I’ve been doing garden cleanup all morning. No breakfast, I’m starving, eating a piece of pumpkin pie as an appetizer.
Looks like we could use an open thread!
Monday Morning Open Thread: We Will Fight
(Non Sequitur via GoComics.com)
We’ve got less than a month to make sure we get every eligible voter to the polls. Here’s a good place to start: https://t.co/l7B0fUIDbq
A big group of us are phone banking tomorrow, Monday Oct. 14th, trying to make 1,000,000 calls in one afternoon. Join me! We need boots on… pic.twitter.com/VEA2YMOHG7
— Misha Collins (@mishacollins) October 13, 2024
Kamala Harris: He refuses to release his medical records. He is unwilling to do a 60 Minutes interview. He is unwilling to meet for a second debate. Why does his staff want him to hide away? Are they afraid that people will see he is too weak and unstable to lead America? pic.twitter.com/bLrX3Eabya
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 13, 2024
She’s taking the fight to Trump. Watch and share with your networks. Any people on the sidelines in your life? Ask them to watch. https://t.co/bZDYPEuZu8
— Neera Tanden?? (@neeratanden) October 14, 2024
Oh wow that is the Nashville bridge when back in September Jon helped get a woman off the ledge of the bridge they were filming the video on pic.twitter.com/0stSk6DrI7
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) October 11, 2024
Monday Morning Open Thread: We Will FightPost + Comments (263)
We’re Not Dumb Enough to Listen to the Trash Talk, Right? Right?
Steady as she goes, BJ peeps. Steady as she goes.
Something like 3/4 of the polls that dropped this week are Republic trash polls, meant to direct the conversation, not to report accurately. Ignore them.
Are we really going to let a bullshit article from Politico (but I repeat myself) make us worry or panic about the state of the race? Ignore them.
Bullshit stories in the FTFNYT? Ignore them.
We’re gonna get nervous because of something Saturday Night Live put in their Cold Open? Ignore that.
It’s the political equivalent of trash talk, and we are idiots if we listen to it. We’re even bigger idiots if we let it distract us from doing the work. Because that’s their goal.
Fear is contagious. Don’t spread it.
Have you voted?
Have you talked to all your friends and neighbors about voting?
Have you volunteered somewhere?
Written a postcard? Phone banked? Texted? Donated? Made food and brought it to a local campaign office?
Encouraged someone else? Talked someone else off the ledge? Offered someone a ride to the polls?
Just like in sports, don’t listen to the trash talk. Play your game.
3 weeks out is not the time for hand-wringing. It’s the time for working even harder.
We have 3 weeks to play our game. Uncertainty sucks. We just have to be smarter than they are, not get distracted, and do the work.
Where is Al Giordano when you need him? He would kick our chicken-little-ing behinds.
And where is Steeplejack when we need him? He would have found one of Al’s great rants for me in a heartbeat.
Open thread.
We’re Not Dumb Enough to Listen to the Trash Talk, Right? Right?Post + Comments (84)
War for Ukraine Day 963: Russia Has Murdered 9 More Ukrainian POWs
(Image by NEIVANMADE)
A quick housekeeping note: We are still safe and sound in the hotel. My friend was able to make it over and check out my house this morning. It is intact, no apparent damage inside or out. So that’s good. The power is still out and TECO is still indicating that the power will be restored on/by 17 OCT. That said, around 6 PM I checked the outage map and the neighborhoods immediately to my east and northeast were out. I just checked again and it is showing power is restored. Which is encouraging. But by all reports there’s very little gasoline, the grocery stores have been running off of generators to be open, but are running out of food, and far too many are channeling their internal Floriduh! man and woman. We’ll sit tight here until the power is back on. Especially as I can telework from here.
I’m still quite fried, so I’m just going to run down the basics so I can rack out.
Also, TaMara has informed me that a number of you indicated in the comments to the shower post for John and Joelle that you come to Balloon Juice for these war update posts. Thank you all for the kind words, you are all most welcome.
Russia murdered nine more Ukrainian POWs today.
russians executed nine Ukrainian fighters at once this time. They laugh at international law, at our very humanity and decency. Yet, some smart people keep restricting Ukrainians from fighting full force because we probably dont have enough horror coming from invaders already.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) October 13, 2024
I’ve seen the pictures and the video. You DO NOT NEED to go and look for them or at them. Just note and remember that Russia has committed another war crime, has once again violated the Law of Armed Combat, and the Geneva Convention.
The Prosecutor General of Ukraine’s office has already opened an investigation. I’m not linking as the announcement includes one of the pictures I’ve told you you don’t need to see.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 963: Russia Has Murdered 9 More Ukrainian POWsPost + Comments (20)
Big Week Coming for Us for North Carolina! (Open Thread)
Tonight or tomorrow we will be kicking off our big push with a post to complete our North Carolina fundraising.
So why not check out Kamala’s rally today in North Carolina?
Early voting starts on Thursday in North Carolina, so let’s try to get our funds in their hands by then, shall we?
Ballot curing can start as soon as early voting starts on Thursday!
