With yesterday's Microsoft outage, and the FAA's grounding of flights across the U.S. today, I reminded myself of a verbal nicety I thought of once, long ago: There's only one little "r" separating outage from outrage.
It seems as though AI may be involved in both, though we may never know if that's true.
Here's a map of Minnesota, showing each county as if it were an oddly shaped pie chart of the red/blue vote break-down per county:
(I saw it on Facebook, so let's hope it's accurate.)
The red percentage is on the right, the blue on the right.
The thing I noticed is that my county, Ramsey, which is the smallest one in the state, also clearly has the highest blue percentage in the state, with almost no red showing on the right side of the shape:
By comparison, I'd guess Minneapolis's county, Hennepin, is about 25% red on the right, which makes sense, given that Hennepin is much larger and contains very rich, farther-flung suburbs, while Saint Paul makes up a larger percentage of Ramsey and most of our suburbs are older and inner-ring ones.
As usual with most election maps, this one does not adjust for population density, so all of those mostly red counties may seem to outnumber the mostly blue ones, but it is almost 100% true that if a county is more than half blue, it also has substantially more people within it than the ones that are more than half red.
You know that thing Oprah used to do, which became a recurring bit: "You get a car, and you get a car, and you get a car"?
We're at the point where we're each getting a Constitutional crisis per day, if not more than one.
I just saw mention of the White House threatening in-coming House Oversight Committee Chair Robert Garcia with criminal charges for literally doing his job of oversight. That seems like a really big Constitutional crisis. Then there was today's New York Times story on how the Trump staff coerced a former bodyguard of Ilhan Omar's to give them evidence of her nonexistent immigration fraud (gift link).
I started to write about this because of a less "high crimes"-level of illegality from a story in today's Star Tribune (no link available yet because they haven't posted it): what has become a run-of-the-mill outrage about unequal justice in this country. The Department of JustUs is pursuing charges against some hapless Minnesota noncitizens who tried to register to vote (because of miscommunication) but never actually cast a vote, while not going after citizens who did vote illegally, such as voting for their deceased mother or filling out a second ballot for someone who had already voted.
The other example in the Strib story is the recent James O'Keefe/Cam Higby sortie during our August primaries, when the two men dressed up in pseudo-Muslim disguises and tried to pass themselves off as real Minnesota people to see if they could do same-day voter registration. The feds are not pursuing charges against these men either, but thank goodness, Hennepin County prosecutors are (gift link).
Rachel Maddow has a new book called Department of Fate (which I may or may not read, given my To Be Read pile), but she discussed it with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show the other night. They also talked about the blue wave midterms.
The book is about the U.S. Justice Department through history: the ways that it has been corrupt at other times (like Teapot Dome), the ways it has been used for ill intent, and how it can be changed at this point within the powers of Congress without a Constitutional amendment.
She makes the point that the Department of Justice is the key tool used by a White House like Trump's to carry out its malevolence. If more safeguards were in place, we would all be better off and there would be fewer Constitutional crises if there is ever another Trump-like figure elected President.
I recommend the video, even if you're a bit sick of Jon Stewart, as I am.
I missed this Steve Sack cartoon when it first went up on MinnPost, but saw it shared by The Weekly Sift yesterday:
A great example of a picture being worth a thousand words. (Though does it really need the label on Miller?)
I don't spend a lot of time thinking about Red Dye No. 3, but a short article in the most recent Skeptical Inquirer by McGill University's Joe Schwarcz makes it clear it doesn't cause cancer and is very unlikely to cause behavioral problems in children.
The FDA moved to ban the dye before RFK Jr. came into office.
The initial evidence, so-called, for its carcinogenic effect came only from results in male rats fed 25,000 times the amount a human child would consume. A follow-up, where rats were fed that same high amount, didn't even find cancer in the male rats: it found instead an increased level of a thyroid hormone thought to be associated with cancer. That was then extrapolated to carcinogenic effect.
As far as child behavioral problems go, Schwarcz reports there is no good testing of Red Dye No. 3 for that.
He ends by saying he is still not a fan of food dyes, since the foods they are added to are highly processed and the dyes are meant to make them more attractive. But the dye itself is not the health issue.
I knew that one of the reasons women died historically, and continue to die, after childbirth was because of uterine , but I never quite knew what that meant. It happens because when the placenta separates, hundreds of capillaries are still sending blood out. If the uterus doesn't contract quickly enough or at all, there isn't enough pressure to stop the bleeding. That happens in up to 10% of births!
Death happens very fast if it's not caught quickly. A big part of the problem for doctors, nurses, and midwives is knowing when too much blood is being shed after a delivery, because some blood is normal.
This New York Times story (gift link) tells of a new and, importantly, inexpensive way of catching the 10% of dangerous bleeding: a thin plastic sheet with a calibrated pouch at one end. It's placed on the bed after the birth, and if the amount of blood that runs into the pouch in the next few hours exceeds 300 milliliters, the obstetric team springs into action.
The treatment combines several things: a shot of oxytocin to increase contraction, a clotting drug, and external massage of the uterus, plus IV fluids to restore blood volume. Those treatments had been used separately in the past, but it's now known that using them together has the best outcome.
The article does not mention who invented the drape and calibrated pouch. Whoever it is, they are saving a lot of lives.
There was a March for Democracy to the Minnesota State Capitol today. It was scheduled well before the midterm election, with the intent to deal with whatever the Trump regime threw at us.
Well, as we now know, we were triumphant and Trump did not attempt to intervene at the polls.
I barely heard about the march, compared to any of the earlier marches, so I wasn't surprised that the turnout was light compared to all of the others, including the recent October 11 rally dedicated to getting out the vote. That was itself smaller than any of the others I've been to during the second Trump administration. (Though there were dozens of other gatherings that day in the Twin Cities: the one in downtown Minneapolis was still the largest one.)
Today at the Capitol, I would say it was a couple thousand people, no more than 5,000. The size made it possible to wander easily and talk to people. On the whole, I thought the speaker line-up was among the best so far because their talks were almost all short, and there was music from the Singing Resistance and an occasional chant, too. Many of the other events have had too many speakers (with under-powered sound systems) and not enough singing or chants, in my opinion.
I've never had so many people take photos of my sign as they did today. That's probably partly because it was less crowded, so people could see it, and partly because it was very topical. Here it is:
I made this sign back in the spring for one of the earlier No Kings rallies, mashing together part of the illustration by Victor Juhasz from a Rolling Stone article and one I found of Trump online.
I didn't have time to make a new sign for today, but this one seemed newly fitting, and a lot of other people appeared to agree.
I don't do Instagram and so can't access the original post, but here's kottke.org's description of this composite photo by Brendan Larsen...
...which shows the 1,400 satellites that traversed the night sky over two hours in New Zealand, creating more than 14,000 trails of light.
In case you are like me and don't use Instagram, the kottke.org post has details on how the composite was made (yes, it was done without AI).
I've heard that it's not possible to take a slow-shutter-speed photo of the night sky anymore without capturing a moving satellite, and this photo — as grimly beautiful as it is — reminds me of that.
A number of people have pointed out that with Tuesday's election results, there are almost enough Democratic state trifectas to enact National Popular Vote. (A couple of my past posts on the subject of NPV: 2012, 2019.)
Minnesota, a previous hold-out, passed NPV in 2023 during our last trifecta.
States in the NPV Interstate Compact currently make up 222 of the needed 270 electoral votes, a shortage of 48 votes.
Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, all with new trifectas, have not yet enacted it. Among them they have 44 electoral votes, which would bring the total to 266 if they each passed NPV.
There are three other states that may get trifectas:
This BlueSky link has a short NPV video that explains the math.
Even if Elie Mystal is right, and NPV would not stand up to a legal challenge with the currently composed Supreme Court, getting it into place while working for a Constitutional amendment fully repealing the Electoral College is still a strategy.
So if you needed something else to follow in the midst of all this election news, there you go. How we elect presidents in this country is deeply undemocratic and it needs to be fixed. This is the simplest way, though at this point, maybe we should be going for a Constitutional amendment too!
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Update, November 6: The Arizona trifecta is confirmed.
Well, I didn't know if this would happen, but I feel the need to post some BlueSky election schadenfreude today. After all, I did spend half of yesterday standing outside in the rain at least 100 feet from a neighborhood polling place, just to make sure ICE didn't show up to keep people from voting. I think I deserve a treat.
Unlike my usual round-ups, I'm attempting to put this into chronological order, except a few of the images, which may have been moved up or down if they didn't seem time-related.
All posts below the line are from the attributed account, and posted at 5:40 p.m. Central Time.
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The disgusting and frankly racist way Haley Stevens uses Black voters as a prop in her demented and deluded power game is emblematic of a much bigger centrist Dem problem. It is utterly despicable across the board.
Lydia Polgreen
If his name was Tom Smith, not Abdul El-Sayed, he'd win Michigan by 15 pts. He's a Rhodes Scholar, PHD, and dedicated public servant. He was the captain of his football team, and is Michigan born and raised. He's a husband and a dad. He's the all-American boy. Mike Rogers is Trump's little boy.
D. Earl Stephens
I hear Democratic operatives going on about how kitchen table issues matter. They do. But why the huge and disproportionate surge in black and Latino turnout? Surely it has to do with assaults on civil rights and immigrants. Democracy may not matter much to Democratic operatives; it matters to lots of Dem voters.
Bill Kristol
Added my I Voted sticker at the Alex Pretti memorial:
Sam L-L
if i'm getting this right, the closing message of the GOP is that "Palpatine and Vader were right"
Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social
It's perhaps unfortunate that if the Dems fail to win the Senate after everything that's happened, the press will treat it as a great victory for Trump and he'll treat it as permission to invade Cuba. And should the Dems win the Senate the press will downplay the victory by highlighting divisions among the Democrats while also calling for more bipartisanship. Trump will still invade Cuba.
The Alternate Historian
If Dems win today we need an earnest national moment to impeach and remove Trump. Nothing less. If he gets away with what he's done, it'll happen again, and again, and again
Craig Johnson
I'll be writing more about this later, but the fact that there are no ICE (or other armed) federal agents at the polls and no federal takeover of elections is not because we are "lucky" or our system is "strong:" it took a ton of hard work from lawyers, election administrators and civil society.
Rick Hasen
peggy flanagan wears a sweatshirt reading EMPATHY and a “pretti good” button with the minnesota flag for alex pretti and renee good as she votes today in st. louis park with her husband and daughter
taylr @taylordahlin.com
Just want to remind everybody that if the results from today's election are good, that only buys us time. After we get our party into power, *WE HAVE TO MAKE THEM DO WHAT WE WANT*. Otherwise, they will Schumer-away the opportunity.
Dan, Petard Hoister Extraordinaire @danielahedges.bsky.social
I’ll believe anything could happen tonight but I refuse to believe Florida won’t Florida
Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social
It’s hard to express how upsetting it is to hear over and over in media coverage how “affordability and cost of living” is the key issue in a US midterm election bathed in blatant criminality and corruption, overt fascism, aggressive racism and rights decimation, global warmongering, and outright treason.
Brent Toderian
For now, the press corps is focused on telling the story about voters punishing Trump for “policy failures.” However, the story should be about voters punishing Trump for his crimes, and the broad-based demand for the restoration of law and order.
The Editorial Board
@pattho.bsky.social
goodnight everybody. tomorrow we start the second half of this wretched presidency and finally make it clear to these fucks they are trapped in here *with us*
the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social
I'm glad it's finally Election Day. I'm also worried about all of the music producers who designed all of those ominous tunes that played during the attack ads, I hope they put some of their wages into a savings account.
