2. Great again? "No Matter Who Loses the Election, the Winner Will Be the National Security State."

Welcome to the "peacetime" war state.

No Matter Who Loses the Election, the Winner Will Be the National Security State, by Tom Engelhardt (The Nation)

Both Trump and Clinton have pledged to pour more money into the already bloated military and security apparatus.

The United States remains the great imperial state on Planet Earth in terms of the reach of its military and the power of its economy and culture to influence the workings of everything just about everywhere. And yet, based on the last strange year of election campaigning, it’s hard not to think that something—and not just The Donald—is unnervingly amiss on Planet America.

3. Great again? "Barrel Bomb: the Cataclysmic Close of Campaign 2016."

Counting the minutes until business as usual.

Barrel Bomb: the Cataclysmic Close of Campaign 2016, by Chris Floyd (CounterPunch)

Well, here we are: at the bottom of the barrel under forty feet of slag. In a few days’ time, we’ll know our fate: the five-alarm fire of Trump Rule (oh, how those police unions are chomping at the bit!) or the Clinton Age of Hyper-War (oh, how those neocons are chomping at the bit!). In either case, the entrenched coagulation of corporate interests and war profiteers that have strangled the peace, prosperity and prospects of the American people will not be budged an inch. The change that people are so desperately hungry for — so hungry that that some of them might well elect an Establishment insider whose sinister clowning makes him appear to be a ‘rebel’ — will not come. Thus their bitterness will grow deeper, more sour, erupting more and more often in physical violence: from militarized police against protestors, from Trump-empowered racists (if he wins or loses), from extremist militias, from angry, maddened people on every side. And of course there will be more — much more — of the horrific, never-ending, globe-spanning violence of the bipartisan Terror War that churns on and on, no matter who is sitting temporarily in the White House.

There’s no use in pretending that’s not what we face. But there’s also no use in pretending that this situation is somehow sui generis, some terribly unlucky conflation of unforeseen circumstances coming together at this particular time. It is in fact the culmination and embodiment of the deliberate choices of the most powerful forces in society: the choices to enrich themselves beyond all reason and extend their military and economic dominance over the earth.

A pirate looks at '15: "In the U.S., Almost No One Votes in Local Elections."

I was a year ahead of my time, but that's okay. The point was made, posterity will be generous, and I can't thank Seven Percenters often enough.

In the U.S., Almost No One Votes in Local Elections, by Kriston Capps (City Lab)

... As if incredibly low voter turnout weren’t dispiriting enough, mayoral elections in the U.S. are also barely representative of the population. In the most recent mayoral elections across 50 U.S. cities, the median voter age was 57—evidence of an enormous gap in civic participation between retiring Baby Boomers and rising Millennials. Worse still, perhaps, voters are overrepresented in some neighborhoods and dramatically underrepresented in others.

A new report from Portland State University finds that almost nobody bothers to vote in mayoral U.S. elections. Those who do tend to be much older than the median resident and hail from more affluent neighborhoods to boot. That’s not necessarily a surprise, although the degree of disparity in local voting patterns is alarming.

"Go Cubs Go: How Chicago's victory anthem keeps a father alive for his daughters."

I am not now nor have I ever been a fan of the Chicago Cubs.

However, as a history buff, it isn't possible to let this moment pass without a tip of the chapeau to the World Series champs.

Thanks to Kent Sterling for the Fb prompt.

Go Cubs Go: How Chicago's victory anthem keeps a father alive for his daughters, by Michael Rosenberg (Sports Illustrated)

Steve Goodman died in 1984 but his Cubs theme song has become an essential part of the Wrigley Field experience and provides a powerful memory for the family he left behind.

Dennis Roudenbush for Commissioner: Josh Williams mentions "transparency" as Adam Dickey runs screaming from the crypt.

I voted for Dennis Roudenbush and recommend you do the same, but we must profusely thank DemoDisneyDixiecratic candidate Josh Williams for his ironic detachment, surely unintended, as he contradicts the daily operational goals of the Dickey/Gahan party apparatus with this one statement.

Floyd County Commissioner, Dist. 3 | Election 2016, by Madeleine Winer, (Courier-Journal)

... First priority is transparency. Elected officials have a tendency to forget that they are elected as public servants. The citizens of Floyd County deserve to know what is going on and have full disclosure of all pertinent information so that they can voice a true opinion on issues.

