Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday…but not for the reasons we generally remember. The Pilgrims and the Wampanoags did indeed share a harvest celebration together at Plymouth in fall 1621, but that moment got forgotten almost immediately, overwritten by the long history of the settlers’ attacks on their Indigenous neighbors.
Thankful for you and the knowledge you share . . . Happy Thanksgiving
« Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings — let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals — and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world. »
I fixed 1/2 turkey breast, Carol made her fantastic pumpkin pie. Nice peaceful dinner for two old folks. Family all 1000 miles plus away, but a phone and internet still works
I like the choice in conversation topics but in some households anything political and or in opposing views can start huge arguments. I’d rather play it safe and keep political conversations light.
Jo (a thoughtful commenter on HCR Letter), I found us in a position where I had to bring the conversation to the political this Thanksgiving. It was to be our last to host for age and health reasons and the state of this nation sets heavily on our minds. It was time to pass the tradition of thanks and giving on to our son's family and to give one last mini-lecture to grands about what to do with thanks, the bounty we get as Americans, and how they might dedicate themselves in order to heal the divide that we are leaving to them. Heather's November 19 letter covering the two visions for America behind Mr Lincoln's Gettysburg address struck a chord with me.
Our family tradition includes prayer, individual testament to what we are thankful for, laying on love and food (our bounty), and sharing hopes for going forward. As a couple of 60 years, we find ourselves at an inflection point and reflecting upon what got us to where we personally are at. What we find thankfulness for goes back to the vision families from the Greatest and the Silent Generations had for the future of their children so that what we became today is the cumulative result of commitments, policies, and programs they put in motion in the 1930s through the 1960s.
We, my wife and I, are the beneficiaries of the broad range of legislation and government investments in blue collar workers, their family's education, the protections for health and safety codified, and the range of civil rights laws that intended to ensure access and equality that the Silent Generation established because they knew and experienced the ravages that come from wars, poverty, ignorance, and hatred for others. We, and hundreds of thousands of ordinary kids were invested in by them through federal programs that vastly expanded post-secondary education, supports for the sciences, arts and humanities, in housing ownership and finance, in establishment od social security, pensions coverage, child healt care, and adult health services, all with a hope that if we'd do well, all Americans could realize a cherished middle-class, and would raise new generations of informed and educated kids who would not have to face privation and families that did better in all the ways important and not commonly available in their life-span.
I realized that we only succeeded because of their foresight, that those public policies and programs worked, that government has the demonstrated capacity to create meaningful opportunities. So many of us who came through the post-Sputnik era created and served and grew children like-committed to betterment and invention and, as we benefited, they too live better than we did and we did better than the members of that Generations who preceeded us.
How could I not bring politics to this table if what we were most thankful for was the success story of American policies, the role of government on behalf of "we the people?" This democracy of ours, it's role in collectively advancing future generations must not be underplayed, but rather celebrated, commonly appreciated for what it achieves and for which of us in a multifaceted citizenry gains or loses out on opportunity. The programs and investments of the Silent Generation succeeded among vast portions of the people who look like us and share common Western European roots. For this, we, my wife and I and our direct decendents must be thankful. That success, though, was not equally obtained for the "least among us" or our brothers and sisters who don't share our heritage of come to America's bounty from different backgrounds and traditions and generational experiences.
As we step back from bearing the weight of the divisiveness in our America, as we transfer tradition to the next generation, that generation must take a stern eye to what our generation has put in place through laws, policies, and programs, for it will be their rededication to the vision outlined in the Declaration of Independence, that of universal equality and unalienable rights protected by a government of and by the people, all it's many peoples. We can't be in denial about its potential, success, and failures.We cannot avoid talking together about success and failure, nor leave an opportunity to envision together how our nation, including government, gets each generation closer to the bounty that American should enjoy.
We ended up including politics and this vision at our table as the conservative branch of family joined us in celebration and the transfer of a tradition. Tom the Turkey was the only casualty. Did I change minds or cause an outbreak of a civil war within? No. But, just maybe, a nuance might have been given a place IN next year's celebration.
I commend you and your family for having civil discourse. Not all families can achieve this, unfortunately, and so I try to interject the facts and ideas and most importantly the history of what got us here wherever and when opportunity presents itself. One day out of the year will not convince anyone but if we can come together and enjoy each other’s company and realize we are family, it may open doors later for worthy conversations.
Your efforts and actions too are too to be commended. One of the hopes or thoughts I tried to impress on the grands was that they must set aside our generations' conclusions about what can and cannot be talked about in social gatherings. I'm hoping, or dilusional, about them getting that message, but what the heck. I'm old. We set a bad example. Maybe, just maybe .... Happy Thanksgiving to you and family. Enjoy it when you join in.
"The Pilgrims and the Wampanoags did indeed share a harvest celebration together at Plymouth in fall 1621, but that moment got forgotten almost immediately, overwritten by the long history of the settlers’ attacks on their Indigenous neighbors."
What a stupid thing to say. The "harvest celebration" cemented a military alliance against the Narragansett tribe.
James, how do you go about reporting, ''Trolls'' on this site?? I wanted to report a Troll on here the other day that called himself, Craig. The person who wrote this disrespectful comment above has been on here before making these same kind of Trolling tactics.
John I don’t understand your need to be SO DISRESPECTFUL to make your point…especially today. I guess it makes you feel like a Big Man, when really…..it just makes you look like a pathetic loser….
Being DISRESPECTFUL is his favorite thing to do on this site, Jennifer. He has been on here from time to time for the past few months spouting his pathetic loser opinions. He would not have lasted one day on the, ''Daily KOS site'' he would have been suspended after just one comment like he made on here just a few hours ago.
Because HCR is a toxic minion spewing dishonest propaganda. For the sake of the nation and historical accuracy, somebody needs to call out her disrespectful lies.
So tell us why you think that her history is wrong and cite your research material. To just say someone is pulling the wool over your eyes with no evidence is stupid.
To start your comment by saying someone is ignorant negates the rest of what you have to say. You can disagree and debate the facts without being an ass hole.
Once again, HCR is a toxic minion spewing dishonest propaganda. For the sake of the nation and historical accuracy, somebody needs to call out her disrespectful lies.
Once again, HCR is a toxic minion spewing dishonest propaganda. For the sake of the nation and historical accuracy, somebody needs to call out her disrespectful lies.
So who is Krulwich? Is he also a historian? The level of research given to these two articles does not compare. Even tho NPR presented this article does not necessarily prove it’s accurate. Richardson tends to cite her research with vigor so I would tend to believe her work. And this has been a life mission of hers, to study history. You may want to revisit how you present yourself to be taken seriously. Then cite some credible university level research.
Bob Krulwich is a retired reporter. Most of his career was spent at NPR, but he was also at CBS, then ABC in the 90s. He was a business and economics reporter. Before his retirement, he was the co-host of the NPR show and podcast Radio Lab.
He was intelligent, genuinely amusing, and entertaining throughout his career The citation was meant as a light essay on NPR on Thanksgiving. I think his reaction, if he learned he was used as an historical citation by this trolling goof, would be honest laughter.
I’m sure you know what he means: that we can still vote for our representatives, that we have power at the ballot box (as much as we aren’t gerrymandered and Electoral Colleged into silence) and, for now, that we don’t live under Donald’s Trump’s fever dream of a fascist, Nazi-esque dictatorship where his lunatic self at the helm, his political opponents rounded up and thrown in asylums or prisons, with sprawling camps full of millions of “illegal” immigrants. In that regard, we very much still have a democracy. For now.
We are in our second biggest fight against oligarchs....is how I read Heather's letter today. And today, it is more than simply winning towns and out gunning our fellow citizens. It is a fight to make the rule of law work for everyone, not a few. A fight to eliminate gerrymandering and the electoral college which has given multiple candidatesin the last three decades the presidency and representative positions WITHOUT the popular vote. Eliminate Citizens United and corrupt Supreme Court Justices who will twist the intent of the Constitution to favor the oligarchs. A fight to regulate corporations when they do not regulate themselves out of destroying our environment, price gouging, employee theft and exploitation, and inflationary practices. And on and on. A battle on the field may have been easier to understand and pursue. These other battles are confusing and exhausting. I fear for our country.
When Citizens United was passed in 2010, it unleashed the floodgates of financial corruption throughout politics. We all are keenly aware that members of Congress don’t amass multi-millionaire dollar fortunes in a few short years on their $170K salaries. It’s all totally blatant and infuriating how bought and paid for so many of them truly are. That still doesn’t change the fact that Biden has been good for this country, takes his oath to the constitution seriously, and upholds the rule of law, unlike the fascist monstrosity that is Donald Trump and the numerous MAGA extremists who are hell bent on utterly destroying our constitution and the rule of law and turning this country into a Christofascist hellscape where they’d ensure we never have another election in our lifetime. That’s the fundamental difference here.
It is rarely accurate to paint all the people in a group with one brush. As someone who is from a very "blue" state, with representatives and senators who are actually working on behalf of the country and its people, I object to your oversimplification. And, of course because of Citizens United all who run for office have to spend a lot of their time raising money, but that doesn't mean they are all corrupt or not doing the best they can for their constituents.
Jenny, I've read your posts for months now. Cynicism and anger do little to effect change. I hope you have a plan in place to help effect the change you desire.
Thanks, Mike. I’m still a subscriber. The above poster supports every post by Schmeekle et al, with nary a post outlining personal activism. Just a steady stream of negativism. Taken one by one any position may be supported but a steady stream of doom and gloom makes me suspect.
Thanks for the link, Mike S. The report showcases the conflict between those with dreams of reaping huge financial benefits from over-use of water and those who are looking seven generations down the road to conserve. Montana history, one of the article's stories, is replete with fights over water at least since white settlement. In some ways, power over others for use of water is the story of the West.
Jenny's comment isn't wrong. People of every political stripe can be bought. But her broad-brush statement leaves out the people who make good use of the law to try to rein in those who want to lay waste to Earth's riches. Some of the most life-changing coalitions in Montana have consisted of people you wouldn't expect could work together: ranchers, environmentalists, and tribes. When people look deeply into a problem, they come to solutions that transcend easy categories.
