Early in the morning on June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a 24-year-old security guard at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C., noticed that a door lock had been taped open.
President Nixon directed his henchmen, The Plumbers, H R for Harry Robbins “Bob” Haldeman and John Daniel Erlichman and AG John Newton Mitchell to prepare what became known as the Nixon Enemies List following the Ellsberg fracas... and many found themselves published there.
Diana Bonnor Lewis, my Nixon hating mother, was among them... she and her family were watched by the FBI of J. Edgar Hoover. That whole business caused me to pay attention... as a student.
Deep Throat was credited for feeding the WaPo reporters ... and I wondered who he might be. As I aged, I grew well connected and acted.
I found Deep Throat living in Santa Rosa, California, and called his isolated single frightened daughter, Joan Felt... repeatedly, till she answered.
W. Mark Felt was living in her garage... suffering with occasional aspirational pneumonia and from the rising damp in the walls of her garage.
It took a while to gain her confidence. John D. O’Connor, her incredible lawyer, helped. She had him call me.
She had three sons... to enhance their lives and their diminished pride in their heroic, courageous, ignored grandfather who had fed the downfall of Nixon - and been criminalised and pardoned... as his wife committed suicide with Felt’s service revolver in their kitchen -
I called California schools and we paid for their education with silent directed donations that became their scholarships.
We worked with colleagues and local construction people to drain the walls of that garage to address the mold caused by the rising damp, and sent in retired Harvard Medical School professors to address Mark’s health concerns, and Joan’s.
Along the way - well before, somehow... mysteriously, of course .. certain reporters not associated with WaPo learned the identity of William Mark Felt Sr., who had worked for the FBI.. So, Deep Throat was discovered, breaking the informational control monopoly of WaPo reporters Carl Milton Bernstein and Robert Upshur “Bob” Woodward... who had done nothing for Felt and his family, then living in poverty and unwell as their Pulitzer driven fame soared - crediting them with the disclosures that led the to outing the whole mess of Watergate Plumbers and the financiers, some 70 others to fame and fortune, some from jail - all working their stories - see John Wesley Dean III - George Gordon Battle Liddy Esq., et al - and turning their lemons to lemonade as Mark Felt faded out and died and his grand kids went on to live normal lives... free of the blinding light... of disclosure.
The Washington Post reporters were credited and made millions off the courage of one man and their newfound fame.
The suffering and suicide of that man’s wife and and the suffering and agony of their daughter - and her three boys - were ignored...
I am so glad you shared this here and want to see it in our history. I knew about Mark Felt but not the part about his family. This is great information to add to Heather's letter today. Thank you for caring about them.
Sandy, thanks for your service to the Felt family. It is a reminder that the important thing is to remember we are dealing with people, not just stories, ideologies, prizes, or egos.
Helping the wonderful Felt family helped me as much as it helped them. It was an honor to help a man whose courage and integrity saved us from Richard Nixon, Spiro “Ted” Agnew, and the fascist mob of then... that mob did not retire. Trump Inc., is CREEP and AG John N. Mitchell - then jailed. The beat goes on - a republic if you can keep it. Bill Barr is a fraud, too - and Mike Pence married to his Mother is another insipid ambitious mess.
I recoil every single time the clip plays of Barr fake laughing at that book written by D'Souza in the hearings. Attempts to distance himself from Team Crazy reak of oily self serving duplicity.
I wonder how many lives are being ruined by the Trump fiasco. Some deservedly so, but others not. I know one orange faced person whose life needs to be ruined behind bars. And soon.
Perhaps if actual, real history, could be included in the textbooks of our schools, and teachers and their students encouraged to carry on critical thinking conversations about real and actual choices made by nefarious, bigoted, individuals drooling over greed, power, and control of those they deem less than, what an enlightened world we might be. Naïve I suppose, but one can dream. The Gilded Age is alive and well. :/
W. Mark Felt was a gutsy genius, an honest FBI man with integrity, working within a corrupt administration under corrupt FBI Directors, threatened by the White House team of deadly killers, conspirators, hardened criminals with an evil racist fascist White House - the stress Felt endured landed at home, on his wife and her daughter, and all hell broke loose. Meanwhile, two hot shot celebrity craving reporters created their response and it paid them well to Hide the Hero - for W. Mark Felt was the story, and by hiding him from stardom they assured theirs. The WaPo team lathered themselves in MSM idolatry as they hid the star. These two deserve praise for reporting and opprobrium for ignoring our hero to enrich themselves.
Thank you for helping Mark Felt Sandy, and going above and beyond to help his family. He was a hero for sure. What a tragedy that he didn’t get the recognition he deserved when he was still alive. I’ve known about his story for some time, but what I didn’t know is how then WaPo reporters Bernstein & Woodward made millions off one man’s courage, one man who took incredible risks to himself and his family to do what was right for our country. Shame on them for not compensating Felt. If it wasn’t for Felt they would not have had the story.
For his part, let’s be clear, Deep Throat DID want anonymity. Desperately. He feared his own FBI and Watergate collaborators willing to kill him. Nixon was no saint. But fear evaporates in SUNSHINE, and once the tapes were outed, once Judge Sirica ruled, with the Saturday Night Massacre and Archibald Cox standing up, it was time. Felt deserved the Nation’s highest award, not indictment. He was shamed much like we are now shaming a man hiding in Moscow .. for his troubles. And another coming from England. We Americans have a long way to go.
Yes, Felt should have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Snowden should have received it as well. Snowden caught my eye because I did similar work in the army (ASA, 1966-70) but on a lower level. (My level was somewhere between Snowden and Manning.) Snowden is intelligent, patriotic, and courageous. He performed an heroic act for the American people. All Snowden is guilty of is telling the American people that their government is spying on them, recording their phone calls and monitoring their internet use. Big deal. I knew that 50 years ago. In the Army Security Agency, we had an open motto as written on our decal--"In God We Trust. Everyone else we monitor."
Thank you for this link! Just read it, and I feel better. Having vaguely, barely remembered Sussman, I can't stand the latest round of late night visitations from the remaining two. It takes a village....
Sandy: Have you shared this powerful story publicly? If not, or if you’d like to make it available in book form, I would like to help you. I have a small book publishing company and could shepherd you through the process of making an ebook, paperback and hardcover edition so that your knowledge would not be lost to history. No charge to you for this. You can reach me directly at eFitzgeraldPublishing@gmail.com.
Thank you Sandy, for bringing Mark Felt back into the picture. Unfortunately, a government that lies to its people is not soon found out. As a result me and a bunch of my friends (hi-school grads) were drafted or just 'signed up' to beat the draft. In 1970 I was in Guam, the PI, and Thailand pushing B52's loaded with racks of 250 pounders and a bombay with 500 pounders bound for rice-paddies. Some of my friends never made it back. And the rich got richer.
Not experienced enough as an editor for a book as important as this will be, Sandy! So glad a small publisher found you in these comments! What I am paricularly good at is stumbling over typos before final edit.
One edit for you (because I am a better R.N. than editor): "aspirational pneumonia" should read "aspiration pneumonia" (drop "al"). So look forward to your important book.
Thank you for sharing this information. It certainly brings home the human cost of other people's avarice and drive for fame and fortune. Often the truly courageous go unnoticed, while those who loudly toot their horns get all the attention. I was and continue to be opposed to how Nixon's reputation was scrubbed clean, while at the same time we are all still paying for his deceit.
Sandy, all I can say is, "wow!" You are right about Woodward and Bernstein, they are NOT the heroes here. Have watched the series 'Gaslit'? While grossly fictionalized, it portrays Felt as alarmed and uncomfortable from the start with Director Patrick Gray's complicity.
And portrays John Dean as a real sleaze, something that was lost on me as I only viewed him from his Watergate testimony.
I think of Dean as a bit like Michael Cohen. Men who did dirty work for "the Boss," but ultimately are redeeming themselves with truth and service to the truth.
