You put into words many things I’ve been thinking. Thank you. We need to get rid of Citizens United. We’ve all become too comfortable with”talking money.”
Would you believe I just received a message from Simon Rosenberg. He is removing my post!! He claims I said a lot of false things!! I told him he needs to look those things up!!! I would not post things if I thought they weren’t true!! I bet he is pro-Israel!!! He’s one of many who don’t like when I mention Israel.
Maybe the trick is to discuss the issues without going into attack mode? Israel and aipac are tough topics and there is a lot of misinformation about aipac in left leaning circles. I think Russia leverages it among other issues to try to weaken political opposition to MAGA.
When the most recent round of votes on arms to Israel happened —Bernie’s pair of resolutions— I printed out the lists of which Dems voted which way and taped it above my desk for future reference. A lot of Dems have been consistently against more arms to Israel for awhile now, including my Sen. Merkley and Rep. Val Hoyle. I’m not receptive to demonizing the party as a whole over an issue they are split on.
Interesting. These are deeply complicated issues, as are many issues we face today. We need to pull together and avoid the black hole of extremism. As trite as it may sound, nobody has all the answers.
Sheila, I am removing this post for 1) it has false and misleading information in it. 2) we just dont spend our time here attacking other Democrats. Lots of other places to do that, but not here. Particularly after this great week. 3) I would suggest you pay closer attention to the data and analysis here for you get a lot of stuff completely wrong in your argument.
I admit I was surprised that the Republicans rejected Schumer's offer, especially after Tuesday's election. It would have ended the shutdown, for which they're getting blamed, and simply restored us to where we were before the ACA subsidies ended. And only for 1 year. I'm not sure what they think the end game is. (Again, I come back to thinking that whatever's in the Epstein files must be truly terrible.) Now Dems need to really get out there and pound home the message: "We offered to re-open the government and save your health care and Republicans turned us down cold. When you're stuck in an airport, give your Republican representative a call."
Do you think some of these GOP leaders know what's in the Epstein files? Or maybe a lot of them are in the files? It is super weird! It's hard for me to believe they don't see the writing on the wall.
I wonder if anyone has gone back to really examine what was going on in the pre-Trump years when the Russians were cultivating their relationship with the United States Congress. And I think Epstein was in the background there. I don’t exactly know the relationship. But for years, I have wondered how it is that the entire Congress or I should say the Republican part of Congress, seemingly all turned at the same time to the extreme position they have taken. If it wasn’t about sex maybe it was about under the table money movement. Or both.
With all the splattered ketchup, perhaps it’s harder for them to see the writing on the wall?
And with regard to the excellent point Patricia Neyman makes: We need to release a list of politicians, bureaucrats and businesswomen/-men who have received loans with suspiciously-good terms from Russian financiers and banks. We know, for instance, that Trump’s own massive loan from Deutsche Bank was given after it was essentially guaranteed by a Russian financier.
I have a slightly different take. Go back to 2017 and Trump's insistence that the ACA would be replaced with something "amazing". Of course, there was never any substitute put forward, but Trump and his congressional minions still tried to kill it countless times. So, here we are in 2025, and this time around they're just trying to destroy the ACA by making it unaffordable. I'm waiting for them to start blaming all of this on Barack Obama! At the end of the day, I think that all of this is driven by Trump's utter loathing of Obama and his incredibly successful accomplishment. Trump's racism rings through loud and clear to me. He simply wants to destroy this black man's crowning achievement, and that's why there's no talk of compromise. Period.
We still pay subsidies to the petroleum industry. I forget the number, but it is billions of dollars every year. I looked it up a few weeks ago but I can't remember the number.
Clean energy subsidies make sense for electricity costs and for competitiveness in those industries, and for the environment.
The petroleum subsidies are just dumb, pure politics corrupted by big money.
Moreover, those petroleum subsidies (which include the costs of various and sundry wars) prevent fair competition by renewable energy producers, and thus slow down our critical fight to lessen and slow down climate change.
All the same, on price, greener energy continues to out-compete fossil-fuel generated power.
I was just focused on the ACA in my comment above. The graft, greed and overall malevolence is also clearly off the charts. How do I explain it? I don’t, and I refuse to try. Sure, some of this shit can be understood by a sane person. But I learned long ago that trying to understand the actions of a truly crazy person is a waste of precious time and calories! I’ll fight Trump with everything I’ve got, but I’ll never understand his lunacy, and that’s probably a good thing!
I would ask which of the high-profile races MAGA themselves expected to win -- that they lost. iow, was there an upset from their point of view? The kind of upset that would have them coming to the table more willing to compromise.
Thomas, have you been reading and listening to the commentary here this week? 1) Many of them expected to win in NJ, or at least for the race to be close. 2) The margins in all these races were enormous, way beyond anything anticipated. 3) The restoration of our margins with Hispanics and young people is deeply ominous for them next year. 4) Their redistricting gambit has become bloody for them, way more so than they anticipated. These and more are things I discussed in my weekly talk this week.
I was responding to the comment "I admit I was surprised that the Republicans rejected Schumer's offer..." After taking a closer look at the election results here in so many of Georgia's counties -- with Ossoff's campaign coming up,. I was not surprised.
I can't speak for the analysts in New Jersey. Those who predicted that Sherrill would win easily were proven right.
