#Steve Schmidt

[bloghrexach]

Why Former Republicans Are Turning on Trump ... With more than 200 former Republican staffers endorsing Kamala Harris and Trump's former National Security Advisor criticizing him, the Republican party has become even more divided.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Pensacola Prince Andrew, aka Matt Gaetz, has been defenestrated. 

Good riddance. 

The next weakest targets are the alleged rapist Pete Hegseth and the registered Qatari agent Pam Bondi. 

The Democratic position should be communicated in simple words: an alleged rapist cannot command the American Armed Forces, and a Qatari whore, who cashed the checks of the government that harbored Hamas while they plotted October 7th, cannot be the chief law enforcement officer. 

Hakeem Jeffries should make his members read the Monterey California police report into the congressional record.  He should apply maximum pressure on the weakest Republican members who know their place in the MAGA herd is on its periphery — on the outside. There, they run against the headwind, and feel the full force of the dangers that lurk everywhere. 

There are a few predictable ingredients when it comes to creating political good fortune. 

The first is luck. The second is your opponent’s incompetence and overreach. 

Trump is overextended, and the transition plan has collapsed into a rubble of insanity 60 days before the inauguration. 

He has taken his first step backwards, and will take many more. 

The zebras on the outside of the herd are the ones who are most vulnerable. In this analogy, their names are Hegseth and Bondi. 

The Monterey police report established beyond a reasonable doubt that Hegseth is an epic buffoon. Truly. 

He may also be a rapist. 

He seems to have a problem with women. Big time. 

Something broke somewhere, and this ought to be explored psychiatrically and forensically under public examination before the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

According to Reuters, Trump plans to decapitate the senior leadership of the US military in a Stalin-esque  purge. Guilt by association and kangaroo justice await the men and women who have spent their entire lives in preparation for immense responsibilities and leadership. 

The good news is that behind them is another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another. 

On Thursday, Karoline Leavitt, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman issued the following statement:

This report corroborates what Mr. Hegseth's attorneys have said all along: the incident was fully investigated, and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false. Pete Hegseth is a highly-respected Combat Veteran who will honorably serve our country when he is confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense, just like he honorably served our country on the battlefield in uniform.

Pete Hegseth should be brutally questioned about the US Navy and USMC and naval warfare theory, history, strategy and tactics. 

The attitude of the Democratic opposition concerning his service in Iraq should be…wait for it…”We don’t give a f@#k.” 

It doesn’t qualify him to be Secretary of Anything — let alone Secretary of Defense.

He should be derailed, mocked, humiliated, defeated and sent into a splendid exile on the Mar-a-Lago patio.

The whole lion pride should swarm the slowest zebra first — Hegseth — trip him, and then eat him. 

When he’s gone and left behind as proverbial bones to be bleached by the hot sun on the Savanna, it will be time to give chase to Bondi. 

She has fresh legs. Let her stretch them. She will not get far because she is running in Qatari quick sand. 

I have said many times that Donald Trump Jr. is a moron and proof that nepotism is a very bad thing. It does demonstrate that Trump had some insight when he had some reluctance to bequeath his name, lest his progeny be “a loser.” 

Junior has always reminded me of Uday, while Eric throws off more of a Qusay vibe. They are easy to mix up. 

At any rate, they were a big problem for Saddam because, in the end, they were Saddam’s kids, and it was just going to be really hard for them to turn out okay — like Eric and Junior. 

This is the point that really matters, especially if you are going to let Uday and Qusay pick the cabinet after their father buried their mother on the first hole of his golf course — after allegedly raping her years earlier. 

You get the point, right?

This is all madness. 

Make Pete Hegseth defend his depravity, his ethics, his unfitness and keep him pinned down. He is the top target.

Expose his profound and epic lack of knowledge, grasp of strategy, history and culture regarding the US military. 

There is an old USMC saying: it is the 7 Ps.

It stands for “prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance.” This philosophy must be embraced by the Democratic Senate minority, led by the comically inept Schumer.

The US Navy and the US Army are two of the country’s oldest institutions. They are venerable. They are powerful. They will weather Trumpism if for no other reason than the NCO corps is as steeped in the traditions as is the general officers. In fact, from a lived experience perspective, more so. People who live without a North Star or a code do not comprehend those who do. 

Let me tell you a story about the US Navy. 

Think about this, as the alleged rapist and AAA-certified Fox News morning doofus gets ready to sink it:

This is the story of an elegant lady and her master. Her Master is a woman. She commands an American warship, a 44-gun United States Class heavy frigate, personally named by George Washington.

She was designed by an American genius from Philadelphia and built by New Englanders in a Boston shipyard.  Her bow has sliced through all the Earth’s oceans, across four centuries of time.

American merchant ships and their crews were being preyed upon by the British and French Navies and looted by barbary pirates. 

The young Republic was dependent on trade and commerce. The Third Congress appropriated money for the construction of six warships under the Naval Act of 1794 to protect American shipping.

The construction of the ships was spread between six states and cities. Local economies boomed around the building of the most technologically advanced machines ever constructed on the North American continent.

They were the spacecraft of their age, marvels of science, engineering and design.  Though bigger than French and British frigates, they were smaller than the Capital ships of the great European naval powers. They were fast and their speed made them lethal under the command and crews of the born sailors who shaped the young United States and her Navy.

United States Ship is abbreviated as USS and precedes the name of an American Warship. What would be the names of the six ships?

 It is an interesting question to ponder. Surely, the naming of these first American warships would have been imbued with meaning in 1794. We know it was not a trivial decision, and that it was made at the highest levels of government. The Secretary of the Navy submitted a list of ten names for consideration to President George Washington. 

His office was as new as the country.  Since there was no precedent, the founding generation was forced to make it up as they went along. John Adams had proposed a style of adornment and address for the office that would have embarrassed a European aristocrat. Washington rejected the flowery titles in favor of Mr. President.

The naming of the ships was a Presidential decision, and they offer a window into what was viewed as important, significant and meaningful in a young country not yet powerful or secure.

The first ship was named the USS United States. 

One was named the USS Chesapeake, after the great Bay near Washington���s beloved Mount Vernon on the banks of the Potomac River.

Another, the USS Constellation, signified the constellation of stars on the blue corner field of the new red and white striped flag of the United States. 

One was named USS President. There was only one President in the 1790s. He was the only elected Head of State in the world and his name was Washington. 

King George III was curious about what a “President” would become and what Washington would do. He was astounded when he was told that his rival would transfer power voluntarily and return to Mount Vernon. The King said that if that were true then Washington would be the greatest man of his or any age.

There have been 46 American Presidents. Grover Cleveland counts for two. There have been great ones and bad ones. Honest ones and crooked ones. There have been successful ones and incompetent ones. There has only ever been one that has sought to break his promise and hold power against the will of the people. There are many names for such a person. American President has never been one of them.

Another was named USS Congress. The Congress was a co-equal branch of government that stood equally with the Article 2 and Article 3 branches of government created by the Constitution of the United States that imperfectly imagined a new nation with a new system of government into existence. The Congress was comprised of the elected Representatives of the American people. 

It was unique in all the world.

There have been 117 Congresses. They have been filled with American people from our greatest thinkers, leaders, statemen and women to our most sublime fools, imbeciles, crooks, cons, racists, ne’er-do-wells, seditionists and criminals. 

In the end, the United States Congress and the great Capitol Dome under which it meets is an extraordinary living achievement, a symbol of democracy and a raging hot mess.

The sixth ship is the USS Constitution. The USS Constitution endures.  She survives.  She has been fired upon, hit, damaged and fallen into periodic disrepair. She was forgotten, but her contribution remembered by the American people when it was retold in verse by Oliver Wendell Holmes in the 1830s. 

Her hull was lined by Paul Revere, and her masts came from long leaf pine from South Carolina. She was set to be scrapped, but was saved by contributions from America’s school children in the 1920s.

Today, she sits in a quiet corner of Boston Harbor. She is the oldest floating ship in the world and the oldest warship in the US Navy. She remains in active service. 

