#DEANNA CAN STILL WIN!!!!! VOTE DEANNA!!!!!

[deputygonebye]

Papers marked in the scribbles of someone gone mad, someone far more astute than the circumstances of current gave her credit for, Shane made his way up to Emilia, beyond the cement beneath his feet, across wooden stairs that screamed as his weight was added onto them. Boards that shuddered at his welcome - primeval at the surface, bitterly tormented and aged underneath the mask, the fresh paint and redone nail work. Scattered like the leaves that would fall come the autumn season, all around in unorganized piles, clippings from newspapers and photographs recently captured stole all the attention that Emilia could muster. Her eyes focused sharp; the jade of her irises cooled to almost stoic, a statue set to freckled skin and optimistic sensibilities. As if she were within her own world, with nothing more than her promises to keep her grounded, even when Shane took his spot beside her did Emilia refuse to rest. Fingers ever still moved in their dance. From the holding of a pen, to flick between pictures, discarding written notes in crumbled heaps. Smaller stacks nearest her made bigger, the passage of time seemingly short, as if greater burdens were before her than anyone else could see.

Shane watched her keenly. As her whispers toward herself were shared into the open air, the thoughts of an artist brought to life and offered without hesitation. Questions and answers, decisions and the like, passions that were free and unafraid. Never locked away, an awful habit that Shane couldn't claim for himself. Far more opinionated - too bold, too brash, too harsh - prisoned to the heart until no more could be braved, thereafter burst to the surface in a mess that always required cleaning up. Splattered about and ugly, an apology guaranteed to be on his lips, Shane made the fool due to his own nature, the faults that he swore, one day, he would get right. Hoped to, for every moment seemed to breathe a new dawn, a chance at life unknown, an unexpected death. Surprises around every corner, his fate forever left to what the undead decided, the people who voted themselves governor, the leaders of Alexandria. Deanna and the others; dressed in their Sunday best, meals come straight from the oven for dinner and not an expired can, warmed and cozy by the fireplace in the living room.

Documentations presented before he, Shane glanced over what laid in Emilia's lap. Curious, confused, eyebrows drawn close and mouth formed to a thin line. Scrutiny of bronze carried from one picture to the next, heated and melted to an almost black, eyes traveled thoroughly, the resident deputy committing to his sacred oath, to serve and protect, to be made aware of and keep tabs.

"You take all these yourself?" Shane interrogated, delicate in tone, for Emilia wasn't on trial nor arrested, anything but the punk kid who had once dared to assault him during a traffic stop way back in King County. His face safe from a drunken 20-something's claws; oddly trimmed for a boy, pointed at the tips and painted, blood dripped down both his nails and Shane's eyes, scratches deeply embedded, took days to heal.

Shane remarked, his head shaken, mind cleared of the bizarre memory. "With all due respect, Miss, does Deanna got you on some kind of committee or somethin'? I ain't ever seen so many pictures before. You look like you could use some help. Like I said, I ain't the artsy type, but if you need it, I'll lend my services however I can. Say, I don't think you and I ever got to know each other. Nothin' beyond the introductions and whatnot. As I mentioned, Deanna sure sang her praises about you, but... I'd rather like to learn more from the woman herself. It'll help me bein' deputy and all, you know. Gettin' to know the civilians, the folks I'll be protectin'. Tell me, Ms. Emilia, besides havin' a knack for takin' pictures, bein' kind, and holdin' that charmin' accent, who are you? Here, why don't you hand me some of those photos and the scissors? I'll cut, you talk. Win-win, if I may say so."

sitting cross - legged on a porch, bits of notepaper and photographs laid out in front of her in a way that would say chaos to anyone else was just about as close to normal as she’d been able to ( or allowed herself to, more importantly ) in a long time. it was a ritual of hers; something she might have called ‘her process’ if she wanted to sound a little more sophisticated while keeping her tongue firmly placed in her cheek. ( in truth it’s almost as chaotic as it appears — a scene that can be non-ironically labeled ‘snapshot’ of what’s currently moving about in her brain. but somewhere in between her notes and the photos is something cohesive. )

at least that’s what she’s hoping to get out of all of this. telling a story by pictures alone is something she’s always been good at, though her ability to do so has gotten so much more than difficult over the last couple years. and even though being in alexandria gives her fleeting feelings of being back in her apartment in new york and undertaking the same tasks, the humidity here ( and the view ) are just as quick to remind her that she’s as far away from all of that as she could be.

the pen she’s been using to make ( and in some cases, remake ) the notes that go with the photographs alternates resting spots in between uses: from tucked behind her ear, to held between her teeth, to a bit of twirling in between her fingers while she carries on a quiet conversation with herself about the best way to put all of this chaos together. it’s a conversation so preoccupying that she doesn’t realize she’s got an audience until she hears him laugh --- a sound closer than the occasional conversations that come and go along the sidewalk or find their way on the breeze from down the street.

it’s more for clarification than something accusatory when she asks if the laugh she hears is indeed for her; she’s self-aware enough to know just how ridiculous she ( and her porch ) must look from where he’s standing on the sidewalk, and if her tone doesn’t go far enough, she hopes the smile that follows helps. “did she? i hope she didn’t oversell me.” but it’s reassuring in a way ( and adds just a little bit more pressure on her ) hearing that deanna’s talking about her. after all, they’d spent a good part of emilia’s ‘interview’ talking about her photography and deanna’s hope to document what they’d built here ---- the latter now scattered all over the porch.

“it’s still a bit of a mess, but you can come see if you like,” she stacks a handful’s worth of her notes to make some room for him to join her, “and you never know. if i can’t get it to work like i see it all in my head, i might need those stick figure skills of yours.”

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: September 2020

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of September 2020 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

Remember how proven liar Boris Johnson said he had a world-beating oven-ready Britait deal, which was also the basis of his election slogan campaign of “Get Britait done” and the lack of support for the deal is the reason he sacked 21 of his own MPs?  Just asking, because he tore the whole thing up and said it was unworkable - which also led to Brandon Lewis saying in Parliament, so it is now forever enshrined in the Hansard, that De Pfeffel merely broke international law “in a very specific and limited way” - you know, sort of like how the Manson Family broke the law in a very specific and limited way

The bold vision of a new BBC shared by Tim Davie was revealed when he threatened comedy shows with the axe if they kept making jokes about Britait, the Tory Party or Donald Trump on his first day on the job, because as we all know the best form of comedy comes from punching down rather than up, which is why Little Britain definitely hasn’t aged appallingly

Master of decorum Donald Trump couldn’t even wait a few short hours after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death before he started rallying the foot soldiers about cramming somebody more fitting with what he wanted into the Supreme Court

Mayor of Amity Island governor of Florida Ron DeSantis continued his bid to be recognised for having the worst response to the Covid pandemic in the congress of having the worst possible response to the Covid pandemic by deciding that, actually, the state of Florida needs to lessen its Covid restrictions at a time when cases of Covid have begun to rise alarmingly in the state

It’s no surprise that proven liar Boris Johnson lied in Parliament by referring to Serco’s failing test & trace app as “NHS Test & Trace” - however the biggest issue is that the BBC had been using the exact same phrase for at least two weeks before that

Nobody was surprised to hear smirking cretin Priti Patel personally using the term “activist lawyers” that the Home Office (headed by P. Patel) had previously used to dehumanise and demean people upholding those pesky immigration laws that the Tory Party really don’t like getting in the way

Tax dodging orange goblin Donald Trump was asked a simple question: Do you think that white supremacists are a problem?  We are still waiting for an answer to that question...

