#heathercoxrichardson — Public Fediverse posts

My not silent Sunday. Dr. Richardson's Letter this morning is a must read, and read again. It details the real threats we face this fall. Judge Luttig is very clear in his analysis.

"On Thursday, in The New Republic, conservative judge J. Michael Luttig published a dire warning to the Republican Party…and to all Americans. In the piece, Luttig outlined how Republicans could refuse to seat elected Democrats in January after a Democratic victory in the 2026 midterm elections of November. “The coming crisis,” the piece says, would be “The Final Battle for America’s Democracy.”

Luttig spelled out that Trump is fighting a war against America’s democracy. While the refusal of Vice President Mike Pence to assist his power grab made it fail in January 2021, Luttig notes, today Trump and his Republican congressional allies are more determined than ever to take over the country.

Luttig focuses on the ability of House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to prevent the recognition of duly-elected Democratic representatives on January 3. Johnson has the power, Luttig says, to remove the current House clerk, Kevin McCumber, and replace him temporarily with a MAGA loyalist who will refuse to list Democrats on the roll of those elected to the 120th Congress. " ...

____

Indeed, the writing is already on the wall.

____

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-12-2026

#HeatherCoxRichardson #OngoingCoup #TreasonIsGOP

Fear, dominance, and coercion are faster and cheaper to use than rationality, self-regulation, and cooperation as motivators.

So they can't just say that across the entire political spectrum, US national identity is still defined by a cult of #WhiteSupremacy #Capitalism #Patriarchy #Christofascism and an absolute obsession with a Social Darwinistic #ClassHierarchy.

The Politics and #Psychology of #CleanEnergy with #PaulKrugman and #HeatherCoxRichardson
#US #PetroState #Politics #Policy #Law #Economics #EconomicJustice #EnvironmentalJustice #ClimateChange #PsychoSocial #Psychosexual #GenderIdentity #Masculinity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xko_RjVGTto

Letters from an American – January 24, 2026 – Heather Cox Richardson

https://substack.com/session-attribution-frame

Letters from an American, January 24, 2026

By Heather Cox Richardson, Jan 24, 2026

This morning, on a street in Minneapolis, at least seven federal agents tackled and then shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse for the local VA hospital.

Video from the scene shows Pretti directing traffic on a street out of an area with agents around, then trying to help another person get up after she had been pushed to the ground by the agents. The agents then surround Pretti and shoot pepper spray into his face, then pull him to the ground from behind and hit him as he appears to be trying to keep his head off the ground. An agent appears to take a gun out of Pretti’s waistband during the struggle, then turns and leaves with it. A shot then stops Pretti’s movements, appearing to kill him, before nine more shots ring out, apparently as agents continued to fire into his body.

It looked like an execution.

After he was dead, the agents walked away, apparently making no effort to preserve the crime scene, which people on the street later tried to secure by walling it off with trash bins.

As journalist Philip Bump noted, administration officials didn’t even pretend to wait for more information before jumping straight to “the opponent of the state deserved it.”

Mitch Smith of the New York Times reported that federal agents have blocked state investigators from the scene. Drew Evans of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a statewide investigations team that specializes in police shootings, told reporters his agency had obtained a search warrant—a rare step—but the federal government still refused them access.

Tonight, in a lawsuit against Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem and other administration officials, Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison asked a judge for a temporary restraining order to prevent DHS agents from destroying evidence related to the shooting. The suit noted the “astonishing” departure from normal investigations, seemingly trying not to preserve evidence but to destroy it. A judge, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, immediately granted the restraining order, barring the administration from “destroying or altering evidence” concerning the killing.

Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times reported that federal officials also “have refused to disclose the identities of federal agents involved in Saturday’s shooting, as well as the names of federal agents who have shot people in recent days.”

Minnesota police have refused to obey the federal officers, though. Local law enforcement has been talking to witnesses and finding videos of the shooting. Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said at a press conference: “Our demand today is for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity, and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands. We urge everyone to remain peaceful.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said that it, rather than the FBI, will investigate the shooting. But, as Alex Witt of MS NOW noted, DHS had already issued a statement about the shooting, which falsely asserted that Pretti had “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun” and that he “violently resisted” as “officers attempted to disarm” him. The statement continued that “an agent fired defensive shots” and added that Pretti “also had 2 magazines and no ID—this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

“So,” Witt noted, “they’re gonna be investigating that which they’ve already issued a summary about…. It would seem that it’s a closed book?”

