Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

The lights are all blinking red.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Usually wrong but never in doubt

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

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

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

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

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

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War for Ukraine Day 893: A Brief Sunday Night Update

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If I understand correctly…a tree fell and now Adam doesn’t have electricity. So he emailed me some links, and well, here we are…

Tonight’s update:

Our dear warriors of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine! Dear families of our warriors!

Dear attendees! Dear Ukrainian people!

Today we honor the strength and skill of our people, thanks to whom the skies of Ukraine remain Ukrainian. Exclusively Ukrainian. The enemy does not dominate and will not dominate the skies of our state. This has been the case from the very first days of this war, and it will always be the case. The Russian occupier was very hopeful of destroying our Ukrainian aviation and air defense – our ability to defend our state. But Ukrainians did not let that happen. And this is true heroism – when our Air Force warriors had to confront the larger Russian air fleet, and yet Ukraine was able to achieve its goals, was able to defend itself, was able to destroy the occupier. In almost two and a half years of this war, our Air Force has already flown twenty-two thousand combat missions. And we continue to enhance our aviation capabilities. Ukraine now also possesses modern, truly effective air defense systems. There are still not enough of these systems to truly cover all of our skies from Russian missiles and drones, but today the Ukrainian air shield is already one of the strongest in Europe. Ukrainians have proven that they can shoot down even those Russian missiles, including ballistic ones, which for a long time were said to be beyond the reach of the skies’ defenders. Ukrainians have proven that they are capable of keeping the Ukrainian skies clear from the enemy and protecting the lives of our people, our cities and villages from Russian terror. For this, I thank each pilot of our Air Force. For this, I thank all engineers, technical workers, each warrior of our air defense, all Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners and everyone who trains our warriors in such a way that Ukraine can feel the results of the combat work of the Ukrainian Air Force. We are all proud of you, our warriors! And everyone in Ukraine should remember what such heroism means. What kind of risk it is, what kind of courage it is.

I ask all present to honor the memory of each warrior of our Air Force, all our warriors who did not return from combat missions, who gave their lives for the sake of Ukraine, with a minute of silence.

Thank you.

Dear Ukrainians!

We are now at a new phase in the development of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We have done a lot to elevate the Ukrainian Air Force to a new standard of aviation – Western combat aviation. Since the beginning of this war, we have been talking with our partners about the need to close our Ukrainian skies to Russian missiles, to Russian aircraft. We have held hundreds of meetings and negotiations to strengthen the capabilities of our aviation, to strengthen the capabilities of our air defense, and our Defense Forces. We have often heard the word “impossible” in response, but we have made possible what was our ambition, our defense need, and now it is actually a reality, a reality in our skies. F-16s are in Ukraine. We made it happen. I am proud of all our guys who are skillfully mastering these aircraft and have already started using them for our state. I thank our team for this important result. I thank all our partners who are really effectively helping us with the F-16s, and the first states that accepted our request for the provision of the aircraft. Thank you! Denmark, the Netherlands, the United States, and all our partners – we appreciate your support!

And I wish our Air Force, all our warriors, to feel the pride of Ukrainians in our combat aviation and to deliver to Ukraine exactly the kind of combat results that will bring our victory – the victory of Ukraine – closer.

Glory to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine!

Glory to our people!

Glory to Ukraine!

 

 

 

I’m sure we’ll be back to normal operations tomorrow night – TaMara

Open thread

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Sunday Evening Open Thread: Veepstakes – Josh Shapiro

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I was gonna post more about potential VP picks this week, but… it’s been kinda busy!

Governor Shapiro’s been all over social media this weekend, which may or may not be a leading indicator.


 
At the moment, he certainly seems to be the TV Pundits’ Pick, for better or worse:

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Medium Cool – from Worst to First

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

So last week, we talked about the worst of everything.   Tonight let’s talk about the first of everything.

What’s the first movie you ever paid to see?

First movies your remember seeing?

The first movie that didn’t meet your expectation?

What’s the first kids’ TV show you remember?

The first grown-up TV show you remember?

First book you remember reading not for school?

First mystery series you read?

First fireworks?

First ballet?

First play?

First play you were in?

First book you remember reading in school?

First teacher?

First concert you attended?

