Optimistic As We Head Into 2024, Wheels Of Justice Are Turning, The Republican Party's Ongoing Betrayal Of The Country

Meet Tom Keen, FL HD-35 Hopium Candidate, Wed Night at 6pm EST!

Happy Saturday folks! A few things today:

Yesterday, I dropped a new analysis I hope everyone here at Hopium reads in the coming days. It reviews what are in my mind the three most important story lines in US politics as we head into 2024:

• The ongoing strong Democratic election performance since Dobbs - it’s the most important electoral data out there now

• The remarkably robust American economy gives Biden a strong foundation for his re-election

• Trump’s historic baggage is being overly discounted in current analysis about the election next year

I talk about these three story lines in my new year-end video briefing 2023 Was A Very Good Year for Democrats. Let’s Make 2024 Even Better, and in this terrific new Vanity Fair podcast and article, A Dem Strategist Calls B******t on Biden Polling Doom.

Come Meet Tom Keen, The Hopium Candidate in FL HD-35, This Wednesday at 6pm EST - Our friend and inspiring leader of the Florida House Democrats, Rep. Fentrice Driskell, is hosting a virtual pep-rally for Tom Keen this Wed night at 6pm EST and she’s asked me to invite the Hopium community.

You can register here, and I will be making a brief appearance and spreading some Hopium at the event too. Tom’s special election is January 16th - very soon. Learn more, volunteer, and donate here. Hope everyone here in the Hopium community will take an action for Tom before the election - let’s start 2024 strong!

The Wheels Of Justice Are Turning, and Republicans Should Be Very Worried - Let’s review the progress being made in the courts against the Trumpian and MAGA crime spree of recent years:

• Yesterday, Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay $148 million (!!!!!!!!) for spreading lies about the 2020 election, endangering the lives of two elections workers

• GOP leaders in AZ, GA, MI, NV have been indicted for their efforts to interfere with and overturn the 2020 election. Some have plead guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors. Republican leaders in WI who participated in these schemes have struck a deal with prosecutors, admitted their wrongdoing and are now cooperating. Prosecutors in New Mexico have also begun an investigation in GOP leaders who worked to overturn the 2020 election

• Over 1,000 people have been successfully prosecuted for crimes related to the violent attack on the Congress on January 6th

• Trump has been found to have attempted to rape E. Jean Carroll in a department store changing room, and ordered to pay $5,000,000 in penalties

• Trump has been found to have committed financial fraud in New York State, and his trial, which wraps up in mid-January, is about how much he pays not whether he is liable

The Washington Post published a very helpful graphic this week showing how Trump’s upcoming trials will overlap with the 2024 election calendar:

So Rudy G - guilty. Republican party leaders in AZ, GA, MI and NV have been indicted, and some have already plead guilty in the same conspiracy involving hundreds of GOP party leaders Trump and his team led in 2020 and 2021, and which he goes on trial for in early March. Over 1,000 people have already been successfully prosecuted for another branch of that conspiracy, the violent assault on the US Congress on January 6th. Trump has already been found to have committed sexual assault/attempted rape and a massive years long financial fraud.

I will let Lady Ruby Freeman capture where we are now - progress yes, real meaningful progress, but as she says “we still have work to do. Giuliani was not the only one who spread lies about us and others must be held accountable too”

The Republican Party’s Ongoing Betrayal of the County - This week Republicans in the House went home and walked away from our two allies, Israel and Ukraine, in a moment of extraordinary need. They have still yet to pass a budget for the 2024 fiscal year which began on October 1st, recklessly forcing America to live within the spending priorities of last year. As Rachel Maddow recounts in this must-watch clip this Congress may be the least productive in American history, which is itself a betrayal of our democratic project:

But of course it gets worse. Republicans are attempting to disband the State Department agency which battles foreign disinformation. They continue to block critical cybersecurity legislation, and forced the shutdown of a DHS program called Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards. They continue to block the appointment of 43 top diplomats (via NYT):

The Biden administration has 43 presidential nominees still awaiting confirmation in the Senate as Congress prepares to break for the holidays, a delay that is putting American national security and foreign policy interests in jeopardy around the world, the State Department said on Friday.

Any nominee not confirmed before the Senate ends its session, which is expected as soon as next week, will have to be renominated by the White House next year, leading to further delays. Those awaiting confirmation include Kurt M. Campbell, whom President Biden is trying to appoint as the deputy to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.

And now there is this stunning new report from CNN:

Washington (CNN) — A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Its disappearance, which has not been previously reported, was so concerning that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing materials and the government’s efforts to retrieve them, the sources said.

In the two-plus years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence does not appear to have been found.

The binder contained raw intelligence the US and its NATO allies collected on Russians and Russian agents, including sources and methods that informed the US government’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, sources tell CNN.

The intelligence was so sensitive that lawmakers and congressional aides with top secret security clearances were able to review the material only at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where their work scrutinizing it was itself kept in a locked safe.

Here’s how I described the Republican Party’s shocking ongoing betrayal of the country on Twitter yesterday:

2023 has been a very good year for Democrats, and we know what we need to do, together, in 2024, and why we need to do it - to ensure that freedom and democracy prevails here and everywhere. People here and around the world are counting on us to get this done, and I am excited to get it done with all of you next year - Simon

Sat night update - Here is how the Washington Post is playing a speech Trump gave in New Hampshire today: