Please take this post down. The piece starts with effusive praise of Scott Jennings and the writer is former Reagan White House staff. This kind of stuff should not be brought in here or taken seriously.
Simon, I’m surprised to read your response and perhaps I’m not being clear. It’s your Substack so I’ll do as you wish, but as I said, I’m asking you and our community (as a paid subscriber) to put aside the praise for Jennings (whom I agree doesn’t deserve praise). I’m asking what I think is a legitimate question: What do you (and the community) think of the polling data? I’m concerned that the new Trump voters to which you referred in your recent video aren’t getting the message about the Trump Party, even with the awful budget bill. We’re on the same team here; I think it’s important to consider the hard questions, even if they come from a Reagan staffer, if we’re going to break through and end the Trump GOP nightmare.
Hope this offers better context for my question. That said, I will post this so that you hopefully see it, and then remove my post.
I will continue to share polling and analysis from a wide variety of commentators but I am not going to respond to a commentator and analyst who begins his analysis by saying that Scott Jennings should be paid more money and is a common sense commentator. Lots and lots of places to go get data and analysis to bring in here but not from these extremists, please.
OK, fair enough. I guess I didn’t really take that stuff seriously anyway, and thought my caveat would suffice (but I was obviously wrong). I appreciate you engaging this thread despite your objections to its posting. Congrats on your success with Hopium; I’ll continue to be a supporter but will apply your rules of the road going forward.
That was fascinating to watch! I also imagine it's chilling to hear in person-- it is loud and intentional! I only first learned about the Maori when I taught 6th grade Social Studies between 2002-2006. That same Fall, I watched the University of Hawaii football team (who was having a stellar season) perform a pre-game haka in the end-zone at an opponent's stadium. It was mesmerizing!
The team more recently started performing the ha'a, which they state is more closely aligned with Hawaiian/Polynesian culture.
I would love to see Chuck Schumer (74) leading all Senate Democrats older than 75 in a very assertive Haka! (Or the entire caucus!) Do it live on SNL! – and let it go viral!
Senior citizens in Florida will be very negatively impacted by the Trump-MAGA budget, which is chipping away at their Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
Democrats have a golden opportunity to turn this into election wins in Florida!
The issue of paid caregiving for individuals with special needs, including children, adults, and seniors, nationwide, is larger than anyone can grasp. Post-COVID, we face a scarcity of American-born individuals returning to this important and not-so-glamorous work.
This includes nursing homes with a very large workforce of immigrants who are diligent and well-trained in their own countries.
I was caregiver to my elderly father at his home in South Florida from 2020 till his death in 2024, and guess where 90% of the home health aides came from? Yep, Haiti. Ship ‘em all back, sure, then let’s see where the wealthy elderly of Palm Beach get home health aides to change their diapers. Great idea. Don’t take my sarcasm wrong, please, as almost all of these caregivers were wonderful people who gave top notch care and kept my dad alive into his 90s, while going to nursing school to advance their careers in the US. We need good people like this desperately in this country.
This article suggests how to launch(/prepare, really; we want to make a show of force to force Palantir's hand) an effective boycott of Palantir (mainly through their partners). For those who did not hear the story, a NYT article from about a week ago suggested that the Trump Administration was trying to tap Palantir for a "master database."
Please feel free to give me any feedback on the article; I would certainly greatly appreciate it. And I humbly submit the idea to the Hopium Community and to Simon's discretion.
Thank you for this Simon. This revoking the TPS is unconscionable. No wonder people don't trust the US government. We have to stop this. America is better than this. Statelessness is what Hitler did to the Jews in the 1930s.
Finished up my Field 6 postcards to register Democratic voters in NJ while watching Coco Gauff win the French Open. Some Americans - many Americans - can still make us proud.
I often compare politics to tennis. We just need to get the ball over the net one more time than they do.