First concert you attended with friends?

First family dinner?

First food craze you remember?

First food craze you got caught up in?

First record you bought?

First album you bought?

First librarian or teacher who was special?

The first of everything!   Have at it.

Medium Cool – from Worst to FirstPost + Comments (163)

Interesting Article: Identity Groups for Kamala Harris

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I have thought a little bit about this, that it’s unusual for the organizing calls to be seprate for various identity groups. In fact, I have been a little bit surprised not to see some backlash from the other side about this.

So I was happy to stumble on this article this morning while trying to figure out which was the correct day / date for the Native Men for Harris call.

Identity Groups Are Mobilizing for Kamala Harris. That Shows Progress

On July 21, President Joe Biden ended his bid for re-election and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for President. That night, 44,000 Black women congregated via Zoom and raised more than $1M for the Harris campaign. The next day, Black men gathered online with similar results. These efforts inspired white women to come together in bold support of the Harris campaign. Reports suggest that white women’s mobilization resulted in the largest Zoom call in history, and they raised more than $8.5 million in less than 24 hours. This is only the tip of the iceberg, though. Gatherings are happening for Black queer men, South Asian women, Latinas, Native women, and white men.

This enthusiasm is significant as Harris heads into the final months of the campaign, but given that American culture discourages this kind of “identity politics,” many people will see this list of identity-specific calls and think, “If you want to support Harris, do it, but why all this separation?” Why gather in specific groups?

These affinity gatherings might feel odd because of a very American idea that even those joining these calls typically find persuasive. It’s therefore worth understanding the sentiment and why flouting it matters.

Many Americans have been taught that it is generally bad and probably insulting to mention categories of race and sexuality. This is because American culture bombards us with positive portrayals of white people and straight people while insisting that such depictions have nothing to do with demographics; they simply tell the truth. At the same time, we’re bombarded with negative depictions of people of color and of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people while being told that such depictions aren’t related to their race or sexuality; those, too, simply tell the truth. Consider the fact that we feel the need to specify that someone is a Black patriot or a gay hero – as opposed to simply a patriot or hero. In our admirable attempt to be inclusive, we’re also highlighting that people from these groups are not who we typically think of when we hear these terms.

In other words, whiteness is accepted as the norm and as a benign umbrella category, even though it is far from neutral or universal. If we were a more honest nation—to take a seemingly harmless example—our bookstores wouldn’t stop at labeling sections of works by “African American Authors” and “Asian American Authors.” They would also label “White Authors” because neither a white writer nor the work they produce is racially neutral.

Being considered white comes with very particular experiences, like shopping without consistently being followed as if you’re a thief. Because I am never mistaken for white when I enter a store, I am routinely treated less as a shopper and more as a potential criminal. This experience is incredibly common and widespread. Dare I say it approaches being universal for entire populations?

But because their experiences are often negative – and this negativity is silently attached to their identities rather than to others’ prejudice – people of color are encouraged to avoid bringing attention to their specific truths. If they name whiteness, the concern goes, or if they point out how race shapes encounters with other Americans, they risk offending, encountering backlash, and limiting themselves.

This is why seeing Black women, Black men, Black queer men, Latinas, and Desis organizing for Kamala Harris warms my heart. It means the people on these calls have chosen to reject the lie that they must keep their distinct experiences to themselves.

However, it is equally encouraging to see white women and white men organize as white women and white men. Despite all the ways American culture teaches them that whiteness hasn’t determined their life chances, and in stark contrast to the way white women, primarily, congregated in a “secret” Facebook group before the 2016 election, these Harris supporters are insisting upon publicly acknowledging the specificity of experience. Doing so doesn’t automatically erect barriers between them and people of color. Instead, it facilitates an honoring of differences that makes those differences strengths.

By coming together as white people who recognize that the United States has given them very different experiences than it offers Americans of color, they are pinpointing precisely why joining a broad coalition matters. Coalition requires acknowledging that there are very real differences, but that those differences matter less than working together to make gains that benefit people far beyond one’s family and friends. Groups that operate in solidarity with groups that are undeniably different are taking steps that run counter to what American culture encourages and are operating in ways that will ultimately make the United States less hostile for more people.

