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Folks Ain't Buying What Trump Is Selling, Mamdani Wins, Our NM Resolutions Advance, Keep Working Vs. The Big, Ugly Bill Everyone!

Anne Applebaum Joins Us Live at Noon ET, Paid Subscribers Gather Tonight at 7pm ET

Simon Rosenberg

Jun 25

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Morning all. If all goes as planned the next few days will be busy ones here as we interviews planned with journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, Senator Elissa Slotkin and our candidate for Governor in New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill. Hopium paid subscribers also gather tonight at 7pm, and I will be going live with Dem digital guy Mike Nellis tomorrow at 1115am ET. First up is my live discussion with Anne Applebaum today at Noon ET. Click here at Noon to join us and feel free to invite others. You can get registration info for our other events here.

To prep for our Noon discussion today review Anne’s two most recent essays, This Is What Trump Does When The Revolution Sputters and Trump Has No Strategy. Very excited for this one!

If you haven’t gotten to them yet my discussions with Tom Bonier on the need for Dems to embrace partisan voter registration again and MI AG Dana Nessel on how Dem Attornies General are fighting and winning against Trump are well worth your time. All of our recent discussions can be found on our Podcast tab on the main site and on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify too.

America And The World Just Ain’t Buying What Trump Is Selling - In my post yesterday we discussed how the the early polling this week showed the country rejecting Trump’s Iran foray, which in turn has begun to drag his already declining poll down even further. G. Elliot Morris’ latest poll aggregator captures Trump’s recent, and significant, decline:

Trump’s three recent plays to revive his struggling and unpopular regime - immigration escalation, his birthday parade and now Iran - have only made him more unpopular and his regime weaker.

The country didn’t support the Iran bombing even before we learned yesterday that - shocking!!!! - Trump has grossly exaggerated the impact of the strike. Here’s how the Washington Post is playing it today (gift link):

And this how it is being characterized by the mainstream media this am:

In his NATO press events this morning Trump repeatedly became unhinged at these reports showing he - how shall we say it? - lied. Watch if you have the stomach for it. Even for Trump this stuff sounds incredibly pathetic and puerile. Note the lower third below - “Trump and US Officials Slam Intel Leak On Iran Strikes.” For the second time in a week Trump has now disavowed intelligence community findings about Iran’s nuclear program. Unbelievable levels of Trumpian chaos here there for all the people of the world to see.

Trump returns from NATO tonight to make the full court press on his terrible budget bill. Need to everyone to contact their Senators and Reps today, tomorrow, Friday and into next week. Passage of the bill is not guaranteed and we just have to keep doing everything we can to kill it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mamdani Wins NYC Mayor Primary - A few initial takeaways from Zohran Mamdani’s surprise win last night: 1) We are clearly now entering a new post-Clinton/Obama/Biden political era in the center-left, pro-democracy coalition 2) We are in the early stages of this new era, and it is likely to feel “messy” as new leaders emerge, new ideas tested and new tactics are tried 3) We should welcome this “messy” period of experimentation, competition and debate as it is the only way we can effectively grow, evolve and improve 4) there is far more experimentation and innovation happening in our coalition today than is widely understood.

How should we view Mamdani himself? I plan on keeping an open mind. To understand what his victory means we need more information in my view - he still has to campaign and win the general election, and next year he will have to prove he can govern and lead New York City - no easy thing. He is clearly a very talented communicator and capable young leader, but he has also staked out some controversial positions that he will need to explain and defend in the coming months (I am not a DSA guy). Here is a portion of his victory speech last night. Watch as we all get to know him better:

Looking forward to hearing from you about Mamdani’s surprise win and what you think it means for us going forward.

Our New Mexico Resolutions Advanced Yesterday! - An exciting update from Deborah Potter:

Success in both resolutions "Defending our U.S. Constitution and Separation of Powers!!!!!" Hopium testimonies in Santa Fe were brilliant! The Santa Fe County Commission passed, approved and adopted the resolution with very beefy additional language from the draft resolution submitted. It was passed, approved and adopted unanimously as Resolution #2025066. The four oral testimonies in Albuquerque were bold, patriotic and inspiring, including two United States Marine Veterans invoking their oath of office. The Bernalillo County Commission passed and approved the resolution with minor word changes. It will be prepared for formal adoption on August 5. The vote was 4 in favor to 1 ignorant-Republican commissioner of mine against. The lambasting he received from the four Democrats during the debate is well worth your listening time. Audio re-recording from youtube to my phone, Santa Fe hearing 18 minutes https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Fs1yj_6p3Gly214p-ZUlQJoK1ss36RM/view?usp=sharing Audio-re-recording from youtube to my phone, Albuquerque hearing, 31 minutes https://drive.google.com/file/d/14FPRqhZlvVXleP11Gf-kJ0sjbAlxzSEc/view?usp=sharing.

