This is quite a campaign video, from Richard Ojeda, running for Congress in WV-3. It’s a brutal district for Dems. Go hard or go home, I guess. Let me know what you think of the campaign video. I’m going to keep running Democratic campaign videos when I find ones that seem interesting (like the Amy McGrath and Randy Bryce ones I put up earlier).
Reader Interactions
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RinaX
It appears that cowardly piece of shit Paul Ryan’s running for the hills and retiring after 2018.
Major Major Major Major
Bye-bye net neutrality.
My state senator haz an idea.
maurinsky
Watching the video makes me wonder how confused deaf people must be. The closed captioning is terrible!
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
Good for him. I only hope people will listen to him and vote for their own fucking interests.
Yutsano
@Major Major Major Major: Seeing lots of posts on Twitter saying not so fast. Apparently it requires a court approval or something? I’m fuzzy on the details and at work so can’t look too much more into it right now.
Tom Levenson
I like that video. A lot.
cmorenc
I like this campaign video.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: This will be litigated. While I agree that it is a good idea for California, given its market share and power, to institute this via legislation, suits to prevent this will be followed if not by tomorrow, then by the beginning of next week. Pai may have gotten the vote results he wanted, but he’s not necessarily going to win the war despite the outcome of today’s battle.
Jeffro
Rubio’s (supposedly) a ‘no’ on the tax bill unless the tax credit for the working poor is expanded. Meanwhile, the GOP is looking at actually shortening the already-temporary rate cuts for the middle class. Go long on popcorn futures!
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: He is such a smug fucking prick. Couldn’t have come up with a worse face for the anti-neutrality movement if they tried.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: An argument has been made, and will be made in court, that this violates both a standing Federal Court ruling, as well as actual US law. So it is going to be litigated.
schrodingers_cat
I find these Indian Americans doing T’s bidding extra loathsome, I am looking at you Pai, Haley and the Medicare person Seema something or the other.
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
I liked the video.
ChaineOperatoire
F*ck yeah. That’s what I want to hear.
raven
So did someone sandbag him for the bumper sticker?
pacem appellant
@Major Major Major Major: Washington State Governor Jay Inslee is singing the same tune. If these efforts are successful, National Net Neutrality repeal will hurt red states the most. Huh. Fancy that.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: He is. But if he was a staid, pleasant, engaging individual it would still be a bad policy. Part of the problem is that the US needs a major reform/overhaul of how the market for Internet and television content services are provided, including separating the market for the devices from the delivery of content to the devices. We need to move towards the models in use in a number of the EU countries.
WaterGirl
@Adam L Silverman: When you say this is going to be litigated, are you referring to the elimination of net neutrality or the idea that net neutrality could be adopted in CA.
SFAW
Well, at the end of that video, I was going to write down his cell number to give him a call. So, yeah, I liked the video.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman:
I mean, duh.
It’s just par for the course of Trump appointing people who are the physical embodiment of their terrible policies.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
Soshulism!! Commienism!
Matt Smith
I’d vote for him! Liked the video, hope it wins some people over.
pacem appellant
@WaterGirl: At the national level for now. Governor Inslee also said that Washington State will enforce Net Neutrality.
MisterForkbeard
@RinaX: Why do you say that?
NCSteve
Guys? Um, what we want to hear and what turns us on is utterly, completely irrelevant. It’s the opposite of relevant. It down’t matter whether our amygdalae are tickled or whether it makes us want to stand up and cheer. If you’re spending money on commercials to make the people who are already going to vote for you want to vote for you, you’re wasting money.
And we are really, really terrible judges about what kind of thing is capable of shaking lose any of the the thin slice of potentially wavering Republican voters, or the Holy Media-Beloved “Independents,” or, as I call them “the who profess to ‘hate politics” as an excuse for being insufficiently civic-minded to pay any goddamned attention until a month before the election yet too civic-minded to not vote.” Because what we want is stuff that makes us cheer, not stuff that makes the people who refuse to pay any goddamn attention until it’s too late to learn anything want to vote for us.
Major Major Major Major
@NCSteve:
Not if they’re YouTube-only ads designed to raise money from the base.
ruemara
This video is all of what it should be and more. Let’s get this shared and help folks find this guy. He needs to get that fire behind him.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: I agree, the grinning mug with that awful haircut. He looks like a comic book villain.
Death Panel Truck
Without question the best campaign ad I have ever seen. Go Ojeda.
The Moar You Know
@Major Major Major Major: Your state senator (one of mine as well) didn’t read the act. It expressly forbids states doing exactly this thing.
That motherfucker Pai had a lot of extremely competent help writing this. They laid out every possible dodge, and dealt with it.
@pacem appellant: He also didn’t read the repeal language. Did anyone?
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: And there’s the wonderful content he produces: The FCC’s Ajit Pai now openly mocking net neutrality protesters with his dumb new video
Miss Bianca
I liked the video too. Doug, you got a campaign fundraiser going for this candidate yet?
Elie
I loved the video! Loved it!
Right on, direct — REAL… with a real message around what Ojeda stands for and what Democrats should stand for. This is really excellent…
VOR
@RinaX: If the tax bill passes, then Ryan will have delivered for his real constituents. Good time to cash in on that sweet, sweet Wingnut Welfare.
Adam L Silverman
@WaterGirl: The elimination/overturning of the net neutrality regulations.
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know:
I doubt that. He’s a very thorough person.
Eljai
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks. I just wrote to my state senator to get on board with enshrining net neutrality in CA and I included a link to the article.
Adam L Silverman
@SFAW: Actually those models are actually much closer to free market than our current ones which are somewhere approaching monopolies. The biggest mistake Apple made when they brought out the iPhone was not using it to break the current/ongoing market dynamics and forcing the market to move towards the better and freer versions in different parts of the EU and other countries.
wvblueguy
I know Richard Ojeda. He is a tough campaigner who means what he says about working for the people of his district. He is a retired Army Major who spent many years as an enlisted man rising to the rank of Master Sergeant before getting his commission. He was attacked and beaten when he was running for the WV State Senate and came back and won the election at a time that Democrats were losing offices all over the state just because their opponent had an R after their name. He is running hard and still will have to make it through the primary and if nominated will face corporate Republican types. Ojeda has no problem going out in the trenches and talking to everyone he can meet. He will be tough to beat and is the kind of Democrat that may represent what the party has to do to come back in West Virginia.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: So, let me see if I’ve got this straight…a Trump administration decision that is terrible in all aspects, benefits only a very small number of already insanely wealthy people, is deeply unpopular with everyone else, flies in the face of all common sense and rationality, will have a depressive effect on the economy, *and* is likely to be tied up for years in court because it is either illegal in toto or in part?
In other words, sounds like a typical day in Trumplandia.
Yellowdog
@The Moar You Know: Isn’t just a roll back k of regulations, not a law?
The Moar You Know
@Yellowdog: Rollback and changes to regulations, which is how they’ve banned states, counties and cities from implementing their own Net Neutrality rules. Insidious because it’s not a law, no one gets to vote on it save the regulatory agency.
SC54HI
@Adam L Silverman:
IANAL, but based on what I’ve been reading and hearing, litigation may not be a cakewalk for Mr. Pai & his minions. First, there’s the serious issue of fake comments & ID theft. Second, Pai & his minions have been stupid or arrogant enough to say they’ll ignore comments from non-lawyers. Then there’s the issue of administrative procedure for repealing a regulation. While a tRump-appointed judge may let all of this slide in an initial hearing, it’s not likely to pass scrutiny at higher courts.
Leto
@Major Major Major Major: I would ask if there’s any way an ethical hearing could be brought against him for that, but I also want to be able to eat all the gelato in the world without looking like Shamoo afterwards.
Edit: Personally I like this response to Pai’s video.
scott (the other one)
Damn. Ojeda seems like he truly is the badass so many conservatives in Congress like to pretend they are.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major:
Gov Inslee has already said that the state decides which companies get access to utility poles. There are ways to enforce net neutrality without violating the FCC order.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: My family knows some Pais, don’t know if they are related to this odious creature.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: this is addressed in literally the next sentence I wrote. Not WA, but.
Adam L Silverman
Why is the President holding a ribbon cutting in the White House?
Neldob
State’s rights! or is it states rights?
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
You should know better then to give in to hubris like that.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: I’ve learned to stop asking those questions for the sake of my remaining brain cells.
TenguPhule
@Neldob: States, right?
Adam L Silverman
@SC54HI: It will ultimately be decided, as is the case with all Federal regulations, at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Merrick Garland, Proprietor.
Barbara
@Major Major Major Major: Yes, let’s get 20 or even 30 different standards for net neutrality so that Verizon et al. go back to Congress begging for relief from the complexity of having to comply with so many different standards. I think that Comcast had marketed its internet services around the idea that it would never block access to a paying customer. We will see if that is still its position. I am honestly somewhat more sympathetic to notions that if you are using a lot of bandwidth there might be slightly different terms and conditions versus people like me who literally never watch streaming video, but the idea of blocking and steering for what is basically a common carrier or utility is just outrageous.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: Would you like to wager it goes up to the Supreme Court?
Matt
@schrodingers_cat: Not really a surprise if you’ve been paying attention to Modi etc – fascism isn’t a Europeans-only affliction.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
It’s the only time they’ll let him use scissors.
