I’m announcing that On election date I will set up a water, food and restrooms support system to help people standing long hours on a line, on the different States that may have a problem handling voters! @EmCollective https://t.co/nrqRroVyRp
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) June 10, 2020
It’s a disgrace this should be needed, of course, but blessed be Chef Jose Andres for stepping up regardless.
And here’s some related uplift from Jim Webster, food writer at the Washington Post:
If I could give you the details of the dish I’m working on, I would. I would describe what the finished dish looks like, with a poetic recitation of color and composition of each element, including the provenance of any that was particularly impressive. I would taste it, and in a rapturous string of adjectives, tell you how incredible every bite is.
But I don’t have any of those details, because I won’t be eating this dish. I will barely catch a glimpse of a completed bowl before they all go out the door.
On this day, I’m volunteering with World Central Kitchen, and this is one of the more than 3,000 cold and reheatable meals I’m helping assemble in a restaurant space at Nationals Park. From my vantage point on the terrace level just above the center field wall, I can see that a member of the grounds crew is working on the outfield grass, keeping it in pristine condition for a baseball game that will not be played. I can see home plate.
Or I could if I wasn’t laser-focused on ladling portions out of a bottomless vat of black-eyed peas…
In a time where isolation is the rule and it can be a struggle to find meaning, I found some by joining a team at a baseball park.
One day, I saw a post by a friend, chef Matt Adler, who is in charge of World Central Kitchen’s operations at Nationals Park. I texted him to tell him I was impressed and wished I could help somehow.
He responded immediately: Come over anytime. Two days later, on a pre-scheduled day off, I was there.
It struck me as I was driving to the stadium that I didn’t even know who was benefiting from the meals. But I knew that WCK was founded by chef José Andrés with the mission of feeding people around the world wherever disaster strikes, and now disaster is literally everywhere. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his efforts and is working with Congress to make federal disaster relief more accessible. I was confident that the meals were going where they were needed…
I suddenly had an anchor to my week. In an era where days lost definition, I always knew when Tuesday was. I got to spend it working with a team of like-minded people, even if I could only identify them by face mask. I felt less stressed the rest of the week, and more focused.
None of that was what I signed up for. But I’ll take it…
Betty Cracker
Chef Andrés is my hero!
This tweet made me laugh:
Betty Cracker
Also, I regret not giving Governor Inslee’s candidacy a closer look during the primary:
Kay
The public school LeBron James’ charity runs in Ohio is really good, so hopefully this effort will be well-managed and effective too.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, the super-savvy Trump people are in a position to jeer at others about getting “taunted and played”.
Insufferable assholes, all of them. They can send in Bill Barr’s thuggish secret police. That went well for them.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Kay
One of the Never Trumpers described Barr’s weird army of secret police as “slovenly” which made me laugh. Perfect description.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
For all their faults, there was a time when the GOP did at least act more professional than Democrats did.
Baud
Apparently, this happened one year ago.
I remember it as a distant childhood memory.
rikyrah
Defund the police?
Phuck that
Takea hard look at their monies?
absolutely.
Make police financially accountable.
Right now, the taxpayers pay their salaries AND for their misconduct.
THAT needs to stop.
Take settlements for police misconduct lawsuits out of THE POLICE PENSION FUND.
A determined woman went into the weeds of the Boston PD financials.
Follow the thread:
prostratedragon
Chef Andres is such a fount of welcome ideas. If this election follows the recent pattern there’ll be no pressing need for this in Chicago, but I’ll gladly contribute what I can.
In other news, bottomless pit still bottomless:
In the Guardian article on the same thing, they got the reason why Tulsa is such an arrogantly incendiary choice of location, but missed the little detail that Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in a most sardonic, rather than either solemn or joyous, way.
