235 Comments

Thank you Joyce for the succinct legal happenings. Never before has it been so important to vote a straight ticket. We in Maryland better know the assignment. Now that Trump has put a target on every Jew in the US, who is a Democrat, when he loses, it makes it more important than ever that I have a government that has my back

Expand full comment

How many people are on this Project 2025 deportition plan list? Kamala Harris must be elected to make sure this insanity is stopped dead in its tracks. Malcolm Nance has said the people will not go easily and are going to fight back full force.

Expand full comment

As welcomed as the awakening of voters to sweep democrats in the White House and both houses of congress, I am cautious and fearful of what the red states are doing in the battleground states. If the percentages are so great in favor of Harris, then these nuisance objections being created by MAGA election officials should be minimal.

But I’d rather talk about the chicks. When I was a youngin, us guys referred to girls as chicks. I know it sounds so sexist at worst and quaint at best. But I still like the word. Old habits die hard. I like referring them as chicks. The other term was, “my ole lady” but no, I always referred to them or y’all, as chicks. I’m currently trying to woo a new chick into my life. Online beginnings don’t often pan out. But this chick is Asian, a bit argumentative (I like a chick who argues because it’s usually sign of intelligence in my book) and, well, we’ll see.

Harris/Walz 2024

Expand full comment

The other term from way back - which I have never liked - is "broad" or "old broad". At least the real chicks, and perhaps many of the human ones, have some cute going for them.

Expand full comment

No that term was out by the 1960s. I hated that word. What about guys.i have a blank.

Expand full comment

Let nostalgia have it's moment before we say goodbye to "broad":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=104QNAywBew

https://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/rodgersandhammersteinssouthpacific/honeybun.htm

(For some reason -- Susan, you're not alone! -- the opening verse is left out of the later movie version with Mitzi Gaynor and the recent revival with Kelli O'Hara.)

Long term solution (I'm serious): USA should become officially bilingual in English and Spanish. That allows for "chica" and "chico", from the word for "Small" which might have come from the Latin for "Chick-Pea."

Expand full comment

Lee, I have to agree that it would be good for the USA to become bilingual. Spanish, along with all the other so-called romance languages (Portuguese, Italian, French) are all so called because they are derived from Latin. My husband calls me "chica" all the time, which is fine by me because it's definitely affectionate. According to google translate, the Latin for chickpea is "ciceris". And the Latin for small is "parvum" (among others). No relation to chica evidently.

Expand full comment

Someone felt personally insulted by my playful use of this word and I gave her the option of telling me to delete it and so if it’s deleted, it will be per request. I meant no insult by its use.

Expand full comment

Gee, I graduated high school in 1962. And I remember the word past that time. I have a blank about guys, too. Maybe there was no similar name for guys. The only thing I can think of is "hunk", which isn't bad, IMO.

Expand full comment

Now we find out all those who are immigrants under project 2025 will have numbers imprinted on their arms. How Hitler is this?

Expand full comment

Has Trump indicated the serial numbers will be tattooed a la Auschwitz or is he going to use his magic marker ?

Expand full comment

In Maryland, too. Concerned about the Dem Senate vote-with Hogan interjecting himself into that race. Hope we can keep that seat for the capable Democrat! Know state will go for Harris but probably not the Eastern Shore? Trump took more than 60% of the ES vote his last victory. Here’s hoping the Dems win BIG time in this 2024 vote! Across the nation, too!

Expand full comment

New poll shows Alsobrooks p by 11. She should be up by a higher percentage than Harris who is up by 31%

Expand full comment

Precious chicks!

On Friday, September 20, I cast my vote for Harris/Walz in Chesapeake, VA!

It was a true pleasure to stand in line for an hour and 45 minutes in the hot sun! (Next time I’ll bring a hat and a bottle of water!) I was excited to find so many folks ready to vote on the first day of early voting. The atmosphere was great. It was almost a block party feeling. I actually made new friends. Democracy is a wonderful thing.

Thank you for your posts, Joyce. You give me hope for our Democracy.

Expand full comment

Good for you and the nation, Carolyn! Thanks.

Expand full comment

I add my thanks! We have to fight like hell to make this nation right again!

Expand full comment

That's great to hear!

Expand full comment

Yay Carolyn! 🎆

Expand full comment

Thank you -- Love this!

