Highlands Bunker – E47 – Erika Gutierrez Organizing Highlight Spectacular

Ed Note: Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is for everyone who reads this to support "Highlands Bunker" through a recurring patronage on  Patreon.
 
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!  For a holiday gift we've made this episode available early for patrons only.  It'll be available to the public on Friday. A group of organizers, gathered by Erika Gutierrez, join RE Vanella in the bunker to highlight some of the non-electoral organizing that is going on across the state, from student art to helping the homeless. Show Notes:
 
 
 
 

Obama not endorsing Warren, but sorta is endorsing her

Obama tells big money Dem donors that it is their turn to hold their nose.
Last month, former President Barack Obama indicated that he would support any Democrat who ends up winning the primary election. But Obama has reportedly gone the extra mile to support one candidate in particular to wealthy donors: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Is Star Wars Liberal?

Hate will make you a terrible person.  You need to let the hate go.  Every individual is valuable, and nobody was born to be your subordinate or your menial wage slave.    People of decency and goodwill outnumber people of indecency and ill will, but people of goodwill need to show up because evil is relentless.  Friendship, loyalty, and empathy are powerful.  

Top Posts of 2019

With a new corps of Democratic activists unwilling to quietly "wait their turn" in electoral politics, it was a busy ramp-up to an important election-year.  So it is no wonder that so many popular posts dealt with who was running an why.

Donald Jehosephat Trump is a fucking idiot

Do you know how easy it would have been for Trump to be 51% popular? So, fucking easy. If he mixed in one normal "bipartisan" sounding observation for every 20 "red meat for the base" bullshit statement, the press would treat the normal observation like gold. You can just picture Democrats like Coons racing to be the first in front of a TV camera to give him a rusty trombone if Trump said something remotely Presidential sounding. SO...In addition to being a criminal and a scumbag, Trump is an idiot. A fucking stone-cold dummy. That's all I'm sayin'.

Here we go again – Coons bipartisan superpowers will be found to be lacking – Episode XXXVXIII

'member when Coons used his bipartisan superpowers on the GOP and Brett Kavanaugh wasn't put on Supreme Court, cuz some of Coons' buddies saw the light of heavenly bipartisanship? Either do I. The media, however, keeps the story of resplendent bipartisanship alive for another episode of "Moderate GOP Senators might really do it this time". Prepare yourself for Coons giving lots of earnest interviews in which his "friendships" with his "trusted partners from other side of the aisle" are highlighted.
The media is dangling the possibility that a meaningful number of Republican senators might seriously go against Donald Trump and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in this case to force a real impeachment trial. With the Senate at 53-47, it wouldn’t take many defections to give Democrats some procedural wins to, for instance, call witnesses, and CNN reports that this is “a concern to the White House and GOP leaders.” But we’ve been through this before, and with the one (admittedly important) exception of the Affordable Care Act repeal, it never seems to happen. As with the vote for Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination and so many other times, there’s speculation about what Maine’s Susan Collins might do. She’s up for reelection in 2020 and Trump's approval rating in Maine is low. But, again, we’ve been through this. It ends in disappointment.

Delaware Stonewall PAC leaves possibility of Mike Ramone endorsement open, but with a caveat

Delaware Stonewall PAC Board has voted to require that candidates agree to a "pledge not to support Trump" before any endorsement consideration is made. This is some progress, I'd say. Delaware Stonewall PAC's Political VP, Mitch Crane, had indicated that there was a potential for something like this, so it is good to see it enacted. Now it will be up to Mike Ramone to publicly "pledge not to support Trump" (whatever that means) or forgo a possible endorsement from an organization that may have put him over the top in a close election last time out. This likely puts both Ramone and Cloutier in difficult spots. If they take the Stonewall pledge, their Fox News Zombie Dumbfuck supporters will be pissed off. If they refuse to take it, the majority of voters in their districts will have an easy choice come election day. The PAC will not be making further endorsements until the spring.

Help dismantle Trump’s support network in Delaware

Tip O'Neill is credited with saying "all politics is local". Not this year, though. Not by a fucking longshot. This year, ALL POLITICS IS NATIONAL. Donald Trump is THE issue of this election and these are the local races you should be involved with to put a hurting on Donald Jehoshaphat Trump and his network of supporters in Delaware.

New Voting Machines Tested in Appo Referendum

I voted FOR the referendum this morning using one of the state's new EE&S voting machines. Pros: Paper trial created during voting. Cons: -Lots of "Are you sure?" prompts and processes, so it takes a long time to vote.  Much longer (I assume) if you decide that you aren't sure at some point. - One of the two brand new machines at my polling station was out of order. There was someone on the phone with tech support while I was voting in the next booth and it sounded a lot like your father calling tech support. If they seize up at this rate (50%) in November it will be trouble.   Bottom Line:  I'm nervous.