I'm interested in what you are going to publish tomorrow. When a founding document says "men are created equal" and also defines a race of people as 3/5 a human being, the foundation is flawed. We know John Adams considered it humorous when his capable wife, Abigail, urged him not to forget women when rights were being distributed. We know a Southerner thought (wrong, it so happened) he could defeat civil rights legislation drafted to address racial inequity by adding "sex" to the kinds of discrimination to be prohibited. Out of many, one, assumes different groups can unite around a common principle. Propaganda divides our society and poisons us. I remember gender dividing propaganda of the 1990s that spread the poison that men were somehow harmed by women having equal opportunity, that expecting people to conduct themselves professionally in the workplace was some sort of "political correctness" scheme to control how people think and restrict their First Amendment rights. Women who objected to sexist treatment at work were diagnosed by eager defense lawyers as "nuts" or "sluts." That trend might not have been so powerful if Congress had declined to consent to the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court after Anita Hill's testimony. To refer to oneself as a feminist meant you hated men. It was all a barrage of messaging to shut us up about inequality - and women are still paid less than men for the same job. Yet, I've had hope for the future because I believed in justice. As a lawyer, I've believed in Constitutional amendments expanding the foundation and repairing flaws. I bet your essay tomorrow will be thought-provoking. Thank you for what you do.
History shows us that these kinds of regimes don't last. It will fall; it's merely a matter of how long enough people are willing to put up with it.
Completely nullifying the 14th Amendment (and I believe all amendments - even the sacred 2nd one) is a goal of this crowd . Yesterday, the Supremes took another step toward that goal. The judiciary will not hold against this onslaught. It remains to be seen what the military will do when ordered to fire upon fellow Americans. I predict some will and some won't. Other types of policing are fully radicalized. There's no other way to see how they're behaving. Then we have the militias and constitutional sheriffs and on and on.
We MUST put all of our focus right now on building moats around ourselves and our communities. Coming up with everything we need to exist without the government. I talked about this immediately after the election, but I don't think many people were ready to hear it yet. So tomorrow, I will do it again.
I get so angry about how women’s rights are ignored. It is women who have brought about the most progressive changes in our history. Yours is a good analysis. The limited series Mrs. America talks about how the ERA and then abortion became the buzzwords of the GOP, not because they were really opposed to either, but because it appealed to a population whose votes might win them elections. Nothing to do with ideology. Only power. White male power, preferably, but male power over female of any race. It worked. Took a while. They were patient. We became complacent. No more.
This is the kind of sacred rage we need—grief transmuted into clarity, not as nostalgia for a broken past but as fuel for building something just. Thank you for naming the fatal flaw so clearly. The Constitution was a compromise with injustice from the beginning, and clinging to it as scripture only guarantees more suffering. We don’t need to restore the ruins—we need to compost them. May what was rotten fertilize the soil of what could be holy.
Funny thing is I'm about to hit publish on my companion piece to professor Zeitgeist piece about the GAS. Great minds right? We have the blueprint. Imagine if small groups of us make sure that 20,000 people ate breakfast everyday--that's just one accomplishment this blueprint lays the path for.
Personal aside: I had to go through my own little bit of grief because I thought as cynical as I was.. I was anti-patriotism and not a willing citizen anymore. No loyalty or admiration for my country anymore--no hopes that it'll do the right thing...
Turns out I was wrong about my feelings! There was a realization that I was more patriotic than I thought I was. Nowhere near as much as I was when I was younger. Enough to hope and then have them smashed to smithereens.. Enough patriotism that the voting results hurt, the bastardization of Patriot into nationalist hurt.
And you know what:
To anybody that reads this: Both me and Andra express very real and valid feelings about all this.. If you feel any of this too, know that it's justified. Don't do like I did for a brief time and be disappointed with myself. There's nothing wrong with having hope.
Inside is the full list as a link. A flyer for the "Gateway" list I'm encouraging in this article. Of course, Z's articles as they apply. You know how we all do. ✊🏼
Perfectly okay. This is how so many marginalized groups, particularly the diaspora and descendants of the Transatlantic slave trade have survived for centuries. They were kind enough to put out the blueprint and preserve it.
