I am excited to announce the launch of #FairFight2020, a comprehensive initiative to staff, fund, and train voter protection teams on-the-ground in battleground states across the country.
Join our fight to protect the vote at https://t.co/kwO6JZ0kHE. pic.twitter.com/ymf3rSf5GD
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 13, 2019
Per the Washington Post:
… Abrams, speaking at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades in Las Vegas, announced a 20-state voter protection initiative, using her experience challenging voting laws during her gubernatorial campaign last year in Georgia, which included widespread irregularities.
“We’re going to have a fair fight in 2020 because my mission is to make certain that no one has to go through in 2020 what we went through in 2018,” Abrams said…
The effort, expected to cost between $4 million and $5 million, will target 20 states, most of them battlegrounds in the Midwest and Southeast, and three states with gubernatorial elections this year: Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi…
In past election cycles, campaigns and state parties tended to wait until the start of general election campaigning to put together voter protection programs, which were often dismantled after elections. But with ongoing efforts by Republican state lawmakers to pass more restrictive voting laws, Groh-Wargo said, it was important that Democrats start working now to be ready to help voters navigate potential hurdles. Similarly, some states, such as Michigan and Nevada, have recently passed laws to expand access to voting, and party leaders and activists in those states need to make sure voters can take advantage of the changes…
The majority of the program will be run by Fair Fight PAC. Depending on the campaign finance laws of individual states, Fair Fight will make direct cash donations or will help groups raise money to hire staff, set up voter hotlines and develop public information campaigns…
Read the whole thing — it’s really uplifting!
Maybe some super-rich Democrats could consider funding @staceyabrams 's national effort to protect voting rights at the level it deserves. I discuss: https://t.co/Mypg3NhrOl
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) August 13, 2019
… Four to five million dollars. Meanwhile, Tom Steyer has promised to spend $100 million running for president, spent $7 million on TV and digital ads in his first month as a candidate. It’s half of what John Delaney — who, spoiler alert, is not going to be president, either — has already spent on his campaign.
Every Democrat agrees that countering voter suppression and enabling turnout are absolutely critical, and there’s no one better to do these things than Abrams, who has worked on this issue in Georgia for years. Liberal donors ought to be falling all over themselves to give her their money. The budget for this project should be $50 million, not $5 million. Or more…
Unfortunately, fighting voter suppression isn’t as exciting as presidential politics, and neither are state legislative races. The news is filled with what’s going on in the presidential campaign, it’s driven by personality (which we all find inherently interesting), and it’s what everyone’s talking about. So it can be hard to tear your eyes away to think about something less glamorous.
But Democrats don’t want to wake up the morning after Election Day and say, “Gee, maybe we should have invested more time, effort and money into fighting voter suppression and helping down-ballot candidates. Maybe it shouldn’t have been a piecemeal effort with a bunch of underfunded groups trying to make do, while the presidential nominee scrambled to mobilize voters in the last few months of the campaign. Maybe it would have made the difference in some of those battleground states.” …
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
rikyrah
Yes..phuck Steyer’s vanity run. He could easily fund Ms. Abrams and Mr. Gillum’s project with registering former felons in Florida.
But, that’s not sexy like impeachment ??
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Only 1 in 5 people who will vote Dem want M4A. It rates poorly, even before being hit by endless, distorting and demagoguing attack ads.
Warren would do better to move away from Wilmer’s box office poison and move towards Kamala’s sweet spot.
p.a.
The Deplorable admin is so horrible on every front that resources- human and $$- can be in short supply everywhere. While global climate change is the gorilla-in-the-room threat, almost nothing can be accomplished on any front unless we protect (actually restore) American democracy.
ETA There are Never Again actions today. Check for them.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
That worries me too. Almost makes me lean toward Biden (but not yet).
OzarkHillbilly
Fuck discuss, stop wishing for a Daddy Megabucksfucks to come and rescue you. You think they got rich by investing in your electoral rights? Here’s a thought, don’t talk, do.
Send her some money, maybe volunteer.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Tell it
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
My attitude also …. as soon as I win the lottery.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Just put $25 in the kitty, not much, but mountains/stones and all that.
gene108
There are no Democratic billionaires. There are some, who now align with Democrats, like Bloomberg, because Republicans are crazy.
If there were any Democratic billionaires, they would see what Republican billionaires were doing, with regards to think tanks, starting media outlets – first in print, then radio, and finally Fox News – and poured money into funding liberal/Democratic equivalents.
Fact nothing has really happened in our favor makes it clear there are no Democratic billionaires.
Chyron HR
@gene108:
I think the word you’re looking for is “supervillains”, not “billionaires”. Although there’s certainly a left-wing voting block that equates the two.
rikyrah
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Glad that folks are making it clear, when only 1 in 5 Democratic Party voters is interested in MFA. Good to know.
OzarkHillbilly
Revealed: Republican lawmaker aided group training young men for ‘biblical warfare’
Outdoor activities for young men and boys certainly sounds wholesome, doesn’t it?
What could be more Christian than killing infidels?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
debbie
@rikyrah:
Maybe as presidential candidates drop out of the race, they could donate whatever funds they have to Fair Fight PAC.
rikyrah
???? Only4RM ???? (@Only4RM) Tweeted:
Your periodic reminders:
1) When press reference “evangelicals,” they mean white evangelicals. They’re NOT talking Mother Emanuel, Padre Alberto or Rev. Barber’s congregations.
2) During Jim Crow, there was serious overlap btwn local church rolls and the Grand Wizard’s roster. t.co/mWvZXlpJpE t.co/5hvoXGmX39 twitter.com/Only4RM/status/1161360217290039296?s=17
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
The quality of the training makes it more likely they’ll be smiting each other more than anything else.
rikyrah
Check the bank accounts of them and close family
Clifford Levy (@cliffordlevy) Tweeted:
Just in:
Jeffrey Epstein’s guards fell asleep and falsified records to cover up their failure to check on him for three hours before he died.
t.co/XXewTzcMe9 twitter.com/cliffordlevy/status/1161477999671304192?s=17
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: If they were funds collected under FEC rules they can’t, if they have PAC monies, they can. Funds donated to the candidate for running can only be used for a federal election campaign.
rikyrah
Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) Tweeted:
Trump underwater in…
– Wisconsin (by 10)
– North Carolina (by 9)
– Virginia (by 17)
– Utah (by 3)
– Pennsylvania (by 12)
– Texas (by 1)
– New Hampshire (by 26) (not a typo)
– Michigan (by 11)
– Iowa (by 4)
– Arizona (by 9)
Wait… Utah?
t.co/qYNlEf9kYI twitter.com/maddow/status/1161394595646885889?s=17
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good point. I do that. I’ll try to stop.
rikyrah
Pictures like this make my ovaries ache ???
twitter.com/pattyamaka_/status/1160813071226540032
rikyrah
Yes Soledad ?? ?
twitter.com/soledadobrien/status/1161555616663576576
debbie
@rikyrah:
Mine too, but why would Twitter mark that as “may contain sensitive material”???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Twitter said that was potentially sensitive content. I braved it though.
debbie
@rikyrah:
She should also have cited back in the 1970s when the Trumps were cited by the DOJ for housing discrimination.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I see Ken Cuccinelli not only says the Statue of Liberty welcomes immigrants who can stand on their own two feet, but also refers to immigrants coming from Europe. I hate these people.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, cry that there are people out there dumb enough to think their so called training is actually serious, or laugh at the rubes who don’t know they are the punch line to the joke. The sad fact tho is that even if 4,999 of 5 thousand who show up for this kind of stupidity say “fuck this shit” because of bugs and rain and never return, there will be one who takes the message of hate as the calling that fills the void in his miserable lonely existence and become the next Robert Bowers or Patrick Crusius.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I did as well.
rikyrah
Needle of Arya (@Needle_of_Arya) Tweeted:
Apparently this happens a lot in white families, where the son plots to become a white domestic terrorist and no one in the family notices until it’s either too late, or the feds come busting down their door.
