"Everyone feels the same weariness and occasional disappointment. But we are on an eight-year winning streak."
I so appreciate your trademark blend of empathy, realism and evidence-based optimism -- a quality shown also by Jess Craven (Chop Wood, Carry Water), Simon Rosenberg, Rebecca Solnit, Heather Cox Richardson, and several other key writers. We readers and activists need your steadfast support in these struggles for human rights, justice and democracy!
Eric, thanks. Where are you reading Rebecca Solnit these days? I have lost track of her. I was reading her in The Guardian, but she is no longer writing for that outlet. Please email me at rbhubbell@gmail.com with any helpful info. Thanks!
Similar to your 64th birthday vision statement / wishlist, I consider certain Rebecca Solnit pieces "keepers" for rereading, including this: https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-on-not-meeting-nazis-halfway/ (Readers here will likely appreciate this piece. You have expressed such views many times.)
I'm currently reading her 2021 book ORWELL'S ROSES. And for me it's always valuable to revisit her outstanding book HOPE IN THE DARK: UNTOLD HISTORIES, WILD POSSIBILITIES. And yes, I will email you a PDF with some Rebecca Solnit treasures.
HOPE IN THE DARK is an annual 'must read' for me. I highly recommend it to everyone. You will not be disappointed. In fact, you will be inspired to keep on keeping on.
And if time is tight for you, and even if it is not, everyone should read this column, "Despair Is Not a Strategy," from 2017, that refers to Rebecca multiple times and contains much wisdom. It is a 'several times per year' reading requirement for me. When the going gets tough, this is what I read. And since I have discovered HCR, Robert and Jessica, them as well. We need all the help we can get these days.
Excellent reminder, Cathleen! I just reread that. One Rebecca Solnit connection is: 10. Hope is a basis, not a substitute, for action.
Solnit says hope is the spark, which I saw again today when I revisited perhaps my favorite paragraphs of hers. Yes, they're a bit long for a comment on Substack. But hopefully no one minds too much:
I still value hope, but I see it as only part of what’s required, a starting point. Think of it as the match but not the tinder or the blaze. To matter, to change the world, you also need devotion and will and you need to act. Hope is only where it begins, though I’ve also seen people toil on without regard to hope, to what they believe is possible. They live on principle and they gamble, and sometimes they even win, or sometimes the goal they were aiming for is reached long after their deaths. Still, it’s action that gets you there. When what was once hoped for is realized, it falls into the background, becomes the new normal; and we hope for or carp about something else.
The future is bigger than our imaginations. It’s unimaginable, and then it comes anyway. To meet it we need to keep going, to walk past what we can imagine. We need to be unstoppable. And here’s what it takes: you don’t stop walking to congratulate yourself; you don’t stop walking to wallow in despair; you don’t stop because your own life got too comfortable or too rough; you don’t stop because you won; you don’t stop because you lost. There’s more to win, more to lose, others who need you.
You don’t stop walking because there is no way forward. Of course there is no way. You walk the path into being, you make the way, and if you do it well, others can follow the route. You look backward to grasp the long history you’re moving forward from, the paths others have made, the road you came in on. You look forward to possibility. That’s what we mean by hope, and you look past it into the impossible and that doesn’t stop you either. But mostly you just walk, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot. That’s what makes you unstoppable.
Well said, Eric. All these writers have been a bedrock source of inspiration and calming spirits. Concurrently, they keep us alert to the reality of our history making times.
Here is an idea for the “Less-extreme” GOP members in the House, and maybe in the Senate.
Seven Steps to avoid disaster and set our country back on the rails:
For those who have a remnant of a conscience and haven’t yet sold their soul, there is a way out.
First, reconnect with your spine.
Second, find others like you in the House. Third, call for a vote on McCarthy. Thanks to the “Loss of Freedom Caucus” it only takes one of you to call for the vote.
Fourth, be absent for the first roll call vote. Fifth, when they go around a second time to pick up the stragglers, vote for Rep Jeffries.
Sixth, immediately call a press conference and declare that you are leaving the Republican Party. If you don’t feel good about joining the party of sanity (Democrats) then become Independent. Seventh, when asked with whom you will caucus……say Democrats. And watch the insane howl and the weak-hearted drop.
Oh how I wish any of this would happen, particularly #6. It seems that in states around the country, it’s going the other way, and Dems are going to the GQP. There is no way I can ever imagine a true Democrat going to the GQP in this day and age. It is scientifically impossible! But it’s all about power. They know the GQP lies, cheats, and steals. So they know they’ll get further, for now, than having to fight with the Democrats who are trying to protect our democracy. Please keep us posted as your 6 steps are enacted!
May 2, 2023·edited May 2, 2023Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
Bear in mind, as of 2022, CNN is now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery - a major stockholder of which is John Malone: big media guy, Cato institute supporter, and major Trump booster.
Uggh, and explains a lot as to why CNN didn't "learn its lesson" from the 2015-16 campaign when media outlets GAVE Trump some $4B worth of coverage -- thus legitimizing, normalizing and promoting this lifelong conman and fraud. While readers here know that not actively opposing authoritarian tendencies is supporting authoritarianism, for Malone the lesson is clear: Free coverage works. The unthinkable becomes mainstream.
Noah, thanks for the note about John Malone. I did not know his connection to Cato Institute. FWIW, the Cato Institute urged the Supreme Court to accept review of the case that will overturn the Chevron deference standard.
Every word you speak is treasured by me. My comment is that I never go to sleep without reading you except when you don’t publish. And every night after reading you I feel
less worked up and depressed. And motivated to read Jessica Craven and make phone calls and postcard. We need your truth though your moral and hopeful lens. Bless you .
Thanks, Jill. And Jessica Craven is not only an amazing activist, she is a really nice person. I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jessica and her family through our mutual writing. She is everything you would expect!
You haven't been paying attention to "media news." CNN has been under orders for a year, ever since Chris Licht took over, to "center" CNN and provide programming that attracts conservatives as well as "lib'ruls." Which they haven't accomplished, pissing off their overlords at Warner Brothers Discovery. Plus they are stuck as #3 in ratings and in danger of being overtaken by Newsmax now that Phucker's gone from Faux. So, they're doing what they did in 2016: give Trump free airtime and "he's great for ratings," as Zucker The Fuqqer used to say.
There's a reason why it's known as the Cretin News Network.
Someone else besides me who uses the word "cretin" !!! but unfortunately in the past 8 years or so, that and many other synonyms for "stupid" have become part of my vocabulary. I've tried so hard to be charitable in the early years but the fact that so many still want a misogynistic narcissistic rapist, insurrectionist, uneducated and determinedly ignorant pathological liar with a non-existent moral compass for another term as our country's leader is just inconceivable - surreal - insane - words fail me.
Biden told the leaders – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and McCarthy – that he wants to discuss on May 9 the need to pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling. Sure seems like the date is cutting it too close to June 1! However, I think this is a good move on President Biden's part because Mitch McConnell is against what McCarthy is trying to do. So it will be four against one and hopefully McCarthy will give in. But then can McCarthy get the MAGA caucus to help pass a clean debt ceiling bill? Sounds like President Biden will still have to take executive emergency action. Then we get to see if the reactionary Court will uphold the 14th amendment Section 4 that "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."
Well, the Injustices own stock and would be affected by an economic crisis, too....so perhaps they will do the usual: pursue their own personal agendas and interests, which will lead them to uphold (this once) the President's clear duty to pay the nation's debts and avoid a default.
This Congress is comprised of ignoramuses and treasonous fools.
I read that Congress is on recess for the next week, and one of the Congressional leaders is on a trip with other Congressional members, so unavailable until May 9th.
It’s great that you point out the advancement of democracy in the last 8 years. But your “reclaiming democracy” etc. is the perspective of a white man. For the rest of us it is progress towards social justice and democracy. We aren’t there yet, & there is still a long struggle until it is democracy for everyone.