Self report on D-Day protest for veterans - ~150 of us showed up in Redwood City at a major intersection for a couple hours. The previous regular Friday protest I went to two weeks ago had ~25. Lots more flags present. A higher percentage of passing cars honked for us! One Trumper passed with a “Trump 2024” flag. I had a good discussion with a disabled vet who works at the VA. Lots of enthusiasm for NoKings day next week! I also spent some time watching D-Day documentaries - Antifa at work….
I’m not a veteran, but support the veterans who first got screwed by being sent off to war by liars and thieves, and then have to fight for their health in the aftermath of war. I am channeling my dad, a WW2 vet (flew C47s in the South Pacific) who became an anti-Vietnam organizer and took me to my first protests in 1969. We went together to anti-Iraq protests in 2003, same old story of being lied into war and sending young people off as cannon fodder.
Three items in the Irish Times caught my attention today. The first is that Ireland has registered a 22% annual increase in GDP. How can this be?
"Big pharma companies have been rushing product over to the US to try to get drugs and key ingredients into the market before Donald Trump announces tariffs on the sector. This has led to a surge in exports, feeding into the GDP data."
The second is the last of six columns written by Lieut. Yulia Mykytenko, a drone operator in Ukraine. She has many interesting things to say in her column. In commenting on Operation Spider Web, she wrote, "It may provide some respite to Ukrainian cities, and I hope it will change the narrative. Our allies always overestimate Russia’s strength and underestimate ours."
In writing about their Trojan trucks, which had infiltrated Russia, she said, "The lids opened and drones flew out in attack mode. I don’t know all the details, but I certainly agree with the British defence commentator who said the operation shows that Ukraine’s armed forces are the most innovative in the world." She adds, "In the Oval Office last February 28th, Donald Trump taunted President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with the words 'You don’t have the cards.' Zelenskiy held his cards very close to his chest while he supervised the planning of Spider’s Web over 18 months. Ukrainian memes and videos mock Trump now."
There is much more that is illuminating in this article, which I think is not blocked behind a pay wall:
Finally, the Irish Times regularly publishes poetry. (Yes, really.) This one added a touch of humor in an otherwise grim situation. It's called "Percentages" by Nuala O'Connor.
The woman on the TV news is listing tariffs,
but my ear is only half open to the drone
of percentages due to land on chewing gum
and vapes, communion wafers and negligées,
on tinfoil, snowploughs, and gym equipment.
Until, among all this, plus tents and motorcycles,
the newsreader says there will be tariffs on poetry.
I drop my fork, loaded with pear and melon chunks,
and yelp, ‘A tax on poetry?’ then a farm flashes onto
the screen, and I see hens upon hens upon hens.
It took me a moment to realize that she misheard "poetry" for "poultry."
And is Trump applauding the fact that Ukraine has removed from the playing field Russian offensive weapons that were used to target almost-exclusively civilian targets? Of course not! Instead, Trump sounds like he is lamenting their success.
The big fluctuations in Irish GDP are due to tax avoidance schemes. Ireland has low corporate taxes and corporations manipulate things so their earnings show up there. Paul Krugman regularly mentions this on his substack. It needs to be addressed it is a problem.
I just heard about Palantir for the first time on, of all "news" channels, "The Daily Report with Jon Stewart". He interviewed Carole Cadwalladr who wrote extensively about Cambridge Analytica. Really scary stuff and IDT most Americans are aware of what is potentially going to happen.
Palantir threatened to call police on a WIRED reporter and kicked out other journalists from a recent conference following reports of the data analytics firm’s work with the Trump administration.
Simon, thank you for this interview. It's fascinating and I have to think it opens up a chance for Dems to appeal to some of the Florida Hispanic voters who've always voted Republican, almost by rote.
In the win column this week, I'm counting the return of Mr. Garcia. Sure, our corrupt DOJ ginned up some charges as a weak way to save face, but basically this was a TACO. The Maryland judge made clear earlier in the week that she was about ready to start throwing sanctions and Trump chickened out. The fact that they're obeying court orders is a good thing. I called Senator Van Hollen to thank him for going to El Salvador and continuing to focus on due process.
I listened to an interesting discussion by David Pepper in which the idea of the Ukrainian drone strikes came up. (One wonderful side effect of those strikes is that Russia is now terrified of trucks coming into the country and has got traffic backed up for days as they do complete searches of every single truck.) We need to be willing to think, as the Ukrainians did, of new ways to attack and new ways to use the resources we have. And new ways for those attacks to tie up the MAGAts.
Finally, I'm going to start urging my reps to ask for criminal referrals, state and federal, against the people who are paying Trump bribes. Trump may or may not face consequences (taking bribes isn't a key presidential function), but that doesn't mean we shouldn't start going after those who bribe him. It's illegal to pay bribes. And I think there's a very good argument to be made that Trump can't pardon people who pay him bribes. That can't be what the Founders meant.
Simon - please look at an interview with Heather Cox Richardson - Live and Tech Reporter Gil Duran. Incredible insight of Tech Bros & the Heritage Foundation banning together… VERY IMPORTANT for driving the DNC’s future agenda & bringing more people on board!
Thank you for this interview as well. I’m a 4th gen Miami Native 6th Gen Floridian… both mom & dad’s families in the USA since 1714 & 1717! I live now in PBG - have Cuban friends & relatives now… this is so important! I’ve been trying to persuade them from the Republican Party! Hope this does it!
Janine, I saw that interview last night and it was chilling yet also mystifying. How can such supposedly brilliant tech bros be taken in by the circuitous writings of some glorified internet troll? (I haven’t read the guy’s work myself, just going off HCR’s question to journalist Duran.) Turns out the point is the troll’s writings extol the virtues of governance by billionaire tech bros who break the country into regional corporate dictatorships and rule by fiat. Great idea! Send all those bro mofos to Mars, I say. BTW, I’m also a Miami native, product of South Florida public schools, which were pretty decent in the ‘70s, and though I decamped South Florida for Gainesville, then Orlando, after high school, I still love Miami and make a damned good ropa vieja and picadillo.
Absolutely, yes, their own deity. I strongly support all the tech bro billionaires, including Musk and Thiel, boarding a SpaceX flight to Mars, preferably next week if not tomorrow. Considering how those SpaceX Starships fly, or don’t fly, that would be the quickest way to send them to the care of other assorted deities.
The story from south Florida is shocking but I was pleased to see it aired on the local CBS. Good to see these stories are being sent out by MSM. I watched the protests against ICE from LA last night and also some in Minneapolis a few days ago. I believe these will affect the No Kings protests. I’m more determined than ever to get out there. But I hope we can all take precautions—have an exit strategy, etc. It looks as if this will be a summer of protests. I finally caught up with the interview with Ron Brownstein. Really thought provoking. Am still working my way through the Hopium archive.
Please take this post down. The piece starts with effusive praise of Scott Jennings and the writer is former Reagan White House staff. This kind of stuff should not be brought in here or taken seriously.
Simon, I’m surprised to read your response and perhaps I’m not being clear. It’s your Substack so I’ll do as you wish, but as I said, I’m asking you and our community (as a paid subscriber) to put aside the praise for Jennings (whom I agree doesn’t deserve praise). I’m asking what I think is a legitimate question: What do you (and the community) think of the polling data? I’m concerned that the new Trump voters to which you referred in your recent video aren’t getting the message about the Trump Party, even with the awful budget bill. We’re on the same team here; I think it’s important to consider the hard questions, even if they come from a Reagan staffer, if we’re going to break through and end the Trump GOP nightmare.
Hope this offers better context for my question. That said, I will post this so that you hopefully see it, and then remove my post.
I will continue to share polling and analysis from a wide variety of commentators but I am not going to respond to a commentator and analyst who begins his analysis by saying that Scott Jennings should be paid more money and is a common sense commentator. Lots and lots of places to go get data and analysis to bring in here but not from these extremists, please.
OK, fair enough. I guess I didn’t really take that stuff seriously anyway, and thought my caveat would suffice (but I was obviously wrong). I appreciate you engaging this thread despite your objections to its posting. Congrats on your success with Hopium; I’ll continue to be a supporter but will apply your rules of the road going forward.
It was a great conversation. I certainly hope Cubans in Florida (like the waitress who served you ) begin to change their view of Poppa trump!
ON A LIGHTER NOTE...
Congressional Democrats: New Zealand’s Maori lawmakers can teach you a thing or two about "becoming loud"!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25AUCNZKEnY
more Haka info https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_OMxvhc358&ab_channel=NPR (new link)
and of course, the World Cup Rugby Haka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiKFYTFJ_kw&ab_channel=WorldRugby
That was fascinating to watch! I also imagine it's chilling to hear in person-- it is loud and intentional! I only first learned about the Maori when I taught 6th grade Social Studies between 2002-2006. That same Fall, I watched the University of Hawaii football team (who was having a stellar season) perform a pre-game haka in the end-zone at an opponent's stadium. It was mesmerizing!
The team more recently started performing the ha'a, which they state is more closely aligned with Hawaiian/Polynesian culture.
Warrior SPIRIT !!!... Someone send it to Schumer...
I would love to see Chuck Schumer (74) leading all Senate Democrats older than 75 in a very assertive Haka! (Or the entire caucus!) Do it live on SNL! – and let it go viral!
Dont think he is up to it. Cory Booker could, soft spoken as he is.
Senior citizens in Florida will be very negatively impacted by the Trump-MAGA budget, which is chipping away at their Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
Democrats have a golden opportunity to turn this into election wins in Florida!
Not to mention clearing out the workers who care for them.
Ten thumbs up!
The issue of paid caregiving for individuals with special needs, including children, adults, and seniors, nationwide, is larger than anyone can grasp. Post-COVID, we face a scarcity of American-born individuals returning to this important and not-so-glamorous work.
This includes nursing homes with a very large workforce of immigrants who are diligent and well-trained in their own countries.
I was caregiver to my elderly father at his home in South Florida from 2020 till his death in 2024, and guess where 90% of the home health aides came from? Yep, Haiti. Ship ‘em all back, sure, then let’s see where the wealthy elderly of Palm Beach get home health aides to change their diapers. Great idea. Don’t take my sarcasm wrong, please, as almost all of these caregivers were wonderful people who gave top notch care and kept my dad alive into his 90s, while going to nursing school to advance their careers in the US. We need good people like this desperately in this country.
Hello everyone,
Just wanted to send along the latest from Salzillo's Two Cents: https://davidsalzillo.substack.com/p/notes-from-underground-9-prepare.
This article suggests how to launch(/prepare, really; we want to make a show of force to force Palantir's hand) an effective boycott of Palantir (mainly through their partners). For those who did not hear the story, a NYT article from about a week ago suggested that the Trump Administration was trying to tap Palantir for a "master database."
Please feel free to give me any feedback on the article; I would certainly greatly appreciate it. And I humbly submit the idea to the Hopium Community and to Simon's discretion.
In the name of democracy,
David.
Thank you for this Simon. This revoking the TPS is unconscionable. No wonder people don't trust the US government. We have to stop this. America is better than this. Statelessness is what Hitler did to the Jews in the 1930s.
Simon, thank you so much for this interview and for shining light on the situation here in Miami!
Finished up my Field 6 postcards to register Democratic voters in NJ while watching Coco Gauff win the French Open. Some Americans - many Americans - can still make us proud.
I often compare politics to tennis. We just need to get the ball over the net one more time than they do.
judy williams Cincinnati
So many of the workers I know in Florida do not vote, they told me they didn't want to get involved.
I did not fully appreciate how dire the situation is for the Florida immigrants. I hope we see a very strong response in support of them.
Self report on D-Day protest for veterans - ~150 of us showed up in Redwood City at a major intersection for a couple hours. The previous regular Friday protest I went to two weeks ago had ~25. Lots more flags present. A higher percentage of passing cars honked for us! One Trumper passed with a “Trump 2024” flag. I had a good discussion with a disabled vet who works at the VA. Lots of enthusiasm for NoKings day next week! I also spent some time watching D-Day documentaries - Antifa at work….
