Dems picked a great candidate to take on Susan Collins — Sara Gideon, who is now Speaker of the House of Maine. I hate Susan Collins with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns (quiz: without googling, where does that phrase come from?).
I thought at first that we might not do much fundraising on this one because Gideon’s already raking it in but Dems are raking it in in all the contested Senate races, because of donors like you (honestly), so let’s go all in on this one. It’s probably our third-best opportunity after AZ and CO (which are looking more and more like sure things).
Jane2
Don’t forget Montana! I’d give Bullock money if it was legal to do so.
Jamey
“WHIoaTS”: Taming of the Shrew?
clay
Wrath of Khan?
RedDirtGirl
Diddly-done!
Tim C
Sam and Diane on Cheers
Omnes Omnibus
Cheers. But after googling, I find that Diane pulled it from the Bhagavad Gita.
evodevo
Yeah…I was going to say I first heard it here…but since I watched Cheers LONG ago when it was first run, I guess I must have heard it there lol
Uncle Cosmo
@evodevo: Gideon, in response to Collins’ demand for 16 ebates, shoulda channeled Little Mikey Andolini (Corleone):
frosty
@Uncle Cosmo: “My offer is nothing”? Whoa!!!
WaterGirl
@frosty: Pretty sure Sarah Gideon didn’t say that. That’s a suggestion from Uncle Cosmo, I believe.
oldster
“It’s probably our third-best opportunity after AZ and CO (which are looking more and more like sure things).”
From your mouth to its noodly appendages.
I would say paranoid things about getting complacent, except you are not getting complacent: you are doing the work to make victory happen. Thanks for these threads, for the cheerleading, for the fundraising. This is how we go from “looks like a sure thing” to celebrations after the elections are over.
Yutsano
I assume nothing. Money is good yes, but unlike that mothafucka Roberts thinks, money doesn’t vote. We need people to do mail-in voting as much as possible then make it as safe as possible because the plague will still be a thing. I like how Kentucky handled it (there was a lot more subtlety to what Kentucky did beyond closing the polling places) but that might not be feasible.
Oh I REALLY want to contribute but I had to pay almost $1300 in taxes this year. The reasons are complicated but I had the money for it at least. Come August I can throw a lot more scratch around.
zhena gogolia
I’ve been on a monthly to her since soon after Kavanaugh. I’m sorry not to participate in these BJ drives, they are a great idea, but I have enough trouble keeping track of my donations the usual way. I have a bunch of monthlies — to Gideon, McGrath, Jones, and Biden of course.
Gin & Tonic
@Yutsano: No employee discount, huh?
Joe Falco
Will do and don’t call me Shirley.
Redshift
I saw this headline go by this morning and it made me smile:
“Tillis’ fundraising numbers highlight Republican money struggles vs. Democrats in NC”
LightCastle
My sister and I were definitely using that saying in the 80s, so I presume we got it from Cheers.
Leto
Guess who’s getting fired via tweet today?
Inspector general: Medicare chief broke rules on her publicity contracts
I was looking at what else to link, but there’s literally so much shittery that you just need to go read it. Yet another presidency-ending scandal, but here in bizarro world it’s just another day ending in -Y. When I say that every single Trumpov era hire needs to be fired, immediately, I mean without exception. They’re all shit.
(Narrator: it’s not Verma who will be fired.)
frosty
@WaterGirl: Right, I see that now.
Leto
@Uncle Cosmo: Everyone knows you don’t debate Susan Collins. You debate the brow. Susan Collins is simply the mini-boss before you get to the real power.
artem1s
I first heard a variation of it on West Wing – Toby Ziegler of course
WaterGirl
@frosty: These days of the absurd, it can be hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.
Yutsano
@Gin & Tonic: I find it ironic that I pay taxes to pay…myself. Not that I should be exempt from taxation, I just appreciate the irony.
I had a complicated tax situation last year. This year will be much better.
Uncle Cosmo
@Leto: Seamy Vermin? Hoodathunkit?? //
Baud
@Uncle Cosmo: Nice.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Aww.