Fair enough, Mike W, to desire insulation. . . at least a little reprieve from incessant haggling and worrying. I was responding to a comment that finds voting pointless because of the idea that everyone is corrupt. I don't see the world that way. We need more not less nuance. That's what you are saying about clearly defining problems. Embracing nuance can lead us to work with those with whom who might not, at first glance, see commonalities.
Wishing you all rest and peace as we enter into yet more uncertainties. I found turkey and stuffing and a gathering of friends and family to be helpfully grounding.
IF someone posts something that someone else can find actual evidence of then, well, that is a post that contained truth, independent of its bitter taste.
Simple truth is that every group gets the government they deserve. It's also true that basing a worldview on only evidence that supports that worldview - what's the word for that?
I happen to live in a State that is heavily dependent on groundwater, and has historically been taking so much that subsidence has, ironically, damaged water delivery infrastructure. Our state and county politicians have passed a series of bills over the last couple of decades that have incentivized sustainable groundwater management and put increasing restrictions on new water draws. In my own backyard, since 2018 nobody can get a permit to sink a new well unless they install expensive groundwater monitoring equipment and grant county personnel open access to enter the property and read the equipment.
Our politicians are just as "bought and paid for" as those in the NYT article you linked to
No. It's OK to post those aspects of our Democracy that are truly flawed.
American Democracy does have the appearance of a brothel. Many articles and evidence support the fact that our "representatives" often represent their big donors.
You carelessly dumped every US politician into one bag of corrupt sleazeballs.
Are you objecting if I do the same to you?
Generalized disrespect invites generalized disrespect in return.
Does huge amounts of poorly regulated cash corrupt the process?
Oh hell, yes.
But was your comment designed to let the rest of us know that from your superior position we had no redeemable value or did you want to have a discussion where you reminded us of the dangers of unfettered cash?
Although we do have legislators who take NO corporate donations. My “adopted” Fl Rep Anna Eskamani, is a boots-on-the-ground warrior and a thorn in our governor’s side.Part of my plan is volunteering with Rep Eskamani’s People Power For Florida. 😎
Yes, truly a inspirational story of direct significance to us in Ohio. We are working to rid our state of gerrymandered districts through a citizen-led effort. Citizens Not Politicians is leading the charge. (https://www.citizensnotpoliticians.org/)
Thanks for the article. I was struck with the idea in it that water sources are drying up all over the U.S., not just out west. We have friends living in a condo complex near us. It is in a small village (2021 pop 6,524) in Milwaukee County WI. They recently told us their condo complex had two wells they were drawing from but one had dried up. As it is their water is rusty and ruining all their plumbing. I don’t know if the two wells are dedicated to their complex or part of the municipal supply. I suspect the two wells were originally the wells of two different property owners. The suburb was incorporated in 1955 and the houses there have big lots and big lawns. There were farms too. My friends’ complex is much newer (probably late 90’s or early 2000s) and another complex of condos was built just adjacent to theirs a couple of years ago. Those wells must have already been declining when the newest complex was approved. Makes no sense. I presume we will see in-country migration to areas with bigger water supplies and residential housing prices will collapse in drier areas. I think a well drying up in a Milwaukee suburb would make the news and raise some alarm. But no one is talking about water supply around here, because Milwaukee WI, the big neighbor to my friends’ suburban condo, is right on Lake Michigan.
I would say ALMOST everywhere. I would bet that Hakeem Jeffries is not participating. Mostly because the big donors are on the other side trying to find a patsy to replace him.
I would encourage anyone interested to read Erica Geis’s “Water Always Wins “. Sadly it had been my experience that as a group we tend to only respond to issues when they become problems. More than twenty years ago climate change became publicly aware and strategically targeted by some to discount and discredit the information. Likewise, more than thirty years ago the ground water of Umatilla Oregon had been poisoning residents as many of us were unaware and organized interested money growing/processing our food persisted. Also, more than fifty years ago warning of excessive population growth could have far reaching affects. So frustrations abound. And simple answers elude us. What to do? Well this is a contest of many fronts and increasingly obscure information as you might imagine it is difficult.
Pretty sure with the exception of a very few people who 💯 entirely and absolutely subsist in the wilderness on squatted on land, we are all to some extent “owned by money”. 🤷🏻♀️ Yes, some people worship it as their “God” far above the Golden Rule. We have many, many excellent leaders, who serve the Golden Rule above money. What we need is for more of “us” to appreciate the difference, and vote more of the servants to the “Golden Rule” in power, but that would mean more of “us” have to want that. In our democracy, our government is only as good as we are willing to make it.
Given that his wife was a deputy secretary of the Treasury, I think it's safe to assume she knows something about investing so if his net worth is now $9M to $11M that would make sense to me.
But two professionals in the DC area in their sixties having a net worth between $5M-$10M is not breaking news.
If you still live in the house here you bought in the 80s, you're looking at a huge jump in net worth.
JennyStokes: Try not to use terms like "all", "everyone", "never", ..... "no one". Yes money has an excessive role in the operation of our government. It is our challenge to reduce it's influence. We can search for candidates who would support limits on campaign contributions, reject Citizens United, limit gifts etc. We must fight the elitism that is propped up by money.
Thank you for the always necessary reminder of our history.
May everyone, whether celebrating a traditional Thanksgiving Day or sharing an Indigenous Day of Mourning, find peace with family and friends, and rededicate themselves to the preservation of our democracy.
Watching a PBS day of programming about the treatment of native peoples in Minnesota and Colorado, I feel we still have a lot of reckoning ahead of us. I grew up on Cherokee land. Our teams were the Indians and yet not a single Native family remained.
And not only that: to make sure that these terrible past years should be no more than a stark warning for time to come. Just the picture of that belligerent swarm climbing on the Capitol is a memento mori.
'“WHEREAS Representatives Cheney are Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in in legitimate political discourse, and they are both using their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power...." - Republican National Committee
We may win at the ballot box, but the civil war will not end, unfortunately. Magapublicans (not a name of my coining, but wish it were) don't give up in their quest to seek and retain power. Just look at what they're doing in Ohio to try to circumvent the voters' success to enshrine the right abortion in their constitution (not to mention their prior attempt to require a 60% threshold to pass the abortion bill.) Other examples exist elsewhere, including the continued use of gerrymandering, employing weasely ways to diminish voter participation, etc.
Well observed and shared Doug ! The majority of voters clearly told them NO; they now insist on... but we'll only give you this - blah, blah, in other words something far less, and 'their' way. Any way you slice it, it's a clear repudiation of what the majority has told them. In my heart of hearts, I feel (hope) a 'real' reckoning is coming for them - far different and overwhelming than the little farce they pulled off on January 6th. Neither polls nor trolls get to vote - and yes those two terms belong in the same sentence; polls and trolls.
Lying and cheating in order to gain is often effective, so some portion of humanity will always go that way. If we don't want to live the mess and sometimes horrors that can make sure we are aware and resistant to that urge, individually and societally.
Yes, and I hope the Biden admin will be ready to take on Trump’s militia of 50 K strong. There will likely be another attempt in 2024. He has said it and they are training as we speak.
If accountability and law and order continue to get stronger under the current administration then tffg’s goons may more likely realize the futility and potential lethality of invoking our military. If tffg obtains power over our military again and can once again order them to stand down then “his brown shirts” are much more dangerous. For now the Hitler-wannabe is much more likely to continue inciting the mentally unwell to do his killing for him
TX struggles to reach 50% voting of registered voters in Presidential elections and many elections are close. What if they hit 55% or more. Stacey Abrams could make it happen.
Just a fantasy I have that several someones in TX will step up and register the millions of disenfranchised voters in TX. Plus TX is severely gerrymandered so the Democrats will struggle for several cycles at least to win back state and Federal seats.
Thanksgiving,: Myths in the USA, such as The Thanksgiving Story
I do not resist debunking some myths, which have been perpetuated against the facts, victims of America's lethal expansion, students, teachers and the general public.
'HISTORY'
'The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue'
'In truth, massacres, disease and American Indian tribal politics are what shaped the Pilgrim-Indian alliance at the root of the holiday' (Smithsonian Magazine)
Claire Bugos, Correspondent
'In Thanksgiving pageants held at schools across the United States, children don headdresses colored with craft-store feathers and share tables with classmates wearing black construction paper hats. It’s a tradition that pulls on a history passed down through the generations of what happened in Plymouth: local Native Americans welcomed the courageous, pioneering pilgrims to a celebratory feast.'
'But, as David Silverman writes in his new book This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, much of that story is a myth riddled with historical inaccuracies. Beyond that, Silverman argues that the telling and retelling of these falsehoods is deeply harmful to the Wampanoag Indians whose lives and society were forever damaged after the English arrived in Plymouth.'
'Silverman’s book focuses on the Wampanoags. When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, the sachem (chief) Ousamequin offered the new arrivals an entente, primarily as a way to protect the Wampanoags against their rivals, the Narragansetts. For 50 years, the alliance was tested by colonial land expansion, the spread of disease, and the exploitation of resources on Wampanoag land. Then, tensions ignited into war. Known as King Philip’s War (or the Great Narragansett War), the conflict devastated the Wampanoags and forever shifted the balance of power in favor of European arrivals. Wampanoags today remember the Pilgrims’ entry to their homeland as a day of deep mourning, rather than a moment of giving thanks.'
'We spoke with Silverman, a historian at George Washington University, about his research and the argument he makes in his book', 'This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving , Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the Plymouth colony's founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the story.'
'The Myth of Thanksgiving'
'How did you become interested in this story?'
'I've had a great many conversations with Wampanoag people, in which they talk about how burdensome Thanksgiving is for them, particularly for their kids. Wampanoag adults have memories of being a kid during Thanksgiving season, sitting in school, feeling invisible and having to wade through the nonsense that teachers were shoveling their way. They felt like their people's history as they understood it was being misrepresented. They felt that not only their classes, but society in general was making light of historical trauma which weighs around their neck like a millstone. Those stories really resonated with me.'
'What is the Thanksgiving myth?'
'The myth is that friendly Indians, unidentified by tribe, welcome the Pilgrims to America, teach them how to live in this new place, sit down to dinner with them and then disappear. They hand off America to white people so they can create a great nation dedicated to liberty, opportunity and Christianity for the rest of the world to profit. That’s the story—it’s about Native people conceding to colonialism. It’s bloodless and in many ways an extension of the ideology of Manifest Destiny.'
