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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

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

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

People are weird.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

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

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

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

We will not go back.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thank You Washington Post (Today) Instead of the All-Too-Frequent Fuck You They Deserve

Thank You Washington Post (Today) Instead of the All-Too-Frequent Fuck You They Deserve

by WaterGirl|  August 22, 20224:00 pm| 179 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Political Action, Political Fundraising 2021-22

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Today, the Washington Post was kind enough to devote an entire article to one of the principles I laid out in a short-lived post with “Coming Attractions” about our political fundraising plans.

I say “short-lived” because it was clearly the wrong post for that day/hour/minute/whatever, so I pulled it to post at another time when more than 2 people might actually read it!

An excerpt from my post yesterday:

Once we raise the remaining $10,000 $8,000 for Four Directions Nevada, we’re still going to (mostly) resist the temptation to put up links to candidates we love – like Beto and Fetterman and Stacey Abrams and Mark Kelly and more – and try to maintain our strategic approach to fundraising for this cycle.

We are still looking at key states:  AZ, NV, MI, GA, WI, PA, TX.

We’re plan to put together several  “Key State” thermometers for all of the executive positions in each particular key state:  Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, etc.  That will pay dividends in 2022 and can help put some firewalls in place for those states in 2024.

I’ll let the Washington Post make the rest of the case for me, with specifics.

Election deniers march toward power in key 2024 battlegrounds

Thank You Washington Post (Today) Instead of the Too Frequent Fuck YouFrom the Washington Post article:

The winners [of the Republican primaries] fit a pattern: Across the battleground states that decided the 2020 vote, candidates who deny the legitimacy of that election have claimed nearly two-thirds of GOP nominations for state and federal offices with authority over elections, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Had those candidates held power in 2020, they would have had the electoral clout to try something that the current officeholders refused: overturning the vote and denying Biden the presidency.

But the experts agree on one thing: A close presidential contest that comes down to the outcome in states where officials are willing to try to thwart the popular will could throw the country into chaos. It would potentially delay the result, undermine confidence in the democratic system and sow the seeds of civil strife on a scale even greater than what the nation saw on Jan. 6, 2021.

The predilection among Republican primary voters toward candidates who deny the result of the last election extends well beyond Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona — three states that together accounted for 47 electoral votes in 2020, more than enough to flip the last election to Donald Trump.

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

179Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 4:05 pm

    I don’t want you to pull this, so I’ll just say I’m out right now but will read it as soon as I get home!

  2. 2.

    Belafon

    August 22, 2022 at 4:06 pm

    Fetterman, Demings, Ryan, and others are creating a joint fund to help each other:

    link

  3. 3.

    brendancalling

    August 22, 2022 at 4:07 pm

    I’ve been saying for the past two years that we’re heading for civil war. This article only reinforces that belief.

  4. 4.

    Old School

    August 22, 2022 at 4:08 pm

    If the post would have been left up, we wouldn’t think you were just copying the Washington Post.

    For those of us who weren’t able to be in the Zooms, was there anything exciting/uplifting about the progress that can be shared?

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 4:12 pm

    @Belafon: I changed your URL to a link because long URLs break the margins on phones.  Hope you don’t mind!

    That’s interesting that they are doing that!

  6. 6.

    Belafon

    August 22, 2022 at 4:17 pm

    @WaterGirl: That’s great. Go ahead and fix whatever’s needed.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 4:21 pm

    @Belafon: Flippable Five fund.  Great idea!

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 4:22 pm

    @brendancalling: Only if most of those candidates win.  What if we shut them down?

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    @Old School: Hey, the Washington Post is probably copying us. :-)

    It was a quiet afternoon on BJ and I didn’t want Cole to be stuck with a post that was getting no action at the top of the blog.

    edit: Timing is everything. :-)

  10. 10.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 22, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    @brendancalling: This is what you chose as your takeaway?

  11. 11.

    H.E.Wolf

    August 22, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    In 2018, I knew that the Democrats would pick up seats in Congress, because I was volunteering with the local Democratic party, and people in 2018 – particularly women – were FURIOUS and showing up in droves to help get out the vote.

    I have somewhat the same feeling about 2022. The fury is there, and our fundraising for GOTV organizations is vital work.

    Also… if possible, find a way to volunteer in some manner: donations, postcard-writing, phonebanking, canvassing, data entry, whatever seems doable at least one time. Maybe donate a microwave-popcorn package or two to a local group that does voter outreach – that totally counts. :-)

  12. 12.

    Almost Retired

    August 22, 2022 at 4:24 pm

    Arizona is really an extraordinary case, and one that I’ve been following closely.  Did the Republicans over-reach with their bat-shit crazy Gubernatorial and Secretary of State candidates?

    Mark Finchem (Republican SoS candidate) is a Oath Keeper and full on QAnon conspiracy theorist.  The Democratic candidate who emerged from the August 2 primary, Adrian Fontes, is the battle-tested former registrar of Maricopa County (Phoenix) who had to suffer through the Cyber Ninjas in his official capacity.  Could he really lose to that Conspirofuck Finchem?  Waiting for polling, for what that’s worth.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 4:28 pm

    @Old School: The third zoom is coming up NEXT week.  But the first two were really inspiring, I thought.

    Voces was last week, and that’s the most fresh in my mind.  It was so interesting hearing from the young people who are out there in the trenches.  I think we’re likely to see the young man –who was part of the zoom – running for representative as soon as he is 25.  I think he is 22 now and he was so thoughtful, so impressive, so inspiring.  I would vote for him.

    Seeing the leadership coming from the young pups left me feeling optimistic.  Hopeful.

    On the Four Directions zoom we got to hear from a young woman who is running for office in NV.  She swears she has grown children but I thought she looked like she was 25!  She is working her behind off and seems to be doing all the right things. To use the term someone else used on BJ yesterday, she is optimistic about her chances, but not complacent.  Again, inspiring.

    Maybe others who were at one or the other zoom will chime in, too, and share their thoughts.

  14. 14.

    MattF

    August 22, 2022 at 4:30 pm

    An item on foxnews.com says the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago was justified. It’s labeled ‘opinion’, but, still. We’ll see how long it stays there.

  15. 15.

    different-church-lady

    August 22, 2022 at 4:30 pm

    IT’S RAINING IN MASSACHUSETTS!!!

    [happy dance]

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 4:30 pm

    @Almost Retired: If you’re still here, might you have anything to share about the Voces zoom?

    Ditto for Subaru Diane, though I think she was a hit and run because she’s out and about.

  17. 17.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 4:32 pm

    @MattF: Ha!

    By Bradley P. Moss | Fox News

    soon to be…  Bradley P. Moss, formerly of Fox News?

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 4:36 pm

    @MattF:  from the link

    Ever since news broke two weeks ago that the FBI had executed a search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, the political world has been aflame with hyperbole, accusations, innuendo, and hysteria.

    Every legal pundit and pundits pretending to know something about the law have emerged to try and explain what is really happening here. And the former president and his allies, as is their custom, have sought to flood the zone with political justifications and haphazard legal explanations to deflect from his conduct.

    The truth needs to be set forth plainly and simply, and so let’s get down to brass tacks here. What happened on August 8, 2022, was not tyranny. It was not political persecution. It was not a minor dust up over bureaucratic processes blown out of proportion. It was the criminal justice system operating just like it does with any other private citizen on any other given day ending in a “y.”

