• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

This blog will pay for itself.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Come on, man.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

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

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Let’s Get To Work – Beto for Inspiration (Live Interview) & Lawyers Needed

Let’s Get To Work – Beto for Inspiration (Live Interview) & Lawyers Needed

by WaterGirl|  October 26, 202012:29 pm| 45 Comments

This post is in: Politics, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, This Fight Is For Everything

FacebookTweetEmail

I’ll be adding some Action opportunities below, but want to get this up in case you want to watch live.

h/t Yutsano for the Beto heads up

Powered by People Phone Bank Needs Your Help Every Night This Week

If you haven’t watched the Beto video yet, I would urge you to do it.  What they are doing is so inspirational.  And they are asking for our help in fighting for our democracy.

Join the phone banking – going on every night this week – and help people make a plan to vote and help get their questions answered.  Beto asks us to piitch in and fight for our democracy.

PoweredbyPeople

Lawyers Needed

via Vote Save America

We are making a final push to recruit volunteer lawyers who can plug in with the Biden and Democratic voter protection efforts to count every vote and prepare for any possible recount effort.

Enter We The Action’s Election 2020 Task Force. They are focused on recruiting volunteer lawyers from around the country and connecting them directly to organizations working to protect the right to vote and the integrity of our election process in the areas of greatest need.

Can you volunteer to be one of those few, good lawyers? (Or forward this to a lawyer in your life?)
VOLUNTEER

We The Action will provide the information and links to specific projects through a digest of opportunities — from staffing remote voter hotlines, to serving as poll workers and observers, to curing mail-in ballots, and, if needed, supporting recount efforts. Fingers crossed we don’t get to that point, but if we do, we’ll be ready! Thanks to you. You can sign up directly with projects you select, and you’ll be notified about urgent needs via text or email, which can be filtered by location and languages you speak.

Here’s the truth we know you can handle (SORRY NOT SORRY): The stakes of this election could not be higher and the challenges facing voters mount every day. We The Action is committed to doing its part to quickly and efficiently mobilize thousands of lawyers to protect the integrity of our election and our right to vote. Please be one of them. It’s the biggest way to make a meaningful difference in this election. TBH, it’s this or join JAG.

Thanks for your help on the frontlines of the fight to count every vote.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Eight Days a Week
Next Post: Fuck you, Mitch »

Reader Interactions

45Comments

  1. 1.

    oatler.

    October 26, 2020 at 12:45 pm

    https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2020/10/25/trump-supporter-accused-of-stealing-bulldozer-to-dig-up-biden-signs

  2. 2.

    Richard Guhl

    October 26, 2020 at 12:49 pm

    Democrats should be prepared to descend upon D.C. in a mighty flood, if SCOTUS, in any way, threatens to scuttle the vote count.

  3. 3.

    mali muso

    October 26, 2020 at 1:06 pm

    Err, was it my network or was the site borked for a little bit just now?

  4. 4.

    Leto

    October 26, 2020 at 1:07 pm

    @mali muso: was borked.

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    It wasn’t just Balloon Juice issue, it was a data center issue.  So there’s that, at least.

  6. 6.

    PsiFighter37

    October 26, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    New NYT poll has TX at 47-43. If Beto and crew are bringing in swathes of new voters, this is eminently winnable. Time to break the fucking wheel, as an erstwhile TV character from an erstwhile good TV show once said.

  7. 7.

    japa21

    October 26, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    @Leto: Need to come up with a new term. Borked is so outdated.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 1:18 pm

    @PsiFighter37:

    Time to break the fucking wheel

    What does that mean?

  9. 9.

    PsiFighter37

    October 26, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    @WaterGirl: It’s a quote from Daenarys (Game of Thrones).

  10. 10.

    Splitting Image

    October 26, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    @japa21:

    Need to come up with a new term. Borked is so outdated.

    Garlanded.

  11. 11.

    mali muso

    October 26, 2020 at 1:22 pm

    Barretted?

    Glad it wasn’t just me anyways. Listening to the interview now!

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 1:24 pm

    @PsiFighter37: Well, I caught that it was from a show I don’t watch, but I am wondering about the meaning.

  13. 13.

    Yarrow

    October 26, 2020 at 1:27 pm

    @PsiFighter37:
    Voter turn out in the Rio Grande Valley is still low. El Paso has just issued a stay at home order. Doesn’t apply to voting but still could depress turnout.

    As El Paso continues to grapple with a surge of coronavirus cases, county authorities on Sunday implemented a curfew and city health officials asked residents to stay home for the next two weeks in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.
    …
    Sunday’s stay-at-home request from city officials — and the announcement of the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. county curfew — came nine days ahead of Election Day and as El Paso follows a statewide trend of record turnout during early voting. Officials, though, stressed that Sunday’s announcement did not mean residents should not vote if they have not already.

    El Paso has lagged other Texas metro areas in early voting numbers.

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    October 26, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I thought it was a wry reference to this.

    Never read the books, so don’t know anything further.

  15. 15.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 26, 2020 at 1:37 pm

    @PsiFighter37: The last few Texas polls have had Trump up a few points, after a few days in which he seemed to be losing–I doubt it’s a trend, though, it’s more random noise and which polls release on which days. All we can really say is that it’s damn close and a lot of people have voted there already. And if Texas is the big battleground… well… that’s not great news for Trump.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 1:42 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: Watch the interview linked at the top – Beto talks about the poll that came out yesterday that has Biden 47, Trump 45.

  17. 17.

    Benw

    October 26, 2020 at 1:44 pm

    FYI you don’t need to be a lawyer to be a poll worker or observer

  18. 18.

    zhena gogolia

    October 26, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    @oatler.: 
    I’ve been bringing my Biden sign in every night.
    This morning I saw that the neighbor’s Black Lives Matter sign had been vandalized — the supports bent and twisted. This is in blue CT.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    October 26, 2020 at 1:50 pm

    I’ll always love Beto for this response to a reporter who asked what Trump could do to help after the El Paso mass shooting:

    'What the f***?' – Former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke says President Trump's language against minorities promotes racial division and violence.

    Two mass shootings left 29 people dead this weekend in the US.

    For more on the story: https://t.co/OmcmrDIRKm pic.twitter.com/ULEcYi8x1a

    — SkyNews (@SkyNews) August 5, 2019

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 1:51 pm

    If you haven’t watched the Beto video yet, I would urge you to do it.  What they are doing is so inspirational.  And they are asking for our help in fighting for our democracy.

    If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, then watch the first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes.

    Beto isn’t just fighting for Texas, he is fighting for all of us, for our democracy, and they still need help with calls to Texas.  Not to sway voters, but to help with voting plans and answer questions.

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 26, 2020 at 1:54 pm

    Here’s the truth we know you can handle (SORRY NOT SORRY)

    Hehehe

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 1:54 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I love that, too, Betty.

  23. 23.

    Yarrow

    October 26, 2020 at 1:56 pm

    @Betty Cracker:  I’m expecting Beto to run for Governor in 2022. Also Julián Castro. Could be an interesting primary season. And if it’s Beto the midterm elections will be crazy in Texas.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 26, 2020 at 1:58 pm

    @japa21:

    Need to come up with a new term. Borked is so outdated. 

    “Sorry.  This website has temporarily busted the shit out of itself.”

  25. 25.

    dnfree

    October 26, 2020 at 2:00 pm

    @Splitting Image: Trying to think of terms I know but none are probably current. Hosed?  Bricked?  In the 1990s I worked on one system we used to say had “kneed up” because that’s what the performance graph looked like.

  26. 26.

    Anoniminous

    October 26, 2020 at 2:03 pm

    @PsiFighter37:

    Voting in Texas is through the roof.  Three suburban counties are reporting more early voting than the total 2016 vote.  These counties tend to vote D but caution is indicated.

    Basically this strong showing means predicting 2020 results using simple 2016/2018 participation Likely Voter screens are orthogonal to the voting population and, so, have diminished predictive power.

  27. 27.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 26, 2020 at 2:05 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I live on a very quiet street with no political yard signs except for my Biden/Harris and one local race. I removed them yesterday to cut the grass, but then put them back.

  28. 28.

    PsiFighter37

    October 26, 2020 at 2:06 pm

    @Yarrow: Might need to walk back some of his comments re: gun control right before he dropped out of the presidential primaries. Personally, I think he would be better-served by, say, running for mayor of El Paso (which is GOP-run ATM) before shooting for higher office. One more big miss and honestly he’s done for in Texas.

  29. 29.

    Yarrow

    October 26, 2020 at 2:18 pm

    @PsiFighter37:  Yeah, his gun comments weren’t good for a statewide race in Texas. Who knows what he might do. Cabinet position maybe?

