As we attend to other distressing events in this world, let us also remember the critical election coming up in Virginia on November 7. As Ari Berman writes in Mother Jones, "If Republicans win a majority in the upcoming legislative elections, abortion and voting rights are in peril. And that's just the start." The issues on the line affect all of us--which ones do you relate to?
- Abortion rights
- Voting suppression
- Transgender rights
- Public schooling vs. vouchers, curriculum control, book bans, teacher shortages
- Corporate tax cuts
- Clean air and water
- Gun violence
- Childcare
- Broadband access
- Housing, evictions
Plus, Virginia state legislature Republicans' performance will affect Gov. Glenn Youngkin's decision about running for President, and we do not want his national profile elevated for a possible VP or cabinet position to further promote his toxic, repressive agenda of the far right. As Berman quotes The States Project Co-Founder Daniel Squadron, "Virginia is a moderate state on the knife's edge of an extreme agenda."
The States Project Giving Circles fundraising deadline for distributing our precious dollars to the progressive Virginia candidates' campaigns is next week: November 3.
Please help this big push with a donation to the Tending to Democracy Giving Circle, and get your family and friends to join you. Thank you.
I have been letter writing with a sense of urgency. And as a Mainer, I agree with Robert: where was Jarrod Golden’s resolve earlier. Was’nt Sandy Hook, Uvalde enough !
I respect Golden for admitting that he was wrong. Not a lot of politicians do. And his prior stance reflected his constituents in a very conservative district.
Of course they should have been enough. I share your rage. But, when a politician has enough courage and character to publicly admit complicity in a misguided policy and...change his position, he gets my enthusiastic applause. Keep in mind that if he had said these things in the past, he never would have been elected. It's complicated. It shouldn't be, but it is.
As a former Mainer who worked in "L-A" I am still grappling with the grief. The people I worked with are wonderful and had a classic work ethic that I so admired. Still tearing up as I read about the victims.
After sending many postcards, I have phone banked a couple of times for VA Dems this past week (I have recruited at least one poll observer) and have more times scheduled next week. The Republicans control every single local electoral board and are making it difficult to people to access the ballot box. Please, please, please, everyone, do what you can to help Virginia.
I just read the Mother Jones article and see that my candidate, Rob Banse, is featured. I am in his District 30 and have been supporting his candidacy directly for several months now, along with giving to Grapevine. After reading this article, I am now more than ever anxious to have Banse win; so, too, my senate candidate, Russet Perry.
VA also needs help to cure rejected absentee ballots. 2/3 of the current rejected ballots are Dems and several of the races will come down to only a few votes. Even if you hate phone banking, this is very rewarding as you are contacting Dems who have voted and WANT their votes counted!
The goal of ballot curing is to connect with Virginia voters whose absentee ballots were not counted due to an issue. Volunteers will speak to voters, inform them of the status of their ballots, understand what they know, and guide them to finalize or cure their ballot. If you sign up for a shift, you will be trained in this process.
Out of state:
Ballot Cure Phonebanks: Help voters ensure their vote is counted! Absentee ballot voters who mistakenly omit information on their ballot have to provide additional information to their registrar to ensure their vote is counted. Every phonebank starts with a training.
In state:
Ballot Cure Canvasses: For people in Virginia or within driving distance. The team will be launching canvasses to help voters “cure” missing information on their absentee ballot returns and ensure their vote is counted!
I did a shift today and very rewarding .As Cynthia said, Dems WANT their votes counted ! Great training and ongoing assistance is provided during the phonebank.
"Rep. Golden’s change of heart would have been so much better if it did not take the deaths of his constituents, his neighbors, and (possibly) his friends to convince him to change his mind. Were the deaths of schoolchildren at Sandy Hook not enough? Or the killings at the Tree of Life Synagogue? Were those deaths an abstraction because they were in different congressional districts?"
A problem is never a problem to a conservative till it happens in their backyard and/or to someone they know personally.
Re Dean Phillips vanity campaign: just like vanity campaigner Howard Schultz back in 2020, he managed to snag the best Vanity Campaign Manager in America - Steve Schmidt. Schmidt announced it at 6am this morning on his Vanity Substack, and by 8 o'clock tonight (Pacific time), he's lost 90% of his subscribers. And I wasn't the only one who left him a "smack in the face" nastygram on the way out the door.
It is so unfortunate that political leaders need to lead by following their constituents. My guess is that Rep Golden's change of position is because his constituents changed theirs.
The deaths in far away places did not matter enough. It is the same with politicians who change their positions on LBGTQ and forced birth when they learn it is a real issue for someone in their family.
I’m one of those who left him. But please tell me how you know it was 90% of his subscribers. I’m happy to hear that but would love to know what source you used. Thanks.
I kind of hope so, TC. He was a single issue guy against everything R, until yesterday. Seems to have lost it, but he won't see it that way.
It made me feel completely betrayed for all of our sakes, then very angry. There was a foreshadowing a few weeks (many days?) ago, when he penned a long post and video about Biden's age.
Still, I feel like he jumped ship without a preserver....
I didn't know this! I was just talking to someone about Steve Schmidt, and I expressed some reservations about him (he brought us Sarah Palin after all!). They were surprised and thought Schmidt spoke so eloquently and in a way that Dems should talk. That guy, grrrrrr!
I can't believe this of Steve. Incomprehensible. Wasn't he a Lincoln Project founder? What is he thinking? I have admired him for years since he came to what I thought were his senses. Damn!
I've watched some of his videos. He's an odd mix of ex-Repub. who is now a registered Dem, but he throughly dislikes Pres. Biden and denigrates him on air. Why?
The Repub .presidents; early 1900's Teddy Roosevelt, and 1950's Eisenhower, were remarkable, but no Repub. Pres. has faced what Biden has had to deal with, AND Biden has dealt with it.
We cannot let Repubs. rule, to drive the country into the ground while tons of money goes to the richest. I'm sick of it. If I could I'd run for office, but I physically can't. I'll continue letters, and giving $ as I can afford, and hope it makes a difference.
