In the latest edition of "The Schmidt Storm", I answer your questions about Elon's election scheming in Wisconsin, the SignalGate fallout, and how Trump's latest tariffs will impact American farmers:The Warning with Steve Schmidt is a reader-supported publication.
I agree with everything Steve says about election reform, but would like to add something that I believe is critical: end the Electoral College and go to direct popular vote. We have in place this terrible system that gives, for example, great power to a small number of citizens in a few counties in Pennsylvania or North Carolina or Wisconsin.
By allowing this, we disenfranchise so many voters and skew our democracy. Remember this: the only reason the Electoral College exists is because of slavery.
It is probably not the best check or balance. We know that the financial and technical manipulation by the owners of this data and ultimately is manipulated to corrupt all elections in this and probably all elections. The checks and balances no longer protect our democratic government. The people had no voice in the last election. It was a one party election bought and paid for by the wealthiest persons which only governs by and for party consisting of the richest persons in the world. We lost the democracy when we let United stand and the Congress failed to correct it. Why would they when the case made them million and billionaires.
I don't think slavery was the only reason... but it was the dominant reason. Beneath that, was the fact that the Founders, who were all from the Colonial elite, North or South, just didn't trust the judgment of the common man. They considered the Frontiersmen and other lowly types (i.e. Anyone not educated at Harvard) to be far beneath them. But the elites were small in number (as elites always are. It's by definition) so they would make alliance with factions of the Great Unwashed. Every now and then one faction or another would realize they were being hoodwinked by whichever faction of the elite was their partners. And when that happened, populism was born. A reaction to a political marriage of convenience. Populism usually ends badly, especially the militant kind. So we have that to look forward to.
Hear hear... that has to be one of the worst decisions SCOTUS has ever made. And it was made especially for Punk Trump. Talk about hope overpowering experience. The American voters broke my heart at the last election. Which is probably what the average idealist is all about.
Is there a way to be idealistic and realistic at the same time???
If we survive this regime, it will be necessary to call a Constitutional Convention to create a democracy with the necessary safeguards to prevent this debacle from being repeated. Most importantly, the resulting Constitution should call for publicly financed elections at every level, automatically register all citizens who meet the requirements to vote, criminalize gerrymandering, eliminate the electoral college, and guarantee all Americans the basic necessities, housing, food, medical care, and a solid education.
I agree with you up to the list you are guaranteeing all Americans. I need further explanation from you. Are future Americans required to work and give back?What type of housing? What type of education? I am cool with education Pre K-12. Not college until we find a way to provide free universities/colleges for all citizens. I would probably support it under those scenarios. Same for medical care. A better version of all the countries who now offer government paid national health care. Of course that requires a whole new tax code. I also believe that there should be term limits for ALL Members of Congress, the SC justices, and federal judges. I also think we could look at one 6 year term for the presidency. TERM LIMITS WOULD HAVE TO BE ON A NATIONAL SPECIAL ELECTION BALLOT BECAUSE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ARE NEVER GOING TO PUT TERM LIMITS ON THEMSELVES.
I believe in a graduated income tax with no deductions and no income under $50,000 annually taxed. The rate should rise to 50% for those making over $250,000, 80% over $500,000 and 90% over $1m. Of course, a caring Congress would have the data necessary to modify these rates as necessary but always with the goal of being certain no one can become a Musk, Bezos, or Zuckerberg, i.e. a billionaire.
This leaves enough incentive to reward talent and entrepreneurship. The revenue would easily support a university education to all qualified students. Society would benefit, businesses as well, with this growth of human resources. Everyone should be able to live in comfortable but not extravagant housing and receive health care on an equal basis at public expense.
More needs to be said about what underpins those “reality shows” and the culture of spectacle—of watching and vicariously enjoying as entertainment the cruelty, envy, lust, power-and-money worship, etc. that used to be considered vices, but which became de facto virtues. This amoral acquisitiveness and admiration of its most practiced aficionados replaced and displaced the essential virtues of democratic citizenship. “Greed is good,” declared Gordon Gecko. And that was the beginning of the project of turning his “reality” into the only show in town.
Yeah... they pretty well suppressed the good-hearted idealists. Suppressed but not dead. Idealism's been playing possum.
Do you think it all started with Lewis Powell's infamous memo advocating that the Big Money conspire amongst themselves and organize against the rest of us. Classic class warfare.
But do you think that it started with Powell? Or did it start with Buchanan? Or maybe with the Dupont's before them?
I think it goes back to the Wall Street Putsch of 1933 when big money plotted to overthrow FDR. There was never an acceptance of the social safety net and the reforms that were enacted in the New Deal. Two years later (1935) Sinclair Lewis published “It Can’t Happen Here,” which he knew very well could.
Steve has left me shaken! Where is the kill switch for this Administration? It has obviously, before our very eyes, placed this country, every man, woman & child in jeopardy! JEOPARDY, AS IN LIFE ENDING! The leaders of our country must step up, DO SOMETHING TO STOP THIS CRIMINAL ADMINISTRATION, made up of convicted felons, frauds, sexual predators, corrupt, vile, narcissistic oligarchs, hell bent on the complete, subjugation, domination & ultimately the destruction of this Republic! How to stop this unimaginable crime? Take Cory Booker’s lead dominate the attention of Congress, assemble military leaders, state leaders, past Presidents, any history bending movers & shakers who believe in this country to take charge, apply the breaks, remove the broken, malevolent individuals, infected into the depths of the government’s mechanisms, that are threatening, assaulting & marking us for compliance/dominance, perhaps death?
The tariffs will never touch the farmers. Grassley, et al will bargain and subsidize so that the farmers never lose a dime. Last time, the farmers actually came out ahead.
Which is why I am not donating a dime to the Big D orgs; DNC, DLCC, DCCC, etc until I see some evidence that they are using their vast war chest to support the party out in the rural areas of the South & the West.
If I see that they are sharing the wealth, then I may donate again. In the meantime, I’ll give to the orgs that are helping younger & diverse candidates. They all must be pro choice & strongly believe in the separation of church & state.
The loss of our honor really is a tragedy. We end up working for scoundrels - we are below them if we let them stay in power. We're going to have to figure out why we do what we do - the bigger primates seem to want to be superior - it's got to be more than than.
Trumps brown shirts ICE Nasi's are being directed to go after university students who are here with valid visa documents but are told to stay clear of meat packing plants in the state of Iowa, for unauthorized migrants in the U.S. because of Trump's desire to keep the beef flowing! He is showing his corrupt favoritisms in practice to suit his regime
Someone else recently pointed that out. They said they live in an area with many meat packers & that in the past when there has been a big push to find & deport undocumented migrants; ICE has always hit those & also large dairy operations, & the fruit & vegetable farmers that require large numbers of people. Raids at those places have been conspicuously few.
Today I cancelled my subscription to The NY Times the last mainstream media I had. And one I have had for over 50 years. I have been increasingly disappointed in their coverage of Trump 2.0. but relegating coverage of the largest civilian protest since Vietnam to page 18 was the final straw. In the guise of journalistic fairness the Times continues to treat Trump as a sentient being, analyzing every non-sequitor as if it were Holy Writ—looking for a hidden meaning when there is merely ramblings of a demented child. Refusing to shout out what has been clear since 2016–that the emperor has no clothes and is likely suffering from senility. The current Times editorial staff would think fair journalism required looking for meaning in
the behavior of a rabid dog. Had the present Times editors received a copy of Hitler’s Final Solution they would have patted themselves on the back for the fairness of their analysis after they carefully pointed out the pros and cons of annihilating 6 million humans. They have become spineless cowards and I refuse to continue to subsidize them. Perhaps if enough people cancelled, the Times might go the way of the WaPo and sink into irrelevance. Worth a try and would save some trees in the bargain.
