Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR)
@hcrichardson.bsky.social
Historian. Author. Professor. Budding Curmudgeon. I study the contrast between image and reality in America, especially in politics.
The experience of being chased by a murderous kamikaze drone, a flying machine that behaves as if it were alive, is not one that humans are equipped to understand: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
The Dystopian Future Dawns in Kherson
Putin’s human safari in Ukraine is the beginning of a grim new normal.
theatlantic.com
On this day in history in 1974, SCOTUS ordered Nixon to release the "smoking gun" tape revealing his actions in covering up and interfering investigations into the break-in. His political support vanishes completely. Today's Republicans would defend Nixon vs impeach him
Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR)@hcrichardson.bsky.social · 46m agoRepresentative Shirley Chisholm, 1972: "[W]e have looked in vain to the Nixon administration for the courage, the spirit, the character, and the words to lift us, to bring out the best in us, to rekindle in each of us our faith in the American dream."
The strongest available evidence supports a zoonotic origin for COVID-19. - The virus is genetically diverse in ways typical of natural viruses and atypical of gain-of-function (GoF) viruses. 🧵
The Reflecting Pool saga is a perfect diorama of how right-wing media turns Trump’s fantasies into public reality, and then tries to quietly conceal the wreckage once the facts catch up.
Jeanine Pirro's Reflecting Pool reckoning
The former Fox News star couldn't sustain Trump's fantasy. Her downfall is classic MAGA tale
salon.com
Just a note that @jbendery.bsky.social is 100% worth following. Always finds stories like these that matter, and yet are a bit under the radar.
Jen Bendery@jbendery.bsky.social · 21m agoFormer J6 federal prosecutors are begging senators -- mostly GOPers, but a handful of Dems are in there, too -- to stop confirming election deniers to lifetime federal courts seats. “Please stop poisoning our courts." www.huffpost.com/entry/live-u...
Former J6 federal prosecutors are begging senators -- mostly GOPers, but a handful of Dems are in there, too -- to stop confirming election deniers to lifetime federal courts seats. “Please stop poisoning our courts." www.huffpost.com/entry/live-u...
Former J6 Prosecutors Beg Senators To Stop Confirming Election Deniers To Court Seats
huffpost.com
I encourage all of us to have the grace and focus shown in this going up within minutes of the race being called.
A Congregationalist minister from Wabaunsee, KS writing to FDR, 1935: "There is around here a prejudice against the work socialism, but there is an increasing approval of socialist ideas....I have preached these doctrines and find them growing in acceptance. The people hope you will adopt them..."
El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"
Notice DOJ doesn't talk about its efforts to obtain state voter files anymore. They are 0-20 in those cases and today is the beginning of the quiet period -- states can no longer do systematic removals of names from the voter rolls. TLDR: We won!🥳
Representative Shirley Chisholm, 1972: "[W]e have looked in vain to the Nixon administration for the courage, the spirit, the character, and the words to lift us, to bring out the best in us, to rekindle in each of us our faith in the American dream."
Shirley Chisholm: Declares Presidential Bid, January 25, 1972
YouTube video by NYC Department of Records and Information Services
youtube.com
Donald Trump stands out historically in one way. He has demilitarized the US military more quickly than any other political leader in US history. A full blown pacifist would have struggled to throw away weapons faster than he has.
…and they’ll know you are Christians by your love, by your love/and they’ll know you are by your love…” 🎶 🎶 religionnews.com/2026/08/04/p... Updates
'They're not real pastors': As clergy run as Democrats, Republicans question their faith
(RNS) — 'It's a sign that they are really scared they're gonna lose this seat,' the Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran pastor running for Congress in Iowa, said. She is part of a wave of religious ...
religionnews.com
This is how it's done. Fight it out in the primary, and then link arms to defeat the common enemy in the general. Great demonstration of post-primary leadership from @mallorymcmorrow.bsky.social.
