I just posted about this, I think things are being planned. Schumer has a committee formed, Warner and Warnock are on it. Also the AGs are still meeting, and the Secretaries of State, too, I think.
I saw that my two senators Padilla and Schiff are on it. Great combo. And I’d like to see Padilla payback for getting thrown to the ground by ICE, and Schiff payback for the ongoing attacks by the legal thugs.
I was on a call last week with the ACLU and they have been organizing in two dozen different ways to protect the elections before, during, and after. They welcome volunteers.
Simon - An underdiscussed dynamic is the upcoming Israel election and because of the nature of Israeli politics it is likely that the opposition will strongly rally against this deal. In an environment in which Israeli society is unified in opposition to this deal, I don’t think Trump’s political coalition (particularly Iran Hawks) in the US will be able to “put lipstick on this pig”, many of them (who didn’t like Trump in the first place) may begin to criticize the administration. We’ll see.
FURIOUS about these costs. Timothy Snyder did another Q&A w Dr. Ben-Ghiat yesterday, who expounded on her theory about Orange's role being to destroy the country by any means-the example being the Vought/OMB directive on grants. It was a sobering but very informative talk. Link here: https://youtu.be/xb5MTltIYlE?si=VDIMxoHdL5oVb8RE
Yes, we MUST demand accountability and stop this crap. I do not accept that there is nothing we can do to stop this MF ballroom, and we should also demand that the unsightly mess that is the South Lawn be torn down (he's threatening to leave it standing). Enough already with this cr*p. We are the majority, we need to demand this stuff.
Finally, good to hear that Schumer, Warnock, Warner and others are meeting to strategize re the elections this fall and going forward. And the DNC is being proactive, too. They are training people to register voters, to conduct listening sessions, etc. Pedal to the metal, and keep going!
tim has an excellent interview on politics girl today, well worth listening to. did it on my morning walk which was unusually crisp and autumn like in nj.....should be great weather for the match later today, france and senegal...staying away from the turnpike....
Hey everybody, sorry I’ve been pretty sparse in the comments for a bit… Busy for a couple of weeks with some family stuff. But, in addition to whatever I can do to help with our Hopium candidates, the opportunity is big enough this year that I feel like it justifies putting some energy and effort behind the Dan Osborne campaign against Pete Ricketts here in Nebraska. It’s a longer but not impossible shot, and everywhere that we’re playing offense is a place that they’re having to mount a defense and that’s a good thing… Taking the Senate away from these guys in my view is about as important as anything we could do… With this abominable Supreme Court, the last thing we need is for one more judge to be seated anywhere in the federal judiciary by this president and this spineless despicable cowardly and corrupt Senate Majority Leader. I’m also going to see what I can do to help flip the blue dot in the house in Omaha…
I won’t write all the details again but I’ve shared in the past what a pleasure it was to be a part of the long process of Nevada becoming a true swing state and largely a blue state for many years. I was able to participate in 2006, and we didn’t make very many gains that year but we started the process, and by the time I left we had really shifted the politics of that state and the allocation of power up and down the ticket dramatically.
I don’t expect Nebraska to follow quite the same trajectory, but I sure wanna see it do what it can. Pete Ricketts actually hosted Ted Cruz here for a fundraising event the other day… I don’t know how fucking bad things have to get when you think the solution might be to bring in Ted Cruz, but it’s gotta be pretty bad.
Information Warrior report. My brief comment in the NYT was published this morning in response to the article "Will Gerrymandering Give Republicans a Permanent Majority?"
No way. maga is headed for the dustbin of history. We the People have the cards, and we will continue to generate a blue tsunami to vote early in historic numbers for our Democratic leaders. That is how America will recommit to Democracy, enforce the rule of law, and protect our freedoms. Lessons were learned from the spirit of the Hungarian people and are still being learned from the people of Ukraine and President Zelenskyy.
