I recommend that you all check out Dr Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters to an American” for September 7, 2024. She is a very reliable source and presents a very clear and concise view of former President Trump’s mental deterioration over the last few days.
I wish I could post the screenshot but in a reply to Anne Blair, Heather wrote “if we go down, I want to go down fighting.” IMO, Heather would not typically speak in this way. Of course she constantly says democracy is at stake, but she usually writes in a more optimistic tone.
On Facebook, Heather posts the exact same newsletter. I just find the comments to the newsletter interesting because they are largely by intelligent, well-informed, occasionally semi-famous political activists followers. I don’t see a ton of comments from Heather outside of saying hi to friends, so this comment about “if we go down” seemed big to me. Maybe I am making too much of it? I am worried about the legal fight ahead and the possibility of SCOTUS installing trump, so my ears perk up upon such conversation.
Kathy, make no mistake. We are in the fight of our lives. There is not an inch left where we can be complacent and assume everything will be all right. We are in great danger and we have to fight every day between now and November 5. And probably after that as well.
I honestly believe SCOTUS would never install trump if Harris clearly wins. The country would frigging EXPLODE! Democrats would take to the streets and clean out their bank accounts. Wall street would crash and the banks would fail. Does anyone really think we'd not do anything?
I hope that’s true, but recent SCOTUS decisions have demonstrated installing trump is a real possibility. Most people can’t afford to leave the country, including those relying on Social Security checks, pensions, and the American banking system to deliver those on a weekly/monthly basis. While a good number may leave (while they have the chance! trump often talks about closing the borders, but he isn’t very specific, so I worry about him closing the borders to people wanting to leave as has been done in other authoritarian countries.) tons of millions more will be forced to stay. If Trump is in control of the US military, I’m not sure how many of us will go on the streets just to be gunned down by a maniac. Plus, the entire world would be at major risk with a withdrawal from NATO, where is even safe?
Just read it. Very disturbing. I'm so curious what those 7000 people hearing/seeing this were thinking. Appalled, disgusted, frightened, excited, cheering, walked out?
Read it. Bizarre! Surely this is frightening in that the press has ignored these rambling episodes. They should be just as concerned as anyone else. Quite frankly, we might wonder where his family members are and what they are thinking, how concerned they are, who is prepared to pull him aside to confront him with some reality?
Honestly, if this is Trump on September 7, what might anyone expect on November 5 and thereafter? What are his diehard supporters thinking, not to mention his inexperienced 40 year old veep?
This truly feels like a national disaster on full display. Whew! Probably should have taken HCR’s advice and left this as “unread.”
Here is the problem the media has. They are scared of depicting Trump accurately because they will lose a part of their readers or viewers. It’s also being scared about being bullied by Trump.
Here's an excerpt from this morning's Letters from An American that will make it clear how far gone Trump is:
But today’s speech struck me as different from his past performances, distinguished for what sounded like desperation. Trump has always invented his stories from whole cloth, but there used to be some way to tie them to reality. Today that seemed to be gone. He was in a fantasy world, and his rhetoric was apocalyptic. It was also bloody in ways that raise huge red flags for scholars of fascism.
Trump told the audience that when he took office in 2017, military officers told him the U.S. had given all the military’s ammunition away to allies. Then he went on a rant against our allies, saying that they’re only our allies when they need something and that they would never come to our aid if we needed them. This echoes the talking points put out by Russian operatives and flies in the face of the fact that the one time the North Atlantic Treaty Organization invoked the mutual defense pact in that agreement was after the attacks of September 11, 2001, in support of the U.S.
He embraced Project 2025’s promise to eliminate the Department of Education and send education back to the states so that right-wing figures like Wisconsin’s Senator Ron Johnson can run it. He reiterated the MAGA claim that mothers are executing their babies after birth—this is completely bonkers—and again echoed Russian talking points when he said these executions are happening—they are not—but “nobody talks about it.” He went on: “We did a great thing when we got Roe v. Wade out of the federal government.”
He reiterated the complete fantasy that schools are performing gender-affirming surgery on children. “Can you imagine you're a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day at school, and your son comes back with a brutal operation. Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?” Trump’s suggestion that schools are performing surgery on students is bananas. This is simply not a thing that happens.
I read this and my reaction is voters need to see this for themselves to believe it and some will say to themselves well he is a Republican after all. A
No they’re not, they’re playing both sides of the fence, wrongly thinking Trump won’t make them bend over and grab their ankles if he gets near the White House again. That’s the trouble with billionaires owning our media. They don’t care what WE think. They do what they want and people still line up to pay them to be abused.
It may be more than that. I heard a guy on the NPR "On the Media" yesterday say that journalists consider it their job to distill events and make them understandable to the reader. I understand this to mean that if they write "It was difficult to pull anything intelligible out of his speech" then they are edging into opinion or just admitting failure to do their job. It's a problem of traditional journalistic practice has not adjusted to the strange phenom of an incoherent criminal being so popular.
Now, why would reporters pick on Biden? I don't know that they were. Maybe reporting on a stutter is more of a tangible "event" that can't be open to a lot of interpretation.
I'm searching for something a bit more to explain what appears to be bias or profit motivation. Otherwise, It doesn't make sense to me that the NYT would intentionally try to bring Biden down. They've lost a lot of liberal supporters and their credibility is definitely being questioned by more than us so if they thought they didn't want to lose readers, that backfired.
Biden has definitely received poor and unfair press, but is any of that because his staff is not managing the press effectively? And, like it or not, Biden's performance at the debate was more than a stuttering problem.
I have no problem with the NYT being critical of Biden as long as they are critical of Trump. The coverage really is the columnist who contribute who also have a base they need to support. We forget that the NYT and their colleagues are in a business. Another contributing factor is Trump and his rally statements are no longer n interesting
A great retort from Harris would be I am the only person on this stage who actually enforced the law rather than broke the law and I did it with my own hair and less makeup
“Biden has definitely received poor and unfair press, but is any of that because his staff is not managing the press effectively?” —
Absolutely! One example that recently occurred to me: An Administration spokesperson was being interviewed on the PBS Newshour about a Biden Administration success story. Not once did the spokesperson say “President Biden”.
I think it’s largely been a manifestation of egocentrism and ‘ageism’. Many members of the press grew up being told they were part of the best educated, best everything generation ever. It went to their heads. A corollary has been hubris coupled with contempt for their predecessors (Biden being a convenient target).
