The Fall of Roe v Wade: US Politics, June 2022

I am kinda beside myself over how much I naively gave to Dems who turned out to have zero shot in 2020

I got really angry at dems about that too - how much they bulshitted people about candidates who could supposedly beat McConnell or Graham or whoever. It's a grift imo. I sometimes joke now "I'm not giving any more money to political candidates until I'm at the point where I can give enough to get something in return."

still incredibly mad about the Washington Post piece

Same, fuckin same. I suddenly have reached the point where I cannot eat one more ounce of shit from these idiots. It’s disgusting.

I get so many emails from the Democratic Party pleading for cash. So many of them sound absolutely desperate. It's embarrassing, frankly.

Those emails are the fucking worst. There are two basic strains. The first kind looks like internet 1997 and says shit like "HUMILIATING DEFEAT! Nancy Pelosi needs to raise $10 million by tomorrow or Republicans will win!" I find these not only aggravating but intensely demoralizing and they only increase my association of Democrats with losing. The second are the more Obama-style ones that get overly familiar and come from like "Vicky for Senate!" or start "I'm Dave-o's Mom And I Want To Tell You About My Son"

Yes, exactly. Or the ones who say something like "McConnell is FURIOUS!" Referring, not to McConnell actually being furious, but to something he might or should be furious about, e.g., Amy Klobuchar saying on some news show. They all make me want to stop giving money to the party altogether.

Here's one I just got:

Click here to unsubscribe

James -- This is a hard email to write.

But Democrats are about to lose our shot at winning the Senate Majority... we’re going to hand Mitch McConnell complete control over Joe Biden.

Almost no one -- seriously, NO ONE -- has donated to boost Democratic Voter Turnout in Pennsylvania.

If we miss tonight’s 25,000 donation goal, our campaign in Pennsylvania (THE MOST COMPETITIVE SENATE RACE) is DONE. McConnell wins again. We. Would. CRY.

So this is your FINAL chance to do the right thing! We are BEGGING you to donate.
James You Have NOT DONATED to Boost Voter Turnout in Pennsylvania!

CAN YOU DONATE TO HELP SAVE FETTERMAN’S CAMPAIGN AND HUMILIATE MITCH MCCONNELL? →

Donate $5 →

Donate $25 →

Donate $50 →

Donate $100 →

Donate $500 →

Or donate another amount →

James -- if we can help elect Fetterman, Democrats will keep the Senate. It’s that simple.

That’s why we set a lofty fundraising goal of 25,000 donations by midnight tonight. We’ll use that money to SKYROCKET Democratic Voter Turnout and DESTROY the Republicans!

But James, we are still well short of that goal. So we need you to rush $5 to help save John Fetterman. →

Donate $5 →

Donate $25 →

Donate $50 →

Donate $100 →

Donate $500 →

Or donate another amount →

We’re not ready to quit. We need you with us.
- Progressive Turnout Project

The subject line is "We Are Sorry."

We’re not ready to quit.

You sure aren't.

I will say, I am genuinely curious how my $5 donation will SKYROCKET Democratic voter turnout and DESTROY the Republicans.

Of course!

https://i.gifer.com/MCvC.gif

the only consolation I have is that Republican fundraising emails are somehow even worse! it's always shit like "Hey! It's Don Jr.! My Dad noticed the other day that you didn't appear on our MEGA GOLDEN PATRIOT list, and, uh...I kinda vouched for you dude...he said he was really disappointed and wondered if you'd fallen under the spell of the GROOMER DEMOCRATS...anyway...if you could uh, give me 5 dollars..."

I've pulled back so much from keeping up with political news since the beginning of last year but I'm genuinely about to give up altogether. Just assume that vulnerable communities will always be under assault and figure out how best to help them directly, vote locally, and fuck giving one iota of attention to any elected POS in every other level of government because what is even the point of paying attention at this point. It's all such demoralizing pyramid scheme theater.

The worst I've ever gotten was a fundraising mailer that looked like a collections letter, at a time when I was panicking because of actual collections agencies (because a hospital was mad that I didn't pay $5000 for 6 stitches and to be told that I didn't have a concussion).

xp that's going to have to be my default mode soon here too, Old Lunch, until they start rounding people up for sexing obv

we’re going to hand Mitch McConnell complete control over Joe Biden.

Uh oh he's going to make him nominate anti-abortion federal judges

Lol @ subject line “We Are Sorry”

"Packing Our Bags" is a recurring one.

lmao, sounds about right

82-year-old Patrick Leahy needs hip surgery after falling in his Virginia home. Unclear how long he’ll be out in the 50-50 Senate. Senators are on recess next week as well. His office notes he was “born blind in one eye” and “has had a lifelong struggle” with depth perception pic.twitter.com/9JhgypezIi

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 30, 2022

Senate might want to build a residential care home somewhere on the Hill

We. Would. CRY. for July thread title.

I am surprised by Gorsuch's dissent and think this is a good example of the misconstrual by the majority of states' rights: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/us/politics/supreme-court-ruling-oklahoma-tribes.html

Indeed, he wrote, “Castro-Huerta’s argument would require this court to treat Indian victims as second-class citizens.”

Justice Gorsuch responded that “the old paternalist overtones are hard to ignore.”

Agreed. (Your government is second-class?)

I have this one fundraising email that always sticks out in my mind that purported to be from "James Carville" and the header was "[Man Alive] We are SCREWED!" I laugh every time I think about it, hearing it in Carville's voice and picturing his facial expression.

Cajun Style

as I understand it Gorsuch is actually surprisingly good on American Indian rights issues, he consistently rules in their favor

Regarding fundraising (not that I have donated for a long time), I think the politicians are doing what their pollsters are telling them to do, in the hopes that the small power of the masses will outweigh the limited(?) power of the elite. They can't escape the mass channels of influence unless they resort to influencers and have superpowers with respect to social intelligence. I think Obama resigned himself to fundraising as a surrogate for community activism.

The incessant begging emails are the product of many decades of direct-mail advertising techniques, where different kinds of appeals are tried, the results of each are carefully tabulated and compared, the least successful are eliminated and the most successful are refined. The overall effect is to converge upon approaches that appeal most strongly to the least common denominator. Most potential small dollar donors are totally baffled by the byzantine complexities of US politics.

The collision of the internet, direct mail techniques, and the simple-minded political perspective of the target audience produces the results you see in these emails. It doesn't do any good to feel insulted. The pols are just captive to the need to find the most efficient way to raise money and, for now, this is what works best.

Does it do good to do anything, Aimless? Sometimes I wonder about who are the cynical and nihilistic ones.

seriously

as I understand it Gorsuch is actually surprisingly good on American Indian rights issues, he consistently rules in their favor

he's LDS, Mormons have a whole thing with regard to Native Americans

or wait no he's presbyterian??? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/02/01/neil-gorsuch-belongs-to-a-notably-liberal-church-and-would-be-the-first-protestant-on-the-court-in-years/

as I understand it Gorsuch is actually surprisingly good on American Indian rights issues, he consistently rules in their favor

― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Thursday, June 30, 2022 5:12 PM (fifty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah it's his thing

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-tribal-rights-sonia-sotomayor.html

he must be charles m. russell collector or something

he is the only western judge on the supreme court right now fwiw

Sometimes the appeals are for people to show up. Perhaps the pollsters are thinking of disposable income and disposable time and weighing their appeals accordingly. Apathy is hard to escape. Most people don't expect an effect and come to weigh and parcel out their contributions or efforts to when enough people feel the same or they can ride a common sentiment and not stick out. (xpost)

I think Trump's politics have been described as transactional and the most corrupt governments might be considered the same. There is a notion of giving for a cause or belief that is distinct from a direct payback for survival.

Is there a sudden spate of decorating walls with dripping ketchup or similar condiment. Is there a specific canonical ketchup one needs to base things on ?

Looks like the hearings are having some effect:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/30/gop-megadonors-turn-on-trump-look-for-2024-alternatives-after-jan-6-hearings.html

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1912-09-23/ed-1/seq-29/?loclr=blogloc

"Commoners' food"; also mustard, with cheese in Ulysses IIRC; ~= false embellishment

Biden stated that he wanted to overturn the filibuster and codify abortion rights.

Is that news?

So what are we calling the July thread?

Orange Jesus Take the Wheel (just kidding)

"I'm the effing president"

so i've been trying to do something with this overwhelming anger i've felt over the last few weeks, months, years and was hoping to do more in local criminal justice. does anyone know of databases that store crime, charges, age of accused etc?

We. Would. CRY.: US Politics, July 2022