New Blue America Endorsement: Beth Doglio (WA-10)

Republicans aren't competitive in Washington's 10th district-- basically most of Thurston County (Olympia) and part of Pierce County (Tacoma area). With incumbent Denny Heck retiring, the jungle primary attracted 19 candidates, including 8 Democrats and 8 Republicans. The PVI is D+5 but the three top vote-getters in the high turnout election were all Democrats. In November, progressive Democrat Beth Doglio will face off against corporate conservative Marilyn Strickland. Although Strickland is the establishment candidate, Doglio out-raised her-- $616,683 to $595,105-- despite Strickland's substantial self-funding. Predictably, the Wall Street-funded New Dems-- basically the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- has endorsed Strickland and the Congressional Progressive Caucus has endorsed Doglio. This week, Blue America has also endorsed Doglio.

Our endorsement process started with an outreach from the Progressive Caucus. Pramila Jayapal, one of the co-chairs told me that Doglio "is willing to take on power, willing to do the work, willing to push for bold ideas like Medicare for All-- even before they are popular. As a legislator, organizer and climate champion, Beth has a proven track record of standing up for working people against special interests, and delivering on policies that matter. She is not taking corporate PAC money and is directly confronting the abysmal state of for-profit health care in this country that has been only illuminated with COVID-19. Washingtonians need to send Beth to Congress to join me in moving forward bold solutions like Medicare for All and humane immigration reform, and fighting for working families, environmental justice, women and underserved communities. Beth will be a fantastic progressive partner for me in the state delegation and I cannot wait to have her strong voice in Congress." That was good enough to begin the vetting process. Basically, everything I could discover since showed that Pramila was right about her.

On top of that, the conservative running against her is exactly the kind of Democrat that has turned Congress into a cesspool that doesn't serve the interests of working families. As mayor of Tacoma, Strickland stood in the way of the $15 minimum wage campaign as well as the paid sick days campaign, which has a lot to do with why labor is backing Doglio-- and why the Chamber of Commerce is backing Strickland, who helped kill an employee hours tax on large employers that was meant to fund affordable housing.

When I asked Beth about it she told me that "If we take our talking points and marching orders from corporate special interests, we’ll constrain change to 'impossible aspiration' and never accomplish the progress this country desperately needs. Not all Democrats approach this challenge the same way. While I’m fighting for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and other bold policies to move this country forward, my opponent rejects these ideas. She even worked side-by-side with Amazon in a blatant attempt to buy the Seattle City Council and halt any possibility of progressive taxes where large, profitable corporations would pay their fair share. That’s simply not the progressive and principled leadership this moment calls for."

Today, as a candidate, Strickland apologizes for her support for building the world's largest methane plant in Tacoma. She-- and the special interests who she backed-- were eventually defeated by Tacoma activists. She has always been an enemy of environmental activists and told them to focus their energy on "recruiting 1,000 volunteer summer reading tutors for children from underserved neighborhoods" instead. Last year, as chair of the Chamber of Commerce, Strickland spent millions of corporate dollars in an attempt to unseat the Seattle City Council’s progressive majority.

Both candidates have records. We know exactly who Marilyn Strickland is and who Beth Doglio is. The former is unfit for office and the latter would make a great, and sorely-needed, addition to Congress. I asked Beth to introduce herself to DWT readers with a guest post. Please take a look and if, like I was, you're impressed, consider contributing to Beth's campaign by clicking on the thermometer above.


Why Taking on Special Interests (and Winning) Is More Important than Ever
by Rep. Beth Doglio

A pandemic badly mismanaged by Trump threatening the lives and livelihoods of the people in this country. The rightful racial tension and uprising triggered by the murder of George Floyd and so many others. Fires, hurricanes, storms raging across this country as we grapple with the increasing impacts of climate change and climate injustice. Lost jobs for 30 million people and many of them losing their healthcare as well.

Unprecedented turmoil. Unprecedented challenges.

I am a working mom, a climate activist, a longtime community organizer and state legislator running to be the next Member of Congress in Washington’s 10th Congressional District. I’m running because I am worried for my kids and their generation. What kind of jobs will exist to provide for their families? What kind of planet will we leave them? Will they have access to healthcare? Will justice for all be a reality, not just a tagline?

We’ve got a lot of work to do. And the time for incrementalism has long past-- we have to get it done now.

Bringing our country together, creating a future that makes good on the hope I see in my children’s generation, finally breaking down the systemic racism and inequality that has been in the very fibers of this country, will require solutions that weave together uplifting the working class with better wages and working conditions as well as universal access to healthcare, just and equitable solutions to climate change, and ensuring that all of these things are done with racial and social justice centered within the solutions.

I’ve spent my life fighting for local communities and taking on special interests. I’ve faced off against the fossil fuel and chemical industries-- and won. And to be clear, I’ve also lost. But with each loss, I came back ultimately prevailing by putting people and community first.

In 2018, fossil fuel giants spent record amounts-- over $30 million-- to mislead voters and defeat Initiative 1631, a ballot measure that would have implemented a modest fee on their pollution and helped move us to a clean energy future.

This is where resilient leadership, coalition-building, and the ability to craft real, transformative policy comes into play. After that loss at the ballot box, we reorganized, and I helped lead efforts to work on a suite of legislative climate solutions.

We developed Washington’s best-in-the-nation 100% clean electricity bill. This bill passed in the legislature and helped chart a course to a clean energy future. And even while corporate special interests continue to stymie progress in the fight against climate change, we in the legislature haven’t taken no for an answer, continuing to pass bold and innovative climate legislation.

Now I want to go to Congress to fight for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, a $15 per hour minimum wage and other ambitious-- and necessary-- policies to move this country forward.

Families can no longer afford a "business as usual" approach, kowtowing to the demands of giant, obscenely profitable corporations. I’m not taking corporate PAC or fossil fuel contributions because they have enough advocates in Congress, and enough is enough.

I will fight the same fights as I have as a community organizer and a member of the Washington state legislature on behalf of people and our planet. I have no doubt the same bad actors will work overtime to prevent reform on climate, healthcare, guns, and so much more. We need to elect leaders who have shown they will stand up to special interests, not work hand-in-hand to water down legislation and erode progress.

