Open Thread - Friday, May 12, 2017

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"Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions."

The trip to New Orleans was elucidating. I have attended twenty-two of the last twenty-five Jazzfests. This year marks a transitory phase of my attendance. Subconsciously, I knew this day was coming.

Prior to Hurrican Katrina, the festival was planned and organized by The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. After Katina, the foundation hired a commercial management company to run the festival. Consequently, the character of the festival has been changing. Each successive year, the festival becomes more commercialized, with less jazz and heritage. The promoters are caught in a spiral of spending big money on pop acts and cramming more people into the fairgrounds. The name goes on before the quality goes in.

I missed the previous two festivals, but was keenly aware of the changes going on. I really wanted to catch Dale Watson's set. He was playing early Thursday. Thursday morning, it poured. One of my buddies rolled in mid-morning and we decided to go to Praline Connection instead. He ordered the alligator sausage po' boy with French fries. The waitress laughed when I said, "Where the funk do you think you are? MacDonalds? Order the red beans and rice.".

Missed WSP that day too.

This is not a tale of woe. I had a wonderful time. The trip has always been an extreme male bonding adventure. I had been home bound, and it was great to be in New Orleans and among the eclectic demographics drawn to the oasis of the bible belt.

Friday was always a planned skip day. Plus, I had a long game in play. Prior to Sweetie's wake/party, I was mentoring Thing2 and laid out this particular long game. A big part of visiting New Orleans is eating/dining. Some of the guys will eat bar food and pizza. In New Orleans? I usually make a few dinner reservations and cajole people to join me. A few years ago, a new guy found out that I had a reservation for K-Pual and asked to join in. At the end of the meal, he picked up the tab! I said, "Thank You!".

The guys all knew Sue, both from when we lived in Pittsburgh and her coming along on the Jazzfest trips. During the wake/party, I went to the guy who also preferred to have a few "good" meals and said something along the lines of, I need someone to go to dinner with, because these other guys will eat hot dogs. And I want to go to Irene's, Sue's favorite restaurant. It worked like a charm. Dinner was great!

Saturday, Game On! Stevie Wonder day! To the Fairgrounds -> the electronica with people in leotards dancing with exercise balls, meh. Wandering around, BeauSoleil excellent as always, and New Orleans Groovemasters were very good. I hooked up with three of the guys and we waded into the Stevie Wonder crowd. What a funked up microcosm. It was crowded and an atypical crowd. Less DFH and easy going, and more rude and stand offish. A blanket Nazi accosted a guy two people in front of me. The sea of folding chairs and sun drunks was like a Jimmy Buffet concert or NASCAR infield. One song and out!

I was so disillusioned that I gave my Sunday ticket to the housekeeper. She was a Latina lady who said she had been in New Orleans for 30 years and never been to Jazzfest. It felt really good to give her the ticket.

I am already booked for next year.

Have a great weekend!

The thread is OPEN.

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janis b's picture

You made me feel like I was almost there.

Great, that you enjoyed it and spread the joy widely.

[video:https://youtu.be/X6DVwql1E-g]

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NCTim's picture

@janis b More so, than the festival. The festival draws a nice demographic. Not as nice as pre-Katrina, but still music lovers, party people and DFHs. I really enjoy all the people. When you are in New Orleans, you are always in close proximity to interesting, eclectic, psychotic, beautiful, odd, inebriated, weird, friendly or confounding people. Early Sunday evening the guys rolled out to a pub tavern bar. We had already had a few courtyard beers and baked. I made an excuse, change shoes, and then rolled out into the French Quarter to drunk talk with people. I must have stopped to talk to a half dozen different groups of people along the way.

The guest house had a great caucus of people. Mostly a fifty something and up bunch of DFHs, music lovers and NOLA lovers. I brought a big cooler full of beer and sometimes there would be a dozen or so people sitting around the courtyard caucusing.

Surprise, surprise, the Canadians like their social medicine and think our President is daffy (or worse). Christians, at least the conservative/political type were the subject of much derision and cannabis was a popular topic. There were also shared experiences with loss, reinvention and moving on. It was very good for me. And I was awe struck that a fifty something woman/widow rode a Triumph Bonneville, from San Francisco. That's bad ass, no matter who does it.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@NCTim

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janis b's picture

@NCTim

Especially since it's such a special place I will probably not experience.

