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Pinback

Pinback's Journal
Pinback's Journal
January 23, 2023

Well, "he regrets what transpired at the Capitol that day"

What more do you want? He’s sorry if anyone was offended by his statements, or his feet on the desk, or by the envelope that crawled into his hand. The Capitol became attacked — some innocent tourists got caught up in the events of the day. Most unfortunate happenstance.

Now he has become convicted. Oh well, thoughts and prayers.


https://seditiontracker.com/suspects/richard-barnett.html

December 8, 2022

"A Country That Our Children Will Be Proud Of" song by V. Zelenskyy and associates

If you've seen "Servant of the People," the Volodymyr Zelenskyy TV sitcom that was his unlikely springboard to the Ukrainian presidency, you'll recognize several of the cast members in this troupe.

According to DuckDuckGo's translation of the Russian text from YouTube, this is from a March 2019 performance for the popular TV program "Evening Quarter." (If anyone who knows the language can provide more information, please post your response!)

Even without knowing the language, I found this song (and the audience's reaction) quite moving. Hope you'll enjoy it.

December 7, 2022

I'd Like to Announce My Departure from Masochist

By Sarah Hutto, The New Yorker
December 7, 2022

I’ve been a Masochist user for more than a decade now, but I’m afraid that my time on this platform has come to an end. The Masochist app has seen me go from a young, single, childless person to an older, less healthy person at the tail end of my first divorce, with two, maybe three, kids.

I’ve really enjoyed sharing my posts (“cries for help,” as Masochist calls them) with other “masochists” whom I’ve come to know through this platform. And I’ve loved seeing all of your cries for help as well. Whether I was simply making sure that you were also miserable or berating you for your content, at Masochist I always felt like I was part of a community—a deeply unhealthy family, if you will—that I will keep with me as I venture forth in my offline life and try to figure out exactly how many kids I have and what their full names are.

...

I will miss the reliable torture I received on Masochist—be it from strangers calling me horrible names, or from friends and family, also calling me horrible names. And I will miss reciprocating that pain, as is the way in a true community.

...

If you’d still like to keep in touch online, you can find me over on Facepalm, where I have traded my privacy to be flattened with a different anvil on a regular basis.
- more at link: https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/id-like-to-announce-my-departure-from-masochist

December 7, 2022

What changed in US Senate runoff? Small gains for Warnock across Georgia

- Mark Niesse, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, tonight

The runoff for U.S. Senate mostly mirrored the general election, with a key difference: Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock won a bit more of the vote in almost every county.

Warnock gained ground against Republican Herschel Walker in almost every county since the first election four weeks ago, according to preliminary results.

Warnock’s support grew in 147 of Georgia’s 159 counties, including both rural Republican-leaning areas and Democratic bastions in metro areas.

- https://www.ajc.com/news/live-updates/2022-senate-runoff-election/

Metro Atlanta is getting a lot of credit, but this is a statewide win. As in 2020, when Biden lost by less in small counties all over Georgia as compared to Clinton in 2016, Warnock’s team put together a win that drew support from every part of the state.

Those Democratic voters in Alice Walker’s hometown of Eatonton, in Jimmy Carter’s hometown of Plains and nearby Americus, even the badly outnumbered Dem voters in Rome and Cedartown — where they have to live with representation by the Jewish Space Laser lady — all those votes added up to bring home the win for Sen. Warnock.

THANK YOU to the Georgia Dem Party, every county Dem Party, Fair Fight Georgia, the New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter, Unite Here, and many other organizations — and to the thousands of volunteers who knocked doors, made phone calls, worked campaign events, wrote post cards and letters, and never gave up.

I remember the last time we had a Democratic U.S. Senator before we were blessed with Ossoff and Warnock. That was Zell Miller. (Sorry for that memory.)

Although it would be wildly optimistic to say that Georgia has “turned Blue” — we do have a state government that’s still firmly in Red clutches — tonight, we can take a breath, hoot and holler, and enjoy this win for the ages.

As another DU thread tonight pointed out, Warnock has now won election to the U.S. Senate FOUR TIMES in two years (not counting the primaries). I’d say he deserves it.
December 7, 2022

Baldwin County flips to Raphael Warnock

Warnock carries ‘swingiest’ county in Georgia
- Greg Bluestein, AJC, tonight

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock narrowly flipped Georgia’s most competitive county, an encouraging sign for his tight runoff against Republican Herschel Walker.

