Heather, thank goodness for you and your perspective. You bring scope to isolated stories and make me glad to read you every day, even when we're both worried by events. Thank you, and know that thousands of us feel the same gratitude.
This letter rang some of my memory bells. A few years ago I read "The Bully Pulpit" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. All about Teddy Roosevelt and the McClure crew. Highly recommend it.
If there is to be another true progressive era, it will take much more muck raking - and it will need to come from someone with a "Tarbell" reputation. Someone like Rachel Maddow has the intellect and drive but she is tainted or labeled as "too far left".
In reality, the closest thing we have to such a person is our Professor HCR. But while her following is growing, these stories of corruption need to be all over NBC, ABC and CBS. And propelled through every social media platform. The theme could be "Wake Up America, you are being had."
Dr. Richardson Cox’s comparison of the three stories that emerged recently and the three stories from McClure’s magazine in 1903 is, on the surface, interesting.
However, think of the environment that each dropped into. The earlier stories came from a time when print was the only form of media. The public basically didn’t read or they read local newspapers and national magazines. Thus a series of sensational and horrifically true stories would reach the entire audience *in the same way*. Because of the endless rapacity of mill and factory owners, people were similarly outraged and the muckraking era was launched.
There was no requirement to “both sides” a story.
There was no “whataboutism”.
There was no Facebook to slice and dice who would receive the story and who would receive an alternate, sanitized account of it which would tear apart the original.
There was no Fox news to provide cover for the wealthy.
There was no twenty-four hour news cycle which would burn through the story in a day or two and chase a different ambulance the next day.
I feel fairly assured in saying that the factory story from Illinois likely didn’t even go national or if it did, lasted but a hot moment. I feel equally assured that many, many people didn’t hear of the Pandora Papers story and that the vast majority of those who did would need to be reminded of what is about today.
I do think that the Willard Hotel story may have legs of its own, partly because it is attached to the remarkable events of 1/6 and partly because it has a salacious feel to it.
More to the point, it is a reminder to all of the slow, steady, and unyielding work of the House Committee. Things are going to emerge from that in a trickle at first and then in a gush. We may (God, we can only hope) be nearing a John Dean moment when the entire dominant narrative is revealed and some people have no place left to hide and no media who will be able to effectively protect them.
In the meantime, I am quite sure that one or two of the investigations of Trump have plenty of evidence to arrest him on matters completely separate from the January failed coup. Not sure if they have the will.
May we hope the 1/6 commission does what William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) wrote in The Liberator (1831): "I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- and I will be heard."
He was spot on except that it's Dr. Heather Cox Richardson. Saying it is Richardson Cox would make her initials HRC. I, for one, would hate to have Heather compared with Hilary. Heather is so much better.
Plus there are so many ppl in the U.S. lacking any critical thinking skills to discern truth from fantastically conjectured conspiracies. Shorten that to IDIOTS.
Yes, and what I don’t understand is how newsprint can be held accountable (or maybe they no longer are accountable) for facts, yet FB runs rampant with lies & fake news (DT was right about fake news but it is fake news for his benefit). I am naive apparently, to think the “genie is out of the bottle,” with respect to controlling social media. Is it really freedom of the press to let misinformation to be created & disseminated for nefarious consumption?
But they didn’t have Fox and clones and FB preaching that the true enemy is libtards, like this old, retired counselor who eats babies. Doubtful that the whole country will ever hear a “Walter Cronkite” version of the news. Why we are divided, why we are likely to stay that way. The cult rules so many fools, and they are devoted to the biggest loser America has ever produced. May the law win a few rounds. And I love what Teddy did, and will check out The Bully Pulpit.
Yes, it seems that so may people don't want to believe or face the truth, they are attached to what they want to believe. We have a mental health crisis in this country is how I see it.
The news corporation’s will make a splash with this “ Pandora papers “ story and then LET it die. If for no other reason than they are owned by the very corporations that are owned by the billionaires that benefit from these “tax haven” ……..
Most racists I have known had not one redeeming feature. My Dad was racist, but he lived long enough to learn. Some don’t no matter how long they live. Would like to think Teddy did after he was so dependent for his survival on Amazon natives late in his life. Just me rambling, but why not.
That's the problem with putting up monuments. They put up the person, not what the person did. No one is perfect. We shouldn't put people up on pedestals. We should celebrate specific good actions.
Ida Tarbell was an American journalist best known for her pioneering investigative reporting that led to the breakup of the Standard Oil Company's monopoly. Wikipedia
In her most famous work, The History of the Standard Oil Company (which oil historian Daniel Yergin called the “most important business book ever written”), Miss Tarbell revealed, after years of painstaking research, the illegal means used by John D. Rockefeller to monopolize the early oil industry.
In the days following the 2016 election, I chose a biography of Ida Tarbell for reading material, to bolster my resolve to keep moving forward. It was a good choice.
Bill Modern-day muckrakers will need a much bigger rake. The muck exposed by Heather, Rachel, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and even the Wall Street Journal should create a stench that galvanizes the American people. Nah, same old same old, then back to sports and other more substantial topics. In part this mucky stench is integral to our corporate world and filters into members of Congress.
As far an the original muckrakers, Upton Sinclair, in The Jungle, revolted readers with stories of fingers and wedding rings in their sausage. Teddy Roosevelt (who took wads of money in the 1904 presidential campaign from those corporations he was targeting in his trustbusting rants), took tactical advantage of The Jungle, then savagely attacked muck rakers as observers, not participants.
Alas, the muckers still ride rough shod over the muckees.
It helps to be 88 and a life-time voracious reader. After peripatetic careersas author of a book on Nasser’s Egypt, Foreign Service Officer in Congo and Chile, creator of international bond credit ratings, head of a national management consulting company for nearly a decade, 15 years in local municipal government, and meeting over 1000 Eisenhower Fellows global leaders, as a history professor from age 58 to 80, I had the opportunity to ruminate on what interested me as I continually learned about the good, bad, and ugly. Currently I am reading WATER: A BIOGRAPHY, which focuses on how water has shaped our past and the shortage of which will dramatically affect our future.
I former Urban Studies Professor of mine (back in the dark age)taught us, the most vital predictor of population growth is related to water sources. It certainly kept me from moving to the desert!
Yes, but NBC, ABC(Disney owned) and CBS are owned by corporations. Need I say anything else about "these stories of corruption need to be all over NBC, ABC and CBS?" I don't think so.
I started reading “ The Bully Pulpit” a few yrs back but got sidetracked by a few dozen books I became engrossed with…I will now go back to finish that book. I love Goodwin’s other books, also.
"The United States is one of the money-laundering capitals of the world." I didn't know this and I suspect many other Americans don't know it either. The ramifications of that statement are stunning. No wonder corruption and greed are rampant in our country.
“Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley (July 4, 1920 – August 20, 2007) was an American businesswoman. ... During the trial, a former housekeeper testified that she had heard Helmsley say: "We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes", a quote which was identified with her for the rest of her life.
I stayed in her hotel on the south end of Central Park for a few days nearly 20 years ago. She lived in the hotel and would have breakfast every morning on the mezzanine overlooking the park. She always had her dog 🐩 with her and her accountant who would be going over the numbers from the previous day. In addition to the hotel 🏨 I believe she owned at that time the Empire State Building, can you imagine? I asked around and I was amazed at how many people that worked there loved her, despite her media reputation she was revered by the people who worked for her. This would have been after she spent time in jail. That quote may have followed her, but I can tell you from being around her, she could have cared less about that quote, she was focused on her businesses.
In an advanced tax class in college, we were assigned a portion of the tax code and were charged to figure which entity benefited based on the inclusions and exclusions. I was lucky enough to have one involving T. Boone Pickens.
That must have been interesting. I have for a long time believed that people like T. Boone, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet weren’t tax cheats, there are plenty that are, no doubt, they have been taking advantage of the tax codes that are written like Swiss cheese 🧀 but in order to do that they have to employ armies of accountants and tax lawyers most of whom pay taxes on their income wether it’s corporate tax or personal income tax. So the income is eventually taxed, but it gets filtered in the process. Amazon employ’s hundreds of thousands of people who all pay taxes, when I hear that Amazon doesn’t pay any taxes I think that is just wrong, as a huge income stream entity, the money that flows through that company is taxed. There’s no simple solution to the appearance of them generating wealth without paying taxes, the tax experts they employ who do pay taxes, are the ones responsible for that appearance and that does not come cheaply. The insipid clown on the other hand is a very different story, cheating has always been the order of business for him and his family.
The little state of Delaware has been a world money-laundering center for a very long time. It's one of the reasons credit card companies like to call Delaware home.
Interesting that Biden is from Delaware and that he may be looking into finally tackling this money-laundering State. NTM a little hypocritical that he has not tried to tackle it before. But I'm not versed on what Biden's thoughts on his home State are in relation to this fact. Time will tell.
If you have all the answers, please feel free to share them in this forum. It’s impolite to throw an insult at HCR. Maybe you should have read this statement before hitting Post and reconsidered your words.
Thank you, HCR. I know this is slightly tangential, but last night here in the UK I saw the extraordinary documentary assemblage of material "Four Hours at the Capitol" showing what was happening on January 6th. The visceral hatred shown by the mob, their crazed rationale, the violence, all truly frightening. I was further appalled by an article in Vice News of the torrent of vile e mail death threats to professional, experienced election officials and their families (!) causing many to leave their jobs.We can guess who will take their places. Do not be complacent, dear American friends. Bannon's strategy of getting "patriots" into official positions at every level, from school boards to local councils and upwards could well succeed. As we know, the judiciary is already tainted.
Christine, thank you for watching that documentary. Any rational human would be fighting a case of PTSD after watching that vile and wrenchingly scary stuff. Pour yourself something stiff if that would comfort you, or go outside and reorient yourself please! Whatever is able to 'dial you down.'
Don't become another victim of that event.
It is so good to know that Brits are forgiving us for our former guy soiling your country as well, and that we still are Friends!
Thanks, Guy. Yes, I'm Constantine, a male - and also a dual UK / US national, which is why I follow The Blessed HCR on a daily basis, and read a wide range of US publications...I believe there is a really serious cause for concern, and can only hope that "normal" Republicans can wake up to this existential threat. If not...
I have not brought myself to watch it for that very reason. We had the TV on through the whole thing and have watched many clips used in hearings. I’m not sure I could control my anger and then sleep afterwards.
One of the things I've noticed about American corruption is that we are rather good at corrupting systems that turn otherwise honest individuals into abettors or dupes. Our tax system is a good example. Systems became the target precisely because it was easier to change rules than to try and corrupt individuals, who tend to do things like blow whistles (thank-you Frances Haugen!). More lately, however, it seems like we are moving to simply putting corrupt individuals into positions of leadership/power. The Trump administration and its rogues gallery illustrate this nicely.
What gives me hope is that American institutions are still made up of basically honest individuals who would rather do the right thing when given a chance. I'm not talking about heroes such as those who came forward during both impeachment trials, the Capitol Police, or various secretaries of state who said "no" to Republican attempts at vote fixing. I'm talking about regular people caught up in corrupt systems who need their paychecks to survive. They WILL do the right thing if shown a way they can understand. I've seen it time and again. This is where the leadership of Joe Biden and other Democrats is vital. The oligarchs of the Gilded Age discovered this. The kleptocrats of this age are about to discover it too.
Thank you for these thoughts. They remind me of Abigail Disney's comment: "“It really is time for wealthy people to ask themselves some hard questions. ...The fact is that people are sitting on their rear ends on their couches earning and not paying taxes on money while people are ... working their butts off just to make ends meet. ..... The “naked fact of the matter is that not a single one of the documented methods and practices that allowed these billionaires to so radically minimize their tax obligations was illegal.” (quoted in The Hill from June 2021: "Disney heiress slams billionaires, generational wealth: 'An upside-down structure"). Disney is not alone .... For example, anyone can become a "friend" of "Patriotic Millionaires" to follow along with their efforts to change the systems ... "“ Because my country — our country — means more than my money. ”
Part of the problem is that they are able to make so much money to begin with. Let's examine the pay and benefits packages for their employees. Was every employee paid a living wage? Did every employee have health insurance? These folks made a ton of money on others' backs and now get to decide how and whether to give some back. It's not just about paying taxes. But I'm preaching to the choir here!
Thank you Dian for bringing to light one of the many justice seekers with an inherited fortune. I have followed the effort to link accumulated wealth with fair taxation for a couple of decades, and one man among many remains in my mind on this topic.
Check out the work of Chuck Collins, who co-wrote with William Gates, Sr., Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why American Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. Collins founded United For a Fair Economy. He now works for the progressive think tank The Institute for Policy Studies. Collins is of the fourth generation of the Oscar Mayer family.
I like this comment. And it makes me think that the media is not reporting the good stuff/the right stuff--the people who are standing up for what's right, for true (not Christian Right) moral values.
With hope like yours, it would encourage some of us if you provided a few examples of regular Americans, living on their paychecks who stepped up to do the right thing. Facebook's whistleblower, Frances Haugen, is an example of someone likely to survive, given her background, I certainly hope so, but it will take an extraordinary about of whistleblowing, muckraking and in-depth investigations to make a dent.
I brought these people up precisely because their actions are not heroic or newsworthy. They are simply decent. My guess is that anyone who has ever worked anywhere has been exposed to such people and their actions. My workplace has grown increasingly difficult since a new director was hired there 3 years ago. She is abusive and a micromanager (one of the new MDs calls her "Trump in a dress"). Even after 3 years, most of my co-workers (the ones that remain) still question her poor judgement, even though it draws retributions. Complaints to her supervisors have so far yielded no results. Nothing we have done is newsworthy, or heroic, we simply persist. The stakes are high because they involve our livelihoods. The stories are personal, and not something I am comfortable sharing on any forum. Just know that they involve good, honest, average people, most of whom are willing to do the right thing, for our workplace and for each-other.
Steve, Your workplace sounds like a nightmare. I am so sorry that you and your colleagues are suffering. I felt the intolerable conditions while reading your words. HRC's letter was towering in another way. The odds for Americans are so unwelcome, I embraced your comment for it's hopefulness. My mind was more in Facebook's whistleblower mode. Then to read this about brave souls taking risks to make their work lives less cruel was unexpected. Of course, I believe you. Is it impossible to find a friend with authority and an open mind that a group of you can confer with? As I wrote that, I thought, they have probably tried everything. With the highest regard for you.
