Keep the info coming because we need to hear it often. Unfollowed another podcast today, The New Abnormal, when they descended into the usual Biden is dooomed...."the economy only looks good on paper, the vibes are still bad, if you have to tell people things are good," Biden low approval, cratering with 18-29 year olds....Gaza!....it's just a broken record that some of our friends on the further left can't let go of, but moreover we don't have time to sit around wailing about this stuff. Get out and talk to people; it's person to person contact that moves the needle the most. My BIL is a big gun nut, but he lives near Lewiston, ME....I have been there many times.They thought that kind of gun violence couldn't happen in their sleepy little town. Now they are stunned. It created an opening, especially when a local rep admitted he had been wrong about his gun votes. These things matter, much more than Gaza, which, if the US was really so hated over, then Biden and Blinken wouldn't be given so much deference by the saner governments in the area. We can do this, and to be a little fair to the folks at New Abnormal, they did start off with how bad things look for trump, but they had to ruin it by bringing out all the negative polling we have been hearing since about Aug. 2021. Biden is doing a good job with Gaza, and he likely has lost the Arab vote, but what can you do. Thank you for your efforts, and I hope we can all wake up to a second Biden term next Nov. Any thoughts on our old friend Joe Manchin?
I agree that we can be the best influencers of our friends and family. And sometimes even strangers.
I was handing out Blue ballots during early voting last fall for a local election that included 3 at-large seats on the county school board. It was a non-partisan race with 13 candidates including 3 "Moms for Liberty" types running together as a "Unity" caucus and one "normal" GOP candidate. So the county Democratic Party interviewed all the candidates and endorsed 3 of them. A very nice older woman came over to talk with me. I offered her a blue ballot and mentioned the school board rac and a school bond issue as being very important. She agreed and mentioned she was a retired teacher. I gave her info about the danger of Moms for Liberty and she agreed that sounded bad, but she was a Republican and had never voted for a Democrat in her life. I gave it one last shot. and told her this was a non-partisan race so there were no (R)s or (D)s next to their names so she wouldn't technically be voting for Democrats. . She took my ballot and went in to vote. I was pleasantly surprised when she came up to me after voting and told me she had voted for "my" candidates. You just never know what will make a difference...
Regarding the 18-29 yo vote, we went to our Congressman's (Jason Crow) town hall last week and it erupted into chaos due to the actions of about a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters. It took about half an hour to get everything back under control, but what surprised us was their very vocal support for Hamas. They were arguing with Rep Crow that Hamas wasn't a terrorist organization, condemning the Israelis alone for everything that followed from October 7th. Do we think that the "youth vote" will go all in for the pro-Hamas position (one that we hadn't encountered anywhere before that night)? Seems like a pretty extreme position to take...
Not effective tactics in my view, and of course having young Americans openly backing a barbaric terrorist organization is terrible. But it's important we lean into this debate, and not run from it. The Middle East is a complicated place and there are no simple or easy answers here.
The pro-Hamas types were never going to vote for Biden, even before the war. They sit on the sidelines, complaining on the internet and wondering why the Socialist Workers Party hasn't won the presidency.
Biden has now overseen 10.76 million fewer layoffs than Trump to equivalent point of his presidency. On whole you are 17% less likely to experience a layoff under Biden than Trump's pre-pandemic numbers.
Each month, between now and November, I’m going to donate, say $20, and get 8 friends to donate $10/each to a candidate of our choice. (This month it was Tom Suozzi.) The goal is to make a $100 donation each month. Most people, even those who don’t have a lot of disposable income, can afford 10 bucks a month. I know $100 isn’t that much but if dozens or hundreds (or more) did this it would have an impact.
Hi Simon, we have early voting now in VA for the presidential primary in March. We can vote for any party and someone suggested I vote as a Republican and vote for any one other than trump. Would doing this benefit the Dems and if so, how?
I am not a big fan of Democrats crossing over to vote for Republicans. I know there are different schools of thought about this but if your state has a Presidential primary vote for Joe Biden, not the others guys.
Just donated (again) to Tom in NY and the Biden campaign. I may be in blue Minnesota, but I’m following your lead to donate when and where I can! Get involved. Stay involved. It’s the grassroots that will win this thing. Thanks, Simon, for providing the roadmap.
