I guess I'll drop an additional "Tooth Fairy" donation into Maine's campaign by the end of the day. Just gotta support Jennifer, 'cause she's doing so much for her community.
Thank you so much, Jeff from a Mainer and Plucky Patriot. I spent a lot for us this month and will do a bit more here and there. I did some recurring donations through Hopium and those are something orgs love and rely on as they project out. Thank you again!
The World 1, Trump/FIFA 0 :) On a Seattle-Chicago flight of happy people right now :) Should have been about 10-0, but we take the wins where and how we get them, right?
Wow on the Echelon data. So if you put affordability + jobs together, amd corruption + democracy, it's 38% for the economy, 27% for good government, and only one other issue (barely) even reaches double digits. That's more than walking and chewing gum, it's a 1-2 punch!
Simon: I applaud you for saying what needs to be said. I wish you had included the grassroots activists in the group you think should get together to layout a plan. We are the best field researchers available to the movement.
It looks like Troy Jackson is going to win the Maine nomination. While he is a little "rough around the edges", he is "working class authentic", compared to Platner.. The remaining Counties will vote today and if he continues to get large majorities in each county, I hope the others will drop out in the next week. And we have a unifying convention with other candidates speaking up for him. There is no time to waste! Once the nomiination is finalized next weekend, I hope yo will set up a separate account. I am putting all my money in Iowa and Maine-- as it goes so far.
Dr S just suspended his campaign and endorsed Troy Jackson. We have our candidate for the US Senate to defeat Collins. It will be an historic day if we can prevail.
Congrats to the Maine Democratic Party for designing and carrying out a fair process in which thousands of Maine Dems are participating. Yesterday seemed to go pretty smoothly in the eight counties, and hope for the same today in the remaining eight. Shows we can do hard things under difficult circumstances. Let's GO!
According to Ron Filipkowski, in his column "Today in Politics" (Meidas News), Jackson managed to subvert the process so that he will most likely win the nomination. (Note: Ron is a Maine voter.) Maybe Jackson is the best candidate, maybe he is not, but I dislike the short-circuiting of the process.
Marliss, I would encourage you to look at my comments from yesterday with Thomas. Every major candidate had slates of voters. It was a perfectly legal and smart thing to do. People would have no idea who they were voting for. Anyone who was a registered Dem in Maine could have voted in this process.
Mr. Flipowski was clearly not connected with local politics for if he were, he would have understood what was happening and why. He lives one town over from me. I am on the ground and figured out the system, told my friends and neighbors, we got my 90 year old dad registered, held a house voting party and voted for Troy's delegates. At the voting party and over social media I shared both Dr S's and Shenna Bellows's slates and we had them printed out for the voting party. As it turns out, every person that came to our house wanted to vote for Troy. Troy's slate only included 149 names, there were 30 slots left. People used slates as a guide. This was necessary when there were 1,300 delegates in Cumberland County.
I question the helpfulness of Mr. Flipowski already disparaging our candidate and his comments sow seeds of doubt and resentment. Our state is already torn apart from GP withdrawing. I have to wonder what his motivation is to further inflame folks during this very difficult time. I noted yesterday that he was a republican until 2021.
There are no card carrying union members in the US Senate. Mr. Jackson will be the only one if he is successful in outing Collins. That is a great thing for this country.
Hello, Jennifer. I read Ron Filipkowski's comments in tonight's Today in Politics, which is free for anyone to read on Sunday, so I will not post them here. While you are free to disagree with him, and I will consider what you wrote here about the process, it is not fair to attack him simply because he was once a Republican. We need a big tent, and it does contain former Republicans. I myself left the Republicans many years ago when they removed the Equal Rights Amendment from the party platform.
When Barack Obama ran against Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary, I was living in Texas. When I showed up at the precinct, it was clear that the people running the Democratic party there had thought it would be a shoo-in for Clinton and were nonplussed and unprepared by the number of us who showed up to support Obama. They thought it would be Clinton by acclamation, and they were not even prepared for voting. That experience has made me skeptical about political maneuvering in primary elections.
I am not going to have an argument here on Simon's site. I am going to say that using the word "attack" is not a fair characterization of my post. I posted facts about the process the ME Dems worked really hard to get right and the results are clear and the process was transparent, fair and expedient. It is clear Mr. Flipwoski was not aware of the process and the facts or he chose to characterize them in a certain way that, to me, was harmful. When I say I question the helpfulness and motivation of Mr. Flipowski and counter his post that is in fact not an attack but a fair query.
Mr. Flipowski did not give an accurate analysis of this process and openly charged our winning candidate with some type of nefarious activity. This is harmful right out of the gate. In our county of 1,300 delegate candidates having a slate, which all three major candidates had, was helpful and the people that came to my house party all were grateful to have a guide for their candidate. Again, it would have taken 11.67 hours to read each essay and try to understand the person. Candidates using a slate was a helpful guide as it told voters who the delegates wanted, allowing them to vote for the people that supported the candidate they wanted. It was legal, fair, a solid strategy and there was nothing untoward about it. Troy's campaign was organized, strategic and worked quickly to build a team to get the most voters and vet the delegates. It showed tremendous leadership and speaks to the support Troy had on the ground.
Mr. Flipowski is entitled to his opinion, but he was not accurate in what he posted. Given the tremendous anger of Platner voters, getting the process right took herculean efforts by the Maine Dems, the campaigns, the candidates, and voters. We had an amazing result. We are in a crisis and posting negative and inflamatory inaccurate criticism of the process and the winning candidate only furthers to harm our chances of getting people back on board and to the polls on November 3. Of course I am going to offer up facts as I know them to be, having worked these past 13 days to help get our party a solid, winning result.
A piece of information I have not shared, is that I ended up on Shenna Bellow's slate. I had no idea they selected me until I was told Saturday morning. I did not vote for myself and told anyone I knew not to vote for me. I wanted Troy's slate to maximize his delegate's chances. Troy's slate also only included 149 names. We had the option to vote for 179 and could vote for anyone we wanted. If we wanted to use his slate as a guide we could still add another 30 names. I know people who chose lots of different people, off of lots of slates.
The Maine Dems did an amazing job. It is unbelievable. I think they reported over 17,000 people voted. They created a new process, incredibly inclusive in less than two weeks. I am seeing lots of satisfaction from people who said they were never going to vote again because they were so upset about GP withdrawing, or worse, write him in. The winning campaign worked incredibly well and came up with a wining strategy. Now we need to bring our state back together. There is tremendous work to do to unify and work to oust Collins. I am not going to sit back when I see inaccurate information, especially if it will undermine our party, this process and a solid candidate who can beat Susan Collins. One of my R brothers called me last night and said he is going to vote for Jackson. He was a ticket splitter in 2020 and 2024. So I think from what I see, we have gotten a fantastic candidate. Let's go!
Having a governing agenda is SO important. In democracies around the world, we've seen several anti-incumbent elections in a row because campaigns offer vague promises and build impossible expectations that they then can't meet when they get governing authority. We need to become more specific NOW and ask voters to support the governing agenda we campaign on.
Poll after poll shows voters don't know what the Democratic Party stands for. That's not surprising because we don't hold governing authority in any of the three branches of the federal government. But I strongly support our Party leaders--elected and grass roots--coming together around a central agenda with some specifics, not just platitudes, that says what we'll do when we're elected.
Recall Obama saying numerous times during the ACA debates while Democrats in Congress were trying to pass that legislation: "I ran on this; I campaigned on this; people voted for this and elections have consequences." Let's make it so.
My wife and I received our primary ballots yesterday, and we voted yesterday. That's early voting. Oh, and my name is on ballot as I'm running for PCO.
Putting my money where my mouth is, I contributed, again, to the Winning Iowa fund.
Hi Simon, I appreciate your perspective as always. I think I recall you saying that you know Amy Acton, and if so I would implore you to talk with her about the issue if trans girls in sports. I agree that dems must run on restoring democracy, and part of that is upholding human rights law and protecting minorities. Seeing her throw trans people under the bus like this is really bad news on that front, and now seeing the Ohio dems decided to just not talk about it is a really worrying sign. I know that Ohio is hard, but the data just doesn't support this being good politics. It just creates a mandate for further erosion of our rights if she wins, which leaves us with no place to go politically and acute vulnerability to state and non-state violence.
And here is a great article about the actual goals of the heritage-foundation-lead push to get trans people banished from public life. Fun fact, it's actually a way to argue that cis women and girls shouldn't be in sports either! It's the same christian nationalist stuff as always, but by tricking people in the center-left into getting on board with part of their agenda they are able to drag the entire discourse into their territory.
IMO, I wish Dems could flip the script to "The trans agenda is to be treated like anyone else in society. To go about their lives without mobs of angry transphobes stalking, harassing, trying to humiliate them, or politicians using their existence for fear mongering
Thanks for this comment. Dr Acton's campaign could prepare for the anti-trans attack ads that will come (have come?) by following now-Governor Spanberger's example in her recent campaign. Many media outlets noted that her opponent's millions of dollars of anti-trans attack ads did not work, meaning they did not erode Spanberger's lead, but did not explore why not.
The Spanberger campaign expected them and created ads in advance that countered them without, importantly, sacrificing trans people. The responsive ads were on the air within 24 hours of the first attacks. Their content was based on voter communication research funded by a coalition of trans people and allies, tailored to Spanberger's own history and values.
The Acton campaign does not need to abandon trans kids to win. Nor does it need to agree to genital inspections or hormone testing of trans- and cis-kids and -teens playing sports. None of us need to punch down or agree to mass surveillance for the greater good. Quite the opposite.
What really creeps me out about maga picking on trans kids is the question of whether they think genital checks are necessary and appropriate? Or if not, then will they setup a gender appeal process from opposing teams?
MAGA loves to accuse Democrats of being obsessed with identity politics. But they are the ones who are obsessed with it. They see wealthy, conservative, able-bodied, neurotypical, cis-het, English-speaking, White Christian men as the only identity that matters, and attack everyone else, especially those who are relatively powerless, in order to divide us.
When Democrats fall for it and exclude a group they think is holding us back, then MAGA wins. This isn’t new, of course.
I think we should stand firm that everyone deserves bodily autonomy, safety, and equality under the law, and then move on to other issues.
I ordered Hardy’s book “Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave: A Playbook For Countering The Authoritarian Threat” and I highly recommend it. Concrete steps for organizing, mobilizing, and policy to effect democratic reforms and rebuild democracy. I only wish there was an accompanying course to take, so we could engage on how to implement in different environments!
Simon, I am so glad you are focusing on this Merriman interview and what he raises. I think it's 100% where the push needs to be right now. If protecting and restoring democracy and enforcing consequences for the malefactors are not part of the agenda for the general election, and there is no mandate, then I fear for the state of our union. Timothy Snyder said as much several weeks ago. I think it was his interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, but it may have been someone else. Maybe Bryan Tyler Cohen.
