Welcome Back Everyone. It's Time To Fight, And To Win
I will be joining Stuart Stevens live today at 4pm ET - Join us!
Morning all. Hope you rested up these past few weeks for this is going to be a very consequential fall. We have critical elections in two months, and early voting starts in Virginia in seventeen days. Congress will somehow have to pass a budget for the 2026 fiscal year and keep the government from shutting down. Trump’s physical, cognitive and political decline - his ebbing powers - has become impossible to ignore. The sordid and terrible Epstein coverup will roar back onto the national stage this week. The dangers of the medieval Trump-Kennedy assault on our public health is now front and center in politics, as it should be. Our Capital is occupied, and the sundowning madman is threatening to have our military - not DHS, FBI, ATF, DEA - begin invading American cities. His illegal and unconstitutional tariffs - the greatest abuse of Presidential power in America history - are increasing prices on everything for everyone. More have begun to question the financial integrity of our country and we are seeing early signs of flight from the dollar. Trump will continue to try to surrender to Putin and Xi, while Europe, and a few (far too few) of our leaders here will keep ferociously working to stop him.
One of the most respected investors in America, Ray Dalio, is in the Financial Times this morning warning of our descent in fascism and chaos:
9 former CDC Directors wrote a joint op-ed for the NYT on Monday, We Ran The CDC: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health. An excerpt:
Mr. Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he’s focused on unproven treatments while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top C.D.C. officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire.
We are worried about the wide-ranging impact that all these decisions will have on America's health security. Residents of rural communities and people with disabilities will have even more limited access to health care. Families with low incomes who rely most heavily on community health clinics and support from state and local health departments will have fewer resources available to them. Children risk losing access to lifesaving vaccines because of the cost.
This is unacceptable, and it should alarm every American, regardless of political leanings.
Summer is ending and Americans are getting back to work and school. Over the next few weeks they will have to make sense of where we are now almost eight months into this incredibly dangerous moment in our history, this unyielding Trumpian orgy of sabotage, plunder and betrayal. And we need to be talking to them, and continue to shape and form public opinion about how this corrupt man and his awful allies are eating our national seed corn, blowing another inheritance and stealing the future from our kids and grandkids.
While August was a terrible month of authoritarian escalation and madness, we were once again reminded of the political opportunities Trump’s ongoing rejection by the public brings. With Roy Cooper and Sherrod Brown getting in, and Joni Ernst dropping out, our chance of flipping the Senate improved. We won another special election in Iowa last week, and continue our encouraging run of special and local election overperformances. We continue to have consequential victories in the courts. Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker and Texas Democrats inspired us, and are helping us become more ambitious in our opposition and find a higher gear. Our leaders are exploring new and better ways to organize our opposition, inspired by the clear success of the 23 Dem AGs who meet and coordinate each day. Many of you marched this weekend and made sure your voices were heard. And no matter what he has done he has shown himself incapable of getting his poll numbers back up, of restoring his STRENGTH and POWER. It’s why they are desperately scrambling to steal Congressional seats, to rig the elections in his favor - for he knows the country has wandered from him, and they will lose free and fair elections next year. Donald Trump has become fearful of voters, of the American people themselves. Donald Trump has become scared of all of us. And thus we get the National Guard patrolling just outside the White House itself. For he is scared, and fearful now.
While there is so much extremism and escalation there is also so much weakness, so much failing, so much pathetic desperation. As many of us have never lived under a strongman it is critical that we learn that one of our central jobs is to dissemble that strongman myth each day, pull the curtain back from the wizard, remind everyone that indeed the orange emperor isn’t wearing any clothes, to begin the day each day by stripping him of his false power in our minds, and bringing that sense of weakness, of desperation, of fear - not strength - to others in our community. For here we do not obey in advance. We do not give Trump things he has not earned or deserved, and understand that much of his power is an illusion that we simply can no longer participate in. We must continue to grow that circle of defiance we often talk about here, and part of that is denying his hold and power over us.
Here’s the Civiqs daily track today. Note the trend lines. Things keep getting worse for him.
