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Lisa Duggan's avatar

What about the idea that these cabinet appointments are really a purity and loyalty test? Trump is a common man and a carnival barker. For store of business for him to read a room and find out who he can manipulate. What about the idea that these cabinet appointments are solely meant to find out which Republicans will be loyal to him and which will not? He will purge the ones who are not right?I don’t want us to get conned by the man once again… Get distracted by his appointments as if they are in good faith. Maybe they are just to test the waters? If so, what is our plan of action there?

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

They'll most probably be given interim/recess appointments. This is deja vu. GWB made 171 recess appointments (average of 21 per year)..E.G. I worked for DOL when it was anti-labor. Imagine the general counsel of the NLRB who was anti-union. Happens to be my former classmate. https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33310.html#_Toc227635494

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Chris Dwyer's avatar

Does anyone want to share 1-3 potent talking points for each of these 4? If not I will try to come up with some. These offices are very busy so short and to the point is good.

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Stuart Heady's avatar

I have seen the development of the right wing media matrix I call the Mighty Wurlitzer of BS since the early 7Os when I was a student at Baylor. That was a long time ago but at that time I saw the genesis of the current marriage of convenience between evangelicals and oil billionaires. I also saw the genesis of what became a whole right wing ecosystem with kids recruited out of college to join think tank staffs that generate prepared copy for local media. The premise that I heard when I was in college was that “America was on the wrong track and needed born again people to dedicate their lives to steering it back.” One does not take dorm room chatter seriously, but these people inherited oil money and positions of influence later. The entire evangelical/special interest/media machine came from roots like that. The right wing learned that AM radio signals have a large footprint and so, invested in network of AM stations with talk radio practicing the art of making a right wing vision for people across rural spaces where there is a great lack of media diversity. That has now moved into the internet and it is the real basis for Trump’s win. We ignore this at our peril. It has to be made more widely known about. Are you aware of this?

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Lojo's avatar

Sarah Longwell just mentioned that she has done focus groups with young Biden 2020 to Trump 2024 voters and reports that they were all “red pilled” (reciting back disinfo) I saw this while canvassing in Southwest Michigan. Met a young man who - based on a website I never heard of - eagerly read back every piece of disinfo put out by team trump. Not a Fox News viewer - we gotta figure this out and counter.

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RP2112's avatar

Yep, in addition, there was a WaPo story about a large campaign of "false-flag" ads focused on depressing VP Harris' turnout. It targeted Muslim, black, Jewish, and midwestern liberal white voters. It was not through Fox News, it was through texts and digital ads that look like pro-Kamala ads, but are intended for "opposition" groups. Eg., Muslim voters receive fake ads that look intended for liberal Jewish voters "Israel thanks Kamala for her unwaivering support in sending much needed arms".

The numbers in the article showed something like Trump's picking up about 2M votes over 2020, but Kamala dropping about 8M from Biden's 2020 number. If Kamala's drop had only been, say 5M, she'd have won the popular vote, and if even 10% of that drop had been anywhere but the blue wall states, she'd have won the White House fairly comfortably.

In no way am I saying the drop-off is due to that alone, but just further pointing out how ingenious, widespread, and nefarious the disinformation machine is, and how we need to think about campaigning.

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Susan C.'s avatar

Quickly.

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Susan C.'s avatar

Putting up false signs in certain demographics, something totally opposite in claim in another state did not help. We should have had people on the ground. Democrats must start talking to each other.

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B.K.'s avatar

It's about time he spoke up more. I'm not a huge Mike Pence fan, but the guy at least believes in democracy. He was almost killed by the man who just got elected President.

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Carolyn from IL's avatar

Except -- Look at the main reason Pence is against the RFK Jr. nomination -- it's because RFK is pro-abortion.

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Nana Booboo's avatar

Of course. But it's the most powerful if not only thing that could stop Republicans from confirming him.

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Carolyn from IL's avatar

Sure. Which means that it's up to Dems to point out the most important reason to oppose the RFK nomination -- that he is a dangerous, unserious, deeply flawed choice who will imperil the health of Americans if he is confirmed.

See article in The Guardian: RFK Jr condemned as ‘clear and present danger’ after Trump nomination. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/15/first-thing-rfk-jr-condemned-as-clear-and-present-danger-after-trump-nomination

Per The Guardian,

Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit organization focusing on consumer advocacy, said: “Robert F Kennedy Jr is a clear and present danger to the nation’s health. He shouldn’t be allowed in the building at the department of health and human services (HHS), let alone be placed in charge of the nation’s public health agency.”

