In A Time Of Turmoil And Transformation There Is Opportunity, Sen. Markey Is Bringing It - Others Need To Join Him
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Good morning all. While we are all weary, and the Holidays are upon us, the big world out there isn’t slowing down. We’ve seen encouraging developments - the fall of Assad and the weakening of Russia and Iran, the Impeachment and removal of an aspiring dictator in South Korea, a powerful protest movement in country of Georgia, the continued courage and grit of the Ukrainian people.
Foreign embassies in Damascas are reopening:
The Judge overseeing Trump’s felony conviction trial in New York ruled that the Supreme Court’s “Presidential immunity” ruling does not apply to this case.
Donald Trump’s felony conviction in the New York hush money case should not be tossed out because of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, Judge Juan Merchan ruled Monday.
Merchan’s decision rejected one of several avenues that Trump’s lawyers have taken to try to dismiss Trump’s May guilty verdict on 34 counts of falsifying business records. The judge did not, however, rule on a motion from Trump’s attorneys to dismiss the conviction because Trump has now been elected president.
Instead, his 41-page decision focused on the question of presidential immunity.
Merchan wrote the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump should receive broad immunity for official acts during his time in office did not mean the conviction should be dismissed, ruling that the evidence presented by the Manhattan district attorney’s office was not related to Trump’s official conduct as president.
Crime is down from last year. Murder rates way down (link):
We’ve turned an important corner in battling drug overdoses:
Vaccines have been an historic public health and governing success:
We are ending 2024 and the Biden Presidency with the economy in remarkably good shape, but, and it is a big but:
After five years of uncertainty and turmoil, the U.S. economy is ending 2024 in arguably its most stable condition since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Inflation has cooled. Unemployment is low. The Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates. The recession that many forecasters once warned was inevitable hasn’t materialized.
Yet the economic outlook for 2025 is as murky as ever, for one major reason: President-elect Donald J. Trump.
On the campaign trail and in the weeks since his election, Mr. Trump has proposed sweeping policy changes that could have profound — and complicated — implications for the economy.
He has proposed imposing steep new tariffs and deporting potentially millions of undocumented immigrants, which could lead to higher prices, slower growth or both, according to most economic models. At the same time, he has promised policies like tax cuts for individuals and businesses that could lead to faster economic growth but also bigger deficits.
And he has pledged to slash regulations, which could lift corporate profits and, possibly, overall productivity. But critics warn that such changes could increase worker injuries, cause environmental damage and make the financial system more prone to crises over the long run.
No one knows exactly which policies Mr. Trump will pursue, or in what order, or how much of his agenda he will get through Congress and the courts. As a result, no one knows what to expect for the economy in 2025 or beyond.
“It is a very uncertain outlook, and most of that uncertainty comes from potential changes in policy,” said Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist for Morgan Stanley.
The French and German governments have fallen in recent days. The Canadian government is in turmoil right now. Our government is about to taken over by an aging, delusional extremist. Things are unsettled here, and abroad. Change is in the air.
And I guess that is my main point today. Like all of you I am struggling to make sense of this political moment, to keep imagining and fighting for a better tomorrow. But what is clear now is that we are in a time of turmoil, transformation, discontinuity. We are leaving one political era here in the US and around the world and entering another. This sense of transformation drove my decision to shut down NDN, the organization I ran for many years, and start Hopium. I felt that something new was being born, and I wanted to understand it, dive into it, and hopefully shape it a bit. Though a no longer young dog, I knew it was time for new tricks.
Here’s what I wrote in that very first Hopium post:
Though I’ve been in politics for a long time, my journey fighting the “red wave” over the past year changed my understanding of the work that needs to get done to defeat MAGA, tell our inspiring story more effectively, and ensure that freedom and democracy prevail.
Basically I came to understand that our politics was changing and I had to change with it. It led me to conclude that my old organization, NDN, which I founded back in 1996, was no longer the right vehicle for me. It did a lot of good over a long period of time, and we built a remarkable community there. As I discuss in my recent interview with Ron Brownstein in the Atlantic, I feel like we are entering a new political era in America, one that requires new strategies and approaches. NDN was built for a different era, and it had a different mission. I needed to do something new, organize my work in new ways. So here I am. With all of you.
Times like these can be unsettling, and scary. Change while often welcome can be hard as it is natural for people to want to hold on to the familiar and old ways. But in times of change and transformation there is also opportunity, incredible opportunity, to build new things, forge new understandings, win new vital battles. To do so, however, you have to start letting go of the old and familiar and embrace the turmoil, dive in, experiment, innovate and create, anew. I talked about this need to re-imagine, re-invent and innovate in this post and talk I gave two weeks ago, and will be doing so again tonight in our last paid subscriber live gathering of the year. It’s part of how I understand this moment, a moment that will be dark and difficult but also full of opportunities if we can see them and seize them. We will only see them, and seize them, if we are looking forward, not back; if we stay grounded in patriotism, optimism, love of country and the greatness and goodness of America and our Democratic Party; if we take, celebrate and build on the wins when they come; if we do not allow Trump’s darkness to become our own.