I hope you’ll read the whole thing at the link up top.

Any thoughts?

Open thread.

 

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Mississippi Ohio, Goddam!

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<s>Mississippi</s> Ohio, Goddam!
Supporters gathered for a press conference July 1, 2024 as anti-gerrymandering advocates submitted about 731,000 signatures backing a constitutional amendment to create an independent redistricting commission in Ohio. Ohio voters are about to seriously test the adage, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Cleveland – The Plain Dealer, Letter from the Editor

And the people who are trying, yet again, to do the fooling are the state’s election officials. They successfully used a bait-and-switch tactic to derail bona-fide gerrymandering reform a decade ago. Will the tactics that Gov. Mike DeWine launched this week to repeat the bamboozling work again?

I had hoped Ohio leaders learned a lesson last year when they tried to bamboozle voters into giving up their ability to change the state constitution. The voters body slammed the leaders pushing that false narrative, proving that Ohio is a centrist state with common-sense voters who resent being lied to.

Yet over the past week, Ohio leaders launched a new bamboozling campaign, and it promises to be torrid until Election Day.

With Issue 1 last August, elected leaders intent on amassing power tried to persuade voters to give up their ability to alter the Ohio constitution by increasing from 50 to 60 percent the votes need to adopt changes. People like Secretary of State Frank LaRose looked voters in the eye and told them it would be good for them to give up their power. It was a ridiculous lie, and voters firmly rejected it.

That effort was partly about abortion. Headed to the ballot in November was an amendment to enshrine abortion as a right in the Ohio constitution. Voters approved it in a landslide, but not by 60 percent. If the issue in August had passed, the minority would have dictated rules to the majority.

Issue 1 last August was also about gerrymandering, which is the subject of the new bamboozle. Republicans have used gerrymandering to create absurd super majorities in the Legislature, and they don’t want to lose them. They are desperate to keep gerrymandering.

Our newsroom will have its hands full for the next three months laying out all the ways Ohio leaders lie to voters to get them to vote against their own interests. And make no mistake about it: Gerrymandered super majorities are not in anyone’s best interest. The Ohio Legislature is loaded with fringe thinkers who do not represent us. We are repeatedly embarrassed on a national stage as our lawmakers try to outdo each other with increasingly absurd proposals.

The gerrymandering battle is almost a decade old now. Way back in 2015, citizens disgusted with gerrymandering launched a ballot initiative to end it. When lawmakers realized the initiative would be successful, they pulled their bait and switch. They proposed their own, albeit weaker, reforms, successfully persuading the citizens to drop their ballot initiative. Voters, believing the Legislature was acting in good faith, approved the so-called reforms in 2015 for the Legislature and 2018 for Congress.

The new system created a redistricting commission that included the governor, secretary of state, auditor, Senate president, House speaker and two members of the Legislature in the minority party. Voters set strict rules on how to draw lines.

We all know what happened. DeWine and company, who all swore an oath to the Ohio constitution, failed to do live up to the oath. Over and over, an Ohio Supreme Court with a Republican majority found the commission in violation of the constitution with its maps and ordered members to do their duty.

Over and over they refused.

It was a constitutional crisis so ugly that the chief justice, Maureen O’Connor, took the extraordinary step of writing a concurring opinion calling on voters to change the mapmaking system yet again, to remove elected officials from it. Then, when she was forced to retired by age limits, she made it her mission to fix the system.

She and other volunteers came up with a system that leaves out elected officials, much like the one that has worked to end gerrymandering in Michigan. Then those volunteers collected more than 700,000 signatures to put it on the ballot.

Before I get to the new bamboozling, a note about O’Connor. She is the epitome of what we want in public servants, having devoted her life to us. She served as a Summit County judge, Summit County prosecutor, lieutenant governor, head of Ohio’s Public Safety Department and chief justice. No woman in Ohio history held elective office longer.

Her reputation is unassailable, yet when she sided with the majority of justices in rejecting the unconstitutional work of the redistricting commission, a bunch of her fellow Republicans talked about impeaching her. Not because she broke laws. Not because of transgressions. No, they wanted to trash this storied public servant for ruling based on her conscience.

And now the latest bamboozling.

