Another week, another zeitgeist sampling of the Daily Kos Community as I present the 11 stories we saved from fading away before readers noticed their excellence. Because Rescue Rangers read everything you write, we witness the ebb and flow of ideas and the Community’s moods. However, you often surprise us.
Let’s jump right to business.
A story this week about a historic woman architect springs from the author’s forced home sale in 2013. Two stories relate to mental illness and law enforcement. One of these centers on a woman Trump scheduled for execution, while the other is embedded in the author’s childhood and their mother’s paranoid schizophrenia. One Community member’s analysis was inspired by listening to Conservative Christian talk radio and YouTube preachers. We also read about wizard bakers and Republican shadows, folded proteins, a controversial sheriff, and (even more) lessons from the 2020 election and COVID-19. Your lively minds and wide-ranging life experiences combine with the spirit (geist) of the time (zeit) to represent this past week in Daily Kos history.
Stories Rescued from 4PM EST Friday Nov. 27 through 4PM EST Dec. 4, 2020
Community Spotlight’s Rescue Rangers read every story published by Community writers. When we discover awesome work that isn’t receiving the attention it deserves, we rescue it to our group blog and publish a weekly collection—like this one—each Saturday. Rescue priorities and actions were explained in a previous edition: Community Spotlight: Rescuing your excellent stories for over 14 years. You also can find a link in Meteor Blades’ “Night Owls” series, which publishes daily between 10-11PM EST.
Nelle Peters, Kansas City architect. She persisted by houyhnhnm tells the history of a woman who shaped the character of more than one city in the Midwest through her designs for beautiful, practical residential and hotel buildings. “When I had to sell my house seven years ago, as much of a relief as it was to get out from under that load of responsibility with my credit intact, I would still have been very sad if my loss had not been mitigated by the opportunity to move into an historic building designed in the 1920s by a pioneering woman architect.” A 16-year DK member, houyhnhnm has written 223 stories. Her profile page offers her gender, date of birth (1950), occupation (retired secondary science teacher), and DNA ancestry profile.
COVID QUARANTINE—DAY 4 by Portland True Blue shares the author’s quarantine life routine, which gave her space to contemplate her professional life. “I have had time to think and to reflect on the past 16 years of my life. It has been a purpose-driven life with a single goal—becoming an RN, BSN, CCRN—the best I could be. I am an educated, well trained, and experienced nurse. I have over 20,000 hours as an ICU/CCU RN. Do I regret my life choices? Not one little bit, I am doing exactly what I was meant to do and I am exactly where I was meant to be.” Portland True Blue joined in October 2020 and has published 23 stories, many centered on COVID-19 healthcare.
Democrats Need to Learn Messaging 101—Repetition by svjoshi explains their opinion on why the “2020 election did not turn out to be the blue wave that some Democrats expected,” and offers three suggestions to fix this problem. “I cannot recall any clear, simple message that was consistent across all Democratic candidate ads. Democrats leave their candidates to reinvent the wheel with every campaign.” This is svjoshi’s first story since joining in 2014, and all four of their comments since 2014 are replies to other commenters on this story.
Dems Who Do Not Learn From History Are Doomed To Repeat It—My Two Words of Political Advice by Doctor Who uses examples from Nixon to Obama to explain their belief that justice offers the best way to retain Democratic voters, and that achieving progressive results is the best way to swing voters over to our side. “(L)etting Nixon off the hook for his crimes didn’t really help the Democrats in the long run, or the country as a whole, for that matter. It set the precedent in recent history that yes, if you’re President, you can commit crimes and get away with it.” Dr Who’s bio is succinct: “Not really a "Doctor" or a "Who.” They joined in 2004 and have written 514 stories.
Quit Killing the Mentally Ill and Provide Humane Care by CA148 NEWS intersperses personal stories of the writer’s family to illustrate how mental health treatment and the involvement of law enforcement fail to help people. “My parents met and married at Ellington Army Air Base outside of Houston ... The wedding must have been the high point of mother’s life. She had married an enlisted pilot who flew cargo across the Atlantic. Since fraternization with officers could get both people up on charges, a flying enlisted was pretty much the best prospect available. From this point, it was a long fall from a solid middle class upbringing in New York to poverty in Arizona.” CA148 NEWS, a Vietnam vet living in central Pennsylvania, joined in 2007, and has written 134 stories.
The Language of the Night: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by DrLori introduces us to the young adult fantasy novel named in the headline. The protagonist, 14-year-old Mona, is a wizard baker who uses baking metaphors to describe people, situations, and emotions. “You would think that there’s no way a book can live up to the premise of a spectacular title, and often it’s true, but this is the exception that proves the rule. Deft, charming, but possessing a serious underbelly, A Wizard’s Guide is both a fun read and a masterwork of character voice.“ DrLori joined in 2010 and has written 212 stories. She began the “Language of the Night” series in 2016 by exploring the question “what is fantasy?” as a literary genre. DrLori has a Ph.D. in medieval manuscripts and describes herself as a “novelist and house restorer who is an overeducated liberal in the deep, deep red Shenandoah Valley.”