Thank you for saying that out loud, Pat. My heart aches for the lives of my grandchildren and their children if we do not reclaim the values we aspire to for our nation, and find ways to re-establish movement toward them.
Pat, I'm don't think that a feel good book written by a white man is going to change my concerns about what my grandchildren and their children are likely to face. - especially in the face of what I see and hear and experience. My grandchildren are all adults. Between them and my grand nephews and nieces, we cover a wide range of indigenous people from Inuit to Wabenaki, plus African, all mixed in with the mainly Gaelic Europeans who immigrated to this country over the 3 centuries between the 16th to the 19th. HIstory tells us that 2 or 3 generations won't fix what's wrong in time for my great-grandchildren to be on parity with people of European ancestry and no sign their ancestors mixed with non-Euros. It won't give our land back, or fix the broken families or recreate our spiritual culture. I try to be patient with "woke" white people, but dang that takes a lot of patience sometimes.
Right again Robert: hold ‘em - don’t fold em. We have the right cards. Honesty and integrity will always win even if the game takes longer than we’d like. Thanks for the unwavering reminders!!
Thank you for these bullets of rightwing determination to destroy democracy in America. This morning my husband came back from his morning walk and told me that there is red paint on buildings everywhere here as Spain's elections are soon coming. In the midst of all that democracy is facing around the world, for people to harangue you over calling grebes ducks indicates the pettiness of those who preen their righteousness. Quack. ❤️
Gailee, today is my final class with my beautiful Ukranian ballet teacher who will be returning home for surgery and to reunite with family.They will meet away from her hometown, although she hopes to visit her aging grandfather who remains in Dinipro. “ At least there were no bombs…today”, she said .Stay safe across the pond…💙
Thank you for sharing this, Kathy. There are Ukrainian students in my Spanish class who also went home for the Spring Break and were hoping that they would make it back.
Michael--I hope you recognize that I was using humor to admit my error. I was grateful for the correction! I was amused over the disagreement about which species of grebes was in the picture.
I had to laugh over that. Now you know the ugly underbelly of birding! There are those who are listers and those who are watchers. Some birders are both. I am a watcher, and while I like to know the names of the birds who cross my path, I prefer to observe them, watch their habits and how they interact with the environment (including me- there is no more delightful experience than standing quietly while birds land on you and explore your hair!).
Some listers get so tied up in facts that they miss the point of it all (the trees for the forest thing). I like your simple solution for the problem. I think, though, that you will be safe by saying "waterbirds" when a bird is clearly swimming. Just be suitably vague. The radical listers will not be interested in you: they automatically go into detailed discussion mode. regardless of what the context is!
Great recap, Robert and I am trying to stay positive for as long as I can. I will not be watching or listening to anything that Fake 45 has or will say. I can’t stand the crap that he spews. I don’t want to witness audience members clapping and praising his lyin’ ass. Nope, can’t and won’t.
As a devoted subscriber, having turned 89 in April, I recall as a child another dummy named McCarthy who was friendly and humorous, spoken for by a ventriloquist named Edgar Bergen. Instead of wasting your time and mine by criticizing bird’s titles, perhaps our readers need to focus more carefully on who speaks for the current dummy named McCarthy.
Once again Robert reminds us of the extraordinarily high stakes presented almost daily in the battle against MAGA extremism. While I remain confident that the forces of light will win, I live in deep Blue New York City and thus do not have to face directly those worse-than-reactionary attitudes as do my friends in Texas, Tennessee and, sadly, Ohio. Much as I loathe every aspect of Trumpism, I have to hope that the GOP will continue to take wild positions and choose extreme MAGA candidates so that the distinction between them and simple decency remains truly vivid.
I agree with you. I live in blood red Ohio and it ain't fun but I am up for the good fight. Thanks to this post and several others, I am able to stay informed and grounded( gets hard on some days). After watching Rachel Maddow last night and seeing her coverage of several Nazi rallies that have taken place here in Ohio, I know what I am dealing with and have known it for some time now. There are more of us than them and we must use our strength in numbers accordingly. Thank-you, once again, Robert.
