Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

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

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

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

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

No one could have predicted…

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Republicans do not trust women.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Jon Tester vs. the Racist Carpetbagger Who Won’t Apologize for Racist Remarks (and more)

Jon Tester vs. the Racist Carpetbagger Who Won’t Apologize for Racist Remarks (and more)

by | 99 Comments

This post is in: 

There is a time machine after all!  We are back to the equivalent of “It’s just locker room talk!”.  More on that below.

Jon Tester vs. the Racist Carpetbagger Who Won't Apologize for Racist Remarks 1
Bret Healy, left, a consultant for Four Directions Native Vote, Inc., speaks about voting opportunities on Native American reservations in Montana with attorney Cher Old Elk (center) during a press conference at the James F. Battin Federal Courthouse, Sept. 26, 2024, in Billings, Mont. Credit: AP/Matthew Brown

In the meantime, this happened yesterday.

Native Americans in Montana ask court for voting sites on reservation (Newsday)

BILLINGS, Mont. — Native Americans living on a remote Montana reservation filed a lawsuit against state and county officials Monday saying they don’t have enough places to vote in person — the latest chapter in a decades-long struggle by tribes in the United States over equal voting opportunities.

The six members of the Fort Peck Reservation want satellite voting offices in their communities for late registration and to vote before Election Day without making long drives to a county courthouse.

The legal challenge, filed in state court, comes five weeks before the presidential election in a state with a a pivotal U.S. Senate race where the Republican candidate has made derogatory comments about Native Americans.

Native Americans were granted U.S. citizenship a century ago. Advocates say the right still doesn’t always bring equal access to the ballot.

Many tribal members in rural western states live in far-flung communities with limited resources and transportation. That can make it hard to reach election offices, which in some cases are located off-reservation.

The plaintiffs in the Montana lawsuit reside in two small communities near the Canada border on the Fort Peck Reservation, home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. Plaintiffs’ attorney Cher Old Elk grew up in one of those communities, Frazer, Montana, where more than a third of people live below the poverty line and the per capita income is about $12,000, according to census data.

It’s a 60-mile round trip from Frazer to the election office at the courthouse in Glasgow. Old Elk says that can force prospective voters into difficult choices.

“It’s not just the gas money; it’s actually having a vehicle that runs,” she said. “Is it food on my table, or is it the gas money to find a vehicle, to find a ride, to go to Glasgow to vote?”

The lawsuit asks a state judge for an order forcing Valley and Roosevelt counties and Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen to create satellite election offices in Frazer and Poplar, Montana. The offices would be open during the same hours and on the same days as the county courthouses.

The plaintiffs requested satellite election offices from the counties earlier this year, the lawsuit says. Roosevelt County officials allegedly refused, while Valley County officials said budget constraints limited them to opening a satellite voting center for just one day.

Valley County Attorney Dylan Jensen said there were only two full-time employees in the Clerk and Recorder’s Office that oversees elections, so staffing a satellite office would be problematic.

A 2012 federal lawsuit in Montana sought to establish satellite election offices on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap reservations. It was rejected by a judge, but the ruling was later set aside by an appeals court. In 2014, tribal members in the case reached a settlement with officials in several counties.

Monday’s lawsuit said inequities continue on the Fort Peck Reservation, and that tribal members have never fully achieved equal voting since Montana was first organized as a territory in 1864 and Native Americans were excluded from its elections. Native voters in subsequent years continued to face barriers to registering and were sometimes stricken from voter rolls.

“Equal means equal,” said Bret Healy, an expert witness for the plaintiffs who was also involved in the 2012 Montana case. “It is substantively, mathematically and logically not equal if there’s not a satellite office on the Indian Reservation.”

Tester on The Last Word about 3 months ago.  Take a minute to listen.  He would have my vote!

A few clips of them sparring in last night’s debate. Is it wrong that I want to wipe that snug look off of Sheehy’s face?

Angel matches, as of this afternoon:

We have a match for the first $1,000 of matching donations for Four Directions Montana / Jon Tester.

We have a NEW $1,000 Angel match to keep us going on Field Operations for the Osborn Nebraska senate race.

We have $1,250 left on the Angel match for AZ Candidates.