Regarding resolutions in NM— Out of the blue, I received a FB friend request from NM State Rep. Joanne Ferrary, HD-37 for Las Cruces. So, I accepted, and then sent her an email to ask if she wanted to help get the resolution moved forward by her County Commission. That included copies of the signed resolutions for Bernalillo County and Santa Fe County one year ago and the draft Doña Ana County resolution that was never introduced by Commissioner Shannon Reynolds before he resigned to run for Doña Ana County Assessor. Let's hope she will help get the resolution on the Commission's agenda, although a new sponsor is needed.
I sometimes wonder which is more harmful, the evil and corruption of the Trump administration or its utter incompetence. Of course they feed off each other, since the more visibly and frequently they fail and the more blatant their stupidity, the more evil actions they are motivated to pursue to divert attention from their bumbling, and the more corrupt deals they are likely to establish to increase the financial resources at their disposal to fight against future indictments and bribe some opponents into abandoning their efforts. There are of course some significant players in or complicit with the Trump Administration who are both evil and competent. It would be interesting to compare notes about who we think fall into this very dangerous category.
Maybe we should create Long Spoon Awards, to be given to those who choose to sup with one or more of Earth's current legion of devils. I recognize that sometimes that choice is unavoidable, and even justifiable if there are good reasons to rank the threat from one devil higher than from the others, provided you realize and anticipate that the lesser devil may become the "valedictorian " of evil once the former holder of that title is defeated.
Their actions targeting voter registration groups in Ohio, targeting the SPLC, are extremely alarming. But I think the wheels are really coming off and it is expected that they will continually escalate.
It turns out maybe Kash Patel has a slush fund to pay off "loyal" agents. This should be interesting.
I donated one-time to Turek before, but I just put in $10/month recurring for his campaign. I'm working on some MI postcards tonight. I've got 25 assigned to start working on.
remember the taliban blowing up the giant buddha carvings? tell me how these guys are different....absolute power corrupts, and it corrupts absolutely.....
I'd like to hear what the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has represented that he's head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as well, has to say about this. I'd like to, but so far all I (and Gemini, too) hear from him are the sounds of silence. Can you imagine someone bombing Notre Dame, Chartres, or frankly, even the smallest Roman Catholic Church, and Pope Leo or Pope Francis or even Pope Benedict saying *nothing* about it (what John Paul II would say almost goes without saying)?
Yesterday, I voted early in the Maryland primary election. Easy peasy, no line, at a nearby recreation center.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to ask them to do something about Trump's expressed plan to use our military bands to provide entertainment at what he is calling a "Trump Rally" that is the result of musicians refusing to perform at his 250th event. If this is a political rally then our military should not be there. I'm writing postcards to Ohio voters today..
I wrote a social media rant about the insults to First Lady Michelle Obama at Trump's birthday fight spectacle. Fish rot from the head and I blame Trump for it. I've always admired her and it's shameful the way Trump encourages his minions to hurl their racism and sexism at her.
I was at the Wisconsin Democratic Convention this past weekend. And holy cow, I love my state, but I'm glad I don't have to pick just *one* of the extraordinary line-up of candidates for governor (I'd rather be supporting a referendum, per VICE and others re: the presidency, that declared the job too big for one person and put them *all* in charge). You know how scared Republicans are when they're trying to convince the public this murderer's row of talent is a "clown car," when the only obvious children's performer on the scene is their candidate, who's more likely to scare than entertain.
Furthermore, I'd have the same problem in every one of the Congressional districts where we're fielding multiple challengers, all of them looking to innovate in new media, though at least I know who I'm going to try to help win their primaries. It also looks like WisDems has a cornucopia of opportunites to flip enough seats to take back both the Assembly and Senate. To a person, it's full-throated trifecta or bust, with a decidedly un-Democratic confidence (no offense--none taken?) that they're going to succeed, bigly. Or as Chairman Remicker put it (with Ben W there in support), "Governor, Assembly, Senate--all GAS, no brakes (no breaks either)."
Two other amazing things.
