Strong New Spanberger Ad On Prices, The Trump-Epstein Affair Takes A Darker Turn, The Robert Court Hacks At Our Liberties

Early in-person voting begins in Virginia in ten days!

Morning all. Got a few things for you today:

New Spanberger Goes Hard On Economic Pain, Rising Costs And The GOP’s Betrayal Of Working People - As Mikie Sherrill explained in our new interview Republicans are badly, badly out of position right now as they are in lock step with Trump on an agenda that is slowing the economy, raising prices (on food, energy, and everything else), cutting access to health care and leaving Americans far worse off.

Our terrific candidate for governor in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, goes hard after her opponent on these grounds in a new statewide ad that launched this morning:

As we discussed yesterday it is becoming very clear that Trump’s many manifest failures is creating a moment of significant political opportunity that we must seize, together. Here is Senator Schumer’s full statement from Friday that shows this emerging Democratic consensus of how must play the fall now:

“Today’s jobs report was worse than the already low expectations. This is a blaring red light warning to the entire country that Donald Trump is squeezing the life out of our economy.

“Donald Trump’s chaotic tariffs, failed policies, and fake trade deals have slowed job growth and continually raised prices on American families. The pressure is pushing working families closer to the breaking point.

“This incredibly weak jobs report is just the latest in a string of bad economic news that only confirms what Senate Democrats heard at events all across the country this summer. Hiring is down, prices are up, and families are paying thousands more a year because of Donald Trump’s tariffs. The pain America is experiencing will only worsen as Republicans ignore the warning and continue cowering to Donald Trump. The first step is to admit the truth that Donald Trump’s economic experiment has failed and reverse course.

“In the coming weeks, Senate Democrats will force votes to reverse Donald Trump’s damaging tariffs and we will see whose side Republicans are on. I hope Republicans will choose wisely.”

Jonathan Lemire has posted new article in the Atlantic, Fear Of Losing The Midterms Is Driving Trump’s Decisions that echos our own understandings of the current moment and Trump’s manic, unhinged escalation of the last few weeks. The big blubbery baby man is scared:

The specter of investigations and impeachment has fueled many of the president’s most dramatic actions in recent weeks, three senior White House officials and two close outside allies told me. Trump’s unprecedented (and, Democrats say, illegal) mid-decade redistricting push, the deployment of the National Guard to Washington, his unceasing pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates—all can be seen as part of a sweeping, frantic attempt to swing next year’s midterm elections.

The president has told confidants that he does not want a repeat of what happened after Republicans lost control in 2018 and is not going to cost himself this time by adhering to political norms. He has been pushing aides to focus on the midterms, and he is making more of an effort than he did seven years ago to nationalize the races and to motivate Republican voters who haven’t turned out when his name isn’t on the ballot. Trump believes that not just the tenor of his final two years in office, but the shape of his legacy as a whole, ride on whether he can reverse historical political trends and hold on to the House and the Senate in 2026.

“The president believes that he stayed in his lane” in 2018—“that he took a more conservative approach and tried to reach across the aisle,” one of the senior White House officials told me. (This person, like others interviewed, was granted anonymity to speak about internal discussions.) “And look where that got him: We lost. He’s not making that mistake again.”

The Spanberger ad is also a sign that Democrats are learning from one of our big mistakes in 2024 - while voters may be unhappy with Trump and the Rs we must communicate aggressively to explain the harms their agenda is bringing to the county. We must connect the dots for people and cannot for one moment assume that in our degraded information environment voters know or understand. In telling our story and making our case we must relentlessly explain that they are pursuing the most anti-worker agenda in modern times, one that betrays their central promise of 2024, and one that is leaving Americans further and further behind.

They are for the oligarchs, and we the people.

And it is likely to get worse for Trump and the Rs as state and local governments begin grappling with - and debating and communicating - the harms the Trump agenda is bringing to their constituents:

States are scrambling to prepare for an unprecedented shift of costs and responsibilities under President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending plan, which will force them to make difficult decisions about cuts to state programs to offset the new financial burdens.

Unlike the federal government, states must balance their budgets each year. That means deep cuts and changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will require state legislatures and governors to cope with hundreds of millions of dollars in new costs each year.

Some states are implementing cuts in anticipation of the added costs and responsibilities they will have to take on. Critics of the Trump legislation warn that projects — road and benefits programs, among others — are almost certain to be scaled back in coming years.

“There’s not a single state that has the resources to make up for this. You cannot backfill it,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said in an interview. “The federal government is now literally saying to the states, ‘You are now on your own.’”

Consistent with our view that this fall is one of opportunity for us we just got this new, encouraging poll from Virginia:

• Spanberger leads 49%-40% in the race for Governor

• Hashmi (D) leads 45%-41% in the Lt. Gov’s race

• Jay Jones (D) leads 47%-41% in the race for AG

And yes, while encouraging, it also reminds us that it will only be an opportunity if we seize it, together, and do the work to bring these elections home this November.

Early, in person voting starts a week from Friday in Virginia - need to keep working it everyone!

Consider donating to Abigail Spanberger today via our Hopium fundraising page. You can also learn more, volunteer and be sure to watch our recent interview to get to know her a bit better. This is a must win race and need everyone in here…….

