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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Local Politics Here at Home

Local Politics Here at Home

by John Cole|  October 26, 20178:00 pm| 43 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics

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Just got back from a local town hall with the two state Senators from the northern panhandle, Republicans Ryan Ferns and Ryan Weld:

It was held at the Bethany town community center, and had a pretty decent turn out of about 25 people, with a number of people from the Bethany Grassroots FB group I started a few years ago showing up. Fortunately for all, social issues were not discussed, but a good bit of time was spent discussing the road situation (which is pretty bad on some of the back roads- and you city folk need to understand that our definition of a back road is much different from yours), discussed fracking and other energy related and extraction related issues, as well as education and workforce training. I don’t know how much will come from it, but it was good to have my concerns heard. Road issues are something legislators get hectored about, but they really don’t have much say, as the Department of Highways is under the governor’s purview, not theirs.

I’m feeling under the weather and have a mild fever of about 100.5, and yesterday I had a metric ton of skin tags removed from underneath my armpits and elsewhere and they hurt like hell, so I am just sitting here doing as little as possible before going to sleep.

Sup with you fools?

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Reader Interactions

43Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike J

    October 26, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    I heard there’s a big ol’ plastic fire burning in WV. Near you?

  2. 2.

    eemom

    October 26, 2017 at 8:06 pm

    I had a metric ton of skin tags removed from underneath my armpits and elsewhere

    Uh….cool! Please elaborate! #nosuchthingasTMI

  3. 3.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 26, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    Gonna play some Kerbal Space Program on the train then head to the Castro Theatre for Aliens. Another day with little to do at work. Did a new skin for my writing site.

  4. 4.

    Mary G

    October 26, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    I can’t believe we lost to these people. Business Insider: An intern at the Trump campaign data firm, Cambridge Analytica, appears to have left sensitive voter targeting tools online for nearly a year.

    Albright, who heads Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism and recently published extensive research on Russia’s use of Facebook during the election, said Cambridge Analytica’s real-time social media mining tool was not necessarily complex or novel in and of itself.

    What is more interesting, he said, is how the tool appeared to retrieve people’s recent tweets and favorites to “expand” Cambridge Analytica’s body of keywords “around specific objects of election ‘outrage’ sentiment'” – like abortion, citizenship, naturalization, guns, and Planned Parenthood.

    Recent reporting has revealed that Russia harnessed and harvested “outrage” sentiment in an attempt to galvanize and sway voters during the campaign. Accounts linked to Russia bought $100,000 worth of Facebook ads between 2015 and 2016, many of which promoted outsider candidates and exploited racial tensions. Similar methods were deployed on Twitter, Google, Instagram, Pinterest – and even Pokemon Go, as CNN reported earlier this week.

    Additionally, the intern appeared to have left Cambridge Analytica’s Twitter API secret and key online when he uploaded the scripts. The secret and key, which was removed in February, amounts to the account username and password that companies and developers use to search and pull tweets and user profile information from Twitter, Albright explained.

  5. 5.

    John Cole

    October 26, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    @Mike J: Parkersburg

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    October 26, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    Dunno if it has already been mentioned.

    Bravo, Col. Robert Killebrew, U.S. Army (Ret.).

  7. 7.

    FlyingToaster

    October 26, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    We survived the parent-teacher meeting with no surprises for us, and only two for them, which is a new landmark in the care and education of WarriorGirl.

    The teaching units are now informed about a bout of rampant misogyny coming exclusively from one fourth-grade boy, which will now have to be dealt with. Given that the lad has not merely issues but a charter subscription to “I’m a total fuckup”, we’ll see how this goes. I only asked them to find a way to help her to cope which doesn’t involve a homicide investigation.

  8. 8.

    Roger Moore

    October 26, 2017 at 8:25 pm

    @Mary G:

    I can’t believe we lost to these people.

    I’m not at all convinced we lost legitimately. There’s too much indication of Russian hacking for me to be convinced they didn’t actually change either vote counts or voter rolls to turn the election.

  9. 9.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    October 26, 2017 at 8:26 pm

    Joy Reid in for Chris Hayes. Yay!

    (Twenty minutes behind on the DVR, as usual.)

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    October 26, 2017 at 8:29 pm

    @Roger Moore: I have never thought we lost legitimately. Never.

    It’s appalling that it was as close as it was. But I think the results were tampered with, and we should have had a redo.

    The Constitution is not prepared to deal with outright theft, but that is what happened. With the collusion of a foreign power that is not our ally. I wish to God Obama and others had put the brakes on. People were horrified. Why prop up an institution that just failed you so completely?

    Trump and his brigands are taking this country apart, under the radar. In the agencies and what’s being overturned. Ten months out: it’s been worse than I expected. Imagine if they’d been competent?

