Friday, January 29, 2016

Phone banks versus tweeting banks

I received the below email from the MoveOn For Bernie Team, soliciting me to attend a volunteer-led phone bank in Alabama.

I am trying to set up tweeting banks, including one in Alabama. See The IOWA tweeting bank, NEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bank, and ALABAMA tweeting bank.

I am sending hundreds of tweets soliciting participation in my tweeting banks and sending my own tweets as part of the banks.

Can anyone say that time spent making phone calls on a phone bank is more or less beneficial than time spent sending tweets on a tweeting bank?

Tweets can be sent at the rate of five to ten a minute. A phone call lasts however long it lasts. A phone call achieves greater messaging impact than one tweet, but how about compared to 20 tweets? Phone banks may have better targeting, as compared to tweet banking possibly being more scattershot.

[Edit 8/7/17: A tweeting bank seeks to achieve a "pyramiding" effect by soliciting tweet recipients to join in and send their own tweets. I don't believe phone banks seek to achieve a "pyramiding" of phone calls. Whether "pyramiding" of tweets can actually be achieved requires tweeting banks to be experimented with.]

To me, comparing the value and effect of a phone bank versus a tweeting bank is an imponderable.

A campaign team may decide that it does not want volunteers doing any tweet banking and wants volunteers to do only phone banking.

I am interested in the opinions of others.

Possibly I can be persuaded that volunteers should not spend any time on tweet banking.

I would say, get volunteers to do whatever they are willing to do. If they are willing to phone bank, that's great and have them phone bank. If they are willing to tweet bank, have them go at that.

What do you think?

ADDENDUM
There have been 260 page views of this blog entry.
Phone banking is a long established, tried and true campaign tool, which volunteers readily understand, and which is in Bernie's Volunteer Toolkit.
I don't think there is anything like The IOWA tweeting bank in Bernie's Volunteer Toolkit.
The object of The IOWA tweeting bank is not to have "conversations" with Iowa voters. The object is to flash in their head a thought that, in its flashing, may influence their voting decision.
In The IOWA tweeting bank, the thought is about our broken Congress and which Presidential candidate has the best potential for doing something about it if elected.
The IOWA tweeting bank calls for volunteer tweeters, in an organized way, to each send hundreds of individually directed tweets this weekend, and for there to be numerous tweeters (10, 20?) who are tweeting.
While there have been a couple of offers to tweet, I am not sure the offerors understand the tweeting that is being looked for in The IOWA tweeting bank.
My guess is that The IOWA tweeting bank will not get going this weekend, but we'll see.

ADDENDUM #2
I am sending to users of the #iacaucus hashtag this tweet:
In deciding who our next President shall be, what should our country do about Congress? http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html
There have now been 1717 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html

ADDENDUM #3
An hour and a half ago on MSNBC Live, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said "tens of thousands" of calls were being made in Iowa and "thousands and thousands" of campaign workers were on the ground. MSNBC link.
A single volunteer on The IOWA tweeting bank can, in the next  48 hours, fairly easily send 1500 tweets to Iowans (and a hundred volunteers could send 150,000 tweets).
This morning I sent about 350 tweets on the ALABAMA tweeting bank, and that generated almost 200 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/alabama-tweeting-bank.html.
The tweets described in Addendum #2 were to active campaign supporters of the candidates, who were tweeting using the #iacaucus hashtag, and most of whom were probably not Iowans. The next step is for tweets to go to average Iowans who are not actively sending political tweets this weekend. I will take that next step shortly and will report here.
There have now been 2,447 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html.

ADDENDUM #4
I have tweeted for about 40 minutes to City of Ceder Rapids followers. My tweets said:
In deciding who our next President shall be, what should our country do about Congress? http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html
I was able to see page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html go up as I did the tweeting. When I stopped my tweeting a few minutes ago, there had been about 65 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html as a result of my tweeting.
If you do tweeting and you tell me, I can report to you how your page views are going up as you do your tweeting.
If others do not participate on The IOWA tweeting bank prior to Monday night, another attempt will be made next week on the NEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bank.
Thanks for your attention.

ADDENDUM #5 (2/1)
On CNN this morning, Secretary Clinton said her campaign hsd knocked on 120,000 doors in Iowa.