“Donald Trump’s bungling of public health policy during the Covid pandemic cost hundreds of thousands of lives. By appointing Kennedy as his secretary of HHS, Trump is courting another, policy-driven public health catastrophe,” the organization added.

Alastair McAlpine, a pediatric physician at British Columbia’s children’s hospital, wrote: “It is hard to overstate what a terrible decision this is. RFK Jr has no medical training. He is a hardcore anti-vaccine and misinformation peddler. The last time he meddled in a state’s medical affairs (Samoa), 83 children died of measles.”

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Nana Booboo's avatar

We're already doing that. It won't affect Senate Republicans who fear Trump’s ability to get people to fund primary challengers. The only thing that affects that is what Pence just did.

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Madam Geoffrin's avatar

Is RFK pro-abortion or is he pro-choice? How things are phrased do matter! 😃

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Annie Spiegelman's avatar

Welcome to Los Angeles , Simon! We have your avo toast and oatmilk latte ready for you! 😍

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Patrick's avatar

Simon et al.:

Sadly, this is how many in the democratic world now see the USA (20 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A7cirvFPTc. It is curious how they do not mention the Murdochs or the role of disinformation. Folks often do not like to look in the mirror.

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Ruth Skole's avatar

Get louder, yes! Get more specific: not just “Jobs” but what jobs, who is working because of them, how much the pay, interviews with these workers. As the economy improves thanks to the Biden initiatives, Trump will take credit for it. Do Not Let Him!!! We have to brag about our accomplishments loudly and specifically to people benefiting from them. And as per the last video, we need networks to tell the truth and counteract the Rep lies. This is a tall order but Dems must modernize campaigning and how we spend our money

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Carolyn from IL's avatar

Anyone have thoughts on specifically what Dem leaders can (should) do NOW (months before Senate confirmation hearings)? Do they need to be speaking out more in the media? Is there something internally (within Congress) they should be doing at this point in time? I will gladly call my members of Congress, but I want to state specific actions that I will hold them accountable for.

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Carolyn from IL's avatar

Aha. I see one suggest from Simon in his revised post today. Pre-confirmation hearings. I like that idea! I will contact my MOCs.

If anyone has other ideas of specific actions Dem leaders can take now, I'd love to hear them.

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Susan C.'s avatar

Public response directly to our state elected leaders to pressure them that they must counter this so it does not happen.

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Susan C.'s avatar

Elizabeth Warren spoke with Indivisible leadership (link posted on another day) and requested that we ALL contact our state representatives and demand that they hire federal judges!

State-level federal judges are the first line of defense for most cases. Only a minority make it through to the fixed extremist court. So that is critical action item to protect our Democracy. How can we get the word out and organize this to happen?

Public response is more effective than we may think. We must push them into taking the correct actions to secure as many JUDGES as possible over the next couple of months.

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Carolyn from IL's avatar

Judges aren't hired. They are either appointed or elected. Please explain further. And what exactly is a "state level federal judge"?

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Susan C.'s avatar

From my limited knowledge, each state has judges that represent the federal govt. within that state. I am simply passing along some info.

An example is Aileen Canon who illegally scuttled the legitimate Confidential documents case in FL. Sadly, she is a lackey. But most are dedicated to upholding the rule of law in the country.

Each state appoints judges in a different way. In MA, the governor appoints. Contact your local state representatives and ask them about it.

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Carolyn from IL's avatar

Aileen Canon is a United States federal judge in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Federal judges are nominated by the President and must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. President Donald Trump nominated Cannon to the federal bench. She was appointed after confirmation by the U.S. Senate in November 2020.

The judicial appointments that you're referring to by the Massachusetts governor are for the Massachusetts District Court -- a state level court system comprised of 62 courts across the state. Those judges do not hear federal cases.

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Susan C.'s avatar

Thank you. I did say limited knowledge.

Since Elizabeth Warren is my Senator, she may have been referring to the many callers from other states. ;-]

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Charles Walsh's avatar

My hope is that since President Biden still has the unchecked power of the Presidency granted to him by the Supreme Court that he uses it while he still has it with executive orders, pardons and whatever else the Administration can think up.