'What are the most poignant inaccuracies in this story?'
'One is that history doesn’t begin for Native people until Europeans arrive. People had been in the Americas for least 12,000 years and according to some Native traditions, since the beginning of time. And having history start with the English is a way of dismissing all that. The second is that the arrival of the Mayflower is some kind of first-contact episode. It’s not. Wampanoags had a century of contact with Europeans–it was bloody and it involved slave raiding by Europeans. At least two and maybe more Wampanoags, when the Pilgrims arrived, spoke English, had already been to Europe and back and knew the very organizers of the Pilgrims’ venture.'
'Most poignantly, using a shared dinner as a symbol for colonialism really has it backward. No question about it, Wampanoag leader Ousamequin reached out to the English at Plymouth and wanted an alliance with them. But it’s not because he was innately friendly. It’s because his people have been decimated by an epidemic disease, and Ousamequin sees the English as an opportunity to fend off his tribal rebels. That’s not the stuff of Thanksgiving pageants. The Thanksgiving myth doesn’t address the deterioration of this relationship culminating in one of the most horrific colonial Indian wars on record, King Philip’s War, and also doesn’t address Wampanoag survival and adaptation over the centuries, which is why they’re still here, despite the odds.'
'The Thanksgiving Feast'
'How did the Great Dinner become the focal point of the modern Thanksgiving holiday?'
'For quite a long time, English people had been celebrating Thanksgivings that didn’t involve feasting—they involved fasting and prayer and supplication to God. In 1769, a group of pilgrim descendants who lived in Plymouth felt like their cultural authority was slipping away as New England became less relevant within the colonies and the early republic, and wanted to boost tourism. So, they started to plant the seeds of this idea that the pilgrims were the fathers of America.'
'What really made it the story is that a publication mentioning that dinner published by the Rev. Alexander Young included a footnote that said, “This was the first Thanksgiving, the great festival of New England.” People picked up on this footnote. The idea became pretty widely accepted, and Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday during the Civil War to foster unity.'
'It gained purchase in the late 19th century, when there was an enormous amount of anxiety and agitation over immigration. The white Protestant stock of the United States was widely unhappy about the influx of European Catholics and Jews, and wanted to assert its cultural authority over these newcomers. How better to do that than to create this national founding myth around the Pilgrims and the Indians inviting them to take over the land? '(Smithsonian Magazine) See link below.
'This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. They still regret it 400 years later.'
'Long marginalized and misrepresented in U.S. history, the Wampanoags are bracing for the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621' (WAPO) See gifted article below.
If the Native Americans had banded together rather than fight their "tribal wars" they could have kicked out all the Europeans. I'm sure that eventually the Europeans would have come back armed to the teeth to wipe out the inhabitants that had the temerity to push the original settlers back to Europe but by that time perhaps the natuves would have developed some herd immunity against the smallest & most effective invaders, the viruses & bacteria that carried disease. Back then you couldn't fight what you couldn't see.
I recently met a young man from the Chukchansi tribe here in central California. His people were pretty much wiped out. I apologized to him for what white people have always seem to do, think they are superior & take what they want.
Thanksgiving indeed, certainly not for the indigenous people of the entire western hemisphere.
You might enjoy a book called 1491 it's about the Americas before the Europeans invaded. I found it so enlightening. The cultures that Europeans destroyed.
It even affected the peoples deep in the Amazon. An "explorer" sailed down the Amazon & interacted with the indigenous tribes. And the next time a European went down the river he went to the same towns & all he found were bones. Disease & devastation was so quick the people couldn't even bury their dead. They just died & their corpses just laid there.
Reminds me of the stories of how The Plague ripped through towns in Europe & wiped out entire villages. No one survived! So, yes, humanity is very frail indeed. It doesn't take invading armies or nuclear Holocaust to destroy civilizations!
FERN, I returned home from my Family Gathering & viewed an interview of NICK ESTES on 'Democracy Now'. Nick Estes wrote "Our History is Our Future" & covers the first Massachusett's Colony massacre of indigenous people. Nick Estes is in Santa Fe, New Mexico. and can be found, I think, @nick_w_estes on X.
Other than the mentioned tradition religious of days of thanksgiving, what I draw from the little I have read is that any thanksgiving before Lincoln (including such a declaration for one of the horrifying genocidal massacres of native people) had little to do with establishing Thanksgiving, the yearly tradition. Back in the 1950s in my elementary school classroom, we learned a lot of rubbish when it came to history, including "that friendly Indians, unidentified by tribe, welcome the Pilgrims to America, teach them how to live in this new place, sit down to dinner with them and then disappear", that Columbus was great guy who was the very first person to realize the world was round, and how Pocahontas begged for the life of John Smith. Pausing with family to consider what we are thankful for seems healthy enough, but BS self-serving lies about US history poison the present and futures of our own lives, and those of others.
'Today three-quarters of Native Americans live off of reservations, mainly in urban areas. And nationwide, many Native American communities lack access to healthy food. As a scholar of Indigenous studies focusing on Native relationships with the land, I began to wonder why Native farming practices had declined and what benefits could emerge from bringing them back.'
'To answer these questions, I am working with agronomist Marshall McDaniel, horticulturalist Ajay Nair, nutritionist Donna Winham and Native gardening projects in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Our research project, “Reuniting the Three Sisters,” explores what it means to be a responsible caretaker of the land from the perspective of peoples who have been balancing agricultural production with sustainability for hundreds of years.' (JSTOR) See link below.
"Our Government and institutions placed in jeopardy have brought us to a more just appreciation of their value.”
This may sound strange, but we should all thank Donald Trump for waking us from our slumber and alerting us to the danger we had been falling into before he ever arrived on the political scene, for us all to learn again the value of what we had taken for granted, this constitutional democratic republic. I don't think we would all gather here as we do otherwise.
'Fears of political violence are growing as the 2024 campaign heats up and conspiracy theories evolve'
'The man who bludgeoned former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer last year consumed a steady diet of right-wing conspiracy theories before an attack that took place with the midterm elections less than two weeks away.'
'As the 2024 presidential campaign heats up, experts on extremism fear the threat of politically motivated violence will intensify. From “Pizzagate” to QAnon and to “Stop the Steal,” conspiracy theories that demonized Donald Trump’s enemies are morphing and spreading as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination aims for a return to the White House.'
“No longer are these conspiracy theories and very divisive and vicious ideologies separated at the fringes,” said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who focuses on domestic terrorism. “They’re now infiltrating American society on a massive scale.” (AP) See link before.
Just my opinion, i think a large percentage of these mass shootings have been influenced by the Orange Baboon's inflammatory rhetoric and rantings. It's horrible that Adolf Hitler lives on through Donald TUMP.
Yes, I agree, John, and there are also aspects of our culture wherein American men, in particular, identify masculinity with carrying a gun. As to 'mass shootings' too many guns and too many deranged men in our society without proper controls for guns or support for their psychological problems.
Thank you, FERN for your very accurate response. I can give you an example of what your said happened recently in our household. My eldest son's step son came waltzing into our house about 2 months ago with a 9 mm pistol and sit down at our kitchen table and was playing with his pistol at my table loading and unloading the pistol. My 43 year old daughter that lives with us alerted this to me and was very upset about this. I told my son to get that idiot out of my house with that pistol, RIGHT NOW!! and he is not to enter my home with that 9mm pistol ever again.. His step son is mentally unstable, and of course a Donald TUMP fluffer. His step son loses his temper when he gets angry, and i feel like anyone in my family is in danger with that creep in my home. I do not own any type of firearm, and don't intend to ever purchase one. My son's stepson has psychological problems, and he should have been prohibited from having any kind of firearm, period.
The United States needs to have firearm restrictions like Canada has, there is this member on the Substack sites named ''Jean'' that lives in Canada, that told me Canada has very strict requirements on the sale of all firearms. I would have to go back to my archives to go into detail from my conversations with him to explain this fully. These mass shootings are almost non existent in Canada. I did, however, read about one that occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia about 4 months ago where 3 people were killed there that was published in one of their newspaper sites. The Halifax Chronical Herald reported this article online.
John, thank you for your response. I was sorry to hear that your family has a difficult problem that needs to be addressed but glad that you shared it. Some communities have access to mental health professionals and organizations set up to help families similar to your elder son's. Have you and your wife spoken to your son and his wife about arranging support for their son's instability. I feel as you do as the young man may cause injury to himself and others. Whatever you decide, considering a family meeting during which concerns and steps to be taken to address them may be a good start. It sounds as though you would not like this issue to be ignored. Your interest and support can be very helpful. Showing care and concern for your son may open him and his wife to taking beneficial action.
Thank you for your great advice. Even my son is very concerned about his step son having that gun. My son's wife could be a problem. She has enabled all of her sons all of their lives by coddling them and letting them get by with too many bad habits. She has 3 sons by a horribly abusive ex-husband that has been in and out of trouble with the law most of his adult life. I am going to talk to my son this weekend about the problems with 2 of his stepsons.
On another note, FERN, have your been receiving emails from Fascist Rethuglican websites recently?? I count 6 different Fascist sites i have been getting emails from in the past 3 months. These emails are extremely irritating and stir up so much anger in me. I actually unsubscribed to 2 of these sites 200 times. I have emailed these sites back and have used every curse word i can think of, and have used words to them that would make a Sailor blush. I have insulted them and discredited them. It has worked to some extent as i haven't received any more emails, only to have a different Fascist website emailing me. I am a ''hard core'' Democrat and i do not appreciate those emails saying insulting Democrats and spewing hard core lies and propaganda about us. Is there any good advice from you to stop these despicable cretins sending me emails about this?? I have to admit, i am so sick and fed up with these criminal Fascist Rethuglicans.
Do you think at least some of their behavior originated with the ''John Birch Society'' thing back in the 1960s?? I was still a child growing up in the 1960s and didn't understand what the John Birch Society was all about then.
That seems like a tall order you’re requesting. Personally, Donald Trump didn’t wake me from any slumber. I was informed before his destruction and chose to attend university to further my knowledge and understanding.
