One of the best blogs is written by Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic political strategist. He has a determined sense of optimism and calls his blog “The Hopium Chronicles.” Even his free columns are chock full of information. He identifies and fund raises for significant candidates. His is the voice we need to see us through the midterm elections, when we can take back the House or the Senate or both.
Here is his latest, which was free. I finally gave in and subscribed after I finished reading it. I won’t copy in full so please open and read the rest.
It begins:
Good morning all. We start today with some very good news – Derek Tran declared victory in CA-45 last night. I know folks here have worked very hard on that race, and while it hasn’t been officially called yet we should be optimistic about where it’s headed. If you want to keep working to cure ballots in CA-45 and CA-13 (Adam Gray) sign up with our friends at Grassroots Democrats HQ. Here’s the current count in both races:
If we win both these races the House will be 220R-215D, and we will have picked up two seats net from the last Congress. With three vacancies due to House members leaving to join (or attempting to join – Gaetz) the Trump cabinet, House Rs will begin Congress next year at 217-215, a one vote majority in what has been a very factious and fragile Republican “Majority.”
Here’s where our 15 endorsed House candidates stand today:
- Flips (4) – Whitesides (CA-27), Gillen NY-4, Riley NY-19, Bynum OR-5
- Too Close To Call/Still Counting (2) – Gray CA-13, Tran CA-45 (optimistic!)
- Losses (9) – Shah AZ-01, Engel AZ-06, Salas CA-22, Rollins CA-41, Bohannan IA-1, Vargas NE-02, Jones NY-17, Altman NJ-07, Stelson PA-10
I remain very proud of the good we’ve done this past cycle. We made deeply strategic investments and got important wins in a tough year in AZ, NC, NE, WI and in these critical House seats. Of the 6 House seats Dems flipped this cycle, our community aggressively backed 5 of them – George Whitesides CA-27, Tom Suozzi NY-3, Laura Gillen NY-4, Josh Riley NY-19 and Janelle Bynum OR-5.
If both Gray and Tran do win, the Hopium community will have played meaningful roles in electing 7 of the 8 House candidate who turned red seats blue this year. Great work everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
While We Are Tired, And Down, We Have To Fight – I’ve thought a lot about how this place is going to work in this second Trump era. As we’ve discussed it is going to be hard. Bad things are going to happen. And we are going to have to keep fighting through it all, not disengage or get too down, and forge ourselves into a ferocious and effective opposition. Some are going to need to take time off to rest, recover, regroup. That’s fine. Do what you need to do. But friends, if we’ve learned anything in the past few days, we are going to have to fight, and we are going to need everyone on board when they are rested up and ready to go.
While I’ve maintained a very upbeat and optimistic outlook here at Hopium since we launched in March of 2023 I also have been very clear-eyed about who Trump was, and the threat he represented. Rapist, fraudster, traitor, 34 times felon. Or this passage, which I shared again and again:
They want Putin to win, the West to lose. The border to be in chaos, and migrants to keep flowing into the country. Americans to lose even more rights and freedoms. The planet to warm faster. 10 year olds to carry their rapist’s baby to term, and for more women to die on operating room tables. Tens of millions to lose their health insurance. More dead kids in schools. Verified rapists in positions of authority. A restoration of pre-Civil Rights era white supremacy. Huge new tariffs which will raise prices on everything and wreck the global economy which has made us prosperous. Big new tax cuts for their wealthiest donors and tax increases for every day people. Books banned across the US. Seniors to pay more for insulin and prescription drugs. Foreign governments free to pollute our daily discourse and harass our citizens. Teenagers to work night shifts in meat packing plants and not go to school. The minimum wage to stay at $7.25. Mass arrests and mass deportations of immigrants long settled in the US. Insurrectionists to be pardoned. To end American democracy for all time.
Or this one that I also repeated again and again:
Trump is a Russian-backed wrecking ball who wants to end the American-led global economic system that has made us prosperous, end the Western alliance that has made us safe, and end American democracy that has made us free.
A central cause of my optimism that we would win this year came from my belief that our campaigns would have more to work with to disqualify and degrade Trump than any campaigns have ever had, as Trump/MAGA 2024 was far more dangerous, criminal, extreme than any previous iteration of Trump/MAGA. We had beaten the extremists in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023; the fascists had underperformed and been beaten in Europe and France this past summer; and I felt the conditions were such that we could once again prevail against this dangerous politics in the November election.
