I’ve started a new series 100 Reasons to Love Joe Biden. The first entry Biden’s Tax Plan went up yesterday. Keep an eye out for them if you are looking for reasons to love Joe, are open to being sold on Joe, or want positive things about Joe to share with other people. I plan to publish them Sunday — Friday until the election. That is about 100 days.
Although I want people to let their enthusiasm about Joe grow, I also don’t want you to forget who this election is about. Not about Joe Biden. Not even about Donald Trump.
This election is about us. It is about all of us who share hope and fight hard. It is about people who marched or wanted to march. It is about people who let their attitudes and opinions evolve as they learned more. It is about people who wrote postcards and went door to door and made phone calls and sent texts. It is about people who voted and donated and put up signs.
Because we are the ones saving our democracy.
We The People Are Saving Our Country
We are the majority and us sticking to our values is swinging more people our way:
Maybe we aren’t a 50-50 country after all
We have gotten so used to the cliche that we are a 50-50 country — divided into blue and red, liberal and conservative — that the punditocracy has failed to see that we are increasingly a 60-40 country.
Forty percent is about where President Trump’s approval rests and how he scores in head-to-head matchups against former vice president Joe Biden. The level of support for many Trump-favored positions (e.g., the pandemic is overblown, the media is the enemy of the people, “dreamers” should be kicked out, “black lives matter” is a negative statement) is often even lower than that. The direction of the country? Only about 25 percent think we are headed the right way. Indicative of the false balance sought by some in the mainstream media — twisting themselves into pretzels to avoid accusations of bias from the right — you might think Trump’s views have widespread support or that the presidential race is competitive. Neither is true, at least not now.
The proverbial blue wave in 2020 threatens to make 2018 look like a ripple.
Remember how enthusiastic we were in 2018? All signs indicate that we are even more motivated now:
Record cash floods Democrats, Black groups amid protests and pandemic
Online donors poured a record $392 million into campaigns and causes via ActBlue in June, a sign of surging activism and political enthusiasm on the left that smashed the previous monthly high, from just before the 2018 election, by a whopping 50 percent.
the left’s online giving surge is blunting one of President Donald Trump's remaining advantages in the presidential election, as his poll numbers sink: his financial edge. Small-dollar donors are filling up Joe Biden’s campaign coffers, giving Democratic Senate and House candidates a financial cushion in many of the biggest 2020 elections, and pouring resources into newly emboldened civil rights organizations, which are scaling up rapidly amid rising support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
and this:
Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History
Four recent polls — including one released this week by Civis Analytics, data science firm that works with businesses and Democratic campaigns — suggest that about 15 million to 26 million people in the United States have participated in demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and others in recent weeks.
These figures would make the recent protests the largest movement in the country’s history, according to interviews with scholars and crowd-counting experts.
and that was during a pandemic!!!!!
And check out this great election. Not only did we vote to get this next one done, but Postcards To Voters played a huge role! Every single Democratic voter got a postcard!!
Democrats flip a state Senate seat for first time since 2010 & more election results
Kentucky Democrats were gleeful and optimistic Tuesday after flipping a state Senate seat in a district that President Trump won by more than 12 percentage points in 2016.
Democrat Karen Berg, a physician and assistant professor, beat Republican Bill Ferko, the former GOP chairman in Oldham County, in a special election in the 26th Senate District to fill the remainder of the term of Republican Sen. Ernie Harris, who retired this spring after 25 years in the Senate. His term runs through the end of 2021.
Postcards to Voters was all over this too:
By a 1 percent margin, Oklahoma voters expand Medicaid to low-income residents
Oklahoma voters narrowly decided on Tuesday to expand Medicaid health insurance to tens of thousands low-income residents, becoming the first state to amend its Constitution to do so.
And people have done an amazing job putting pressure on companies to do the right thing:
Nike Appears to Remove All Washington NFL Team Apparel from Online Store
There have been renewed efforts to have the Washington NFL team change its nickname, with FedEx—who sponsors the team's stadium—calling for a new name Thursday.
Nike, which supplies the NFL with uniform and sideline apparel, may also be putting the pressure on Washington. The shoe and sporting goods giant has appeared to remove all team merchandise from its online store
You KNOW Facebook isn’t doing the right thing without tons of pressure from advertisers who aren’t doing the right thing without pressure from US
Facebook removes hundreds of boogaloo accounts for ‘promoting violence’ in coordinated takedown
Facebook on Tuesday removed hundreds of accounts and groups associated with a violent network of the far-right “boogaloo” movement whose followers have been linked to violence that disrupted mostly peaceful protests around the United States.
Facebook said it was designating the faction of the boogaloo movement that advocates violence as a “dangerous organization” and had taken down 220 accounts, 28 pages, 106 groups and 95 accounts on Facebook-owned Instagram that were associated with it. The social media platform said it also had removed 400 more Facebook accounts and more than 100 additional groups that supported or praised the violent network.
