There is a momentum to events that remains unimpressed by the completion of another orbit of the sun by the Earth. There are parts of the world that suffer in constant misery — misery that is beyond the comprehension of most all Americans. There are places where oppression, brutality, starvation and cruelty never take a night off for fireworks, midnight kisses and champagne. There was evil in 2022, and there will be evil in 2023. There was suffering in 2022, and there will be suffering in 2023. There was goodness in 2022, and there will be goodness in 2023. Electric vehicles were purchased in America in 2022 to help the environment, and more will be purchased in 2023. Perhaps 2023 will be a year during which Americans can open their eyes to sloganeering and environmental profiteering, and examine the true costs of the vehicles that are driven by many as both a status symbol and a statement of virtue. Below is a photo of the cobalt mine in the Congo that brings America’s Teslas to life. I hope someone will stand up for these people in 2023. No one did in 2022.
Steve Schmidt: "The eternal contest between good and evil will continue to play out in 2023, and the American story will continue to be written."
Tim Ryan: "The challenge today is to be called to lead, and lead vigorously, lead boldly, because that is what the world needs us to do today."
John Lewis: "Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet."
May true leaders step forward in 2023 to act for freedom and justice, and for us all to do the same.
I caught myself saying , “ I hope…”. and realized that hope, which I have always enthusiastically subscribed to, regardless of life situations, was a bit harder to maintain right now. I do catch myself saying “I just don’t know”, more than ever. This is a disappointment, to go from I hope to I just don’t know. Part of me is dreading this year, wanting to hide away from it all, to find away to escape it. Another part of me wants to fight and then there is that part that just wants to scream.
Somehow I “hope” a balance is found. We shall see.
Thank you Steve for waking up my mind each morning and send it exploring.
"...the moving walkway is ending..." How many times have we heard that when running through airports.
Reaching cities on hills require climbing, and not always with a path. Sometimes the climb requires ropes, chocks and caribinders. I think we're at the stage of finding the new path. An exciting time to focus on societal needs on the whole and not on the individual. What good do we bring, what vision do we share. Who will scout ahead for the new path?
Very well said and well written. That photo brought tears to my eyes and pain to my heart. Anyone with a modicum of compassion will feel sadness and sympathy, looking at that picture 😢
Excellent post and a heartfelt thanks Steve for starting off the new year with an emphasis on lighting a candle instead of just cursing the darkness. We’d all instinctively like to turn on the floodlights to counter this darkness but one candle at a time is sometimes our only way forward. Hope you have a happy new year today.
All of what you say underscores just how very infantile we are as a nation, and this is manifested in our chaotic maneuverings, entropic sociopolitical fifedoms and permissivity of extralegal shenanigans.
However, all that we are has been of late depicted in starker relief as we are relegated into corners of good or evil, and it stands to reason that we initially try to sort it out, to make sense of it within our minds, as we are by and large, many of us anyway, guided by logistics and the need for illumination of that which is presented to us.
But as we evolve within this matrix we will ultimately give less attention to our collective psychoanalysis, our quest for why, and will understand that elements will fade as a consequence of removing attention from them, and we will master the art of pushing forward the good while high stepping over the unsavory, and it is collectives like this one that will help drive us forward.
The most excrutiating realities come with the force of how you have introduced your conversation today, by choosing in this instance a photograph, a photograph of child laborers, a photograph of poverty and exploitation. The binding cause that glues a Tesla to a girl not even becoming a girl in a not so faraway place, Africa, is Elon Musk. I am reminded immediately of another photograph in Qatar, Elon Musk and Jared Kushner living the euphoria of worldwide football, a country that to provide a worldwide look into how wealth can build the most sophisticated stadiums for such a loved event around the world also, in a photograph, displays the displacement between the tragedy of migrant workers, the unabashed presence of two unsavory characters and the story of the real star, Lionel Messi, who has entertained them with his grit and endurance and commitment to a sport, growing up as a boy who needed medical attention and a father who moved his family from Argentina to Spain in search of medical attention and the astounding future for his son. There is a mismatch here that anyone willing to put a name to can, Sheik and all in one.
A moving sidewalk? An invention of the past. I see a future of pure wonder. When a spinal implant was the scientific news early last year, it got sunk into the dark mush of nothingness. Corruption can take the moving sidewalk with the corrupted, but a spinal implant can make a paralyzed human being swim again, walk upright again. Science will never correct the corrupt. Your photograph of days past, those seated with the Trillionaire Con Man, legitimized the fraud by not, in the least, vetting him for the ones who bore the real economic loss, the mass of investors. Corruption is a very complex term, but with devastating life consequences for those targeted. Targeted. Science? Science is for all alike. It does not target. It identifies a problem and, with the rigor of method, will find the solutions. For all. Can we compare science with religion? No. Science is a manifestation of what humanity can achieve. For all. Science is not religion, the latter still elucidating how much power it can give women, whether it be the first advisor to an Imam or part of an advisory board for the Bishops of the Catholic Church. Science is the cure for cancer in the future that brought us the technology for the production of the Covid vaccines and the cure for rectal cancer. We just need the right leaders that see how all the solar panels in use around the world can actually provide all the energy for Europe.
While I take heart from your writings and thoughts, I have to report that I am up and not crying, and I will regroup to continue the fight in my small way.
I share both your hope as well as deep concern. Like you, I have confronted the most astonishing disloyalty to the wisdom of our founders. How does one continue in America, as an American, and not know of John Lewis or even Selma? A failure to be informed is the decision by so many to abdicate the one obligation of citizenship in a democracy.
Thank you for your articulate writing and your timely reminder that for every “advance”, e.g. Teslas, there is a cost. My new year resolution, in addition to the annual lose weight, is to remain vigilant, to speak up where proper and to take action to make sure democracy in the United States is protected.
A new dawn has risen and with it brings a new year to our shores. With the sunrise comes possibilities where the history has not yet been written. Let your thoughts be of goodwill and have love in your heart because when you fill your heart with love hate is removed. Love and hate can not exist in the same breath. So breathe in love and exhale hate and remember with one small step a journey is started. Start with a smile on your face and your journey will be rewarding.
I think another sign of “green shoots” is the development of new online forums such as all the ones on Substack including The Warning and Post. I remember as a child if certain kids were acting in destructive ways my parents advice was to quit playing with them and find someone or somewhere else to play. Now those who desire a better way do not have to play on Twitter anymore, or with any media that is putting ratings over principle. Sites like these and writings like yours, Steve, and your friends and colleagues are the beginnings of that something new we are all looking for. Many thanks and Happy New Year to all!
I think there's a better chance of more green shoots in 2023 than I thought there were for 2022 when I contemplated the coming year last year at this time. There was a lot of darkness ahead to anyone who took a look. And the forces that might oppose that darkness didn't look strong enough to prevail. Not in Ukraine, not anywhere else.
And yet we did. The worst didn't happen, it came close to happening, the margins of victory were thin, but as they say "an inch is as good as a mile." We prevailed because people said "Hell no, I'm not going to take this!" If we can remember that, the possibility of your green shoots appearing and growing is more likely than not, Steve. But it's up to us.
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large, according to Wikipedia. According to the Hebrew and Greek translations it is something that changes who we are, affects our values, and it affects what we do with our lives, talents, and time.
I stand with you in hope for a better outcome in 2023. I will remain tethered to a reality that will lead my hope in new ways to affect change in how I live, how my experiences will drive those around me as I join with others to affect the change that we are hoping for in 2023.
Happy New Year to you, your family and to all your subscribers.
The more disillusioned I become with the political rancor, abject ignorance, and ugly hatred in this country and world, the more I appreciate spending time in the natural world with my dogs. I remind myself that the world cannot be all bad because natural beauty, and dogs, exist.
If you are in need of a few minutes of pure joy, please watch this video (The Dogs of 2022 from WeRateDogs). Happy New Year everyone!
The Guest House - Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Steve Schmidt: "The eternal contest between good and evil will continue to play out in 2023, and the American story will continue to be written."
Tim Ryan: "The challenge today is to be called to lead, and lead vigorously, lead boldly, because that is what the world needs us to do today."
John Lewis: "Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet."
May true leaders step forward in 2023 to act for freedom and justice, and for us all to do the same.
I caught myself saying , “ I hope…”. and realized that hope, which I have always enthusiastically subscribed to, regardless of life situations, was a bit harder to maintain right now. I do catch myself saying “I just don’t know”, more than ever. This is a disappointment, to go from I hope to I just don’t know. Part of me is dreading this year, wanting to hide away from it all, to find away to escape it. Another part of me wants to fight and then there is that part that just wants to scream.
Somehow I “hope” a balance is found. We shall see.
Thank you Steve for waking up my mind each morning and send it exploring.
"...the moving walkway is ending..." How many times have we heard that when running through airports.
Reaching cities on hills require climbing, and not always with a path. Sometimes the climb requires ropes, chocks and caribinders. I think we're at the stage of finding the new path. An exciting time to focus on societal needs on the whole and not on the individual. What good do we bring, what vision do we share. Who will scout ahead for the new path?
Very well said and well written. That photo brought tears to my eyes and pain to my heart. Anyone with a modicum of compassion will feel sadness and sympathy, looking at that picture 😢
Excellent post and a heartfelt thanks Steve for starting off the new year with an emphasis on lighting a candle instead of just cursing the darkness. We’d all instinctively like to turn on the floodlights to counter this darkness but one candle at a time is sometimes our only way forward. Hope you have a happy new year today.
All of what you say underscores just how very infantile we are as a nation, and this is manifested in our chaotic maneuverings, entropic sociopolitical fifedoms and permissivity of extralegal shenanigans.
However, all that we are has been of late depicted in starker relief as we are relegated into corners of good or evil, and it stands to reason that we initially try to sort it out, to make sense of it within our minds, as we are by and large, many of us anyway, guided by logistics and the need for illumination of that which is presented to us.
But as we evolve within this matrix we will ultimately give less attention to our collective psychoanalysis, our quest for why, and will understand that elements will fade as a consequence of removing attention from them, and we will master the art of pushing forward the good while high stepping over the unsavory, and it is collectives like this one that will help drive us forward.
With that, here's to the next 365.
The most excrutiating realities come with the force of how you have introduced your conversation today, by choosing in this instance a photograph, a photograph of child laborers, a photograph of poverty and exploitation. The binding cause that glues a Tesla to a girl not even becoming a girl in a not so faraway place, Africa, is Elon Musk. I am reminded immediately of another photograph in Qatar, Elon Musk and Jared Kushner living the euphoria of worldwide football, a country that to provide a worldwide look into how wealth can build the most sophisticated stadiums for such a loved event around the world also, in a photograph, displays the displacement between the tragedy of migrant workers, the unabashed presence of two unsavory characters and the story of the real star, Lionel Messi, who has entertained them with his grit and endurance and commitment to a sport, growing up as a boy who needed medical attention and a father who moved his family from Argentina to Spain in search of medical attention and the astounding future for his son. There is a mismatch here that anyone willing to put a name to can, Sheik and all in one.
A moving sidewalk? An invention of the past. I see a future of pure wonder. When a spinal implant was the scientific news early last year, it got sunk into the dark mush of nothingness. Corruption can take the moving sidewalk with the corrupted, but a spinal implant can make a paralyzed human being swim again, walk upright again. Science will never correct the corrupt. Your photograph of days past, those seated with the Trillionaire Con Man, legitimized the fraud by not, in the least, vetting him for the ones who bore the real economic loss, the mass of investors. Corruption is a very complex term, but with devastating life consequences for those targeted. Targeted. Science? Science is for all alike. It does not target. It identifies a problem and, with the rigor of method, will find the solutions. For all. Can we compare science with religion? No. Science is a manifestation of what humanity can achieve. For all. Science is not religion, the latter still elucidating how much power it can give women, whether it be the first advisor to an Imam or part of an advisory board for the Bishops of the Catholic Church. Science is the cure for cancer in the future that brought us the technology for the production of the Covid vaccines and the cure for rectal cancer. We just need the right leaders that see how all the solar panels in use around the world can actually provide all the energy for Europe.
While I take heart from your writings and thoughts, I have to report that I am up and not crying, and I will regroup to continue the fight in my small way.
I share both your hope as well as deep concern. Like you, I have confronted the most astonishing disloyalty to the wisdom of our founders. How does one continue in America, as an American, and not know of John Lewis or even Selma? A failure to be informed is the decision by so many to abdicate the one obligation of citizenship in a democracy.
Thank you for your articulate writing and your timely reminder that for every “advance”, e.g. Teslas, there is a cost. My new year resolution, in addition to the annual lose weight, is to remain vigilant, to speak up where proper and to take action to make sure democracy in the United States is protected.
A new dawn has risen and with it brings a new year to our shores. With the sunrise comes possibilities where the history has not yet been written. Let your thoughts be of goodwill and have love in your heart because when you fill your heart with love hate is removed. Love and hate can not exist in the same breath. So breathe in love and exhale hate and remember with one small step a journey is started. Start with a smile on your face and your journey will be rewarding.
I think another sign of “green shoots” is the development of new online forums such as all the ones on Substack including The Warning and Post. I remember as a child if certain kids were acting in destructive ways my parents advice was to quit playing with them and find someone or somewhere else to play. Now those who desire a better way do not have to play on Twitter anymore, or with any media that is putting ratings over principle. Sites like these and writings like yours, Steve, and your friends and colleagues are the beginnings of that something new we are all looking for. Many thanks and Happy New Year to all!
I think there's a better chance of more green shoots in 2023 than I thought there were for 2022 when I contemplated the coming year last year at this time. There was a lot of darkness ahead to anyone who took a look. And the forces that might oppose that darkness didn't look strong enough to prevail. Not in Ukraine, not anywhere else.
And yet we did. The worst didn't happen, it came close to happening, the margins of victory were thin, but as they say "an inch is as good as a mile." We prevailed because people said "Hell no, I'm not going to take this!" If we can remember that, the possibility of your green shoots appearing and growing is more likely than not, Steve. But it's up to us.
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large, according to Wikipedia. According to the Hebrew and Greek translations it is something that changes who we are, affects our values, and it affects what we do with our lives, talents, and time.
I stand with you in hope for a better outcome in 2023. I will remain tethered to a reality that will lead my hope in new ways to affect change in how I live, how my experiences will drive those around me as I join with others to affect the change that we are hoping for in 2023.
Happy New Year to you, your family and to all your subscribers.
The more disillusioned I become with the political rancor, abject ignorance, and ugly hatred in this country and world, the more I appreciate spending time in the natural world with my dogs. I remind myself that the world cannot be all bad because natural beauty, and dogs, exist.
If you are in need of a few minutes of pure joy, please watch this video (The Dogs of 2022 from WeRateDogs). Happy New Year everyone!
https://youtu.be/Obr701G2JSg