Category Archives: meta

Are you smarter than Missouri’s governor? – meta

01 Wednesday Apr 2020

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“…Come on, do the right thing. Delay just means more death and suffering. Flatten the goddamned curve…”

Missouri Governor Mike Parson (r) still has not issued a “stay at home” order for the state. Because, we don’t know, “rural, something, something.”

Meta.

Yesterday morning on Show Me Progress I put up a post titled “Are you smarter than Missouri’s governor?,” highlighting the Lafayette County Commission’s “stay at home” ordinance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – as opposed to the refusal of Missouri Governor Mike Parson (r) to do the same. There has been a precipitous rise in cases in Lafayette County.

The post caused a significant traffic spike. Significant as in the largest number of daily “hits” in almost five years of operating on this platform.

With a traffic spike comes comments and trolling. Show Me Progress is set so that I must personally approve all comments before they’re posted. I see the IP address and the e-mail of the commenter, along with their typed remarks.

I try not to engage right wingnuts directly. By any definition of their thought processes and ideology, it’ a colossal waste of time. I generally delete their comments as they’re in moderation. There’s an old music adage: “You can’t teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and it annoys the pig.” So, I tend to delete trolling comments and ignore them.

Unless it amuses me.

Yesterday morning I received the following, unedited (it went into the trash):

All the armchair warriors .. Your not in charge!
Till you are in control if your (R) or (D) sit back and be quiet.
Your time to comment comes at the polling station.
Since we don’t have all the information we must assume the decisions are best for the majority
Even if it’s not good for you..

A champion of the First Amendment, eh? And don’t start with, “wait, aren’t you censoring this person?” Don’t be an idiot. The First Amendment applies to government action. If trolls want to spew stupidity on the Internets they are perfectly free and able to start their own blog. A place where people can freely choose to read their drivel, or not.

You think they kept their opinion and counsel, not speaking out, from January 2009 to January 2017? Right…

“Even if it’s not good for you..” Seriously, someone believes that. “The needs of the 1%, outweigh the needs of the many” is quite a moral perversion.

That deference to authority figure(s) “…[s]ince we don’t have all the information…” is the ultimate laziness in the Information Age. Such laziness as a foundation for all other social behavior is so 21st century.

Grammar and incoherence aside, somebody should inform this poor person that the current governor of Missouri was not elected to that office.

This (unedited) also went into the trash:

Your article is a hit piece not news. Governor Parsons is doing a great job. In case you are not aware of this we live in a federal style of government. Therefore the local towns can issue a stay at home order when necessary. The whole state does not need to shut down. Show some respect.

Show some respect, learn to spell your governor’s name.

Something, something, Federalism backwards. Ignore actual expertise (science! math!). Ignore the problems in a pandemic (science! math!) generated by a patchwork of responses from county to county, and town to town, because, you know, people don’t ever travel from one place to the other. [That’s how a fucking pandemic works.] Ergo, tautology. Deference to authority, no matter how incompetent. Obvious ignorance of the concept of exponential growth. And willfully ignoring that rural Missouri doesn’t have the health care capacity to deal with the exponential growth of cases of COVID-19 to come.

If I’d bothered to answer this one directly it would have been: “Fuck off, you Neolithic self-righteous sociopathic prig. How’s that for the respect you deserve?”

There are hotspots across Missouri. Urban, suburban, and rural. The whole state does need to shut down. Lives are at stake.

Governor Mike Parson (r) [2018 file photo].

Well, Governor Parson (r)?

Stay Home. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Good luck to us all.
#FlattenTheCurve

Previously:

Gov. Mike Parson (r): Do the right thing (March 23, 2020)

Gov. Mike Parson (r): “What, me worry?” (March 26, 2020

Gov. Mike Parson (r): Still wringing your hands, eh? (March 28, 2020)

Are you smarter than Missouri’s governor? (March 31, 2020)

Are you smarter than Missouri’s governor? – part 2 (March 31, 2020)

Presidential Campaign Meta

10 Tuesday Mar 2020

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Saturday, early evening, at Former Vice President Joe Biden’s (D) presidential campaign rally at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri:

Campaign advance staffer speaking with a videographer in the crowd in front of the main press riser.