New Deal democrat
Just a reminder that as to House and Senate elections, the Congress itself has the right to set the rules, and is not required to defer to the States. Also, as to all elections, when the Fifteenth Amendment was debated in Congress in 1869, discriminatory locations and numbers of polling locations was one of the specific things pointed to that Congress could use its authority to forbid.
In short, if we win the Presidency and Senate this fall, a new Voting Rights Act, including anti -gerrymandering provisions, should be a high priority.
prostratedragon
@Baud: Ouch! I do remember that, and thinking it was too bad the Thai players weren’t more villainous somehow, so it’d be more enjoyable.
rikyrah
So, it’s a big NO for Peanut going to Summer camp this year. Broke it to her yesterday?
Kids have it rough right now
Baud
You learn something new every day.
rikyrah
@prostratedragon:
I bet Stephen Miller knew the importance of this date????
Baud
The “worries” are “she’s a cop”, basically.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Absolutely, just like Reagan’s people knew the importance of Philadelphia, Mississippi.
ETA: It would be great if Tulsi had a Juneteenth celebration that outshined Trump’s rally.
Betty Cracker
@New Deal democrat: Absolutely correct — the highest priority. Everything else flows from constituents being able to choose their representatives rather than the other way around.
Betty Cracker
So, we’ve got a firecracker bush in bloom in the sideyard, which means I’m pretty much guaranteed opportunities to photograph hummingbirds in the morning and evening. Getting lots of practice in, but damn, they’re fast little buggers! We’ve seen ruby-throated and black-chinned varieties.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
They’re well ahead of us.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: I think (and thought during the campaign, as well) that Jay Inslee is pretty great and that he would make a fabulous EPA chief or Energy Secretary.
Jose Andres is awesome, and I got to eat at one of his restaurants once and I loved it. Now that I am here in PGH, I am looking forward to weekend excursions on this side of the country. I am sure that a trip to DC will be in order….. whenever we can get back to it.
NotMax
Covid trivia:
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap has been running in London’s West End since 1952, and the original contract for the play stipulates that no film adaptation may be produced until six months after that stage production goes dark. Which due to the virus occurred in mid-March (along with all the other West End theaters). So in theory the film rights would open up this September even if the play reopens as it is currently scheduled to do in early August.
Ken
And it needs to start with “Dear Supreme Court, see Amendment 15 Section 2. No, wait, let’s make this clear. ‘The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.’ “
debbie
@Kay:
How great would it be if he named this organization,”What Have You Got to Lose?”?
Clearly, a lot.
debbie
@rikyrah:
I just listened to a senator from OK explain the GOP’s plan for racial justice. It’s basically nothing more specific than “increased accountability.”
The icing on the cake is that the different sections will be named after various victims of injustice. //
Kathleen
@Baud: Also that she’s a Democrat. And a woman.
It’s just so fraught and the fraughtness will multiply exponentially.
Good morning all. Why can’t we get those UN observers who moniter elections over here?
NotMax
@Baud
Discombobulous typo, that.
;)
debbie
@Baud:
Twitter roils this morning in reaction to something from The Hill proposing Condi Rice as Biden’s perfect VP. Many, like Malcolm Nance, are including the hashtag #DealBreaker in their tweets.
This should be worrying.
debbie
@Baud:
Vowels!!!
Baud
@debbie: Why would I or anyone else worry about some stupid thing The Hill proposes?
Kay
@rikyrah
They do. None of this has been easy for them. We have a girl working part time at the law office this summer who was a college freshman last year and I asked her how she was doing- meaning what do you need in the job because we just sort of threw her in there – and she told me she feels “stuck”, like she has no clear path forward. She was a real stand out high school student, focused, hard working- and I bet she’s uncomfortable in this holding pattern. I worry about them. I feel like we screw them over and over and over. Like they pay the highest price for our inability to function.
Baud
@NotMax: I meant what I said. It’s time for her to lead!
debbie
@Baud:
Not The Hill. I would worry about the Twitter chatter, though, if it lasts.
