At 2:02 this morning, while much of the country was fast asleep, the office of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina released a statement on social media that the senator had passed away hours earlier. The announcement caught the country off guard. With so much attention focused on Mitch McConnell and his nearly four-week absence following a medical emergency at his home, Graham's death was shocking and unexpected. And it wasn't just the public who was caught by surprise. It appears the President of the United States was, too. Less than ninety minutes later, Donald Trump posted his own message on social media declaring that Lindsey Graham was "dead!" and that he was "so sad!"
This is one of the best pieces of journalism I have read this year. In a nutshell, it’s as good of an analysis and a call to action as I’ve seen. I work hard trying to understand; I’m just retired and have earned the right to get a handle on what is happening, but it’s been hard to follow all the chaos. Really truly hard.
After reviewing, mostly today, the NYT, MSNOW, CNN, CBC, BBC, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the cesspool of X, Facebook (dear god just shoot me), I’m pretty much done with the instant whitewashing of Senator Graham, may he rest in peace I guess. What a brutal shame he evolved into.
But to the point, what a read this was. Everything here, in this piece, is how I understand it to be. It’s what happened. If anyone can convince me otherwise, I will listen.
Yes! Why are we even talking about this? If you have any idea what the natural environment is, why would you not want to protect it? Save the endangered species act? We have to fight this? I’m so struck that this is something we need to focus on. Nature is not somewhere else for God’s sake! Imagine your children not being in nature and go from there.
Carol, I think you may have missed the 1988 (I think) movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." It was a funny animated/live action movie starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. It was a running joke in the movie to call others "maroons" when they meant "morons." I hope you get a chance to watch it!
It wouldn't make much sense to prohibit people from shooting a threatened woodpecker while allowing its forest to be cut down, or to bar killing endangered salmon while allowing a dam to dry out their habitat.
But that's what the Trump regime is doing by changing how one word in the Endangered Species Act is interpreted: “Harm”…
For 50 years, the U.S. government has interpreted the Endangered Species Act as “protecting threatened and endangered species from actions that either directly kill them or eliminate their habitat.” A new federal rule change, announced July 10, 2026, keeps the first part - protecting against the direct killing of the species - but removes habitat destruction.
That matters, because most species on the brink of extinction are on the Endangered Species list because there is almost no place left for them to live. Their habitats have been paved over, burned or transformed. Habitat protection is essential for their survival.
Since 1975, regulations have defined "harm" to include habitat destruction that kills or injures wildlife. Developers and logging interests challenged that definition in 1995 in a Supreme Gourt case, Babbitt V. Sweet Home Chapter of Communities for a Great Oregon. However, the court ruled that the definition was reasonable and allowed federal agencies to continue using it.
In short, the law says "take" includes harm, and under the regulatory definition at the time, harm included indirect harm through habitat destruction.
The Trump regime has now changed the definition of "harm" in a way that leaves out habitat modification.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has argued that the recent "de-extinction" of dire wolves by changing 14 genes in the gray wolf genome means that America need not worry about species protection because technology “can help forge a future where populations are never at risk."
But altering an existing species to look like an extinct one is both wildly expensive and a paltry substitute for protecting existing species.
The regime also didn't conduct the usual analysis of the environmental impact that changing the definition could have. That means the American people won't even know the significance of this change to threatened and endangered species until it's too late, though wildlife groups are already planning to sue over the change.
It’s the lack of tracking until it’s too late…
Then there’s the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and ten state health departments covering about 54 million people use to run a program called the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet, since 1995. Until last July 1 it monitored eight pathogens. Now it monitors only salmonella and toxin-producing E. coli. The United States is currently in the grip of an outbreak of the Cyclospora parasite, which causes severe diarrhea and has sickened more than 3,000 people across the U.S. Last August, Aria Bendix of NBC News reported that on July 1, 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overseen by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would no longer track infections caused by cyclospora and five other common causes of foodborne illnesses. Those other five are Campylobacter, Listeria, Shigella, Vibrio and Yersinia. Most foodborne illnesses people get over through time but the populations that are most affected are the young, elderly and immune compromised individuals. So what basically this regime is saying is “We will no longer track or monitor diseases/illnesses… this way we don’t have to admit they exist…” with an added “Good luck cause we don’t give a rats ass about the health and safety of the American people…” Feel free to drink that unpasteurized milk while taking another ivermectin tablet..