Okay, so now the Conservative Party are cracking down on people breaking lockdown, with threats of a £10,000 fine - rather than circling the wagons around them and throwing out one cock and bull excuse after another like they did when Dominic Cummings broke lockdown to nip off to Durham after testing positive for Covid on what just so happened to be his wife’s birthday

You know that Matt Hancock is good at his job when, having been sent out in front of the cameras to defend The Tory Party appointing ex-Australian PM and all-around arsehole Tony Abbott as a trade advisor in spite his history of misogynistic, homophobic and “Let’s kill the elderly so we can survive Covid” comments the best he could do was say he was a good negotiator...which promptly led to all manner of comments about Harold Shipman being a good GP and Fred West laying one hell of a patio 

According to Jacob Rees Mogg the public having a legitimate complaint about it being damn near impossible to have a Covid test is nothing more than “endless carping” and not, say, legitimate criticism of a woefully underprepared government trying to coast by on the bare minimum who have the gall to try and blame the public for their long list of catestrophic fuckups

It was no surprise to hear proven liar Boris Johnson hand-wringing about “the freedom of the press” after Extinction Rebellion finally realised that being annoying idiots is far more likely to gain support if you’re being annoying idiots with a purpose - just as it was no surprise to hear that proven liar Boris Johnson had no opinion whatsoever of Tim Davie telling BBC newsreaders to fall in line with the corporation (read: Tory) line or they’d be sacked

Once again there was a chance for Keir Starmer to show that his talk of being “true Opposition” is more than a soundbite and, once again, he wimped out on it when ordering Labour MPs to abstain from voting on the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill for fear of being accused of being “anti-British” by voting for a bill created to stop prosecution of British troops for using torture instead of voting against it - and then sacking Nadia Whittome, Beth Winter, and Olivia Blake from their junior ministerial positions when they were three of the 18 Labour MPs who voted against it

It clearly never occurred to Marsha Blackburn when she was browbeating people about the Constitution of the US never being rewritten that the Constitution of the US has been rewritten several times already.  There’s a reason they’re called “Amendments” and not “Footnotes” you know...

Smirking cretin Priti Patel proudly stated that, if she saw her neighbours, she’d gladly call the police due to them breaking the law.  This was around 14 hours after she’d voted to break international law in the Commons, or a few short years after she broke ministerial code by nipping over to Israel to have undisclosed meetings with israeli officials, which begs the question about whether her neighbours are just as willing, doesn’t it?

Judging by Alan Sugar tweeting out conspiracy theories about Covid being created in a Wuhan lab, I think it's safe to say that no Apprentice game show host is capable of not acting like a complete arse on Twitter.  Luckily for the UK, Sugar isn’t Prime Minister - he’s merely a member of the House of Lords...

It’s been a while since WWE acted like totalitarian dicks to the wrestlers employed independently contracted to them but they managed to find one by telling every single one of their employees independent contractors that they could no longer use Twitch or Cameo as it was decided this was being “detrimental” to the company...you know, the bunch of carnies who sign billion dollar deals with our journalist-murdering, woman-oppressing, Yemeni-slaughtering, 9/11-planning “allies” Saudi Arabia, don’t have any for of healthcare for their employees independent contractors, continued a pay per view even though one of their employees independent contractors died due to a stunt going wrong that was linked to the company cheaping out on a safety harness, and apparently not knowing that the term “independent contractor” doesn’t mean the company can sign them to five year deals but sack them at any point - and then prevent them from working anywhere else for 90 days

We had confirmation of Alison Pearson possessing a terrifying combination of pig ignorance and outright sociopathy when she began a Telegraph article with the following: “My son has Covid-19.  Good.”

Sour grapes from Lisa Nandy over people forgetting she was in the Labour leadership race judging by how she apparently didn’t listen to a party pledge to tax corporations and instead spout off a bunch of nonsensical gibberish that sounded uncannily like Britain First rhetoric under the belief that sounding like Britain First is guaranteed to win back working class Northern voters

Litigious TERF JK Rowling revealed her latest book is about a man who murders people while dressed as a woman, which definitely hasn’t drawn any form of comment whatsoever...

You would like to believe that reports of Limestone Games not only effectively stealing the game Aeon Must Die! from the actual dev team who were forced out of the company by a culture of abuse and harassment by a shady cabal who took over the studio would have eld to the game’s release being postponed, especially after it emerged that assets used in the game’s trailer were infringing on various copyrights - but instead Focus Home Entertainment responded by twiddling their thumbs and doing nothing

I’m sure there’s no connection between Alan Sugar demanding people go back to work as if the number of Covid cases has been rising to an alarming degree and how Alan Sugar is bemoaning that his commercial property portfolio is not making him “enough” money due to people staying at home.  None whatsoever...

The fact that those moron parents in California started a wildfire after setting off fireworks for their baby’s gender reveal party that led to over 20,000 people having to evacuate their homes is dickheaded enough - but the fact that it’s not the first case of this happening, as a similar incident happened in Arizona back in 2018, makes them look even more dickheaded

If you want to say you put Britain before anything else, like Andrea Jenkyns did in her latest Twitter tsunami of childishness and spite, it doesn't look good when you say you're pro-Trump before pre-De Pfeffel as it defeats your own argument almost as fast as being Andrea Jenkyns - or, you know, failing to spell the word “British” correctly when accusing people of being anti-British

It would have been wise if West Ham announced that manager David Moyes and two players had tested positive for Covid before their match with Hull - not after the match had kicked off, leading to Moyes legging it out of the stadium

Whatever it is in the mind of DeAnna Lorraine that snapped and had her babbling insane nonsense that The Masked Singer is part of a covert plot to have people wearing masks probably can’t be repaired, and appears to have also caused her to accuse anyone who thinks she does sound insane of being acolytes of George Soros

Professional victim Laurence Fox somehow believed that posting a chat log of a conversation between himself and Rebecca Front and then howling about being “cancelled” - and then a few hours later had to very publicly backtrack, no doubt because his agent had several dozen words with him

