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You are here: Home / Election Year / local races 2019/2020 / Contempt For Democracy All The Way Down

Contempt For Democracy All The Way Down

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I’ll be casting my first New York ballot this weekend! It’ll be a hell of a lot shorter than my last California ballot, which I swear to god weighed as much as Samwise (pictured).

Ballot length aside, it’s harder to vote here; they only started early voting this year, I believe, and voting by mail requires you to claim to have a reason.

But as much as the state-level Democrats are behind the curve on voting accessibility… at least they aren’t Republicans, who are at war with free and fair elections, up and down the ballot, and have been for a while, and show no signs of relenting. At, like, every level, down to ridiculous penny-ante bullshit. Consider this, from the local voter’s guide. It’s the Republican’s entire candidate statement for the position of NYC Public Advocate, a post that exists to make sure voters have a day-to-day voice in city government:

Imagine how much money was wasted in sending this booklet to every registered voter in a city of 8.5 million people…

It’s but one example of how little those in City Hall actually value the taxpayers like you who are left footing the bill.

Who speaks for your family?

Nothing says “Republican public advocacy” quite like “I think sending voting information to the public is a waste of money.” They just hate you and want you to live in the dark and be grateful for it. (Much like Pacific Gas & Electric, but I digress.)

Another open thread!

Reader Interactions

335Comments

  1. 1.

    laura

    Hey, it’s that fog-pelted cat!
    Also, imagine how much taxpayer funds can be squandered in the absence of an informed citizenry the republican candidate did not say….

  2. 2.

    Gump

    I got the “taxpayer waste!!!” pamphlet a month ago. I’m glad you pointed that out. He has no agenda except saying, “STOP THE DE BLASIO AGENDA” three times. He holds democracy in utter contempt. Even the Libertarian is more rational. No one in NYC can afford to let this fascist clown sneak in as the #2.

    VOTE!

  3. 3.

    Patricia Kayden

    Yet that Republican oaf has no problem with tax payers footing the bill for his President’s houses, businesses and grifting expeditions. Funny that,

  6. 6.

    geg6

    I hate Twitter and this isn’t going to change that, but love how they are boxing Zuckerberg in with their just announced policy of banning all political advertising, starting in November.

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    Ah, that blissed-out look on Samwise as he gets skritched under the chin …

    Clearly, the Republican candidate for Public Advocate doesn’t believe in advocating for the public. Since it’s New York City they’ll probably lose anyway, but why are they even running for a job they don’t think should exist?

  8. 8.

    Ohio Mom

    One perk of living in a red suburb is that voting is made easy for us. Easily accessible polls with plenty of parking, no lines except during the early morning pre-work rush hour (or so Ohio Dad tells me, I go later). It’s extremely convenient and fast for me.

    Although I do sometimes feel like I’m behind enemy lines when I pass the Republicans giving out sample ballots. After all these years, I recognize s couple of the more rabid ones.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @geg6: I want to see Bolton testify in public against Trump. Both because it’d be incredibly damaging to Trump and also for the hilarity value as Republicans tie themselves into knots trying to attack a guy that they used to extol.

  10. 10.

    Steve in the ATL

    Looks like I’m getting divorced. My wife and I love each other very much, but she just said she was “literally hanging by a thread”.

    Oh well, it was good while it lasted….

  11. 11.

    Martin

    I went the other way. From voting in NY in a big metal machine in the gym at the high school, with a curtain and all of these levers, to California standing in some randos garage in a ‘booth’ made from a cardboard box and a trash bag.

    CA voting feels much more democratic even though ballot initiatives are fucking bullshit.

  12. 12.

    Sab

    I haven’t lived in California since the mid nineties, but I do miss their ballot books. Right now I am wandering the internet trying to figure out who is running for everything local. School boards and judges are particularly opaque. I hate going to vote and finding that there was some race I missed, so I don’t have a clue which judge or whatever to vote for.

    Hope our mental health/addictionprop tax issue passes. Not much campaigning for it. It’s a renewal, not a new tax. It saves many many lives, but times are tough.

  13. 13.

    geg6

    PA is where it is difficult to vote, I think. You have to be registered, I believe, by the end of September to vote in November. No early voting. No mail-in ballots, unless you can show good reason for needing an absentee ballot. Few people are able to walk to their polling places. I am an exception in that our house is next door to the VFD, where our polling place is. But it is not easy like so many other states have made it. I think lots of other people would vote if we could get automatic registration through the driver’s license/state ID process and if we had early voting and/or mail-in. Maybe by the time Governor Fetterman is in office.

  18. 18.

    Steve in the ATL

    @OzarkHillbilly: @geg6: perhaps I used the wrong font. I was joking that I have to divorce her because she used the word “literally” wrong. Though maybe that’s her passive-aggressive way of….

    Sorry for the confusion!

    (So, I’m not actually getting divorced, but I appreciate the outpouring of support!)

  26. 26.

    Mary G

    I’ve never voted on a machine with levers and always wanted try it. California has had either punch cards susceptible to hanging chads and now the big piece of paper where you fill in the boxes.

    ETA: Samwise looks extremely comfortable and happy in that pic.

  29. 29.

    geg6

    @rikyrah:

    Yeah, but none of it really makes it easier to vote this year and it’s a mixed bag. The good stuff is that we will be able to mail in the ballots (a 50-day window, longest in the nation), registration cutoff will now be mid-October and there will be a paper trail for those voting in person (funds were approved for new voting machines). All good stuff. Not so good is the elimination of straight party voting and no automatic registration.

    Glad it’s here for the presidential election, but would have liked to have it much earlier than next year.

  33. 33.

    Sab

    @waysel: I didn’t. Cole says we have to play nice, so I won’t say what I think about a travelling lawyer with a sick sense of humor.

    Can’t even pie him because he changes his nym three times a day.

  34. 34.

    Sebastian

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Man, I am sorry to hear. I wish I could tell you it won’t be hard but that would be a lie. Please make sure to practice a lot of self care, one tends to forget about that.

    Also, make sure to keep an eye on your resources. Friendly divorce or not, don’t give away something (money, retirement, house, …) just to cut the process short.

  38. 38.

    Mary G

    Our ex-governor smacks Twitler:

    Thank you @realDonaldTrump for making crystal clear how little you know about the global car market. Your horse and buggy strategy will not work. The fossil fuel car is going the way of the dodo bird. Please inform the other members of the Flat Earth Society. t.co/fBAS7XLocr— Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) October 30, 2019

    That’s gonna leave a mark.

