For three hot days, from July 1 to July 3, 1863, more than 150,000 soldiers from the armies of the United States of America and the Confederate States of America slashed at each other in the hills and through the fields around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Exactly so, Laura. Incredibly powerful. The tonic we need to bolster ourselves and head into our own “battles.” Shame on our Democratic leadership who has been utterly absent and mute in these dark days, despairing days. Thank you, Heather Cox Richardson for knowing and offering just the right medicine.
The Democrats in the Senate are working to get every open Federal judgeships filled before January. If the Republicans agree to recess appointments then Biden can usher through the remaining open positions.
There is much game-ship going on right now by the Democrats and if they shout about what they are doing Trump and his minions will do what they can to curtail it.
Plus the corporate media only really gives a damn about what Republicans say and do because of the $$$$$s.
Unfortunately that speaking softly without fanfare thing left 74 million voters unaware of what the Biden administration was doing for working class people. Best admin for that (though I have issues with Biden) in my lifetime, or running even with LBJ's.
I hope the Dems are doing something! I'm tired of the Republicans always getting their way by looking for the loopholes...and they are there. The Dems need to do the same! Enough being nice guys! We need to fight fire with fire! I hope they are learning to do that before it really is too late!
I think they are tentatively scheduled to adjourn on December 20, with the new Congress sworn in on January 3 and certification of the election by the new Congress on January 6.
And we should do that again....and again. As well as teach civics in the fifth, eighth and senior year of HS. As a retired educator there is value in memorizing just as there is value in creating and problem solving. And there is GREAT value in knowing our Democratic values and what our Democracy stands for and is made up of.
The past 10/15 years have proven we desperately need civics and history courses back in the classroom….and not just to answer questions on an SOL test. It’s appalling how many voters can’t name the three co-equal branches of government.
I appreciate your sentiment, but want to remind you that some people's brains are not wired for memorization. I am one of those people. As a boy, I was required to memorize verses of the Bible. I struggled and failed. In Geometry class, I always got the right answer, but got lousy grades because I was unable to memorize and quote the theorems. I have an excellent memory of conversations and events, even going back to when I was a toddler. But I cannot memorize text.
This is 2024, the "Information Age." Instead of enforcing memorization, we should teach children where to look up our important documents online and instill the habit to reread those documents frequently.
When Einstein was asked several questions he couldn't answer the interviewer commented Einstein didn't know much. He replied I tend not to remember things I can look up.
Here's a story (true, I think) from the world of mathematics: a graduate student was given an oral exam for his Ph.D. The examiner asked him to write the definition of the gamma function [something you learn in graduate math courses]. The student answered "I don't know the definition, but, if I need it, I can look it up." The examiner replied, "you need it now."
Memorization is not the be-all and end-all of education, but it has its place.
She said Democratic, Mary. Bernie is an Independent.
And thank you Leslie. It seems horrible to me that I have not realized this until you wrote it and I read it. It appears I have been far more upset by all of this than I have realized until now. And I was just wondering why I was crying as I read tonight's message and looked at the photo.
I assume you mean Liz Cheney. While she speaks truth to lies she is no friend of the people. Liz said the so-called Supreme Court made the right decision overturning Row v Wade.
“It’s clear that Liz Chaney and I are ideologically disparate. She supported Donald J. Trump’s policies 93% of the time and voted for him in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, a decision she now regrets. And I worked hard with the DNC to raise money and defeat Trump in 2020.
“Yet, I admire Cheney’s unyielding pursuit of truth regarding Donald J. Trump. Despite our differing viewpoints, I respect her dedication to her principles and commitment to truth. And while I strongly disagree with many of Liz Cheney’s choices, it reinforces my responsibility to advocate for my beliefs in shaping America’s future.”
I'm aware of this Cathleen, having volunteered in his campaigns. He caucuses with the Democrats, has twice run for the Democratic nomination for President, etc. You in turn know these things.
What is that supposed to mean? Bernie Sanders has been busy in DC trying to get something done to stop the incoming monster from destroying our country!!!!
Well , he’s been grousing and grumbling. Still waiting for any doing. In the Senate for nearly 20 years and one sponsored bill. If you don’t count the two bills to rename post offices.
This is--not to put too fine a point upon it!--nonsense. He's one of the most successfully bipartisan members of Congress, known as "the amendment king" (his amendments would be independent bills in most countries), and has sponsored or cosponsored many bills during his years as the most popular US Senator, with the highest approval rating of any American politician. Did you stop reading the news in recent years?--whose ideas do you think lie at the root of Biden's biggest legislative achievements in the last 4 years, the Infrastructure Act, the Jobs Act, Build Back Better? You should read up on Sanders' powers and influence in the Congress and on US politics. There's no need of course for you to agree with his ideas and policies, but this particular complaint is unfounded.
The "monster..(S) are the ones out there who are not wearing 'the shoes'. People like Sen Rubio, are being given a whole new pair of shoes to walk in, He isn't an ignorant person, he just happens to be one we kinda dislike. Let' see how he handles things, once he puts those shoes on. Same same for many of the rest. Even Bowbear and MTgreene. But please, let's not let tabloid crap espuosed by any of them earn them a pulpit to spew from. Send them to Pornhub or Brazzers, not WAPO, Newsweek, WSJ, or Time.
I walked precincts for Bernie for 4 1/2 months in 2019 and 2020 in Southeast San Diego, communities of immigrant, poor, and people of color. I learned a lot from them--that nobody helps them. They don't have the money to donate to campaigns, maybe? Bernie was my only hope. This morning I thought, if anyone challenges Trump or Vance in 2028 they will have them assassinated, like that poor ballet dancer in Russia. (Do drunk people fall off of balconies?) I've lost hope but I'll keep phone banking for people I believe in, like Jamaal Bowman (wah!) and Rashida Tlaib. I'm actaully a very shy person, but push myself to do this so I don't feel like I'm hiding my life away. And I learn so much from the people I talk to, like that man, a registered Democrat, who said he was voting for Trump because "he put the embassy in Jerusalem." Yeah. Period. I don't argue with people. It does no good.
That’s nothing! I can name all the states and capitals, do a correct geography map, name all the Presidents in correct chronological order, the Preamble to the constitution, the Bill of Rights, know what the Monitor and the Merrimack are. Where the Civil War began, all from 6th grade American history class where I forgot more than I retain at 67 yo. We were required to do a research project in one 9 week period. It also included references, index, and bibliography cards. Handwritten in cursive at least 10 pages long. Anyone else remember projects like this in grammar school?
Actually in most states the social studies curriculum has the study of the one's own state in fourth grade and the study of the United States in fifth.
However, the battle of the ironclads in Chesapeake Day was not between the Monitor and the Merrimack, it was between the USA Monitor and the CSS Virginia. The Merrimack was a wooden ship the Union sank when it retreated from Virginia. The Confederates raised it, rebuilt it as an ironclad, and named it the CSS Virginia.
Thank you for adding the context in which these ships and battles they took part in and the outcomes. I didn’t go into that depth of detail in my post because I wanted to name these two famous ships from the Civil War as ones we “should” be familiar with.
I went Bethel Memorial Elementary School, Bethel Park, PA.
A K-6 school, I attended 2nd to 6th grade 1964-1968. We moved into the district in 1964. My teacher was Mr Galbreath. He taught Science, History/Geography and Math. Mrs. Saunders taught English, Reading, Social Studies. We had Current Events during homeroom and cursive handwriting after recess in 2nd and 3rd grade.
Our handwriting teacher was a mean old bat who yelled at you when you didn’t “swing up, open loop, trace down to bottom line, hump at dotted line and finish swing up” (cursive lower case “h”). For the report, I had to have two references from books in our public library.
P.S. we also had to hand in the rough draft in pencil and final copy in blue or black ink. Spelling was counted and points taken off for misspelling.
Not badmouthing Bernie but his supporters gave us Trump in 2016. Approximately 10% of Bernie supporters voted for Hillary and 10% voted for Trump. The remaining 80% either didn't vote or wrote in Bernie's name (meaning they didn't vote. IF Bernie supporters in two Midwest states had voted for Hillary, she would have won the Electoral College vote in both states and won the election. Maybe Heather can fill in more accurate details.
I had the good fortune of studying the Gettysburg address in a freshman humanities course at the University of Minnesota circa 1972. My professor, Paul D’Andrea, assigned the Gettysburg address as being up there with Plato and other great orators, and as one of the most elegant pieces of rhetoric ever spoken. As it later turned out, D’Andrea was an academic superstar. Such good fortune I had:
Democratic leaders are waiting for the election statistics to shake out. We already know Trump didn't reach 50% of the voters and Harris is within <2% points.
Why start planning how to CHANGE or how to APOLOGIZE when this was an election most probably due to anti-incumbency vote? Anti-incumbency happened this year around the globe. Yes, there are things the Dems can improve, but ...
1) The Republicans across the country that purged voter roles and passed legislation to suppress the vote and create fear to vote among certain demographics.
2) The oligarchs bought Senate seats in OH, MT, FL and TX. They also spent huge sums of money working to defeat several House members. They also plowed hundreds of millions into other propaganda.
3) The corporate media for chasing Joe out of the race and not acknowledging the myriad accomplishments of the Biden administration. If Biden and the Democrats had had four more House seats they could have continued to pass meaningful legislation for the people. Plus, they were more than happy to print hundreds more articles about Trump's hateful and angry rhetoric.
4) Trump and the Republicans had four years to undermine the 2024 election vs fewer than 100 days for Harris/Walz. What they accomplished was fucking amazing.
5) As Heather stated last week the voters that weren't paying attention to politics and never do, voted overwhelmingly for Trump. You can't cure ugly and you can't cure apathy.
1/3 of the registered voters didn't even vote. That is pathetic for an election as consequential as this one is likely to be.
You can educate ignorance, you can treat mental, but there is no cure for stupid. And that includes cult brain freeze. Rupert has done a job on my friends, family, and neighbors. Yours too, no doubt.
Joe, much as I admire him, chased himself out of the race. He shocked all of us with his enfeebled and rhetorically defenseless performance.
Both sides spent millions. But Dems had to try to overcome three years of rising prices, which the Administration countered by explaining how eleven-teen Nobel economists praised the economy. The Dems had to try to defend three years of the country watching migrants pour freely across the border while the Biden administration failed to enforce US law. Until the election neared. Looked and was insincere and cynical.
Sure, Republicans gamed the system by purging voter rolls. That was hardly a secret. But a lot of that happened in red states. Still wrong, but did not affect the outcome.
If we could have turned out the numbers of Biden’s 2020 win, we would have won. Trump did that. We didn’t come close to doing do.
Don't think this election was decided by anti- incumbency common around the globe. After all we are not talking about a spreading virus. This election was decided by the lazy by staying home, the uninformed and by people landing on earth on election day after living on the moon for a long time.
Please - don’t forget that it was bought by muskrat, Miriam Adelson and the oligarchs, including Putin. The lazy, yes. But we were hoodwinked, flim flamed, and reminded of our racist, sexist proclivities non-stop and with the force of cannons.
