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Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

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

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Republicans in disarray!

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

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

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

The words do not have to be perfect.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

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

You are here: Home / Political Fundraising / Targeted Political Fundraising 2023-24 / Twice in the Same Week!

Twice in the Same Week!

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The last person I was certain would be president, though I didn’t know if it would be in my lifetime, was Barack Obama.  I have been pretty sure since – what, maybe 2017 or so? – that the same thing would be true of Jon Ossoff.

Both GA Senators are worth their weigh in gold.  This is Jon Ossoff again, just a couple of days ago.

When I posted this one a couple of days ago, I reminded everyone that Balloon Juice donated $700,000 to various entities in GA in 2020, and look what we got for our trouble.  We won the presidency, we got two amazing GA senators; we got the Senate, which was huge.

Let’s do it again this cycle!

Two mystery Balloon Juice Angels have $1,000 matches – one for NV and one for AZ.

As I type, we have $17,027 for AZ ($1k is a check) and $15,204 for NV.  That means we are $7,769 away from our $40,000 goal.  $2k of that will be covered by our Mystery Angels, which means we need to raise $5,769 to meet the external angel match.

Excluding the $2k from the Mystery Angels, that’s about $2k needed for AZ and about $3,750 for NV.

We can do this, right?

ARIZONA

NEVADA

Out-raise them.  Out-organize them.  Out-strategize them.  Out vote them.

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  6. 6.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    “Four score and seven days ago, the Senate put on the floor a comprehensive border security bill…”

    ok, question. I thought border security was part of the Ukraine bill the Senate sent to the House?

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I’m pretty certain that the border bill was shot down in the exactly the way Jon Ossoff described up top.  The Rs wouldn’t even vote for their own fucking bill because Donnie said not too.

    Fucking sheep.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    There should be training classes for Dems when they are elected.

    How to spend your 5 minutes of time with witnesses wisely.

    Taught by several of our current House members, and Jon Ossoff and Sheldon Whitehouse.

  14. 14.

    stinger

    $50 for Nevada.

    Lincoln didn’t lose every election; he was an Illinois state representative and then U.S. representative for Illinois before becoming President. However, he did lose in his initial efforts for those state and federal offices, only winning in later campaigns.

  17. 17.

    eclare

    @Baud:

    That’s what I was thinking too, but it sounds like it never got out of the Senate.  There is just too much to keep up with!

    I do remember Lindsey initially saying that this was the best bill the Rethugs would ever get, then he changed his tune.

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: Abe Lincoln served one term in Congress, as a Whig Representative. I think he and a couple state legislature buddies agreed on a rotation, and that’s why he was not re-elected. Lincoln later made a name nationally when he ran for Senate against Stephen Douglas in 1858. Many thousands of people came to hear them debate outdoors all over Illinois, and large portions of the debates were printed in newspapers all over the country. You could say that Senate race went viral.

    Fun Lincoln fact: In his earlier life Lincoln, was known as a wrestling referee. That was a popular sport in Illinois back then, something to watch in town on a Saturday afternoon. Lincoln was made referee because he was known to be fair and was himself a formidable wrestler.

  20. 20.

    RaflW

    I gather from a CNN chyron that TX Rep. Dan Crenshaw said on camera “Hardline conservatives want Russia to win so badly.”

    Not that the Times or even WaPo will use it, but hey, there’s a news peg to hang a truthful telling of the MTG-Gaetz wing of the party sliding into lockstep alignment with Putin. And how that is sowing … Republicans in disarray!

  21. 21.

    Kay

    The police moved Thursday afternoon to quell a protest at Columbia University, clearing out a tent encampment and arresting dozens of demonstrators who had occupied a lawn on campus. The actions came the day after university leaders pledged to Congress that they would crack down on unauthorized student protests tied to the war in Gaza.
    Police officers, clad in riot gear and prepared with zip ties, began taking protesters into custody just before 1:30 p.m., loading them onto buses without resistance as other students chanted “Shame!” Officers later removed about 50 tents as demonstrators gathered in front of Butler Library to call for amnesty for those who had been arrested.

    You won’t hear a word from the free speech defenders on the Center and Right because they’re arresting protestors who are on the Left.

    The NYTimes newsroom must be cheering. They were promoting arresting student protestors.

    The only protests that are permitted in the US are Right wing protests. Don’t these students get that?

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @Miss Bianca: Donations up to $10 get double-angel matched.  So your $20 turned into $60 and $60.

    Special double-match for Bj peeps who don’t have a lot of disposable income this week. :-)

  32. 32.

    Kay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Bonkers. It makes police look like dopes who are scared of their own shadow too – the kids aren’t even resisting.

