I don't think most Europeans understand about our federal and state governments, and their relationships as well as their separate and varied powers. But great work, Simon, and thank you for all you do.
Simon, one way of thinking about an effective "counter" to Trump is to think of a shadow cabinet, but without a "President." I continue to believe that, in light of Trump's wide-ranging and pervasive actions, only a broadly-conceived counter will be effective.
Some would say we should abolish that office entirely‐‐it's much too big for one person, or have it be of a face/conscience of the nation like it is in many prime minister/parliamentary systems. Some, like the UK, have the monarchy play that role, which I'd offer to Trump instead of his current job,;if he really wants to be a king, except he might suck at that even more (as hard as that is to believe), being completely lacking in conscience or grace as he is.
I should have mentioned that. It was 45 minutes, on camera. They will use a clip or two for a series of pieces they are running. Global TV. Will share when it comes out.
it sounds like it was a great interview with great questions. we do need to be doing more. i think we need to start having citizen assemblies all over and regularly to gather the masses to come up with solutions. we need to find a way to change the mindset in our capitalist obsessive society of greed, power and unlimited growth and find a way to work together to work focused on bringing a healthy, supportive, caring culture for planet and people.
Simon, what the heck happened in MN? I'm so sorry--you were unfairly (and stupidly) attacked.
The left (authentic, hard, lefties) almost all have imbibed this world view that Democrats must be attacked. I see it everywhere. They get more enraged about Schumer than Trump. Some on our side get caught up in a lot of rage baiting -- like MAGA. Minnesotans are under attack and their courage is incredible--but some lash out. I love the focus and shared mission of Hopium--
Allow me to annotate my remarks (hee hee) that I embrace the differences and tensions in our big national version of 'family' and we can still find plenty of common ground. My son and a few of my closest friends are Zohran Dems so to speak and have legit energy to bring to our movement. But among the Bernie/DSA left some bring a lot of resentment and anger. I know frustration with Hill Dems has at times touched so many. I hear too much irrational stuff on the DNC and it is something our leaders need to address smartly.
they are still butt hurt over bernie, a man who has won nothing outside of vermont. in their view, if dems would only run on an explicit leftist agenda, masses of working class voters would turn out for them. they clearly don't know any of these people; you know, ones that own guns and hunt and fish, change their own engine oil, fix the washer and dryer themselves, and when they need a new one, they buy it and bring it home and install it themselves. i am not one of them; i am an academic, bookish type but because i did a lot of ocean fishing, i got to know a lot of them. and no, they are not all men. and they save me a lot of money on household repairs; many are veterans, and even among the dem voters, they can be swayed by things like walgreens crying over smash and grab theft, which was exaggerated, or even by taking out maduro, whom they saw as a commie dictator. know what else sways them? federal agents shooting a young mother in the face. most i talked to were livid; they saw it as an execution. i think that was a turning point, friends....perhaps our kent state....
You said this better than I. Thank you. My life is similar--comfortable middle class upbringing, great education, good parents, more or less an intellectual and writer--but I've known many working people from where I was raised and also through the outdoors, fishing, etc. Agree.
thank you; i never think my writing is good enough, even though i worked in journalism for a time; i always cringed when i read my stories; i abandoned any attempt at the great american novel; but from what i see passing for literature these days, maybe i shouldn't have; my area has produced a number of writers, among them philip roth, tom perrotta, junot diaz, and harlen coben, who was chris christie's best friend in high school; he said christie was a friendly guy who went right up to him when he was the new kid; he doesn't know what the hell happened.....
I lived most of my adult life in NJ and Harlan Cobin very well known around Essex County. Blind ambition changed Christie -- he was well respected for a long time.
thom hartmann was one of the first to call christie out when he was a us attorney and was using that position to run for governor; he also was undeserving of that post and had made donations to w to curry favor.
By the way, my avocation beyond my day job and political change is fly fishing which I've done all over the continent--fly fishing guides are often of this bent--practical, hardworking, common sense no bs political views. I have run into a few hard core MAGA types but few.
but fly anglers are an elite subset in themselves; they aren't in it for numbers and aren't meat fishers; so if you've seen "a river runs through it", when the guy shows up with a coffee can full of worms.....the anglers i know are from that subset.....myself included; i'm a bait guy to a fault. my old fishing pal got skunked so often fly fishing in canada his wife started to wonder if he was cheating on her....when he did catch one he gave it to me....he didn't want to clean it lol. the guy who got me into grad school was a psychotherapist who ran fly fishing charters in nj. i never really did get the hang of it.