I have no idea why David Cameron convinced himself that showing himself helping out in the Chipping Norton food bank was a good idea, considering he’s the reason why food banks exist in the first place

How nice of Manchester Metropolitan University to tell the students who were confined to accomodation so unable to go out and buy food, who were paying £9000 tuition fees for face-to-face tutoring that was done via Zoom that makes such good value of the hundreds of pounds of rent they have to pay per month when they could have had those same lectures from home, that they’re not allowed to protest about this situation and had to take any signs posted on their windows critical of the government down immediately

In normal circumstances Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden sneaking girls into the England team hotel would look pretty stupid, especially in Foden’s case considering the odds of his live-in girlfriend not finding out about this are practically nil, but during a global pandemic it looked so incredibly boneheaded it’s lucky they play for the Manchester clubs otherwise the front pages would be calling them ignorant traitors or some such bullshit

Nothing sums up Premier League referees quite like them clearly not understanding the current definition of the handball rule, but rather than actually look it up they make it up as they go alone leading to more penalties being awarded for handball in the first four rounds of Premier League fixtures than in entire seasons - not helped by Premier League referees also operating VAR, where they seem to have a policy of “If you ignore my cock up, I’ll ignore yours”

And finally, inventing yet another terror atrocity, is Donald Trump and his batshit insane proclamations about cans of soup being a much bigger threat to American lives than, say, and AR-15.  But then again, it’s not like his support base has a habit of throwing cans of soup at crowds of people

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

I’ve spent a couple of days in New Hampshire this past week and keep on realizing I’ve already been places. I pulled into a brewery at the end of a dark, windy road (is everything out of a Robert Frost poem up here?) and recognized the refurbished barn from another candidate’s tour of the place. I drove up to my hotel and remembered that I’d eaten in its restaurant four years ago. The snow is the same as in 2016, too; big flakes that catch in your eye and make you wish you’d thought to bring waterproof mascara.

A lot of the voter talk is the same as four years ago, too. Namely all the cynicism and worry — What’s the matter with America? and What’s the matter with the media? kind of stuff. The only thing that’s different this year is that it’s coming from Democrats.

When you see candidates campaigning or voters listening to a stump speech, you don’t see a lot of unbridled merriment or excitement. Instead it’s a business-like frenzy to, as Democrats see it, pull the country back from the brink.

“It’s horrible to say but there’s more dumb people than I realized, or gullible people that don’t listen,” Catherine Michel, 69, told me. We were standing flush to a wall in a VFW hall in Somersworth, watching a Joe Biden event break up. The former vice president had arrived in the gray morning light in his aviator sunglasses, lenses that have been glued to Biden’s face quite a bit these days as he looks to project the cool that seems to be rapidly leaving him with every passing poll.

Michel was there with her husband, David, and they were anxious to see Biden before they made their choice. They couldn’t bear to see President Donald Trump on TV anymore. “He reminds me of Mussolini giving a speech, how he juts his jaw out and cocks his face,” David said. The Michels wanted to know what candidate could puncture that air of abrasive confidence in the president. “Trump is that dishonest bully and dishonest bullies often win,” Catherine said. “It’s really scary. So while I might support Bernie Sanders as the guy to stand up against a bully with lots of energy and just die punching him, is that the way to go? Or pick someone in the middle?”

Jim and Mary from Dover, 78 and 74, stood outside waiting to see Biden board his bus. Both said they would vote for the former vice president, but they’d entertained other options — Mary had been impressed with Amy Klobuchar’s performance during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings. But Jim, a former registered Republican, said the senator from Minnesota didn’t stand a chance in the 2020 fray. “In normal times, she might have a chance, right? But this is a war. This is not a nice political process. This is a war and the poor Democrats think they’re going to have a political process and a campaign, and Trump is just gonna fight dirtier than anybody can fight,” he said. He brought up a friend who likes Rush Limbaugh — Jim is not a fan — and I asked if he thought the country’s political climate was in part the fault of the media. “No, it’s a citizen problem,” he said. “If you watch a cable program with these terrible slams, then you have to make a point of watching the other slams. Then you blend the two and hopefully you read a newspaper somewhere.”

Mary considered his point. “So what you’re saying is people should work harder at making their decisions rather than depending on the media to spoon feed it to them?”

A few hours later, voters in North Hampton nursed beers as they waited for actress Ashley Judd, an Elizabeth Warren surrogate, to arrive. But those at one table I approached hadn’t realized they’d walked into a political event. John and Deanna of Hollis, 67 and 58, were friendly, but John told me he’d given me a fake last name — media distrust is a constant theme on the trail. Far from seeking out the political, the couple told me their Republican friends don’t even know they’re Democrats. They only talk politics to each other these days, so as not to rock the boat. “All it would take was one conversation to blow that all up,” John said. He said it’s uncomfortable for them because their friends “talk like everyone feels the same way” about Trump and politics. Lately, John has found that people make assumptions about what you’re OK with. He’d been on a work trip in Texas and, “I sat in a car with a group of people that were customers and I heard them make racial comments and a few years back they wouldn’t have.”

When Judd got up to speak, it was a brief approximation of a politician’s speech — she talked about her humble roots and her connection to Warren and called Trump’s State of the Union “a moral injury.” You get used to hearing anyone with a microphone at events like these say the same sorts of things. But then Judd said something else.

“Earlier today we had a very extraordinarily moving panel with the incredible people in New Hampshire who work at stopping intimate partner violence and stalking,” she said. “It’s a sad thing to say but American men kill American women at a rate of three to four a day and that event was open to the press and none of the media chose to come.”

I’d seen the email for the event. I think I thought the drive was too far, simple as that. If I’m really being honest, I didn’t think about it all that much. Probably because American men do kill American women so often and probably because men have been killing the women they know and love since the dawn of time. Sad, but wholly typical. But it was lacerating to hear the statistic in that cozy New Hampshire bar; you are alive and they are not.

What’s so often lost in the primary rush — the horserace ups and downs — is the primary reason for government: a need to regulate ourselves, to instill order and some semblance of justice in society. But justice is often as wide as the chancellor’s foot — which is to say, wholly unjust. Still, the sense that society has to wrangle some order is agreed upon. What elections are about is what sort of order to instill — economic, diplomatic, militaristic.

Sometimes the little things like keeping people alive gets lost in the shuffle. So too do our individual sensibilities — everything becomes so zoomed out that you can only see a mass of people moving one way or the other, not the component parts. It’s easier to tell that story on television or in 1,200 words.

