The US Men's Soccer Team Wins, Inspires, And Brings Our Embattled Nation Together

"What has prevailed is that sense of community — a rebuttal of the divided, isolated world in which authoritarian voices delight"

Happy Saturday everyone. The 2026 US Men’s National Soccer Team is now officially our best since 1930. With our 2-0 win over Australia last night (without our best player Christian Pulisic) we’ve won our first two games, and two games in a row, for the first time in 96 years. We have now won our group and will advance to the knock out round of 32 teams in San Francisco on July 1st (after playing this Thursday night at 10pm ET against Turkiye). We’ve been playing very, very good soccer - ambitious, mature, selfless - and listen to the crowd yesterday in Seattle serenading our heroes after the match. Sound up peeps!!!!!!! Something magical is happening now:

Our friend Leon Krauze has a wonderful new essay in the Washington Post about this World Cup (gift link):

Here’s how Leon closes his essay:

Mexico itself has been transformed. Before the opening whistle, commentators fretted that the country’s various maladies — from poverty to violence and corruption — would mar the festivities. The country’s problems have of course not vanished. But the tournament has brought to the surface that other Mexico so often buried beneath the ugly headlines: a Mexico that is colorful, hospitable, generous and musical — chaotic in the best sense of the word. A Mexican fan (unsuccessfully) helping someone cross a gigantic puddle, Koreans and Mexicans dancing together inside a taqueria, a duck (named Merlin) wearing the team’s national colors — this is the Mexico I’m happy the world can glimpse.

Equivalent scenes have unfolded across all three host countries. The Scots took over the streets of Boston — and embraced a police officer who juggled a soccer ball a few times in front of them. The Brazilians painted Times Square yellow, days before the French turned it blue. The orange tide of the Dutch marched on Arlington, Texas, behind its double-decker bus; the Japanese fans, as they always do, stayed after the final whistle to tidy the stands. What has prevailed is that sense of community — a rebuttal of the divided, isolated world in which authoritarian voices delight.

The World Cup does not stop wars or end political cruelty. It does not make the world more democratic. It does not redeem governments or erase injustice. The ancient Ekecheiria [Olympic truce in ancient Greece] did not do that either. Its beauty lay precisely in its limits: It carved out a fragile space in which enemies could remember, however briefly, that they belonged to something larger than their quarrels. It was a truce that helped people see their better selves.

There is about a month left to hold on to that feeling. May it outlast the tournament itself.

Our starting eleven in our opening match last week

I also want to share an essay from Twitter that does a remarkable job at capturing the exciting dynamic we are seeing in the US Men’s team. It reminds us, as we so often hear on Ted Lasso, that indeed “football is life.” An excerpt:

The ball left Gio Reyna’s foot wrong. That’s the strange thing about the trivela, the strike with the outside of the boot that bends a ball against its will. It looks like a miskick right up until it doesn’t. 70,000 people at SoFi watched a kid who’d spent 3 years cast as the problem hit a ball with the part of his foot you’re taught never to use, in the 8th minute of stoppage time, and watched it curl past the keeper into the side netting.

Then Mauricio Pochettino ran.

Not the dignified manager fist-pump. He came off the technical area at a full sprint toward a substitute who’d been on the field 16 minutes, arms wide. That sprint is the story. A coach with a reputation for being hard to love, running to celebrate the exact player the last regime tried to send home.

Take the time to read both essays if you can and let us celebrate this remarkable global event that is bringing so much joy and togetherness across the world. Let us celebrate our team, perhaps the best we’ve ever had, diverse, global, led by an Argentinian coach. And let us consider how much this World Cup, being played in Canada, Mexico, and the US, is a clear, direct, powerful repudiation of the rancid, ridiculous white supremacy of the Trump regime. It is why perhaps rather than celebrating this extraordinary event that celebrates cultures from all over the world last week he built himself a cage which has left the White House looking like this today:

The reason Trump has worked so hard to ignore the World Cup and the historic success of our remarkable team is what Leon tells us in his essay:

What has prevailed is that sense of community — a rebuttal of the divided, isolated world in which authoritarian voices delight.

