To Dr. Richardson, and all of these intelligent and erudite commenters, thank you SO much for bringing me the clarity I so desperately crave in these times. I’ve been reading your newsletter since late last fall and it has been the one thing I so eagerly await each morning.
If I may: my father, John Ensor Harr, passed away in November of 2004. He was an amazing man who not only served his country in World War II (although not in combat), but also as a dedicated civil servant for many years. While working to obtain his MA, and finally his PhD (in Political Science and Public Administration no less!) he was an Attaché d’Embassy in Tel Aviv and Bonn, a research associate for the Herter Committee in ‘62-‘63, and was Director of the Office of Management Planning in the US Department of State. He enjoyed a great many other public service and civic activities as well, and was an amazing writer on top of all that (‘Dark Eagle’, a novel of Benedict Arnold and the American Revolution, was his magnum opus).
I bring my Dad up in remembrance of him and his amazing achievements in light of the upcoming Fathers Day holiday, but also as he is the one I think of, each and every day since his passing, regarding how much he has missed. He would have been SO proud of President Obama. And would so revile the current situation with the buffoon in Chief we have now. My Dad taught me what it meant to embrace all people and to think progressively and intelligently. I so miss the opportunity to discuss these events with him. I am an educated man but nothing even close to what my father achieved. I have always had difficulty discussing politics with anyone, and that is why I write this, my inaugural comment, today to express my gratitude to all of you who do it so well for me. Thank you!
This is lovely. He sounds like an amazing man, and now I have to find "Dark Eagle." By the way, one of the things that made me want to expand this page was all the amazing stories people wrote to me about their parents after I talked about my mom being a WAC. Still working out the details, but I'm thinking to do a second column that lives here-- is NOT sent out by email because I hate cluttering people's inboxes-- where I can post cool stuff that doesn't belong in the Letters. Stories like your dad's, with permission of course, would go well there, I think. Anyway, glad you're along for the ride. After a long time when "smart" was denigrated, it seems it's making a comeback.
Dr. Richardson, I’m quite sure my father would be gratified to be recognized and acknowledged in whatever way you see fit; by all means feel free to share. I only barely scraped the surface of his story so I can embellish if you’d like :-)
Please feel free to have your agent (or yourself) reach out to me (at <bnchmark63 AT comcast DOT net>)with contact info and I will be happy to send a copy of “Dark Eagle” as I’m almost positive it’s out of print.
Thanks for doing this! Your email is the best source of sanity to touch each morning. As a two tour Army Special Forces disabled Vietnam Veteran, and a nearly 50 year career in applied behavioral science and leadership, as well as an amateur American History buff, I find your discussions highly informative. Your patriotism helps me remain proud of what America should stand for!
Thanks, Tim. Isn't it amazing how much behavioral science and history are overlapping in this political moment? It is illuminating, but also frightening.
I’m so happy to join this community. The letter is the first and usually only email I read in the morning. I need some solid ground to stand on each day and Heather’s insight and intelligence provides that. Thank you Heather 🙏
I echo the sentiment of so many others of how I look forward to starting my day with your newsletter. It grounds me, it educates me, and reassures me that, while it won't be easy, we will get through this...how long that takes remains to be seen. So, thank you for the time, energy, intellect, and emotion that you put into this daily newsletter that I share with family and friends quite often. I will continue to look forward to my daily read as well as, now, joining this wonderful community of like minded individuals. Cheers to you!
Thank you. Isn't it cool, though, how many people really want to see this kind of public discussion? So many have suggested that the world now turns on sound bites, but it's clear a lot of us would actually like to understand our world.
Yes! Great point. There are so many of us who do want more than sound bites but that is all we get offered most of the time. Glad to be here with others sharing full sentences.
True. Events are moving at dizzying speed, and it is easy to fall prey to the Twitter take. (Full disclosure, I am active on Twitter). Taking the time to read and truly understand the issues is vital as we fight for democracy.
A big part of the reason I appreciate you is that I believe that you are telling the truth - the simple unvarnished truth, as in:
"This happened today, then this, and also the unprecedented this."
I liken your truth-telling to mentioning that you ate Raisin Bran at breakfast. It doesn't seem as if you have an agenda other than to tell us what happened and how it may be significant. After so many years of gas-lighting and most of my family members continuing to disregard the truth and their own moral compasses, I am grateful for your doses of reality. You are not telling me things I necessarily wish to hear, but you are telling the truth, and that means a great deal.
