In Ukraine, Russian troops escalated their bombing of cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Mariupol, in what Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky called a campaign of terror to break the will of the Ukrainians. Tonight (in U.S. time), airborne troops assaulted Kharviv, which is a city of about 1.5 million, and a forty-mile-long convoy of tanks and trucks is within 17 miles of Kyiv, although a shortage of gas means they’ll move very slowly.
I am not brave today. Whistling in the dark only gets you so far. The Russian attacks have slowed on the ground but continue slowly. Aerial attacks continue unabated. Fighting for Kharkov, Khetson, Mikolaiev, Mariupol is firece. None have fallen yet. Kyiv is being pounded and people are building barricades. Trains of refugees are filled. Our granddaughter in Poland is ill from her time waiting at the border. She is crying. We are crying.
The dog needs feeding. The cats are sleeping. Life goes on for us but the people in the cities under attack, life is interrupted and will never be normal again.
I reread this evening’s letter. One of the items that stood out to me were the “Bobblehead Twins” behaving like grammar school troublemakers. Behavior like theirs would not be tolerated IN a grammar school assembly. They would have been removed from the room, their parents called to either pick up the child or understand the child was being kept late for detention.
These two “grown” women who continue to behave like disorderly second graders need to be treated like the naughty children they behave! I’m quite tired of MY TAX DOLLARS that help pay their salaries and benefits being squandered and frittered away by them when they not only are not making any discernible contribution to the working of our Congress, but are actually impeding the work others who are trying to accomplish something good for our country.
Those children would not have been allowed to grow up behaving badly were they mine! My kids could express their (non-violent) antisocial feelings and then talk to their dad and me. But they also knew they had to show respect and courtesy to everyone and if there was a problem, deal with it privately and quietly. That is what they did then, and now they are adults (chronologically and emotionally) older than those miscreant woman and have the respect of their peers and loyalty and affection of friends. Green and Boebert are an embarrassment to the country they claim to represent!
Your words together with those of President Biden, give me hope, Heather. I thought we may not hear your voice tonight since you were on the road, but faithful as always, you came through to echo stability and good old common sense.
"'Tonight, we meet as Democrats, Republicans and Independents. But most importantly as Americans. With a duty to one another, to the American people, to the Constitution. And with an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny.' [Biden] urged people to 'stop seeing each other as enemies, and start seeing each other for who we really are: Fellow Americans.'”
Crossing into the 21st Century, we thought we would leave behind the horrific legacy of the previous five centuries where Europeans slaughtered each other for religious reasons, for empire building, and for genocide. Now, ADOLPH PUTIN is dragging humanity back into this sordid past. The west must do everything, in every sphere possible, to tightly corset the Great Russian Bear, to make them repay the suffering they have inflicted on the courageous Ukrainians. I don't think we can ever welcome them back into the community of the G7.
Thank you…again for steering the ship. We heard Biden speak with emotion and with strength. He touted everything he has been able to accomplish in one year and I was very glad about that. People are working. Unemployment is down. Many have health coverage and actually a lot of people signed up for “Obamacare”. He spoke about Covid and then got a dig in about how yhe previous administration didn’t accomplish anything. Boos from the Republican peanut gallery were heard. Made me laugh out loud. I thought the United Agenda was brilliant and the fact that he said “let’s not treat one another as the enemy” was also. Forgot about Marjorie Three Names and that little girl, Boebert.. They are the worst of the worst. Let’s pray for peace in Ukraine and for the end of autocracy.
Thank you- I so appreciate the clarity and hopefulness of this report. Among Putin's prime victims are the Russian people themselves. Meanwhile, NATO is stronger than ever thanks in large part to Biden's resolve- so reassuring to learn of the high approval rating of his State of the Union address.
Thank you for an absolutely encouraging summary of Biden's speech. I have sent your letter to my son, who is now two years out of school as young Mechanical Engineer.
He was just hired by an engineering firm outside NY City who will participate in Biden's upcoming infrastructure efforts.
So, I want to give Biden credit for my son's current employment, which appears to be a good opportunity for him. I have worried for years if my kids would get a chance in America.
My son appears to have been given a chance as far as I can tell.
So, Biden has my vote AND now my loyalty (before the my son's news he just had my vote).
Biden is actually the first President since Jimmy Carter to actually care about AMERICA instead of HIMSELF. Even old man Bush I only cared about himself although he put out a good show for caring about America.
Biden is a sea change in America. But, sea change is not easy and Biden will find it hard to be that change. Tucker Carlson remains on the payroll of the Kremlin and today will start his drumbeat again in favor of Putin.
