THE MIDTERMS CONTINUE . . IN PENNSYLVANIA. You may have heard that Democrats have a 1 seat margin in the Pennsylvania General Assembly (the lower house). The Senate is solidly Republican. But right now there are at least 3 vacancies in traditionally Democratic districts (and 1 in a Republican Senate seat). Vacancies resulted from a death of one representative and the election of one representative to lieutenant governor and one to Congress.
Here's the skinny: the elections are coming SOON -- February 7. These three races are all “must wins” in order to keep a Democratic Majority in the Pennsylvania State House, where the Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General are all Democrats, thanks to last November. By doing so, we will prevent the 80 odd proposed constitutional amendments hanging over Pennsylvania like a sword of Damocles from being placed on the ballot in the near future. Those proposed amendments cover everything from banning abortion to impairing voting rights (mail-in ballots, voter ID, etc.) and everything in between, like our new Governor’s ability to issue regulations and what can be taught or read in the schools.
The elections are incredibly important to Pennsylvania and nationally; winning all three will prevent turning the state over to the right wing. The proposed amendments are not only threats to individual Pennsylvanian's rights, but they are also designed to make it harder to elect Democrats in the critical next cycle.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: support the Pennsylvania Democrats at go.padems.com. Or contact your favorite grass roots group to check out their involvement. From past elections, I would say that the political work by the SEIU has been incredibly effective in these districts -- all three are located in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), traditionally the western anchor of Democratic support in Pennsylvania, but also a relatively expensive media market. Please help -- now!
Democrats have to in at the state level to be effective -- and this is just critical for 2024.
From the for what it’s worth perspective, this is mine. Biden, Garland and other older folks in Biden’s administration are good people, but they make mistakes. Their staff works hard, but they get tired, distracted and worn thin from the demanding work, so they overlook things that may not seem important at the moment because something else needs to be done immediately.
Biden is beyond packing the stuff in his office and storing it when moving from one office into another. Younger folks working long days as they are learning how to function in an underpaid but demanding government job. They were responsible for getting Biden’s Vice Presidential materials out of the Obama facilities, so documents got tossed into transfer boxes that should not have gone where they ended up being stored. Stuff happens.
Should someone in the Biden administration taken time to look everywhere that Biden’s Obama administration materials were being stored immediately following the Trump document mess? Of course. That would have been the logical thing to do given the political atmosphere, and if it did, we would have never heard anything about that bit of housekeeping. That better housekeeping didn’t happen, and that’s a shame. But, so what? Unlike the Trump criminal fiasco, this is an uncomfortable messy nothing series of events. Please give Biden and Garland an old guy pass and move on.
I’m a few years younger than Biden. We’re both men of average abilities and intellect, but Biden is a much harder and dedicated worker than I am, and I’m very happy that he is willing to do what he is doing. He is a good pol. He knows how to get stuff done. I couldn’t do it, and I’m too selfish and lazy to do what President Biden has chosen to do. I feel the same way about Garland. They are good men, and I’m happy they are on our team and show up every day. This is a long fight, and if it was easy, any fool could do it. That’s why very few people choose the life, and why it is hard work. Please support and defend Biden and Garland whenever anyone bitches about them. It’ll help us get past this and soon this mess will be just a dumb memory.
Ciao from Italy! Did you know that there are 6.5 million US citizens living abroad and on average only 10% of us vote? One concrete action we can all take is to make sure that every US citizen you know who is living or studying abroad is registered to vote and has requested their overseas ballot. All US citizens have the right to vote -- even if it's been years since they've lived in the US or have NEVER lived in the US. If you have a US passport, you can vote! It's easy to do!! Go to www.votefromabroad.org the entire process can be done via a smartphone and there's help available via chat if someone has a tricky voting question.
The events of this week cost me to make a decision: I am going to listen to less cable news and try to reduce the amount of repetition that goes through my brain of the pettiness of the Republicans and the clutter of noise around miss steps by Biden, or the slowness of DOJ to move against Trump. I also vowed to wait for the Hubbell Evening Herald for quality news and commentary.
It’s better to take in less noise and stay focused on doing things that will matter for victory in 2024: I may start writing postcards with everything but the address so that I can build up an arsenal to help keep the trend going in our favor.
I'd love an explanation of why lawyers instead of office assistants, clerks, and such were cleaning out Biden's office. And why they were cleaning it out TWO YEARS, not 2 days or 2 weeks, after he left that position. Was that office vacant for 2 years? The timing of this whole mess is weird; it's almost got me thinking it's a Conspiracy to Get Biden.
Take some time this weekend to close your eyes and listen to MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech, or watch a film of the presentation in Washington. Transformative!!!!