I am extremely concerned about the moves that the Senate and administration flunkies are going to be making in the coming months, not only to attempt to shore up power as the behavior of the POTUS becomes more and more deranged--suing news outlets for presenting polls showing him as losing is the least scary of what I am sure they are prepared to do--but also to preserve their own power in the face of a likely Democratic overthrow of the GOP Senate majority if Biden wins. Every campaign this year, from the most local to the most national, is vital to the survival of anything resembling democracy in the USA. Voter suppression, I predict, is going to be rampant in Republican-governed states not only in the South but also in the Midwest (Iowa being an example right now of a GOP-controlled legislature upset that voting went TOO SMOOTHLY on Tuesday and they want to make it more difficult). Trump having his first rally in Tulsa is a perfect historical moment: a conjunction of the racist past and the racist present of a racist state creating a cataclysm.
Is it November yet? This is exhausting. As an aside, I hope you know how much we all appreciate your daily updates - they are either the first thing I read in the morning or the last thing I read at night. I'd love to see some opinion essays with your take on the future political implications of this administration, because even if (when?) Trump loses, the larger problem is that roughly 40% of the country will still think he's a great idea.
First thing in the morning for me given the time difference. We have nearly 2 years to wait in order to do something about our governance here in France. I subscribed to join the discussion of the future as well as the lessons from past and very recent history
November won't be the end of this, alas. There are almost 3 months between election and inauguration, and until the new Congress is sworn in the Trump toads can do a lot of damage. Oops didn't mean to insult toads...
I don't see Trump's call for 'Law and Order' working -- particularly since vandalism and looting have tapered off this week. It is curious to me that Trump continues to pander to his base, even as his base appears to be shrinking. Perhaps this is his only play, realizing he cannot convert middle-ground independents.
Is his strategy to energize his hard-core followers to delegitimize the coming November election and help him stay in power? Or, is this just a reflection of his never-give-an-inch mentality? The crack in his relationship with the military is encouraging. I will be more encouraged when more than two GOP senators express opposition or actually endorse Biden.
This is such a great question. Why is he doubling down on hard-core reactionaries? Personally, I think the only thing that explains it is his narcissism. He has to be adored, but is not willing to put in the effort to do anything to BE adored. So he keeps painting himself farther and farther into a corner. Unfortunately, that puts him in the position of demanding absolute loyalty from those folks, and they will be willing to give it. It's actually a common psychological pattern for rising authoritarian figures.
I honestly believe (from what I've observed of DJT) that he cannot see beyond his own self-image. There is no strategy, other than what others try to tell him and he brushes most of that off because he's smart and stuff. This election MAY be a crushing defeat, not only for him but for the entire GOP. At least I can hope that cooler minds will ultimately prevail.
P.S. I'm the one on Facebook who goes by Стивен Головнин.
I'm sure that Gov. Inslee's reply "A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington State's business.'Stoop' tweeting." And Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan's response "Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker" made Mr. Trump love us even more out here on the left coast.
Thank You, Heather, for all the time and effort put into reading the days news, summarizing it so well and putting it in historical context - whether that is the history of centuries, decades, months or last week. Each week seems like a decade these days!
Doesn't it?!? When I went out for a walk yesterday at 3:30, I had three topics to write about. As I was walking, my sister texted with the CNN news, and it was all downhill from there. By 10:00, I knew it was going to be a 3 am night. Cannot wait for the days when we can ignore the news periodically, again.
True, right now it's like watching a toddler. Look away for three minutes and suddenly your kitchen floor has paint all over it from a can you didn't even know you had.
oh dear god, to have a president who doesn't require our constant attention to believe he is still alive. to wake up not fearing turning on the computer and hearing some new heinous bullshit that he did in the middle of the night.
Yeah, I am actually working on some scripts but I have to keep the news threads running concurrently bec I can't settle into writing if I am too anxious about what he does while I'm offline. One of the other things I try to stay on top of is hitting the sound bites-o-disinfo with fact data as soon as they appear so they can't gain traction. It works but damn it demands attention.
Please don’t give up Gayle!! I admire the fortitude of those who know and are able to punch back with real facts. My wife can do it but I somehow am unable to keep up. “Sound bites-o-disinfo” lol. Love it!
I agree . I also am relieved to know the nation has been through s$!t before and come out of it , sometimes better. This has helped with my persistent anxiety over what’s happening and feeling like I’m on my own. President Andy Congress clearly don’t care.
I see things pop up through the day, and often my first though is “it’ll be interesting to see how Heather’s going to untangle this tonight.” I so rely on your ability to root out the disinformation, synthesize the real meat of what’s going on, tie in the historical components as they may apply, and present it in a way that doesn’t make my brain cramp.
I so appreciate you... and this space now, even more! Thank you!
What would it require to impeach Barr? Sufficient numbers of legal minds are opposed to his actions that there appears to be cause and evidence to impeach him.
Pretty much the same procedure as the president, with the same problem: the Senate would never vote to convict. An AG has never been impeached before. But Barr is undermining the rule of law, and that is terribly dangerous.
