100 percent! All his so-called limitations are external & institutional (Joe Manchin, Filibuster, rigged Supreme Court )& he's done an INCREDIBLE JOB navigating them ! In fact I dare say his "limitations" are more MSM-manufactured than anything !
Thank you Simon. May I suggest we all use a bit more care with the term “genocide”? I fear it could become meaningless when used to describe mere (!!) wars of aggression and conquest such as Russia’s unprovoked and brutal attack on Ukraine. Won’t “war crimes” suffice, and be more precise? I urge reserving the term “genocide” for specific circumstances where there is a true intent to eliminate not just countries, but entire ethnic or racial groups. Thank you.
No, actually. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is genocide, by any understanding of the word - they are trying to eliminate an entire people, a nation, a language. Russia isn't just attacking Ukraine's military it's attacking and slaughtering civilians and civilian infrastructure daily. Russia isn't trying to occupy Ukraine, it is trying to erase it from history. That's genocide. Here's the dictionary definition - "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group."
This is what Hamas, Hizbollah and Iran want to do with Israel. Iran, Russia, Hamas, Hizbollah all have genocidal intent.
I would agree with SR. It is an attempt at genocide of Ukraine. Not much different from what occurred at the end of the Ottoman Empire with Armenia and other areas. Thank you SR, I am so happy to have found you!
Simon, thank you for Hopium, and especially thank you for today's clear and concise overview of the Israel -Hamas war. I end up yelling at the radio when the war news doesn't even mention Hamas, let alone Iran. Context is everything in this war. History matters.
When friends ask for my perspective about this war, I give them these links.
Happy Thanksgiving Simon & all....feeling gratitude for the community, the new “silent majority” of the American People who continue to defeat MAGA at the polls when and where we need to, and for Joe Biden with his wise leadership and mature political sensibilities....his ability to both shrug off without vitriol and use to his advantage the criminally unfair lack of appreciation for his accomplishments and stunning underestimation of his capacity as POTUS. This is what winning a protracted and complicated challenge looks like....you don’t win every single battle, and you don’t get everything you want as quickly as you’d like it...but you keep making progress until one day you’re on the other side. We’re winning....let’s keep it up. Much love to you all! 🇺🇸❤️
Simon - thank you for all the good cheer and hope you bring by aggregating all this information and excitement into one place. It's yeoman's work and you make it look easy. You and Heather Cox Richardson have been my superstars this year and I'm very grateful! Happy Thanksgiving!
Encourage folks to read and share Simon's Salon interview. Compellingly refutes misguided narrative that Trump's in a strong position.
"Trump is not a strong candidate. He's only getting 60% of the Republican field right now. That means 40% of Republicans are not supporting him right now. Trump needs 95% of Republicans to even have a remote chance of winning. He is very far away from that. Trump is actually showing a lot of structural weakness, not strength."
"The Democrats have been winning in off-year elections. We won in the red wave midterm that we weren't supposed to win last year. We won in the general election. This idea that as the electorate gets bigger, it gets more Republican is false. Democrats have won more votes in the last 7 out of 8 elections than Republicans. No political party has done that in American history. In the last four elections, we've beaten the Republicans on average by 51 to 46 by five points."
Hi Simon. Anti-Biden sentiment among young 'uns seems on the rise since Oct 7. What are you thoughts on the impact? And what is Dems GOTV strategy? Thanks.
Hey Jacquelyn, as a young person I think it comes down to two things:
1. Young people aren’t hearing about his accomplishments (which is why we here at Hopium are being loud and proud 😎). Do they know Biden’s team forgave student debt and Rs overturned it because ‘not everyone benefited’ (paraphrase)? No. They know there are new plans that forgive or will forgive for lots of borrowers? Some do. They know the administration is nearing rescheduling marajana? They know he signed the Respect for Marriage Act? Helped usher in record low unemployment? Foster record low uninsured and underinsured rates? Protect health care access? Support LBGTQIA+ Americans? Polling has shown that when Americans know about the Biden team’s accomplishments, his approval goes up. As a young person, that’s what I’ve seen with my friends and family, also. 😊
2. The way some media and some people are framing Biden’s approach to Israel I feel is misleading and missing key context. I don’t think ‘the Senate Democrats are divided against Biden’. Based on the deals and policies so far, I think it’s more likely that in his wisdom as a diplomat he is playing the ‘yeah, I’m on your side but you’re gonna have to give me something to get my boss on board’ card. I would not be shocked if the Biden team talked to Senators before they voiced dissent. It seems to me that his team is working tirelessly to broker a peace that protects life, a sentiment I feel young people are calling for.