If anything, we should all be thankful to HCR for helping guide us through the storm we’re all living through. Donald Trump has woken up more racist, nazi admiring, confederate loving southerners than anyone else. He doesn’t deserve our gratitude.
I'm not talking about gratitude. He did wake us up in time. Broke things enough that we could remember that differing opinions don't make enemies, but differing beliefs do. He reminded some we were considering "enemies" (and they were doing so with us) and they woke up too.
The racists and the Nazis and the confederates didn't need to be woken up. They were there all along, we were just ignoring them.
'Have You Listened Lately to What Trump Is Saying?'
'He is becoming frighteningly clear about what he wants.' (excerpt from The Atlantic)
By Peter Wehner
'I thought about the events that led up to the Rwandan genocide after I heard Donald Trump, in a Veterans Day speech, refer to those he counts as his enemies as “vermin.”
“We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country—that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said toward the end of his speech in Claremont, New Hampshire. “They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.” 'The former president continued, “The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.”
'When Trump finished his speech, the audience erupted in applause.'
'Trump’s comments came only a few weeks after he had been asked about immigration and the southern border in an interview with the host of a right-wing website.' “Did you ever think you would see this level of American carnage?” Trump was asked.'
“No. Nobody has seen anything like this,” 'Trump responded.' “I think you could say worldwide. I think you could go to a banana republic and pick the worst one and you’re not going to see what we’re witnessing now.” 'The front-runner for the Republican nomination warned that immigrants pose an immediate threat.' “We know they come from prisons. We know they come from mental institutions and insane asylums. We know they’re terrorists. Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country.”
'In a September 20 speech in Dubuque, Iowa, Trump said, “What they’re doing to our country, they’re destroying it. It’s the blood of our country. What they’re doing is destroying our country.”
'Trump’s rhetoric is a permission slip for his supporters to dehumanize others just as he does. He portrays others as existential threats, determined to destroy everything MAGA world loves about America. Trump is doing two things at once: pushing the narrative that his enemies must be defeated while dissolving the natural inhibitions most human beings have against hating and harming others. It signals to his supporters that any means to vanquish the other side is legitimate; the normal constraints that govern human interactions no longer apply.'
'Dehumanizers view their targets as having' “a human appearance but a subhuman essence,” according to David Livingstone Smith, a philosophy professor who has written on the history and complicated psychological roots of dehumanization. “It is the dehumanizer’s nagging awareness of the other’s humanity that gives dehumanization its distinctive psychological flavor,” he writes. “Ironically, it is our inability to regard other people as nothing but animals that leads to unimaginable cruelty and destructiveness.” 'Dehumanized people can be turned into something worse than animals; they can be turned into monsters. They aren’t just dangerous; they are metaphysically threatening. They are not just subhuman; they are irredeemably destructive.'
'That is the wickedly shrewd rhetorical and psychological game that Trump is playing, and he plays it very well. Alone among American politicians, he has an intuitive sense of how to inflame detestations and resentments within his supporters while also deepening their loyalty to him, even their reverence for him.' (Atlantic) See link below. I could not gift it, but, perhaps, it will open. Give it a try.
I am thankful that Trump makes little effort to mask his malice. It's scary that so many can hear what he is proposing and still endorse it, but I am would worry even more were he a smoother criminal. For some reason we have too often smoothed over increasingly dodgy behavior from "Republicans" since Eisenhower, certainly since Watergate. Now the choice could hardly be clearer. If we miss this chance to defeat their agenda, we may not get another.
The Hater in Chief is frightening and disgusting and infuriating, and that's the not so secret key to his success. But it has also awakened the fight against him and increased the awareness that there are undoubtedly smart and subversive Hitler-like versions of him out there. Certainly it has increased my political awareness since 2015.
It was not until trump was in office that a confederate flag was flown in the White House. He gave them the air they needed to breathe and deserves no thanks... or however you’d like to put it.
Only some of us have learned. Only some of us are alert to the danger that the MAGA cult presents to our constitutional democratic republic. We'll find out in 2024 if ENOUGH of us have learned
Bending the ‘arc of freedom’ in the US, is every generation’s task….Coretta Scott King said it and many others have said it and right here, right now, Heather has said it…
A daunting task always, but in 2023 …a humongous one. Keeping our Republic is another way to look at it….we won’t preserve our democracy if we are not willing to exert every bit of talent/skill/effort….we have…..God willing we will and it will survive!
And special thanks Heather for making these issues so very clear!
That we are able to sustain President Lincoln’s vision, that democracy and liberty survive, that equality and love shall prevail over tyranny, darkness and hatred 🍁💖🇺🇸
Thankful for you and the knowledge you share . . . Happy Thanksgiving
« Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings — let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals — and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world. »
— John F. Kennedy
Thank you for this!
Ditto Sharon; words fail me to express the depths of my gratitude. As long as she will let me, my aim is to ever be her student.
I’m so in lockstep with you Dan. Heather’s newsletter is my news. Daily
If anyone’s looking for some good thanksgiving conversations, here you go:
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/four-questions-to-spark-meaningful
This is ummm…an interesting read. I would not recommend wasting your time with this conspiracy theory baloney to my fellow HCR fans.
Thank you for the redirect, Christine.
I wouldn't call it interesting, That would indicate it might have some merit. I wish I hadn't clicked on O'Kanu.
You, too, Dave — thank you for clicking on and then warning about the OKanu link.
Nothing like starting the morning with a "what the heck?"
4 Non Blondes, "What's Up?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NXnxTNIWkc
Here you go: https://fb.watch/ovwIqtgZma/
Leslie Jones can come to my Thanksgiving dinner ANY TIME SHE WANTS TO!!
I had a friend send this to me in a text. I was roaring in laughter. Leslie Jones is such a treasure!
She's such a star!! We need this for every day! Thank you!!!
OMG!!!!! LOL
Doesn't get much better than that.
I fixed 1/2 turkey breast, Carol made her fantastic pumpkin pie. Nice peaceful dinner for two old folks. Family all 1000 miles plus away, but a phone and internet still works
O.M.G…. LOVE Leslie Jones!!!!!!!!
OMG Becky: that was JUST what I needed this morning. Thank you!!!!!
;-)
Love it! Best laugh I’ve had in awhile!
Thank you Becky 💙
Thank you for sharing. I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. Boy I needed that.
What a breath of fresh air!!!🤣🤣🤣🦃🍁🧡🧡🧡
Thank you for sharing--she is a national treasure
Now THAT is the way to start a morning!
Thank you! Loved it!
Late to this but it really lightened my morning 🤣🤣🤣💖
Combine Leslie Jones Thanksgiving with "go outside and take a deep breath" and you've got a succeeding month of merry's!
Went to the link and started the first paragraph, then luckily remembered I’m allergic to nuts and nut by-products.
I like the choice in conversation topics but in some households anything political and or in opposing views can start huge arguments. I’d rather play it safe and keep political conversations light.
Jo (a thoughtful commenter on HCR Letter), I found us in a position where I had to bring the conversation to the political this Thanksgiving. It was to be our last to host for age and health reasons and the state of this nation sets heavily on our minds. It was time to pass the tradition of thanks and giving on to our son's family and to give one last mini-lecture to grands about what to do with thanks, the bounty we get as Americans, and how they might dedicate themselves in order to heal the divide that we are leaving to them. Heather's November 19 letter covering the two visions for America behind Mr Lincoln's Gettysburg address struck a chord with me.
Our family tradition includes prayer, individual testament to what we are thankful for, laying on love and food (our bounty), and sharing hopes for going forward. As a couple of 60 years, we find ourselves at an inflection point and reflecting upon what got us to where we personally are at. What we find thankfulness for goes back to the vision families from the Greatest and the Silent Generations had for the future of their children so that what we became today is the cumulative result of commitments, policies, and programs they put in motion in the 1930s through the 1960s.
We, my wife and I, are the beneficiaries of the broad range of legislation and government investments in blue collar workers, their family's education, the protections for health and safety codified, and the range of civil rights laws that intended to ensure access and equality that the Silent Generation established because they knew and experienced the ravages that come from wars, poverty, ignorance, and hatred for others. We, and hundreds of thousands of ordinary kids were invested in by them through federal programs that vastly expanded post-secondary education, supports for the sciences, arts and humanities, in housing ownership and finance, in establishment od social security, pensions coverage, child healt care, and adult health services, all with a hope that if we'd do well, all Americans could realize a cherished middle-class, and would raise new generations of informed and educated kids who would not have to face privation and families that did better in all the ways important and not commonly available in their life-span.
I realized that we only succeeded because of their foresight, that those public policies and programs worked, that government has the demonstrated capacity to create meaningful opportunities. So many of us who came through the post-Sputnik era created and served and grew children like-committed to betterment and invention and, as we benefited, they too live better than we did and we did better than the members of that Generations who preceeded us.
How could I not bring politics to this table if what we were most thankful for was the success story of American policies, the role of government on behalf of "we the people?" This democracy of ours, it's role in collectively advancing future generations must not be underplayed, but rather celebrated, commonly appreciated for what it achieves and for which of us in a multifaceted citizenry gains or loses out on opportunity. The programs and investments of the Silent Generation succeeded among vast portions of the people who look like us and share common Western European roots. For this, we, my wife and I and our direct decendents must be thankful. That success, though, was not equally obtained for the "least among us" or our brothers and sisters who don't share our heritage of come to America's bounty from different backgrounds and traditions and generational experiences.
As we step back from bearing the weight of the divisiveness in our America, as we transfer tradition to the next generation, that generation must take a stern eye to what our generation has put in place through laws, policies, and programs, for it will be their rededication to the vision outlined in the Declaration of Independence, that of universal equality and unalienable rights protected by a government of and by the people, all it's many peoples. We can't be in denial about its potential, success, and failures.We cannot avoid talking together about success and failure, nor leave an opportunity to envision together how our nation, including government, gets each generation closer to the bounty that American should enjoy.
We ended up including politics and this vision at our table as the conservative branch of family joined us in celebration and the transfer of a tradition. Tom the Turkey was the only casualty. Did I change minds or cause an outbreak of a civil war within? No. But, just maybe, a nuance might have been given a place IN next year's celebration.
I commend you and your family for having civil discourse. Not all families can achieve this, unfortunately, and so I try to interject the facts and ideas and most importantly the history of what got us here wherever and when opportunity presents itself. One day out of the year will not convince anyone but if we can come together and enjoy each other’s company and realize we are family, it may open doors later for worthy conversations.
Your efforts and actions too are too to be commended. One of the hopes or thoughts I tried to impress on the grands was that they must set aside our generations' conclusions about what can and cannot be talked about in social gatherings. I'm hoping, or dilusional, about them getting that message, but what the heck. I'm old. We set a bad example. Maybe, just maybe .... Happy Thanksgiving to you and family. Enjoy it when you join in.
Thanks and same to you. Always good to plant seeds. You just never know what may grow.
Blocked
absolute crap from a KOOK!
HCR ignorantly writes:
"The Pilgrims and the Wampanoags did indeed share a harvest celebration together at Plymouth in fall 1621, but that moment got forgotten almost immediately, overwritten by the long history of the settlers’ attacks on their Indigenous neighbors."
What a stupid thing to say. The "harvest celebration" cemented a military alliance against the Narragansett tribe.
Troll alert. Reported
Ditto. & I asked Substack Inc to revise the TOU to reflect current Troll policy given changing controlling law.
Egads. Johnny Sméagol crawled out of his hole again. Damn, I thought he was gone…
James, how do you go about reporting, ''Trolls'' on this site?? I wanted to report a Troll on here the other day that called himself, Craig. The person who wrote this disrespectful comment above has been on here before making these same kind of Trolling tactics.
John- if you look below the comment you will see three dots… click and you will get a prompt to report.
I reported him, too!
Thanks, hadn't explored that, could've used it earlier in the week.
Thank you; I didn't know how. I reported as well.
Thank you, Sharon. I just reported him.
Every time this piece of Schmeeckle shows up to troll HCR he just proves to everyone that he's just a right Cee U Next Tuesday
Thank you Sharon B in ATL- shared learning is so welcome.
C’mon John. Really? On Thanksgiving?
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am so thankful you have the freedom and right to be so disrespectful.
There is no "freedom" for tortious conduct that also amounts to a breach of the 2023 TOU and/or Substack Inc's choice of applicable state law.
John I don’t understand your need to be SO DISRESPECTFUL to make your point…especially today. I guess it makes you feel like a Big Man, when really…..it just makes you look like a pathetic loser….
Being DISRESPECTFUL is his favorite thing to do on this site, Jennifer. He has been on here from time to time for the past few months spouting his pathetic loser opinions. He would not have lasted one day on the, ''Daily KOS site'' he would have been suspended after just one comment like he made on here just a few hours ago.
Because HCR is a toxic minion spewing dishonest propaganda. For the sake of the nation and historical accuracy, somebody needs to call out her disrespectful lies.
So tell us why you think that her history is wrong and cite your research material. To just say someone is pulling the wool over your eyes with no evidence is stupid.
Speaking of Morons, I wonder where you get your toxic information?
To start your comment by saying someone is ignorant negates the rest of what you have to say. You can disagree and debate the facts without being an ass hole.
Once again, HCR is a toxic minion spewing dishonest propaganda. For the sake of the nation and historical accuracy, somebody needs to call out her disrespectful lies.
Tell us why, John. Prove her wrong. Without that you’re just another angry fart in the wind.
Follow the cited references to fact check your claims. This is exactly why citing sources is necessary.
I don’t disbelieve the history, John. Your rude presentation and over-the-top verbal bullying of HCR is unwarranted and unwelcome on this site.
Once again, HCR is a toxic minion spewing dishonest propaganda. For the sake of the nation and historical accuracy, somebody needs to call out her disrespectful lies.
You are talking to a trained historian. Here's a quick-and-easy source for the first Thanksgiving being a military alliance: https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2010/11/22/131516586/who-brought-the-turkey-the-truth-about-the-first-thanksgiving#:~:text=The%20Wampanoags%20and%20the%20Pilgrims,the%20English%20governor%2C%20William%20Bradford.
So who is Krulwich? Is he also a historian? The level of research given to these two articles does not compare. Even tho NPR presented this article does not necessarily prove it’s accurate. Richardson tends to cite her research with vigor so I would tend to believe her work. And this has been a life mission of hers, to study history. You may want to revisit how you present yourself to be taken seriously. Then cite some credible university level research.
Bob Krulwich is a retired reporter. Most of his career was spent at NPR, but he was also at CBS, then ABC in the 90s. He was a business and economics reporter. Before his retirement, he was the co-host of the NPR show and podcast Radio Lab.
He was intelligent, genuinely amusing, and entertaining throughout his career The citation was meant as a light essay on NPR on Thanksgiving. I think his reaction, if he learned he was used as an historical citation by this trolling goof, would be honest laughter.
What she said is not untrue. You don’t like the emphasis.
🙄
Thank you for sharing this. I remember when he said this.
Let’s be thankful, that for now, we still have a democracy
What? You do not have a democracy. All your Presidents/Senators/Congress people are owned by money!
I’m sure you know what he means: that we can still vote for our representatives, that we have power at the ballot box (as much as we aren’t gerrymandered and Electoral Colleged into silence) and, for now, that we don’t live under Donald’s Trump’s fever dream of a fascist, Nazi-esque dictatorship where his lunatic self at the helm, his political opponents rounded up and thrown in asylums or prisons, with sprawling camps full of millions of “illegal” immigrants. In that regard, we very much still have a democracy. For now.
We are in our second biggest fight against oligarchs....is how I read Heather's letter today. And today, it is more than simply winning towns and out gunning our fellow citizens. It is a fight to make the rule of law work for everyone, not a few. A fight to eliminate gerrymandering and the electoral college which has given multiple candidatesin the last three decades the presidency and representative positions WITHOUT the popular vote. Eliminate Citizens United and corrupt Supreme Court Justices who will twist the intent of the Constitution to favor the oligarchs. A fight to regulate corporations when they do not regulate themselves out of destroying our environment, price gouging, employee theft and exploitation, and inflationary practices. And on and on. A battle on the field may have been easier to understand and pursue. These other battles are confusing and exhausting. I fear for our country.
You caan still vote for your representatives of course but they too are owned by money?
When Citizens United was passed in 2010, it unleashed the floodgates of financial corruption throughout politics. We all are keenly aware that members of Congress don’t amass multi-millionaire dollar fortunes in a few short years on their $170K salaries. It’s all totally blatant and infuriating how bought and paid for so many of them truly are. That still doesn’t change the fact that Biden has been good for this country, takes his oath to the constitution seriously, and upholds the rule of law, unlike the fascist monstrosity that is Donald Trump and the numerous MAGA extremists who are hell bent on utterly destroying our constitution and the rule of law and turning this country into a Christofascist hellscape where they’d ensure we never have another election in our lifetime. That’s the fundamental difference here.
Preach sister ! Do be aware that when we engage trolls, we allow them to own oxygen in here.
❤️ So much oxygen abounds today, I couldn’t resist making a contribution. 😂
It is rarely accurate to paint all the people in a group with one brush. As someone who is from a very "blue" state, with representatives and senators who are actually working on behalf of the country and its people, I object to your oversimplification. And, of course because of Citizens United all who run for office have to spend a lot of their time raising money, but that doesn't mean they are all corrupt or not doing the best they can for their constituents.
JennyStokes, informed voters can offset money. The challenge is voter education..
So vote blue and over turn citizens United.
What do you propose?
Jenny, I've read your posts for months now. Cynicism and anger do little to effect change. I hope you have a plan in place to help effect the change you desire.
Gail,
If a person tells a negative fact, it is not cynicism. It is observation.
Here is an interesting article for you to read that does support Jenny's claim.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/24/climate/groundwater-levels.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A00.23By.ZJ1Ao9Oh27p9&smid=url-share
Thanks, Mike. I’m still a subscriber. The above poster supports every post by Schmeekle et al, with nary a post outlining personal activism. Just a steady stream of negativism. Taken one by one any position may be supported but a steady stream of doom and gloom makes me suspect.
Thanks for the link, Mike S. The report showcases the conflict between those with dreams of reaping huge financial benefits from over-use of water and those who are looking seven generations down the road to conserve. Montana history, one of the article's stories, is replete with fights over water at least since white settlement. In some ways, power over others for use of water is the story of the West.
Jenny's comment isn't wrong. People of every political stripe can be bought. But her broad-brush statement leaves out the people who make good use of the law to try to rein in those who want to lay waste to Earth's riches. Some of the most life-changing coalitions in Montana have consisted of people you wouldn't expect could work together: ranchers, environmentalists, and tribes. When people look deeply into a problem, they come to solutions that transcend easy categories.
"When people look deeply into a problem, they come to solutions that transcend easy categories."
Melinda, an excellent observation that is absolutely true and good.
However, to come together to find a solution the real problem must be clearly defined in a way that pushes us to action.
Jenny's comment does that. Independent of my desire to be insulated from the reality of American Democracy on Thanksgiving day.
Fair enough, Mike W, to desire insulation. . . at least a little reprieve from incessant haggling and worrying. I was responding to a comment that finds voting pointless because of the idea that everyone is corrupt. I don't see the world that way. We need more not less nuance. That's what you are saying about clearly defining problems. Embracing nuance can lead us to work with those with whom who might not, at first glance, see commonalities.
Wishing you all rest and peace as we enter into yet more uncertainties. I found turkey and stuffing and a gathering of friends and family to be helpfully grounding.
Mike, your comment names the problem.
Jenny's more resembles an angry teenager throwing eggs at a house because.
Just because.
And as my congressman is Jamie Raskin, I object to the slander.
To everyone who votes for the incumbent assuming that they're all "bought and paid for" -- you're the problem.
Vote better.
You can argue that Jenny is not angry but communicating reality as she sees it.
You can also argue that "Jenny" is here with an agenda that scores her S&H Greenstamps for every one of "her" posts
Call her on the bought and paid for French politicians.
John,
IF someone posts something that someone else can find actual evidence of then, well, that is a post that contained truth, independent of its bitter taste.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/24/climate/groundwater-levels.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A00.23By.ZJ1Ao9Oh27p9&smid=url-share
Simple truth is that every group gets the government they deserve. It's also true that basing a worldview on only evidence that supports that worldview - what's the word for that?