Baud
@debbie: I’m confused. I thought the Twitter chatter was about The Hill story. Anywho, why should we worry about Twitter?
gene108
@New Deal democrat:
Not discussed, but my pet dream, is the House increases its size to 535 members, after the 2020 census.
It’d hopefully give more seats to urban, more liberal, areas. Instead of Democrats trying to run candidates to hold onto R+ districts, to win control of the House, Republicans would have to figure out how to compete in D+ districts.
Emma from FL
@debbie: Why? It’s the most unlikely thing that has come out of the so-called “political press” and God knows it’s been a doozy for years.
In the name of little green men, why would Biden’s people, who have been absolutely flawless so far, stumble so badly?
NotMax
@debbie
Tempest in a tweetpot.
Sab
@Kay: Many years ago I kept a long recorded robocall message from LeBron supporting an Akron Schools bond issue.
What I especially like about his school project is he is doing it within the Akron Public Schools, not as a charter school outside and opposing.
Kay
@debbie:
I think efforts like this can be useful and effective and well-managed or they can not be. The various groups that did voter protection in 2004 were, IMO, a waste of money. They were a chaotic mess with no direction and a lot of people on the payroll who weren’t supervised and weren’t doing much of anything.
I have more hope for LeBron’s because it’s hard as nails to run a good school for low income kids and he or the people he hires managed to pull that off. You can spend a ton of money and still fail at it. They succeeded. “Voting rights” is really voting process and voting process is nitpicky and rule-bound and boring. It’s just work.
gkoutnik
I’ve traveled by car all over the US for a number of years, and Tulsa long ago won my personal award of America’s Ugliest City.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@rikyrah: Our granddaughter got locked in just before her birthday party. And more than likely won’t have one next year either.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
“Multicultural”?
debbie
@Baud:
It’s the hashtag that concerns me: #DealBreaker. It’s worrying that there is something that would cause a person to stop supporting Biden. November will not be a walk in the park by any means.
debbie
@Kay:
I’m optimistic because LeBron doesn’t do failure.
Kay
@Sab:
To seek out the bottom 25% and give them priority to attend your school? That’s ambitious. It’s unheard of. Everyone else does the opposite. They rely on the top 25% to keep their school in the running. His top 25 were everyone elses bottom 25 when he got them.
Betty Cracker
It’s not crazy to worry about Biden’s decades-long, too-generous instincts toward bipartisanship, but the man can read a room. There’s no way on earth he’ll pick Condi Rice as VP. He wants to win. I’ll save my entirely justifiable anxiety about Biden’s commitment to comity for November 4.
dww44
@debbie: Why is it that the Democratic party is always the only party tasked with finding a candidate from the conservative and/or non-liberal field to create a unity ticket? The GOP, even in saner times, was never lobbied to add a moderating VP nominee to its ticket.
Kay
@dww44:
It’s true and it’s infuriating and it happens every cycle. It’s because they don’t really believe “Democrats” exist. They believe all Democrats are really Right leaning independents. There’s the Republican Party and then there’s the people who would be Republicans if it weren’t for GOP positions on abortion and same sex marriage. That’s Democratic voters, that second group of “almost Republicans”.
Punchy
Curious…..what are the iron-clad safeguards on the Census results, that would prevent tampering, tweaking, and general fuckery?
Baud
@debbie:
Twitter makes people stupid. The hashtag should have been #ClickbaitStory
Baud
@Kay:
Democrats are the people who are supposed to make it safe for other people to vote Republican.
Kay
@dww44:
That’s why they do zero substantive coverage of Biden. There’s Donald Trump (R) and then there’s the not-Republican alternative. Biden can only be mentioned in relation to the single real political party, the Republican Party. Donald Trump announces which questions should be posed to the not Republican and they all scurry off to ask Biden just those questions.
