For real-time updates on the latest filings, follow @trumplitigation.bots.law on Bluesky or @trumplitigation on X, curated by Anna Hickey and Tyler McBrien and published in collaboration with the Free Law Project.
Many thanks! I have Litigation Tracker on my dashboard but this is organized so you can see everything and understand each case at a glance. Also bookmarked now.
I renewed WAPO after threatening to cancel, so it's now $3/month for a year. And they actually referred to "the Gulf of Mexico" this morning in a news article!
• Mr. Trump usurped the Constitutional Power of Congress and appropriated it to the Executive Branch. That is a violation of his Oath of Office and a high crime or treason.
• Using his official position for his own personal gain and the personal gain of Elon Musk dishonors the Presidency. It is unethical, potentially illegal, and does not reflect what public servants are permitted to do.
Harming The American People by Eroding Our Four Freedoms –
• Intentionally creating chaos is an attack on our Freedom from Fear. Federal workers were fired under false pretenses of unsatisfactory performance and without following established procedures. Intentional cyber-invasion of the US Treasury records was a breach of our individual privacy and of public trust.
• Our Freedom of Speech is under attack, including access of the press, the right to peaceful protest without military intervention, and restricting the language that can be used to describe the strength of our diversity.
• Trump’s vow to eradicate “anti-Christian bias” is an attack on our Freedom of Worship.
• Tax cuts to his ultra-rich political supporters will increase economic disparity. He incited a trade war by imposing reckless tariffs while twenty-three Nobel Laureates in Economics explained that his economic policies will cause higher prices, larger deficits, and greater inequality. Mr. Trump’s failure to fund scientific research and accept scientific facts will impair public health. These are attacks on our Freedom from Want.
Abandoning The Rule of Law In Our Country –
• He withdrew funding and dismantled programs that were authorized by the US Congress.
• He defied court orders enforcing the law against his illegal actions. This is tyranny.
Weakening America’s National Security –
• Firings and offering everyone a buy-out at the National Nuclear Security Administration that manages ~4,000 nuclear bombs and warheads was a reckless security risk.
• He condones private business deals between his Senior Advisor Elon Musk and foreign countries that have direct military applications. This is a security threat to our Great Country.
• Admiring and deferring to dictators makes America less safe and vulnerable to attack by our enemies.
Impairing America’s International Relationships –
• Failure to adequately support our allies, including Ukraine during wartime, endorses Russia, not democracy.
• He threatened to seize land belonging to Canada, Greenland and Panama and proposes to seize the land of Gaza and evict all Palestinian citizens in order to build his own hotels.
• He does not commit to existing alliances and long-standing agreements such as NATO and the Paris Climate Accords.
Disrupting The World Order –
• Because his erratic actions and threats go against our historic policies, America has lost standing as a world leader. Our adversaries are eager to take our place as World Leader, increasing the risk of war against America.
• Trump’s reckless economic policies are damaging global economies.
• Poverty, illness and death will substantially rise in many of the poorest nations of the world because America withdrew support that was already appropriated and dismantled a key agency, USAID. These abrupt and inhumane actions are an assault on human rights throughout the world.
Last week alone our Democratic State Attorney General joined in filing 5 multi-state lawsuits against the musk/trump regime. I also receive Marc Elias members only newsletters where he summarizes all of the lawsuits underway, under appeal, or finally settled. The NY Times has a lawsuit tracker also.
I've thanked our Attorney General for joining in lawsuits, and others like Tammy Duckworth for standing up to Musk/Trump. Also, this Wednesday Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky will be joined by Jeffries and others on Zoom to speak about the nightmare going on right now. Our regional Northfield Dems is also being VERY active and vocal.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel is, without a doubt, the most consequential item on the election calendar these next few weeks.
This conversation between historian Heather Cox Richardson and Ben Wikler, Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, highlights the historical background and what is at stake, and underscores why it is imperative that we help Crawford win. The election is April 1st.
Others have mentioned this interview, which I cannot recommend strongly enough!
In 2020, Cheri Beasley lost the North Carolina Supreme Court election to Paul Newby by a mere 451 votes, out of almost 5.4 million cast. That’s a margin of 0.008 %.
If memory serves me right, Republicans immediately exploited Beasley’s narrow loss and their regained control of the court to reverse numerous prior NC Supreme Court Decisions, and to implement an egregious gerrymander in the state. That gerrymander gave Republicans significant advantages in three extra Congressional districts.
Had Beasly won, elections and North Carolina would have remained more fair – Democrats right now would likely be in control of the House of Representatives, with Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker.
Needless to say, that would be decisive in stopping Musk’s illegitimate DOGE, the ability to conduct House hearings and investigations, maintaining a separation of powers and maintaining Congressional "power of the purse", as well as more effectively countering the breakneck-speedy implementation of Trump’s Project 2025.
MORAL of the story: These state supreme court elections effing matter!!
Earlier today I got a text begging for money for Crawford using scare tactics, saying she was 5 points behind in a poll. Sound familiar? Have they learned nothing from 2024??? I don’t know what the current legitimate polls might be saying, but c’mon guys. This is not a winning strategy. This kind of text does not make me want to donate. It makes me angry. So why are people frustrated with the Dem party? Maybe these kinds of threatening texts??? Note- I have donated to Crawford thru the link on the Hopium site.
Stick with Hopium donations! We know where they're going. Those emails/texts make me angry too. These days, with Dem approval so low among Dem voters, doubtless a lot of people in addition to us are angry at $$ asks with little action to show for it. Thank god Ken Martin is stepping up with the 50 State, as are Walz, Sanders, AOC, Pocan etc in getting out there and listening to the people! That's worth donating to.
New subscriber. I have written 25 postcards supporting Crawford. I am very reluctant to donate though ActBlue: I find that my email gets passed around and I get showered with begging emails from politicians from Alaska to Florida. I have been sending checks up until November. I am now pausing checks until I get a better idea of who is doing what. I do not want my money to go to the Schumers of this world. Comments?
I respectfully disagree. I think we’re not focusing on the real opportunity that was lost. In my view, that “lost opportunity” wasn’t Schumer’s decision to let the CR be decided by majority vote in the Senate. Rather, I think the “opportunity lost” was the failure of House Democrats, led by Hakeem Jeffries, to have offered an alternative CR. Having failed to do so, and then to criticize Schumer for having to deal with the political fallout, struck me as missing the reality of the playing field. Although I like Hakeem Jeffries a lot, if there was a failure of leadership, it was his, not schumer’s.
That Democratic alternative could have had key Democratic positions, including expanding Medicare and Medicaid, and revising the tax code and the Social Security tax system to capture the rich and cut the deficit. It could have also had — and should have had — items of particular importance in marginal districts— for example, reinstating the full home mortgage deduction and creating automatic federal reinsurance for every type of catastrophe, not just flood and and terrorism. In other words, things that would reinforce Democratic support and cause Republicans in many districts to sweat.
For those who continue to insist that the Democrats — who have previously opposed the filibuster — should have filibustered now, I think they are being shortsighted at best. The Democrats would have been blamed for the shutdown, and would have had to collapse in a couple weeks, at best, as millions of federal employees were going to the poor house without rent payments or food. It’s easy to start wars. Not so easy to end them.
Now, all the blame for bad things happening in the economy or overseas can be aimed at one place. That’s only possible because of Schumer’s decision. Of course, it would have been much more potent if House Democrats had been smart enough to use this crisis as a way to be for ordinary Americans in a way that ordinary Americans could understand.
Did you actually read the CR? And why do you think the Dems would have been blamed for a shutdown? (True, more of them would have to come out of their hidey-holes like Walz and Warren and a few others are doing.)
No. But that's why we have to be smarter and proactive, rather than reactive. Not being shutdown gives us the chance to be proactive, as in the new town halls strategy.
I read Bitecoffer and agreed with every word in her essay, including that now the way is cleared to attack Trump for every failed or dangerous policy. She thought Schumer did the right thing, made the right call.
Agree with Bitecofer and with Craig B, our fellow Hopium. In fact, Musk has been quoted as saying before the vote that he wants a shutdown. My assessment of DT's very mild reaction, 'thanking' Schumer, is that he was backfooted by Schumer's move.
Yep. I read every word. It’s the occupational hazard of someone who practiced law in DC for 40 years. Democrats would get blamed because their threat of a filibuster would have killed the bill. That’s how Senate rules work.
Dr. Bitecofer knows her stuff. I also recommend Michael Podhorzer today; trump can be understood as the latest in an ongoing backlash to the election of President Obama; we have been here before. His stuff is worth reading.
Craig, your suggested alternative CR would certainly have been far better than the one that ultimately passed. However, it's not that Minority Leader Jeffries failed to offer such alternatives. It's that the Republicans flat out refused to negotiate the terms of a CR with Democrats.
Previous CR's required Democratic votes because the far-right Freedom Caucus would not support them, thus denying Republicans their majority. This time, Speaker Johnson decided to negotiate with the Freedom Caucus instead of with Democrats. To get their votes, he had to offer them the things that this CR includes. Once he had all the Republican votes, he didn't need to concede anything to Democrats.
A few clarifications:
1). Normally, funding for the government is done through a series of appropriations bills, each of which is crafted by the relevant committee.
2). Funding for Fiscal Year 2025 was supposed to be authorized by passage of those appropriations bills in September, 2024.
3). Because Speaker Johnson could not get those bills passed on time, a CR continued FY 2024 spending levels until March 14, 2024.
4). During the period covered by the CR (which spanned the end of the 118th Congress and the beginning of the 119th), Leader Jeffries' team worked diligently with the various committees responsible for appropriations, with the goal of passing FY2025 funding bills by March 14.
5). But again, Speaker Johnson failed to ensure that those bills would be reported out of committee on time. So he chose the path of another CR, this one extending through the entire remaining portion of FY 2025. Mr. Jeffries was powerless to do anything other than organize a united Democratic opposition, which he did masterfully.
6). The Speaker of the House abdicated his responsibility; Congress never properly funded the US Government for Fiscal Year 2025.
7). The only failure of leadership in the House is Mr. Johnson's.
Yep. Thanks. I appreciate your comments. I practiced law in DC for over 40 years, including in sub-cabinet political positions in both the Carter and Reagan Administrations, so I’m pretty familiar with the legislative process, including the Appropriations process.
I suspect I wasn’t clear enough in my comments. 😊 I had no interest in what Johnson was doing; so to be clear, it was a big mistake to try to negotiate a bill off of his draft proposal. Rather, I think the Democrats should have offered their own alternative, based on their own policies, to rally their troops and make life miserable for Republicans from tough districts. They then should have gone full bore publicly with their proposal and then offered their bill as an amendment to the Republican bill. But they didn’t do any of this in the House and left Schumer with the choice between bad and catastrophic. He chose bad. Exactly right.
Offering a PUBLIC version of a Dem alternative would have been masterful. As you write, a rallying point for us and something to point to in these current town halls in competitive/red districts. Getting the Republicans to reject something written that would have been obviously better for Americans would have jumped us forward.
Completely agree with you, Political strategies can get complex and layered, and must be done with the long view. Yes, now all the blame is DT/M, as has been shown by press coverage and as will be reinforced in the 50 State Town Halls across the nation.
Okay, there are several things you are leaving out. The most important one being that there was an agreement between the house and senate that Schumer betrayed them on. Another is the growing dissatisfaction among democratic voters with democratic leadership; voting for cloture made that worse. There is a growing pushback among republicans unhappy with trump and musk, we just showed them our leaders will not fight back. Finally you have senators like John Fetterman; who are openly mocking other democrats, and labeling attempts to push back and protest as "performative."
"To me the most compelling reason to pass the CR and keep the government funded is that WE ARE NOT ADEQUATELY PREPARED for the fight that would have ensued. Simply, Senator Schumer has failed to use these last few months to start forging his team into an effective fighting force."
Absolutely agree. Schumer has to go, and soon. We need to push our Democratic Senators to act now. We need new bold leadership in the party, or we are going to lose much of the base.
Remember when Obama was elected, and the Republicans lost both the House and Senate? They didn't say they were going to work across the aisle. No. They created the Tea Party, and fought with everything they had until they regained power. The stakes now are higher than ever, and Democrats need to fight.
Again, respectfully disagree. I think Schumer saved us from a catastrophe, at great cost to himself. Please read Craig Berrington's previous posts which offer a strategy Jeffries could have followed and point out why Schumer's decision was 'bad' but not the catastrophe a shutdown would have been.
I'm still reeling from what Schumer and Fetterman and Gillenbrand et al did. They didn't even enter the poker game. And I'm sorry, I still haven't seen anything that explains how we recover from that. The list of usurpations etc is all fine, but 9 months is a really long time. I genuinely fear they handed the game away, and it's sorta over. Has anybody in leadership explained how it isn't over? All I've heard from Schumer is he thinks Repubs will eventually leave Trump on their own, and I think he's delusional.
This issue is voter vigilante activity removing legitimate registered voters from the rolls Since 1946 this has been the first time that there has been a mass challenge to voters It's a subversive attempt by the MAGA regime to overcome the will of the people stating that massive voter fraud is occurring
This is dangerous for election integrity because these challenges can occur very close to election day which leaves the voter little recourse With the below information I think Wa state should be a role model for other blue states moving forward Last count 20 states allow these vigilante voter activities to occur including 4 swing states which led to Harris losing the election
Voter challenge should be illegal According to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU 30 states had laws on the books for 2024 to suppress the vote particularly the Black vote The concern is that AI will be employed in the future expediting the subversive vigilante election activity
Palast in the below cited documentary talks about many other issues with election integrity eg discarded provisional ballots, discarded spoiled ballots, discarded mail in ballots, removal of drop boxes, slowing down mail in votes, long voting lines in Black suburbs etc Disqualified votes are higher amongst racial groups In fact he states that a study done in Washington state showed that if you were black a voter had a 400% chance of the ballot being thrown out cited on NPR American elections are basically a disgrace The GOP won't have to rig elections in the future they just need to load the dice
With the 2026 elections a stop gap measure must be put into place to prevent this form of election interference which I think will reach higher levels than in 2024
The people driving the destructive hatefest against Chuck Schumer are the people who think an unabashed DSA member can win a statewide general election in a state not named "Vermont".
Republicans hate the CR because it funds most things at Biden levels. They're both confused at why progressives are conning Democrats into stabbing themselves in the gut over it, and giddily happy about it:
Looking at this from afar, there seem to be valid arguments for either course of action. Kind of feels like we're blaming the cop as the thief drives away laughing after having stolen our car. Now, how do we get our car back - and punish the thief?
"Destructive hatefest"? Many people are angry at Schumer because he's acting the way Schumer has usually acted in normal conditions. These conditions are nowhere close to normal. That's the problem. He's not rising to the occasion.
Everything our Founding Fathers worked to prevent, and successfully prevented for 250 years, a Mad American King, has come to pass. Trump is operating outside of our Constitutional order, outside of international law and treaties, outside of the understandings of modern economics, outside the understandings of modern medicine, outside generally accepted rules of political physics and perhaps most importantly outside the understanding of what makes mankind civilized and not barbarous.
There is a manic, fascistic madness to his actions now, a delight in destruction, a comfort in the humiliation, degradation and even intentional killing of other human beings that is simply not being adequately captured in our daily discourse.
My group wrote our Letter to America and sent it off to our Senators and Congresswoman when Simon first recommended this. I lost the PDF in my email as someone else in our group wrote the final version. (We have a "division of labor" approach each morning.)
I have learned that Democrats are demanding a criminal investigation of musk for his plan to switch the communications systems at the FAA from Verizon to Starlink: "The investigation should involve “the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to cancel a $2.4bn contract with Verizon to upgrade air traffic control communications, and to pay … Musk’s Starlink to help manage US airspace”, senators Chris Van Hollen, Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren wrote to Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and Mitch Behm, acting inspector general of the transportation department." Here is the link to the full story:
Time to thank my senator, Elizabeth Warren (again). Maybe I can get my 90-yr-old mother and her peers in CT to thank Blumenthal. They too want tasks each week!
There’s just 5 of us in total. We all get up about 4 am, then text and chat on Google Meet. Some still work. I recently retired. It’s better to have a small group who can typically agree!
That's a great move by them. Even tho DT et al won't respond, the Senators have put it on the record. And it's interesting that they gave a full release to The Guardian, whereas i haven't seen anything pop up yet from NYT or WAPO.
I am coming to this community for support as I must confess to feeling broken today. The NYT’s lead articles on nuclear weapons and social security were enraging and deflating. I have little patience now for pundits posting articles just raising questions and not offering real solutions. Definitely not what Simon does!!!!
In the face of devastating cuts to academic research, is it unreasonable to ask universities sitting on enormous endowments to fund our future? They are tax exempt entities who avoid taxes in exchange for advancing education & research.
And yet in my despondency I walked to the post office to mail my postcards for Susan Crawford and will continue churning them out.
Not just academic research. Can we all agree that deporting a physician back to Lebanon after a judge ruled that she couldn't be deported ( and how about the Venezuela's who may or may not have been a part of a gang deported to a country other than Venezuela against a judge's orders) requires resistance on our part? This can't be accepted. What if they start deporting American citizens who are critical of the Administration? Is that next?
Madam Geoffrin, consider not reading The Times. Disaster journalism for clickbait. They address the hair-on-fire times we are in with a normalizing overtone that adds to your feelings. It's a form of gaslighting and it raises blood pressure. If the headlines were along the lines of "Trump Destroys First Amendment Rights", or "Trump Fails to Faithfully Execute the Laws of the Land", you would probably be more energized to read it. I wonder why we don't see commentary or headlines like that, don't you?
Absolutely right. As an example, a consortium of two dozen major research universities in Blue America could basically take over NIH, disaggregate its research work and let Red America pay for using the product of the research.
