Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American] - Page 3 of 6

February 3, 2023

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• The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted along party lines to remove Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her seat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
• Earlier, House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) used his own discretion to remove Democratic California representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Select Committee on Intelligence.
• The Democrats removed Gosar and Greene—both members of the far-right group—after they threatened violence against their Democratic colleagues, while Republicans removed Schiff and Swalwell over make-believe dangers and now have removed Omar allegedly over policy differences.
• McCarthy catered to far-right members in order to get the votes to become speaker; now he is giving those members what they want in order to keep them from ousting him and to get them on board for imperative legislation.
• The power the far-right representatives are getting is making them a force distinct from the rest of the Republican Party.
• Republicans in the 1980s made a deliberate decision to court voters with religion, racism, and sexism in order to hold onto power.
• The Republicans have created a group of voters and their representatives who are openly white supremacists and who believe that any attempt to use the government to hold the economic playing field level is socialism.
• The House voted to condemn socialism—another attempt to appease that far right—while Republicans then chided those Democrats who refused to vote in favor of that condemnation.
• Former president Trump “retruthed” the words of a person who warned that he and “80,000,000” were willing to fight for Trump and were “Locked and LOADED.”
• Some of the far-right group are wearing AR-15 pins, but have not, so far, introduced any gun bills.

Published February 3, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 2, 2023

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February 1, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen

In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

February 2, 2023

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• On February 1, 1862, Julia Ward Howe published her famous poem “Battle Hymn of the Republic” in the Atlantic Monthly, which became the anthem of the Union during the Civil War.
• On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Joint Resolution of Congress passing the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States.
• On February 1, 1960, four Black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat down at the F.W. Woolworth Company department store lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest segregation.
• This sparked a sit-in movement that spread across the South and eventually led to the desegregation of public spaces.
• On February 1, 2023, Tyre Nichols’s family laid their 29-year-old son to rest in Memphis, Tennessee, after he was severely beaten by police officers.
• The College Board also released the official curriculum for a new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies, which had been stripped of information about Black feminism, the queer experience, incarceration, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Published February 2, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 1, 2023

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January 31, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen

In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

February 1, 2023

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• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is having to grapple with the difference between the rhetoric that fires up the Republican base and the reality of governance.
• McCarthy won the votes to become speaker by promising the far-right members of the Republican conference a number of things, including that he would not agree to raising the debt ceiling without demanding cuts in federal spending.
• This argument mixed together two separate things: the debt ceiling, which must be lifted to enable the government to pay for money already appropriated, and the budget, which is a plan for spending money in the future.
• Republicans have backed off on demanding cuts to Social Security and Medicare after facing a backlash.
• President Joe Biden and the Democrats have said that they will not negotiate over the debt ceiling.
• On Wednesday, Biden and McCarthy will meet in person.
• National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Office of Management Budget Director Shalanda Young sent a memo to the Republicans pointing out that protecting the security of the national debt has always been a bipartisan commitment.
• At a Democratic National Committee fundraiser today, Biden mourned the loss of the mainstream Republicans of the past and lamented McCarthy’s willingness to cater to extremists for power.

Published February 1, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 31, 2023

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January 30, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen

In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

January 31, 2023

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• Joe Biden: 46th President of the United States, celebrated the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is investing $1.2 trillion in fixing highways, bridges, and internet access, and creating 20,000 jobs in Maryland.
• Called attention to the effects of the new border enforcement measures providing migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela a legal path to obtain a two-year visa.
• Republicans plan to hold hearings on what they call Biden’s border crisis, but the White House called out “some elected officials” for “trying to block the Administration’s effective measures because they would rather keep immigration an issue to campaign on than one to solve.”
• House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) promised to “hit the ground running” on crime, energy, inflation, life, taxpayer protection, and more, but Republicans have turned to investigations, abortion, threatening the national debt, and trying to defund the Internal Revenue Service instead.
• Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has applied for a six-month U.S. tourist visa, likely to avoid the many investigations underway in Brazil for fraud and inciting an attack on the government.

Published January 31, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 30, 2023

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January 28, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen

In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

January 29, 2023

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• Representatives Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Daniel Goldman (D-NY), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Colin Allred (D-TX), Mike Levin (D-CA), Josh Harder (D-CA), Raul Ruiz (D-CA), and Senator Rob Menendez (D-NJ) announced the formation of the Congressional Dads Caucus.
• The caucus was formed in response to the Republicans’ long fight over electing a House speaker, which highlighted the double standard that exists for working dads.
• The caucus is fighting for a national paid family and medical leave program, affordable and high-quality childcare, and the expanded Child Tax Credit.
• On Tuesday, January 24, the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor released its initial findings from the new National Database of Childcare Prices, which showed that childcare expenses are untenable for families throughout the country.
• The U.S. spends significantly less than other high-wage countries on early childcare and education, ranking 35th out of 37 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• The formation of the Dads Caucus and the release of the childcare prices findings suggest a shift in the perception of childcare as a societal issue and a reworking of the role of the government.

