So how is it today we have become that hated fascist nation?
How is it that Congressional Republicans are holding the rest of us hostage ?
Where are we failing to let our representatives know we won’t take it any more? And if they can’t act with integrity and patriotism and defend our constitution (as they swore to do) we will do whatever we must to rescue our liberties, our freedoms and our democracy, indeed our nation from tyranny and the dictator.
I think we got lazy. We were fat and happy and ignored that our representatives were doing the work of corporate interests, not our.
I am thankful that Trump is a poor-planning idiot who cannot hide his intentions. Think how bad it would be if he were clever and stealthy! Maybe it's a good thing that Trump's insane bumbling has awoken us.
Trump may be a poor planning idiot, but Trump did not plan what got us here. It was the Republican uber-rich who funded the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, who laid the plans for the current authoritarian regime. The progression was laid out in all the many iterations of Project XXXX over the years.
We can't afford to think that if we get rid of Trump, we are "safe." All of those oligarchs and their money are still going to be there and will fight hard to maintain the system that enriches them.
The Nazis in World War II were uprooted by armed force, and the wealth of the fascist industrialists was destroyed. Democracy was rebuilt on the ashes of Europe, where authoritarianism was discredited in Western Europe. That was not the case in Eastern Europe, which led to another more than 40 years of dictatorships until the fall of the Soviet Union.
Our task is different. We will have to rebuild our democracy with the array of political forces and corrupted institutions still in play against us, with new factors coming on the scene, like AI-driven disinformation and climate change, that will be economic and societal disruptors. It is going to be a long process, made more difficult by the enormous concentration of wealth in the 1% in the United States, where the behind-the-scenes political power resides.
Oh I agree 100%. What I was trying to say was that I am happy Trump is such a fumbling idiot that he has shown us all the plans instead of being clever and stealthy so we don't know what's coming. He can't keep a secret to save his life! He'd much rather brag about how clever he is. And that exposes what's planned and in the works.
We do need to reform our government. We need a New Nuremberg to rout out and punish all the collaborators. And then we have to rebuild a government that is not based on "norms" and "Gentlemen's agreements".
We need to begin with the elimination of corporate money from politics. First follow Hawaii and Montans in redefining corporations as entities that cannot donate to campaigns. Then end Citizens United. for good SuperPACs must be outlawed and any candidate who takes money from anyone but constituent funds must be prosecuted for corruption. (We already have anti-corruption laws that we do not enforce.) Then we need a tax system that levels the rich and uplifts the poor (like it used to be in the 1950s when we were the most prosperous country in the world). We need to act like the wealthiest country in the world by providing healthcare, education, and a social safety net to all our citizens and legal residents. We need to enact and enforce a federal minimum wage based on the cost of living and we need to protect workers from corporate exploitation by strong labor legislation. No more "employed at will". We need to implement a justice system that is truly color blind and outlaw private prisons and the prisoner exemption to the 13th Amendment.
And we need to not get tired and stop halfway. We need to not say "It's over. Let's just move on." We cannot move on. The system was broken before Trump kicked it to pieces. We need to fix everything.
Joanne Freeman had one of her history chats yesterday on the topic of "norms" and how Trump and SCOTUS have destroyed the norms surrounding the concepts of "justice" and the rule of law by their politicization of the DOJ. How can we trust in government if there is no longer an institution that fights for justice for the people?
Precisely. That is why we must reform the DOJ. I think an integral part is getting money out of politics. The DOJ is meant to be apolitical. It must return to that ethos. And we must put in place guardrails that cannot be so easily violated by an Executive who disagrees. Truly, we need to make the President a servant of the people, not the master of anything.
While it was certainly not Heather's intent to wax nostalgic, as her lovely piece commemorating the D Day anniversary was spot on, we must move away from retrospect and fast forward to the present and the immediate future. Trump himself, as obnoxious, vulgar, corrupt, idiotic and destructive as he is, is simply the tip of the iceberg
During Biden, I wrote a letter to him expressing a need to communicate directly to the public in the form of a fireside chat maybe monthly chat. For some unknown reason, he didn’t take my advice.
Biden gave several of the best speeches of my lifetime. And his delivery was about like mine would be -- meh!
What Biden lacked in charisma he made up for it in assembling the best cabinet and team of any President ever. And he did it with a Senate of old farts and Republicans. And the House barely had a majority. He was in his element when he was twisting arms, one on one, not giving press conferences to oligarch owned MSM journalists.
Over 74,000 infrastructures projects were funded and initiated under Biden, many of which replaced crumbling bridges, roads, pipelines, water systems, etc. Hundreds of thousands of rural families now have high speed internet for the first time.
And what does Trump do immediately after taking office? He starts canceling these projects. And when he reinstates them, he often gives out no-bid contracts to oligarchs at many times the original bid.
Deb Haaland did an incredible job as Interior Secretary only to be replaced by an environment hating oligarch.
The list goes on. Does Trump even have ONE SINGLE competent advisor or cabinet member other than perhaps the Joint Chiefs and some of the military leaders?
And it's likely we will end up with a Democratic President in 2028 that will have to undo and attempt to fix many of these Trumpian messes. If you want a charismatic leader than can spew BS like Trump, you may end up with a great speaker and a less than competent President.
I believe the implied agreement was that Trump could get his time in the sun to prove his power and get the respect he never had. In addition he could steal as much money as he wants.
In return, the oligarchs would work to destroy our constitutional government and lay the foundation for a fascist, White nationalist regime while putting the capitalist elitists in charge.
It is almost as if the fascists have been waiting for the perfect storm, and it arrived in 2015. A disgruntled White working class, unwitting Democrats, some underlying cultural issues, and a long simmering pool of racists seizing an opportunity.
What may save us is that Trump is both insatiably greedy and narcissistic that he is turning off the electorate before the fascists could finish the takeover. Add in his physical and mental deterioration, and we see the rush to set up the police state.
Simplistic? Sure, but the gist of my point seems real.
As Sam Rayburn said, any jackass can kick down a barn. It’s the rebuilding that takes a community’s and a carpenter - or words to that effect. Thank you Joe, and whoever might arise this time to do more than document the damage. HCR not only documents but inspires, encourages, carries the torch and shines a light on the path. Will enough follow…
The transparency of all the corruption, lying, unconstitutional acts, and so on, by this regime troubles me. How come they are doing this so brazenly? They must know there will be a reckoning, someday, somehow. Or do they believe or know that day will never come?
Obviously they believe the reckoning will never happen, not the least because they know the Christian god is on their side, just as he was on the side of the Crusades, the Inquisition and the genocidal removal of the First Nations.
Here’s hoping that once those fascists in the Whitehouse are shown the door, each and every one of them is held accountable for their crimes. Until then, it’s heartening to know they’ve got to look at themselves in the mirror each morning.
The fascists in the White House are not the real power. They are the employees of the oligarchs, put in place to execute Project 2025 to create a system to enrich the 1%.
How will the oligarchs be made accountable? They will argue that they just took advantage of the Citizen United's money-is-speech ruling, and the laws that the Republicans enacted for their benefit, and that the SCOTUS majority ruled were constitutional. What crimes have they committed, other than potential bribery? And will Trump pardon them all?
So true Georgia, well at least they can’t take it with them - the money that is. They will get old and sick and die just like the rest of us. And if karma or judgement day really exist then there’ll be that to contend with too. Maybe they’ll come back as roaches lol.
I'm a postcards-to-voters writer, Kazz. Lately, I have been thinking about regularly sending a postcard to the administration's cabinet members to do just that, get them to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and see what we see. It's the steady drumbeat of a card in their mailbox that I'm after more than anything.
Both Eisenhower and FDR had the humility to understand that the best and most noble of plans may fail, and may fail miserably, but that forging ahead despite the risks is truly the only option. My memory of the history I've learned is fuzzy, but didn't Lincoln also write and a letter accepting blame if he was not re-elected? Self-knowledge in our leaders is essential even when they spare us their doubts at the time How different this is from a leader who proclaims that he is the only one who can fix something and then stumbles into chaos because he is unable to see or understand the consequences, the possible peril, of his unrealistically narcissistic sense of self.
