It would be nice to think this was a cherry-picked, deliberately slanted story, but it’s in the bloody Guardian, yesterday: “With weed off the agenda, Colorado pot cafe patrons lose burning desire to vote“:
There was an outbreak of giggles in America’s first legal marijuana cafe when I asked the question.
“So … is anyone voting today?”
It wasn’t as if no one in the room was interested in politics; for an hour they had been arguing over tax, policing, municipal regulation, the difference between Democrats and Republicans, and what the Founding Fathers intended when they wrote the US constitution.
It was just that the patrons of Club Ned were high up in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains – 8,420ft above sea level, and way above the clouds. And they said they were not going to vote for anything that didn’t involve marijuana.
The owners, Cheryl Fanelli, 47, and her husband David, 57, have dedicated their lives to politics; campaigning for – and sometimes drafting – more relaxed cannabis laws, an effort that reached its climax in Colorado this year when the legalisation of recreational marijuana came into force…
Yet without a cannabis-related measure (or candidate) in the state on the ballot on Tuesday, neither were prepared to drive the 16 miles down the mountain to Boulder to their nearest polling station.
“There should be no politicians,” said Cheryl, who usually votes but sat this one out. “There should be no such thing as a politician.”
David put it less esoterically. “I don’t vote. I’m not into the politics shit.” He held aloft a hash brownie, said “the election won’t affect this”, smiled and plopped it in his mouth….
Cory Gardner and the Tea Party thank you very much, you self-centered douchecanoe.
Honestly, I kept checking to see if I’d accidentally clicked on The Onion.
chopper
that has to be satire.
AJ
I live in Boulder… It was a mail in ballot election. Nice reporting, dude.
hilts
Fuck it
j
Not true. I smoke and I vote?
different-church-lady
You say that as though those two things were mutually exclusive.
West of the Cascades
Fuck this reporter. I live in Oregon — this year I came home about 11 pm the day my ballot arrived in the mail. I poured a glass of scotch, voted, put a stamp on the envelope, put it in my mailbox for the mail carrier to pick up by about 11:30 pm. Probably by the time I was finished, I was about +2 … but it’s damned easy to vote this way.
FWIW, I voted to legalize pot in Oregon (don’t smoke, but don’t see the point in it being illegal. Oh – and we got about 71%”turnout” in a off-year election, according to the radio today. Vote by mail is what everyone should be doing (I showed my ID to my cat, who confirmed I was registered and had only voted once).
KG
hold up, their nearest polling place is 16 miles away? that seems a bit ridiculous.
as for them not voting, for a lot of people voting never looks like it matters. (yes, yes, I know, the GOP wants to destroy everything you hold dear) the establishment pretty much always wins, Republicans win we bomb a country, Democrats win, we bomb another country. Our big fights on taxes are over 3-5% on marginal rates. healthcare reform ends up being a 20 year old recycled idea that lost the last time around but makes sense now. these folks won on their issue (weed), and they saw no point in voting because nobody was overtly threatening their victory. one of the things that made Obama special was that a lot of people thought he could actually change stuff – but the establishment won again.
I’m not saying I believe any of that, but I get the thought process.
Omnes Omnibus
@KG:
In the mountains? I can buy it.
Cain
@West of the Cascades:
We also had a full democratic sweep and even had more democrats elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. I spent a couple of weekends doing GOTV to help out.
Jacks mom
I can’t figure out how someone votes for Hickenlooper and Gardner on the same ballot.
As for the non voting stoners….mouth too dry to lick a stamp? They have those new self adhesives. Not believing this story.
mai naem mobile
I am sorry but i laughed out loud. You have to laugh at this point. My sister has a client who never votes (too lazy) and was just pissed off.My sister told him to stfu not in those words
MattR
I was in Iceland at noon Eastern time yesterday and still managed to cast my vote before the polls closed in NJ even though I knew every single candidate I voted for would lose (Oops, forgot about Cory Booker). Of course, my polling place is in my condo complex and I pass by it while walking my dog. I can’t say I would have driven even 10 or 15 minutes after such a long day. So while I can understand the low turnout in places that have made voting difficult, it is frustrating to see it in places that try to make it as convenient as possible.
EDIT: Saw my first person in blackface on Saturday night in Reykjavik – someone dressed as Chef from South Park for Halloween. Not sure if there is a racism issue there. If anything I think it is more general xenophobia about large groups of foreigners moving there and changing their culture (which I find a bit more reasonable in an isolated country of 325 thousand people than in a melting pot of 325 million). But the people seemed very friendly overall to this white, American tourist.
Mary G
None of the workers in the physical therapy department here voted. “Is nothing to with me” was the general attitude, along with “Obama should compromise more.” I wanted to tear my hair out.
Suffern ACE
@MattR: how was the trip?
LookingForACanadian
I’m exhausted by the thought of digging through last night’s threads to find a most wonderful comment about many people not understanding the governing process details and so easily falling for the “blame Obama” propaganda, etc. Anyone remember it? Ugh.
Tenar Darell
@Mary G: Sigh. Blech. I usually point out at this point in a conversation that you can hardly complain or offer criticism if you don’t get involved and vote. (I then become “the obnoxious one”). How’d you handle it?
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE: @MattR:
More importantly, did you meet Bjork?
srv
@LookingForACanadian: Sheesh, we work hard to make that every thread.
@MattR: Everyone is related there.
Omnes Omnibus
@LookingForACanadian: I’m sure a search for my name will do the trick.
MattR
@Suffern ACE: Had a great time but a bit disappointed by the things I didn’t get to do. Very cold and windy for the first few days and nature didn’t cooperate with the Northern Lights. But it is absolutely beautiful and I want to go back sometime in the summer when I can take a few days to drive out to some of the sights that are farther from Reykjavik without worrying about having to come back to the hotel every night. (EDIT: Eventually I am gonna have to post pictures online for friends and will drop a link here when I do that)
It is very tough to do the bus tours during the day and also to go out at night. The bar scene doesn’t really start until 1 am and they keep going at private parties after last call at 4:30. We got called wimps when we left a bit after 3 am on Friday night (even though we had flown in that morning and had gone out to the bar at 10:30 pm – which we thought was a normal NYC time). As we were walking home, every bar had a decent sized line to get in, and this was with 30-35 degree weather and 15-25 mile per hour winds. There was a lot of napping on buses between locations and today was a rough one at work. Not sure how I am still awake.
@srv: Yes, yes they are. They even have an app to make sure they don’t accidentally hook up with someone too closely related.
@Omnes Omnibus: I drove by Hotel Bjork :) And learned that Yoko Ono is an honorary citizen. We got to see the Imagine Peace Tower she had built in her husband’s honor which she lights every year on his birthday and is extinguished on the day of his death (and with all the geothermal power they produce, it isn’t really wasting electricity).
Suzanne
So my company focuses on the healthcare and education market sectors, and the silver lining last night is that a proposition passed to allow the County to sell a huge amount of bonds for some new healthcare facilities, and a bunch of education overrides passed, which means more school replacements (and Mr. Suzanne’s first raise).
This morning, we were all talking about the election, and a few people said that they went and voted for the propositions and overrides only. “I don’t care about the other stuff.”
Like, WTF? Seriously.
LookingForACanadian
@srv: I know :-/ blessing and, in this case, curse.
LookingForACanadian
@Omnes Omnibus: A most excellent suggestion, I will give it a try.
Omnes Omnibus
@LookingForACanadian: Step two is ignore what you find in the search; it will save you some time.
srv
Well, alrighty then.
Mnemosyne
@srv:
Did he misdial?
srv
@MattR: Well, whenever everyone has a hot spring in their back yard, it must be hard to keep track.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@srv:
Officials added that several bird cages plus email exchanges with several bird smugglers were found in Rudd’s residence. Several raven feathers were also found on Rudd’s person at the time, leading one to believe that the deal had gone sour.
MattR
@MattR: I should add that one nice thing about going at this time of year despite not seeing the Northern lights was that the sunsets were gorgeous and super long (I just saw an online calculator that said the sun peaked at 10 degrees above the horizon today.
@srv: The sulfur smell in the tap water took some getting used to, especially if you went into the bathroom after someone had showered, but it tasted absolutely fine and is supposedly among the cleanest in the world.
Tree With Water
If you feel better to credit this preposterous story about “stoners” and unvent your spleen at phantoms, well, why not? It does no harm. But you can bet considerably more voters were sidelined by hangovers. Considerably more…
Bubblegum Tate
@chopper:
Either it’s satire or those people really, really suck ass.
LookingForACanadian
@LookingForACanadian: It was in the 402-comment venting thread. I’m almost certain. On the hunt …
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
Troll-bait story pretending to be anecdata signifying something.
The guardian has to move some eyeballs too…
Violet
@Mary G: How are you doing, Mary? I hope things are improving.
jibeaux
I will never understand why people don’t think elections affect them. 1) it does always affect you, and 2) if you can’t see how it affects you. It doesn’t take a shit-ton of imagination to see how it might affect you in the future, or affect someone you know. E.g. Are you, or do you care about any, females of childbearing age? Then it affects you. Repeat ad nauseum.
AnonPhenom
@j:
Agree.
Any apathy you see has fuck-all to do with the dank, and everything to do with the True ‘Professional Left’ consistently face-planting every midterm when it comes to generating the enthusiasm they are paid millions of dollars to create (while simultaneously never failing to cash the check) and never being fired for fucking up by the DCCC or the DSCC.
So yeah, it’s the customers fault for not being excited enough and responding to the marketing strategy as expected, which was flawless dudebro.
Fuck. Off.
They can complain about voter apathy and stupidity when they take the corporate money out of the equation.
Heliopause
Obviously, the way to make people vote the way you want them to is to ridicule them.
burnspbesq
Those people may (or may not) be atypical of Colorado stoners, but I don’t doubt the accuracy of the reporting. I don’t like its sucking of Snowden and Greenwald’s dicks very much, but the Guardian hasn’t forgotten how to do journalism.
MikeBoyScout
Yeah, it’s impossible to believe that some stoners only want to get high and not vote or knock doors.
– stoner since 1976
Mike J
Good news from yesterday in Washington: 594 (background checks for gun sales) passed, 591 (No gov seizure of guns without due process, and oh, by the way, no background checks allowed) failed.
I’m a bit disappointed the teahadi running for Doc Hasting’s seat lost. There won’t be any difference in voting records between him and the Republican that won, and we won’t even have the pleasure of watching a crazy person.
srv
@AnonPhenom: Wait, I could get paid for this?
I was yelling at a FL 19 year old yesterday for not voting. I said if half his dudes put the bong down and voted, FL would be legal.
You know what the problem is? We don’t have a modern Cheech & Chong. We need a character to motivate yout stoners for the mid-terms.
Damn Republicans were smart when they needed mid-terms – always could roll out the Flag Burning Amedment.
Dems are such putzes.
kdaug
Next: “Y’all tried the KochBud? It’ll lay you on your ass.”
Tree With Water
@burnspbesq: I bet you were on top of the world as last nights election results rolled in, weren’t you? Unless you were being sarcastic.
MikeBoyScout
@AnonPhenom: thanks for the link. we need to read that article daily. maybe then it might sink in.
MattR
@burnspbesq: I am sure its true, but its also pointless. Would they write a similar article about people in gay bars after same sex marriage was passed? I am pretty sure that would generate outrage, but stoners are an easy target to mock.
Amir Khalid
Should I go see Interstellar in regular (home cineplex in Petronas Twin Towers, very near; cheaper ticket) or in IMAX (nearest theatre at the far end of KL; expensive ticket)? I’m reading very good things about it in the reviews.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: You could do both and then offer us a review of each.
Omnes Omnibus
Okay, why is TCM doing a Romanov themed evening? The anniversary of the October Revolution is actually tomorrow.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: He is a very nice man and I am ever so sure he wouldn’t mind.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Touché.
catclub
@Heliopause: The point of the article is the a great and disturbing truth about voting.
if you give people something they have been coming to the polls to vote to push through, they will stop voting for you, even if you gave it to them. Social Security is almost a counter example to this, but Medicare is a great example.
It did not turn the elderly, who received it, into automatic voters for the people who got it for them.
I bet same sex marriage will be the same way..
I do not know what to do about this, except to think that we should continue to do what is right, rather than what will retain voters. The GOP, with anti-abortion voters, has a valuable resource, which they have been careful to maintain.
If they gave those voters what they want, they would not vote so reliably.
The ACA will not turn the people who benefit from it into reliable Democratic votes.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: My aunt, who was in Sweden this summer, says that if you just change the type of houses the landscape of Sweden is amazingly like Wisconsin. There is a whole band of pine and birch forested country across the northern parts of the world, Wisconsin is in it. But, yeah, you make a fair point.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m actually considering that option too. If I like it enough in regular, it might be worth seeing in IMAX for the visuals.
AnonPhenom
@srv:
Click the link I provided.
The only Dems who are putzes are the one’s giving money to the consultants, the DSCC and the DCCC.
If you’re donating money give it directly to the people running for office.
You’re just pissing it away giving it to the party apparatchiks.
FlipYrWhig
@srv:
For some reason he was hoping it’d be dirt cheap.
ETA: Dammit, Mnem, you’ve bested me again.
Bobby B.
I live in OR and kept track of Measure 91 news through Russ Bellville (as well as reelection of Kitzahber and Merkley) ,and yea there was much rejoicing. Every morning I wake up and think “thank God I’m not in Dixie, the land of the Loud And the Damned.” Smug bastard I.
