Jay Thatcher

Good morning.

Last night was a referendum on Trump's corruption, cruelty, and chaos.

But it's also not a coincidence these big wins came at the exact moment when Democrats are using our power to stand for something and be strong.

A huge risk to not learn that lesson.

Attn Pennsylvania voters: Reports are coming in of signs near polling places reading “No Kings, No Retention” with a crown-slash logo. These signs are fake and misleading, part of a disinformation push. In Pennsylvania, you should vote YES to retain the Supreme Court justices on the ballot.

“... and putting my hand into my pocket, I took out a groat and laid it down upon the table before them and said, ‘If it be so, I’ll leave you’." 4/4

“...should pay all. I was grieved that any that made profession of religion should offer to do so. They grieved me very much, having never had such a thing put to me before by any sort of people; wherefore I rose up to be gone, ..." 3/ BritYM Faith & Practice 19:01 qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/19-01/

"... part of a jug of beer with them, and I, being thirsty, went in with them, for I loved any that had a sense of good, or that did seek after the Lord. And when we had drunk a glass apiece, they began to drink healths and called for more drink, agreeing together that he that would not drink..." 2/

Probably not apocryphal, as Fox records it in the Journal as happening in 1643. "When I came towards nineteen years of age, I being upon business at a fair, one of my cousins, whose name was Bradford, being a professor and having another professor with him, came to me and asked me to drink..." 1/

A grey trucker's hat with a blue and green logo on the front from Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE) Corvallis.

SAFE Corvallis is offering hats and calendars for sale. The calendar features bike garages from around our town. mailchi.mp/b6089fa1a831...

The image includes the quotation below in white letters with a background photograph (a close-up of a face just showing an eye, cheek and nose): Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer. Simone Weil

Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.

Simone Weil

I learned to respect the power of those parents.

In Oregon we've seen several political leaders start as strong special education advocates, then rise as high as the Governor's office through steady persistent advocacy and solid political savvy.

cf: Barbara Roberts, @sensgb.bsky.social

'Have you met special needs parents? Those people eat bureaucrats for breakfast.'

My experience is not as breakfast fodder. I was a special physical educator for over 20 years. Parents were often great allies as we found ways to garner the facilities and assistance needed to serve children well.

Halloween voter 2025 sticker with a pigeon wearing a witches hat and holding a pumpkin lantern with bats and a witch in the background

New Yorkers vote today if you haven’t and you get this

a cobblestone street with pumpkins and candles on it ALT: a cobblestone street with pumpkins and candles on it

Happy Halloween!

This is the day that Affirmation Coyote disguises themselves as a Border Collie wearing a coyote costume and gets led around by three coyote friends standing on each others shoulders and wearing a trench coat and big floppy hat.

If you see us, provide biscuits.

Why *with* something in writing, could we expect Republicans to act faithfully? cf: Constitution, War Powers Act, Arms Export Control Act.

Even so, I will welcome your support for & assistance in drafting bi-partisan budget bills, especially if they prevent more administrative impoundment$.

Will the Linsanity epidemic break out again? in Oregon?

Got it. See in the thread above. Did a Print Screen (PrtSc on my keyboard), then saved the image into my file system.

Is there a better, simpler, more accessible way?

Looking west along Harrison Blvd at 14th St. in Corvallis Oregon. The far side of the intersection has a painted crosswalk. Two wheelchair access ramps are at each corner. A buffered bike lane is continuous, on the right side of the street. Privately owned structures of sheet metal (with wheels) are stored on both sides of Harrison Blvd. and on the intersecting street (14th). Image was copied from Google Street View.

Here's an image of the intersection:

Anyone know how to copy an image from a street view?

In a robust safety culture, catastrophic failures are examined. I hope that @cityofcorvallis.bsky.social will take a look at this through the lens of safe systems.

SAFE Corvallis has an action alert out about this. Can you write to Public Works and the City Mgr? mailchi.mp/9f0ec9ae3bc1...

On 10/17, two pedestrians were struck by a car while they were in the crosswalk at Harrison Blvd & 14th St. One person died there, the second was transported for treatment. maps.app.goo.gl/79BBGY4U4KJ9...

When I preach an inclusive and expansive love at Judson Memorial Baptist Church people clap and say Hallelujah (well, they clap). And yet the struggle to purge the image of God as a judgmental angry dude is real.

The tattered feather on the previous post was drawn by Lucy Garnett of Salmon Bay Meeting in North Pacific Yearly Meeting of Friends.

Faith and Practice is the name given to a reference book compiled by each yearly meeting that contains the collective wisdom of the community, including queries and guidelines intended to support individual and corporate faithful living.

'... it would be impractical to pursue exact equality in the language. The goal is not that Faith and Practice conform to every reader’s notions of what “should be,” but that all of us are able to see ourselves in the book.' npym.org/NPYM_FnP/Ch%... 4/4

'Friends may find themselves comforted or challenged by a particular name for the Divine. Readers can be warned – or reassured – that a different surprise can be found a few pages farther on. With the diversity of readers inside and outside our yearly meeting, ...' npym.org/NPYM_FnP/Ch%... 3/

...then the specific wording used may become less fraught. The task of writing accurately perhaps becomes more difficult. 2/

If Faith & Practice is regarded as a *prescriptive* document, controversy arises. If the writers seek to *describe* the faith that lives in a yearly meeting and offer a reference to how meetings and committees currently discern and carry out their ministries, ... 1/

'...Everywhere it tries to sow fear, small-town America plants resistance: church pews, cornfields, classrooms. Democracy doesn’t live in marble buildings; it survives in the hands of people who still believe in each other.'
2/2

'The regime wants quiet. It gets noise.

'It wants darkness. It gets phones, flashlights, and livestreams.

'It wants obedience. It gets angry neighbors.'
1/

Brilliant 🧵, starting out about opening streets for Halloween fun on foot. @cityofcorvallis.bsky.social: Let's do that here.

Death Star

A very offline cousin sent this to fam group chat. This story is breaking containment.

🚨🚨 RM @meeks.house.gov is demanding this committee hold a hearing on the Trump admin’s unauthorized military strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific that have killed at least 37 people.

Congress must reclaim its constitutional authority over matters of war and peace.