Like you said, quite the day! Great interview with President Biden. Couple that with the letter tonight, and I find solace in the strength we have. Thank you for your exceedingly fine work. Sleep well, Heather💛🕊💙
I woke up too early so I listened to the interview on Now and Then, Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman's weekly podcast. Of course, Joanne wasn't a participant though she is a historian buddy of Heather's. The interview was informative from a history standpoint leading up to the horrific current events taking place with Russia in Ukraine.
I've been wearing my 'I Love Jimmy Carter' tee-shirt the last week or so. Time to find an 'I Love Joe Biden!' tee-shirt. My admiration for that man grows and grows as I learn more about him. Thank you for the interview Heather. And thank you Kathleen for posting the youtube link, I had no idea that I would get to watch the interview. I can hardly wait!
It's funny - when Joe Biden first was voted into the Senate, I thought he was The Fonz (played by Henry Winkler) - seriously - (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonzie)
... I was a big fan - knew right then and there, that man would be president one day😆😄😆 ... I feel the same about Jon Ossoff - even though I know he's not a media star - he is courageous, bold, articulate and truthful ... I would like to think those are qualities we want in a president!!
I am praying out loud that the voters in Georgia soundly re-elect Sen. Warnock. He seems to epitomize the speech and actions of what a U.S. Senator should be. I will refrain from commenting on his opposition the former occupant of the WH prefers.
Hi Joan, Daphne, Kate - people ... I am happy to hear you found the link useful - wasn't sure if it would be redundant. Here is the introductory comment from the good professor's email:
"Every day, people write to me and say they feel helpless to change the direction of our future.
"I always answer that we change the future by changing the way people think, and that we change the way people think by changing the way we talk about things. To that end, I have encouraged people to speak up about what they think is important, to take up oxygen that otherwise feeds the hatred and division that have had far too much influence in our country of late."
"Have any of your efforts mattered?"
"Well, apparently some people think they have. Last week, President Biden’s team reached out to ask if I would like some time with him to have a conversation to share with you all.
"On Friday, February 25, I sat down with the president in the China Room of the White House to talk about American democracy and the struggles we face.
"It was an amazing time to be able to talk to the President. Russian president Vladimir Putin had just attacked Ukraine, Biden was preparing to give his first State of the Union address, and the president had just made the historic announcement of the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for a seat on the Supreme Court.
"But I didn’t want to ask the president about anything I could learn from other publicly available sources—I already read those every day to write my Letters from an American. I wanted to hear from a historic figure in a historic time about how he thinks about America in this pivotal moment, to put the specifics of what he does in a larger context.
"In my books, I have argued that throughout our history, America has swung between the defense of equality outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the defense of private property outlined in the Constitution.
"Our peculiar history of racism has meant that every time it seems we are approaching equality before the law, those determined to prevent that equality have turned people against it by insisting that government protection of equality will cost tax dollars, thus amounting to a redistribution of wealth from those with property to those without. That is, if Black and Brown Americans, and poor people, are permitted to vote, they will demand roads and schools and hospitals, and those can be paid for only by taxes on people with money. In this argument, an equal say in our government for all people amounts to socialism.
"With this argument, those defending their property turn ordinary Americans against each other and take control of our political system. Once in power, they rig the system for their own benefit. Money flows upward until there is a dramatic split between ordinary people and those very few wealthy Americans who, by then, control the economy, the government, and society.
"This point in the cycle came about in the 1850s, the 1890s, the 1920s, and now, again, in our present.
"In the past, just when it seemed we were approaching the end of democracy and replacing it with oligarchy—and in each of these periods, elites literally talked about how they alone should lead the country—the American people turned to leaders who helped them reclaim democracy.
"We know these leaders from our history. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt all have entered the pantheon of our leaders because of their defense of democracy in the face of entrenched power. But all of those presidents became who they were because they rose to the challenge of the pivotal moments in which they lived. They worked to reflect the increasingly loud voices of the majority of the American people.
"James Buchanan, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, and Donald Trump did not.
"And now President Biden stands at another pivotal moment in our history. What he does in this moment will reflect what the American people demand from his leadership.
"So do your voices matter? He wouldn’t have taken the time in the midst of such an important day in America to talk to you if they didn’t."
I watched the interview yesterday. Biden was articulate and Heather didn't interrupt him which gives her high marks as well. It was nice to see someone listen attentively.
Thank you so much for this interesting review of history and role of different presidents, landowners, and the rest of us. You have a gift for clarifying history.
Great interview! I was so impressed at Biden's knowledge of history and the English language :-) Happy we have a president who can speak in full sentences and follow a thread.
Also a HUGE thank you HCR for yesterday's letter (I am in bed by the time it arrives in my inbox).
Being from Sweden I am afraid for Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Baltic countries UNLESS putin is stopped.
I have friends/colleagues in Finland and Estonia. They are very worried too. My friend in Finland has never been political, but now he is very loudly calling for Finland to join NATO, and he is not alone. This has rattled everybody.
Rather than indulging in alarmist conjecture that this situation will escalate, even though it could, I prefer to see it as a reckoning for the Russian people, sort of like djt provides a political reckoning for the USA. It’s a major cultural turning point for that nation. And for Europe.
Perhaps - if/when the Russian people learn what Putin is really doing. I heard an interview yesterday with a woman in Ukraine who called her mother who lives in Russia. As much as the woman tried to tell her mother what Russian troops were doing in Ukraine, her mother denied the acts were being conducted by Russians. The mother was convinced (via Russian media, I presume) that it was Ukrainians committing the damage to the Ukrainian people. The impact on Putin directly only seems possible if some means of communication with the Russian people can be forged. Mass pamphlet drops perhaps?
I share your concern for Finland, Sweden, Norway, and the Baltic countries - and the rest of Europe because I believe anyone insane enough to do what Putin has already done will follow the previous path of a madman. And yet, remarks like Lindsay Graham made on Fox "news" only add fuel to an already dangerous situation. The more Pence can do to move Republicans away from the ludicrous political positions they've advocated the past 5 years, the better.
Janet, you are right about the interview with President Biden. We listened while driving, it was spellbinding, great questions and on-point prompts from Heather and cogent, informed, logical, caring responses from President Biden. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Republican friends and relatives (under the spell of Trump) saying, essentially, that “Biden is old, he never did anything in all of his time in government and he can’t even put a sentence together” (that last insult was interesting in terms of their idol Trump). Well, yesterday’s interview pointed out that “Joe” is the man we need, AT the time we need him and, while perhaps not a silver tongued orator, he knows what needs to be done and is doing it! Congratulations Joe AND Heather!
What a treat to watch a conversation between a kind, thoughtful, and humble man who happens to be the president of the United States and a student of American history who has so deep an understanding of the moral struggle that lies at the core of the American experiment. This is the America that gives me hope.
Stone is also on film saying that Trump should be impeached and then tried and imprisoned because "He betrayed all of us!"
BTW - great interview with President Biden, Dr. Heather. That must be one of the high points you'll remember forever. Very cool that they reached out to you, recognizing your influence with LFAA.
One of the things I was thinking of, when I heard Joe Biden telling Xi Jinping of the USA in one word: 'possible', 'anything is possible'. Xi could have answered, but he certainly didn't: I see, so Trump is also possible, thank you for that. We will be working on it.
The more elaborate answer, about what the US is, would include the procedures and regulations of how specific things are made not possible, or less possible. And how to deal with historic events, that once were possible, is giving us the upper hand today, even if we definitely don't want the same thing to be possible now.
Interesting. The "elaborate" answer of (in my first 10 seconds or so of thinking about it) what gave us the "upper hand" is enslavement, genocide, and unfettered business practices leading up to the New Deal.
Yes, acknowledge history through real education and honest reporting. It’s more than troubling to see so many states banning certain books and what they call Critical Race Theory. I saw an interview of a parent commenting at a school board meeting, who didn’t want her child to be exposed to curriculum that might make her feel bad. So no Holocaust or slavery in that student’s school. Our country is so divided that we don’t agree on the Truth. But that’s not news.
Dear Prof Richardson. Thanks for taking the time tonight to post the essentials. You keep us focused. I watched your interview with President Biden. Thumbs up to you both. You obviously had a good rapport going. Your questions and observations were excellent and his responses and elaborations were outstanding. He was so good in a relaxed setting--I wish we could here him more in such a way with an outstanding conversation partner (!). His command of the issues and the way he put his intentions, dreams (in a way), and programs was first rate (not what the detractors would have us think!!!). He showed real empathy with history/historians and the craft of teaching---a bit surprising but I know less than I should about the "person". THANK YOU for what you have done for all. I just hope this video gets to a million views---. I'm putting it on my FB page. One takeaway -- the Civil Rights Movement was a catalyst (it was for me too at Duke Div.School in the sit-in/picket days.) Thank you for everything that you do. Peace and Courage. Have a good weekend!
