102 Comments

Well Steve we all make mistakes my friend, some great and some small. I for one have thought for the last 35 years that the glue that held our Democracy together was squeezed from the tube which is or was the Supreme Court. I have for the past 15 years understood what a fool I had been.

Life time appointments are always prone to human frailties at best. Oligarchs prey on those weaknesses and humans who feel that they are above the law since they actually make the law are the victims.

I have been Salmon fishing in Alaska many times and not once did it cost more than $2,500 total. Total with airfare. So adjust that with inflation from 20 years ago to today and Alitos fishing binge is most obscene costing many tens of thousands of dollars including luxury airfare.

How can any modern upper middle class financially secure person feel there is not a game being played out on all of us between Alito, the "Supreme Court Justice" and Singer a Multi Billionaire conservative. Let alone how maddening this story is to the vast majority of us who are not financially secure!!!

We must address the Supreme Court and do it as if it is our last gasp at saving our Democracy because the way the founding fathers set this whole deal up.........it is!

Expand full comment

Excellent comment!

Expand full comment

Wow! I appreciate your perspective.

Expand full comment

Perfectly stated. Our last gasp.

Expand full comment

Al, you nailed it!

Expand full comment

Roberts also signed the Dobbs majority opinion, and no one has done more than he to undermine voting rights.

Expand full comment

Thank you Steve. Perhaps Roberts wants to avoid criticizing other Justices because his wife has made $millions from her legal consulting. As a Supreme Court Justice, his lack of interest in Court ethics is truly disgraceful. Don’t expect anything from him. This is one of the most corrupt Courts in US history. We are still waiting to find out who Leonard Leo got to pay Kavanaugh’s debts.

Expand full comment

I’m donating to ProPublica today to help them complete their Kavanaugh investigation.

Expand full comment

I did the same. Again.

Expand full comment

I'm sure there will be a Roberts report coming.

Expand full comment

I, too, would love to know. But I have no doubt whatsoever that Kavanaugh--Alito and Thomas as well--would have voted the same exact way without the freebies. Kavanaugh is still the bullying smartypants he was working for Ken Starr. Keith Olbermann says Laura Ingraham named Kavanaugh as one of a small group of Starr insiders and right-wing pundits determined to spread so-called information (i.e., rumors and trash) in an effort to damage Bill Clinton. He was and is an unhinged zealot who just happens to look good in a robe.

Expand full comment

Amen

Expand full comment

Alas, we find ourselves here, at the gates of legal depravity where we discover privilege is destroying America.

The sick irony, the privilege to exist is the American dream of migrants, LGBTQ+, women, etc., etc.

Expand full comment

TBH/ privilege has already destroyed our country. Billionaires are sociopaths, even the imaginary billionaires like T💩p. Money talks; bullshit walks. We’re just dust under their heels.

Expand full comment

Perhaps. Yet, what we've learned for the past decade, maybe more, is the depth of their con is an ongoing deliberate and orchestrated deception. Our former President is simply the bull elephant in the China shop who got our attention. Truth is we were naive.

Expand full comment
Jun 22, 2023·edited Jun 22, 2023

What kind of sick, stinking gentleman’s club is this? What kind of a stain on America? It’s not just Thomas and possibly the most arrogant man in America, Alito, but John Roberts, the Mr. McGoo head of the whole mess, who’s wife is raking in the chips and when you pull up the covers for the night, who cares whether he’s clean when she isn’t. When RBG was asked to say when there would be enough women on the Supreme Court and she said Nine, it is becoming abundantly clear that it cannot be soon enough. The bad news is that these self-loving, self-admiring, self-corrupting liars are there forever, doing incalculable harm to the nation, most particularly to the women who should replace them, that is to say, womenkind. That there floats about some suggestion that their so-called ethics be measured and, thank God, a press to keep after them, is what sets them apart from the White Male Elite rich guy conservatives that would like everyone else to get the hell out of the way so they can play with their marbles. The country is going to hell in a hand basket and the court of last resort has but three women and a Stepford wife. Not enough!

Expand full comment

Bob, don't talk women so soon. Amy Coney Barrett is a woman, and I'm pretty sure you don't want 9 of that kind of woman on the Supreme Court. "All women" is not the answer.

Expand full comment

She IS? Mary, Mary, I called her a Stepford Wife, like many Republican women who put on an apron and make muffins for the rest of their lives and let their declining husbands do their thinking for them. ACB slipped through the cracks because she channels men and it was Trump who picked her remember. I don’t want Trump picking anyone for anything, least of all women. Let Joe pick ‘em and we’ll get some real beauties but I do appreciate your caution and for responding. Bob

Expand full comment

Bob, you've a bit arrogant in how you define a woman. Give it a break.

Expand full comment

Right ON! Thanks.

Expand full comment

Alito's "empty seat" excuse is tantamount to saying it would have been okay to accept a Tesla Model S because it would have just sat on the showroom floor anyway. Except that a Model S (loaded)would have been worth maybe half of Alito's li'l ol' fishing trip.

Expand full comment

Not back in 2017 when I bought my not-fully-loaded Model S.

