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Stuart Stevens and Simon Rosenberg sat down for their monthly conversation — the first of 2026. And despite being less than ten days into the new year, they had a lot to talk about.
Just as a chorus of actual debate was rising in our media (and, slowly, with Congressional Dems), an ICE agent killed an innocent woman in the streets of Minneapolis. For the last ten years, we’ve all wondered: what will break through? In this news cycle, everything breaks through. That’s not necessarily a good thing.
We really needed to have that debate about Venezuela, American imperialism, and shifting global power structures. We will still have it, certainly, because our involvement in Venezuela isn’t going anywhere. But there are bound to be more breakthrough stories before we get back on track.
Big stories used to break through background noise. Now it’s one big story breaking through the last big story. It’s impossible to focus.
Another case in point: Ukraine. Russia is still there, ratcheting up its scorched-earth campaign. The Ukrainians are still bravely fighting back. While the media has all but forgotten the war, they would do well to connect the dots between the Russian Federation, Trump, and Congressional Republicans, who might as well have been elected by Putin.
Stuart was in Ukraine in October, and can draw a line from global authoritarianism to the American streets inhabited by ICE and other masked federal agents.
The party that is allowing Putin to slaughter Ukrainians is also giving absolute immunity to agents who kill Americans and turning their back on their Constitutional responsibility to check the power of the Executive.
There are cracks in Trump’s power, though. Seventeen Rs voted against their party to restore ACA subsidies, and the Senate has rebuked Trump’s Venezuela war powers.
But a crack in their coalition doesn’t equal victory for Dems. We must speak with moral clarity and patriotism. As Stuart says in this wide-ranging conversation, we have to stop apologizing for calling out extremism.
We love Simon, and always look forward to these conversations. If you aren’t already a subscriber to Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg, what are you waiting for?
 | A guest post by
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