.
Didn't Biden suggest it?
Mis-Management, and Hubris...
True, someone wasn't on the ball with this and should be fired. I'm not sure about the hubris part, Biden has been doing a job even a young president couldn't manage. He does need to stop trying to do it all himself. I think that's the problem.
What is key, is the level of unhappiness among the Populi.... The DJT reign basking in a Golden Glow? How can that be? Someone should have helped prepare Biden by playing DJT with his lack of listening, and Gish-Gallop... The most spirited segment was when they were arguing over their Golf Scores... Pathetic...
Perhaps, but it's always easy to criticize when you are not in the game. Debating is hard even on a good day, and if you really watch objectively all Trump did was run his mouth and lie. He had to be reminded three times to answer the question. The level of happiness among the Populi? Right now, yes. In two weeks? Maybe not so much depending on how things play out. Humans have very short memories. On my planet we are not like that. :P
Is there any way I can get a transcript so that I'm able to read the Letter. Please let me know. Than you! Judi
Hit the transcript button on the like bar.
Saving for later. Thank you for your incredible work!
Project 2025 "toxic" to voters? I should hope so! We are really in a bad way if a plan to make the U.S. in effect a member of the Putin-Orban axis isn't toxic to most. My concern is that such a demented project could even have been seriously broached in the first place. I'm sure no one would have dared raise the topic during the Roosevelt years, or during the Kennedy years, or even during the Clinton or Obama years.
There is a lesson to be learned from this, however, and it may come as a bit of a silver lining to those of us who have for many years been critical of the U.S.' massive defense spending. The U.S. has never spent more on defense than it is spending now. . .and it has never been less secure, at least since the Second World War. (Perhaps even then). The total defense budget for the most recent fiscal year, 2024, was $883.7B, a sum I find shocking even to contemplate. This $883.7B is more than the total spent on defense by the next ten biggest defense spenders COMBINED, including Russia, France, Germany, and the U.K. It is also the largest single discretionary spending item in the U.S.' budget. And yet, for all this massive amount spending, the country is less secure than it has been for the past 79 years--for the lifetimes of most readers of your column, Heather.
Conclusion? The degree of security enjoyed by any given society bears little if any relationship to the amount it spends on defense or to the proportion of its resources devoted to defense. What I would suggest is that security will be found when we have an educated populace, we do not have gross economic inequalities to promote serious internal conflict, and we have broad consensus on the country's basic values and on what the country is prepared to do to maintain those values. The proportion of its resources a society devotes to education is likely a better indicator of its security than the proportion devoted to military spending. From the 1940s through the 1960s, most of those things cited above applied to most of the country, with the notable exception of Black people. Now, however, education has greatly deteriorated, economic inequality has greatly increased, and there is little consensus even about the most basic values, such as adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law and the notion that no one should be above the law. With a bitterly divided populace, many of whom are poorly educated and far too many of whom live in abject poverty, conditions are ripe for dictatorship an demagoguery of all sorts.
I can see no reason why defense spending has been allowed to dominate the economy as it has. The only possible rationale I can find, and it is a flimsy one, is that defense spending is the one acceptable form of large-scale federal spending to many people (mostly right-wingers). And defense spending did help break us out of the Great Depression. But that was 85 years ago. Now, it is generally acknowledged that defense spending is among the least effective ways of creating employment. A farsighted economist named Seymour Melman, who would have been Treasury Secretary had George McGovern been elected President, did a whole series of calculations and found that infrastructure, health care, and education all gave a good deal more "bang per buck" than military spending. And yet it is these areas that have been cut to the bone, while defense spending has been allowed to soar, to the point that it will soon pass the $1 TRILLION mark.
Hopefully there are a few folks out there willing and able to make the connection, and to translate it into practical policy terms. We simply cannot go on as we have been.The economy must be weaned off defense spending through widespread conversion plans, so that the people's real needs can at last be met
I will vote for Kamala Harris for the first female United States President who is ready to succeed Joe Biden.
President Joe Biden deserves our accolades for his accomplishments but, whether true or not..
he looks and acts old.
Whether true or not? I would say "looks and acts old" is an accurate description. He IS old--already four years older than anyone else who ever served. (That President, Ronald Reagan, was hardly a poster boy for older Presidents.. . .his dementia was well advanced by the end of his second term).
I will vote for whomever the Democrats nominate, but I hope and pray it is NOT Harris. She has not inspired in any way in her time as VP, though she was a very good Senator. A far better choice for the country's first female President would be Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has consistently outpolled Biden in Michigan and who demonstrated courage aplenty during the COVID pandemic.
“It’s simple: recalling history, we act in the present, for a future that can and will be much better.” -Tim Snyder
https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/how-to-stop-fascism?r=44kjm&utm_medium=ios
I like reading the columns AND then hearing them read. Heather, your basic sanity, decency, and sturdy good sense come through loud and clear in your voice.
I read the print copy andmust of somehow signed up for the audio .I do NOT need it and do not want to jeopardize my email version but making a mistatke in how unsibscriber for the podcast?
BUT you can cancel that part for me.
Thanks love it keep up the good work.
Bets Weaver
I agree. Let's get NPR to air Letters from an American. I'm working on it
Look at what General Marshall did to hold Communism at bay in Europe after WW II--you will find lots of good possibilities for restoring some degree of order, sanity, decency and civility to the U.S.
There's something seriously wrong when a country spends over $880B annually on defense, as the U.S. does, and something like Project 2025 is able to emerge. If even 10% of this monstrous defense budget were added to education, you might have a citizenry educated enough that no one would dare introduce such a monstrous idea into public debate.