Activists and community leaders have shown how the fight can be won-- now, we just need more of them in office.

Amazon Rips Off 238 Cities, States and Provinces, Then Builds in NYC and DC

Andrew Cuomo's priorities (source)

by Gaius Publius

The world's leading monopolists, Jeff Bezos and Amazon, after much thought (or in fact, very little thought) have picked two cities for their new HQ2, their second national headquarters. Those two cities, of course, were the obvious choices from the start, the only two that made any sense at all.

If you were the world's richest greediest person, looking to re-headquarter what aspires to be the world's most powerful monopoly in cities with prime access to the nation's greatest concentration of money and its greatest concentration of power, in which cities would you build?

New York City and Washington, DC, of course.

Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 Between Long Island City, N.Y., and Arlington, Va.

SEATTLE — After conducting a yearlong search for a second home, Amazon has switched gears and is now finalizing plans to have a total of 50,000 employees in two locations, according to people familiar with the decision-making process.

The company is nearing a deal to move to the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, according to two of the people briefed on the discussions. Amazon is also close to a deal to move to the Crystal City area of Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb, one of the people said. Amazon already has more employees in those two areas than anywhere else outside of Seattle, its home base, and the Bay Area.

Amazon executives met two weeks ago with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in the governor’s Manhattan office, said one of the people briefed on the process, adding that the state had offered potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies. Executives met separately with Mayor Bill de Blasio, a person briefed on that discussion said. Long Island City is a short subway ride across the East River from Midtown Manhattan.

The announcement of Amazon's new HQ2 sparked a "frenzied bidding war" among cities eager to be taken to the cleaners by Bezos and his company, and there are dozens stories about those offers, all cast as outrages. For example, one of the losers — Atlanta, Georgia — offered this:

What Georgia offered Amazon: A state-funded academy to train its employees. An exclusive lounge - with free parking - at the world’s busiest airport. A dedicated car on MARTA. And more than $2B in publicly-funded incentives. #gapol https://t.co/cyG7ME6qhN

— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) November 14, 2018

The winners were not the highest bidders, but nevertheless, they offered quite a bit more, beyond mere privileged access to the world's greatest pool of money and its most plentiful supply of corrupt politicians.

New York is giving, among other things, massive capital gains tax cut to Amazon investors ... and, of course, a helipad. Arlington, Virginia added something more politically useful, advance warning of FOIA requests so the company could file for pre-emptive "protective orders."

But the biggest prize in this story is the data delivered to Amazon itself by everyone involved in the bidding process. Keep in mind, 238 states, provinces and cities sent bids to Amazon. Here's what those bids contained:

The big prize #Amazon has gotten out of its #HQ2 stunt is not the PR value of a bunch of city leaders singing its praises, or even the billions of $ in subsidies that it will extort from public coffers.

It’s the data. 1/

— Stacy Mitchell (@stacyfmitchell) November 6, 2018

Dozens of cities have shared reams of data with Amazon that their own citizens do not have access to. This includes intel on future infrastructure investments, land use patterns, planned policy changes, and so on. 2/

— Stacy Mitchell (@stacyfmitchell) November 6, 2018

Amazon will use this data to build out its empire: To site stores, warehouses, etc. To get in early on the right real estate. To beat out competitors because it knows things they don’t. 3/

— Stacy Mitchell (@stacyfmitchell) November 6, 2018

In other words, America’s city leaders are accomplices to a monopolist. 4/

— Stacy Mitchell (@stacyfmitchell) November 6, 2018

This includes many political leaders who profess to be champions of equality and justice. 5/

— Stacy Mitchell (@stacyfmitchell) November 6, 2018

This is not about 1 city or 2 cities. It’s about a corporation that’s extending its tentacles in every direction -- to extract wealth, insert itself, dominate. 7/7

— Stacy Mitchell (@stacyfmitchell) November 6, 2018

Amazon exists, not just to sell its products, but to acquire data that gives them monopoly control of additional markets in which it has no current presence. More from David Dayen writing at In These Times:

But the biggest suckers on HQ2 aren’t New York and Virginia; it’s the other 236 cities that bid on a headquarters they were never going to get. Those bids didn’t just include the size of the bribe; they included a wealth of important data about plans for transportation, housing, education and workforce development. Amazon now has a treasure trove of non-public information about America’s future, in addition to knowing how much cash cities are willing to part with to land an Amazon facility. And it got all that, along with a giant PR benefit from the bidding war, for free.

If you knew a city was going to build a road in a particular place, you could make a lot of money buying up the real estate there. Imagine that on a national scale and you can see how Amazon will grow far wealthier from the data it collected than even the raw dollars extracted from HQ2’s big winners. In fact, this was the real reason Amazon orchestrated the whole charade....

It can even potentially sell this data to other companies who long for similar deals, or at least start up a new business line in negotiating deals between companies and municipal governments.

Monetizing of this new data trove will yield untold billions of dollars in value. It will also embed Amazon deeper and deeper into American life, committing politicians at the state and federal level to become human shields for the company. For example, no senator from New York or Virginia, with Amazon in its backyard, will want to speak too loudly about Amazon’s monopoly attempts. And no mayor or city council member, eager to secure that next warehouse, will have much to say either. [emphasis added]

There's no question that Amazon is evil. The only question is, was it born evil? To answer that, consider this Jeff Bezos story from 1995, the year after Amazon's birth:

Was Amazon born evil? The answer appears to be yes.

GP
 

OK, Do You Want To Know Who Would Win Every Race In California And Washington If The Election Was Today?

The more people who remember this on election day-- or understand it-- the better

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight looks at the numbers and senses that a wave may be headed this way. He's so good he should get a crystal ball and start dressing like a gypsy. He's looking at polls-- "high-quality polls," he says-- that show Democrats with "a double-digit advantage over Republicans." And maybe that's because voters don't like someone who's not even on the ballot-- Señor T. Not on the ballot... but I'm sensing still the most relevant "issue" on the ballot, much to the chagrin of most Republicans who are on the ballot. Silver wrote that "the Classic version of our model gives them only a 1 in 5 chance of holding onto the House. Other versions of our model are slightly more optimistic for the GOP: The Deluxe version, which folds in expert ratings on a seat-by-seat basis, puts their chances at 1 in 4, while the Lite version, which uses district-level and generic ballot polls alone to make its forecasts, has them at a 3 in 10 chance. Whichever flavor of the forecast you prefer, the House is a long way from a foregone conclusion-- but also a long way from being a 'toss-up.' There are three questions that we ought to ask about this data. First, why have the changes in presidential approval and the generic ballot happened? Second, how likely are they to stick? And third, how much do they matter?"