In addition to the other excellent explanations here, I think it also feels easier and safer to attack Democrats. Being angry with a Democrat feels like it might produce solutions. Being angry at MAGA is our baseline: unending background noise that we have to tune out in order to accomplish anything, and they won’t listen to us anyway.
Criticizing or even making eye contact with MAGA goons gets people killed. (That’s why this is a time that requires courage and unity, of course. And even though being killed is not likely, hearing about one shooting over and over feels like hearing about 100 shootings.)
Criticizing fellow Democrats will get you an argument. Also, I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t understand MAGA. They aren’t in the same reality as me, so I find their nonsense hard to rebut, or even parse. If a Democrat says something I disagree with, at least it is coherent, so it is easier to grapple with.
And the mainstream media isn’t helping. They sane wash MAGA, both sides every issue, and never say anything clear and positive about Democrats lest they be accused of wokeness or sedition or whatever. So we see, every day, areas where clever wordsmiths have decided to make Democrats angry at each other and soothe the administration.
To be clear, I don’t attack Democrats, I do tell people to stop doing MAGA’s work for them, and I try to make sure my fight is always against the ones actually at fault. But I truly understand the temptation.
Thank you, Simon. You did a great job describing to the BBC the existential threat posed at home and abroad by the Trump regime. … Imagine the Dems rejecting all budget resolutions until those threats (and actions already taken) are halted and reversed. Imagine Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries bending the totality of their influences to make this happen. Imagine that!
Thank you Simon. I don't know what all that BS on BlueSky was yesterday, but I'm sorry you had to waste your time on it. Raising money for our state parties is a good thing and a winning strategy and I was happy to contribute and am proud of what we did in 24 hours. I am hoping their 4000 meetings are safe and uninterrupted by Trump's gestapo.
Thank you Simon, and thank you for your fundraising for the DFL. I saw some of the BlueSky comments, and I do think that there are now quite a few misinformed folks plus bots on BlueSky now too, so good to move on. It's cold and snowy here in Mpls today so we are hoping the ICE freeze their &%$$#& off.
Thank you Simon. What England may not realize is that our media is analogous to MAGA running the BBC: Newsmax, Rupert Murdoch, Sinclair, the Ellisons. Makes it very tough to get a national movement going. First rule of dictatorship is control the media. W did it during the Iraq war: no body bags on TV.
I happily supported our fund for the MN Dems, and ALSO other orgs supporting Minnesotans. It still doesn’t feel like enough, given the horror show happening there and their courage and water balloons. Simon, keep on keepin’ on, and thank you.
oh, forgot to self-report: am sending copies of Intro to Soft Secession by Chris Armitage to blue state governors, AGs, and select state politicians. I was at a town hall in Portland, OR, with Jeff Merkley. He is a kind man but had never heard of Soft Secession. The audience was discouraged that the only solutions he could present were: fingers crossed on 2026, protesting, and the courts (which he noted move very slowly).
I want to be clear that I don't like this term. We are not seceding. We are the patriots, they are the betrayers. If anyone is seceding it is them, not us.
Yes, point well taken. But I like Christopher Armitage a lot, as he is meeting the moment in thinking in big terms about how to oppose, not just resist, the fascists.
Simon, I hope you take clips of this interview, along with your ideas on creating a unified, across levels of government group of Democrats to together mount a campaign to restore our democratic system
Thank you, Simon. This is so perfect and what the moment demands. I will include scripts for our Dem Gov. and AG, along with calls to Jeffries and Schumer, in the Durham Dems Action newsletter this week. Grateful for you. https://durhamdemsaction.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips
This is a great link! It helped me discover this short explainer from Instagram by a young guy in a baseball cap (aka Ben Sheehan host of PBS’ Civics Made Easy and published author) on why calling our electeds works. This would be a great thing to share with anyone who is hard to convince or responsive to brief video clips https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTd9dw8Egn7/
Two fantastic posts this weekend, Simon. You’re able to ride that bifurcated line between totally calling out the harm and chaos and being able to mobilize us to continue doing concrete and necessary work to combat this insanity. BTW, is your BBC interview available online? If so, I’d like to send it to some people. Bless you, brother.
And push Schumer/Jeffries/ Democrat governors/mayors etc to execute it. You are right that Trump picks targets off one by one. We need a cohesive, united front to fight back. The American people do not want what Trump is foisting on us.
Thank you, Simon. You are a tireless leader, much appreciated and valued.
I don't think most Europeans understand about our federal and state governments, and their relationships as well as their separate and varied powers. But great work, Simon, and thank you for all you do.