“B-b-but he was a such a quiet, well-behaved boy! We had no idea!” ? t.co/RLJUnt4j5s twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1161599387748851712?s=17
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Agreed. How will we ever stuff the stupid in this country back into its box?
Betty Cracker
Does anyone listen to Chris Hayes’ podcast, “Why Is This Happening?” It’s good! He had Rep. Katie Porter on this week. I already liked her for her pointed questioning of grifting bankers and Trump flunkies like Ben Carson during congressional hearings, but after hearing her fascinating back story, I like her even more.
She took Elizabeth Warren’s bankruptcy law class at Harvard, and Warren became her mentor. Porter admired Warren so much that she named her daughter “Elizabeth.” After law school, Porter worked for Kamala Harris’s AG office in California, where she grew to love and admire Harris too.
Hayes tried to get Porter to endorse one or the other for president, and Porter said she’d love to see both on the ticket and was not ready to choose between them yet. You could tell she was really torn about it.
Anyhoo, if you find yourself with an hour available to listen to a podcast, I highly recommend that episode. Porter’s back story is pretty amazing. She grew up in a tiny town in Iowa and went to a public school with about two dozen students. Then through an improbable combination of luck and favorable timing, she ended up getting full scholarships to a fancy prep school and then Yale and Harvard.
She sort of fell into running for Congress in the same haphazard manner. She’s incredibly sharp and unassuming. Her district is lucky to have her.
rikyrah
New Day (@NewDay) Tweeted:
“Ken Cuccinelli told on himself and now we’re ready for a lawsuit,” says @angela_rye about the top immigration official who said that only immigrants who can “stand on their own two feet” are welcome in the US.
t.co/4GdoXHZ0s9 t.co/UulWHHis51 twitter.com/NewDay/status/1161587417519919104?s=17
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: From what I have read, that facility is woefully understaffed. They are all working excessive overtime. Having worked 6/10s and once even a 7/12 job I know how soul sucking that is and how one becomes so fatigued that no amount of sleep is ever enough. Chances are pretty good that is exactly what happened here. Sadly, they’ll take the fall while everybody above them skates.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I wonder if his podcast is more like his old weekend show used to be. That was a good show. His nightly show is not nearly as good.
I don’t really do podcasts though.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Her takedowns of the ill prepared are some of my favorite videos from this Congress.
When she told one of the clowns,
“If you need to know how to do the calculations, I can give you a copy of the textbook I wrote”…
Classic ??
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s why they make the little bucks.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: I finally wrote about the latest developments in Kashmir.
A Troubled Paradise, I have also sent AL a link so she can FP it.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: The HORROR!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I liked his weekend show too, he seems to need about 24-48 hours to digest the news. His nightly show was(I’ve not watched it in years) not very good.
Princess
I am extremely upset. I saw an ad for Lume deodorant on Facebook and watched it as one sometimes does. Embedded in the video was the worst example of hate speech I have seen in a mainstream source. Waaaay deep down in this commercial she compares bacteria migrating to different parts of your body to the “Southern border” and an open border policy. She is calling immigrants, bacteria. I’ve complained to FB though there was no place to explain what I objected to, I’ve commented on the video, and I wrote to the company. I also posted it to my FB page but I’m not sure what else I can do.
The exact text of the ad is “most ‘Southern’ odor is caused by bacteria migrating from the butt. It’s open borders down there!” And it’s all just so cutesy-pie.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I don’t watch it regularly, but I find it inconsistent. Some days are really good and others are really frustrating.
