Perhaps Kamala Harris should challenge Trump to a dance contest! Surely Donald will want to prove his fitness? And besides, Donald’s dancing on the MAGA stage is already the stuff of legendary memes. Two modest examples:
Held a very successful fundraiser last night for the WisDems along with Common Power, a Seattle based organization that is sending scores of volunteers to swing states to knock on doors in concert with in-state partners. Check them out at www.commonpower.org. They’ve been doing this work and building the necessary relationships since 2017. They are great at what they do!!
Make a wave! Help register new Democrats in swing states. FT6 has a database containing 9 million unregistered likely Democrats in swing states. The basis for all digital outreach! FT6 uses every outreach method there is: email, text, phone, geofencing, direct mail, targeted ads, social media storms, postcards, and live voter drives.
I have personally written over 500 postcards for Field Team 6 and the FT6 group on my community is now well over 12,000 postcards! That equates to over 2400 new Democrat voters in targeted states, based on the 2022 success rate!
Hi all - So many folks have signed up to help KDH campaign! I signed up last week, hope to be helping w voter protection hotline but other opportunities too. If you are so inclined, they can use researchers for special projects, and of course texting, ph bank, canvassing. It's all good! I so excited that we will be hearing from Julie CR!!! Also I ordered yard sign, merch looks great!
We have a great candidate who is now energizing key constituencies of the Dem coalition. 38,500 voter registrations yesterday on vote.org and most of those were under 34! Amazing!
As for the other side, Trump is a court adjudicated rapist. A 34X convicted felon. An insurrectionist which 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.
Where are you seeing those numbers? Is there perhaps a link to continually-updated figures? Is there a state-by-state breakdown? (Or is this being hidden from "the competition"?)
"FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: In the two days since Biden dropped out, Vote.org saw its highest levels of new voter registrations of the whole cycle: 38,500 people signed up, a 700 percent spike and higher even than when TAYLOR SWIFT made an Instagram post. Most were 34 and under."
As a strategy, Steve Bannon proposed "Flooding the zone with shit". Trump and his acolytes clearly took that to heart.
Kamala Harris and her allies are "Flooding the zone with joy!" She is sharing her vision, underscoring the contrasts between Prosecutor and Felon, and recruiting patriotic Americans to fight for Democracy and a better tomorrow. We can help her dominate the news cycle with her positivity!
Timothy Snyder has a fascinating take on the “Veepstakes”. He puts Trump’s choice of JD Vance in a very different light than we are seeing elsewhere. In short, if re-elected, Donald J. Trump intends to rule until he dies in office (no surprise there), and JD Vance is his MAGA heir.
Already in March, Robert Kuttner at The Prospect gave a full-throated warning about Vance as heir. It’s worth underscoring that JD Vance is the highly-capable protege of tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who for years has been making huge campaign donations aiming to turn America into an autocracy.
Back to Timothy Snyder, who is one of the most articulate voices against the growing threat of American Fascism. He brings the expertise he has gained through studying the history of Central and Eastern Europe. If you are not already familiar with it, I highly recommend Snyder’s bestseller, already a classic:
“On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century”.
Kamala Harris, of course, will choose her running mate based on who can help her win and best continue to perfect American democracy. Such are the two candidates’ very different approaches to “the Veepstakes”.
I want to second the recommendation for “On Tyranny.” It’s great. It helped get me through the Dismal Four Years.
Snyder’s number one rule is “Never Obey In Advance.” I have seen such a turn around in mood with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket; I was afraid during the last days of Biden that a lot of people *had* given up and *were* obeying in advance. But, as Snyder points out, that just encourages the autocrats to think they have already won. (And it does not save one’s neck, either.)
My take on who the VP should be is that the Harris campaign is bringing out a surprising amount of Joy. And I think all the picks are great, but I want it to be Pete.
I think he is the best messenger in a group of all stars. But most importantly he is a happy warrior and I think after all the bullshit Trump put us through over the years the country should get joy of watching Pete just make JD Vance look like the absolute loser that he is.
Thank you for sharing, Arctic Stones. So interesting to read these two articles in tandem. Robert Kuttner warned about the dangers of JD Vance as Veep candidate—a smarter and more articulate version of Trump, who represented the Silicon Valley bros and was aligned with them than with Trump. And who would pursue the Broligarchs’ interests in the future if unsuccessful this go around.
But Kuttner wrote his article in April, and Snyder his just now, representing our new reality. And what Kuttner didn’t take into account was the reality (I have faith!) that Trump is going to LOSE. And per Snyder, that Trump will need a scapegoat, and that scapegoat will be Vance.
Snyder says that with Trump’s whipping up of stochastic terrorism, this is serious. My words here, but Vance might not just have to worry about his career, but also his life! At the very least, Vance should expect to be drummed out of the Republican Party. He’s made a deal with the devil.
BTW I love Snyder’s use of language: Necropolitics!!
I actually got tears in my eyes listening to her rally in Milwaukee. Such amazing, and, yes, joyful energy. It very much reminded me of the early Obama energy -- only more so, if possible. The crowd was going nuts, yelling and cheering and chanting "Ka-ma-la!" They even sounded happy while chanting "Lock him up!" in response to her evisceration of tfg.
On a different, more Schadenfreude-inflected note, I immensely enjoyed listening to dead-eyed fascist Steven Miller griping about the "tens of millions of dollars" the tfg campaign has waged attacking Joe Biden -- as if the President asked them to do that or something. Sheesh. Miller was talking really fast in a high-pitched, strangled yell, and truly sounded borderline hysterical. Man, did Joe and Kamala ever put these guys on their back foot!
I love the thought of all these evil men pouring their money down the drain. Not that they don’t have it to spare, but it’s delicious seeing their anger, frustration, and *fear.* Kamala Harris is galvanizing voters and donors.
Please share our pro-choice short, fun PSA- especially with younger voters. I’m of a ‘certain age’ so not on all their social media. Thanks! (Filmed with an all women crew. ) Hal’s Backyard Hustle on youtube.
I’m not proud of how much my emotions rise and fall on the turns of this campaign, but man, the previous 3-4 weeks were just excruciating to me. Like, my heart just hurt, all the time. And now these last 3 days have felt like a veil has lifted. It’s night and day.
Anyway, me and 15 friends will be phonebanking for Kamala tonight from my home. Let’s ride this wave!!
It’s been existential, Patrick—it’s not you. So many of us are following the same emotional trajectory. Over the past 3-4 weeks I haven’t been able to focus, to sleep. I’ve been irritable, despondent, hopeless. You’re right, though—it’s like a veil has been lifted. Newly energized, hopeful, and ready to work! LFG! 🥥🌴💙🇺🇸
Got a friend to phonebank for the first time with me last night. Said it was more fun than he expected and wants to do it again. I'm back on the phones again tonight and writing more postcards. LFG! Leave it all on the field.
Simon, I had not considered your point about how Biden stepping down sends a message to the autocrats of the world. At first I lamented that we would not get 4 more years of his excellent policies. I wanted Harris to have 4 more years under his wing to give her the best start possible. But in retrospect, Biden stepping down is the single most powerful act he could've made on the world stage. Not only was it a masterstroke that united the party while pulling the rug out from under the Trump campaign & the corporate media, it was a powerful reaffirmation of our most precious democratic values. Had Biden sought & won re-election, he would not have had the opportunity to do this. We may yet look back in 10-20 years and see that this was more important than a 2nd Biden term.
I had already mused that Biden was the second coming of Lincoln, FDR, and LBJ all in one, but I now include George Washington on that list. It gives me chills just to think about it. In short order, Biden has become like the Yoda of the Democrats--and we still get 6 more months of him!
And to think Biden came out of retirement to run for 2020!! Because he saw the danger and heeded the call. This is why ageism is such a dangerous prejudice - wasting the experience and smarts of a huge sector of our populace. Thank god Biden ignored it in 2019 and surpassed that act in 2024 with his history-changing pass of the baton.
Biden = Yoda of Dems + 6 months to grease the skids of dem/Dem policy prior to Harris with her young experienced competent cabinet entering. Wow Yazzzz Kyle
Joe Biden deserves so much better than what the media and so much of the public gave him. I hope he knows he will go down in history as one of our greatest Presidents.
You’re SO CLEAR. Easy to be with, rate of speech moderated for ease of understanding and then upbeats of passion like a fun ride on a gentle but breezy roller coaster!
Andy Beshear on CNN last night talking about what a phony Vance is:
“J.D. Vance is a phony, he's fake. I mean, he first says that Donald Trump is like Hitler, and now he's acting like he's Lincoln. The problem with JD Vance is he has no conviction, but I guess his running mate has 34." 😆
OLD AND UNFIT...
“Trump said he’d consider Jamie Dimon for Treasury Secretary, but now says he doesn’t know who said that.”
. – Kate Sullivan, CNN
It’s so unfair that people were mocking Trump for falling asleep during his trial for Fraud! Donald was merely taking some “Executive Time”!
LET ’EM PROVE THEIR FITNESS...
Perhaps Kamala Harris should challenge Trump to a dance contest! Surely Donald will want to prove his fitness? And besides, Donald’s dancing on the MAGA stage is already the stuff of legendary memes. Two modest examples:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mg_albQOyvA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zph7YXfjMhg
Meanwhile, The Borowitz Report posted this headline yesterday:
"Harris Challenges Trump to Walk Down a Ramp"
And do it in stiletto heels. Borowitz comes up with the best headlines!
The one today was classic - the million meow march against Vance
I've been imagining the same thing!
Held a very successful fundraiser last night for the WisDems along with Common Power, a Seattle based organization that is sending scores of volunteers to swing states to knock on doors in concert with in-state partners. Check them out at www.commonpower.org. They’ve been doing this work and building the necessary relationships since 2017. They are great at what they do!!
Fired up and ready to go. I'll note that I always talk about what Trump "posted." Saying he "truthed" something plays into their framing.
Make a wave! Help register new Democrats in swing states. FT6 has a database containing 9 million unregistered likely Democrats in swing states. The basis for all digital outreach! FT6 uses every outreach method there is: email, text, phone, geofencing, direct mail, targeted ads, social media storms, postcards, and live voter drives.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Go FT6! I’m partnering with my postcard group.
I have personally written over 500 postcards for Field Team 6 and the FT6 group on my community is now well over 12,000 postcards! That equates to over 2400 new Democrat voters in targeted states, based on the 2022 success rate!
You ROCK!
Hi all - So many folks have signed up to help KDH campaign! I signed up last week, hope to be helping w voter protection hotline but other opportunities too. If you are so inclined, they can use researchers for special projects, and of course texting, ph bank, canvassing. It's all good! I so excited that we will be hearing from Julie CR!!! Also I ordered yard sign, merch looks great!
We have a great candidate who is now energizing key constituencies of the Dem coalition. 38,500 voter registrations yesterday on vote.org and most of those were under 34! Amazing!
As for the other side, Trump is a court adjudicated rapist. A 34X convicted felon. An insurrectionist which 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.
38,500 newly registered voters is terrific!
Where are you seeing those numbers? Is there perhaps a link to continually-updated figures? Is there a state-by-state breakdown? (Or is this being hidden from "the competition"?)
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2024/07/24/the-2-big-questions-harris-must-answer-00170822?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000014e-f0ed-dd93-ad7f-f8edad790000&nlid=630318
"FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: In the two days since Biden dropped out, Vote.org saw its highest levels of new voter registrations of the whole cycle: 38,500 people signed up, a 700 percent spike and higher even than when TAYLOR SWIFT made an Instagram post. Most were 34 and under."
Thanks! It looks as though no running tally is available.
As a strategy, Steve Bannon proposed "Flooding the zone with shit". Trump and his acolytes clearly took that to heart.
Kamala Harris and her allies are "Flooding the zone with joy!" She is sharing her vision, underscoring the contrasts between Prosecutor and Felon, and recruiting patriotic Americans to fight for Democracy and a better tomorrow. We can help her dominate the news cycle with her positivity!
As Kamala says:
"We are not going back!"
I love that line “we are not going back”!
