Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This really is a full service blog.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

We still have time to mess this up!

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

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

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

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

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

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

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

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Democratic Politics

The Old Way of Campaigning Won’t Cut It Anymore (smart take by David Plouffe)

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David Plouffe  (Opinion in the NYT on April 5)

Many candidates’ daily campaign schedules today look very much as they have for most of my career. Speeches to community groups, interviews with journalists, fund-raising events and meetings with local party activists, with lots of driving in between.

That won’t cut it anymore. A successful campaign in 2026 must operate like a full-time production studio.

Candidates and incumbents should center each day on content creation. That does not mean uploading the same video to every platform. It means creating output tailored specifically for TikTok or Instagram or YouTube.

It means several hours a day filming in campaign offices — even candidates’ homes — offering a message that buttresses the argument they are trying to land. It will still be a punishing schedule, just with less driving on roads and more driving of messages. Candidates still need to do the traditional stuff to stay in touch with voters’ concerns. But to the extent that their schedules include speeches, events and interviews, they should be there only because they fit into the content calendar. The rundown of a candidate’s day is the best measurement of whether the campaign is consistent with its theory about how to win.

Is this a great way to audition and select our leaders, especially for executive offices? Not particularly. The abilities to communicate and rally and comfort the public in a crisis are essential ingredients in a strong leader. Those skills, at least, a voter can gauge through video. What’s harder to judge are the routine aspects of those jobs — how you hire and fire, make decisions and operate day to day.

Still, given the stakes, Democrats must meet the world where it is.

Successful candidates understand they are putting on a permanent show. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has championed the use of livestreams, including appearing on Twitch while playing Madden. James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas, has used town halls and a late-night TV appearance as part of a strategy to produce nonstop content.

Zohran Mamdani did this in his campaign and is still doing it as mayor of New York, understanding that reaching citizens should not stop when the campaign does.

Who do we think the audience is here?

Do you think David Plouffe is right?

If the answer is yes, do we have any way to influence this?

I would call this approach “consultants vs. content”.  Or maybe “content vs. consultants”.

The Old Way of Campaigning Won’t Cut It Anymore (smart take by David Plouffe)Post + Comments (69)

Something to think about, and follow up on

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So many people commented yesterday about a comment from wonkie that I thought maybe we should consider what he SHE had to say, in a post of its own.

The comment was written in the context of the great results in Tuesday’s elections.  Everyone who spoke up agreed with this comment from wonkie.  We obviously have no control over what the powers that be do, so this is up to us.

So my question is this:  What can WE – each of us or all of us collectively in our own circles – do about this?

~ WG

wonkie’s comment (formatting mine)

To make this swing sustainable Dems need to do two things:

  1. Make the Rethug party toxic. It isn’t enough to blame Trump. Blame the whole fucking party. Make every voter think “Corrupt, incompetent, high costs, stupid wars, tax cuts for the rich and screw everyone else” when they see or hear the name “Republican.”
  2. 2. The public smearing of Dems by Dems needs to stop. The Democratic party as a whole isn’t weak, is not corporate or centrist, did not betray the working class, and IS the party that gets things done (in spite of slim majorities for only 4 of the last 30 years) and people who want Dems to win need to STOP ATTACKING THE DEM BRAND.

Details:

  • Most voters do not vote on policy. They vote emotionally.
  • Public smears of the Democratic party from Dem leaders or Bernie or anyone likely to vote D are a big part of why voters equate Democrats with a list of negative words like weak and bothsidesarethesame etc.
  • Rethugs big their party up and their marketing has been very effective.  For example, despite creating huge deficits FOUR TIMES, most voters (until recently) believed that Rethugs were fiscal conservatives. WHy? Because they say they are.
  • Just like they say they are moral, responsible, patriotic, mainstream. They repeat the same buzzwords consistently over and over and over while our pols say–in public!–that Dems need to stop being weak or need to have good policies to attract voters–as if we haven’t had good policies pretty consistently since FDR.
  • For most people most of the time, their vote is a reaction to branding, buzzwords, the effects of long term marketing. Rethugs know this.

Dems need to fucking learn, or two elections from now the Rethugs will be back in power and we will be having another circular firing squad with public denunciations of…us. Not them.

[end of wonkie’s comment]

 

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Sometimes Simple Is Exactly What We Need

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A few days ago, kalakal posted something really interesting:

Tony Benn in 2001 said everyone in a position of power should be asked 5 questions

  • What Power Have You Got?
  • Where Did You Get It From?
  • In Whose Interests Do You Exercise It?
  • To Whom Are You Accountable?
  • How Can We Get Rid Of You?

The answers you get tells you if you’re living in a democracy.

I had never heard of Tony Benn before, but I think he (and kalakal are both right.

Back to basics!