The Trump-Epstein Affair Takes A Much Darker Turn - Here’s the front page of the NYT website right now:

Here’s the NYT on the lurid 238 page birthday book:

One friend compared him to the main character in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea,” except instead of fish, Jeffrey Epstein caught women, “blonde, red or brunette.”

Another friend described a demeaning sexual encounter that a woman endured in the back of a car that left Mr. Epstein “howling with laughter.”

“So many girls, so little time,” wrote a third associate of Mr. Epstein.

Such tributes are part of the “birthday book,” which was dedicated to Mr. Epstein on his 50th birthday in 2003.

The 238-page book, littered with candid photos, drawings and collages, was released on Monday by the House Oversight Committee among the documents turned over by Mr. Epstein’s estate after being subpoenaed by the committee.

………

Most notably, the book contains the now well-publicized poem to Mr. Epstein that bears Donald J. Trump’s name. It is framed by a silhouette drawing of naked women and includes what appears to be Mr. Trump’s signature. Elsewhere there is an oversized check that purports to be Mr. Epstein jokingly selling a “fully depreciated” woman to Mr. Trump for $22,500.

We cannot for one moment let our foot off the gas on the Trump-Epstein affair, one that can, and should, drive this terrible, terrible person from the White House.

Dangerous New Racial Profiling Ruling From The Corrupt Roberts Court - This one left me deeply angry for it saws away at the rights and freedoms of all people, not just immigrants. From The Guardian:

Immigration advocates warned that the supreme court has “effectively legalized racial profiling”, granting federal agents the power to stop people in Los Angeles simply for speaking Spanish or appearing Latino – and opening the door, they say, to a broader unraveling of civil rights protections nationwide.

In a 6–3 decision on Monday, the court’s conservative majority lifted restrictions on “roving” immigration patrols across the LA area after a lower court found that federal agents were indiscriminately targeting people on the basis of race, language, employment or location.

The high court’s ruling alarmed civil liberties advocates and rattled immigrant communities in a county where one in three residents is foreign-born, and where the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement has already seen armed and masked federal agents detain residents, including US citizens, near bus stops, construction sites, churches and other public spaces with little explanation or due process.

At a news conference near a Home Depot in a heavily Latino neighborhood of Los Angeles, where raids in June sparked massive protests, the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, assailed the decision, saying the supreme court “has now given the green light for law enforcement to profile and detain Angelenos based on their race”.

Bass quoted from the forceful dissent issued by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina to serve on the court, who warned: “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

If you haven’t watched my recent interview with Professor Leah Litman on the right’s corruption of the judiciary and increasing abandonment of the rule of law today would be a great day to watch it. She provides vital and important context for the outrageous lawlessness we are seeing from the Robert Court, a court that is anything but Supreme.

Florida’s Vaccine Extremism Could Generate Millions Of New Measles Cases - From CNN:

Florida’s surgeon general said Sunday that he had not weighed the cost – in terms of infections, hospitalizations or deaths – of ending vaccine mandates in the state. But scientists who have done those calculations say those costs may be high.

“Absolutely not,” Dr. Joseph Ladapo told CNN’s Jake Tapper when asked whether he had done any data analysis or projections of how many new cases of vaccine-preventable disease there would be if the mandates were lifted for everyone in Florida, including schoolchildren, as he proposed last week.

“Do I need to analyze whether it’s appropriate for parents to be able to decide what goes into their children’s bodies? I don’t need an analysis on that,” he said.

Scientists have crunched the numbers, however.

Infectious disease forecasters at Stanford University who recently looked at the effects of falling vaccination rates across the country found that in Florida alone, a 15% decline in vaccinations against measles over 25 years would lead to 1 million measles cases.

The state is particularly vulnerable because of its large population and brisk tourism industry, according to lead study author Dr. Mathew Kiang. Disney World in Orlando has often been the site of measles cases imported from other countries, for example.

“Unvaccinated groups in the United States are sort of like tinder, and vaccines are sort of fire protection, and so every imported case is like throwing a match into the fire,” said Kiang, an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health. “For most of them, nothing is going to happen, but what you don’t want is a situation where one happens and then it comes roaring back like a wildfire.”

Now, Let’s Get To Work Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Support Our November, 2025 Candidates

• Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $71k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my new interview with Rep. Sherrill

• Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $184k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Abigail Spanberger

Support Our 2026 Candidates

• Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $32,000 raised- Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interviews with Gov. Cooper and NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton

• Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $58k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer

• Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $195k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer | Watch My Interviews With Our Intrepid Incumbents

Our updated fundraising goals are now for the end of the year, December 31st, except for the 2025 races, which are now for Election Day, 2025.

Take Action, Express Your Love Of Country Through Good Works - We are prioritizing two actions today:

1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our our emerging four part agenda. Demand that your reps work to

1. Roll back Trump’s terrible and illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, and alienating governments and people throughout the world

2. Block the expansion of ICE and the use of the military on our streets including DC

3. End Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; stop the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; demand the removal of extremist Robert Kennedy from HHS - yes we need to FIRE HIM

4. Stand with Ukraine and block Trump’s ongoing efforts to sell out the US

2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Be sure to check out our new discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner who have passed resolutions in New Mexico and Boston, and offer advice on how to get a resolution passed in your own community.

Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 75 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 23 states +DC. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?

Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Great to see!

As we get ready for what is going to be a very intense fall of politics let’s take inspiration from those famous words from Robert Frost that “the best way out is always through” - Simon