NotMax
@FlipYrWhig
If he/she isn’t snuffed in 30 minutes or less, the hit is free.
Provider_UNE_AndPlayersToBeHatedLater™
@MattR: Well Hippies of course…The punching becomes reflexive.
…
dance around in your bones
Ok, so I voted yesterday in Santa Barbara and everyone / everything I voted for passed (including Governor Moonbeam, who I admire quite a lot) with the exception of Measure P (vote yes on P to vote NO for more fracking in SB – surprisingly, the NO votes passed by about 70% to 30%. Bummer.)
So – some of you may remember me being so excited about getting my dream job as a personal assistant/live-in housekeeper for a very wealthy pasty white Southern Gothic type lady? Living in a $4 million dollar mansion and thinking I’d died and gone to heaven?
Well, it all came to a screeching halt last week – apparently I did something to annoy Miss Thang, and she abruptly terminated my services last week. Since I was in a 30 day ‘probationary service’ clause per the boiler plate legal contract we downloaded from a legal site on the Internet, I was kindly asked to vacate the premises by Nov. 8th at the latest.
This has been the most bizarre work ‘experience’ of my lifetime. I have been scrambling to find temporary housing until I can get my future shit together. Since I am facing a total hip replacement in the not too distant future, it has left me desperate, confused and totally anxious.
Luckily, I found a place for the next 45 days in a really tranquil and lovely place. From there I will have to find a more permanent place to recover from my hip surgery (really, at this point I can barely walk, and in no small part from having to go up and down the grand (think Tara-style) staircase at the mansion I have been living in.
I am trying NOT to hole it against my OCD Southern Gothic employer, but it’s hard, oh so very hard.
So – I went from having lived in Paradise with the Golden Apple dangled in front of me, to having it yanked away and poisoned. As I had said before, I should take notes about this experience, and I will – but this time it will have a most different ending!! Like – the MOST bizarre job experience I have ever had in my lifetime!
I swear, I did nothing wrong – my best friend came to visit me from Vancouver, which had been OK’d by my employer, but she suddenly turned on a dime and sent me an email saying that “your living here is not working out for me and I want you to vacate by Nov. 8th at the latest”.
Sheeeit!! Well, life is just a bowl of cherries and all. I’m glad I found a place to rest and carry on….even though I had to navigate a ‘too good to be true’ apartment rental on Craigslist that turned into Nigerian scam territory very quickly, LOL. Wasted all morning yesterday looking at the outside of the place and emailing the dude back – from his subsequent emails I smelled scam from waaaay back.
Hold your breath for me, Juicers – I WILL see this through and come out stronger on the other side!!!
Dancing around even more furiously in my bones!!!!
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones: My mom had a hip replacement a couple of years ago, It has worked out well. Best of luck with yours. And with your housing search. If you write that book while you are laid up, you could end up rich, rich, rich. Just saying.
Death Panel Truck
@Mike J: I live in that district. I’m glad Didier lost. His ads annoyed the shit out of me, and he’s okay-fine with “Redskins” (so long as he doesn’t have to interact with real Native Americans.)
Amir Khalid
@dance around in your bones:
I’m sorry to hear that. Although there is the (admittedly thin) silver lining to this cloud, that this happened sooner, when it was less difficult to get out, rather than later. Did the rich old lady at least tell you how you’d displeased her?
Violet
@dance around in your bones: Oh, no! I’m so sorry it didn’t work out. I’m glad you found a place to live.
I wonder if you’re at all close to where Mary G lives? I think she’s in California–maybe southern. She fell and is in a rehab situation at the moment. I don’t know if she’s going back to where she lived before, but if she is, I think she might need some help. HBM was living with her for awhile, but he went back to his family and then she fell while on her own.
Just thought I’d toss that out there in case either of you see it and it might be a good fit at some point.
mai naem
I’m in Arizona. My Dem Congresscritter kept her seat. She’s kinda sorta a bluedog but not like Harold Ford bluedog. Ann Kirkpatrick who was a big GOP target also managed to get a decent win. There were a lot of nasty Kochsucker kind ads against her. Ron Barber’s(he the former Gabby Gifford aide who also got shot) race hasn’t been called. I don’t have a good feeling about this one. Apparently in this country you don’t even get a pity vote anymore because,you know, good guys with guns or something. They actually had the cojones to call money from Giffords PAC outside money because, well, I don’t know. Apparently when you got shot in this country and your career is over, you have to keep your hands out of electoral politics. Unless,ofcourse, you’re a GOP’r and your kid gets raped by a black man – then it’s okay to lock up every black man.
Tommy
@Bobby B.: I used to smoke a lot of pot. You know the guy in the nice suit. Not maybe the guy you’d think was a stoner. I stopped years ago because I was worried I could get busted and lost a lot of the things I have in this world. There are few things I’d rather have right now then a nice joint or a bong hit. I am very happy to see that pot is getting legal across many states. I live in a pretty progressive state and think maybe in my lifetime I will be able to get “high” and not break the law.
Cain
@srv:
Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.
mai naem
@dance around in your bones: I’m sorry it didn’t work out. I’m guessing you aren’t the first companion/caregiver for her and you won’t be the last.
Mnemosyne
@dance around in your bones:
Well, that sucks. But I guess it’s better that you found out she’s fucking crazy early on.
And Violet and I had the same thought at the same time. But I think Mary G is a bit further south of me in Los Angeles, unless I’m remembering wrong.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus:
I have heard that the recuperation/rehab from a full replacement hip surgery is even easier than the “screw the ball of the femur back onto the bone and hope it works’ is easier to recover from, so I’m hoping that is true. Right now I am living on painkillers and hope.
Oh, and you’re right – I had said I might keep notes and write about THIS experience, however this time it mat have a bit of a twist at the end! So, what else is new in my life??!! HA!
@Amir Khalid: I wish I could say that she has given me some clarity on WHY she terminated me so abruptly – my friends and family have gone round and round with possible reasons, and no one can come up with any except that she’s a bit mental. Perhaps she was a bit jealous of my friend coming to visit? Felt her privacy was being invaded? I don’t think I will ever know, though I will speculate about it for years to come.
@Violet: I actually have found a place already in a lovely canyon here in SB that is like a park – the woman I am renting from is a wonderful person – works as a director of an equestrian therapeutic center and it’s just a lovely place. However, while I am there I cannot lay back and forget my situation – I have to find a place where I can recuperate after my hip replacement, and while I have family in the area I don’t want to impose on them. So – it might be temporary medical disability while I recover and then – onward and upwards!!
Thank you for all the good wishes, Juicers – I love you guys :)
Tommy
@mai naem: I never post to my Facebook page. Never. Well after Gabby Gifford got shot I posted a link to an interview of her talking about, well she was asked if she was fearful of maybe getting shot. Palin put a bullseye on her district. I thought it was foreshadowing of epic portions.
