With Blanche In Place We Have To Get Ready For The Incredible F*ckery That Is To Come

Blanche's confirmation, at 430am this morning, is one of the greatest betrayals of our country in all our history

Morning all. Let’s start with some news:

Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ as Trump-linked oil firm prepares to drill - The Guardian

An American oil company connected to Donald Trump is preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland despite not having received permission from the local authorities.

As the US president renews his threats to claim the vast Arctic territory, materials to prepare for drilling were brought ashore in recent days on Greenland’s eastern coast.

That has prompted Greenland’s government to issue a “strong warning” that no approval had been granted to land the kit. “All future logistical matters must be advised and approved by the mineral resources authority – before they are carried out,” the government said in a statement.

From The NYT, U.S. Squeezes Cuba Even as It Searches for a New Regime Leader:

The Trump administration has been looking for a current or former Cuban official who could be persuaded to take over the government in Havana as the United States ratchets up its pressure campaign, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The plan is more regime alteration than regime change.

The Trump administration has pressed its spy agencies to identify someone in the mold of Delcy Rodríguez, who became Venezuela’s interim president after U.S. forces captured the previous leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January.

U.S. officials viewed Ms. Rodríguez as a pragmatist who could seamlessly assume power and would be willing to work closely with them.

Some administration officials believe that a similarly pragmatic leader can be found in Cuba.

But American spy agencies have assessed that Cuba is less like Venezuela and more like Iran, according to people briefed on the intelligence reports.

There are few pragmatic officials who would be poised to take power if U.S. forces captured Raúl Castro, the former president of Cuba who still wields enormous political influence, or somehow forced out the current leadership, according to multiple U.S. officials.

Instead, the officials waiting in the wings in Cuba, like their Iranian counterparts, represent more hard-line factions.

Yesterday a federal appeals court judge blocked Trump from building his ballroom:

Here is how he responded. He’s now calling the ballroom a “military center”:

I am with Will on this one……

Judd Legum has found that Republicans have launched a series of fake news site to influence battleground Senate races. In Wisconsin all of Francesca Hong’s paid communications are coming from Republican groups:

Dem gubernatorial frontrunner Francesca Hong hasn’t spent a dime on traditional TV buys over the course of her campaign and has put just $150,200 into online ads, according to a check of her campaign finance reports.

In all, Hong has spent $300,598 on anything related to paid media, from consulting fees to graphic design to newspaper ads.

It’s a stark contrast to others in the field. Expected GOP nominee Tom Tiffany, for example, has reported $7.6 million in media expenses, including $3.9 million on TV.

Tiffany, though, has vastly outraised the Dem field, thanks partly to $10.2 million in transfers from the state GOP this year that have helped him raise nearly $15.5 million for his bid overall.

A few months ago I launched a project here at Hopium called Understanding And Winning In An Evolving Political Battlefield. Here’s the theory behind it:

We’ve launched a new project at Hopium to study, discuss, and counter anything Trump might do to illicitly retain power in an election that is breaking hard against him and the Republicans Party. We are launching this project to demystify Trump’s tactics, make them less “scary,” and more widely understood; and by making them more widely understood we make it far less likely they will be successful.

This year we are running against a political party that no longer feels bound by law or democratic norms; has already openly conspired with a hostile foreign power to win an election, and launched an insurrection to try to overturn another one; and has a desperate, corrupt, failing leader who fears prison and ruin if we win. We were surprised and unprepared for Russia’s intervention in 2016, and Trump’s assault on our elections in 2020 and 2021. We cannot be surprised and unprepared this year. Or scared. It is just the work we must do, like making phone calls and writing postcards and giving money to campaigns. The battlefield evolves, and so do we. It is key to how we will win in 2026 and take back Congress in 2027. Together.

While they didn’t give Trump The SAVE Act this week the Senate Republicans, by putting blind Trump loyalists Jay Clayton into ODNI and Todd Blanche as AG, have given Trump the green light to do whatever it takes to keep them in power as the economy goes to shit, the war is lost, and the traditional election breaks hard against them.

Marc Elias’s Democracy Docket has launched a new series looking at the ways Trump may now attempt to illicitly keep the Republicans in power next year. The first essay is by Jacob Knutson and is called How Could Trump Rig The Midterms? Let’s read it and follow this series closely, together.

The primary way I’ve approached all this possible Trumpian f*ckery here at Hopium is by staying focused on winning the traditional election by as big a margin as possible so whatever he attempts will be far harder to pull off. That’s our job in the family. Heads down, keep working hard for our candidates and state parties. In that regard next week I will be expanding and updating our recommendations as more candidates have emerged from primaries and the final home stretch battlefield has become a bit clearer. General election voting starts in a little more than five weeks, on September 18th in Virginia. Trump has his midterm convention on September 9th and 10th. The general election is here now and we need to keep working as hard as we can.

