Echoing what Robert wrote about grassroots groups being the under or non-reported story of this election and frankly the last 8 years of elections…I want to say that the phenomenon of grassroots power goes is even more inspired. Here in Ulster County, NY, we just had 300plus volunteer sign ups last month on our county site. That’s more than we’ve accrued in the past 8 years total! In my town, I can’t keep up with the torrent of volunteers asking to help. I have an avowed canvass hater who is now in our Neighbor to Neighbor voter outreach program and is canvassing his neighborhood. Men are joining our postcard parties, which has been almost unheard of. We are a-buzz in energy and hope and action here in rural, upstate NY. No one knows all this beyond our county boundaries but I bet it’s true everywhere. Busy, unreported heroes of action, determined to do what is needed to save this country.
I always remind our volunteers that we are everywhere, multiplied by thousands. And you’ll never, ever hear it from the press.
I am in Charlotte, NC. My county (Mecklenburg) is the epicenter of GOTV since we have the most Dems and historically low Democratic turnout. Fun Fact: Mecklenburg county has more Democrats than the combined count of the 55 NC counties (out of 100 counties in the state) with the fewest Democrats.
The Friday before Labor Day, one of the local Democratic groups put out a call to get volunteers to assemble candidate yard signs and write some candidate postcards. The response was overwhelming - on a Friday evening of a holiday weekend. We have another big event on Saturday, I hope we have a lot of people attend!
Then on Sunday evening, I joined a virtual phone bank to recruit volunteers to canvass tomorrow. (This was a pool of strong Democrats who had attended at least one social event with other Democrats since we started organizing a year ago). There are canvasses in multiple neighborhoods on Saturdays and often on Sunday afternoons, too. I wasn't able to get anyone to sign up for the canvass this weeend, but several people were interested in doing it at a later date and provided their emails -- in fact one young woman asked if there were going to be other opportunities to volunteer even BEFORE I could suggest it. That is unheard of!! Especially since I do not have any magic skills of persuasion ;-)
I also participate in several virtual postcard writing groups each week and we are seeing several new participants each time ever since Kamala Harris became the candidate and some of those participants have become regulars.
FYI, If anyone is interested in jumping on the postcard or phone banking bandwagon, Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles is hosting Thursday night events from 7:30 - 9 pm ET for a joint phonebank and postcard writing party for the House candidates Hopium is supporting.
Last night we had about 350 people on the Zoom. NOTE: You do not need to be a subscriber to Hopium chronicles to participate.
Hi, Cheryl. I am in Harnett County a bastion of MAGA. The good news is that since my new community is very close to the border of Wake County, which is much more purple, there are some pockets of blue. Recently I met a Democratic candidate for Harnett County Commissioner, Kate Reichert. I have volunteered to help with her campaign. Wish us luck!
Last night FT 6 sent tens of thousands of texts to nonregistered N. Carolinians. More today. I sent 2100 myself.
Registration deadline for the General Presidential Election on November 5, 2024 is October 11, 2024 (see one-stop early voting info below).
Absentee ballot application deadline for the General Presidential Election is October 29, 2024.
October 17, 2024 through November 2, 2024 at 3pm is the early voting period for the November 5, 2024 General Presidential Election. Check for early voting sites and schedules here.
You can also register and vote at the same time with one-stop early voting (October 17 - November 2 at 3pm). There is no same day registration on Election Day.
If you need help getting an ID, contact VoteRiders.org or call/text 1-844-338-8743.
Cheryl, So appreciate your efforts and those gathered around this push to register voters. My nieces and nephews, who live in the county, are hardcore MAGA, and so I assumed the area was beyond reach. You’ve given me hope. Wish they understood that the benefits they receive from the government, which allow them to sustain their livelihoods, will be threatened if Dems are knocked out. Wondered if there might be a way to reach such folks. Thank you, again!
That’s such great news. I’m delighted to hear that men are joining your postcard parties. I’m trying to get my husband involved but I haven’t been successful yet. This is our democracy and we are determined to save it.
My 3 1/2 year old granddaughter is helping put stamps and sparkly flag stickers on all my hundreds of letters to potential younger voters, through VOTE FORWARD. She's aware of the election, is an enthusiastic fan of VP Kamala Harris, and we're so happy to have her interest and assistance at her young yet engaged age!
Wouldn’t it be great for MSM to write about this grassroots phenomenon, as you suggest?
Last night, before I went to bed, I received an Axios breaking news notification: Harris had flip-flopped on her position regarding drinking straws! I truly thought it was a parody. But, no, this morning there was an entire article. Beyond the straws, apparently she has modified her positions on other issues, such as fracking, healthcare ideas, etc., as she has—get this—LEARNED MORE! And to top it all off, some of Biden’s aides don’t like her much. Now THAT’s a cause for concern. Aides who are understandably still hurting and are now not getting the press attention they used to are only too happy to criticize the Democrat nominee they didn’t want. Well, that tells you something about them and something about Axios—neither admirable.
Not only has she learned more, but she's realized that some of her personal positions may not be aligned with the majority of her constituents, who are ALL Americans, and has adjusted accordingly. Fundamentally, I don't think she's changing her views. The Republican nominee, on the other hand, changes his views in mid-sentence or whatever you call the word salad he regularly chomps on.
Also, they are holding her up in comparison to things she said five or more years ago. Why don't they hold Trump up in comparison to things he said this week? For abortion, against abortion, for abortion? Against IVF? Oh, no, going to spend 40 billion dollars of our tax money to give free IVF to everyone that wants it. Heaven only knows what positions Trump held years ago. We should grill him on his position on drinking straws.
Wait! Wait! Bob, has he changed his views or simply rambled through another two hours of mumbling nonsense that The NY Times interprets as new policy? He, TFG, is way over the cliff and, as Robert wrote, The New York Times, wants to claim neutrality as protecting a free press. They have lost ALL credibility just like SCOTUS. My personal hope is that they fall hard after this election and come to their journalistic senses.
Personally, Cathy, I prefer that we stay under the radar; keep working to GOTV and elect Dems across the ballot. Let the MSM and others be surprised at the results come November 6!
I agree. Let them keep shooting themselves in the foot and counting on a win that doesn't materialize, because we worked our butts off UNDER the radar.
I'm in Florida, but I often go to Waynesville. I'd love for NC to turn 🔵. I've adopted 20 "less than consistent" Dem voters by way of Vote Forward. Letters go out Oct. 1.
I'm a firm believer in Vote Forward's nonpartisan/neutral efforts. In my letters, I highlight good jobs, safe schools, health care, democracy, and the environment as my reasons to vote. So far this cycle, I've written 160 letters (and specifically using the USPS Thank you stamps as an added reminder). I still have another 19 days to continue the effort.
