The thing about that: all that snow came in a one-month span. There was I think one dusting around Thanksgiving, another one in early January, and then all of February it snowed every couple days.
I didn’t mind the snow, I just hated having to fight for parking spots every night, and finally succumbed to the “space saver” nonsense that will get your tires slashed in Southie if you don’t respect the unwritten rules.
Not really… On the archive page, the “safe” ones are marked as such.
I meant about Grier specifically.
Ah, check.
There’s not much tire slashing in Somerville if you remove the freakin’ lawn chairs and things people put out, but I’ve seen a few cars get keyed. You get ticketed if you don’t clear your sidewalk, though, so finding somewhere to put all that snow every day was a huge hassle. I started seriously thinking about getting a flamethrower.
No, I’m just hoping that more people who vote for Clinton realize, keep in mind, and fight against what they’re likely to get. I’m alarmed by a joyousness similar to that when Obama’s hopey changiness was all the rage. Much of his work turned out to be even more rightward than that of Clinton the First, so many abuses that if committed by a Republican president would have had both liberals and further left agitated into action, instead of just the further left. I see the same kind of liberal complacency already happening just because the candidate on “our side” seems better than the other one.
As for the DNC, Jesus Crikey, there’s already plenty to pin on that corporate-crippled, election-rigging organization. And again, plenty of liberals who already don’t give a damn about their side’s criminality, and would rather be a happy clapper for Hillary while telling Sanders supporters (not to mention Stein supporters) to shut up already and fall in line cuz the big bad wolf is coming.
After the first storm I dug my car out, and the people in the house I was parked in front of filled in my spot with all the snow on their driveway!! So for the rest of the month I was playing musical chairs.
My memory may be dodgy, but I remember people in Britain getting angry at John Gummer for this.
Even then, the Tories had a reputation of being a party of sociopaths. I can only imagine what was going through Gummer’s mind at the time.
“British beef is safe, and I will prove it by giving a burger to my daughter who is too young to know about BSE.”
IIRC, his daughter’s friend actually died of CJD a few years later.
Edit: yep.
XENI <— I’m with her: this is a moment, a day, a time for celebrating!
For someone born in the Eisenhower administration, watching Hillary accept the nomination last night was all win. Put aside the perfect for just a little while and revel in the good – yes, this is good! Just looking at – and listening to – the last few days’ speakers at DNC has been like a capstone to many of the struggles over the years. Are we where we need to be? Hardly. Have we moved forward beyond what many dared only dream in the tumultuous mid-century? Yes!
Xeni, my congratulations to you and all the women of this country for this great achievement. I wept with my contemporaries last night and kissed grandchildren until they couldn’t take it anymore. This is wonderful, and certainly deserves more than an eye-roll and petulant “Yeah, but…” Viva Hillary!
Yeah, that was a killer bar she got stuck with. I thought she handled it really well!
regarding blame, and atrocities. we’re already all complicit.
there are people who argue that voting only supports the status quo, so we should not vote. but in my view, by buying a starbucks coffee, driving a car when public transport was available, eating food from factory farms, heck: engaging in commerce at all – we’re supporting the system.
i would argue it’s our responsibility to do what we can to do within that system to make things better. ( i work a regular old job, not one of social service – so you can take this perspective worth a grain of salt if you want. )
if it’s as simple as walking into a ballot box and ticking a box – if there’s one person on the ballot who will at least try to do some good things in the world – then it feels surely we should all do at least that.
When I saw where Obama’s educational roots and who he had about for advisors I was like more Chicago school economics so not much is gonna change there. It has been a mixed bag from him some good some bad some so so and I am okay with what he has done for the most part considering congress.
I expect more of the same from HRC. I was pragmatic about Bernie too. He definitely fit who I would want in office much better but alas it didn’t work out. I hate that I have to vote for more of the same but given the choice between that and the lets just get even more insane on the other side… sigh.
if it’s as simple as walking into a ballot box and ticking a box – if there’s one person on the ballot who will at least try to do some good things in the world – then it feels surely we should all do at least that.
I feel sure that HRC would do some good in office, but just as sure that the bad she’d do would outweigh it.
I expect more of the same from HRC.
Me too, but then, “Bush II lite and in some ways even worse” isn’t my idea of something to look forward to.
I could see being annoyed, but not alarmed, since some of the public not being in despair over the Dem. candidate isn’t going to have an effect on much besides whether they win in the general over their fascist opponent. TBH, I’d rather see a bunch of naive cheerleaders if that’s what it takes to prevent the fascist from being elected. But that’s not what I’m seeing. In general people on the left and middle seem to be having widely varying degrees of positive/neutral/negative. At this point in the '08 race the vibe was far more of a broad and general enthusiastic “Yes we can!” At this point, the general tenor over Clinton has been “well, she probably won’t be all bad on every front I guess.”
Liberal complacency doesn’t have a relationship to presidential misconduct. Investigations and prosecutions do. The public has minimal effect, and to the degree that they do, liberals, a very small and politically generally ignored sliver of the population, have the least influence. If the left as a whole was furious at Obama’s transgressions, Obama would be in the identical position and doing the same things he is now.
The DNC are corrupt, but are they criminals? I’d love to see a number of the members of the organization fired, but I don’t think anyone deserves to go to prison.
Owen Smith is getting roasted because he had the temerity to mention that he even had children.
The DNC is not corrupt. It is a large organization whose leaders are chosen by a committee elected through a bottom up democratic process, and this year it happened that some of the leaders abused their trust. It is quite easy for a registered Democrat to have a say in the DNC leadership: show up to the precinct party meeting where your representative to the county is elected. Then either be that member, or make sure that the person you support to send on reflects your views. Repeat this at the county level, and again at the State level.
For a movement to get itself well-represented in DNC positions takes some effort and some time, a couple of years at least, but there is no Svengali in a secret office who can keep that from happening.
Yes, you’re right, that was bad phrasing/overgeneralization on my part.
No, it’s because he described himself as “normal” for having a wife and kids.
Which is still an overreaction, but he’s getting himself a reputation for making statements that aren’t fully thought through. The one about smashing Theresa May back on her heels didn’t go down very well either.
https://twitter.com/poundstoremike/status/759104135170056192