• The statistics guys says "I don’t know," although he floats the possibility that "voters are tuning into the campaign to a greater degree than they had before-- and not liking what they see once they give Trump and Republicans a longer look."
• Mr. Statistics says "Your guess is as good as mine" but also says he thinks his own 10.8% generic ballot advantage for Team Blue "is too aggressive" and is probably overestimating the swing. [I think he's dead wrong.] He also discusses "historical norms," despite having an ahistoric presidency.

• "[I]t doesn’t take that much for Democrats to go from House underdogs to potentially taking 40 or more seats... If Democrats win the popular vote by “only” 5 to 6 percentage points-- still a pretty comfortable margin, but not necessarily enough to make up Republicans’ advantages due to gerrymandering, incumbency and the clustering of Democratic voters in urban districts-- they’re only about even-money to win the House. If they win it by 9 to 10 points, by contrast, they’re all but certain to win the House and in fact project to gain about 40 seats!"

His "Classic" model now projects a net of 37 seat gains for Democrats. Way too few and he's be moving that into the 40's by October and 50s by the end of October. Today I was just happy to see this one for Nebraska's 2nd district, metro Omaha-- basically an upgrade from toss-up to leans D:

What about the contested California races Ted Lieu is working so hard to swing from Red-to-Blue? Here they are, from north to south. So we'll start in Washington, where Silvers' model is wrong in all three races with a red bias:

There's nothing cooking in Oregon, so now we're down in California, starting with Ted's biggest long shot:

I hope Silver is right about this one and that I'm wrong, but this is one where you need more than statistics. But... like I said, Silvers may have this right (though if I had to bet cash...)

Then the other 2 Central Valley seat, Valadao's and Nunes'. He probably has Valadao's right and Nunes' isn't quite as dire as he makes it seem:

OK, and here's where we start winning so much we won't be able to stand winning any more. First CA-25, Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and Antelope Valley:

Except this one, where Cisneros, the lottery winner and an exceptionally bad candidate to begin with, is being successfully tarred as a woman-abuser

And that leaves us with another long shot, but a long shot that has gotten better when Drunken Hunter and his wife were arrested-- like in season 2 of Ozark and indicted on a few dozen charges.

I think Silver is giving Hunter too much benefit of the doubt and that the margin should be much narrower. In any case, Ted Lieu is doing a better job than all the other DCCC regional vice chairs combined-- by far. Here's a loving caricature Nancy Ohanian did of him after she met him a couple of weeks ago.

Why Are There So Many Zombies Hanging Around Spokane?

The eastern Washington state congressional district (WA-05) is one of the hottest in the country. The highest ranking Republican woman in the House, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a pure Trump enabler and rubber stamp, is under pressure from former majority leader of the Washington state House and former Washington State University University (Spokane), Lisa Brown. The two candidates have raised $6,170,863 so far, far more than any other race in the state. As of the July 18 FEC reporting deadline, McMorris Rodgers had $1,232,499 left in her campaign account and Lisa Brown had $920,575 in her account.

Paul Ryan's Adelson-funded SuperPAC has set up office in the district and is spending a great deal of money to bolster a weak incumbent. McMorris Rodgers has turned to arch-villains like Devin Nunes, one of Putin's favorite comgressmen to help her raise more money. Although WA-05 backed McCain narrowly against Obama-- 51.2% to 46.3%-- Hillary was just the wrong candidate for that district. Bernie was a big winner in the Democratic primary there. Trump beat her 52.2% to 39.1%. Bernie took the 3 biggest counties by big numbers-- Spokane County 78.1-21.7%; Stevens County 80.8% to 18.4% and in Walla Walla County, 70.8-29.2%. If you'd like to contribute to Lisa's campaign, just click on the thermometer on the right.

The PVI is R+8, a point in the wrong direction from 2015. But there are enough independent voters in the district to give Lisa a great overcome the odds. She's running on a strong, forthright campaign embracing, for example, the idea of an economy that is more equitable for American workers. "True economic growth and jobs," she told us, "come from investing in people (through education) and in infrastructure."



One of the things I like most about Lisa is that she understands how to work across the aisle to find shared interests in order to get good, solid legislation passed. That's the advantage of electing experienced, skilled legislators to Congress, people like Ted Lieu, Pramila Jayapal, Karen Bass, Jamie Raskin, Judy Chu, Katherine Clark, Adriano Espaillat...



All that said, the way I first met Lisa was from Krist Novoselic, former bass player with Nirvana. He persuaded me to talk with her based on his own experiences with her. Lisa has always taken the arts seriously. In fact, in the state House, she sponsored the Washington State Motion Picture Competitiveness Program 10 years ago and just renewed last year. The bill helped lay the foundation for the creative economy in eastern Washington resulting in shows like Z Nation, which is filmed in Spokane. In fact, the show likes her so much that they sent a zombie to her campaign announcement event!

Yesterday's Elections-- The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

There was no primary or special election in North Carolina yesterday and the Democratic candidate, Dan McCready, is a Blue Dog who will be voting frequently with the GOP when he gets into Congress-- Blue Dogs always do. But with the existential danger of Trump hanging over us, with have to hold our noses and hope congressional candidates like McCready win. And in this case, we probably don't have to hope too hard, because he's very likely to win. His opponent, far right crackpot Mark Harris (R) keeps saying women must submit to their husbands. I'm sure there are some people who will love that message. But not enough to win in a district that includes lots of well-off suburbs of both Charlotte and Fayetteville. He also keep denouncing homosexually as "evil." Harris is from another time and another North Carolina.

One more thing before I get to yesterday's results. 43% of Republicans-- not 43% of voters, just members of the Trump Party-- think Trump should be able top shut down media outlets he doesn't agree with. I guess, as a people, as a nation, we need to shut down the GOP.

