Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

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

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

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

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

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

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

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Montana Tribal Leaders Respond to Racist Carpetbagging Poser Showing His True Colors with His Big Donors, Mocking Native Americans with Every Racist Trope There Is

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The NYT and CNN both are both covering the story of the racist  candidate for Senate in Montana.

Seriously if you’re stupid enough to get caught being a racist pic on a hot mic or on a cell phone, aren’t you too stupid to be a member of the United States senate?

(Narrator:  Not if you’re a Republican!)  But I digress.

And now the Tribal Leaders have respond to the racist carpetbagging poser in Montana – with a few choice words.

Oh, and even with the in-kind donation from Tim Sheehy in the form of his secret audio, we are $600 short of meeting our goal for Four Directions Montana.

Can we finish this off “in honor of” this racist carpetbagger?

YES WE DID!

Open thread!

Montana Tribal Leaders Respond to Racist Carpetbagging Poser Showing His True Colors with His Big Donors, Mocking Native Americans with Every Racist Trope There IsPost + Comments (27)

Double Angel Match for Four Directions Montana 6x $25 donations while it lasts

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So the holiday has come and gone, and so the “Angels will match anything that goes into the thermometer until it reaches $22,500” has come and gone, too.

$2,500 of Angel match money has been added added to the thermometer, and a bit more is on the way.

But we still have a ways to go to hit our $30,000 goal!

Remember, we have an external match, and with this double-angel match, your donation will be 6x until we hit $750 dollars in small donations – up to $25 per person.

Double Angel Match for Four Directions Montana <s>6x $25 donations while it lasts</s>Post + Comments (41)

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

On the Road Again, Montana!Post + Comments (105)

Speaking of the Native Vote

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via Four Directions, we have a QUEEN SIZE star quilt to raffle off!

The quilt was made by Linda Szabo, who is a member of Rosebud Sioux Tribe.  Linda Szabo also owns Soldier Woman Art Gallery.

Everything we raise will go to Four Directions to aid in their Montana efforts – we need Jon Tester to keep his seat!

Tickets are $25 each, and we hope to “sell” at least 200 tickets.

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

To “buy” a ticket, make your donation in the thermometer and send email to WaterGirl with your donation so you can be e entered into the raffle.    WaterGirl at balloon-juice.com

This is just for the raffle – we’ll be starting a fundraising effort for $30,000 for Four Directions as soon as they can line up an external match for us.  :-)

Note to all of us from OJ Seamans, who, along with his wife Barb, founder Four Directions.  They are co-directors, and their daughter Donna also plays a key role in Four Directions.

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

OJ Semans Sr.

QUILT RAFFLE TICKETS ONLY

 

THIS THERMOMETER IS FOR DONATIONS – We have an external match for the first $15,000!  

We now have an external match for the whole $30,000!!

If Democrats win the White House in November, Peggy Flanagan is poised to become the country’s first female Native American governor.  Politico has an article about her.

Q: You mentioned Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids, two other Native American women who have had massive political accomplishments. You also have a background as a political activist. What are the biggest challenges in building Native American political power that you see?

A: There’s a lot of distrust of government systems for incredibly good reasons. That’s something that is absolutely a challenge, but it also provides an incredible opportunity. Native people — and I would say Native women — have been leaders since time immemorial. It is just modern society that is catching up.

Thankfully, we are beginning to see more Native people in elected office. But if we want to reach parity, we have to elect 17,000 Native people at all levels of government. I’m the co-founder of an organization called Advance Native Political Leadership, and it grew out of Wellstone Action and the Native American leadership program that we had there. This is an organization that is training Native people to run for office and to work on campaigns all across the country.

The Native vote makes a huge difference. We are strategically located in swing states all across the country. I think President [Joe] Biden and Vice President [Kamala] Harris were elected because of the Native community in Arizona. Ignore us at your peril. We are a really important voting block.

Oh, and speaking of Politico, I am giving them the middle finger for this headline, and article, currently on their front page: The 5 warning signs for Harris after the DNC.  (These are warning signs???)  They need to get some perspective.

Here are five obstacles the Harris campaign will need to address as the race kicks off in earnest.

  1. Tight polling.  (I’m sure all these new voters and young people are totally covered in the polling.)
  2. Harris still hasn’t sat for an interview.  (over-inflated sense of their own importance!)
  3. The debate debates. (As if it’s her fault because Trump is waffling?
  4. Where’s the policy?  (They want details they can pick at to derail the current upward trajectory.)
  5. Trump’s support from white men.  (Well, if white men support Trump, then she shouldn’t even run, right?)