I am enjoying and learning from these replies! Have to say I was chuckling to myself again about seeing the “drinking straw” headline—I truly did think maybe it was a joke.
Thanks for the warning, Cathy. I knew there had to be disgruntled democrats willing to disparage Kamala. The jealousy and pettiness of some members of the Democratic Party can boo hoo up a stick. These weak links should be publicly named and be recognized for their whining.
That's because outlets like Axios, The Hill, and Politico are basically the National Enquirer. If we could attach pics here, I could show you the outlet trust grid.
I don't know if this works or not, but when my browser pulls up articles from those outlets (and Newsweek is another one), I click on the option to block them without even clicking on the article. I use the misleading headline as my standard.
There are so many opportunities to volunteer for Harris/Walz and all the democrats this year, it's hard to know where to start and how to keep them straight. I've been working with Hopium, Field Team 6 and a local Harris/Walz group. Last night I attended a Zoom put on by Swing Left (swingleft.org). It was one of the best I've seen. Very organized and simple yet filled with facts and actionable ideas. What I liked best was that they will be constantly monitoring what is changing on the ground -- polling, money raised, and voter registrations -- and offering suggestions as to where your time and money is most needed and will be most effective on any given day. Seems like a great strategy. I am in North Carolina and will be concentrating on getting out the vote here and registering democrats and persuading undecideds, but I am very concerned about Jon Tester's senate campaign in Montana. The Swing Left presentation led me to give another $100 to Jon (I am giving way more and to more candidates this election than I ever have before). The Legacy Media is out of touch and has become ridiculous. I will enjoy seeing them flabergasted on November 6th when we win the Presidency in a landslide, taken back the House and keep the Senate. All gas, no brakes!
Thanks Amy. I think it's a good thing that the press is not highlighting the power of democratic grassroots campaigns. Let it be our secret super power. I'm fine with the press elucidating the strength of grassroots efforts after we have finally tossed trump to the side, out of the spotlight and reduced MAGA to a more manageable class.
Ulster County! My home county. Though I now live in Durham, NC, my family is still there. So happy to hear of this enthusiastic engagement. I’m writing postcards for Josh Riley, among others, right now! Go Town of Olive! 💙
Amy, this is wonderful news about your county and what we’ve been hearing throughout the country. It is very energizing. As Robert likes to write, these volunteers and so much of the good news we are seeing and hearing is reason for optimism BUT no reason to be complacent.
I've often wondered how grassroots efforts by "the little guy" could possibly compete with the morbidly wealthy giga-donors.
Then I realized that the grassroots are working with many experts who are advancing towards progress, whereas the wealthy are throwing a ton of good money after bad at fewer groups working towards destruction.
It's been said that change during political crises requires a "movement." Well, Trump gave us the MAGA Movement, maybe it's time to have our own ka-MALA Movement.
And yet the NYT Editorial Board ran a piece several weeks aga (I read it secondhand so I can't quote it), to the effect that DJT was unfit to be president. But now they're leaning heavily on the anti-Harris scale. Talka bout flip-flops. They've become a joke.
Different parts of a newspaper have different staffs. The news staff and the editorial writers belong to independent organizations. One shouldn’t, therefore, expect their (apparent) viewpoints to be identical.
I've noticed that in other rags, too. Maybe the MAGA editors go on vacation once in a while, and the worker-bee reporters can actually report. The Hill (usually quite MAGA-leaning) still does a fair piece once or twice a month.
Thanks. I think I knew that, but didn't think it through. My point stands, though: the Times is thoroughly backing Trump, and they deserve to be called out every time they claim to be "impartial." Thanks again for the reminder. If there are any journalists with integrity left at the NYT, they must be suffering tremendous cognitive dissonance. :D
Right! And let's also notice that (at least in my opinion) the NYT's clean-up effort has Trump answering a question about housing with words that have little or nothing to do with housing. It's like his child-care clean-up (also courtesy of the MAGA media): "My childcare plans? I will put a 10 or 20% tariff on all imported goods!" It seems like they take one or two coherent short phrases from the gibberish he actually spews, and put an equal sign between them. Quite random. But MAGA people swallow it.
Those are spot-on comments about Nate Silver. I used to think he understood more about polling than anyone else, and could accurately express his thoughts. However, with his loss of independence he has lost his objectivity.
With respect to interpreting polling, I recommend that everyone watch Simon Rosenberg's interview with Tom Bonier about his analysis of the surge of new voter registrations since Kamala Harris advanced to the top of the ticket. Spoiler alert: Unless it is a poll of newly registered voters which is rare, new voters are NOT included in typical polls. So the data Tom shares is REALLY encouraging
I'm pretty much a data nerd, but I believe the presentation will be accessible to all the non-nerds out there. The live Zoom was Wednesday evening, but Simon included the recording in yesterday's post found here:
I may be mistaken, but I believe it was in the same interview linked above that I heard Tom Bonier say that there is no good public polling being done in Montana, and that the only polling on the Tester race is being done by Republican funded pollsters.
The Democrats Abroad Zoom/YouTube on 9/5/24 was phenomenal, just like Robert said. There are 2.9 million eligible U.S. voters living abroad, and 75% of them are registered Democrats, compared to 2.9% Republicans. But in 2020, only about 16% of them voted. Talk about Robert's Did Not Vote Party. So take a minute to think of reaching out to any friends, family, or co-workers abroad to make sure they are registered to vote and know the procedure and deadlines. People reported that getting a ballot and returning it is actually easier than it seems. Vote From Abroad and Center for U.S. Voters Abroad have all the information for U.S. citizens to look up for their home state.
JD Vance is a frighteningly disturbed person. His ideas of women, family, and country are devoid of caring. It appears to be almost a robot-like role for him to run for VP. I am deeply saddened that until we address our corrupt courts at the highest levels, we cannot enact meaningful gun legislation. I live in Germany, a country that has a lot of guns right now. It also has reasonable gun legislation. Gun owners are usually registered in hunting or shooting clubs. In fact, in the summer smaller towns and cities tend to have a shooting fair, but I have never actually seen anyone shooting. They have turned more into a fair sponsored by the shooting club, and perhaps the town. So, even if the shooting competition is a big part of it, it is not so big that I have ever seen any shooting and I have been to several Schutzenfests over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%BCtzenfest
However, one has to get a license for each gun. And people under 25 need to undergo a psychological evaluation to get a gun permit. One also has to have 1.1 mil € of personal liability insurance. Here are the other gun laws explained by Deutsche Welle. https://www.dw.com/en/where-does-germany-stand-on-gun-control/a-52450664
Right now the conversation in Germany, based on 2 recent knifings is tightening knife carrying laws. While anyone being harmed by any weapon is serious, it is still apples and grapes as problems. Parents here are not worried that a classmate will knife their children, or that they will be knifed going about their daily business, because knifing is so prevalent that they need to warn their children about it. Here is a list of mass stabbings in Germany over the last 120 years.
In Chicago, I felt compelled to warn my daughter, in our affluent community that if she heard anything that sounded like shooting when she was on her way walking to or from school or to or from a friend's house, that she should drop and roll under a car. Now, no one in Germany is giving their children these instructions. Instead they are still with the "don't talk to strangers."
Here is a list of mass shootings in the USA for the last 10 years.
You see the difference is watermelons and grape seeds. It is crazy. The misinterpretation from a large number of fairly ignorant members of the SCOTUS on interpreting the Second Amendment in line with the NRA, is why the US is at place 132 in the global peace scale, and Germany is #15.
Even better, Iceland is at # 1. What are their gun laws, because they also have a lot of guns like Germany does. You can see in this map they are in a category that is yellow, that means more restrictions than the USA. Also, no personal protection use allowed, no open carry, no concealed carry. Maximum penalty for violating these laws is four years of prison.
So, I am grateful that we have grassroots support for this election, and I am not paying attention to polls. I am paying attention to things like articles that say that Trump is very effective at making Americans believe they will be safer under him, even though that is not backed by statistics. It is hard to overcome these perceptions, just as the perceptions that Republicans create better economies when the opposite is true. These are also the talking points that have been effective in east Germany, that is blaming Immigrants for crime and the economic problems, and we know Russian spies and Bots are active in spreading this disinformation. I hope grassroots action can counter it. It seems to be convincing a lot of Republicans to openly say they will not vote for Trump, and that is a powerful thing in and of itself! Viva la Kamala!
Stephen, that was a conversation I was having with some women the other day. No one can know what goes on between a couple. We are hoping that she will divorce him before too long, but given that he has bragged that his mother-in-law, a professor, took sabbatical to come help them with the children for a year, and this is what older women are good for, I just don't know the complexities. If his wife's mother is like my friend from China, where Yale is considered the epitome of having succeeded, and planned for her daughter to go to Yale. Her daughter did not get into Yale, and I think she has made her peace with her daughter going to another good school. Still, this desire was basically so that her daughter would marry a Yalie. I know some Yalie's that I think are good people, but Yale turns out a lot of not that bright entitled shits too. However, I assume her mother is ambitious for her, and honoring your parents is pretty high on the ladder amongst the Indian friends I have. For example, a couple we know moved to Portugal to have a family. She is American and her husband is naturalized, but he is from India. They are going to have their first child, and his mom and grandmother are coming from India to live with them for an undetermined time (at least we don't know how long), to help with the baby. Since having a baby does require support I think it sounds good, even though there may be some cultural clashes. JDs wife may be caught between 2 worlds. Also, they have a daughter. For now, that daughter is just a baby and may be the apple of her father's eye. But if he spews such misogynist hatred and his daughter goes to an affluent school, which I presume she will, by around middle school she is going to be complaining about his misogyny to both him and her mother. Then he is going to join a long list of MAGAs whose children despise them. See Elon Musk, Ted Cruz, Kellyanne Conway, etc...
I know. My husband works with some people who are from India. The leader of his team, is a woman from India and she was telling me about her experiences growing up as a math and computer science student, and how most men were intimidated to date her. So she did find a progressive enough man, who is also in finite mathematics I believe. I know that they don't have that many women working with them, and I have discussed this among the women. It is hard to be a woman and in physics, maths, etc...
"One also has to have 1.1 mil € of personal liability insurance." That's about how much insurance coverage school districts in my area require of independent artists to perform in their schools. Of course artists need that but not gun owners. 🤬 Actually, that seems like another one of those "common sense" gun laws to enact in this country.
I truly appreciate your highlighting the grassroots efforts and the infectious positivity of those efforts to keep democracy and our country strong. The continued negativity of the press doesn’t help. Why the NYTimes gives Donald a pass when the man talks gibberish beats me. President Biden speaks with a stutter but what he has to say is cogent and well thought out. Thanks for always keeping us abreast of new opportunities for engagement. Taking action is the antidote to despair.
Here in Pennsylvania the volunteers from out-of-state are starting to arrive. I live in a neighborhood with many large homes, and my peers are empty-nesters. I started a spreadsheet of volunteer hosts, and share it with people looking for places to stay. This simple system seems to be working. I've signed up with a few organizations sponsoring drives, but some of the connections have been directly through FB groups like "PA Women for Harris" and "Jewish Women for Harris".
It seems to me that Nate Silver's view of things, and the NYT's willingness to gloss over Trump's obvious mental decline, serves only to keep us working harder. No room for complacency, no leeway for lost votes. Fine with me. That's what I think about the subtle corruption afoot in this country.
Based on the article from the head of the NYT is view of the role of newspapers is not to get involved with politics and not to influence the election which in itself is frightening.
I do read your newsletters from start to finish, but since I was supposed to be asleep hours ago I will comment only on two topics:
Astronomy: I admire your closing photos and tonight's North America Nebula shot is another beautiful image! You could publish a calendar with 12 months of your best shots!?
Voters abroad: About reminding voters abroad to cast their votes, you wrote: "If you know someone living, studying, or visiting abroad, you must reach out to them and urge them to visit www.votefromabroad.org to ensure that they are registered to vote as an American citizen living abroad and have requested their ballots."
I was excited to see that VOTE FORWARD has put out and prioritized a new campaign for letter writing that is targeted towards our voters abroad! I signed up for those because the need is great, and it's not that difficult at all since most of the template is printed already and the writer just needs to add in a sentence or two in their own handwriting as to why it's important to vote. Postage internationally is $1.65 so it IS costlier than doing postcards or the state letters, but it seems to me to be a promising investment in our future.
Applicants will be screened with a few questions and also write 2-3 sentences answering why you personally vote, that they will review and if approved you'll be able to start signing up for campaigns.
Thanks for promoting this. I am a long-time Vote Forward letter writer although this cycle I've been doing more postcards. They did a lab campaign earlier this year (for which I wrote 20 letter) so they must have gotten a good rate of requests for ballots.
If they still have letters available to adopt next week, I will take some. For "send ASAP" campaigns, I don't like to take the names and addresses unless I know I will have the bandwidth to write them within the next several days.
I live in Guanajuato, Mexico, and am partnering with the local Dems Abroad in a Vote Forward campaign. The goal: 1,500 letters to registered Democrats under 35 who live in battleground states and who don’t vote regularly (I started this before VF’s voters-abroad campaign became available). I download and print the letters and an insert and distribute them in batches of 20. Writers return completed packets, along with the cost of stamps. Three toner cartridges and five reams of paper later, 1,320 letters are completed or are in process, with 180 to go!
A friend going to the U.S. at the end of the month will transport and mail them (I’ll order stamps to be delivered to his U.S. address).
Echoing what Robert and many have said already, the Grassroots is the backbone of the Democratic Party, but we are still
fighting for a meaningful seat at the table. Hopefully the party will harness all this free labor in a meaningful and productive way, post the election. It would be a shame to lose this critical workforce and/or not to take advantage of all the specialties and relationships we have developed vis a vis the vaunted Ground Game. As to the NYT- I have a new name for them- The Trump Spin Room. Why bother to suggest otherwise?
I'm in NC and the NCDP has definitely embraced grassroots activism. The Swing Blue Alliance has been phonebanking into Mecklenburg County since last fall and continues to do so to recruit volunteers to canvass each week. There also will be an influx of out-of-state volunteers to canvass here starting later this month.
We also have a massive postcarding effort that is a collaberation between the MCDP and our local Indivisible chapter. The last estimate I saw was ~150K postcards written with some hyper local (to flip a critical NC House seat currently held by Tricia Cothem who flipped from (D) to (R)) and others to residents across the state to promote Council of State races as well as general GOTV.
Hundreds of thousands of N Carolinians are in the military, have even more dependents and are stationed abroad. Can swing the state. https://votevets.org/candidates
Sometimes you slip up. In this case, it appears that there's a real chance that Clarence Thomas is in fact helping DJT by coaching his lawyers, just like that paragon Aileen Cannon. It's all over the news: Robert relates "Judge Chutkan has ordered Jack Smith to disclose evidence by September 10 and submit briefing by September 26. Trump's lawyers howled in protest, claiming that Justice Thomas had “directed” them to move to dismiss the case on the grounds that Jack Smith was not properly appointed. "
Can't blame her. She'd probably have to give up living the high life of yachts, private planes, luxury resorts and other sorts of non-monetary compensation. It'd be tough after the past 3 decades of living it up.
Thank you, Swbv. This is so important. If Clarence speaks casually and tells Trump's lawyers to do something, we the American people cannot permit it! Impeach Clarence now. Please. Reach out to your legislators and raise a stink. Do something.
Somehow reporting exactly what trump says is taking a stand against him? Well, yeah, it would be. But that's trump's problem, not the media's. The media doesn't HAVE to comment ON trump's ravings. All they have to do is tell us what the ravings said. The rest will take care of itself.
Sulzberger has discovered that licking trump's butt involves eyes getting full the the diaper's contents.
Sulzberger and the rest of his ilk don't think that Trump will make them bend over the conference room table if he gets back into the White House. They have another thing coming.
Well, those who believe all the "commie" crap do, I think, fear Democrats. The weird thing is that they don't know WHY they fear "socialism." Russia shows us that what one needs to fear is an ideological leader/spouter with a lust for personal power: Stalin/Putin. Doesn't matter what the ideology is. Yet these same folks are embracing Russia like only "it" can fix it.
I am from Chicago and for 4 years now, hundreds of volunteers have been driving to Milwaukee 5 days a week to register voters at Departments of Motor Vehicles in low income areas and we have registered thousands of voters. This has been just one of the activities sponsored by our local Indivisible. Another hugely successful voter registration program I have been involved with is Rust Belt Rising, check it out at Rustbeltrising.com if you want to learn more.
Oh Robert Hubbell! Thank you for summing up the complicity of the NYT: “.. the Times re-interprets his gibberish into intelligible soundbites and pretends that his statements have meaning when they are utterances designed only to forestall his sentencing to prison.”
I'm watching Morning Joe as I got up wa-a-a-y too early today (and can't even blame my little furgirl today). And they are talking about the incredible double standard the media is extending to the Orange Snake - the Snake that will bite them when he wins. Harris's every statement is analyzed to death, but meandering ridiculous insane "prose" from the Snake is ignored, forgotten, etc. That Economic Club appearance is getting ridiculed, and it's not only his appearance, but the reaction of the Club to it, a club that's supposed to be full of economic experts. Basically, they're saying that those rich, entitled billionaires are looking at what they can get from the Snake that they can't get from Harris or any other sane politician. If the economy tanks under the Snake, it doesn't matter - they're safe. Safe until people figure it out and turn on them.
Hi All,
Echoing what Robert wrote about grassroots groups being the under or non-reported story of this election and frankly the last 8 years of elections…I want to say that the phenomenon of grassroots power goes is even more inspired. Here in Ulster County, NY, we just had 300plus volunteer sign ups last month on our county site. That’s more than we’ve accrued in the past 8 years total! In my town, I can’t keep up with the torrent of volunteers asking to help. I have an avowed canvass hater who is now in our Neighbor to Neighbor voter outreach program and is canvassing his neighborhood. Men are joining our postcard parties, which has been almost unheard of. We are a-buzz in energy and hope and action here in rural, upstate NY. No one knows all this beyond our county boundaries but I bet it’s true everywhere. Busy, unreported heroes of action, determined to do what is needed to save this country.
I always remind our volunteers that we are everywhere, multiplied by thousands. And you’ll never, ever hear it from the press.
Hi Amy,
I am in Charlotte, NC. My county (Mecklenburg) is the epicenter of GOTV since we have the most Dems and historically low Democratic turnout. Fun Fact: Mecklenburg county has more Democrats than the combined count of the 55 NC counties (out of 100 counties in the state) with the fewest Democrats.
The Friday before Labor Day, one of the local Democratic groups put out a call to get volunteers to assemble candidate yard signs and write some candidate postcards. The response was overwhelming - on a Friday evening of a holiday weekend. We have another big event on Saturday, I hope we have a lot of people attend!
Then on Sunday evening, I joined a virtual phone bank to recruit volunteers to canvass tomorrow. (This was a pool of strong Democrats who had attended at least one social event with other Democrats since we started organizing a year ago). There are canvasses in multiple neighborhoods on Saturdays and often on Sunday afternoons, too. I wasn't able to get anyone to sign up for the canvass this weeend, but several people were interested in doing it at a later date and provided their emails -- in fact one young woman asked if there were going to be other opportunities to volunteer even BEFORE I could suggest it. That is unheard of!! Especially since I do not have any magic skills of persuasion ;-)
I also participate in several virtual postcard writing groups each week and we are seeing several new participants each time ever since Kamala Harris became the candidate and some of those participants have become regulars.
FYI, If anyone is interested in jumping on the postcard or phone banking bandwagon, Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles is hosting Thursday night events from 7:30 - 9 pm ET for a joint phonebank and postcard writing party for the House candidates Hopium is supporting.
Last night we had about 350 people on the Zoom. NOTE: You do not need to be a subscriber to Hopium chronicles to participate.
The schedule for the remaining weeks is here:
9/12 - Mondaire Jones (NY-17)
9/19 - Rudy Salas (CA-22)
9/26 - Laura Gillen (NY-04)
10/3 - Adam Gray (CA-13)
10/10 - Sue Altman (NY-07)
10/17 - Tony Vargas (NE-02)
Links to register can be found here: https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/thursday-nights-with-hopium-help
Hi, Cheryl. I am in Harnett County a bastion of MAGA. The good news is that since my new community is very close to the border of Wake County, which is much more purple, there are some pockets of blue. Recently I met a Democratic candidate for Harnett County Commissioner, Kate Reichert. I have volunteered to help with her campaign. Wish us luck!
You guys keep fighting for NC! My favorite vacation place is western NC. Would be nice if it were 💙.
Last night FT 6 sent tens of thousands of texts to nonregistered N. Carolinians. More today. I sent 2100 myself.
Registration deadline for the General Presidential Election on November 5, 2024 is October 11, 2024 (see one-stop early voting info below).
Absentee ballot application deadline for the General Presidential Election is October 29, 2024.
October 17, 2024 through November 2, 2024 at 3pm is the early voting period for the November 5, 2024 General Presidential Election. Check for early voting sites and schedules here.
You can also register and vote at the same time with one-stop early voting (October 17 - November 2 at 3pm). There is no same day registration on Election Day.
If you need help getting an ID, contact VoteRiders.org or call/text 1-844-338-8743.
https://www.mobilize.us/ft6/?show_all_events=true&tag_ids=22573
Cheryl, So appreciate your efforts and those gathered around this push to register voters. My nieces and nephews, who live in the county, are hardcore MAGA, and so I assumed the area was beyond reach. You’ve given me hope. Wish they understood that the benefits they receive from the government, which allow them to sustain their livelihoods, will be threatened if Dems are knocked out. Wondered if there might be a way to reach such folks. Thank you, again!
Cheryl, thank you for sharing.
That’s such great news. I’m delighted to hear that men are joining your postcard parties. I’m trying to get my husband involved but I haven’t been successful yet. This is our democracy and we are determined to save it.
My husband is writing postcards with me — he even goads me into getting them done during football games! I call that a win 🥇
Couch potatoes for Kamala. https://www.fieldteam6.org/fund-the-mission
My 3 1/2 year old granddaughter is helping put stamps and sparkly flag stickers on all my hundreds of letters to potential younger voters, through VOTE FORWARD. She's aware of the election, is an enthusiastic fan of VP Kamala Harris, and we're so happy to have her interest and assistance at her young yet engaged age!
My grands (9, 9 and 7) both stamped postcards and wrote a few of their own. Fantastic!
Wouldn’t it be great for MSM to write about this grassroots phenomenon, as you suggest?
Last night, before I went to bed, I received an Axios breaking news notification: Harris had flip-flopped on her position regarding drinking straws! I truly thought it was a parody. But, no, this morning there was an entire article. Beyond the straws, apparently she has modified her positions on other issues, such as fracking, healthcare ideas, etc., as she has—get this—LEARNED MORE! And to top it all off, some of Biden’s aides don’t like her much. Now THAT’s a cause for concern. Aides who are understandably still hurting and are now not getting the press attention they used to are only too happy to criticize the Democrat nominee they didn’t want. Well, that tells you something about them and something about Axios—neither admirable.
Not only has she learned more, but she's realized that some of her personal positions may not be aligned with the majority of her constituents, who are ALL Americans, and has adjusted accordingly. Fundamentally, I don't think she's changing her views. The Republican nominee, on the other hand, changes his views in mid-sentence or whatever you call the word salad he regularly chomps on.
Also, they are holding her up in comparison to things she said five or more years ago. Why don't they hold Trump up in comparison to things he said this week? For abortion, against abortion, for abortion? Against IVF? Oh, no, going to spend 40 billion dollars of our tax money to give free IVF to everyone that wants it. Heaven only knows what positions Trump held years ago. We should grill him on his position on drinking straws.
He was a DINO until 2008. His Republican takeover began then, presumably in response to the election of one Barack Obama.
Wait! Wait! Bob, has he changed his views or simply rambled through another two hours of mumbling nonsense that The NY Times interprets as new policy? He, TFG, is way over the cliff and, as Robert wrote, The New York Times, wants to claim neutrality as protecting a free press. They have lost ALL credibility just like SCOTUS. My personal hope is that they fall hard after this election and come to their journalistic senses.
Cathy, Axios was bought by Cox several years ago.They donate heavily to GOP.
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/cox-enterprises/summary?id=D000000768
Personally, Cathy, I prefer that we stay under the radar; keep working to GOTV and elect Dems across the ballot. Let the MSM and others be surprised at the results come November 6!
I agree. Let them keep shooting themselves in the foot and counting on a win that doesn't materialize, because we worked our butts off UNDER the radar.
YES, Karla!
I agree. We are the resistance and better off working without the additional problem of corporate media working to undo our efforts.
Agree, Ellen!
I'm in Florida, but I often go to Waynesville. I'd love for NC to turn 🔵. I've adopted 20 "less than consistent" Dem voters by way of Vote Forward. Letters go out Oct. 1.
I'm a firm believer in Vote Forward's nonpartisan/neutral efforts. In my letters, I highlight good jobs, safe schools, health care, democracy, and the environment as my reasons to vote. So far this cycle, I've written 160 letters (and specifically using the USPS Thank you stamps as an added reminder). I still have another 19 days to continue the effort.
I am enjoying and learning from these replies! Have to say I was chuckling to myself again about seeing the “drinking straw” headline—I truly did think maybe it was a joke.
Axios, along with the Daily Best, used to present good information but have now gone over to the dark side. I never read them anymore.
Thanks for the warning, Cathy. I knew there had to be disgruntled democrats willing to disparage Kamala. The jealousy and pettiness of some members of the Democratic Party can boo hoo up a stick. These weak links should be publicly named and be recognized for their whining.
That's because outlets like Axios, The Hill, and Politico are basically the National Enquirer. If we could attach pics here, I could show you the outlet trust grid.
I don't know if this works or not, but when my browser pulls up articles from those outlets (and Newsweek is another one), I click on the option to block them without even clicking on the article. I use the misleading headline as my standard.
There are so many opportunities to volunteer for Harris/Walz and all the democrats this year, it's hard to know where to start and how to keep them straight. I've been working with Hopium, Field Team 6 and a local Harris/Walz group. Last night I attended a Zoom put on by Swing Left (swingleft.org). It was one of the best I've seen. Very organized and simple yet filled with facts and actionable ideas. What I liked best was that they will be constantly monitoring what is changing on the ground -- polling, money raised, and voter registrations -- and offering suggestions as to where your time and money is most needed and will be most effective on any given day. Seems like a great strategy. I am in North Carolina and will be concentrating on getting out the vote here and registering democrats and persuading undecideds, but I am very concerned about Jon Tester's senate campaign in Montana. The Swing Left presentation led me to give another $100 to Jon (I am giving way more and to more candidates this election than I ever have before). The Legacy Media is out of touch and has become ridiculous. I will enjoy seeing them flabergasted on November 6th when we win the Presidency in a landslide, taken back the House and keep the Senate. All gas, no brakes!
Thanks Amy. I think it's a good thing that the press is not highlighting the power of democratic grassroots campaigns. Let it be our secret super power. I'm fine with the press elucidating the strength of grassroots efforts after we have finally tossed trump to the side, out of the spotlight and reduced MAGA to a more manageable class.
Ooh, Lynn, I wrote something similar but I like what you wrote here much better!
Ulster County! My home county. Though I now live in Durham, NC, my family is still there. So happy to hear of this enthusiastic engagement. I’m writing postcards for Josh Riley, among others, right now! Go Town of Olive! 💙
Amy, this is wonderful news about your county and what we’ve been hearing throughout the country. It is very energizing. As Robert likes to write, these volunteers and so much of the good news we are seeing and hearing is reason for optimism BUT no reason to be complacent.
Thanks for sharing.
John
Amy, I think you may know my sister Kate. Olivebridge. I shared with her your post and she reminded me of The Pontiacs. 😉
💙💙💙
I've often wondered how grassroots efforts by "the little guy" could possibly compete with the morbidly wealthy giga-donors.
Then I realized that the grassroots are working with many experts who are advancing towards progress, whereas the wealthy are throwing a ton of good money after bad at fewer groups working towards destruction.
It's been said that change during political crises requires a "movement." Well, Trump gave us the MAGA Movement, maybe it's time to have our own ka-MALA Movement.
Who's with me?
I've wondered the same thing, and thank you for a great explanation.
We already have it. It just needs a good name. How about WWGB? We won’t go back. Just spit balling here. 😑
David! Robert said weeks ago--"it's not a honeymoon, it's a movement!" It surely is.
The NYT cleaned up Trump’s language in their article about housing plans. They said Trump’s housing plan was to “deport undocumented immigrants.”
I ask you, has Donald J. Trump EVER used the term “Undocumented?”
By cleaning up Trump’s language, the NYT is adding unearned points to his IQ.
And yet the NYT Editorial Board ran a piece several weeks aga (I read it secondhand so I can't quote it), to the effect that DJT was unfit to be president. But now they're leaning heavily on the anti-Harris scale. Talka bout flip-flops. They've become a joke.
Different parts of a newspaper have different staffs. The news staff and the editorial writers belong to independent organizations. One shouldn’t, therefore, expect their (apparent) viewpoints to be identical.
I've noticed that in other rags, too. Maybe the MAGA editors go on vacation once in a while, and the worker-bee reporters can actually report. The Hill (usually quite MAGA-leaning) still does a fair piece once or twice a month.
Thanks. I think I knew that, but didn't think it through. My point stands, though: the Times is thoroughly backing Trump, and they deserve to be called out every time they claim to be "impartial." Thanks again for the reminder. If there are any journalists with integrity left at the NYT, they must be suffering tremendous cognitive dissonance. :D
Right! And let's also notice that (at least in my opinion) the NYT's clean-up effort has Trump answering a question about housing with words that have little or nothing to do with housing. It's like his child-care clean-up (also courtesy of the MAGA media): "My childcare plans? I will put a 10 or 20% tariff on all imported goods!" It seems like they take one or two coherent short phrases from the gibberish he actually spews, and put an equal sign between them. Quite random. But MAGA people swallow it.
Christina, it’s beyond comprehension… ironically… since Trump is beyond comprehension… and they gloss over it at every opportunity.
Those are spot-on comments about Nate Silver. I used to think he understood more about polling than anyone else, and could accurately express his thoughts. However, with his loss of independence he has lost his objectivity.
With respect to interpreting polling, I recommend that everyone watch Simon Rosenberg's interview with Tom Bonier about his analysis of the surge of new voter registrations since Kamala Harris advanced to the top of the ticket. Spoiler alert: Unless it is a poll of newly registered voters which is rare, new voters are NOT included in typical polls. So the data Tom shares is REALLY encouraging
I'm pretty much a data nerd, but I believe the presentation will be accessible to all the non-nerds out there. The live Zoom was Wednesday evening, but Simon included the recording in yesterday's post found here:
https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/why-the-data-makes-us-optimistic?r=1aiy5t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I may be mistaken, but I believe it was in the same interview linked above that I heard Tom Bonier say that there is no good public polling being done in Montana, and that the only polling on the Tester race is being done by Republican funded pollsters.
Nate Silver treats polling like poker, in which he is apparently well-versed.
He hasn't been relevant for years.
The Democrats Abroad Zoom/YouTube on 9/5/24 was phenomenal, just like Robert said. There are 2.9 million eligible U.S. voters living abroad, and 75% of them are registered Democrats, compared to 2.9% Republicans. But in 2020, only about 16% of them voted. Talk about Robert's Did Not Vote Party. So take a minute to think of reaching out to any friends, family, or co-workers abroad to make sure they are registered to vote and know the procedure and deadlines. People reported that getting a ballot and returning it is actually easier than it seems. Vote From Abroad and Center for U.S. Voters Abroad have all the information for U.S. citizens to look up for their home state.
https://www.votefromabroad.org/
https://votersabroad.org/
I had no idea there are so many Americans living abroad! And these are people that would never show up in the polls. A secret weapon, indeed!
I've adopted 50. Working on my letters this weekend.