Yes, along with the anti-gay legislation under consideration in Uganda led/informed by American nut cases, Rachel Maddow had quite a barnburner of a show last night.
Yeah....I felt kinda nauseous, quite honestly. The urgency of action needed by US support in Uganda is unnerving as the vote is today (?). Living in "safe" LA County, I feel somewhat insulated from the nazi red-shirted hate; but I know it's out there big time. 💙
Thanks, Victoria ! Staying informed is often painful but necessary. I was alarmed by the couple in Ohio spreading their neo-Nazi curriculum via Telegram.
Florida passed legislation to provide vouchers for home-schooled ( as well as religious schools ). Asked my legislators how they will prevent tax dollars from funding a neo-Nazi curriculum. Their response (non-response) does not reassure! Keep fighting the good fight…
For the information of everyone, here's a reminder of Rachel's multipart podcast Ultra if you haven't listened to it previously. She did a deep dive into the effort to replace President Roosevelt with a dictator like Hitler. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra
I also recommend the 2022 movie "Amsterdam" which I had the benefit of watching on a transatlantic flight recently. It's fun to watch in many ways but for those who already know history, you'll soon perceive the more serious linkages with the real-life story recounted in Ultra.
"(Slides from the training presentation [according to the Salon article] noted that enslaved people in the U.S. only accounted for 4% of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which both minimizes the number of people ultimately enslaved in America and suggests that other countries' slavery practices were worse.)" https://www.theroot.com/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us-1790873989 So, yeah, about 388,000 out of 10-12 million landed in the US, according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. But that does not account for the increase in population over the years born into slavery.
Ya see, it doesn't take teachers much time for a bit of research from reliable sources. All I did was google - well, actually duck duck go-ed. (No grebes encountered) 😉
That claim about 4% ignores the hundreds of thousands of children born into slavery from that 4% (if an accurate number.....) and the offspring of the children of the 4%, all of whom also remained enslaved until emancipated by President Lincoln.
If I were attending the CNN town hall (and I won't even be watching) I would want to ask that lying piece of sh*t why anyone should vote for a man who falsely swore on two Bibles that he would defend and protect the Constitution of the US when he so often didn't. To me, oaths must be honored. There should be no second chance on that one.
"Everyone feels the same weariness and occasional disappointment. But we are on an eight-year winning streak."
I so appreciate your trademark blend of empathy, realism and evidence-based optimism -- a quality shown also by Jess Craven (Chop Wood, Carry Water), Simon Rosenberg, Rebecca Solnit, Heather Cox Richardson, and several other key writers. We readers and activists need your steadfast support in these struggles for human rights, justice and democracy!
Eric, thanks. Where are you reading Rebecca Solnit these days? I have lost track of her. I was reading her in The Guardian, but she is no longer writing for that outlet. Please email me at rbhubbell@gmail.com with any helpful info. Thanks!
Similar to your 64th birthday vision statement / wishlist, I consider certain Rebecca Solnit pieces "keepers" for rereading, including this: https://lithub.com/rebecca-solnit-on-not-meeting-nazis-halfway/ (Readers here will likely appreciate this piece. You have expressed such views many times.)
Solnit's most recent essay in The Guardian on April 5, 2023: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/05/trump-had-always-been-above-the-law-until-it-turned-on-him (I hope she's continuing!)
I'm currently reading her 2021 book ORWELL'S ROSES. And for me it's always valuable to revisit her outstanding book HOPE IN THE DARK: UNTOLD HISTORIES, WILD POSSIBILITIES. And yes, I will email you a PDF with some Rebecca Solnit treasures.
Eric,
HOPE IN THE DARK is an annual 'must read' for me. I highly recommend it to everyone. You will not be disappointed. In fact, you will be inspired to keep on keeping on.
And if time is tight for you, and even if it is not, everyone should read this column, "Despair Is Not a Strategy," from 2017, that refers to Rebecca multiple times and contains much wisdom. It is a 'several times per year' reading requirement for me. When the going gets tough, this is what I read. And since I have discovered HCR, Robert and Jessica, them as well. We need all the help we can get these days.
https://abby-brockman.medium.com/despair-is-not-a-strategy-15-principles-of-hope-deba7ac2cb29#.16ylrzing
Excellent reminder, Cathleen! I just reread that. One Rebecca Solnit connection is: 10. Hope is a basis, not a substitute, for action.
Solnit says hope is the spark, which I saw again today when I revisited perhaps my favorite paragraphs of hers. Yes, they're a bit long for a comment on Substack. But hopefully no one minds too much:
I still value hope, but I see it as only part of what’s required, a starting point. Think of it as the match but not the tinder or the blaze. To matter, to change the world, you also need devotion and will and you need to act. Hope is only where it begins, though I’ve also seen people toil on without regard to hope, to what they believe is possible. They live on principle and they gamble, and sometimes they even win, or sometimes the goal they were aiming for is reached long after their deaths. Still, it’s action that gets you there. When what was once hoped for is realized, it falls into the background, becomes the new normal; and we hope for or carp about something else.
The future is bigger than our imaginations. It’s unimaginable, and then it comes anyway. To meet it we need to keep going, to walk past what we can imagine. We need to be unstoppable. And here’s what it takes: you don’t stop walking to congratulate yourself; you don’t stop walking to wallow in despair; you don’t stop because your own life got too comfortable or too rough; you don’t stop because you won; you don’t stop because you lost. There’s more to win, more to lose, others who need you.
You don’t stop walking because there is no way forward. Of course there is no way. You walk the path into being, you make the way, and if you do it well, others can follow the route. You look backward to grasp the long history you’re moving forward from, the paths others have made, the road you came in on. You look forward to possibility. That’s what we mean by hope, and you look past it into the impossible and that doesn’t stop you either. But mostly you just walk, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot. That’s what makes you unstoppable.
(Source: https://tomdispatch.com/rebecca-solnit-what-comes-after-hope/ )
Brilliant choice!!! Especially the last 2 paragraphs!! Thank you for the link.
Well said, Eric. All these writers have been a bedrock source of inspiration and calming spirits. Concurrently, they keep us alert to the reality of our history making times.
CNN…….The new Fox?
As for Biden hanging tough, I totally agree.
Here is an idea for the “Less-extreme” GOP members in the House, and maybe in the Senate.
Seven Steps to avoid disaster and set our country back on the rails:
For those who have a remnant of a conscience and haven’t yet sold their soul, there is a way out.
First, reconnect with your spine.
Second, find others like you in the House. Third, call for a vote on McCarthy. Thanks to the “Loss of Freedom Caucus” it only takes one of you to call for the vote.
Fourth, be absent for the first roll call vote. Fifth, when they go around a second time to pick up the stragglers, vote for Rep Jeffries.
Sixth, immediately call a press conference and declare that you are leaving the Republican Party. If you don’t feel good about joining the party of sanity (Democrats) then become Independent. Seventh, when asked with whom you will caucus……say Democrats. And watch the insane howl and the weak-hearted drop.
Love it! "First, reconnect with your spine."
And as voters, support the "UNREPRESENTATIVE 18" campaign by Indivisible, no matter who your Members of Congress are:
https://www.unrepresentative18.org/
(These are the 18 GOP reps in districts Biden won -- very vulnerable in 2024!)
Thanks Eric! Indivisible has provided a very focused, and effective plan for getting our House majority back. Our team is onboard with it!
Oh how I wish any of this would happen, particularly #6. It seems that in states around the country, it’s going the other way, and Dems are going to the GQP. There is no way I can ever imagine a true Democrat going to the GQP in this day and age. It is scientifically impossible! But it’s all about power. They know the GQP lies, cheats, and steals. So they know they’ll get further, for now, than having to fight with the Democrats who are trying to protect our democracy. Please keep us posted as your 6 steps are enacted!