Shadows by SisTwo begins with a summary of Disney’s movie The Lion King and the song “Shadowlands,” and then discusses the need to pass through our own Shadowlands in order to restore order, both on stage and in our political life. She asks, "What's as big as an elephant, but weighs nothing?" and connects the answer to GOP influence and corruption. “A dark shadow has been cast over our government by a group of greedy, rich Republicans. They weigh nothing and think only of their own gain. It is hard to continue life's journey in a land overshadowed by wickedness.” SisTwo is an editor/analyst who joined in 2005 and has written 373 stories. “My mom called me,"Sis," and that is what I go by online. The "Two" part has several reasons. One is that I'm a Gemini—let me introduce myselves!”
Society Failed Lisa Montgomery in Every Way Possible. So Now We’re Going to Kill Her by DrMarmot is the second story rescued this week addressing the mental health crisis, but from a different angle. DrMarmot relates the grim details of a woman who committed a horrific crime and is one of five people scheduled to be executed by the federal government before Trump leaves office. “Every story of those about to be executed by the government is tragic and appalling in myriad and complex ways. (T)hey are stories of failure—but not just the personal failure of those who commit horribly violent crimes, but of society’s failure, to nurture those who needed guidance, to stop cycles of violence before they escalate into ever greater brutality, to treat the mentally ill, to provide the poor with competent and robust legal counsel, and to leaven the thirst for vengeance with compassion, reflection and justice.” DrMarmot joined in 2017 and has written five stories.
A Crisis of Faith by RepackRider arises from the author’s habit of listening to Christian radio while driving. This atheist looks closely at the evangelical Trumpists and comes up with a very logical rationale for their behavior. “I can’t quite handle Christian TV, but YouTube offers a stunning variety of video preaching. Stylistically, they range from crazed carnival barkers to slightly less-crazed carnival barkers. Lately I have been on an election prophecy binge.” These experiences allow RepackRider to speculate on the potential crisis among religious radio’s listeners who have been led by preacher-prophets to expect a Christmas miracle—in the form of Biden’s election win being overturned so “Trump will fulfill his destiny as God has planned it.” The author joined in 2003 (three-digit user ID!) and has published 134 stories. RepackRider, whose user name comes from a steep bike trail on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California, rode and designed the first mountain bikes.
Protein Folding—Solved? by keybeater reports a recent sci-tech breakthrough for molecular biology. The author first describes the biological importance of proteins, and their complex structure that is expensive and time-consuming to decipher. DeepMind’s AlphaFold2 “uses a sophisticated form of deep learning to predict how proteins fold. ‘Ho hum,’ you might say. ‘Another expensive toy for scientists to play with. How’s that good for anything in the real world?’ For one thing, it has the potential to speed research, whether (used) to study diseases, new species, or drug development. It can also make the study of artificial proteins easier.” Keybeater joined in 2018 and has written 10 stories.
Battle for the soul of Los Angeles rages: Sheriff Villanueva is the model for the next Donald Trump by willisnewton is the 17th story from this writer examining “the Donald Trump of American Sheriffs.” In 2018, Villanueva was “the first L.A. County sheriff in 138 years to secure a Democratic Party endorsement, and the party once declared his election its biggest victory.” Specifically, willisnewton focuses on “the highly suspicious ‘deputy-involved shooting’ death of 18-year-old Koreatown Salvadoran-American youth Andres Guardado,” which is “a proxy war between … the Sheriff and the Board of Supervisors. Yet though this all, Villanueva maintains an even strain and holds regular social media ‘fireside chats,’ where he panders to his supporters and spins away any and all challenges to his power. It’s a miniature, less fire-breathing version of Trump rallies.” Willisnewton joined in 2006 and has written 23 stories. The six stories that aren’t centered on this sheriff delve into how the legal system handled George Zimmerman after he killed Trayvon Martin.
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT is dedicated to finding great writing by community members that isn’t getting the visibility it deserves.
- To add our rescued stories to your Stream, click on the word FOLLOW in the left panel at our main page or click on Reblogs and read them directly on the group page.
- You can also find a list of our rescued stories by clicking HERE or using the link in Meteor Blades’ Night Owls open thread that publishes daily between 7-9PM Pacific time.
An edition of our rescue roundup publishes every Saturday at 1 PM ET (10AM PT) to the Recent Community Stories section and to the front page at 6:30PM ET (3:30PM PT).
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