Yesterday we had a rally in front of city hall to honor John Lewis who would have turned 86 yesterday. It was 2 or 3 dozen plucky local patriots, and we had a guest speaker a young man who I will call A.B. for now. He is 27 year's old and is the vice chair of the California State Progressive Caucus within the state Democratic apparatus. Very engaging, very enthusiastic. My favorite line to paraphrase from his speech was "We need to merge the energy of the youth movement with the wisdom of the elders for an overwhelming win in November." He kept making the point, we are all on the same team, and have more in common despite our differences. Love that.
Towards the end of the rally I had a nice conversation with him and Suzy, another local activist. Suzy was complimenting me, because although our declaration project has stalled, the County Supervisors last week unanimously passed a regulation to create an inspector general position overlooking the Sheriffs activities, including ICE interactions at the local prison. Suzy felt our Hopium work and presentations before the Supes a couple months ago were an instrumental part of the push, to get his new action passed. That fight about sheriff oversight has been going on for at least the last 3 years. So her compliment got me speaking with A.B. about Hopium and he was VERY interested. We exchanged contact info an I offered to purchase a 1 month subscription for him. He accepted, and I completed that this morning.
A good day for making good trouble in honor of John Lewis
Two last things. Sorry about that cyclosporum. Taylor Farms is headquartered in our county.
Yes, we want accountability with investigations and real consequences for the corruption in the 47th presidential term. But, we also want some progressive forward looking ideas from the Democrats no General Affordability Messages. Be bold. Medicare expansion for 50+ year olds with expansion to all after an audit would be a good start. The large majority of Americans have experienced denials for claims with health insurance companies. The healthcare message is a winning message. This is not 2008.
Simon has covered this in the past. Simon has educated us on Fight Agency, the consultants that put forth some progressives including Mamdani and Platner. They are behind El-Sayed too. Simon has been very clear that their practices have caused some big issues and that in the case of Platner and a few others, their vetting and ethics leave a lot to be desired. I believe Simon is supportive of Haley Stevens, who is running in El-Sayed's primary, as she has been a stellar House rep. I do not want to speak for Simon, just trying to give you a quick recap. If you go back to discussions about Platner in the past 2 weeks, you will see discussions about El-Sayed and the Fight Agency. If you are able to look at Simon's Hopium funds, this will guide you as to where you might want to put your $. Of course he does not cover them all.
Thank You. I live in L.A. but contribute to Dems all over. Take Mamdani. I would have voted for him just based on Enthusiasm. However, These Dem-Socialists are not my type of thinkers. On Israel, they could be constructive but don't want to. Bibi is up for
election in 3 months and the Dems should be supporting the one most likely to give Bibi a fight. Not these idiotic shoutouts on "evils of Zionism". Temples in the US are
probably paying more for security thanks to Bibi.
Mamdani talks about lower cost supermarkets. We allready have them like Trader
Joes and where my daughter shops in LV. I think Smart and Final. He wants to reinvent the wheel so he gets credit. Canadians come to the US to shop at Trader Joes.
One more thing. Gas is not going down anytime soon. Do any of these guys ever talk
about obvious solutions(!) like driving an EV, like I do. Do they ever talk about the electric air taxis Going live very soon. Like JFK to Manhattan. They should be pushing these things with all their might! Thanks, Mark
This is an excellent article about the history and different factions of the DSA, linked to in one of Simon‘s recent posts. I learned a lot! Highly recommended:
What Hardy Merriman is saying here is why I advocate for a Universal Basic Share of All Income: www.fairandshare.info
It's one of only a few policies one can point to that will immediately be felt by every American, which goes to the central thing I believe Harry is saying: Americans will want to see results. Seeing means feeling.
(If they don't, we'll be back here again.)
Another such policy is universal health care. (But if you had to make a false choice between these two, the income would benefit everyone in a way everyone will feel, not just those who are in need of care, and while we will all need care at some point, if you give income, then you empower everyone at every point.)
Other policies mentioned here are good but I fear they don't deliver the clear and universal benefit: repealing tariffs (gives a slow reduction of 1-2% inflation), reinstating ACA subsidies (helps millions and is important but also complicated), reinstating Roe v. Wade (restores a real power over everyone's lives, but doesn't help most people day to day), ...
I could go on and on.
Democratic policies should be Simple and Clear and benefit Everyone or they will get lost in the weeds of misunderstanding and the fog of misinformation as Harry is saying here in this clip.
Finally, how do we assure our world and our progeny that we have truly reformed America enough to prevent another authoritarian takeover? The "if you can keep it" answer: by building a better citizenry. A Universal Basic Share of All Income is the kind of foundation thinkers since Thomas Payne have foreseen as an essential ingredient for lasting Freedom.
our party platform can write itself by now. we all know the policies. but now instead of words we need numbers. how quickly? how many? how will it make it better? how many votes do we need to do it? when will americans feel it? real language not on policies (which has been our bread & butter) but on specific deliverables. like a short hand to do list. the real problem will be: the repubs have bankrupted the country, there will be very little left over to help americans. we are approaching $40T in debt. so now that americans are desperate for relief, after repubs have given all the money to the wealthy & oligarchs, they will scream that we can not afford one penny to help them. that is what they always do to a dem president & congress. this will be THE issue in the 28 pres election.
What I'm proposing is simple enough that a high schooler can do the math AND it solves the debt by setting an automatic tax increase/ decrease when debt-to-GDP exceeds/falls below a target, which I set at 100% of GDP. (We're over that now, so I propose setting the tax rate slightly over what's needed at enactment with a two year freeze on changes so that the system can adjust. Models show a rapid move to the sustainable 100% ratio with little movement in the tax rate.)