I saw some post yesterday that the Epstein files are indeed worse than thought - person had heard from those who have seen, but nothing released yet, so no details. But I think another factor is T and (? whoever is making decisions while grandpa dozes) still pushing for civil unrest, kind of their last chance option after the voters spoke this week. Maybe they saw Les Miz too many times. They don't realize ppl are organizing to feed the hungry.
If I recall correctly, they at one point had hundreds of agents going through the Epstein files, tagging mentions of Trump, his allies and associates – while of course leaving mentions of Clinton and other Democrats intact.
NOTE: Where are *Anonymous* when America needs them?
Simon, I liked it when you chuckled when some of the people (MAGA), who called C-Span, insisted to give you the lowdown of how Dems will suffer and Trump will forge ahead. Your answers were succinct but with a touch of humor. They deserve being laughed at and we should do more of it.
The election results were incredibly encouraging! Far stronger up and down the ballot than I even dared hope! And those results are, in large part, thanks to the work of Simon and the great patriots of Hopium and other pro-democracy communities throughout the nation.
However, for Trump and his acolytes such as Vought and Miller, this is about power, not support. I keep hoping a handful of Republicans in the Senate and House will suddenly discover their spines – for a handful saying "enough is enough" is all it would take.
Alternatively, it would take just a few Supreme Court Justices actually upholding the Constitution. Meanwhile, the T-shirt from The Oninon is spot-on!
Good questions! The answer requires far more expertise than I have.
For some time I have been trying to understand the off-ramps from a government shutdown – especially if Trump is NOT willing to compromise. Must admit I’m not seeing it, which frankly I find quite worrying. Clearly the Trump Regime is perfectly willing to let tens of millions of Americans go hungry.
Trump must be threatening them in ways we don't see. They're in a position where they either have to modulate their views to reflect their constituents' desires or they have to fully embrace cheating. I have no doubt that some of them are enthusiastic about the latter choice, but I don't think that describes all of them. Some of them are normie old-school Republicans. So what gives?
Great T-Shirt. I have to say, after the SC (really the six) gave Trump immunity, I had lost faith in the SC. They might not side with Trump on tariffs, but I suspect it has to do with their own interests. BUT, pretty sure they noticed the crowds at the No Kings Protests and had to be rattled, at least a bit, at Tuesday's results across the country. So, maybe, just maybe, they will start ruling as the independent judiciary it was tended to be in our country.
Speaking of SNL it will be interesting to see what they have tonight [or on the recording tomorrow morning, for those of us who can't stay up tonight].
He was older. Older people go straight to "communism" or "Marxism". Cold War stuff. It was nutty and paranoid stuff 40-50 years ago. Now it sounds even more ridiculous.
Good interview. It was interesting to hear questions from Republican voters. I agree that we are in a period of transition. It’s a bit murky out there, but it’s also inspiring to see a younger generation coming into their own. I think one of the biggest challenges we face is bridging the culture/religious divide that has been stoked by FOX/MAGA. It is keeping everyone in gridlock. Governing is hard work. With all the grandstanding and sound bites, it’s easy to lose sight of that.
Trump and the GOP want to Rule, not govern. Ruling with violence or threat of violence seems to be Trump’s playbook. The GOP also uses religion to control people. (A deformed Christianity ).
It's not really new though, is it? When I was a kid I remember Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell, and Jim Bakker. Pat Robertson. And political figures like Ed Meese leveraging all of it. It seems like an continuous arc to me.
Yep. It's been happening throughout U.S. history. Another example: The many White Christians justifying the power and status of the slave-holding oligarchy class that ruled the South for 2 centuries, and then later, justifying the Jim Crow laws that kept African Americans relegated to 2nd class status for almost another century.
I just watched the entire C-Span interview and encourage everyone else to do so. The interviewer is good, she integrates questions from callers and Simon is honestly just dazzling with his command of the material, his patience with questions of all kinds and his ability to stay on message throughout. So worthwhile!!!
Just watched it myself and agree completely. I recommend people here watch the whole thing not just for the content, which is excellent, but for a masterclass on how to interact with people who have been immersed in the Fox news bubble. That first caller was so disrespectful ("Rosenberg, that your name?") and just spewing right wing talking points, and Simon just shrugs it off, doesn't get rattled or angry, and continues to calmly make his points. It was a reminder for me that they want you to be rattled, upset, offended, and you don't have to take that bait. At the same time, he listened to and engaged with people who were ready to meet him at that level and have a serious discussion. This interviews a keeper for me.
I watched the whole thing as well. Couldn’t believe Simon could remain so calm with some of the questions. What I thought was quite sad was the Republican callers’ efforts to make this about the “socialist” in NYC. Talk about drinking the koolaid.
Picking out two holiday-themed item for the food bank donation bin every time I’m at the co-op between now and Christmas. Canned cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie filling and such.
Kotek got Oregonians their SNAP refill with state funds I think, but now that Trumpemort has asked SCOTUS to bail him out again ( 🙄 🙄 🙄 ), who knows when the state will get reimbursed or wtf happens in December.
It’s the holidays! The fuck is wrong with him? All this completely unnecessary chaos.
Jeff Tiedrich (Substack) has an ongoing meme in which he dares the press to ask Orange "WTF is wrong with you?," and then whoever does it gets a Pulitzer.
