This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Casey. Or, maybe it wasn’t her idea, maybe it was another genius in the Ron DeSantis SuperPAC network. The back story is that DeSantis is paying people in different states to knock on doors and persuade Republicans that their true desire is to throw over Donald Trump and convert to the one holy faith of anti-Disney, namely Ron DeSantis. The door knockers are trained to say that they’re not doing it for the money, heaven forfend, they’re doing it because they love DeSantis. Unfortunately, that plan is not working out so wonderfully. Washington Post:
The outburst — seen on a Ring doorbell video recording that was shared with The Washington Post — led to the canvasser’s dismissal this week, according to an official from Never Back Down. It highlighted a potential risk of the unprecedented effort by DeSantis donors to flood early primary states with thousands of paid door knockers armed with high-tech tools to win support one conversation at a time.
Doesn’t that sound cheerful? And you know it only gets worse, right?
“They’re just hiring people who don’t even support the candidate. They don’t believe in the candidate,” said Barbara Comstock, a former Virginia Republican congresswoman, who has hired local paid field workers in her races. “Particularly when you’re in a competitive primary, you want someone who is local and knows the state and knows the politics of the state, knows the people, knows who is who. You want people who can speak credibly about a candidate.”
This is key. People coming in from out of state has a carpetbagger-y feel to it and nobody is on board for that. In a primary, you want to know what your neighbors are actually thinking and feeling and not what somebody got trained to say to you in a seminar in another state — and the canvasser is from yet another state.
Mike Hogan, a Trump supporter in Nashua, N.H., said he found a Never Back Down door knocker on his front porch in late May, shortly after DeSantis announced his campaign. The young man, dressed in the organization’s apparel, had ripped hems on his jeans and what he called “skater shoes,” and did not even knock on his door, he said.
“He was just standing there, which was weird. I said, ‘Can I help you?’” Hogan said, before adding that the canvasser said something and walked away. “He was not saying anything. He was just texting. He would not look up.”
Nothing but the best people, right? Let’s see what fruits these efforts yield. This article also said that the SuperPAC “now fields 350 to 400 canvassers, all of whom have been trained and are audited daily, said Kristin Davison, the chief operating officer of Never Back Down. They have already conducted 163,704 conversations at 713,732 doors, and gathered 7,246 “Commit to Caucus” cards for DeSantis in Iowa alone, she said Thursday.”
Over 7,000 Commit to Caucus cards is impressive. Maybe DeSantis can win in Iowa. Trump is not playing his hand there well, it is certainly no secret. He’s openly insulted the Governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, and she has joined “Mamas For DeSantis” along with Casey DeSantis.
We will see. Meantime, it’s interesting how secretive the training of the canvassers is.
One former canvasser who went through the Iowa training said many classmates were primarily motivated by a paycheck. This person, who was later fired after being accused of not being in the right location while working, spoke on the condition of anonymity because Never Back Down and its subcontractors “threatened to go after us if we talked to the media after we left the organization.” The person was not paid for all the time working for the organization, due to deductions for expenses for hotels and flights after the firing, the person said.
Sounds like money is the motivator here, way beyond love. Keep an eye open, this is only going to get more interesting as we move closer to the primaries and find out if DeSantis is actually able to close the 30 point gap between himself and Trump.
Just a general question for you, Ursula, but is there something new with the site? Every time I’ve clicked on an article today, I’ll read through a couple of paragraphs before I get an overlay with a “Continue reading” button. It’s not really a problem as such but it IS a bit off-putting. I could understand if it were connected to a plea to subscribe or join the site but I can’t imagine a new visitor to the site feeling very welcome when they start reading something only to have a “block” on their reading.
Again, I just encountered this today and was wondering if it’s some new intentional feature or if it’s just some kind of bug. Or am I the only person affected?
Sorry. The message I get says “Read more.” Not sure why I didn’t list the correct phrasing (not that it makes that much difference in the end).
Same here, rather annoying!
Happened to me, too.
It’s a question I’m sure Ursula will look into, but I haven’t had any of the problems you cite today and given my admin tasks I’m on here multiple times per day. If memory serves, in the past we (and I think other sites too) have had issues with some software “improvement” messing with people in some places but not others. Sometimes it’s an “upgrade” to a person’s browser and sometimes a site’s “upgrade” that turns out to not be compatible with different browsers or whatever version of a browser someone is running. I also know lately when I go to certain sites (not political blogs) I get a message trying to get me to add an ad blocking program or I can’t proceed. I don’t trust that kind of sh*t and if clicking the “no” statement sometimes I can see the page and sometimes not. In the latter case I drop it and return to my home page.
I’d suggest checking your browser settings, especially if there are software upgrades pending. Sometimes this or another site has maint. and users who don’t have their own software up to date have problems.
It’s not happening here (using Firefox browser)
It’s happening to me with every story. I’m using the Firefox browser as is Daithi but getting the “Read More” button after being able to read the first paragraph and a few lines following.
I’ve had the same exact thing happening with every article I’ve tried to read. Thank you for bringing it up. It’s quite annoying.
I believe this is a particularly intrusive ad served by Google that covers the screen and prevents you from accessing the content until you click away. Politizoom has some of the most intrusive and obnoxious ads I’ve ever seen. I’ve resorted to reading the site with images, sound, and JavaScript turned off, it’s that bad. Pretty soon I won’t even come around anymore. When I first discovered this site, I was ready to donate, but it didn’t take long before the ads became too much. Tired of seeing giant nostrils, bowels, farts, and every disgusting thing splashed on my screen, but when they interfere with readability, that’s a bridge too far.
Joseph the same thing is happening to me today. Annoying!
Yup, me too. Very irritating (in additional to all the damned ads!!!).
I never saw it, but there was some movie decades ago with Marg Helgenberger and Jimmy Smits called The Tommyknockers. I gather from what they said on whatever late-night show they were promoting it on it was a sort of horror story about weird creatures. Maybe this is DeSantis’ attempt to bring it to life for real – The “Ronnieknockers!” Weird, harmful to humans creatures at people’s doors.
I guess it is an embedded trait, got it here today as well …
Scrolling down as we read the various paragraphs has been wonderful …
That way, it is easier and more comfortable to que down, as well as up to reread details and return
Ditto. If I were a conspiracy nut, I could postulate the right wingers are trying to discourage traffic. In that case…be proud you’re on their radar. Meanwhile I’d give the ‘carpetbaggers’ the same treatment Eastwood did in Outlaw Josey Wales when his pursuers were trying to cross the river after him. As he waited, a carpetbagger lectured him on how the law was going to catch him. He spit tobbaco juice on his white suit and said ‘we got something around here called the Missouri boatride’. He then shot through the rope the hand pulled ferry was using and the entire company floated away down the river.
When these starry, or should I say, glossy eyed jehovah witnesses or Mormon missionaries appear at my door…I say hell yeah, let’s talk some goddamn Bible. They usually run away. I’d say to the pi$$antis folks…goddamn right…let’s talk about that nazi pissant ruining Florida. Bet they wouldn’t hang around long.
Me too – Safari browser. A bit annoying.
In one sense I’m glad it’s not just me but, of course, I’m not glad it’s happening to anyone else.
The last update(s) I’ve had on my ‘puter happened several days ago (to the OS as well as the browser–but I suppose I may need to check the browser again; Firefox seems to just love updating every few days for some reason) but the “Read more” overlay just started earlier today. I’d read the “Relax. 2024 is NOT going to be a repeat of 2020” article–even posted a comment there (the comment is time-stamped July 15, 2023 at 12:12am) and there wasn’t any problem. When I got around to reading the “Charles Barkley” article, the overlay was there (I think Lil Blue Sock’s comment was the only one posted at that point but I can’t tell you exactly when I viewed the article–obviously it was before my first comment on this thread).
But, I’ll go and see if the browser’s in need of updating (yet again).
And, no. Browser’s up to date.
And, whatever it is, I’m also getting the “Read more” when checking the site on my phone.
I have FF browser, it’s been happening to me, since last update from windows? Anyway, pia, extra work!
I use Chrome. I get the “Read More” thing too.