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Alexandra R.'s avatar

Nothing he's done in week 1 should be a surprise. Guaranteed it will get worse. I see a lot of individual freak outs: omg - this appointment, or that one. This is what they want -- spending our time and energy on each outrage, rather than having a coordinated, longer term plan of resistance and opposition. Of course that can include being very vocal about appointments. I predict he's flooding these bad appointments with the knowledge that enough republicans will reject the most egregious one or two, but feel like they can't reject all the bad ones. So we'll be left with lots of bad ones. He wants to destroy our government and his unserious, unfit and dangerous choices are just one step in that direction. When we're in touch with our representatives, I hope folks will consider asking them to get much tougher than most of them have been in the past. No siding with the repubs to save their speaker, or to avoid shutting down the government. We have to be willing to engage in some more radical steps to stop them, even if it means some temporary pain and chaos. In his writing about the rise of Hitler in the 30s, Karl Loewenstein coined a term for this: militant democracy. We need to be thinking about how and when to put this into practice. Doing so doesn't come without risks which need to be weighed carefully. The longer term proposition -- we lose our democracy entirely - is all too possible if we don't resist in ways that might be uncomfortable. Dems -- who want to reach across the aisle (normally of course a good thing) and "make nice" (normally of course a good thing) -- have to consider alternatives when appropriate. Also, I believe we all have to support independent media and move away/quit main stream/legacy media that's utterly failed us in this crucial moment. That doesn't mean we don't like the individual opinion or news reporters on those platforms whom we've followed and believe are fair and honest, but we need to encourage them to move elsewhere (there are so many alternatives now) and support them in those moves.

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Nana Booboo's avatar

Gabbard is the most dangerous one.

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Debbie Jolly's avatar

Re: Getting louder: As soon as Biden took office, Trump was there, commenting on everything he did. And he continued this throughout Biden's presidency. I doubt Joe Biden will want to do that starting this January, but somebody -- maybe several somebodies -- need(s) to do that. My pick is Pete Buttigieg! And, as though reading my mind, on MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell last night, Mayor Pete said (paraphrasing here) that, no matter what his day job will be in the coming years, he will piping up and correcting the record, reminding everyone that the infrastructure and other projects that were started by Joe Biden are here due to Biden and not Trump. Pete Buttigieg's Podcast!! (It would be very popular and give him lots of time to be with his kids.)

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Susan C.'s avatar

I request him as head of our national communications network!! He could really!! hire good people and lead us forward.

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John Thoma's avatar

I just sent emails and made phone calls to NC senators Tillis and Budd. I was surprised I actually talked to a person in Budd’s office. I told them to vote no on the 4 unqualified appointments Simon listed and urged them to fully and objectively vet the appointees using independent research and analysis. I used Simon’s descriptions of each: a known Russian propagandist, a Fox New host and far right Christian nationalist, on the verge of being cited for illicit behavior. RFK Jr is unstable, does not believe in vaccines for children, and was cited for dumping a bear carcass in Central Park NY.

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Lojo's avatar

Think the nominee fight in DC is good work but think I am going to focus on the state parties and helping them build power (think we need to do this now). Really appreciate the great work (and results) we were able to support in NC and WI. I am ready to keep on giving, supporting. Going to look for other state parties to support (maybe FLA, used to live there). Would appreciate any thoughts, etc.

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Lee Dennis's avatar

https://statesproject.org

https://movement.vote/

Also, join BlueSky. It's nice, you make your own algorithms by selecting #, you can block people and never hear from them again.

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Susan C.'s avatar

Though, they WILL still appear in your feed after you block them. They just can talk to you.

Also, I believe their algorithms are the same as Twitter and FB, and they do still own your info and are free to share if they like.

They do allow deletions, but I am not sure about the timing between sharing and accessing and your delete request.

It is not as secure as it feels.

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Karla Von Huben's avatar

Is it just me, or does the last half of this newsletter never change? I'm flooded with messages (over 900 in the box now) so I'm not going over material I've seen before. Correct me if I'm wrong, PLEASE. Thank you.

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Lee Dennis's avatar

It's not just you!

Simon's a great communicator, but some alternation of pet phrases and paragraphs would be good.

I hope never again to read or hear "leaving it all on the playing field."

(Though I'd love to have Coach Walz influencing decisions....someone who actually knows and has taught geography. Maybe in '28 -- 64 is no longer old.)

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kitkatmia's avatar

what would be helpful going forward would be current data on each state. which party for governor and legislature and supreme courts, if partisan. so we get the lay of the land. and also knowing the total vote in prez election in all 50 states so we can see which states could be eventually flipped. and which ones need more attention due to slippage. we need to pick up more states. either fla or texas would put us over the top for future elections. so maybe they should be the singular focus? party dems may know all this stuff, but we don't. good to get an overall view of things as they stand.

Simon mentions two things that hurt us, hispanic and youth vote. but i am still wondering about all the white people and how they voted. i thought it was pretty shocking. we have to unwind that for sure.

yeah to Cal/LA Hopium today!!! Surf's up!!

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