Kay
Money matters, but Democrats and allied groups are raising lots and lots of small donor money and Abrams will too. It’s more important it be focused and effective than flush with cash. It’s hard to tell from the outside if the voting rights groups are “successful” – some of them are but some are not and are just churning thru cash hiring people and raising money. In 2004 in Ohio we had plenty of funding, there were several groups working in the state at the same time along with the Kerry campaign but I think a lot of it was wasted – they were all working off the same lists and doing the same things and it was chaotic.
Abrams org has litigation, legislation and organizing as the three focus areas and so one way people outside CAN tell if they’re getting anything done is to look at the lawsuits they bring or join and then win. In Ohio, for example, the Green Party brings dumb lawsuits which no one else joins and they lose. The ACLU, otoh, brings smart lawsuits other orgs join and they win.
Abrams is an actual expert on voting rights and a practitioner with voting systems so her org could be really good. She also was robbed in that election so it’s personal to her.
rikyrah
Brent Staples (@BrentNYT) Tweeted:
Republicans ridicule black and brown women – because they fear them, write Taeku Lee and EunSook Lee for @nytopinion
t.co/TXJEacVCek twitter.com/BrentNYT/status/1161290427737280515?s=17
Baud
@Princess:
That is … remarkable. Never heard of the product before.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Shit rolls down hill.
rikyrah
@Princess:
You have to wonder what their ‘team’ looks like.
That went all the way from concept board, to actual ad, with nobody saying…
‘this shyt sounds racist as phuck”?
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Thanks for the link
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: @Betty Cracker: @BillinGlendaleCA: I listen to his podcasts at the gym or in the background while I’m doing something else. I do think they’re more like his weekend show used to be. He’s better in a long form.
JPL
@Princess: When I typed in the product name, a few you tube videos popped up. One was from facebook with a lady in an orange dress. Was that it?
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Thanks. Although I don’t see Chris Hayes as the type of thing I’d listen to while working out.
Baud
@JPL:
Orange as in Trump? Hmmm.
OzarkHillbilly
Julian Castro is making it real and in trump’s face:
“Ya Basta!”..
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: As I said last night,
I’m tired and I’m poor, but hot damn! I can stand on my own two feet and need no help from nobody!
*slams head into table again*
Someone ask this assclown about conditions in Italy (or Sicily) when his ancestors brought their poor, tired asses to these shores
And then Wonkette informed me the bastard’s non-Italian ancestors were Irish!
Oh Ken! You’re such a walking pile of trash.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Maybe Ken isn’t the best example to use when talking about the value of immigrants to this country.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I wasn’t a podcast person either until I moved to the hinterlands, but now that accomplishing the simplest errand requires a road trip, I find they’re a nice break from the playlist.
Kay
One of the good things that could come out of small donor fundraising is the groups or campaigns that spend the money could have to account for how they spent it. This is (obviously) my obsession, but where and how they spend it as important as how much they raise. I think the recall election in Wisconsin is a good example. That was a bad idea. It could have been funded at twice the level it was funded (and they raised and spent a lot of money) and it still could have failed because it reaches the point where there’s 3 million voters in Wisconsin, 90% are decided, and all that money is chasing 150,000 voters. It isn’t the money. They make good or bad decisions on where to put it.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m with her mother on this one. OCD much?
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: ‘biblical warfare’?
So….ummmm…. attacking peaceful, law-abiding, minding-their-own-business Muslims with stone spears that they made themselves?
I must’ve never read the fifth gospel – The Gospel According to Jesus Advocating Mass Murder
*sigh*
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: Sounds unpleasant. ?
Very cute pictures in that tweet.
rikyrah
This is the main reason why those responsible for Dolt45 will NEVER EVER BE FORGIVEN ? ?
Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) Tweeted:
Donald Trump has appointed 43 U.S. appeals court judges in 2½ years—about a quarter of the entire appellate bench, which has the last word on most federal cases.
Nearly all are in their 30s, 40s or 50s.
