feels good to be on the winning side. we also have to save medicaid and the $500M cut to medicare the murder bill triggered. this is america speaking up! it works! and he will taco!
lets make it an even better deal: dems can include language that in all govt shutdowns, no elected member of congress shall receive pay! that really sends a message as to whose side we are on!!!
yes, alas, I did miss it, but now he's on Mamdani - I guess you're listening - fasc inating
on a lighter note: are you following the brouhaha about Bad Bunny to do Superbowl halftime show? talks about ICE going to nab him, although he's an american citizen [Puerto Rico]. Mike Johnson just prounounced it would be better to have Lee Greenwood do the Superbowl halftime show. [apologize to all if I've steered too far outside our lane today]
I love Bad Bunny's response to his critics about how the show will be in Spanish and they won't understand it: "Well, you've got four months!" As a Spanish teacher and a fan, this put a huge smile on my face.
my wife is colombian and the only grades my kids got in school that were not A's were in spanish....and they never wanted to learn it either. but they listen bad bunny...you don't have to know much; madonna was huge in my wife's country in the 80s and 90s and she did very little in spanish; of course many people speak good english there; all her nieces and nephews come here to visit and speak english well.
that's gotta be sarcasm...lee greenwood is elderly. i live in a blue state and the local supermarket has him pumped in over the loudspeaker all day. lucky for me, i don't watch football, so don't care. the world cup coming up otoh....now they usually do a big show for opening ceremonies, but it is traditionally ignored here, even when we hosted in 94...
I am a country music fan, fan of music of all genres. The Grammys performance of Luke Combs singing with and honoring Tracy Chapman, whose Fast Car he loves so much, always moves me, for all those who think we live in a divided country here is the clip and btw Luke Combs dropped out of Appalachian State the same college Anderson Clayton attended and where she got her start in organizing. here's the grammy clip includes shot of Taylor Swift singing along
I don't think the Lee Greenwood comment is sarcasm. Remember, Lee Greenwood put together the God Bless the U.S.A. Bible which then became the Trump Bible, so he's fully on board the MAGA train, and MAGA would eat it up. Of course, the NFL decides who performs, so it's really none of the government's business.
thank you for helping with mikie...i did a mall canvass and got people fired up; one guy was voting for jack c and was telling me how his daughter just became a cop and she'd have a pension; when i explained she might not with jack in the gov mansion, he looked shocked; he did not know that republicans have long targeted public pensions, despite having a nj pension himself! he's a retired school custodian. i explained how he got screwed by christie....he just looked gobsmacked...how can this be?
vote fwd.org has over 700K letters you can add your own message to and mail to democratic voters in PA. I'm just about to send another 20 out, easy to do - https://votefwd.org
Where is this ad so that I can post it around to my friends on social media? Is it on YouTube, the best way to share? Most of my friends (including me!) have dropped Twitter/X.
Voted by mail yesterday on Prop 50 here in California. Just want to encourage all my fellow Californians to vote now! Also, sign up with Ballot Trax to be notified when your ballot is mailed out, when it’s received after you return it and when it has been counted. Other states and counties use it as well. Check and see if you can use it at wheresmyballot.com or just google ballot trax. This was such a great read this morning Simon. Thank you! We are writing postcards for Prop 50, VA and NJ. Getting ready to drop a boatload of write and hold cards we did a few months ago for the VA Governors race. Every bit helps.
So am I! I also called up voters yesterday for this exact campaign, and I talked to one voter who didn't know what it was all about. So I explained it to him, and after I did, he said he'd vote "YES" on it. That's what this is all about--talking to voters and engaging them in this work known as saving and improving our country.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to thank them for what they've been doing and to encourage them to stand strong and not give in. I'm writing postcards to Virginia voters today .
To our postcarding buddies -- I hope this link works so you can see the variety of postcards available from postcards4VA.com I've been using the one that says "We fought for you, now fight for us" and sending it to Schumer and Jeffries on a regular basis. I also send it to my 2 VA Senators and my Congressman (all Dems) to say thanks, but to also reiterate important messages -- using some of Simon's suggestions combined with my own wording.
