Morning all. Our Hopium paid subscribers gathered last night for our weekly get together. It was a well-attended and lively affair. A video recording of our discussion is above and a transcript is here.
Some notes from the presentation last night and this morning’s news:
FUBAR - Tankers burning in the Gulf. Oil prices spiking again. The Trump regime looks like pathetic amateurs, way over their head, Epstein desperate, and easy “take the win and go home” options getting harder to see.
Oil is back up to $100 a barrel despite a massive intervention by global governments:
Gas prices keep rising in the US:
Trump is doing enormous damage to an American economy already weakened by his destructive policies (more here and here); and enormous damage to his party already weakened by his failed 2nd term.
Eight months out from the election Republicans are now coming to grips with the reality that as bad as things are for them they are going to get worse. Inflation is going to get worse. Interest rates are not going to come down. The economy will slow further. The deficit will grow even bigger. The effects of their enormous cuts to our health care system are going to start becoming far more evident as the year goes on. The Epstein scandal has metastasized, and may threaten not just Trump but many other senior Republican leaders. Miller’s overreach has turned their defining issue - immigration - into a scaring liability.
It’s going to get worse for them for Democrats have a significant advantage in the elections right now before we’ve been begun to communicate. Consider that almost every Republican incumbent in Congress running in a competitive race has voted for:
the war, higher gas prices, higher prices, slower economy
the tariffs, higher prices, higher energy prices, slower economy, battered farmers and small businesses
the gutting of our health care system, higher prices, less access to care, the break down of our public health care system as measles and other diseases are returning
The ICE terror regime and mass deportation, something Republicans are now running away from as fast as they can
Unaffordable tax cuts for the richest among us, making clear whose side they are on - the oligarchs, not the people
As we discussed last night Trump’s huge Iran f*ck up is making it more likely we have the election we all want to have this November. There are two things we must focus on that may interfere with us winning this November - their financial advantage, and whatever election fuckery Trump will attempt.
As for the money its why we need to providing financial and volunteer support for our candidates and party committees now. This will be the first election cycle in a long time where we will be outspent. And we must do what we can to close the gap with the corrupt crew of oligarchs and techbros that will be pouring unprecedented sums to keep the Republicans in power.
The second is the election fuckery. If you are concerned about this the single most important thing you can do to counter it is help us win the election by as a large a margin as possible, so that whatever Trump and the Rs attempt will become far harder to execute. Our energy, our emotional core, must remain focused on winning the conventional election in 2026. What Trump wants more than anything else is rather than us feeling confident, strong, optimistic and going out and winning this election by a rout, that we spend our time being scared, fearful, and unfocused on the task at hand - which is degrading him, helping our candidates and party committees, and winning the election.
When we talk about him cheating and rigging the elections we make a very weakened and failing politician strong; we turn the old man behind the curtain into the Wizard; we put clothes on the naked Emperor. This is why he and his allies are going to talk about SAVE, seizing ballots, and god knows what else every day for they want you scared, and fearful, spreading fear and uncertainty and doubt through your networks. And my advice - don’t play along. Understand the game. This is what they call “cognitive warfare.” Their fuckery is not just in the real world it is also targeted towards our minds and our emotional state. And again the best way to overcome your fear and worry is to channel it back into concrete action to help us win. As a family, 95% of our time and attention should be on messaging against him, building up our party and candidates, organizing No Kings, doing voter reg, volunteering for your state party to do election monitoring work, donating, grinding, working. They want you to believe none of it matters. They want you to withdraw and not do the work that we all do every two years. Every moment you spend freaking out about election interference is a win for Trump and a loss for us - and we do not want to give him wins ever.
The DNC and the state parties are talking, planning, coming up with strategies to mitigate whatever it is they do. The Dem AGs and Secretaries of States are meeting, planning, coordinating. Super lawyer Marc Elias is already in court fighting, pushing them back, closing doors and kicking their ass. John Thune has told Trump the SAVE Act cannot pass the Senate. We are not powerless, and the powers that be are organizing, preparing, getting ready.