Roger Moore
@Leto:
Yeah, that’s where I was going. When an IG finds wrongdoing, the only way it’s the wrongdoer who gets fired is if it’s someone Trump wanted gone already.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
anyone know of a site that tracks book sales? I’m curious how Cousin Fredo’s latest tome is faring by comparison
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just bought a Kindle copy 30 minutes ago. You can read a long excerpt with the Amazon link, and she had not even finished dinner at the White House before I hit “click.”
While what Trump has done to our country is not funny, Mary has an incredible wit. Some of the tweets have buried the fuller LOL moment, because it’s the context around it that makes the killer line more funny.
Have to say: Mary Trump’s book is JackalBait.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Is that hard copies or ebooks too?
There was a 1-4 week wait for the hardcover, so I just went with ebook.
And: you get an $11.24 credit off the $14.99 purchase price, to apply to another selected Amazon ebook (some very good choices; Tara Westover’s Educated; Ron Chernow’s Hamilton).
SO: you’re only paying 25% of the cover price to read about The Donald. Which is a higher percentage than he pays his tradesmen, no?
Baud
@Redshift:
Another good headline (maybe paywalled)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: I’d guess both, plus audible? that’s the route I’m planning to go with, so I can multi-task while indulging in a spite-purchase
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
I finished it a couple of days ago, and I was much taken with Mary’s eye for the small, telling detail. The entire birthday-dinner-at-the-White-House scene is beautifully done.
joel hanes
Yes, Seema Verma is shamelessly corrupt.
But do not lose sight of her tireless efforts to cut off government healthcare support to as many Americans as possible, the goal for which she was hired. She has continually sought to destroy not just the at ACA, but Medicaid and Medicare.
mad citizen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If you mean Jr’s book, he announced the title with the misplaced apostrophe, but I don’t think it is out yet. Didn’t the news reports say he had to self-publish it as well?
Here is a story: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/13/donald-trump-jr-book-biden-self-publish
His last book reached #1, with the help of the RNC buying copies in bulk…Release date for the new one is August before the RNC convention. You know, so we can all learn who Joe Biden really is
I’m in line at my library for a hard copy of the Mary Trump book. I find it hard to give the family any money, even in this case.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
The WSJ paywall on the story shows only the intro, and then demands you sign-in or register to see the rest.
Baud
@mad citizen:
This book?
https://i.imgur.com/h6JuLMp.jpg
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s very difficult to track book sales if you’re not the publisher. NPD Book Scan theoretically tracks paperbacks and hardcovers (not ebooks), but their numbers often don’t square with the number of sales I see for royalties.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Screw that. Just enjoy the headline.
Aleta
@Baud: Might be similar:
BruceFromOhio
@Uncle Cosmo: I really like this person! And here I thought Mainer’s were polite and deferential.
ETA @WaterGirl: aww, man, and here I was hoping it was so. How awesome that would be.
piratedan
would humbly suggest that maybe its time to turn our focus on more downticket items as the overall fundraising for a good many of these high profile races appear to be well funded. We tend to pride ourselves in being aware of what is going on nationally and with the help of our jackaldom, regionally. I would like to see if there’s a way for us to be even more cost effective by looking at state legislatures and congressional seats. I know that this is likely asking for more work and effort from our front pagers to make this a reality, but not only do we need to lop the head off of the snake, we need to burn the body and scatter its ashes to the winds. The best way to do that is to kill this political disease at its roots and that means helping out in areas where we can get a bigger bang for our bucks, locally.
BruceFromOhio
Uncertain about the origination of the white hot suns quote, but I had a blast re-reading this thread from a decade ago. How … quaint … it all sounds now.
https://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/09/28/the-white-hot-intensity-of-a-thousand-suns/
Lacuna Synechdoche
Yep, I came up with the same answer (sort of), but only after googling. The reference to the heat, or light, of a thousand suns goes back at least as far as the Bhagavad Gita. Though it seems to have entered colloquial English via a quote from Robert Oppenheimer re: the first nuclear bomb, rather than “Cheers”.
Anyway, I suspect it was probably available, translated in similar wording, from one of the English versions of the Bhagavad Gita that preceded Oppenheimer’s quote – although Oppenheimer himself probably read it in the original Sanskrit and translated it independently.
Nicole
Forget the thousand suns, props for the Salt-N-Pepa reference.
