110 Comments

Glad to see your Letter here. When I didn’t see it here or in my inbox, I looked for it on Facebook and read it there. I was relieved to see it and that you were okay. We all want you safe. You’re a National Treasure.

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Yes, glad that Substack recovered so we could get the news from you. I'll repeat my comment from your facebook page essay:

"[we] face unprecedented assaults on our national government"

We face unprecedented assaults FROM our national government!

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I fear that when this pack of thieves is finally gone, we will discover a slew of empty coffers. The 9/11 firefighters' account story is but one robbery.

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I just have to respond to your comment because I am flabbergasted. Here's why. There is an old classmate of mine with whom I "spar" on a regular basis on FB. He posts nonsense and is a big Trumper. I finally thought this story about the 9/11 fund would get him because he is a big first responder advocate who lives in Staten Island. I sent him the link to this story. His comment: "I don't know if that is true". Then he sends me a bigoted meme of President Obama. I thought I could get through to him, but apparently there is nothing that will get through to these people.

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Based upon my experience with his supporters, you are correct: There. Is. Nothing.

Best use of our time is to listen to and talk to the still undecided voters.

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That is why I don't communicate with my Mississippi Half-Brother since Nov 2016. Trump was OBVIOUSLY disgusting and unqualified before the election - no excuses for any ignorant bigots who voted for him.

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Uh-huh... my bet is that the Trump admin, aided by Mnuchin and all the enabling Republicans, has been freely taking from multiple coffers all along. Just like Trump said “they” should be paid handsomely for the forced sale of Tik-Tok. Stealing from the 9/11 fund is beyond obscene.

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This is incomprehensible. I would like to think that if Biden is elected, there will be a lot of cases ready and waiting in the wings. One thing that really bothered me was the lack of prosecutions in 2008 for malfeasance in the financial world. If we don’t prosecute these current examples of disrespect for the rule of law, nothing will change. Please discuss this.

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History might not be excessively kind to Obama ...but infinitively kinder than the current scarcrow...both for his hesitations and timidity in foreign affaires and for his apparent naivety at home in the face of GOP/Koch etc's political and financial machinations.

People all over the world have the impression that we paid a great deal in 2008 and with Greece's little problems to save bank investor's skins. The prevailing approach started to become more favourable to the "people" when the EU bailed out Cyprus a few years later as they creamed first and foremost the bank investor's capital and all the dirty money invested there by Russian criminal oligarchs.

The debt incurred for the covid mess will doubtless be the straw breaking the back of government debt in every country in the world. The solution is likely to incude a great deal of soveregn debt forgiveness, renegotiation to zero reimbursements and default on major parts of the debt. Who knows where it will lead but the debt is unsustainable and will at least serve to reduce inequalities...hopefully not everybody at zero!

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2008 was "Let's look forward, not backwards".

So no one's ever responsible.

No one's guilty.

Nothing to see here.

Move along.

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Sounds also like what Trump/Barr etc are saying in defense of trigger-happy policemen.

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Remember what Trump said, police shooting people full of holes is like a golfer choking on a putt. Funny how it never happens when a right-wing murderer is being apprehended.

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Ah...but he might be a golfing partner!

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Curious, how routine has a way to scaffold the nervous system, even in the worst of times. Last night (I usually see your post very early, Heather) I was worried that your post was hacked, taken down, attacked, or your sharing was otherwise disabled. Which, of course, it was. You are such a reliable communicator; maintenance of the platform, as it were, never crossed my mind. I actually logged in twice :)

Just thought to share, in case anyone else has a short fuse to worry about how safe ANYTHING is anymore.

worry

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I was very worried. I kept searching my trash file because I was sure I must have mistakenly delete her letter.

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I had the same thoughts.

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Unfortunately, Substack has a very poor help platform so that doesn't make things easier.

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I've had rather good luck with their help platform. Sometimes support venues just get overwhelmed, like the rest of us.

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Don't you like to speak to inexpensive foreigners in tongues?

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Hello:

While this is harsh, I believe the republican party has become a party of (leaders & commentators witting, sheep unwitting) traitors, a modern day Fifth Column.

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I too noticed the links usually found at the bottom of your letters was missing--no problem. I can tell you read the same things I did this morning in the NYT, WaPo, and other sites. So...nothing to add. It's all pretty dire, but I do like to think that there ARE ongoing attempts to deal with it all.

Today, though, my most earnest prayers and concerns are with our countrymen out West. These fires are truly apocalyptic and getting worse. Yes, blame can be meted out to any number of entities--the mismanagement by people who are supposed to be managing these tracts of land is absolutely staggering--but it is imponderable to me how, with what is amounting to yet another national disaster of epic proportions unfolding, our Dear Leader does seemingly nothing. I mean, talk about *crickets*! He and his administration are continually broadsided at every turn with events, and show, time after time, they "couldn't manage a fart at a bean-eating contest", as my dad used to say. The ineptness is unbelievable and ultimately tragic because of the loss of lives, property, and livelihoods. I wonder how much more of this we can take. And what do we get?? Dear Leader is more concerned with what he hopes will be an "October surprise" with regard to the ongoing Russian investigation. SERIOUSLY?? Any of those revelations will totally pale in significance to all the other things Americans are having to cope with. It is even more apparent that 2020 is jerking us all every which way, AND with still more than 3 months of this to go! Sheesh...