Simon, one way of thinking about an effective "counter" to Trump is to think of a shadow cabinet, but without a "President." I continue to believe that, in light of Trump's wide-ranging and pervasive actions, only a broadly-conceived counter will be effective.
Some would say we should abolish that office entirely‐‐it's much too big for one person, or have it be of a face/conscience of the nation like it is in many prime minister/parliamentary systems. Some, like the UK, have the monarchy play that role, which I'd offer to Trump instead of his current job,;if he really wants to be a king, except he might suck at that even more (as hard as that is to believe), being completely lacking in conscience or grace as he is.
Is the BBC interview available for listening or viewing?
I should have mentioned that. It was 45 minutes, on camera. They will use a clip or two for a series of pieces they are running. Global TV. Will share when it comes out.
Thanks
it sounds like it was a great interview with great questions. we do need to be doing more. i think we need to start having citizen assemblies all over and regularly to gather the masses to come up with solutions. we need to find a way to change the mindset in our capitalist obsessive society of greed, power and unlimited growth and find a way to work together to work focused on bringing a healthy, supportive, caring culture for planet and people.
Simon, what the heck happened in MN? I'm so sorry--you were unfairly (and stupidly) attacked.
The left (authentic, hard, lefties) almost all have imbibed this world view that Democrats must be attacked. I see it everywhere. They get more enraged about Schumer than Trump. Some on our side get caught up in a lot of rage baiting -- like MAGA. Minnesotans are under attack and their courage is incredible--but some lash out. I love the focus and shared mission of Hopium--
Allow me to annotate my remarks (hee hee) that I embrace the differences and tensions in our big national version of 'family' and we can still find plenty of common ground. My son and a few of my closest friends are Zohran Dems so to speak and have legit energy to bring to our movement. But among the Bernie/DSA left some bring a lot of resentment and anger. I know frustration with Hill Dems has at times touched so many. I hear too much irrational stuff on the DNC and it is something our leaders need to address smartly.
they are still butt hurt over bernie, a man who has won nothing outside of vermont. in their view, if dems would only run on an explicit leftist agenda, masses of working class voters would turn out for them. they clearly don't know any of these people; you know, ones that own guns and hunt and fish, change their own engine oil, fix the washer and dryer themselves, and when they need a new one, they buy it and bring it home and install it themselves. i am not one of them; i am an academic, bookish type but because i did a lot of ocean fishing, i got to know a lot of them. and no, they are not all men. and they save me a lot of money on household repairs; many are veterans, and even among the dem voters, they can be swayed by things like walgreens crying over smash and grab theft, which was exaggerated, or even by taking out maduro, whom they saw as a commie dictator. know what else sways them? federal agents shooting a young mother in the face. most i talked to were livid; they saw it as an execution. i think that was a turning point, friends....perhaps our kent state....
You said this better than I. Thank you. My life is similar--comfortable middle class upbringing, great education, good parents, more or less an intellectual and writer--but I've known many working people from where I was raised and also through the outdoors, fishing, etc. Agree.
thank you; i never think my writing is good enough, even though i worked in journalism for a time; i always cringed when i read my stories; i abandoned any attempt at the great american novel; but from what i see passing for literature these days, maybe i shouldn't have; my area has produced a number of writers, among them philip roth, tom perrotta, junot diaz, and harlen coben, who was chris christie's best friend in high school; he said christie was a friendly guy who went right up to him when he was the new kid; he doesn't know what the hell happened.....
I lived most of my adult life in NJ and Harlan Cobin very well known around Essex County. Blind ambition changed Christie -- he was well respected for a long time.
thom hartmann was one of the first to call christie out when he was a us attorney and was using that position to run for governor; he also was undeserving of that post and had made donations to w to curry favor.
I was working in NJ government circles at the time and all quite true.
A sign of Christie's ambition was lying to himself that he would not be knifed by J Kushner when the chance arose.
By the way, my avocation beyond my day job and political change is fly fishing which I've done all over the continent--fly fishing guides are often of this bent--practical, hardworking, common sense no bs political views. I have run into a few hard core MAGA types but few.
but fly anglers are an elite subset in themselves; they aren't in it for numbers and aren't meat fishers; so if you've seen "a river runs through it", when the guy shows up with a coffee can full of worms.....the anglers i know are from that subset.....myself included; i'm a bait guy to a fault. my old fishing pal got skunked so often fly fishing in canada his wife started to wonder if he was cheating on her....when he did catch one he gave it to me....he didn't want to clean it lol. the guy who got me into grad school was a psychotherapist who ran fly fishing charters in nj. i never really did get the hang of it.