Catherine Michel’s father was a Trump supporter. He passed away, but when she spoke about him, it was in the present tense, since parents are always on your shoulder, wherever you are. She was explaining to me, I think, that he wasn’t defined by the last presidential candidate he supported. “He raised five girls and a boy. He’s very democratic and loving and liberal and education for the minorities and charity and global warming, of course,” she said. “But then when he listens — the media. …” She sort of paused, looking for the words. “The media has to be really careful.”

[sarahsrp]

☯ for Greeks!

send me a ☯ for a brotp meme

Mateo/Mitchell

who’s older?: I’m not sure. But I do know they’re both seniors so…

who’s more protective?: Oh, that’s hard to say. I’d say Mateo, maybe. And really only because he’s super protective of all his KT brothers since he’s the president. 

what’s their origin?: Karmic synergy (ding)

what are four words to describe their relationship?: Awesome, boozy, fun, silly 

how does each one feel when the other gets into a romantic relationship?: do they get jealous? are they super protective? proud of their friend getting out there?? They’d totally be stoked and happy that their friend is happy. There are probably a lot of dirty questions about sex thrown into the conversation when it’s first brought up but all in all they’d be happy. 

list three problems that they’ve encountered in their time together: Thinking of pranks to play on Omega Chi, figuring out how to sneak into Omega Chi to play pranks, figuring out how to defend their run down castle from Omega Chi once they realize KT pranked them 

how often do they fight?: They probably fight a lot. And by fight I mean typical KT wrestling match or something like that. Actually fighting? They’ve probably never been in an actual fight with each other. 

what would their biggest fight be about?: Probably something like “WHY WOULD YOU EAT MY LEFTOVERS?! MY NAME WAS CLEARLY ON THE TAKE OUT CONTAINER!” 

nicknames/terms of endearment?: they are super frat boys so its “dude” “bro” “man” and extra special “mexibro” 

how long will they last?: do they fall out a few months after friendship blooms? do they laugh at their respective grandchildren together while looking over photos from decades ago? Decades, man. They definitely don’t stay super close since they’d be living in different places after college but they’ll still be friends, go to KT reunions and visit each other. 

how well do they know each other?: I’d say pretty well. They don’t know every detail of their lives but they lived with one another for years now and are very close. 

which of the two is more: violent, expressive, affectionate, irritable, intelligent, attractive, kind: Neither are really violent but maybe Mitchell? And they both suck at being expressive and openly affectionate lol. Um, Mateo might be a little better with being affectionate and that’s only because he actually kind of has a girlfriend. Irritable? Uh, Mitchell. Mateo is almost always in a good mood. Intelligent, again…not sure. Neither of them are really dumb but they ain’t geniuses. They’re both hella attractive but Mateo votes he wins this one. And I’d say they are both pretty kind people. 

are there any chances of them n o t staying platonic?: Nope. They will always be just platonic. 

how would they react if the other were to die?: Be super sad. Omg. Definitely cry a lot. 

what extent would one half of the brotp go for the other?: Kappa Tau love runs deep so they’d go pretty damn far. 

list headcanons for them based around: a slide, a laptop, winter, coca-cola, braiding hair, shoes, two of your choice: Ok, so I think I make a headcanon out of 2 of the options, right? Ok, first would be the slide. I imagine they thought it would be an amazing idea to build a slide that went from the roof of KT to the back yard for parties. They probably drunkenly drew up plans for it but never followed through. The second would be shoes. I can see them, as a prank on Omega Chi, taking all of the shoes and stringing every single pair of shoes in the rival frat house up in trees. They’d think they were so funny too as they’re doing it. 

Neri/Deanna

who’s older?: Deanna is older than Neri but only by a few months. 

who’s more protective?: I’m going to give this one to Deanna. Neri is pretty protective and will glare at anyone who talks badly or does anything to her friend but Deanna would probably throw a punch of two. 

what’s their origin?: I imagine they met through Willa, actually. Willa and Deanna were old friends but Deanna is Gamma and Willa is Zeta with Neri. Neri probably met Deanna at a party when she came up to chit chat with Willa and they hit it off and have been friends ever since. 

what are four words to describe their relationship?: Sweet, bubbly, laid back, encouraging 

how does each one feel when the other gets into a romantic relationship?: do they get jealous? are they super protective? proud of their friend getting out there?? They are so excited for each other. Like I said in the previous answer, they are encouraging of one another especially when it comes to love and relationships. 

list three problems that they’ve encountered in their time together: They’ve never really had a problem. Their friendship is pretty easy breezy. Their biggest and only problem is probably somewhere along the lines of one of them having trouble opening up. Whether it’s Deanna on her feelings and relationship worries or Neri admitting she likes someone and talks about anything sexual. 

how often do they fight?: Never. Have they ever fought? I don’t think so. 

what would their biggest fight be about?: I don’t even know since they don’t fight. The most likely thing would be going behind the other’s back and doing something that they think is helping the other but really just makes them mad? I don’t know. 

nicknames/terms of endearment?: Probably just hon or sweetie. Neri says Dee here and there but not too often. 

how long will they last?: do they fall out a few months after friendship blooms? do they laugh at their respective grandchildren together while looking over photos from decades ago? They’d last up until Deanna starts lashing out as a result of her martial problems. Neri would totally try to keep the friendship strong but there’s only so much someone can do for someone who is pushing everyone away. Though I do imagine they’d eventually get back in touch with one another and be like long distance friends. 

how well do they know each other?: I’d say pretty well. I doubt Deanna holds back much information from Neri. Neri is a bit guarded but she’d tell Deanna about pretty much everything. She likes Deanna and trusts her enough so she doesn’t really keep secrets from her all too often. 

which of the two is more: violent, expressive, affectionate, irritable, intelligent, attractive, kind: Deanna - violent, affectionate, irritable, attractive. Neri - expressive, intelligent, kind. 

are there any chances of them n o t staying platonic?: As epic as Neri and Deanna would probably be, no. Deanna is way too into her husband and Neri likes a KT. 

how would they react if the other were to die?: Crushed. I really hate this question. Like, so sad. That’s the obvious answer for anyone. Neri would probably always be really sad about her friend passing and I’m sure Deanna would too. 

what extent would one half of the brotp go for the other?: Neri likes to play by the rules so as far as those go. Maybe even further by breaking one or two small rules. Deanna though, she’d probably break all the rules but that’s because she’s a rule breaker. 

list headcanons for them based around: a slide, a laptop, winter, coca-cola, braiding hair, shoes, two of your choice: So, Neri is obsessed with decorating stuff like crazy. She probably got that pretty washi tape and decorated her laptop and then Deanna’s laptop without really asking if it was ok. She probably was about to go for the keyboard before Deanna stopped her. Again, I’m choosing shoes because Neri dresses very cutely all the time. She doesn’t have anything considered sexy. And Deanna likes to dress her up and probably lends her high heels all the time to wear. Neri never wore shoes that had a heel higher than an inch until she met Deanna. 

Joshua/Ian 

who’s older?: Josh is older by like 4 months. That’s why he’s the grandpa in the relationship. 

who’s more protective?: They’re both protective. I am going with Ian though since he takes the whole bro-pproval of dating thing more seriously 

what’s their origin?: Two rednecks in Ohio for school happen to be at the Lambda Sig house on rush night. They look across the room and lock eyes with one another. Everything stops, the people around them fade away, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird plays in the background and they know. They know they’ve found their true brove. 

what are four words to describe their relationship?: Loving, kind, uplifting, everlasting 

how does each one feel when the other gets into a romantic relationship?: do they get jealous? are they super protective? proud of their friend getting out there?? So happy. Josh wants nothing more than his best friend in the entire world to meet a girl and fall madly in love. He is protective though and feels the need to get to know said girl and determine that she’s right for Ian. And Ian is the same way but like, extra because he takes the test super seriously. And they never get jealous because no girl is gonna keep them from spending bro time together. 

list three problems that they’ve encountered in their time together: Fighting over who gets their dorm room for the night, Arguing over sport teams (like baseball, football, college football and nascar), that time Josh lied to Ian because he didn’t want to tell him something and Ian wouldn’t lay off until Josh told him something so Josh lied…

how often do they fight?: Rarely. And their fights generally aren’t that serious and they get over it before the conversation is even finished. 

what would their biggest fight be about?: Their biggest fight, which wasn’t even a fight as probably that thing I mentioned about Josh lying. Ian was upset about it and Josh apologized and that was pretty much the end of it. They don’t really fight because they know it’s important to talk about their feelings and they do so before bed like every night. 

nicknames/terms of endearment?: Babe, hon, boo, husband, bro, my man…am I forgetting anything? 

how long will they last?: do they fall out a few months after friendship blooms? do they laugh at their respective grandchildren together while looking over photos from decades ago? Forever. Literally. They’ve already discussed that once they die, the dead one will wait for the living one on the other side. And once the living one dies, they’d be reunited and bros in the afterlife. Honestly, wouldn’t be surprised if they insist on being buried next to each other. 

how well do they know each other?: They know everything about each other. Everything. Again, they have nightly conversations about how their day went, how they’re feeling, if and what’s upsetting them or making them happy. They don’t keep secrets. 

which of the two is more: violent, expressive, affectionate, irritable, intelligent, attractive, kind: Violent - Ian. Josh isn’t really violent at all. Expressive - Josh in public. Ian hates a little more encouragement. Affectionate - Josh, Irritable - JOSH!! Especially when he doesn’t get his sleep. Intelligent - lol, I guess Josh? But they’re both kind of dumb at times. Attractive - They’re both hella fine but Josh votes Ian. Kind - They’re both really kind people so I say it’s a tie. 

are there any chances of them n o t staying platonic?: Despite the fact that they love each other and have matching friendship rings, they will always be platonic. 

how would they react if the other were to die?: They’d be dead inside. That’s like their other half. They’d always be depressed over it. But know that they promised to be reunited in the afterlife and continue being bros. So maybe also a little hopeful? 

what extent would one half of the brotp go for the other?: To the end of the world. There is pretty much nothing they wouldn’t do for each other. 

list headcanons for them based around: a slide, a laptop, winter, coca-cola, braiding hair, shoes, two of your choice: 1. During Josh’s first winter in a state that actually had snow, Ian helped him a lot. He took him to a store where he could get a good but not too costly winter coat since Josh didn’t have a lot of money. He also helped him with getting chains on his truck’s tires and helped him pretty much learn how to drive in those snowy/icy conditions. 2. Let’s be real: Josh cannot do hair to save his life. But his daughter loves having cute braids and ponytails. So, anytime Ian is around, he attempts to teach Josh what he knows about braiding hair. It doesn’t exactly stick but he still tries. 

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

California is a place of superlatives and extremes — it’s the most populous state in the nation, with the hottest deserts and the tallest trees, the flashiest celebrities and the best avocados. And in terms of pure math, it is Super Tuesday’s largest prize. About 10 percent of the total pledged delegates in the Democratic presidential primary will be up for grabs in California on Tuesday — or, to put it another way, about as many delegates as Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah and Minnesota combined.

But California has often been overlooked in the Democratic primary, stuck in June at the end of a months-long process, in which the state’s millions of votes mostly functioned as a rubber stamp for the winner.1 That changed, though, in 2017, when the California legislature moved its contest up with the hope of giving the state the kind of influence over the process that befits its massive delegate haul. It seemed like this year, California voters could finally get their due.

Except when I arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday, it didn’t feel much like a presidential primary was underway. And as I drove into the city from the airport, the only political billboards I saw were for local elections, like district attorney or county supervisor. Several presidential candidates had scheduled quick, last-minute trips to California, but the state wasn’t getting more attention than smaller, more geographically manageable Super Tuesday states like Arkansas, Alabama or Colorado.

Look at the polls, and it’s easier to understand why candidates mostly chose to save their energy for other states. According to our average of polls in California, Sen. Bernie Sanders has the support of 33 percent of the state’s voters, with all of the other candidates in a messy, distant scuffle for second. And driving that lead, according to a Los Angeles Times/University of California, Berkeley poll released Friday, is Sanders’s commanding support among some of California’s key voting blocs — Latinos, young people and the very liberal. According to our model,2 he has a 93 percent chance of winning the most votes, and could walk away with more than half of the state’s pledged delegates.

Almost a year ago, Sanders made a risky bet to go big on California. And since then he has steadily ramped up his presence in the state, making a big, long-term investment in winning over its voters. It’s true that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has dropped millions in California over the past few months and vastly outspent his competitors in TV ads. But Sanders, more than any other candidate, has made California a key part of his strategy, relying on the army of volunteers he began to build four years ago, when he lost California to former Sen. Hillary Clinton, 53.4 percent to 45.7 percent.

Sanders’s operation could make him unstoppable in California on Tuesday — especially if it can help him capture the support of voters of color who tended to break for Clinton back in 2016. The question now is whether it’ll work.

“Even more than Nevada or South Carolina, California will demonstrate the degree to which Sanders has successfully expanded his support into communities of color,” said Dan Schnur, a political strategist in California. “That was his biggest obstacle in 2016. The results in California will show if he’s figured out how to overcome it.”

Covering one of the first four states in a presidential primary is a little like entering a weeklong political carnival. The candidates ricochet across the state, hosting concerts and sports events, lunches and town halls, trying to win over undecided voters and turn out their base in the final frantic days before the vote.