See above. Yes, trying to be the new Fox.
CNN has happily slid into FOX light territory quite some time ago
Bear in mind, as of 2022, CNN is now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery - a major stockholder of which is John Malone: big media guy, Cato institute supporter, and major Trump booster.
Uggh, and explains a lot as to why CNN didn't "learn its lesson" from the 2015-16 campaign when media outlets GAVE Trump some $4B worth of coverage -- thus legitimizing, normalizing and promoting this lifelong conman and fraud. While readers here know that not actively opposing authoritarian tendencies is supporting authoritarianism, for Malone the lesson is clear: Free coverage works. The unthinkable becomes mainstream.
During the 2015-16 presidential election, the President of CNN openly admitted: "Trump may be bad for the nation, but he's great for our ratings."
Hard to fault the man for doing his job as well as he can. CNN's a long way away from Ted Turner.
Oh ick. Didn’t know that.
For various reasons I haven’t watched CNN in years. No reason to start now.
Stopping today!!!
Noah, thanks for the note about John Malone. I did not know his connection to Cato Institute. FWIW, the Cato Institute urged the Supreme Court to accept review of the case that will overturn the Chevron deference standard.
CNN shifted, I think a year ago, to try to capture Fox audience. It failed. Possibly, now that the Tuck is gone, it may be trying again.
Maybe they're holding his place? I'm sure Tuck and John have a lot in common.....at least as long as John isn't privy to Tuck's emails.
😣😞😢😡
That’s when I stopped reading/watching CNN.
Every word you speak is treasured by me. My comment is that I never go to sleep without reading you except when you don’t publish. And every night after reading you I feel
less worked up and depressed. And motivated to read Jessica Craven and make phone calls and postcard. We need your truth though your moral and hopeful lens. Bless you .
Thanks, Jill. And Jessica Craven is not only an amazing activist, she is a really nice person. I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jessica and her family through our mutual writing. She is everything you would expect!
You haven't been paying attention to "media news." CNN has been under orders for a year, ever since Chris Licht took over, to "center" CNN and provide programming that attracts conservatives as well as "lib'ruls." Which they haven't accomplished, pissing off their overlords at Warner Brothers Discovery. Plus they are stuck as #3 in ratings and in danger of being overtaken by Newsmax now that Phucker's gone from Faux. So, they're doing what they did in 2016: give Trump free airtime and "he's great for ratings," as Zucker The Fuqqer used to say.
There's a reason why it's known as the Cretin News Network.
Someone else besides me who uses the word "cretin" !!! but unfortunately in the past 8 years or so, that and many other synonyms for "stupid" have become part of my vocabulary. I've tried so hard to be charitable in the early years but the fact that so many still want a misogynistic narcissistic rapist, insurrectionist, uneducated and determinedly ignorant pathological liar with a non-existent moral compass for another term as our country's leader is just inconceivable - surreal - insane - words fail me.
Me too, Just Janice!
I think it ironic that Chris Licht came from the Colbert show...
Promote them and pay them enough and they'll do anything. "The man who says he can't be bought hasn't been offered a sufficient sum yet."
Biden told the leaders – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and McCarthy – that he wants to discuss on May 9 the need to pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling. Sure seems like the date is cutting it too close to June 1! However, I think this is a good move on President Biden's part because Mitch McConnell is against what McCarthy is trying to do. So it will be four against one and hopefully McCarthy will give in. But then can McCarthy get the MAGA caucus to help pass a clean debt ceiling bill? Sounds like President Biden will still have to take executive emergency action. Then we get to see if the reactionary Court will uphold the 14th amendment Section 4 that "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."
Well, the Injustices own stock and would be affected by an economic crisis, too....so perhaps they will do the usual: pursue their own personal agendas and interests, which will lead them to uphold (this once) the President's clear duty to pay the nation's debts and avoid a default.
This Congress is comprised of ignoramuses and treasonous fools.
I read that Congress is on recess for the next week, and one of the Congressional leaders is on a trip with other Congressional members, so unavailable until May 9th.
It’s great that you point out the advancement of democracy in the last 8 years. But your “reclaiming democracy” etc. is the perspective of a white man. For the rest of us it is progress towards social justice and democracy. We aren’t there yet, & there is still a long struggle until it is democracy for everyone.
Thank you for saying that out loud, Pat. My heart aches for the lives of my grandchildren and their children if we do not reclaim the values we aspire to for our nation, and find ways to re-establish movement toward them.
There is historical evidence that will make you much more hopeful. Read Jon Meacham’s THE SOUL OF AMERICA: The Battle For For Our Better Angels. Pat
Pat, I'm don't think that a feel good book written by a white man is going to change my concerns about what my grandchildren and their children are likely to face. - especially in the face of what I see and hear and experience. My grandchildren are all adults. Between them and my grand nephews and nieces, we cover a wide range of indigenous people from Inuit to Wabenaki, plus African, all mixed in with the mainly Gaelic Europeans who immigrated to this country over the 3 centuries between the 16th to the 19th. HIstory tells us that 2 or 3 generations won't fix what's wrong in time for my great-grandchildren to be on parity with people of European ancestry and no sign their ancestors mixed with non-Euros. It won't give our land back, or fix the broken families or recreate our spiritual culture. I try to be patient with "woke" white people, but dang that takes a lot of patience sometimes.
Right again Robert: hold ‘em - don’t fold em. We have the right cards. Honesty and integrity will always win even if the game takes longer than we’d like. Thanks for the unwavering reminders!!
Thank you for these bullets of rightwing determination to destroy democracy in America. This morning my husband came back from his morning walk and told me that there is red paint on buildings everywhere here as Spain's elections are soon coming. In the midst of all that democracy is facing around the world, for people to harangue you over calling grebes ducks indicates the pettiness of those who preen their righteousness. Quack. ❤️
Gailee, today is my final class with my beautiful Ukranian ballet teacher who will be returning home for surgery and to reunite with family.They will meet away from her hometown, although she hopes to visit her aging grandfather who remains in Dinipro. “ At least there were no bombs…today”, she said .Stay safe across the pond…💙
I do hope she has a safe journey. 💞
Thank you for sharing this, Kathy. There are Ukrainian students in my Spanish class who also went home for the Spring Break and were hoping that they would make it back.
"Going forward, whenever I refer to something with feathers and wings, I will identify it as “a bird.”
As an admitted failure at birding this is music to my ears.
I adore you 🕊️
Best reply ever! Thank you.
Nonsense. Corrections should always be welcome on this newsletter.
Michael--I hope you recognize that I was using humor to admit my error. I was grateful for the correction! I was amused over the disagreement about which species of grebes was in the picture.
I had to laugh over that. Now you know the ugly underbelly of birding! There are those who are listers and those who are watchers. Some birders are both. I am a watcher, and while I like to know the names of the birds who cross my path, I prefer to observe them, watch their habits and how they interact with the environment (including me- there is no more delightful experience than standing quietly while birds land on you and explore your hair!).
Some listers get so tied up in facts that they miss the point of it all (the trees for the forest thing). I like your simple solution for the problem. I think, though, that you will be safe by saying "waterbirds" when a bird is clearly swimming. Just be suitably vague. The radical listers will not be interested in you: they automatically go into detailed discussion mode. regardless of what the context is!
Ah ¨the radical¨. Can't get away from them no matter how hard one tries. 🦃🦅🦢🕊️🦜🦩🦚🦉🦤🐦🐧
Great recap, Robert and I am trying to stay positive for as long as I can. I will not be watching or listening to anything that Fake 45 has or will say. I can’t stand the crap that he spews. I don’t want to witness audience members clapping and praising his lyin’ ass. Nope, can’t and won’t.
As a devoted subscriber, having turned 89 in April, I recall as a child another dummy named McCarthy who was friendly and humorous, spoken for by a ventriloquist named Edgar Bergen. Instead of wasting your time and mine by criticizing bird’s titles, perhaps our readers need to focus more carefully on who speaks for the current dummy named McCarthy.
Jerry, Mazel Tov! Your great analogy of the two McCarthys brought a big smile to face!
Once again Robert reminds us of the extraordinarily high stakes presented almost daily in the battle against MAGA extremism. While I remain confident that the forces of light will win, I live in deep Blue New York City and thus do not have to face directly those worse-than-reactionary attitudes as do my friends in Texas, Tennessee and, sadly, Ohio. Much as I loathe every aspect of Trumpism, I have to hope that the GOP will continue to take wild positions and choose extreme MAGA candidates so that the distinction between them and simple decency remains truly vivid.
I agree with you. I live in blood red Ohio and it ain't fun but I am up for the good fight. Thanks to this post and several others, I am able to stay informed and grounded( gets hard on some days). After watching Rachel Maddow last night and seeing her coverage of several Nazi rallies that have taken place here in Ohio, I know what I am dealing with and have known it for some time now. There are more of us than them and we must use our strength in numbers accordingly. Thank-you, once again, Robert.
Yes, along with the anti-gay legislation under consideration in Uganda led/informed by American nut cases, Rachel Maddow had quite a barnburner of a show last night.
She really did! Made me ill but I want to be informed so I can do battle.
Yeah....I felt kinda nauseous, quite honestly. The urgency of action needed by US support in Uganda is unnerving as the vote is today (?). Living in "safe" LA County, I feel somewhat insulated from the nazi red-shirted hate; but I know it's out there big time. 💙
Yes, that was very alarming to me! Daughter of Holocaust victims here.
Thanks, Victoria ! Staying informed is often painful but necessary. I was alarmed by the couple in Ohio spreading their neo-Nazi curriculum via Telegram.
Florida passed legislation to provide vouchers for home-schooled ( as well as religious schools ). Asked my legislators how they will prevent tax dollars from funding a neo-Nazi curriculum. Their response (non-response) does not reassure! Keep fighting the good fight…
For the information of everyone, here's a reminder of Rachel's multipart podcast Ultra if you haven't listened to it previously. She did a deep dive into the effort to replace President Roosevelt with a dictator like Hitler. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra
I also recommend the 2022 movie "Amsterdam" which I had the benefit of watching on a transatlantic flight recently. It's fun to watch in many ways but for those who already know history, you'll soon perceive the more serious linkages with the real-life story recounted in Ultra.
"(Slides from the training presentation [according to the Salon article] noted that enslaved people in the U.S. only accounted for 4% of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which both minimizes the number of people ultimately enslaved in America and suggests that other countries' slavery practices were worse.)" https://www.theroot.com/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us-1790873989 So, yeah, about 388,000 out of 10-12 million landed in the US, according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. But that does not account for the increase in population over the years born into slavery.
Ya see, it doesn't take teachers much time for a bit of research from reliable sources. All I did was google - well, actually duck duck go-ed. (No grebes encountered) 😉
That claim about 4% ignores the hundreds of thousands of children born into slavery from that 4% (if an accurate number.....) and the offspring of the children of the 4%, all of whom also remained enslaved until emancipated by President Lincoln.
BTW, I'm a confirmed user of duck-duck-go myself.
If I were attending the CNN town hall (and I won't even be watching) I would want to ask that lying piece of sh*t why anyone should vote for a man who falsely swore on two Bibles that he would defend and protect the Constitution of the US when he so often didn't. To me, oaths must be honored. There should be no second chance on that one.
Stand firm, Joe! "I ran out of things I could even imagine asking for." ~~ Matt Geatz. Let's remind ourselves about how Republicans negotiate: https://www-businessinsider-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.businessinsider.com/gaetz-mccarthy-house-speaker-vote-flip-present-freedom-caucus-2023-1?amp=&_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16830019267024&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fgaetz-mccarthy-house-speaker-vote-flip-present-freedom-caucus-2023-1
Wrote my letter to CNN. Lost another viewer.