Expand full comment

I don’t have the words anymore for this mess. Well I do have a few, but not for print. It feels like nothing that is said or done makes a difference. Perhaps it is a waiting period for correction. My fear is it is a period before a disaster. Hope, hope not.

Expand full comment

Steve, yesterday, a democrat was censured in our House of Representatives, in political retribution for his work towards stopping a criminal running roughshod in the Whitehouse. Not a “hold everything” available.

An organization in this country pays our congress to keep their guns flowing into the hands of extremist and fools, as they mow down our children. Nothing is done. Nothing.

Our Supreme Court is not, after all, Supreme, nor even a legal advantage to The People of these United States- the court is not only corrupt, it is hell bent on bringing a free public to its knees, removing precedent they promised not to, in plain sight, out in the open, unabashedly, and unashamed. Never even have to answer the WHY questions, after they broke their promises. Not an interview, no, THEY are protected. It is their “opinion” that prevails.

Sadly the shame you wish on Alito goes nowhere. The other side, the one that gives the gifts, and gets the favors, is applauding, and paying. That’s what Alito hears. And they keep paying, unstopped, and not even quietly, they keep paying.

What are we to do? The fox is in the hen house, the hens are being slaughtered. The drumbeat of democracy is fading. A group of human beings, exalted because of a system that assumed (against all odds) their, dare I say holiness(?), is overtly, taking us away from the mothership of freedom.

How does knowing about these things help? Where is the path in our constitution that gets us out of the ridiculous? Is it there? Are we missing it?

Expand full comment

Its difficult to describe the depth and breadth of my disgust for the most arrogantly corrupt, misogynistic, white nationalist, and perjured court. Fascism has taken control of two of our three branches. How can we survive as a united nation?

Expand the court, but with non-kkkristian POC and women. We need balance, integrity, honesty, and representaion. All things Roberts’ court disparages.

Expand full comment

How tho' do we ever know even from past records, from hearings, what Justices will do? Look at Souter - was it thought he'd vote the way he did? How does one really check for character? Is it a gut check? And will it matter? If the Senate continues it's path, why do we think - an expanded Court will matter?

Expand full comment

When the Court is balanced, we can institute oversight and regulations for scotus, the same as every other court.

The old adage proves true: “never trust anyone past their ability to be trusted.” And since “all power corrupts” then we need to place guardrails on these humans. Sometimes wealth pushes even decent people to be tempted beyond their ability to resist. Oversight and laws would help with the frailties of the flesh- which is weak.

Expand full comment

The character arc it takes to admit mistakes is admirable. Steve, you have been a big part of the forces who have brought our country and our world to the brink of fascism. What did you think at the time you were doing it? That these were honorable people? Did you share their views? Are you in therapy? You are inextricably a part of this. I admire your admissions, your contrition. But what can you do about the terrible harm you yourself have visited on the world? I am having a hard time with this.

Expand full comment

We were all young once--I supported Kucinich the first time he ran. Steve's views are evolving. He volunteered for the Ryan campaign. He's out here shilling for democracy. I think he's stepping up.

Expand full comment

It’s in the order of magnitude. Your “support” of Kasich was misguided, but benign. Steve really did help usher in the crucial parts of the equation that are literally driving us into fascism. I hope he’s seeing a good therapist about the danger his actions - yes, he was one of many - but even a mid-level Nazi still did Hitler’s bidding, and it was still terrible.

Once Fascism takes hold; it is impossible to root out, largely due to its trappings of legality. It took a brutal world war to stop it in Germany and Italy (Japan had it’s own form) - and Spain stayed Fascist until 1975, when Franco died. It takes a bit, but please, please - read this: https://hartmannreport.com/p/revealed-the-magat-republicans-three-e98

Expand full comment

Kucinich, not Kasich! We can't let a rumor start that I ever voted in a Republican primary!

Expand full comment

Hah!! Sorry! But seriously, you just proved my point. You've never even voted for a Republican. Poor Steve has to carry that he was not just an "operative" - he was tasked with getting Alito and Roberts confirmed; plus he worked for (and took money from) a whole host of terrible people. There is no valuable Republican ideology. They have *always* been a crowd of racists who blame the poor, the brown, the gay, and the female for having the temerity to live with dignity. They have caused *every* economic disaster from the 1898 depression to the mini-recession in 2019. They have more than 100 years of terrible, often hateful policies. I simply have to ask - when is it a bridge too far?

Expand full comment

I absolutely do not disagree with you about the Republican record on domestic policy. I just think Steve is moving on to make things better, which is all any of us can do. I actually did vote for a Republican once--Mac Matthias in 1980--but I was never a registered Republican. That, since you asked, would be my bridge too far.

Expand full comment

What I was going to say first is, "Franco is still dead," and see how old "Warning" readers really are...

Expand full comment

Here is Thom Hartmann's writing on his theory of matchmaking a billionaire buddy with a SCJ, with all the history to prove the theorem.

https://hartmannreport.com/p/have-billionaires-outfitted-justices-062?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Expand full comment

He’s the best! He’s all about an informed voter. ♥️

Expand full comment

Martha, thank you for sharing that article. Wow. Excellent encapsulation, and terrifying. I shared on my social media.

