The heartland of England, that is. As per W. Shakespeare Blake, it really can be a green and pleasant land. See how it looks from the Malvern Hills?
I’m Rose Judson; I’ve been lurking and sometimes commenting as R-Jud since 2008. I grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania in a haunted bed and breakfast. I lived in Chicago for five years after finishing undergrad in Ithaca, New York (I didn’t go to the fancy school, I went to the other one), and I’ve lived in the English West Midlands for almost exactly 19 years. In fact, tomorrow’s the anniversary of my arrival in the UK. It’s an auspicious date if you’re a fellow Tolkien nerd.
About a month ago, John put out a call on Twitter for new, “young” writers, and I responded. And now I have keys to the front page! So who am I, and what does that mean for you?
I’m a writer; I work in marketing by day and host a great books podcast by night. I have B-J bona fides: I found the site in 2008 through Andrew Sullivan’s erstwhile blog on The Atlantic’s website, probably while I was trying to find out who exactly this Sarah Palin person was and whether she would prevent my former US senator from becoming president (thank God she didn’t).
If you’ve been here a while, you may remember that way, way back in 2010, my kid was featured on the Balloon-Juice front page for her unorthodox approach to eating cupcakes. She’s 15 now. At her request, I’ll be referring to her as “The Child”, and not posting pictures. She’s given me permission to report things she says, however, “because I understand that adults think I am amusing.”
I also have pets, of course. I’m a cat person; I currently live with a devastatingly handsome tuxedo cat named Monty (short for Montresor; image left). The Child and I also co-parent her pet corn snake, Cornflake. I understand that some people can’t do snakes, so if you want to see him, you can click here. He’s really much more affectionate than I thought a snake would be. I think it’s the lack of eyelids that makes him seem so shifty.
Here at Balloon-Juice, I’m mostly hoping to help keep the political discussions rolling. I have to be online a lot for my job, and I pick up on many things throughout the day. I’m planning to chime in with some things from an expat perspective.
Why 2024 Matters to Me (and Other B-J Expats)
As of 2022, about 4.4 million Americans have emigrated to live abroad (or were born abroad), according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Of those 4.4 million, approximately 2.8 million are old enough to vote.
Here in the UK, Democrats Abroad finally added a West Midlands chapter last year—prior to 2023, everything was run from London, which is something of a schlep for me. When DAUK-WM met up for the first time, everyone in the chapter talked about dual citizenship: who’s got it, who hasn’t? And many of us, in spite of being eligible for it, hadn’t got it.
Reasons for this varied. There’s the cost. There was the fear that the then-Home Secretary would have her minions comb through our applications and find a reason to deport us. There was the fact that, since Brexit, UK citizenship is less valuable than it was thanks to EU restrictions on freedom of movement. But there was also a reason that was harder to articulate. I know that many of us—myself included—never meant to stay abroad as long as we have. But there was also a feeling that accepting British citizenship was somehow disloyal to the homeland.
For my part, I have an irrational belief that if I were to obtain a UK passport, I’d be haunted for the rest of my life by my paternal grandfather’s father. Egisto was a wiry little Italian guy from Umbria. He noped out of Italy in 1921, when Mussolini’s gang was beginning to emerge there. He and my great-grandmother left their eldest daughter behind and, after a long, circuitous, and painful journey through Western Europe and Canada, came at last to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he would labor in the coal mines for the remainder of his life. (My grandfather was born roughly 45 minutes after his parents had dropped their bags on the ground: anchor baby!)
Imagine that you went through all of that only to have one of your great-granddaughters become British. You’d have thoughts on the matter. Thoughts death itself could not hold back.
But there’s another aspect of citizenship that bothers me this cycle. You don’t need me to remind you that the Trumpistas want to eliminate birthright citizenship. They say this is just for the children of “illegals”, but they’ve also got plans to “denaturalize” foreign-born citizens as they see fit. Obviously, our main concern as voters should be about protecting the rights of immigrants and naturalized citizens living within the US. But what about my kid? She has birthright citizenship, too.
Do you honestly think this parade of fascist clowns will draw up laws that don’t affect her rights? Do you honestly think they’ll respect my right to vote from abroad? As the natives of this island say: pull the other one.
My kid was born in the first few months of the first Obama administration. She’s had two passports since she was four months old. The rights those passports confer upon her mean less than they did 15 years ago, when I, a bleary-eyed but proud new mother, held her up for the photographer. I’m angry about that. There’s not a whole lot I or anyone can do about restoring the British rights, but there’s still time to protect the American ones.
2024 will be a make-or-break year for all Americans, but especially for all immigrants. That includes those who have moved to the US from elsewhere, those of us who have moved away, and those of us who were born abroad and want to live in America someday.
Balloon-Juice has been so helpful for me as a resource and reassurance in all the years I’ve lived abroad. I’m looking forward to making a small contribution to the discussions here to help keep us all focused on November 5th (and beyond). Thanks for having me.
TaMara
Welcome!
H.E.Wolf
Electoral-Vote.com was originally founded as an informational site for US voters living outside the USA. (One of its two bloggers is a US citizen who lives in Europe.)
TBone
I’m gonna need to hear more about that haunted B&B. I like your style!
H.E.Wolf
Anyone coming for birthright citizenship will have to get by me. And that’s no easy task.
Headed out for the day. Let’s get ready to vote the creeps into well-deserved oblivion on Guy Fawkes Day.
(UK reference, in honour of R-Jud)
Subcommandante Yakbreath
Welcome from Plains PA!
dexwood
Glad to see you here. Hello and welcome.
RedDirtGirl
Always happy to have another voice in the mix here. Welcome!
BR
Great to hear your personal journey. How have you adapted over the years to being an expat in the UK? What were the hardest (and easiest) things to adapt to?
TBone
Welcome from TeaBone music
https://youtu.be/rt1nlqJP2Ls
WaterGirl
Welcome back to the neighborhood!
Dorothy A. Winsor
What an interesting analysis of your feelings re dual citizenship. Thank you for sharing.
And welcome to the front page!
kindness
Welcome (again). I also went to that (other) Ithaca College. Only 75-77 though. Then I left for my own greener pastures (California). Looking forward to more UK perspective from an ex-pat.
Mathguy
Welcome!
And corn snakes are awesome pets (I have one, two year old Gideon, a tessera striped).
Albatrossity
Welcome! I look forward to reading more, and learning more, from the ex-pat perspective!
Marcia Murchio
My daughter has lived in London since 2019. Her great-grandfather was a “bobbin boy” in Skipton. Her other great-grandparents came from Genoa. Her grandfather and all of her great uncles fought fascism in WWII. I am really bothered by her becoming a British citizen because she will have to pledge her allegiance to a King and all that entails.
She’s very anti-monarchy and colonialism, but she’s lived there a long time.
Borders are a man-made construct. Maybe we should do away with them.
I enjoyed your article and wish you good luck with your commentaries. Good to have young(er) voices. This from an oldie.
TBone
@H.E.Wolf: 🖤
I am a blaggart, remember, remember
Yarrow
Welcome! I enjoyed looking at your blog back in the day. Hard to believe The Child is 15. Time flies. Also, Monty is a looker. I love tuxedo kitties. Very cute.
I understand this from the other side. Person close to me in the US for many years who cannot see themselves as anything else but British. Many discussions about safety in the US as an immigrant. Is it better to pursue the US citizenship they’re eligible for? But honestly can’t bring themselves to do so because they always see themselves as British. It’s a complicated situation.
As someone who has dealt with immigration issues up close and personal in a couple of countries, I understand the low level concern and even fear that just doesn’t go away no matter how “legal” you are in a country. You wonder if things will change and you’ll be forced to leave your family and the life you’ve built. It’s awful and unfair. It’s a fear tax on immigrants. Draining over time.
CaseyL
Welcome! I’m excited to read what you have to say.
I’m a lifelong Anglophile, even after learning the darker side of its history (tell me any modern country that doesn’t have a dark side to its history!). But Brexit put paid to any envy I have for USians who’ve moved over there; I can imagine the shock after Brexit passed, because I felt the same ice-in-the-veins horror here when Trump won in ’16.