I happen to live in a State that is heavily dependent on groundwater, and has historically been taking so much that subsidence has, ironically, damaged water delivery infrastructure. Our state and county politicians have passed a series of bills over the last couple of decades that have incentivized sustainable groundwater management and put increasing restrictions on new water draws. In my own backyard, since 2018 nobody can get a permit to sink a new well unless they install expensive groundwater monitoring equipment and grant county personnel open access to enter the property and read the equipment.
Our politicians are just as "bought and paid for" as those in the NYT article you linked to
Thanks.
If I don't see things from your perspectives is this wrong?
Jenny.
No. It's OK to post those aspects of our Democracy that are truly flawed.
American Democracy does have the appearance of a brothel. Many articles and evidence support the fact that our "representatives" often represent their big donors.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/24/climate/groundwater-levels.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A00.23By.ZJ1Ao9Oh27p9&smid=url-share
This article can’t be accessed unless it’s paid for.
You carelessly dumped every US politician into one bag of corrupt sleazeballs.
Are you objecting if I do the same to you?
Generalized disrespect invites generalized disrespect in return.
Does huge amounts of poorly regulated cash corrupt the process?
Oh hell, yes.
But was your comment designed to let the rest of us know that from your superior position we had no redeemable value or did you want to have a discussion where you reminded us of the dangers of unfettered cash?
What do you want to do with your anger?
Because, properly channeled, anger is a tool.
Of course, this is also happening in Florida.⬇️
https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/03/31/florida-senator-helps-developers-get-revenge-on-conservation-boards/
Although we do have legislators who take NO corporate donations. My “adopted” Fl Rep Anna Eskamani, is a boots-on-the-ground warrior and a thorn in our governor’s side.Part of my plan is volunteering with Rep Eskamani’s People Power For Florida. 😎
https://www.peoplepowerforflorida.com/whoweare
See "A Crash Course in Making Political Change," a TED talk by Katie Fahey
https://youtu.be/oIAQcvewgTg?si=oB0laVKI8BkM8aOt
Yes, truly a inspirational story of direct significance to us in Ohio. We are working to rid our state of gerrymandered districts through a citizen-led effort. Citizens Not Politicians is leading the charge. (https://www.citizensnotpoliticians.org/)
You mean a government made up of ordinary people? Directed by ordinary people? Serving the needs and goals of ordinary people?
Indeed. Ain't it grand?! Democracy has crawled out of bed in search of coffee...
The Redhats are coming, the Redhats are coming!
No way!!! :-)
I know it sounds pretty radical.
Thank you for the link.
Thank you Bob, I hadn’t seen this and now I will share it.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/24/climate/groundwater-levels.html?unlocked_article_code=1.A00.23By.ZJ1Ao9Oh27p9&smid=url-share
Jenny, here is an in depth article that does support your hypothesis, as negative as it is.
I wish it had not been so easy to find such a clear example of your statement.
Thanks for the article. I was struck with the idea in it that water sources are drying up all over the U.S., not just out west. We have friends living in a condo complex near us. It is in a small village (2021 pop 6,524) in Milwaukee County WI. They recently told us their condo complex had two wells they were drawing from but one had dried up. As it is their water is rusty and ruining all their plumbing. I don’t know if the two wells are dedicated to their complex or part of the municipal supply. I suspect the two wells were originally the wells of two different property owners. The suburb was incorporated in 1955 and the houses there have big lots and big lawns. There were farms too. My friends’ complex is much newer (probably late 90’s or early 2000s) and another complex of condos was built just adjacent to theirs a couple of years ago. Those wells must have already been declining when the newest complex was approved. Makes no sense. I presume we will see in-country migration to areas with bigger water supplies and residential housing prices will collapse in drier areas. I think a well drying up in a Milwaukee suburb would make the news and raise some alarm. But no one is talking about water supply around here, because Milwaukee WI, the big neighbor to my friends’ suburban condo, is right on Lake Michigan.
This is going on everywhere. Thanks Mike.
I would say ALMOST everywhere. I would bet that Hakeem Jeffries is not participating. Mostly because the big donors are on the other side trying to find a patsy to replace him.
I would encourage anyone interested to read Erica Geis’s “Water Always Wins “. Sadly it had been my experience that as a group we tend to only respond to issues when they become problems. More than twenty years ago climate change became publicly aware and strategically targeted by some to discount and discredit the information. Likewise, more than thirty years ago the ground water of Umatilla Oregon had been poisoning residents as many of us were unaware and organized interested money growing/processing our food persisted. Also, more than fifty years ago warning of excessive population growth could have far reaching affects. So frustrations abound. And simple answers elude us. What to do? Well this is a contest of many fronts and increasingly obscure information as you might imagine it is difficult.
Pretty sure with the exception of a very few people who 💯 entirely and absolutely subsist in the wilderness on squatted on land, we are all to some extent “owned by money”. 🤷🏻♀️ Yes, some people worship it as their “God” far above the Golden Rule. We have many, many excellent leaders, who serve the Golden Rule above money. What we need is for more of “us” to appreciate the difference, and vote more of the servants to the “Golden Rule” in power, but that would mean more of “us” have to want that. In our democracy, our government is only as good as we are willing to make it.
My congressman is Jamie Raskin.
So, no, they're not all owned.
And what egalitarian paradise do you live in, dear?
Jamie Raskin.
Owns between 17 and 68.5 million.
Source?
Here are the sources of his campaign funds.
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/jamie-raskin/summary?cid=N00037036&cycle=2024
Personal net worth in 2018.
https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/net-worth?cid=N00037036&year=2018
Given that his wife was a deputy secretary of the Treasury, I think it's safe to assume she knows something about investing so if his net worth is now $9M to $11M that would make sense to me.
But two professionals in the DC area in their sixties having a net worth between $5M-$10M is not breaking news.
If you still live in the house here you bought in the 80s, you're looking at a huge jump in net worth.
So what's your source?
Just went on Google. Plenty of things there about his worth.
Just to let you know I like him too just do not believe any Politicians in the US or anywhere else I have lived.
Great quote from Brendan Beehan (Irish playwright).
'I could never be a politician because I only have one face.'
This Brendan Behan?
"To America, my new found land: The man that hates you hates the human race."
Your quote is tragically comic. A man of immense talent, Behan played the drunken Irishman in interviews to garner celebrity and publicity.
And he drank himself to death.
Whatever face he showed the world, it wasn't one he could live with.
I will also add most of the celebrity net worth sites feel like sucker bait not built on reality.
JennyStokes: Try not to use terms like "all", "everyone", "never", ..... "no one". Yes money has an excessive role in the operation of our government. It is our challenge to reduce it's influence. We can search for candidates who would support limits on campaign contributions, reject Citizens United, limit gifts etc. We must fight the elitism that is propped up by money.
How will you do this?
And that substack allows you to block people.
😁
And always will.
With gratitude for HCR and her followers, and for democracy’s followers and defenders everywhere!
Thank you for the always necessary reminder of our history.
May everyone, whether celebrating a traditional Thanksgiving Day or sharing an Indigenous Day of Mourning, find peace with family and friends, and rededicate themselves to the preservation of our democracy.
Watching a PBS day of programming about the treatment of native peoples in Minnesota and Colorado, I feel we still have a lot of reckoning ahead of us. I grew up on Cherokee land. Our teams were the Indians and yet not a single Native family remained.
Thanks, Betsy. I join you in that thought.
Thank you for bringing my siblings into the conversations.
End this current civil war at the 2024 ballot box, not the battlefield!
All of us must work, donate, and vote to make sure that in 2024 democracy and liberty again wins!
And not only that: to make sure that these terrible past years should be no more than a stark warning for time to come. Just the picture of that belligerent swarm climbing on the Capitol is a memento mori.
Nor forget key unidicted co-conspirators:
'“WHEREAS Representatives Cheney are Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in in legitimate political discourse, and they are both using their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power...." - Republican National Committee
Yes, the unindicted co-conspirators being the entire Republican Party!
...Etched evermore in my heart, mind, and soul. Anne, you do have such a way with words.. Thank you
We may win at the ballot box, but the civil war will not end, unfortunately. Magapublicans (not a name of my coining, but wish it were) don't give up in their quest to seek and retain power. Just look at what they're doing in Ohio to try to circumvent the voters' success to enshrine the right abortion in their constitution (not to mention their prior attempt to require a 60% threshold to pass the abortion bill.) Other examples exist elsewhere, including the continued use of gerrymandering, employing weasely ways to diminish voter participation, etc.
Well observed and shared Doug ! The majority of voters clearly told them NO; they now insist on... but we'll only give you this - blah, blah, in other words something far less, and 'their' way. Any way you slice it, it's a clear repudiation of what the majority has told them. In my heart of hearts, I feel (hope) a 'real' reckoning is coming for them - far different and overwhelming than the little farce they pulled off on January 6th. Neither polls nor trolls get to vote - and yes those two terms belong in the same sentence; polls and trolls.
I totally agree with your last statemen, D4N, polls and trolls do belong in the same sentence. Both of them are totally worthless.
Lying and cheating in order to gain is often effective, so some portion of humanity will always go that way. If we don't want to live the mess and sometimes horrors that can make sure we are aware and resistant to that urge, individually and societally.
Standing up for the truth and rule of law at the ballot box and in the meantime in our courts one day at a time is essential to winning the battle
Yes, and I hope the Biden admin will be ready to take on Trump’s militia of 50 K strong. There will likely be another attempt in 2024. He has said it and they are training as we speak.
If accountability and law and order continue to get stronger under the current administration then tffg’s goons may more likely realize the futility and potential lethality of invoking our military. If tffg obtains power over our military again and can once again order them to stand down then “his brown shirts” are much more dangerous. For now the Hitler-wannabe is much more likely to continue inciting the mentally unwell to do his killing for him
Shining a light on the past that puts today and, hopefully, tomorrow into perspective.
Thank you, Heather Cox Richardson. Today I am grateful to have your history lessons lighting up the world for me.
And that government of the people, by the people and for the people WILL NOT perish from the Earth! Happy Thanksgiving all and thank you Heather!
HCR...teaching us on Thanksgiving about OUR history. You are the best! Thank you. Grateful for you this Thanksgiving.
