Steve, thank you for a masterful presentation of the terrible consequences of having elected this miscreant named Trump. I agree with you on the issue of deportation and your questions bring into focus just how awful this process will be. I agree on the perversion of justice that will occur under a true weaponization of government. The consequences of failing to continue our support for Ukraine, in my opinion, could be WWIII and the end of us all. However, I disagree about the issue of "wokeness." No law was passed requiring people to call individuals "they." No law forcing men and women to use the same shared public bathrooms was passed or requiring sports teams for women to accept transgendered women. All of these issues were lied about by Trump and his campaign. All of them were "tempests in teapots" used to frighten a gullible public. To me and most progressives "woke" means tolerance: the right to live your life as you choose without government infringement, not making targets of those whose lifestyles don't fit into Christianity stunted morality.
Yes, and the "tempests in teapots" were amplified by Faux News, extremist talk radio, and social-media algorithms spewing disinformation, a great deal coming straight out of Russia.
We are finding out that "fake news" travels 6 times as fast as the truth. Watch "The Social Dilemma" Netflix documentary where engineers and psychologists who designed these algorithms come clean about the danger to our society.
Another lie was that children could go to a public school in the a.m. and return as the opposite sex in the p.m. What absolute horseshit. The fact that so many bought into it doesn't mean they really believed it; it just reveals their bigotry and hatred for those who dare defy their "god:" the god they created in their own image and in worshiping, worship themselves.
Trump has also said he plans to ban Muslims again, this time he will likely succeed. Textbooks will be re-written to present the "Gone With the Wind" lie about slavery and schiools will present "intelligent design" as an acceptable science based alternative to evolution.
Here is my "woke" comment of the day: Evangelical Christians are the mirror image of the extremist Muslims they despise. As are extremists in all religions. Most religious people, thank "heavens," temper their religious beliefs with a generous dose of secular reality.
If you think I overstate my case, consider the following:
November 11, 2024
Heather Cox Richardson
Nov 12
"The day after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Afghanistan’s Taliban offered its congratulations to the American people for 'not handing leadership of their great country to a woman.'”
The close relationship between ersatz Christianity, in all its grifter forms, such as self named pastors who set up shop and start a church, to mega church charlatan pastors, have taken the open life style of the LGBTQ community , which is no longer criminalized , coined “woke” by them and amplified and lied about how it is ruining life in America. . No more fake marriages, living in the “down low” etc. for everyone else but the above mentioned ersatz Christian church followers. No need to visit private gay porn sites and lie to the wife and your family. The complexity of homosexuality and transgenderism requires knowledge of the developing fetus and the brain in utero. Let’s just make it easy and scare the hell of people and call this community a bunch of freaks who are demanding public recognition. Let’s go back to the time when people were fired if it was revealed that they were gay, which occurred in my lifetime. People who are educated and not frightened by the complexity of human sexuality could be called “woke” but there are no laws demanding that level of sophistication on the millions of people so horrified about it that they would like to legislate against it. Our recently hired Junior Rabbi is a transgendered man. He looks like a man and is treated with respect by all. Let us ask that all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation be treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve under the Constitution.
The problem is weak people feel compelled to “be tolerant,” e.g. by using someone’s pronouns, or face attack. It’s like forcing religious beliefs. There’s no actual law requiring people to believe in a god, but if you say you’re an atheist, religious people judge you. That wouldn’t matter to many people, but people are worried about being excluded from jobs, or cancelled.
Look at the attacks JK Rowling endured because she voiced her opinion about trans women. Comedians talk about being afraid to tell certain jokes. And on and on. Stupid, ignorant, bigoted people resent being called stupid, ignorant and bigoted.
Is religion the root of all evil, dividing people into factions and giving them permission to hate the other? Remember the song from “South Pacific”, “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught”? Those lyrics resonate today in our society.
That is the sad truth. The worst among them are the zealots, the fundamentalists, the born again and evangelical. Deeply evil men like "smirking" Mike Johnson and angry Kevin Roberts.
I would like to know how being a blind college wrestling coach who helps to sweep sex abuse under the carpet qualifies Jim Jordan to speak about anything, let alone anything important.
Steve, Steve, Steve!! I love you more than ever. I love your courage, your intelligence, your honesty, your dissent! Thank you for being a leader and role model!! I had to remember yesterday what my eyes and ears have seen ~ the truth about Trump for who he really is despite the millions who chose him. I pray for safety for you and all your loved ones, and for all in our community and others who lead us now.
Yes, Diane, I feel the same way about Steve and this community. Steve was ON about so much I didn't fully understand and I'm grateful for his leadership and Warnings. He's a really caring person, too. People can be tough AND kind and loving, too. MAGAs don't get that :-( XO
Thank you, Diane! It is going as well as can be expected for bypass surgery. I will send a direct message to you next week. I'm grieving for the whole country, what has been done, what the fall-out looks like including family not being there for those who need them in a crisis because they were taken over by MAGA madness. It will keep playing out. You are probably seeing this with the hospice people you serve. I saw so many elderly people in ICU for a couple days and I wondered if they had loved ones who wouldn't show up because they were the 'other'. It is so unbelievable sad and wrong. I didn't mean to go on about this here, let's touch base later.We need healing in the USA!
Grieving along with you re: the country and what is to come ~ I also have a few Magas in my own family and some friends who are now former friends ~ and yes we see it in our patients and their families as well. I was so hoping we would never have to see his face or deal with his crazy again …. this is very sad and tough … look forward to hearing from you … XO 😘
Steve, a couple times in your writing you’ve mentioned that in two years the Democrats have opportunity to possibly claw back the majority in the House. I agree Democrats have opportunity, but this statement offers too much optimism following on the heals of such a defeat and butt kicking in the general election. Let me explain why I believe this is true.
As you know, Admiral Jim Stockdale was the highest ranking US military officer held as a prisoner of war - 1965 to 1973 - during the Vietnam War. Tortured over 20 times during his incarceration, he had no prisoner rights, no set release date and no certainty he would survive or see his family again.
Nonetheless, during his time as a POW, he maintained an unwavering faith that he could and that he would prevail in the end, regardless of his difficulties, AND AT THE SAME TIME had the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of his current reality, regardless of what those facts were. This mindset, as you and many of this community know became known as the Stockdale Paradox.
Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great”, “Built to Last” and other great works once asked Admiral Stockdale, “Who didn’t make it out?”
Admiral Stockdale replied, “The optimists. Those who thought they would be out by Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter. When they weren’t they died of broken hearts.”
In these times we live with danger, uncertainty, meanness, evil et al, plaguing our lives, as a community let us, like Admiral Stockdale, not confuse faith that democracy will in the end prevail, WHICH WE CANNOT EVER LOSE, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of our current reality whatever they are or might be presented tomorrow.
Let us also as a community, come together with proactive steps we might take in our own lives to non-violently prevail.
One last thing Steve. If and when you are named on the enemies list, please give them my name in order that together we stand.
The MAGA folks were able to use the pronoun thing against Dems because, to regular guy/Bro Americans, the multiple pronouns demanded by progressives seemed ridiculous and made Dems into a punchline. Right or wrong, it was very effective. In hindsight, the DNC should have put a much larger percentage of their money toward the close House races. Things would look much better if the Dems had 225 House seats.
Is Meidas exaggerating this? I do believe that voters are just now caring to "look up tariffs" to see what they do. It is a national intelligence test, and there is no grading on the curve.
I mentioned this heading into the election. The #1 Google search in the UK the day AFTER they voted for Brexit was, "What is Brexit?". You seriously cannot make this stuff up.
I will be interested to see how quickly the freedom to buy all sorts of firearms is shut down by trump and his minions. How could they continue to allow access to firearms that could conceivably be used against the fascists themselves?
I was reading Ralph Waldo Emerson this evening. He wrote these words: civilization depends upon morality.