[MoveOn email]
From: MoveOn Elections Team <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
Date: Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 10:47 PM
Subject: Feel the Bern in Alabama
To: Robert Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>
MoveOn for Bernie
Dear MoveOn member,
On Monday, voters in Iowa will cast the first votes in the Democratic presidential race—and voters in a dozen more states will follow them over the next four weeks.
Bernie can win—but only if each and every one of us rolls up our sleeves to help make possible the kind of change America truly needs.
Right now, we need to talk to every voter we can in early voting states. Because when voters hear Bernie's message, they support him.
Can you attend a volunteer-led phone bank near you to talk to voters in early voting states?
Click here to find events near you and RSVP!
We really can take our country back from the billionaire class. We can get big money out of politics, create good-paying jobs, make college debt-free, combat climate change, and confront racism.
But we need to all put our shoulders to the wheel right now and fight for it.
At the volunteer events, you'll have the opportunity to meet other Bernie supporters, connect with voters, and help make an impact. And if you can't find an event that works for you, you can always host one yourself.
RSVP now for an upcoming Bernie phone bank near you.
Thanks for all you do.
—Matt, Ilya, Emily, Nick, and the rest of the MoveOn for Bernie Team
Want to support our work? We're going all-out to help Bernie Sanders win the Democratic nomination. Polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show that the race is close, so we really can win. But we can't do it without small-dollar donations from people like you. Click here to chip in.

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
This email was sent to Robert Shattuck on January 29th, 2016. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To opt out of "MoveOn for Bernie" emails, click here. To remove yourself from the MoveOn.org list, click here.


Ben & Jerry are also weighing in:

From: Ben & Jerry <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
Date: Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 10:21 AM
Subject: FW: It's not about him, it's about us.
To: Robert Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>

With the Iowa caucuses fast approaching, we wanted to make sure you saw our message in time.Hi Robert—With the Iowa caucuses fast approaching, we wanted to make sure you saw our message in time.

Hi fellow MoveOn member,

It's down to the wire in Iowa.
We can either make history or it'll be just more of the same old, same old.
We're all-in for Bernie Sanders, and we're stumping for him in Iowa right now. The energy here is electric. Bernie's within two points of victory.
If all of us who believe in Bernie stand with him right now, he can win Iowa, win New Hampshire, win the Democratic nomination, and become president of the United States. But if we don't support him right now, then he won't.
We came to Iowa because we needed to know that, win or lose, we did everything we possibly could to fight for Bernie. Will you join us?
Click here to join this historic effort with a donation of $10—or any amount—to support the Bernie Sanders campaign and MoveOn's all-out effort to help him win Iowa, win New Hampshire, win the Democratic nomination, and become president.
(Whether or not you've donated already, please chip in right now, during this final push in Iowa.)
It was a total no-brainer for us to drop everything and get to work for Bernie in Iowa.

Here are five reasons why, if you support Bernie like we do, that donating to his campaign right now—and MoveOn's efforts to help him win—should be a no-brainer for you, too.

1. Bernie's the real deal. We've been working alongside him for years, as he's fought to end war, to get big money out of politics, to strengthen Social Security, to fix lopsided tax policy, to demand fair wages, to tackle rising student debt, to fight for Black Lives, and so much more.

2. He wins elections. The political elites never thought he'd become the mayor of Burlington, Vermont—let alone win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. And they all laughed when he ran for the U.S. Senate—but he won! Again and again—for decades—he's won when the pundits thought it was impossible.

3. Bernie's surging in the polls, trailing by only two points in one recent Iowa poll, and closing in fast. He has an amazing ground game—and more TV ads on the air than his opponents!

4. If Bernie wins Iowa and New Hampshire, it'll give him huge momentum towards winning the Democratic nomination—and the presidency.

5. If Bernie Sanders becomes president, he'll take on the billionaire class—and fight for the rest of us. Just take a deep breath and imagine Bernie winning Iowa and New Hampshire. Then imagine a bold progressive in the White House, breaking up the Big Banks. (He beats Donald Trump in a hypothetical match-up, so it really can happen.)
Bernie absolutely can win, but only if we give it our all. And if we don't, he won't. Because as he'll tell you, it's about us—a movement of millions of Americans. Not him. So don't wake up the day after Iowa and wish you'd done more. Join us instead.
Here's the link to chip in $10, or whatever you can, to help power Bernie's Iowa and New Hampshire victories:
https://act.moveon.org/donate/lets-go-bernie?t=5&akid=161495.24908740.40J5jG
As we've been going around Iowa, we've encountered our fair share of folks who support other candidates. We can accept that.
But what seems so defeatist are the folks who say things like, "I believe in everything Bernie Sanders says. He's on the right side of the issues, but I don't think he'll get elected—so I'm not going to support him."

