Productive Biden-Xi Meeting, Winning North Carolina, Saying Thank You, Trump and Moscow

NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton Joins Us on Tuesday, November 28th

Happy Friday people! Got a few things today:

Favorite poll stat of the day - The recent NYT poll asked battleground voters how they would vote if Trump was convicted and sentenced to prison. The results suggests there are significant risks for Republicans in nominating a serial criminal, sex offender and insurrectionist:

• Battleground 49-39 (Biden +10)

• AZ 47-42 (+5)

• GA 50-38 (+12)

• MI 49-37 (+12)

• NV 50-38 (+12)

• PA 48-44 (+4)

• WI 50-36 (+14)

The NYTimes on The Encouraging Biden-Xi Meeting -

Perhaps having the most experienced man to ever be in the Oval Office in a time of enormous challenge has been a blessing for the country, via the NYTimes:

When President Biden met President Xi Jinping on Wednesday on the edges of Silicon Valley, there was a subtle but noticeable shift in the power dynamic between two countries that have spent most of the past few years denouncing, undercutting and imposing sanctions on each other.

For the first time in years, a Chinese leader desperately needed a few things from the United States. Mr. Xi’s list at the summit started with a revival of American financial investments in China and a break in the series of technology export controls that have, at least temporarily, crimped Beijing’s ability to make the most advanced semiconductors and the artificial intelligence breakthroughs they enable.

All this may explain why Mr. Biden’s aides were able to negotiate, fairly quickly by Chinese diplomatic standards, a potentially major agreement on stopping the flow of the chemical precursors for fentanyl to the United States and a resumption of military-to-military communications, critical for two superpowers whose forces bump up against each other every day.

……..“It did strike me that it was a speech that could be given seven or 10 years ago in the era of engagement,” said Michael Froman, the former U.S. trade representative and Citigroup executive, who recently became president of the Council on Foreign Relations and attended the dinner. “It was as if the era of ‘wolf-warrior diplomacy’ had never happened, and some of the events of the past few years had not occurred.”

Tues, Nov 28th 7pm - Winning North Carolina - NC Dem Party Chair Anderson Clayton Joins The Hopium Community - This is an important gathering and I hope as many of you can join us as possible. As we look to 2024, North Carolina is the most important expansion state in the battleground, and a place where our work can really make a difference. Anderson is the dynamic new 25 year old chair of the NC Democratic Party, and is in it to win it. Really excited for this discussion as winning North Carolina is going to be a major part of what we do together next year.

Learn more about Chair Clayton here, and register for our live discussion here.

Recent, Still Relevant Hopium Work

• 2023 Has Been A Very Good Year for Democrats

• Abortion, Treason and Mass Deportation

• High Marks for Biden on Israel-Hamas W/Dems, Young People in New Poll

• Inflation Was Zero Last Month

• Trump Goes To War Against Immigration and Immigrants

• The US Economy Is Remarkably Strong

• My 2023 Election Recap (Video)

• With Democrats, Things Get Better - October, 2023 (Video)

Thank You Postcards - Our friends at NetworkNova shared this postcard one of their community members wrote to a candidate who ran and lost for the Virginia House, Kimberly Pope Adams (one of our candidates btw). Promise you these kinds of notes will mean a lot to those who had the courage to run, and the misfortune to come up a bit short. Love this new world all of you are building - it’s a better politics for the center-left, and for the country.

Trump and Putin, Part A Million - Yes, we are at the point here in the US where stories which confirm deep Russian penetration of Trump and the Republican Party barely make news…..here’s an excerpt from a new CNN story, Ukraine implicates 3 Giuliani allies in plot to help Russia meddle in 2020 election

A sitting Ukrainian lawmaker who helped Rudy Giuliani smear Joe Biden during the 2020 US presidential campaign has been jailed on suspicion of treason, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday, in a statement accusing him of carrying out a Russian disinformation operation.

The statement did not name the lawmaker, but a source with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed it was investigating Member of Parliament Oleksandr Dubinsky on suspicion of treason. The statement said the lawmaker “carried out information-subversive activities in favor of the Russian Federation” intended to destabilize and discredit Ukraine.

The SBU has also implicated two former Ukrainian officials in the pro-Russia scheme: ex-lawmaker Andrii Derkach and former prosecutor Kostiantyn Kulyk, who coordinated closely with Giuliani and other allies of former President Donald Trump to peddle false information about Biden and his family’s dealings in Ukraine during the 2020 campaign.

The US government previously sanctioned Dubinsky, Derkach and Kulyk, accusing them of being affiliated with a “Russia-linked foreign influence network” that tried to interfere in the 2020 election in favor of Trump and to undermine Biden. That sanctions announcement came during the final weeks of the Trump administration.

When Giuliani went to Ukraine in 2019 to try to dig up dirt on then-candidate Biden and his son Hunter Biden, Dubinsky was one of the people he met with. Giuliani has also met with Derkach, who was featured prominently in a conspiracy-tinged documentary released by the right-wing network OAN about the Biden family’s dealings in Ukraine.

For his part, Kulyk wrote a dossier of disinformation about the Bidens, including claims about Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Burisma, a major Ukrainian energy company. Kulyk also gave interviews to pro-Trump journalists and hired former Trump lawyers to help him spread his message to US officials during Trump’s first impeachment.

Their activities dovetailed with Trump’s impeachment pushback. Trump embraced their claims, despite concerns that they were working for Moscow. With House Republicans now considering impeaching Biden, some of the GOP claims against him can be traced back to the smears promoted by the three Ukrainian officials now accused of treason.

Keep working hard all - Simon