We Must Demand Courage, The People Have Rejected Trump's Strongman Politics, Terrific New Tariff Ad In Alaska

Paid Subscribers Gather Tonight at 8pm ET/Great to see folks last night in St. Paul!

Morning all. I am heading back to DC this morning after a wonderful event last night in St. Paul. Was great to see so many members of the Hopium community last night, including several OGs from the early, early days. We exceeded our fundraising goal for the DFL and got to spend time together talking, planning, laughing, being together, in community, during this challenging time. Here’s a photo of me and the very able Democratic Party Chair of Minnesota, Richard Carlbom, from last night.

I will have more on my visit to Minnesota and the great Democratic Party there in the coming days. I again want to thank Hopium community member Tim Wegener for making it possible and for all the remarkable work he does. For those who took pictures last night and would like to share them with us back in DC please send them to community@hopiumchronicles.com or send us links to social media you may have posted.

We Must Demand Courage - Let’s start today with the first few paragraphs of the first chapter in Timothy Snyder’s essential book, On Tyranny:

Do not obey in advance.

Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.

Anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. Perhaps rulers did not initially know that citizens were willing to compromise this value or that principle. Perhaps a new regime did not at first have the direct means of influencing citizens one way or another. After the German elections of 1932, which brought Nazis into government, or the Czechoslovak elections of 1946, where communists were victorious, the next crucial step was anticipatory obedience. Because enough people in both cases voluntarily extended their services to the new leaders, Nazis and communists alike realized that they could move quickly toward a full regime change. The first heedless acts of conformity could not then be reversed.

We are here now. Trump has responded to the many manifests failures of his regime, his deteriorating health, his repeated humiliation by foreign leaders, and his soaring unpopularity with an across the board and deeply dangerous escalation. Knees aren’t bending on their own so he is attempting to bend as many as he can now.

We are here now, and each of us has to choose what we are going to do, how much courage we are going to show, how much risk we are comfortable with, and how much work we are going to do to mitigate the damage Trump is doing, win back power and get us to the other side of the tragic moment.

We are here now.

As we proceed it is critical that we take what Trump, Stephen Miller and the regime are saying at face value. Discounting their statements with whatever version of it cannot happen here that has provided false comfort to so many needs to end. It is clear that has he declines and grows more fearful of the public turning on him that he and his rancid regime have decided that the greatest threat to America isn’t China, Russia, a failing economy, the dramatic undermining of our public health system, rising temperatures around the world but us, the 55%+ of the country that has rejected his burnt orange spray tan, his swollen ankles, his droopy face, his unprecedented corruption, his incoherent rants, his unceasing insults, his selling out of the country to Russia, his terrible tariffs, his attack on science and higher education, his extraordinary crackdown on dissent and his pathetic need to see himself as a monarch and not the most powerful leadership role ever designed by man, an American President.

Look at this ridiculous image the world was presented with yesterday:

Here is the Jimmy Kimmel clip that apparently got our mad leader’s overworked girdle in a bunch:

He is escalating for the American people have withdrawn the mandate Trump so absurdly claims to justify his historic assault on the America of the Four Freedoms and our Constitutional order. Rather than a course correction for his many manifest failures they have decided to attack those who continue to refuse to bend the knee. And here we are.

I have spent much of this year offering ideas and strategies to our political leaders for how they can respond to this dangerous moment. My most recent comprehensive memo came just a few days ago - Some Reflections On Finding A Higher Gear, Building A Stronger Movement, And Winning The Fall. Some of what we’ve recommended has been adopted. Much of it hasn’t. What I am most proud is how we, in this community, have responded to the moment is our relentless contacting of our leaders to help them understand what is expected of them now. Yes we have raised lots of money, worked hard on races, penned countless postcards, had some deeply important and meaningful wins, and are on track to have more this November (if we do the work). This is work we simply must do for if we don’t put everything we have into winning the elections in front of us then we are obeying in advance, and will become complicit in their consolidation of power. So this work must continue, and in fact, yesterday, I dramatically expanded our work through the launch of our Audacious Expansion Fund that aims to expand our Senate and Presidential maps in the coming years so are more likely to wrest back control from them.

But today, tomorrow, and every day until they are gone we must keep contacting elected leaders and demand they show the ambition, the courage, the patriotism that is required of them now. They must hear from us, loudly, every day. And when they step up we must thank them. When they don’t we must encourage them to find that higher gear, to summon the courage to do what is required now. We simply must keep demanding more for the damage he is doing to the country requires a far more vigorous response than we have seen so far.

For we are Americans, and fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do, who we are. We need to get on with it.