First contest to be decided was the Ohio special election to replace Pat Tiberi in a very gerrymandered, very Republican district, OH-12 (PVI is R+7 and Trump beat Hillary there 53.2% to 41.9%). These were the early votes before any election day precincts came in. Encouraging, huh:

No one thought that was going to hold for long once yesterday's votes started coming in, especially votes from Licking, Muskingum, Morrow and Richland counties. Once over 70% of the votes were counted, it became a see-saw race depending whether red precincts or blue precincts were being counted. In the end, Balderson won with 101,574 votes (50.2%) to O'Connor's 99,820 (49.3%), so 1,754 votes separating them. It doesn't look to me that even if provisional votes go for the Democrats (in 10 days) it will be enough to turn the race around. Balderson and O'Connell will meet again in November where Balderson is unlikely to have $6 million in independent expenditures on his behalf.

Once votes started rolling in in KS-04, James Thompson started building a landslide victory over Laura Lombard. He's the Wichita progressive who ran an extraordinarily good campaign, highlighted by Bernie and Alexandria doing a massive get-out-the-vote rally with him in Wichita. He beat Laura Lombard 65.3% to 34.7%. And he'll need help to beat Trump enabler Ron Estes in November. You can help him here.

In the other important Kansas race (the 3rd district), the ultimate identity politics candidate, Sharice Davids, edged progressive Brent Welder in a 6-person race-- 22,891 (37.3%) to 20,803 (33.9%). She's likely to make a good member of Congress though. In the gubernatorial race, the Democrats got their strongest candidate, state Senator Laura Kelly with a landslide. On the Republican side, two far right Republicans faced off against each other, appointed incumbent Jeff Colyer and neo-fascist, Trump-endorsed Kris Kobach. This is probably headed for a recount. Kobach pulled ahead this morning by 0.1%-- 126,257 (40.6%) to 126,066 (40.5%). Now that's close!

In the Michigan gubernatorial contest, the Republicans picked the far right candidate, Bill Schuette and the Democrats went with the status quo candidate, Gretchen Whitmer over progressive champion Abdul El-Sayed. The fake Democrat Shri Thanedar, who seemed to be in the race solely to draw off votes from El-Sayed, played the role of spoiler.

The hot Democratic congressional races were in MI-06, MI-09, MI-11 and MI-13 (special and general). I was very nervous that in the 6th, the slimy Republican lobbyist masquerading as a Democrat (George Franklin) would slip in with the two progressives, Matt Longjohn and David Benac splitting the progressive vote. It didn't happen that way. Longjohn is a brilliant physician and in November he'll offer Fred Upton his strongest battle ever. He beat Franklin 22,077 (37.1%) to 17,222 (28.9%). In the 9th district, Andy Levin beat the more progressive Ellen Lipton 52.5% to 42.4%. Haley Stevens will be the candidate in MI-11 to face Republican Lena Epstein. There were 5 canddiates from each party and 88,715 Democrats voted, while 84,961 Republicans voted; good indicator for November. And in the Michigan district we were watching most closely, the open 13th, Rashida Tlaib won the 6-person contest for November, although appears to have lost the special election to Brenda Jones. Having Rashida in Congress starting in January will be a huge boon to the progressive movement.

Washington state has a jungle primary system, like California's, where all candidates run on the same ballot, regardless of party. The good news is that all the strongest Democratic candidates emerged in the 3 Republican-held vulnerable districts. In WA-03 Carolyn Long will be the candidate against Jaime Herrera Beutler. Just a few votes separate Lisa Brown (D) from GOP incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R) and they will face off in November in a race that will be one of the biggest deals of the cycle. And in the wide open 8th district, where incumbent Dave Reichert is retiring, the two top candidates are wing nut Dino Rossi and Democrat Kim Schrier, although 32% of the precincts were yet to report this morning. It looks like there were far more votes for the 4 Democratic candidates than for the 3 Republican candidates, a good sign for November. It still isn't clear if New Dem Adam Smith will face Republican Doug Basler or progressive Democrat Sarah Smith in November.

Celebrating the many positions of The Donald -- because you can never have too many positions

Plus some quick notes on my trip to Washington

DOONESBURY by G. B. Trudeau

[Click to enlarge.]

by Ken

Yesterday's trip to Washington was a resounding success -- and never mind that the famous 3am train out of NYC's Penn Station left more than half an hour late, and chugged into D.C.'s Union Station a full hour and half late. "Mechanical problems" is all we were told the first time as well as the two subsequent times that the Train That Didn't Seem Like It Could went into hibernation. What me worry? After all, I had a three-hour cushion built into my schedule, even if in truth I never really imagined having half of it eaten up.

On the plus side, however, the thunderstorms that the forecasters had insisted were planned for the area were apparently called off, if not the 90-plus temps under those unexpectedly beautiful blue skies. Not a drop of rain was encountered until, on the cheap-bus trip back (at something like a third of the advance-purchase senior fare for the train trip down) at about the latitude of the Lincoln Tunnel we drove into a deluge.

There's so much I'd love to talk about, but I don't want to try readers' patience, so before saying a few words, let me just note in connection with today's Sunday Doonesbury strip that, as I've pointed out repeatedly, multiple positions on every imaginable issue aren't a Trump invention. Taking on every imaginable position, including some of the candidate's own invention, on every imaginable issue was a hallmark of the 2008 campaign of Young Johnny McCranky. To give The Donald credit, though, he's orders of magnitude more flagrant, truculent, and unapologetic about it. As he is, come to think of it, about pretty much everything.

Now to return to yesterday morning, let me just say that with so much time to fill than I'd planned for before Francis Morrone's "Monumental Washington in the 1930s and 1940s")walking tour for the National Civic Art Society, the reason for the trip, which turned out to be one of the best I've done with Francis, which is saying a lot -- my goodness, the seemingly effortless command of so many different kinds of riveting material! Anyway, the trip was indeed accomplished in under 22 hours door to door (heading out at 1:25am and trudging back in about 11:15pm).


It's like you need binoculars -- to see from one end of the Russell Senate Office Building to the other. And it's not as if the subsequently added Dirksen and Hart Senate Office Buildings are exactly petite. (Click to enlarge.)