I am not going to argue about what Schumer should or should not have done. At this point, it’s irrelevant. At this point and in every moment going forward, we need to counter the attack on democracy and the rule of law. Everyone can and needs to do something.
Russia had a Navalny to speak truth to dictator Putin. We had Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine (Common Sense) as the voices of rebellion against mad King George. The Philippines had Maria Ressa as the voice of dissent in the Philippines during their dictator years.
I’m not arguing that we need to band together under A leader of the opposition. But I am critical of the Democratic Party, specifically that The Democratic Party has no made it clear to the American public the descent into autocracy we are in. We have a lawless president and there is no clear message from Democrats. It is like the Democratic Party is letting the press and social media and democracy lovers on Substack and average Americans make the case for them while the Democratic Party keeps its powder dry. Unacceptable. There needs to be a series of press conferences with our leaders standing at a podium, telling what is wrong with what Trump is doing and why it is unconstitutional and lawless. I believe the American people need to know. If we are in a dictatorship, they need to say and we need to know it. The Party needs to get that Amicus brief or Letter to America … hell make it several Letters…out there and follow up with pressers and updates on a regular basis. America won’t wake up if there is no clear message.
Self Report
I will be attending a Democratic party event for Seniors very soon.
I am keeping my circle of friends informed of trump’s lawlessness.
I knew that Senator Schumer's book tour was cancelled due to security concerns because I called the main branch of the Baltimore Public Library to express my concerns over safety with planned protests by MoveOn, Occupy, and possibly the Sunrise Movement. Someone answered the phone right away and informed me the event had been cancelled. The NYC and DC event, both at historic synagogues, have also been cancelled.
I plan to write my Indivisible letters to both Senator Schumer and Senator Durbin, the Minority Whip, today. I will be asking Senator Durbin to step aside as Minority Whip as well as Minority Leader on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Repeatedly we asked Senator Durbin to put blanket holds on nominees to the Department of Justice. Now look what we have - a weaponized DOJ. Horrifying. Straight out of Hitler's Germany.
New report from Aurora, CO: Wife and I bought plane tickets to attend the April 5, 2025, People's “Veto Day Rally” in Washington, DC co-sponsored by Women’s March and 50501 Movement. They organized a very well-run rally and march in January (>100,000 people), so I am hopeful that this will be even larger as various groups are starting to coalesce around one theme.
A great article today about pressure by Colorado Dems on Rep. Gabe Evans (R CD08) to show up in person at town halls. He is on Simon’s list of the vulnerable 17! Gift article link:
Last reminder from yesterday: Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are making a stop in Greeley, Colorado at 1 p.m., and a rally in Denver, Colorado at 4 p.m. on Friday, March 21, 2025. We received our RSVP confirmation for both events! For Front Rangers and Metro Denver Coloradoans, please RSVP for either, or both, events at these links:
Because Simon always looks for the optimal use of the Hopium community’s time and resources, which are limited. Simon has repeatedly voiced his belief that the three House special elections are very long-shot races. At the same time, he has indicated that individually we are more than welcome to invest in them. There are many other great grassroot organizations that are doing so.
It would be incredible if Democrats do win one or more, narrowing or even eliminating the Republican majority in the House!
Do you know if the special elections have been set for the two Democrats who died recently? Since one only died last week, it is highly unlikely.Nevertheless, even if a miracle happened and we won the two Republican seats that are scheduled, we probably will not win enough seats to take the majority.
I'm donating and writing postcards. Elise Stefanik has not resigned yet because Senator Brian Schatz had put a blanket hold on Department of State nominations after Rubio was approved. I am not sure how long the blanket hold will remain in place.
I am glad Senator Schumer is cancelling his book tour and I hope he will resign as minority leader too. The Dems need a wartime consigliere in the Senate.
I just wish it wasn’t paywalled. I’m no longer an NYT subscriber.
LAWFARE:
Tracking Trump Litigation
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/projects-series/trumps-first-100-days/tracking-trump-administration-litigation
For real-time updates on the latest filings, follow @trumplitigation.bots.law on Bluesky or @trumplitigation on X, curated by Anna Hickey and Tyler McBrien and published in collaboration with the Free Law Project.
Thank you kindly! I’ve bookmarked the link.
Thank you. This is much better. I like the way it is organized.
Many thanks! I have Litigation Tracker on my dashboard but this is organized so you can see everything and understand each case at a glance. Also bookmarked now.
I have also bookmarked
I purchased a new subscription for $12/month for one year. No way did I renew WaPo
I renewed WAPO after threatening to cancel, so it's now $3/month for a year. And they actually referred to "the Gulf of Mexico" this morning in a news article!
Self report: Inspired by David E, I drafted a list of “abuses and usurpations.” ICYMI, House Democrats on the Appropriations Committee gave their list in this March 14th press release. https://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/president-trump-actively-destroys-rule-law-he-claims-be-restoring Here is my list.
Harming Our American Institutions –
• Mr. Trump usurped the Constitutional Power of Congress and appropriated it to the Executive Branch. That is a violation of his Oath of Office and a high crime or treason.
• Using his official position for his own personal gain and the personal gain of Elon Musk dishonors the Presidency. It is unethical, potentially illegal, and does not reflect what public servants are permitted to do.
Harming The American People by Eroding Our Four Freedoms –
• Intentionally creating chaos is an attack on our Freedom from Fear. Federal workers were fired under false pretenses of unsatisfactory performance and without following established procedures. Intentional cyber-invasion of the US Treasury records was a breach of our individual privacy and of public trust.
• Our Freedom of Speech is under attack, including access of the press, the right to peaceful protest without military intervention, and restricting the language that can be used to describe the strength of our diversity.
• Trump’s vow to eradicate “anti-Christian bias” is an attack on our Freedom of Worship.
• Tax cuts to his ultra-rich political supporters will increase economic disparity. He incited a trade war by imposing reckless tariffs while twenty-three Nobel Laureates in Economics explained that his economic policies will cause higher prices, larger deficits, and greater inequality. Mr. Trump’s failure to fund scientific research and accept scientific facts will impair public health. These are attacks on our Freedom from Want.
