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.
That is being accomplished with the many shadow hearings that Democrats are holding. Check them out on youtube. Here are a few for starters, then you can continue exploring any that you've missed:
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.
Again, I think there was more going on in this case than that, and that the frustration is based in some real on the ground realities. I'm grateful for Simon's efforts and understand the calculus, but let's please also listen to and respect people trying to save their neighbors.
I certainly didn't mean to be disrespectful or suggest that what I said is the whole story. Of course there is more to it than any single comment can encompass.
I am not sure what calculus you are talking about, though, that is in contrast to listening to and respecting people?
The crux of the matter is that a group of leaders in the Twin Cities thought it was inappropriate for us to be raising money for the DFL and not to local aid groups. It's understandable given the need. I respectfully, again and again, explained that isn't what we do. We wanted to help and we did so the way we do - candidates, party committees, info warring. So I went to the DFL and we worked out a plan. This is all in the solicitation email and video from the other night. And we raised 65k in 2 days.
And people there have been attacking me - and us - for it relentlessly for 48 hours. I've been accused of grifting and self-enrichment. A ridiculous story was invented that I called prominent local leaders Russian bots. And thousands of Bluesky posts later, people pursuing me on Twitter, Notes and even here at Hopium, the attacks just keep coming.
As I mentioned in my note I can understand why things are fraught and hard there now. But what happened here was not OK, and out of respect for the courageous people of Minnesota, we are moving on. But the other lesson here is that this is going to be a very tough year on social media and we have steal ourselves for what is to come.
Simon, I follow you on BlueSky, but now that we're here on Substack, I don't go to BlueSky very often. I heard you say recently that you post there often, so I thought I'd have a look to read your TL.
WoW, was I surprised to see all those people attacking you relentlessly for a few days. It angered me so much and I was immediately ready to post something in your and Hopium's defense. Then I thought, WWSD? (What would Simon do?) So I waited, calmed down, and kept reading. I've seen your continuing explanations, in your always wonderful, calm way, but I'm still incensed. Did those people even bother to watch the video?
As you say, this is illustrative of the immense tensions on the ground in MN. I can't imagine how horrible it must be living there. Still, I wish the folks who attacked you / Hopium would see and understand how many of us who don't live there want to do SOMEthing to help, and the DFL plan was one way to do that. It is clearly thought out, not some fly-by-night thing you concocted in the middle of the night with no forethought. I pray that my $250 contribution will be put to good use.
Oy, this is going to be a very tough year. As Matthew Dowd always says, Onward.
I'd really like to ask for respect for the people on the ground in MN doing the work. Reasonable and good people can disagree, and in that case they did. I'm not going to engage with the particulars, but I do want to caution that the people raising objections were progressive leaders who are giving everything they have to protect and defend the community right now. I am grateful for Simon's efforts, and cried when the totals came in, and I'm grateful to the people who have been doing the most in the Twin Cities. Both things can be true.
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.
That is being accomplished with the many shadow hearings that Democrats are holding. Check them out on youtube. Here are a few for starters, then you can continue exploring any that you've missed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-6etCvNN38 January 6 United States Capitol attack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkBDyno4tUY Shadow Hearing On U.S. Intervention In Venezuela
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctBprNTgQ-U Shadow Hearing On ICE Illegally Detaining Citizens
The recent bipartisan U.S. Congressional delegation that visited Denmark and Greenland was a similar strategy and a way to build a new coalition.
There have been many discussions about shadow cabinet pros and cons in past issues of Hopium.
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
Simon, Was about to ask the same question, but figured someone else did. Hope to see the whole interview, but at least whatever you can share.
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.
Again, I think there was more going on in this case than that, and that the frustration is based in some real on the ground realities. I'm grateful for Simon's efforts and understand the calculus, but let's please also listen to and respect people trying to save their neighbors.
I certainly didn't mean to be disrespectful or suggest that what I said is the whole story. Of course there is more to it than any single comment can encompass.
I am not sure what calculus you are talking about, though, that is in contrast to listening to and respecting people?
The crux of the matter is that a group of leaders in the Twin Cities thought it was inappropriate for us to be raising money for the DFL and not to local aid groups. It's understandable given the need. I respectfully, again and again, explained that isn't what we do. We wanted to help and we did so the way we do - candidates, party committees, info warring. So I went to the DFL and we worked out a plan. This is all in the solicitation email and video from the other night. And we raised 65k in 2 days.
And people there have been attacking me - and us - for it relentlessly for 48 hours. I've been accused of grifting and self-enrichment. A ridiculous story was invented that I called prominent local leaders Russian bots. And thousands of Bluesky posts later, people pursuing me on Twitter, Notes and even here at Hopium, the attacks just keep coming.
As I mentioned in my note I can understand why things are fraught and hard there now. But what happened here was not OK, and out of respect for the courageous people of Minnesota, we are moving on. But the other lesson here is that this is going to be a very tough year on social media and we have steal ourselves for what is to come.
Thank you! I do have a BluSky account but I hardly ever look at it.
So it all makes sense now and I appreciate you taking the time.
Simon, I follow you on BlueSky, but now that we're here on Substack, I don't go to BlueSky very often. I heard you say recently that you post there often, so I thought I'd have a look to read your TL.
WoW, was I surprised to see all those people attacking you relentlessly for a few days. It angered me so much and I was immediately ready to post something in your and Hopium's defense. Then I thought, WWSD? (What would Simon do?) So I waited, calmed down, and kept reading. I've seen your continuing explanations, in your always wonderful, calm way, but I'm still incensed. Did those people even bother to watch the video?
As you say, this is illustrative of the immense tensions on the ground in MN. I can't imagine how horrible it must be living there. Still, I wish the folks who attacked you / Hopium would see and understand how many of us who don't live there want to do SOMEthing to help, and the DFL plan was one way to do that. It is clearly thought out, not some fly-by-night thing you concocted in the middle of the night with no forethought. I pray that my $250 contribution will be put to good use.
Oy, this is going to be a very tough year. As Matthew Dowd always says, Onward.
I'd really like to ask for respect for the people on the ground in MN doing the work. Reasonable and good people can disagree, and in that case they did. I'm not going to engage with the particulars, but I do want to caution that the people raising objections were progressive leaders who are giving everything they have to protect and defend the community right now. I am grateful for Simon's efforts, and cried when the totals came in, and I'm grateful to the people who have been doing the most in the Twin Cities. Both things can be true.
Anne I've responded to you, below. I don't think you really understand what has happened since I sent out the email 48 hours ago.
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.