* At two points, everyone who had never attended a political convention before were asked to stand, and *at least* a *third* of the people in the hall stood up.
* WisDems being WisDems, they'd gone out to the spring No Kings rallies and interviewed 2,000 attendees. As you know, this is arguably (along with NC) the best organized state party in the country. Yet *60%* of the people they interviewed at the rallies were people they'd *never* had any contact with before. Be afraid, GOP, be very afraid.
Tom, I am a lifelong Wisconsinite. When Scott Walker took over and the Republicans seemed to control everything, i wondered if i would ever see the Wisconsin Idea live again. But, as you so eloquently say, we are coming back. It is truly a lesson for the country. Work hard for votes, present ideas, policies and candidates that appeal to working class people, remind rural and urban folks that we have much in common and take no election for granted. And, along the way give people hope that change is possible.
One of the psychological challenges I'm guessing many of us face is avoiding the temptation of looking up (at the mountain we're going to have to climb) or looking down (at the mess we're going to have to clean up when we do). If there was *one* part of the WisDems convention I wish everyone in Hopium and beyond had been able to be there for, it was the tribute video to outgoing governor Tony Evers and the speech he gave that followed (Ive just written them to ask if they recorded it, and if so, whether they'd be willing to share).
I don’t know how many people outside the state are aware of what Wisconsin was like in 2018 when Evers ran for, and defeated, Scott Walker. It wasn't just a "democracy desert" (as Harvard described it): after eight years of metastasizing cancer (aka the postmodern GOP), it was a desert, *period*--every element of the state's identity, its culture, its institutions had been leveled or hollowed out. For many of us who grew up here, it was unrecognizable--they even sold our share of Lake Michigan to a foreign company that created 12 jobs in return! WTFH!! And thanks to a level of court-supported gerrymandering that probably provided as much inspiration to Orban as Jim Crow did to Hitler, they appeared to have locked up the Wisconsin Idea for life.
Enter Tony Evers--and Ben Wikler, of course. Tbh, viewed from afar, I always thought Evers was the closest thing to "generic Democrat" pollsters use that I think I'd ever seen--an empty placeholder more than a flesh and blood person. Frail-looking, strongly bespectacled, gentle, soft-spoken, white-haired, definitely not conventionally charismatic in the (frankly superficial) American political sense. And yet not only was I about as wrong as I've ever been about anything in my life, this is what he did in eight years (plus I know I'm missing some--a LOT--of what was said):
* Made the largest investment in the UW system in WI history
* Made the largest investment in K-12 in WI history (boosting WI from 18th to 7th in the rankings)
* Funded the biggest expansion of health care in state history
* Created the best funded small business support program in the country, resulting in Silicon Valley-like (without the silicon), or Sweden-like (6x the numbers of new entrepreneurs per capita as the US!) numbers of new businesses--and existing ones saved.
* Fixed 9,600 miles of roads (and hundreds [thousands?] of bridges), much, if not most of which happened *without* the help of the federal infrastructure bill--eliminating the "scottholes" was a core promise in his *first* (2018) campaign, four+ years before that program really started manifesting in the field.
* Undid the GOP gerrymanders at both the federal and state levels
* Restored women's reproductive rights
* So much more
And here's the kicker, three of them, in fact, like the rule says. He did *all this* while also:
* Giving the middle class a 23% tax cut
* Delivering a budget that was not just balanced, but in the black, every year in office, which allowed him to pay off $3 billion in debt and leave another $2 billion in surplus as a parting gift
* Dealing with a viciously partisan (esp. for Wisconsin) and sore loser state legislature that endeavored to unconstitutionally (no matter what the partisan state supreme court said at the time) strip him of many of his powers as soon as he was elected, and was on the verge of impeaching Janet Protasiewicz *before* she even took office before Evers & Wikler convinced enough of them that doing so would not do wonders for what would remain of their political careers.
