Hope wj hasn’t been replaced by “ai”, but Joe DiMaggio’s rookie season was 1936, Ruth’s last season with the Yankees was 1934, and he retired early in the 1935 season, so their careers did not overlap at all. I believe he meant Lou Gehrig.
I did live in Austin from 1986-1991. It’s a wee bit different now. It’s been 10 years since my last brief visit, and almost certainly full of changes again.
Late to party, but it was Georgia where prohibition against assistance, water or otherwise was prohibited. After primary elections in the summer produced extreme waits due to voting machine issues and fewer locations than general elections. While I don’t remember anyone endorsing hardship, I specifically remember being super pissed off with McKinney disputing/minimizing the degree of hardship. From 900 miles away, when I live here and was reporting about multiple personal friends who were delivering water. I remember responding along the lines of, just because I lived in Austin for 5 years (many) X years ago, I would not presume to speak about current conditions on the ground against someone who lives there. I’m still pissed.
Thanks lj, if I can come up with something coherent that folks here might actually want to read and seems in any way useful I will be in touch. I was thinking about getting in touch with the people doing the Running in the Red series at Balloon Juice, they are probably better situated to handle Chris’s circumstances. Anything I put together would be more personal, though including regional political history and demographics for context. The one line summary is Chris Harden is precisely the kind of person/candidate that Democrats need running in “lost cause” districts (60/40 R in this case) to provide a genuine, humane alternative should a political earthquake create a window of opportunity.
The American context has it's, um, peculiarities. For most of the 20th century a large block of people who could be classified as "conservative" or even self-described that way would be your white Southern Democrats, with Klan members/fellow travelers as your once and future reactionaries. So it's not new, it's just that their political descendants are now situated in the Republican party. I don't think those are the "conservatives" that wj is intending to associate himself with, but they were there.
My friend Chris Harden has won the Democratic primary for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District. Given the location of outstanding votes the margin between the number of Republican vs. Democratic primary voters in the district will close, but at last check it was 74k to 47k. On the positive side, in the statewide primaries for Gov, Lt. Gov, and Senate, D votes outnumber R votes, and that’s with Ossoff running unopposed. The two Supreme Court races that are nominally non-partisan, so not primaries, didn’t reflect that, although in one of them the margin is less than 3%, with a lot of Fulton County (main part of Atlanta) yet to report. Which is extremely rare for these races, the only indication on the ballot is (I) for incumbent. There hasn’t been an open election for a seat in a long time, the practice since Republicans have held the governor’s office has been for a justice to retire after filing deadlines for an election to have passed, allowing the governor to appoint a replacement, who subsequently enjoys the benefit of incumbency.
And I consider bc to be reasonable and thoughtful, not at all antagonistic in the way that McKinney came to be. So I welcome their comments, even if they don’t much overlap with my evaluation of reality. But Jesse Jackson has been buried, perhaps all the common ground was what was used to fill and cover his grave.
The idea that “equality and that the arc of history bends towards justice” could somehow be more fitting to Trump than any major Democratic politician you could name is so delusional that it renders further discussion pointless, unless you want to do some detailed parsing of just what “equality” and “justice” means to the parties in the discussion. I will decline in that exercise.
Open thread, so I will take this moment to provide an update on the GA-11 district that my friend is running in the Democratic primary. I believe there are now four in that primary, but more importantly, the incumbent Barry Loudermilk announced last month he is not running for re-election, I have not seen who/how many have declared for the Republican primary. But the open election should help the margin in November, even if winning the district outright is unlikely.
Thanks wonkie, I'll note that I a saw a post yesterday with a photo of Chris and the two other Democrats running in the primary for that House seat, everyone looking very jovial. So possibly more practical to wait until after the primary to donate to whomever ends up being the general election candidate. But I don't know anything about the mechanics of running a campaign, campaign finance, etc.
I realize this is pretty much OT, but is politically related. Just seeing on social media in the last two hours that a friend of mine has announced he is running for Congress in Georgia’s 11th district. He is a lawyer and has been working mostly in the family law, situations where children have been put in state supervision, that kind of thing. He drew up my first estate documents 12 years ago when he was a newly minted lawyer, I had contacted him in the last few weeks about getting them updated.
Getting messages from a mutual friend about this as I type. I had joked about calling our friend Don Quixote, since a Democrat can’t win that district, my friend acknowledged that, but said it’s important for contributing to overall statewide turnout, more Democratic votes in that district won’t win the seat, but those will be votes to re-elect Ossoff to the Senate.
In reference to the Georgia PSC election, I commented on the previous thread about it, but a little more detail: The 5 PSC seats are titled District 1-5, but the elections are statewide. There have not been PSC elections since 2020 due to lawsuit(s) claiming that the statewide elections are discriminatory, as a result the two seats the Democrats just won will be up for election in one and five years, respectively, the normal term is 6 years. The last Democrat to win election to the PSC left office at end of term in 2007, and no Democrat has won a statewide election to any state office in over 20 years.
So to sort of answer Michael, while there are definite local issues regarding rate hikes, this is a big effing deal, especially given the 63-37 margins. Since the state turnover to Republican control in the aughts, it has been the general presumption that Democrats best shot at winning a statewide race is in presidential election years (which puts governor and other executive offices out of reach since they are scheduled in off years). So winning not just an off-year but odd-year election, where there were no other statewide offices on the ballot to drive turnout (and some/many jurisdictions may not have had any local races; locally we had unusually low profile mayor's race, Atlanta City Council President race and several other Council races, as well as judicial retention elections and one ballot initiative).
There were no personality/scandal issues weighing down the Republican office holders, it's understood that any Republican on that body will be in Southern Company's pocket, the only question is how deep.
No election results thread yet, so here's some (unexpected, to me) good news from here in Georgia. Two seats on the five member Georgia Public Service Commission were on the ballot (elections for this body have been delayed by lawsuits since 2020, it's a mess), statewide elections. Both Democrats won, which is noteworthy in itself because no Democrat has won a non-Federal statewide election in 20 years or so, but more noteworthy are the margins, which are currently 62-38.
On “Monkey business”
I guy I know is on Facebook under the name Hanuman Sun Wukong. That’s all I got.
On “Sports fandom”
Also, no Yankees hitter has ever batted.400.
"
Hope wj hasn’t been replaced by “ai”, but Joe DiMaggio’s rookie season was 1936, Ruth’s last season with the Yankees was 1934, and he retired early in the 1935 season, so their careers did not overlap at all. I believe he meant Lou Gehrig.
On “Open Thread”
I did live in Austin from 1986-1991. It’s a wee bit different now. It’s been 10 years since my last brief visit, and almost certainly full of changes again.
"
Prohibition was enacted, dammit.
"
Late to party, but it was Georgia where prohibition against assistance, water or otherwise was prohibited. After primary elections in the summer produced extreme waits due to voting machine issues and fewer locations than general elections. While I don’t remember anyone endorsing hardship, I specifically remember being super pissed off with McKinney disputing/minimizing the degree of hardship. From 900 miles away, when I live here and was reporting about multiple personal friends who were delivering water. I remember responding along the lines of, just because I lived in Austin for 5 years (many) X years ago, I would not presume to speak about current conditions on the ground against someone who lives there. I’m still pissed.
On “Open Thread time”
Here's Chris's campaign website for anyone who wants to learn more:
https://www.chrishardenforcongress.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawR9o25leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBhVnBSektMYWFWekV4NDNtc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHluklCzqZFGqMTxlsCqrxS1vGIwXlhmBRvHtMux2g8sn4cCpDitg2IEbzvgF_aem_iyTRcytDDEExu7jsnmkplw
"
Thanks lj, if I can come up with something coherent that folks here might actually want to read and seems in any way useful I will be in touch. I was thinking about getting in touch with the people doing the Running in the Red series at Balloon Juice, they are probably better situated to handle Chris’s circumstances. Anything I put together would be more personal, though including regional political history and demographics for context. The one line summary is Chris Harden is precisely the kind of person/candidate that Democrats need running in “lost cause” districts (60/40 R in this case) to provide a genuine, humane alternative should a political earthquake create a window of opportunity.
On “What’s wrong with liberalism?”
The American context has it's, um, peculiarities. For most of the 20th century a large block of people who could be classified as "conservative" or even self-described that way would be your white Southern Democrats, with Klan members/fellow travelers as your once and future reactionaries. So it's not new, it's just that their political descendants are now situated in the Republican party. I don't think those are the "conservatives" that wj is intending to associate himself with, but they were there.
On “Open Thread time”
My friend Chris Harden has won the Democratic primary for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District. Given the location of outstanding votes the margin between the number of Republican vs. Democratic primary voters in the district will close, but at last check it was 74k to 47k. On the positive side, in the statewide primaries for Gov, Lt. Gov, and Senate, D votes outnumber R votes, and that’s with Ossoff running unopposed. The two Supreme Court races that are nominally non-partisan, so not primaries, didn’t reflect that, although in one of them the margin is less than 3%, with a lot of Fulton County (main part of Atlanta) yet to report. Which is extremely rare for these races, the only indication on the ballot is (I) for incumbent. There hasn’t been an open election for a seat in a long time, the practice since Republicans have held the governor’s office has been for a justice to retire after filing deadlines for an election to have passed, allowing the governor to appoint a replacement, who subsequently enjoys the benefit of incumbency.
On “Maybe time for an Open Thread”
And I consider bc to be reasonable and thoughtful, not at all antagonistic in the way that McKinney came to be. So I welcome their comments, even if they don’t much overlap with my evaluation of reality. But Jesse Jackson has been buried, perhaps all the common ground was what was used to fill and cover his grave.
"
The idea that “equality and that the arc of history bends towards justice” could somehow be more fitting to Trump than any major Democratic politician you could name is so delusional that it renders further discussion pointless, unless you want to do some detailed parsing of just what “equality” and “justice” means to the parties in the discussion. I will decline in that exercise.
On “Open Thread”
Open thread, so I will take this moment to provide an update on the GA-11 district that my friend is running in the Democratic primary. I believe there are now four in that primary, but more importantly, the incumbent Barry Loudermilk announced last month he is not running for re-election, I have not seen who/how many have declared for the Republican primary. But the open election should help the margin in November, even if winning the district outright is unlikely.
On “Spelunking for fun and profit”
LJ channeling Atrios, interesting!
"
Thanks wonkie, I'll note that I a saw a post yesterday with a photo of Chris and the two other Democrats running in the primary for that House seat, everyone looking very jovial. So possibly more practical to wait until after the primary to donate to whomever ends up being the general election candidate. But I don't know anything about the mechanics of running a campaign, campaign finance, etc.
"
I realize this is pretty much OT, but is politically related. Just seeing on social media in the last two hours that a friend of mine has announced he is running for Congress in Georgia’s 11th district. He is a lawyer and has been working mostly in the family law, situations where children have been put in state supervision, that kind of thing. He drew up my first estate documents 12 years ago when he was a newly minted lawyer, I had contacted him in the last few weeks about getting them updated.
Getting messages from a mutual friend about this as I type. I had joked about calling our friend Don Quixote, since a Democrat can’t win that district, my friend acknowledged that, but said it’s important for contributing to overall statewide turnout, more Democratic votes in that district won’t win the seat, but those will be votes to re-elect Ossoff to the Senate.
Chris Harden for GA 11!!!
On “Still I Rise”
Slight exaggeration, last GA Democrat state office winner was 2006 election.
"
In reference to the Georgia PSC election, I commented on the previous thread about it, but a little more detail: The 5 PSC seats are titled District 1-5, but the elections are statewide. There have not been PSC elections since 2020 due to lawsuit(s) claiming that the statewide elections are discriminatory, as a result the two seats the Democrats just won will be up for election in one and five years, respectively, the normal term is 6 years. The last Democrat to win election to the PSC left office at end of term in 2007, and no Democrat has won a statewide election to any state office in over 20 years.
So to sort of answer Michael, while there are definite local issues regarding rate hikes, this is a big effing deal, especially given the 63-37 margins. Since the state turnover to Republican control in the aughts, it has been the general presumption that Democrats best shot at winning a statewide race is in presidential election years (which puts governor and other executive offices out of reach since they are scheduled in off years). So winning not just an off-year but odd-year election, where there were no other statewide offices on the ballot to drive turnout (and some/many jurisdictions may not have had any local races; locally we had unusually low profile mayor's race, Atlanta City Council President race and several other Council races, as well as judicial retention elections and one ballot initiative).
There were no personality/scandal issues weighing down the Republican office holders, it's understood that any Republican on that body will be in Southern Company's pocket, the only question is how deep.
On “People and poliltics”
No election results thread yet, so here's some (unexpected, to me) good news from here in Georgia. Two seats on the five member Georgia Public Service Commission were on the ballot (elections for this body have been delayed by lawsuits since 2020, it's a mess), statewide elections. Both Democrats won, which is noteworthy in itself because no Democrat has won a non-Federal statewide election in 20 years or so, but more noteworthy are the margins, which are currently 62-38.
On “Notes about commenting”
Test comment. Curious about the time stamp, is it GMT?
On “Excelsior!”
Clicking on the Post link in Recent Comments takes you to bottom of comments of that post.
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Checking in for pre-clearance.
On “I’m forever blowing bubbles”
I still have my copy of The Policeman’s Beard Is Half-Constructed.
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I'm skipping Replika, talk to me when the holosuites are available.
On “Everyone is a hero in their own story”
A friend suggested Ozzy and Tom from a duet, the first song would be “I Am Irony Man.” I’ll just see myself out…
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