After repeatedly being exposed as liars over previous accusations against those they have shot, the Department of Homeland Security has so little credibility that Witt is not the only journalist calling out the federal agents for lying. Devon Lum of the New York Times wrote: “Videos on social media that were verified by The New York Times contradict the Department of Homeland Security’s account of the fatal shooting of a man by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday morning.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: January 24, 2026 – by Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American – November 10, 2025 – Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American, November 10, 2025

By Heather Cox Richardson, Nov 10, 2025

Last night, the Senate advanced a measure to end the government shutdown, which at 41 days today is the longest in U.S. history.

November 10, 2025 by Heather Cox Richardson

Read on Substack

Seven Democrats and one Independent voted with all but one Republican to advance a measure that funds the government through January 30 of next year. It includes funding for military construction and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, and operations for the legislative branch, or Congress. Tucked within that last appropriation is a measure that allows the eight Republican senators whose phone logs were seized during former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to sue the government for up to $500,000 apiece.

The measure stops the administration’s firings of public employees during the shutdown, reinstating them with full pay. States will be reimbursed for monies they spent covering for federal shortfalls during the shutdown. This means air traffic controllers, who have been working without pay for more than a month, will get paid again.

The measure also funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), although it does not restore the cuts Republicans made to it in their budget reconciliation bill of July—the one they call the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

While the measure provides more funding for Indigenous health services, it does nothing to extend the premium tax credits for insurance purchased on the Affordable Care Act healthcare marketplace. Without those credits, millions will lose their healthcare insurance and millions more will face skyrocketing premiums. Republicans did not extend the premium tax credits in their July budget reconciliation bill, although they did extend tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

Senate Democrats said they would not advance a measure to end the shutdown without a deal to extend the premium tax credits, but seven of them, along with one Independent, have now done so. Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) has promised to bring to the Senate floor a bill to extend the premium tax credits before the end of the second week of December. It will be written by the Democrats.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: November 10, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson

#2025 #America #DemocraticParty #DemocraticShutdownDeal #DonaldTrump #Education #HeatherCoxRichardson #History #LettersFromAnAmerican #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #USFederalShutdown2025 #UnitedStates

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/october-24-2025?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

#HeatherCoxRichardson

This is what you get when you fail the easiest election decision in decades. #AmericanGrifters, #NaziBillionaires, #AmericanGestapo, and widespread #RepublicanLawlessness ... and funny enough a #FelonPresident who screws his most hardened supporters in rural America from healthcare to threatening their very livelihoods. #AmericaFirst apparently means #BillionairesFirst and helping scammers, convicted criminals, and Argentinian right-wing politicians.
If you ever wondered how #ArgentinaFirst gets in this weird mix of crimes just follow the money. As bailing out Argentina is bailing out billionaire "friends", who stand to lose billions should Argentina default again ...
I am afraid it will get far worse before it will eventually get better. Let's hope, it will get better in our lifetime 🤞 🤞
#AmericaFirst #ClownKing #TheUnAmericanVotersDidThis

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/october-24-2025?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

#HeatherCoxRichardson

This is what you get when you fail the easiest election decision in decades. #AmericanGrifters, #NaziBillionaires, #AmericanGestapo, and widespread #RepublicanLawlessness ... and funny enough a #FelonPresident who screws his most hardened supporters in rural America from healthcare to threatening their very livelihoods. #AmericaFirst apparently means #BillionairesFirst and helping scammers, convicted criminals, and Argentinian right-wing politicians.
If you ever wondered how #ArgentinaFirst gets in this weird mix of crimes just follow the money. As bailing out Argentina is bailing out billionaire "friends", who stand to lose billions should Argentina default again ...
I am afraid it will get far worse before it will eventually get better. Let's hope, it will get better in our lifetime 🤞 🤞
#AmericaFirst #ClownKing #TheUnAmericanVotersDidThis

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/october-24-2025?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