I’d love to know more about the everyday of a Yank living in the UK. Are you familiar with a YouTube channel called “Lost in the Pond”? Lawrence Brown is a Brit who moved to the US 16 years ago, and his YT is all about the differences and similarities between the two countries. He took the old adage that the UK and the US are two nations “divided by a common language” and ran with it, so a lot of his content focuses on language. It would be fun if you could, when you feel like it, do the reverse of what he does, what differences in language, everyday living, cultural assumptions, etc., stand out to you.
Delighted to have you here!
Tom Levenson
Welcome. And fascinating (and depressing) re UK citizenship. I’ve thought off and on about getting a UK passport (my mum was a subject of the crown when I was born) and held off after Brexit for the reasons you state. Still thinking about it, now with more English on the ball, as it were.
Sweet Jeebus but the Malverns are gorgeous. I have only spent time in their southern neighbors, the Cotswolds. Must get up your way sometime.
Rose Judson
@Marcia Murchio:
Yes, this is the other thing that bothers me! I don’t like the whole monarchy wheeze, especially now that it’s passed to Chuck and Wills.
BritinChicago
Welcome! I made the opposite move: I was born in the UK and lived there until after college, then came to the US. In spite of a couple of years in the UK I’ve never managed to make a permanent move back. I’m also a former Chicagoan—I lived there for 28 years, the longest I’ve lived I’ve lived anywhere. (By a very wide margin, if you don’t count the first 18 years of my life.) Now I live in Boston but still miss Chicago and sometime—now I’m pretty much retired—think about moving back there. (I even think about moving back to the UK occasionally, but I know it would not really be moving back because it’s changed so much, much of it for the worse. You can’t go home again, because home is not what it was.)
rikyrah
Republicans trying to take away married women’s right to vote 😡😡😡 https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8dqaXfD/
NeenerNeener
Welcome, R-Jud! One of my nieces also graduated from the “Other Ithaca college”. Much to her parents dismay she decided to stay in Ithaca after she graduated.
Hildebrand
Nice to see you move to the Front Page! Looking forward to everything you bring to this community.
trollhattan
If Donald Trump were to reverse immigrant citizenship his mother would revert to Scottish and his anchor baby status is nullified?
Conflicted.
And welcome! Given you’ve never left I trust my intent makes sense. And yeah, will wait for the Tales of the Haunted B&B. Halloween is coming.
becca
Now that we’re friends and all, can I come visit? After having memorized every episode of Midsomer Murders and Father Brown, I feel I have a solid grasp of language and culture and English police procedures to fit right in.
Sleep on it. Just give it a thought and in the meantime, I look forward to your posts!
Rose Judson
@CaseyL: Thank you! I will eventually talk about some of my NHS experiences (mostly exceptionally good, and that’s even when you set aside the fact that it’s free at the point of service).
I think one of my favo(u)rite discoveries was public footpaths and the right to roam. You can explore so much more of the countryside (or even just cut across fields on your way home from the train station or whatever) thanks to public access paths across many different types of private property.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for US?
So you ARE the Rose Judson that does the Books of All Time podcast! I’m a listener. My mom grew up in Northeast PA – near Pottsville and Millersburg. I got the Malvern Hills confused with the Chiltern – I just read Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising to my kid and for a second thought you were where that book takes place. But that’s Buckinghamshire not Worcestershire. Welcome aboard the front page.
I too discovered this blog through Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish circa roughly 2005…I never agreed with Sullivan on much other than the Iraq torture stuff, but read him a bit during that era and found this blog, which I much more thoroughly agree with, through him. His politics are pretty awful but he was an innovator in political blogging, and relatively high profile, so imagine a lot of people who migrated to other politics blogs discovered his first even if they weren’t political fellow travelers with him.
TS
Welcome from an Australian who loved her time in the UK, which was much too short. My grandbabe – no longer a babe – just received a children’s python for her birthday – grandfather is impressed – the nana, not so much. I’ve discovered this is not as unique as I thought. She also has a cat – neither animal shows any interest in the other, which is no doubt a blessing. I had concerns about one eating the other (no idea which way that would go).
Yarrow
@rikyrah: It applies to women who change their name after marriage. Women are stuck dealing with all the crap if they get divorced. I advise women not to change their name when they get married for this reason. Keep your name the same if you can.
rikyrah
Welcome to.BJ.
I hope that you, and all the expats, exercise your right to vote.
UOCAVA -Military and Overseas Voting
BEGAN YESTERDAY.
Check with your local US voting jurisdiction.
You might be Able to get the ballot sent to you via email
Of course, the ballot has to be sent back via MAIL, OR FEDEX OR DHL.
BY FEDERAL LAW, you are allowed to use the last address that you had in the USA as your voting jurisdiction. And, your children can too
FastEdD
Greetings Rose, from Barking Spiders Studios!
Anoniminous
@rikyrah:
WHAT????????
Are those morons trying to lose?
BretH
Thank you!
https://tlotrgifs.tumblr.com/post/729540509176135680
trollhattan
@TS: “a children’s python”
[raises hand] I have a question….
Starfish
Thank you for talking the time to do this.
twbrandt
Welcome, and I look forward to reading you here on Balloon Juice!
Other Other Other John
Hey, welcome!
Betty Cracker
So glad you’re here!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Marcia Murchio: I have a niece in London who appears to be making it a permanent residence. Not sure about citizenship though. She and her siblings already have dual US-Finnish citizenship.
Being a lifelong sci-fi fan, the idea that we would eventually move to a planetary government just seemed natural to me. I’ve always been puzzled that “one world government” was held up in certain circles as a bogeyman. I could never figure out what’s supposed to be bad about that. But these are the same people who think “a taco truck on every corner” is a bad thing.
@Rose: I’m with my fellow Pennsylvanian TBone at #3. I need to know more about this haunted B & B. Welcome to the front page!
Elizabelle
Thrilled you are here, Rose.
@TS: My Gawd. They do starter pythons?
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: And you!
laura
Welcome to the front page. Regarding the corn snake, a couple few years ago, there was a short graphic article in the New Yorker in which the author was driving on a lonesome rural highway and saw something on the road bed ahead and pulled over to investigate. It was a chilly little corn snake, curled up trying to stay warm. She gathered the snake and drove on. The snake, warming in the car, became curious and did a gentle exploration of the driver and kind of coiled on the sleeve and watch the road ahead as they drove on into the night. After a while, and coming upon more habitable conditions, the driver pulled over and said a farewell and goodbye to the snake and it went off in search of what corn snakes seek.
I hadn’t been a snake person per se, but it was a lovely and lasting story, beautifully illustrated, and a complete arc of experience and connection. If I can track it down, I’ll try and link.
Rose Judson
@rikyrah: Yes! I’ll be front-paging that later this week as an open thread to make sure other expat readers see it.
Just confirmed with our local Dems Abroad chair that we’ll be doing a US expat voter outreach event next weekend, too.
Baud
Oh wow, do you know Tony Jay?
zhena gogolia
@becca: I have never set foot in England, but thanks to Austen, the Brontës, Dickens, Thackeray, Inspector Morse, Father Brown, Inspector Lewis, etc., etc., etc., I too am one of the greatest experts on the country.
Welcome, Rose! Looking forward to your posts.
frosty
Both my sons are naturalized Americans; adopted from South America, so yeah, this immigrant-hating and denaturalization hit too close to home. Fuck these guys.
lurker-pedantic
Haven’t posted a comment for years, but this cannot stand: the description of England as a “green and pleasant land” is not Shakespeare’s, but William Blake’s, from the poem (and subsequently hymn) “Jerusalem” (“and did those feet in ancient times,” etc.).
Oh, and forza Harris-Walz!
Joy in FL
Welcome to Balloon Juice. I enjoyed your soft intro yesterday (or was it Thursday? Time is weird) and this post today. Thank you for adding your presence to the front page.
Around 2005 someone recommended Andrew Sullivan and also Balloon Juice. I’m still here at Balloon Juice.
