I know it’s a small thing, but the Cartoons for Democracy “poke the QAnon bear” postcarding campaign is going gangbusters. There seems to be real interest (especially before GOTV efforts kick in for November) in tapping into this demographic to keep them fired up about the Epstein Files and cause a pincer effect with both sides putting pressure on the republican reps who voted No and keep the issue alive. not sure if this is an idea that can be sustained over time but for now it seems to have legs (https://cartoonsfordemocracy.myshopify.com/) [For what it’s worth, PA Supreme Court cards are also launching soon…]
The PA Supreme Court vote for the retention of judges is screamingly important! Thank you Erin. These judges, who are a Democratic majority protect voting rights, election funding, and worker protections. PA’s GOP, funded,by more than a third, by libertarian billionaire Jeff Yass, who has interests in Tic Toc. This raises red flags for any person in PA who cares about the integrity of state government.
Erin I think it is a GREAT postcarding campaign. I am currently writing 100 for the "poke the QAnon Bear" for Virginia. We've got to take it to 'them' ; stop being the nice guys.
Awww thanks so much! Its definitely been popular, and yes this is designed to help both the Nov 2025 gov. race as well as prime the pump for VA02 2026 house race.
Hi David, because we are brand new (6 weeks old Monday!!) this is our inaugural run so there is no data yet, even so, data on postcards is very tricky. The main goal of the Poke the Bear Campaign is actually not to change minds (i don't think there's enough power in the world to change QAnon minds) the goal is to get them to contact their Rep (Rep Kiggans in this case) so that its not just dems in the district calling her. The BEST we can hope for for QAnon folks other than calling, is maybe it will peel off support for her in 2026, but that's a ways away and hard to track. The "Virginia is for Voters" campaign is designed to get them to ask Winsome Earle-Sears for town halls - because those do not go well for her. Either she doesn't and pisses them off after they ask, or she does, and the purple district dems show up and challenge her. Its win-win for everyone
Please add Sherrod Brown OH Senator and Amy Acton OH Governor to the donation list. Ohio needs all the help we can get to end the Republican corruption and turn Ohio blue. Thanks.
I love his mockery of Trump, his relentless attack on his weakness. And, of course, I love his quoting Lincoln's 1862 address to Congress. He pulls from the very same passage that Simon quoted from not long ago.
On Saturday, I'll be attending a Fight the Trump Takeover rally, rain or shine:
we turned a corner yesterday. thanks to gov newsom for finally taking the lead on defeating trumpism. saying it outloud. yes, this is cold war. we have been tip toeing around this. but that is what it is. full frontal assault at every level of american society.
then we turned a corner when fully armed border patrol/ice/whoever showed up to intimidate at newsom's presser. another provocation from the dictator.
then last nite, AG bondi illegally appoints DEA head to be the police chief of DC. which is now headed to court, and dissolving city commission policies on policing???
so we have always anticipated this turn and now they are enacting their fascism 101 playbook everywhere all at once. seems like the plan is to send troops to blue cities (especially if minority mayors), provoke citizen outrage and possibly violent pushback, then send in more troops, and use that as an excuse to send in troops to whatever urban area he wants to pick on next. so our response should always be: dont push back in the streets. lawful protests, signs, strikes, no buy days, dont touch officers, videotaping and posting, letters to editors, etc etc just no violence ever. then we win, and he loses. and the troops have nothing to do but be bored. so non violent protest pls! that means you oakland, chicago, NYC, DC, LA.
They can't pull most of that crap in other cities. DC has been an easy target for a LONG time, being the Last Colony, at least in the continental US (yeah, I said it - used to be our license plates, FYI).
Because of DC's unique status, you could see the regime's attack on DC as a step *back* from their sending troops into LA. It's DC, not NYC, for example.
Thank you, Simon! Gavin Newsom was taking language directly from Hopium last night and it was great. I love him trolling Trump and showing just how stupid Trump sounds. If we can figure out how to get him a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize, it might give Trump a stroke.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen (who held a great town hall on MD's Eastern Shore yesterday) and asked them to stop the tariffs and Trump's ICE expansion. I also called Governor Moore and asked him to join Governor Newsom. I'm writing postcards to California voters today.
Good question. The Florida Hispanic electorate is very different from the Mexican American doninated national electorate and does not necessarily follow national trends. We need FL specific data to see if it is tracking.