VEEPSTAKES
Timothy Snyder has a fascinating take on the “Veepstakes”. He puts Trump’s choice of JD Vance in a very different light than we are seeing elsewhere. In short, if re-elected, Donald J. Trump intends to rule until he dies in office (no surprise there), and JD Vance is his MAGA heir.
https://snyder.substack.com/p/veep-stakes
Already in March, Robert Kuttner at The Prospect gave a full-throated warning about Vance as heir. It’s worth underscoring that JD Vance is the highly-capable protege of tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who for years has been making huge campaign donations aiming to turn America into an autocracy.
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-23-maga-2-0-jd-vance/
Back to Timothy Snyder, who is one of the most articulate voices against the growing threat of American Fascism. He brings the expertise he has gained through studying the history of Central and Eastern Europe. If you are not already familiar with it, I highly recommend Snyder’s bestseller, already a classic:
“On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century”.
Kamala Harris, of course, will choose her running mate based on who can help her win and best continue to perfect American democracy. Such are the two candidates’ very different approaches to “the Veepstakes”.
I want to second the recommendation for “On Tyranny.” It’s great. It helped get me through the Dismal Four Years.
Snyder’s number one rule is “Never Obey In Advance.” I have seen such a turn around in mood with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket; I was afraid during the last days of Biden that a lot of people *had* given up and *were* obeying in advance. But, as Snyder points out, that just encourages the autocrats to think they have already won. (And it does not save one’s neck, either.)
My take on who the VP should be is that the Harris campaign is bringing out a surprising amount of Joy. And I think all the picks are great, but I want it to be Pete.
I think he is the best messenger in a group of all stars. But most importantly he is a happy warrior and I think after all the bullshit Trump put us through over the years the country should get joy of watching Pete just make JD Vance look like the absolute loser that he is.
Thank you for sharing, Arctic Stones. So interesting to read these two articles in tandem. Robert Kuttner warned about the dangers of JD Vance as Veep candidate—a smarter and more articulate version of Trump, who represented the Silicon Valley bros and was aligned with them than with Trump. And who would pursue the Broligarchs’ interests in the future if unsuccessful this go around.
But Kuttner wrote his article in April, and Snyder his just now, representing our new reality. And what Kuttner didn’t take into account was the reality (I have faith!) that Trump is going to LOSE. And per Snyder, that Trump will need a scapegoat, and that scapegoat will be Vance.
Snyder says that with Trump’s whipping up of stochastic terrorism, this is serious. My words here, but Vance might not just have to worry about his career, but also his life! At the very least, Vance should expect to be drummed out of the Republican Party. He’s made a deal with the devil.
BTW I love Snyder’s use of language: Necropolitics!!
I actually got tears in my eyes listening to her rally in Milwaukee. Such amazing, and, yes, joyful energy. It very much reminded me of the early Obama energy -- only more so, if possible. The crowd was going nuts, yelling and cheering and chanting "Ka-ma-la!" They even sounded happy while chanting "Lock him up!" in response to her evisceration of tfg.
On a different, more Schadenfreude-inflected note, I immensely enjoyed listening to dead-eyed fascist Steven Miller griping about the "tens of millions of dollars" the tfg campaign has waged attacking Joe Biden -- as if the President asked them to do that or something. Sheesh. Miller was talking really fast in a high-pitched, strangled yell, and truly sounded borderline hysterical. Man, did Joe and Kamala ever put these guys on their back foot!
I share your Schadenfreude!!!
I love the thought of all these evil men pouring their money down the drain. Not that they don’t have it to spare, but it’s delicious seeing their anger, frustration, and *fear.* Kamala Harris is galvanizing voters and donors.
This popped into my head after hearing the rally chant “We’re not going back.” It’s a tweak of Tom Petty’s song “I won’t back down”
Well we won’t go back
No, we won’t go back
You can stand us up at the gates of hell
But we won’t go back
Please share our pro-choice short, fun PSA- especially with younger voters. I’m of a ‘certain age’ so not on all their social media. Thanks! (Filmed with an all women crew. ) Hal’s Backyard Hustle on youtube.
https://youtu.be/5HmiRu5ydq0?si=eGg5BydiOgIsxMQu
Wow! This is so good. Watched it twice. Sharing!