Steve, I have thought of you several times today, after your response to my question. I always look for your comments on the forum. Your steadiness, insight, and clarity pull me to your words. Long before today, I felt what I fine match you are for the young people in you care. My thoughts today reflected the wish to see you and show my appreciation. Peace.
Fern, Here is a compilation of whistle blowers throughout history. Not all cited are whistle blowers living paycheck to paycheck but they are significant in that the took a risk and did the right thing. This Wikipedia page opens many a rabbit hole to explore. Best. dw 🌷
Vera English was employed as a lab technician at a nuclear facility operated by General Electric Company (GE).[70] English was terminated after exposing widespread radioactive contamination in the facility. Her Supreme Court case, English v. General Electric Company, set precedent that allowed whistleblowers to pursue cases under state law.
daria, thanks for this list. I find it disgusting that governments, including our own, and certain corporations, when exposed for bad things they have done, attack whistleblowers in an attempt to make the whistleblower wrong and often accuse and sometimes indict them.
Starting in 1564 this list may have seemed long to you. With review, however, you would have learned that there was no references to the whistleblowers' economic class or 'living paycheck to paycheck'. More to the point, Daria, there were only 23 whistle blowers in Wikipedia's list, covering 2010 - 2020, and it is a list of people from different countries, including the US. As to rabbit holes, Daria, there is nothing to rave about here.
Fern, you are one of the rudest, most arrogant, narrow minded people I've ever encountered in public discourse. In the scheme of things, it is really not a long list, but it IS a list of people, throughout history, including the 21st century, who have taken measures to improve the lives of others. If you had bothered to dig beyond the Wikipedia page itself, you MIGHT have found more information to your liking. But you didn't.
Your goal, on this page, and likely elsewhere in your life, is to dominate the conversation with your bullshit and push your overblown, self-serving ego into every conversation you participate in.
Paycheck to paycheck whistle blowers are rare because those are generally not the people in a position to blow the whistle. You have no interest in engaging. You, ma'am can go to hell.
Daria too much animosity has accumulated between us, perhaps, there was some at the start. I realize that your initial reply to me was thoughtful and a gesture of friendliness. I have gotten gun shy as result of past encounters. A great deal of anger from you has come my way before this last unfortunate exchange. My response to you this time was curt and critical; I apologize for that. There was a time when I also did a small favor on your behalf. Can we put our tempers down? Your assessment of my personality is one that I never received before. I enjoy engaging with many of the subscribers and have become friendly with a few. Can we put the hatchets down? I will be mindful of my communication with you and honor your thoughts.
Fern, There have been many times, including this week, when you have "paid a compliment" to someone in such an awkward and incomprehensible manner that they perceived it as a rebuke because that is what it seemed to be. Your words are not always as benevolent as you believe. They can come across as caustic and mean.
My original comment to you today was made with all good intentions in hopes that it might spur on a larger discussion about the value of whistle blowers. It did not and I'm sorry I directed a comment to you. I'll not do so again. I have no ax to grind with you other than the one that is constantly thrown my way when you get your hackles up against me.
I'm not sure what small favor you've done on my behalf, but if thanks are in order, you have mine.
Fern, you stated your interpretation of the facts. You forget that the United States was not created in a vacuum nor does it exist in a vacuum today. Whistle blowers throughout history, here and abroad, deeply impact how business and sometimes government matters are conducted on a global scale, today.
I reacted the way I did because, as always, your tone was rude and demeaning. You never accept responsibility for your terse tone of voice. And you have not yet, in all of your years, learned how to communicate with people in a respectful manner. That's your issue, not mine. I'm not willing to take your unfortunate style of communication sitting down. You might consider your own words before commenting on my reaction or anyone else's.
My dad reported his boss for breaking the law governing down payments on FHA house loans in the 1960’s. Man was tried, but jury didn’t understand why a mortgage with no down payment was illegal; they thought that it would allow more people to become homeowners. Boss fired dad, as he expected. Far too few Congress critters have that kind of backbone.
Thank you for writing about McClure Magazine's 1903 addition and the progressive era these journalists helped usher in (hopefully I can find this magazine in my library's archives).
To me, your knowledge and research of American history is unparalleled and I treasure your newsletters.
You've covered quite a bit today,
so I'll focus just on Facebook and John Eastman.
Facebook must be made into a public utility (and all the rules that apply to such) before it undertakes its dangerous global currency scheme, its Instagram for children scheme and the Metaverse.
As an article in Alantic magazine argued, Facebook has become a hostile country within a country and only action designed to severely defang this hostile entity will do because, as articles in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere illustrate, Facebook executives cannot be trusted to police themselves because they don't want to.
Weasley insurrectionist John Eastman needs to disbarred.
Watching Eastman sprint away from his bogus legal justification for overturning the presidential election is quite a show.
Eastman recently told the conservative National Review that his memos weren't legal advice. But he wrote them at the request of "somebody in the legal team" whose name he could not recall.
Just wait until he's questioned by the 1/6 House committee.
Also, the committee will refresh his memory. If he claims attorney-client privilege, he will be forced to provide proof of the relationship, including a contract that outlines the scope of work. The committee will have questioned everyone else who might have been involved so they can call him on any inconsistencies in his testimony.
Most importantly, we'll learn who asked Eastman for the advice. And that person will be asked who ordered him to get legal window dressing. In other words, Eastman can run but can't hide. Same with TFG.
The details now known about Eastman's role are detailed in the second of two Washington Post articles that the professor links to at the bottom of today's standout letter.
Reading the piece makes me scream to the heavens to please at the appropriate time start televising the proceedings. The American people need to learn what happened, not soley by reading news accounts but directly from the conspirators under oath.
Deborah, this all makes the death of home town newspapers that much more tragic. I'm sure by now many are aware of McKay Coppins' expose in The Atlantic, "Vulture Publishing: Who Killed America's Newspapers". He's been interviewed on NPR, PBS, etc. but the article is the gold standard.
About ten years ago, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway bought the Greensboro (NC) News and Record. It had already begun scaling back its coverage in the years I had subscribed, but Berkshire upped the ante. As Coppins says in his piece, one of the things these hedge funds and private equity outfits do immediately, is sell off valuable real estate assets. Many of these papers hold downtown real estate just ripe for exploiting. They contracted out the printing, cut staff to the bone, etc. The usual MO.
Why does that matter, you might ask? "Economy of scale", etc. Well, when you don't have reporters covering local government, data show that taxes actually go UP; there's no one watching the store, so local pols are no long accountable, because they know they can tell the voters any song and dance story and, 'who cares'? Same goes with school board races (just look at the chaos over the 'dire threat of teaching critical race theory', getting fired up by the Trumpians. And no countervailing press to explain to voters that it's all a load of crap!
I wonder if Ida Tarbell were here to day, if she could even get a byline?
Sandra Ida might get a byline today, but it would probably have the impact of a tree falling in the forest. Steve Coll??? (Sorry, my library is upstairs) wrote an Ida-type book, PRIVATE EMPIRE, on Exxon about ten years ago. It spelled out in graphic detail how Exxon had subsidized anti-climate changers (reminiscent of how the tobacco industry hoodwinked the public on cigarettes/cancer for decades). Much of what has recently surfaced on Exxon was writ large over a decade ago. ProPublica has produced a bevy of investigative reporting. Still, many of these frightening climate-change issues remain on the back burner because many corporations privately are backsliders and a number of members of Congress are beholden to corporate contributions.
@Sandy Lewis, that's an apt idea, the four megatech giants as the Four Horsemen. Then I thought, "But wait, what about Big Oil and Coal pushing us into climate crisis? What about Covid as the modern horseman of plague?" But the tech giants have become monopolies not only over our commercial sphere but over our collective understanding of the truth itself. Facebook has been knowingly metastasizing the spread of conspiracy theories, The Former Guy's Big Lie, and all forms of denialism of reality. Facebook catalyzes the spread of lies and conspiracy theories that fuel outrage, violence, and death, and lead us to the brink of social and democratic breakdown. Facebook does it for their own profit and market dominance, and turbo-charges others who spread the lies for profit and power. They have in effect automated and endlessly cloned the Four Horsemen. Every viral spreader of lies on social media--of the Big Lie, of QAnon, of anti-vaccine nonsense, of white nationalist hatred, of climate change denial--is effectively turned into a FourHorseBot, spreading and multiplying the lies that bring death and destruction. Facebook has been allowed by lack of regulation to turn algorithms, mechanized by essentially limitless compute power, into unchecked destroyers of our shared understanding of reality. All the "content moderation" and rules they erect around the edges are futile because their basic algorithm designed to "promote engagement" is turned by the biology of our primitive fight or flight response into an algorithm that metastasizes outrageous lies, the more outrageous the better.
So, Elizabeth Michaud, Stow MA - FB and Baseline? HCR’s nightly array? The societal nightmare of The Lonely Crowd, The Stranger, The Plague, Les Jeux Sont Fait, Jean Paul Sartre, the cascading crescendo of collective algorithmic nihilistic chaos for our children and theirs, we had 6, they 11, coming through U Chicago three cousins now, our 5th generation there, a Nobel led them, he wrote The Franck Report that HST ignored, Dartmouth, Amherst, 2nd there, Princeton, a few, Carleton, one… they ignore FB, entirely. They’re smart. Know better. MIT hatched 5 cousins, their father produced the skin of John Glenn’s re entry pod, died at 105, liked to cross country ski… we came from Germany, Russia, England, Sweden, the mtDNA from Germany and Sweden, and we saw Hitler for what he was in 1933 and said so, all Germany read the words of Physics Nobel James Franck, and FDR promptly acted. The Manhattan Project followed. Keep $1 worth of potassium iodide in your medicine chest, it will load your thyroid if, as and hopefully not when… said cousin Frank von Hippel, MIT PhD, a MacArthur Scholar, a Rhoades Scholar, he dropped theoretical for practical, teaches at PU… advises presidents.
Today we need the philosopher not the political, Mussolini’s Fascism cum capitalism is alive and well, spreading, Italians suspended his corpse on a street lamp post, where and when will Americans place our Mussolini? Surely, we can find the will to deal with the long lust list of Trump, Pence, Bannon, Miller, Hawley, Cruz, DeSantis, Moscow Mitch, Tucker, the pretty white boy with the falsetto, a common fag from RI’s St. George’s School of legacy brat failures with the $100 haircut, the nightly FOX FIX, nothing like a kiss up in the locker St. G. room where molesting was the agenda, he married into it…
It’s time we dealt truth and destruction to the fascist elements, all 70 million, for they will Inherit the Wind and kill Charles Darwin, Socrates, Aristotle, John Dewey, Robert Maynard Hutchins and Robert Nozick and Elizabeth Bishop if they roll with FB and Zuckerberg, a horrid cruel social misfit.
The Black Women followers of Majority Whip James Clyburn with Joe Knows Us in their ears saved us - now we must save them and ourselves… for we are at one with them, we need the education and truth to rise - a Republic If You Can Keep It is on the line.
Let’s Roll. There’s no choice. November 3rd and Biden Harris followed November 8 and Obama Biden when, One Six and the Big Lie took over, Democrats need teeth and truth, and Biden must choose among the few - Adam Schiff, Colorado’s best Senator, his good brother fired from NYT.. start there!
I digress. This was about a Baseline, no?
Well, mine is simple. To Truth, and out with the liars. Let women of character rise, let Black women rise, they know themselves and us best.
Sandy, I never thought I could say this, but you brought it home with this one. Rather long geneology though. But, if I had ancestors and progeny like yours, I'd be proud too....I m a mutt...
I hate to say this but Substack "does it" for their own profit as well. Substack recruits writers/influencers by offering some of them substantial advances. We are led to believe we are on a platform built on noble intentions. Not so.
"Kleptocrats, autocrats and criminals are making a strong bid to control our country.
Will they succeed ?
Maybe. But in a similar moment after 1903, the American people reasserted the rule of law."
Yes... Will they succeed ?
The bid has been building up for decades now.
America today is a very different country from America in 1903.
A country in which -- thanks to the deep confusion fostered by virtual reality and those technocrats who have mined it purely for profit -- the odds now favor a criminal takeover, as never before.
We have every reason to be grateful to Doctor Richardson for her crystal-clear warning.
But... Is forewarned forearmed?
That will depend on every one of us. It will depend on every American who hears the warning and acts on it to warn others.
But have you ever spoken to those "others" who believe all the crap floating around? Today's email inbox produced something from a 'moderate' GOP Congressman from a neighboring district in which he demanded "accountability" from guess who, the Democrats!
I have to talk to beloved and thoroughly brainwashed members of my own family.
And it's not like talking with Dad, who had the prejudices -- and the great virtues -- of another age.
He listened carefully and replied. We disagreed, but each was interested in what the other had to say.
They often admire the form but can't make sense of the content. It's as though I came from another planet. If they read intelligent right-wing publications, we could at least converse, but theirs is an unvaried diet of crass propaganda... And they don't recognise that while the name of of the newspapers remains the same, the content has changed radically.
Friends tell me that you need to take care when talking to some Trumpistas. It could be dangerous. And in any case they're 100% impervious to ideas other than those they've
All excellent and frightening points, Sandy Lewis, Peter Barnett, and everyone else above. AND statistics tell us that Republicans are the minority nationally, and the thoroughly brainwashed no-critical-thinking QAnon Trumpublicans are even more of a minority. My method of maintaining hope and not giving up is to focus my efforts on what I, from a distance in MA, ca do to helpturn out likely Democratic voters, for example right now for VA. Postcards and phonebanks, as much as I can.
I've written for years about money laundering and corruption and this latest spat of stories isn't anything new: In 2013, the “Offshore Leaks” data dump revealed the extent of international tax fraud perpetrated by banks. The “Panama Papers” in 2016 exposed offshore money laundering through shell companies created by now-defunct law firm Mossack Fonseca. In 2017, the “Paradise Papers” unearthed thousands of unknown offshore corporations owned by prominent corporations and individuals such as Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. Now the “Pandora Papers” generates tons of news stories that will peter out, subsumed by the unrelenting news cycle that is managed by a media that has the attention span of a flea.
And yet this is the single biggest problem in the world — a wholesale redistribution of the world’s wealth into the hands of a few.
No. It is what may make the single great problem in our world -- climate change -- insoluble, while worsening every other trouble that we have to face.
May I take this opportunity to say how encouraging I find it, not only to be able to follow HCR's remarkable work -- a truly heroic undertaking, I just don't know how she does it! -- but to read a discussion as intelligent, straight-speaking and thoughtful as this.
Perhaps I am ignorant, but I've seen nothing like it elsewhere, certainly not in the UK. On the contrary, I've seen endless rubbish. Prejudices of right and left, stupid, primitive reactions, trolling; even, once, a glimpse of Hell when I clicked on a word indicating what I expected to lead to press reports: Trolls gloating over Politkovskaya's murder.
After Fbook etc., I could never have imagined Internet giving rise to the kind of serious, neighborly community that has grown up around Letters from an American.
It makes me feel very fortunate to have found you all, and concerned about how I express my own thoughts. It's like when a musician finds a good instrument. That's both enabling and demanding.
Goodness knows, today's immensely dangerous situation compels us all to give of our best and makes me feel critical of my own input.
Thank you all, and I hope that every positive action initiated here will have the greatest possible resonance.
the world of rogue capitalism has no bounds! who are the investors buying stock in a SPAC that is designed to buy a company in 'the future"? shell company A , the SPAC, has no assets nor financial track record! yet millions of shares of its stock were purchased based on the expectation that it would buy trump's media group! But it has NOT bought the group at the time of the wild speculation! GREEDY people salivating at the drippings from slimy trump!
I just started watching the British version (1990) of "House of Cards." It's amazing how current it seems as it portrays the the lust for power and especially the lust for money and the super lust for power of those with huge amounts of money. As you say, it is an old story. (I almost committed an "Freudian typo" - an old tory...)
Please also note the Chevron-backed prosecution of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger. Donziger won a massive settlement against Chevron for dumping oil in the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador, but rather than pay out settlement (of billions of dollars), Chevron instead targeted the lawyer in the case with false accusations. Donziger is currently under house arrest in NYC in a truly Orwellian case. We also have systematic corruption in the judicial branch. For details see: https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/steven-donziger-chevron-sentencing/
A few politicians have spoken up about this case, like Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Lindsey Boylan, one of the first woman to speak out against former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Karen, I was taken with the article Bill linked, 'Is Chevron’s Vendetta Against Steven Donziger Finally Backfiring?'. I don't know why, but looked further. If you have a chance, read my reply to Bill's comment. There is more to this story, certainly, not in Chevron's favor but raising questions about Donziger.
Thank you for looking further into this Fern. I just read The NY Times Opinion piece and it does look like there is more to this story. I will check out the other links as well.
The rot runs deep. TFG knew how to exploit it (his only skill) and in so doing forced us all to see what we wanted to deny. The masks are off, the truth is known; the ball is in our court now.
This article ends more hopeful than others I have read about Danziger's (and The Earth's) plight, with the possible pushback from Chevron stockholders. But, yes, truly Orwellian. Or perhaps right out of a Russian playbook? Horrid.
The article, 'Is Chevron’s Vendetta Against Steven Donziger Finally Backfiring?', for which Bill provided a link, implicated Chevron and our courts in a massive cover-up concerning Chevron's contamination of an area the size of Rhode Island in Ecuador and the persecution of human rights lawyer, Donziger, who sought justice for 30,000 Ecuadorians.
I was going to extoll the article's reveal of good v. evil at the heart of corruption by a gigantic corporation, our court system and, perhaps, more. I was going to rebuke The New York Times for not writing a word about this big story since 2014, but luckily, I stopped to read what the New York Times had to say back then. First, I read an Opinion in the paper, which was not the least bit favorable to either Chevron or human rights lawyer, Donziger. After reading the Opinion, I thought, let's not anoint Donziger, yet, or let Chevron off the hook for contaminating of an enormous amount of land in Ecuador. A link to the Opinion is below.
The Opinion led me to Paul M. Barrett's book, 'Law of the Jungle: 'The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win It'. I couldn't open the link to the Wall St. Journal's book review, but located a detailed one by, Anne Minard. Quoting her, 'As Barrett points out, all the drama has eclipsed the goal of the original suit: to clean up pollution that affects the lives of rural Ecuadorian people. Ultimately, Barrett's book casts a harsher spotlight on Donziger's behavior than on Texaco or Chevron's'. What, that's startling, could the 'hero' turn out to be something less? A link to her review of the book is below:
Finally, the author of 'Law of the Jungle'. Paul M. Barrett is no slouch. His work provides a better understanding of lawyer Donziger, who appears to have captured the hearts of some committed to environmental cleanups, addressing Climate Change and doing the right thing. I do not know the truth of Steven Donzier, but serious questions remain.
A search for the facts is often an arduous task and long journey. 'Law of Jungle' was a serious undertaking for author, Barrett, and he has the credentials to warrant attention. He is the Deputy Director, Center for Business and Human Rights, Stern School of Business; Adjunct Professor of Law, New York University and joined the Center as deputy director in September 2017 after spending more than three decades as a journalist and author focusing on the intersection of business, law, and society. Most recently, Paul worked for 12 years for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, where he served at different times as the editor of an award-winning investigative team and a writer covering topics such as energy and the environment, military procurement, and the civilian firearm industry. From 1986 to 2005, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, serving as the newspaper’s Supreme Court correspondent and later as the page one special projects.
His book again is 'Law of the Jungle'. If you are interested the link below provides buying options.
HCR's extraordinary Letter linking three stories, ended with her writing that 'kIeptocrats, autocrats, and criminals are making a strong bid to control our country'.
The work of Paul M. Barrett sent me on a morning's journey to learn more about human rights lawyer, Steven Donziger, a tiny lift, and I have no answers.
As for the effort required to reveal the powers working against us, we must look to our free-press. Will the journalists and truth-tellers in America step up to connect the people and the stories, thereby, exposing the underlying corruption rotting the country's experiment with democracy as it sows hatred and the destruction of civil society.
I am sure that Paul Barret was well-compensated for his hit piece on Steven Donziger. If you would like to learn more about Mr. Donziger, these testimonials are a good place to start: https://www.freedonziger.com/testimonials
Bill, You have made a very serious accusation against Paul Barrett. What is the basis of your certainly that his book was a 'hit piece' for which he was compensated? Barrett had a distinguished career as a journalist over a long period time, including years of employed with respected news organizations. Other than Steve Donziger's accusation against him, have you any reputable accounts to substantiate it. Did you read 'Law of the Jungle'? I am not making any claims, but questions were raised about Donziger's actions, some of which he has admitted to. I have no brief here, simply read the article in the Nation, and read material from a few other sources.
Hello Fern, I will try to explain my opinions on this matter as best I can, but I recommend to anyone interested in this case to follow the links I am leaving at the end of this post, and listen to Mr. Donziger explain the case himself.
The big picture here is that Chevron was responsible for visiting death and destruction upon the communities in the Ecuadorian rain-forest, primarily by dumping toxic oil sludge into their water supply. After many years of litigation, Donziger and team won a settlement against Chevron for billions of dollars. Rather than pay out billions to the Ecuadorian communities, Chevron mounted a multi-year campaign to discredit one of the principal lawyers for the Ecuadorian community (Donziger). This is known as DARVO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO)--Deny, Attack, and Reverse the Victim and Offender. DARVO is a classic technique for abusers of all kinds: abusive spouses, abusive politicians (like Trump or Cuomo), and predatory corporations such as Chevron.
My view of Chevron and other oil companies is that these are entities that are deliberately destroying our planet (air, water and soil) for the sake of short term profits. I believe that the people who run these corporations are addicts--like a heroine addict, they are only consumed with getting their next fix (more money in their bank accounts). But the high of getting that fix wears off very quickly, and soon they need another fix (even more money). And they don't care who are what they destroy in their path in order to get that next fix. Because they gotta have that fix.
If you do not share this view of the oil companies, then you probably won't agree with the rest of what I have to say.
With regards to Paul Barrett and his book, my views concerning his book are entirely my own. I had never heard of the book before I read your post, and I have never read any comments on the book by Donziger or any of his supporters.
Firstly, let me explain my views on modern corporate media (such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN, NBC, etc.). I am in my late fifties, and I grew up in a home where we had the New York Times delivered every day, and on Sunday we went to the local grocery store and bought the New York Daily News and the New York Post. (So we had three papers on Sundays.) We also had Time magazine delivered every week. This was in the late 60's and early 70's. So I grew up reading the New York Times nearly every day, and reading Time magazine and the other Sunday papers every week. And as a boy reading these papers, I pretty much believed that what I was reading was true, or a close approximation. Likewise, I believed most of what I heard on the evening news on Television.
Now, as a man in his fifties, I simply do not trust any corporate media entity to report accurately on the most important issues facing our society. These are for-profit institutions. Their mandate, their singular goal, is profit, not truth. I believe that a large part of their content that is produced by these entities is propaganda for the corporations and the billionaire class that have effectively "captured" the levers of power in our society (the government, the media, the courts). For example, I do not trust the Wall Street Journal to report accurately on the corporate malfeasance of an oil company like Chevron.
I think these views might seem extreme to you, Fern. But at least I can assure you that I come by my views honestly, after much thought and reflection.
So given my views on the oil companies and corporate media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, it did not take me long to reach an opinion on Paul Barrett's book. I freely admit my bias. My opinion of Mr. Barrett and his book flows logically from my assessment of the institutions he is associated with.
Fern, you cited Mr. Barrett's "distinguished career" with "respected news organizations." I simply don't share your respect for these organizations (such as the Wall Street Journal). Hence, I am not much impressed by anyone who has a career with them.
The book description states the following about the lawsuit on behalf of the Ecuadorian communities: "The suit sought reparations for the Ecuadorian peasants and tribes people whose lives were affected by decades of oil production near their villages and fields."
Firstly, who calls anyone "peasants"? Secondly, it says "their lives were affected" by "oil production." This is simply dishonesty by omission. The oil company deliberately and knowingly dumped toxic sludge into the rain forest that killed children and caused a generation of people to suffer from illnesses such as cancer, etc. Children literally vomited up blood after unknowingly swimming in toxic water.
Next, the description asserts that Steven Donziger is a "loud-mouthed showman" who "proved himself a master orchestrator of the media, Hollywood, and public opinion."
Fern, this is textbook DARVO (Deny, Attack, and Reverse the Victim and Offender).
Deny - the poor "peasants" were "affected" by "oil production." That doesn't sound so bad, does it? This is effectively a denial of the death and destruction that was visited upon this community by poisoning their water supply.
Attack - he attacks the lawyer for the community as a "loud-mouth" and a "showman." So never mind whatever happened to the "peasants," their lawyer was a "loud-mouth."
Reverse the Victim and the Offender - this is an important part of the strategy. Trump does this all that time. In this case, the book description goes on to say that, after losing in court, "Chevron refused to surrender or compromise." Sounds noble doesn't it? And also Chevron "revealed damning evidence of [Donziger's] politicking and manipulation of evidence."
So now, see what happened? According to Barrett, Chevron is the Victim, and that "loud-mouthed" lawyer is the Offender.
So the whole gist of this book, based on the description, is: Okay, maybe Chevron did some things that "affected" the "peasants", but look at this "loud-mouth" lawyer, man. CHEVRON REVEALED "damning evidence" of "politicking and manipulation."
This is the story Chevron wants you to focus on. They want to draw your attention away from their immoral behavior, and focus on something else. This book description reads to me like it could have been written by a Chevron PR firm. (I wouldn't be surprised if it was.)
Lastly, in preparing this response, I have done a quick Google search of Paul M. Barrett, and It turns out that Mr. Barrett is a member of the Federalist Society: https://fedsoc.org/contributors/paul-barrett
Coincidentally, the judge that has placed Steven Donziger under house arrest and sentenced him to prison is also a member of the Federalist Society. https://fedsoc.org/contributors/loretta-preska
Since this is my first time posting on this forum, I just want to express my gratitude to Heather Cox Richardson for the almost super-human effort she is putting into her posts. She has given me a much clearer perspective on recent events than I otherwise would have had.
Bill, Thank you so much for your thoughtful post. I hope that you will come to the forum again. We are in complete agreement about the fossil fuels sector. We are in agreement intellectually and emotionally on that score. How could I not have strong feelings about the lethal effects their products have on the life and the health of human beings, animals, plants, oceans, rivers, streams -- the planet. I agree with you that both The New York Times and the Washington Post have weaknesses, but I am grateful for their investigative journalism. The New York Times is still a daily dose for me. It was as a second family during the peak of the pandemic. I live in NYC, and it was hell, deeply sad and frightening. The Times came through as well as any newspaper could. My sources, however, are wide ranging. I'm a free-press advocate. I believe that the country has suffered greatly by the loss of a local newspapers. Most harmful is social media. Zuckerberg is monster; he is up there with the worst of all time.
I haven't read 'Law of Jungle' and haven't opened your new links but will tomorrow. The Federalist Society and I are in different camps. I cannot, however, assume that Barrett's book is a hit piece. My bias here is different than yours. I don't know how good or bad the book is, but I doubt that it was a payment upfront deal. I am not going to pursue the strengths and weaknesses of Steve Donziger. The Chevon/Donziger case was one that I fell into because the Donziger's situation has been noted on the forum. When I saw the link to a piece in the Nation about it, so began my early morning.
It was good to have this opportunity to communicate with you, Bill. I hope that we will do it again. Salud! Fern
I would not not rush to anoint, Donziger. Have you read, Paul M. Barrett's book, 'Law of the Jungle: 'The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win It'.
I am sure that Paul Barret was well-compensated for his hit piece on Steven Donziger. If you would like to learn more about Mr. Donziger, these testimonials are a good place to start: https://www.freedonziger.com/testimonials
I hope we can reassert the rule of law but has it also been compromised with all the extremely conservative and I might add unqualified judges Majority Leader McConnell confirmed or will the judicial branch hold to the rule of law. In the next week or so, I'm having lunch with a friend, who is the presiding judge over one of the state district court regions here in Texas to ask him that question. He told me a couple of years ago that our democracy would be OK if the Rule of Law held. Now he has to convince me that the rule of law is holding. Recent shenanigans on the Texas anti-abortion law and the U.S. 5th court of appeals and SCOTUS would indicate otherwise so I hope he has some good arguments to make. I do want him to win this case!
Your beacon through the daily fog continues to inspire. I recently visited the Museum in Munich built on the site of the Nazi HQ (Brown House) that houses the archival record of the Nazi rise and fall. (Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism) It was profound especially to spend time reviewing the ten year lead up to how the Nazis took power and THE EXTRAORDINARY SIMILARITIES to what happened and CONTINUES to happen in the USA Today. At the very end of the exhibit was this:
“The Nazi Party’s path to power was not an inevitable, triumphant march. The defensive measures of the state and civilian resistance never came together to form an effective counter-force. The Weimar Republic failed because people didn’t oppose extremism vigorously enough.”
I had a similar experience in 2012. I was visiting my sister in law, who was living in Germany outside Köln at the time. We went to a museum there which had an exhibit detailing just how the Nazi Party rose. At that time, I remember saying “we have that going on in the US today.” The last 9 years have not reassured me in any way.
In around 2013 or 14, an Austin, TX museum hosted an exhibit from the US Holocaust Museum. The exhibit was a chilling walk-through of how the press and lies, big and small, worked on the population. It tells the story of Nazi propaganda through hate speech and lies. We were speechless as we saw the same kind of "other" baiting that we were seeing played out as Trump began pumping up his propaganda machine. Trump's first wife is said to have commented that the only book she ever saw him read was Mein Kampf.
We are watching Beach Hotel (Danish on Netflix) right now. A new character is a young woman (German) entranced and hyped up by Nazi ideology. Just a drama, but a potent reminder of what can happen (and is, in another mode, happening now.....) She glows when she talks about the new Germany (I'm not associating that with Germany now, just to be clear).
Upper class family, visiting in Denmark. So not any parallel in that way. But she brings "conversion" and true believer to mind---and other ways rationality can be lost..... Her enthusiasm is a potent parallel to right wing enthusiasm here.... (You may have meant the comment more in jest; not sure.......)
I am bemused by all of the carping when President Biden is on the cusp of enacting the broadest social legislation to benefit a large majority of Americans since LBJ’s Great Society (when he had an overwhelming majority in Congress). President Biden started with a broad wish list that addressed a vast number of pressing needs. With a whisker majority in the House and a 50/50 Senate, he was obliged to negotiate compromises that could get his bills approved without any Republican votes.
His compromises were an essential part of accomplishing something imperative for the majority of the American people. I applaud him for fulfilling his “promises made, results delivered” campaign promise. Of course some Democrats will be disappointed and Republicans will be in total opposition. Meanwhile President Biden has well served the American people.
Keith, why be bemused? Joe Biden did not go to the voters with a "wish list". No, he made many promises intended to garner votes from Democrats holding a wide range of conflicting views about almost everything, and from independents, and from the few Republicans who just couldn't stomach anymore Trump. This is what presidential candidates do. No one gets everything they want.
This got him elected with a respectable margin in the unfavorably rigged and anachronistic Electoral College, and thanks to the Georgia Miracle, he got enough DEM Senators to -- one might think -- guarantee free and fair future elections, lay the foundation for a real, European-style social state (yes, better than a "safety net", better than Medicare), rebuild and expand our crumbling, inadequate and/or non-existent infrastructure, and -- most importantly -- establish American leadership in humanity's death struggle with global warming, the unquestioned elephant in the room. I remember saying to my wife when the results in the Georgia run-offs were clear, "I'll be damned. Biden did it!" But....
No. The defeated Trump did not concede, but instead claimed election fraud, declared himself the winner and began his coup d'etat, still ongoing. The GOP looked around, imagined themselves in an America run by Democrats again and said, "No Way!" Understandable for a party that had spent 40 years both trying to undermine democracy -- as a hedge against creeping demographic change -- and dreaming of a return to the glory days of the old South, Jim Crow and the KKK. Not even Beaver Cleaver's America would have satisfied them.
So, once he and Congress had done the minimum to begin turning the COVID corner, Joe Biden's assurances that his experience in the Senate would lead to a new bi-partisan moment in American governance went up in smoke, and then just as we were girding our loins to eliminate the filibuster and put an end to this malevolent GOP (at least in its modern manifestation), Joe Manchin said, "Wait a minute, not so fast, I'm from West Virginia. It's a GOP state." And the weird Senator Sinema is just the cherry on top for whom there is no coherent explanation, if not simple corruption.
And, really, we should have known better. The GOP -- barring further miracles -- has already turned the SCOTUS into the Capitol Hill branch of the Federalist Society, so all this excitement about testimony before the Select Committee and the possible awakening of Merrick Garland is premature, however much I share it. And I do.
I agree, Keith, that we are on the cusp of something, but it may not be the enacting of broad social legislation.
David I am thankful for what President Biden is on the cusp of accomplishing under excruciating difficult political circumstances. I firmly believe that what he has been accomplishing in his first nine months has been really good for a country that had experienced Trump. I would appreciate your telling me and Heather’s devotees specifically why you disagree with my opinion? Thanks.
Keith, I disagree with your hopeful opinion because I believe it does not take account of the reality of what's happening in our country. The GOP -- assisted by two apparently corrupt Democratic Senators -- still controls the Senate. No legislation the GOP thinks might curtail their plan to end democracy in America will be allowed to pass. McConnell has said as much publicly. No voting legislation, no infrastructure legislation, no voting rights legislation, nothing, period. They are hoping to convince America that Joe Biden can't help people who need it. In fact, if the Democrats cannot find enough votes to pass legislation, they will not be able to help Americans.
Of course I would prefer it if both Manchin and Sinema behaved like real Democrats, maybe even showed a little courage. But it hasn't happened yet as far as I know.
Keith, I am worried Republicans have little respect for the intelligence of most Americans, and in this they may be right. Show me where the 50 votes + 1 needed to eliminate the filibuster are coming from, and I might change my mind about this.
David Might you change your opinion when the $2 trillion (+or-) social infrastructure legislation is passed along with the much-needed physical infrastructure bill? I prefer the art of the possible over devil advocacy.
If Joe can get a couple of good bills passed, it will be a feather in his cap and good for Americans. I would pass voting legislation first before GOP gerrymandering can go any further, but we have to take what we can get and not let up. Fingers crossed.
David, It wasn't easy making sense of your comment. It seemed set Biden up for failure.
Right from the get-go your wrote, 'Joe Biden did not go to the voters with a "wish list". No, he made many promises intended to garner votes from Democrats holding a wide range of conflicting views about almost everything, and from independents, and from the few Republicans who just couldn't stomach anymore Trump.'
What is the difference between a 'wish list' and 'promises'? Do Democrats hold a wide range of conflicting views about almost every thing as you wrote? That seems like an exaggeration to me. There are differences under the big tent, but not nearly that extreme. Biden's promises were for the things most Americans wanted at the time, and there was almost unanimity among Democrats. The Delta variant eventually got in the way as did most Republican Governors, nevertheless, Biden did pretty well in his first 100 days.
'At the 100-day mark, has Biden kept his campaign promises?' (Washington Post) See for yourself Richard. Link below.
Near the end of your comment, as at the beginning, you look down, '... we are on the cusp of something, but it may not be the enacting of broad social legislation.' Okay, given life in America today, it's understandable to temper high expectations or to not have any at all. There is good reason, however, to think that The Build Back Better Act will be enacted. You, Keith and I will all be very happy about that.
Heather, I am feeling dismayed. Writing postcards to get out the vote in NJ while feeling numb. Thank you for perspective and reasonableness. I have always had faith in political action for social and civil rights- but it feels like the republicans have castrated our democracy. Voter-repression, Covid, people supporting Trump, inflation, still not ok to travel- overwhelming. Glad for your voice. Enormously sad for the American dream.
Are you keeping printed copies of these important Letters and storing them in a safe place for future historians, especially with the very real risk of a near future under authoritarian rule?
Heather, I can't endorse Cindy's suggestion strongly enough. My computer specialty from 1986 through about 2017 was data storage, and I've watched "electronic media" go through numerous cycles of obsolescence. Just try to find a functioning 5.25" floppy disk reader. The much-vaunted "Cloud" will die the day the companies that maintain them go bankrupt and the power goes off.
As a historian, you know very well (of course) the value of written documents. Nothing in the modern world has surpassed ink on paper for longevity, and survival through chaos. Yes, CDs will (probably) last thousands of years. The technology to read them will not. With paper and ink, the documents will survive, and the language is passed through culture, which is a lot more durable than a CD player.
I've written here before and will write again: I'd pay handsomely for a bound book of Letters from an American. It would take up less space on my bookshelf than printed pages. Also, it would not only become an instant best seller but also catapult HCR into mainstream. I truly think this is something that should be done. Anyone with publishing connections feel like taking on a project?
“Experts say that because of the lack of transparency required in our financial transactions, hundreds of billions of dollars are laundered in the U.S. every year.”
This is why experts and whistle blowers are discredited and journalists are called “enemies of the people”. Transparency and oligarchy are like oil and water.
And we wonder why Republicans keep fighting against increasing staffing at the IRS, which they gutted. They don't want the IRS to crack down on the rich, who are cheating on their taxes and costing the government billions of dollars.
Heather, thank goodness for you and your perspective. You bring scope to isolated stories and make me glad to read you every day, even when we're both worried by events. Thank you, and know that thousands of us feel the same gratitude.
I wholeheartedly second your sentiments, Richard!
This letter rang some of my memory bells. A few years ago I read "The Bully Pulpit" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. All about Teddy Roosevelt and the McClure crew. Highly recommend it.
If there is to be another true progressive era, it will take much more muck raking - and it will need to come from someone with a "Tarbell" reputation. Someone like Rachel Maddow has the intellect and drive but she is tainted or labeled as "too far left".
In reality, the closest thing we have to such a person is our Professor HCR. But while her following is growing, these stories of corruption need to be all over NBC, ABC and CBS. And propelled through every social media platform. The theme could be "Wake Up America, you are being had."
Dr. Richardson Cox’s comparison of the three stories that emerged recently and the three stories from McClure’s magazine in 1903 is, on the surface, interesting.
However, think of the environment that each dropped into. The earlier stories came from a time when print was the only form of media. The public basically didn’t read or they read local newspapers and national magazines. Thus a series of sensational and horrifically true stories would reach the entire audience *in the same way*. Because of the endless rapacity of mill and factory owners, people were similarly outraged and the muckraking era was launched.
There was no requirement to “both sides” a story.
There was no “whataboutism”.
There was no Facebook to slice and dice who would receive the story and who would receive an alternate, sanitized account of it which would tear apart the original.
There was no Fox news to provide cover for the wealthy.
There was no twenty-four hour news cycle which would burn through the story in a day or two and chase a different ambulance the next day.
I feel fairly assured in saying that the factory story from Illinois likely didn’t even go national or if it did, lasted but a hot moment. I feel equally assured that many, many people didn’t hear of the Pandora Papers story and that the vast majority of those who did would need to be reminded of what is about today.
I do think that the Willard Hotel story may have legs of its own, partly because it is attached to the remarkable events of 1/6 and partly because it has a salacious feel to it.
More to the point, it is a reminder to all of the slow, steady, and unyielding work of the House Committee. Things are going to emerge from that in a trickle at first and then in a gush. We may (God, we can only hope) be nearing a John Dean moment when the entire dominant narrative is revealed and some people have no place left to hide and no media who will be able to effectively protect them.
In the meantime, I am quite sure that one or two of the investigations of Trump have plenty of evidence to arrest him on matters completely separate from the January failed coup. Not sure if they have the will.
Indict DJT.
Perp walk DJT…
You know the rest.
There
May we hope the 1/6 commission does what William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) wrote in The Liberator (1831): "I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- and I will be heard."
Eric, as usual, you are spot on. Thank you.
Indict DJT. Perp walk DJT. Lock him up and throw away the key.
He was spot on except that it's Dr. Heather Cox Richardson. Saying it is Richardson Cox would make her initials HRC. I, for one, would hate to have Heather compared with Hilary. Heather is so much better.
Early on, when Heather was only on Facebook, I had to load HCR into my autocorrect as every time I typed HCR I was "corrected" to HRC.
Those damned Hilary fans! Chuckle.
😉
Plus there are so many ppl in the U.S. lacking any critical thinking skills to discern truth from fantastically conjectured conspiracies. Shorten that to IDIOTS.
Sigh. You are so right about the many people in the US who lack critical thinking skills.
Disinformation is our worst enemy, and there are so many venues by which it is disseminated.
Yes, and what I don’t understand is how newsprint can be held accountable (or maybe they no longer are accountable) for facts, yet FB runs rampant with lies & fake news (DT was right about fake news but it is fake news for his benefit). I am naive apparently, to think the “genie is out of the bottle,” with respect to controlling social media. Is it really freedom of the press to let misinformation to be created & disseminated for nefarious consumption?
Eric,
You put the facts very succinctly. I can hardly wait for the gush.
Yep
But they didn’t have Fox and clones and FB preaching that the true enemy is libtards, like this old, retired counselor who eats babies. Doubtful that the whole country will ever hear a “Walter Cronkite” version of the news. Why we are divided, why we are likely to stay that way. The cult rules so many fools, and they are devoted to the biggest loser America has ever produced. May the law win a few rounds. And I love what Teddy did, and will check out The Bully Pulpit.
Yes, it seems that so may people don't want to believe or face the truth, they are attached to what they want to believe. We have a mental health crisis in this country is how I see it.
I see it as brainwashing, exactly what Hitler and other cult figures do, particularly dictator-types with malignant narcissism.
The news corporation’s will make a splash with this “ Pandora papers “ story and then LET it die. If for no other reason than they are owned by the very corporations that are owned by the billionaires that benefit from these “tax haven” ……..