Our divided nation is at edge, in an angry hour where extremism has seized power with a seething contempt for American freedom and the Constitution.

It seems significant and worth remembering that none of those first six ships designed to protect a fragile freedom were named USS Supreme Court. 

A radical court has acted in the name of the Constitution by stripping rights away from a specific category of Americans for the first time in history.  It represents a type of judicial tyranny and societal engineering that is as radical and foolish as it is destabilizing.

The Constitution of 1787 was not perfect. It was far from just. It was, however, an incomparable work of genius that gave each generation of Americans a chance to create a more just society – to perfect the Union.

The American Constitution endures. It makes the United States of America a young nation and the oldest constitutional republic in the world.

Her namesake will fire a 21-gun salute on July 4th, 2026, to the United States of America in celebration of the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States. 

She is undefeated. She is the USS Constitution.

[Steve Schmidt]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

David Smith at The Guardian:

At 2.25am, Donald Trump gazed out at his jubilant supporters wearing “Make America Great Again” hats. He was surrounded by his wife, Melania, and his children, the Stars and Stripes and giant banners that proclaimed: “Dream big again” and “Trump will fix it!”

“We’re going to help our country heal,” Trump vowed. “We have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders, we’re going to fix everything about our country and we’ve made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that.” Having risen from the political dead, the president-elect was already looking ahead to what he called the “golden age of America” – a country that had just shifted sharply to the right. And at its core was the promise of Trump unleashed: a radical expansion of presidential power. The 45th and 47th commander-in-chief will face fewer limits on his ambition when he is sworn in again in January. He returns as the head of a Republican party remade in his image over the past decade and as the architect of a right-leaning judiciary that helped eliminate his legal perils. Second time around, he has allies across Washington ready to enforce his will.

Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist and former Republican congressional aide, said: “What we’re going to have is an imperial presidency. This is going to be probably the most powerful presidency in terms of centralising power and wielding power that we’ve had probably since FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was president from 1933 until his death in 1945].” Trump won big in this week’s presidential election against Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-president. He became the first Republican in 20 years to win the national popular vote. He improved on his 2020 performance in every state except two (Washington and Utah) and made gains in nearly every demographic. A third of voters of colour supported him. Whereas Joe Biden won Latino men by 23 percentage points in 2020, Trump won them by 10 points in 2024.

Emboldened by this mandate, Trump, who said he would be a “dictator”, but only on “day one”, is promising a second act more sweeping and transformational than the first. He is backed by a Republican party that regained control of the Senate, might retain the House of Representatives and is more acquiescent than ever. The opposition Democratic party is demoralised and lacks an obvious leader. Trump, who arrived in Washington as a political neophyte eight years ago, is less likely this time to be surrounded by establishment figures and steady hands curbing his darkest impulses. His allies have spent the past several months pre-screening candidates for his administration, aiming to ensure key posts will be filled by dependable foot soldiers. His pugnacious son Don Jr intends to have a say.

Bardella added: “It’s going to be a more competent version of the first term. This time Donald Trump and his team know how the White House works. They know what type of personnel they need where to achieve what they want to achieve. They have, unlike last time, more of a complete hold of Congress.” Trump sceptics such as the House speaker Paul Ryan or the congresswoman Liz Cheney are gone, he noted, replaced by Maga devotees primed to do his bidding. “There’s going to be more continuity, more synergy, everyone’s going to march to the beat of the same drummer. There is no resistance within the Republican party any more and they are now facing a Democratic party that is leaderless, that is searching for its own identity, that’s going to have to recalibrate.” Trump will also expect compliance from a conservative supreme court that includes three of his own appointees. The court has loosened the legal guardrails that have hemmed past presidents in thanks to a July decision that gives presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

The 78-year-old businessman and former reality TV star also hopes to exploit a new universe of rightwing podcasters and influencers who were instrumental in his election and could help him shape the information ecosystem. Chief among these is X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who played a key role in the Trump campaign. Despite the daunting outlook, however, some commentators are optimistic that checks and balances will remain.

[...]