Things went sideways.
Seemed people thought it was OK for her to get shot. Yelled at me for posting this. One of the more bizarre things I’ve ever witnessed.
Yatsuno
@Mike J: Dammit. Newhouse is smart enough to keep the money spigot to Hanford flowing. I voted for Didier because the chaos would have been delightful. Now we get to see how true tax and spend Newhouse is.
dance around in your bones
@mai naem: Ayup – so true. She runs through them like water. It made me think of The Great Gatsby – “The rich are very different than you and I’ – in the sense that they can cause great destruction/disruption in people’s lives and then just swan on….leaving behind the mess that they made. I’m trying hard to practice loving kindness/compassion for her, because I think she is far more miserable than I am.
@Mnemosyne: Mary G is already a saint, I doubt she needs another sad case :)
You’re right that it was better now than later – i will be glad to be leaving this toxic place, however beautiful it is externally. Oh, the stories I could tell!! But – not now.
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones: My mom, being who she is, scheduled her surgery for a time that was convenient for others – against my advice and the advice of my father. One could see her have a sharp stabbing pain if she moved slightly oddly. Following the surgery, the pain was gone, and, this summer, while walking with her at our family’s cabin, I noticed that she is walking completely normally with no trace of a limp at all.
lamh36
I can’t a reply to all, but I just wanted to say Thank You to everyone who wished me a a happy Birthday today. It started out gloomy but it ended up on a high note. A lookout point to be exact!
So again to everyone…Mahalo!
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/530225680869376002
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: Oh, shit. Happy birthday.
Tommy
@lamh36: As a Scot I kind of hate offering up an Irish saying, but on your birthday:
Always makes me happy to read this ……
Mike J
@Yatsuno: I got to vote for a Dem who’s a bit to my right, but not horribly so. Adam Smith ran against a guy who had the great seal of the United States in flames on his web site. Shocking he only got 70% of the vote.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, I have heard that the full hip replacement is easier to recover from and leaves you in a much better place.
I broke my hip about 3 years ago, had the screws put in place, recovery was suckazoid but got better, then recently it started hurting like hell again. Got an x-ray and it showed I had re-fractured my hip somehow, and the ortho doc’s advice was to either learn to live with the pain (which made his nurse and I break into hysterical laughter) or the next option was full hip replacement.
Since I had just started my new ‘dream job’ I opted to try to ‘live with the pain’ with the help of rather strong painkillers. Well, lately even those aren’t working so well. It hurts like a sonofabitch, even with large quantities of Norco 10-325.
I’m going to have to go for the hip replacement, even though it will lay me low for at least a couple of months. How long did it take your Mom to recover from her surgery?
I don’t see any way to cope with it without temp medical disability, even though according to some that makes me a leech on society. Ha!
ETA: Hippy Hippy Birthday to you, lamh36!!! Your comments about your fave TV shows always make me smile. I will also say “Sapo Verde a Ti” which is how Mexican folks hear the Happy birthday song when sung in English – in Spanish that means “A Green Frog to You!” hahahahahha – seriously, Happy birthday to one of my favorite commenters :)
Violet
@lamh36: Happy Birthday! Didn’t realize this was your exact birthday–knew it was a birthday trip. Hope you are enjoying Hawii.
Major Major Major Major
Yeah I call bullshit. This year in Colorado was mail-in.
Violet
@dance around in your bones: You’re right that Mary G is a saint but I think she can also use someone around the house to help her out since she has some physical limitations. Once you recover from your surgery, it might be a good fit. Who knows. Something to keep in the back of your mind anyway.
My uncle had a hip replacement and recovered really quickly. I hope yours goes smoothly.
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones:
She could move around reasonably well after a couple of weeks. Stairs took longer. Bending and squatting are things that st is still careful about, but that’s just her way She had a slight limp for a quite a while.
I say you should mooch a bit if that is what you need to do. The people who would judge you for it already think you are filthy hippie, so what do you care?
Amir Khalid
@dance around in your bones:
Some annoyng person will probably reply to tell you that (a) Fitzgerald actually wrote, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” and (b) it’s from a short story titled The Rich Boy, not The Great Gatsby. But I promise you, I would never do such a thing.
Violet
@lamh36: That’s a great picture! You look so happy!
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: You know Hemingway’s response, don’t you? “They have more money.”
Amir Khalid
@lamh36:
It would make anybody’s day to see that big beautiful smile on you.
Yatsuno
@dance around in your bones:
If it’s the one I think you’re taking about, DON’T. You pay into that system for this exact reason.
@Omnes Omnibus: My surgeon gave me 3 months off from work. Fortunately I had the economic resources to recover from that, but for some reason it took me about that time to get my legs back. And I get to do it all over again in May!
Omnes Omnibus
@Yatsuno: Lucky you.
dance around in your bones
@Violet: I actually do have a good family/friends support system in Santa Barbara. I just don’t want to impose on them too much, even though they have all said they have ‘got my back’ , the sweethearts :) I’m not sure how much help I could be to Mary G if I am ALSO recovering from a surgery!
@Omnes Omnibus: Hahahaha!
So true – but they LOVE this DFH’s stories, and are always urging me to write them down, as you do :) Perhaps this will give me the time and inclination to write! The place I am moving to for the next 45 days is so tranquil and quiet – horse pasture next door, beautiful views out every window, a writing desk built in to my bedroom with a wonderful view – y’all just need to slap me upside the head if I don’t start writing there!!
@Amir Khalid: Of course not – you would NEVER do such a thing! But thank you for the correction – I swear I thought it was The Great Gatsby where one could find that quote (((off to do my research)))) o.O
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones:
As long as you are speaking figuratively, deal.
RaflW
@efgoldman: Thing is, Hickenlooper won, so to some extend Udall either a) ran a shitty campaign, b) is a crappy Senator or c) both.
(Note: I donated to both, plus to Polis. I can’t vote there, but I have a condo in ski country that I visit/short term rent, so I care about CO politics)
dance around in your bones
@Yatsuno: Yes, I don’t see any reason to feel bad about taking help from the gummint when I truly need it.
It’s not like I am trying to game the system or whatever….I just need temporary help to get through this rough patch – then I will go back to being a good lil worker bee, I swear!
Omnes Omnibus
@RaflW:
Some place good?
Citizen_X
@srv:
Ahem.
Citizen_X
@lamh36: Happy Bday! It would certainly take a bite out of the gloom to be in such a lovely place.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen_X: Good point.
muddy
Jon Stewart used the term “skull fucked” twice tonight, and the second time he said it was trademarked. Well, not by him! John needs to send him a sternly worded letter about this.
I had a work accident and got hit by a corner of a heavy box, right in the defibrillator. (Not an euphemism.) I’m told it is working properly, but it shifted in the pocket and the corner sticks right out now. The whole area is really painful.
Violet
@dance around in your bones: I understand. I was thinking longer term as you thnk about what you do next. It could be a situation that would benefit both of you. I think she’s still in a rehab facility at the moment.
As for friends and family–if you can’t impose on them after surgery, when can you? Accept their help when you need it.
Your upcoming place sounds fantastic. I hope you’ll do some writing. I think you’ve got a bestseller n you!
Anne Laurie
@lamh36: Happy birthday, fellow Scorpio, and many happy returns!
(to Hawaii, as well as the usual ‘solar returns’)
Violet
@Citizen_X: Nah, even they’re too old. “Kumar” has worked in the Obama administration and “Harold” is now on a sitcom where he’s the “old guy” who doesn’t get Kids These Days and their twittery instagrammy phones.
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: Cheech and Chong weren’t portrayed as young hip guys.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Happy birthday! Google tells me it’s “Hau`oli Lā Hānau” in Hawaiian.
Mnemosyne
@muddy:
Well, I feel slightly less whiny about my broken toe now. Though it still hurts like a mofo. Even the National Institutes of Health’s advice for a broken small toe is “rest and ice.” Ibuprofen before bed.
(No exciting story — I just managed to stub my toe on the ottoman really hard while trying to avoid stepping on a cat.)
CarolDuhart2
Now that I have come back from my post-election funk:
1) Dems need to keep in touch with their voters, and that includes their minority voters. The only time I hear from a lot of them is a few weeks before the election.
While the AM radio band is probably lost to the Dem equivalents of Fox, online radio and online methods abound. Send e-mails about accomplishments and concerns as well as money begs. And speaking of money begs, some people don’t have a lot of money. This year the mails were depressing-because I couldn’t give any. But when I tried to check out volunteering, and clicked a link-it lead directly to a fundraising page.
2) An online summit for a basic list of Democratic principles. Yes, things may have to be adapted locally, but at least there should be a list of things we really stand for that are positive and energetic.
3) Get rid of a lot of consultants. A lot of them are useless and obsolete.
trollhattan
Lest we forget what elections are really about.
“Keeping The Street happy since, forever. Amen.”
Mike J
@CarolDuhart2:
Online summits mean exactly as much as a Cincinnati Enquirer online poll. If you want people to listen to you show up in person.
Gian
@CarolDuhart2:
the simple thing to remember is to get your potential voters interested, unfortunately, this often means telling them how it impacts them personally may be what it takes to at least get their attention for a little bit.
and the consultants who advised candidates to try and run away from Obama because he’s
not popular” need to read the damn Machiavelli stuff again. The people who hate Obama are not going to vote for you because you waffle on disowning him. If this means you’re fucking Don Quixote in a red state, that’s what you are. Either support your party leader or don’t.
Do not try to pretend to not support it doesn’t fucking work. Maybe hire someone who does more than number crunch to give advice.
http://www.online-literature.com/machiavelli/prince/21/
Note to Ms. Grimes playing coy doesn’t work, be a friend or a foe of your party leader. If you need to say “Obama sucks I didn’t vote for the exotic Kenyan from Hawaii. just say it.
(thus ends the college prep high school reference to Machiavelli it helps me clarify why I get so frustrated with the waffle democrats like Grimes – I hear her friends call her “Grimey” like her late brother from the Simpsons show, Frank Grimes)
Mike J
@trollhattan: You sound as if you’re unhappy that California decided to be fiscally responsible by setting aside money so that state services can continue even through an economic downturn rather than slashing taxes every time they run a one nickle surplus.
CarolDuhart2
@Mike J: What I meant by an online summit was this: we get together to actually come up with a list. Yes, there’s more to do, but at least come up with something that someone could at least reference. And it has to be online so that it can be found. If we don’t at least have a list, then who else is going to come up with one?
Tree With Water
Remember this has been declared an open thread.
Let the word go forth. If the promo commercials for Dumb & Dumber 2 are any indication, people who pay to see it will be getting robbed. Which is a shame, because I love the original.
And unless he was broke or was in desperate need of quick cash for a life saving surgery, I can’t understand why Rob Lowe made those cringeworthy commercials that currently run on ESPN and FOX sports channels. It was shown every other inning during the playoffs and World Series, and now it’s popping up on NFL games. If I cared one way or the other about Lowe, I’d feel embarrassed for him. It makes him look like the real life counterpart of the guy who played ‘the Wiz’ in that Seinfeld episode.
John Weiss
Those two fuck-os need a good horse whippin’.
“Oh well we’re not voting (’cause fill in the blank) we don’t believe in civilization.
However they identify themselves they’re subscribing to the tried-and-true ‘Pub mantra: “I got mine, too bad you didn’t get yours”.
Disgusting.
Citizen Alan
@catclub:
I bet same sex marriage will be the same way..
This. If the GOP ever stops being the fundie party that wants to roll back gay rights, I expect gays (factoring for income and ethnicity) will vote for Republicans in pretty the same percentages as straights.
Joel Hanes
@Omnes Omnibus:
. There is a whole band of pine and birch forested country across the northern parts of the world
and therein lives my heart.
Winter is coming.
Citizen Alan
@Gian:
I am still flummoxed that Grimes didn’t have the wit to say something like “I disagree with President Obama on many points, but of course I voted for him because I believe on the whole he was a better choice than either McCain or Romney.” And then go into a recitation of the failed policies that those two supported and that the GOP still supports.
Omnes Omnibus
@Joel Hanes: I have lived elsewhere, but I had to come home. Yes, winter is coming; so is skiing. Put the White Walkers on a pair of Volkls and they stop doing their weird shit whatever it actually is.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen Alan: Oh, can we for the love all that is good and right in the world stop flogging her for this? She would not have won no matter how she answered the fucking question. She went after the senior Republican in the Senate and went after him hard.
ETA: How many of us bitching about the specifics of her campaign would have been willing to do what she did?
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: The great thing about the Pacific Northwest is we don’t have the hideous heat that makes the south unlivable, but our cold and snow stays in the mountains where it belongs.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: When I lived in Germany, I had that experience. Mountains just mesmerize me – like the sea or deserts do to some people. I will go to them every vacation that doesn’t take me to Paris. I love our seasons – except that the summers are too hot. Heat kills me.
opiejeanne
@Mike J: Did you see the voting maps for the two initiatives? Several counties passed both measures.
http://projects.seattletimes.com/2014/election/#KeyRaces
Gian
@Omnes Omnibus:
he was replying to me, so I feel obligated.
I really don’t care if she threw Obama under the bus to get elected. I also wouldn’t care if she tried the full throated endorsement of Obama either.
By playing coy about it, she made the potential voters who didn’t really know imagine the worst of her (from their point of view) It’s water under the bridge, but I think it’s a mistake. To extend, to Obama supporters, she seemed a turncoat to not bother to vote for. To Obama haters she seemed a disingenuous Obama supporter – at least that’s how I see it.
It was a problem for Gore in 2000 as well WRT Clinton.
Get on the bandwagon, or get the fuck off. Hell, Gore was worse. (hi, I’m the VP of the last administration, and I can’t been seen with the president of that same administration)
it feels like listening to number crunching poll mavens without thinking about how and why.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gian: This has been batted back and forth on this site since it happened. She would not have won no matter how she answered the question. The horse is dead: can we have have some respect for the corpse or should we keep beating it?
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: There are many pics of me in my house, standing on top of a mountain. There are few things in this world I enjoy more than hiking up a mountain and looking at the view. Just pure joy.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: as much as we would have liked her to stand up for the President and his agenda, it would have been even better if the people of Kentucky had done so, since so many of them benefited from the ACA. The DCC should have had ads running non-stop tying Kynect to the ACA and exposing the bullshit line that the media let the Turtle get away with. Plenty of anger to go around, just want to stop beating on folks that actually put their names and their lives out there to represent us. They’re not all grifters and nor are they saints, but the scrutiny that they undergo is tremendous with the GOP cherrypicking facts and numbers and sound bites and spinning them out of context, in many cases it’s a no win considering the money that is out there. Sure we would like our folks to go out there and be loud and proud and sell the damn message, we have to take into account the other side is busy twisting the ever loving shit out of what a candidate says and even if they don’t leave an opening, they simply make shit up and do so when there is little to no time to counter the lies.
Omnes Omnibus
@piratedan:
Dude, they flat out bullshit.
Tommy
@piratedan: 70 years. Think about 70 years. That was the last time a Republican held my House seat. Well until yesterday. We just don’t ever elect Republicans. My district is as blue as blue gets. Then this happened. I am almost speechless.
opiejeanne
@Mike J: And that drops the interest rate that the state can borrow at.
opiejeanne
@Mike J: It stays there most of the time. Remember last winter? 15 Fahrentheit is too darned cold.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: One of my favorite memories is a vacation my family did to the Tetons when I was a kid. My dad’s parents and my immediate family did the thing. My dad did a climbing course on the big mountains. But after that, my grandfather, my dad , and I (aged 9-10) climbed Mt. Woodring together. It obviously was not a technical climb, but was so cool.
Tommy
@opiejeanne: I was a military brat so I lived in a lot of places. Often 100 or 0 in temp. I actually like the change in temperature. But I found Baton Rouge, the humanity, was hard to deal with.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: What was your dad’s military rank? I am aware that being anal about details annoys you but still… What was his rank?
cckids
@Citizen Alan:
Yes. I can get, barely, being surprised by it the first time; I’ve never before heard a candidate being asked such a thing, but given the attention her non-answer got, she should have had a better response the second time around. How are some politicians so bad at such a major part of their job?
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: don’t have to tell me.. I lived through McSally’s defeat of Barber here in AZ 2 where they essentially had 1.5 million more in campaign spending… with a total number of over 11m spent on various and sundry ads… if only that money could have been spent on some infrastructure, because there are a few roads that need paving around here…..
https://www.opensecrets.org/races/indexp.php?cycle=2014&id=AZ02
her claim to fame, she’s a female fighter pilot….
beat him by by just under 1300 votes, so roughly 100k a vote?
Omnes Omnibus
@cckids: Have you run for office? I haven’t, but I have done appellate arguments. Sometimes you get hit with a question for which you are not ready, no matter how much prep you did. When that happens, you just do your best. And then you stick with your answer.
daverave
@dance around in your bones:
I had total hip replacements in 2010, both sides, 6 months apart. Each time I spent a week with a walker, a week with a cane and then back to walking. I foolishly went backpacking just 10 weeks after the first surgery and kind of screwed up some soft tissues which took many months to get better. The second surgery I was more careful with and never had any problems. I was 55 at the time. After being in pain pre-surgery for over 10 years, I rarely think about my hips anymore. YEAH! Totally worth it.
Good luck with your procedure.
opiejeanne
@Tommy: Oh the humanity! Or did you mean humidity?
I am a delicate flower from SoCal, native of Los Angeles County. I was assured that the winters don’t get all that cold, but I admit that I knew better before I moved to the Seattle area. One really bad snowstorm left two buses with their noses hanging over the 5 freeway in Seattle; it was that storm that has been memorialized for all time with the YouTube video of cars in Portland sliding into each other while people stand on a balcony and watch.
We have been there 4 years and have been snowed in for a week once but we are outside Seattle, about 12 miles East, and in what is called a convergent zone, which means that the weatherman just tells us to duck most of the time. Our house is on Hollywood Hill, a big flat area not too high above the Samamish Valley, but there are times that it was raining in town and the rain turned to snow as we drove up our road, and it’s just not that high above the flat area below. I mean, it has a laughable lack of altitude and we are sometimes the only place with snow for many miles around.
opiejeanne
@Tommy: A few years before we got there. My youngest lived up the street from this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp4VFLsRDp8
cckids
@Omnes Omnibus: I have not run for office, and I give her full props. And, as I said, even a pass on the first time she was asked it. But her dodging the question took over her campaign for at least a week – 10 days. Nothing else was getting out except that. And it had the unfortunate effect of making her look like “just another politician, won’t give you a straight answer, can’t stand for anything”.
She had the time to think of something better. And Citizen Alan, above, came up with a really good answer, one that she, or someone in her campaign, could & should have come up with.
And we’ve all beaten this horse beyond dead. Sorry for my part in it.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: GS17.
Tommy
@opiejeanne: I found my best friend in DC in a snow storm. Two plus feet of snow. I was walking around cause, well two feet of snow. It seemed like a thing to walk around in. I ran into him. He was like dude what are you doing. I said walking around. We became friends.
JGabriel
@Cain:
As it’s Oregon, shouldn’t that be MOTV – Mail Out The Vote?
Chris
@catclub:
Well, the great thing about GOP voters is that if you give them what they want, they’ll just find something else to bitch about.
I think the genius of right wing “social issues” campaigns is precisely that they don’t appeal to “issues” that can be solved by an act of government, but much more intangible fears, delusions and paranoias that just don’t go away. Guns are probably the perfect example – they’ve won on every possible front, not only ensured the sanctity of the Second Amendment but dismantled gun regulation to a degree that the people who passed the constitution never dreamed of, the kind of deregulation that no other right has ever prompted – and still they’re as freaked out about black helicopters and ATF/UN conspiracies as they ever were, even more so in fact. Ditto other conspiracy theories like those about birth certificates or death panels or creeping Sharia or special benefits for illegal immigrants. (Or, in another age, Jewish or Masonic or Catholic one-world government conspiracies).
You can’t address the issue, because the issue doesn’t exist anywhere outside of their heads. And it keeps turning them out to vote.
BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: I’m a Southern CA native and went to grad school in Seattle at UW. My first year up there it didn’t snow at all, saw some flakes one night but didn’t stick. My second and third year we got about 1 week of snow each year. I really had a difficult adjustment to the COLD the first year, though not the rain oddly enough.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: I went to grad school at LSU. Funny thing. Learned a lot in there. A Yankee in a far right state.
Another Holocene Human
Anne Laurie, please delete my comment. I need to get a grip.
mai naem mobile
@piratedan: barber has not conceded. Theres still 34k early/ provisionals left to count in Pima and 2k in Cochise. I doubt hes going to win but hes probably going to lose by less than 300 votes.
Another Holocene Human
Thanks, Anne Laurie.
Re: Pot, with more states legalizing recreational pot, is it time to start trolling Canadians hard?
Wow, ya dumb hosers, need to come to Oregon and see how it’s done, eh? What’s taking you so long? Sitting on your laurels after same sex marriage?
Gravenstone
@Tommy:
Well, Lousiana can be a terrible place, just look at what passes for their government.
Actually, your inadvertent non sequitur reminds me of the menu at a local Chinese place that touted a dish in “spicy Human sauce”.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Gravenstone: Hmmm, How to Serve Humans?
Shakezula
@different-church-lady: This.
The writer spoke to half a dozen people, one of whom was going to vote and relied on statements like “No one I know is planning to vote.”
Awesome reporting.
But if Repubs look at this story and think decriminalizing pot is the way to win elections, I won’t tell them any different.
BlueDWarrior
@Gravenstone: We are not that bad here… I think.
Schlemazel
@Gravenstone:
Ate at a place around LA that offered “Shrimp in mobster sauce”
Nobody in our group tried it but we did make a lot of “sleeps with the fishes” jokes.
Schlemazel
What’s the record for the longest time a thread has been left at the top here at BJ? I would think nearly 8 hours has to be close to a record in the modern era. It appears the morning regulars are avoiding this stale little guy. Come on raven, I count on you to watch Shmoe so I don’t have to!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Schlemazel: I’ve been avoiding Shmoe the last few days. The gloating would probably start me guzzling my mouthwash*.
* The mouthwash and vanilla extract are the only things with alcohol in the house.
Sherparick
I have heard comments like this all the time from people. All the same, when I meet people like this I ask them if they would like to move to Somalia. When they say why, I tell them, well there is no Government there and no democracy and hence no politicians or elections, so it would be perfect for them. They then look a me with this odd look in their eye. Of course, when Democratic politicians make easy for them by to say both sides and “no difference.” HIckenlooper opposed the legalization referendum and has been ambiguous about what to do with this new, surprisingly booming business and world wide tourism boost going forward. Now Beauprez is an outright prohibitionist and would have done his best to reignite the war on drug, but Hickenlooper’s ambiguity kept that from being an issue.
Perhaps because I have been expecting a bad election all year, what with American history concerning mid-term elections, I don’t feel or believe the anger (particularly the anger directed at Democrats in Red States that lost who did better than Obama did in 2012 such as Kay Hagan and Michelle Nunn). There are things to learn, but you are not going to get an Elisabeth Warrens out states such as North Carolina and Georgia. Kay Hagan helped get the 2009 Recovery Act, the Affordable Care Act, and Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act through congress 2009-10, the most productive Congress in the last 44 years (at least since the extraordinary Congresses of ’63 through ’72). So we should lick our wounds (and learn from our mistakes).
Mistakes: One thing of note, Blue states have more dislike of one party Government then Red States and hence are more like to vote for a Republican for Governor, especially if they perceive one party mis-rule as they certainly did in Illinois and Maryland.) So remember Mayor Daly’s first rule of politics “Good Government is good politics (which for a Mayor means the snow shoveled off the streets and trashed is picked up).” (Unfortunately our tribal voting friends in Red States can’t bring themselves to punish bad Governors so they are going to get the Government they deserve, as Mencken said, “good and hard.”)
Another mistake is that when base turnout is key in purple states, running from the President probably does not help. The other side who hates him will turnout anyway and you need to get the voters who still love him to turn out for you. This particularly hurt Kagan in North Carolina (also a place, along with Georgia and Florida, where voter suppression worked as intended).
Also, the most dangerous candidate out there for Democrats is the little fascist from Wisconsin, Scott Walker. He may not look or sound particularly charismatic, but he has created a true mass movement whose base is a union the resentful white working class, Evangelicals and Roman Catholics, and plutocracy. He would not be very vulnerable to class base attacks that most of the other Republican candidates because, as he constantly reminds his voters, “he is a non-college graduate son of a preacher.” I think he will be the Koch’s candidate and I believe that if he gets in the primaries he will draw almost a much Evangelical support Ted Cruz or Huckabee. I think he will hang that Katrina photo-op with Obama around Christie’s neck and he will knock Kasich down by saying he is just to willing to compromise with Democrats rather than crushing them and their constituencies as he has done in Wisconsin, where he has won 3 elections in a purple state.
Sherparick
Not that I am without a little negativity. I would definitely tell Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Steve Israel is that they can be full time congress persons (they are bad enough at that) and quit these part time jobs. Israel just presided over DCCC that has seen an election produce the largest Republican majority since 1946. You are bad at your job and loathed by the “Democratic Wing” of the Democratic Party for good reason. Ditto for Wasserman-Schultz and the whole gang of “Democratic” consultants who decided to pursue the will o’wisp of the undecided woman voter as the key.
Cervantes
@Sherparick:
@Sherparick:
Thanks.
Tommy
@Sherparick: I like Debbie but think she might not be the person running reelections. I’ve said this here a lot, but for the first time in 70 years a Republican won my House seat. He lost by almost ten points. Not even close. I honestly didn’t see this coming. Not in a million years. The polls were a toss up. Not like this where he lost the election 52 to 44.
Matt McIrvin
I think that what we’re seeing here is that at least some of the social hot-button issues are losing valence as conservatives give up on them or flip outright. If the Republicans actually tried to re-ban pot in Colorado, people who like pot would get upset about it, but I doubt they’re actually going to go there.
It does suggest that the future for Republicans is more Scott Walker than Ted Cruz.
And it also suggests that Democrats might want to run on pro-worker, pro-financial-justice messages, if they can’t warn people of the American Taliban taking over any more. They need to champion specific changes: minimum-wage laws, better sick pay and leave, maybe even a shorter work week.
I honestly don’t know if that will actually get them votes. But there are a lot of young people out there who are hurting, unemployed or underemployed and in debt up to their eyeballs, and they obviously don’t believe that Democrats are going to help them with any of that.
Matt McIrvin
…Note, in Massachusetts the voters elected Charlie Baker governor and lifted the indexing of the gas tax to inflation, both seemingly conservative things, but they also voted in a mandate for employer sick pay. Very interesting, that.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
The frustrating thing is that the godbotherers who show up for anti-gay and anti-abortion votes also show up for everything else.
aimai
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes. This.
aimai
@Matt McIrvin: The vote on the gas indexing thing was fucked up–my poor husband voted against it when he was really for it because the wording was so impenetrable.
tazj
I agree that evangelicals show up to vote no matter what, I have evangelical members in my family. I try to avoid arguments with them because I do love them but I also know from previous arguments they can not be convinced, at least by me. This is despite the fact that at one time my family benefitted from food stamps, and they used Pell grants to pay for college. The evangelicals are two of my siblings. My parents went through the depression and WWII and were, and are, life long Democrats. The evangelicals believe that things are different now and too many people are “entitled.”
Yes, Scott Walker despite his anti-charisma, has great appeal to “fiscal conservatives” now. I think his union bashing can gain votes because so few people enjoy benefits now, and are insecure in jobs they hate. It’s funny to me that so many Republicans hate unions because when I worked as a nurse at a hospital, the Republicans that I knew sure new that union rule book backwards and forwards.
kindness
Please don’t bag on all stoners. I’m one and I voted. Of course voting in California is easy and I usually like the results. I only wish the rest of the country wasn’t insane.
OK, well if you overlook the TeaHaddist Congressman my area always seems to elect. That’s the price for living in the sticks. Sucks but I go on with my life and do what I can.
Cervantes
@Matt McIrvin:
And then there was Question 2, rejected by 75% of votes cast, which would have added bottles of water and other non-carbonated beverages to the state’s five-cent deposit program.
shortstop
I had to look again at the byline to be sure it was really you. Love it.
Matt McIrvin
@Cervantes: There was actually an organized campaign against that one, and little campaigning for it.
(That and aimai’s comment remind me of the SCTV election episode in which not even the campaign advertisers or SCTV’s analysts can figure out whether the bottle bill is pro- or anti-bottle deposit.)
Matt McIrvin
Unfortunately most Americans seem to still hate unions. (I think that for the most part they don’t even imagine that they could ever have a union, so unions are then just these organizations that bully the rest of us so that a privileged minority of workers can get benefits they’ll never get.)
That suggests that a movement for a better deal for labor has to be structured some other way. Freak events like the Market Basket non-strike probably can’t be relied on. Campaigns for direct regulations on employers might work.
Cervantes
@Matt McIrvin:
The campaigning for it was largely door-to-door and coupled with fund-raising, I think.
And yes, the people who write ballot questions are perverts.
burnspbesq
@Tree With Water:
Fuck you, asshole. You have not even a hint of a clue.
Cervantes
@Matt McIrvin:
Your mention of the Market Basket story reminds me of Aaron Feuerstein and the saga of Malden Mills.
phoebes-in-santa fe
I’ve been thinking a lot the last couple of days and what I’ve come up with is even worse than what I thought before. Democrats are real fond of saying, “oh, yes, it happens in every midterm (and actually it does, if you look at political history) BUT, just wait til 2016, when Hillary runs!. And just look at 2020 when all those ol’ white people who vote Republican are dead!”
Well, the problem is that we are putting all our eggs in one almost-70 year old basket, in terms of 2016. I really think that Hillary’s support is wide…but essentially shallow. Who else do we have if Hillary dies and/or wises up to the absurdity of running for President? We have no one. And don’t suggest Joe Biden. (Who I like a lot). He’s even older. I have always had the feeling that Hillary either won’t run or will be defeated if she does.
And we’ve been waiting for the old folks to die off fo-evah, and essentially it doesn’t change much. Dems still can’t get their people off their (fat) asses to vote in the mid-terms.
And what are we giving Dems to vote for? Our gubernatorial candidate – Gary King – who was chosen by the voters in a three-way primary – was a completely lame and inept candidate who ran a lame and inept race. I’ll bet the only people who voted for him this week were either relatives or people who held-their-noses when they voted.
And that leads us to another essential truth about Democrats (God love us, because we are so awful I don’t know who else would!) We do not support a president who accomplished so much his first two years – albeit with a strong Congress – because “Obamacare didn’t go far enough”, he “shoulda done this…and he didn’t”, “he disappointed me because he’s not liberal enough”, etc, etc. Now, I will be the first to admit – and to strongly admonish Obama and his administration – that their “messaging” was dreadful, from the very start. But we also display an astonishing ignorance when it comes to knowing how the government functions; that Obama couldn’t right all the wrongs that have come before him. BUT, the economy is doing well, unemployment is down, and so are the deficits that the Republicans have been complaining about for years. Why doesn’t EVERYBODY know that? Because the Obama administration hasn’t done much to broadcast that fact.
We’ve got a lot of soul-searching to do…
bmcchgo
I just dropped a few choice words for Cheryl and David on their website linked in the article: http://www.clubnedcafe.com/ I’d encourage you to do the same.
Tree With Water
@burnspbesq: You’ve don’t simply have a temper, you have a very stupid temper.
Julie
@West of the Cascades: This. Seriously. There’s a nice map here of turn-out by county, but the biggest take-away is that Oregon was +70%, while the rest of the country dawdled down around 40%.
J R in WV
@Tommy:
Dude, take a vacation trip to Colorado, or Oregon, or Washington (but wait til the get their shit together, they’re all F’ed up now!) or California…
We stopped in Colorado last March and our host took us to the local Distributor, it was surreal, bright white pharma look, huge humidore room with a big window, shelves of glass canisters with shiny stainless lids! Big menu of types of bud, how they affect you, which ones are good for getting down and which for getting up.
Employees wearing white jackets like pharmacists, very professional, but young hippies all.
We had a ball!!
SFAW
@dance around in your bones:
A bit late to your “party.” but: I had bilateral hip replacement(s) about six years ago. For me, the toughest parts were:
1) The precautions I needed to take to prevent dislocation. Not the physical part – the mental part, e.g., telling myself “Don’t move your leg THAT way, ’cause the head of the femur will pop out, and then you’re fucked.” Just remember to be vigilant, and form the right habits in that regard.
This is actually in two stages, by the way. I found that, for about a year (or more) after I had fully recovered, I was still super-cautious about dislocation – but not consciously. I just had a mental block about doing things (like jumping down from a two-foot-high rock, when hiking the Whites) where there was no real physical danger. I’m mostly over that now, but I still notice myself doing it at times.
2) Some parts of the post-op physical therapy. The PT with whom I was working used to work on my IT (iliotibial) bands; I’ve generally had a fairly high level of pain tolerance for most of my life (not Black Knight level, but not far off), but my eyes were tearing up from the pain, a couple of times. I imagine there is much worse pain to be given, but I (fortunately) haven’t experienced it yet.
Very best wishes and best of luck with your surgery!