Working To Distract From Epstein, Rising Prices, His Traitorous Fealty To Putin, Trump Starts Terrorizing Another American CityStuarts Stevens Joins Hopium Live Today at 130pm ET (Note new time) - Join Us!Morning all. Yes, today, the crazy old man running the country is going to focus on CRIME. I think we know why, don’t we? Here’s the lead story on The Hill’s website right now:
Or stories like this about Putin using the tariffs to drive other nations away from the US:
Or this:
I’ve lived in Washington, DC since 1992. I raised three kids here. I can tell you that like many American cities DC is far safer today than it was, and has like many of our cities seen an extraordinary revival. So as Trump gets ready to do whatever he needs to do today to feel STRONG, POWERFUL, MANLY, here are a few stats to consider: The US has seen a dramatic decline in crime of all kinds since the early 1990s (via Pew):
Washington, DC does not even rank in the top 25 in murder or violent crime rates:
Violent crime rates plummeted in DC last year:
Here is a graph of this data from the Washington Post:
Of course while waving his arms in the air Trump has cut funding to combat crime in the District more than any other city in the US; and DC already has more police per person and spends more on policing than any other major US city. Police per 100,000 residents (data from 2022):
Spending on police per resident, 2022:
Trump cares about Washington, the city? Why he has levied these ruinous tariffs that will disproportionately hurt the middle class and working poor here? Or cut the ACA and Medicaid, which will among other things increase the homeless population here and across the country? Our fired tens of thousands of people who work here with little regard to their welfare or that of the city's? Or forced 5 days back to work which has made our traffic the worst in the US? Or cut funding to our law enforcement more than any other city? Or lead the single most dangerous moment in the modern history of the city, the armed and lawless attack on the Capitol:
Stuart Stevens is coming by today at 130pm ET (note new time) to talk about this latest Trumpian I AM IMPORTANT AND STRONG escapade along with all the other stuff in front of us now - the tariffs, the bending of the knee to Putin, his rejection by the American people, his dangerous descent in madness and authoritarianism. As a resident of DC I am not making light of what Trump is going to do my city and home but there is also something so inherently ridiculous and outrageous about what’s happening here - and I don’t want to lose sight of that for one moment….. Click on this link a few minutes before 130pm to join us live. Stuart is one the smartest guys I know and am sure this is going to be a great discussion today……. Now, Let’s Get To Work People!Support Hopium’s Priority Candidates And Party Committees - A reminder that Election Day, 2025 is a little less than three months away and early voting starts in Virginia in less than six weeks - September 19th! As background learn about 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. Donate, volunteer, learn more about our candidates and opportunities here. I consider all these options must dos for anyone serious about winning this year and next year...
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. Our Recommended Actions - We are prioritizing three 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 - While it is recess we need to be loud this week, very, very loud. Make the case for our our emerging four part agenda, and demand they 1) Stand with Ukraine and work to block Trump’s selling out of the West to Putin 2) Roll back Trump’s terrible tariffs 3) Block the expansion of ICE 4) End the war on science, higher education and the public health of the American people. 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. Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 61 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 19 states. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election? Our newly updated Resolutions page includes a new chat for folks to report in on their progress or seek counsel from those interested in launching a resolutions project in their community. This is one way to fight back against Trump’s unprecedented abandonment of our Constitutional order. 3 - Grow Hopium And This Wonderful Community Of Proud, Plucky, Patriots - We’ve set a goal of trying to grow the Hopium community from the 152,000 we are now to 175,000 by Election Day, 2025. Do what you can to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to become a summer subscriber to Hopium, free or paid. If each current paid subscriber brings in just one new subscriber this summer and fall we will hit our goal. To encourage the growth of our community annual paid subscriptions are 10% off through Labor Day. Use that link to buy gift or group subscriptions, and join our new referral rewards program too. A further note - if you want to up your support of Hopium a powerful way to do it is to buy group or gift subscriptions for others. 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!!! Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you, and a fight it truly is - Simon |
