Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“But what about the lurkers?”

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Books are my comfort food!

When I was faster i was always behind.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

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

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

This blog will pay for itself.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

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

People are complicated. Love is not.

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Pennsylvania GOP Lawsuit Targeting Overseas Voters Dies on Its Ass

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Excellent news for us broads (and gentlemen, and gentlethems) abroad, particularly us Pennsylvanians:

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit by six Republican members of Congress seeking to make Pennsylvania election officials institute new checks confirming the identity of soldiers, sailors, and others who vote from overseas and to make sure they’re eligible.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner said he agreed with the defendants — Secretary of State Al Schmidt and one of his top deputies — who argued there were no grounds to sue and that the case was launched too late and too close to Election Day.

The Pennsylvania congressmen “provide no good excuse for waiting until barely a month before the election to bring this lawsuit,” Conner wrote. More than 25,000 overseas ballots had already been sent out when the case was filed in late September, the judge noted.

I have nothing more eloquent to add beyond fuck these cockweasels. At every level of government since the turn of the century, the GOP’s constant mean-spirited, bad-faith jockeying for advantage has left our nation weaker and all of us more suspicious and cynical – a process that has been doused with accelerant since that monster came down the golden escalator in 2015.

I want Kamala Harris to win for lots of reasons, but mainly because I want to get out of the defensive crouch. Returning to a posture of mere vigilance, as opposed to panicked hyper-vigilance, will seem like sweet relief. I can only imagine how it feels for our transgender and POC neighbors. Again: fuck these fuckers.

Further to yesterday’s discussion, I wanted to flag up some more data that’s just been published. This time it’s a presidential poll out of Kansas:

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Musical Interludes

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Beautiful.  Profound.  Haunting.

h/t Kay in MD

Who could you share this with where it might make a difference?

Hopeful

h/t Nelle

Lyrics

Hope Lingers On
by Lissa Schneckenburger

My mother, when love is gone (2x)
In our darkest hour hope lingers on

My father, when peace is gone (2x)
In our darkest hour hope lingers

I will not hate, and I will not fear
In our darkest hour, hope lingers here

My sister, when equality’s gone (2x)
In our darkest hour hope lingers on

My brother, with tolerance gone (2x)
In our darkest hour hope lingers on

I will not hate, and I will not fear
In our darkest hour, hope lingers here

My love, when honor is gone (2x)
In our darkest hour hope lingers on

My country, when justice is gone (2x)
In our darkest hour hope lingers on

I will not hate, and I will not fear
In our darkest hour, hope lingers here.

HOPE.  INSPIRATION.  ACTION.

BR posted this in an earlier thread.

I’m proud to say that I successfully got one Arizona vote yesterday — someone who didn’t know her ballot was rejected due to missing signature. Ballot curing phone banking is going on right now for all the swing states, and if you are nervous about normal phone banking there’s no persuasion involved because these are Dem voters. Sign up for a shift or two:

https://volunteerblue.org/take-action-ballot-cure/

No persuasion, no Republican assholes, nobody who is going to be crazy at you for bothering them.

We are the little engine that could – for Fundraising.  And, now, apparently, Postcarding.

What if we each did one shift of ballot curing?

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Four Directions Update

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This is an ad that Four Directions is running in the weekly newspapers, starting on Wednesday.

This is the followup to the situation I described in my Sunday call to action post.

Good Trouble

In case it’s easier to read as text instead of part of the image:

We are Four Directions Native Vote, a non-partisan voting rights organization headquartered on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation. We work to help Native Americans and Tribal Nations gain greater access to the ballot box across Indian Country, through negotiation and through the courts if needed. Working with Tribal Nations and Tribal Citizens, final results of our assistance is Native Voters voting in state and federal elections.

Relying upon our decades-long experience, and with growing concern for Native voters in Roosevelt County and Valley County – who face unnecessary barriers to casting their ballots in a free, fair, and secure election, we purchased this advertisement to direct attention to our website: fourdirectionsvote. com, to report and publish documentation of unequal access to voting, and intimidating conduct and harassment from county election officials.

All Native voters should expect and receive reliable and complete information from Roosevelt and Valley County election officials about the voting process, but this is not happening.

We have witnessed Native voters being given misleading information by county officials in an apparent attempt to discourage eligible Native voters from exercising their constitutional right to be heard on an equal basis. Because of this, we want eligible Native voters to know they may decide to have assistance from another person as they vote their ballot. The person assisting does not have to be an election official. The voter chooses.

It is against the law to threaten, coerce, or intimidate voters and persons assisting voters. That includes shouting, menacing, threatening arrest, or following voters and persons assisting voters by election officials and law enforcement officers. Montana’s Constitution protects voters from arrest going to and from a polling place to vote.

While Valley County Attorney Dylan Jensen refuses to make a public statement confirming the protections of Montana’s Constitution for Native Voters going off-reservation to Glasgow, he has confirmed to us that Native voters are in fact protected against interference by Valley County and Montana law enforcement while traveling to Glasgow to register to vote and vote.

Working with the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Fort Peck Indian Reservation, we continue the work to expand voting access through satellite voting election offices, and we will continue our work helping Fort Peck Tribal Citizens proudly vote by November 5, 2024.