If you haven't already listened to the music I posted, check it out when you have the time or inclination. I think you'd enjoy it. Thanks always for your contributions of all varieties.

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NCTim's picture

@janis b The guest house we use was the house of the rising sum. I doubt it, the original Storyville burned. Remember this from our youth?

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

janis b's picture

@NCTim

It's well worth remembering.

Your guest house looks very appealing, even without the extra ammenities.

The history your link provided is fascinating. I will explore it more.

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riverlover's picture

Commercialized everything. ...Can't you do red beans and rice at home? I would rather eat new, or classic NOLA myself.

Calling in friend help soon to deal with plantings I dare not do with a broken clavicle. At least by myself. Going more into Tillandsias for my house, less worry about mis-care, and I see the blossoms are colorful.

Last(?) visit to foot orthopod today for my still-swollen foot. The only place I go seems to be doctor's offices. Bonus: if it's broken, no copay!

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

@riverlover good morning, and thanks for your great sense of humor under duress. Which are you hoping for, sprain, strain, or break? May your bones heal soon and well. Reminds me of osteoporosis, a friend was diagnosed in her 60s after a terribly problematic wrist break.

Calcium and vitamin D3 deficiency over the years is not uncommon, I think it's the food supply, the soils washed of nutrients over my lifetime but go on. Apparently Monsanto knows better, not me. Kale shakes with frozen banana instead of ice is what I drank a couple summers ago, for healthy bone treatment. Kale is a great green, if it comes from healthy dirt. Like everything.

Let us not think of the latest "healthcare law" which sorta makes just being alive "a pre-existing condition" for most people, again. MAGA, "let them ...!"?

inner peace
inner peace
inner peace
. and joy
{why not}

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NCTim's picture

@riverlover @riverlover Broke mine when I was 15. Could not even shoot baskets for 3-4 months. Even after you think it is healed some things really hurt.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

riverlover's picture

@NCTim and had to drive back to Ithaca and then fly back to FL, where he was minimally treated. He has a visible lump on his chest at the break spot. My orthopedist says I will get one, too, but mine will be nearer the shoulder. And I am beyond vanity for lumps.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

I wonder if there is a way for the N.O. Jazz and Heritage Foundation to take back the festival?

Glad you had an good enough time with your buds and the town to book for next year. Sorry about that rain, man.

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NCTim's picture

@HenryAWallace @HenryAWallace Wednesday, I threw on a Gortex jacket and wandered the FQ during a heavy rain. The rain has a bearing on the mentality/personality of the people who are out there.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

I'd be in the bar eating pizza with your other friends. I grew up a picky eater, actually more strange than picky. Ok, both. I have food aversions based on color, content, and habitat. I would eat an orange sweet potato, but not an orange carrot. So after 50 years of this, I decided I would eat anything that didn't have innards. After all, how awful can any plant really be? I also have an aversion to food that lives in water. No pact will I make with it, or food that eats and poops. My husband on-the-other-hand will eat anything.

Sounds like you had a good time. Sometimes when things change too much, they prove the saying that "we can never go home again".

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

NCTim's picture

@dkmich @dkmich The only surf I had was a Catfish po' boy. One of the guys, who came along for dinner, is extremely picky. He won't even eat onions. We coached him on what to order and he ended up raving about his dinner.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@dkmich I say I'm a picky eater but easy to cook for. Beef and spuds and I'm fine.
I don't digest veggies well. Cucumber chips eaten Sunday are still repeating on Friday. I was foodless in NC on the Outer Banks for a time living off sand crabs, raking for clams, and the kindness of fishermen I'd help pull nets. To this day I won't eat anything that breathes its own waste.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

@ghotiphaze

This is why I generally lived on as a child.

1. fried, burnt bologna sandwich
2. Pizza - no sauce, just dough with pepperoni on it.
3. Hunk of pepperoni split in half, stuck on a fork, cooked over a stovetop gas flame until hot and
burnt, then stuffed into a chunk of Italian bread.
4. Spaghetti with butter, no sauce.
5. balogna, hotdog, pepperoni cut up and fried till burnt, then add in eggs.