TS
@Elizabelle:
They are actually the smallest of the pythons, which does nothing for my sensibilities, but probably means they need less mices to feed to same!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_python
eclare
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for US?:
I also got here through Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish. I loved the View From Your Window contest.
BR
@rikyrah:
Please keep posting about this story — it’s huge. Because we know pastor Johnson is going to make a big fuss about the bill and the looming shutdown and the media will happily be the choir unless there’s a counternarrative.
Central Planning
So just to clarify “I currently live with a devastatingly handsome tuxedo cat named Monty (short for Montresor; image left). The Child and I also co-parent her pet corn snake, Cornflake.”
Does Monty have the pet snake, or does The Child?
Anoniminous
Welcome!
TBone
Here’s a classic!
The Mash Report (British version of The Daily Show) 😆
https://x.com/ShitzN_Giggles/status/1816124006807863691
Kristine
Welcome!
I also want to hear about the haunted B&B.
I forgot how I wound up here. Maybe via Kos? I read all the old sites in the mid-’00s: FDL, Eschaton, the site that became Progress Pond. Could’ve been any of them.
eclare
Welcome! I moved to London in 1996 with a Leave to Remain of five years, and I lasted six months. A big part was that I was recruited for a job in London, but then I was switched to a suburban office with a horrible train/walk commute from London, but I also just missed the US.
I’m curious as to how you were able to assimilate.
Thedeadcanary
Expat from France here, just got my ballot via email. There are a LOT of us overseas. So excited to send in my vote for Kamala.
citizen dave
Welcome R-Jud. I agree about the looming government shutdown. It’s totally on the Repulican House. If it happens I hope one of the prominent Democrats (obviously not the top two on the ticket) gives us a proper rage against the assholes speech, in a Congressional session or even outside of one. I am so sick of all the idiots that apparently are on board with all the bullshit in front of us. It is unbelievable to me, like a dream.
P.S. I checked my voter registration yesterday just for kicks–still there. Actually was surprised how helpful the R-run state site is. I can vote starting Oct. 23.
TBone
I can’t find the specific Jonathan Pie video that hooked me (it was at the very beginning of the pandemic and included the word “bogroll”). Any how, I am a HUGE fan and wonder if you like him too, Rose. He’s got me through some rough seas.
A few examples:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QS7kUqKeg_0
https://youtu.be/m5aWtcx02ZI
Also too
https://youtu.be/aYMy2qdNPF0
oldster
Welcome, Rose Judson!
“England’s green and pleasant land” —
I think that’s Blake, from “New Jerusalem,” rather than Shakespeare:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_did_those_feet_in_ancient_time#%22Green_and_pleasant_land%22
Thanks for your thoughts about citizenship, and your support for the important work of 2024.
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah: FWIW, this also affects trans people who haven’t been able to get their legal ID and birth certificate revised to match. Which takes money that not all trans people are able to afford.
There’s also still a couple Red States where Republicans ban being able to update your birth certificate, which was done specially to target trans people. Not just voting, but preventing trans people from getting legal ID that matches their true gender, outing trans people due to ID mismatches between state/federal documents, etc.
E.
@oldster: A great poem that for more than a century has been read by patriotic Brits 180 degrees wrong.
Rose Judson
@Central Planning: The Child!
Sister Golden Bear
Welcome Rose! I also discovered BJ via Andrew Sullivan back in the mists of time, when Cole was a “conservative who hasn’t lost his mind and seemed sane enough to read for a contrary view.”
Scout211
Welcome, Rose! It’s great to have a new front pager. I look forward to your contributions.
I tried that for a few years but when my daughter was born, it was a huge pain. It also felt awful to have a different last name from the rest of my family (husband, stepkids and kid). So I added my husband’s last name as my last name but I replaced my original middle name with my original last name. Most of my government documents use both last names so that helps, too.
In fact, it has worked so well for me that both of my daughters did the same when they married.
It’s not quite as good as keeping your original last name but has always worked well for me for identification purposes.
Rose Judson
@oldster: You (and lurker-pedantic above) are correct! I mixed up my Williams. Edited the main post.
Jackie
@Anoniminous: I posted about this on the earlier thread, but here’s a link that details how the GQP SAVE Act they’re trying to get passed for TCFG will definitely effect married women, who took their husband’s name, ability to vote in federal elections. Be prepared for your blood pressure to boil!
https://newrepublic.com/article/186160/republican-war-women-extends-voting-rights
MargyJ
Welcome, Rose!
I’ve really enjoyed your books podcast and am happy to have your voice here. As U.S. citizen who has lived outside the country for about 20 years now (in Central America), I look forward to reading more from the transplant abroad perspective. Thanks to Democrats Abroad and FPCA.GOV, my absentee ballot is on its way for
The conversation about naturalization and citizenship connects for me with what has been happening in Nicaragua, which is the government’s systematic use of stripping political opponents of their citizenship. The first case I remember was about 10 years ago, when an Italian-born immigrant to Nicaragua who became a citizen in the 80s and who was an active supporter of the revolution, had his citizenship revoked and was deported back to Italy after participating in opposition protests.
In the last 2 years, hundreds of Nicaraguan political prisoners have been released directly into exile (222 put on a plane to the US last year, and another 170+ dropped off in Guatemala just last month) and had their citizenship cancelled. These are not naturalized citizens, but native born. In addition to the pain of being separated from their family and homeland, the stripping of their citizenship means all their property, pensions, and other accumulated assets and citizen benefits are completely wiped out. They are stateless unless and until another country offers to naturalize them.
To me it’s a reminder that these Project 2025 ideas that may seem farfetched in the U.S. context can and do happen in other parts of the world, not even that far away. Shameful that one of our 2 major political parties sees this as a model to follow.
Sister Golden Bear
@Betty Cracker: Just a heads-up, my alma mater will be in
TallasseeCallassee this evening to have our defense seize Florida State’s means of offense production.Open polycue enrollments will be available during the tailgate, and I hope you enjoy our half-time DEI workshop. We will begin converting
DoakWoke Campbell Stadium into friendly communal housing immediately after the final whistle.SomeRandomGuy
I thought that was per Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. My bad.
(What? They do this song, see, I guess it must be pretty famous, having been recorded by ELP, and… WHAT?)
rikyrah
@Thedeadcanary:
Yeah 👍🏾
Baud
Apparently, Andrew Sullivan was good for only one thing–bringing people to Balloon Juice.
rikyrah
Jennifer Taylor-Skinner (@JTaylorSkinner) posted at 6:03 PM on Fri, Sep 20, 2024:
I keep thinking about this moment between Harris and Oprah — “A veil dropped, and you stepped into your power.” We ALL felt this, and leave to Oprah to articulate what we’ve all been feeling & witnessing. https://t.co/vsdPg0ZPJ0
(https://x.com/JTaylorSkinner/status/1837266381362057566?t=djRg6rr61EmB8TbszJDUpg&s=03)
BR
I was thinking a lot about a question Trevor Noah asked Barack Obama years ago — “why do Democrats always need you to come and be the “closer” at the end of the campaign?” It really was true for every election post 2012. And I’m sure Obama will help this year, but it’s different.
I feel like for the first time since Obama we have in Harris a candidate who is “warm” in equal measure to Obama’s “cool” (the positive versions of both of those). And Tim Walz just adds to the “warm” package (Harris knew what she was doing when she picked Walz).
Baud
England and UK generally has been lovely each time I’ve visited.
rikyrah
@Sister Golden Bear:
The birth certificate also affects Elder Blacks in the South. I mean, my older sister was born in my Grandmother’s house in Mississippi with a midwife. Which is the story for those not allowed in Whites-only hospitals.
But, another example of how Jim Crow can affect their lives even today.😡😡
Another Scott
Back from the pub already??
Welcome again. Enjoying your stuff. Keep it coming.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott: She never left.
Rose, here’s some hopium to welcome you aboard, via reddit.
Sister Golden Bear
@Baud: Two things: Also worthwhile was the “View from my window” contest, where readers were asked to identify where the photo was taken, down to the specific location of where the photographer was. I was amazed how someone invariably solved them, no matter how obscure the location. Only managed to identify a couple places myself.
trollhattan
Because we’re kinda talking things UK, BBC decides to mimic the worst tendencies of American newsmedia and goes on a North Carolina Cletus Roundup. Boy do I hate this newfound clickbait toy.