    Trump was the president and commander-in-chief up until noon on January 20, 2021. The moment Joe Biden took the Oath of Office, Trump became just another private citizen in his 70s who vacations in Florida during the winter months to avoid the bitter cold back in his native home in the Northeast. He was no longer shielded by any privileges or protections of the Office of the Presidency at the point beyond physical security protection. He is subject to the laws of the United States just like anyone else.

    What also is true is that Trump had particular legal obligation as the former president to properly turn over presidential records to the National Archives and Records Administration. That is mandated by the Presidential Records Act because those records are the property of the United States. They are not Trump’s personal property.

    The result was apparently more than 25 boxes’ worth of presidential records were shipped to Florida and stored in a basement at Mar-a-Lago. If this were a mere issue of simply recovering unclassified presidential records, though, there likely never would have been a criminal element to this matter. But buried into those boxes were countless properly marked classified documents. Those documents lacked any markings indicating that Trump had ever declassified them. No actual substantiated evidence indicates Mr. Trump ever declassified them. No one viewing those records would have any reason to view them as anything other than properly classified documents.

    The government tried to recover the documents peacefully and quietly. They spent one year discussing the matter with Trump’s staff, and 15 boxes were sent back to NARA in February.

    After identifying more missing records, the government returned in June with a subpoena and found more boxes of records that should have been returned. Both times, properly marked classified documents – up to and including documents marked as Top Secret and requiring Sensitive Compartmented Information access eligibility – were located within the boxes.

    A Trump lawyer swore out an affidavit promising there were no more documents. The government gathered evidence that the Trump lawyer was not being truthful, and on August 8, 2022, a court-authorized search warrant was executed that, sure enough, located several more classified documents.

    That is not an abuse of law enforcement processes. That is how the law works.

    You cannot remove properly marked classified documents and place them in a location not authorized for retention of classified documents. You cannot obstruct a federal investigation seeking to lawfully recover those documents. You cannot present false statements to federal investigators.

    Our jails are filled with people who have gone to jail for less. Search warrants are executed on properties and residences every day by local, state and federal law enforcement authorities in a manner no different than what happened at Mar-a-Lago. Those individuals’ lawyers also are not permitted to impede or micromanage the execution of the warrant, just as Trump’s lawyers were not permitted to do so.

  19. 19.

    Mike in NC

    August 22, 2022 at 4:38 pm

    Every Republican running for office is deliberately trying to become a mini-Trump. The body language, the baggy blue suit, the extra long red necktie. If any of them lose their election, they’ll cry and scream about how it was “rigged and stolen”. Trump broke the system forever.

  20. 20.

    Almost Retired

    August 22, 2022 at 4:40 pm

    @WaterGirl:  I second WaterGirl’s observations about the Voces staff, particularly Jose Rivera (shout out!!), whose title is Relational Voter Program Organizer.

    Jose, Fabi and Liz (was that her name?  I’m a horrible sexist for not being sure) were a totally engaging combination of youthful enthusiasm and extraordinary strategic sophistication about the challenges of turning out voters in a heavily-gerrymandered state.

    This is an organization that is clearly thinking strategically, and not just sending paid canvassers to pester people door-to-door.  Lots or participation in voter-rich community events, targeted messaging, etc.  I left feeling totally inspired.  I also left feeling kind of old and lazy by comparison, as per usual.

    ETA:  Another take away was do NOT give up on Wisconsin – not that we were going to do that anyway.

  21. 21.

    ian

    August 22, 2022 at 4:42 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Question for you- the above information from WAPO seems to indicate Ron Johnson does not question the 2020 results.  How accurate is that information?  My recollections is that Johnson was involved with trying to get fake electors to Pence.

  22. 22.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 22, 2022 at 4:42 pm

    @Mike in NC: I guess it’s time for a break from Balloon Juice. We have a run of good news but people are still sure that everything is going to hell in a handbasket.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 4:43 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Back in the Publix parking lot now. As soon as I get home and open a bottle of wine unload the groceries, I’ll comment. By 5:15-5:30, I expect.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 22, 2022 at 4:45 pm

    @ian: He may not question it now.  He sure as hell did then. Dishonest piece of shit, that he is.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    August 22, 2022 at 4:49 pm

    @WaterGirl: I think Mr. Moss’s immediate future depends on whether Murdoch is trying to jettison Trump. Though if he tries, I think he’ll learn (as have others) that he’s not able to control the creature.

  26. 26.

    rikyrah

    August 22, 2022 at 4:50 pm

    @WaterGirl:

     

    That’s actually quite smart

  27. 27.

    prostratedragon

    August 22, 2022 at 4:50 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:  But only for seconds!

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ron-johnson-trump-fake-electors-seconds

  28. 28.

    Old School

    August 22, 2022 at 4:50 pm

    @ian:

    My recollections is that Johnson was involved with trying to get fake electors to Pence.

    You can confirm that one post down.

  29. 29.

    geg6

    August 22, 2022 at 4:51 pm

    @Belafon:

    Excellent.  I love seeing this kind of cooperation.

  30. 30.

    Raven

    August 22, 2022 at 4:51 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Don’t let them bring you down, it’s only castles burning. . .

  31. 31.

    Ann Marie

    August 22, 2022 at 4:58 pm

    Is anyone here familiar with the New Pennsylvania Project?  I’ve been getting a lot of emails from them asking for money.  They sound good, but I get so many emails from so many organizations with good-sounding names that I feel lost.  Here’s a quote from one of their recent emails:

    “The New Pennsylvania Project is working hard to engage, empower and mobilize the communities we center throughout Pennsylvania to expand our democracy so it reflects our demographically changing population. We are purposely centering communities that have historically been disenfranchised and ignored from the democratic process to EXPAND democracy. Through relational organizing we are providing civic education to potential voters about how participating in municipal, state and federal elections can help make the promise of our democracy real for all of us.”

    Does anyone know if they are worth donating to?  I’m a PA resident.

  32. 32.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 22, 2022 at 4:59 pm

    Right-wing shitheads in Kansas demanded a recount after their bullshit abortion measure was routed in a landslide victory for the good guys.

  33. 33.

    Old School

    August 22, 2022 at 5:01 pm

    @ian:

    the above information from WAPO seems to indicate Ron Johnson does not question the 2020 results.  How accurate is that information?

    I’d go with three Pinocchios.

    Johnson has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s election fraud claims at times, even holding a hearing on election fraud in December as chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Johnson concurrently told a local paper he views Biden’s election as legitimate, then signed on with a group of Senators planning to object to Biden’s election victories in several key states, which he reversed after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    August 22, 2022 at 5:03 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:   Please don’t.  We need you to push back against the cynics and Eeyores

    Cynicism is so damn cheap.

  35. 35.

    zhena gogolia

    August 22, 2022 at 5:06 pm

    @WaterGirl: It’s very good.

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:06 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I bet if we counted the comments on this post and rated them on whether it appears the person believes it’s all going to hell in a hand basket, I believe the NOs would have it!

  37. 37.

    Ken

    August 22, 2022 at 5:07 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: I understand the count shifted by nearly 100 votes in their favor. So if they just force 1,660 more recounts, they might come up with a tie!

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:08 pm

    @Ken: Wise observation on the first part.

    I hold out hope that eventually gravity will set in, even for T****.

  39. 39.

    Suzanne

    August 22, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: I’m happy that they can spend a shit-ton of money to lose again.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    @Ann Marie: I have heard a little about them, and it seems like they are trying to do for PA what Stacey Abrams and others did for GA with their “New Georgia” project that started in 2010 or so.

    I think more research might be in order, but I think you will find that this is a good group.

  41. 41.

    Ken

    August 22, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    @WaterGirl: I hold out hope that eventually gravity will set in, even for T****.

    I tried to refrain from an unkind comment about the combination of TFG’s gut and platform shoes, but couldn’t.

  42. 42.

    MattF

    August 22, 2022 at 5:12 pm

    @WaterGirl: I do wonder if this is a case of ‘gradually and then suddenly’.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:14 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Only if you share the wine!

  44. 44.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:15 pm

    @MattF: I have had a similar thought recently.  Hoping the answer is YES.

  45. 45.

    Mai Naem mobile

    August 22, 2022 at 5:17 pm

    @Almost Retired: at this point I wouldn’t even trust polling. We don’t know what how the voter suppression stuff is going to work out. Let me demonstrate what happened to me when I went to vote in the primary. I have had a POBox and a street address for years.  I’ve lived in the same town for years. Voted in the same precinct for years. My drivers license has the POBox(POBox is in my town). I misplaced my voters registration card so i didn’t have that with me(I generally don’t have my voters registration card because my DL has always sufficed.) For the first time ever I was asked for proof of residency at my house – utility bill or whatever. Luckily I happened to have a utility bill on my phone so it worked out for me but how many people are going to get caught up by stupid little stuff like this.

  46. 46.

    WereBear

    August 22, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    I was on the Michigan zoom and I was so impressed with all of the people who were devoting themselves to this cause. And how important it really is.

  47. 47.

    cain

    August 22, 2022 at 5:22 pm

    @H.E.Wolf: Your feeling is better than MTG who apparently got a feeling that Trump would win Georgia whatever it was by looking at how many boats were on some lake. 🙄

  48. 48.

    JWR

    August 22, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    In case anyone missed it, here’s today’s Three Cops Beating Hell out of a Civilian video. I roll my eyes hard every time a newsreader says something like, “the video doesn’t show what led up to the event”, as if anything could reasonably have led up to this. And I remember thinking the same thing back when the Rodney King video came out. I was told to chill, because there’s no telling what might have triggered the cops. Yeah right. WARNING: The video is graphic.

    (The Hill) — Three Arkansas police officers have been placed on leave after they were caught on camera beating an individual in the town of Mulberry, authorities said on Sunday.

    A video posted by KARK 4 News’s Mitchell McCoy shows two officers repeatedly punching and kicking the individual’s head and body as a third officer kept the person pinned down. At one point, one of the officers appears to slam the individual’s head into the ground.

    It is not clear how the encounter began or why the officers pursued the individual.

  49. 49.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 22, 2022 at 5:27 pm

    boltsmag.org is a good ongoing source of information about state and local elections that matter to us.  Daniel Nichanian (@taniel on Twitter), who is one of the main organizers of this project, has been working in this vineyard since the 2018 cycle at least.

  50. 50.

    cain

    August 22, 2022 at 5:30 pm

    @Elizabelle: shit – was I supposed to panic about 1.5 Billion dropped to help the GOP – probably because that grifter fuck, Rick Scott stole all the money and now there isn’t anything for the candidates.

    News flash: they still aint gonna get anything – silly old man, just wasted 1.5 billion dollars giving soros checks to everyone :D

    I see no reason to panic – in fact, the more money they get, the more they’ll laze it and just keep the money.

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    @MattF:

    I know this is not why you posted that link, but if you scroll about halfway down the article there’s a photo of TFG (captioned “Donald Trump leaves NYC on August 8 after FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago resort”) and I swear to FSM the man is wearing so much rouge he looks like a fucking cockatiel.

    No, Donald. It’s not “sculpting” your cheekbones; it’s two little round patches of red and it doesn’t make your face look thinner. This is like you studied make-up artistry with Chuckles, Bozo, and Emmett Kelly.

  52. 52.

    cain

    August 22, 2022 at 5:32 pm

    @JWR: There was no other reason other than they were enraged against their authority. Notice how they suddenly got real frightened when they found out that they were being filmed.

    There is absolutely no excuse for the kind of violence on an individual that was already on the ground, unarmed and subdued – even if the man, by all reports was a shit stain of a human. You represented the govt and the people – do better.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:34 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: That looks like an interesting resource, thanks!

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 5:35 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    For “supermarket jug red,” it’s not bad at all!

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    August 22, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:   Dare I ask????

  56. 56.

    J R in WV

    August 22, 2022 at 5:37 pm

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    On the Four Directions zoom we got to hear from a young woman who is running for office in NV. … To use the term someone else used on BJ yesterday, she is optimistic about her chances, but not complacent. Again, inspiring.

    No offense, but an actual name and office being sought would aid those of us inclined to contribute directly to candidates. Even a link to their ActBlue page. We give four directions a monthly donation that I think of as sizable, others might not. Also Val Demings, Beto, Kelly in AZ, etc.

  57. 57.

    Dangerman

    August 22, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    Whats with Special Master shit? Can the Courts tell TFG’s lawyers to go straight to hell?

  58. 58.

    MisterDancer

    August 22, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    @Elizabelle: Cynicism is so damn cheap.

    No coincidence my ex-friend who’s High School newspaper column was called “The Cynic’s Voice” ended up a Tea Partier — and as noted, an ex-friend.

    The rest, I’ll outsource to a younger Dr. King:

    Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.

    We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

    Fuck sitting around and waiting for them to put us up against a damned wall. I might be messy and busy as hell in my personal life at the moment, but I stand for anyone who’s ready to yell and fight and organize to stop this.

    And I know — I KNOW — if all of us did?

    These asshats would be running scared.

    Ain’t no way I be selling my birthright on the cheap.

  59. 59.

    patrick II

    August 22, 2022 at 5:39 pm

    @Old School:

     

    For just a couple of seconds

  60. 60.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 5:41 pm

    @Almost Retired:

    I second WaterGirl’s observations about the Voces staff, particularly Jose Rivera (shout out!!), whose title is Relational Voter Program Organizer.

    You can add my nym to the list. I found him a thoroughly engaging young man. He knows what he’s against; more importantly, he knows what he’s for, and he’s very clear in explaining his positions. Smart, articulate (I’m kind of nervous about using that word, but I assure you I mean it only in the highest and most admiring sense), and — this is kind of superficial, but not to be sneezed at — absolutely adorable! (Remember the ladies!!) I do think he’ll go far in electoral politics if that what he wants.

    ETA: Fiddled with, for clarity.

  61. 61.

    MisterDancer

    August 22, 2022 at 5:42 pm

    @WaterGirl: I’ve not heard of them either, but this is very much what I hoped would happen — a bound of local/regional groups emulating that model of success.

    I find this interview with someone from that Project, it might help in evaluating it’s worthiness!

  62. 62.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 22, 2022 at 5:42 pm

    any of our local lawyers with some time on their hands want to skim over this? Am I reading (non-lawyer, like me, FTR) Marcy Wheeler’s thread correctly that trump’s lawyers are trying to keep their distance from his latest motion (for the Special Master, I think?) on the Feds’ search warrant? Is it typical for a defendant/party to describe themselves as acting pro se, when they’re clearly not? These are Wheeler’s comment on the original document, which doesn’t cut and paste

    emptywheel @emptywheel 48m
    -Uh, “pro se” means, Trump’s going it alone. 

    -There are, however, actual lawyers signed onto this, only, they didn’t file a notice of appearance to make sure they acted like officers of the court.

    -In grownup lawyering, such claims are accompanied by a declaration made by someone who is an officer of the court. Here, none of the lawyers are claiming to file as officers of the court. This is not grownup lawyering.

    as I read this (again, not a lawyer) trump had a heavier hand in the composition of this document than any experienced and professional (grown-up) lawyer would allow, which is reinforced by the way several sentences (on page 3) to explaining to the judge that Mar-A-Lago is a historic landmark, with 54 bedrooms and 38 (or whatever) bathrooms (My name is Elmer J Fudd, milionaire, I own a mansion and a yacht...), and translating Mar-A-Lago, for the judge’s benefit, I guess.

  63. 63.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:43 pm

    @J R in WV: Mercedes Krause.

    Link to her campaign website.

  64. 64.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 22, 2022 at 5:45 pm

    @Dangerman: delaying tactic, as I (NAL) read it

  65. 65.

    MisterDancer

    August 22, 2022 at 5:46 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: According to this tweet, it’s likely a system error that happens on the regular: https://twitter.com/johnhawkinson/status/1561820311745593345

    And there’s a couple of tweets that say it’s now updated with “proper” lawyers: https://twitter.com/ncweaver/status/1561823727016325122 is one.

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:47 pm

    @MisterDancer: Thank you!  We’ll take a look.

    I know that in 2020 one of the Stacey organizations, I can’t remember which one, was meeting with people who wanted to model organizations after what GA had done.

    I wonder if PA took advantage of that opportunity?

  67. 67.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 22, 2022 at 5:47 pm

    @MisterDancer: damn, I hoped his own strip-mall lawyers were hanging him out to dry

  68. 68.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 5:48 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s not literally a jug — that’s just my personal term for inexpensive grocery store wine. This is Woodbridge Pinot Noir in one of those outsized bottles you can get for (today) around $10 bucks. It’s nothing that’s going to have the sommeliers racing to be the first to get to my house, but it’s very decent and drinkable.

  69. 69.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:50 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: A girl has to have priorities!

  70. 70.

    zhena gogolia

    August 22, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    @cain: Yeah, I can’t get too worked up about this.

    Brink’s trucks full of cash!!!

  71. 71.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    August 22, 2022 at 5:53 pm

    Herschel Walker is never at a loss for words and is always thinking outside the box:

    Herschel Walker asked a question no one else has thought to ask yet about the climate change spending in the Inflation Reduction Act: “Don’t we have enough trees around here?”

    h/t https://www.mediaite.com/print/herschel-walker-poses-question-on-inflation-reduction-act-climate-spending-dont-we-have-enough-trees-around-here/

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:53 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    “Don’t we have enough trees around here?”

    That’s something a child might ask.  Sad.

  73. 73.

    J R in WV

    August 22, 2022 at 5:53 pm

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    OK, thanks a lot. I know it was just an oversight, hope you weren’t offended by my ask1!!

    Off to look at her campaign!

  74. 74.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    @J R in WV: Well, we weren’t promoting her as a candidate as much as we were having her talk with us about the situation on the ground in NV.

    But I’m happy to provide her name and info.  She was quite impressive.  She (hopefully) will represent the biggest district in Nevada, so big that the district actually borders on 4 different states!

  75. 75.

    Elizabelle

    August 22, 2022 at 5:58 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:   Good to know.  In Pinot we trust.

  76. 76.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 22, 2022 at 5:59 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​

    I guess it’s time for a break from Balloon Juice. We have a run of good news but people are still sure that everything is going to hell in a handbasket.

    Hey, I’ve been almost continually disappointed with the Democratic Party ever since I first identified* as one. And for practically the first time in all those eons (with the exception of maybe a little while in 2008-2009), I feel both impressed with the party and optimistic about its prospects.

    Remember that I’m the guy who has frequently expressed the sentiment that people around here are far too often being cheerleaders rather than looking even a little critically at how the party and its leaders are really doing.

    So don’t let a few commenters get you down, is what I’m saying. If I’m like this, there can’t be that many gloom-and-doomers.​
    * I was living in Virginia at the time – no party registration.​

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 22, 2022 at 6:00 pm

    Scott Stedman @ScottMStedman 57m
    There’s a 0% chance the FBI said this

    More evidence that trump insisted on writing at least some of that motion: “One of the FBI agents said, Thank you, you did not need to show us the storage room, but we appreciate it. Now it all makes sense.”

    As somebody said in a tweet I can’t find now, the lawyers must have cut out, a big, tough, FBI agent, tough like nobody’s ever seen, with tears in his eyes, said, Sir….

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 6:00 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    What the very fuck?

  79. 79.

    Cameron

    August 22, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Actually, I thought he was going more for the 18th-century prostitute look.

  80. 80.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    August 22, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca: ​
     

    Ronald Reagan in his speech Tuesday: “80 percent of air pollution comes from plants and trees.” [1980]

    Ronald Reagan’s much maligned assertion in 1981 that: “Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do,”

    It’s a feature, not a bug

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    🍷

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    A girl does!

  83. 83.

    Ken

    August 22, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: the lawyers must have cut out, a big, tough, FBI agent said, Sir….

    Well, TFG wasn’t there, so no need for “Sir”. Though that might not be how he now remembers the day of the search.

  84. 84.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 22, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    @Raven:

    Don’t let them bring you down, it’s only castles burning. . .

    In addition to seconding your response to Omnes, I just wanted to say that’s one of my favorite songs ever.

  85. 85.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    August 22, 2022 at 6:07 pm

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    Pundits made a cottage industry out of pouncing on “Romneyisms,” but there was one coinage for which he deserves some credit. Seemingly whenever he was in Michigan, his place of birth, he would tell the crowd that the state is where “the trees are the right height.” Bloggers were baffled.

    I wasn’t baffled. Amused, horrified, but not baffled.

  86. 86.

    brendancalling

    August 22, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    @WaterGirl: we will be shutting them down for years to come. But yes—we absolutely need to do that.

     

    @Omnes Omnibus: that has been my takeaway for the past two years. Others smarter than me have been saying the same (and others, also smarter than me, predict the opposite). But yeah, that’s been my gut feeling for the last two years. At least.

  87. 87.

    J R in WV

    August 22, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    @WaterGirl: ​Thanks! Contribution made, monthly….I have a cousin in NV, hope he’s working for the Democratic party! Knowing his dad, I feel sure he is.​​
    I want to point out that I think Alito and his minions throwing Roe on the trash heap will have a huge effect on the upcoming election cycle.​ I expect the vote count will be far beyond any suppression or gerrymander that could have worked in the past.

    Roe, Roe, Roe your Vote is a wonderful slogan!!

  88. 88.

    Baud

    August 22, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    Semi OT. Via reddit, squirrel enjoying concert.

    https://v.redd.it/a2lzalnymaj91

  89. 89.

    JWR

    August 22, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    @cain:

    Notice how they suddenly got real frightened when they found out that they were being filmed.

    And as is often the case, Monty Python’s FC comes through, with their “Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things” sketch (Episode 18):

    Sir William (Graham Chapman):  Gentlemen! I have bad news. This room is surrounded by film.

    Surprise, nice police officers. You’re on candid camera!

  90. 90.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 22, 2022 at 6:12 pm

    @JWR: ​
     

    I roll my eyes hard every time a newsreader says something like, “the video doesn’t show what led up to the event”, as if anything could reasonably have led up to this.

    I saw that earlier – it was horrible. Those cops need to be tried, convicted, and sentenced to serious time in the slammer.

  91. 91.

    zhena gogolia

    August 22, 2022 at 6:12 pm

    @Baud: Cute. St. Thomas.

  92. 92.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 6:12 pm

    @Cameron:

    Whatever he was going for, he ended up with Clown College Cockatiel. Rather pitiable.

  93. 93.

    Cameron

    August 22, 2022 at 6:15 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca: Words fail me.

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    August 22, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: Also, suspended, not fired.  Guessing it’s suspended with pay or “suspended without pay” would have been noted.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 22, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca: He’s also claiming to have been offered ‘academic scholarships’ to Harvard and Yale.

    For anti-elitist populists, they do have an obsession with the Ivies.

  96. 96.

    J R in WV

    August 22, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I hope those cops wind up fired for cause, lost pension benefits, can’t ever get another job as a cop. Unbelievable violence against a helpless person being beaten. And they didn’t stop when they noticed the person videoing the scene.

    At least they didn’t commence beating the person with the camera on them!

  97. 97.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 22, 2022 at 6:26 pm

    Have a laugh that’s kind of mean but at the expense of people who deserve it.

  98. 98.

    artem1s

    August 22, 2022 at 6:27 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: the full motion is posted here

    https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763.1.0.pdf

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 6:28 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Republicans seem to have a very strange relationship with trees.

    Saint Ronnie believed that trees cause acid rain.

    Mittens had a thing about all the trees in Michigan being “just the right height.” Okay, Goldilocks.

    Now, that towering intellect Herschel Walker thinks maybe we have enough trees? Too many trees?

    These people are enough to make a snail laugh.

  100. 100.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 6:31 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “Go water your mother.”

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

    LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

  101. 101.

    Van Buren

    August 22, 2022 at 6:31 pm

    It’s a little depressing to realize that from now on, a significant % of Republican politicians will always cry fraud at every loss, and can be expected to test the safeguards of the system whenever possible.

    This shit is not going to go away.

  102. 102.

    zhena gogolia

    August 22, 2022 at 6:32 pm

    @Van Buren: They’ve been doing it for a very long time. Nothing new.

  103. 103.

    different-church-lady

    August 22, 2022 at 6:35 pm

    It’s probably only because I’m +1, but the WaPo front page, which I usually just find slightly annoying in places, is instead totally pissing me off tonight.

    It’s not so much their choice of headlines — only a few of those are problematic — but also just how fucked up everything in this country is.

    I really really really can’t wait for Trump to just fucking die and take his weird spells with him.

  104. 104.

    eachother

    August 22, 2022 at 6:36 pm

    I saw the article pulled in real time.  I had just posted that I liked the thermometer idea for each featured state.  (possibly the best comment I have ever made. gone. Ha  I mean tear emoji here.)

    Through the reeds and rushes, the media, I am netting a positive, possible November outcome.  Precursor shifts in positivity.  No bubble.  No bias. Ha.

  105. 105.

    Kropacetic

    August 22, 2022 at 6:36 pm

    @different-church-lady: I really really really can’t wait for Trump to just fucking die and take his weird spells with him.

    I told you he was a witch.

  106. 106.

    Ksmiami

    August 22, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    @WaterGirl: or just actuarial morbidity predictions.

  107. 107.

    JWR

    August 22, 2022 at 6:40 pm

    Before I forget, with the mentions here about MyPillowFace guys Major, Earthshattering, Election Denying Event, it’s now been approximately 3 weeks since my Saturday morning cartoons were last polluted by his stupid commercials. I suppose he could be saving up for another big ad buy, but I’m hoping the frivolous lawsuits he’s gotten himself into are finally beginning to take a toll on his bottom line.

  108. 108.

    Kropacetic

    August 22, 2022 at 6:41 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: He may not question it now.  He sure as hell did then. Dishonest piece of shit, that he is.

    Maybe even though he questioned it then, it may have been to grab power, not sincere.  Even though his public position has changed, his private feelings may not have.

    Point is that I don’t know what’s in Ron Johnson’s heart, I just know he needs to go.

  109. 109.

    MattF

    August 22, 2022 at 6:44 pm

    @artem1s: And here is the Trumpy addendum to the filing.

  110. 110.

    zhena gogolia

    August 22, 2022 at 6:47 pm

    @Kropacetic: None of them were sincere. None of them. They all knew it was bullshit, up to and including Trump.

    I’ve just re-watched all the hearings (not quite done with the last one), and it is so abundantly clear that he is the most evil person to ever get within sniffing distance of the Oval Office.

    ETA: Speaking of which, there were nine hearings, not eight. We keep forgetting the first one, with Fanone and company.

  111. 111.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    August 22, 2022 at 6:48 pm

    @WaterGirl:  Both Zooms were very good. I learned a lot about NV and WI both. All of the people were impressive in their organizing and canvassing. I’m looking forward to the next Zoom. I hope more people come watch. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to show your face or turn on your microphone. But I think showing these groups some of the people supporting them will help boost their morale and enthusiasm and I know it helped mine.

  112. 112.

    Kropacetic

    August 22, 2022 at 6:49 pm

    @MattF: “unwarranted” -Trump

    Hasn’t the warrant been made public?

    We are demanding the appointment of a SPECIAL MASTER to oversee the handling of the materials taken in the raid.

    WTF is a special master (no caps required)? Is that like when the sadist role plays as a private dick?

  113. 113.

    ian

    August 22, 2022 at 6:50 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    “Don’t we have enough trees around here?”

    No.  Moar trees please.

  114. 114.

    Kropacetic

    August 22, 2022 at 6:50 pm

    @zhena gogolia: it is so abundantly clear that he is the most evil person to ever get within sniffing distance of the Oval Office.

    Perhaps.  Granted, we never got live televised hearings involving Andrews Jackson or Johnson.

  115. 115.

    Sister Golden Bear

    August 22, 2022 at 6:50 pm

    The more I read Trump’s motion, the more I am completely confused and shocked he got three lawyers to risk their law licenses by filing this thing.

    1) what kind of motion is this? What authority is he invoking to provide the court with jurisdiction? Is this a preliminary
    — Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) August 22, 2022

    The rest of the thread gets better.

  116. 116.

    Ann Marie

    August 22, 2022 at 6:51 pm

    @WaterGirl: Thank you.  I’ll give them a chance.

  117. 117.

    Ann Marie

    August 22, 2022 at 6:52 pm

    @MisterDancer:  Thank you for finding this!

  118. 118.

    prostratedragon

    August 22, 2022 at 6:54 pm

    @Baud:  Squirrel was into it!

  119. 119.

    Scout211

    August 22, 2022 at 6:55 pm

    @zhena gogolia: ETA: Speaking of which, there were nine hearings, not eight. We keep forgetting the first one, with Fanone and company

     

    Cheney clearly stated that it was the 9th hearing at the beginning of the last one. I wasn’t sure why some people thought it was #8 in the live blog thread comments,  but now it makes more sense.

    ETA: I was disappointed when I saw on the official J6 site that no additional hearings are scheduled at this time. It just seems like so much has been happening lately and so many more Trump advisors are being interviewed that I was hoping there might a new hearing scheduled. Maybe September, let’s hope.

  120. 120.

    Geminid

    August 22, 2022 at 6:58 pm

    @Kropacetic: A special master is some qualified person appointed by a court for a particular task. For instance, when Virginia’s new reapportionment commission deadlocked, the matter went to the State Supreme Court. They appointed two special masters to draw the maps and then the court approved them.

  121. 121.

    Ken

    August 22, 2022 at 7:03 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca: Well, it has caused Popehat to change his nym to EnoughTreesHat.

  122. 122.

    Kropacetic

    August 22, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    @Geminid: Ah, makes sense.  Less fun, though.

  123. 123.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    August 22, 2022 at 7:11 pm

    Kudos to Crikey for taking on the sleazy Murdoch family:

    An open letter to Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman of News Corporation and executive chairman of Fox Corporation

    This article is part of a series about a legal threat sent to Crikey by Lachlan Murdoch, over an article Crikey published about the January 6 riots in the US. For the series introduction go here https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/08/22/lachlan-murdoch-letters-crikey-why and for the full series go here https://www.crikey.com.au/topic/lachlan-murdoch-letters.

    Dear Lachlan,

    As you know, nearly two months ago Crikey published a piece of commentary about the sorry state of US politics, and the January 6 insurrection, that mentioned the Murdoch family name twice.

    You responded through your lawyer with a series of letters in which you accused us of defaming you personally in that story.

    Crikey is an independent Australian news website, launched in 2000, covering politics, media and public issues. We at Crikey strongly support freedom of opinion and public interest journalism. We are concerned that Australia’s defamation laws are too restrictive.

    Today in Crikey, we are publishing all the legal demands and accusations from your lawyer, and the replies from our lawyers, in full, so people can judge your allegations for themselves.

    We want to defend those allegations in court. You have made it clear in your lawyer’s letters you intend to take court action to resolve this alleged defamation.

    We await your writ so that we can test this important issue of freedom of public interest journalism in a courtroom.

    Yours sincerely,

    Eric Beecher

    Chairman, Private Media

    Peter Fray

    Managing Editor, Private Media

    Editor-in-Chief, Crikey

     

    h/t https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/08/22/lachlan-murdoch-letters-open-letter-crikey/

     

  124. 124.

    Baud

    August 22, 2022 at 7:14 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    What the hell kind of name is Lachlan? Is that Australian?

  125. 125.

    Betty

    August 22, 2022 at 7:14 pm

    @MattF: I believe that was written by Bradley Moss, a D. C. lawyer who has represented whistleblowers  . He is on Fox from time to time.

  126. 126.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 7:14 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    @WaterGirl:

    Oh that’s nothing! I actually had a conversation a month or so with a customer I met while at work, who had been living in Texas for awhile, which coincided with the power outage due to the winter storms a few years back. Somebody my age too. I brought up how foolish it was that the state had it’s own power grid completely disconnected from the rest of the country’s. He came back with something or other about regulations limiting carbon emissions were responsible. I then said, “I don’t know if that’s true or not, but too much carbon emissions are bad for the environment/climate”.

    “Carbon dioxide is good for trees, isn’t”

    I nearly had a stroke from the stupidity

  127. 127.

    Scout211

    August 22, 2022 at 7:15 pm

    So it was an administration- wide policy under Trump to deactivate and wipe department-issued phones. Imagine that. Link

     

    The revelation came in a public records dispute between ICE and watchdog group American Oversight, which has sought emails and text messages from former acting ICE directors Thomas Homan, Matthew Albence and Ronald Vitiello in a controversial immigration-related case. It follows recent controversies over wiped government phones and erased text messages, including the potential loss of information relevant to investigations into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

    “We cannot stand by as agency after agency admits that it destroys public records,” said Heather Sawyer, executive director at American Oversight, in a statement. “Text messages often contain crucial information on what federal employees are doing and why they are doing it. The obligation to retain these records is not optional — it is the law.”

    In the Friday filing, ICE Chief Technology Officer Richard Clark said the agency couldn’t provide information sought by American Oversight, attested that the phones for most of the officials named in the lawsuit had been deactivated and noted that it indicated the mobile phone data has been wiped clean. American Oversight contends that many of the devices were wiped after the organization requested texts messages from the officials in 2019.

    Under Trump-era rules, ICE instructed employees to erase data from their agency-issued mobile phones when they returned their devices or left the agency, according to the court filing.

  128. 128.

    JWR

    August 22, 2022 at 7:17 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    From the second tweet in that thread:

    2) how are they establishing venue? They filed in the wrong district court as best I can tell (h/t @steve_vladeck)

    I don’t know if this is true, but someone, somewhere in that thread, said that the reason they filed in the “wrong” court was because T***p went judge-shopping, and wound up with one of “his” own.

  129. 129.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 7:19 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    @WaterGirl:

    That happened to me recently. I actually had a conversation a month or so with a customer I met while at work, who had been living in Texas for awhile, which coincided with the power outage due to the winter storms a few years back. Somebody my age too. I brought up how foolish it was that the state had it’s own power grid completely disconnected from the rest of the country’s. He came back with something or other about regulations limiting carbon emissions were responsible. I then said, “I don’t know if that’s true or not, but too much carbon emissions are bad for the environment/climate”.

    “Carbon dioxide is good for trees, isn’t”

    I nearly had a stroke from the stupidity

  130. 130.

    Baud

    August 22, 2022 at 7:21 pm

    Via Reddit

    Colorado GOP Sen. Kevin Priola switches party affiliation to Democrat, citing election conspiracies and climate denialism
     
    Priola says he can’t support a party that didn’t denounce a violent attempt to overthrow free and fair elections

  131. 131.

    J R in WV

    August 22, 2022 at 7:23 pm

    So — someone has irritated the Murdoch companies enough to attract their attention, legally. Someone with a budget for lawyers, and no inclination to run away from the Murdoch family. Fuck those fascists hard, Crickey. Give it to them and then do it again. Hateful monsters who deserve to spend the rest of their lives in court, losing to pro bono lawyers working for a free press principle….​

    ETA: I doubt the lawyers for Crickey are pro bono, but I hope they’re capable of giving the Murdochs what they deserve!

  132. 132.

    JWR

    August 22, 2022 at 7:25 pm

    @Scout211:

    an administration- wide policy under Trump to deactivate and wipe department-issued phones

    I was just about to mention that story. I wonder what happened to government-issued phones under Obama, and if there’s a government- wide standard?

  133. 133.

    RaflW

    August 22, 2022 at 7:25 pm

    @Scout211: You can’t run the government like a secret police if you can’t keep most things secret.

  134. 134.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 22, 2022 at 7:27 pm

    Not sure if anyone remembers a while back when the good citizens of Lithuania crowdfunded a Bayraktar for Ukraine. Here it is at work:

    #Ukraine: The first video of a Bayraktar TB-2 “Vanagas” UCAV fundraised by Lithuanians in action – here targeting the personnel of a Russian artillery battery.

    Contrary to some claims, TB-2 appear to still be operating in an offensive role, not just long range reconnaissance. pic.twitter.com/mzzS6powKu
    — 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 22, 2022

  135. 135.

    Baud

    August 22, 2022 at 7:29 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    “Tree hugger.”

  136. 136.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 7:31 pm

    @Geminid:

    @Kropacetic:

    I talked to my folks today and were they pissed about it, rightly seeing it as a delaying tactic.

    My mother, who is most definitely not a lawyer, said that “they’re” (meaning all of the investigators) are all “chickenshits” who should’ve arrested Trump immediately; that this would have happened to anyone else who did what he did. I replied that well, that’s just the legal process.

    However, this did get me to thinking, if it really was anybody else, and the FBI recovered stolen government documents like Trump apparently took, would they still be out of jail like he is?

  137. 137.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 22, 2022 at 7:35 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Ask Reality Winner.

  138. 138.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 7:40 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    So IOW, no. He’s getting special treatment/advantages because of who he is and how much money he has. That’s bullshit.

  139. 139.

    UncleEbeneezer

    August 22, 2022 at 7:45 pm

    Hey Watergirl, what is the best link describing what y’all are doing with Four Directions that I can signal boost on Facebook?  The ActBlue link takes me to the donation page but doesn’t really talk about the goal of funding field organizers (if I remember correctly?)

    I have a friend with decent sized circle of liberal/activist friends who is right now encouraging people to donate to Nevada and I’d love to send people to Four Directions.

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    August 22, 2022 at 7:46 pm

    @JWR: Reporting like this drives me nuts.

    Of course they should wipe the phones when they get them back from the user.  If the phones are passed back to the vendor, or on to someone else, or sent out for recycling, you don’t want any information on there.  So, you wipe it.

    The question is, what are the agency policies about text message and all the rest on government furnished equipment (GFE)?  If the agency policy is 1) the GFE phone can only be used for official business, and 2) anything done on the GFE phone is an official Government Record (which has a legal meaning that requires things like making sure it is archived correctly), then someone was breaking the agency policy (and potentially the law) by wiping the phone (or letting the user wipe their text messages, etc., before turning them in) before the Government Records were backed up and filed and documented as the rules and law require.

    If the agency policy is that text messages are never official records, or that it’s up to the user to determine whether their text messages are official records or not, then that needs to be told to Congress and the people in clear terms, and they need to justify it.  Because, obviously, it invites abuse.

    tl;dr – Tell us the policy and if the policy was broken.  If the policy was broken, tell us by whom and why.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 7:47 pm

    @Baud:

    That is a word that has gotten thrown out a lot at environmentalists, hasn’t it? It’s meant to minimize/trivialize practical concerns about the environment and climate change.

    Like, this isn’t just about people loving nature for nature’s sake or something. Biodiversity is a Thing and humans are still apart of nature; destroying it is only destroying ourselves because we rely on it to live

  142. 142.

    Dangerman

    August 22, 2022 at 7:50 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I was TS/EBI a long time ago (I think EBI is like SCI but I don’t keep up with the TLA’s).

    If I had taken anything home, I would have been arrested so fast my head woulda been spinning.

    If I had a conversation with an apparently Eastern European woman at a bar or similar and not reported it, I woulda been fired.

  143. 143.

    NotMax

    August 22, 2022 at 7:52 pm

    @Kropacetic

    Reminded of a memorable snatch of dialogue from a film noir whose title escapes me:

    “No. He used to be cop, now he’s a dick.”

    ;)

  144. 144.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 22, 2022 at 7:52 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    That is a word that has gotten thrown out a lot at environmentalists, hasn’t it? It’s meant to minimize/trivialize practical concerns about the environment and climate change.

    Yes, since the ‘70s certainly, and possibly the ‘60s. “Dirty tree-hugging hippie” used to roll off the tongues of Nixon and his henchpersons.

    #EverythingOldIsNewAgain

  145. 145.

    Geminid

    August 22, 2022 at 7:53 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: Over in Limerick, Ireland, journalist Marcy Wheeler is having a grand time with trump’s court filing:

        Donny promised us a “very significant [4th Amendment] claim” but instead gave us a flimsy, 2-week late Special Master request that conflates Attorney-Client Privilege and Executive Privilege, AND admitted to threatening the AG.

    *****

    Oh mister, you didn’t make a 4A claim. You promised it. Waggled it around like you thought you were still a teenager even. You couldn’t deliver, Big Boy.

    @emptywheel August 22, 2022

    Wheeler isn’t usually this colorful, but it’s late in the evening over there.

  146. 146.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 7:54 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It looks like at least two of those guys on the right are dead from the direct hit while the other two are crawling away, probably injured from the shrapnel; the one artillery on the right is definitely destroyed. The truck was probably also damaged.

    Those Bayraktar TB-2 “Vanagas” UCAVs seem to be very effective and I’m glad they’re aiding UKR’s war effort

  147. 147.

    JWR

    August 22, 2022 at 7:54 pm

    @Another Scott:

    tl;dr – Tell us the policy and if the policy was broken.  If the policy was broken, tell us by whom and why.

    Bingo, thank you, and it wasn’t tl;dr at all.

    ; )

  148. 148.

    NotMax

    August 22, 2022 at 7:55 pm

    @Baud

    Gaelic pedigree name. Sounds best when spoken with a brogue.

  149. 149.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 7:57 pm

    @Geminid:

    admitted to threatening the AG.

    He WHAT!?

  150. 150.

    Kropacetic

    August 22, 2022 at 7:57 pm

    @NotMax: “No. He used to be cop, now he’s a dick.”

    A simpler time when we didn’t recognize one can be both.

  151. 151.

    MomSense

    August 22, 2022 at 7:58 pm

    I set four directions and Voces on automatic monthly donations through Act Blue.  I assume those show up in our totals.  It’s just easier for me to do it that way.  I can’t chip in extra right now – just made a big tuition payment.
    Kid leaves for school on Sunday and I’m going to be a basket case. Fortunately my local campaigning picks up right after he leaves.  I’m doing Voter Protection again this year plus persuasion calls and GOTV.

  152. 152.

    Kropacetic

    August 22, 2022 at 8:01 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    @Geminid: admitted to threatening the AG.

    He WHAT!?

    We’ve seen this play before, admit to the crime to then argue “clearly it wasn’t a crime or I wouldn’t have admitted to it.”

    Bold, manipulative legal strategy? Ex post factor rationalization for a mistake? Our panel will decide.

  153. 153.

    zhena gogolia

    August 22, 2022 at 8:03 pm

    @Scout211: I think they have said there will be hearings in September

  154. 154.

    J R in WV

    August 22, 2022 at 8:06 pm

    Regarding Four Directions, they have quite a bit of good data on their web site, which is not ActBlue, where the money is accessed.

    https://www.fourdirectionsvote.com/about/

    This is a good start. We hit them up the same monthly amount we donate to Val Demings to support her personal Senate campaign.

    I mostly donate to individual candidates, to avoid helping to pay the overhead of Emily’s List, etc. But Four Directions is important in Indian Country, just as Planned Parenthood is important in reproductive rights.

  155. 155.

    Ksmiami

    August 22, 2022 at 8:06 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer: just sent money to Cortez Mastro. She has to win

  156. 156.

    Geminid

    August 22, 2022 at 8:09 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think this relates to a message trump sent to Garland some days ago  that the country was “on fire” and he would cooperate to turn down the heat if the AG was willing to help. Of course, the country wasn’t on fire and Garland seems to have ignored trump.

    This was an implicit threat, and it sounds like trump cited it in his filing. Observers are saying that it looks like trump wrote much of the filing, and his second rate attorneys let him.

  157. 157.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 22, 2022 at 8:13 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I thought for a second that I should feel sorry for the guy crawling away, but it passed.

  158. 158.

    Scout211

    August 22, 2022 at 8:13 pm

    @Another Scott

    From the CNN article I cited above: was it official policy or was it “guidance” and what, if any was the difference?   And the employees and appointees themselves were responsible to save data that was “official business.”  Seems kind of questionable.

    Under Trump-era rules, ICE instructed employees to erase data from their agency-issued mobile phones when they returned their devices or left the agency, according to the court filing.

    That guidance, issued in November 2017, along with a subsequent 2018 memo, dictated that employees are responsible for wiping their phones and saving separate records if official business was conducted on the phone.

    . . . .

    In a separate case brought by American Oversight, it was discovered that the Defense Department wiped the phones of top departing Defense and Army officials at the end of the Trump administration. That meant any texts from a number of key witnesses to events surrounding January 6, 2021, were deleted.