As strange as his costume has always been, Trump was always fastidious about his appearance. The fact that he doesn’t seem to care as much now suggests to me his dementia is pretty advanced. It’s one more reason I worry in this shutdown because to me it seems he’s now living in a mental fog.
Millie Polli Haskell....Reporting-first, Simon, You're Interview with C-Span Host was Brilliant and some of the callers were just Nonsense. You're comments were right on, concerning the Election! You would make a Great Candidate, If so inclined!! And, I did call both Sen. Scott and Rep. Luna this morning. I told them how Important and Imperative it is to "Act Upon Our Four Part Agenda" believe Me I Demanded, said that twice and was Very, Very, Very LOUD when I Read it!!! Have a Great Day!
Ben Meseilas’ coverage of the Sandwich Guy acquittal on the Meidas podcast yesterday is completely hilarious. Apparently the law firm Steptoe repped Sandwich Guy for free (amazing!) and put on a defense of others defense. Which seems silly to me because obviously this was an issue of jury nullification. But you’re not supposed to explicitly argue to the jury to nullify so I guess that’s what they had to come up with. Great podcast episode, highly recommend.
Wow! Amazing! Meseilas wanted the Meidas Mighty to go on their website and send them a thank you through their send-us-a-message inbox but it doesn’t look like they have one on there. Their website is super intimidating to this small town lawyer tho. Talk about Biglaw! Love that they do public interest pro bono like Sandwich Guy’s case. Way to stick up for whats right against a regime that went after top law firms right out the gate.
I think that having free buses so people can get to work/do errands in an affordable way will be a great benefit to NYC (even Republicans can ride free!) Freeing people of the terror of rent increases when rent is already too high (heard on Rick Wilson's podcast that a salary of 350K is now needed to live a middle class life in NYC - and that means a modest apt, not even a house) That is obscene. Almost no one makes that even with 2 adults working - and free childcare so they can work. I'm really sick of their "socialism" boogey man shit. I think the response ought to be, if that's socialism, then gimme more. Make them defend the present situation there and why they think that is the "wonderful American Dream" because it's a fucking nightmare, and not just in NYC.
I friend of mine's 2 millennial children live in Baltimore. One is a teacher and the other one an engineer with a BA. Both were able to buy houses. Baltimore has a program to help people buy homes in the city. They must promise to live there for 5 years. All their student loans are paid off by the city and they get some kind help buying the house (not sure of the details of that)
Baltimore used to be known as one of the highest crime areas. If you want to reduce crime, you must reduce misery. Whenever you convert renters into home owners you improve a place, build community.
Trump's policies of emiserating people is going to increase crime. If the only way to survive is to do crime, people will do crime. Most people will not do crime if they have another path.
The whole Right Wing philosophy is poison - a recipe for widespread misery. It contradicts the founding ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
So don't let them scare you with "socialism" - shove it down their throats. Make them defend the misery they cause.
Simon, you are amazing to be able to keep your temper.
I have a couple friends who live in Charm City, and I was not aware of that program - it's awfully tempting! My Mom is from Balamer. ;)
In NJ, our school lunches are free. A lot of the other stuff needs some work, including mass transit. Gov.-Elect Sherrill (!) says she's for consolidation of services, which is LONG OVERDUE. When I first moved here, I was all "WTF, why do you people put up with this crap?", and people were just "it's always been this way." I say it's not good enough and never was, and I am looking forward to some big changes come January 20! I believe we have the SNAP cards coming as well, I know the governor declared a state of emergency to release the funds at his disposal.
Our buses in Albuquerque; daycare for all children and school lunches in NM, and tuition at public colleges and universites are all free! We are also sending out SNAP benefits on EBT cards during the shutdown.
Well, so maybe “New Mexico” would’ve been the answer to that guy who called in, and said “show me a single country where Socialism has worked”. I was thinking of Sweden, Finland, Denmark.
Don’t forget Norway, which, by insisting that its people get a significant share of petroleum profits, has accrued the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. That fund is currently worth north of USD 2 trillion. Given that Norway has a population of 5.6 million, that amounts to over $ 350,000 per person.
(Side note: As a shareholder in Tesla, the Fund recently voted against Elon Musk’s obscene pay package.)
Weird, I've been to Albuquerque a number of times and I completely missed how much of a marxist hellhole it is. It seemed pretty normal. It's almost like you can do all that stuff and still live in a free country.
My argument about the socialism claim is to ask about Social Security, Medicare, public schools, libraries, parks... Do they like those things or should we be on our own for all of them? Is there something magic about age 6 for free public school; why not a younger age? What is so different about public transit from other public goods? Make them think.
I always use the police and fire depts. Here’s the convo:
A prowler is outside. You call 911. “please send the police. There’s an intruder in my yard.
911 operator: what is your police policy number?
you: I don’t know. Please help. He’s trying to open the door…I’m so scared
911 operator: does the intruder have a gun?
you: how the fuck do I know!!!
911 operator: there’s no reason to use bad language ma’am. I’m trying to help you. I need to warn you that unless you have a gold level policy, there will be a $1000 co-pay if the intruder has a firearm…
Romano (does anyone know his first name?) explains that as we keep winning, the thing and his Fascist Old Party will double down. They can't stand the fact--or admit--that they're losing, that they're on their way out, so they'll do what they can to make things much worse for us. During this time, we need to keep our foot on the pedal and continue the good fight. "It's gonna get worse before it gets better," he says--and he's right.