Yes, Steve, I agree with everything you said. I M saddened at the fact that our military is being demoralized, I remember Vietnam and the lack of respect for the institution, but I also remember when we became the good guys. The pride felt when the military went on humanitarian missions like the earthquake in Hati, Gulf War I, Special Forces in Afghanistan, etc… to get there took decades, sad we are once again facing this again.
The undermining of our public education system in the Oklahoma began with Plyer V Texas, where the Supreme Court rules that undocumented migrant children should be able to attend public school, and with the IDEA where disabled children could attend regular classes if they could do so with certain things in place. I learned from experience of dealing with the system regarding my son, he has Cerebral Palsy and while there were numerous wonderful teachers there were the few that hurt him by not acknowledging his intellegence for example; 4th grade his teacher insisted that there was no way he had a vocabulary of 11th grade and reading level of 7th grade, demanding that I have him read 2nd grade level books, we continued reading what he wanted. Where she hurt him the most was by not allowing him to use assistive devises to help him things like a pencil gripper I was told he had to perform as good as other children without devises. When he was in High School though I had a teacher ask me who taught him history, I explained that I did because when he had Spinal Fusion surgery the Middle school refused to send assignments home while he recuperated, and the teacher said the he knows more than he did regarding historical facts.
The crashing of our economy is going to take along time to recover from and it is crashing quicker than 2008. It took years to recover from that debacle brought to us by greed and some of the same people that are working with 45/47.
I agree with everything Steve says about election reform, but would like to add something that I believe is critical: end the Electoral College and go to direct popular vote. We have in place this terrible system that gives, for example, great power to a small number of citizens in a few counties in Pennsylvania or North Carolina or Wisconsin.
By allowing this, we disenfranchise so many voters and skew our democracy. Remember this: the only reason the Electoral College exists is because of slavery.
It is probably not the best check or balance. We know that the financial and technical manipulation by the owners of this data and ultimately is manipulated to corrupt all elections in this and probably all elections. The checks and balances no longer protect our democratic government. The people had no voice in the last election. It was a one party election bought and paid for by the wealthiest persons which only governs by and for party consisting of the richest persons in the world. We lost the democracy when we let United stand and the Congress failed to correct it. Why would they when the case made them million and billionaires.
I don't think slavery was the only reason... but it was the dominant reason. Beneath that, was the fact that the Founders, who were all from the Colonial elite, North or South, just didn't trust the judgment of the common man. They considered the Frontiersmen and other lowly types (i.e. Anyone not educated at Harvard) to be far beneath them. But the elites were small in number (as elites always are. It's by definition) so they would make alliance with factions of the Great Unwashed. Every now and then one faction or another would realize they were being hoodwinked by whichever faction of the elite was their partners. And when that happened, populism was born. A reaction to a political marriage of convenience. Populism usually ends badly, especially the militant kind. So we have that to look forward to.
Pure Powerful Excellence, Steve! Way to keep hitting hard! 🥊🥊❤️🥊🥊 Wake Up, America!
We also need an amendment to overturn Trump v U.S.
Hear hear... that has to be one of the worst decisions SCOTUS has ever made. And it was made especially for Punk Trump. Talk about hope overpowering experience. The American voters broke my heart at the last election. Which is probably what the average idealist is all about.
Is there a way to be idealistic and realistic at the same time???
Can that actually be done???
If we survive this regime, it will be necessary to call a Constitutional Convention to create a democracy with the necessary safeguards to prevent this debacle from being repeated. Most importantly, the resulting Constitution should call for publicly financed elections at every level, automatically register all citizens who meet the requirements to vote, criminalize gerrymandering, eliminate the electoral college, and guarantee all Americans the basic necessities, housing, food, medical care, and a solid education.