Barack Obama got 55 appellate judges in 8 years.
t.co/U8SpOYHFsB twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1161310605476859906?s=17
rikyrah
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) Tweeted:
Epstein accuser Jennifer Araoz has filed a lawsuit against his estate, Ghislaine Maxwell and three household staff. The complaint alleges that the staffers and Maxwell conspired “to make possible and otherwise facilitate the sexual abuse and rape.” t.co/uqlGvUxayG twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1161608409570897927?s=17
Kristine
I signed up to make a monthly donation. #FairFight2020
I’m glad they’re starting now. They need to. People can’t vote unless they can register, and the poll tax states are putting up as many roadblocks as they can to impede them.
mrmoshpotato
@Princess: And I thought that women’s underarm deodorant that Colbert mocked on The Colbert Report years ago was bad. Jeebus!
Colbert clip
Kay
Why do campaigns cost so much more than they did? More population- more voters to reach- and longer- but can that account for the insane increase in total spent? How much of it works? How much of success is attributable to how much they spent and what part is the candidate and the political environment? Schultz just wasn’t appealing and his scolding, grim lectures probably wouldn’t have been popular if he spent every starbuck he had and he’s certainly a good businessman- that’s a successful company, yet he was delusional.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: OTOH, I’d wager that a majority of the judges are replacing Reagan/HW Bush appointees.
randy khan
It’s been evident for a while that Stacey Abrams is a smart woman with her eye on the ball.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: ICYMI, Popehat at TheAtlantic:
Have a strong stomach.
tl;dr – it’s the system, not a particular facility or person.
Grrr….
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
@Baud: I’ve decided not to watch.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah:
Maybe that was said, but followed up with “But will it sell?”
Kay
@Kristine:
I signed up too and made a one time donation. A bigger email list helps her raise money because they use the lists as a metric to judge “reach”. I really like her. I hope it succeeds. Voters need an effective advocate.
Immanentize
@mrmoshpotato:
And here we are discussing their youtube ad. Completely successful advertising campaign.
rikyrah
What’s that?
Oh yeah, just dust ? ?
twitter.com/Brink_Thinker/status/1160892492826456070
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: I enjoy me some podcasts (not all of them political/current events) while washing dishes.*
*Unless you have one of them automatic dishwashers, you coastal elite.
Also good for a listen while prepping veggies, etc. But keep your ears on the podcast and eyes on the knife.
Immanentize
@Kay:
I wish these many efforts — Abrams, ACLU, Holder’s group, SPLC, etc. Would at least pretend to coordinate. They all seem to be seeking the same donation streams. Namely me and Ozark. ?
Another Scott
Thanks for FPing this. I donated this morning via an e-mail.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: You might be on to something there.
zhena gogolia
@Immanentize:
Just like gun control.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: I’m not a member of an organized political party, I’m a Democrat.
Immanentize
@rikyrah:
I like that the first reply gif is of chopping onions.
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: @?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yep
satby
Good morning all.
So we have Vote Riders, Let America Vote, Brennan Center for Justice, the ACLU, and now FairFight20. I’m probably forgetting some orgs.
I hope they all pool resources and work together.
Edit: @Immanentize: ah, I see the same thought occurred to you.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: Not necessarily. I know next to nothing about this product and won’t be buying it.
I don’t buy Unilever products anymore because of the Colbert clip I posted.
Can’t say ads are successful if everyone talking about them says, “Screw that company.” It’s not really the ultimate goal of advertising.
Betty Cracker
So, I took over our bathroom remodeling project after we fired the contractor, and I’m making progress! Completed most of the tile and trim work this week. I don’t particularly enjoy that kind of work while I’m doing it, but it is satisfying once it’s completed; there’s a sense of accomplishment.
satby
@Baud: hey now, orange is the new black. And it’s my favorite color. Don’t dis the orange just cause it’s got unfortunate association with the tangerine traitor.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Good on you (and yours). Tiling is a pain for me too, mostly because I want it perfect and it never is. But the finishing is always rewarding.
