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This is a big f—–g deal.

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Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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They are all Michael Cohen now.

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This blog goes to 11…

Tick tock motherfuckers! Tick fucking tock!

The house always wins.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn – Nancy Pelosi

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You are here: Home / Archives for Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize

Don't Mourn, Organize

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: “How did the Republican party arrive at this place?”

by Anne Laurie|  December 9, 201911:06 pm| 80 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Don't Mourn, Organize, Impeachment Inquiry, Media, Open Threads, All Too Normal, DC Press Corpse

People are asking me what I thought of this. I read it as a confession: We're out of ideas. "Both sides" and "so divided" is all we got. https://t.co/u6gvIB0ZdE

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) December 8, 2019

Sigh.

Again: the faux-naive stance of the paper’s national-politics framing is at odds w (a) the reality of this moment and (b) the sophistication of their coverage of nearly everything else.

No story about biz, arts, science, climate, books etc would be framed this way.

— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) December 8, 2019

Jesus H. Christ on deadline, the lede may be the worst thing I ever read. The WH is engaged in obstruction of a) justice and b) Congress, and it’s being defended in the latter by a collection of bums, yahoos, and tobacco auctioneers. But the D’s are abandoning “lofty traditions."

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) December 9, 2019

Which is why the watchword(s) of every Liberal must be…#BothSidesDont pic.twitter.com/nul6kBkyky

— driftglass (@Mr_Electrico) December 8, 2019

Good day to repeat my current rule of press criticism: News stories currently framed as "we're so divided," and "can't agree on a common set of facts" should instead be cast as "how did the Republican party arrive at this place?"

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) December 8, 2019

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: <em>“How did the Republican party arrive at this place?”</em>Post + Comments (80)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Excellent Choice, Ms. Abrams!

by Anne Laurie|  August 14, 20194:58 am| 137 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, Don't Mourn, Organize, Excellent Links, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Racial Justice, Voting Rights

I am excited to announce the launch of #FairFight2020, a comprehensive initiative to staff, fund, and train voter protection teams on-the-ground in battleground states across the country.

Join our fight to protect the vote at https://t.co/kwO6JZ0kHE. pic.twitter.com/ymf3rSf5GD

— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 13, 2019

Per the Washington Post:

… Abrams, speaking at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades in Las Vegas, announced a 20-state voter protection initiative, using her experience challenging voting laws during her gubernatorial campaign last year in Georgia, which included widespread irregularities.

“We’re going to have a fair fight in 2020 because my mission is to make certain that no one has to go through in 2020 what we went through in 2018,” Abrams said…

The effort, expected to cost between $4 million and $5 million, will target 20 states, most of them battlegrounds in the Midwest and Southeast, and three states with gubernatorial elections this year: Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi…

In past election cycles, campaigns and state parties tended to wait until the start of general election campaigning to put together voter protection programs, which were often dismantled after elections. But with ongoing efforts by Republican state lawmakers to pass more restrictive voting laws, Groh-Wargo said, it was important that Democrats start working now to be ready to help voters navigate potential hurdles. Similarly, some states, such as Michigan and Nevada, have recently passed laws to expand access to voting, and party leaders and activists in those states need to make sure voters can take advantage of the changes…

The majority of the program will be run by Fair Fight PAC. Depending on the campaign finance laws of individual states, Fair Fight will make direct cash donations or will help groups raise money to hire staff, set up voter hotlines and develop public information campaigns…

Read the whole thing — it’s really uplifting!

Maybe some super-rich Democrats could consider funding @staceyabrams 's national effort to protect voting rights at the level it deserves. I discuss: https://t.co/Mypg3NhrOl

— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) August 13, 2019

show full post on front page

… Four to five million dollars. Meanwhile, Tom Steyer has promised to spend $100 million running for president, spent $7 million on TV and digital ads in his first month as a candidate. It’s half of what John Delaney — who, spoiler alert, is not going to be president, either — has already spent on his campaign.

Every Democrat agrees that countering voter suppression and enabling turnout are absolutely critical, and there’s no one better to do these things than Abrams, who has worked on this issue in Georgia for years. Liberal donors ought to be falling all over themselves to give her their money. The budget for this project should be $50 million, not $5 million. Or more…

Unfortunately, fighting voter suppression isn’t as exciting as presidential politics, and neither are state legislative races. The news is filled with what’s going on in the presidential campaign, it’s driven by personality (which we all find inherently interesting), and it’s what everyone’s talking about. So it can be hard to tear your eyes away to think about something less glamorous.

