Letters from an American
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Heather Cox Richardson's narrated newsletter about the history behind today's politics.
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Mississippi Matters
November 12, 2026Mississippi has a new US senator-elect, as Scott Colom becomes the third Black senator from the state, and first ever elected by the people, Senators Hiram R. Revels and Blanche K. Bruce were …
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November 12, 2026
Mississippi has a new US senator-elect, as Scott Colom becomes the third Black senator from the state, and first ever elected by the people, Senators Hiram R. Revels and Blanche K. Bruce were chosen by the legislature, in the years immediately after the Civil War, The backlash against Black political power was ferocious in Mississippi, where Black people outnumbered white people in 39 of the state's 75 counties, In 1890, a convention rewrote the state constitution to enforce white supremacy by making it virtually impossible for Black people to vote, Mississippi was the state on which voting rights activists focused efforts, especially after the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955, Medgar Evers urged the NAACP to get involved in calling for justice for Till, and he led voter registrations drives in the face of growing white resistance, On June 12, 1963, he was shot and killed by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of a white supremacist Citizen Council, Colom told Evers’s story in one of the most powerful ads of the campaign, "[Evers] was killed for helping Mississippians vote…" he said. "Use your vote and honor everyone who died for that right.” In his victory speech, he said, “…it’s local people who had faith that Mississippi can make progress … it’s not something that I did, it’s something that we did. … All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this,” Colom said. "I had the courage to understand that we could show the country that Mississippi matters."
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November 11, 2026Veterans Day originally marked the armistice that ended World War I, The commemoration was renamed Veterans Day after veterans of WWI and the Korean War had joined the ranks of returning …
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November 11, 2026
Veterans Day originally marked the armistice that ended World War I, The commemoration was renamed Veterans Day after veterans of WWI and the Korean War had joined the ranks of returning military personnel,Trump delivered a Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, although he broke with the tradition of nonpartisan speeches, and also used the day to raise money, At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where visitors are expected to remain silent, Pete Hegseth was reprimanded by a Tomb Guard, In an article in ProPublica, Eric Umansky documented the dramatic cuts to the VA, the government agency that provides lifelong health and other benefits to veterans and eligible family members, The administration has cut staff, creating severe shortages, and driving veterans into the private sector, The changes contrast dramatically with the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1945 which transformed the lives of returning WWII military personnel, and was the precursor to the GI Bill, Originally conceived of as a defense against recession, it would become an agent for economic growth, The GI Bill would enable veterans to get vocational training or college degrees, and would help four million veterans buy homes, The GI Bill transformed America, moving millions of families into the middle class, although it favored white men, rarely providing benefits to Black and Brown veterans, Despite its faults, the GI Bill did more than any other law in US history to prove that investing in the American people is sound policy.
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November 10, 2026Democrats will remain in the minority until January, but are already putting forward measures to address affordability and accountability, A group of Democratic senators are asking that …
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November 10, 2026
Democrats will remain in the minority until January, but are already putting forward measures to address affordability and accountability, A group of Democratic senators are asking that implementation of Medicaid work requirements be postponed, They are asking for financial reforms and plan to push back against bad actors in the financial industry and in crypto ventures, Trump is claiming he had not heard about the relationship between the CEO of Nvidia and a Chinese spy, although intelligence had been shared with him, Kentucky Sen Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Hegseth claimed the impeachment effort was political and noted that everything he did was "ordered by the commander in chief,” CNN reports that “multiple” whistleblowers have warned that administration officials are destroying records, Trump’s elevation of Stephen Miller to WH chief of staff will amplify Trump’s impulses, Attorney General Todd Blanche doubled down on the idea that he would consider prosecuting Democrats for saying they plan to enforce accountability, House Republicans elected Rep Jim Jordan of Ohio to lead their conference, Republicans demonstrated their loyalty to Trump by voting to end Massie's impeachment measure, Hearings that will be held when the Democrats take control of Congress will expose the details of Hegseth’s tenure at the Defense Department.
