Greetings all. I am taking the day to reflect and recharge so there won’t be one of my normal posts this morning. In the spirit of this important day I also want to express my profound gratitude to everyone in this remarkable community. We have done a lot of good together over this past year, and I feel blessed every day to be able to do this work with all of you.
A few new stories, a few candidate interviews, and then a few things to do….
This was the lead story for most of the day yesterday on Politico:
Both the Washington Post and The Guardian have lurid stories about Trump’s third country deportation regime.
Anne Applebaum’s new Atlantic cover story, “Empire of Grift: Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction,” is a must read.
Trump remains at his all time low in the Civiqs daily tracking poll this morning:
The NYT explores a subject we’ve been exploring here at Hopium:
Finally, the NYT has a big, deeply reported story this morning about Trump deciding to man up and defend the Saudis this weekend and then - shockingly! - chickening out:
For two weeks, the question of whether to yield to pleas from Saudi Arabia and order the U.S. military to strike targets in Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis has bedeviled President Trump.
A decision to go forward could open another front in the war against Iran that Mr. Trump started but has been unable to end as it spreads economic shock around the globe.
The president had wavered for weeks over the Saudi appeals for help in fighting the Houthis, who took advantage of the instability in the Middle East and
[reignited their war with the kingdom]this summer.But things came to a head on Thursday: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader and a major ally in the Iran war, called the president to implore him, again, to step in to help blunt the rapidly advancing group, administration officials said.
Mr. Trump had met with advisers just the day before and told them he did not favor strikes. But after speaking with the Saudi crown prince, he reversed himself and told the Pentagon to prepare for airstrikes against the Houthis.
But by midday Sunday, the president appeared to have reversed himself again. There would be no U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis — at least not for the time being, according to administration officials. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss military planning.
If you need a bit more check out these three recent Hopium posts:
Absence, Madness, And Increasing Danger - What World Leaders Will Find In New York This WeekTrump Is Unraveling. Their Battlefield Is Deteriorating. A Wave Is Coming
Watch or listen to our latest round of candidate interviews:
Senate -
Roy Cooper(NC),Josh Turek(IA)Governor -
David Crowley(WI)House -
Lindsay James(IA-02),Jake Johnson(MN-01),Jessica Killin(CO-5),Nancy Lacore(SC-01),Brian Poindexter(OH-7),Bobby Pulido(TX-15),Dr. Amish Shah(AZ-01)
Yes my friends, though it is a day of reflection and renewal, it also can be a day of action too. For it is that time, everyone……
Three things you can do in addition to supporting our intrepid candidates:
Become an
Early Vote Championin your networks, communities, and organizations.Sign up to become a
Democracy Protectortoo. Our next training is this Wednesday at 8pm ET.Email photos of your electoral work or physical act of voting to community@hopiumchronicles.com or via links on our daily chat. We want to start showcasing them here on Hopium.
Here’s Lynn F voting on the very first day, in the very first few hours, of early voting in Virginia on Friday:
**Our Winning The House - Stake In The Ground Fund **- Donate | $1,340,100 raised, $2,000,000 goal (new stretch goal) | This is our #1 fund, updated now with new intel to include the twelve most competitive races where money and volunteers is most needed (largely due to the expense of the district, and understanding now where Republicans have decided to spend and contest). If we win these twelve races the House flips - period.
Our * Stake In The Ground Fund* now includes Jamie Ager (NC-11), Rebecca Bennett (NJ-7), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Cait Conley (NY-17), Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-03), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), Christina Hines (MI-10), Brian Poindexter (OH-7), Bobby Pulido (TX-15), Manny Rutinel (CO-8), and Randy Villegas (CA-22). You can meet all there remarkable candidates by
Our Winning The Senate Fund - $993,100 raised, $1,500,000 goal - Donate | This 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). These are the majority makers in the Senate this cycle.
You can watch our interviews with each of these exciting candidates and/or contribute directly to any of them here. Our fundraising total includes money we’ve raised directly for each of the six candidates.
**Our New Growing Our House Majority Fund *- Donate | $415,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal | We’ve combined our Second and Third Waves Funds and added some candidates from our OG Winning The House Fund in a new fund we are calling * Growing The House Majority. The idea is simple. We win the House with the first fund. We grow our majority with this one.
This fund now splits a contribution evenly among 18 candidates - Bob Brooks (PA-07), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Elaine Luria (VA-02), Sean McCann (MI-04), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Lindsay James (IA-02), Jake Johnson (MN-01), Jessica Killin (CO-5), Nancy Lacore (SC-01), Chaz Molder (TN-05), Jonathan Nez (AZ-02), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-06), Denise Powell (NE-02), Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and Marni von Wilpert (CA-48). You can watch interviews and learn more about these great candidates here.
**Our Wining The States Series **- Due to space limitations for today we’ve moved our state “Winning” series to this new page. Head there to make state specific investments in Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin!
Note that in any of our campaigns that aggregate donations you can tailor your contribution to a chosen subset of the candidates or even a single candidate by clicking on the “customize amounts” link just above the “$25, $50….” part of the ActBlue page.
Support The State Parties’ Election Protection Program - Donate | $66,100 raised, $100,000 new stretch goal | We’ve launched a new, targeted fundraising campaign to help get the new election protection program of the State Democratic Parties, one this community helped develop, off the ground.
Help Hopium Close Strong - $76,000 raised, $100,000 new stretch goal | We’ve launched a new fundraising drive for Hopium to allow us to expand our programming in these final critical days of the 2026 election and free up a bit of my time to support the State Parties’ Election Protection program. It will allow me to add some additional capacity here and make sure the vital State Party program is successful.
Remarkably my friends we hit our initial goal of $50,000 this week - in just a few days - and have stretched our goal of this targeted fundraising campaign to $100,000. A huge, huge thank you to everyone who has chipped in here - I am humbled and energized by this rousing show of support for Hopium - and am starting the process now of bringing on some additional help for the home stretch.
Here are the ways you can support Hopium today:
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Become A Paid Subscriber, Upgrade To Founding Member*,
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Donate Directly To Hopium* - You can do that
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Mail A Check To Hopium HQ* - Send a check of any amount to 5185 MacArthur Blvd, NW, #600, Washington, DC 20016. Checks should be made out to “Hopium Chronicles by Simon Rosenberg.” Donations to Hopium Chronicles are neither tax-deductible nor tax-exempt.
Finally, self-report all the good trouble you are making each day in our paid subscriber chat below…..
Keep working hard all. We have a country to save, and elections to win all across the country, together! - Simon