As we look ahead to what Democrats might do if we win the way we need to in November, could these questions (and the answers!) be useful as we look to get back to a government again that resembles a democracy?  It seems like perhaps a small part of the way we can frame things going forward, not in reference to Trump but instead going back to the roots of the goals of democracy?

Or is there a better place to start?  The only thing I’m sure of is that we have to back the hell up and rebuild rather than proceeding with business as usual.

Open thread.

Sometimes Simple Is Exactly What We NeedPost + Comments (70)

If the Republican Collapse Has Begun, How Do We Help Tip It Over the Edge?

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If the Republican collapse has begun, I want to talk about how we help tip it over the edge.

First, I think we keep on doing what we have been doing – because some of it is working:

  • fighting hard for every potentially winnable seat in special elections
  • citizens making a stand and holding our ground on things like ICE and CPB
  • elected officials making a stand on things like ICE and CPB
  • fighting everything we can in the courts
  • big corporations and institutions start standing up for what’s right
  • keeping independent journalism alive even as corporate media fails us
  • finding new sources we can trust, because the government isn’t trustworthy
  • taking the fight to gerrymandering in Blue states
  • not ceding ground to the Rs without a fight

Second, we ramp up what we have been doing, and today I hope we can talk about ways we might do that.  

There is not one right answer – we don’t have to argue what’s best.  We simply have to identify possible actions and then everybody take action in the areas that are most important to them.

Third, come up with additional new options and ideas that we can add to the repertoire going forward.

There are things we can do as part of group that we can’t do alone.   Let’s use the power we have as a group.

  • Volunteering
  • Fundraising
  • Influencing

What do I mean by influencing?  Jeffro repeatedly suggests that protests should be held at every legislative office.  It’s a great idea, but we are the only ones who are seeing it.

Surely someone – or multiple someones – on Balloon Juice who are active with Indivisible.  Even if no one has a direct connection to anyone high enough in the food chain to suggest this directly, surely someone here has a connection to someone who would have a connection to someone who could bring the idea to someone higher up the leadership chain.

*****

A smattering of the kinds of stories in my inbox this morning

Dan Pfeiffer: The Republican collapse has begun, and Trump is leading it.

Donald Trump’s stranglehold on American politics is coming to an end. The evidence of his political crisis is all around us. It started long before his ham-handed war with Iran and the resultant spike in gas prices, but recent events have catalyzed his downfall. Republicans are so far inside the right-wing news bubble that they don’t see the gravity of their own situation, and Democrats are so scarred by the 2024 election that we are struggling to process the changed political battlefield.

The most recent piece of evidence came on Tuesday night, when Democrat Emily Gregory won a special election for a state House district in Florida. Trump won that district by 11 points in 2024, and it just happens to be Trump’s own district, because it contains Mar-a-Lago. There is some incredible symbolism about a Democrat flipping the district that contains Mar-a-Lago. On the same night, a Democrat also flipped a Trump +7 state Senate seat near Tampa.

Simon Rosenberg: Senate Republicans Cave

Last night Senate Republicans finally yielded and voted to fund DHS minus ICE and CPB. This is what Democrats have been fighting for – separate out ICE/mass deportation funding from the rest of DHS, and work to rein it all in.

We will have time to discuss what comes next but the path Republicans choose last night for funding ICE and perhaps priorities – reconciliation – is a perilous one, and not at all what they or Trump wanted. Republicans head home for the Easter recess in an ugly place – ICE/CPB is unfunded; SAVE not passed; $200 billion war funding requested by the White House nowhere near being teed up; the war is failing, the economy slowing, inflation and gas prices spiking, the markets tanking, and Trump’s poll numbers falling.

Joyce Vance: Can the government punish Anthropic  for refusing to cross their ethical boundaries?

The Trump administration responded by designating Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” a step that compromised not only Anthropic’s work with the government but also its work with virtually any other entity that wanted to do business with the Pentagon. Trump ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using the company’s products. Anthropic was essentially blacklisted. So they sued. We discussedthat when it happened. Tonight, Judge Rita F. Lin in the Northern District of California entered the preliminary injunction Anthropic requested, blocking the Pentagon’s order.

The significance of Judge Lin’s order is that it prohibits the administration from taking retaliatory steps against the company for refusing to violate its own red lines.

Ken White: Department of “War” having a tough time in the courts

Meanwhile, the “Department of War” has been having a rough time in court. The Pentagon’s anti-reporting press policy has been thrown out as a First Amendment violation, so now the Pentagon says no reporters at all can work out of the Pentagon press room. Meanwhile, Anthropic won a preliminary injunction blocking the Pentagon’s declaration that the company is a “Supply Chain Risk.” (The Anthropic order came down after we taped — we’ll have a further update on next week’s show.)

Public Notice:  Who do you trust when you can’t trust the government?

We’re a month into President Donald Trump’s increasingly disastrous Iran war, and we have no idea what’s really going on.