Danielx
Jonathan Chait in reference to W…
Leto
@joel hanes: this is essentially what all of them were installed to do: 1) grift as much taxpayer money into private hands as they can 2) destroy the agencies that they were installed in. Simple as that. Standard Republican orthodoxy being carried out here.
BC in Illinois
When I hear of the white-hot orb, I think of the Onion news report from 2012:
They predict the GOP candidate to be the Sphere of Pure Rage, because it “taps into the deep-seated seething fury felt by so many Republicans.” The VP choice, of course is the Dark Ominous Cloud of Racism.
Lacuna Synechdoche
Seconded.
If nothing else, the GOP taught us, in 2010 – 2012, the importance of controlling state legislatures for redistricting purposes.
Skepticat
I long ago had given up on communicating with “my” Senator Collins, because she obviously had gone to the dark side. However, ever since Kavanaugh, I’ve been giving to a group pledging all donations to anyone who ran against her. I sent in my online ballot weeks ago and am happy to see Gideon in the race. Now if we just can sweep out even more Rethuglicans, we might have a chance to start rebuilding something sane.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Did the Lincoln Project buy 500,000 of them?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
That advantage isn’t going to last forever. The GOP already has “WinRed”, their answer to ActBlue and Trump has already built up a formidable small-dollar fundraising network. From that Politico article, it seems like all it will take is a few more years of tweaks and candidates buying into online fundraising to make up the difference. I’m worried that when they do we might get destroyed
WaterGirl
@Lacuna Synechdoche: Yep, if $1,000 is a game-changer for a house seat, or even a seat in a state legislature, that’s money that’s really well spent.
Thad Phetteplace
As a drama nerd in high school and a life long theatre lover… I actually know the answer to the question. :)
Searcher
@BC in Illinois: I feel like the 2016 candidate was both in one, and the VP was more of a mirror universe Ned Flanders.
(Not mirror universe like “exact opposite”, but “bad where Ned is good”.)
Kent
Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t stomach reading about Trump in my spare time knowing that I’ll just become 2% more enraged about whatever fresh horror is revealed. I knew all I needed to know about the man in 2016 and nothing I have read since has further informed me about him. The only enlightening thing over the past 3.5 years is how many other Americans exist who stumble over themselves to abet his crimes and suck his dick. Anymore, Trump is basically just a big mirror that you hold up to individual Americans in power to unveil who they really are. And to show us how racist a majority of this country really is.
I did just buy the novel Fools Crow and started reading it last night based on the recommendation in yesterday’s thread about Native American culture. That feels like a more worthwhile exercise than reading more about Trump. I have you all and the rest of the media to uncover all the tasty Trump tidbits for what good they will do.
Kent
On the plus side. Blue groups are a lot more efficient and conscientious about putting the money they raise to productive use. Red groups have a much higher element of grift. With some of them it is 90% or higher. And the more Trump-linked they are, the closer the grift approaches 100%. So a billion dollars raised by red groups might actually generate less productive spending than a half million dollars raised by blue groups.
Honestly if I was young, tech savvy, and less ethical I think I would create some sort of conservative fundraising group to milk that trough and divert conservative donations into more productive uses like my bank account and that of my partners. There seems to be no legal sideboards preventing it.
Jesse
Please oh please let us get rid of Susan Collins. Good luck, Sara. I’m in. And thanks again, Doug. Keep this up!
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Steward: “Red or White?” Mary: “Yes.”
And trying to catch Mike Pence’s eye in the Oval, but he wouldn’t look at her. Mother!
Elizabelle
@mad citizen: Mary Trump calls Donald, Jr. “Donny.”
I suggest we do that, henceforth.
===
Also think we will need a dedicated thread for Mary’s interview with Rachel Maddow tonight.
Thank dog my internet connection was fixed.
Kent
She was always on the dark side. She just fooled a lot of people for a long time by using her ostensible pro-choice stance as cover to keep the heat off her other conservative views. When we know that you can’t vote for Mitch McConnell as majority leader and be pro-choice. That is the single most anti-choice vote any Senator can ever make in their lifetime. She didn’t have to go along with McConnell’s abandoning of the filibuster for SCOTUS appointees. She, Murkowski, and one other GOP Senator like McCain could have voted to keep it and forced Trump to send nominate SCOTUS candidates that could get 60 votes in the Senate. They chose not to do that and Kavanaugh was the result.