RAVEN
This oughta rile up the football haters
“biting guys in the nuts and putting thumbs in their ass”
Kay
@Immanentize:
I do too, but that isn’t how Democrats roll. It’s a real failing, our inability to work as a team, and I’ve reached the point where I don’t think it should be indulged as much as it has been – “oh, that’s impossible with Democrats!” Why? They could get better at it. I’m not asking for marching in unison but they could make an effort. I think we’re helped right now by the fact the Right is absolutely riddled with grifters and con men so we’re (still) better as far as money wasted.
I have no proof for this- nothing solid other than grumbling I heard- but I think some of the opposition to Obama or criticism of him had to do with how he cut a lot of the groups out. His campaign was really good at saying “no” – they didn’t outsource or align with the established orgs, because they thought they could do it better. I think that made enemies of people in the campaign business, and it is a business. I actually think that’s what Rahm Emanuel meant when he said “the professional Left”. That’s a very specific group. Paid v unpaid. That’s a division.
It’s hard to tell. If people who are paid by D campaigns are screaming “they’re outspending us!”, well, they WOULD say that, right? I think it’s okay to ask “how much more do you need and for what, specifically?”
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Woo hoo! It’s satisfying when you can actually see the progress you’ve made.
Immanentize
@satby:
And orange and black together are the new Halloween.
Wait….
Betty Cracker
@satby: VoteRiders focuses on voter education and helping people obtain ID. I’d classify its activities as complementary rather than duplicative.
Immanentize
@Kay:
I bet you will never hear this from Warren’s campaign. I get her emails and she hasn’t done it yet. Sanders relied on that as his steady money ask topic in 2016.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Scott: Missed it. Thx.
Kay
@Immanentize:
You just see really well run campaigns sometimes and it seems to me that the best ones are top down. Someone really does have to be in charge. This is like heresy in Democratic circles because everyone wants to think it’s all loose and free thinking, but Democrats have that propensity anyway so they need more order. The issue campaign to overturn Kasich’s anti-labor law was a really good campaign and it was RUN by the AFL-CIO. They didn’t ask for or want any “ideas”. They had a plan and if you helped you were gonna stick to it. They shut out a Lefty group here who wanted to join one of their rallies with some broad general complaint – piggyback on their rally- because they had ONE thing they wanted to accomplish- repeal that law.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I’m supporting her and I like her emails too- they’re a little different. I usually block the emails after I donate and I haven’t for hers yet.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Progress is almost as satisfying as finishing. Happy to hear this.
delk
Just checked in for my hip replacement. All those carefree nights on the dance floor have caught up with me.
kindness
I really like Stacey. I think she’s a force to be reconned with. I wish she was running for office though (not President). But I will help her none the less.
Immanentize
@delk:
Good luck you dancing fool!
Kay
So I’m talking to my son in Denmark and he is telling me about his work group. It’s him and Danes. He thinks they want more direction and that isn’t what he’s used to in US tech companies – he can’t get them to try something themselves- he won’t be mad- he wants them to play with it and he expects most of it to fail because they’re using what he builds – fintech systems- in another capacity and he doesn’t know it if will work- where in the US he had the opposite problem- he wasn’t the boss of them – they’re all mavericks.
He is actually very orderly so although this is new to him he may end up going in their direction rather than the other way around.
he also doubled his Danish lessons. Not understanding what they’re saying when they’re talking to one another (they speak english to him) is driving him crazy.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I don’t speak a word of Danish but I know exactly what they are saying to each other that they don’t want him to know. ;-)
satby
@Betty Cracker: I think a lot of them aren’t necessarily duplicative, but they should be closely aligned because they (by necessity) are going after the same pool of donors. And there’s duplication in the organizations themselves unless they’re geographically restricted. We see it all the time in rescue organizations.