Too bad Teddy was such a star-raving racist
Another time, another context. He wasn't very good with wild animals either but that doesn't wipe out or "colour" what he did achieve.
Most racists I have known had not one redeeming feature. My Dad was racist, but he lived long enough to learn. Some don’t no matter how long they live. Would like to think Teddy did after he was so dependent for his survival on Amazon natives late in his life. Just me rambling, but why not.
That's the problem with putting up monuments. They put up the person, not what the person did. No one is perfect. We shouldn't put people up on pedestals. We should celebrate specific good actions.
“Worship” mentality is the one if the easiest ways to divide people (imo).
Ida Tarbell was an American journalist best known for her pioneering investigative reporting that led to the breakup of the Standard Oil Company's monopoly. Wikipedia
In her most famous work, The History of the Standard Oil Company (which oil historian Daniel Yergin called the “most important business book ever written”), Miss Tarbell revealed, after years of painstaking research, the illegal means used by John D. Rockefeller to monopolize the early oil industry.
November 5, 1857 – January 6, 1944
In the days following the 2016 election, I chose a biography of Ida Tarbell for reading material, to bolster my resolve to keep moving forward. It was a good choice.
Bill Modern-day muckrakers will need a much bigger rake. The muck exposed by Heather, Rachel, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and even the Wall Street Journal should create a stench that galvanizes the American people. Nah, same old same old, then back to sports and other more substantial topics. In part this mucky stench is integral to our corporate world and filters into members of Congress.
As far an the original muckrakers, Upton Sinclair, in The Jungle, revolted readers with stories of fingers and wedding rings in their sausage. Teddy Roosevelt (who took wads of money in the 1904 presidential campaign from those corporations he was targeting in his trustbusting rants), took tactical advantage of The Jungle, then savagely attacked muck rakers as observers, not participants.
Alas, the muckers still ride rough shod over the muckees.
Keith, I cannot imagine what its like to have your depth and breadth of knowledge. Thanks for reminding me about The Jungle. I'll read it again.
It helps to be 88 and a life-time voracious reader. After peripatetic careersas author of a book on Nasser’s Egypt, Foreign Service Officer in Congo and Chile, creator of international bond credit ratings, head of a national management consulting company for nearly a decade, 15 years in local municipal government, and meeting over 1000 Eisenhower Fellows global leaders, as a history professor from age 58 to 80, I had the opportunity to ruminate on what interested me as I continually learned about the good, bad, and ugly. Currently I am reading WATER: A BIOGRAPHY, which focuses on how water has shaped our past and the shortage of which will dramatically affect our future.
I former Urban Studies Professor of mine (back in the dark age)taught us, the most vital predictor of population growth is related to water sources. It certainly kept me from moving to the desert!
Yes, but NBC, ABC(Disney owned) and CBS are owned by corporations. Need I say anything else about "these stories of corruption need to be all over NBC, ABC and CBS?" I don't think so.
I started reading “ The Bully Pulpit” a few yrs back but got sidetracked by a few dozen books I became engrossed with…I will now go back to finish that book. I love Goodwin’s other books, also.
Murdock has helped create the muck, and i woukd bet a nickle he’s too old to change, so we need a new (trustworthy) media.
Bill, you're right - that was/is an excellent book! I share your recommendation.
"The United States is one of the money-laundering capitals of the world." I didn't know this and I suspect many other Americans don't know it either. The ramifications of that statement are stunning. No wonder corruption and greed are rampant in our country.
Hasn’t it always been so?
“Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley (July 4, 1920 – August 20, 2007) was an American businesswoman. ... During the trial, a former housekeeper testified that she had heard Helmsley say: "We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes", a quote which was identified with her for the rest of her life.
Helmsley was telling the truth. Except for the rich, we all pay more taxes.
I stayed in her hotel on the south end of Central Park for a few days nearly 20 years ago. She lived in the hotel and would have breakfast every morning on the mezzanine overlooking the park. She always had her dog 🐩 with her and her accountant who would be going over the numbers from the previous day. In addition to the hotel 🏨 I believe she owned at that time the Empire State Building, can you imagine? I asked around and I was amazed at how many people that worked there loved her, despite her media reputation she was revered by the people who worked for her. This would have been after she spent time in jail. That quote may have followed her, but I can tell you from being around her, she could have cared less about that quote, she was focused on her businesses.
But she told the universal truth
In an advanced tax class in college, we were assigned a portion of the tax code and were charged to figure which entity benefited based on the inclusions and exclusions. I was lucky enough to have one involving T. Boone Pickens.
That must have been interesting. I have for a long time believed that people like T. Boone, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet weren’t tax cheats, there are plenty that are, no doubt, they have been taking advantage of the tax codes that are written like Swiss cheese 🧀 but in order to do that they have to employ armies of accountants and tax lawyers most of whom pay taxes on their income wether it’s corporate tax or personal income tax. So the income is eventually taxed, but it gets filtered in the process. Amazon employ’s hundreds of thousands of people who all pay taxes, when I hear that Amazon doesn’t pay any taxes I think that is just wrong, as a huge income stream entity, the money that flows through that company is taxed. There’s no simple solution to the appearance of them generating wealth without paying taxes, the tax experts they employ who do pay taxes, are the ones responsible for that appearance and that does not come cheaply. The insipid clown on the other hand is a very different story, cheating has always been the order of business for him and his family.
The little state of Delaware has been a world money-laundering center for a very long time. It's one of the reasons credit card companies like to call Delaware home.
And, South Dakota as well.
Delaware is the state within which Trump based his new media corporation.
Are we surprised?
Interesting that Biden is from Delaware and that he may be looking into finally tackling this money-laundering State. NTM a little hypocritical that he has not tried to tackle it before. But I'm not versed on what Biden's thoughts on his home State are in relation to this fact. Time will tell.
Found this interesting article on this subject: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/11/biden-bankruptcy-president/
Think he has a pile of crap to wade through
and they had the cheek to lead the pack in forcing open Switzerlands banking secrecy.
And the US has more "customers" in the drug trade(both legal and illegal) than any other country in the world. Talk about money-laundering.
HCR does not have a clue: tax rolls and international schemes have destroyed tax equity.
As she said, the tip of the iceberg. So, Sandy, do tell.
If you have all the answers, please feel free to share them in this forum. It’s impolite to throw an insult at HCR. Maybe you should have read this statement before hitting Post and reconsidered your words.
Sandy's not blowing hot air, he knows what he's talking about. I hope this article isn't firewalled. He's not throwing an insult (this time).
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/nyregion/the-lonely-redemption-of-sandy-lewis-wall-street-provocateur.html
I honestly think if that’s true it could have been worked better. I would be offended if someone stated a conversation by saying I don’t have a clue.
I understand and I agree. I frequently take issue with how Sandy says things.
thanks Daria. A must read.
Wow, that Sandy Lewis! Thanks for the link.
Thanks, Daria, for the link. It’s an interesting read.
Thanks, Mary.
The story abt the Pandora Papers broke fairly recently, Imogene
Thank you, HCR. I know this is slightly tangential, but last night here in the UK I saw the extraordinary documentary assemblage of material "Four Hours at the Capitol" showing what was happening on January 6th. The visceral hatred shown by the mob, their crazed rationale, the violence, all truly frightening. I was further appalled by an article in Vice News of the torrent of vile e mail death threats to professional, experienced election officials and their families (!) causing many to leave their jobs.We can guess who will take their places. Do not be complacent, dear American friends. Bannon's strategy of getting "patriots" into official positions at every level, from school boards to local councils and upwards could well succeed. As we know, the judiciary is already tainted.
Christine, thank you for watching that documentary. Any rational human would be fighting a case of PTSD after watching that vile and wrenchingly scary stuff. Pour yourself something stiff if that would comfort you, or go outside and reorient yourself please! Whatever is able to 'dial you down.'
Don't become another victim of that event.
It is so good to know that Brits are forgiving us for our former guy soiling your country as well, and that we still are Friends!
Excuse my bad memory please! I was replying to Constantine, not Christine! I'll just go and brew another cup of PG Tips....
Thanks, Guy. Yes, I'm Constantine, a male - and also a dual UK / US national, which is why I follow The Blessed HCR on a daily basis, and read a wide range of US publications...I believe there is a really serious cause for concern, and can only hope that "normal" Republicans can wake up to this existential threat. If not...
Gus, not Guy — haha!!!
Silly me, too!!! Very funny! Sorry, Gus.
Don’t worry about it, Constantine.
It was my eyesight on this tiny phone screen, not my memory. Doesn't make me feel any better about missing your name though. The tea helped!
SL, I laughed too. Turnabout is fair play, and all that...
Off subject, but I really like PG tips. Also like Yorkshire gold for iced tea.
Yes! Can't find any lately. But I have a giant box of Tips to drink first.
I have not brought myself to watch it for that very reason. We had the TV on through the whole thing and have watched many clips used in hearings. I’m not sure I could control my anger and then sleep afterwards.
One of the things I've noticed about American corruption is that we are rather good at corrupting systems that turn otherwise honest individuals into abettors or dupes. Our tax system is a good example. Systems became the target precisely because it was easier to change rules than to try and corrupt individuals, who tend to do things like blow whistles (thank-you Frances Haugen!). More lately, however, it seems like we are moving to simply putting corrupt individuals into positions of leadership/power. The Trump administration and its rogues gallery illustrate this nicely.
What gives me hope is that American institutions are still made up of basically honest individuals who would rather do the right thing when given a chance. I'm not talking about heroes such as those who came forward during both impeachment trials, the Capitol Police, or various secretaries of state who said "no" to Republican attempts at vote fixing. I'm talking about regular people caught up in corrupt systems who need their paychecks to survive. They WILL do the right thing if shown a way they can understand. I've seen it time and again. This is where the leadership of Joe Biden and other Democrats is vital. The oligarchs of the Gilded Age discovered this. The kleptocrats of this age are about to discover it too.
Thank you for these thoughts. They remind me of Abigail Disney's comment: "“It really is time for wealthy people to ask themselves some hard questions. ...The fact is that people are sitting on their rear ends on their couches earning and not paying taxes on money while people are ... working their butts off just to make ends meet. ..... The “naked fact of the matter is that not a single one of the documented methods and practices that allowed these billionaires to so radically minimize their tax obligations was illegal.” (quoted in The Hill from June 2021: "Disney heiress slams billionaires, generational wealth: 'An upside-down structure"). Disney is not alone .... For example, anyone can become a "friend" of "Patriotic Millionaires" to follow along with their efforts to change the systems ... "“ Because my country — our country — means more than my money. ”
Part of the problem is that they are able to make so much money to begin with. Let's examine the pay and benefits packages for their employees. Was every employee paid a living wage? Did every employee have health insurance? These folks made a ton of money on others' backs and now get to decide how and whether to give some back. It's not just about paying taxes. But I'm preaching to the choir here!
Thank you Dian for bringing to light one of the many justice seekers with an inherited fortune. I have followed the effort to link accumulated wealth with fair taxation for a couple of decades, and one man among many remains in my mind on this topic.
Check out the work of Chuck Collins, who co-wrote with William Gates, Sr., Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why American Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. Collins founded United For a Fair Economy. He now works for the progressive think tank The Institute for Policy Studies. Collins is of the fourth generation of the Oscar Mayer family.
https://ips-dc.org (Institute for Policy Studies)
https://www.faireconomy.org (United For a Fair Economy)
WOW
Aesop - “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” Not a new thing, apparently. May the whistleblowers rule
I like this comment. And it makes me think that the media is not reporting the good stuff/the right stuff--the people who are standing up for what's right, for true (not Christian Right) moral values.
With hope like yours, it would encourage some of us if you provided a few examples of regular Americans, living on their paychecks who stepped up to do the right thing. Facebook's whistleblower, Frances Haugen, is an example of someone likely to survive, given her background, I certainly hope so, but it will take an extraordinary about of whistleblowing, muckraking and in-depth investigations to make a dent.
I brought these people up precisely because their actions are not heroic or newsworthy. They are simply decent. My guess is that anyone who has ever worked anywhere has been exposed to such people and their actions. My workplace has grown increasingly difficult since a new director was hired there 3 years ago. She is abusive and a micromanager (one of the new MDs calls her "Trump in a dress"). Even after 3 years, most of my co-workers (the ones that remain) still question her poor judgement, even though it draws retributions. Complaints to her supervisors have so far yielded no results. Nothing we have done is newsworthy, or heroic, we simply persist. The stakes are high because they involve our livelihoods. The stories are personal, and not something I am comfortable sharing on any forum. Just know that they involve good, honest, average people, most of whom are willing to do the right thing, for our workplace and for each-other.
Steve, Your workplace sounds like a nightmare. I am so sorry that you and your colleagues are suffering. I felt the intolerable conditions while reading your words. HRC's letter was towering in another way. The odds for Americans are so unwelcome, I embraced your comment for it's hopefulness. My mind was more in Facebook's whistleblower mode. Then to read this about brave souls taking risks to make their work lives less cruel was unexpected. Of course, I believe you. Is it impossible to find a friend with authority and an open mind that a group of you can confer with? As I wrote that, I thought, they have probably tried everything. With the highest regard for you.
Steve, I have thought of you several times today, after your response to my question. I always look for your comments on the forum. Your steadiness, insight, and clarity pull me to your words. Long before today, I felt what I fine match you are for the young people in you care. My thoughts today reflected the wish to see you and show my appreciation. Peace.
Fern, Here is a compilation of whistle blowers throughout history. Not all cited are whistle blowers living paycheck to paycheck but they are significant in that the took a risk and did the right thing. This Wikipedia page opens many a rabbit hole to explore. Best. dw 🌷
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_whistleblowers
Thanks, Daria…So many strong women !!
Vera English was employed as a lab technician at a nuclear facility operated by General Electric Company (GE).[70] English was terminated after exposing widespread radioactive contamination in the facility. Her Supreme Court case, English v. General Electric Company, set precedent that allowed whistleblowers to pursue cases under state law.
You're welcome, Kathy. I was surprised by the number of women as well!
daria, thanks for this list. I find it disgusting that governments, including our own, and certain corporations, when exposed for bad things they have done, attack whistleblowers in an attempt to make the whistleblower wrong and often accuse and sometimes indict them.