First, a couple of weeks ago, we learned Republican lawmakers considered putting a competing initiative on the ballot, to confuse voters. They rightly realized that Ohio voters would see through such subterfuge and stood down.

But over the past week, people like DeWine, U.S. Rep. Max Miller and others began their campaign to persuade voters that O’Connor’s initiative is a bad one.

Never mind that DeWine, in failing to adhere to the constitution and do his job on the redistricting commission, long ago surrendered any credibility on this issue. But do recall that he is on the record saying that elected officials should not be part of the mapmaking process.

Today, he’s pushing for a system where citizens propose maps but elected officials make the decisions. No way. No how. Don’t buy it. The elected officials refused to serve us. Now, they just want to maintain power.

Who are you going to believe here? O’Connor, who spent a lifetime serving Ohioans without a hint of scandal and has nothing to gain personally? Or the latest bevy of elected leaders, hell-bent to increase their power, who have done everything possible to convince voters to willingly harm themselves?

This issue cannot get lost in the noise of the presidential election. Ohioans have the chance to take back control of their government from power-mad leaders who corrupted the system. O’Connor’s initiative would end the suffocating reign of megalomaniacs.

As we did last year with Issue 1 in August, we will do everything we can to explain what is at stake here. But last time around, you did the hard work. You saw what was at stake and contacted everyone you knew to make sure they understood.

Start spreading the word.

Again.

I’m at [email protected]

Thanks for reading

I simply don’t understand how Ohio legislators can just say fuck you to their supreme court.  Not to mention saying fuck you to the people who elected them!

Ohio peeps, please fill us in on what’s happening.

Does your state have a motto?  Because I’m nominating Ohio, WTF?

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Worker Power Leadership School – Field Notes Vol. 3

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We have another update from Worker Power, where we recently funded a student so they could attend the Worker Power Leadership School.  It looks like Worker Power will be sharing their weekly newsletter with us over the 4 weeks of Leadership School.  This is the second I have received.

This is a helpful reminder to me that good things are happening, which will not only pay off in the fall but also in the years ahead,

You guys said you are interested in these, so here you go!

Reminder:  One of the students from this year’s school will be leading the team we will funding for 3 weeks in the fall.  We don’t know who our team leader will be in the fall, but won’t it be fun if it turns out to be one of the students that is featured here?

Excerpts from the newletter

Welcome to Field Notes, our newsletter highlighting students and faculty of the second Worker Power Leadership School, a month-long program dedicated to training the next generation of progressive leaders who will run winning campaigns for working people.

In this volume of Field Notes, we have a faculty spotlight on  Shana L. Redmond, whose “Songs and Solidarity” class was a favorite for many Leadership School students, and a student spotlight on Aicha Tahirou, and Ken Hamilton, a program participant coming to us from UAW Region 6, shares some of his experience talking to voters.

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Outsourcing!

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It’s sure looking like the Trump takeover of the RNC is going about as well as Trump Steaks and Water: [gift link]

With fewer than 100 days before the election, local GOP officials in battleground states have raised alarms about the scant presence of Trump campaign field staff. For the large armies of paid and volunteer door-knockers and canvassers who typically drive turnout in presidential elections, the campaign is largely relying on outside groups such as America First Works, America PAC and Turning Point Action.

The FEC has allowed Trump’s campaign to coordinate closely with those PACs, but this is the first time that’s happened.  Anyone who’s worked in a campaign wouldn’t like the sound of this:

The Trump campaign’s shrunken in-house operation resulted from its takeover of the Republican National Committee in March, when Trump secured the nomination. The RNC had been planning an extensive field program, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Thosenow-discarded plans included 88 staff members and 12 offices, and goals to knock on 3 million doors and make 2.4 million phone calls, in Pennsylvania. In Arizona, the RNC’s plan called for 62 staffers and seven offices, aiming for 558,000 voter contacts.

Also, counting on Elmo is a fool’s game:

The Musk-backed program is in flux, a person familiar with the operation said, after it cut ties with a firm that had been hired to handle much of the operation. It is unclear what the group will do next.

Of course, the Harris campaign is sticking to their original plan of organizing via the campaign.

It’s more than a little ironic that the Trump campaign might fail because they ran the Republican playbook of outsourcing everything.

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