It’s a young person’s game, working in event advance and communications for a campaign.

That is also true if you’re covering presidential campaigns. Still, we get the press advisories, we RSVP to the event, we get the credential confirmation (and print it out), charge the batteries, check the weather, check the parking availability, grab the gear (always ready), and go.

You trudge up the hill, check out the two long lines, choose the shorter one for the media entrance (yep, that’s it). The camera is already out, because you never know who you’ll run into. Sure enough, there are pictures to be taken.

Your name is checked on the list. If it’s there you get an event credential with a safety pin. If it’s not your first rodeo you already have a safety pin attached to your outlet credential.

There’s a main riser with a rotating stills section (that means you can camp out if there’s no demand for the space, otherwise, still photographers rotate in and out). There’s a cut (side) riser. The same rules basically apply, unless you’re otherwise directed.

As we waited we noted a guy in the crowd with a video camera on a ten foot poll standing twenty feet in front of the main press riser waving his getup in the line of sight to the podium. We climb off the riser, find a member of the advance team and point to the camera on a pole floating in the crowd. The staffer gets it instantly.

The staff handled it perfectly. They waded into the crowd and talked with the individual, got him out of the crowd, handed him a media credential, and plopped him down in the rotating stills section of the main press riser. No more problem. Everyone was happy. No scene, no drama.

The advance and communications staff were pros. I got almost 1100 frames.

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) – presidential campaign rally – Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri, March 7, 2020.

Previously:

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) – campaign rally at the Liberty Memorial – Kansas City – March 7, 2020 (March 8, 2020)

Three down. Fifty-four or so to go.

23 Sunday Feb 2020

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Primaries and caucuses that is.

Over the years on the social media platforms I use I restrict who and what I follow to the point that I know the vast majority of people who I encounter (read) to a few degrees of separation and/or I am fairly certain they’re real people.

And, I post on Show Me Progress. When someone comments here it is held until I approve it. Since I hold the keys to the shop I see all of the background information not available to the casual user, which includes the posting IP address and the commenter’s e-mail address. Again, I can ascertain if a comment comes from a real person with a fair degree of certainty.

In 2016 (see below) I wrote about the disaster that was the Missouri State Democratic Convention. That drew interactions and comments from Bernie Sanders supporters that ranged from polite condescension to outright hostility. Nothing, really, about party unity.

Now in 2020, at this point in the presidential nominee selection process after the Nevada debate and the question about having a plurality of delegates, not a majority, posed by NBC’s Chuck Todd (I know, he’s useless), I started seeing posted material from Bernie Sanders supporters, contrary to the DNC 2020 rules which all the candidates and their campaigns know, that the candidate with a plurality (if no one has a majority on the first ballot) should feel entitled to the nomination on the second ballot.

The last multiple ballot nomination at a Democratic convention took place in 1952.

Back to 2020. In my comments on various discussions about the issue I have pointed out that if no candidate achieve 50% + 1 on the first ballot, that’s what the subsequent ballots are for (and those ballots include “uncommitted” PLEO delegates).

Nothing has changed from 2016. In these various venues I have encountered self-identified Bernie Sanders supporters who have responded with comments, again, that range from polite condescension to outright hostility. One accused me of possessing a “broken centrist brain.” Heh.

There was one prominent exception. One. This person wrote, after I invited them to read my 2016 account and the subsequent comments on Show Me Progress: “…thanks to the link to your report on the state convention in 2016. I don’t dispute anything in it. You did a good job of reporting. I will say that I have put considerable effort into figuring out what to do with the ‘car we caught’ that day…”

So, here we are, four years later, in two caucuses and one primary out of 57, and very few people have learned any lessons from 2016.

I have no confidence that enough people will do so in time so that we can save ourselves.

Senator Kamala Harris (D) [2019 file photo].