Yes, good idea. I often post the letters, but how awesome to see Heather and President Biden together in conversation in a video. That will be my next post. So “real.”
The quality of Mr. Biden's comments clearly indicates the value of having a researcher as interlocutor instead of a journalist who has to sell something.
I don’t know how it’s possible, no matter how many people are intoxicated with Trump, not to see and respect the devastation and genocide Putin is inflicting upon Ukraine. Where is their humanity? Where is their compassion when we see small children who need medical care, a baby who needs brain surgery, a 9-year old boy who has been orphaned saying, “I hope someone will adopt me”, where? If the war is a picture of man’s inhumanity to man, where do maga people fall on the spectrum? I can’t wrap my head around this. If Trump is siding with Putin, he should be tried for treason for siding with the enemy.
Another story: A family in a car, heading for the border, stop at the checkpoint. Young parents with 6-year-old boy and 2 months old baby. The young mother is talking to a friend/relative in Kyiv on her mobile phone. Shots are heard. The grandmother cries out "There are children in the car!" More shots. All of them were shot dead. (If any of you have seen this story elsewhere, please don't correct me on the number of people and ages of children - that's near enough.)
Cruelty knows no bounds. When my mother was preparing to leave Berlin in the 30’s, she witnessed Nazi soldiers taking babies from mothers arms and throwing them on the ground. It’s horrid and what we are seeing is yet another goddamn crazily obsessed MAN destroying the lives of innocent people!!
I never understood it when we were in the killing fields, and I hated it. Biden said something that rang as clear as a rifle shot to me. He said that evil never goes away but rather it crawls under the rocks and comes back later. I know him so much better now. He has my respect. He is Sir to me now. Heather ripped the bandaid off and exposed him for the one hell of a man he is.
And Marlene it feels like Seal Team 6 is in the wind.
Yes, an example of unbelievable cruelty. Think of Vietnam. And any War. So many victims and soldiers live with PTSD the rest of their lives. Mi Lai Massacre. I was at the monument in Mi Lai in 2007 and we met a very old woman who told us she had been there. We cried together.
That incident is chilling. So many children will be traumatized for life. And likely more loss of life is happening in similar ways. And people leaving everything behind and many not able to get across the border. Whole cities lost. The destruction of entire cities. How can we watch this without helping on the ground? I’m donating but that’s not enough. I keep thinking if I were there and young, I would join the Resistance.
They are in a completely different echo chamber and have been reading and hearing narrative that is completely distinct from the one we exist in. It is quite extraordinary that humans can live side by side with people, see some of the same images on television, and have completely different ready-made explanations for what we are seeing. I have been talking to some eastern Ukrainian nationals in the US who believe it is the Ukrainian military, poisoned by influence from the West, that is doing most of the bombing and killing in Ukraine. These nationals are clearly getting their news from Moscow and hearing from relatives in Ukraine who exist in the same echo chamber.
Joanna Denis, “I don’t know how it’s possible, no matter how many people are intoxicated with Trump, not to see and respect the devastation and genocide Putin is inflicting upon Ukraine.” This is heartbreaking to watch, as was Aleppo, Yemen, Grozny, our southern border, refugees dying in the Mediterranean……..this is our world. I asked yesterday “How many of us are willing to accept a major jump in fossil fuel prices to help put the most devastating brake on Putin beyond direct military intervention?” I am still curious.
This is what raises my ire. Paying more at the pumps is such a minimal sacrifice for most people. Yet they bitch about it like there’s a conspiracy against them personally. Get your head out of your posterior and look at the agony in Ukraine, I will tell anybody in Canada who complains to me.
And yes the government should subsidize this for those who are truly poor.
Shutting down Russia’s oil exports is such an obvious way to fight back when our hands are mostly tied.
Eric - it's a minimal sacrifice for people like you and me who can afford it. But for people whose livelihood depends on use of a vehicle, including the trucks that deliver food and products throughout the country, and whose income level is substantially lower than ours, it's devastating. I filled my tank a week ago @ $4.59 here in SD, and the cost was over $60; we're now well over $5.50/gal. Think how that adds up for someone who have to fill up once a week or perhaps even every few days.
That said, I agree that the coalition should shut off all oil & gas from Russia, and the U.S. should ban importation of Russian oil. In reality, the latter action is not what is causing the U.S. gas price increases but there's no way a majority of Americans will understand that. It's the people of the European NATO members and others dependent on that oil & gas who will be in a world of hurt: transportation, cooking & heating, electricity, all of which are based in oil & gas.
The Russian economy - and more, the revenue essential to continuing to pay for Putin's war - has to crash before anything gets through to those closest to Putin that they MUST do something. I'm sure Putin himself is willing to go down with the ship. I feel for the Russian people who will suffer but the suffering in Ukraine, and the probable future suffering of adjoining NATO nations if Putin isn't stopped goes far beyond what the Russian people are and will be suffering.
Those are great points and I couldn’t agree more. I hadn’t thought about people who drive for a living.
I think I mentioned that those in a certain income level should be subsidized by the government. I hadn’t thought of those in a certain type of job.
Canadian and American society needs to pull together to get out of Russian oil with the least pain possible for our less fortunate countrymen. It’s the least we can do for Ukraine. Putin must be brought to his knees. (Although I fear his reaction then.) I think we are on exactly the same page, Judith.
I very much wish that Biden had asked us all to make sacrifices for the world we want, democracy in the balance, in such perilous times. It was the only part of the speech I expected and did not hear
I would also. Yet when I approach the subject with my circle of acquaintances, everyone gets evasive. Who wants to invite higher costs of living for themselves? So many are already trying to make the month stretch to the paycheck. Yet I don’t see any other non-military action to try.
Of course, the contortionist fg is now trying to reverse his former positions about Ukraine and NATO, according to a Washington Post article that also introduced me to that journal’s Pinocchio Scale. He’s trying to forget that, “In a call on July 25, 2019, Trump asked for “a favor” after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to buy more Javelins. That favor involved launching an investigation of Joe Biden — which led to Trump’s first impeachment. As part of his effort to pressure Zelensky, Trump placed a hold on aid to Ukraine — $250 million in aid through the Defense Department or $141 million in aid through the State Department — that had already been appropriated.”
You were amazing today, and I thank you deeply for the hard, daily, insightful work you have done for years. You caught the President’s attention and your interview allowed him to discuss his commitment to democracy. At the end of a grueling week, you and he together helped me feel hope in the power of people everywhere to elect knowledgeable leaders who really can change how we think and talk about ideas, and then hold our elected officials to a high standard based in the values of democracy and equality. I also very much hope you got that personal tour and that next they appoint you as “historical pattern finder” for the 1/6 Committee! Sleep deep and long and restfully.
Dr. Richardson, Having listened to your interview with the President earlier this evening, I was impressed by how your questions enlisted responses that were both thoughtful and detailed. I also noted that you asked, early on, why the President focused initially on Build Back Better. Typically, when interviewers have asked that question, the rest of it, spoken or implied, has been “instead of voting rights.” Obviously, I don’t know whether you were thinking the same.
Frankly, I raise this point because I had expected more of us to be vocally alarmed by the fact that presently no impactful federal legislation exists that would supersede state laws slated increasingly to restrict voting and to nullify votes. I also find it curious that no one seems outraged by the fact, that since the 2021 Brnovich ruling, DOJ no longer can sue for violating Section #2 of the irreparably dismantled 1965 Voting Rights Act unless DOJ can show “intent” to discriminate.
Though I imagine many take heart in the deluge of citizen activism, in my experience, while getting people registered and turbo-charging our turnout initiatives certainly can help to mitigate voter suppression measures, no amount of organizing is going to get us around the increasing number of election subversion measures advancing through GOP-controlled state legislatures that would change state election rules to change who can be in charge, how votes are counted, and how they’re certified.
Though I could be wrong, my felt sense is that too many of us expect others somehow will resolve this issue, all evidence to the contrary. Still, I would maintain, however important other things are, they can’t be as important as focusing our minds on whether states are laying the groundwork for our opponents to return to or to retain power whether or not they win enough votes.
You write, "...no amount of organizing is going to get us around the increasing number of election subversion measures advancing through GOP-controlled state legislatures." Unless Congress passes the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act that would override such measures, your statement will hold true.