American leadership in government is also addicted to illegal money coming from all kinds of places including Russian Oligarchs. And, Citizens United made all that money basically legal.
American leadership, both in government and business, will FIGHT Biden's efforts to get Intel's (and anyone else') manufacturing in place in America because somebody will be paying them off to move it to China.
So, I am greatly heartened by Biden's performance and his speech and your letter Dr. Richardson.
But, America and American culture has changed from Jimmy Carter's days.
Gone are the mostly decent folks in Congress. Gone is the culture that values laws and honesty. Gone is the America that existed built on rural ethos of hard work and honesty. Yep, all those deplorables back then were mostly honest, helpful people.
Now? Everyone is a huckster in Congress (OK, not everyone but a large number).
Everyone is a charlatan. (OK, right, not everyone but so many that it matters).
Dr. Richardson, I am with Biden, he has me now as a loyal follower.
But, America itself remains in grave danger of a sea change OPPOSITE of what Biden is pushing.
And, I am positive that you know it and that your fight against it are these optimistic letters.
I am with you too, now. But, I can see. What I see "ain't pretty".
Another inspiring letter! Thank you, Heather. I haven’t taken the time to fact check what appears to be a fairly comprehensive list of President Biden’s first-year-in-office accomplishments, yet I have a sense it’s a worthwhile resource for all of us to become acquainted with to continue to magnify the work the Biden administration has been able to accomplish in spite of the obstructionist senate. https://whatbidenhasdone.wordpress.com/2022/01/20/year-one-what-biden-has-done-mega-thread/
Russians love autocrats, and have no experience of the idea of a Republic. Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Breshnev, Kosygin, all autocrats until Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Now, the Russian people are seeing the dangers of their preferred type of government. After the trauma of Afghanistan, one might have expected some kind of change. Now, we have the strangest type of conflict with Slavs firing upon their fellow Slavs. The poor young Russian soldier must weep at what is expected of him.
Listening to the radio yesterday, I heard some surprising things. On CSpan I heard a range of callers, self identified as from across the political spectrum and seemingly from across every other demographic, defend Putin and condemn NATO, Europe, and the United States. I think I heard; old Stalinist apologists, middle aged Black separatists, newly minted magas; men claiming military and diplomatic experience and insider knowledge; academics and autodidacts; concerned mothers and grandmothers; Each weaving the official Russian party line into their own preoccupations. The name Max Blumenthal came up, a leftish contrarian journalist who has beat the drum for Putin before, dismissing his opponents as nationalists.
This word 'nationalist' as a pejorative seems to me to have a very old time Communist ring. It seems to me that in his isolation and possibly madness, or perhaps in the maundering and nostalgia of old age, Putin has returned to his early years. He is reenacting Stalin's rape of Ukraine. For exactly the same reasons. For being a stiff necked people who will keep allegiance with their own faith and who refuse to bow to
a new authority.
Another thing I heard, on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross interviewing Anne Applebaum. All those ethnic Russians in the separatist areas, whom Putin is using as an excuse to destroy Ukraine? Stalin moved them there to replace the millions of Ukrainians he had starved to death for their opposition to collectivization. And many came on their own to take advantage of new opportunities.
Stalin's apparatchiks who went door to door taking the Ukrainian farmers' food, to starve them, but claiming they were doing it to feed starving Ukrainians in the cities. Bloody minded authoritarians depend not just on their militaries, but on ordinary citizens spreading their misinformation and just doing their jobs.
Yesterday, I also heard a congresswoman from Indiana, an Ukrainian born and raised, only recently nationalized American, plead for her country at a Republican news conference. In her passion, between her tears, choking on her sorrow and rage, she would pull back and recall that she had been put on stage to rail against Pres. Biden. It was as though every so often a bell rang and she started to froth at the mouth the GOP party line.
Even now. Republicans. And unless we get out the Democratic vote, in 2022, they will take over our government.
Biden's "Freedom will always triumph over tyranny" was quite possibly meant for a broader audience than Ukraine. When he uttered those words and during his whole section on Democracy I felt it was a battle cry for the United States as well.
I thought President Biden did well last night. I read the text of the speech ( Thank you for sharing the link). It made my eyes leak😊 again. The part about Ukraine was powerful. The rest of it has me hoping that the part of the country supporting the “Orange Menace” and RINOS will realize they don’t have the American people interest at heart.
I am not brave today. Whistling in the dark only gets you so far. The Russian attacks have slowed on the ground but continue slowly. Aerial attacks continue unabated. Fighting for Kharkov, Khetson, Mikolaiev, Mariupol is firece. None have fallen yet. Kyiv is being pounded and people are building barricades. Trains of refugees are filled. Our granddaughter in Poland is ill from her time waiting at the border. She is crying. We are crying.
The dog needs feeding. The cats are sleeping. Life goes on for us but the people in the cities under attack, life is interrupted and will never be normal again.
I reread this evening’s letter. One of the items that stood out to me were the “Bobblehead Twins” behaving like grammar school troublemakers. Behavior like theirs would not be tolerated IN a grammar school assembly. They would have been removed from the room, their parents called to either pick up the child or understand the child was being kept late for detention.
These two “grown” women who continue to behave like disorderly second graders need to be treated like the naughty children they behave! I’m quite tired of MY TAX DOLLARS that help pay their salaries and benefits being squandered and frittered away by them when they not only are not making any discernible contribution to the working of our Congress, but are actually impeding the work others who are trying to accomplish something good for our country.
Those children would not have been allowed to grow up behaving badly were they mine! My kids could express their (non-violent) antisocial feelings and then talk to their dad and me. But they also knew they had to show respect and courtesy to everyone and if there was a problem, deal with it privately and quietly. That is what they did then, and now they are adults (chronologically and emotionally) older than those miscreant woman and have the respect of their peers and loyalty and affection of friends. Green and Boebert are an embarrassment to the country they claim to represent!
“stop seeing each other as enemies, and start seeing each other for who we really are: Fellow Americans.”
Obviously, the members of the Confederate White People's Treason Party didn't get that memo.
Republicans are the Enemies of America.
Your words together with those of President Biden, give me hope, Heather. I thought we may not hear your voice tonight since you were on the road, but faithful as always, you came through to echo stability and good old common sense.
"'Tonight, we meet as Democrats, Republicans and Independents. But most importantly as Americans. With a duty to one another, to the American people, to the Constitution. And with an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny.' [Biden] urged people to 'stop seeing each other as enemies, and start seeing each other for who we really are: Fellow Americans.'”
Thank you!
Crossing into the 21st Century, we thought we would leave behind the horrific legacy of the previous five centuries where Europeans slaughtered each other for religious reasons, for empire building, and for genocide. Now, ADOLPH PUTIN is dragging humanity back into this sordid past. The west must do everything, in every sphere possible, to tightly corset the Great Russian Bear, to make them repay the suffering they have inflicted on the courageous Ukrainians. I don't think we can ever welcome them back into the community of the G7.
Thank you…again for steering the ship. We heard Biden speak with emotion and with strength. He touted everything he has been able to accomplish in one year and I was very glad about that. People are working. Unemployment is down. Many have health coverage and actually a lot of people signed up for “Obamacare”. He spoke about Covid and then got a dig in about how yhe previous administration didn’t accomplish anything. Boos from the Republican peanut gallery were heard. Made me laugh out loud. I thought the United Agenda was brilliant and the fact that he said “let’s not treat one another as the enemy” was also. Forgot about Marjorie Three Names and that little girl, Boebert.. They are the worst of the worst. Let’s pray for peace in Ukraine and for the end of autocracy.
Thank you- I so appreciate the clarity and hopefulness of this report. Among Putin's prime victims are the Russian people themselves. Meanwhile, NATO is stronger than ever thanks in large part to Biden's resolve- so reassuring to learn of the high approval rating of his State of the Union address.
Gratitude,Dear One, for all the blessings you bring. Clarity of thought, purpose, and action. You rock the world with your honesty.
Thank you, again, for your clear, dispassionate presentation of the day’s events.
Dr. Richardson, first, thank you.
Thank you for an absolutely encouraging summary of Biden's speech. I have sent your letter to my son, who is now two years out of school as young Mechanical Engineer.
He was just hired by an engineering firm outside NY City who will participate in Biden's upcoming infrastructure efforts.
So, I want to give Biden credit for my son's current employment, which appears to be a good opportunity for him. I have worried for years if my kids would get a chance in America.
My son appears to have been given a chance as far as I can tell.
So, Biden has my vote AND now my loyalty (before the my son's news he just had my vote).
Biden is actually the first President since Jimmy Carter to actually care about AMERICA instead of HIMSELF. Even old man Bush I only cared about himself although he put out a good show for caring about America.
Biden is a sea change in America. But, sea change is not easy and Biden will find it hard to be that change. Tucker Carlson remains on the payroll of the Kremlin and today will start his drumbeat again in favor of Putin.
