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Karen Pirello's avatar

Success! On Thursday 2/20 I wrote an email to Karin Asensio, Executive Director of our Colorado Democratic Party, titled, “Mount campaign to pressure Gabe Evans to vote against House Budget.”

The heart of my email was as follows:

“This is the idea: Gabe Evans is one of 17 House Republicans who barely won in their districts. Is there any way that the CDP can mount a campaign to pressure Representative Evans, as a vulnerable House member, to vote against the disastrous House budget?

Some House Republicans are starting to waver on the budget, and if the CDP could apply pressure to Evans, maybe—just maybe—he could be nudged into the NO column.”

I heard back from Karin the next day, Friday 2/21:

“Thank you for reaching out. Deputy Executive director Porter Bennet, copied here will be reaching out to you shortly to discuss.”

Then on Saturday, 2/22, rather than a call from Porter Bennet I got this email from Karin:

“HI Karen, we are going to be doing a press conference on monday at noon at Gabe's office to pressure him to vote against the medicare medicaid cuts. If you know of folks who would be impacted in district and willing to speak then, please connect me. You are also welcome to join us. This is not yet public.”

I’m a recurring monthly donor to our Colorado Democratic Party which is strong and does good work. I’m so grateful to them for taking this action.

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Christine B in NC's avatar

You are amazing! Thank you for doing this for us. Go Colorado Dems!

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Karen Pirello's avatar

🙏🏻💖🇺🇸

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Elizabeth McIlvaine's avatar

Congratulations! Such good work.

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Tom Thumb's avatar

Wow, Karen. Awesome and inspiring!

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Nancy Carleton's avatar

I saw an article in which Seth Moulton refers to T as a "wannabe king." Worth considering as an alternate frame to "mad king."

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Dr. Steven Quest's avatar

Mad King is more Shakespearean.

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David E Kolva, MD's avatar

Heading down to Capitol District in Denver to protest in support of Ukraine on this sad anniversary of the invasion. Yesterday, attendance at the Chicago rally for Ukraine was off the charts!

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Karen Pirello's avatar

I didn’t hear about this! Sadly, too late to rearrange my schedule for today. Where was it publicized (so I don’t miss another one).

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David E Kolva, MD's avatar

Sign up for their newsletter at https://www.sunflowerseedsukraine.org/ or check their Facebook page.

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Karen Pirello's avatar

Thanks, David! I’m not on Facebook but I’ll subscribe to their newsletter right now.

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Punkette's avatar

Thank you for this link, David. I will subscribe and make a donation! 🌻 🇺🇦

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ArcticStones's avatar

GERMANY: Today’s BUNDESTAG ELECTIONS – Exit polls

What will Germany choose? That is the foremost question on my mind today, as Germany holds perhaps the most consequential elections since WW2. Link to The Guardian’s excellent Live Blog at bottom. Here are two leading exit polls.

Exit poll for ARD1

– CDU/CSU 29%

– AfD 19.5%

– SPD 16%

– Greens 13.5%

– The Left 8.5%

– FDP 4.9%

– BSW 4.7%

Prognosed result for ZDF

– CDU/CSU 28.5%

– AfD 20%

– SPD 16.5%

– Greens 12%

– The Left 9%

– BSW 5%

– FDP 5%

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/23/german-election-live-olaf-scholz-alice-weidel-afd-friedrich-merz-germany-latest-news#top-of-blog

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Karen Pirello's avatar

What does this mean, for those of us who aren’t familiar with this form of government?

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ArcticStones's avatar

Here is part of what I posted yesterday:

Like most readers here, I am sincerely hoping German voters will ignore Elon Musk’s embrace and promotion of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland), which many consider a proto-Neo-Nazi party.

According to polls, Friedrich Merz, leader of the opposition CDU/CS, is likely to replace Olaf Scholz as German Chancellor. Merz has campaigned on "standing up to Trump". Importantly, if he’s victorious, I am hoping that Merz does not grant the AfD any influence on government policy.

On the other hand, there is a chance that the CDU and SDP win enough votes to form a grand coalition.