But Democrats don’t want to wake up the morning after Election Day and say, “Gee, maybe we should have invested more time, effort and money into fighting voter suppression and helping down-ballot candidates. Maybe it shouldn’t have been a piecemeal effort with a bunch of underfunded groups trying to make do, while the presidential nominee scrambled to mobilize voters in the last few months of the campaign. Maybe it would have made the difference in some of those battleground states.” …

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Excellent Choice, Ms. Abrams!Post + Comments (137)

Sunday Evening Open Thread: I’m Not Feeling Much Pity

by Anne Laurie|  August 4, 20195:13 pm| 102 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Gun Issues, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Repubs in Disarray!, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement

Which shoulder? pic.twitter.com/nrV7uSWMF6

— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 4, 2019

“Tripped”:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was briefly hospitalized after suffering a fractured shoulder from a fall outside his home in Louisville on Sunday, his office said in a statement.

“This morning, Leader McConnell tripped at home on his outside patio and suffered a fractured shoulder. He has been treated, released, and is working from home in Louisville,” McConnell spokesman David Popp said in a statement.

McConnell was in touch with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Sunday “to express his deepest sympathies for the people of El Paso and Dayton and discuss the senseless tragedies of this weekend,” the statement said…

McConnell, 77, is running for a seventh term in the Senate next year.

Not sure a doctor’s note is gonna be enough to let him escape this time:

A growing number of Democrats are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to cancel the chamber’s August recess so that they can take up gun control legislation in the wake of two mass shootings this weekend.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the Republican leader to end the chamber’s break to vote on a universal background check bill after the two shootings — one in Dayton, Ohio, and another in El Paso, Texas — left at least 29 dead and 53 injured in a matter of just 13 hours. The Senate is currently in recess until September.

The bill Schumer is referencing, H.R.8 or the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, would create new background check requirements for gun transfers between unlicensed individuals. It passed the Democrat-controlled House in February 240-190, with two members not voting…

Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, made the same plea in a tweet on Sunday.

“Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We must act. Mitch McConnell please call the Senate back to work tomorrow and let us vote on gun-safety laws,” he tweeted. He also told CBS’ “Face The Nation” that “the president needs to sign this bill.”…

[Last remaining black GOP congressman]Tim Scott, R-S.C., told “Face The Nation” on Sunday that he willing to come back to the Senate to work on gun safety measures.

“I’d do it tonight, I’d leave tonight, I’ll go tomorrow. It doesn’t matter to me, this is such an important issue and an issue that we sometimes only get part of the picture because of the mass shootings,” he said…

“If we have anything to pass along, we will,” McConnell spokesman David Popp told NBC News when asked if there were any plans to come back into session during the five-week August recess.

I wonder how Mitch would have reacted if he showed up at the hospital and he was told there won’t be any doctors there until the election.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 4, 2019

Sunday Evening Open Thread: I’m Not Feeling Much PityPost + Comments (102)

Poverty Kills. So Does The Color Bar

by Tom Levenson|  June 23, 20196:33 pm| 83 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Don't Mourn, Organize, Environmental Rights, Environmental Rights Are Human Rights, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

Today, The Guardian reported on an analysis of life expectancy by neighborhood in 500 American cities.  In that study, Chicago stood out, for all the wrong reasons.  The predominantly white, lakeside Streeterville district is a lovely place to live — for a long time, to ninety.  A few miles away, in the mostly black, Englewood neighborhood, average life expectancy is just sixty.  That thirty year gap is the largest within a single city in the study.

The implication:

“There’s a concept that is increasingly being understood, that your zip code has as much to do with your health as your genetic code,” said Dr Marc Gourevitch, chair of the NYU department and the principal architect of the health dashboard.

“Another way to look at that is that your zip code shouldn’t determine whether you get to see your grandkids. And at some level, that’s how I see and feel about these kinds of data. It’s shocking.”

Among the likely factors accounting for the disparity are the usual suspects: violence, trauma associated with fear of/proximity of violence, environmental and public health deficits, which can in turn feed back into social strife — as the Guardian story notes:

But health inequities also drive violence. Take lead poisoning. For decades, Englewood had one of the highest rates of residential lead contamination in the country. Research has shown that lead poisoning in children is associated with dramatic spikes in impulsiveness and aggression.

The larger interpretation: access to health care is only one piece of the health inequality puzzle. An important one, to be sure, but not the only one, and likely not in itself close to sufficient to deal with something like a full-generation gap in the amount of time each of us can hope to spend on this earth.  Addressing poverty, access to city services, open space, good schools, and absolutely clean air and water are all part of the puzzle.