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November 8, 2026Trump's posts suggest that any plans to investigate the administration are crimes, Congressional Democrats are hiring former career prosecutors to join the investigative staffs of committees …
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November 8, 2026
Trump's posts suggest that any plans to investigate the administration are crimes, Congressional Democrats are hiring former career prosecutors to join the investigative staffs of committees, After the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant allowed Confederate soldiers to go home, a humanitarian gesture that was also practical, Northerners believed that it was the political leaders who should be punished, But President Andrew Johnson pardoned many those leaders, who would not face accountability for their attack on the US, They claimed Grant’s clemency was proof that the Confederate ideology was right all along, Racism and rebellion carried forward for more than a century, The same partisan reworking of history took place after Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon after Watergate, Nixon never accepted responsibility, saying “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal,” During Ronald Reagan’s administration, the theory of the “unitary executive” took this further, It claimed that neither Congress nor the courts could check the president, While serving as head of the Office of Legal Counsel for President George H.W. Bush, William Barr, who later was the attorney general in Trump’s first administration, warned of “legislative encroachments” on the president’s authority, In Trump v United States, the Supreme Court ruled that "a president has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution" for actions deemed part of his official responsibilities, Now, with the prospect of investigations into behavior that might fall outside his official duties, Trump is arguing that enforcing the rule of law is a partisan attack, It is the opposite, and is the fundamental rule under which the American government was conceived.
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November 7, 2026Senator-elect James Talarico of Texas gave a victory speech that recalled an era when Americans worked together to defend their country against those who would take its wealth and power for …
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November 7, 2026
Senator-elect James Talarico of Texas gave a victory speech that recalled an era when Americans worked together to defend their country against those who would take its wealth and power for themselves, He leaned into his own religious faith, his history as a middle-school teacher and as the son of a single mother, telling the crowd that his life has taught him to always bet on the underdog, And in Texas against all odds, his movement took their power back, He said, “this win is for every underdog who’s been counted out and left behind…and for every Texan who’s ever wondered if anyone is listening.,” He went on to say that “the billionaires who … own the politicians fighting on our screens … want us focused on how we’re different instead of on how we’re the same,” He continued, “… tonight we sent a crystal clear message to the people at the top. We will not be conquered,” Explaining how Democrats had won Texas, he said, “the world changes person to person, neighbor to neighbor,” And he said, “We won this race because people who are desperate for change now are going to get change…. a new politics is being born through each of us,” Talarico, who won his race by an astonishing 12 points, identified the threat that this new politics poses to establishment politics, especially MAGA, Trump highlighted his need for division and hatred, offering the job of White House press secretary to the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, whom Trump described as a “violent fighter and warrior.”
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November 6, 2026On Tuesday, Americans rejected the Trump administration, They voted to end corruption, end Trump’s war on Iran, end costly tariffs, and end masked agents kidnapping Black and Brown people off …
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November 6, 2026
On Tuesday, Americans rejected the Trump administration, They voted to end corruption, end Trump’s war on Iran, end costly tariffs, and end masked agents kidnapping Black and Brown people off the streets, They voted for a country based on the rule of law, and for the multicultural country mocked by Trump and his loyalists, Hispanic voters swung back toward the Democrats, Black voters turned out in unusually high nmbers, voting for Democrats at higher rates than in 2024, Trump initially appeared dazed by the rebuke, but he woke up, ousting Susie Wiles as chief of staff and replacing her with Stephen Miller, Miller, a fervent white nationalist, has been a powerful force in the White House, Miller hsa been central to undermining disability rights, Miller is also a supporter of Russia and its war against Ukraine, Elevating Miller signals that Trump doesn’t care what Americans want, and a warning to Repubicans to stay in line.
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November 5, 2026House Democrats plan to shine a light on Trump’s corruption and renew American government to serve the common good, Rep. Jamie Raskin is the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee and …
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November 5, 2026
House Democrats plan to shine a light on Trump’s corruption and renew American government to serve the common good, Rep. Jamie Raskin is the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee and he plans to use subpoenas and investigations to learn more about Trump’s coercion of law firms, about Todd Blanche’s refusal to produce documents required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and about the DOJ’s persecution of Trump’s perceived enemies, The House Oversight and Reform Committee will focus on the “Trump crime family,” as well as abuses of ICE, The House Finance Committee intends to dg into JP Morgan’s relationship with Epstein, The Democrats also plan to look into the finances behind Trump’s presidential library, Trump appears focused on his legacy, as he pushes to build the arch and takes steps to prevent future changes to the Oval office, MAGA is blaming the election results on the Iran war, but polls indicate that concerns about corruption were foremost for voters, Rep. Thomas Massie plans to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act when Congress returns next week, Massie also plans to force a vote to impeach Pete Hegseth, The election made it clear that Americans do not want more data centers, Tech firms lost billions of dollars in market value because of concerns about the industry, Voters in Montana approved a ballot initiative to stop the flow of corporate money into political campaigns, with more than 65% supporting the measure.
