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Thursday, July 16, 2026
Harsh Truth: Why Defending Your Boundaries is Ruining Your Career
A Different Set of Priorities
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Trump And Greater MAGA Are Far Weaker Today. It's Why We Must Fight Now With Everything We Got (New Video, Written…
Trump And Greater MAGA Are Far Weaker Today. It's Why We Must Fight Now With Everything We Got (New Video, Written Analysis)Greater MAGA - Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Orban - is far weaker today. It's a very important development in our fight for freedom and democracy here and everywhere
Morning all. We had our weekly get together of our proud plucky patriots last night. It was a lively affair, as they often are. Here’s some of what we discussed…… Gratitude - I began by expressing profound thanks for the way this community has rallied behind the Maine Dems as they work to navigate a very challenging moment, and for all the calls folks have made to try to block Blanche and Clayton this week. So far we’ve raised almost a quarter of the budget the MDP needs to put on their vital process of picking a new Senate nominee - thank you all! Let’s now listen to this extraordinary exchange between Senator Jon Ossoff and Jay Clayton yesterday: 
While we may not be able to block Blanche and Clayton this is a righteous fight - keep making you calls everyone! The Weakening Of Greater MAGA - This talk each week is designed to take a step back from the day to day and assess our progress in our fight to defeat MAGA and usher in a new birth of freedom, here and everywhere. In that regard I think we should be pleased with what has clearly become a significant weakening of the Greater MAGA political project this year. Orban fell in Hungary. Vučić was forced to call early elections in Serbia. Failed wars have dramatically weakened Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu. Europe has held, Ukraine is on the offensive, the opposition leads in current polling in the upcoming October elections in Israel, and Zelenskyy has emerged as a powerful and inspiring leader of the global pro-democracy movement. Here in the US falling gas prices have not resulted in an improvement in Trump’s or Republican polling, a huge blow to Trump particularly as the war resumes and oil prices rise again. Yesterday, Bibi suffered an enormous defeat as 103 Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, voted to block aid to Israel. Support for the current Israeli government has collapsed in Congress and with the American people. Trump will still do harm here and around the world. Putin will keep bombing Ukraine. Bibi will continue his aggression. We know that. But we also know that greater MAGA is far weaker today than it was a year ago, something that we should be acknowledging, and celebrating, together. It’s a big deal, and we should be loud and proud about it all…… The Election Outlook Remains Promising For Democrats - We got a very important gauge of the depth of disapproval voters have for Trump and the GOP this week as we learned that while inflation dropped by 0.4 percent in June Trump’s poll numbers have not improved. Given how late we are in the cycle - early voting begins in two months - and given the resumption of the war and higher oil and gas prices, any kind of meaningful recovery for Trump and the GOP has become far, far less likely. New data from Navigator shows how much named Republicans are struggling in the battleground - 34% approval, and while their disapproval remains below Trump that’s what campaigns and advertising are for - to connect each GOP candidate directly to Trump’s failed regime, soaring disapproval, and ongoing betrayal of the country:
That’s why we are raising money for our candidates - to let them tell their story, extol their virtues, and connect their opponent directly to higher prices, rising health care costs/reduced access to care, and the broader oligarchical betrayal of our democracy and rule of law - more for me, less for all of you….. For inspiration watch to my interview with Devon Murphy-Anderson of the Maine Dems this week to hear how hard they’re fighting to keep this seat in play for us. Listen to my interview with Charlie Bailey from Georgia who explains why this is the best political environment we’ve seen for Dems there since 1998. Listen to the many candidate interviews we’ve done to hear how grounded, confident, and determined our candidates are across the country. Watch my interview with Rita Hart, Chair of the Iowa Dems which will come out later today to hear of the extraordinary opportunity we have this year in Iowa - our candidates for Senate and Governor there lead in recent polling, and we have a shot to flip as many as three House seats too. Here’s my latest Senate polling round up. With our inspiring candidates and gritty party chairs leading the charge 2026 has clearly become a year of opportunity for us:
Job One for every member of the pro-democracy community is getting as many of the 40 or so battleground Senate and House candidates elected this November as we can. It is Job One, Job Two, Job Three. They are leaving it all out there on the playing field for us. We need to be there for them every step of the way until November….. 
Trump Is Going To Do “Whatever It Takes” To Stay In Power - As we’ve been discussing here this past week Trump has clearly decided to do everything he can to prevent us from winning the election and taking power next January. He’s fighting to get his quislings into AG and ODNI this week, which is why we’ve been making our calls. Tonight he’s going to introduce a wild, unfounded conspiracy about the 2020 elections into our discourse that he’ll use to undermine the integrity of our November elections. And more is sure to come for with the deep rejection of him and his failed regime by the American people means he use illicit means to remain in power (as he did with Russia in the 2016 election, and he did when he tried to undermine and then overturn the 2020 election). Here at Hopium we are responding to Trump’s escalating desperation and illiberalism by encouraging everyone to adopt Vote Early campaigns in their communities; by helping educate you about what Trump is attempting in our daily posts and in our Evolving Battlefield series of discussions; and in the coming days by launching a new effort to get our Congressional leaders to begin talking to the American people more forcefully about what Trump is attempting to do, and to lay out a clear accountability/renewing democracy agenda for when we return to power in January. For as Hardy Merryman told us a few months ago the global democracy movement has learned that those parties attempting to enact far reaching accountability and democratic reforms fair far better when they’ve campaigned on the reforms and earned a clear mandate from voters. The Debate In Our Family About Our Future - Here at Hopium we welcome the internal family debate and discussion about our future path, recognizing the necessity of our party to grow, experiment, innovate, and get better and stronger. My encouragement to all of you is to welcome this debate in your networks and communities, to encourage it, whiling striving to keep it respectful, civil, and grounded in truth. For as we say here we know that in this fight against MAGA we’re going to hang together, or we we’re going to hang separately. In that regard last night I raised concerns about what we’ve learned about the epic levels of gaslighting that Platner and his team attempted over the past year. They gaslit us about Platner’s redemption story, a central pillar of his brand, by hiding his series of affairs in the first year of his marriage, after he was “redeemed.” They gaslit us about the strength of his candidacy, as rather than being a strong general election candidate, he was arguably our weakest battleground candidate of the last three election cycles relative to the partisan lean of the state. And they gaslit us about the strength of his national movement, as we’ve now just learned that the campaign essentially ran out of money in mid-June and had no longer had a chance of winning the election. We know now that Platner and his team knew it was over in mid-June and yet he stayed in the race, and fought with everything he had to remain even after credible rape accusations. They delayed the process of transitioning to a new candidate by weeks, and then made the transition as difficult has possible. All of this together is remarkably shameful and reckless behavior, recklessness that may cost us the Senate majority this November. The reason the lying, gaslighting, and recklessness of Platner’s team matters so much is that they are also in charge of another critical battleground Senate race right now, the campaign of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. What we’ve learned in recent days raises serious questions about what whether can trust these same people with another must win Senate race. For what we’ve learned about the Platner campaign in recent days raises serious questions about the competency and integrity of the people who ran it in a time when virtue and character have become critical differentiators for us in the November elections. After Platner should we really be trusting another battleground Senate race to the same crew that lead to his spectacular flame out? We should not fool ourselves about the risk it brings……. Finally, we must at all times remind ourselves that what Trump wants more than anything else is for us to be fighting with each other and not with him. Why we need to stay focused on Job One - electing these forty courageous patriots fighting with everything they got to flip the House and Senate this November, and thus do our part in bringing about that new birth of freedom here and everywhere as Greater MAGA weakens here and around the world. That’s what we talked about last night. Watch the video, share it with others, hit like so more will see it, and let’s keep working hard all. For remember that Hopium is hope with a plan. We don’t just hope that tomorrow will be better than yesterday. We do the work to make it so…… And So, Yes, It’s Time To Get To Work Everyone!!!!!!!!!!Winning The House and Senate In 2026Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign - $978,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | 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 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 - $174,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | We’ve launched a second House fund, one targeting candidates who’ve recently emerged from primaries or running in new districts. Our initial crew is Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Cait Conley (NY-17), 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 seven, 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 all of seven of these intrepid leaders here. We are off to a great start here everyone! Winning The Senate - $489,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a single donation to our five candidates must likely to flip a Senate seat this November - Sherrod Brown (OH), Roy Cooper (NC), Mary Peltola (AK), James Talarico (TX), and Josh Turek (IA). The $489,000 figure includes what we’ve raised for these five 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 here. Expanding The Map - Investing And Winning In Key Battleground And Expansion StatesWinning Georgia (New) - $4,700 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | This new fund split a contribution three ways among Senator Jon Ossoff, gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the Georgia Democratic Party | Watch my new interview with Georgia Dem Chair Charlie Bailey Winning Iowa - $19,700 raised, $250,000 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 and its great chair, Rita Hart. Winning Maine - $63,100 raised, $75,000 goal - Donate | Right now this fund is only supporting the Maine Democratic Party to help them get through this challenging process of selecting a new Senate nominee but will expand in coming days to include both our gubernatorial candidate, Hannah Pingree, and our eventual Senate nominee too. Thanks to all of you who have rallied for the Maine Dems in the past few days - it’s a big deal! | Watch our new interview with the inspiring Executive Director of the Maine Dems Devon Murphy-Anderson Winning Ohio - $178,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Our new 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 - $630,100 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! 2026 Election AnalysisA Few More Things To DoLet’s work to make sure everyone you know is Voting Early this year, and learn more about how our political battlefield is evolving this cycle; bring our Resolutions Project to your community; and fight for Hopium’s Agenda today and everyday! 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 all across this great country to win, together! - Simon You're currently a free subscriber to Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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