Thanks, Jacquelyn. Sorry for the novel of a response. Happy Thanksgiving 🍁
Thank you, Kathy. That means a lot to me. Shameless plug, I do write a Substack if you are interested. No pressure either way 😁. Just thought you might be interested based on your comment. New post drops later today. 😁
Nov 22, 2023·edited Nov 22, 2023Liked by Simon Rosenberg
Simon, I wanted to share some Thanksgiving tips for you and the Hopium community. Given these are NOT normal times, it's important to spread the #GoodNews. Talk about why each of us is personally thankful for Biden and Dems, is a great way to engage with friends and foes.
But for those who don't (currently) share your views, remember that your goal should not be to change minds—an unlikely outcome over the Holiday table.
1) Instead, be curious (when they come out with a MAGA statement, ask them to tell you more about, that will force them to give reasons for their views, rather than only parroting them).
2) Be a good listener; after all, nothing they say will change your mind! But, do encourage them to articulate their beliefs out loud, in front of others, because that forces them to justify those beliefs.
3) And lastly, be patient...
Tr*mp has been spouting hatred with an unwitting national media as megaphone since 2016...prior to that, FOX has been partisan wall of noise since it began in 1996, and it's only gotten more extreme, devolving into a straight-up Goebbels-inspired MAGA propaganda outlet. That's a lot of years of influence to undo and it won't happen this Thanksgiving.
We can take a cue from Cassidy Hutchinson, who highlights that shaming people for their decisions, or highlighting the faults of someone they admire, just forces them to double-down on those beliefs (https://youtu.be/UwK-p0LsUX4?feature=shared&t=116).
Instead, we should all lead with our shared positive values (most importantly the value of our freedoms), and highlight how Biden is a good President, because he too shares those values and has worked to make the country better off (getting checks into pockets, shots in arms, kids back to school, investments in roads, bridges and broadband, cuts to high drug costs like caps to insulin, better wages and RECORD jobs in green, high tech and manufacturing industries), based on those same values.
And final note, the updates from Hopium are something for which I am truly grateful. Thank you Simon!
Happy Thanksgiving ! Cannot stress how thankful I am to have found this community. Lately I've been barely functional when not working ( either crawling straight into bed, or struggling to get out), and I've realized much of it is due to the hysterical, manic mopefest the MSM keep churning out. I keep reminding myself A. We have work to do B. Surveys that large swaths of the population DO NOT answer 12 months before an election are not crystal balls C. The last thing to do is get complacent or paralyzed by manufactured fear & D. A helluva lot can & will happen between now and then!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Simon. I learn so much from the Hopium Substack pieces. I read and listen to everything you publish and I deeply appreciate your work.
Helping to give shape to our grassroots ecosystem gives us a sense of belonging to a coherent nationwide citizens “army.” That, together, we can do it.
Thomas Edsall today wrote about the media’s failure to call out Trumps extremism and overall derangement. (Jennifer Rubin excepted.) I suspect that the Biden campaign won’t be shy about showing Trump at his bizarre worst. How do we amplify the threat that he is?
Much is happening in our times. I found this talk and will watch this talk a few times. We know that intention setting which has been a part of spiritual practices since time immemorial and now is recognized by neuroscientists as being very key to how we co-create our cultures.
I plan to watch these presentations carefully. I watched quickly due to time constraints.
2. Here is one of my all time favourite heroine's Dr. Samantha Nutt. To honour my late husband Dr. Châu Nguyên I organized a seminar on Peace in Sept 2015. Dr. Nutt was a keynote speaker and she never stopped. in between talks she headed out door knocking as a Federal election was in progress.Dr. Nutt represents the best of the best of Canada.
My 22 year daughter - home for Thanksgiving said the following in a conversation about the depressingly real challenges we face with young voters over Gaza “Trump and the Republicans are smart in that they know how to be loud and say a few things over and over again that works on social media. The Dems still think they can be nuanced. They have to realize they have be louder and brag more and say the good things over and over again.” Sounded like a Hopium strategy to me! Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
100 percent! All his so-called limitations are external & institutional (Joe Manchin, Filibuster, rigged Supreme Court )& he's done an INCREDIBLE JOB navigating them ! In fact I dare say his "limitations" are more MSM-manufactured than anything !
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you Simon. May I suggest we all use a bit more care with the term “genocide”? I fear it could become meaningless when used to describe mere (!!) wars of aggression and conquest such as Russia’s unprovoked and brutal attack on Ukraine. Won’t “war crimes” suffice, and be more precise? I urge reserving the term “genocide” for specific circumstances where there is a true intent to eliminate not just countries, but entire ethnic or racial groups. Thank you.
No, actually. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is genocide, by any understanding of the word - they are trying to eliminate an entire people, a nation, a language. Russia isn't just attacking Ukraine's military it's attacking and slaughtering civilians and civilian infrastructure daily. Russia isn't trying to occupy Ukraine, it is trying to erase it from history. That's genocide. Here's the dictionary definition - "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group."