Yes, Heather, very grateful for you.
I will be thankful when every American has unfettered access to the ballot box Now 23 states act like segregation has been reinstated. Disgraceful
And then the disenfranchised vote!
TX struggles to reach 50% voting of registered voters in Presidential elections and many elections are close. What if they hit 55% or more. Stacey Abrams could make it happen.
Stacey in TX?
Just a fantasy I have that several someones in TX will step up and register the millions of disenfranchised voters in TX. Plus TX is severely gerrymandered so the Democrats will struggle for several cycles at least to win back state and Federal seats.
Beto was working on it.
"And in 1865, at least, they won."
Strong words.
Keep them coming, don't sleepwalk into it.
It will be much harder to reverse when it's to late.
I suspect that those last words were a typo. I read it as, “At last, they won.”
Neal, it's possible, but I doubt it. I think our historian is subtly reminding us that the struggle for liberty is never over.
Good point.
It means there is no guaranteed win this time
It means wake up America
Won, relatively speaking. Lincoln still got shot.
Thanksgiving,: Myths in the USA, such as The Thanksgiving Story
I do not resist debunking some myths, which have been perpetuated against the facts, victims of America's lethal expansion, students, teachers and the general public.
'HISTORY'
'The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue'
'In truth, massacres, disease and American Indian tribal politics are what shaped the Pilgrim-Indian alliance at the root of the holiday' (Smithsonian Magazine)
Claire Bugos, Correspondent
'In Thanksgiving pageants held at schools across the United States, children don headdresses colored with craft-store feathers and share tables with classmates wearing black construction paper hats. It’s a tradition that pulls on a history passed down through the generations of what happened in Plymouth: local Native Americans welcomed the courageous, pioneering pilgrims to a celebratory feast.'
'But, as David Silverman writes in his new book This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, much of that story is a myth riddled with historical inaccuracies. Beyond that, Silverman argues that the telling and retelling of these falsehoods is deeply harmful to the Wampanoag Indians whose lives and society were forever damaged after the English arrived in Plymouth.'
'Silverman’s book focuses on the Wampanoags. When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, the sachem (chief) Ousamequin offered the new arrivals an entente, primarily as a way to protect the Wampanoags against their rivals, the Narragansetts. For 50 years, the alliance was tested by colonial land expansion, the spread of disease, and the exploitation of resources on Wampanoag land. Then, tensions ignited into war. Known as King Philip’s War (or the Great Narragansett War), the conflict devastated the Wampanoags and forever shifted the balance of power in favor of European arrivals. Wampanoags today remember the Pilgrims’ entry to their homeland as a day of deep mourning, rather than a moment of giving thanks.'
'We spoke with Silverman, a historian at George Washington University, about his research and the argument he makes in his book', 'This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving , Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the Plymouth colony's founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the story.'
'The Myth of Thanksgiving'
'How did you become interested in this story?'
'I've had a great many conversations with Wampanoag people, in which they talk about how burdensome Thanksgiving is for them, particularly for their kids. Wampanoag adults have memories of being a kid during Thanksgiving season, sitting in school, feeling invisible and having to wade through the nonsense that teachers were shoveling their way. They felt like their people's history as they understood it was being misrepresented. They felt that not only their classes, but society in general was making light of historical trauma which weighs around their neck like a millstone. Those stories really resonated with me.'
'What is the Thanksgiving myth?'
'The myth is that friendly Indians, unidentified by tribe, welcome the Pilgrims to America, teach them how to live in this new place, sit down to dinner with them and then disappear. They hand off America to white people so they can create a great nation dedicated to liberty, opportunity and Christianity for the rest of the world to profit. That’s the story—it’s about Native people conceding to colonialism. It’s bloodless and in many ways an extension of the ideology of Manifest Destiny.'
'What are the most poignant inaccuracies in this story?'
'One is that history doesn’t begin for Native people until Europeans arrive. People had been in the Americas for least 12,000 years and according to some Native traditions, since the beginning of time. And having history start with the English is a way of dismissing all that. The second is that the arrival of the Mayflower is some kind of first-contact episode. It’s not. Wampanoags had a century of contact with Europeans–it was bloody and it involved slave raiding by Europeans. At least two and maybe more Wampanoags, when the Pilgrims arrived, spoke English, had already been to Europe and back and knew the very organizers of the Pilgrims’ venture.'
'Most poignantly, using a shared dinner as a symbol for colonialism really has it backward. No question about it, Wampanoag leader Ousamequin reached out to the English at Plymouth and wanted an alliance with them. But it’s not because he was innately friendly. It’s because his people have been decimated by an epidemic disease, and Ousamequin sees the English as an opportunity to fend off his tribal rebels. That’s not the stuff of Thanksgiving pageants. The Thanksgiving myth doesn’t address the deterioration of this relationship culminating in one of the most horrific colonial Indian wars on record, King Philip’s War, and also doesn’t address Wampanoag survival and adaptation over the centuries, which is why they’re still here, despite the odds.'
'The Thanksgiving Feast'
'How did the Great Dinner become the focal point of the modern Thanksgiving holiday?'
'For quite a long time, English people had been celebrating Thanksgivings that didn’t involve feasting—they involved fasting and prayer and supplication to God. In 1769, a group of pilgrim descendants who lived in Plymouth felt like their cultural authority was slipping away as New England became less relevant within the colonies and the early republic, and wanted to boost tourism. So, they started to plant the seeds of this idea that the pilgrims were the fathers of America.'
'What really made it the story is that a publication mentioning that dinner published by the Rev. Alexander Young included a footnote that said, “This was the first Thanksgiving, the great festival of New England.” People picked up on this footnote. The idea became pretty widely accepted, and Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday during the Civil War to foster unity.'
'It gained purchase in the late 19th century, when there was an enormous amount of anxiety and agitation over immigration. The white Protestant stock of the United States was widely unhappy about the influx of European Catholics and Jews, and wanted to assert its cultural authority over these newcomers. How better to do that than to create this national founding myth around the Pilgrims and the Indians inviting them to take over the land? '(Smithsonian Magazine) See link below.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thanksgiving-myth-and-what-we-should-be-teaching-kids-180973655/
'This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. They still regret it 400 years later.'
'Long marginalized and misrepresented in U.S. history, the Wampanoags are bracing for the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621' (WAPO) See gifted article below.
https://wapo.st/3GaAvGT
If the Native Americans had banded together rather than fight their "tribal wars" they could have kicked out all the Europeans. I'm sure that eventually the Europeans would have come back armed to the teeth to wipe out the inhabitants that had the temerity to push the original settlers back to Europe but by that time perhaps the natuves would have developed some herd immunity against the smallest & most effective invaders, the viruses & bacteria that carried disease. Back then you couldn't fight what you couldn't see.
I recently met a young man from the Chukchansi tribe here in central California. His people were pretty much wiped out. I apologized to him for what white people have always seem to do, think they are superior & take what they want.
Thanksgiving indeed, certainly not for the indigenous people of the entire western hemisphere.
The death toll by disease was so profound it's hard to wrap my mind around. It does make me wonder about what the alternate history could've been.
You might enjoy a book called 1491 it's about the Americas before the Europeans invaded. I found it so enlightening. The cultures that Europeans destroyed.
It even affected the peoples deep in the Amazon. An "explorer" sailed down the Amazon & interacted with the indigenous tribes. And the next time a European went down the river he went to the same towns & all he found were bones. Disease & devastation was so quick the people couldn't even bury their dead. They just died & their corpses just laid there.
Reminds me of the stories of how The Plague ripped through towns in Europe & wiped out entire villages. No one survived! So, yes, humanity is very frail indeed. It doesn't take invading armies or nuclear Holocaust to destroy civilizations!
Thank you for the recommendation. I've added the book to my "want to read" list.
Fern you and your contributions here made my list of things I'm so thankful for. Thank you
Dear D4N, thank you for you kind greeting. It is always good to hear from you. Your generosity lifts us.
FERN: We could use Malcolm X's take or even Denzel Washington's movie rendition:
'The Pilgrims did not land on Plymouth Rock ... Plymouth Rock landed on You.'
That is the point, Bryan Sean McKown! 'The Thanksgiving Story' continues to be repeated, ignored or unknown in some highly respected venues!
FERN, I returned home from my Family Gathering & viewed an interview of NICK ESTES on 'Democracy Now'. Nick Estes wrote "Our History is Our Future" & covers the first Massachusett's Colony massacre of indigenous people. Nick Estes is in Santa Fe, New Mexico. and can be found, I think, @nick_w_estes on X.
Thank you, dear Bryan. I will pursue this tomorrow. With appreciation, Fern
I read one review which reports that Estes Book focuses on the wars against the Plains' native Americans in the 19th Century ...
Fern,
Your very best post that I have read anyway.
Thank you. I learned more about thanksgiving from this long post than I ever knew before.
Mike
Alrighty then. Time for a glass of wine and Dances With Wolves.
Other than the mentioned tradition religious of days of thanksgiving, what I draw from the little I have read is that any thanksgiving before Lincoln (including such a declaration for one of the horrifying genocidal massacres of native people) had little to do with establishing Thanksgiving, the yearly tradition. Back in the 1950s in my elementary school classroom, we learned a lot of rubbish when it came to history, including "that friendly Indians, unidentified by tribe, welcome the Pilgrims to America, teach them how to live in this new place, sit down to dinner with them and then disappear", that Columbus was great guy who was the very first person to realize the world was round, and how Pocahontas begged for the life of John Smith. Pausing with family to consider what we are thankful for seems healthy enough, but BS self-serving lies about US history poison the present and futures of our own lives, and those of others.
Somehow, we are missing something by leaving out the reminder that the native Americans were Hunter-gatherers rather than city folks and farmers.
'Today three-quarters of Native Americans live off of reservations, mainly in urban areas. And nationwide, many Native American communities lack access to healthy food. As a scholar of Indigenous studies focusing on Native relationships with the land, I began to wonder why Native farming practices had declined and what benefits could emerge from bringing them back.'
