Vicarious Catharsis April 30, 2026April 30, 2026 Need some? Then enjoy these 14 minutes in which Representative Adam Smith addresses the Secretary of Defense. The first minute may start a little slow, but boy does he ever get going. And going. THE SUPREME SETBACK We’re still going to win back the House, but the White Christian Leonard-Leo-stacked Court has just made it much harder. You’ve gotten dozens of emails and texts about this already, I’m sure, so all I want to say is that if your budget to help save democracy and pull our wonderful country back from the brink was half of one percent of your net worth, consider doubling it to a full 1%. If it was 3%, consider making it 4% or 5%. That would still leave 95%. Instead of leaving that extra 5% to your kids or grandkids, consider leaving them a country they can be proud to live in. > A good place to find House races where your money will matter: A House United. > A good place to fund infrastructure that all our 50 state parties and 8,000+ candidates rely on: the unsexy but indispensable DNC, currently chaired by an indefatigable winner. (If you’d like to meet him, come to the 27th annual LGBT Leadership Council dinner in New York June 29 — straight allies welcome! It’s produced by an Academy Award winner and is thus, as fundraising dinners go, pretty good. Click here. And while you’re in town, see Hamilton. Or John Lithgow’s stunning Giant. Or the Raphael exhibit at the Met. Both Giant and Raphael close the day before, so if you come for the weekend, you’ll be just in time!) > If you’re a normal person, just trying to make ends meet — or a formerly wealthy person who, thanks to me, has run out of money “he could truly afford to lose” — then skip all that and join the tens of millions whose $20 here and $30 there collectively dwarfs the money from high-dollar dinners . . . and whose volunteering will produce the blue wave we need to restore sanity, competence, dignity, and the rule of law. BONUS Our leavingMAGA billboards are gaining more and more traction: DUMPING TRUMP: MAGA loses voters as Trump polling plummets (3 minutes). In leavingMAGA, disillusioned Trump voters find a welcoming, non-judgmental community of folks who’ve been down the same road.