From the Author's Desk: Does anyone care?

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From the Author’s Desk

We try to include in the “Background” and “Further Reading” sections of our columns the best articles and op-ed columns on the subject we are writing about.

The idea is that you, the reader, will be sufficiently interested in the subject to click on one or another of the links and read the corresponding article.

But I can see that almost no one clicks on a link to one of the sources listed. That invalidates my theory that you, my readers, might be sufficiently interested in the subject to click on a link and read the article or op-ed on the subject under discussion.

Oh well, the links are at least useful to include in future books. These citations and links can be useful at some point in the future. For example, in a recent column on Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional use of the president’s emergency powers, I included in the “Background” section a citation and link to an article first published in The Trenchant Observer blog on December 11, 2020, and included in my book, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021.

In fact, reading The Rape of Anerican Democracy not only provides an easy and accessible way to review Trump’s first term and many of the same strategies he is employing today, but also to grasp at a deep level the grave threat to American democracy and the international rule of law he now poses.

What we offer here in the Trenchant Observations newsletter is a curated selection of articles and op-ed columns selected by a columnist with a keen historian’s eye.

To be sure, there are among our readers famous columnists who could probably make a better selection.

With so much being written about the subjects addressed in our columns, how can you, the reader, discern which of these are really important and of lasting historical interest, and therefore worth your attention?

Well, you have made a good choice by continuing to read the Trenchant Observations newsletter.

I submit that our columns and selection of articles with links will stand the test of time. The proof of this proposition is to be found in The Rape of American Democracy, whose chapters bear witness to the author’s historian’s eye in selecting subjects and articles, and offering prescient analyses that remain persuasive years after they have been written.

Moreover, the collection of citations and links published here and in the books (see below) constitutes a unique compendium of the best reporting and commentary written during the Trump years. It should be of great value to academics and others writing about what happened in America leading up to the second government of Donald Trump beginning in 2025.

I sense, or at least hope, that some readers are becoming increasingly engaged.

If you are one of these, please share your comments, or just your thoughts, in the Comments section below, or alternately in an email to me at jrowles93@gmail.com. Your name will remain confidential in any email to me.

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Recent Books by the Author

James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.

James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.

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There is a new title for the GoFundMe appeal —”Restore American Democracy Fund - Support Engaged Writers”.

GoFundMe’s algorithms have “paused” this appeal. For the second time. The compliance team has already approved an earlier version of the new rext. It may take a couple days for the compliance team (humans) to “unpause” the appeal so that it can again accept donations.

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