I doubt I’ll be able to watch the debate tonight let alone be up til the wee smalls talking about it the way 10 years ago me would have, BUT I will put up some kind of a fundraiser for Biden after the debate.
I’ll do another House fundraiser later this week. We hit the goal on yesterday’s already. I’ll probably do three or four more batches over the next couple weeks.
Democrats are showing surprising strength in the midwest. Iowa is now a toss-up for Biden, and there’s no reason to think that Theresa Greenfield can’t win. The Kansas race is a little bit of a sleeper. So let’s hit them today. You can see all the races we are supporting here. We’ve raised close to 650K this cycle so far.
Barbara Bollier, Kansas Senate
Theresa Greenfield, Iowa Senate
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m thirty-three, baby.
Had one of those rare (For me) quick recognitions of a lyric and assumed we were turning our attentions to Ohio
DougJ
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I love that song.
Almost Retired
I’ve been doing some phone banking in Iowa, where I grew up. Naturally, I don’t start the conversation by noting that “I left for California 15 seconds after graduation, but I’m nevertheless calling from Los Angeles to tell you how to vote.” But, I’ve been surprised at the vitriol expressed by Independents and Democratic occasional voters against Joni Ernst. Independents and recently-castrated hogs appear to view her with a similar mix of fear and disdain. It gives me hope.
laura
@Almost Retired: I’m really curious if the vitriol against Ernst is due to her burning desire to gut social security of because of her other ghastly policy positions. Do tell please.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@laura:
“Join Ernst wants to castrate social security”
Almost Retired
@laura: Social Security, for sure. Also the stink of Iowa’s abysmal COVID response is sticking to her as well. And more recently, her Supreme Court hypocrisy. That’s the independents and soft Democrats. The hogs have their own concerns.
Mousebumples
Signed up to volunteer with my local state races and us house seat today. If we have a blue wave/tsunami in Wisconsin, i want to know i did what I could to have more democrats as representatives!
Eural Joiner
be up til the wee smalls talking about it the way 10 years ago me would have
Wow, ain’t that the truth! I really blame all of my (former) “conservative” friends. Ten years ago I thought they were sincere and we were having meaningful conversations around shared ideals and values. Today, I know they are all full of crap and I couldn’t care less what they think.
Gin & Tonic
@Almost Retired:
How do you get them to answer the phone?
Almost Retired
@Gin & Tonic: Most modern hog confinement units have VoIP systems. Duh.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I usually recognize the song that title Doug’s posts but have to confess I’m stumped by this one
@Almost Retired: I think it might a good idea if Biden can slip in the fact that Trump has talked about de-funding Social Security. Like, he’s advocated for it as recently as August, if not even more recently. That’s what the payroll tax he wants does.
Gin & Tonic
@Almost Retired: Shows my coastal elitism at work, I guess. Clearly out of touch with the Heartland.
stinger
I wasn’t thrilled with Greenfield’s performance in last night’s debate, and still would have preferred Mike Franken. But Ernst is not popular, so here’s hoping.
HinTN
I’ve written postcards for Theresa Greenfield and I’m writing them for Barbara Bollier now.
Working through Flip the West if any Jackals are interested.
piratedan
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: my city was gone – Pretenders
Delk
@piratedan: middle of the road
raven
DOH!.
Steeplejack
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
See below.
@piratedan:
Wrong.
Raoul Paste
Somebody here has got to post the latest Lincoln project ad featuring Sully Sullenberger
Whoa Nellie!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@piratedan: I know that song but don’t remember that particular lyric.
raven
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Think the bumper music for Limbaugh
piratedan
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: picked the right band, wrong song title, although the song I picked has a specific lyrical shout out to Ohio…
and ty to all the jackals that corrected me
and also fuck you to all the jackals that corrected me
Nicole
Many years ago, I did a play at a dinner theater in Akron (since closed, sadly), and by far the best place to eat was Chrissie Hynde’s vegan restaurant (also since closed, sadly). The food was amazing and the walls next to the tables had photos of famous vegetarians. The final time we ate there was with my family, who had come from Pennsylvania and Tennessee to see the play and Chrissie Hynde was there, eating with a friend. My brother took a stroll around the restaurant to look at all the photos, and, unaware of Chrissie Hynde’s presence, leaned right in between her and her dining companion to exclaim across the floor to us, “Oh, look! There’s Tobey Maguire!” She pretended not to notice. I pretended I didn’t know my brother.