For all of these, matching up to $100 per person when you tell us about your donation in the comments or by email to WaterGirl.

AZ Supreme Court fundraising is complete!

All of today’s angels are anonymous!  Donations up to $100 per person for each thermometer with an angel match.  To be matched tell us about your donation in the comments or by email to WaterGirl.

Nebraska ($1,000 Angel match)

Montana ($1,000 Angel match)

Arizona Candidates ($1,000 Angel match)

North Carolina

OTHER NC THERMOMETERS COMING TOMORROW!

.

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Unrelated, I added the World Central Kitchen thermometer back in the sidebar – they are feeding people in Asheville, NC.  The thermometer says $11,580 – that’s from when we first put it up after the War in Ukraine started, before we added a new thermometer that had the World Central Kitchen and another organization for Ukraine.

    Our very own beth, my parter in crime on the Balloon Juice pet calendar, is in Asheville.  They are lucky enough to still have their home, but no water, no power, no fuel, etc.  And a lot of people have it even worse than that, which adds some perspective on how bad things are in Asheville.

    FYI, I asked beth to consider making an Amazon wishlist over the next few days in case BJ peeps want to help.  No idea whether she will do that, though!

    Click the thermometer if you want to support World Central Kitchen.  I swear that man is a saint.

  4. 4.

    Origuy

    Rest In Power, John Amos

     

    We are deeply saddened by the recent news of legendary actor John Amos, who passed away at the age of 84. Best known for his iconic roles in Good Times and Roots, he brought unforgettable characters to life and inspired so many with his talent and dedication.

    His contributions… pic.twitter.com/Xql9OG5XC9
    — NAACP (@NAACP) October 1, 2024

  5. 5.

    West of the Cascades

    Gave $100 to Four Directions Montana and $100 to Dan Osborn for Nebraska. Thanks Angel matches!!

  6. 6.

    Chet Murthy

    Huh, gosh,  it seems like the problem is one of ready transportation to/from the reservation towns.  Gosh, it seems like:

    (1) they can transport the election office

    (2) they can arrange regular transportation for the people to the county seat

    (3) or they can rely on the existing transportation infrastructure for mail (DeJoy!  Hiss!) and make vote-by-mail the default!  [not “oh you need to  apply for a mail-in ballot”]

    Gosh, I wonder why they don’t do #3.  [which doesn’t change that they still need to make sure the mails run on time]

  11. 11.

    There go two miscreants

    In for: $100 for Osborn, $100 for Four Directions, $140 for the AZ candidates, and $300 for the NC candidates.

  12. 12.

    Stacib

    @Baud: Me, too but I totally understood his reasons for leaving. He said the J.J. character was too close to buffonery, and he felt it was an injustice to images of Black people it painted.

  13. 13.

    Wapiti

    @Wapiti: ETA: Roosevelt County, where most of the Fort Peck Reservation is located, is a whopping 10,000 people total. I could see that they might not have resources to expand their operation, even if they wanted to. But … that’s what state and federal help is for, if it’s needed.

  14. 14.

    cckids

    For those following satby and the travelling cats, she and Bunny arrived safely in Seattle.  Miss Bunny has now arrived at her new home in Everett, after an unwelcome trip through typical morning city traffic. She’s hiding out, as expected, deciding if she can trust this space yet.

    She seems very sweet, and is super plushy and beautiful, though she has worried eyebrows at the moment. According to the notes sent by her former person, she loves to be brushed! This makes her the first pet in my family (including the grandpups) who will enjoy that necessary process, which makes me happy :)

    Having a cat again makes the home so much better.

  16. 16.

    Chet Murthy

    @Wapiti: My guess is in that case the new county would be unable to operate for lack of funds.  If the reservation is as thinly-populated as reported, there just aren’t enough people there to support even minimal government infrastructure.  But there is precedent for this: rural mail delivery, rural electrification, rural roadways — all were designed so that they could reach everybody, regardless of cost, on the principle that these things were simply necessities and the government would pick up the cost.  The  same should be true of the right to vote, and states must be compelled to make the ease of voting roughly equal for all citizens.  Just b/c you’re poor or live far away, shouldn’t mean that you can’t vote as easily as I can (basically, 3 blocks away downhill, in somebody’s garage).  And that can be arranged in many ways, including vote-by-mail or county-supplied copious transportation the days before and on the day of the election.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    Art Candee 

    @ArtCandee

    When I say that this longshoreman ILA strike has been planned for a while, this is why: Here’s Harold Daggett saying OVER A YEAR AGO in July of 2023, after he met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago saying “mark my words, there’s going to be an explosion,” and that the ILA is going to “light the fuse” (essentially tank the economy) while spewing America First propaganda.