  40. 40.

    Sab

    @Sab: In our real life, my step- daughter with an autistic child and other step-children living with her is getting divorced.

    Enjoy your joke.

  41. 41.

    Barbara

    @geg6: But for people who find it challenging to get to the polls, the early “no-excuse” absentee voting should be helpful. My county has set up early voting stations but Virginia still requires an excuse. It’s quite annoying, however, I can walk to my polling station so I usually just do that.

  42. 42.

    Mary G

    @eclare: I thought it was a grammar joke, then I was afraid it was real, because Steve’s wife has had health problems and my ex left because he couldn’t deal with mine. It’s just hard to know these days.

  43. 43.

    waysel

    I am literally aghast that so many have forgotten the ‘wars’ over the use of the word ‘literally’ that have flared up around here from time to time.

  45. 45.

    Amir Khalid

    Liverpool’ youth and second-string players are level with Arsenal at 4-4 in the second half of a Kerbau Carabao Cup tie at Anfield. (It’s the tournament formerly known as the League Cup, which is now named after whoever the hell the current sponsor is; I don’t think this year’s sponsor is an actual water buffalo, though.)

  47. 47.

    Steve in the ATL

    @eclare: I know, right? The *one* time people take me seriously….

    @Omnes Omnibus: you did the right thing

    @chopper: whoa (in a Keanu-like way)

    Sorry everyone I scared and/or reminded of personal trauma. Drinks on me in (checks travelogue) Demopolis, Alabama!

  50. 50.

    eclare

    @Mary G: That is horrible, I am sorry that happened. Hope you stay safe out there, the images on the tv are terrifying.

  53. 53.

    Mary G

    @Jack trolls Mark Zuckerberg:

    We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…🧵— jack 🌍🌏🌎 (@jack) October 30, 2019

  60. 60.

    Mike J

    There’s talk here in WA of moving local elections to even years, rather than the current odd years. The argument for even year local elections is that more people vote in those elections. The argument against is that the ballot gets longer and undervotes increase with ballot length. A recent study showed that even with increasing undervote, enough more people participate in big election years to get more voters involved in local races.

  67. 67.

    Mary G

    @eclare: Thank you, it was years ago and it actually was one of the best things that have ever happened to me. Didn’t seem like it at the time; I was unemployed and my car that had just been totalled was only insured for liability, but I learned who my real friends were, got a job with medical insurance and went from there.

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    This Liverpool side look to have the same form as the lot that played the pre-season friendlies.

  73. 73.

    Roger Moore

    @Martin:
    One thing I really like about California is the little stuff we do to make voting more fair. For example, there’s extensive research that shows the first candidate on the ballot has a measurable advantage over candidates who are lower on the list; there are apparently some people who will just vote for the first person on the list if they can’t decide. Because of this, California randomizes the candidates’ positions on the ballot, and that’s done differently in each precinct. The result is elections that are just that tiniest bit more fair than they would be if the person organizing the election could put their favorite candidate on the top of the ballot.

  75. 75.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mary G: we’ve had a couple of situations like that as well, and I suspect that her current illness—going on year 4–will have some unexpected positive consequences too. Sure doesn’t look or feel that way at the time, though.

    @The Lodger: yeah, it’s not even a third-rate state!

    @Aleta: I will buy dinner, drinks, and new cars for anyone who meets me at the Demopolis airport!

  76. 76.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Sab: true—I’m still enjoying it! But tariffs on French wine and burning California wineries may force my hand.

  79. 79.

    Roger Moore

    @Mary G:

    California has had either punch cards susceptible to hanging chads and now the big piece of paper where you fill in the boxes.

    LA County just held a mock election with our fancy new voting machines. They’re really slick! You give the people at the front table your information, and they create a ballot for you by printing your precinct information at the top of a blank ballot. You then take the ballot to the voting machine, and it scans that information and presents you with your ballot. If you want, you can get an app for your smart device that lets you look at your electronic sample ballot, make your choices, and scan that information into the machine so you can decide at your leisure and get your business done faster at the poll. When you’re done, it shows you your choices, and you can go back and make corrections if you got anything wrong. When you’re happy with your votes, you push a button and it prints a human and machine readable version of your choices on the ballot. You look at that to triple check your votes, and then the machine slurps it up and puts it in the ballot box at the back. It’s a very slick process that combines the best of electronic voting with a paper trail that can be hand audited.

  80. 80.

    waysel

    Do they actually have an airport in Demopolis?

  84. 84.

    Sab

    @Steve in the ATL: Single malt is my issue. Not really. One bottle a year won’t make much impact.

    I did pie you, but with you I can’t help peek.

    Divorce has shredded my family a bunch of times. Never funny to us. Times abusive. Times homeless. Times hungry. Times special needs kids not in school. Never funny.

  86. 86.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Steve in the ATL: Damn. We will need two new vehicles by the end of the year to replace the LITERALLY falling-apart Prius and pickup. Any airfare under $50k would make it worth it, but we can’t build you a whole airport for that price.

  87. 87.

    Barbara

    @Steve in the ATL: Demopolis is a booming metropolis compared to Eutaw, Alabama, where I once spent a few days for work. It’s around 30 miles north of Demopolis. We couldn’t get served at the local lunch counter because they didn’t know who we were. Had to eat at the Burger King where they don’t refuse to serve outsiders.

  88. 88.

    Barbara

    @Miss Bianca: You aren’t the only one. I didn’t say anything because, while I definitely suspected a joke or pun, I didn’t want to be snarky if he really were getting divorced. Yikes.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Tim Morrison, the top Russia official on President Trump’s National Security Council, who is scheduled to testify in the impeachment inquiry on Thursday, is expected to leave his White House post imminently, three sources familiar with the plan told NPR.
    …
    Morrison had alerted NSC lawyers about alleged demands being placed on the Ukrainian government to investigate a company where the son of former Vice President Joe Biden sat on the board, according to testimony earlier this month from William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine.

  90. 90.

    Mary G

    @Roger Moore: Do you get a copy to take home? Who’s the manufacturer of the machines? @jennycohn1 has me totally paranoid:

    4/ Leading experts: “Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) cannot assure the will of the voters.” t.co/I2EWvFIQEH— Jennifer Cohn (@jennycohn1) October 30, 2019

    Ivanka got Chinese trademarks for voting machines. Why would she want that?

  91. 91.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Barbara: I go to Eutaw as well, lucky me. Have always had locals score lunch for me but I will have to investigate this. Sounds like a good start to a horror movie screenplay.