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November 4, 2026Voters flipped control of both chambers of Congress from the Republicans to the Democrats, A Democratic victory in the House was expected, but in the Senate the outcome was unclear, In the …
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November 4, 2026
Voters flipped control of both chambers of Congress from the Republicans to the Democrats, A Democratic victory in the House was expected, but in the Senate the outcome was unclear, In the Senate, Democrats flipped seven seats, and the race in Alaska has not been called yet, Even more eye-popping, in another uncalled race, Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom is ahead of the Republican incumbent in Mississippi, If he wins he will be the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction, Democrats claimed governors’ seats in five states, and none will be hamstrung by a Republican supermajority in the state legislatures, Voters flipped seats up and down the ballot in states like Texas, Some races were won by 20 points, some as high as 40, The election came off without significant hitches, and the win was, as hoped, “too big to rig,” The results were a rejection of the Republican ideology that has driven American politics since the 1980s, that some people are better than others and have the right to rule, This took hold in response to the push for equality for women and racial minorities, After sending Democrat Jimmy Carter to the White House in 1976, Americans elected Ronald Reagan who won by attacking the modern American state, Reagan tied racial and gender inequality to economic prosperity, That combination worked until Trump’s second term, The administration's policies have hurt regular Americans, and in the election those Americans came together across the lines the Republicans have exploited, The election is a historic rebuke of the Republican ideology, and the results will turn the focus to Americans’ needs, and on checking Trump and his administration, Trump is a lame duck and he has turned his attention to his DC projects, Meanwhile the Republicans who hope to follow him to the White House are trying to draw lines distinguishing themselves, But for now, Americans have moved on.
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To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at …
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November 1, 2026Trump intends to try to steal the 2026 midterm election, He is trying to boost his own popularity, sending e-mail messages extolling the efficiency of the Social Security Administration, His …
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November 1, 2026
Trump intends to try to steal the 2026 midterm election, He is trying to boost his own popularity, sending e-mail messages extolling the efficiency of the Social Security Administration, His administration is, at the same time, using the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to threaten local and state election officials, In Alaska, the administration has asked a judge to order election officials to separate all ballots that rank Daniel J Sullivan, who shares a name with the Republican incumbent who is running for re-election, US District Judge Sharon Gleason has dismissed the lawsuit prohibiting the state from certifying any winner in Alaska other than the Republican incumbent, The administration will appeal her decision, Meanwhile Democrats have filed a lawsuit over Alaska’s apparent failure to open at least 18 early voting locations, Trump held a lavish Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, even as Americans are struggling under soaring oil and gas prices caused by Trump’s war in Iran, At the party Trump acknowledged that a Chinese spy targeted Nvidia’s CEO to obtain information about the company’s advanced AI chips, Trump chose not to do anything about this transfer, Republicans in charge of Alaska’s state government are asking that the administration’s lawsuit be rejected by the court, reiterating that states, and not the federal government, control elections.
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TOctober 31, 2026Andrew Johnson traveled around the country in advance of the 1866 midterm election, to drum up support for his party, He denounced Congress and called certain Republican members of Congress …
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TOctober 31, 2026
Andrew Johnson traveled around the country in advance of the 1866 midterm election, to drum up support for his party, He denounced Congress and called certain Republican members of Congress traitors, and compared himself to Jesus Christ, The Democrats were the party of slavery and secession, and Johnson, a former Democrat who became president in April 1865, after Lincoln’s assassination, opposed the young Republican party’s plans for a future where every man would have the right to the fruits of his own labor, Johnson pardoned all but about fifteen hundred former Confederates, He refused to endorse Black voting, and by requiring little of the southern States, he guaranteed that the same men who had taken the South out of the Union would be responsible for bringing it back in, They joined Johnson in trying to re-create the world of the Old South, and in each state, through the Black Codes, they guaranteed the dominance of white people in the South, But Republicans had no intention of allowing the South to become more powerful, and Congress refused to seat the South’s representatives, A committee of fifteen members was assigned to come up with a better plan for rebuilding the nation, and introduced the joint resolution that would become the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, Both chambers of Congress agreed to the amendment on June 18, 1866 and sent it to the states for ratification, Johnson hated the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, Johnson told southern politicians to ignore Congress, He set out on a railroad tour to whip up support for Democrats before the 1866 election, But white supremacist violence and everything that Johnson stood for were too much for voters, Rather than turning against the Republicans in the election, voters gave the Republicans a two-thirds majority of Congress, enabling them to override Johnson, and in 1868 the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment.