Returns showed the Democrat carrying the middle Georgia county by about 1 percentage point, which Walker narrowly won in November.

- https://www.ajc.com/news/live-updates/2022-senate-runoff-election/
December 6, 2022

How to follow Georgia runoff election results and updates from the AJC

I suspect most of us will be following Warnock vs. Werewolf results via teevee or various Internet sources tonight, but in case you want to check results as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they'll be posting updates as noted here:
https://www.ajc.com/politics/election/georgia-senate-runoff-dec-6-how-to-follow-results-and-updates-from-the-ajc/PPHUZI6WQBHSPKIGQFG643NSIM/


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is providing exclusive Georgia Senate runoff election day updates all day and election results after the polls close Tuesday across all of our platforms. The coverage will continue overnight, including comprehensive stories and election charts in the AJC ePaper Wednesday morning.

On social media platforms: Follow the AJC Georgia Politics team on Twitter (@ajcgapolitics), the AJC Georgia Education Team @AJC_Education, and reporters Mark Niesse @markniesse Patricia Murphy @murphyajc, Greg Bluestein @bluestein, Tia Mitchell @ajconwashington and Shannon McCaffrey @shannonajc1. More updates on AJC Facebook and AJC Twitter accounts.

- More info at link posted above.

See also:
https://www.ajc.com/news/live-updates/2022-senate-runoff-election/
https://www.ajc.com/politics/election-results/
November 13, 2022

Why AP called Nevada Senate race for Catherine Cortez Masto

Why AP called Nevada Senate race for Catherine Cortez Masto

By Mike Catalini, Associated Press, Nov. 12, 2022

The Associated Press called the Nevada Senate race for Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on Saturday after a batch of votes from the Las Vegas area gave her a 5,000-vote lead that the AP determined she would not relinquish.

The win for Cortez Masto also meant Democrats would keep control of the Senate.

The AP concluded Cortez Masto’s lead would carry even if Republican Adam Laxalt made gains in rural Nevada counties that are still counting votes.

Her victory allows the Democrats to retain control the Senate with at least 50 seats because of Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote even without a victory in the Georgia runoff in December.

- more at link: https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-las-vegas-nevada-congress-2326fcb308e7a22bedff05631672da4c

Congratulations to Sen. Cortez Masto! And to all of us.

Now, let's re-elect Senator Warnock for the icing on the cake.
November 11, 2022

Want to help re-elect Sen. Warnock? Send letters to Georgia voters!

Vote Forward has pivoted to the Georgia senate runoff. As you may know, Vote Forward identifies Dem-leaning voters who may need a little extra nudge to get them to the polls. Volunteers can "adopt" blocks of voters to send hand-written letters (using the Vote Forward template).

The goal is to send non-partisan GOTV letters to voters who don't always show up to the polls, but when they do are likely to vote for Democrats. It's entirely anonymous for the sender (you sign your first name only and don't use your return address). The project has boosted Democratic turnout since the project launched in 2018. 249,000 Vote Forward volunteers have sent 29 million letters to voters in the past four years, helping to boost turnout by as much as 3.4 percentage points. In races as close as the ones we're trying to win, that's huge!

As I post this on Friday afternoon, Vote Forward volunteers have adopted 399,760 Georgia voters and will be sending them letters in the coming days. (Instead of one "Big Send" day as in previous campaigns, these are going out ASAP given the short runway to the start of early voting in advance of the Dec. 6 election day.) There are currently 215,233 unclaimed voters, so feel free to jump in! If you haven't done this before, you might want to claim 5 names and addresses to start, to make sure this is a good volunteer activity for you.

I've sent Vote Forward letters to a few hundred voters in various states during the past couple of election cycles. It's a good feeling to know I'm contributing to the success of Dems--and supporting the post office in the process!

The only active campaigns at this point are two for Georgia's runoff pitting Warnock against the play sheriff guy Trump anointed:
  1. a “Social Campaign” to support Vote Forward’s core social mission of helping to increase the participation of historically underrepresented communities in the electorate.

  2. a “Political Campaign” to support the political efforts that Vote Forward, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, undertakes in addition to its core social mission.

Let me know if I can help answer any questions, or you can get more information here:
https://votefwd.org/instructions

Happy letter writing!
(Cross-posted to the Georgia group and Activist Headquarters.)

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Hometown: GA
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Member since: 2002
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