Decade+ of Tory rule has rotted things, but they should still know better. What’s next, “We invited these dozen ‘undecided voters’ in for tea and conversation”?
SomeRandomGuy
@Baud: “He may not be very pretty now, but he was someone’s baby once.”
“But this is Andrew Sullivan.”
“He may not be very pretty now, but he spawned from a galaxy-sized amoeba, in a blob that wasn’t exactly attractive, but , if *you* were a galaxy sized amoeba….”
eclare
@rikyrah:
That was insightful, thank you.
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah: Yes, and I’m sure that’s no accident.
Baud
@trollhattan:
I cut BBC some slack. These are the direct descendents of the original English colonists.
Another Scott
@Scout211: A former colleague and his wife kept their different last names on marriage. They later adopted twin girls from a foreign land and gave them last names that were a mixture of their (the parents’) last names. Like Smith + Johnson -> Smithson (fake example). I always wondered if that caused the kids issues later, but I hope that instead it made them feel even more wanted, special, and loved.
The monsters want to do so much damage… Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
Welcome back! When you have deigned to comment, you have always been one of my favorites* so I am thrilled to bits to see you on the front page. Also, thanks for the reminder to read the first couple of chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring tomorrow.
*We started here around the same time. I wonder if there is a class year affinity group like there is in school. Shared blog experiences and all that?
Betty Cracker
@Sister Golden Bear: Go Bruins! (FWIW, I’d root for the Taliban if they were playing Florida State…)
BR
Walz rally in Bethlehem, PA live right now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y-1zK4jzYE
Denali5
@Rose,
Welcome. It will be great to have the perspective of an ex-pat. I have a son who lives in Hungary with his partner and two daughters. Needless to say, the politics there are interesting. So we worry about the future. But his life is working there so far.
pacem appellant
Greetings! Your “The Child” and my “The Child” are nearly the same age (and mine shares a birthday with their second cousin, offset by one year!). Like you, there are no photos of The Child on the Internet. First at our behest, and now at theirs.
I’m a writer, too. My book is on sub (fingers crossed emoji).
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
My cousin who went to Ole Miss said that he would pull for the Al Qaeda All Stars vs LSU.
pacem appellant
@Betty Cracker: Nope! GO BEARS! The Bruins are the mascot of our little sister campus down in Southern California.
Omnes Omnibus
In WI political news, Deb Haaland is visiting Eau Claire and Rhinelander today. This a great idea. Eau Claire is close to the Tribal headquarters of the Ho-Chunk Nation and Rhinelander is convenient for people of the Chippewa, Potawatomi, Oneida, and Menominee Nations.
TBone
@BR: thanks!
PAM Dirac
@Yarrow:
When we got married 35 years ago my wife kept her last name. Caused just a bit of problems in the early years, mostly with the IRS. We filed jointly, but the IRS computers couldn’t handle married filing jointly with different last names, so it changed her last name to mine. Then we would get a notice that her SS number didn’t match her name. Yes, because you didn’t use the name we put on the form. That went on for 5-6 years.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
@eclare:
With all the craziness of conference realignments these days, you might get the chance to root for the Taliban and al Qaeda soon enough.
Sister Golden Bear
@Betty Cracker: “Bruins” are the University of California, Lower Achievers down in LA, but Supreme Leader Chairman Oski appreciates the spirit of your remarks.
wjca
Heck, I’d even root (quietly) for Stanford.
knally
Lovely to see a view of the Malverns, one of my favourite walks. I’m in the vicinity next week for the Autumn Show.
It’ll be interesting to read your posts on the election with an American view from this side of the pond although you don’t have to stick to only that theme!
Queen of Lurkers
@eclare: Same here — that is, got to BJ from The Daily Dish. Disagreed with Andrew Sullivan on many issues, but in the Obama years, admired the range of this posts. And absolutely loved View from My Window.
rikyrah
Kenny BooYah! 🖖🏾 (@KwikWarren) posted at 10:38 AM on Sat, Sep 21, 2024:
Stacey Abrams getting so close to getting elected Governor scared the hell outta these crooks in Georgia…and then when Ossoff and Warnock got elected to US Senate, that was just waaaay more than they could handle. Hence all of this current, desperate bullshit.
(https://x.com/KwikWarren/status/1837516853364555910?t=6WKTp5sOAHnN5P85UGr8jA&s=03)
Baud
Via reddit, a singer of a band I don’t listen to is good people.
BR
I’m finding it interesting that there’s an oil and gas analyst dude (I think from Alabama) who has been debunking all the oil / energy related nonsense coming from the GOP side. Here’s one of his latest:
https://www.tiktok.com/@mrglobaltoo/video/7415748279465512223
wjca
I always feel like we should cut UCLA some slack. Stanford, for all it’s shortcomings, is at least a decent (not great, of course, but decent) academic institution. But all UCLA has for competition is the University of Spoiled Children.
Sister Golden Bear
@wjca: <whispers> Same.
Sure Lurkalot
I ostensibly could apply for British citizenship based on my father’s birth there in November 1919. But that would be near impossible to prove since my grandparents emigrated to the US in 1920 when he was 3 months old and I have no documents. It was attractive to me during the Bush the younger years…but less after Brexit, the harbinger of our Trump nightmare.
My father had a business opportunity in London when I was a kid living in Long Island in the 60’s. My siblings and I all wanted to go (my parents were vacation adverse so we’d never been anywhere “different” or on a plane) but my mother was dead set against it. So, I was 50 before I set foot in the country of some of my ancestors. London was my very least favorite part of the trip (the sights and the museums were fabulous but the hustle and classism a turn off) but it’s a big small country and the areas around Bath were stunning (after which we escaped to Brecon in Wales).
So with these tenuous connections and my fondness for Books of All Time, I’m excited to read your posts.
Sister Golden Bear
@wjca: True on both counts.
Sadly, I live in the heart of ‘Furd territory. Need to find a sports bar to watch the game that’s not overrun with them.
eclare
@Baud:
Plus I hear the Taliban now has a directional school, Taliban North, in Alaska.
Anoniminous
More hopium
Harris and her campaign have managed to wrest a decades long Republicans key strength away and turned it into a toss up.
That’s huge.
Yarrow
@Scout211:
That’s all well and good if you only use your first name as your name. For married women who use both names, like someone called Mary Anne, for instance, they lose the “Anne” if they replace their middle name. Or, they may use their middle name as their name – like they’re Mary Anne Smith, but they go by Anne Smith. If they put their original last name as their middle name, then where is “Anne,” the name everyone knows them by?
Those are only a few of the issues. Long names, already hyphenated names, different cultural traditions with names – they all bring different challenges. Plus, if you’re outside the usual government entities and you move into something like having to deal with immigration you’re in a whole new place with names. It’s so much easier not to have the additional paperwork challenges related to name changes, especially if those changes, and documentation, are from a different country.
Sister Golden Bear
BTW, with all the Republican sex scandals yesterday, there was yet another one. A right wing Texas activist who has been vilifying LGBTQ+ people and attacking public schools just got exposed for having allegedly done gay porn. Numerous times, including one set in… a school. (Mostly SFW link.)
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear:
Job’s a job.
Another Scott
@Sure Lurkalot:
Same.
Dad worked for Grumman for a few years when I was smol before we moved south so he could work on the C-5 at Lockheed.
We are mighty!!
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
pacem appellant
@Sister Golden Bear: ditto regarding the home. But that’s okay. All my neighbors are Cal.
Gvg
@Scout211: That is actually the traditional naming convention. The maiden name becomes like the middle name and the actual middle name becomes silent. Mrs. Mary Maidenname Marriedname. My mother and women before her did it. I think Miss Manners talked about it back in the day.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sister Golden Bear: Hey, at least this one has some experience with the subject matter.
TBone
Was watching Rachel Maddow last night, this is good ICYMI
https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/rachel-maddow-highlights-republicans-embrace-antisemitism
From Russia with Lev was good too, I kept switching over to Dr. Strangelove during the commercial breaks. Surreal.