Check out “activateamerica.com“ for latest postcard campaigns. There’s something coming up in Pennsylvania for three state legislature seats.
Per Daily Docket, “ A Pennsylvania court denied state Rep. Bryan Cutler’s (R) request to block the Allegheny County Board of Elections and Pennsylvania Department of State from holding special elections for three state House vacancies. The elections, scheduled for Feb. 7, will go forward.”
This one is a biggie. If Democrats win they will control the house (in PA)
Thank you, Annette, for calling attention to the sand in our shoes. I'm happy to keep dumping out the Biden classified documents news and commentaries. And instead spend a moment imagining my bare feet in the sand at a seashore, wiggling my toes and breathing in the fresh sea air for energy replenishment!
Jessica Craven readers are also highly recommending Michael Moore's podcast. I'm sold and adding it to my weekend. Thank you, John and Margo, for the Episode 12 summary tip.
In the name of "know thy enemy" to inform our work effectively, NYT just published a long overdue expose of George Santos. I suspect that Santos' vulnerability study was concerning to conventional Republicans--but was kompromat gold by a Kremlin playbook, a la Trump. Santos is owned by puppeteers well beyond Trump and Kevin McCarthy, and we are likely to see more like him.
Thanks Robert for everything you do. My take is that Biden’s mistake is nothing compared to Ts. First Biden maintained his security clearance upon leaving office while T did not. Second Biden did not obstruct Justice. We cannot let the Rs use this to take attention away from their incompetence and evil plans to cut Social Security and Medicare, etc. we need to work harder at controlling the narrative. May I recommend Simon Rosenberg’s presentation on “with Democrats Things Get Better “ https://www.ndn.org/. This will cheer you up. We need to take control of the narrative!
Aaron Rouse won his special Election in VA 19,430 to 19, 082. PostcardsToVoters.org volunteers sent 11,209 handwritten postcards into Virginia to remind Democrats to vote. Calls were made, funds donated.
Three super important Special Elections are coming up on February 7th for Pennsylvania State House. We won a majority in November: 102-101. But one rep died, another moved to Congress and 3rd became Lt. Gov. We need to defend our majority so we have it for 2024. And on Feb 21st, we have a Special Election for US Congress in VA! Important elections coming up. Hopefully we will write for these, too! And for Wisconsin! Every postcard could be a vote! Thanks if you are helping already. If haven't tried it yet, you can order stamps online at usps.com and get postcards via the postcardstovoters.org website or on Amazon.
Thank you Robert for labeling it Bingo because it is a game: Crisis Bingo. The point is to keep you focusing on the GOP and their antics, the media plays its supporting role and everyone plays. Why do they do it & why do we play in? Perhaps we won’t notice that are real problems such as poverty, climate crisis, homelessness are not being addressed. What do you think? Pat Sax
A mell of a hess! I just read a NYT article about disaffected ethnic and national volunteers who are coming to the aid of Ukraine. Chechnians, Uigars, Turkics, others who speak Russian, have joined the fray. There will be dancing in the streets for victory over all that has suppressed them in the past, if they help Ukraine win.
We pray to God for the Ukraine and the rest of Europe where 2 wars (physical and financial) are taking place. We pray to God that this war stops, that the many many casualties, the enormous negative financial side effects and all those other repercussions which we all know about, take an end, that they don`t persist.
Europe is suffering its worst crisis since the Second World War and everybody asks: why? Is it necessary to sabotage gas pipe lines? Is it necessary to sanction those who are not at war with anybody? Is it necessary to let people freeze and starve because their homes have been massively bombed? Is it necessary to ignore that this war is causing a huge financial collapse not only to the people of the European countries but also to their land, to their homes, to their families and their economies. Of course, it`s Putins actions and his wrongdoings and his violence I am talking about, his dictatorship.
I suspect Biden will be exonerated. And I recognize that his behavior is completely different from trump’s. My point is that we shouldn’t moan and groan over this but rather let the investigations run their course and let the republicans continue to show their hypocrisy.
