Spent two days in DC with grandchildren. Most moving experience was the changing of the guard at tomb of the unknown soldier. The dome of the capital building is visible. I was struck by the juxtaposition of the orderly process of the changing of the guard. The precision, the solemnity the heart stirring reason for this ceremony when my mind’s eye saw flashes of Jan 6. The disgusting display of deliberately misinformed terrorists, dressed in all manor of costume, screaming, clawing, totally disrespecting the system we are trying to maintain.
We now are going to see 149 well dressed terrorists who should have known better, than to show any credence to the claims of “rigged election” be honored by taking an oath that they have already broken.
61 cases brought to various courts claiming election fraud, 61 cases reviewed and 60 cases thrown out of court, many from Republican judges.
The honor guard at the Tomb of the unknown soldier and all Americans were slapped in the face by the mob, which was brought to the capitol by a deranged minority president.
The new house majority has one agenda, revenge. One helluva goal. Shame on anyone who voted to elect these representatives and who voted for the Terrorist in Chief.
Could we the people bring a class action suit against those traitorous members that seeks to have them barred from office under the 14th Amendment. I certainly want to see them in the glare of brightly lit truth for the next two years. No day should go by that they aren’t questioned about their dereliction and nothing else.
Chaos is the point, isn’t it? The Far Right hates the Federal Government and many of the representatives ran for office to destroy the Federal Government so they could return to the days of pre-Civil War/Jim Crow days. They will then be able to mistreat people in their states under the “States Rights” ideology.
Last night I was re-watching the series, “The Men Who Built America.” That series so succinctly describes the “Robber Barons” of the time. The comparison to the Billionaires and grifters of the ‘Gilded Age,” to billionaires and members of Congress today, is stunning. Blind ambition and ruthlessness is as old as time. It may be a new millennium but human ambition and ruthlessness never ends. Sadly, It just morphs to fit the times.
Yes! Donald Trump selected for his cabinet as leaders of various departments, bureaus, and agencies, people who had voiced opposition to the very existence of the department, bureau, or agency they were now selected to lead.
I remember many, many years ago reading about the "Robber Barons" and the "Gilded Age", and being so thankful that period was in our nation's past. Wrong.
I’ have recently come to the decision that humans haven’t changed much since the beginning of time. We just have more technology. AND the technology enables these people to spread their hubris and insanity far and wide.
Wow, Steve, you've hit another whopping home run here. These traitorous Republican congresspersons will only reveal how craven, corrupt and crazy they are over the next two years, starting on day one today.
Ms. Hicks was profoundly concerned about her own employment prospects while Capitol Police were being beaten and assaulted. My heart goes out to her. /s
But she did get one thing nearly right - they didn't all just "look" like domestic terrorists; they actually were.
We can either suffer this moment in dread or apply critical eyes of moral judgement with a commitment to the common good. The latter will make America better. The former is just lying down and taking the beating. Thank you for being one of the right voices at the right time, Steve. Helping people stand up and have their say in the world we all live in.
Good morning For those not in DC the roads are a nightmare as new members and staff are trying to find their way to the Hill. First day on Campus x1000.
Steve, excellent article on what to expect. It is a nightmare and if it wasn’t for the national/international impact might be theater of the a absurd
Most interested in how successful this Congress will be with returning material already at Archives and how DOJ will address members swearing their oaths today with what they did on Jan 6 2021
This is good, Steve. The only good thing to come out of this, as you stated, will be an awakening (my hope) by the American people. In the end it will destroy the current members of the Republican Party and change how many vote. It probably has to happen, although I wish we could avoid this disaster. We will be taught many lessons over the next couple of years, lessons we should have learned or never have forgotten, but I guess there are times when we must learn again. It seems to be a human characteristic.
Thank you for your posts! I have been watching the documentary you recommended about John Adams! It is fantastic. I’m very interested in the Freemasons and how that may have affected the founding fathers. Do you have a recommendation for a good book in this regards? Thank you again for your thoughts and perspectives !
Thanks for the positive feedback! Glad that you’re enjoying the docuseries. I know that many of the founding fathers were Freemasons, but I know less about Freemasonry than I should, in part because I was raised Catholic, and thus couldn’t be a Freemason, as I understand it. I do know that there are a great many conspiracy theories that come from Freemasonry. It exists in the same space as the Gates Foundation and the Illuminati.
Anyone else have book recos on this topic for Melinda?