WOW, Schumer dropping F-bombs! I like it. We are winning this argument, I can feel the energy behind this. People are NOT having it. Going to make my calls shortly to thank Kim & Booker. Chris Smith (Traitor-NJ04) will get his weekly WTF email. GRR.
Let’s face it: Trump is a deeply-flawed, filthy, flaky, foul-smelling, fanatical, felonious fraudster. He increasingly reveals himself as the fatigued, fragile and fuming fool that he truly is.
Don't forget Miller and Vought. They are also everything you described the thing to be. We need to frustrate them and, to use the words of the great Dee Snider, let them know in no uncertain terms that "we're not gonna take it"!
Thanks for showing the Shumer ad. Called the office of terrible MAGA Rep. Tim Burtchett to ask how he can support all these illegal actions--tariffs, impoundment/improper spending of funds; military and National Guard on the streets; lawless obliteration of boats in international waters and more. Next up are the two MAGA TN Senators--Hagerty and Blackburn. Also registered for the No Kings protest in Knoxville on October 18. It's been 50 years since I've felt the need to take to the streets in protest. Then it was Vietnam. Now it's. . .everything. Democracy is on the line.
I think we are making headway. The only thing I've been noticing is with the military threats is people getting more panicky. The leaders are fighting in a way that is increasingly effectively, yet it seems to me, anecdotally, that people are becoming more critical of Democrats. It's puzzling to me.
I was watching Bobby Jones and Sam Osterhout on LS Media last night, and they insisted on running down the Democrats in a way I thought was inaccurate and counterproductive. I tried to defend the party and leadership a bit in the chat and suddenly everyone was responding to me, directly and in the chat. I like them both but it was over the top. It's impossible to defend your perspective when they have a microphone and you have a keyboard.
Nothing is going to be perfect, and I'm not even sure what perfect would look like. A more unified message would be helpful, but I see a lot of Democrats individually fighting back very effectively.
We will stop them if we hang together and just keep fighting.
Anyhow, postcards and phone bank for CA 50 are my tasks for this week.
Thanks for helping to pass Prop 50. I am working on that too, every day.
I have had several guesses on why Ds get more criticism. It’s easier since Rs won’t change anyway. The media has pushed the narrative that Rs can be lawless and Ds must be flawless. Victims getting blamed for the actions of abusers.
Those are probably all true, but now I feel like it is just comic book logic. When Lex Luthor has a cruel scheme to destroy the world and enrich himself, everyone nods. That is how a proper villain acts. But if Superman is too late to save one person from those schemes, he failed.
Maybe this lopsided criticism is a good thing. People see Rs as comic book villains, which they *are* good at being, and Ds are viewed as the heroes. So Ds get attacked for being fallible.
I think all of that is right. I think you have a good perspective on it.
I would add:
1. People always react this way when an organization loses. The cleanest example of that is sports. Every middle-aged guy sitting on a barstool after 5 beers thinks he could do a better job than the head coach after a loss. If things didn't work out, someone must've done something wrong or someone is incompetent.
2. In this case, and related to 1, everyone on our side rightly understands how awful the other side is, and therefore if we just do all the right things it should be easy to win. History says otherwise. Fascism has a long disgraceful history because defeating it is not "easy".
Of course, the converse of each of the above applies. This is why people tend to overestimate Trump's political skills I think.
It's also been shown that people who make predictions or statements with a great deal of confidence are viewed as more compelling and authoritative. When they occasionally get something right, they become dangerous. They often make statements or predictions more wildly speculative and hence are more likely to be wrong. (Barry Ritholtz had a book "How Not To Invest" that is kind of interesting. By the second half of it I was bored and stopped reading. The first half is very good.)
Trump lies without limit. His statements are simple and declarative. He has the kind of authoritative voice that makes people believe him. He also understand what Hitler understood about the "big lie" (it might be about the only thing he's read in his whole fucking life beyond a golf scorecard).
We can't run down our leaders so much just because we don't understand how difficult the fight is.
Great job by Sen. Schumer. Please encourage your pro-democracy friends and family to unite behind Dem leadership. Our enemy is in disarray and we need to take advantage of everything Simon is so ably documenting.
