After the most recent November shellacking, the Democratic Party of Florida committee-peeps are meeting in Orlando today to select a new state party chair. I was hoping we might dispatch a delegation to Georgia to beg Stacey Abrams to move south and lead us from the wilderness or offer Ben Wikler a beach condo to quit the Wisconsin gig and take on the Augean stables-level cleansing required to set this party aright.
That didn’t happen, and it looks like the race is coming down to former ag commish Nikki Fried (lost to Crist in the 2022 gubernatorial primary) or Annette Taddeo (also lost to Crist in the 2022 gubernatorial primary and then lost to a Repub incumbent in the 2022 FL 27th House race). The Florida Politics site says there’s lots of drama around the race as “accusations fly” between the Fried and Taddeo camps.
Meh. It sounds mostly like consultant sniping to me.
If I had a vote, I’d probably go with Fried because a) she’s a Democrat who won a statewide election in Florida during this century, and b) she’s not based in South Florida. IMO, one of the party’s many problems is that it’s too South Florida-centric. But I don’t have a vote.
Anyhoo, good luck to whoever wins. She’ll need it! I’d rather chew an entire roll of tinfoil with a sodium hydroxide chaser than have that fucking job!
Open thread!
PS: Is anyone else watching “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” on Netflix? It’s a whole trip so far!
feebog
Left coast resident here, but it seems to me that the FL Democratic party needs a head to toe reorganization and shakeup. Looks like they are going for same old, same old.
$8 blue check mistermix
Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a hell of a ride.
Unfortunately for Florida, and fortunately for me, New York keeps sending our worst to Florida. Every MAGA hat I know dreams of retiring to the Villages or someplace else down there.
Omnes Omnibus
You can’t have Wikler. He’s busy.
Betty
Maybe the winner can get a consultant’s contract with Stacey or Ben. It does appear to be a mighty big lift to help them out of the present situation. It looks like New York is in similar need of a big leadership change.
TaMara
Good to know. It’s in my queue, but since it’s subtitled, I have to put it aside until I’m not tired to watch. So I’m thinking…sometime in 2024.🙄
WereBear
@TaMara: Yes, I also prefer subtitling to dubbing, but it takes a little extra energy, which is sometimes not around.
Low Key Swagger
Living in this awful red state of Tennessee, I can tell you that the statewide chair doesn’t matter nearly as much as the county chairs. The only way we’ve been able to fend off horrible legislation is by grass roots organizing in the counties. Usually, the State organizations tend to focus on the large metro areas (where the money is) and don’t do squat for the rural parts of the State. That is where our messaging goes to die. At least that’s been our experience.
Another Scott
Indeed, good luck to the winner.
I’m thinking back to what an old guy at my workplace always wanted to know very early on when hearing funding proposals, etc.
“Tell me, specifically, what you want to do!”
Back in Claude Pepper’s day, it was “Protect Social Security”. Whenever one thought of him, the clip of him saying “Keep your foul hands off Social Security!” would immediately come to mind.
What’s the answer for Florida Democrats these days?
Yes, we support a whole host of good policies and want (and need) to do lots and lots of things. But we know that humans are tribal and want to be on winning sides and put too much value in excitement and being shocking and letting their freak flag fly. A good slogan that people really believe can cut through that and make room for persuasion on other topics.
Maybe something like “Keep politicians out of our public schools!” ??
Dunno.
But thinking outside the box and rebuilding the brand is needed.
Good luck!!
Cheers,
Scott
raven
@TaMara: Dubbing sucks.
UncleEbeneezer
Hear great things about Extraordinary Attorney Woo, but it looks like it might be a little too cutesy for our taste in K-dramas (a problem we have with many of them). The hardest thing is the damn sound effects that K-dramas often use to emphasize comedic moments. I just can’t hang with series’ that do that too much. We just had to bail on one called Summer Strike, that looked really good except for that :(
UncleEbeneezer
@raven: Nothing worse than finding a foreign show/movie that looks great but…there’s no English subtitles option, only dubbing. The worst!!
trollhattan
I did finish “Woo” and it’s worth the time. Gets very soap-operaish at times and the mini case arcs can be about head-scratchy things. but the casting and especially the lead are simply excellent. Probably the deepest dive into contemporary South Korea I’ve ever taken as well. So many fascinating little details.
ETA shifting to Japan, “The Makanai” on Netflix is a series about two besties who are accepted to a maiko (geisha) training academy in Kyoto. One heads towards that goal while the other becomes the cook, or makanai. Again, sumptuous small details and the various social mores on display are the glue that makes their stories fascinating.
Geminid
There will be a contest for Nevada State Democratic Chairman next Saturday, March 4th. State Assemblywoman Danielle Munroe-Moreno leads a “Unity Slate” trying to oust Chairman Judith Whitmer and the other insurgents who took over the party apparatus in 2021. Both Democratic Senators and all three Democratic Reps are backing Ms. Munroe-Moreno, as are state legislative leaders.
A recent purge of the large Central Committee. seemed designed to block Whitmers opponents. Around 40% of the 500+ members were dropped shortly after Munroe-Moreno announced her candidacy for Chairman, supposedly for missing two Committee meetings in a row.
This morning Politico put up an article about Whitmer’s tenure, titled “Sanders supporters took over the Nevada Democratic Party. It’s not going well.” It sounds like Whitmer has just about everybody mad at her.
The John Ralston-led Nevada Independent and Ralston’s own Twitter feed are reporting this story, as are other Nevada news sites.
Betty Cracker
@TaMara: It’s dubbed on Netflix too, which doesn’t bother me, so that’s how I’m watching it.
Redshift
I wish I knew more about how the Virginia Democratic Party turned from a hapless old boys club to a strong organization, but it mostly happened before my time. I’m sure it was easier to do in a state that was trending blue, too (especially its biggest localities.)
One thing that did happen in my time was that they required campaigns who used the party’s voter info database (or voter file, as it was called) to turn bank in data they gathered during the campaign, and somehow enforced that effectively. As recently as the 2004 Kerry campaign, campaigns would just drop all their info when they closed up shop.
Better data meant better organizing, and not just during campaigns. And after that, coordinated campaigns became a more actually coordinated, instead of leaving downballot races to their own resources.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
If you dig into the menu you can listen in the original Korean with subtitles. My problem is every damn streaming service has their own menu and process for this and thus, I can’t say how one does this in a helpful fashion. (I’m using a Roku box.)
Dubbing generally robs one of emotions and detail. German is my only furrin’ language, partial due to decades since my last class, and I pick up so much more not opting for the English edition of things. My kid is addicted to manga shows and admits she understands zero Japanese after hundreds of hours of immersion–which is kind of disappointing when you think about it.
James E Powell
@Geminid:
It may not be completely right and I know I will have trouble doing it, but I think we need to start separating Sanders 2016 supporters from the senator himself.
Many of these people did not support Sanders because they love him, but because they hate the Democratic Party & believe it is the one & only barrier to the popular policies of the True Left.
TheOtherHank
My son refers to foreign shows that have been dubbed with English as being in “Funny Mode”. I watched the first couple seasons of Babylon Berlin in Funny Mode and then rewatched them with just the subtitles. The second viewing was far superior.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: +1
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: I really doubt I worked where you do, but I’ve probably said some version of that “specifically” a thousand times.
Old Dan and Little Ann
My wife and I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once last night. Well, we watched 1/2 of it because that’s all we could take before turning it off. I guess the exact meaning of the movie is in the title but yeesh. It was hot garbage.
gwangung
Yes, that occurs when the US distributor is being half assed about it.
I have a fair amount of friends who make a living doing this and they constantly push back against producers who do it on the cheap and supply bad translations and bad pronunciation of native names. And particularly when it comes to idiosyncrasies that don’t translate well.