Thank you for your service and for continuing to serve by getting out and protesting!
I’m not a veteran, but support the veterans who first got screwed by being sent off to war by liars and thieves, and then have to fight for their health in the aftermath of war. I am channeling my dad, a WW2 vet (flew C47s in the South Pacific) who became an anti-Vietnam organizer and took me to my first protests in 1969. We went together to anti-Iraq protests in 2003, same old story of being lied into war and sending young people off as cannon fodder.
Three items in the Irish Times caught my attention today. The first is that Ireland has registered a 22% annual increase in GDP. How can this be?
"Big pharma companies have been rushing product over to the US to try to get drugs and key ingredients into the market before Donald Trump announces tariffs on the sector. This has led to a surge in exports, feeding into the GDP data."
The second is the last of six columns written by Lieut. Yulia Mykytenko, a drone operator in Ukraine. She has many interesting things to say in her column. In commenting on Operation Spider Web, she wrote, "It may provide some respite to Ukrainian cities, and I hope it will change the narrative. Our allies always overestimate Russia’s strength and underestimate ours."
In writing about their Trojan trucks, which had infiltrated Russia, she said, "The lids opened and drones flew out in attack mode. I don’t know all the details, but I certainly agree with the British defence commentator who said the operation shows that Ukraine’s armed forces are the most innovative in the world." She adds, "In the Oval Office last February 28th, Donald Trump taunted President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with the words 'You don’t have the cards.' Zelenskiy held his cards very close to his chest while he supervised the planning of Spider’s Web over 18 months. Ukrainian memes and videos mock Trump now."
There is much more that is illuminating in this article, which I think is not blocked behind a pay wall:
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2025/06/07/i-had-hoped-my-service-and-sacrifices-would-be-enough-but-they-havent-ukrainian-commanders-final-dispatch/
Finally, the Irish Times regularly publishes poetry. (Yes, really.) This one added a touch of humor in an otherwise grim situation. It's called "Percentages" by Nuala O'Connor.
The woman on the TV news is listing tariffs,
but my ear is only half open to the drone
of percentages due to land on chewing gum
and vapes, communion wafers and negligées,
on tinfoil, snowploughs, and gym equipment.
Until, among all this, plus tents and motorcycles,
the newsreader says there will be tariffs on poetry.
I drop my fork, loaded with pear and melon chunks,
and yelp, ‘A tax on poetry?’ then a farm flashes onto
the screen, and I see hens upon hens upon hens.
It took me a moment to realize that she misheard "poetry" for "poultry."
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
And is Trump applauding the fact that Ukraine has removed from the playing field Russian offensive weapons that were used to target almost-exclusively civilian targets? Of course not! Instead, Trump sounds like he is lamenting their success.
The big fluctuations in Irish GDP are due to tax avoidance schemes. Ireland has low corporate taxes and corporations manipulate things so their earnings show up there. Paul Krugman regularly mentions this on his substack. It needs to be addressed it is a problem.
Please address Palantir’s government contracts— I think there should be public uproar to stop this project before it’s complete.
I just heard about Palantir for the first time on, of all "news" channels, "The Daily Report with Jon Stewart". He interviewed Carole Cadwalladr who wrote extensively about Cambridge Analytica. Really scary stuff and IDT most Americans are aware of what is potentially going to happen.
EXCLUSIVE
TECHNOLOGY
Former Palantir workers condemn company's work with Trump administration
MAY 5, 2025 5:05 PM ET
HEARD ON MORNING EDITION
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/05/nx-s1-5387514/palantir-workers-letter-trump
LOL! Of course he does!
