So that would be today.

#WI01– Tomorrow afternoon (1:15) Randy @IronStache Bryce will be joined by Bernie Sanders, Mark Pocan & Chuy Garcia for a rally at the United Auto Workers, Local 72 Hall on Washington Road in Kenosha. Now that's what I call a great lunch break– and it's free!

— Howie Klein (@downwithtyranny) October 21, 2018

Meanwhile, Jovanka’s opponent, Buffy-Wicks-the-establishment-Dem, is being supported by rich Republicans.

Incredible stat from #AD15 – 86% of all small donor money is going to @JovankaBeckles! When you are a real corporate-free candidate & you have a track record of fighting for people here in the community, then they will support you. https://t.co/3EToGQ3Wrm ?? #Berkeley #Oakland pic.twitter.com/rcR74yG8Py

— Eric Broder ?? (@ericbroder) October 21, 2018

Meet the Pro-Kavanaugh Republican Running the Newest Buffy Wicks PAC

Taking a look into the backers of this Buffy Coalition PAC reveals an extremely disturbing cast of characters, none of whom have any intention of doing “A LOT TO STOP DONALD TRUMP.” In fact, they are backing Buffy because in a deeply blue state, corporate Democrats like her are the best Republicans can hope for to accomplish their agenda.

First, there’s Ashlee Titus, one of the PAC’s treasurers. She’s a lawyer at Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk LLP in Sacramento, “the state’s Republican law firm”. (The PAC shares a mailing address, phone number, and email with the firm). Ashlee is the president of the Sacramento branch of the Federalist Society, a secretive group of far right-wing lawyers who have hand-selected Trump’s many judicial picks

There are three other PACs who fund Buffy’s Coalition PAC, and they are all bad news for the regular working people of AD15.

Ruth going to bat for Liz:

I’m so tired of non-natives attempting to use natives to attack Elizabeth Warren. Right now I’m more worried about my relatives in North Dakota who’s votes are being suppressed by the GOP & SCOTUS & Warren is fighting for a Native Voter Rights Act.

— Ruth H. Hopkins (@RuthHHopkins) October 15, 2018

Warren is not claiming tribal membership. Rather, distant descendancy. This is her truth. She has shown that she is not fraud in that she has not used Native heritage to gain employment. Time to put down the pitchforks. I will support Warren as long as she fights for my People.

— Ruth H. Hopkins (@RuthHHopkins) October 15, 2018

Standing Rock is issuing new tribal IDs free of charge to all tribal members over 17 years of age until November 6th due to the new North Dakota Voter ID law. #NativeVote pic.twitter.com/CQCTJMIE1F

— Ruth H. Hopkins (@RuthHHopkins) October 19, 2018

The GOP has no qualms making a little helpful ‘edit’.

This dishonestly splices Sinema's clip inviting people to her anti-Iraq War rally.

"Libertarians, Democrats, Republicans, Greens, independents, anarchists, socialists, communists, whoever wants to come," she said.

RNC cut "Libertarians" & "Republicans."https://t.co/29bbLL83PV

— ?andrew?kaczynski? (@KFILE) October 20, 2018

Speaking of dishonest Republicans, I was so pissed off last Friday by a flyer I received in the mail.

A flyer for a very good Dem candidate for CT Senate (I met her and she seems really good, solid, smart & passionate) finally arrived in the mail last Thursday. I was all happy, showed hubby, told him to vote for her, it was the first one from her, whereas we’ve been getting inundated with flyers from the incumbent Repub. It was a very positive flyer, just outlined all the good things she wanted to accomplish, doesn’t even mention that she’s running on the Dem ticket, said she was an independent (she used to be associated with the WFP).

The very next day a NASTY flyer with a graphic of Julie (Kushner)’s head on a puppet claiming that she’s a “RADICAL LIBERAL WHO WILL PUPPET TO THE SPECIAL INTEREST OF MALLOY AND THE BIG UNIONS”, on one side and the other side a darkened photo of her claiming that she wants higher taxes, increased debt etc. God I hate attack ads. Adds such a bitter flavor to the brew. A real turn off for me. And the timing of the ad was very suspicious.

If your morning tea or coffee isn’t doing it for you, watch this video!!

"Our greatest equalizer is One Woman, One Man, One Vote."

– The Indomitable @ninaturner

SAY THAT!!! ???????@OurRevolution pic.twitter.com/MILpTGZUY4

— Progressive Sadie ? (@LiberalRanter) October 20, 2018

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/22/two-weeks-midterms-trump-attacks-democracy-one-most-naked-attempts-promote-voter

After President Donald Trump fired off a hysterical tweet this weekend warning of mass “voter fraud”—a right-wing bogeyman for which there is virtually zero evidence—and threatening violators with severe punishment, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law condemned the president for deploying Jim Crow-era scare tactics to suppress minority voter turnout just two weeks before the midterm elections.