Trump will return to power with an aggressive agenda that includes what his ally Steve Bannon called “the deconstruction of the administrative state”. He has proposed a government efficiency commission headed by Musk that would gut the federal bureaucracy. Trump plans to fire federal workers by classifying thousands of them as being outside civil service protections. They could be replaced by what are essentially political appointees loyal to him.

On his signature issue, illegal immigration, Trump has vowed to carry out the biggest deportation operation in American history, starting with people who have criminal records or final orders of deportation. He has called for using the national guard and empowering domestic police forces in what he has said will be “a bloody story”. He told Time magazine that he did not rule out building new migrant detention camps but “there wouldn’t be that much of a need for them” because people would be rapidly removed. His running mate, JD Vance, told the New York Times that deporting 1 million immigrants a year would be “reasonable”. During the election campaign Trump played down abortion as a second-term priority, even as he took credit for the supreme court ending a woman’s federal right to terminate a pregnancy and returning abortion regulation to state governments.

At Trump’s insistence the Republican platform, for the first time in decades, did not call for a national ban on abortion. Even so, Trump has not explicitly said he would veto a national ban if it reached his desk. He has also indicated that he would let Robert F Kennedy Jr, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, “go wild” on public health matters, including women’s health.  Trump has promised to extend his 2017 tax cut, reversing Joe Biden’s income tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans and scrapping levies that fund energy measures to combat the climate crisis. Trump also has proposals aimed at working- and middle-class Americans: exempting tips and overtime wages from income taxes.

[...]

Trump has vowed to eliminate the Department of Education and slash federal funding “for any school or program pushing critical race theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children”.  The Trump campaign made opposition to transgender rights a central part of its closing argument, with the president-elect vowing to “keep men out of women’s sports”. He plans to end Biden’s policy of extending Title IX civil rights protections to transgender students and ask Congress to require that only two genders can be recognised at birth.

On the world stage, Trump touts an “America first” ideology that would make the US more isolationist, non-interventionist and protectionist than at any time since the second world war. He has proposed tariffs of 10% to 20% on foreign goods despite economists’ warnings that this would drive up inflation. Trump has repeatedly praised authoritarians such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin and not ruled out withdrawing from Nato. He has said he would end Russia’s war on Ukraine within a day, prompting fears of a a deal that compels Ukraine to surrender territory, and reportedly told Israel’s president, Benjamin Netanyahu, that he wants the war in Gaza to be finished by January.

[...] Trump, who falsely claims that the climate crisis is a “hoax”, has said he will again remove the US from the Paris climate accords and dismantle Biden’s climate agenda. He has promised to increase oil production and burn more fossil fuels – “Drill, baby, drill!” was a regular chant at Trump rallies – and weaken regulatory powers or eliminate bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency. The ascent of Trump, the first convicted criminal to be elected president, is also a crisis for the rule of law. The justice department is moving to wind down the two federal cases against him after he vowed to fire the special counsel Jack Smith “within two seconds” of becoming president. Trump has vowed to bend the department to his will, pardon January 6 rioters and target journalists, election workers and other perceived political enemies.

The 2nd “Presidency” of Donald Trump will be a golden disaster, just like his first one was.

[isawthismeme]

[porterdavis]

Quote of the Day

Romney’s recollections paint a dire picture of a broken institution in which the concepts of duty and service don’t exist. Some of his stories aren’t surprising, but still leave your jaw hanging open as you read what you knew to be true, confirmed by a witness you can trust

Steve Schmidt

[thenewdemocratus]

Steve Schmidt: 'DONALD TRUMP CONVICTED: What Comes Next? Republicans Call For Retribution'

Source:The Warning With Steve Schmidt talking about the aftermath of Donald J. Trump becoming a convicted felon. Source:The New Democrat “Republicans are calling for retribution after former President Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 counts by a New York jury. “These senators and members of congress are ransacking, vandalizing the U.S. judicial system,” Steve Schmidt says.” From The Warning…

[imkeepinit]

We need to face reality

[filosofablogger]

Then vs Now -- A Tale Of Two Speakers

Steve Schmidt is one of my favourite political analysts and I subscribe to his posts through Substack.  I don’t always have time to read all of his work, for he is prolific, but I was glad I did find time yesterday to read the one I am about to share. Schmidt takes us back on a trip through history and compares past to present … Before there were tiny Speakers of the House, there was a giant By…

[ausetkmt]

Trump's New Campaign Slogan is Dangerous

At Donald Trump's rally in Long Island, he broke out his newest reason to vote for him - "What do you have to lose?" Steve Schmidt reacts to Trump's newest campaign slogan and breaks down everything we will lose if Trump wins in November.