Thanks, Richard. The fact that whistle blowers bringing needed daylight to issues frequently suffer serious consequences is appalling.
Starting in 1564 this list may have seemed long to you. With review, however, you would have learned that there was no references to the whistleblowers' economic class or 'living paycheck to paycheck'. More to the point, Daria, there were only 23 whistle blowers in Wikipedia's list, covering 2010 - 2020, and it is a list of people from different countries, including the US. As to rabbit holes, Daria, there is nothing to rave about here.
Fern, you are one of the rudest, most arrogant, narrow minded people I've ever encountered in public discourse. In the scheme of things, it is really not a long list, but it IS a list of people, throughout history, including the 21st century, who have taken measures to improve the lives of others. If you had bothered to dig beyond the Wikipedia page itself, you MIGHT have found more information to your liking. But you didn't.
Your goal, on this page, and likely elsewhere in your life, is to dominate the conversation with your bullshit and push your overblown, self-serving ego into every conversation you participate in.
Paycheck to paycheck whistle blowers are rare because those are generally not the people in a position to blow the whistle. You have no interest in engaging. You, ma'am can go to hell.
Daria too much animosity has accumulated between us, perhaps, there was some at the start. I realize that your initial reply to me was thoughtful and a gesture of friendliness. I have gotten gun shy as result of past encounters. A great deal of anger from you has come my way before this last unfortunate exchange. My response to you this time was curt and critical; I apologize for that. There was a time when I also did a small favor on your behalf. Can we put our tempers down? Your assessment of my personality is one that I never received before. I enjoy engaging with many of the subscribers and have become friendly with a few. Can we put the hatchets down? I will be mindful of my communication with you and honor your thoughts.
Fern, There have been many times, including this week, when you have "paid a compliment" to someone in such an awkward and incomprehensible manner that they perceived it as a rebuke because that is what it seemed to be. Your words are not always as benevolent as you believe. They can come across as caustic and mean.
My original comment to you today was made with all good intentions in hopes that it might spur on a larger discussion about the value of whistle blowers. It did not and I'm sorry I directed a comment to you. I'll not do so again. I have no ax to grind with you other than the one that is constantly thrown my way when you get your hackles up against me.
I'm not sure what small favor you've done on my behalf, but if thanks are in order, you have mine.
Best regards.
Daria, I just stated the facts, which did not match your reply. I'm sorry that your reacted so poorly.
Fern, you stated your interpretation of the facts. You forget that the United States was not created in a vacuum nor does it exist in a vacuum today. Whistle blowers throughout history, here and abroad, deeply impact how business and sometimes government matters are conducted on a global scale, today.
I reacted the way I did because, as always, your tone was rude and demeaning. You never accept responsibility for your terse tone of voice. And you have not yet, in all of your years, learned how to communicate with people in a respectful manner. That's your issue, not mine. I'm not willing to take your unfortunate style of communication sitting down. You might consider your own words before commenting on my reaction or anyone else's.
My dad reported his boss for breaking the law governing down payments on FHA house loans in the 1960’s. Man was tried, but jury didn’t understand why a mortgage with no down payment was illegal; they thought that it would allow more people to become homeowners. Boss fired dad, as he expected. Far too few Congress critters have that kind of backbone.
Great example of whistle blowers who are also everyday people!
Thank you for writing about McClure Magazine's 1903 addition and the progressive era these journalists helped usher in (hopefully I can find this magazine in my library's archives).
To me, your knowledge and research of American history is unparalleled and I treasure your newsletters.
You've covered quite a bit today,
so I'll focus just on Facebook and John Eastman.
Facebook must be made into a public utility (and all the rules that apply to such) before it undertakes its dangerous global currency scheme, its Instagram for children scheme and the Metaverse.
As an article in Alantic magazine argued, Facebook has become a hostile country within a country and only action designed to severely defang this hostile entity will do because, as articles in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere illustrate, Facebook executives cannot be trusted to police themselves because they don't want to.
Weasley insurrectionist John Eastman needs to disbarred.
Enjoy a peaceful and restful weekend.
Watching Eastman sprint away from his bogus legal justification for overturning the presidential election is quite a show.
Eastman recently told the conservative National Review that his memos weren't legal advice. But he wrote them at the request of "somebody in the legal team" whose name he could not recall.
Just wait until he's questioned by the 1/6 House committee.
Also, the committee will refresh his memory. If he claims attorney-client privilege, he will be forced to provide proof of the relationship, including a contract that outlines the scope of work. The committee will have questioned everyone else who might have been involved so they can call him on any inconsistencies in his testimony.
Most importantly, we'll learn who asked Eastman for the advice. And that person will be asked who ordered him to get legal window dressing. In other words, Eastman can run but can't hide. Same with TFG.
The details now known about Eastman's role are detailed in the second of two Washington Post articles that the professor links to at the bottom of today's standout letter.
Reading the piece makes me scream to the heavens to please at the appropriate time start televising the proceedings. The American people need to learn what happened, not soley by reading news accounts but directly from the conspirators under oath.
Right there with you... I can't wait.
Deborah, this all makes the death of home town newspapers that much more tragic. I'm sure by now many are aware of McKay Coppins' expose in The Atlantic, "Vulture Publishing: Who Killed America's Newspapers". He's been interviewed on NPR, PBS, etc. but the article is the gold standard.
About ten years ago, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway bought the Greensboro (NC) News and Record. It had already begun scaling back its coverage in the years I had subscribed, but Berkshire upped the ante. As Coppins says in his piece, one of the things these hedge funds and private equity outfits do immediately, is sell off valuable real estate assets. Many of these papers hold downtown real estate just ripe for exploiting. They contracted out the printing, cut staff to the bone, etc. The usual MO.
Why does that matter, you might ask? "Economy of scale", etc. Well, when you don't have reporters covering local government, data show that taxes actually go UP; there's no one watching the store, so local pols are no long accountable, because they know they can tell the voters any song and dance story and, 'who cares'? Same goes with school board races (just look at the chaos over the 'dire threat of teaching critical race theory', getting fired up by the Trumpians. And no countervailing press to explain to voters that it's all a load of crap!
I wonder if Ida Tarbell were here to day, if she could even get a byline?
Sandra Ida might get a byline today, but it would probably have the impact of a tree falling in the forest. Steve Coll??? (Sorry, my library is upstairs) wrote an Ida-type book, PRIVATE EMPIRE, on Exxon about ten years ago. It spelled out in graphic detail how Exxon had subsidized anti-climate changers (reminiscent of how the tobacco industry hoodwinked the public on cigarettes/cancer for decades). Much of what has recently surfaced on Exxon was writ large over a decade ago. ProPublica has produced a bevy of investigative reporting. Still, many of these frightening climate-change issues remain on the back burner because many corporations privately are backsliders and a number of members of Congress are beholden to corporate contributions.
...And because of the success of the propaganda campaign the conservatives have masterminded over the past 60 years.
Exactly so. Thank you I miss my newspaper.
FB, Apple, Google, Amazon, the four horsemen of today’s apocalypse..
@Sandy Lewis, that's an apt idea, the four megatech giants as the Four Horsemen. Then I thought, "But wait, what about Big Oil and Coal pushing us into climate crisis? What about Covid as the modern horseman of plague?" But the tech giants have become monopolies not only over our commercial sphere but over our collective understanding of the truth itself. Facebook has been knowingly metastasizing the spread of conspiracy theories, The Former Guy's Big Lie, and all forms of denialism of reality. Facebook catalyzes the spread of lies and conspiracy theories that fuel outrage, violence, and death, and lead us to the brink of social and democratic breakdown. Facebook does it for their own profit and market dominance, and turbo-charges others who spread the lies for profit and power. They have in effect automated and endlessly cloned the Four Horsemen. Every viral spreader of lies on social media--of the Big Lie, of QAnon, of anti-vaccine nonsense, of white nationalist hatred, of climate change denial--is effectively turned into a FourHorseBot, spreading and multiplying the lies that bring death and destruction. Facebook has been allowed by lack of regulation to turn algorithms, mechanized by essentially limitless compute power, into unchecked destroyers of our shared understanding of reality. All the "content moderation" and rules they erect around the edges are futile because their basic algorithm designed to "promote engagement" is turned by the biology of our primitive fight or flight response into an algorithm that metastasizes outrageous lies, the more outrageous the better.
So, Elizabeth Michaud, Stow MA - FB and Baseline? HCR’s nightly array? The societal nightmare of The Lonely Crowd, The Stranger, The Plague, Les Jeux Sont Fait, Jean Paul Sartre, the cascading crescendo of collective algorithmic nihilistic chaos for our children and theirs, we had 6, they 11, coming through U Chicago three cousins now, our 5th generation there, a Nobel led them, he wrote The Franck Report that HST ignored, Dartmouth, Amherst, 2nd there, Princeton, a few, Carleton, one… they ignore FB, entirely. They’re smart. Know better. MIT hatched 5 cousins, their father produced the skin of John Glenn’s re entry pod, died at 105, liked to cross country ski… we came from Germany, Russia, England, Sweden, the mtDNA from Germany and Sweden, and we saw Hitler for what he was in 1933 and said so, all Germany read the words of Physics Nobel James Franck, and FDR promptly acted. The Manhattan Project followed. Keep $1 worth of potassium iodide in your medicine chest, it will load your thyroid if, as and hopefully not when… said cousin Frank von Hippel, MIT PhD, a MacArthur Scholar, a Rhoades Scholar, he dropped theoretical for practical, teaches at PU… advises presidents.
Today we need the philosopher not the political, Mussolini’s Fascism cum capitalism is alive and well, spreading, Italians suspended his corpse on a street lamp post, where and when will Americans place our Mussolini? Surely, we can find the will to deal with the long lust list of Trump, Pence, Bannon, Miller, Hawley, Cruz, DeSantis, Moscow Mitch, Tucker, the pretty white boy with the falsetto, a common fag from RI’s St. George’s School of legacy brat failures with the $100 haircut, the nightly FOX FIX, nothing like a kiss up in the locker St. G. room where molesting was the agenda, he married into it…
It’s time we dealt truth and destruction to the fascist elements, all 70 million, for they will Inherit the Wind and kill Charles Darwin, Socrates, Aristotle, John Dewey, Robert Maynard Hutchins and Robert Nozick and Elizabeth Bishop if they roll with FB and Zuckerberg, a horrid cruel social misfit.
The Black Women followers of Majority Whip James Clyburn with Joe Knows Us in their ears saved us - now we must save them and ourselves… for we are at one with them, we need the education and truth to rise - a Republic If You Can Keep It is on the line.
Let’s Roll. There’s no choice. November 3rd and Biden Harris followed November 8 and Obama Biden when, One Six and the Big Lie took over, Democrats need teeth and truth, and Biden must choose among the few - Adam Schiff, Colorado’s best Senator, his good brother fired from NYT.. start there!
I digress. This was about a Baseline, no?
Well, mine is simple. To Truth, and out with the liars. Let women of character rise, let Black women rise, they know themselves and us best.
They know best.
Cc. Mara Gay, please!
Sandy, I never thought I could say this, but you brought it home with this one. Rather long geneology though. But, if I had ancestors and progeny like yours, I'd be proud too....I m a mutt...
I hate to say this but Substack "does it" for their own profit as well. Substack recruits writers/influencers by offering some of them substantial advances. We are led to believe we are on a platform built on noble intentions. Not so.
https://on.substack.com/p/why-we-pay-writers
Okay, substack is being weird. Thanks Sandy. My comment populated several posts then
poof! At least I discovered LFAA and HCR there but like your relations it may be time to disengage. Puppies and grands became hate and fear.
On the nail, Sandy!
"Kleptocrats, autocrats and criminals are making a strong bid to control our country.
Will they succeed ?
Maybe. But in a similar moment after 1903, the American people reasserted the rule of law."
Yes... Will they succeed ?
The bid has been building up for decades now.
America today is a very different country from America in 1903.
A country in which -- thanks to the deep confusion fostered by virtual reality and those technocrats who have mined it purely for profit -- the odds now favor a criminal takeover, as never before.
We have every reason to be grateful to Doctor Richardson for her crystal-clear warning.
But... Is forewarned forearmed?
That will depend on every one of us. It will depend on every American who hears the warning and acts on it to warn others.
But have you ever spoken to those "others" who believe all the crap floating around? Today's email inbox produced something from a 'moderate' GOP Congressman from a neighboring district in which he demanded "accountability" from guess who, the Democrats!
I have to talk to beloved and thoroughly brainwashed members of my own family.
And it's not like talking with Dad, who had the prejudices -- and the great virtues -- of another age.
He listened carefully and replied. We disagreed, but each was interested in what the other had to say.
They often admire the form but can't make sense of the content. It's as though I came from another planet. If they read intelligent right-wing publications, we could at least converse, but theirs is an unvaried diet of crass propaganda... And they don't recognise that while the name of of the newspapers remains the same, the content has changed radically.
Friends tell me that you need to take care when talking to some Trumpistas. It could be dangerous. And in any case they're 100% impervious to ideas other than those they've
just received.
All excellent and frightening points, Sandy Lewis, Peter Barnett, and everyone else above. AND statistics tell us that Republicans are the minority nationally, and the thoroughly brainwashed no-critical-thinking QAnon Trumpublicans are even more of a minority. My method of maintaining hope and not giving up is to focus my efforts on what I, from a distance in MA, ca do to helpturn out likely Democratic voters, for example right now for VA. Postcards and phonebanks, as much as I can.
REMEMBER PAUL REVERE'S RIDE!
No one remembers - or ever knew - Sybil Ludington. She rode further. Was only 16.
I've posted about her several times, Gailee. Her ride was a year after Paul Revere's, but no less vital for her time.
I missed those previous postings but was inspired to look her up by Gailee's post. Very interesting story. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sybil-ludington
And no one will remember anyone in this community who succeeds in warning -- and awakening -- many or few.
But we all have to do what we can.
I can do little. In almost all cases, it would be preaching to the choir.
With my GOP-supporting nephew, I can see no possibility of communication. Tribalism...
I could try to put across that fellow-Americans who think differently are... fellow-Americans. Not the enemy.