I would suggest reading “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown. It’s fiction but you get a good understanding of the impact the Masons had on our founding. DC streets will make more sense, too. Also, visit Alexandria, Virginia and tour the monument there. There is a lot of Freemason history there, including the outfits they wore that creepily remind you of KKK uniforms. Secret societies and elitist organizations like the Masons are a key part of our history. Not sure if it is a good thing or not.
The KKK was a vicious offshoot of bigoted Freemasonry circles in the South and Midwest. Both groups wear the red cross of the old, extinct Knights Templar-- the major "origin story" and "grievance story."
P.S.-- It's notable that during the 19th century Freemasonry circles had become so powerful and insular (e.g., guaranteeing the success or failure of local businesses, depending on whether the proprietor was a Mason or not) that many African-American leaders created their OWN version of black Masonry. It's said that Jesse Jackson was a member of a group surviving into the 20th century -- though i don't know that for a fact..... This all makes for fascinating history.
The Great Seal of the U.S., printed on the back of every dollar bill, is loaded with Freemasonic "esoteric" symbolism and numerology around the number 13 (1 + 3 = 4, the number best symbolizing a stable foundation [think of the 4 legs of a chair or table], and of course the 1 + 3 means the Trinity in the One), which is why the founders insisted on 13 colonies and obsessed over showing 13 everywhere they could.... the eagle (formerly a phoenix, symbolic of death and rebirth as a Masonic brother) has 13 arrows and 13 leaves on the branch, the pyramid has 13 steps, and so many foundational phrases like Annuit Coeptis and E Pluribus Unum have 13 letters.
The obelisk in Wash. DC, found in many other Freemason-created national capitals, is an ancient esoteric Egyptian monument.
Melinda, in the UK in the 1980s-90s there were a couple of incendiary books published about the modern-era corruption and undue influence of the Freemasons, and how that secret society was "the enemy of Christianity." (And if you doubt there is much Masonic influence in the USA, for many decades right up to the present, the periodical "New Age," published by an arm of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, has usually been in the top 3 or top 5 periodicals-in-circulation in the USA!! - an astonishing fact considering that the magazine appears on virtually NO PUBLIC NEWSTANDS anywhere in the US. So the idea that Freemasonry in this country is only a tired old "grandfatherly" remnant from an earlier era is false.)
A lot of the findings in those two UK-published books came from 1) moles and 2) high-level Masons themselves who were alarmed by the selfish opportunism and conniving greed of too many of their peers in the "Brotherhood." I personally know of several cases of rank corruption, favoritism, and elitism perpetrated by high-ranking American Scottish Rite Masons in California.
The most insidious thing uncovered by the British authors of those two books (can't recall the titles) was that Masons put their own interests above the law, especially in the commanding rule to "protect brother Masons"-- e.g., a Masonic judge is REQUIRED by the secret laws of Masonry to find a way to dismiss or overturn a legal case against a defendant who is stealthily revealed (by himself or by his lawyer) to be a Mason, no matter how guilty that man might be. That's corrupt! And un-American! (even if George Washington and most of the founding fathers were Masons).
Another finding in those books was that Freemasons are rife and dominant within politics, law enforcement, the publishing and banking and other industries, and major university heads. As one angry young woman (the daughter and granddaughter of prominent Calif. Masons) told me, "These f&%kers rule the world!"
For balance, let me also say -- as someone who grew up Roman Catholic (Catholics are the declared enemy of Freemasonry, having to do with a nearly millennium old execution campaign against the Knights Templars by a corrupt pope and French king) -- that i DEEPLY APPRECIATE all those Masonic scholars and explorers who were major figures in the discovery of eastern religions and texts, and the promotion of religious plurality and inter-faith understanding.
Without the Freemasonic revolutions in the USA, UK, France, Germany, and Italy, we'd probably all still be living under intolerant Catholic/Christian monarchies.
Thanks! I think we are in danger of living under an intolerant Christian, racist-white only, heterosexual , anti intellectual , anti science monarchy as it is! I was raised as a Baptist and was a registered Republican for a long time until Trump was the candidate. I have been a registered independent since. I did not know what being a Republican really meant. I think I was probably a liberal consensus, Eisenhower Republican. I don’t like either party; I want a functioning government! I have been fascinated with American History since 2015, trying to understand how the hell we got where we are now!
“a Masonic judge is REQUIRED by the secret laws of Masonry to find a way to dismiss or overturn a legal case against a defendant who is stealthily revealed (by himself or by his lawyer) to be a Mason, no matter how guilty that man might be.”