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October 30, 2026Stories of fraud continue, Last summer, the Department of Homeland Security paid more than $495 million for a 1,600 bed prison that the state of Minnesota declined to purchase at a selling price …
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October 30, 2026
Stories of fraud continue, Last summer, the Department of Homeland Security paid more than $495 million for a 1,600 bed prison that the state of Minnesota declined to purchase at a selling price of $75 million, Trump Media and Technology Group, of which Trump owns 41%, received $350,000 for running ads on Trump’s social media site for Freedom 250, Low-engagement voters, who don’t pay much attention to politics, are swinging away from Trump, Almost half of Americans' spending now goes toward food and housing, the highest percentage in years, Oil company profits are skyrocketing, Americans are angry that oil companies are profiting while consumers pay higher prices and bear the cost of cuts to Medicaid, ACA subsidies, SNAP, medical and scientific research while Trump’s war in Iran goes on and on, The cost of the Iran war is now estimated to be more than $47 billion, without counting the costs of the damage to US military bases in the Middle East, US officials have warned Gulf Arab countries to be prepared for renewed strikes on Iran, Trump’s rallies for Republican candidates have not drawn big crowds, and Republicans are distancing themselves from him, Trump keeps going on the road, hoping to sell voters on his message, but that won’t be an easy sell.
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October 29, 2026Flàvio Bolsonaro’s escape from Brazil to Miami was arranged in part by White House officials, Trump ordered the State Department to give Bolsonaro and his family temporary status, Trump asserts …
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October 29, 2026
Flàvio Bolsonaro’s escape from Brazil to Miami was arranged in part by White House officials, Trump ordered the State Department to give Bolsonaro and his family temporary status, Trump asserts that Lula’s victory was rigged, Trump posted at length on social media about the East Potomac Golf Course and is paying less attention to government affairs than to his building projects, He did not seem to know that General Brett Sylvia had been fired by Pete Hegseth, or even who Gen Sylvia was, Trump has cancelled rallies planned for this weekend and is trying to convince Americans that the 2026 midterms are being rigged by the Democrats, US District Judge David O Carter has refused efforts to set aside ballots in California, noting that the administration is engaging in election interference, even as Markwayne Mullin has sent letters to secretaries of state in several states, alleging that their voter rolls include noncitizens, The Department of Justice has directed California’s top federal prosecutors to launch criminal investigations of local and state officials, The administration is also jumping on the report that a staffer for Mary Peltola, who is running for senate in Alaska, engaged in ballot stacking, seeking a candidate to add to the ballot in order to confuse voters. Ballot stacking is not illegal unless money changes hands, Trump has called for Peltola and the candidate to be removed from the ballot, In Alaska a number of polling places in rural areas failed to open as promised, Trump appears to have a plan to restart military actions in Iran after the election, Sen Chris Murphy has said that it will lead to a "an escalation of this war that will be devastating for our security interests."
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October 28, 2026Flàvio Bolsonaro, who lost the election to become president of Brazil, arrived in Miami with his family, in spite of his being barred from leaving Brazil, His defeat strikes a blow to Trump’s …
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October 28, 2026
Flàvio Bolsonaro, who lost the election to become president of Brazil, arrived in Miami with his family, in spite of his being barred from leaving Brazil, His defeat strikes a blow to Trump’s campaign to install right-wing leaders across Latin America, Trump apparently intends to shelter Bolsonaro in the US, Brazilian police have been ordered to investigate whether Rockbridge, a donor network co-founded by JD Vance, illegally helped finance Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign, MAGA is showing signs of collapsing at home, The numbers of people watching Fox News are dropping, James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, is running ads showing Republicans who are voting for him rather than the Republican candidate, Ken Paxton, Republicans in South Carolina and Alaska are also endorsing Democratic candidates, Trump’s multiple rallies in states that previously were reliably Republican underscore the alarm among Republicans that there are multiple paths to Democratic control of the Senate, Right wing activists James O’Keefe and Cam Higby have been charged with a felony for voting unlawfully.
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October 27, 2026After a student-led democratic movement ousted Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić from power, Serbian TV apologized to viewers for failing to report what had been happening under his regime, In Brazil …
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October 27, 2026
After a student-led democratic movement ousted Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić from power, Serbian TV apologized to viewers for failing to report what had been happening under his regime, In Brazil, Flávio Bolsonaro lost the race for the presidency to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in spite of what appears to have been Meta's intentional restriction of accounts supporting him, Lula’s supporters used social media to override Meta’s restrictions, Bolsonaro had the support of Trump and MAGA insiders, but when Trump suggested he would not intervene in the election, Bolsonaro effectively conceded, Brazilian authorities ordered Bolsonaro to remain in the country, but he went missing, only to turn up in the US where the State Department indicated it would offer him and his family visas, Issues of vote suppression in the US have led House members to demand that Meta explain why the main Instagram account of No Kings was suspended during the organization's October 17th get out the vote rally, Disinformation, driven by AI, is rampant on social media in advance of the midterms, Trump’s allegiance to Putin continues as the administration considers lifting sanctions on Russia's government investment fund, Democratic candidate for senate from Florida, Angie Nixon, has posted to Meta that her campaign’s Instagram page was taken down, with just seven days to the election.
