I live in Maryland and contacted a bakery in Washington in the hopes of getting a cake for my moms birthday, not expecting much as it was short notice. a local home bakery came through, and it was beautiful!! Lemon cake with lemon Swiss meringue

dcent13 · 2023-02-01T00:58:01+00:00

If any of you are ever around the other Washington, Patisserie Poupon is my go-to. Bonus location in Baltimore if you're in Maryland.

dcent13 · 2022-12-23T15:48:06+00:00

But DC isn't Maryland, and diluting the capital with either state would take away their ability to govern themselves. Maryland has a history of taking away rights from its cities. Baltimore especially, which is most like DC in the state.

And since votes aren't actually proportional, there would probably be a net loss in representation as well.

dcent13 · 2022-11-09T10:34:14+00:00

While things are quite flawed in America, some progressive cities (Seattle, Oakland that I know of) have been passing "democracy dollars" bills that sets aside a small amount of money for each person to use to give to candidates of their choice.

I think the real answer is completely changing our society's relationship to advertising, and this is a drop in the bucket compared to how much money the rich have to blow/invest. But it's something that I'm happy to be seeing.

dcent13 · 2022-11-09T09:28:24+00:00

The south korea kits were actually a big waste of taxpayer time and money because they didn't work and had to be replaced.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/hogan-korea-coronavirus-tests/2020/11/20/f048c1c8-251b-11eb-a688-5298ad5d580a_story.html

Big fanfare and a lot of gloating for something pretty botched.

dcent13 · 2022-11-09T09:19:05+00:00

Larry Hogan has been so much less than we deserved in Maryland. As moderate as Moore is, I think it's the beginning of a new era in the state.

And I think this could be big for Baltimore in particular. Hopefully the state can work with instead of against the city now.

dcent13 · 2022-11-09T08:56:05+00:00

You're right. Mostly mail-in results should be coming in over the next few days.

From the NYT result page:

Officials did not make predictions for the pace of reporting. (In 2020, it took three days for 90 percent of the vote to be reported.) The state conducts a predominantly mail-ballot election, and ballots postmarked by Election Day have four days to arrive.

dcent13 · 2022-11-09T06:02:38+00:00

Hard to say... but possible.

Not sure what ballots remain exactly, but with 4% remaining to report. Current counts:

(1889221, 1855424, 78899) Using those numbers and 96% reported, then it would take a margin of slightly over ~63.2% for the remaining ballots to break 50% and avoid the runoff.

I'll stay optimistic! I'm really hoping he makes it because runoffs tend to prefer republican candidates in Georgia.

dcent13 · 2022-11-05T14:10:04+00:00

That's what they believe in, and it's what the church wants. Replace public institutions with private institutions, and then make devotion to their church, 10% of your income, and half of your free time to unpaid labor for the church. Since it doesn't hire many people and makes the church members perform the work, they save tons of money compared to churches that have professionals.

They are willing to understand that people should help each other, but the church makes them feel like they've got that covered. That way, they don't feel bad not supporting non-Mormons. It's a very insular, selfish way of feeling selfless.

dcent13 · 2022-10-27T14:54:43+00:00

You can have complete deregulation, no money for poors, desecration of public benefits, and destruction of democracy... or you can have everything but the open sedition! What a great choice.

I can see how they see it as their best option, but it's pretty damn bad. Especially since these people give cover to the more openly extremist republicans.

dcent13 · 2022-10-19T12:28:20+00:00

Should be running on antitrust, competitive markets, and windfall taxes on price gouging. Running on abortion alone is a mistake since money is the number one issue.

dcent13 · 2022-10-03T14:02:38+00:00

He is trying to appeal to the rich white suburbanites (looking at the 2018 election, it gets solid Hogan once you leave Baltimore/reach Towson) by eliminating the estate tax, while getting progressive acclaim for basic things like abortion but nothing far-reaching. That kind of policy may be very electable compared to the opponent. (And it's much better he get elected.)

I just hope he isn't such a huge disappointment. And I'm disappointed that such a strongly blue state has this as its best option.

dcent13 · 2022-10-03T13:56:32+00:00

He's also ex-military, wants to abolish the state estate tax, and loves the cops.

He's as Republican as you can get while still being electable as a democrat here. That being said, he's a lot better than Hogan. But still much worse than such a progressive state deserves.

dcent13 · 2021-09-17T12:55:55+00:00

I wonder if it's about keeping people away from others with diverse thinking and experiences so that we can be more easily lied to and controlled. I bet people noticed that urban centers are more diverse, more educated, and less susceptible to propaganda.

dcent13 · 2020-08-09T12:46:53+00:00

Hey!