Substitute “Muslim” for “Mason” and it remains a true statement (which, for me at least, is a bit surreal). I suspect, Timothy, that one of the two books you mention is The Craft by John Dickie. I wasn’t able to narrow down the other one from the criteria given.
Today maybe remembered as The Day of the Long Knives with backroom dealing and and back stabbing. You are absolutely correct in your assessments regarding timid Kevin being among tigress and tigers. They have been circling him for months salivating building their appetites. He knows he has already been beaten and is lookingfor an ally in thefaces of those about to consume him. He has no more cards to play and he will be devoured and remembered by history for the feckless, sniveling coward he truly is. They have taken his manhood and revealed it for the embarrassment it is. Too bad Kev, you were given an opportunity to do the right thing on January 6th and you chose poorly and sided with insurrectionists. There are no rewards for traitors, just punishment. Your crimes have been recorded and the world sees you for your true coward self.
It is soon to be seven years that the United States has been living with the disaster of DJT. When do we ever recover from this nightmare, can we recover and still be a United States? I keep thinking about our young people and what we are handing over; A broken government filled with corruption, A planet that is on the edge of total collapse. It breaks my heart to watch this decline of a country that was the beacon of so many people wanting freedom and a better way of life.
Yes, though in fact we can count the duration of the hell that the orange sadist has forced us to endure as 8 years, from his announcement of his candidacy in 2015.
We are all domestic terrorists now. What a line. I have a sick feeling that certain members of this congress would proudly wear a t-shirt emblazoned with those words.
As Steve has observed before, culture determines politics. The civil war in the Republican Party today is a continuation of the civil war that never truly ended. To become a mature democracy, the US must thoroughly defeat the retro faction. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/why-the-us-is-not-headed-for-civil
I can’t say that I’m a big fan of Michael Moore but I love his wanted poster 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 and as to Hope Hicks may I recommend Las Vegas, the “hospitality” industry there will value her evident “talent” at least for the next 10 or so years. 😎
Spent two days in DC with grandchildren. Most moving experience was the changing of the guard at tomb of the unknown soldier. The dome of the capital building is visible. I was struck by the juxtaposition of the orderly process of the changing of the guard. The precision, the solemnity the heart stirring reason for this ceremony when my mind’s eye saw flashes of Jan 6. The disgusting display of deliberately misinformed terrorists, dressed in all manor of costume, screaming, clawing, totally disrespecting the system we are trying to maintain.
We now are going to see 149 well dressed terrorists who should have known better, than to show any credence to the claims of “rigged election” be honored by taking an oath that they have already broken.
61 cases brought to various courts claiming election fraud, 61 cases reviewed and 60 cases thrown out of court, many from Republican judges.
The honor guard at the Tomb of the unknown soldier and all Americans were slapped in the face by the mob, which was brought to the capitol by a deranged minority president.
The new house majority has one agenda, revenge. One helluva goal. Shame on anyone who voted to elect these representatives and who voted for the Terrorist in Chief.
Man that’s good
Rave on Steve Schmidt, you are spot on with your writing. Many thanks for your insights.
Could we the people bring a class action suit against those traitorous members that seeks to have them barred from office under the 14th Amendment. I certainly want to see them in the glare of brightly lit truth for the next two years. No day should go by that they aren’t questioned about their dereliction and nothing else.
interesting thought
I have long wished we could pursue such an avenue, but would likely be ceremonial and showy and costly but lack teeth.....
Chaos is the point, isn’t it? The Far Right hates the Federal Government and many of the representatives ran for office to destroy the Federal Government so they could return to the days of pre-Civil War/Jim Crow days. They will then be able to mistreat people in their states under the “States Rights” ideology.
Last night I was re-watching the series, “The Men Who Built America.” That series so succinctly describes the “Robber Barons” of the time. The comparison to the Billionaires and grifters of the ‘Gilded Age,” to billionaires and members of Congress today, is stunning. Blind ambition and ruthlessness is as old as time. It may be a new millennium but human ambition and ruthlessness never ends. Sadly, It just morphs to fit the times.
Yes! Donald Trump selected for his cabinet as leaders of various departments, bureaus, and agencies, people who had voiced opposition to the very existence of the department, bureau, or agency they were now selected to lead.
Exactly!
Roller, DISGRACEFUL! (And now the attack on them begins: Coco Chow.)
I remember many, many years ago reading about the "Robber Barons" and the "Gilded Age", and being so thankful that period was in our nation's past. Wrong.
