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Hey Friends,
I’m excited to announce that DEFIANCE.org has invited me to speak at its STATE OF THE SWAMP event, the BIGGEST rebuttal to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, on February 24, at 7pm ET—in person and streaming live from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
I’ll be joined by a pretty amazing list of pro-democracy speakers and guests:
Stacy Abrams | Jim Acosta | Wajahat Ali | Tom Arnold | Ruth Ben-Ghiat | Latosha Brown | Fmr. Gov. Steve Bullock | George Conway | Robert De Niro | Norm Eisen | Rep. Dan Goldman | Sue Gordon | Stephanie Grisham | Mehdi Hasan | Brian Karem | Glenn Kirschner | Abbe Lowell | Tara McGowan | Rep. Seth Moulton | Asha Rangappa | Rashad Robinson | Mark Ruffalo | Steve Schmidt | Rep. Eric Swalwell | Charlie Sykes | Miles Taylor | Baratunde Thurston | Olivia Troye | Joyce Vance | Rep. Eugene Vindman | Marianne Williamson | Sen. Ron Wyden
I’d love for you to join us! Ticket packages start at $50. More information is available on the website at DEFIANCE.org/sotu. If you decide to register, please use my discount code WALSH15 for 15% off your tickets.
Hope you can make it!
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This Week on The Social Contract
My Substack Lives are open to all subscribers, unless noted. Please join us this week!
Tuesday, 7pm ET: With guest Melissa Amour of “The Inside Outsider”
Wednesday, 7pm ET: Zoom for Founding Members
Thursday, 4pm ET: “Unvarnished” with Edwin Eisendrath
Thursday, 6pm ET: “Tequila Talk” with Cliff Schecter
Thursday, 7pm ET: AMA for paid subscribers
EVERY DAY I’M FIGHTING THIS FASCIST ADMINISTRATION—AND I WON’T STOP.
I’M PROUDLY INDEPENDENT, WITH NO CORPORATE DONORS, NO INSTITUTIONAL BACKERS, NO DARK MONEY, NO BILLIONAIRES.
SO I COULD USE YOUR HELP.
PLEASE BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER TO HELP MY SMALL BU FIERCELY PRO-DEMOCRACY TEAM KEEP MY VOICE OUT THERE.
THANK YOU!
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Here’s what some of you are thinking about this week…
Joe—
I’ve been listening to your podcast every day. Thank you for being such a comforting outlet. My family and I are really scared. We’re worried that we won’t be able to get through this. The U.S. feels so divided right now, and it’s changed forever. Trump has deeply affected the nation, and he’s determined to take over the midterms. This is our only chance to protect democracy.
Chuck and Hakeem are still playing politics with the fascists. Will they ever realize what’s happening? Or will they let our democracy slip away? Our lives have been turned upside down. I don’t know how to stay strong. I’m so afraid that they’ll cheat in the midterms, and it’s all over. I wake up every day feeling very down and gloomy. No one is happy.
The violence is heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking to see the federal government now acting against the citizens. We feel abandoned and deceived. My family has been thinking about leaving the country because the administration and the billionaires behind it have waged a war against the working class. All we want is to go to work, get medical care we can afford, and have a roof over our heads.
We pay our taxes and try to do what’s right. We don’t deserve this, and no one deserves this. Now they’re trying to destroy many jobs for AI. The greed and hatred are overwhelming. It hurts and makes me angry. I look at my children’s faces, and it makes me cry. I guess I really needed to send you a message of thanks for being there.
Thanks again for your time. —Kyla D.
Hi Joe,
Listened to your podcast this morning. Totally agreed with everything you said. Why should a reporter, male or female, smile when asking serious questions about a serious topic?
Trump’s brain, if you can call it that, only works in one direction. Women are to be used however a man wishes. They are to keep the house, cook their meals, bear their children, hang on their every word, and serve them in the bedroom. Thank goodness my father and my husband never treated my mother or me in that way. —Nancy W.
When strategically smart, Dems should start running hard against Vance, maybe as early as just before the midterms. Why?
