23 Comments
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Victoria Pawlick's avatar

I love your writing. I think you are funny, brilliant and insightful. I am, unfortunately, one of those who cannot afford a paid subscription but, if I had the means, you would be one of the several writers I would subscribe to. (Gotta admit, I feel guilty enjoying your posts and not paying for the privilege.) The competition to get paid subscribers for individual newsletters, substacks, You Tube channels, etc must be fierce. It would be great if there was an umbrella organization that provided packages of content where a consumer could pay a higher fee but have access to multiple sources through that one fee and where the proceeds would be shared among the content providers. MTN does something like this but the diversity is limited and most of it is video rather than the written word. But, of course, if such a thing were ever to be available, it would likely be hijacked by some selfish, greedy ne'er do-well. I really enjoy your posts and look forward to the time when I can compensate you for sharing your wonderous wit.

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Trygve Hammer's avatar

I will continue my presence here but will also have a website with other content and ad revenue. And shuffle-dance videos.

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Victoria Pawlick's avatar

I am grateful - both that you will continue here and that you have other sources of remuneration.

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Bar Scott's avatar

As a substack writer who is sympathetic to readers’ dilemma, I support this idea big time. Thank you.

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Katrina's avatar

Can't wait to see you land some really good literary punches. Cheers on the planned endeavor.

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Trygve Hammer's avatar

Going to be rich-n-famous so my PAC can help get a brilliant agricultural engineer elected to the Senate.

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Katrina's avatar

Delightful and Brilliant but can't spell worth a shit. And I hope your plan includes getting your badass elected, too.

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Luisa Mayer's avatar

Trygve- I’m a paid subscriber and also for the other guys you mention and more…. But I don’t do social media and I don’t know what “twerking” is (& don’t want to know). I like being able to read individual voices. You are a funny and thoughtful writer and seem to be “of the people” - although are any such who are politicians? It seems as if once a guy or gal becomes one- gets elected- they sever themselves from their constituents - they become public personalities. Then start the betrayals. Keep your voice and the platform if you can. Thanks for it all.

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Edward Jay Allan's avatar

Hey, whatever works. ..... I've been enjoying what you've been posting. Degenerate Don has not yet, yet, banned windmills, and I think that there are a fair number of them on farms and spreads in the Dakotas. And I hope that you will continue your efforts to promote rationality in your surroundings.

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Trygve Hammer's avatar

I will keep it up until the rest of the country begins wondering how North Dakota became so rational.

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Linda Kremer's avatar

May I suggest North Dakota Normal for your new name? :)

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Trygve Hammer's avatar

Or maybe Twerking for the Weekend.

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Jesse Watson's avatar

Twerking for the Hooters (owls)! Done.

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Shirley Nelson's avatar

I understand a guy’s gotta eat but you are such a joy in my life (along with Andy Borowitz). Write away knowing we’ll follow your hilarious posts no matter how many words you use. Maybe you could write about the Trump Presidential Library-now that would be a short post.

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Christina Manos-Bocek's avatar

Trygve Hammer, I applaud your sensible Midwestern mind. And your humor and your occasional skewering of morons (which are popping up like mushrooms in a rainy season so how do you have any time left over at all?) I like your style so much that I subscribed and I shamelessly advise others to do the same. You would get my vote if only I lived in ND, or if you ever ran a national campaign (go revive your wife. I’ll wait). I look forward to hearing from you every week; wish we could have a coffee together sometime so we could have a good laugh.

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Huron Smith's avatar

Fun and erudite, as always! I paid for this at least once, but that may have lapsed. Thanks for indulging us lurkers.

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Vicki Voldal Rosenau's avatar

Speaking of ROBERT REICH, I would like to recommend the following comment, which I received from him today. Like Reich, I can no longer abide/support "today’s business-as-usual Democrats." But I certainly CAN and WILL support "strong, bold opposition" Democrats!! :

Office Hours: "What would Democrats be doing now if they got up off their asses?"

If we had a strong, bold opposition party that rose to what the time demands

--Robert Reich (Jul 02, 2025)

Friends,

Congress is on track to pass the largest and most regressive piece of legislation in American history.

Last week, I shared with you a letter to Democrats from someone purporting to be Liz Cheney (as I noted in a later version, it turned out not to be from her but most likely from Dr. Pru Lee), essentially telling Democrats to get off their asses.

Regardless of the author’s identity, the letter conveyed an urgency and boldness more responsive to the current authoritarian crisis than anything coming from today’s business-as-usual Democrats, who seem to know how to act only in a campaign season.