If similarly focused organizations cooperate well there’s a power in leveraging, but if they don’t they’re weakened a bit by going after the same pool of donors and “message confusion”.
As @Kay: notes, it’s a real problem.
satby
@delk: Good luck!
O. Felix Culpa
Set up a monthly recurring donation. This may be one of the most important efforts of our lives.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: That’s me when I visit my in-laws. They speak Tamil, I only understand a few nouns here and there.
mrmoshpotato
@delk: You’ll be back to tearing up the dance floor before you know it!
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
This checks out.
Betty Cracker
@satby: I’m sure that’s true about the donor pool related to voter rights, and there are other organizations that have missions similar to VR, such as Spread the Vote. Just pointing out that helping folks obtain voter ID isn’t necessarily the same mission as countering voter suppression in other ways, like providing legal assistance on the ground.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
The same thing that caused those two USN destroyers to collide with giant slow freighters in crowded sea lanes – too exhausted to think straight.
Same cause, poor management by the Admirals in charge of the Navy staffing and the managers in charge of that prison.
If you only have so many sailors, you can only put the ships to sea you can fully staff.
If you only have so many guards, then you can only have as many prisoners as those guards can safely maintain. You have to release everyone who isn’t violent on pre-trial supervised release if you don’t have the staff to supervise and care for them.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker:
Agreed. Our county Dem party does a lot of voter registration (and we coordinate as much as possible with the League of Women Voters), but we don’t have the resources to address systemic voter suppression. Fortunately that’s not a significant problem where we live, but obviously it is an issue in too many places around the U.S. As far as I can see, there is a kind of division of labor among these organizations – Eric Holder’s group focuses on fighting gerrymandering, VoteRiders on helping folks acquire voter IDs, and now Stacey’s group on combating other systemic voter suppression efforts. I think it’s ok.
Barbara
I got called last night by a LIVE CALLER for an organization called Stand For America, which is apparently Nikki Haley’s advance presidential planning committee, and its theme is to stamp out socialism in America. I told the guy I thought they were nuts, and he took umbrage and began yelling at me, and I asked him if he thought Medicare was socialist and whether they were going to stamp that out, at which point he told me that Democrats were going to destroy Medicare and they were going to “force health care on you whether you want it or not.” I really don’t understand how I get on their calling lists, but at least I wasted some of his time.
cliosfanboy
@OzarkHillbilly: unless it hits the fan, then it gets real.
OzarkHillbilly
@J R in WV:
And charge them for the ankle bracelets. Non refundable if found not guilty, of course.
J R in WV
The group that started out as Obama for America evolved first into Organizing for America after Obama was no longer going to run for office. Then it evolved again into the National Redistricting Action Fund, to fight gerrymandering of congressional districts. I do a monthly donation via ActBlue to that group.
Since it is quite different from the goals of Stacy Abrams’s new org, I’ll probably start a small donation to them as well. You need fairly drawn districts AND everyone registered and with ID to vote in those fair districts in order for it to be real Democracy.
mrmoshpotato
@Barbara:
Will these sosholisum-haters start by tearing up the interstate highway system?
I….umm…..?. “We will make it possible to go to the doctor without risking bankruptcy, AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!”
OzarkHillbilly
@cliosfanboy:
Stinky anyway. ;-)
Betty Cracker
@Barbara: Good job pushing back on that nonsense. I’ve heard unsubstantiated (AFAIK) rumors that GOP bigwigs consider Haley a 2020 insurance policy in case Trump drops dead or goes off the rails completely and quits in a huff. Hmmm.
satby
@Betty Cracker: @O. Felix Culpa: we’re kind of talking past each other. I support all of these organizations’ goals. I’m not convinced that slicing and dicing in such a fine tuned way with so many groups is as effective as one umbrella effort would be. Because in the end their goals are the same: remove roadblocks to increase voter access and participation. And I hope they’re all successful. I’d like them to be successful together is all.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Holy $(#$@)/! I do NOT want to know what the GOP would consider Dump going off the rails completely.