Vice President Joe Biden (D) [2013 file photo].

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) [2019 file photo].

Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro (D) [2013 file photo].

Former Congressman John Delaney (D) [2019 file photo].

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) [2019 file photo].

Marianne Williamson (D) [2019 file photo].

Congressman Seth Moulton (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Bernie Sanders [2016 file photo].

Congressman Tim Ryan (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Cory Booker (D) [2019 file photo]

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) [2019 file photo].

Three down. Fifty-four or so to go. Still.

Old media is ready to wrap up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

I suppose in the 2020 November General Election I could attempt to write in “Jill Stein,” just for the irony of it.

Previously:

Your $27.00 won’t get you into heaven anymore (June 19, 2016)

And we shall know them by their whiny, poorly written, rhetorically deficient, bullshit press releases (August 13, 2018)

A text from Bernie 2020 (December 18, 2019)

Nevertheless, she persisted (February 20, 2020)

You know, your candidate is kind of okay, but too many of his true believers are real assholes (February 20, 2020)

You know, your candidate is kind of okay, but too many of his true believers are real assholes

20 Thursday Feb 2020

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While we’re at it, NBC’s Chuck Todd is a useless tool.

Senator Bernie Sanders (D) [2016 file photo].

In 2016, at the Missouri State Democratic Convention the four elected positions on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) went to supporters of Bernie Sanders.

In the period since 2016 the DNC revised the 2020 party presidential caucus/primary/convention process to exclude so-called “Super delegates” (Uncommitted Party Leader Elected Official) on the first presidential nominating ballot at the national convention. These PLEO delegates would/can vote if no candidate for the nomination receives 50% + 1 on the first ballot. In addition, as what has always been the case, committed delegates are only bound on the first ballot. After that they can vote for anyone.

The last time a Democratic National Convention went to a subsequent ballot for the nomination of the party’s presidential candidate was 1952.

In 2004, in part of the process in Missouri to elect committed PLEO delegates (by the state party committee), I was asked, in passing, of my interest in running for one of those allocated delegate spots by a representative of a candidate I did not support or vote for in the Missouri primary. I declined. If I had managed to get elected as a delegate I would have been committed to that candidate on the first ballot. If there were any subsequent ballots, in this hypothetical situation, I would have most definitely voted for another candidate.

One of the rules of the delegate selection process is that all candidates have the right of approval for any individual running for one of their national delegate spots. In Missouri these are allocated by formula based on the outcome of the presidential preference primary vote.

In 2016, at the state Democratic Party Convention, 88 individuals filed for eight at-large Hillary national delegate slots. Hillary’s campaign did not strike any individuals from that list. The eight delegate slots were filled by the vote of the Hillary caucus. At the same convention 21 individuals were listed as vying for seven nation delegate slots allocated to Bernie Sanders. I was curious about the disparity. I later learned that over 100 individuals had filed the paper work to run, but the Bernie Sanders national campaign struck most of those individuals from their approved list, without apparently notifying them of the how and why. This upset a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters at the state convention. So much so that there was a motion from the floor to open nominations for national delegate slots from the floor.

Why would a national campaign piss off so many of their supporters? It wasn’t until last night that I finally understood a possible explanation for the underlying why.

In 2016, if, for some reason, the 2016 convention went to a second ballot (brokered), the Bernie Sanders campaign only wanted true believers in their delegate slots. A true believer be more likely to stick with their candidate over multiple ballots, after being released from that first ballot commitment.

Last night NBCs Chuck Todd asked a process question of all of the candidates. If one candidate had a plurality and not 50% + 1, should they be entitled to be the nominee. All of the candidates, but one, replied no, there’s a process in the rules to deal with the selection of a nominee in that situation. The lone dissent: Bernie Sanders.

The irony here is that Bernie Sanders supporters on the DNC (including the four elected from Missouri in 2016) ostensibly voted to approve the caucus/primary/convention rules for 2020, which also removed the vote of uncommitted PLEO delegates on the first ballot.