In looking at all that has happened, as a society, we’ve checked our morality at the door and thus are entering something that Emerson would rightly see as a collapse.
Yes, "civilization depends upon morality"! It seems to be increasingly a free-for-all for hate, lies, and violence. If we cannot turn this around, it seems it will be the end of Democracy.
We never hear enough about how all of this has and will affect the children in this country.
Two more oxymoronic appointments need be added to Trump's growing list of hypocrisy. First we had the lunatic RFKJR. as some sort of "health czar." We have Elise Stefanik, that repulsive traitor, as Trump's pick as ambassador to the organization they want to defund, the UN. Now, Trump has announced that a man who never met an anti-pollution law he liked to be head of the EPA, Lee Zeldin.
During my life, I have had a few nightmares that happened while I was wide awake.
— Jackie Robinson
Steve, thank you for a masterful presentation of the terrible consequences of having elected this miscreant named Trump. I agree with you on the issue of deportation and your questions bring into focus just how awful this process will be. I agree on the perversion of justice that will occur under a true weaponization of government. The consequences of failing to continue our support for Ukraine, in my opinion, could be WWIII and the end of us all. However, I disagree about the issue of "wokeness." No law was passed requiring people to call individuals "they." No law forcing men and women to use the same shared public bathrooms was passed or requiring sports teams for women to accept transgendered women. All of these issues were lied about by Trump and his campaign. All of them were "tempests in teapots" used to frighten a gullible public. To me and most progressives "woke" means tolerance: the right to live your life as you choose without government infringement, not making targets of those whose lifestyles don't fit into Christianity stunted morality.
Yes, and the "tempests in teapots" were amplified by Faux News, extremist talk radio, and social-media algorithms spewing disinformation, a great deal coming straight out of Russia.
We are finding out that "fake news" travels 6 times as fast as the truth. Watch "The Social Dilemma" Netflix documentary where engineers and psychologists who designed these algorithms come clean about the danger to our society.
One expert states "This is checkmate for humanity." Yes, it is. Trailer, 2.5 min: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaC57tcci0
Another lie was that children could go to a public school in the a.m. and return as the opposite sex in the p.m. What absolute horseshit. The fact that so many bought into it doesn't mean they really believed it; it just reveals their bigotry and hatred for those who dare defy their "god:" the god they created in their own image and in worshiping, worship themselves.
Trump has also said he plans to ban Muslims again, this time he will likely succeed. Textbooks will be re-written to present the "Gone With the Wind" lie about slavery and schiools will present "intelligent design" as an acceptable science based alternative to evolution.
WAKE ME UP WHEN IT'S OVER!
Here is my "woke" comment of the day: Evangelical Christians are the mirror image of the extremist Muslims they despise. As are extremists in all religions. Most religious people, thank "heavens," temper their religious beliefs with a generous dose of secular reality.
If you think I overstate my case, consider the following:
November 11, 2024
Heather Cox Richardson
Nov 12
"The day after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Afghanistan’s Taliban offered its congratulations to the American people for 'not handing leadership of their great country to a woman.'”
Well said Lisa and Anthony, very well said!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
The close relationship between ersatz Christianity, in all its grifter forms, such as self named pastors who set up shop and start a church, to mega church charlatan pastors, have taken the open life style of the LGBTQ community , which is no longer criminalized , coined “woke” by them and amplified and lied about how it is ruining life in America. . No more fake marriages, living in the “down low” etc. for everyone else but the above mentioned ersatz Christian church followers. No need to visit private gay porn sites and lie to the wife and your family. The complexity of homosexuality and transgenderism requires knowledge of the developing fetus and the brain in utero. Let’s just make it easy and scare the hell of people and call this community a bunch of freaks who are demanding public recognition. Let’s go back to the time when people were fired if it was revealed that they were gay, which occurred in my lifetime. People who are educated and not frightened by the complexity of human sexuality could be called “woke” but there are no laws demanding that level of sophistication on the millions of people so horrified about it that they would like to legislate against it. Our recently hired Junior Rabbi is a transgendered man. He looks like a man and is treated with respect by all. Let us ask that all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation be treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve under the Constitution.
