A Clear Message to the World

This isn’t a religious newsletter, so I won’t belabor this point, but it’s difficult to avoid the big story of the day: the announcement of a new leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, the first Pope born in the United States of America. Anyone who harbored fears that the naming of the first American Pope would signify a shift away from the social justice-aligned papacy of Pope Francis can breathe a sigh of relief. Pope Leo has made his priorities known.

I think this is the perfect moment for an American Pope—at a time when the American President is the utter antithesis of Jesus’s teachings. And with the American President actively declaring war on immigrants, it’s no accident that the first-ever American Pope is a missionary. As a Catholic myself, I say, Benvenuto Papa Leone!

In Today’s Issue

• The Social Briefing: Heroes of the Week

• Good Reads for This Week

• What’s Your Take?

• The Social Calendar

• The Social Soundboard

This Week

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UPGRADE NOW

Amid all the bad, awful, dumb, stupid, sickening, embarrassing, demoralizing, infuriating, outrageous, terrible, horrible, Constitution-defying news of the past few days, we have to acknowledge the heroes among us. The list is growing, as more and more of us are standing up to the tyrant. Courage is infectious. Be brave!

• MARK CARNEY. Oh Canada! The new Prime Minister from the Great White North, Mark Carney, handled Donald Trump superbly this week during his Oval Office visit. Trump, on the other hand, was an absolute embarrassment as usual. The leader of a sovereign country came to the U.S. and had to tell the President to his face that his sovereign country was not for sale—and never would be. Watch if you missed it. We are so sorry, world.

• EMILY FEINER. It happened again. A woman was forcibly dragged out of a town hall held by a Republican congressman. This time it was Rep. Mike Lawler of New York. And the hero? Local citizen Emily Feiner, who said, “I’m not leaving. You are taking on an old Jewish woman.” Here’s what she had to say about the experience. More video from the town hall is here. Go, Emily!

• KETANJI BROWN JACKSON. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully condemned Trump’s attacks on judges who have blocked his administration’s policies. “The attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity,” she said. “The threats and harassment are attacks on our democracy, on our system of government. And they ultimately risk undermining our Constitution and the rule of law.” Indeed.

• 60 MINUTES. For the third week in a row! Despite its ongoing legal battles with Trump, 60 Minutes aired a provocative segment on the executive orders Trump has levied against law firms. “The fact is that these law firms are being told, ‘If you don't play ball with us, maybe something really bad will happen to you,’” said Marc Elias, a former Perkins Cole partner. As we wrote recently, it’s the Mafia White House.

• MARK ZAID. Another attorney who was targeted by Trump filed suit against him this week. High-profile whistleblower attorney Mark Zaid is seeking the restoration of his security clearance, which he says was revoked by Trump for “improper political retribution.” Good for Mark.

• LES MIS CAST. Several members of the “Les Misérables” cast are planning to boycott a Kennedy Center performance Trump is planning to attend in June to celebrate his takeover of the Kennedy Center. Do you hear the people sing, Trump?

• HONORABLE MENTION. No Republican who supports Donald Trump is a hero. Period. But Sen. Thom Tillis announced he wouldn’t support Trump’s pick for federal prosecutor—Ed Martin—because of his past comments on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Today, Trump withdrew Martin’s nomination. That’s the way it’s done.

Did we miss anyone? Send your heroes our way!

Good Reads for This Week

• The Social Contract —Evelyn Quartz

• Why I Left MAGA in 2020 —Common Sense with Ally Sammarco

• When Chaos Comes: A Civic Prayer —Notes from the Circus

• Trump’s Bumbling, Bullying Anti-DEI Crusade —The xxxxxx

• Addressing Cultural Fears Could Renew Public Support for Immigration —UnPopulist

• The Nazi Mind: 12 Chilling Warnings History Whispers to 2025 —Matt Lewis & the News(letter)

• 5 Ways to Give Fascism a Middle Finger —The Beautiful Mess

• Words & Phrases We Can Do Without —The Contrarian

• Enshittification —Persuasion

• A Failure of Imagination Could Do Us In —Need to Know by David Rothkopf

What’s Your Take?

Some of you have written to me to ask me to stop using profanity. I’ve tried to cut it out of my writing as much as possible—that was pretty easy—but I just haven’t been able to do the same with my speech. To me it’s a reflection of two things. One, we’re living in times that sort of demand it. And two, I’m a genuine guy, and that’s how I express myself. So I’m asking you, dear readers…

Did you catch Walsh Wednesday, my weekly meetup with Michael Cohen? If you missed it, here it is:

Michael Cohen

Raw and Unfiltered: It’s Walsh Wednesday

Thank you E.R. Flynn, PegsReilledUp, We The People Act Now, Michelle Landa, Carol Trueman, and many others for tuning into my live video with Joe Walsh! Join me for my next live video in the app…

Listen now

a day ago · 799 likes · 120 comments · Michael Cohen and Joe Walsh

• UPCOMING INTERVIEWS

  • Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks: TONIGHT at 8pm ET

  • Reed Galen of The Home Front: TOMORROW at noon ET

• THIS WEEK’S INTERVIEWS & QUOTES

  • United We Stand, Divided We Fall—Brian Karem Reporter’s Notebook

  • Get Ready for Martial Law —Mission Implausible podcast

  • Trump Watchers (like George Conway and Joe Walsh) Are Betting on This Tragic Ending —NJ.com

  • Ex-MAGA Calls Trump ‘Stupid, Cruel, Ignorant’ and Makes Terrifying Prediction —NJ.com

Here’s what some of you are thinking about this week…

Joe and Team,

I'm a former lifelong Republican that became Independent in 2016 due to Trump.