  11. 11.

    chopper

    October 26, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    yesterday I had a metric ton of skin tags removed from underneath my armpits and elsewhere

    well all righty.

  12. 12.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    October 26, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    I’m hoping to hell that Czar Manbaby and Chinless Ed Gillespie are making an awful mistake in running on keeping traitor statues up here. I don’t really think this is going to help them win, and I pray I’m right, because I really don’t want to think that this is going to play too well in my commonwealth. And besides that, I really want Northam to win for any number of other reasons, too. He grew up in Onancock, on the Eastern Shore, where my mother’s family has lived for 400 years, so that’s kind of cool, too.

  13. 13.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 26, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @NotMax: I posted a link to it a couple of days ago, but it deserves more publicity.

  14. 14.

    TS

    October 26, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone): Just watched a clip of trump on the show – no-one around him EVER smiles – lady in white with the strange eyes staring into his back.

    And then the expressions on Joy’s face when talking to a GOP congressman – priceless

  15. 15.

    TenguPhule

    October 26, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Why prop up an institution that just failed you so completely?

    Political inertia.

    Problem with being such a long running democracy that has such a short living memory.

    We thought it couldn’t happen here.

    Until it did.

  16. 16.

    Kay Eye

    October 26, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    Headed to Norfolk tomorrow for my granddaughter’s Senior soccer weekend at VWU – she’s one of four girls who started as freshmen and are still there. They call themselves The Final Four, of course. If I could figure out how to post a picture, I would.
    I was raised to believe that lying on the sofa and reading was a suitable athletic activity.
    The Grandgirl is a screaming liberal. Like the rest of us.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    October 26, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    Top of the LA Times website: Trump’s devotion to coal mining puts Utah dinosaur discoveries in danger, scientists say

    blurb: “Most of this 1.9 million acres of desert wilderness, one of the world’s richest fossil sites for studying the age of dinosaurs, remains unexplored. But scientists now fear President Trump will soon spoil it.”

    Not even dinos, dead for millions of years, are safe from this wrecking crew. And this is something that you cannot ever, ever get back. Some scientists think studying the conditions in which dinos lived might provide information on climate change.

    … more than two dozen new species of dinosaurs discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante in the 21 years since President Clinton preserved it as a national monument.

    The bounty has stunned scientists. Most of this 1.9 million acres of desert wilderness, one of the world’s richest fossil sites for studying the age of dinosaurs, remains unexplored.

    But scientists now fear President Trump will soon spoil it.

    Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, ordered by Trump to reassess the biggest national monuments named since 1996, has proposed shrinking Grand Staircase-Escalante. Whatever area is removed would be open to coal mining, oil drilling and mineral extraction.

    …. Trump, who has vowed to revive the coal industry, is tapping into Utah’s longstanding resentment of federal control of public lands. The state’s Republican leaders support Zinke’s recommendation. They were furious at Clinton for creating the monument, which killed a proposed coal mine.

    Today’s poor market for coal casts doubt on prospects for mining any time soon. No specific proposal has emerged publicly.

    Regardless, environmental groups are preparing lawsuits to thwart any attempt to curb protections of Grand Staircase-Escalante and nine other monuments, as Zinke proposed in August in a report to Trump.

    … The discoveries are raising more and more questions for scientists, most notably about global warming. How did diverse sorts of life survive in an era when the climate was much hotter, the air contained a lot more carbon dioxide and sea level was extremely high?

    “The research in the monument, from my perspective, has only just begun,” said Jeff Eaton, a paleontologist who lives in Tropic, just outside the monument. “The shrinking of it for what I would say are fairly petty, shallow and short-term interests will clearly interfere with, and even potentially destroy, aspects of future research.”

    The timing of Trump’s decision is uncertain, but few doubt the outcome. When he signed an executive order mandating Zinke’s review, Trump accused his predecessors of abusing their power to preserve public lands. Presidents can designate national monuments unilaterally; creation of a national park requires an act of Congress.

    Press aides for Trump and Zinke declined to comment.

    It’s a great article, with illustrations of the dinos and photos of the site. Well worth a click.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    October 26, 2017 at 8:53 pm

    The local race that I’m helping with is non-partisan. One candidate who is running as a republican because he forgot that the race is non-partisan is trying to suggest that Betty Price is supporting the candidate I volunteer for. Things are getting strange.

  19. 19.

    Hungry Joe

    October 26, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    No World Series game tonight, which is fine because I’m still kind of confused about last night: I thought that Home Run Derby was held at the All-Star Game.

    A friend who writes about weather says that a meteorologist told him that a fly ball goes about ten feet farther for every ten-degree increase in temperature. I suspect that a drop in humidity helps a lot, too. Last night I kept seeing the ball come off the bat, thinking “medium fly ball” … and seeing the thing carry into the seats. It was an oddly fascinating game, but I wouldn’t want to see many like it.