There is no rule that allows for a plurality of delegates to select the party’s nominee. None.

Here’s a hypothetical situation. Candidate A has 35% of the delegates, candidate B has 30% of the delegates, and candidate C has 21% of the delegates. No one gets to 50% + 1 on the first ballot. Candidate B and C and their delegates come together – one will be the presidential nominee, one will be the vice presidential nominee. On the second ballot they get 51% of the vote. That’s how a subsequent ballot can select the party’s nominee.

After Chuck Todd’s admittedly stupid process question and Bernie Sanders’ dissenting opinion there were discussions on social media, with some Berniebros going on about the unfairness of it all. With the same temperament as the responses from 2016. Think about that for second. Their revolution’s representatives to the DNC ostensibly voted for those rules. Now, somehow, they’re unfair. They feel entitled enough to want to replace their rules midstream with some nonexistent plurality rule. Because.

I like Bernie Sanders. I find his ideas compelling, though he’s not my first choice. I find myself listening to him and appreciating his voice. And then I encounter a significant (not all) number of his supporters, too many, who are serious assholes. [Fuck you if you start in with me, “what about?”] And then I remember 2016 all over again.

Previously:

Your $27.00 won’t get you into heaven anymore (June 19, 2016)

A text from Bernie 2020 (December 18, 2019)

Nevertheless, she persisted (February 20, 2020)

Even more meta – Lindsey Simmons (D) on Mike Bloomberg

18 Tuesday Feb 2020

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“…Mike Bloomberg’s campaign is the only presidential campaign to reach out to ours–and they’ve done it multiple times–to help amplify our message…But appearing at Bloomberg events. Speaking at Bloomberg events. Encouraging my supporters to attend Bloomberg events gives the appearance that I support Mike Bloomberg…And I do not…”

Lindsey Simmons (D) [2020 file photo].

Late last night:

Lindsey Simmons @LynzforCongress
I will not vote for Donald Trump in 2020. Full stop.

And I have no real interest in voting for Mike Bloomberg, either. That’s why it’s my job to advocate on behalf of the candidates I think would make a wonderful President.

A THREAD
1/
11:20 PM · Feb 17, 2020

I’m running for Congress in #MO04. We aren’t taking a dime of corporate PAC money and are 100% people funded.

Mike Bloomberg’s campaign is the only presidential campaign to reach out to ours–and they’ve done it multiple times–to help amplify our message.

2/

In some ways, this could be seen as a positive–additional exposure can be helpful.

But appearing at Bloomberg events. Speaking at Bloomberg events. Encouraging my supporters to attend Bloomberg events gives the appearance that I support Mike Bloomberg.

And I do not.

3/

Some staffers have pointed out that Bloomberg has offered to hire field staff and other full-time organizers salaries north of $5,000/month.

I cannot compete with that. Few campaigns can.

And it results in a buying up of talent in this rural area, where the bench is thin.

4/

Mike Bloomberg is not a Democrat. He is an authoritarian. And my single-issue in 2020 is preserving our Constitution.

That cannot be achieved by electing someone who systematically imposed racist policies against communities of color.

5/

It cannot be achieved by electing someone who buys name recognition and, in turn, votes during the primary.

It cannot be achieved by electing someone who boasts that he hasn’t taken in any donations from supporters–b/c that translates to not having real people behind him.

6/

It cannot be achieved by electing someone who refuses to answer questions during interviews and who has yet to appear on a debate stage.

It cannot be achieved by electing someone who dismisses families like mine–rural farmers who he sees as beneath him.

7/

It cannot be achieved by electing someone who refuses to invest in and support unions.

It cannot be achieved by electing someone who makes derogatory, disparaging remarks about women and then holds their voice prisoner with non-disclosure agreements.

8/

Around here, there’s a sense that if you are wealthy and if you are successful that you must have worked hard to get there.

And, hard workers are noble people.

Thus, there’s this implied notion that Bloomberg is a noble, admirable person–based solely upon his wealth.