Afterwards, I told him Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders) was in the restaurant, and he exclaimed, with great enthusiasm, “That’s so cool! I love ‘Walking on Sunshine’!”
kindness
I won’t be watching the debate but will read the Cliff Notes version tomorrow. I’m afraid that if I had to watch Trump lie and falsely accuse Uncle Joe of things as he no doubt will I would end up throwing something at a very nice tv that I really don’t want to break.
Marshall Eubanks
I really hope Joe Biden invites Barack Obama as his special guest, seated front row center.
Steeplejack
Don’t think I’ll live-blog it, as I often do. I’ll be over at Sighthound Hall for dinner and drinks. I’ll be watching, but the phone is not good for rapid-response commenting.
Baud
@Marshall Eubanks: Mary Trump and Michael Cohen!
Almost Retired
@Marshall Eubanks: I think Biden should invite major creditors of the Trump Organization to sit in the front row. With calculators.
mad citizen
I assume they won’t be masking during the debate, but it’d be childishly-cool if Biden wore one that said “Never Trumper #1” or the popular “Flush the Turd November 3rd”
Just spent five minutes googling Chrissie Hynde/Rush Limbaugh. Apparently rights money has gone to PETA all these years, but I’ll never understand why she allowed that use–or if she couldn’t prevent it, at least speak out against it. Apparently her dad liked listening to Rush and she actually wrote a letter to trump praising the medal freedom to Rush, or something like that. I couldn’t care enough to read it carefully.
Nicole
@mad citizen: Radio programming has a license with ASCAP that gives them rights to play just about anything in the ASCAP catalogue, so legally an artist can’t do much about someone they hate playing their music on a radio program. Some make a stink about it to try to shame the program into not using them anymore; some don’t. And it’s hard for me to picture Limbaugh feeling shame about anything.
Omnes Omnibus
@Nicole: Siblings can be so embarrassing.
Itinerantpedant
I was told that reaching out to disaffected Republicans was not the way to go, that we had to double down on appealing to Progressives in Vermont, NY, Minneapolis, and Detroit.
Where is all this Iowa and Kansas support coming from?
Bruce K
Most of the time I hate being seven time zones ahead of the East Coast, but for Trump’s prime-time malfeasances, the time zones are a blessing.
Please, FSM, let Biden do well, and if Trump has a Colonel Jessup moment or a medical mishap, I won’t complain.
(Oh, something I’ve been wondering about: if I’m an expat, am I allowed to contribute to Stateside political campaigns?)
James E Powell
@Bruce K:
Trump supporters agree with every word of Colonel Jessup’s meltdown and believe he was railroaded by leftist cancel culture. You did see that the judge was black, right?
WaterGirl
@Bruce K: Yes! Read them all, but check out #4 in particular.
11 ways U.S. expats can help rock the midterms
By Meghan Feeks
RaflW
Obviously North Dakota isn’t going to flip. But Trump appearing to lose 16 points there vs. 2016 is pretty brutal.
One does wonder what the net popular vote margin might end up being? In 2016, about 340,000 people voted in N.D. I’d imaging turnout might be lower this time as some of the dispirited in that 16 point swing will stay home. Reflect that sort of thing across other ‘red’ states, and while the E.C. votes from the ‘safe’ states won’t change, the potential for big popular vote loss for Trump seems at least possible.
I’m not banking on anything. GOTV is critical, all of that. But the erosion of support isn’t just in blue or even swing states.
CCL
@Raoul Paste: Just saw it. Dusty in here. Sully’s closing words – powerful, at least to me.
Elizabelle
Donated to both. Love these threads, and seeing the aggregate BJ impact. Yea DougJ!
@WaterGirl: Very good link. Sending this to my friends lucky enough to be abroad.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Thanks! I was pleased when I found it. It was written for the midterms, but there’s probably nothing that isn’t applicable for the general election.