This is the first in a series of conversations we'll be holding about protecting our elections in 2026 and the broader fight to preserve the rule of law and our Constitutional order
Oh, yay...was waited for this. Brennan Center for Justice is fantastic. Have been following them for a long time. Learned about them thru NYU and Andrew Weismann.
Simon - thank you! This was awesome. I'm struck with the back and forth you two had about major reform and imagination coming after a period of great corruption. The re-imagning concept you've been talking about recently. While we don't know what it looks like, we certainly have the jumping off place of the worst corruption we've ever seen going on right this moment.
Different topic for a minute - great return to coal energy festival Trump held yesterday has been rattling around in my head ever since I read about it. Of all the batshit crazy ideas we've heard from him, the idea that coal should be the new energy source of the 21st century has to be one of the most ludicrous. Just what we're missing: the dirtiest form of energy ever used by humans and another generation of coal miners with their plethora of health problems and early death. Absolutely bonkers.
Yes. Yes. Yes. The last thing we need is a return to coal. Trump is completely out of his mind. I feel like we are watching a movie called "The Attack of the Stupid People," featuring Donald Trump and Company.
I think you can compare Trump sometimes to Hitler, but other times he feels exactly like a puppet dictator in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The fact he is Putin's sock puppet helps that comparison.
I've had friends and colleagues who grew up in Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain. The feature of those countries they would talk about are how the government would highlight things like coal mining, steel production, and concrete. Old technologies. They were trying to catch up to the West and this is what they understood.
Since everything was planned, they would just try to produce more steel and mine more coal than the previous quarter, and then declare victory. Then with all the concrete and steel you didn't know what to do with, you built a bunch of blocky, ugly structures.
Trump always gives a vibe like he's still living in the 1970's. He barely understood things back then, but now he just projects the need for more steel, more coal, more oil. Old technology. What he kind of thinks he understands.
He has no fucking idea about new technology beyond something like "we need rare earth minerals because they are magnets" (I heard him call them "raw earths" earlier last year. He's just dumb as fuck.)
The East Germans built a society and economy after the war based primarily on lignite coal. With a fully functioning Stasi, they managed to eke out an existence for over forty years. I'm not sure what you are so worried about.
Someone sent me this article from Christopher Armitage. It is very concerning. I didn't see much discussion of these points in your interview today. I hope you will address these at some point in your usual laser-focused fashion. Thank you so much for keeping the flames of liberty burning strong!
My Canadian mind is boggled by this entire situation. An elected 🇺🇸 president is actively breaking the rule of law. Whatever happened to three strikes and you’re out? I had hoped / assumed that the Biden administration and Congress would’ve mended the ship of state after January 6. But it’s leaking more than ever. Please tell us how USA can protect itself from future rogue presidents, and force them to resign if they break the law. (Including adding ‘convicted felon’ to disqualifications for running for any office including president.) 🇨🇦 💪
Our United States minds are just as boggled as yours, believe me!!! "A country of laws, not of individuals"--okay, the original was, "...not of men," but either way, that was foundational for our country and for its governing--governing by We The People, NOT some group on high thinking they were "IT." Our founders and other ancestors would NEVER have gone through the fear, death, and destruction of the war merely to recreate what they had already been suffering under for years.
Those who keep supporting this corrupt mess we have are just proving, no matter how much they claim to love this country, that they, just like JD and Donnie and, yuck, Blondie (Bondi) can NOT STAND THIS COUNTRY.
The only law that lump pays attention to is ratings. He lives in mortal terror of his sex crimes during the 1980s and 90s being exposed. Keep up the pressure on the files. Publicize the investigations in other countries. Andrew and Fergie were close friends with Epstein many years longer than they claim (Entitled by Andrew Lownie). They could give devastating evidence. Keep up the pressure on the pedo pals. The People will prevail! 🇨🇦
Should all states start to count votes as they come in, instead of waiting until "voting day" to start the count? It seems like there would be less opportunity for Republicans to raise concerns. WA state votes primarily using mail in ballots.
I absolutely agree with Michael and an agenda that addresses everything that is being exploited by this president. Please come back and outline this agenda and give us talking points!
I must say, I like your good friend Michael Walden. You do have alot of of great friends. I'm aware of the great things The Brennan Center has been doing since I lived in New York in my early years. And they are still doing it. And, you as well Simon.
You, Michael, and many others are All Warriors. We Salute You!
We have an enormous opportunity to grasp "The Bull by the Horns".
I am an Optimus, and I am very confident that our 2026 Elections will be protected, and We will fight to preserve the Rule of Law.
We must Vote early and Celebrate that We are going to Win, without a doubt.