#HeatherCoxRichardson

This is what you get when you fail the easiest election decision in decades. #AmericanGrifters, #NaziBillionaires, #AmericanGestapo, and widespread #RepublicanLawlessness ... and funny enough a #FelonPresident who screws his most hardened supporters in rural America from healthcare to threatening their very livelihoods. #AmericaFirst apparently means #BillionairesFirst and helping scammers, convicted criminals, and Argentinian right-wing politicians.
If you ever wondered how #ArgentinaFirst gets in this weird mix of crimes just follow the money. As bailing out Argentina is bailing out billionaire "friends", who stand to lose billions should Argentina default again ...
I am afraid it will get far worse before it will eventually get better. Let's hope, it will get better in our lifetime 🤞 🤞
#AmericaFirst #ClownKing #TheUnAmericanVotersDidThis

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/october-24-2025?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

#HeatherCoxRichardson

This is what you get when you fail the easiest election decision in decades. #AmericanGrifters, #NaziBillionaires, #AmericanGestapo, and widespread #RepublicanLawlessness ... and funny enough a #FelonPresident who screws his most hardened supporters in rural America from healthcare to threatening their very livelihoods. #AmericaFirst apparently means #BillionairesFirst and helping scammers, convicted criminals, and Argentinian right-wing politicians.
If you ever wondered how #ArgentinaFirst gets in this weird mix of crimes just follow the money. As bailing out Argentina is bailing out billionaire "friends", who stand to lose billions should Argentina default again ...
I am afraid it will get far worse before it will eventually get better. Let's hope, it will get better in our lifetime 🤞 🤞
#AmericaFirst #ClownKing #TheUnAmericanVotersDidThis

Letters from an American – October 13, 2025 – Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American, October 13, 2025

By Heather Cox Richardson, Oct 13, 2025

Last Tuesday, President Donald J. Trump showed to Canadian officials a plan for a triumphal arch that would sit on the banks of the Potomac River opposite the Lincoln Memorial in a traffic rotary at the Virginia end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge below Arlington National Cemetery. The idea, apparently, is to build the arch to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States in July 2026.

On Thursday, the White House press pool reported, the plan was laid out on Trump’s desk in the Oval Office. The massive stone arch appears to be the same height as or taller than the Lincoln Memorial. Early in the morning on Saturday, October 11, Trump posted on social media an artist’s rendering of what such an arch might look like, complete with what appears to be a gold winged victory statue at the top of the arch.

Triumphal arches are free-standing structures consisting of one or more arches crowned with a flat top for engravings or statues. They hark back to ancient Rome, where leaders built them to commemorate military victories or significant public events. Those arches inspired others, like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, built to honor those who died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Observers immediately noted that the photographed plan showed the Lincoln Memorial facing the wrong way, and compared the Trump Arch both to the Arc de Triomphe and to another arch modeled on it: the German Arch of Triumph proposed by Adolph Hitler to commemorate Germany’s victory in World War II.

That triumphal arch was never built.

Architect Eric Jenkins told Daniel Jonas Roche of The Architect’s Newspaper that the proposed arch would disrupt the symbolic connection between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The two are connected not only by the Arlington Memorial Bridge, but also by the Civil War. During that war, the nation began to bury its hallowed dead on the grounds of the former home of General Robert E. Lee, who led the troops of the Confederacy. Lee’s Arlington House sits directly behind the memorial to Lincoln, who led the United States to stop the Confederates from dismantling the nation.

The proposed construction of a triumphal arch contrasts with the expected sale and probable demolition of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building on Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C. Completed in 1940, the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building was built to house the Social Security Board, the precursor to the Social Security Administration.

In August 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. That law established a federal system of old-age benefits; unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services. It was a sweeping reworking of the relationship between the government and its citizens, using the power of taxation to pool funds to provide a basic social safety net.

The vision of government behind the Social Security Act was very different from that of the Republicans who had run it in the 1920s. While men like President Herbert Hoover had embraced the idea of a “rugged individualism” in which men provided for their families on their own, those behind the Social Security Act recognized that the vision of a hardworking man supporting his wife and children was more myth than reality. They replaced that vision with one in which the government recognized that all Americans were equally valuable.

Their reworking of American government came from the conditions of the United States after the rise of modern industry. Americans had always depended on community, but the harsh conditions of industrialization in the late nineteenth century had made it clear that the government must protect that community. City governments like New York City’s Tammany Hall began to provide a basic system of social welfare for voters, making sure that they had jobs, food, and shelter and that women and children had a support network if a husband or father died.