[bloghrexach]

From STEVE SCHMIDT ... "tRump is riding high, but soon he will be weighed down by the one thing he has shown over and over again in his life that he does not do well with: responsibility.

Soon he will be in charge, and his MAGA movement will control government.

Everything that happens next will be on their watch. Everything."

Do not fear Trump - The Warning with Steve Schmidt

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Do not fear Trump

Steve Schmidt

Donald Trump is riding high, but soon he will be weighed down by the one thing he has shown over and over again in his life that he does not do well with: responsibility.

Soon he will be in charge, and his MAGA movement will control government.

Everything that happens next will be on their watch.

Everything.

Because Trump has surrounded himself with a creature cantina of unfitness, depravity, weirdness and nuttery, when the moment comes — and it will — where wisdom is needed, there will be none in the room.

Disaster will follow misjudgments that will be compounded by a mix of arrogance, certitude, incompetence, stupidity and epic ignorance. The American people will pay the price for believing the lies of a liar, who was made credible by the failure of America’s political elite over the last 25 years to do the things that they said they would do and make wise decisions.

[...]

Meanwhile, the great supplication and appeasement rolls along at Mar-a-Lago.

The parade offers important lessons about the cost of personal debasement in the pursuit of self-interest dressed up as something else.

Whether it is Justin Trudeau or Joe Scarborough, Trump devours weakness. He preys on softness. When his foes come calling they seem to do so with a bag full of quibbles, quivering and whining, while trying to play a version of Trump’s game. It never works. Ever.

Everywhere right now there is a spirit of accommodation, appeasement and supplication in the air.

What Trump plans to do demands opposition that does not relent, and does not tremble. The terrible abuses, corruption and malice demand resistance. The test ahead will be both political and moral.

Americans are a tough people. No wonder they hold the media in such abject contempt. People always reserve their greatest disdain for the people who treat them with contempt, and signal with each breath their smugness, superiority and arrogance. It’s basic human nature.

More than anything else, right now, Americans deserve leaders who are less worried about themselves, and more focused on the wellbeing of the American people. Fearful people can’t lead because cowardice, like courage, is contagious. When integrity, conviction and honesty are called for, cowardice is a cancer.

When Donald Trump takes power he will seek to stifle dissent, intimidate media companies, threaten opponents, journalists, and anyone who asserts themselves in opposition. This must be opposed loudly, fiercely and effectively. It must be confronted relentlessly without fear or panic.

Do not fear Trump. Do not give him that power. Instead, take it from him.

In time, he will fear the American people who will turn on him after a short season of abuse.

The greatest political failure of the last 80 years was the 2024 loss by Democrats to Donald Trump. Period. Don’t let anyone ever tell you this race was unwinnable. It was lost. Understanding the how and why of that is of the utmost importance because three short years from tonight we will be closing in on the home stretch of the New Hampshire primary. What comes next doesn’t need to remind anyone of what came before.

The political situation in America will be very different after 100 days of Trump. The time for pretending will have long passed by then.

[wausaupilot]

Wausau couple files complaint against clerk alleging drop box irregularities

The WEC on Oct. 23 acknowledged receipt of the complaint. Bernarde has until Nov. 11 to respond. If a response is received, the Schmidts will have an additional 13 days to submit a final reply.

By Shereen Siewert A Wausau couple has filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission alleging that the city’s official drop box does not meet state standards, according to documents obtained by Wausau Pilot & Review. Steven and Marie Schmidt filed the complaint Oct. 10 with the WEC, which has since acknowledged receipt of the document. In their official statement, the couple said…