Liza Donnelly and I take on Valentine’s Day from a different perspective this year. Nations, like people, have the power to choose to be whatever they wish, and no one illustrated that idea better than Frederick Douglass. Liza writes and illustrates Seeing Things, a daily exploration of this American moment through drawings and artistic observation the same way I look at it through history. 
You’re currently a free subscriber to Letters from an American. If you need help receiving Letters, changing your email address, or unsubscribing, please visit our Support FAQ. You can also submit a help request directly. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
|
Saturday, February 14, 2026
What, to a Country, Is a Child’s Birthday?
Some Notes And Tasty Fare For Our Long Holiday Weekend....
Good morning everyone. My wife and I kicked off this holiday weekend last night with a wonderful dinner at our favorite restaurant in DC and finished it off by watching Hamnet, which the old English major in me strongly recommends.
Here in DC we are looking forward to warmer temperatures and some rain this weekend to wash away the snow here, which has been with us for much longer than usual and has disrupted the Capital much more than many anticipated. Over these next few days I’m excited that we will go from challenging winter to those first warm, affirming days of early spring. And yes, all of a sudden it’s time to start planning our gardens everyone…….. We have five new meaty discussions for your consideration this long weekend:
You can find all of our interviews and podcasts on the Hopium site under the Podcast tab, and on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify too. For your planning purposes you can now find the schedule of upcoming live and recorded conversations on our Events page. This week we will be joined by Rep. Delia Ramirez, Professor Phillips O’Brien, Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola and perhaps one more special guest.
And a general reminder that if you “like” a post or video here it makes it more likely that the Substack algorithm will promote it, and that it will then be seen by a wider audience. So hitting like on our posts helps bring our work to more people, and helps grow the Hopium audience. I am also grateful for those of you who’ve been using our referral system to bring in more subscribers. Together we’ve been able to introduce Hopium to many new people in recent months. Yesterday we learned the name of the courageous Twin Cities “Bathrobe Lady” (and once again acknowledge the incredible inspiration that the people of Minnesota have been these last two months):
The State of the Union (not at all good) will be Tuesday, February 24th, a week from Tuesday. We are going to need to be very, very loud that week my friends. Trump heads into this consequential period with his lowest job approval of his second term, his Congressional coalition fraying, DHS shuttered, his agenda roundly rejected by the American people, and a once proud nation just tired of the bluster and the bullshit, the incompetence and the corruption, the betrayal and the “more for me and less for all of you” agenda that is leaving us less prosperous, less safe, and less free….
There are two speeches members of our community keep talking about that I’m reposting for this long weekend in case you haven’t watched them yet…. The first is Senator Jon Ossoff’s powerful speech in Atlanta last weekend….  The second is Canadian Prime Minister’s Mark Carney’s Davos speech from a few weeks ago:  Janet Mills just dropped a terrific new ad about Susan Collins and her “30 years of concern”:  This week I began the process of rebooting my foundational With Democrats, Things Get Better presentation (last presented Aug, 2024) by updating some of its core graphs, ones that tell a very powerful story about American politics since the Cold War ended and a new age of globalization began:
No matter how you cut the data Trump has the worst jobs record of any President since Hoover…..
The economy just does better under Democrats than Republicans, much much better……
Democrats have averaged more than twice as many jobs created per month - 211,000 - as Republicans have per year - 90,000.
Since 1989 52 million jobs have been created in America. 50.6 million of them have been created under Democratic Presidents. 97%. Essentially all of them.
Now, Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Keep contacting your Senators and House Member and demand they rein in ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are in the fight about ICE we all wanted to have and now we need to go win it! Winning The Midterms, Competing In Red States and Red Places, Expanding The MapHopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $163,000 raised, $250,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate to all four endorsed House challengers with one click | Learn More | Enjoy our new conversations with Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), and Janelle Stelson (PA-10). Now including funds already raised with our friends at FridayAction for a joint event we are doing in May. Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $369,300 raised, $500,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Join our new campaign to expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas. Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties. Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $33,300 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and learn more. Amazing start everyone! Winning Ohio - $58,700 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party. Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue! | Watch my conversation with David Pepper, who does a great overview of the opportunities we have in Ohio this year. Note a generous donor has sent $21,000 worth of Hopium-infused contributions directly to the candidates which are not included in our on-line goal tracker. Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $76,500 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my conversation with Gov. Cooper and a new, terrific one with NC Dem Party Chair Anderson Clayton Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $126,900 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff Winning The Big Arguments With Trump, Defend Our Democracy1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Five-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our now five part agenda:
Keep working hard everyone. The momentum is with us, and we need to keep fighting as hard as we can - Simon You're currently a free subscriber to Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
|
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
What, to a Country, Is a Child’s Birthday?
Liza Donnelly and I take on Valentine’s Day from a different perspective this year. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ...
-
Four Ohio cities ranked in the nation's top 100 best cities for single people, according to a WalletHub survey that considered fact...
-
The Trump administration has launched a new federal initiative called the U.S. Tech Force, aimed at hiring about 1,000 engineers and t...