I haven't been able to watch your Tuesday live streams because of work, and and I'm sure you covered this concern. What happens if he refuses to leave office when/if he loses in November? (My brain has an image of a petulant Trump being dragged out of the Oval Office kicking and screaming as officers pry his fingers off the door jamb. It gets me through the day. Don't judge😉) Can you please point me to a video where you've addressed this? I look forward to reading your letter every morning.Thank you for helping me keep my sanity.
All the videos are on her FB page and also on her You tube channel, where they are separated into the two streams. I don't remember exactly which Tuesday session covered this but it was early. Likely in the first 3. I encourage you to watch these .... so good!
I think she did reply to that. My understanding is that on January 21, 2021, if mr. trump did not win the election, he is automatically and legally no longer the president.
Yes, I read somewhere that he gets automatically locked out of the nuclear codes and other security access at noon on Jan 20th. I hope that’s true because no, I don’t expect him to go peacefully either.
I still don't know how properly to nest threads, so bear with me. I have answered whether or not he can cancel an election (the answer is no). It was the very first thing I did on the very first Tuesday talk. But I have never said what would happen if he refuses to leave, because I am always against borrowing trouble. I have maintained that he might well resign before the election, and I still think that's a real possibility. But, that being said, last week showed us that the military will not support him should he try to stay, and that was always my concern (even though I have a lot of faith in the military standing by the Constitution. It has a long history of tradition, and that really matters, I think. ICE doesn't have that, which worries me.). If he refuses to concede the election, the real question is the Senate, which officially counts the electoral vote. The person in charge of that officially will be Chuck Grassley, but it's pretty clear McConnell calls the shots these days. If he agrees with Trump that the election was "rigged," what happens next? This is why protecting the vote and making it overwhelming is so important. Also, by the way, flipping the Senate.
My bet is ee'll resign so Pence can pardon him. He's deathly afraid of the very real possibility he ends his life in an orange jumpsuit in an 8x10 windowless cell. We have to remember that at his core, he's a coward.
Hence the impotence of getting at his financial records and why he is blocking as hard as he can. His lawyers will still be able to inordinately delay matters in 2021. What is he risking for current state crime investigations? Pence can still deal with the federal stuff like Ford did for Nixon.
Could a President Pence pardon an impeached president? Article II, sec. 2, #1 says the president has powers of pardon "except in Cases of Impeachment." Ford could pardon Nixon because he was never actually impeached, so the meaning of this clause was not tested at that time.
I wonder if he would be welcomed in any other country. Oh, yeah--Russia. I wonder if they have very many golf courses there. If they do, the golfing season would be much shorter than at Mar-a-Lago.
I'm equally concerned about what a Trump election loss would mean for the period between November and January 20th. When he doesn't even need to appeal to his base. Seems to be an opportune time for maximum grifting and intentionally creating (more) mayhem.
Are there any provisions in place to keep an outdoing president from going off the rails post-election?
The 40% won't be going away and need to be reintegrated...which doesn't mean "re-educated" . Better education of their children...and all children would indeed help. A Biden government must address some of their underlying fears in order to show them that they are not being "left behind"
But we have ALL been left behind as the rich and ultra-rich have gobbled the earth for stuff. A Green New Deal barely begins a turn toward a more just and possibly sustainable future
Then we have something in common withe those currently supporting trump significantly reduced inequality, better social/medical services and improved education will help heal the divide
I have worked amongst low income trump supporters. The sociological aspect of why people think like they do to me is so interesting (even tho I harshly disagree with their thoughts). I agree with HCR position if a person believes something then it’s like a waist of time to try and enlighten them. Your point to me is a well founded concern.
Accepting an ideology is always an excuse not to think for oneself if one is of course capable of such. If you try to counter ideology with facts and reason you are threatening their foundations. It would be interesting to study the ethnic origins (of the first generation of immigrants) of those supporting Trump to see the proportion of Scots/Irish. I'm a Scot/Anglo myself.
I had the opportunity to do a little research on cults recently. There are particular personality traits that many followers share, most notably investment in an authoritarian ideology. Tons of fascinating research out there, some suggests there may be more nature than nurture driving this ideology.
I am always a little wary of personality trait studies as they always seem to be negative, always concentrating on things you don't have enough of! However, a profile in these terms of "trumpians" would be interesting. I prefer jungian psychological type when trying to understand How people function. Neither are however a great help with more serious psychoses.
Stuart, do you know Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy? It's based in Jungian psychology, and is wonderful. His "Fifth Business" is one of my favorite books of all time (and I read it before I became a historian, so I don't think the fact the main character is a historian was the attraction!).
I don't know that novel of his. I use the Myers Briggs a lot when i'm helping people sort themselves out, understand how they and others function. I ran the world-wide users association from Washington for a while
I should imagine that he is only expressing what he has heard in whatever bar/dive/club he frquents. One cannot imagine for a moment that he personally has any understanding of the historical significance of the words he's using and what is worse...he doesn't care!