I enjoyed Gaslit, perhaps because I like Julia Roberts (from Pretty Woman to Martha Mitchell!) Another anti-hero, she played her part in the great reveal, too.
You, too, Sandy, have brought light to a shadowed story that needs to be publicized in a sensitive and important way. Whistleblowers are heroes but at an extreme personal cost. Your tenacity in locating Mr. Felt and entering into his family’s lives is to be honored. Yet equally important is not only the back-story to the WaPo Watergate reporting, which is a sensational story, but more important telling, is the negative consequences of being a national crises whistleblower. Hopefully, the telling of your story, which is the ending of Mr. Felt’s, will motivate others to act to support whistleblowers via public means (significant legislative funding) or non-profit support. Whistleblowers are necessary for the common good.
What a colossal sacrifice Mark Felt made for our country. I can only imagine how frightened he and his wife were. I am deeply saddened by her suicide. Yours is a remarkable story that rings true, the extraordinary price often paid by people who are honest about crimes committed by the powerful. I will always be grateful that you spoke about this history today.
Roger Stone was a pariah in 1972 and remains one to this very day. What sane person would have a tattoo of a known criminal on his back. He was and will always be a disgrace.
The January 6 Committee, I'm sure, will link him to the Proud Boys and reveal his connection to the attempted coup. And from there, presumably, another prison sentence could await — this time without Trump in a position to pardon him.
Being that this has now become a war against America, the criminality, I believe, has risen to the ultimate crime against our democratic republic: TREASON.
I would love to see Stone and his "Nixon" tatt behind bars, together. Sweet justice for America, that one. What often happens to men in jail I will not speak of, but Nixon's criminal's face on the back of one of America's terrorists is just out of the worst kind of movie. Who is/are the author/authors of all these tragic tales in our America? Corporatocracy and dark moneyed interests must be dealt with this time around.
Yes, but worries me and I *just* had this thought—if DT or one of his/those minions win in the next election, all..I mean all of these crooks could be pardoned. Downright scary !!
I am very curious to learn who got all those pardons Jared was assiduously working on. Probably a lot of pocket pardons that will be revealed as I dictments roll out. I take comfort in the fact that they can be challenged as criminally given. Like a bribe to coconspirators.
And remember that Rumsfeld and Cheney were a part of that same administration. They learned well the lesson “Some are above the law”. We suffer the fall out of that today. In one way Liz is just another woman cleaning up after a sh*tslinging daddy and his bros party at the expense of the American People.
What do you mean by pariah? Oh, no, he's just as employable as he ever was by the people who use him and is even more effective now, since his earlier efforts have so dramatically reduced the chance of any of the modern "ratf*ckers" actually getting punished, regardless of whether Trump ever goes to prison.
And now we have a judiciary (engineered through obstruction of routine appointments, among other means) comprised mainly of those who prefer to sit on the benches they aren’t qualified to grace like nincompoops.
The idea of the likes of Kavanaugh saying “I had no intention of sitting on the bench like a nincompoop and watching the parade go by” unless he were dipsomanaically plagarizing it as a fratbro in between groping women is pretty slim, and the judiciary’s less visible but equally unqualified appointees will be ruling on matters of grave national import in the coming months and years. Difficult to contemplate.
“And now we have a judiciary (engineered through obstruction of routine appointments, among other means) comprised mainly of those who prefer to sit on the benches they aren’t qualified to grace like nincompoops.”
Moscow Mitch, obsessively focused upon irrationally seeking the ultimate power of governmental control, has now forever bastardized the validity of every judgement rendered by the so called “supreme Court” especially concerning the horror caused by America’s lack of gun controls.
Today and every day thereafter, for all of us, I offer this prayer in my trusted knowledge that sincere prayer will ALWAYS overcome the insanely intoxicated power mongers addicted to breathing in their own fowl ether whose obvious evil is perfectly exemplified by the likes of Moscow Mitch, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomass…
A prayer from Presiding Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry:
Eternal God of love, we know that you do not willingly inflict pain upon or grieve your children, and your dream for all is life abundant.
We come to you now in sorrow and sadness again at the death and violence once more inflicted on our siblings of St. Stephen’s Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.
Receive the souls of all those everywhere in America who have died by such gun violence. Grant them peace in your arms of love. Be with those who are injured and suffer, those who are grieving, and those who are frightened and dispirited.
Help us as a nation to find ways to bring an end to this scourge of violence, which hurts your children and our human family.
Give us the strength we need, the courage we must have, and the faith in you that will see us through. All this we pray and ask in the name of the prince of peace—your son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Dear American patriots commenting/reading this letter: It is my wish and hope not to offend by presumption but to mend by the true commonality that love is in us all.
"Eternal God of love, we know that you do not willingly inflict pain upon or grieve your children, and your dream for all is life abundant."
George, not to point out the obvious, but, God must not consider the people in Afghanistan "his chidlren", a large number who just starved to death this past winter due to lack of food brought on by lack of money.
I remember all these prayers from the Protestant Churches I attended for a bit before I met a Greek woman and transitioned to Orthodoxy (to raise my kids in a non-bifurcated household).
Whomever this God of the Protestants is? He is either not paying attention, or, one nasty dude.
Well, children have been starving in Afghanistan for eons, but, presently, the United States of America is to blame for freezing monetary assets that could be used to purchase food.
btw: The God of the Protestants is not dependent upon human activity. "He" is all powerful.
Except when "He" is not, which, appears to be a fairly frequent occurrence.
It's so weird that after all this time, some people think they can tell "God" what to do. The truest thing I ever heard about "Him" doncha love the capitalization?) is: If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
Hahaa...let's get off this god s---. The only use I have for "god" is when I'm pissed and express my frustration by uttering "GOTTDAMMIT!!" afterwhich I proceed to fix what I may have screwed up.
Some people call it prayer, some call it postulating, some self-fullfilling prophecy, collective conscience, and there are probably lots of names for it; I do think it works.
Some people can’t see the Old Testament of Bronze Age history, and are therefore continually surprised to see people acting exactly like human beings with all their warts.
>>>Eternal God of love, we know that you do not willingly inflict pain upon or grieve your children, and your dream for all is life abundant.<<< The Old Testament god had no trouble at all inflicting pain upon and grieving his children. Of course, he sent his prophets to warn them first, telling them to repent from their wicked ways (mainly by denying justice to the weak and the poor...but inflicting pain upon them and grieving them).
This is a huge problem! I hope the Jan.6 Committee, as it works on legislation to keep things like this attempted coup from happening again, will also legislate to protect us from corrupt judges who can free the guilty and imprison the innocent.
"Nixon had cultivated an image of himself as a clean family man, and the tapes revealed a mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully."
Trump's was well-known for being "a mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully," not to mention many worse things, but still won the presidency and wreaked havoc that's nearly brought democracy to its knees. And yet he's still widely popular, though maybe his popularity will sink after all the historic news this week. It's all an indictment of how much has changed in 50 years.
As for Watergate, the story had a profound influence on me. It prompted me to attempt my break-in — into journalism, equipped only with a love of current events and curiosity. Living in Tallahassee at the time, two years out of college in 1974, I walked into a small six-day-a-week newspaper in South Georgia without an appointment and left with a reporting job. Talk about learning on the job.
Memories flooded back today when I stumbled upon Jake Tapper's interview with Woodward and Bernstein on CNN and heard their stories from that extraordinary time.
Yes. That such a mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully could have actually won in 2016, for me, suggests a decline in the morals and ethics of too many Americans.
Gailee, yes, the men and women of my Father and Mother's generation (who would be in the90's now), were mostly absent the cursing and foul talking that exists in the common vernacular today among large swaths of American society.
Amazingly, in the people in their thirties, I sometimes here the (mostly Dad's) saying the F word right in front of their little kids.
