Letters from an American, August 21, 2025, Heather Cox Richardson Aug 22, 2025
Yesterday, Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives approved a new map redrawing congressional districts to switch five seats from Democratic control to Republican. Now the Texas Senate will take it up. President Donald Trump demanded the new map because with popular support for his administration plummeting, he is worried about facing voters in the 2026 midterm elections. Texas Republicans are quite open that they launched a rare mid-decade redistricting simply to maximize their partisan gain. Although people of color are driving Texas’s population growth, the new maps put the vast majority of electoral power in the hands of white Texans.
Last night, just before midnight, Trump cheered on the Texas Republicans and called for Florida, Indiana, and other states to do the same thing. He also called for Republicans in the state legislatures to “STOP MAIL-IN VOTING” and “go to PAPER BALLOTS before it is too late.” “If we do these TWO things,” he wrote, “we will pick up 100 more seats, and the CROOKED game of politics is over. God Bless America!!!”
The president of the United States is openly admitting that his party cannot win a free and fair election.
Instead of appealing to voters with popular policies, he is calling for rigging our elections so that his party cannot lose. This appears to have been the plan all along. In July 2024, Trump told an audience of evangelical Christians that if they voted for him in November, “in four years, you don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good, you're not gonna have to vote."
Republicans have put their thumb on the scales of the nation’s election machinery for years, suppressing Democratic voting and gerrymandering the states to make it harder to elect Democrats than to elect Republicans. Now Trump has come right out and admitted that leaders understand they cannot win without jiggering the system to create what political scientists Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way call “competitive authoritarianism,” in which elections are held because leaders want the legitimacy of an election, but the competition is so unfair the outcome is pretty much preordained.
But after decades of trying to protect democracy by reinforcing democratic norms, Democrats and their allies appear to be willing to fight fire with fire. Democratic lawmakers in California responded to the Texans’ power grab by redrawing their own congressional districts to act as a counterweight to the Texas plan.
Today the California legislature passed two measures to send to voters the question of whether to redistrict the state temporarily to offset the new Texas map. The urgent measures received the required two-thirds majority to pass, and Governor Gavin Newsom signed them into law this evening. He also declared that the state will hold a special election on November 4 for voters to weigh in on whether to adopt the new maps temporarily to neutralize the Texas Republicans’ power grab.
Republicans are now openly rigging the system—itself a profound attack on our democracy— for a leader whose mental acuity is slipping and whose association with convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein has weakened his support even among his base.
On the right-wing Todd Starnes Show today, Trump upped the number of wars he claims to have solved to ten, three more than the seven he has been claiming. “We ended seven wars,” he said. “Probably more than that. You know, I will, they wrote an article that they gave me three additional ones that I ended without even knowing it, but you know I saw things were going bad and it looked like it was going to go bad and it could’ve been, it could’ve been ten.”
For all that the president calls himself the peace president and seems so desperate to win a Nobel Peace Prize that he brought it up with Norway’s finance minister in a cold call about tariffs in July, he is increasingly turning to the use of the military.
In February, Trump designated certain Latin American drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a designation normally applied to groups that use violence for political ends, like al-Qaeda. On August 8, in the midst of the deep furor after the Wall Street Journal reported that he was named in the Epstein files, Trump secretly signed a directive to use military force against those cartels. Now it appears the U.S. is moving military personnel toward Mexico and Venezuela.
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has been working with the U.S. to combat drug trafficking and has rejected the use of the U.S. military in Mexico. Scholar of military law Geoffrey Corn told Kevin Maurer and Asawin Suebsaeng of Rolling Stone that the government’s designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations does not authorize the use of force. For that, he said, “[y]ou have to make a credible argument that the U.S. faces an armed attack.”