Through the decades since the 1971 Powell memo, specially-dedicated and fantastically-funded far right foundations killed humanities and essay writing across U.S. ed, K-12 to “higher.”
As a consequence, our public officials and media personalities lost touch with the great novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, and other arts which had previously sharpened our abilities to see and deal with the pain in others. So, too, we lost touch with our massively damaged working classes.
Testing filled the vacuum. Its machinery rumbles on, continuing to enrich its billionaire owners while even our non-fascists have proven too-often tested, too anesthetized in the face of the fascists taking over.
After HCR’s letter today, I will forever envision President Eisenhower, pencil in-hand, leaving his final message to the ages were he to have made the wrong decision 82 years ago. The high cost of personal accountability remains a fact of life for each of us.
Yes, Phil Balla, the many versions of “the humanities” are rich with the lessons we need most to live and be fulfilled as human beings…your persistent reminders are appreciated by me.
Thank you, HCR, for the way you teach lessons from our history.
It's true that they are the only people capable of imagining shouldering that burden. Our one task is do everything we can to honor their sacrifice by saving democracy (and who knows, maybe even an ember of life in what used to be the party of Lincoln) with a Blue Tsunami.
They made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could now, 85 years later, betray Ukraine’s trust, and betray Europe’s trust and foolishly bargain away Taiwan’s security, not to mention alienating every other ally and aligning ourselves with our most unscrupulous adversaries, as if stumbling around a saloon like a bully drunk with greed and power, mistaking damage for progress.
Plenty of democratic countries have leaders and are not rudderless despite the difficult times and are yet to succumb to facism. Perhaps there's some heart to take from them in their (so far) more successful struggles??
The French people also understood the assignment--and the sacrifice of those youths. Traveling through Normandy, France, it was remarkable how many people still expressed their appreciation all these decades later, even from stories passed down by their parents and grandparents.
Yes the soldiers understood their assignment. Per Wikipedia, "Allied casualties on D-Day (June 6, 1944) are estimated at approximately 10,300, with at least 4,414 confirmed dead."
It always brings tears to my eyes as well. The world responded - together - to shut down Hitler. If we don’t start standing up to Orange and his tribe, I’m afraid the world will shut us down. We all have to be vigilant and do all we can to redeem and save our democracy, imperfect as it may be.
We owe so much to the brave soldiers--and their commander and commander in chief--on that fateful June day. Thank you, Heather, for reminding us of the best aspects of our country's commitments to freedom.
My uncle Phil Brow landed at Normandy. He was a small man, only about 5’5”, about 150 lbs, but he made it to the beach and with a 50 pound pack on his back, walked to Berlin. ♥️
Reading this, I am brought to tears...by the sacrifices that day and by how FAR we have fallen as a country, in our "leadership." What on Earth would Ike think?
Ike feared for us. He wanted us to know what they encountered because he said that at some point in history, someone would say that the evil never happened. He knew his fellow men.
You are right, we should be but...are 'we'? 250 years ago, those people KNEW many were going to die too. Are we willing to make that sacrifice 🤔. If not for ourselves, then at least for our children and grandchildren! Heather's Letter about The Greatest Generation and Normandy ( joined by so many other countries) and General Eisenhower's willingness to accept all blame/ responsibility if the gamble failed.....I just can't help but wonder what this 'Generation ' is made of. I so hope and pray it doesn't come to proving it, by the numbers of mothers, fathers, sons and daughters that are lost. Thank you Professor Heather Cox Richardson for tonight's Letter. The first comment I read said reading about this always made that person weep....as I am now, writing this. So proud of those....kids, so many of them and the leadership from our nation!!!
How do we identify our foes accurately. How long might it take to get all of the new laws in order. Everyone says they love our country, but then they lie about everyone else. And then if the moneyed people own the courts. We could be good people again!
Really it should take less time than it did to dismantle them. Just reverse. However, that opportunity was not taken during the intervening four years, and I highly doubt democrats have the organization and the spine.
In the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, there is a constantly running film clip of reminiscences by survivors trying to put into words for visitors what they had experienced under Nazi rule. One of them, who had survived near death, multiple escapes, living under false identity, and finally as a slave laborer in a concentration camp recalls the day he met soldiers from the 89th Infantry Division in General Patton’s Third Army, probably in Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, the first camp Americans liberated at the end of April 1945.
He found himself in a boxcar, very close to death, “just wanting to sleep, why don’t they let me sleep.” Drifting in and out of consciousness, he heard voices saying “they’re bringing soup, they have bread.” Someone picked him up by the shoulders. In his delirium, he thought “no, no, they're not gonna kill me, not now, after so much time, no…” His eyes closed, he picked up a wooden shoe and hit the person as hard as he could, then opened his eyes. “A soldier, a young, American soldier was looking at me…and he was crying. He said ‘I’m not here to kill you — I’m here to liberate you. You’re free…’”
It has been some years since I saw that museum. I was with my daughter, and I didn't make it through the first floor before breaking down. It is a place that every American should see, to understand what happened, so that it never happens again.
Ooooooops. Nor Joe Biden …Nor Bill Clinton. …Nor Barack Obama. And that’s the problem with this Substack. They’re just not fair minded at all. Nor do they have their eyes and ears open! Just the left eye and the left ear. As proven by your post Apache.
Hello Rick.... DJT's Father was of Military Age at that Time, but Fred Trump got a Draft Deferment... No Member of this Trump Clan, which is now 5-Generations on this Continent, has Served in Uniform... On this Continent, my Family goes back for over a 1,000 Generations.... Each Generation Has Served....
And what’s really funny Candace is people don’t like when you talk about Joe Biden because he’s no longer president but I keep reminding people that FDR is still remembered because he is still technically president because his policies are still alive
As are 15 or so million illegal immigrants. Thank you Joe Biden.
Why are you still plaguing those of us who walk without knuckle dragging?!?
As no human being is "illegal", there is no such thing as an "illegal immigrant". And even if there were, such long suffering and hard striving humans are not the sine qua non of all things plaguing our Puritan Republic, as you and your idiotic cohorts constantly bellow about.
Well, then, Daniel, you should probably wake up and realize that if we opened our borders to anybody two things would occur… One we would be the most populated country in the world. And two we would not be able to sustain life economically any longer here in America as we do today. That’s why we miraculously have borders just like every other country in the world has borders.. So much for your ignorance. Try going to Mexico without a passport. Try getting into Canada without a passport. It’s great to have fantasies there, Daniel. But try to keep them more personalized so you don’t look like a knuckle dragger
We have a quota here designed by our political class and should they want to increase the number of immigrants they permitt to enter this country all they have to do is vote for it. And you’re so fucking racist you don’t even.
The population of the United States doesn’t care where legal immigrants come from. Only that they’re here I have the right to be here.
I would love to come and try to bail you out of a Mexican prison for crossing the border illegally as an example. The lack of comprehension of real life amazes me sometimes here.
As my post seemed to disappear midstream. so I am starting over.. I have visited Normandy and the cemetery five times and it is a very moving place. If my partial post shows up elsewhere with this information I’m sorry, but I could not find it to finish so I’ll finish here
As moving as the cemetery is , which is an amazing place, a more moving cemetery is nearby of the Canadians who died. And while they were only crosses and Jewish stars at Normand, the Canadian cemetery has headstones. Where you read and feel the sadness of the parents that came to bury their children.
And without knowing it one of the times that I was there with friends to Pay our respects, we actually stayed at a Château, which is now a hotel only to find out that it’s right outside of Canadian burial ground where they blatantly shot 150 unarmed soldiers/prisoners
At a place called Château d Adrieau which we later discovered was a Nazi officers barracks during the war.