His father was, i think a first generation immigrant from a germany that was going through chaotic times and part of the populationat was certainly prone to such attitudes
What always astonishes me, with Trump and with people like him on Twitter, is their assumption that they are entitled to say whatever they want, and that people are obligated to listen. Not even just about race... about everything. Every once in awhile, someone lectures the author of a screenplay about how the screenplay doesn't REALLY say what the author thinks, for example,... and I am just gobsmacked at the hubris. (FWIW, Abraham Lincoln's successor Andrew Johnson lectured formerly enslaved people in 1865 about how they didn't actually understand slavery, so I guess that attitude is not new.)
"Mansplaining" comes in many varieties. In my experience as an author, it's always men doing this. As a man, I have the privilege of replying "Someone is supposed to pay attention to your ignorant drivel?" Which I do.
Re Trump's saying whatever he wants to say, there are a lot of people who say that Trump is mistreated by the media, etc., including Trump. My reaction is that he is the first politician in my memory, especially one aspiring to the presidency, who has continuously made offensive remarks in public fora about other politicians, public figures, and their families.
There are plenty of historical and current examples in dictatorships the world. One can also, closer to home. just read what McCarthy would say in the 50s
Just like the people who would shut us up because our words/thoughts/deeds offend them...but their words/thoughts/deeds are of course the absolute truth and our offense is unacceptable discrimination or proof of "fascist attitudes"
his father was the son of a German immigrant who made the family fortune as a pimp during the Alaska gold rush. With the Trumps, it's in their DNA. Pimp to mobbed-up racist pig to mobbed-up racist son.
Therein lies his appeal to the unwavering 35%: he is speaking their language and it resonates with them. I made a similar observation earlier, but it seems to be far removed from your comment. Still learning how to thread conversations here. :-/.
I first started reading your column on facebook and then I deleted that frustrating antisocial site when the 'bots banned me for "hate speech" when I referred to the ppl who killed Ahmaud Arbery as "white monsters." Why would they allow algorithms who cannot discern nuances of speech have the power of banning without human supervision? Now, missing my cyberfriends there my online habits have changed and this column is helpful in kicking the FB addiction.
I am on FB because that's where the majority of the disinformation happened in 2016. Hoping to crowd a bit of it out by taking up oxygen there. But it is a ferocious fight-- someone zaps trolls and bots on my site all day.
You have to stay on FaceBook for another reason, as well. It's where grandparents follow their grandchildren, so a good way to reach the aging and/or retired boomers. I can't remember how I found you, but I remember when you posted only occasionally and often on holidays of national significance. I shared your posts with everyone I knew, as I suspect your other followers did, and over the course of a few short months watched your list of followers explode. Having lived through so many political heartbreaks -- the assasinations of the '60s, the short-lived Carter administration, which advanced ecological awareness and action, the pushback against the ERA and the birth duplicitous Family Values movement and its integration of evangelicals, to name a few -- you and your forum and its followers give me hope that there is a new silent majority emerging. Also, you make this all so very interesting and help us feel more knowledgeable than we would otherwise; I appreciate being able to argue more effectively in political discussions among friends and family.
On FB I don't push back, because they won't listen, no matter what I say. Now I simply block them instead of responding or trying to argue a point. That said, I long ago deleted my Twitter account when some scary-looking accounts started hounding me there after I posted a few anti-fascist / anti-racist thoughts they didn't like.
Yeah, but when the bots ban you there is no posting or even news of why you are not posting. And, if you have a rap sheet the bans are often for 30 days like I got in 2018 when I posted Burt Reynolds iconic 1972 pic from Cosmopolitan. FB admitted the 'bots a mistake and they "said" they would put all those pix back - but they didn't - I had to sit idle for a month. I was gonna delete the site then, but my friends convinced me to stay. But frustration is incremental and this time I said enuf.
To Dr. Richardson, and all of these intelligent and erudite commenters, thank you SO much for bringing me the clarity I so desperately crave in these times. I’ve been reading your newsletter since late last fall and it has been the one thing I so eagerly await each morning.
If I may: my father, John Ensor Harr, passed away in November of 2004. He was an amazing man who not only served his country in World War II (although not in combat), but also as a dedicated civil servant for many years. While working to obtain his MA, and finally his PhD (in Political Science and Public Administration no less!) he was an Attaché d’Embassy in Tel Aviv and Bonn, a research associate for the Herter Committee in ‘62-‘63, and was Director of the Office of Management Planning in the US Department of State. He enjoyed a great many other public service and civic activities as well, and was an amazing writer on top of all that (‘Dark Eagle’, a novel of Benedict Arnold and the American Revolution, was his magnum opus).
