I got an email on Oct. 14 from Manny Garcia, of Texas Democrats. (Sorry I couldn’t link to these mails, but I am sure you know them, and their like. I’m happy to take and post screenshots if someone wants to see. They aren’t confidential emails and issues, and they weren’t just sent to me.)
More below.
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Manny wrote:
Our Democrats are about to get hit with a slew of negative ads. Why? Because Republicans know that down-ballot races are at risk with toxic Donald Trump as their leader.
That’s been the Republican strategy from the beginning: trashing our Democrats because Republicans have no concrete plans to improve the lives of American families. We know failed Republican policies will raise taxes on middle class families, make it harder for our kids to go to college, and rollback all the progress we made under President Obama.
Thanks, Manny. And thank you for making the fight in Texas.
Like Manny I am confident that hundreds millions of dollars will be spent on the Republican side claiming that the only way to ‘stop Democrats,’ to ‘stop Pelosi,’ to ‘stop fill-in-the-sky-is-falling-fucking-blank’ is to support Republican congressional candidates. It’s a certainty such ads are coming.
The ‘Manny mail’ asks for money to help Democratic candidates. I sent money, too, because I believe in them and am pulling for them.
But, what I would like to know, Manny (and my fellow Democrats), is what ads are planned on OUR side to undermine and to counter bs like that??? There are ads that could be done to inoculate voters against such an ad campaign, if done well, if done in advance. There are very effective ads that could be done in response.
Why am I afraid that no one is making ANY plan to fight this most predictable ploy?
I received an email yesterday from Monique Teal (TealBomb on Daily Kos. It was a Daily Kos email) about the ‘new Jim Crow,’ efforts at massive voter disenfranchisement undertaken by Republicans in at least 28 states.
Monique wrote:
The “Interstate Crosscheck” program is disenrolling registered voters under the guise of preventing voter fraud. In 28 states, the program compiles lists of citizens who allegedly registered in more than one state and who can cast multiple ballots. These confidential lists contain seven million “potential criminals,” including one in seven voters of color in the Crosscheck states.
The mail asks for signing a petition to get the DOJ to investigate, and to release the names of those disenfranchised by this transparent ploy. I did sign the petition, but why do I think that no satisfactory legal strategy exists on our side for dispensing with these endless, bullshit challenges?
I am no attorney, and I know that prior restraint is normally applied to the press, but why does it seem that progressive organizations fighting voter disenfranchisement never make the argument that denying voters guilty of NO CRIME the right to vote constitutes a prior restraint infringement of their rights?? Isn’t that what it is? Certainly we NEVER see prior restraint used to prevent guns and weapons from falling into the hands of those EVERYONE knows cannot be trusted to use them responsibly. Why is it Republicans seem to have a clear sense of manipulating prior restraint for advantage, and of preventing it from ever being used against ‘their side?’ Mightn't it be a once and for all winning argument? Can there be a greater infringement on SPEECH than denying the right to vote? Where we ‘publish’ our choices for leading our country and our communities??
I get multiple emails every day asking for money for every cause and for every candidate. (I’m hoping to get to dine with both President Obama, for the last time, as well as with our fine nominee, soon.) So many of the mails reference cadres of ‘triple match’ donors waiting in the wings to increase the value and the impact of my contribution.
Who ARE these triple match wizards??? And if they are so gd wealthy, why don’t they just go ahead and fully fund the campaigns of ALL of our candidates and causes? (Somehow I get the feeling that ‘truth in advertising’ isn’t a part of political fund-raising. On ANY side. I am interested in the success of Democratic candidates and causes, without compromise, but I confess I find things like this depressing, and beneath the standards I think should exist for ‘our side.’ And, yes, I do realize that ‘their side’ very often is happy with exceptionally low standards, for everything.)
The most aggravating email came this morning. It was from Fred Griesbach, with AARP. I have written before about AARP bullshit (and I know many others here are not fans, understandably not), but this one, for me, was a level beyond. www.dailykos.com/...
Here is what ‘young Fred’ as to say:
Americans have now watched a combined 180 minutes of debates that ignored the one issue impacting 180 million people counting on Social Security.
The buck stops here. Fox News' Chris Wallace will moderate Wednesday's debate, and he must commit to leading a no-nonsense discussion on how both candidates plan to keep Social Security strong.
I’m trying to think when I last read a more flagrant, more egregious example of straw man.
Listen up, FRED.
Both candidates DON’T plan to keep Social Security strong. The Democratic candidate plans to keep it strong and to STRENGTHEN it, the Republican candidate plans to undermine it in any way that proves to be possible. He wouldn’t give a damn if no one ever received the Social Security ‘pittance’ (for it is in such terms he surely thinks about it) ever again.
And, of course, you have to be STOOPIT to think that Chris Matthews and Fox would EVER care about shining a spotlight on Social Security, least of all in a presidential debate where their guy is floundering so miserably in a cesspool of incompetence.