Another piece of advice from him: "Don't let it get you down." Yes, and we'll win in the end. 🙂
Thank you for posting the link. I was not familiar with this guy. I strongly recommend this to everyone. Anyone who understood Project 2025 understood a nightmare was going to come at us. The only way they win is if we don't fight.
Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation threatened: submit, or there will be blood. His actual words were "This is the second American Revolution. It will be bloodless if the Left allows it" which has the above meaning.
My response to that is: we will never submit. No Kings 43% vs MAGA 30%. Let's grow that No Kings number to 70%
What's happening with them and the FOP (Fascist Old Party) underscores what Sen. Raphael Warnock said recently to Brian Tyler Cohen in an interview: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LbVdYpcjCTc.
Thanks for sharing the clip of one of my two amazing GA Senators! I hadn't heard about this conversation. He's inspiring even when he talks about tough subjects.
Oh, he is. I volunteered to make sure that he not only was elected the first time but that he was RE-elected! And I'll do the same for Jon Ossoff this coming year!
I read P. ‘25 in advance of the election and tried to educate everyone I could about it. It’s pretty dense policy manual so not really reader-friendly for the average person. Well, Dr. Robert’s foreword isn’t dense policy manual, but many of the subsequent chapters are. But the overarching gist of the whole thing is: gut federal agencies of career officials and install a fraction of their number in loyalists who will achieve MAGA policy goals, the law be damned.
And of course that’s what they did right out the gate with DOGE and the mass-firings and the installation of loyalist stooges.
Dr. Roberts also wrote another manifesto, Dawn’s Early Light I think it’s called, that they delayed publishing until after the election. It calls for full on birth control bans and such. He’s very much in the subjugate-women wing of MAGA.
Then there’s Posobiec’s Unhumans (foreword by Steve Bannon and promotional blurb by JD Vance) and Pete Hegseth’s books including American Crusade. Those manifestos propose full-on war on Americans to eradicate liberalism. Using extrajudicial and military force. So I was fully expecting worst-case scenario following Inauguration Day and when CECOT happened I went into fight or flight for four straight months.
At this point, I think the outcome is that the USA will become a historian’s and political scientist’s case study in how fascism failed. We have so many things going in our favor that I underestimated- the sheer size of the country, decentralized federalist system, strong civic institutions, a population accustomed to liberty…
Indeed, The Fascist Foundation laid out this nefarious plan in full detail. They had this plan that they thought would work well because they were counting on us just laying down--Kevin Roberts's "It will be bloodless if the Left allows it" remark--and letting them implement it.
But in laying out that plan, there was something they weren't counting on: us. They grossly underestimated our power, and now, they're finding out just how strong we really are and that, to quote Twisted Sister, we're not gonna take it.
I was surprised at how many of the callers were on the attack about the election results on Tuesday . And socialism kept coming up! Interesting interview!
Simon, I was so impressed with your appearance on C-SPAN and the finesse with which you addressed viewers' comments. It was a terrific mentorship in how to speak with and in the face of opposing views. I'm not saying anything new, of course. Every post on Hopium is terrific and I value them all. Thank you.
David Hogg had a clear conflict of interest. He had to make a choice – he was not "removed".
You put into words many things I’ve been thinking. Thank you. We need to get rid of Citizens United. We’ve all become too comfortable with”talking money.”
Would you believe I just received a message from Simon Rosenberg. He is removing my post!! He claims I said a lot of false things!! I told him he needs to look those things up!!! I would not post things if I thought they weren’t true!! I bet he is pro-Israel!!! He’s one of many who don’t like when I mention Israel.
Maybe the trick is to discuss the issues without going into attack mode? Israel and aipac are tough topics and there is a lot of misinformation about aipac in left leaning circles. I think Russia leverages it among other issues to try to weaken political opposition to MAGA.
When the most recent round of votes on arms to Israel happened —Bernie’s pair of resolutions— I printed out the lists of which Dems voted which way and taped it above my desk for future reference. A lot of Dems have been consistently against more arms to Israel for awhile now, including my Sen. Merkley and Rep. Val Hoyle. I’m not receptive to demonizing the party as a whole over an issue they are split on.
Interesting. These are deeply complicated issues, as are many issues we face today. We need to pull together and avoid the black hole of extremism. As trite as it may sound, nobody has all the answers.
You should go back and look at your sources more carefully. They may be telling you lies or be mistaken or misinformed.
Sheila, I am removing this post for 1) it has false and misleading information in it. 2) we just dont spend our time here attacking other Democrats. Lots of other places to do that, but not here. Particularly after this great week. 3) I would suggest you pay closer attention to the data and analysis here for you get a lot of stuff completely wrong in your argument.
I admit I was surprised that the Republicans rejected Schumer's offer, especially after Tuesday's election. It would have ended the shutdown, for which they're getting blamed, and simply restored us to where we were before the ACA subsidies ended. And only for 1 year. I'm not sure what they think the end game is. (Again, I come back to thinking that whatever's in the Epstein files must be truly terrible.) Now Dems need to really get out there and pound home the message: "We offered to re-open the government and save your health care and Republicans turned us down cold. When you're stuck in an airport, give your Republican representative a call."