But there’s a growing number of folks who are multilingual, who are top notch actors themselves and are giving the dubbing the care an talent it needs.
Gregory
I’m a big fan of <I>Extraordinary Attorney Woo</i>, which I am watching in Korean with subtitles. The main cast is excellent.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan:
We also use Roku via our smart TV rather than a box. Figuring out how to turn CC on and off in various apps used to drive us nuts until we figured out you can use the microphone thingy on the Roku remote to do it. Try that if you have that feature!
dnfree
Has anyone mentioned this yet? The “Dilbert” cartoonist is being canceled. The cartoon hasn’t been funny since he became an out-and-proud Trump supporter.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dilbert-author-scott-adams-invokes-mike-pence-to-explain-racist-rant
Betty Cracker
@Old Dan and Little Ann: HARD disagree — we thought it was brilliant, and if Michelle Yeoh doesn’t win an Oscar, it’ll be a travesty. ;-)
jefft452
@TheOtherHank: American movies dubbed into foreign languages can be funny too
I once saw “Rio Lobo” dubbed into Japanese.
Anonymous At Work
I voted Fried in the primary because she was state-wide elected recently (unlike when Crist last won state-wide vote) and was likely to play hardball with DeathSantis. Crist’s core “appeal” was with moderates (who are they, where are they?) and he’d play soft and nice and use the mid-90s playbook.
Additionally, I think Fried better understands that DeathSantis really is a fascist: action is all that matters and words are for the weak. DeathSantis seeks to unleash violence in all the ways that a state can, through arresting dissenters like his election brownshirts, through economics like he is doing against Disney, or through judicial violence of the “Don’t Say Gay” where random people can sue teachers into a fearful compliance. Crist, I believe, never got that DeathSantis wasn’t just a “bit extreme” normal Republican.
So, here’s to hoping.
dnfree
@Old Dan and Little Ann: We were also very disappointed in “Everything Everywhere” after all the laudatory reviews. Good premise somewhere under there, but too much ridiculous overlay (spoiler alert, “Quick! Pee your pants!”), too many bizarre costumes, just too much flash bang.
ETA Betty Cracker is correct about the acting, but it didn’t make up for the mishmash.
Alison Rose
My mom’s parents moved from New York to Florida (I know, such an unusual surprise from retired NY Jews) in 1995, and there was a Democratic governor at that time. But then they got Jeb!, and then Crist (Republican version), and then Scott. They both passed while Scott was in office, but I remember them both complaining about how the state had kept moving further right-ward while they lived there. I’m honestly just glad neither of them had to see DeSatan get elected.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@dnfree: Yeah, generally it isn’t being conservative that gets someone “canceled”, it’s some sort of reprehensible behavior. I mean, Robert Downey Jr. identified as a Republican, and he’s about as far from “canceled” as you can get.
Betty Cracker
@dnfree: It’s kind of hilarious that he invoked Pence’s sexist AF “no lunching with ladies” rule as a defense of his [Adams’] racist AF rant. He can fuck right off.
Another Scott
@Redshift: I’ve been in NoVA since 1989. Here’s my $0.02.
I think Virginia is a special case (because of all the military stuff in the state and because of its proximity to DC), but there are lessons for other places.
We never know when black swans will appear. But we know that it takes time and effort and money to run a political organization. And we know that people pay attention when people with lots of money (Mark Warner), or people who know people with lots of money (Terry McAuliffe), get involved in state politics.
There are lots of rich people in Florida, and they’re not all GQPers. They should be contacted to get involved with the party in a public way, and bring their sensible friends with them.
Not holding my breath, though. Things are different now in NoVA compared to the late 1980s with regard to people wanting to stick their hands up. Warner managed Doug Wilder’s campaign for governor in 1989 and was state party chair from 1993-1995. Too many rich people interested in politics don’t have that kind of patience any more, or don’t want the attention.