I've not met Williams, who seems earnest and well meaning, but he might wish to take an honest look around him at those Roadhouse party functions and grasp that the very best examples of non-transparent megalomania are seated across from him, drinking the Bud Light Lime Kool-Aid, as crafted in small batches by the party chairman himself.

To repeat: Roudenbush for Commissioner.

Chronicles of New Gahania: Mayor evades questions about dog park sacrilege with help of police escort.

Thanks J.

Just in case you missed it, Mayor Gahan went to a self-congratulatory plaque-raising yesterday, and damned if some substance didn't break out.

Watch the pooch pee: Doggie excrement "trumps" Native American sacraments as Jeff Gahan flees the WHAS-11 camera.

Meanwhile, these screen shots show what happened when Tony attempted to engage The Genius of the Flood Plain in dialogue as he scurried past the Fourth Estate.

The Green Mouse has learned that when the Imperial Carriage arrived and Our Beloved Leader saw WHAS-11 setting up for an interview with Tony Nava, Deputy Mayor Duggins immediately phoned for police back-up, lest Nava attempt to tell the truth on camera within earshot of Gahan.

DUDE: This is no way to conduct a State Senate campaign, especially when you'll have to beat Chuck Freiberger in the primary.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: "10 words that don't mean what they used to."

Welcome to another installment of SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, a regular Wednesday feature at NA Confidential.

But why all these newfangled words?

Why not the old, familiar, comforting words, like the ones you're sure to hear when asking the city's corporate attorney why the answers to my FOIA/public records request for Bicentennial commission finances, due to be handed over on July 8, still haven't arrived on November 2?

Bicentennial commission financial trail? What's two (yawn) weeks (shrug) after 463 days?

November 2 update: Make that 17 weeks since the FOIA record request's due date and 567 days since I asked Bullet Bob Caesar to tell us how many coffee table books were left unsold, and how much the city's 200-year "summer of love" fest actually cost us. It's with Indiana's public access counselor now, so perhaps "compliance" would be a word for future consideration. 

No, it's because a healthy vocabulary isn't about intimidation through erudition. Rather, it's about selecting the right word and using it correctly, whatever one's pay grade or station in life.

Even these very same iniquitous, paving-bond-slush-engorged municipal corporate attorneys who customarily are handsomely remunerated to suppress information can benefit from this enlightening expansion of personal horizons, and really, as we contemplate what they knew and when they knew it, all we have left is plenty of time -- and the opportunity to learn something, if we're so inclined.

Today's words are found here:

10 words that don't mean what they used to: when meerkats were monkeys and bimbos were boys, by Paul Anthony Jones (The Guardian)

Did you know that alcohol originally meant eyeshadow, clouds were rocks or that a moment once lasted precisely 90 seconds? Read on, girls and bimbos …

It’s by no means unusual for words to change their meaning over time. But thanks to the twists and turns of language – and the convoluted history of English, in particular – some words end up quite a distance from where they began, as the following bizarre etymological stories illustrate.

Not the late and lamented pissoir, but Germany has an idea to provide more public restrooms.

It's been a couple of years since public toilet mania in New Albany.

As April comes to an end, a reminder that public toilets are not dead.

A ringside seat for New Albany's new slogan: "Truck Through City" ... Part Twelve.

Meanwhile, Germany's doing something about it.

Germany Found a Cheap Way to Fix Its Lack of Public Restrooms, by Feargus O'Sullivan (City Lab)

Welcome to the “Nice Toilet.”

... In Germany, it looks like there may be one that really works. The country’s Nette Toilette (“Nice Toilet”) system has created a compromise between public and private restrooms that makes such obvious sense it’s hard to believe that other countries aren’t doing it already too. It works like this. German cities pay businesses a monthly fee of anything from €30 to €100 ($33 to $110) a month to open up their restrooms for the general public. These businesses then put a sticker in their window to let the public know they’re welcome to use the facilities even if they’re not buying. First launched in 2000 and now including 210 member cities (including some in Switzerland), the network is a private one that charges participating cities a modest fee to use their branding. Sixteen years in, it’s still on a roll. At the end of October, the network announced that it is expanding to Munich, which will be its largest urban area yet.

