I’ve spent yesterday evening and this morning contacting my local sheriff, county commissioners, DA, city councilors and mayor. This town is small enough and I’ve been here long enough that most of them are at least somewhat familiar with me. Here’s a variation of my script that anyone can riff off of:
—
I am concerned about the rhetoric being used by federal officials regarding this weekend's No Kings events. They are telling the public that participants in No Kings are "paid," "antifa" and "terrorists."
That rhetoric is factually untrue and dangerous. People who will be participating in our town’s No Kings event this Saturday are regular community members such as myself.
There may be people in our area who believe conspiracy theories and possess assault rifles. If they believe the lies coming from Washington DC about our community members who choose to join the No Kings events, then they may be inclined to harm or threaten the participants.
Please issue a public statement reminding the community that all of us have the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and that the people who will be participating in the events this weekend are our fellow community members.
My rule of thumb regarding Trump and protests: .. WWJJD What Would Jim Jones Do? Jim Jones being the persona who Trump most reminds me of. He's already told the assembled military leaders that the country is under attack from within. I hope the local officials you contacted will seriously act on your message.
Can you help us with a resolution in OR? There was some planning in Portland, but I don't know the status. The contact person is Anne Fitzpatrick @annefitzpatrick
Great idea and action, calling for equal protection under the law! We live in a 'red' California County. Local sheriff, D.A etc all vocal MAGA. Even putting up a #Yeson50 took some thought. I placed a few No Trespassing signs at the same time, just in case. Meanwhile, I'm going to follow your lead. Thanks!
wish that schumer et al would have a joint press conference, have a chart showing the law for a budget by 9/30 (who knew?), then remind americans repubs own the govt. all of it. then show a check for $20B just given to argentina, a fellow traveler fascist. and show how much the $20B would pay for in the ACA subsidies or food stamps or medicaid. connect the right hand with the left hand. we have to cut benefits for americans while saving south american fascists who have ruined their economy based on trumpian BS? and throw in for good measure the qatari air base on our soil. there has to be some obscure law about foreign troops on american soil. i dont understand in terms of national security how we could prevent another 9/11 with qatari pilots in jet planes in our skies. is there a role for congress in this decision? agree with simon, the "smart" repubs are catching on, seeing the polls, know he is losing and are looking ahead, peeling off. yeah for the small cracks!
looking forward to NO KINGS! rachel has andrew young documentary friday nite. mourning diane keaton.
Progressives should do with video of Trump what Frank Capra did with "Why We Fight" for World War II, the greatest "why we fight" films ever made. General George Marshall insisted they be factual as well as motivational, and they were, with Capra using a lot of Leni Riefenstahl's NAZI propaganda footage to keep viewers' blood boiling.
Think of what a half-hour of Trump's most deranged moments can do! I don't have the chops, but many of you do, or know someone who does.
Speaking of immigrants, Capra's family came from Sicily when he was five, and the main composer Dmitri Tiomkin was a cosmopolitan Russian Jew who moved to the US in the 1920s.
It should be noted, if it hasn't been already, that Trump admitted to a rare moment of moral self-awareness yesterday, when he said "I think I'm not, maybe, heaven-bound," and it didn't sound like he was fishing for disagreement. https://wapo.st/4q9AB7j (gift link)
Also that airports are standing up to him now, refusing to run Homeland Barbie's TSA propaganda videos that blame Democrats for flight delays: https://wapo.st/4nmwXod (gift link)
As long as we're all relatively good, I'm pretty sure we'll be separated by many floors from him in the hereafter. There's a reason a guy like him--who's morbidly obese, eats nothing but burnt steak, fries, and ice cream, and has never exercised because he thinks it's harmful--is still "alive," and God doesn't enter into it.
Your gift article to WaPo doesn't work unless you give them your email address, which I refuse to do, especially since I canceled my subscription to them two years ago to protest their turn to the Bezos-induced dark side.
Tuesday congresspersons call script that anyone can riff off of (adjust as appropriate if yours are team red):
- Keep holding the line on the shutdown! You’re doing great! Don’t capitulate!