Thank you, Jen and Simon. I femoral hopeful! I'm glad to know Schumer is doing thr work. All I hear from pundits is he is the reason democrats lost and polls are so bad.
Locally, Indiana, we have a great candidate taking on the bloody 8th, Messmer, to be our US Rep. I'm excited. I'd like to see national democrats support her and help fund sp we can get rid 9f the trumpier than trump maga.
This morning, I've doubled down on my communications with my elected officials, including state and city council reps, to advocate for a resolution that articulates adherence to Constitutional Norms/Principles (using Boston as an example) and how Trump has violated them. Considering all the threats New York City now faces on its own turf, not to mention what's at stake in the 2025 mayoral/2026/2028 elections, this is a necessary action to take even though our region is overwhelmingly Blue. He was born here, but we don't claim him anymore, and he must stay out of our business.
It’s 7:43AM here in the Sierra Nevada, in one of the only four districts that Politico lists as (remaining) “safely Republican” under California’s potentially proposed redistricting…. Newsom on Meidas yesterday was frikkin’ AwEsOmE and…
I spent an hour or so chatting with one of my Gen Z fellow (beleaguered) Democrats (who holds a Masters in public policy and who is chair of my county’s DCC) about how Simon’s graph of 47’s “underwater on everything” polling reflected responses from BEFORE any redistricting was discussed, and how polls are a snapshot of the relatively immediate past. I used to lecture clueless undergraduates on this stuff.]
The conversation began because the probable-Democratic-challenger to our aforementioned practically-guaranteed-Republican House seat had come out publicly against Newsom’s plan, and he had done so without any conversation with the county Democratic leadership, a situation which did NOT sit well. Our conversation was enormously helpful to me because I ferreted out that she was hugely in favor of Newsom’s battle cries, had a favorable view of the bits she understood of his plan, was furious that our candidate had chosen not to check in with the local Democratic leadership, had a solid and interesting grasp of the timeline of Hitler’s rise to power and was using it to draw useful analogies, and is a circular thinker who starts in the middle of her ideas, context-be-snockered. Since I need to learn how to explain numbers to these children of the Gold Rush I came away with a head full of jangling perspectives and influence.
Meanwhile I am receiving twenty texts/emails per hour begging me to contribute (just THREE DOLLARS) to Newsom’s stop-the-steal redistricting initiative. My expertise and activity explaining logic/stats/strategy to the local Dems is worth more than $60/hour. I split my cash donations between a friend who needs to take her cat to the vet and a young protégé with education debt who is beginning her career just this week as a high school science teacher to at-risk students.
Thanks so much, Emily, for your cogent analysis of the situation and your resolve to DO SOMETHING about it. All of your intelligent activity shows that we each can also DO SOMETHING. All we often need are the motivation and some brain power to both create our action(s) and listen to those we're talking to to figure out what will work best to get them included.
I am not contributing any more money, not one cent to the Democrats, in spite of the fact that I am a lifelong liberal, until I see some clearly stated objectives-other than they are bad we are good. I want to see some leadership, I want to see some national organization, getting everybody involved in formulating our message, which we shall carry to the election, and I want to see that message in every single demand for money. Not a cent until the whole thing is organized so we can actually win. I’m willing to bet there are a lot of people out there with exactly that way of thinking. And I’m really tired of every Tom, Dick and Jane asking for money, when I have no idea who they are, or or from whom the message comes a lot of the time. I could be donating to some fake Trump organization for all I know, and the money going to the people I oppose. No. No more money until this is all straightened out.
For myself, I have a (very very) modest budget for cash contributions to political initiatives which I allocate to Hopium efforts because I trust that the money will go where I think I am sending it.
As far as answering the flood of texts and emails designed to tweak the baseline progressive, I delete them, mark them spam, and request STOP when the option is offered. I donate my time and energy to my local democratic central committee. That’s at least $400/week in professional in kind contributions. Other people can give money.
Emily, I'm reminded what Simon said earlier this week about the illusionary middle ground. This so-called front runner is headed the wrong way and without checking the pulse, is a really bad sign. There is still time to get somebody else for that seat. Someone that the local DCC can rally around... perhaps even the chair herself who sounds capable.
