Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

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

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

All hail the time of the bunny!

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

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Bark louder, little dog.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

You are here: Home / Political Fundraising / On the Road Again, Montana!

On the Road Again, Montana!

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Officially announcing the start of our Four Directions Montana fundraising!  As we all know, Montana is about keeping Jon Tester’s senate seat, as well as helping Native people have more of a voice in elections.  Besides being “boots on the ground for the Native vote”, Four Directions also litigates – and often wins – on their behalf.

I got word late yesterday that Four Directions has fund a match for the full $30,000 we are trying to raise!  Thank you, Four Directions, for finding the match, and thank you to the two $15,000 external matchers that were found!

And we have a Balloon Juice Angel for you, right out of the gate – who has been patiently waiting for Montana to be up at bat!  Not sure if I can use their nym or not (waiting to hear) so for now it’s anonymous.   Thank you, Marleedog!

Matching up to $100 per person, for a total of $1,000!  To count toward the match, tell us about your donation in the comments or via email to me.   With the external match and the Angel match, this is a 4x donation.

THIS LINK IS FOR MONTANA DONATIONS – NOT FOR THE RAFFLE

Also: raffle tickets for the Native-made quilt will be available until Sunday evening, 9/8.
$25 each.  Here’s the link to buy raffle tickets and see the quilt raffle announcement and details.

Open Thread & New $1,250 Angel Match for The Civics Center

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  3. 3.

    H.E.Wolf

    Quoting from the previous Four Directions (quilt raffle) post:

    Pila maya pelo (Thank you)
    Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related)

  5. 5.

    Almost Retired

    Will drop some money in when I get home.  Glad to have these opportunities to make a difference more directly.  It looks like many of the Cook Report toss-up houses races are awash in money – so I’d rather help turnout Native voters in Montana than annoy voters with more ads.

  15. 15.

    Hungry Joe

    POSTCARD UPDATE — SERIES 2

    Postcards to Swing States:

    Yesterday — 14

    Running total — 96

  20. 20.

    Maxim

    Those photos of young Willie are wild.

    In for $100. Thank you Marleedog, and hooray for external matches too!

  23. 23.

    Marleedog

    Thanks to this entire community for all that you do.

    I cannot say that I feel that I am much of an angel, but I think that we can all agree that WaterGirl is the highest of archangels.

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    Thanks to everyone who donated so far.  We are halfway to our $1,000 Angel match!

    I am sneaking out to pick up some lunch, but I’ll be back.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    PSA: I just heard back from the VAAC folks about the postcard boxes.  They were mailed later than expected, but they should arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Hope that doesn’t goof up anybody’s plans!

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    Okay, now we are 3/4 of the way to meeting our Angel match from Marleedog!

    (Marleedog, I appreciate your kind words, but I fear that they are far too generous!)

    If we get lucky and I have an angel offer in my inbox when I return, then we’ll have that one be retroactive to cover any donations that come in over the $1k match from Marleedog.

    Okay, now i’m really heading out to pick up lunch.

  33. 33.

    lamh47

    @rikyrah:

    Here’s the clip:.

    @GwenWalz
    : JD Vance said he was ‘really disturbed’ by teachers who don’t have biological children. For a long time, Tim and I were teachers who struggled with infertility. We were only able to start a family because of fertility treatments. We do not take kindly to folks like JD Vance telling us when or how to start our families. So let me use my teacher voice. Mr. Vance, how about you mind your own business?

    https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1829561289191899255

  38. 38.

    sab

    @lamh47: Yikes.

    My husband went to parochial schools. He hated some of the nuns (he was an underachiever who drove teachers crazy by underachieving rather than by bad behavior) and thought others were excellent.

    Try telling my stepkids that I had no worthwhile place in their lives for the last twenty years when I provided housing for some, tuition for others and love for all of them. And we always took in their pets when they had overcommitted promising shelter to strays.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @Ha Nguyen: Thank you!

    Lucky for us, we have a new $1,000 Angel match!

    So everything resets. :-)  But same rules of the road, matching up to $100 per person with a comment or an email about the donation.

    This one is anonymous, and you have the first $100 of that match.

  45. 45.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I kicked in $25 to each thermometer. Also I didn’t realize abortion is on the Montana ballot. I hope that helps Tester eke out a win.

  46. 46.