Fuentes: “It's not outside the realm of possibility that in the next Republican administration you've got a groyper cabinet official”
Nick Fuentes revels in groyper infiltration of Republican politics: “We'll be influencing policy at the highest level. This is what they fear. This is how power works.”
mediamatters.org
🚨BREAKING: Voting advocates filed a lawsuit Tuesday, asking a state court to quickly put a redistricting referendum on the November ballot as Missouri Republicans inch closer to thwarting voters’ efforts to block gerrymandered new voting maps. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Missouri voting advocates sue after redistricting referendum rejected
Missouri voters have fought for nearly a year to put the gerrymander to a statewide referendum vote in November.
democracydocket.com
“But it’s the way this was done... ..FEMA threw out all of its workforce planning principles that it had been using for years, and these principles were designed to make sure it’s ready to respond to what happens in the country if there are multiple events.” federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-overs...
GAO: FEMA staffing cuts lacked strategy, hit regional staff hardest | Federal News Network
FEMA lost roughly 4,500 staff over the past 18 months, with many regions losing 9% or more: "None of this was done with a thought behind the mission needs."
federalnewsnetwork.com
Great reporting from @sethklamann.bsky.social at the Denver Post, on the pressures that federal immigration judges are under to deny due process to detainees. It profiles one of the judges who was fired after she challenged the system. @hcrichardson.bsky.social
The Denver Post@denverpost.com · 4h agoBrea C. Burgie was the second Colorado immigration judge fired under the Trump administration in his second term, and she joins roughly 120 judges nationwide who have lost their jobs in the past 18 months, said Jeremiah Johnson, vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges
HUGE: @hcrichardson.bsky.social points to Rump’s systematic scheme to protect his illegal financial activities 7/4 Letter Here are Some Key Steps since 1/25: www.wsj.com/finance/regu... www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus... insightcrime.org/news/how-tru... www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025... 1/2
Trump Administration Retreats From White-Collar Criminal Enforcement
The Justice Department is backing away from some cases involving foreign bribery, money laundering and crypto markets. Defense lawyers are bracing for a slowdown.
wsj.com
My ice-cold boring take that will definitely not go viral is that a primary result with a margin of victory of roughly 1 percent tells you precisely nothing about The Future Of The Party.
Whenever you read a hot take from Politico that casts Dems in an unflattering light, remind yourself that the owner asked the executives to pray for Donald Trump’s reelection. It’s propaganda.
The decisive failure of GOP referenda in Kansas Amendment 1 and Missouri Amendment 4 yesterday is yet another reminder of something I've been saying for a while: Voters, even Republican voters, now regularly despise and repudiate GOP attempts to use them to destroy democracy.
Look at Trump's serial failures, his obvious decline, the disastrous poll numbers for the GOP, the abysmal quality of their candidates, their complete absence of accomplishments, their betrayal of their base, the absence of post-Trump leaders emerging...and tell me the Dems are the ones w/problems.
North Korean missile unit deploys in Russia for Ukraine war, Kyiv says. www.reuters.com/business/aer...
reuters.com
Politics feels corrupt because it is. Billionaire mega-donors aren’t just buying yachts and jets — they’re buying power, and they’re using that power to rig our political system. jamestalarico.com/issue/corrup...
In this 250 to 250 from @hcrichardson.bsky.social & team, Lexy White, social media producer, journalist & founder of Paddock Party LA, celebrates the Indianapolis 500, the race that fueled America's car culture & became one of the nation's greatest sporting traditions. youtu.be/6Aqb3rbQP6I?...
Indianapolis 500, Narrated by Lexy White
YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson
youtu.be
Fellow Scientist please consider signing the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Third Notice here forms.gle/BAfifGWesmoY... @hcrichardson.bsky.social #ScienceSky #TechSky #EngieeringSky #MedSky #MathSky #GreenSky #PhysicsSky #AstronomySky #ChemistrySky #BiologySky #VirologySky #VaccineSky 🧪🦠
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration has detained more than 50 spouses, parents of US troops in immigration crackdown, AP review finds.