Published January 29, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 28, 2023

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January 26, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen

In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

January 27, 2023

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• The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) asked six former presidents and their vice presidents to look for any presidential records, including documents marked classified, in their possession.
• The request illuminates the importance of disinformation in society, as Trump and his allies insist he is being treated unfairly.
• The truth is that it was the Trump administration that sought to weaponize the government against their perceived enemies.
• William Barr deliberately tried to use the Department of Justice to undermine the officials who had launched the Russia investigation properly and with good reason.
• Barr spun the information inaccurately to make the best possible case for Trump, convincing many Americans to think there was nothing between the Trump campaign and Russia.
• John Durham was appointed to investigate the investigators, but no matter how hard he tried, he did not turn up information indicating the investigators had conducted themselves improperly.
• Durham did find accusations from Italian officials that Trump himself might have engaged in financial crimes.
• The cozy relationship between Durham and Barr violated department policy for special counsels.
• Charles McGonigal, the special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the FBI’s New York Field Office, was arrested this week for working for a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.
• Scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder noted that authorities have not taken the threat of Russian influence in our politics seriously enough.
• Newly elected House Republican Cory Mills of Florida handed out defused grenades on the floor of the House, accompanied by a note suggesting he was sending them because McCarthy has put him on the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.

Published January 27, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 26, 2023

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January 25, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen

In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

January 26, 2023

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• Democrats are staying out of the way while House Republicans make a spectacle of themselves, giving power to extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene and facing financial improprieties from George Santos.
• Senate Republicans are staying out of debt ceiling negotiations until the House Republicans come up with a viable plan.
• President Joe Biden has signed an executive order to promote competition in the economy, reclaiming the country’s long tradition of opposing economic consolidation.
• Biden’s executive order has resulted in a sharp drop in mergers and acquisitions, and the December jobs report showed strong job growth and a decrease in unemployment.
• The CHIPS and Science Act has attracted multibillion-dollar private investments and created jobs accessible to those without college degrees.
• The Inflation Reduction Act has capped the cost of insulin for those on Medicare, made hearing aids available over the counter, and expanded subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
• Biden is taking to the road to tout his successes to the country, especially to those places most skeptical of the government.

Published January 26, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 25, 2023

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January 24, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen

In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

January 25, 2023

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• Mike Pence’s lawyer revealed on January 18, 2023, that Pence had documents with classified markings at his Indiana home. This suggests that it is not uncommon for officials to find such documents among their papers, although the level of classification matters.
• The discovery highlights the difference between officials like Biden and Pence who inadvertently find such documents and alert the National Archives and Research Administration (NARA), and those who stonewall NARA and the FBI, as Trump did.
• Judge Robert McBurney heard arguments about whether to release the grand jury’s report investigating Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential vote in Georgia.
• Representative George Santos revised his financial reports to say that a $500,000 loan to his campaign did not, in fact, come from his personal funds.
• Representative Elise Stefanik is being pulled into Santos’ troubles.
• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy put together a weaponization committee to fulfill a promise to the right-wing extremists whose votes he needed to become speaker. The true goal of the committee is to “shovel paranoia and distortion into the news stream” to make right-wing voters distrust the government even more.
• McCarthy refused to seat Democratic representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
• Another mass shooting on Monday took seven more lives, bringing the total for 2023 to an all-time high for mass shootings at this point in the calendar. California Governor Gavin Newsom called out Republicans for standing in the way of gun safety.

Published January 25, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 24, 2023

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January 21, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen

In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

January 21, 2023

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• Roe v. Wade was decided on January 22, 1973, granting physicians the power to determine with a patient whether the patient’s pregnancy should be terminated.
• This decision was rooted in a public health crisis, as states had begun to criminalize abortion in the 1870s, leading to an estimated 200,000-1.2 million illegal abortions a year.
• The rising women’s movement wanted women to have control over their lives, and the evangelical Southern Baptist Convention agreed that abortion should be legal in some cases.
• In 1972, Gallup pollsters reported that 64% of Americans agreed that abortion should be between a woman and her doctor.
• In 1973, the Supreme Court, under Republican Chief Justice Warren Burger, in a decision written by Republican Harry Blackmun, decided Roe v. Wade, legalizing first-trimester abortion.
• Opposition to the eventual Roe v. Wade decision began in 1972, and was a deliberate attempt to polarize American politics.
• Today, about 62% of Americans support the guidelines laid down in Roe v. Wade, about the same percentage that supported it fifty years ago.

Published January 22, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 21, 2023

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January 20, 2023 (Friday) [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By Spencer Chen

In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

January 20, 2023

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• Trump dropped a lawsuit against New York attorney general Letitia James after a similar lawsuit yesterday cost him and his lawyer close to a million dollars.
• Trump also backed off on his previous threats to use the debt ceiling to extract concessions from Democrats.
• House Republicans are facing mounting troubles, including Representative Greg Steube’s hospitalization and Representative George Santos’ embarrassing revelations.
• Representative Bill Foster trolled Santos by pointing out the difference between the two parties.
• Representative Jim Jordan has requested information from the Department of Justice, but the DOJ has reminded him that they cannot share information about ongoing investigations.
• The White House has stated that raising the debt ceiling is not a negotiation and that Biden looks forward to discussing strengthening retirement plans and making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share.
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Africa to urge greater connection between African countries and the U.S. and to build stronger ties than those developed with China or Russia.

Published January 21, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post January 20, 2023 (Friday)

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CategoryHeather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

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January 24, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

January 21, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

January 20, 2023 (Friday) [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

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