  20. 20.

    Ruckus

    October 26, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    @NotMax:
    Here is a segment of that thought about Kelly.

    Let’s be frank. There’s nothing “glorious” or “sacrificial” about choosing to be a soldier. We give up personal freedom for the privilege of serving our country, and we enter a closed-off profession that is enormously satisfying, but can also be physically, emotionally, and intellectually demanding. We accept the risk that some of us get killed or wounded. In return, the country gives us decent pay, an early retirement — some bodies get pretty broken up in twenty or thirty years — and health care. It’s not a bad deal.

    I’m just wondering if a lot of the military that voted for drumpf is feeling the same way as Kelly. They did something special and deserve something special for it. And if you give regular citizens health care and have a safety net and a retirement, their special isn’t so much. Now I know a lot of vets don’t think that way, they understand what Col. Killebrew does, the military doesn’t make you special, it makes you differently experienced. You’ve done things that non military doesn’t, you’ve been places that many people never get to go to. You got different experiences than they did. You aren’t superior, or inferior, you are the same. But if you think that way and expect to be treated differently because of it……

  21. 21.

    Ohio Mom

    October 26, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @FlyingToaster: Some unsolicitated advice: send your teacher an email thanking her for agreeing to work on the fourth grade bully issue — reiterate your conversation. Gush with gratitude for her efforts.

    Hopefully this problem will soon be resolved but in case it isn’t, or even escalates, it is never too soon to establish a paper trail.

    Sign me,
    Special Ed Mom and Veteran of School Battles (that’s redundant, every spec ed mom ends up a veteran of school battles)

  22. 22.

    TenguPhule

    October 26, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    @JPL:

    Things are getting strange.

    Getting?

  23. 23.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    October 26, 2017 at 9:17 pm

    @TS:

    LOL. I just backed up and rechecked that at about the 8:33 mark. That woman looks like “Samantha Bee stars in The Squeaky Fromme Story.” Brr!

  24. 24.

    rikyrah

    October 26, 2017 at 9:18 pm

    FEMA will not release the response plan for Puerto Rico. – says Maddow.

  25. 25.

    Weaselone

    October 26, 2017 at 9:18 pm

    Speaking of WV politicians. Is there any way you can give Joe Manchin a call and let him know that FusionGPS is a US firm and not a foreign government? He seems confused.

  26. 26.

    justawriter

    October 26, 2017 at 9:29 pm

    Over here in WV with petrodollars, or is it Qatar with blizzards? Anyway, just heard a group is organizing here in North Dakota to put recreational marijuana on the ballot for 2018. Hope it passes. It might be they only way I make it to retirement in a state whose legislators look at Chick tracts as fine literature.

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    October 26, 2017 at 9:29 pm

    Some more thoughts.
    I have been saying for awhile, that they are trying to kill American Citizens.

    I stand by that.

    We have 3.5 million American Citizens who have been without power for over a month.
    We knew that it would take some time for things to get back to normal.
    But, that was before we found out that a completely incompetent company was part of the grift.

    Dolt45 kept on LYING about Puerto Rico’s ‘infrastructure’ being destroyed BEFORE the hurricane. That’s a DAMN LIE.

    The reason he keeps on repeating it, is because that would alleviate pressure from that scam contract given to the company to restore power to Puerto Rico.

    It’s a goddamned GRIFT. They are completely UNQUALIFIED, and it’s thievery.

  28. 28.

    Ruckus

    October 26, 2017 at 9:38 pm

    @rikyrah:
    You are being way too polite.

  29. 29.

    kindness

    October 26, 2017 at 9:40 pm

    When I was growing up all Republicans weren’t evil. Hell Nelson Rockefeller was my only governor the first 16 years of my life. And I thought he was a hard core. Compared to modern Republicans….not sure how many old leaders would be able to get elected. Anyway it’s good you could make your concerns heard.

  30. 30.

    Ben Cisco

    October 26, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    At the homestead again – Homecoming at my alma mater + fraternity reunion (largest in our history all living charter members in attendance). It’s going to be a GREAT time.

  31. 31.

    Ohio Mom

    October 26, 2017 at 9:42 pm

    I’m laying out my outfit for tomorrow’s annual special needs conference on teens and young adults transitioning into the adult world.

    Last year I irritated all the organizers by telling them they were screwing up because all our funding was at great risk and they were not educating the hundreds of parents there that day.

    All group homes and day programs and transportation programs are funded by Medicaid — and of course we almost did lose Medicaid, twice this year. And who knows what will be left if/when tax cuts lead to Medicaid cuts. The entire adult services system would be devastated.

    So it is another year later and they still don’t have anything on the agenda on advocacy. And I am still known as “that crackpot.”