Agree, David Sea (and congratulations for winning Bob Reich's cartoon caption contest this week!). What concerns me is that even people on this blog today are obsessing about the media and the media's coverage, when it's
Trump's psychopathic grip, intensifying as he panics on his way down, that's an actual domestic crisis of a kind that hasn't confronted us since the Revolution, the Civil War, and possibly WWII (although I think this crisis is more serious than WWII). Who CARES what the media thinks or does! As you say, we have to get out there, work like hell, GOTV, harden our systems against Putin's tampering with the electoral college again, and sideline Donald Trump forever with our work in this election.
Agreed. Who cares? And while many are still asking, "Why isn't the media (fill in historic but 'quaint' news roles) anymore?!" others are busy fighting to win.
And Thanks! It's fun participating in Robert's contests!
Watch "The Great Hack", the story of Cambridge Analytical and the election interference, not only here but across the globe. Scary stuff, but it's something that needs to be viewed. The company is gone, but not the ideas behind it.
Super cheers and thanks, Bill Corbett. I didn't know about The Great Hack, will try to find it. But there's another documentary I keep touting called Active Measures that features the evil, nefarious work of Cambridge Analytical in overturning Hillary's victory in 2016. Let's not hide our heads in the sand and pretend nothing like that is going on this year just because Cambridge Analytical is gone. There's RT/Russia Today, for example. I'm heartened that the DOJ, the FBI, and the Biden administration appear to be on to them and taking strong steps to pull their claws before Nov. 5.
The felon's handlers must be increasingly alarmed. On the other hand they came so incredibly far in gaslighting a good part of the nation (which with the help of the Electoral College might be just enough) that they might still hope to pull it off. And in that case their reaction would just be: Oh well, thanks to the 25th Amendment we might have JD in the Oval sooner than we thought. Not too bad, he will be much easier to work with anyway.
What? Have you lost your mind? Vance, "easier to work with" ! Trump only needs to last long enough as their Trojan Horse in order to get Monster 2.0 in our faces. The Electoral College is their savior.
Ellen here-And that may be their plan-win the presidency and Vance will have to step in-I wouldn't put it past them. In any event, a lose lose for the nation. We need to make sure this doesn't happen with a blue landslide.
Absolutely. At the very least, Vance and company will invoke the 25th amendment. Rick Wilson commented in a Lincoln Project video that if Trump wins in November, he had better stay away from the windows in high buildings. I think a "heart attack" is more likely.
I don't quite see where we differ in our take on the current situation. I just alluded to the frame of mind of the forces behind the whole MAGA movement. Don't forget, the felon is a narcissistic psychopath, not necessarily an ideal manageable front man. And yes, for them Vance would be a dream come true in the Oval.
I see what you mean, Stefan. Trump is a psychopath and thus a total wild card. His handlers can't handle him. And it's the Project 2025 people that would be running the country, not Trump. He's too old and too far gone mentally. Vance is young, weak, and just too weird to be able to stand up to them, so it would be easier for them to control him, to use him as a mouthpiece with no will of his own. And he would do everything they tell him to do, which Trump wouldn't. If they had their choice between a wild-card psychopath and a weak weirdo, the weak weirdo would likely be their preference.
I keep wondering, with Trump's mental decline, in the event of a trump victory who would REALLY take over the presidency. Seems to me that someone among the authors and proponents of Project 2025 might be planning to step in. I mean, JD Vance would be the legal option,but if we're talking Project 2025.....
They don't have to step in, they are there already – Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Crow, Koch, Thiel, the evangelicals in every shape and form...
I'm sensing some complacency in this blog, Stefan, and agree that the felon's handlers haven't given up. We still have much to fear, from behind-the-scenes criminal activity, whether it's tampering with state tallies that throw the electoral college, or putting frantic state laws in place that will turn away large blocs of Democratic voters suddenly on election day when it's too late to do something, or planning for post-Harris-victory wrangling and SCOTUS interference that will paralyze the country. Please, let's not be complacent. Everybody, check your state's election laws, keep GOTV, pressure your reps to impeach SCOTUS bad apples, give money money money to down-ballot candidates....
I don’t think readers of this blog are complacent by any stretch of your imagination and are dedicated and involved and read about the turnout on many events mentioned here. Everyone had a job to do and I am sure they will do it.
I read HCR this morning. Disturbing it certainly is. The fact that 7,000 people showed up expecting to see one of Trump’s usual hate rallies were treated to a double dip of paranoia that probably qualifies as a psychotic episode.
Do they hear an entirely different language? Are there millions of people attracted to a hate so deep that watching Trump loose touch with reality and began threatening 7,000 of them was fun? They enjoyed that?
They came to watch an aged, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist rage about a world that doesn’t exist.
This is what Russia has done. I think the investigation and indictment of right wing media pundits who were fed propaganda from Russia Today (RT) Russian talking points and paid outrageously high salaries for their cooperation is a huge deal indeed!
Although, you’ll never see anything about it in NYT or WaPo. Maybe below the fold or a discrediting comment.
Russia has poisoned the minds of millions! Now we know.
Trump’s a Russian agent and it’s only a matter of time before it percolates down to where it will harm him politically. He knows it. And that’s just one of about 1,000,000 things that are coming down all at once. He may not make it to November 5th, either a complete mental breakdown or physical incapacity.
Karen, Trump is a psychopath. Not merely a sociopath. Trump is among the 1% of us that are psychopaths. Here's an article about 20 clinical factors used in diagnosing psychopaths. Most of us score 4 on this test. Trump scores 33.
Very sobering indeed today....y'all might also check out The Atlantic pod cast Autocracy in America with Anne Applebaum...which I think is going to be a new series...
I also just read HCR’s post today, along with the articles Robert linked to in the part of his Friday post about much of main stream media’s dereliction of duty in how they report about Trump.
Trump’s decline is tremendously dangerous, and by not reporting on him accurately, the press is contributing to his continuing popularity. Extremely few people actually hear him in person. Far too many either listen to Fox or don’t come to understand the five alarm fire that is Trump because of other media failures. I struggle daily with how unbelievable and insane it all feels, as I know many other readers here do too.
I’m so grateful for Robert and this community - ditto HCR and others I subscribe to - such welcome wisdom, sanity and reason to be hopeful.
And each day I wake to the nightmare of Trump I resolve to work harder than ever for the outcomes we desperately need in November.
Hear, hear, Alexandra! I have been motivated beyond my wildest dreams by Robert's community and a number of other Substackers'. I write my own essays, actively participate in several others, have joined my local and county Dem organizations, am postcarding, and boldly wore a Harris/Walz tee shirt into a bright red grocery store and my 55+ community clubhouse. That's in addition to serving as a poll worker. I suggest that everyone take a minute to take stock of what you're doing to fight the good fight. I'll bet most of you will be amazed.