    Art Candee 

    @ArtCandee

    It is insane to me that this one man, Harold Daggett, not the vote of the entire union, has this much control over our economy. Especially when the man made $728,000 last year from the ILA, plus another $173,000 as president emeritus of a local union branch.

    Most every dockworker puts in overtime which means that they earn over $150,000 a year. Harold has been asking for a 77% raise for workers.

    Last night, it was reported that he rejected an increase of 50%. It’s also being reported that he turned down between 2x-3x the contribution to their retirement funds. And NO automation of any kind for the next 6 years. Mental.

    https://x.com/ArtCandee/status/1841176019614777819

  19. 19.

    rikyrah

    KSlattery 

    @KSlatteryResist

    July 2023, more than a year ago, ILA President Daggett started preparing the union workers to strike on October 1, 2024. Yet he refused to sit down at the bargaining table the past few months. He’s asking for twice the salary increase negotiated by the West Coast ILA. I’m pro-union but something smells fishy. Article below #ProudBlue #DemsUnited

    10:11 AM · Oct 1, 2024

    https://x.com/KSlatteryResist/status/1841133950519164958

  20. 20.

    eclare

    @cckids:

    Yay!  Satby brought William, the orange tabby, to me.  He is very sweet other than being a food bully to my other cat.  I think I’ll start feeding her in my pantry, which has a door.  He is still getting used to sharing space with my dog, but my dog has ignored all of my other cats, so that will come.

    He is so affectionate!

  24. 24.

    Dan B

    @cckids: Hello to Bunny, and you!  Satby’s coming over Thursday and then, after hanging out in our jungle, we go to friends for a birthday (delayed due to VP debate viewing) and then visiting the new stairway to the waterfront and new “Oceans” exhibit at the aquarium on Friday.

    Pictures of Bunny when she appears, please.

  26. 26.

    eclare

    @Dan B:

    Satby said that she is going to gather photos of all of the rescue kitties in their new homes and send them in.

    I have one good one of William, but every time I try to take another, he jumps down from his perch.

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Stacib: I recall a documentary a while back pointing out that Family Matters went through exactly the same process as Good Times–it was supposed to be a realistic sitcom about a working-class black family in DC, but the character of Urkel, this clownish nerd caricature, took over the show and became the focus of increasingly fantastical plots.

  30. 30.

    sdhays

    Sheehy sure sounded like he was pretending to be pro-choice (adjacent?) in that clip from the debate.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    @There go two miscreants: Thank you!

    I consider everyone who donates to be a kindred spirits, but people who donate in increments that divide evenly by the number of people in the thermometer are double kindred spirits.

    Please tell me that there are numbers that you like and numbers that you don’t like.  I was a million years old when I learned that not everyone has feelings about numbers.

  40. 40.

    Redshift

    @rikyrah: Hmm, I’m going to have to take that all with a grain of salt. I had read this Bluesky thread earlier (pre-strike) about likely BS attacks on the union’s position, which includes some of those issues. Unfortunately, I don’t see anything either in the accounts you posted from or mine that give me a strong basis to judge whether they know what they’re talking about.

  42. 42.

    Another Scott

    @rikyrah: I ass-u-me Secretary Pete and the rest of the administration is keeping an eye on things. And won’t let anyone blow up the economy over this.

    Transportation.gov:

    U.S. Department of Transportation Statement on East Coast and Gulf Coast Ports

    Tuesday, October 1, 2024

    On Monday, DOT officials met with businesses that will be affected by labor disputes to continue their ongoing dialogue about impacts to the supply chain and provide an update on the Administration’s efforts to encourage the parties to negotiate in good faith. Since early summer, DOT’s Multimodal Freight Office has been engaged with shippers, ocean carriers, ports, railroads, and other supply chain partners on the potential impact of a strike. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, DOT has established strong relationships across the supply chain to address bottlenecks—from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the closure of the Port of Baltimore—and continues to communicate with partners on every level of the supply chain. Our Administration supports collective bargaining as the best way for workers and employers to come to a fair agreement, and we encourage all parties to come to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith—fairly and quickly.

