Senator's Selects 2024/09/18
Well, I did what Ohio's other senators won't: visited Springfield.
From the Desk of…
I’ll gladly call out both Vance and Brown for having yet to make the trip. Brown seems reticent to talk about Springfield at all, releasing a mealymouthed anti-violence statement while saying nothing of the racial animus being driven by this drivel. Vance has tripled down on his racist rumor-mongering. Matter of fact, Vance is to the point of admitting that he and his coterie of Republican ghouls will just make up stories to fabricate and further their narratives and goals.
As for me, I have prided myself as a seeker of truth and purveyor of fact in politics. I call it like I see it, and I try to find out what’s really going on. Sometimes, I even do! So, finding myself this week with more time than usual, I did what neither our sitting senators have had time to do. I went to Springfield. I started the day in Snyder Park, where the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has reviewed two claims of waterfowl being taken by Haitian immigrants. You’ll never guess what I found there…
I'd like to tell you about how I had to rely on my tracking experience, growing up in the hinterlands, following a trail of down and droppings to find the secret grotto where the ducks and geese hide. I'd like to tell you about how I survived a plane crash with nothing more than a windbreaker and a hatchet and spent 54 days out in the wilderness the summer I was 13. I didn't though. The ducks and geese were right by the bridge. I saw them when I was driving in, and then I parked and walked over. I kept a healthy distance because I wasn’t about to drive out of town and get attacked by a flock of geese, but they were all out there, honking up a storm and having a good time.
The park itself was nice, albeit a bit dried out from the drought we’ve been having. Playsets, water features, the common amenities I’ve come to expect. I was naturally drawn to the Butterfly Buffet, though I figure it’s seen better days.
I did stop here a moment and idle away some time to see if I’d see anything out of the ordinary. I didn’t. Well, maybe this plastic butterfly sculpt.
Following a path down towards what looked like an outhouse and turned out to be a shed, I did discover something I found very interesting.
Gee, it seems to me that if tens of thousands of desperate and hungry people—locusts, as one Portage County sheriff would put it—arrived in a community, the vegetable garden would need more than a nice sign and an unlocked gate to keep any gleaners out. Matter of fact, it seems to me that, at a cursory inspection, I’ve found a real land of abundance here. A vegetable garden, several varieties of ducks and geese… yeah, this would all grill up real nice.
After that, I spent some time driving about, seeing what I could see. Lots of folks out on their porches, lots of pets around. I will say, WTUE plays more Rush than I remember when I was living out Miami Valley way, and that’s okay by me. Nothing struck me as out of sorts. Seemed like what I’d really found was a bunch of normal people trying their damnedest to live normal lives.
I swung down to Rose Goute Creole next to Schuler’s Bakery for a late lunch, clocking the police towers now surveilling the public as I passed. It’s funny, the governor, he finds the money in the budget to install guard towers after over 33 bomb threats in the community, he finds the money to put state troopers in all their schools, but strangely… STRANGELY… when Springfield Mayor Rob Rue and Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck went on Fox News in July to “discuss how the immigration surge has impacted the city's ability to function and the broader need for federal assistance”… when Jon Husted fires off a long tweet about the strains on social services in Clark County (and follows it up with an at-best ill-timed joke)… not a single one of these men will acknowledge that it is they themselves with their tired policies and drive to undertax and underfund government services is to blame for this “crisis” that they have created. That would require them to do any amount of self-reflection, self-criticism. No, it’s much easier to look around and point fingers outward than to ever turn inward and discover the truth.
If the yard signs I saw driving around are any indication, the clear winner of the 2024 election will be ROAD WORK AHEAD. Seems to me that maybe over a decade of Republican control has left our infrastructure crumbling and unable to support the people who live in Ohio. We’re gonna have a chance to fix some that ourselves in November. Issue 47, the COTA tax levy, the LinkUS plan… 50% more regular bus service, bus rapid transit development, and 500 miles of bike paths, sidewalks, and trails? That’s a no-brainer to me. Now, I’ll admit that I’m not fond of the funding model (sales taxes are regressive! I don’t care if it brings us to parity with Cleveland!), but that’s more quibble than quarrel. The fact is that we all know the current state of public transit in Columbus leaves much to be desired, and this is the window we have to do something before the whole damn house of car(d)s collapses. Now if we could just get that Amtrak expansion before I die…
Speaking on the issues ahead in November, Citizens Not Politicians released their first Yes on 1 ad, likening the Republicans who continually cheat their way into power to, you guessed it, Michigan football. You can watch the ad here, and while you might think the conceit is a little cornball… yeah, I’m inclined to agree, and I think it’s gonna play. The No on 1 campaign, for reference, has not bought any ad time yet. Clock’s ticking for ghosts and ghouls! You can’t rely on courts upholding your terrible ballot language forever. One thing that either side could do would be to release the Connor Stalions Michigan Man manifesto. Please, it would be so funny.
Speaking of funny releases, did you know Ohio is a one-party consent recording state? Brandon Simmons, local wunderkind and school board member who has been catching heat for drafting a document on how to best work around the teachers’ union (bust, perhaps?), has released two recorded conversations from May when the document was brought to public attention, thanks to Columbus City School Board Member Sarah Ingles. The conversations, one between Brandon and Jen Adair (former board president, current member) and one between Brandon and Tina Pierce (current vice president and member), sure do seem to indicate that a helluva lot more folks were involved in putting that document together than they wanted to admit.
“You (Simmons) were taking ideas from everybody. This was literally a briefing and not two, but one person, one person took it upon themselves to share this with somebody outside of our group,” Pierce said.
I’m going to listen to the calls when I have an hour because I’m sure there’s some choice quotes in there, and I’ll keep you in the loop as the story is sure to develop. We might have a real fun race next time some of these folks are up! That, or the Franklin County Democratic Party Central Committee will simply endorse the incumbents, and they’ll win based on the strength of the sample ballot. C’est la vie!
The Brain Dump
they should make a job that is fun
I'll be mad as hell if I get reincarnated
what the hell, I've been saying super MARLO brothers
just tried to tweet from the google search bar
think I might mess with the Zohan
At the Movies
Dang, am I really gonna have to do a schedule reveal next week?
Ran (1985), dir. Akira Kurosawa ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐❤️
dudes love to make a bad decision and then keep doubling-down on it as it spirals out of control
wouldn't have gone down like that if I'd been there because I have enough hours in Crusader Kings to know how to navigate a succession crisis
in an alternate world, this is what the 2024 DNC was like
Tourist Trap (1979), dir. David Schmoeller ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐❤️
I owe you an apology. I wasn't really familiar with your game. On revisiting, having sat with it, this bangs. Chuck Connors kills it... so many concepts and ideas that rock.
Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), dir. Leigh Whannell ⭐⭐⭐⭐
did not expect this to be the best one so far? is it really just because it has fewer jump scares and more Lin Shaye? does that make me a mark? I would watch 100 movies of Lin Shaye throwing hands with ghosts. reminds me of my pitch on how they could've serialized Poltergeist by focusing on Zelda Rubinstein. what the hell
One Picture
[getting so close to the microphone that my lips are brushing against it and i am completely blowing past the pop filter and destroying the levels] me and who
In closing,
The best way to protect your place in this world is to do nothing at all. But is this enough? Is this really enough?
This line, which I’ve grabbed from Ikiru, has been floating in my mind this week. There’s a balance to be struck between preserving what is and engaging with the new. You might keep telling yourself you’ll do something tomorrow, or the next day, or next month, or next year, and you might soon find yourself out of nexts to do anything with. Take the time you have and do things with it.
Until next time, do something new.
Springfield exploration moments cut for time include finding the shrine to the Old Gods behind a rusty gate, complaining about traffic on 270, and a much longer ramble about radio broadcasting differences between media markets.