The problem is weak people feel compelled to “be tolerant,” e.g. by using someone’s pronouns, or face attack. It’s like forcing religious beliefs. There’s no actual law requiring people to believe in a god, but if you say you’re an atheist, religious people judge you. That wouldn’t matter to many people, but people are worried about being excluded from jobs, or cancelled.
Look at the attacks JK Rowling endured because she voiced her opinion about trans women. Comedians talk about being afraid to tell certain jokes. And on and on. Stupid, ignorant, bigoted people resent being called stupid, ignorant and bigoted.
Is religion the root of all evil, dividing people into factions and giving them permission to hate the other? Remember the song from “South Pacific”, “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught”? Those lyrics resonate today in our society.
Religion is not the solution; it is the problem.
Where religion thrives women don't.
That is the sad truth. The worst among them are the zealots, the fundamentalists, the born again and evangelical. Deeply evil men like "smirking" Mike Johnson and angry Kevin Roberts.
I would like to know how being a blind college wrestling coach who helps to sweep sex abuse under the carpet qualifies Jim Jordan to speak about anything, let alone anything important.
Steve, Steve, Steve!! I love you more than ever. I love your courage, your intelligence, your honesty, your dissent! Thank you for being a leader and role model!! I had to remember yesterday what my eyes and ears have seen ~ the truth about Trump for who he really is despite the millions who chose him. I pray for safety for you and all your loved ones, and for all in our community and others who lead us now.
Same, girl, same.
Ditto
Yes, Diane, I feel the same way about Steve and this community. Steve was ON about so much I didn't fully understand and I'm grateful for his leadership and Warnings. He's a really caring person, too. People can be tough AND kind and loving, too. MAGAs don't get that :-( XO
😊 XO
Pure Powerful Excellence, Steve! I strongly feel that you will help to wake up America. Thank You.
Thank you, Lisa.
I hope that all went well with your partner’s surgery.
Steve
Yes, me too hoping all went well with your partner’s surgery Lisa!
Thank you, Diane! It is going as well as can be expected for bypass surgery. I will send a direct message to you next week. I'm grieving for the whole country, what has been done, what the fall-out looks like including family not being there for those who need them in a crisis because they were taken over by MAGA madness. It will keep playing out. You are probably seeing this with the hospice people you serve. I saw so many elderly people in ICU for a couple days and I wondered if they had loved ones who wouldn't show up because they were the 'other'. It is so unbelievable sad and wrong. I didn't mean to go on about this here, let's touch base later.We need healing in the USA!
Grieving along with you re: the country and what is to come ~ I also have a few Magas in my own family and some friends who are now former friends ~ and yes we see it in our patients and their families as well. I was so hoping we would never have to see his face or deal with his crazy again …. this is very sad and tough … look forward to hearing from you … XO 😘
XO 😘 Thanks!
Steve, you don't know me, but let me say your acumen is to be celebrated. I am proudly part of the 71 million who were not fooled.
Thank you, Mike!
Steve
Steve, a couple times in your writing you’ve mentioned that in two years the Democrats have opportunity to possibly claw back the majority in the House. I agree Democrats have opportunity, but this statement offers too much optimism following on the heals of such a defeat and butt kicking in the general election. Let me explain why I believe this is true.
As you know, Admiral Jim Stockdale was the highest ranking US military officer held as a prisoner of war - 1965 to 1973 - during the Vietnam War. Tortured over 20 times during his incarceration, he had no prisoner rights, no set release date and no certainty he would survive or see his family again.
Nonetheless, during his time as a POW, he maintained an unwavering faith that he could and that he would prevail in the end, regardless of his difficulties, AND AT THE SAME TIME had the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of his current reality, regardless of what those facts were. This mindset, as you and many of this community know became known as the Stockdale Paradox.
Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great”, “Built to Last” and other great works once asked Admiral Stockdale, “Who didn’t make it out?”
Admiral Stockdale replied, “The optimists. Those who thought they would be out by Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter. When they weren’t they died of broken hearts.”
In these times we live with danger, uncertainty, meanness, evil et al, plaguing our lives, as a community let us, like Admiral Stockdale, not confuse faith that democracy will in the end prevail, WHICH WE CANNOT EVER LOSE, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of our current reality whatever they are or might be presented tomorrow.
Let us also as a community, come together with proactive steps we might take in our own lives to non-violently prevail.
One last thing Steve. If and when you are named on the enemies list, please give them my name in order that together we stand.
Lord have mercy!
Dale,
I’ve written about Admiral Stockdale and the Stockdale Paradox:
https://steveschmidt.substack.com/publish/post/98558896
https://steveschmidt.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/98721144/share-center
Dark times ahead! Kash Patel as head of the FBI or CIA? Purging these two entities is incredibly dangerous! Please comment Steve!
The state of things today reminds me of a line from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes:
“The surest sign that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”
You got that right!🤣
We have 4 cats and no children (uh oh, we better watch out!). The two youngest are brothers, appropriately named Calvin and Hobbes. They agree John!
Why not one of Putin’s relatives, thereby obviating the middle man?
An acutely perceptive and strikingly courageous explanation and exhortation, Steve.
History may not exactly repeat itself, but sometimes evil historical figures do greatly resemble one another, to wit:
Stephen Miller https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-immigration-deportation-migrants-border-policy-1950854#slideshow/2467113 and
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels
and
Thomas Homan, Trump's designated 'Border Czar'
https://www.ice.gov/image/official-photo-thomas-homan
****
Rudolf Höss, SS Obersturmbanführer, Commandant of the concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau from May 1940 to December 1943 https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-warsaw-the-suit-of-the-first-commander-of-the-camp-of-news-photo/107409586?et=6C9SXqaJSypLXAsncqi87A&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gettyimages.com%2F
Will there even be an election in 2026? And even if there is, will there be any reason to trust the results?
Chilling msg today, Steve.
The MAGA folks were able to use the pronoun thing against Dems because, to regular guy/Bro Americans, the multiple pronouns demanded by progressives seemed ridiculous and made Dems into a punchline. Right or wrong, it was very effective. In hindsight, the DNC should have put a much larger percentage of their money toward the close House races. Things would look much better if the Dems had 225 House seats.
The Trump campaign spent $215 million on the transgender pile of lies ads. $215 million. And agree, it was very effective.
Is corporate media reporting instant buyers remorse over trump?
https://www.meidasplus.com/p/instant-regret-trump-voters-already?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=3078900&post_id=151448409&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=2pyfb&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Is Meidas exaggerating this? I do believe that voters are just now caring to "look up tariffs" to see what they do. It is a national intelligence test, and there is no grading on the curve.
I mentioned this heading into the election. The #1 Google search in the UK the day AFTER they voted for Brexit was, "What is Brexit?". You seriously cannot make this stuff up.
I will be interested to see how quickly the freedom to buy all sorts of firearms is shut down by trump and his minions. How could they continue to allow access to firearms that could conceivably be used against the fascists themselves?
I was reading Ralph Waldo Emerson this evening. He wrote these words: civilization depends upon morality.
In looking at all that has happened, as a society, we’ve checked our morality at the door and thus are entering something that Emerson would rightly see as a collapse.
Yes, "civilization depends upon morality"! It seems to be increasingly a free-for-all for hate, lies, and violence. If we cannot turn this around, it seems it will be the end of Democracy.
We never hear enough about how all of this has and will affect the children in this country.
Two more oxymoronic appointments need be added to Trump's growing list of hypocrisy. First we had the lunatic RFKJR. as some sort of "health czar." We have Elise Stefanik, that repulsive traitor, as Trump's pick as ambassador to the organization they want to defund, the UN. Now, Trump has announced that a man who never met an anti-pollution law he liked to be head of the EPA, Lee Zeldin.