As Donald Trump’s lunch break was coming to an end this afternoon, he quickly fired off a demand at 1:50 PM on Truth Social before heading to the Oval Office for an Executive Order signing. What he posted wasn’t a suggestion or a passing thought, but a demand that anyone running for president or vice president should be “forced” to take a cognitive examination before entering the race. He framed it as necessary and as something that could safeguard our country from incompetence at the highest levels of government. And as proof of how important this is, he pointed to himself, bragging that he had taken the exam not once, but three times, and that he had “aced it” each time. “An achievement,” he wrote, “that even on a single exam, according to the doctors, has rarely been done before.” And in trying to make that case, to reinforce this image of sharpness and control, he revealed more than he meant to. Because in that same post, he wrote that he had taken the test during his “THREE!” terms as president. Donald Trump either forgot how many times he has served as president, two, or he couldn’t understand the irony of what he was saying.
After reading your ever-illuminating message, I will haul my 84-year-old self and my 87-year-old husband to downtown Asheville to show the colors. Thank you, Heather, for your steadfast leadership in daunting times.
You get those 80+ selves downtown and protest! You do us proud, Joan, and there are unseen rewards in standing up to despots. Like, a better America for our kids and grands. Like a cleaner world as we recognize that fossil fuels not only are killing the planet but are causing war after war to secure that black muck, refine, ship and burn it.
In the category of the good things that will come out the Twump years: we will all realize war with the mideast ain't worth it when that big fiery ball in the sky and the winds that circle the earth are there for free. No wars necessary. What a bunch of dopes we are for letting big oil and techbros make decisions that are likely to hasten the destruction, not of earth, but of its living creatures.
My 77 year old body and my 82 year old husband are driving around Cleveland County delivering food to those folks who can no longer get out of their houses. But we are with you in Asheville in spirit! Thanks!
I am not sleeping tonight, for reasons I won't go into. However, I will gulp some coffee in a few hours so that, sleep or not, I can go to the May Day protest downtown. I might not be at my best, but I will be there. Because it's my sacred civic duty.
So many times I’m reading your steady accounting of the latest awful truths and it feels like such a heart crushing slog to get to the part where you tell us “this is why I have hope and you should too.” But I cannot emphasize enough, dear Heather, how much it sustains this insomniac grandmother that you never fail to find good and legitimate reasons to keep the faith. You and my beloved Springsteen: “ At the end of every hard earned day, people find some reason to believe.”
In Canada most of us are horrified at what is happening in the US, how quickly it happened, the gutless Republicans and how the some of the Democratic leadership are not taking a page from the more progressive politicians who are clearly connecting with people.
Perhaps if Trump is so certain that he would ace a cognitive test, then he should be evaluated by an independent panel of experts that neither he nor his team chooses - I think that we all know how that would go as it’s quite evident to most people that he is not all there.
Keep up the resistance as you’re absolutely right that if Americans do not exercise their rights that they will lose them. The Handmaid’s Tale is the future if this isn’t stopped.
Period. And he has some competition, but, Richard Nixon, Woodrow Wilson and Andrew Johnson notwithstanding, Twump wins the "worst president in US history" award by a long long shot. I hope he holds that distinction until his great great grandchildren write books of familial shame.
Okay, let's put him on the list. It would be fun to debate who gets second place. I say Johnson because like Nixon (and Harding), he was corruptible, and like Wilson, a rabid racist. And these morally failing men made the country poorer for their policies and choices. Truly, all good contenders for second place but even Johnson bows deeply to Twump.
Katy- I feel a debate on who is the runner up to Trump as the worst ever president might be comparable to sports debates. Hopefully you haven’t had to watch or participate in a debate on a pressing issue such as who is the better basketball player, LeBron James or Michael Jordan? Both sides come armed with statistical evidence and, when the debate finishes, nobody’s opinions change.
So I have to confess that I’m not able to take a firm position on which of your terrible 3 are first runner up to Trump. I might add a few additional names to the list. James Buchanan, the man who preceded Lincoln and is “credited” with doing nothing to prevent the buildup to the Civil War, James Polk, who was the first president to get the U.S. to interfere in Latin America (in Mexico), and Trump’s favorite, Andrew Jackson, who sent thousands of native Americans on a death march west out of Georgia and South Carolina so that “true Americans” could take their lands. And, for good measure, you might add Calvin Coolidge, the ultimate laissez faire president who did nothing to stop the rampant stock market and financial speculation in the 1920’s that is thought by many economists to have been a major cause of the Great Depression.
Ah, James Polk, whose VP was John C. Calhoun, credited with delaying the Civil War through diplomacy, if you can imagine keeping people enslaved with tea cups and polite language. Polk was an accidental president, not very well liked and did start a war over land with Mexico, but his original sin was being a slave owner. In our survey (yours and mine) I think we reserve a special place for slave owners which puts greats like George Washington into the same bucket as Polk, but so what? Ask a Black American if that is fair or not. Andrew Jackson is definitely on the list, and is still burning in hell for his cruelty and hubris. James Buchanan was an idiot but more ineffectual than corrupted. So in the running for second place (or third or fourth), I would add only Jackson, but he is a strong contender. Thoughts?