We know what happened next. Despite his historic ugliness and threat to the country, we didn’t win. And it is clear now, within just a few weeks of Trump’s election, that he is not going to be just one of the guys, a country club Republican CEO, that nutty dude with a red hat doing bro-pods; and that he wasn’t just engaging in “locker room talk” about all those crazy things he rambled on about. Voters were fooled into believing Trump was just a wacky but successful business guy – again. What they – and we – got instead was a Russian backed monster seemingly intent on destroying the American economy and the country from his very first day in office.
Consider the news from the past few days:
- “Trump plans tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China that could cripple trade” (NYT)
- “Walmart says Trump tariffs could raise prices” (CNBC)
- “Trump’s deportation vow alarms Texas construction industry” (NPR)
- “US farm groups want Trump to spare their workers from deportation” (Reuters)
- “Trump officials to receive immediate clearances and easier FBI vetting: president-elect’s team planning for background checks to occur only after administration takes over bureau” – The Guardian
- “Kennedy’s antivax views and friends can cause real damage” (NYT)
- “Trump Pentagon pick (Hegseth) had been flagged by fellow service member as ‘Insider Threat’” (AP)
- “Tulsi Gabbard’s sympathetic views towards Russia cause alarm as Trump’s pick to lead intelligence services” (AP)
- “Sexual misconduct allegations sank one Trump nominee and loom over Kennedy” (WSJ)
- “Gaetz exit puts spotlight on other Trump nominees accused of sexual misconduct” (Reuters)
Here’s the Washington Post this morning on Trump’s new tariff announcement:
President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he will issue executive orders imposing new tariffs on all imported goods from China, Mexico and Canada, the nation’s three largest trading partners, as one of his first acts upon reentering the White House. He said 25 percent tariffs would be imposed on Mexican and Canadian merchandise and 10 percent on Chinese goods as part of a plan aimed at stopping an “invasion” of drugs and migrants into the country. Economists have warned that American consumers would face higher prices on goods because of the proposed tariffs.
As we’ve been discussing here, we are not going to win every battle, and we have to be really smart about where we engage. But fight we must. Here are two things you can do right now, before Thanksgiving:
- Call your Senators and Representative to let them know your dissatisfaction with the rapist, fraudster, traitor and 34 times felon’s pick of Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth and Robert Kennedy; and to inform them of your expectation that they will leave it all out there on the playing field to block these profoundly dangerous nominations whether they have a vote on them or not.
- Contact the White House and ask President Biden to order the FBI to begin background checks into Trump’s nominees immediately.
Trump could have let us have a quiet Thanksgiving holiday. Instead, because he is mad, impulsive and a serial betrayer of the country, we get these wild threats of crippling, autocratic tariffs. Here is Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell on CNN last night talking about how these tariffs are going to drive up costs of so many of our every day goods:
Rest up this long weekend my friends. Enjoy your time with family. Take long walks. Binge watch your favorite show. Read that book that has been sitting by your bedside table for months. Cure a few more ballots for Gray and Tran. Rest up, recharge and for those of you ready to jump back in next week get ready. We have a lot of work to do.
Remember, Hopium is hope with a plan. We just don’t hope that things will turn out as we want. We do the work to make it so. And man do we have a lot of work ahead of us.
Please open the link and finish reading.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sure sounds like we need to keep fighting or end up like his idol’s country. https://fuf.se/en/korrar/unga-och-hogutbildade-lamnar-ungern-till-foljd-av-orbans-politik/#:~:text=Hungarian%20Prime%20Minister%20Viktor%20Orbán,Hungarians%20choose%20to%20move%20abroad.
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All Politics is Local, you “win” one race at a time, complaining is therapeutic, winning requires coalition building and actual boots on the ground
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Wonderful column. The same message is spreading through our red (but voted against full ban on abortion and raised minimum wage) state: Keep the pressure on confirmation and 2026.
I continue to push on one more layer of public pressure and exposure in addition to “contact your congressperson.
CALL (hmm, BOMBARD) YOUR LOCAL MEDIA and press them to 1) report the roll call daily on confirmation hearings and to make 2) State elected offices comment on the cabinet appointments.
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THE NONDELEGATION DOCTRINE: THE TOOL TO STOP TRUMP FROM ISSUING “EXECUTIVE ORDERS” and “NATIONAL EMERGENCY” DECLARATIONS TO SEIZE POWER:
Trump had stated that on his first day back in The White House he will issue a blizzard of Executive Orders and National Emergency declarations to take control of nearly every aspect of our government.
The tool to stop him is the Nondelegation Doctrine that is based on Article 1, Section 1, of our Constitution. Here’s how:
THE NONDELEGATION DOCTRINE
Article I, Section 1, states: “ALL [emphasis added] legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
What that flatly, unequivocally means is the ONLY CONGRESS has the constitutional authority to create laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in “Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Chadha” that the clear intent of our Constitution is that laws are to be written by our nation’s bicameral Congress, not by some other entity, including the Executive Branch.