I love these reminders of the invasion of Normandy, as well as the rest of our history. My father didn’t land on June 6th but was on a ship with his truck waiting for the signal to finally come ashore. From there he went on to fight until the end of the war. I have copies of the letters he wrote and saved and the memories of hearing him talk of that time. Many of those memories are still so clear to me. We lost him in 1985. I’ll be 80 in August. I know how important it is that history is passed down accurately and completely. Thank you for all you do.
Yes, as we're grounded in the humanity of others -- their complications, their contexts -- we can respond more vitally to those contexts as we also become better able to see them hitting others.
I like the personal scores many enter here on mostly earlier family members, as if those now doing the writing have enlarged personal capacities due to the good debts now constantly due those earlier others.
My father also landed on Utah Beach. He was 30 years old in 1944 and had quit his law practice to join the Army in 1940. His wife--my mother--was pregnant with me as he dogpaddled ashore on June 6. He didn't describe the events until October. Here's his narrative in a letter to his parents, which was also published in his home town (Cheyenne, WY) paper. Thought you might be interested:
"October 7, 1944
"As you say, the Germans are quite stubborn about giving up. As a matter of fact, they fight very well, and unless the home front blows up on them or there is a great political upheaval, the Wehrmacht will have to be beaten insensible. Even the impressed Poles and Russians they have fighting for them are quite hard to get along with.
"Today I had a bath and put on clean clothes, and as a result I feel ten pounds lighter and have caught cold. The baths come so far apart that I'm afraid they're a detriment health, rather than a benefit. Anyway, I've never felt at home in the water since we waded ashore on D-day.
"I don't think I ever gave you the details on that little episode. When we were eating lunch just before it was time to put in – we were on one of those fancy little LCI jobs like you see disgorging soldiers in Life – the skipper said quite casually that he hoped we wouldn't have to wade in through more than five feet of water. Since the waves were fairly high, that didn't leave me feeling so good, particularly since the water was full of jelly fish and I didn't care about having them floating in and out of my mouth. But just as we were getting ready to chance it, a man came by with a smaller craft and the skipper made a deal with him to take us in, assuring us that by this means we could get in much closer. So we made the transfer and started out, assuming that we wouldn't have to wade in anything more than ankle deep.
"Finally this little boat ran aground and the front end was lowered, forming a ramp for landing. By that time we were close enough to see what was going on on the beach and had considerably lost our enthusiasm for visiting France, but since someone had to go, Boers [say: Berss) and I, who were closest anyway, started down the ramp. The ramp turned out to be a snare and delusion, because the damned thing missed reaching the bottom by about two feet. Boers got to the end before I did and promptly disappeared from view except for his right hand, which continued to hold out of the water a roll of maps. Seeing his plight, I stopped and felt out the edge of the thing and got in a little less impulsively. By the time I was in, Boers was back up, a little blue in the face but otherwise intact, and we started for the beach, the water lapping at our Adam's apples and the jelly fish threatening to crawl in any minute. It was almost half a mile to shore and very tiring to move, so we were pretty dead beat when we got there. About 100 yards out, with the end in sight, Boers stepped in the crater caused by the explosion of a mine and went under again. Once more you could see nothing but the roll of maps; then his head came up and he yelled, “Don't worry about me. I'm all right.” Then he disappeared again. He came out several times, each time assuring us that he was quite O.K., and each time going down before he had any more than got the words out of his mouth. Of course he wasn't all right – nobody was, at that point – and, what's more, no one gave a damn. We just wanted to get out of the water. Ultimately we got ashore on all fours and the war was on. It was all deadly serious at the time, but we get hysterical every time the subject comes up.
"I wish I could tell you about something brave and heroic that I did on the beach, but it just didn't happen that way. Upon getting out of the water, I was firmly convinced that my equipment had to be redistributed before I could engage the enemy, so I stopped to get rid of the life preserver which I'd never inflated and at the same time throw away my field glasses and few other pieces of excess baggage. Upon getting all that done I looked around and discovered to my horror that everyone had gone. I had only the vaguest idea where our assembly area was but I finally found a hole in the sea wall and started inland. Right away I found some other members of the party who had got lost, so I gathered them together, and we picked our way through the German artillery fired and in due time found the outfit. If I had been lost for a month, I couldn't have been more overjoyed at finding someone I knew. It was a great day – I'll never forget it."
He was Captain John Miller -- like Tom Hanks in the movie.
"I wish I could tell you about something brave and heroic that I did on the beach, but it just didn't happen that way." Clearly, your heroic father has some kind of sense of humor, David Miller. You must be proud. Hell, I'm proud for you just reading his letter. Thanks for posting it.
Of all the lunatic, psychotic, grotesquely stupid, pointlessly offensive actions our Moron-in-Chief has undertaken, few feel as cruel, as dumb, as generationally destructive as the GOP’s treatment of Canada.
Do none of them remember Juno Beach? Did any of them give a flying flamingo about the kindnesses shown to us by the people of St John’s — all those in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick — who offered their homes, food, support to thousands of US-bound passengers whose flights got diverted to Canada on 9/11?
Have they forgotten how the Canadian Embassy bestowed Canadian citizenship (and matching, forged passports) to seven American hostages smuggled out of Iran in 1979? Did they pretend to forget all the signs and newspaper headlines in America at the time, saying “Merci, Canada!”?
I sure haven’t. You don’t treat trusted friends the way this asshole has. You do not treat people who bled for you, fought with you, supported you, by slapping them in the face.
Trump did it but they all endorsed it. No words to describe these shabby little men and women.
By the way, I am very moved and motivated by the sympathies of people here regarding World War II, especially those having love ones who went there to protect our freedom and our sovereignty. It is the last war that we have actually won
When this is all over, those gallant Canadians will forgive us. As long as we recognize our mistakes and admit to them. We should be emulating Canadian kindness. Maybe we can become a province of Canada!
And there you go, you fucked up again you gotta take some of those TDS pills or some anti-psychosis drugs to try to get some of that heat out of your system… or the next 3 to 11 years are going to be very tough on you
Yes, spinning Truth can be very painful for folks like you but nothing but blind hatred in their hearts, and not much in their minds, which is that thing 3 feet above their ass
But please, if you’d like to continue to try to unspin the truth.
What nations would follow Trump’s Disunited States today? Not only are we moving nationally closer to fascism than democracy, but Trump has driven away major allies with his absurd tariffs and disrespectful rhetoric, while his military prances around the world thumping its scrawny chest. I want to believe that Trumpism can be defeated, but it may so infest our national institutions that it cannot be eradicated.
Although his influence has been and continues to be terrible, I must continue to believe that we the people will ultimately survive his and the oligarchs' forays into fascism and will emerge victorious over Trump, his cabinet of miscreants and Project 2025 authors and the billionaires and think tanks supporting him.
Do you know if you guys would put Project 2025 in your back pocket and realize that it doesn’t exist although you may not know it …but it is true that Joe Biden adopted some of the issues actually in project 2025. Ooooops
Perhaps you didn’t notice there mother… that’s all was going good when talking about the sadness of the second world war and Normandie
I did not interrupt such a discussion. I interrupted our discussion as soon as somebody decided to make a totally negative remark well, trying to relate the Contant of these kind words and remembrances of our lost soldiers. And try to drag Trump into this. For which there was no applicable or sensible reason.
I actually was complementing gum I was actually with sympathetic with the sentiments of most of these posts, in fact, explaining that I have been to Normandy on five different occasions to honor and recollect the memory of the loved and lost
And even bother to suggest that those that might visit there, go visit the Canadian cemetery as well, which is a lot more expressive because it contains headstones and sayings from their parents
Barry, it’s only disunited because of your hate… it would be wonderful if you haters could do exactly what Gingrich and Clinton did ….and got together in support of one another or set them in a room and came to an agreement on policies and laws, etc.
Unfortunately, the Democrat party doesn’t want any part of anything that comes out of Trump‘s mouth, regardless of the fact that if Biden did exactly the same things you’d be standing with a flag in your hand and cheering. Alas, all The Democrats want is control. So Endeth the lecture.
The Normandy landing at was a gamble. So many were lost as the Germans were prepared and pushed back. Without the massive naval and air support, many more would have been lost. I was not there. I can only think of my friends lost in the late sixties. I was not there to save them with my shooting skills from 14 years old onward. It was a different war in the sixties.
WWII was an all out slaughter on all sides of it. It is good to remember it and Vietnam. It is better
to make sure we never have to do it again. Peace . . .
Hate to tell you, Bill, but we are doing it again.
On the January streets of Minneapolis/St. Paul as fascist ICE and CBP marauded and murdered.
Adjoining all those neighborhoods across the U.S. where the most cruel of concentration camps have been set up so the horribly fed and without medicine in them all exhibit a U.S. now largely turned blind to and contemptuous of the rule of law.
Blind, deaf and dumb Phil weighing in here. You poor dear you just can’t help yourself. Not sure where you live, but apparently they took more than a couple billion dollars of your money and stole it. And over 100 of them are now serving prison time for just that so you keep talking about all the good folks of Minnesota and there are many but there are obviously many bad ones and they’re still getting bagged today
Bill, well if you’re talking about Vietnam, you have only one MAIN INDIVIDUAL TO THANK. With the assistance of John Kennedy, who was probably one of our best president ever,.. you should thank none other than Lyndon Johnson for killing 56,000 of our American soldiers/young men. . And I believe he was a Democrat.
We should’ve never been there in the first place nor Korea, nor Afghanistan, Nori rack, nor Libya. And unfortunately, we lost all those wars since World War II
But we were about to win a war. We haven’t won in 80 years. And hopefully it will bring peace to not only the region, but the entire planet
Oh I love this one. I’m guessing and I’m not sure but I’m guessing you’re trying to post Russian language here. And if so, let me easily demonstrate your ignorance.
If you want to talk about Russian influence and interference, please confirm that and I would be more than happy to pour you a glass of champagne. Although it might slip out of my hand all over your head. And make you a wet head. So please confirm the language you’re trying to use there and I would be most happy to destroy your attempt to give #MIN the current president and show you the proof of just the opposite
My Uncle drove an ambulance during the Pearl Harbor attack and served in the Pacific arena. A friend told me about his landing on Omaha Beach. 17 years old. I shot, hit the sand, shot, ran, hit the sand...
I had read quite a bit about the land forces of WW2, but it wasn't until I read the newest book from frequent commentor here TcinLA, the stories of the aviators of WW2. Amazing stories of bravery, as many did not return. Also amazing is the bombing missions to take out the oil refineries, as here we are, decades later, and the need for oil is causing havoc on the world economy. Take a fight to the death but put it in 3D! ("Bloody Skies" by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver)
Just imagine if we could truly embrace green energy! China is doing so, and they are beating us to the punch on electric vehicles as well. All these opportunities missed.
Yes, FDR that much earlier indeed knew "the troops were actually in the vessels, on the way across.”
We're in similar vessels now. Not facing booby-trapped, massively barbed-wire entangled beaches, with concrete pillboxes raining deadly fire on them.
But facing similarly deadly reincarnations of fascism -- ours yet in power today not just with an ideology of racial supremacy for some, but with an even more massive phalanx for corruption -- all those of criminal Donald's pal Jeffrey, plus the social media billionaires and their algorithms set to spreading hatreds and sensationalism, media billionaires just aiming to collapse all news and entertainment into criminal-Donald suck-ups, and the usual standardized testing billionaires ever zeroed in on the anesthetization and silo-neuterdom we've suffered for decades already.
Thank you once again. The sacrifices that so many made must never be forgotten. Fresh tears are more than appropriate as is resolve to defeat today’s fascists.
I've followed this will hold since the election and learned a lot. I finally subscribed - have wanted to, but old and concerned about finances so there's only a few I have finally subscribed to. Heather Cox Richardson was the first! I've been following her for a long time! Finally got kicked off Facebook in February. Meta wasn't liking my posts! Thanks for sending me a share. Limited time to explore all of my subscriptions on Substack. Glad you have the time! Thank you!
“AMERICA” lyrics by Samuel Francis Smith 1831. The melody is the same as the British royal anthem, “God Save the King”, to make a statement about American democracy. The song was first performed on July 4, 1831, at a children’s Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in downtown Boston, Massachusetts.
My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing: land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside let freedom ring! My native country, thee, land of the noble free, thy name I love; I love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills; my heart with rapture thrills like that above. No more shall tyrants here With haughty steps appear, And soldier bands; No more shall tyrants tread Above the patriot dead— No more our blood be shed By alien hands.
Thank you, Fred! I've known of Ms. Anderson's pioneering rendition since childhood, but have never actually seen the clip and heard her mellifluous version until now. Breathtaking!
I would like to remember members of the French Resistance who sabotaged German trains on their way to the coast and thus reduced the numbers of German soldiers available for battle.
This story always makes me weep. Those boys were so young and had so much courage. They understood the assignment...
So how is it today we have become that hated fascist nation?
How is it that Congressional Republicans are holding the rest of us hostage ?
Where are we failing to let our representatives know we won’t take it any more? And if they can’t act with integrity and patriotism and defend our constitution (as they swore to do) we will do whatever we must to rescue our liberties, our freedoms and our democracy, indeed our nation from tyranny and the dictator.
What. Ever. It. Takes.
I think we got lazy. We were fat and happy and ignored that our representatives were doing the work of corporate interests, not our.
I am thankful that Trump is a poor-planning idiot who cannot hide his intentions. Think how bad it would be if he were clever and stealthy! Maybe it's a good thing that Trump's insane bumbling has awoken us.
Time to take back governance. Whatever it takes!
Trump may be a poor planning idiot, but Trump did not plan what got us here. It was the Republican uber-rich who funded the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, who laid the plans for the current authoritarian regime. The progression was laid out in all the many iterations of Project XXXX over the years.
We can't afford to think that if we get rid of Trump, we are "safe." All of those oligarchs and their money are still going to be there and will fight hard to maintain the system that enriches them.
The Nazis in World War II were uprooted by armed force, and the wealth of the fascist industrialists was destroyed. Democracy was rebuilt on the ashes of Europe, where authoritarianism was discredited in Western Europe. That was not the case in Eastern Europe, which led to another more than 40 years of dictatorships until the fall of the Soviet Union.
Our task is different. We will have to rebuild our democracy with the array of political forces and corrupted institutions still in play against us, with new factors coming on the scene, like AI-driven disinformation and climate change, that will be economic and societal disruptors. It is going to be a long process, made more difficult by the enormous concentration of wealth in the 1% in the United States, where the behind-the-scenes political power resides.
Oh I agree 100%. What I was trying to say was that I am happy Trump is such a fumbling idiot that he has shown us all the plans instead of being clever and stealthy so we don't know what's coming. He can't keep a secret to save his life! He'd much rather brag about how clever he is. And that exposes what's planned and in the works.
We do need to reform our government. We need a New Nuremberg to rout out and punish all the collaborators. And then we have to rebuild a government that is not based on "norms" and "Gentlemen's agreements".
We need to begin with the elimination of corporate money from politics. First follow Hawaii and Montans in redefining corporations as entities that cannot donate to campaigns. Then end Citizens United. for good SuperPACs must be outlawed and any candidate who takes money from anyone but constituent funds must be prosecuted for corruption. (We already have anti-corruption laws that we do not enforce.) Then we need a tax system that levels the rich and uplifts the poor (like it used to be in the 1950s when we were the most prosperous country in the world). We need to act like the wealthiest country in the world by providing healthcare, education, and a social safety net to all our citizens and legal residents. We need to enact and enforce a federal minimum wage based on the cost of living and we need to protect workers from corporate exploitation by strong labor legislation. No more "employed at will". We need to implement a justice system that is truly color blind and outlaw private prisons and the prisoner exemption to the 13th Amendment.
And we need to not get tired and stop halfway. We need to not say "It's over. Let's just move on." We cannot move on. The system was broken before Trump kicked it to pieces. We need to fix everything.
Joanne Freeman had one of her history chats yesterday on the topic of "norms" and how Trump and SCOTUS have destroyed the norms surrounding the concepts of "justice" and the rule of law by their politicization of the DOJ. How can we trust in government if there is no longer an institution that fights for justice for the people?
Precisely. That is why we must reform the DOJ. I think an integral part is getting money out of politics. The DOJ is meant to be apolitical. It must return to that ethos. And we must put in place guardrails that cannot be so easily violated by an Executive who disagrees. Truly, we need to make the President a servant of the people, not the master of anything.
Very accurate and prescient, Georgia.
While it was certainly not Heather's intent to wax nostalgic, as her lovely piece commemorating the D Day anniversary was spot on, we must move away from retrospect and fast forward to the present and the immediate future. Trump himself, as obnoxious, vulgar, corrupt, idiotic and destructive as he is, is simply the tip of the iceberg
During Biden, I wrote a letter to him expressing a need to communicate directly to the public in the form of a fireside chat maybe monthly chat. For some unknown reason, he didn’t take my advice.
Biden gave several of the best speeches of my lifetime. And his delivery was about like mine would be -- meh!
What Biden lacked in charisma he made up for it in assembling the best cabinet and team of any President ever. And he did it with a Senate of old farts and Republicans. And the House barely had a majority. He was in his element when he was twisting arms, one on one, not giving press conferences to oligarch owned MSM journalists.
Over 74,000 infrastructures projects were funded and initiated under Biden, many of which replaced crumbling bridges, roads, pipelines, water systems, etc. Hundreds of thousands of rural families now have high speed internet for the first time.
And what does Trump do immediately after taking office? He starts canceling these projects. And when he reinstates them, he often gives out no-bid contracts to oligarchs at many times the original bid.
Deb Haaland did an incredible job as Interior Secretary only to be replaced by an environment hating oligarch.
The list goes on. Does Trump even have ONE SINGLE competent advisor or cabinet member other than perhaps the Joint Chiefs and some of the military leaders?
And it's likely we will end up with a Democratic President in 2028 that will have to undo and attempt to fix many of these Trumpian messes. If you want a charismatic leader than can spew BS like Trump, you may end up with a great speaker and a less than competent President.
Agree.
I believe the implied agreement was that Trump could get his time in the sun to prove his power and get the respect he never had. In addition he could steal as much money as he wants.
In return, the oligarchs would work to destroy our constitutional government and lay the foundation for a fascist, White nationalist regime while putting the capitalist elitists in charge.
It is almost as if the fascists have been waiting for the perfect storm, and it arrived in 2015. A disgruntled White working class, unwitting Democrats, some underlying cultural issues, and a long simmering pool of racists seizing an opportunity.
What may save us is that Trump is both insatiably greedy and narcissistic that he is turning off the electorate before the fascists could finish the takeover. Add in his physical and mental deterioration, and we see the rush to set up the police state.
Simplistic? Sure, but the gist of my point seems real.
As Sam Rayburn said, any jackass can kick down a barn. It’s the rebuilding that takes a community’s and a carpenter - or words to that effect. Thank you Joe, and whoever might arise this time to do more than document the damage. HCR not only documents but inspires, encourages, carries the torch and shines a light on the path. Will enough follow…
The transparency of all the corruption, lying, unconstitutional acts, and so on, by this regime troubles me. How come they are doing this so brazenly? They must know there will be a reckoning, someday, somehow. Or do they believe or know that day will never come?
Obviously they believe the reckoning will never happen, not the least because they know the Christian god is on their side, just as he was on the side of the Crusades, the Inquisition and the genocidal removal of the First Nations.
Well said!
Here’s hoping that once those fascists in the Whitehouse are shown the door, each and every one of them is held accountable for their crimes. Until then, it’s heartening to know they’ve got to look at themselves in the mirror each morning.
The legacy of WWII bravery is now sullied by trump tyranny and gross Republican misrule as blatant as the enemy in 1944.
How long will we let our democracy be trampled by men and women who ruthlessly serve only themselves?
The fascists in the White House are not the real power. They are the employees of the oligarchs, put in place to execute Project 2025 to create a system to enrich the 1%.
How will the oligarchs be made accountable? They will argue that they just took advantage of the Citizen United's money-is-speech ruling, and the laws that the Republicans enacted for their benefit, and that the SCOTUS majority ruled were constitutional. What crimes have they committed, other than potential bribery? And will Trump pardon them all?
So true Georgia, well at least they can’t take it with them - the money that is. They will get old and sick and die just like the rest of us. And if karma or judgement day really exist then there’ll be that to contend with too. Maybe they’ll come back as roaches lol.
They only see the reflection of evil but embrace it
... and the mirror reflects what they think to be success...
And that’s the tragedy.
I'm a postcards-to-voters writer, Kazz. Lately, I have been thinking about regularly sending a postcard to the administration's cabinet members to do just that, get them to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and see what we see. It's the steady drumbeat of a card in their mailbox that I'm after more than anything.
maybe we should send them pocket mirrors!
Create postcards with the picture side saying “YOU ARE DORIAN GRAY” (or is it grey?).
I like your style, Kazz
One part Dorothy Parker, one part Robespierre!😀
Being able to hold these people accountable to the extent that they used their power to enrich themselves will determine our future.
i could never even look in the mirror..
i dont know how they do it.
How is it? It’s because we don’t see the enemy because the enemy is us! When we are in the midst of the fire it’s hard to see a way out.
We need our own D(T)-Day. But that can’t happen without a charismatic, dedicated leader. Where is that person?
Both Eisenhower and FDR had the humility to understand that the best and most noble of plans may fail, and may fail miserably, but that forging ahead despite the risks is truly the only option. My memory of the history I've learned is fuzzy, but didn't Lincoln also write and a letter accepting blame if he was not re-elected? Self-knowledge in our leaders is essential even when they spare us their doubts at the time How different this is from a leader who proclaims that he is the only one who can fix something and then stumbles into chaos because he is unable to see or understand the consequences, the possible peril, of his unrealistically narcissistic sense of self.
.... and we have a POTUS who answers most questions with "I know nothing about it" or "I was not involved".
"Where is that person?" If you ask HCR, she will answer it is all of us put together.
Our schools lost the key tools we needed, Dirk.
Through the decades since the 1971 Powell memo, specially-dedicated and fantastically-funded far right foundations killed humanities and essay writing across U.S. ed, K-12 to “higher.”
As a consequence, our public officials and media personalities lost touch with the great novels, memoirs, histories, biographies, and other arts which had previously sharpened our abilities to see and deal with the pain in others. So, too, we lost touch with our massively damaged working classes.
Testing filled the vacuum. Its machinery rumbles on, continuing to enrich its billionaire owners while even our non-fascists have proven too-often tested, too anesthetized in the face of the fascists taking over.
After HCR’s letter today, I will forever envision President Eisenhower, pencil in-hand, leaving his final message to the ages were he to have made the wrong decision 82 years ago. The high cost of personal accountability remains a fact of life for each of us.
Yes, Phil Balla, the many versions of “the humanities” are rich with the lessons we need most to live and be fulfilled as human beings…your persistent reminders are appreciated by me.
Thank you, HCR, for the way you teach lessons from our history.
Bravo, Dick!
Indeed!
It's way past time to cross the Delaware again.
The Greatest Generation. 🇺🇸
They had a job to do, they did it, and came home. Shouldered a burden the likes of which most of us can scarcely imagine today.
It's true that they are the only people capable of imagining shouldering that burden. Our one task is do everything we can to honor their sacrifice by saving democracy (and who knows, maybe even an ember of life in what used to be the party of Lincoln) with a Blue Tsunami.
