The moment Joe Biden said that it was better for him, his family and his country that he does not run for another term was met in my heart with a bit of sadness, but unfortunately not a great deal of surprise. We all come to that moment when we must set down our sword, let another carry the load, and finally be at peace with our fight. So to that, I give a nod to a very human Joe Biden who I feel faced the slings and arrows the best he could and allowed the country to heal from the disaster of 4-years preceding his tenure.
Trump posted that he felt the Democrats owed him a great deal of money because he spent fortunes trashing the Biden name, the Biden presidency and the future of the presidency under Joe Biden. But, Joe stepped aside. Wasn’t that what you wanted, DonDon? Some would say you have a bit of a snowflake problem; I say you are a cryin’ bitch.
So, what has changed? Did the theft of state secrets suddenly now not happen? Did he now not steal from his own charity? Did he actually not defraud his “university” (?) students? Did he now not actually assault that woman, did he not actually cheat on his wife with a porn star as she was giving birth to his son, and did he not actually bribe that porn star to keep her silence? Did he not pump up a crowd to “go fight” for a lost election? Did he not conspire to defraud a state election? Did he now not meet in private with the Russian ambassador, kicking his own staff out of the room? Did he not so incompetently mishandle an international epidemic that we are still suffering the consequences? Did he not destroy nearly every career of every person who worked with and for him? Seriously! Where is the line? What does it take? Who has to die and what has to be destroyed before this man is seen as the con-man that he truly is?
about what was happening with the Dem presidential ticket prior to Sunday’s culmination. It hasn’t been easy for any of us to just pivot to our new candidate, though her wondrousness makes it easier. There are still feelings about it. I like how this writer termed it.
Joe Did What? Trafalgar Edition by Yastreblyansky
“No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.”Read on Substack
Well, I guess this certainly does change everything, and that’s refreshing.
I’m going to stay angry for a long time at The Times and Politico and other big media and the “liberal” tech billionaires for the dishonest backdoor trick they pulled, when they couldn’t succeed in turning the public against Biden and shifted instead to convincing us that we had turned against Biden by ourselves, or rather that our neighbors had, through the bogus “age issue”, warning us not that Biden was a bad president, but that he’d lose because other people thought he was too old, and our punishment for supporting Biden would be another Trump term (on the basis of a polling model that has consistently failed by underestimating the Democratic vote for six years now). They recognized our deep fear of the consequences of another Trump term and exploited it, in a way that actually made Trump’s reelection more likely, using the debate disaster as evidence of a permanent degeneration (which it obviously wasn’t—Biden had never showed up in that condition before and never has since). It was irresponsible and disgusting.
I’m not too angry with the congressional party leaders, or the “centrist” representatives in their precarious suburban seats, or even the bedwetter commentariat. The fear is real, and it’s justified. What could be lost in another four years of Trumpery is almost incalculable; I’m thinking especially of the backsliding in the elimination of fossil fuels, but the “deconstruction of the administrative state” as prefigured in the Project 2025 document turns the entire civil service into an easily corrupted tool for tearing down regulations, and reduces the Justice Department into the president’s personal police agency. It really is the end of the republic, alongside plans for a federal ban on abortion, vigilante takeovers of school libraries, the insane powers for evil conceded to the presidency by the Supreme Court even as it strips the office of its power to do good. The thing is, fear is a lousy counselor, and their Fantasy Politics League plan to get rid of Biden by obliterating the primary results with some kind of pantomime competition, before or during the Democratic convention, as somebody leaked the plan to the abominable Mark Halperin (now working for Newsmax), was a terrible, senseless plan that would have flung us into even worse uncertainty than we already had. Don’t panic.
I’m certainly not angry at Biden for making the decision. Far from it! Remember that (as @nycsouthpaw just pointed out) there are two parts to what he did: stepping down from the campaign, and giving his endorsement to Vice President Harris. The first was the thing he was being pressured to do by the congressional party leadership, the timorous representatives from Nassau County and North Jersey and the Hudson Valley, the readers of Friedman and Brooks and Ezra Klein, and so on; the second was the thing those people absolutely didn’t intend for him to do, spoiling the open convention plan. He was not supposed to endorse Harris.
So it was one of those audacious, perfectly timed Biden moves that looks like a gaffe (the most famous example would be the one during his vice presidency that made marriage equality a federal reality) and changes the whole situation. Harris quickly announced her candidacy (to “earn and win” the nomination, she said, carefully), all the other conceivable candidates endorsed her too, and the campaign had raised $50 million from small donors ($100 million after 24 hours, suck on that, billionaires). Like one-eyed, one-armed Nelson at Trafalgar—I’m not kidding, folks!—the 81-year-old Biden had sacrificed his own (political) life, but had won the battle, for his legacy of a better, more free and equal America.