CVS, Dunkin’, Lego: The Brands Pulling Ads From Facebook Over Hate Speech
An effort to pressure Facebook to crack down on hate speech and misinformation has prompted dozens of advertisers to say they’ll stop spending on the platform.
And it isn’t just Facebook. Our pressure is working all over:
YouTube bans Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, Richard Spencer, and more for hate speech
YouTube has banned several prominent white supremacist channels, including those belonging to Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, and Richard Spencer.
Other channels banned include American Renaissance (with its associated channel AmRen Podcasts) and the channel for Spencer’s National Policy Institute. The channels repeatedly violated YouTube’s policies, a YouTube spokesperson said, by alleging that members of protected groups were inferior. These come alongside other violations that led to YouTube taking action
Twitch suspends Trump campaign account
Twitch, the video streaming service popular with online gamers, has suspended an account belonging to the Trump campaign, becoming the latest tech platform to take action against President Donald Trump.
In a statement provided to CNN, Twitch, which is owned by
Amazon (AMZN), said that "hateful conduct is not allowed."
Reddit, Acting Against Hate Speech, Bans ‘The_Donald’ Subreddit
The influential pro-Trump community broke the rules on harassment and targeting, said Reddit, which also banned other groups.
And the young people are all over this!
We trolled Trump’s Tulsa rally with fake reservations. Here’s why.
It should be no surprise that thousands of Gen Z-ers took it upon themselves to infiltrate the Trump rally in Tulsa, Okla. this past Saturday. Social media is our voice, and it’s loud.
You raise a generation of kids on Katniss Everdeen and Hermione Granger, and you get teens bold enough to lash out against corrupt authority. Generation Z: the Zoomers, the Parkland generation, 9/11 Babies, Gen-tech, iGen, The Scapegoats, The Snowflakes, Generation Fix-It, “Doomed,” the Delta Generation– we are the generation that is too anxious to correct a messed-up coffee order, but feels entirely enabled to throw a can of tear gas back at the police during a riot.
Apps like TikTok and Instagram and Twitter have created a cross-nation entity of liberal teens ready to revolt against our current government. It’s an internet-fueled revolution and its impact has reached the streets of Minneapolis, the remaining statues of the Confederacy, the seats of the BOK center, and now the White House.
Trump is in trouble
Trump’s ‘I alone can fix it’ campaign collides with a changed public mood
President Trump will celebrate American independence Friday in his signature self-aggrandizing style, staging a fireworks show that frames him before a granite mountain carved with four of the nation’s most celebrated presidents.
But Democrats are hoping that the latest display of self-flattery by Trump at Mount Rushmore will have a different effect than similar efforts in the past, following a shift in public sentiment that suggests the 2020 presidential race is being fought on different terrain than Trump’s first campaign for the White House.
“In 2016, Trump’s buffoonery was held up by some as a refreshing rejection of an ineffectual status quo. He would step up to the plate eventually, they thought,” said former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, explaining the thinking that now dominates his party’s strategists. “Today, it’s the same buffoonery, except it is killing people.”
New evidence that Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is pushing his support lower
New data from the Pew Research Center bolsters the idea that Trump’s position in the polls is worsening as a function of what’s happening in the country. Specifically, it seems likely that the pandemic is pushing his approval ratings lower, which, in turn, is making his position in the presidential contest more precarious.
About a sixth of those who approved of the president in March no longer do. More than two-fifths of them live in places hit hardest by the pandemic.
Trump Campaign Has Spent $325,000 on Facebook Ads Featuring Brad Parscale’s Page
Until this week, Mr. Parscale, the president’s campaign manager, was one of only three people whose Facebook and Instagram pages had been used by the campaign to display ads. The others were Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
“The ads may well be raising money for the Trump campaign,” said Andrew Bleeker, the president of the Democratic firm Bully Pulpit Interactive, “but certainly in the Democratic Party this would feel more like personal profiteering than in the interest of the campaign when you’re building up the audience of someone who is also the principal of a private marketing firm and wants to sell himself as an influence.”
Trump’s superpower turns to kryptonite
No president in our lifetime has enjoyed a more mesmerizing, seemingly unbendable hold on his political base than Donald Trump. He shifts their views on big topics like the FBI or Vladimir Putin and retains their support regardless of what he says or does.
Why it matters: This connection is turning fast into a liability for Trump and the entire GOP because the president and his mostly white, mostly male base are on the opposite side of most Americans on the epic topics of our day — wearing masks, combating the coronavirus, and condemning racial inequality and police brutality.
MoveOn endorses Joe Biden, a sign that progressives are embracing him
The influential online liberal organization MoveOn endorsed Joe Biden for president Wednesday, a sign that progressives are starting to warm to his candidacy.
Biden won the support of 82% of MoveOn members, which counts 13 million people on its mailing list. He is the fourth presidential candidate that the organization has endorsed in its 20-year history, after Barack Obama (twice) and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary.
Biden wins nod from all Democratic state attorneys general
Former Vice President Joe Biden earned the endorsement from the country’s Democratic attorneys general on Thursday, all citing his commitment to uniting the country and protecting key tenants of the party including the Affordable Care Act
In a letter obtained exclusively by NBC News, all 23 Democratic attorneys general say they are enthusiastically supporting Biden because they trust him “to guide us out of this unprecedented health, economic, and social justice crisis.”
Moreover, they credit Biden’s commitment to unite the country, his character and record compassionately upholding the rule of law as a major reason why they would place trust in him as president.
'If it's close – watch out': Biden says he has 600 lawyers ready to fight election 'chicanery' by Trump
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told supporters Wednesday night his campaign assembled a team of 600 lawyers to fight against efforts he expects from President Donald Trump to limit voter participation in the upcoming election.
"So here's what we're doing, we're continuing to fight any effort to exploit the pandemic for political purposes, support the countless state and local officials working like hell to make voting safe and accessible for citizens, especially the most vulnerable, or call out local rules that don't adequately ensure access to vote," Biden said.
The team of 600 lawyers, along with 10,000 volunteers, would be in every state to figure out if any "chicanery is likely to take place."
Biden made it clear on Wednesday that he will continue to denounce Trump's opposition to vote-by-mail as a form of voter suppression and he encouraged supporters "to holler at the top of our lungs" if they see any efforts to infringe on voting rights in their state.
"It's going to be hard. And if it's close – watch out," he said.
Biden just slammed Trump on a new and hidden vulnerability
In a new statement sent to this blog, Joe Biden is opening up a new front along these lines, arguing that the E.U. ban shows that Trump has transformed the U.S. “into a global health risk.”
Biden notes that all this is the direct result of Trump’s serial failures to take the coronavirus seriously — which also includes Trump’s urging of a too-rapid reopening, leading to a resurgence
What’s notable is the casting of Trump’s role in bringing about the E.U. ban as another form of deep damage to our international relationships — damage, of course, that Trump himself did on many other fronts. The monumental botching of the coronavirus pandemic, then, is both extension and exacerbation of that Trumpian damage.
The president is a danger': Hundreds who served under George W. Bush endorse Biden
Hundreds of officials who worked for former Republican President George W. Bush are endorsing Democratic White House hopeful Joe Biden — the latest Republican-led group coming out to oppose the re-election of Donald Trump.
The officials, who include Cabinet secretaries and other senior people in the Bush administration, have formed a political action committee — "43 Alumni for Biden" — to support the former vice president in his Nov. 3 race, three organizers of the group told Reuters, which first reported the story. The group on Wednesday put out a statement announcing its formation.
Biden Outraises Trump for Second Straight Month, With $141 Million June Haul
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democratic Party outraised President Trump and the Republicans for the second straight month in June, announcing a record haul of $141 million on Wednesday night only hours after Mr. Trump’s campaign had trumpeted his own $131 million total.
On The Lighter Side
Want to get more involved in “we the people”?
If you have the resources, you can donate to help us take the Senate. Every dollar helps. Click Here to Donate to Flipping the Senate.
Biden needs money too.
We set up a fund to donate to Biden as a Good News Roundup group.
Click here to donate to Biden. Your donations will come from you and 100% of them will go to the Biden campaign to defeat Trump, but will be funneled through our Good News Roundup group portal.
Non-financial ways to help
Volunteer with the Democratic party Explore their centralized hub for grassroots volunteer opportunities to take action on your own time.
Volunteer with the Biden campaign You can get training to text for Joe, make phone calls for Joe, host an event, or attend an event.
Get involved with Postcards to voters. Postcards to Voters are friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast.
Register voters in key battleground states. Vote Forward has active campaigns going in 8 key states to encourage under-represented (potential) voters to register. In 6 of them, the packet you send to each potential voter will include the actual voter registration forms and instructions with pre-paid postage for that state. The folks at Vote Forward have collected data on this technique and determined that it does, indeed, appear to increase voter registration.
Text voters in key Senate races Payback Project has a comprehensive, four-pronged approach to make sure Republicans Senators are held accountable for their actions, their votes, and their enabling of Donald Trump.
Organize your community online The Democratic National Committee’s digital organizing team put together a list of ways you can keep organizing in your community online.
Do whatever we can to promote Biden in tweets and posts and emails and wherever. The same goes for other D candidates. Help them get positive recognition!
Also, contact your reps and senators on important issues
Sing us out Lil Baby
Before we go we need someone to cover the GNR for this Tuesday July 7th. Please send me a kos mail if you are interested/able. Thanks.
I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you ❤️ ✊ ❤️