Betty Cracker
@dww44: I know McCain considered adding Lieberman to the ticket before launching that idiot Palin on the national stage, but from what I understand, that was McCain’s idea. You’re right about the media never suggesting that a Republican should include a Dem (even a DINO like Lieberman) for the sake of unity. The double standard is unfair and absurd and indicative of Dems’ 2nd class status as a party in the eyes of the MSM.
rikyrah
People aren’t split.
Look at the graph.
Republicans just don’t give a shyt ??
rikyrah
@debbie:
Phuck Outta Here ?
Sab
@Kay: He’s giving families like his mother’s the help she didn’t get.
Kay
@Baud:
There are Democratic “operatives” and opinion writers and paid leaders of Democratic-leaning lobbies but there are no actual Democrats in the wild. Our voters don’t exist.
We all laughed when they spent 12 months interviewing Trump voters in diners but they never did get around to interviewing Clinton voters. That’s because there were none. They were the people who didn’t vote for Donald Trump.
JPL
@Baud: Does that mean she might get canceled?
debbie
@dww44:
Because we are human beings.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
That’s an interesting term for self-serious and authoritarian. It’s professional in a sense. Like the rare breed of manager I’ve encountered who I refuse to work for ever again.
J R in WV
@Suzanne:
I knew you intended to make the move, and that your house in AZ was popular with buyers, but had not heard any progress reports about the actual physical move! Congratulations~!~
I hope everything works out for you and the whole family.
Pittsburgh is a great city that overcame a terrible history of unbridled industrial development, followed by the crash of old industrial methods after WW II. My first time driving into PGH was in 1971, pre Interstate on a 2 lane highway that followed a miles long ridge of molten slag from blast-furnaces, dumped by a small Railroad on top of the ridge, glowing bright red and yellow, flowing down the hill towards the road we were driving on. On the one hand I was sure it wouldn’t reach the highway because they had obviously been doing it for years. On the other hand, I had never seen such an industrial catastrophe.
Now the city is Hi Tech based, with medical centers and universities and museums and galleries. Keep us posted as you learn about your new homw town! And Welcome to the Eastern Mountains, covered with green, so unlike Arizona.
Kay
@Sab:
The school is integrated too, which is what happens organically in Ohio when you pull the bottom 25% from a broader area. I think it’s vitally important for people in Ohio to recognize that a lot of our struggling students are poor and WHITE. Better than 50% of the kids in my county are on Medicaid. It’s 95% white.
J R in WV
@dww44:
Oh, really, now. Senator McCain picked such a sweet looking woman from Alaska to run with him… what ever was her name? I’m sure it will come to me someday…
ETA: Was it Sarah something? Such a sweet name… a thorn by any other name would prick as hard. /s
Baud
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
Exactly.
Sab
@Kay: He understands teamwork. The teachers have to be part of a team. They have to work together and help each other. The Michelle Rhee approach was to get them competing with each other in the same school. I get a bonus if my kids do better than yours. That’s nuts. They are the same kids, or their siblings.
oatler.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/disney-t-mobile-pull-advertising-214108121.html
Baud
@Kay:
It’s very important to the media that Democrats feel isolated and alone. It helps entrench the status quo.
MattF
Via NYT, someone is lying:
Sab
@Kay: And with Covid everyone is supposed to be home schooling. Does Appalachian Ohio even have wifi?
ETA or access to computers?
Anne Laurie
@prostratedragon: Hand to goddess, I just finished writing up a post about this already… if you wanna check back around 10am…
Gin & Tonic
Haven’t seen Ozark in a while – he used to be in the morning threads like clockwork.
Soprano2
@debbie: Man, I was muttering to myself the whole time I listened to that interview. “Ask him why we should continue with qualified immunity when it gives the police license to commit pretty much any crime and get away with it”. “Why don’t you ask him why those good cops vociferously defend those “few bad apples”, so much so that they can almost never be fired?” “Have you looked at how they’ve expanded no-knock warrants so much that their use is much greater than just going after “really serious criminals”. And so on. It was a bunch of babble about not doing much of anything.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: He was here yesterday. But you’re right he’s been posting less.
charluckles
@Betty Cracker:
The conversation has moved on but I love hummingbirds.