Yes!🙌
Do you think some of these GOP leaders know what's in the Epstein files? Or maybe a lot of them are in the files? It is super weird! It's hard for me to believe they don't see the writing on the wall.
I bet some of their donors are, at the very least.
I wonder if anyone has gone back to really examine what was going on in the pre-Trump years when the Russians were cultivating their relationship with the United States Congress. And I think Epstein was in the background there. I don’t exactly know the relationship. But for years, I have wondered how it is that the entire Congress or I should say the Republican part of Congress, seemingly all turned at the same time to the extreme position they have taken. If it wasn’t about sex maybe it was about under the table money movement. Or both.
With all the splattered ketchup, perhaps it’s harder for them to see the writing on the wall?
And with regard to the excellent point Patricia Neyman makes: We need to release a list of politicians, bureaucrats and businesswomen/-men who have received loans with suspiciously-good terms from Russian financiers and banks. We know, for instance, that Trump’s own massive loan from Deutsche Bank was given after it was essentially guaranteed by a Russian financier.
I have a slightly different take. Go back to 2017 and Trump's insistence that the ACA would be replaced with something "amazing". Of course, there was never any substitute put forward, but Trump and his congressional minions still tried to kill it countless times. So, here we are in 2025, and this time around they're just trying to destroy the ACA by making it unaffordable. I'm waiting for them to start blaming all of this on Barack Obama! At the end of the day, I think that all of this is driven by Trump's utter loathing of Obama and his incredibly successful accomplishment. Trump's racism rings through loud and clear to me. He simply wants to destroy this black man's crowning achievement, and that's why there's no talk of compromise. Period.
It wouldn’t surprise me. Going back to the whole “birther” bullshit, it’s all there.
You may be right; he's certainly a stone-cold racist.
But they also got rid of the Biden era clean energy subsidies, and cut SNAP benefits. What's behind all this is oligarchy, greed, and malevolence.
We still pay subsidies to the petroleum industry. I forget the number, but it is billions of dollars every year. I looked it up a few weeks ago but I can't remember the number.
Clean energy subsidies make sense for electricity costs and for competitiveness in those industries, and for the environment.
The petroleum subsidies are just dumb, pure politics corrupted by big money.
Moreover, those petroleum subsidies (which include the costs of various and sundry wars) prevent fair competition by renewable energy producers, and thus slow down our critical fight to lessen and slow down climate change.
All the same, on price, greener energy continues to out-compete fossil-fuel generated power.
I was just focused on the ACA in my comment above. The graft, greed and overall malevolence is also clearly off the charts. How do I explain it? I don’t, and I refuse to try. Sure, some of this shit can be understood by a sane person. But I learned long ago that trying to understand the actions of a truly crazy person is a waste of precious time and calories! I’ll fight Trump with everything I’ve got, but I’ll never understand his lunacy, and that’s probably a good thing!
P.S. I’ll fight with everything I’ve got POLITICALLY! 😃
"especially after Tuesday's election."
I would ask which of the high-profile races MAGA themselves expected to win -- that they lost. iow, was there an upset from their point of view? The kind of upset that would have them coming to the table more willing to compromise.
Thomas, have you been reading and listening to the commentary here this week? 1) Many of them expected to win in NJ, or at least for the race to be close. 2) The margins in all these races were enormous, way beyond anything anticipated. 3) The restoration of our margins with Hispanics and young people is deeply ominous for them next year. 4) Their redistricting gambit has become bloody for them, way more so than they anticipated. These and more are things I discussed in my weekly talk this week.
I was responding to the comment "I admit I was surprised that the Republicans rejected Schumer's offer..." After taking a closer look at the election results here in so many of Georgia's counties -- with Ossoff's campaign coming up,. I was not surprised.
I can't speak for the analysts in New Jersey. Those who predicted that Sherrill would win easily were proven right.
I saw some post yesterday that the Epstein files are indeed worse than thought - person had heard from those who have seen, but nothing released yet, so no details. But I think another factor is T and (? whoever is making decisions while grandpa dozes) still pushing for civil unrest, kind of their last chance option after the voters spoke this week. Maybe they saw Les Miz too many times. They don't realize ppl are organizing to feed the hungry.
If I recall correctly, they at one point had hundreds of agents going through the Epstein files, tagging mentions of Trump, his allies and associates – while of course leaving mentions of Clinton and other Democrats intact.
NOTE: Where are *Anonymous* when America needs them?
Well, Anonymous is posting, occasionally I run across. I think it's how it all fits together more than the number of occurrences of a given name.
There was a journalist that worked for MSNBC and others that said something along these lines. Forget his name.
Simon, I liked it when you chuckled when some of the people (MAGA), who called C-Span, insisted to give you the lowdown of how Dems will suffer and Trump will forge ahead. Your answers were succinct but with a touch of humor. They deserve being laughed at and we should do more of it.
The election results were incredibly encouraging! Far stronger up and down the ballot than I even dared hope! And those results are, in large part, thanks to the work of Simon and the great patriots of Hopium and other pro-democracy communities throughout the nation.
However, for Trump and his acolytes such as Vought and Miller, this is about power, not support. I keep hoping a handful of Republicans in the Senate and House will suddenly discover their spines – for a handful saying "enough is enough" is all it would take.
