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Jul 31
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Dr. Cole, Trump's performance today at this event may be the single worst performance by a Presidential candidate at a public event in modern history and somehow you turn it into something positive for him and bad for us? Come on man. Stop it. We can have this discussion about our the VP's economic agenda but this post is ridiculous and you should yourself a favor and take it down.

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There is literally nothing more that you could have done today to help Trump more than deflect from his overt racism, extremism and bat shit crazyness.

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In fact I am removing the post for you. It was beyond the pale and an insult into everything we try to do here.

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I usually don’t see these posts and just see that you have commented on and deleted a post. Thank you for actively setting and maintaining the tone and “soul” of Hopium.

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Amen. We all know where to go for idiotic trolling, and there’s a reason we’re here and not there. Thank you, Simon, for the respite from the much needed respite from bad-faith bullcrap.

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yes, indeed, thank you.

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Jul 31
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Do more, worry less.

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Yes, do more, worry less. Let’s get to 55 percent! A Blue Tsunami cannot be stolen. (As for the other, we have excellent people such as Marc Elias and his Democracy Docket on that.)

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And a Blue Tsunami is what we need to get a working majority in both Houses to enact the pro-democracy reforms necessary to wipe out Trumpism so our country can focus on the huge challenges we--and the world--are faced with instead of denying their existence or leaving it all up to God.

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Judy, I am taking this post down for it has been asked and answered in other places in this chat, and the best way we can impact what happens in November is by keep donating and working hard. If we win by a large margin with a big turnout it is going to be much harder for them to get away with anything. So we are just going to keep working hard and win this thing, together. Do more and particularly this week worry much much less.

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Jul 31
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Insulting comment. It's been removed. Thank you.

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Jul 31
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Jul 31
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imo she is all about stoking the fear; of no interest to me.

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Finding things to worry about at this remarkable and uplifting moment is a choice.

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Kati, see a few comments back...

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Jul 31
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"...the power of what will be the biggest early vote/GOTV operation in history."

I honestly believe this will enable Kamala to "get to 55" percent. Not only that, it will trigger a Blue Wave up and down the ballot, in state after state.

I predict Kamala will win the swing states, including Arizona and Nevada. I think she’ll take North Carolina and Georgia. In fact, I think even Florida will be close.

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👍🏻 I was on a Red Wine and Blue call the other night, and was surprised – – and very heartened – – to note that there are a number of Good Trouble chapters in Florida. Combine that with the recent outpouring of support for Harris at.The Villages, and I really am beginning to think that Florida is in play. Amazing and inspiring!

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Not Going Back. I have made up my mind. Neo-Conservatives want to make it 1954 again. They are working that plan with the Roberts court. Voting rights have been stripped away by Jim Crow laws upheld by a known-corrupt SCOTUS. Laughable decisions overturn sound laws and equitable standards in place for decades. I have had enough of an out-of-control judiciary. If you have, the court is on the ballot November 5, 2024. Impatient, I do not see why the President does not officially order Seal Team 6 to cull the SCOTUS herd. It is legal now. What a stupid court.

Momentum. The Harris momentum is accelerating. Volunteers were 120,000 (total) days ago and now are 360,000 (total) yesterday. What was adding 30,000/day morphed to adding 80,000/day) it would seem. This has caught all of us flat footed.

Momentum says a lot about the physics of movement. Think about the speedometer and the albedo. When does the needle on the speedo stop moving upward and how fast is that needle moving? What is the mass and weight of what is in motion and being measured by the speedo? Is it a grain of sand, or is it a freight train. Feels like a freight train to me, moving faster than we can measure now.

1) How we field these volunteers is critical.

2) We need a plan for all speedo cases (slow, medium, fast, hyper).

3) What if the momentum wave is a tsunami and volunteers grow to 200,000 a day. (You cannot know this will not happen.)

Ohio can be had. Only 5 points to make up. Volunteers so bountiful are needing missions right now. We have a fast moving freight train full of scorned women and enthused young, stronglegged workers. Caution: I am not a political advisor, but rather a novice whose sophomoric musings generally keep Simon agitated. Food for thought is the best I can do, and elevating Simon’s blood flow can be helpful. I want Simon to stew on this one because I dunno.

Project 2025. Trump said out of the left side of his mouth that he had nothing to do with Project 2025; knows nothing about it. Then the Heritage Foundation fired Paul Dans (Project 2025 leader) at the behest of Trump’s campaign manager. That show of power and influence proves the Trump campaign controls Project 2025. See Daily Beast, Trump Forces Out Project 2025 Mastermind. (“A well-placed source told the Daily Beast …Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita “put the screws” to mastermind Paul Dans in an effort to force him out…”).