Maybe it’s not as complex as most think. True that the last 40 years have provided ample evidence of the problems encountered in politics, and yes there are many. But maybe it just boils down to hate, greed, jealousy, and the urge of some to bury others in their Schitt and rule the Schitt mountains…
It's a globe-wise phenomenon — not an internet-speak “virus.” It was a result of the pandemic and the resulting inflation — around the globe. Even though Biden’s policies brought us out on top.
Less than 50% of our short-attention-span electorate — uninformed as they are -- thought change was a good idea. Not catching, just widespread. (Yeah, I know there are the ⅓ who agree with Trump and Bannon.)
Thanks for bringing up the fact that not everything that’s a world-wide phenomenon is a disease/virus.
There was at least 12 years of tr*** saying the same misinformation over and over and over again, in short almost-sentences, like mantras, simple sound bites that programmed the fox news groupies and uneducated. And he used social media extensively. jimjones cultists who drank the social media kookaid.
The rightwing has perfected the art of naming things so that they appeal to non-thinkers, while it is almost always the opposite of what they are actually doing. Their "opportunity Scholarships" sound lovely until you realize that it is their drive to kill public education by appropriating all the funds and giving them to some barely qualified religious or charter schools. They do this with so many of their truly nefarious schemes, and it is maddening to see people fall for it.
The 'blame game' is being pursued by the Punditariat class who cannot seem to think of anything better to do than pontificate on issues that actually need more time, distance and perspective to settle out.
It's too easy for any ol' lazy opinion columnist to churn out an article pointing at this or that "mistake", but that doesn't make their analysis the correct one. In fact I'm pretty sure there is no ONE specific reason--it will more l=than likely turn out to be a complex combination of all of them.
Personally, I'm ignoring all the articles that claim to have THE prescription for what ails us until a bit more time has passed.
We continue on the road to minority rule and kleptocracy. Will there be a true election in even two years? I doubt it. Unconventional measures must be taken NOW.
One of the big factors, regardless of each candidates campaign promises, is America's choice was between a Black woman and a white man. Racist America chose the while man. Racism is alive and well in America.
Wish somebody would offer the rage that I feel is appropriate. The election was stolen right from under our noses. The flip from Biden to Harris was a godsend. Sexism and racism all rolled up. You could tell when chump went from whining about having to change the script to entertaining and getting crazy headlines at his rallies. He knew the fix was in.
And there has long been talk on what's become an enduring "male identity crisis" in America. I call it part of an ongoing breakdown in the old patriarchal system. That's not cross the board mind you. When i was a kid, though, 1 in 6 university students were female. It's now slight majority or more, depending on the fields.
Women's Lives Matter, eh, Sandy? I thought some of this went back to Sigourney Weaver in Alien (1980), boy the guys got hammered, she took care of buddy A. just kidding. Along the way, I was impressed in the 90s as my kids made their way through high school picking up prizes and awards, along with other females. I was asking myself... "Where are the boys?" Of there were males, but girls were definitely scooping up gold.
I agree. The husband of one of my female physician colleagues claimed he heard from “a friend in California said Kamala “slept her way to the top” “!
I got incensed, Trump can rape a woman and 30 women documented sexual assaults by Trump and yet said a disgusting comment. His daughter is a physician too! The husband worked in the business world and was focused on the “tax cut” he would get with Trump.
Oh, I talk to them, was raised with 4 bros. Sexism, racism, self-righteous piety, and worried about some undeserving getting a piece of the pie…. My parents would be appalled, even my daddy. We didn’t have it easy, but we didn’t have every institution stacked against us.
Trump got barely more votes than in 2016. What happened to the 10m votes that Biden got? Or the 90m eligible voters that didn't? Polls and media completely ignored them.
Fall back from 2020 for sure, but overall still the 2nd largest turnout ever, and 1/3 or more of the electorate don't bother to vote, even since i was a kid, and of course before that. Cynicism / indifference has been a historical trait of American electorates, Aaron. The Dems lost their margins: younger esp first time voting males, though males overall lean Republican anyway, overall just a few percentage points called the shots.
It’s appropriate as hell! I share that rage. 😡 I have been active in securing, expanding women’s freedom since the ‘70s. I’m not just pissed at men, I am pissed at the younger women who have taken their rights and democracy for granted. So many of us fought so hard to improve opportunities and acceptance of women’s equality that it spits in the face of all we worked for.
There was a huge vote for Mexican US Citizens that voted for trump. Virility, masculinity, and machismo wins the day for Latino voters. (Against their own interests).
The construction industry will suffer, and, in a country that needs young workers, it’s practically suicidal. They will learn that the “not sending their best” is meant for them. Latinos will be the first targets…. Dumbasses
Giving the Dems the benefit of the doubt, I think they are still counting votes too. Prof. Timothy Snyder points out that Musk was involved in disinformation just as Putin has been.
Another thing that the Dems are busy doing is getting in as many judges as they can approve. This is how one strengthens a democracy too. Even when we would like our leaders to comfort us, we need them not to say things while they are planning a way forward and doing what they can with this gift of 2 months to staunch the flood of evil doings that lies ahead. Andrea Pitzer clues us in to what we can expect and what we can do. https://substack.com/home/post/p-151702504
"I looked into this guy a little bit today. This story is dangerous. He’s not a data scientist. He went to Wharton for a little while and dropped out to found a tech company. I listened to his interview with Thom Hartmann. Some of the ways they speak are alarmingly similar to “news sources” like One America Network. This is not my area of expertise, but his arguments are bad. He is confusing correlation and causation, he’s giving the listener a huge data dump of information that is not connected in any way, and he is making a false connection to a lot of things he is an “expert” in to make unsubstantiated claims. A lot of the things he is talking about are not possible, and they have already been debunked."
I definitely think there were some shenanigans going on. All those bullet ballots in certain swing states, there needs to be a recount in those states for sure. Will the dems have the gumption to do it? Sadly I doubt it...
"I looked into this guy a little bit today. This story is dangerous. He’s not a data scientist. He went to Wharton for a little while and dropped out to found a tech company. I listened to his interview with Thom Hartmann. Some of the ways they speak are alarmingly similar to “news sources” like One America Network. This is not my area of expertise, but his arguments are bad. He is confusing correlation and causation, he’s giving the listener a huge data dump of information that is not connected in any way, and he is making a false connection to a lot of things he is an “expert” in to make unsubstantiated claims. A lot of the things he is talking about are not possible, and they have already been debunked."
I apologize for spreading disinformation about the election. I had been skeptical until my friend looked him up, but what he said, not what others said about his, as I would usually do.
Not Gavin newsome and many other governors. Not many organizations. Every one of us needs to lead forward in all the ways we can. We will get through this!
Pardon me, but we Democrats, tens of thousand of us, worked timelessly to forestall the present threat. That we did not succeed is a tragedy for the nation and the world, but please do not traduce our efforts. (And if you are thinking, “But you are not part of the leadership," leaders and followers are part of the same movement to save the nation.)
Good point, where are the Democratic leaders? Selling up property and getting affairs in order for a quick exit to Canada? It seems strange to have had them and all their high profile supporters and celebrities on our airwaves day and night, and now zip.
I would not just look at Canada. Ireland is good for those who only speak English. However, they should be looking for Plan B. They will be early targets of the new fascist regime.
Leslie, perhaps you are overlooking one of the main differences between the Trump Cult* and Democrats. Members of the Trump Cult just spout whatever sh*t comes to mind without giving any thought to whether it's true or what effect it might have. Or as some wag once put it, "Ready! Shoot! Aim!"
Democrats generally tend to be more thoughtful before speaking out. That is the correct response. As it turns out, Dr. Demento did not, in fact, win the popular vote. We don't know what other facts might come out.
To other commenters: instead of blaming various groups of people, we should focus on the two factors that make our elections NOT free or fair, and work to eliminate them: the Electoral College and gerrymandering. Full stop. These two factors subject us to minority rule, and severely diminish any semblance of democracy.
Instead of castigating Democrats who didn't vote, appreciate that they live in a gerrymandered "red state." They could resist vote suppression, stand in line all day and vote blue up and down the ballot, but at the end of the day, their presidential vote would go to Trump because of gerrymandering and the Electoral College.
Example: In North Carolina, Democrats likely outnumber Trumpers by a considerable margin. But thanks to extreme gerrymandering, it's as if there's not a single Democrat in the state.
Moreover, gerrymandering and the Electoral College produce the phenomenon of "Battleground States," causing the parties and their candidates to utterly ignore all the other states. Again, this creates the perception that votes in the "pure color" states don't matter.
If we want to fix our election problem, we should focus our attention on these two issues. The other solutions will follow.
Thank you for saying this Leslie. I continue to struggle with the illogical results of this election and while there may be no remedy, I am supremely disappointed that Dem leadership, starting at the top, appear to have acquiesced and are silent. Tens of thousands poured their heart, soul and money into this campaign from before the days Harris took the top of the ticket. It is difficult not to feel despair and a sense of betrayal. Then again, it has only been 2 weeks, though it feels much longer.
Please !!! Do not assume silence equals acquiescence. Get a grip! Lots of things are going on behind the scenes. Please trust that all is being done that can be done. We do not need to be informed of every step being taken, as that could be dangerous. We have to have patience along with determination. We each have to understand that we need one another right now to continue in community, rather than this constant analyzing and blaming. We cannot afford that kind of divide among us. We each have different strengths to offer, and now is a time to get ready for what lies ahead. We must agree not to consent to the agenda thrust upon us. We need one another now to be prepared to mobilize in whatever way we each can. If you haven't already, read the links above that Linda Weide offered. Use this time to stay informed. There are many people working towards a higher good forward. As Joyce Vance says, "We are in this together."
Thank you, Carol. I agree. We don't know what's going on behind the scenes, and I for one do not think that the Democratic leadership should be out there claiming the election was fixed.
I still believe that they are busy getting judges in, and making plans that might best not be shared aloud. Although Project 2025 was shared and except for a handful of people like me, and those in my Project 2025 book club, most people ignored reading what was right in front of them. So, the awfulness that is about to happen was hiding in plain sight.
The dems have been a disappointment for decades now, I thought VP Harris would be a change...maybe we need two new parties in the country, parties that actually work for us, no billionaires and corporations.
They have not mastered the bully pulpit. Now, instead of standing boldy and with resolve (other than Bernie), I am flooded with more requests for money. What a turn off!