Along with our military service members who have been injured in Iran from the “War”. It’s not an “Excursion” or whatever this Pathetic Felon wants to call it or all his loyalists in his regime or the ones in Congress…
Again and Again the “Lack of tracking until it’s way too late”…
As for Lyndsey Graham. Have never believed democracy dies only because of one man like Trump. Democracy dies because intelligent people who know better decide that preserving their own political future matters more than preserving the institutions they swore to defend. Trump didn’t create this movement alone. He required willing participants. Lindsey Graham became one of the most indispensable among them. Lyndsey pushed the Felon’s fascist agenda through and was proud in doing so.
His betrayal wasn’t towards the Democrats and it wasn’t even towards Republicans. It was a betrayal of the American people. The collective group of us that should expect more from our elected officials than we end up getting. Every oath of office carries an implied promise that the Constitution comes before any individual. Lindsey Graham had countless opportunities to honor that promise. Again and again, he chose otherwise.
Will just quote a famous American lawyer and civil libertarian Clarence Darrow — “I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure"
Ultimately trump and his sycophantic and complicit loyalists, as trump so blatantly said, “Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation, I don't think about anybody."
And he/they sure as hell don’t care about the environment as he has done everything to undo any programs to oversee the environment and the safety of our wildlife, food, and water…PURPOSELY. He/they are trying to strangle off populations the slow, sadistic, sociopathic means. Like you said, the agencies to protect the environment and people have all been gutted financially and personnel like the CDC, FDA, DHHS, EPA, National Parks, withdrawal from WHO, etc., and his fight against windmills.
Trump and his Nazi fascist, eugenics, technofascists, criminals, The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 and the Big Ugly Bill outline this process for extermination and exile of people and money and profiteering off all available means…Money, power, control, Eugenics…MAGA/MAWA-Make AmeriKKKa White (“christian” nationalist) Again KKKult.
Another ICE Gestapo Fatal EXECUTION here in Biddeford, Maine right near my sister’s.
Have just heard about the shooting in Maine.. Everyday look to the sky and ask who have we become? Because at this point don’t recognize this nation much in the majority that is in Congress or in my own state.. There is nothing but corruption and ideologies that have absolute no basis upon a democratic-republic… Had to step away from this disgusting clusterf__k….
'All it takes for bad men to prosper is for good men to do nothing' .
From here in the U.K I feel I can do nothing but assure you the U.K is behind the good men and women of America who are doing everything they can to cut out this cancerous regime.
We have great affection for you chaps, increased by President Biden and President Obama, and loathe the old man and his cohorts.
Please let us know if there is any practical help or support we can give to rid you of this dangerous old man ,from our tiny island there are thousands of us who will be at your backs.
Again, a wonderful column...one of your best! For all the good that Lindsay Graham did in his early years, it will be his complete 180 in supporting Trump in his later years that many people will remember…what a shame...wonder what Trump had on him?
This column, as usual, will be forwarded to my representatives and I will implore them not to vote for Blanche or the Save America Act...I hope Thom Tillis, for once, follows his conscience and not his party...he has nothing to lose!!!!
Well, this certainly sums it all up in a nutshell. We seem to be damned well determined on destroying our planet for another buck. Without the birds, bees and apple trees we are digging our own graves. Americans don’t need to fight in wars, they only need to erode their own back yard with the help of one ignoramus administration. Mr. Graham was just one of the many who took the road easily travelled. And that made all the difference.
Thank you very much for explaining exactly how calling our representatives makes an impact. I never knew all that and thought it was a waste of time. Will do it now.
Joe Biden’s statement after hearing of the death of Lindsey Graham:
“Lindsey and I served together in Congress for over a decade… We disagreed often, and sometimes loudly… Lindsey and I did agree on the profound importance of public service. Like me, he loved the Senate as an institution… Jill and I are keeping his family in our prayers.” - this is how an intelligent, empathetic President - or any normal human responds.
When one considers Senator Graham’s turncoat betrayal of Joe Biden and his family, his 180 degree departure from his well-known warnings to America about Donald Trump, his silence about Trump’s disparaging comments about Graham’s friend and colleague, John McCain, it is evident that Mr Graham operated as an emotional chameleon - continually changing his colors in order to avoid detection and thus, create a false sense of safety for himself.