  92. 92.

    Ohio Mom

    @Sab: Oh dear, sorry to hear this. Under the best of circumstances, stepchild/parent relationships are a challenge and so is autism — and the time leading up to a divorce is hardly the best of circumstances. What choppy seas you’ve been navigating!

    I wish I had magic words, the best I can do is say, Hang in there. Keep as posted or not, whatever is helpful to you.

  96. 96.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Awesome. Which is worse, having conservative hawks who are generally assholes in charge of directing and implementing Russia (or any foreign) policy, or having no one at all? We’re can’t be more than one or two more resignations away from finding out.

  100. 100.

    RSA

    I’ll be casting my first New York ballot this weekend!

    Congrats! I didn’t put on my reading glasses before visiting the front page, and I honestly read this as saying you’d be casting your first New York ballet. Wow, significant career shift. :-)

  102. 102.

    Shana

    @Barbara: The list of excuses has expanded though, which helps. I think one of them is “will you be out of the county at all during Election Day?” which covers everyone who works in DC. Also, you could be planning to be out of town and then have plans change couldn’t you? Huh? Couldn’t you?

  103. 103.

    Ohio Mom

    @Sab: I hope the school is giving your granddaughter the support she needs. As you might already know, family can call an IEP team meeting whenever they want; you can add her evolving family circumstances and the supports you think will best help her (descalation protocol, etc.) to the plan. Which as you also probably know is a legally binding document.

  107. 107.

    Barbara

    @Steve in the ATL: There is a courthouse there. I suspect things have changed since I was there but it was pretty funny because the judge assigned to the case, from Tuscaloosa, also had difficulty getting served. We stayed in Tuscaloosa (no actual hotels in Eutaw) and ate at Dreamland. Fun times.

  109. 109.

    Barbara

    @Shana: Well, technically “out of the county” on personal business is different from work. That is the one they encourage you to use because if you check “work” they make you tell them when you leave in the morning and when you get home. There was one year when I went to a Starbucks across the county line so I could fulfill the condition of being out of the county on personal business.

  110. 110.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Barbara: That is weird. I’m curious – what form did the refusal to serve you take? “Sorry, we’re too busy?” A contemptuous up-and-down look followed by shooing motions? A blank, bovine stare? (I’ve experienced all three, but in completely different cultural contexts.)

  115. 115.

    Sab

    @Ohio Mom: Weird right now. Giving her speech therapy but not occupational. And occupational (buttons, snaps, buckles) that is what she is behind in. Turns out they had a not-her-doctor on her records, so whenever they called to schedule, his office said “she’s not ours.” Do not know how that happened. Another loop to jump through. I am glad your medicaid is easier.

  116. 116.

    Amir Khalid

    So I nodded off for a bit, and when I woke up Liverpool had equalised against Arsenal in the last minute of injury time, 5-5, and then won the penalty shootout 5-4. (The Carabao Cup does not allow the usual 30 minutes extra time.) That’s just off-the-scale crazy. They wouldn’t dare put that in Roy Of The Rovers, but then again Liverpool won a Champions League final in similar fashion back in 2005.

  117. 117.

    Barbara

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Okay, this was 20 years ago, and refusal might be too strong. More like, we stood there for a long time before anybody would acknowledge that we were there. And my local counsel told us that was because they didn’t know who we were.

  120. 120.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Mnemosyne:

    The air quality is terrible down there as you can imagine. It’s one of the things that folks may overlook, but poor air quality due to wildfires is very dangerous for a large swathe of the population.

    The DC10 pilots are absurdly skilled as well. They have done an excellent job corralling the Easy fire to keep it from spreading to Moorpark.

  121. 121.

    Steve in the ATL

    @JPL: that always seems to happen around Halloween. Used to drive me crazy when I had to take kids trick or treating. Costumes that were fine the day before were suddenly too tropical.

  122. 122.

    Jacel

    @Mary G: I remember how awesome the big metal voting machines were. My elementary school in San Francisco was a polling place, so we saw them being set up and looming. There was a small practice voting machine that students could use, and teachers would take their classes down to see how voting works.

    I think California changed to more lightweight devices when I was eventually voting here in the 1970s (San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Van Nuys). But when I lived in Brooklyn and voted in the early 1980s, they were using the classic metal machines. Voting felt like it got a lot more real.

  124. 124.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Barbara: Huh. Still weird. I’m trying to imagine what potential dangers lurk in serving humans who look they want food, but I guess that’s why I don’t live in Eutaw.

    @Steve in the ATL: TripAdvisor has a list of “the five best restaurants in Eutaw.” There are only four places on the list, and two of them are Church’s Fried Chicken and Subway. So, yeah.

  125. 125.

    Mary G

    From the #EasyFire in Simi Valley – this thoroughbred goes back into the blaze to get his family. Not all heroes wear capes…💪🐎😍 pic.twitter.com/BsU6PlBq8R— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) October 30, 2019

    And in the annalls of “well, actually,” horse experts are explaining it’s in in their DNA to stay together, so the horse isn’t a …hero?

  126. 126.

    Daned at Random

    I haven’t read the whole thread, so I apologize if this is redundant, but I love Oregon’s vote by mail system. You get your ballots a 2 or 3 weeks before they are due, so you can research issues on line to your heart’s content. If the ballot doesn’t show up, there is time to check on your status through the county election office (the local news or newspapers announce when the ballots are sent out. You can mail in the completed ballot or drop it in a collection box (ours is located outside the PD). Super easy.

    California’s pre-election pamphlets are much superior though. They have only one concise pro and con and rebuttal for each initiative from the sponsoring/opposing committees- Oregon publishes all comments by anyone willing to cough up a few bucks, so the pamphlets are lengthy and information frequently redundant (and sometimes misleading). Democracy at its purest, I suppose.

  129. 129.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Demopolis is about the same. The only restaurant, the Red Barn (complete wine list: “Wine $3 a glass”), closed a few months ago so now it’s Sonic or Hardee’s or, if it’s still daylight, a barbecue place in a dangerous part of town.

  130. 130.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It was beyond my control.

    Did you include an epistolatory-novel reference in there? (And/or a theatrical-adaptation one?) If so, well played.

  131. 131.

    Mike in NC

    I decided to vote early today. The usual polling place (about three miles away) was closed, so I asked at the Town Hall. They informed me I’d have to go to the County Government Complex to vote. That was almost a 30 mile drive to vote for mayor and town council.

  132. 132.

    Sab

    @Barbara: Yeah. The oldest, who has been holding the family together since she was about four, and is extremely bright and tests well despite not much education, gets to stay home and watch the autistic six year old. Other arrangements could be made, but it is easier to have the eighteen year old sacrifice her life. Which in the long run will be very bad for the six year old, as well as the eighteen year old. But easier for the parents for a few years.

    I am spitting nails, but [email protected]Sab:

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @Amir Khalid:
    So he can fuck up the entire premise of whatever he’s running for, because it has to be a a horrible thing if a liberal wants/desires/likes the idea.

  135. 135.

    Michael Cain

    The old machines with the little levers and the one big one you pull to register your votes are notorious for undercounts. Quite possibly the most error-prone voting machines ever used in the US.

  137. 137.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Sab: jeez. No wonder you hit the scotch. They need to move to a blue state, but I’m sure don’t have the resources.

  139. 139.

    Michael Cain

    I live in Colorado. You can have my vote-by-mail ballot, with my kitchen table as my polling place, when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.

  140. 140.

    Ohio Mom

    @Sab: Did Medicaid make you join a HMO? I hear that makes everything more difficult. Ohio Son is still fee-for-service but I will not be surprised if Ohio finds a way to push him into a HMO.

    But Medicaid or not, the school OT should have done an OT evaluation — and unless somehow your granddaughter aced it — she should be receiving at least some OT services during her school day.

    Are you in Ohio or somewhere else? Because the Ohio system I know.

  141. 141.

    Sab

    @Barbara: In regard to Coles post last night about manners. You have lectured me a lot over the years. I cannot think of a single time when I did not deserve it.

    Also you are a godsend or whatever on the health insurance posts.

  142. 142.

    chopper

    @Sab:

    sorry but divorce is a pretty anodyne thing to make a joke about. i mean you can find someone to say “that happened to my brother” or some such about any subject at all.

    i watched my friend get mauled by a dog as a kid and it was awful, fucked both of us up for years. guess nobody can make a “dog bites man” joke.

  143. 143.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Michael Cain:

    You can have my vote-by-mail ballot, with my kitchen table as my polling place, when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.

    Hehe same with Illinois. It’s great.

  144. 144.

    Amir Khalid

    Huh? Where did my comment go?
    I was saying, Liverpool levelled it against Arsenal 5-5 in the last minute of injury time through Divock Origi, and then won the penalty shootout 5-4 thanks to a save by youth keeper Caomhin Kelleher. This match was Roy Of The Rovers on stilts.

  145. 145.

    Another Scott

    Raven-bait. Twitter:

    Nancy Pelosi Verified account @SpeakerPelosi

    This evening, it is my honor to accept the @LBJFoundation’s LBJ Liberty & Justice for All Award. #LBJaward

    Tune in at 8 pm ET for my conversation with @RonaldKirk16: lbjaward.org/

    3:00 PM – 30 Oct 2019

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  146. 146.

    Roger Moore

    @Mary G:

    Do you get a copy to take home? Who’s the manufacturer of the machines?

    You don’t get a copy to take home. There are some reasons not to want people to do that, since it makes it easier for people who are bribing or bullying others into voting a particular way to confirm the votes have gone as they directed. I’m not sure who actually manufactures the machines, but they’re the result of a design effort by the LA County Registrar.

    I’m of two minds on the criticism of ballot marking devices. On the one hand, the points they make about voters being bad about checking their ballots carefully are true. On the other hand, though, enough voters do check their ballots carefully that an attempt to systematically alter the vote would very likely be caught when multiple voters reported problems at the polling place.

  149. 149.

    Josie

    Ari Melber just reported that John Bolton will testify if he receives a subpoena from the committee.

  151. 151.

    Amir Khalid

    Could some kind front pager please delete my comments #143 and this one? I am for some teason unable to edit or request deletion.

  154. 154.

    Mary G

    I was thinking more of Russians and others hacking into the systems to change votes. There will never be a foolproof way to 100% security, but the fact that the big manufacturers make big donations to Republicans is worrisome, and have sometimes admitted, after denying it, that their machines are connected to the net.

  156. 156.

    Matt McIrvin

    Any kind of voting machine is bad because it’s a bottleneck. The number of people who can vote at any one time at the location is determined by provisioning of an expensive device. You can suppress the vote easily just by cutting the budget for these machines. With paper ballots you can just have a bunch of cardboard cubbies set up on tables at the elementary school.

  157. 157.

    Aleta

    @Sab: Wrong piled on wrong for your grandchildren. So sorry. It’s also devastating as a relative to watch from a distance. (Similar to what happened to kids I knew.)

  165. 165.

    SectionH

    @waysel: Yes, DYA… 5000′ x 100′ landing strip. No scheduled air service, but I can imagine some jackal calling a friend with a Cessna… ;->

    @Steve in the ATL: No worries, the couple of people I know who have access to small planes are in SoCal, and I’m currently in LEX.

  169. 169.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    if I were writing a script, or somehow manipulating the No Labels types into acting like parodies of what they claim to be, I can’t imagine how I could do better

    Alex Seitz-Wald @ aseitzwald
    No Labels is hosting a “Problem Solvers” convention in New Hampshire this weekend.

    2020ers attending: Tulsi Gabbard, Marianne Williamson, John Delaney, and Bill Weld (R).

    I could’ve sworn Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh were involved with No Labels, but I can’t find either on their website, though Lieberman is named on their Wiki page as their “National Leader”. On the current website, the only name I recognize is Charlie Black, an old Bush Family retainer and former partner of…. wait for it… Paul Manafort and Roger Stone

  171. 171.

    Sab

    @Steve in the ATL: Actually, they have had a lot more support than anyone I knew in California. I think my particular county in OH is good.

    My experience in CA is high taxes and no support. But that was 30 years ago without a special needs kid. My experience was they wanted everyone in bilingual education when the family was desperate to have everyone learn English.

  175. 175.

    Rand Careaga

    In other news: for many years the voter information pamphlet in California has carried information on the ballot initiatives under consideration, with arguments pro and contra. State Senator H.L. Richardson used to have strong opinions about each and every one of these proposals, and his arguments reliably featured in the printed materials. I miss those days. Voting was so much simpler. I thumbed through the pamphlet, noted Richardson’s stance, and marked my sample ballot the opposite way with the certainty that I’d be voting on the side of the angels.

  177. 177.

    Elizabelle

    @Matt McIrvin: Yup. What we do in Virginia. Paper ballots that the voter deposits in the machine personally. After writing it up in a cubby, which could even be cardboard. And then, a cute little I voted sticker.

