My Interview With David Hogg, Fighting The Unacceptable 4, Mr. President Egg Prices Are Skyrocketing

WTO Chief warns trade wars sparked by Trump's tariffs would be "catastrophic"

Good morning all. Let’s kick things off today with my new interview of David Hogg, a candidate for DNC Vice Chair, and a vital new leader in our pro-democracy family. It is above, and you can learn more about David here. In our spirited discussion we cover a wide range of topics - his race for an important leadership role in the party, his vision for what he’d like to do if elected, what happened with young voters in this past election and other thoughts about the path forward. Get to this one when you have time. It is worth it.

Feel free to pair our conversation with David with one of our recent interviews of the three main candidates for DNC Chair - Ken Martin, Martin O’Malley and Ben Wikler - and two other important party leaders, Anderson Clayton of North Carolina and Jane Kleeb of Nebraska. You can find these interviews here, or by clicking on the podcast tab on the Hopium site’s navigation bar. The election for all Democratic Party leadership offices will be next Saturday, February 1st.

Fighting The Unacceptable 4, Hegseth Vote Today! - Friends, we need to keep working it, we need to keep fighting the Unacceptable 4 - Gabbard, Hegseth, Kennedy and Patel. The Senate will be voting on Pete Hegseth’s nomination tonight. Right now it is more likely that he wins the vote than loses so we need to keep working it. The remaining three all have hearings now scheduled next week. Keep making your calls all. We need to keep fighting.

Trump 2.0 is a profound, ongoing betrayal of America, and everything that has made this remarkable nation the most powerful and prosperous in the world. It is why we must fight. As dark as all this is, we cannot for one moment forget that what Trump is doing is wrong; he and his project remain deeply unstable and his coalition narrow and fractious; he is embracing deeply unpopular actions; he is old, impulsive, reckless and clearly in decline; and extremists and ideologues are often far better at bread and circuses than governing.

We got an early win yesterday (and here we take and celebrate the wins when they come) when a federal judge blocked the implementation of Trump’s birthright citizenship Executive Order:

A federal judge said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it.

Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee who sits in Seattle, granted the request by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and three other Democratic-led states for the emergency order halting implementation of the policy for the next 14 days while there are more briefings in the legal challenge.

“I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear,” Coughenour said.

“Where were the lawyers” when the decision to sign the executive order was made, the judge asked. He said that it “boggled” his mind that a member of the bar would claim the order was constitutional.

Be sure to catch my new interview with Rep. Eric Swalwell where we discuss the important work of turning our all elements of our pro-democracy family - millions of vols/donors, new media ecosystem, grassroots groups, party infrastructure and electeds - into a ferocious and effective opposition.

The Skyrocketing Price Of Eggs - Egg prices are soaring:

Here’s Axios:

The escalating bird flu crisis is ravaging the nation's supply of eggs, leading to increased prices and presenting an immediate challenge for the Trump administration.

Threat level: An outbreak of avian influenza is growing and has affected nearly 13 million birds in the last 30 days, per USDA data.

Some retailers are limiting how many eggs consumers can purchase while others are having a hard time keeping shelves stocked.

"It's really a crazy situation and an unfortunate situation for consumers because the supply situation is what it is due to the bird flu," Jason Hart, CEO of grocery chain Aldi, tells Axios.

Zoom in: On Oct. 7, the Sam's Club in North Richland Hills was selling 15-dozen packages of eggs for $33. Yesterday, the same boxes were priced around $59.

As part of a shocking assault on medical research and public health in the US, the Trump team has shut down all public health communications, including on the bird flu that is ravaging our chicken stocks:

The soaring price of eggs is a reminder that Trump has no plan to lower costs, and is betraying the central promise of his campaign. His tariffs which are currently scheduled to begin on February 1st will raise prices for all American workers on food, gas and just about everything else; his mass deportation plans will create worker shortages, hurt American businesses and increase the cost of food, health care, day care and so much else; Republican reconciliation plans are exploring raising taxes on middle class people and cutting health care and other funding that will raise the cost of health care and other must-spend items; they have no agenda to cut housing costs, child care costs, education costs - costs that David Hogg argues were central to driving Gen Z voters to Trump last year.

