Thanks to everyone who donated to our Balloon Juice Nowhere to Hide Fun. We went over 30K on it a coupe days ago. We’ve now raised about 15K total since the New Year. So, as promised, a baby picture. He’s flashing gang signs, as you can see.
I may move to a different online fundraising site as ActBlue is making itself increasingly difficult to use. In the meantime, I thought it would be a good time to raise some money for a young rising Democrat, Beto O’Rourke. Republicans do a much better job of promoting their own, turning them into “rock stars” and that kind of crap. I’ve been following Beto O’Rourke on social media and I think he might be special. Texas Senate is a tough one but let’s get behind him.
Update. ActBlue thermometers just aren’t working AT ALL right now, so I’ll try again later.
Update update. Finally working.
schrodingers_cat
Very cute! And fashionable too, love the stripy outfit!
WaterGirl
I laughed out loud about flashing gang signs. Too funny. Beautiful boy!
What is Act Blue doing that makes it increasingly difficult to use?
dr. bloor
And we’re having fun. With no money.
Little smile. On his face.
Don’t cha love. The little baby.
Don’t you want to make him. Stay up late.
Yutsano
O’Rourke is really making a play for Tailgunner Ted. Good. Nothing would make me happier than to see ol’ Rafael have to live off his wife’s hedge fund money.
Also: SQUEEEEE!!!! KIDLET!!!
trollhattan
Awwwww, cute! And congratulations on landing a keeper.
David Anderson
TOO MUCH CUTE — MUST BOOP NOSE
Doug!
@WaterGirl:
All kinds of weird flash bullshit. Takes me seven clicks to get to the thermometer now.
mb
kinda big hands. prolly never be president. sad.
trollhattan
@dr. bloor:
Boldly throwing some Talking Heads to Doug! Good choice, actually.
MomSense
Awww, so sweet. He’s a handsome baby.
Beto is a rock star. This is the time to turn Texas blue!
Mnemosyne
@dr. bloor:
Baby baby, please let me hold him
I wanna make him stay up all night
Sister sister, he’s just a plaything
I wanna make him stay up all night
Here we go!
eclare
Very cute!
geg6
Awww, Doug! Jr.! is adorable. I want to give him tummy raspberries.
WaterGirl
@Doug!: Boy, I understand how that could be unpleasant!
WaterGirl
I don’t watch the cable news shows – or any news shows – so the only time I see Don Lemon is when you guys post a link. But I have been impressed every single time, including today.
P.S. Why do we hate him?
Doug!
@WaterGirl:
He’s an idiot. He thought that maybe a black hole swallowed up that Indonesian airliner.
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
He was a dick about Hillary. Repeatedly.
spudgun
Sooooo cuuuuuuuuuute!! What a chuchi face!!
Gin & Tonic
@Doug!: Malaysian.
Jeffro
Does ActBlue take Bitcoin? Several of my knucklehead friends jumped on that bandwagon a month ago and I think they want off…
texasboyshaun
Thanks for showing Beto some love and a shout-out. We’re not a hopeless case down here, no matter what the GOP and other haters want you to believe.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Baby go HI! All night long.
In the playpen WOO!
With the television on
Jeeze, it’s been a while since I’ve heard that one.
BABY! He’s adorable. Congrats, Doug. I see he’s a member of the Teetsuckers 84th Street.
texasboyshaun
@Yutsano: From your lips to God’s ears! Lyin’ Ted is the only thing in Texas greasier than Eagle Ford.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
I think it’s in my iTunes, but it’s obviously also burned into my brain.
JamesKPolkEsq
Congratulations on beautiful child! Benjamin looks like a special one :D
JPL
Look at those long fingers! The shit hole in the white house must be so envious.
cain
@texasboyshaun:
Oh no, we know you’re not. In fact, with hispanics and californias coming over there we got a chance to turn Texas blue. If we get Florida and Texas, we have a lock on the college. There will be no escape for the GOP then they can’t demand the college to go away because they already have lost the popular vote.
In any case, that EC still needs to go.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: ditto on the brain burn. I am still trying to digitize my tapes for my music server, but i’ve never owned that album.
Patricia Kayden
Cute baby.
Rep John Lewis just stated on Katy Tur’s show that he will not be attending SOTU. Good! At the very least the entire Black Caucus should skip it.
Scott
Here’s the Texas Monthly profile on Beto.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/makes-beto-orourke-run/
marcopolo
Done. I may have to up the $$ amount I set as my 2018 campaign contribution goal. I am a quarter of the way there and it isn’t even February yet.
jacy
Congrats, DougJ! BABY! Enjoy every minute — before you know it he’ll be a surly teenager.