This is, btw, why Elizabeth Warren keeps impressing me so much.  Her theory of government is one that encompasses not just a specific program or policy need, but a view of how government can address root causes and broad enabling possibilities.  I get some of that of Harris too, and some of the others, including a couple with whom I disagree on the specifics, similarly have an idea of what government is for.  Sanders and Biden, not so much.

But back to the matter at hand:  poverty kills, early and often.  We know (as the Guardian article goes into a bit) at least some of the things that work to defang that toxin.  That the GOP doesn’t see the necessity to do that is kin to the same impulse that doesn’t see what’s wrong in refusing soap and toothpaste and minimal care to those it stuffs in the American Gulag.  We can do so much better.

Image:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn – Christ with the Sick around Him, Receiving Little Children (The ‘Hundred Guilder Print’),  c. 1646-50

Poverty Kills. So Does The Color BarPost + Comments (83)

Lone Star Sidebar Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  May 1, 20196:27 pm| 116 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, Don't Mourn, Organize, local races 2019/2020, Open Threads, Republican Venality

.@JohnCornyn: whatabout Obama? pic.twitter.com/ddoRUoxmbe

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 1, 2019

Side note: Beto O’Rourke is not helping me, you or anyone else in this country by running for President instead of running to unseat John Cornyn and flip a vital Senate seat.

Regardless of how you feel about Beto, we should all be calling for him to turn his attentions there.

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) May 1, 2019

Beto could be a rising star as a Senate candidate or a fading star as a distant trailer for president.

Cornyn needs to go.

I seriously hope Beto reverses course there.

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) May 1, 2019

Question, especially, for Texan Juicers: Of course Beto’s not gonna step sideways now, but is there anything he / his campaign can do to signal-boost M.J. Hegar’s campaign?

And — I’m guessing the answer is no, but: Does Coryn’s disgraceful performance today make it any more likely that ‘independent’ voters will stay home come voting day, rather than pull the lever for Dishonest John?

Nope, @mjhegar’s got this. #MJforTexas https://t.co/maUANmmbq7

— Ashley ???? (@ashleydixon) May 1, 2019

Lone Star Sidebar Open ThreadPost + Comments (116)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Always Keep Fighting

by Anne Laurie|  March 21, 20194:50 am| 126 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

If you're thinking about running for office, take the @traindems 30-day challenge. By the end of April, you'll have the knowledge you need to run.
Sign up now, and bring along a friend to join you: https://t.co/jXo1lw8BRc

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 20, 2019

Unlike McConnell – who once called money in politics a cancer but now says there isn't enough of it going around – #MadamSpeaker believes in protecting voting rights & fostering in voters the confidence that their voices matter in a government that works #ForThePeople.#HR1#HR4 pic.twitter.com/PXkz16h09g

— Friends of Nancy Pelosi (@FriendsofNancyP) March 19, 2019

Judge: Trump administration violated law with oil, gas projects that ignored climate impacts; blocks drilling on 300,000 acres https://t.co/uEBPNLd98u

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 20, 2019

A note to @realDonaldTrump & his team: @HouseDemocrats are committed to performing our oversight duties as laid out by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution – and no amount of red tape will change that. https://t.co/6Nv47Qsnj9

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 20, 2019

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Always Keep FightingPost + Comments (126)

Policy matters

by David Anderson|  March 15, 20196:47 am| 9 Comments

This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance, Don't Agonize - Organize, Don't Mourn, Organize, Clap Louder!

From yesterday:

Azar and Wyden getting snippy at the @SenFinance hearing: Wyden asks why insurance coverage has gone down by 7 million, Azar responds that "I thought the ACA was taking care of it." Wyden shot back that its "kind of hard with all the sabotage."

— Robert King (@rking_19) March 14, 2019

I am experiencing the frustration of an academic as I have three relevant papers that I can’t say much about right now.

Paper #1 looks at the enrollment changes in the last ten days of the 2017 Open Enrollment compared to the same time period in 2016. The last ten days were the first ten days of the Trump Administration. Policy and messaging matter and we’ll talk a lot more about that when the paper is published this summer.

Paper #2 examines the impact of advertising on enrollment. Unshockingly, it matters a lot. This paper is part of an invited submission for 2020.

Paper #3 we just submitted for the first time last week. Pricing matters and odd pricing situations matter a lot. In this case, the Trump administration’s policy implementation helps enrollment out.

There has been significant barriers to access for Medicaid. There have been significant barriers erected to the exchanges. Policy matters. A policy choice to actively and positively use the current framework to decrease the uninsurance rate has a reasonable chance of achieving that goal. It did over the last six years of the Obama Administration. A policy choice of either benign indifference or active obstruction of the goal of decreasing the uninsurance rate will, unshockingly, not achieve that goal.

Policy mattersPost + Comments (9)

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