    We’ll see how it goes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    pluky

    @Stacib: JJ wasn’t close to buffoonery, he epitomized it. There are other terms from minstrel shows and vaudeville that apply, but with seriously stronger racist connotations.

  45. 45.

    Sallycat

    I tried to contribute $25 each to all four parties identified in the post.  I got a message and a phone call that some of my attempts to use my credit card failed, but which ones didn’t go through can’t be identified to me. If you give me your email address I will post more details.

  46. 46.

    Ksmiami

    @rikyrah: then he’ll force Biden to act in the best interests of the nation and shut the strike down. Fuck em. I have zero sympathy for these overpaid goons.

  47. 47.

    RaflW

    I still think about a very kind young progressive Democrat from Nebraska who I became friends with in (ugh) golf class at TCU in the ’83-’84 academic year (fall? spring? Can’t remember). I was still under the influence of my Republican dad as a college Freshman.

    Charles and I would have loud and energetic fights about policy and politics on our way back to the dorm after class. I think he might have been a class ahead of me, not sure. When he’d get red-faced mad (which was often, I was a stubborn little freak – both very anti-nuke yet pro-capitalism) his mild stutter would get much worse. But I was at least not socially horrible, so I was (I hope I recall accurately) decently patient.

    When our arguments had run out of steam, one of us would say to the other, with a smile “See ya soon!” “Yup!”

    The fights were fun, seemingly for both of us. I’m quite sure he had much more of an effect on me than I on him. Clearly I went more liberal. Sadly, Nebraska did not stay like Charles. Maybe Dan Osborne can bring the state a little closer to it’s progressive history.

    $100 for his Dan’s efforts!

  53. 53.

    Old School

    Update to yesterday’s post.  Man smashes guitar not signed by Taylor Swift:

    But contrary to media reports, the guitar the man destroyed had not been signed by Swift — and was not a certified official guitar used by the singer, a source close to her merch company confirmed to Variety. The organization that held the auction, the Ellis County WildGame Dinner, presented the guitar with a signed CD insert but the guitar itself was not signed.

  54. 54.

    Anoniminous

    Funny how low population counties with white people can get money that isn’t in the budget for low population non-white people counties.

    Just one o’ them coinkie-dinkies I reckon.

  55. 55.

    PST

    @eclare:

    My parents wouldn’t let me watch Good Times because they thought it was too caricaturish.

    So did John Amos, something he said often enough and loud enough that it led to his dismissal from the show.

  56. 56.

    Princess

    Walz could do well to spend some time watching the Tester debate. Judging from these clips, it was a masterclass in making a smart lying twerp look like … a smarmy lying twerp.

    I know one of the issues in the MT race is moneyed people coming to the state and turning it into their playground. It should help Tester that his opponent looks like the villain in an 80s high school movie.

  59. 59.

    JiveTurkin

    @Belafon: Stuck between a rock and a hard place.  The ILA has lots of leverage now, will have very little after election no matter who wins.

  60. 60.

    EarthWindFire

    @sdhays: The tell was that “often it’s women who don’t have any support in these decisions” line. So just turn it over to us strong men (pun intended) who know what’s best for you. Because if she just had the right kind of man in her life, she’d never even think about an abortion. No sirree, she wouldn’t.

  62. 62.

    banditqueen

    Thank you so much anonymous angels, WG, WCK–all of you make it easier to reach out and help.

  63. 63.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Origuy:

    He had a lot great roles, but the ones I remember most is adult Kunta Kinte and McDowell’s, home of the Big Mick.

  66. 66.

    sdhays

    @EarthWindFire: It was a very weird formulation – he mentioned these narrow exceptions that very clearly don’t actually exist in the real world and then talked about them like they opened up “decisions”, as if they restored Roe v. Wade minus support for the harlots, of course.

    No, these “exceptions” merely provide hurdles that a woman probably doesn’t have time to clear, even if implemented in good faith (which they clearly aren’t). Not much decision making allowed to happen, and if a woman does come to her own decision, she has to fight for it to prove she’s worthy of it in a very narrow time window, unless, of course, she makes the decision Sheehy wants her to make.

    Such a lie.

  67. 67.

    p.a.

    Yeah, when I heard about this (at the time potential) strike last week I thought it smelled of seafood restaurant dumpster on a July afternoon.

    This info explains it.  Teamster playbook.

  68. 68.

    suilebhan

    $50.00 each to Osborn, 4 Directions MT and Arizona Candidates.   Thanks for this opportunity, WaterGirl.

  69. 69.

    Princess

    @sdhays: He also very clearly said “life of the mother” not health so he’s fine with forcing a woman to bear a child who’s going to die and render her permanently unable to have another one like that woman in Texas.

  72. 72.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WaterGirl:

    I just gave $42 to Nebraska to bring it up to $8192 (I bet you can guess what’s interesting about that number), and $100 to Montana because I couldn’t think of anything cute to do there.

    I realized when I was in elementary school – hell, in the early grades! – that not everyone was a numbers junkie like me.  (I’m also a calendar math geek for good measure.)

  78. 78.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @rikyrah: (and anyone else concerned about the longshoremen’s strike:

    The roots of this strike rest in the fact that there are two different unions representing the longshoremen—one representing workers at the East and Gulf Coast ports, and other those at the West coast ports. There is, and has been for some time, a considerable pay differential between the two groups, in favor of the West Coast workers.
    The pay increase they’re asking for is a staged increase of $5/hour over the five years of the contract; this will bring them closer to West Coast wages but not equal them by the end of the contract, as I understand it. The 2018 contract granted them $1/hour raises yearly; right now the top hourly pay is $39/hour on the East Coast. They haven’t kept up with inflation, like a lot of the rest of us.
    Management is pushing for full automation of all equipment, which, as those of us who’ve been boggling over Mr. Muskmelon’s adventures, as well as those at Google, can agree is a tad risky.
    Also, the longshoreman don’t work regular 40-hour weeks—they are assigned work as needed. So they might have steady work—and even overtime—one month, and not so much the next. In the New York area, this can mean traveling to one of several different ports in the area, so there’s that as well.
     

     
    Here’s an update from the ILA on the strike & their intentions. If you check through the posts there (arrows at the bottom of the page), you can see other updates & explanations as well.
    The ILA is exempting military cargoes & also cruise ships (those are a minimal pert of their work & I think they felt it wasn’t worth the bad publicity from ruining people’s vacations.)

  81. 81.

    JaySinWA

    Thanks for the World Central Kitchen reminder.

    I did my donation directly at https://wck.org/

    Hopefully eliminating the middleman helps, maybe if just getting it there faster.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    Okay, I am caught up on matches!  Thanks everybody, great day!

    I case I missed anyone, these are the comment #s with donations added to the spreadsheet, since I posted the comment # list this morning.

    email
    105
    114
    5
    10
    11
    18
    21
    39
    email
    47
    52
    58
    61
    68
    70
    72
    74
    83
    85

    Reply here if you donated and your comment # isn’t listed.

    I’ll check back in the morning.

  87. 87.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WaterGirl: 8192 = 2^13.  I think I was in 8th grade when I calculated the powers of 2 up to 2^20 = 1048576 when I was bored during homeroom.  I can still reel them off at a moment’s notice.

    Also the squares of the integers have a cool pattern where the same last two digits keep repeating, but reversing their order at every multiple of 25.  E.g. the squares of 23 through 27 are 529, 576, 625, 676, 729.  Which means that once you know the squares up through 25^2, you can just keep rolling with the rest as far as you’ve got the energy for it.

    Yes, I’m a nerd and proud of it!

  88. 88.

    VFX Lurker

    Reply here if you donated and your comment # isn’t listed.

    @WaterGirl: It’s possible I missed the match, but I posted donation amounts at comment #85.

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    @VFX Lurker: No, you didn’t miss the match!

    You must have been typing your comment as I was typing mine.  Glad you caught that.  (Hoping that I would have caught it in the morning, but this is better!

    I will edit my comment at #86 since yours was posted after mine.

    Thank you!

Comments are closed.