I bring my Dad up in remembrance of him and his amazing achievements in light of the upcoming Fathers Day holiday, but also as he is the one I think of, each and every day since his passing, regarding how much he has missed. He would have been SO proud of President Obama. And would so revile the current situation with the buffoon in Chief we have now. My Dad taught me what it meant to embrace all people and to think progressively and intelligently. I so miss the opportunity to discuss these events with him. I am an educated man but nothing even close to what my father achieved. I have always had difficulty discussing politics with anyone, and that is why I write this, my inaugural comment, today to express my gratitude to all of you who do it so well for me. Thank you!
This is lovely. He sounds like an amazing man, and now I have to find "Dark Eagle." By the way, one of the things that made me want to expand this page was all the amazing stories people wrote to me about their parents after I talked about my mom being a WAC. Still working out the details, but I'm thinking to do a second column that lives here-- is NOT sent out by email because I hate cluttering people's inboxes-- where I can post cool stuff that doesn't belong in the Letters. Stories like your dad's, with permission of course, would go well there, I think. Anyway, glad you're along for the ride. After a long time when "smart" was denigrated, it seems it's making a comeback.
Dr. Richardson, I’m quite sure my father would be gratified to be recognized and acknowledged in whatever way you see fit; by all means feel free to share. I only barely scraped the surface of his story so I can embellish if you’d like :-)
Please feel free to have your agent (or yourself) reach out to me (at <bnchmark63 AT comcast DOT net>)with contact info and I will be happy to send a copy of “Dark Eagle” as I’m almost positive it’s out of print.
Thanks for doing this! Your email is the best source of sanity to touch each morning. As a two tour Army Special Forces disabled Vietnam Veteran, and a nearly 50 year career in applied behavioral science and leadership, as well as an amateur American History buff, I find your discussions highly informative. Your patriotism helps me remain proud of what America should stand for!
Thanks, Tim. Isn't it amazing how much behavioral science and history are overlapping in this political moment? It is illuminating, but also frightening.
I’m so happy to join this community. The letter is the first and usually only email I read in the morning. I need some solid ground to stand on each day and Heather’s insight and intelligence provides that. Thank you Heather 🙏
Thanks for being here, Donna. It's really a collaborative effort.
I echo the sentiment of so many others of how I look forward to starting my day with your newsletter. It grounds me, it educates me, and reassures me that, while it won't be easy, we will get through this...how long that takes remains to be seen. So, thank you for the time, energy, intellect, and emotion that you put into this daily newsletter that I share with family and friends quite often. I will continue to look forward to my daily read as well as, now, joining this wonderful community of like minded individuals. Cheers to you!
Thank you. Isn't it cool, though, how many people really want to see this kind of public discussion? So many have suggested that the world now turns on sound bites, but it's clear a lot of us would actually like to understand our world.
Yes! Great point. There are so many of us who do want more than sound bites but that is all we get offered most of the time. Glad to be here with others sharing full sentences.
True. Events are moving at dizzying speed, and it is easy to fall prey to the Twitter take. (Full disclosure, I am active on Twitter). Taking the time to read and truly understand the issues is vital as we fight for democracy.
A big part of the reason I appreciate you is that I believe that you are telling the truth - the simple unvarnished truth, as in:
"This happened today, then this, and also the unprecedented this."
I liken your truth-telling to mentioning that you ate Raisin Bran at breakfast. It doesn't seem as if you have an agenda other than to tell us what happened and how it may be significant. After so many years of gas-lighting and most of my family members continuing to disregard the truth and their own moral compasses, I am grateful for your doses of reality. You are not telling me things I necessarily wish to hear, but you are telling the truth, and that means a great deal.
Thank you.
Many fewer than I would like to see, however
I am extremely concerned about the moves that the Senate and administration flunkies are going to be making in the coming months, not only to attempt to shore up power as the behavior of the POTUS becomes more and more deranged--suing news outlets for presenting polls showing him as losing is the least scary of what I am sure they are prepared to do--but also to preserve their own power in the face of a likely Democratic overthrow of the GOP Senate majority if Biden wins. Every campaign this year, from the most local to the most national, is vital to the survival of anything resembling democracy in the USA. Voter suppression, I predict, is going to be rampant in Republican-governed states not only in the South but also in the Midwest (Iowa being an example right now of a GOP-controlled legislature upset that voting went TOO SMOOTHLY on Tuesday and they want to make it more difficult). Trump having his first rally in Tulsa is a perfect historical moment: a conjunction of the racist past and the racist present of a racist state creating a cataclysm.
Your concerns are well-founded, I'm afraid.
Is it November yet? This is exhausting. As an aside, I hope you know how much we all appreciate your daily updates - they are either the first thing I read in the morning or the last thing I read at night. I'd love to see some opinion essays with your take on the future political implications of this administration, because even if (when?) Trump loses, the larger problem is that roughly 40% of the country will still think he's a great idea.
First thing in the morning for me given the time difference. We have nearly 2 years to wait in order to do something about our governance here in France. I subscribed to join the discussion of the future as well as the lessons from past and very recent history
Wish I were there!