And it’s not even October yet.
J.
Welcome, Rose! I look forward to reading your posts.
Sure Lurkalot
@Anoniminous:
The Republican “key strength on the economy” has been total bullshit for as long as I’ve been a voter (also decades long) and most especially after FTFRonaldReagan. It’s patent proof that facts don’t matter to a lazy populace when there’s a spin machine whirring. I often think how it would be if the purloined wealth of our fucked up billionaires was more fairly distributed among the population.
KM in NS
Late to the party, as usual. (Waves) Expat from The South, living in Canada for over 1/2 my life. I was conflicted about becoming a dually but took the plunge so I could vote. Took me aloooong time to tell my parents…
Suzanne
Welcome welcome welcome. I am eager to hear your perspectives.
Gvg
@Baud: I also migrated from there. His commenters were nice people. He lost me when he could not learn after many many personal stories from women about why abortion had to be an option, that medical facts were just not simple political or moral choices. He could not learn anything. I never commented there, just read. This place was nicer from the start.
Baud
@Sure Lurkalot:
Agreed. Also, national security.
Asparagus Aspersions
How lovely to see you on the front page! I’ve been lurking here for many years, with the extremely occasional comment thrown in.
It was really interesting reading about your background and the question of dual citizenship. I moved to France rom the US more than 15 years ago, and took the plunge of applying for citizenship in 2021, so I’m now the happy holder of two passports.
For me, it was partly because of practicality (no more visits to the prefecture to renew my residency card), and partly because I finally accepted that I’ve settled here. I arrived in my 20s to do a graduate degree, and figured I’d try to stick around for an extra year or two, if I liked it. And somehow the years just kept going, and I found a husband (another immigrant, though not American) and had a kid and realized that my life was now in France, so I might as well make it official.
That meant I got to vote in three elections this year! The EU ones, and then the totally unexpected legislatives when Macron got mad that everyone hates him, and dissolved parliament. But that’s a topic for another day.
Very much looking forward to reading you!
Baud
@Suzanne:
Agreed. As long as they echo my own.
La Nonna
Democrats Abroad are very active in Italy, has been really helpful in getting our ballots (by email this cycle from rural NY state). We’ve just finished filling out our ballots and are preparing to courier tham back on Monday morning…you think DeJoy is hard on a postal service., gah, we don’t mail anything from here if we need it to arrive. In boca al lupo!
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: The BBC assured me, several weeks ago, that Kamala Harris is very unpopular.
I fear they hang out too much with Republicans, much like our own MSM, but they do have some great content, if you steer away from the political.
I landed at BBC during the terrible period where all the US MSM was fucking hysterical about Biden‘s debate performance. I just could not read American news sites. (I guess it’s the Katty Kay enshitification of news??)
Steve in the ATL
My favorite song from West Midlands!
Gvg
@rikyrah: all calls for ID are intended to hurt older black Americans. They also hurt the poor, the homeless and mentally challenged.
Young minority kids need to be taught to hoard their ID documents and not pass up chances at having them so as to make this kind of attack less productive in the future. At some point there won’t actually be that many of the elders without ID left. When we get near that point, I’d like to see if we can rub it in and make this attack go away.
There are organizations which specialize in helping the older black citizens get their documents and proof of birth together. Or at least they’re used to be. Sometimes finding midwife’s or birth registrars and getting birth certificates issued…it may be too late now but I read about it not too long ago…well I am old myself now.
Anoniminous
@Sure Lurkalot:
Neo-Liberal agenda, aka “The Washington Consensus, aka “Trickle Down Economics,” was the decades long process of transferring wealth from the producers of wealth to the 1%.
Those of us who decried the policy and warned of the consequences were deemed ignorant DFH pinko-commie Bolsheviks from Redsville-on-the-Volga and out of step with the “Era of Big Government Is Over” Nu Labour/Clinton Democratic Party rhetoric.
Scout211
@Gvg: I didn’t know that. But my mother married my father in 1949 and she used her original last name as her middle name 70+ years ago. It was easy for her to do because she didn’t have a middle name from birth, but it still seemed unconventional at the time.
It did make it easier for her to access the trust that her father left her when he died. He died when she was five but she didn’t have access until she was 35. But having her original name, even as a middle name, made official identification easier.
Msb
@rikyrah: wish this was new. TX already demands that any woman wishing to vote have the same name on the ID she is using as the one under which she wants to vote. Lots of divorced women have different names on their drivers’ licenses from the ones they are using.
Goons.
cain
@Tom Levenson:
My wife when she gets into one her moods wants to leave the U.S. and live in Ireland. I have no problems moving to Ireland. Lived there for a summer back in the 90s.
But it’s definitely a change of scenery. Right now she is happy doing the associate principal role and helping the students as best as she can. They district couldn’t believe their luck. Usually districts with poorer populations don’t get the best talent since those other districts pay so much better.
So moving for now!
Msb
@Rose Judson: excellent! Turnout among overseas civilian voters is abysmal: nearly 8% in 2020 and half that in 2022. For all that expats shout about the US government’s collateral damage to them (e.g. FATCA provisions), lawmakers won’t listen unless we can affect their ability to keep their jobs.
What I say to every expat I know (in addition to the above) is, “as soon as you wake up, or sober up, on New Year’s Day, go to your computer and register to vote.” I usually recommend the FVAP and US Vote Foundation websites, as they are nonpartisan, but Vote from Abroad is very good, too.
if you would like help on overseas voting pieces, give me a shout. And, welcome!
feebog
Welcome Rose. Been hanging around this joint about the same time as you. Glad to see we are adding new talent and fresh perspectives.
Scout211
Yes, it did work for me but I do understand that it won’t work for everyone.
eclare
@Steve in the ATL:
That’s nice, never heard of The Proctors. Very 80’s sound.
Msb
@Sister Golden Bear: me, too.
eclare
@Scout211:
I did that when I got married in 2006, lost my original middle name and took maiden name as my middle. I thought that was what everyone did.
Then I switched it all back three years later when we broke up.
Origuy
@cain: I replied to your question of a day or so ago about helping some Afghan refugees. I live near Fremont, California, which has the largest Afghan community in North America, so I searched for resources there. I think most of them are only for locals, but I found the Afghan Coalition, which appears to be national.
Betty
@BR: He is so good at this. Encouraging to hear one of the biggest cheers for banning assault weapons.
TBone
It’s ON! 23 October 2024
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/21/politics/presidential-debate-harris-trump-cnn/index.html
Narrator: there will be a chickenshit problem.
hitchhiker
Please tell The Child that I already find her amusing, and look forward to more of her dry humor.
Also, welcome to you! Looking forward to your whatever your unique perspective brings to our messy table.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, a story in 2 toots.
I think DoB is probably a Harris-Walz voter.
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Rusty
Welcome to the front page! Your story really resonates. For my job at the time, we were expats just outside of London from 2005-2009. Our youngest was born at High Wycombe hospital, a few weeks after Obama’s election. I remember vividly trying to get a passport photo of an infant, holding his head up, so we could go to the US embassy to get his US birth certificate and US passport. Since as parents we are both only US citizens, and our visa status was for definite leave to remain instead of indefinite leave to remain, (you have to love the UK terms) there was no possibility of UK citizenship. We were active in Democrats Abroad during our time there, and a friend that was on the board even got us tickets to the party at the US embassy on election night to celebrate the returns. My wife was very pregnant, but we didn’t want to miss the chance and we stayed laong enough to be sure of Obama’s victory (given the time difference it was still very late). I’m looking forward to your insight and your story brought back really good memories. Thank you for being willing to share your time and thoughts with us all.
kalakal
@E.:
It means different things to different groups, it was the hymn of the Suffragettes and, along with The Red Flag is always sung at the closing of Labour Party conferences. To many it’s seen as the greatest Socialist hymn, to the knuckle draggers it’s the equivalent of a MAGA hymn. It always wins the vote for when/if we ever get around to having a national anthem. I have to say I think it’s magnificent and a truly moving experience is hearing it sung at Twickenham before a Rugby match
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: Let the whining, bitching, and moaning commence.
