25 Comments
User's avatar
MJ's avatar

Both President John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died July 4, 1826.

Nancy Stone's avatar

That has always amazed me. Since our country’s birthday is so messed up we should at least acknowledge them.

Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

I've always loved that coincidence. I can never remember whether it was Adams who asked "Does Jefferson still live?" or Jefferson who asked it of Adams. Just looked it up: Adams reportedly said "Jefferson still lives," because he couldn't have known that Jefferson had died five hours earlier. And I just learned that President James Monroe also died on July 4, five years later, in 1831.

Al Draycott's avatar

Thanks Steven: So many disasters, so much to follow. This man Mr. Trump has the ability to take a stately mansion and turn it into a skid road hovel. The mess he made of the White House, the lawn, the east wing the reflecting pool teaming with algae giving off the shade of the Iranian green flag along with the odor of rotting flesh and dead ducks. Don't give this fellow a steel anvil , he may break it. The man reads very little and thinks very little. May the 131 days speed up.

Steven Beschloss's avatar

Please, no steel anvil!

AVee. (Alexia)'s avatar

Yes….agree Al:….”teaming with algae giving off the shade of the Iranian green flag along with the odor of rotting flesh and dead ducks.”

The pool has rebelled!

Bless the pool!

Ellen Deschatres's avatar

I cannot wrap my head around this madness…or rather, that Congress is allowing this to continue. Surely Republicans in the Senate know that this will not end well for them. The House Republicans know it, but know that their days in power are probably numbered. Somebody needs to bring smelling salts to the Senate floor because the current and strategic fainting spells by senators in front of viable legislation are not fooling anybody. The zombie apocalypse has taken over. “I didn’t see that,” or “I don’t know anything about that,” we’re used to hearing them say as they run down the halls and into the elevators, leaving a trail of green algae behind them.

The swam is alive and it is crawling with swamp creatures who can’t see or hear but they do love the green of their ill-gotten gains. Just mosey on down to Capitol Hill. The halls are full of them.

Steven Beschloss's avatar

Desperation to get or stay close to power, alas. Sad careerists who care more about their own job than the good of the country. And...people who actually like the destruction.

Ellen Deschatres's avatar

It’s very hard to fathom that they are bloodthirsty enough to want the demise of our democracy. They have been emboldened by the power they guard so closely. Careerist is too polite a word for what they are. I’d call them carpetbaggers!

AVee. (Alexia)'s avatar

Hi, Ellen

Your comment: perfect

An excerpt from it:

…”Somebody needs to bring smelling salts to the Senate floor because the current and strategic fainting spells by senators in front of viable legislation are not fooling anybody. The zombie apocalypse has taken over.”

Ellen Deschatres's avatar

Thank you! I’m glad the description resonates with you!😀

AVee. (Alexia)'s avatar

Nice response

“Resonates” 🎵

We all need to hold onto each other - those of us who care about what’s happening during these times…

Jo Burns's avatar
3hEdited

excellent brief! Absolutely disordered mind. So, please explain the disordered mind of our congress. They look at this and think, oooh, genius 🤣

Love your six questions series.

Steven Beschloss's avatar

Thanks and thanks, Jo.

Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

Do you really think that's so? As far as I can tell, they're mostly incompetent toadies whose sense of duty is minimal, and there's no one capable enough, brave enough, to take the initiative. The Republican Party has been declining for several decades. We're not talking about "the best and the brightest" here.

Linda I's avatar

Nice reflection of a man who destroys everything he touches. Why Republicans did not see in 2015 and beyond boggles the mind.

Marina Oshana's avatar

I’m looking forward to Six Questions with Andrew Weissman. All the episodes thus far have been excellent, illuminating and empowering. Thank you!🙏🏽

Steven Beschloss's avatar

Thanks much, Marina.

mary M keymer's avatar

Thank You Steven .. I hope my party doesn't fall for the we are going to far to the left etc. The label Socialist or Communist and we are going to scare off voters. I'm sick of it. They need to get out there and talk about what they want to do for the country. Mamdani is NYC he is great (That's my heart and soul NYC) and Jon Ossoff is Georgia and he is magnificent . I remember when the party allowed the GOP to back us into a corner ..Somehow liberal became a dirty word and they changed it to progressive. Anyway I remember Senator Ted Kennedy went on a talk show and he called himself a liberal . He explained we want health care for all . He said there is nothing wrong with being a liberal. Thank You Senator RIP. If the party allows the other side to paint us into a corner again it will be our own fault. If Schumer insists on leading he better get some courage and back the ones that won the primaries ..

Cynthia Turner's avatar

This situation is beyond comprehension. My career has been focused on creating betterment. People were professional and focused and driven for the best results. The behavior the public has seen is crude, tasteless, and should not be representing our America.

AVee. (Alexia)'s avatar

Well written again:

Evoking the disdain for his actions and ending with inspiring us.

We need both -I experience both.

Thanks for the truthful assessment, Steven, but especially the ongoing inspiration to hope, dream, act.

131 days

Nancy Stone's avatar

Why doesn’t Congress do something to get him out? Why isn’t his family? Maybe they aren’t around him enough to know. He didn’t go to his son’s wedding. That says a lot.

Steven Beschloss's avatar

Yes, in a sane world, there would be an intervention.

Kandarohe's avatar

Please, Steven, put some attention on Trump's systematic and unnoticed--silent but effective--work on destroying the integrity of our elections. It's great that people are waking up. It's great that more people are seeing what you so eloquently describe as his degraded, demented, disgraceful evil. But: he is successfully tampering with our election process. In terms of people, (1) he is forcing the Post Office to tamper with mail-in votes. Do we even know how he plans to do this? Does he have info on which ballot mails are likely to be Democrats? Is he going to do wholesale discarding by zip code? We are so complacent we don't even know. And (2) he is gerrymandering everything. Especially southern governors are willing to kiss his tuckus wrt gerrymandering the heck out of their states. And that might put him up by 15 seats. Are Democratic governors doing anything to reverse gerrymander? No. Finally, (3) machines: Election Truth Alliance is a non-conspiracy-theory data analysis non-profit run on a shoestring by a tech expert. It says that not only is one of Musk's many baby-mamas on record saying Musk tampered with elections already; it also says irregular algorithmic patterns are present in recent primaries. See their article on the Massie/Gallrein overturn, where Massie "surprisingly" lost and Gallrein "surprisingly" won. Maybe not such a surprise. Check https://electiontruthalliance.org/. It's just data, friends. But we ignore it, we remain silent about it, at our own peril.

Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

You may be attributing more power to Trump than he actually has. It helps to diversify your sources. If you're interested in what's being done to combat election interference, the ACLU is a good place to start.