Corn, who directs the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech School of Law, told Dan Gooding and Jesus Mesa of Newsweek: “Absent Mexican consent, any military action in Mexico will be condemned, I believe justifiably, as an act of aggression in violation of the most basic provision of the UN Charter and customary international law.” Experts add that strikes on Mexico would do little to stop the flow of drugs over the border and would increase violence in the region, intensifying pressure for the U.S. to provide asylum for migrants fleeing the country.
On Monday, August 18, Steve Holland of Reuters reported that three U.S. destroyers, the USS Gravely, the USS Jason Dunham, and the USS Sampson, were being deployed to Venezuela as part of the effort to combat cartels. On Tuesday, when a reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about those ships, with 4,000 Marines on board, she said that Trump “is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice. The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco-terror cartel and [Venezuelan president Nicolás] Maduro, it is the view of this administration, is not a legitimate president. He is the fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into the country.” She did not take any further questions.
Trump could just release the Epstein files.
That issue is not going away. Social media users continue to hammer on it, and on Monday the House Oversight Committee began to hear testimony from those it subpoenaed after Democrats used a parliamentary maneuver to force chair James Comer (R-KY) to do so. Former attorney general William Barr, who was in office when convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died in his cell in 2019, testified behind closed doors. The Department of Justice was supposed to begin handing over documents from the Epstein investigation on Tuesday but missed that deadline. Now it says it will hand them over beginning tomorrow.
According to Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post, Comer said that Barr had been “very transparent” and that he had never seen any evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s crimes. Of the document release, he said: “I appreciate the Trump Administration’s commitment to transparency and efforts to provide the American people with information about this matter.”
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams of the Southern District of Florida today prohibited Florida officials from incarcerating any more detainees at the immigrant detention center in the Everglades that supporters have called “Alligator Alcatraz.” The government’s lawyers said the facility housed people only temporarily, so stopping the arrival of new inmates should empty the center. The judge ordered that after 60 days, officials must begin to dismantle parts of the facility because of the damage it was inflicting on an environment that has been protected since 1947.
“[S]ince that time,” she wrote, “every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades. This Order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises.”
I told one of them that I found some of the responses hilarious. Actually, I found all of them hilarious, but I will never explain why. They cannot understand that I am not interested in changing opinions, or having a popular view.
Over the years only a few of my posts have gotten responses and that is never bothered me. What fascinates me is when one does get a response. My interests tend to be rather quirky and off the wall.
As you notice I rarely get emotional, and even rarely give my personal opinion, instead post articles and allow those who read them to have whatever opinion they choose to have. I enjoy being me, but gave up taking me all that seriously anymore.
It is a rare person who isn't even slightly interested in actively changing minds, but only in sharing stories & information that might lead to an interesting discussion. Or not. Either way being perfectly fine.
I agree that it is good that he posts it there too. However, this is
We ALL have, but we shouldn't since we have a place specifically for that.
Posted by Sia on August 25, 2025, 12:29 pm, in reply to "Up yours." ADMIN
Truth is, I wouldn't have commented if it had stopped at the one post, but you added 2 more that made it necessary to say please don't do that.
Down their's
Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on August 25, 2025, 11:49 am, in reply to "Up yours." ADMIN
For a few moments I thought about the difference between up yours and down their's.
Take the enema for example. Anyone knows for gravity to do its job, the entrance rim of a vessel must be uppermost. You let gravity fill the vessel, and when it is turned upside down with the rim now functioning as the exit, you get a rush.
I have tasted it. My own, not somebody else's. Curiosity, and while this admission might strike some with horror and a need to judge, let me share what I learned.
It is rancid. The word doesn't go far enough to describe it. Bitter, and that word also doesn't go far enough for a definition. Salty, and that one is accurate and common. There are other trace tastes too, and I describe them as something of a mix between salsa pepper or chile that is hot, burns the lips and tongue, so the effect lingers, and battery acid. The same kind of noisy on the tongue effect you get if you taste the ends of a transistor battery to determine potency. Add to this a texture of slime that induces a very strong urge to involuntarily vomit.