Thank you for this comment, Tom. About a month ago I unsubscribed from Steve because his ego seems to be growing ever larger with each passing day. When he interviewed Phillips a month or so ago, trying to introduce him to us, I had a gut feeling that this was coming down the pike. I subscribed to Rick Wilson after tossing Steve. (Then Steve went and increased his subscription fees, which really made people irate when they found out about this. Someone I know personally told me that she paid $100 for a one year subscription and is demanding her money back. It’s like he wanted to get every last penny out of everyone knowing that he was going to have a drop in subscribers.) I did not know that Wilson had a Substack newsletter until recently. If you haven’t already gone over there, I suggest you try it out because he is an excellent writer. Wilson is going to be doing his very best to make the Phillips campaign the briefest one in American history, and Wilson is an attack dog as you know. Steve, after spending two years preaching incessantly about the dangers to our democracy, suddenly decides to choose money over common sense. He can take his Substack and shove it. I hope he and Phillips are deeply embarrassed by this, and that it negatively affects their careers, because that is what they deserve. Done ranting now. 😊✌️
My Gosh! Isn’t Steve Schmidt the author of “The Warning?! Sure, I checked and he is.
How then, with our country’s long history of failed third party efforts can he jump at the opportunities to be campaign manager for Dean Phillips? His doing so reflects for me yet another sign of how mentally we as a collective are somehow failing to be rationale.
Is it ego or blind ambition? Is it the belief that “this time will be different.”
Here is what I know. In 2016 Jill Stein clearly made a difference in the election results per the Electoral College. While there are some accounts that suggest some debate about this, we can recognize Jill Stein did not win and took both Democrat and Independent voters in doing so. This is just one very early 2016 source. There are surely more updated reports but I am content to recognize third party candidates are not a source that helps messaging in 2024 and did not do so in 2016.
Here’s what I do wish Biden and Dems would do. I want them to publicly call out the press for doling out headlines that undermine what the admin has been doing. I want them to use a whiteboard or use a tv screen that shows these posts and then strongly shoot them down. We are at a crossroads here and abroad and I feel you gotta fight fire with fire.
About Robert Card, the Lewiston mass murderer: I am sorry he and ones he killed lived,in a state that has no laws about guns. I am not sorry he decided to take his own life but I am sorry his state government and our federal government failed him and many others. Having a person stay in a mental facility for only 2 weeks after he said he was hearing voices, is criminal! Folks, we’ve got a lot of work to do!
Maine is a poster child for what is wrong in this country. Maine has lax gun laws because of a strong Republican local and federal government positions and Senator Collins has been a gun advocate. Limited resources to adequately support badly need mental services with easy gun access and you have mass shooters in your state.
I think they felt this would never happen there because the crime rate is relatively low in Maine, and the actual number of gun deaths over an entire year was equal to or less than the number of people killed/injured the other day. The problem is that you can’t ever assume that your community is immune from gun violence. There are mentally ill people everywhere, and one never knows when one of them is going to fall off a cliff and do this kind of damage.
Yes, I know. But often people who live in safe places think this kind of thing can’t happen to them. And Maine has lax gun laws. Yet even in Cali where there are strict gun laws, there are mass shootings. It only takes one unstable person with access to a gun to destroy a community.
And I have to admit the one thing Susan Collins said that I agree with is that Maine does have a "yellow flag" law, but it was not, in this case, used--WTF??? If ever there was a clearer case for it to be used, I can't think of one. Somebody somewhere screwed up royally.
It is certainly true that our mental health services in the the state are scant--especially in rural areas--over-stretched and in tatters. Unless you have good insurance, it is difficult and expensive to get mental health care.
My first question was how did the question of access to guns not be asked and investigated? In addition, people are not going into the serving others professions right now. Teachers, social workers, psychologists, law enforcement, counselors. and local and state politicians are in short supply at the universities and applicants for jobs.
One of the reasons Americans are so dissatisfied is that most of them don't understand economics. The economy is doing well, but we are all victims of price gouging software. See Matt Stoller's Substack article on price gouging.
There was some protective effect during covid that seems to be over, and the ability for industries to squeeze every last dollar out of people, is making their wages seem less effective. So, it is time that more people complained about the price gouging software. More and more technology is shaping our lives and people need to be more aware of it. The mainstream media is not helping because their slant on news is pro-Republican anti-Democrats.
Thank you for providing a link to that article, Linda. It's outrageous for businesses to keep the cost of goods inflated with "price gouging software." I hope more of the media starts to write about that dynamic. I'm sure the majority of Americans are beyond sick and tired of being fleeced by rich corporations.
Sure. I agree that it is outrageous, and I feel that more people should know about it. I had read the ProPublica article on the algorithm for price gouging in the rental market. I am finding Matt Stoller is opening my eyes to what is going on with anti-trust and now that we have a president who is trying to take that on, it is still frustrating, but there seems to be some movement. Another person who is taking on some topics that might be interesting to Americans as far as this goes, started as "The Black Forest Family," https://www.blackforestfamily.com/ and has now morphed to "Type Ashton."
Unable to get a job in her field in Freiburg where she and her husband bought a house, and where her husband has been working for a while, Ashton is using the research skills honed during her PhD work to doing comparisons of things in the USA to European countries, mainly Germany. She has gotten her PhD in Germany in Low Income Housing, where she compared the USA and Germany. Since those are the two countries I live in, I find what she says is interesting for many reasons, but one of them is that the set up in Germany privileges the renter over the home owner, which is one of the reasons so many are.
Still, as you see, Germany is also victim of the price gouging in the fuel for the cars. Since the German car industry is so important to the economy, it still drives so many decisions here.
more and more corporations are becoming monopolies which contribute to the uniform price gouging on similar products. We need a new Teddy Roosevelt to fight this tendency to monopolize markets.
Thank you, Linda, for that excellent reference! It clearly illustrates how much of what we experience as "inflation" is a direct result of corporate greed; witness the string of record profits and executive bonuses.
Robert Reich has been telling us about this for some time now. And price-fixing software (algorithms) are contributing heavily. A quote from the Substance blog you cited:
"Of course, the use of software to optimize pricing isn’t always, or even often, illegal. Comparing your rival’s public price to your own price is a perfectly reasonable and time-tested strategy, and that’s not any different in the era of big data. However, using software to privately collude with rivals on pricing or output, to allocate markets or set floors or ceilings on prices, is within the orbit of what antitrust laws are designed to address. And that’s for good reason - software-enabled price fixing is likely responsible for higher prices everywhere from the gas pump to the grocery store."
I think you're absolutely right, Linda, that most of us don't understand economics. Our collective eyes glaze over as we try to make sense of it. I believe another factor is that the economy is extremely complicated, and the effects of certain factors are not felt for a long time, during which, other factors subsume or overshadow them.
The Fed's attempts to rein in inflation, driven largely by supply shortages and increasing demand, led to high interest rates for long term loans that make things less affordable for a longer period of time. Chip shortages drove up the costs of many items (most visibly, automobiles), and inflation and strong profits in the auto industry has led to a resurgence of union demands to compensate their members for their sacrifices to keep the industry solvent in the prior decade or so. Similarly, housing material shortages and reduced demand led to housing shortages that are now driving prices up while interest rates are compounding the affordability challenge.
Another thing to consider is that the wealth gap has widened since the Republican tax cuts for the wealthy took effect. The wealthy will not likely give those gains back, and will build cost increases in to the goods and services they purvey to sustain their status. Stockholders are relatively powerless at this point to claw back some of the excessive packages granted to executives, and any changes that may result from shareholder revolts will likely take many years to be felt.
Somehow, we need to find a way to reframe the economic picture, perhaps by setting visible and meaningful targets, achieving or exceeding them, and then shouting from the rooftops.
I do think Jared Golden is an interesting case. On HCR's post last night I commented my frustration with his tardy change of heart, only after the violent deaths of 18 of his constituents. I was politely reminded that he is a Democrat representing a conservative district. So, I have some understanding of his desire to represent the beliefs of his district. There also seems to be a suspicion that he's not planning to run for reelection. Which I think makes this turnaround more cowardly. Yes, let's graciously welcome him. But as I said on HCR, anybody who doesn't understand why gun violence has exploded over the past 20+ years, has purposely closed their eyes to the pain and suffering of their neighbors, while holding their hand out to accept money from NRA. Inexcusable.
When he said "in the days I have left in Congress" or something to that effect, I did wonder if he either wasn't planning to run again or expected to lose reelection.
Heather Cox Richardson's "Letter to an American" this evening, reported on the amazing job Biden Admin. is doing on the economic front, "stunning jobs report" as well as on target economic growth rate.....but the sad lack of comprehension of this, by many Americans, and their perception that they were better off with Trump. YIKES. . ..How can we elevate the TRUTH? I think creative marketing/advertising is needed and the campaign needs to start now.
Because regular people are still paying too much for basic needs: housing, food, fuel, etc. And I cannot imagine what the poor are going through. On the news yesterday I heard some numbers indicating that food insecurity has increased by a lot in the last year or so. So many children do not have food, and parents are struggling between paying rent (exorbitant here in LA) and providing food for their families. And now it is getting cold, so the cost of heating their homes is about to become a problem. Unemployment numbers do not tell all, though they are good news!
I am on Team Biden. Though he wasn't my first pick when there was a large Democratic field, I think he is doing a great job. But you're right. Some basics are still expensive. Food went up and didn't come down. Every trip to the grocery store reminds me of that. My home is paid for now, but our adult son lives with us for several reasons, a main one being exorbitant rents.
I find it terribly naive that the President doesn't know more about this discrepancy between what he says and the reality of what's happening on Main Street. There's another comment to today's short newsletter from someone who has learned about price gouging, which it says is being deliberately done to keep prices high. That is the kind of thing that should be looked into SOON, because many people, including Democrats, are feeling the pinch economically! It's the economy, Baby!
I don't conclude that he doesn't know. In fact, I think he's quite aware of the amount of price gouging that goes on just because corporations can, and he doesn't especially like it. (For instance, he's gone after the vague, fluff charges that inflate everything from airline seats to concert tickets to hotel rooms. That's just price gouging.) He can't singlehandedly control it, but he doesn't like it. Even some of the housing prices date back to the economic collapse of 2008, when people lost their homes and a LOT of them were bought by corporations for rentals and were not available to other families to buy, contributing to housing shortages and keeping people in rentals where pricing was artificially controlled by corporations.
This is because the Republicans insisted on slashing the child tax credit. Child poverty was greatly reduced when Biden introduced that, and then shot up again after people like Manchin, Sinema, and almost all Republicans would not vote for it.
Elisa, this is an excellent question. There is, in my view, some urgency to answering. Certainly we are not the president or part of his and the Democratic Party’s team.
BUT, I think we need to create or find ways to amplify the message that Heather Cox-Richardson has so consistently done. Let’s keep this topic going and attempt to identify ways we can do more to get our voice heard regarding the great job the Biden administration has done on any number of fronts.
Thanks for raising this very important question. The clock is ticking and we, as Joyce Vance, states “are in this together.”
You know Elisa, I can’t say whether the Democratic Party is or is not doing its part. If I believe in President Biden and recognize all that he has done to advance our country then I have to think he and his party members/team are aware and are doing their part. All I (we) can do is stay engaged and do what we can.
To that end, it seems like our goal needs to be to get the Biden team message out to our communities, to find our voice in these difficult times and play our role since the stakes are just too high. As others have said, democracy requires our participation. For me, it is too urgent. We must all give it our best and hope the Democratic Party and Biden Team in D.C. are doing theirs.
I don't think it's the Biden team. It's the media that revels in negativity. And not just Fox news. It's MSNBC and CNN too. WE get all day talking heads babbling about the same bad news. It's overwhelming. We never hear about all the people and organizations across the country doing positive things in their communities and fighting against MAGAtization of our country.
Trump might have been able to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours as he so grossly boasted, but the only way that would have happened is if he agreed to cease Western support and let his friend Putin have his way. Ukraine would have effectively rejoined the Soviet Union and our friends in the Baltic States would have been quaking in their boots. Let's be grateful once again that we have Biden and not Trump in Washington.
Thank you very much, Robert, for throwing yet another bucket of cold water over the non-stop incendiary rhetoric racing through the media. I hope despite the work you needed to do up north to keep the pipes from freezing in your Sequoia community, you were able to inhale the peace and quiet that the pine covered mountains so generously provide. (Just writing that reminded me of listening to the lovely silence in the woods, interrupted only by an occasional bird call.) Have a good weekend!
It occurs to me that, once again, the off-year polls are more a chance for the common person to vent and grumble, than an indication of how things will go in November, 2024. Many of us, myself included, are more angry at the financial establishment than at Joe Biden. Jerome Powell and Jamie Dimon are not going to be on the ballot next year. Trump probably will be though, and he is a perfect surrogate for the Big Dogs of Wall Street-in addition to all his legal transgressions.
A very important quote, from Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx)--he is gay and a Millennial and represents the district next to AOC-- from the latest "Today Is Friday And Why That's Bad News For Joe Biden" article from the New York Times, the one many readers are probably referencing to decide that Biden is losing support among Democrats:
Also the Universities should use the protests as a "teachable moment" as they say. Show the students the history of the region. The many times on both sides when someone walked away from a possible peace. And yes Israeli policy has caused much suffering of the Palestinian people but Hamas is not a resistance movement. It is a terrorist organization whose stated mission is the eradication of Israel. Hamas bears some responsibility for the deaths in Gaza. They perpetrated a heinous barbaric slaughter of Israeli citizens. They knew the response would have to be massive. They invited that. They sacrificed their people for their own aggrandizement. I hope the Palestinian people can recognize that.
I think it took a mass shooting in Golden’s district (even another district, but in Maine) to drive home how bad such a thing is and for him therefore to feel it; see it. I feel in my community of gun-toters, it’s what it will take, lugubriously. All I can hope for is when it does, it doesn’t involve my wife, daughter or close friends. Ditto in the other places the rest of my family is. If fact, no one, but it’s what it will take, sadly. Meanwhile, I have already contacted Republican Senators Rubio and Scott and my County Commissioners (4 to 1 Republican) and County Attorney. Florida has preempted local government to enact gun control and must abide by whatever the State puts into Law. That’s Matt Gaetz-DeSantis open carry, no license, shoot-em up Wild, Wild Western style here in sunny but gloomy Florida.
We only have two Congressional Districts. Southern Maine is immensely more populated than the rest of the state, so Chellie Pingree is the Representative for CD1 and Jared Golden has most of the rest of the state north, west and east of Augusta. His district, CD2, is huge and extremely rural, thus most of his constituents are conservative, to put it mildly. We are all very thankful that we use RCV and were able to kick the former sleazy Rep (Bruce Poliquin) to the curb.
I’m concerned about the Florida Legislature’s proposed hunting/fishing amendment that would preserve the right to hunt and fish, including by the use of “traditional” methods.
In Florida, it is legal to hunt or fish while openly carrying a firearm, including an AR—15. Perhaps the Legislature wants to preserve this “traditional” method of hunting and fishing.
We already know some legislators want to lower the age to own an assault rifle to 18. Perhaps HB 1543 was an effort to preserve a Florida “traditional” method for a younger generation of voters.
Floridans, contact your legislators ! 📞Write Letters to Ed✍️ Let others know 🗣️what is happening in the “ sunshine” state….before it’s too late.
First of all, Robert, thank you for the opportunity to share thoughts and opinions regarding recent events. I’d like to say the following:
Biden is doing fine -great, in fact.
I have no faith in “polls” because, guess what? We’re sick to death of them and ignore answering them. But you better believe we will show up at the voting booth in November 2024 to vote for this man. I don’t care how old he is. He’s done a terrific job! As for the other buffoon, “adios, mofo”- (inside joke for Texans).
I'm new here; thank goodness I found Mr. Hubbell and all of you. In Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter this morning she praises Phil Williams' "meticulous work" in Nashville. If you don't already follow him (I do on Threads), he's a ray of sunshine who makes good stuff happen!
Robbie: I can also highly recommend the Substacks of Joyce Vance and Robert Reich, if you're unfamiliar with them. Also, almost anything on The Bulwark, the redoubt of passionate anti-Trump former Republicans.
Thanks, Peter. Joyce Vance is one of my first reads each morning, and I've dabbled in Robert Reich and The Bulwark. I follow The Lincoln Project, too, and was so discouraged to see what Schmidt is doing with Dean Phillips.
On Jared Golden's statement, I believe he was modeling for his fellow legislators how to gracefully reverse course in the face of events. He represents rural northern Maine and his elections have not been slam-dunks. In his first election (via ranked-choice voting) in 2018 he ended the first round behind his closest opponent--the Republican incumbent--and ended up just 1 % ahead. Many politicians make calculations of what they need to say and do to get votes. What sets them apart is knowing when they have to put the calculations aside.
Do not forget that the tragedy in Gaza was completely predictable and perhaps even the reason for the barbarism of Oct. 7. This happened after previous HAMAS violence that has led to many deaths from Israel's response. HAMAS and their funders and masters knew that they were starting a war that would destroy their cities and kill Palestinians. I repeat, they knew they were going to get this response and that their people will suffer and many die!!!! To date HAMAS and the pro- Palestinian demonstrations are not offering the release of the hostages or saying they are atleast saddened by the murders on Oct 7, if not deploring them. What I see in the media is the celebration of HAMAS martyrs and it looks to me like they are hoping that there will be more deaths in Gaza so it will make them appear to be on a higher moral ground.
It is an easy prediction that there will be many more innocent deaths. Many. And much more destruction of infrastructure. There will also be more anti-Israel and anti-semitism and more fighting between sides in cities and colleges around the world. I also think that when this is over and the "liberal" siding with the underdog is past, there will be more anti-Palestinian sentiment. The image of HAMAS terrorism will not make for lasting respect and love for Palestinians.
So much more could have been accomplished by nonviolent protests and demonstrations. Israel had a huge Peace Now movement. It has been destroyed by HAMAS. I don't believe this was an unintended consequence.
People can blame Israel for the deaths in Gaza, but HAMAS brought this one.
Dear, dear fellow people,
As we attend to other distressing events in this world, let us also remember the critical election coming up in Virginia on November 7. As Ari Berman writes in Mother Jones, "If Republicans win a majority in the upcoming legislative elections, abortion and voting rights are in peril. And that's just the start." The issues on the line affect all of us--which ones do you relate to?
- Abortion rights
- Voting suppression
- Transgender rights
- Public schooling vs. vouchers, curriculum control, book bans, teacher shortages
- Corporate tax cuts
- Clean air and water
- Gun violence
- Childcare
- Broadband access
- Housing, evictions
Plus, Virginia state legislature Republicans' performance will affect Gov. Glenn Youngkin's decision about running for President, and we do not want his national profile elevated for a possible VP or cabinet position to further promote his toxic, repressive agenda of the far right. As Berman quotes The States Project Co-Founder Daniel Squadron, "Virginia is a moderate state on the knife's edge of an extreme agenda."
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/10/stop-the-steal-republicans-virginia-legislature-election-youngkin/
The States Project Giving Circles fundraising deadline for distributing our precious dollars to the progressive Virginia candidates' campaigns is next week: November 3.
Please help this big push with a donation to the Tending to Democracy Giving Circle, and get your family and friends to join you. Thank you.
https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/1XQhnyD/-
I have been phone banking to Virginia, and plan to continue thru Election day. So important. Sending solidarity from California, the Golden State.
I have been letter writing with a sense of urgency. And as a Mainer, I agree with Robert: where was Jarrod Golden’s resolve earlier. Was’nt Sandy Hook, Uvalde enough !
I respect Golden for admitting that he was wrong. Not a lot of politicians do. And his prior stance reflected his constituents in a very conservative district.
