Nov 8, 2022·edited Nov 8, 2022Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
My polling place is about two blocks away, The Machine Shop, took less than ten minutes inside to vote. This district, Fifth District in Minnesota, i.e. the Twin Cities plus a bit more of the state, hasn't sent a Republican to the US Congress in almost sixty years...
With full attribution (per the Univ. of Chicago Manual of Style--which I wielded in my specialized scholarly word processing business between Harvard and M.I.T. in the '80s), I not infrequently re-post your creations. Here's today's intro of your other piece. Thank you for the ways you practice your art.
Wishing to all: Peace. And as blue a political future as possible.
A goody-goody, pie-in-the-sky, wishy-washy writer Lucian K. Truscott IV .......... he ain't.
He being a West Point grad / "Village Voice"-New York City polished, hardened, hard-driving marvelous real Journalist. I heartily urge subscribing to him and Professor Richardson, Dr. Maddow and the other outlets of Real, Reputable Journalism. ..........That, all said. ..........this final paragraph (below) from his $5-a-month treasure trove of substack writing ....... is what it is.
And IF YOU HAVEN'T VOTED after today against the scourge of MAGA republicans...a personal note.......'just me:
don't even talk to me about current events. Ever. Goodbye on that topic and good luck.
"Finally, for all the uncertainty surrounding [today]'s election, there is one thing of which I am 100% certain...."
Voted this morning in a red-ish town in a blue state: Illinois. I had initially requested a mail-in ballot, so when I showed up to vote in person, that fact quickly came up on the computer at the polling place. I had to drive home, pick up that mail-ballot, present it to the person checking in voters, and personally, with a large black marker, deface that ballot so it could never be used. I was then allowed access to the voting machines. I am recounting this to show that the GOP concern about people ( presumably Dems) voting twice is absurd and impossible.
In MA, if you request a mail-in ballot but it hasn't been received by election day (perhaps because it was never filled out and returned), you can vote in person in the regular way. If the mail-in ballot does show up, it won't count because you're logged in as having already voted.
Judith, that sounds like overkill in your town, and maybe even a form of vote suppression (or at least voter discouragement). If records are being accurately kept, that unused ballot shouldn't need to be defaced. I hope this comes to the attention of the Ill. secretary of state or whoever is in charge of elections!
I worked the polls in my (blue) town, West Tisbury, MA, this morning. This happened three or four times. When a voter came in with the required envelope and the mail-in ballot, they could choose to just insert ballot in envelope, seal it, write their address on the outside, and leave it with the town clerk. Those ballots are then logged in on the voter list, which by this point includes everyone who voted early and everyone who's voted up to that moment in person.
The NY GOP has tried hard to screw up easy absentee voting here too. A high court threw out a case they filed too close to this election, but a change stands that imposes restrictions if you've asked for an absentee ballot. In 2020 I got one, submitted it on election day at my precinct, no problem. No more. As I recall, the new drill is something like if you don't mail the ballot in and show up election day you must file a provisional ballot.
New York?! you may ask in dismay. Blame NYs own Randy Andy, who hated progressive Dems and appointed DINO judges to high courts to neutralize the liberal legislature. His judges' election rulings have turned NY purplish this year. Now he's trying to whine his way back into politics, presumably with grateful GOP support. He and his separated-at-birth Queens brother trump are equal-opportunity AG Letitia James bashers.
Wow! Shows what I'm missing by not looking at Slate regularly, Susanna. That piece is definitive. I'd been following the City and State court reporter he mentions, Sam Mellins, in another obscure goo-goo publication, New York Focus. Yes, to misogyny as eager partner to every other trait undesirable in politics or anywhere else.
I won't deny it, but you and I both know why that's true, David. Also, she was golden at first, but gave Dems pause over stuff like the Buffalo Bills and Penn Station redevelopment deals. Just another pol, but at least not Zeldin. Later: If you missed it, take a look at the Slate piece Susanna links to.
And a good thing too! :-) I'm thinking of the possibly less motivated voter who's asked to go home and come back. Any number of things could get in the way.
Well, unless you are Elections Board Commissioner Jason T. Schofield, age 42, a Republican, "presumed innocent" by the judicial system, but we can use our entire life experience to presume whatever we want, up in Rensselaer County, i.e. Troy New York, upstate, indicted on 12 counts with each bringing a possible five year sentence upon conviction:
When I proudly put my ballot in the box two weeks ago, I walked back home only to discover I had left out a whole page!! It was late Friday afternoon and the elections office was closed. I breathed deeply and said to myself that surely I can rectify this on Monday. So on Monday, I sprinted to the office, dog tethered to me, and asked the kind clerk what I could do. She kindly told me I wasn’t the “first” to do this. I told her it must be an aging thing...anyway, she said my ballot hadn’t been counted yet and I could just vote at their machine. I hadn’t voted “in house” for umpteen years! Took less than 3 minutes, I kid you not and the nice thing is that you can go back and review your choices and correct those you might’ve missed. Technology is a wondrous thing!
We stand together as one. Our dream is to prevail and damnit, we will!
I don't think you can fairly blame native Floridians. The state's like Arizona—red-state retirees flood the zone. NE weather makes me miserable most of the year, but those people and their ways keep me stuck with it.
Our (two) votes were cast (obviously all for the Democrats) in an elementary school this morning a mile from our home. Easy peasy! Now that we're Wisconsin residents, our votes actually count for something now, too -- if only maybe for the last time.
This stretch of the Mississippi River has some good parks, restaurants, renovated movie theaters ---
it's essentially the oldest part of Minneapolis, the site of the original University of Minnesota buildings
before that shifted further east, etc. etc. etc. There used to be the largest grain mills in the world on both sides of the river nearby.
Plenty of residential development is active nearby as well, even despite the social unrest attendant to the police murder of George Floyd and COVID, it continues. A rather key point is that both the Floyd protests (and riots/vandalism/arson), and COVID took a far higher toll on East Lake Street than other areas of Minneapolis. East Lake had tons of minority-owned and immigrant-owned businesses (overlap there of course) damaged, some went under, some were helped out enormously by local patrons, so even there, the city has made much progress since summer of 2020.
Bottom line: don't believe "scare mongering" about the city of Minneapolis, as if the Floyd unrest and vandalism was some kind death blow. No way. There was indeed a crime spike, in some kinds of crime, and that naturally spurred a kind of "inter-agency law enforcement task force" response, which (as usual) discovered that a small number of violent repeat offenders were responsible for a vastly disproportional amount of the crime. In one case, two people in the early 20's, one male, one female, had committed over a dozen carjackings. That was a pattern over a number of types of crimes. So when they were busted, made an immediate impact. I think that pattern has been seen in Chicago as well, right?
Compare the odious effect, the malign ifluence of a major gangster like Trump on the national level! When that guy finally gets indicted and faces prison, it should have an effect beyond "just one major crook" facing dire consequences.
you sound like my upstairs neighbor (who grows more avidly right-wing daily), who says that the main problem in this country (which he's not from) is the "polarization" on both sides.
which is (at the risk of sounding impolite) just bullshit.
What evidence convinced you it was bullshit? Here's some evidence to the contrary. Humans are 98% similar to Chimpanzees. So the variation between humans themselves is very little. Your reality (feelings, thoughts , actions) on average are practically the same as anyone else's. Thus, people on either side are not fundamentally different at all. There might as well be a mirror dividing each half. The feelings of "us vs them" and "they're bad we're good" are not founded in reason, they are the result of instinctual tribal psychological dynamics that always favor one's in-group and demonize the other. Any action by the "other" is automatically branded as malicious and convincingly so. Our minds subconsciously pre-frame incoming information so that we become aware of it in a way that bolsters or protects what we've already committed to or identified with. We have the illusion of broad self-determination but really we can only see and accept that which doesn't challenge our established self and/or social identity. So basically political feuds have always and will always be meaningless. But can be entertaining. We like to think we would have objected to the Nazi uprising, if we were there. Wishful thinking. If 1 in 100 rejected the regime at the time, it would be the same result with any random sample of 100 human beings.
Dyspeptic cynicism with zero supporting evidence is such a bold move, we get it.
For example, do you really think the Trump appointees on the SCOTUS who overturned Roe v. Wade, thuse endangering women's bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom of choice, had nothing to do with "who's in charge"?
Or dozens of other consequential decisions made between January 2017 and January 2021, including a seditious insurrection resulting in the largest law enforcement investigation in U.S. history? Or...I mean, this could go on for pages and pages, citing historical examples going back to the days of the Gracchi brothers in Republican Rome, and before that, to the Peloponesian War and Periclean Athens! Back to the tyrant Peisistratus!.
I think you need to read more history and pay closer attention, seriously.
One hour wait in KY is a priceless investment for democracy.
My polling place is about two blocks away, The Machine Shop, took less than ten minutes inside to vote. This district, Fifth District in Minnesota, i.e. the Twin Cities plus a bit more of the state, hasn't sent a Republican to the US Congress in almost sixty years...
machineshopmpls.com
Wow! What a beautiful place to vote!
With full attribution (per the Univ. of Chicago Manual of Style--which I wielded in my specialized scholarly word processing business between Harvard and M.I.T. in the '80s), I not infrequently re-post your creations. Here's today's intro of your other piece. Thank you for the ways you practice your art.
Wishing to all: Peace. And as blue a political future as possible.
A goody-goody, pie-in-the-sky, wishy-washy writer Lucian K. Truscott IV .......... he ain't.