In that ruling, the Court pointed out our Founding Fathers’ intent by reserving ALL legislative power to our bicameral Congress was to erect constitutionally enduring checks on each Branch and to protect The People from the improvident exercise of power by the Executive Branch and by governmental agencies.
The Court ruled that Congress cannot delegate its constitutional lawmaking role and duty to a President or to any other agent, unless there is a valid sudden, unanticipated emergency, and that is not the case with situations such as the U.S./Mexico border situation and the illegal immigrant situation, or with other situations for which Trump has said that he will issue Executive Orders and declarations under the National Emergency Act.
SLOWNESS IS NOT A REASON
The Court also stated in Chadha that the slow, deliberate pace of legislation in Congress does not constitute a reason for Congress to delegate away its legislative responsibility: The Court declared that “There is no support in the Constitution or decisions of this Court for the proposition that the cumbersomeness and delays often encountered in complying with explicit constitutional standards may be avoided, either by the Congress or by the President. With all the obvious flaws of delay, untidiness, and potential for abuse, we have not yet found a better way to preserve freedom than by making the exercise of power subject to the carefully crafted restraints spelled out in the Constitution.”
Because issues like the U.S./Mexico border situation and the presence of illegal immigrants in the U.S. are issues that EVOLVED OVER DECADES of inaction by Congress, these issues do not constitute “sudden, unanticipated emergencies” and therefore cannot be addressed by presidential declarations of “national emergencies”. It is the SOLE AUTHORITY OF CONGRESS and Congress’s constitutional duty to address these issues by legislation.
Nor can Congress delegate its authority to special agents, such as the proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” because as the Court also pointed out in Chadra: “[T]he fact that a given law or procedure is efficient, convenient, and useful in facilitating functions of government, standing alone, will not save it if it is contrary to the Constitution. Convenience and efficiency are not the primary objectives — or the hallmarks — of democratic government.”
EXECUTIVE ORDERS
Trump has stated that on his first day back in The White House, he will issue a blizzard of Executive Orders to take charge and change things his way. But — the same nondelegation-based argument can be brought in court against Trump’s Executive Orders.
The United States Constitution does not contain any provision that explicitly permits the use of Executive Orders. Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the Constitution simply states: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Sections 2 and 3 describe the various powers and duties of the president, including “He shall take care that the Laws be faithfully executed”. That’s what the Executive Branch is charged with doing by the Constitution: Carrying out the laws made by Congress, not overriding those laws or making law by itself.
In fact, the act issuing an Executive Order to override laws passed by Congress is a breach of the presidential oath of office to uphold and defend the laws of the United States.
So, while the Constitution explicitly states in Article 1, Section 1, that ALL legislative power resides with Congress, the Constitution only IMPLIES that the President has the authority to issue Executive Orders, and even that implication is limited to orders from the President to his cabinet departments to “faithfully execute” the laws made by Congress, not to override or to circumvent them.
Executive Orders that carry the weight of law are therefore unconstitutional because the Constitution assigns solely to Congress the authority to make law.
Moreover, if the President issues Executive Orders that interfere with or override the laws made by Congress, that is a breach of the President’s oath of office.
THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY ACT
Trump also plans to issue declarations based on the National Emergency Act to basically make law that suits him. The same Nondelegation Doctrine can stop him. Here’s how:
The 2011 “National Emergency Powers” report by the Congressional Research Service regarding the National Emergency Act lists the essential elements of an emergency condition:
An emergency is sudden, unforeseen, and of unknown duration.
An emergency is dangerous and threatening to life and well-being.
An emergency requires immediate action because it was unanticipated.
Do issues such as the U.S./Mexico border situation and the presence of illegal immigrants in the U.S. qualify as “emergencies”?
So, the situation at the border does not constitute an unforeseen, unanticipated “emergency”. The situation at the border can be dealt with by normal passage of laws by Congress.
So, neither the border situation nor the illegal immigrant situation meet the criteria for being “emergencies”.
Moreover, since National Emergency declarations carry the weight of law, they, too, violate the Nondelegation Doctrine.
STOP TRUMP!
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American voters weren’t fooled. They CHOSE to believe Trump, and their decisionto vote for a conman and predator is going to exact a very heavy price on many Americans.
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Robert Reich sends a message of hope and gives a playbook for how to restore democracy. I am thankful he did this but ponder if it is possible given Trump’s iron grip on all the branches of govt? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNxm4RgSNA
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