Please do what you can. In a close race like this one, your $10, $25, $75, or any size donation can really make the difference.
(If you've donated before, a new donation can help. And if you haven't yet, now's the time!)
The Iowa caucuses are just under five days away. The average grassroots donation Bernie receives pays for nearly two extra hours of work from a field organizer who can mobilize about ten volunteers at a single canvass or phone bank. And your donation to MoveOn will help them mobilize their 40,000 members in Iowa to put Bernie over the top.
Having the resources to win Iowa is critical.
Will you invest in the future of our nation by supporting the Bernie Sanders campaign and MoveOn.org's efforts to help Bernie win? Chip in $10 here:
https://act.moveon.org/donate/lets-go-bernie?t=10&akid=161495.24908740.40J5jG
Thank you so much. Let's win this!

—Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
Want to support our work? The average contribution from a supporter like you affords the Bernie Sanders campaign nearly two extra hours of work from a field organizer who can mobilize about ten volunteers at a single canvass or phone bank. And now, MoveOn.org has joined the effort. Click here to chip in $10, or whatever you can.


PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
This email was sent to Robert Shattuck on January 29th, 2016. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To opt out of "MoveOn for Bernie" emails, click here. To remove yourself from the MoveOn.org list, click here.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

ALABAMA tweeting bank

First, a youtube video



TO: As many fellow Alabamians (regardless of political affiliation) as I/we can tweet to

I am an Alabamian.

I, and others who join me, are tweeting to you individually.

I/we believe the American voters should use the 2016 elections to force Congress to confront, before Nov. 8, 2016, whether it is badly corrupt or not, and to pass reform for voters to consider in how they vote in November. For more information, please see 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

I/we are calling this citizen effort #DeclareForDemocracy.

In Alabama, there are seven Congressional district elections and also an election for United States Senator. Our goal is get the candidates in these elections to call on Congress to act before Nov. 8, 2016 or else face consequences from Alabama voters on November 8th.

Further, I/we want the Presidential candidates to express support for our citizen effort to force Congressional action before November 8th. If your Presidential candidate does not endorse #DeclareForDemocracy, I/we urge you to switch your support to a Presidential candidate who does.

#DeclareForDemocracy needs as much publicity and citizen mobilization as possible. I/we hope to send individual tweets to thousands of Alabamians.

Our tweets will have links to this page. If you come to this page and want to help do more tweeting to Alabamians, please follow the guidance provided below and join in the tweeting.

For information about how the citizen effort is progressing in the seven Congressional districts and in the United States Senate race in Alabama, please see the links for Alabama in the entry Districts and states with activity.

I/we hope you agree with this #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort.

Thank you.

GUIDANCE FOR TWEETING IN THE ALABAMA TWEETING BANK
A. General (modeled after The IOWA tweeting bank)
The tweeting bank involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of very large numbers of individually directed tweets to users of "relevant" Alabama Twitter hashtags or to followers of "relevant" Alabama Twitter accounts  (such as a local political party Twitter account).
A ground has been staked out with Twitter for this method of tweeting. See letter to Twitter @Support.
The object of this method of tweeting is to break out of like minded social media circles in order to "push out" messaging to a wider audience. For discussion of this, please read Breaking out of like minded social media circles.
I do my tweeting on a computer, and I don't know how easily the tweeting can be done on a phone.