Katy- Honestly, isn’t this just like a sports debate? And it’s a lot more fun than obsessing over Donald Trump’s latest atrocity!
Seriously, you make some very good points. Probably Buchanan and Coolidge belong in the same category, men who were totally oblivious to what was on the horizon. And I agree that Jackson belongs, if for no other reason than Trump admires him!
Since you clearly know your history I’m going to recommend a two volume history of the United States from 1932 to 1972. It’s written by William Manchester and covers both the political and social history of those 40 years. It’s out of print but I purchased it on EBay. I believe Amazon has it too.
But every single fucking day that comes this deranged useful corrup convict fascist racist idiot is diving into more and more dangerous crazyness. Fuck congress! Fuck scotus! Lock him up! Or else.
A family member has a medical procedure today, but other than that I am participating in the economic boycott and wearing my shirt from the Land of Hopes & Dreams concert. Resist in small ways. They count.
The pity is that this is so boring. The sin always is, it has no imagination in what direction to turn. It is only wageing for one or two direction: power or money. Or both. Look at the attempts to store capital from the Hormuz-crises. If oil is blocked, down the Wall street goes : You buy! When the block is lifted, up it goes - and you sell. Who could gamble like this, with no conscience at all - except a man stung by grandiosity.
But we know this - and this is boring. ”And the first ones now will later be last - as the times they are a - changeing” (Bob Dylan)
I’ve noticed that his sycophants during various Congressional hearings will not say that dRumpf lost the 2020 election. Is it possible that with his frontotemporal dementia, he has also ‘forgotten’ that he lost; and lost Bigly!!!
Thank you, Ms. Reese. The maga caucus of Congress and SCOTUS are now more responsible than djt. It is easy to visualize a defense of djt. There is no defense for either the maga caucus or SCOTUS.
Not sure what the defense of djt looks like but totally agree about his enablers. They are all GUILTY. John Roberts is now neck and neck with Roger Taney as the justice who will hurt America most with their decisions and, yes, ideology.
Heather, I just subscribed. I’ve been following you for a while and I think your observations deserve notice. Thank you for being fearless, honest and eloquent. This Canadian appreciates you! ❤️
"And one day, not so far from now, our children will look back at this period and ask what we did. Not what we meant to do. Not what we were planning to do when things settled down. What we actually did, while it was happening. "
Keep going Heather - you ARE making a difference. Thank you.
After reading your ever-illuminating message, I will haul my 84-year-old self and my 87-year-old husband to downtown Asheville to show the colors. Thank you, Heather, for your steadfast leadership in daunting times.
You get those 80+ selves downtown and protest! You do us proud, Joan, and there are unseen rewards in standing up to despots. Like, a better America for our kids and grands. Like a cleaner world as we recognize that fossil fuels not only are killing the planet but are causing war after war to secure that black muck, refine, ship and burn it.
In the category of the good things that will come out the Twump years: we will all realize war with the mideast ain't worth it when that big fiery ball in the sky and the winds that circle the earth are there for free. No wars necessary. What a bunch of dopes we are for letting big oil and techbros make decisions that are likely to hasten the destruction, not of earth, but of its living creatures.
Katy, Thanks for YOU, helping bring our country back to its early promise.
Way to go, Joan! Never underestimate the power of dedicated octogenarians! 🫶🏼🇺🇸❤️🔥🗽🫶🏼❣️
My 77 year old body and my 82 year old husband are driving around Cleveland County delivering food to those folks who can no longer get out of their houses. But we are with you in Asheville in spirit! Thanks!
I am not sleeping tonight, for reasons I won't go into. However, I will gulp some coffee in a few hours so that, sleep or not, I can go to the May Day protest downtown. I might not be at my best, but I will be there. Because it's my sacred civic duty.
So many times I’m reading your steady accounting of the latest awful truths and it feels like such a heart crushing slog to get to the part where you tell us “this is why I have hope and you should too.” But I cannot emphasize enough, dear Heather, how much it sustains this insomniac grandmother that you never fail to find good and legitimate reasons to keep the faith. You and my beloved Springsteen: “ At the end of every hard earned day, people find some reason to believe.”
Exactly how I feel!! We absolutely need to keep the faith.
In Canada most of us are horrified at what is happening in the US, how quickly it happened, the gutless Republicans and how the some of the Democratic leadership are not taking a page from the more progressive politicians who are clearly connecting with people.
Perhaps if Trump is so certain that he would ace a cognitive test, then he should be evaluated by an independent panel of experts that neither he nor his team chooses - I think that we all know how that would go as it’s quite evident to most people that he is not all there.
Keep up the resistance as you’re absolutely right that if Americans do not exercise their rights that they will lose them. The Handmaid’s Tale is the future if this isn’t stopped.