My antidote is to watch videos of Harris, Walz, and Biden in action while I write letters to get out the vote. I saw my dentist this week and at their staff mtg getting out the vote was discussed. They determined to ask every patient about their registration status and their plans to vote👊🏼
I do that as well, Grace! I watch videos of their speeches over and over and tell myself that this could be our future, as I write more postcards and make more donations and prepare to knock on the doors in our very red-leaning rural neighborhood where I have recently seen a couple of brave souls put out Harris Walz yard signs!
Your dentist's idea is excellent, Grace! It would be great if other professionals did the same, and if grocery stores and others put up nonpartisan posters encouraging people to check their registration status and make a voting plan.
I also ask everyone I see - cashiers, people who,let me pet their dogs, etc - about their registration status and voting plans. I don’t ask who they will vote for, just encouraging voting.
This household is writing hundreds of GOTV postcards and Vote Forward letters. Robert B. Hubbell’s community, Markers For Democracy, Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium, and HCR keep me going.
I'm right there with you Bob. Going to an event for local races tonight with my wife and waiting for my assignment polling for early voting and Nov. 5th. I also wear several different T-shirts out and about.
Good for you Bob!! I have my Sotomayor t-shirt, "with fear for our democracy, I dissent" and am still afraid to wear it in public... Maybe to my Dem Club meeting tomorrow evening :)
Partner with FT 6. E.g. Sent hundreds of thousands of texts to FL and GA Friday and yesterday. Also BYOP daily. FT 6 has sent about 12 million this cycle in the swing states. Here's the text:
Hi [Their Name]! In FL we love our freedoms. But MAGA Republicans don't! They passed a brutal abortion ban and oppose legal weed. FIGHT BACK! REGISTER & VOTE for Democrats like DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL for Senate & vote YES on Amendments 3 & 4 to legalize recreational marijuana AND restore abortion rights! ft6.us/FL_reg
We lost about a million Florida Democrats removed from voter rolls 2022 to present and we are receiving virtually no opt outs. Debbie is within 1 point, Kamala 2 in recent polls.
All of this is under the radar. Highly effective, especially when the texts are accompanied by phone calls and canvassing,
DeSantis sending law enforcement to homes of those who signed Amendment 4/Reproductive Rights petition is going to backfire BIGLY. Just like his stealth plan to develop our beautiful state parks with mega-hotels,pickleball courts and golf courses backfired BIGLY. He just keeps making our job easier. But as you know, still much work to be done. You are a FT6 warrior, Daniel !
I refuse to go down without a fight. My letter to the NYT editor this morning (with thanks to HCR's always excellent reporting):
To whom it may concern,
Yes, this is another letter bemoaning your editorial choices in light of current events—and deservedly so. Let’s review:
Yesterday at a rally Trump said and did all of the following: slurred multiple words, called Elon Musk “Leon,” couldn’t recall North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum’s name (he was on Trump’s short list for VPs), said that mothers are routinely murdering their babies, that schools are performing gender affirming surgery on children (“Can you imagine you're a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day at school, and your son comes back with a brutal operation. Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”), said “If I don’t win Colorado, it will be taken over by migrants and the governor will be sent fleeing. Migrants and crime are here in our country at levels never thought possible before…. You're not safe even sitting here, to be honest with you. I'm the only one that's going to get it done. Everybody is saying that." He urged people to protest “because you’re being overrun by criminals…. If you think you have a nice house, have a migrant enjoy your house, because a migrant will take it over. A migrant will take it over. It will be Venezuela on steroids…. And you know, getting them out will be a bloody story.” Then he posted this on his social media platform: “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
And here today is the top portion of your website:
(I can't paste here the screenshot of this morning's NYT online edition, but it leads with a Sienna poll putting Trump and Harris neck and neck, then has a subarticle headlined, "The new poll also suggests Kamala Harris's support has stalled after a euphoric August," and includes an opinion piece titled "How Trump Wins (and how Harris and the Democrats Blow It)". The entire main page of their website includes not a word about Trump's behavior in the past day.)
This is journalistic malpractice of the highest sort. You are the most influential news organization in our country, and this is how you’re operating, like a two-bit race-caller.
You should be profoundly ashamed of yourselves. What the hell have you become?
Here is a clip from the NYT's "newsletter for subscribers" which is called The Tilt, an apt description because it gives evidence of a very fat thumb being placed on the scale, with words like "suggests" and "seems" throughout. It makes for grim reading not because readers of the Times will determine the election, but because this will be picked up and trumpeted by every media outlet in the country. This constant ignoring and sanewashing Trumps words helps those undecided voters vote for Trump "he isn't that bad" and "lots of people like him." Just as we hope Liz and Dick Cheney's endorsments of Kamala helps Republicans and Independents feel better about voting for Kamala. This kind of nonreporting of who and what Trump is and the "objective" reporting of "quality" polls minimizes Trumps clear and present danger to our nation. We don't really need to know more about Kamala Harris do we? We just need to know that life under another Trump administration would be horrible and we would not be able to recognize our country by mid 2025, let along in 4 more years. (Please post if you cannot open this and I'll try sending it again.) We need to keep our spirits up, but we also need to know exactly who is on our side and who is working to elect Donald Trump. Cue Pete Seeger singing, "Which Side Are You on Boys."
---
"New Poll Suggests Harris’s Support Has Stalled After a Euphoric August
Almost 30 percent of voters said they needed to learn more about her.
If you have not yet read or heard Michele Hornish, she’s inspirational. I met her yesterday on a Zoom and proceeded to binge through her Substack essays and podcasts. Like Robert, she writes well, speaks well, and is smart as a whip while grounded in common sense, empathy, and optimism. And her weekly essays conclude with grassroots actions to do—in the spirit of “small deeds done are better than big deeds planned.”
Michele is the Executive Director of Every State Blue, which crowdsources funding for Democratic candidates running in traditionally unopposed races. Every State Blue is the umbrella for Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, Blue Tennessee, and Forgotten Democrats. Read her compelling argument that builds from Timothy Snyder’s warning, “Do not obey in advance.”
Michele is another person we’re glad to know in this world—really nice and super competent in doing critically important long term work for democracy.
I am from Chicago and am going weekly to Milwaukee to register voters and will start going to Michigan to canvas next week. Have 500 postcards going out this week to register women in Georgia and just learned that a friend of mine has amassed 850,000 post cards! And I gave to Tester.