You must add in the favor of odor. A few stinks are absolutrely unmistakable and so potent, they serve that all important sensory warning to stay away. Feces and a dead decomposing corpse are just about as bad as it can get in the human experience.
Now you know something most people may not, or at least would not be willing to admit, or describe. It isn't habit. For me, once was enough.
What good is this?
Those close to the felon described odors indicative of rather poor cleanliness hygiene. Now you can add something to that comprehension and lower his standing in terms of humanity. It shows he truly doesn't care, and doesn't "get it." Tells you a lot about him, and them. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
Did I just read what I think I read???
Posted by dancing digits on August 26, 2025, 8:40 pm, in reply to "Down their's " Valued Poster
Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on August 25, 2025, 6:01 pm, in reply to "Yeah, me too." ADMIN
Since topix recently acquired distasteful properties, I decided to add TMI. Possibly a discussion dispatcher expanding on a topic many joke about, but I suspect very few actually bothered to learn about. It amazes me how many people claim authority here when in reality they don't know sh!t.
You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
I'm not quite sure why you told anyone about this, never mind what possessed you to actually DO it.
That not withstanding, I got you and Greenman to agree on something at a time when that seemed the right and best thing to do.
"That" happens in nature a lot. An entire genus of beetles feed solely on dung. Many species of mammals eat the dung of other mammals, and the naturalist in me was simply curious. It demanded an answer unavailable in the literature. There is zero chance of it becoming a habit. The initial experience was so powerful and strong, there is no need or desire ever to repeat it.
Much of taste is genetically controlled. Both dottir and I can't eat cilantro. To us it tastes like soap.
There was a fabulous biology teacher at the high school I attended. He was there long before me. Lloyd Shaw. He took his biology students on a week long horseback trip around the local mountains, teaching biology in the field. He was so loved, the school named the performing arts building for him. He also sponsored a square dancing club. He told his biology classes earthworms were edible, and to force proof, one day his class showed up with cooked earthworms. I have eaten them too. Taste is like chicken, with texture of oysters. I have eaten many species of insects too. Grubs of most beetles taste like scallops. Spiders taste like crab, and Orthoptera- crickets, grasshoppers and phasmids, taste like lightly salted, buttered shrimp.
In summers I used to take groups of my music students on hikes, climbs and camping trips, like Lloyd Shaw did with his biology students. I felt it was important for them to know about what they "saw" up there every day. It made an impact, and I got better musicians from it because of how they learned to learn, and take serious things seriously. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
When in Africa on a walking safari, our guide played a trick on us and got us to compete in a contest with these 'nuggets' that he had. He told us to put them in our mouth and then see who could spit it the farthest. Then after we all participated in his little game, like obedient stooges, he told us that we all just had giraffe poop in our mouths. Very funny... HA HA HA!!! I don't recall that it tasted like anything, though. Both giraffe and elephant poop, especially out in the wild, is not even stinky as it is mostly made of indigestible plant fiber. Anyway......... that's my story... for better or worse!
Oh, and when in the Amazon jungle, my husband ate one of those larvae things, about the size of a date I guess, that was roasted on a skewer over the fire. We saw them wiggling on the skewers! Good thing I didn't have to do that, not being a guy and all... LOL
Not surprising
Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on August 27, 2025, 11:23 pm, in reply to "Well...." ADMIN
Puts us in a category, rare among people, whereby we really do know our sh!t. We can just as honestly say many others don't. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
I’m pretty sure…
Posted by Skye on August 27, 2025, 11:46 pm, in reply to "Not surprising" Valued Poster
that everyone has eaten poo in small quantities… shrimp poo as one example. 😉
Ewww, or deodorant?
Posted by greenman on August 28, 2025, 7:29 pm, in reply to "I’m pretty sure…" Valued Poster
I once, I forget how, tasted some deodorant. It was awful...ultra bitter like alum. Don't ever do that..-greenman
And always, always pay attention
Posted by dancing digits on August 28, 2025, 8:27 pm, in reply to "Ewww, or deodorant?" Valued Poster
to the label on tubes. I can personally testify to Preparation H tasting nothing like toothpaste.Be the change. . .