Thank you for keeping me and thousands of others grounded in reality as we approach Nov 2024. Hopium community inspired me and my friends to create what I’m calling the “Worry Less Do More Postcards Campaign” targeting voters in Cochise, Graham, Greenlee Counties in AZCD06. We’re using eye catching cards that look nothing like typical campaign mail. This is the under resourced portion of the district where Ciscomani beat Engel in 2022 by more than 25K votes but only won by 5,232. Within two weeks, we signed up 40 volunteers who will each personalize 500 postcards for a total of 20,000. I expect we will be dropping 40K on Sept 30 just before mail-in ballots arrive. All volunteer grassroots effort not affiliated or coordinated with a campaign. Onward!
Have you heard about the Northeast Arizona Native Democrats (https://neaznativedemocrats.org/)? They have on-the-ground programs using Native organizers in Navajo, Apache, and Coconino counties and rely on year-round postcard campaigns to connect voters to their local organizer and recruit members of the tribal community to act as "influencers" by leveraging tribal customs. You can sign up on Mobilize for a Friday "event" which is actually a request for a list of postcards - usually 20 - 25 to be send out within the next couple of weeks or to be held for a specific future mail date.
They are also in the process of introducing a self-serve option where you can request postcards anytime with a minimum of 5 addresses.
They have some compelling eveidence that their effort really makes a difference. Per their statistics, only 2 counties in AZ saw an increase in turnout in 2022 over the 2018 midterms (which was before this program started) - Navajo and Apache counties. And the increase was almost entirely in precincts on tribal lands.
Hi Simon - not very good at this tech stuff, but just read “Marissa from the Handbasket” today & her term “milquetoast” Suozzi as a candidate. I know very little about NY3’s demographic, but this just threw me a punch. I’m continuing to write postcards despite. Thx for your work. Jeannette
They complain about milquetoast because they won't have the performance art of a guy like Santos anymore, and his R replacement seems to have some issues in the truth dept. as well. Milquetoast is exactly what exhausted voters want right now, after years of histrionics from trump and his mini-me republican clones.
Tom Suozzi has been busting his butt to get to multiple campaign events each day while it appears his opponent is rarely seen in the community and is relying on the GOP "machine" to get her elected.
I'm now on his volunteer email newsletter list and she apparently skipped 3 candidate forums the other week in the various communities in the district. It sounds like if effort put into getting elected were correlated with results, Tom would win in a landslide. But with today's hyper-partisan environment it is all going to come down to whose side gets better turnout.
Happy to read in this morning's Times: "Biden Super PAC Plans a Historic $250 Million Ad Blitz.
The flood of TV and digital spots in battleground states is set to be the largest single purchase of political advertising by a super PAC in U.S. history, according to the group, Future Forward. The ad reservation covers seven states that are seen as the main presidential battlegrounds: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin."
For anyone who has been writing postcards for Suozzi: I got an email from Markers for Democracy who has been sponsoring the Sundays for Suozzi postcard parties. They suggest that everyone mail their postcards no later than next Tuesday or mabye Wednesday IF you live in NY, NJ, or CT.
FYI - On Saturday(1/27), I got a Priority Mail envelope from USPS with an order of stamps I put in before the recent price increase. The USPS store had printed the mailing label on Jan. 11 and it took over 2 weeks to reach me - apparnently it got stuck in a postal facility somewhere due to snow . Under Dejoy's "leadership" the USPS sure isn't what it used to be. Therefore, I plan to write whatever additional psotcards I write at the last Sunday's for Suozzi postcard party and get them in the mail Monday morning.
Thank you Simon, always, for your support and uplifting encouragement. Also, thanks so much to the Hopium Community for writing postcards for Tom Suozzi NY3, so important for democracy and for Democrats.
I have a paid ZOOM account and would be interested in hosting a virtual letter writing party with my peeps here at Hopium. If you would be interested in participating, please send me an email at cjohnson1156@carolina.rr.com and include your general availability: weekday am; weekday pm; Saturday am or Sunday pm. (I am in NC, so I think in EST). I get a boatload of email, so please mention Hopium or Vote Forward in the subject line.
If you aren't already a Vote Forward volunteer, I suggest signing up now. IIRC they vet volunteers and ask them to provide a sample response to the question "I vote because...". It needs to be non-partisan but that doesn't mean you can't mention specific issues - just not candidates or parties. You can definitely mention causes that are important to you like reproductive freedom, gun violence prevention, or climate change.