'To answer these questions, I am working with agronomist Marshall McDaniel, horticulturalist Ajay Nair, nutritionist Donna Winham and Native gardening projects in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Our research project, “Reuniting the Three Sisters,” explores what it means to be a responsible caretaker of the land from the perspective of peoples who have been balancing agricultural production with sustainability for hundreds of years.' (JSTOR) See link below.
https://daily.jstor.org/partner-post-indigenous-agriculture/
Thanks Fern, so very glad you are still here to provide the Deep Dive into historical myth and reality. I look forward to your voice as always.
Thank you, Rebekha, for your kind words. Wishing you a wonderful and caring Holiday Season.
"Our Government and institutions placed in jeopardy have brought us to a more just appreciation of their value.”
This may sound strange, but we should all thank Donald Trump for waking us from our slumber and alerting us to the danger we had been falling into before he ever arrived on the political scene, for us all to learn again the value of what we had taken for granted, this constitutional democratic republic. I don't think we would all gather here as we do otherwise.
Good point, but I can't thank Donald Trump for anything.
Maybe next year
'Fears of political violence are growing as the 2024 campaign heats up and conspiracy theories evolve'
'The man who bludgeoned former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer last year consumed a steady diet of right-wing conspiracy theories before an attack that took place with the midterm elections less than two weeks away.'
'As the 2024 presidential campaign heats up, experts on extremism fear the threat of politically motivated violence will intensify. From “Pizzagate” to QAnon and to “Stop the Steal,” conspiracy theories that demonized Donald Trump’s enemies are morphing and spreading as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination aims for a return to the White House.'
“No longer are these conspiracy theories and very divisive and vicious ideologies separated at the fringes,” said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who focuses on domestic terrorism. “They’re now infiltrating American society on a massive scale.” (AP) See link before.
https://apnews.com/article/depape-paul-pelosi-qanon-conspiracy-theories-violence-390ad310fa34b0edb925d88540a7ddcd
Just my opinion, i think a large percentage of these mass shootings have been influenced by the Orange Baboon's inflammatory rhetoric and rantings. It's horrible that Adolf Hitler lives on through Donald TUMP.
Yes, I agree, John, and there are also aspects of our culture wherein American men, in particular, identify masculinity with carrying a gun. As to 'mass shootings' too many guns and too many deranged men in our society without proper controls for guns or support for their psychological problems.
Thank you, FERN for your very accurate response. I can give you an example of what your said happened recently in our household. My eldest son's step son came waltzing into our house about 2 months ago with a 9 mm pistol and sit down at our kitchen table and was playing with his pistol at my table loading and unloading the pistol. My 43 year old daughter that lives with us alerted this to me and was very upset about this. I told my son to get that idiot out of my house with that pistol, RIGHT NOW!! and he is not to enter my home with that 9mm pistol ever again.. His step son is mentally unstable, and of course a Donald TUMP fluffer. His step son loses his temper when he gets angry, and i feel like anyone in my family is in danger with that creep in my home. I do not own any type of firearm, and don't intend to ever purchase one. My son's stepson has psychological problems, and he should have been prohibited from having any kind of firearm, period.
The United States needs to have firearm restrictions like Canada has, there is this member on the Substack sites named ''Jean'' that lives in Canada, that told me Canada has very strict requirements on the sale of all firearms. I would have to go back to my archives to go into detail from my conversations with him to explain this fully. These mass shootings are almost non existent in Canada. I did, however, read about one that occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia about 4 months ago where 3 people were killed there that was published in one of their newspaper sites. The Halifax Chronical Herald reported this article online.
John, thank you for your response. I was sorry to hear that your family has a difficult problem that needs to be addressed but glad that you shared it. Some communities have access to mental health professionals and organizations set up to help families similar to your elder son's. Have you and your wife spoken to your son and his wife about arranging support for their son's instability. I feel as you do as the young man may cause injury to himself and others. Whatever you decide, considering a family meeting during which concerns and steps to be taken to address them may be a good start. It sounds as though you would not like this issue to be ignored. Your interest and support can be very helpful. Showing care and concern for your son may open him and his wife to taking beneficial action.
Thank you for your great advice. Even my son is very concerned about his step son having that gun. My son's wife could be a problem. She has enabled all of her sons all of their lives by coddling them and letting them get by with too many bad habits. She has 3 sons by a horribly abusive ex-husband that has been in and out of trouble with the law most of his adult life. I am going to talk to my son this weekend about the problems with 2 of his stepsons.
On another note, FERN, have your been receiving emails from Fascist Rethuglican websites recently?? I count 6 different Fascist sites i have been getting emails from in the past 3 months. These emails are extremely irritating and stir up so much anger in me. I actually unsubscribed to 2 of these sites 200 times. I have emailed these sites back and have used every curse word i can think of, and have used words to them that would make a Sailor blush. I have insulted them and discredited them. It has worked to some extent as i haven't received any more emails, only to have a different Fascist website emailing me. I am a ''hard core'' Democrat and i do not appreciate those emails saying insulting Democrats and spewing hard core lies and propaganda about us. Is there any good advice from you to stop these despicable cretins sending me emails about this?? I have to admit, i am so sick and fed up with these criminal Fascist Rethuglicans.
Do you think at least some of their behavior originated with the ''John Birch Society'' thing back in the 1960s?? I was still a child growing up in the 1960s and didn't understand what the John Birch Society was all about then.
That seems like a tall order you’re requesting. Personally, Donald Trump didn’t wake me from any slumber. I was informed before his destruction and chose to attend university to further my knowledge and understanding.
If anything, we should all be thankful to HCR for helping guide us through the storm we’re all living through. Donald Trump has woken up more racist, nazi admiring, confederate loving southerners than anyone else. He doesn’t deserve our gratitude.
I'm not talking about gratitude. He did wake us up in time. Broke things enough that we could remember that differing opinions don't make enemies, but differing beliefs do. He reminded some we were considering "enemies" (and they were doing so with us) and they woke up too.
The racists and the Nazis and the confederates didn't need to be woken up. They were there all along, we were just ignoring them.
'Have You Listened Lately to What Trump Is Saying?'
'He is becoming frighteningly clear about what he wants.' (excerpt from The Atlantic)
By Peter Wehner
'I thought about the events that led up to the Rwandan genocide after I heard Donald Trump, in a Veterans Day speech, refer to those he counts as his enemies as “vermin.”
“We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country—that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said toward the end of his speech in Claremont, New Hampshire. “They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.” 'The former president continued, “The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.”
'When Trump finished his speech, the audience erupted in applause.'
'Trump’s comments came only a few weeks after he had been asked about immigration and the southern border in an interview with the host of a right-wing website.' “Did you ever think you would see this level of American carnage?” Trump was asked.'
“No. Nobody has seen anything like this,” 'Trump responded.' “I think you could say worldwide. I think you could go to a banana republic and pick the worst one and you’re not going to see what we’re witnessing now.” 'The front-runner for the Republican nomination warned that immigrants pose an immediate threat.' “We know they come from prisons. We know they come from mental institutions and insane asylums. We know they’re terrorists. Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country.”
'In a September 20 speech in Dubuque, Iowa, Trump said, “What they’re doing to our country, they’re destroying it. It’s the blood of our country. What they’re doing is destroying our country.”
'Trump’s rhetoric is a permission slip for his supporters to dehumanize others just as he does. He portrays others as existential threats, determined to destroy everything MAGA world loves about America. Trump is doing two things at once: pushing the narrative that his enemies must be defeated while dissolving the natural inhibitions most human beings have against hating and harming others. It signals to his supporters that any means to vanquish the other side is legitimate; the normal constraints that govern human interactions no longer apply.'
'Dehumanizers view their targets as having' “a human appearance but a subhuman essence,” according to David Livingstone Smith, a philosophy professor who has written on the history and complicated psychological roots of dehumanization. “It is the dehumanizer’s nagging awareness of the other’s humanity that gives dehumanization its distinctive psychological flavor,” he writes. “Ironically, it is our inability to regard other people as nothing but animals that leads to unimaginable cruelty and destructiveness.” 'Dehumanized people can be turned into something worse than animals; they can be turned into monsters. They aren’t just dangerous; they are metaphysically threatening. They are not just subhuman; they are irredeemably destructive.'
'That is the wickedly shrewd rhetorical and psychological game that Trump is playing, and he plays it very well. Alone among American politicians, he has an intuitive sense of how to inflame detestations and resentments within his supporters while also deepening their loyalty to him, even their reverence for him.' (Atlantic) See link below. I could not gift it, but, perhaps, it will open. Give it a try.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/trump-becoming-frighteningly-clear-about-what-he-wants/676086/
Frighteningly like one of Hitler’s rants. We must do all we can to make sure he never again holds office. VOTE!
I am thankful that Trump makes little effort to mask his malice. It's scary that so many can hear what he is proposing and still endorse it, but I am would worry even more were he a smoother criminal. For some reason we have too often smoothed over increasingly dodgy behavior from "Republicans" since Eisenhower, certainly since Watergate. Now the choice could hardly be clearer. If we miss this chance to defeat their agenda, we may not get another.
The Hater in Chief is frightening and disgusting and infuriating, and that's the not so secret key to his success. But it has also awakened the fight against him and increased the awareness that there are undoubtedly smart and subversive Hitler-like versions of him out there. Certainly it has increased my political awareness since 2015.
It was not until trump was in office that a confederate flag was flown in the White House. He gave them the air they needed to breathe and deserves no thanks... or however you’d like to put it.
Only some of us have learned. Only some of us are alert to the danger that the MAGA cult presents to our constitutional democratic republic. We'll find out in 2024 if ENOUGH of us have learned
Bending the ‘arc of freedom’ in the US, is every generation’s task….Coretta Scott King said it and many others have said it and right here, right now, Heather has said it…
A daunting task always, but in 2023 …a humongous one. Keeping our Republic is another way to look at it….we won’t preserve our democracy if we are not willing to exert every bit of talent/skill/effort….we have…..God willing we will and it will survive!
And special thanks Heather for making these issues so very clear!
This letter is a stark warning.
I agree, heartily!
That we are able to sustain President Lincoln’s vision, that democracy and liberty survive, that equality and love shall prevail over tyranny, darkness and hatred 🍁💖🇺🇸
Happy Thanksgiving Heather!
May it be so and that the true meaning of Thanksgiving finds a roost in all hearts