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Heidi Jon Schmidt

@heidijon.bsky.social
1K followers 1.8K following 1.4K posts

Author, Democrat, mom New York Times, The Atlantic, Boston Globe Mag, etc. hjs24pearl.substack.com heidijonschmidt.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Heidi Jon Schmidt
emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The BK of the Kennedy Center is a case in point. And a metonym for the entire country. From details to macro Trump is destroying everything, partly out of spite, partly out of incompetence.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
In the 2018 midterms, one of the big issues on the right was "civility in politics" bsky.app/profile/oluf...
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It’s all identity politics, but since it’s largely white identity politics it’s fine and doesn’t count. It’s not something communist like police shouldn’t be able to get away with murder bsky.app/profile/chri...
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Heidi Jon Schmidt @heidijon.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
But let’s not poke around in the Russian influence muck. There are, like, dead bodies under there and it’s so messy.
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David Rothschild @davmicrot.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
2016: Russia cyberattacks US to help elect Trump; Republicans gut anti-Russian policy from their platform; Campaign Manager Manafort floats policies to breakup Ukraine while sharing internal campaign data with Russian asset (shared with FBI agent investigating Trump's ties to Russia)
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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I wonder if the NY Times has a Euphemism Desk to soften its stories. Trump lawlessness is an “expansive interpretation of presidential power”? A Trump-UAE crypto scheme “blurred the line between foreign policy and private enterprise.” This thread imagines history as written by NYT’s Euphemism Desk.🧵
NYT newsroom in the 1940s
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is a VERY weird post from @maxtani.bsky.social, which may say as much about Semafor as it does about Bessent.
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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 13/09/2026
Trump in Ireland: “Zelenskyy has to do one thing, he has to stop hitting the oil refineries in Russia. That’s hurting the world.” ..I just watched how people ran out of trains and hid in the bushes as the drones were targeting Ukrainian trains overnight. No, nobody will stop until Putin stops.
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Heidi Jon Schmidt @heidijon.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
hjs24pearl.substack.com/p/consider-t...
hjs24pearl.substack.com
Consider the Clothesline
Women in the CIA and the FBI warned of the terrorism coming on 9/11/2001. 25 years later, misogyny and the attendant devaluation of empathy and connection are still endangering us all.
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Jen Rubin @jenrubin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
ESSENTIAL reading and frightful :
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Ariella Elm @ariellaelm.com · 12/09/2026
Shana Tova to all my fellow Jews. Let’s make this year the year we flip the house and the Senate, and state and local governments around the country! That would make it a sweet new year. Happy 5787! 🍎🍏🍯
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Norm Ornstein @normornstein.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
So emblematic of today’s Republican Party www.aol.com/articles/con...
aol.com
Convicted sex offender offered opening prayer at rally for GOP Senate nominee in North Carolina - AOL
A North Carolina pastor who led the opening prayer at a recent campaign stop for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley is a registered sex offender, twice sentenced to prison
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
If you follow me and want to help, I only have one request. Spread the word about the threats to democracy and how we can fight back. Tell everyone to subscribe to Democracy Docket and share its content. demdock.com/4w6emld
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I LOVED @skyeperryman.bsky.social’s new book. It’s energizing and hopeful, and my favorite chapter is a vital antidote to SCOTUS doom-and-gloom. Skye is one of the key players in the legal battle against Trump 2.0 and she has a lot to teach us about how to fight and win when all feels lost.
Lucy the hound with Skye’s book
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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Heavy lifting by Dan Froomkin makes for light reading here. Really good job of sorting out media coverage of Trump's $5,000 gimmick.
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Bolts @boltsmag.org · 10/09/2026
A call center is employing prisoners to make political calls for a conservative super PAC, Oklahoma Watch reports:
oklahomawatch.org
Who’s Calling? - Oklahoma Watch
Oklahoma prison inmates are working in call centers placing political calls and insurance telemarketing on behalf of outside companies, earning $2 an hour while a Virginia super PAC paid nearly $600,000 to the vendor for calls supporting conservative candidates — including calls made during Oklahoma's primary election season.
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Heidi Jon Schmidt @heidijon.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I believe Pope Leo’s gentle worldwide power may be key to our survival. I’m a lifelong atheist which means I know where to look for hope. I am watching his every move and its effect.
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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
A possible romantic relationship between a president and one of his aides isn’t something the public needs to know about. by Ken Starr and Newt Gingrich
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Anat Shenker-Osorio @anatosaurus.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Turns out doing the right thing is right. By which I mean correct. Kudos @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social for the critical work cited here. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
theguardian.com
US firms that kept DEI policies despite ‘go woke, go broke’ threats thrived
Exclusive: Companies that kept policies did just as well financially, even after Trump’s executive order, as those that didn’t
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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Rep. Ralph Norman, who’s in a Senate runoff with Lindsey Graham’s sister Darline, secretly urged a military-backed coup in 2021 to keep Trump in power. But the NY Times thinks it’s no big deal. In its last 92 stories mentioning Norman over 3 years and 7 months, it hasn’t stated that fact once. 1/7🧵
Pix of Norman
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
@gregjaffe.bsky.social @crow.house.gov Given the story about people jumping off the USS Lincoln, can you explain what the CNO does, please?
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
MoJo ties the disasters in Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran to Kushner's corruption. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Dmitriev is now steeped in negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine on Russia’s terms, with his old pal Kushner representing the United States. The Kremlin is dangling potential deals for US invest­ors that are reportedly worth trillions of dollars, if only America would lift its sanctions and welcome Russia back in from the cold. Kushner, meanwhile, has proved willing to peddle pro-Kremlin talking points time and again. In late 2025, he and special envoy Witkoff—whose family and the Trumps co-founded World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm in which a top UAE official would later purchase a 49 percent stake—publicized a “peace plan” for Ukraine. But its provisions, from capping Ukraine’s military to forcing Kyiv to cede territory that Russia hadn’t even conquered, were conspicuously pro-Moscow.