“Well, he only nuked Los Angeles. But if he messes with Garrison, North Dakota, we’re done with him!”
Immanentize
@Barbara:
I guess it might be true that Christian Scientists could possibly “not want health care.”. But as a rule, they are not a group that complains about community taxation.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
Or maybe they did say it’s racist as fuck and it got approved faster.
Steeplejack (phone)
@delk:
Good luck! I had surgery two weeks ago and know (some of) what you’re facing. I hope you’ve got your cell phone and it’s charged up! Browsing the Web helps pass the waiting time.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus: “Sorry. We can’t manage to make it more racist.”
“Ugh. Ok. We’ll take it as it is.”
NotMax
Whoopsie.
Betty Cracker
@mrmoshpotato: This is pure speculation and seems unlikely now, but I’m thinking it would be something more along the lines of the economy tanking and Trump flailing around ineffectively to address it and blaming everyone but himself (he’s already laying the groundwork to blame a recession on the Fed), then flouncing from the 2020 campaign rather than staying to get crushed like a rotten grape. As a narcissist, Trump’s overriding aim is to gather praise and avoid humiliation, so under certain not inconceivable scenarios, declining to run in 2020 could be the least-bad option.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Probably.
Tax cuts and Nazis – just fine.
Havoc on our precious stocks (the precious!) – GTFO
Spanky
@Betty Cracker: That scenario fails to take into account the Federal marshals waiting for him outside the WH gates on Jan 20, 2021.
Steve in the ATL
@rikyrah: serious question: are POC evangelicals horrible fucking people like the white ones?
Eunicecycle
@Barbara: I keep getting mailings from the RNC. Got one allegedly from Twitler himself, then a follow-up because I didn’t answer, then one from Melania yesterday! My husband thinks it’s hilarious because I hate them all with the passion of a thousand suns.
ETA: I have never been a Republican although I voted once in the Republican primary 40 years ago.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Betty Cracker:
I wouldn’t rule out a mental collapse. (Only half joking.) I saw clips of Trump’s speech yesterday, and, although I’m not a connoisseur, I thought he hit new heights (depths) of pure, unadulterated craziness.
Tried to find some clips. Colbert’s monologue works pretty well. You get extended doses of Trump interspersed with Colbert’s jokes. But the Trump clips are appalling (even by Trump standards).
JPL
@Eunicecycle: The asshole and Pence once left a voice mails which should not be a problem anymore, since I no longer have a land line.
JPL
@Steeplejack (phone): All I heard was that Obama should be investigated for taking 60 million for a book deal. Personally I’m surprised he didn’t diss Michelle since her book was so successful.
Eunicecycle
@JPL: Ugh. We actually got rid of our landline mainly because we received so many political calls. We live in Ohio, and were ready to pull the plug anyway, but the 2012 election drove us over the edge.
KSinMA
@OzarkHillbilly: I sent some $$.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: These higher up RNC and donor types must really be idiots. Even if the economy tanks, the idea that Trump will assume sufficient ownership to jeopardize his control over, among other things, the possibility of getting indicted, or just, you know, accept any responsibility at all for anything bad that ever happens, is a complete delusion on their part. And the idea that a dark skinned libertarian technocrat like Haley would be the go to savior is also kind of delusional. On the one hand, she is less scary to suburban moms, I would think, but she is also like oil to the water of Trump’s base of WWC types. So the so-called Obama/Trump voters would appear to be at high risk. I don’t know what state she gets them that they otherwise wouldn’t — Arizona? North Carolina? But PA, WI and MI would all likely come back to the D fold, probably along with Iowa. They still don’t grasp how much the “white” of WWC mattered to Trump’s victory.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack (phone): Holy shit, you weren’t kidding. He definitely sounds more deranged than usual.
@Barbara: Excellent point.