They made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could now, 85 years later, betray Ukraine’s trust, and betray Europe’s trust and foolishly bargain away Taiwan’s security, not to mention alienating every other ally and aligning ourselves with our most unscrupulous adversaries, as if stumbling around a saloon like a bully drunk with greed and power, mistaking damage for progress.
very sad, but this is the misery of the present world and the place of the rest of the free world in it … leaderless and rudderless 😥
Plenty of democratic countries have leaders and are not rudderless despite the difficult times and are yet to succumb to facism. Perhaps there's some heart to take from them in their (so far) more successful struggles??
The French people also understood the assignment--and the sacrifice of those youths. Traveling through Normandy, France, it was remarkable how many people still expressed their appreciation all these decades later, even from stories passed down by their parents and grandparents.
I found that same appreciation from the French people when I visited Normandy a few years ago.
Yes the soldiers understood their assignment. Per Wikipedia, "Allied casualties on D-Day (June 6, 1944) are estimated at approximately 10,300, with at least 4,414 confirmed dead."
It always brings tears to my eyes as well. The world responded - together - to shut down Hitler. If we don’t start standing up to Orange and his tribe, I’m afraid the world will shut us down. We all have to be vigilant and do all we can to redeem and save our democracy, imperfect as it may be.
respect.
I feel the same way.
We owe so much to the brave soldiers--and their commander and commander in chief--on that fateful June day. Thank you, Heather, for reminding us of the best aspects of our country's commitments to freedom.
My uncle Phil Brow landed at Normandy. He was a small man, only about 5’5”, about 150 lbs, but he made it to the beach and with a 50 pound pack on his back, walked to Berlin. ♥️
My deepest respect to your family and your uncle's stout legs and incredible, miraculous service.
"It is not the strength of body that counts, but the strength of the spirit."
-J.R.R. Tolkien
🫡🫡🫡🇺🇲❤️
And we should be prepared to do no less here in our own country, as awful as it is to have to say that, we must or we are lost.
Reading this, I am brought to tears...by the sacrifices that day and by how FAR we have fallen as a country, in our "leadership." What on Earth would Ike think?
Ike feared for us. He wanted us to know what they encountered because he said that at some point in history, someone would say that the evil never happened. He knew his fellow men.
Hello Sherry... FDR indeed was the Greatest President of the 20th Century,,,, FDR did so much Good...
You are right, we should be but...are 'we'? 250 years ago, those people KNEW many were going to die too. Are we willing to make that sacrifice 🤔. If not for ourselves, then at least for our children and grandchildren! Heather's Letter about The Greatest Generation and Normandy ( joined by so many other countries) and General Eisenhower's willingness to accept all blame/ responsibility if the gamble failed.....I just can't help but wonder what this 'Generation ' is made of. I so hope and pray it doesn't come to proving it, by the numbers of mothers, fathers, sons and daughters that are lost. Thank you Professor Heather Cox Richardson for tonight's Letter. The first comment I read said reading about this always made that person weep....as I am now, writing this. So proud of those....kids, so many of them and the leadership from our nation!!!
🇺🇲🇺🇲🫡🫡😪
People don’t vote and cannot even cancel amazon. We are a different country today. Weak, lazy and self-absorbed.
When cancelling Amazon is our biggest sacrifice, we are truly hopeless
I have some real concern that hopeless is the reality
How do we identify our foes accurately. How long might it take to get all of the new laws in order. Everyone says they love our country, but then they lie about everyone else. And then if the moneyed people own the courts. We could be good people again!
Really it should take less time than it did to dismantle them. Just reverse. However, that opportunity was not taken during the intervening four years, and I highly doubt democrats have the organization and the spine.
People don’t vote and cannot even cancel amazon. We are a different country today. Weak, lazy and self-absorbed.
People don’t vote and cannot even cancel amazon. We are a different country today. Weak, lazy and self-absorbed.
People don’t vote and cannot even cancel amazon. We are a different country today. Weak, lazy and self-absorbed.
In the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, there is a constantly running film clip of reminiscences by survivors trying to put into words for visitors what they had experienced under Nazi rule. One of them, who had survived near death, multiple escapes, living under false identity, and finally as a slave laborer in a concentration camp recalls the day he met soldiers from the 89th Infantry Division in General Patton’s Third Army, probably in Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, the first camp Americans liberated at the end of April 1945.
He found himself in a boxcar, very close to death, “just wanting to sleep, why don’t they let me sleep.” Drifting in and out of consciousness, he heard voices saying “they’re bringing soup, they have bread.” Someone picked him up by the shoulders. In his delirium, he thought “no, no, they're not gonna kill me, not now, after so much time, no…” His eyes closed, he picked up a wooden shoe and hit the person as hard as he could, then opened his eyes. “A soldier, a young, American soldier was looking at me…and he was crying. He said ‘I’m not here to kill you — I’m here to liberate you. You’re free…’”
It has been some years since I saw that museum. I was with my daughter, and I didn't make it through the first floor before breaking down. It is a place that every American should see, to understand what happened, so that it never happens again.
Well, I have to give it to you. This is probably the first uplifting and optimistic thing you’ve said in a year and a half that I’ve been here.
And yet people don’t vote and cannot even handle cancelling amazon.
Hello Evelyn... We owe so much to the Heroes involved.... Not a Trump contributed...
Ooooooops. Nor Joe Biden …Nor Bill Clinton. …Nor Barack Obama. And that’s the problem with this Substack. They’re just not fair minded at all. Nor do they have their eyes and ears open! Just the left eye and the left ear. As proven by your post Apache.
Tsk, tsk
Hello Rick.... DJT's Father was of Military Age at that Time, but Fred Trump got a Draft Deferment... No Member of this Trump Clan, which is now 5-Generations on this Continent, has Served in Uniform... On this Continent, my Family goes back for over a 1,000 Generations.... Each Generation Has Served....
And what’s really funny Candace is people don’t like when you talk about Joe Biden because he’s no longer president but I keep reminding people that FDR is still remembered because he is still technically president because his policies are still alive
As are 15 or so million illegal immigrants. Thank you Joe Biden.
Rick,
Why are you still plaguing those of us who walk without knuckle dragging?!?
As no human being is "illegal", there is no such thing as an "illegal immigrant". And even if there were, such long suffering and hard striving humans are not the sine qua non of all things plaguing our Puritan Republic, as you and your idiotic cohorts constantly bellow about.
So please, will you kindly fuck off?!?
Well, then, Daniel, you should probably wake up and realize that if we opened our borders to anybody two things would occur… One we would be the most populated country in the world. And two we would not be able to sustain life economically any longer here in America as we do today. That’s why we miraculously have borders just like every other country in the world has borders.. So much for your ignorance. Try going to Mexico without a passport. Try getting into Canada without a passport. It’s great to have fantasies there, Daniel. But try to keep them more personalized so you don’t look like a knuckle dragger
We have a quota here designed by our political class and should they want to increase the number of immigrants they permitt to enter this country all they have to do is vote for it. And you’re so fucking racist you don’t even.
The population of the United States doesn’t care where legal immigrants come from. Only that they’re here I have the right to be here.
I would love to come and try to bail you out of a Mexican prison for crossing the border illegally as an example. The lack of comprehension of real life amazes me sometimes here.
You are off topic, малыш
I was on topic until somebody here unpleasantly and needlessly went off topic
As my post seemed to disappear midstream. so I am starting over.. I have visited Normandy and the cemetery five times and it is a very moving place. If my partial post shows up elsewhere with this information I’m sorry, but I could not find it to finish so I’ll finish here
As moving as the cemetery is , which is an amazing place, a more moving cemetery is nearby of the Canadians who died. And while they were only crosses and Jewish stars at Normand, the Canadian cemetery has headstones. Where you read and feel the sadness of the parents that came to bury their children.
And without knowing it one of the times that I was there with friends to Pay our respects, we actually stayed at a Château, which is now a hotel only to find out that it’s right outside of Canadian burial ground where they blatantly shot 150 unarmed soldiers/prisoners
At a place called Château d Adrieau which we later discovered was a Nazi officers barracks during the war.
I love these reminders of the invasion of Normandy, as well as the rest of our history. My father didn’t land on June 6th but was on a ship with his truck waiting for the signal to finally come ashore. From there he went on to fight until the end of the war. I have copies of the letters he wrote and saved and the memories of hearing him talk of that time. Many of those memories are still so clear to me. We lost him in 1985. I’ll be 80 in August. I know how important it is that history is passed down accurately and completely. Thank you for all you do.
"I love these reminders," you say, Diana.
Yes, as we're grounded in the humanity of others -- their complications, their contexts -- we can respond more vitally to those contexts as we also become better able to see them hitting others.
I like the personal scores many enter here on mostly earlier family members, as if those now doing the writing have enlarged personal capacities due to the good debts now constantly due those earlier others.
My father landed on Utah Beach. 19 years old and scared out of his mind. He survived and I was born 10 years later.
My father also landed on Utah Beach. He was 30 years old in 1944 and had quit his law practice to join the Army in 1940. His wife--my mother--was pregnant with me as he dogpaddled ashore on June 6. He didn't describe the events until October. Here's his narrative in a letter to his parents, which was also published in his home town (Cheyenne, WY) paper. Thought you might be interested:
"October 7, 1944
"As you say, the Germans are quite stubborn about giving up. As a matter of fact, they fight very well, and unless the home front blows up on them or there is a great political upheaval, the Wehrmacht will have to be beaten insensible. Even the impressed Poles and Russians they have fighting for them are quite hard to get along with.
"Today I had a bath and put on clean clothes, and as a result I feel ten pounds lighter and have caught cold. The baths come so far apart that I'm afraid they're a detriment health, rather than a benefit. Anyway, I've never felt at home in the water since we waded ashore on D-day.
"I don't think I ever gave you the details on that little episode. When we were eating lunch just before it was time to put in – we were on one of those fancy little LCI jobs like you see disgorging soldiers in Life – the skipper said quite casually that he hoped we wouldn't have to wade in through more than five feet of water. Since the waves were fairly high, that didn't leave me feeling so good, particularly since the water was full of jelly fish and I didn't care about having them floating in and out of my mouth. But just as we were getting ready to chance it, a man came by with a smaller craft and the skipper made a deal with him to take us in, assuring us that by this means we could get in much closer. So we made the transfer and started out, assuming that we wouldn't have to wade in anything more than ankle deep.
"Finally this little boat ran aground and the front end was lowered, forming a ramp for landing. By that time we were close enough to see what was going on on the beach and had considerably lost our enthusiasm for visiting France, but since someone had to go, Boers [say: Berss) and I, who were closest anyway, started down the ramp. The ramp turned out to be a snare and delusion, because the damned thing missed reaching the bottom by about two feet. Boers got to the end before I did and promptly disappeared from view except for his right hand, which continued to hold out of the water a roll of maps. Seeing his plight, I stopped and felt out the edge of the thing and got in a little less impulsively. By the time I was in, Boers was back up, a little blue in the face but otherwise intact, and we started for the beach, the water lapping at our Adam's apples and the jelly fish threatening to crawl in any minute. It was almost half a mile to shore and very tiring to move, so we were pretty dead beat when we got there. About 100 yards out, with the end in sight, Boers stepped in the crater caused by the explosion of a mine and went under again. Once more you could see nothing but the roll of maps; then his head came up and he yelled, “Don't worry about me. I'm all right.” Then he disappeared again. He came out several times, each time assuring us that he was quite O.K., and each time going down before he had any more than got the words out of his mouth. Of course he wasn't all right – nobody was, at that point – and, what's more, no one gave a damn. We just wanted to get out of the water. Ultimately we got ashore on all fours and the war was on. It was all deadly serious at the time, but we get hysterical every time the subject comes up.
"I wish I could tell you about something brave and heroic that I did on the beach, but it just didn't happen that way. Upon getting out of the water, I was firmly convinced that my equipment had to be redistributed before I could engage the enemy, so I stopped to get rid of the life preserver which I'd never inflated and at the same time throw away my field glasses and few other pieces of excess baggage. Upon getting all that done I looked around and discovered to my horror that everyone had gone. I had only the vaguest idea where our assembly area was but I finally found a hole in the sea wall and started inland. Right away I found some other members of the party who had got lost, so I gathered them together, and we picked our way through the German artillery fired and in due time found the outfit. If I had been lost for a month, I couldn't have been more overjoyed at finding someone I knew. It was a great day – I'll never forget it."
He was Captain John Miller -- like Tom Hanks in the movie.
David Miller
davem5929@gmail.com
Very moving to hear from the original Captain Miller. Appreciate the kind sharing of your family’s history.
David, thank you for sharing that!
"I wish I could tell you about something brave and heroic that I did on the beach, but it just didn't happen that way." Clearly, your heroic father has some kind of sense of humor, David Miller. You must be proud. Hell, I'm proud for you just reading his letter. Thanks for posting it.
OMG - thank you for sharing your father's incredible story.
We owe so much to so few who did the unfathomable and the impossible. Thanking that scared-to-death 19-year-old today…
ABC
🫡🫡🫡🇺🇲🇺🇲🥲
Our friends, “gallant Canadians…”
Of all the lunatic, psychotic, grotesquely stupid, pointlessly offensive actions our Moron-in-Chief has undertaken, few feel as cruel, as dumb, as generationally destructive as the GOP’s treatment of Canada.
Do none of them remember Juno Beach? Did any of them give a flying flamingo about the kindnesses shown to us by the people of St John’s — all those in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick — who offered their homes, food, support to thousands of US-bound passengers whose flights got diverted to Canada on 9/11?
Have they forgotten how the Canadian Embassy bestowed Canadian citizenship (and matching, forged passports) to seven American hostages smuggled out of Iran in 1979? Did they pretend to forget all the signs and newspaper headlines in America at the time, saying “Merci, Canada!”?
I sure haven’t. You don’t treat trusted friends the way this asshole has. You do not treat people who bled for you, fought with you, supported you, by slapping them in the face.
Trump did it but they all endorsed it. No words to describe these shabby little men and women.
Infuriating. Embarrassing. We, decent, U.S. Citizens remember and are ashamed.
Ashamed of what?
You, baby.
By the way, I am very moved and motivated by the sympathies of people here regarding World War II, especially those having love ones who went there to protect our freedom and our sovereignty. It is the last war that we have actually won
Then why be such a condescending asshole? I’m ashamed.
Not being one at all.. I am simply responding to those who change the subject to demean current president again for no reason whatsoever
But if you feel that I’m a condescending asshole, I apologize without pleading guilty. How’s that?
When this is all over, those gallant Canadians will forgive us. As long as we recognize our mistakes and admit to them. We should be emulating Canadian kindness. Maybe we can become a province of Canada!
Why wait? you can simply move there. There is not one thing stopping you except yourself. Uh oh. I just hate when the truth happens. lol
I haven’t forgotten
Yeah, and we’re about to win the first war since then
And there you go, you fucked up again you gotta take some of those TDS pills or some anti-psychosis drugs to try to get some of that heat out of your system… or the next 3 to 11 years are going to be very tough on you
Enough is enough. You are spinning … it is time to stop.
Yes, spinning Truth can be very painful for folks like you but nothing but blind hatred in their hearts, and not much in their minds, which is that thing 3 feet above their ass
But please, if you’d like to continue to try to unspin the truth.
What nations would follow Trump’s Disunited States today? Not only are we moving nationally closer to fascism than democracy, but Trump has driven away major allies with his absurd tariffs and disrespectful rhetoric, while his military prances around the world thumping its scrawny chest. I want to believe that Trumpism can be defeated, but it may so infest our national institutions that it cannot be eradicated.
trump WANTS ISOLATION for America and Americans!!
trump WANTS Americans to feel ALONE and deserted EVERY SINGLE DAY!!
Now that trump's poll numbers are falling daily ...he feels more deserted than America does!
WE ARE NOT INTIMIDATED!!
WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER!!
WE SHALL and MUST OVERCOME!!
Although his influence has been and continues to be terrible, I must continue to believe that we the people will ultimately survive his and the oligarchs' forays into fascism and will emerge victorious over Trump, his cabinet of miscreants and Project 2025 authors and the billionaires and think tanks supporting him.
Do you know if you guys would put Project 2025 in your back pocket and realize that it doesn’t exist although you may not know it …but it is true that Joe Biden adopted some of the issues actually in project 2025. Ooooops
Let these good people enjoy their community without being such a dick, sweetie.
Perhaps you didn’t notice there mother… that’s all was going good when talking about the sadness of the second world war and Normandie
I did not interrupt such a discussion. I interrupted our discussion as soon as somebody decided to make a totally negative remark well, trying to relate the Contant of these kind words and remembrances of our lost soldiers. And try to drag Trump into this. For which there was no applicable or sensible reason.
I actually was complementing gum I was actually with sympathetic with the sentiments of most of these posts, in fact, explaining that I have been to Normandy on five different occasions to honor and recollect the memory of the loved and lost
And even bother to suggest that those that might visit there, go visit the Canadian cemetery as well, which is a lot more expressive because it contains headstones and sayings from their parents
That's a name I wouldn't have mentioned even in comments on today's letter.
History repeats itself...
0
None
Barry, it’s only disunited because of your hate… it would be wonderful if you haters could do exactly what Gingrich and Clinton did ….and got together in support of one another or set them in a room and came to an agreement on policies and laws, etc.
Unfortunately, the Democrat party doesn’t want any part of anything that comes out of Trump‘s mouth, regardless of the fact that if Biden did exactly the same things you’d be standing with a flag in your hand and cheering. Alas, all The Democrats want is control. So Endeth the lecture.
Tsk tsk…
The Normandy landing at was a gamble. So many were lost as the Germans were prepared and pushed back. Without the massive naval and air support, many more would have been lost. I was not there. I can only think of my friends lost in the late sixties. I was not there to save them with my shooting skills from 14 years old onward. It was a different war in the sixties.
WWII was an all out slaughter on all sides of it. It is good to remember it and Vietnam. It is better
to make sure we never have to do it again. Peace . . .
Hate to tell you, Bill, but we are doing it again.
On the January streets of Minneapolis/St. Paul as fascist ICE and CBP marauded and murdered.
Adjoining all those neighborhoods across the U.S. where the most cruel of concentration camps have been set up so the horribly fed and without medicine in them all exhibit a U.S. now largely turned blind to and contemptuous of the rule of law.
Blind, deaf and dumb Phil weighing in here. You poor dear you just can’t help yourself. Not sure where you live, but apparently they took more than a couple billion dollars of your money and stole it. And over 100 of them are now serving prison time for just that so you keep talking about all the good folks of Minnesota and there are many but there are obviously many bad ones and they’re still getting bagged today
Bill, well if you’re talking about Vietnam, you have only one MAIN INDIVIDUAL TO THANK. With the assistance of John Kennedy, who was probably one of our best president ever,.. you should thank none other than Lyndon Johnson for killing 56,000 of our American soldiers/young men. . And I believe he was a Democrat.
We should’ve never been there in the first place nor Korea, nor Afghanistan, Nori rack, nor Libya. And unfortunately, we lost all those wars since World War II
But we were about to win a war. We haven’t won in 80 years. And hopefully it will bring peace to not only the region, but the entire planet
ну сколько можно уже!
Oh I love this one. I’m guessing and I’m not sure but I’m guessing you’re trying to post Russian language here. And if so, let me easily demonstrate your ignorance.
If you want to talk about Russian influence and interference, please confirm that and I would be more than happy to pour you a glass of champagne. Although it might slip out of my hand all over your head. And make you a wet head. So please confirm the language you’re trying to use there and I would be most happy to destroy your attempt to give #MIN the current president and show you the proof of just the opposite
Have a good morning
My Uncle drove an ambulance during the Pearl Harbor attack and served in the Pacific arena. A friend told me about his landing on Omaha Beach. 17 years old. I shot, hit the sand, shot, ran, hit the sand...
#shorts - Rep. Jasmine Crockett shames the court for racism & corruption (6/3/26)
https://substack.com/@repjasminecrockett/note/c-270063850?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Thank you! I would have missed it normally. Shared it with family. Well done Jaksaa!
I had read quite a bit about the land forces of WW2, but it wasn't until I read the newest book from frequent commentor here TcinLA, the stories of the aviators of WW2. Amazing stories of bravery, as many did not return. Also amazing is the bombing missions to take out the oil refineries, as here we are, decades later, and the need for oil is causing havoc on the world economy. Take a fight to the death but put it in 3D! ("Bloody Skies" by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver)
Just imagine if we could truly embrace green energy! China is doing so, and they are beating us to the punch on electric vehicles as well. All these opportunities missed.
Tcinla tells it from the mouths of the heroes
Every American, if they can, should visit that beach in Normandy and the cemetery. It is sacred ground 🙏🏼
Many of us visit it, Lois, by viewing and re-viewing the ending of "Saving Private Ryan."
Yes, FDR that much earlier indeed knew "the troops were actually in the vessels, on the way across.”
We're in similar vessels now. Not facing booby-trapped, massively barbed-wire entangled beaches, with concrete pillboxes raining deadly fire on them.
But facing similarly deadly reincarnations of fascism -- ours yet in power today not just with an ideology of racial supremacy for some, but with an even more massive phalanx for corruption -- all those of criminal Donald's pal Jeffrey, plus the social media billionaires and their algorithms set to spreading hatreds and sensationalism, media billionaires just aiming to collapse all news and entertainment into criminal-Donald suck-ups, and the usual standardized testing billionaires ever zeroed in on the anesthetization and silo-neuterdom we've suffered for decades already.
Didn’t your mother and father tell you about drugs?
Thank you once again. The sacrifices that so many made must never be forgotten. Fresh tears are more than appropriate as is resolve to defeat today’s fascists.
Tech Whistleblower: The UAE Colluded With Elon Musk to Interfere In the 2024 Election. The program is "Aleria" and we have the receipts.
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/tech-whistleblower-the-uae-colluded?r=kxzps&utm_medium=ios
JUN 5 2026 | Substack
THIS WILL HOLD
I've followed this will hold since the election and learned a lot. I finally subscribed - have wanted to, but old and concerned about finances so there's only a few I have finally subscribed to. Heather Cox Richardson was the first! I've been following her for a long time! Finally got kicked off Facebook in February. Meta wasn't liking my posts! Thanks for sending me a share. Limited time to explore all of my subscriptions on Substack. Glad you have the time! Thank you!
Congrats, FB banned me in 2020.
“Marion Anderson singing my country tis of thee.” https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marian_Anderson_at_Lincoln_Memorial.webm
“AMERICA” lyrics by Samuel Francis Smith 1831. The melody is the same as the British royal anthem, “God Save the King”, to make a statement about American democracy. The song was first performed on July 4, 1831, at a children’s Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in downtown Boston, Massachusetts.
My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing: land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside let freedom ring! My native country, thee, land of the noble free, thy name I love; I love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills; my heart with rapture thrills like that above. No more shall tyrants here With haughty steps appear, And soldier bands; No more shall tyrants tread Above the patriot dead— No more our blood be shed By alien hands.
Our fathers’ God to thee,
Author of Liberty,
To thee we sing.
Long may our Land be bright
With Freedom’s holy light,
Protect us by Thy Might,
Great God our King.
We sang all the verses often in assemblies during the war.
Thank you, Fred! I've known of Ms. Anderson's pioneering rendition since childhood, but have never actually seen the clip and heard her mellifluous version until now. Breathtaking!
I would like to remember members of the French Resistance who sabotaged German trains on their way to the coast and thus reduced the numbers of German soldiers available for battle.