I grew up in a large, extended, Italian family. I was lucky to have an Aunt who cooked specially for me so I wouldn't starve.

As picky as I am now, I was much, much worse as a child.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

lotlizard's picture

mostly “modern” rather than “Dixieland,” without, however, knowing exactly whom or what I was listening to.

“Radio” in this case means the web-streamed simulcast from a Japanese town’s community radio station, which after midnight plays either jazz or tinkly, sleepy-time “music box” versions of popular music, until 6 a.m. wake-up time in the Japan time zone rolls around.

There may have been some easy way to find out exactly what number was playing in real-time — I just never stumbled across it.

Now here’s a couple of good articles on working-class America versus progressive academia, from the standpoint of a maverick anthropologist:

Trump and anthropology

Half-heads: a dominant force in U.S. politics

It may well be that the linked website, Zero Anthropology, was just highlighted on c99p by another essay or comment I saw earlier today! Apologies — I’ve simply forgotten who exactly, or which website it was, that led me to it.

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Got one! In the real mail box, delivered yesterday. Some other comment I made here about Credexit, was pissed the bank's "security specialist" had "absolutely no way of knowing" about the source of fraud. Makes me sicker, really.

Turns out the online store where I purchased something I can never be without, uses "a digital commerce platform provided by a third party vendor". Then, "an unauthorized third party may have captured information during the checkout process for certain orders placed between (omg five fucking months!)". But still no one admits who did the dirty, just write it off and proceed to the next "customer". "That's the system." The whole web has become sewer if you ask me. Thanks FB and Twitter, the dumbing down continues unabated. I don't know how you guys put up with it, I wish I did know how.

Not sure why I'm bothering to leave out any detail, some bot will surely slurp this comment and file it away for future data manipulation against me. Ouchy, let me loosen the tinfoil hat enough to say I am still pissed. Because the banks and the criminals continue to get a pass, it is like they are the same thing now. Pass Go, Collect $200, and keep buying up the whole fucking board with a Get Out of Jail Free card.

The thing I "cannot go without" is coffee, so not bigly serious for too many others. Me, I actually had to drink one cup exactly the morning I had a repair surgery, because my body reacts really really strange without the bean caffeine. Green tea is not the same, I drank it for a month once in lieu of coffee. Sick as a dog is how I felt every day, so not the same. Another DNA inheritance, I can remember my mom singing this tune each morning when I was really little.
"The Java Jive" (Ink Spots, 1940)

Some people are wired for the bean, of that I am convinced. Smile
Peace & Love

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Steven D's picture

for her graduation on Saturday. She will receive a Bachelor's in Biomedical engineering with two minors: 1) Biology and 2) materials engineering.

Graduating with high distinction (Dad bragging now).

Everyone have a great weekend.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

PriceRip's picture

@Steven D

          and may it be but one of many.

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@Steven D she'll be designing and building the DNA for the People of Tomorrow?
I can't help thinking that is kind of a strange mix. Unlike Business Arts and Chaos Theory.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

PriceRip's picture

@ghotiphaze

          Human Neural Prosthetics from which I lift: "A second study utilizes microelectrode arrays that penetrate the surface of the brain. "

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@Steven D well! Not as impressive of a degree though! Kinesiology with emphasis in Wellness. I am so very happy she is getting out of the State school education system in WI. It's going down the tubes quickly.

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O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.

joe shikspack's picture

@Steven D

that's an impressive achievement.

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orlbucfan's picture

Figured I would add another classic by the good Dr. himself. Smile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ksV9YXMTA8

I have always loved bands like the Meters and BeauSoleil. I'm a bit confused here. Did you stay for Stevie W's whole set? Did the crowd drive you out early? Man, I'll tell ya: we NEED that rain down here. Major drought-- high temps (90s), dry and breezy. It's precisely how the experts warned about climate change years ago. Sad Speaking of bikes and travel, I fly up to TN for a family HS graduation. Then, on 6/1, Biker hubby and moi fly out non-stop to Portland, OR. We have an Indian cruiser rented for a week, and head out the next day for points north. ***Any tips, info, advice, etc. from PNW c99ers will be greatly appreciated.*** One stop will be the Jimi Hendrix museum in Seattle. Yee Haw!! Gonna get some EXPERIENCE! We are aiming for the Canadian Rockies, weather and time permitting. Fly home from Portland on 6/9. Do I sound like I'm psyched? You bet I am!!! Anywho, this comment is turning into a book. Rec'd!! Smile

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Granma's picture

@orlbucfan Bring a coat, waterproof if you have.