Abandoning The Rule of Law In Our Country –
• He withdrew funding and dismantled programs that were authorized by the US Congress.
• He defied court orders enforcing the law against his illegal actions. This is tyranny.
Weakening America’s National Security –
• Firings and offering everyone a buy-out at the National Nuclear Security Administration that manages ~4,000 nuclear bombs and warheads was a reckless security risk.
• He condones private business deals between his Senior Advisor Elon Musk and foreign countries that have direct military applications. This is a security threat to our Great Country.
• Admiring and deferring to dictators makes America less safe and vulnerable to attack by our enemies.
Impairing America’s International Relationships –
• Failure to adequately support our allies, including Ukraine during wartime, endorses Russia, not democracy.
• He threatened to seize land belonging to Canada, Greenland and Panama and proposes to seize the land of Gaza and evict all Palestinian citizens in order to build his own hotels.
• He does not commit to existing alliances and long-standing agreements such as NATO and the Paris Climate Accords.
Disrupting The World Order –
• Because his erratic actions and threats go against our historic policies, America has lost standing as a world leader. Our adversaries are eager to take our place as World Leader, increasing the risk of war against America.
• Trump’s reckless economic policies are damaging global economies.
• Poverty, illness and death will substantially rise in many of the poorest nations of the world because America withdrew support that was already appropriated and dismantled a key agency, USAID. These abrupt and inhumane actions are an assault on human rights throughout the world.
That’s a terrific list – as damning as can be!
Thank you, Mr. Stones.
A really wonderful list. Wow!!!
Last week alone our Democratic State Attorney General joined in filing 5 multi-state lawsuits against the musk/trump regime. I also receive Marc Elias members only newsletters where he summarizes all of the lawsuits underway, under appeal, or finally settled. The NY Times has a lawsuit tracker also.
I've thanked our Attorney General for joining in lawsuits, and others like Tammy Duckworth for standing up to Musk/Trump. Also, this Wednesday Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky will be joined by Jeffries and others on Zoom to speak about the nightmare going on right now. Our regional Northfield Dems is also being VERY active and vocal.
What time is the Zoom with Hakeem Jeffries? Jan is my Congresswoman
This is a great list! Thanks!
And thank you for the link.
Your introduction + my list + your conclusion = a fine A Letter to America.
Not everything on my list is a crime, but I would say they are misdeeds.
Yes, we did it with a committee of two!
What a list! Thank you for sharing. You inspire me to make time to do this myself. It will help me craft scripts for my republican reps.
OMG thank you. I'm lifting this and going to use it asap! Terrific.
HOPIUM TO-DO LIST: WISCONSIN
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel is, without a doubt, the most consequential item on the election calendar these next few weeks.
This conversation between historian Heather Cox Richardson and Ben Wikler, Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, highlights the historical background and what is at stake, and underscores why it is imperative that we help Crawford win. The election is April 1st.
Others have mentioned this interview, which I cannot recommend strongly enough!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyXba-vx1sw
PAINFUL CONSEQUENCES: North Carolina
In 2020, Cheri Beasley lost the North Carolina Supreme Court election to Paul Newby by a mere 451 votes, out of almost 5.4 million cast. That’s a margin of 0.008 %.
If memory serves me right, Republicans immediately exploited Beasley’s narrow loss and their regained control of the court to reverse numerous prior NC Supreme Court Decisions, and to implement an egregious gerrymander in the state. That gerrymander gave Republicans significant advantages in three extra Congressional districts.
Had Beasly won, elections and North Carolina would have remained more fair – Democrats right now would likely be in control of the House of Representatives, with Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker.
Needless to say, that would be decisive in stopping Musk’s illegitimate DOGE, the ability to conduct House hearings and investigations, maintaining a separation of powers and maintaining Congressional "power of the purse", as well as more effectively countering the breakneck-speedy implementation of Trump’s Project 2025.
MORAL of the story: These state supreme court elections effing matter!!
Thank you for posting. I sure hope Cheri B runs again eventually.
Earlier today I got a text begging for money for Crawford using scare tactics, saying she was 5 points behind in a poll. Sound familiar? Have they learned nothing from 2024??? I don’t know what the current legitimate polls might be saying, but c’mon guys. This is not a winning strategy. This kind of text does not make me want to donate. It makes me angry. So why are people frustrated with the Dem party? Maybe these kinds of threatening texts??? Note- I have donated to Crawford thru the link on the Hopium site.
Stick with Hopium donations! We know where they're going. Those emails/texts make me angry too. These days, with Dem approval so low among Dem voters, doubtless a lot of people in addition to us are angry at $$ asks with little action to show for it. Thank god Ken Martin is stepping up with the 50 State, as are Walz, Sanders, AOC, Pocan etc in getting out there and listening to the people! That's worth donating to.
New subscriber. I have written 25 postcards supporting Crawford. I am very reluctant to donate though ActBlue: I find that my email gets passed around and I get showered with begging emails from politicians from Alaska to Florida. I have been sending checks up until November. I am now pausing checks until I get a better idea of who is doing what. I do not want my money to go to the Schumers of this world. Comments?
Keep up your great work! My suggestion is to follow Simon’s donation advice and links.
Sorry, Schumer had his chance and blew it. He need to be replaced by someone who is willing to fight.
He only cancelled the book tour because he didn't want to hear from democrats who are unhappy with his leadership.
I hope he resigns leadership, then gets primaried. Hopefully by AOC. She understands this time we’re in much better.
If he resigns the leadership, he'll probably not run again.
That is what should happen.
I respectfully disagree. I think we’re not focusing on the real opportunity that was lost. In my view, that “lost opportunity” wasn’t Schumer’s decision to let the CR be decided by majority vote in the Senate. Rather, I think the “opportunity lost” was the failure of House Democrats, led by Hakeem Jeffries, to have offered an alternative CR. Having failed to do so, and then to criticize Schumer for having to deal with the political fallout, struck me as missing the reality of the playing field. Although I like Hakeem Jeffries a lot, if there was a failure of leadership, it was his, not schumer’s.
