Morning all. With the words “The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate Is Love” behind him, and the flags of all the countries of the Americas trailing behind, last night Bad Bunny yelled “God Bless America” and then sang the names of all the countries of the Americas (a region under siege right now). Here is that remarkable moment:
And here is what his football said - Together, We Are America:
Here is Bad Bunny a few days ago after winning the top award at the Grammys - “ICE Out”:
And here is the young boy Bad Bunny gave his Grammy to, with a photo of young Liam being apprehended by ICE. There can be very little question about what this great artist was doing here last night.
You can watch the Bad Bunny’s performance here if you haven’t seen it yet. It was a remarkable moment - full of joy, of love, our celebration, of rejecting the darkness. Here are some of the performers from the half time show dancing with the crowds outside the stadium after the game. The party, the joy, the celebration just wouldn’t end.
Meanwhile, in the dark world, Trump’s world, our leader has chosen to attack all this; to attack the NFL for hosting this dynamic and inspiring American; to attack our brave Olympians while they are competing in Italy. Our addled, corrupt, and declining leader looked very small this weekend as our culture and the next America spoke powerfully about the better world they intend to build when he is long gone.
May Bad Bunny’s joy and love fuel our work this week. For this disgraceful Administration is still illegally, shamefully, covering for Trump, Epstein and their dark circle. Here is an ad Epstein survivors aired during the Super Bowl last night:
Last night HHS Secretary Bobbie The Terrible and Insane spent millions of our dollars to roll out a new ad campaign during the Super Bowl promoting “Real Food.” The government spokesmen in this ad campaign, Mike Tyson, is a convicted rapist and served years in jail for his crimes. The producer of this new ad campaign, Bruce Ratner, has loads of Me Too problems and was an Epstein guy. And of course super Epstein ally Alan Dershowitz, an advocate of lowering the age of consent, led Tyson’s unsuccessful appeal of his rape conviction.
Every day we keep learning about a new ICE atrocity. Here is a story from today’s Irish Times (h/t Dan Moynihan) about a man named Seamus Culleton.
Green card application in process and work permit, married to US citizen
Lived in US for 20 years, no criminal record
In detention for five months with no charge, despite judge approving release
He disputes ICE claim that he signed forms agreeing to deportation
Here is an excerpt from the story:
The NYT has another memorable story today about the pain Trump-Vance-Miller are inflicting on people and communities all across Bad Bunny’s AMERICA - A Raid In A Small Town Brings Trump’s Deportations To Deep-Red Idaho (gift link):
People in Wilder, Idaho, didn’t give much thought to the dusty horse track west of town known as La Catedral Arena, where, on Sundays in the summer and early fall, vendors sold horchata and tacos, announcers called race results in Spanish and immigrant families gathered for reasonably priced fun.
But when federal agents swarmed the track on Oct. 19 — weapons drawn, a helicopter overhead, unmarked S.U.V.s screeching in on dirt roads — they did more than crack an alleged gambling ring and increase deportation numbers. They shattered Wilder’s innocent belief that its out-of-the-way location and deep-red politics could isolate the town from the raids overtaking other parts of the country.
“We rely on Hispanic labor,” said Chris Gross, a second-generation farmer who grows sweet corn seed and mint in Wilder. She added, “Nobody thought something like this could happen here.”
The raid on La Catedral may not have made the national headlines that immigration sweeps in Minneapolis, Chicago and Los Angeles did, but it illustrated the depth and breadth of President Trump’s effort to find and rid the country of undocumented immigrants; 75 people rounded up that day have since been deported, according to local immigration lawyers.
Beyond the economic impact, there is the social one — the profound sense of uncertainty and suspicion that has filtered down, even to a town like Wilder, Idaho.
The raid “nearly destroyed” the community, said David Lincoln, a longtime Wilder resident and executive director of a nonprofit economic development agency serving rural towns in western Idaho. Wilder won’t really know the impact until planting season begins this spring.
“What happens if everyone who is Hispanic thinks they’re at risk?” Mr. Lincoln asked. “There’s fear now that didn’t exist here before. I don’t know how you make that go away.”
There is urgency to our work to rein in ICE, end the violence, end the lawlessness, and force them to focus on criminals and leave the rest of us alone. For atrocities keep happening every day, in our name.
Here is what I wrote in that very first Hopium post almost three years ago:
I am calling it Hopium Chronicles because I want this to be a journey guided by hope and optimism, of belief in ourselves, of love of country and a clear understanding of the nature of the conflict we are in. I have become convinced that part of Greater MAGA’s strategy is to intentionally poison our discourse with negative sentiment every day. They want us to feel bad about America, our democracy, our leaders, our institutions, our success, each other, ourselves. We cannot let them do that any more. While they talk American down every day, we need to talk it up. While they spread lies, we respond with truth and data. Hopium is a rejection of the darkness they are trying to spread. It is a way of standing up for our great country and its remarkable people. It is the key to how we win.
Yes, we must keep choosing the light over darkness, joy over fear, love over hate, Bad Bunny over Stephen Miller. That is our job here at Hopium.
Our fight is a righteous one my friends. We cannot let up for one minute for we are in the fight about ICE, about freedoms and democracy, that we all wanted to have - and now we need to go win it……..
Keep contacting your Congressional Reps and demand they rein in ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Big week ahead as DHS funding runs out on Friday!
Winning The Midterms - Support Our Candidates
Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $110,300 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). Friends, we’ve hit $100,000 - thank you all!
Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $28,700 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and learn more. Amazing start everyone!
Winning Ohio - $51,500 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) - $74,900 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) - $122,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff
Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps, Winning In Red States and Red Places (2026-2032)
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $354,600 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
Why We Must Invest Early, Now, And Not Wait - In three new essays (here, here, here) I discuss how one of the ways we win the 2026 midterms is by providing early support to our candidates and parties to allow them to staff up, be loud, define the terms of the debate now, before the inevitable onslaught on AI slop, Russian disinfo, and Trumpian lies funded through bribes and corruption wash across the land.
The midterms could be won or lost in these next few months - not in the fall of 2026 - and we need be fighting now with everything we got.
1 - 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:
Stand with Ukraine and our European allies, and far more forcefully challenge Trump’s traitorous efforts to sell out the US and the West to Russia
Congress must stand forcefully for rule of law in the Caribbean and the Pacific - these illegal strikes must end; no war can be waged without Congressional approval; there must accountability for those who have broken the law, and the US must withdraw from Venezuela and cease other threats to violate the UN Charter and the sovereignty of other nations
Roll back Trump’s terrible, illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, reviving tyrannical “taxation without representation,” and alienating governments and people throughout the world. To put America on a sounder fiscal course due to the enormous deficits brought by Trump’s 2025 tax cuts we should reverse the cuts to the wealthy and corporations
Defend our democracy, rule of law, and our liberties by blocking the expansion of ICE; restoring due process for immigrants across the country; vigorously defending the 1st Amendment; warring against his outrageous targeting of his domestic political opponents; ending the use of the military on our streets and the dangerous occupation of our cities; stopping the unprecedented regime corruption; and by forcing the Administration to finally comply with Congress end the rancid cover up of the Epstein crimes.
Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA, Medicaid and our clean energy investments; support and co-sponsor the Stand Up For Science/Rep. Haley Stevens effort to remove Robert Kennedy from HHS.
Keep working hard all. The momentum is with us, and we need to keep fighting as hard as we can - Simon
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