    Old School

    Trump tries out the “Arlington was a set-up” theory:

    Former President Donald Trump raised eyebrows while speaking to NBC News’s Dasha Burns on Thursday evening about the simmering scandal surrounding his recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery and photos from that visit being used as campaign materials.

    “Should your campaign have put out those videos and photos?” Burns asked, regarding photos taken at Section 60 of the cemetery.

    “Well, we have a lot of people, you know, we have people, TikTok people, you know, we’re leading the internet. That was the other thing. We’re so far above her on the internet,” Trump replied as Burns pressed, “But on that hallowed ground. Should that they have put out?”

    “I don’t know what the rules and regulations are. I don’t know who did it. And it could have been them. It could have been the parents. It could have been somebody else,” Trump said, seeming to blame the Gold Star parents who invited him to the cemetery for breaking its rules.

    “It was your campaign’s TikTok though, that put out the video,” Burns pushed back.

    “I really don’t know anything about it. All I do is I stood there and I said, if you’d like to have a picture, we can have a picture if somebody did. If this was a set up by the people in the administration that, oh, Trump is coming to Arlington, that looks so bad for us,” Trump replied, again trying to shift the blame for the scandal.

  48. 48.

    Marleedog

    Wow that was fast, let us keep up the great work and the momentum going!

     

    Just added  1K to Act Blue Four Directions Montana.

     

    Thanks, everyone.

  50. 50.

    dnfree

    In for $100!  I give to Four Directions monthly also, from way back when WaterGirl started this effort.  They seem like a great group.

  57. 57.

    sab

    @Baud: He was a mild behavioral problem. When he got accepted into Coast Guard Reserve (who knows how) during Vietnam War the nuns supposed to sign off said that the Army or the Marines might build him more character and discipline.His oldest brother was in the central highlands of Vietnam at that point.

    So his mom got him into the Coast Guard. They needed a school signature. His school wouldn’t provide it, so the Coast Gurad forged it. Apparently that was routine

    Oops. I am getting us off topic when the topic is one we should support.

  66. 66.

    VFX Lurker

    Wow. He must have worked hard to achieve that level of flexibility. Impressive display of physical fitness.

    Just wow. Thank you for sharing that! Wow.

  67. 67.

    sdhays

    @Old School: Maybe the media should start clamoring for a “sit-down” interview with the Trump campaign’s TikTok team since they seem to be more responsible for the actions of the campaign than the man they work for.

  76. 76.

    rikyrah

     

    StrictlyKamala  🇺🇦🌻 (@StrictlyChristo) posted at 2:35 PM on Fri, Aug 30, 2024:

    Johnson pulled strings to get Trump into Arlington — and now the scandal is spreading
    rawstory.com/johnson-trump-…

    The U.S. Dept. of the Army oversees and maintains Arlington National Cemetery. According to a Washington Post report Wednesday evening, “Pentagon officials were deeply concerned about the former president turning the visit into a campaign stop, but they also didn’t want to block him from coming, according to Defense Department officials and internal messages reviewed by The Washington Post.”

    “Officials said they wanted to respect the wishes of grieving family members who wanted Trump there, but at the same time were wary of Trump’s record of politicizing the military. So they laid out ground rules they hoped would wall off politics from the final resting place of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their nation.”

    Trump’s team was told he could attend only in his personal capacity and that campaign staff members were not allowed. Some of his top campaign staffers reportedly attended Monday’s event despite the rules set by cemetery officials. Also in attendance were several Republican politicians, including Governor Spencer Cox of Utah, now under fire for using a photo of the event in a re-election campaign fundraising email.

    “No hats, signs or banners were allowed, according to military officials,” The Post also reported. “No speeches. Reporters and photographers could follow Trump for a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns, but not to the 14-acre plot where veterans from recent wars are buried, known as Section 60. The media was kept away, unable to see the altercation — or anything else, for that matter — during that part of his visit.”

    That “altercation,” reportedly involved a cemetery official who later filed a report stating Trump’s team verbally and physically assaulted her, according to multiple reports. She has said she is unwilling to press charges out of fear of retaliation from Trump’s supporters, according to The New York Times. The Trump campaign denies the allegations while campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Times the reason for her decision to refuse to press charges “is ridiculous and sounds like someone who has Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

    The cemetery “employee tried to enforce the rules as provided to her by blocking Trump’s team from bringing cameras to the graves of U.S. service members killed in recent years, according to a senior defense official and another person briefed on the incident,” The Post adds. “A larger male campaign aide insisted the camera was allowed and pushed past the cemetery employee, leaving her shocked.”