For some time I have felt the country is not sustainable, but going separate ways is a logistical and possibly bloody nightmare. I share your feeling that our country changed forever on election day. We are watching it commit a long painful suicide. I do look forward to what we can do to fight back. No way I am going peacefully into a theocracy.
I personally think Blue State governors should come up with an operating agreement right now, and go to the regime and say, "You can have everything you want on your land. We won't fight you or try to stop you. But we won't comply. We are committed to a country where everyone is equal, and we are working together to make that happen."
I am so sick of thinking about these people and writing about them. They love walls so much; I'd be happy to give them half the country, build a wall around them, and let them eat each other. I'm tired of dealing with people like them. I'm tired of watching people suffer because of people like them. Yes, the logistics would be hard, but they could be worked out. The bigger issue is that no matter what you offer them, they won't be happy. Which will naturally lead to bloodshed. Focusing all our energy on building our individual autonomous communities will help most of us survive that, too. Which is why this discussion is so important.
They're making themselves irrelevant, as are many Democratic politicians and the Democratic National Committee. Wherever I can, I try to share messages that resonate (like Anat Shenker-Osorio's MAGA Murder Budget).
I look forward to reading what you are proposing. There is a deep anger out here. I had and am still having the reactions you had. We need a positive way forward.
I went to lunch with two people from church, one a friend despite her politics because of how she lives her life and takes care of others, and the other a long-time not-really-friend because whatever I say, she will argue with. Truth is, she triggers me, and I can’t stand her although I have known her a very long time, and she’s in our circle of “buddies”. We usually steer away from politics, but the world being what it is, we touched on it, and I left realizing there is no way I could make those two see my point if I could even get them to listen, which I cannot because the former doesn’t think like I do and the latter doesn’t respect anything I say since I’m the one saying it. Reading this newsletter actually eases my stress over the day because I know you are right. We are never getting back the country we had before we voted in November. I’ve known it just like you have and on a similar grief timeline. They still believe we are living in a free and independent nation. They don’t want to know differently. What threatens me (not knowing the truth) is not what threatens them (facing the truth). Thank you for this newsletter. In a weird way, it helped me be okay with that.
"What threatens me (not knowing the truth) is not what threatens them (facing the truth)." This is the perfect statement about where so many Americans find themselves today. I said this about that crowd back during the pandemic. They kept forcing their conspiracies on everyone because they couldn't face the truth: We were living through a global pandemic that was going to change the world. They kept trying to make the world what it was before, and that world was gone. That message resonated so much that Republicans used it to win 2024. And now FOR SURE they will never get back that world because they were never able to face the truth that they couldn't no matter what.
I think I’m angry because I’m trying to warn people, and I’m just not heard…no, more than that, I’m interrupted and contradicted before I finish a statement. The things I want to discuss are complicated and have no simple solutions. I need to get to that place of acceptance where I myself am no longer grieving for what is lost and dig in for the kind of nonviolent resistance that is the only way to win. Your writing helps me keep perspective. Thanks.
I've shared this essay so many times in recent years. I was hoping to see a book about this, but I never did. His conclusions about how Americans aren't taught to listen to each other and hear one another out are very damning. He was able to get students who were largely conservative to have conversations and agree by focusing on ethics. I wish we'd seen so much more of this, because our entire society needs it: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/13/america-cultural-divide-red-state-blue-state-228111/
The article was really interesting. ASU is my grad school Alma Mater. I do think it’s possible to find common ground when we are told the truth. I’ve always been a Democrat in a very conservative area. However, I’ve never felt like this. I remember reading In a Different Voice years ago. I need to dig it out and reread it. It is the belief that the citizens ALL want something much fairer than they have been getting, that gives me hope even as I understand it will be a battle to debunk the propaganda and self-interest and get to a place where enough of us are willing to listen. Thanks for sharing this. I’m passing it on, too.
I really enjoyed you on Big Tent last night with David Graham. I agree with your idea that things need to be not replicated, but improved upon. Just don't know where this journey will take us.
Today I read that a Substacker was deported by ICE because of things he has written about this administration. That everyone's social media, including Substack is now being scanned by the big data scanner like Palantir and then people who have visas are being scanned. Right now it is non-citizens that they are doing this to, but could be anyone soon enough.
Heard discussion about where we are headed before we can rebuild with Ruth Ben-Ghiat and 2 others on Substack. Scary stuff. Will Trump head us into war with Iran? Also, as Ben-Ghiat points out, Russia is economically propped up by China. It is not standing on its own.
I saw your name popping up in the chat. I can never keep my head in the game and read the chat. My husband even said, "Linda is awesome." I'm sorry if a lot of questions went unanswered, but hopefully this will lead to some other way for me to be useful to groups like Big Tent USA.
Building out the systems to scan every American is going to take a bit of time. They have the functionality to apply it to specific groups right now, but they need places like Musk's proposed Memphis facility to run this in full.
Which is why we MUST stop being distracted and focus our energies on building moats around ourselves and our communities, opting out of everything we can and providing it for ourselves, and taking care of each other.
Yes. I am understanding that Peter Thiel has been building up this data base of information on all of us. I am glad I don't use X, or Insta, or other platforms that when you tell a Gen Z-er to be careful they tell you it is inevitable that someone has their data, and they don't care, because they cannot imagine a government using things they do against them. They are totally unaware. Now the discussion of using AI in schools is scary. My friends already were considered the bad guys because they did not want the school data collecting on their son in computer class. Because I taught there the administration and the computer teacher came to me. I told them that I agreed with my friend. Your child's test scores, every thing they do is being gathered on them to sort them into categories. And I am betting the majority of Americans are oblivious to these sorts of things, and that is because they can be.
As Ruth Ben-Ghiat was saying today, people are calling her an alarmist. Some of my friends do this in not so many words, although they are cautious about it because I have a track record of being ahead of the crowd. My friend Phillip calls me "the canary in the coal mine." We all are. Those of us who are concerned. I am so grateful to not be alone in these worries. Too many people I know have been raised to put a positive spin on things. I do that when it is my truth. I am hopeful, but not about Trump.
Dean Blundell and Zev Shalev were talking about what bad physical shape Trump seems to be in. I get it. My mom is 91 today and I see the changes in her over the past few years. I can imagine what is it like for the people who are close to Trump. They are going to prop him up for 2 years so that JDV has a chance to take over and get 2 more full terms. Let us hope not. All of these people are nasty pieces of work that are in line.
Aren't we women hysterical when we point out potential problems that seem pretty obvious. By living life and observing things we can become expert in many things.
When people first meet me they often don't take me seriously. However, I developed a reputation as the canary in the coal mine at my job. I predicted everything that happened with Covid, because I read a lot and early on. No one, not even our University epidemiologist was as on the money as I was. I knew when she was lying to assuage fears, which I am not known for doing.
I am back in Europe and thanks to Lucian K. Truscott warning that Trump was going to bomb Iran this weekend, I was hoping I could get back across the Atlantic before it happened and Iran decided to retaliate.
Nothing like going to war to ruin your flight, other than having a video game addicted middle schooler sitting behind you on a flight and hitting the back of your chair in rapid fire motion for hours on end.
I know he was an addict because I would lean around and look at him and ask him to stop, and the last time I told him it was like torture to hear that tap, tap tapping, and he would stop for a bit then continue. I know he could not control himself.
I hope I don't get someone like him again. He was part of a boys choir going to perform with other boys choirs in Scotland. So, I did not get much sleep, and was much less resilient feeling than when I do.
Loved your conversation with David Graham and look forward to your outline of what we can do to build our country with the values of equality and freedom for ALL.
I'm interested in what you are going to publish tomorrow. When a founding document says "men are created equal" and also defines a race of people as 3/5 a human being, the foundation is flawed. We know John Adams considered it humorous when his capable wife, Abigail, urged him not to forget women when rights were being distributed. We know a Southerner thought (wrong, it so happened) he could defeat civil rights legislation drafted to address racial inequity by adding "sex" to the kinds of discrimination to be prohibited. Out of many, one, assumes different groups can unite around a common principle. Propaganda divides our society and poisons us. I remember gender dividing propaganda of the 1990s that spread the poison that men were somehow harmed by women having equal opportunity, that expecting people to conduct themselves professionally in the workplace was some sort of "political correctness" scheme to control how people think and restrict their First Amendment rights. Women who objected to sexist treatment at work were diagnosed by eager defense lawyers as "nuts" or "sluts." That trend might not have been so powerful if Congress had declined to consent to the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court after Anita Hill's testimony. To refer to oneself as a feminist meant you hated men. It was all a barrage of messaging to shut us up about inequality - and women are still paid less than men for the same job. Yet, I've had hope for the future because I believed in justice. As a lawyer, I've believed in Constitutional amendments expanding the foundation and repairing flaws. I bet your essay tomorrow will be thought-provoking. Thank you for what you do.
History shows us that these kinds of regimes don't last. It will fall; it's merely a matter of how long enough people are willing to put up with it.
Completely nullifying the 14th Amendment (and I believe all amendments - even the sacred 2nd one) is a goal of this crowd . Yesterday, the Supremes took another step toward that goal. The judiciary will not hold against this onslaught. It remains to be seen what the military will do when ordered to fire upon fellow Americans. I predict some will and some won't. Other types of policing are fully radicalized. There's no other way to see how they're behaving. Then we have the militias and constitutional sheriffs and on and on.
We MUST put all of our focus right now on building moats around ourselves and our communities. Coming up with everything we need to exist without the government. I talked about this immediately after the election, but I don't think many people were ready to hear it yet. So tomorrow, I will do it again.
I get so angry about how women’s rights are ignored. It is women who have brought about the most progressive changes in our history. Yours is a good analysis. The limited series Mrs. America talks about how the ERA and then abortion became the buzzwords of the GOP, not because they were really opposed to either, but because it appealed to a population whose votes might win them elections. Nothing to do with ideology. Only power. White male power, preferably, but male power over female of any race. It worked. Took a while. They were patient. We became complacent. No more.
This is the kind of sacred rage we need—grief transmuted into clarity, not as nostalgia for a broken past but as fuel for building something just. Thank you for naming the fatal flaw so clearly. The Constitution was a compromise with injustice from the beginning, and clinging to it as scripture only guarantees more suffering. We don’t need to restore the ruins—we need to compost them. May what was rotten fertilize the soil of what could be holy.
I hope more Americans get to this point quickly.
Funny thing is I'm about to hit publish on my companion piece to professor Zeitgeist piece about the GAS. Great minds right? We have the blueprint. Imagine if small groups of us make sure that 20,000 people ate breakfast everyday--that's just one accomplishment this blueprint lays the path for.
I'm looking forward to reading it. And please do put a link here once it's live.
Personal aside: I had to go through my own little bit of grief because I thought as cynical as I was.. I was anti-patriotism and not a willing citizen anymore. No loyalty or admiration for my country anymore--no hopes that it'll do the right thing...
Turns out I was wrong about my feelings! There was a realization that I was more patriotic than I thought I was. Nowhere near as much as I was when I was younger. Enough to hope and then have them smashed to smithereens.. Enough patriotism that the voting results hurt, the bastardization of Patriot into nationalist hurt.
And you know what:
To anybody that reads this: Both me and Andra express very real and valid feelings about all this.. If you feel any of this too, know that it's justified. Don't do like I did for a brief time and be disappointed with myself. There's nothing wrong with having hope.
Grief has to be part of this process, but holding onto hope will be the only way through what's ahead.
I agree with both the need to grieve and to be hopeful. I still wish I had a better planet to offer my child.
Inside is the full list as a link. A flyer for the "Gateway" list I'm encouraging in this article. Of course, Z's articles as they apply. You know how we all do. ✊🏼
https://open.substack.com/pub/celticginge/p/general-american-strike-rainbow-coalition-revival?r=3ixyg7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
This is exactly what we must do. I'm going to link to this tomorrow and mention you if that's okay.
And it is CRITICAL that we work on this and get a lot of it functioning before they flip the switch on 24/7 state-sponsored AI surveillance.
Perfectly okay. This is how so many marginalized groups, particularly the diaspora and descendants of the Transatlantic slave trade have survived for centuries. They were kind enough to put out the blueprint and preserve it.
For some time I have felt the country is not sustainable, but going separate ways is a logistical and possibly bloody nightmare. I share your feeling that our country changed forever on election day. We are watching it commit a long painful suicide. I do look forward to what we can do to fight back. No way I am going peacefully into a theocracy.
I personally think Blue State governors should come up with an operating agreement right now, and go to the regime and say, "You can have everything you want on your land. We won't fight you or try to stop you. But we won't comply. We are committed to a country where everyone is equal, and we are working together to make that happen."
I am so sick of thinking about these people and writing about them. They love walls so much; I'd be happy to give them half the country, build a wall around them, and let them eat each other. I'm tired of dealing with people like them. I'm tired of watching people suffer because of people like them. Yes, the logistics would be hard, but they could be worked out. The bigger issue is that no matter what you offer them, they won't be happy. Which will naturally lead to bloodshed. Focusing all our energy on building our individual autonomous communities will help most of us survive that, too. Which is why this discussion is so important.
Man, we gotta get better messengers or we’ll get clobbered trying. How do we get rid of the consultant class that only wants their cushy status quo?
They're making themselves irrelevant, as are many Democratic politicians and the Democratic National Committee. Wherever I can, I try to share messages that resonate (like Anat Shenker-Osorio's MAGA Murder Budget).
No, they never will be happy. It's like to give them half too. But they'll eventually attack us in an attempt to get what we have.
I look forward to reading what you are proposing. There is a deep anger out here. I had and am still having the reactions you had. We need a positive way forward.
No way forward will be easy, but we will have to keep our positive end state goals in mind as we go through it.
I went to lunch with two people from church, one a friend despite her politics because of how she lives her life and takes care of others, and the other a long-time not-really-friend because whatever I say, she will argue with. Truth is, she triggers me, and I can’t stand her although I have known her a very long time, and she’s in our circle of “buddies”. We usually steer away from politics, but the world being what it is, we touched on it, and I left realizing there is no way I could make those two see my point if I could even get them to listen, which I cannot because the former doesn’t think like I do and the latter doesn’t respect anything I say since I’m the one saying it. Reading this newsletter actually eases my stress over the day because I know you are right. We are never getting back the country we had before we voted in November. I’ve known it just like you have and on a similar grief timeline. They still believe we are living in a free and independent nation. They don’t want to know differently. What threatens me (not knowing the truth) is not what threatens them (facing the truth). Thank you for this newsletter. In a weird way, it helped me be okay with that.
"What threatens me (not knowing the truth) is not what threatens them (facing the truth)." This is the perfect statement about where so many Americans find themselves today. I said this about that crowd back during the pandemic. They kept forcing their conspiracies on everyone because they couldn't face the truth: We were living through a global pandemic that was going to change the world. They kept trying to make the world what it was before, and that world was gone. That message resonated so much that Republicans used it to win 2024. And now FOR SURE they will never get back that world because they were never able to face the truth that they couldn't no matter what.
I think I’m angry because I’m trying to warn people, and I’m just not heard…no, more than that, I’m interrupted and contradicted before I finish a statement. The things I want to discuss are complicated and have no simple solutions. I need to get to that place of acceptance where I myself am no longer grieving for what is lost and dig in for the kind of nonviolent resistance that is the only way to win. Your writing helps me keep perspective. Thanks.
I've shared this essay so many times in recent years. I was hoping to see a book about this, but I never did. His conclusions about how Americans aren't taught to listen to each other and hear one another out are very damning. He was able to get students who were largely conservative to have conversations and agree by focusing on ethics. I wish we'd seen so much more of this, because our entire society needs it: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/13/america-cultural-divide-red-state-blue-state-228111/
The article was really interesting. ASU is my grad school Alma Mater. I do think it’s possible to find common ground when we are told the truth. I’ve always been a Democrat in a very conservative area. However, I’ve never felt like this. I remember reading In a Different Voice years ago. I need to dig it out and reread it. It is the belief that the citizens ALL want something much fairer than they have been getting, that gives me hope even as I understand it will be a battle to debunk the propaganda and self-interest and get to a place where enough of us are willing to listen. Thanks for sharing this. I’m passing it on, too.
I really enjoyed you on Big Tent last night with David Graham. I agree with your idea that things need to be not replicated, but improved upon. Just don't know where this journey will take us.