This is what Hamas, Hizbollah and Iran want to do with Israel. Iran, Russia, Hamas, Hizbollah all have genocidal intent.
I would agree with SR. It is an attempt at genocide of Ukraine. Not much different from what occurred at the end of the Ottoman Empire with Armenia and other areas. Thank you SR, I am so happy to have found you!
Simon, thank you for Hopium, and especially thank you for today's clear and concise overview of the Israel -Hamas war. I end up yelling at the radio when the war news doesn't even mention Hamas, let alone Iran. Context is everything in this war. History matters.
When friends ask for my perspective about this war, I give them these links.
A major obstacle to peace is that the Hamas charter calls for the elimination of Israel and the murder of Jews. Hamas doesn't want a 2-state solution; it wants only 1 state, meaning no Israel.More about the charter is in The Atlantic- https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/?utm_campaign=one-story-to-read-today&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231013&utm_term=One+Story+to+Read+Today
The actress Mayim Bialik made this video to help non-Jews better understand what we Jews are experiencing these days. She expresses some of my feelings, and you might find it worthwhile to watch and share. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?extid=SMS-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&mibextid=UVffzb&v=203611696091233
A blog post in The Times of Israel might also clarify the Israeli and Jewish perspective. I encourage you to read it all the way to the end. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dear-world-i-dont-care
Thank you, Simon, for your passionate work for democracy.
Happy Thanksgiving Simon & all....feeling gratitude for the community, the new “silent majority” of the American People who continue to defeat MAGA at the polls when and where we need to, and for Joe Biden with his wise leadership and mature political sensibilities....his ability to both shrug off without vitriol and use to his advantage the criminally unfair lack of appreciation for his accomplishments and stunning underestimation of his capacity as POTUS. This is what winning a protracted and complicated challenge looks like....you don’t win every single battle, and you don’t get everything you want as quickly as you’d like it...but you keep making progress until one day you’re on the other side. We’re winning....let’s keep it up. Much love to you all! 🇺🇸❤️
Steve, always enjoy your insights. Thanks for being such a thoughtful and constructive member of the community. Much wisdom in your comments.
Consider anything I say to be #PublicDomain! Thanks, and happy Thanksgiving! 😊🇺🇸❤️
💙💙💙
Steve, I may have to “ borrow” this with attribution, of course.
Simon - thank you for all the good cheer and hope you bring by aggregating all this information and excitement into one place. It's yeoman's work and you make it look easy. You and Heather Cox Richardson have been my superstars this year and I'm very grateful! Happy Thanksgiving!
thank you Kent!
Encourage folks to read and share Simon's Salon interview. Compellingly refutes misguided narrative that Trump's in a strong position.
"Trump is not a strong candidate. He's only getting 60% of the Republican field right now. That means 40% of Republicans are not supporting him right now. Trump needs 95% of Republicans to even have a remote chance of winning. He is very far away from that. Trump is actually showing a lot of structural weakness, not strength."
"The Democrats have been winning in off-year elections. We won in the red wave midterm that we weren't supposed to win last year. We won in the general election. This idea that as the electorate gets bigger, it gets more Republican is false. Democrats have won more votes in the last 7 out of 8 elections than Republicans. No political party has done that in American history. In the last four elections, we've beaten the Republicans on average by 51 to 46 by five points."
Thank you. It's a really good interview. Chauncey is a smart guy.
Hi Simon. Anti-Biden sentiment among young 'uns seems on the rise since Oct 7. What are you thoughts on the impact? And what is Dems GOTV strategy? Thanks.
Hey Jacquelyn, as a young person I think it comes down to two things:
1. Young people aren’t hearing about his accomplishments (which is why we here at Hopium are being loud and proud 😎). Do they know Biden’s team forgave student debt and Rs overturned it because ‘not everyone benefited’ (paraphrase)? No. They know there are new plans that forgive or will forgive for lots of borrowers? Some do. They know the administration is nearing rescheduling marajana? They know he signed the Respect for Marriage Act? Helped usher in record low unemployment? Foster record low uninsured and underinsured rates? Protect health care access? Support LBGTQIA+ Americans? Polling has shown that when Americans know about the Biden team’s accomplishments, his approval goes up. As a young person, that’s what I’ve seen with my friends and family, also. 😊
2. The way some media and some people are framing Biden’s approach to Israel I feel is misleading and missing key context. I don’t think ‘the Senate Democrats are divided against Biden’. Based on the deals and policies so far, I think it’s more likely that in his wisdom as a diplomat he is playing the ‘yeah, I’m on your side but you’re gonna have to give me something to get my boss on board’ card. I would not be shocked if the Biden team talked to Senators before they voiced dissent. It seems to me that his team is working tirelessly to broker a peace that protects life, a sentiment I feel young people are calling for.