Open thread.

Speaking of the Native VotePost + Comments (85)

Political Fundraising – Looking (Slightly) Ahead

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We’ve still got our our cut out for us fundraising-wise – with Four Directions in Montana (Jon Tester),  Worker Power GOTV in AZ, an outstanding new (to us) Asian group working with youth in NC, and hopefully a Latino group, also in NC, all coming up.  Not to mention the Native-made Lone Star quilt raffle!

The strategy is to support the groups and hold our fire on direct donations to candidates until we have a better idea of where our contributions can do the most good.  It is, however, time to start thinking about candidates, and doing the research.

We all share the same goal – winning across the board in November – but I am shaking my head at some of the “donate to these guys” candidate lists I am seeing on-line.

Some things to think about:

  1. We want to be strategic even as we support candidates directly.
  2. To state the obvious, not all “toss up races” are the same.
  3. Some toss-up races are in states like CA where there’s plenty of money sloshing around.
  4. For some toss-up races, money is not the issue at all.
  5. We’re looking congressional races, state and local races, key down ballot races, anything that has a national impact.
  6. We are not looking for races that everyone else seems to be contributing to.
  7. We want our contributions to make a difference, not to be more salt in the ocean.

So this is your invitation to pitch us your ideas – just as we did in 2022.  We supported a few great candidates last cycle that we might have overlooked had you guys not suggested them.

Oh, and in case you need some inspiration as you’re thinking about what we might be able to do, I offer these.

.

So have at it!  Tell us folks you think we should think about supporting.

Also, open thread.

Political Fundraising – Looking (Slightly) AheadPost + Comments (82)

It’s Up To Us Now, Next Stop, North Carolina – Phase II

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Reminder:  Why North Carolina?

  1.  NC is not a red state.
  2.  NC is a voter suppressed state.
  3.  NC now has 16 electoral votes, similar to GA (16)and MI (15)..
  4.  Trump won NC by ~ 75k votes, just 1.5% of the 5,500,000 votes cast.

Let’s talk demographics:

  1. NC is changing fast, and Republicans know it – which is why they’re cheating!
  2. NC is growing rapidly in ways that are similar to AZ, NV and GA!
  3. NC has an influx of out-of-state younger people relocating for tech and finance careers.
  4. Northerners are retiring in cities like Asheville, where beth, our BJ calendar girl, moved to.

As you guys know, we’re partnering with North Carolina Black Alliane to support their Youth Voter Engagement Program.  This is an organization with a ten-year history of successfully registering and turning out young African-American voters on North Carolina’s 11 HBCU campuses.

We wanted to help them expand to two non-HBCU Black majority campuses (Phase I) and we raised funds for that.

Now we’re helping them expand to certain Community Colleges, which educate many more Black students than the state’s HBCUs (Phase II).

We have a Balloon Juice angel for the first $2,500, matching up to $100 per person
with donations in the comments or email to WaterGirl.

And we have an angel that is willing to pop in $5,000 if we get to $10,000 by midight on 7/22.

.

It’s Up To Us Now, Next Stop, North Carolina – Phase IIPost + Comments (61)

Flash Fundraising for the Student Engagement Project in NC + July 30 Zoom Announcement

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Flash Fundraising!

This is our first FLASH fundraising for this cycle.

Campus organizers and canvassers in the South, including in North Carolina, are being targeted, with a rash of credible threats to their safety coming in the wake of the Trump assassination attempt.   As the NC Black Alliance’s Deputy Director Marcus Bass explained:

Political violence and the backlash to efforts that invest in equity and justice are not new issues.  Black and Brown communities have had to deal with the enduring threat of white supremacist violence, police violence, and legislative violence for generations.

But, for North Carolina organizers and canvassers, this feels different.  Canvassers report being followed and verbally harassed.  According to Marcus:

This week, in response to inflammatory statements following the assassination attempt, we decided to pause our canvass operations, along with several partner organizations, out of concern for the safety of our teams in the community.  As we resume our field operations into the weekend, we do so with a heightened focus on safety and security measures.

This is where we can help.   We’re already helping expand the Alliance’s campus voter engagement process in North Carolina from their traditional focus on the State’s HBCUs onto new campuses with majority or substantial African American student bodies.  But the canvassers need to be safe during this unusual electoral season in NC!

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Flash Fundraising for the Student Engagement Project in NC + July 30 Zoom AnnouncementPost + Comments (80)