Knock on wood we have been able to keep a pair in the neighborhood. It’s not a sure thing for us so they are very welcome when they decide to stay.
Have you thought about placing some temporary perches around the bush?
mad citizen
@Suzanne: You don’t need me to tell you I’m sure (I’m a couple states over in Indiana), but the Great Allegheny Path is an awesome trail to bike or walk. I’ve been over there three times for multi-day trips, and several other times to do the Fallingwater tour (great of course), and Ohiopyle and such. It’s possible to ride a bike from Pittsburgh to DC on the GAP and then the C&O Towpath, although I’ve read the latter is a bit rougher.
Ken
Well, I’d stop supporting him if he strangled and ate a kitten on live TV. But I’m not terribly worried that would ever happen, just as I’m not terribly worried he’ll pick Condi Rice.
rikyrah
???
Ken
Poor etiquette, I expect, but I’m going to repost one of my comments from the dead thread on the Republican convention. Put it down to “stay for the snark”:
“On contacting the RNC, they said the pandemic would be taken into consideration, and referred us to the Duval GOP for details on the plans.”
Baud
@rikyrah: The U.S.’s response to the virus sucks balls, but that stat is just playing games with exponential growth curves.
Baud
@Ken:
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/023/397/C-658VsXoAo3ovC.jpg
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Fascinating. I saw The Mousetrap in London in 1959, and at seven years old* it was already famous for its longevity.
*The play, not me
artem1s
the only thing Condi is perfect for is an example of what happens when an administration ignores IC reports and throws all the work from the previous administration in the trash. The GOP was committing crimes of pig ignorance long before the Orange Plague got to the WH
Anne Laurie
Polite corporate-speak, as of last week, for ‘not white’.
Supposed to avoid giving offense to anyone of other-than-
normal-Caucasian heritage, especially in situations (neighborhoods) where ‘minority’ is not demographically accurate.There are a lot of specialty hair-care products for people of African ethnicity. The Spousal Unit, whose ancestors mostly came from Norway, buys a couple of them to deal with his full but rather coarse-textured beard. Since he doesn’t shop at WalMart, he doesn’t have to deal with a locked case… but he does get the occasional perturbed expression from the check-out clerk.
Betty Cracker
@charluckles: I haven’t thought of perches, but that’s not a bad idea! The bush is next to a fence that has bamboo growing on the other side, and that makes some nice natural perches that the hummies take advantage of sometimes. Got a shot of this wee birb resting on a twig in the firecracker bush:
I’m thrilled to pieces to have so many hummingbirds around! When we lived about a 100 miles south of here, we’d only rarely see them despite putting out feeders.
PST
@Emma from FL: Absolutely. Condi Rice as the veep nominee is absolutely nuts. No one acting in good faith will take it seriously. Rice is even hedging her anti-Trumpism, as if she hopes for some future Republican role. This was the subject of a good Jen Rubin column, Colin Powell Gets It. Condi Rice Doesn’t.
MattF
@debbie: Meh. It’s the only threat that will be noticed. It may be that, for some people, if you take a view from 30,000 feet, Condi Rice looks like a plausible choice. But once you get a bit closer, it’s obvious that the answer is Nope. There are number of excellent possibilities, and Biden will choose one of them.
ETA: Also, Biden has been moving leftward fairly steadily. And he’s a Democrat.
charluckles
@Betty Cracker:
Lovely. Thank you for sharing
They are fascinating creatures. Friends just on the other side of our town have gobs of hummingbirds around all summer. We are lucky to keep a single pair.
