Dean Barker Profile picture
RIP Twitter
Sep 15, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
I was struck by this post-primary note of thanks from @marchandsteve, so I'm posting it here. Important unity, important message. This is how you do it. #nhpolitics "more often, I was learning. I learned about people, policy, and about what matters."
Sep 12, 2018 5 tweets 2 min read
The best surprise from last night. #nhpolitics The other big surprise. (GOP controlled state gov’t recently passed a law aiming to suppress the college vote. Durham is a college town.)
Sep 9, 2018 6 tweets 4 min read
Are you even kidding me right now? #NH01 #NHpolitics
unionleader.com/Maura-Sullivan… You know who lost tough races in 2010 and 2014 because mid-term voters like Ms. Sullivan couldn't be bothered? Carol Shea-Porter. #NH01 #NHpolitics
Sep 8, 2018 7 tweets 2 min read
2016 upended all my previous experience with political analysis, and so I no longer have faith in my election thoughts. So you'd be wise to stop reading this now.

Still, I am having thoughts, specifically about the #NHGov primary, on which I'm not yet decided. #nhpolitics The Kelly gubernatorial campaign seems the latest iteration of the formula whose previous iterations were the Shaheen and Hassan campaigns. Lots of institutional support, take the pledge, broad themes.

It works!

More accurately: it has worked.
Jul 19, 2018 9 tweets 3 min read
Always wondered why there would be these pointless Bolton PAC ads in NH. I figured he was vain enough to think he was viable to run for POTUS. #fitn Cool. Let's see what my psychographic profile is, Cambridge Analytica. Not creepy at all, John Bolton. #fitn
Jul 11, 2018 7 tweets 2 min read
File under: a thing we need to re-learn because our compromised president is trying to destroy it.

"Why was NATO founded?"
nato.int/wearenato/why-… NATO "commits the Allies to

⬇️
democracy, individual liberty & the rule of law,
⬆️

as well as to peaceful resolution of disputes. Importantly, the treaty sets out the idea of collective defence...an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies."
Jul 10, 2018 5 tweets 2 min read
I’m reading a book about #Shostakovich’s 7th, LENINGRAD: SEIGE & SYMPHONY, and a good portion of the opening chapters concerns Stalin’s myriad purges of his own people.

But this story of life battered by an unyielding autocracy really stands out among the others. Here are (I presume) the 24 Preludes & Fugues Zaderatsky composed in a frozen logging camp on scraps of telegraph paper.
Jul 7, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
The Style Council - Have You Ever Had It So Blue
No peace for the wicked, only war on the poor
They're batting on pickets, trying to even the score
...
Oh an equal chance and an equal pay
But equally there's no equal pay
Jul 4, 2018 9 tweets 3 min read
Every now and then I look back at the RNC's 2012 "autopsy" recommendations on how to win again. A truly fascinating contrast to the Party of Trump today. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/6236… In 2012, this. Today, Melania's jacket.
Jun 30, 2018 7 tweets 3 min read
I keep telling it to play Bach.

It keeps telling me that things composed a little closer (say, within 100 yrs) to its own date of manufacture (1915) sound better on it.

It’s not wrong, tbh, though darned if I understand why. One theory is the stereotype that older NY Steinways have a textured tone to them (maybe good for 19th c. music?) while European pianos (inc. Hamburg Steinways) prioritize clarity of tone (maybe good for Baroque?). So many exceptions tho! What do you think, @SupremePianos?
Jun 29, 2018 7 tweets 2 min read
I was a casual voter from '92 on. The Iraq invasion in '03 made me a keen observer of state and national politics (against my natural instinct to stay within the walls of Epicurus' garden, tbh), and a regular and informed voter for each and every cycle since then. Since 2003, I've enjoyed learning about politics and being as informed a citizen as I can be for the greater good. Also there was some personal enjoyment to having political science as a hobby. A fun field, at first.
Jun 27, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
The piano-making industry was once so dominant, Steinway built an entire town in Queens to house its employees. Fascinating details here.
messynessychic.com/2018/06/26/how… Pleasure beach, resort, and amusement park!
Jun 26, 2018 4 tweets 1 min read
If we still claim to be a democracy, this statement is a literal and dangerous act of incivility. Civility comes from Latin "civis," or "citizen." The prefix "in-" is its negation.

Calling journalists "an enemy of the people" is a deliberate attack on our democracy's freedom of the press. It is a true negation of the understanding of our citizenship. A literal incivility.
Feb 25, 2018 14 tweets 8 min read
Self-awareness, you had one job. #nh01 #nhpolitics Meet the new "progressive" candidate for #NH01, Bernie Sanders' son. #nhpolitics #NeverAgain #BoycottTheNRA