Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Bark louder, little dog.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

He really is that stupid.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

“woke” is the new caravan.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / #TeamKendra Visits My Thriving Metropolis

#TeamKendra Visits My Thriving Metropolis

by | 109 Comments

This post is in: ,

Just got back from an open meeting with Kendra Fershee at Bethany College, and we had a really good turnout:

She spoke for about 90 minutes, and there were a lot of great questions and a lot of great discussion. Some of the topics included universal healthcare, marijuana legalization, the supreme court nomination, the flawed environment v. business model, coal and natural gas, structural racism and social justice, cash bail and for profit prisons, court and criminal justice reform, education, the NRA stranglehold on the gun debate, women in politics, and much, much, more.

This was the first time I had met her in person, having only spoken with her via social media for the last year (I was an early adopter and got in touch with her shortly after she announced), and she’s the real deal. Just a great person, not slick and fake, she really connects with people when they engage her, and there isn’t a shred of the kind of arrogance you get with so many politicians. The students really liked her, and so did the adults. I’m really hoping she pulls it off because I think she is the kind of representation West Virginians deserve in Congress. You know how every now and then you just get excited about a certain candidate because they are a real person- that’s how I feel about Fershee.

Here she is posing with some students in front of the Bethany College mascot, the Bison:

BTW- she is not taking any special interest money and is really a shoestring candidate, and she needs all the support she can get. I’m throwing in another $100.00 bucks and I really hope you will, too:

Goal Thermometer

Let’s get this baby to five or ten thousand! She has another event tonight at WVNCC, and I am thinking about heading to it.

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  2. 2.

    Mary G

    Threw in $10 I don’t have, but she sounds like a Balloon Juice kind of people. Also the whole Kavanaugh meshugas is taking me to levels of white hot rage I didn’t even know I had in me, and Democratic women winning a landslide is the only thing that will satisfy it.

  5. 5.

    banditqueen

    She spoke for about 90 minutes, and there were a lot of great questions and a lot of great discussion. Some of the topics included universal healthcare, marijuana legalization, the supreme court nomination, the flawed environment v. business model, coal and natural gas, structural racism and social justice, cash bail and for profit prisons, court and criminal justice reform, education, the NRA stranglehold on the gun debate, women in politics, and much, much, more.

    So, old whitey reubs–you might want to join the real conversation on these issues that matter to the at least 60% of the US population who don’t support your leader. Look where listening to yourselves has got you–whack conspiracy theories, poorly sourced NYT stories, tainted court nominees–and that’s just over the past 24 hours.

  6. 6.

    trollhattan

    Was gonna ask when bison roamed West Virginny but then I recalled tigers never prowled my U’s campus locale, either. So okay then.

    She sounds great, btw.

  8. 8.

    geg6

    That’s exactly how I feel about Conor Lamb. And the good news is the the NRCC just pulled all their ads for Keith Rothfus. Lamb didn’t take penny of PAC money, just individual donations. It can be done! Go Kendra!

  10. 10.

    PAM Dirac

    Go Kendra! I have been volunteering for a similar type candidate for Maryland Senate and it has done wonders for my mental health. You wouldn’t know it if you spend much time on the “important” news organizations, but there are a lot of really smart, energetic, hard working people who really do want to make things better and are willing to address our problems with compassion and cooperation rather than dogma and lies. Any chance of a similar candidate in WV-2? The candidate I’m working for (Jessica Douglass https://douglass4senate.com/) is running against a clown that is in the Maryland Senate, but his full time job is chief of staff for Alex Mooney who is the incumbent in WV-2. It would be great to knock him out of two jobs.

  12. 12.

    Ohio Mom

    @trollhattan: Large herds of bison roamed through Cincinnati long, long ago; I just googled and they also lived in West by God Virginia. Boy did we kill a lot them.

    What a great experience for those college studenta.

  13. 13.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Major Major Major Major: “I’m not only a poster at a top 10,000 politics and pets blog, I’m also the owner.”

    That’s how you get the girls, man. Cole probably just didn’t want to fluster her with his eminence.

  16. 16.

    laura

    Off topic, the tubes are reporting that a Minnesota Republican State Representative just dropped his bid for reelection.
    His 23 year old daughter has reported him for sexual abuse -starting at age 9.
    Their party seems to have issues with decency, sex-pestery, and women as livestock.

  18. 18.

    Martin

    May I just comment that an iced maple pecan latte is a crime against humanity. What the fuck kind of society are you trying to build out there in WV?

  21. 21.

    geg6

    @laura:

    Whoa! Good for her. And how heartbreaking this is. That poor woman. So glad that #MeToo has given her the strength to do this.