To build on that urgency and boldness, I’ve summarized below four of the most trenchant options in that letter (judging from your responses).

Please select the one you’d most like Democrats to begin working on immediatel y.

1. Mount an independent investigation. Form an independent, civilian-powered investigative coalition. Build a real-time archive of corruption, overreach, and executive abuse. Make it public. Use experts, veterans, whistleblowers, journalists, watchdog organizations. Hold public hearings. At some point, these people will be held accountable. And when that day comes, we’ll need every name, every signature, every illegal order, every act of silence — documented. You’re not just preserving truth — you’re preparing evidence for prosecution. The more they vanish people and weaponize data, the more we need truth in the sunlight. Investigate every author of Project 2025, every aide who defies court orders, every communications director repeating lies, every policy writer enabling cruelty. You can’t stop a regime by asking the king to sit down. You dismantle the throne he’s standing on — one coward at a time.

2. Join the International Criminal Court. You cannot control what the other side does, but you can control your own integrity. So call their bluff. Prove that the Democratic Party is still grounded in law, human rights, and ethical leadership. Join the International Criminal Court. If you’ve got nothing to hide — join. Show the world who’s hiding bodies, bribes, and buried bank accounts. Force the GOP to explain why they’d rather protect a war criminal than sign a treaty, why they’re disappearing people off the streets, why they’re setting up detention facilities in an alligator-infested swamp. And while you’re at it, publicly invite ICC observers into the United States. Make this administration explain — on camera — why they’re terrified of international oversight.

3. Plan the recovery from this cataclysm. Work with strategists and military minds on PROJECT 2029 — a coordinated, long-term plan to rebuild this country when the smoke clears. You should be publicly laying out: the laws and amendments you’ll pass to ensure this never happens again, the systems you’ll tear down, the safeguards you’ll enshrine, the plan to hold perpetrators of human atrocities accountable, the urgent commitment to immediately bring home those sold into slavery in El Salvador, the electoral reforms you’ll fight for to prevent a dictatorship from ever again forming under our very noses. You say you’re the party of the people? Then show the people the plan.

4. Create a digital safe haven for whistleblowers and defectors. Not everyone inside this regime is loyal. Some are scared. Some want out. Build the channels for them to defect — encrypted, anonymous, and protected. Make it easy for the cracks in the system to become gaping holes. Stop ostracizing MAGA defectors. Everyone makes mistakes — even glaring, critical ones. We are not the bullies, we are not the ones filled with hate. And it is not your job to shame people who finally saw the fire and chose to step out of it. They will have to deal with that internal struggle — the guilt of putting a very dangerous and callous regime in power. But they’re already outnumbered. Don’t push them back into the crowd. We don’t need purity. We need numbers. We need people willing to burn their red hats and testify against the machine they helped build.

Hence, today’s Office Hours question: What’s the most important thing Democrats should be doing right now?

POLL: What’s the most important thing Democrats should be doing right now?

Mount an independent investigation = 29%

Join the ICC = 10%

Plan for the recovery of democracy(Project 2029) = 41%

Safeguard defectors = 10%

Other (in comments) = 11%

3282 VOTES · Leave a comment

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/office-hours-what-would-democrats#poll-339859

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VirginiaM's avatar

I know they don't have the Cool Kids factor, but a couple of bloggers I read have moved to either Beehiiv or Ghost, and they report that (a) switching over is easy and (b) both companies take a lesser % of revenue.

I enjoy your writing so much and look forward to continuing to read, wherever you are.

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P J Johnston's avatar

Your writing is fine and sometimes very funny. Keep up the good work Trygve!

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Jesse Watson's avatar

The Shuffle Daddy! I guess something involving owls and politics might be misleading; there is surprisingly little owl content for someone whom I know to be as fixated on owls as yourself. Hoot hoot!

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Ralph Roberts's avatar

Trygve, how about The Screw Worm Chronicles for your new Substack title? Maybe it wasn't RFK Jr.'s worm that died eating his brain, maybe it was his brain that died, and now HHS is being managed by a screw worm? This has both humor and political potential that only you can bring to life.

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Jane Moslow's avatar

Your piece on the elimination of the Job Corp was brilliant. Your best.

BTW, the system Substack uses for payment doesn’t work. I was buying you coffee. I had to get a new debit card. Couldn’t make it work.

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Kristopher Giesing's avatar

> You don’t tip an unbalanced scale by standing at the fulcrum.

This might be the best thing you've ever written. I want this on a T shirt now.

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