Simon, what did you make of the interviews/commentary by Lawrence O’Donnell with Rep Himes, Senator Ossoff, and Senator Slotkin? In the case Trump and cronies attempt to go as seizing voting machines/ballot boxes, denying, delaying results (especially if we do in fact achieve the mandate we’re aiming for)…do you feel we have enough tools, resources, planning in place to literally prevent these things from happening and potentially jeopardizing our votes?
The boldfaced biases of the current regime are costing our military—and our nation dearly. Here is an excellent interview with a retired female Brigadier General who is running for Florida’s 13th District (i.e. against Congresswoman Luna who recently gave a congressional tour to members of the Russian Duma—my editorial observation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX1CIHLlYWc&list=TLPQMTgwNzIwMjYGfpWbzHFNaQ. Timestamps 10:10 (the value of D.E.I.) and 21:02 (EXPLICITLY ABOUT DEMOCRACY) are key, but the entire 23-minute interview is worth a listen.
This is not an endorsement. I just wanted to share how the regime is increasingly wasting extreme levels of human talent. It almost makes our ability to lose to Iran make sense with the caliber of the current civilian leadership.
ON REPEAT:
“The only way I can lose is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”
Edwin Edwards, Former Louisiana Governor
“INDEED I TREMBLE FOR MY COUNTRY WHEN I REFLECT THAT GOD IS JUST; THAT HIS JUSTICE CANNOT SLEEP FOREVER…[emphasis mine]” This is a famous pull quote from Thomas Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia” (1784).
Here is a concise academic treatise on why the majority of white American women voted for Dolos all three times that he ran: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324016760_Why_Did_Women_Vote_for_Donald_Trump. To understand the findings, one should think of MTG - then and now. There needs to be a dialogue with this demographic cohort before this November and certainly before 2028!
Recently, I was pleasantly surprised by Ezra Klein of the NYTimes. As we examine 250 years as a nation, he interviewed the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award winner, Bryan Stephenson, the creator of the “Lynching Museum” (timestamp - 30:00, 32:00*, 38:45, 42:50, 50:00, 1:04:45, 1:07:25, 1:13:50*, : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSn5zdg9-t4). Jefferson certainly knew that the nation he was helping to create had a “complicated” origin story.
Folks:
With the passing of the July 4th celebration earlier this month, here is a great interview with the creator of “The 1619 Project”, Nikole Hannah-Jones (timestamps - 37:44 and 45:10): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFFpdRtNTHw. Of course, one should find the time (i.e. 2X speed) to watch/listen to the entire chat. One memorable pull quote for the political operative class is the following: “…the political expediency of anti-blackness”.
Ms. Hannah-Jones represents the 92% of Black women who understood what Dolos was prepared to do to this nation to manifest his revanchist vision for the country. Unlike other groups, they did not need to touch the hot stove to learn that it was “hot” (e.g. deadly ICE raids into certain neighborhoods, the loss of voting rights, etc.). So, intuitively, these women knew the term MDL or Modern-Day Lynching (e.g. a note from the Quakers): https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2021-04/modern-day-lynchings.
Thank you Mr. Simon. If this hasn't found you yet, this interview with Timothy Snyder and Katie Couric is similarly instructive. He discusses what can be studied from the Magyar win in Hungary, the importance of connecting (un)affordability and corruption with voters, the necessity of anticipating and telegraphing election interference stunts to neutralize their impact, and the interview basically concludes with an inspired version of, ''Do more, worry less.'' No joke! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U0I2wI5UOc
I think Democrats just need to start talking about how we will pursue accountability in small ways at first, over time this can build like a snowball into a much larger accountability agenda, but we just need to get started.
Sure, he talks about the importance of campaigning on a message of reform so that we have the electoral mandate to do it once we win.
I was trying to make a more tactical point (I didn't explain this very clearly, my bad), that there is fear/skepticism/inertia on our side about running on a big agenda like this, I was wondering if it would be better to start small as a way to break the ice and then eventually build a big reform agenda that we can run on like Hardy says.
I just donated a large amount of money to the following causes
Indivisible,
just run for something,
Vote Smart,
Vote riders,
Hopium causes, including
Winning the house and Senate 2026.
Winning the house - second wave
Winning the Senate.
Expanding the map.
Winning Georgia.
Winning Iowa.
Winning Maine
Winning Ohio
Hopium audacious expansion fund
Let’s go get’em!
Jeff
Thank you Jeff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, on the one hand, mitzvahs galore!
On the other hand, you give me an inferiority complex. I went to Zabar's and dropped $150 there this morning.
Gotta support the local economy too. So many competing needs!
I guess I'll drop an additional "Tooth Fairy" donation into Maine's campaign by the end of the day. Just gotta support Jennifer, 'cause she's doing so much for her community.
Thank you so much, Jeff from a Mainer and Plucky Patriot. I spent a lot for us this month and will do a bit more here and there. I did some recurring donations through Hopium and those are something orgs love and rely on as they project out. Thank you again!
Excellent!!!
Wow! what a sunday treat!!!
The World 1, Trump/FIFA 0 :) On a Seattle-Chicago flight of happy people right now :) Should have been about 10-0, but we take the wins where and how we get them, right?
Wow on the Echelon data. So if you put affordability + jobs together, amd corruption + democracy, it's 38% for the economy, 27% for good government, and only one other issue (barely) even reaches double digits. That's more than walking and chewing gum, it's a 1-2 punch!
Jeff, this is awesome!!! BRAVO and thank you!! I donate a smaller amount to everyone on Simon's recommendation list. You are TRULY an inspiration !!!
