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January 19, 2023

Dear readers,

          On Wednesday morning, I received messages from dozens of readers saying they had received a suspicious email from me. The email was (allegedly) in reply to a post they made in the Comments section of a newsletter published last week. The suspicious email asked the reader to text me to discuss an exciting financial opportunity.

          The email was not from me. It was from someone who impersonated me using my Substack email address. A reader informed me that she received similar messages from Substack columns published by Dan Rather and Robert Reich. I am investigating the incident with Substack, but in the meantime, I wanted to let you know about a slight change in how I will manage the Comments section—which requires a bit of background.

          When I first began writing the newsletter, I sent it each night to four family members and four friends via Gmail. When the circulation rose to the 300-recipient level, Google put me in Gmail Jail as a suspected spammer. Gmail Jail is a bad place to be, and you do not ever want to serve time there—trust me! Upon my release, I signed up for a commercial email distribution platform. As the circulation of the newsletter grew, I was paying several thousand dollars a year for the privilege of distributing a free newsletter. Because many of my readers also followed Heather Cox Richardson on Substack, I switched to the Substack platform.

          Substack is free to use for authors and has a default voluntary subscription model. Many of you have become paying subscribers, for which I thank you. Your support allows me to arrange my life in a way to devote more time to the newsletter. But an unexpected benefit of the voluntary subscription model is that it allowed the “subscribers-only” Comments section to develop into a thoughtful, safe, and affirming community of readers. The “paywall feature” of the Comment section turned out to be an effective deterrent to trolls, bots, and disrupters.

          But, as you know, on dozens of occasions, I have opened the Comments section to all readers without regard to subscription status when important or traumatic events warranted a broader discussion. We are all part of a like-minded community, and the Comments section can serve as a helpful (and therapeutic) place for readers to share their feelings. But opening the Comments section to all readers necessarily opens it to all members of the public—which brought in trolls, bots, and disrupters. I aggressively delete such comments when I open the Comments section to everyone, but that effort requires me to monitor the Comments section continuously. On those occasions, I gladly devote the time necessary to protect readers from the “fight club / cage match” rules that spoil discourse on social media platforms like Twitter.

          The spam / phishing email that many of you received today originated from a Comments section that I opened to all readers. I don’t know if there is a connection between that fact and the spam email, but I am investigating. Until I can ensure that readers who post comments will not be harassed by spammers / hackers / trolls, I will use the default setting for the Comments section (i.e., paid subscribers only). When I can do so safely, I will revert to my practice of inviting all readers to comment when important or traumatic events warrant a broader discussion.

          But . . . everyone can write to me directly by “replying” to the email that delivers the newsletter. Although the volume of such emails now exceeds my ability to answer every piece of correspondence, I make an earnest effort to read every email sent to me each day.

          Thanks for being a part of the Today’s Edition newsletter community.  Our community made important contributions to the defense of democracy in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Just as importantly, we sustained one another during dark and difficult times. It is an honor to work by your side as we pursue a more just, tolerant, and free society. Your dedication, resilience, and fearlessness lift me up every day. I am eternally grateful for that gift. Thank you.

Important update on Biden document story.

          Biden and his staff have been harshly criticized for their slow response in searching additional locations after their initial discovery of classified documents. I was among those who criticized Biden for his seeming hesitancy in attempting to define the full scope of the problem. One week ago, a Biden spokesperson lamely suggested they were following DOJ directives in their cautious approach. No one believed that statement because it seemed unlikely that the DOJ would tell Biden to “go slow.”

          Well, it turns out that the DOJ did, in fact, ask the Biden administration to refrain from reviewing the documents discovered at the Penn Biden Center or looking for documents at other locations! See WaPo, How the White House strategy on classified documents backfired. Per WaPo,

The Justice official asked specifically that Biden’s legal team secure the materials from the Penn Biden Center and refrain from further reviewing them or other relevant documents that might be stored at different locations[.]

          As a “Thank you” for following the DOJ’s requests to go slow, the DOJ later appointed a special counsel to investigate Biden’s collection and return of classified documents. Gosh! With friends like those, who needs enemies?

McCarthy’s corrupt appointments to House committees.

          As suspected by everyone, Kevin McCarthy bribed members of the GOP caucus to elect him Speaker by using plum committee assignments as a form of payola. Not everyone is happy with those assignments, especially senior members who lost seats on committees to the “Never-Kevin” contingent that humiliated McCarthy and the GOP by forcing fifteen votes to elect McCarthy. One unhappy GOP member (Vern Buchanan) apparently screamed at McCarthy on the House floor, saying, “You f**ked me” over Buchan’s loss of his position as chair of the Ways & Means Committee. See "You f**ked me": GOPer rages at McCarthy over committee as MAGA extremists score key assignments | Salon.com.

          McCarthy has placed the inmates in charge of the prison by appointing insurrectionists Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, and Scott Perry to key committees—including the House Oversight Committee and the Homeland Security Committee. The White House condemned the appointments, saying

 [I]t appears that House Republicans may be setting the stage for divorced-from-reality political stunts, instead of engaging in bipartisan work on behalf of the American people.