I like that poll number, and I trust Pew, but I believe that we are now very close to the orange turd's (OT) floor. I've felt for quite a while that 35% approval would be an "ah-ha" moment. That falls below his lowest polls over this entire 10-year debacle and would signal to me that his failures are no longer able to be masked by his multitude of media enablers. However, only 2% of those polled by Pew (likely low-information respondents) indicated no opinion, so I feel that getting him down to 35% will be no easy task. If it does happen, I suspect that it'll be more likely because the OT has pushed them away rather than any return to rational thought.
his cult is unmovable; give him a chance, the bls lady was fired because she was hiding information, the russia collusion is known to be a hoax, biden epstein, hunter biden, hillary, bill, barack.....it's like they are caught in the time warp....
As an optimist, and occasional prognosticator, I suspect two-dolls will meander in the high to mid thirties for a while, but his every day desperation and insanity will lead to another signifigant step down in popularity by Thanksgiving. But your right, 35% will really put the pressure on the GOP as midterms approach.
I know it’s a small thing, but the Cartoons for Democracy “poke the QAnon bear” postcarding campaign is going gangbusters. There seems to be real interest (especially before GOTV efforts kick in for November) in tapping into this demographic to keep them fired up about the Epstein Files and cause a pincer effect with both sides putting pressure on the republican reps who voted No and keep the issue alive. not sure if this is an idea that can be sustained over time but for now it seems to have legs (https://cartoonsfordemocracy.myshopify.com/) [For what it’s worth, PA Supreme Court cards are also launching soon…]
This is a great idea! Will order today. Sending 100 postcards for PA Supreme Court in October as well. We can do this! ❤️🤍💙
Kathy, the current Poke the QAnon bear is writing for Virginia which Simon says is very important. Of course everywhere is important..........
I know, and it’s great. Can’t wait to get my order and start writing!
The PA Supreme Court vote for the retention of judges is screamingly important! Thank you Erin. These judges, who are a Democratic majority protect voting rights, election funding, and worker protections. PA’s GOP, funded,by more than a third, by libertarian billionaire Jeff Yass, who has interests in Tic Toc. This raises red flags for any person in PA who cares about the integrity of state government.
We launch our PA cards on monday!
Erin I think it is a GREAT postcarding campaign. I am currently writing 100 for the "poke the QAnon Bear" for Virginia. We've got to take it to 'them' ; stop being the nice guys.
Awww thanks so much! Its definitely been popular, and yes this is designed to help both the Nov 2025 gov. race as well as prime the pump for VA02 2026 house race.
Very interesting. Thanks Erin. Glad to hear this. Is it actually changing minds, though? Or at least raising doubts?
Hi David, because we are brand new (6 weeks old Monday!!) this is our inaugural run so there is no data yet, even so, data on postcards is very tricky. The main goal of the Poke the Bear Campaign is actually not to change minds (i don't think there's enough power in the world to change QAnon minds) the goal is to get them to contact their Rep (Rep Kiggans in this case) so that its not just dems in the district calling her. The BEST we can hope for for QAnon folks other than calling, is maybe it will peel off support for her in 2026, but that's a ways away and hard to track. The "Virginia is for Voters" campaign is designed to get them to ask Winsome Earle-Sears for town halls - because those do not go well for her. Either she doesn't and pisses them off after they ask, or she does, and the purple district dems show up and challenge her. Its win-win for everyone
Makes sense. Thanks. I like the idea behind it.
Not a small thing Erin. Death by a thousand cuts and yours is very creative. Make her squirm. Keep going, it's great!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER
This morning my wife and I were laughing about this.
It’s among the more ridiculous things about him
So glad to see you really giving strong voice to the travesties that are happening and ways for ALL of us to give our STRONGEST voices!
Please add Sherrod Brown OH Senator and Amy Acton OH Governor to the donation list. Ohio needs all the help we can get to end the Republican corruption and turn Ohio blue. Thanks.
Amy Acton would be perfect in this public health crisis.
Damn. Gavin Newsom is on fire. Here's a good recap from HCR:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-14-2025
I love his mockery of Trump, his relentless attack on his weakness. And, of course, I love his quoting Lincoln's 1862 address to Congress. He pulls from the very same passage that Simon quoted from not long ago.
On Saturday, I'll be attending a Fight the Trump Takeover rally, rain or shine:
https://www.mobilize.us/fightthetrumptakeover/?from_map=true&lat=46.79147582872563&lon=-107.67729191441556&zoom=2.687223744040322
Gavin is a regular reader of Hopium.
In that case, let me be the first so say to Governor Newsom, “you da man! Keep it up!”
Courageous voices, yes! This is our Tiananmen moment.
Hope you're right!
we turned a corner yesterday. thanks to gov newsom for finally taking the lead on defeating trumpism. saying it outloud. yes, this is cold war. we have been tip toeing around this. but that is what it is. full frontal assault at every level of american society.
then we turned a corner when fully armed border patrol/ice/whoever showed up to intimidate at newsom's presser. another provocation from the dictator.
then last nite, AG bondi illegally appoints DEA head to be the police chief of DC. which is now headed to court, and dissolving city commission policies on policing???
so we have always anticipated this turn and now they are enacting their fascism 101 playbook everywhere all at once. seems like the plan is to send troops to blue cities (especially if minority mayors), provoke citizen outrage and possibly violent pushback, then send in more troops, and use that as an excuse to send in troops to whatever urban area he wants to pick on next. so our response should always be: dont push back in the streets. lawful protests, signs, strikes, no buy days, dont touch officers, videotaping and posting, letters to editors, etc etc just no violence ever. then we win, and he loses. and the troops have nothing to do but be bored. so non violent protest pls! that means you oakland, chicago, NYC, DC, LA.
They can't pull most of that crap in other cities. DC has been an easy target for a LONG time, being the Last Colony, at least in the continental US (yeah, I said it - used to be our license plates, FYI).
Because of DC's unique status, you could see the regime's attack on DC as a step *back* from their sending troops into LA. It's DC, not NYC, for example.
T might try to take over other cities, but Newsome sued him and it's headed to court. Joyce White Vance of Civil Discourse wrote the other night about why it was easier for T to take over D.C. vs any other city in the U.S.: https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/when-the-president-becomes-the-police?r=8iimt&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
the weaker the two dolls, the more dangerous he is.... until he isn't.
"soon come" is my prayer.
Thank you, Simon! Gavin Newsom was taking language directly from Hopium last night and it was great. I love him trolling Trump and showing just how stupid Trump sounds. If we can figure out how to get him a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize, it might give Trump a stroke.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen (who held a great town hall on MD's Eastern Shore yesterday) and asked them to stop the tariffs and Trump's ICE expansion. I also called Governor Moore and asked him to join Governor Newsom. I'm writing postcards to California voters today.
"Look at that Hispanic number - 27%-70%. Hello Texas!"
And Florida?
Good question. The Florida Hispanic electorate is very different from the Mexican American doninated national electorate and does not necessarily follow national trends. We need FL specific data to see if it is tracking.
Do you know if the September 1 deadline for those losing TPS still stands? I am very curious how / if that will affect public sentiment in Florida.
The Cuban American community is very conservative- historically so.
robert hubbell today.
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/meeting-fire-with-fire?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=flncf&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
good one.
Thank you, Jen and Simon. I femoral hopeful! I'm glad to know Schumer is doing thr work. All I hear from pundits is he is the reason democrats lost and polls are so bad.
Locally, Indiana, we have a great candidate taking on the bloody 8th, Messmer, to be our US Rep. I'm excited. I'd like to see national democrats support her and help fund sp we can get rid 9f the trumpier than trump maga.
Go, Hoosier Dems of the Fightin' 8th!!
Gove. Newsom claimed the mantle of leader of the Democratic Party yesterday… Bravo.
The mockery is delicious.
This morning, I've doubled down on my communications with my elected officials, including state and city council reps, to advocate for a resolution that articulates adherence to Constitutional Norms/Principles (using Boston as an example) and how Trump has violated them. Considering all the threats New York City now faces on its own turf, not to mention what's at stake in the 2025 mayoral/2026/2028 elections, this is a necessary action to take even though our region is overwhelmingly Blue. He was born here, but we don't claim him anymore, and he must stay out of our business.
It’s 7:43AM here in the Sierra Nevada, in one of the only four districts that Politico lists as (remaining) “safely Republican” under California’s potentially proposed redistricting…. Newsom on Meidas yesterday was frikkin’ AwEsOmE and…
I spent an hour or so chatting with one of my Gen Z fellow (beleaguered) Democrats (who holds a Masters in public policy and who is chair of my county’s DCC) about how Simon’s graph of 47’s “underwater on everything” polling reflected responses from BEFORE any redistricting was discussed, and how polls are a snapshot of the relatively immediate past. I used to lecture clueless undergraduates on this stuff.]