Lynn Dee
@rikyrah: Agree. We did all feel this. And Harris’s response to that was perfect too. When pressed by Oprah as to whether she felt she’d stepped into her power, she didn’t agree or disagree but just smiled and let what happened (and how it might be perceived) speak for itself — and then went an important (imo) step further to say she felt a sense of responsibility. I loved that. She took what could’ve been an image of her stepping into her power and made it about service and the job before her. Her political instincts are just unerring.
TBone
@Another Scott: 😆
NutmegAgain
Welcome! nice to meet you. Great to have your voice here. My kid is an expat (10+ years in northern Germany) so I love learning about things from the expat perspective.
hitchhiker
@eclare: I’ve been married to mr h. for 38 years, and have never used his last name. Our two daughters grew up with his last name, and never seemed confused about why I kept mine. They’ve both been married for a while now, and one of them kept her dad’s name, while the other took her husband’s. The grandkids all have their paternal grandfathers’ last names.
The only people who have ever given so much as a raised eyebrow about me not having mr h’s last name are my own parents, who were unable to resist using it to address their infrequent packages mailed to me. Maybe they thought the mail carrier would be confused?
After I published my first book, someone introduced mr h by my last name, which was pretty funny. I’ve been interested in this question whenever it comes up, because there do seem to be a lot of women for whom it was the easier/less-of-a-hassle choice to switch.
kalakal
*except for the order in which they which they write dates, the US just does it wrong
Jackie
@TBone: Curious to see if DonOLD will bite 😁
We’re not even sure if JV has the courage to actually debate Walz!
columbusqueen
@H.E.Wolf: Yes, indeed. November 5th is also my 13th wedding anniversary, so I’d like beating the Orange Shitgibbon as a gift.
Welcome, Rose. Looking forward to hearing from you. I’ve often wondered what living in England would be like after visiting twice. Guess you can tell me!
eclare
@TBone:
Yep!
scav
The’re going to steal their own wives vote while making the single cat lady lifestyle all the more attractive for some sort of short term gain. Because I very much doubt they’ll be pleased with the whole social evolution that’ll follow these grand gestures.
Donatellonerd
I’m an expat in Paris, I’ve been here 40 years next week. dual citizenship on the grounds that as an American I believe strongly in no taxation without representation. so yes, i vote in both countries, as does my 28-year old daughter (whose citizenship was a pain to acquire from the US because they wanted the names of her birth parents on the birth certificate, which France — just like all the US states i’ve ever heard of — does not do. They said, have the official write us a letter saying they don’t do it. I still can’t believe that my husband convinced somewhat at the Mairie to do that. She’d still be in the UK (did B. Mus and MA in London), except for Brexit. Anyway, glad to have more expats here. We requested our ballots online yesterday …
Anastasio Beaverhausen
Another expat here weighing in. My brother, the late Steeplejack, may have mentioned I had intentions to move with my family to England. I was born there when our father was stationed at the air base in Ruislip, and at that time the UK had birthright citizenship. So I have dual citizenship and have had two passports for decades. For many reasons, my Brazilian husband and I moved here with our two kids on August 1. I might talk about initial impressions later (almost all good) but for now I want to bring up a voting issue. When we planned to leave Virginia our accountant told us we would still be paying Virginia state income tax. Sort of a “tag your it” thing. We did some research and came across South Dakota’s rather aggressive come on for expats and full time traveler’s. It sounded almost too good to be true. So after staying at a hotel in Sioux Falls for literally one night, and going to the DMV the next morning, we had SD licenses! And of course because it’s a motor voter state I registered. Or thought I did. About two weeks later the county administrator said to be a registered voter you have to be a resident for 30 days. Whether that means physically residing in the state is not clear. I was contacted by our mail forwarding company that several hundred of their customers were probably in the same boat. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? I gave an interview to a reporter from Sioux Falls and he said the law was probably not constitutional but until there’s a lawsuit that’s the way it is. SD wants those residents-in-name-only, for that sweet, sweet govmint money, but God forbid those woke, educated, coastal elite liberals should actually vote! Oh, and one of the ways you “break” with your former state is to de-register to vote, which we did. :(
Momentary
I’m glad to see you on the front page!
I also am a USA-born ex-pat in the UK but I am a dual citizen of 10+ years and prefer to identify as an immigrant, and in particular an immigrant to Wales. I find a lot of the BJ discourse about the UK frustrating and look forward to your posts offering some more diversity of perspective. I find Wales very culturally different from England, and Shropshire very different from London, and Birmingham/Brummies different again, those being the regions I have the most direct experience of.
VeniceRiley
Hello from 2+ years living in Suffolk!
I kept my name, mostly because coming over was so delayed by the pandemic that we didn’t want to delay applying even more by getting new documents and passport and everything that all entails.
What I have noticed over here is that “Ms.” is NOT a thing. And it’s nigh impossible for married lesbians to be both listed as Mrs. on a bill. It’s always Mrs. and Miss. *Eyeroll
In a few months, I’ll have a visa extension application to put in. *Sigh
What I love is all the open green space, and all the places where you can take your dog in. Blows my mind.
Setting off for the Canaries on my first holiday in mid October. Feel like a proper Englishwoman now. I can make my own tacos, thank you. And I found real pizza recently!
Ivan X
Yay a new voice! Let’s treat you well here.
@mistermix.bsky.social
Welcome! Glad to have a new writer here!
eclare
@hitchhiker:
Yeah, looking back on the name switch, I guess I did it because that’s what everyone around me did. Stupid reason, but there you go. These days my attitude is if this is what you say your name is (same with pronouns), then that’s what I use. And then I mind my own damn business.
Ruckus
@BritinChicago:
You can’t go home again, because home is not what it was.
It really never is.
It’s humanity, in All it’s ups and ALL it’s downs. It can be great and horrible in the same minute. It’s time, which doesn’t repeat, other than what the clock says. We are human (most of us….) we are born, raised, reach adulthood and prosper or not. Sometimes that prospering or not is our fault/effort, sometimes it’s the world finding a place for us, good, bad or both. It’s life, it can be great it can be far less than. Some live 6 months, some live 100+ years, and every day in between. It’s life, it’s what we make of it and what it makes of us.
Mark’s Bubbie
Coulda sworn “green and pleasant land” is from Going Down to Liverpool by Katrina and the Waves and later on by the Bangles. Anyhoo…
I also went to college “upstate” — Binghamton in my case. Did lots of camping in Ithaca back in the day. As the bumper sticker says, “Ithaca is Gorges.”
eclare
@Donatellonerd:
Really? Some states do not require parents’ names on birth certificates? Mine has both names, born in TN.
Steve in the ATL
@lurker-pedantic: I’m pretty sure that phrase came from the song “going down to Liverpool” but whatever!
eclare
@Anastasio Beaverhausen:
Does that mean that you can’t vote in the election? That would be awful! I’ve been wondering how you were, good to see you.
Lynn Dee
@Rose Judson:
The public footpaths and “right to roam” sound wonderful. The very idea captures the imagination!
dr. luba
Since 2008? Welcome, newbie……
I am the child of immigrants/refugees. They were here legally, but, per my mom, did not become citizens until after I was born. So the MAGA right would not consider me a natural born citizen, I assume, or even a citizen.
Fuck’em all.
Immigration built our country, and makes it stronger, not weaker. If not for immigrants, or their offspring, the US would not lead the world in Nobel prizes. Or pretty much anything. Except maybe meth production, mullets and crappy modern country music.
I would be happy to kick out a few immigrant billionaires, though…….especially those most keen on apartheid.
Rose Judson
@kalakal: Day, Month, Year just makes sense: you’re going in order from smallest time unit to largest.
What I can’t wrap my head around is temperatures in Celsius, even after spending almost half my life here.
Thank you all for the warm welcome!
eclare
@VeniceRiley:
Take photos for On the Road! The Canaries have always fascinated me, I don’t know why.
Anastasio Beaverhausen
@eclare: I think not. I’m working on another application in SD, but we’ll see. Really makes me mad! I haven’t missed an election since I became eligible, even the off year and local stuff.
Redshift
Welcome, Rose!
BR
It drives me crazy to have protestors shouting constantly during Walz’s speech.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Rely on World Service radio for a good deal of my news and it pains me to have conservative gotcha practices leak in, but I expect the better part of two decades with Tories installing key management into the organization has had some of the desired effect. But that’s also reverseable, should the Folks Currently In Charge choose to take the tiller.
Regardless, I’ll assert they still have more assets in more places than any other news organization and I learn so very much about so many farflung nations I’m not throwing in the towel anytime soon.
By the same token I really, really want their hosts and reporters to stop asking some NATO official how concerned they are with Moscow feeling threatened by their training Ukrainian pilots on this or that weapons system. Stop asking questions you already know the answer to and conduct the damn interview.
Mousebumples
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: I may have expressed this previously, but best wishes to you and your family on the loss of Steep. I know we’re missing his presence as well.
And good luck on your battle to vote!
I think the last election I missed was the 2008 presidential primaries, when I was doing my clinicals and moving between Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. If I recall correctly, my Wisconsin absentee ballot arrived AFTER the election, which was frustrating
ETA – I’ve been enjoying beer at a few breweries, so apologies in advance for any typos, etc.
Splitting Image
@hitchhiker:
If I had any faith left in Republicans’ intelligence, I’d be losing it this year by the way they are handling women’s issues.
First there was J. D. Vance saying that there is something immoral and un-American about single women teaching children. I’d ask “Do they not know anything about history? Anything at all?!?” but I already know the answer. My mother went to a school taught entirely by nuns and there were two of them at the school I went to as a kid. In a lot of places teaching was one of the jobs single women did until they got married. Anybody old enough to think that voting for Trump is a good idea ought to be aware of this.
And then to come out and say that changing your name from the one on your birth certificate is an abomination and they are going to put a stop to it. Again, “Do they not know anything about history?!?” Same answer as above. Marriage has been around a long time and women were taking their husbands’ names for most of it.
These aren’t some new woke culture things that they have only just heard about. These are fairly common, traditional ways of doing things that they are going to war against to gin up points with the alt-right.
eclare
@Anastasio Beaverhausen:
I can understand not being allowed to vote in state elections for House and Senate if you don’t have an official state, but can you at least vote for president? I would check with Democracy Abroad or some such group to see if you can. You cannot be the only one in this situation.
Anyway
Hi Rose! I am not a podcast consumer but plan to start with your Books podcast — it gets high marks from many jackals!
Have you adopted a football club after all these years?
Steve in the ATL
@Mark’s Bubbie: refresh, THEN post, refresh, THEN post….
Ruckus
@hitchhiker:
I believe that name change thing came long ago and is about either ownership or the concept that marriage is for life (not for many/most people I’ve known) and it used to be seen as the man having a possession, which is, and always been pure BS. Life is what one makes of it, good, bad, skating along on whatever journey one likes or can find.
Anyway
@Rose Judson: Do you drink tea? With milk? (That seems very British to me)
I always have a few “freak-out” moments when I first get into a rental car in the UK … few deep breaths and it’s usually ok after that.
TBone
@MagdaInBlack:
@Jackie:
I am not expecting those cowards to actually show up (but I hope they do). I could be wrong because ‘sign of weakness!’ Of course there will be the ever present games of whining , grievance, gaslighting, etc. However, VP Harris has forcefully stepped up to the plate in her stilletos, and if Dumbvict doesn’t show for any reason it will be seen as weak.
We’ll see!
zhena gogolia
@BR: Disgusting. I hope they enjoy Trump’s policies toward Palestinians.
eclare
@Anyway:
I picked that up in my six months in London! Hot tea is very good with milk.
Redshift
@eclare: My wife and I both hyphenated, and it just now occurs to me that if the scheme about the SAVE Act is real, it could hit me too, since I never legally changed my name. Of course, the chance wingnuts would try to pull that on a white male is probably zero.
kalakal
@Rose Judson: I fully get you with the Celsius. The UK started to switch to metric when I was 4 so I grew up with dual usage, I find fahrenheit easier for how warm/cold a day is.
They also switched to decimal currency when I was 10 and that was a very good idea. I’m really looking forward to seeing your posts, the UK and the US are both very similar and very different cultures and I really like hearing from people who have a dual perspective
comrade scotts agenda of rage
We were always asked if our B&B was haunted, nope, despite the fact an 8-year old girl fell down in the courtyard sometime in the 1910s, cracked open her head and died. I guess she had no hard feelings about the place.
I came here via Steve Gilliard’s blog waaaaay back in the day.
Welcome. We hiked all of Hadrian’s Wall a couple of years back. Pretty country you have there.
trollhattan
For all the reasons I do not follow Trump’s on-line mewlings and yelling, but Digby has the overnight goods and holy hell.
https://digbysblog.net/2024/09/21/good-morning-23/
Jesse
Welcome, Rose!
I volunteer for Democrats Abroad. Indeed, there are a lot of US citizens abroad. It’s not really know how many there are. Maybe low 7 digits. Voter participation among them is estimated in the single digits. You read that right. Very important to spread the word that US citizens abroad CAN vote. (Note that not everyone born abroad to a US parent is automatically a US citizen. You have to jump through some hoops with a US embassy/comsulate. And in some edge cases citizenship doesn’t pass on.)
Ruckus
@Momentary:
Life in the US is not all the same in every state or even from one end of one state to the other end. Even in CA we have large areas of homes apartments and large areas of few if any homes. It has, over my 7+ decades, the large, populated areas have gotten a lot bigger. But then it’s that way in a number of areas. From 1950 to today, the US has gone from 150 million to almost 400 million inhabitants. A question – when I was born family size was about average at 3 kids, if I recall from everyone I knew way back when. It’s now just over half of that. The question is, is this from birth control, society, or possibly the highly populated areas have gotten far more populated in those decades, possibly leading to the question, when are enough – enough?
Torrey
I’m late to the party as usual, but welcome. I’m looking forward to reading your posts. I must say, however, that the mention of your ancestor Egisto–or possibly Egisto himself–has summoned from the beyond the memory of one of my own ancestors, who we descendants could never best in a political argument. When he needed to, he just wielded the ultimate response: “I’m a better American than you are. I CHOSE this country; YOU were just BORN here!” And he did manage to make being “just BORN here” sound like really embarrassing laziness on our part.
ETA: Is “Egisto” the Italian form of the name Aegisthus?
E.
@kalakal: It’s not a hymn and it wasn’t meant to be sung. The answers to its questions are No, No, and No.
Momentary
@Ruckus: Agreed! I lived in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and California before I left — all very different. So I hope Americans will remember that the same holds for the different countries and regions that make up the UK. It is universally true here, however, that pants means underwear and not trousers — very important for immigrats/ex-pats to remember ;)
Ksmiami
@wjca: you forgot cal tech and the Pomona colleges
wjca
Maybe they’re trying to boost their numbers in pursuit of a second Congressional seat.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anyway: How else would one drink hot tea? Tea in first. Damn it.
kalakal
@E.: The poem asks 4 questions not 3 and very few Brits over the last 200 years or so, patriotic or otherwise, have ever thought that it was literally true. What they pick up on is the exhortation to build an ideal society in Britain.
Have to say I disagree that poems should not be sung or set to music.
Tony Jay
Great to have you fronting the pages, R-Jud. Finally we’ll have someone here who can, when required, explain events occurring in this sadly spatchcocked Kingdom of Broken Things to the Colonials in measured and rational terms.
Good luck with that.
Omnes Omnibus
@kalakal: To be fair, Americans tend to misinterpret Winthrop’s reference to a city on a hill.
wjca
Size matters /s
Donatellonerd
@eclare: I’m pretty sure in NY and most US states, birth certificates are changed at adoption (or surrender). hers in France never had parents’ names — there’s a procedure for giving birth as X for people who know they’re going to surrender the infant … though they have 3 months afterwards to change their minds.
Anyway
@eclare: ok. Black coffee and tea for me …
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I’m coming late to this thread, but am thrilled to learn about Hobbit Day (how did I miss that??), since my claim to fame for many years (among a certain select population) is that my birthday is also on September 22. Also usually the Solstice, and the last day of Virgo. Welcome Fall!
Gloria DryGarden
@rikyrah: omg.
When did hospitals start allowing black women to give birth in them? So, if you’re born at home with a midwife, it’s not a valid birth certificate that the midwife writes? This is a lot of people!
is there any process people have been using to adjust their paperwork or get more strongly verified as citizens? It’s very weird to have to prove your citizenship, ( it happened to me once) when you know you have a long paper trail of being born here, and having lived here, and having numerous official interactions with government entities, thus the long paper trail.
I one time had to provide proof of citizenship, not just a signed affidavit. It’s pretty offensive. I am so sorry they’re using this to target people and try to remove them from voter rolls.
Omnes Omnibus
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): It’s officially the 21st night of September, so don’t forget to leave out milk and cookies for Earth, Wind & Fire.
Also, an early happy birthday to you.
Elizabelle
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: Good to see you, Dr. B. I hope you can somehow find a way to vote. You have to vote for Steep!!
Ruckus
@Tom Levenson:
I’ve traveled to many parts of this country and to many parts of the rest of the world, some of it thanks to the USN. I can say I’ve been to the UK, I once walked on the pier in Portsmouth for about 15 minutes. But I’ve been from the northern tip of Norway to the very southern tip of New Zealand. And from Hawaii to the eastern edge of several European countries and 48 of the 50 states and Canada to Mexico. Humanity does change a bit from place to place but mostly it’s just humanity.
Ruckus
@Anoniminous:
No, just trying to be themselves. Their mantra – Life is good for them screw everyone else.
John Cole
I hate everything you wrote you are a terrible writer and wrong about everything John could have done so much better with another front pager who thinks exactly like I do.
Just breaking you in, dear.
Omnes Omnibus
@John Cole: Nah, we like her. Hopefully, we can keep her.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: sounds like someone did the Apple News mini crossword today!
nickdag
@Rose Judson:
Welcome!
Where in the West Midlands are you? During college I spent a semester at Harlaxton Manor, outside of Grantham and not too far from Nottingham.
This hit home. Later in life, I spent 8 years as an expat, and later immigrant (I see those 2 statuses as very different), in Brazil. The original plan was a year, 1.5 years max. Life tends to get in the way.
I look forward to your contributions. I read most posts, but mostly just lurk in the comments.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Just to be pretentious, I’ll toss this at you.
Ruckus
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
What is bad about it is that among humans there are not many basic groups.
1. First men are men and get whatever the hell they want.
2. All men are created equal. Now there are a lot of men that don’t believe that for a second. Because they see men with different skills or different than them and therefore inferior.
3. A humans are equal. Now if you see that as equal basic rights we may have something here. Because we are not all equal. I have a cousin that made music, and I suck donkey parts at that. OTOH I made things out of metal, the last thing I made out of metal had a tolerance of +/- 0.00025. And that ain’t a lot of wiggle room. But these are things we do, not things we are. All humans are equal at life. Now I think we are getting somewhere. We are supposed to be equal at the possibilities and it’s up to us to make that more than breathing in and out. And allowing everyone else to do the same. We won’t be the same people or do the same things but it’s a big world and there is room for more than the high priest or the coal miner. The US is about that, possibilities, not wealth. It’s why we have a graded income tax, you make/have more, you pay more. And we need to go back to where we were in the rates, not all that long ago.
This country is about the human, not the dollar. Or at least it is supposed to be. We need to get back to that, to at least a lot closer than we are now. IOW we need the wealthiest to pay their FAIR share of being wealthy.
cain
@Origuy: thank you ! 🙏
E.
@kalakal: It just gives me real Leni Riefenstahl vibes when sung as a hymn, and that insults the poem, the poet, the listener, God, and everybody.
sab
@John Cole: We haven’t done that this time have we? I thought we were being nice (because we all think about emigrating to an English speaking country and Australia is too warm.)
Have you had a follow up check on your paw? I neglected my first cat bite and spent a week in the hospital on iv antibiotics. They did save my hand.
sab
I did my junior year abroad in Durham UK. It seemed in many ways a lot like Knox County Ohio (farmers and miners) but the architecture was amazing and the people were more pale. Also more sheep, and a much better healthcare system. But I had to have a filling replaced and the dentist had a footpedal operated drill. Slow. Felt like me sewing in 8th grade home economics.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
Another expat here! And we seem to have a few things in common. I grew up in NY state, though I did not go to college there. My grandfather was from Umbria. In his case, he was sent to Ethiopia (Eritrea) around WW2 and never left. My mother and aunts were born and raised there as Italian citizens. My mom met an American GI, married and came to America. Her sisters followed. My brother and I were born in the US. I went on to marry my husband who is Japanese. Early in our marriage, he was transferred to London. We were there for four years and sons 1 and 2 were born there. The UK had gotten rid of birthright citizenship at that point. We returned to Japan and son 3 was born.
Japan allows dual citizenship until 22 when you are supposed to choose. My sons have managed not to choose so far, but may be forced to do so. It bothers me because I raised them to appreciate both sides of their cultural identity and it feels like that in being forced to choose, they are being told to reject the other half of who they are. That could be my hangup. In the end, they will have to make the decision.
All of this to say welcome and I look forward to hearing more from the expat view!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@eclare: wow – me too!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Omnes Omnibus: thank you :-)
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@Anastasio Beaverhausen: I have lived some 30 years abroad. I filed taxes but because I never earned above the exclusionary rate, I was exempted. That changed when my aunt died and there was a bit of an inheritance. Suddenly I had to pay capital gains to both the US and California. I hired an accountant to help who sent me information on states where I could become a resident and not pay state taxes. I believe Texas was one, South Dakota, Washington, and perhaps one or two more. I remember looking at the list and thinking how would I do that? I know nobody in those states and some of them might make it harder for me to register to vote. So, I stay registered in California and I pay taxes when required. And, California has been great on voting. I got my overseas ballot. I get to vote for MVP Kamala Harris, our former AG and Senator, and our soon-to-be first female governor Eleni Kounalakis, my classmate at Cal.
Ruckus
@TBone:
Shitforbrains is such a pompous, arrogant asshole that he will always think (such as his limited thought process is) that he is superior to everyone else on the planet. He did after all get elected to be president, and most of us didn’t. His money makes him special, just ask him. Oh wait his being special is what made him the money….. At least that’s how his simple mind works. And now that senility seems to have made a home in his head he’s got even less in there than he’s had for all of his asinine life. Far less. Which amounts to almost zero logical, rational, actually true facts hiding in there.
Ruckus
@Lynn Dee:
As someone who has already voted for her before this (CA born, and now retired CA resident – have lived in other states) more than once, I see her as a real politician, one who wants to be and has been an outstanding leader.
Ruckus
@Jackie:
He has the courage – I’m pretty sure, but the ability to not make it worse by doing so? Yeah I think he is way, way, out over the tips of his skis. jv is a pompous arrogant asshole and that makes him believe he’s top of the heap. Now if you define what the heap is comprised of reasonably and properly then yes he’s at least part of the heap.
Lynn Dee
@Ruckus: Same here! Well, not totally. I wasn’t born in CA, but I’ve lived here a long time, and voted for Harris for state AG, Senator and of course VP. So I’ve been impressed by her for a long while too. But, there’s impressive and then there’s impressive — and she’s been just amazing since stepping into the job of candidate for Pres. Is it possible she hasn’t made a single wrong step? Because I can’t think of a one.
Anyway, pleased to meet you, fellow golden-stater. What part of the state are you from?
Kayla Rudbek
@Redshift: and it’s also going to hit other men like you who have done a common-law name change. I did change my name when I got married which has had its advantages and disadvantages. If anything happens to Mr. Rudbek I am staying Ms. Rudbek no matter what.
xjmuellerlurks
Welcome. I came to BJ about the same time as you for the same reason. Looking forward to your posts.
Sourmash
Welcome Rose! Many dear people in my life have had that name, including my present GF and my best friend, who are different people!