November won't be the end of this, alas. There are almost 3 months between election and inauguration, and until the new Congress is sworn in the Trump toads can do a lot of damage. Oops didn't mean to insult toads...
I should imagine that, should he win, Biden and his team will examine each of Trump's appointments and executive orders to limit the dammage
I don't see Trump's call for 'Law and Order' working -- particularly since vandalism and looting have tapered off this week. It is curious to me that Trump continues to pander to his base, even as his base appears to be shrinking. Perhaps this is his only play, realizing he cannot convert middle-ground independents.
Is his strategy to energize his hard-core followers to delegitimize the coming November election and help him stay in power? Or, is this just a reflection of his never-give-an-inch mentality? The crack in his relationship with the military is encouraging. I will be more encouraged when more than two GOP senators express opposition or actually endorse Biden.
This is such a great question. Why is he doubling down on hard-core reactionaries? Personally, I think the only thing that explains it is his narcissism. He has to be adored, but is not willing to put in the effort to do anything to BE adored. So he keeps painting himself farther and farther into a corner. Unfortunately, that puts him in the position of demanding absolute loyalty from those folks, and they will be willing to give it. It's actually a common psychological pattern for rising authoritarian figures.
I honestly believe (from what I've observed of DJT) that he cannot see beyond his own self-image. There is no strategy, other than what others try to tell him and he brushes most of that off because he's smart and stuff. This election MAY be a crushing defeat, not only for him but for the entire GOP. At least I can hope that cooler minds will ultimately prevail.
P.S. I'm the one on Facebook who goes by Стивен Головнин.
Oh, hey, cool! Hi!
I'm sure that Gov. Inslee's reply "A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington State's business.'Stoop' tweeting." And Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan's response "Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker" made Mr. Trump love us even more out here on the left coast.
Thank You, Heather, for all the time and effort put into reading the days news, summarizing it so well and putting it in historical context - whether that is the history of centuries, decades, months or last week. Each week seems like a decade these days!
Doesn't it?!? When I went out for a walk yesterday at 3:30, I had three topics to write about. As I was walking, my sister texted with the CNN news, and it was all downhill from there. By 10:00, I knew it was going to be a 3 am night. Cannot wait for the days when we can ignore the news periodically, again.
True, right now it's like watching a toddler. Look away for three minutes and suddenly your kitchen floor has paint all over it from a can you didn't even know you had.
Hahaha!!! Exactly!
oh dear god, to have a president who doesn't require our constant attention to believe he is still alive. to wake up not fearing turning on the computer and hearing some new heinous bullshit that he did in the middle of the night.
I now sleep with my phone on, beside my bed. I hate it. But for now, anyway, it feels important to do.
Yeah, I am actually working on some scripts but I have to keep the news threads running concurrently bec I can't settle into writing if I am too anxious about what he does while I'm offline. One of the other things I try to stay on top of is hitting the sound bites-o-disinfo with fact data as soon as they appear so they can't gain traction. It works but damn it demands attention.
Please don’t give up Gayle!! I admire the fortitude of those who know and are able to punch back with real facts. My wife can do it but I somehow am unable to keep up. “Sound bites-o-disinfo” lol. Love it!
I agree . I also am relieved to know the nation has been through s$!t before and come out of it , sometimes better. This has helped with my persistent anxiety over what’s happening and feeling like I’m on my own. President Andy Congress clearly don’t care.
President Andy😞 Should say “President and Congress “
Yeah. We all recognize by now that autocorrect has a mind of its own. :)
I see things pop up through the day, and often my first though is “it’ll be interesting to see how Heather’s going to untangle this tonight.” I so rely on your ability to root out the disinformation, synthesize the real meat of what’s going on, tie in the historical components as they may apply, and present it in a way that doesn’t make my brain cramp.
I so appreciate you... and this space now, even more! Thank you!
What would it require to impeach Barr? Sufficient numbers of legal minds are opposed to his actions that there appears to be cause and evidence to impeach him.
Pretty much the same procedure as the president, with the same problem: the Senate would never vote to convict. An AG has never been impeached before. But Barr is undermining the rule of law, and that is terribly dangerous.
Well, I was under the impression that only elected officials could be impeached - but apparently not (learned something!).
I haven't been able to watch your Tuesday live streams because of work, and and I'm sure you covered this concern. What happens if he refuses to leave office when/if he loses in November? (My brain has an image of a petulant Trump being dragged out of the Oval Office kicking and screaming as officers pry his fingers off the door jamb. It gets me through the day. Don't judge😉) Can you please point me to a video where you've addressed this? I look forward to reading your letter every morning.Thank you for helping me keep my sanity.
All the videos are on her FB page and also on her You tube channel, where they are separated into the two streams. I don't remember exactly which Tuesday session covered this but it was early. Likely in the first 3. I encourage you to watch these .... so good!