Alternatively, it would take just a few Supreme Court Justices actually upholding the Constitution. Meanwhile, the T-shirt from The Oninon is spot-on!
https://www.raygunsite.com/cdn/shop/products/TheOnionWebReady-RightVWrong-Flat_1000x.jpg?v=1668966815
Welcome back!
For some reason I can’t comment directly so I will ask my question in this reply.
My recollection is the CR the House passed was only through 11/21. What happens in 13 days?? Will that force the House back into session??
Good questions! The answer requires far more expertise than I have.
For some time I have been trying to understand the off-ramps from a government shutdown – especially if Trump is NOT willing to compromise. Must admit I’m not seeing it, which frankly I find quite worrying. Clearly the Trump Regime is perfectly willing to let tens of millions of Americans go hungry.
Trump must be threatening them in ways we don't see. They're in a position where they either have to modulate their views to reflect their constituents' desires or they have to fully embrace cheating. I have no doubt that some of them are enthusiastic about the latter choice, but I don't think that describes all of them. Some of them are normie old-school Republicans. So what gives?
I think you nailed it.
great t-shirt!
Great T-Shirt. I have to say, after the SC (really the six) gave Trump immunity, I had lost faith in the SC. They might not side with Trump on tariffs, but I suspect it has to do with their own interests. BUT, pretty sure they noticed the crowds at the No Kings Protests and had to be rattled, at least a bit, at Tuesday's results across the country. So, maybe, just maybe, they will start ruling as the independent judiciary it was tended to be in our country.
The callers!!!!
Seriously, that first one from Calorado was a caricature. Seriously, could SNL have done much better ?!
Speaking of SNL it will be interesting to see what they have tonight [or on the recording tomorrow morning, for those of us who can't stay up tonight].
He was older. Older people go straight to "communism" or "Marxism". Cold War stuff. It was nutty and paranoid stuff 40-50 years ago. Now it sounds even more ridiculous.
Good interview. It was interesting to hear questions from Republican voters. I agree that we are in a period of transition. It’s a bit murky out there, but it’s also inspiring to see a younger generation coming into their own. I think one of the biggest challenges we face is bridging the culture/religious divide that has been stoked by FOX/MAGA. It is keeping everyone in gridlock. Governing is hard work. With all the grandstanding and sound bites, it’s easy to lose sight of that.
Trump and the GOP want to Rule, not govern. Ruling with violence or threat of violence seems to be Trump’s playbook. The GOP also uses religion to control people. (A deformed Christianity ).
I agree. The perversion of Christianity is particularly nauseating. Apparently, Putin did that with the Russian Orthodox church too.
It's not really new though, is it? When I was a kid I remember Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell, and Jim Bakker. Pat Robertson. And political figures like Ed Meese leveraging all of it. It seems like an continuous arc to me.
Yep. It's been happening throughout U.S. history. Another example: The many White Christians justifying the power and status of the slave-holding oligarchy class that ruled the South for 2 centuries, and then later, justifying the Jim Crow laws that kept African Americans relegated to 2nd class status for almost another century.
Just as there is an important distinction between *Islamist* and Muslim, so is there a vast difference between *Christianist* and Christian.
I just watched the entire C-Span interview and encourage everyone else to do so. The interviewer is good, she integrates questions from callers and Simon is honestly just dazzling with his command of the material, his patience with questions of all kinds and his ability to stay on message throughout. So worthwhile!!!
Yeah, masterful! Kinda like he's done it before, LOL. ;)
Just watched it myself and agree completely. I recommend people here watch the whole thing not just for the content, which is excellent, but for a masterclass on how to interact with people who have been immersed in the Fox news bubble. That first caller was so disrespectful ("Rosenberg, that your name?") and just spewing right wing talking points, and Simon just shrugs it off, doesn't get rattled or angry, and continues to calmly make his points. It was a reminder for me that they want you to be rattled, upset, offended, and you don't have to take that bait. At the same time, he listened to and engaged with people who were ready to meet him at that level and have a serious discussion. This interviews a keeper for me.
I second this – and for precisely the reasons you mention. A masterclass, indeed!
I watched the whole thing as well. Couldn’t believe Simon could remain so calm with some of the questions. What I thought was quite sad was the Republican callers’ efforts to make this about the “socialist” in NYC. Talk about drinking the koolaid.
Totally agree. Well-described.
Picking out two holiday-themed item for the food bank donation bin every time I’m at the co-op between now and Christmas. Canned cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie filling and such.
Kotek got Oregonians their SNAP refill with state funds I think, but now that Trumpemort has asked SCOTUS to bail him out again ( 🙄 🙄 🙄 ), who knows when the state will get reimbursed or wtf happens in December.
It’s the holidays! The fuck is wrong with him? All this completely unnecessary chaos.
Jeff Tiedrich (Substack) has an ongoing meme in which he dares the press to ask Orange "WTF is wrong with you?," and then whoever does it gets a Pulitzer.
Speaking of orange, he seemed to not be wearing the makeup at all this week? And his post-stroke droop-face was back.
As strange as his costume has always been, Trump was always fastidious about his appearance. The fact that he doesn’t seem to care as much now suggests to me his dementia is pretty advanced. It’s one more reason I worry in this shutdown because to me it seems he’s now living in a mental fog.