Next week I will also be announcing some additional programmatic work we will be taking on in the Election Protection/anti-f*ckery arena. Our main focus has to been to encourage Early Voting and hold our Evolving Battlefield discussions, but there is more we can do. I hope to have my plan spelled out to you by the end of the week, once our expanded candidate recommendations are in place.

Now, let’s close out this summer Saturday morning with a wide selection of new interviews of our intrepid battleground candidates, fresh and ready for your weekend listening and viewing pleasure:

• Senate - Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Troy Jackson (Maine)

• House - Rebecca Bennett, (NJ-7), Christina Bohannan (IA-1), Rebecca Cooke (WI-3), Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-3), Sean McCann (MI-4), Jo Mendoza (AZ-6), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-6), Denise Powell (NE-2), Manny Rutinel (CO-8)

And yes, it is that time again my friends…..

Time To Go Win These Midterms People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winning The House and Senate In 2026

Special Fund To Rush Troy Jackson $100,000 By August 10th - Donate Today! | $85,100 raised, $50,000 original goal, $100,000 new stretch goal | Friends we hit our original $50,000 goal in the first 24 hours of this new campaign to get Troy Jackson the resources to staff up, build out his campaign, and beat Susan Collins. Amazing - thank you all!

We aren’t stopping here - this early money really matters, and I want to now try to get to $100,000 by Monday, August 10th. Be sure watch our new interview with Troy.

Our Winning The House Campaign - $1,060,100 raised, $1,250,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate | Donate to all twelve of our initial wave of 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 courageous candidates win, the House will flip, even with Callais and their rancid mid-decade redistricting. So eyes on the prize here everyone!

Winning The House - The Second Wave Fund (Newly Expanded) - $259,100 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | We’ve launched a second House fund, one supporting candidates who’ve emerged from recent primaries and need a bit more help. Our newly expanded list now features Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Cait Conley (NY-17), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-06), Denise Powell (NE-02), Bobby Pulido (TX-15), Manny Rutinel (CO-8), Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Randy Villegas (CA-22), and Marni von Wilpert (CA-48).

A donation to the Second Wave Fund is split evenly among these twelve, and more as other worthy candidates emerge from their primaries. Our total above includes money we’ve raised for directly for each candidate. You can watch interviews with those who’ve interviewed so far here. We are off to a great start here everyone!

Winning The Senate - $647,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a single donation to our six candidates must likely to flip a Senate seat this November - Sherrod Brown (OH), Roy Cooper (NC), Troy Jackson (ME), Mary Peltola (AK), James Talarico (TX), and Josh Turek (IA). Our working total includes what we’ve raised for these six so far through direct donations to their campaigns. You can watch our interviews with each of these great candidates and/or contribute directly to any of them directly here.

Expanding The Map - Investing And Winning In Key Battleground And Expansion States

Winning Georgia - $29,400 raised, $300,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a contribution three ways among Senator Jon Ossoff, gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the Georgia Democratic Party

Winning Iowa - $32,100 raised, $300,000 goal - Donate | Our Winning Iowa fund splits a contribution three ways - to Josh Turek for Senate, to our gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, and to the Iowa Democratic Party

Winning Maine - $79,600 raised, $75,000 goal - Donate | We set up this fund to help the Maine Dems get through our nominating process. With this community’s strong response we put up almost a third of the resources needed for what became a very successful process to pick a nominee. We had a big return on this investment - thank you all!

Winning Ohio - $186,100 raised, $300,000 goal - Donate | Our campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton-Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party and its terrific Chair, Kathleen Clyde

Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $644,600 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | 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 | Contribute to all five state parties with one contribution split evenly among these five critical battlegrounds | Catch interviews with the five intrepid state chairs leading their troops into battle this year - will get you fired up!

A Few More Things To Do

Let’s work to make sure everyone you know is Voting Early this year. Learn more about how we can best protect our elections this November and ensure a peaceful transfer of power in January. Bring our Resolutions Project to your community. Fight for Hopium’s Agenda and let’s also embrace Leader Jeffries’ new agenda, “Fighting For An Affordable America.” Become a paid subscriber to Hopium to help us grow this community of proud, plucky patriots.

Many are asking about the news coming from the DNC these days. Strongly recommend that folks read Chair Ken Martin’s new memo, The DNC Is Building a Democratic Party That Can Win the Moment and Win the Future. While the DNC has done important things under his tenure, including the adoption of a new Presidential primary calendar, I think Chair Martin would be wise now to shake up his team and make big changes there. For things simply must get better at the DNC.

In the spirit if informing and not inflaming I’ve set up a new page to help us learn more about the Democratic Socialists Of America (DSA). Check it out and let me know what you think, offer other articles or resources you think I should include. Additionally my friend Halie Soifer, the very capable CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, has written a very thoughtful piece with recommendations for how Abdul El-Sayed can address the very real concerns about his candidacy in the Jewish community.

Please use the paid subscriber chat to self-report the good trouble you make each day.

Keep working hard everyone. We have a country to save, and elections to win, together! - Simon