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
gwangung
@dnfree: I think you’ll find quite a few people who’ll defend the film to the death, both around here and around the internet in general. What some people find ridiculous is what other people enthusiastically welcome as logical extensions when you accept the premise.
Alison Rose
@dnfree: Yeah, he’s been a huge piece of shit for a long time. #notallwhitemen but definitely this fucking guy.
Cameron
I hope I haven’t brought this up before (the memory isn’t what it used to be), but I’d appreciate any thoughts Floridians have on Local Voices United. It’s a creation of the Florida League of Cities, and appears to be devised to assert local control over issues that are not specifically governed by state/Federal law. Unfortunately I don’t think it could address civil-rights issues (DeSantoids: “We have them – you don’t”), but it might be able to address some quality-of-life issues (jobs, housing, social services). They send me emails and I’m not sure how involved I want to get with them.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Betty Cracker: a lot of early Dilbert cartoons rang true and brought a laugh. Bemused Senior (Mrs.) had a Dilbert head, now occupying a spot on top of a book shelf in our (my) office.
I read the Dilbert Principle when it first came out and that was the end of any respect I had for Scott Adams. I was not surprised that he became a Trump supporter.
tobie
I don’t live in Florida but my mother still does and I’m there often enough. It seems the oldsters are increasingly conservative. Many move to FL so they won’t have to pay taxes. And the large non-Cuban Latino population seems to have been taken in by the evangelical church and the prosperity gospel. Tourism, retirement communities and eldercare generate enough work for folks with only a hs diploma or less, even if the pay sucks, and advancement opportunities are limited, and you’re the first to lose your job during an economic downturn.
Climate change sinking large portions of FL may be the only thing that wakes people up. I don’t see Fried doing it. I thought her primary campaign for Gov was horrendous. At the end I felt the same way about her as I do about Marianne Williamson.
Lapassionara
@Another Scott: I’m thinking vaginal ultrasounds played a part also. And I think keeping politicians out of my doctor’s visit is a slogan worth playing with.
Cameron
@Another Scott: Man, that brings back memories…..I actually owned that album. You know, “George Allen and his Swingin’ Dixies invite you to Do The Macaca!”
Geminid
@James E Powell: There is a lot of diversity among Sanders supporters. The ones who took over the Nevada Democratic Party apparatus appear to be among the more zealous. I think most Sanders supporters accepted the result in 2020, but his diehard supporters have not and these make a lot more noise than the rest.
Judith Whitmer and her crew benefitted from support from the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter in the 2021 party election. They have since fallen out with her, and denounce collaboration with Democrats. The strategy of working through the Democratic Party is controversial within the DSA and will likely be contested at their biennial convention later this year.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Betty Cracker: She was great for sure. Throwing every acid induced idea into a blender and then calling it a movie was just too much.
kalakal
I loathe overdubbing. Was watching The Law according to Lidia Poet the other night and as far as we can tell it’s overdubs only.
Rather like the show so far except for 2 things 1) the overdubbing to add insult to industry, makes a travesty of some of the acting 2) The plots are all one episode long which makes them seem a little rushed/simplistic
kalakal
@dnfree: I remember enjoying some of the early cartoons around 30 years ago, some were very good parodies of corporate IT It got staler as it went on and stopped being funny. Then he decided to reveal his inner racist nutjob and I lost what little time I had left for him
HumboldtBlue
I told you about that show two months ago.
Oh well, the Phillies are back. Ireland whacked Italy and Liverpool are on in an hour.
So there’s that.
William D
Attorney woo rules! although it has led to domestic discord in that my wife prefers dubbing (she often “watches” with her eyes closed for some reason) whereas I prefer subtitles ( I get a lot out of the Korean sounds and emotion expressed by the actors….the dubbed dialog feels like wet blanket to me)
also…whales!