I'm still in Madison, where the difference in the economy between here and Connecticut (where I live now) is pretty close to night and day, and in cases where it's not (eg for farmers), it seems people are getting better and better at identifying when and why it started to go south: January 20, 2025. It's no wonder Evers is now the most popular politician in the state, and why delegates were able to chant (as they did, albeit briefly) "We're not going back!" without hearing the footsteps of 2024 behind them.
As someone in IL who lives right near the WI/IL border, I’ve been impressed by Wisconsin’s turnaround after its hollowing out by republicans. I remember when the initial resistance to Walker started and it built from there. The state is an important reminder of the critical role of voter turnout despite Republican BS.
Daily comments are in to WI D and R members of Congress regarding the issues outlined today -thanks, Simon. I’ve got my public comment for the OMB rule ready to send in today. There is so much in that rule that will harm science research, it was hard to find a place to focus. As a parent of 2 young adult PhD researchers, this really hits close to home. I find it so maddening that they are faced with all this BS just as they’re starting their independent careers. I found this from Elizabeth Ginexi to be really helpful. Her substack has lots of helpful info on it.
Self report: I reached out to my Facebook network about writing postcards after this BS, https://x.com/marceelias/status/2066218492378992909, and had a great response...and will get more as I wrangle men in my network to write postcards.
900+ postcards being sent from my network (including me). I'm targeting Iowa.
*Also, I'm inspired to call my Reps about the orange turd paying for the damage.
Should Democrats form an election security commission to counter the onslaught of MAGA election fraud? How about a bipartisan commission?
I just posted about this, I think things are being planned. Schumer has a committee formed, Warner and Warnock are on it. Also the AGs are still meeting, and the Secretaries of State, too, I think.
Thanks for this update, Lisa. Much appreciated. Warner is my Senator. I'll call his office today and encourage further work on this issue.
To my relief, Democratic leaders have been working on this, and it seems like they are taking it seriously.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/11/how-senate-democrats-are-planning-to-push-back-on-potential-election-interference-00957663
I saw that my two senators Padilla and Schiff are on it. Great combo. And I’d like to see Padilla payback for getting thrown to the ground by ICE, and Schiff payback for the ongoing attacks by the legal thugs.
I was on a call last week with the ACLU and they have been organizing in two dozen different ways to protect the elections before, during, and after. They welcome volunteers.
Simon - An underdiscussed dynamic is the upcoming Israel election and because of the nature of Israeli politics it is likely that the opposition will strongly rally against this deal. In an environment in which Israeli society is unified in opposition to this deal, I don’t think Trump’s political coalition (particularly Iran Hawks) in the US will be able to “put lipstick on this pig”, many of them (who didn’t like Trump in the first place) may begin to criticize the administration. We’ll see.
FURIOUS about these costs. Timothy Snyder did another Q&A w Dr. Ben-Ghiat yesterday, who expounded on her theory about Orange's role being to destroy the country by any means-the example being the Vought/OMB directive on grants. It was a sobering but very informative talk. Link here: https://youtu.be/xb5MTltIYlE?si=VDIMxoHdL5oVb8RE
Yes, we MUST demand accountability and stop this crap. I do not accept that there is nothing we can do to stop this MF ballroom, and we should also demand that the unsightly mess that is the South Lawn be torn down (he's threatening to leave it standing). Enough already with this cr*p. We are the majority, we need to demand this stuff.
Finally, good to hear that Schumer, Warnock, Warner and others are meeting to strategize re the elections this fall and going forward. And the DNC is being proactive, too. They are training people to register voters, to conduct listening sessions, etc. Pedal to the metal, and keep going!
tim has an excellent interview on politics girl today, well worth listening to. did it on my morning walk which was unusually crisp and autumn like in nj.....should be great weather for the match later today, france and senegal...staying away from the turnpike....
Blue Wave is coming.
That is all.