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Do you think that maybe possibly Dear (sociopathic) Leader doesn't give a hoot about the liberal Democratic West Coast residents, that he WANTS them to die or become displaced so they can't vote by mail, that maybe this is another way he is practicing voter suppression?

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He doesn't, but most of the places that are burned are in R territory. And it is a large number of his votes who are displaced for mail voting. There is work underway to make sure that people can get their ballots here in Oregon and here in Marion County the clerk(a D) will be putting drop boxes up the canyon. We have always mailed ours, but we will carry in them in this time.....we live in Salem. I might also add that not one so-called liberal cities is under any kind of evacuation order. Right now we all have bad air. Many people are stepping up to help and we have seen difficult and heroic work by first responders. 'The fly in the ointment is these rumors about antifa planning all of this and Kate Brown letting communities burn down. The upshot is that the vigilantes are out with their guns. I give one story to illustrate that. The superintendent of a smaller school district east of us (level two) and was out inspecting his buildings when he was threatened by a gun toting vigilante. Also some in the Gorge area have set up roadblocks and that is strictly illegal. The fire in Ashland was started by a transient meth head and possibly by someone else to cover up a murder. But this crap is all over social media. The FBI in Portland has issued a statement refuting these rumors. Then we have people avoiding road blocks to sight see. I just hope we get through this without some innocent people being killed.

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Thank you for your onsite observation and comments. It's just all so frightening. And if it's the R territory that is burning, I guess it just confirms that a sociopath doesn't care who gets hurt because compassion is simply not built into his makeup. Good luck to you, and to all of us.

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Thank you. The rural parts of Oregon are largely R. The state is blue because of the population in the Willamette Valley. There are Ds in other places, but they do not predominate. I live in the state capital which is both good and bad. It's the place where everyone comes to protest on the capitol steps. I am FB friends with a gal who is rural, but progressive. She is running for the legislature along with some other rural progressives. My hope is that people like her can bridge the gap. Yesterday I had one of my ex-students who is also a long time friend shouting at me on FB (all caps) because I took issue with her post about a fire that was possibly set in the middle of nowhere in Linn County, the largest city being Albany. It is true that she didn't mention any group because she didn't have to. Everyone knows what is being implied. The sheriff did change his post from it's a rumor to it's suspicious. Everyone who responded to those posts thought it was antifa or leftists even if they did not explicitly say so. Then I got the story about the meth head in Ashland which I pointed out did not represent any kind of trend. Since then it's been crickets. And we have no determination of facts in this suspicious fire in Linn County either. The air is so bad that no one in their right mind of any political persuasion would travel to the middle of rural Linn County to set a fire. I am not happy with some of the jerks in Portland that are setting fires up there, mostly in dumpsters and on the street, but they specifically target police or other government buildings. Some of the levels have been downgraded as well because they can now actually fight the fires in some places. I don't know what the death toll is because they are just starting to look. One couple saved themselves by getting in the North Santiam River, so it was fierce for a while.

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I am amused at those who don't know that BLM in a fire situation stands for Bureau of Land Management . That was attributed to at least one rumor.

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There's nothing too bad or too awful you can't think him capable of.

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Umm...that thought did cross my mind...

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HRC’s sources made it onto her Facebook page:

Notes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/us/wildfires-live-updates.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/11/oregon-wildfires-clackamas-evacuation/

https://www.facebook.com/DouglasCoSO/posts/3294100377341103

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/11/trump-isnt-talking-about-wildfires-oregon-california/

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/weather/2020/09/10/one-month-anniversary-since-derecho-hit-iowa-power-outage-trees-damage-storm/3457230001/

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2020/08/18/iowas-derecho-disaster-declaration-does-not-include-aid-homeowners/3389637001/

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/23/trump-brazil-amazon-fire-1474310

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-trump-putin-wildfires/trump-offers-putin-help-with-siberian-wildfires-kremlin-idUSKCN1UQ2UC

https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/fema_disaster-relief-fund-report_9-2020.pdf

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/09/11/lost-wages-unemployment-assistance-expiring/

9/11 fund: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-fdny-911-health-program-treasury-20200910-s7yam67j6vhmhbdzg6ordanfdm-story.html

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-trump-admin-apologizes-fdny-911-program-20200911-d63ohrqqljbpre434qpygp7rti-story.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/us/politics/nora-dannehy-durham-russia-investigation.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/11/court-corrupt-doj-drop-michael-flynn-case-412555

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/us/politics/whistle-blower-homeland-security.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/joe-biden-coronavirus-plan/2020/09/11/002b972c-eecc-11ea-99a1-71343d03bc29_story.html

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That's a strange way to spell fretilizer.

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As we say down here: "BLESS YOUR HEART!", sometimes delivered sarcastically, sometimes heartfelt--and Southerners always know which is which! I mean it truly this time. I've come to see your letters as a wonderful adjunct, or luxury, to life, so I don't worry if there's a pause or you need a much-earned sojourn away from things. You've got your fingers in a lot of pie, and we ALL need some down time. I'll see your letters when I see them, and savour every word. You're a treasure. Now to go read what you sent...

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Should read "pies" plural, and I DO mean plural! You're a busy lady...

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I'm glad Biden understands that his will be a Triage Presidency.

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I think the "swamp" that tRump "promised" to clean up has become a cesspool, and he and his thugs keep adding s#$t to it with each passing day. Taking money meant for 9/11 people suffering severe health issues and then having the pitiful explanation that it was "an unfortunate situation" is pathetic. The new today was hard and depressing. And honoring those lost and their loved ones on 9/11 was all I could bring forth yesterday. Now, we look ahead to honoring firefighters in the west, and those lost in the fires, along with the thousands who are displaced and unsure what they'll go home to. Hard times for sure.

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44 months of constant chaos, lying, subterfuge, illegal actions, and on and on. No one can take such a thing much longer. I told a good friend the situation has felt as though I am trapped in an abusive relationship and cannot find an unlocked door through which I can escape my abuser. I think that is what 45 wants. Maybe that is what he experienced as a 3 year old. Mary Trump's book cannot peel back the gray matter of her uncle's brain, but nothing is functioning well there. We all know that. Make a plan to vote. Make a plan to stay alive after the election. Make a plan to support the Biden presidency which if we all get out there and vote will overcome that poor group of folks (41-44%) still caught up in the group hypnosis. It is amazing just how much destruction happens when one person's hate is able overwhelm others and call forth from them similar hate. It never in my adult life occurred to me that this nation would be in such a predicament as this. I watched the Nixon debacle play out. I always assumed that there were people on both sides of the political party landscape who still wanted to live up to their oaths of office. It never occurred to me the gop (small letters on purpose) would aspire to power first and only. Maybe Goldwater set them on the path of the right wing think tanks that have flourished since Reagan. But hey - the past 40 years have seen such a metamorphosis of a party it truly continues to blow my mind. Make a plan. And don't give up in the face of this fear-mongering campaign of 45 and his crowd.

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Go read Richard Hostadter's "the Pseudo Conservative Revolt" (google and get the American Scholar reprint). This has been going on longer than the Goldwater campaign. It's just the back then, folks like us used to laugh at people like these and call them "kooks." Then Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine and the kooks all got kookier from the Right Wing Noise Machine.

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Thanks to HCR, these newfound skills of political analysis provided a different lens through which to view 9/11.

National Geographic Channel ran four documentaries about 9/11. A former Mujahideen fighter friend of bin Laden talked about how bin Laden co-opted the term jihad from its religious context and used it as political ideology in propaganda to recruit for the violent cause of al-Qaeda, including to kill civilians as “infidels.” The former friend and a Muslim scholar both expressed their distress that the agenda of violence was antithetical to the teachings of the Koran. They were also dismayed by the inculcation of children into the violence and hoped the children could be turned around.

Clear echoes of what Hitler and the Nazis did, particularly with the Hitler Youth organizations. And more echoes of what the Movement Conservatives did with the Republican Party and Christianity. Thousands, then millions fanatically endorse the ideology to the point of pledging to die for the cause. And now we have QAnon.

We have the ongoing challenge of teaching our children well—learn critical thinking skills and find constructive purpose in life.

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“One in three Republicans (33%) say they believe the QAnon theory about a conspiracy among deep-state elites is “mostly true,” and another 23% say “some parts” are true.”

https://twitter.com/danvanderboom/status/1304858493053145090?s=21

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Many thanks, Heather! Hope you have a peaceful Saturday.

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Your history classes must be absolutely amazing Heather. Just having a class dedicated to the process of pulling data and reports daily, analyzing it and presenting it would be worth a fortune. Please keep them coming!

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I think Heather has some great info on the history of political "crimes" in the US.

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We need more people like Nora Dannehy to resign in protest. But they must speak out! Otherwise, the moves are merely symbolic. The time is now for officials to put country over career. History will judge harshly those who don't, if Trump retains power. And they will have earned the scorn of citizens who still believe in the rule of law and democracy.

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His campaign also recognizes that, if he is elected, he will have to figure out how to both unify the country and restore the public’s faith in the federal government.

That wasn't a problem 19 years ago. It wasn't a problem 5 years ago. But that sentence above most completely describes the existential crisis we face today.

Every day. The news is 100% worse than the day before. I really do wonder if we won't blow the seams out in the next 52 days at this rate.

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