Vote Forward has some really good help topics including:
One of the primary goals of Hopium is to help all of you become more powerful and muscular info warriors for our democracy. Stay with the data every day, study it, share it with your networks and over time all of these arguments and data will become yours.
Yes, but Simon....don’t underestimate how impressed the American people will be by how many cognitive tests Trump is lying about taking and acing 🤷♂️😂. Let’s kick this guy’s ass friends! 😎🇺🇸
Lol.... literally just saw that a few minutes ago and was happy to see Simon getting a good chuckle from the absurdity too. I know the gravity of the situation and I take it seriously, but every now and then I have to break up the sheer anger I feel for the bind Rs have put our country in with a laugh at the utter ridiculousness of who and what they are disgracing themselves for. Ok....back to work! 🤦♂️😂🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Keep the info coming because we need to hear it often. Unfollowed another podcast today, The New Abnormal, when they descended into the usual Biden is dooomed...."the economy only looks good on paper, the vibes are still bad, if you have to tell people things are good," Biden low approval, cratering with 18-29 year olds....Gaza!....it's just a broken record that some of our friends on the further left can't let go of, but moreover we don't have time to sit around wailing about this stuff. Get out and talk to people; it's person to person contact that moves the needle the most. My BIL is a big gun nut, but he lives near Lewiston, ME....I have been there many times.They thought that kind of gun violence couldn't happen in their sleepy little town. Now they are stunned. It created an opening, especially when a local rep admitted he had been wrong about his gun votes. These things matter, much more than Gaza, which, if the US was really so hated over, then Biden and Blinken wouldn't be given so much deference by the saner governments in the area. We can do this, and to be a little fair to the folks at New Abnormal, they did start off with how bad things look for trump, but they had to ruin it by bringing out all the negative polling we have been hearing since about Aug. 2021. Biden is doing a good job with Gaza, and he likely has lost the Arab vote, but what can you do. Thank you for your efforts, and I hope we can all wake up to a second Biden term next Nov. Any thoughts on our old friend Joe Manchin?
I agree that we can be the best influencers of our friends and family. And sometimes even strangers.
I was handing out Blue ballots during early voting last fall for a local election that included 3 at-large seats on the county school board. It was a non-partisan race with 13 candidates including 3 "Moms for Liberty" types running together as a "Unity" caucus and one "normal" GOP candidate. So the county Democratic Party interviewed all the candidates and endorsed 3 of them. A very nice older woman came over to talk with me. I offered her a blue ballot and mentioned the school board rac and a school bond issue as being very important. She agreed and mentioned she was a retired teacher. I gave her info about the danger of Moms for Liberty and she agreed that sounded bad, but she was a Republican and had never voted for a Democrat in her life. I gave it one last shot. and told her this was a non-partisan race so there were no (R)s or (D)s next to their names so she wouldn't technically be voting for Democrats. . She took my ballot and went in to vote. I was pleasantly surprised when she came up to me after voting and told me she had voted for "my" candidates. You just never know what will make a difference...
Great to hear about you BIL waking up about guns.
Awesome story Cheryl!
Agreed. Amazing story Cheryl!
Regarding the 18-29 yo vote, we went to our Congressman's (Jason Crow) town hall last week and it erupted into chaos due to the actions of about a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters. It took about half an hour to get everything back under control, but what surprised us was their very vocal support for Hamas. They were arguing with Rep Crow that Hamas wasn't a terrorist organization, condemning the Israelis alone for everything that followed from October 7th. Do we think that the "youth vote" will go all in for the pro-Hamas position (one that we hadn't encountered anywhere before that night)? Seems like a pretty extreme position to take...
Not effective tactics in my view, and of course having young Americans openly backing a barbaric terrorist organization is terrible. But it's important we lean into this debate, and not run from it. The Middle East is a complicated place and there are no simple or easy answers here.
The pro-Hamas types were never going to vote for Biden, even before the war. They sit on the sidelines, complaining on the internet and wondering why the Socialist Workers Party hasn't won the presidency.
Good point...
Biden has now overseen 10.76 million fewer layoffs than Trump to equivalent point of his presidency. On whole you are 17% less likely to experience a layoff under Biden than Trump's pre-pandemic numbers.
I have an idea:
Each month, between now and November, I’m going to donate, say $20, and get 8 friends to donate $10/each to a candidate of our choice. (This month it was Tom Suozzi.) The goal is to make a $100 donation each month. Most people, even those who don’t have a lot of disposable income, can afford 10 bucks a month. I know $100 isn’t that much but if dozens or hundreds (or more) did this it would have an impact.