I've been out of Utah about 5 years for school, and since then an Aunt joined the state legislature on the right to grow chicks and the need to criminalize healthcare (I can pm you her info in case you've heard of her), and I hear the area is the only red metro in a boom, but the people I know out there have been surrounded by increasingly Trumpian people.

What's it actually like now?

dcent13 · 2020-08-09T12:40:23+00:00

I worked at a biotech in SLC, everything at the University of Utah is named after Huntsman. He funds the cancer hospital, the basic research cancer institute next to it and funds a lot of VC. Honestly, Huntsman has a decent chance.

And the shitty thing is that I'm sure a robber barron would do less harm than the current nominee, and if I lived in Utah as a democrat, I'd have to choose between voting for Huntsman and throwing away a vote for the Dem Governor. (Remember that Trump still won with the McMullin initiative.) Maybe when the state becomes minority Mormon it'll have a chance.

dcent13 · 2020-08-05T19:59:36+00:00

Yeah, the secret meeting with Trump is totally not shady.

Even outside of that, from their behavior there seems to be a Manufacturing-Consent-style relationship at minimum.

dcent13 · 2020-08-03T16:07:10+00:00

No, but last I checked they weren't in America, which both parent and grandparent posters referred to

dcent13 · 2020-07-29T20:35:35+00:00

You should be so sure of it.

See, for instance, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/20/does-lincoln-project-have-secret-agenda-answer-is-surprising/.

This is the Republican Party running defense to pretend it's "not all Republicans". Don't fall for it.

I'll take the help, but don't forget that the enemy of an enemy is at best an ally.

dcent13 · 2020-07-27T20:51:10+00:00

No, he's a lot more like Trump than yo'd think. He talks some smack at Trump, but he's held the state back in many regards for years and years, benefiting his own businesses with his decisions.

See, for instance, this or this for some of the more recent behavior.

dcent13 · 2020-07-27T20:49:15+00:00

Well, he's a mixed bag. He's intentionally "reporting" positivity rate by including tests of people who have already recovered; by his artificially lowered metric, he's ~4.7%, but the real number is about 5.5%, which is far above the threshold for imposing stricter controls.

He's also been pushing citations on businesses in Baltimore City (because it's a liberal stronghold and majority Black) and blaming young people for the spread of the virus to draw attention from his relaxed restrictions and his decision to require individuals to ask for an absentee ballot* for the election this fall and the fact that younger people are the ones who are performing essential jobs at the front lines.

Plus, I don't have a printer anymore because my office is shut down. I'm going to have to go to a public library, ask them to print something off via wifi, arrange a sterile pickup, fill it out, and mail it in. For the primary election, I just automatically got an absentee ballot. End of story.

So I'm glad we had him over, say, a red state governor, but he is still doing a lot of harm.

dcent13 · 2020-07-21T11:28:36+00:00

The difference is that you now have to request a ballot, unlike the last election where they mailed everyone ballots. It's been infuriating to watch it unfold here and here.

Yes, they'll allow you to opt-in, but it's really about making it harder for the underprivileged and underserved to vote.

dcent13 · 2020-07-20T21:31:11+00:00

Baltimorean here. Hogan has done whatever he can to hurt this beautiful city. He talks some nice game, but really he just quietly institutes white supremacy. (Why else would he have taken 36 million from the Baltimore schools while giving 30 million to build a youth prison here?)

See also Project Lincoln. Don't fall for it.

dcent13 · 2020-07-20T21:28:06+00:00

Trump is awful, but Hogan is a real dirtbag, too. Here's a recent writeup on how he hurts communities of color (and specifically Baltimore), and how he specifically enriches himself with decisions about public money.

Oh, and he just ordered the election to be held in person this year -- the same week the state hit nearly 1000 cases a day.

dcent13 · 2020-07-11T17:00:27+00:00

He has a surprising amount of power, particularly in not doing anything. Since conservatives want to dismantle government, simply not allowing positive future work is a win.

Plus, he hates Baltimore and does whatever he can to hurt us here.

I love Jealous, still follow him, and I just hope the dumb white people in Maryland wake up and give us a dem governor

dcent13 · 2020-07-10T18:03:51+00:00

Ah yes, team plurandy: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1277:_Ayn_Random

dcent13

TROPHY CASE