I agree with you up to the list you are guaranteeing all Americans. I need further explanation from you. Are future Americans required to work and give back?What type of housing? What type of education? I am cool with education Pre K-12. Not college until we find a way to provide free universities/colleges for all citizens. I would probably support it under those scenarios. Same for medical care. A better version of all the countries who now offer government paid national health care. Of course that requires a whole new tax code. I also believe that there should be term limits for ALL Members of Congress, the SC justices, and federal judges. I also think we could look at one 6 year term for the presidency. TERM LIMITS WOULD HAVE TO BE ON A NATIONAL SPECIAL ELECTION BALLOT BECAUSE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ARE NEVER GOING TO PUT TERM LIMITS ON THEMSELVES.
I believe in a graduated income tax with no deductions and no income under $50,000 annually taxed. The rate should rise to 50% for those making over $250,000, 80% over $500,000 and 90% over $1m. Of course, a caring Congress would have the data necessary to modify these rates as necessary but always with the goal of being certain no one can become a Musk, Bezos, or Zuckerberg, i.e. a billionaire.
This leaves enough incentive to reward talent and entrepreneurship. The revenue would easily support a university education to all qualified students. Society would benefit, businesses as well, with this growth of human resources. Everyone should be able to live in comfortable but not extravagant housing and receive health care on an equal basis at public expense.
More needs to be said about what underpins those “reality shows” and the culture of spectacle—of watching and vicariously enjoying as entertainment the cruelty, envy, lust, power-and-money worship, etc. that used to be considered vices, but which became de facto virtues. This amoral acquisitiveness and admiration of its most practiced aficionados replaced and displaced the essential virtues of democratic citizenship. “Greed is good,” declared Gordon Gecko. And that was the beginning of the project of turning his “reality” into the only show in town.
Yeah... they pretty well suppressed the good-hearted idealists. Suppressed but not dead. Idealism's been playing possum.
Do you think it all started with Lewis Powell's infamous memo advocating that the Big Money conspire amongst themselves and organize against the rest of us. Classic class warfare.
But do you think that it started with Powell? Or did it start with Buchanan? Or maybe with the Dupont's before them?
I think it goes back to the Wall Street Putsch of 1933 when big money plotted to overthrow FDR. There was never an acceptance of the social safety net and the reforms that were enacted in the New Deal. Two years later (1935) Sinclair Lewis published “It Can’t Happen Here,” which he knew very well could.
Steve has left me shaken! Where is the kill switch for this Administration? It has obviously, before our very eyes, placed this country, every man, woman & child in jeopardy! JEOPARDY, AS IN LIFE ENDING! The leaders of our country must step up, DO SOMETHING TO STOP THIS CRIMINAL ADMINISTRATION, made up of convicted felons, frauds, sexual predators, corrupt, vile, narcissistic oligarchs, hell bent on the complete, subjugation, domination & ultimately the destruction of this Republic! How to stop this unimaginable crime? Take Cory Booker’s lead dominate the attention of Congress, assemble military leaders, state leaders, past Presidents, any history bending movers & shakers who believe in this country to take charge, apply the breaks, remove the broken, malevolent individuals, infected into the depths of the government’s mechanisms, that are threatening, assaulting & marking us for compliance/dominance, perhaps death?
The tariffs will never touch the farmers. Grassley, et al will bargain and subsidize so that the farmers never lose a dime. Last time, the farmers actually came out ahead.
Yes, great post. The dems do need to reintroduce themselves to the
rural communities. All good points!
Which is why I am not donating a dime to the Big D orgs; DNC, DLCC, DCCC, etc until I see some evidence that they are using their vast war chest to support the party out in the rural areas of the South & the West.
If I see that they are sharing the wealth, then I may donate again. In the meantime, I’ll give to the orgs that are helping younger & diverse candidates. They all must be pro choice & strongly believe in the separation of church & state.
Add Texas to the list...
The loss of our honor really is a tragedy. We end up working for scoundrels - we are below them if we let them stay in power. We're going to have to figure out why we do what we do - the bigger primates seem to want to be superior - it's got to be more than than.
