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Jon Ossoff and Josh Allen taught me the same lesson GNR [1]
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Date: 2025-09-13
I had a really tough day earlier this week. Really tough. I was more down than I usually get.
And two things happened that cheered me up.
I got the exact same advice, right when I needed it, from two very different people. Jon Ossoff and Josh Allen.
Josh Allen, for those of you who don’t know, is the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. If you aren’t a football fan, all you need to know is that he is very good at his job and the Bills fans are very invested in football.
I am one such fan.
I watched the Bills opening game last Sunday night
Well, I watched most of it. The Bills were getting hammered by the Ravens.
It was getting late. I had to get up early. We were down by 15 points.
My friends, I turned the game off and went to bed.
I gave up.
I love the Bills so much. I waited months and months for this game. I believe in them.
And I got tired and lost hope and gave up.
Once I got into bed, I had a hard time falling asleep. At some point, I checked my phone and saw that we were suddenly only down by 8.
I went back downstairs and turned on the game.
The Bills won in the literal last second of the game with a field goal.
It was so exciting.
For the next couple of days, I immersed myself in replay videos. Partly because i love that. And partly to pull myself out of my funk.
I kept seeing videos of Josh Allen gently admonishing Bills fans for leaving the stadium early.
I kept seeing people saying “You don’t give up hope when you have Josh Allen.”
And then I saw Jon Ossoff was being interviewed and he said:
"Allow yourselves to feel hope. Allow yourselves to believe in victory. The only way that we don't win these elections is if we lose faith in ourselves and our ability to shape the country's future as citizens. We still have that power as bleak as it seems. And we still have the power to build a country that we believe in and to present an agenda that can unite the country again. But if we lose faith, that's what worries me. So keep the faith, help me in Georgia, keep fighting."
And it all just clicked together for me.
You don’t give up hope when you have all of us.
I’ve said a million times in here that my greatest reason for hope is all of us. And we haven’t changed. We haven’t gone anywhere. The millions of wonderful Americans who are winning midterm elections and registering to run and showing up at protests and writing postcards.
How can we lose hope we when have us?
The only way we lose, is if we give up.
And we don’t give up. Not now, not ever.
Now onto the good news.
Democrats are great
x As lefty pundits insist that Dems should not attempt any bipartisanship, Dems, entering in partnership with GOPers, have started this legislative push the same way they ended in July: Dealing Mike Johnson an embarrassing defeat. — emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) 2025-09-09T16:56:42.441Z
Dems do good
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee did good. Rep. Robert Garcia and others pushed for a subpoena of the Epstein shit, and they are the ones who got that letter in front of the national news media. Trump and his party are desperate to make this story go away, and Democrats like Garcia and Ro Khanna deserve credit for continuing to fight for the victims and keep this story alive. Keep it up, Blue Team
Hobbs defies federal limits on COVID vaccines with new executive order
Gov. Katie Hobbs issued an executive order Thursday that expands access to the COVID-19 vaccine, adding to a growing list of states that are bucking the federal government’s efforts to limit access to the updated shot. “We are taking action to protect the health care freedom of Arizonans,” Hobbs said in a press release announcing the order. “Vaccines are critical tools that safeguard public health and prevent serious illness. Arizonans and their doctors deserve the freedom to access the COVID vaccine if it is right for them. With this Executive Order, we are following the science and ensuring that Arizonans have access to vaccines to keep themselves and their families safe.”
Newsom Trolls Trump’s Beef Blunder: ‘This Aged Well’
California Governor Gavin Newsom has mocked Donald Trump over the president’s promise to “immediately” lower food costs once back in the White House. Newsom sent Trump a reminder of his campaign promise to batter rising food costs, after the president was grilled about record-high beef prices.
x Seriously, this is a real treat. Rep Jacobs is a powerful voice and she directly took on Rep Mace in a high-profile way. We need more of this. Listen to Jacobs here, you'll really enjoy it: — Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) 2025-09-11T12:03:50.707Z
x Way too few people seem to understand this @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social and @schumer.senate.gov are not the same person. They do not have the same circumstances nor do they do not have the same track record. Jeffries and whip Katherine Clark have done a phenomenal job whipping in the House. 1/ — Ariella Elm (@ariellaelm.bsky.social) 2025-09-07T17:27:00.847Z
He sucks at this (please don’t forget it)
Trump shelves Chicago crackdown plans for now as advisers warn of legal headaches
President Donald Trump shelved his plans to target Chicago as the next city for his domestic crime push after advisers warned him that sending in troops to help with local law enforcement without buy-in from the state’s governor could create legal headaches they want to avoid, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Trump Is a Weak and Failing President, and It’s Time to Say So