Here in a suburb of Atlanta, I am doing everything I can to assist the Harris-Walz campaign and Democrats in general, including wearing my funny, supportive tee-shirt everywhere; giving away campaign buttons, flag pins, and bumper stickers everywhere I go; making friendship bracelets for other volunteers to give away at events (my most popular effort); addressing and stamping voter postcards, either handwritten by volunteers or preprinted by our statewide campaign; supplying cases of fruit juices and sodas for campaign volunteers; contributing financially as much as I possibly can to as many campaigns as I can; and any other thing my local headquarters asks of me. All this effort must be working — We ARE winning, right?!!!
That's a big "If," of course, but I hope to stay optimistic. I am counting on the fact that we have enough state election managers to do the right thing, even if they are only afraid of going to prison if they do not.
Media continues its amoral and corrupt practices only interested in clicks and revenue. All the grassroots and Substack communities are fighting back with every GOTV action supporting Harris-Walz.
Nancy, I so agree. We have to cut media out of our lives, out of our mindsets, and out of our consideration, and just work like hell to get Harris elected. We have to make media even more isolated and irrelevant than they are making themselves. We have to speed that process so everyone in America recognizes what people who pay attention already know--that the media has become totally corrupted, unreliable, and almost completely liars.
The debate will pit the well known Trump against a new comer to many people who will tune in part to see for themselves exactly who Kamala Harris really is. The media will very hard to pick winners and losers but all Harris really needs to do is show the voters who she is and smile. The Republicans will attack her and accuse her of being too liberal and flip flopping on some issues but the real challenge for Harris is how she responds and depicts Trump. It can’t be a threat to Democracy play but more along the lines of what his Presidency was really all about and the chaos and bad decisions and cabinet we do not want to go black to.
What would happen if DJT goes certifiably bonkers between now and November 5? What would the Republican Party and any other source do to usher him off the stage?
It feels like a train wreck of a national disaster happening? Like a horror show coming right through our TV screens, screaming in our face.
I'm sorry to say I don't think you're exaggerating, John D. Cooper. It is a train wreck of national proportions. I guess I'm sort of hoping that Trump stays the course, because I think he's defeatable. My worst fear is that they give Nikki Haley a billion dollars to convince her/bribe her to run in his place. I think she may have a shred of character left, but only a shred.
On behalf of a friend who donates generously - but only by check - to help elect Democrats, I ask that every candidate and every organization make it easy to find an address to send a paper check and, if a disclosure form is needed, make that available as an easy-to-print PDF to be sent with the check. Older donors have a lot money, care tremendously about the future for their grandchildren and great grandchildren and are not comfortable using electronic donation links. Democrats are leaving a lot of money on the table by making it too hard for these folks to donate.
I have an 85-year-old relative who's a passionate Democrat and has money to give. But she has no computer, internet, smartphone, or knowledge of how to use any of these things. I totally agree that Dems are leaving tons of money on the table by ignoring our older people. But ageism is not new. It took down Joe Biden too. Wake up, Dems!
After spending the good part of Sunday reading multiple sources I have come to the following conclusions. The race is tight and the debate gives Harris a chance to introduce herself to new voters. There are three groups we need to win which are new voters , the youth vote and the independents and disillusioned republicans. There are almost as many of these voters as there are registered Democrats. Voter turnout and registration is our winning ticket. Advertising and debates can’t get these voters registered. We need help now.
I recommend that you all check out Dr Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters to an American” for September 7, 2024. She is a very reliable source and presents a very clear and concise view of former President Trump’s mental deterioration over the last few days.
I agree with this recommendation. Her post is unusually sobering. It is hard to imagine how things have become so extreme.
She had a comment in Fb comments this morning (last night) that was unusual and blaring to me.
I wish I could post the screenshot but in a reply to Anne Blair, Heather wrote “if we go down, I want to go down fighting.” IMO, Heather would not typically speak in this way. Of course she constantly says democracy is at stake, but she usually writes in a more optimistic tone.
Kathy, I’ve never used Facebook, but I read HCR’s Letters to am American and watch her podcasts. What did she say?
On Facebook, Heather posts the exact same newsletter. I just find the comments to the newsletter interesting because they are largely by intelligent, well-informed, occasionally semi-famous political activists followers. I don’t see a ton of comments from Heather outside of saying hi to friends, so this comment about “if we go down” seemed big to me. Maybe I am making too much of it? I am worried about the legal fight ahead and the possibility of SCOTUS installing trump, so my ears perk up upon such conversation.
Kathy, make no mistake. We are in the fight of our lives. There is not an inch left where we can be complacent and assume everything will be all right. We are in great danger and we have to fight every day between now and November 5. And probably after that as well.
I honestly believe SCOTUS would never install trump if Harris clearly wins. The country would frigging EXPLODE! Democrats would take to the streets and clean out their bank accounts. Wall street would crash and the banks would fail. Does anyone really think we'd not do anything?
I hope that’s true, but recent SCOTUS decisions have demonstrated installing trump is a real possibility. Most people can’t afford to leave the country, including those relying on Social Security checks, pensions, and the American banking system to deliver those on a weekly/monthly basis. While a good number may leave (while they have the chance! trump often talks about closing the borders, but he isn’t very specific, so I worry about him closing the borders to people wanting to leave as has been done in other authoritarian countries.) tons of millions more will be forced to stay. If Trump is in control of the US military, I’m not sure how many of us will go on the streets just to be gunned down by a maniac. Plus, the entire world would be at major risk with a withdrawal from NATO, where is even safe?
Just read it. Very disturbing. I'm so curious what those 7000 people hearing/seeing this were thinking. Appalled, disgusted, frightened, excited, cheering, walked out?
Bored and confused.
Read it. Bizarre! Surely this is frightening in that the press has ignored these rambling episodes. They should be just as concerned as anyone else. Quite frankly, we might wonder where his family members are and what they are thinking, how concerned they are, who is prepared to pull him aside to confront him with some reality?
Honestly, if this is Trump on September 7, what might anyone expect on November 5 and thereafter? What are his diehard supporters thinking, not to mention his inexperienced 40 year old veep?
This truly feels like a national disaster on full display. Whew! Probably should have taken HCR’s advice and left this as “unread.”
Here is the problem the media has. They are scared of depicting Trump accurately because they will lose a part of their readers or viewers. It’s also being scared about being bullied by Trump.
Here's an excerpt from this morning's Letters from An American that will make it clear how far gone Trump is:
But today’s speech struck me as different from his past performances, distinguished for what sounded like desperation. Trump has always invented his stories from whole cloth, but there used to be some way to tie them to reality. Today that seemed to be gone. He was in a fantasy world, and his rhetoric was apocalyptic. It was also bloody in ways that raise huge red flags for scholars of fascism.