And to gloat when California burns is to delight in the destruction of the USA.
(Rudely interrupted...)
To gloat when California's burning is to rejoice in the destruction of the USA.
How Un-American can you get?
Sigh.
" 1 if by Land; 2 if by Sea", 3 if by steering Algorithms.
I agree about FB being made a public utility… and, hey — let’s make all oil, gas and coal companies public utilities as well 🤪
The McClure Archive can be found here: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=mcclures
And the January 1903 edition here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012153097&view=1up&seq=5
Very nice references to the McClure articles, in particular the Standard Oil piece. Thanks muchly.
Amen, Sister!
I've written for years about money laundering and corruption and this latest spat of stories isn't anything new: In 2013, the “Offshore Leaks” data dump revealed the extent of international tax fraud perpetrated by banks. The “Panama Papers” in 2016 exposed offshore money laundering through shell companies created by now-defunct law firm Mossack Fonseca. In 2017, the “Paradise Papers” unearthed thousands of unknown offshore corporations owned by prominent corporations and individuals such as Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. Now the “Pandora Papers” generates tons of news stories that will peter out, subsumed by the unrelenting news cycle that is managed by a media that has the attention span of a flea.
And yet this is the single biggest problem in the world — a wholesale redistribution of the world’s wealth into the hands of a few.
No. It is what may make the single great problem in our world -- climate change -- insoluble, while worsening every other trouble that we have to face.
May I take this opportunity to say how encouraging I find it, not only to be able to follow HCR's remarkable work -- a truly heroic undertaking, I just don't know how she does it! -- but to read a discussion as intelligent, straight-speaking and thoughtful as this.
Perhaps I am ignorant, but I've seen nothing like it elsewhere, certainly not in the UK. On the contrary, I've seen endless rubbish. Prejudices of right and left, stupid, primitive reactions, trolling; even, once, a glimpse of Hell when I clicked on a word indicating what I expected to lead to press reports: Trolls gloating over Politkovskaya's murder.
After Fbook etc., I could never have imagined Internet giving rise to the kind of serious, neighborly community that has grown up around Letters from an American.
It makes me feel very fortunate to have found you all, and concerned about how I express my own thoughts. It's like when a musician finds a good instrument. That's both enabling and demanding.
Goodness knows, today's immensely dangerous situation compels us all to give of our best and makes me feel critical of my own input.
Thank you all, and I hope that every positive action initiated here will have the greatest possible resonance.
Thank you Peter for expressing my thoughts exactly.
I love, love Schnauzers. Cheers!
My sentiments, thank you
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/22/business/trump-spac-trading-halted/index.html
the world of rogue capitalism has no bounds! who are the investors buying stock in a SPAC that is designed to buy a company in 'the future"? shell company A , the SPAC, has no assets nor financial track record! yet millions of shares of its stock were purchased based on the expectation that it would buy trump's media group! But it has NOT bought the group at the time of the wild speculation! GREEDY people salivating at the drippings from slimy trump!
Greedy bastards metastasize faster than any germ
My only quibble is the expression "rogue" capitalism. This is simply capitalism. It's what it does.
That is so correct. "Show me the money."
I just started watching the British version (1990) of "House of Cards." It's amazing how current it seems as it portrays the the lust for power and especially the lust for money and the super lust for power of those with huge amounts of money. As you say, it is an old story. (I almost committed an "Freudian typo" - an old tory...)
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
John, on what platform are you watching the British HOC? Thanks in advance for your response.
Brit Box.
Thanks!
Wonderful series!
Great show, still
Please also note the Chevron-backed prosecution of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger. Donziger won a massive settlement against Chevron for dumping oil in the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador, but rather than pay out settlement (of billions of dollars), Chevron instead targeted the lawyer in the case with false accusations. Donziger is currently under house arrest in NYC in a truly Orwellian case. We also have systematic corruption in the judicial branch. For details see: https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/steven-donziger-chevron-sentencing/
Here are a couple of other articles about the case, that detail the connections between Chevron's law firm and two New York politicians:
https://theintercept.com/2021/09/29/steven-donziger-sentencing-nadler-chevron/
https://theintercept.com/2021/10/07/kirsten-gillibrand-chevron-steven-donziger/
A few politicians have spoken up about this case, like Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Lindsey Boylan, one of the first woman to speak out against former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Marianne Williamson and Michael Moore both wrote and spoke about this case. Nary a word on on TV about it, at least not on my news feeds.
Thank you for bringing this up. I heard about this on Thom Hartman’s podcast. It is so corrupt and needs to be brought to everyone’s attention.
Karen, I was taken with the article Bill linked, 'Is Chevron’s Vendetta Against Steven Donziger Finally Backfiring?'. I don't know why, but looked further. If you have a chance, read my reply to Bill's comment. There is more to this story, certainly, not in Chevron's favor but raising questions about Donziger.
Thank you for looking further into this Fern. I just read The NY Times Opinion piece and it does look like there is more to this story. I will check out the other links as well.
Thank you for this! I hadn’t heard about it.
The rot runs deep. TFG knew how to exploit it (his only skill) and in so doing forced us all to see what we wanted to deny. The masks are off, the truth is known; the ball is in our court now.
This article ends more hopeful than others I have read about Danziger's (and The Earth's) plight, with the possible pushback from Chevron stockholders. But, yes, truly Orwellian. Or perhaps right out of a Russian playbook? Horrid.
The article, 'Is Chevron’s Vendetta Against Steven Donziger Finally Backfiring?', for which Bill provided a link, implicated Chevron and our courts in a massive cover-up concerning Chevron's contamination of an area the size of Rhode Island in Ecuador and the persecution of human rights lawyer, Donziger, who sought justice for 30,000 Ecuadorians.
I was going to extoll the article's reveal of good v. evil at the heart of corruption by a gigantic corporation, our court system and, perhaps, more. I was going to rebuke The New York Times for not writing a word about this big story since 2014, but luckily, I stopped to read what the New York Times had to say back then. First, I read an Opinion in the paper, which was not the least bit favorable to either Chevron or human rights lawyer, Donziger. After reading the Opinion, I thought, let's not anoint Donziger, yet, or let Chevron off the hook for contaminating of an enormous amount of land in Ecuador. A link to the Opinion is below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/opinion/joe-nocera-behind-the-chevron-case.html?searchResultPosition=1
The Opinion led me to Paul M. Barrett's book, 'Law of the Jungle: 'The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win It'. I couldn't open the link to the Wall St. Journal's book review, but located a detailed one by, Anne Minard. Quoting her, 'As Barrett points out, all the drama has eclipsed the goal of the original suit: to clean up pollution that affects the lives of rural Ecuadorian people. Ultimately, Barrett's book casts a harsher spotlight on Donziger's behavior than on Texaco or Chevron's'. What, that's startling, could the 'hero' turn out to be something less? A link to her review of the book is below:
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048&context=nrj
Finally, the author of 'Law of the Jungle'. Paul M. Barrett is no slouch. His work provides a better understanding of lawyer Donziger, who appears to have captured the hearts of some committed to environmental cleanups, addressing Climate Change and doing the right thing. I do not know the truth of Steven Donzier, but serious questions remain.
A search for the facts is often an arduous task and long journey. 'Law of Jungle' was a serious undertaking for author, Barrett, and he has the credentials to warrant attention. He is the Deputy Director, Center for Business and Human Rights, Stern School of Business; Adjunct Professor of Law, New York University and joined the Center as deputy director in September 2017 after spending more than three decades as a journalist and author focusing on the intersection of business, law, and society. Most recently, Paul worked for 12 years for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, where he served at different times as the editor of an award-winning investigative team and a writer covering topics such as energy and the environment, military procurement, and the civilian firearm industry. From 1986 to 2005, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, serving as the newspaper’s Supreme Court correspondent and later as the page one special projects.
His book again is 'Law of the Jungle'. If you are interested the link below provides buying options.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220159/law-of-the-jungle-by-paul-m-barrett/
HCR's extraordinary Letter linking three stories, ended with her writing that 'kIeptocrats, autocrats, and criminals are making a strong bid to control our country'.
The work of Paul M. Barrett sent me on a morning's journey to learn more about human rights lawyer, Steven Donziger, a tiny lift, and I have no answers.
As for the effort required to reveal the powers working against us, we must look to our free-press. Will the journalists and truth-tellers in America step up to connect the people and the stories, thereby, exposing the underlying corruption rotting the country's experiment with democracy as it sows hatred and the destruction of civil society.
I am sure that Paul Barret was well-compensated for his hit piece on Steven Donziger. If you would like to learn more about Mr. Donziger, these testimonials are a good place to start: https://www.freedonziger.com/testimonials
If you have time to watch a short video by a real journalist, see: https://www.gregpalast.com/fact-injection-donziger-v-chevron/
Bill, You have made a very serious accusation against Paul Barrett. What is the basis of your certainly that his book was a 'hit piece' for which he was compensated? Barrett had a distinguished career as a journalist over a long period time, including years of employed with respected news organizations. Other than Steve Donziger's accusation against him, have you any reputable accounts to substantiate it. Did you read 'Law of the Jungle'? I am not making any claims, but questions were raised about Donziger's actions, some of which he has admitted to. I have no brief here, simply read the article in the Nation, and read material from a few other sources.
Hello Fern, I will try to explain my opinions on this matter as best I can, but I recommend to anyone interested in this case to follow the links I am leaving at the end of this post, and listen to Mr. Donziger explain the case himself.
The big picture here is that Chevron was responsible for visiting death and destruction upon the communities in the Ecuadorian rain-forest, primarily by dumping toxic oil sludge into their water supply. After many years of litigation, Donziger and team won a settlement against Chevron for billions of dollars. Rather than pay out billions to the Ecuadorian communities, Chevron mounted a multi-year campaign to discredit one of the principal lawyers for the Ecuadorian community (Donziger). This is known as DARVO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO)--Deny, Attack, and Reverse the Victim and Offender. DARVO is a classic technique for abusers of all kinds: abusive spouses, abusive politicians (like Trump or Cuomo), and predatory corporations such as Chevron.
My view of Chevron and other oil companies is that these are entities that are deliberately destroying our planet (air, water and soil) for the sake of short term profits. I believe that the people who run these corporations are addicts--like a heroine addict, they are only consumed with getting their next fix (more money in their bank accounts). But the high of getting that fix wears off very quickly, and soon they need another fix (even more money). And they don't care who are what they destroy in their path in order to get that next fix. Because they gotta have that fix.
If you do not share this view of the oil companies, then you probably won't agree with the rest of what I have to say.
With regards to Paul Barrett and his book, my views concerning his book are entirely my own. I had never heard of the book before I read your post, and I have never read any comments on the book by Donziger or any of his supporters.
Firstly, let me explain my views on modern corporate media (such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN, NBC, etc.). I am in my late fifties, and I grew up in a home where we had the New York Times delivered every day, and on Sunday we went to the local grocery store and bought the New York Daily News and the New York Post. (So we had three papers on Sundays.) We also had Time magazine delivered every week. This was in the late 60's and early 70's. So I grew up reading the New York Times nearly every day, and reading Time magazine and the other Sunday papers every week. And as a boy reading these papers, I pretty much believed that what I was reading was true, or a close approximation. Likewise, I believed most of what I heard on the evening news on Television.
Now, as a man in his fifties, I simply do not trust any corporate media entity to report accurately on the most important issues facing our society. These are for-profit institutions. Their mandate, their singular goal, is profit, not truth. I believe that a large part of their content that is produced by these entities is propaganda for the corporations and the billionaire class that have effectively "captured" the levers of power in our society (the government, the media, the courts). For example, I do not trust the Wall Street Journal to report accurately on the corporate malfeasance of an oil company like Chevron.
I think these views might seem extreme to you, Fern. But at least I can assure you that I come by my views honestly, after much thought and reflection.
So given my views on the oil companies and corporate media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, it did not take me long to reach an opinion on Paul Barrett's book. I freely admit my bias. My opinion of Mr. Barrett and his book flows logically from my assessment of the institutions he is associated with.
Fern, you cited Mr. Barrett's "distinguished career" with "respected news organizations." I simply don't share your respect for these organizations (such as the Wall Street Journal). Hence, I am not much impressed by anyone who has a career with them.
With regards to Mr. Barrett's book, I did go to the link you provided and read the book description (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220159/law-of-the-jungle-by-paul-m-barrett/).
The book description states the following about the lawsuit on behalf of the Ecuadorian communities: "The suit sought reparations for the Ecuadorian peasants and tribes people whose lives were affected by decades of oil production near their villages and fields."
Firstly, who calls anyone "peasants"? Secondly, it says "their lives were affected" by "oil production." This is simply dishonesty by omission. The oil company deliberately and knowingly dumped toxic sludge into the rain forest that killed children and caused a generation of people to suffer from illnesses such as cancer, etc. Children literally vomited up blood after unknowingly swimming in toxic water.
Next, the description asserts that Steven Donziger is a "loud-mouthed showman" who "proved himself a master orchestrator of the media, Hollywood, and public opinion."
Fern, this is textbook DARVO (Deny, Attack, and Reverse the Victim and Offender).
Deny - the poor "peasants" were "affected" by "oil production." That doesn't sound so bad, does it? This is effectively a denial of the death and destruction that was visited upon this community by poisoning their water supply.
Attack - he attacks the lawyer for the community as a "loud-mouth" and a "showman." So never mind whatever happened to the "peasants," their lawyer was a "loud-mouth."
Reverse the Victim and the Offender - this is an important part of the strategy. Trump does this all that time. In this case, the book description goes on to say that, after losing in court, "Chevron refused to surrender or compromise." Sounds noble doesn't it? And also Chevron "revealed damning evidence of [Donziger's] politicking and manipulation of evidence."
So now, see what happened? According to Barrett, Chevron is the Victim, and that "loud-mouthed" lawyer is the Offender.
So the whole gist of this book, based on the description, is: Okay, maybe Chevron did some things that "affected" the "peasants", but look at this "loud-mouth" lawyer, man. CHEVRON REVEALED "damning evidence" of "politicking and manipulation."
This is the story Chevron wants you to focus on. They want to draw your attention away from their immoral behavior, and focus on something else. This book description reads to me like it could have been written by a Chevron PR firm. (I wouldn't be surprised if it was.)