B. Your tweet message
Decide on a tweet message you want to use. You might use a generic message, such as
Alabamians should embrace #DeclareForDemocracy, and the Presidential candidates should promote it. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/alabama-tweeting-bank.html
Alternatively, use a tweet message which expresses your belief that the Presidential candidate you support will best advance #DeclareForDemocracy. Some examples:
Bernie Sanders is the candidate who will best advance the #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/alabama-tweeting-bank.html
Donald Trump is the best candidate for fixing our corrupt Congress. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/alabama-tweeting-bank.html
Jeb is best for #DeclareForDemocracy because _____________. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/alabama-tweeting-bank.html
Etc., etc.  
C. Persons to send your individually directed tweets to
The object is to find Alabama hashtags and Alabama twitter accounts which show a lot of Alabama twitter users that you can send your tweets to. If a person's twitter profile indicates the person is an Alabamian, be selective or indiscriminate as you choose in sending the person a tweet or not.
Do not worry about redundancy and whether others participating in this tweeting bank may also be tweeting to the same person.
The "following" list on an Alabama twitter account, as well as the "follower" list,  can be used to find Alabamians to tweet to. If a "following" list or a "follower" list is long, you might scroll down in the list and randomly pick a person to start with.
Here are suggestions for Alabama hashtags and "following" or "follower" lists to find Alabamians to tweet to:
https://twitter.com/BCAToday/followers
https://twitter.com/ALcomHuntsville/followers
https://twitter.com/ShelbyCountyGOP/followers
https://twitter.com/UofAlabama/followers
https://twitter.com/AuburnU/followers
https://twitter.com/Sewell4Congress/followers

D. How to send your tweets efficiently
In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done very efficiently. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list or hashtag listing you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 30 to 40 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.
If you are using a hashtag listing, be careful NOT to send your tweet using the "reply" button. Instead, send a clean, new tweet by right clicking on the person's Twitter name as specified in instruction 1 above.

REPORTS ON TWEETING
1/30/16
I have tweeted to McConnell2016 followers this tweet:
In deciding who our next President shall be, what should our country do about Congress? http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/alabama-tweeting-bank.html
I have had 271 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/alabama-tweeting-bank.html.
@tycoffey@lukecamara@the82ndman@SoulfulPanda and @uacpa12 have me blocked.

2/13/16
See The IOWA tweeting bankPhone banks versus tweeting banksNEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bankWhere do Presidential candidates stand and SOUTH CAROLINA tweeting bank for reports on tweeting in connection with The IOWA tweeting bankNEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bank and SOUTH CAROLINA tweeting bank

2/13/16
See Independent protest candidate in AL 6th Cong'l district?

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

NEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bank

First, a youtube video



TO: As many NEW HAMPSHIRITES (regardless of political affiliation) as we can tweet to

This message is being tweeted to you individually.

We who are  tweeting to you are both New Hampshirites and non-New Hampshirites.

We share the belief that the American voters should use the 2016 elections to force Congress to confront, before Nov. 8, 2016, whether it is badly corrupt or not, and to pass reform for voters to consider in how they vote in November. For more information, please see 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

We are calling this citizen effort #DeclareForDemocracy.

We want as much publicizing of #DeclareForDemocracy as possible.

We want the Presidential candidates to endorse #DeclareForDemocracy. If your Presidential candidate does not endorse it, we urge you to switch to a Presidential candidate who does.

On February 9th, New Hampshire holds the first Presidential primary, for which New Hampshire receives inordinate national attention and news coverage.

We want #DeclareForDemocracy to partake of this attention, and the tweeting we are doing is intended to achieve that.

We hope to send individually directed tweets to thousands of New Hampshirites, which tweets will have links to this page.

If you come to this page and want to help us do even more tweeting to New Hampshirites, please follow the guidance provided below and join in the tweeting.

We hope you agree with our #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort.

Thank you.

GUIDANCE FOR TWEETING IN THE NEW HAMPSHIRE TWEETING BANK
A. General (modeled after The IOWA tweeting bank)
The tweeting bank involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of very large numbers of individually directed tweets to users of "relevant"  New Hampshire Twitter hashtags or to followers of "relevant" New Hampshire Twitter accounts  (such as a local political party Twitter account).
A ground has been staked out with Twitter for this method of tweeting. See letter to Twitter @Support.
The object of this method of tweeting is to break out of like minded social media circles in order to "push out" messaging to a wider audience. For discussion of this, please read Breaking out of like minded social media circles.
For questions or discussion about The NEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bank, go to Google group topic NEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bank.
I do my tweeting on a computer, and I don't know how easily the tweeting can be done on a phone.