9/

But selling financial products is not the same as working the fields from dusk til dawn.

As a farm girl turned Wall Street lawyer, I’m here to warn you–don’t be fooled. Don’t be distracted by the billions. Don’t give up your values in the blind pursuit of defeating Trump.

10/

We should not trade one New York (pseudo) billionaire who wishes to dominate the world for another New York (actual) billionaire who wishes to dominate the world.

There are better choices. There are more qualified choices. There are more honorable choices.

11/

Defeating Trump at all costs cannot be the goal.

Defeating Trump is not worth shredding the Constitution.
Defeating Trump is not worth embracing a misogynist.
Defeating Trump is not worth abandoning our morals.
Defeating Trump is not worth embracing an authoritarian.

12/

I realize the temptation.

I’m running for Congress against the most anti-woman + anti-LGBTQ+ member of Congress. She won a freaking award from a hate group last week.

We need money to beat her.

So I get the temptation. I understand.

13/

We are afraid. Afraid because we know how dangerous the President is. How dangerous a DOJ abdicating its responsibility is. How dangerous a Senate ignoring the separation of powers is.

But we mustn’t be so afraid that we forget who we are and what we stand for.

14/

We must be brave enough to believe that we can elect a new President.

Brave enough to believe we can retain our principles in the process.

Brave enough to believe we can defeat the divisiveness in our communities.

Brave enough to believe we deserve better.

15/

These tensions that exist between family members, friends and neighbors over whether they support the red or blue team–those tensions have led us to a Cold Civil War.

To get out of it–we must do more than win at any cost.

16/

Because the real victory isn’t in Trump’s defeat–it’s in the defeat of the anger, the depression, the disenfranchisement, the demonization that pervades our country.

17/

Real victory is families not fighting during the holidays.
Real victory is friends not blocking each other on Facebook.
Real victory is your neighbor not fearing what might happen to her property if she identifies as a Democrat in a red area, or a Republican in a blue one.

18/

A real, honest to God, victory means we all care less about which party the President belongs to and more about that person’s actions, beliefs, and policies.

Because until that’s the case–we’ll continue to back figures like Trump and Bloomberg.

And we can do better.

19/

Lindsey Simmons (D).

Lindsey Simmons (D) [2020 file photo].

Previously:

Lindsey Simmons (D): on a mission in the 4th Congressional District (November 26, 2019)

Lindsey Simmons (D) – in the 4th Congressional District – Sedalia, Missouri – January 25, 2020 (January 26, 2020)

Lindsey Simmons (D): campaigning in the 4th Congressional District (February 8, 2020)

#PresidentWarren it is

17 Monday Feb 2020

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Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) [2019 file photo].

I hate meta. And yet, here we have it.

We are an impatient people. We watch impatient old media. They create narratives because they are impatient. We listen to those tired narratives because we are so predictably impatient.

The old media hand wringing on the evening of the Iowa Caucus was a thing to behold. I spent my time watching their coverage screaming obscenities at the onscreen talking heads throughout the night. You’d have thought the cable networks had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their brand new sets and on their ominous, yet vaguely patriotic, “Decide Something 2020” theme music. Instead, we got a really bad remake of the 1970 Mary Tyler Moore Show election night blizzard episode “The Snow Must Go On”. Watch the original, it’s hilarious.

Old media had to wait, what, seventy-two hours, for an approximation of the final results of a CAUCUS, the first voting event in a line of fifty-seven or so (states, commonwealths, territories). They wanted to declare an ultimate winner THAT VERY NIGHT. How dare the Iowa Democratic Party hold a caucus like that. You know, with (very public) formulas and arcane rules. Yawn.

If you’ve ever participated in a caucus they’re all like that. [Raises hand: Missouri, 1992.] Forget that it took months for an “official winner” of the Iowa republican caucus several cycles back.

The 2020 Iowa Caucus was the best thing to happen to presidential politics in America in a long time. Maybe 2020 will be a final stake in the heart of this money sucking, faux populist, abomination of true Democracy.