Lastly, in preparing this response, I have done a quick Google search of Paul M. Barrett, and It turns out that Mr. Barrett is a member of the Federalist Society: https://fedsoc.org/contributors/paul-barrett
Coincidentally, the judge that has placed Steven Donziger under house arrest and sentenced him to prison is also a member of the Federalist Society. https://fedsoc.org/contributors/loretta-preska
The Federalist Society is the group the grooms right-wing judges for seats on the federal courts. (More info: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/03/in-audiobook-takeover-noah-feldman-lidia-jean-kott-explore-how-federalist-society-captured-supreme-court/)
For example, Amy Clooney Barrett is a member: https://fedsoc.org/contributors/amy-barrett-1
And Brett Kavanaugh: https://fedsoc.org/contributors/brett-kavanaugh
So this is one more reason for me to mistrust Mr. Barrett. You are free to draw your own conclusions.
Here are some recent interviews with Donziger from independent media outlets. You can judge for yourself if you think he is a "loud-mouth":
- Breaking Points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfx6DJir0DU
- Marianne Williamson: https://mariannewilliamson.substack.com/p/chevron-v-donziger-an-update
Fortunately, there has been a lot of good reporting recently by independent media outlets. Some examples:
- The Daily Poster: https://www.dailyposter.com/chevrons-prisoner/
- The Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pexzV50XszI
Corporate media is largely ignoring the story.
I hope this information is helpful.
Since this is my first time posting on this forum, I just want to express my gratitude to Heather Cox Richardson for the almost super-human effort she is putting into her posts. She has given me a much clearer perspective on recent events than I otherwise would have had.
Peace,
Bill
Bill, Thank you so much for your thoughtful post. I hope that you will come to the forum again. We are in complete agreement about the fossil fuels sector. We are in agreement intellectually and emotionally on that score. How could I not have strong feelings about the lethal effects their products have on the life and the health of human beings, animals, plants, oceans, rivers, streams -- the planet. I agree with you that both The New York Times and the Washington Post have weaknesses, but I am grateful for their investigative journalism. The New York Times is still a daily dose for me. It was as a second family during the peak of the pandemic. I live in NYC, and it was hell, deeply sad and frightening. The Times came through as well as any newspaper could. My sources, however, are wide ranging. I'm a free-press advocate. I believe that the country has suffered greatly by the loss of a local newspapers. Most harmful is social media. Zuckerberg is monster; he is up there with the worst of all time.
I haven't read 'Law of Jungle' and haven't opened your new links but will tomorrow. The Federalist Society and I are in different camps. I cannot, however, assume that Barrett's book is a hit piece. My bias here is different than yours. I don't know how good or bad the book is, but I doubt that it was a payment upfront deal. I am not going to pursue the strengths and weaknesses of Steve Donziger. The Chevon/Donziger case was one that I fell into because the Donziger's situation has been noted on the forum. When I saw the link to a piece in the Nation about it, so began my early morning.
It was good to have this opportunity to communicate with you, Bill. I hope that we will do it again. Salud! Fern
I would not not rush to anoint, Donziger. Have you read, Paul M. Barrett's book, 'Law of the Jungle: 'The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win It'.
I am sure that Paul Barret was well-compensated for his hit piece on Steven Donziger. If you would like to learn more about Mr. Donziger, these testimonials are a good place to start: https://www.freedonziger.com/testimonials
If you have time to watch a short video by a real journalist, see: https://www.gregpalast.com/fact-injection-donziger-v-chevron/
I hope we can reassert the rule of law but has it also been compromised with all the extremely conservative and I might add unqualified judges Majority Leader McConnell confirmed or will the judicial branch hold to the rule of law. In the next week or so, I'm having lunch with a friend, who is the presiding judge over one of the state district court regions here in Texas to ask him that question. He told me a couple of years ago that our democracy would be OK if the Rule of Law held. Now he has to convince me that the rule of law is holding. Recent shenanigans on the Texas anti-abortion law and the U.S. 5th court of appeals and SCOTUS would indicate otherwise so I hope he has some good arguments to make. I do want him to win this case!
SCOTUS is a GOP mess. Fascism is spreading worldwide.
I wish we had a sad face emoji to click beside the heart.
May the citizens of today have the strength and moral will to come together to save our democracy
Watch CIVIL WAR… on MSNBC… it’s essential.
"Civil War" explains the "Roots of Division'. The Executive Producers are Henry Louis Gates Jr. & Brad Pitt.
Ok, ty for recommendation
why isn't it happening now? Everyone seems to be inside posting on FB.
Not all of us! Nor Instagram, etc.
Hello Heather,
Your beacon through the daily fog continues to inspire. I recently visited the Museum in Munich built on the site of the Nazi HQ (Brown House) that houses the archival record of the Nazi rise and fall. (Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism) It was profound especially to spend time reviewing the ten year lead up to how the Nazis took power and THE EXTRAORDINARY SIMILARITIES to what happened and CONTINUES to happen in the USA Today. At the very end of the exhibit was this:
“The Nazi Party’s path to power was not an inevitable, triumphant march. The defensive measures of the state and civilian resistance never came together to form an effective counter-force. The Weimar Republic failed because people didn’t oppose extremism vigorously enough.”
I had a similar experience in 2012. I was visiting my sister in law, who was living in Germany outside Köln at the time. We went to a museum there which had an exhibit detailing just how the Nazi Party rose. At that time, I remember saying “we have that going on in the US today.” The last 9 years have not reassured me in any way.
In around 2013 or 14, an Austin, TX museum hosted an exhibit from the US Holocaust Museum. The exhibit was a chilling walk-through of how the press and lies, big and small, worked on the population. It tells the story of Nazi propaganda through hate speech and lies. We were speechless as we saw the same kind of "other" baiting that we were seeing played out as Trump began pumping up his propaganda machine. Trump's first wife is said to have commented that the only book she ever saw him read was Mein Kampf.
We are watching Beach Hotel (Danish on Netflix) right now. A new character is a young woman (German) entranced and hyped up by Nazi ideology. Just a drama, but a potent reminder of what can happen (and is, in another mode, happening now.....) She glows when she talks about the new Germany (I'm not associating that with Germany now, just to be clear).
Is the new girl any relation to MTG?
Upper class family, visiting in Denmark. So not any parallel in that way. But she brings "conversion" and true believer to mind---and other ways rationality can be lost..... Her enthusiasm is a potent parallel to right wing enthusiasm here.... (You may have meant the comment more in jest; not sure.......)
I am bemused by all of the carping when President Biden is on the cusp of enacting the broadest social legislation to benefit a large majority of Americans since LBJ’s Great Society (when he had an overwhelming majority in Congress). President Biden started with a broad wish list that addressed a vast number of pressing needs. With a whisker majority in the House and a 50/50 Senate, he was obliged to negotiate compromises that could get his bills approved without any Republican votes.
His compromises were an essential part of accomplishing something imperative for the majority of the American people. I applaud him for fulfilling his “promises made, results delivered” campaign promise. Of course some Democrats will be disappointed and Republicans will be in total opposition. Meanwhile President Biden has well served the American people.
Keith, why be bemused? Joe Biden did not go to the voters with a "wish list". No, he made many promises intended to garner votes from Democrats holding a wide range of conflicting views about almost everything, and from independents, and from the few Republicans who just couldn't stomach anymore Trump. This is what presidential candidates do. No one gets everything they want.
This got him elected with a respectable margin in the unfavorably rigged and anachronistic Electoral College, and thanks to the Georgia Miracle, he got enough DEM Senators to -- one might think -- guarantee free and fair future elections, lay the foundation for a real, European-style social state (yes, better than a "safety net", better than Medicare), rebuild and expand our crumbling, inadequate and/or non-existent infrastructure, and -- most importantly -- establish American leadership in humanity's death struggle with global warming, the unquestioned elephant in the room. I remember saying to my wife when the results in the Georgia run-offs were clear, "I'll be damned. Biden did it!" But....
No. The defeated Trump did not concede, but instead claimed election fraud, declared himself the winner and began his coup d'etat, still ongoing. The GOP looked around, imagined themselves in an America run by Democrats again and said, "No Way!" Understandable for a party that had spent 40 years both trying to undermine democracy -- as a hedge against creeping demographic change -- and dreaming of a return to the glory days of the old South, Jim Crow and the KKK. Not even Beaver Cleaver's America would have satisfied them.
So, once he and Congress had done the minimum to begin turning the COVID corner, Joe Biden's assurances that his experience in the Senate would lead to a new bi-partisan moment in American governance went up in smoke, and then just as we were girding our loins to eliminate the filibuster and put an end to this malevolent GOP (at least in its modern manifestation), Joe Manchin said, "Wait a minute, not so fast, I'm from West Virginia. It's a GOP state." And the weird Senator Sinema is just the cherry on top for whom there is no coherent explanation, if not simple corruption.
And, really, we should have known better. The GOP -- barring further miracles -- has already turned the SCOTUS into the Capitol Hill branch of the Federalist Society, so all this excitement about testimony before the Select Committee and the possible awakening of Merrick Garland is premature, however much I share it. And I do.
I agree, Keith, that we are on the cusp of something, but it may not be the enacting of broad social legislation.
David I am thankful for what President Biden is on the cusp of accomplishing under excruciating difficult political circumstances. I firmly believe that what he has been accomplishing in his first nine months has been really good for a country that had experienced Trump. I would appreciate your telling me and Heather’s devotees specifically why you disagree with my opinion? Thanks.
Keith, I disagree with your hopeful opinion because I believe it does not take account of the reality of what's happening in our country. The GOP -- assisted by two apparently corrupt Democratic Senators -- still controls the Senate. No legislation the GOP thinks might curtail their plan to end democracy in America will be allowed to pass. McConnell has said as much publicly. No voting legislation, no infrastructure legislation, no voting rights legislation, nothing, period. They are hoping to convince America that Joe Biden can't help people who need it. In fact, if the Democrats cannot find enough votes to pass legislation, they will not be able to help Americans.
Of course I would prefer it if both Manchin and Sinema behaved like real Democrats, maybe even showed a little courage. But it hasn't happened yet as far as I know.
Keith, I am worried Republicans have little respect for the intelligence of most Americans, and in this they may be right. Show me where the 50 votes + 1 needed to eliminate the filibuster are coming from, and I might change my mind about this.
David Might you change your opinion when the $2 trillion (+or-) social infrastructure legislation is passed along with the much-needed physical infrastructure bill? I prefer the art of the possible over devil advocacy.
If Joe can get a couple of good bills passed, it will be a feather in his cap and good for Americans. I would pass voting legislation first before GOP gerrymandering can go any further, but we have to take what we can get and not let up. Fingers crossed.
David, It wasn't easy making sense of your comment. It seemed set Biden up for failure.
Right from the get-go your wrote, 'Joe Biden did not go to the voters with a "wish list". No, he made many promises intended to garner votes from Democrats holding a wide range of conflicting views about almost everything, and from independents, and from the few Republicans who just couldn't stomach anymore Trump.'
What is the difference between a 'wish list' and 'promises'? Do Democrats hold a wide range of conflicting views about almost every thing as you wrote? That seems like an exaggeration to me. There are differences under the big tent, but not nearly that extreme. Biden's promises were for the things most Americans wanted at the time, and there was almost unanimity among Democrats. The Delta variant eventually got in the way as did most Republican Governors, nevertheless, Biden did pretty well in his first 100 days.
'At the 100-day mark, has Biden kept his campaign promises?' (Washington Post) See for yourself Richard. Link below.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/biden-promises-100-days/
Near the end of your comment, as at the beginning, you look down, '... we are on the cusp of something, but it may not be the enacting of broad social legislation.' Okay, given life in America today, it's understandable to temper high expectations or to not have any at all. There is good reason, however, to think that The Build Back Better Act will be enacted. You, Keith and I will all be very happy about that.
Fern, no one wants Joe Biden and the Democrats to be successful more than I do.
But I am very worried about what will happen if they aren't.
Agree, Keith.
Hear! Hear!
This was a fascinating read. Thank you!
Heather, I am feeling dismayed. Writing postcards to get out the vote in NJ while feeling numb. Thank you for perspective and reasonableness. I have always had faith in political action for social and civil rights- but it feels like the republicans have castrated our democracy. Voter-repression, Covid, people supporting Trump, inflation, still not ok to travel- overwhelming. Glad for your voice. Enormously sad for the American dream.
Jacqueline Schwarz, PhD
Are you keeping printed copies of these important Letters and storing them in a safe place for future historians, especially with the very real risk of a near future under authoritarian rule?
Heather, I can't endorse Cindy's suggestion strongly enough. My computer specialty from 1986 through about 2017 was data storage, and I've watched "electronic media" go through numerous cycles of obsolescence. Just try to find a functioning 5.25" floppy disk reader. The much-vaunted "Cloud" will die the day the companies that maintain them go bankrupt and the power goes off.
As a historian, you know very well (of course) the value of written documents. Nothing in the modern world has surpassed ink on paper for longevity, and survival through chaos. Yes, CDs will (probably) last thousands of years. The technology to read them will not. With paper and ink, the documents will survive, and the language is passed through culture, which is a lot more durable than a CD player.
Thank you, Joseph. I feel vindicated for being old-fashioned in my choice of maintaining paper and ink.
Me, too. Thanks Joseph.
Ummm. No.
But, now that you mention it. I will.
Thanks. So much for optimism.
:-)
I've written here before and will write again: I'd pay handsomely for a bound book of Letters from an American. It would take up less space on my bookshelf than printed pages. Also, it would not only become an instant best seller but also catapult HCR into mainstream. I truly think this is something that should be done. Anyone with publishing connections feel like taking on a project?
“Experts say that because of the lack of transparency required in our financial transactions, hundreds of billions of dollars are laundered in the U.S. every year.”
This is why experts and whistle blowers are discredited and journalists are called “enemies of the people”. Transparency and oligarchy are like oil and water.
And we wonder why Republicans keep fighting against increasing staffing at the IRS, which they gutted. They don't want the IRS to crack down on the rich, who are cheating on their taxes and costing the government billions of dollars.