That Democratic alternative could have had key Democratic positions, including expanding Medicare and Medicaid, and revising the tax code and the Social Security tax system to capture the rich and cut the deficit. It could have also had — and should have had — items of particular importance in marginal districts— for example, reinstating the full home mortgage deduction and creating automatic federal reinsurance for every type of catastrophe, not just flood and and terrorism. In other words, things that would reinforce Democratic support and cause Republicans in many districts to sweat.
For those who continue to insist that the Democrats — who have previously opposed the filibuster — should have filibustered now, I think they are being shortsighted at best. The Democrats would have been blamed for the shutdown, and would have had to collapse in a couple weeks, at best, as millions of federal employees were going to the poor house without rent payments or food. It’s easy to start wars. Not so easy to end them.
Now, all the blame for bad things happening in the economy or overseas can be aimed at one place. That’s only possible because of Schumer’s decision. Of course, it would have been much more potent if House Democrats had been smart enough to use this crisis as a way to be for ordinary Americans in a way that ordinary Americans could understand.
Did you actually read the CR? And why do you think the Dems would have been blamed for a shutdown? (True, more of them would have to come out of their hidey-holes like Walz and Warren and a few others are doing.)
Is there ANYTHING bad that Repubs WOULDN'T blame Democrats for?
No. But that's why we have to be smarter and proactive, rather than reactive. Not being shutdown gives us the chance to be proactive, as in the new town halls strategy.
Rachel Bitecofer, for one, believes not only that Dems would have been blamed, but that trump and his Rs were counting on it.
I read Bitecoffer and agreed with every word in her essay, including that now the way is cleared to attack Trump for every failed or dangerous policy. She thought Schumer did the right thing, made the right call.
Agree with Bitecofer and with Craig B, our fellow Hopium. In fact, Musk has been quoted as saying before the vote that he wants a shutdown. My assessment of DT's very mild reaction, 'thanking' Schumer, is that he was backfooted by Schumer's move.
Yep. I read every word. It’s the occupational hazard of someone who practiced law in DC for 40 years. Democrats would get blamed because their threat of a filibuster would have killed the bill. That’s how Senate rules work.
Dr. Bitecofer knows her stuff. I also recommend Michael Podhorzer today; trump can be understood as the latest in an ongoing backlash to the election of President Obama; we have been here before. His stuff is worth reading.
Craig, your suggested alternative CR would certainly have been far better than the one that ultimately passed. However, it's not that Minority Leader Jeffries failed to offer such alternatives. It's that the Republicans flat out refused to negotiate the terms of a CR with Democrats.
Previous CR's required Democratic votes because the far-right Freedom Caucus would not support them, thus denying Republicans their majority. This time, Speaker Johnson decided to negotiate with the Freedom Caucus instead of with Democrats. To get their votes, he had to offer them the things that this CR includes. Once he had all the Republican votes, he didn't need to concede anything to Democrats.
A few clarifications:
1). Normally, funding for the government is done through a series of appropriations bills, each of which is crafted by the relevant committee.
2). Funding for Fiscal Year 2025 was supposed to be authorized by passage of those appropriations bills in September, 2024.
3). Because Speaker Johnson could not get those bills passed on time, a CR continued FY 2024 spending levels until March 14, 2024.
4). During the period covered by the CR (which spanned the end of the 118th Congress and the beginning of the 119th), Leader Jeffries' team worked diligently with the various committees responsible for appropriations, with the goal of passing FY2025 funding bills by March 14.
5). But again, Speaker Johnson failed to ensure that those bills would be reported out of committee on time. So he chose the path of another CR, this one extending through the entire remaining portion of FY 2025. Mr. Jeffries was powerless to do anything other than organize a united Democratic opposition, which he did masterfully.
6). The Speaker of the House abdicated his responsibility; Congress never properly funded the US Government for Fiscal Year 2025.
7). The only failure of leadership in the House is Mr. Johnson's.
.
Yep. Thanks. I appreciate your comments. I practiced law in DC for over 40 years, including in sub-cabinet political positions in both the Carter and Reagan Administrations, so I’m pretty familiar with the legislative process, including the Appropriations process.
I suspect I wasn’t clear enough in my comments. 😊 I had no interest in what Johnson was doing; so to be clear, it was a big mistake to try to negotiate a bill off of his draft proposal. Rather, I think the Democrats should have offered their own alternative, based on their own policies, to rally their troops and make life miserable for Republicans from tough districts. They then should have gone full bore publicly with their proposal and then offered their bill as an amendment to the Republican bill. But they didn’t do any of this in the House and left Schumer with the choice between bad and catastrophic. He chose bad. Exactly right.
Offering a PUBLIC version of a Dem alternative would have been masterful. As you write, a rallying point for us and something to point to in these current town halls in competitive/red districts. Getting the Republicans to reject something written that would have been obviously better for Americans would have jumped us forward.
Thanks for this explanation. And clarifying where the blame belongs.
Completely agree with you, Political strategies can get complex and layered, and must be done with the long view. Yes, now all the blame is DT/M, as has been shown by press coverage and as will be reinforced in the 50 State Town Halls across the nation.
Okay, there are several things you are leaving out. The most important one being that there was an agreement between the house and senate that Schumer betrayed them on. Another is the growing dissatisfaction among democratic voters with democratic leadership; voting for cloture made that worse. There is a growing pushback among republicans unhappy with trump and musk, we just showed them our leaders will not fight back. Finally you have senators like John Fetterman; who are openly mocking other democrats, and labeling attempts to push back and protest as "performative."
"To me the most compelling reason to pass the CR and keep the government funded is that WE ARE NOT ADEQUATELY PREPARED for the fight that would have ensued. Simply, Senator Schumer has failed to use these last few months to start forging his team into an effective fighting force."
-- Simon Rosenberg, Hopium Chronicles on SubStack
Absolutely agree. Schumer has to go, and soon. We need to push our Democratic Senators to act now. We need new bold leadership in the party, or we are going to lose much of the base.
