C.R.E.A.M.

I’m prepared to scour the the earth

by DougJ| October 24, 20205:26 pm| 29 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Political Fundraising

If a Republican runs for office in Indochina, I want a liberal waiting in a bowl of rice ready to raise seven figures in ActBlue money. So let’s go after some more House seats. This is Balloon Juice Tier 2 — Republican-held seats that are listed as Lean R by Cook. This is probably good bang for your buck. A lot flying under the radar but Silver and Wasserman say typically Dems are running 8-10 point higher in these than Hillary did in 2016.

There’s 18 Democratic candidates your money will go to: Carolyn Long, Christina Finello, Alan Cohn, Joyce Elliott, Diane Mitsch Bush, Alyse Galvin, Hillary Scholten, Lulu Seikaly, Jon Hoadley, Dan Feehan, Morris “Moe” Davis, Nancy Goroff, Mike Siegel, Patricia Timmons-Goodson, Kathleen Williams, Ammar Campa-Najjar, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan.

Balloon Juice House Tier 2 (Republican-held seats that are listed as toss-up)

As always you can see all our candidates here.

I’m prepared to scour the the earthPost + Comments (29)

Our House

by DougJ| October 23, 20203:39 pm| 32 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Political Fundraising

There have been a lot of changes in the House rankings recently, so I didn’t get a chance to put together my more longshotty House list yet. But I think it’s a good day to do some House fundraising. Here’s the two we have going so far.

Fifteen For Flipping (if we flip these, we have a majority of state delegations and Biden wins in case of a tie)

Balloon Juice House Tier 1 (15 Republican held seats that are listed as toss-up)

There’s one incumbent I’d like to help out, probably our most endangered one — Xochitl Torres Small. She’s from oil country and is catching flak for Biden’s commitment to fighting climate change.

Xochitl Torres Small (NM-02)

Our HousePost + Comments (32)

I crawl like a viper through these suburban streets

by DougJ| October 22, 20201:27 pm| 152 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Political Fundraising

This is the second or third time that I’ve heard data people I respect say Dems should be sinking more money into the Lone Star state:

Regardless of the ultimate outcome, I do think Democrats / their wealthiest megadonors will probably be kicking themselves that they didn't manage to scrounge up more money for this state

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) October 22, 2020

The reason apparently is that despite what you might gleaned from Willie Nelson songs and Walker Texas Range, ackshually Texas is highly suburban. And suburban women, so languid and bittersweet, hate Donald Trump.

No matter what happens this November, an investment in Texas is an investment in the future, Mr. Gittes. It can easily be come the new Virginia/Colorado.

So let’s do an all Texas one today, megadonors! As always you can see all our candidates here.

MJ Hegar, Texas Senate

Texas State Democratic Party

Dallas County Democratic Party (TX) and Tarrant County Democratic Party (TX)

Balloon Juice for Flipping Texas (split between GOP-held districts won by Beto)

I crawl like a viper through these suburban streetsPost + Comments (152)

Repub Venality Open Thread: Strangling the Stimulus

by Anne Laurie| October 21, 202010:45 pm| 127 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality

And there you have it. The real reason Mitch McConnell opposes another big stimulus:

"Above all, Republicans fretted that a vote on such a package could interfere with their hasty timetable for confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett by early next week."https://t.co/KDPvi78t7L

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) October 21, 2020

I keep starting threads about the stimulus talks, but #MoscowMitch and the rest of the GOP Death Cult keep shifting their goalposts. So the Repubs won’t negotiate and Squatter-in-Chief is worthless, but at least Speaker Pelosi and Money-Head Mnuchin are still talking, per Bloomberg:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made further progress on a coronavirus stimulus package Wednesday, according to Pelosi’s office, but Senate Republicans continued to raise objections.

“Today’s conversation brings us closer to being able to put pen to paper to write legislation,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted after the two negotiators held a 48-minute call Wednesday. “With the exchange of legislative language, we are better prepared to reach compromise on several priorities.”

The two negotiators will talk again Thursday, Hammill said. With the timeframe becoming ever more compressed, both sides on Wednesday floated the potential for final votes after Election Day. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the economy and markets would still benefit from the announcement of a deal between the administration and the House in the next two weeks…

It’s still not clear whether a deal can be reached. Meadows complained that it’s the administration that’s “advancing this negotiation further and further to Nancy Pelosi’s side of the ledger.” The speaker has made only “small” concessions, he said…

“There will be a bill. The question is: is it in time to pay the November rent — my goal — or will it be shortly after,” Pelosi said on MSNBC. “I want people to know that help is on its way. It will be bigger. It will be better. And it will be retroactive.”…

Helping the most vulnerable members of our communities isn’t only the compassionate thing to do — it is the best way to protect the economy as the fight to defeat the coronavirus moves forward. #TheReidOut pic.twitter.com/FC2sOYH6MC

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) October 20, 2020

show full post on front page

The Nation, supporting Pelosi’s “recalcitrance”:

… McConnell has decided that he will not allow a stimulus bill to pass unless it includes a “get out of jail free” card for employers who, through pure greedy negligence, allow their workers (or customers) to catch the coronavirus.

The issue of liability protection can be difficult to understand as a moral imperative worth fighting for, but it is. Put simply, the fact that companies and businesses don’t currently have the cover McConnell wants to give them is the reason a lot of people are currently alive.