In addition to the other excellent explanations here, I think it also feels easier and safer to attack Democrats. Being angry with a Democrat feels like it might produce solutions. Being angry at MAGA is our baseline: unending background noise that we have to tune out in order to accomplish anything, and they won’t listen to us anyway.
Criticizing or even making eye contact with MAGA goons gets people killed. (That’s why this is a time that requires courage and unity, of course. And even though being killed is not likely, hearing about one shooting over and over feels like hearing about 100 shootings.)
Criticizing fellow Democrats will get you an argument. Also, I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t understand MAGA. They aren’t in the same reality as me, so I find their nonsense hard to rebut, or even parse. If a Democrat says something I disagree with, at least it is coherent, so it is easier to grapple with.
And the mainstream media isn’t helping. They sane wash MAGA, both sides every issue, and never say anything clear and positive about Democrats lest they be accused of wokeness or sedition or whatever. So we see, every day, areas where clever wordsmiths have decided to make Democrats angry at each other and soothe the administration.
To be clear, I don’t attack Democrats, I do tell people to stop doing MAGA’s work for them, and I try to make sure my fight is always against the ones actually at fault. But I truly understand the temptation.
Outstanding point and as soon u articulated it, I understood the truth of it.
There are non-helpful people out there who used very hateful and antiSemitic rhetoric.
Thank you, Simon. You did a great job describing to the BBC the existential threat posed at home and abroad by the Trump regime. … Imagine the Dems rejecting all budget resolutions until those threats (and actions already taken) are halted and reversed. Imagine Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries bending the totality of their influences to make this happen. Imagine that!
Thank you Simon. I don't know what all that BS on BlueSky was yesterday, but I'm sorry you had to waste your time on it. Raising money for our state parties is a good thing and a winning strategy and I was happy to contribute and am proud of what we did in 24 hours. I am hoping their 4000 meetings are safe and uninterrupted by Trump's gestapo.
Ditto!
Well said Kent
Thank you Simon, and thank you for your fundraising for the DFL. I saw some of the BlueSky comments, and I do think that there are now quite a few misinformed folks plus bots on BlueSky now too, so good to move on. It's cold and snowy here in Mpls today so we are hoping the ICE freeze their &%$$#& off.
Thank you Simon. What England may not realize is that our media is analogous to MAGA running the BBC: Newsmax, Rupert Murdoch, Sinclair, the Ellisons. Makes it very tough to get a national movement going. First rule of dictatorship is control the media. W did it during the Iraq war: no body bags on TV.
I happily supported our fund for the MN Dems, and ALSO other orgs supporting Minnesotans. It still doesn’t feel like enough, given the horror show happening there and their courage and water balloons. Simon, keep on keepin’ on, and thank you.
oh, forgot to self-report: am sending copies of Intro to Soft Secession by Chris Armitage to blue state governors, AGs, and select state politicians. I was at a town hall in Portland, OR, with Jeff Merkley. He is a kind man but had never heard of Soft Secession. The audience was discouraged that the only solutions he could present were: fingers crossed on 2026, protesting, and the courts (which he noted move very slowly).
I want to be clear that I don't like this term. We are not seceding. We are the patriots, they are the betrayers. If anyone is seceding it is them, not us.
Point taken. The "soft" is supposed to imply reversibility.
Yes, point well taken. But I like Christopher Armitage a lot, as he is meeting the moment in thinking in big terms about how to oppose, not just resist, the fascists.
Simon, I hope you take clips of this interview, along with your ideas on creating a unified, across levels of government group of Democrats to together mount a campaign to restore our democratic system
Thank you, Simon. This is so perfect and what the moment demands. I will include scripts for our Dem Gov. and AG, along with calls to Jeffries and Schumer, in the Durham Dems Action newsletter this week. Grateful for you. https://durhamdemsaction.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips
This is a great link! It helped me discover this short explainer from Instagram by a young guy in a baseball cap (aka Ben Sheehan host of PBS’ Civics Made Easy and published author) on why calling our electeds works. This would be a great thing to share with anyone who is hard to convince or responsive to brief video clips https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTd9dw8Egn7/
Glad you liked it! I write that substack, btw, which goes out to around 1600 folks and when I found that clip I thought it was great.
Two fantastic posts this weekend, Simon. You’re able to ride that bifurcated line between totally calling out the harm and chaos and being able to mobilize us to continue doing concrete and necessary work to combat this insanity. BTW, is your BBC interview available online? If so, I’d like to send it to some people. Bless you, brother.
And push Schumer/Jeffries/ Democrat governors/mayors etc to execute it. You are right that Trump picks targets off one by one. We need a cohesive, united front to fight back. The American people do not want what Trump is foisting on us.