JD Vance is a frighteningly disturbed person. His ideas of women, family, and country are devoid of caring. It appears to be almost a robot-like role for him to run for VP. I am deeply saddened that until we address our corrupt courts at the highest levels, we cannot enact meaningful gun legislation. I live in Germany, a country that has a lot of guns right now. It also has reasonable gun legislation. Gun owners are usually registered in hunting or shooting clubs. In fact, in the summer smaller towns and cities tend to have a shooting fair, but I have never actually seen anyone shooting. They have turned more into a fair sponsored by the shooting club, and perhaps the town. So, even if the shooting competition is a big part of it, it is not so big that I have ever seen any shooting and I have been to several Schutzenfests over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%BCtzenfest
However, one has to get a license for each gun. And people under 25 need to undergo a psychological evaluation to get a gun permit. One also has to have 1.1 mil € of personal liability insurance. Here are the other gun laws explained by Deutsche Welle. https://www.dw.com/en/where-does-germany-stand-on-gun-control/a-52450664
Right now the conversation in Germany, based on 2 recent knifings is tightening knife carrying laws. While anyone being harmed by any weapon is serious, it is still apples and grapes as problems. Parents here are not worried that a classmate will knife their children, or that they will be knifed going about their daily business, because knifing is so prevalent that they need to warn their children about it. Here is a list of mass stabbings in Germany over the last 120 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_stabbings_in_Germany
In Chicago, I felt compelled to warn my daughter, in our affluent community that if she heard anything that sounded like shooting when she was on her way walking to or from school or to or from a friend's house, that she should drop and roll under a car. Now, no one in Germany is giving their children these instructions. Instead they are still with the "don't talk to strangers."
Here is a list of mass shootings in the USA for the last 10 years.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2021/may/27/us-mass-shootings-database
You see the difference is watermelons and grape seeds. It is crazy. The misinterpretation from a large number of fairly ignorant members of the SCOTUS on interpreting the Second Amendment in line with the NRA, is why the US is at place 132 in the global peace scale, and Germany is #15.
See page 9.
https://www.economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GPI-2024-web.pdf
Even better, Iceland is at # 1. What are their gun laws, because they also have a lot of guns like Germany does. You can see in this map they are in a category that is yellow, that means more restrictions than the USA. Also, no personal protection use allowed, no open carry, no concealed carry. Maximum penalty for violating these laws is four years of prison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_gun_laws_by_nation
So, I am grateful that we have grassroots support for this election, and I am not paying attention to polls. I am paying attention to things like articles that say that Trump is very effective at making Americans believe they will be safer under him, even though that is not backed by statistics. It is hard to overcome these perceptions, just as the perceptions that Republicans create better economies when the opposite is true. These are also the talking points that have been effective in east Germany, that is blaming Immigrants for crime and the economic problems, and we know Russian spies and Bots are active in spreading this disinformation. I hope grassroots action can counter it. It seems to be convincing a lot of Republicans to openly say they will not vote for Trump, and that is a powerful thing in and of itself! Viva la Kamala!
I agree with you but how does his smart intelligent wife reconcile his beliefs in their marriage.
Stephen, that was a conversation I was having with some women the other day. No one can know what goes on between a couple. We are hoping that she will divorce him before too long, but given that he has bragged that his mother-in-law, a professor, took sabbatical to come help them with the children for a year, and this is what older women are good for, I just don't know the complexities. If his wife's mother is like my friend from China, where Yale is considered the epitome of having succeeded, and planned for her daughter to go to Yale. Her daughter did not get into Yale, and I think she has made her peace with her daughter going to another good school. Still, this desire was basically so that her daughter would marry a Yalie. I know some Yalie's that I think are good people, but Yale turns out a lot of not that bright entitled shits too. However, I assume her mother is ambitious for her, and honoring your parents is pretty high on the ladder amongst the Indian friends I have. For example, a couple we know moved to Portugal to have a family. She is American and her husband is naturalized, but he is from India. They are going to have their first child, and his mom and grandmother are coming from India to live with them for an undetermined time (at least we don't know how long), to help with the baby. Since having a baby does require support I think it sounds good, even though there may be some cultural clashes. JDs wife may be caught between 2 worlds. Also, they have a daughter. For now, that daughter is just a baby and may be the apple of her father's eye. But if he spews such misogynist hatred and his daughter goes to an affluent school, which I presume she will, by around middle school she is going to be complaining about his misogyny to both him and her mother. Then he is going to join a long list of MAGAs whose children despise them. See Elon Musk, Ted Cruz, Kellyanne Conway, etc...
However, I found a couple of articles about his wife. Looks like she is putting her career aside for his. This is not uncommon for people with small children. They have 3 and may have more. It sounds like she is by his side for this, but his beliefs are going to come out in a big way, and we will see if she can continue to be in step with him. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13636675/Who-JD-Vances-wife-Usha-Meet-mother-three-Donald-Trumps-vice-presidential-pick.html
... and honoring your parents is pretty high on the ladder amongst the Indian friends I have.
⬆️
The same with me.
India is very patriarchial even amongst highly-educated immigrant families.
I know. My husband works with some people who are from India. The leader of his team, is a woman from India and she was telling me about her experiences growing up as a math and computer science student, and how most men were intimidated to date her. So she did find a progressive enough man, who is also in finite mathematics I believe. I know that they don't have that many women working with them, and I have discussed this among the women. It is hard to be a woman and in physics, maths, etc...
Why people think that these women haven't signed up for this is beyond me. She knew what she was getting into and clearly believes it as well.
"One also has to have 1.1 mil € of personal liability insurance." That's about how much insurance coverage school districts in my area require of independent artists to perform in their schools. Of course artists need that but not gun owners. 🤬 Actually, that seems like another one of those "common sense" gun laws to enact in this country.
I truly appreciate your highlighting the grassroots efforts and the infectious positivity of those efforts to keep democracy and our country strong. The continued negativity of the press doesn’t help. Why the NYTimes gives Donald a pass when the man talks gibberish beats me. President Biden speaks with a stutter but what he has to say is cogent and well thought out. Thanks for always keeping us abreast of new opportunities for engagement. Taking action is the antidote to despair.
Here in Pennsylvania the volunteers from out-of-state are starting to arrive. I live in a neighborhood with many large homes, and my peers are empty-nesters. I started a spreadsheet of volunteer hosts, and share it with people looking for places to stay. This simple system seems to be working. I've signed up with a few organizations sponsoring drives, but some of the connections have been directly through FB groups like "PA Women for Harris" and "Jewish Women for Harris".
It's an easy thing to do!
Brilliant idea! And generous folks to share their homes!
It seems to me that Nate Silver's view of things, and the NYT's willingness to gloss over Trump's obvious mental decline, serves only to keep us working harder. No room for complacency, no leeway for lost votes. Fine with me. That's what I think about the subtle corruption afoot in this country.
Based on the article from the head of the NYT is view of the role of newspapers is not to get involved with politics and not to influence the election which in itself is frightening.
The BIG NEWS is the Truth Social financial collapse. Will the orange antichrist be the first presidential candidate to declare bankruptcy? https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/03/djt-trump-media-stock-low.html
Ok, but as a presidential candidate he already has six bankruptcies under his belt.
Bankruptcy is not part of his vocabulary although he is very familiar with the concept.
I do read your newsletters from start to finish, but since I was supposed to be asleep hours ago I will comment only on two topics:
Astronomy: I admire your closing photos and tonight's North America Nebula shot is another beautiful image! You could publish a calendar with 12 months of your best shots!?