He being a West Point grad / "Village Voice"-New York City polished, hardened, hard-driving marvelous real Journalist. I heartily urge subscribing to him and Professor Richardson, Dr. Maddow and the other outlets of Real, Reputable Journalism. ..........That, all said. ..........this final paragraph (below) from his $5-a-month treasure trove of substack writing ....... is what it is.
And IF YOU HAVEN'T VOTED after today against the scourge of MAGA republicans...a personal note.......'just me:
don't even talk to me about current events. Ever. Goodbye on that topic and good luck.
"Finally, for all the uncertainty surrounding [today]'s election, there is one thing of which I am 100% certain...."
--Lucian K. Truscott IV
For us, for our country, today is the most important day of 2022 and 2023.
Amen.
Voted this morning in a red-ish town in a blue state: Illinois. I had initially requested a mail-in ballot, so when I showed up to vote in person, that fact quickly came up on the computer at the polling place. I had to drive home, pick up that mail-ballot, present it to the person checking in voters, and personally, with a large black marker, deface that ballot so it could never be used. I was then allowed access to the voting machines. I am recounting this to show that the GOP concern about people ( presumably Dems) voting twice is absurd and impossible.
In MA, if you request a mail-in ballot but it hasn't been received by election day (perhaps because it was never filled out and returned), you can vote in person in the regular way. If the mail-in ballot does show up, it won't count because you're logged in as having already voted.
Judith, that sounds like overkill in your town, and maybe even a form of vote suppression (or at least voter discouragement). If records are being accurately kept, that unused ballot shouldn't need to be defaced. I hope this comes to the attention of the Ill. secretary of state or whoever is in charge of elections!
I worked the polls in my (blue) town, West Tisbury, MA, this morning. This happened three or four times. When a voter came in with the required envelope and the mail-in ballot, they could choose to just insert ballot in envelope, seal it, write their address on the outside, and leave it with the town clerk. Those ballots are then logged in on the voter list, which by this point includes everyone who voted early and everyone who's voted up to that moment in person.
The NY GOP has tried hard to screw up easy absentee voting here too. A high court threw out a case they filed too close to this election, but a change stands that imposes restrictions if you've asked for an absentee ballot. In 2020 I got one, submitted it on election day at my precinct, no problem. No more. As I recall, the new drill is something like if you don't mail the ballot in and show up election day you must file a provisional ballot.
New York?! you may ask in dismay. Blame NYs own Randy Andy, who hated progressive Dems and appointed DINO judges to high courts to neutralize the liberal legislature. His judges' election rulings have turned NY purplish this year. Now he's trying to whine his way back into politics, presumably with grateful GOP support. He and his separated-at-birth Queens brother trump are equal-opportunity AG Letitia James bashers.
Well, that's infuriating. Alexander Sammon of _Slate_ did a story on that earlier this month: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/11/2022-midterms-new-york-republicans-cuomo-maloney.html
With Democrats like Cuomo, who needs Republicans? And notice how often misogyny goes hand in hand with other reprehensible traits.
Wow! Shows what I'm missing by not looking at Slate regularly, Susanna. That piece is definitive. I'd been following the City and State court reporter he mentions, Sam Mellins, in another obscure goo-goo publication, New York Focus. Yes, to misogyny as eager partner to every other trait undesirable in politics or anywhere else.
everything you say is completely true.
BUT (and I'm not saying that I want him back, under any circumstances), if Cuomo ran, that vile creep Zeldin wouldn't have any shot at all.
I won't deny it, but you and I both know why that's true, David. Also, she was golden at first, but gave Dems pause over stuff like the Buffalo Bills and Penn Station redevelopment deals. Just another pol, but at least not Zeldin. Later: If you missed it, take a look at the Slate piece Susanna links to.
I shall do so, but it's almost three right now and I'm more than a little slap-happy.
Hmmm… I hadn’t thought of it that way, since it didn’t keep me from voting.
And a good thing too! :-) I'm thinking of the possibly less motivated voter who's asked to go home and come back. Any number of things could get in the way.
Good for you, Judith, for sticking to it. You won.
Well, unless you are Elections Board Commissioner Jason T. Schofield, age 42, a Republican, "presumed innocent" by the judicial system, but we can use our entire life experience to presume whatever we want, up in Rensselaer County, i.e. Troy New York, upstate, indicted on 12 counts with each bringing a possible five year sentence upon conviction:
www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/rensselaer-county-elections-commissioner-indicted
www.cnn.com/2022/09/14/politics/jason-schofield-new-york-election-commissioner/index.html
"Votin' twice is for pikers, I figured at least a dozen votes was more like it!"
---- GOP stalwart, Jason T. Schofield
When I proudly put my ballot in the box two weeks ago, I walked back home only to discover I had left out a whole page!! It was late Friday afternoon and the elections office was closed. I breathed deeply and said to myself that surely I can rectify this on Monday. So on Monday, I sprinted to the office, dog tethered to me, and asked the kind clerk what I could do. She kindly told me I wasn’t the “first” to do this. I told her it must be an aging thing...anyway, she said my ballot hadn’t been counted yet and I could just vote at their machine. I hadn’t voted “in house” for umpteen years! Took less than 3 minutes, I kid you not and the nice thing is that you can go back and review your choices and correct those you might’ve missed. Technology is a wondrous thing!
We stand together as one. Our dream is to prevail and damnit, we will!
My mail in ballot was deposited last Friday, has been recorded as “received”
Voted last week in Arcadia. FL.
A very red county, DeSoto, here in DeSantistan.
No gun totin' poll watchers, fortunately.
But DeSantis won, again. It’s sickening.
I don't think you can fairly blame native Floridians. The state's like Arizona—red-state retirees flood the zone. NE weather makes me miserable most of the year, but those people and their ways keep me stuck with it.
Our (two) votes were cast (obviously all for the Democrats) in an elementary school this morning a mile from our home. Easy peasy! Now that we're Wisconsin residents, our votes actually count for something now, too -- if only maybe for the last time.
This stretch of the Mississippi River has some good parks, restaurants, renovated movie theaters ---
it's essentially the oldest part of Minneapolis, the site of the original University of Minnesota buildings
before that shifted further east, etc. etc. etc. There used to be the largest grain mills in the world on both sides of the river nearby.
Plenty of residential development is active nearby as well, even despite the social unrest attendant to the police murder of George Floyd and COVID, it continues. A rather key point is that both the Floyd protests (and riots/vandalism/arson), and COVID took a far higher toll on East Lake Street than other areas of Minneapolis. East Lake had tons of minority-owned and immigrant-owned businesses (overlap there of course) damaged, some went under, some were helped out enormously by local patrons, so even there, the city has made much progress since summer of 2020.
Bottom line: don't believe "scare mongering" about the city of Minneapolis, as if the Floyd unrest and vandalism was some kind death blow. No way. There was indeed a crime spike, in some kinds of crime, and that naturally spurred a kind of "inter-agency law enforcement task force" response, which (as usual) discovered that a small number of violent repeat offenders were responsible for a vastly disproportional amount of the crime. In one case, two people in the early 20's, one male, one female, had committed over a dozen carjackings. That was a pattern over a number of types of crimes. So when they were busted, made an immediate impact. I think that pattern has been seen in Chicago as well, right?
Compare the odious effect, the malign ifluence of a major gangster like Trump on the national level! When that guy finally gets indicted and faces prison, it should have an effect beyond "just one major crook" facing dire consequences.
95% of everything will stay the same regardless of who's in charge. An unreasonable reaction to who's in charge is what causes problems.
HUH????
you sound like my upstairs neighbor (who grows more avidly right-wing daily), who says that the main problem in this country (which he's not from) is the "polarization" on both sides.
which is (at the risk of sounding impolite) just bullshit.
What evidence convinced you it was bullshit? Here's some evidence to the contrary. Humans are 98% similar to Chimpanzees. So the variation between humans themselves is very little. Your reality (feelings, thoughts , actions) on average are practically the same as anyone else's. Thus, people on either side are not fundamentally different at all. There might as well be a mirror dividing each half. The feelings of "us vs them" and "they're bad we're good" are not founded in reason, they are the result of instinctual tribal psychological dynamics that always favor one's in-group and demonize the other. Any action by the "other" is automatically branded as malicious and convincingly so. Our minds subconsciously pre-frame incoming information so that we become aware of it in a way that bolsters or protects what we've already committed to or identified with. We have the illusion of broad self-determination but really we can only see and accept that which doesn't challenge our established self and/or social identity. So basically political feuds have always and will always be meaningless. But can be entertaining. We like to think we would have objected to the Nazi uprising, if we were there. Wishful thinking. If 1 in 100 rejected the regime at the time, it would be the same result with any random sample of 100 human beings.
?? What a curious thing to say.
Nonsense.
This newsletter's occasionally resident troll. Please do not feed.
God forbid someone break from the tribal status quo.
Dyspeptic cynicism with zero supporting evidence is such a bold move, we get it.
For example, do you really think the Trump appointees on the SCOTUS who overturned Roe v. Wade, thuse endangering women's bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom of choice, had nothing to do with "who's in charge"?
Or dozens of other consequential decisions made between January 2017 and January 2021, including a seditious insurrection resulting in the largest law enforcement investigation in U.S. history? Or...I mean, this could go on for pages and pages, citing historical examples going back to the days of the Gracchi brothers in Republican Rome, and before that, to the Peloponesian War and Periclean Athens! Back to the tyrant Peisistratus!.
I think you need to read more history and pay closer attention, seriously.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisistratus
Notice he had quite an agenda, taking on the aristocrats!