There are days when I feel it would be great to be as misinformed, self-righteous, loud, and self-gratified as the GQP seems to be. As I heard Wanda Sykes repeat in a recent live show, “it’s hard to be a Democrat.” We care so much, and we want things to be fair, equal, and just. It seems such a simple formula, and we were much further along that journey until Trump unleashed the hounds of Hell in the GQP, creating a base and leaders who are intent to reinstate a white, faux Christian, male patriarchy again - as if that were the good ol’ days! With the Biden documents, so different than those of Trump at Mar-a-largo, we are set back again in bringing this repeat offender to justice. How the hell does he do it???? The crimes mount up, his minions take the bullet, and he lives to tweet another day! We all new that having this GQP in charge of the House would be atrocious, and it has lived up to that vision from Day One. The fact that they want to continue punishing women for being pregnant, and never mention the men who got them that way, is heart-breaking. They’ve already stolen women’s rights in over half the states. Enough already! And we seem powerless to do anything in our current environment. This week, I watched an excellent segment on Ari Melber’s newscast on MSNBC which outlined the success that women had in the midterms, winning 12 governorships. Of course, that’s nothing compared to all the other male governors, but it’s better than where it was. He mentioned the Democrats, but also the Republican women, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas, and wished them all well. Right on cue, the next day Sanders issues an Executive order to ban the use of the word “Latinx” in any official government document, and for good measure, then banned the teaching of CRT in Arkansas schools. Does no one are that CRT is NOT being taught in any K-12 schools in America???? And yet, we continue to let these GQP zealots get away with the lies and the insults to our intelligence, hurting all of us in the whitewashing of history and the government overreach in our personal lives. And this is a WOMAN. Imagine where she stands on women’s rights to choose. So discouraging. Ron DeSantis continues to demean the marginalized in Florida and receives resounding applause. Now he wants to start sending the Department of Health and Human Services to monitor the parents who allow their children to attend drag shows, as some sort of child abuse. Drag shows???? What tiny percentage of life does that involve in Florida or anywhere? And yet, DeSantis builds his platform as the GQP’s Man of the Hour by all of these most un-Christian, wretched moves. And he wins a majority of votes in that state. What am I missing??? Praying that the Dems will stay united, determined, and mad as hell about what the GQP is doing to us. First and foremost, we must educate our large base to get out and vote for every election! That is the worst part. We could have won the House again if only more Democrats across the country had simply gone to vote. Sorry to be the Grinch. Looking for signs of changing winds coming our way.
THE MIDTERMS CONTINUE . . IN PENNSYLVANIA. You may have heard that Democrats have a 1 seat margin in the Pennsylvania General Assembly (the lower house). The Senate is solidly Republican. But right now there are at least 3 vacancies in traditionally Democratic districts (and 1 in a Republican Senate seat). Vacancies resulted from a death of one representative and the election of one representative to lieutenant governor and one to Congress.
Here's the skinny: the elections are coming SOON -- February 7. These three races are all “must wins” in order to keep a Democratic Majority in the Pennsylvania State House, where the Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General are all Democrats, thanks to last November. By doing so, we will prevent the 80 odd proposed constitutional amendments hanging over Pennsylvania like a sword of Damocles from being placed on the ballot in the near future. Those proposed amendments cover everything from banning abortion to impairing voting rights (mail-in ballots, voter ID, etc.) and everything in between, like our new Governor’s ability to issue regulations and what can be taught or read in the schools.
The elections are incredibly important to Pennsylvania and nationally; winning all three will prevent turning the state over to the right wing. The proposed amendments are not only threats to individual Pennsylvanian's rights, but they are also designed to make it harder to elect Democrats in the critical next cycle.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: support the Pennsylvania Democrats at go.padems.com. Or contact your favorite grass roots group to check out their involvement. From past elections, I would say that the political work by the SEIU has been incredibly effective in these districts -- all three are located in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), traditionally the western anchor of Democratic support in Pennsylvania, but also a relatively expensive media market. Please help -- now!
Democrats have to in at the state level to be effective -- and this is just critical for 2024.
From the for what it’s worth perspective, this is mine. Biden, Garland and other older folks in Biden’s administration are good people, but they make mistakes. Their staff works hard, but they get tired, distracted and worn thin from the demanding work, so they overlook things that may not seem important at the moment because something else needs to be done immediately.
Biden is beyond packing the stuff in his office and storing it when moving from one office into another. Younger folks working long days as they are learning how to function in an underpaid but demanding government job. They were responsible for getting Biden’s Vice Presidential materials out of the Obama facilities, so documents got tossed into transfer boxes that should not have gone where they ended up being stored. Stuff happens.
Should someone in the Biden administration taken time to look everywhere that Biden’s Obama administration materials were being stored immediately following the Trump document mess? Of course. That would have been the logical thing to do given the political atmosphere, and if it did, we would have never heard anything about that bit of housekeeping. That better housekeeping didn’t happen, and that’s a shame. But, so what? Unlike the Trump criminal fiasco, this is an uncomfortable messy nothing series of events. Please give Biden and Garland an old guy pass and move on.
