Sheesh. What a day.

August 20, 2020 By Heather Cox Richardson, historian It began last night, while I was writing last night’s letter, when shortly after midnight we learned that Alexei Navalny, outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin’s government, has apparently been poisoned. He collapsed in pain on an airplane after drinking tea at Russia’s Tomsk airport. The plane made […]

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June 27 in Our Dystopian USA

Heather Cox Richardson (slightly adapted) The Trump administration did not respond until almost 5:00 this evening to last night’s astonishing news that Russian operatives had offered bounties on US soldiers during the Afghanistan peace talks, and that the administration had been briefed on this development back in March and had chosen not to respond. The […]

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Let’s Get to Work

Author: Heather Cox Richardson, Historian Published on her blog. Emphasis added here. 2020 will be the year that determines whether or not American democracy survives. Our system has never lived up to its fullest potential, but until recently, its aspirations have driven us to fight to perfect it, guaranteeing everyone equality before the law and […]

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Trump and McConnell making Russia stronger

Having served in the seagoing Navy at the height of the so-called “cold war,” it is natural that I now continue to mistrust Putin. It is now well-documented that he got “his man” elected in 2016 by cyber and social media intrusions, and that our subservient president encouraged and covertly supported those intrusions. It is […]

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Lordy, Lordy, Mr. Comey

The Twitter-verse has been wild today with comments on the Justice Department Inspector General’s long-awaited report on the supposed misconduct of James Comey, former FBI Director. We here at the Coconino Democrats are not big fans of Mr. Comey, having formed our unfavorable impressions when he jumped onto the national stage in 2016 with inappropriate […]

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Cutting Through the Spin – Mueller Volume I, p. 1

We’re not going to attempt to summarize all 448 pages (some of which are still not public). But we’ll post a few key takeaways, starting with this: “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 Presidential election in a sweeping and systemic fashion.” Mueller Report, Vol. 1, p. 1. The Russian government did NOT just “make […]

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We’re in a National Security Crisis — What is Congress Going to Do About It?

Editorial boards across the country are running lists of things Congress COULD do if our elected Senators and Congressmen were serious about the national security crisis we face.  Make no mistake, according to Republican and Trump appointee Dan Coats — the nation’s chief intelligence officer, we are facing the greatest threat since 9/11. “The warning […]

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More “Witches” Indicted Today

While Republicans and our President continue to harangue the Mueller investigation, our loyal law enforcement officials continue to plug away.  Today, the United States of American indicted more Russian citizens — specifically, officials of the Russian government under the command of Putin — on the grounds of conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 Election. The […]

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Secretary Tillerson Admits Russia Already Interfering in 2018 Midterms

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday that Russia is already trying to influence the U.S. midterm election. This echoes the recent warning from CIA Director Pompeo. Yet, last month Trump refused to impose the sanctions mandated by Congress last September to discourage such attacks. Yesterday, Democratic Representative Maxine Waters grilled Treasury Secretary on why Trump has […]

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Demand Congress Protect the Mueller Investigation

“The Trump political and legal strategy is about to get very radical.”1 While we have been celebrating the revelations from the Papadopoulos guilty plea and the hints of Mueller’s strategy contained in the Manafort/Gates indictment, Fox News listeners and Wall Street Journal readers have been hearing a very different perspective.  Trump apologists are calling for […]

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