I have to walk away. It is so unwise to speak abusively around little kids who are, really, the best of all of us.
I am no stranger to the occasional curse word. But the common use of the f word and another word is unbelievable. I sound like a prude here but I am not considered one. Looking objectively I see a massive coarsening of society. Massive nudity, cursing, rage and violence. Some sociologists blame the massive covid deaths and a resultant "give a darn" attitude. That same attitude is also blamed for the serious rise in automobile accidents and deaths in this Country. Throw in the carelessness and coarsening of the so called political "leaders" and we have a pretty bad mix going on right now. I would hate to raising a child right now.
Words should have power and meaning and I have always thought that the overuse of four letter words deprives them of that power to truly express a very bad situation. We just finished Peaky Blinders where everyone uses the f word liberally. Now we are on to Ozark and that is the same. I do love Ruth though. I was at my chiro's recently, who is Swiss, and he wondered what has happened to us. I said that the veneer of civilization has disappeared and we have a large part of the population who have no boundaries and who are also angry. I agree. I would hate to be raising a child right now too.
These things start small and then escalate to larger and more dangerous behavior. Every night I hear road racing to the west of us. Earlier someone was racing on a major street to the west of us and hit someone and killed them. Then the driver threw the body in his trunk and drove the car with body to the north of Salem. He did get caught although I can't remember the details. Another person drunk and speeding mowed down some homeless tents and killed four people. In Portland a small group of people cause all kinds of havoc. One group takes over streets and bridges for road racing. The police do make some arrests. In one area business owners are having to hire their own security. One problem is recruiting officers and the other seems to me to be the police pouting because their bad eggs have been criticized and sometimes brought to trial
In 1961 we had a Reading class which used the SRA(?) system. It emphasized improving vocabulary for comprehension. It seems obvious to me that the people who lack vocabulary fall back on expletives, and also the brain uses shortcuts to expletives for effectiveness when under stress
This is attributed to Oscar Wilde, JB Shaw, any many others, but when I read it years ago, it was someone from Italy or France. ¨America Is the Only Country That Went from Barbarism to Decadence Without Civilization In Between¨ .
Hadn't heard this one. Well, America was originally overrun by people who were not, by and large, the best. England viewed America as a giant workhouse where they could send those who the upper classes viewed as the dregs of society. There are exceptions to this of course, but perhaps some of our national characteristics stem from this...I am thinking the anti-intellectualism that runs through our history for example.
Reminds me of one of the takeaways from the new Hulu movie, Good Luck to you Leo Grande, there would be a lot less BS if people took the movie to heart, my interpretation.
Haven't seen the movie although I know what it is about and read an article about Emma Thompson in the NYT. So I am not sure what you mean....not criticizing, just wondering.
Yes, and also, sadly, it speaks to a certain aspect of America’s character that we have always struggled with. In a way, the Founders all knew “We the People” was a con from the get-go. They rationalized it as “the-best-we-could-do”, while still owning black and brown humans and ignoring their own white women’s inalienable rights. But they got to keep their property and the ever slippery, shape-shifting rational for it. tump accentuating and unleashing the “mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully” American Id always below the social surface. The aggrieved “I-want-mine!!!!”, zero-sum, fear-marinated trump supporter is our embarrassing antecedent of the disingenuous Founders. Talk about “Originalism”! The problem is that others actually were inspired and attracted ( and still are!!!) to the lofty words and have worked, suffered, and bled for them . We continue that work. But the mean-spirit, and foul-mouthed bullies are formidably hate-mongered for a political end that will not serve to elevate more that their conceit.
It always rolls back to property, and who can "own" what. It is the foundational belief of white Europeans that they can "own" the land, and "own" the "things". It was antithetical to how the Americas Indigenous Peoples viewed the land. It is one part of "how we got here as a country" so quickly. The other, of course, is another type of "ownership"; human enslavement.
And the disdain we have for those who do not own anything and are living on our streets. (I don't know what my point is - maybe that because we are all in it for ourselves and not caring for each other)?
They are very much a minority. And rich people remember the French Revolution. That is the purpose of racism; to divide the poor people so the rich don't all lose their heads again.
All the guys in power who, de facto, are white males in this nation, whether on Wall Street or mean streets, or in conservative church pulpits, or extractive industry CEOs, tech industry, other oligarchs and politicians (here and in Russia,) on and on...all the greedy manipulators whose arrogance knows no boundaries. (Not saying women and minorities would not be the same if in power, but we just don't know.)
A Great Experiment to imagine...people with ethics, integrity, intelligence, in it for the good of the whole because they know what it feels like to NOT be white male and privileged in America.
This reply made me think. It is as though at the moment of the abyss, there is one individual (or in the case of our founding fathers, a number of individuals) who keeps us all from either going over the cliff or propels us forward into a higher consciousness. If only, we could grow that number or become one of them.
Spooky, this is the second reference to 46. I'm hoping you are actually referring to the former president and not the current one, who is number 46. Did I misunderstand your point?
One is often judged by the friends one keeps. Trumps friends like Gym Jordan, Hawley, McCarthy, Briggs, Braun, Stefanik, Pompeo, and Roger Stone speak volumes about their values.
Well, high level narcissists usually do not have "friends." Relationships are generally transactional. Trump is the perfect model of that disposable kind of friendship when they no longer serve him or his needs.
Sadly newspapers are dying and on life support. Without a vibrant Fifth Estate to hold democracy accountable we are in peril of the likes of Stone and Trump. Where do you g journalists work now? We all read our bubble bounded news and local news is barely covered. If we don’t know about it it didn’t happen
And I think, especially, FOX is a poison in our nation's circulatory system. I wonder if they'll actually like the US if Trump returns and re-starts his kleptocracy?
FOX is a poison. And they were birthed by the sickness of the 'Tea Party'. The evil was probably always there, like the 'trumpers' were always there. But what FOX did as well as what TFG did was identify, unite, and make it a 'cause'. Like a sports team fan....they had their 'cheers and slogans', and with TFG, they even had (have) a membership uniform (MAGA hats). And now we have CNN apparently going for a share of that pie...
in 1974 I was a high school sophomore taking Civics (yes, high school students once had to be literate in how our system works). Talk about a profound, formative life event. I have been an activist for various causes ever since. Thanks for your good work Mike!
Actually, you can’t graduate from a California high school without passing government/civics still. I note this solely as it’s a misnomer out there I hear often.
Thomasville. Worked at the Times-Enterprise for three years as a reporter and eventually city editor. Perfect place to start — covered everything. Made plenty of mistakes and learned from them. Although I mostly grew up in Central Florida, I went to Mercer University in Macon, so I was somewhat familiar with Georgia.
I have had a really emotional night, having watched both “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” and the second episode of “For All Mankind,” season 3. Really in my feels but also feeling mind-expanded, future-thinking and hopeful. It was a little bonkers to take a step back in time and read tonight’s letter after that.
I love how HCR writes because it feels approachable, informative and like she’s writing directly to me, to make sure I understand the deeper meaning of everything that’s happening so much all the time. Even such a disturbing historical account can be made enjoyable by such good writing.
Then I got to the part about Nixon claiming to be not guilty, to essential DARVO the entire situation.
I was shocked at how blindingly clear the parallel stories line up, how history is reflecting current events and current events are mirroring history; lined up like storyboard cards with mirror images facing each other, marching in a row to eternity.
I was astonished at the dots I was connecting - that Heather was exposing to me with such straightforward but compelling language.
I said out loud “it’s like they have a playbook. It’s all so specific, like a recipe they followed, but I don’t understand - how could they do such a thing? How is it possible?”
The final paragraph about Roger Stone was a cold glass of water to the face.
I think these dots are connecting more clearly for me right now because of my fresh understanding (kind of, a little bit) of experience between the multiverses, and the threads that connect the present to the past. It occurs to me that this is one more legacy that can be directly attributed to slavery.