  30. 30.

    jeffreyw

    October 26, 2020 at 2:22 pm

    @WaterGirl: I think it means that “The Wheel of Time” – a notion that history has repeating cycles – should be broken, so that what has been true in the past does not determine what will be true in the future.  I like the Terminator saga’s take:  There is no future but what we make.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 2:30 pm

    @jeffreyw: Ooh, I like that.

  32. 32.

    Betty

    October 26, 2020 at 2:31 pm

    Beto clearly loves being a power broker. He may not want to run for office. Maybe head up the DNC?

  33. 33.

    Salty Sam

    October 26, 2020 at 2:34 pm

    @Betty Cracker: yeah, that was a good response-  what the rest of us think when we hear these kinds of brain-dead questions from reporters.
    I was all in for Beto when he ran against Cruz, but backed off when he announced his presidential aspirations.  “I was born for this” was especially cringe-worthy.

    But I’m really enjoying seeing him doing all this behind-the-scenes work of fundraising and GOTV for TxDem party.  This is the kind of work that he needed under his belt before running for higher office.  I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of him in the years to come.

  34. 34.

    catclub

    October 26, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: And if Texas is the big battleground… well… that’s not great news for Trump.

     

    texas, georgia, florida, ohio

  35. 35.

    Calouste

    October 26, 2020 at 3:27 pm

    @catclub: 

    Georgia Texas Florida Ohio = Get The Fuck Out

  36. 36.

    caphilldcne

    October 26, 2020 at 4:00 pm

    Thanks for the lawyers volunteer opportunity. I signed up!!

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 4:00 pm

    @caphilldcne: That makes me so happy!  thank you.

  38. 38.

    cain

    October 26, 2020 at 4:02 pm

    @Calouste: Love it!

  39. 39.

    caphilldcne

    October 26, 2020 at 4:06 pm

    @WaterGirl: I’ve been meaning to get signed up for months so thanks for the reminder!!  I appreciate it!!

  40. 40.

    waratah

    October 26, 2020 at 5:26 pm

    Beto hit the ground running here in Texas after he closed the presidential run and worked to influence his supporters to run for State seats. He has then run the largest get out the vote since. He is well known and popular with conservatives as well as Democrats.
    Thank you for giving him some well deserved credit.

  41. 41.

    PJ

    October 26, 2020 at 5:58 pm

    @Betty:  DNC chair might be a good job for him for the next two years, and if he wants, he can run for Governor in 2022, or for a rematch against Cruz in 2024 – by that time, Texas might be blue enough that Beto getting elected Senator is not a problem.

    One thing the next DNC chair absolutely must do is reform the primary process so that there are no more caucuses and the first states are no longer Iowa and New Hampshire. If a small state has to go first, it might as well be Delaware, which is 20% black.

    Personally, I’d like to see groups of 10 or so states (accounting for DC and PR) hold their primaries on one day each month between February and June; which group goes first would rotate over the next five election cycles, after which point the groups would be shuffled again. Not once have I ever been able to vote in a primary where my vote would actually make a difference.

  42. 42.

    Dmbeaster

    October 26, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    Thanks for the link. Volunteered for legal work. I am a business trial lawyer but in California. Hope to help if needed. Have not been able to put in as much $$$ this year, but can definitely do this.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 9:09 pm

    @Dmbeaster: So glad to hear this.

  44. 44.

    Avalie

    October 26, 2020 at 9:18 pm

    I’m signed up to be a poll observer in Phoenix and Yuma during early voting (I’m in CA).  First time doing this….

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 9:53 pm

    @Avalie: Good for you!  Good for all of us.  :-)

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - Albatrossity - The Birds of May 3
Image by Albatrossity (7/31/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • trnc on The Ongoing Texas Tragedies (Jul 12, 2025 @ 12:21pm)
  • trollhattan on The Ongoing Texas Tragedies (Jul 12, 2025 @ 12:20pm)
  • Miss Bianca on Saturday Morning Klown Show Open Thread: GOP Falling Into the Pit They Have Dug (Jul 12, 2025 @ 12:19pm)
  • Ruckus on Saturday Morning Klown Show Open Thread: GOP Falling Into the Pit They Have Dug (Jul 12, 2025 @ 12:14pm)
  • eclare on The Ongoing Texas Tragedies (Jul 12, 2025 @ 12:13pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!