Here at Hopium we do, we do not worry. Worry is corrosive, demobilizing, what they want. Here we do more and worry less. The whole idea behind Hopium was to take that worry we all have and channel into concrete action to make things better, to lift us up, to make us strong and them weak; to make us winners and them losers; to make us successful and them failures.
There is going to be a massive psychological campaign waged against us in the coming months. Bots, fake accounts, right wing influencers, fake polls, foreign governments, Trump and all his rancid allies are going to try to rewrite the story of this election, and make him strong and us weak; him a success and us failures; him a big burly winner and us weak, pathetic, timid losers. They will encourage us to fight with one another and not him. They will be flooding social media with messages of the weakness of our party leadership, of “omigod did you see that terrible vote Senator x took”; of our party being out of touch and corrupt. They will exploit seams in our party, and do everything they can to pit us against one another, and fight ourselves and not them.
They want us to be weak, and them strong. This is what they do. We know it is coming. And we must anticipate it, understand it, and not help them in this effort. See yourself as a combatant in the daily info war, and be smart, strategic, and do not become an unwitting ally to MAGA’s dark game. Live in the light not the darkness. Help us come together, and do everything you - everything you can - to prevent us from falling apart. For we are stronger together than apart. And bringing us together, and keeping us together, has to become understood as a powerful act of defiance.
That’s what we talked about last night. Watch, hit “like above so more people will see it, share it with your friends, provide feedback below, and now….
Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!
Winning The Midterms, Competing In Red States and Red Places, Expanding The Map
Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $304,200 raised, $400,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate to all twelve of our endorsed House challengers with one click | Learn More | Enjoy our new conversations with Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), and Janelle Stelson (PA-10) and learn more about the eight candidates we just added to our campaign here.
We will be meeting the rest of our newly expanded slate of intrepid House candidates in the coming weeks. It’s a great crew! This fundraising total includes funds already raised with our friends at FridayAction for a joint event we’re doing later this month.
James Talarico For Texas - $27,500 raised, $100,000 March 31st goal - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More | Watch my recent interview with Rep. Talarico
Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $45,700 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More. Amazing start everyone!
Winning Ohio - $72,400 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!
Watch my conversation with David Pepper, who provides a great overview of the opportunities we have in Ohio this year. Note a generous donor has sent $21,000 worth of Hopium-infused contributions directly to the candidates which are not included in our on-line goal tracker.
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $85,300 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my conversation with Gov. Cooper
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $138,900 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $405,400 raised, $500,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Join our new campaign to expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas, and catch interviews with 5 intrepid state party chairs leading us into battle this year.
Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties.
Advocate For The Hopium Agenda/Pass Resolutions Of Condemnation In Your Community/Four Speeches To Study/Sign Up For No Kings on March 28th
There are a few more ways to go to work in the coming days - call your leaders and advocate for elements of our working, ever evolving Hopium Agenda; bring resolutions that condemn our Mad King and lets facts be spoken to a candid world to your state or local government; sign up for a No Kings event and watch my new interview with Indivisible’s Ezra Levin, a driving force behind No Kings.
Here’s our working Hopium Post-Iran Disaster Agenda:
Work To End This New Gulf War, And Trump’s Global Imperial Ambitions
Make Clear We Support Ukraine and Europe, Not Russia
Roll Back The New, Illegal Tariffs
Rescind The Trump Tax Cuts, Claw Back The Extra ICE Funding
Make The US A Clean Energy Superpower, Fight For True Energy Independence, And Lower Energy Prices For The American People
Keep Fighting To Rein In ICE, End Mass Deportation
This week our calls should clearly focus on reining in both the illegal war in the Middle East and ICE here at home.
I also strongly advise studying four recent speeches. All have new, pioneering narratives and language that feels like where we need to be heading this year:
Governor Abigail Spanberger State Of The Union Response
Senator Alex Padilla State Of The Union Response
Leader Hakeem Jeffries War Powers Speech (3/4/26)
James Talarico General Election Kickoff (3/4/26)
Keep working hard all. We are entering a dangerous place, and we need to be very, very loud now - Simon