B. Your tweet message
Pick one of these suggested tweet messages to use or compose your own message:
1. New Hampshirites should embrace #DeclareForDemocracy, and the Presidential candidates should promote it. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-hampshire-tweeting-bank.html
2. Bernie Sanders is the candidate who will best advance the #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-hampshire-tweeting-bank.html
3. Donald Trump is the best candidate for fixing our corrupt Congress. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-hampshire-tweeting-bank.html

C. Persons to send your individually directed tweets to
The object is to find New Hampshire hashtags and New Hampshire twitter accounts which show a lot of New Hampshire twitter users that you can send your tweets to. If a person's twitter profile indicates the person is a New Hampshirite, be selective or indiscriminate as you choose in sending the person a tweet or not.
Do not worry about redundancy and whether others participating in this tweeting bank may also be tweeting to the same person.
The "following" list on an New Hampshire twitter account, as well as the "follower" list,  can be used to find New Hampshirites to tweet to. If a "following" list or a "follower" list is long, you might scroll down in the list and randomly pick a person to start with.
Here are suggestions for New Hampshire hashtags and "following" or "follower" lists to find New Hampshirites to tweet to:
https://twitter.com/ConcordNHPatch/followers (ed. 2/8 I have done a lot of this)
https://twitter.com/NewHampEvents/followers
https://twitter.com/CityofDoverNH/followers (ed. 2/8 I am starting on this)
https://twitter.com/sentinelsource/followers

D. How to send your tweets efficiently
In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done very efficiently. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list or hashtag listing you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 30 to 40 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.
If you are using a hashtag listing, be careful NOT to send your tweet using the "reply" button. Instead, send a clean, new tweet by right clicking on the person's Twitter name as specified in instruction 1 above.

REPORTS ON TWEETING
See The IOWA tweeting bank and Phone banks versus tweeting banks for reports on tweeting in connection with The IOWA tweeting bank.

2/3-
Yesterday I tweeted to users of #nhprimary hashtag these tweets:
Please tweet for New Hampshirites to embrace #DeclareForDemocracy. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-hampshire-tweeting-bank.html
and
In deciding who our next President shall be, what should our country do about Congress? http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-hampshire-tweeting-bank.html 

Today I will tweet to users of #DemTownHall hashtag this tweet:
Both Clinton and Sanders should endorse #DeclareForDemocracy tonight. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-hampshire-tweeting-bank.html 
The foregoing tweeting seeks to instigate the desired tweeting to New Hampshirites generally, most of whom do not tweet using the above hashtags.

2/5-
See Where do Presidential candidates stand.

2/6-
@NHRebellion is holding a #FightBigMoney conference, which started yesterday. Many tweeters have tweeted in the form of "@BernieSanders (or @HillaryClinton) will you join the @nhrebellion this weekend to talk about your plans to #fightbigmoney? http://nhrebellion.org/convention. I have tweeted to these tweeters, "Help needed on NEW HAMPSHIRE tweeting bank. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-hampshire-tweeting-bank.html" There have been over 100 page views of http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-hampshire-tweeting-bank.html as a result.






2/9-
Summary of tweet banking to date: There have been 3220 page views of The IOWA tweeting bank. With New Hampshire, there have been 974 page views of this blog entry and 951 page views of Where do Presidential candidates stand. I am in Alabama, which is part of Super Tuesday on March 1st, and I have been tending to it on the side. There have been 1340 page views of ALABAMA tweeting bank and 644 page views of Let's get real, AL. After today, it will be on to the SOUTH CAROLINA tweeting bank, which has already had 221 page views.

Calling for more tweeters

This entry attempts to give an indication of where tweeting stands in the midst of the ferocities of the campaigns of the Presidential candidates.

Because of Iowa's voting first (on February 1st), and the national news attention that Iowa gets, I have focused on Iowa the past couple of weeks. See DeclareForDemocracy - Iowa for what I first did.

This past week I have been trying to get tweeting banks set up for Iowa. See Tweeting banks for Iowa (proposed to Sanders campaign) and The IOWA tweeting bank (which I set up on my own). There have been 1904 page views of the latter and 485 page views of the former. The #DeclareForDemocracy hashtag indicates only one tweet has been sent as urged in The IOWA tweeting bank  That tweet is
Bob Krause, a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Iowa, retweeted me. I reported this at Iowa - U.S. Senate and sent tweets urging tweeting on behalf of Mr. Krause. There have been 335 page views of Iowa - U.S. Senate.

While the national Sanders campaign team has not responded to the tweeting banks proposal made to it, local Sanders groups and individual Sanders supporters have shown interest in tweeting banks. @BayArea4Bernie called me to ask some questions.

@JonesRacovieur is a Sanders supporter and lists Congressional canddiates    on her Twitter profile. She and some of the candidates have liked or retweeted me, such as 3 retweets of

This stimulated


I live in Alabama. Two things I have done locally are, first, Let's get real, AL (regarding the Senate race in Alabama, for which I have gotten 300 page views by tweeting locally), and yesterday I tweeted to followers of a local Democratic organization tweets that said "Reich: Clinton most qualified for system now; Sanders most qualified to get system we should have. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/robert-reich-on-clinton-and-sanders.html" (which yielded more than 100 page views).

The above are highlights from the past couple of week. I hope these highlights will stimulate more tweeting. The tweeting may be difficult to manage, but, please, join in.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Entry index

Tweeting during debate (12/13/15)
#DeclareForDemocracy and #DemocracySpring (12/17/15)
Breaking out of like minded social media circles (12/23/15)
Rattling Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (12/30/15)
What's in your state's DemSpring (1/6/16)
What I am doing this weekend (1/9/16)
Tweeting and State of Union Address (1/12/16)
DeclareForDemocracy - IOWA
Let's get real, AL (1/19/16)
Independent protest candidate in AL 6th Cong'l district? (2/12/16)
To RDP re your Alabama Senate debate (2/15/16)
Is there a third way? (2/16/16)
Election law disclaimer (2/17/16)
Tweeting to get "protest" candidate on AL06 ballot (2/17/16)
United States Senate - Illinois (2/19/16)
The Sanders SOUTH CAROLINA tweeting bank (2/20/16)
The Sanders ALABMA tweeting bank (2/22/16)
Generic Sanders Super Tuesday tweeting bank (2/22/16)
Dear Senator Sanders (2/24/16)
For what it's worth (2/27/16)
Dear Mr. Trump (2/28/16)
The Sanders MICHIGAN GOTV tweeting bank (3/6/16) What to do about moderator cut off (3/10/16) The NEW YORK STATE tweeting bank for Sen. Sanders (4/12/16) The PENNSYLVANIA tweeting bank for Sen. Sanders (4/20/16) Scratch MAYDAY; what's left at Cong'l level (4/24/16)
To Berniecrats (5/1/16)
CALIFORNIA- Last tweeting bank for Sen. Sanders (5/18/16)

Robert Reich on Clinton and Sanders

The Volcanic Core Fueling the 2016 Election

By Robert Reich
MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2016
Not a day passes that I don’t get a call from the media asking me to compare Bernie Sanders’s and Hillary Clinton’s tax plans, or bank plans, or health-care plans. 
I don’t mind. I’ve been teaching public policy for much of the last thirty-five years. I’m a policy wonk. 
But detailed policy proposals are as relevant to the election of 2016 as is that gaseous planet beyond Pluto. They don’t have a chance of making it, as things are now. 
The other day Bill Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders’s proposal for a single-payer health plan as unfeasible and a “recipe for gridlock.”
Yet these days, nothing of any significance is feasible and every bold idea is a recipe for gridlock. 
This election is about changing the parameters of what’s feasible and ending the choke hold of big money on our political system. 
I’ve known Hillary Clinton since she was 19 years old, and have nothing but respect for her. In my view, she’s the most qualified candidate for president of the political system we now have.
But Bernie Sanders is the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have, because he’s leading a political movement for change.
The upcoming election isn’t about detailed policy proposals. It’s about power – whether those who have it will keep it, or whether average Americans will get some as well.
study published in the fall of 2014 by Princeton professor Martin Gilens and Northwestern’s Benjamin Page reveals the scale of the challenge.
Gilens and Page analyzed 1,799 policy issues in detail, determining the relative influence on them of economic elites, business groups, mass-based interest groups, and average citizens. 
Their conclusion: “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically insignificant impact upon public policy.”
Instead, lawmakers respond to the moneyed interests – those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.
It’s sobering that Gilens and Page’s data come from the period 1981 to 2002, before the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to big money in its “Citizens United” and “McCutcheon” decisions. Their study also predated the advent of super PACs and “dark money,” and even the Wall Street bailout.
If average Americans had a “near-zero” impact on public policy then, their impact is now zero. 
Which explains a paradox I found a few months ago when I was on book tour in the nation’s heartland: I kept bumping into people who told me they were trying to make up their minds in the upcoming election between Sanders and Trump. 
At first I was dumbfounded. The two are at opposite ends of the political divide.
But as I talked with these people, I kept hearing the same refrains. They wanted to end “crony capitalism.” They detested “corporate welfare,” such as the Wall Street bailout. 
They wanted to prevent the big banks from extorting us ever again. Close tax loopholes for hedge-fund partners. Stop the drug companies and health insurers from ripping off American consumers. End trade treaties that sell out American workers. Get big money out of politics. 
Somewhere in all this I came to see the volcanic core of what’s fueling this election. 
If you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans who are working harder than ever but getting nowhere, and who understand that the political-economic system is rigged against you and in favor of the rich and powerful, what are you going to do? 
Either you’re going to be attracted to an authoritarian son-of-a-bitch who promises to make America great again by keeping out people different from you and creating “great” jobs in America, who sounds like he won’t let anything or anybody stand in his way, and who’s so rich he can’t be bought off.
Or you’ll go for a political activist who tells it like it is, who has lived by his convictions for fifty years, who won’t take a dime of money from big corporations or Wall Street or the very rich, and who is leading a grass-roots “political revolution” to regain control over our democracy and economy.
In other words, either a dictator who promises to wrest power back to the people, or a movement leader who asks us to join together to wrest power back to the people. 
You don’t care about the details of proposed policies and programs.
You just want a system that works for you. 
ROBERT B. REICH is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock, “The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, INEQUALITY FOR ALL. 

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Iowa - U.S. Senate

Ballotpedia United States Senate - Iowa
Democratic
Rob Hogg - State Sen.[5]
Bob Krause - Former state rep.[6]
Tom Fiegen - Former state sen.[7]
Republican
Chuck Grassley - Incumbent[8]

Bob Krause retweeted this tweet:

Friday, January 22, 2016

The IOWA tweeting bank

First, a youtube video



TO: As many IOWANS (regardless of political affiliation) as we can tweet to

This message is being tweeted to you individually.

We who are  tweeting to you are both Iowans and non-Iowans.

We share the belief that the American voters should use the 2016 elections to force Congress to confront, before Nov. 8, 2016, whether it is badly corrupt or not, and to pass reform for voters to consider in how they vote for their Congressional candidates in November. For more information, please see 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

We are calling this citizen effort #DeclareForDemocracy.

We want the Presidential candidates to promote #DeclareForDemocracy.

We want as much publicizing of #DeclareForDemocracy as possible.

On February 1st, Iowa votes first in the country, for which Iowa receives inordinate national attention and news coverage.

We want #DeclareForDemocracy to partake of this attention, and the tweeting we are doing is intended to achieve that.

We hope to send individually directed tweets to thousands of Iowans, which tweets will have links to this page.

If you come to this page and want to help us do even more tweeting to Iowans, please follow the guidance provided below and join in the tweeting.

We hope you agree with our #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort.

Thank you.

GUIDANCE FOR TWEETING IN THE IOWA TWEETING BANK
A. General
The tweeting bank involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of very large numbers of individually directed tweets to users of "relevant"  Iowa Twitter hashtags or to followers of "relevant" Iowa Twitter accounts  (such as a local political party Twitter account).
A ground has been staked out with Twitter for this method of tweeting. See letter to Twitter @Support.
The object of this method of tweeting is to break out of like minded social media circles in order to "push out" messaging to a wider audience. For discussion of this, please read Breaking out of like minded social media circles.
For questions or discussion about The IOWA tweeting blank, go to Google group topic The IOWA tweeting bank.
I do my tweeting on a computer, and I don't know how easily the tweeting can be done on a phone.

B. Your tweet message
Pick one of these suggested tweet messages to use or compose your own message:
1. Iowans should embrace #DeclareForDemocracy, and the Presidential candidates should promote it. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html
2. Bernie Sanders is the candidate who will best advance the #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html
3. Donald Trump is the best candidate for fixing our corrupt Congress. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html

C. Persons to send your individually directed tweets to
The object is to find Iowa hashtags and Iowa twitter accounts which show a lot of Iowan twitter users that you can send your tweets to. If a person's twitter profile indicates the person is an Iowan, be selective or indiscriminate as you choose in sending the person a tweet or not.
Do not worry about redundancy and whether others participating in this tweeting bank may also be tweeting to the same person.
The "following" list on an Iowa twitter account, as well as the "follower" list,  can be used to find Iowans to tweet to. If a "following" list or a "follower" list is long, you might scroll down in the list and randomly pick a person to start with.
Here are suggestions for Iowa hashtags and "following" or "follower" lists to find Iowans to tweet to:
https://twitter.com/DesMoinesMetro/following
https://twitter.com/DesMoinesMetro/followers
https://twitter.com/ICDowntown/following
https://twitter.com/CityofCRiowa/followers

D. How to send your tweets efficiently
In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done very efficiently. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list or hashtag listing you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 30 to 40 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.
If you are using a hashtag listing, be careful NOT to send your tweet using the "reply" button. Instead, send a clean, new tweet by right clicking on the person's Twitter name as specified in instruction 1 above.

REPORTS ON TWEETING
There have been 786 page views of this blog entry.
I have tweeted to users of the hashtags #iacaucus and #demdebate this tweet:
Tweeting for Iowans and the candidates to embrace #DeclareForDemocracy. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html
1/26
There have been 1892 page views of this entry.
Yesterday and today I tweeted to users of the #DemTownHall hashtag this tweet:
Tweet to Iowans to embrace #DeclareForDemocracyhttp://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-iowa-tweeting-bank.html
1/28
See Calling for more tweeters.

2/1
See Phone banks versus tweeting banks 

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Tweeting banks for Iowa

I wrote the below email to help@berniesanders.com, urging that there be added to Bernie's Volunteer Toolkit a "tweeting bank" tool. Things are happening very fast, there are only ten days until the Iowa caucuses, the campaign organization is probably overwhelmed, and the "tweeting banks" idea may not get responded to quickly. I will put the idea out for whoever wants to pick up on it for Iowa during the next ten days. I will try to lay out specific "tweeting bank" suggestions in subsequent postings or updates of this blog entry.

From: Rob Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 20, 2016 at 5:07 PM
Subject: Adding "tweeting banks" to Volunteer Organizing Toolkit
To: help@berniesanders.com
Dear Sir:
I think you should add a "tweeting bank" tool to the Volunteer Organizing Toolkit.
The "tweeting bank" tool I am suggesting involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of very large numbers of individually directed tweets to users of "relevant" Twitter hashtags (such as #DemDebate) or to followers of the Twitter accounts of other persons who are "relevant" (such as a local political party Twitter account).
I have been using and developing this method of tweeting for more than a year.
I have staked out a ground with Twitter for this method of tweeting. See letter to Twitter @Support.
The object of this method of tweeting is to break out of like minded social media circles in order to "push out" messaging to a wider audience. For discussion of this, please read Breaking out of like minded social media circles.
For an example of this method of tweeting that I used this past weekend, see my blog entry Travels with Bernie.
Last July I contacted a few state and local Sanders groups that had formed around the country and proposed that the groups seek to get members of the group (the "tweeting bank") to use the method of tweeting in question for "pushing out" certain Sanders campaign messaging in their area. The proposal is set out in Proposed messaging re: Congress.
Important elements of a "tweeting bank" include developing the messaging that is sought to be "pushed out" (including both tweet messages and also webpages that would be included as links in the tweets and that would expand the messaging to recipients who click on the links and go to the webpages), and also identifying who will be the targets of the tweeting.
I personally am mainly interested in messaging that promotes #DeclareForDemocracy, and it would be great if Senator Sanders decided that he wanted to make promotion of #DeclareForDemocracy part of his campaign.
I don't claim any rights to the tweeting method in question, and the Sanders campaign is at liberty to employ the method for any campaign messaging it chooses, and by whatever "tweeting banks" the campaign wants to set up.
My only request is that you advise me of whatever decision you make to include, or not include, "tweeting banks" as part of the Volunteer Organizing Toolkit.
If you wish to discuss with me this "tweeting banks" idea, I can be reached at (205) 967-5586.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,

UPDATE:
The Sanders campaign Help Desk replied to me that the "tweeting banks" idea was being passed to the campaign for review. With the shortness of time until February 1st, I am prepared to try to get started. As a first step, please go to this google group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/2016congressionalcandidatesdeclarations. I think the group is public for viewing purposes. Read the topic Sanders IOWA tweeting bank #1, and make comments on same. I think you have to be a member of the group to make comments, so please apply.

UPDATE #2
There have been over 300 page views of this blog entry. There have been numerous retweets, likes, etc. There have been only 4 page views of the google group topic Sanders IOWA tweeting bank #1 topic. I have decided to get started with a generic Iowa tweeting bank. See The IOWA tweeting bank. If the Sanders campaign or any Sanders supporters wish to develop a more specific Sanders IOWA tweeting bank, I will be pleased to work with them.