Letters from an American

June 9, 2026

A Very Big Deal Indeed

Trump has officially nominated Todd Blanche to become attorney general of the United States, Blanche as formerly Trump’s personal attorney who led the defense team in the case of falsifying records and in the cases for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and retaining classified documents, Blanche has flouted the law to do Trump’s bidding, The nomination challenges Repub...

June 8, 2026

On June 8, 1789, James Madison of Virginia introduced a series of amendments to the US Constitution, Ten of his amendments would eventually be adopted and become the Bill of Rights, One of the amendments said that no national religion would be established and the full and equal rights of conscience would not be infringed, Madison cared deeply about keeping the government away from religion, believing that representative...

June 7, 2026

Trump walked out on an interview with Meet the Press host Kristen Welker when she challenged his claim that the 2020 presidential election and recent primary in California were rigged, Trump accused the media of being dishonest - which is exactly what he is doing, Scott Pelley, formerly of 60 Minutes, described CBS news director Bari Weiss's demands that he make changes to reporting from the protests in Minneapolis to a...

June 6, 2026

Senate Republicans passed a measure providing additional funding to ICE and CBP, without any of the reforms Democrats had demanded, ICE and CBP will be funded through the end of Trump’s term no matter the outcome of the midterm elections, There has been no public accounting of how the funds for ICE and CBP are being spent, Democratic amendments caused an 18 hour debate that forced Republicans to vote against measu...

June 5, 2026

In his June 5th, 1944 Fireside Chat, FDR let Americans know that Rome had fallen to Allied troops, He emphasized how troops from many nations had worked together to defeat the forces of fascism, And he warned that this was just the beginning of the path to victory, FDR knew, but did not tell his audience, that the Allies were on their way into France, That evening, General Dwight D Eisenhower’s order read that the...

June 4, 2026

The Trump administration’s promise to dismantle the liberal consensus got him elected, but the effects of his plans are starting to be widely felt, Tariffs are destroying foreign markets for US agricultural products, The war on Iran is sending the price of fuel and fertilizer soaring, Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins was grilled by the House Agriculture Committee, New World screwworm, a parasite that had bee...

June 3. 2026

US Supreme Court allows Alabama to use a 2023 map that had been ruled as unconstitutional because it violates the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, As Trump deteriorates mentallly and physically Republican lawmakers and the administration try to grab as much power as possible, Promises of an end to the war on Iran fizzle and the economy is slowing as oil prices increase and credit card delinqu...

June 2, 2026

Administration officials have repeatedly tried to limit access to detention centers across the country, Detainees at the Delaney Hall detention center in New Jersey start a hunger strike to protest dangerous conditions and the lack of access to the legal system, New Jersey’s attorney general is suing the GEO Group which operates Delaney Hall, The destruction of the rule of law at Delaney Hall is part of the larger...

June 1, 2026

Trump is caught between demands to deliver on promises to keep Iran from developing nuclear capacity and to open the Strait of Hormuz as oil reserves continue to drop and oil prices in the US continue to rise, Return of Congress raises possibility that a war powers resolution will pass, As soon as details for a framework for ending the war in Iran are leaked to the media, Trump’s base complains and the negotiation...

May 31, 2026

Margaret Chase Smith was elected represent Maine as a Republican in the House after her husband, who held that seat, died in 1940, Smith served three terms in the House and then was elected to the Senate in 1948, Anti-New Deal Republicans were insisting that the US government was sliding toward communism, Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, claimed he had a list of communists working for the State Department, McCar...

May 30, 2026

The members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club were wealthy and influential, The Club took control of a Pennsylvania reservoir created by damming a river, and enjoyed it for sport, but it had no drainage system, Perched high above Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a factory town, members of the club gave little thought to the people living there, On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam failed in a torrential storm, 2,208 peo...

May 29, 2026

The war in Iran and the rising cost of living are costing Trump support, While there is talk of an agreement with Iran, there are no signs that it is real, Public opinion is causing support to dwindle for Trump’s wish to be on the face of a new $250 bill, Trump lost in court on changing the name of the Kennedy Center and on closing the center for two years, Trump’s plans for a Freedom 250 celebration are fiz...

May 28, 2026

Trump is treating the nation’s capital as his property, Trump is lashing out, filing suits against E. Jean Carroll and the Wall Street Journal, Grand juries as well as judges are losing faith in the Department of Justice, Trump appears to be focused on corrupt dealings that benefit him and his family, Thirty-five former federal judges have challenged the slush fund set up by Trump and his MAGA loyalists and the no...

May 27, 2026

Backed by Trump, scandal-ridden Ken Paxton wins Texas primary against John Cornyn, UFC arena is being built on the White House lawn as Trump dominates the People’s House just as he is dominating the Republican Party, In the 1850s, enslavers similarly dominated the Democratic Party and forced through the Kansas Nebraska Act, Those opposed to the spread of slavery created a new alignment, Trump and his supporters ar...

May 26, 2026

Demonstrators at the Delaney Hall detention center in New Jersey, including Senatory Andy Kim, were pepper sprayed by federal agents, Detainees have called for help, describing conditions as overcrowded and unsafe, Detainees have not been afforded legal hearings and are being pressured to self deport, The detainees began a hunger strike and members of congress, as well as New Jersey’s governor, have visited the fa...

May 26, 2026

Tulsi Gabbard steps down, possibly having been forced out of her position as Director of National Intelligence, Trump is under pressure to find a way out of Iran, The timeline for Congressional approval of the war has run out, Members of Congress were poised to pass a war powers resolution, but Mike Johnson sent representatives home to avoid that vote, Trump claims that an agreement with Iran is imminent, but details ar...

May 24, 2026

The people who care about the preservation of democracy and who have worked to expand its values truly represent America, On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration, we are launching 250 to 250, a series that honors them, It is a series of one-minute videos that emphasize the agency of everyday people to change the country, The videos celebrate community, democracy, innovation, mobil...

May 23, 2026

Trump’s proposed arch threatens to obscure the view of the Lincoln Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery, The arch will not frame the nation’s honored dead, but the home built by enslaved Americans and once owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee, The US government bought Lee’s property in 1864, and by August began to bury the bodies of Civil War soldiers there, By the end of the Civil War more ...

May 22, 2026

In a graduation speech at the University of Michigan in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson laid out his vision for “the Great Society,” It was a forward looking vision of a country that used its post-World War II prosperity to look toward greater things, and to advance civil rights and end poverty, Congress would pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and the Food Stamp Act, Dem...