Of course they should have been enough. I share your rage. But, when a politician has enough courage and character to publicly admit complicity in a misguided policy and...change his position, he gets my enthusiastic applause. Keep in mind that if he had said these things in the past, he never would have been elected. It's complicated. It shouldn't be, but it is.
As a former Mainer who worked in "L-A" I am still grappling with the grief. The people I worked with are wonderful and had a classic work ethic that I so admired. Still tearing up as I read about the victims.
But the good news is that he realizes it now. Maybe he can persuade others!
After sending many postcards, I have phone banked a couple of times for VA Dems this past week (I have recruited at least one poll observer) and have more times scheduled next week. The Republicans control every single local electoral board and are making it difficult to people to access the ballot box. Please, please, please, everyone, do what you can to help Virginia.
I have been postcarding and will be canvassing these last two weekends. Have faith!!
Many thanks, Ellie, from this Virginia voter!
I just read the Mother Jones article and see that my candidate, Rob Banse, is featured. I am in his District 30 and have been supporting his candidacy directly for several months now, along with giving to Grapevine. After reading this article, I am now more than ever anxious to have Banse win; so, too, my senate candidate, Russet Perry.
VA also needs help to cure rejected absentee ballots. 2/3 of the current rejected ballots are Dems and several of the races will come down to only a few votes. Even if you hate phone banking, this is very rewarding as you are contacting Dems who have voted and WANT their votes counted!
Excellent point, Cynthia! Melissa Walker of The States Project has the link:
Sign up for volunteer shifts with the VA Dems here.
https://www.mobilize.us/virginiavoterprotection/
The goal of ballot curing is to connect with Virginia voters whose absentee ballots were not counted due to an issue. Volunteers will speak to voters, inform them of the status of their ballots, understand what they know, and guide them to finalize or cure their ballot. If you sign up for a shift, you will be trained in this process.
Out of state:
Ballot Cure Phonebanks: Help voters ensure their vote is counted! Absentee ballot voters who mistakenly omit information on their ballot have to provide additional information to their registrar to ensure their vote is counted. Every phonebank starts with a training.
In state:
Ballot Cure Canvasses: For people in Virginia or within driving distance. The team will be launching canvasses to help voters “cure” missing information on their absentee ballot returns and ensure their vote is counted!
I did a shift today and very rewarding .As Cynthia said, Dems WANT their votes counted ! Great training and ongoing assistance is provided during the phonebank.
Ellie, your list of issues reminded me of a piece I wrote several months ago and Robert cited in his newsletter: https://bobmorgan.substack.com/p/on-the-ballot-in-2024
At the time, I was thinking longer term (2024), but it certainly applies to the election in a week and a half.
All that is the antithesis of White Christian Nationalists has to go to the top of our lists:
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelpodhorzer/p/hiding-in-plain-sight-the-sources?r=6pp8t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
"Rep. Golden’s change of heart would have been so much better if it did not take the deaths of his constituents, his neighbors, and (possibly) his friends to convince him to change his mind. Were the deaths of schoolchildren at Sandy Hook not enough? Or the killings at the Tree of Life Synagogue? Were those deaths an abstraction because they were in different congressional districts?"
A problem is never a problem to a conservative till it happens in their backyard and/or to someone they know personally.
Re Dean Phillips vanity campaign: just like vanity campaigner Howard Schultz back in 2020, he managed to snag the best Vanity Campaign Manager in America - Steve Schmidt. Schmidt announced it at 6am this morning on his Vanity Substack, and by 8 o'clock tonight (Pacific time), he's lost 90% of his subscribers. And I wasn't the only one who left him a "smack in the face" nastygram on the way out the door.
It is so unfortunate that political leaders need to lead by following their constituents. My guess is that Rep Golden's change of position is because his constituents changed theirs.
The deaths in far away places did not matter enough. It is the same with politicians who change their positions on LBGTQ and forced birth when they learn it is a real issue for someone in their family.
I too left Steve Schmidt.
I’m one of those who left him. But please tell me how you know it was 90% of his subscribers. I’m happy to hear that but would love to know what source you used. Thanks.
It's 'going around." but if you look at the comments on his announcement, the tide is running 90% against, so it's likely accurate.
I kind of hope so, TC. He was a single issue guy against everything R, until yesterday. Seems to have lost it, but he won't see it that way.
It made me feel completely betrayed for all of our sakes, then very angry. There was a foreshadowing a few weeks (many days?) ago, when he penned a long post and video about Biden's age.
Still, I feel like he jumped ship without a preserver....
I am one of those who felt betrayed by his actions which are self serving and believe he proved to me who he really is.
I didn't know this! I was just talking to someone about Steve Schmidt, and I expressed some reservations about him (he brought us Sarah Palin after all!). They were surprised and thought Schmidt spoke so eloquently and in a way that Dems should talk. That guy, grrrrrr!
I can't believe this of Steve. Incomprehensible. Wasn't he a Lincoln Project founder? What is he thinking? I have admired him for years since he came to what I thought were his senses. Damn!
I've watched some of his videos. He's an odd mix of ex-Repub. who is now a registered Dem, but he throughly dislikes Pres. Biden and denigrates him on air. Why?
The Repub .presidents; early 1900's Teddy Roosevelt, and 1950's Eisenhower, were remarkable, but no Repub. Pres. has faced what Biden has had to deal with, AND Biden has dealt with it.
We cannot let Repubs. rule, to drive the country into the ground while tons of money goes to the richest. I'm sick of it. If I could I'd run for office, but I physically can't. I'll continue letters, and giving $ as I can afford, and hope it makes a difference.
Uvalde!
Thank you for this comment, Tom. About a month ago I unsubscribed from Steve because his ego seems to be growing ever larger with each passing day. When he interviewed Phillips a month or so ago, trying to introduce him to us, I had a gut feeling that this was coming down the pike. I subscribed to Rick Wilson after tossing Steve. (Then Steve went and increased his subscription fees, which really made people irate when they found out about this. Someone I know personally told me that she paid $100 for a one year subscription and is demanding her money back. It’s like he wanted to get every last penny out of everyone knowing that he was going to have a drop in subscribers.) I did not know that Wilson had a Substack newsletter until recently. If you haven’t already gone over there, I suggest you try it out because he is an excellent writer. Wilson is going to be doing his very best to make the Phillips campaign the briefest one in American history, and Wilson is an attack dog as you know. Steve, after spending two years preaching incessantly about the dangers to our democracy, suddenly decides to choose money over common sense. He can take his Substack and shove it. I hope he and Phillips are deeply embarrassed by this, and that it negatively affects their careers, because that is what they deserve. Done ranting now. 😊✌️
My Gosh! Isn’t Steve Schmidt the author of “The Warning?! Sure, I checked and he is.