If things continue on this trajectory and we do our job right, it’s gonna feel more like an earthquake than a wave
blue tsunami
Hey everybody, sorry I’ve been pretty sparse in the comments for a bit… Busy for a couple of weeks with some family stuff. But, in addition to whatever I can do to help with our Hopium candidates, the opportunity is big enough this year that I feel like it justifies putting some energy and effort behind the Dan Osborne campaign against Pete Ricketts here in Nebraska. It’s a longer but not impossible shot, and everywhere that we’re playing offense is a place that they’re having to mount a defense and that’s a good thing… Taking the Senate away from these guys in my view is about as important as anything we could do… With this abominable Supreme Court, the last thing we need is for one more judge to be seated anywhere in the federal judiciary by this president and this spineless despicable cowardly and corrupt Senate Majority Leader. I’m also going to see what I can do to help flip the blue dot in the house in Omaha…
I won’t write all the details again but I’ve shared in the past what a pleasure it was to be a part of the long process of Nevada becoming a true swing state and largely a blue state for many years. I was able to participate in 2006, and we didn’t make very many gains that year but we started the process, and by the time I left we had really shifted the politics of that state and the allocation of power up and down the ticket dramatically.
I don’t expect Nebraska to follow quite the same trajectory, but I sure wanna see it do what it can. Pete Ricketts actually hosted Ted Cruz here for a fundraising event the other day… I don’t know how fucking bad things have to get when you think the solution might be to bring in Ted Cruz, but it’s gotta be pretty bad.
Hope everyone is off to a good week… Love to all.
Information Warrior report. My brief comment in the NYT was published this morning in response to the article "Will Gerrymandering Give Republicans a Permanent Majority?"
No way. maga is headed for the dustbin of history. We the People have the cards, and we will continue to generate a blue tsunami to vote early in historic numbers for our Democratic leaders. That is how America will recommit to Democracy, enforce the rule of law, and protect our freedoms. Lessons were learned from the spirit of the Hungarian people and are still being learned from the people of Ukraine and President Zelenskyy.
Regarding resolutions in NM— Out of the blue, I received a FB friend request from NM State Rep. Joanne Ferrary, HD-37 for Las Cruces. So, I accepted, and then sent her an email to ask if she wanted to help get the resolution moved forward by her County Commission. That included copies of the signed resolutions for Bernalillo County and Santa Fe County one year ago and the draft Doña Ana County resolution that was never introduced by Commissioner Shannon Reynolds before he resigned to run for Doña Ana County Assessor. Let's hope she will help get the resolution on the Commission's agenda, although a new sponsor is needed.
Every new development on Iran makes me need some hopium more and more.
I sometimes wonder which is more harmful, the evil and corruption of the Trump administration or its utter incompetence. Of course they feed off each other, since the more visibly and frequently they fail and the more blatant their stupidity, the more evil actions they are motivated to pursue to divert attention from their bumbling, and the more corrupt deals they are likely to establish to increase the financial resources at their disposal to fight against future indictments and bribe some opponents into abandoning their efforts. There are of course some significant players in or complicit with the Trump Administration who are both evil and competent. It would be interesting to compare notes about who we think fall into this very dangerous category.
Maybe we should create Long Spoon Awards, to be given to those who choose to sup with one or more of Earth's current legion of devils. I recognize that sometimes that choice is unavoidable, and even justifiable if there are good reasons to rank the threat from one devil higher than from the others, provided you realize and anticipate that the lesser devil may become the "valedictorian " of evil once the former holder of that title is defeated.
Their actions targeting voter registration groups in Ohio, targeting the SPLC, are extremely alarming. But I think the wheels are really coming off and it is expected that they will continually escalate.
It turns out maybe Kash Patel has a slush fund to pay off "loyal" agents. This should be interesting.
I donated one-time to Turek before, but I just put in $10/month recurring for his campaign. I'm working on some MI postcards tonight. I've got 25 assigned to start working on.
Yes...
Putin blows up Eastern Orthodox's oldest religious site.
Trump desecrates every revered American site in DC he can get his dirty contractors' hands on.
Netanyahu destroys everything/body he can reach.