Trumps brown shirts ICE Nasi's are being directed to go after university students who are here with valid visa documents but are told to stay clear of meat packing plants in the state of Iowa, for unauthorized migrants in the U.S. because of Trump's desire to keep the beef flowing! He is showing his corrupt favoritisms in practice to suit his regime
Someone else recently pointed that out. They said they live in an area with many meat packers & that in the past when there has been a big push to find & deport undocumented migrants; ICE has always hit those & also large dairy operations, & the fruit & vegetable farmers that require large numbers of people. Raids at those places have been conspicuously few.
Good stuff. Spot on.
Consider this, please:
EITHER / OR
Good Day:
Call this message ‘current affairs, pizza style’….
We have A: EITHER-a slice of a Problem…..let’s call it a BIG problem:
-
https://substack.com/@lincolnsquare/note/c-105992571?r=3a3ul&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
-
Or there is this, B: OR
Perhaps a slice of a solution….
POTUS44 speaking TRUTH
One is empty calories. The other, while it might not be as immediately ‘satisfying’ has way more ‘nourishing’ qualities.
-
https://substack.com/@letsgetintoit2025/note/c-106093485?r=3a3ul&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
-
‘HandsOff!’-5.5.2025
Today I cancelled my subscription to The NY Times the last mainstream media I had. And one I have had for over 50 years. I have been increasingly disappointed in their coverage of Trump 2.0. but relegating coverage of the largest civilian protest since Vietnam to page 18 was the final straw. In the guise of journalistic fairness the Times continues to treat Trump as a sentient being, analyzing every non-sequitor as if it were Holy Writ—looking for a hidden meaning when there is merely ramblings of a demented child. Refusing to shout out what has been clear since 2016–that the emperor has no clothes and is likely suffering from senility. The current Times editorial staff would think fair journalism required looking for meaning in
the behavior of a rabid dog. Had the present Times editors received a copy of Hitler’s Final Solution they would have patted themselves on the back for the fairness of their analysis after they carefully pointed out the pros and cons of annihilating 6 million humans. They have become spineless cowards and I refuse to continue to subsidize them. Perhaps if enough people cancelled, the Times might go the way of the WaPo and sink into irrelevance. Worth a try and would save some trees in the bargain.
There needs to be a response to their lawlessness and refusal to acknowledge truth.
How can I get Steve’s writings in text format? I’m really deaf and never really hear spoken things on my phone.
Yes, Steve, I agree with everything you said. I M saddened at the fact that our military is being demoralized, I remember Vietnam and the lack of respect for the institution, but I also remember when we became the good guys. The pride felt when the military went on humanitarian missions like the earthquake in Hati, Gulf War I, Special Forces in Afghanistan, etc… to get there took decades, sad we are once again facing this again.
The undermining of our public education system in the Oklahoma began with Plyer V Texas, where the Supreme Court rules that undocumented migrant children should be able to attend public school, and with the IDEA where disabled children could attend regular classes if they could do so with certain things in place. I learned from experience of dealing with the system regarding my son, he has Cerebral Palsy and while there were numerous wonderful teachers there were the few that hurt him by not acknowledging his intellegence for example; 4th grade his teacher insisted that there was no way he had a vocabulary of 11th grade and reading level of 7th grade, demanding that I have him read 2nd grade level books, we continued reading what he wanted. Where she hurt him the most was by not allowing him to use assistive devises to help him things like a pencil gripper I was told he had to perform as good as other children without devises. When he was in High School though I had a teacher ask me who taught him history, I explained that I did because when he had Spinal Fusion surgery the Middle school refused to send assignments home while he recuperated, and the teacher said the he knows more than he did regarding historical facts.
The crashing of our economy is going to take along time to recover from and it is crashing quicker than 2008. It took years to recover from that debacle brought to us by greed and some of the same people that are working with 45/47.