Lol😂 🤣🤣🤣
You were wonderful on C span. It really is the d”Dawn of a new Day”.
You did a great job Simon.
Millie Polli Haskell....Reporting-first, Simon, You're Interview with C-Span Host was Brilliant and some of the callers were just Nonsense. You're comments were right on, concerning the Election! You would make a Great Candidate, If so inclined!! And, I did call both Sen. Scott and Rep. Luna this morning. I told them how Important and Imperative it is to "Act Upon Our Four Part Agenda" believe Me I Demanded, said that twice and was Very, Very, Very LOUD when I Read it!!! Have a Great Day!
Ben Meseilas’ coverage of the Sandwich Guy acquittal on the Meidas podcast yesterday is completely hilarious. Apparently the law firm Steptoe repped Sandwich Guy for free (amazing!) and put on a defense of others defense. Which seems silly to me because obviously this was an issue of jury nullification. But you’re not supposed to explicitly argue to the jury to nullify so I guess that’s what they had to come up with. Great podcast episode, highly recommend.
Former Steptonian here. Not at all surprised and very proud.
Wow! Amazing! Meseilas wanted the Meidas Mighty to go on their website and send them a thank you through their send-us-a-message inbox but it doesn’t look like they have one on there. Their website is super intimidating to this small town lawyer tho. Talk about Biglaw! Love that they do public interest pro bono like Sandwich Guy’s case. Way to stick up for whats right against a regime that went after top law firms right out the gate.
I think that having free buses so people can get to work/do errands in an affordable way will be a great benefit to NYC (even Republicans can ride free!) Freeing people of the terror of rent increases when rent is already too high (heard on Rick Wilson's podcast that a salary of 350K is now needed to live a middle class life in NYC - and that means a modest apt, not even a house) That is obscene. Almost no one makes that even with 2 adults working - and free childcare so they can work. I'm really sick of their "socialism" boogey man shit. I think the response ought to be, if that's socialism, then gimme more. Make them defend the present situation there and why they think that is the "wonderful American Dream" because it's a fucking nightmare, and not just in NYC.
I friend of mine's 2 millennial children live in Baltimore. One is a teacher and the other one an engineer with a BA. Both were able to buy houses. Baltimore has a program to help people buy homes in the city. They must promise to live there for 5 years. All their student loans are paid off by the city and they get some kind help buying the house (not sure of the details of that)
Baltimore used to be known as one of the highest crime areas. If you want to reduce crime, you must reduce misery. Whenever you convert renters into home owners you improve a place, build community.
Trump's policies of emiserating people is going to increase crime. If the only way to survive is to do crime, people will do crime. Most people will not do crime if they have another path.
The whole Right Wing philosophy is poison - a recipe for widespread misery. It contradicts the founding ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
So don't let them scare you with "socialism" - shove it down their throats. Make them defend the misery they cause.
Simon, you are amazing to be able to keep your temper.
I have a couple friends who live in Charm City, and I was not aware of that program - it's awfully tempting! My Mom is from Balamer. ;)
In NJ, our school lunches are free. A lot of the other stuff needs some work, including mass transit. Gov.-Elect Sherrill (!) says she's for consolidation of services, which is LONG OVERDUE. When I first moved here, I was all "WTF, why do you people put up with this crap?", and people were just "it's always been this way." I say it's not good enough and never was, and I am looking forward to some big changes come January 20! I believe we have the SNAP cards coming as well, I know the governor declared a state of emergency to release the funds at his disposal.
So happy to say: Governor Elect Sherrill, right?!
Our buses in Albuquerque; daycare for all children and school lunches in NM, and tuition at public colleges and universites are all free! We are also sending out SNAP benefits on EBT cards during the shutdown.
https://www.nmececd.org/universal/
https://www.hca.nm.gov/support/
https://www.cabq.gov/transit/how-to-ride/zero-fares
https://www.governor.state.nm.us/2023/03/28/governor-signs-senate-bill-4-making-universal-free-and-healthy-school-meals-the-law-of-the-land/
https://hed.nm.gov/free-college-for-new-mexico
Wow! That is great. I didn’t know that. Love New Mexico. Such a magical place.
Well, so maybe “New Mexico” would’ve been the answer to that guy who called in, and said “show me a single country where Socialism has worked”. I was thinking of Sweden, Finland, Denmark.
I wish I could send every working class Right winger on a trip to Denmark. Wait until they find out about six weeks of mandatory paid vacation.
Don’t forget Norway, which, by insisting that its people get a significant share of petroleum profits, has accrued the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. That fund is currently worth north of USD 2 trillion. Given that Norway has a population of 5.6 million, that amounts to over $ 350,000 per person.
(Side note: As a shareholder in Tesla, the Fund recently voted against Elon Musk’s obscene pay package.)
Buses in Chapel Hill, NC are free as well. It helps everybody!
I love NM!!
Weird, I've been to Albuquerque a number of times and I completely missed how much of a marxist hellhole it is. It seemed pretty normal. It's almost like you can do all that stuff and still live in a free country.
🤣 🤣 🤣🗽🗽🗽
I’m a Groucho Marxist myself!
emiserating - good word.
I think maybe it's "immiserating" but yeah, definitely good word choice.