Today I read that a Substacker was deported by ICE because of things he has written about this administration. That everyone's social media, including Substack is now being scanned by the big data scanner like Palantir and then people who have visas are being scanned. Right now it is non-citizens that they are doing this to, but could be anyone soon enough.
https://www.narativ.org/p/america-just-deported-its-first-substack?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Heard discussion about where we are headed before we can rebuild with Ruth Ben-Ghiat and 2 others on Substack. Scary stuff. Will Trump head us into war with Iran? Also, as Ben-Ghiat points out, Russia is economically propped up by China. It is not standing on its own.
I saw your name popping up in the chat. I can never keep my head in the game and read the chat. My husband even said, "Linda is awesome." I'm sorry if a lot of questions went unanswered, but hopefully this will lead to some other way for me to be useful to groups like Big Tent USA.
Building out the systems to scan every American is going to take a bit of time. They have the functionality to apply it to specific groups right now, but they need places like Musk's proposed Memphis facility to run this in full.
Which is why we MUST stop being distracted and focus our energies on building moats around ourselves and our communities, opting out of everything we can and providing it for ourselves, and taking care of each other.
Yes. I am understanding that Peter Thiel has been building up this data base of information on all of us. I am glad I don't use X, or Insta, or other platforms that when you tell a Gen Z-er to be careful they tell you it is inevitable that someone has their data, and they don't care, because they cannot imagine a government using things they do against them. They are totally unaware. Now the discussion of using AI in schools is scary. My friends already were considered the bad guys because they did not want the school data collecting on their son in computer class. Because I taught there the administration and the computer teacher came to me. I told them that I agreed with my friend. Your child's test scores, every thing they do is being gathered on them to sort them into categories. And I am betting the majority of Americans are oblivious to these sorts of things, and that is because they can be.
As Ruth Ben-Ghiat was saying today, people are calling her an alarmist. Some of my friends do this in not so many words, although they are cautious about it because I have a track record of being ahead of the crowd. My friend Phillip calls me "the canary in the coal mine." We all are. Those of us who are concerned. I am so grateful to not be alone in these worries. Too many people I know have been raised to put a positive spin on things. I do that when it is my truth. I am hopeful, but not about Trump.
Dean Blundell and Zev Shalev were talking about what bad physical shape Trump seems to be in. I get it. My mom is 91 today and I see the changes in her over the past few years. I can imagine what is it like for the people who are close to Trump. They are going to prop him up for 2 years so that JDV has a chance to take over and get 2 more full terms. Let us hope not. All of these people are nasty pieces of work that are in line.
I'm sure they've been operating here, too.
Many people call me hysterical. I feel a lot of solidarity with Ruth. And I agree about Hillbilly. I said a version of that multiple times last year.
Aren't we women hysterical when we point out potential problems that seem pretty obvious. By living life and observing things we can become expert in many things.
When people first meet me they often don't take me seriously. However, I developed a reputation as the canary in the coal mine at my job. I predicted everything that happened with Covid, because I read a lot and early on. No one, not even our University epidemiologist was as on the money as I was. I knew when she was lying to assuage fears, which I am not known for doing.
I am back in Europe and thanks to Lucian K. Truscott warning that Trump was going to bomb Iran this weekend, I was hoping I could get back across the Atlantic before it happened and Iran decided to retaliate.
Nothing like going to war to ruin your flight, other than having a video game addicted middle schooler sitting behind you on a flight and hitting the back of your chair in rapid fire motion for hours on end.
I know he was an addict because I would lean around and look at him and ask him to stop, and the last time I told him it was like torture to hear that tap, tap tapping, and he would stop for a bit then continue. I know he could not control himself.
I hope I don't get someone like him again. He was part of a boys choir going to perform with other boys choirs in Scotland. So, I did not get much sleep, and was much less resilient feeling than when I do.
This sounds like a great plan. I see where you’re going and I like it. 😊❤️
Making it happen is a mammoth task. And we don't have much time.
Agreed.
Loved your conversation with David Graham and look forward to your outline of what we can do to build our country with the values of equality and freedom for ALL.
Thanks for watching, Patricia.