I read labels. Won't confuse Murphy's Wood Oil Soap with Log Cabin Syrup anytime soon.
Skye brought up the point many young children sometimes eat poo. They aren't old enough to articulate and describe taste, and I imagine that can vary a lot depending on what is eaten. My experience was driven by curiosity and the fact turd eating is common in nature.
Fwiw, I did not eat. The taste was enough to say rather forcefully, "Never do this again." However it is a fetish and some people regularly practice it.
Remember the Reader's Digest stories on organs? I am Joe's Heart. I am Joe's Lungs, I am Joe's Stomach? One was I am Joe's Poop. The article listed chemistry including lots of phosphates like those used in soap. It said, "People think I am dirty. I am clean as a whistle." Pretty bold for the little Methodict church goer rag mag. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
O M G !! That is too funny but I'll bet it was wicked awful!
Posted by greenman on August 26, 2025, 4:27 pm, in reply to "It is common in nature" Valued Poster
..but humans eschew them. For instance, eating our young is something we, er, tend to avoid but lions do fairly often.
However, I did eat a small chocolate roast cricket at the Columbus Center of Science and Industry once. As a result, I still have a little badge proclaiming that 'I Ate A Bug at COSI.' I'm so proud.
You know a Nestle Crunch Bar? It was kinda like that..-greenman
Yep, and chocolate tends to mask
Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on August 26, 2025, 4:37 pm, in reply to "Many things are"
natural flavors with its own. I think chocolate may be the most powerful pleasurable flavor. It stimulates io the brain, same kinds of endorphinx as orgasm. Chocolate adds a sweet or bitter, like some jellies do with meat. The raw taste of "bug" is mostly pretty good. There are exceptions. Earwigs are incorrectably bitter regardless what you do with or to them. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony
..which limp-wristed Mongo has NEVER DONE, and should respect rather than diss.
'Philips Exeter Academy
Harvard University
She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
She currently teaches nineteenth-century American history at Boston College.'
You couldn't teach a cockroach how to scuttle, you simp.-greenman
Her historical knowlege
Posted by Christopher Blackwell on August 28, 2025, 9:30 pm, in reply to "These are all things"
on how things in politics started, changed, or came back is what attracts me to read her. I have a general knowledge of American history, especially on quirky things not taught in my student days. ChristopherBlackwell
So much going on in this one! trump must STOP his crap of sending military personnel to places
where they don't belong to do jobs that are NOT "rightfully" theirs. They are NOT policemen.
Sending them to OTHER COUNTRIES??? That is a declaration of WAR.
trump has LOST his marbles and it is becoming increasingly obvious and impossible to hide. The right loved to attack Biden, who had certainly slowed down, but still had his marbles, even if he occasionally dropped one or two. trump's are all over the ground!
He hasn't stopped even ONE WAR. What the HELL is he babbling about claiming to have ended 7, never mind 10? He clearly believes his fantasies and believes he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. He DOES NOT!!!
He is in the Epstein files and we all know it. They were thick as thieves for at least 15 years. BESTIES. They always hung out and partied together, getting younger and younger women to bed them. He freaking admitted that he had an eye for the young'uns, even if Epstein liked them a bit younger, like 13 or 14. trump barged in on 14, 15, and 16 year old competitors in the Miss Teenage America pageants. Because he could. He bragged about seeing them naked and partially undressed. BRAGGED about it, PUBLICLY. Imagine what he didn't say aloud?
The GOP have totally lost their way. What they are doing PROVES that they KNOW that they cannot win without cheating! Get rid of them ALL. Clean house!
on August 22, 2025, 2:41 pm
) I admire anyone who just ignores certain posters and their attitudes. 