  159. 159.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 8:18 pm

    @Dangerman:

    Exactly. Trump should be no different

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I think that whole “lol treehuggers amirite” thing isn’t nearly as present as it used to be though. The advances in green energy and tech along with the investments in such, have made it much more economical; it’s not as associated with the DFHs anymore. Plus, the last decade has shown ample evidence of climate change, and I think people are becoming more environmentally conscious these days somewhat

  160. 160.

    JWR

    August 22, 2022 at 8:33 pm

    @Scout211: I just went to American Oversight, and they have this, re mobile devices:

    On Aug. 22, American Oversight and the ACLU of Massachusetts filed an emergency motion asking the court to order ICE, while the lawsuit is pending, to preserve in their present condition any mobile devices that had been issued to the seven named officials, and to continue its efforts to access the cell phone of former ICE Senior Adviser Jon Feere. The motion is available here.

  161. 161.

    Geminid

    August 22, 2022 at 8:34 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Polls have shown for some time now that a solid majority of Americans recognize climate change as a danger and think that governments should take steps to combat it. Like gun safety and reproductive rights, it is an issue where Republicans have dug themselves in on the wrong side of public opinion.

    Now that the economic benefits of the clean energy transition are more and more apparent, I think this has become a winning issue for Democrats in purple states and districts.

  162. 162.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 8:37 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    How many thousands or tens of thousands of lives, both Ukrainian and Russian, has Putin sacrificed at this point? For what, USSR Part 2 Electric Boogaloo?

    I saw a headline the other day in the NYT about Wagner, the Russian PMC, plugging the holes in the Russian Army. Evidently, the Russian Defense Minister denied the involvement early on of Wagner, but now Russian state TV is showing the Russian people Wagner’s “heroic exploits” instead of the quagmire they put themselves into

  163. 163.

    Anoniminous

    August 22, 2022 at 8:40 pm

    The Nazi agitator whom, many years ago, I heard proclaim to a wildly cheering peasants’ meeting: ‘We don’t want lower bread prices, we don’t want higher bread prices, we don’t want unchanged bread prices—we want National-Socialist bread prices,’ came nearer explaining fascism than anybody I have heard since.“ — Peter F. Drucker

    Change “fascism” to “Republican” and voila!

  164. 164.

    kalakal

    August 22, 2022 at 8:42 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Naw, some people just can’t contain their inner Eeyore, never happy unless prophesying doom*. Ok, cool, whatever floats their boat, on the other hand a lot more of us got a real kick out of the last few weeks. I was delighted to see your prophecy about Biden getting a deal with Manchin come to pass

    *I’m a Scot who spent decades in Yorkshire, dour pessimism elevated to an art form by both nature & nurture and I feel better in the last few weeks than I have in years

  165. 165.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 22, 2022 at 8:44 pm

    @Geminid:

    That’s what I’ve read here and elsewhere. Bums me out though that because of sourcing requirements going into effect from the IRA, most EV models currently on the market won’t be eligible for the tax credits. Hopefully manufacturers will move quickly to meet those requirements

  166. 166.

    Dangerman

    August 22, 2022 at 8:44 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Trump should ve just like anyone else and be arrested. Assuming facts are as they appear to be.

    Sure, some of his cult will lose their shit but, oh well, they can go to jail, too.

  167. 167.

    Baud

    August 22, 2022 at 8:50 pm

    @Anoniminous:

    That’s a good quote.

  168. 168.

    Ken

    August 22, 2022 at 8:52 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: My explanation for today’s filing: TFG, ever cheap, is trying to crowdsource it. So he tells the lawyers to file something ridiculous. Then wait for lawyers (Ken “PopeHat” White, Marcy “Emptywheel” Wheeler, etc.) to explain everything that’s wrong, and use that to amend the filing.

  169. 169.

    RaflW

    August 22, 2022 at 8:52 pm

    @Kropacetic: “Lemme know when you want me to call off my MAGA horde” is a mob boss type threat, but it’s not (to my non LEO ears) a criminal threat.

  170. 170.

    sab

    August 22, 2022 at 8:55 pm

    @Baud: Gaelic.

  171. 171.

    Madeleine

    August 22, 2022 at 9:21 pm

    @Ann Marie: I got hooked up with NPP through Red2Blue and I’ve been calling people who recently registered to vote with NPP help. We follow up to give them info: looking for their voter registration card in the mail, info about voting in Nov, and offering other info and help. People appreciate the outreach. They’re a good organization.

  172. 172.

    JaySinWA

    August 22, 2022 at 9:26 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: From one source I read the Pro se thing is a default in this district when a case is opened without supporting documents. It no longer lists as pro se per emptywheel and has one of the lead lawyers name attached.

    Or what

    @MisterDancer:

    said with receipts.

    A lot of folks fell over themselves with the initial listing.

  173. 173.

    Geminid

    August 22, 2022 at 9:26 pm

    @Ken: Some observers characterize trump’s filing as a fancy press release, just some more propaganda to rile up his base supporters. trump is playing the martyr, so if the motion, or whatever it is, falls flat he can cite this as more evidence of how unfairly he is being treated.

    trump can’t devise a legal strategy without knowledgeable and competent attorneys and he does not have any it seems. So for now he’s making this a political fight. But he’s an idiot, and he’s digging his hole deeper.

  174. 174.

    Madeleine

    August 22, 2022 at 9:27 pm

    @Ann Marie: NPP is a good organization. I’ve been making calls through them to people they helped to register to vote. We follow through with info about getting their voter registration card, going to vote on Nov., and offering other help for new voters. People appreciate the outreach and it really encourages new voters.

  175. 175.

    Geminid

    August 22, 2022 at 9:48 pm

    @RaflW: Yeah, trump’s message to Garland was an implicit threat, not an explicit one. trump has the low cunning of a career criminal, and tries to skate close to but inside tbe law.

    My Atlanta friend commented on this with respect to the Georgia election case. Warren is a sharp attorney (civil, not criminal defense), and he closely examined trump’s phone call to the Georgia elections chief. Warren hates trump as much as anyone here, but he wasn’t sure if trump crossed the line although he was right at it.

    Fulton County Attorney Fani Willis appears intent on getting the grand jury to bring an indictment, though, and maybe she can.

  176. 176.

    WaterGirl

    August 23, 2022 at 10:35 am

    @UncleEbeneezer: Maybe I can put up a simple post that describes them and what they are doing – with the thermometer – and you could share that link with them?

    Or I could make it a PAGE instead of a post.  Pages are static things, with no comments.

    With no swears and no BJ in-jokes, obviously.

    Would either of those ideas help?

  177. 177.

    WaterGirl

    August 23, 2022 at 10:37 am

    @Another Scott: Something I read this morning indicated that it’s not just policy, it’s a law. But I didn’t recall where I read that, so i don’t have a link.

  178. 178.

    WaterGirl

    August 23, 2022 at 10:39 am

    @MomSense:   The monthly donations to Four Directions or Voces show up in the thermometer you created the monthly donation from.

    If you did that during the Michigan fundraising, it’s still going to Michigan, for example.

    If anyone wants to change their Four Directions recurring donation from one state to another, you can just let me know – they said they can make that change behind the scenes.

  179. 179.

    WaterGirl

    August 23, 2022 at 11:10 am

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I just made a PAGE on Balloon Juice – so you and everyone who is interested can post this on twitter or facebook.

    It’s a blurb from their page, along with a bit of information about the difference Four Directions made in AZ and GA (in 2020 and the runoffs) and it also has our Balloon Juice thermometer for Four Directions in Nevada.

    Link

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