Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I copied most of this from siderea's journal, there's a lot more detail in in her post:

AMERICANS WITH DEMOCRAT SENATORS,

tl;dr: call them TODAY, tell them you absolutely expect them to shut down the government by voting against the continuing resolution bill if the GOP doesn't provide massive concessions, and maybe even then.
( more details about why )

I also posted this to thisfinecrew

I am shocked by the news, and trying to remember that despair is a tool of the enemy. And have no idea of what I'm doing in the next three hours, let alone the next three months.

The Massachusetts presidential primary was today, as part of "Super Tuesday." Because Massachusetts has open primaries, I am registered as an "unenrolled" voter, meaning I can vote in whichever party's primary I like, and can decide that at the last minute.

I was dithering between asking for a Democratic primary ballot and voting for "uncommitted," as a message to Biden that I don't like his support of Netanyahu and think the US should be pushing (harder) for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, or a Republican ballot to vote against Trump, which at this point means for Nikki Haley. I made my decision at the last minute, when the poll worker asked me which ballot I wanted. I asked for a Republican ballot, meaning I voted in the Republican primary for the first time in my life.

Voting in the Republican primary feels weird; voting for a candidate I dislike and expect to lose also feels weird. I've often voted for candidates who I expected to lose, because I hoped they would win. Haley would be a horrible president, but not I think as bad as Trump. If the Massachusetts primary had been earlier, I would probably have gritted my teeth and voted for Chris Christie, who was running an anti-Trump campaign. Teeth gritted in part because I lived in New York City when Christie was governor of New Jersey.

The regular state primary will be in September, and I will happily take a Democratic ballot and vote for my incumbent congresswoman, Ayanna Pressley.

The question being either "what was the shortest term of a British prime minister? p "who served the shortest term as British prime minister?" or the trickier "how long was the shortest term of a British prime minister?'

Someone in Ireland is probably already taking bets on whether Truss's successor will beat that record. (British bookmakers aren't supposed to take bets on British elections, and this may fall within that.)

Also, the Grauniad has a list of n"shortest-serving world leaders." Two men are tied for shortest, one on a technicality--the Guiness book of World Records is counting the never-proclaimed Louis XIX of France:

He was, apparently king only between the time of his father’s abdication signature and that of his own, both of which were on the same document.

This came in my morning email, and I'm putting it here for my own reference, and in case other people find it useful: a state-by-state chart of when mail-in ballots are counted [probably valid only for 2020].

I got this from Indivisble Acton [sic], which is urging us to vote early in person, if that's both possible and safe,, to minimize Trump/the Republicans' ability to claim victory based on Election Day partial results. (cattitude dropped my mail-in ballot off at Town Hall almost two weeks ago, and it has already been accepted.)

As of yesterday, it is officially safe (in terms of COVID-19) for me to go out., cattitude and I took advantage of this and went for a walk together, the first in more than two weeks (because he had probably-not-COVID symptoms a few days before I did). We saw lots of flowers, several other people, and some birds, but the main thing was to walk together.

Walking up and down the driveway is exercise, but wandering around the neighborhood is much more fun, and Cattitude very much enjoys walking with me.

In non-COVID terms, it was also essentially safe, in the middle of the day in a quiet middle-class neighborhood. Very little seems to be happening in Belmont, which is fine; this isn't a happening kind of place. There is apparently going to be some kind of virtual prayer vigil and anti-violence demonstration on Thursday. I have absolutely no desire to watch a livestream of a vigil led by assorted religious leaders, the chief of police, and local and state elected officials, or stand outside my house with a candle afterwards, though I could be convinced that the latter is worth doing.

Yes, I'm glad that the local government and police are, at least for now, on the side of justice and non-violence. That doesn't mean I want to line up behind them, or have my concern for my fellow humans presented in religious terms as part of a prayer vigil.

A lot of states are having presidential primaries tomorrow, including Massachusetts. I'm voting for Elizabeth Warren, and (obviously) encourage you to do the same if your state is having its primary tomorrow, and you're a registered Democrat or the state has "open" primaries, meaning you can ask for whichever ballot you prefer.

If anyone tries to stop you from voting tomorrow, call the Voter Rights Action hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE.

Since the Minnesota primary is tomorrow, Naomi Kritzer has written it up, with suggestions of who to vote for (and who not to). Yes, the Naomi Kritzer who won a Hugo for "Cat Pictures, Please."

That said, whoever you support, please vote.

If you're a registered Republican, you probably have the chance to vote against the incumbent, though it's unlikely to make a difference.

