Open Thread Wednesday

By on November 4, 2020 8:52 am in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away!

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  • AEB

    Good morning and oy vey!

  • Andrew Porter

    Turned off the TV last night; turned off NPR this morning; read today’s Times by zipping past election coverage. Looking forward to a dentist’s appointment today: at least there, they give you an anesthetic…

  • Andrew Porter

    From 1956, here’s a photo of the route from Borough Hall to the Post Office. At left, building at corner of Montague and Cadman Plaza, since demolished. (see view from a different vantage point in reply):
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95e598094d3e3b9a6ceeff76f90d76357fc931a30ffc74ac93b2bfd4d50dae79.jpg

  • Andrew Porter

    Also from 1956, color photo shows Supreme Court Building under construction. Note street sign for “S. Parkes Cadman Plaza,” neat old cars, sign for Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, from pre-BQE days:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/18fd7a7ef950258980602fd3b8baaf3238cb7cb6ff8cc1aad9d1e8f9a98288f3.jpg

  • Pierrepont

    Time to cut Staten Island loose!

  • B.

    Andrew, do you have any photos of that enormous old Quonset hut on Atlantic Avenue a bit east of Court Street — closer to Boerum, I guess. Used to pass it going home from church in the Heights, mid to late 1950s. Always fascinated me.

  • Jorale-man

    Yes, or maybe set up some permanent road blocks on the Verrazano Narrows bridge. Total embarrassment to NYC.

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    They can keep the road block that was on the GWB a few days ago.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Could not disagree more. Whether you are aware of it or not, SI politics are representative of 50% of the voting electorate in these United States. Accept that fact and try to engage and understand why their viewpoints are so different than yours. Many of their grievances are legitimate and attempting to understand them may be a first step to bringing our country together. If you do not think that coastal states are condescending towards fly over states then you are in the same propaganda silo as their affinity for Fox News.

  • Andrew Porter

    I think I vaguely remember that building, but don’t have any photos that show it.

  • Jorale-man

    Agreed. I’d just add though that it’s a two-way street. The Trump fans might try listening to the other side too. The burden shouldn’t be solely on progressives and moderates to engage.

  • aeshtron

    Staten Island is part of NYC?

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Absolutely. Due to my superior liberal bias (part of the problem) I think it is incumbent upon Democrats to reach out first. Possibly an impossible task to meet in the middle but I have made attempts with surprising results. Key is listening to the other party and genuinely respecting what they have to say even though it runs counter to everything I believe. Again, that counter view represents 50% of the US population. It is not idiosyncratic.

  • Reggie

    It was offered to Joisey but they declined.

  • aeshtron

    Or one may believe that Brooklyn NY and Idabel OK are too different to be effectively governed by the same federal government.

    Both sides of the culture war are condescending to each other. Many inhabitants of the continental US seem to equate supporting a womyn’s right to choose with being pals with beelzebub. LGTBQ, climate-change, caged children and onward…the rifts within the US are intractable.

    NYS ranks last for federal taxes paid versus federal funds received. NYS paid $26.6 billion more in 2018 than it received. I’m sick of my taxes paying to kill brown people!

    IMHO — NYC is far superior to flyover country and any condescending sense of superiority is justified : )

  • NeighboorHood

    Which viewpoints are “legitimate”? The xenophobia? The racism? The homophobia? The “fiscal conservative” hypocracy? The voter disenfranchisement? The anti-science anti-mask handling of a “Plandemic”?The QAnon conspracies?
    Why do I never hear Republicans say “we have to reach out and try to understand” Democrats?
    McConnell has already vowed to block all of Biden’s cabinet posts if they aren’t “conservative enough”. The official Republican policy stated before Obama was inaugurated was “say NO to EVERYTHING Democrats propose. Give them no victories”. This, as the nation faced the greatest economic crisis since the Depression (well until Trump’s crash that is). Staten Island Republicans support their party and candidates. These are their views. They are one and the same.

  • Love Laner

    How do we reckon with the fact that even more than coastal versus flyover, this party divide is along racial lines? Black and other non-white voters in flyover states and in rural areas are still voting for Democrats. It’s the white voters there that are supporting the Republican party, indicating this is not purely about the cultural/lifestyle differences between coast/interior of the country. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/03/16/did-rural-nonwhite-2016-voters-vote-more-like-rural-voters-or-more-like-nonwhite-voters/

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Your comments made me think of this song from South Pacific.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPf6ITsjsgk

  • Andrew Porter

    Screams of joy and celebration, cars honking, outside my window. Ya think something good happened?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/46d1792be2bf14d52bc9a0a6462afced19892be53c48cc6d8214d350e381e292.png

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn

    Hey Jeff Smith, come down to Montague. We’re having a party and you’re the guest of honor

  • AEB

    “Guest of dishonor” would be more like it, I think. But let’s not spend another minute thinking about him. He belongs on the political garbage heap happily forming.

  • NeighboorHood

    Lol. Yours made me think of these “very fine people”. I’m very optimistic about reaching out to https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5aad2979326225678384c3c1c5a0cf878f5d4f80d35bf69f40a222deffd2b77d.jpg and understanding them! ;)

  • http://www.yotamzohar.com StudioBrooklyn
  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Hehe, ouch.
    There are many that are irredeemable. No question. But there are others that can be convinced to moderate their beliefs. Remember, there were many people who voted for Trump who previously voted for Obama. Maybe we can start converting them.
    As a side note, my brother is a gay man living in the heart of Trump country in West Virginia and he continually tells me that their are many good people in his area who voted for Trump but are accepting of him and his husband, not the majority, but some.
    https://weelunk.com/couple-awaits-vote-on-non-discrimination-ordinance/

    Let’s start trying to find commonality with them to start.

  • Moni T

    Yours is the more realistic response, Neighborhood. If only we were dealing with well-intentioned conservative-leaning folks — but we are not. The lies and conspiracy theories that run rampant through this portion of the electorate make it near impossible to have any sane discourse. Venal Republican politicians will be pandering to them for a while yet, as they have cultivated this rabble and Trumpism. We will have to suffer their onslaughts for a long time, until the younger voters multiply and, hopefully, the education system improves.

  • Cindy Lawrence

    This, for the BHB types, is predictable. Notice there is no policing of behaviors like making person attacks. How typical.
    I told everyone to consider the source and the nature of the forum it appeared in. But since you brought up the subject. On election day I encountered a major Albany political figure outside the poles on Clark St. He and a associate asked I thought of what was happening. I said that either Trump will win or the thieves will succeed in robbing him and the American people. But if that happens then what I always teach people will be shown to be true. I always teach that you cannot cure cancer with a spring or sugar water. If Trump leave the stage the animals will run wild. And people will, thankfully stop listening to conservatives and Trump types…and start listening to people like me….whereupon all of you will get down on your grubby little knees and pray (hard) for Trump…….⁴