President Donald Trump understands better than anyone else alive that his hold on his supporters—and on plenty of swing voters, too—depends on the mere perception that he’s strong, wins everywhere, always acts boldly, and wields absolute mastery over his eternally feckless, disoriented enemies. Last month, after an anemic July jobs report, Trump fired the steward of jobs data, magically transforming the story from one about the Trump economy’s weakness into one about him decisively crushing a newly designated foe.’ found most of the tariffs to be illegal (though this will go to the Supreme Court), meaning they’re failing legally, too. Between this new polling and the awful jobs numbers, Democrats no longer need to fear any Trump meta-advantage on the issue. An appeals court hasmost of the tariffs to be illegal (though this will go to the Supreme Court), meaning they’re failing legally, too. Fox, , and have all found approval of Trump’s tariffs and/or handling of foreign trade mired in the 30s. A pollster aligned with Republicans recently that huge majorities believe tariffs are making inflation worse. By the way, many other polls support those findings. Pew Gallup , and Quinnipiac have all found approval of Trump’s tariffs and/or handling of foreign trade mired in the 30s. A pollster alignedwith Republicansrecently warned that huge majorities believe tariffs are making inflation worse. What’s notable about this Democratic polling, however, is that it suggests many voters expressly do not see the tariffs as an act of strength, as an act of protecting. Instead, they view him as being “reckless”—he’s floundering around wildly, aimlessly, and destructively. Meanwhile, Trump is fearsomely threatening to end mail-voting by fiat, and as Jamelle Bouie notes , Trump expressly wants such executive orders to be understood as monarchical edicts unbound by parliamentary limits. Yet Republicans quietly fear he’s undoing their own party’s struggle to reach vote-by-mail parity. Trump advisers have snookered reporters into writing that Democrats don’t dare criticize his mass deportations and military occupations of cities, but large majorities reject both , clearly not seeing either as “strength.” expressly wantstheir own party’s
x I think media and many Dems are brainlocked into treating Trump as a politically strong figure because they mistake the consolidation of autocratic power for political invincibility. But we shouldn't do that. He's both an autocrat and a ludicrous, inept figure. 5/ newrepublic.com/article/2000... — Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) 2025-09-08T12:16:23.831Z
Trump Is Weak Not Strong
Morning all. It’s been our core take these past few weeks that Trump’s powers are ebbing, he is growing more desperate and dangerous, and that Dems must keep finding a higher gear not just to win back power through elections but to mitigate the extraordinary damage he’s doing to the country. Beating Trump in the 2026 elections starts with “winning the fall” right now. For he is weakened and struggling, and we need to be on offense, prosecuting our advantage, making our case, acting like proud patriots defending this great nation against this unprecendented and historic attack. We have an opportunity now and need to seize it, together. we have to enter the fall with a clear understanding that Trump is a weakened and diminished figure; he is deeply unpopular as his agenda; the many manifest failures of his regime have become impossible to ignore or bullshit away; the ghosts of his dark predatory past keep returning to haunt their entire party; we keep winning and overperforming in elections across the country; that they are signaling retreat on the big ugly bill, ACA subsidy cuts, and Kennedy’s extremist agenda; and thus now is a time to go on offense and not a time to play it safe. For as historian Danial Ziblatt reminds us about the early days of Hitler principled compromise with an authoritarian can become ruinous appeasement. Look at the new NBC and CBS polling we received yesterday. Simply, it’s all terrible for Trump. He is deeply underwater with voters as is his agenda. In the NBC poll Trump is now even underwater on border security. And despite some idiotic commentary from Democratic analysts he is also deeply, deeply underwater on his invasion of American cities
x Don't take my word for it, listen to Harry Enten — Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) 2025-09-08T18:23:22.271Z
New Polls Show that Trump is a Paper Tiger
On Sunday, CBS News and NBC News both released polls showing Trump’s approval rating stuck in the mid-40s: 44% in the CBS poll, 43% in NBC’s. That’s basically in line with his average throughout his presidency. But he remains less popular at this point in his term than nearly every modern president. This chart from data journalist G. Elliot Morris puts Trump’s unpopularity into historical perspective A lot has been made of Trump’s swaggering authoritarian shtick. Republicans cheer it. Democrats fear it. The media normalizes it. Corporate America treats it as the price of doing business. But polls show Americans aren’t buying it. The CBS poll asked whether people like what Trump wants to accomplish and whether they like how he’s going about it. Forty-seven percent say they like his goals — hardly a mandate, but not catastrophic. The real danger for Trump is the second question: nearly two-thirds of voters say they don’t like the way he’s trying to achieve his goals.
Trump decided to go out for dinner in DC, and it went horribly for him
Last night Trump decided to go out for dinner in DC, and it went horribly for him. He was booed as he walked into the restaurant. Inside, a small group of protesters started chanting: “Trump is the hitler of our time. Free DC. Free Palestine.” Trump smiled awkwardly as he walked toward the protesters, tilted his head and jerked it back and forth wildly. He was obviously smoldering mad. Good.
Other Good News
Dem James Walkinshaw won the special election for Virginia’s 11th congressional district, replacing fmr. Rep. Gerry Connolly who passed in May. Walkinshaw won 75% of the vote, outperforming Dems in the previous 9 elections. That’s a really good sign for the Virginia Governor’s race, where Democrat Abigail Spanberger is leading the charge to flip the state from red to blue. Another special election will be held in Arizona’s 7th congressional district on September 23. In that contest, Dem Adelita Grijalva is favored to win the seat formerly held by her late father, Raúl Grijalva.
x 1. Great news out of a federal court in Maryland this morning. A judge has ruled that Trump's trans passport ban is likely unconstitutional, blocking it for the plaintiffs. Importantly, it rules that it is likely unconstitutional at ANY level of review. Subscribe to support our journalism. — Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) 2025-09-09T16:37:54.348Z
x If and when the GOP enacts this map, Missouri will be sued. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/... — Marc Elias (@marcelias.bsky.social) 2025-09-12T01:19:41.821Z
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