yeah good point. It's just absolutely sickening that no effort was made to preserve any part of that history. Just utter disregard. Shades of the Taliban blowing up ancient Buddhist statues.
Voted early yesterday in NYC. 80K voters voted on the first day of early voting. Voted in the NYC Mayor’s race for Zohran Mamdani. Felt reassured as an older Jewish voter that ZM announced he would keep Jessica Tisch as Police Commissioner: the only good thing rising out of the corruption rubble of the current Adams administration.
BTW, electing Jay Jones, the Democrat in the VA race for Attorney General, is now extra important. When VA passes the measure to redistrict, Republicans will challenge it in court. If Miyares, the Republican, wins the AG slot, he'll refuse to defend VA's measure in court. People in VA need to vote for the full Democratic ticket, including Jones.
Phonebanking for her is continuing this week. During these events, we tell people to vote for Abigail, Ghazala Hashmi, Jay Jones, and all other Democrats up and down the ticket.
Just a reminder to my fellow PA Hopiumites: vote for retention of our three Dem Supreme Court justices—Christine Donohue, Kevin M. Dougherty, and David Wecht. Needless to say, they are rated Recommended by the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Important reminder for those voting by mail: ballots are due by 8:00 pm on November 4. Ballots postmarked November 4 but received after 8:00 pm. will not be counted.
Getting less attention but still highly important is the special statewide election in Georgia for two Public Service Commission seats. The five member PSC is currently made up of all Republicans who are highly supportive of the fossil fuels industry and skeptical of anthropogenic climate change. In the last several years Georgians have seen their electricity costs rise substantially, partly due to a series of rate increases for Georgia Power and other big utilities that were approved by the PSC.
Democratic candidates Angelina Johnson and Peter Hubbard are clean and renewable energy advocates with a lot of experience. If they win their elections next week they will still be in the minority on the PSC, but they will be able to question and otherwise hold accountable the utility companies who have been allowed to do as they please for years.
Hi Simon - thanks as always for the updates - I just have one question- I have been seeing reports that Dems are in a bit of trouble in NJ race - are you confident that Sherrill will prevail?
Please bring these "reports" in here so we can see them. All I can do is go by what is in the public data, where she leads in every public poll by 5-9 points; she will outspend him in the closing days; the national tide is against the Rs; and we have a very large and robust field operation in NJ. We are never confident in this business but optimistic that if we keep working hard we can and should win. But nothing is guaranteed, and we need to run through the tape. Simply, there is no real evidence Sherrill is "in trouble" but it is a competitive race and we need to keep working hard.
Valerie: I don’t know if you live in NJ, but even if you don’t, there are plenty of opportunities to help us get the result we want: a Sherrill victory.
Hi all - that video from Chicago is stunning. I am so proud of those patriots that put themselves in harms way to keep their neighbors safe, and at the same time I am appalled that this is happening.
They are paying these men insane salaries and tens of thousands of dollars in recruiting bonuses to hide their faces and terrorize, chase, and kidnap brown people, and Trump will toss them away like trash when this is finally over. Working for ICE will not be a point of pride on anyone's resume - in fact, it will result in something similar to what happened in post-war Germany: suddenly, no one was a Nazi or supported the Nazis. Germany suffered a national shame for decades.
We all need to know what to do when ICE enters our city - here are some recommendations I will be following from Illinois State Senator Mike Simmons' Chief of Staff:
I dropped my husband's and my absentee ballots in the county auditor's dropbox a few days ago and was able to verify online that they had been received. We have only city and school board elections, but they are important. For example, one of the school board candidates waffled on book bans (and didn't get our votes!). I mailed my last GOTV postcards on their designated mail date, Oct. 24. It's weird not to be writing postcards every evening at this point! I set up a monthly donation to our local food pantry. It is heartbreaking that so many Americans are, or soon will be, food insecure.
Many groups send post cards and you can probably find one in your jurisdiction that is active now. If not, Blue CD2 NM sends cards several times every year and people help us from as far away as Maine. Get a huge amount of information on our website bluecd2nm.com and sign up while you're at it. bluecd2nm.com
My county board of supervisors has already taken much of two meetings to squabble about supporting, or not, resolutions aimed in support of elements of the Trump Administration’s culture wars. I have decided that the next meeting, scheduled for Election Day itself, will include me during the “Oral Communication” section where we present issues Not Included on the formal agenda — if funding hasn’t been released by then — reading a condemnation of the Chief Executioner’s decision to withhold legally appropriated SNAP funding. I’m looking for numbers of recipients specific to victims of our county’s horrific complex fires, but the county’s recipient numbers as a whole are vast enough.