Thank you! OMG - I've been spelling it wrong all my life :(
Yeah, well, for the first 30 years or so of my life I thought the word “misled” was pronounced “myzled”. 😀
Me too!!
“We all do better when we all do better.” -Paul Wellstone
only about 50% of people pay the bus fair in nyc; drivers are told not to harass people who don't pay.
They seem to go ballistic at people who don’t pay the subway fare tho - so I’ve heard.
My argument about the socialism claim is to ask about Social Security, Medicare, public schools, libraries, parks... Do they like those things or should we be on our own for all of them? Is there something magic about age 6 for free public school; why not a younger age? What is so different about public transit from other public goods? Make them think.
I always use the police and fire depts. Here’s the convo:
A prowler is outside. You call 911. “please send the police. There’s an intruder in my yard.
911 operator: what is your police policy number?
you: I don’t know. Please help. He’s trying to open the door…I’m so scared
911 operator: does the intruder have a gun?
you: how the fuck do I know!!!
911 operator: there’s no reason to use bad language ma’am. I’m trying to help you. I need to warn you that unless you have a gold level policy, there will be a $1000 co-pay if the intruder has a firearm…
Great scene!
This is fantastic.
For those of you who may be surprised at what the thing is doing, please watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn3ovMgNHKE.
Romano (does anyone know his first name?) explains that as we keep winning, the thing and his Fascist Old Party will double down. They can't stand the fact--or admit--that they're losing, that they're on their way out, so they'll do what they can to make things much worse for us. During this time, we need to keep our foot on the pedal and continue the good fight. "It's gonna get worse before it gets better," he says--and he's right.
Another piece of advice from him: "Don't let it get you down." Yes, and we'll win in the end. 🙂
Thank you for posting the link. I was not familiar with this guy. I strongly recommend this to everyone. Anyone who understood Project 2025 understood a nightmare was going to come at us. The only way they win is if we don't fight.
Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation threatened: submit, or there will be blood. His actual words were "This is the second American Revolution. It will be bloodless if the Left allows it" which has the above meaning.
My response to that is: we will never submit. No Kings 43% vs MAGA 30%. Let's grow that No Kings number to 70%
Yeah, I remember him saying that. He was advocating violence, which doesn't make him a "Christian" at all. The real kicker about all this is that The Fascist Foundation itself is having people jump ship: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/5/2352297/-GOP-civil-war-rages-on-after-disastrous-election-night.
What's happening with them and the FOP (Fascist Old Party) underscores what Sen. Raphael Warnock said recently to Brian Tyler Cohen in an interview: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LbVdYpcjCTc.
And he's right.
Thanks for sharing the clip of one of my two amazing GA Senators! I hadn't heard about this conversation. He's inspiring even when he talks about tough subjects.
Oh, he is. I volunteered to make sure that he not only was elected the first time but that he was RE-elected! And I'll do the same for Jon Ossoff this coming year!
I read P. ‘25 in advance of the election and tried to educate everyone I could about it. It’s pretty dense policy manual so not really reader-friendly for the average person. Well, Dr. Robert’s foreword isn’t dense policy manual, but many of the subsequent chapters are. But the overarching gist of the whole thing is: gut federal agencies of career officials and install a fraction of their number in loyalists who will achieve MAGA policy goals, the law be damned.
And of course that’s what they did right out the gate with DOGE and the mass-firings and the installation of loyalist stooges.
Dr. Roberts also wrote another manifesto, Dawn’s Early Light I think it’s called, that they delayed publishing until after the election. It calls for full on birth control bans and such. He’s very much in the subjugate-women wing of MAGA.
Then there’s Posobiec’s Unhumans (foreword by Steve Bannon and promotional blurb by JD Vance) and Pete Hegseth’s books including American Crusade. Those manifestos propose full-on war on Americans to eradicate liberalism. Using extrajudicial and military force. So I was fully expecting worst-case scenario following Inauguration Day and when CECOT happened I went into fight or flight for four straight months.
At this point, I think the outcome is that the USA will become a historian’s and political scientist’s case study in how fascism failed. We have so many things going in our favor that I underestimated- the sheer size of the country, decentralized federalist system, strong civic institutions, a population accustomed to liberty…
Indeed, The Fascist Foundation laid out this nefarious plan in full detail. They had this plan that they thought would work well because they were counting on us just laying down--Kevin Roberts's "It will be bloodless if the Left allows it" remark--and letting them implement it.
But in laying out that plan, there was something they weren't counting on: us. They grossly underestimated our power, and now, they're finding out just how strong we really are and that, to quote Twisted Sister, we're not gonna take it.
The left really needs to tone down its rhetoric.
LOL!
That's pretty much what Dr. Ben-Ghiat says, too.
Mark Ramano
Thanks!
As always, clear and concise. Thank you Simon Rosenberg for the expertise.
I was surprised at how many of the callers were on the attack about the election results on Tuesday . And socialism kept coming up! Interesting interview!
They know their talking points - it's cult mind control.
Simon, I was so impressed with your appearance on C-SPAN and the finesse with which you addressed viewers' comments. It was a terrific mentorship in how to speak with and in the face of opposing views. I'm not saying anything new, of course. Every post on Hopium is terrific and I value them all. Thank you.
So was I. Simon was calm, diplomatic, and civil--exactly what we need now.