OMG, Annie - so terrific!
Thank you, Janice. If you know of any ways to get it more traction, please do. Onward!
I’m not proud of how much my emotions rise and fall on the turns of this campaign, but man, the previous 3-4 weeks were just excruciating to me. Like, my heart just hurt, all the time. And now these last 3 days have felt like a veil has lifted. It’s night and day.
Anyway, me and 15 friends will be phonebanking for Kamala tonight from my home. Let’s ride this wave!!
It’s been existential, Patrick—it’s not you. So many of us are following the same emotional trajectory. Over the past 3-4 weeks I haven’t been able to focus, to sleep. I’ve been irritable, despondent, hopeless. You’re right, though—it’s like a veil has been lifted. Newly energized, hopeful, and ready to work! LFG! 🥥🌴💙🇺🇸
I feel like the Democratic Party's heart cracked last week, but I believe that crack will let the Light in.
Got a friend to phonebank for the first time with me last night. Said it was more fun than he expected and wants to do it again. I'm back on the phones again tonight and writing more postcards. LFG! Leave it all on the field.
Wonderful Roger Thanks to both of you!
Anyone hearing when the Obama endorsement is coming? Tomorrow after POTUS speaks tonight?
Endorsements are probably staggered, and wisely so, in order to have maximum positive effect in the news cycle.
Simon, I had not considered your point about how Biden stepping down sends a message to the autocrats of the world. At first I lamented that we would not get 4 more years of his excellent policies. I wanted Harris to have 4 more years under his wing to give her the best start possible. But in retrospect, Biden stepping down is the single most powerful act he could've made on the world stage. Not only was it a masterstroke that united the party while pulling the rug out from under the Trump campaign & the corporate media, it was a powerful reaffirmation of our most precious democratic values. Had Biden sought & won re-election, he would not have had the opportunity to do this. We may yet look back in 10-20 years and see that this was more important than a 2nd Biden term.
I had already mused that Biden was the second coming of Lincoln, FDR, and LBJ all in one, but I now include George Washington on that list. It gives me chills just to think about it. In short order, Biden has become like the Yoda of the Democrats--and we still get 6 more months of him!
And to think Biden came out of retirement to run for 2020!! Because he saw the danger and heeded the call. This is why ageism is such a dangerous prejudice - wasting the experience and smarts of a huge sector of our populace. Thank god Biden ignored it in 2019 and surpassed that act in 2024 with his history-changing pass of the baton.
Biden = Yoda of Dems + 6 months to grease the skids of dem/Dem policy prior to Harris with her young experienced competent cabinet entering. Wow Yazzzz Kyle
Kyle, love this post! Thoughtful and eloquent, and a lovely tribute. Thank you. 💙
I love this comment and could not agree more.
Joe Biden deserves so much better than what the media and so much of the public gave him. I hope he knows he will go down in history as one of our greatest Presidents.
Beautiful post. I do believe President Biden will be celebrated as a favored son in the Democratic Party and in the nation for a generation.
His move was a masterstroke, the most Dark Brandon-y play I've ever seen.
You’re SO CLEAR. Easy to be with, rate of speech moderated for ease of understanding and then upbeats of passion like a fun ride on a gentle but breezy roller coaster!
That Milwaukee rally has me fired up. Looks like people are ready to run through a brick wall for Harris.
What a couple of days. From wallowing in uncertainty to clarified purpose. LFG!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R6ONEjjfafk
In case you haven’t seen Harris’ speech and want to view it.
Thanks for posting! I’m energized!
Andy Beshear on CNN last night talking about what a phony Vance is:
“J.D. Vance is a phony, he's fake. I mean, he first says that Donald Trump is like Hitler, and now he's acting like he's Lincoln. The problem with JD Vance is he has no conviction, but I guess his running mate has 34." 😆
It’s good to see Appalachians are getting in on the joke. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1841329532746737/permalink/3809592962587041/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v
Whether or not Andy is on the VP short list, he'll go after JD Vance for free. And I'm here for it.
Had to move into My day, but I’ll be back later to catch the ending ! Another plus of Substack!