Leslie, it is not that the Democrats are silent these past few weeks, but more that our media has no time for them, not even for our president. They are so busy covering the appalling choices for cabinet positions Trump is making, each one either a criminal, an incompetent, or an idiot, totally inappropriate for any government position. And there are two goons waiting to get their hands on our institutions so they can cut to pieces the programs that have served Americans: healthcare, education, and anything else that gets into their nutzo heads. Where is there a place for anyone else to even be noticed. That is just as Trump and Kump planned it. There is no concern that perhaps votes were incorrectly noted or counted, no reminder that Trump and Kump suddenly stopped complaining about the "fraud-laden" elections, possibly because they knew things were done to "secure" their election? Again, or rather, continuing as through the past nearly ten years, Trump is the first story, even when terrible storms are raging in the west and a whole lot of other things are happening, which possibly get covered somewhere way back in the reporting. We need to stop blaming Democrats for the loss when racism, misogyny, xenophobia, classism, homo/transphobia are so deeply engrained in society that those immersed in them can hide behind a ridiculous "eggs are too high and Biden did it" bunch of crap, rather than what really happened. Americans are haters pure and simple and we can't hide it anymore. So, it's time we own it and actually start dealing with it, white people, and men of all backgrounds. Maybe if we work harder to put it out into the light, media will start covering it because it will be pretty scary and rather profound.
Abe Lincoln had the Dignity, the Class, that he Earned rising up from very Rough, and Modest Beginnings, to call the Fallen at Gettysburg Patriots & Heroes... DJT who is Putin's Puppet, and a Fake Tough Guy, would call them Suckers & Losers...
Imagine after the Civil War, Jefferson Davis had been elected president of the US. That’s basically what people have done. Jefferson Davis was a traitor, and so is 45.
Jefferson Davis was wrong about most everything, but he was at least a gentleman. The Boor in Chief has no idea what decency and acceptable behavior are.
No, it isn’t. People like you and me will fight to prevent it, even if in small ways, and in our local areas. We have the power. Reread the Lord of the Rings - one small hobbit brought down the darkness.
I have the images of two presidents on the walls of my home. One is the original engraving of the Emancipation Proclamation created in edition in 1866 — the first off the press given to the widow, Mary Todd Lincoln . The other is an elderly image of Jimmy Carter, whom I much admired for the work he achieved post-president.
Jimmy Carter, a decent man who tried to live out his faith, was voted out of office in favor of Ronald Raygun . Raygun espoused “voodoo” trickle down economics.
We're not armed with rifles or swords but intellect and knowing the rightness of our cause. Our battleground isn't under our feet but at our fingertips. I've heard many people express their fear of a second civil war without ever acknowledging that we have been IN one for some time now and will not see the end of it for some time to come. We fight differently but for the very same ideals expressed by Lincoln at Gettysburg.
I guess we're going to find out just how long this nation, "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" ...will endure.
yes, Evelyn, our culture has created silo’s where certain races, genders, religions and class wealth has separated ourselves. Power-hungry elites would rather cage our neighbors who have a skin color they associate as ‘criminal’. Ignorant / prejudiced voters feel their short-term thirst for wanting “it” all, right “now” is worth polluting our world, poisoning our birds and animals, and robbing future generations of a chance to live a healthy lifetime on a beautiful planet and raise families.
America has sunk to new lows in the eyes of our global allies- our “nation, ( is not ) under God, with ( no ) government of the people, ( not ) by the people, ( not ) for the people, ( and ) shall perish ( alone and unhappy ) from the earth.”
I’m hopeful tfg’s actions will be so outrageous (“bloody” as he says) the pendulum will swing faster. We all have an obligation to speak up where we can.
We all hope that, but democracy is not self-executing and its resurrection is not inevitable. Trump is gathering the reins of power very publicly. What he (and others) are doing covertly is even scarier.
Hi Evelyn, I think our nation-bastion will endure and have the will power to rebuild into a more perfect union if given the chance. By then ,and given the vacuum created by lack of lidership, abandoning our allies and ignore our international agreements, this vacuum will be filled by Russia and China and it might take WW III to to return to the American Century and Pax Americana principles. No guarantees to win that one and even if we do our world would be irreconocible.
The time to recognize that the intention is to dismantle Government and the Constitution is NOW. This Nation is what Biden swore to uphold and defend from threats domestic and foreign. With every move, threat, and statement Trump and his ilk have uttered, even preemptively he seeks to undermine and overthrow the rule of law and individual rights.
Is Biden equal to the moment? If any one normal person had said a fraction of what Trump has said, they would have been awaiting trial for conspiracy to overthrow the Government among other things.
Heather, the time to recognize the intention was November 5th. Regarding what to do with trump, I think that if we were able to think and act as a maga, as repugnant as it sounds, at least for day or two, trump would be in jail for all you mentioned and more.
Lincoln grew up reading the Bible, King James version. He had a serious frame of mind, and he grew to the resonant English and its cadences worthy of humanity at its heights.
He also knew that the federal soldiers who died at Gettysburg, and at other battles, all took seriously the union, all would and did put their lives on the line for something called democracy, something for which their parents and grandparents in most cases had quite deliberately left a feudal old world behind them.
Lincoln could scarcely imagine a buffoon as great as the grifting orange felon. He, Lincoln, knew and enjoyed the wild yarns Americans even then were spinning on the frontier, but he knew this all as frolic -- nothing at all like the "bing-bing-boing-bong" gratuitous nonsense the convicted criminal we have today has ever used to gild his lies, his repeated rapes, cheating, sycophant courting of the world's most wantonly murderous and dehumanized dictators.
Lincoln genuinely grieved the genuine loss of life, maiming, illness, and injury Yankee lads suffered to put down the enslavers and their preposterous efforts to kill national democracy. So by their examples, the guys in federal blue, he could take seriously the dangers of kleptocrats, oligarchs, and would-be autocrats. He'd know the otherwise empty Trump for the menace his cravings for power would represent.
But, Hope, he'd have nothing at all to say to him.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled there had already said all there was to say, so far beyond our poor powers to add or detract.
He didn't "win" anything. A huge network of treachery, deceit, and threats, typified by that choreographed picture of him rising defiantly against the sky, a flag flying over his head.
Yeah, Grift-o the Great…perhaps we could commission a large statue of him made out of trash and refuse. OK, now I’m just being petty. Maybe my new moniker should be Pretty Petty the Persnickety Pontificator……🤪
I remember being in Italy when Obama was first elected. They were ecstatic about America.s future. Flash forward sixteen years. I was in Italy on Election Day. The people there are in shock (except for the far-right folks, they're giddy). They are afraid that the calming reassurance that through NATO, America had their back is now replaced by uncertainty and fear.
All the while, Putin and Xi are smugly sitting back with smiles on their faces.
But sadly, and more menacingly still: Orban, Netanyahu, the Iranian mullahs, Sisi, Erdogan, Rico, Mohammed bin Salman, Assad, Kim, Modi, and several hundred of the U.S.'s dark money billionaires in hate media and other revenue streams for the Clarence court and the near-totally corrupted Republicans and their convicted criminal leader.
I agree, Phil, and your response to my question is excellent. Thank you. The greedy autocrats you mentioned are the face of the new world order. We ignore this international mafia because we are focused on this nation. Just as we've been incredulous about Trump's election, we cannot grasp the power these bad boys represent. Will they prevail? Perhaps, but they cannot "fool all the people all the time."
For us it is a Private's grave, lost on July 11, 1944 near Sainteny Normandy France. It is but one of hundreds of thousands but still means enough of the world to us to never forget.
I don't think that Abe Lincoln could conceive of someone like DJT being Elected as U.S. President... Abe Lincoln knew Scarcity, and Hard-Work, was Studious & Devout... DJT was born with a Silver-Spoon in his Mouth... DJT is Ignorant, Devious, and the only thing that works hard is his Mouth...
Kamala was among the very best candidates to have run for President in my life time. She came from a working class family and she. actually worked in a service job.
Trump is a mobster, who has likely NEVER done a single day's anything physical including cooking, cleaning, changing a diaper, pounding a nail or carrying his own golf clubs. And he constantly pretends he understands the needs of his low-information voters.
His cabinet picks so far confirm that he thinks the government is HIS government and they will do his bidding. So far, it's possible that this cabinet is even worse than the revolving door cabinet of his first term.
I imagine, in Lincoln’s time, snake oil salesmen might have existed. Media didn’t elevate them, greed and poverty didn’t elevate them. The chickens were on the backyard, so the price of eggs wasn’t an issue.
I will put money that he knew Shakespeare better than the Bible - he oft cited his works. There is an excellent discussion of this in James Shapiro's Shakespeare in a Divided America. Check it out (Shapiro's The Playbook which just came out a few months ago is the second of a three part series on Shakespeare in America).
Not sure when he got his hands first on either of the two, but historians and biographers agree that his education for many years dwelled on both. Deeply. Reverently. Then, too, he had the advantage of camp meetings and their preachers.
Staged productions of the bard of Avon, or of anyone else? Were but I better read in those biographers and colleagues of Heather's.
Lincoln convened a team of rivals as his cabinet. The man elected on November 5 dreams of commanding a ship of fools. I hope and pray that the Senate members uphold their oath to the Constitution and block the most egregious of the current nominees. Of course, that would be all of them.
Thank you for this reminder of the good and great things one individual can do, what words can mean, what aspiration and inspiration can help us achieve. I feel compassion and pity for those who live without courage, integrity, truth, self-respect, kindness, and dignity. The rest of us must continue to set an example of decency and help lead our communities and country forward. It's never been easy, but we can do it.
It would have been so easy for Lincoln to air his grievances on the members of the Confederacy. Instead he spoke so eloquently about the lofty goals that the founders voiced and urged both sides to aim for them. Let us keep his words in mind as we fight for the country he so loved.
We need to be reminded of Lincoln's words every day, the truth that it is up to us "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
I know that in these time, it's easy to feel that there's nothing we can do, but it is up to us to find something. Today a friend and fellow activist and I had a phone call with our sheriff, a wonderful woman who had promised us that when she was elected, she would cancel the 287(g) agreement with ICE to let them know when people were being released from the jail so that ICE could scoop up any who were undocumented and deport them. She was as good as her word, and for the last two years, the department has been ICE free. But recently, ICE has been pressuring all of the sheriffs in MA, even though Biden still has two months to go as president, to start cooperating again. So my friend and I agreed to start a low-key campaign, informing supporters of what's going on, and asking for small donations as a way to stay connected. I hate asking for money, especially now that many people are tapped out, but I know that many people are also looking for a small but significant way to stay involved, so that's what we're going. Please find something small but significant in your community that you can do to keep Lincoln's words alive.
Good to know that you have a decent sheriff to work with. Too many here in Oregon are Oath Keepers. I hope people will find ways, even if small, to stave off some of what has been threatened. I am truly worried about the bill in the House which would allow death star and the treasury secretary to take away tax-exempt status from non-profits that oppose them. The bill went down once, but I do not know where it is now. I see a lot of people really worried about their investments and retirement income too. I hope you are successful.
Michele, you're spot on about some of our Sheriff's. Ours is not, as far as I can tell (I've known him since he was 16...) Several are, especially over east.
He says he is going to use the military after declaring a national emergency. The Oregonian had an article about effects in Oregon this last week. I am sure there is lots of fear among Hispanic communities here particularly.
I thought the bill was about removing tax exempt status from non-profits that were supporting terrorist groups. That seems okay. Could the law be used for nefarious ways?
The red flag with the details of the Bill's wording is that there are no safeguards for not -for -profits to defend themselves. In the hands of T administrators, it is open to great abuse. Go to ACLU website for more information.