  22. 22.

    Poptartacus

    Kicked in 10.00
    The kid asked me why I donate to Democrats
    I told him I’d like him to have future that doesn’t involve cannibalisim

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    20 comments in, and nobody has mentioned the poster featuring THREE separate latte-type drinks? Clearly, this is a hotbed of liberalism, somehow stealthily embedded into Real America.

    Also, pumpkin spice is kind of cliched at this point.

  24. 24.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @laura: I always under the impression that like abortion, recreational drug use and atheism, the conservatives wanted homosexuality as a privilege of the right kind of people (as in white, Christian, Republicans), so I suppose to goes to follow that now homosexuality is socially acceptable behavior, the right just sidestepped into actual loathsome behavior like sexual assault and child molestation. The mind recoils at what will be next.

  26. 26.

    Joy in FL

    This is the third politician I’ve contributed to today! Nobody got much $, but they each got something. Andrew Gillum is one of them.
    Also, I called Pet Plan pet insurance earlier today to verify something and told the person I talked to that I read a blog called Ballon Juice about politics and animals, and that one of the commenters had written about her experience with Pet Plan and highly recommended it. I wish I could remember whose post that was a few months ago; I would thank her/him.
    Also I have ResistBot contacted Rubio and Nelson multiple times and called them about Kavanaugh. Senator Nelson’s staff member told me that he has requested 4 times to meet with Mr. Kavanaugh and not had a positive response. I asked what the Senator would do if he never got a meeting. The staffer did not tell me that Nelson would vote no. I told her I could not understand why he was even considering confirming Kavanaugh, since he was nominated by a president who is a chronic liar and a bully.

  29. 29.

    laura

    @debit:
    Yeah, can you believe it? The same party rushing to install Justice Gang Bang to aid president 130K to hush about my peener hasn’t managed to find the time to vote on the Violence Against Women Act.

  31. 31.

    Martin

    @laura:

    Their party seems to have issues with decency, sex-pestery, and women as livestock.

    I’m increasingly of the view that white christians broadly have no actual understanding of the concept of consent – almost as if it were antithetical to belief. They either see themselves as superior to others by virtue of genetics and therefore better equipped to determine the fate of others, or they see absolution from their own actions because God is really the ones calling the shots here, or both. Girls get raped because they’re inferior. That Kavanaugh made it this far in life without having a piano falling on him is simply evidence that he’s in good standing with God regardless of what he may have done in life. Everything is just an exercise in reaching these conclusions. It’s why they equate gay marriage with marrying a dog, never recognizing that one can give consent while the other cannot. It’s how they can believe that women can just shut that whole thing down. Not that women have the power to do so, rather that God will take care of it for them.

    I find the whole thing to be rather perverted.

  33. 33.

    Thoughtful David

    @laura:
    This reminds me: I want to start a database of politicians who have had their careers affected by wrongdoing. Multipartisan–I’ll include Democrats and independents as well. This guy will go on it.
    I’ll draw up the rules for inclusion and see what everyone thinks.

  35. 35.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    North Dakota Senate candidate

    Cameron Joseph @
    kevincramer calls the Kavanaugh allegations “absurd” because the assault “never went anywhere” and “they were teenagers”:

  37. 37.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m glad we’ve moved onto “Sure, he TRIED to rape her but he failed so it’s okay.”

    There’s a nice side of ” Also, he was just a teenager so it has no bearing on him at all, and let’s just ignore that he’s lied about it already.”

  39. 39.

    TenguPhule

    Why good government matters.

    For the third time in less than three months, an independent review has knocked the government’s controversial use of private tax collectors.

    A new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) lists problems, and recommendations to fix them — and has generated a sharp retort from management.

    Despite failed attempts with the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) use of private bill collectors, Congress mandated the agency try again. This raises significant issues — including taxpayer privacy and allowing private contractors to do sensitive government work. Now, a parade of reports reveals problems that emerged when the latest iteration began last year.

    Free markets solve everything, amirite? //s

    TIGTA says “private collection agencies are performing well based on internal revenue service established performance measures.” That comes with an important caveat.

    The performance metric, TIGTA’s cautioned, “focuses mainly on the telephone call with the taxpayer and not the handling of the case itself.”

    By email, the Partnership for Tax Compliance, which represents the bill collectors, pointed out that the four private collections agencies (PCA) employed by IRS “received a combined (average) customer satisfaction score of 93 percent.”

    Acknowledging “these are positive results,” TIGTA noted “the survey is only administered on calls that last at least 10 minutes and to taxpayers who are still on the line at the conclusion of the PCA employee’s attempt at collection. These may tend to be the most satisfied customers.”