I’ have recently come to the decision that humans haven’t changed much since the beginning of time. We just have more technology. AND the technology enables these people to spread their hubris and insanity far and wide.
Wow, Steve, you've hit another whopping home run here. These traitorous Republican congresspersons will only reveal how craven, corrupt and crazy they are over the next two years, starting on day one today.
Ms. Hicks was profoundly concerned about her own employment prospects while Capitol Police were being beaten and assaulted. My heart goes out to her. /s
But she did get one thing nearly right - they didn't all just "look" like domestic terrorists; they actually were.
Touche!
We can either suffer this moment in dread or apply critical eyes of moral judgement with a commitment to the common good. The latter will make America better. The former is just lying down and taking the beating. Thank you for being one of the right voices at the right time, Steve. Helping people stand up and have their say in the world we all live in.
Good morning For those not in DC the roads are a nightmare as new members and staff are trying to find their way to the Hill. First day on Campus x1000.
Steve, excellent article on what to expect. It is a nightmare and if it wasn’t for the national/international impact might be theater of the a absurd
Most interested in how successful this Congress will be with returning material already at Archives and how DOJ will address members swearing their oaths today with what they did on Jan 6 2021
This is good, Steve. The only good thing to come out of this, as you stated, will be an awakening (my hope) by the American people. In the end it will destroy the current members of the Republican Party and change how many vote. It probably has to happen, although I wish we could avoid this disaster. We will be taught many lessons over the next couple of years, lessons we should have learned or never have forgotten, but I guess there are times when we must learn again. It seems to be a human characteristic.
Thank you for your posts! I have been watching the documentary you recommended about John Adams! It is fantastic. I’m very interested in the Freemasons and how that may have affected the founding fathers. Do you have a recommendation for a good book in this regards? Thank you again for your thoughts and perspectives !
Thanks for the positive feedback! Glad that you’re enjoying the docuseries. I know that many of the founding fathers were Freemasons, but I know less about Freemasonry than I should, in part because I was raised Catholic, and thus couldn’t be a Freemason, as I understand it. I do know that there are a great many conspiracy theories that come from Freemasonry. It exists in the same space as the Gates Foundation and the Illuminati.
Anyone else have book recos on this topic for Melinda?
I would suggest reading “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown. It’s fiction but you get a good understanding of the impact the Masons had on our founding. DC streets will make more sense, too. Also, visit Alexandria, Virginia and tour the monument there. There is a lot of Freemason history there, including the outfits they wore that creepily remind you of KKK uniforms. Secret societies and elitist organizations like the Masons are a key part of our history. Not sure if it is a good thing or not.
The KKK was a vicious offshoot of bigoted Freemasonry circles in the South and Midwest. Both groups wear the red cross of the old, extinct Knights Templar-- the major "origin story" and "grievance story."
P.S.-- It's notable that during the 19th century Freemasonry circles had become so powerful and insular (e.g., guaranteeing the success or failure of local businesses, depending on whether the proprietor was a Mason or not) that many African-American leaders created their OWN version of black Masonry. It's said that Jesse Jackson was a member of a group surviving into the 20th century -- though i don't know that for a fact..... This all makes for fascinating history.
The Great Seal of the U.S., printed on the back of every dollar bill, is loaded with Freemasonic "esoteric" symbolism and numerology around the number 13 (1 + 3 = 4, the number best symbolizing a stable foundation [think of the 4 legs of a chair or table], and of course the 1 + 3 means the Trinity in the One), which is why the founders insisted on 13 colonies and obsessed over showing 13 everywhere they could.... the eagle (formerly a phoenix, symbolic of death and rebirth as a Masonic brother) has 13 arrows and 13 leaves on the branch, the pyramid has 13 steps, and so many foundational phrases like Annuit Coeptis and E Pluribus Unum have 13 letters.
The obelisk in Wash. DC, found in many other Freemason-created national capitals, is an ancient esoteric Egyptian monument.
Fascinating!
Melinda, in the UK in the 1980s-90s there were a couple of incendiary books published about the modern-era corruption and undue influence of the Freemasons, and how that secret society was "the enemy of Christianity." (And if you doubt there is much Masonic influence in the USA, for many decades right up to the present, the periodical "New Age," published by an arm of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, has usually been in the top 3 or top 5 periodicals-in-circulation in the USA!! - an astonishing fact considering that the magazine appears on virtually NO PUBLIC NEWSTANDS anywhere in the US. So the idea that Freemasonry in this country is only a tired old "grandfatherly" remnant from an earlier era is false.)