Like the Heritage Foundation and others that support TRUMP? I would support that, but my guess is that the Dems will do nothing and Trump will turn things around snd remove tax-exempt status from ecological, scientific, and non-Trump think tanks.
Annie, as Carol suggested, go to the ACLU website: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/ahead-of-house-vote-on-hr-9495-aclu-sounds-alarm-again. They list Planned Parenthood, AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, and the NAACP as non-profits whose tax-exempt status could be jeopardized. Among others, I contribute to national and international organizations such as PEN (in their fight against book banning), the Legal Defense Fund, Doctors without Borders, World Central Kitchen, and local groups that run our food banks, help provide housing, give support to Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers, as well as three public tv/radio stations. It's hard to know which non-profits the fascists would call "terrorist," but it is terrifying to think that they would target organizations that help and protect so many needy people.
I am unaware of any more lucid or eloquent way to express it: "government of the people, by the people, for the people". One hears it so much it might start to sound stale; but it's the key to a free society. What if every governmental action and policy was measured by that yardstick? How many would pass? How many would show a need for improvement? How many are a betrayal? I mean for real. " that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom".
Betsy Smith, in my district in MA we also have a female sheriff:-) So many recent immigrants are super lovely and wonderful. I’m so tired of saying we’re all immigrants. If you’re in this area I hope to hear more about this. I also want to thank HCR for her post today. This day of all days ought to be a Federal Holiday.
Thanks for this Heather. I can think of no grosser betrayal of Lincoln's words than a vote for what is about to occupy the White House. For an excellent analysis and history of Lincoln's speech I highly recommend Gary Will's Lincoln at Gettysburg. It is very readable, and if memory serves was a best-seller when it came out in the 90s. An equal study is due about his magnificent second inaugural. "With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right . . . "
Thank you Dr. Richardson for this reminder. Then we fought and won a bloody battle to protect our Constitutional rights to endure freedom for eternity. Now we stand on the brink of losing it in a bloodless coup created by a minority group of racist bigots and a handful of greedy billionaires.
Amen, Judy. That the US voters could pass over 2 brilliant, knowledgeable, accomplished and competent women who ran for POTUS to put this buffoon in office is beyond me.
My father was a Civil War buff. An entire bookcase devoted to it; multi-volume accounts, the whole business. When we traveled, we would visit Civil War battlefields, including, especially, Gettysburg. I wrote a 20 page term paper on Gettysburg for my American History class in high school. The teacher had us memorize the Address. This battle and Lincoln’s speech represented one of the pivotal moments in American history for me. I never imagined that Lincoln’s words would take on so much weight in the nation’s current affairs during my own lifetime. I am now grateful for that legacy.
Tho' not necessarily the end. That said, Lincoln would likely be very steamed over the fate of of his party and our collective lack of care for the rights he worked so hard (and ultimately died) preserving.
Not if WE don’t let it be so, Thomas. It’s up to US, the people, to see his vision strengthened. Other than those who are in it for the money or power, I don’t think the “average” voter (now I hear latest stats of him not hitting the 50% mark of cast votes) really understands what they’ll (alas, we will all) be getting.
Thomas - I think not. It is an awakening of what democracy really means to us everywhere around the world. This is a living thing that needs all of us to engage and to re-ignite the flame of truth csuch as Lincoln would have hoped 🇺🇸🗽🥁🕯️
Things always mean more in retrospect—but the path back is likely to be sabotaged at every turn. As Rachel Maddow said Monday, “Nobody likes Congress … but we will miss it when it’s gone.” Trump is already stripping Congress of its Constitutional powers by preemptively forcing capitulation of largely spineless demagogues. Hungary’s Orban’s puppet nominal ‘democracy’ took little time to be brought to heel and really ‘They won’t have to vote anymore’—because the outcome is preordained.
I read and re-read Lincoln’s words again. It hit me emotionally. On this day we learn that Matt Gaetz paid $7000 to one young girl he raped immediately after meeting her. The Founding Fathers, Lincoln, and the Women Suffragettes must return from the dead and haunt those who use fear, racism, and sexism, as a knife to our throats.
Marlene, I love the Gettysburg Address made in the midst of all that sorrow.....just the right words. And the right words for now and I thank Heather for reminding us.
Indeed she does. Start every morning with her. Also I am a history person, so enjoy that perspective. Also every time i see something about the Civil War I am reminded of a book I read about the effect of all the deaths and how they were so hard on those who remained.
I'll never forget Obama's whistle-stop tour on the vintage train, from Philadelphia to Washington, commemorating Lincoln at every stage of the journey to the White House.
I teared up reading this, Marlene. It is a balm to my soul as well, and feeds my resolve to do what I can to see our shared vision “shall not perish from this earth”.
I wholly concur with you Barbara, my friend. A balm to the soul indeed. Let us dedicate ourselves similarly, to the great task remaining before us in our day, that the new births of freedom that we have all witnessed in our lifetimes, will continue to move forward, in the face of the adverse wind moving in the opposite direction.
Heather- thanks for being my north star. I have a request of you. Please write about the documentarian putting the ERA into the constitution now. Before Biden leaves office. 38 states ratified. There is no constitutional way to rescind a ratification. No time limit for action was in the documents the states ratified. We have waited too long. Thank you so very much.
An original seven-year deadline was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982 for the ERA to be ratified. When this deadline expired, only 35 of the necessary 38 states (the constitutionally required three-fourths) had ratified the amendment. The ERA is not yet a part of the U.S. Constitution.
True, but apparently President Biden only has to make a phone call to the National Archivist, Colleen Shogun, asking her to publish the Virginia ratification. We all need to contact President Biden to tell him to make this phone call ASAP.
Lincoln also said this, "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." 1838.
The true horror we are living is the very real possibility that we are committing national suicide.
Thank you for this powerful reminder of this day in history. Brings things into perspective for a brief few moments.
Exactly so, Laura. Incredibly powerful. The tonic we need to bolster ourselves and head into our own “battles.” Shame on our Democratic leadership who has been utterly absent and mute in these dark days, despairing days. Thank you, Heather Cox Richardson for knowing and offering just the right medicine.
Not Bernie Sanders.
The Democrats in the Senate are working to get every open Federal judgeships filled before January. If the Republicans agree to recess appointments then Biden can usher through the remaining open positions.
There is much game-ship going on right now by the Democrats and if they shout about what they are doing Trump and his minions will do what they can to curtail it.
Plus the corporate media only really gives a damn about what Republicans say and do because of the $$$$$s.
Thank you for reminding us that leadership is not always visible. Speak softly and without fanfare. Unlike the other side
Unfortunately that speaking softly without fanfare thing left 74 million voters unaware of what the Biden administration was doing for working class people. Best admin for that (though I have issues with Biden) in my lifetime, or running even with LBJ's.
I don't think most people were listening to much besides Fox or their entertainment of choice. -
I hope the Dems are doing something! I'm tired of the Republicans always getting their way by looking for the loopholes...and they are there. The Dems need to do the same! Enough being nice guys! We need to fight fire with fire! I hope they are learning to do that before it really is too late!
One Dem Judge has made it though to the Bench ... about 22 other nominees in line.
Thanks, Gary - share cites if/when you can!
The Senate won’t adjourn until after the inauguration.
I think they are tentatively scheduled to adjourn on December 20, with the new Congress sworn in on January 3 and certification of the election by the new Congress on January 6.
When I was an elementary school student, we not only were taught this history, we were required to recite the Gettysburg Address from memory.
And we should do that again....and again. As well as teach civics in the fifth, eighth and senior year of HS. As a retired educator there is value in memorizing just as there is value in creating and problem solving. And there is GREAT value in knowing our Democratic values and what our Democracy stands for and is made up of.
The past 10/15 years have proven we desperately need civics and history courses back in the classroom….and not just to answer questions on an SOL test. It’s appalling how many voters can’t name the three co-equal branches of government.
Amen🙏🇺🇸
I appreciate your sentiment, but want to remind you that some people's brains are not wired for memorization. I am one of those people. As a boy, I was required to memorize verses of the Bible. I struggled and failed. In Geometry class, I always got the right answer, but got lousy grades because I was unable to memorize and quote the theorems. I have an excellent memory of conversations and events, even going back to when I was a toddler. But I cannot memorize text.
This is 2024, the "Information Age." Instead of enforcing memorization, we should teach children where to look up our important documents online and instill the habit to reread those documents frequently.
When Einstein was asked several questions he couldn't answer the interviewer commented Einstein didn't know much. He replied I tend not to remember things I can look up.
Here's a story (true, I think) from the world of mathematics: a graduate student was given an oral exam for his Ph.D. The examiner asked him to write the definition of the gamma function [something you learn in graduate math courses]. The student answered "I don't know the definition, but, if I need it, I can look it up." The examiner replied, "you need it now."
Memorization is not the be-all and end-all of education, but it has its place.
I LOVE this!! Thank you!
We learned it too. It’s beautiful.
Unfortunately this administration will require students to recite the Ten Commands from memory.
If this incoming administration actually lived according to those 10 commandments, it would be noteworthy. Instead, it is bitterly ironic.
It's noteworthy that they live in violation of them.
And my statement doesn't in any way condone those teachings as the "only religion" to follow.
No!👏❤️🇺🇸
This history should absolutely be taught, though rote memorization is not an ideal learning strategy for kids in difficult circumstances.
I did the same in elementary school. In college for my Italian language class we were required to give a speech in Italian.
I translated the Gettysburg Address into Italian! I memorized it by heart …in Italian. Got an “A”!!! I’m 74 years old and still remember that speech.
These words are "carved in stone" on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial. Standing infront of them reading is very moving.
I had to do the same. It was a powerful assignment.
And I still can!
She said Democratic, Mary. Bernie is an Independent.
And thank you Leslie. It seems horrible to me that I have not realized this until you wrote it and I read it. It appears I have been far more upset by all of this than I have realized until now. And I was just wondering why I was crying as I read tonight's message and looked at the photo.
Before you correct me too, I know Liz a Republican. The point we are making is that their are brave people who have spoken truth to the lies.
I assume you mean Liz Cheney. While she speaks truth to lies she is no friend of the people. Liz said the so-called Supreme Court made the right decision overturning Row v Wade.
“It’s clear that Liz Chaney and I are ideologically disparate. She supported Donald J. Trump’s policies 93% of the time and voted for him in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, a decision she now regrets. And I worked hard with the DNC to raise money and defeat Trump in 2020.
“Yet, I admire Cheney’s unyielding pursuit of truth regarding Donald J. Trump. Despite our differing viewpoints, I respect her dedication to her principles and commitment to truth. And while I strongly disagree with many of Liz Cheney’s choices, it reinforces my responsibility to advocate for my beliefs in shaping America’s future.”
Laurie Ruettimann
And, Why? would Liz Cheney say the decision you are citing was correct. Anyone want t tackle that?
Bless the Truths & damn the lies🙏🇺🇸
I'm aware of this Cathleen, having volunteered in his campaigns. He caucuses with the Democrats, has twice run for the Democratic nomination for President, etc. You in turn know these things.