Thanks to all who worked on advancing these inspiring “resolutions of condemnation,” particularly Deborah Potter and Paul Dirdak. For background on what I am now calling our “resolutions project” visit here. We have movement on similar resolutions now in ten states. Let’s work to see if we can be in all 50 by Labor Day fellow patriots.

Now, Let’s Get To Work!

Support Hopium’s Priority Candidates - June 30th Filing Deadline Is Coming Up!

Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov - $200,000 goal, $15,000 raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer
Abigail Spanberger VA Gov - $200,000 goal, $135k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch Our Interview
Jon Ossoff GA Senate - $200,000 goal, $11,000 raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer
Hopium House 7 - $200,000 goal, $137k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer, Watch Our Interviews

1 - Stop The Reconciliation Bill - Job One for us this summer remains fighting Trump’s ruinous and deeply unpopular economic agenda. We need to keep calling every day and demand our leaders vote down the reconciliation bill and roll back Trump’s terrible tariffs. This is the big, definitional battle of the summer and we need keep working it every day. Those of you in states with Republican Senators have a particularly important role to play in the coming weeks.

Here’s a possible script to use to fight the reconciliation bill and tariffs. Use whatever works for you:

I am calling to urge you to vote against the reconciliation bill and to roll back Trump’s terrible and illegal tariffs. Together these actions have raised taxes on all of us and will explode the deficit - things Republicans have always told us they did not believe in.
But your agenda is also causing all of us to “pay more and get less” for every day things including our health care; people to loses their jobs; and the economy to slow - all so you can give your rich donors a huge tax break. Your plans will weaken this great country and are an extraordinary betrayal of everything you promised during the campaign - which was to help people like me, not Elon Musk, get ahead.
Your plans are ones of sabotage, surrender and betrayal and I urge you to abandon them and to work with Democrats to find a better way.

2 - Get The Military Off Our Streets, Fight Trump’s Inhumane Immigration Escalation - Contact your Rep and Senators to demand they fight Trump’s illegal use of the National Guard and Marines in California. Encourage Democrats at all levels of government to a stand with Governor Newsom and the California - for Trump is not just attacking California, he is attacking the rights and freedoms of all of us. See my recent interviews with Joe Garcia, Leon Krauze and Senator Chris Van Hollen for more.

In the coming days I want to work with all of you to do something more explicit about demanding the end of masked, plain clothes “police” snatching people here in America without warrants.

3 - Own The Fourth, The Flag And Patriotism - To keep our momentum going after this weekend’s No Kings events I encourage to explore ways of Owning The Fourth and make our Independence Day an ugly one for our mad wannabe king.

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. Our resolutions passed in New Mexico yesterday - let’s keep the mo’ going everyone!

4 -Volunteer To Help Your State and/or Local Democratic Parties Stand Up Voter Registration Efforts - In the presentation he made to our community on Friday Tom Bonier made a persuasive case that Democrats must once again make partisan voter registration a national priority. State and local Democratic Parties are in the planning stages to take this on. Members of our community should consider contacting their state and local parties and offer to help stand up these vital efforts in the coming months.

For more on the need to make partisan voter registration great again see my recent interview with Jane Kleeb, Nebraska Democratic Party Chair, DNC Vice Chair and President of the Association of Democratic State Committees.

5 - Stand Up For Science - Sign on to the critically important Bethesda Declaration and watch my interview with Stand Up For Science’s Executive Director Colette Delawalla. Signing on to the Declaration is one concrete way you can take action today.

Note that we did get a great court ruling restoring the NIH grants the Bethesda Declaration calls for. Here’s how one medical journal characterized the ruling:

District Judge William Young, a nominee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, blasted the Trump administration’s NIH cuts as discriminatory and “bearing down on people of color because of their color.”
A federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s sweeping terminations of NIH research contracts are not only illegal, but are also a clear manifestation of the government’s “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community.”
In a speech after delivering his verdict on Monday, U.S. District Judge William Young in Massachusetts called the administration’s move to cut federal funding for certain research grants “arbitrary and capricious,” going against established government standards, as per the Associated Press. Young blasted the Trump administration, which he said was “bearing down on people of color because of their color,” NBC News reported. “The Constitution will not permit that.”

In a very important development, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy has called on Robert Kennedy to delay the meeting of his newly constituted fake vaccine advistory committee this week.

For more on the need to fight Trump’s war on science, research, academia and our public health see my recent interview with noted climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann.

Please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder!

Grow Hopium - We’ve set a goal of trying to grow the Hopium community from the 151,000 we are now to 175,000 by Labor Day. 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 we will hit our goal.

To encourage the growth of our community annual paid subscriptions are 10% off through Labor Day and we’ve launched a new referral awards program too. So you can earn months towards a paid subscription by bringing in new subscribers to the Hopium community!

Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon