Greetings all. The proud, plucky patriots of this remarkable community gathered last night for our weekly check in on our battle against MAGA and for freedom and democracy, here and everywhere. It was a lively affair, as they usually are. A video recording and rough transcript can be found above. Here is some of what we talked about last night:
A Desperate Trump Surrenders - Iran comes out of Trump’s illegal war far stronger, America far weaker. Trump gets a re-opened Strait of Hormuz, with the hope of lower gas prices improving his political prospects here at home. Iran gets control of the Strait; at least $300b; the regime remains in place with its ballistic missiles and uranium, and without commitment for political reform, human rights improvements, and ending support for regional proxies; and the US cutting Bibi off at the knees.
It’s like Trump literally said “give em everything they want and let’s get the hell out of there.” Trump posted this at 3:32 AM this morning:
Ah, yes, the “me and my buddies are getting richer so everything is fine assholes” school of foreign policy, neatly articulated.
Adding the new American commitment of $300b here’s our running tally of the true cost of Trump’s failed, illegal war:
In the coming days we will have time to do a deeper dive into Trump’s disastrous and illegal war, but today my recommendation is for you to call your Senators and House Rep and tell them you do not want to pay for Trump’s failed war. His oligarchs and allies who’ve made all that money can pay for it, but every day American tax payers should not pay any more than they already have through the raging inflation and higher health care costs of the Trump era. He can pay. Not us.
Soon Trump is going to have sell his Iranian “deal” to a Congress already weary of him. I have no idea what happens now. He has already lost major votes on the Epstein files, his tariffs, and Ukraine. How in the world can anyone defend what has happened here? In most democracies a failure of this magnitude would cause the government to fall, or the leader to resign. I think this is something that we have to be socializing and floating - Trump retiring, or at the very least the rancid Hegseth resigning.
We often talk about there needs to be accountability for all that Trump has done. Well, it starts here. He waged a failed, illegal war that has done incredible harm to our national security and given us a trillion dollar bill. Fuck that. We shouldn’t pay a cent until something dramatic changes in the management of this ridiculous regime. We have to be aggressive now, and not let him memory hole what has happened here, not for one minute.
Based on news accounts this morning it appears Trump and the regime are not done surrendering:
Coming so soon after selling out to Russia’s close ally, Iran, the question of where Trump and Hegseth’s allegiance lies - with the US, or with Russia-Iran - simply must be raised.
We Remain In A Strong Position To Have The Election We All Want to Have/Turning Our House And Senate Candidates Into National Heroes/A New Politics Of Virtue - I also did my weekly update on the elections last night - national and state polling remains encouraging, we have a very strong field of candidates across the country; the House should flip despite Callais, and we have a shot in the Senate too. Here’s my latest round up of recent Senate polls with a new column showing the Harris 2024 margin. It’s a reminder of how remarkable it is that our candidates are competitive in all these states Trump won by double digits:
We’ve had a few new polls in Maine and it appears that Platner’s large lead has come down and it is now a margin of error race. Platner’s campaign promoted the Wick poll I cite here so they must be accepting that it is now a close, margin of error race.
I also talked about something we discussed a few days back - that one of the main themes I am picking up from all these candidate interviews we’ve done is that many of our candidates are running as men and women of virtue, admirable people who’ve done good things in their lives; and that virtue has emerged as a powerful counter to the corruption and betrayal of Trump’s GOP this cycle.
We also discussed how if you want to take power away from MAGA this November there is one thing to do - support the 20-30 top candidates running for the Senate and House. That’s it. Job one. Everyone needs to be on board, helping these candidate wins and turning them into national heroes. While there still a few more primaries our general election field is largely set and now we just have to do everything we can to help them win - as we’ve been doing here at Hopium every day this cycle.
As His Iran Surrendered Showed, Trump Is Desperate And Scared, And Is Going To Do Whatever It Takes To Keep Republicans in Power - We must anticipate now that Trump is going to do whatever it takes to keep Republicans in power in the coming years - prosecute our leading Presidential candidates, rig the 2026 election, prevent a peaceful transfer of power in 2027, and more. It’s why he’s fighting so hard now to install lackeys into ODNI and DOJ. We are here now, and must be ready for what is to come, recognizing that while we are on track to have the election we all want to have winning this November and assuming power in January may end up being the hardest thing we’ve all ever done.
What to do? We have three initial things we are doing here. 1) We will be talking about Trump’s illicit tactics here, coming to understand them better. I will be writing as I did in this recent post and have launched a new Evolving Battlefield Project that includes a series of interviews with leaders in this space. 2) As Marc Elias told us the single most important thing we can do to counter Trump’s illicit tactics is to win the election by as big a margin as possible. That remains our Job One every day. 3) We are going to become leaders in helping Democrats understand the need to Vote Early this year, which will make Trump’s attempt to undermine the election far harder.
That is some of what we discussed last night. Now, my friends, let’s put our heads down and go to work for our democracy, our freedoms, and our kids and grand kids…….
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
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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 almost at $15,000 now. Can we get to $25,000 by Monday?
Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign - $778,500 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 - $79,100 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 - $19,600 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more and volunteer | Watch my wonderful new interview with Josh Turek
Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $104,700 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 - $85,600 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 - $1,800 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more and volunteer
Jon Ossoff GA Senate - $187,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn more through my uplifting conversation with Senator Ossoff
Roy Cooper for NC Senate - $123,100 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 - $7,200 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 - $160,100 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 - $596,100 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.
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Keep working hard everyone. We have a country to save, and elections all across this great country to win, together! - Simon