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October 26, 2026Trump posted his longest-ever social media post last night, Giant turnout for rallies by Obama illustrate the changing mood of the country, Images of the packed venues for Obama, compared to the …
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October 26, 2026
Trump posted his longest-ever social media post last night, Giant turnout for rallies by Obama illustrate the changing mood of the country, Images of the packed venues for Obama, compared to the dwindling crowds for Trump, circulated on social media, Trump’s determination to keep Republicans in control of Congress reflects concern that Democrats will impeach him and worry over what such hearings might reveal, The administration is trying to hide documents related to the Kennedy Center, A shareholder of a publicly traded US crypto company sued Trump and World Liberty Financial, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released a report saying that a growing body of evidence demonstrates that Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women, Trump and his allies are trying to tip the scales in the election, by spending vast amounts of money, suing the state of Alaska, pressuring states to release voter files, trying to use the US Postal Service to screen ballots, and sending ICE agents to ask residents about their immigration status, The transparent attempts to steal the election could sow confusion and lay the groundwork for challenging a Democratic victory.
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October 25, 2026In the last days of the 2026 midterm campaign, Democrats are picking up momentum, MAGA is pursuing what has worked in the past: a false narrative undergirded by cruelty, That narrative does not …
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October 25, 2026
In the last days of the 2026 midterm campaign, Democrats are picking up momentum, MAGA is pursuing what has worked in the past: a false narrative undergirded by cruelty, That narrative does not seem to be attracting voters, Republicans are avoiding any mention of tariffs, Trump is insisting that the economy is booming, and that rising oil prices are a good thing. He is attacking Muslim Democrats Abdul E-Sayed and Ilhan Omar, Attacks on El-Sayed are not going well, Vivek Ramaswamy’s decision to run an attack ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother is backfiring, The choice to run the ad is revealing that Ramaswamy and the ad’s supporters (among them JD Vance and Trump) are willing to weaponize the rape of a child if it helps them win power, Trump’s erratic behavior isn’t helping Republicans and his repeated praise of Jon Husted’s physique makes for a strange message as midterm campaigns wind down, Meanwhile, in elections in Serbia and Brazil, nationalist strongmen were defeated.
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October 24, 2026The election of 1920 gave the Republicans control of the White House and Congress, Republicans rejected the Progressive Era’s idea that government should regulate business and protect workers …
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October 24, 2026
The election of 1920 gave the Republicans control of the White House and Congress, Republicans rejected the Progressive Era’s idea that government should regulate business and protect workers and consumers, and turned the government over to businessmen, At first industrial production took off and profits rose, As standards of living improved, consumers rushed to buy new products, and presidential candidate Herbert Hoover promised that the economic policies favoring business would banish poverty, Americans invested in the stock market and prices rose and rose, There was a rush to speculate and any warnings that the stock prices were a bubble were dismissed, On October 24, the tide turned as brokers began to sell off shares, and by the end of the day on October 29, an extraordinary number of shares had traded hands and the market had lost $14 billion. Manufacturing output fell and commodity prices tumbled, and by 1933 the number of unemployed across the country rose to 13 million - one out of every four American workers, Republicans blamed workers, and Hoover rejected calls for public works programs that would provide jobs, In 1932 Americans - looking for a new approach - elected New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who promised to use the federal government to provide jobs and a safety net to Americans, His New Deal protected workers’ rights, provided jobs, regulated business and banking and provided a basic social safety net. The new system enabled the US to defend democracy when WWII broke out.
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October 23, 2026The restrictions that have been crippling Ukraine’s ability to protect itself from Russia continue in spite of Trump’s statement to the contrary, Oil deals explain Trump’s rush to normalize …
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October 23, 2026
The restrictions that have been crippling Ukraine’s ability to protect itself from Russia continue in spite of Trump’s statement to the contrary, Oil deals explain Trump’s rush to normalize relations with Russia, The Polar LNG project, designed to liquefy natural gas in Alaska, will be funded with money from Novatek, a Russian company currently under US sanctions, Trump lifted new sanctions against Novatek that had been put into place in the recently passed Graham Act, The CEO of Polar LNG resigned when he learned funding will come from Russia, Trump, Putin, and their allies in the administration are pushing to carve the world up into spheres of influence as quickly as possible before the midterms, The deal to capture Venezuela’s oil sets up a partnership between the US and Alejandro Betancourt who has been accused of money laundering, The US is looking at taking a stake in Betancourt’s firm, buying shares in a parent company based in Barbados which enables investors to remain hidden, The deal appears to violate Venezuelan law, The administration is also suggesting it will take steps to control Cuba.