Thanks, Jacquelyn. Sorry for the novel of a response. Happy Thanksgiving 🍁
Thanks, Matthew. Appreciate and need to keep hearing your young voice !
Thank you, Kathy. That means a lot to me. Shameless plug, I do write a Substack if you are interested. No pressure either way 😁. Just thought you might be interested based on your comment. New post drops later today. 😁
Thank you, Simon! Thanks for all the optimism and your organizational skills. This is an amazing community and I am so grateful. 💙
Yes this is a wonderful community- appreciate everyone!
thank you Sacha!
thank you!
Simon, I wanted to share some Thanksgiving tips for you and the Hopium community. Given these are NOT normal times, it's important to spread the #GoodNews. Talk about why each of us is personally thankful for Biden and Dems, is a great way to engage with friends and foes.
But for those who don't (currently) share your views, remember that your goal should not be to change minds—an unlikely outcome over the Holiday table.
1) Instead, be curious (when they come out with a MAGA statement, ask them to tell you more about, that will force them to give reasons for their views, rather than only parroting them).
2) Be a good listener; after all, nothing they say will change your mind! But, do encourage them to articulate their beliefs out loud, in front of others, because that forces them to justify those beliefs.
3) And lastly, be patient...
Tr*mp has been spouting hatred with an unwitting national media as megaphone since 2016...prior to that, FOX has been partisan wall of noise since it began in 1996, and it's only gotten more extreme, devolving into a straight-up Goebbels-inspired MAGA propaganda outlet. That's a lot of years of influence to undo and it won't happen this Thanksgiving.
We can take a cue from Cassidy Hutchinson, who highlights that shaming people for their decisions, or highlighting the faults of someone they admire, just forces them to double-down on those beliefs (https://youtu.be/UwK-p0LsUX4?feature=shared&t=116).
Instead, we should all lead with our shared positive values (most importantly the value of our freedoms), and highlight how Biden is a good President, because he too shares those values and has worked to make the country better off (getting checks into pockets, shots in arms, kids back to school, investments in roads, bridges and broadband, cuts to high drug costs like caps to insulin, better wages and RECORD jobs in green, high tech and manufacturing industries), based on those same values.
And final note, the updates from Hopium are something for which I am truly grateful. Thank you Simon!
Gobble Gobble and Happy Demsgiving all!
Natalie so appreciate the energy and insights you bring to the community. Thank you!
Happy Thanksgiving and thank you so much for everything you do.
Great to have you here Lucy.
Happy Thanksgiving ! Cannot stress how thankful I am to have found this community. Lately I've been barely functional when not working ( either crawling straight into bed, or struggling to get out), and I've realized much of it is due to the hysterical, manic mopefest the MSM keep churning out. I keep reminding myself A. We have work to do B. Surveys that large swaths of the population DO NOT answer 12 months before an election are not crystal balls C. The last thing to do is get complacent or paralyzed by manufactured fear & D. A helluva lot can & will happen between now and then!
Glad you are here Jarrod!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Simon. I learn so much from the Hopium Substack pieces. I read and listen to everything you publish and I deeply appreciate your work.
Helping to give shape to our grassroots ecosystem gives us a sense of belonging to a coherent nationwide citizens “army.” That, together, we can do it.
Thomas Edsall today wrote about the media’s failure to call out Trumps extremism and overall derangement. (Jennifer Rubin excepted.) I suspect that the Biden campaign won’t be shy about showing Trump at his bizarre worst. How do we amplify the threat that he is?
Steven
Happy Thanksgiving Simon and friends,
Much is happening in our times. I found this talk and will watch this talk a few times. We know that intention setting which has been a part of spiritual practices since time immemorial and now is recognized by neuroscientists as being very key to how we co-create our cultures.
I plan to watch these presentations carefully. I watched quickly due to time constraints.
https://youtu.be/EOvUgHRcB_c
2. Here is one of my all time favourite heroine's Dr. Samantha Nutt. To honour my late husband Dr. Châu Nguyên I organized a seminar on Peace in Sept 2015. Dr. Nutt was a keynote speaker and she never stopped. in between talks she headed out door knocking as a Federal election was in progress.Dr. Nutt represents the best of the best of Canada.
https://youtu.be/TYQ4ISwMAcw.
Happy Thanksgiving Simon.
My 22 year daughter - home for Thanksgiving said the following in a conversation about the depressingly real challenges we face with young voters over Gaza “Trump and the Republicans are smart in that they know how to be loud and say a few things over and over again that works on social media. The Dems still think they can be nuanced. They have to realize they have be louder and brag more and say the good things over and over again.” Sounded like a Hopium strategy to me! Happy Thanksgiving everyone.