We have new Angel matches for all three:
- NC Black Alliance
- North Carolina Asian Americas Together
- NC Candidates
Matching up to $250 per person per thermometer. To be matched, tell us about your donation in the comments or in an email to WaterGirl.
Open thread.
Update: to make it easy for you…
Still an open thread!
Big Week Coming for Us for North Carolina! (Open Thread)Post + Comments (53)
Dems Abroad UK Day of Action Report: The Speaker Emerita
Today was the Democrats Abroad UK Day of Action. All DA chapters across the country met for fellowship or for GOTV activities. My local chapter held a ballot-request event a few weeks ago, so for us this was mostly about connecting in person. We huddled around phones in a pub to watch the national Zoom rally. It was broadcast from the London campaign office—we’ve never had a campaign office before—and the VIP speaking from London was Nancy Pelosi.
The pub was just busy enough that it was hard for us to hear her. She didn’t quite know where to look—her instinct was to address the staffers in the office, but she eventually found the camera and spoke to those of us in the virtual cheap seats. She focused on the practical: you, voters abroad, could be the margin of victory in many swing states; please make sure that your ballot is received, not just sent; try to get two friends to send in their ballots, too, even if they have to vote provisionally.
She was very positive and energetic and warm, pulling out that now-famous line, “You have to be willing to throw a punch, for the children.” There happened to be a lull in the background noise when she spoke about January 6, so we were able to hear her clearly.
One of the people at our table said, “They would have killed her if they’d found her.”
There were a lot of empty beer glasses on our table, but we were very sober for a moment after that. Most of us plan to go back to the US someday, and we want to make sure there is a country to go home to.
Turnout for voters abroad is abysmal, but this year I think it will be better than it has ever been before.
Someone here has to have an American friend abroad. There’s a real good chance she hasn’t voted. Only 8% of voters overseas did in 2020.
Make sure she sees THIS: www.votefromabroad.org
— L O L G O P (@lolgop.bsky.social) October 12, 2024 at 6:51 PM
October is peak Democratic panic time. It felt good this year to be able to do more than fret from afar, even if it’s not as much as many of you have been doing. (I have been telling people at home for years about the fundraising efforts WaterGirl arranges here at the Beej, and how donating to ground-game organizations or down-ballot candidates gets you more bang for the buck.)
If you are a US expat abroad, visit the Federal Voting Assistance Program webpage or Vote from Abroad ASAP to request your ballot if you haven’t. You may still be able to vote a provisional ballot. If you can afford to, pay for expedited posting from your country of residence to ensure your ballot arrives before your state’s postal deadline. (I always send mine signed delivery.)
That’s what I’ve got for this evening. I swear I do have my follow-up post about the Google ad tech trial in the drafts folder, and I’ve been pestering my parents for details about the haunted B&B. In the meantime, tell us how your weekend has gone so far.
Dems Abroad UK Day of Action Report: The Speaker EmeritaPost + Comments (35)
Sunday Morning Open Thread: GOP Hypocrites, All the Way Down
In a conversation with @KatyTurNBC, Florida @JaredEMoskowitz claims that House Speaker Mike Johnson is not reconvening Congress for additional disaster relief funds due to political motivations.
Watch the full interview: https://t.co/5cvbNVfwb5 pic.twitter.com/28pkTl8pbH
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 11, 2024
4 chances to admit Trump lost the 2020 election and Vance takes none of them.
My most resist-lib opinion is this alone should be disqualifying. Vance is a Yale Law grad & VC, he's smart enough to know Trump lost, but he's willing to trade American democracy for personal power— Joey Politano?????? (@josephpolitano.bsky.social) October 12, 2024 at 4:00 PM
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Hat tip to commentor VeniceRiley for this tidbit, which warmed my left-the-Church-long-ago heart. Per USAToday, “What to know about the Al Smith dinner: Harris plans to skip, Trump plans to attend”:
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to skip a historic charity dinner while former President Donald Trump said Monday he will attend.
The annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a white-tie charity event in New York City, is known for prominent political figures poking fun at one another and the issues of the moment.
The Harris campaign confirmed with USA TODAY that the Democratic presidential nominee will not attend the dinner scheduled for Oct. 17, as they want to focus on the battleground states so close to the election.
The campaign noted her commitment to engaging Catholic voters and said Harris would attend as president if elected…
In 2017, Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan came under fire for his relationship with Trump, according to CNN, and he gave the invocation at Trump’s inauguration…
As far as I can tell, Cardinal Dolan has never been accused of personally raping a young congregant, bullying an LGBTQ+ individual, or even stealing Church funds for his own benefit. He’s just used his considerable education & institutional power to enable others who did all those things and worse, while meeping sadly about ‘secularism’ destroying ‘the roots of Catholic tradition.’
The parochial school nuns back in the 1960s/70s taught us that such institutional hypocrisy was at least as sinful in the eyes of Jesus as more overt crimes, but of course they held no authority over the men in charge, then or now. VeniceRiley linked to the National Catholic Reporter, “Cardinal Dolan’s ‘Al Smith dinner’ disappointment is misdirected”:
Sunday Morning Open Thread: GOP Hypocrites, All the Way DownPost + Comments (295)