We continue to see signs of progress, of our leaders finding a higher gear. Western states issued their own vaccine guidance yesterday, declaring their independence from the fanatics at HHS and the CDC. The Republicans in the Senate spent another day yesterday discrediting and undermining the venal Bobby Jr. I was deeply impressed with the plan and ambition of the DFL in Minnesota for the upcoming cycle. The Fed did not give into Trump’s insane demands for much bigger interest rate cuts yesterday. The 3 House national security Dem leaders released another muscular joint statement yesterday, this one with a fourth, the ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representatives Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee; Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; and Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security; released the following statement in response to President Trump announcing a second U.S. military strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela.

“Yesterday, we were notified that the military has, on President Trump’s orders, carried out another lethal military strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela. As was the case with the first strike on September 2, 2025, the Trump Administration failed to secure authorization for the use of force from Congress. Yet again, the president has made the unilateral decision to carry out a lethal military strike on the premise that a small boat holding three people located off the coast of Venezuela somehow posed an emergency created by an attack upon the United States and warranted lethal military force rather than a law enforcement response. While we agree that the flow of drugs into the United States is a horrific public health crisis that must be addressed, we believe that essential mission should be led by law enforcement.

“Trump’s dangerous expansion and abuse of presidential authority risks dragging us into another endless war. He has failed to state a clear military objective and has provided no explanation of how this use of the military could ever end. A war with cartels places our troops and other U.S. personnel in the region at risk with no clear explanation or plan.

“The lack of transparency and information sharing with Congress, which has the constitutional responsibility to declare war and authorize or limit the use of force, poses an even greater threat to our democratic system of government. The Trump Administration must immediately brief the relevant Congressional committees on the use of military force in the Caribbean Sea and address these critical oversight questions about the details of the strikes, their legal basis, and why the president has made this a military operation.”

A Senate Dem SuperPAC launched a new ad in Alaska - expanding the map - on the issue we believe Democrats must make central to their engagement with the Rs right now, Trump’s terrible tariffs:

Two major tracking polls released show Trump at his lowest point this year and dropping in the past week. A majority of the country has rejected their illiberal and authoritarian response to the killing of Charlie Kirk as they have rejected every other strongman action Trump has taken this year:

Civiqs 9/18/25

It should be deeply encouraging to us that the American people have so clearly rejected Trump and his disastrous regime. Imagine if it was otherwise.

Let us be inspired for the work we must do now, together, by the unrelenting courage of Vladimir Zelensky…….

We will talk about all this in our paid subscribers get together tonight at 8pm.

And now…..

Let’s Get To Work Everyone!

Support Our November, 2025 Candidates and Yes On 50

• Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $76k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my new interview with Rep. Sherrill

• Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $191k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Abigail Spanberger

• Yes on 50 (CA) - $50,000 goal - Donate | Learn more, volunteer

Support Our 2026 Candidates

• Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $34,000 raised- Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interviews with Gov. Cooper and NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton

• Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $69k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my inspiring new interview with Senator Ossoff

• Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $200k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer | Watch My Interviews With Our Intrepid Incumbents

Support Our Audacious Expansion Fund (2026-2032)

• Hopium's Audacious Expansion Fund - Investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas - $250,000 goal, $6,500 raised - Donate To All Five State Parties | Watch my interviews with Iowa Chair Rita Hart and Texas Chair Kendall Scudder | Links to be able support each party individually will be up soon | Also catch our interviews with DNC Chair Ken Martin and Vice Chair Jane Kleeb

Our updated fundraising goals are now for the end of the year, December 31st, except for the 2025 races, which are now for Election Day, 2025.

Take Action, Express Your Love Of Country And Strengthen Our Democracy Through Good Works - We are prioritizing two actions today:

1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our our emerging four part agenda. Demand that your reps work to

1. Roll back Trump’s terrible, illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, reviving tyrannical “taxation without representation,” and alienating governments and people throughout the world

2. Block the expansion of ICE, restore due process, and end the use of the military on our streets and the occupations of our cities

3. Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; demand the removal of extremist Robert Kennedy from HHS

4. Stand with Ukraine and our European allies, and far more forcefully challenge Trump’s traitorous efforts to sell out the US and the West to Russia and China

2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Be sure to check out our new discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner who have passed resolutions in New Mexico and Boston, and offer advice on how to get a resolution passed in your own community.

Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 81 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 22 states + DC. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?

Last Tuesday night the town council of Corrales, New Mexico debated and passed a resolution of condemnation. A preview of the resolution can be found in this article from a local new site. In considering the resolution Councilor Bill Woldman said:

"I want to thank the Mayor and administration for the comprehensive and important statement on our democracy. This is not a partisan statement, but rather an acknowledgment of a significant deviation from 250 years of practice of the Separation of Powers. While all politics may not be local, it is important for local governmental bodies to acknowledge threats when they exist and support our Congressional Representatives in their resistance to executive branch overreach. Thank you."

Keep up the great work proud, plucky patriots of the Hopium community!!!!

Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Great to see!

Let’s keep working hard all. It what we do here at Hopium, and I am proud, so incredibly proud, to be in this fight with all of you - Simon