Georgia

[hodad]

Well, it's over.  Our TVs were flooded with campaign ads, our mailboxes clotted with flyers and postcards, our phone & email inboxes buffeted by wave after wave of pleas to vote and/or donate.  But it worked out okay.  Robot Barbie and Chicken Perdue have been kicked to the curb.  Moscow Mitch loses the gavel. 
I'm cool with all that. 

 

[crazydoc]

Stacey Abrams seems to be getting a lot of credit in the national news media for making this happen. Is this how it's playing in Georgia too?

If true, she certainly deserves my heartfelt thanks.

 

[hodad]

Stacey Abrams was indeed a big factor.  She's been leading the charge to increase voter registration, motivate voters, & get them to the polls.  Kemp really ticked her off when he used his position as SOS to scurrilously attack her campaign just ahead of the last gubernatorial election.  I also think the combination of candidates--African American preacher & young white progressive--was ideal to drive turnout.  Dems winning a runoff in Ga. is very unusual.  It takes a lot of different factors to make that happen, but Abrams was a very big part of the effort.   

 

[Matador]

EDIT: whoops: wrong thread.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Stacey Abrams was indeed a big factor.  She's been leading the charge to increase voter registration, motivate voters, & get them to the polls.  Kemp really ticked her off when he used his position as SOS to scurrilously attack her campaign just ahead of the last gubernatorial election.  I also think the combination of candidates--African American preacher & young white progressive--was ideal to drive turnout.  Dems winning a runoff in Ga. is very unusual.  It takes a lot of different factors to make that happen, but Abrams was a very big part of the effort. 

looks like I owe you another congrats... enjoy.

JR

 

[hodad]

looks like I owe you another congrats... enjoy.

JR

Thank you!

 

[iturnknobs]

looks like I owe you another congrats... enjoy.

JR

That was nice, JR. I believe you meant it. Regardless of today's chaos overshadowing today's win in Georgia, hopefully this will be the beginning of the de-escalation of the stupidity. Fingers crossed.

 

[Tubetec]

I saw a couple of news reports about local elections in Georgia and DT spouting more hogwash about electoral fraud.
Maybe one of our contributors might post ,in simple terms , what has actually happened.
I dont know a huge amount about Georgia other than an American friend of mine said he was more scared of being a long haired hippy rock n roller from New York there than anywhere else he visited in the country .

 

[hodad]

he was more scared of being a long haired hippy rock n roller from New York there than anywhere else he visited in the country .

Georgia has changed markedly in the last 25 years.  It's grown dramatically due to an influx of people from all over the country, and it's become ethnically more diverse as well (though fairly slowly.)  The fraud charges are all BS.  What drove the election results was high Dem turnout (believe me, you couldn't not know when the election was & who was running if you were in metro Atlanta), which was fed by a years-long effort by Stacey Abrams' organization to register & mobilize Dem voters.  The election took place on new voting machines, far more secure than the ones they replaced, and it was administered by a Republican Secretary of State.  At various points, the SOS's office has debunked all of the attacks on the election--there's actual video evidence of the falsity of some of the garbage Trump was spouting.  There is, on the other hand, no real evidence that any fraud took place.  We've had two  recounts, a signature "audit" on absentee ballot signatures, and no evidence has appeared of any fraud whatsoever.  It's all pure right-wing fever-dream Trumpian fantasy.  Flat out. 

I don't know if that answered your question or not.  From where I stand all the claims of vote fraud in Georgia appear to be complete and utter garbage. 

 

[john12ax7]

I quite enjoyed Savannah,  seemed a welcoming inclusive place.  Athens less so. Augusta  national was very unwelcoming to outsiders.  Seems like the state is very different depending on where you are.

I'm surprised at the Dems win.  It's basically 2 years now of control to make things better / worse / or same.

 

[hodad]

Seems like the state is very different depending on where you are.

Certainly.  No different than California or New York in that regard. 

 

[Tubetec]

Thank you for your perspective Hodad.
Id partially guessed the old anecdotal evidence was probably out of date by now.
Weird that an increased turn out in the elections there, which surely to most right minded people is a good thing for the democratic process gets sold to mainly poor miseducated white people as fraud.

My home town has grown ten fold in the last 40 years (2,000-20,000), Im more or less part of the furniture at this stage , I know a lot of people here and it seems a friendly place , newcommers Ive often heard  describe it in more negative terms , I guess perspective depends on which side of the fence your looking from .
Thanks also J12ax7.

 

[Winston OBoogie]

I just looked it up, I was in Atlanta Georgia on 26th April, 1986 
I  played the The Omni Coliseum

 

[hodad]

I just looked it up, I was in Atlanta Georgia on 26th April, 1986 
I  played the The Omni Coliseum

I have fond memories of the Omni.  I saw some cool shows (and hockey games, and basketball games) there.  I still kind of miss it.

 

[Winston OBoogie]

I have fond memories of the Omni.  I saw some cool shows (and hockey games, and basketball games) there.  I still kind of miss it.

I bet.  I just wiki'ed it and, besides the sports events, it says it was your main venue for concerts from the '70's right into the '90's. 
I was there myself playing with the opening/support act for Jimmy Page's post Zeppelin 'Supergroup' with Paul Rogers - ' The Firm'.
I do remember the Atlanta gig as it was one of the last we did on that tour before going back to the UK.
Good times 

 

[hodad]

Love that pass!  What act were you with at the time? 

(As an aside, my first show at the Omni--couldn't have been older than 12--was Frank Zappa right after Adrian Belew joined the band.  I sat with my dad way up in the rafters in a giant cloud of weed smoke.  The entire arena absolutely reeked!)

 

[scott2000]

I dont know a huge amount about Georgia other than an American friend of mine said he was more scared of being a long haired hippy rock n roller from New York there than anywhere else he visited in the country .

I remember Atlanta being pretty rock and roll back in the early 90s...Masquerade and the 5 points area were pretty rock and or hippy iirc...

 

[L´Andratté]

That boy on that photo is soooo sweet, is he the guitarist *plink*plink*

 

[iturnknobs]

I remember Atlanta being pretty rock and roll back in the early 90s...Masquerade and the 5 points area were pretty rock and or hippy iirc...

RIP- Masquerade. The good 'ole days. Interesting load-in.

 

[hodad]

RIP- Masquerade. The good 'ole days. Interesting load-in.

The club still exists--it just moved downtown.  They're putting in a massive development where the old club was.
I have several friends who were bartenders/worked security at Masquerade back 10 or 15 years ago--they were a wild crew back then!