How to Stop the Descent into Madness

To the degree you're just a spectator to this crisis, you're a contributor to it.

We have entered a new phase of national crisis. Confronted with accelerating madness, lawlessness, corruption, cruelty and destruction, we cannot, must not, continue as we have been. We must respond to the worsening situation with greater urgency, greater numbers, bolder actions…and we must candidly assess what has and has not worked in the past and try new things where required.

What follows are some thoughts about that response, some guidelines, some specific actions to take, some ways we must reset our outlook. These are fragments, in no particular order. Choose among them. Embrace what you can and what you believe in.

How to Stop the Descent into Madness (PDF)

Pete Hegseth's "Kill Them All" Order Constitutes a War Crime!

The Washington Post just reported: "Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say" Kill them all." Hegseth's order, and the resulting murders in international waters, violates domestic law, international law, and the law of war. A statement just issued by the "Former JAGs Working Group" concludes that the killings carried out on Hegseth's orders "are war crimes." I sat down for a discussion about this latest development with law professor, military law expert, and member of the Former JAGs Working Group Dan Maurer.
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Find Dan Maurer on Substack: dmaurer.substack.com

Why Hegseth's Attacks on Mark Kelly are an EMBARRASSMENT | A Conversation with Ken Harbaugh

After attacking Senator Mark Kelly both personally and professionally, Pete Hegseth has shown he has no shame when it comes to following Trump's orders. Steve Schmidt sits down with Ken Harbaugh to discuss Hegseth's threats towards Kelly and why we need more lawmakers willing to take a stand.
YouTube | Substack

Stephen Miller's Plans for America's Future are DANGEROUS aka Meet Trump's Goebbels

After his latest appearance on FOX News, it's clear Stephen Miller wants to bring Nazism to America. Steve Schmidt reacts to Miller's recent comments and explains why Miller and his allies need to be removed from power.
YouTube | Substack

Senator Ed Markey at 32nd week of peaceful protest of Burlington MA ICE office violating due process

Bearing Witness @ ICE
Week 32 Burlington MA
ICE “office” that illegally detains and imprisons immigrants
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Politics Chat, November 25, 2025 aka What’s Going On with the Republicans

00:00 – Welcome
01:50 - Would James Garfield have been a progressive president?
05:28 - Article II, Section 4
08:35 - What’s going on with the Republican Party?
20:17 - Big picture: why the Republican Party is in trouble right now
34:47 - Why do rich people think they should rule?
41:14 - 28-point plan for peace between Russia and Ukraine
43:17 - Three more years of this?

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Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: Substack

Don’t Give Up the Ship

A new coalition video from the Save America Movement, VALOR Media, and veteran-led organizations calls out the Trump Administration for launching an unprecedented investigation into Senator Mark Kelly — a decorated Navy combat pilot and astronaut — after he reminded U.S. service members of their legal duty to reject unlawful orders. Veterans from across the country stand with Kelly, condemning what they describe as “authoritarian retaliation” and warning that Trump’s attempt to weaponize the military justice system is a direct threat to constitutional democracy.

The video features voices from multiple branches of the armed forces emphasizing a core truth: the military serves the Constitution, not any one president. Coalition leaders urge Americans of all political backgrounds to speak out against this abuse of power and defend the integrity of our military institutions.
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Historian Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat On Understanding Trump And Autocratic Behavior

Friends, sharing a new interview with one of the heroes in our fight for democracy, professor, bestselling author, and fellow Substacker, Ruth Ben-Ghiat. I asked Dr. Ben-Ghiat to come talk to us after reading her recent essay, “Both Sane and Insane”: Autocratic Visions of Governance, Chaos as a Strategy. It helped me better understand what we are seeing everyday, and how to think about Trump and his regime. Her essay is linked below. Loved our conversation today. I always learn so much from Dr. Ben-Ghiat. She has been a very important teacher of mine and many in the Hopium community, helping us better understand what we are up against with Trump. It was a thrill to have her join us today.

We cover a great deal of ground in the discussion - Trump’s corrupt preference in dealing with other autocrats like MBS and Putin; his expectation that the military will follow him, not the Constitution; his need to create “strongman surprises” and the likelihood he will invade Venezuela to make himself full of power again; how someone like Trump falls… to dive deeper into Dr. Ben-Ghiat’s thinking check out her most recent book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, and become a subscriber to her terrific Substack, Lucid.