WTF is wrong with these public officials who want to intimidate voters?

Open thread.

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One More Week (Open Thread)

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This has been the wildest presidential election season I’ve ever experienced as a voter. So many unexpected plot twists! So many contradictions!

The contest has been both interminable (Trump has been running nonstop for nearly a goddamned decade at this point, mostly for the grift) and astonishingly brief, with Harris putting together and near-flawlessly executing a campaign in mere weeks.

The split-screen contrasts couldn’t be more stark: an intelligent, upbeat, experienced, attractive woman with a positive, future-focused agenda vs. a braying old orange convicted felon who’s eternally fixated on his personal grievances.

How can it be this close? Well, the long and short of it is that we share this land with tens of millions of malevolent assholes and blithering, self-important idiots. Sadly, sometimes they prevail.

That said, I’m glad our candidate isn’t the one who felt compelled to publicly declare, “I’m not a Nazi” a week before Election Day. I like our chances.

Open thread!

PS: I hope this doesn’t come across as tone police-y because lord knows I enjoy a good intramural spat in comments now and then. But maybe extend a little grace to each other over the next week? We’re all under a lot of stress.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: We Have Righteousness on Our Side

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Remember, jackals: Sharing is caring!

Another public endorsement I didn’t expect (but I’m happy to see): Anita Hill, at the NYTimes, on “The Smearing of Kamala Harris” [gift link]:

It’s not easy to remain calm and collected in the glare of intense public scrutiny, especially when the opposition is set on denying your integrity, competence and accomplishments. But call it grace, poise or dignity, Kamala Harris has managed to make a positive case for her candidacy every day since President Biden endorsed her to take his place on the Democratic ticket. Think about it: No presidential nominees in modern history have faced such a direct challenge to the authenticity of their identity and by extension their qualifications to be the president.

I can tell you with confidence that the various and sundry racist, misogynist and sexist insults hurled at Ms. Harris must sting. They are a reminder of the disgraceful lengths that Republican senators took to shame me when I challenged Clarence Thomas’s fitness to be appointed to the Supreme Court. What helped me stay composed was knowing that I was not the first woman to have her sanity, truthfulness and virtue falsely impugned. Even now, when I am attacked, my mother’s firm but gentle admonition rings in my ears: “You know who you are and what you can do.” Lesson learned: Never let the people who despise you define you.

One key to surviving under such pressure is to forcefully embrace the value of your own capabilities and principles. “Don’t be confined to other people’s perception about what this looks like, and how you should act in order to be,” Ms. Harris said this year. That posture is evident in the clarity and directness with which she states her qualifications for the presidency. During their debate last month, when Ms. Harris exposed Donald Trump’s weaknesses without lowering herself to his level, the strength of her dignity was made even more obvious. She told us that she knew “Donald Trump’s type,” and she proved her point without self-congratulations…

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Wee Hours Open Thread

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Badger and I both feel like crap. I know why I’m uncomfortable; I had my second shingles shot this morning, so my arm hurts, and I can’t sleep.

I’m not sure what’s up with Badger. Maybe he ate a bad lizard or something. Anyhoo, we’re companionably miserable, which is better than enduring our distress alone.
Sad Boston terrier

We’ll be okay. We both hate getting shots, but he’s far more stoic about it. I’m a big crybaby.

Years ago, I read about a new injection technology that was supposedly on the horizon whereby shots could be delivered painlessly via a Velcro strip-like device with multiple tiny needles.

If President Kamala Harris puts me in charge of public health policy — which despite my being an English major with no science qualifications makes more sense than Trump’s threat to appoint crackpot RFK Jr. to head up H&HS — I would invest in painless vaccine delivery and require Big Pharma to offer gummy versions of all pills.

Open thread!

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War for Ukraine Day 978: Russia Strikes at a Kharkiv Landmark & UNESCO Heritage Site

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

A quick housekeeping note: Rosie is doing better now that we’re a week on from her final chemo treatment. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Russia attacked a very distinctive landmark in Kharkiv today.

The Derzhprom building or State Industry building in Kharkiv Completed in 1928, was one of the first skyscrapers in the Soviet Union and the largest construct made of reinforced concrete at the time. Derzhprom has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
It survived WW2 and nazi occupation, but russia damaged it tonight.

Here is the butcher’s bill that Russia has run up over the past week:

Russia does not stop its terror against Ukraine. Daily, it launches aggression against our people, cities, and villages, using various types of weapons. This week alone, the occupiers have used over 1,100 guided aerial bombs, more than 560 strike drones, and approximately 20 missiles of various types against our country.

I want to express my gratitude to our people who work day and night to protect Ukrainians from Russian attacks, provide assistance, and are always ready to save lives.

We are working hard with our partners to stop the enemy, strengthen Ukraine, and provide maximum protection for our people so that this Russian terror becomes impossible.

President Zelenskyy had a very busy day today. He participated in the 4th Ukraine-Nordic Summit where he gave remarks and then did a joint press conference. He also sat for an interview with the Times of India.

Let’s start with his speech at the summit itself. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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