Monday, August 11, 2025
Working To Distract From Epstein, Rising Prices, His Traitorous Fealty To Putin, Trump Starts Terrorizing Another …
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Our Work Is Making A Difference (Video), Senate Tariff Vote Ends 49-49, The Reconciliation Bill Is Trump's Next Bi…
Our Work Is Making A Difference (Video), Senate Tariff Vote Ends 49-49, The Reconciliation Bill Is Trump's Next Big FiascoDNC Vice Chair Jane Kleeb Joins Us Live Today at 2pm ETMorning all. I got to together with our our proud, plucky and patriotic paid subscribers last night for one of our regular gatherings. We had a good crowd and I offered some thoughts on where we are and took questions for the rest of the hour. A recording and transcript are above. Get to it when you can. He are some of the main points from my talk last night…. The Senate tariff vote failed last night, 49-49 - We came up one vote short. 3 Rs crossed over - Collins, Murkowski, Paul - and McConnell and Whitehouse (D) were not present. I will be getting a download from Senate folks later today and will report back in with more tomorrow. A huge thank you to all of you who worked this vote. We almost got there everyone, and it was a fight worth having. If Rs are going to wreck our economy and hand Trump powers the Constitution does not provide him, we have to make it hard for them to do so. Last night we got 49 Senate Republicans on the record defending these ridiculous tariffs and made them work very hard to not embarrass their ridiculous leader.
While I am still encouraging those of you in the 37 states that not have signed on to the two main law suits challenging the tariffs to keep calling state officials, at the Congressional level we will now be shifting our focus towards killing the plutocratic, US-bankrupting, health care-gutting reconciliation bill. In what can only be described as a wild story this morning, Politico is reporting that a weakened and struggling Trump is getting wobbly on the central cuts in the current budget framework, the cutting of almost $1 trillion out of Medicaid:
For time and space reasons I won’t be able to provide a full explanation of how bat-shit crazy this all is, but of course this delusional madman “running” the country is all in on giving people free money through massive tax cuts but is buckling, in his deeply weakened political state, at doing anything that may piss voters off. Here is how the Committee For A Responsible Federal Budget described the budget framework adopted by the Senate and House with the big Medicaid cuts included:
Here is a helpful chart from that analysis (The House adopted the Senate framework) with the large Medicaid cuts included. Without them, we are looking at what can only be described as a bill designed to bankrupt the US government and end America’s global economic leadership. The tariffs are bad. This bill may be worse.
A central dynamic of this moment is how Trump’s delusions and extremism, baked over 4 years of just throwing wild shit out there on the campaign trail (his promises) are crashing hard, very hard, into reality. Yesterday we discussed his jawdropping lunacy in the ABC News interview - prices are falling, Putin wants peace, the economy is great. Here is a graphic MSNBC ran yesterday rebutting his various INSANE claims of things whose prices had “fallen:”
Here is how Semafor summed up statements he made yesterday from the White House:
Yes, the leader of our once great country said that his economic plans means the American people will “pay more and get less.” Yes, the Republican Party is running on a platform to erode American’s standard of living - make us poorer - on purpose, by design. That Semafor article also included this chart, with new consumer confidence data from the Conference Board:
The label “Banana Republicans” has never been more fitting for these guys. And while things are bad with the tariffs, Trump’s emerging reconciliation bill is going to makes things worse, a lot worse. Our Work Is Making A Difference, The Circle Of Defiance Is Growing - Friends, there is no question that today we are stronger and he is weaker. Godspeed to all of you hitting rallies and protests over the next few days. A majority of the country disapproves of Trump. A majority of the country disapproves of almost every one of his major policy initiatives. 78% of the country expects him to follow court orders. He has lost the big argument, most of the small arguments too and is in a very weakened place. It has been 100 days of failure, lawlessness, buffoonery and betrayal, We The People are pissed and the circle of defiance is growing. 12 House Republicans have said they cannot vote for the Medicaid cuts. Yesterday 3 Senate Rs crossed over to block Trump’s most significant domestic initiative. Trump keeps getting routed in court, even in his Supreme Court. Harvard and Fed Chairman Powell are not bending the knee, and either are global markets. Putin and Xi are openly mocking him, and Europe/Ukraine have dismissed his ridiculous “give Russia everything they ever wanted” plan. That he is weak not strong, a loser not a winner, that indeed the orange Emperor has no clothes (what a sight that would be!!!!!!!!!!!!) is becoming more widely understood by all. More and more voters are becoming available to us now, open to the idea that he is a fuck up and a lame duck and not the guy they hoped he would be. That’s why we need to keep as working as hard as we can all. For we are moving the needle; we are stronger and he is weaker; and as we say here little cracks can become big cracks, little wins can become big ones - but only if we keep doing the work. Incredibly proud and grateful to all of you for working so hard for our freedoms, our families and our future….. Opening A Third Front, Winning The Fourth Of July - Now I want to dive briefly into two more things we discussed last night. If winning the big economic argument with Trump is the First Front, and driving his abandonment of the Constitutional order, his dismantling of the Federal government and selling out to Putin is the Second Front, I think we need to turn the barbaric attacks on our health and science into a new, powerful and clearly articulated Third Front. We also spent time last night talking about the need to win July 4th, and make that day a painful day for Trump. This is a piece of my Letter To America/Second Front concept, where we begin planning now in our communities and in groups to make the day that America celebrates its separation from a Mad, Capricious King something deeply poignant and powerful. July 4th is our holiday; the flag is our flag; the celebration of freedom and liberty our celebration. We cannot allow the most un-American American, the man who has done more to betray America than any other, own this day. We need to own July 4th this year, and make it a painful day for all those who have betrayed the great, noble American experiment.
Going Live With Jane Kleeb Today At 2pm ET - Friends, our good friend Jane Kleeb is returning today at 2pm ET. She will giving us updates on the new unprecedented investments in state parties just announced by the DNC (Organize Everywhere, Win Anywhere) and on progress we’ve been making through the DNC-led People’s Town Halls in red districts and states. While we met Jane last year when Hopium invested in and helped her as Nebraska State Party Chair win the “blue dot” - Nebraska’s sole Electoral College vote - recently Jane was elected President of the Association of State Democratic Committees and a Vice Chair of the DNC. She is an active part of Ken Martin’s new management team at the DNC, and I am grateful she is taking time to join us once again today.
Here’s how you can join our live discussion at 2pm ET:
Live streams are becoming a very important part of the Substack platform, and we will be doing at least one every week. The tech is still in its early stages so please be patient as we learn how to use it, and give yourself a bit of time to play with it too. We’ve found that once you get it down it is easy to use but it takes a bit of work to master it. For those of you who cannot make it live today we will be sending out a recording of our discussion later this afternoon. Recommended Actions and Campaigns - Given our that priorities for daily action are changing, and given that many of you are protesting and rallying over the next few days, I only have one recommended action for today - please donate to the campaign of Abigail Spanberger in Virginia! Help Abigail Spanberger Win Virginia - Virginia will be one of the big battlegrounds of the November, 2025 elections and we have a great candidate for Governor, Abigail Spanberger. Watch my interview with Abigail, donate, volunteer, and learn more here. Given how many federal employees live in Virginia, this race is also now on the front lines of the Trump/Musk assault on the federal government. We’ve raised more than $86,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $250,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!
Keep working hard all. We are making progress, undeniable progress, but need to keep working it as hard as we can - Simon |
The Bushes Just Picked A Side In Texas. It Wasn’t Trump’s. Plus A Reporter Says Foreign Spies Watched Jared Kushne…
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