I think she did reply to that. My understanding is that on January 21, 2021, if mr. trump did not win the election, he is automatically and legally no longer the president.
Yes, I read somewhere that he gets automatically locked out of the nuclear codes and other security access at noon on Jan 20th. I hope that’s true because no, I don’t expect him to go peacefully either.
I still don't know how properly to nest threads, so bear with me. I have answered whether or not he can cancel an election (the answer is no). It was the very first thing I did on the very first Tuesday talk. But I have never said what would happen if he refuses to leave, because I am always against borrowing trouble. I have maintained that he might well resign before the election, and I still think that's a real possibility. But, that being said, last week showed us that the military will not support him should he try to stay, and that was always my concern (even though I have a lot of faith in the military standing by the Constitution. It has a long history of tradition, and that really matters, I think. ICE doesn't have that, which worries me.). If he refuses to concede the election, the real question is the Senate, which officially counts the electoral vote. The person in charge of that officially will be Chuck Grassley, but it's pretty clear McConnell calls the shots these days. If he agrees with Trump that the election was "rigged," what happens next? This is why protecting the vote and making it overwhelming is so important. Also, by the way, flipping the Senate.
My bet is ee'll resign so Pence can pardon him. He's deathly afraid of the very real possibility he ends his life in an orange jumpsuit in an 8x10 windowless cell. We have to remember that at his core, he's a coward.
Pence can't pardon him for state crimes. That's why he's so worried about SDNY. If he resigns, I would expect he will leave the country.
Hence the impotence of getting at his financial records and why he is blocking as hard as he can. His lawyers will still be able to inordinately delay matters in 2021. What is he risking for current state crime investigations? Pence can still deal with the federal stuff like Ford did for Nixon.
Well, he has metaphorically already left the country.
Could a President Pence pardon an impeached president? Article II, sec. 2, #1 says the president has powers of pardon "except in Cases of Impeachment." Ford could pardon Nixon because he was never actually impeached, so the meaning of this clause was not tested at that time.
I wonder if he would be welcomed in any other country. Oh, yeah--Russia. I wonder if they have very many golf courses there. If they do, the golfing season would be much shorter than at Mar-a-Lago.
I'm equally concerned about what a Trump election loss would mean for the period between November and January 20th. When he doesn't even need to appeal to his base. Seems to be an opportune time for maximum grifting and intentionally creating (more) mayhem.
Are there any provisions in place to keep an outdoing president from going off the rails post-election?
The 40% won't be going away and need to be reintegrated...which doesn't mean "re-educated" . Better education of their children...and all children would indeed help. A Biden government must address some of their underlying fears in order to show them that they are not being "left behind"
Could you imagine if America spent as much on education as it does on the military?
If we’ve learned nothing else in the past three and a half years - this country needs to focus on education, big time.
Education, health, infrastructure....$700+B/yr is a lot of money.
But we have ALL been left behind as the rich and ultra-rich have gobbled the earth for stuff. A Green New Deal barely begins a turn toward a more just and possibly sustainable future
Then we have something in common withe those currently supporting trump significantly reduced inequality, better social/medical services and improved education will help heal the divide
Yes income inequality needs to be addressed!
If we can get there.
roll on November and vigilance about all manoevres to ruin or stop the election happening
Education is SO key. You cannot have democracy without it, and yes, it has been gutted since 1981.
I have worked amongst low income trump supporters. The sociological aspect of why people think like they do to me is so interesting (even tho I harshly disagree with their thoughts). I agree with HCR position if a person believes something then it’s like a waist of time to try and enlighten them. Your point to me is a well founded concern.
Accepting an ideology is always an excuse not to think for oneself if one is of course capable of such. If you try to counter ideology with facts and reason you are threatening their foundations. It would be interesting to study the ethnic origins (of the first generation of immigrants) of those supporting Trump to see the proportion of Scots/Irish. I'm a Scot/Anglo myself.
I had the opportunity to do a little research on cults recently. There are particular personality traits that many followers share, most notably investment in an authoritarian ideology. Tons of fascinating research out there, some suggests there may be more nature than nurture driving this ideology.
I am always a little wary of personality trait studies as they always seem to be negative, always concentrating on things you don't have enough of! However, a profile in these terms of "trumpians" would be interesting. I prefer jungian psychological type when trying to understand How people function. Neither are however a great help with more serious psychoses.
Stuart, do you know Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy? It's based in Jungian psychology, and is wonderful. His "Fifth Business" is one of my favorite books of all time (and I read it before I became a historian, so I don't think the fact the main character is a historian was the attraction!).
I don't know that novel of his. I use the Myers Briggs a lot when i'm helping people sort themselves out, understand how they and others function. I ran the world-wide users association from Washington for a while
Somehow I am still shocked by Trump's incredibly overt racism and his extremely fascist language.