What is that supposed to mean? Bernie Sanders has been busy in DC trying to get something done to stop the incoming monster from destroying our country!!!!
Well , he’s been grousing and grumbling. Still waiting for any doing. In the Senate for nearly 20 years and one sponsored bill. If you don’t count the two bills to rename post offices.
This is--not to put too fine a point upon it!--nonsense. He's one of the most successfully bipartisan members of Congress, known as "the amendment king" (his amendments would be independent bills in most countries), and has sponsored or cosponsored many bills during his years as the most popular US Senator, with the highest approval rating of any American politician. Did you stop reading the news in recent years?--whose ideas do you think lie at the root of Biden's biggest legislative achievements in the last 4 years, the Infrastructure Act, the Jobs Act, Build Back Better? You should read up on Sanders' powers and influence in the Congress and on US politics. There's no need of course for you to agree with his ideas and policies, but this particular complaint is unfounded.
The "monster..(S) are the ones out there who are not wearing 'the shoes'. People like Sen Rubio, are being given a whole new pair of shoes to walk in, He isn't an ignorant person, he just happens to be one we kinda dislike. Let' see how he handles things, once he puts those shoes on. Same same for many of the rest. Even Bowbear and MTgreene. But please, let's not let tabloid crap espuosed by any of them earn them a pulpit to spew from. Send them to Pornhub or Brazzers, not WAPO, Newsweek, WSJ, or Time.
Let's hear it for Bernie! He's the most Lincolnesque--perhaps the only Lincolnesque--figure on the political scene today.
I walked precincts for Bernie for 4 1/2 months in 2019 and 2020 in Southeast San Diego, communities of immigrant, poor, and people of color. I learned a lot from them--that nobody helps them. They don't have the money to donate to campaigns, maybe? Bernie was my only hope. This morning I thought, if anyone challenges Trump or Vance in 2028 they will have them assassinated, like that poor ballet dancer in Russia. (Do drunk people fall off of balconies?) I've lost hope but I'll keep phone banking for people I believe in, like Jamaal Bowman (wah!) and Rashida Tlaib. I'm actaully a very shy person, but push myself to do this so I don't feel like I'm hiding my life away. And I learn so much from the people I talk to, like that man, a registered Democrat, who said he was voting for Trump because "he put the embassy in Jerusalem." Yeah. Period. I don't argue with people. It does no good.
Good luck to us!
Oh, you’re fun at parties, aren’t you?
That’s nothing! I can name all the states and capitals, do a correct geography map, name all the Presidents in correct chronological order, the Preamble to the constitution, the Bill of Rights, know what the Monitor and the Merrimack are. Where the Civil War began, all from 6th grade American history class where I forgot more than I retain at 67 yo. We were required to do a research project in one 9 week period. It also included references, index, and bibliography cards. Handwritten in cursive at least 10 pages long. Anyone else remember projects like this in grammar school?
I can name all the “helping” verbs. Or could.
My report in 5th grade was all about the state of South Carolina.
Actually in most states the social studies curriculum has the study of the one's own state in fourth grade and the study of the United States in fifth.
Here's my favorite Gettysburg song. 20th Maine - Fightin' Chamberlains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z63wb0LpDfQ
However, the battle of the ironclads in Chesapeake Day was not between the Monitor and the Merrimack, it was between the USA Monitor and the CSS Virginia. The Merrimack was a wooden ship the Union sank when it retreated from Virginia. The Confederates raised it, rebuilt it as an ironclad, and named it the CSS Virginia.
Thank you for adding the context in which these ships and battles they took part in and the outcomes. I didn’t go into that depth of detail in my post because I wanted to name these two famous ships from the Civil War as ones we “should” be familiar with.
Where the hell did you go to school? Asking for a friend.
I went Bethel Memorial Elementary School, Bethel Park, PA.
A K-6 school, I attended 2nd to 6th grade 1964-1968. We moved into the district in 1964. My teacher was Mr Galbreath. He taught Science, History/Geography and Math. Mrs. Saunders taught English, Reading, Social Studies. We had Current Events during homeroom and cursive handwriting after recess in 2nd and 3rd grade.
Our handwriting teacher was a mean old bat who yelled at you when you didn’t “swing up, open loop, trace down to bottom line, hump at dotted line and finish swing up” (cursive lower case “h”). For the report, I had to have two references from books in our public library.
P.S. we also had to hand in the rough draft in pencil and final copy in blue or black ink. Spelling was counted and points taken off for misspelling.
There are parties. And then there are other parties.
Let's not badmouth Bernie. He's the most Lincolnesque, perhaps the only Lincolnes
Not badmouthing Bernie but his supporters gave us Trump in 2016. Approximately 10% of Bernie supporters voted for Hillary and 10% voted for Trump. The remaining 80% either didn't vote or wrote in Bernie's name (meaning they didn't vote. IF Bernie supporters in two Midwest states had voted for Hillary, she would have won the Electoral College vote in both states and won the election. Maybe Heather can fill in more accurate details.
Nope.
I had the good fortune of studying the Gettysburg address in a freshman humanities course at the University of Minnesota circa 1972. My professor, Paul D’Andrea, assigned the Gettysburg address as being up there with Plato and other great orators, and as one of the most elegant pieces of rhetoric ever spoken. As it later turned out, D’Andrea was an academic superstar. Such good fortune I had:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_D%27Andrea
He’s part of the problem
Still using Bernie to divide us? That’s awesome. Just what we need. And he’s NO Abraham Lincoln.
???
Not Dean Phillips.
Or Liz Cheney
Democratic leaders are waiting for the election statistics to shake out. We already know Trump didn't reach 50% of the voters and Harris is within <2% points.
Why start planning how to CHANGE or how to APOLOGIZE when this was an election most probably due to anti-incumbency vote? Anti-incumbency happened this year around the globe. Yes, there are things the Dems can improve, but ...
Blame game, anyone?
I'll take a stab at your rhetorical question.
1) The Republicans across the country that purged voter roles and passed legislation to suppress the vote and create fear to vote among certain demographics.
2) The oligarchs bought Senate seats in OH, MT, FL and TX. They also spent huge sums of money working to defeat several House members. They also plowed hundreds of millions into other propaganda.
3) The corporate media for chasing Joe out of the race and not acknowledging the myriad accomplishments of the Biden administration. If Biden and the Democrats had had four more House seats they could have continued to pass meaningful legislation for the people. Plus, they were more than happy to print hundreds more articles about Trump's hateful and angry rhetoric.
4) Trump and the Republicans had four years to undermine the 2024 election vs fewer than 100 days for Harris/Walz. What they accomplished was fucking amazing.
5) As Heather stated last week the voters that weren't paying attention to politics and never do, voted overwhelmingly for Trump. You can't cure ugly and you can't cure apathy.
1/3 of the registered voters didn't even vote. That is pathetic for an election as consequential as this one is likely to be.
You can educate ignorance, you can treat mental, but there is no cure for stupid. And that includes cult brain freeze. Rupert has done a job on my friends, family, and neighbors. Yours too, no doubt.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Rupert got caught up in the deportation of American citizens too?
He rules from the sidelines, in more countries than ours…. And he’s got a clone in Lachlan
@ Loft. How do you say "it was the Russians, stupid" in Russian?
Gary, three stars for you. Our apathy is a cultural failure. Perhaps a sign of the "me" generation.
Those people opted out because meh! change will be good.
Outside the tent is cool.
Thanks for blaming outside the tent!
Joe, much as I admire him, chased himself out of the race. He shocked all of us with his enfeebled and rhetorically defenseless performance.
Both sides spent millions. But Dems had to try to overcome three years of rising prices, which the Administration countered by explaining how eleven-teen Nobel economists praised the economy. The Dems had to try to defend three years of the country watching migrants pour freely across the border while the Biden administration failed to enforce US law. Until the election neared. Looked and was insincere and cynical.
Sure, Republicans gamed the system by purging voter rolls. That was hardly a secret. But a lot of that happened in red states. Still wrong, but did not affect the outcome.
If we could have turned out the numbers of Biden’s 2020 win, we would have won. Trump did that. We didn’t come close to doing do.
Don't think this election was decided by anti- incumbency common around the globe. After all we are not talking about a spreading virus. This election was decided by the lazy by staying home, the uninformed and by people landing on earth on election day after living on the moon for a long time.
Please - don’t forget that it was bought by muskrat, Miriam Adelson and the oligarchs, including Putin. The lazy, yes. But we were hoodwinked, flim flamed, and reminded of our racist, sexist proclivities non-stop and with the force of cannons.
The corruption of billionaires...
And the coming power surge will stun most into silence or acquiescence
Multi, complex reasons, too many to mention here but available to experts to analyze, caused this situation.
Maybe it’s not as complex as most think. True that the last 40 years have provided ample evidence of the problems encountered in politics, and yes there are many. But maybe it just boils down to hate, greed, jealousy, and the urge of some to bury others in their Schitt and rule the Schitt mountains…
Decided by disinformation
Remember Downballot Dem successes whatever the disinformation.
We lost both houses
And many other complex reasons.
Also a massive firehosing of disinformation by Putin's troll/bot farms "flooding the zone with shit" (in Slob Bannon's memorable phrase)
It's a globe-wise phenomenon — not an internet-speak “virus.” It was a result of the pandemic and the resulting inflation — around the globe. Even though Biden’s policies brought us out on top.
Less than 50% of our short-attention-span electorate — uninformed as they are -- thought change was a good idea. Not catching, just widespread. (Yeah, I know there are the ⅓ who agree with Trump and Bannon.)
Thanks for bringing up the fact that not everything that’s a world-wide phenomenon is a disease/virus.
Let’s call that virus what it is: Ignorance, Stupidity and some Hate tied together called Racism …
Mr. Riley...better throw in a measure of misogyny, as well. That was certainly a factor in devastating results of this horrible election.
Very well on target 👏
Yes, fixing was isn’t broken. Many cannot live without chaos. We used to call that codependency
Your point is well taken.
There was at least 12 years of tr*** saying the same misinformation over and over and over again, in short almost-sentences, like mantras, simple sound bites that programmed the fox news groupies and uneducated. And he used social media extensively. jimjones cultists who drank the social media kookaid.
Right, like all those "illegals" "invading" our country. 🙄
...among many other pieces of propaganda.
The rightwing has perfected the art of naming things so that they appeal to non-thinkers, while it is almost always the opposite of what they are actually doing. Their "opportunity Scholarships" sound lovely until you realize that it is their drive to kill public education by appropriating all the funds and giving them to some barely qualified religious or charter schools. They do this with so many of their truly nefarious schemes, and it is maddening to see people fall for it.
American voters NEVER turn out in force, ie over 66%, this was a 2nd highest turnout by historical standards
The 'blame game' is being pursued by the Punditariat class who cannot seem to think of anything better to do than pontificate on issues that actually need more time, distance and perspective to settle out.
It's too easy for any ol' lazy opinion columnist to churn out an article pointing at this or that "mistake", but that doesn't make their analysis the correct one. In fact I'm pretty sure there is no ONE specific reason--it will more l=than likely turn out to be a complex combination of all of them.