For more video commentary and analysis from leaders and experts such as Ruth, like, subscribe here on YouTube, join our community at https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/. Keep working hard all. — Simon
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Groundswell of Activism Takes Hold in the US

As thousands of ICE agents storm streets, schools and emergency rooms across the country, communities are training up on their rights, recording incidents of abuse and screaming at officers to impede deportations.

As opponents of LGBTQ+ rights try to erase queer history and safe spaces, residents have repainted rainbows across crosswalks paved over by officials and are organising their own record-keeping and mutual aid networks.

As corporations cave to pressure from the right to abandon diversity initiatives, consumers are boycotting those behemoths, resulting in millions of dollars in lost sales and, for some companies, a reversal of course.

This is what it looks like to build back power at a time when the government is trying to strip everyday Americans of their fundamental rights.

Link to Full Article in The Guardian

Ken Burns on America’s Origins, Contradictions, and The Power of History

As acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns reminds us, “Understanding where we’ve been permits us to look forward—and design a future that honors our past.” In this exclusive Newsweek Newsmakers interview, Burns joins Editor-in-Chief Jennifer H. Cunningham to explore the themes behind his latest epic documentary, The American Revolution.

From The Civil War, which captivated nearly 40 million viewers and became PBS’s most-watched program ever, to his deep dives into baseball, jazz, prohibition, and Vietnam, Burns has spent a lifetime telling the stories that define America. Now, he turns his lens to the Revolutionary War—the nation’s true origin story—a complex struggle for liberty built on contradictions we still wrestle with today. Burns unpacks how the ideals of freedom and self-governance clashed with the brutal realities of slavery and the treatment of Native peoples. He calls the Revolution “the most important event in world history since the birth of Christ,” a moment where human contradictions shaped the future of democracy.

“All of us are walking contradictions,” Burns says. “Our tendency right now is to make everything binary—on or off. But life, and history, are much more complicated than that.” YouTube

The American Revolution can now be streamed on PBS Passport.

Politics Chat, November 20, 2025

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Democrats to Troops: Don’t Follow Unlawful Orders

Democratic lawmakers posted a video to social media urging military troops to refuse any illegal orders they may receive. Senator Elissa Slotkin recently introduced legislation, the No Troops in Our Streets Act, to put limits on the Trump Administration’s ability to deploy the National Guard into American communities.
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Club Fed, A Puppy, and a Pedophile Ring: Tara Palmeri on Ghislaine’s Sweetheart Deal

This week on The Lincoln Project Podcast, Rick Wilson sits down with investigative reporter Tara Palmeri (The Tara Palmeri Show, The Red Letter) for a brutal, no-BS breakdown of the new Jeffrey Epstein emails naming Donald Trump, what they reveal about his long-denied ties to the Epstein sex trafficking network, and why Republicans in Congress are suddenly cracking over the push to release the full Epstein files. Tara walks through how Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Trump, billionaire bankers, modeling agencies, and elite power brokers all intersect, why survivors see these emails as a “smoking gun,” and how the DOJ, House GOP, and Trump White House tried to spin the scandal as a hoax. With sharp analysis, dark humor, and a relentless focus on the victims of sex trafficking, Rick and Tara unpack the corruption, the cover-ups, the banks, the lawyers, the media enablers, and what could happen next if ALL of the reasonably redacted Epstein documents, emails, and flight-log details finally come to light.
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November 18, 2025

Politics Chat

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Get full, free access to Letters from an American.

The Epstein Files are Closing in on Donald Trump

For months, Donald Trump has been whining and complaining about how everyone needs to stop paying attention to the Epstein files, and urging Congress not to release them. He then directed his Department of Justice to investigate the Epstein case, but only with respect to Democrats who may be implicated (an obviously vindictive and selective approach to an investigation). And now, Donald Trump is telling members of Congress to vote IN FAVOR OF releasing the Epstein files. This is obviously a reaction to learning that his own party has decided to break from him, with more than 100 members of the House of Representatives reportedly poised to vote in favor of releasing the Epstein files, even though Trump all along has been telling them not to release the files. This video does a deep dive of Trump's ever-changing position regarding the Epstein files.
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Find Glenn on Substack:
Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner

Words & Phrases We Could Do Without

Substack

Pam Bondi: Everything You Didn't Know About Her Sh*tty Past

In our 28th episode of This F*cking Guy, Erin and Alyssa dive deep into the past of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. From stealing orphaned children’s dog, to becoming Trump’s lapdog, to her shady involvement with the Epstein files, to role-playing as Trump’s personal lawyer, this may be our most theatrical sycophant yet!
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While Americans Starve, Trump Throws a Gala

