An Andisheh Almanac

  • Tell your representative and senators to fight Trump harder and louder

    If Trump’s coup against Constitutional rule horrifies you, you write a letter to Congress and call.

    I know from professional experience that members of Congress pay attention to their constituents. It doesn’t mean they always act accordingly, but if enough people push, they will bend.

    I live in Georgia’s 5th Congressional district. I’m represented in the House by Rep. Nikema Williams and in the Senate by Sen. Jon Ossoff and Sen. Raphael Warnock. I have left phone messages with all three of them, and several emails.

    Find your representatives and your senators here.

    Here’s my latest letter to them. You’re welcome to use it and adapt it if you find it helpful:

    Hi, my name is [NAME]. I am one of your constituents. I live in [City, State, Zip Code]

    I voted for you. I donated to your campaign, and regularly volunteer in support Democratic candidates.

    I am calling to implore you and your Democratic colleagues begin treating Donald Trump’s historic crime spree like the mortal threat to the republic that it is. 

    Trump is conducting a coup against Congress’s Constitutionally mandated control of the nation’s budget. And every day since January 20, it seems Trump has committed an impeachable crime bigger than the day before.

    Trump will not stop. He must be stopped. We elected you to try to stop him.

    I implore you and every Democrat to tell your constituents every day that Trump is committing historic crimes that must be stopped and punished. No one is stopping Democrats from using their voices to rally the country.

    I implore you tell media and constituents that restoring the rule of law and protecting Constitutional rule is your top priority. Every day. Make it the only issue.

    I demand you take every opportunity to stop Republican initiatives you can stop, and slow the ones you can slow. Withhold Democratic support for any budget resolution or debt ceiling increase until the rule of law is restored. No unanimous consent until the crimes stop.

    Trump is carrying out a coup and so far Democrats are taking a wait and see attitude. Our house is burning and Democrats are worried yelling “fire” might upset a mythical swing voter somewhere.

    I’m taking note of who is forcefully and convincingly speaking up for democracy – Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. Sen. Brian Schatz. Rep. Sean Casten. Sen. Adam Schiff. and handful more. I want to put your name on that list.

    History, and voters, will remember as heroes the people who fought for our country and the rule of law. They will remember everyone else as collaborators and enablers who fiddled while American democracy burned.

    I’m begging you to scream and yell about Trump’s real and unprecedented crimes with the same intensity and relentlessness as Republicans scream about made-up crimes.

    We need your leadership now.

    Sincerely,

    NAME

  • Decatur road salt

    Dear Decatur: Are you ready for tomorrow’s winter storm?

  • Lapdog

    Dog on my laptop, photographed in black and white, looking very gentle and sweet.

    My sweet Timmy spent the yesterday on my lap. Saturdays are for the boys, they say.

  • Hello

    I can recall music videos I watched 40 years ago more easily than I can tell you what I did last week. I’m not happy about that.

  • Costco of many colors

  • End of trail

    sign in the woods that reads "End of trail"

    Reynolds Nature Preserve in Lake City, Ga. is less ominous than this photo suggests.

  • Melt The Guns

    Austin L. Ray came up to me the other day and said, “Hello, Andisheh Nouraee, how you would you fix Atlanta?”

    “Hello, Austin L. Ray, publisher of the How I’d Fix Atlanta essay series, thank you for asking me that question,” I said. “How I’d Fix Atlanta, Austin, is I’d melt the guns.”

    Says me:

    “[W]hile Georgia Republicans have spent the last 20 years or so making it perfectly legal for nearly any idiot to take a gun nearly everywhere, there’s still one office that Republicans won’t let people bring their guns into—their very own. Guns are banned at the state Capitol. And honestly, that seems sensible to me. After all, someone might get shot.”

    Read Melt The Guns, my newest contribution to the How I’d Fix Atlanta essay series.

    And subscribe (free!) to How I’d Fix Atlanta to have each new essay delivered to your inbox.

  • Huge news! I found the meaning of life.

  • Hickory Controversy

    I have recently become aware of a controversy within the hickory measurement community.

    Granite plaque near the base of a tree that reads "Pignul Hickory - Carry glabra. Reported to be the fastest growing hickory

  • Was the U.S. invasion of Iraq ever popular?

    I remember the country turning against the war, but did the country ever really support the war?

    Democrats won control of Congress in 2006, in part because the catastrophic War On Terror™ turned voters against Bush and Republicans. At least that’s how I remember it.

    This morning I read a newspaper column I wrote in November 2002 (13 months after the Afghanistan invasion, 5 months before the Iraq invasion). It was about public opinion polling and whether the then-pending invasion of Iraq actually had the support of the public.

    Was the Iraq war ever popular with the American public? It depended on how pollsters asked the question. Me in 2002:

    To witness first-hand how small wording changes can alter answers, try asking these two questions next you’re at a bar. Question : Do you enjoy having sex? Question : Do you enjoy having sex with me?”

    I then share bits of a Pew Research Center poll from October 2002 showing that a majority of Americans favored the invasion in general, but a majority disapproved of an invasion if there were significant U.S. casualties or we proceeded without support from allies.

    Put another way, the public approved of the hypothetical best-case scenario (an internationally supported invasion with few casualties) that was sold to them by Bush and credulous journalists, but the public disapproved of a go-it-alone invasion that killed and injured huge numbers of people, which is what countless people who were actually paying attention (ex. me!) warned was about to happen.

    Americans didn’t really support what the war was going to be. They only supported the fantasy version. 

    Speaking of fantasies, check out how much a 3-bedroom house with a yard cost in East Atlanta in 2002. From the classifieds of the same November 2002 issue of Creative Loafing:

    My column from that week, if you’re curious.