Remember when Obama was elected, and the Republicans lost both the House and Senate? They didn't say they were going to work across the aisle. No. They created the Tea Party, and fought with everything they had until they regained power. The stakes now are higher than ever, and Democrats need to fight.
Again, respectfully disagree. I think Schumer saved us from a catastrophe, at great cost to himself. Please read Craig Berrington's previous posts which offer a strategy Jeffries could have followed and point out why Schumer's decision was 'bad' but not the catastrophe a shutdown would have been.
I'm still reeling from what Schumer and Fetterman and Gillenbrand et al did. They didn't even enter the poker game. And I'm sorry, I still haven't seen anything that explains how we recover from that. The list of usurpations etc is all fine, but 9 months is a really long time. I genuinely fear they handed the game away, and it's sorta over. Has anybody in leadership explained how it isn't over? All I've heard from Schumer is he thinks Repubs will eventually leave Trump on their own, and I think he's delusional.
This issue is voter vigilante activity removing legitimate registered voters from the rolls Since 1946 this has been the first time that there has been a mass challenge to voters It's a subversive attempt by the MAGA regime to overcome the will of the people stating that massive voter fraud is occurring
This is dangerous for election integrity because these challenges can occur very close to election day which leaves the voter little recourse With the below information I think Wa state should be a role model for other blue states moving forward Last count 20 states allow these vigilante voter activities to occur including 4 swing states which led to Harris losing the election
Voter challenge should be illegal According to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU 30 states had laws on the books for 2024 to suppress the vote particularly the Black vote The concern is that AI will be employed in the future expediting the subversive vigilante election activity
Palast in the below cited documentary talks about many other issues with election integrity eg discarded provisional ballots, discarded spoiled ballots, discarded mail in ballots, removal of drop boxes, slowing down mail in votes, long voting lines in Black suburbs etc Disqualified votes are higher amongst racial groups In fact he states that a study done in Washington state showed that if you were black a voter had a 400% chance of the ballot being thrown out cited on NPR American elections are basically a disgrace The GOP won't have to rig elections in the future they just need to load the dice
With the 2026 elections a stop gap measure must be put into place to prevent this form of election interference which I think will reach higher levels than in 2024
Vigilante Inc America’s New Voter Suppression Hitmen https://bit.ly/3DM7d3F
The people driving the destructive hatefest against Chuck Schumer are the people who think an unabashed DSA member can win a statewide general election in a state not named "Vermont".
Republicans hate the CR because it funds most things at Biden levels. They're both confused at why progressives are conning Democrats into stabbing themselves in the gut over it, and giddily happy about it:
https://substack.com/@jamiedupree/note/p-159075202?
Point of information: the DSA has roundly attacked and denounced AOC.
the cr cut $13 billion from the non defense budget. so not biden levels. boosted def dept by billions.
Talk about divisive commentary Booboo. A significant majority of the Dems opposed the CR.
Very nicely stated!
I want to see the same energy spent going after Schumer spent going after Trump and Musk
Looking at this from afar, there seem to be valid arguments for either course of action. Kind of feels like we're blaming the cop as the thief drives away laughing after having stolen our car. Now, how do we get our car back - and punish the thief?
Thank you for this. People have valid reasons for feeling either way.
This!!!
Funding may be the same but it gives responsibility to Trump for how to spend the funding, taking it away fro Congress - https://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-appropriations.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/significant-problems-with-full-year-continuing-resolutions.pdf
"Destructive hatefest"? Many people are angry at Schumer because he's acting the way Schumer has usually acted in normal conditions. These conditions are nowhere close to normal. That's the problem. He's not rising to the occasion.
This:
Our First True Mad American King Has Arrived -
Everything our Founding Fathers worked to prevent, and successfully prevented for 250 years, a Mad American King, has come to pass. Trump is operating outside of our Constitutional order, outside of international law and treaties, outside of the understandings of modern economics, outside the understandings of modern medicine, outside generally accepted rules of political physics and perhaps most importantly outside the understanding of what makes mankind civilized and not barbarous.
There is a manic, fascistic madness to his actions now, a delight in destruction, a comfort in the humiliation, degradation and even intentional killing of other human beings that is simply not being adequately captured in our daily discourse.
My group wrote our Letter to America and sent it off to our Senators and Congresswoman when Simon first recommended this. I lost the PDF in my email as someone else in our group wrote the final version. (We have a "division of labor" approach each morning.)
I have learned that Democrats are demanding a criminal investigation of musk for his plan to switch the communications systems at the FAA from Verizon to Starlink: "The investigation should involve “the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to cancel a $2.4bn contract with Verizon to upgrade air traffic control communications, and to pay … Musk’s Starlink to help manage US airspace”, senators Chris Van Hollen, Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren wrote to Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and Mitch Behm, acting inspector general of the transportation department." Here is the link to the full story:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/17/democrats-elon-musk-investigation
Time to thank my senator, Elizabeth Warren (again). Maybe I can get my 90-yr-old mother and her peers in CT to thank Blumenthal. They too want tasks each week!
I am working to mobilize the octogenarians and older in my church community.
What is your group, Linda? I'm in Glenview.
There’s just 5 of us in total. We all get up about 4 am, then text and chat on Google Meet. Some still work. I recently retired. It’s better to have a small group who can typically agree!
That's a great move by them. Even tho DT et al won't respond, the Senators have put it on the record. And it's interesting that they gave a full release to The Guardian, whereas i haven't seen anything pop up yet from NYT or WAPO.
And, for your break today:
https://youtu.be/8peiLVFsLdw
fantastic!!!
Who would have thought Trump would continue to be a dictator after day 1?! Totally unexpected.
Sending you a hug......I know you didn't sign up for ALL of this.....
Monica
I am coming to this community for support as I must confess to feeling broken today. The NYT’s lead articles on nuclear weapons and social security were enraging and deflating. I have little patience now for pundits posting articles just raising questions and not offering real solutions. Definitely not what Simon does!!!!
In the face of devastating cuts to academic research, is it unreasonable to ask universities sitting on enormous endowments to fund our future? They are tax exempt entities who avoid taxes in exchange for advancing education & research.
And yet in my despondency I walked to the post office to mail my postcards for Susan Crawford and will continue churning them out.
We need so much more from our leaders.
Not just academic research. Can we all agree that deporting a physician back to Lebanon after a judge ruled that she couldn't be deported ( and how about the Venezuela's who may or may not have been a part of a gang deported to a country other than Venezuela against a judge's orders) requires resistance on our part? This can't be accepted. What if they start deporting American citizens who are critical of the Administration? Is that next?
Madam Geoffrin, consider not reading The Times. Disaster journalism for clickbait. They address the hair-on-fire times we are in with a normalizing overtone that adds to your feelings. It's a form of gaslighting and it raises blood pressure. If the headlines were along the lines of "Trump Destroys First Amendment Rights", or "Trump Fails to Faithfully Execute the Laws of the Land", you would probably be more energized to read it. I wonder why we don't see commentary or headlines like that, don't you?
Absolutely right. As an example, a consortium of two dozen major research universities in Blue America could basically take over NIH, disaggregate its research work and let Red America pay for using the product of the research.
I am not going to argue about what Schumer should or should not have done. At this point, it’s irrelevant. At this point and in every moment going forward, we need to counter the attack on democracy and the rule of law. Everyone can and needs to do something.
Russia had a Navalny to speak truth to dictator Putin. We had Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine (Common Sense) as the voices of rebellion against mad King George. The Philippines had Maria Ressa as the voice of dissent in the Philippines during their dictator years.
I’m not arguing that we need to band together under A leader of the opposition. But I am critical of the Democratic Party, specifically that The Democratic Party has no made it clear to the American public the descent into autocracy we are in. We have a lawless president and there is no clear message from Democrats. It is like the Democratic Party is letting the press and social media and democracy lovers on Substack and average Americans make the case for them while the Democratic Party keeps its powder dry. Unacceptable. There needs to be a series of press conferences with our leaders standing at a podium, telling what is wrong with what Trump is doing and why it is unconstitutional and lawless. I believe the American people need to know. If we are in a dictatorship, they need to say and we need to know it. The Party needs to get that Amicus brief or Letter to America … hell make it several Letters…out there and follow up with pressers and updates on a regular basis. America won’t wake up if there is no clear message.
Self Report
I will be attending a Democratic party event for Seniors very soon.
I am keeping my circle of friends informed of trump’s lawlessness.
Currently sick.
Simon's suggestion of daily press briefings, in addition to Letters to America.
Please take care of yourself and recover.
Great idea. How about Columbia U? Not to mention Stanford, UCLA, U Washington, etc. How would we get the ball rolling here?
I knew that Senator Schumer's book tour was cancelled due to security concerns because I called the main branch of the Baltimore Public Library to express my concerns over safety with planned protests by MoveOn, Occupy, and possibly the Sunrise Movement. Someone answered the phone right away and informed me the event had been cancelled. The NYC and DC event, both at historic synagogues, have also been cancelled.
I plan to write my Indivisible letters to both Senator Schumer and Senator Durbin, the Minority Whip, today. I will be asking Senator Durbin to step aside as Minority Whip as well as Minority Leader on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Repeatedly we asked Senator Durbin to put blanket holds on nominees to the Department of Justice. Now look what we have - a weaponized DOJ. Horrifying. Straight out of Hitler's Germany.
https://indivisible.org/statements/indivisible-calls-schumer-step-aside?fbclid=IwY2xjawJDHwhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYFRnbc-lDzG2Fx9oJiR5FwGlaDzg1S3EpXshh8T6hZKPhT436WrNXdisw_aem_y08JXNMgoRcvIKKoeKeMkg
New report from Aurora, CO: Wife and I bought plane tickets to attend the April 5, 2025, People's “Veto Day Rally” in Washington, DC co-sponsored by Women’s March and 50501 Movement. They organized a very well-run rally and march in January (>100,000 people), so I am hopeful that this will be even larger as various groups are starting to coalesce around one theme.
A great article today about pressure by Colorado Dems on Rep. Gabe Evans (R CD08) to show up in person at town halls. He is on Simon’s list of the vulnerable 17! Gift article link:
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/03/16/town-hall-meeting-colorado-republicans-democrats-gabe-evans-jeff-hurd/?share=mtpwvope6pogghhateft
Last reminder from yesterday: Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are making a stop in Greeley, Colorado at 1 p.m., and a rally in Denver, Colorado at 4 p.m. on Friday, March 21, 2025. We received our RSVP confirmation for both events! For Front Rangers and Metro Denver Coloradoans, please RSVP for either, or both, events at these links:
https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/rsvp-oligarchy-greeley/
https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/rsvp-oligarchy-denver/
Why isn’t Simon encouraging support of the three special elections taking place this spring!!
Because Simon always looks for the optimal use of the Hopium community’s time and resources, which are limited. Simon has repeatedly voiced his belief that the three House special elections are very long-shot races. At the same time, he has indicated that individually we are more than welcome to invest in them. There are many other great grassroot organizations that are doing so.
It would be incredible if Democrats do win one or more, narrowing or even eliminating the Republican majority in the House!
Do you know if the special elections have been set for the two Democrats who died recently? Since one only died last week, it is highly unlikely.Nevertheless, even if a miracle happened and we won the two Republican seats that are scheduled, we probably will not win enough seats to take the majority.
Not that I am aware. If I hear anything, I’ll post.
Special election in Arizona -- a primary in July, and general election in September. No date as yet for special election in Texas.
https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/notes-on-the-path-forward-hopium/comment/100749190?r=27is3y&utm_medium=ios
Thank you so much for adding this special election info for Arizona.
It's one of the things I so appreciate about Simon. In a scattershot world, he focuses our attention and resources on what's doable and winnable.
I'm donating and writing postcards. Elise Stefanik has not resigned yet because Senator Brian Schatz had put a blanket hold on Department of State nominations after Rubio was approved. I am not sure how long the blanket hold will remain in place.
I am glad Senator Schumer is cancelling his book tour and I hope he will resign as minority leader too. The Dems need a wartime consigliere in the Senate.