Travis Norvell @pedalingpastor.bsky.social
Obviously too late now but the ICE occupation should have been WAY more of a talking point in the Minnesota and national elections—not just for the horrific violence but also the social and economic impact. "Fraud" was the pretext for the ICE surge! And if you care about financial issues, well... If they actually cared about fraud, they would have sent accountants to Minnesota. Instead they sent armed troops to occupy a metro area, tear apart communities, and commit acts of unspeakable violence. They don't want to fight fraud; they wanted to do ethnic cleansing.
Doug Mack
I turned on the local news and their top story is "prediction market credibility is on the line in this election." Yeah. That's my big concern. "But who will speak for the prediction markets?"
Steve Quick
As one who was a conscious human during Watergate, I feel confident in saying the crimes of the Trump regime and current Republican Party are at least two orders of magnitude worse. So analyses that say voter response may not reach mid-1970s levels of “throw the bastards out” just confound me.
@pattho.bsky.social
Whatever you think of Hasan Piker (and I don't think much of him), I will never forget how the world's wealthiest person is singlehandedly bankrolling multiple Republican Senate candidates, and is also posting about "Jewish DNA" on social media, and Republicans are never asked to disavow it.
Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social
ABORTIONS AND SOLAR PANELS FOR EVERYBODY
Gwen Snyder
I watched GOP governor nomineee Lisa Demuth invite GOP podcaster Nick Shirley to Minnesota to create predicate for Trump and Miller and all the rest invade, rape, beat, persecute, and kill my neighbors. All Republicans supported this. All Republicans FUNDED this.
Brandi Bennett @bbennettesq.bsky.social
I'm gonna take this moment to point out to all the politicians who follow me that THE PEOPLE did their job tonight and put Dems in power now it is up to you fuckers to do YOUR JOB. Don't fuck this shit up like the Biden crew did. Clean house and do your job.
Coach Finstock
If Hinojosa beats Abbott that is extremely bad for Elon Musk in particular. Dude moved everything to Texas because he was certain it would forever be a safe haven for his corruption, white nationalism, and misogyny. Whoops!
Max Kennerly
The absolute shellacking Republicans are taking makes the prior two years of capitulation by so many powerful people and organizations look even more pathetic
Gravel Influencer
imagine how bad this would be for republicans without half a billion bucks from elon musk. meanwhile, what could be more incriminating than spending half a billion bucks on this group of corrupt losers.
e.w. niedermeyer
You did it, Minneapolis:
Will Stancil
it's hard to keep track of all the assholes involved tonight but save a special space in your heart for Greg Abbott
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
my prediction for the house majority was 242 seats and well it looks like that might have been a bit conservative
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
I know everybody is understandably focused on the US Senate, but it looks to me like more than 75% of Americans will reside in states with Democratic governors, which seems like a very very big deal too.
David S. Bernstein
Ann Richards... her daughter Cecile Richards died before seeing Texas return a Democratic governor like her mother back in office.
@pattho.bsky.social
when you evolve Dummymander into its highest level it becomes Dummizard:
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
Two years ago Trump won narrowly. American elites immediately folded and rushed to comply as he moved to consolidate power. Regular people stood in the gap. They organized and fought back and protected each other. Tonight belongs to them.
Leah Greenberg
yeah it turns out if you keep shooting people in the street and kidnapping children and making it impossible to get food or healthcare or education and then gloat about it, everybody hates you
Kat Abughazaleh
by the way, Hinojosa was one of the Texas legislators who left the state to try to quorum bust the redistricting last year, and Paxton tried to remove her from office. that's incoming Texas Governor Gina Hinojosa and unemployed Ken Paxton, for reference
Nute @nutedawn.bsky.social
LAWYER UP.
Rep. Robert Garcia
I bet we can call them weird now
Ian @brocktoon.bsky.social
Minor Spear Carrier @tyrellmayfield.bsky.social
Elon Musk is big dumb loser. Time for severe accountability. Wonderful, terrifying levels of accountability. Bad News for Peter Thiel: He's not the Antichrist after all. The Antichrist would have seen this coming!
Gil Durán
I think we should offer thanks to all the Democrats who stepped up and ran courageous races in the face of endless media naysaying, vicious GOP propaganda, and Musk-fueled derangement, thoughtfully creating a new politics that appealed to people's basic decency at an extremely trying time in American life.
Greg Sargent
Let me know when a media member suggests a Republican who just won election should immediately work toward “bipartisanship.” Get these people off our screens.
Rev. Angela Denker
If I were a DOGE guy, ICE agent, or any other administration goon who's been involved in some shady work over the past two years I'd be seriously thinking about stepping forward to inform on my colleagues before they inevitably do the same to me
Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social
Our new Minnesota senator:
Bill Corbett
DID YOU KNOW: Congress can change the size of The Supreme Court
Parker @jeffparker.bsky.social
no reaching across the aisle to work together. being a republican needs to be a moral stain, as unacceptable as we once all agreed that it was to be a nazi. before the republicans decided being a nazi was cool actually. they sent secret police to kill us in the streets. there can't be any walking back from that.
Tom Tomorrow
Hope everyone remembers the Mamdani Prime Directive: Do all the cool shit you can to make folks lives better immediately.
ETX Gov
As someone who lived in Florida for 12 years, I still struggle to understand what happened to Florida. If you'd told me 20 years ago that Texas would be a swing state, Georgia would be arguably a blue state, and Florida would be solid red. Best theory I can buy into is that Florida, while not particularly culturally conservative, is the perfect MAGA state: grifters and scammers are deeply ingrained in its history and ethos, and in my experience there is a real void of civic culture, which political opportunists can fill.
Daniel Herriges
Always a good reminder that *land does not vote*:
Will @willwoodworth.com
Wisconsin has elected its first Black governor — and its first Latino and Hmong statewide elected officials, following the victories of Governor-elect David Crowley, Secretary of State-elect JoCasta Zamarripa and Treasurer-elect Yee Leng Xiong.
Wisconsin Watch
For the first time ever, at least 100 Democratic women are expected to serve in the the U.S. House simultaneously.
19thnews
“It only took 124 years, but we’ve finally eliminated Jim Crow from the constitution of Virginia.”
Taniel
I said this on the Native Land Podcast but I'll repeat it here: A dangerous narrative is going to be "the GOP gerrymandering didn't work." NO. It worked GREAT. We just OVERCAME it. But we'd have even MORE seats, and different candidates could have won those seats, without the gerryamndering.
ElieNYC
Lmaoooo so Abdul el-Sayed is potentially about to make JD Vance swear him in on a Quran
bob barker @insortediaboli.bsky.social
not only was this the first truly decisive election in 15 years, not only was it the first real repudiation the MAGA Republican Party has experienced, but it is an earthquake in the South. with investment — and with laws protecting the right to vote — the whole region could be blue.
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
First Black Woman Governor
First Latina Governor
First Latino Governor
First Native American Woman Governor
First Black Governor in FOUR States
First Muslim American Senator
First Native American Woman Senator
In response to anti-DEI, America elected MINORITIES:
Anna Gifty @itsafronomics.blacksky.app
Montana's campaign finance law passed, meaning "artificial persons" (corporations) can't make political contributions.
Nietifa Van Suiker @lukewanderer.bsky.social
Democrats have 2 years to sell the public on a simple story: Trump and Republicans hate what this country stands for. Democrats are trying everything to hold them accountable and deliver relief for this battered, bruised, but still proud country. Rs are [unwilling cowed partners/unrepentant obstacles].
Evan Urquhart
extremely hilarious to me personally that everywhere they sent vance to campaign the candidates got the shit slapped out of them
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
three things that should be extremely clear after last night
- people hate the tech overlords and you need to go after them
- there's no reason to be scared of their money
- there is no downside in bringing them to heel
Andrew Lawrence
Blue rooster at The Walker sculpture in Minneapolis:
Christy Klancher @stpauligrrrl.bsky.social
Voters absolute repudiation of everything the Roberts SCOTUS stands for must be understood by the new majorities they elected to Congress as a mandate to rein in and reform the rogue court.
Philip Gourevitch
Just had the thought of Senator Abdul El-Sayed questioning a subpoenaed Stephen Miller
Gillian Branstetter
Republicans in Congress have spent the last two years ceding power to an authoritarian so I'm going to be reallyyyyy interested in the kind of coverage we get when congressional Democrats simply exercise their constitutional authority.
Gravel Influencer
Not a single new federal judge approved for the next 2 years. Any level. Not one.
Matthew “Bike Guy” @bikeguy.bsky.social
every single one of the 28 measures opposing data centers won; organizing for those measures, against oligarchs, against undesirable imposed tech, against surveillance, against cognitive destruction, against unmaking
Anna Kornbluh
The Democrats popular vote margin is the largest of any party's since 1976:
Owen Winter
Minnesota Politics: the MNGOP ran the least weird candidates and the smoothest campaigns in many years. They had an issue that voters seem to find compelling and a massive national propaganda fund behind them. They lost statewide races by 8-13 points. Not even close.
David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social
What if the federal government wasn’t an active antagonist? The war in Iran costs 150% of Saint Paul’s annual budget per day. So we can go ahead and stop doing that. And then knock 10% off the military budget for starts.
Tom Basgen, Mr. Saint Paul
WEED IS ALIVE AND DAN PATRICK'S POLITICAL CAREER IS DEAD:
Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social
Me: So the country now has elected officials named Peggy Flanagan and Deb Haaland.
Time-traveling Thomas Jefferson: An Irishwoman and a Swede?!
Me: Well, no.
Thomas Jefferson: Oh, thank God.
Me: But.
Human Resources Haldeman @gonebabygone.bsky.social
Remember, the next ninety days or so, are going to be the most dangerous of his Administration… They will try to break us, and they will fail. Are you READY?!
California Dreamin’ @jerasikehorn.bsky.social
The American people I know here in the ol’ heartland are ready for Reconstruction.
Molly Coleman
I'm at a pre-dawn appointment in Edina, so I stopped for coffee. As I was leaving a woman approached to take my table. We locked eyes. I said, "Isn't this the best?" which led to a hug, and her tears. She gulped. "I've been afraid for my children's lives for 2 years." Well done, America.
MaryMM
The White House is a crime scene. Accountability is not retribution.
Jon Cryer @mrjoncryer.bsky.social
Elon realizing his businesses are now in a blue state!
wingador.bsky.social
Hakeem Jeffries' “We’re not looking to get even” will be the new “look forward, not back” and anyone intending to back up this message must be swiftly pushed out of important spaces (and punted into the sun).
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social
Really, really important for Democrats to understand that if we allow "enforcing the rule of law" to be redefined as "getting even" we are cooked.
Hamilton Nolan
With Mississippi's U.S. Senate race effectively tied, know this: About 70,000 people in Mississippi are blocked from voting because of felony convictions. *Two-thirds* of them are Black—a huge overrepresentation in a state where Black people make up less than 40% of the overall population. 1/3
Alex Burness
The other big winning message from last night BETTER be "we are taking back voting rights" because if you look at last night and you don't see Black people out-mobilizing the most restrictive voting environment we've seen since Jim Crow, you're missing the entire story of half of last night.
Courtney Milan
they seriously murdered people in the streets and tried to make fancams about it and expected to be rewarded
QuoProQuid
geographers, what are we calling this diagonal?
Henry Grabar
America's skid mark.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
Gerrymandering blocked Dems from gaining unified control over state
government in GA, NC, TX, and maybe OH. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans live in
those states. Many House races remain uncalled, but my very prelimiary
estimate is gerrymandering cost Dems 2 dozen seats—only NC’s map fully
fell apart
Stephen Wolf
The rule of law is not a partisan thing, it is the fundamental agreement that we all abide by because we live in a society. If you don’t follow the rules, you to pay a price. So enforcing the rules isn’t about getting even, it’s about making sure that the system continues to exist. Enforce the law.
Norm Charlatan
indeed. if civility is a real substantive commitment and not mere aesthetic table manners - that is, if it's a commitment worth having - it not only *allows* for expelling concentration camp aficionados from the realm of "polite company", it *requires* it
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
To win Kansas, Adam Hamilton flipped the state’s Hispanic meatpacking counties and outran Kamala Harris almost everywhere else — including in its most religious counties:
Steve Rattner
Instead of being impeached, Hegseth needs to be in jail for the rest of his life for murder along with the entire chain of command involved in executing those people in the caribbean
Andrew Lawrence
there is tremendous joy in knowing the right got everything they ever wanted, Leonard Leo’s plan to sieze control of the courts worked, and now it’s turning to ashes in their mouth
Sky Marchini
I am so fucking tired of "seeking justice" being framed as "getting even." Arresting and/or impeaching people who are legitimately guilty of actual crimes is not revenge. It is justice. Innocent people should be released from detention and guilty people should be in prison. Again, that is JUSTICE.
Annalee Newitz
More good news incoming: Prices for crude oil have been today in free fall, losing 8% in a matter of few hours. The markets are obviously relieved regarding the midterm results in the USA. Bad news for Putin and his lesser minions.
@tendar.bsky.social
the more i think about vance's immediate "uh don't blame me it was the war that i definitely opposed" move the more i think the thing to hang on him is that he is craven and pathetic. like a henchman that switches sides at the first sign of trouble.
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
The political press has a mandate to stop being Republican lapdogs.
LunchCounterPunch @theultrasecret.bsky.social
Lmao you want to hear something trippy? Not a SINGLE House race rated Leans Republican by the Cook Political Report, on the eve of the election, has been called for the Republican candidate (per NYT). It is 2 p.m. on Wednesday
Robert Black @hurricanexyz.bsky.social
a genuinely crazy fact is that annie andrews will hold the seat previously held by noted demons john c. calhoun, "pitchfork" ben tillman and strom thurmond
jamelle @jamellebouie.net
I think Democrats need to clearly state what they think Republicans are going to try to do in the next two months so people understand it and are ready to oppose it. Trump is absolutely going to want to jam through an Alito replacement. We need to make Republicans afraid of even trying.
Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
Minnesota had the highest voter turnout rate in the nation Tuesday. Unofficial results show 2.93 million ballots were cast in the state. That’s two out of three eligible Minnesotans, according to figures from the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
MinnPost
Impeaching Trump would be pointless. Let's please not start a big round of infighting over it. Among other things, the guy is a one-man recruitment engine for Democrats! Impeach Vought, or Hegseth, sure. A failed impeachment of Trump would not serve anyone's interests. Adding: you are never going to dissuade narcissistic authoritarians like Trump from being the way they are. What you need to do is dissuade the apparatchiks and hangers-on — convince them that the risk of hopping on the authoritarian bandwagon is too high. So: prosecute the Millers and Hegseths. If you've read the literature on democracies sliding into authoritarianism, you know that the key deciding factor is *whether the center-right joins in*. How do established conservative powers respond to the rise of an authoritarian demagogue? Let's convince them it's a bad decision to join in.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
I don't want expensive prosecutions that lead nowhere, I want the system that enabled and enacted the harm to be defunded and abolished, I want to ensure the people in them aren't just permitted to fade back into positions "regular" police, prisons, jails, probation and parole, I want closure of ALL camps
Andrea Ritchie @dreanyc123.bsky.social
All this talk of "getting even" or payback or whatever. It's not "getting even." It's enforcing the law. Say that. Correct that. Don't fall into that trap. There's absolutely no reason to.
Josh Marshall
Democrats have won more votes than any party in midterm history: 66 million and counting:
Steve Rattner
As a general note, I think one lesson Democrats should have learned is that there's nothing to be gained in being slow and methodical. The way to succeed in this media environment is to do *everything at once, all the time*. Always be acting, setting the agenda, dictating the news cycle. Move, move, move.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
Move fast and fix things
Move fast and build things
Move fast and care for things
Climate, health, education, infrastructure, lands & waters - there’s so much to make right. 1
Meade Krosby
They’re saying being on Bluesky gives you an information advantage, which I can confirm since Bluesky is one of the only platforms where I get information anymore
Kat Tenbarge
They were right about Bluesky being a bubble: It’s a high-information bubble. I’m shocked how much more I know about what’s happening than people who still rely on other social media platforms for news. Not having an algorithm between you and direct information is crucial for an objective reality.
Rob Sheridan
One of the things that we need to demand from a Blue Congress? Post Office reform. As in, stop fucking them over funding wise, replace and/or upgrade everything Louis DeJoy destroyed, and get an entirely new Board of Governors. USPS is a wonderful thing - let's return it to form!
Toni @hudzinachick.bsky.social
update. regarding the murdoch tabloid “the new york post.” you do, in fact, “gotta hand it to em”:
karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social
It’s still close, but Lauren Boebert is 5,000 votes behind and may be 100% done.
CZEdwards
Tennessee's gerrymandered districts mostly served their purpose. Pooling all house races, 45% of voters chose a D while 55% chose a R. Yet Ds only won 1 of 9 seats (11%), just barely. If that's the best the state can do in this climate, something is unfair.
Sean Corcoran
There's a real question of whether the GOP is *capable* of changing course or learning. Who is in charge of it, other than Trump? The party is driven by influencers (even their elected pols are influencers) and the influencer economy rewards spectacle and extremism. There's no frontal cortex left.
David Roberts @volts.wtf
I'm writing early today before anything is known about election results.
Last week I attended Co-op Fest, where many co-ops and credit unions I knew about had tables, but there were also a number that I didn't know about.
I learned that these co-ops exist:
Minnesota Translator and Interpreter Cooperative – Essentially a worker cooperative, though its members are all freelancers. MnTIC interpreters have equipment to provide simultaneous translation in a range of settings including legal, as well as written translation.
ARISE Community Credit Union – Minnesota's first credit union to be founded in decades, ARISE is also the first to be based in the Black community. It's located near the Minneapolis Farmers Market on Colfax Avenue, and offers the usual services of credit unions (checking, savings, loans, with deposits NCUA-insured up to $250,000).
Eme Coffee & Tea – A worker-owned coffee shop that is hoping to open by the end of the year. It's located in the heart of the Midway in Saint Paul, right across from the giant silver loon sculpture on University Avenue. The member-owners have come up through the North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship and I'm excited to see what they do with the location they've chosen.
The Brass Strap – This is a hope-to-start-up lesbian and queer bar, established as a consumer co-op. They're raising money from co-op memberships and looking for a location, probably in South Minneapolis. They point out that Minneapolis has one of the highest per capita populations of lesbians and queer folk of any metro area, but no place for people to just be. The Brass Strap group wants to change that.
There were other co-ops I knew of, but heard more about, which others may not know of:
Other participants at Co-op Fest were many of the food co-ops and credit unions that are basically household names in the Twin Cities, and that make this such a strong base for cooperative development.
Thanks to CoMinnesota for organizing the event!
As an oasis of normality, I look to the Twin Cities Book Festival next Saturday at Union Depot in downtown Saint Paul.
I was reminded of the event when I saw this piece by book artist Regula Russelle on a wall in a room where I was attending a meeting:
Click to enlarge for readability.
She will be one of the many people tabling at the Book Festival. Russelle is a book artist and winner of the Minnesota Book Award in 2011 for her entire body of work. She has turned her practice in recent years to the creation of miniature zines that can be printed out by anyone, then folded and cut.
She also makes these small objects, tiny books, which are accordion-folded and then tucked into a wrapper the size of a packet of gum.
The tiny book called Big Project Manifesto, pictured here, is a collaboration with her sister letterpress printer, Monica Edwards Larson.