How then, with our country’s long history of failed third party efforts can he jump at the opportunities to be campaign manager for Dean Phillips? His doing so reflects for me yet another sign of how mentally we as a collective are somehow failing to be rationale.
Here’s an extensive report from Slate that tells the history of third party efforts. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/07/third-party-candidates-president-nader-perot-wallace-roosevelt.html
Is it ego or blind ambition? Is it the belief that “this time will be different.”
Here is what I know. In 2016 Jill Stein clearly made a difference in the election results per the Electoral College. While there are some accounts that suggest some debate about this, we can recognize Jill Stein did not win and took both Democrat and Independent voters in doing so. This is just one very early 2016 source. There are surely more updated reports but I am content to recognize third party candidates are not a source that helps messaging in 2024 and did not do so in 2016.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/308353-trump-won-by-smaller-margin-than-stein-votes-in-all-three/
Let me say this again for the people in the back STEVE SCHMIDT IS STILL A CONSERVATIVE AND THE LINCOLN PROJECT WAS TOTAL BS.
Here’s what I do wish Biden and Dems would do. I want them to publicly call out the press for doling out headlines that undermine what the admin has been doing. I want them to use a whiteboard or use a tv screen that shows these posts and then strongly shoot them down. We are at a crossroads here and abroad and I feel you gotta fight fire with fire.
About Robert Card, the Lewiston mass murderer: I am sorry he and ones he killed lived,in a state that has no laws about guns. I am not sorry he decided to take his own life but I am sorry his state government and our federal government failed him and many others. Having a person stay in a mental facility for only 2 weeks after he said he was hearing voices, is criminal! Folks, we’ve got a lot of work to do!
Maine is a poster child for what is wrong in this country. Maine has lax gun laws because of a strong Republican local and federal government positions and Senator Collins has been a gun advocate. Limited resources to adequately support badly need mental services with easy gun access and you have mass shooters in your state.
I think they felt this would never happen there because the crime rate is relatively low in Maine, and the actual number of gun deaths over an entire year was equal to or less than the number of people killed/injured the other day. The problem is that you can’t ever assume that your community is immune from gun violence. There are mentally ill people everywhere, and one never knows when one of them is going to fall off a cliff and do this kind of damage.
Mass shootings have nothing to do with crime rates. They are solely about guns.
Yes, I know. But often people who live in safe places think this kind of thing can’t happen to them. And Maine has lax gun laws. Yet even in Cali where there are strict gun laws, there are mass shootings. It only takes one unstable person with access to a gun to destroy a community.
This is the best collated resource on the web https://www.everytown.org/states/
Great resource. Thank you Erica.
We do have some gun laws--but they are lax.
And I have to admit the one thing Susan Collins said that I agree with is that Maine does have a "yellow flag" law, but it was not, in this case, used--WTF??? If ever there was a clearer case for it to be used, I can't think of one. Somebody somewhere screwed up royally.
It is certainly true that our mental health services in the the state are scant--especially in rural areas--over-stretched and in tatters. Unless you have good insurance, it is difficult and expensive to get mental health care.
My first question was how did the question of access to guns not be asked and investigated? In addition, people are not going into the serving others professions right now. Teachers, social workers, psychologists, law enforcement, counselors. and local and state politicians are in short supply at the universities and applicants for jobs.
There are a lot of people to blame for this obscene tragedy.
One of the reasons Americans are so dissatisfied is that most of them don't understand economics. The economy is doing well, but we are all victims of price gouging software. See Matt Stoller's Substack article on price gouging.
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-banality-of-price-fixing
There was some protective effect during covid that seems to be over, and the ability for industries to squeeze every last dollar out of people, is making their wages seem less effective. So, it is time that more people complained about the price gouging software. More and more technology is shaping our lives and people need to be more aware of it. The mainstream media is not helping because their slant on news is pro-Republican anti-Democrats.
Thank you for providing a link to that article, Linda. It's outrageous for businesses to keep the cost of goods inflated with "price gouging software." I hope more of the media starts to write about that dynamic. I'm sure the majority of Americans are beyond sick and tired of being fleeced by rich corporations.
Sure. I agree that it is outrageous, and I feel that more people should know about it. I had read the ProPublica article on the algorithm for price gouging in the rental market. I am finding Matt Stoller is opening my eyes to what is going on with anti-trust and now that we have a president who is trying to take that on, it is still frustrating, but there seems to be some movement. Another person who is taking on some topics that might be interesting to Americans as far as this goes, started as "The Black Forest Family," https://www.blackforestfamily.com/ and has now morphed to "Type Ashton."
https://www.youtube.com/c/blackforestfamily
Unable to get a job in her field in Freiburg where she and her husband bought a house, and where her husband has been working for a while, Ashton is using the research skills honed during her PhD work to doing comparisons of things in the USA to European countries, mainly Germany. She has gotten her PhD in Germany in Low Income Housing, where she compared the USA and Germany. Since those are the two countries I live in, I find what she says is interesting for many reasons, but one of them is that the set up in Germany privileges the renter over the home owner, which is one of the reasons so many are.
https://youtu.be/V7d1eQ7Onk0?si=FTnHYh4rKgsZgsEl
Still, as you see, Germany is also victim of the price gouging in the fuel for the cars. Since the German car industry is so important to the economy, it still drives so many decisions here.
more and more corporations are becoming monopolies which contribute to the uniform price gouging on similar products. We need a new Teddy Roosevelt to fight this tendency to monopolize markets.
Remember, Senator Elizabeth Warren has been fighting monopolistic practices throughout her career.
But she’s “only” a Senator.
And the House of Representatives is controlled by MAGA Republicans.
— Another reason for electing Democrats up and down the ticket in 2024.
Thank you, Linda, for that excellent reference! It clearly illustrates how much of what we experience as "inflation" is a direct result of corporate greed; witness the string of record profits and executive bonuses.
Robert Reich has been telling us about this for some time now. And price-fixing software (algorithms) are contributing heavily. A quote from the Substance blog you cited:
"Of course, the use of software to optimize pricing isn’t always, or even often, illegal. Comparing your rival’s public price to your own price is a perfectly reasonable and time-tested strategy, and that’s not any different in the era of big data. However, using software to privately collude with rivals on pricing or output, to allocate markets or set floors or ceilings on prices, is within the orbit of what antitrust laws are designed to address. And that’s for good reason - software-enabled price fixing is likely responsible for higher prices everywhere from the gas pump to the grocery store."
