We already had a narrow path to keeping the senate in 2024, even before Manchin decided not to run for Senate in 2024. Now the path is quite daunting, and we pretty much have to run the table in order to have a majority in the Senate. And 50-50 won’t help, unless we keep the White House.
So… how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Today’s bite is Montana, where we can keep Jon Tester in the senate, and turn one of the two House seats from red to blue.
The Native vote in Montana is 6.5% of the population, and that’s more than enough to get the results we want, if enough of them turn out to vote, and if they vote blue.
When Four Directions is active in the state, the Native vote in Montana tends to go 97% for the Democrats. In 2016, 2020, and 2022 – when Four Directions was not active with the Montana tribes – the democratic vote fell off a cliff, and the tribal vote went for Republicans.
We can’t afford to lose Montana.
Maxim sent me this great quote from Howard Zinn, which still seems relevant today.
This will be our last active fundraising ask until after the holidays.
Another angel who knows what’s at stake has stepped forward, and has offered to piggyback her $1,000 angel match on top of the current angel match. So the first $1,000 of donations – of up to $50 – listed in the comments will be matched by her.
This one is done!
I said there would be no math. Example: $50 donation in the comments + $50 from the $5k match + $50 from our new angel = $150, and that will be matched by the external donor, so that’s $300 to organize the Native vote in Montana. That’s 6x your donation amount!
Done!
Donations not listed in the comments will be matched up to any amount. Just multiply by 4 to see your contribution to organizing the Native vote in Montana.
Done!
As always on Balloon Juice, whether it’s our pet charity, or Balloon Juice operating expenses, or political fundraising, or someone in need, no one should feel like they are expected to contribute.
Whether you’re up for donating or not, I’d love to hear whether you’re up for the fight between now and November 2024, and what you do to keep going when the news and the polls and the evil around us starts to feel overwhelming.
.
I imagine that a lot of you are busy with Thanksgiving preparations. I had my company here last weekend, so tomorrow will be a quiet day for me. What are your plans for tomorrow?
P.S. Don’t forget the Thanksgiving zoom from 7-10 pm Eastern. If you want to drop in on the zoom at any point, send me an email message so I can send you the link.
Update: $5k and $1k matches are both complete! As soon as the $1k match goes into the thermometer, we will have $20,385 in there, plus the $5k angel 😇 just wrote their check and mailed it off to Four Directions!
BJ peeps rock!!
Update 2 at 6:00 pm: Any donations to the thermometer now are matched by the external match, but not by an angels. So to measure the reach of your dollars, you would multiply your donation amount by 2.
Old School
Is that every available tag?
scav
@Old School: I feel honored to have witnessed it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Old School:
Every available tag and an On the Road blurb!!
SiubhanDuinne
Just for shits and giggles, I took screen shots of all those tags.
Tony Jay
“Daddy. Daddy. Where were you when the Tag Box exploded?”
PJ
@SiubhanDuinne: I guess WG really wanted to make sure EVERYONE saw this.
WaterGirl
Holy cow, that was really something!
I had only 3 tags set, no idea what happened there.
Baud
Tester sure has his finger in a lot of different subjects.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
“Select All”
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay:
That might have to be a rotating tag!
SiubhanDuinne
@PJ:
I didn’t know — or had forgotten — that there’s a tag called Rick Perry Presents “Rick Perry”.
Our FPers need to haul that one out of mothballs occasionally.
WaterGirl
@Baud: There is no select all! At least I’ve never seen it.
Also, as I can now personally attest, there is no UN-SELECT ALL. I had to delete them one by one by one.
EDIT: I see that there IS a select all and deselect all box. I had never seen it, and I went straight for unchecking as fast as I could.
Baud
Tagmageddon
WaterGirl
I made reference to a Montana House seat up top, without saying much about it, but there’s a strong case to made for picking up a House seat in Montana.
Until 2022, Montana had only 1 House district, but they got a second house seat in 2022, after the 2020 census.
District 1 covers Western Montana. (We totally have a shot here)
District 2 covers Eastern Montana. (RED, we have no chance there)
District 1 covers Western Montana and includes the relatively liberal college towns of Missoula and Bozeman. And according to the US Census, Native Americans still make up 3.9% of District 1 – roughly 22,000 people – and if they vote, that is more than enough to flip the seat.
The seat is currently held by the ethically-challenged Ryan Zinke, Trump’s former Secretary of the Interior. Zinke won by only 3.1% – a difference of 7,837 votes.
We can get this seat, and we can get it with the Native vote. If they vote.
H.E.Wolf
In a Zoom meeting – sneaking out to say Thank You WaterGirl (and Howard Zinn) for reminding us that we do have agency, and we do have a positive path forward.
Let’s win in Montana! I predict that Four Directions, with our help, will make a significant difference.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
It was hilarious. Thank you!
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Did you one better.
rikyrah
Tis true.
Marmot
Four Directions. I’m in.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, it sure started the thread out with a bang!
Lots of laughs already in this thread.
rikyrah
Is Tester working hard for that Native vote?
What kinds of obstacles has Montana placed upon the Native population to voter suppress them?
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Excellent work! Nice to know that at least some of us want to memorialise that moment for posterity.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: Hey, I learned something today. So I guess I get to go to bed now if I want, as I always want to learn at least one thing every day.
Soprano2
@Baud: Wow, I wondered what you were talking about!
WaterGirl
@Marmot: If you tell me how much in a comment or more privately by email, I will count you for the extra match that takes your donation – up to $50 – to 6x.
Almost Retired
I’m in for $100. I was going to make it one dollar per tag, but I’m not sure I could afford it.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:
Four Direction talked about that at the zoom. I’m planning on pulling out a few 2-minute snippets – and posting them in a thread after Thanksgiving – so you can hear the stories directly.
Personally, I thought it was a great zoom, but I’ll let the other folks who were on the zoom chime in with their thoughts.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:
I know that Tester has either talked about the native vote recently, or has already reached out to them in this cycle, but I don’t recall the details.
I’ll have to watch the zoom recording in order to pull out the best snippets and stories, and if that’s where I heard that about Tester, I will be sure to make a note and get back to you on that.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Whoa! How did I miss all this? Guess WG was too fast for me!
BlueGuitarist
Yesterday in BC’s “The New Statists” thread, thinking about the palpable current dangers to democracy, the role of the US Senate as an institution enabling minority rule (in conjunction with the Electoral College and SCOTUS) and small actions as an antidote to despair, i posted
i’m listening to Bob Dylan:
love all y’all
stinger
WG, I contributed at the end of the previous, long-dead, thread on Four Directions/Montana. Not clear on whether that got a match.
I missed the tag box explosion, so thanks for the screen grab, @Baud:
I don’t see Cole’s most frequently used tag, though — isn’t it “This Fucking Old House”?
ETA: Nemmind, I see it starts with “John Cole Presents”.
WaterGirl
@Almost Retired: hahaha! thank you. pretty sure you can do the math to multiply that by 6 all by yourself. :-)
FastEdD
I’m in for $50, in the name of Ginger Lamp, my partner who passed away a year ago. She would approve.
WaterGirl
@stinger: That was in there. At least I remember unchecking that box.
Since you contributed on the previous thread, you were definitely matched dollar-for-dollar, with no limit on the amount. So whether you contributed $10 or $50 or $250 or more, your donation ended up as 4x the amount you added through the thermometer.
Unless your contribution was this morning? If your contribution was this morning, then up to $50 can count toward the extra piggybacked $1k angel match that turns it into 6x the amount you donated.
Let me know the timeframe so I know whether to count you toward this new piggybacked match.
Bee Girls
Happy to stuff in $50.00. Thanks for setting this up!
WaterGirl
@FastEdD: Oh, so sorry about your loss. I saw that in a previous thread lately, too, and I was too late to comment. Well, I guess I could have commented, but you wouldn’t have seen it.
Multiply by 6, I feel certain Ginger Lamp would approve. That’s a lot of bang for the buck.
WaterGirl
@Bee Girls: That is going to make a huge difference, thank you. Don’t forget to multiply by 6. :-)
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
It is 12:39 PM central standard time on a beautiful Friday in the late fall. Thanksgiving is six days away. At lunch time people are discussing one of the season’s biggest sporting events, the Army-Navy game, occurring the next day.
Suddenly ten bells begin to ring in a Chicago office. These same ten bells begin to ring in similar offices across the globe: from Johannesburg to Reykjavik, from Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo. The bells altered people to drop what they were doing and to read a dispatch being printed out. The ten bells were designated “FLASH” (like a bolt of lightning). It was a rarely used label, reserved for monumental and cataclysmic events (i.e. landing on the Moon, the Space Shuttle exploding).
Stunned at this unexpected notification they anxiously approach the printer and read:
(said in context – all caps original) (image)
BlueGuitarist
In 2022 in MT’s first congressional district Monica Tranel lost by only 3 to Ryan Zinke while being outspent 2-1.
Monica Tranel – Montanan, lawyer, US Women’s Olympic Rowing team Gold Medalist, x-Republican – is a good candidate for the district, which includes the Black Feet and Flathead reservations.
On Monday H.E.Wolf posted:
Soprano2
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I don’t remember it, I was 2 years old when it happened.
SiubhanDuinne
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Now, everyfuckingthing is labelled FLASH or BREAKING. The word (in a journalistic context) is devoid of meaning.
Maxim
@Baud: Thank you. I got here too late for the actual explosion.
And thanks to our newest angel! In for $50.
WaterGirl
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: So awful, and amazing that it was so very long ago!
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: It sure does, thank you!
Torrey
Possibly my memory is going, but I somehow thought that the original goal was $30,000. Did it change?
ETA: In for $25.
SiubhanDuinne
@Soprano2:
I remember it vividly. My then-fiancé and I were having our wedding rings and my engagement ring engraved at a downtown Atlanta jewelry store when someone ran in from the street with the news.
Soprano2
In for $50, I’ve never done it before but we HAVE to hold this seat, and if we could get the House seat too that would be great.
Soprano2
@SiubhanDuinne: My husband talks about learning about it at school, I think he was in 8th grade and thus still in Catholic school. It was such a tragedy.
la caterina
@WaterGirl: I’m in for $50. Hurrah for angel matches!
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
We’ve already got more tags than RFK Jr has face wrinkles. Enough is enough! :-)
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Aldous Huxley and C. S. Lewis also died on 22 November 1963. Sadly, but understandably, news of their passing was eclipsed by the JFK assassination.
Someone wrote a book years later, called Between Heaven and Hell, about the three men having a conversation in Purgatory about their respective philosophies and theologies.
FastEdD
@WaterGirl: Thanks WG. Before she passed, I discussed her absentee ballot with her and delivered it for her. I told her she voted and it was a comfort. We used to knock on doors together-she was fearless. She can’t vote anymore, but I’ll make sure her spirit will.
Marmot
@WaterGirl: omg for sure. $25 just now.
WaterGirl
@Torrey: Well, it’s a little tricky when the BJ angel writes a $5k check, then it DOES go to Four Directions for Montana, but it doesn’t show in the thermometer.
So even though I explain that to folks, they usually work to get to $25k in the thermometer, which turns into $30k for the organization.
But Cole said no fundraising starting Thanksgiving until mid-January, so we only have a really short timeframe to raise the $25k that was matched. (though they did say our match-er would match up to $30k if we got there)
So I figured in the short timeframe, $25k was more doable, and that’s what we really need for Four Directions to get the match from the external group.
Does that make sense?
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
Busy preparing for 21 dinner guests, 10 houseguests, but I’m in for $50. I’ve got relatives in Montana. We’ve gotta keep Tester, and it’d be great to pick up a House seat.
WaterGirl
@Soprano2: Multiply that by 6 and you’ll se that that is going to make an especially big difference for Montana!
H.E.Wolf
From what I recall from last week’s Zoom with Four Directions, they summed it up by saying “bordertown racism circa 1865”, and gave some examples of refusing to accept registration forms and/or ballots, refusing to site polling locations on reservations, refusing to accept materials if Four Directions had been involved, etc. etc.
[Back to my meeting – I shouldn’t be playing hooky!]
WaterGirl
@la caterina: Yes, the external matches make a big difference, but when paired with a BJ Angel match, it’s amazing. The BJ Angels are really what makes this all work.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: Really? You think I should stop adding them? Or cull more of them out?
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I did not know they shared the same sad day, or that there was a book about that. Sounds interesting.
WaterGirl
@FastEdD:
:: tears ::
Ninedragonspot
In for $50
WaterGirl
@Marmot: 6 x $25. Talk about bang for your buck. :-)
We can all make a difference. Each one of us, and you are a great example of that.
Alison Rose
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: My mom had just turned 16 some weeks earlier, and she told me once she’d felt like she had aged a decade by that night.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
I read it a number of years ago As I recall, it was well done. Certainly an interesting concept.
ETA: The author is Peter Kreeft.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: I say the more the merrier! Sometimes one pops up that I’d forgotten about and it’s good for a laugh.
WaterGirl
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): Wow, that’s a lot of houseguests!!!
thank you! don’t forget to multiply by 6.
WaterGirl
@H.E.Wolf: You have such a good memory!
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
Nah, I’m just teasing. Rotating tags are nature’s greatest renewable resource.
WaterGirl
@Ninedragonspot: that’s so great, thank you! don’t forget to multiply by 6. everyone has to do their own math today. :-)
Paul W.
I was not going to donate because I have a standing monthly to the big guy, but because of matching I had to chip in $50… good thing my family is not doing presents this year!
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: One night I was lying awake in the middle of the night and I had listened to all my podcasts, so I pulled up my phone and watched the rotating tags.
I was still happy with almost all of them, and I think they do a great job of describing Balloon Juice. If someone asked what BJ was or what it’s like, I think I might just direct them to our rotating tags.
Almost Retired
What a fun and hopeful thread! The perfect antidote to the recent doom-a-thons.
WaterGirl
@Paul W.: Thank you! Where else can $50 turn into $300? :-)
Hopefully you are giving all of them one senate seat in Montana next year, and hopefully a bonus House seat! I would take that for Christmas, happily!
trollhattan
WTF is this about?
ETA Redux of the Millennium bomber?
Dorothy A. Winsor
I was in an American History class when the principle came on the PA and announced that JFK had been shot. The teacher commented that we might be seeing American history in the making.
Matt McIrvin
@SiubhanDuinne: The first episode of Doctor Who aired the following day on the BBC, immediately after extended coverage of the Kennedy assassination, and few people watched it.
They rebroadcast the same episode a week later before the second episode to catch people up, but interest in the new series only really spiked with the second serial, which introduced the Doctor’s perennial enemies, the Daleks.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: Yikes! I have no idea.
realbtl
In for $50 and again this Montana resident thanks you.
ChrisSherbak
Until I started getting texts from Tester’s campaign I sorta kinda figured he was in better shape than suggested here. I guess his margin was pretty thin last time.
In for $25.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: In 2020, my daughter took a special Social Studies class called “Election Madness”, themed to the election year and intended to cover momentous and messed-up elections throughout US history.
It just turned into a current-events class. There was too much relevant subject matter happening in real time to focus on history very much.
BeautifulPlumage
Thanks for bringing this to the front page again. In for a match!
WaterGirl
@ChrisSherbak: Yes, the margin has been getting thinner!
Four Directions was organizing for the native vote in Tester’s first election, then dropped back after 2014 (details shared in the zoom) and was razor thin in 2018.
So glad they are headed back there this again, and it’s my understanding that the tribes requested their help again this time around.
Thanks for your donation! don’t forget to multiply by 6.
SiubhanDuinne
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m glad they persevered.
WaterGirl
@BeautifulPlumage: Thank you so much! Don’t forget to multiply by 6!
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Is there any way that non-FPers can view the rotating tags in their entirety? I once, in a moment of boredom, began writing down the ones that popped up, but that was supremely inefficient in all kinds of ways.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: What I love is that some of them will be understandable by anyone, and others will make them go “huh?” because they’re our own little in-jokes. I love the idea of someone who knew nothing about the blog following a link to it and the first tag they see is “The willow is too close to the house” :P
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I suspect that I could find a way to do that.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: Absolutely! They are a mix of where we stand politically, some that show how clever and funny our commenters can be, and some where you just had to be there. :-)
Alison Rose
@trollhattan: Fox is already calling it an attempted terror attack, which it might be, but quelle surprise that they go right for it before other sites.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: I can come up with several possibilities right off the bat, with each of them being very different from the others.
Best to wait and see. One thing I am pretty certain of, is that Canada has not declared war on the US.
H.E.Wolf
Well, I remembered the “bordertown” comment because it was so vivid. As for the rest… I confess I took notes. :-)
(And hooray, my meeting is over and the surge of the MT thermometer is the first thing I saw! WOW!)
trollhattan
@Matt McIrvin:
“Drinking History from a Firehose, Now in Real Time!” sounds about right. 2020 was also the first election my kid voted in.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
That would be extremely cool!!
Matt McIrvin
@SiubhanDuinne: …and, in a perhaps vaguely interesting coincidence, the last episode of the original Star Trek was preempted by coverage of the death of former President Eisenhower.
It aired months later as the first episode in a new time slot intended for reruns. It’s a pretty bad episode, so maybe they shouldn’t have bothered.
Joy in FL
In for $55.
I love the Howard Zinn quote. Thank you for that.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin:
That seems harsh! :-)
But I haven’t seen the episode, so maybe it was warranted.
trollhattan
On this Nov 22 Letters of Note sent two Jackie Kennedy letters, one to LBJ and the other to Nikita Khrushchev, following her husband’s funeral. The Khrushchev letter is below, and I think demonstrates how Jackie was the more adroit diplomat of the two Kennedys.
This was not that long after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I will never be able to spell Khrushchev from memory.
SteveinPHX
I remember telling WG on one of those fishing for lurkers attempts that it was the rotating tags that hooked & landed me.
In for $25. Keeping Tester there is critical. Love the multiplier effect!
Another Scott
@trollhattan:
Niagara-Gazette.com:
It wasn’t on the bridge, but at the checkpoint area.
Dunno.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Joy in FL: I like that quote, too.
The other side really wants us to be discouraged. To feel helpless and hopeless.
We have to remember that we have agency. And remember that the future is not written yet, and remember that we with our hard work and effort, we have the ability to impact the future.
No guarantees, but there are never any guarantees for the big stuff, for the stuff that really matters.
Thanks for your donation! $50,000 for organizing will have a big impact on the races in Montana!
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: What a wonderful message. Reading it left me in tears.
WaterGirl
@SteveinPHX: I was bereft – in the iterations of the site that left us without rotating tags – and the rotating tags were very high up on the list of specs when working with the developers.
I don’t think of it as fishing for lurkers… more like welcoming them and sending the message that it’s safe to jump in, the water is fine.
(On most days, at least!!!)
edit: Forgot to thank you for your donation!
Chetan Murthy
@WaterGirl: Overe at LG&M http://disq.us/p/2wo7m48 they’re (indirectly) talking about Four Directions:
And IIRC you all had something to do with that.
Coyoteville
i just donated another $25 to take advantage of all the various matches.
BeautifulPlumage
@WaterGirl: should have mentioned it’s in for $50.
I’m finally at a place where I can slowly start up donations and subscriptions again. My first was a treat for myself – VIP ticket to a local music fundraiser & good cause.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Thanks for that information.
Glad it didn’t destroy the bridge. We certainly live in interesting times.
Layer8Problem
@Matt McIrvin, @WaterGirl:
Ain’t nobody got the time for “Turnabout Intruder”.
SiubhanDuinne
Just tossed in another $25.00. Love these Angel matches!
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: Yeah, OG Star Trek didn’t get a proper series finale, just a weird Freaky Friday story with even more sexism than the average old-school Star Trek episode.
lowtechcyclist
So if one gives a donation of more than $50, what happens to the part over $50? It sounds like it still gets a 4x match rather than a 6x match. Do I have that right?
For example, if I donated $150, the first $50 would be multiplied 6 times = $300, and the extra $100 would be multiplied 4x = $400, for a total of $700?
WaterGirl
@Chetan Murthy: Yep.
And yes, we all had something to do that here on Balloon Juice.
It’s simply not possible to raise $975,000 – in direct money and external matches that we arranged – with 4/5 of it going directly to organizing – and the other 1/5 going to really tight races – and not to have made a difference in the outcome in 2022.
Look at what we did in VA a few weeks ago.
Two candidates. One candidate we supported was the 51st win, which gave us the majority in the House of Delegates. The other is separated from the winning vote by a mere 78 votes, and is now going to a recount.
I refuse to believe that our $12,500 to the race that’s going to a recount, that was separated by a mere 78 votes, didn’t make a difference in the outcome.
WaterGirl
@Coyoteville: Thank you for that. 6x is a great multiplier!
WaterGirl
@BeautifulPlumage: Thank you! Glad to hear you are in a better place! The VIP ticket for the music fundraiser is a nice treat, for you and for them!
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank you, SD! x6 !
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: You are correct, sir! :-)
SteveinPHX
@WaterGirl: They sure “hooked” me!
WaterGirl
@SteveinPHX: Yes, the tags hooked me, too. That’s why I missed them so much when they were gone.
BlueGuitarist
@WaterGirl:
and speaking of contributing to state legislative success:
Last year Balloon-Juice supported 2 Super-Swing-District candidates who won election to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, part of flipping it to a 1 seat Democratic majority.
I just got an email from one of them, Mandy Steele, PA-HD-033 (a district in Allegheny County):
Maxim
@trollhattan: My junior high English teacher taught me a mnemonic for it. In our case, there was a nearby station called KHSL that stood in for the first two letters.
Rush — the verb
Chev — a Chevy
So, if the order was less important, one could say “I had to rush to KHSL in my Chevy,” or “KHSL announced [x] and I had to rush there in my Chevy.” Either way, it worked.
P.S. — WG, in case you are making a list for the matching angels, I have a comment upthread.
Geminid
@Chetan Murthy: A lot of people remark upon the impact of Arizona Natives on the 2020 election and it was a real one, but increased political participation by Arizona’s larger Hispanic population also played a big role. Historically, Hispanic citizens have lagged their Anglo counterparts in Arizona voting, but the gap is closing now.
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Thanks for sharing the good news.
WaterGirl
@Maxim: No one checks my math. :-) I add the donations to the spreadsheets so I know when any individual match has been met :-)
I’ve got you!
laura
Semi-on topic – I’m curious about Tennessee’s Gloria Johnson and her run against Marsha Blackburn. Does anyone have any insights on her chances, her campaign and what might be done to assist her and add one more solid Democrat in the Senate?
Matt McIrvin
In for $50.
rikyrah
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Before I was born, but, my parents and all the Elders, would tell the stories of they knew exactly where they were and what they were doing when they found out about President Kennedy.
rikyrah
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)):
10 Houseguests!!
Yikes!!
rikyrah
@trollhattan:
Can’t be good.
Will never be on Fox, because it’s the WRONG BORDER.
rikyrah
@laura:
I’m not saying we should go all in, but, don’t we get 1 or 2 ‘ good for the sake of being good candidates’ to support?
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl: Cool! Just donated $150, which turns into $700. :^)
Jay C
@Alison Rose:
Unless you left off the sarc tags, why would this be a surprise? Fox (and a host of online Righties) jumped to the “terrorist attack” take practically as soon as the report came in.
There is still a lot yet to be determined about today’s explosion (uncertainty which – at least AFAICT – the existence of a plethora of video evidence tends to increase, rather than diminish), but that the hacks at Fox would right away jump to the most-sensationalistic conclusion as possible as soon as possible is only SOP for them.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
counts on fingers … carry the 3 … WOW! Just like that $150 bux! The magic of matches.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: If you decide to donate, and you want to send me an email with your donation amount, I can include it in the matches.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:
Yes, we do!
Even if we love them, like Stacey Abrams, and they are rolling in cash, they don’t need us.
But if we love them and they are not rolling in cash as we get a lot closer to the election, and the race is tight, then we can support them, like we did with our “purple house district” thermometers or our flash fundraising for the senate candidate who was iffy (forgot her name!) and the governor of Maine after those horrible attacks, filled with lies.
TxTiger
@WaterGirl – I have given $50. Thanks for organizing this, and thank you to the angel match folks as well.Four Directions is one of my favorite groups to donate to, not least because they don’t harass me with email continually after giving. I love knowing that the Native vote can swing results so resoundingly.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: Got you! Thank you so much!
Raoul Paste
In for $50.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: The magic of matches, indeed!
Alison Rose
@Jay C: Well, I figure saying “quelle surprise” was enough to indicate sarcasm.
WaterGirl
I am about to head out to pick up lunch and a couple of things at the grocery store. I will check back in as soon as I return.
There is just $175 left on the “$1k piggyback match”, and when that runs out, we will be back to the 4x match.
See you soon. BJ peeps rock!
edit: Raoul Paste, I wrote this comment after entering your donation, but hadn’t yet thanked you!
trollhattan
@rikyrah: Heh. Fox, probably.
stinger
@WaterGirl: My contribution was a day or so ago, not this morning. Thanks!
stinger
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Thank you for this reminder, and the image. I was in fifth grade, and I remember.
Uncle Cosmo
About to toss in another $50 to go with the Grant I dropped in the other day. And this is before bankrolling President Uncle Joe so’s I can get my Dark Brandon mug. Yessir, the Senate is that important.
Z!
$100!
CarolPW
$200 today. It’s funny, I never look at the rotating tags or the post tags (although if I had come here at the beginning of the thread it would have been hard to miss that wall of tags).
Marmot
@WaterGirl: Aw, shucks! 🙂
Jess
$25 from me. All I can afford at the moment–roof repairs are taking over my finances.
RevRick
Yesterday I got hit up by Jon Tester with an appeal for a 50/50 split contribution to the Big Sky Buckeye fund, supporting his campaign and Sherrod Brown’s. So, naturally I hit the donate button.
Once you give, you’ll get appeal after appeal after appeal.
I give for my granddaughter’s future.
Jay K.
Tossed in $5
cain
@rikyrah: Don’t worry later we’ll see
“PALESTINIAN TERROR: Car Bomb at Border – Hamas at our doorstep!”
If it even remotely smells like a terrorist action.
Of course, if it is a right wing outfit ala Proud Boys – there is going to be a lot of whistling dixie walking by the cemetary.
BlueGuitarist
@WaterGirl:
Catherine Cortez Masto, re-elected to US Senate from Nevada by 1%
frosty
@Baud: wow! Sorry I missed seeing that list up top!
cain
In for $50.
RevRick
@laura: Just to let you know the context, Tennessee provided Trump with the largest actual margin of victory, over 600,000 votes. That was greater than either Texas or Florida.
WaterGirl
@TxTiger: I will check when I get home, but I think I missed your donation. But if I did you are counted now!
Princess
Bad, bad news from the Netherlands — the far right party just won big on an anti-immigrant platform. Lots of Russian money behind them — they’ll be stopping their energy transition and going back to Russian gas. And no help for Ukraine. Terrible.
ETA so support this fundraiser so the US doesn’t end up like that.
WaterGirl
I’m not home yet, but it looks to me like we might’ve met the 1K match! So if you’re giving for the mat, give me maybe 30 minutes to get home and check it out so I don’t want people to think they’re getting matched if they are not!
zhena gogolia
@Princess: Ugh.
Kathleen
Just donated 25.00.
trollhattan
@Princess: Looks messy. Some hope they don’t get enough coalition partners for a majority?
Next: “We are hating the bicycles, and also the dikes. However that’s spelled.”
Geminid
@Princess: I think the Netherlands are too far along in the clean energy transition for this rightwing party to even pause it.
Spanky
In for $50.
hotshoe
@Jay C:
news report a couple of minutes ago: the people in car were trying to cross from US to Canada and apparently were trying to avoid border agents as they swerved into the other lane. And the car exploded “because it crashed at such a high rate of speed” — not a bomb, not a terrorist attack.
… would have been good if news reporters had not immediately jumped to “terrorist attack” to spread fear and anger …
WaterGirl
@RevRick: But not through our thermometers! Because i have it set to ASK you if they can share your info with the recipients. If you don’t agree to it, you won’t get all the requests.
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Yes! Thank you. Catherine Cortez Masto!
Sister Golden Bear
I’m in for $50.
laura
@RevRick: that’s the glass of ice water to the face I was expecting, but I’m also thinking along the same lines as Rikyrah, in showing support for her campaign as good in itself, good for Tennessee Dems and front ending the red to blue process.
Jay C
@hotshoe:
Well, outside the usual gaggle of Online Wingnut Cretins, the only “major” media outlet gibbering away about “terrorism” (and still, apparently, doing so) is Fox: so there we are: without “fear and anger”, they’d basically have nothing….
Princess
@Geminid: That’s good news.
WaterGirl
We have met the $1k piggyback match from angel #3!
We still have just $215 left of the $5k match from angel #2! This matches any amount, and you can multiply your donation by 4 to see what will go to Montana.
Ruckus
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Was in high school, we got called into an assembly and told the news.
TriassicSands
Once again, I can’t donate now. I’m up to 18 days in the hospital and until I am discharged and can figure out what I owe, I have to be very careful. (The latest word is a tentative — Next Monday. Yikes!)
I have no problem saying I expect Democrats to lose the Senate majority. However, that expectation, not a final verdict, simply makes me determined to work even harder and do everything I possibly can to avert that outcome. That will include working hard to convince anyone I know who might consider not voting to absolutely vote. (“What’s the point? They’re all the same.” — Less true words were never spoken!)
There are always surprises in elections and between now and then things could happen that increase the Democrats’ chances or, who knows, eliminate them altogether. Even so, accepting defeat before it has happened is insane. I’ve always favored Democrats contesting every possible seat. Always give voters a choice even if they are too stupid or partisan to be willing to consider it.
Once I know what my financial future is, I will donate whatever I can. I’m already working on a couple of good friends to donate from their substantially greater resources than mine. Neither has a natural history of donating, though they always vote (D).
BJs fundraising is a good thing. I’ve always donated independently, since my health has, for years, required care and optimal timing. That does mean that I miss out on matching sums, but I do have to ensure that my finances are sound or I could end up with nothing to give. Hint: Health care in the U.S. is not cheap.
TriassicSands
@Ruckus:
I was in Physics class.
Chetan Murthy
Since this is a political activism thread, I have a question: Like many olds, I used to know how to write cursive, how to print, and even do so for large amounts of text. But ….. with the advancing of the years and the prevalence of digital comms and government, I do that less and less. Less and less. So a few years ago, I printed some postcards, and …. it was both painful AF and my printing was pretty bloody unreadable.
And so, I wondered if anybody had ever thought of using one of those writing machine contraptions ( they’re pricey, but I remember some kits that aren’t so cheep, but won’t break the bank ) to write out postcards ?
Just wondering.
WaterGirl
BOTH MATCHES HAVE BEEN MET!
You guys are all amazing!
TriassicSands
What the hell is wrong with people? If they are voting against immigration now, wait until climate migration begins in earnest.
Trump. Bolsonaro. Cautionary tales to the entire world. Then.
Argentina and now the Netherlands. This is more evidence that most human beings are incapable of learning from the experiences of others. I wouldn’t be surprised, given what research is discovering, if there are other — “inferior” — species that are better at learning from others than are human beings. It turns out that a big brain without good judgment and character is not much different from a gun with a hair trigger and no safety with a mob of drunk people all trying to grab it. BOOM!
lowtechcyclist
Yay!!!!!!!
(Responding to WG, not the news from the Netherlands)
WaterGirl
The external matcher for Four Directions said they would match up to $30,000 if we got that far.
Any further donations to the thermometer will get a single match from the external match through Four Directions!
cain
@Princess:
The irony is the people who got in because of liberal immigration also don’t want more immigration.
Old School
@hotshoe:
So it was just a Tesla on autopilot?
cain
@trollhattan: You can always tell the fascist or conservative party because it has ‘freedom’ or ‘liberty’ in it. It’s like some dog whistle where it means the opposite.
KSinMA
I just donated $50.
And thanks for the Howard Zinn quote!
Kathleen
@trollhattan: Thank you for sharing this
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Nevada’s other Democratic Senator, Jackie Rosen, is up for reelection next hear. She beat incumbent Dean Heller 50.4 to 45.4% in 2018.
This time her race might be close like Catherine Cortez-Masto’s was. I read that Nevada’s electorate is difficult to gauge and engage because there is an exceptional amount of population churn from year to year.
Jackie Rosen was born in Chicago, in 1957.
Baud
@TriassicSands:
I give Argentina a pass. They are in a bad way and had no good options.
Baud
@cain:
There’s a silent “for me” after those words.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud: And they seem to have no decent political alternatives. A failure of their entire political elite class.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
Almost makes all the hand wringing about Biden’s age seem frivolous.
Alison Rose
@Baud: Frivolous? Our hallowed news media? NEVER!
BlueGuitarist
Abraham Lincoln’s thanksgiving proclamation:
Baud
@BlueGuitarist:
But did he pardon a turkey?
cain
@Baud: Ted Cruz doesn’t deserve any pardon.
Baud
@Alison Rose:
Biden aging is a distraction from Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Nelle
In for $25.
Lyrebird
@Chetan Murthy:
Please take all of these ideas as cheering you on! Obvs I don’t know if any would work for you.
I guess you could do texting outreach? Does it feel easier if you use a different pen? I am a big Pilot Precise fan. As a kid I loved Bic sticks but now, ow.
I double-checked, and Vote Forward (letters, not postcards) also wants hand-written.
Maybe you could offer to cook for other people and host a postcard writing party where people who haven’t already had an RSI (speaking for myself) can do the handwriting part?
cain
@Baud: Which isn’t getting any younger either!
Alison Rose
@Baud: Hunter Biden’s laptop is a distraction from Kamala Harris being Black and female.
WaterGirl
@Chetan Murthy: I have no familiarity with any kind of writing machine, so I am of no help there!
WaterGirl
@Nelle: Thank you!
bjacques
I live in that foreign-speaking nation.
Some loose headlines in foreign media that Human Troll Doll Geert Wilders (PVV) has “won” the Dutch election after a couple of decades in the political wilderness.
No, not really. He got the most parliamentary seats—35 out of a possible 150, or about 23% of the vote. So he gets first crack at forming a coalition government that will have a majority 75 or more seats. But the voters, while in an ugly mood, are also divided, and Dilan Yesilgöz, the Kurdish refugee and ladder-puller who now runs the center-right VVD (former prop. Mark Rutte) and dropped from 35 to 24 seats (16% of the vote ) said—yesterday, anyway—she won’t work with Wilders.
A new party, rightwing New Social Contract, got 20 seats (13%) might work with Wilders, and the Citizen Farmers (BBB) will definitely add their 7, but that only makes 62. The Forum For Democracy (FvD), led by aging fash-adjacent fop Thierry Baudet, took a pasting and dropped from 5 seats to 3 (2%), so that would only be 65.
Meanwhile, GreenLeft/Labor (GL-PvdA) got 25 seats (17%), to the VVD’s 24. If they go for a grand coalition (or cohabitation) and NSC join them instead of the other guys, they’ll have 69. With 10 (6.7%) from D66 (Democrats of 1966), they’d be easily over the top at 79. That would take a LOT of horse trading even more than Germany’s ailing “traffic light” arrangement (Socialist/Green/Free Democrat) did, but we’d have a relatively normal government. The Christian Democrats (CDA), players up to the 2000s, are a shadow of their former selves, with 5 seats (3.4%) but might help strengthen that cordon sanitaire around Wilders and his PVV.
Stay tuned…
Baud
@bjacques:
Good luck.
WaterGirl
@cain: hahaha
WaterGirl
@bjacques: That’s complicated! But is it seriously bad news for climate and Ukraine as suggested above?
Timill
@bjacques: Thanks for that update and ray of light…
cain
@bjacques:
So, a former refugee wants to cut immigration? How lovely. So denying others the chance she got. Given how shitty the Kurds have been treated – you’d think she would have more sympathy. I don’t understand humans.
Baud
@cain:
I do. We suck.
Splitting Image
Not really. At least, not yet. If this is Wilders’ high point, then he’s probably going down in history as a failure. Unless something surprising happens, he won’t be part of the next government. There will be a slight delay while he is allowed to try to form a government and fail, but that’s all.
In the long term though, this is a problem. The fascists got closer to forming a government than they did before, and if the trend keeps going in their direction, as it did in Israel, then they will eventually succeed.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishments☘🌈 Koch
@bjacques: I blame Rutte. If the Dutch Masters had only reached across the aisle and took Mitch McConnell out for drinks in the Red Light district , Holland wouldn’t be in this position.
H.E.Wolf
OMG, you are doing exactly what Four Directions identified as their core strategy: relational organizing!
Your example prompted me to encourage my mom to donate. :-)
ETA: And may your health soon take a turn for the better!
zhena gogolia
@TriassicSands: I hope you get out of the hospital soon!
Geminid
@Princess: Well, that was an opinion. But EU states are at least half a decade ahead of the US in the clean energy transition, and it’s a big business now that generates a lot of jobs and profits. Dutch people may be conflicted on refugees and immigrants, but I think most of them understand the neccessity of a clean energy transition. They also understand that it is engine.for economic growth.
H.E.Wolf
@Chetan Murthy:
Postcards To Voters says hand-written only. They do accept donations to defray their operating costs.
If you find someone in your locale who’s writing postcards, maybe you could buy and donate stamps? (The H.E.WolfMom option – I had to ask her to put the stamp conveyer belt on pause, because I couldn’t write that fast….)
Torrey
@WaterGirl:
Yes, thank you for the clarification. I don’t suppose John would grant a small extension to make sure we can get the full match?
Citizen Scientist
In for $25 for Four Winds Montana. Have a great holiday weekend y’all.
WaterGirl
@Torrey: I do not think Cole would grant an extension.
But I do think the thermometer can maybe just sit there in the sidebar, just like the Ukraine thermometer always sits there, and anyone can click on it if they desire.
But I want to respect Cole’s wishes, so I won’t be calling attention to it myself.
WaterGirl
@Citizen Scientist: Thank you! Happy holiday to you, too.
bjacques
I can vote for House, Senate, Prez and VP back in Texas but only city elections in NL, so I’m missing out on a lot of democratic action. But, still being a US citizen, I can legally make political donations.
Thierry Baudet is more Putin-friendly than Wilders, at least more vocal about it, and was flavor of the month several years ago, but he’s lazy and more interested in building a fan club than an actual fascist party. Also, someone else clocked him recently, in a bar—Nazi-punching or Backpfeifengesicht, it’s hard to tell which.
I think green energy is firmly embedded in the Netherlands, despite the pause while beating Putin’s energy blackmail last winter.
Anyway, a long series of cold, dank gray dawns before we have a government here.
Origuy
I’ve had an ActBlue monthly donation to Four Directions of $25 since 2020. I may have to change that; some of my bills are going up next year. I think it has been worthwhile, though.
WaterGirl
@Origuy: That’s a lot of dough!
Situations change, and finances ebb and flow. Bills must be paid. Take care of yourself first :-)
frosty
I’m in for another $50. Love to see my donations matched!
WaterGirl
@frosty: Thank you, frosty! Montana thanks you!
Another Scott
+$296.
There are just two of us for Thanksgiving and we got a couple of heat-and-eat dinners from Wegman’s, rather than spending a fortune on the whole spread and having weeks of leftovers, so we can direct a bit more to the thermometer.
Thanks WG and everyone.
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Thank you, Scott!
Happy thanksgiving!
Diesel Kitty
In for $50.