Expand full comment

Another consideration is that the post office, no matter what DeJoy says, doesn’t seem in a hurry to deliver mail. We sent our daughter and son In law an anniversary gift over a week ago and they still haven’t received it.

Expand full comment

I've been getting absentee ballots but, instead of mailing them, I bring them to the early voting location and deposit them into the ballot box. (Those boxes used to be outside, but after Georgia's SR 202 went into force, they were moved indoors, making it more of an effort for the elderly or disabled to get to them. It also means that Covid-averse people like me must go inside a room occupied by people not wearing masks. Fortunately, that does not take much time to do.)

Expand full comment

I believe the poll workers will (I’m not sure if it’s must) come outside to receive your ballot if asked.

Expand full comment

That was true when I worked the polls in VA

Expand full comment

Yep. I chose the 3 day option when mailing a gift to my son. More like 3+ weeks.

Expand full comment

Oh Gad… the Cosmo-Demonic Post Office. It’s now a banana republic fiefdom. On July 4, (no less on independence day) 2020, a print that originated from Sweden arrived at the depot in Springfield, MA, up from my CT home. After I finally complained, they said it disappeared. That was the beginning of a long ugly relationship with the post office. Now when I find a package at a depot longer than 2 days, I call the Inspector General’s office to complain and immediately tell them that they have gangs of thieves stealing out mail. I have found they don’t like being called thieves and I get immediate service. Unfortunately, this is now my modus to get action — calling them thieves.

Expand full comment

I was so hoping that DeJoy would finally be removed when the Post Office Board consisted of more Democrat directors than Republicans.

Expand full comment

Mail stinks!!! NYC losing mail boxes on the streets due to mail being stolen out of them! The new boxes are a felons delight! DeJoy is Horrible !!!!!

Expand full comment

Here in my neighborhood in Kansas City, MO, we have gone from 6 postal delivery days a week to 3 or 4, and often mail arrives after dark. I have to go looking for my packages when I receive notice that they’ve been delivered, because they often go to the wrong house and when I do have a package delivered correctly it sometimes looks like it’s been run over. DeJoy has got to go!

Expand full comment

Our local mail now makes a 550 mile round trip to Portland Oregon and back. What used to be overnight is now 3 to 5 days.

Expand full comment

Of course, the IRS deadline has always been for mailing, not receipt.

Expand full comment

I was thinking the same thing - and I think it's a pretty good parallel.

Expand full comment

The chicks are simply adorable. Thank you for the updates on the hearings this week. My gut feeling is to ignore the polls and keep writing postcards and talking with people about how important voting is in this election. It’s especially important to remind women that their vote is PRIVATE. They do not have to vote like their husbands or fathers. Christian Nationalist women have been brought up to believe this. Also important to talk to Independents too. My neighbor told me he liked my yards signs: Harris-Walz Absolutely and Say YES on Amendment 3 (marijuana legalization). Let’s all keep working hard to ensure a Big Blue Tsunami. Blue - up and down the ballot. We need a trifecta!

Expand full comment

I like your attitude!

Expand full comment

Thanks Bev! That means a lot to me.

Expand full comment

Chicks Rule!

Expand full comment

Those are some cute chicks!

Expand full comment

I was all ready to vote in Virginia on Saturday! Until Tuesday when my daughter in Arizona went into early labor. So now I'm in AZ until early November (with my new grandson!) but I have already ordered my absentee ballot to be sent here!

Expand full comment

Congratulations!!

Expand full comment

Congratulations!!

Expand full comment

Congratulations

Expand full comment

Hurray for Grandma’s! Bet the new parents are grateful for the helping hands.

Expand full comment

Congrats!

Expand full comment

If we-learn anything from this presidential election, may it be that we can do it in three months. It does not take 24 hrs a day for four years, or twenty appeals for cash every 12 hours!

The chicks are adorable, and just as important as any flutters in the beltway.

Expand full comment

If Citizens United gets overturned and/or we get serious campaign finance reform, I'm guessing campaign seasons would get shorter -- I hope!

Expand full comment

I agree. No need to put the country through the lengthy campaign season. The news networks make money on long campaigns.

Expand full comment

Long campaigns are really tedious, IMO. I always want to tune them out. The other thing that really annoys me is that when representatives start campaigning for re-election the minute they are seated, they tend to be focused way more on re-election than they are on doing the work they were elected to do.

Expand full comment

So many people make money : the press, the networks, influencers, all the people who do stuff for the campaigns, including high priced consultants and pollsters.

I would rather have our big city school departments send out three emails a day explaining why they need more donations. They could use so many stories about smart kids who are struggling due to big class, unsafe buildings, lack of technology. Together we must waste billions on these campaigns at every level.

Expand full comment

Could not agree more!

Expand full comment

“One hopes that the Fifth Circuit will not rush into that breach”—deliciously dry wit.

Expand full comment

With three Trump appointees on the panel of the Fifth Circuit reviewing this case, that does seem like a vain hope.

Expand full comment

Well at least Kaczmarek is not on that panel. That gives me some hope.

Expand full comment

Even in Mississippi, which votes overwhelmingly Republican, they want to make voting as difficult as possible. I’m surprised they don’t go back to the jellybeans in the jar test — but just for certain people.

Expand full comment

They would if they could.

Expand full comment

As a Virginia resident I was able to cast my vote Friday September 20 th, the first day of in person early voting thanks to the Dems in the state house who expanded early voting during the pandemic and have kept that so far despite Republican resistance. I was there around 3 PM and did not have to waiting more than 5 mins or so. The election workers said it hah been much busier from the time they opened until that point in the day. Should be a good sign.

Expand full comment

Leavening the legal news with the chicks works very well.

Expand full comment

Eat your growing food, then you can have dessert. ;-)

Expand full comment

In the legal category of "Expected," Orange 1's terribly busy defense team asked the 11th Circuit for a 30-day delay in filing its response to the government's appeal of Aileen Cannon's dismissal of their client's classified-documents case. The complaint is it's just too darn busy elsewhere defending his alleged criminal activities to meet the Sept. 25 deadline. The government did not object. Might as well make nice on the court and score some points for "cooperating" with the defense (judges like that) when it really doesn't matter in the scheme of things. There is also that "mega-brief" Joyce mentions the government intends to file on Sept. 26 which probably needs some last minute work and which that oh-so-busy defense wants desperately to keep the voting public from seeing.

Expand full comment

The babies are so adorable- melt our hearts♥️♥️♥️

Expand full comment

I agree that we are seeing SOME signs of cracks in the MAGA cult. They first appeared after January 6, then we saw more during/after the Jan 6 Committee did their public hearings in 2022 The question is whether or not enough will peel away. I believe that the Permission Structure has been put in place for a few to choose not to support Trump for the third time. We don't need many, just a few.

https://open.substack.com/pub/pastrepublican/p/a-cracking-cult?r=dek1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Expand full comment

According to the bookies, more valid than most polls. Kamala up 7 % today.

https://danielsolomon.substack.com/p/more-smart-money/comments

My sense is that our big advantage in new registrations is under the radar. I recommend FT 6, but several other organizations have the same goal.

Meanwhile There may be huge defections. During the Sept. 10 debate Trump twice refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia. He suggested, "Negotiate a deal," which Harris countered by saying if Trump had been president during the invasion, "Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe."

Vance has been anti Ukraine. Over a million Ukrainians in Pa. Approximately 784,000 Polish Americans in Michigan, 758,000 in Pennsylvania, and 481,000 in Wisconsin. Latvians, Estonians, Litvaks, Fins, etc know that if Ukraine falls, they are next.

Last week, the DNC organized a national call with Polish American supporters. The goal was to rally local networks to host events and spread the campaign's message. This strategic move is aimed at mobilizing Polish American voters who could be crucial in tight races.

Expand full comment

Daniel, I think you're off by a factor of 10 on the number of Ukrainians in Pennsylvania. It's closer to 100,000 than 1 million

Expand full comment

The consequences of DeJoy's appointment to head the USPS is so obvious here. There is no question that mail delivery is slower across the country, and the possibility of malfeasance (intentional or otherwise) is large. The only Trump appointee I can think of who has performed admirably is Jerome Powell. The rest are dismal.

Expand full comment

How could it not be intentional malfeasance when mail sorting machines were decommissioned and stripped bare so they couldn't be reassembled?!?

Expand full comment

That is a good enough reason to accept mailed ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. When these GOP wing-nuts talk about this issue there is never mention of the USPS delivery issues. Perhaps we should consider incorporating the Pony Express back into service…

Expand full comment

Agreed. I meant not only the past decisions but also the possibility of delays to the mail in ballots this year.

Expand full comment

DeJoy had them put out of commission for the last election. It cost the post office hundreds of thousands of dollars to junk them.

Expand full comment