Tomorrow, a lot will depend on the results achieved by the smaller parties. The FDP (Free Democratic Party) and BSW (a party formed around the leftist populist Sahra Wagenknecht) are both polling at the threshold of 5%, whereas Die Linke (another leftist party) looks set to have about 8%. The fate of Germany’s Green Party is also critical.

Imho, there is uncomfortably much suspense in this election!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/21/the-guardian-view-on-germanys-election-a-chance-to-reset-for-a-new-era

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Karen Pirello's avatar

Thank you, Olav—that helps.

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Michael G Baer's avatar

ArcticStones, can you explain who are the pro Trump parties and who are against him for the top 3 parties in these polls?

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ArcticStones's avatar

I don’t know about pro-Trump, but the proto-Neo-Nazi AfD certainly shares the same philosophy of our "Mad King". AfD is the party Musk has been pushing – even by giving an inspirational message at one of their rallies.

The AfD appears to have doubled its support from 10.4% to approx 20% and is now Germany’s second largest party.

Friedrich Merz, head of election winner CDU/CSU, is sure to be the next Chancellor. In his rhetoric, Merz has been strongly anti-Trump. So are most of the political parties, including SPD, the party of former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which now finds itself dwarfed by the resurgent AfD.

Merz will need to build a coalition. The question is who will/can join it. A couple of parties find themselves right at the 5% threshold required for Bundestag representation.

Hope this helps...

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ArcticStones's avatar

Gender disparity also amongst German voters:

"Among men, CDU/CSU came first at 30%, AfD second at 23%, and SDP third at 15%, closely followed by Greens at 12% and Die Linke at 7%.

"But among women, CDU/CSU got only 27%, and SDP was tied up with the AFD in second, both at 17%. Greens came fourth at 14%, with Die Linke at very high 10% in fifth."

– The Guardian’s Live Blog

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SW's avatar

thank you

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ArcticStones's avatar

Americans please take note:

The turnout in today’s German Bundestag elections was 83%, according to ZDF. That is almost 20% higher than the dismal turnout in America’s 2024 Presidential Elections!

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SW's avatar

and note, it's on Sunday which is what we should do

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Punkette's avatar

Wow! I wish our election day was on the weekend.

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ArcticStones's avatar

On the other hand, as far as I know, Germany does not have extensive Early Vote or Vote-by-Mail.

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Tom Thumb's avatar

The fact that the election is held on a weekend is one factor, but I think the much bigger one is, as one study points out, the only countries in the world that make it as hard or harder to register to vote than we do are Burundi, Bhutan, and the Bahamas (it might be Benin and Bermuda--it's been a while since I looked at it).

The vast majority of other countries either don't have registration at all, automatically register their people, even go door to door at government expense. There were 161.42 million registered voters in 2024; 156.3 million Americans voted. Granted, I'm sure the number of registered voters comes from a voter file that's out of date and almost certainly doesn't include same-day registration, nor would doing what other countries do result in 100% turnout--registered voters are clearly self-selected as wanting to vote, but...)

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SW's avatar

thank you, AfD too high though

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Tom Thumb's avatar

As Simon would have predicted, it looks like the AfD underperformed its polling. They were polling at 22-23%.

No doubt someone will blab about "the shy AfD voter" like "the shy GOP voter" of 2004 and "the shy Trump voter" of 2016 and 2020, at which point BS should be called, loudly, as there has never been any evidence such a voter exists and many reasons to believe they don't (eg apparently they only live in swing states).

What *should* be talked up as the real reasons for the underperformance (1) Musk and Vance's election interference offending the Germans and backfiring (2) Trump’s abandonment of the Ukrainians, which AfD supported, upsetting them even more. I have relatives in AfD country, so hoping to learn more.

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Deborah Potter's avatar

This is a shocking video posted by MeidasTouch Network on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/meidastouch.com/post/3liuxqajf722s

"Germany’s likely new chancellor Friedrich Merz: Look at what Musk has done recently in terms of interventions in the German elections. That is an unprecedented event. The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic, drastic and ultimately brazen than the interventions we had from Moscow..."

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Karen Pirello's avatar

Yesterday, I wrote and mailed a letter to my Dem governor of Colorado Jared Polis. He’s been “making nice” with the lawbreaking Trump administration and I told him it looks like appeasement. And appeasement looks like weakness. Asked him to please be more like Pritzker, Hochul, and Janet Mills!

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Beth Kephart's avatar

I did the same with PA’s Shapiro a week or so ago. It feels like this sort of work is making a difference with these governors. Thank you for your work!!

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Karen Pirello's avatar

And thank you for yours, Beth! 🙏🏻💖🇺🇸

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Elizabeth McIlvaine's avatar

Shapiro has sued the Trump Administration to force them to release the funds to PA due by laws Congress has passed. We have a Republican Attorney General now so Shapiro is stepping up.

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Tom Thumb's avatar

Good point. And as an ex-AG himself, he could be unusually effective!

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Gary Bowman's avatar

Last week on one of the MSNBC shows they had Polis and Oklahoma's gov, Stitt, I think. Stitt was repeating all the Maga points with pushback from Mika (amazingly), I believe and Polis looking like an obedient little puppy dog, very disappointed. Keep pushing him Colordan's (is that what you're called, I hope?😀)

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Karen Pirello's avatar

Yep, we’re Coloradans! I didn’t see that interview, Gary, but I heard about it—that Polis’s performance was disappointing.

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Tom from Pa.'s avatar

Dear Apple: Changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico is an act of sycophancy to an ignorant bully. Please restore it on your Mac and iPhone maps. Continue to let your geographic names reflect facts and hundreds of years of broad consensus.

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Chris Dwyer's avatar

Don't like the Gulf of America? MapQuest is allowing users to rename it

John Tufts

Indianapolis Star

If you're not a fan of the recently renamed Gulf of America, you can call it whatever you want courtesy of MapQuest.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/21/mapquest-gulf-of-america-rename-mexico/79487370007/

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Virginia Shultz-Charette's avatar

I changed my map to Gulf of Loving Your Neighbors

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Virginia Shultz-Charette's avatar

Also, can't remember whether I saw it in Facebook or on our site, but I had to laugh. It was a picture of a map North America done by Canadians. America was renamed South Canada! Right about now, I am good with that, keeps me from making a run across our northern border.

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SaltandVinegar's avatar

I've switched to using MapQuest. They're refusing to change it.

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ArcticStones's avatar

Senator Susan Collins is "concerned"

"On the impact of Trump's federal firings on the state of Maine, I'm very concerned about the impact on the state of Maine, on everything from our national parks to biomedical research. So this is a big problem."

– Collins to CNN’s Manu Raju

https://nitter.poast.org/mkraju/status/1893680606275338475#m

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Faith Wilson's avatar

Love what Senator Tina Smith said in response to Musk's idiotic "list what you did at work this week" post:

"This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk- except he isn't even the boss, he's just a dick"

"I bet a lot of people have had an experience like this with a bad boss- there's an email in your inbox on Saturday night saying, "Prove to me your worthiness by Monday or else." I'm on the side of the workers, not the billionaire asshole bosses."

Link to the post on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thetnholler.bsky.social/post/3lisy4qzi6c2k

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ArcticStones's avatar

Interestingly, newly-confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel (of all people!) has told his employees to ignore Elon Musk’s demand.

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Faith Wilson's avatar

I saw that- the only thing I can think happened is that there's not room enough for two megalomaniacs.

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Ron olszowka's avatar

Could be a plot.. no response no job

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Tom Thumb's avatar

You mean, Patel tells them not to respond, they don't, and therefore the part of the email that says "non-response will be considered your resignation" kicks in? Oh please, please let that be true--that will truly backfire like a mushroom cloud, bigly, and not only in the court of public opinion. Does a guy who's afraid of the national bird really want nearly 14,000 special agents pouring our of the Hoover building like fire ants? :D

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Deborah Potter's avatar

Oh, there is trouble brewing in maga paradise. The cannible sharks are attacking one another.

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Tom Thumb's avatar

So did Rubio at State, apparently--they were told that the department would be sending a response instead, or so I heard on NPR this PM (on the flip side, I also heard what Trump and Musk are doing described as an "effort to trim government spending" Trim? Really, NPR?)

