Thanksgiving is a few days past, but here’s a belated thanksgiving post — just before the end of the holiday weekend.
To begin, here’s a nice post by Robert Reich from a few days ago: “Gratitude: Thanksgiving thoughts.” It has a brief discussion of a forgotten figure of mid-20th-century American history, Flilipino-American poet and activist Carlos Bulosan, who penned an essay to accompany the publication of Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want” painting in The Saturday Evening Post. That painting was, of course, one of four inspired by FDR’s “Four Freedoms”: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Trump&Co are working hard to eliminate all four for any who don’t belong to their chosen classes–but Bulosan’s essay, while sometimes verging on despair, also offers words of hope and determination that feel relevant today: “The American Dream is only hidden away, and it will push its way up and grow again.”
Reich quotes a longer passage from Bulosan; I encourage you also to read the entire essay, which is not long, here. And here is more on Bulosan himself.
Second, I am thankful that we are finally seeing some cracks in the MAGA Monolith–something that for a long time did not seem possible. Michael Tomasky celebrates this in a piece in TNR, where he concludes, “People may not hate incompetence. They may not hate corruption. And they may not hate extremism. But all three at once? It’s getting to be too much for people, and it’s a great way to close out the year.” We have a long way to go, of course; nothing is assured, so we must keep the activism alive; and tremendous damage has already been done. But after 10 months of wretchedness, it’s good to feel some of the weight lifted!
Finally, as a more recent example of what Tomasky is talking about: the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are both launching investigations into the reprehensible and criminal attacks launched by Hegseth in the Caribbean, which Dan posted about recently. It’s hard to know how much teeth their exercise of “oversight” will have, it will not likely address the fundamental illegality and immorality of the Administration’s actions, and maybe this is all just a GOP sop. But, even at that, not long ago it would not really have been conceivable that any Congressional action would happen so quickly and in the midst of Trump’s and Hegseth’s attacks on the six Democrats who issued the video about not obeying illegal orders. So, let’s take heart!
Gary, I’m glad to learn about Carlos Bulosan’s essay … it’s very timely for our crises today. And you’re right — it is a very good thing that the appropriate oversight committees in Congress have said they will thoroughly investigate the deliberate killing of helpless non-combatants. For some reason my mind goes back to the My Lai massacre and Lt. William Calley’s horrific orders and actions on that day; and to the serious efforts made by the DoD and the Congress to conceal the facts. It was largely the work of Seymour Hersh that resulted in the exposure of this massacre. This underlines the importance of your point in an earlier post about the crucial role to be played by independent media and journalists in maintaining the conscience of America.
Affirming Democracy, Gathering Resistance 
Gary, I’m glad to learn about Carlos Bulosan’s essay … it’s very timely for our crises today. And you’re right — it is a very good thing that the appropriate oversight committees in Congress have said they will thoroughly investigate the deliberate killing of helpless non-combatants. For some reason my mind goes back to the My Lai massacre and Lt. William Calley’s horrific orders and actions on that day; and to the serious efforts made by the DoD and the Congress to conceal the facts. It was largely the work of Seymour Hersh that resulted in the exposure of this massacre. This underlines the importance of your point in an earlier post about the crucial role to be played by independent media and journalists in maintaining the conscience of America.