Watch the pooch pee: Doggie excrement "trumps" Native American sacraments as Jeff Gahan flees the WHAS-11 camera.

"The City of New Albany has done some really dumb stuff in the time I've lived here but a members only, pay-to-play "public" dog park out on the fringe of town with no walking route - built on Native American ceremonial grounds, no less - is among the dumbest. Three strikes with one pitch."
-- Bluegill (here)

Before we look at the incriminating photos, let's rewind to March, 2016 for background on the origins of New Albany Dog Park, which by a miracle yet to be revealed, hasn't yet been named for a suburban subdivision or a dead Democrat.

THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016
Dog daze: With Gahan back in the safe house, civilian architect Timperman now is the city's official spokesman.

When Mayor Jeff Gahan donned his standard issue suit and tie for an uncharacteristic public appearance at Cannon Acres with WDRB's Gil Corsey, actually speaking on behalf of his own administration without the usual sycophants and intermediaries for protective filtration,

"Right now the last thing we'd want to do is be disrespectful to anyone," Gahan said.

Amid instantaneous and contagious community-wide laughter, it was only a matter of milliseconds until chief handler Adam Disney speed-dialed Gahan to remind the mayor that the only way he can refrain from disrespect is to remain safely ensconced in the down-low bunker.

In the emergency meeting that followed, you can almost see them looking around the room ... so, who can we use?

Seven and one half months of campaign finance beak-wetting later, the dog park was dedicated, and to the credit of WHAS-11, Tony Nava was invited to say a few words. Follow the link to watch the video.

Meanwhile, these screen shots show what happened when Tony attempted to engage The Genius of the Flood Plain in dialogue as he scurried past the Fourth Estate.

If a picture paints a thousand words.
Then why can't I paint you?
The words will never show.
The you I've come to know.

The "you" who flees any unscripted opportunity ... and yet the most incisive comment is reserved for this dog ...

 ... peeing on a ceremonial Native American site as the cameras roll.

Adam Disney didn't give that dog very good public relations advice, did he? Unless, of course, that's exactly the advice he gave him.

"The Tallinn experiment: what happens when a city makes public transport free?"

Waiting for the bus in Tallinn, April 2016.

Plenty of pros, and a few cons, too. During our spring break getaway in Tallinn ...

All the Estonia links are here, in one place.

... we used inexpensive public transportation day passes, and adored them.

The Tallinn experiment: what happens when a city makes public transport free? by Maeve Shearlaw (The Guardian)

Since Estonia’s capital started providing free public transport for residents in 2013, it claims to have turned a €20m a year profit each year. But has the scheme achieved its ambitions of reducing traffic and saving people money?

In London a monthly travel card for the whole city costs almost £200. In Copenhagen, a city a fraction of the size, you’ll pay £160. So when you ask the residents of Tallinn about the benefits of free travel across the city, it’s a surprise to be met with a roll of the eyes or a sarcastic smile.

The capital of Estonia introduced free public transport at the beginning of 2013 after their populist mayor Edgar Savisaar called a referendum on the decision, dismissed by critics at the time as a political stunt that the city couldn’t afford.

Three years on Savisaar has been suspended amid allegations of corruption, but the city remains committed to the programme – claiming that instead of it costing them money, they are turning a profit of €20m a year.

To enjoy Tallinn’s buses, trams, trolley buses and trains for free you must be registered as a resident, which means that the municipality gets a €1,000 share of your income tax every year, explains Dr Oded Cats, an expert who has conducted a year long study on the project. Residents only need to pay €2 for a “green card” and then all their trips are free.

Since the scheme launched, an additional 25,000 people have registered in the city that previously had a population of 416,000, but this is where the tension lies. The more money for the city of Tallinn, the less there is for the places they leave behind, explains Cats, “so it’s not hard to see why the government and the mayor’s office might see things differently”.

ASK THE BORED: What the hell do we do when a street light is out?

You're outside walking the pooch after dark, and you trip on a malformed sidewalk that hasn't been repaired since the Kennedy years.

"Damn," you curse. "If only the street light would have been functional, I could have minded the gap."

And so you go to the city's snazzy upgraded web site, the one where you're greeted by a billboard-sized portrait of Our Beloved Leader, in order to report the street light outage, because you know the sidewalk's gonna be toast at least until the second Chelsea Clinton administration.

So much for that. Surmising that the city probably has outsourced all such matters to the utility monopolies, which play a central role in campaign finance for those aspiring to be President Chelsea's local branded representative, you're off to Google.

Problem is, Duke says "no can do" in Indiana.

And yet, hit another link recently posted on a Facebook page, and there's this.

It appears to be a procedure for reporting street light outages. I haven't tried it yet because miraculously, all the lights on my block appear to be functional at present.

This week's question to the Bored, destined to remain unanswered just like the rest: Exactly what is the procedure for reporting a street light outage? Is it Duke, or must citizens take a half day off from work to pay homage to Chairman Warren in person?

Also this: Is it Happy Hour yet?

Anger and mourning "Inside the Sacrifice Zone."

You're so angry that you consistently vote against your own health?

The book's ultimate aim is to explore the emotional state of the American "right", but importantly, this review helps to remind us that as we've focused on the personal demerits of two horrible presidential candidates, whole areas of critical importance have gone unaddressed.

Climate change?

Environmental concerns?

Anyone?

Inside the Sacrifice Zone, by Nathaniel Rich (The New York Review of Books)

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, by Arlie Russell Hochschild

 ... After seeing his house, neighborhood, and way of life destroyed by corporate greed and state-sanctioned contempt for the natural environment, and many of his neighbors diagnosed with cancer, (Mike) Schaff was forever changed. “They think we’re just a bunch of ignorant coonasses,” he told a Mother Jones reporter. Schaff became an environmental activist, railing against the “disrespect that we have been shown by both Texas Brine and our state officials themselves.” He marched on the statehouse, wrote fifty letters to state and federal officials, granted dozens of interviews to local, national, and foreign press. When state officials claimed they had detected no oil in the bayou, he demanded that the EPA check their work.

But Schaff continued to vote Tea Party down the line. He voted for the very politicians who had abetted Texas Brine at every turn, who opposed environmental regulation of any kind. He voted to “abolish” the EPA, believing that it “was grabbing authority and tax money to take on a fictive mission…lessening the impact of global warming.” The violent destruction of everything he held dear was not enough to change his mind.

Schaff’s story is an extreme but representative example of what so many Louisianian voters have brought upon themselves. “The entire state of Louisiana,” writes Hochschild, “had been placed into a sinkhole.” When confronted with the contradictions in their political logic, Hochschild’s subjects fall into “long pauses.” Cognitive dissonance reduces them to childlike inanity. When asked about catastrophic oil spills that result from lax regulation, one woman says, “It’s not in the company’s own interest to have a spill or an accident…. So if there’s a spill, it’s probably the best the company could do.” Madonna Massey says: “Sure, I want clean air and water, but I trust our system to assure it.” Jackie Tabor, whom Hochschild describes as “an obedient Christian wife,” says: “You have to put up with things the way they are…. Pollution is the sacrifice we make for capitalism,” which is a gentler way of saying that premature death is the sacrifice we make for capitalism. Janice Areno, who worked at Olin Chemical without a facial mask as an inspector of phosgene gas and suffers mysterious health ailments that she believes are “probably related to growing up near the plants,” finds comfort in an anthropomorphic analogy: “Just like people have to go to the bathroom, plants do too.”

But Hochschild is not interested in merely documenting the familiar ways in which this stratum of white Americans has consistently voted against its own interests, economic and otherwise. She wants to understand the cause. She finds all of the familiar explanations lacking.

"Lorry driver who killed four while using phone jailed for 10 years."

I'm just going to leave this here.

Lorry driver who killed four while using phone jailed for 10 years, by (The Guardian)

Tomasz Kroker was scrolling through music on his mobile when he hit car carrying woman and three children

A lorry driver who killed a woman and three children when his vehicle ploughed into their stationary car while he was scrolling through music on his mobile phone has been jailed for 10 years.

Tracy Houghton, 45, her sons, Ethan, 13, Josh, 11, and stepdaughter, Aimee, 11, died instantly when Tomasz Kroker drove his lorry into their car at 50mph. Their car was shunted underneath the back of a heavy goods vehicle and crushed to a third of its size.

An hour earlier, Kroker, 30, had signed a declaration to his employer promising he would not use his phone at the wheel.

I'm holding out for the Michael Dukakis edition.