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Faith Wilson's avatar

Hate to do two posts in a row, but just saw this on Tennessee Holler on Bluesky and thought it was a fantastic idea for rallying voters in red districts. It's in the form of a wanted poster that was made for MN Rep Brad Finstad, with his picture, office phone number, and office address. It lists different things under "missing from duty to uphold the Constitution"- "refusing to commit to public town hall," "refusing to talk to reporters about Elon Musk and Trump," "failing to ensure USAID funding meant for American farmers" and so on. This format could easily be adapted for different specific state or district issues and distributed widely on social media.

link to post: https://bsky.app/profile/chudonew.bsky.social/post/3liu56fsw722x

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Madam Geoffrin's avatar

For mental and physical health reasons I took a lovely walk on a wooded trail. Too bad I forgot my crampons because still lots of ice.Always rejuvenating to be in nature!

More postcards for Susan Crawford today and a stinging email to NYT for some of their enabling headlines.

Congratulations to Anderson.

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ZB's avatar

Open Letter:

I advocate for:

*Science: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Agriculture

*Education: I advocate for Michigan State University, University of Michigan, Education in Michigan, Education in the United States

*American strength: I advocate for Ukraine, Europe, NATO, Western culture

I reject:

*Kowtowing to fascist Russia

*Destruction of American strength, might, science, wealth, future and culture

Zachary Frome Burton, Professor Emeritus (Ph.D.), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University

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Mike Davis's avatar

My congressman heads the Freedom Caucus. He is an evil Trump supporter who violated his oath of office. I contact him frequently and will do so again over this Republican plan. It will not change his mind, but I feel I have to do it.

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ArcticStones's avatar

SIMON’s CLEAR WARNING is to NOT join any protests unless we know and trust the organizers... Heather Cox Richardson has just issued this warning about someone falsely using her name to promote their events:

"Just a quick heads up that I have not endorsed any of the events or protests circulating under my name. …I don’t know the organizers, have not had a hand in any of the lists, and have not given permission for anyone to use my name in association with them.

"Any time I want to put my name on something — and, crucially, have the time to do something other than write these letters and do the webcasts — you’ll hear it directly from me, either here or posted on my own, verified, social media accounts."

NB. Simon’s warnings really, really matter!

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Deborah Potter's avatar

This is an important example. After the first group joins the untrusted source, people begin to think it is legitimate. Many people don't dig deeper to realize this is happening.

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David Salzillo's avatar

Hello everyone,

Given the news on Ukraine lately, thought I would bring this article I wrote to your attention: https://davidsalzillo.substack.com/p/what-if-the-nazis-had-nukes.

Also, as always, cannot recommend highly enough my brother's article on Trump's first month in review and state-by-state action: https://michaelsalzillo17.substack.com/p/advocating-for-state-by-state-action.

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Freda's avatar

If anyone missed this earlier in the week, it's a Sunday morning read to give us all renewed energy in this fight -

https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/my-open-letter-to-elon-musk/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

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Virginia Shultz-Charette's avatar

My great grandparents on my father's side of the family escaped from the pale in 1881 after the tsar was killed. I can be fairly certain that other relatives and their descendants that survived the Russians did not survive Hitler years later. We all must make sure that it doesn't happen here.

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Tom Thumb's avatar

Wow, thanks for sharing, Freda! Sharing with my peeps now :)

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Mike Davis's avatar

In her blog yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson raised a point that I think Democrats should use, namely, the sexual component of sadism in Republicans' love of mistreatment of immigrants. Using sexual sadism against Republicans may feel impolite to establishment Democrats but even I can think of ways to use it in campaign ads. Just a few days ago, Trump gave a speech to CPAC and it was filled with lies. All the lies did not get much press interest, or his use of obscenity to describe Biden. The biggest applause Trump received was when he mentioned sending immigrants away in chains to Gitmo. Apparently it was an orgasmic standing ovation with Republicans cheering and applauding him. To me, a component, maybe a large component, of this energy is sexual sadism. A good ad, like those produced by the Lincoln Project, could be run in those 17 districts mentioned below. Hit them with everything, (BTW, there is nothing at all wrong with kink practices based on consent, but the chained immigrants didn't grant consent.)

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ArcticStones's avatar

"Sado-populism" – I believe that is the apt term coined by Timothy Snyder,

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