Caucuses are inherently undemocratic while simultaneously being small “d” democratic. You can’t “vote” at will over a period of your choosing in the hours between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on the day of the caucus. You have to show up before they figuratively “lock the doors” at the appointed hour and then you have to stay for the duration to have your vote counted. Who does this cockamamie process exclude? I’ll wait.

Candidates spent tens of millions in Iowa. Several campaigns, with stellar candidates, ran out of resources and the approval of conventional wisdom long before the first vote was cast. That’s a tragedy for all of us. The candidates spent tens of millions of dollars in Iowa. Think about that.

It’s on us because we let this happen, election after election.

There’s a lot to be said for retail politics, the art and charm of presidential candidates getting out there and engaging voters one on one. Get over it. You don’t live there. There are a lot of Americans who don’t get that opportunity to engage with candidates who want to be their president, because somehow we’ve anointed two small states with a tiny percentage of voters (and low turnout) and with a minimal number of nominating delegates at stake to act as the final arbiters and gatekeepers of our viable and/or electable candidates for president.

Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Julián Castro, to name a few, are no longer candidates. Tulsi Gabbard hangs on, still. I rest my case.

Senator Kamala Harris (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Cory Booker (D) [2019 file photo]

Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro (D) [2019 file photo].

So, here we are, with eight or so candidates remaining in the Democratic Party presidential nominating process and old media chomping at the bit to create winners and losers narratives. The next two components of the process include another arcane caucus and an honest to goodness primary. We’ll see what happens. Old media will lazily build on their previous narratives or gaslight us all if they change them. Then it’s fifty-three or so primaries or caucuses to go. Get my drift?

In the meantime, a trend on social media:

Adam Best @adamcbest
#PresidentWarren is trending because despite her being 3rd in delegates, 3rd in most national polls and 2nd in endorsements, the media acts as if she doesn’t exist. So her supporters are dealing with this blackout by making sure voters know she’s still here and still kicking ass.
3:40 PM · Feb 17, 2020

#PresidentWarren

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) [2019 file photo].

Sen. Kamala Harris (D): Iowa bus tour campaign ad

28 Wednesday Aug 2019

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Senator Kamala Harris’ (D) presidential campaign has released a new ad commemorating her August Iowa bus tour.

And there I am, ever so briefly, twenty-two seconds into the ad:

The ad:

One of the greatest strengths about who we are as a people is in our core, in our heart, we know we all have so much more in common than what’s…

Senator Harris is kicking off a five-day bus tour… [….] I love being in Iowa. You have made me a better candidate…

Today California Senator Kamala Harris will be making a stop right here in Sioux City.

It is the conversations that we’ve been having that have really given me a lot of perspective on some of the biggest issues that are facing us as a country.

There are two groups of people raising our children. Parents, often with the assistance of grandparents and aunts and uncles, and our teachers but we are not paying them their value.

[….]

If we have faith to see what can be, unburdened by what has been, we move mountains.

Let’s have a problem-solving president, let’s deal with the issues that are challenging us, and let’s write the next chapter about the America we believe in.

This campaign is about all of us. It is so much bigger than me. I cannot do this without you. I need you. Everything that you guys are doing out there that is about touching your neighbors and your friends and perfect strangers, it’s about all of us knowing our power, each of us to lift people up, right, and to remind them that we see them and we hear them and that they matter.

Senator Kamala Harris (D) – West Des Moines, Iowa – August 10, 2019.