I’m a few years younger than Biden. We’re both men of average abilities and intellect, but Biden is a much harder and dedicated worker than I am, and I’m very happy that he is willing to do what he is doing. He is a good pol. He knows how to get stuff done. I couldn’t do it, and I’m too selfish and lazy to do what President Biden has chosen to do. I feel the same way about Garland. They are good men, and I’m happy they are on our team and show up every day. This is a long fight, and if it was easy, any fool could do it. That’s why very few people choose the life, and why it is hard work. Please support and defend Biden and Garland whenever anyone bitches about them. It’ll help us get past this and soon this mess will be just a dumb memory.
Ciao from Italy! Did you know that there are 6.5 million US citizens living abroad and on average only 10% of us vote? One concrete action we can all take is to make sure that every US citizen you know who is living or studying abroad is registered to vote and has requested their overseas ballot. All US citizens have the right to vote -- even if it's been years since they've lived in the US or have NEVER lived in the US. If you have a US passport, you can vote! It's easy to do!! Go to www.votefromabroad.org the entire process can be done via a smartphone and there's help available via chat if someone has a tricky voting question.
www.votefromabroad.org
Tony The Democrat Postcards To Voters were written for both Aaron Rouse and Holly Siebold, both VA candidates won, postcards had to have helped.
Turnout, turnout, turnout.
GOTV seems to work.
The events of this week cost me to make a decision: I am going to listen to less cable news and try to reduce the amount of repetition that goes through my brain of the pettiness of the Republicans and the clutter of noise around miss steps by Biden, or the slowness of DOJ to move against Trump. I also vowed to wait for the Hubbell Evening Herald for quality news and commentary.
It’s better to take in less noise and stay focused on doing things that will matter for victory in 2024: I may start writing postcards with everything but the address so that I can build up an arsenal to help keep the trend going in our favor.
I'd love an explanation of why lawyers instead of office assistants, clerks, and such were cleaning out Biden's office. And why they were cleaning it out TWO YEARS, not 2 days or 2 weeks, after he left that position. Was that office vacant for 2 years? The timing of this whole mess is weird; it's almost got me thinking it's a Conspiracy to Get Biden.
Benghazi, Hillary’s emails, Hunter’s laptop, Joe’s docs….yawn!!!!
Take some time this weekend to close your eyes and listen to MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech, or watch a film of the presentation in Washington. Transformative!!!!
Check out “activateamerica.com“ for latest postcard campaigns. There’s something coming up in Pennsylvania for three state legislature seats.
Per Daily Docket, “ A Pennsylvania court denied state Rep. Bryan Cutler’s (R) request to block the Allegheny County Board of Elections and Pennsylvania Department of State from holding special elections for three state House vacancies. The elections, scheduled for Feb. 7, will go forward.”
This one is a biggie. If Democrats win they will control the house (in PA)
Ooh, hot off the press!
Thank you, Annette, for calling attention to the sand in our shoes. I'm happy to keep dumping out the Biden classified documents news and commentaries. And instead spend a moment imagining my bare feet in the sand at a seashore, wiggling my toes and breathing in the fresh sea air for energy replenishment!
Jessica Craven readers are also highly recommending Michael Moore's podcast. I'm sold and adding it to my weekend. Thank you, John and Margo, for the Episode 12 summary tip.
In the name of "know thy enemy" to inform our work effectively, NYT just published a long overdue expose of George Santos. I suspect that Santos' vulnerability study was concerning to conventional Republicans--but was kompromat gold by a Kremlin playbook, a la Trump. Santos is owned by puppeteers well beyond Trump and Kevin McCarthy, and we are likely to see more like him.
https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1614060211345723392?s=20
On Twitter is a bit that Santos is AKA George Devolder.
https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1614026396879175682?s=20
Speaking of Spain and soul cleansing, enjoy some flamenco from this family:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnNoRL-DZqc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
And this knitting dad Willie Smith is so adorable, I just might learn to knit!
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CjEjvLtILF4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Happy weekend, everyone! Time to breathe!
Thanks Robert for everything you do. My take is that Biden’s mistake is nothing compared to Ts. First Biden maintained his security clearance upon leaving office while T did not. Second Biden did not obstruct Justice. We cannot let the Rs use this to take attention away from their incompetence and evil plans to cut Social Security and Medicare, etc. we need to work harder at controlling the narrative. May I recommend Simon Rosenberg’s presentation on “with Democrats Things Get Better “ https://www.ndn.org/. This will cheer you up. We need to take control of the narrative!
Aaron Rouse won his special Election in VA 19,430 to 19, 082. PostcardsToVoters.org volunteers sent 11,209 handwritten postcards into Virginia to remind Democrats to vote. Calls were made, funds donated.