This poison seeps from that centuries old wound because these men - these “elite” and landowning men who have always declared themselves above the rules that apply to the common man, the poor man, the slave - they have never been held truly accountable for the damage they have unleashed on the country; damage visited on generation after generation, damage that infects the minds of racists, that traumatizes families and breaks down the fibers that knit together communities. They have not truly been punished, and not in a meaningful way that sent a message to the rest of the likeminded, privileged men in power. They have not made amends and instead expected the rest of us to forgive, to hate the sin but love the sinner, to sweep it under the rug where they can refuse to acknowledge their abuse and feign ignorance when we call out their continued abusive actions.
They’ve never *not* been able to do anything they want.
And because they have never been held accountable, they believe they don’t have to be. They believe they never will. They believe the rest of us cannot hold them accountable, nor that we can mete out justice as it is deserved.
We must not fail to hold them accountable. Our future depends on it.
I've got to re-order Apple TV. "For All Mankind" is the ONLY show in the last 10 years that has absolutely captivated my attention (well, except for the historical reenactment series where historical archeologists do things like build castles, and work for a year on Tudor or Edwardian farms using tools and foods of the time period. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydoRAbpWfCU ).
Your drawing of the line of time connecting the present to the past, with slavery at the root is really well done.
Thank you, that connection was so clear to me and I couldn't type fast enough to get this 'aha' out of my head.
YES. I didn't think I would like For All Mankind but I got obsessed with it because the story is told so well and it's clearly been fully thought through. My favorite part after watching the first episode was a series of supplemental 'news' episodes that show what happened in each year between season 2 and 3. They absolutely nailed the immersive 'is this real?' experience!
I get the same from HCR and always look to her last smacking paragraphs. Earlier last year I suggested she reminded me of a Lauren Ball - Bogart movie scene where Ball sashayes away after having dropped the F-bomb to a buck of pseudo-elites. The grace of the move and the incisive comment-summation. That scene played again today. But it is Saturday and MPR is doing Saturday at the Movies. Sandy's story take top billing today. How tragic.
I'm right there with you. I'm reading a 1935 Dennis Wheatley novel called the Eunuch of Stanbul which practically offers a formula for todays situation in the Muslim nations. The oligatchies must think life is a chess game.
Please accept my sympathies to a certain extent. I just watch a few bits of each on the internet, not having tv, and I feel justified again for not having tv.
Massachusetts was the only state that Nixon didn't win in the 1972 election. As a resident of Massachusetts at the time of Watergate, I enjoyed seeing all the bumper stickers that said "Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts." Now fifty years later we have to question whether the rule of law still exists in the Supreme Court as it teeters toward taking away the rights of citizens -- a court that is taking an absolute position that the doctrine of one religion has to be obeyed over all other religions and in the instant of conception makes two small united cells have more right to life than the existing person it is embedded in. That means half the citizens do not have the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness guaranteed by the Constitution but not by the Roberts Court, a court that has no standing with me. It is as illegitimate as the methods and contempt used by Moscow Mitch and the Senate to stuff the Court with Justices who are trampling and smothering the rule of law. Freedom is a precious commodity now. We, the People, all of us this time - Freedom!
Almost right. I knew several people on Nixon's 1968 campaign and a few of the went on to the White House. What Nixon feared a Kennedy. JFK had beaten him in 1960. In 1968 he expected to beat LBJ. He was very concerned when it looked like Bobby Kennedy would be his opponent.
As it was he beat Humphrey by an uncomfortably thin margin.
In 1972 he had a phobia about the possibility that the Democrats would nominate Ted Kennedy.
On a side note. When we were teens, I knew Roger Stone. He was an arrogant whiny little bitch back then, too.
President Nixon directed his henchmen, The Plumbers, H R for Harry Robbins “Bob” Haldeman and John Daniel Erlichman and AG John Newton Mitchell to prepare what became known as the Nixon Enemies List following the Ellsberg fracas... and many found themselves published there.
Diana Bonnor Lewis, my Nixon hating mother, was among them... she and her family were watched by the FBI of J. Edgar Hoover. That whole business caused me to pay attention... as a student.
Deep Throat was credited for feeding the WaPo reporters ... and I wondered who he might be. As I aged, I grew well connected and acted.
I found Deep Throat living in Santa Rosa, California, and called his isolated single frightened daughter, Joan Felt... repeatedly, till she answered.
W. Mark Felt was living in her garage... suffering with occasional aspirational pneumonia and from the rising damp in the walls of her garage.
It took a while to gain her confidence. John D. O’Connor, her incredible lawyer, helped. She had him call me.
She had three sons... to enhance their lives and their diminished pride in their heroic, courageous, ignored grandfather who had fed the downfall of Nixon - and been criminalised and pardoned... as his wife committed suicide with Felt’s service revolver in their kitchen -
I called California schools and we paid for their education with silent directed donations that became their scholarships.
We worked with colleagues and local construction people to drain the walls of that garage to address the mold caused by the rising damp, and sent in retired Harvard Medical School professors to address Mark’s health concerns, and Joan’s.
Along the way - well before, somehow... mysteriously, of course .. certain reporters not associated with WaPo learned the identity of William Mark Felt Sr., who had worked for the FBI.. So, Deep Throat was discovered, breaking the informational control monopoly of WaPo reporters Carl Milton Bernstein and Robert Upshur “Bob” Woodward... who had done nothing for Felt and his family, then living in poverty and unwell as their Pulitzer driven fame soared - crediting them with the disclosures that led the to outing the whole mess of Watergate Plumbers and the financiers, some 70 others to fame and fortune, some from jail - all working their stories - see John Wesley Dean III - George Gordon Battle Liddy Esq., et al - and turning their lemons to lemonade as Mark Felt faded out and died and his grand kids went on to live normal lives... free of the blinding light... of disclosure.
The Washington Post reporters were credited and made millions off the courage of one man and their newfound fame.
The suffering and suicide of that man’s wife and and the suffering and agony of their daughter - and her three boys - were ignored...
I am so glad you shared this here and want to see it in our history. I knew about Mark Felt but not the part about his family. This is great information to add to Heather's letter today. Thank you for caring about them.
Sandy, thanks for your service to the Felt family. It is a reminder that the important thing is to remember we are dealing with people, not just stories, ideologies, prizes, or egos.
Helping the wonderful Felt family helped me as much as it helped them. It was an honor to help a man whose courage and integrity saved us from Richard Nixon, Spiro “Ted” Agnew, and the fascist mob of then... that mob did not retire. Trump Inc., is CREEP and AG John N. Mitchell - then jailed. The beat goes on - a republic if you can keep it. Bill Barr is a fraud, too - and Mike Pence married to his Mother is another insipid ambitious mess.
I recoil every single time the clip plays of Barr fake laughing at that book written by D'Souza in the hearings. Attempts to distance himself from Team Crazy reak of oily self serving duplicity.
I never liked Barr....he needs to go to jail! He helped to allow Trump to do what he did until he was afraid. Now he is trying to save his hindend!
Yes.
exactly.. and I agree 100%
In 2019 I made a meme with Barr's pic, captioned "It's very appropriate when a toady actually looks like a toad."
(Oh, come on, didn't everybody think it?)
I wonder how many lives are being ruined by the Trump fiasco. Some deservedly so, but others not. I know one orange faced person whose life needs to be ruined behind bars. And soon.
“ That operative, who sports a tattoo of Nixon on his back, was Roger Stone, who went on to advise Donald Trump’s political career.”
And so the world turns as we watch, this time in broad daylight, history repeat itself….
Isn't it amazing....history does repeat itself!
Perhaps if actual, real history, could be included in the textbooks of our schools, and teachers and their students encouraged to carry on critical thinking conversations about real and actual choices made by nefarious, bigoted, individuals drooling over greed, power, and control of those they deem less than, what an enlightened world we might be. Naïve I suppose, but one can dream. The Gilded Age is alive and well. :/
Santayana.
