Letters from an American

August 6, 2026
On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, In 1865, Americans ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing enslavement except as punishment for crimes, In subsequent years, with the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, citizenship was guaranteed to anyone born or naturalized in the US (except certain Indigenous Americans) and the right to vote was extended to Black men, These amendments gave Congress the power to enforce them, In response, white opponents hindered the ability of Black men to vote, Opposition did not gain traction until after WWII, when judges used the due process clause and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to argue that states could not deprive any American of equality, Under pressure from President Dwight D Eisenhower, Congress passed civil rights acts in 1957 and 1960, and in 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which strengthened voting rights, In 1965, the Voting Rights Act became law, It was reauthorized repeatedly by large margins, but in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the provision of the law requiring that states with a history of discrimination get approval before changing voting laws, The assault on the Voting Rights Act continued in 2026, after the decision in Louisiana v Callais, The gap between white and Black voter turnout in the 2024 election was the highest since at least 2008.
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August 5, 2026
On August 5, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln signed a new tax into law, to help fund the US government during the Civil War, The law shifted ownership of the government to the American people, To equalize the burden and tax individuals in proportion to their ability to pay, the Republican Congress invented the nation’s first income tax, By having the federal government, rather than the states, collect the tax directly, people would be supporting the United States of America, not individual states, This worked, and with their money behind the war effort, Americans were more committed to the cause, But although Republicans invented the American income tax, party leaders turned against it, starting with Ronald Reagan, Even as the national debt has risen, Republicans have argued that taxes destroy the country, In July 2025 Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, making tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations permanent, Economists estimate OBBBA will add more than $4 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, While the cost of the war in Iran will put further strain on the economy, no wartime tax measure has been passed, But a proposal to eliminate the state income tax in Missouri was resoundingly rejected by the voters, indicating that Americans may be turning away from tax cuts as an economic strategy.
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August 4, 2026
In a court filing on Friday, Capital One Bank stated that it had closed more than 380 of Trump and the Trump Organization’s bank accounts for anti-money laundering reasons, Trump and the Trump Organization had sued Capital One in federal court in Florida, Trump has rabidly attacked FBI and Justice Department officials who have extensive experience in investigating money laundering and organized crime, Sen Ron Wyden released a report saying that Wall Street banks held off on filing required suspicious activity reports on transactions associated with Jeffrey Epstein, The report describes how top banks enabled Epstein’s sex- trafficking operation by ignoring suspicious financial transactions, The report also points out that Republicans have blocked Wyden’s measure requiring Treasury to produce copies of all suspicious activity reports related to Epstein, The report asks for an investigation into the behavior of individual bankers as well as the banks, In the 1930s federal securities laws and banking regulations were passed to clean up Wall Street and create a level playing field, We are watching the dismantling of these protections and a skewing of the system toward the very wealthy.
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August 3, 2026
Todd Blanche rescinded the order establishing a $1.776 billion slush fund, Blanche’s order did not change the terms of the nonprosecution order providing that the DOJ would not prosecute Trump, his sons, or the Trump Organization for crimes related to tax returns, The IRS will not audit tax returns filed before May 19, 2026, Although the promise to kill the slush fund seems hollow, Senators Tillis and Cornyn will now support Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General, The nomination will move out of committee and go to the full Senate, where Republicans could kill it but probably will vote to confirm Blanche, Blanche appears to have been most responsible for ignoring the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Trump has been feuding with Republican senators over the SAVE American Act, and funding for the unpopular Iran War, There has also been infighting between Trump and cabinet members, And there is an extraordinary fight playing out between Republican federal lawmakers from Ohio.
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August 2, 2026
The dismissal of the DOJ case against David Hearn for vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool came after Hearn’s lawyers received transcripts of the grand jury proceeding that led to the indictment, Lawyers told the court that there were irregularities that “call into question whether the grand jury was misled,”  The DOJ has been caught misleading other grand juries or committing misconduct in getting indictments, Judges across the country are calling out lawyers for the DOJ, calling their behavior “unlawful” among other things, The DOJ is being turned into an instrument of Trump’s political wrath, That can be seen in the fight over the confirmation of Todd Blanche to be attorney general, Blanche has flouted the law to do Trump’s bidding, Blanche has secured indictments against Trump’s perceived enemies, such as James Comey, He has backed the deal to establish a slush fund to pay Trump’s allies, and the move to agree that no claims will be made against Trump, his family, or the Trump Organization, Blanche’s confirmation is being held up by senators who have asked for assurance that the slush fund/nonprosecution deal is dead, but Trump has thrown a wrench into the process by declaring that he will push for its implementation. 
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