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October 21, 2026The president’s behavior is becoming more and more erratic, He has abandoned the traditional allies of the US to align with Vladimir Putin and Russia, Trump claims he had nothing to do with the …
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October 21, 2026
The president’s behavior is becoming more and more erratic, He has abandoned the traditional allies of the US to align with Vladimir Putin and Russia, Trump claims he had nothing to do with the slowing of Starlink over Ukraine, but Congress members have vowed to hold whoever was responsible for the cuts accountable, Musk is threatening Congress, but is also worried about the move of Europeans and Canadians to develop their own satellite communications systems and if Congress were to do the same, Musk could be in real trouble, Nearly 12 million Americans have lost healthcare coverage under Trump and enrollment in SNAP had fallen by more than 5 million people since the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, The budget deficit for the fiscal year that ended on September 30 was about $2 trillion, $160 billion higher than during Biden’s last year as president, The cost of the Iran war is about $45 billion according to the administration but other costs drive it even higher, Republicans are peddling fear, warning of dire results if the Democrats win the majority in Congress, Right wing groups are sharing inflammatory flyers and Vivek Ramaswamy released an attack ad against Amy Acton that has created a storm of protest, although JD Vance has defended it, Some Republicans are speaking up about the direction in which the party is headed.
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October 20, 2026Elon Musk ordered SpaceX to slow down its Starlink service in Ukraine, It is unclear if Musk operated with or without input from White House officials, The slowdown caused a public uproar …
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October 20, 2026
Elon Musk ordered SpaceX to slow down its Starlink service in Ukraine, It is unclear if Musk operated with or without input from White House officials, The slowdown caused a public uproar, whereupon representatives from SpaceX and the White House coordinated their messaging, Musk’s decision to take it upon himself to reverse US foreign policy for the benefit of Vladimir Putin is reminiscent of Revolutionary War general Benedict Arnold’s betrayal, The White House was happy to endorse Musk’s decision until it blew up in their faces, Venezuelan billionaire banker Julio Herrera Velutini, who wanted, and received, a pardon from Trump, had hired former Trump lawyer Alina Habba, for a reported $50 million, Trump is considering restoring the press briefing room to its original form as a swimming pool, Trump is attempting to shore up support from farmers by promising $8 billion in aid, but the fund that he plans to use for payments doesn’t have sufficient funds, After a call with Ukraine president Zelensky, Rep Jim Himes is pressing Congress to pass veto-proof legislation that will provide assistance to Ukraine, saying that “[W]e’re going to act as a Congress and override this president’s desire to see Vladimir Putin win."
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October 19, 2026Ten years ago, Hillary Clinton, who was running for president against Donald Trump, warned that Vladimir Putin hoped to have a “puppet” in the White House, and that Trump was that puppet, Trump …
Shownotes
October 19, 2026
Ten years ago, Hillary Clinton, who was running for president against Donald Trump, warned that Vladimir Putin hoped to have a “puppet” in the White House, and that Trump was that puppet, Trump protested, but ten years later he is openly embracing Putin and working to destroy the strongest and most successful alliance in human history, Meanwhile, support for Republicans has fallen to historic lows, Tariffs, the war in Iran, soaring costs of gasoline and diesel, and blatant corruption have meant that firm Republican districts are now up for grabs, Republicans are refusing to hold town halls or debate their Democratic challengers, In Texas, Kansas, North Carolina and South Carolina, and Maine, Republican candidates are being revealed as extremely weak, The Republican Party acts like a dying party that is no longer bothering to compete and is facing a rising one whose candidates are ready and willing to work, It is not unlike the 1850s, when the Democrats were so confident that they assumed they were entitled to their seats, The Democrats were trounced by the Republicans, who would dominate the political system for the next 70 years.
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October 18, 2026Putin has proposed a meeting with Trump and Xi Jinping to decide the fate of Ukraine, Such a summit would formally acknowledge that the US has broken from Europe and allied with Russia, In just …
Shownotes
October 18, 2026
Putin has proposed a meeting with Trump and Xi Jinping to decide the fate of Ukraine, Such a summit would formally acknowledge that the US has broken from Europe and allied with Russia, In just over a week, Trump has lifted sanctions on the sale of Russian oil, i which will send desperately needed money to fund Russia’s war on Ukraine, Additional sanctions that Congress demanded in a recent law named for Lindsey Graham were waived just before they were to go into effect, Outrage over Trump’s actions has come from across the political spectrum, In response, Trump posted a screed on social media suggesting that Ukraine was to blame for the high costs of diesel, and claiming that Ukrainian president Zelensky doesn’t want to end the war, Tom Nichols wrote that a world in which the US was allied with the Kremlin was the “stuff of paranoid fiction…” The Framers of the Constitution thought they had designed a system that would prevent the rise of a tyrant, The Framers didn’t anticipate that senators would put party over country and stand aside as a president captured its prerogatives, And yet, here we are.
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October 17, 2026People around the US and the world gathered at more than 3,000 No Kings:Vote Early events, Events were designed to encourage people to vote early, Republican dominated state legislatures have …
Shownotes
October 17, 2026
People around the US and the world gathered at more than 3,000 No Kings:Vote Early events, Events were designed to encourage people to vote early, Republican dominated state legislatures have restricted access to the vote since 2020, Since the 2024 election, 22 states have passed laws that make voting more difficult, Just at the height of the pre-voting events, Meta took down the No Kings organizing page on Instagram for about 4 hours, Meta claimed the issue was technical, but a report out of Brazil claims that in internal communications, Meta employees acknowledged that the company had restricted the Instagram accounts of Brazilian president Lula da Silva during the country’s recent election while recommending accounts related to his challenger, No Kings organizer Ezra Levin said the shutdown will not stop early voting, and that “No Kings means no kings in the White House,” he wrote, “or in Silicon Valley.”
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October 16, 2026Chaos reigns in the Trump administration with the resignation of new pick for WH press secretary after 5 days. Trump has walked back from braodcasting the execution of Nidal Hasan, The …
Shownotes
October 16, 2026
Chaos reigns in the Trump administration with the resignation of new pick for WH press secretary after 5 days. Trump has walked back from braodcasting the execution of Nidal Hasan, The debilitation of Ukraine’s military defenses by SpaceX has led a bipartisan group of senators to demand answers from the Department of Defense, Trump claims that neither he nor Elon Musk are responsible, but it appears that they both were in on the decision, Musk has donated $158 million in September to a super PAC backing Ken Paxton, Trump is waiving more sanctions on Russia, defying congressional intent, Trump’s DOJ is demanding that California review a list of people it suspects are not citizens, California will not conduct this review and the administration is suing election officials and threatening election workers, The No Kings events on Saturday will be about boosting voter participation and making sure every eligible voter has a plan and know their options and is ready to make their voice count.
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Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeCorruption as a Driving Force
October 15, 2026The idea that when a democratic system is taken over by a single party it quickly becomes corrupt describes what is happening in Trump’s orbit, In the last few days, multiple examples of …
Shownotes
October 15, 2026
The idea that when a democratic system is taken over by a single party it quickly becomes corrupt describes what is happening in Trump’s orbit, In the last few days, multiple examples of corruption have emerged, Kimberly Guilfoyle was forced to resign from her post after allegedly trying to extract money from a donor, In response that donor is suing her for defamation, Trump’s former lawyer Alina Habba is claiming that Richard Grenell wanted to divert a donation from her husband intended for the Kennedy Center, Paolo Zampolli, appointed by Trump to be a special envoy at the State Department was accused of trying to get custody of his son by asking ICE to deport his son’s mother, and he has now been fired, Trump's new press secretary describes herself as a general counsel, but she appears never to have passed the bar, Rhein Amacher who started the rumor that James Talarico had been hospitalized in Ohio for mental health issues, is backing off that claim, The majority of the funds donated for Trump's ballroom have come from companies and individuals with interests before the federal government, The White House is claiming that conversations about plans to renovate the Kennedy Center are covered by executive privilege and can be kept secret, a dramatic expansion of the concept of executive privilege, All of this corruption is affecting voters, Corruption tops inflation and high prices as their primary concern, Growing numbers of Republicans are backing Democrats in the midterms.
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Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeTaking Authoritarianism Out For a Spin
October 14, 2026Ukraine’s military relies on two satellite systems related to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and last night SpaceX restricted speed limits, debilitating Ukraine’s drones even as Russian forces launched …
Shownotes
October 14, 2026
Ukraine’s military relies on two satellite systems related to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and last night SpaceX restricted speed limits, debilitating Ukraine’s drones even as Russian forces launched strikes against the country’s infrastructure, President Zelensky noted that Russia’s strike, one of the largest attacks of the war, was deliberate and demonstrative, SpaceX is a defense contractor for the US givernment, SpaceX’s undermining of Ukraine supports Trump’s effort to help Putin fund his attacks on Ukraine, There was an outcry about the failing communications service that left Ukraine vulnerable to Russian attacks, Musk blamed Trump, The White House claimed it had no control over SpaceX, blaming Musk, The Pentagon is required to inform Congress if it pauses or downgrades intelligence sharing with Ukraine, but it has not, Trump asked European countries to thaw Russian assets and transfer them to a vehicle controlled by the US, a request they declined, The administration appears to be looking for a way to strip Rep Ilhan Omar of her US citizenship, Numbers from the BLS show inflation at 3.7% in September, ahead of August, and much higher than 2024, Trump is courting foreign actors to invest in his meme coin, US District Court Judge Kelly, ruled that Trump cannot bar CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, noting that both free speech and due process are protected by the Bill of Rights. The Justice Department plans to appeal.
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October 13, 2026The attacks on James Talarico were likely an attempt to get ahead of another damaging story about Ken Paxton, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paxton spent New Year’s Eve in Dubai partying …
Shownotes
October 13, 2026
The attacks on James Talarico were likely an attempt to get ahead of another damaging story about Ken Paxton, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paxton spent New Year’s Eve in Dubai partying along with two fugitives from US Justice, While the administration claims to be cracking down on fraud in the SNAP program, criminal syndicates are stealing millions of dollars from more than 990,000 households, a theft that could be stopped with digital microchips but Congress and the Trump administration are not addressing the theft, Diesel prices have jumped in spite of Trump’s move to lift sanctions on Russia, A bipartisan group of senators is pushing back on the lifting of sanctions, Zelensky said Ukraine got no warning about Russia’s strike, raising concerns that Trump is not sharing intelligence with Ukraine, Trump’s new WH press secretary debuted, apparently having been appointed over the objections of Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, After being asked by the administration to resign after her shakedown of a donor was revealed, Kimberly Guilfoyle stepped down, Almost 6 in 10 Americans say they believe Trump is either illegally profiting from the presidency or doing something unethical but not illegal.
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October 12, 2026Billionaire Elon Musk has put at least $366 million into trying to elect Republicans in the midterm elections, Republicans are publishing material accusing Democrats of being radicals, But it is …
Shownotes
October 12, 2026
Billionaire Elon Musk has put at least $366 million into trying to elect Republicans in the midterm elections, Republicans are publishing material accusing Democrats of being radicals, But it is the right that is radical, attempting to consolidate power in the hands of a few, The administration conducted a raid on the home of a sitting congressperson for a baseless reason, The raid occurred within the period before an election - when the Department of Justice normally does not take steps that might influence the outcome, The administration is attempting to intimidate Democratic representatives in a direct assault on democracy, Trump and his loyalists are trying to divide the country on old culture war lines, and becoming more extreme in their actions and their ads, They are distorting the truth, as with the claim that James Talarico had suffered a breakdown for which he was admitted into treatment in Ohio, a story that fell apart quickly, Trump’s promises are being revealed to be false, The administration has ignored a court order to stop running Trump's ads, just as it ignored a court order not to make irreversible changes to the East Potomac Golf Links course by cutting down more than 400 trees there, And Trump’s announcement that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an “energy ceasefire” is a lie, The Pentagon quietly raised the number of US service members killed and injured in the Iran War, The US military is drawing up plans for another round of combat operations in Iran.
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October 10, 2026Trump is openly backing Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, Trump blamed President Zelensky for prolonging the war waged by Russia, Trump has issued a warning to Zelensky, The US previously …
Shownotes
October 10, 2026
Trump is openly backing Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, Trump blamed President Zelensky for prolonging the war waged by Russia, Trump has issued a warning to Zelensky, The US previously stood against Russia’s invasions of Ukraine, In 1991 Russia agreed to secure Ukraine’s borders, but Putin worked to bring Ukraine under the sway of Russian oligarchs, After the election of Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine was voided, he began to work with Paul Manafort, and finally won election, immediately turning Ukraine toward Russia, He was ousted from power in 2014, and Russia soon invaded Ukraine’s Crimea, Manafort then joined the Trump campaign, Manafort and his partner, Russian operative Konstantin Kilimnik, worked to elect Trump thinking he would be sympathetic to the plan to make Ukraine subservient to Putin, Trump was not able to implement their plan in his first term, While Biden pulled NATO countries together to stop Russia’s attack, once Trump was back in office, he tried to swing the US behind Russia, On Friday he announced he was removing sanctions to let Russia sell its oil on global markets, allowing Russia to earn cash for the war against Ukraine, Trump has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on a longer will Republicans in Congress continue to protect Trump’s undermining of national security?
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