Baud
What’s up with this rumor I’m hearing that Biden wants to strangle and eat a kitten on live TV? What is Biden thinking? Democrats are so stupid, always snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Betty Cracker
@charluckles: Hope you’re able to keep your pair nearby! I’ve been meaning to learn more about hummingbirds, including what attracts them to one spot over another. It’s a mystery to me.
Our former residence was in a beachy little town with pretty much zero nearby forested areas, so I’ve been chalking it up to that, but I don’t really know. We had a firecracker bush at our old house too, and the only hummies we saw there were on it (our feeders were ignored!), so I know they like those bushes.
The mister has planted some honeysuckle along the fence, also hoping to attract hummies. They are fascinating little things!
MattF
@Baud: Some people say so.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: We have hummingbirds aplenty here, and I put out feeders. Just now, went into the kitchen to get a coffee and saw a fairly large non-hummingbird perched on one of the hummingbird feeders drinking, or attempting to drink, from it.
Ken
@Baud: All part and parcel of being a Cthulhu cultist. (As reported on twitter.)
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: Probably without much luck if it lacked a specialized beak and extra-long tongue! Have y’all ever seen hummingbird moths? It might be a subtropical thing, I don’t know. At our old house, we had a Rangoon creeper vine, and hummingbird moths would swarm it when it bloomed. It’s easy to mistake them for hummingbirds until you notice the antennas…
Krope, the Formerly Dope
See? This is why we can’t win elections, all these purity tests. Trump, never one to be upstaged, announced he would strangle a 75 year old paraplegic member of Antifa at the convention to much acclaim from party loyalists.
Haroldo
@gkoutnik:
This was my introduction to Tulsa, photographs of (principally) junkies by Larry Clark. Grim as can be.
https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/tulsa/author/larry-clark/hard-cover/pics/sortby/1/
Geminid
Some of these wacky VP rumors are put out to gain clicks. Others are put out by people whose agenda is to sow dissension among Democrats. An example in a different context: when the left thought it had something going with the tara reede story, I saw a tweet from mister Daou, “Who do you think should replace Biden?” Just tossing in the apple of discord, trying to get Democrats squabbling.
Soprano2
Boy, you got that right. They decided a long time ago that no one really liked Hillary, that people were only voting for her reluctantly because they didn’t want Trump. Then they proceeded to hardly ever interview any Hillary voters. It made me so, so angry in 2016 how they were emphasizing the enthusiastic Trump voters and kept talking about “reluctant” Hillary voters. They made their own bias the default!!!! They didn’t even try to find enthusiastic Hillary voters because they didn’t think any existed.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Betty, can you post a photo of your firecracker bush? Even without hummingbirds? I have never heard of that before.
debbie
@Soprano2:
Hot air, signifying nothing. ?
debbie
@Ken:
I wonder if they’ll continue standing behind Trump if it involves their dying?
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: He was in the COVID thread this morning.
yellowdog
@New Deal democrat: But the current lack of a VRA means we wre unlikely to win. GA on Tues was the Spanish Civil War os elections, i.e. the deliberate trying out of warfare techniques in preparation for the bigger conflict. And the comparison to a Nazi strategy is not accidental.
Omnes Omnibus
And lots of Democratic voters bought in. People explained how they liked HRC or were voting for her despite [insert stupid shit here]. Sadly, I am seeing people doing a similar thing with Biden. “He wasn’t my first choice, but he’s turning out okay.” As though Biden is the five old Camry that they could afford rather than the Tesla that they wanted, and they are getting used to its adequacy.
Omnes Omnibus
Horseshit.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
That doesn’t bother me much as the rhetoric about Hillary. Saying that Biden is better than one expected is different than saying, basically, “I’m going to hold my nose and vote for her” or “she is the lesser of two evils.”
Krope, the Formerly Dope
He wasn’t my first choice. He wasn’t in my top ten. How many people ran? I’d have to double check to be sure he was in my top twenty.
But yeah, I’m gonna vote for him. No question. I have thoughts and feelings about this, but I’m holding off til after the election.