    Paper trails are sexy.

  178. 178.

    Dan B

    @HumboldtBlue: Watched the Frontline about the Camp Fire. It was terrifying. We are in climate crisis and not ready. The jet stream is crazy convoluted with Arctic air pushed into the mountain states. It’s warmer in much of Alaska than in Wyoming and Colorado. And the Arctic high pressure blob is creating the Santa Ana winds.

    Frontline made it painfully clear that our emergency services are mot able to function with the new breed of climate fueled fires and floods.

    I hope your sister is safely out of harms way.

  180. 180.

    TS (the original)

    @Josie:

    Ari Melber just reported that John Bolton will testify if he receives a subpoena from the committee

    I have no doubt the committee will oblige

  182. 182.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    @Dan B: As far as October Santa Ana’s go, they’re not related to climate change, I remember them back in the 60’s and they’re pretty well recorded by Spanish explorers. What has been different in the last 35-40 years is the monsoon flow we get in the summer.

  183. 183.

    MisterForkbeard

    @O. Felix Culpa: Eh. I’m looking at that and I think the author is reading way too much into it.

    Tulsi is being awful in the way Tulsi is, but she’s not hinting about an independent run. What she’s doing is attacking all Democrats as warmongering awful people who love Hillary The Worst Monster Ever and lying about what Hillary said about her. So she’s driving down enthusiasm as much as she can, but not technically running a spoiler campaign.

  184. 184.

    Jeffro

    @Mary G: You’re right to worry. Many voting machines and systems are easily hacked, and it would be easy for a hostile actor to make sure that a whole lotta infrequent R voters somehow magically “voted” near the end of the voting day unless there’s a paper trail and a rigorous audit after the election.

    To say nothing of D votes being switched every 5th or 10th or even 20th time to R. That’s plenty to swing an election.

  187. 187.

    JAFD

    @Jacel: Philadelphia was using the ‘heavy iron’ mechanical voting machines until 2005, IIRC. As one who had to shove them around at 5:30 AM, those things were heavy.. When you turned the ‘voting’ off, there were little clear plastic windows revealed in the back through which each of the poll workers would read the vote totals on the ‘odometer wheels’ which recorded the votes. But after 50 years the plastic had yellowed and the machines’ back cover had gotten out of alignment with the ‘wheels’; the experienced poll worker would bring flashlite and monocle…

    @geg6: Surfed to that tweet. Note that Ms. Beavers is reporter for The Hill, her intro paragraph urges her readers “Leak it to Beavers”.
    Trying to think up correct adjective to describe that statement – is somewhere beyond ‘cute’ …

  188. 188.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Dan B:

    Thanks, Dan, as of now all family is safe and should remain so (including BiL’s nearby family).

    I’m not sure I can watch that episode and yes we are in a clear climate crisis and we need to prepare for this as the new normal.

    I have lived behind the Redwood Curtain for 17 years and I can tell you straight away that the weather patterns here, lot of low-lying cloud cover, fog and of course rain, (but more so the “Humboldt rain” that was really more just heavy condensation which also creates the ideal habitat for the giant sequoias) has changed drastically. Yes, October is the month of sun and wind even here on the north but now it comes without morning and evening fog. Rainfall totals have been steady but for us, that means more winter rains and less in the other months when historically it was always rainy season up here.

  190. 190.

    Amir Khalid

    @Rand Careaga:
    If you look upthread, you’ll see it was merely a misfired joke. There is no impending divorce chez Steve in the ATL.

  194. 194.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Rand Careaga:

    State Senator H.L. Richardson used to have strong opinions about each and every one of these proposals, and his arguments reliably featured in the printed materials. I miss those days. Voting was so much simpler. I thumbed through the pamphlet, noted Richardson’s stance, and marked my sample ballot the opposite way with the certainty that I’d be voting on the side of the angels.

    Hey, I remember him from my earliest days as a CA voter. We still have a local version in San Francisco – Dr. Terence Faulkner, JD. For added ease of use, he writes many of his arguments in ALL CAPS, so I don’t even have to look for his name.

  195. 195.

    SectionH

    @Aleta: I think that’s what the English says, but just to be sure, y’know, lawyers… Mr S and I have been known to buy plane tickets and go somewhere on a couple of hours notice, but not in nearly 2 decades. And I don’t actually need another car. I just bought the first car to own in 10+ years, and I love it.

    @Steve in the ATL: I’d be happy to buy you dinner and/or drinks (we can discuss the wines for dinner) when you’re in SAN. If I’m there. I’m currently stuck in LEX where’s there’s supposed to be OMFG *snow* on Friday.

  197. 197.

    Sab

    @Steve in the ATL: I didn’t actually hit the Scotch. What with the new tariffs, I am saving it for Burns Night, which is late in November, last I heard.

    Actually, it is late in January. No Scotch for quite a while.

  198. 198.

    Dan B

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I know that October is Santa Ana month very frequently. This particular one has the climate change fingerprint due to a slowed jet atream that has allowed an arctic air mass wander thousands of miles south and warm air to move into Alaska.

    Several climate researchers in Alaska (U. Fairbanks?) have asserted the issues of a weakened circumpolar jet as dangerous but the climate science community is waiting for “proof”. Unfortunately we’re part of the experiment.

    So you’re correct about Santa Ana season but this particular one seems to be climate change linked.

  199. 199.

    Elizabelle

    @Dan B:

    We are in climate crisis and not ready.

    Once we elect Democrats — and they get inaugurated this time! — we can do something about it. It is a huge jobs program. There will be solutions and measures we can take. Democrats have the political will to tackle this, and we will need to adequately fund it. Which means redoing the tax structure.

  201. 201.

    Mary G

    WaPo: The National Security Council’s top Russia official Tim Morrison will leave his post. He is set to testify in the impeachment inquiry tomorrow. Unknown details atm.

  202. 202.

    hitchhiker

    Vote by mail is shockingly great. Like, I was okay with using machines & I liked bringing my kids to show them how it all worked, but …

    You get ballots in your mailbox.
    You get stuff from the League of Women Voters and the election commission.
    You have your voting guide from The Stranger, which is both useful and hilarious.
    You have a voting party at some point during the couple of weeks between getting ballots and “election day.”

    A voting party is where you sit down with your black ink pens and your eligible family and fill those suckers out while watching sports ball and checking the roast. Then you drop them in the mail, and bam, that’s voting. I can’t believe there are places where people have to stand in fucking line.