Yes, there is other news this morning but there will be time to get to that…….

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

Some Things To Call Congress About This Week

• Yes to making American oligarchs pay for Trump’s failed Iran war - not every day Americans

• Yes to the Ukraine Support Act, get it passed through the Senate and to the President’s desk

• No to the ballroom, the Arch, the gilded statues, the slush fund, the corruption, self-enrichment……

• hell no to Todd Blanche as Attorney General, and yes to very tough questioning of the new DNI nominee, Jay Clayton

• Hell hell no to the new OMB regs that will destroy government-funded science in America. Join the new Stand Up For Science campaign to Stop Vought. Save Science today.

Help Make Hopium Stronger, Bigger, Better

A big thank you to everyone who has become a paid subscriber in recent days. We’ve signed up 137 new people, strong progress towards our goal of 500 by July 4th. Take 10% off a paid annual Hopium subscription today and help make our Independence Day membership sale and drive a success. Follow the link for group and gift subscriptions too!

Winning The Midterms, Competing In Red States and Red Places, Expanding The Map

(Please be patient as we overhaul and update this section)

Supporting Battleground Candidates For The House and Senate

Caitlin Conley For NY-17 - We’ve launched a special campaign to help Cait Conley win her primary next Tuesday in one of the most flippable House seats in the country. Donate here, and watch my interview with Cait - West Point grad, special ops leader, 3 times Bronze Star recipient. We’ve already blown past our initial goal of $10,000 as of this morning, as we are already over $16,000 now. Can we get to $25,000 by Monday?

Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign - $785,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal (new ambitious, audacious even, q2 goal) - Donate to all twelve of our endorsed House challengers with a single contribution split twelve ways | Get to know Jamie Ager (NC-11), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Elaine Luria (VA-02), Sean McCann (MI-04), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), Chaz Molder (TN-05), Jonathan Nez (AZ-02), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-03) by watching our recently recorded Hopium interviews.

Friends if these twelve win, the House will flip, no matter redistricting madness the Rs execute in the coming days. So eyes on the prize here everyone!

Hopium’s Winning The House - Second Wave - $83,400 raised, $250,000 goal - We’ve launched a second House fund, one targeting candidates who’ve recently emerged from primaries or have to run in new districts. Our initial crew is Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Denise Powell (NE-02), and Bobby Pulido (TX-15).

A donation to the Second Wave Fund is split evenly among these six, and more as other worthy candidates emerge for their primaries. We are off to a great start here people!

Josh Turek For Iowa Senate - $19,800 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more and volunteer | Watch my wonderful new interview with Josh Turek

Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $105,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my uplifting conversation with Mary Peltola as she fights to turn Alaska blue

James Talarico For Texas - $87,700 raised, $250,000 - Donate | Learn more from my inspiring interview with Rep. Talarico as he fights to turn Texas blue

Graham Platner For Maine Senate - $3,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more and volunteer

Jon Ossoff GA Senate - $188,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my uplifting conversation with Senator Ossoff

Roy Cooper for NC Senate - $124,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my new discussion with Gov. Cooper

Expanding The Map - Investing And Winning In Key Expansion States (we will filling out this section in coming days)

Winning Iowa - $7,400 raised, $100,000 goal - We’ve also set up a new Winning Iowa campaign that splits a contribution three ways - to Turek, to Gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, and to the Iowa Democratic Party and its great chair, Rita Hart | Watch my new interview with our great gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand

Winning Ohio - $162,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party | Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue

Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $599,500 raised, $1,000,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Join our campaign that has helped expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas, all now central battlegrounds in the 2026 election | Catch interviews with the five intrepid state chairs leading their troops into battle this year - will get you fired up! and use the link to make contributions to any of the state parties directly | Contribute to all five state parties with one contribution split evenly among these five critical battlegrounds.

Please use the paid subscriber chat to self-report the good trouble you make each day.

Keep working hard everyone. We have a country to save, and elections all across this great country to win, together! - Simon