Actually, I think it's an old oligarchy chess game plan, that has backup plays whenever it runs into a hitch with it's victims.
Capitol cops died, suicide is a tell.
Another weasel would be Roger Stone. Sometime I wonder if he was the “mastermind” (ha, ha) of both these repulsive events.
No doubt he played a significant role in the attempted overthrow. He has been surrounded by his pals for protection - white nationalists!
Sandy, your kindness to the Felt family is remarkable. It will always be this way: the actions of the true hero become co-opted by the manipulators.
W. Mark Felt was a gutsy genius, an honest FBI man with integrity, working within a corrupt administration under corrupt FBI Directors, threatened by the White House team of deadly killers, conspirators, hardened criminals with an evil racist fascist White House - the stress Felt endured landed at home, on his wife and her daughter, and all hell broke loose. Meanwhile, two hot shot celebrity craving reporters created their response and it paid them well to Hide the Hero - for W. Mark Felt was the story, and by hiding him from stardom they assured theirs. The WaPo team lathered themselves in MSM idolatry as they hid the star. These two deserve praise for reporting and opprobrium for ignoring our hero to enrich themselves.
Thank you for helping Mark Felt Sandy, and going above and beyond to help his family. He was a hero for sure. What a tragedy that he didn’t get the recognition he deserved when he was still alive. I’ve known about his story for some time, but what I didn’t know is how then WaPo reporters Bernstein & Woodward made millions off one man’s courage, one man who took incredible risks to himself and his family to do what was right for our country. Shame on them for not compensating Felt. If it wasn’t for Felt they would not have had the story.
❤
Wow, thank you for that. I thought Deep Throat wanted to remain anonymous and hidden. Had no idea of what that family suffered…
For his part, let’s be clear, Deep Throat DID want anonymity. Desperately. He feared his own FBI and Watergate collaborators willing to kill him. Nixon was no saint. But fear evaporates in SUNSHINE, and once the tapes were outed, once Judge Sirica ruled, with the Saturday Night Massacre and Archibald Cox standing up, it was time. Felt deserved the Nation’s highest award, not indictment. He was shamed much like we are now shaming a man hiding in Moscow .. for his troubles. And another coming from England. We Americans have a long way to go.
Yes, Felt should have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Snowden should have received it as well. Snowden caught my eye because I did similar work in the army (ASA, 1966-70) but on a lower level. (My level was somewhere between Snowden and Manning.) Snowden is intelligent, patriotic, and courageous. He performed an heroic act for the American people. All Snowden is guilty of is telling the American people that their government is spying on them, recording their phone calls and monitoring their internet use. Big deal. I knew that 50 years ago. In the Army Security Agency, we had an open motto as written on our decal--"In God We Trust. Everyone else we monitor."
So, yes, "We Americans have a long way to go."
Amusing! Sandy
Woodward and Bernstein also saw fit to downplay in the book and eliminate in the movie, the WaPo editor Barry Sussman, without whom the whole story would have been a simple local break-in and forgotten. https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/06/watergate-three-woodward-bernstein-history/661218/
Thank you for this link! Just read it, and I feel better. Having vaguely, barely remembered Sussman, I can't stand the latest round of late night visitations from the remaining two. It takes a village....
Damn. Firewall. One of these days I'll probably have to subscribe to The Atlantic . 🙄
The Atlantic subscription is worth it.
Do. Editor Jeffrey Goldberg has elevated The Atlantic.
The Atlantic is very affordable. And so worth it. Do it.
It's the best $50 you'll ever spend on top-shelf journalism!
It's worth it.
Hmmm, bummer. I was able to get "in" and don't subscribe, although I've been meaning to. ;)
I think they allow each of us a limited number of free reads per month before we hit the paywall.
Simply put, Sussman got royally screwed.
Yes. Yes. They hog the limelight.
Sandy: Have you shared this powerful story publicly? If not, or if you’d like to make it available in book form, I would like to help you. I have a small book publishing company and could shepherd you through the process of making an ebook, paperback and hardcover edition so that your knowledge would not be lost to history. No charge to you for this. You can reach me directly at eFitzgeraldPublishing@gmail.com.
Use 518.963.4206 no message machine home or 973.379.4446 iPhone WhatsApp or Signal or direct ... Or send yours... sblewis@fastmail.fm is mine. Sandy
I’ll be in touch next week to discuss the possibilities, Sandy.
Democracy hard at work. Lovely to see, you two.
Sandy
Go team, go!
How kind of you, Patrice! Thank you.
Of course, with corroboration of at least two sources. Just my two cents.
Thank you Sandy, for bringing Mark Felt back into the picture. Unfortunately, a government that lies to its people is not soon found out. As a result me and a bunch of my friends (hi-school grads) were drafted or just 'signed up' to beat the draft. In 1970 I was in Guam, the PI, and Thailand pushing B52's loaded with racks of 250 pounders and a bombay with 500 pounders bound for rice-paddies. Some of my friends never made it back. And the rich got richer.
🥺
Ty Sandy. This is the history that needs to be shared.
Sandy write a book! We will all buy it!
Send money
If I get elected Democrat County Treasurer in a Republican voting County! That will also make the history books!
Where might that be, Sharon?
Clay County Indiana. I am running because Heather said to!
😎
Beautiful, important thing you did, Sandy. And Historical. I haven't the money. But I'm an okay 1st editor.
I’m old.
I know that feeling.
Probably younger than me!
You edit? Experienced?
Not experienced enough as an editor for a book as important as this will be, Sandy! So glad a small publisher found you in these comments! What I am paricularly good at is stumbling over typos before final edit.
One edit for you (because I am a better R.N. than editor): "aspirational pneumonia" should read "aspiration pneumonia" (drop "al"). So look forward to your important book.
Sharon Stearley, have a title in mind?
Title?
The guys that threw Deep Throat under the bus-that made millions etc! I would like to know more about why your mother was on the list~
Sandy, you never cease to amaze me. Thank you for your compassion and kindness to Felt and his family.
Thank you for sharing this information. It certainly brings home the human cost of other people's avarice and drive for fame and fortune. Often the truly courageous go unnoticed, while those who loudly toot their horns get all the attention. I was and continue to be opposed to how Nixon's reputation was scrubbed clean, while at the same time we are all still paying for his deceit.
That story needed to be told. Thank you.
Thank you Sandy for “the rest of the story”.
Sandy, all I can say is, "wow!" You are right about Woodward and Bernstein, they are NOT the heroes here. Have watched the series 'Gaslit'? While grossly fictionalized, it portrays Felt as alarmed and uncomfortable from the start with Director Patrick Gray's complicity.
And portrays John Dean as a real sleaze, something that was lost on me as I only viewed him from his Watergate testimony.
Sorry, but I can’t see Dean as a “sleeze.” We need one today, and a Mark Felt.
I think of Dean as a bit like Michael Cohen. Men who did dirty work for "the Boss," but ultimately are redeeming themselves with truth and service to the truth.
I enjoyed Gaslit, perhaps because I like Julia Roberts (from Pretty Woman to Martha Mitchell!) Another anti-hero, she played her part in the great reveal, too.
Yes!
You, too, Sandy, have brought light to a shadowed story that needs to be publicized in a sensitive and important way. Whistleblowers are heroes but at an extreme personal cost. Your tenacity in locating Mr. Felt and entering into his family’s lives is to be honored. Yet equally important is not only the back-story to the WaPo Watergate reporting, which is a sensational story, but more important telling, is the negative consequences of being a national crises whistleblower. Hopefully, the telling of your story, which is the ending of Mr. Felt’s, will motivate others to act to support whistleblowers via public means (significant legislative funding) or non-profit support. Whistleblowers are necessary for the common good.
Do unto others..
A beautiful story of your gift to the Felts. You have amazed me once again.
An inspiring start to my day.
What a colossal sacrifice Mark Felt made for our country. I can only imagine how frightened he and his wife were. I am deeply saddened by her suicide. Yours is a remarkable story that rings true, the extraordinary price often paid by people who are honest about crimes committed by the powerful. I will always be grateful that you spoke about this history today.
Thank you Heather.
I'm old enough to remember when this was an unthinkable act by the Government Administration.
Little did I know, this was child's play compared to what this Nation would become..
Be safe. Be well.
👍🏼
"
Same ❤️
Roger Stone was a pariah in 1972 and remains one to this very day. What sane person would have a tattoo of a known criminal on his back. He was and will always be a disgrace.
The January 6 Committee, I'm sure, will link him to the Proud Boys and reveal his connection to the attempted coup. And from there, presumably, another prison sentence could await — this time without Trump in a position to pardon him.
I dream. He was upset that he was deemed too young to go to jail for Nixon. That’s not a problem now.
Hell no! Not a problem now, indeed. All of the pardons Jared and his daddy-in-law issued, should be revoked, when he is convicted of sedition.
Being that this has now become a war against America, the criminality, I believe, has risen to the ultimate crime against our democratic republic: TREASON.
I would love to see Stone and his "Nixon" tatt behind bars, together. Sweet justice for America, that one. What often happens to men in jail I will not speak of, but Nixon's criminal's face on the back of one of America's terrorists is just out of the worst kind of movie. Who is/are the author/authors of all these tragic tales in our America? Corporatocracy and dark moneyed interests must be dealt with this time around.
Yes, yes, a million times YES! But will it happen? Will the good guys win in the end?!
Please, don't let this be another sequel... it's time. It's our turn...
Yes, it is time, Cynthia. All all the darkness is having light shed upon it. Take heart-- we shall prevail!
Is that a possibility?! 😲
Ha!
Hopefully, DOJ is close to indicting him! 🙏🏼
That would be a true ' coup' .
Yes, but worries me and I *just* had this thought—if DT or one of his/those minions win in the next election, all..I mean all of these crooks could be pardoned. Downright scary !!
He has promised this at rally this week. 800 some.
Well, I won't pardon. If I get a chance I will 'pior a vida' as they say here in Portugal.
🤞🙏
I am very curious to learn who got all those pardons Jared was assiduously working on. Probably a lot of pocket pardons that will be revealed as I dictments roll out. I take comfort in the fact that they can be challenged as criminally given. Like a bribe to coconspirators.
If I ever make it to the moon the first thing I’m going to do is go and scratch his name off of the plaque on the leg of Apollo 11.
Thank you for the giggle today. Love it! Need it!
And remember that Rumsfeld and Cheney were a part of that same administration. They learned well the lesson “Some are above the law”. We suffer the fall out of that today. In one way Liz is just another woman cleaning up after a sh*tslinging daddy and his bros party at the expense of the American People.
Wasn't Mitch hanging around too?
Equally - half hypocrite half pariah
No kidding!
Agree!
But a powerful disgrace, as the election of W and chump prove.
Just the sight of him makes me want to vomit. Total arrogance.
What do you mean by pariah? Oh, no, he's just as employable as he ever was by the people who use him and is even more effective now, since his earlier efforts have so dramatically reduced the chance of any of the modern "ratf*ckers" actually getting punished, regardless of whether Trump ever goes to prison.
A fascist flake.
And now we have a judiciary (engineered through obstruction of routine appointments, among other means) comprised mainly of those who prefer to sit on the benches they aren’t qualified to grace like nincompoops.
The idea of the likes of Kavanaugh saying “I had no intention of sitting on the bench like a nincompoop and watching the parade go by” unless he were dipsomanaically plagarizing it as a fratbro in between groping women is pretty slim, and the judiciary’s less visible but equally unqualified appointees will be ruling on matters of grave national import in the coming months and years. Difficult to contemplate.
Laura Thomas
Very well said!
“And now we have a judiciary (engineered through obstruction of routine appointments, among other means) comprised mainly of those who prefer to sit on the benches they aren’t qualified to grace like nincompoops.”
Moscow Mitch, obsessively focused upon irrationally seeking the ultimate power of governmental control, has now forever bastardized the validity of every judgement rendered by the so called “supreme Court” especially concerning the horror caused by America’s lack of gun controls.
Today and every day thereafter, for all of us, I offer this prayer in my trusted knowledge that sincere prayer will ALWAYS overcome the insanely intoxicated power mongers addicted to breathing in their own fowl ether whose obvious evil is perfectly exemplified by the likes of Moscow Mitch, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomass…
A prayer from Presiding Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry:
Eternal God of love, we know that you do not willingly inflict pain upon or grieve your children, and your dream for all is life abundant.
We come to you now in sorrow and sadness again at the death and violence once more inflicted on our siblings of St. Stephen’s Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.
Receive the souls of all those everywhere in America who have died by such gun violence. Grant them peace in your arms of love. Be with those who are injured and suffer, those who are grieving, and those who are frightened and dispirited.
Help us as a nation to find ways to bring an end to this scourge of violence, which hurts your children and our human family.
Give us the strength we need, the courage we must have, and the faith in you that will see us through. All this we pray and ask in the name of the prince of peace—your son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Dear American patriots commenting/reading this letter: It is my wish and hope not to offend by presumption but to mend by the true commonality that love is in us all.
"Eternal God of love, we know that you do not willingly inflict pain upon or grieve your children, and your dream for all is life abundant."
George, not to point out the obvious, but, God must not consider the people in Afghanistan "his chidlren", a large number who just starved to death this past winter due to lack of food brought on by lack of money.
I remember all these prayers from the Protestant Churches I attended for a bit before I met a Greek woman and transitioned to Orthodoxy (to raise my kids in a non-bifurcated household).
Whomever this God of the Protestants is? He is either not paying attention, or, one nasty dude.
There is no celestial Santa Claus. God works mainly through us. If children are starving in Afghanistan and elsewhere, who, really, is to blame?
Well, children have been starving in Afghanistan for eons, but, presently, the United States of America is to blame for freezing monetary assets that could be used to purchase food.
btw: The God of the Protestants is not dependent upon human activity. "He" is all powerful.
Except when "He" is not, which, appears to be a fairly frequent occurrence.
It's so weird that after all this time, some people think they can tell "God" what to do. The truest thing I ever heard about "Him" doncha love the capitalization?) is: If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
Well, a "Her" god would not see people starve and suffer constant deprivation. /s
Thanks for this Susan. I am constantly reminded of this.
Hahaa...let's get off this god s---. The only use I have for "god" is when I'm pissed and express my frustration by uttering "GOTTDAMMIT!!" afterwhich I proceed to fix what I may have screwed up.
😜My theory is that those “types” of Christian’s have never bothered to “read the book”. They just read the parts they already agree with.
Mike S upstateNY
Millions and millions know GOD as Love, and have for thousands of years been blessed to become HIS Love to others.
This Love has sustained these millions for thousands of years by answered prayers as miracles that baffle those who choose to worship all but GOD.
GOD is only Love. A Love that we are obviously incapable of fully understanding.
HE is defined by our limited knowledge until, that is, our faith enlightens us to see HIS Love everywhere we look.
Thanks George, I love Bishop Curry. "Give us the strength we need, the courage we must have, and the faith in you that will see us through."
Some people call it prayer, some call it postulating, some self-fullfilling prophecy, collective conscience, and there are probably lots of names for it; I do think it works.
Some people can’t see the Old Testament of Bronze Age history, and are therefore continually surprised to see people acting exactly like human beings with all their warts.
😆
>>>Eternal God of love, we know that you do not willingly inflict pain upon or grieve your children, and your dream for all is life abundant.<<< The Old Testament god had no trouble at all inflicting pain upon and grieving his children. Of course, he sent his prophets to warn them first, telling them to repent from their wicked ways (mainly by denying justice to the weak and the poor...but inflicting pain upon them and grieving them).