Mim, Considering Biden’s approval ratings rose 8 points since the State of the Union, perhaps he now has the leverage to call out Manchin’s and Sinema’s mere support last January for voter protection legislation as hollow and performative, absent their willingness to support a most modest Senate rule change that would have been enacted only once to advance the newly combined Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.
You've just completed double duty! So I am wont to repeat what I said last evening:
Whenever I think of you, Heather, I think of the innumerable number of hours that you spend on keeping us all abreast of what is happening in the world. Watching you today, in this exquisite interview with President Biden and seeing the two of you together, made me remember these words from Khalil Gibran:
"And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching."
You are the epitomy of what it means to work with love!
Do you know that the word "industry" shares a common root with the word "love"? Wouldn't it be wonder-full of our industries were built around doing the work we love - and loving the work we do ...?
I was very impressed with Biden's talk - obviously someone in terminal dementia and, OK what? -- oh yes Parkinsonism.... snark. Will send this to everyone I can.
The grotesque propaganda that Biden's age makes him unfit to serve is like the reality-twisting lies that Putin is telling about Ukraine. The professor's interview shows this. He's not only sharp but humane, two qualities that his predecessor lacked.
Sadly, Hugh, that is all his detractors see; his speech halting and his brief stumbles. They cannot hear the rational, inspiring things that he is saying.
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician, former actor, and comedian who is the sixth and current president of Ukraine. Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of central Ukraine. Wikipedia
Height: 5′ 7″ Trending
Born: January 25, 1978 (age 44 years), Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine
In her OpEd yesterday, Pulitzer Linda Greenhouse posed the optimistic to help us address the pessimistic. She cites Justice Thurgood Marshall and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in support of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She mentions the transition of Justice O'Connor in hope that such a Justice might be lurking today..
Linda Greenhouse is a brilliant journalist... and historian of The Court. She is critically aware of what racism has done to all aspects of American life... as exemplified by what is never stated by Heather Cox Richardson here.
Linda Greenhouse is an optimist. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's smile and talent justify optimism.
Sandy Despite Linda Greenhouse’s Op Ed yesterday, I deduce from her recent book and OpEd articles, that she is highly pessimistic about the, to use Justice Sotomayor’s word. Stench Court for decades to come. For me, she is the canary in the coal mine regarding the Supreme Court—and her findings make the canary gasp heavily.
In TCinLA's post yesterday, Allen Hingston commented 16 hours ago:
"We are leaving for Lviv and Poland in the next couple of days. When my wife is terrified it is time to go. We have read what Putin has in mind for Ukraine and it mirrors Stalin. It is hard to leave everything but if we are dead or the house is destroyed, it amounts to the same thing.
I hope they are able to take their canine and feline family members! Thank you, I've been anxiously scanning the comments looking for Allen. And true--a lot of Russians don't want this war either. God help them, God help us all.
I think Allen said yesterday that neighbors would be looking after their house and their animals. Having to decide whether to stay or leave would be a horrible choice to have to make, but these are horrible times. He said that the reckoning was the Russian army was about 3 days away. I pray they are safe.
Dr. Richardson, thanks for your interview with Joe Biden and for sending it to us. One of the best, most mutually respectful interviews I have ever seen.
In the interview Biden looks like the man he is: Honest, mostly sincere and when you try to give him credit he deflects and says it is too much credit. Not too many men like this in the upper echelons of (anything).
Thank you for the interview and for representing President Biden accurately, which, is also well representing him.
Lastly, as for Trump feeling he can get away with anything he wants, well, so far, his data supports his perceptions.
Trump has been a hard core criminal all of his life with REWARDS as a consequence. Certainly not any negative consequences for him.
It would be a suprise to see any consequences applied to him for attempting to overthrow the US government either.
Some folks, in America, are above the law. I hate to say it, but, it is true.
Excellent. Good seeds and fertile soils to you Mike! Have you heard of The Black Dirt Farm Collective? Could be a good connection all around ... here are some links:
Also, no doubt you have heard of Vandana Shive - here are some links:
Vandana Shiva on Reclaiming the Commons
Reciprocal Care Will Give Us a Future
By Breanna Draxler - YES Magazine
"In her keynote for YES! Fest, Vandana Shiva mourned the fact that on the day she spoke to us, in early October, in her home country of India, the sun should have been shining, the crops should have been drying, and the soil should have been getting ready for planting. Instead, she said, the rain would not stop. In this way, she illustrates how climate change is impacting far more than temperatures. She calls it a destabilization of the self-sustaining metabolic systems of Mother Earth—a disorder caused by fossil fuels. Our global systems of extraction, pollution, and externalization lead to what she calls “ecological apartheid.”
"But she holds on to hope that we can collectively bring Earth back into our imagination—that we can return to the ideas and actions that inspired her work in the Himalayas back in the 1970s: Indigenous ways of being in relationship with and protecting the Earth. This reciprocal care is what will give us a future."
"Navdanya is an Earth Centric, Women centric and Farmer led movement for the protection of Biological and cultural Diversity. We live and practise the philosophy of Earth Democracy as one Earth Family ( Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.) with no separations between nature and humans and no hierarchies between species, culture, gender, race and faiths. We have conserved our rich seed heritage of nutritious, climate resilient food in more than 150 community seed bank freely saving, sharing and breeding our native varieties. Across 22 states in India we grow real living food from Desi living seed. For us food is not a commodity produced with toxic and artificial chemicals pushing specie to extinctions driving climate change and spreading sickness, disease and pandemics. Food is life, Food is Health growing food ecologically is care for the Earth and regeneration of soil, water and biodiversity. When you connect directly to us through eating organic you take care of your health and Planet health. Return to Earth and join us for courses at Earth University on Earth Democracy, care for Earth, Biodiversity on Seed saving , Agroecology Regenerative Organic Agriculture, and healthy and living Food, our rich indigenous Knowledge and Ecological civilisation.. Navdanya means “nine seeds” (symbolising protection of biological and cultural diversity) and also the “new gift” (for seed as commons, based on the right to save and share seeds In today’s context of biological and ecological destruction, seed savers are the true givers of seed. This gift or “dana” of Navdanya (nine seeds) is the ultimate gift – it is a gift of life, of heritage and continuity that we bring to you through more than 3 decades of service to the Earth and humanity."
Vandana Shiva: The Pandemic Is a Consequence of the War Against Life
"The health emergency of the coronavirus is inseparable from the health emergency of extinction, biodiversity loss and climate change'
From In These Times: Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from Vandana Shiva’s book Oneness vs. the 1%: Shattering Illusions, Seeding Freedom (Chelsea Green Publishing, August 2020) and was originally published by Independent Science News.
"When you control seed, you control life on earth."
How did the willful daughter of a Himalayan forest conservator become the world’s most powerful opponent of Monsanto? The Seeds of Vandana Shiva, a feature-length documentary, presents the remarkable life story of the Gandhian eco-activist and agro-ecologist, Vandana Shiva.
We can do it if we learn from mistakes like trump. We need to remember him as we do hitler. Anomalies. People to NOT imitate. To not hold in high esteem. To not embrace.
Hopefully, not elect. Please!!! Let’s dodge that bullet. 🙏
He lost the last election because so many additional people came out to vote against him. It was the very strong turnout of anti-Trump voters, not the pro-Biden voters, that turned the 2020 election. McConnell and the other R politicians who are turning against him know that he will lose again. They are craven and dedicated political tacticians, because if he were going to win in 2024, they would back him. Remember: he lost in 2020, and he lost the midterms in 2018 (among other things, California had a blue wave), and he was still in office when, against all odds, the Senate went blue. That entire period of time was a referendum on DJT. He may have won in 2016, but once the nation got a good look at him, it spurned him. He soured the Republican Party’s chances.
The terrain looks very different in the Red Sea of voter suppression and blatant cheating. The horrible political ads in TX this past week dripped with hatred, fear and love of chump. It worked for the most part. We have a long way to go.
The Red Sea. Nice. Yes, pj was talking about our challenge here. Something close to half our country is choosing whites-first males-first straights-first society over diversity. That Red Sea is fighting like hell to stay in power. I just don’t think djt will ever be in office again. But there could easily be another Hitler clone.
John! There are so many good people in Texas. They are fighting an up hill battle against Pecos Bill winds. I really think they will eventually slip the yoke of republicanism that is strangling them.