There is perhaps no greater manifestation of the internal triumph of the broligarchy inside Trump’s world than the complete abandonment of the workers he promised to fight for during the campaign. If Trump goes through with the plans being discussed right now prices will rise for workers on just about everything, and taxes for big chunks of the middle class will also rise - all to give big tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.

Part of the reason Trump is pursuing tariffs that will raise prices for all Americans is that he needs the money to pay for his huge broligarchical tax cuts. These tariffs are not only a transfer of wealth from everyday people to the wealthy, they risk blowing up the entire global economic system. Here is what the head of the World Trade Organization had to say about Trump’s threatened tariffs yesterday at the same event where the President offered up batshit crazy remarks:

GENEVA/DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization chief said on Thursday that any tit-for-tat trade wars prompted by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats would have catastrophic consequences for global growth, urging states to refrain from retaliation.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, starts her second term as head of the global trade watchdog this year at a time when Trump's tariff threats have raised the spectre of trade wars.

"If we have tit-for-tat retaliation, whether it's 25% tariff (or) 60% and we go to where we were in the 1930s we're going to see double-digit global GDP losses. That's catastrophic. Everyone will pay," Okonjo-Iweala said at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos.

She was drawing a parallel with the period between the two World Wars when countries adopted trade restrictions in response to a U.S. tariff act in 1930.

"We've seen this movie, as I said, elsewhere in the 1930s with the Smoot-Hawley Act. It made it worse," she said.

"We're very much saying to our members at the WTO, you have other avenues, even if a tariff is levied, please keep calm," she added, asking states to study their options and use the WTO's system for resolving disputes.

That system has been only partly operational since the end of 2019 when Trump's repeated vetoes of judge appointments incapacitated its top appeals court.

Democrats and our “party of 6 million” should be making much more noise about these Trumpian tariffs.

Annals Of The New Lawlessness - Our new White Press Secretary is another law-breaker:

And this beauty from The Washington Post, Johnson aide discouraged Hutchinson subpeona over concerns about lawmakers “sexual texts”

An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson advised Republican colleagues against subpoenaing former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson as part of their investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in an effort to prevent the release of sexually explicit texts that lawmakers sent her, according to written correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post and a person familiar with the effort.

The aide intervened last June, citing concerns that a subpoena could expose the texts, according to the correspondence and the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about private conversations. Johnson revived the investigation this week as part of an effort by President Donald Trump and his allies to seek retribution against perceived political enemies, including those who investigated his role in the Capitol attack.

In a meeting following the June conversation, Johnson (R-Louisiana) and senior aides also conveyed to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) and members of his staff that issuing a subpoena to Hutchinson and asking her to testify under oath would serve as an opportunity for her to retell her story and potentially embarrass the Trump White House, according to two people present for the meeting.

A few more things:

  • We’ve endorsed Abigail Spanberger for Governor of Virginia. Watch my recent interview with her, learn more, volunteer and consider donating to her campaign. Our goal is to raise $100,000 for her by March 31st. We’ve already raised $17,000 - thank you all.

  • Be sure to watch my new video presentation (and companion essay) on the early days of Trump 2.0 and the need for us to keep fighting; review my current working 7 takeways and recommendations about the path forward (video and post), and my new essay on how "betrayal” is the word that I think best captures the new Trump era.

  • I’m speaking to a major political gathering in person at the University of Southern California on Thursday, January 30th. My panel starts at 215pm PT. Hope to be able to see some members of the Hopium community there!

  • For those coming up for renewal for your paid Hopium subscription please make sure your payment info is current. Paid subscribers keep this place going and the Hopium flowing!

Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon

A view of the Washington Monumnet from the front of the Jefferson Memorial

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