In part, that’s because Trump is now nothing but a creature of pure id surrounded by enablers, running the country like an enormous out-of-control toddler. But it’s also because the administration is not at all interested in providing the American people with objective, reliable information.

That erasure of truth leaves us unmoored.

Trump’s increasing instability was always going to lead to chaotic, contradictory statements about the war, blurting out whatever ideas have taken hold in the nest of spiders inside his head.

These constant reversals about what he plans to do next aren’t always random or delusional, but the sheer volume of Trumpian proclamations that seem divorced from reality does a terrific job of obscuring when something is deliberate.

The Downballot: Republican plan to repealing Utah’s anti-gerrymandering laws failed

A Republican-backed ballot measure aimed at repealing Utah’s anti-gerrymandering laws failed to qualify for the November ballot on Thursday after opponents successfully persuaded enough voters to withdraw their signatures.

 

 

 

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Republicans: Let’s Grab as Much Power as We Can, Any Way We Can, and Hold onto it Forever

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Enter the Democratic response:  Do what we to do to react to this moment, but unwilling to sacrifice everything this country stands for.

It’s great to see finally see the Abigail Spanberger ad that everyone is talking about.

What a refreshing change from the sweater vest guy.

It’s short, calm and deliberate,  and it pre-buts the scaremongering that is no doubt being pushed on the airwaves.

I will say again.  If you have to hide who you are in order to get elected, you are by definition not the right guy for the seat.

h/t JoyceH

If there’s other good stuff you have seen from elected Democrats lately, please share it in the comments.

Oh, and because I was recently on hold twice this week, I thought I would share this gem that I added to the Media library awhile ago.

Republicans: Let's Grab as Much Power as We Can, Any Way We Can, and Hold onto it Forever

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Running In The Red: What’s Next

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From TaMara: Now that we put our toe in the water, it’s time to find more candidates. Remember this is an opportunity to reach out to those souls running in deep Red Districts or Red States and learn what their experience has been. Is there a shifting landscape? Are they finding support from unusual people? What made them run?

What this isn’t. We are not endorsing any candidate, we just want to learn about their journey. Of course, if later we find out they are a closet-Nazi-racist-transphobe, we’ll deal with that appropriately. We don’t play here.  FAFO

**Wouldn’t want to besmirch a blog with such a pristine reputation**

You’ll see some cute kittehs in this post. Let me be clear, they are not running for anything except the cabinet of extreme cuteness.  But I thought MazeDancer needed to offer the appropriate fee for being on the front page.

***

Running In the Red: A New Series

 

From MazeDancer:

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Open Thread: Schumer vs the ‘Fight Club’ Caucus

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We got a spicy Senate caucus revolt story from the WSJ for some Friday night fun.
Murphy, Warren, Smith all named.

[image or embed]

— George Pearkes (@peark.es) March 20, 2026 at 9:11 PM

Assuming this is true (Dems in disarray!!! is a perennial media honeypot), it would explain why my senior Senator Warren would suddenly announce she’s supporting Graham Platner; Schumer was the one who persuaded Janet Mills to enter the Maine primary. Unpaywalled version of the Wall Street Journal story — “Growing frustration with Chuck Schumer spurs talk of replacing him”:

Sen. Chris Murphy was dining with progressive activists at a French restaurant in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood when the conversation about how to advance their legislative priorities turned to a thorny question: what to do about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

To the surprise of some attendees, the Connecticut Democrat—a rising star in the party’s left flank—responded that some lawmakers had been doing informal counts to see whether enough votes existed to remove the New York Democrat from his leadership position, according to people familiar with the mid-February dinner. Murphy explained that Schumer had enough backing to remain as leader. But the disclosure stood out nonetheless, because it revealed that frustration inside the Senate had reached a high enough level that some Democrats were actively contemplating how to oust Schumer.

Murphy is among a group of senators and top advisers who have grown increasingly dissatisfied with Schumer’s leadership, according to people familiar with the conversations. That group includes Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has been initiating conversations with other senators to gauge frustrations with Schumer, some of the people said. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota has also been active in discussions about her frustrations with Schumer, and her advisers have spoken with other Senate staff about different scenarios to challenge Schumer’s leadership, other people said.

In an interview, Murphy said he is frequently asked about Senate leadership, but he doesn’t have a count of who would vote to remove Schumer and doesn’t recall mentioning one. “Could someone infer from that that someone was keeping a count? Maybe, but that’s not what I meant,” Murphy said. “I meant that he has the support of the caucus.” He said he still supports Schumer.

In more than four dozen interviews with Democratic senators, candidates, current and former congressional aides, activists and advisers, many said the concern about Schumer’s leadership was widespread. Meetings between Democratic chiefs of staff on Senate business often veer into airing discontent with Schumer and how to pressure him to step aside as leader after November’s elections, according to attendees and others familiar with the discussions…

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