Major Major Major Major
@Barbara: more likely is what happened with emissions standards where California, as a huge market, is the de facto dictator for national standards.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt: Yes Modi is awful but what does he have to do with Ajit Pai?
ETA: As an immigrant or a child of immigrants working for the current admin would be like a Jewish person working for you know who.
Josie
Liked the video and really liked Ojeda. He sounds like the real deal.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
So the net neutrality decision is going to be tied up in court?
Also that idiot Pai is just asking for someone to punch him out with that stupid asshole video. He’s a public servant. He serves those people he’s mocking. How dare he.
Gelfling 545
All this teasing talk about Ryan quitting. How nice that would be but I’m not counting on it. Still, it would remove one big concern about impeaching Trump. So, “ Don’t you think he looks tired?”
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Almost none of these regulatory issues go beyond the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Unless there’s a circuit split, it is unlikely to get to the Supreme Court.
joel hanes
@Miss Bianca:
Doug, you got a campaign fundraiser going for this candidate yet?
I’m not waiting for Doug!
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ojeda2018
catclub
@WaterGirl:
I would guess both. All the states rights conservatives will be on the side of ATT and Comcast against California.
LurkerNoLonger
@RinaX: Well he’s failed in public service, might as well fail in the private sector too.
ETA: I like this video. The guy seems like a bad ass on the side of the angels.
Adam L Silverman
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: NY state AG Schneiderman is on the case:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/trumps-fcc-just-killed-net-neutrality-but-the-first-legal-challenges-are-already-coming/
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: The stone cold irony in the prospect of Judge Merrick Garland being the one to swat down the anti-net neutraility ruling is one of the only things that can reconcile me to the fact that he was robbed by the GOP of his seat on the Supreme Court.
McConnell, Pai, and all that evil brood can go straight to Hell where they belong.
Mnemosyne
As I said in one of the threads below, the only person in the Trump administration who has a worse case of you’re not the boss of me! than Pai is Trump himself. I’m pretty convinced that he made this decision in large part because there were so many people telling him not to do it.
catclub
@Miss Bianca:
this is why Trump is not building the wall, but doing other things – insanely wealthy people do not benefit from the wall.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@catclub:
As you know, “state’s rights” only matter when it benefits conservative interests.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: Although the man and woman who voted with him are also high on the “people I will enjoy reading an obituary about.”
hellslittlestangel
Ojeda looks like a winner to me.
ruemara
@schrodingers_cat: that lure of white adjacent privilege is compelling. Honestly, it’s the patriarchy creating strange bedfellows, because Pai doesn’t get that if it succeeds, he’s not going to be sitting at the table with them, he’s going to be pushed out with everyone else.
@Adam L Silverman: He can’t drag his lardly, heart congested self for 2 feet.
Plus, he does need a safe space.
sukabi
@Major Major Major Major: our governor is planning on suing the feds over it and making net neutrality state law… Anyway that was local news take on it in Seattle.
acallidryas
@NCSteve: Perhaps you’ve missed the many, many stories about how Dems have been winning by actually turning out the people who should want to vote for them.
Jager
Loved the video, waiting for the next one where Ojeda picks up a RWNJ and throws him across the street onto the hood of a parked pickup truck or maybe he just gives them a good old US Army NCO ass chewing and nobody can do that better than a former MSgt. “Can’t you fucking hear me you sorry excuse for a human being?”
MCA1
@NCSteve: You’re either a fool or you didn’t actually watch the linked video.
This strikes exactly the right tone and should serve as a template for Democrats throughout the Rust Belt and South. Don’t apologetically approach the knuckle dragging revanchist turds and give them an excuse to see you as the pansy they’ve been led to believe you are just because you have a D after your name. Start telling reflexive R voters who’ve been brainwashed for 30 years how they’ve been used. Start mimicking the GOP language about the system being stacked against them, but tweak it by placing the blame not on minorities and the Other, but on corporations and the super wealthy and jagoffs in D.C. with $48,000 rugs in their offices. Get indignant about things like mindlessly swallowing the idea that American Exceptionalism means we can’t improve on anything. We’ve got a long, long way to go before we can ask the horse to drink in places like West Virginia, but this sort of messaging is the only path to the water.
This guy’s righteousness sells, and taking the muscular approach he seems to take probably gives him license to dismantle any Republican who would start in with the usual talking points, because it feels like Ojeda’s the one with the moral high ground and the interests of the people in mind. It’s gut level emotional appeal, which Democrats have famously been failing at for a generation or more. He makes it clear without saying it to his constituents: Republicans and corporations are the enemy, not single mothers.
Also, too, what acallidryas said.
geg6
@Adam L Silverman:
Josh Shapiro here in PA also.
