Failed Wars Now Haunt Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu
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Morning all. While much is still to unfold in the months ahead three arrogant, vainglorious “strongmen” - Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu - appear headed to dramatic, world-altering setbacks in their political projects.
In Israel there is a growing sense that the war has failed, and Netanyahu’s coalition now trails in current polling in their October election.
At the G7 today Trump had an extended meeting with Zelenskyy and Macron, and for today, at least, a strong, united West re-emerged. Putin’s head must have exploded at seeing the vibe coming from the meeting in France…..
While this was happening Ukraine symbolically struck targets in Moscow itself, and smoke has been visible throughout the Capital today. Further humiliation for Putin.
Here in the US Democrats must prepare themselves to be unrelenting in labeling this war an historic failure, work to establish its true costs, and begin laying out a foreign policy vision that takes in account the new realities of the emerging geopolitical failures of Trump, Putin and Netanyahu. Simply, there must be accountability for this failed, illegal war, arguably the most spectacular failure by an American President in our history (here’s a link to the article below).
For as we discussed yesterday America comes out of this ridiculous war in a far weaker position internationally, Iran much stronger; and the costs of this war to the American taxpayer while already felt in higher prices are only just beginning to be understood. Here’s that true cost estimate I shared yesterday. For us, at least a $1 trillion. For the rest of the world many, many trillions more. All due to one guy, making the call, without authorization or even consultation.
A new analysis from G. Elliott Morris reminds us of the opportunity that is in front of Democrats now in our elections this November:
Note how much we’ve gained in recent months on the question Morris focuses on today:
Look where we stand in an historical context. Our lead on this question is currently one of the largest in the post WWII era:
We have talked here together about how we must imagine the next ten years not as a period of autocratic and oligarchical consolidation, but one where here in the US and around the world we experience a “new birth of freedom.” A period where democracy and liberty advance throughout the world and not retreat. With Orban falling, and now these three leaders suffering dramatic geopolitical losses, perhaps we can begin to see that far better future a bit more clearly now. It is why, my friends, this work we do here matters every day. For we have no alternative than to keep fighting, keep imagining a better day and then go out build a politics to make it so - for that is what we do here at Hopium. For Hopium is hope with a plan. We don’t just hope tomorrow will be better. We do the work to make it so…….
Some Things To Call Congress About This Week -
Finish the job on the Ukraine Support Act, get it passed through the Senate and to the President’s desk
Yes to making American oligarchs pay for Trump’s failed war not every day Americans
No to the ballroom, the Arch, the gilded statues, the slush fund, the corruption, self-enrichment……
hell no to Todd Blanche as Attorney General, and yes to very tough questioning of the new DNI nominee, Jay Clayton
Hell hell no to the new OMB regs that will destroy government-funded science in America. Join the new Stand Up For Science campaign to Stop Vought. Save Science today.
Note this front-page story from today’s Washington Post. We need to start lobbying for bills to force Trump to pay for all the money he has stolen, and the damage he has done to the White House, the Capital itself, even his failed and illegal war:
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Keep working hard everyone. We have a country to save, and elections all across this great country to win, together! - Simon
FURIOUS about these costs. Timothy Snyder did another Q&A w Dr. Ben-Ghiat yesterday, who expounded on her theory about Orange's role being to destroy the country by any means-the example being the Vought/OMB directive on grants. It was a sobering but very informative talk. Link here: https://youtu.be/xb5MTltIYlE?si=VDIMxoHdL5oVb8RE
Yes, we MUST demand accountability and stop this crap. I do not accept that there is nothing we can do to stop this MF ballroom, and we should also demand that the unsightly mess that is the South Lawn be torn down (he's threatening to leave it standing). Enough already with this cr*p. We are the majority, we need to demand this stuff.
Finally, good to hear that Schumer, Warnock, Warner and others are meeting to strategize re the elections this fall and going forward. And the DNC is being proactive, too. They are training people to register voters, to conduct listening sessions, etc. Pedal to the metal, and keep going!
One of the psychological challenges I'm guessing many of us face is avoiding the temptation of looking up (at the mountain we're going to have to climb) or looking down (at the mess we're going to have to clean up when we do). If there was *one* part of the WisDems convention I wish everyone in Hopium and beyond had been able to be there for, it was the tribute video to outgoing governor Tony Evers and the speech he gave that followed (Ive just written them to ask if they recorded it, and if so, whether they'd be willing to share).
I don’t know how many people outside the state are aware of what Wisconsin was like in 2018 when Evers ran for, and defeated, Scott Walker. It wasn't just a "democracy desert" (as Harvard described it): after eight years of metastasizing cancer (aka the postmodern GOP), it was a desert, *period*--every element of the state's identity, its culture, its institutions had been leveled or hollowed out. For many of us who grew up here, it was unrecognizable--they even sold our share of Lake Michigan to a foreign company that created 12 jobs in return! WTFH!! And thanks to a level of court-supported gerrymandering that probably provided as much inspiration to Orban as Jim Crow did to Hitler, they appeared to have locked up the Wisconsin Idea for life.
Enter Tony Evers--and Ben Wikler, of course. Tbh, viewed from afar, I always thought Evers was the closest thing to "generic Democrat" pollsters use that I think I'd ever seen--an empty placeholder more than a flesh and blood person. Frail-looking, strongly bespectacled, gentle, soft-spoken, white-haired, definitely not conventionally charismatic in the (frankly superficial) American political sense. And yet not only was I about as wrong as I've ever been about anything in my life, this is what he did in eight years (plus I know I'm missing some--a LOT--of what was said):
* Made the largest investment in the UW system in WI history
* Made the largest investment in K-12 in WI history (boosting WI from 18th to 7th in the rankings)
* Funded the biggest expansion of health care in state history
* Created the best funded small business support program in the country, resulting in Silicon Valley-like (without the silicon), or Sweden-like (6x the numbers of new entrepreneurs per capita as the US!) numbers of new businesses--and existing ones saved.
* Fixed 9,600 miles of roads (and hundreds [thousands?] of bridges), much, if not most of which happened *without* the help of the federal infrastructure bill--eliminating the "scottholes" was a core promise in his *first* (2018) campaign, four+ years before that program really started manifesting in the field.
* Undid the GOP gerrymanders at both the federal and state levels
* Restored women's reproductive rights
* So much more
And here's the kicker, three of them, in fact, like the rule says. He did *all this* while also:
* Giving the middle class a 23% tax cut
* Delivering a budget that was not just balanced, but in the black, every year in office, which allowed him to pay off $3 billion in debt and leave another $2 billion in surplus as a parting gift
* Dealing with a viciously partisan (esp. for Wisconsin) and sore loser state legislature that endeavored to unconstitutionally (no matter what the partisan state supreme court said at the time) strip him of many of his powers as soon as he was elected, and was on the verge of impeaching Janet Protasiewicz *before* she even took office before Evers & Wikler convinced enough of them that doing so would not do wonders for what would remain of their political careers.
I'm still in Madison, where the difference in the economy between here and Connecticut (where I live now) is pretty close to night and day, and in cases where it's not (eg for farmers), it seems people are getting better and better at identifying when and why it started to go south: January 20, 2025. It's no wonder Evers is now the most popular politician in the state, and why delegates were able to chant (as they did, albeit briefly) "We're not going back!" without hearing the footsteps of 2024 behind them.