That is why I love and miss Portland. I love the beauty it is set in, the river, all the bridges, the many parks, all the tiny downtowns leftover from when their towns grew together to become the city. Most of all I miss the acceptance and dedication of the people there to be free and be weird.
(Where in the world do some people get the idea that Portland is burning? All they need to do is change their channel. By the way, one of the tv channels there did a 24 hour livestream of the ICE building to show that Portland is just kind of normal. Well, depending on how you define normal. PDX normal includes dancing frogs and an emergency naked bike rally. And thousands of people running a marathon right past and through what ICE called a "riot". Yeah, sure.)
The fact that trump has any support at all shows how crappy our media is. Not reporting something is just as bad as reporting misinformation (lies). The crap that's going on now would have been squashed immediately 30 years ago. Add to that the fact that tech billionaires own algorithms that allow everybody to get only what helps feed their bias with no oversight of B.S..
Not for the first, nor for the last time it must be said -- their overreach, arrogance and gobsmacking incompetence, their disdain for understanding how things work -- is our blessing. Use it to our advantage. The cracks in the dam they jerry-rigged are beginning to pop up all over the place. They simply do not have enough fingers to plug them all up. Keep poking at the cracks, for they will widen. The whole scotch-taped Rube Goldberg contraption is swaying violently in near hurricane-force winds.
If it weren't for the six Christian Nationalists on the Supreme Court, the Felon would not be making the United States an authoritarian theocracy. There no such thing as Presidential immunity in the Constitution. The Founders never wanted a king for a President and knew a person like the Felon could become President, thus there would be no Presidential immunity in the Constitution. Congress formulates the laws of the United States. The six Christian Nationalists thwarted the will of Congress when they allowed the firings of the heads/chairs/members of independent agencies without cause; and the six should be impeached.
On the news today: Republicans are warning that the 10/18 No King's demonstrations are Soros supported and anti-American, trying to stir up fear. Johnson was on TV announcing this.
The MAGAts are also spreading thelie that the Democratic party are "violent terrorists." I believe this is their attempt to scare both Democrats and curious Repubs and Independents away from the protests.
1. Trump has reached historic lows in popularity. I believe he is already low and headed for rock-bottom.
2 The No Kings 2.0 rallies on October 18th will send a message to the Prez and to the Congress. There are hundreds more rallies being organized across the country and the number of people who plan to be there continues to grow. Be there! It's going to be fun.
We think serious contribtions (5 figures or more) to Norm Eisen's Defenders of Democracy and Public Citizen which will be used support the sort of litigation he discusses above will be more effective than contributing this early to congressional campaigns.
I read that the Democratic Party's post mortem of the 2024 campaign identifies insufficient funding early in the campaign as contributing to the loss.
And yet of the dozens of soilicitations we get every week, not one reveals what will be done with the money. While I doubt that any of the candidates will just take it home, I'm not so comfortable that it will be well spent. And what would you think of a c andidate that wants $7 to show the Republicans thatr we're serious? And that wasn't even the silliest solicitation we got in September.
I am comfortable that Defenders of Democracy and Public Citizen will spend whatever we give them most efficiently - better results for investment.
I'm interested in suggestions from our wonderful commenters here of other ways to look at this.
Agree. I love Pete Buttigieg, but $3 from me is going to do what? And why, after we collectively shelled out over a billion dollars to elect Kamala Harris, would we even try that again? Pete's first primary campaign in 2020 was a departure, but he has since been subsumed by the DC bubble and old-guard ways. We need more of the new, less of the money, and all of the inclusion.
Helping to launch a streaming platform accessible to all that can engage us with civics lessons, candidate info, political news, and yes, entertainment, would be much more effective than putting millions of three-dollar donations in a bank account. Counteract the Fox News propaganda machine and we'll have a fighting chance.
I'm not giving a penny to Pete until he decides to run for something. I also think he's making milquetoast statements when we need a candidate who isn't afraid to say and do the hard stuff.I think Newsom or Pritzker have a better shot if we are lucky enough to have a free election in 2028.
Perhaps the Dems didn't notice, but we are tapped out, mentally and financially. Our household gave more than we really could to support Harris, and Pete before her. We Dems need a virtual place to gather that doesn't involved donations. I keep advocating for a free streaming platform that offers civics lessons, accurate news, candidate info, and yes, entertainment to keep us engaged, 24/7. Give us what we need, and THEN ask for donations apart from that. Politics is not just money to us little people.
Great idea. Start on Bluesky. We do need a gathering place for ideas and support that doesn't demand money. I think something could pop up there organically.
The DNC is full of old farts who refuse to change their ways, and they allowed Trump to win because they used the same old "we're the good guys" patter. They also supported Biden despite his unpopularity (deserved or not) and his age, and that horrific debate with Trump spelled the death of the Democratic campaign. The Democrats have to stop worrying about appearances and identity politics, and support a white man under age 55. I'm serious. And pragmatic.
Yep, we'll have to take a few steps back AND a few steps forward to succeed again. It's clear the old model is dead, and that should have been clear to Joe, but he was not getting the big picture. Once he attained his lifelong dream, his vision blurred. I so appreciate all he did for us and for the unprecedented diversity that he instilled in government, but he is blind to the changes in how voters respond to the DNC system. I do think we the people will be leading the charge in this regard.
Wonderful Joe compounded the debate disaster by naming Kamala as the successor candidate pre-empting any opportunity to get a better campaigner.
Obama and others had wanted an open convention. There was, at the time, a lot of colloquy suggesting that the candidate selected in that way wouldn't have enough time to put an effective campaign together.
My thought was that it depended on who was selected, and it might not have been one of the usual choices, but now we'll never know.
As to the coup: They didn't run Biden in the Iowa event ,nor New Hampshire, and instead choseSouth Carolina. Why? Undoubtedly because they knew he might not show well. Duh...
For the life of me, I can't understand how was then allowed to choose the candidate.
So when they come after me for money, I say wait until I'm ready to forgive you for the lies you told me.
The thing is, the Democrats did not give a shit about the old adage, "know thy enemy." They ran a touchy-feely woke campaign that was mocked by the GOP, and this campaign pretty much ignored the issues that they should have run on instead - jobs, inflation, health care. Instead, it was all about transgender rights, Trump's lies and J6, and "joy." The GOP was very successful, with the media's help, at making the public think Biden was a bad president. Trump is still banging that drum.
Pete is sending emails which reveal a better understanding of where we screwed up in 2024 and are still screwing up - hints at identity politics, running as the non-Trump, not having a program if we won, overemphasis on fairness to every combination of cultural identity - which I agree with but not s part of a campaign we're tyrinbg to win.
Pete is the only one who seems to have given any thought to how we went wrong, but then I don't know why he needs money either. He didn't say.
Most of those histronic texts and emails starting with a daily outrage and ending with how your donation will “show” R’s are usually sketchy PACs which spend most of the donations on administration and salaries. Very little of our money actually reaches the candidate.
I keep them at bay by texting back “STOP” or hitting unsubscribe on the email. If I want to donate to a candidate, I just go to the official campaign website. I wonder if the ‘insufficient funding’ problem had to do with how many millions of dollars these PACs siphon away from the candidates, especially down-ballot local candidates.
Cynthia, the perplexing thing is most of these use ActBlue to funnel the money. I get a lot of stupid solicitations which appear to have been written eithet by or for the candidate.
Maybe identity poltics wil work within the party but it surely won't work with many independents and the disgusted Republicans that we'll need to win in the upcoming elections which will be held in political atmospheres much like the current one and which our Democratic leadership, except for Pete Buttigieg (based on the emails I get from him) has no clew about. Great Senate candidate in Maine and our clueless leadership is supporting the 77 year old Governor who is a good person, but no longer that swift.
One of the highlights of a recent Democratic Congressional Committee mailing was the suggestion that Congresswoman Luna's district was among the flippable. Maybe flippable because it's held by a Republcan, but in 2024, the attractive and smart Dem Candidate lost by 30 points IIRC. And we don't even have a candidate at this point.
Flippable? Nonsense.
I have unusually sarcastic thoughts about how we came to have 2024's candidate but I can see I'm beginning to froth at the mouth. It seems a lot of people were unable to recognize a coup when they saw one.
I have no idea whether senior Democratic Party types read here. They should.
Identity politics does not work with most people either, myself included. I think it’s just I can tolerate Democratic identity signaling better than Republican identity signaling. Therefore, I agree identity politics won’t work with disgruntled Republicans or Independents as they won’t have much tolerance for Democratic identies.
On the other hand, we are starting to see some new faces making what I think are the much better arguments to win over everyone, regardless of their identity. Platner is a good example. As is Talarico in my state. But, you know, it’s not like they have invented anything new.