Trump told the audience that when he took office in 2017, military officers told him the U.S. had given all the military’s ammunition away to allies. Then he went on a rant against our allies, saying that they’re only our allies when they need something and that they would never come to our aid if we needed them. This echoes the talking points put out by Russian operatives and flies in the face of the fact that the one time the North Atlantic Treaty Organization invoked the mutual defense pact in that agreement was after the attacks of September 11, 2001, in support of the U.S.
He embraced Project 2025’s promise to eliminate the Department of Education and send education back to the states so that right-wing figures like Wisconsin’s Senator Ron Johnson can run it. He reiterated the MAGA claim that mothers are executing their babies after birth—this is completely bonkers—and again echoed Russian talking points when he said these executions are happening—they are not—but “nobody talks about it.” He went on: “We did a great thing when we got Roe v. Wade out of the federal government.”
He reiterated the complete fantasy that schools are performing gender-affirming surgery on children. “Can you imagine you're a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day at school, and your son comes back with a brutal operation. Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?” Trump’s suggestion that schools are performing surgery on students is bananas. This is simply not a thing that happens.
I read this and my reaction is voters need to see this for themselves to believe it and some will say to themselves well he is a Republican after all. A
No they’re not, they’re playing both sides of the fence, wrongly thinking Trump won’t make them bend over and grab their ankles if he gets near the White House again. That’s the trouble with billionaires owning our media. They don’t care what WE think. They do what they want and people still line up to pay them to be abused.
Lose their sponsors.
It may be more than that. I heard a guy on the NPR "On the Media" yesterday say that journalists consider it their job to distill events and make them understandable to the reader. I understand this to mean that if they write "It was difficult to pull anything intelligible out of his speech" then they are edging into opinion or just admitting failure to do their job. It's a problem of traditional journalistic practice has not adjusted to the strange phenom of an incoherent criminal being so popular.
Now, why would reporters pick on Biden? I don't know that they were. Maybe reporting on a stutter is more of a tangible "event" that can't be open to a lot of interpretation.
I'm searching for something a bit more to explain what appears to be bias or profit motivation. Otherwise, It doesn't make sense to me that the NYT would intentionally try to bring Biden down. They've lost a lot of liberal supporters and their credibility is definitely being questioned by more than us so if they thought they didn't want to lose readers, that backfired.
Biden has definitely received poor and unfair press, but is any of that because his staff is not managing the press effectively? And, like it or not, Biden's performance at the debate was more than a stuttering problem.
I have no problem with the NYT being critical of Biden as long as they are critical of Trump. The coverage really is the columnist who contribute who also have a base they need to support. We forget that the NYT and their colleagues are in a business. Another contributing factor is Trump and his rally statements are no longer n interesting
What about his demeanor? His numerous tics, tells. His make-up. His wig.
And his odor. The debate moderators should have olfactometers on their smart phones.
A great retort from Harris would be I am the only person on this stage who actually enforced the law rather than broke the law and I did it with my own hair and less makeup
“Biden has definitely received poor and unfair press, but is any of that because his staff is not managing the press effectively?” —
Absolutely! One example that recently occurred to me: An Administration spokesperson was being interviewed on the PBS Newshour about a Biden Administration success story. Not once did the spokesperson say “President Biden”.
They’ve been taking modesty *to a fault*!
“Now, why would reporters pick on Biden?” –
I think it’s largely been a manifestation of egocentrism and ‘ageism’. Many members of the press grew up being told they were part of the best educated, best everything generation ever. It went to their heads. A corollary has been hubris coupled with contempt for their predecessors (Biden being a convenient target).
What are his diehard supporters thinking? They're loving it.
That's why we've gotta go out and Vote BLUE, up and down the ballot, in numbers the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.
Agree, David Sea (and congratulations for winning Bob Reich's cartoon caption contest this week!). What concerns me is that even people on this blog today are obsessing about the media and the media's coverage, when it's
Trump's psychopathic grip, intensifying as he panics on his way down, that's an actual domestic crisis of a kind that hasn't confronted us since the Revolution, the Civil War, and possibly WWII (although I think this crisis is more serious than WWII). Who CARES what the media thinks or does! As you say, we have to get out there, work like hell, GOTV, harden our systems against Putin's tampering with the electoral college again, and sideline Donald Trump forever with our work in this election.
Agreed. Who cares? And while many are still asking, "Why isn't the media (fill in historic but 'quaint' news roles) anymore?!" others are busy fighting to win.
And Thanks! It's fun participating in Robert's contests!
I just read HCR’s Letters for today. Yes, water is almost covering his nose now and he’s in a real panic. That’s scary!
Watch "The Great Hack", the story of Cambridge Analytical and the election interference, not only here but across the globe. Scary stuff, but it's something that needs to be viewed. The company is gone, but not the ideas behind it.
Super cheers and thanks, Bill Corbett. I didn't know about The Great Hack, will try to find it. But there's another documentary I keep touting called Active Measures that features the evil, nefarious work of Cambridge Analytical in overturning Hillary's victory in 2016. Let's not hide our heads in the sand and pretend nothing like that is going on this year just because Cambridge Analytical is gone. There's RT/Russia Today, for example. I'm heartened that the DOJ, the FBI, and the Biden administration appear to be on to them and taking strong steps to pull their claws before Nov. 5.
Yes, today HCR writes "as I often say, I am trying to leave notes for a graduate student in 150 years." How sobering is that? Also recommend Margaret Sullivan yesterday writing about "sanewashing," assigning a definition to the phenomenon of media covering Trump as if he's just another Republican trying to beat a Dem. https://margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/the-power-of-a-single-word-about?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-restack-comment&r=8e3wq&triedRedirect=true
The felon's handlers must be increasingly alarmed. On the other hand they came so incredibly far in gaslighting a good part of the nation (which with the help of the Electoral College might be just enough) that they might still hope to pull it off. And in that case their reaction would just be: Oh well, thanks to the 25th Amendment we might have JD in the Oval sooner than we thought. Not too bad, he will be much easier to work with anyway.
What? Have you lost your mind? Vance, "easier to work with" ! Trump only needs to last long enough as their Trojan Horse in order to get Monster 2.0 in our faces. The Electoral College is their savior.
Ellen here-And that may be their plan-win the presidency and Vance will have to step in-I wouldn't put it past them. In any event, a lose lose for the nation. We need to make sure this doesn't happen with a blue landslide.
Yes, remember all the talk about how Biden was a trojan horse for Harris? Everything the say is projection....
Absolutely-they are the party of projection!!! (Ellen here)
Absolutely. At the very least, Vance and company will invoke the 25th amendment. Rick Wilson commented in a Lincoln Project video that if Trump wins in November, he had better stay away from the windows in high buildings. I think a "heart attack" is more likely.
I've had those same thoughts!!
You nailed it - Trump is the Trojan Horse. Holy Cow!
Thank you, Jim. The very thought of that creep makes me sick.
I don't quite see where we differ in our take on the current situation. I just alluded to the frame of mind of the forces behind the whole MAGA movement. Don't forget, the felon is a narcissistic psychopath, not necessarily an ideal manageable front man. And yes, for them Vance would be a dream come true in the Oval.
I see what you mean, Stefan. Trump is a psychopath and thus a total wild card. His handlers can't handle him. And it's the Project 2025 people that would be running the country, not Trump. He's too old and too far gone mentally. Vance is young, weak, and just too weird to be able to stand up to them, so it would be easier for them to control him, to use him as a mouthpiece with no will of his own. And he would do everything they tell him to do, which Trump wouldn't. If they had their choice between a wild-card psychopath and a weak weirdo, the weak weirdo would likely be their preference.
We must insure they have no opportunity to make their choice.
He would WANT to do everything they are talking about!
Vance is the useful idiot for people far far more influential and evil smart than he is Stephen.
Remember Trump is a front man forms group of very wealthy individuals like Musk and others who think they own the world,
I keep wondering, with Trump's mental decline, in the event of a trump victory who would REALLY take over the presidency. Seems to me that someone among the authors and proponents of Project 2025 might be planning to step in. I mean, JD Vance would be the legal option,but if we're talking Project 2025.....
They don't have to step in, they are there already – Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Crow, Koch, Thiel, the evangelicals in every shape and form...
I'm sensing some complacency in this blog, Stefan, and agree that the felon's handlers haven't given up. We still have much to fear, from behind-the-scenes criminal activity, whether it's tampering with state tallies that throw the electoral college, or putting frantic state laws in place that will turn away large blocs of Democratic voters suddenly on election day when it's too late to do something, or planning for post-Harris-victory wrangling and SCOTUS interference that will paralyze the country. Please, let's not be complacent. Everybody, check your state's election laws, keep GOTV, pressure your reps to impeach SCOTUS bad apples, give money money money to down-ballot candidates....
I don’t think readers of this blog are complacent by any stretch of your imagination and are dedicated and involved and read about the turnout on many events mentioned here. Everyone had a job to do and I am sure they will do it.
In your guts, you know he's nuts.
I read HCR this morning. Disturbing it certainly is. The fact that 7,000 people showed up expecting to see one of Trump’s usual hate rallies were treated to a double dip of paranoia that probably qualifies as a psychotic episode.
Do they hear an entirely different language? Are there millions of people attracted to a hate so deep that watching Trump loose touch with reality and began threatening 7,000 of them was fun? They enjoyed that?
They came to watch an aged, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist rage about a world that doesn’t exist.
This is what Russia has done. I think the investigation and indictment of right wing media pundits who were fed propaganda from Russia Today (RT) Russian talking points and paid outrageously high salaries for their cooperation is a huge deal indeed!
Although, you’ll never see anything about it in NYT or WaPo. Maybe below the fold or a discrediting comment.
Russia has poisoned the minds of millions! Now we know.
Trump’s a Russian agent and it’s only a matter of time before it percolates down to where it will harm him politically. He knows it. And that’s just one of about 1,000,000 things that are coming down all at once. He may not make it to November 5th, either a complete mental breakdown or physical incapacity.
Karen, Trump is a psychopath. Not merely a sociopath. Trump is among the 1% of us that are psychopaths. Here's an article about 20 clinical factors used in diagnosing psychopaths. Most of us score 4 on this test. Trump scores 33.
Article here: https://drvincentgreenwood-89455.medium.com/the-science-behind-donald-trumps-dangerous-personality-disorder-49b3f8e416de
Read it and it’s horrifying. We are so set for some real scary stuff.
Very sobering indeed today....y'all might also check out The Atlantic pod cast Autocracy in America with Anne Applebaum...which I think is going to be a new series...
Anne is great!!
Well there is also Jeff Tiedrich - irreverent but insanely relevant..
I read HCR and forwarded it to a number of associates. Hope others will also
I also just read HCR’s post today, along with the articles Robert linked to in the part of his Friday post about much of main stream media’s dereliction of duty in how they report about Trump.
Trump’s decline is tremendously dangerous, and by not reporting on him accurately, the press is contributing to his continuing popularity. Extremely few people actually hear him in person. Far too many either listen to Fox or don’t come to understand the five alarm fire that is Trump because of other media failures. I struggle daily with how unbelievable and insane it all feels, as I know many other readers here do too.
I’m so grateful for Robert and this community - ditto HCR and others I subscribe to - such welcome wisdom, sanity and reason to be hopeful.
And each day I wake to the nightmare of Trump I resolve to work harder than ever for the outcomes we desperately need in November.
Hear, hear, Alexandra! I have been motivated beyond my wildest dreams by Robert's community and a number of other Substackers'. I write my own essays, actively participate in several others, have joined my local and county Dem organizations, am postcarding, and boldly wore a Harris/Walz tee shirt into a bright red grocery store and my 55+ community clubhouse. That's in addition to serving as a poll worker. I suggest that everyone take a minute to take stock of what you're doing to fight the good fight. I'll bet most of you will be amazed.
My antidote is to watch videos of Harris, Walz, and Biden in action while I write letters to get out the vote. I saw my dentist this week and at their staff mtg getting out the vote was discussed. They determined to ask every patient about their registration status and their plans to vote👊🏼
I do that as well, Grace! I watch videos of their speeches over and over and tell myself that this could be our future, as I write more postcards and make more donations and prepare to knock on the doors in our very red-leaning rural neighborhood where I have recently seen a couple of brave souls put out Harris Walz yard signs!
Your dentist's idea is excellent, Grace! It would be great if other professionals did the same, and if grocery stores and others put up nonpartisan posters encouraging people to check their registration status and make a voting plan.
I also ask everyone I see - cashiers, people who,let me pet their dogs, etc - about their registration status and voting plans. I don’t ask who they will vote for, just encouraging voting.
Grace Scherer, your dentist is the best.
This household is writing hundreds of GOTV postcards and Vote Forward letters. Robert B. Hubbell’s community, Markers For Democracy, Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium, and HCR keep me going.
Action is the best antidote for anxiety.
Very good points and add supoort your Senate candidate and down ballot representatives
I'm right there with you Bob. Going to an event for local races tonight with my wife and waiting for my assignment polling for early voting and Nov. 5th. I also wear several different T-shirts out and about.