The conversation began because the probable-Democratic-challenger to our aforementioned practically-guaranteed-Republican House seat had come out publicly against Newsom’s plan, and he had done so without any conversation with the county Democratic leadership, a situation which did NOT sit well. Our conversation was enormously helpful to me because I ferreted out that she was hugely in favor of Newsom’s battle cries, had a favorable view of the bits she understood of his plan, was furious that our candidate had chosen not to check in with the local Democratic leadership, had a solid and interesting grasp of the timeline of Hitler’s rise to power and was using it to draw useful analogies, and is a circular thinker who starts in the middle of her ideas, context-be-snockered. Since I need to learn how to explain numbers to these children of the Gold Rush I came away with a head full of jangling perspectives and influence.
Meanwhile I am receiving twenty texts/emails per hour begging me to contribute (just THREE DOLLARS) to Newsom’s stop-the-steal redistricting initiative. My expertise and activity explaining logic/stats/strategy to the local Dems is worth more than $60/hour. I split my cash donations between a friend who needs to take her cat to the vet and a young protégé with education debt who is beginning her career just this week as a high school science teacher to at-risk students.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/14/leaked-chart-reveals-winners-and-losers-in-californias-democratic-gerrymander-00510363
Thanks so much, Emily, for your cogent analysis of the situation and your resolve to DO SOMETHING about it. All of your intelligent activity shows that we each can also DO SOMETHING. All we often need are the motivation and some brain power to both create our action(s) and listen to those we're talking to to figure out what will work best to get them included.
Thank you again.
I am not contributing any more money, not one cent to the Democrats, in spite of the fact that I am a lifelong liberal, until I see some clearly stated objectives-other than they are bad we are good. I want to see some leadership, I want to see some national organization, getting everybody involved in formulating our message, which we shall carry to the election, and I want to see that message in every single demand for money. Not a cent until the whole thing is organized so we can actually win. I’m willing to bet there are a lot of people out there with exactly that way of thinking. And I’m really tired of every Tom, Dick and Jane asking for money, when I have no idea who they are, or or from whom the message comes a lot of the time. I could be donating to some fake Trump organization for all I know, and the money going to the people I oppose. No. No more money until this is all straightened out.
Hi Patricia,
For myself, I have a (very very) modest budget for cash contributions to political initiatives which I allocate to Hopium efforts because I trust that the money will go where I think I am sending it.
As far as answering the flood of texts and emails designed to tweak the baseline progressive, I delete them, mark them spam, and request STOP when the option is offered. I donate my time and energy to my local democratic central committee. That’s at least $400/week in professional in kind contributions. Other people can give money.
Patricia, I give my money for candidates and DNC through Hopium, and the TX state dem fund these days.
Emily, I'm reminded what Simon said earlier this week about the illusionary middle ground. This so-called front runner is headed the wrong way and without checking the pulse, is a really bad sign. There is still time to get somebody else for that seat. Someone that the local DCC can rally around... perhaps even the chair herself who sounds capable.
Believe me, Michael, it is Being Discussed! 😎
Important note:
ICE was present, armed and masked at Newsom's announcement.
Actually I think it was the border patrol which makes it that much more ridiculous.
I like that poll number, and I trust Pew, but I believe that we are now very close to the orange turd's (OT) floor. I've felt for quite a while that 35% approval would be an "ah-ha" moment. That falls below his lowest polls over this entire 10-year debacle and would signal to me that his failures are no longer able to be masked by his multitude of media enablers. However, only 2% of those polled by Pew (likely low-information respondents) indicated no opinion, so I feel that getting him down to 35% will be no easy task. If it does happen, I suspect that it'll be more likely because the OT has pushed them away rather than any return to rational thought.
his cult is unmovable; give him a chance, the bls lady was fired because she was hiding information, the russia collusion is known to be a hoax, biden epstein, hunter biden, hillary, bill, barack.....it's like they are caught in the time warp....
As an optimist, and occasional prognosticator, I suspect two-dolls will meander in the high to mid thirties for a while, but his every day desperation and insanity will lead to another signifigant step down in popularity by Thanksgiving. But your right, 35% will really put the pressure on the GOP as midterms approach.