It’s the exact same New Deal message of FDR. Which makes sense because Republicans have finally achieved their dream to be able to dismantle the New Deal and return us to the days of the Robber Barons.
The great thing about attacking the Robber Barons who immiserate us is it is universal. The only identity politics needed is top v. bottom.
I supported Harris but I was also very unhappy with how she ran her campaign. And you can shoot me down for this, but no matter how awesome a female or a non-white candidate is, they are bound to lose in the racist and misogynist America we're presently living in.
Some days, Norm's optimism is all that stands between the rank news and my tumble into despair. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Eisen, for showing us what works and what can work.
Thank you for all you do. We have supported the contrarian from the beginning! At some point, Norm, can you address the apparent sale of Dominion voting system to Liberty Vote company led by Scott Leiendecker a GOP/mega election official. This may be part of the plan to control the elections moving forward. I frightening possibility indeed.
My husband saw this AM, a pathetic incident. A Cowardly ICE thug in Portland, pepper sprayed the vent of a Frog Suited Protestor.
The Result. More protestors went out, bought Frog Suits and gathered with Frogs United Signs.
🐸 🐸 🐸 🐸 🐸 🐸!!!!
Go Portland!
A tribute to Green-Americans everywhere suffering for us.
https://sylvestercat.substack.com/p/theyre-all-pussies
Great. Thank you 😊
That is why I love and miss Portland. I love the beauty it is set in, the river, all the bridges, the many parks, all the tiny downtowns leftover from when their towns grew together to become the city. Most of all I miss the acceptance and dedication of the people there to be free and be weird.
(Where in the world do some people get the idea that Portland is burning? All they need to do is change their channel. By the way, one of the tv channels there did a 24 hour livestream of the ICE building to show that Portland is just kind of normal. Well, depending on how you define normal. PDX normal includes dancing frogs and an emergency naked bike rally. And thousands of people running a marathon right past and through what ICE called a "riot". Yeah, sure.)
I would love to live in Portland. To me, it's the next best thing to moving to Canada.
My sister loved it there. Years ago.
FU signs! 😆 🤣
It looks like it’s the protesting they can’t handle. Boo effing hoo.
Show Trump's weakness by voting for these Democrats on Nov. 4, 2025:
Spanberger for Governor of Virginia, PO. Box 3121, Glen Allen, VA 23058 and
Mikie Sherrill for Governor of New Jersey, PO. Box 43032, Montclair, NJ 07043
In my opinion, they are both outstanding candidates. They are both worth your support in our effort to return sanity to government at all levels.
I an a retired RN
Still waiting for a motion to recuse Thomas and Alito for bias and prejudice.
Unfortunately, Chief Justice Roberts stands in the way. He has a history of *not* demanding recusal in instances of clear conflict of interest.
Things changed as of November, 2023. https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/Code-of-Conduct-for-Justices_November_13_2023.pdf
So true
I will always wonder why Smith never moved to remove Aileen Cannon from the documents case.
That's a good question! Are we sure he didn't try and was advised not to do it?
That would be awesome because they are so biased and hyper-partisan with a weird religious bent.
The fact that trump has any support at all shows how crappy our media is. Not reporting something is just as bad as reporting misinformation (lies). The crap that's going on now would have been squashed immediately 30 years ago. Add to that the fact that tech billionaires own algorithms that allow everybody to get only what helps feed their bias with no oversight of B.S..
Looks to me like Trump and Project 2025 are slowly destroying mass media. CBS Paramount is the biggest example, including their affiliates.
Not for the first, nor for the last time it must be said -- their overreach, arrogance and gobsmacking incompetence, their disdain for understanding how things work -- is our blessing. Use it to our advantage. The cracks in the dam they jerry-rigged are beginning to pop up all over the place. They simply do not have enough fingers to plug them all up. Keep poking at the cracks, for they will widen. The whole scotch-taped Rube Goldberg contraption is swaying violently in near hurricane-force winds.
Keep all those fans blowing at high speed.
Resist. Resist. Resist. Stand up peacefully any way you can. All actions matter!
Thank you, Mr. Eisen, for giving us glimmers of hope in the darkness of these days.
Norm,
I want to thank you for another amazing national legal report, reporting truth to power with evidence, honesty, hope, authenticity, compassion.
We are in this together. No Kings. Peace.
Christopher and family
If it weren't for the six Christian Nationalists on the Supreme Court, the Felon would not be making the United States an authoritarian theocracy. There no such thing as Presidential immunity in the Constitution. The Founders never wanted a king for a President and knew a person like the Felon could become President, thus there would be no Presidential immunity in the Constitution. Congress formulates the laws of the United States. The six Christian Nationalists thwarted the will of Congress when they allowed the firings of the heads/chairs/members of independent agencies without cause; and the six should be impeached.
On the news today: Republicans are warning that the 10/18 No King's demonstrations are Soros supported and anti-American, trying to stir up fear. Johnson was on TV announcing this.
Norm, how do we rebut this?
Terrifying.
Yes, it’s all over the news. More fear mongering; he may think it will prevent us from protesting! How foolish he is!
The MAGAts are also spreading thelie that the Democratic party are "violent terrorists." I believe this is their attempt to scare both Democrats and curious Repubs and Independents away from the protests.
1. Trump has reached historic lows in popularity. I believe he is already low and headed for rock-bottom.
2 The No Kings 2.0 rallies on October 18th will send a message to the Prez and to the Congress. There are hundreds more rallies being organized across the country and the number of people who plan to be there continues to grow. Be there! It's going to be fun.
We think serious contribtions (5 figures or more) to Norm Eisen's Defenders of Democracy and Public Citizen which will be used support the sort of litigation he discusses above will be more effective than contributing this early to congressional campaigns.
I read that the Democratic Party's post mortem of the 2024 campaign identifies insufficient funding early in the campaign as contributing to the loss.
And yet of the dozens of soilicitations we get every week, not one reveals what will be done with the money. While I doubt that any of the candidates will just take it home, I'm not so comfortable that it will be well spent. And what would you think of a c andidate that wants $7 to show the Republicans thatr we're serious? And that wasn't even the silliest solicitation we got in September.
I am comfortable that Defenders of Democracy and Public Citizen will spend whatever we give them most efficiently - better results for investment.
I'm interested in suggestions from our wonderful commenters here of other ways to look at this.
Agree. I love Pete Buttigieg, but $3 from me is going to do what? And why, after we collectively shelled out over a billion dollars to elect Kamala Harris, would we even try that again? Pete's first primary campaign in 2020 was a departure, but he has since been subsumed by the DC bubble and old-guard ways. We need more of the new, less of the money, and all of the inclusion.
Helping to launch a streaming platform accessible to all that can engage us with civics lessons, candidate info, political news, and yes, entertainment, would be much more effective than putting millions of three-dollar donations in a bank account. Counteract the Fox News propaganda machine and we'll have a fighting chance.
I'm not giving a penny to Pete until he decides to run for something. I also think he's making milquetoast statements when we need a candidate who isn't afraid to say and do the hard stuff.I think Newsom or Pritzker have a better shot if we are lucky enough to have a free election in 2028.
Perhaps the Dems didn't notice, but we are tapped out, mentally and financially. Our household gave more than we really could to support Harris, and Pete before her. We Dems need a virtual place to gather that doesn't involved donations. I keep advocating for a free streaming platform that offers civics lessons, accurate news, candidate info, and yes, entertainment to keep us engaged, 24/7. Give us what we need, and THEN ask for donations apart from that. Politics is not just money to us little people.
Great idea. Start on Bluesky. We do need a gathering place for ideas and support that doesn't demand money. I think something could pop up there organically.
The DNC is full of old farts who refuse to change their ways, and they allowed Trump to win because they used the same old "we're the good guys" patter. They also supported Biden despite his unpopularity (deserved or not) and his age, and that horrific debate with Trump spelled the death of the Democratic campaign. The Democrats have to stop worrying about appearances and identity politics, and support a white man under age 55. I'm serious. And pragmatic.
Yep, we'll have to take a few steps back AND a few steps forward to succeed again. It's clear the old model is dead, and that should have been clear to Joe, but he was not getting the big picture. Once he attained his lifelong dream, his vision blurred. I so appreciate all he did for us and for the unprecedented diversity that he instilled in government, but he is blind to the changes in how voters respond to the DNC system. I do think we the people will be leading the charge in this regard.
And then there's Israel and that genocide.
Wonderful Joe compounded the debate disaster by naming Kamala as the successor candidate pre-empting any opportunity to get a better campaigner.
Obama and others had wanted an open convention. There was, at the time, a lot of colloquy suggesting that the candidate selected in that way wouldn't have enough time to put an effective campaign together.
My thought was that it depended on who was selected, and it might not have been one of the usual choices, but now we'll never know.
As to the coup: They didn't run Biden in the Iowa event ,nor New Hampshire, and instead choseSouth Carolina. Why? Undoubtedly because they knew he might not show well. Duh...
For the life of me, I can't understand how was then allowed to choose the candidate.
So when they come after me for money, I say wait until I'm ready to forgive you for the lies you told me.
I do feel betrayed. But by their mechanics, not by their values. So, still a Democrat, since there is no alternative.
The thing is, the Democrats did not give a shit about the old adage, "know thy enemy." They ran a touchy-feely woke campaign that was mocked by the GOP, and this campaign pretty much ignored the issues that they should have run on instead - jobs, inflation, health care. Instead, it was all about transgender rights, Trump's lies and J6, and "joy." The GOP was very successful, with the media's help, at making the public think Biden was a bad president. Trump is still banging that drum.
Pete is sending emails which reveal a better understanding of where we screwed up in 2024 and are still screwing up - hints at identity politics, running as the non-Trump, not having a program if we won, overemphasis on fairness to every combination of cultural identity - which I agree with but not s part of a campaign we're tyrinbg to win.
Pete is the only one who seems to have given any thought to how we went wrong, but then I don't know why he needs money either. He didn't say.
Most of those histronic texts and emails starting with a daily outrage and ending with how your donation will “show” R’s are usually sketchy PACs which spend most of the donations on administration and salaries. Very little of our money actually reaches the candidate.
I keep them at bay by texting back “STOP” or hitting unsubscribe on the email. If I want to donate to a candidate, I just go to the official campaign website. I wonder if the ‘insufficient funding’ problem had to do with how many millions of dollars these PACs siphon away from the candidates, especially down-ballot local candidates.
Me too, most of them I've never heard of, and if I check the link, the narrative is lame.
Cynthia, the perplexing thing is most of these use ActBlue to funnel the money. I get a lot of stupid solicitations which appear to have been written eithet by or for the candidate.
Maybe identity poltics wil work within the party but it surely won't work with many independents and the disgusted Republicans that we'll need to win in the upcoming elections which will be held in political atmospheres much like the current one and which our Democratic leadership, except for Pete Buttigieg (based on the emails I get from him) has no clew about. Great Senate candidate in Maine and our clueless leadership is supporting the 77 year old Governor who is a good person, but no longer that swift.
One of the highlights of a recent Democratic Congressional Committee mailing was the suggestion that Congresswoman Luna's district was among the flippable. Maybe flippable because it's held by a Republcan, but in 2024, the attractive and smart Dem Candidate lost by 30 points IIRC. And we don't even have a candidate at this point.
Flippable? Nonsense.
I have unusually sarcastic thoughts about how we came to have 2024's candidate but I can see I'm beginning to froth at the mouth. It seems a lot of people were unable to recognize a coup when they saw one.
I have no idea whether senior Democratic Party types read here. They should.
Identity politics does not work with most people either, myself included. I think it’s just I can tolerate Democratic identity signaling better than Republican identity signaling. Therefore, I agree identity politics won’t work with disgruntled Republicans or Independents as they won’t have much tolerance for Democratic identies.
On the other hand, we are starting to see some new faces making what I think are the much better arguments to win over everyone, regardless of their identity. Platner is a good example. As is Talarico in my state. But, you know, it’s not like they have invented anything new.
It’s the exact same New Deal message of FDR. Which makes sense because Republicans have finally achieved their dream to be able to dismantle the New Deal and return us to the days of the Robber Barons.
The great thing about attacking the Robber Barons who immiserate us is it is universal. The only identity politics needed is top v. bottom.
immiserate? thanks for a great word.
I supported Harris but I was also very unhappy with how she ran her campaign. And you can shoot me down for this, but no matter how awesome a female or a non-white candidate is, they are bound to lose in the racist and misogynist America we're presently living in.
I should add, that anyone else who want's money from me has a business plan.
Some days, Norm's optimism is all that stands between the rank news and my tumble into despair. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Eisen, for showing us what works and what can work.
Thank you for all you do. We have supported the contrarian from the beginning! At some point, Norm, can you address the apparent sale of Dominion voting system to Liberty Vote company led by Scott Leiendecker a GOP/mega election official. This may be part of the plan to control the elections moving forward. I frightening possibility indeed.
Important stuff and the truth we depend upon Norm. the use of violence is a sign of weakness!
All that "stable genius" stuff? If it were true, he wouldn't need the muscle.
A great roundup of The Contrarian's week. Thank you.