Good for you Bob!! I have my Sotomayor t-shirt, "with fear for our democracy, I dissent" and am still afraid to wear it in public... Maybe to my Dem Club meeting tomorrow evening :)
Bob, you're a hero that will help save our country. Thank you.
This➡️”And each day I wake to the nightmare of Trump I resolve to work harder than ever for the outcomes we desperately need in November.”
Working to GOTV in Florida with Amendment 4/Reproductive Rights on the ballot!
Here are three,short reproductive rights ads just released by Team Harris/Walz.Powerful ! 📣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lKA_GeGwIo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYGc5HG-kHo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7a11XkQhYM
✍️📲🚶♀️💲
🛒👕🪧🇺🇸
Partner with FT 6. E.g. Sent hundreds of thousands of texts to FL and GA Friday and yesterday. Also BYOP daily. FT 6 has sent about 12 million this cycle in the swing states. Here's the text:
Hi [Their Name]! In FL we love our freedoms. But MAGA Republicans don't! They passed a brutal abortion ban and oppose legal weed. FIGHT BACK! REGISTER & VOTE for Democrats like DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL for Senate & vote YES on Amendments 3 & 4 to legalize recreational marijuana AND restore abortion rights! ft6.us/FL_reg
We lost about a million Florida Democrats removed from voter rolls 2022 to present and we are receiving virtually no opt outs. Debbie is within 1 point, Kamala 2 in recent polls.
All of this is under the radar. Highly effective, especially when the texts are accompanied by phone calls and canvassing,
Meanwhile, the DeSantis regime is running a Gestapo campaign to try to remove abortion from the ballot. https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article292035990.html
https://www.fieldteam6.org/fund-the-mission
DeSantis sending law enforcement to homes of those who signed Amendment 4/Reproductive Rights petition is going to backfire BIGLY. Just like his stealth plan to develop our beautiful state parks with mega-hotels,pickleball courts and golf courses backfired BIGLY. He just keeps making our job easier. But as you know, still much work to be done. You are a FT6 warrior, Daniel !
Kathy, these are amazing. Thank you.
Ditto.
I refuse to go down without a fight. My letter to the NYT editor this morning (with thanks to HCR's always excellent reporting):
To whom it may concern,
Yes, this is another letter bemoaning your editorial choices in light of current events—and deservedly so. Let’s review:
Yesterday at a rally Trump said and did all of the following: slurred multiple words, called Elon Musk “Leon,” couldn’t recall North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum’s name (he was on Trump’s short list for VPs), said that mothers are routinely murdering their babies, that schools are performing gender affirming surgery on children (“Can you imagine you're a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day at school, and your son comes back with a brutal operation. Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”), said “If I don’t win Colorado, it will be taken over by migrants and the governor will be sent fleeing. Migrants and crime are here in our country at levels never thought possible before…. You're not safe even sitting here, to be honest with you. I'm the only one that's going to get it done. Everybody is saying that." He urged people to protest “because you’re being overrun by criminals…. If you think you have a nice house, have a migrant enjoy your house, because a migrant will take it over. A migrant will take it over. It will be Venezuela on steroids…. And you know, getting them out will be a bloody story.” Then he posted this on his social media platform: “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
And here today is the top portion of your website:
(I can't paste here the screenshot of this morning's NYT online edition, but it leads with a Sienna poll putting Trump and Harris neck and neck, then has a subarticle headlined, "The new poll also suggests Kamala Harris's support has stalled after a euphoric August," and includes an opinion piece titled "How Trump Wins (and how Harris and the Democrats Blow It)". The entire main page of their website includes not a word about Trump's behavior in the past day.)
This is journalistic malpractice of the highest sort. You are the most influential news organization in our country, and this is how you’re operating, like a two-bit race-caller.
You should be profoundly ashamed of yourselves. What the hell have you become?
Matt McWright
San Francisco
Matt, I saw the NYT ‘s online headline edition today too . Absolutely disgusting
Thank you, Matt.
Here is a clip from the NYT's "newsletter for subscribers" which is called The Tilt, an apt description because it gives evidence of a very fat thumb being placed on the scale, with words like "suggests" and "seems" throughout. It makes for grim reading not because readers of the Times will determine the election, but because this will be picked up and trumpeted by every media outlet in the country. This constant ignoring and sanewashing Trumps words helps those undecided voters vote for Trump "he isn't that bad" and "lots of people like him." Just as we hope Liz and Dick Cheney's endorsments of Kamala helps Republicans and Independents feel better about voting for Kamala. This kind of nonreporting of who and what Trump is and the "objective" reporting of "quality" polls minimizes Trumps clear and present danger to our nation. We don't really need to know more about Kamala Harris do we? We just need to know that life under another Trump administration would be horrible and we would not be able to recognize our country by mid 2025, let along in 4 more years. (Please post if you cannot open this and I'll try sending it again.) We need to keep our spirits up, but we also need to know exactly who is on our side and who is working to elect Donald Trump. Cue Pete Seeger singing, "Which Side Are You on Boys."
---
"New Poll Suggests Harris’s Support Has Stalled After a Euphoric August
Almost 30 percent of voters said they needed to learn more about her.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/08/upshot/trump-harris-poll-analysis.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JE4.Hq5Z.7_S5f0IsLXHS&smid=em-share "
That's it! From now on, I'm calling him Leon Skum!!
Wonderful letter!!! I wish you had let all of us sign it as well.
PERFECT!!!
If you have not yet read or heard Michele Hornish, she’s inspirational. I met her yesterday on a Zoom and proceeded to binge through her Substack essays and podcasts. Like Robert, she writes well, speaks well, and is smart as a whip while grounded in common sense, empathy, and optimism. And her weekly essays conclude with grassroots actions to do—in the spirit of “small deeds done are better than big deeds planned.”
Michele is the Executive Director of Every State Blue, which crowdsources funding for Democratic candidates running in traditionally unopposed races. Every State Blue is the umbrella for Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, Blue Tennessee, and Forgotten Democrats. Read her compelling argument that builds from Timothy Snyder’s warning, “Do not obey in advance.”
Michele is another person we’re glad to know in this world—really nice and super competent in doing critically important long term work for democracy.
https://substack.com/@michelehornish
https://everystateblue.org/
Just discovered her. Thank youmm
I also recommend Jessica Craven who writes the Chop Wood Carry Water Substack. She has all sorts of action items every day. https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/
Just checked out EveryStateBlue - thanks.
Subscribed. Thanks.
leave no seat uncontested
Run for Something!
When we VOTE, we WIN!