One of our most important opportunities right now is the need to defeat Trump’s unacceptable 4. Things you can do:
Call your Senators and Representative to let them know your dissatisfaction with the 34 times felon’s pick of Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth and Robert Kennedy; and to inform them of your expectation that they will leave it all out there on the playing field to block these profoundly dangerous nominations whether they have a vote on them or not. Our elected leaders have powerful platforms - they need to use them everyday, and become far more effective warriors in the 24/7/365 info war with the right.
Contact the White House and ask President Biden to order the FBI to begin background checks into Trump’s nominees immediately and before Trump installs Patel to disable the process. Last week the Trump team signed an agreement allowing these background checks to go forward. President Biden should do Mr. Trump a favor and expedite the clearance process for the most sensitive jobs of State, Defense, DNI, CIA, Homeland Security and HHS (pandemic preparedness) so the new team can hit the ground running in January.
In recent days Senator Ed Markey has stepped up his campaign to defeat the Kennedy nomination. He is speaking on TV, giving public talks, releasing short, smart videos on social media. Here he is with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. We need far, far more of this from Democratic leaders.
And this morning we learned that House Ethics voted to release the report into Matt Gaetz, Trump’s close ally and original choice for Attorney General of the United States of America. Here’s how the MAGA hero responded:
Matt Gaetz fell. If we fight the unacceptable 4 can too, and Trump will have stumbled, badly, out of the box. They can fall, but only if we fight and seize the opportunity Trump’s recklessness has given us. Heads down, keep working all. In opposition, we take, celebrate and build on the wins when they come and do not let Trump’s darkness become our own.
More On The 2024 Election and What Comes Next - For a comprehensive look at 2024 and what comes next see these four new talks with leading state Democratic Party chairs: (each video interview comes with a transcript for those who would like to read rather than watch or listen):
On The Future Of The DNC and The Democratic Party - With Ken Martin, Minnesota Democratic Party Chair and A Leading Candidate For DNC Chair
On Winning In Wisconsin and the Future of the DNC and Democratic Party - With Ben Wikler, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair and A Leading Candidate for DNC Chair
On Winning The Blue Dot And The Urgent Need To Invest in Democratic Party, Partisan Infrastructure - With Jane Kleeb, Nebraska Democratic Party Chair
On North Carolina’s Impressive Downballot Wins - With Anderson Clayton, North Carolina Democratic Party Chair
Other recent videos in our What Happened, What Comes Next series for your Holiday viewing and listening pleasure:
On Winning Arizona And Getting Latinos Back - With Senator-Elect Ruben Gallego
On Winning Virginia In 2025 - With Rep. Abigail Spanberger, The Democratic Nominee for Governor of Virginia | Learn more about Abigail | Volunteer | Donate To Her Campaign
On Trump’s Big Gains With Young People, Particularly Young Men - With John Della Volpe Of Harvard’s Institute Of Politics
On The Power of Networks - With Joe Trippi, Legendary Democratic Strategist and Campaign Manager, Founder Sez Us and Resolute Square
On Reinventing Government and The Perils of DOGE - With Dr. Elaine Kamarck Of Harvard and The Brookings Institution
You may also find these two segments from our fall Closing Strong collaboration with COURIER Newsroom and Tara McGowan helpful:
On The Need For Pro-Democracy Media - With COURIER’s Tara McGowan and Crooked Media’s Dan Pfeiffer
Beyond MAGA Creators - Russia’s influence on the Republican Party runs deep with Stewart Stevens and Jiore Craig
And here are my most important recent post-election analyses, both in words and video, if you haven’t gotten to them yet (and oldie but goodie too):
More Notes On Trump’s Unprecedented Ugliness And Becoming The Ferociouss Opposition - includes early thinking about how the Hopium community evolves next year
For Dems It’s A Time For Re-imagination, Re-invention and Innovation (video too)
A Deep Dive on What Dems Do Now with Anthony Davis of MeidasTouch (please watch this!)
More Notes On What Happened And What Comes Next (video too)
“Getting Louder” - A conversation about building pro-democracy media with Ben Meiselas (MeidasTouch), Tara McGowan (COURIER Newsroom), Joe Trippi (Resolute Square) and David Rothkopf (DSR Network)
Give The Gift of Hopium This Holiday Season - I’ve set up a thread for paid subscribers to offer their thoughts on what this wonderful and plucky community should do next. I’m grateful for the many comments we’ve received so far. Weigh in if you can in the coming days, and note that an annual Hopium paid subscription is now 10% off through the end of the year for those who may want to sign up or give a bit of Hopium as a holiday gift!
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
I don't know about you, but with AOC losing the vote for ranking member on the oversight committee I am rapidly losing confidence in the democratic leaders in congress. They are not listening, and some of them are planning on working with DOGE - Like Ro Khanna.
Only the best and the brightest:
“I don’t know if you know, but vampires are some cool people, are they not? But let me tell you something that I found out: a werewolf can kill a vampire. Did you know that? I never knew that. So, I don’t want to be a vampire any more. I want to be a werewolf.”
– Herschel Walker, Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to the Bahamas