While each day Trump will throw at us things to chase we will need to stay constant, focused, on offense, aggressive. We cannot blown off course. We need to pour everything we have to winning the fall elections and getting ourselves better positioned to win next year. We need to get in the face of Congress every day, help them understand what is expected of them now, and be unrelenting in advocating for our Hopium agenda (or whatever you think most important today):
The Hopium Agenda. Together we are working towards:
Rolling back Trump’s terrible, illlegal and unconstitutional tariffs that are re-igniting inflation and hurting Americans across the country
Blocking the expansion of ICE and the use of the military on our streets including DC
Ending Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; stop the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; demand the removal of madman Robert Kennedy from HHS - yes we need to FIRE HIM
Standing with Ukraine and block Trump’s ongoing efforts to sell out the US
I am deeply encouraged by the success of our Resolutions Project, which is bringing the spirit of our Founders to communities across the US, helping them wake from their slumber and find their voice about what our mad leader is doing to the country. We now have passed or are moving 75 resolutions in 23 states. Can you help us get to 50 states by the election?
Hopium is going to be very engaged and aggressive this fall. We aleady have a remarkable array of interviews scheduled, and more are getting scheduled each day. Today I will be live at 4pm ET with the great Stuart Stevens. Tomorrow Hopium paid subscribers gather at 7pm ET. Bookmark our Events tab so you can stay on top of our events as they get scheduled in what is going to be a consequential fall.
And I guess that is my message to all of you today - we must no longer be content with responding to him, of rubbernecking at his daily crashes, of continuing to be shocked, awed and overwhelmed. We must now start taking back territory we’ve lost, and notching wins. This fall we must endeavor to make it feel like the tide has shifted, that he is losing momentum, and the pro-democracy forces have regained the initiative. I don’t know how that happens, but it should be our goal, our aspiration, and we need to fight like hell to seize the opportunities in front of us. For, my friends, Hopium is hope with a plan. We don’t just hope things will get better we do the work to make it so. We must resist that media narrative that has dominated our discourse these past few years that always overestimates his strength and underestimates ours. Let us summon the courage and the will to win the fall, together. For we are Americans my friends, and fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do.
Ways You Can Make A Difference This Week
Our “Must Win/Everyone In” Races
Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $59k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Rep. Sherrill
Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $176k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Abigail Spanberger
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $29,000 raised- Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interviews with Gov. Cooper and NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton. We hit our $25,000 Labor Day goal Monday - great work everyone!
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $53k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer
Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $188k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer, Watch My Interviews With Our Intrepid Incumbents
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.
For more on Hopium’s approach to elections check out 1) our big recommendations to the family coming out of the 2024 elections 2) the many important wins we had together last cycle 3) my latest thinking on where we are and the path forward for the Hopium community.
Our Recommended Actions - We are prioritizing two actions today. You can get our full list of recommended actions here. Let’s get to it:
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. We must demand that Congress
Rolling back Trump’s terrible and unconstitutional tariffs that are re-igniting inflation and hurting Americans across the country
Blocking the expansion of ICE and the use of the military on our streets including DC
Ending Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; stop the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; demand the removal of madman Robert Kennedy from HHS - yes we need to FIRE HIM
Standing with Ukraine and block Trump’s ongoing efforts to sell out the US
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 75 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 23 states +DC. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?
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. Keep it up!!!
As we get ready for what is going to be a very intense fall of politics let’s take inspiration from those famous words from Robert Frost that “the best way out is always through” - Simon
I was at a protest in Mamaroneck, New York, yesterday, and as I was walking to my car, I was stopped by a 20 something guy who wanted to know what the protest was about. I told him, Workers Not Billionaires, and he got interested. He asked me if I thought it would do any good,and I said, not by itself, but we have to do it all—protest, call, write, talk—and then he told me how bad Trump was, how Trump said there was no inflation, but he knew there was, grocery prices were increasing, and the job market was terrible as unemployment was rising. This interaction validates for me that this is about the economy for younger people. I was also excited to know that he was paying attention and knew Trump lied about inflation.
Simon, thanks for the renewed focus! I hope you'll record and post your talk with Stuart; I'm going to miss it due to an appointment. A court just ruled Trump's use of National Guard in California violates the posse comitatus.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen about RFK taking the COVID vaccine, developed with American tax dollars, away from so many Americans. I'm writing postcards to Virginia voters today.