I thought the health care fight was too small, but now it looks ingenious. The ask is simple (you can put it on a bumper sticker!), and extremely popular, and reveals the Republicans for the lunatics that they are. Perhaps it was born out of wariness, perhaps it was expert strategy--perhaps both. But it's working, and it seems like it's teaching the Dems how to fight.
An aside, I'd love to see more congresswomen leading the fight--besides Warren, AOC, etc, who have always been there. There is, of course, the problem that the men get more media attention, and progressives tend to get ignored anyway. (See, various pundits saying that Newsom is the first to fight back, when AOC and Bernie have been there this whole time.) I continue to call my senators and ask them to be those women.
What a fantastic, heartening post today. Great ad by Schumer. Calling my reps to thank them.
First, the turnaround from the other day is truly heartening, and I'm sincerely glad you've come around to our way of thinking.
An aside, there is a difference between fighting back and merely preaching to the choir. Mr. Sanders and (to an admittedly lesser extent) Ms. Cortez have done far more of one than the other, both historically and recently. Thus, I'm tempted to argue that such coverage of Newsom is empirically correct, at least from a certain viewpoint.
This is an effective ad!
It really is.
Any time you get Schumer to say "f*ck" on camera, it gets attention. Perhaps Thune will try to censure him, lol.
feels good to be on the winning side. we also have to save medicaid and the $500M cut to medicare the murder bill triggered. this is america speaking up! it works! and he will taco!
lets make it an even better deal: dems can include language that in all govt shutdowns, no elected member of congress shall receive pay! that really sends a message as to whose side we are on!!!
Cory Booker right now on Brian Lehrer, WNYC, giving it straight.
wnyc.org
Thank you for link!
You probably missed it. Later in the afternoon, Wnyc.org posts the shows for streaming on demand.
yes, alas, I did miss it, but now he's on Mamdani - I guess you're listening - fasc inating
on a lighter note: are you following the brouhaha about Bad Bunny to do Superbowl halftime show? talks about ICE going to nab him, although he's an american citizen [Puerto Rico]. Mike Johnson just prounounced it would be better to have Lee Greenwood do the Superbowl halftime show. [apologize to all if I've steered too far outside our lane today]
I love Bad Bunny's response to his critics about how the show will be in Spanish and they won't understand it: "Well, you've got four months!" As a Spanish teacher and a fan, this put a huge smile on my face.
Yes!! I loved that clip, so funny. 'you've got four months" loved it!!
my wife is colombian and the only grades my kids got in school that were not A's were in spanish....and they never wanted to learn it either. but they listen bad bunny...you don't have to know much; madonna was huge in my wife's country in the 80s and 90s and she did very little in spanish; of course many people speak good english there; all her nieces and nephews come here to visit and speak english well.
that's gotta be sarcasm...lee greenwood is elderly. i live in a blue state and the local supermarket has him pumped in over the loudspeaker all day. lucky for me, i don't watch football, so don't care. the world cup coming up otoh....now they usually do a big show for opening ceremonies, but it is traditionally ignored here, even when we hosted in 94...
I am a country music fan, fan of music of all genres. The Grammys performance of Luke Combs singing with and honoring Tracy Chapman, whose Fast Car he loves so much, always moves me, for all those who think we live in a divided country here is the clip and btw Luke Combs dropped out of Appalachian State the same college Anderson Clayton attended and where she got her start in organizing. here's the grammy clip includes shot of Taylor Swift singing along
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLfH9HSUyf4
I don't think the Lee Greenwood comment is sarcasm. Remember, Lee Greenwood put together the God Bless the U.S.A. Bible which then became the Trump Bible, so he's fully on board the MAGA train, and MAGA would eat it up. Of course, the NFL decides who performs, so it's really none of the government's business.
I'll be happy to post the segment's link when wnyc uploads it later today. It was a good, strong, articulate segment.
missed it but i get the podcast. will listen this afternoon.
Trump Shutdown Syndrome is in full swing once again!!!!!
What’s happening in the PA State Supreme Court races?
PostcardstoVoters.org still needs more writers for this race.