They're proliferating like rabbits on my Facebook page.

The problem? It isn't exactly an enticing comparison, at least from Bill's standpoint. Uncle Joe is a bit less objectionable. Is it to late for him to run for president?

Look -- there's another one.

If Bayh wins, can Mr. Dickey go to Washington?

A sharrows symbol might as well be the Mark of Blithering Idiot on Jeff Gahan's forehead.

Here's what we know, to date. It's isn't pretty.

1. Mayor Jeff Gahan has spent millions of dollars on park units connected to each other not by walking or bicycling infrastructure, but by roads intended for use solely by cars. These roads require constant upkeep and paving, which in turn provide numerous conduits for campaign finance sluicing, but you already knew this.

2. Whenever "safety" is used as a mantra for street grid change, however fleeting and incremental, it is a dog whistle intended to describe conditions for motorists, not walkers or cyclists, because they're incidental in the grand scheme of beak-wetting.

3. During five years in office, all Gahan has done to guard against the eventuality of toll dodging is implement a grotesquely ballyhooed road diet on Spring between Vincennes and Beharrell, describe it in terms exclusive to automotive "safety", build no bicycle infrastructure whatever between Beharrell and Silver, then draw a few scant sharrow symbols on the pavement and create unprotected bike lanes from Silver to Vincennes, after which they continue ineffectively and still unprotected along high-speed, one-way Spring until petering out downtown.

4. None of these existing bike lanes are connected to any other, or to a park, or to the city's downtown commercial area, or evince any design of being connected to anything, now or in the future. They begin and end nowhere, and not once has a city planner ever revealed a comprehensive design that might convince us otherwise -- when they've bothered to answer questions at all.

5. Insofar as consultant Jeff Speck recommended protected bike lanes throughout the street grid as part of converting one-way streets to two-way traffic, 95% of his recommendations were tossed from the grandiosely tagged "Downtown Grid Modernization Project" in what might be termed as a late-term abortion.

6. While hideous, HWC Engineering's recasting of Speck's downtown street network proposal didn't materialize from the ether. It came at the behest of Gahan and the usual timer-serving suspects among city officials, among them David Duggins, the city's presumed economic development director, whose wife works for HWC, seeing as nepotism is job one with Gahan and not proposals representing genuine progress (see "beak-wetting" above).

7. And, just for the hell of it, if the opportunity presents itself to reduce shade along this botched and unrealized street grid by felling trees, Gahan's stellar team of suburbanites does this first, then insists that in spite of the absence of evidence to the contrary, far more trees are being planted than clear-cut. When we ask for the evidence, we're told that the poor, underfunded Tree Board can only do so much.

Think about the preceding.

Then consider that the very same time-serving paycheck endorsers instituting street grid mayhem as outlined above presently are seated on a steering committee to write a Comprehensive Plan to carry the city forward two whole decades.

To more of the same?

Who are you going to believe, John Rosenbarger or your own two eyes?

Today's photos are courtesy of Bicycle Lobby, on Twitter here.

Recent documentation of conditions in the civic asylum:

WITHIN CITY LIMITS: Episode XII, How Do I Join the New Albany Planning Committee?

The composition of Jeff Gahan's comprehensive plan steering committee guarantees yet another business-as-usual silo, and compels me to vomit.

New Albany's new Comprehensive Plan to be happily midwifed by precisely the same old suspects.

Jeff Speck on HWC Engineering's bicycle-free, two-way streets abortion: "I guess that's what you get when you ask engineers who do not value biking to change a plan."

WITHIN CITY LIMITS: Episode XII, How Do I Join the New Albany Planning Committee?

WITHIN CITY LIMITS: Episode XII, How Do I Join the New Albany Planning Committee?

By Nick Vaughn, Guest Columnist

For those of you who may not know, there is a new planning committee in New Albany tasked with developing a plan for what New Albany can look like in 20 years. Does this sound familiar? It should. When I was running for City Council I created my Vision Outline for New Albany. I dreamt of a land that had renter registration, anti-poverty initiatives, incentives to bring jobs back to New Albany, and a land where unelected boards did not will their power unchecked by elected officials. So, if I have a plan, how do I join this planning committee?

Does it surprise anyone, though? Not a single average, everyday New Albanian is represented on this new committee let alone a young person who might actually have a vested interest in steering the city in a direction that will allow young people to flourish. It is important for prominent New Albany businesses to be represented on this committee and I guess some outside businesses as well, however, it makes zero sense as to why there is no true resident representation on this committee. This is especially ironic because the 20 year plan will affect those who reside and own a home or rent here in New Albany most likely before it affects a business or commercial property owner.

Unsurprisingly, the means in which this committee was chosen is completely in the dark and kept away from the people of New Albany who have a right to know who will be making a 20 year plan for their city. Of course, this non-transparency just fits the narrative of the Gahan Administration as well as a go-along-to-get-along, Democratic Majority City Council. How were these people chosen? Who chose them? Why were they chosen? Why does the City Council have no oversight? Is the City Council going to be represented? In my experience, a committee or government entity that has more questions asked about it than can be answered is a committee or government entity that I don’t want representing my interests.

The largest question, though, might be how much power does this committee have over the people of New Albany? None of the members, to my knowledge, have been voted into their position by the people, the City Council did not confirm these committee members, so does this committee even hold any meaningful power?

Before anything else, this committee needs to appoint some citizens, young, old, and in between. If they do not I cannot see how they can possibly be able to effectively steer the community in a direction that will benefit the citizens. As of right now, the only benefit that could come from this committee would be more crony capitalism propagated by City Hall where unelected bureaucrats pick the winners and losers of the New Albany economy. That is not what New Albany needs, we need a citizen-oriented committee who will create a 20 year plan of not only economic prosperity but also community change where someone isn’t afraid to let their kids play in their front yard and where a near quarter of the population can’t afford to make ends meet.

Furthermore, this committee, since it is creating a plan for the future, should have young adult members. Young people are the future of New Albany and whether we can retain them or not will prove to be the crucial task for our community over the next 10 years. Young people don’t just want a place to play, they want a place to live and potentially raise a family. New Albany, unfortunately, only offers a playground for the upper middle to upper class people with money to spend. We do not currently have an effective climate for the up-and-coming young entrepreneur or young lawyer, etc.

If we do not get some young people on this committee then our 20 year plan will be for nothing. We will continue to lose young professionals to Indianapolis, Jeffersonville, and Louisville and continue to have a city seen as a playground by some but a socioeconomically segregated city by those not predisposed to success by means of birth. This is a sad truth that doesn't have to be.

"The town is broke because there’s a structural gap between revenue and expenses due to a suburban land use pattern that can never pay for its own obligations or maintenance."

From the article.

What is a talisman?

1. a stone, ring, or other object, engraved with figures or characters supposed to possess occult powers and worn as an amulet or charm.

2. any amulet or charm.

3. anything whose presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.

That guy trying to cross the stroad (above) is a talisman of sorts, though most drivers wouldn't give him a second thought, at least until the point of impact.

The Talisman of Colerain, by Johnny Sanphillippo (Strong Towns)

As perhaps the world’s most lapsed Catholic I still instantly recognized this rusty bit of iron for what it is. It’s a relic. A talisman. It’s a distant cousin three times removed from a splinter from the Cross or a tiny fragment from a Saint’s robe. It’s meant to have special healing powers that will bring health and prosperity to the town. It’s a shield to protect the innocent and vanquish evil. All you have to do is believe and its blessings will be revealed. I’ll get back to that in a moment. But first, there’s that other image ...

The talismanic influence of certain objects can reflect the surroundings.

The town is broke because there’s a structural gap between revenue and expenses due to a suburban land use pattern that can never pay for its own obligations or maintenance. The memorial park is sitting in a sea of low-value surface parking lots, empty buildings, and buildings that are only occupied because they were bribed into existence with subsidies and tax abatements to keep up appearances. Meanwhile millions of dollars worth of public infrastructure sit underutilized.

And the verdict isn't pleasant (bold type mine).

I doubt the good people of Colerain are interested in transforming their old parking lots and dead strip malls into a thick Main Street downtown full of mixed-use buildings with shops on the ground floor and offices and apartments upstairs. I don’t think they’d even know how to build that sort of thing if they tried. They’re too obsessed with parking ratios and flower beds that look like the prosperous suburbs they no longer are. I’m not even sure there’s even a market for that kind of thing in this location. So I see continued decline and more desperate attempts at resurrection by pure faith. So be it.

But remember, kiddies -- we've got hospital sale money to make it all right.

Sicilian symbolism: "The Trinacria: History and Mythology."

Such a symbol would interest me even if I didn't live in a city that now must abide with an anchor as its woeful metaphor.

Here's a bit about the food in Catania, where we'll be soon, licking wounds and drinking wine after the conclusion to America's stupidest ever election: What to Eat in Sicily.

Back to the symbol ...

The Trinacria: History and Mythology, by Ninni Radicini

The symbol of the Hellenic nature of Sicily

The symbol of Trinacria is now known because in the flag of Sicily and that of the Isle of Man. Its history is complex and in some ways still shrouded in mystery, or at least in indeterminacy, as it relates to mythology. The Trinacria, symbol of Sicily, is composed of the head of the Gorgon, whose hair is entwined serpents with ears of corn, from which radiate the three legs bent at the knee. The Gorgon is a mythological figure who, according to the Greek poet Hesiod (VIII - early VII century B.C.), was each of the three daughters of Ceto and Phorcys, two gods of the sea: Medusa (the Gorgon for excellence), Stheno ("strong"), Euryale ("the large").

Keith Henderson wants to be the hanging judge, though "former prosecutor" sounds better to us.

Lest we forget ...

Matt Oakley's assessment of the prosecutor's ethical breakdown doesn't stop with Keith Henderson.

Granted, it isn't as though we weren't aware of Henderson's many and varied abuses as prosecutor, and (Mark) Seabrook's role in ignoring them -- as these posts from 2013 attest.

Ready for the punchline?

In an age of excuses for reckless behaviors, I will continue to hold adult offenders accountable.

Prosecutor, hang thyself.

Why are you running for this position? (Courier-Journal)

I will bring much-needed energy and efficiency to the position of Circuit Court Judge. My philosophy has always been very clear. In an age of excuses for reckless behaviors, I will continue to hold adult offenders accountable, protect the innocent and support the family. After prosecuting nearly 30,000 criminal cases and handling thousands of child support cases, I have unique experience and strengths which will enable me to bring accountability and fairness to this position. I will use my extensive experience as an Indiana State Police officer, General Council for City of New Albany and nearly 19 years as a prosecuting attorney in the office of Circuit Court Judge.

The composition of Jeff Gahan's comprehensive plan steering committee guarantees yet another business-as-usual silo, and compels me to vomit.

The gang that can't shoot (or think) straight now seeks to institutionalize the incomprehension so that future generations of New Albanians can suffer just as readily as we are.

Mighty nice of them. The plaques probably are being stamped as we retch.

New Albany's new Comprehensive Plan to be happily midwifed by precisely the same old suspects.

And you think I'm kidding when I refer to this asylum as New Gahania?

The C-J's Madeleine Winer has updated her story to include comprehensive plan steering committee members, and here they are.

Members of the New Albany Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee

►Matt Chalfant, developer & owner of Chalfant Industries

►Wendy Dant Chesser, director of One Southern Indiana

►Corey Hughes, developer & real estate manager with Hughes Group

►Bill Wisehart, Director of Facilities for New Albany-Floyd County Schools

►Bob Norwood, New Albany Plan Commission President

►David Duggins, New Albany Director of Economic Development

►Ed Snelling, President of New Albany Elks Lodge #270

►Irving Joshua, New Albany Redevelopment Commission President

►John Rosenbarger, New Albany Public Facilities Director

►Larry Summers, New Albany City Engineer

►Paul Kiger, Realtor

►Rich Robinson, Develop New Albany

►Shane Gibson, Attorney for the City of New Albany

Two or three decent eggs, but not a single truly independent voice. It's the usual pay-to-play suspects and insider "economic development" yes-men. Think of it as a road map for partisan political payola from now until doomsday

Our friend Stephen adds this precise analysis:

It strikes me as odd, inappropriate, disappointing, insulting, thoughtless and more that a committee appointed to work on a comprehensive plan for the City of New Albany includes individuals who do not live in the city. At least one resides in another county. Impacts on this city's future need to be made by city residents. If they can't live here, they have no business "representing" those of us who do.

Jeff Gahan is remaking New Albany according to his "vision," and this should scare you far worse than Donald versus Hillary.