Vance is a demonstrably and grotesquely unattractive person and candidate. He shows the worst of the party, and all those on the right should be made to defend what he does and says every single day. AND…
This will drive Trump absolutely insane, and as we know, the more Trump thinks he’s being upstaged or is not the center of attention, the more HE shows his worst side. This worst side is finally now unacceptable to the broad electorate.
This brings down Vance, Trump, and the party. But it would require the Dems to be proactive and strategic rather than their usual reactive, on-their-heels posture. —Stephen M.
Prior to the Civil War, a plethora of compromises, provisos, and amendments were put forth to try to avoid Southern secession. The Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, which included the Fugitive Slave Act, the Crittenden Compromise, the Wilmot Proviso and, as a last ditch effort, the Corwin Amendment to the Constitution, which was passed by both houses of Congress with the necessary 2/3 majority and was endorsed by the outgoing president, James Buchanan.
Abraham Lincoln sent the amendment to the states for consideration. The North’s desperation to preserve the Union led them to guarantee slavery in existing states, something to appease the southerners, not necearily consistent with northerners’ beliefs. If the same amendment had been offered before the country had reached this point, would the North have suggested this amendment? I doubt it would have had enough support to pass in Congress. Ultimately, it didn’t work, because nothing went far enough or was good enough to satisfy the 11 states that seceded.
No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.
Can you believe this? I bet the Northerners never contemplated supporting anything close to this amendment, but when faced with the possibility of secession, they prioritized the unified country over its people. This amendment was never ratified by the necessary 3/4 of the states. By the time it was passed by Congress, South Carolina, along with six other states, had already seceded. Originally, two states ratified the amendment: Ohio and Maryland. Both states eventually rescinded the ratification. The southern states thought that slavery was already guaranteed in their states. They were concerned about its expansion, which the Corwin Amendment did not address.
The ICE and immigration situation now is analogous to the slave issue then. We have put up with lawless ICE thugs invading our cities, abusing and murdering the people. ICE has denied due process and free speech as well as violating the Fourth Amendment. This is ongoing.
The ICE assassins are still running around free along with those who use the killers’ illegal actions as threats to other protesters. People have been ripped from their cars, had their homes broken into, had a 5-year-old used as bait to get to his father, have been beaten, arrested, and thrown to the ground. Renee Good was shot in the face as she sat in her car, and Alex Pretti was shot 10 times as he was lying on the street surrounded by ICE hoodlums who were in retreat.
This has been going on for months and seems to be escalating. And now, we have Democrats negotiating with Republicans over whether ICE can wear masks and if they will wear (no one mentions turning them on) body cams. ICE sent the agents a memo saying they don’t need a judicial warrant and can break into people’s homes or cars. Who decided that? Based on what? The Constitution allows police to break in to a home during exigent circumstances, such as the concern that someone may flee or to prevent the destruction of evidence. Are there really exigent circumstances when you don’t even know the people’s names?
Sure, the Democrats need to negotiate, but they have already given away the store. By negotiating the terms under which ICE terrorists can operate, aren’t we already agreeing to the fact that ICE has a right to be in our cities? Why isn’t the negotiation focused on the conditions under which ICE may be deployed and the number of thugs that will be permitted to be there? Who has the statistics on immigration to determine the need for the deployment to a particular city?
Only when reasonable answers to those questions are given can we thrash out the terms of their presence anywhere in the U.S. We need to start from a tenable position. We have never had ICE or CBP roaming the streets of our cities before. Why is this necessary now? Until that question is answered, there is really no other question. —Maggie B.
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I believe the cruelty of the Trump Administration will ultimately help defeat MAGA. Most Americans are not cruel. We are spreading the word about ICE’s cruel and unlawful behavior here every week. Please do the same with your own networks, and share any stories and videos you find with us.
To help make a difference in a tangible way, please support PAXIS, a “know-your-rights” app designed to provide help to immigrants and allies anywhere—immediately—when ICE shows up.
Military Veteran Deported to Jamaica After 50 Years in U.S. —Newsweek
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