Voters abroad: About reminding voters abroad to cast their votes, you wrote: "If you know someone living, studying, or visiting abroad, you must reach out to them and urge them to visit www.votefromabroad.org to ensure that they are registered to vote as an American citizen living abroad and have requested their ballots."
I was excited to see that VOTE FORWARD has put out and prioritized a new campaign for letter writing that is targeted towards our voters abroad! I signed up for those because the need is great, and it's not that difficult at all since most of the template is printed already and the writer just needs to add in a sentence or two in their own handwriting as to why it's important to vote. Postage internationally is $1.65 so it IS costlier than doing postcards or the state letters, but it seems to me to be a promising investment in our future.
The link to check them out is https://votefwd.org/instructions, or just https://votefwd.org/
Applicants will be screened with a few questions and also write 2-3 sentences answering why you personally vote, that they will review and if approved you'll be able to start signing up for campaigns.
Thanks for promoting this. I am a long-time Vote Forward letter writer although this cycle I've been doing more postcards. They did a lab campaign earlier this year (for which I wrote 20 letter) so they must have gotten a good rate of requests for ballots.
If they still have letters available to adopt next week, I will take some. For "send ASAP" campaigns, I don't like to take the names and addresses unless I know I will have the bandwidth to write them within the next several days.
The new campaign for "New Voters in Pennsylvania" is already "sold out"!
I live in Guanajuato, Mexico, and am partnering with the local Dems Abroad in a Vote Forward campaign. The goal: 1,500 letters to registered Democrats under 35 who live in battleground states and who don’t vote regularly (I started this before VF’s voters-abroad campaign became available). I download and print the letters and an insert and distribute them in batches of 20. Writers return completed packets, along with the cost of stamps. Three toner cartridges and five reams of paper later, 1,320 letters are completed or are in process, with 180 to go!
A friend going to the U.S. at the end of the month will transport and mail them (I’ll order stamps to be delivered to his U.S. address).
Echoing what Robert and many have said already, the Grassroots is the backbone of the Democratic Party, but we are still
fighting for a meaningful seat at the table. Hopefully the party will harness all this free labor in a meaningful and productive way, post the election. It would be a shame to lose this critical workforce and/or not to take advantage of all the specialties and relationships we have developed vis a vis the vaunted Ground Game. As to the NYT- I have a new name for them- The Trump Spin Room. Why bother to suggest otherwise?
Hi Susan,
I'm in NC and the NCDP has definitely embraced grassroots activism. The Swing Blue Alliance has been phonebanking into Mecklenburg County since last fall and continues to do so to recruit volunteers to canvass each week. There also will be an influx of out-of-state volunteers to canvass here starting later this month.
We also have a massive postcarding effort that is a collaberation between the MCDP and our local Indivisible chapter. The last estimate I saw was ~150K postcards written with some hyper local (to flip a critical NC House seat currently held by Tricia Cothem who flipped from (D) to (R)) and others to residents across the state to promote Council of State races as well as general GOTV.
See what I said about FT 6 above.
Hundreds of thousands of N Carolinians are in the military, have even more dependents and are stationed abroad. Can swing the state. https://votevets.org/candidates
Jeff Jackson -- no sucker or loser.
With respect to the childcare answer, Biden's stutter won't get worse. Trump's dementia certainly will.
Sometimes you slip up. In this case, it appears that there's a real chance that Clarence Thomas is in fact helping DJT by coaching his lawyers, just like that paragon Aileen Cannon. It's all over the news: Robert relates "Judge Chutkan has ordered Jack Smith to disclose evidence by September 10 and submit briefing by September 26. Trump's lawyers howled in protest, claiming that Justice Thomas had “directed” them to move to dismiss the case on the grounds that Jack Smith was not properly appointed. "
Speaking of Clarence Thomas…
“Ginni Thomas Privately Praised Group Working Against Supreme Court Reform: “Thank You So, So, So Much”
https://www.propublica.org/article/ginni-thomas-email-scotus-ethics-reform-first-liberty-institute
Can't blame her. She'd probably have to give up living the high life of yachts, private planes, luxury resorts and other sorts of non-monetary compensation. It'd be tough after the past 3 decades of living it up.
Thank you, Swbv. This is so important. If Clarence speaks casually and tells Trump's lawyers to do something, we the American people cannot permit it! Impeach Clarence now. Please. Reach out to your legislators and raise a stink. Do something.
Somehow reporting exactly what trump says is taking a stand against him? Well, yeah, it would be. But that's trump's problem, not the media's. The media doesn't HAVE to comment ON trump's ravings. All they have to do is tell us what the ravings said. The rest will take care of itself.
Sulzberger has discovered that licking trump's butt involves eyes getting full the the diaper's contents.
eeewww. Gross but so accurate!
Sulzberger and the rest of his ilk don't think that Trump will make them bend over the conference room table if he gets back into the White House. They have another thing coming.
I doubt that anyone *fears* Democrats. It is not unreasonable to fear Republicans. That could warp journalists’ reporting (‘must be careful …).
Well, those who believe all the "commie" crap do, I think, fear Democrats. The weird thing is that they don't know WHY they fear "socialism." Russia shows us that what one needs to fear is an ideological leader/spouter with a lust for personal power: Stalin/Putin. Doesn't matter what the ideology is. Yet these same folks are embracing Russia like only "it" can fix it.
I am from Chicago and for 4 years now, hundreds of volunteers have been driving to Milwaukee 5 days a week to register voters at Departments of Motor Vehicles in low income areas and we have registered thousands of voters. This has been just one of the activities sponsored by our local Indivisible. Another hugely successful voter registration program I have been involved with is Rust Belt Rising, check it out at Rustbeltrising.com if you want to learn more.
Bless you, Chicago friends.
Oh Robert Hubbell! Thank you for summing up the complicity of the NYT: “.. the Times re-interprets his gibberish into intelligible soundbites and pretends that his statements have meaning when they are utterances designed only to forestall his sentencing to prison.”
I'm watching Morning Joe as I got up wa-a-a-y too early today (and can't even blame my little furgirl today). And they are talking about the incredible double standard the media is extending to the Orange Snake - the Snake that will bite them when he wins. Harris's every statement is analyzed to death, but meandering ridiculous insane "prose" from the Snake is ignored, forgotten, etc. That Economic Club appearance is getting ridiculed, and it's not only his appearance, but the reaction of the Club to it, a club that's supposed to be full of economic experts. Basically, they're saying that those rich, entitled billionaires are looking at what they can get from the Snake that they can't get from Harris or any other sane politician. If the economy tanks under the Snake, it doesn't matter - they're safe. Safe until people figure it out and turn on them.