Oh la! what lovely strongmen we have leading the world.
remember the taliban blowing up the giant buddha carvings? tell me how these guys are different....absolute power corrupts, and it corrupts absolutely.....
I'd like to hear what the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has represented that he's head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as well, has to say about this. I'd like to, but so far all I (and Gemini, too) hear from him are the sounds of silence. Can you imagine someone bombing Notre Dame, Chartres, or frankly, even the smallest Roman Catholic Church, and Pope Leo or Pope Francis or even Pope Benedict saying *nothing* about it (what John Paul II would say almost goes without saying)?
Thanks, Simon!
Yesterday, I voted early in the Maryland primary election. Easy peasy, no line, at a nearby recreation center.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to ask them to do something about Trump's expressed plan to use our military bands to provide entertainment at what he is calling a "Trump Rally" that is the result of musicians refusing to perform at his 250th event. If this is a political rally then our military should not be there. I'm writing postcards to Ohio voters today..
I wrote a social media rant about the insults to First Lady Michelle Obama at Trump's birthday fight spectacle. Fish rot from the head and I blame Trump for it. I've always admired her and it's shameful the way Trump encourages his minions to hurl their racism and sexism at her.
I was at the Wisconsin Democratic Convention this past weekend. And holy cow, I love my state, but I'm glad I don't have to pick just *one* of the extraordinary line-up of candidates for governor (I'd rather be supporting a referendum, per VICE and others re: the presidency, that declared the job too big for one person and put them *all* in charge). You know how scared Republicans are when they're trying to convince the public this murderer's row of talent is a "clown car," when the only obvious children's performer on the scene is their candidate, who's more likely to scare than entertain.
Furthermore, I'd have the same problem in every one of the Congressional districts where we're fielding multiple challengers, all of them looking to innovate in new media, though at least I know who I'm going to try to help win their primaries. It also looks like WisDems has a cornucopia of opportunites to flip enough seats to take back both the Assembly and Senate. To a person, it's full-throated trifecta or bust, with a decidedly un-Democratic confidence (no offense--none taken?) that they're going to succeed, bigly. Or as Chairman Remicker put it (with Ben W there in support), "Governor, Assembly, Senate--all GAS, no brakes (no breaks either)."
Two other amazing things.
* At two points, everyone who had never attended a political convention before were asked to stand, and *at least* a *third* of the people in the hall stood up.
* WisDems being WisDems, they'd gone out to the spring No Kings rallies and interviewed 2,000 attendees. As you know, this is arguably (along with NC) the best organized state party in the country. Yet *60%* of the people they interviewed at the rallies were people they'd *never* had any contact with before. Be afraid, GOP, be very afraid.
Tom, I am a lifelong Wisconsinite. When Scott Walker took over and the Republicans seemed to control everything, i wondered if i would ever see the Wisconsin Idea live again. But, as you so eloquently say, we are coming back. It is truly a lesson for the country. Work hard for votes, present ideas, policies and candidates that appeal to working class people, remind rural and urban folks that we have much in common and take no election for granted. And, along the way give people hope that change is possible.
One of the psychological challenges I'm guessing many of us face is avoiding the temptation of looking up (at the mountain we're going to have to climb) or looking down (at the mess we're going to have to clean up when we do). If there was *one* part of the WisDems convention I wish everyone in Hopium and beyond had been able to be there for, it was the tribute video to outgoing governor Tony Evers and the speech he gave that followed (Ive just written them to ask if they recorded it, and if so, whether they'd be willing to share).
I don’t know how many people outside the state are aware of what Wisconsin was like in 2018 when Evers ran for, and defeated, Scott Walker. It wasn't just a "democracy desert" (as Harvard described it): after eight years of metastasizing cancer (aka the postmodern GOP), it was a desert, *period*--every element of the state's identity, its culture, its institutions had been leveled or hollowed out. For many of us who grew up here, it was unrecognizable--they even sold our share of Lake Michigan to a foreign company that created 12 jobs in return! WTFH!! And thanks to a level of court-supported gerrymandering that probably provided as much inspiration to Orban as Jim Crow did to Hitler, they appeared to have locked up the Wisconsin Idea for life.