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PriceRip's picture

@orlbucfan

          My top choice of the entire Pacific NorthWest is the Columbia River Gorge. If you take the I-84 Corbit Exit 22 and go up-up-up highway 30 to Vista House at Crown Point you will see magnificent views. The drive on highway 30 to Multnomah Falls is awesome. (I-84 Exit 31) is not accessible from here so you need to either go to Dodson (I-84 Exit 35) or back to Corbit to get back to Portland (I-84 Exit 0).

          I know the trek might be way out of your way Mosking   but it is well worth the effort.

          There are many ways to get to Seattle. What sort of experience would you like? How about the Inland Empire route through Sagebrush Steppe and Scablands, then through breathtaking Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle. Or visit Historic Astoria and environs before taking a more coastal route to Puget Sound for a relaxing ferry ride to Seattle. Or you could just drive I-5 to Seattle. Sad Well, at least that way, you could drive by the rest stops I "helped" to construct.

          Seriously: Feel free to ask me anything.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

It's great to hear your trip was healing and fun! We are always on a path that might encounter a fork in the road, which, when taken, will be a new adventure. You are officially on your new journey.

Someday I'd love to make it to NOLA and the Jazzfest, even if it is commercialized, because I'd never have known it any other way. Similar to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. I went to it in the 70's and early 80's when you just ran across a field to enjoy the fun. Today it's aLL paid parking, entrance fees, vendor booths galore. It's still fun, but I only go if I have company that comes for it. I can hostess with the best of them!

Have a beautiful Friday and a great weekend, everyone! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

gendjinn's picture

Ro Khanna is the silicon valley, corporate whore that knocked off Mike Honda on his second attempt. He sees the future is progressive and is falsely recasting himself as one. He was on Jimmy Dore show last week and watch his eyes during the clips, he's corporate slime and exactly the kind of snake we do NOT want burrowing its way into the progressive movement. He is incredibly vulnerable to a real progressive challenge which is why he's trying to insulate himself, he's San Jose and we can get a better prog in there in 2018.

This along with the spat between TYT and those reporting on the DNC Lawsuit (something TYT is trying to sideline and discredit) takes a giant bite out of the benefit of the doubt and credibility the JD/BNC initiative to primary corporate Dems has.

I'm hoping that there will be a big third party announcement this coming Labor Day.

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@gendjinn TJDS videos with him on the show. Him appearing on Jimmy's show had me believing he was a true progressive, but I agree, I am very skeptical of JD. I will have to go back and re-watch him. Thanks for the heads up!

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O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.

gendjinn's picture

@WIProgressive for $30,000 a day Smile

Khanna is still money from the same industries, through individual donations. Although there are questions about the issue of companies reimbursing employees for political donations. So it could be laundering.

Let me see Khanna's votes and we'll know who he is.

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Mark from Queens's picture

Share the same exact sentiment as her. When my suburban friends from home would come meet for a concert or something in Manhattan, and want to get something to eat, they would make their way for a safe and familiar franchise. What? No fucking way, man. You're in New York Fucking City...try something at a small place off the beaten path, the whole world is here! But especially in N'awlins. French Fries on the side? Never.

As you say, food is as integral to the place as music is; they're almost inseparable there. A crawfish boil and a brass band, in the backyard or on the street. The same kind of creativity, flair, diversity, soul and spice go into both.

Thanks for the lament on the Festival. That's a drag . Sad to hear but unsurprising, unfortunately. Only been once, in the late 90's, and love it. Still authentic then. Makes me angry the way music culture (and most any thing good and worthwhile in this life), has been totally co-opted by the corporate hellhounds and smug, Neoliberal marketers, who just want to get rich selling us soft, feel-good, empty, upwardly mobile hipster living. Good job on giving the ticket away to someone who deserved to see it for herself. Couldn't help but smile, that after all you saw that was a letdown, you still booked yourself for next year. Heh...

Last time I was there, in early 2007 just after Katrina, we went to the classic blowing alley (Mid-City Lanes, or something?) and saw the coolest, racially-mixed zydeco band. The crowd was something I've never seen anywhere before or since: black cowboys decked out to the hilt in stirrup boots and 10-gallon hats, dancing and mingling freely with white woman; droopy pants-wearing/hip hop-looking brothers taking the stage to cut it up on washboards and banjo; with the coolest, most relaxed overwhelmingly interracial audience I've ever been in.

Love the shot of the woman ride from San Fran. Did you hang with her (wonder what her story was)?

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Just feeling guilty, using Open Thread for relief. Skip it.

Fishface is the new name that has come to me, replacing DarkCloudCrying, at least that seems less sad. Their faces, that is what I remember most about killing thousands upon thousands of pan-sized coho and steelhead fishes, with my bare hands, over about four and half years of my life. Then next day deliver them to fancy restaurants in San Francisco, literally. Yeah I delivered fancy cakes, and fancy de-boned fishes to snot-heads in the financial district, that's my working class pride 1980s style. Six bucks an hour if I recall correctly. I also trucked live white sturgeon from Sacramento back to our tiny process plant on the coast there, got plenty of fish tales stored in the old lint trap. lol

Where I worked is now protected forever, thank goodness. It is where I lived when Sebastopol was the closest supermarket: Land conservation collaboration protects 547-acre Estero Ranch
There is a flyover video at that link, shows the mouth of the estero completely shut. Our intake pump and filter for the fish tanks was inside that sand bar. My boss used a Caterpillar D9 to keep that mouth open when mother nature wanted it shut, I can't believe it now. It is too much. The company paid for me to get certified as an Open Water Diver, to scrape mussels and crap off a yuge stainless intake screen at the end of a pipe inside the surf line, right in the middle of the estero. When it was open, the tide was waay to strong for diving, so always had to pick slack time of day.
It's where I learned how to rebuild 300HP Goulds pump, more than once Biggrin The backup unit seemed tiny at 100HP, that sandy brackish water ate through cast iron impellers pretty fast. We crammed an engine lift inside the pump house, it was insanely unsafe, but I sure learned a lot. Lucky lucky me.

So I'm just going to put this link from the LA Times, and say I know what it looks like when millions of living things suffocate to death, it is not pretty. I still cringe remembering the "proprietary" method of killing the fish, after I spent months raising them from fingerlings.
Star-crossed salmon survive spillway erosion at Oroville dam but suffocate after hatchery's pump fails That is a lot of mortalities to dispose of, I hope it was done with respect. So many things wrong in that article, with our state, it is depressing.

Even closer, right down the street from Coppola's place, what? lol There is no clue, all is bucolic where the Salvation Army used to be. Resort coming soon.
Drive-by shooting wounds 2 on Hwy. 101 in Healdsburg
I guess I won't take the bus down there after all, not for a while anyway.

Inner Peace

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anyone who considers Bernie to be our savior-in-waiting might take a peek.

I thought the guy was right on target.

https://zeroanthropology.net/2016/04/30/half-heads-a-dominant-force-in-u...

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enhydra lutris's picture

Have a great day and weekend. Spring is finally beginning to set in, so we're starting to spend more time over along the coast, though this weekend looks like wine country instead.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Is Caucus99 going to develop a single issue (Medicare for All), state by state checklist of elected officials as agreeing to the issue or opposed. I don't have the computer knowledge to develop a state-by-state spreadsheet, nor do I have any type of way to publish such results. However, I do have the time and ability to ask the elected officials in my state their position on medicare for all. Aren't we a collection of artists, scientists, computer hacks,...thinkers? It's as good as time as any.

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enhydra lutris's picture

and among those interested in working on such a project. We really have nothing resembling command and control structures but an essay proposing that an ad hoc group form up and work on such a thing would be a good way to go about trying to get such a project started.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --