fabrisse

The list of Colleges and Universities signing onto the letter is growing. Northeastern finally made it. Boston College still hasn't signed, though I've seen many more Catholic Schools join. Many of the California UCs and State Colleges have joined, but Stanford is missing. I must admit that it being the school where so many tech bros went to learn from the inventor of the transistor, that I'm afraid Elon Musk has had influence there.

George Washington University signed which means the only consortium college missing is Howard. I really hope the HBCUs are planning their own statement.

Duke notwithstanding -- as an "other Ivy" with a pre-eminent law school, they were kind of a given -- the only two schools that I recognize as being part of the Old South, in my mind below the southern border of Virginia, are Agnes Scott College and Carolina Christian College. I'm impressed with how many Virginia schools have signed on, but still bummed that Virginia Tech, where my paternal uncle used to teach, University of Richmond and Hampton College, where my father, great aunt, and grandfather all did their undergraduate degrees, and Longwood, where Sis went for her undergrad, are not signatories. But, I'm still excited that Hollins was one of the originals. Go Great-Great-Grandma!

I don't pretend to have a comprehensive knowledge of every university or college in the country, so if anyone recognizes a name from Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida (Stetson has now signed), or Texas, please let me know. Agnes Scott got Georgia on the list, but it's the only name I recognize so far.

ETA: the strike throughs. I'm glad BC joined.

ETA2: University of Richmond has signed!!!

The Guardian is reporting that Republicans are exerting control over Washington, D.C.

That would be nothing new. When Republicans control both houses of congress they switch from bamboo utensils and compostable take out containers in the cafeteria and switch the congressional power plant -- which is only on in an emergency -- from natural gas to coal. The rates of asthma and elderly deaths in SW DC went up when the Republicans controlled congress and there was a snow storm. They also tend to take away money for needle exchange programs in a city where 1 out of 20 adults -- approximately 5% of the population -- was HIV positive in 2016.

I would like to take exception to one item in the article. It states that "It was unclear how the language approving Washington DC’s budget was removed from the federal spending bill, but just after it passed the Senate, the Republican Susan Collins described the omission as “a mistake”, and the chamber unanimously passed her legislation to fix it."

It wasn't a mistake. The lists that I'm still on for DC sent out a plea for people to call any representative or senator they could to beg them not to cut the budget for DC. Since I'm now a Georgia resident, I called both Senators and my Representative and asked that the DC budget not be cut.

The 2018 Federal Tax revenue numbers -- the most recent ones I could quickly find that included the District of Columbia -- showed that Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming combined paid 27,443,756,000. The District alone paid 28,443,717,000.

Let's be clear: this spending bill was NOT regulating federal monies. It was dictating how DC was allowed to spend its own "state" tax money. It will create illness, illiteracy, and unemployment because the monies are being take from healthcare, public schools, and the Metro system, aka how most of the Greater Washington Area gets to work.

The current president -- and if I accept the constitution, I must accept that he is my president -- says he wants to make the District "safe, beautiful, and prosperous." Prosperous? There are 17 states between DC and North Dakota, the most prosperous of the states I listed. Safe? The murder rates have been going down for years. This budget cut is likely to raise the rate of robbery and car theft, based on my experiences on the ANC and how the rates fluctuate with the economy. Beautiful? I've lived in or visited some of the cities widely considered the most beautiful in the world. DC beats them thanks to L'Enfant and Banneker's plans for city vistas. There are U.S. cities that have some gorgeous views, including Boston and San Francisco, but they don't have as many points of beauty, in my opinion, as the District of Columbia.

One item that I didn't find covered in the Guardian article is funding for clean-up after parades and protests. When I first lived in the District, Congress appropriated enough federal money to help cover security and clean-up for most public events to last from January to September. Anything in the autumn came out of DC's funding. Bear in mind, there are not enough Federal police or park rangers to cover this and the military isn't allowed to do it. Metropolitan Police officers are the main coverage for these events. DC Public Works empties the trash, cleans up the routes, etc. At the beginning of 2017, before Trump's inauguration, the newly Republican congress cut that funding so that DC picks up the tab for safety and clean-up from March.

This is important. It may not be high on your radar if you have no personal connection to the District, but if, as so many tourists said, "it's our city, too," then these issues need to be addressed.

The District was the last city in the country to be desegregated because Congress liked segregation. Our schools and families suffered greatly from AIDS in the 1980s because the homophobes also tended to damn IV drug users. And yet we built a rainy day fund that allowed us to process unemployment during COVID faster than any state in the union -- bear in mind that Vermont and Wyoming have fewer people than the District. This is a huge thing we managed during a pandemic. But DC is being punished for being Black, predominantly Democrat, and generally vocal about fairness.

Apparently 1,000,000 voters have already cast their votes in Georgia. With approximately 7.5 million registered voters in the state, my pack of the envelope number is 13% of total voters have already cast ballots. Based on the way it's being reported, I don't think it counts the absentee/mail-in ballots that may already have arrived. This is pretty huge.

I will say that most of the voting is probably in and around Atlanta. Sis cast her vote today and, like me, it was walk-in/walk-out here in Savannah.

I don't know if this bodes well for a particular party. Historically, absentee ballots have skewed slightly Republican and in person early voting has skewed Democrat. However, based on the number of white folks my age or older that I saw at the polling place, I can't be sure that holds true in Savannah.

Atlanta is a large royal blue dot in red state Georgia. Athens may be purplish with the University being there. Savannah is a small sky blue dot. I drive ten miles in any direction and the Trump signs are large and looming. There's even one on rotation on the main highway into Savannah which makes me shudder every time I see it (mostly because it's promoting lies about the crime rates and job rates).

[BTW, any direction in Savannah, like Boston, means West, South, or North. Ten miles East and I sink to the bottom of the Atlantic.]

Hippopotami are the most dangerous animal to humans based on the number of deaths they directly cause each year. But scientists are intrepid. Apparently, they get all four feet off the ground when running at full pelt. Flying hippos will probably feature in my nightmares for a little while. Though there's apparently a minor Egyptian goddess of motherhood, Ipy, and another one considered malevolent, Ahti, to worry about, too.

British politics makes a change from the U.S. type, thank heavens. U.S. elections are like a baseball or cricket game. They can last all day and still not have much to show for it. The British elections are more like basketball, high scoring and time limited.

The exit poll in the UK -- which isn't allowed to be published until the polls have closed everywhere [U.S. take note]-- showed the Tories with 131 seats in Parliament and Labour with 410. It takes 326 for a majority in the Commons.

In the event, Labour lost 4 seats to pro-Palestinian candidates and still ended up with 412. The Conservative Party ended up with 121. The big surprises include that the Green Party now has 4 seats in Parliament and the Lib/Dems, which have been on life support since I started following British politics in the Thatcher era, had a big night gaining 63 seats which puts them at 71. Plaid Cymru, the Welsh National party -- more into full devolution rather than nationalist in the nastier sense -- gained a couple of seats which puts them at 4.

The nastier sense nationalists, the Reform Party, also ended up with 4 seats. Northern Ireland's vote seems to be leaning toward Irish reunification. And the Scottish National Party which has been huge in Scotland for at least a decade, lost several seats, most to Labour though a few went Lib/Dem.

Wow. I have a little bit of hope for the U.S. election now.

In 1988, I voted for Michael Dukakis for president. In the immortal words of Humphrey Bogart, I didn't vote for him so much as I voted against George H. W. Bush. Often when I say this, I'm greeted with sheer disbelief because Dukakis "looked" so ineffectual or sounded too calm or wore a helmet in a tank -- per military policy -- and it looked silly.

This was one of my first indicators that visual media, especially television, conveyed something well outside reality. I didn't own a television. I was living in Belgium and didn't want the extra bill for cable television. What was available via rabbit ears wasn't in my primary language, so I chose not to own one. I preferred listening to records to radio, so, again, no bombardment of news and sound bites. Frankly, in 1988, the worst of that bombardment was yet to be.

Instead, I read the debates in full in the International Herald Tribune. These days, it's virtually impossible to find a transcript of the debates that isn't behind a pay wall, but the Trib had my back. What I discovered was that Vice President Bush, as he then was, didn't think in complete sentences. I searched in vain for a full sentence in the debates. If he couldn't speak a full sentence, I doubted he could think one. In other words, I'm a snob of the first water who thinks coherence is a hallmark of straightforward thinking and who tends to prefer her political representatives think clearly.

I have moved from the District which means my vote in this midterm has much greater national impact. Worse, I live in a jurisdiction, the State of Georgia, where two of my votes are being tightly scrutinized.

There is a good chance that I will still be governed by Brian Kemp come January. More frighteningly, there is a reasonable chance that Herschel Walker will have a say in U.S. foreign policy and the confirmation of federal judges come January. I don't understand it.

Walker has been a no go for me from the beginning. Even if I ignored the endorsement by the former president, the fact is the man has a hard time forming clear sentences. If this is a relic of his football days, I understand. In the five years since I was concussed, I have found that there has been a lasting impact on my ability to end every sentence I start. It's gotten better -- and the experience is qualitatively different from the odd moments of forgetfulness we all have occasionally -- but I will never be free from the impact of that impact to my head.

Understanding the potential cause doesn't mean I want him in the Senate.

I find Raphael Warnock, his opponent and my current senator, to be thoughtful. He comes across as kind and he's actually been successful in working with Republicans for specific policies to help farmers and make train crossings safer. I wish he weren't an ordained minister. [Speaking of the 1988 election, there were a few minutes between January and March of 1988 when the primaries and caucuses looked like they might kick out a Reverend [Jesse Jackson] versus Reverend [Pat Robertson] election. I still have nightmares about it.] I prefer to keep religion and politics separate as far as possible.

Walker has repeatedly talked about shooting people and other violent acts. He is especially vocal about violent acts against ex-wives and girlfriends. His only policy statements have been either anti-abortion or about cutting taxes. He also creates fantasies out of whole cloth about having been an FBI agent or worked with law enforcement in specific areas of Georgia. Were they self-insert fanfiction, I probably wouldn't read them, but I wouldn't mind their existence. Sadly, he's claiming them as actual experiences.

I don't understand why the majority of the state looks set to vote for him. Yesterday was the first time that Warnock has taken the lead in polling and it's only a 2% lead, within the margin of error.

If you have the bandwidth and money to support a campaign outside your own state, please do everything you can to help Warnock keep his senate seat.

If you feel like getting involved in a race for House of Representatives, look at Annie Andrews in South Carolina who is running against incumbent Nancy Mace.

If my existential dread hasn't worn me out, I'll talk about the Kemp versus Abrams race for governor tomorrow.

I am about 10 minutes into the debate by the Republicans running for governor. One nice lady (*nods nervously) wants to solve Georgia's crime program by calling out the National Guard as a supplemental police force. She also thinks Christians are the only people persecuted for their religion in Georgia. https://atlantapressclub.org/debates/

I'm watching on YouTube, and it's implied that this is a second debate though only one is listed at the above site. Kandiss Taylor, who has been identified by those outside of Georgia as the really crazy one, is not the one who made the above comments.

While there are no binding referenda on Georgia ballots, there are "Advisory Questions." None of them is great on the Republican side, but Questions 5, 7, and 11 set off the loudest alarm bells in my head at the moment.

https://ballotpedia.org/Georgia_Political_Party_Advisory_Questions_(May_2022)#Republican_Party_questions

Then there's the Lt. Governor's Race where Butch Miller is running based on keeping trans teens from participating in team sports with their identified gender. Or as he puts it. "Let's keep boys from competing in girls' sports." [/paraphrase]

See it in all its glory here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzuok9OUWng

I live in the District. While protesting for DC Statehood, I was arrested by the Capitol Police. This gives me -- and my research as part of my ANC duties -- some insight into what happened on Wednesday.

The first thing everyone needs to understand is that DC police (MPD for Metropolitan Police Department) has no jurisdiction on Federal land. None. Without a specific invitation, MPD can do nothing on the National Mall, Lafayette Square, White House grounds, or the Capitol grounds. DC has no options in this. MPD can only set foot on capitol grounds with an express invitation from the Capitol Police or from the legislators themselves.

This is why several national news outlets mentioned FBI police, ATF, and other agency police at the Capitol building, but not MPD. Federal police, whichever agency they belong to, can help without an express invitation. The Capitol Police work more closely with the Park Rangers on the National Mall than they do with most DC based law enforcement.

It's also why you saw MPD maintaining the exterior cordon in the late afternoon and early evening after their help had been requested.

Next, Capitol Police is a very small group (I'd be surprised if there were more than 200 total, probably closer to 100) -- apparently, per comments below, the size is closer to 1500+. I know their shifts aren't huge unless something major is expected. Their very clean and pleasant station has two cells and probably isn't any larger than 2000 square feet, about 2.5 times the size of my apartment. Capitol Police are trained to be patient with protesters and answer questions from tourists. Even though they have clubs and riot gear, they don't often need to use them. They were not part of the line at Lafayette Park when tear gas was used, for instance.

Lastly, only the mayor can call in the DC National Guard. Mayor Bowser offered the Capitol Police the DC National Guard early in the afternoon. Not knowing what was going to happen, the Capitol Police turned her down. She did put the National Guard on alert so, when Capitol Police or legislators asked for them [eta: Mike Pence personally called them in], they were ready to go relatively quickly.

For major protests, which this wasn't expected to be, advance planning, usually including MPD, is performed. I'm certain there was already a plan for all the various polices to work together for the inauguration, as an example.

Should this have been handled better? Absolutely. But this debacle doesn't rest entirely on the Capitol Police; it rests on the inspiration to sedition from the president and on the legislators and others who abetted him.

On Friday, I went to see a double feature of The Killers (no, we didn't see it twice. There was the 1946 version with Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner and the 1964 version with John Cassavetes and Angie Dickinson) along with Neotoma. It was part of the AFI's yearly Film Noir festival, and while there, it occurred to me that I can only think of two Noir movies set in DC: Advise and Consent and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Some argument can be made for Fail Safe, which scared me more than any horror film did when I was a kid, and Seven Days in May -- hello, Burt Lancaster, again -- but to me, there's a sense of movement in Noir and both of those are fairly static, especially Fail Safe.

My friend Elle took me to see La Traviata on Sunday. It was a really good production.

My campaign for ANC isn't going as well as I'd like, but it's mostly my own fault.

I have my Yuletide assignment, and I'm a bit puzzled. I'm so used to matching on one of my first three offers, it was a bit of shock to match on my tenth.

There's another try to ruin US health care. Unlike this summer, there aren't many calls coming into congress (per the New York Times) protesting this. Without the protests, it has a chance of going through.

So, since I don't have a congress critter of my own, I'm asking those of you who do to roll up that metaphorical newspaper and whack them across their noses. Call. Calls are logged. Email. Emails are logged. Write via snail mail -- that's considered the gold standard because it has a level of difficulty which implies commitment on the part of the writer.

Signing petitions is fine, but calling offices does much more.

I am not seeing this covered as thoroughly as it might be. The Department of Justice has requested information on over 1.3m people who visited disruptj20.org. Gizmodo and The Verge seem to have the most coverage at the moment, but, in some ways, this is as disturbing as Charlottesville. The only reason to look at this site is because it is anti-Trump and organized protests for his inauguration. Asking to see information about the people who were arrested or seen near the violence would be a reasonable limitation on the warrant, but that's not what's happening. The DoJ want information on anyone who used the site, ever.

I can't swear that I never followed a link and ended up there by accident, even if I know I never went there deliberately. Can you?

Please be careful.