Locally, we have an openly gay Democrat running against Garret Graves for 6th Congressional District who getting some attention from liberal peeps in my circle.
eclare
@cain: Friend of mine works in Plano, I think Toyota alone is hiring 8000-9000 people. Some will come from CA, some won’t, but that is a lot of people.
Also McKesson moving from San Francisco.
Tom
Beto’s running against Ted Cruz, who is widely despised in Texas and who’s approval numbers are abysmal. It’s a heavy lift but doable, and would turn the Senate blue for sure. Let’s have at it!
Brachiator
Beautiful baby! Congratulations again.
mai naem mobile
That is one cute adorable baby. I see he his appropriately dressed in blue . Are those MS13 gang signs he’s flashing? See, Dolt45 and Keebler Elf were right. MS13 are taking over New Yawk.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
My daughter’s baby boy was born Dec. 18 – I have pics on my phone I wish I could share that are equally as cute as that little guy! It motivates me to donate money for a better future for all the kids who deserve better than what we’re handing over to them. I donated money to Doug Jones and that worked out well, and yesterday I got a fundraise request from Claire McCaskill. Since the women are the only ones who seem capable of doing any heavy lifting now, I’ll write her a check directly then try to ignore the onslaught of emails.
Yarrow
So cute! Thanks for the picture. He’s adorable.
Beto is great. Here’s a great interview with him on CNN. It’s after Doug Jones won and Beto talks about how that relates to the 2018 election in Texas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbntXspo0mA
Also, I’ve mentioned the Texas Organizing Project before. They’re the ones doing grassroots organizing in Texas and have managed to get some big wins. 2016 was actually a good election year in Texas in areas where they were working. You can donate to them if you want.
Here’s an article on Texas Dems that has a lot of good info on TOP including how they got started, how they work, and the successes they’ve had.
Mary G
I have to admit that I have a major crush on Beto. He used to be in a punk band, looks like a Kennedy and has been going to every little town in Texas even if five people show up to talk. I linked to this Texas Observer article here before, but if you’re on the fence about donating, please read it before you decide.
I was at Christmas dinner with friends from San Francisco who are textbook totebaggers, they give big money to Democrats but don’t pay much attention and always ask me about politics. They were bitching and moaning about Biden, Nancy Smash, and Elizabeth Warren being too old, and being unenthused about the resistance even though they loathe Twitler.
I yelled at them and told them to look into Jason Kander and Beto. Somebody got out a phone right in the middle of dinner and suddenly they all had them out and they were in love. I bet I raised at least $500 right there.
ETA: sorry, Doug, I forgot to mention that Benjamin is beautiful.
Yarrow
@Mary G: Good for you! Beto says he goes to those small towns and people say they’ve never had a Senate candidate visit them ever in their memory. That’s good politics on his part.
Chat Noir
What a cutie pie!
For what it’s worth, Doug, the Pod Save America guys are raising money for Swing Left. I hope Iron Stache Randy Brice takes out that scum bag Lyin’ Paul Ryan.
Mary G
@Yarrow: Grassroots multiply. It’s part of the reason Issa went down. When the primary in 2016 was closer he said on record that he’s show up for a few events and once everybody was his pearly whites in his handsome face he’d be fine. That and his terrible constituent service (the answer to every problem was to offer an American flag that had hung over the capitol) he almost lost. Showing up all the time in 2017 was too little, too late.
Betty Cracker
Awwww! He’s beautiful! ?
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
In contrast, we recently received a glossy mailer from our Democratic Congresscritter, Brad Sherman, featuring a big photo of him with his constituent services team to let people know that they will be at Sherman’s next town hall to help people on the spot.
eclare
@Mnemosyne: My Congresscritter, Steve Cohen, has Congress On Your Corner events about every six weeks, usually at a library or community center
debbie
He’s developed quite a side eye for such a young age.
J R in WV
Doug,
As a big contributor, Act Blue is great for me. I set up monthly or weekly (for Doug Jones) donations and they just happen. I get a receipt in email, and its on the CC report monthly.
Years ago I went to the Federal Election Commission and looked my self up – Holy crap I said, that’s a lot of money. But I have the same name as my late s0c-ialist uncle, who was more well to do than I, and donated to many Democrats. Looking at the report, I was proud to be following his sterling example.
I donated to today’s guy, and the thermometer appears to have captured the donation pretty promptly. Sorry they’re messing with the software on the back-end, I hope they don’t drive up away. Sending them both a written letter and a scathing email might help. We’re raising a lot of money.
I believe Act Blue has raised over 2 Billion dollars for progressive candidates!
DougJ
@J R in WV:
They really did screw up the interface tho