    Maybe I should appreciate the continuity of it all.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    October 26, 2017 at 9:44 pm

    Clemson student Senate VP, who sat through Pledge of Allegiance, impeached

    By Bristow Marchant

    Clemson University’s student Senate voted Monday to impeach the student government’s vice president, who recently refused to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance.

    Student senators voted 40-18 to impeach vice president Jaren Stewart. Stewart was out of town Monday at a conference in Washington, D.C., the Anderson Independent Mail reports.

    An impeachment trial for Stewart will be set for a later date. If successful, Stewart will be removed from office.

    Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article180756791.html#storylink=cpy

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    October 26, 2017 at 9:46 pm

    One of Grassley’s staffers was trying to find Hillary’s emails during the campaign, just like the dead guy. – Maddow’s show

  34. 34.

    rikyrah

    October 26, 2017 at 9:54 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    Be the crackpot, and ask them..do they understand what’s in the GOP budget for Medicaid. Do they know that the Speaker of the House said that he’s been dreaming of destroying Medicaid since he was in college.

    Here’s a tweet from Andy Slavitt alerting us about the person that Dolt45 wants to put in charge of Medicaid:

    https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/923632134757273601

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    October 26, 2017 at 10:35 pm

    @rikyrah: Thanks for the link. Another person who will be put in charge of an agency whose goal and purpose will be to weaken and undo that agency’s programming, it never seems to end.

    The disability community, at least the one here in southwest Ohio is a funny bunch. There is a lot of denial and entitlement, which is expressed as, “They would never do that to our kids!” Um, yes they would, they have already, and most of our “kids” are already adults. Or will be, sooner or not much later.

    It doesn’t help that the conference is organized by, and mainly attended by, white, middle-class, non-disabled people, and that it is sponsored by the local children’s hospital. The hospital of course pushes a medical model of disability
    (disability is something we treat) rather than a social model (disability is largely a result of artificial social barriers).

  36. 36.

    Mary G

    October 26, 2017 at 10:40 pm

    @Ohio Mom: Keep screaming. Someone may be listening but too shy to say so. If you only change a few votes, it’s a big deal, because Ohio.

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    October 26, 2017 at 10:41 pm

    Kyle Griffin‏Verified account @kylegriffin1

    FP: Tillerson has eliminated a key office that oversees sanctions policy.

  38. 38.

    Gretchen

    October 26, 2017 at 11:07 pm

    @Ohio Mom: Good luck! You’re right, it takes a fight to get services. I was talking to a young woman today whose 5 year old is very ADD and she doesn’t want him to get him classified as special needs. I told her there’s so little money, the school district will fight to keep a kid from being classified as needing services. They’d rather just flunk him than spend money on help. It took me years of fighting and research and advocacy, and finally had to threaten to sue, to get the school district to say “Oh, yes, your son does need some extra help.” It made all the difference to him. But we wasted years with him failing before they’d admit that they could do something to help him not fail. They hoped he’d just drop out and stop bringing their test scores down. Bless you for fighting for your kid, and educating other people that they need to fight. They don’t want to admit that they’re at risk, but they’re more at risk if they don’t admit it and help fight.

  39. 39.

    FlyingToaster

    October 26, 2017 at 11:15 pm

    @Ohio Mom: Thanks. Fortunately, the teachers already had some idea of what was going on, but not the extent.

    I’m the class parent (and library technologist, and bookfair chair) so I see all of the faculty every week. One advantage of our tiny private school is that they rely on parent volunteers, who tend to report stuff as it comes down. The only reason I hadn’t gone to them on Monday was that I knew the girls were already complaining to a) their teacher b) the librarian c) the art teacher and d) their parents.

    I happened to see the miscreant’s parents coming out from their conference, and they looked like they were going to puke. Like I said, “charter subscription”.

    –God(less)mother to a kid on the autism spectrum, so I sympathize with what you’ve gone through. I took the “I’m old, impatient, and I can afford a shi-shi progressive private school so that’s where she’s going” route so that I was paying teachers instead of lawyers. I also remember the hell my mom put my grade school through :)

  40. 40.

    opiejeanne

    October 27, 2017 at 12:39 am

    @Hungry Joe: Angels fans will tell you it’s true. Most of the season Anaheim Stadium has a problem with humidity and cooler evening temps damping the flight of the baseball, making what would be a home run in other park into a fly ball out. We jokingly accuse the marine layer for such outs.

  41. 41.

    SgrAstar

    October 27, 2017 at 1:45 am

    @justawriter: What’s a chick tract?

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    October 27, 2017 at 1:50 am

    @SgrAstar:

    A tract by Jack Chick.

  43. 43.

    evodevo

    October 27, 2017 at 6:12 am

    @Ohio Mom: You go, girl. I have learned long ago that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you don’t raise an issue, they will ignore it.

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