  203. 203.

    Dan B

    @HumboldtBlue: Hood to hear about your sister. Frontline was very disturbing. It is the kind of visceral message we need about our climate crisis. I don’t fault you in any way for not wanting to see it. You’ve already got the visceral message and need the solutions messages. Praying for the California grid to get modernized and publically owned.

  205. 205.

    Dan B

    @Elizabelle: Yes! Green is the economic and jobs engine of the 21st century. As long as we can get the social justice angle right we will succeed. And we need to get a few dozen billionaires in a harsh spotlight.

  208. 208.

    David 🎃🧙Booooooo🧙🎃 Koch

    @germy: “Government is not the solution to our problem government IS the problem” ~ Raygoon, January 20, 1981.

  210. 210.

    Sab

    My stepson broke his washing machine. Stopped by to do his laundry. Everything he owns is covered in an oil slick because he is a machinist. I don’t want his clothes near my washing machine, but he and his girlfriend breath it in every day.

    I hope to God they outlive me. I hate these kids exposed to threatening stuff.

  212. 212.

    Another Scott

    @Steve in the ATL: You’re a very, very bad man, Steve.

    Very bad.

    rofl. :-)

    Still, you should have done something with the literally!!

    Get her some flowers just to be sure.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  213. 213.

    SectionH

    The serious law I want to see (yeah, it would be a Constitutional Amendment) is All voting shall be on paper ballots, and all the protection/ballot watcher stuff. If the Brits can do it, so can we. No really. And one of the charms of it would be to frustrate the idiotic news channels – for a while at least. They’d adjust, but it would drive them crazy in the meantime.

    ETA: there is no reason that vote totals have to be fast. They need to be accurate, and if that takes time, tough.

  216. 216.

    chopper

    @mrmoshpotato:

    well, she was karving her initials on the cløwn with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge – her brother-in-law – an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: “The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist”, “Fillings of Passion”, “The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink”…

  218. 218.

    Steve in the ATL

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: after this afternoon’s debacle, I am comfortable connecting adverse weather conditions to flight changes. And not in a good way! Well, except for the upgrade to first class. But for a short flight that puts me into my boondock destination in the wee hours of the morning. And I have no idea where to score decent coke at midnight in Birmingham.

  224. 224.

    RAVEN

    @Sab: I just got back! Really though, I mean that’s a pretty broad topic to take personally don’t you think? People yammer about booze here all the time and there are some of us, including the blog owner, don’t mess with it.

  226. 226.

    geg6

    @JAFD:

    You have no idea. I live in Beaver County. Our county seat is the town of Beaver. The Beaver River, a tributary of the Ohio, flows through the northern end of the county. One of our bigger towns is Beaver Falls. Actual beavers frequent the rivers. I have heard every beaver joke you can imagine.

  227. 227.

    Steve in the ATL

    @chopper: figuratively, not literally, because my wife said “literally” when she meant “figuratively” and Chez Steve that’s grounds for divorce. Either figuratively or literally, I can’t tell anymore.

  231. 231.

    Amir Khalid

    @Captain C:
    I’m not a gambling man, so I wouldn’t know. But he hasn’t been the kind of stellar football tactician a club like Arsenal need, and his judgement in banishing Mesut Ozil and making Granit Xhaka captain turns out to have been questionable. He won’t get sacked for losing a cup match in a penalty shootout, but I’d worry for him if Arsenal’s indifferent league form continues.

  232. 232.

    Steve in the ATL

    @geg6: enough with the beaver talk. Balloon Juice After Dark doesn’t start for three more hours.

    ETA: fun disclosure: I have on multiple occasions purchased whiskey at Beaver Liquors in Beaver Creek, CO.

  236. 236.

    Sab

    @RAVEN: It wasn’t the booze. I am okay with that. It was the joke about his own divorce. What kind of asshole jokes about his own divorce? Especially when he is on the road 300 days per year.

    Some of the us with less maritally secure pasts are not amused, and are surprised that he thought this was entertaining.

    Just saying.

  239. 239.

    raven

    @Sab: I meant booze as a topic not this specific situation. I’ve been divorced and am well aware how wrenching it can be. People joke about all kinds of shit not intending to impact others negatively.

  240. 240.

    SectionH

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: LOL. Probably being protected in a fireproof vault.

    I can’t stay online much longer (on an expensive hotspot for complicated reasons) but I’ll be checking on shit in SoCal for a while yet. I remember both the Cedar (that was horrible) and the Witch too well. At least one ironically happy story from the latter: he’d worked his butt off planting eta – not planting, just clearing – a new bed for grapevines, which basically created the firebreak which saved their house.

    Hope everyone stays safe.

  241. 241.

    Kathleen

    @Sab: Maybe your county Democratic party web site has a slate of Dem endorsed candidates/issues. I went to Hamilton County Democratic Party web site for endorsements on issues and candidates.

  244. 244.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Sab:

    What kind of asshole jokes about his own divorce?

    This kind!

    Seriously, I didn’t mean to trigger anyone. I joke about it because there is literally a 0% chance we would ever get divorced (until I get home early one day and finally catch her and Pablo the Pool Boy in flagrante delicto).

  248. 248.

    Sab

    @raven: Yeah I know that. Would have been meaner otherwise. And I would not have wanted you to drown yourself. Thats’s why I wished you well (aside from 10 years plus pleasant blogging.)

  249. 249.

    Elizabelle

    @JR: Wow. It will be interesting to see where the Deadspin writers end up. Let’s keep an eye on that.

  255. 255.

    SectionH

    @Steve in the ATL: In all seriousness, please do. Esp. if it’s LEX. We’re – literally – 5 minutes from the airport with little traffic. It’s usually over 10 mins now, since the October Race Meeting at Keeneland is over. That’s insane. Much as I used to love going there, Thank FSM that’s over.

    ETA: Anne Laurie has my email, and she’s known me for a very long time, so if you want to get in touch, contact her.

  256. 256.

    chopper

    @Sab:

    What kind of asshole jokes about booze? Especially on a recovering alcoholic’s blog.

    Some of the us with less sober pasts are not amused, and are surprised that he thought this was entertaining.

    Just saying.

  257. 257.

    RAVEN

    @chopper: I’m not sure that John is a “recovering alcoholic”? He quit, I quit. Not 12 step or any such mechanism for me but it’s been over 25 years for me.

  260. 260.

    JPL

    Is it possible that this would be Samwise’s first Tbogg unit?