Brett is an evil liar. He’s not alone.
Neither are Christine Blasey Ford and Anita Hill.
Are you saying they are liars?
Mitch’s plan from the git go. Just a less flamboyant Stone
This is a huge problem! I hope the Jan.6 Committee, as it works on legislation to keep things like this attempted coup from happening again, will also legislate to protect us from corrupt judges who can free the guilty and imprison the innocent.
We have to fight hard for the mid-terms for that to occur.
"Difficult to contemplate"? Yes. For me, impossible.
"Nixon had cultivated an image of himself as a clean family man, and the tapes revealed a mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully."
Trump's was well-known for being "a mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully," not to mention many worse things, but still won the presidency and wreaked havoc that's nearly brought democracy to its knees. And yet he's still widely popular, though maybe his popularity will sink after all the historic news this week. It's all an indictment of how much has changed in 50 years.
As for Watergate, the story had a profound influence on me. It prompted me to attempt my break-in — into journalism, equipped only with a love of current events and curiosity. Living in Tallahassee at the time, two years out of college in 1974, I walked into a small six-day-a-week newspaper in South Georgia without an appointment and left with a reporting job. Talk about learning on the job.
Memories flooded back today when I stumbled upon Jake Tapper's interview with Woodward and Bernstein on CNN and heard their stories from that extraordinary time.
Yes. That such a mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully could have actually won in 2016, for me, suggests a decline in the morals and ethics of too many Americans.
Gailee, yes, the men and women of my Father and Mother's generation (who would be in the90's now), were mostly absent the cursing and foul talking that exists in the common vernacular today among large swaths of American society.
Amazingly, in the people in their thirties, I sometimes here the (mostly Dad's) saying the F word right in front of their little kids.
I have to walk away. It is so unwise to speak abusively around little kids who are, really, the best of all of us.
I am no stranger to the occasional curse word. But the common use of the f word and another word is unbelievable. I sound like a prude here but I am not considered one. Looking objectively I see a massive coarsening of society. Massive nudity, cursing, rage and violence. Some sociologists blame the massive covid deaths and a resultant "give a darn" attitude. That same attitude is also blamed for the serious rise in automobile accidents and deaths in this Country. Throw in the carelessness and coarsening of the so called political "leaders" and we have a pretty bad mix going on right now. I would hate to raising a child right now.
Words should have power and meaning and I have always thought that the overuse of four letter words deprives them of that power to truly express a very bad situation. We just finished Peaky Blinders where everyone uses the f word liberally. Now we are on to Ozark and that is the same. I do love Ruth though. I was at my chiro's recently, who is Swiss, and he wondered what has happened to us. I said that the veneer of civilization has disappeared and we have a large part of the population who have no boundaries and who are also angry. I agree. I would hate to be raising a child right now too.
" I said that the veneer of civilization has disappeared ..." Very well said. That is it in a nutshell.
These things start small and then escalate to larger and more dangerous behavior. Every night I hear road racing to the west of us. Earlier someone was racing on a major street to the west of us and hit someone and killed them. Then the driver threw the body in his trunk and drove the car with body to the north of Salem. He did get caught although I can't remember the details. Another person drunk and speeding mowed down some homeless tents and killed four people. In Portland a small group of people cause all kinds of havoc. One group takes over streets and bridges for road racing. The police do make some arrests. In one area business owners are having to hire their own security. One problem is recruiting officers and the other seems to me to be the police pouting because their bad eggs have been criticized and sometimes brought to trial
In 1961 we had a Reading class which used the SRA(?) system. It emphasized improving vocabulary for comprehension. It seems obvious to me that the people who lack vocabulary fall back on expletives, and also the brain uses shortcuts to expletives for effectiveness when under stress
This is attributed to Oscar Wilde, JB Shaw, any many others, but when I read it years ago, it was someone from Italy or France. ¨America Is the Only Country That Went from Barbarism to Decadence Without Civilization In Between¨ .
Hadn't heard this one. Well, America was originally overrun by people who were not, by and large, the best. England viewed America as a giant workhouse where they could send those who the upper classes viewed as the dregs of society. There are exceptions to this of course, but perhaps some of our national characteristics stem from this...I am thinking the anti-intellectualism that runs through our history for example.
Reminds me of one of the takeaways from the new Hulu movie, Good Luck to you Leo Grande, there would be a lot less BS if people took the movie to heart, my interpretation.
Pristine acting and a beautiful story. I feel it's just a piece of the puzzle, but yes, if we were all just more loving and accepting. ❤️
I hope to see it. We don't have Hulu but hopefully can rent via Amazon.
Haven't seen the movie although I know what it is about and read an article about Emma Thompson in the NYT. So I am not sure what you mean....not criticizing, just wondering.
Thanks Michele. If people had enough pleasure in their lives, there might be less anger, aggression, wars and division in our world.
Propaganda works, who knew?
One of your best, in a nutshell comments, ever.
I'm so amazed when I hear anyone use the word ethics....I guess it's still in the dictionary. Is it taught anywhere in the Ivy League schools?
Yes, ethics is taught at Georgetown University.
Law schools. I'm hoping.
Apparently not given the number of ivy league lawyers infesting politics today...
Just ask the Federalist Society. They’ll tell you if that is the subject taught.
you are right
❤️❣️
😒
Yes, and also, sadly, it speaks to a certain aspect of America’s character that we have always struggled with. In a way, the Founders all knew “We the People” was a con from the get-go. They rationalized it as “the-best-we-could-do”, while still owning black and brown humans and ignoring their own white women’s inalienable rights. But they got to keep their property and the ever slippery, shape-shifting rational for it. tump accentuating and unleashing the “mean-spirited, foul-mouthed bully” American Id always below the social surface. The aggrieved “I-want-mine!!!!”, zero-sum, fear-marinated trump supporter is our embarrassing antecedent of the disingenuous Founders. Talk about “Originalism”! The problem is that others actually were inspired and attracted ( and still are!!!) to the lofty words and have worked, suffered, and bled for them . We continue that work. But the mean-spirit, and foul-mouthed bullies are formidably hate-mongered for a political end that will not serve to elevate more that their conceit.
It always rolls back to property, and who can "own" what. It is the foundational belief of white Europeans that they can "own" the land, and "own" the "things". It was antithetical to how the Americas Indigenous Peoples viewed the land. It is one part of "how we got here as a country" so quickly. The other, of course, is another type of "ownership"; human enslavement.
And the disdain we have for those who do not own anything and are living on our streets. (I don't know what my point is - maybe that because we are all in it for ourselves and not caring for each other)?
Yes
😣
They are very much a minority. And rich people remember the French Revolution. That is the purpose of racism; to divide the poor people so the rich don't all lose their heads again.
Yes!
Way too many.
But, thank GOD, still more good patriotic Americans than evil traitors of American Democracy, Eh!?
I believe the beliefs of white nationalists are devoid of morals and ethics.
✨🎇🌟💯🗽💫🔥. Zakly !
YES!!! Zakly 💕💕💕💕💕
Can’t❤️ But yes, I agree with you.
All the guys in power who, de facto, are white males in this nation, whether on Wall Street or mean streets, or in conservative church pulpits, or extractive industry CEOs, tech industry, other oligarchs and politicians (here and in Russia,) on and on...all the greedy manipulators whose arrogance knows no boundaries. (Not saying women and minorities would not be the same if in power, but we just don't know.)
A Great Experiment to imagine...people with ethics, integrity, intelligence, in it for the good of the whole because they know what it feels like to NOT be white male and privileged in America.
This reply made me think. It is as though at the moment of the abyss, there is one individual (or in the case of our founding fathers, a number of individuals) who keeps us all from either going over the cliff or propels us forward into a higher consciousness. If only, we could grow that number or become one of them.