*Substack* (stupid autocorrect)
I think you're absolutely right, Linda, that most of us don't understand economics. Our collective eyes glaze over as we try to make sense of it. I believe another factor is that the economy is extremely complicated, and the effects of certain factors are not felt for a long time, during which, other factors subsume or overshadow them.
The Fed's attempts to rein in inflation, driven largely by supply shortages and increasing demand, led to high interest rates for long term loans that make things less affordable for a longer period of time. Chip shortages drove up the costs of many items (most visibly, automobiles), and inflation and strong profits in the auto industry has led to a resurgence of union demands to compensate their members for their sacrifices to keep the industry solvent in the prior decade or so. Similarly, housing material shortages and reduced demand led to housing shortages that are now driving prices up while interest rates are compounding the affordability challenge.
Another thing to consider is that the wealth gap has widened since the Republican tax cuts for the wealthy took effect. The wealthy will not likely give those gains back, and will build cost increases in to the goods and services they purvey to sustain their status. Stockholders are relatively powerless at this point to claw back some of the excessive packages granted to executives, and any changes that may result from shareholder revolts will likely take many years to be felt.
Somehow, we need to find a way to reframe the economic picture, perhaps by setting visible and meaningful targets, achieving or exceeding them, and then shouting from the rooftops.
I do think Jared Golden is an interesting case. On HCR's post last night I commented my frustration with his tardy change of heart, only after the violent deaths of 18 of his constituents. I was politely reminded that he is a Democrat representing a conservative district. So, I have some understanding of his desire to represent the beliefs of his district. There also seems to be a suspicion that he's not planning to run for reelection. Which I think makes this turnaround more cowardly. Yes, let's graciously welcome him. But as I said on HCR, anybody who doesn't understand why gun violence has exploded over the past 20+ years, has purposely closed their eyes to the pain and suffering of their neighbors, while holding their hand out to accept money from NRA. Inexcusable.
I just made a related comment before reading yours.
When he said "in the days I have left in Congress" or something to that effect, I did wonder if he either wasn't planning to run again or expected to lose reelection.
Heather Cox Richardson's "Letter to an American" this evening, reported on the amazing job Biden Admin. is doing on the economic front, "stunning jobs report" as well as on target economic growth rate.....but the sad lack of comprehension of this, by many Americans, and their perception that they were better off with Trump. YIKES. . ..How can we elevate the TRUTH? I think creative marketing/advertising is needed and the campaign needs to start now.
Yes we need the production team that engineered the televised J6 hearings.
Because regular people are still paying too much for basic needs: housing, food, fuel, etc. And I cannot imagine what the poor are going through. On the news yesterday I heard some numbers indicating that food insecurity has increased by a lot in the last year or so. So many children do not have food, and parents are struggling between paying rent (exorbitant here in LA) and providing food for their families. And now it is getting cold, so the cost of heating their homes is about to become a problem. Unemployment numbers do not tell all, though they are good news!
I am on Team Biden. Though he wasn't my first pick when there was a large Democratic field, I think he is doing a great job. But you're right. Some basics are still expensive. Food went up and didn't come down. Every trip to the grocery store reminds me of that. My home is paid for now, but our adult son lives with us for several reasons, a main one being exorbitant rents.
I find it terribly naive that the President doesn't know more about this discrepancy between what he says and the reality of what's happening on Main Street. There's another comment to today's short newsletter from someone who has learned about price gouging, which it says is being deliberately done to keep prices high. That is the kind of thing that should be looked into SOON, because many people, including Democrats, are feeling the pinch economically! It's the economy, Baby!
I don't conclude that he doesn't know. In fact, I think he's quite aware of the amount of price gouging that goes on just because corporations can, and he doesn't especially like it. (For instance, he's gone after the vague, fluff charges that inflate everything from airline seats to concert tickets to hotel rooms. That's just price gouging.) He can't singlehandedly control it, but he doesn't like it. Even some of the housing prices date back to the economic collapse of 2008, when people lost their homes and a LOT of them were bought by corporations for rentals and were not available to other families to buy, contributing to housing shortages and keeping people in rentals where pricing was artificially controlled by corporations.
This is because the Republicans insisted on slashing the child tax credit. Child poverty was greatly reduced when Biden introduced that, and then shot up again after people like Manchin, Sinema, and almost all Republicans would not vote for it.
Elisa, this is an excellent question. There is, in my view, some urgency to answering. Certainly we are not the president or part of his and the Democratic Party’s team.
BUT, I think we need to create or find ways to amplify the message that Heather Cox-Richardson has so consistently done. Let’s keep this topic going and attempt to identify ways we can do more to get our voice heard regarding the great job the Biden administration has done on any number of fronts.
Thanks for raising this very important question. The clock is ticking and we, as Joyce Vance, states “are in this together.”
Yes indeed, and to that point Robert also chronicles all the success’, but the Democratic Party is not doing their part in messaging.
You know Elisa, I can’t say whether the Democratic Party is or is not doing its part. If I believe in President Biden and recognize all that he has done to advance our country then I have to think he and his party members/team are aware and are doing their part. All I (we) can do is stay engaged and do what we can.
To that end, it seems like our goal needs to be to get the Biden team message out to our communities, to find our voice in these difficult times and play our role since the stakes are just too high. As others have said, democracy requires our participation. For me, it is too urgent. We must all give it our best and hope the Democratic Party and Biden Team in D.C. are doing theirs.
I don't think it's the Biden team. It's the media that revels in negativity. And not just Fox news. It's MSNBC and CNN too. WE get all day talking heads babbling about the same bad news. It's overwhelming. We never hear about all the people and organizations across the country doing positive things in their communities and fighting against MAGAtization of our country.
Yes- this is very true. The Media is a HUGE problem. Damn. What can we do?
Good points. Thanks for sharing.
Trump might have been able to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours as he so grossly boasted, but the only way that would have happened is if he agreed to cease Western support and let his friend Putin have his way. Ukraine would have effectively rejoined the Soviet Union and our friends in the Baltic States would have been quaking in their boots. Let's be grateful once again that we have Biden and not Trump in Washington.
For sure.
Thank you very much, Robert, for throwing yet another bucket of cold water over the non-stop incendiary rhetoric racing through the media. I hope despite the work you needed to do up north to keep the pipes from freezing in your Sequoia community, you were able to inhale the peace and quiet that the pine covered mountains so generously provide. (Just writing that reminded me of listening to the lovely silence in the woods, interrupted only by an occasional bird call.) Have a good weekend!