47’s legacy? The worst president in US history and an even worse human being.
Period. And he has some competition, but, Richard Nixon, Woodrow Wilson and Andrew Johnson notwithstanding, Twump wins the "worst president in US history" award by a long long shot. I hope he holds that distinction until his great great grandchildren write books of familial shame.
Katy- you left out Warren Harding from your list. But Harding’s corruptions look so quaint from our current vantage point.
Okay, let's put him on the list. It would be fun to debate who gets second place. I say Johnson because like Nixon (and Harding), he was corruptible, and like Wilson, a rabid racist. And these morally failing men made the country poorer for their policies and choices. Truly, all good contenders for second place but even Johnson bows deeply to Twump.
Katy- I feel a debate on who is the runner up to Trump as the worst ever president might be comparable to sports debates. Hopefully you haven’t had to watch or participate in a debate on a pressing issue such as who is the better basketball player, LeBron James or Michael Jordan? Both sides come armed with statistical evidence and, when the debate finishes, nobody’s opinions change.
So I have to confess that I’m not able to take a firm position on which of your terrible 3 are first runner up to Trump. I might add a few additional names to the list. James Buchanan, the man who preceded Lincoln and is “credited” with doing nothing to prevent the buildup to the Civil War, James Polk, who was the first president to get the U.S. to interfere in Latin America (in Mexico), and Trump’s favorite, Andrew Jackson, who sent thousands of native Americans on a death march west out of Georgia and South Carolina so that “true Americans” could take their lands. And, for good measure, you might add Calvin Coolidge, the ultimate laissez faire president who did nothing to stop the rampant stock market and financial speculation in the 1920’s that is thought by many economists to have been a major cause of the Great Depression.
Ah, James Polk, whose VP was John C. Calhoun, credited with delaying the Civil War through diplomacy, if you can imagine keeping people enslaved with tea cups and polite language. Polk was an accidental president, not very well liked and did start a war over land with Mexico, but his original sin was being a slave owner. In our survey (yours and mine) I think we reserve a special place for slave owners which puts greats like George Washington into the same bucket as Polk, but so what? Ask a Black American if that is fair or not. Andrew Jackson is definitely on the list, and is still burning in hell for his cruelty and hubris. James Buchanan was an idiot but more ineffectual than corrupted. So in the running for second place (or third or fourth), I would add only Jackson, but he is a strong contender. Thoughts?
Katy- I should proof read my comments! The title of that two volume history is The Glory and the Dream.
Katy- Honestly, isn’t this just like a sports debate? And it’s a lot more fun than obsessing over Donald Trump’s latest atrocity!
Seriously, you make some very good points. Probably Buchanan and Coolidge belong in the same category, men who were totally oblivious to what was on the horizon. And I agree that Jackson belongs, if for no other reason than Trump admires him!
Since you clearly know your history I’m going to recommend a two volume history of the United States from 1932 to 1972. It’s written by William Manchester and covers both the political and social history of those 40 years. It’s out of print but I purchased it on EBay. I believe Amazon has it too.
But every single fucking day that comes this deranged useful corrup convict fascist racist idiot is diving into more and more dangerous crazyness. Fuck congress! Fuck scotus! Lock him up! Or else.
A family member has a medical procedure today, but other than that I am participating in the economic boycott and wearing my shirt from the Land of Hopes & Dreams concert. Resist in small ways. They count.
Hard to believe this moron is allowed to remain President.
The pity is that this is so boring. The sin always is, it has no imagination in what direction to turn. It is only wageing for one or two direction: power or money. Or both. Look at the attempts to store capital from the Hormuz-crises. If oil is blocked, down the Wall street goes : You buy! When the block is lifted, up it goes - and you sell. Who could gamble like this, with no conscience at all - except a man stung by grandiosity.
But we know this - and this is boring. ”And the first ones now will later be last - as the times they are a - changeing” (Bob Dylan)
I’ve noticed that his sycophants during various Congressional hearings will not say that dRumpf lost the 2020 election. Is it possible that with his frontotemporal dementia, he has also ‘forgotten’ that he lost; and lost Bigly!!!
Thanks!
"Use it or loose it."
Thank you for your thoughtfulness and courage. Really.
Brilliant. Thank you, Heather!
Thank you, Ms. Reese. The maga caucus of Congress and SCOTUS are now more responsible than djt. It is easy to visualize a defense of djt. There is no defense for either the maga caucus or SCOTUS.
Not sure what the defense of djt looks like but totally agree about his enablers. They are all GUILTY. John Roberts is now neck and neck with Roger Taney as the justice who will hurt America most with their decisions and, yes, ideology.
Heather, I just subscribed. I’ve been following you for a while and I think your observations deserve notice. Thank you for being fearless, honest and eloquent. This Canadian appreciates you! ❤️
"And one day, not so far from now, our children will look back at this period and ask what we did. Not what we meant to do. Not what we were planning to do when things settled down. What we actually did, while it was happening. "
Keep going Heather - you ARE making a difference. Thank you.