WaterGirl
@PST: I saw the headline, got a terrible pit in my stomach, and closed the article. It’s only because Baud made a comment about it that I went back and read the article, and the article totally pissed me off because the whole thing was very shady, and not just the headline.
So I’d say that even people of good faith can take it seriously if they don’t know that the article is bullshit. Which I’m sure was the point of the article in the first place.
Fucking hacks like that shouldn’t get a platform. Oh, and The Hill is garbage.
Redshift
Okay, this thread is excellent:
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: I don’t have any good photos of mine because I’m always focused on the birds rather than the bush, but here’s a representative sample from someone’s Pinterest page.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
It’s remarkable how many of those positions which were intended as criticisms of Obama weren’t true then, but are now true of Trump.
Then there are still the others complaining about policies that the GOP has pushed for years and continue to push.
Betty Cracker
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: Same, and it has nothing to do with buying into anyone else’s dastardly plot to demoralize Democrats.
Matt McIrvin
@debbie: These Twitter leftists are desperately searching for the definitive dealbreaker that will mean they can’t in good conscience vote for Biden. They’ll figure out something.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: We are having a “First Timers Week” of submissions from folks who have never submitted anything to On the Road before.
I hope you will consider submitting something. You can have up to 8 photographs in one post, and there’s a spot for a general introduction and a spot to say whatever you want about each photo. (Or you can let the photos speak for themselves.)
First Timers week starts on June 22 and it actually runs for two weeks.
So I hope you (and a bunch of other people) will think about sending something in.
The submission form is in the sidebar on computers and tablets in landscape mode (under Calling All Jackals) , and it’s at the top of the Hamburger Menu on mobile.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Exactly. Frankly, the “line up and be quiet” attitude demoralizes me more than any particular policy or personality criticism one can make of the candidate. Two of the three strongest arguments I’ve heard for Biden were from people ostensibly arguing against him. The third was thematic elements from an episode of Good Times they broadcast live around Christmas.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Hanging my head in shame from yesterday, falling for the bullshit in The Hill. I am officially one of the rubes!
The Hill is garbage.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Do they still employ John Solomon, or did they finally “part ways”?
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl:
What about people who submitted something and broke the blog?
Omnes Omnibus
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: @Betty Cracker: It would not surprise me if I am out of the step with the majority of commenters here in this. I just never found myself wanting to explain, during the summer of 1992, that I had originally supported Tsongas.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
@Omnes Omnibus: The difference here being that the only two people the party even seemed to consider were right off the bottom of my list.
I’m not so much upset that we didn’t nominated Harris or Warren or Booker or Castro or Klobuchar or…ad infinitum. I’m upset about the fact we only considered these two old white duffers, the behavior of the media that brought this about, and phenomena of political inertia.
Gin & Tonic
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: Candidates are made for particular moments. After four years of insanity, I’d bet a lot of people are quietly hoping for “Make America Boring Again,” and a conventional, insider-y old white guy may, in fact, be what the political moment calls for.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Thanks! I had googled for images, and they vary so much for the same plant or flower that can be hard to get a feel for what they really look like.
When you post your hummingbird pics, I’ll be inspecting your bushes once I get over the ooh-ing over the hummingbirds. :-)
Krope, the Formerly Dope
@Gin & Tonic: People want stability back. I understand that. As someone who has never been able to carve out stability for himself, even working two jobs, that’s not a draw for me. And I know I’m not alone in this situation.
The few people in my age cohort I know who are able to afford housing either have advanced degrees or section 8. Labor is horrendously exploited in this country and I don’t expect Biden to do much about it.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t recall that happening – did I block something out? :-)
Unless you mean that your post identified the early problem with the form?
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: I guess that’s what I meant.
Omnes Omnibus
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: I would expect that Biden will enforce the labor laws on the books. And I also expect that he will sign and enforce any new labor laws that a Democratic Congress would pass.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
@Omnes Omnibus: We’ll see. But as far as I’m concerned, his record is against him. And anything he signs that may help, I expect others will be taking the lead.
Omnes Omnibus
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: How is his record against him on labor issues? Unions rate him at about 85% pro.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I agree, Joe has unions’ backs. 10% of people are in unions. What about the rest of us? Talk to people about starting/joining a union and they look at you like you have three heads
ETA: I have seen entire departments of people quit. One. At. A. Time. But God forbid they get organized and make demands.
debbie
@Matt McIrvin:
Malcolm Nance is a leftist???
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t accost people on the street to let them know Biden wasn’t in my top half-dozen or so, but it seems natural that it would come up sometimes in political discussions among fellow Democrats. That sort of thing is not new (in my experience), but what does seem new is a…flinchiness since 2016.
I get it because the last presidential election was traumatic for all of us. And there was very real reluctance among some Democrats in 2016 — women in particular, I think — to not be out and open about enthusiastically supporting Sec. Clinton because of online harassment, mostly from male Sanders supporters.
But IMO, nothing like that is happening this year. Never been a fan of Biden, but I’m still voting for him. Shruggies. I expect all of us will have opinions about whomever Biden chooses as VP too, and I hope we all feel free to air them here without other folks trying to shush us! ;-)
Krope, the Formerly Dope
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: If it wasn’t clear here, they left over working conditions.
Also, I’ve had union positions where working conditions were still bad due to management and corporate policies. I haven’t seen anything out of Biden suggesting a willingness to do anything about corporate consolidation or the horrible incentives created by our financial system.
Omnes Omnibus
I hope I can continue to point out something I think is counterproductive without people thinking I am trying to shush them.
gwangung
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: My thoughts are that people pay too much attention to the top when pushing for progressive agendas. I think the real place to make change is at the legislative level: representatives at the city/state/national level.
Getting a solid and LARGE coalition making laws is an under-appreciated tactic in getting things done. Too many execs and legislators are islands in a sea and storm of moderates and reactionaries.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
You’re not. This year. It hasn’t been as bad around here, with a couple exceptions.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: I think sometimes these qualifying statements amount to giving permission for other people who didn’t support the nominee in the primary to vote for them. If so, that is a good thing.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Given that we’re here from all across the country and even beyond, that sort of feeds into the nationalization of these debates. I vote D down the rest of my ticket too. I’m not here advocating dumping my underwhelming D rep for an R (not since that one vote in 2002). If a worthwhile primary challenger comes along, then we can talk.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Exactly. I’m going to vote for Biden. For certain. Even if I have to convince myself anew every single day*. But I’ll continue to advocate for empathy for people who are still more reluctant than I am. Putting people on the defensive doesn’t help.
*I’ve already gone way more into my concerns about Biden here than I intended to (only scratched the surface). So I’m putting this back on the shelf for now.
Uncle Cosmo
And nowhere has this bitching & moaning been worse than on this very blog. I’d be willing to bet at least half of the Jackals would’ve been pleased as punch to see Uncle Joe crash & burn so long as it was their heartthrob that got the nod to take his place at the top of the ticket.
The average Jackal’s sum total of political understanding can IMHO be written on the head of a safety pin with a paint roller.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m unshushable!
Matt McIrvin
@Uncle Cosmo:
You don’t read Twitter, do you?
Betty Cracker
@Uncle Cosmo: Are you saying voters in a partisan primary would rather have the person they support at the top of the ticket rather than someone else? Whoa! Thanks for sharing that astounding nugget of wisdom from your incomparably vast stores of political knowledge. Truly, at least half of us are not worthy. ?
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
?
Krope, the Formerly Dope
@Betty Cracker: Splendid.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: That wouldn’t have counted, but you did have some other pics posted after that, so maybe that makes you an Old Timer? :-)
Geminid
@Uncle Cosmo: “crash and burn”!!? You mean, like the Ravens?