Personally, I'm ignoring all the articles that claim to have THE prescription for what ails us until a bit more time has passed.
We continue on the road to minority rule and kleptocracy. Will there be a true election in even two years? I doubt it. Unconventional measures must be taken NOW.
One of the big factors, regardless of each candidates campaign promises, is America's choice was between a Black woman and a white man. Racist America chose the while man. Racism is alive and well in America.
Thanks, M
Not Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Bill Clinton was on Colbert’s the Daily Show tonight, offering calm and encouragement to us.
Wish somebody would offer the rage that I feel is appropriate. The election was stolen right from under our noses. The flip from Biden to Harris was a godsend. Sexism and racism all rolled up. You could tell when chump went from whining about having to change the script to entertaining and getting crazy headlines at his rallies. He knew the fix was in.
Talk to the men who overall voted for Trump.... i almost think Kamala's pro women campaign pushed more males than otherwise towards Trump.
If that's true it just proves how threatened the weak, failing men of today are.
And there has long been talk on what's become an enduring "male identity crisis" in America. I call it part of an ongoing breakdown in the old patriarchal system. That's not cross the board mind you. When i was a kid, though, 1 in 6 university students were female. It's now slight majority or more, depending on the fields.
Gosh, I had no idea an educated woman could be so scary. Poor babies don’t feel like men unless they have a foot on the neck of women.
Women's Lives Matter, eh, Sandy? I thought some of this went back to Sigourney Weaver in Alien (1980), boy the guys got hammered, she took care of buddy A. just kidding. Along the way, I was impressed in the 90s as my kids made their way through high school picking up prizes and awards, along with other females. I was asking myself... "Where are the boys?" Of there were males, but girls were definitely scooping up gold.
Men are such delicate creatures.
I agree. The husband of one of my female physician colleagues claimed he heard from “a friend in California said Kamala “slept her way to the top” “!
I got incensed, Trump can rape a woman and 30 women documented sexual assaults by Trump and yet said a disgusting comment. His daughter is a physician too! The husband worked in the business world and was focused on the “tax cut” he would get with Trump.
These are millionaires! Sick! 🤢
The business mind is corrupted!
Haha, weak with more advantages than most can dream of.
lol, what can i tell ya? I think there's a bit of a range on that one....
Oh, I talk to them, was raised with 4 bros. Sexism, racism, self-righteous piety, and worried about some undeserving getting a piece of the pie…. My parents would be appalled, even my daddy. We didn’t have it easy, but we didn’t have every institution stacked against us.
Trump got barely more votes than in 2016. What happened to the 10m votes that Biden got? Or the 90m eligible voters that didn't? Polls and media completely ignored them.
Fall back from 2020 for sure, but overall still the 2nd largest turnout ever, and 1/3 or more of the electorate don't bother to vote, even since i was a kid, and of course before that. Cynicism / indifference has been a historical trait of American electorates, Aaron. The Dems lost their margins: younger esp first time voting males, though males overall lean Republican anyway, overall just a few percentage points called the shots.
It’s appropriate as hell! I share that rage. 😡 I have been active in securing, expanding women’s freedom since the ‘70s. I’m not just pissed at men, I am pissed at the younger women who have taken their rights and democracy for granted. So many of us fought so hard to improve opportunities and acceptance of women’s equality that it spits in the face of all we worked for.
The gap will hurt for longer than many will live, but their children will feel the pain as well
There was a huge vote for Mexican US Citizens that voted for trump. Virility, masculinity, and machismo wins the day for Latino voters. (Against their own interests).
The construction industry will suffer, and, in a country that needs young workers, it’s practically suicidal. They will learn that the “not sending their best” is meant for them. Latinos will be the first targets…. Dumbasses
Oops, meant the Late Show.
Giving the Dems the benefit of the doubt, I think they are still counting votes too. Prof. Timothy Snyder points out that Musk was involved in disinformation just as Putin has been.
https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-phantom-campaign
Another thing that the Dems are busy doing is getting in as many judges as they can approve. This is how one strengthens a democracy too. Even when we would like our leaders to comfort us, we need them not to say things while they are planning a way forward and doing what they can with this gift of 2 months to staunch the flood of evil doings that lies ahead. Andrea Pitzer clues us in to what we can expect and what we can do. https://substack.com/home/post/p-151702504
The above link comes from Andra Watkins who is doing a series on what can we do called Purposeful Disengagement to give suggestions on how people can address the fact that Christian Nationalists will be running our country, along with Putin. https://open.substack.com/pub/andrawatkins/p/purposeful-disengagement-who-could?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I am so angry we are not recounting the swing states votes after reading Stephen Spoonamore.
Marj, my friend has looked into Stephen Spoonamore and this is what she found.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-election-starlink-musk-steal-trump-38757341656d4f44243076d6356cb68b
She says,
"I looked into this guy a little bit today. This story is dangerous. He’s not a data scientist. He went to Wharton for a little while and dropped out to found a tech company. I listened to his interview with Thom Hartmann. Some of the ways they speak are alarmingly similar to “news sources” like One America Network. This is not my area of expertise, but his arguments are bad. He is confusing correlation and causation, he’s giving the listener a huge data dump of information that is not connected in any way, and he is making a false connection to a lot of things he is an “expert” in to make unsubstantiated claims. A lot of the things he is talking about are not possible, and they have already been debunked."
She also shared this.
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=147216
Rick Hasen is a law professor at UCLA.
I apologize for spreading disinformation.
Marj, we need to be writing Biden and Harris. Here is a contact email, and insisting that they have this done. https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Even through Harris won the popular vote, the electoral college still won the election for tr***.
I definitely think there were some shenanigans going on. All those bullet ballots in certain swing states, there needs to be a recount in those states for sure. Will the dems have the gumption to do it? Sadly I doubt it...
Terry, my friend has pointed out to me that Spoonamore is unreliable. She shared this.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-election-starlink-musk-steal-trump-38757341656d4f44243076d6356cb68b
She then said,
"I looked into this guy a little bit today. This story is dangerous. He’s not a data scientist. He went to Wharton for a little while and dropped out to found a tech company. I listened to his interview with Thom Hartmann. Some of the ways they speak are alarmingly similar to “news sources” like One America Network. This is not my area of expertise, but his arguments are bad. He is confusing correlation and causation, he’s giving the listener a huge data dump of information that is not connected in any way, and he is making a false connection to a lot of things he is an “expert” in to make unsubstantiated claims. A lot of the things he is talking about are not possible, and they have already been debunked."
She also had this clip.
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=147216
Rick Hasen is a law professor at UCLA
I apologize for spreading disinformation about the election. I had been skeptical until my friend looked him up, but what he said, not what others said about his, as I would usually do.
Not Gavin newsome and many other governors. Not many organizations. Every one of us needs to lead forward in all the ways we can. We will get through this!
Pardon me, but we Democrats, tens of thousand of us, worked timelessly to forestall the present threat. That we did not succeed is a tragedy for the nation and the world, but please do not traduce our efforts. (And if you are thinking, “But you are not part of the leadership," leaders and followers are part of the same movement to save the nation.)
Good point, where are the Democratic leaders? Selling up property and getting affairs in order for a quick exit to Canada? It seems strange to have had them and all their high profile supporters and celebrities on our airwaves day and night, and now zip.
I would not just look at Canada. Ireland is good for those who only speak English. However, they should be looking for Plan B. They will be early targets of the new fascist regime.
Leslie, perhaps you are overlooking one of the main differences between the Trump Cult* and Democrats. Members of the Trump Cult just spout whatever sh*t comes to mind without giving any thought to whether it's true or what effect it might have. Or as some wag once put it, "Ready! Shoot! Aim!"
Democrats generally tend to be more thoughtful before speaking out. That is the correct response. As it turns out, Dr. Demento did not, in fact, win the popular vote. We don't know what other facts might come out.
To other commenters: instead of blaming various groups of people, we should focus on the two factors that make our elections NOT free or fair, and work to eliminate them: the Electoral College and gerrymandering. Full stop. These two factors subject us to minority rule, and severely diminish any semblance of democracy.
Instead of castigating Democrats who didn't vote, appreciate that they live in a gerrymandered "red state." They could resist vote suppression, stand in line all day and vote blue up and down the ballot, but at the end of the day, their presidential vote would go to Trump because of gerrymandering and the Electoral College.
Example: In North Carolina, Democrats likely outnumber Trumpers by a considerable margin. But thanks to extreme gerrymandering, it's as if there's not a single Democrat in the state.
Moreover, gerrymandering and the Electoral College produce the phenomenon of "Battleground States," causing the parties and their candidates to utterly ignore all the other states. Again, this creates the perception that votes in the "pure color" states don't matter.
If we want to fix our election problem, we should focus our attention on these two issues. The other solutions will follow.
*The Republican Party no longer exists.
Thank you for saying this Leslie. I continue to struggle with the illogical results of this election and while there may be no remedy, I am supremely disappointed that Dem leadership, starting at the top, appear to have acquiesced and are silent. Tens of thousands poured their heart, soul and money into this campaign from before the days Harris took the top of the ticket. It is difficult not to feel despair and a sense of betrayal. Then again, it has only been 2 weeks, though it feels much longer.
Please !!! Do not assume silence equals acquiescence. Get a grip! Lots of things are going on behind the scenes. Please trust that all is being done that can be done. We do not need to be informed of every step being taken, as that could be dangerous. We have to have patience along with determination. We each have to understand that we need one another right now to continue in community, rather than this constant analyzing and blaming. We cannot afford that kind of divide among us. We each have different strengths to offer, and now is a time to get ready for what lies ahead. We must agree not to consent to the agenda thrust upon us. We need one another now to be prepared to mobilize in whatever way we each can. If you haven't already, read the links above that Linda Weide offered. Use this time to stay informed. There are many people working towards a higher good forward. As Joyce Vance says, "We are in this together."
Thank you, Carol. I agree. We don't know what's going on behind the scenes, and I for one do not think that the Democratic leadership should be out there claiming the election was fixed.
I still believe that they are busy getting judges in, and making plans that might best not be shared aloud. Although Project 2025 was shared and except for a handful of people like me, and those in my Project 2025 book club, most people ignored reading what was right in front of them. So, the awfulness that is about to happen was hiding in plain sight.
The dems have been a disappointment for decades now, I thought VP Harris would be a change...maybe we need two new parties in the country, parties that actually work for us, no billionaires and corporations.
They have not mastered the bully pulpit. Now, instead of standing boldy and with resolve (other than Bernie), I am flooded with more requests for money. What a turn off!
Leslie M.
Did no one listen to Kamala Harris' words???
I voted for her!!!
Now we are where we are!
The crooks and parasites are taking over. We allowed this to happen!!!!
"... absent & mute", or utterly obscured (as always) by lapdog media?
Yes Leslie, I've been wondering the same thing where are our democratic leaders!
Leslie, it is not that the Democrats are silent these past few weeks, but more that our media has no time for them, not even for our president. They are so busy covering the appalling choices for cabinet positions Trump is making, each one either a criminal, an incompetent, or an idiot, totally inappropriate for any government position. And there are two goons waiting to get their hands on our institutions so they can cut to pieces the programs that have served Americans: healthcare, education, and anything else that gets into their nutzo heads. Where is there a place for anyone else to even be noticed. That is just as Trump and Kump planned it. There is no concern that perhaps votes were incorrectly noted or counted, no reminder that Trump and Kump suddenly stopped complaining about the "fraud-laden" elections, possibly because they knew things were done to "secure" their election? Again, or rather, continuing as through the past nearly ten years, Trump is the first story, even when terrible storms are raging in the west and a whole lot of other things are happening, which possibly get covered somewhere way back in the reporting. We need to stop blaming Democrats for the loss when racism, misogyny, xenophobia, classism, homo/transphobia are so deeply engrained in society that those immersed in them can hide behind a ridiculous "eggs are too high and Biden did it" bunch of crap, rather than what really happened. Americans are haters pure and simple and we can't hide it anymore. So, it's time we own it and actually start dealing with it, white people, and men of all backgrounds. Maybe if we work harder to put it out into the light, media will start covering it because it will be pretty scary and rather profound.
Abe Lincoln had the Dignity, the Class, that he Earned rising up from very Rough, and Modest Beginnings, to call the Fallen at Gettysburg Patriots & Heroes... DJT who is Putin's Puppet, and a Fake Tough Guy, would call them Suckers & Losers...
Imagine after the Civil War, Jefferson Davis had been elected president of the US. That’s basically what people have done. Jefferson Davis was a traitor, and so is 45.
I believe Trump is even worse than Jeff Davis
Jefferson Davis was wrong about most everything, but he was at least a gentleman. The Boor in Chief has no idea what decency and acceptable behavior are.
Yep. The full scale rape of America is about to begin.
No, it isn’t. People like you and me will fight to prevent it, even if in small ways, and in our local areas. We have the power. Reread the Lord of the Rings - one small hobbit brought down the darkness.
Apache,
Dt didn’t know who Lincoln was !
I have the images of two presidents on the walls of my home. One is the original engraving of the Emancipation Proclamation created in edition in 1866 — the first off the press given to the widow, Mary Todd Lincoln . The other is an elderly image of Jimmy Carter, whom I much admired for the work he achieved post-president.
Jimmy Carter, a decent man who tried to live out his faith, was voted out of office in favor of Ronald Raygun . Raygun espoused “voodoo” trickle down economics.
And took 2nd term with a landslide... godddd i thought at the time, star wars to boot, Trump wants to revive?
Yep. It’s over. Lite out of town and head for the hills. And rob a bank on the way out.
Lovely. I pray more American's will become "more like Lincoln" as we slog to the future.
We're not armed with rifles or swords but intellect and knowing the rightness of our cause. Our battleground isn't under our feet but at our fingertips. I've heard many people express their fear of a second civil war without ever acknowledging that we have been IN one for some time now and will not see the end of it for some time to come. We fight differently but for the very same ideals expressed by Lincoln at Gettysburg.
Agree Laura, The exact word that came to my mind in reading this today, “powerful”. Thanks for jumping on and stating this.
I guess we're going to find out just how long this nation, "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" ...will endure.
yes, Evelyn, our culture has created silo’s where certain races, genders, religions and class wealth has separated ourselves. Power-hungry elites would rather cage our neighbors who have a skin color they associate as ‘criminal’. Ignorant / prejudiced voters feel their short-term thirst for wanting “it” all, right “now” is worth polluting our world, poisoning our birds and animals, and robbing future generations of a chance to live a healthy lifetime on a beautiful planet and raise families.
America has sunk to new lows in the eyes of our global allies- our “nation, ( is not ) under God, with ( no ) government of the people, ( not ) by the people, ( not ) for the people, ( and ) shall perish ( alone and unhappy ) from the earth.”
I am hopeful that the pendulum will swing, perhaps in 2026, but it will!
Sally, that pendulum it's going to need a lot of momentum. We all should be ready.
We all need to push. Do not obey in advance…
Some already are
We need to remind them….
Ditch Joe and Mika, piss on the brown nosers
It’s already in motion folks, and in control of the barbarians who are inside the gate
In rush mode..
In RUSH mode, ha
Ricardo - and as soon as the would-be dictator takes power we will be vigilant of his every action and plant our course accordingly.
Absolutely!!!
We should all be working. We all should be spreading truth.
👍
I’m hopeful tfg’s actions will be so outrageous (“bloody” as he says) the pendulum will swing faster. We all have an obligation to speak up where we can.
We all hope that, but democracy is not self-executing and its resurrection is not inevitable. Trump is gathering the reins of power very publicly. What he (and others) are doing covertly is even scarier.
Hi Evelyn, I think our nation-bastion will endure and have the will power to rebuild into a more perfect union if given the chance. By then ,and given the vacuum created by lack of lidership, abandoning our allies and ignore our international agreements, this vacuum will be filled by Russia and China and it might take WW III to to return to the American Century and Pax Americana principles. No guarantees to win that one and even if we do our world would be irreconocible.
The time to recognize that the intention is to dismantle Government and the Constitution is NOW. This Nation is what Biden swore to uphold and defend from threats domestic and foreign. With every move, threat, and statement Trump and his ilk have uttered, even preemptively he seeks to undermine and overthrow the rule of law and individual rights.
Is Biden equal to the moment? If any one normal person had said a fraction of what Trump has said, they would have been awaiting trial for conspiracy to overthrow the Government among other things.
Heather, the time to recognize the intention was November 5th. Regarding what to do with trump, I think that if we were able to think and act as a maga, as repugnant as it sounds, at least for day or two, trump would be in jail for all you mentioned and more.
The rhetoric of a coup increases each day, by Trump and his cabinet picks.
What, whiplash here
What would Lincoln say to our shameful President-elect and the extraordinary, unqualified cabinet he is proposing?
Very good, Hope.
Lincoln grew up reading the Bible, King James version. He had a serious frame of mind, and he grew to the resonant English and its cadences worthy of humanity at its heights.
He also knew that the federal soldiers who died at Gettysburg, and at other battles, all took seriously the union, all would and did put their lives on the line for something called democracy, something for which their parents and grandparents in most cases had quite deliberately left a feudal old world behind them.
Lincoln could scarcely imagine a buffoon as great as the grifting orange felon. He, Lincoln, knew and enjoyed the wild yarns Americans even then were spinning on the frontier, but he knew this all as frolic -- nothing at all like the "bing-bing-boing-bong" gratuitous nonsense the convicted criminal we have today has ever used to gild his lies, his repeated rapes, cheating, sycophant courting of the world's most wantonly murderous and dehumanized dictators.
Lincoln genuinely grieved the genuine loss of life, maiming, illness, and injury Yankee lads suffered to put down the enslavers and their preposterous efforts to kill national democracy. So by their examples, the guys in federal blue, he could take seriously the dangers of kleptocrats, oligarchs, and would-be autocrats. He'd know the otherwise empty Trump for the menace his cravings for power would represent.
But, Hope, he'd have nothing at all to say to him.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled there had already said all there was to say, so far beyond our poor powers to add or detract.
Well said, Phil. TFFFG’s winning a second term in office is, imho, a permanent stain on our country’s soul.
He didn't "win" anything. A huge network of treachery, deceit, and threats, typified by that choreographed picture of him rising defiantly against the sky, a flag flying over his head.
Yeah, Grift-o the Great…perhaps we could commission a large statue of him made out of trash and refuse. OK, now I’m just being petty. Maybe my new moniker should be Pretty Petty the Persnickety Pontificator……🤪
Doesn't grab me. Hmm, "Barbarella, Wise Woman of the West"?
🤣
The world's, Barbara, the world's soul.
I remember being in Italy when Obama was first elected. They were ecstatic about America.s future. Flash forward sixteen years. I was in Italy on Election Day. The people there are in shock (except for the far-right folks, they're giddy). They are afraid that the calming reassurance that through NATO, America had their back is now replaced by uncertainty and fear.
All the while, Putin and Xi are smugly sitting back with smiles on their faces.
Putin and Xi, yes, Herb.
But sadly, and more menacingly still: Orban, Netanyahu, the Iranian mullahs, Sisi, Erdogan, Rico, Mohammed bin Salman, Assad, Kim, Modi, and several hundred of the U.S.'s dark money billionaires in hate media and other revenue streams for the Clarence court and the near-totally corrupted Republicans and their convicted criminal leader.
I agree, Phil, and your response to my question is excellent. Thank you. The greedy autocrats you mentioned are the face of the new world order. We ignore this international mafia because we are focused on this nation. Just as we've been incredulous about Trump's election, we cannot grasp the power these bad boys represent. Will they prevail? Perhaps, but they cannot "fool all the people all the time."
The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak
(Archibald MacLeish)
The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night
and when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died.
Remember us.
They say: We have done what we could
but until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished
no one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours,
they will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for
peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
it is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died; remember us.
For us it is a Private's grave, lost on July 11, 1944 near Sainteny Normandy France. It is but one of hundreds of thousands but still means enough of the world to us to never forget.
I don't think that Abe Lincoln could conceive of someone like DJT being Elected as U.S. President... Abe Lincoln knew Scarcity, and Hard-Work, was Studious & Devout... DJT was born with a Silver-Spoon in his Mouth... DJT is Ignorant, Devious, and the only thing that works hard is his Mouth...
Kamala was among the very best candidates to have run for President in my life time. She came from a working class family and she. actually worked in a service job.
Trump is a mobster, who has likely NEVER done a single day's anything physical including cooking, cleaning, changing a diaper, pounding a nail or carrying his own golf clubs. And he constantly pretends he understands the needs of his low-information voters.
His cabinet picks so far confirm that he thinks the government is HIS government and they will do his bidding. So far, it's possible that this cabinet is even worse than the revolving door cabinet of his first term.
They were ready this time, cheated getting in and ready to go.
Much worse.
I imagine, in Lincoln’s time, snake oil salesmen might have existed. Media didn’t elevate them, greed and poverty didn’t elevate them. The chickens were on the backyard, so the price of eggs wasn’t an issue.
Herman Melville wrote a novel about this, "in Lincoln's time," as you say, Diedra.
"The Confidence Man."
Apache, I like to think of it as he was born with a gold foot up his - let’s call it his “rear end”!
And when he was younger, some other body part...🤔
...just as inconstant, if not as prolix.
I will put money that he knew Shakespeare better than the Bible - he oft cited his works. There is an excellent discussion of this in James Shapiro's Shakespeare in a Divided America. Check it out (Shapiro's The Playbook which just came out a few months ago is the second of a three part series on Shakespeare in America).
Good quandary, Steve.
Not sure when he got his hands first on either of the two, but historians and biographers agree that his education for many years dwelled on both. Deeply. Reverently. Then, too, he had the advantage of camp meetings and their preachers.
Staged productions of the bard of Avon, or of anyone else? Were but I better read in those biographers and colleagues of Heather's.