Here’s how the system works right now: Employers and businesses must take reasonable care to make sure that people don’t get sick or injured on their premises. There are entire canons of law centered around what “reasonable care” looks like, and what steps businesses must take while workers or customers are on their premises. Lawyers call this “tort law.” Tort law is generally left to the states, so the principle of “reasonableness” is more-or-less tied to your community and can vary… But there are general principles. If I walk into a business and a piano falls on my head, I will most likely be able to sue that business, even if the business is called “Dangling Pianos Unlimited.”…

McConnell wants to change all of that. He wants to exempt businesses from state tort liability in cases involving the coronavirus, remove all coronavirus tort claims to federal courts (recently stacked with judges approved by McConnell), change the standard for liability from “reasonable care” to “gross negligence” or “willful misconduct” by business owners, and, critically, require people to somehow prove that they got sick from that business and nowhere else.

All of that would essentially exempt businesses from any coronavirus responsibility. It would make it almost impossible for plaintiffs to prove they contracted an airborne virus from a negligent business, particularly in a world where the government does almost no contact tracing. Even if they somehow could prove where they got sick, the willful misconduct standard would be nearly impossible to meet. Consider the case of a restaurant where a waiter tests positive for an asymptomatic case of the coronavirus. A “reasonable” standard would involve expecting the employer to tell that waiter to go home and take care of themselves for 14 days (with pay). A “willful misconduct” standard would require something like ordering the waiter to come to work, and then ordering that waiter to lick all the plates. If McConnell has his way, liability will be functionally out of reach.

That’s unacceptable, because that fear of liability is probably one of the only things keeping businesses from giving in to pure profit motive during the pandemic. If you give businesses liability protection, they will force their workers to come in sick. They will pack too many people inside their storefronts. Liability is pretty much the only thing that is keeping business self-interest and best public health practices aligned…

But then again, is it possible McConnell has more… personal… reasons to be in such a dire hurry over his legacy?

It's from yesterday pic.twitter.com/FuJyxEzqr8

— Annie Shields (@anastasiakeeley) October 21, 2020

Repub Venality Open Thread: Strangling the StimulusPost + Comments (127)

The combination made my eyes bleed

by DougJ| October 21, 20204:28 pm| 117 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Political Fundraising

Some not-so-good state and national polls for Biden today. So I’m going to do all fundraising focused on some states that could decide the election: GA, NC, PA, and WI.

Hang in there everybody and vote if you can. We are mailing our absentees off later today. You can see all our candidates here.

North Carolina State Democratic Party

Pennsylvania State Democratic Party

Wisconsin State Democratic Party

The Georgia special is one of the best ways to give to a Senate race IMHO. It’s now listed as a toss-up, hasn’t attracted quite as much scratch as some of the others, and the run-off election is later, which could mean after Trump has done all kinds of crazy shit that make the GOP more unpopular than ever.

Raphael Warnock, Georgia Senate (special election)

The combination made my eyes bleedPost + Comments (117)

Even a miracle needs a hand

by DougJ| October 19, 20201:41 pm| 31 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Political Fundraising

I’ve always liked the idea of giving to longshot races. First of all, the amount of money a longshot Senator might raise is could be 1/50 of what the fan favorites are taking in, and you never know when a family-values conservative Republican incumbent is going to get caught with his pants off or a couple of wetsuits on. I bet that chance is more than one-in-fifty. But they can still win if they’re running essentially unopposed.

Here’s three longshot Democratic Senatorial candidates that Liz Warren is promoting.

Merav Ben-David, Wyoming Senate

Hous

Marquita Bradshaw, Tennessee Senate

Abby Broyles, Oklahoma Senate

Also, here’s some incumbents that could use our help: Doug Jones, who may be making this race closer than we thought, and Peter DeFazio in OR-4 whom a reader warns me may get hurt by not having students vote because of COVID.

Doug Jones, Alabama Senate (incumbent)

Peter DeFazio (OR-4, incumbent)

Even a miracle needs a handPost + Comments (31)

A steel and concrete soul with a warm hearted love disguise

by DougJ| October 18, 20203:03 pm| 57 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Political Fundraising

Texas is in some ways the mother of all state legislature battles. Flipping it would be a big fucking deal. Here’s a cool way to give that WaterGirl found. You can give here to all the Democratic candidates running in districts won by Beto held by Republicans. There’s five in the Dallas area, two in the Houston area, and two elsewhere. I put them in a random order so you can just give to the one on top to avoid too many mailing lists.

Balloon Juice for Flipping Texas

If you’d rather you can give here to the Texas state Dem party or to some county parties in the Dallas area that Sam Wang thinks are great Moneyball places to give.

Texas State Democratic Party

Dallas County Democratic Party (TX) and Tarrant County Democratic Party (TX)

You can see all the candidates we are supporting here.

A steel and concrete soul with a warm hearted love disguisePost + Comments (57)

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Women: they get shit done

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

I’m going back to the respite thread.

What fresh hell is this?

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Where tasty lettuce and good mustard aren’t elitist.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Lighten up, Francis.

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot.

Naturally gregarious and alpha

It’s not even safe to go out and pick up 2 days worth of poop anymore.

I swear, each month of 2020 will have its own history degree.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Reality always wins in the end.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Good luck with your asparagus.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

I’m prepared to scour the the earth

Our House

I crawl like a viper through these suburban streets

Repub Venality Open Thread: Strangling the Stimulus

The combination made my eyes bleed

Even a miracle needs a hand

A steel and concrete soul with a warm hearted love disguise