Editor’s Note: Please subscribe if you can. Heather provides insights into the legal fiasco, Trump, legal challenges, and more.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: October 13, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson

#2025 #250AnniversityAmerica #America #ArcDeTriomphe #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #HeatherCoxRichardson #History #LettersFromAnAmerican #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Science #Substack #triumphalArch #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #WashingtonDC

Letters from an American – August 13, 2025 -Heather Cox Richardson

August 13, 2025, By Heather Cox Richardson

On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. While he had already put in place new measures to regulate business and banking and had provided temporary work relief to combat the Depression, this law permanently changed the nature of the American government.

The Social Security Act established a federal system of old-age benefits; unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services. It was a sweeping reworking of the relationship between the government and its citizens, using the power of taxation to pool funds to provide a basic social safety net.

The driving force behind the law was FDR’s secretary of labor, Frances Perkins. She was the first woman to hold a position in the U.S. Cabinet and still holds the record for having the longest tenure in that job: she served from 1933 to 1945.

Perkins brought to the position a vision of government very different from that of the Republicans who had run it in the 1920s. While men like President Herbert Hoover had embraced the idea of a “rugged individualism” in which men provided for their families on their own, Perkins recognized that the vision of a hardworking man supporting his wife and children was more myth than reality: her own husband suffered from bipolar disorder, making her the family’s primary support. She understood that Americans had always supported each other.

As a child, Perkins spent summers with her grandmother, with whom she was very close, in the small town of Newcastle, Maine, surrounded by a supportive community. In college, at Mount Holyoke, she majored in chemistry and physics, but after a professor required students to tour a factory to observe working conditions, Perkins became committed to improving the lives of those trapped in industrial jobs. After college, Perkins became a social worker and, in 1910, earned a masters degree in economics and sociology from Columbia University. She became the head of the New York office of the National Consumers League, urging consumers to use their buying power to demand better conditions and wages for the workers who made the products they were buying.

The next year, in 1911, she witnessed a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in which 146 workers, mostly women and girls, died. They were trapped in the building when the fire broke out because the factory owner had ordered the doors to the stairwells and exits locked to make sure no one slipped outside for a break. Unable to escape the smoke and fire in the factory, the workers—some of them on fire—leaped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the building, dying on the pavement.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire proved to Perkins that voluntary organizations would never be enough to improve workers’ lives. She turned toward using the government to adjust the harsh conditions of industrialization. She began to work with the Democratic politicians at Tammany Hall, who presided over communities in the city that mirrored rural towns and who exercised a form of social welfare for their voters, making sure they had jobs, food, and shelter and that wives and children had a support network if a husband and father died. In that system the voices of women like Perkins were valuable, for their work in the immigrant wards of the city meant that they were the ones who knew what working families needed to survive.

The overwhelming unemployment, hunger, and suffering during the Great Depression convinced Perkins that state governments alone could not adjust the conditions of the modern world to create a safe, supportive community for ordinary people. She came to believe that, as she said: “The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: August 13, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson

Original article: View source

#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #FDR #FrancisPerkins #Health #HeatherCoxRichardson #History #LettersFromAnAmerican #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #SecretaryOfLabor #Substack #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates

#HeatherCoxRichardson …
“…the strategy [in Ukraine] that matters most for the Kremlin is not the military strategy, but rather the spread of disinformation that causes the West to back away & allow Russia to win… In this case, in addition to seeding the idea that Ukraine cannot win & that the Russian invasion was justified, the Kremlin is exploiting divisions already roiling U.S. politics.”
#Russia #Ukraine #EU #Disinformation #RussianThreat #LevParnas #2024Election
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/march-29-2024?r=1k4nht&utm_medium=ios

1. The #Economy is thriving under #Biden
2. The #MAGA House #GOP want to shut down the govt & impeach Biden, for political theatre
3. & blame the #Democrats for the fall out
4. While the criminal (traitor?) #trump, screams victim
5. & their followers will vote gop- as an answer to the problems & fear baiting MAGA CREATES
6. #TrumpIsACrook #MAGAIsACult #GOPIsComplicit
7. Messaging is crucial, esp in a digital world
8. Idea-gift a substack to a MAGA #heatherCoxRichardson or @JoyceVance