Three super important Special Elections are coming up on February 7th for Pennsylvania State House. We won a majority in November: 102-101. But one rep died, another moved to Congress and 3rd became Lt. Gov. We need to defend our majority so we have it for 2024. And on Feb 21st, we have a Special Election for US Congress in VA! Important elections coming up. Hopefully we will write for these, too! And for Wisconsin! Every postcard could be a vote! Thanks if you are helping already. If haven't tried it yet, you can order stamps online at usps.com and get postcards via the postcardstovoters.org website or on Amazon.
IT feels great to help!
Thank you Robert for labeling it Bingo because it is a game: Crisis Bingo. The point is to keep you focusing on the GOP and their antics, the media plays its supporting role and everyone plays. Why do they do it & why do we play in? Perhaps we won’t notice that are real problems such as poverty, climate crisis, homelessness are not being addressed. What do you think? Pat Sax
A mell of a hess! I just read a NYT article about disaffected ethnic and national volunteers who are coming to the aid of Ukraine. Chechnians, Uigars, Turkics, others who speak Russian, have joined the fray. There will be dancing in the streets for victory over all that has suppressed them in the past, if they help Ukraine win.
We pray to God for the Ukraine and the rest of Europe where 2 wars (physical and financial) are taking place. We pray to God that this war stops, that the many many casualties, the enormous negative financial side effects and all those other repercussions which we all know about, take an end, that they don`t persist.
Europe is suffering its worst crisis since the Second World War and everybody asks: why? Is it necessary to sabotage gas pipe lines? Is it necessary to sanction those who are not at war with anybody? Is it necessary to let people freeze and starve because their homes have been massively bombed? Is it necessary to ignore that this war is causing a huge financial collapse not only to the people of the European countries but also to their land, to their homes, to their families and their economies. Of course, it`s Putins actions and his wrongdoings and his violence I am talking about, his dictatorship.
I suspect Biden will be exonerated. And I recognize that his behavior is completely different from trump’s. My point is that we shouldn’t moan and groan over this but rather let the investigations run their course and let the republicans continue to show their hypocrisy.
There are days when I feel it would be great to be as misinformed, self-righteous, loud, and self-gratified as the GQP seems to be. As I heard Wanda Sykes repeat in a recent live show, “it’s hard to be a Democrat.” We care so much, and we want things to be fair, equal, and just. It seems such a simple formula, and we were much further along that journey until Trump unleashed the hounds of Hell in the GQP, creating a base and leaders who are intent to reinstate a white, faux Christian, male patriarchy again - as if that were the good ol’ days! With the Biden documents, so different than those of Trump at Mar-a-largo, we are set back again in bringing this repeat offender to justice. How the hell does he do it???? The crimes mount up, his minions take the bullet, and he lives to tweet another day! We all new that having this GQP in charge of the House would be atrocious, and it has lived up to that vision from Day One. The fact that they want to continue punishing women for being pregnant, and never mention the men who got them that way, is heart-breaking. They’ve already stolen women’s rights in over half the states. Enough already! And we seem powerless to do anything in our current environment. This week, I watched an excellent segment on Ari Melber’s newscast on MSNBC which outlined the success that women had in the midterms, winning 12 governorships. Of course, that’s nothing compared to all the other male governors, but it’s better than where it was. He mentioned the Democrats, but also the Republican women, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas, and wished them all well. Right on cue, the next day Sanders issues an Executive order to ban the use of the word “Latinx” in any official government document, and for good measure, then banned the teaching of CRT in Arkansas schools. Does no one are that CRT is NOT being taught in any K-12 schools in America???? And yet, we continue to let these GQP zealots get away with the lies and the insults to our intelligence, hurting all of us in the whitewashing of history and the government overreach in our personal lives. And this is a WOMAN. Imagine where she stands on women’s rights to choose. So discouraging. Ron DeSantis continues to demean the marginalized in Florida and receives resounding applause. Now he wants to start sending the Department of Health and Human Services to monitor the parents who allow their children to attend drag shows, as some sort of child abuse. Drag shows???? What tiny percentage of life does that involve in Florida or anywhere? And yet, DeSantis builds his platform as the GQP’s Man of the Hour by all of these most un-Christian, wretched moves. And he wins a majority of votes in that state. What am I missing??? Praying that the Dems will stay united, determined, and mad as hell about what the GQP is doing to us. First and foremost, we must educate our large base to get out and vote for every election! That is the worst part. We could have won the House again if only more Democrats across the country had simply gone to vote. Sorry to be the Grinch. Looking for signs of changing winds coming our way.