At least I hope so. A battle, of course, not the war. Anyway, it seems clear that Democrats are in a much better position than they were a couple of days ago, with a unity in the party we’ve seen nothing like in years, pro-Biden and anti-Biden voices embracing in the social media. Of 263 Democratic congressmembers and 23 governors, the Washington Post tally 24 hours after the announcements has 243 who have endorsed Harris and 43 who haven’t (non-endorsers include convicted felon Robert Menendez and the federally indicted Henry Cuellar, but the New York and New Jersey centrists I’ve been watching the most have endorsed, except for that freak Tom Suozzi, and so, I’m glad to report, has Speaker Emerita Pelosi). There are no alternative candidates except Marianne Williamson (old Joe Manchin sent out feelers, but was roundly rebuffed). As of this afternoon convention delegations from ten states—Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Alaska, and Wisconsin, plus Guam, had pledged support to Harris, for a total of 770 delegates out of the needed 1,986.
Meanwhile the Trump campaign, now led (with Biden’s withdrawal) by the oldest and unquestioned most cognitively disabled presidential candidate in history, is having to completely reconfigure its tactics. They are running ads complaining that Vice President Harris laughs too much and that she’s opposed to plastic drinking straws. Their vice presidential candidate “JD” Vance looks like a feeble impostor and baffles his audiences with his complaints.
Republicans have been trying to characterize the surge of support for Harris as some kind of coup attempt against Biden, as if Biden hadn’t sparked himself it with his bold move, and as undemocratic, which is somewhat ironic—
One of the most gratifying aspects of the excitement is the way the discussion of Biden’s age has given way to the discussion of his accomplishments from all quarters:
I’ll be getting to that, no doubt, but in the meantime check out this magisterial survey, “Why Biden Outclasses Every American President Since FDR,” by Nathan Newman.
Oh, and maybe one of his most surprising accomplishments will be the election of the nation’s first Black woman president.
(For me, that cleans the Anita Hill slate. It may not for her, and I wouldn’t blame her, but I’m over it now that this has happened. People learn, grow, and remediate wrongs over time. Well, good people do.)
Happy Monday all, and what a Monday it is. We have a new Presidential candidate, a new ticket soon, an historic, profoundly successful President to honor and be grateful for and an election to go win.
To talk about our new moment I’ve scheduled two calls this week – tonight at 7pm for paid subscribers, tomorrow night at 7pm for the broader Hopium community. The Tuesday night call will be recorded and shared here on Wednesday. You can RSVP to either by following the links above and if you want to become a paid subscriber to join the call tonight you can do so here.
Since President Biden announced he was leaving the race the new Harris campaign has raised over $50m online, and we’ve contributed more than $55,000 so far here at Hopium. I hope all of you will take an action on her behalf today, this week – Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. Let’s help the campaign get to $100m raised and overwhelm their volunteer shifts!
We are all going to learn a lot about the Vice President in the coming days – her story, her vision, her agenda. Let’s start with this ad from her 2020 primary campaign. It’s a good indication of what we can expect from her:
A few things about the 2024 election remain true today:
In the last few months we’ve gotten repeated and powerful confirmations of the success of the Biden-Harris Presidency – inflation *fell* last month and is running at the Fed’s target rate over the past six months, crime and murder rates are way down, gas prices are down, the flow to the border is down. We’ve had the strongest economic recovery of any advanced economy in the world, the best job market since the 1960s, the lowest uninsured rate in American history, the deficit is trillions less, the Dow has broken 40,000 and all three indices continue to hover in record territory. Domestic oil, gas and renewable production continue to be at all time highs leaving America more energy independent than it has been in decades. The Wall Street Journal has called the American economy the “envy of the world,” and the Economist recently wrote about the unprecedented start up boom America is experiencing right now. The three big Biden-Harris investment bills have dramatically accelerated the energy transition necessary to combat climate change and will be creating opportunities and jobs for our workers for decades to come. Together, the President and Vice President have reinvigorated the Western alliance, been an historic champion of democracy and freedom, and President Biden helped successfully defeat the fascists in recent European and French elections.
What is also true today is the election remains close and competitive. The Vice President has led Trump in several recent polls. Our Senate polling has held, and remains encouraging. We have one of our largest leads in the Congressional Generic this year, and the largest since Mid-May. We’ve been winning elections of all kinds all across the country these last few years and the far-right was just denied power in Europe, the UK and France – folks just keep voting against the fascists. We have no idea where polling on the race will be for some time, but right now the race is close, and winning the Presidential, keeping the Senate and flipping the House remains something we can do. Expect lots of games from right wing pollsters in the coming days – prepare to block out the noise – as we just won’t really know where the race is for weeks, perhaps until after the Vice President chooses her running mate and we have our Convention in August.