I’ve sent 20 to PA so far. I’ll send 10 more. Thanks for the reminder. As soon as I mail these 10 for Mikie Sherrill!
thank you for helping with mikie...i did a mall canvass and got people fired up; one guy was voting for jack c and was telling me how his daughter just became a cop and she'd have a pension; when i explained she might not with jack in the gov mansion, he looked shocked; he did not know that republicans have long targeted public pensions, despite having a nj pension himself! he's a retired school custodian. i explained how he got screwed by christie....he just looked gobsmacked...how can this be?
vote fwd.org has over 700K letters you can add your own message to and mail to democratic voters in PA. I'm just about to send another 20 out, easy to do - https://votefwd.org
Where is this ad so that I can post it around to my friends on social media? Is it on YouTube, the best way to share? Most of my friends (including me!) have dropped Twitter/X.
Thanks for any input here.
Voted by mail yesterday on Prop 50 here in California. Just want to encourage all my fellow Californians to vote now! Also, sign up with Ballot Trax to be notified when your ballot is mailed out, when it’s received after you return it and when it has been counted. Other states and counties use it as well. Check and see if you can use it at wheresmyballot.com or just google ballot trax. This was such a great read this morning Simon. Thank you! We are writing postcards for Prop 50, VA and NJ. Getting ready to drop a boatload of write and hold cards we did a few months ago for the VA Governors race. Every bit helps.
My CA Vote was received & counted already, too. I love the system in CA! #YESONPROP50
#VOTEEARLY
I'm in Los Angeles. Am sending out letters using VOTE FORWARD. I define gerrymandering
as I doubt most people know what it is.
So am I! I also called up voters yesterday for this exact campaign, and I talked to one voter who didn't know what it was all about. So I explained it to him, and after I did, he said he'd vote "YES" on it. That's what this is all about--talking to voters and engaging them in this work known as saving and improving our country.
I'm gonna do more of this!
Thank, Simon!
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to thank them for what they've been doing and to encourage them to stand strong and not give in. I'm writing postcards to Virginia voters today .
Hi Catherine, I'm also continuing to write my postcards to VA voters -- my neighbors!
https://postcards4va.ourproshop.com
To our postcarding buddies -- I hope this link works so you can see the variety of postcards available from postcards4VA.com I've been using the one that says "We fought for you, now fight for us" and sending it to Schumer and Jeffries on a regular basis. I also send it to my 2 VA Senators and my Congressman (all Dems) to say thanks, but to also reiterate important messages -- using some of Simon's suggestions combined with my own wording.
Best to all, Claire
WOW, Schumer dropping F-bombs! I like it. We are winning this argument, I can feel the energy behind this. People are NOT having it. Going to make my calls shortly to thank Kim & Booker. Chris Smith (Traitor-NJ04) will get his weekly WTF email. GRR.
Thanks for all you do - keep going!
Let’s face it: Trump is a deeply-flawed, filthy, flaky, foul-smelling, fanatical, felonious fraudster. He increasingly reveals himself as the fatigued, fragile and fuming fool that he truly is.
Love all the alliterative “F” words!
That right there would make an amazing protest sign! Maybe a giant F, with all those words, and then "trump" below it.
Don't forget Miller and Vought. They are also everything you described the thing to be. We need to frustrate them and, to use the words of the great Dee Snider, let them know in no uncertain terms that "we're not gonna take it"!
Thanks for showing the Shumer ad. Called the office of terrible MAGA Rep. Tim Burtchett to ask how he can support all these illegal actions--tariffs, impoundment/improper spending of funds; military and National Guard on the streets; lawless obliteration of boats in international waters and more. Next up are the two MAGA TN Senators--Hagerty and Blackburn. Also registered for the No Kings protest in Knoxville on October 18. It's been 50 years since I've felt the need to take to the streets in protest. Then it was Vietnam. Now it's. . .everything. Democracy is on the line.
thank you!
I think we are making headway. The only thing I've been noticing is with the military threats is people getting more panicky. The leaders are fighting in a way that is increasingly effectively, yet it seems to me, anecdotally, that people are becoming more critical of Democrats. It's puzzling to me.
I was watching Bobby Jones and Sam Osterhout on LS Media last night, and they insisted on running down the Democrats in a way I thought was inaccurate and counterproductive. I tried to defend the party and leadership a bit in the chat and suddenly everyone was responding to me, directly and in the chat. I like them both but it was over the top. It's impossible to defend your perspective when they have a microphone and you have a keyboard.