The states that are having primaries tomorrow (Tuesday, 3 March 2020) are:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Minnesota
• North Carolina
• Oklahoma
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia

Also, American Samoa is having Democratic nominating caucuses (as a territory, its residents can't vote in the presidential election).

Buried near the bottom of a Brexit briefing in the Guardian I found this fascinating bit:

The i newspaper reported this week that the Queen sought legal advice on the circumstances in which she can dismiss a prime minister prior to Johnson’s defeat in the supreme court.

Constitutional law was supposed to be boring.

We had one full day in New York on this trip, and cattitude spent part of it visiting a friend on the Island. adrian_turtle and I met my mother at the Cloisters at around noon. On our way uptown, we'd gotten into line for a Metrocard vending machine when a stranger came over to the line and asked if we had just gotten into the city. When we and the woman in front of us said yes, she handed us each an unlimited-ride Metrocard with four days left on it, saying that she was leaving town and didn't want them to go to waste. The woman in front of us asked "how much?" and the donor shook her head and said "Merry Christmas."

The trip uptown was unremarkable, and I found that I have a good memory for the details of that trip, including the irrelevant ones: I knew we were approaching 110th when the track sloped downward, and then (having lost count of stations) recognized 145th by the color of the pillars supporting the roof.

Adrian was delighted by the Cloisters, including the famous Unicorn Tapestries. This visit what caught my eye most was sculpture and artifacts (including a unicorn-shaped hand-washing pitcher in the room with those tapestries); when we went downstairs to the Treasury, I pointed out the wooden carvings on the staircase we had just descended. We had time to look at almost everything before we decided it was past time for lunch, which we got at the diner Cattitude and I used to go to regularly when we lived in Inwood. The staff has changed and the menu is shorter than it was, but it was basic good diner food, and they still know how to make tea.

Then we took the train down to the Village so we could go to Varsano's, my old favorite chocolate shop, which roadnotes had first introduced me to. I was pleasantly surprised not to have to wait (the Saturday right before Christmas), and we bought lots of interesting chocolate. My mother asked the difference between a lemon cream and a lemon truffle. I wasn't sure and asked the shop assistant; she passed the question to Mark Varsano, who explained and then put one of each on the counter for Mom to taste.

After I'd paid for my chocolate, Mark said something like "I still miss our friend," meaning Roadnotes, and we talked about her a little; one thing he mentioned was her dry sense of humor. I'd been afraid I would have to be the one to tell him she had died, and warned Adrian on our way downtown that I might need my hand held—but it's unsurprising that the same "small town that just happens to have eight million people" feeling that had Mark asking me how she was after she moved to Seattle means he'd gotten the sad news from some other mutual friend.

( here there be politics, but relatively low-stress, I think )

The day involved a lot of walking, including at least ten flights of stairs; by the time we headed back to our hotel my ankles were complaining about the stairs in front of my aunt's building, but my knee and hips were (and are) doing okay.

I went to a "Yes on 3" rally for transgender rights this morning. That's to keep the protections that are currently in Massachusetts law. If you're in Massachusetts, it's on the ballot in November. "Yes" on question 3 because it's phrased as "do you want to keep the law that provides these protections?"

The rally was partly to show support for keeping trans rights in state law, and partly to ecourage the attendees to volunteer, talk to our friends and neighbors and so on. The speakers were an odd mix. We heard a few personal stories—a woman talked about her kid having come out to her as trans and how she has tried to support him, and then her 14-year-old son talked about having felt safe enough to come out, at 12, because the law protects his rights, and what his day-to-day life is like. There were also speakers who have been involved with/supporting this cause for years, well before they got the law passed. That included Rep. Joe Kennedy, but also the CEO of Eastern Bank: the organizer told us that ten years ago, they'd approached a lot of businesses for support, and this was one of three that said yes.

This is the first rally in a long time that I managed to stay until the end of, which felt like an accomplishment. I got a ride home from Lechmere, because Liam (who I don't think is on DW) recognized me from a fannish party, and they and their mother had driven to the T station. I enjoyed talking to them, because they're nice people and because I'd gone to this rally by myself, and not seen anyone I recognized during the rally.

I got a call early this evening from one of the campaign organizers, Ben, who is following up with everyone she talked to about the pledge cards. We chatted a bit, including a bit about why I volunteered to work on this issue; a bit of it is that it feels more personal than (for example) ranked-choice voting, and partly because it feels like I'm more likely to be able to accomplish things at the state level. It's also somewhat arbitrary: there are more things worth doing than I could work on if I had the energy to do politics 40 hours a week. I don't need a complete list of things I could be doing, to pick the best: I need to find one, or a few, that are worthwhile and fit with my abilities.