This was a great introduction for me to the Brennan Center. Michael Waldman was very informative. I was very happy to hear him talk about the security of the elections. And absolutely loved your input, Simon, about the Minnesota caucuses. I was worried that they'd be interfered with. The discussion near the end about reforming aspects of the government was quite heartening and I look forward to more of that spirit and details. Thanks so much!
1. Overwhelming popular vote victory in House/Senate elections.
2. Demoratic supermajority control of both houses of Congress.
3. Swiiftly impeach and remove Trump-Vance for multiple high crimes and lies/misdemeanors.
4. Jeffries sworn in as President; appoints Restoration Commission to undo and prevent recurrence of trumpism.
5. Jeffries oversees Democratic primary-based fast-track selection of Democratic Vice President.
6. Begin implementation of twenty-first century program of humane (health,education,safety, immigration,etc.) government paid for by weatlh taxes aimed to end unbalanced wealth distribution.
6. Passage of Supreme Court Rainbow Membership and Procedural Reform Act. Six new justices appointed and confirmed.
7. Removal of all physical signs of trumpist greed and self-glorification.ß
Sorry, I beg to differ about our elections having been free and fair since the Supreme Court vacated major parts of the voting rights act. Many states quite a few southern have taken major steps to make voting Harder for people of color and poor people. They have made registration Harder. They have failed to do same-day registration. They have changed and reduced polling sites and days of early voting. They have gerrymandered districts, they have purged voter rolls without telling people and similar actions. I don’t know if somebody has calculated how many people have been disenfranchised, flat out, or have been intimidated into not voting as a consequence of all these behaviors, but it is very difficult to say that our elections have been fair, and that everybody has an equal chance to vote since the supreme court avoided federal supervision of elections is called for in the voting rights act
This is telling: More than a dozen federal prosecutors have resigned after the Department of Justice declined to investigate the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
On the one hand, this is obviously extremely worrisome. Yet on the other, it is encouraging because it underscores that there are still many people of conscience in the federal government and throughout the judiciary.
Trump and musk basically admitted that they messed with the election results and therefore from “won”. This was not an election without republican corruption of the votes.
From now on anyone still pretending that election was fair and accurate is not somebody I can ever listen to again.
OOH! Can't wait to get to this - thanks!
Oh, yay...was waited for this. Brennan Center for Justice is fantastic. Have been following them for a long time. Learned about them thru NYU and Andrew Weismann.
Listening right now. Thanks, Simon.
Thanks for the video. I am just exhausted right now, but I'll listen later on.
It's been an exhausting week.
I listened while I was driving today. Both terrifying and encouraging all at once.
Simon - thank you! This was awesome. I'm struck with the back and forth you two had about major reform and imagination coming after a period of great corruption. The re-imagning concept you've been talking about recently. While we don't know what it looks like, we certainly have the jumping off place of the worst corruption we've ever seen going on right this moment.
Different topic for a minute - great return to coal energy festival Trump held yesterday has been rattling around in my head ever since I read about it. Of all the batshit crazy ideas we've heard from him, the idea that coal should be the new energy source of the 21st century has to be one of the most ludicrous. Just what we're missing: the dirtiest form of energy ever used by humans and another generation of coal miners with their plethora of health problems and early death. Absolutely bonkers.
Yes. Yes. Yes. The last thing we need is a return to coal. Trump is completely out of his mind. I feel like we are watching a movie called "The Attack of the Stupid People," featuring Donald Trump and Company.
I think you can compare Trump sometimes to Hitler, but other times he feels exactly like a puppet dictator in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The fact he is Putin's sock puppet helps that comparison.
I've had friends and colleagues who grew up in Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain. The feature of those countries they would talk about are how the government would highlight things like coal mining, steel production, and concrete. Old technologies. They were trying to catch up to the West and this is what they understood.
Since everything was planned, they would just try to produce more steel and mine more coal than the previous quarter, and then declare victory. Then with all the concrete and steel you didn't know what to do with, you built a bunch of blocky, ugly structures.
Trump always gives a vibe like he's still living in the 1970's. He barely understood things back then, but now he just projects the need for more steel, more coal, more oil. Old technology. What he kind of thinks he understands.
He has no fucking idea about new technology beyond something like "we need rare earth minerals because they are magnets" (I heard him call them "raw earths" earlier last year. He's just dumb as fuck.)
The East Germans built a society and economy after the war based primarily on lignite coal. With a fully functioning Stasi, they managed to eke out an existence for over forty years. I'm not sure what you are so worried about.
Someone sent me this article from Christopher Armitage. It is very concerning. I didn't see much discussion of these points in your interview today. I hope you will address these at some point in your usual laser-focused fashion. Thank you so much for keeping the flames of liberty burning strong!
https://open.substack.com/pub/cmarmitage/p/trump-wont-cancel-elections-theres?r=9xnix&utm_medium=ios
My Canadian mind is boggled by this entire situation. An elected 🇺🇸 president is actively breaking the rule of law. Whatever happened to three strikes and you’re out? I had hoped / assumed that the Biden administration and Congress would’ve mended the ship of state after January 6. But it’s leaking more than ever. Please tell us how USA can protect itself from future rogue presidents, and force them to resign if they break the law. (Including adding ‘convicted felon’ to disqualifications for running for any office including president.) 🇨🇦 💪
Our United States minds are just as boggled as yours, believe me!!! "A country of laws, not of individuals"--okay, the original was, "...not of men," but either way, that was foundational for our country and for its governing--governing by We The People, NOT some group on high thinking they were "IT." Our founders and other ancestors would NEVER have gone through the fear, death, and destruction of the war merely to recreate what they had already been suffering under for years.
Those who keep supporting this corrupt mess we have are just proving, no matter how much they claim to love this country, that they, just like JD and Donnie and, yuck, Blondie (Bondi) can NOT STAND THIS COUNTRY.
The only law that lump pays attention to is ratings. He lives in mortal terror of his sex crimes during the 1980s and 90s being exposed. Keep up the pressure on the files. Publicize the investigations in other countries. Andrew and Fergie were close friends with Epstein many years longer than they claim (Entitled by Andrew Lownie). They could give devastating evidence. Keep up the pressure on the pedo pals. The People will prevail! 🇨🇦
Should all states start to count votes as they come in, instead of waiting until "voting day" to start the count? It seems like there would be less opportunity for Republicans to raise concerns. WA state votes primarily using mail in ballots.
I absolutely agree with Michael and an agenda that addresses everything that is being exploited by this president. Please come back and outline this agenda and give us talking points!
Good Evening, Simon.
I must say, I like your good friend Michael Walden. You do have alot of of great friends. I'm aware of the great things The Brennan Center has been doing since I lived in New York in my early years. And they are still doing it. And, you as well Simon.
You, Michael, and many others are All Warriors. We Salute You!
We have an enormous opportunity to grasp "The Bull by the Horns".
I am an Optimus, and I am very confident that our 2026 Elections will be protected, and We will fight to preserve the Rule of Law.
We must Vote early and Celebrate that We are going to Win, without a doubt.
Great interview! Thank you Simon and Michael Waldman.
Hearing about the Brennan Center quite often, I am pleased to know more about their work. I will subscribe to their newsletter.
And share this interview.
Onward and upward, fellow patriots! 🇺🇸
This was a great introduction for me to the Brennan Center. Michael Waldman was very informative. I was very happy to hear him talk about the security of the elections. And absolutely loved your input, Simon, about the Minnesota caucuses. I was worried that they'd be interfered with. The discussion near the end about reforming aspects of the government was quite heartening and I look forward to more of that spirit and details. Thanks so much!
This was a particularly thoughtful and inspiring interview.
Agenda250Years:
1. Overwhelming popular vote victory in House/Senate elections.
2. Demoratic supermajority control of both houses of Congress.
3. Swiiftly impeach and remove Trump-Vance for multiple high crimes and lies/misdemeanors.
4. Jeffries sworn in as President; appoints Restoration Commission to undo and prevent recurrence of trumpism.
5. Jeffries oversees Democratic primary-based fast-track selection of Democratic Vice President.
6. Begin implementation of twenty-first century program of humane (health,education,safety, immigration,etc.) government paid for by weatlh taxes aimed to end unbalanced wealth distribution.
6. Passage of Supreme Court Rainbow Membership and Procedural Reform Act. Six new justices appointed and confirmed.
7. Removal of all physical signs of trumpist greed and self-glorification.ß
Sorry, I beg to differ about our elections having been free and fair since the Supreme Court vacated major parts of the voting rights act. Many states quite a few southern have taken major steps to make voting Harder for people of color and poor people. They have made registration Harder. They have failed to do same-day registration. They have changed and reduced polling sites and days of early voting. They have gerrymandered districts, they have purged voter rolls without telling people and similar actions. I don’t know if somebody has calculated how many people have been disenfranchised, flat out, or have been intimidated into not voting as a consequence of all these behaviors, but it is very difficult to say that our elections have been fair, and that everybody has an equal chance to vote since the supreme court avoided federal supervision of elections is called for in the voting rights act
This is telling: More than a dozen federal prosecutors have resigned after the Department of Justice declined to investigate the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
On the one hand, this is obviously extremely worrisome. Yet on the other, it is encouraging because it underscores that there are still many people of conscience in the federal government and throughout the judiciary.
Trump and musk basically admitted that they messed with the election results and therefore from “won”. This was not an election without republican corruption of the votes.
From now on anyone still pretending that election was fair and accurate is not somebody I can ever listen to again.