Previously:

Sen. Kamala Harris (D) – West Des Moines, Iowa – August 10, 2019 (August 11, 2019)

Iowa – Meta – #ForThePeople – August 10, 2019 (August 11, 2019)

Iowa – Meta – #ForThePeople – August 10, 2019

11 Sunday Aug 2019

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We receive media advisories for somewhere around ten of the current Democratic Party presidential candidate campaigns. Others? We’re not really interested in driving any distance to cover (Tulsi Gabbard? Really? What were the Russians and Syrians thinking?). Plus, at this point the advisories are coming in so thick and fast it’s like trying to take a sip from a firehose. A couple of weeks ago we received one notice for a five day, eighteen stop bus trip from northwestern Iowa through to southeastern Iowa, from the Missouri River to the Mississippi, following Senator Kamala Harris (D). This cycle we had already spent four days covering various candidates (one event, a cattle call of sorts). The thought of spending five days on the road, while doable from scheduling and financial standpoints (we’d have to pay our own food, lodging, and for our transportation on the press bus), wasn’t attractive from a personal wear and tear perspective. We’re getting older. What I did do was send a media RSVP for one of the stops on the tour, a campaign rally in West Des Moines, Iowa, for early Saturday evening, the location a relatively short four hour or so drive from our base in Missouri.

I looked up the satellite photo of the venue to check on parking. There was plenty of free public parking.

The campaign advisory stated the doors would be open for the public at 4:00 p.m., with the event scheduled to start at 4:45 p.m. Rule No. 2 of campaigns: Nothing ever starts on time.

I loaded up the equipment (two cameras, lenses, tripod, monopod, two digital audio recorders, batteries, chargers, spare memory cards, ID, etc.). I decided not to bring the laptop to save on weight. If this had been a multi-day road trip I would have brought it to process photos. We departed west central Missouri at 10:30 a.m. Rule No. 1 of campaigns: Never pass up an opportunity to use the restroom. Travel time was added for Rule No. 1 and for fueling up the vehicle.

We arrived at about 3:00 p.m., parked the car, and walked into the venue. Campaign advance staff spotted me (a large camera bag, the tripod and monopod, and my outlet photo ID on a clip gave me away), asked who I was, recognized the outlet (that’s the beauty of the media RSVP), and retrieved my event press pass. The staffer noted I had a safety pin on my ID clip. This was not my first rodeo. I didn’t actually say that, I just thought it.

I waited about thirty minutes in the entry area before I was told to proceed to the press riser. I picked a corner next to the riser entry stairs. The venue was very well lit. As I set up my tripod advance staff asked me not to do so because they were expecting a lot of press for the riser space. That’s the reason for bringing the monopod. A long lens on a full frame camera with an external flash attached weighs a lot after about three minutes of handheld photography.

I was instructed to leave the center of the riser for the traveling press (the people on the bus). I was also instructed that we would be escorted to the cut riser on a rotating basis. And, after her speech the candidate would be working the rope line and that we would be escorted from the main riser. The room and the risers were too crowded for that to work. Once I was on the riser I was stuck.

At around 4:00 p.m. the venue was opened to the general public. And they streamed in:

“America needs clean water”

“We should all be feminists”

“America needs librarians”

“I do care and I vote”

“Moms demand action”

“Nasty woman”

“America needs public schools”

Not your typical unengaged or uninformed voters.

Because I couldn’t hang my primary digital audio recorder from my tripod I had to set it on top of my camera bag behind me at foot level at the back of the main riser. Unfortunately, two individuals took time at this event to stand at ground level and have a lengthy, if intermittent, conversation unknowingly speaking directly into that recorder while the candidate was speaking. Which brings us to Rule No. 3: Always have a “Plan B”. I have a second digital recorder running as a backup on me – connected to a lavalier microphone attached to me. I had to use this backup recording, hence you can easily hear the incessant shutter bursts of the still camera.

Waiting is always a staple at every campaign event. Ever.

Media interview in the crowd:

And, waiting…

The campaign field organizer speaks. This individual is responsible for West Des Moines. And as part of the campaign organization (along with other staff and volunteers) will be charged with identifying and getting Harris supporters to the February caucus.

You can always tell when the candidate is about to take the stage. The haggard and harried traveling press rush the press area and main riser.

Aside from a few Iowa print reporters, a sound guy with a boom microphone (covered by a dead cat), and me, all of the media present at this event (print, video, still) looked to be around twelve years old. Think about it. It’s a young person’s game. That, and almost all of the candidates were in Iowa campaigning somewhere. That’s serious saturation, so it has to be ‘all hands on deck’ for coverage.