True to stereotype, California’s primary has a more laid-back mood. That’s because the state’s massive scale and the way it runs elections are less suited to frenetic, retail politics campaigning. For one thing, many Californians don’t vote on Super Tuesday at all. Most of California’s voters received mail-in ballots in early February. By the time I landed in Los Angeles, more than 750,000 Democrats had already sent their ballots back. For the first time, some early voting centers were also open for more than a week before Super Tuesday. And now, according to Political Data, Inc., a group that tracks early voting in California, 20 percent of Democratic voters who received a mail-in ballot have returned it. Deanna Lepree, a 29-year-old nursing student, told me outside a polling place, where she had just cast her ballot for Sanders, that many of her friends from school had voted already. “After class today, they were talking about how they’d voted, and I thought, ‘Gosh, I’d better get to it,’” she said.

There were no candidates barnstorming up and down the coast. Instead, it was up to the organizers and volunteers to keep stolidly canvassing and phone banking — the way they’d been doing for weeks or even months. And in terms of their presence on the ground, Sanders and Bloomberg have a huge advantage over the other candidates. Sanders has 23 field offices scattered throughout California, according to data gathered by FiveThirtyEight contributor and political scientist Joshua Darr, and Bloomberg has 25.3 The other two candidates with a field presence in California — former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren — have only a fraction of that reach, and one of Warren’s four offices has been open for less than a week.

As I started criss-crossing the city to see how the various campaigns were getting out the vote, it was clear that young Californians were a big part of Sanders’s push. He has the support of 61 percent of voters ages 18 to 29, according to the L.A. Times/Berkeley poll, and 53 percent of voters ages 30 to 39 — far more than any other candidate. On the idyllic, leafy campus of the University of California, Los Angeles on Thursday, a group of Sanders’s student supporters had staked out a place on the quad with a table full of “Students for Bernie” stickers and pins and a battered, slightly-too-short cutout of Sanders that the students chipped in to buy for $45 on Amazon. “He’s been through a lot,” said Dylan Portillo, 21, a junior who has the honor of schlepping the Sanders cutout back and forth from his apartment. “People really love taking selfies with him.”

Henry Burke, 21, told me he volunteered for the Sanders campaign in 2016, while he was still in high school. As soon as Sanders announced he was running again, he signed up to help out. “In 2016, we were pretty much running just on enthusiasm,” he said. But this year, he thinks the campaign is more organized and streamlined. He pulled an app out of his pocket to show me how he can quickly look up a voter’s registration status, which he said is especially helpful for students who may not know where they’re registered, or if they’re registered at all.

Outreach to voters of color — particularly Latino voters — has also been an important part of Sanders’s California strategy. On Saturday night, as the results of the South Carolina primary trickled, I stopped by Sanders’s field office in East Los Angeles. The space was buzzing with volunteers and organizers who seemed unperturbed by Biden’s first big win. Every few minutes, they would ring a bell when a canvasser returned with a voter’s mail-in ballot, which the campaign has been collecting to submit on their behalf. Steven Gibson, 64, who volunteered for Sanders in 2016 and now works as a regional field director for the campaign, said that even after months of work in communities of color in Los Angeles, he was surprised by the energy for Sanders in heavily Latino neighborhoods like the one surrounding the field office. “You’ll walk down the street in a Sanders shirt and young black or Latino people will stop you and say, ‘Hey Bernie, I love Bernie!’” Gibson said. “That wasn’t happening in 2016.”

“The Sanders campaign missed some opportunities in California four years ago, I think in part because they didn’t really understand the state,” said Paul Mitchell, a California political consultant and the vice president of Political Data, Inc. He pointed to the campaign’s aggressive outreach to independent voters — who were more likely to support Sanders in 2016 but, thanks to the quirks of California election law, have to jump through extra hoops to vote for the Democratic presidential candidates — as an example of the campaign’s newfound savvy. “This time, they’re focusing on early voters and Latinos and independents. In some ways, this primary feels like a makeup campaign for them.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders has overwhelming support among young voters in California, including Latino and African American voters.

RONEN TIVONY / SOPA IMAGES / LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES

Sanders’s lead in the polls is, however, dependent on voters who have historically been less likely to vote — particularly young people, independents and Latinos. According to the L.A. Times/Berkeley poll, slightly more than half (51 percent) of Latinos are now supporting Sanders, up 13 points from January. He also has the support of half of voters who identify as very liberal.

One way to judge the success of his outreach machine is whether he can consolidate support among these groups and convince them to turn out in high numbers. And that’s not an easy task, particularly in a place like Los Angeles, where the presidential primary can easily be forgotten. Many voters told me they weren’t really talking about the election with their friends. “It’s confusing to me, because I think this election is so, so important, but I just don’t think most people are that interested in it,” said Avery Robinson, 21, who is planning to vote for Sanders.

On Friday afternoon, I followed two Sanders volunteers, Jess (who asked that her last name not be used) and Graziela Flores, as they went out door-knocking in a South Los Angeles neighborhood with a mix of black and Latino residents. Back at the local Sanders field office, standing in the backyard of a big, rambling house, an organizer named Justin Lewis had told them not to worry about convincing undecided voters. Their task was to find Sanders supporters and persuade them to go vote — today. “We’re going to be reaching out to people who don’t vote regularly, who might not realize they can vote early,” he said to a group of about 20 volunteers. “Your job is to help give people the inspiration you feel when you go vote.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s aggressive ground game in California, which his campaign has been constructing for months, built on an enthusiastic volunteer base from 2016.

MIKE BLAKE / REUTERS, DAVID MCNEW / GETTY IMAGES

It was a hot day, and we wandered down sun-baked streets lined with bungalows, with sleepy dogs basking in front yards. Very few of the voters Jess and Graziela talked to knew that they could vote early. One young man was thrilled to hear that he could vote for Sanders before Tuesday, and said he’d round up his whole family to go that afternoon. But it was a struggle to convince others that voting was worth it. Another man paused by his car and said he’d heard good things about Sanders but wasn’t sure he had time to vote. Jess pressed him, pointing out that the early voting center was just a few blocks away. “Bernie is promising free college and free health care,” she said. “We have to help him win.” He laughed and said he’d promise to try. “I’d say that’s a win,” said Jess, 25, a recent Los Angeles transplant who knocked on doors for Sanders in New York in 2016. “He seemed like he was really going to think about it.”

As in Nevada, where Sanders’s victory in the caucuses was powered in part by strong Latino support, the Sanders campaign has consciously targeted Latinos in California — opening field offices in Latino neighborhoods, hiring Latino organizers and starting their efforts early. Latinos are the largest racial and ethnic group in California, making them a key group to mobilize. They also skew young, which makes them an even more logical target for Sanders, whose coalition in the early states is mostly defined by one thing — its youth. Yet Mindy Romero, a professor at the University of Southern California, says it’s rare for campaigns to do this kind of concerted outreach to Latinos. “Within the Latino community in 2016, [Sanders’s] support wasn’t so high,” she said. “But now he’s the only candidate doing a real ground game in Latino communities and that can send an important message to historically marginalized communities — a sign of trust and respect.”

Sanders’s bet on California was never guaranteed to pay off. California is, in many ways, a presidential primary candidate’s nightmare — you won’t get far with handshakes and meet-and-greets in a state with 20 million registered voters, 200-plus languages and almost 400,000 miles of highways. “Normally in California, the conventional wisdom is, you don’t do grassroots because it doesn’t matter,” said Mike Madrid, a GOP strategist in California who focuses on Latino communities. “It’s throwing money down a rat hole because we’re too big. We’re too diverse. You basically have to set up a 50-state strategy in one state.”

But in the end, the quirks of California’s Democratic primary process — and his rivals’ struggle to break into a clear second place — could end up vindicating Sanders’ choice to focus so heavily on his West Coast prize. The state’s pledged delegates are split into two pools: 144 are reserved for candidates who can crack the 15 percent threshold statewide, and the remaining 271 are divvied up according to the candidates’ performance in the state’s 53 congressional districts. Candidates with fewer resources and some strategic savvy can run up their totals by focusing on districts where their support is strongest, and it’s possible that Biden in particular could improve his standing after his victory in South Carolina. But a strong first-place finish for Sanders and a muddled scrum for second place — with several candidates clustered around the 15 percent threshold — could be, in the words of pollster Mark DiCamillo, a “perfect storm” for Sanders.

“If Sanders is the only candidate who gets significantly above 15 percent, that means he’s not only going to win statewide, he might be the only candidate who gets delegates in every district,” DiCamillo said. “That means he could rack up several hundred delegates just in California. That’s a big deal. And he could do it with less than one-third of the statewide vote.”

That’s all good news for the Sanders campaign in theory. But this year’s primary will tell us a lot about how far a tactile, boots-on-the-ground strategy can go in California. Biden is also popular with voters of color — particularly black voters — and Bloomberg has made some inroads with older Latinos, who tend to be more politically moderate.

The Sanders outreach machine made the difference for at least one voter, though. Dana Goldman, 35, said that he was “99.9 percent sure” that he was voting for Sanders but wasn’t sure whether he was registered or how he could vote. I watched as a Sanders volunteer pulled his phone out of his pocket and gave Goldman the information he needed with a few swipes of his thumb. Goldman, impressed, promised to vote and show up for a “March to the Polls” event the following day. “I was going to maybe follow through with making sure I’m registered to vote, but now that these folks are here and I’m feeling inspired by their energy, it’s like, ‘OK, I’m definitely going to go vote and show up for your thing tomorrow,” he said. “That little bit of outreach — it makes a huge difference.”

[jennymanrique]

From Selena to 'Coco,' Dallas-area candidates are trying to find ways to connect with Latino voters

Republicanos hispanos reunidos en la sede de campaña de Rodney Anderson en Irving. Foto: DMN

To encourage Hispanics to vote, Democratic candidates have knocked on doors while blaring Selena songs and called potential voters with the Coco soundtrack playing in the background.

Republican candidates have also taken their message door-to-door in Hispanic neighborhoods with the help of bilingual volunteers.

But with the midterm elections about a month away, a national poll revealed that 60 percent of Latino voters said they have not been approached by a campaign, political party or organization asking them to register or to vote.

The poll, released last week by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, had a margin of error of 4 percentage points and is the fourth in a 10-week series of follow-up surveys on the Latino electorate.

The survey also revealed that 43 percent of Hispanic registered voters think the Democratic Party doesn't care about or is hostile toward the Latino community, while 79 percent feel that way about the Republican Party.

That means candidates not only have work to do on the engagement front, but also when it comes to building trust with Hispanic voters.

Get-out-the-vote efforts

In Dallas County races, the GOP has only two Hispanic candidates on the ballot in November. Israel Aviles is running for Precinct 4 justice of the peace against Democrat Sasha Moreno, and Deanna Maria Metzger is trying to unseat Democrat Victoria Neave in a legislative district that includes part of East Dallas, Garland and Mesquite.

During last year’s legislative session, there were only three Latino Republicans, and only one is returning in 2019 — Rep. José Manuel Lozano of Kingsville. Out of the 66 Democrats in the Legislature, there were 41 Latinos.

Dallas County voters in November will see nearly 20 Latino Democratic candidates on their ballot, at least half of whom are fluent in Spanish. El Paso Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, also speaks Spanish.

Neave said her campaign has tapped into cultural roots with events like the "Bidi Bidi Block Walk" on Tejana star Selena's birthday, when dozens of Hispanic volunteers encouraged people to register to vote.

"We are seeing more Latinos becoming U.S. citizens and registering in numbers we haven't seen in past campaigns," said Neave, whose parents are Mexican immigrants. "Face-to-face conversation is the formula that has worked for us."

She said her campaign workers try to speak to "grandmas, cousins and aunts" in their native language.

But her opponent, Metzger, whose family is originally from Mexico, said she refuses to speak Spanish — and not only because she doesn't know the language.

"When I say I don't speak Spanish, it sounds as something I should be ashamed of. But I am unapologetic for that,” she said. “You are in America. If you want to be successful in this country, you better learn English. Otherwise, you'll never get to to communicate your ideas and you will be seen as ignorant.”

Still, candidates from both parties, Latino and non-Latino, translate campaign materials into Spanish and have bilingual advisers on their staff. Rep. Rodney Anderson, R-Grand Prairie, said he has been campaigning door to door with Aviles to reach potential voters who speak Spanish.

"We need to have people able to reach out to Latino neighborhoods and speak their language," Anderson said.

Tristeza Ordex-Ramírez, president of the Fort Worth-based advocacy group El Voto es Latino, said it’s critical that candidates do that kind of outreach.

"Latinos want to see you, the one running, not staffers,” she said. “They want you to know something about them, that you are fighting for their vote and that you will indeed work for them.”

Her organization, which supports Democratic candidates, said having them learn a few basic Spanish words “gets a Latino crowd all fired up."

"We try to help our candidates to connect Latino youth with politics, through music, food, culture and family,” she said.

“In a Latino household, one vote counts for many, especially those who come from undocumented families,” she added.

Nancy Richer, who is Hispanic and serves as the Hispanic engagement director for the Dallas County Republican Party, said a group of about 20 Latinos, from translators to volunteers, form a grass-roots effort to “show that our party is as inclusive and diverse as our county.”

The issues

Republicans say Hispanics are tired of bipartisan bickering over immigration and are campaigning on other issues, including the economy, education, crime and property taxes.

"Here in Dallas, we know Hispanics share the values of the Republican Party. We are strongly pro-life, we are strongly pro-family. Religion is important to us,” said Tina Aviles, Anderson's field campaign director and Israel Aviles’ wife. “When we see that Republican fiscally conservative policies have benefited our families and communities, [Latinos] are drawn into that.”

Still, the poll showed Hispanics prioritize protecting immigrants’ rights when given a list of issues to select, along with job creation, improving wages and lowering health care costs.

“The immigration debate is a debate about values”, said Colin Allred, the Democratic candidate for U.S. House who is seeking to unseat Dallas Republican Pete Sessions. “We aren't a country in the business of separating families, but rather one that is capable of taking those valuable people [undocumented immigrants] out of the shadows."

Anderson said he can’t control the narrative or disagreements at the federal level over  DACA and illegal immigration.

"The only thing we can do at the state level is to continue to provide law enforcement support," he said. "Our legal immigrants are protected from sex trafficking, drug cartels and the type of illegal behavior going on at the border. That's what we as a state have to do to support the Latino community."

The Trump effect

Though it’s true that candidates in Texas don’t have a direct influence on the federal government, the Trump administration’s policies loom large over the November midterms, even at the state level.

Democrats say their main challenge is maintaining a positive agenda while denouncing what John Turner, a candidate for a North Dallas House district, called the "unacceptable words, actions and policies coming out of the Trump administration."

He said voters aren’t lining up to support Trump, and in the recent NALEO poll, 70 percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable view of the president.

"I'm in a swing district, and my opponent is positioned at the extreme right,” said Turner, who is facing Lisa Luby Ryan. “If we have a fairly consistent message and can have our act together this year, we will win in Dallas."

Tina Aviles, Anderson’s field director, said that Trump has gained support among the Hispanic community and that “we are proud to spread his message.”

"What's going on at federal level is beyond our control," she said. "Each local campaign is responsible for addressing local issues with the people in their district.”

[foodarillo]

Hippy Dippy Trippy

I grew up in the 70s. My magical music memory year (see Daniel Levitin for more on that!) is 1972, pretty much about the time that I started noticing girls and puberty began its inevitable onset. We wore bell-bottomed pants and paisley headbands, and marched to the beat of a different drummer. It was a revolution founded on peace, love, and rock-n-roll.

My music was that of the post-Woodstock-yet-still-hippies era. CCR. Brewer and Shipley. Melanie. Jefferson Airplane (yes, they really were an airplane at one time). Steppenwolf. The Guess Who. And although my parents drew the line at letting me actually become a hippy and go to music festivals (I was only 13), they let me have my music.

They even acquiesced once in a while and let me listen to WLS in the car. Hallelujah for great parents.

I wound up becoming a prototype for the Alex P. Keaton character in Family Ties, voted Republican, and could quote Milton Friedman in heated economics debates. But my spirit animal has always been a long haired hippy. So while I may have never been able to actually become one when it was au courant, I have always been very sympathetic.

Which is why I felt so comfortable when we visited Yellow City Street Food. These are my peeps, even if I don’t look like them. Cue me some Deep Purple, please.

The first and most important thing customers will see upon entering is the chalk board listing the menu, which changes daily. The only way to know in advance is to check their Facebook page before you come. Read. Study. And know what you want.

We both opted for Chzburgers, Deanna’s of the carnivorous variety, mine of the veggie. Hers came topped with bacon and a little greenery, while mine came topped with only…um…a leaf of lettuce. I know. My choice, my crazy diet. Both of us ordered the Animal Fries (hers with bacon…again), an homage to fries at In-N-Out done “animal style” off the not-so-secret menu.

To wash it all down, Deanna chose Wandering Aengus Pear Cider, while I chose Coop Brewing Company’s F5 from OKC. We enjoyed bantering with a guy behind the counter, a friendly dude who epitomized the hippy vibe. He was extremely knowledgeable about what brews lay behind every tap handle, or inside the cans and bottles in the fridge. He generously served up a few samples.

If beer, cider, or wine are not to your liking for lunch (I prefer the German model for beer consumption…who needs a clock?), there are always Tractor Sodas, a line of delicious organic, non-GMO concoctions that offer a pleasing respite from popular sodas. But don’t be looking for anything mainstream…beer, soda, wine, or otherwise. This is counter-culture. You can do that at home if you must.

Our lunch was pure ecstasy for both of us. That was one of the best veggie burgers I have ever had (made onsite!), head and shoulders above the straight-out-of-the-box variety you get at Fuddrucker’s or Red Robin. I could see the veggies inside, magically all molded and held together into a fist-sized patty. And Deanna loved her burger as well. I didn’t hear any complaining coming from her direction. In fact, I didn’t hear much at all.

Which is to say that she was in love. With food. I just hope I can hold a candle to that burger, but the look on her face said I may have to work at it a bit.

It is a true delight to have a place like YCSF in Amarillo. They go against the flow (and for those who know me, this is my mantra). They are happy to accommodate any and all dietary needs and preferences, never once assuming that surely everyone wants the same homogeneous meal. Their craft beer selection (did I ever tell you I am a beer snob?) is great…not just that they have some, but the varietals themselves reflect their inventiveness and fascination with paddling upstream.

Because anyone can float downstream. YCSF is the antithesis of everything else you know in Amarillo. Feel the rhythm of the beat. Hear that drummer. And go up the country.

“Look what’s happening out in the streets. Got a revolution Got to revolution.”

Peace out.

Nick & Deanna

Would We Go Back: Over and over and over again. “I want to try the veggie burger next time” said Deanna. And this coming from a gal who makes faces at the thought of eating tofu. You go, girl. I may win you over yet. Maybe.

She tried a bite of mine, and practically swooned right there in the restaurant. At first I thought it was the Sauvage cologne I was wearing, but it was the burger. Again. Damn.

Price: $

Dress: Casual, although you will find everyone from hipsters to hip businesspeeps. It all works. Come together, yo. Right now.

Comments: Their new location is actually the original home of BL Bistro. After BL left to much larger digs, a series of restaurants came and went. In the real estate biz, the location had become a kiss of death. But YCSF has the legs on which not only to stand, but run. And you better run there, too, because this is a real gem out here in cowboy country. It’s Portland-Meets-The-Panhandle.

This place gets crowded, and they have limited serving hours for lunch and dinner (closed Sunday and Monday). The menu changes daily, and when they run out of something, it’s out. Period. On a return visit, we made the mistake of showing up a little before 2:00. They were preparing to close, and they were out of all things vegetarian. On a third visit with a pal, the food was amazing (I had the Dragon Tacos with tofu), but because we landed at precisely 12:00, we had to wait 30 minutes for our food. It’s worth the wait, though.

Come early to get a seat. We like to sit at the small bar…all three stools. You can get a glimpse of how it happens. Well, I mean the beer part. It’s all in the pour, you see.

But I digress. Just go there. Now.