    The Daily Caller reports Monday’s event “would have not happened without Speaker Johnson,” according to an unnamed source.

    “Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had to intervene to get former President Donald Trump into Arlington National Cemetery for the third anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal with Gold Star families, a family told the Daily Caller,” according to the right-wing website.

    That source also reportedly told The Daily Caller, “Arlington Cemetery officials claimed the families didn’t want any media, photography, or videography at Section 60, contradicting what the families had actually requested. The families were fine with the media, designated by the Trump team, but Arlington kept pushing back, obstructing the process.”

    Not all families were fine with Trump’s appearance and photography.

    “The family of a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving eight combat tours and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery expressed concern on Wednesday that Donald J. Trump’s campaign had filmed his gravesite without permission as Mr. Trump stood in an area where campaign photography isn’t allowed,” The New York Times reports. “Relatives of Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano issued their statement two days after Mr. Trump’s visit.”

    “Sergeant Marckesano died on July 7, 2020, after moving to Washington to begin a job at the Pentagon. He had three children, and friends said he had chronic post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in combat. He earned Silver and Bronze Stars during his service. His gravesite is adjacent to that of Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, a Marine who was killed in the 2021 bombing at Abbey Gate outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.”

    The Times reports while the Hoover family gave Trump permission to photograph, the Marckesano family did not, yet his grave “was shown in photos from the visit that were published online. A video was posted to Mr. Trump’s TikTok account featuring footage from the Section 60 visit and the gravestones from behind, with narration criticizing the handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.”

    (https://x.com/StrictlyChristo/status/1829603846991314953?s=02)

  80. 80.

    Another Scott

    Speaking of Montana, er, Nevada I mean … Wonkette.com (I don’t see a byline):

    If Nevada Dems Send You Those HELP WE ARE DYING Fundraising Emails, You Just Tell Them To Buck Up

    […]

    In April, the Cook Political Report moved the Nevada Senate race from “lean Democrat” to “toss-up,” but [Jacky] Rosen, unlike some red- or purple-state Democrats, didn’t attempt to distance herself from Biden. Instead, she made a point of calling attention to the economic benefits the administration’s policies — especially the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act — have brought to Nevada.

    And now we get to the “Whew, for now!” part: Rosen’s poll numbers have in recent months rebounded, and two weeks ago, the Cook Report shifted the contest between Rosen and Republican nominee Sam Brown back into the “Lean Democrat” column.

    Rosen has also been setting state records for campaign fundraising, hauling in $5 million in the first quarter of the year, then $7.6 million in the second quarter, far more than Brown, who brought in $2.2 million in the first quarter and another $4 million in the second.

    […]

    Good, good.

    Keep doing the work, Nevada Dems!!

    It’s a good piece. Click on over. But then come back!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  84. 84.

    WendyBinFL

    I’m in for $100. God bless WaterGirl, Four Directions, and all who contribute to this worthy cause.

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    We have another new angle for Montana today, friend of the blog, Andrew!

    So the earlier anonymous Angel match is complete, and we are starting our third match.  Same deal, up to $100 per person, in order to be matched tell us about it in the comments or by email to WaterGirl.

    Our second angel will add their $1k when they return home later this afternoon.

    Fine print: Babette’s $100 above went $45 for the previous match and $55 for this one.  So we’re at $945 left on the new match.

  103. 103.

    WaterGirl

    PSA: It’s a holiday weekend, so all donatios into the Four Directions MT Phase II thermometer until it reads $22,500 will be 4x donations – no need to let us know about your donations.

    PSA: It’s a holiday weekend, so all donatios into the Four Directions MT Phase II thermometer until it reads $22,500 will be 4x donations – no need to let us know about your donations.

    When we get to $22,500, a gaggle of Angels will pop i the matching $7,500.

    PSA #2: To get to the thermometer for quilt raffle tickets, click on the image of the quilt in the sidebar.

  105. 105.

    Blue Virginia

    I just gave yesterday and today. I am adamant about keeping Senator Jon Tester in the US Senate and helping Native tribes have their voices heard about their needs, in the political process. A big reason why I gave again today, was after the offensive remarks Sheehy made about native peoples. There are so many reasons why Sheehy should not be elected from Montana and for keeping Senator Jon Tester but this latest slur by Sheehy is one more reason.

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