Enter Tony Evers--and Ben Wikler, of course. Tbh, viewed from afar, I always thought Evers was the closest thing to "generic Democrat" pollsters use that I think I'd ever seen--an empty placeholder more than a flesh and blood person. Frail-looking, strongly bespectacled, gentle, soft-spoken, white-haired, definitely not conventionally charismatic in the (frankly superficial) American political sense. And yet not only was I about as wrong as I've ever been about anything in my life, this is what he did in eight years (plus I know I'm missing some--a LOT--of what was said):
* Made the largest investment in the UW system in WI history
* Made the largest investment in K-12 in WI history (boosting WI from 18th to 7th in the rankings)
* Funded the biggest expansion of health care in state history
* Created the best funded small business support program in the country, resulting in Silicon Valley-like (without the silicon), or Sweden-like (6x the numbers of new entrepreneurs per capita as the US!) numbers of new businesses--and existing ones saved.
* Fixed 9,600 miles of roads (and hundreds [thousands?] of bridges), much, if not most of which happened *without* the help of the federal infrastructure bill--eliminating the "scottholes" was a core promise in his *first* (2018) campaign, four+ years before that program really started manifesting in the field.
* Undid the GOP gerrymanders at both the federal and state levels
* Restored women's reproductive rights
* So much more
And here's the kicker, three of them, in fact, like the rule says. He did *all this* while also:
* Giving the middle class a 23% tax cut
* Delivering a budget that was not just balanced, but in the black, every year in office, which allowed him to pay off $3 billion in debt and leave another $2 billion in surplus as a parting gift
* Dealing with a viciously partisan (esp. for Wisconsin) and sore loser state legislature that endeavored to unconstitutionally (no matter what the partisan state supreme court said at the time) strip him of many of his powers as soon as he was elected, and was on the verge of impeaching Janet Protasiewicz *before* she even took office before Evers & Wikler convinced enough of them that doing so would not do wonders for what would remain of their political careers.
I'm still in Madison, where the difference in the economy between here and Connecticut (where I live now) is pretty close to night and day, and in cases where it's not (eg for farmers), it seems people are getting better and better at identifying when and why it started to go south: January 20, 2025. It's no wonder Evers is now the most popular politician in the state, and why delegates were able to chant (as they did, albeit briefly) "We're not going back!" without hearing the footsteps of 2024 behind them.
As someone in IL who lives right near the WI/IL border, I’ve been impressed by Wisconsin’s turnaround after its hollowing out by republicans. I remember when the initial resistance to Walker started and it built from there. The state is an important reminder of the critical role of voter turnout despite Republican BS.
thank you for posting such welcome news
Daily comments are in to WI D and R members of Congress regarding the issues outlined today -thanks, Simon. I’ve got my public comment for the OMB rule ready to send in today. There is so much in that rule that will harm science research, it was hard to find a place to focus. As a parent of 2 young adult PhD researchers, this really hits close to home. I find it so maddening that they are faced with all this BS just as they’re starting their independent careers. I found this from Elizabeth Ginexi to be really helpful. Her substack has lots of helpful info on it.
https://elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-need-to-do-next-ombs-proposed?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Also stand Up for Science (which has a link to Ginexi’s post). https://fight2win.standupforscience.net/
Self report: I reached out to my Facebook network about writing postcards after this BS, https://x.com/marceelias/status/2066218492378992909, and had a great response...and will get more as I wrangle men in my network to write postcards.
900+ postcards being sent from my network (including me). I'm targeting Iowa.
*Also, I'm inspired to call my Reps about the orange turd paying for the damage.
That is fantastic!!!
The spirit of the World Cup inspires me to think what could be....in the US and the world. Iran played New Zealand yesterday in California!