Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Books are my comfort food!

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

The revolution will be supervised.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

T R E 4 5 O N

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

“woke” is the new caravan.

White supremacy is terrorism.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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De-Facto Shutdown

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Independent journalist Marisa Kabas was first with the news that some Trump zealots have crafted an Executive Order that pauses all federal grants.  Here’s some of the nuttery:

The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.

This basically makes Trump the king, because Congress appropriates (i.e., passes laws) and the Executive disperses (i.e., follows the law).  Congress doesn’t give the President a giant pot of money for him to throw at whomever he chooses, or just to sit on like Smaug and his pile of gold.

This is a de-facto shutdown.  It’s not clear yet, but WIC, and perhaps Medicaid and CHIP, could be paused, as well as other programs:

House Republicans are at a beach retreat in FL right now btw

[image or embed]

— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) January 28, 2025 at 7:09 AM

(Factpost is the Democrat’s account that hired some of the KamalaHQ folks, and it’s good.)

In other news, Trump also banned transgender humans from the military, saying “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

It’s a real shitshow out there. This is one where I would urge you to call your federal representatives and, if they’re Democratic Senator, encourage them to engage in every delaying tactic they can imagine. If they’re Republicans, it’s worth asking if they’re just going to let Trump ignore the laws passed by Congress, and if so, what’s the point of us paying them a salary. They should just go home.

If you don’t think that calls work, remember the rumor that Sheldon Whitehouse was RFK Jr curious? Well, Josh Marshall posted this on BlueSky yesterday:

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) tells local reporters in North Kingston, RI that people need to “chill” about news (first reported by TPM) that he’s considering voting for RFK Jr’s confirmation. Says not telegraphing his vote, will wait for hearing.

Dick Durbin, Elizabeth Warren and a number of others have announced their vote, and it’s a “hard no”. Whitehouse is clearly still RFK Jr curious, but he’s also clearly hearing from his constituents, because why else would he tell people to “chill”? Calling can work, keep it up!

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Zoom With Four Directions Set for Thursday at 7 pm ET

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On Wisconsin!

Virginia was the soft opening for our targeted political fundraising for this cycle.  Next up is Montana, where I hope we can help get Four Directions back on the ground in Montana!  (This will be our last political fundraiser of 2023, but we’ll get started again toward the end of January or early February.)

Why Montana / Four Directions for our first boots on the ground for 2024?

Montana is hardly a swing state, is it?  But the conservative state has elected Democrat Jon Tester to the Senate three times, starting in 2006.  Unfortunately, in 2024, Tester is running what looks to be his toughest race yet!

So while it’s not a swing state, it is a strategic choice – this is is a seat we have to hold!  And as always, we feel that boots on the ground + helping the Native population use their voice in the election + supporting Four Directions, which has a most excellent track record in helping turn out the native vote, isn’t just a win-win, it’s a win-win-win.

Plus they nearly always can pull off a double-match for us, and who doesn’t love a double-match?  So I say we count that as a 4th win!  (But no guarantees on the double-match until I hear back from Bret.)

The Native American vote is critical.  According to the Montana Office of Public Instruction, Montana is home to approximately 78,000 people of Native American heritage, constituting 6.5% of the 1,100,000 total population of this sparsely-settled state.

According to the High Country News, the Native vote has thrice helped put Jon Tester over the top:

In Montana, though the state went for Trump overall, counties overlapping with the reservations of the Blackfeet Nation, Fort Belknap Tribes, the Crow Tribe and Northern Cheyenne Tribe went blue. The divides were often stark; Glacier County, encompassed by the Blackfeet Nation, went for Biden by 64%, the highest in the entire state, while the neighboring county voted for Trump by 75%. The Native vote in Montana has made the difference before, when Indigenous voters helped Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat who has advocated for Indian Country in legislation regarding water settlements, missing and murdered Indigenous women, and tribal recognition, get elected the last three terms in often-close races.

Four Directions had boots on the ground operations in Montana in 2012 and 2014 – and had some hard-fought litigation success on behalf of one of the Nations – but in the past few years they have not been active in the state.  I’ll let Bret & OJ explain why in the zoom, lest I get any of the details wrong.

Recently OJ (OJ Semans) had a conversation with Marvin Weatherwax – a leader of the Blackfeet tribe and Chairman of the Coalition of Large Tribes – and made a request to OJ:

Four Directions is needed in Montana to help our Tribes with the Native Vote in 2024, they proved they can make our voices heard, and I support them in doing so.

Can we help get them the early money they need now in order to get their ground operations up and running well before the 2024 election?   We are getting a bit of a late start in our fundraising this year (no one’s fault but my own!), but I’m talking with a couple of our amazing Balloon Juice Angels, and each one has offered up to $5,000 for their angel matches!

We’ve set a goal of $25,000 to kickstart the Four Directions return to Montana.  They are working on finding a double-match for us, and we’ll hear about how that’s going at the zoom on Thursday.

On the zoom, we will no doubt learn more about Four Direction’s push into Montana.  If there is time, they can also talk about the other states they are focusing on in 2024.  No surprise – when we talked, our list of key states to focus on this year matched theirs, and theirs matched ours!

To RSVP for the zoom, please send me an email message, so I can send you the zoom link for Thursday.

*For a deeper dive into Montana’s 12 Nations and their history and culture, you can check out the Montana government study referenced above: “Montana Indians:  Their History and Location.”

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And in other news…. It’s officially sedition instead of alleged sedition

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Joshua James of Alabama pled guilty this afternoon to two felony counts:

  • Obstruction of a government function
  • Seditious Conspiracy

As part of the plea deal, he agreed to accept that the government has the right to argue for an upward enhancement in his sentence.  He is also cooperating.