Just sharing a pic of our new lawn signs that help us to connect with neighbors too. —Peter

As a former Reagan Republican and veteran, I have spent several years trying to “fit in” with my county and state Democratic Party groups. I've felt politically homeless for most of my adult life, but now I understand that this is okay, because the solutions are not to the extreme left or extreme right. As a centrist on many issues, I'm still socially progressive, but a gun owner, and as a veteran, my heart breaks at how we've failed our allies. I served with people from all walks of life who did their jobs impeccably. All belief systems. All races. All genders. All sexual orientations. They were/are hard workers committed to their country. To OUR country. To ALL People, because We the People means ALL the PEOPLE. —Renee Reif

Hi Joe,

Is there room in the Democratic Party for homeless Republicans like you? I’m going to give that an emphatic no!

Now, I’m not saying that as a bad thing against homeless Republicans; I’m saying it as that there is not a place for an Independent or centrist like me, and there actually isn’t room in the party for anyone that is to the right of progressive. They seem to want to be high-jacked by anything that can be called progressive or to the left of that. They are setting themselves up to be the ANTIMAGA party. With the same purity tests for the extremes, but on a different end of the spectrum, with no place, or need, for anyone to the center, or God forbid, right of them. Here is how I can best sum up.

On the right, you have MAGA. They want to burn it all down for the sake of shock and awe, revel in the inhuman orgy, and have no plan beyond that. They’ll make it up when the embers have extinguished.

On the left, you have the Democrats. They see and acknowledge that there are fires being lit and damage will ensue, but they want to discuss if using water to put out the fire is fair and equitable to the single-cell organism that lives in the water and is gender-fluid, identifies as “of color,” and has a Hispanic surname. Is using “their” water for “our” gain fair?

Then, there are the rest of us. Homeless Republicans, Independents, centrists, and anyone right of progressive Democrats. We acknowledge that fires are being set to burn everything down. We also value that single-cell lifeform, but we understand that there are many more forms that are going to be affected by, if not perish in, the fires. So we have to make a difficult choice. And we realize that after the fires are out, there is the clean-up and the hard work of rebuilding everything, and then, that is when the real hard work begins! We’ll have to address everything from the single-cell organism that lives in the water and everything beyond that.

That is what adults and Americans need to and must do to get our nation back on track. I hope this all makes sense to you, because in my inner monologue as I write this, it does to me!

I love the podcast and everything else that you do for our nation. Keep up the great work, brother! —Joe Espinola

Hi Joe,

I keep reading of people talking about a post-Trump Republican Party. I have a problem with this. It’s not just about getting Democrats in office; I don’t really care. I voted for Reagan in ’80 and every Republican candidate since. I was raised that way, and it wasn’t until the 2000 decade that I started to think for myself.

Lincoln, it’s said, wanted to get the southerners repatriated as soon as possible. A noble sentiment but perhaps misguided. At least some of the rebels just don’t think like us. I believe that the best indicator of an American is your heart. After all, the “native” tribes fought with each other, the colonies didn’t agree on much, the whites took over from the Indians. Here in the Southwest, we had Indians, Spanish, and us Johnny-come-lately “legacy Americans.” So what is an American?

A careful assessment of current rhetoric vs. policy shows the right is decidedly anti-American, as to values. The Dems have a lot of good ideas and a few bad ones, but! The right talks of liberty…for themselves. They are blatantly bigoted on almost all the “race, creed, national origin…” criteria. They are for American preeminence, not leadership. They are imperialist, where we have never occupied territory we liberated.

This is a cancer of hate. It has been around perhaps back to the South. There is a correlation between MAGA hats and rebel flags, and the people I am acquainted with are die-hard separatists. I never thought it was this bad, but I used to quip that the KKK was alive and well in Fremont County, CO. I joined a church and was disillusioned rather quickly. A discussion was had after a Wednesday meal about the recent reelection of President Obama. A woman stated, “If more white Christians had voted, we would have a different president.”

But it goes further back than that and is also international. I recall when President Obama won the first time, a British associate sent me an American bill with the president’s face colored with ink! Lest we think Trump is only a “flash on the pan” problem.

So, it won’t do any good just to endure and survive Trump. You say what’s wrong, and people laugh at you. You point out what they would complain about on the other side, and they are giddy about it. They regurgitate his words as though they believe them. Some are duped, but many, even most, are right on the same page with him—either because they like their money despite the evil that brings it, or because they see that evil as good. It doesn’t really matter. This has been around long before they started openly organizing as the Tea Party. This is a cancer that WILL metastasize and must be eradicated.

But how do we help people grow when they don’t think they need to? There’s talk of guardrails, but an informed electorate is the best. I am glad you are holding local conversations and are working on how to engage people. It must happen, but I am at a loss to see how to even gather some folk, much less get them to hear. I tell people I won’t talk about policies, even if I agree with some of theirs, until the rule of law is restored. They want Democrats, non-whites, etc., to leave the country. Or sit down, shut up, and accept their way. A MAGA acquaintance even said, “We just want what’s best for everybody.” Their opinion of what’s best. —Mark Strauss

Hey, I want to hear from you!

What do you think of The Social Contract with Joe Walsh? What are your thoughts about what’s happening this week? How can we fix the political mess we’ve created in our country? How do we mend our frayed social fabric and rebuild an America that works?

Tell us your story and share your ideas with us. Email our editor at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.