MomSense
I love the ad. I think making community and regionally specific ads is a big improvement.
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
I find it a betrayal of their immigrant past.
Yutsano
@cain: At the risk of sounding like an ignorant American…
Does any of this have something to do with their caste? It was my understanding Piyush of Louisiana was from a Brahmin family.
ruemara
@Yutsano: There’s a term called “white adjacent” and it can be summed up as, these folks are used to being the white persons of their country/culture/group. They oppress and largely side with oppressors. They join in and feel accepted, not recognizing the tokenism of their position. They are often surprised that the membership they claim isn’t full and you don’t find out until you’ve aided and abetted these nationalists.
Doug!
@joel hanes:
I’ll do one next week. I’m doing the NAACP next.
Doug!
@NCSteve:
I don’t think that’s a good criticism of this video. This video is the opposite of that I’d say. The question is more whether it goes too far in the other direction.
NCSteve
@Major Major Major Major: @acallidryas: @acallidryas: There’s a non-subtle difference between the people who are already going to vote for you and the ones who should want to vote for you.
Emerald
@cain: I do Airbnb, and have a long-term guest from India right now. He’s not a citizen so can’t vote, but he’s for Trump. Why? Because he said–at first–that Trump allowed more people to come in on the type of visa he has, and that’s why he can have such a good job. I didn’t buy that, so asked him how long he’s been in the country.
Two years.
So it was Obama’s visa regulations. OK, yes, he understood that. Turns out that the real reason is that he’s here, he’s got his, and wants to pull the ladder up from anyone who might be behind him.
So. People are just people everywhere.
Spider-Dan
@Barbara: I believe Comcast updated it’s relevant info pages from “We will not block or restrict access” (a pledge of future intent) to “We do not block or restrict access” (a statement of current status).
debbie
Great video. Very powerful. I hope they caught and prosecuted whoever attacked him.
The Lodger
No doubt this guy can fight. I don’t see how the ad persuades people not to vote for him.
schrodingers_cat
@Emerald: Your guest is an idiot. The visa #s have not changed from the Bush II era. He is ill informed. Or may be he thinks that you are a T supporter.
J R in WV
@raven:
Probably a pipe or a wrench. I live in the next county north of Logan county, where he lives and was elected to the state House of Delegates. Obviously, politics in Logan county is and always has been a contact sport.
Delegate Ojeda is a good guy, a strong guy, who political interests in Logan county didn’t want to see gaining political power through the ballot box. Obviously, there is more than one way to interfere with voting and elections – if Mr. Ojeda hadn’t woken up in time, he probably wouldn’t have won that election.
The current member of congress for the WV-3rd district is a Republican walking piece of shit named Evan Jenkins. I have called his offices many times to register my disapproval of his support of Republican actions in Congress. I might as well have shouted down a pipe as tried to communicate with him. He is the first Republican elected in southern WV since FDR won election in 1932.
I plan to support Mr Ojeda with all I can do, we need a real democratic person to represent us in Congress. I’m glad he intends to run.
You can’t stop him with a club, can you?!? He will be a strong man working for America.
J R in WV
The attacker pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 1-5 years in prison. The judge said he wanted the defendant to spend the maximum time in prison as he showed no remorse and called himself a victim.
Here’s a story from a local TV station.
The judge’s desire may not actually mean anything, depends upon the law about sentencing. The defendant is obviously a walking piece of excrement, and will fit in at prison quite well. Major (ret) Ojeda is obviously the kind of guy you go after from behind if you’re a fat slob for sale to, well, anyone. I don’t personally know him, but he seems like a straight shooter.
The story is interesting, more detail about the attack, how cowardly it was, how the others at the BBQ stopped Porter from driving his truck over Senator Ojeda.
Davebo
@Emerald: Be careful mentioning you do AirBnB around here!
Paula
I think that’s a great video. Memorable. Gives the impression of a guy who grasps the concept of “serving” constituents, and fighting for them.
nellcote
I really like this video. I like the local appeal sense of it. Don’t follow WV politics so was surprised about the medical pot but I liked the way he dealt with it matter of factly as a medical issue. On a visual level I would edit out the four people at a table in a restaurant scenes and make the point another way.
I think this personable video would encourage people to not only vote for him but to also volunteer for the campaign.
nelson
I don’t understand the relevance of the bumper sticker/attack incident referred to in this video. It just confused me and detracted from the impact of the message.
frank
I loved the last line “no need to darken my doorstep”, just the cadence and sound of it resonates so well with the implied ethical appeal; that’s a great slogan for the areas he is campaigning. video just a tad bit too long, but maybe because i’m not from WV.
Also LOVE to see so many Dougj posts again