    Cherries! Not just for Kavanaugh to try and pick through use of force anymore!

    No matter how good the telephone operation, financially, the program is making little money and much less than projected. Collecting the $2.4 billion in additional revenue through fiscal 2025, which the report said the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated, is out of reach unless something changes. As of May 31, total program revenue was $56.6 million, just $1.3 million more than its $55.3 million in costs.

    Private contractors solve everything! Including where all the money goes to.

    Despite these facts, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a proponent of the program, accentuated the positive: “The report confirms revenue brought into the federal treasury exceeds program costs, helping recuperate lost taxpayer dollars and make the tax collection system fairer.” Another supporter, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), declined to comment.

    Sen Grassley assures one and all that rhino shit does indeed taste like delicious candy unicorn poop.

    Sen Schumer declines to comment as his mouth is full of rhino shit.

  43. 43.

    Ohio Mom

    @raven: Yeah, I’ve seen that photo. Then you have to multiply that by who knows what.

    We humans are a scourge to this lovely planet.

  47. 47.

    MisterForkbeard

    @TenguPhule: Yeah, and that’s not even 700% spent on “Tax Collectors”, that’s the IRS in its entirety. Including lots of people and systems that aren’t actively involved in tax collection itself, or are administrative, etc.

    The ROI on an actual Government Tax Collector has to be really stupendous.

  48. 48.

    laura

    @ruemara: for once, I wanted to be wrong.
    BTW, how goes the citizenship process? I can’t wait until you take the oath and affirmation, register to vote, and celebrate.

  52. 52.

    MisterForkbeard

    @burnspbesq: Interesting. In Texas, I wonder how that question swings. Like, does “We’re going to ask you a question on Immigration” default to benefitting Cruz or O’Rourke?

  56. 56.

    debbie

    I’m thinking more than a few here will love this one:

    I don't believe the Rosenstein story for a minute. My God, either you think a man two weeks in his job is drunk on power and fancying himself James Bond, or they are leaking to get him.— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) September 21, 2018

    Or this one:

    I have heard better-sourced stories on the golf course. My God, what a disgrace. Old Abe Rosenthal would kill somebody as an example.— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) September 21, 2018

    Or even this:

    Bob Abplanalp told me that his son-in-law's aunt's cousin was married to Jack the Ripper. Rip out page one. https://t.co/4v1siy3h1F— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) September 21, 2018

  57. 57.

    burnspbesq

    Cruz is really good at this shit. Somehow he got to the Second Amendment in an answer about Dr. Ford.

    Beto is giving as good as he’s getting.

  58. 58.

    MisterForkbeard

    @burnspbesq: I guess that’s “Good”. If Cruz was doing that in a debate I was running I’d be pissed he was clearly trying to be clever and as an audience member I’d see it as some pretty ridiculous pandering.

    But I’m not the target audience here.

  61. 61.

    El Caganer

    @burnspbesq: How’d he get the Second Amendment in there? “Is that a pistol you’re packing or are you just trying to rape me?” He must be pretty good at this if he could actually put those pieces together coherently.

  62. 62.

    banditqueen

    The old white men are still listening to themselves talk: Grassley has issued an ultimatum: Dr Ford has until 10pm tonight to “respond” to his demands–or by god he’ll have the vote on Monday.

  66. 66.

    lamh36

    @lamh36: This was BEFORE she went public…so the Kavanuagh folks KNEW this was coming and sent Whelan and the PR folks to get ahead of it!

  68. 68.

    banditqueen

    @Mnemosyne: Dr Ford and her team (the real team America) are doing well so far at calling their bluff–it helps to be reality based. But this is concerning, because team Special K has the voting power for the time being, no matter how trapped in their own dusty minds they are.

  70. 70.

    lamh36

    @HelenofIbadan
    Beto O’Rourke is one classy guy. “How you respond when the president attacks your wife and your father is your business but how you respond when Russia attacks us is all of our business” #TXSenateDebate

    6:33 PM – Sep 21, 2018

  71. 71.

    Bobby Thomson

    @lamh36: that’s a huge unforced error.

    She didn’t go to school with Kavanaugh, so it’s not like Whelan got her name from his yearbook. The only way to narrow it down that quickly is if Kavanaugh gave him the name, which is probably game-set-match, or he got the name from rumors, which is almost as bad (and arguably worse).

  72. 72.

    burnspbesq

    I’m calling it a draw. No material movement of voters. Ted has a handle on all of Beto’s vulnerabilities, and he’s exploiting them effectively. Beto is at least holding his own.