I should imagine that he is only expressing what he has heard in whatever bar/dive/club he frquents. One cannot imagine for a moment that he personally has any understanding of the historical significance of the words he's using and what is worse...he doesn't care!
Remember his father was a racist. He learned racism and mobbing up from him.
His father was, i think a first generation immigrant from a germany that was going through chaotic times and part of the populationat was certainly prone to such attitudes
What always astonishes me, with Trump and with people like him on Twitter, is their assumption that they are entitled to say whatever they want, and that people are obligated to listen. Not even just about race... about everything. Every once in awhile, someone lectures the author of a screenplay about how the screenplay doesn't REALLY say what the author thinks, for example,... and I am just gobsmacked at the hubris. (FWIW, Abraham Lincoln's successor Andrew Johnson lectured formerly enslaved people in 1865 about how they didn't actually understand slavery, so I guess that attitude is not new.)
"Mansplaining" comes in many varieties. In my experience as an author, it's always men doing this. As a man, I have the privilege of replying "Someone is supposed to pay attention to your ignorant drivel?" Which I do.
Re Trump's saying whatever he wants to say, there are a lot of people who say that Trump is mistreated by the media, etc., including Trump. My reaction is that he is the first politician in my memory, especially one aspiring to the presidency, who has continuously made offensive remarks in public fora about other politicians, public figures, and their families.
There are plenty of historical and current examples in dictatorships the world. One can also, closer to home. just read what McCarthy would say in the 50s
Just like the people who would shut us up because our words/thoughts/deeds offend them...but their words/thoughts/deeds are of course the absolute truth and our offense is unacceptable discrimination or proof of "fascist attitudes"
his father was the son of a German immigrant who made the family fortune as a pimp during the Alaska gold rush. With the Trumps, it's in their DNA. Pimp to mobbed-up racist pig to mobbed-up racist son.
Therein lies his appeal to the unwavering 35%: he is speaking their language and it resonates with them. I made a similar observation earlier, but it seems to be far removed from your comment. Still learning how to thread conversations here. :-/.
I first started reading your column on facebook and then I deleted that frustrating antisocial site when the 'bots banned me for "hate speech" when I referred to the ppl who killed Ahmaud Arbery as "white monsters." Why would they allow algorithms who cannot discern nuances of speech have the power of banning without human supervision? Now, missing my cyberfriends there my online habits have changed and this column is helpful in kicking the FB addiction.
I am on FB because that's where the majority of the disinformation happened in 2016. Hoping to crowd a bit of it out by taking up oxygen there. But it is a ferocious fight-- someone zaps trolls and bots on my site all day.
You have to stay on FaceBook for another reason, as well. It's where grandparents follow their grandchildren, so a good way to reach the aging and/or retired boomers. I can't remember how I found you, but I remember when you posted only occasionally and often on holidays of national significance. I shared your posts with everyone I knew, as I suspect your other followers did, and over the course of a few short months watched your list of followers explode. Having lived through so many political heartbreaks -- the assasinations of the '60s, the short-lived Carter administration, which advanced ecological awareness and action, the pushback against the ERA and the birth duplicitous Family Values movement and its integration of evangelicals, to name a few -- you and your forum and its followers give me hope that there is a new silent majority emerging. Also, you make this all so very interesting and help us feel more knowledgeable than we would otherwise; I appreciate being able to argue more effectively in political discussions among friends and family.
LOVE the idea of a new silent majority!!!
I remain on Facebook for similar reasons. It's someplace I try to inject some pushback against trump supporters and false information in general.
On FB I don't push back, because they won't listen, no matter what I say. Now I simply block them instead of responding or trying to argue a point. That said, I long ago deleted my Twitter account when some scary-looking accounts started hounding me there after I posted a few anti-fascist / anti-racist thoughts they didn't like.
Yeah, but when the bots ban you there is no posting or even news of why you are not posting. And, if you have a rap sheet the bans are often for 30 days like I got in 2018 when I posted Burt Reynolds iconic 1972 pic from Cosmopolitan. FB admitted the 'bots a mistake and they "said" they would put all those pix back - but they didn't - I had to sit idle for a month. I was gonna delete the site then, but my friends convinced me to stay. But frustration is incremental and this time I said enuf.
I read your letter first thing every morning. Your analysis both frightens and comforts me. Thank you for being a sane voice in the chaos.
I’m so excited to be a part of this community! I go around quoting Dr Richardson a LOT.
Ditto, I love hearing from intelligent people. My wife and mother-in-law are the brains in my house. We are all HCR fans!
Not about today's post, but if you feel moved to write any opinion pieces on any topic whatsoever (The Pie Cuoboard) I am eager to read them!!!
Wish there was an edit feature! Cupboard.
Heh, heh, heh. One of my most popular FB posts is the one with my recipe for vodka pie crust (which I make with Fireball for apple pies).
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