Jager
I have a hometown friend living in Fort Pierce, she’s been in Florida since the early 70s. She’s a tough old cookie and she hates the “newcomers”. Both her kids left the state, another friend in Jupiter has 3 sons, and two have left the state. On the West Coast, an old pal and his wife have a very pampered only-child daughter, she went to school out of state and now lives in Seattle. Another guy I went to school with has two sons, one stayed in Florida the other split. As soon as he retired he and his wife left. They do have a little condo in the Keys so they can spend a few months a year with their Florida son. Are a lot of kids leaving Florida?
Marc
Extraordinary Attorney Woo and The Makanai were both much loved by our family unit. A recent Japanese movie on Netflix that also fits in this general category is Call Me Chihiro, a former sex worker takes a job as the cashier at a bento restaurant in a small coastal town and tries to help the lonely people she encounters. And Netflix still has Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories, along with the original Midnight Diner episodes from Japanese TV. We go with the subtitles.
It’s funny, I (and the rest of my family) seem to have an appreciation for series/movies about “nice people trying to do nice things for others” (usually involving food). This is something that is all but absent from recent US and European media, with the exception of Somebody Somewhere (on HBO). Oddly, we’ve also watched one strangely compelling South Korean reality show on Netflix, Physical: 100, unfortunately, it failed to stick the landing.
West of the Rockies
Hey. Charlie Crust is tan, ready, and–oh, fuck it.
UncleEbeneezer
@trollhattan: We tried the Makanai, since the subject, setting etc., is right up our alley, but it is just SO PRECIOUS…
RaflW
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I watched it on a plane. Not an ideal screening location, to be sure, but I finished the movie sort of feeling (like I do more than I’d like, frankly, about entertainments) “wait, what was the fuss about?”
It was alright, and had some funny moments. So, as a time-filler on a plane, ok.
To my ‘huh, what’ point, I happened to notice that S.1, Ep.1 of the Mandalorian was on free-to-me TV last night, so I watched. If that was a teaser meant to get me to subscribe to Mouse+, it failed.
UncleEbeneezer
@Marc: Have you tried Crash Landing Onto You? It’s one of the best K-dramas we’ve seen so far, and while there are some bad guys, violence etc., it’s still very sweet and funny, in general.
HumboldtBlue
@William D:
I can’t stand it, I love subtitles, it adds so much to the show, and it doesn’t matter the language.
UncleEbeneezer
@kalakal: As I said to my wife during the last episode of Lydia Poet “I think this show’s main purpose is just to put her in gorgeous costumes” (neither of us mind). I’ve never seen so many Italians with stunning blue eyes as are in this series. We enjoy it. Good but not “great.”
UncleEbeneezer
@Old Dan and Little Ann: The second half of it is really great. Took us two tries but once it gets serious, it’s really moving. You might wanna try it again. Though we felt totally the same about the first 30 minutes or so, so you are not alone.
James E Powell
@jefft452:
I watched a DVD of Spirited Away with both the subtitled & the dubbed track on. At times they were completely unrelated, like a different story.
UncleEbeneezer
@HumboldtBlue: Hell, we put subtitles on for most Brittish shows because half the time I can’t understand if they have heavy accents.
Marc
Not yet, we’ll check it out.
HumboldtBlue
@UncleEbeneezer:
Yup.
Marc
The rights to dub and distribute Studio Ghibli films outside of Japan were held for many years by Disney, with all that suggests.
Joey Maloney
More direct: Keep Republicans out of my daughter’s panties. In just about every conceivable sense.
RaflW
@Jager: Are a lot of kids leaving Florida?
I gotta wonder, if DeSantorum succeeds in getting his higher ed bill through, what that does to the national rankings of schools like UF Gainesville or Univ of Miami, and thus to retaining Florida kids at least thru college.
Is there pushback to his bullsh*t by business leaders? The execrable Abbott has been salivating to disembowel the UT system similarly. As if these major educational systems aren’t one of the keys to each state’s attractiveness to (smart, effective) businesses and their growth. WTF.
Betty
@Low Key Swagger: That is what Tom Sullivan at Hullabaloo recommends. That is what he is working on in North Carolina. He has a how-to book.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Marc: Here is a gift link to (yes, I know, FTF…) Spirited Away to Miyazaki Land
Interesting reading.
Arclite
Any one watching Poker Face starring Natasha Lynne? It’s created by Rian Johnson, writer and director of Knives Out and Glass Onion. It’s brilliant.
My wife and I watch K dramas dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles. I hate dubbing, but the languages are close enough that it’s not terrible, and my wife prefers it since she is from Japan and speaks little English. My Japanese is pretty good, but I will be grateful for subtitles in Woo since I don’t know any Japanese legal vocabulary.
dnfree
@gwangung: I understand many are enthusiastic, and I was really looking forward to the film. I do accept the premise, in the sense that I’ve been reading science fiction all my life, and I loved the “His Dark Materials” adaptation on HBO Max. I liked the presentation of the family and its issues in “Everything Everywhere”, and I liked the conclusion in terms of the family relationships. But I didn’t think the multiverse concept was well developed. Of course everyone else’s mileage may vary.
dnfree
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I think you and we are on the same page regarding the movie.
Marc
That it is. We’ll be in Osaka during May, we plan to take a side trip there to wander about the park, even if we can’t get tickets to go inside the exhibit buildings.
AM in NC
@Old Dan and Little Ann: My husband and I had the same experience. So many people LOVE this movie, but it is just not our bag. Or we didn’t get far enough into it for it to become our bag.
And we tend to view all kinds of movies and series, so I’m not sure what happened here
ETA – I did think the acting was good, but the rest was just too MUCH.
J R in WV
@kalakal:
With you on the Dilbert guy — hateful is as hateful does.
You know who else did that for me? Orson Scott Card, who wrote some nearly good Sci Fi,, and then showed his homophobia cards over and over. Mormon gone bananananas.
No room for gay bashing nor racism nor misogyny.
Shana
@UncleEbeneezer: We’ve been watching a lot of kdramas over the last few years, both on Netflix and Viki. What are some of your favorites?
Shana
@Redshift: I got involved right after Webb’s election in 2006 and one of the things that happened was Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy that pumped money into state organizations. Went a long way in Virginia to setting up infrastructure..
The other thing was just demographics. More younger people were both moving to the Commonwealth and getting involved. Our county committee, Fairfax, has a ton of younger (40 and under) people involved. The old guard is still there, but we’re bringing in more younger people too.
Shana
@gwangung: One of the things I like about watching kdramas on Viki is that they give you both translated song lyrics and context for some of the idioms. “She has switched to informal speech” “This is a play on words where this phrase can also mean -fill in – .
kalakal
@J R in WV: Yes, Orson Scott Card. I liked his early stuff like Hot Sleep and all this sanctimonious bile started oozing out. Haven’t read anything by him in 25 years or so
kalakal
One thing I love about subtitles is when they describe the music and fx
‘ominous music’
‘floor creeks’
‘gasps’
‘suspensful chord’
‘door squeaks open’
‘screams’
“Sorry, did I startle you?”
Mr. Bemused Senior
@kalakal: yes, I left them on while watching Wednesday and they never fail to amuse.
RaflW
Somnolent thread, but as of about an hour ago, the news is in: Nikki Fried is the FL Dem chair.
I hope she can get the kind of national money that the NY basketcase is getting.
piratedan
in regards to K-drama’s, I would also recce Inspector Koo and Hometown Cha-cha-cha
Another Scott
@RaflW: 💪
Cheers,
Scott.
kalakal
@RaflW: Thanks
Shana
@Marc: Someone somewhere said that Crash Landing On You (or CLOY) is the gateway drug for K dramas.
Also check out Mr. Sunshine.
Chris T.
@dnfree:
Dead thread probably, but I think you can really pinpoint the beginning of the decline of Dilbert to the point where he quit working at PacBell (the source of inspiration).