The candidate:

Senator Kamala Harris (D) – West Des Moines, Iowa – August 10, 2019.

As the crowd dissipated somewhat at the end of the event and the candidate was still on the rope line I was able to squeeze off the main riser and get out of the roped off press area. Someone was kind enough to unhook the barrier and let me pass. I managed to get a few closer images.

Senator Kamala Harris (D) – West Des Moines, Iowa – August 10, 2019.

The venue cleared out fairly quickly after the event. The traveling press departed on their bus, and the tear down staff started on their work, removing risers, lighting, sound system, and banners. I packed up my cameras and audio recorders and we walked to our car in the now mostly empty parking lot for the 225 mile drive home.

This is going to continue at an increasing pace in Iowa until the beginning of February.

Previously:

Sen. Kamala Harris (D) – West Des Moines, Iowa – August 10, 2019 (August 10 2019)

Iowa meta

19 Friday Jul 2019

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Last weekend in Iowa:

Former Congressman John Delaney (D) at the Progress Iowa Corn Feed – Cedar Rapid, Iowa – July 14, 2019.

Former Congressman John Delaney (D) was the first of ten candidates to speak at the Progress Iowa Corn Feed in Cedar Rapids. And if anyone thinks I have my act together one hundred percent of the time while covering these events they would be sadly mistaken. At times it’s like trying to juggle three or four balls in the air while you’re hopping on one foot. Sure enough, as I glanced down at the digital audio recorder while John Delaney was speaking I noticed it was still in “standby” mode. I hit the button and was only able to record the last two and half minutes of his speech.

Sometimes stuff happens or doesn’t happen.

This morning:

Axios @axios
Scoop: John Delaney’s 2020 team have asked him to drop out of the presidential race by mid-August
[….]
6:39 AM – 19 Jul 2019

Sometimes stuff doesn’t happen.

Previously:

Progress Iowa Corn Feed – Cedar Rapids, Iowa – July 14, 2019 (July 14, 2019)

Sen. Cory Booker (D) – “Conversations with Presidential Candidates” – Iowa Public Television – Ankeny, Iowa – July 15, 2019

15 Monday Jul 2019

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Meta.

As part of an Iowa road trip covering the 2020 Presidential Campaign and Democratic Party candidates I sent an RSVP to a press notice about an appearance by Senator Cory Booker (D) in Ankeny, Iowa scheduled early (relatively, as campaign events go) this morning. Covering the event was going to be easy – for me it was on the way back to Missouri from the previous day’s event at the exact driving time I would have been there anyway.

On first notice from the campaign the format of the event wasn’t clear to me. By the time of the event I realized I would be covering a live taping of the first of a series of structured presidential candidate interviews (with submitted audience questions) leading up to the 2020 Iowa Caucuses.

Since this was a live taping of television public affairs program the press ground rules for covering it were specific and strict. Media/press were issued credentials, we were stationed in a media room with a live feed (audio and visual), we could not live stream (this program will be broadcast on Iowa Public Television later this week), and we would be escorted and accompanied individually into the venue for still photography for brief periods during the event – this so as we would not inadvertently interfere with camera lines and audio. Oh, and no tripods.

About fifteen minutes before the start of the event a representative of Iowa Public Television asked me if I would act as the pool still photographer. This changed the dynamics of my coverage. On one hand, as a photographer I get more access (accompanied) time in the venue, but it’s also now more important and necessary that I am successful at getting usable images because they are going to be shared with everybody. I would not be able to monitor my audio recording of the event, nor would I be able to pay undivided attention to portions of the hour long taping a I prepared and sent my pool still images.

Some of the images:

Iowa Public Television announcer.

Senator Cory Booker (D) with Iowa Public Television interviewer David Yepson.

At Iowa Public Television.

Previously:

Progress Iowa Corn Feed – Cedar Rapids, Iowa – July 14, 2019 (July 14, 2019)