Yesterday's interview was outstanding. Thank you so much for bringing Graff on. I love the idea of Kavanaugh stops, and of course on not otherizing the people the administration is working so hard to dehumanize. Republican strategists have always been savvy about language, and their phraseology so often becomes mainstream. I really look forward to following Graff.
I gave a large donation to a local foodbank this morning after reading this post. Happy Sunday, all.
Yeah, Simon's point about not using any "othering" language to describe immigrants -- not even, say, "undocumented" -- was well-taken. They're just people, who are being horribly mistreated.
During the last federal election in Canada the lines for early voting were very long, which can be expected in Toronto, but this time they were long in rural communities. At one level we were voting Liberal for Mark Carney, but our real motivation was voting against Trump. And when Canadians are motivated, we vote. The same thing happened when we were done with Steven Harper; we voted Liberal because we wanted Harper gone.
Rubble from the East Wing to the golf course? Hmm... I wonder how much asbestos, lead, and whatever else is being shared.
Exactly!
yeah good point. It's just absolutely sickening that no effort was made to preserve any part of that history. Just utter disregard. Shades of the Taliban blowing up ancient Buddhist statues.
Voted early yesterday in NYC. 80K voters voted on the first day of early voting. Voted in the NYC Mayor’s race for Zohran Mamdani. Felt reassured as an older Jewish voter that ZM announced he would keep Jessica Tisch as Police Commissioner: the only good thing rising out of the corruption rubble of the current Adams administration.
Thanks for that video, Simon. It gives me hope.
BTW, electing Jay Jones, the Democrat in the VA race for Attorney General, is now extra important. When VA passes the measure to redistrict, Republicans will challenge it in court. If Miyares, the Republican, wins the AG slot, he'll refuse to defend VA's measure in court. People in VA need to vote for the full Democratic ticket, including Jones.
That's why we've kept our focus on Spanberger - she can drag him across with a big and robust Dem turnout.
Absolutely!
God willing 🙏
Phonebanking for her is continuing this week. During these events, we tell people to vote for Abigail, Ghazala Hashmi, Jay Jones, and all other Democrats up and down the ticket.
Do you know how it's looking for Jay Jones?
Per Simon a few days ago it was 46-46. https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/sherrill-and-spanberger-have-sturdy
oof I missed that paragraph and only looked the graph - yikes - thank you
Just a reminder to my fellow PA Hopiumites: vote for retention of our three Dem Supreme Court justices—Christine Donohue, Kevin M. Dougherty, and David Wecht. Needless to say, they are rated Recommended by the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Important reminder for those voting by mail: ballots are due by 8:00 pm on November 4. Ballots postmarked November 4 but received after 8:00 pm. will not be counted.
From here in IA, I wrote 100 postcards for judicial retention in PA. I hope it helps!
Thank you, Kate!!
Me too! From Ohio.
I wrote 15 postcards for the PA race. Not a lot, but all I could manage. Every little bit helps.
Every bit helps!
I wrote a total of 225 pieces of mail for this race: 125 Vote Forward letters and 100 postcards. That should also help.
All in on this one from here outside of Philly —
I wrote a total of 140 letters (via Vote Forward) to PA voters for the Supreme Court election...
Getting less attention but still highly important is the special statewide election in Georgia for two Public Service Commission seats. The five member PSC is currently made up of all Republicans who are highly supportive of the fossil fuels industry and skeptical of anthropogenic climate change. In the last several years Georgians have seen their electricity costs rise substantially, partly due to a series of rate increases for Georgia Power and other big utilities that were approved by the PSC.
Democratic candidates Angelina Johnson and Peter Hubbard are clean and renewable energy advocates with a lot of experience. If they win their elections next week they will still be in the minority on the PSC, but they will be able to question and otherwise hold accountable the utility companies who have been allowed to do as they please for years.
Correction, Dr. Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard are the names of the two Democratic candidates.
Hi Simon - thanks as always for the updates - I just have one question- I have been seeing reports that Dems are in a bit of trouble in NJ race - are you confident that Sherrill will prevail?
Please bring these "reports" in here so we can see them. All I can do is go by what is in the public data, where she leads in every public poll by 5-9 points; she will outspend him in the closing days; the national tide is against the Rs; and we have a very large and robust field operation in NJ. We are never confident in this business but optimistic that if we keep working hard we can and should win. But nothing is guaranteed, and we need to run through the tape. Simply, there is no real evidence Sherrill is "in trouble" but it is a competitive race and we need to keep working hard.