A lot of the findings in those two UK-published books came from 1) moles and 2) high-level Masons themselves who were alarmed by the selfish opportunism and conniving greed of too many of their peers in the "Brotherhood." I personally know of several cases of rank corruption, favoritism, and elitism perpetrated by high-ranking American Scottish Rite Masons in California.
The most insidious thing uncovered by the British authors of those two books (can't recall the titles) was that Masons put their own interests above the law, especially in the commanding rule to "protect brother Masons"-- e.g., a Masonic judge is REQUIRED by the secret laws of Masonry to find a way to dismiss or overturn a legal case against a defendant who is stealthily revealed (by himself or by his lawyer) to be a Mason, no matter how guilty that man might be. That's corrupt! And un-American! (even if George Washington and most of the founding fathers were Masons).
Another finding in those books was that Freemasons are rife and dominant within politics, law enforcement, the publishing and banking and other industries, and major university heads. As one angry young woman (the daughter and granddaughter of prominent Calif. Masons) told me, "These f&%kers rule the world!"
For balance, let me also say -- as someone who grew up Roman Catholic (Catholics are the declared enemy of Freemasonry, having to do with a nearly millennium old execution campaign against the Knights Templars by a corrupt pope and French king) -- that i DEEPLY APPRECIATE all those Masonic scholars and explorers who were major figures in the discovery of eastern religions and texts, and the promotion of religious plurality and inter-faith understanding.
Without the Freemasonic revolutions in the USA, UK, France, Germany, and Italy, we'd probably all still be living under intolerant Catholic/Christian monarchies.
Thanks! I think we are in danger of living under an intolerant Christian, racist-white only, heterosexual , anti intellectual , anti science monarchy as it is! I was raised as a Baptist and was a registered Republican for a long time until Trump was the candidate. I have been a registered independent since. I did not know what being a Republican really meant. I think I was probably a liberal consensus, Eisenhower Republican. I don’t like either party; I want a functioning government! I have been fascinated with American History since 2015, trying to understand how the hell we got where we are now!
“a Masonic judge is REQUIRED by the secret laws of Masonry to find a way to dismiss or overturn a legal case against a defendant who is stealthily revealed (by himself or by his lawyer) to be a Mason, no matter how guilty that man might be.”
Substitute “Muslim” for “Mason” and it remains a true statement (which, for me at least, is a bit surreal). I suspect, Timothy, that one of the two books you mention is The Craft by John Dickie. I wasn’t able to narrow down the other one from the criteria given.
Roller Rover, Shocking!!
Fascinating -- and frightening -- information. Thank you Timothy Conway.
Today maybe remembered as The Day of the Long Knives with backroom dealing and and back stabbing. You are absolutely correct in your assessments regarding timid Kevin being among tigress and tigers. They have been circling him for months salivating building their appetites. He knows he has already been beaten and is lookingfor an ally in thefaces of those about to consume him. He has no more cards to play and he will be devoured and remembered by history for the feckless, sniveling coward he truly is. They have taken his manhood and revealed it for the embarrassment it is. Too bad Kev, you were given an opportunity to do the right thing on January 6th and you chose poorly and sided with insurrectionists. There are no rewards for traitors, just punishment. Your crimes have been recorded and the world sees you for your true coward self.
It is soon to be seven years that the United States has been living with the disaster of DJT. When do we ever recover from this nightmare, can we recover and still be a United States? I keep thinking about our young people and what we are handing over; A broken government filled with corruption, A planet that is on the edge of total collapse. It breaks my heart to watch this decline of a country that was the beacon of so many people wanting freedom and a better way of life.
Yes, though in fact we can count the duration of the hell that the orange sadist has forced us to endure as 8 years, from his announcement of his candidacy in 2015.
Once again your insight has captured the truth behind the current Republication thirst for power. It is frightening indeed ….
We are all domestic terrorists now. What a line. I have a sick feeling that certain members of this congress would proudly wear a t-shirt emblazoned with those words.
As Steve has observed before, culture determines politics. The civil war in the Republican Party today is a continuation of the civil war that never truly ended. To become a mature democracy, the US must thoroughly defeat the retro faction. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/why-the-us-is-not-headed-for-civil
I can’t say that I’m a big fan of Michael Moore but I love his wanted poster 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 and as to Hope Hicks may I recommend Las Vegas, the “hospitality” industry there will value her evident “talent” at least for the next 10 or so years. 😎