Expand full comment

I adore Thom Hartmann. His show is so informative. He’s a national treasure.

Expand full comment

People do change, Rose Anne. Some people, like Michael Cohen, and Steve in his posts, try turn back the evils they promoted or helped to exist, but can only do so much. It is better that they try, and fail, than not try at all.

I, for one, relish the comeuppance awaiting the Gilded Turd®️ and hope for a better tomorrow.

Expand full comment

Steve Schmidt is working 24/7 to defeat MAGA and preserve Democracy with "The Warning" newsletter, monthly zoom session, podcasts, and more. He's a hard-hitter and he's on the side of Democracy non-stop. He's gaining subscribers on his "The Warning" youtube almost exponentially. He is dealing with NOW and NOW, which is the best thing we all need to do now to stay afloat. We must focused on what must be done NOW and in the future. Thanks.

Expand full comment

Tell it Lisa!! As you say RIGHT ON!! We all grow wiser with our years. 100% agreed with you Steve is the best! If I called out all my past errors I would be miserable. I am knocked out by Steve’s transparency. It is one of the things that make me trust him more.

Expand full comment
Jun 22, 2023·edited Jun 22, 2023

Taking responsibility is a great lesson for all of us. Your regret should be an example for many many others, especially elected officials who thought the process of confirmation was enough to ensure trust. That clearly is not the case and it has gotten worse. The corruption of the confirmation process is clearly at the root of public mistrust. The question is, is it all a ruse?

Expand full comment

I commented above to DeeDee D - how do we learn of one's character in the hearings? Even if there is a voting record, do we know? I cited Souter as an example of someone who defied most of our (or maybe just my) expectations in his solid judicial considerations.

Expand full comment

The notion of the Supreme Court, as an impartial bastion of wisdom predicated on exquisite scholarship, may be vital to our nation, but, in its current iteration, it is a rusted anchor laced with decaying rot of unidentifiable flesh, dragging us into the bottomless morass.

Also, the Court conferred It's powers onto itself, and We The People can and should yank those back until and unless they can comport themselves in the bearing of a Supreme Court Justice of our memories.

Expand full comment

Mia, you use the most evocative imagery.

Expand full comment

Sometimes it's easiest in these times to envision representative imagery!

Expand full comment

I'd like to point out, that while Steve mat not be not totally blameless, due to his past associations, what IS wrong with SCOTUS and our country

are not his sole responsibility.

You have to look much further right than where Steve sits at this point in

his life and the factions that,

through money and power

acquired with money, have

been working for quite a long

time.

The Federalist Society,

Heritage Foundation are just

two. Look at how many others have sprung up and

are financed by uber wealthy.

Look at what's happened to the GOP. Even some within

the Democratic party.

This is why it's so important to pay attention!

Expand full comment

Steve your telling us the truth about

The justices you helped to get through

The appointment to the Supreme Court

Was extremely brave and it’s called

Honesty….you were young … you’ve

Grown in depth and the fact that you’re

Truthful your wife & children and mom

Must be proud of your facing the truth!

Feel sad for the consequences you have had to endure… I still respect you…

Help us to fix this mess Steve and please

Continue to support our democracy and unveil the horrors…you amaze me an I’m honored to be part of The Warning…

Love and Support, Marsha

Expand full comment

Yes, Marsha, Steve is honest and brave. He's a Hero who works night and day to protect our Democracy. xoxo

Expand full comment

Have a great weekend Lisa🌹

I’ll be working with three couples

Who lost nine children doing grief counseling at the Hospice Hospital

You’re very kind😇Marsha

Expand full comment

Marsha, I wish these court justices had one ounce of the heart you have. You are a true inspiration. Love you.🌹😇

Expand full comment

Lisa you inspire me and give me hope for the future and I love you

Also ..keep writing and keep doing

All you’re doing ✅Marsha

Expand full comment

🌹🌹🌹😇Marsha

Expand full comment

🌹🌹🌹😇!!!! xoxox

Expand full comment

Janet R bless you for responding

Your genuinely kind🌹Marsha

Expand full comment

Every billion earned by these sycophants is a brain cell destroyed never to be regenerated back to the time when a comfortable existence could be managed and enough! At least you recognize and admit your mistakes Steve and that is a rare gift!

Expand full comment

Well said and I hope enlightening to others who are now realizing the hidden corruption and blatant partisan hypocrisy during the confirmation hearings of the justices of our lifetimes. I have no illusions that there hasn’t been bias on the side of both parties. However, I remember the Thomas hearings and as a woman, was sickened to see what played out against Anita Hill, and realized this was a flawed process, for an unfit candidate. It has only gotten worse with time.

I don’t know if there will ever be enough votes to bring the change we need until the entire generation of congressmen that brought us this travesty have gone to their graves. Even then, without a clear majority of sane voters who will vote for candidates who have a true belief in democracy and the rule of law we may lose it all in our foreseeable future.

Expand full comment