What is also still true today is that Trump remains a rapist, a fraudster, a traitor and a felon. He is old, unfit and unwell; a dangerous extremist; and here’s what he and his Project 2025 and Russia loving VP want to do if in the White House:
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.
What also remains true today is that in addition to rallying behind the new Harris campaign, we have other critical candidate and state parties who need your help today, for here at Hopium we do more and worry less:
Winning The House – $543,000 today, $600,000 goal – Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. We’ve also raised more then $46,000 into the individual House campaigns (you can either give to all 12 or each one individually)
Commit to Vote on Day 1 and get everyone you know to join you. Early voting begins in a few states on September 20th, less than 2 months away!
Finally, I want to thank all of the members of the Hopium community for raising your game these last few weeks as we debated the best way to beat Donald Trump. I asked folks to be guided by respect – respect for our President, respect for our Party leaders, respect for each other. I asked you to not be a bystander but a leader, and to work to keep us together during a tough period, and bring us back together when the path became clear. I know there are many in this community, many many of you, who love and admire President Biden and wanted him to remain our candidate. I am sure yesterday came as a shock and that many of you will need some time to process what happened, to take some time off and focus on other things. That’s fine. Yesterday was a shock. After returning from Raleigh yesterday and a great trip to North Carolina, I was at a Nats baseball game when the news broke. I thought I was going to have a day off. The weather was beautiful in DC yesterday and the Nats are playing good baseball right now. And then my phone started going crazy and we all got the news.
about national US politics for a bit. I’d just finished writing back to eurobrat’s comment, then I saw the headline. I have no words; things need to shake out a bit. I’m aware of how it should go within the party, but I don’t know that the party is much involved in this; it’s mostly donors and media. I guess as to the presidential ticket, we all need to breathe, very deeply, for the rest of the day. A positive will be transferring good energy to legislative races for fine candidates who aren’t Republicans! I’m not sure how much Project 2025 can get done with no legislation. It’s more important than ever: every single seat in the US House is up for election, and we need that House back. We need to keep the Senate.
That’s what I’ve got, for now. I’ll bring back some sort of sunshiny fun thing, probably yet today, though.
Happy Saturday all. Reporting in this morning from Raleigh, North Carolina, ground zero in the 2024 Presidential election. Last night I did an event with one of our Hopium heroes, North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton. I got to meet some of members of our plucky community last night, including one of our earliest members, Bridget Johnson, also known as “B Johnson” in our paid subscriber chat. He we are together last night. B was so great to meet you!
After our wonderful event last night Anderson and I recorded a video for all of you. You can find it above. I am here in Raleigh representing all of you. By raising $325,000 for the North Carolina Democratic Party this cycle our community is the largest investor in North Carolina in the country. We went in early for I believed that we could win here this year, and I believed that Anderson has what it takes to be a great chair and leader here. I got to spend some time with Anderson yesterday getting her report on everything here and I am convinced we have made a wise investment, and that she is doing everything we all hoped for – building the statewide effort here from the ground up, precinct by precinct, fueled by the same passion and and commitment of the grassroots that drives all of you.
I also got to see an old college friend, Gerda Stein, a fellow Tufts Jumbo and sister of Josh Stein, who will be (with our help!) the next Governor of North Carolina. Great to see you Gerda! So proud of your brother, the Hopium community is excited to be on the Stein team!
While we may be in a bumpy patch right now, the work to win this election is going on all across the country. Here in North Carolina people are fired up, working hard, and fighting to win this thing. Many of you have put your head down and channeled your anxiety into good works, supporting candidates and state parties across the country. As I’ve been saying for weeks now we simply cannot let up. We cannot take our foot off the gas. Early voting in the Presidential election begins in three states on September 20th – 2 months from today! We need to keep working for working hard, outhustling them, is how we’ve been winning elections all across the country these last few years and and how we are going to win this November.
One bit of good news in polling today – Dems lead by 1 point in what’s called the Congressional Generic, or who will you be voting for in your Congressional races this fall. This is our largest lead since May 15th and one of our largest leads of the year.
If you want to do more and worry less this weekend here are some things you can do:
Winning The House – $535,000 today, $600,000 goal – Donate | Volunteer | Learn More. We’ve also raised more then $46,000 into the individual House campaigns (you can either give to all 12 or each one individually)
Watch my big “With Dems” presentation on the greatness and goodness of the Democratic Party or this short video on the need for freedom to prevail over dominion this year
Volunteer for the Biden-Harris campaign – their volunteer program is really ratcheting up – check it out and sign up for a shift of calls into the battlegrounds today!