His statement of offense is quite exhaustive.

 

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MLK: from Dreaming to Reality

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Among the most painful bits of Dr. King’s legacy is how so much of it’s reduced to “I Have a Dream.” It’s true that it’s a landmark speech, powerful and moving…

…and always heard out of context of the other, more direct speeches that graced the March on Washington (a March organized by an openly Gay Man, no less – go look up the badass Bayard Rustin, please and thank you!). As if  the marchers just wanted to spend all day on their feet, listening to platitudes and winsome ideas!

I’m not going to dive into that context, I assume your Google button ain’t broke. :) What I will do, is talk about a couple of other works by Dr. King, works that ground him in the realities he fought to overcome, and that echo into these times.

The text for the afternoon will be taken from two works from near Dr. King’s passing:

  • “The Drum Major Instinct,” (hereafter DRUM), which you can listen to here, and read here, and
  • “A New Sense of Direction,” (hereafter SENSE), which you can read here.

I post all this to encourage you to read/listen to the above in full. To underline that Dr. King was far richer a thinker and even rabble-rouser than gets noticed — that the Hoover FBI feared him for damned good reasons. If you chose to read the above docs, and skip the rest of this? HELL YA!

But for those who want more? Follow…

See, Dr. King did not buy into a color-blind society. That wasn’t the context he gave his “Dream” speech under. The context, the fuller context of his work and life’s mission, is made plain by this remarkable passage in DRUM:

 

[…]when those brothers told me what they were earning, I said, “Now, you know what? You ought to be marching with us. [laughter] You’re just as poor as Negroes.”

And I said, “You are put in the position of supporting your oppressor, because through prejudice and blindness, you fail to see that the same forces that oppress Negroes in American society oppress poor white people. (Yes) And all you are living on is the satisfaction of your skin being white, and the drum major instinct of thinking that you are somebody big because you are white.

And you’re so poor you can’t send your children to school. You ought to be out here marching with every one of us every time we have a march.”

Now that’s a fact. That the poor white has been put into this position, where through blindness and prejudice, (Make it plain) he is forced to support his oppressors. And the only thing he has going for him is the false feeling that he’s superior because his skin is white—and can’t hardly eat and make his ends meet week in and week out.

And there’s so much more.

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State Team Updates & Strategy

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Our zoom with all 7 states to talk about strategy was on Monday at 8pm.  If you are working on this project and you missed the zoom and want to catch up, please send email and I will send you the link.

In the meantime, here’s the promised post.   Please use it to add the reports from your states and anything else that is useful: thoughts or ideas that came up in the meeting that we don’t want to lose track of, things you have thought of since, etc.

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All States Taking Action

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We have 7 pilot states for Taking Action to Defend Democracy project.

This post (still in progress) is where we’ll put things that are relevant to all the pilot states.

Interface  roles explained:

We will want to know who is filling each of the roles on the team.

  • (exactly one) person to be point-of-contact with Alan and WaterGirl.  Schedule the contact every 2-3 days or as necessary.
  • (exactly one) person to be point-of-contact with Matthew [Lisa] and manage the state’s spreadsheet
  • (exactly one) person to keep tabs on the state’s page [link here?] and the project’s page [link here?]

Project roles explained:

  • one or more people to research legislation, using Voting Rights Lab and similar sources
  • one person in particular that can take the first crack at the Voting Rights Lab in the first 2-3 days, so others can fill in the rest from other sites
  • one or more people to research elected officials.  Committee ranking members, minority caucus leadership, and their staff people are key here.  Hint: also include Dem Party activists as a potential means of cutting through the clutter.
  • one or more people to contact the elected officials.  Ideally should be a resident of the state.  Hint: use the legislative research to inform questions to the electeds, use their answers to inform the legislative research.
  • one or more people to identify state activists trying to build resistance against the legislation
  • one or more people to contact the activists

Please set up communication channels within your group however you wish.  What works for you is best.

For communication about spreadsheets, please contact the person who presented the spreadsheets at your team meeting.

For communication with the leadership team, regular reports can be posted on the state pages. But please use email when there is an urgent issue or something you need to call to our attention.

When in doubt, email is fine.  Don’t hesitate to contact us when you need to!

Team Roles! (add person’s nym here)

Interface Roles

Contact with Alan & WaterGirl

Contact with your Spreadsheet Person (Matt or Lisa):

Monitor the Team Post:

?

Project Roles

Voting Rights Lab Research (in the first 2-3 days):

Research Legislation on other sites:

Research Elected Officials:

Contact Elected Officials:

Identify State Organizations & Activists:

Contact the Activists:

?

This list will be on each state page.  Please copy it into a comment and add the names there.

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Arizona Taking Action

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We have a four person group of Balloon Juice peeps who are taking on Arizona.

They are researching bills intended to restrict voting or overturn the will of the people.  They are also making lists of elected officials, party activists, and civic and political activists that might be mobilizing to fight these awful laws, and they will be making contact with those groups to see what might be done to help them in their efforts.

This thread is a place where that team can communicate, share information with one another, ask questions, etc.

But anyone that has potentially  helpful information related to AZ is encouraged to comment.  Maybe you know of a political organization that might be active in AZ, or you have an in with an elected official or an aide in the state.  If you know anything that might be helpful, please jump in.

You can also chime in to applaud the AZ stat team: Almost Retired, km, FelonyGovt and sophronia.

Otherwise, you can ignore this post (and the 6 other posts that will go up once one of the pilot state teams meet for the first time).  Each post will be active for a couple of weeks, and a link to these posts is in the sidebar.

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