    Well, I can see our universities are certainly committed to free expression and political speech! They folded quickly. Seven GOP House members scolded them… and they issued a decree to arrest students.

    Profiles in courage. Imagine if you were paying 70k a year for Columbia (or whatever the ridiculous tutiion is) and they hauled your kid off for holding a sign.

  33. 33.

    Tony Jay

    @Kay:

    Brave guys, protecting the National Narrative at all costs.

    “You’re wankers for your service.”

  34. 34.

    Martin

    @rikyrah: We don’t select university presidents with an eye toward their ability to stand up to Congress, which was made really clear with the testimony from Columbia. She was not up for that task.

    I have to assume that the GOP knows which university presidents are easy to roll and are only inviting them. I know a few that would be quite a handful for them.

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    @Lyrebird: In the top video, Jon Ossoff nails the republicans and says no wants to hear from them on border security after one of their own worked on a bill that got them more than they could ever have hoped for, then Trump told them it would be better if Trump could run on border stuff, so all the Republicans are cowards and they wouldn’t even allow debate on the border bill their own guy had negotiated.

    In the second video, Ossoff asks DeJoy if DeJoy read the letter Ossoff had sent him a month ago.  DeJoy: mumble-mumble, I never saw the letter, um, i tried to get in touch with you on Saturday, um um um.

    Ossoff tells DeJoy that next time a sitting US senator who is on the committee that oversees his post office, that DeJoy had better fucking read the letter, especially when he’s failing abysmally at his core mission.

    It’s what Ossoff said AND his delivery, but I did the best I could. :-)

  37. 37.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Martin:

    We don’t select university presidents with an eye toward their ability to stand up to Congress, which was made really clear with the testimony from Columbia. She was not up for that task.

    I just do not understand why university presidents are even responding. Are they being subpoenaed? Why? If they are subpoenaed, I understand why they would attend, but why answer anything at all? And for sure, why make promises?

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @Martin:

    Oh, God. I just hope we’re all clear that there is going to be an accounting of this when the bombing stops and these kids are going to be the only people who objected to this. Hope all these fancy people in charge are prepared to be tragically, historically wrong about this, because the students are right – they’re correct. By any measure this is a human rights catastrophe. It’s not even going to be a long time away, the accounting. Within the next year.

  39. 39.

    Martin

    @Chief Oshkosh: She turned down a request to testify back in December, so I have to assume either she was subpoenaed or she thought she was prepared for this. Hiding from Congress is not a politically good move in general and is really not in keeping with how higher education thinks about speech and government. So theres a lot of internal pressure to comply with a request. Her appointment as president started last July, so she’s quite new to the job. Guessing it won’t last until this July.

  41. 41.

    NetheadJay

    @Chief Oshkosh: I don’t understand this either. Do they not recognize that the Republican committee members calling them in are only interested in one thing, which is bullying, denigrating and harassing their institutions, their students and their staff as much as possible.

  42. 42.

    Fake Irishman

    @Kay:

    I can see the police acting if these folks were directly disrupting classes or taking over the administration building a la 1968, but a freaking tent encampment? Come on.

    I remember when Michigan decided to press charges against six anti- sweatshop activists for trespassing and other bullshit. I have never seen the state president of the American Federation of Teachers so livid with the university in 10 years of knowing him.

    (One of the students had a very congenial relationship with her probation officer — probably the easiest case he ever had. Another protester got elected to the county commission and is now in the state legislature. He laughed when I asked him once how  his relationship was with the university president and if he had to meet her off campus because he still was banned from being on campus)

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @Martin:

    I feel about this like I do about media claiming the special protections afforded to them. Earn it. You want to be an institution that values ideas and debate and dissent and get special tax treatment and special prestige because of that? Then earn it. No one said it would be easy. It’s difficult when people disagree. It would be a lot easier and more serene if no one did, but they do and that’s permitted.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @Fake Irishman:

    Well, they certainly satisfied House Republicans. This is exactly what they wanted. I’m not sure sacrificing your own students so you’ll get fewer mean letters from Republicans is in line with educational ethics, however.

  47. 47.

    NetheadJay

    @Martin: I’m curious as to who are the leaders from what institutions you think would be better at standing up to and handling the hostile questioning and general harassment from the Repugs.

  48. 48.

    Quiltingfool

    Speaking of USPS, I sent out a bunch of raffle winner blocks last week, and estimated delivery might have been Saturday (east of the Rockies) or Monday (West Coast).   Has any of you gotten them yet?  I misplaced my receipt with tracking numbers, else I would have checked myself.

    Geez, I hope they didn’t get lost.  I’d hate to start over again, but I’d do it for you guys!

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    This is good news!

  50. 50.

    smith

    @NetheadJay: Undoubtedly the feelings of some very rich alumni loom powerfully in their minds. A university president might even welcome this kind of pressure from Congress as a way to justify getting those obnoxious kids back in line, as a lot of potential and actual donors probably prefer. At many universities fattening the endowment is Job 1 for the president.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    I find Tucker Carlson uninteresting, but others may be interested in this, via reddit

    Conservatives Suddenly Realize Tucker Carlson Is a Lying Russia Dupe
     
    What changed?

  52. 52.

    Fake Irishman

    @Martin:

    Also university presidents are often academics who see nuance everywhere, and aren’t necessarily well equipped for the black and white of a hostile hearing. It’s also legitimately hard to respond to some of questions because the right answer from a first-amendment perspective looks terrible on TV.

    I will observe though that we often all manage to have a contingent and incomplete version of free speech that is general quite convenient to our personal views. (I’m not always in agreement with Popehat, but he’s always done a great job really illustrating the scope and limits of the first amendment in thoughtful ways that are quite challenging)

  57. 57.

    RaflW

    @Kay: The “campus free speech” people are also doing total crickets on the USC valedictorian Asna Tabassum being muzzled, despite earning a minor in resistance to genocide that USC confers.

    She dares to want to speak on the genocide in Gaza. And that is speech too damn free to be safe.

    Kinda makes one wonder what that degree concentration is about (no disrespect to the professors, but lots of disrespect to the admin & board of USC for so aptly displaying how genocides are facilitated by an international community that cares more about big donor fee-fees than saving lives).

  58. 58.

    Martin

    @Kay: I don’t think so. We still too often revere the people who were tragically, historically wrong about Hitler, or the Confederacy, or Iraq.

    Culture is stronger than that. A good half of the country will reflexively believe that bad things happening to Muslims must be deserved. I think we’re a good 1-2 generations away from that changing enough to shift the national average.

    I mean, we can all see the same things – and government can see more, and yet the international community still largely has Israels back, in large part because they have so much invested in Israel. The country exists because of their efforts, they have nukes because of their efforts, etc. They can’t easily admit that things are going off the rails. Israel is a project of the United States after all. For the people who run the country, this is our project to repair.

  60. 60.

    smith

    @Fake Irishman: You could even argue that both university presidents and Republican Congressmen represent the interests of their wealthy sponsors, so a meeting of the minds is not all that surprising.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    I also suspect that universities, like the media, are operating on the assumption that Trump will win.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    Betty C must be really happy DeSantis is back.

    The devil is in the details after Florida Satanic Temple members announced plans to take advantage of a bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday that would allow volunteer chaplains to provide support services for public K-12 students.
    “We’re not playing those games in Florida,” DeSantis said at a press conference at a high school in Kissimmee. “[Satanism] is not a religion. That is not qualifying to be able to participate in this.”

  65. 65.

    smith

    Weird — just minutes ago both AP and the Guardian said that 7 jurors had been picked, with 2 new to replace the ones excused today. Now suddenly they say they have all 12.

  67. 67.

    VFX Lurker

    @Baud: I also suspect that universities, like the media, are operating on the assumption that Trump will win.

    If so, I wonder what they know that I don’t.

  71. 71.

    Leto

    Apparently the jury has been sworn in, but they still need to select all the alternates tomorrow.

  79. 79.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    I just kicked in $100 each for X and NV.  Thank you Water Girl for doing this and making it so easy to donate to funds that really make a difference.  I find the fact that we at BJ donated $700,000 to GA to be wonderful, and almost unbelievable. Wow – we rock.

  81. 81.

    smith

    So the final count for the day is 12 jurors and one alternate. If they can fill the final 5 alternate slots tomorrow, we will probably be in business Monday.

  84. 84.

    Quiltingfool

    @WaterGirl: Whew!  I think I’d like to make one big quilt that has the dogs and the cats together.  Of course, there are LOTS of quilts I’d like to make, but in my case, “too many quilts, not enough time!”  I really, really need a clone.

    I also have more material than Del Monte has hamburger dills, and guess what!  I’m going to Missouri Star Quilt on Tuesday to Buy.More.Fabric.  Well, the main reason is to deliver quilts to their museum (our guild was asked to show our quilts during the months of May and June) but I have a quilt commission and MoStar is the best place to go.   That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

  85. 85.

    Martin

    @Kay: Yeah, I don’t feel much sympathy to the ivy league president who is pulling down a million a year. You’re getting the big bucks because you’re expected to be expendable. But it’s also clear that these universities didn’t choose their leadership for this moment and that’s hurting higher education overall because they look like a bunch of idiots.

    I disagree very strongly with how a lot of these institutions are handling this, and the double standards that they do employ. This shit is HARD, and a lot of institutions don’t invest in the administrative side of things in the way they should (too much focus on fundraising, not enough in laying out consistent principles and how to apply them for students).

    My institutions biggest point of student conflict wasn’t black and white students or rich and poor students, it was Jewish and Palestinian students. And that was true since about 2005. I don’t know any other institution that had that particular conflict to the extent we did, and yet, you don’t see that school on the news. You don’t see those administrators being invited in front of congress. No school should have blown up as badly as my former employer on this issue, and yet, it didn’t. The friction is a lot more intense, but it’s also from what I can see from my retirement patio, it’s not boiling over and not drawing attention.

    A lot of these campuses simply were not prepared for how to give students enough room for expression without being unfair about it. They’re suddenly having to talk to pissed off donors (which we spent two decades doing), train staff that weren’t previously trained for this, and so on. It is not easy, but it is predictable. If it wasn’t this issue, it would be some other sooner or later. Stanford had to walk this fine line with their Mein Kampf controversy. Why a student reading the book in the library as a class assignment is okay, but posing with the book for their instagram is not. That’s a difficult policy to lay out and enforce. It feels very subjective. It requires a lot of effort to get everyone on the same page, but they navigated it pretty well. I see a lot of these other institutions not doing that, and I don’t think it’s a mystery that the campuses having the most trouble are the ones that are most sensitive to their donors needs relative to their student’s needs.

  86. 86.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Martin: I’m not saying you’re wrong, but those are some pretty weak drivers, especially given recent outcomes.

  87. 87.

    Martin

    @rikyrah: USC knows how to handle that security. I mean, it’s going to be an olympic venue in 4 years, and was twice before. The security procedures there are well established. The excuse is bullshit. And my campus dealt with that for every commencement ceremony for two decades (we ran 7 of them under that security each year). It’s not that hard to address.

  88. 88.

    Martin

    @Chief Oshkosh: I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. The internal pressure to be an open participant in democracy is very strong, so her ability to duck an invitation to congress was very weak.

    I mean, yeah, the GOP angle on this is bullshit, but that’s no reason to not stand up here. The problem isn’t that we have a weak position on expression and appropriate discourse on universities, but it is nuanced which doesn’t lend to quick testimony, and we have weak messengers for that position because that’s not the job we expected university presidents to have to do. There are ways to address the nuance issue, but that also means not taking every bait that the GOP drops in front of you.

    That said, from the testimony so far, I think some of these campuses actually do have a weak position on expression because they simply dropped the ball on that one. They seem remarkably hands off in interacting with these communities. You can’t do that. You have to engage with them constantly – and with the broader campus community who are just observers to this so they understand why decisions are being made the way they are. It’s a LOT of work.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: Jon Ossoff and his wife Allysha Kramer have one child. My Atlanta friend went to an Ossoff rally in 2017, when he ran in a special election to fill a seat in the Atlanta suburbs. Ms. Kramer introduced her husband, and left my friend thinking she could have been as good a candidate, maybe even better.

    Jon Ossoff lost that race to Karen Handel, who then lost to Democrat Lucy McBath in 2018. Ossoff got a lot of attention though, and that helped when he ran for Senate in 2020 and won at age 33.

  91. 91.

    PatrickG

    @Quiltingfool: oh! I got mine! Thank you so much, meant to let you know but I’ve been a bit MIA as a lurker :)

     

    it’s amazing. I’m planning to give it to my quilting loving mother who’s struggling with cancer and will just absolutely love it. On the downside, I’m sad to give it away because it’s so beautiful

  94. 94.

    dc

    “The American people are smart.”

    No, the American people are not smart. Nor are the people of other nations. So I guess we can feel less bad about how stupid we are.

  95. 95.

    Attempted Chemistry

    @dc: “A person is smart. People are dumb, dangerous, panicky animals and you know it!”

  97. 97.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Just donated $50 each to the thermometers.

    Thanks for keeping this going Water Girl!

  100. 100.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Georgia is unusual because nrither of its two Senators had held public office before. Jon Ossoff was a documentary producer, while Raphael Warnock was head pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

  106. 106.

    sab

    @Kay: Faster than that.  Within weeks. I wonder how successful the Israelis will be in hiding the starvation body count.

  115. 115.

    JAFD

    Put in $50 to both Nv and Az.  Apology for being last in thread.  Been busy week

    Have great weekend, everyone !

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