Individual "thanks" threads sometimes get lost, so I thought it would be nice to have the thanks in one place for donors to see.

Personally, I'd like to thank my kind benefactors from the bottom of my you-know-what! I appreciate you very much!

I just heard about this group and thought some of you talented bakers (a group that unfortunately does not include me) might like to put your skills to good use and help make personalized bday cakes for kids who otherwise probably wouldn't get one. It sounds very low-commitment -- you request a cake when you've got the time and inclination.

https://www.cake4kids.org/

Alligator - 0
Snake - also 0

A lot of us here in the USA did what we could to prevent a pro-Putin Republican takeover of our government. We understand all too well that making donations, making phone calls, writing letters and postcards, putting out signs, knocking on doors, driving people to and working at the polls, talking to friends and family to urge them to vote for Democrats are nothing compared to the battles you've been waging. But when each of us did our little part, we felt you walking shoulder to shoulder with us. We fought for ourselves, but we also fought for you, and for the rest of the world. The election results are far from perfect, but they're a lot better than many people expected. They indicate that the USA will not abandon you in your hours of need after all. Thank you for fighting so hard against the forces of authoritarianism and fascism and evil itself. You inspire us every day.

(edited to add things as they occur to me)

- the very encouraging early vote stats
- no evidence of a red wave so far
- Dems crushed the GQP in small donations
- Dems' enthusiasm is polling equal to the bad guys
- many new voters registered D post Dobbs
- women are much more likely to vote D and they are outvoting men bigly so far
- a not insignificant number of Republican women will flip their vote to D in light of Dobbs
- young voters reporting they will vote in big numbers on election day
- likely voter models are probably very inaccurate, in our favor
- although more people say they're concerned about inflation, inflation is not the burning motivator to vote like Dobbs is
- no Trump on the ballot this time; a lot of Republicans are loyal to Dear Leader only, not the GQP in general
- conversely, Trump won’t go away, and that’s motivating for Dems
- more people are understanding that democracy itself is at stake
- GQP putting most of its eggs in election day voting -- very risky for them
- numbers in past few days have moved a bit towards the Ds
- Republicans not acting like they're confident about tomorrow (e.g. all the desperate lawsuits they're filing)
- Republicans trumpeting bullshit right wing polls…NOT their internal polls (things that make you go “hmmm.”)
- independent polls showing a much more favorable outlook than the right wing polls like Trafalgar that the GQP has been pushing to skew averages like 538
- some pundits are finally stepping back and admitting it won't necessarily be an R blowout after all, because "anything could happen" -- trying to salvage a bit of their own credibility?
- in 2020, the Dems didn't have much of a ground game due to the pandemic (while the GQP did). This time, thousands of D volunteers are knocking on doors, canvassing, etc.
- progressive and Dem organizations seeing big participation with things like postcard writing (personally, I sent 200 to Nevada and 15 to Georgia)
- since 2020, about 8 million Gen Zers have turned 18. Sure, it will take a while for them to register and vote reliably, but they're overwhelmingly more progressive in general than the older generations, including the dwindling Silent Gen demo, which is quite conservative (yes, in general, exceptions abound, etc.)
- Several hundred thousand Trumpy anti-vaxxers have died of Covid. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld: "That's a shame."
- Dems have overperformed expectations in the last several special elections

As William Rivers Pitt would have told us: "Stout Hearts."

It's looking like the Dems are gonna run away with the governor's race and other statewide contests in the midterms. What do you think the chances are of U.S. Rep. Andrew Harris getting swept out of office on Nov. 8th?

Look at this little boy, sleeping in his mother’s arms... the tiny hand... the shoeless little foot... the long dark eyelashes...
To Ron Desantis, this toddler is just a piece of subhuman garbage to be shuffled around and used as a prop in the governor's attempt to become dictator of the USA.

I've been posting this image online to get as many eyes on it as possible in the hopes that more and more people will participate in and share the idea (and image). I've gotten some good feedback and several people saying they're on board and have started posting public messages, which is encouraging.

Please spread it around if you like it!

Also, if you or someone you know is connected to a pro-choice/Democratic/women's/civil rights organization or campaign and like this idea, are technologically astute, and have a bit of PR/marketing/social media savvy, I'd love it if you or they would run with the concept and publicize it. One idea is to have a portion of a website dedicated to photos of these do-it-yourself messages. The organization could get people to send in photos of their own posted messages or messages that they've spotted, then post them on a website with a general description of the location, e.g.: "restroom, O'Hare Airport, Chicago," or whatever. I think people would really enjoy participating in something like that, and hopefully it could go viral.

Thank you all! Let's all keep doing what we can through November 8!