CAROLINE HASKINS
BUSINESS
JUN 5, 2025 3:22 PM
Palantir Is Going on Defense
Palantir threatened to call police on a WIRED reporter and kicked out other journalists from a recent conference following reports of the data analytics firm’s work with the Trump administration.
https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-defense-conference-journalists/
Simon, thank you for this interview. It's fascinating and I have to think it opens up a chance for Dems to appeal to some of the Florida Hispanic voters who've always voted Republican, almost by rote.
In the win column this week, I'm counting the return of Mr. Garcia. Sure, our corrupt DOJ ginned up some charges as a weak way to save face, but basically this was a TACO. The Maryland judge made clear earlier in the week that she was about ready to start throwing sanctions and Trump chickened out. The fact that they're obeying court orders is a good thing. I called Senator Van Hollen to thank him for going to El Salvador and continuing to focus on due process.
I listened to an interesting discussion by David Pepper in which the idea of the Ukrainian drone strikes came up. (One wonderful side effect of those strikes is that Russia is now terrified of trucks coming into the country and has got traffic backed up for days as they do complete searches of every single truck.) We need to be willing to think, as the Ukrainians did, of new ways to attack and new ways to use the resources we have. And new ways for those attacks to tie up the MAGAts.
Finally, I'm going to start urging my reps to ask for criminal referrals, state and federal, against the people who are paying Trump bribes. Trump may or may not face consequences (taking bribes isn't a key presidential function), but that doesn't mean we shouldn't start going after those who bribe him. It's illegal to pay bribes. And I think there's a very good argument to be made that Trump can't pardon people who pay him bribes. That can't be what the Founders meant.
Best to find ways to charge them in state courts, because a presidential pardon only works for those convicted in federal courts.
Simon - please look at an interview with Heather Cox Richardson - Live and Tech Reporter Gil Duran. Incredible insight of Tech Bros & the Heritage Foundation banning together… VERY IMPORTANT for driving the DNC’s future agenda & bringing more people on board!
Thank you for this interview as well. I’m a 4th gen Miami Native 6th Gen Floridian… both mom & dad’s families in the USA since 1714 & 1717! I live now in PBG - have Cuban friends & relatives now… this is so important! I’ve been trying to persuade them from the Republican Party! Hope this does it!
Hope to see you on Monday evening!
What is PBG?
I’m guessing Palm Beach Gardens
Yes. Thanks…
Palm Beach Gardens (Home of the Professional Golf Association)… 😉
Janine, I saw that interview last night and it was chilling yet also mystifying. How can such supposedly brilliant tech bros be taken in by the circuitous writings of some glorified internet troll? (I haven’t read the guy’s work myself, just going off HCR’s question to journalist Duran.) Turns out the point is the troll’s writings extol the virtues of governance by billionaire tech bros who break the country into regional corporate dictatorships and rule by fiat. Great idea! Send all those bro mofos to Mars, I say. BTW, I’m also a Miami native, product of South Florida public schools, which were pretty decent in the ‘70s, and though I decamped South Florida for Gainesville, then Orlando, after high school, I still love Miami and make a damned good ropa vieja and picadillo.
It seemed to me that they think money entitles you to be your own “deity”… Did you get that impression as well?
Their plans seem incredibly flawed… and destined for failure.
The drugs & alcohol addictions are another huge impediment…
I pray that the masses continue to increase to defeat these untoward events with our protests, boycotts, and future voting for DNC candidates!
Absolutely, yes, their own deity. I strongly support all the tech bro billionaires, including Musk and Thiel, boarding a SpaceX flight to Mars, preferably next week if not tomorrow. Considering how those SpaceX Starships fly, or don’t fly, that would be the quickest way to send them to the care of other assorted deities.
The story from south Florida is shocking but I was pleased to see it aired on the local CBS. Good to see these stories are being sent out by MSM. I watched the protests against ICE from LA last night and also some in Minneapolis a few days ago. I believe these will affect the No Kings protests. I’m more determined than ever to get out there. But I hope we can all take precautions—have an exit strategy, etc. It looks as if this will be a summer of protests. I finally caught up with the interview with Ron Brownstein. Really thought provoking. Am still working my way through the Hopium archive.