A Kremlin-friendly push by a US president with a mysterious Putin affinity might be unsurprising, but the details are galling. As investigative journalism site the Insider revealed, Kushner’s peace plan was in no way original. “Many of its most controversial conditions were contained” in a months-old Kremlin document the outlet had obtained. The plan was “at its core a recycled Russian document,” the Insider wrote, with “specific language that appeared almost exactly word-for-word in an earlier text—one drafted solely by Dmitriev.”
[snip]
On September 16, 2025, a UN commission officially declared Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide.

That same day, Forbes declared Kushner a billionaire.
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Yes. 'Harvard About to Cave' narrative looks ever weaker. 1) Let's hope Yale gets the point, and stops its trembling. (See yaledailynews.com/articles/the... ) 2) Let's hope everybody gets the point. Obeying-in-advance never pays off.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13/08/2026
"Last year, Trump tried to send kids alone to Guatemala in middle of the night, before judges halted him. But if there are no lawyers present, such eleventh hour rescues become impossible. That appears to be the point of the let’s-eliminate-the-competent-lawyers scheme." — @anatosaurus.bsky.social
publicnotice.co
Stephen Miller's secret campaign against helpless kids
That it's happening in the shadows doesn't make it less of a moral blight.
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Heidi Jon Schmidt @heidijon.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I feel nauseous
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Heidi Jon Schmidt @heidijon.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
But it made them feel important!
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Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
20K court rulings on the same pure issue of law. This can't be blamed just on CASA, because there's a statute that bars class injunctions on this category of immigration issue, but clearly this is insane. (Thanks to @kyledcheney.bsky.social , tho, for the amazing coverage.)
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
This is the sweet spot of @vermontgmg.bsky.social's expertise: Nixon-on-steroids levels of corruption, intersecting with presidential security.
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Malcolm P. Johnson @admiralmpj.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
This @#$% keeps happening because too many of you on this Social Media site feel comfortable spreading rank Jew Hatred for kicks: www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/p...
nbcsandiego.com
UC San Diego Jewish fraternity vandalized in hate crime, San Diego police says
Authorities are offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to an arrest after a Jewish fraternity house in the University City neighborhood was vandalized with antisemitic and racial slurs, it w...
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Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure raping children is an impeachable offense.
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Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Funny how no one asked russia to halt strikes on Ukrainian civilians.
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
They left Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the decoy plane that was in danger of getting shot down. But they made sure to rescue the lady who does the 3 am posts that show Trump and Jesus storming Iwo Jima together
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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
We disgrace ourselves as a nation each and every day Donald Trump remains in office. The drafters of the United States Constitution provided a remedy for a criminally insane president like the one we have—impeachment and removal ...
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Jason Linkins @dceiver.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
The WHCA is the very model of an organization that's foregone the rigor of making informed, principled choices (because they're hard and require an effort to defend) in lieu of easy arbitrary choices. What do you mean we didn't defend the 1st Amendment? We had robot James Madison!
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Jason Linkins @dceiver.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I think like 83% of the male loneliness crisis is just James Carville
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Paul van der Meer @paulvandermeer.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
These people are mad at Dr. Fauci because he told them to wear a mask during a deadly pandemic.
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Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc(hon) @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
CNN 1
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
As disgraceful as you might think Paul Weiss is, it's much worse. A must read. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/u...
nytimes.com
How a Top Law Firm Went From Standing Up to Trump to Bending the Knee
Paul Weiss was a progressive stalwart for decades and led the legal resistance against President Trump in his first term. Then it surrendered without a fight. This is the inside story of its transform...
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Heidi Jon Schmidt @heidijon.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
www.plymouthindependent.org/your-view-no... Women can do this. We need to.
plymouthindependent.org
YOUR VIEW: Notorious agitator “run out by women” - Plymouth Independent
(Editors note: On July 25, a planned rally to protest immigrant detentions at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility was faced with a counter protest. See a portion of the profanity-laced confronta...
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Yes! Act accordingly! There is still a strain in Dem thinking that is colored by the idea that Trump tapped into something Real that can't be ignored. Time to get over that.
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Let me tell you, having chronicled Pentagon-style war game on attacking Iran nearly 25 yr ago, every single "surprise," "darkening turn," "narrowing option," spreading warfare," "rising casualties," "no easy exit," etc that comes drip-by-drip is EXACTLY why GHWB WJC GWB OBAMA BiDEN did NOT do this
From page full of headlines about things going to hell in Iran.
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M Meerkat @kackbro.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
THIS 👇 HERE.......
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 30/07/2026
Some really encouraging Senate polls… 📍Georgia 🔵 Jon Ossoff: 56% 🔴 Mike Collins: 43% 📍North Carolina 🔵 Roy Cooper: 53% 🔴 Michael Whatley: 44% 📍Ohio 🔵 Sherrod Brown: 53% 🔴 Jon Husted: 45% 📍Iowa 🔵 Josh Turek: 50% 🔴 Ashley Hinson: 46% Keep organizing. Keep fighting.
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4fuxake @blueheartedly1.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Every bit of this. 👇
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
My whole community has sort of silently self-organized to shun the one cyber truck owner in our midst. Gives me a little hope, you know?
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Haley Stevens @haleyformi.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Sleeves rolled up and ready to win!
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Scott MacFarlane @macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Rather than go to that black-tie affair in DC last night… I traveled around my neighborhood in style
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Heidi Jon Schmidt @heidijon.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Please note: Fetterman is giving Collins cover, with every vote.
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
BREAKING: MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Man who killed Democratic Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman is sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years in prison.
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