NJJ. No Jive Joe (NJJ) had some stellar charts in his latest newsletter. They give an honest look. Joe is a master data guru. No BS there. Kamala is catching up with Donald. 44.5 vs. 44.1 was NJJ’s chart from yesterday. The polls trail the actually status.

https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/AiLkpuL/NoJiveJoe?source_id=15be0009-0d80-4f19-8781-31e0e4feb302&source_type=em&c=x-00994XGAQV7AzsGoUwabb0dnLNBM-dMNzP945pB_9S7hqWsShrUQ==

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Jul 31
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Carl, we are not going to allow this chat to become a place for therapy for you.....I am taking this comment down and we need to stay focused on the task at hand - winning the election. Thank you.

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Thanks. You well know I need the therapy. It is going to cost me $160/hour for another venue.

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Maybe the previous one too with the seal team six culling assignment?

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I am in trouble enough with Simon, Irene. lol. You didn’t have to highlight my bad taste. SCOTUS is who really messed up on that one.

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🤣 I’ve kinda gotten spoiled being in the Hopium threats free zone, Carl. Wouldn’t want you gone tho; lots of work for all! 🇺🇸

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Good points all !

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"Not Going Back. I have made up my mind."

It's like that song "Freedom Highway" by The Staple Singers: "Made up my mind / And I won't turn around." In fact, we really suggest that the Harris team think of using that as a campaign song. Really fits the moment well. Check it out all.

Michael and David Salzillo

Writers of The Political Pulse of America and Salzillo's Two Cents

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While it is important to talk about physics and movement and speed and the quantity of volunteers, please remember that we are a community. People deserve to be respected exactly for where they are. I feel we need to establish relationships with each other, not just assign tasks. I had the unfortunate experience of volunteering for an organization that issued orders and offered criticism and scolded a lot. Not only did I leave that organization, but it soured me about volunteering for a while. The genius of the joyful movement that VP Harris is heading up is that joy is resilient and helps us get back up when we get knocked down.

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Weird is fine, but creepy and freakish seem even more on the nose. Not name calling, it's just true.

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I agree - JD Vance (& Trump of course) is more of a creep and that sounds more justifiably sinister. Weird can describe a lot of great people, but if it's working can't argue with that.

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Jesus freaks for Harris. https://www.votecommongood.com/

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That describes me :)

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Depraved, cruel, inhumane, bizarre--lots of other adjectives apply.

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We have a great candidate who is now energizing key constituencies of the Dem coalition. Haven’t felt this since 2008.

Trump is the asshole who started the racist birther conspiracy on Obama. Trump wanted the innocent Central Park 5 executed. Trump is a court adjudicated rapist. A 34X convicted felon. An insurrectionist traitor who tried to overthrow our government, resulting in the deaths of multiple law enforcement officials. A depraved human being who sexualizes his own daughter. A racist who vilifies persons of color and immigrants with dangerous outright lies. Etc.

LET PEOPLE KNOW! Now is the time to be louder! Any way you can. Social media. Coffee shop. Work. Everywhere.

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Yes, let's flood our social media w VP Harris' new ads, esp the border one, since they're hitting her hard on it!

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This campaign feels so refreshing it is hard to believe these are the Biden people.

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We are going to win in North Carolina!!! Say it louder for the people in the back: WE ARE GOING TO WIN IN NORTH CAROLINA!!! Thank you Simon and hopium family! Now off I go to run voter registration. Woot!

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💪🏻

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Working on my postcards for North Carolina!! Feeling hopeful 🇺🇸💙🇺🇸💙🇺🇸

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Me too. Thank you Mark Robinson, you inspired me! May he also inspire voters to vote for Kamala and Josh Stein, consigning Robinson to a soon-to-be-forgotten dark chapter of NC history.

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You rock!

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I've been hearing that Harris becoming our candidate has led to more voter registrations, and would love to see some numbers...is the increase big? Big enough to matter? Hope so, very much.

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I too would like to see this – with a state-by-state breakdown.

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Yes! The director of VotoLatino, an organization dedicated to increasing the Latino vote, was on the news last week.

She said they were averaging about 100 new registrations per day, but last week in a single day their organization registered over 8,000 new Latino voters. And the majority were in swing states and Texas/Florida. I believe they registered over 15,000 just last week alone, when a typical week was fewer than 1,000.

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Every bit helps.

But I really, really wish we were seeing daily totals averaging between 50,000 and 100,000 during the last 100 days of the election. That would add up to 5 to 10 million votes.

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HIGHLY recommend joining Field Team 6's text banking sessions for people who want to be doing more to register democrats and expand the base. Go to Field Team 6's Saturday text banking Zoom trainings to learn how to do it, then they have sessions every day. You can take a 30 minute break at work and crank them out...it's addictive! Feels really good and hopeful.

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Ok this is anecdotal but we doubled our previous highest number of voter registrations today. Had lots of conversations about early voting with enthusiastic people. It was a fantastic, exhausting day!

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💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

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Does Tester have a real chance or should donations best be stirred in other directions?

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Imho, Tester needs help.

Bear in mind, in this election, the key focus of the Koch Network is to flip the Senate. That would enable the GOP to block President Harris’ agenda, block confirmation of her cabinet and administrative nominations – and prevent confirmation of her judicial nominations.

We need Senator Jon Tester. We need to hold the Senate!

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Thank you! I will continue to donate!

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Montana has less than a million voters. This means donations to Tester are powerful. Likewise, volunteer work on behalf of his candidacy goes a long ways. Prof. Sam Wang has analyzed this in what he calls "Moneyball Politics".

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Absolutely. While I have donated to our listed candidates here; my main focus for my contributions is for our senate incumbents to hold the senate. If the GQP takes back the senate; they will block Kamala Harris at every turn (such as her cabinet appointments and judicial appointments, including Supreme Court appointments if a seat opens up) and not let her govern; just like they did with President Obama when they took over the senate. WE MUST HOLD THE SENATE!!!!

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An outfit I work with since 2018, Force Multiplier, vets the Dem candidates for viability - i.e., where your $$$ will do the most good - For the Senate they're backing 7 razor's-edge candidates: MT-Tester, WI-Baldwin, NV-Rosen, AZ-Gallego, MI-Slotkin, OH-Brown, PA-Casey. See here: https://www.forcemultiplierus.org/senate

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Thank you. Casey is my senator. I didn’t realize he was “razor’s edge”. He’s been wonderful. I’ll find a few $ to send to him.

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Thank you! Other than Slotkin this is the senate group I focus on. Appreciate hearing about Force Multiplier.

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Force Multiplier are seriously good people, whom I know well and trust. Poke around their website and attend one of their zooms with the cong. candidates. We've zoomed with all seven Senators/challengers, most of them multiple times over the last two years. Coming up: Heather Cox Richardson on Weds, Aug 7 - donations go to grassroots support groups.

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Thanks - will do.

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He does! The recent polls that have him down are all GOP pollsters. Others have him tied. It is a very small state and he is popular and hopeful the success of the Harris campaign will help even in Montana. Also they have an abortion rights measure on the ballot. It is winnable.

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Thank you! I just now donated and checked make it monthly.

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All of his previous 3 election victories to U.S. Senate were close. He's done it before, so I'm hopeful he can do it again. If you're interested and have the time, his book "Grounded: A Senator's Lessons on Winning Back Rural America" is worth a read.

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I saw Rachel Maddow's 6 min. 31 sec. YouTube clip titled: "Maddow points out frightening truth about Trump's lack of concern about votes" from a day ago. It is terrifying. It appears that the 2024 election is already rigged. I don't know a lot about election laws. Is there anyway to fight this?

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Yes we work as hard as we can and win this election by a huge vote and a big margin and none of their BS will matter. Stay focused people. We are winning this election and need to go to work, press our advantage and put this thing away. Donate, volunteer and let's keep working.

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Republican thing is a shitshow, falling apart, not something big and powerful.

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Hi Simon. I believe Tim Walz uses weird to describe Trump/Vance/MAGA because it doesn't empower them vs evil, dangerous, etc. that makes them seem all powerful. And they are genuinely weird.

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Agree. If we go into rage or fear, that is what the vampire feeds on. If we laugh at the weird little orange Babyman, then they go hungry.

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And judging by their response, they HATE being called weird.

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Shitshow’s meaningfully mired manure miles more’n batshit crazy.

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I agree 100%. The plan to steal this election only works if it's a really close election. If we do the work, make the calls, write the postcards and talk to our neighbors and friends, we can win this election in a way that makes their plan meaningless.

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Yes! Precisely this. I believe 55 is within reach.

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Simon has addressed this in other comment threads BUT I think it's inevitable there will be election denialism. One person who is ready to fight it is lawyer Marc Elias, whom has a publication called democracy docket - highly recommend you check it out. He was key in fighting the torrents of lawsuits Trump filed in 2020. He and his team be ready to fight again. Plus in several of the battleground states there is at least a Democratic governor, if not a Democratic legislature - so they will be bulwarks against any attempt to invalidate election results. I think the most important thing to remember is we have to vote in great enough numbers so none of these bullshit shenanigans can be seen as even remotely credible! Keep calm & campaign on.

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I know it’s scary, but we have a number of things – – besides a far superior candidate and far superior ground game— going for us here. For one thing, the trumpers are so arrogant and overconfident that they are publicizing their efforts far too much. We are aware of them, and knowledge is power. And for another thing, remember that they are not the only ones who have lawyers. And our lawyers are better and have the actual law on our side. Tfg’s effort to steal the election will not work any better this time than it did in 2020.

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I saw that too and it is frightening but yesterday Whitmer had a great response: "We're better at the law" and there are experts like Marc Elias (& Democracy Docket) pro-actively addressing this. The key is to win by a big enough margin to make this moot and let the legal experts fight on the front lines where necessary.

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Take a look around this article from Rolling Stone published in March. Hopefully, the Democrats won't be totally flat footed.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/biden-trump-stop-steal-election-2024-1234993149/

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I watched this Rachel video and posted a comment criticizing it since it creates a boogey man that makes it seem that we are doomed no matter what we do. That is so wrong on at least 2 counts. As others have said, if we work to drive the margin of Dem victory higher they will be unsuccessful in challenging it. And, we have plenty of good lawyers and strategists to counter them. Remember, in 2020 they lost 60 of 61 court cases and the 1 they won was not consequential. Videos like this just tend to discourage Dem supporters from doing the hard work. The opposite of the purpose of Hopium Chronicles.

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I appreciate all of the thoughtful responses to my concern. This Dem supporter will not be discouraged from doing the hard work. It seems it is all I have been doing for a while now and I feel fortified to know I am doing it with all of you here.

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PREDICTON: Pink Tsunami and a Blue Wave election.

Things are moving our way incredibly fast! Just wait for the polls in three weeks!

I love how Kamala Harris and Democrats are dominating the news now – with enthusiasm, focus on substantive issues, devastating attacks on Trump’s Project 2025 and his deranged utterances. And JD Vance seems to be a never-ending source of lunacy and extremist quotes.

Kamala’s joy and laughter, and the outright mocking of the Republican candidates is very powerful.

Moreover, every attack that Trump and Vance have tried is backfiring with a vengeance.

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Our way, Harris’s way, is FORWARD…..and yes! incredibly fast right now. Like surfing ahead of the wave break. Harris has found her sweet spot as a compassionate, focused, strong and joyous leader. So thankful she’s meeting the moment for us all! 🥳

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Was on the Zoom Phone Bank with the DNC last night and pre Biden drop out - it was 40-60 people a day. Last week it was around 120-150 a day. Yesterday, 750 yes 750 were on the zoom by 615p. They were sending out emails saying they may max out the zoom, and they could not guarantee every volunteer a space. The energy is amazing and the fact that so many people are willing to do the work is such a great sign. LFG LFG leave it all on the field!

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Amazing story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Roger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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We have our 3 word anthem. NOT GOING BACK! Also, I’m partial to “pervy” as an adjective to describe the MAGA cult. They are obsessed with other people’s genitalia.

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And Dems can expect a significant post convention polling boost once the country contrasts competence, normal, hope, solutions and the future - with….

Weird, grievance, darkness, narcissism old, gloom and fear.

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Jul 31
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All true, my friend.

It’s inherently risky to get ahead of ourselves. But. …:)

A huge boost from the top of the ticket could save the Senate. GOPers have bastardized the filibuster (which the founders did not contemplate). Voting rights, gun violence, Supreme Court reform etc can’t be addressed without fixing the filibuster.

We will continue with

minority rule until we fix it. Getting rid

of Sinema and Manchin will help. But Dems need the numbers… and a big push from the ticket top

should protect vulnerable Senate Ds.

Clinton lost Texas by 9; Biden lost Texas by 5.5. I expect the gap to narrow again. Ted Cruz is unpopular. That seat remains pickup potential….. stay tuned.

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