          By appointing insurrectionists and white nationalists to important committees, McCarthy has once again shown his disrespect for the American people. And he has ensured that committee hearings featuring Greene, Gosar, Gaetz, and Perry will reasonably approximate the worst excesses of the House Un-American Activities Committee associated with McCarthyism.

          Most Americans rate “investigations” of the Biden administration low on their list of priorities for the 118th Congress. (Only 31% of Americans rate investigations as a high priority, while Americans rate inflation (76%), Social Security (71%), and Crime (63%) as high priorities.) But McCarthy appears to have given investigations top priority by surrendering control of key committees to the MAGA extremists in his caucus. It may be painful to watch those committees operate, but it is doubtful that they will accomplish anything other than to provoke disgust in most Americans.

Ron DeSantis continues to pursue extremist MAGA policies in his quest for the presidency.

          Florida governor Ron DeSantis continues to lurch to the extreme right in his effort to flank Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination. As he does so, he simultaneously improves his chances of securing the GOP nomination and diminishes the prospect that he will ever be elected president. Recent examples abound, but two will suffice to make the point.

          In his effort to ensure that students in Florida are protected from the reality of America's past, state officials have told the College Board that its Advance Placement course on African American Studies “lacks educational value” and is not “historically accurate.” See The Daily Beast, DeSantis Blocks AP African-American Studies Course for Breaking Florida’s Anti-CRT Law. I hope that Democratic strategists are working on campaign ads today that feature content from the proposed AP class that is beyond dispute and central to American history, which is then juxtaposed with the insulting phrase “lacks educational value.”

          Separately, DeSantis has asked Florida state universities for information on the “number and ages” of students who have sought gender dysphoria treatment, including sex reassignment surgery and hormone prescriptions. Such surveys by the federal government have a creepy resemblance to the preoccupation of Nazis with gay men in pre-war Germany. See DeSantis seeks details on transgender university students | AP News.

          Even Americans who may not support the civil liberties of transgender people will be offended by government efforts to investigate students’ sexual and gender orientations, as well as their drug prescriptions.

What the heck is going on in New York?

          The New York Senate Judiciary Committee refused to recommend the appointment of Governor Hochul’s pick for the chief judge on New York’s top court. See CBS News, Senate votes against Gov. Hochul's nomination of Hector LaSalle for New York's top judge.

          Rather than accept defeat based on the vote of the NY Senate Judiciary Committee, Gov. Hochul has threatened to sue the NY Senate Democrats to force a floor vote on Judge Hector LaSalle’s nomination.

          Ugh! What could be more damaging than a Democratic governor suing Democratic legislators for doing their job? I know! When newly elected House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries enters the fray to demand that state Democratic legislators confirm an unpopular, conservative judge. Hakeem Jeffries ill-advised involvement has led to harsh criticism from progressive groups. See Common Dreams, 'Disgracing Himself': Hakeem Jeffries Stumps for Anti-Abortion Judge.

          If anyone has personal connections with Governor Hochul or Minority Leader Jeffries, I hope you will reach out to them and ask that they stop the madness. The ill-fated effort to nominate Judge LaSalle has been both embarrassing and damaging to the Democratic Party in NY. We cannot afford another series of losses like those we suffered in 2022.

Concluding Thoughts.

          Each night after I press the “send” key on the latest newsletter, I pause for a moment and wonder about the reaction I will receive from readers. My opinions are not universally popular and I worry that my word choice, tone, or use of humor (or sarcasm) will offend some readers. I was especially nervous about yesterday’s newsletter in which I branded the GOP as a political terrorist organization. When I used those words after January 6th, I received rebukes from readers who believed that we should work with Republicans of goodwill to repair the divide between our two major political parties.

          I received no rebukes in response to yesterday’s newsletter. I was surprised by the strong, unanimous agreement with my condemnation of a party that has been overtaken by election denialists, conspiracy theorists, and white nationalists. McCarthy’s actions in appointing insurrectionists Greene, Gosar, Gaetz, and Perry to the House Oversight and Homeland Security Committees reinforce the point that the GOP is a lost cause. Placing traitors in charge of committees where they can obstruct justice and undermine national security is despicable and disloyal to the Constitution.

          To be clear, a healthy democracy requires at least two parties. But both parties must be committed to preserving and defending democracy. If one party rejects the governing principles of the nation they have been elected to serve, they are no longer legitimate participants in government—and should not be treated as such by the opposing party or the media. The sooner we accept and operationalize that understanding, the sooner we can help America to move past the Trump/MAGA/white nationalist extremists who have already destroyed the Republican Party from within.

          It is not a good feeling to know that your opponent is an enemy of democracy, but that is where we find ourselves today. Our path forward demands that we speak that hard truth at all times—in words and actions. We can do that. We have been doing that for the last six years. We must continue to do so until we win.

          Talk to you tomorrow!