For Trump, empathy is like one of his contractors — it never gets paid. Rick explores how Trump’s austerity policies, SNAP cuts, and Medicare rollbacks crushed millions while he partied with billionaires. The 2025 Democratic election surge wasn’t luck — it was justice.
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Nancy Pelosi kept the faith

Substack Link

While Americans Starve, Trump Throws a Gala

For Trump, empathy is like one of his contractors — it never gets paid. Rick explores how Trump’s austerity policies, SNAP cuts, and Medicare rollbacks crushed millions while he partied with billionaires. The 2025 Democratic election surge wasn’t luck — it was justice.
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Trump looking away from a man in need should be the portrait for his second term

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell details how Donald Trump demonstrated his ability to “completely ignore a person in need. He did that today with a man on the floor in the Oval Office and he did it today with millions of American air travelers whose plans he is threatening.”
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This Week in Politics

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Demolishing Democracy

Trump has about as much respect for The White House as he does for the people he governs The Lincoln Project is a leading pro-democracy organization in the United States — dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy. Our fight against Trumpism is only beginning. We must combat these forces everywhere and at all times — our democracy depends on it.
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Michelle Obama On Sending A Message With Fashion And Living In "The People's House"

GRAMMY-winner and best-selling author Michelle Obama says her fashion choices as First Lady were made "carefully, thoughtfully, strategically," as she knew that her appearance spoke volumes and projected a power that words couldn't. Watch her extended conversation with Stephen Colbert, including Mrs. Obama's comments about the legacy of the East Wing of the White House, and grab a copy of her book, "The Look," available now.
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BOMBSHELL: "If It Was Anybody Else, We'd Arrest Him Tomorrow" - FBI Expert on Trump revealed

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis reveal explosive new details from their book "Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department."
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Key Revelations:

The "Arrest Him Tomorrow" Moment: After the Mar-a-Lago raid on August 8, 2022, FBI agents recovered highly classified documents—some so sensitive that even national security experts with top clearances couldn't view them. That night, Assistant Attorney General Matt Olson asked his team: "What do we do now?" Julie Edelstein, an encyclopedic expert on mishandling classified records, responded: "If it was anybody else, we'd arrest him tomorrow."

The Documents Case: Prosecutors called it a "slam dunk" case—evidence was on surveillance tape, texts, and in FBI vans. Yet Trump received special deference as a former president.

The 60-Day Freeze: Attorney General Merrick Garland demanded investigators freeze the classified documents investigation for two months before the 2022 midterms—even though Trump wasn't on the ballot. This shocked people inside DOJ.

The Judge Cannon Problem: Prosecutor David Raskin warned that Judge Aileen Cannon was "an existential threat to the case." When the case was assigned to her, one attorney said: "We're screwed." Plus: Why DOJ didn't know about Cassidy Hutchinson until her public testimony, and how the January 6 Committee was ahead of federal investigators. This one is a keeper. And an unbelievably inside look into what went wrong in the DoJ after January 6th and the Trump secret documents case.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson and Public Health Expert Jessica Knurick, PhD, RDN

Tonight Heather Cox Richardson and Jim Acosta join forces to discuss everything that is going on with Donald Trump from his 60 minutes interview, claiming to not know that he pardoned Bitcoin billionaire Changpeng Zhao, to his mental acuity overall, plus of course Heather's unique ability to tie everything to history.

We also are joined by Dr. Jessica Knurick, to discuss the disastrous effects of snap benefits being cut and what damage Republicans are doing to the economy.
YouTube | Substack

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‪@heathercoxrichardson
‬ ‪@JessicaKnurick‬

Freedom For ALL? A Conversation with Professor Alex Zakaras

Today is election day and as our guest Alex Zakaras, the author of the brilliant new book Freedom for All: What a Liberal Society Could Be reminds us, there are opportunities to be seized. It’s so easy to be depressed but as some institutions fall, better ones have the opportunity to rise. As Professor Zakaras argues, the profound inequality in power, wealth, and status in our nation has fundamentally undermined the American social contract and we discuss what it would mean to extend the liberal promise of freedom to everyone on equal terms and how it could actually transform our economy and politics.
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Jasmine Crockett drops BOMB on Trump amid leaked Mar-a-Lago photo

INTERVIEW: Jasmine Crockett responds to Trump’s Gatsby party
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