That’s my kitchen table plan anyway.
#inittowinit
Yes, sounds good. Let us know how it goes!
Hi Simon, we have early voting now in VA for the presidential primary in March. We can vote for any party and someone suggested I vote as a Republican and vote for any one other than trump. Would doing this benefit the Dems and if so, how?
I am not a big fan of Democrats crossing over to vote for Republicans. I know there are different schools of thought about this but if your state has a Presidential primary vote for Joe Biden, not the others guys.
Yeah...the polling experts have enough trouble without us playing tricks on them! 😉 Thank you.
Just donated (again) to Tom in NY and the Biden campaign. I may be in blue Minnesota, but I’m following your lead to donate when and where I can! Get involved. Stay involved. It’s the grassroots that will win this thing. Thanks, Simon, for providing the roadmap.
thank you Pete!
Thank you for keeping me and thousands of others grounded in reality as we approach Nov 2024. Hopium community inspired me and my friends to create what I’m calling the “Worry Less Do More Postcards Campaign” targeting voters in Cochise, Graham, Greenlee Counties in AZCD06. We’re using eye catching cards that look nothing like typical campaign mail. This is the under resourced portion of the district where Ciscomani beat Engel in 2022 by more than 25K votes but only won by 5,232. Within two weeks, we signed up 40 volunteers who will each personalize 500 postcards for a total of 20,000. I expect we will be dropping 40K on Sept 30 just before mail-in ballots arrive. All volunteer grassroots effort not affiliated or coordinated with a campaign. Onward!
That sounds great!
Have you heard about the Northeast Arizona Native Democrats (https://neaznativedemocrats.org/)? They have on-the-ground programs using Native organizers in Navajo, Apache, and Coconino counties and rely on year-round postcard campaigns to connect voters to their local organizer and recruit members of the tribal community to act as "influencers" by leveraging tribal customs. You can sign up on Mobilize for a Friday "event" which is actually a request for a list of postcards - usually 20 - 25 to be send out within the next couple of weeks or to be held for a specific future mail date.
https://www.mobilize.us/aznativeorganizingcampaign/event/527542/
They are also in the process of introducing a self-serve option where you can request postcards anytime with a minimum of 5 addresses.
They have some compelling eveidence that their effort really makes a difference. Per their statistics, only 2 counties in AZ saw an increase in turnout in 2022 over the 2018 midterms (which was before this program started) - Navajo and Apache counties. And the increase was almost entirely in precincts on tribal lands.
Yes..they are doing great work and one of my friends is involved with this project
Great!
Wow, amazing. Can you send me photos of some of the cards?
Happy to….what’s your email address?
Hit reply to the email you receive each day and it will get to me.....
thank you!
I just figured it out 😀
Hi Simon - not very good at this tech stuff, but just read “Marissa from the Handbasket” today & her term “milquetoast” Suozzi as a candidate. I know very little about NY3’s demographic, but this just threw me a punch. I’m continuing to write postcards despite. Thx for your work. Jeannette
They complain about milquetoast because they won't have the performance art of a guy like Santos anymore, and his R replacement seems to have some issues in the truth dept. as well. Milquetoast is exactly what exhausted voters want right now, after years of histrionics from trump and his mini-me republican clones.
Sort of the same argument as they use with Biden vs, Trump?
I have been attending the last few Sundays for Suozzi postcarding parties where you can get the inside scoop from locals. (There is one more this coming Sunday - https://www.mobilize.us/suozziforcongress/event/596053/).
Tom Suozzi has been busting his butt to get to multiple campaign events each day while it appears his opponent is rarely seen in the community and is relying on the GOP "machine" to get her elected.
I'm now on his volunteer email newsletter list and she apparently skipped 3 candidate forums the other week in the various communities in the district. It sounds like if effort put into getting elected were correlated with results, Tom would win in a landslide. But with today's hyper-partisan environment it is all going to come down to whose side gets better turnout.
Tom is a great candidate, a good man and will be the next Congressman from NY-3 if we do the work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy to read in this morning's Times: "Biden Super PAC Plans a Historic $250 Million Ad Blitz.