Consider his off the cuff remarks about Joe Biden after the death of Beau Biden:
I live in a blue state so when I email another state's elected officials I use their address to fill in for mine. I emailed Thom Tillis. He is our only chance of getting Todd Blanche to leave with his mangy tail between his legs. Go back to the dog pound, Todd, and see if your master will throw you a bone, Don't count on it.
This was an astounding read and a call of action. The cruelty and utter stupidity of the administration must be stopped in November. We must form a new government for everyone or we will not survive. As for Graham, I have no respect for him.
You write daily so eloquently about the atrocities the trump regime does, Graham facilitated these acts in every way he could. You stated how Graham being gone makes the regime’s agenda more difficult. His best act for our country is being gone.
Can’t rewrite history in an obituary…everyone knows who Lindsey Graham really was and Trump used him and played him like a fiddle because he NEEDED him…he didn’t LIKE him. He needed a strong ally and a big voice whenever he wanted to push something through.
Graham got what he wanted out of it too..power..money recognition..reverence…quite a jump from the poor boy in South Carolina who lived above the family bar and was left to raise his younger sister after both of his parents died young. For that he should be remembered…for his early days in the Air Force and in government services but not for what he became.
Heather is right….start calling and emailing….it really does work…..bombard them with complaints.
You’re right and it makes me realize that Trump doesn’t actually LIKE anybody. He doesn’t CHOOSE not to like people in the way that you or I might, rather he’s UNABLE to like people. In order to like someone you have to have some shred, some minimal, ability to relate to another person, to empathize. His only relationships with other people are transactional. You probably have a better relationship with your local grocery clerk whom you’ve seen a few times than Trump does with anyone.
Trump is an empty shell..he has nothing inside of him but greed and self adoration.. probably because he was never loved as a child so he never learned how to love. He just focused on his own wants and needs. As Roy Cohn aptly characterized him in his book...Donald Trump pisses ice water...that says it all.
There are plenty I would say, the majority even of people who weren’t loved as children manage to figure it out and turn into loving human beings. Don’t take him off the hook.
This is one of the best pieces of journalism I have read this year. In a nutshell, it’s as good of an analysis and a call to action as I’ve seen. I work hard trying to understand; I’m just retired and have earned the right to get a handle on what is happening, but it’s been hard to follow all the chaos. Really truly hard.
After reviewing, mostly today, the NYT, MSNOW, CNN, CBC, BBC, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the cesspool of X, Facebook (dear god just shoot me), I’m pretty much done with the instant whitewashing of Senator Graham, may he rest in peace I guess. What a brutal shame he evolved into.
But to the point, what a read this was. Everything here, in this piece, is how I understand it to be. It’s what happened. If anyone can convince me otherwise, I will listen.
Save the endangered species act.
Yes! Why are we even talking about this? If you have any idea what the natural environment is, why would you not want to protect it? Save the endangered species act? We have to fight this? I’m so struck that this is something we need to focus on. Nature is not somewhere else for God’s sake! Imagine your children not being in nature and go from there.
The asshole maroons are killing our planet to make a quick buck. Which will also kill us off..first our souls, then physically.
I think you meant morons.
Carol, I think you may have missed the 1988 (I think) movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." It was a funny animated/live action movie starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. It was a running joke in the movie to call others "maroons" when they meant "morons." I hope you get a chance to watch it!
Thank you Heather.
It wouldn't make much sense to prohibit people from shooting a threatened woodpecker while allowing its forest to be cut down, or to bar killing endangered salmon while allowing a dam to dry out their habitat.
But that's what the Trump regime is doing by changing how one word in the Endangered Species Act is interpreted: “Harm”…
For 50 years, the U.S. government has interpreted the Endangered Species Act as “protecting threatened and endangered species from actions that either directly kill them or eliminate their habitat.” A new federal rule change, announced July 10, 2026, keeps the first part - protecting against the direct killing of the species - but removes habitat destruction.
That matters, because most species on the brink of extinction are on the Endangered Species list because there is almost no place left for them to live. Their habitats have been paved over, burned or transformed. Habitat protection is essential for their survival.
Since 1975, regulations have defined "harm" to include habitat destruction that kills or injures wildlife. Developers and logging interests challenged that definition in 1995 in a Supreme Gourt case, Babbitt V. Sweet Home Chapter of Communities for a Great Oregon. However, the court ruled that the definition was reasonable and allowed federal agencies to continue using it.
In short, the law says "take" includes harm, and under the regulatory definition at the time, harm included indirect harm through habitat destruction.
The Trump regime has now changed the definition of "harm" in a way that leaves out habitat modification.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has argued that the recent "de-extinction" of dire wolves by changing 14 genes in the gray wolf genome means that America need not worry about species protection because technology “can help forge a future where populations are never at risk."
But altering an existing species to look like an extinct one is both wildly expensive and a paltry substitute for protecting existing species.
The regime also didn't conduct the usual analysis of the environmental impact that changing the definition could have. That means the American people won't even know the significance of this change to threatened and endangered species until it's too late, though wildlife groups are already planning to sue over the change.
It’s the lack of tracking until it’s too late…
Then there’s the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and ten state health departments covering about 54 million people use to run a program called the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet, since 1995. Until last July 1 it monitored eight pathogens. Now it monitors only salmonella and toxin-producing E. coli. The United States is currently in the grip of an outbreak of the Cyclospora parasite, which causes severe diarrhea and has sickened more than 3,000 people across the U.S. Last August, Aria Bendix of NBC News reported that on July 1, 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overseen by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would no longer track infections caused by cyclospora and five other common causes of foodborne illnesses. Those other five are Campylobacter, Listeria, Shigella, Vibrio and Yersinia. Most foodborne illnesses people get over through time but the populations that are most affected are the young, elderly and immune compromised individuals. So what basically this regime is saying is “We will no longer track or monitor diseases/illnesses… this way we don’t have to admit they exist…” with an added “Good luck cause we don’t give a rats ass about the health and safety of the American people…” Feel free to drink that unpasteurized milk while taking another ivermectin tablet..
Along with our military service members who have been injured in Iran from the “War”. It’s not an “Excursion” or whatever this Pathetic Felon wants to call it or all his loyalists in his regime or the ones in Congress…
Again and Again the “Lack of tracking until it’s way too late”…
As for Lyndsey Graham. Have never believed democracy dies only because of one man like Trump. Democracy dies because intelligent people who know better decide that preserving their own political future matters more than preserving the institutions they swore to defend. Trump didn’t create this movement alone. He required willing participants. Lindsey Graham became one of the most indispensable among them. Lyndsey pushed the Felon’s fascist agenda through and was proud in doing so.
His betrayal wasn’t towards the Democrats and it wasn’t even towards Republicans. It was a betrayal of the American people. The collective group of us that should expect more from our elected officials than we end up getting. Every oath of office carries an implied promise that the Constitution comes before any individual. Lindsey Graham had countless opportunities to honor that promise. Again and again, he chose otherwise.
Will just quote a famous American lawyer and civil libertarian Clarence Darrow — “I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure"
Great work !
TJ, another great add to Heather’s piece.
Ultimately trump and his sycophantic and complicit loyalists, as trump so blatantly said, “Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about Americans' financial situation, I don't think about anybody."
And he/they sure as hell don’t care about the environment as he has done everything to undo any programs to oversee the environment and the safety of our wildlife, food, and water…PURPOSELY. He/they are trying to strangle off populations the slow, sadistic, sociopathic means. Like you said, the agencies to protect the environment and people have all been gutted financially and personnel like the CDC, FDA, DHHS, EPA, National Parks, withdrawal from WHO, etc., and his fight against windmills.
Trump and his Nazi fascist, eugenics, technofascists, criminals, The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 and the Big Ugly Bill outline this process for extermination and exile of people and money and profiteering off all available means…Money, power, control, Eugenics…MAGA/MAWA-Make AmeriKKKa White (“christian” nationalist) Again KKKult.
Another ICE Gestapo Fatal EXECUTION here in Biddeford, Maine right near my sister’s.
WWE ARE NOT ANGRY ENOUGH.
Have just heard about the shooting in Maine.. Everyday look to the sky and ask who have we become? Because at this point don’t recognize this nation much in the majority that is in Congress or in my own state.. There is nothing but corruption and ideologies that have absolute no basis upon a democratic-republic… Had to step away from this disgusting clusterf__k….
I hear and feel exactly what you are saying.
We are truly broken. 💔❤️🩹
It is important to take a break from it all. This is a marathon and we need to keep going because OUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT.
Thank you for your comments.
Stay safe.
'All it takes for bad men to prosper is for good men to do nothing' .
From here in the U.K I feel I can do nothing but assure you the U.K is behind the good men and women of America who are doing everything they can to cut out this cancerous regime.
We have great affection for you chaps, increased by President Biden and President Obama, and loathe the old man and his cohorts.
Please let us know if there is any practical help or support we can give to rid you of this dangerous old man ,from our tiny island there are thousands of us who will be at your backs.
Thank you for your kind words, JayTay. We need that right now, more than ever.
Again, a wonderful column...one of your best! For all the good that Lindsay Graham did in his early years, it will be his complete 180 in supporting Trump in his later years that many people will remember…what a shame...wonder what Trump had on him?
This column, as usual, will be forwarded to my representatives and I will implore them not to vote for Blanche or the Save America Act...I hope Thom Tillis, for once, follows his conscience and not his party...he has nothing to lose!!!!
Well, this certainly sums it all up in a nutshell. We seem to be damned well determined on destroying our planet for another buck. Without the birds, bees and apple trees we are digging our own graves. Americans don’t need to fight in wars, they only need to erode their own back yard with the help of one ignoramus administration. Mr. Graham was just one of the many who took the road easily travelled. And that made all the difference.
Thank you very much for explaining exactly how calling our representatives makes an impact. I never knew all that and thought it was a waste of time. Will do it now.
Joe Biden’s statement after hearing of the death of Lindsey Graham:
“Lindsey and I served together in Congress for over a decade… We disagreed often, and sometimes loudly… Lindsey and I did agree on the profound importance of public service. Like me, he loved the Senate as an institution… Jill and I are keeping his family in our prayers.” - this is how an intelligent, empathetic President - or any normal human responds.
When one considers Senator Graham’s turncoat betrayal of Joe Biden and his family, his 180 degree departure from his well-known warnings to America about Donald Trump, his silence about Trump’s disparaging comments about Graham’s friend and colleague, John McCain, it is evident that Mr Graham operated as an emotional chameleon - continually changing his colors in order to avoid detection and thus, create a false sense of safety for himself.
Consider his off the cuff remarks about Joe Biden after the death of Beau Biden:
https://youtu.be/kLMYW8jFPHg?is=3C39S-KRmEvrO_ZP
You are the voice of reason in a sea of fools!! TY
I live in a blue state so when I email another state's elected officials I use their address to fill in for mine. I emailed Thom Tillis. He is our only chance of getting Todd Blanche to leave with his mangy tail between his legs. Go back to the dog pound, Todd, and see if your master will throw you a bone, Don't count on it.
This was an astounding read and a call of action. The cruelty and utter stupidity of the administration must be stopped in November. We must form a new government for everyone or we will not survive. As for Graham, I have no respect for him.
You write daily so eloquently about the atrocities the trump regime does, Graham facilitated these acts in every way he could. You stated how Graham being gone makes the regime’s agenda more difficult. His best act for our country is being gone.
Thank you Heather. I'm sending this to everyone I know. People need to read it.
I respected the McCain version of Graham. It is maddening and tragic how he shifted when McCain died.
Thank you, Heather. This regime is literally gutting America, and we must all speak up.
Can’t rewrite history in an obituary…everyone knows who Lindsey Graham really was and Trump used him and played him like a fiddle because he NEEDED him…he didn’t LIKE him. He needed a strong ally and a big voice whenever he wanted to push something through.
Graham got what he wanted out of it too..power..money recognition..reverence…quite a jump from the poor boy in South Carolina who lived above the family bar and was left to raise his younger sister after both of his parents died young. For that he should be remembered…for his early days in the Air Force and in government services but not for what he became.
Heather is right….start calling and emailing….it really does work…..bombard them with complaints.
You’re right and it makes me realize that Trump doesn’t actually LIKE anybody. He doesn’t CHOOSE not to like people in the way that you or I might, rather he’s UNABLE to like people. In order to like someone you have to have some shred, some minimal, ability to relate to another person, to empathize. His only relationships with other people are transactional. You probably have a better relationship with your local grocery clerk whom you’ve seen a few times than Trump does with anyone.
Trump is an empty shell..he has nothing inside of him but greed and self adoration.. probably because he was never loved as a child so he never learned how to love. He just focused on his own wants and needs. As Roy Cohn aptly characterized him in his book...Donald Trump pisses ice water...that says it all.
There are plenty I would say, the majority even of people who weren’t loved as children manage to figure it out and turn into loving human beings. Don’t take him off the hook.
Oh believe me I would never take HIM off of any hook...