With so much less time than I'd imagined for pre-tour wandering, I just headed south from Union Station, after taking in its brackets to the west (the handsome old post office that now serves as the National Postal Museum) and east (the vaguely modern Federal Judiciary Center named for one of my heroes, the late Justice Thurgood Marshall). Meaning that I got to see, up close and personal, such sights as the cluster of Senate office buildings, starting -- in my ass-backwards route -- with Hart and only later, after strolling around the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress (not just the original, resplendent Jefferson building but the across-the-streets Adams and Madison), catching up with Dirksen and (gasp!) the palatial Russell (opened in 1909 and named for slimy Georgia Sen. Richard Russell in 1972). You almost need binoculars to see from one end of it to the other. Yikes!

Even though I've ridden past a lot of official D.C. buildings, I was still taken back -- taking them in at leisure on foot -- by the sheer scale of them. No wonder people who find their way to Washington with some kind of official title go kind of nuts! Of course, as Francis Morrone would point out later on our tour of the museums built in the '30s and '40s along the Constitution Avenue side of the Mall as well as the vast complex of government buildings that began taking shape at the same time in what became known as the Federal Triangle, across Constitution Avenue, that since buildings in Washington couldn't be built tall, in order to provide any decent amount of working space you had to build big, footprint-wise.

Still, I wasn't prepared for the megatastic size of the Supreme Court digs. I was thinking, you know, so you need nine suites, each containing a decent enough office for the boss, plus room for desks and files for the clerks. In actuality, though, it looks like you could provide office space for all the judges in the Americas and still have room for amenities like a video viewing space and maybe a nice rec room with Ping-Pong tables.


Can Justice Clarence come out and play? You can't begin to imagine from this view -- from all the way up top of the Capitol dome -- just how ginormous the Supreme Court building is. (If it helps, you can click on the picture to enlarge it a bit.)

While I was outside the Supreme Court palace, once I found the entrance (imagine my surprise to discover that the grandiloquent side I encountered first on my backwards route, facing 2nd Street N.E., is the back!), I had to fight the urge to shout out something like "Can Justice Clarence come out and play?" Yes, I know that on a Saturday morning in July you wouldn't expect to find a Supreme Court justice at the office, but I was thinking that Justice Clarence can never get too early a start preparing all those questions he'll be asking in next term's oral arguments.

#

So I'm D.C.-bound -- all I have to do is catch my 3am train

The great John Russell Pope's National Archives Building (1931-35), one of the landmarks mentioned in Francis Morrone's description for tomorrow's "Monumental Washington in the 1930s and 1940s" tour for the National Civic Art Society

by Ken

As long-time DWT readers may recall, Howie is my oldest friend in terms of continuous service -- dating back to the 9th grade at the James Madison HS Annex on the top floor of a public school way the hell on the other side of Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn. Long-time readers will also have heard more than once from both of us about our 9th-grade English teacher, Mr. Fulmer, one of the great influences on both our lives. Mr.Fulmer was wont to say pithy things like "In a thousand years we'll all be dead, and all that will matter is our record of truth and beauty," or to point out helpfully, whenever a hapless student would say unthinkingly, "I think that . . . .," that "That's not thinking."

Now you may think, especially if you're not conversant with the math that includes our ages, that 9th-grade isn't going back all that far as friendships go. Certainly not among the kids I encountered growing up, when my family seemed to move every couple of years (if not oftener), either within cities or, a couple of times, from city to city, so that every couple of years (if not oftener) I found myself standing alone on the playground of a new school among kids who'd been going to school together their whole lives.

Still, from this vantage point of antiquity, a continuous friendship dating back to the 9th grade and Mr. Fulmer counts for something. Warning: You don't want to get him started on our 10th-grade English teacher, Miss Kliegman, who still comes up fairly regularly in our conversations. And so maybe it's not entirely beside the point that you encounter us both, all these years later, in the act of shoving words around.

Our more obvious connection, which long-time readers will also have noted, is political and worldviewish. For all our differences, I am still regularly startled by how similarly we respond to Stuff That Happens Out There in the World -- the way our attention tends to be caught by the same events and our responses tend to be so similar.

Possibly factoring into the above (or possibly not) is that Howie is the only friend I've ever had who's as geography- and map-obsessed as I am. Again, our geographical, er, styles are different. He's the one who, as he has chronicled here a number of times, set out one summer for the Pacific island kingdom of Tonga. No, he didn't get there, but for a high school kid getting across our native continent was no small deal. Not to mention that you would never in a lifetime find me doing any "setting out for" of that sort.

And again, long-time readers will have glimpsed that difference in our recorded travel adventures. Howie is the one who, with his grueling health crisis still clearly visible in the rear-view mirror, planned and executed a several-weeks' expedition to Russia with a side swing to Azerbaijan. (I wish you could have heard the hair-raising stories of just the adventures in visa-hunting he and especially his friend and frequent travel companion Roland underwent for this trip.)

Whereas my traveling is done mostly via armchair -- most happily in the happy company of Michael Palin on DVD. And, of course, the urban gadding that has become my latter-years evening and weekend preoccupation -- most always in day-trip form, and almost invariably within the geographic boundaries of NYC.

Which is a prelude to explaining why I'm not tackling one of my customary "serious" blog topics (that's right, the depredations of Next Food Network Star will have to await another occasion) today, as I prepare for a journey that will respect my "day trip" boundary but not the geographic one. 'Cause I'm busting out of the Greater NYC area -- all the way to Our Nation's Capital. And I'm doing it on a 3am train out of Penn Station. (Shudder.)

True, the impetus is local-ish. Which is to say that one of my most cherished walking-tour leaders, Francis Morrone, mentioned not long ago during a Municipal Art Society tour that he was going to be doing a tour in Washington on July 9. He didn't say any more, and I didn't ask, but after letting the thing percolate in my head awhile, I finally decided to try to track it down online, and track it down I did -- to the final event in a series, "Classical Architecture, Classical Values," offered by the National Civic Art Society:

Tour V, Saturday July 9

V. Monumental Washington in the 1930s and 1940s. Classicism in the era of Modernism.

We will explore works from the 1930s and 1940s--when the Modern Movement was in the ascendant--by such architects as Arthur Brown Jr., York and Sawyer, William Adams Delano, Milton Medary, and especially John Russell Pope (National Gallery, National Archives, Jefferson Memorial), with a big tip of the hat to the relatively unsung Otto Eggers and Daniel Higgins. Along the way we'll note other things, including, for context, later works by I.M.Pei and Partners and Pei Cobb Freed. Please note that this is an outdoor tour only. We'll leave the glorious interiors en route for another day.

The tour meets at 10 AM at the intersection of Constitution Ave. NW and 6th St. NW.

Again, it took me a bit of time to process this information, and discover that I had a conflict with a Brooklyn Brainery event I'd already registered for, "Blintzes, Malaysian Peanut Pancakes, and the Many Faces of Crepes" with Jonathan Soma (half of the great Masters of Social Gastronomy team, with Sarah Lohman; they have a slew of interesting-looking events planned for July and August), part of Soma's BB Summer of Pancakes series. However, as I'm a bit embarrassed to note, I quickly recalled that Brooklyn Brainery, in addition to offering interesting programs at eye-catchingly low prices, actually allows you to cancel events, and I did just that. (I just checked, and tomorrow's class is sold out, so maybe the Brooklyn Brainery folks aren't as naive as we might think, allowing registrants to cancel with enough advance notice. I'm delighted to see that my ruthlessly abandoned slot hasn't gone to waste! And I've still got my place on the 19th for Soma's "Going All-in on American Pancakes," which I see is also sold out. I don't plan on canceling that one.)

From there the details fell into place in rapid order. I had no trouble booking my spot for Francis's tour.(I guess the D.C. folks don't know about him. In NYC, that tour would probably have been sold out within days of being announced), for a measly 15 smackers. Of course adding in carfare hiked the total trip cost a bit: $74.80 (advance-purchase senior fare) for a train down, then a mere $23 for one of those cheap-cheap Chinatown-bassd buses back in the evening. I've taken the cheap-cheap bus before, and would have done so for the trip down if there's been a bus that would enable me to get to the tour meeting point by 10am, but there wasn't -- not even close.

And even the Amtrak scheduling was tricky. There's a 6am train that's scheduled to arrive in Union Station at 9:30am, and judging by the map, that should leave me enough time to make my tour -- that is, assuming I have such faith in Amtrak's on-time performance. Not to mention the consideration that I only theoretically know how to get from my Point A to Point B, and I would spend every second of every minute today all the way through boarding and then all the way on train obsessing over the time. So I swallowed hard and instead of booking the 6am train pulled the trigger for the 3am one, due into Union Station at 6:30am. Meaning that, once I'm on the train, nothing short of a derailment (a possibility one can't ever entirely discount) should prevent me from making the rendezvous with Francis. (Who, incidentally, has no idea that I'll be there. I've done at least one MAS tour with him since I made all these plans, and thought I would find a way to drop it into conversation, but I didn't. It should at least be interesting to note his response to seeing me amidst the tour group.

So today, in addition to planning everything around the 3am train departure, I'm occupied with finishing my research and resource planning, including printing up all sorts of Google maps, including locations of local ATMs of my bank and gym branches that my membership card should get me into. (In addition to not wanting to skip a day at the gym, I'm inclined to have some possible indoor activities in my arsenal. Not at all to my surprise, thunderstorms are predicted for tomorrow.) I thought I could piggyback some serious apartment decluttering in the form of a frantic hunt for my buried D.C. street atlas and aging Time Out guide, but wouldn't you know, I found both of them almost as soon as I started looking. Of all the luck!)

So you'll see why I don't have time today to prattle on about, say, the Supreme Court, or the wide-screen version of Gilmore Girls I'm now a mere two episodes away from finishing on UP. What's more, I"ve got another crossing-state-lines day trip planned for next month, built around an event my college alumni people have planned at Connecticut's Mystic Seaport, which I've heard about much of my life but have never visited. Highlighting the festivities, one of our distinguished English professors will be offering a presentation on "The Myth and Legend of Moby Dick," so part of my adventure will be finally reading Moby-Dick. (Yes, I was supposed to have read an abridged version -- in, I think, Miss Kliegman's 10th-grade English class. But there are a lot of things I was supposed to have read that I haven't.)

#

Yes, let's give thanks to Pope Francis for trumping Chuanpu,* at least for a while, in the 24/7 news cycle

*Chuanpu = Trump, "as he is known in Mandarin," according to The New Yorker's Evan Osnos in a Sept. 28 "Comment" piece, "Dinner Talk," on the state visit of People's Republic of China President Xi Jinping

If you'd like to "continue reading," click here.

"If you read the speech in its entirety -- as I did after watching it being delivered -- you will find something more coherent and substantial: a polite but firm request for the United States to stand up for, and live by, some of the things it claims to represent and, at times, has actually represented."

-- John Cassidy, in a newyorker.com post a few hours
ago, "Pope Francis's Timely Message to Congress"

by Ken

Even a few days of low-trumpery would be a blessing. When last heard from, The Donald was screeching his stinking guts out like a diseased, wounded hyena over -- among other things -- the "foul language" uesed by National Review editor and Fox Noisemaker telling fellow Noisemaker Megyn Kelly that Carly Fiorina had cut The Donald's balls off. The Donald is demanding that the FCC fine Fox Noise -- which he is of course famously boycotting in the latest phase of his feud with the Noisybunch.

Really?

Now if I say that The Donald is a giant stinking pile of shit, I know that that's foul language. I might risk it anyway since calling him a giant stinking pile of doody or feces doesn't give the full measure of his turditude. However, I'm not sure where the "foul language" is in saying that someone's had his balls cut off, especially when you consider the volume of filth that has come out of The Donald's campaign since he announced it.

(If the objection is that Rich Lowry is a moron, and that saying Carly had cut The Donald's balls off was moronic, I'd say that's two for two. But once we go down that lane, most of what comes out of The Donald's maw is moronic too, and most of the gibberish spewed on Fox Noise by the legion of Noisemaking morons. Fortunately, though, from a First Amendment-wise standpoint, the FCC has no jurisdiction over morons or moronitude.

But to return to The Donald's cut-off balls, is the idea here that "balls" is foul language? Really? So, like, baseball announcers now have to give hitting counts as, say, "three uh-uhs and two strikes," or else The Donald will demand that the FCC fine them?

Oh, you're saying that if "balls" refers to the male sex organs it's foul language? So it would be okay if Rich had told Megyn that Carly cut The Donald's testicles off?


WELL, THE POPE IS HERE IN THE BIG APPLE NOW

And we New Yorkers are keeping track of his itinerary by monitoring the zillions of street closings and bus reroutings (or is it vice versa?). I know he's got a  tight schedule, so there doesn't seem much point in my suggesting some spots for him to hit. (At least those spots won't become temporarily inaccessible to the rest of us.)

There's a lot of good will toward the pope here, as witness this photo taken by a reader of the Brooklyn blog Brownstoner on Brooklyn's Court Street on Tuesday afternoon, the day of the start of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the most holy day in the Jewish calendar -- when the traditional greeting is "Good yom tov" (or "yontif"), "yom tov" meaning literally "good day," or holiday.

Brownstoner asks: "Is it kosher? Or should
Peter Shelsky atone for this joke?"

AS FOR THE POPE'S ADVENTURES IN WASHINGTON --

Here's the start of John Cassidy's newyorker.com post, "Pope Francis's Timely Message to Congress":

If you watched Pope Francis’s historic address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, and judged it by the standards of contemporary politics and discourse, it perhaps seemed a bit disappointing. The Pope spoke slowly and in a thick accent. He ranged widely, making it tricky to discern a common thread. Some of his language was elliptical; some of his rebukes were implied. Soundbites and applause lines were few and far between.

But if you read the speech in its entirety—as I did after watching it being delivered—you will find something more coherent and substantial: a polite but firm request for the United States to stand up for, and live by, some of the things it claims to represent and, at times, has actually represented. Speaking in a legislature dominated by a party that is increasingly held hostage to the doctrines and interests of individualism and free enterprise, the visitor from the Holy See delivered a timely defense of communal values and solidarity with the poor and dispossessed. While he was at pains not to appear partisan or to give offense to his hosts, there was a reason why some Republicans were nervous about what the Pope might say. Between the follower of Saint Francis of Assisi and the leadership of the G.O.P. lies a gulf that no politesse can disguise.

To the delight of the assembled, the Pope began by saying that he was grateful for the opportunity to speak “in the land of the free and the home of the brave.” But he quickly made clear that his concept of liberty and freedom doesn’t jibe with the one promoted by the Republican Study Committee or the Club for Growth. Citing Abraham Lincoln’s call for “a new birth of freedom,” he said, “Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and coöperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity.” The “common good” isn’t a concept that gets discussed often in Washington these days, but Pope Francis invoked it several times. And in reminding the senators and representatives sitting before him of their obligation to pursue this goal, he said that they had a particular obligation to protect “those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk.”

It was perhaps predictable that Francis would bring up Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., two Americans who have achieved secular canonization, and to whom politicians across the political spectrum pay lip service. But the other two Americans he cited as inspirations were both figures of the left: Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and Thomas Merton, a Catholic theologian and mystic, whose enthusiastic support for the civil-rights movement and participation in protests against the Vietnam War attracted criticism from some conservative clergy. . . .

THERE'S A PROBLEM, THOUGH -- THE SEX-ABUSE VICTIMS

When I saw the link to this piece, my first response was, oh, some people always have to find a dark side. Then I started reading, and it wasn't hard to see why there are people who are upset. Note that in the set of remarks referenced here, Pope Francis was speaking not to Congress as the head of the Catholic Church but to his middle-management team as chief executive of the company -- and getting applause for a line he's going to hear a lot more about.

Here's the start of the piece:

Why advocates for clergy sex abuse victims call Pope Francis’s remarks a ‘slap in the face’

By Abby Ohlheiser, Michelle Boorstein and Terrence McCoy | September 23 at 9:15 PM


In a midday prayer at Saint Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, Pope Francis said that sex crimes must "never repeat themselves." [Watch video at the link.]

Speculation began almost as soon as Pope Francis’s first visit to the United States was announced months ago.

Would the popular pontiff – who has spoken boldly on so many controversial topics – address the clergy sexual abuse scandals that have caused many American Catholics to fall away from the church and detracted from his optimistic message of renewal? Would he take time to meet with survivors?

In his address to U.S. bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, he at least partially answered that question.

Francis lauded the bishops for their “courage” in the face of what he called “self-criticism and at the cost of mortification and great sacrifice.”

“I realize how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you and I have supported your generous commitment to bring healing to victims – in the knowledge that in healing we, too, are healed – and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated,” Francis said.

But it wasn’t the answer that many victims’ advocates had hoped to hear. They criticized Francis for offering comfort and
sympathy to the bishops and praising their bravery while saying little to address the suffering of clergy sex abuse survivors.

“To characterize the response of American Bishops to clergy abuse victims as ‘generous’ and ‘courageous’ is bizarre,” said John Salveson, president of the Philadelphia-based Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse and a survivor of clergy sex abuse.

“In reality, the American church hierarchy has treated clergy sex abuse victims as adversaries and enemies for decades,” he said. “His concern about how the abuse crisis has weighed on the bishops’ spirits, and his hope that all of their good deeds will help them heal from the crisis, reflects a profound misunderstanding of the role the church has played in this self-inflicted crisis.”

Barbara Dorris, victims outreach director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called Francis’s remarks “a slap in the face to all the victims, that we’re going to worry about how the poor bishop feels.”

“You’re the ones who created it, and now we’re going to feel sorry for what you created?” Dorris said.

It is not yet clear whether Francis will address the scandal again, or meet with survivors during his visit, which will also include stops in New York City and Philadelphia, where he will address a global meeting on family issues in a city that has been rocked over the last decade by abuse allegations.

Several top U.S. church officials said that the pope would meet with survivors, but have been reluctant to give specifics.

A Vatican spokesman declined comment on the pope’s remarks at the cathedral, which were met with lengthy applause by the bishops. . . .

FINALLY, LOOKING AHEAD TO THE END OF THE PAPAL
VISIT: "POPE FRANCIS AFTER ONE WEEK IN THE USA"

Daily Kos Comics' Lalo Alcaraz writes:

Pope Francis is the "Pope of the People" and arrived this week to his first ever visit to the USA. I hope he had a good time, and I'm sure he adapted well to American culture. This is how I see El Papa after five long days in our fabulous country.

NOTE: HOWIE WILL HAVE LOTS MORE TO
SAY ABOUT THE POPE'S SPEECH TODAY --

with extended excerpts and a team of guest commenters, in his post at 9pm PT/12am ET.

#

Somebody has to flack for the British Ministry of Defence at the embassy in Washington -- why shouldn't it be you?

The British Embassy on Observatory Circle in Washington, DC -- does it look as if the neighborhood would have a lot of delis or other places to buy a breakfast bagel on the way to work and, say, a decent sandwich for lunch?

by Ken

Wouldn't you know it would be our "In the Loop" pal Al Kamen coming up with word of this job opening posted by the British Embassy in Washington?

The pay is nothing special, but the benefits are OK, and it looks like a pleasant enough place to work, though it doesn't look as if the neighborhood would have a lot of delis or other places to pick up a breakfast bagel and coffee on the way to work and maybe a decent sandwich for lunch. There's probably some sort of cafeteria or commissary, though. But then too, remember how expensive it is living in Washington. (It doesn't sound as if telecommuting is in the cards.)

"These are, of course, very tough times in the newspaper business," Al notes, "as papers shrink or disappear and reporters are laid off in the crunch. But there are plenty of jobs out there for those willing to jump over the fence and join the spinmeister side."

His case in point is this job at the embassy as a "strategic communications advisor," working for the British Defence Staff-United States, which "is responsible for strengthening the defence and security relationship with the United States on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the British Embassy."

"Doesn’t seem like heavy lifting," Al ventures.

The relationship is pretty secure, one would think. You would “lead the delivery of an effective and sustained campaign plan of proactive and reactive engagement across defence to influence our key US stakeholders in support of the UK’s defence reputation,” etc. etc.

Okay, the pay is not quite the $10 million a year former NBC anchor Brian Williams pulled in. “The target salary,” we’re told, is $58,200. But there’s “a strong benefits package [which] includes medical, vision, life, long term and short term disability insurance” as well as a retirement plan and “generous vacation and leave time.”

But hurry, Al warns. The application deadline is June 11.


THE JOB LISTING IS POSTED BY THE U.K.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE

The FCO presumably handles staffing matters for the embassy, even though the actual work, as noted, seems to be primarily on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. Here's some more information you may need to start getting your application together.

Strategic Communications Advisor

Overview:
The post is within the British Defence Staff-United States (BDS-US) team, within the British Embassy in WashingtonDC. BDS-US is responsible for strengthening the defence and security relationship with the United States on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the British Embassy.

The BDS-US team covers all areas of defence policy, delivery and the military with respect to the MOD’s relationship with the US. The team works closely with the Embassy Communications Team and wider embassy departments to protect and promote the reputation of UK defence in the US.

The role will lead the delivery of an effective and sustained campaign plan of proactive and reactive engagement across defence to influence our key US stakeholders in support of the UK’s defence reputation; monitor and analyze trends relevant to our sustained campaign on defence reputation; and work in partnership with the wider Embassy and Communications Teams to plan, refine, and assess messages and activities required to implement a successful reputational campaign.

Responsibilities:
• Serve as the primary advisor and main point of contact for approximately 800 British Defence Staff personnel to educate them on campaign and communication activities, providing strategic advice and guidance on issues such as content generation and effective engagement techniques.
• Measure the progress and effectiveness of campaigns, ensure regular assessment and provide insightful reporting on achievement of the campaign plans to senior leadership up to the Defence Attaché (DA) and other senior level stakeholders. Highlight opportunities for improvement and further engagement and provide guidance to teams as needed.
• Increase the quantity and quality of reputational communication and engagement with stakeholders by providing strategic advice and recommendations on communications campaigns which aim to raise the reputation and profile of UK defence in the US.
• Empower and enable senior staff and the wider embassy to plan and deliver their own defence communications campaigns in a way that is coherent across the team to maximise impact. Work with wider team on external delivery of campaigns.
• Develop productive and valuable relationships with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders (including think tanks, the US Department of Defense, and UK government departments)to instill a deep understanding of the reputational needs, challenges and priorities of UK defence in the US.
• Identify and define our stakeholders and determine the most effective ways to influence and engage with them.
• Work in partnership with the Communications Team and wider Embassy to refresh and review existing key campaigns, themes, activities, and messages we need to communicate.
• Work with the BDS-US and Communications Teams to coordinate the tasks, activity and planning of the campaign to support the delivery of reputational influence and outcomes.
• Work with the BDS-US and Communications Teams to use a wide range of delivery means including events, media, Congressional engagement, senior visitors, think-tanks and academic institutions.
• Work with the Strategy and Planning arm of the MOD’s Defence Directorate of Communications of embedding UK reputation in the US into their thinking, and to ensure the US and the Embassy are recognised as important stakeholders.
• Line management of one Strategic Communications Support Officer.

Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in communications or a related field
• Minimum 6 years of experience in communications and campaign management.
• Excellent project management and analytical skills with a pragmatic approach and management experience.
• Experience of measuring the effect of reputational and communications work.
• Experience of developing and delivering a campaign using a range of tools to protect and promote the reputation of an organisation in the US. Knowledge and use of a full range of communication tools is desired.
• Experience in the defence sector or strong knowledge of UK and US defence is desired.
• Strong team work, communication and negotiation skills with the ability to build trusting relationships and to confront ideas and divergent opinions at all levels.

[There's also information about citizenship or residency requirements set by our State Department for nondiplomatic embassy staff. -- Ed.]

Salary and Benefits:
The British Embassy Network offers a strong benefits package. This package includes medical, dental, vision, life, long term and short term disability insurance, a 401(k) retirement savings plan, generous vacation and leave time, and an enriching training package.

The target salary for this position is $58,200 annualized. Salary will be confirmed upon offer of employment. Non US taxpaying citizens will be paid a net salary based on a simulated US tax status.

Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local US employment law.

To Apply:
Resume and a cover letter with salary history should be submitted by 11 June 2015. Please identify in your cover letter whether you are currently eligible to work at the Embassy. Internal candidates must address their resumes through the Head of Group before applying.

Only successful candidates will be contacted. Please no phone calls. Due to the high volume of resumes we receive, we cannot guarantee consideration of your application if the submission instructions are not properly followed.

#