- Do something about these masked secret police —ICE, DHS & CBP— who can’t seem to make a single arrest w/o tackling or body-slamming the person they’re grabbing. I’ve been a criminal defense lawyer for 12 years, so I’ve seen lots of bodycam and dashcam footage of arrests. Cops are supposed to identify themselves, calmly and clearly state the reason for the arrest, and then cuff the person w/o beating them up. The way that ICE, DHS & CBP are operating —maximum violence— is designed to humiliate and terrify us & is not acceptable.
- Join us for No Kings! We need to see our elected representatives out there w/ us. The USA is not supposed to be a monarchy or a dictatorship where innocent people get tackled & abducted into unmarked vehicles by masked secret police. We need to see our Democratic leadership out there w/ us for No Kings.
Simon- your budget list is so great. It's the perfect thing for us to cut and paste to share, so folks have a broader sense of what's at stake. Thanks!!
Sending out the last of the CA postcards today and working on some VA ones. Tomorrow, I mail the ones that my group did that have an Oct 15th deadline and will finish up the ones that are scheduled to be mailed on Oct 24.
You and I certainly are on the same postcard schedule. I'm finishing my last few CA Prop 50 ones tonight so I can mail them along with the 100 with an Oct 15th deadline. Then I have 200 more that are done and waiting for the Oct 24 mail date.
The Trump Regime intentionally forced this government shutdown, of that there can be no doubt. And it must be viewed through a double lens. In today’s Hopium, Simon does a great job of delineating the view through the *Political Lens* – and I agree with his argument that Democrats are winning.
But the other lens, and the only one that matters to the likes of OMB Director Russ Vought, to Stephen Miller, and to Trump himself, is the *Lens of Power*. As I understand it, during a government shutdown, the President has the power to decide which government services are "essential". As a result, we are seeing the continuation of the unprecedented executive-branch power grab that started at noon on 20 January.
There may be some hairline cracks visible in the Republican Senate and House caucuses. But I have a hard time seeing that the Trumpist Party will allow meaningful compromise with Democrats, let alone any curtailment written into legislation of the powers Trump is claiming (however lawfully).
Right now, I have a hard time seeing an off-ramp from the government shutdown.
.
That said, in the meantime Democrats can score a helluva lot of political points! Those are likely to be decisive in the 2026 midterms – and every election between now and then. My dream, no longer beyond the realm of possibility, is to see Democrats take back the Senate as well as the House! And to make significant gains in state-level downballot races.
Our systematic and intrepid work now can make that possible!
I was really frustrated with the DCCC's failure to make a case against Johnson and the Republicans in general last time after two years of dysfunction; it felt to me like each Democrat was running an individual race instead of telling a broader story about the utter failures of the Republicans to govern. I hope this time they're able to make that case--educate the public about what their job is, and their complete failure to do it. Simon lays this all out so clearly, and the images of empty chambers and empty offices are so powerful.
That number on inflation is truly staggering.
I'll be very curious to hear what Simon discovers on polling for PA courts. I donated before, and am now getting increasingly despondent emails from Defend Our Courts. They're starting to feel like a needy ex.
I hate to agree with Trump on anything, but that photo--while clearly intended to be hagiographic--is desperately unflattering.
Mailed more postcards for Mikie Sherrill and will call Booker & Kim about the Kristi Noem video. Scheduled to fly out of Newark in 2 weeks and I do not want to be assaulted by her lies!!!
At least they are helping down-ballot democrats in the various elections. People are feeling the pain caused by the Republican Party and they are voting away the pain.
I agree. I don't see how this ends. There are so many loose ends. I'm not sure, for example, how you do anything when the leader of the regime comes out one day with a new 100% tariff on goods from China, and then (apparently) backs off almost immediately. How can anyone function in that environment?
I wish I had more to self report, but I managed to contract some kind of virus and need to take care of myself. I think I'll just barely be able to get my work done for tomorrow. So I'm sort of down and out.
Thanks. I just took an expired test kit and it came back positive. So there it is. The control line didn’t activate but the covid test line did. So I don’t know but I feel terrible. There are gi symptoms this time which seem to be more common now
Are you able to get Paxlovid or something similar prescribed? I understand getting that right after a positive test can really help (if your doctor agrees, of course)
Writing from the district in GA next to Congresswoman Greene's, it appears she's been having what I call a "Helen Keller at the water pump" moment. We'll keep pumping and saying "Yes!"
Love that phrase! I think Greene is realizing something that more and more people are going to notice: Trump's a lame duck. Not only is his bad health showing, but he's not going to be president in, at most, 3 years.
One foot in front of the other. Step by step. Roses love sunshine, violets love dew; I tell you darling, the way out is through. (Sung to Down in the Valley.)
It’s raining at 4500 feet and snowing on the heights. Good news for Los Angeles’ water supply. And ours.
Last week I wrote an online article delineating the mandated two-year-long federal budget process for the edification of our county’s newly-woke and yawning folks. I’m about to write one about the way the county budget spins off of the state budget.
And it’s senior citizen discount day at the supermarket.
And maybe today our ballots for the Election Rigging Response Act will wend their way into our lonely mailbox.
Last night I taught myself to play “Down in the Valley” then made up lyrics inspired by JDVance and MJohnson and my own horrible TMcClintock’s incessant, pernicious insistence that it is the Republicans who Actually Care about health care…
The opening lines go: “Vance says they have a plan, To fix health care. But when you press him, He’s full of hot air.”
If anyone is interested I will post all the verses I wrote.
(The Burl Ives version of DitV on YouTube will bring a tear to your eye.:
With all the frogs popping up at protests, can you repurpose another American folk song for this moment? I'm thinking of "Froggy went a courtin', he did ride--uh huh, uh huh." That line repeats twice, and the first verse ends "with a sword and a pistol by his side." Of course, we don't want to promote weapons of any kind, so we'd have some rewriting to do. Odette used to sing it. :-)
😂🤣🤣🤣😂😂 uh… no
I’ve spent yesterday evening and this morning contacting my local sheriff, county commissioners, DA, city councilors and mayor. This town is small enough and I’ve been here long enough that most of them are at least somewhat familiar with me. Here’s a variation of my script that anyone can riff off of:
—
I am concerned about the rhetoric being used by federal officials regarding this weekend's No Kings events. They are telling the public that participants in No Kings are "paid," "antifa" and "terrorists."
That rhetoric is factually untrue and dangerous. People who will be participating in our town’s No Kings event this Saturday are regular community members such as myself.
There may be people in our area who believe conspiracy theories and possess assault rifles. If they believe the lies coming from Washington DC about our community members who choose to join the No Kings events, then they may be inclined to harm or threaten the participants.
Please issue a public statement reminding the community that all of us have the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and that the people who will be participating in the events this weekend are our fellow community members.
Thank you.
This is excellent. What a good idea to reach out to them!
My rule of thumb regarding Trump and protests: .. WWJJD What Would Jim Jones Do? Jim Jones being the persona who Trump most reminds me of. He's already told the assembled military leaders that the country is under attack from within. I hope the local officials you contacted will seriously act on your message.
Can you help us with a resolution in OR? There was some planning in Portland, but I don't know the status. The contact person is Anne Fitzpatrick @annefitzpatrick
Great idea and action, calling for equal protection under the law! We live in a 'red' California County. Local sheriff, D.A etc all vocal MAGA. Even putting up a #Yeson50 took some thought. I placed a few No Trespassing signs at the same time, just in case. Meanwhile, I'm going to follow your lead. Thanks!
For non-Californians, I guess a "50" means the redistricting proposal.
wish that schumer et al would have a joint press conference, have a chart showing the law for a budget by 9/30 (who knew?), then remind americans repubs own the govt. all of it. then show a check for $20B just given to argentina, a fellow traveler fascist. and show how much the $20B would pay for in the ACA subsidies or food stamps or medicaid. connect the right hand with the left hand. we have to cut benefits for americans while saving south american fascists who have ruined their economy based on trumpian BS? and throw in for good measure the qatari air base on our soil. there has to be some obscure law about foreign troops on american soil. i dont understand in terms of national security how we could prevent another 9/11 with qatari pilots in jet planes in our skies. is there a role for congress in this decision? agree with simon, the "smart" repubs are catching on, seeing the polls, know he is losing and are looking ahead, peeling off. yeah for the small cracks!
looking forward to NO KINGS! rachel has andrew young documentary friday nite. mourning diane keaton.
Progressives should do with video of Trump what Frank Capra did with "Why We Fight" for World War II, the greatest "why we fight" films ever made. General George Marshall insisted they be factual as well as motivational, and they were, with Capra using a lot of Leni Riefenstahl's NAZI propaganda footage to keep viewers' blood boiling.
Think of what a half-hour of Trump's most deranged moments can do! I don't have the chops, but many of you do, or know someone who does.
Speaking of immigrants, Capra's family came from Sicily when he was five, and the main composer Dmitri Tiomkin was a cosmopolitan Russian Jew who moved to the US in the 1920s.
It should be noted, if it hasn't been already, that Trump admitted to a rare moment of moral self-awareness yesterday, when he said "I think I'm not, maybe, heaven-bound," and it didn't sound like he was fishing for disagreement. https://wapo.st/4q9AB7j (gift link)
Also that airports are standing up to him now, refusing to run Homeland Barbie's TSA propaganda videos that blame Democrats for flight delays: https://wapo.st/4nmwXod (gift link)
I swear the prospect of an afterlife with him in it is enough to increase the ranks of atheists five-fold
As long as we're all relatively good, I'm pretty sure we'll be separated by many floors from him in the hereafter. There's a reason a guy like him--who's morbidly obese, eats nothing but burnt steak, fries, and ice cream, and has never exercised because he thinks it's harmful--is still "alive," and God doesn't enter into it.
Your gift article to WaPo doesn't work unless you give them your email address, which I refuse to do, especially since I canceled my subscription to them two years ago to protest their turn to the Bezos-induced dark side.
Ben has a great interview with Janet Mills of Maine and even poses the "age" question.
https://youtu.be/evXWmHVx5Eg?si=AMvd9kDlQj_CrILk
Tuesday congresspersons call script that anyone can riff off of (adjust as appropriate if yours are team red):
- Keep holding the line on the shutdown! You’re doing great! Don’t capitulate!
- Do something about these masked secret police —ICE, DHS & CBP— who can’t seem to make a single arrest w/o tackling or body-slamming the person they’re grabbing. I’ve been a criminal defense lawyer for 12 years, so I’ve seen lots of bodycam and dashcam footage of arrests. Cops are supposed to identify themselves, calmly and clearly state the reason for the arrest, and then cuff the person w/o beating them up. The way that ICE, DHS & CBP are operating —maximum violence— is designed to humiliate and terrify us & is not acceptable.
- Join us for No Kings! We need to see our elected representatives out there w/ us. The USA is not supposed to be a monarchy or a dictatorship where innocent people get tackled & abducted into unmarked vehicles by masked secret police. We need to see our Democratic leadership out there w/ us for No Kings.
I shall riff. Thank you for this, as always.
Simon- your budget list is so great. It's the perfect thing for us to cut and paste to share, so folks have a broader sense of what's at stake. Thanks!!
Sending out the last of the CA postcards today and working on some VA ones. Tomorrow, I mail the ones that my group did that have an Oct 15th deadline and will finish up the ones that are scheduled to be mailed on Oct 24.
LFG everyone!
You and I certainly are on the same postcard schedule. I'm finishing my last few CA Prop 50 ones tonight so I can mail them along with the 100 with an Oct 15th deadline. Then I have 200 more that are done and waiting for the Oct 24 mail date.
The Trump Regime intentionally forced this government shutdown, of that there can be no doubt. And it must be viewed through a double lens. In today’s Hopium, Simon does a great job of delineating the view through the *Political Lens* – and I agree with his argument that Democrats are winning.
But the other lens, and the only one that matters to the likes of OMB Director Russ Vought, to Stephen Miller, and to Trump himself, is the *Lens of Power*. As I understand it, during a government shutdown, the President has the power to decide which government services are "essential". As a result, we are seeing the continuation of the unprecedented executive-branch power grab that started at noon on 20 January.
There may be some hairline cracks visible in the Republican Senate and House caucuses. But I have a hard time seeing that the Trumpist Party will allow meaningful compromise with Democrats, let alone any curtailment written into legislation of the powers Trump is claiming (however lawfully).
Right now, I have a hard time seeing an off-ramp from the government shutdown.
.
