Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The revolution will be supervised.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

This really is a full service blog.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / I believe the children are our future

I believe the children are our future

by | 48 Comments

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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.

Goal Thermometer

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  2. 2.

    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?

  3. 3.

    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.

  4. 4.

    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!!!

  10. 10.

    MomSense

    Awww, so sweet. He’s a handsome baby.

    Beto is a rock star. This is the time to turn Texas blue!

  11. 11.

    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!

  15. 15.

    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?

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    Does ActBlue take Bitcoin? Several of my knucklehead friends jumped on that bandwagon a month ago and I think they want off…

  21. 21.

    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.

  22. 22.

    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.

  27. 27.

    cain

    @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.

    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.

  29. 29.

    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.

  31. 31.

    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.

  33. 33.

    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.

  34. 34.

    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!

  36. 36.

    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.

  37. 37.

    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.

  38. 38.

    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.

  39. 39.

    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.

  40. 40.

    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.

  41. 41.

    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.

  42. 42.

    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.

  44. 44.

    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.

  45. 45.

    eclare

    @Mnemosyne: My Congresscritter, Steve Cohen, has Congress On Your Corner events about every six weeks, usually at a library or community center

  47. 47.

    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!

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