The flood of TV and digital spots in battleground states is set to be the largest single purchase of political advertising by a super PAC in U.S. history, according to the group, Future Forward. The ad reservation covers seven states that are seen as the main presidential battlegrounds: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/us/politics/biden-tv-ads-super-pac.html
Wonder if they have given up on GA....
Georgia is included in the list of seven states they're targeting.
No.
I'll look forward to seeing these ads snd reporting back to Hopium re: their focus and ferocity🤞
Note North Carolina on the list. We need to go for it here.
For anyone who has been writing postcards for Suozzi: I got an email from Markers for Democracy who has been sponsoring the Sundays for Suozzi postcard parties. They suggest that everyone mail their postcards no later than next Tuesday or mabye Wednesday IF you live in NY, NJ, or CT.
FYI - On Saturday(1/27), I got a Priority Mail envelope from USPS with an order of stamps I put in before the recent price increase. The USPS store had printed the mailing label on Jan. 11 and it took over 2 weeks to reach me - apparnently it got stuck in a postal facility somewhere due to snow . Under Dejoy's "leadership" the USPS sure isn't what it used to be. Therefore, I plan to write whatever additional psotcards I write at the last Sunday's for Suozzi postcard party and get them in the mail Monday morning.
Cheryl thanks for all your help here, every day. It matters.
Thank you Simon, always, for your support and uplifting encouragement. Also, thanks so much to the Hopium Community for writing postcards for Tom Suozzi NY3, so important for democracy and for Democrats.
I just got an email from Vote Forward with a preview of their letter writing strategy for 2024:
"Here’s a peek at what you can expect from Vote Forward in March:
New letter writing campaigns for AZ, GA, MI, NV, NH, NC, PA, and WI, eight of Swing Left’s 2024 Super States (Early March)
A letter writing Week of Action, where volunteers across the country will host virtual and in-person letter writing events (Week of March 11)"
They also mentioned that their campaigns will align with the Swing Left strateg, which can found here:
https://swingleft.org/p/strategy
I have a paid ZOOM account and would be interested in hosting a virtual letter writing party with my peeps here at Hopium. If you would be interested in participating, please send me an email at cjohnson1156@carolina.rr.com and include your general availability: weekday am; weekday pm; Saturday am or Sunday pm. (I am in NC, so I think in EST). I get a boatload of email, so please mention Hopium or Vote Forward in the subject line.
If you aren't already a Vote Forward volunteer, I suggest signing up now. IIRC they vet volunteers and ask them to provide a sample response to the question "I vote because...". It needs to be non-partisan but that doesn't mean you can't mention specific issues - just not candidates or parties. You can definitely mention causes that are important to you like reproductive freedom, gun violence prevention, or climate change.
Vote Forward has some really good help topics including:
https://votefwd.org/instructions
https://help.votefwd.org/article/43-what-should-i-write
https://help.votefwd.org/article/115-can-i-encourage-voting-for-particular-candidates-or-political-parties-in-my-handwritten-message
RE: Dobbs Changed Everything - it certainly did. In an odd twist of fate, I think that we owe FORMER president Trump a thank you.
Great posting today! Thank you! A lot of people I know are worried trump will win! With your data, I tell them “no way” and send them your newsletter!
One of the primary goals of Hopium is to help all of you become more powerful and muscular info warriors for our democracy. Stay with the data every day, study it, share it with your networks and over time all of these arguments and data will become yours.
Jess Craven/Chop Wood,Carry Water) hosts a weekly Weds. phone bank for Tom Suozzi.
📲 https://www.mobilize.us/swingleft/event/595948/
I also subscribe to her Substack. She really helps with the "Worry Less, Do More" philosophy!
Very good.
Yes, but Simon....don’t underestimate how impressed the American people will be by how many cognitive tests Trump is lying about taking and acing 🤷♂️😂. Let’s kick this guy’s ass friends! 😎🇺🇸
STEVE!!!! Omg! Simon on MeidasTouch!
Yippee!
https://youtu.be/xEGD7x9Ftb0?si=dDeY6x4p_e9GmD9X
Lol.... literally just saw that a few minutes ago and was happy to see Simon getting a good chuckle from the absurdity too. I know the gravity of the situation and I take it seriously, but every now and then I have to break up the sheer anger I feel for the bind Rs have put our country in with a laugh at the utter ridiculousness of who and what they are disgracing themselves for. Ok....back to work! 🤦♂️😂🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
1 bazillion %!!! Seeing them cut up was nice. And the Blue Tsunami rising!