Trump’s Presidential Immunity: Supreme Court Holds Historic Hearing

I share former Rep. Liz Cheney's frustration, even outrage, as she wrote in a NYTimes op-ed, that it appears the Supreme Court will not rule swiftly enough on Donald Trump's immunity claim that he can stand trial before the 2024 election on charges related to January 6, 2021. “It cannot be that a president of …

Trump and Andrew Johnson Compared Themselves to Jesus

Donald Trump compares himself to historic martyrs Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela. He "is not the first president to compare himself to Jesus Christ. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson famously did, too...." Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln after the 16th president was murdered in April, 1865, was an egotistical, enigmatic man unpopular with …

Back Story on the Gettysburg Address, Nov. 19, 1863

How President Abraham Lincoln changed America's self-perception. Lincoln was invited almost as an afterthought to Gettysburg, PA on November 19, 1863, for the dedication of a national cemetery to honor the more than 7,000 soldiers -- Union and Confederate -- who died in battle over three days between July 1-3. Click to Substack.

What Americans Hold in Common Is Far Greater Than What They Disagree About

Steve Schmidt: "I'd like to talk about something we share in common, the United States of America. Our country. All of us who are Americans belong to it as she belongs to all of us. "The most important statement written on paper conceived in the mind of a human being as a declarative political statement …

Abraham Lincoln’s Momentous Meeting with Gen. Grant in Petersburg, VA, April 3, 1865

Historic Petersburg Foundation: The Lincoln-Grant Meeting. "Momentous events in American history occurred in late March and early April 1865 in and around Petersburg, Virginia...details...Early on the morning of April 3, Grant invited President Abraham Lincoln to meet with him in Petersburg that day. Lincoln was on a visit to the front and that morning was …

Historical Films and Lesson Plans from the Kunhardt Film Foundation

The Kunhardt Film Foundation (KFF) (website; Youtube site) is a "not-for-profit educational media organization that produces documentary films, interviews, and teaching tools about the people and ideas that shape our world. KFF was established by a family of filmmakers with a mission to put high-quality educational programs, raw interviews, and teaching tools into the hands …

NAACP Was Founded on Lincoln’s Birthday in 1909 in Response to Illinois Race Riot

"On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Exactly 100 years later, journalists, reformers, and scholars meeting in New York City deliberately chose the anniversary of his birth as the starting point for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)," opens historian Heather Cox Richardson's daily "Letter from An American." …

Lincoln and Grant Both Opposed Polk’s War With Mexico

On May 12, 1846, the United States Senate voted 40 to 2 to go to war with Mexico. President James K. Polk had accused Mexican troops of having attacked Americans on U.S. soil, north of the Rio Grande. But Mexico claimed this land as its own territory and accused the American military of having invaded. More. …

Dakota War of 1862 Ended in MN Mass Executions of Santee Sioux

The so-called Dakota War of 1862, which lasted from August 17 to December 26, mostly in Minnesota, "was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of eastern Dakota also known as the Santee Sioux." -- More. It culminated in "the largest mass execution in American history," Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson …

How the Income Tax Came to Be

To fund the American civil war beginning in 1861, Congress passed a progressive tax law that shifted "ownership of the American government away from the bankers who had previously provided Treasury funds, to the American people," wrote Boston College Historian Heather Cox Richardson. The nation's first income tax in 1861 began at 3 percent. It …