Thanks Simon
Valerie: I don’t know if you live in NJ, but even if you don’t, there are plenty of opportunities to help us get the result we want: a Sherrill victory.
Checkout mikiesherrill.com for volunteer opportunities.
Hi all - that video from Chicago is stunning. I am so proud of those patriots that put themselves in harms way to keep their neighbors safe, and at the same time I am appalled that this is happening.
They are paying these men insane salaries and tens of thousands of dollars in recruiting bonuses to hide their faces and terrorize, chase, and kidnap brown people, and Trump will toss them away like trash when this is finally over. Working for ICE will not be a point of pride on anyone's resume - in fact, it will result in something similar to what happened in post-war Germany: suddenly, no one was a Nazi or supported the Nazis. Germany suffered a national shame for decades.
We all need to know what to do when ICE enters our city - here are some recommendations I will be following from Illinois State Senator Mike Simmons' Chief of Staff:
Know Your Rights training - a list of trainings with virtual links can be found here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HSbRKiqJR58MlpZjBhHMlxQqZRULgqIBoicYfANXPac/edit?gid=0#gid=0
"How to Report ICE" brochures for every state available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1o8LADl9iGG7Pb7nQbM84cG-1knxA3dYx
I am not a brown person, but I want to be ready to act like those Chicago patriots when ICE comes to my city.
When we fight, we win.
Kent
These are great resources in the links, thank you! I signed up for a training.
I dropped my husband's and my absentee ballots in the county auditor's dropbox a few days ago and was able to verify online that they had been received. We have only city and school board elections, but they are important. For example, one of the school board candidates waffled on book bans (and didn't get our votes!). I mailed my last GOTV postcards on their designated mail date, Oct. 24. It's weird not to be writing postcards every evening at this point! I set up a monthly donation to our local food pantry. It is heartbreaking that so many Americans are, or soon will be, food insecure.
Many groups send post cards and you can probably find one in your jurisdiction that is active now. If not, Blue CD2 NM sends cards several times every year and people help us from as far away as Maine. Get a huge amount of information on our website bluecd2nm.com and sign up while you're at it. bluecd2nm.com
My county board of supervisors has already taken much of two meetings to squabble about supporting, or not, resolutions aimed in support of elements of the Trump Administration’s culture wars. I have decided that the next meeting, scheduled for Election Day itself, will include me during the “Oral Communication” section where we present issues Not Included on the formal agenda — if funding hasn’t been released by then — reading a condemnation of the Chief Executioner’s decision to withhold legally appropriated SNAP funding. I’m looking for numbers of recipients specific to victims of our county’s horrific complex fires, but the county’s recipient numbers as a whole are vast enough.
Yesterday's interview was outstanding. Thank you so much for bringing Graff on. I love the idea of Kavanaugh stops, and of course on not otherizing the people the administration is working so hard to dehumanize. Republican strategists have always been savvy about language, and their phraseology so often becomes mainstream. I really look forward to following Graff.
I gave a large donation to a local foodbank this morning after reading this post. Happy Sunday, all.
Yeah, Simon's point about not using any "othering" language to describe immigrants -- not even, say, "undocumented" -- was well-taken. They're just people, who are being horribly mistreated.
Voted yesterday, Oct 25, in NYC Mayoral race for Mamdani. Looked like a good turnout.
Here is an article about the ICE incident shown in the video. (gift link)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/25/chicago-tear-gas-irving-park/?share=phwcohtrigo2hh5o50tg
The Chicago Tribune videos are something to behold:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxblDNSyTV_oz6U1imAmgcc3fQhADmqmw
Thanks for sharing. It is unfathomable.
Oh my gosh. I’m in tears. This is so horrible and the neighbors are so inspiring. Thank you for sharing this. I hope it goes viral.
These people are showing great courage. We will see more of this courage across the country, I believe.
And thank goodness for the Chicago Tribune for capturing these videos.
During the last federal election in Canada the lines for early voting were very long, which can be expected in Toronto, but this time they were long in rural communities. At one level we were voting Liberal for Mark Carney, but our real motivation was voting against Trump. And when Canadians are motivated, we vote. The same thing happened when we were done with Steven Harper; we voted Liberal because we wanted Harper gone.
You know what that video reminds me of? The Bostonians, men and women, who heaped abuse on the redcoats who were occupying their city.
This article, in which Simon is quoted, is worth reading:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/26/democrats-no-kings-protests-trump
I have posted info about Hopium on my Pomona College class listserve. I hope it works- if so, its an easy way to get more subscribers.
Great idea!