Michael Bates 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿🇮🇪 Profile picture
Conservative blogger covering local politics, urban planning, and, frequently, western swing. Anglospherophile.
Apr 5, 2023 22 tweets 9 min read
#Tulsa school board election: 4 of 18 precincts reporting, all east of the river (and thus incumbent Woolley's home turf). Woolley leads Buswell 366 to 67. Woolley, the Democrat, also dominated absentee&early voting, 160-29. results.okelections.us/OKER/?elecDate… In #Bixby, only absentee/early votes are in. Incumbent Matt Dotson leads Julie Bentley, 79-42.
Nov 3, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
So, basically, OKPOP is an empty shell ("skin and bones") after $30 million ("Phase 1"), and they need another $35 million for Phase 2 -- "displays, exhibitions and programming" -- the stuff people would actually be able to come and see. The best museum of the history of space travel in the world is @the_cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas, and it started with a planetarium projector in a junior college poultry building. As artifacts were acquired, the facilities were expanded and improved.
Nov 2, 2022 29 tweets 16 min read
Smaller venue for Tulsa @Stitt4Gov rally than last night in OKC. Official capacity 338. Masoud Moazami is getting the crowd warmed up. Image @Stitt4Gov New @Stitt4Gov vox pop ad. Looks like it will be very effective. Now Eddie Huff is opening the festivities, talking about his experiences as a black American in apartheid South Africa.
Nov 2, 2022 9 tweets 6 min read
Maritime feeling in the #Tulsa air today. A brisk, cool breeze, moist air but not muggy, is something I associate with the seashore, not landlocked Oklahoma. Taking a walk in McClure Park and thinking that the paths, the channelization of Mill Creek, the stormwater basins that serve as soccer, softball, and tennis courts, must be over 30 years old now. They were built when I worked nearby and would bring lunch to the park. ImageImageImageImage
Nov 2, 2022 6 tweets 3 min read
Listening to @ryanmwalters talking about moving more resources into the classroom, giving student teachers the classroom management training they aren't getting in college, supporting teachers so they can give students the individualized support they need. Every dollar being spent by the State Department of Education, both appropriated and non-appropriated, will be on the front page of the SDE website if @ryanmwalters is elected State Superintendent.
Nov 1, 2022 44 tweets 28 min read
At the @Stitt4Gov Red Wave rally at Crossroads Church in OKC. Event starts in about 30 minutes. Big space -- we'll see if Stitt and @tedcruz can draw a big enough crowd to fill it. #okelection Image @Stitt4Gov @tedcruz Team Stitt has herded all media (friendly or otherwise) into one little area. If I stand up to take a still photo, I'll be blocking the video cameras behind me.
Dec 29, 2020 46 tweets 7 min read
🧵PENNSYLVANIA thread for voter file analysis 🗳️:

I just purchased ($20) and downloaded the voter file for the entire state in order to investigate the claim that 200K more ballots were counted statewide than the number of voters who cast ballots. pavoterservices.pa.gov/Pages/Purchase… 4 tables for each county: Voters (one row per voter), Zone Types (alphanumeric codes for types of zones, e.g. school districts, precincts, legislative districts, municipalities), Zone Codes (for the zones themselves), Election Map (which field represents which election date).
Dec 26, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
"...it is science’s own methodology that also highlights its limitations. Science cannot answer of itself—using its own empirical methodology—whether a particular medical practice is morally good." tabletmag.com/sections/histo… "Personalism posits the ultimate unit of value of human life is the individual person herself. Society is and ought to be built around this value. tabletmag.com/sections/histo…
Oct 14, 2019 31 tweets 9 min read
People are filing in for the meeting about demolishing Paul Harvey's neighborhood for a detention pond. I'll be live-tweeting. #Tulsa It's being streamed live on Councilor Kara Joy McKee's Facebook page. Councilor McKee takes responsibility for not personally reaching out to the Dawsons before voting to condemn their home. #Tulsa #eminentdomain