It occurs to me that, once again, the off-year polls are more a chance for the common person to vent and grumble, than an indication of how things will go in November, 2024. Many of us, myself included, are more angry at the financial establishment than at Joe Biden. Jerome Powell and Jamie Dimon are not going to be on the ballot next year. Trump probably will be though, and he is a perfect surrogate for the Big Dogs of Wall Street-in addition to all his legal transgressions.
A very important quote, from Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx)--he is gay and a Millennial and represents the district next to AOC-- from the latest "Today Is Friday And Why That's Bad News For Joe Biden" article from the New York Times, the one many readers are probably referencing to decide that Biden is losing support among Democrats:
“𝗪𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆,” 𝗠𝗿. 𝗧𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱. “𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝘀𝗿𝗮𝗲𝗹 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱.”
In a similar vein:
1. Most of those people protesting do not vote. They tweet. They TikTok. But they don't actually vote.
2. When they do vote, it is in places like Brooklyn or Berkeley (just to name some of the "B"s) where the Democrats are in no danger of losing.
Amen brother.
Also the Universities should use the protests as a "teachable moment" as they say. Show the students the history of the region. The many times on both sides when someone walked away from a possible peace. And yes Israeli policy has caused much suffering of the Palestinian people but Hamas is not a resistance movement. It is a terrorist organization whose stated mission is the eradication of Israel. Hamas bears some responsibility for the deaths in Gaza. They perpetrated a heinous barbaric slaughter of Israeli citizens. They knew the response would have to be massive. They invited that. They sacrificed their people for their own aggrandizement. I hope the Palestinian people can recognize that.
I hope you’re right.
I think it took a mass shooting in Golden’s district (even another district, but in Maine) to drive home how bad such a thing is and for him therefore to feel it; see it. I feel in my community of gun-toters, it’s what it will take, lugubriously. All I can hope for is when it does, it doesn’t involve my wife, daughter or close friends. Ditto in the other places the rest of my family is. If fact, no one, but it’s what it will take, sadly. Meanwhile, I have already contacted Republican Senators Rubio and Scott and my County Commissioners (4 to 1 Republican) and County Attorney. Florida has preempted local government to enact gun control and must abide by whatever the State puts into Law. That’s Matt Gaetz-DeSantis open carry, no license, shoot-em up Wild, Wild Western style here in sunny but gloomy Florida.
We only have two Congressional Districts. Southern Maine is immensely more populated than the rest of the state, so Chellie Pingree is the Representative for CD1 and Jared Golden has most of the rest of the state north, west and east of Augusta. His district, CD2, is huge and extremely rural, thus most of his constituents are conservative, to put it mildly. We are all very thankful that we use RCV and were able to kick the former sleazy Rep (Bruce Poliquin) to the curb.
And Paul LePage ("NAACP can kiss my ass".) RCV should be national!
I’m concerned about the Florida Legislature’s proposed hunting/fishing amendment that would preserve the right to hunt and fish, including by the use of “traditional” methods.
In Florida, it is legal to hunt or fish while openly carrying a firearm, including an AR—15. Perhaps the Legislature wants to preserve this “traditional” method of hunting and fishing.
We already know some legislators want to lower the age to own an assault rifle to 18. Perhaps HB 1543 was an effort to preserve a Florida “traditional” method for a younger generation of voters.
Floridans, contact your legislators ! 📞Write Letters to Ed✍️ Let others know 🗣️what is happening in the “ sunshine” state….before it’s too late.
First of all, Robert, thank you for the opportunity to share thoughts and opinions regarding recent events. I’d like to say the following:
Biden is doing fine -great, in fact.
I have no faith in “polls” because, guess what? We’re sick to death of them and ignore answering them. But you better believe we will show up at the voting booth in November 2024 to vote for this man. I don’t care how old he is. He’s done a terrific job! As for the other buffoon, “adios, mofo”- (inside joke for Texans).
I'm new here; thank goodness I found Mr. Hubbell and all of you. In Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter this morning she praises Phil Williams' "meticulous work" in Nashville. If you don't already follow him (I do on Threads), he's a ray of sunshine who makes good stuff happen!
Robbie: I can also highly recommend the Substacks of Joyce Vance and Robert Reich, if you're unfamiliar with them. Also, almost anything on The Bulwark, the redoubt of passionate anti-Trump former Republicans.
Thanks, Peter. Joyce Vance is one of my first reads each morning, and I've dabbled in Robert Reich and The Bulwark. I follow The Lincoln Project, too, and was so discouraged to see what Schmidt is doing with Dean Phillips.
Schmidt is a curious one indeed. Wasn't he behind Sarah Palin in '08?
Yes, he was.
On Jared Golden's statement, I believe he was modeling for his fellow legislators how to gracefully reverse course in the face of events. He represents rural northern Maine and his elections have not been slam-dunks. In his first election (via ranked-choice voting) in 2018 he ended the first round behind his closest opponent--the Republican incumbent--and ended up just 1 % ahead. Many politicians make calculations of what they need to say and do to get votes. What sets them apart is knowing when they have to put the calculations aside.
Not sure many candidates will follow his lead.
The new speaker’s proud moniker -- MAGA Mike -- is a gift to Dems.
Do not forget that the tragedy in Gaza was completely predictable and perhaps even the reason for the barbarism of Oct. 7. This happened after previous HAMAS violence that has led to many deaths from Israel's response. HAMAS and their funders and masters knew that they were starting a war that would destroy their cities and kill Palestinians. I repeat, they knew they were going to get this response and that their people will suffer and many die!!!! To date HAMAS and the pro- Palestinian demonstrations are not offering the release of the hostages or saying they are atleast saddened by the murders on Oct 7, if not deploring them. What I see in the media is the celebration of HAMAS martyrs and it looks to me like they are hoping that there will be more deaths in Gaza so it will make them appear to be on a higher moral ground.
It is an easy prediction that there will be many more innocent deaths. Many. And much more destruction of infrastructure. There will also be more anti-Israel and anti-semitism and more fighting between sides in cities and colleges around the world. I also think that when this is over and the "liberal" siding with the underdog is past, there will be more anti-Palestinian sentiment. The image of HAMAS terrorism will not make for lasting respect and love for Palestinians.
So much more could have been accomplished by nonviolent protests and demonstrations. Israel had a huge Peace Now movement. It has been destroyed by HAMAS. I don't believe this was an unintended consequence.
People can blame Israel for the deaths in Gaza, but HAMAS brought this one.
I think you are on the money