I actually hate her worse than blatant right wingers like Joni Ernst. At least they are more more honest.
Aleta
The numbers in the article are positive but not to relax about, imo.
Since I have a suspicious mind I linked this (2nd quarter FEC reports coming this week) to yesterday’s announcements by BW and AS.
Weiss and Sullivan are leaving their jobs because they’re deeply discouraged by conflicts with oppressive environments? Just when campaigns are moving into 3rd quarter fundraising and 3-month final stretch? I’d bet they leaped at big offers from a platform representing professionals* and donors who literally can’t afford to lose the Senate during a Biden presidency. * (including. operatives and lobbyists)
Btw, BW and AS are off to an unprincipled (smarmy) start, blaming their publications for not being principled and fair-minded enough for them to fit in, or tolerate. They couldn’t even make a truthful statement about (I assume) the nice new opportunities in their future. Fair-minded integrity, no, that’s not their concern.
Origuy
Alaska’s primary for its at-large congressperson is August 18. The incumbent is the fossilized husk of Don Young, who’s been there since 1973. The leading Democrat is Alsye Gavin, who lost to Young 53.3% to 46.7%. If she wins the primary, how about a pitch for her?
Aleta
@Skepticat: Ugly that after two years of hiding from constituents, calling our concerns fake (and not even acknowledging letters/calls), Collins used a fake offer to debate in every county merely as a campaign message. To say she’s so knowledgeable she needs no prep and Gideon is afraid of her. She’s not making the offer to constituents, who’ve been begging her to interact; she’s making an attack ad, coming soon.
Kent
Most definitely. As a former Alaskan I’d love to see Don Young ejected. It is always going to be an uphill battle though because he is a savvy political lizard. He was married for decades to a Gwich’in Indian woman and has two daughters of native heritage. His first wife died a decade ago but he still has deep ties within the Alaska native community which is the most natural Dem constituency in Alaska outside places like liberal Juneau. And he has shoveled money their way over the decades. He’s not a culture warrior Republican. He’s an old-school pork barrel pro-business Republican and that always plays well in Alaska.
Kent
Gideon should agree to single issue debates. As many as Collins wants.
A health care policy debate
A climate change/environmental policy debate
A Covid-19 response debate
An education debate
A criminal justice and judges debate
A tax policy debate
And lots of free-for-all-town-hall style debates with unscripted questions from the audience.
Sab
Now I know how real-life actual Karens feel.
Skepticat
@Kent:
There was a time at which she showed some actual independence, but when I say I gave up a long time ago, I mean a LONG TIME AGO. Being junior to Olympia Snowe, of whom she was jealous, seemed to be a moderating influence. I miss Olympia even if she was a Republican—she was a Yankee Republican, as in sensible.
Skepticat
@Aleta: She indeed has gone full Trump, denying what’s obvious and well-documented truth. Let’s hope Sara eats her lunch early and often. I’ll do anything I can to help.
BruceFromOhio
@piratedan:
This. I’m supporting Alaina Shearer in OH-12, as my OH-16 is hopelessly gerrymandered, and the R here (Gonzalez) isn’t a flaming fucking asshole. Based on the number of confederate traitors and shitwhistle humpers I see flying their hate flags on a daily basis, Gonzo will likely shrug off any real D challenger.
Same with my state reps (House, Senate), they’re both R’s but are still basically sane and pretty well entrenched. Low bar, for sure. So I’m throwing some scratch at Monique Smith for OH House District 16, which borders my House District.
Because I have roots in and a love for upstate NY, I’m also throwing scratch at Tedra Cobb who is running against shitwhistle humper Elise Stefanik in NY-21.
Contributing to these small races will hopefully force the incumbents to run for cover while having to raise cash. And everything has gone through ActBlue, so we’ve been tipping them on the way to keep the funhouse rocking. Once the July bills get posted and paid, we’ll take another look around OH and see if there is anyone else with a chance at flipping a seat.
Another Scott
OpenSecrets today:
She’s doing well and has lots of backing. Imma gonna
let you finishdonate, but I agree that we should spread the wealth.Cheers,
Scott.