Letters from an American

October 12, 2026
Billionaire Elon Musk has put at least $366 million into trying to elect Republicans in the midterm elections, Republicans are publishing material accusing Democrats of being radicals, But it is the right that is radical, attempting to consolidate power in the hands of a few, The administration conducted a raid on the home of a sitting congressperson for a baseless reason, The raid occurred within the period before an election - when the Department of Justice normally does not take steps that might influence the outcome, The administration is attempting to intimidate Democratic representatives in a direct assault on democracy, Trump and his loyalists are trying to divide the country on old culture war lines, and becoming more extreme in their actions and their ads, They are distorting the truth, as with the claim that James Talarico had suffered a breakdown for which he was admitted into treatment in Ohio, a story that fell apart quickly, Trump’s promises are being revealed to be false, The administration has ignored a court order to stop running Trump's ads, just as it ignored a court order not to make irreversible changes to the East Potomac Golf Links course by cutting down more than 400 trees there, And Trump’s announcement that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an “energy ceasefire” is a lie, The Pentagon quietly raised the number of US service members killed and injured in the Iran War, The US military is drawing up plans for another round of combat operations in Iran. 
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October 10, 2026
Trump is openly backing Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, Trump blamed President Zelensky for prolonging the war waged by Russia, Trump has issued a warning to Zelensky, The US previously stood against Russia’s invasions of Ukraine, In 1991 Russia agreed to secure Ukraine’s borders, but Putin worked to bring Ukraine under the sway of Russian oligarchs, After the election of Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine was voided, he began to work with Paul Manafort, and finally won election, immediately turning Ukraine toward Russia, He was ousted from power in 2014, and Russia soon invaded Ukraine’s Crimea, Manafort then joined the Trump campaign, Manafort and his partner, Russian operative Konstantin Kilimnik, worked to elect Trump thinking he would be sympathetic to the plan to make Ukraine subservient to Putin, Trump was not able to implement their plan in his first term, While Biden pulled NATO countries together to stop Russia’s attack, once Trump was back in office, he tried to swing the US behind Russia, On Friday he announced he was removing sanctions to let Russia sell its oil on global markets, allowing Russia to earn cash for the war against Ukraine, Trump has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on a longer will Republicans in Congress continue to protect Trump’s undermining of national security?
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October 9, 2026
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump's ambassador to Greece, was revealed to have asked Eric Deters, who wanted help from the administration with tax and legal issues, for money to pay her credit card bill, The grifting and corruption of Trump’s family and associates continued with news that a company co-founded by a recent appointment at the Pentagon landed a $2.9 billion contract with the Navy, Trump is attempting to solidify his base by spinning the Iran war, calling for a public execution, attacking immigrants, and shifting the US away from defending international law to ally with authoritarian governments, Trump tried to turn his supporters against an invented “enemy,” The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navi Pillay a South African-born jurist, and current judge at the International Court of Justice, Hours after the announcement, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the ICC, setting the US against its allies in Europe, Trump has issued a temporary license to permit Russia to sell diesel on the global market, which likely will do little for US oil prices in spite of Trump’s claims, but will funnel money to Russia for its war on Ukraine, The latest Pew poll indicates that 68% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the presidency, Trump’s campaign ads have backfired and 86% of Americans object to using taxpayer money to pay for them. 
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October 8, 2026
On October 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire burned through the Midwest, and claimed between 1,500 and 2,000 lives, The Peshtigo Fire was the deadliest wildfire in US history, The Great Chicago Fire happened the same day, but was smaller and less deadly, Yet the Great Chicago Fire is the one people remember, It fit into a political narrative about the danger of organized labor, After the Civil War, workers organized, In August 1866 more than 60,000 people joined to launch the National Labor union calling for better working conditions and for the government to level the playing field between employers and workers, In 1868 Congress passed and the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendments and in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, When the Ku Klux Klan was organized to keep Black men from voting, Congress created the Department of Justice, Reactionary southerners began to argue that Black citizens were poor, and that they were determined to redistribute the wealth of white landowners, Their argument gained strength because of fears of what was happening in Europe, where the Paris Commune had been established, Republican fears of workers grew, And when Chicago went up in flames, some Americans blamed the fire on “communists” or “socialists,” or on immigrant workers, The Great Chicago Fire fanned the flames of fear that workers were trying to destroy America, and encouraged those who were determined to make sure workers wouldn’t have a powerful voice in American society. 
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October 7, 2026
On October 7, 2016, the story of the Access Hollywood tape broke, in which Trump told tv host Billy Bush about his approach to women, Five years later on October 7, 2021, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s draft report on its investigation into Trump's attempt to use the Department of Justice to overturn the results of the 2020 election found that Trump abused the power of the presidency, Five years later, on October 7, 2026, Trump asserted that he can do whatever he wants, including “bad things to Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama.”  Ten years we've been at this. 
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