Simon: I applaud you for saying what needs to be said. I wish you had included the grassroots activists in the group you think should get together to layout a plan. We are the best field researchers available to the movement.
People like Jess Piper who writes the Substack, "The View from Rural Missouri."
exactly and there are many more remarkable grassroots organizers out there.
It looks like Troy Jackson is going to win the Maine nomination. While he is a little "rough around the edges", he is "working class authentic", compared to Platner.. The remaining Counties will vote today and if he continues to get large majorities in each county, I hope the others will drop out in the next week. And we have a unifying convention with other candidates speaking up for him. There is no time to waste! Once the nomiination is finalized next weekend, I hope yo will set up a separate account. I am putting all my money in Iowa and Maine-- as it goes so far.
Shana Bellows dropped out today.
Jackson can defeat Collins.
Money will go farther in Maine and Iowa.
Each person will decide which candidate will receive a donation, but I hope this community supports the Maine nominee.
Thanks for letting me know about Bellows
Dr S just suspended his campaign and endorsed Troy Jackson. We have our candidate for the US Senate to defeat Collins. It will be an historic day if we can prevail.
Congrats to the Maine Democratic Party for designing and carrying out a fair process in which thousands of Maine Dems are participating. Yesterday seemed to go pretty smoothly in the eight counties, and hope for the same today in the remaining eight. Shows we can do hard things under difficult circumstances. Let's GO!
According to Ron Filipkowski, in his column "Today in Politics" (Meidas News), Jackson managed to subvert the process so that he will most likely win the nomination. (Note: Ron is a Maine voter.) Maybe Jackson is the best candidate, maybe he is not, but I dislike the short-circuiting of the process.
Marliss, I would encourage you to look at my comments from yesterday with Thomas. Every major candidate had slates of voters. It was a perfectly legal and smart thing to do. People would have no idea who they were voting for. Anyone who was a registered Dem in Maine could have voted in this process.
Mr. Flipowski was clearly not connected with local politics for if he were, he would have understood what was happening and why. He lives one town over from me. I am on the ground and figured out the system, told my friends and neighbors, we got my 90 year old dad registered, held a house voting party and voted for Troy's delegates. At the voting party and over social media I shared both Dr S's and Shenna Bellows's slates and we had them printed out for the voting party. As it turns out, every person that came to our house wanted to vote for Troy. Troy's slate only included 149 names, there were 30 slots left. People used slates as a guide. This was necessary when there were 1,300 delegates in Cumberland County.
I question the helpfulness of Mr. Flipowski already disparaging our candidate and his comments sow seeds of doubt and resentment. Our state is already torn apart from GP withdrawing. I have to wonder what his motivation is to further inflame folks during this very difficult time. I noted yesterday that he was a republican until 2021.
There are no card carrying union members in the US Senate. Mr. Jackson will be the only one if he is successful in outing Collins. That is a great thing for this country.
Hello, Jennifer. I read Ron Filipkowski's comments in tonight's Today in Politics, which is free for anyone to read on Sunday, so I will not post them here. While you are free to disagree with him, and I will consider what you wrote here about the process, it is not fair to attack him simply because he was once a Republican. We need a big tent, and it does contain former Republicans. I myself left the Republicans many years ago when they removed the Equal Rights Amendment from the party platform.
When Barack Obama ran against Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary, I was living in Texas. When I showed up at the precinct, it was clear that the people running the Democratic party there had thought it would be a shoo-in for Clinton and were nonplussed and unprepared by the number of us who showed up to support Obama. They thought it would be Clinton by acclamation, and they were not even prepared for voting. That experience has made me skeptical about political maneuvering in primary elections.
I am not going to have an argument here on Simon's site. I am going to say that using the word "attack" is not a fair characterization of my post. I posted facts about the process the ME Dems worked really hard to get right and the results are clear and the process was transparent, fair and expedient. It is clear Mr. Flipwoski was not aware of the process and the facts or he chose to characterize them in a certain way that, to me, was harmful. When I say I question the helpfulness and motivation of Mr. Flipowski and counter his post that is in fact not an attack but a fair query.
Mr. Flipowski did not give an accurate analysis of this process and openly charged our winning candidate with some type of nefarious activity. This is harmful right out of the gate. In our county of 1,300 delegate candidates having a slate, which all three major candidates had, was helpful and the people that came to my house party all were grateful to have a guide for their candidate. Again, it would have taken 11.67 hours to read each essay and try to understand the person. Candidates using a slate was a helpful guide as it told voters who the delegates wanted, allowing them to vote for the people that supported the candidate they wanted. It was legal, fair, a solid strategy and there was nothing untoward about it. Troy's campaign was organized, strategic and worked quickly to build a team to get the most voters and vet the delegates. It showed tremendous leadership and speaks to the support Troy had on the ground.
Mr. Flipowski is entitled to his opinion, but he was not accurate in what he posted. Given the tremendous anger of Platner voters, getting the process right took herculean efforts by the Maine Dems, the campaigns, the candidates, and voters. We had an amazing result. We are in a crisis and posting negative and inflamatory inaccurate criticism of the process and the winning candidate only furthers to harm our chances of getting people back on board and to the polls on November 3. Of course I am going to offer up facts as I know them to be, having worked these past 13 days to help get our party a solid, winning result.
A piece of information I have not shared, is that I ended up on Shenna Bellow's slate. I had no idea they selected me until I was told Saturday morning. I did not vote for myself and told anyone I knew not to vote for me. I wanted Troy's slate to maximize his delegate's chances. Troy's slate also only included 149 names. We had the option to vote for 179 and could vote for anyone we wanted. If we wanted to use his slate as a guide we could still add another 30 names. I know people who chose lots of different people, off of lots of slates.
The Maine Dems did an amazing job. It is unbelievable. I think they reported over 17,000 people voted. They created a new process, incredibly inclusive in less than two weeks. I am seeing lots of satisfaction from people who said they were never going to vote again because they were so upset about GP withdrawing, or worse, write him in. The winning campaign worked incredibly well and came up with a wining strategy. Now we need to bring our state back together. There is tremendous work to do to unify and work to oust Collins. I am not going to sit back when I see inaccurate information, especially if it will undermine our party, this process and a solid candidate who can beat Susan Collins. One of my R brothers called me last night and said he is going to vote for Jackson. He was a ticket splitter in 2020 and 2024. So I think from what I see, we have gotten a fantastic candidate. Let's go!
Having a governing agenda is SO important. In democracies around the world, we've seen several anti-incumbent elections in a row because campaigns offer vague promises and build impossible expectations that they then can't meet when they get governing authority. We need to become more specific NOW and ask voters to support the governing agenda we campaign on.
Poll after poll shows voters don't know what the Democratic Party stands for. That's not surprising because we don't hold governing authority in any of the three branches of the federal government. But I strongly support our Party leaders--elected and grass roots--coming together around a central agenda with some specifics, not just platitudes, that says what we'll do when we're elected.
Recall Obama saying numerous times during the ACA debates while Democrats in Congress were trying to pass that legislation: "I ran on this; I campaigned on this; people voted for this and elections have consequences." Let's make it so.
My wife and I received our primary ballots yesterday, and we voted yesterday. That's early voting. Oh, and my name is on ballot as I'm running for PCO.
Putting my money where my mouth is, I contributed, again, to the Winning Iowa fund.
Good luck!
Whoa! Good luck! Keep us posted, David. Thank you for running!
Looks like things are coming together for the People of Maine, and their doing a great job! It makes everyone breathe a little easier!
Since I made donations yesterday, it will probably be awhile for the next, or when Maine has their Candidate.
Simon, I just read some of the conversation you had with Hardy Merriman. He does have quite alot to offer Us.
Simon, I hope you and the family have a great Hopium Sunday! You deserve it!
Thank you so much Millie!
Hi Simon, I appreciate your perspective as always. I think I recall you saying that you know Amy Acton, and if so I would implore you to talk with her about the issue if trans girls in sports. I agree that dems must run on restoring democracy, and part of that is upholding human rights law and protecting minorities. Seeing her throw trans people under the bus like this is really bad news on that front, and now seeing the Ohio dems decided to just not talk about it is a really worrying sign. I know that Ohio is hard, but the data just doesn't support this being good politics. It just creates a mandate for further erosion of our rights if she wins, which leaves us with no place to go politically and acute vulnerability to state and non-state violence.
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/dem-ohio-governor-candidate-amy-acton
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/ohio-dem-party-has-banned-criticism
Here is a very good explainer on the actual data about trans women in sports from Australia https://www.transresearch.org.au/post/trans-women-in-sport
And here is a great article about the actual goals of the heritage-foundation-lead push to get trans people banished from public life. Fun fact, it's actually a way to argue that cis women and girls shouldn't be in sports either! It's the same christian nationalist stuff as always, but by tricking people in the center-left into getting on board with part of their agenda they are able to drag the entire discourse into their territory.
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/after-trans-athlete-bans-heritage
Thanks for all that you do.
IMO, I wish Dems could flip the script to "The trans agenda is to be treated like anyone else in society. To go about their lives without mobs of angry transphobes stalking, harassing, trying to humiliate them, or politicians using their existence for fear mongering
Thanks for this comment. Dr Acton's campaign could prepare for the anti-trans attack ads that will come (have come?) by following now-Governor Spanberger's example in her recent campaign. Many media outlets noted that her opponent's millions of dollars of anti-trans attack ads did not work, meaning they did not erode Spanberger's lead, but did not explore why not.
The Spanberger campaign expected them and created ads in advance that countered them without, importantly, sacrificing trans people. The responsive ads were on the air within 24 hours of the first attacks. Their content was based on voter communication research funded by a coalition of trans people and allies, tailored to Spanberger's own history and values.
The Acton campaign does not need to abandon trans kids to win. Nor does it need to agree to genital inspections or hormone testing of trans- and cis-kids and -teens playing sports. None of us need to punch down or agree to mass surveillance for the greater good. Quite the opposite.
What really creeps me out about maga picking on trans kids is the question of whether they think genital checks are necessary and appropriate? Or if not, then will they setup a gender appeal process from opposing teams?
MAGA loves to accuse Democrats of being obsessed with identity politics. But they are the ones who are obsessed with it. They see wealthy, conservative, able-bodied, neurotypical, cis-het, English-speaking, White Christian men as the only identity that matters, and attack everyone else, especially those who are relatively powerless, in order to divide us.
When Democrats fall for it and exclude a group they think is holding us back, then MAGA wins. This isn’t new, of course.
I think we should stand firm that everyone deserves bodily autonomy, safety, and equality under the law, and then move on to other issues.
I ordered Hardy’s book “Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave: A Playbook For Countering The Authoritarian Threat” and I highly recommend it. Concrete steps for organizing, mobilizing, and policy to effect democratic reforms and rebuild democracy. I only wish there was an accompanying course to take, so we could engage on how to implement in different environments!
Simon, I am so glad you are focusing on this Merriman interview and what he raises. I think it's 100% where the push needs to be right now. If protecting and restoring democracy and enforcing consequences for the malefactors are not part of the agenda for the general election, and there is no mandate, then I fear for the state of our union. Timothy Snyder said as much several weeks ago. I think it was his interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, but it may have been someone else. Maybe Bryan Tyler Cohen.
Yesterday we had a rally in front of city hall to honor John Lewis who would have turned 86 yesterday. It was 2 or 3 dozen plucky local patriots, and we had a guest speaker a young man who I will call A.B. for now. He is 27 year's old and is the vice chair of the California State Progressive Caucus within the state Democratic apparatus. Very engaging, very enthusiastic. My favorite line to paraphrase from his speech was "We need to merge the energy of the youth movement with the wisdom of the elders for an overwhelming win in November." He kept making the point, we are all on the same team, and have more in common despite our differences. Love that.
Towards the end of the rally I had a nice conversation with him and Suzy, another local activist. Suzy was complimenting me, because although our declaration project has stalled, the County Supervisors last week unanimously passed a regulation to create an inspector general position overlooking the Sheriffs activities, including ICE interactions at the local prison. Suzy felt our Hopium work and presentations before the Supes a couple months ago were an instrumental part of the push, to get his new action passed. That fight about sheriff oversight has been going on for at least the last 3 years. So her compliment got me speaking with A.B. about Hopium and he was VERY interested. We exchanged contact info an I offered to purchase a 1 month subscription for him. He accepted, and I completed that this morning.
A good day for making good trouble in honor of John Lewis
Two last things. Sorry about that cyclosporum. Taylor Farms is headquartered in our county.
GO SPAIN. Take the Cup.
Argentina!
Yes, we want accountability with investigations and real consequences for the corruption in the 47th presidential term. But, we also want some progressive forward looking ideas from the Democrats no General Affordability Messages. Be bold. Medicare expansion for 50+ year olds with expansion to all after an audit would be a good start. The large majority of Americans have experienced denials for claims with health insurance companies. The healthcare message is a winning message. This is not 2008.
Could someone like Simon give us the lowdown on El-Sayed. I get his email everyday.
I don't want to give money to a radical. Does Burnie like him?
Hi Mark,
Simon has covered this in the past. Simon has educated us on Fight Agency, the consultants that put forth some progressives including Mamdani and Platner. They are behind El-Sayed too. Simon has been very clear that their practices have caused some big issues and that in the case of Platner and a few others, their vetting and ethics leave a lot to be desired. I believe Simon is supportive of Haley Stevens, who is running in El-Sayed's primary, as she has been a stellar House rep. I do not want to speak for Simon, just trying to give you a quick recap. If you go back to discussions about Platner in the past 2 weeks, you will see discussions about El-Sayed and the Fight Agency. If you are able to look at Simon's Hopium funds, this will guide you as to where you might want to put your $. Of course he does not cover them all.
Thank You. I live in L.A. but contribute to Dems all over. Take Mamdani. I would have voted for him just based on Enthusiasm. However, These Dem-Socialists are not my type of thinkers. On Israel, they could be constructive but don't want to. Bibi is up for
election in 3 months and the Dems should be supporting the one most likely to give Bibi a fight. Not these idiotic shoutouts on "evils of Zionism". Temples in the US are
probably paying more for security thanks to Bibi.
Mamdani talks about lower cost supermarkets. We allready have them like Trader
Joes and where my daughter shops in LV. I think Smart and Final. He wants to reinvent the wheel so he gets credit. Canadians come to the US to shop at Trader Joes.
One more thing. Gas is not going down anytime soon. Do any of these guys ever talk
about obvious solutions(!) like driving an EV, like I do. Do they ever talk about the electric air taxis Going live very soon. Like JFK to Manhattan. They should be pushing these things with all their might! Thanks, Mark
This is an excellent article about the history and different factions of the DSA, linked to in one of Simon‘s recent posts. I learned a lot! Highly recommended:
https://nathannewman.substack.com/p/the-sane-nyc-dsa-vs-the-crazy-national?r=7vxhp&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
That was a great article. Ty
What Hardy Merriman is saying here is why I advocate for a Universal Basic Share of All Income: www.fairandshare.info
It's one of only a few policies one can point to that will immediately be felt by every American, which goes to the central thing I believe Harry is saying: Americans will want to see results. Seeing means feeling.
(If they don't, we'll be back here again.)
Another such policy is universal health care. (But if you had to make a false choice between these two, the income would benefit everyone in a way everyone will feel, not just those who are in need of care, and while we will all need care at some point, if you give income, then you empower everyone at every point.)
Other policies mentioned here are good but I fear they don't deliver the clear and universal benefit: repealing tariffs (gives a slow reduction of 1-2% inflation), reinstating ACA subsidies (helps millions and is important but also complicated), reinstating Roe v. Wade (restores a real power over everyone's lives, but doesn't help most people day to day), ...
I could go on and on.
Democratic policies should be Simple and Clear and benefit Everyone or they will get lost in the weeds of misunderstanding and the fog of misinformation as Harry is saying here in this clip.
Finally, how do we assure our world and our progeny that we have truly reformed America enough to prevent another authoritarian takeover? The "if you can keep it" answer: by building a better citizenry. A Universal Basic Share of All Income is the kind of foundation thinkers since Thomas Payne have foreseen as an essential ingredient for lasting Freedom.