Roland, let’s not forget that Trump got 74,000,000 votes in 2020, which was 12,000,000 more than he got in 2016 (and 10,000,000 more than anyone besides Biden has ever gotten). Hardly a spurning. Biden won through superior turnout, but Trump had an amazing turnout as well. McConnell hopes that Trump’s hold on the GOP is weakening, but Trump remains far and away the leader for the GOP nomination in 2024. I don’t understand how voters who voted for Biden because they opposed Trump aren’t pro-Biden voters. Maybe every Biden voter didn’t love Biden, but every election sees voters who vote for someone they don’t love.
Yes of course. I usually use that 2020 election statistic to remind people, as you are reminding us now, that this country has a huge population of reactionaries. The problem of ignorance in our electorate is deeply entrenched, and pj’s concerns are totally valid. But I think djt is toast when it comes to political office. I think the R’s will run someone else and, if they don’t, he loses, assuming law enforcement doesn’t catch up with him.
Trump will not run again. First, he knows he can't win. Second, one of the big federal and state investigations will nail him. Financially, his company is a dead-man walking. And his "candidacy" is nothing more than a huge fund-raising con. His supporters are the definition of suckers.
Trump would have no chance of being President in 2024 if the DOJ was not so over-scrupulous/pusillanimous.
I am sick to death of the lack of action against Trump and is accomplices. And I’m perfectly aware of the blah-blah-blah about building a case from the bottom up, about not revealing who you’re investigating, about how you only get one chance to bring down the king.
A well-placed leak would at least give these scoundrels sleepless nights. Then action.
I am beginning to feel that Merrick Garland will go down in history - to his consternation.
Patience grasshopper. There is probably not a lawyer anywhere on earth that wants to nail Trump’s hide to the barn more than Merrick Garland does. I am confident that the moment Garland has an air-tight case against Trump, he will indict him. On the other hand nothing would be more disastrous than to indict Trump without an air-tight case and have him declared not guilty. Think about it…
I’ve thought about it dozens of time. I’ve listened to prosecutors discussing this obvious point many times.
The vast majority are not sanguine about what’s happening. And you’d be hardly likely to dismiss them with the condescending nostrum of your first sentence.
I was thinking precisely that even a white beard could not hold back the “grasshopper” comment. You have to give him that. It w as almost respectful. At least you know he knows you are on the path.
About the opening sentence - it’s a quote, by David Carradine, from the great old TV show, “Kung Fu”.
Just because we despise Trump and know that he is a serious danger to our democracy does not mean we can just put him in prison. Trump has spent 40 years learning how to skirt the law. He’s as slippery as they come. He may never be convicted for any of his schemes, his fraud or his amorality. There’s a reason he doesn’t use email and tears up notes of his meetings. He doesn’t leave evidence.
What makes you think he can be tried and convicted beyond reasonable doubt today? What evidence, what’s the air-tight case?
I agree completely. If that leak doesn’t happen, if Garland does not act decisively before the midterms, he will go down in history as the man who failed in his duty. I’ve already lost a tremendous amount of respect for him. The current optics, the way it looks right now, the story he is creating for himself: he (his dept) is incompetent.
If true, it’s desperately sad and consequential that such a moment would happen now.
The Committee stuck it right in the DOJ’s face this week. By all I can glean from experts, they will have a duty to investigate. That duty and three or four bucks will get you a coffee at Starbucks.
And your point “before the midterms” is singularly important.
Surely the DOJ realizes that to shrug their shoulders at Trump and circle is an affront to the world. Zelensky has provided a moment of absolute clarity.
I hold on to a shred of hope that we are wrong in our judgment. But people of great legal expertise are similarly worried, similarly burrowing for any sign that there is something positive at work inside those walls. But we are nearly 14 months out.
The midterms are in 22 months. That, if I’m not mistaken, is the gestation period for an elephant to be born. Symbolic, somehow.
Roland, I’ll ask you the same question I just asked Eric. Where’s the air-tight case? I expect you might say “The committee says it has evidence that Trump’s closest advisors told him in December of 2020 that there was no fraud.” Which is true, and also not new. We knew that back in December of 2020, that’s why Trump fired Barr. We also know that other advisors close to Trump continued to tell him there was fraud. They still say that today. You put Trump on the stand, and say, “Mr. Trump, you were told by many people that there was no fraud, that you had lost fairly. Therefore you committed fraud against the United States (that’s the potential charge) by continuing to say that the election was stolen when you knew it wasn’t.” And Trump replies, “I knew it was stolen! Many other people close to me said there was fraud. People involved in the elections in Arizona, in Pennsylvania, in Georgia, in Wisconsin all told me then and continue to tell me today there was significant vote fraud. I know the election was stolen (he can name names, these people exist).” Can you convince a jury of what was in Trump’s mind, that he knew there was no fraud?
If there are notes, or emails, or recordings, in which Trump said, “I know that Biden won fairly, I know I lost, but I am going to try to overturn this election”, then you’ve got him. Without that kind of evidence, you can’t win conviction beyond reasonable doubt. Garland knows this. Do you really think Garland wouldn’t be overjoyed to put Trump behind bars, if he could?
Take your rest, since this situation in the Ukraine may run and run. Thank you for your words, and Happy Birthday to the US constitution. From Christopher in Ireland.
Like you said, quite the day! Great interview with President Biden. Couple that with the letter tonight, and I find solace in the strength we have. Thank you for your exceedingly fine work. Sleep well, Heather💛🕊💙
Historian Heather Cox Richardson interviews President Joe Biden February 25, 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Ks3BnFymQ
I woke up too early so I listened to the interview on Now and Then, Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman's weekly podcast. Of course, Joanne wasn't a participant though she is a historian buddy of Heather's. The interview was informative from a history standpoint leading up to the horrific current events taking place with Russia in Ukraine.
I've been wearing my 'I Love Jimmy Carter' tee-shirt the last week or so. Time to find an 'I Love Joe Biden!' tee-shirt. My admiration for that man grows and grows as I learn more about him. Thank you for the interview Heather. And thank you Kathleen for posting the youtube link, I had no idea that I would get to watch the interview. I can hardly wait!
It's funny - when Joe Biden first was voted into the Senate, I thought he was The Fonz (played by Henry Winkler) - seriously - (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonzie)
... I was a big fan - knew right then and there, that man would be president one day😆😄😆 ... I feel the same about Jon Ossoff - even though I know he's not a media star - he is courageous, bold, articulate and truthful ... I would like to think those are qualities we want in a president!!
I am SO proud of both our Senators from Georgia! Warnock has greatly impressed me as well as Ossoff. They're both "gittin' it done"!
I am praying out loud that the voters in Georgia soundly re-elect Sen. Warnock. He seems to epitomize the speech and actions of what a U.S. Senator should be. I will refrain from commenting on his opposition the former occupant of the WH prefers.
!!!
Agreed.
Seriously.
You won't be disappointed, Daphane Hill!
Yes! A great interview!
Hi Joan, Daphne, Kate - people ... I am happy to hear you found the link useful - wasn't sure if it would be redundant. Here is the introductory comment from the good professor's email:
"Every day, people write to me and say they feel helpless to change the direction of our future.
"I always answer that we change the future by changing the way people think, and that we change the way people think by changing the way we talk about things. To that end, I have encouraged people to speak up about what they think is important, to take up oxygen that otherwise feeds the hatred and division that have had far too much influence in our country of late."
"Have any of your efforts mattered?"
"Well, apparently some people think they have. Last week, President Biden’s team reached out to ask if I would like some time with him to have a conversation to share with you all.
"On Friday, February 25, I sat down with the president in the China Room of the White House to talk about American democracy and the struggles we face.
"It was an amazing time to be able to talk to the President. Russian president Vladimir Putin had just attacked Ukraine, Biden was preparing to give his first State of the Union address, and the president had just made the historic announcement of the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for a seat on the Supreme Court.
"But I didn’t want to ask the president about anything I could learn from other publicly available sources—I already read those every day to write my Letters from an American. I wanted to hear from a historic figure in a historic time about how he thinks about America in this pivotal moment, to put the specifics of what he does in a larger context.
"In my books, I have argued that throughout our history, America has swung between the defense of equality outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the defense of private property outlined in the Constitution.
"Our peculiar history of racism has meant that every time it seems we are approaching equality before the law, those determined to prevent that equality have turned people against it by insisting that government protection of equality will cost tax dollars, thus amounting to a redistribution of wealth from those with property to those without. That is, if Black and Brown Americans, and poor people, are permitted to vote, they will demand roads and schools and hospitals, and those can be paid for only by taxes on people with money. In this argument, an equal say in our government for all people amounts to socialism.
"With this argument, those defending their property turn ordinary Americans against each other and take control of our political system. Once in power, they rig the system for their own benefit. Money flows upward until there is a dramatic split between ordinary people and those very few wealthy Americans who, by then, control the economy, the government, and society.
"This point in the cycle came about in the 1850s, the 1890s, the 1920s, and now, again, in our present.
"In the past, just when it seemed we were approaching the end of democracy and replacing it with oligarchy—and in each of these periods, elites literally talked about how they alone should lead the country—the American people turned to leaders who helped them reclaim democracy.
"We know these leaders from our history. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt all have entered the pantheon of our leaders because of their defense of democracy in the face of entrenched power. But all of those presidents became who they were because they rose to the challenge of the pivotal moments in which they lived. They worked to reflect the increasingly loud voices of the majority of the American people.
"James Buchanan, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, and Donald Trump did not.
"And now President Biden stands at another pivotal moment in our history. What he does in this moment will reflect what the American people demand from his leadership.
"So do your voices matter? He wouldn’t have taken the time in the midst of such an important day in America to talk to you if they didn’t."
"Here is what he has to say:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Ks3BnFymQ
"Thanks for subscribing to Letters from an American. This post is public, so feel free to share it."
🤗😄😃😄🤗
I watched the interview yesterday. Biden was articulate and Heather didn't interrupt him which gives her high marks as well. It was nice to see someone listen attentively.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Judy Woodruff learned how to do that on the NH
LOL!
Thank you so much for this interesting review of history and role of different presidents, landowners, and the rest of us. You have a gift for clarifying history.
Impressive to read this again today
Great interview! I was so impressed at Biden's knowledge of history and the English language :-) Happy we have a president who can speak in full sentences and follow a thread.
Also a HUGE thank you HCR for yesterday's letter (I am in bed by the time it arrives in my inbox).
Being from Sweden I am afraid for Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Baltic countries UNLESS putin is stopped.
I have friends/colleagues in Finland and Estonia. They are very worried too. My friend in Finland has never been political, but now he is very loudly calling for Finland to join NATO, and he is not alone. This has rattled everybody.
Rather than indulging in alarmist conjecture that this situation will escalate, even though it could, I prefer to see it as a reckoning for the Russian people, sort of like djt provides a political reckoning for the USA. It’s a major cultural turning point for that nation. And for Europe.
We can only hope!
Perhaps - if/when the Russian people learn what Putin is really doing. I heard an interview yesterday with a woman in Ukraine who called her mother who lives in Russia. As much as the woman tried to tell her mother what Russian troops were doing in Ukraine, her mother denied the acts were being conducted by Russians. The mother was convinced (via Russian media, I presume) that it was Ukrainians committing the damage to the Ukrainian people. The impact on Putin directly only seems possible if some means of communication with the Russian people can be forged. Mass pamphlet drops perhaps?
I am in the USA and I am worried about what Putin will do! He is 69 and I believe a coward in reality plus he has short man syndrome!
I share your concern for Finland, Sweden, Norway, and the Baltic countries - and the rest of Europe because I believe anyone insane enough to do what Putin has already done will follow the previous path of a madman. And yet, remarks like Lindsay Graham made on Fox "news" only add fuel to an already dangerous situation. The more Pence can do to move Republicans away from the ludicrous political positions they've advocated the past 5 years, the better.
Yes, I am grateful for your comment & link. I hadn’t been aware of this interview. I hope it is broadcast on TV, too.
Such a wonderful amazing surprise that Heather promised us on Thursday. I cried and still do when I think about this gift she has given us!
Thanks so much for this post
There needs to be a transcript of this interview. Too many things will get lost in the wind without it.
Heather, in her infinite wisdom, has a transcript already, believe me. She leaves no rock unturned.
Thanks so much for posting this link, Kathleen.
I couldn't have said it better! A few quick markers turned into quite the essay! Excellent as usual.
Janet, you are right about the interview with President Biden. We listened while driving, it was spellbinding, great questions and on-point prompts from Heather and cogent, informed, logical, caring responses from President Biden. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Republican friends and relatives (under the spell of Trump) saying, essentially, that “Biden is old, he never did anything in all of his time in government and he can’t even put a sentence together” (that last insult was interesting in terms of their idol Trump). Well, yesterday’s interview pointed out that “Joe” is the man we need, AT the time we need him and, while perhaps not a silver tongued orator, he knows what needs to be done and is doing it! Congratulations Joe AND Heather!
So true.
Ditto all of Janet's comments. Wonderful interview with President Biden who is becoming one of my heroes.
What a treat to watch a conversation between a kind, thoughtful, and humble man who happens to be the president of the United States and a student of American history who has so deep an understanding of the moral struggle that lies at the core of the American experiment. This is the America that gives me hope.
Me too Richard, what you said.
Stone is also on film saying that Trump should be impeached and then tried and imprisoned because "He betrayed all of us!"
BTW - great interview with President Biden, Dr. Heather. That must be one of the high points you'll remember forever. Very cool that they reached out to you, recognizing your influence with LFAA.
One of the things I was thinking of, when I heard Joe Biden telling Xi Jinping of the USA in one word: 'possible', 'anything is possible'. Xi could have answered, but he certainly didn't: I see, so Trump is also possible, thank you for that. We will be working on it.
The more elaborate answer, about what the US is, would include the procedures and regulations of how specific things are made not possible, or less possible. And how to deal with historic events, that once were possible, is giving us the upper hand today, even if we definitely don't want the same thing to be possible now.
Interesting. The "elaborate" answer of (in my first 10 seconds or so of thinking about it) what gave us the "upper hand" is enslavement, genocide, and unfettered business practices leading up to the New Deal.
Agree, and one requisite for dealing with history is that we know it, and acknowledge what was.
Yes, acknowledge history through real education and honest reporting. It’s more than troubling to see so many states banning certain books and what they call Critical Race Theory. I saw an interview of a parent commenting at a school board meeting, who didn’t want her child to be exposed to curriculum that might make her feel bad. So no Holocaust or slavery in that student’s school. Our country is so divided that we don’t agree on the Truth. But that’s not news.
HyEvery experiment require testing and ultimately discarding our false hypotheses, of which those are some in our pursuit of a living democracy.
Dear Prof Richardson. Thanks for taking the time tonight to post the essentials. You keep us focused. I watched your interview with President Biden. Thumbs up to you both. You obviously had a good rapport going. Your questions and observations were excellent and his responses and elaborations were outstanding. He was so good in a relaxed setting--I wish we could here him more in such a way with an outstanding conversation partner (!). His command of the issues and the way he put his intentions, dreams (in a way), and programs was first rate (not what the detractors would have us think!!!). He showed real empathy with history/historians and the craft of teaching---a bit surprising but I know less than I should about the "person". THANK YOU for what you have done for all. I just hope this video gets to a million views---. I'm putting it on my FB page. One takeaway -- the Civil Rights Movement was a catalyst (it was for me too at Duke Div.School in the sit-in/picket days.) Thank you for everything that you do. Peace and Courage. Have a good weekend!
I wish for even a few minutes of this Biden interview to be somehow sneaked onto the most watched Fox program.
I just emailed the link to my Trumpie family members.
We need the Jeffrey Wright character from the Hunger Games to break in and broadcast it in the middle of Tucker Carlson.
Hehehe- where are the Anonymous hackers when you need them?
OMG If only some of the hackers could do that!!!!
Epic!!!!!
Yes! I hope it is broadcast widely.
I did.
Me too
I did, as well.
Yup.
I did several days ago and now will post again.
Yes, good idea. I often post the letters, but how awesome to see Heather and President Biden together in conversation in a video. That will be my next post. So “real.”
The quality of Mr. Biden's comments clearly indicates the value of having a researcher as interlocutor instead of a journalist who has to sell something.
I agree. It was an excellent interview.
Excellent observation!
Thanks.
I don’t know how it’s possible, no matter how many people are intoxicated with Trump, not to see and respect the devastation and genocide Putin is inflicting upon Ukraine. Where is their humanity? Where is their compassion when we see small children who need medical care, a baby who needs brain surgery, a 9-year old boy who has been orphaned saying, “I hope someone will adopt me”, where? If the war is a picture of man’s inhumanity to man, where do maga people fall on the spectrum? I can’t wrap my head around this. If Trump is siding with Putin, he should be tried for treason for siding with the enemy.
The 9 year old boy just broke my heart. I would like to see TFG (the former guy) tried for treason, yes.
Another story: A family in a car, heading for the border, stop at the checkpoint. Young parents with 6-year-old boy and 2 months old baby. The young mother is talking to a friend/relative in Kyiv on her mobile phone. Shots are heard. The grandmother cries out "There are children in the car!" More shots. All of them were shot dead. (If any of you have seen this story elsewhere, please don't correct me on the number of people and ages of children - that's near enough.)
War creates murderers as a matter of course, and pain that spans generations. Always
Yes, it’s PTSD for the victims and the soldiers. So many ruined lives.
Cruelty knows no bounds. When my mother was preparing to leave Berlin in the 30’s, she witnessed Nazi soldiers taking babies from mothers arms and throwing them on the ground. It’s horrid and what we are seeing is yet another goddamn crazily obsessed MAN destroying the lives of innocent people!!
I never understood it when we were in the killing fields, and I hated it. Biden said something that rang as clear as a rifle shot to me. He said that evil never goes away but rather it crawls under the rocks and comes back later. I know him so much better now. He has my respect. He is Sir to me now. Heather ripped the bandaid off and exposed him for the one hell of a man he is.
And Marlene it feels like Seal Team 6 is in the wind.
Your words ring true, Pat. Can’t ❤️ your or Roland’s comments.
❤️
That’s curious, as soon as I posted this “❤️“ to “like” your comment, my red heart appeared underneath your comment
"Like" isn't the right button to push, but you know what I mean.
Absolutely
Yes, an example of unbelievable cruelty. Think of Vietnam. And any War. So many victims and soldiers live with PTSD the rest of their lives. Mi Lai Massacre. I was at the monument in Mi Lai in 2007 and we met a very old woman who told us she had been there. We cried together.
😢
That incident is chilling. So many children will be traumatized for life. And likely more loss of life is happening in similar ways. And people leaving everything behind and many not able to get across the border. Whole cities lost. The destruction of entire cities. How can we watch this without helping on the ground? I’m donating but that’s not enough. I keep thinking if I were there and young, I would join the Resistance.
Me too!
“Intoxicated with trump” is the best phrasing I’ve heard.
"Intoxication" in French means "poisoning".
Yes. I have same incredulity. What is it that people cannot say. “ I made a terrible misjudgment”
They are in a completely different echo chamber and have been reading and hearing narrative that is completely distinct from the one we exist in. It is quite extraordinary that humans can live side by side with people, see some of the same images on television, and have completely different ready-made explanations for what we are seeing. I have been talking to some eastern Ukrainian nationals in the US who believe it is the Ukrainian military, poisoned by influence from the West, that is doing most of the bombing and killing in Ukraine. These nationals are clearly getting their news from Moscow and hearing from relatives in Ukraine who exist in the same echo chamber.
Yes, and you could see that in the GOP faces attending the State of theUnion address.
So much easier to fool than for the fooled to admit it
That takes maturity and integrity, both sorely missing in Putin—and among most current Republicans.
3 hardest things to say: "I'm sorry, you are right and I don’t know."
Gamache?
Yes. Indeed it is Gamache. ❤️
Trump represents their deepest commitment. Their hearts and souls were given to him.
How does one disavow oneself?
Don’t rule out ego.
Cults don’t have much use for reason
of course you are right Intellectually I KNOW But I still, at some deep level,l cannot accept
Joanna Denis, “I don’t know how it’s possible, no matter how many people are intoxicated with Trump, not to see and respect the devastation and genocide Putin is inflicting upon Ukraine.” This is heartbreaking to watch, as was Aleppo, Yemen, Grozny, our southern border, refugees dying in the Mediterranean……..this is our world. I asked yesterday “How many of us are willing to accept a major jump in fossil fuel prices to help put the most devastating brake on Putin beyond direct military intervention?” I am still curious.
This is what raises my ire. Paying more at the pumps is such a minimal sacrifice for most people. Yet they bitch about it like there’s a conspiracy against them personally. Get your head out of your posterior and look at the agony in Ukraine, I will tell anybody in Canada who complains to me.
And yes the government should subsidize this for those who are truly poor.
Shutting down Russia’s oil exports is such an obvious way to fight back when our hands are mostly tied.
Eric - it's a minimal sacrifice for people like you and me who can afford it. But for people whose livelihood depends on use of a vehicle, including the trucks that deliver food and products throughout the country, and whose income level is substantially lower than ours, it's devastating. I filled my tank a week ago @ $4.59 here in SD, and the cost was over $60; we're now well over $5.50/gal. Think how that adds up for someone who have to fill up once a week or perhaps even every few days.
That said, I agree that the coalition should shut off all oil & gas from Russia, and the U.S. should ban importation of Russian oil. In reality, the latter action is not what is causing the U.S. gas price increases but there's no way a majority of Americans will understand that. It's the people of the European NATO members and others dependent on that oil & gas who will be in a world of hurt: transportation, cooking & heating, electricity, all of which are based in oil & gas.
The Russian economy - and more, the revenue essential to continuing to pay for Putin's war - has to crash before anything gets through to those closest to Putin that they MUST do something. I'm sure Putin himself is willing to go down with the ship. I feel for the Russian people who will suffer but the suffering in Ukraine, and the probable future suffering of adjoining NATO nations if Putin isn't stopped goes far beyond what the Russian people are and will be suffering.
Those are great points and I couldn’t agree more. I hadn’t thought about people who drive for a living.
I think I mentioned that those in a certain income level should be subsidized by the government. I hadn’t thought of those in a certain type of job.
Canadian and American society needs to pull together to get out of Russian oil with the least pain possible for our less fortunate countrymen. It’s the least we can do for Ukraine. Putin must be brought to his knees. (Although I fear his reaction then.) I think we are on exactly the same page, Judith.
I very much wish that Biden had asked us all to make sacrifices for the world we want, democracy in the balance, in such perilous times. It was the only part of the speech I expected and did not hear
I’d be willing to try.
I would also. Yet when I approach the subject with my circle of acquaintances, everyone gets evasive. Who wants to invite higher costs of living for themselves? So many are already trying to make the month stretch to the paycheck. Yet I don’t see any other non-military action to try.
Greed That's why it is one of the 7 DEADLY SINS
They are caught in the thrall of belief that transcends facts and feeds their anger and fear.
Anger and fear...you have that in one.
Of course, the contortionist fg is now trying to reverse his former positions about Ukraine and NATO, according to a Washington Post article that also introduced me to that journal’s Pinocchio Scale. He’s trying to forget that, “In a call on July 25, 2019, Trump asked for “a favor” after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to buy more Javelins. That favor involved launching an investigation of Joe Biden — which led to Trump’s first impeachment. As part of his effort to pressure Zelensky, Trump placed a hold on aid to Ukraine — $250 million in aid through the Defense Department or $141 million in aid through the State Department — that had already been appropriated.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/28/trumps-effort-rewrite-history-his-support-nato-ukraine/
Trump talking to Zalensky What a conversation that must have been!
A perfect one, he claims.
You were amazing today, and I thank you deeply for the hard, daily, insightful work you have done for years. You caught the President’s attention and your interview allowed him to discuss his commitment to democracy. At the end of a grueling week, you and he together helped me feel hope in the power of people everywhere to elect knowledgeable leaders who really can change how we think and talk about ideas, and then hold our elected officials to a high standard based in the values of democracy and equality. I also very much hope you got that personal tour and that next they appoint you as “historical pattern finder” for the 1/6 Committee! Sleep deep and long and restfully.
Dr. Richardson, Having listened to your interview with the President earlier this evening, I was impressed by how your questions enlisted responses that were both thoughtful and detailed. I also noted that you asked, early on, why the President focused initially on Build Back Better. Typically, when interviewers have asked that question, the rest of it, spoken or implied, has been “instead of voting rights.” Obviously, I don’t know whether you were thinking the same.
Frankly, I raise this point because I had expected more of us to be vocally alarmed by the fact that presently no impactful federal legislation exists that would supersede state laws slated increasingly to restrict voting and to nullify votes. I also find it curious that no one seems outraged by the fact, that since the 2021 Brnovich ruling, DOJ no longer can sue for violating Section #2 of the irreparably dismantled 1965 Voting Rights Act unless DOJ can show “intent” to discriminate.
Though I imagine many take heart in the deluge of citizen activism, in my experience, while getting people registered and turbo-charging our turnout initiatives certainly can help to mitigate voter suppression measures, no amount of organizing is going to get us around the increasing number of election subversion measures advancing through GOP-controlled state legislatures that would change state election rules to change who can be in charge, how votes are counted, and how they’re certified.
Though I could be wrong, my felt sense is that too many of us expect others somehow will resolve this issue, all evidence to the contrary. Still, I would maintain, however important other things are, they can’t be as important as focusing our minds on whether states are laying the groundwork for our opponents to return to or to retain power whether or not they win enough votes.
Barbara, Very well said, thank you.
You write, "...no amount of organizing is going to get us around the increasing number of election subversion measures advancing through GOP-controlled state legislatures." Unless Congress passes the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act that would override such measures, your statement will hold true.
Mim, Considering Biden’s approval ratings rose 8 points since the State of the Union, perhaps he now has the leverage to call out Manchin’s and Sinema’s mere support last January for voter protection legislation as hollow and performative, absent their willingness to support a most modest Senate rule change that would have been enacted only once to advance the newly combined Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
As always, you are so admired and appreciated.
You've just completed double duty! So I am wont to repeat what I said last evening:
Whenever I think of you, Heather, I think of the innumerable number of hours that you spend on keeping us all abreast of what is happening in the world. Watching you today, in this exquisite interview with President Biden and seeing the two of you together, made me remember these words from Khalil Gibran:
"And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching."
You are the epitomy of what it means to work with love!
Thanks for this Rowshan. Khalil Gibran is an all-time favorite of mine and such a comfort in times like these.
Beautiful
Mine, too!
And mine.
Do you know that the word "industry" shares a common root with the word "love"? Wouldn't it be wonder-full of our industries were built around doing the work we love - and loving the work we do ...?
Thank you for that, with no pun intended it was lovely ❤️🙏
A reminder for those who missed it:-
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/interview-with-president-biden
I was very impressed with Biden's talk - obviously someone in terminal dementia and, OK what? -- oh yes Parkinsonism.... snark. Will send this to everyone I can.
The grotesque propaganda that Biden's age makes him unfit to serve is like the reality-twisting lies that Putin is telling about Ukraine. The professor's interview shows this. He's not only sharp but humane, two qualities that his predecessor lacked.
Sadly, Hugh, that is all his detractors see; his speech halting and his brief stumbles. They cannot hear the rational, inspiring things that he is saying.
Bullies will be bullies.
Yes thanks… I‘m back in Germany where some people are talking about escape planning.
Thank you for the link!
Thank you! Me too.
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician, former actor, and comedian who is the sixth and current president of Ukraine. Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of central Ukraine. Wikipedia
Height: 5′ 7″ Trending
Born: January 25, 1978 (age 44 years), Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine
Spouse: Olena Zelenska (m. 2003)
Party: Servant of the People
Children: Aleksandra Zelenskaya, Kiril Zelenskiy
Parents: Rimma Zelenskaya, Oleksandr Zelensky
He is also a lawyer.
There's an interesting column in today's NYTimes by Maureen Dowd comparing Ukraine's president with our defeated former president.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/opinion/zelensky-and-trump-two-performers-one-hero.html?campaign_id=191&emc=edit_ntmd_20220305&instance_id=54983&nl=maureen-dowd®i_id=78918068&segment_id=84740&te=1&user_id=02fa158150d34dc186b01b1b8ec7a224
https://youtu.be/2XAKa--ugVo
😥😿😥😿😥
😫🇺🇦🌻🙏🏻
In her OpEd yesterday, Pulitzer Linda Greenhouse posed the optimistic to help us address the pessimistic. She cites Justice Thurgood Marshall and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in support of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She mentions the transition of Justice O'Connor in hope that such a Justice might be lurking today..
Linda Greenhouse is a brilliant journalist... and historian of The Court. She is critically aware of what racism has done to all aspects of American life... as exemplified by what is never stated by Heather Cox Richardson here.
Linda Greenhouse is an optimist. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's smile and talent justify optimism.
Sandy Despite Linda Greenhouse’s Op Ed yesterday, I deduce from her recent book and OpEd articles, that she is highly pessimistic about the, to use Justice Sotomayor’s word. Stench Court for decades to come. For me, she is the canary in the coal mine regarding the Supreme Court—and her findings make the canary gasp heavily.
But, Sandy, are you an optimist?
In TCinLA's post yesterday, Allen Hingston commented 16 hours ago:
"We are leaving for Lviv and Poland in the next couple of days. When my wife is terrified it is time to go. We have read what Putin has in mind for Ukraine and it mirrors Stalin. It is hard to leave everything but if we are dead or the house is destroyed, it amounts to the same thing.
Do not hate the Russian people."
Thank you. I was noting I had not seen a post from Allen yet today. I'll go read TC's page.
I hope they are able to take their canine and feline family members! Thank you, I've been anxiously scanning the comments looking for Allen. And true--a lot of Russians don't want this war either. God help them, God help us all.
I think Allen said yesterday that neighbors would be looking after their house and their animals. Having to decide whether to stay or leave would be a horrible choice to have to make, but these are horrible times. He said that the reckoning was the Russian army was about 3 days away. I pray they are safe.
Dr. Richardson, thanks for your interview with Joe Biden and for sending it to us. One of the best, most mutually respectful interviews I have ever seen.
In the interview Biden looks like the man he is: Honest, mostly sincere and when you try to give him credit he deflects and says it is too much credit. Not too many men like this in the upper echelons of (anything).
Thank you for the interview and for representing President Biden accurately, which, is also well representing him.
Lastly, as for Trump feeling he can get away with anything he wants, well, so far, his data supports his perceptions.
Trump has been a hard core criminal all of his life with REWARDS as a consequence. Certainly not any negative consequences for him.
It would be a suprise to see any consequences applied to him for attempting to overthrow the US government either.
Some folks, in America, are above the law. I hate to say it, but, it is true.
... what he said!!
What she said!
What they all said!
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I had a tough day. Trying to halter break a colt and he nailed me. I was feeling sorry for myself until you guys really cracked me up. Thanks!
Thanks Kathleen. Spring here so back outside working (still cold though).
Excellent. Good seeds and fertile soils to you Mike! Have you heard of The Black Dirt Farm Collective? Could be a good connection all around ... here are some links:
The Black Dirt Farm Collective
info@farmers-footprint.classy-mail.org
Farmside Chat Replay: Black Dirt Farm Collective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckb_-SACz-g
How the Black Farmers Collective Is Growing a Black-Led Food System Rooted in Black Liberation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=250&v=yyL-E_lBl-I&feature=emb_logo
https://www.facebook.com/blackdirtfarmcollective/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/12/09/black-dirt-farm-collective-building-a-self-sufficient-community/
https://foodsystems.wsu.edu/2020/06/17/black-dirt-farm-collective/
Also, no doubt you have heard of Vandana Shive - here are some links:
Vandana Shiva on Reclaiming the Commons
Reciprocal Care Will Give Us a Future
By Breanna Draxler - YES Magazine
"In her keynote for YES! Fest, Vandana Shiva mourned the fact that on the day she spoke to us, in early October, in her home country of India, the sun should have been shining, the crops should have been drying, and the soil should have been getting ready for planting. Instead, she said, the rain would not stop. In this way, she illustrates how climate change is impacting far more than temperatures. She calls it a destabilization of the self-sustaining metabolic systems of Mother Earth—a disorder caused by fossil fuels. Our global systems of extraction, pollution, and externalization lead to what she calls “ecological apartheid.”
"But she holds on to hope that we can collectively bring Earth back into our imagination—that we can return to the ideas and actions that inspired her work in the Himalayas back in the 1970s: Indigenous ways of being in relationship with and protecting the Earth. This reciprocal care is what will give us a future."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=91bsYnYuthc&feature=emb_imp_woyt
https://www.yesmagazine.org/video/vandana-shiva-reciprocal-care
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NAVDANYA
Conserving diversity and reclaiming commons
"Navdanya is an Earth Centric, Women centric and Farmer led movement for the protection of Biological and cultural Diversity. We live and practise the philosophy of Earth Democracy as one Earth Family ( Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.) with no separations between nature and humans and no hierarchies between species, culture, gender, race and faiths. We have conserved our rich seed heritage of nutritious, climate resilient food in more than 150 community seed bank freely saving, sharing and breeding our native varieties. Across 22 states in India we grow real living food from Desi living seed. For us food is not a commodity produced with toxic and artificial chemicals pushing specie to extinctions driving climate change and spreading sickness, disease and pandemics. Food is life, Food is Health growing food ecologically is care for the Earth and regeneration of soil, water and biodiversity. When you connect directly to us through eating organic you take care of your health and Planet health. Return to Earth and join us for courses at Earth University on Earth Democracy, care for Earth, Biodiversity on Seed saving , Agroecology Regenerative Organic Agriculture, and healthy and living Food, our rich indigenous Knowledge and Ecological civilisation.. Navdanya means “nine seeds” (symbolising protection of biological and cultural diversity) and also the “new gift” (for seed as commons, based on the right to save and share seeds In today’s context of biological and ecological destruction, seed savers are the true givers of seed. This gift or “dana” of Navdanya (nine seeds) is the ultimate gift – it is a gift of life, of heritage and continuity that we bring to you through more than 3 decades of service to the Earth and humanity."
http://www.navdanya.org/site/
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Vandana Shiva: The Pandemic Is a Consequence of the War Against Life
"The health emergency of the coronavirus is inseparable from the health emergency of extinction, biodiversity loss and climate change'
From In These Times: Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from Vandana Shiva’s book Oneness vs. the 1%: Shattering Illusions, Seeding Freedom (Chelsea Green Publishing, August 2020) and was originally published by Independent Science News.
https://inthesetimes.com/article/vandana-shiva-bill-gates-war-against-life-extinction-pandemic
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ISF2020: Vandana Shiva & David Suzuki: The Virus is a Wake-up Call
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EABBDs2TFd0
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Documentary film:
THE SEEDS OF VANDANA SHIVA
"When you control seed, you control life on earth."
How did the willful daughter of a Himalayan forest conservator become the world’s most powerful opponent of Monsanto? The Seeds of Vandana Shiva, a feature-length documentary, presents the remarkable life story of the Gandhian eco-activist and agro-ecologist, Vandana Shiva.
https://vandanashivamovie.com/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4828328/
... happy planting!!
234 years so far…
Here’s to another several centuries.
We can do it if we learn from mistakes like trump. We need to remember him as we do hitler. Anomalies. People to NOT imitate. To not hold in high esteem. To not embrace.
Hopefully, not elect. Please!!! Let’s dodge that bullet. 🙏
He lost the last election because so many additional people came out to vote against him. It was the very strong turnout of anti-Trump voters, not the pro-Biden voters, that turned the 2020 election. McConnell and the other R politicians who are turning against him know that he will lose again. They are craven and dedicated political tacticians, because if he were going to win in 2024, they would back him. Remember: he lost in 2020, and he lost the midterms in 2018 (among other things, California had a blue wave), and he was still in office when, against all odds, the Senate went blue. That entire period of time was a referendum on DJT. He may have won in 2016, but once the nation got a good look at him, it spurned him. He soured the Republican Party’s chances.
The terrain looks very different in the Red Sea of voter suppression and blatant cheating. The horrible political ads in TX this past week dripped with hatred, fear and love of chump. It worked for the most part. We have a long way to go.
The Red Sea. Nice. Yes, pj was talking about our challenge here. Something close to half our country is choosing whites-first males-first straights-first society over diversity. That Red Sea is fighting like hell to stay in power. I just don’t think djt will ever be in office again. But there could easily be another Hitler clone.
we could do without TX!🤨
John! There are so many good people in Texas. They are fighting an up hill battle against Pecos Bill winds. I really think they will eventually slip the yoke of republicanism that is strangling them.
I hope your right……
Roland, let’s not forget that Trump got 74,000,000 votes in 2020, which was 12,000,000 more than he got in 2016 (and 10,000,000 more than anyone besides Biden has ever gotten). Hardly a spurning. Biden won through superior turnout, but Trump had an amazing turnout as well. McConnell hopes that Trump’s hold on the GOP is weakening, but Trump remains far and away the leader for the GOP nomination in 2024. I don’t understand how voters who voted for Biden because they opposed Trump aren’t pro-Biden voters. Maybe every Biden voter didn’t love Biden, but every election sees voters who vote for someone they don’t love.
Yes of course. I usually use that 2020 election statistic to remind people, as you are reminding us now, that this country has a huge population of reactionaries. The problem of ignorance in our electorate is deeply entrenched, and pj’s concerns are totally valid. But I think djt is toast when it comes to political office. I think the R’s will run someone else and, if they don’t, he loses, assuming law enforcement doesn’t catch up with him.
Trump will not run again. First, he knows he can't win. Second, one of the big federal and state investigations will nail him. Financially, his company is a dead-man walking. And his "candidacy" is nothing more than a huge fund-raising con. His supporters are the definition of suckers.
Djt is so F’ed.
Trump would have no chance of being President in 2024 if the DOJ was not so over-scrupulous/pusillanimous.
I am sick to death of the lack of action against Trump and is accomplices. And I’m perfectly aware of the blah-blah-blah about building a case from the bottom up, about not revealing who you’re investigating, about how you only get one chance to bring down the king.
A well-placed leak would at least give these scoundrels sleepless nights. Then action.
I am beginning to feel that Merrick Garland will go down in history - to his consternation.
For God’s sakes, do something!
Patience grasshopper. There is probably not a lawyer anywhere on earth that wants to nail Trump’s hide to the barn more than Merrick Garland does. I am confident that the moment Garland has an air-tight case against Trump, he will indict him. On the other hand nothing would be more disastrous than to indict Trump without an air-tight case and have him declared not guilty. Think about it…
I’ve thought about it dozens of time. I’ve listened to prosecutors discussing this obvious point many times.
The vast majority are not sanguine about what’s happening. And you’d be hardly likely to dismiss them with the condescending nostrum of your first sentence.
I was thinking precisely that even a white beard could not hold back the “grasshopper” comment. You have to give him that. It w as almost respectful. At least you know he knows you are on the path.
About the opening sentence - it’s a quote, by David Carradine, from the great old TV show, “Kung Fu”.
Just because we despise Trump and know that he is a serious danger to our democracy does not mean we can just put him in prison. Trump has spent 40 years learning how to skirt the law. He’s as slippery as they come. He may never be convicted for any of his schemes, his fraud or his amorality. There’s a reason he doesn’t use email and tears up notes of his meetings. He doesn’t leave evidence.
What makes you think he can be tried and convicted beyond reasonable doubt today? What evidence, what’s the air-tight case?
I agree completely. If that leak doesn’t happen, if Garland does not act decisively before the midterms, he will go down in history as the man who failed in his duty. I’ve already lost a tremendous amount of respect for him. The current optics, the way it looks right now, the story he is creating for himself: he (his dept) is incompetent.
If true, it’s desperately sad and consequential that such a moment would happen now.
The Committee stuck it right in the DOJ’s face this week. By all I can glean from experts, they will have a duty to investigate. That duty and three or four bucks will get you a coffee at Starbucks.
And your point “before the midterms” is singularly important.
Surely the DOJ realizes that to shrug their shoulders at Trump and circle is an affront to the world. Zelensky has provided a moment of absolute clarity.
I hold on to a shred of hope that we are wrong in our judgment. But people of great legal expertise are similarly worried, similarly burrowing for any sign that there is something positive at work inside those walls. But we are nearly 14 months out.
The midterms are in 22 months. That, if I’m not mistaken, is the gestation period for an elephant to be born. Symbolic, somehow.
The midterms are in 8 months.
Roland, I’ll ask you the same question I just asked Eric. Where’s the air-tight case? I expect you might say “The committee says it has evidence that Trump’s closest advisors told him in December of 2020 that there was no fraud.” Which is true, and also not new. We knew that back in December of 2020, that’s why Trump fired Barr. We also know that other advisors close to Trump continued to tell him there was fraud. They still say that today. You put Trump on the stand, and say, “Mr. Trump, you were told by many people that there was no fraud, that you had lost fairly. Therefore you committed fraud against the United States (that’s the potential charge) by continuing to say that the election was stolen when you knew it wasn’t.” And Trump replies, “I knew it was stolen! Many other people close to me said there was fraud. People involved in the elections in Arizona, in Pennsylvania, in Georgia, in Wisconsin all told me then and continue to tell me today there was significant vote fraud. I know the election was stolen (he can name names, these people exist).” Can you convince a jury of what was in Trump’s mind, that he knew there was no fraud?
If there are notes, or emails, or recordings, in which Trump said, “I know that Biden won fairly, I know I lost, but I am going to try to overturn this election”, then you’ve got him. Without that kind of evidence, you can’t win conviction beyond reasonable doubt. Garland knows this. Do you really think Garland wouldn’t be overjoyed to put Trump behind bars, if he could?
I deeply hope you’re right, Roland!
McConnell is planning on a referendum on Biden in 2024 isn't he?
Heck, 2022. They may have to find a platform, however.
Yes, no doubt.
Take your rest, since this situation in the Ukraine may run and run. Thank you for your words, and Happy Birthday to the US constitution. From Christopher in Ireland.