That said, in the meantime Democrats can score a helluva lot of political points! Those are likely to be decisive in the 2026 midterms – and every election between now and then. My dream, no longer beyond the realm of possibility, is to see Democrats take back the Senate as well as the House! And to make significant gains in state-level downballot races.
Our systematic and intrepid work now can make that possible!
I was really frustrated with the DCCC's failure to make a case against Johnson and the Republicans in general last time after two years of dysfunction; it felt to me like each Democrat was running an individual race instead of telling a broader story about the utter failures of the Republicans to govern. I hope this time they're able to make that case--educate the public about what their job is, and their complete failure to do it. Simon lays this all out so clearly, and the images of empty chambers and empty offices are so powerful.
That number on inflation is truly staggering.
I'll be very curious to hear what Simon discovers on polling for PA courts. I donated before, and am now getting increasingly despondent emails from Defend Our Courts. They're starting to feel like a needy ex.
I hate to agree with Trump on anything, but that photo--while clearly intended to be hagiographic--is desperately unflattering.
Off to make "stand strong, and also..." calls.
How are you feeling about Klobuchar these days?
Mailed more postcards for Mikie Sherrill and will call Booker & Kim about the Kristi Noem video. Scheduled to fly out of Newark in 2 weeks and I do not want to be assaulted by her lies!!!
At least they are helping down-ballot democrats in the various elections. People are feeling the pain caused by the Republican Party and they are voting away the pain.
I agree. I don't see how this ends. There are so many loose ends. I'm not sure, for example, how you do anything when the leader of the regime comes out one day with a new 100% tariff on goods from China, and then (apparently) backs off almost immediately. How can anyone function in that environment?
I wish I had more to self report, but I managed to contract some kind of virus and need to take care of myself. I think I'll just barely be able to get my work done for tomorrow. So I'm sort of down and out.
I hope you feel better soon. There's a bad ick going around.
Take care of yourself and feel better!
Thanks. I just took an expired test kit and it came back positive. So there it is. The control line didn’t activate but the covid test line did. So I don’t know but I feel terrible. There are gi symptoms this time which seem to be more common now
Are you able to get Paxlovid or something similar prescribed? I understand getting that right after a positive test can really help (if your doctor agrees, of course)
I think I’ll be ok.
Writing from the district in GA next to Congresswoman Greene's, it appears she's been having what I call a "Helen Keller at the water pump" moment. We'll keep pumping and saying "Yes!"
LOL! The perfect image
Love that phrase! I think Greene is realizing something that more and more people are going to notice: Trump's a lame duck. Not only is his bad health showing, but he's not going to be president in, at most, 3 years.
One foot in front of the other. Step by step. Roses love sunshine, violets love dew; I tell you darling, the way out is through. (Sung to Down in the Valley.)
It’s raining at 4500 feet and snowing on the heights. Good news for Los Angeles’ water supply. And ours.
Last week I wrote an online article delineating the mandated two-year-long federal budget process for the edification of our county’s newly-woke and yawning folks. I’m about to write one about the way the county budget spins off of the state budget.
And it’s senior citizen discount day at the supermarket.
And maybe today our ballots for the Election Rigging Response Act will wend their way into our lonely mailbox.
Last night I taught myself to play “Down in the Valley” then made up lyrics inspired by JDVance and MJohnson and my own horrible TMcClintock’s incessant, pernicious insistence that it is the Republicans who Actually Care about health care…
The opening lines go: “Vance says they have a plan, To fix health care. But when you press him, He’s full of hot air.”
If anyone is interested I will post all the verses I wrote.
(The Burl Ives version of DitV on YouTube will bring a tear to your eye.:
With all the frogs popping up at protests, can you repurpose another American folk song for this moment? I'm thinking of "Froggy went a courtin', he did ride--uh huh, uh huh." That line repeats twice, and the first verse ends "with a sword and a pistol by his side." Of course, we don't want to promote weapons of any kind, so we'd have some rewriting to do. Odette used to sing it. :-)
"Froggy went a marchin', he did walk, uh huh, uh huh
Froggy went a marchin', he did walk, uh huh
Froggy went a marchin', he did walk
To save our country and not just talk, uh huh."
First draft!
Meg! You are doing just fine there without me messing around…. 🤓