Imho.
https://www.fairandshare.info
(And BTW, thats a wiki: you can help make it better.)
our party platform can write itself by now. we all know the policies. but now instead of words we need numbers. how quickly? how many? how will it make it better? how many votes do we need to do it? when will americans feel it? real language not on policies (which has been our bread & butter) but on specific deliverables. like a short hand to do list. the real problem will be: the repubs have bankrupted the country, there will be very little left over to help americans. we are approaching $40T in debt. so now that americans are desperate for relief, after repubs have given all the money to the wealthy & oligarchs, they will scream that we can not afford one penny to help them. that is what they always do to a dem president & congress. this will be THE issue in the 28 pres election.
Thanks for your comment!
What I'm proposing is simple enough that a high schooler can do the math AND it solves the debt by setting an automatic tax increase/ decrease when debt-to-GDP exceeds/falls below a target, which I set at 100% of GDP. (We're over that now, so I propose setting the tax rate slightly over what's needed at enactment with a two year freeze on changes so that the system can adjust. Models show a rapid move to the sustainable 100% ratio with little movement in the tax rate.)
There are charts.
www.FairAndShare.info
Simon, what did you make of the interviews/commentary by Lawrence O’Donnell with Rep Himes, Senator Ossoff, and Senator Slotkin? In the case Trump and cronies attempt to go as seizing voting machines/ballot boxes, denying, delaying results (especially if we do in fact achieve the mandate we’re aiming for)…do you feel we have enough tools, resources, planning in place to literally prevent these things from happening and potentially jeopardizing our votes?
Folks:
The boldfaced biases of the current regime are costing our military—and our nation dearly. Here is an excellent interview with a retired female Brigadier General who is running for Florida’s 13th District (i.e. against Congresswoman Luna who recently gave a congressional tour to members of the Russian Duma—my editorial observation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX1CIHLlYWc&list=TLPQMTgwNzIwMjYGfpWbzHFNaQ. Timestamps 10:10 (the value of D.E.I.) and 21:02 (EXPLICITLY ABOUT DEMOCRACY) are key, but the entire 23-minute interview is worth a listen.
This is not an endorsement. I just wanted to share how the regime is increasingly wasting extreme levels of human talent. It almost makes our ability to lose to Iran make sense with the caliber of the current civilian leadership.
ON REPEAT:
“The only way I can lose is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”
Edwin Edwards, Former Louisiana Governor
“INDEED I TREMBLE FOR MY COUNTRY WHEN I REFLECT THAT GOD IS JUST; THAT HIS JUSTICE CANNOT SLEEP FOREVER…[emphasis mine]” This is a famous pull quote from Thomas Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia” (1784).
Here is a concise academic treatise on why the majority of white American women voted for Dolos all three times that he ran: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324016760_Why_Did_Women_Vote_for_Donald_Trump. To understand the findings, one should think of MTG - then and now. There needs to be a dialogue with this demographic cohort before this November and certainly before 2028!
Recently, I was pleasantly surprised by Ezra Klein of the NYTimes. As we examine 250 years as a nation, he interviewed the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award winner, Bryan Stephenson, the creator of the “Lynching Museum” (timestamp - 30:00, 32:00*, 38:45, 42:50, 50:00, 1:04:45, 1:07:25, 1:13:50*, : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSn5zdg9-t4). Jefferson certainly knew that the nation he was helping to create had a “complicated” origin story.
Folks:
With the passing of the July 4th celebration earlier this month, here is a great interview with the creator of “The 1619 Project”, Nikole Hannah-Jones (timestamps - 37:44 and 45:10): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFFpdRtNTHw. Of course, one should find the time (i.e. 2X speed) to watch/listen to the entire chat. One memorable pull quote for the political operative class is the following: “…the political expediency of anti-blackness”.
Ms. Hannah-Jones represents the 92% of Black women who understood what Dolos was prepared to do to this nation to manifest his revanchist vision for the country. Unlike other groups, they did not need to touch the hot stove to learn that it was “hot” (e.g. deadly ICE raids into certain neighborhoods, the loss of voting rights, etc.). So, intuitively, these women knew the term MDL or Modern-Day Lynching (e.g. a note from the Quakers): https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2021-04/modern-day-lynchings.
Just ask the mother of the teen, Norman Wells (who went missing on July 4th), about the possibility of MDL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I60gj_Mk6mE. Remember our first Black and female VP presided over the vote for America’s Antilynching Act. It only took 122 years to get it done: https://www.childrensdefense.org/the-emmett-till-antilynching-act/.
CARTHAGO DELENDA EST (via nonviolence).
P.S.: Do the following now! FIRST, TEACH CIVICS. Second, register voters. THIRD, TEACH CIVICS. Rinse. Repeat.
P.P.S.: This Substack needs to have a field trip to Montgomery, Alabama. It would be great to go with Tim Snyder - and David Blight.
Thank you Mr. Simon. If this hasn't found you yet, this interview with Timothy Snyder and Katie Couric is similarly instructive. He discusses what can be studied from the Magyar win in Hungary, the importance of connecting (un)affordability and corruption with voters, the necessity of anticipating and telegraphing election interference stunts to neutralize their impact, and the interview basically concludes with an inspired version of, ''Do more, worry less.'' No joke! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U0I2wI5UOc
Simon,
I think Democrats just need to start talking about how we will pursue accountability in small ways at first, over time this can build like a snowball into a much larger accountability agenda, but we just need to get started.
As Aristotle said “well begun is half done”.
That isn't what Hardy is recommending
Sure, he talks about the importance of campaigning on a message of reform so that we have the electoral mandate to do it once we win.
I was trying to make a more tactical point (I didn't explain this very clearly, my bad), that there is fear/skepticism/inertia on our side about running on a big agenda like this, I was wondering if it would be better to start small as a way to break the ice and then eventually build a big reform agenda that we can run on like Hardy says.