Nothing is going to be perfect, and I'm not even sure what perfect would look like. A more unified message would be helpful, but I see a lot of Democrats individually fighting back very effectively.
We will stop them if we hang together and just keep fighting.
Anyhow, postcards and phone bank for CA 50 are my tasks for this week.
Thanks for speaking out on that Bobby Jones and Sam Osterhout conversation.
Thanks for helping to pass Prop 50. I am working on that too, every day.
I have had several guesses on why Ds get more criticism. It’s easier since Rs won’t change anyway. The media has pushed the narrative that Rs can be lawless and Ds must be flawless. Victims getting blamed for the actions of abusers.
Those are probably all true, but now I feel like it is just comic book logic. When Lex Luthor has a cruel scheme to destroy the world and enrich himself, everyone nods. That is how a proper villain acts. But if Superman is too late to save one person from those schemes, he failed.
Maybe this lopsided criticism is a good thing. People see Rs as comic book villains, which they *are* good at being, and Ds are viewed as the heroes. So Ds get attacked for being fallible.
I think all of that is right. I think you have a good perspective on it.
I would add:
1. People always react this way when an organization loses. The cleanest example of that is sports. Every middle-aged guy sitting on a barstool after 5 beers thinks he could do a better job than the head coach after a loss. If things didn't work out, someone must've done something wrong or someone is incompetent.
2. In this case, and related to 1, everyone on our side rightly understands how awful the other side is, and therefore if we just do all the right things it should be easy to win. History says otherwise. Fascism has a long disgraceful history because defeating it is not "easy".
Of course, the converse of each of the above applies. This is why people tend to overestimate Trump's political skills I think.
It's also been shown that people who make predictions or statements with a great deal of confidence are viewed as more compelling and authoritative. When they occasionally get something right, they become dangerous. They often make statements or predictions more wildly speculative and hence are more likely to be wrong. (Barry Ritholtz had a book "How Not To Invest" that is kind of interesting. By the second half of it I was bored and stopped reading. The first half is very good.)
Trump lies without limit. His statements are simple and declarative. He has the kind of authoritative voice that makes people believe him. He also understand what Hitler understood about the "big lie" (it might be about the only thing he's read in his whole fucking life beyond a golf scorecard).
We can't run down our leaders so much just because we don't understand how difficult the fight is.
Amazing video! Let's drive the demented orange devil from office as fast as we can! Amazing work by so many wonderful Americans!
Great job by Sen. Schumer. Please encourage your pro-democracy friends and family to unite behind Dem leadership. Our enemy is in disarray and we need to take advantage of everything Simon is so ably documenting.
Can someone please provide me a link to the original source of Chuck Schumer's video? I tried his web site and YouTube. I can't find it.
Looking for it. In the meantime, he went off on Bondi on the floor earlier today. https://youtu.be/PuEmOSeWNLo?si=7hFZKIH5npGG22lp
Here it is: https://youtube.com/shorts/Bl01OQFakSM?si=xcJjSXZK3G1Lpssg
Thank you!
I thought the health care fight was too small, but now it looks ingenious. The ask is simple (you can put it on a bumper sticker!), and extremely popular, and reveals the Republicans for the lunatics that they are. Perhaps it was born out of wariness, perhaps it was expert strategy--perhaps both. But it's working, and it seems like it's teaching the Dems how to fight.
An aside, I'd love to see more congresswomen leading the fight--besides Warren, AOC, etc, who have always been there. There is, of course, the problem that the men get more media attention, and progressives tend to get ignored anyway. (See, various pundits saying that Newsom is the first to fight back, when AOC and Bernie have been there this whole time.) I continue to call my senators and ask them to be those women.
What a fantastic, heartening post today. Great ad by Schumer. Calling my reps to thank them.
First, the turnaround from the other day is truly heartening, and I'm sincerely glad you've come around to our way of thinking.
An aside, there is a difference between fighting back and merely preaching to the choir. Mr. Sanders and (to an admittedly lesser extent) Ms. Cortez have done far more of one than the other, both historically and recently. Thus, I'm tempted to argue that such coverage of Newsom is empirically correct, at least from a certain viewpoint.