American leadership in government is also addicted to illegal money coming from all kinds of places including Russian Oligarchs. And, Citizens United made all that money basically legal.
American leadership, both in government and business, will FIGHT Biden's efforts to get Intel's (and anyone else') manufacturing in place in America because somebody will be paying them off to move it to China.
So, I am greatly heartened by Biden's performance and his speech and your letter Dr. Richardson.
But, America and American culture has changed from Jimmy Carter's days.
Gone are the mostly decent folks in Congress. Gone is the culture that values laws and honesty. Gone is the America that existed built on rural ethos of hard work and honesty. Yep, all those deplorables back then were mostly honest, helpful people.
Now? Everyone is a huckster in Congress (OK, not everyone but a large number).
Everyone is a charlatan. (OK, right, not everyone but so many that it matters).
Dr. Richardson, I am with Biden, he has me now as a loyal follower.
But, America itself remains in grave danger of a sea change OPPOSITE of what Biden is pushing.
And, I am positive that you know it and that your fight against it are these optimistic letters.
I am with you too, now. But, I can see. What I see "ain't pretty".
Another inspiring letter! Thank you, Heather. I haven’t taken the time to fact check what appears to be a fairly comprehensive list of President Biden’s first-year-in-office accomplishments, yet I have a sense it’s a worthwhile resource for all of us to become acquainted with to continue to magnify the work the Biden administration has been able to accomplish in spite of the obstructionist senate. https://whatbidenhasdone.wordpress.com/2022/01/20/year-one-what-biden-has-done-mega-thread/
Russians love autocrats, and have no experience of the idea of a Republic. Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Breshnev, Kosygin, all autocrats until Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Now, the Russian people are seeing the dangers of their preferred type of government. After the trauma of Afghanistan, one might have expected some kind of change. Now, we have the strangest type of conflict with Slavs firing upon their fellow Slavs. The poor young Russian soldier must weep at what is expected of him.
Listening to the radio yesterday, I heard some surprising things. On CSpan I heard a range of callers, self identified as from across the political spectrum and seemingly from across every other demographic, defend Putin and condemn NATO, Europe, and the United States. I think I heard; old Stalinist apologists, middle aged Black separatists, newly minted magas; men claiming military and diplomatic experience and insider knowledge; academics and autodidacts; concerned mothers and grandmothers; Each weaving the official Russian party line into their own preoccupations. The name Max Blumenthal came up, a leftish contrarian journalist who has beat the drum for Putin before, dismissing his opponents as nationalists.
This word 'nationalist' as a pejorative seems to me to have a very old time Communist ring. It seems to me that in his isolation and possibly madness, or perhaps in the maundering and nostalgia of old age, Putin has returned to his early years. He is reenacting Stalin's rape of Ukraine. For exactly the same reasons. For being a stiff necked people who will keep allegiance with their own faith and who refuse to bow to
a new authority.
Another thing I heard, on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross interviewing Anne Applebaum. All those ethnic Russians in the separatist areas, whom Putin is using as an excuse to destroy Ukraine? Stalin moved them there to replace the millions of Ukrainians he had starved to death for their opposition to collectivization. And many came on their own to take advantage of new opportunities.
Stalin's apparatchiks who went door to door taking the Ukrainian farmers' food, to starve them, but claiming they were doing it to feed starving Ukrainians in the cities. Bloody minded authoritarians depend not just on their militaries, but on ordinary citizens spreading their misinformation and just doing their jobs.
Yesterday, I also heard a congresswoman from Indiana, an Ukrainian born and raised, only recently nationalized American, plead for her country at a Republican news conference. In her passion, between her tears, choking on her sorrow and rage, she would pull back and recall that she had been put on stage to rail against Pres. Biden. It was as though every so often a bell rang and she started to froth at the mouth the GOP party line.
Even now. Republicans. And unless we get out the Democratic vote, in 2022, they will take over our government.
Biden's "Freedom will always triumph over tyranny" was quite possibly meant for a broader audience than Ukraine. When he uttered those words and during his whole section on Democracy I felt it was a battle cry for the United States as well.
God Bless Ukraine
Thank you for your newsletter today! And every day!
I thought President Biden did well last night. I read the text of the speech ( Thank you for sharing the link). It made my eyes leak😊 again. The part about Ukraine was powerful. The rest of it has me hoping that the part of the country supporting the “Orange Menace” and RINOS will realize they don’t have the American people interest at heart.