YOUR bs plan is to try to pressure the debate moderator to illuminate information that every kindergarten age child has access to. I am sure there are many children of that age who understand it better than YOU do. Your cowardice in refusing to openly acknowledge these simple, SIMPLE facts shows your great intellectual dishonesty, shows how you BETRAY your constituency with every word and deed. All because you are AFRAID to tell them the truth.
If you would like to see a model of 21st Century courage, here it is, in Arizona. Where a conservative paper - for the first time in its HISTORY - endorsed a Democrat for president, even to the point of facing DEATH THREATS for doing so. (Murchadha, and I am sure others, have diaried it.)
That paper’s own story about it is here. I am not so wild about the hyper patriotism part, but I like the integrity they showed. I wish some of the tv media was half so honest in their journalism. Our world would be better.
In order to leave you on a bit more of an up note, their editorial endorsement of Hillary may be found here, and is a good and uplifting read.
I’m happy for them, and proud of them. (Yes, I do know they have been complicit in the rise of people like Trump, McCain, Cruz, Rubio, etc. etc. etc.)
Oh this up note thing is compelling. If you want to watch something special, featuring this man we’ve celebrated in his last months of presidential leadership, his speech on 10/13 in Columbia was special. (38 min.) Transcript here. If you want to jump to the juiciest part (as I see it), search on this. (“Now, I understand that Ted’s opponent”) Where he starts talking about the crazy, using the example of Ted Strickland’s opponent for Senator in Ohio. (Most of the text I have excerpted is included in a quick video clip there! If you watch nothing else, watch that! Obama wailing!)
Excerpts!
But so the problem is not that all Republicans think the way this guy does. The problem is, is that they’ve been riding this tiger for a long time. They’ve been feeding their base all kinds of crazy for years — (applause) — primarily for political expedience. So if Trump was running around saying I wasn’t born here, they were okay with that as long as it helped them with votes. If some of these folks on talk radio started talking about how I was the anti-Christ, you know, it’s just politics. (Laughter.) You think I’m joking. (Laughter.)
And later …
This is in the swamp of crazy that has been fed over and over and over and over again. (Applause.) Look, I — and there’s sort of a spectrum, right — it’s a whole kind of ecosystem. And look, if I watched Fox News I wouldn’t vote for me. (Laughter.) I understand. If I was listening to Rush Limbaugh, I’d say, man, that’s terrible. (Laughter.) Fortunately, I have more diverse sources of information. (Applause.)
And I want to make a serious point here — because I’m really not exaggerating. Everything I’m saying are actual things that have been said and that people — a fairly sizable number of people in the Republican primaries believe. And the people who knew better didn’t say anything. They didn’t say, well, you know what, I disagree with his economic policies, but that goes too far. They didn’t say, well, I’m not sure if his foreign policy is the right one for America, but we can’t allow our politics to descend into the gutter.
And that’s what’s happened in their party. All that bile, all the exaggeration, all the stuff that was not grounded in fact just kind of bubbled up, started surfacing. They know better, a lot of these folks who ran, and they didn’t say anything. And so they don’t get credit for, at the very last minute, when finally the guy that they nominated and they endorsed and they supported is caught on tape saying things that no decent person would even think, much less say, much less brag about, much less laugh about or joke about, much less act on — (applause) — you can’t wait until that finally happens and then say, oh, that’s too much, that’s enough. (Applause.) And think that somehow you are showing any kind of leadership and deserve to be elected to the United States Senate. (Applause.)
You don’t get points for that. (Applause.) In fact, I’m more forgiving of the people who actually believe it than the people who know better and stood silently by, out of political expediency, because it was politically convenient. (Applause.)
And if your only organizing principle has been to block progress and block what we’ve tried to do to help the American people every step of the way, so you’re not even consistent anymore — you claim the mantle of the party of family values, and this is the guy you nominate? (Applause.) And stand by, and endorse, and campaign with until, finally, at the 11th hour you withdraw your nomination? You don’t get credit for that. (Applause.)
Go watch. It’s worth your time. It’s the finest political rant I have ever seen, by the most emotionally balanced politician I have ever known.
On to tonight’s comments! Formatted by my dear friend and colleague, brillig!
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Highlighted by OGGoldy:
Is this comment by ChadmanFL about (yet another) humiliating Trump campaign failure in Alaska.
Is this comment by a Bernie primary supporter, Miniaussiefan, indicating appreciation for Hillary’s quality as a candidate.
Is this comment by Quellist on the blindness that befuddles our political adversaries. In kos’s diary on the puzzling, newfound Republican ‘concern’ about vote suppression.
Highlighted by Meteor Blades:
Is this comment by wu ming, on ‘compromise’ in the abortion debate, in a diary on the subject by truebluedonkey.
This comment by Meteor Blades was also made in truebluedonkey’s diary, and it decried any suggestion of compromise, or even wasting time dialoguing with folks that will never understand or learn about abortion.
ColoTim has an excellent idea for swearing in the next crop of Republican Senators. From Joan McCarter’s John McCain promises Republicans will be 'united against any Supreme Court nominee' from Clinton.
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Top Mojo for yesterday, October 16th 2016, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
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Top Pictures for yesterday, October 16th 2016. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment. Thank you jotter!