Thank you
Lincoln convened a team of rivals as his cabinet. The man elected on November 5 dreams of commanding a ship of fools. I hope and pray that the Senate members uphold their oath to the Constitution and block the most egregious of the current nominees. Of course, that would be all of them.
DJT will convene a Team of Lackeys...
Yes, ignorant and preposterous "secretaries," but with the potential to do great harm.
Indeed Margaret- And will our military leaders uphold their oath to the Constitution?
Is Fox still blasted on every tv on military bases. Without any mention of the “suckers and losers” comment, of course.
We the nation, are praying they will.
Hope, what would Lincoln say about people in this country voting for a shameful president and unqualified cabinet he will impose on everybody?
...The same sort of rabid ideologue who assassinated him.
👍
Hope - He would cry.
Trump latest nomination:
"Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.”
🤦♀️
Thank you for this reminder of the good and great things one individual can do, what words can mean, what aspiration and inspiration can help us achieve. I feel compassion and pity for those who live without courage, integrity, truth, self-respect, kindness, and dignity. The rest of us must continue to set an example of decency and help lead our communities and country forward. It's never been easy, but we can do it.
It would have been so easy for Lincoln to air his grievances on the members of the Confederacy. Instead he spoke so eloquently about the lofty goals that the founders voiced and urged both sides to aim for them. Let us keep his words in mind as we fight for the country he so loved.
As Kamala and Walz did?
And Obama and Biden.
And Clinton and Gore (in my opinion)
DO, not did.
We need to be reminded of Lincoln's words every day, the truth that it is up to us "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
I know that in these time, it's easy to feel that there's nothing we can do, but it is up to us to find something. Today a friend and fellow activist and I had a phone call with our sheriff, a wonderful woman who had promised us that when she was elected, she would cancel the 287(g) agreement with ICE to let them know when people were being released from the jail so that ICE could scoop up any who were undocumented and deport them. She was as good as her word, and for the last two years, the department has been ICE free. But recently, ICE has been pressuring all of the sheriffs in MA, even though Biden still has two months to go as president, to start cooperating again. So my friend and I agreed to start a low-key campaign, informing supporters of what's going on, and asking for small donations as a way to stay connected. I hate asking for money, especially now that many people are tapped out, but I know that many people are also looking for a small but significant way to stay involved, so that's what we're going. Please find something small but significant in your community that you can do to keep Lincoln's words alive.
Good to know that you have a decent sheriff to work with. Too many here in Oregon are Oath Keepers. I hope people will find ways, even if small, to stave off some of what has been threatened. I am truly worried about the bill in the House which would allow death star and the treasury secretary to take away tax-exempt status from non-profits that oppose them. The bill went down once, but I do not know where it is now. I see a lot of people really worried about their investments and retirement income too. I hope you are successful.
Michele, you're spot on about some of our Sheriff's. Ours is not, as far as I can tell (I've known him since he was 16...) Several are, especially over east.
I don't think ours is either, but he is new, but in the force. for a while. I thought at one time Linn County had a bad one, but maybe not now.
I think Linn county does have one, either still or again.
Well, it's Linn County!
During Trump’s last presidency ICE came through Oregon and scooped up immigrants in our town.
I wonder what they would do differently?
He says he is going to use the military after declaring a national emergency. The Oregonian had an article about effects in Oregon this last week. I am sure there is lots of fear among Hispanic communities here particularly.
I thought the bill was about removing tax exempt status from non-profits that were supporting terrorist groups. That seems okay. Could the law be used for nefarious ways?
The red flag with the details of the Bill's wording is that there are no safeguards for not -for -profits to defend themselves. In the hands of T administrators, it is open to great abuse. Go to ACLU website for more information.
Terrorist groups can be defined many ways. Me Too and Black Lives Matter are favorites of the bill’s supporters.
Like the Heritage Foundation and others that support TRUMP? I would support that, but my guess is that the Dems will do nothing and Trump will turn things around snd remove tax-exempt status from ecological, scientific, and non-Trump think tanks.
Annie, as Carol suggested, go to the ACLU website: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/ahead-of-house-vote-on-hr-9495-aclu-sounds-alarm-again. They list Planned Parenthood, AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, and the NAACP as non-profits whose tax-exempt status could be jeopardized. Among others, I contribute to national and international organizations such as PEN (in their fight against book banning), the Legal Defense Fund, Doctors without Borders, World Central Kitchen, and local groups that run our food banks, help provide housing, give support to Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers, as well as three public tv/radio stations. It's hard to know which non-profits the fascists would call "terrorist," but it is terrifying to think that they would target organizations that help and protect so many needy people.
No, it isn't. They will target any group fighting against them. It is a very bad bill. Is your question rhetorical?
I am unaware of any more lucid or eloquent way to express it: "government of the people, by the people, for the people". One hears it so much it might start to sound stale; but it's the key to a free society. What if every governmental action and policy was measured by that yardstick? How many would pass? How many would show a need for improvement? How many are a betrayal? I mean for real. " that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom".
Betsy Smith, in my district in MA we also have a female sheriff:-) So many recent immigrants are super lovely and wonderful. I’m so tired of saying we’re all immigrants. If you’re in this area I hope to hear more about this. I also want to thank HCR for her post today. This day of all days ought to be a Federal Holiday.
Samani, I just went through the list of sheriffs in MA, and Donna Buckley, on the Cape, is the only woman I could find. Where, exactly do you live?
Thanks for this Heather. I can think of no grosser betrayal of Lincoln's words than a vote for what is about to occupy the White House. For an excellent analysis and history of Lincoln's speech I highly recommend Gary Will's Lincoln at Gettysburg. It is very readable, and if memory serves was a best-seller when it came out in the 90s. An equal study is due about his magnificent second inaugural. "With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right . . . "
Thank you Dr. Richardson for this reminder. Then we fought and won a bloody battle to protect our Constitutional rights to endure freedom for eternity. Now we stand on the brink of losing it in a bloodless coup created by a minority group of racist bigots and a handful of greedy billionaires.
Please consider adding the word 'misogynist' after the word 'racist.'
Amen, Judy. That the US voters could pass over 2 brilliant, knowledgeable, accomplished and competent women who ran for POTUS to put this buffoon in office is beyond me.
The Electoral College and Russian financed disinformation campaign were major contributing factors as well.
And amen to you, Barbara! <sigh> Someday....
🤞
Lies, slander, cheating. All the way
Absolutely their plans for women are horrific taking us back to at least the 19th century.
We are not going back
Indeed, they spewed it with a vengeance
History rhyming again. Time was that that ilk was colloquially known as "Robber Barons". Odd that so many suppose they aim to save us.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff
My father was a Civil War buff. An entire bookcase devoted to it; multi-volume accounts, the whole business. When we traveled, we would visit Civil War battlefields, including, especially, Gettysburg. I wrote a 20 page term paper on Gettysburg for my American History class in high school. The teacher had us memorize the Address. This battle and Lincoln’s speech represented one of the pivotal moments in American history for me. I never imagined that Lincoln’s words would take on so much weight in the nation’s current affairs during my own lifetime. I am now grateful for that legacy.
Yes, Tom, they still inspire us to commit ourselves to our vision of these United States…aspirational as they are (a work of incremental progress).
And we are at no less a pivotal point on this day than we were in 1861.
11/05/24 is a sad ending to Lincoln’s vision.
Tho' not necessarily the end. That said, Lincoln would likely be very steamed over the fate of of his party and our collective lack of care for the rights he worked so hard (and ultimately died) preserving.
Not if WE don’t let it be so, Thomas. It’s up to US, the people, to see his vision strengthened. Other than those who are in it for the money or power, I don’t think the “average” voter (now I hear latest stats of him not hitting the 50% mark of cast votes) really understands what they’ll (alas, we will all) be getting.
Truer words have not been spoken, Barbara. Thank you. We do not have to let it be so. It is up to us to see his vision strengthened!!
Thomas - I think not. It is an awakening of what democracy really means to us everywhere around the world. This is a living thing that needs all of us to engage and to re-ignite the flame of truth csuch as Lincoln would have hoped 🇺🇸🗽🥁🕯️
Things always mean more in retrospect—but the path back is likely to be sabotaged at every turn. As Rachel Maddow said Monday, “Nobody likes Congress … but we will miss it when it’s gone.” Trump is already stripping Congress of its Constitutional powers by preemptively forcing capitulation of largely spineless demagogues. Hungary’s Orban’s puppet nominal ‘democracy’ took little time to be brought to heel and really ‘They won’t have to vote anymore’—because the outcome is preordained.
I read and re-read Lincoln’s words again. It hit me emotionally. On this day we learn that Matt Gaetz paid $7000 to one young girl he raped immediately after meeting her. The Founding Fathers, Lincoln, and the Women Suffragettes must return from the dead and haunt those who use fear, racism, and sexism, as a knife to our throats.
Marlene, I love the Gettysburg Address made in the midst of all that sorrow.....just the right words. And the right words for now and I thank Heather for reminding us.
Yes, Michele, Heather has an uncanny way of knitting pieces together, doesn’t she?
Indeed she does. Start every morning with her. Also I am a history person, so enjoy that perspective. Also every time i see something about the Civil War I am reminded of a book I read about the effect of all the deaths and how they were so hard on those who remained.
War really is hell.
Indeed it is.
Amen
Read her book “How The South Won The Civil War “. Amazing history lesson.
I'll never forget Obama's whistle-stop tour on the vintage train, from Philadelphia to Washington, commemorating Lincoln at every stage of the journey to the White House.
I teared up reading this, Marlene. It is a balm to my soul as well, and feeds my resolve to do what I can to see our shared vision “shall not perish from this earth”.
I wholly concur with you Barbara, my friend. A balm to the soul indeed. Let us dedicate ourselves similarly, to the great task remaining before us in our day, that the new births of freedom that we have all witnessed in our lifetimes, will continue to move forward, in the face of the adverse wind moving in the opposite direction.
You’re right, Barbara. It feeds my “resolve” also.
Beautiful. You feed us our history and make it enjoyable. Thank you. Because your hard work is noticed and admired.
The best two minutes in American history.
Heather- thanks for being my north star. I have a request of you. Please write about the documentarian putting the ERA into the constitution now. Before Biden leaves office. 38 states ratified. There is no constitutional way to rescind a ratification. No time limit for action was in the documents the states ratified. We have waited too long. Thank you so very much.
Jacqueline A Schwarz, PhD
An original seven-year deadline was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982 for the ERA to be ratified. When this deadline expired, only 35 of the necessary 38 states (the constitutionally required three-fourths) had ratified the amendment. The ERA is not yet a part of the U.S. Constitution.
True, but apparently President Biden only has to make a phone call to the National Archivist, Colleen Shogun, asking her to publish the Virginia ratification. We all need to contact President Biden to tell him to make this phone call ASAP.
You can get more info on all of this at https://voteequality.us/
I forgot it was on November 19th.
Lincoln also said this, "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." 1838.
The true horror we are living is the very real possibility that we are committing national suicide.
Global suicide
Indeed