Commit to Vote on Day 1 and get everyone you know to join you
Sign up for our next Hopium-wide gathering on Tuesday at 7pm ET
Finally help me spread Hopium and grow this remarkable community of proud patriots, info warriors and big citizens. Sign others up to be a Hopium subscriber at this link. Note that options for group and gift subscriptions are available to those who want to bring friends and colleagues into the Hopium community. Click on the group and gift tabs here to learn more. To update your payment information or check your renewal status follow these instructions from Substack. Let’s keep the Hopium flowing and our community growing!
I’ll send some more update for North Carolina tomorrow or Monday. Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you – Simon
That poll about Congress is really good news. Hopefully some of the MAGA antics and the info about Project 2025 will bring people out to vote for Democrats!
I hope so, too. Thank you for reading! It’s nice to meet you, and I’ve followed your blog. I’ve been reading Xena for a couple of years, give or take.
I’m noticing much better, fairer (not fair, just fairer) coverage on local news outlets, even in Wichita, KS. I see it online a lot; they show voters stating they want the naysaying to stop, and to get to work to elect our ticket. Those media show things like Minority Leader Jeffries stating that Pres. Biden is our nominee. It’s difficult; the Kool Kids all want to talk about whatever it is while they protect their money from fair taxation, but there are still more of us voters than there are of them. When it gets down to it, are those donors who want the president out actually going to vote for the Don for US president? They’re going to be among the first to be picked up under Project 2025, and all their money will be stolen from them, as opposed to them having to give up some fair taxes. I wish the Dem donors and the Kool Kids would finally change the subject!
I’d also like each of them to show that the Don is any at all more able than Pres. Biden. From what we see, he’s far less able, but nobody’s calling him on it.
Well, it looks like Joe is out. I will admit that I’m relieved and happy about this–I did not think he was a strong candidate anymore, and I’m glad he listened. I sincerely hope we stick with Kamala as our nominee–she is underestimated, I firmly believe she will make a fantastic President, and I’m super excited to support her in the election!
I do absolutely agree with you that through this entire mess, not enough attention has been paid to how terrible another four years of Trump would be. Really, Biden’s brain in a jar should be able to win against him–I don’t understand how anyone still supports the Donald. But sadly, that is not our reality.
I must be rattled. I got the embed link for Gilda’s line I’ve adopted, but somehow, the link for something that is no longer in play got posted. I’ve tried to delete it, or edit it, or both, but finally had to close the page, get back on, and post a new comment. The one with Rep. Jeffries is not the pertinent comment, it’s just taking up space. Enjoy the Gilda one; short and sweet, and my sincerest feelings just now. 🙂
Trump Always Had a Plan To Eliminate ‘Black Jobs’ and Here it Is…
While boasting about Black employment, Trump is targeting ‘good government jobs’ in doomsday plan.
By Joy Rice Published 17 hours ago
While Trump boasts about his administration’s success in creating “Black jobs,” he and his inner circle are actually fine-tuning plans to eliminate them as part of his desire to dismantle the federal government.
That means tens of thousands of so-called “good government jobs” with benefits would be shipped out of the Chocolate City or gone nationwide, with Republican appointees replacing Black civil servants. This is not only alarming, but also indicates Trump’s deep disregard for the very communities he claims to support.
At the recent presidential debate, Trump claimed that migrants were responsible for “taking Black jobs,” perpetuating xenophobic sentiments.
“They’re taking Black jobs now,” he said. “They’re taking Black jobs and they’re taking Hispanic jobs. And you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that’s going to be the worst in our history.”
What’s worse? Trump didn’t say. He also didn’t explain what a “Black job” means to him.
Trump continues to assert that his policies led to record-low unemployment rates among Black workers. Black unemployment did drop to 5.3% in August 2019 during his presidency, but he always fails to mention that it fell to a record low of 4.8% in April 2023 under President Biden, according to a Federal Reserve Bank analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But his campaign speeches and website reveal a starkly different agenda. And no matter how much he tries to deny it, they mirror the Project 2025 playbook written by members of his team and released by the Heritage Foundation. Trump’s plan is to drastically gut the government and federal workforce, a sector where Black Americans are significantly represented. This move threatens the stability and economic security of Black families who rely on these positions.
In addition to reclassifying 50,000 jobs, Trump says in a campaign video that “as many as 100,000 government positions could be moved out, and I mean immediately out of Washington, to places filled with patriots who love America.”
This contradictory approach not only undermines Trump’s previous claims, but also raises questions about his inconsistent attempts to galvanize the Black community, which often involves harmful rhetoric and superficial gestures.
Whether making baseless statements alleging immigrants are taking “Black jobs” or enlisting rappers and entertainment figures like Amber Rose to endorse his campaign, his approach to Black voters has been disingenuous and predicated on a narrow and stereotypical view of Black culture — not the real needs and contributions of the Black community.
Joy Rice is a junior in political science at Howard University.
Leave a comment