  263. 263.

    japa21

    @Steve in the ATL: It’s always all about you. Hmmm…seems there is somebody else often discussed here for which the same is also true. Has anybody ever seen you and Trump at the same time?

  267. 267.

    hitchhiker

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I live in King County. I don’t have a fucked up Trumpy neighbor, or at least if I do he’s outnumbered 9 to 1. That, however, is not the point. The more people who vote, generally, the better off we are and the more responsive our government is. Mail in ballots are good because they make the process so painless, with the result that more of us vote.

    In theory, anyway!

  268. 268.

    RAVEN

    @HeleninEire: Now that I’m retired it means even less. The fishing was ok, seas were rough for a good part of it but I got a nice redfish, an amberjack that had to go back and a decent bunch of eating fish. We’re going back at Thanksgiving so we were talking about how leaving was less emotional. On a sour note the princess did a bunch of thread paintings that she can’t find. She is not happy.

  269. 269.

    Dan B

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I inderstand the caution but I believe we can point out patterns and weird weather events like the early blizzard in Denver as previews of likely events due to climate change. The doubters and deniers will rend their garments if we’re not 1000% correct. Big complex systems like global weather can’t be perfectly described but we can make some predictions and observations with simple caveats. That’s why I say “fingerprints of climate change”.

    Seattle had s couple bad summers where the smoke from summer wildfires was toxic and we sorta missed our typically glorious August. Snow capped mountsins were invisible and the Sound and lakes dreary brown, if even visible at all. We can ordinarily see completely glacier covered Mt. Baker – 90 air miles away. Those smokey summers we could see 15 blocks. There was a consensus that this was a climate change preview. The deniers made less noise than crickets.

  270. 270.

    Michael Cain

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    And your fucked-up Trumpy neighbor makes his wife and 18 y/o daughter fill theirs out in front of him. No system is perfect.

    There is this fantasy of wives and 18 y/o daughters being handed cards with “Here’s how you vote,” dictum from daddy who then go to the polling place and rebel. Because they know that they’ll never slip up and accidentally let daddy know they ignored him. And zero evidence that any of them actually exist.

  271. 271.

    SectionH

    @Steve in the ATL: I’ve made our place to SAN in 8 minutes more than once, but it’s usually at 5am to dump Mr S onna some DL hub flight… We’re usually cool with 15 mins. pfffft. I’ve been in LEX for a month, and all I want to do is get back home and not travel again for the next 5 years. And this is not that bad a place – it’s very Blue. Beshear signs and other Dem signs are up all over where I am. Voting next Tuesday… A CIDERY?!!!! And two more local breweries which are making cider… I still wouldn’t live here again, but damn, Lexington is a beautiful Blue Island. Except for the traffic. I’ve already sworn I will never complain about (our version) of San Diego traffic ever again.

  274. 274.

    HeleninEire

    @RAVEN: Next time you are in VA near Smith Mountain Lake let me know. My sister has a restaurant there. She is the best!!

  275. 275.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Rand Careaga:

    What kind of asshole jokes about his own divorce?

    Been a minute, but as I recall Johnny Carson leaned on divorce jokes for twenty years.

    I’m seeing around the twitters that the whistle-blower has been named? I hope whoever did it gets prosecuted…. Oh yeah, Bill Barr’s in charge.

  276. 276.

    RAVEN

    @HeleninEire: We spent a few xmas’s there a while back when my in-laws weren’t fighting. It’s about halfway between Blacksburg and Appomattox. . . maybe sometime we’ll go back.

  277. 277.

    Dan B

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Just FYI the talkong heads on the Frontline program said the number (or acreage?) of fires in California had doubled in the last four years and there were lots of references to climate change.

    I guess the Koch’s didn’t get a veto.

  278. 278.

    Cacti

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’m seeing around the twitters that the whistle-blower has been named? I hope whoever did it gets prosecuted…. Oh yeah, Bill Barr’s in charge.

    I hope they stay safe from MAGA terrorists.

  280. 280.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    @Dan B: My point is that connecting say early snow in Denver which might be connected to climate change is different than connecting it to Southern California Santa Ana winds which occur every October. It can cause problems with making a case that climate change is a problem(snowball in DC in the winter).

    Seattle had s couple bad summers where the smoke from summer wildfires was toxic and we sorta missed our typically glorious August. Snow capped mountsins were invisible and the Sound and lakes dreary brown, if even visible at all.

    I know, the kid made her trip to Seattle then.

    We can ordinarily see completely glacier covered Mt. Baker – 90 air miles away.

    I lived in Seattle for 3 years.

  281. 281.

    Mel

    @Mary G: I’m so sorry that happened. It has never ceased to surprise (and sadden) me how many friends and loved ones vanish when a person’s health problems are for the long haul and not short term. Walking that road with you.

    Those that stick around and still see the person, not the illness, are few and far between, but they are gold in my book.

  282. 282.

    Kayla Rudbek

    I can’t even watch the World Series without seeing ads from that traitorous orange pustule! Fuck motherfucking Fox sideways with a syphilis-coated rusty chainsaw!

  283. 283.

    Mary G

    Wow, just saw a full-out commercial for Twitler narrated by somebody who sounds exactly like the guy who does the Honest Trailers. Has the usually unflattering picture of Nancy SMASH and ends with the Sharpie signature. It was on the World Series so naturally I booed.

  290. 290.

    TS (the original)

    @SectionH:

    ETA: there is no reason that vote totals have to be fast. They need to be accurate, and if that takes time, tough.

    Paper ballots do NOT significantly increase the time for results being released. The British system is somewhat different to ours. In Australia each polling booth counts its own votes. These tototals are transmitted to a central counting area (used to be via phone, now presumably on the intertubes). These totals and the locality from which they come are then available to the electoral office and also the news media. The latter can use this data to do their projections.

    The time taken for the count is dependent on how many people are involved in the counting & the size of the polling booth. Spending money on people rather than machines is the way to go.

  292. 292.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @mrmoshpotato: the advantage of watching at home is that I can use as much bad language as I like and the only person who has to put up with me in person is Mr. Rudbek (and he is watching in part to speculate about whether the referees are on the take). Mr. Rudbek is the voice of sweet reason in this household…

  296. 296.

    Mary G

    @Kathleen: @eclare: Thank you both. I have had extreme privilege mostly due to my mother’s committing fraud after my dad died when I was 11. She had $9.50 in the bank, but that didn’t mean shit to her. She was determined to buy a house and got a mortgage she wouldn’t have qualified for if she had five times more income than she did. She said we would make it work and we did. That was 51 years ago and I live there now. I was furious because I wanted us to rent an apartment right next to the library. She never let me forget that I was wrong.

    She learned from my grandmother, who mysteriously acquired a cow, two goats, and a pair of guinea fowl (which became a same flock) at the beginning of the Depression and kept them all in the backyard of her small house a mile or two from the state capitol in Austin. They both thought of me as a bit of a wuss. I should write a book.

  302. 302.

    Kayla Rudbek

    I’m wondering whether I should quit watching this game and see if the Nats start doing better.

  304. 304.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Omnes Omnibus: Sorry for the late reply, I was in meetings. I saw your comment and appreciate the refinement of your position. Especially since it now aligns with my opinion. :)

  305. 305.

    Elizabelle

    Patti Davis on the California fires: WaPost: My father’s library will likely survive the fires, but the California of my youth is gone

    … When I was a child, my parents owned a ranch inland from Malibu. There were years when a wildfire would scorch parts of it — fields reduced to ash would stand in stark contrast to groves of oak trees and grassy hills that had remained untouched. My father took me out to one of those burned fields months after the fire and showed me how green shoots were popping up through the ash and dust. Life always finds its way back, he said.

    … But this yearly devastation of fires in California was not always the norm. Life has changed here — the climate, for one thing — and I miss how this state once was.

    Scientists are cautious about attributing any weather event solely to climate change, but I wonder if the California of my childhood is gone for good.

    We used to have winters when it would rain for days and days; there would be thunderstorms at night that would sometimes last for an hour. My brother and I would climb into our parents’ bed, along with the dog, and hide under the covers when loud thunderclaps rattled the windows. After the rains, hillsides were so green they looked like paintings. In the wildest places, the grasses grew long and rippled in the wind. Watching them was hypnotic. Now, when they do arrive, they are a news story.

    We had a version of autumn, too — not as spectacular as back east — but we had crisp breezes and chilly nights. The Santa Ana winds would come, but they didn’t last for long, and there was never a time when it seemed like half the state was on fire.
    It would rain sometimes in the summer, and there would be weeks in June when fog drifted in from the ocean to blanket Los Angeles. Neither of these are dependable patterns now.

    California is, of course, not the only region that is being affected by climate change. But it’s the one I’m thinking about now, because it’s my home, and it’s on fire.

  307. 307.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    Screw me, FYWP didn’t like that one either.

    Anyway, a little while ago in tonight’s World Series game, Budweiser ran a “Not all heroes wear capes” ad featuring the Nats fan who took a home run ball in the chest while holding a beer in each hand.

    The moderated comments have the ad and a background story, for later reference.

  309. 309.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elizabelle:

    One of my doctors and I were having a similar conversation since she’s a native of So Cal. She said that the weather patterns have changed drastically since her childhood.

  313. 313.

    Steve in the ATL

    @eclare: be sure to catch this show! Should be called “bizarre juxtaposition”

    William Eggleston and Jennifer Steinkamp: At Home at the Dixon

    January 26 – March 22, 2020
    Presented by The Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions
    Organized by the Eggleston Art Foundation with Dixon Gallery and Gardens
    …
    Inspired by Chase’s painting and the specific architecture of the Residence galleries, the Dixon has invited two pioneering American artists, William Eggleston and Jennifer Steinkamp, to present their work in unexpected conversation.

    William Eggleston and Jennifer Steinkamp: At Home at the Dixon juxtaposes floral, garden, and still life imagery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century painting with photographs by William Eggleston and computer animations by Jennifer Steinkamp that focus on similar themes. Each artist’s chosen medium allows them to make new commentaries on these traditional subjects, making an unexpected connection between historic and contemporary art.

  315. 315.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    I got to see him once at the American Cinematheque with his daughter Samantha. He was not in good physical shape, sadly — I think it was only a few months before he died.

  316. 316.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mnemosyne: hell, I’ve noticed change in the 25 short years I’ve lived in Atlanta. Easy to track as my various allergies now hit at different times than in years past.

  318. 318.

    Elizabelle

    @Mnemosyne: Yes. Development hit the Golden State but hard, and overpopulation, and it’s an arid climate to begin with.

    The orange groves and farms. Gone.

    I think about how we so rarely see many butterflies on the East Coast. Not like from childhood. And fireflies.

  320. 320.

    eclare

    @Steve in the ATL: Thanks! Will do, I love that place, though more for the gardens. I’ll go see it when the thousands of tulips are in bloom.

  321. 321.

    O. Felix Culpa

    New thread upstairs, involving Johns Bolton and Yoo, so safer than booze and marital dissolution. Literally.

  322. 322.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Elizabelle: I’ve noticed that after long car trips, there are far fewer dead bugs on the hood and headlights of the car than when I was a kid.

  323. 323.

    smedley the uncertain

    @Sab: Burns Birthday 25 Jan. That’s when they pipe in the Haggis, give it an ode
    and baste your innards with whusky…
    Cheers

  327. 327.

    SectionH

    @Steve in the ATL: I’m sending AL request for your BJ email… it could coincide, or not, but I’m always a nervous local guide… Being here after years, IDK, we’ve found one or two Old Reliables. Ever been to Halls on the River? Scenic drive and actual really good food. And a couple of other places that have survived because they’re really good. The brewing scene’s limited, but there an actual Cidery. And I’m very into real Cider right now. And wine prices are only a couple of $$ more California, for what I’m happy to drink. (Also we have a TJs, but I think we drank them out of their Blanc de blancs for a while, and their Reserve Zins… Seriously. I know, not the ’59 Chateau Lafite Rothschild I actually shared a half bottle of (it cost 12 whole quid at Kettners- 1971, it was like USD 6, even then I knew how lucky I was) – That was as close to a religious experience as I’ve ever had.

  330. 330.

    Steve in the ATL

    @SectionH: that’s not my real email but I’ve sent her the right one before. Adam has it too.

  332. 332.

    SectionH

    @Steve in the ATL: I sent her my request for letting us contact. I srsly have to get offline soon, because we have no internet here now… have to admit I’ve done some, uh, research, for a friend in Queensland and likes to toodle around in the srs Outback about various devices for photos and cetra… Hint: it’s fucking expensive to go off-grid and still want connectivity.

    Otoh, send anything to fopaws com and that should get to me…

  335. 335.

    Miss Bianca

    @Elizabelle: Well, Patty, I hate to break it to you, but when your dad took the solar panels off the White House roof, he kind of signaled what was going to happen to your beloved California.

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