  73. 73.

    burnspbesq

    Cruz is trying to run on low taxes and job growth. He just told his first real whopper, on Medicare.

  80. 80.

    waratah

    I agree Cruz is good at debating but I was pleased that Beto did really well. He generally needs three minutes just to warm up. I think Beto is giving Texans another choice and he was able to do that. Cruz had to attack Beto even on the question of saying something nice about the other politician.

  86. 86.

    frosty

    She sounds a lot like the woman running in my district, Jess King.
    I went to a similar meet’n’greet and signed up to canvass every week up tonthe election. Just a really solid person running a grassroots campaign.

    We need candidates like these! Good to see one in your district, John.

  88. 88.

    Bobby Thomson

    @B.B.A.: @tobie:

    Kavenaugh didn’t tell me, I stole this information from Feinstein’s office/email {a serious crime}. Hmmm.

    Kavenaugh didn’t tell me, my sources in the FBI violated protocol by telling me.

    I suppose both of those options are possible. Or more GRU/ZWikileaks/same thing intervention. But none of the explanations look good. None of them.

  90. 90.

    Bobby Thomson

    @JPL: I guess another possibility is DiFi has a Republican mole on her staff. But that explanation also confirms that Grassley flat out lied when he said he just learned about this on Wednesday.

    And wasn’t there a scandal a few years back where Republican Congressmen had access to Democratic electronic communications?

  94. 94.

    lamh36

    @AJentleson
    At this point, it feels like most people on both sides accept that Kavanaugh attempted to rape Dr. Ford. The major divide seems to be over whether he’s still entitled to a Supreme Court seat.

    6:58 PM – 21 Sep 2018

    @AJentleson
    You can see this in the tone shift among Rs today. They were relying on @EdWhelanEPPC to deliver his promised exoneration. When Ed faceplanted, they shifted from “he didn’t do it” to “fuck it, maybe our boy tried to rape someone but we’re gonna confirm him anyway.”
    https://twitter.com/AJentleson/status/1043292016505958400

  95. 95.

    MisterForkbeard

    @tobie: That was my question as well – if Kavanaugh told Whelan before she went public, then that’s game set and match; he clearly lied about not knowing anything about it.

    If Whelan got it after Feinstein referred it to the FBI that’s a different kettle of fish but still pretty bad.

  96. 96.

    lamh36

    @theferocity
    OH BITCH. There are MORE ads with his siblings forthcoming. “In one video, Grace Gosar says, “It would be difficult to see my brother as anything but a racist.” https://t.co/VugLMSDEpk

    Well damn..now THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT…call them racist family members OUT!!

  98. 98.

    lamh36

    @Mikel_Jollett
    4m4 minutes ago
    More
    Ted Cruz was asked to say something nice about his opponent. Instead, the sniveling weasel uses the time to talk about himself and attack Beto as a clueless “socialist.”

    Beto just looks at Cruz and responds with the quote of the night:

    “True to form.”
    Texas Tribune

  101. 101.

    J R in WV

    @trollhattan:

    There were a ton of Eastern Buffalo, so many that there was Buffalo Running Grass, more recently endangered, but making a comeback from the ATVs running on the trails first formed by buffalo. Turns out that the Buffalo Running Grass needed to be squeezed hard – back in the day by buffalo hooves, nowadays by ATV tires.

  102. 102.

    TenguPhule

    @burnspbesq:

    Ted has a handle on all of Beto’s vulnerabilities, and he’s exploiting them effectively.

    So if this were a game of Mario Kart you’d say the Koopa Troopa that already had Toad peel his banana managed to catch up to Luigi and tried to squid ink his screen?

  104. 104.

    MisterForkbeard

    @tobie: Apparently the current information is that Whelan did this within 90 minutes of the White Hoise learning about it.

    So most likely, the White House immediately leaked it to Whelan and other conservative activists.

  105. 105.

    burnspbesq

    @TenguPhule:

    So if this were a game of Mario Kart you’d say the Koopa Troopa that already had Toad peel his banana managed to catch up to Luigi and tried to squid ink his screen?

    If that means what I think it means, basically yeah.

  106. 106.

    lamh36

    @Percysowner: Look… I have 5 sisters… WHAT DA FUQ kinda person you gotta be to get 6 of your siblings to speak in an ad to support your opponent!!!

    WOW!

  109. 109.

    J R in WV

    @Percysowner:

    OMG, you gotta watch this political ad – This Congressman Gosar guy has like 6 or 7 brothers and sisters, and they all are in the ad for Dr Brill, his opponent, whole heartedly, just ask them. Amazing, killer political commercial. I’m gonna contribute right now.

Comments are closed.