❤️
Spooky, this is the second reference to 46. I'm hoping you are actually referring to the former president and not the current one, who is number 46. Did I misunderstand your point?
I am sure she means 45.
I thought she meant 16, as in 2016
I think they are two sides of the same coin...
One is often judged by the friends one keeps. Trumps friends like Gym Jordan, Hawley, McCarthy, Briggs, Braun, Stefanik, Pompeo, and Roger Stone speak volumes about their values.
Well, high level narcissists usually do not have "friends." Relationships are generally transactional. Trump is the perfect model of that disposable kind of friendship when they no longer serve him or his needs.
Sadly newspapers are dying and on life support. Without a vibrant Fifth Estate to hold democracy accountable we are in peril of the likes of Stone and Trump. Where do you g journalists work now? We all read our bubble bounded news and local news is barely covered. If we don’t know about it it didn’t happen
And I think, especially, FOX is a poison in our nation's circulatory system. I wonder if they'll actually like the US if Trump returns and re-starts his kleptocracy?
FOX is a poison. And they were birthed by the sickness of the 'Tea Party'. The evil was probably always there, like the 'trumpers' were always there. But what FOX did as well as what TFG did was identify, unite, and make it a 'cause'. Like a sports team fan....they had their 'cheers and slogans', and with TFG, they even had (have) a membership uniform (MAGA hats). And now we have CNN apparently going for a share of that pie...
They are merely a propaganda machine. They should be removed as they are the dangerous mouthpieces for the treason movement against America.
in 1974 I was a high school sophomore taking Civics (yes, high school students once had to be literate in how our system works). Talk about a profound, formative life event. I have been an activist for various causes ever since. Thanks for your good work Mike!
1976 for me, and we couldn't graduate without a year long Government class. Been active since.
Actually, you can’t graduate from a California high school without passing government/civics still. I note this solely as it’s a misnomer out there I hear often.
Yes! Civics in high school excepted me, too.
Where in South Georgia ?
Thomasville. Worked at the Times-Enterprise for three years as a reporter and eventually city editor. Perfect place to start — covered everything. Made plenty of mistakes and learned from them. Although I mostly grew up in Central Florida, I went to Mercer University in Macon, so I was somewhat familiar with Georgia.
Cool!
I have had a really emotional night, having watched both “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” and the second episode of “For All Mankind,” season 3. Really in my feels but also feeling mind-expanded, future-thinking and hopeful. It was a little bonkers to take a step back in time and read tonight’s letter after that.
I love how HCR writes because it feels approachable, informative and like she’s writing directly to me, to make sure I understand the deeper meaning of everything that’s happening so much all the time. Even such a disturbing historical account can be made enjoyable by such good writing.
Then I got to the part about Nixon claiming to be not guilty, to essential DARVO the entire situation.
I was shocked at how blindingly clear the parallel stories line up, how history is reflecting current events and current events are mirroring history; lined up like storyboard cards with mirror images facing each other, marching in a row to eternity.
I was astonished at the dots I was connecting - that Heather was exposing to me with such straightforward but compelling language.
I said out loud “it’s like they have a playbook. It’s all so specific, like a recipe they followed, but I don’t understand - how could they do such a thing? How is it possible?”
The final paragraph about Roger Stone was a cold glass of water to the face.
I think these dots are connecting more clearly for me right now because of my fresh understanding (kind of, a little bit) of experience between the multiverses, and the threads that connect the present to the past. It occurs to me that this is one more legacy that can be directly attributed to slavery.
This poison seeps from that centuries old wound because these men - these “elite” and landowning men who have always declared themselves above the rules that apply to the common man, the poor man, the slave - they have never been held truly accountable for the damage they have unleashed on the country; damage visited on generation after generation, damage that infects the minds of racists, that traumatizes families and breaks down the fibers that knit together communities. They have not truly been punished, and not in a meaningful way that sent a message to the rest of the likeminded, privileged men in power. They have not made amends and instead expected the rest of us to forgive, to hate the sin but love the sinner, to sweep it under the rug where they can refuse to acknowledge their abuse and feign ignorance when we call out their continued abusive actions.
They’ve never *not* been able to do anything they want.
And because they have never been held accountable, they believe they don’t have to be. They believe they never will. They believe the rest of us cannot hold them accountable, nor that we can mete out justice as it is deserved.
We must not fail to hold them accountable. Our future depends on it.
Great comment, Maigen. What's DARVO?
Deflect, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.
The tactics of abusers when confronted or exposed.
Thanks. Added it to my dictionary.
Ah - I will remember that. It is used with impunity today. Fox, Republican party.
I've got to re-order Apple TV. "For All Mankind" is the ONLY show in the last 10 years that has absolutely captivated my attention (well, except for the historical reenactment series where historical archeologists do things like build castles, and work for a year on Tudor or Edwardian farms using tools and foods of the time period. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydoRAbpWfCU ).
Your drawing of the line of time connecting the present to the past, with slavery at the root is really well done.
Thank you, that connection was so clear to me and I couldn't type fast enough to get this 'aha' out of my head.
YES. I didn't think I would like For All Mankind but I got obsessed with it because the story is told so well and it's clearly been fully thought through. My favorite part after watching the first episode was a series of supplemental 'news' episodes that show what happened in each year between season 2 and 3. They absolutely nailed the immersive 'is this real?' experience!
I get the same from HCR and always look to her last smacking paragraphs. Earlier last year I suggested she reminded me of a Lauren Ball - Bogart movie scene where Ball sashayes away after having dropped the F-bomb to a buck of pseudo-elites. The grace of the move and the incisive comment-summation. That scene played again today. But it is Saturday and MPR is doing Saturday at the Movies. Sandy's story take top billing today. How tragic.
I'm right there with you. I'm reading a 1935 Dennis Wheatley novel called the Eunuch of Stanbul which practically offers a formula for todays situation in the Muslim nations. The oligatchies must think life is a chess game.
Or — a chess game reflects life.
Please accept my sympathies to a certain extent. I just watch a few bits of each on the internet, not having tv, and I feel justified again for not having tv.
Massachusetts was the only state that Nixon didn't win in the 1972 election. As a resident of Massachusetts at the time of Watergate, I enjoyed seeing all the bumper stickers that said "Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts." Now fifty years later we have to question whether the rule of law still exists in the Supreme Court as it teeters toward taking away the rights of citizens -- a court that is taking an absolute position that the doctrine of one religion has to be obeyed over all other religions and in the instant of conception makes two small united cells have more right to life than the existing person it is embedded in. That means half the citizens do not have the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness guaranteed by the Constitution but not by the Roberts Court, a court that has no standing with me. It is as illegitimate as the methods and contempt used by Moscow Mitch and the Senate to stuff the Court with Justices who are trampling and smothering the rule of law. Freedom is a precious commodity now. We, the People, all of us this time - Freedom!
Headline news:
Illegitimate court erects giant wall around themselves.
Yes, Cathy, this Supreme Court, which inhabits drunkards, seditionists, and liars, does not have a standing with me either!
Sexual abusers...
Yep I left that one out! Misogynists, rapists, religious zealots…
Almost right. I knew several people on Nixon's 1968 campaign and a few of the went on to the White House. What Nixon feared a Kennedy. JFK had beaten him in 1960. In 1968 he expected to beat LBJ. He was very concerned when it looked like Bobby Kennedy would be his opponent.
As it was he beat Humphrey by an uncomfortably thin margin.
In 1972 he had a phobia about the possibility that the Democrats would nominate Ted Kennedy.
On a side note. When we were teens, I knew Roger Stone. He was an arrogant whiny little bitch back then, too.
Yikes, Jim! I can imagine Stone being quite a prick as a teen.
Same. Like, a sneer and a swagger and a “punchable face.” Knew everything and started every response with “well, actually…”