"Little round planet
In a big universe
Sometimes it looks blessed
Sometimes it looks cursed
Depends on what you look at obviously
But even more it depends on the way that you see"
- Bruce Cockburn, "Child of the Wind," 1989
https://cockburnproject.net/songs&music/cotw.html
thanks for sharing.
we need more poetry
(and views of the Universe)
For sure!
Nice Eric. Thank you !
My contribution is to ask all who don't already to read Heather Cox Richardson today to read her Substack today. It paints a Trump Campaign gone wild. He's starting to sound like he's flashing back to the closing scenes of The Terminator. https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/september-7-2024?r=f38fk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
So much beauty in even the random patches of sky. And always gems of perspective in your posts. Thank you
From Florida, and for your listening enjoyment. Florida is in play:
https://youtu.be/1FJKA9C5BpI?si=VEF0DkCCfG9aVY6N
Politics Girl! Always spot on, well done, shareable.
Fabulous video! My sister lives in Florida, and I will be telling her today to make sure she votes for Rick Scott's opponent!
Thank you for sharing!!!
Thanks, Judy! As usual, Politics Girl nails Rick Scott with his Rescue(NOT!) America Plan.
Just to note, PG pointed out his “Medicaid fraud”. As many know, it was Medicare fraud.Important distinction when talking to senior voters in Florida.
Hello everyone
I thought it would be nice to check in and ask everyone what you are doing to bring this election home!
It is always so encouraging to hear.
I think Jon Tester needs some help in MT and now!
I am from Chicago and am going weekly to Milwaukee to register voters and will start going to Michigan to canvas next week. Have 500 postcards going out this week to register women in Georgia and just learned that a friend of mine has amassed 850,000 post cards! And I gave to Tester.
You are amazing. Tester needs us!
Here in a suburb of Atlanta, I am doing everything I can to assist the Harris-Walz campaign and Democrats in general, including wearing my funny, supportive tee-shirt everywhere; giving away campaign buttons, flag pins, and bumper stickers everywhere I go; making friendship bracelets for other volunteers to give away at events (my most popular effort); addressing and stamping voter postcards, either handwritten by volunteers or preprinted by our statewide campaign; supplying cases of fruit juices and sodas for campaign volunteers; contributing financially as much as I possibly can to as many campaigns as I can; and any other thing my local headquarters asks of me. All this effort must be working — We ARE winning, right?!!!
You are amazing. I think we are. If we can get a fair election, I think this goes really well.
That's a big "If," of course, but I hope to stay optimistic. I am counting on the fact that we have enough state election managers to do the right thing, even if they are only afraid of going to prison if they do not.
I have heard that he is key to keeping the Senate. I am going to donate right now.
Jon Tester is getting help from grassroots writing Western Native Voice postcards
“Yes I want one cappuccino and insight into our vast universe”, “is that all sir?”, “Yes, thank you, that’s all “
The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice
Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting was held Saturday, September 7, 2024.
If you are not familiar with the REMARKABLE legacy of this amazing HUMAN BEING,
might I recommend the documentary
MY NAME IS PAULI MURRAY
as in introduction.
We are blessed to have her family home on the registry of National Historic Landmark sites
and now the location from which global justice activism will emanate.
https://www.paulimurraycenter.com/
Here's to the HOPE
that each individual will be able to be their AUTHENTIC SELF
and make a meaningful contribution to the good of the world.
We are one family,
ONE HUMAN RACE.
Pretty cool that Yale named one of its new residential colleges after her. She's an unsung hero — until now!.
Thanks for link to Pauli Murray Center. Just from quick glance,
What an amazing person! Look forward to learning more.
Trump is beyond crazy. Our press is complicit in their failure to report his condition honestly.
That's why we need and must support Substackers like Robert Hubbell and Health Cox Richardson. What WOULD we do without them?!!
Media continues its amoral and corrupt practices only interested in clicks and revenue. All the grassroots and Substack communities are fighting back with every GOTV action supporting Harris-Walz.
Nancy, I so agree. We have to cut media out of our lives, out of our mindsets, and out of our consideration, and just work like hell to get Harris elected. We have to make media even more isolated and irrelevant than they are making themselves. We have to speed that process so everyone in America recognizes what people who pay attention already know--that the media has become totally corrupted, unreliable, and almost completely liars.
The debate will pit the well known Trump against a new comer to many people who will tune in part to see for themselves exactly who Kamala Harris really is. The media will very hard to pick winners and losers but all Harris really needs to do is show the voters who she is and smile. The Republicans will attack her and accuse her of being too liberal and flip flopping on some issues but the real challenge for Harris is how she responds and depicts Trump. It can’t be a threat to Democracy play but more along the lines of what his Presidency was really all about and the chaos and bad decisions and cabinet we do not want to go black to.
What would happen if DJT goes certifiably bonkers between now and November 5? What would the Republican Party and any other source do to usher him off the stage?
It feels like a train wreck of a national disaster happening? Like a horror show coming right through our TV screens, screaming in our face.
Surely I exaggerate? Must get more sleep.
Seriously, how would it look different?
I'm sorry to say I don't think you're exaggerating, John D. Cooper. It is a train wreck of national proportions. I guess I'm sort of hoping that Trump stays the course, because I think he's defeatable. My worst fear is that they give Nikki Haley a billion dollars to convince her/bribe her to run in his place. I think she may have a shred of character left, but only a shred.
On behalf of a friend who donates generously - but only by check - to help elect Democrats, I ask that every candidate and every organization make it easy to find an address to send a paper check and, if a disclosure form is needed, make that available as an easy-to-print PDF to be sent with the check. Older donors have a lot money, care tremendously about the future for their grandchildren and great grandchildren and are not comfortable using electronic donation links. Democrats are leaving a lot of money on the table by making it too hard for these folks to donate.
Kathleen, Jay Kuo in his post today listed 2 mailing addresses for races he’s supporting :
Montanans for Tester, P.O. Box 1135 Helena, MT, 59624
Debbie for Florida, P.O. Box 432250, South Miami, FL 33243
https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/how-we-hold-the-senate?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I have an 85-year-old relative who's a passionate Democrat and has money to give. But she has no computer, internet, smartphone, or knowledge of how to use any of these things. I totally agree that Dems are leaving tons of money on the table by ignoring our older people. But ageism is not new. It took down Joe Biden too. Wake up, Dems!
After spending the good part of Sunday reading multiple sources I have come to the following conclusions. The race is tight and the debate gives Harris a chance to introduce herself to new voters. There are three groups we need to win which are new voters , the youth vote and the independents and disillusioned republicans. There are almost as many of these voters as there are registered Democrats. Voter turnout and registration is our winning ticket. Advertising and debates can’t get these voters registered. We need help now.