“President Trump’s statement regarding vote fraud is one of the most naked attempts to promote voter suppression that we have seen in modern time,” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee, said in a statement following Trump’s tweet, in which he declared that “all levels of government and law enforcement are watching carefully” for violations.

Clarke’s strong denunciation of Trump’s latest effort to suppress minority voter turnout was echoed by civil rights groups and progressive lawmakers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is currently on a get-out-the-vote tour spanning nine states, wrote on Twitter that Trump and the GOP “know that they have to lie about voter fraud” in order to win elections.

“Don’t let them get away with it!” Sanders wrote.

Donald Trump and Republicans know that they have to lie about voter fraud—which is virtually nonexistent—to suppress and intimidate voters in order to win. Don't let them get away with it! https://t.co/8ttsSwcsnl https://t.co/3baXzVXanj

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 21, 2018

https://www.salon.com/2018/10/22/to-hell-with-civility-enough-with-the-pity-party-for-mitch-mcconnell-please/

On the same weekend that McConnell was accosted in Louisville, a woman in another restaurant in Lovettsville, Virginia, began screaming obscenities at another woman and her family, which included a 7-year-old daughter, for having the nerve to speak Spanish in her presence:

This kind of thing happens a lot. People speaking Spanish in restaurants, whether employees or customers, are routinely harangued by right-wingers. (I don’t have to mention all the white people who call the cops on black people for no reason, do I? Or the Trump supporters who run around screaming in people’s faces?)

No doubt it’s unpleasant for pampered Republican political leaders to be accosted in restaurants by their unruly constituents. But maybe it will give them a little empathy for what it’s like to be nonwhite in Donald Trump’s America these days. If nothing else, it would be nice if the political media understood that the people who are creating this toxic atmosphere in the first place are the last people to deserve our pity.

And journalist Connie Shultz, who also happens to be married to Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, weighed in with a typically wise and decent comment:

Hi, John. As I answered elsewhere: Journalist married to a senator here. Our rule for ourselves: When we are out in public we belong to the public. Is this sometimes uncomfortable? Sure. We remind each other: Look what we get to do in this life.

— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) October 21, 2018

Public officials whining about having to deal with angry citizens is unseemly and journalists should not protect them from it. As Shultz says, it’s part of the job. In fact, it’s a constitutional duty.

Initial indications in Nevada are positive—voting is high and Dems have good leads in early voting in both Clark and Washoe (homes to most of the Nevada population). Washoe is particularly significant because Republicans actually have a slight registration advantage there.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/harry-reids-political-machine-roars-again-in-nevada-with-an-assist-from-trump

If Democrats are going to pull off victories in the close Senatorial and gubernatorial elections in Nevada this year, it will be on the backs of voters like Kugele and with the help of organizations like the Culinary Union. The union is a powerhouse in Nevada politics and, as it does every cycle, it’s embarked on an ambitious Get Out The Vote operation in the closing weeks of this election. Currently, it has 250 members in the field, working 10-12 hour days six days a week, which they say will increase to 300 in the final days before the election—figures that match what it has done in presidential years, according to Bethany Khan, communications director for the union.

So far, it appears, the formula is once again working. Turnout in Clark County, the most populous in the state which includes Las Vegas, was near 2016 levels, according to analysis of the returns by Jon Ralston, the founder of The Nevada Independent. Some 30,000 voters cast ballots, which was three times the amount on the first day of early voting in the county in 2014, a wipe-out year for Democrats across the nation. There were also encouraging signs in Washoe County, home to Reno, which Clinton narrowly carried in 2016 as well. That trend appeared to continue on Sunday.

‘This Is a Colossal Mistake’: Experts Sound Alarms After Trump Confirms Plans to Ditch Nuclear Arms Control Treaty With Russia
“Trump says that he is abandoning the INF treaty, basically confirms a renewed arms race, and absolves himself from any responsibility to lead efforts to reduce nuclear tensions around the globe.”

war on drugs more like just war

“What we learn from the IDPC shadow report is compelling. Since governments started collecting data on drugs in the 1990s, the cultivation, consumption and illegal trafficking of drugs have reached record levels,” wrote Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, in the report’s foreword.

“Moreover,” she added, “current drug policies are a serious obstacle to other social and economic objectives and the ‘war on drugs’ has resulted in millions of people murdered, disappeared, or internally displaced.

“

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/22/authoritarians-target-trans-people-democracy-patriarchy

Attacking transgender people – especially transgender women – has become a favorite strategy for authoritarians, and Trump is no exception. On Sunday, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is attempting to narrow gender identity to the one assigned at birth – thereby denying transgender people their place in society.

This is a deliberate attempt to deploy tried and tested transphobic messaging to rile up his voter base ahead of the midterm elections. Trump wants to rally conservatives while engaging in attacking a marginalized group that it is still socially acceptable to target. Unfortunately, support and inclusion of transgender individuals even among mainstream progressives is lacking, and even some self-proclaimed feminist movements advocate for trans exclusion in ways similar to the recent Trump directives.

The irony in this is that if we peel the onion it becomes clear that transgender people are not actually the real target of such authoritarian leaders. Though transgender people will be the ones annihilated on the frontlines, figuratively and literally, by this tactic, we form too small a minority to pose a serious threat to authoritarianism. Women’s liberation is what autocrats are attempting to quell with anti-trans measures. Strongmen have made their hostility and contempt for women clear, whether it is through promotion of rape as was done by the Filipino leader Rodrigo Duterte, or pushing a US supreme court nominee credibly accused of sexual assault while insulting his accusers, in the case of Donald Trump.

Substantial evidence exists showing that gender equality and greater participation of women in the democratic process leads to more inclusive and socially oriented forms of government. Autocrats rely heavily on the “might is right” model and perpetuation of socially constructed violent models of misogyny in order to exert power, and women’s equality and liberation challenges basic tenets of totalitarianism. It is not a coincidence that with increasing pushes towards gender equality and justice across the globe, patriarchal forces are striking back violently and propelling anti-women leaders such as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro towards power.

More good Florida Senate polling news

https://poll.qu.edu/florida/release-detail?ReleaseID=2581

Despite his exposure in the wake of Hurricane Michael, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the Republican challenger in the U.S. Senate race, gains virtually no ground on Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson, getting 46 percent of likely voters to Sen. Nelson’s 52 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released today.

This compares to a 53 – 46 percent likely voter lead for Sen. Nelson in a September 25 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll.

Today, women, black, Hispanic and independent voters are the main drivers of Nelson’s lead:

Women back the Democrat 59 – 39 percent, as men back Scott 54 – 44 percent;
White voters back Scott 53 – 44 percent. Nelson leads 94 – 3 percent among black voters and 59 – 39 percent among Hispanic voters;
Nelson leads 93 – 6 percent among Democrats and 60 – 38 percent among independent voters. Republicans back Scott 89 – 9 percent.

Remember how Ammar Campa-Najjar said something last week about how Trump was a nice guy when he met him?

Ammar Campa-Najjar’s Race Against Indicted Republican Duncan Hunter Shows How Hard It Will Be For Democrats To Take The House

Ammar Campa-Najjar is trying to convince lefties, moderates and Trump voters in his California district that he’s their guy.

SAN DIEGO — On a sunny Sunday morning a month before Election Day, 29-year-old Democratic congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar stood in front of dozens of volunteer canvassers and told them they could make history by flipping California’s staunchly conservative 50th Congressional District, taking back the House and finally holding Donald Trump’s administration accountable.

“I know a lot of you are resisters, right?” Campa-Najjar asked the volunteers, who shouted affirmatively.

“What you all have to understand — I need to stress this: We gotta check our feelings at the door about how we feel about the other side because there’s no way on God’s green earth that we can win this race with only Democrats. It can’t happen,” he continued. “This election is not about Trumpsters versus resisters,” he said.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ammar-campa-najjar-duncan-hunter-california-congressional-election_us_5bc91adde4b0d38b58766793

Personally, I think that’s very savvy of Ammar.

Ames Iowa parade with @SenSanders and @Scholten4Iowa. A kid asked “can I be a voter?” pic.twitter.com/Sh5xbp0iuP

— Briahna Gray Joy ??? (@briebriejoy) October 21, 2018

Nice pic of Bernie. I’m enjoying this tour of his. 😉

@SenSanders is AWESOME! OUT HERE TO GET OUT THE VOTE! pic.twitter.com/TbE25znL0E

— Milwaukee for Bernie (@MKE4Bernie) October 22, 2018

Packed room this morning in Milwaukee for @BernieSanders and Wisconsin Democrats! In every corner of the state, folks are fired up to vote for change this November. pic.twitter.com/BuLSgKOyDe

— Tony Evers (@Tony4WI) October 22, 2018

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/412561-sanders-democrats-absolutely-have-chance-to-win-back-rural-america

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told Hill.TV’s “Rising” that Democrats have a chance to win back rural voters in the upcoming midterm elections.

“Absolutely,” Sanders said in response to a question about whether Democrats could win back farmers.

“Look, what the Republican Party is today — and I know some people think I’m being overly partisan, but I’m really not — this is a party that worked as hard as they could to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 1 percent and to incredibly profitable large corporations,” Sanders said.

Sanders also criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) support of entitlement reform and their legislative efforts to make changes to social safety net programs.

He argued that those are all issues where progressives can make a compelling case to rural voters.

“J.D. [Scholten] can go around in the most conservative parts of this district and I doubt there are too many people who think we should give tax breaks to billionaires and cut social security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Sanders said.

Death threats aimed at Bill McKibben, along with publication of his home address.

Threatening to kill or rape someone shouldn’t be banal. It should shock everyone who comes across such a threat. And that should go without saying, except that increasingly it doesn’t, not in a world where the president has said that he longed for the days when disruptive protesters were carried away from the scene “on a stretcher.” It’s perversely heartening to see that the apparent murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi seems to have temporarily interrupted business as usual. Such shock and outrage is crucial, because in a world where dissenters are dismembered, there’s no hope for change. The prospect that you’ll be killed for what you say makes discussion essentially impossible. A society in which critics fear death is a society with fewer critics, and hence with fewer chances for change.

I count nonviolence as perhaps the greatest invention of the 20th century, above all because it opens up the possibility for conversion, not domination. That was the point of my op-ed essay, the one that garnered me the death threat. But we should practice nonviolence in ways small as well as large, prosaic as well as dramatic.

.@SenSanders wants YOU to go or and vote for @IronStache! #WI01 #Ironstache pic.twitter.com/96VTY6OiOW

— WI Working Families (@WIwfp) October 22, 2018

State Supreme Courts Thwart GOP Politicians’ Court-Packing Plans

Florida, West Virginia and North Carolina. State Supreme Courts, the justices and others fighting for independence from right wing governors and legislators. yay.

Trump Rebrands “Lyin’ Ted Cruz” as “Beautiful Ted”

President Donald Trump on Monday revealed a new nickname for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a man he once repeatedly disparaged as “worse than Hillary” in addition to publicly insulting the physical appearance of his wife.

“To me, he’s not ‘Lyin Ted’ anymore. He’s ‘Beautiful Ted’,” Trump told reporters on his way to Houston, Texas, where he’s scheduled to headline a much-anticipated rally in support of Cruz.

“I call him ‘Texas Ted!’” he continued before acknowledging the highly contentious relationship he once had with his former opponent during the 2016 Republican primary for president. Still, Trump insisted that the two “got together” once the primary ended and Trump secured the party’s nomination.

The president’s about-face regarding Cruz comes as the Texas senator faces an unexpectedly tight race against Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke just two weeks before the midterm elections.

But any newfound admiration for Cruz appeared to have its limits. When asked Monday if he disavowed pushing a baseless conspiracy theory accusing Cruz’s father of being behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Trump pointedly responded, “I don’t regret anything. It all worked out, very nicely.”

I didn’t realize Kate Brown is in a tight race with a Republican who is anti-environment. Has this state gone crazy? Anti-abortion measures, an anti-environment governor, in Oregon, of all places?????

Grim LOL! He’s just arguing against overconfidence.

https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-blue-wave-democrats-midterms-1181915

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a warning for Democrats who are hopeful a “blue wave” of liberal voters will flock to the polls in a few short weeks to cast their ballots for Democratic candidates.

“I know a lot of people talk about this blue wave and all that stuff. I don’t believe it,” Sanders told The Hill’s TV program, Rising, in a pre-recorded interview that aired Monday.

Instead, Sanders said, it’s more likely that just a handful of votes could decide whether Democrats take control of the House, resulting in a “very, very close” situation. If the Democrats do take control, as they’re projected to do, Sanders said the House would be an “entity able to stand up to Trump.”

The grim warning came from the progressive senator as he sat next to Democratic candidate J.D. Scholten running to unseat incumbent GOP Congressman Steve King of Iowa. Sanders was in Iowa over the weekend campaigning for Scholten and Deidre DeJear, the Democratic nominee running for Iowa secretary of state.

Interesting stuff on how the courts have been filled with right wingers. just putting one thing at a time, now and then.

The National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC). Powell’s memo was addressed to the US Chamber of Commerce, and he urged the organization to transform itself into a junkyard dog on behalf of corporate political interests. The Chamber did just that. As one prong of its political program, it formed the NCLC to achieve conservative wins through the courts — and did they ever. While the Supreme Court agrees to hear only about 2 percent of all the cases appealing to the court, the court has recently agreed to hear a stunning 70 percent of the cases brought by the NCLC. Since 2006, the NCLC has won an even more staggering 68 percent of its Supreme Court cases. Those cases represent defeats for employees, state regulations, the environment, consumers and whistleblowers, among others.