Gadgetry
I spent some time learning my new Arduino kit. It's pretty straightforward. If you've got a smattering of programming and circuit building experience, you can do it with ease. I didn't get to the programming part, but I connected it to my PC and downloaded the programming app. The Arduino board connected via USB, first try. If I put a little more effort into it, I might be ready to make my time-lapse camera, version 1, in a couple of weeks. I'm still working on my parents' estate, however, so no promises.
Politics Are Worse Than Before
Tim made a good point that we've had worse presidents in the past and worse election controversies, but I'd argue that we've given our leaders more power over our lives than ever. They're still the same C-student morons they've always been, but they can do so much more damage than in the past.
What I'm Hoping For In The Election
I truly want to see the legal fight over this election turn into a Cat 5 Disaster. It's the only thing that's going to put an end to this positively idiotic vote-by-mail insanity. They sent out ballots using a hopelessly out-of-date voter registration list and then accepted the ballots back with nothing more than a signature on the envelope, a signature they were never going to check. No one who committed vote fraud has much fear of being prosecuted, so there's practically no risk to doing it.
It's not who wins or even if there was fraud, it's the fact that we can't trust the results. I will go to my grave convinced that no one has any idea who really won. Show up in person, show an ID and vote. It's not that complicated.
Me, I'm rooting for chaos.
The Moral Of The Story
Since you always end up having to take care of yourself, it's best to give the politicians as little power as possible. The more you keep for yourself, the more degrees of freedom you have to deal with the unexpected.
And tell me honestly, what new programs and benefits have shown up in, say, the last 10 years that you couldn't have obtained for yourself without getting our kindergartners to pay for them?
A Picture
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| Out for a stroll the other day, I ran into this walking zeppelin. It's one of the fattest chihuahuas I've ever seen. It's not one of ours. It was very friendly and appreciated pausing in it's laborious, trundling perambulations to stop and get some petting. |
2 comments:
Tim made a good point that we've had worse presidents in the past and worse election controversies, but I'd argue that we've given our leaders more power over our lives than ever. They're still the same C-student morons they've always been, but they can do so much more damage than in the past.
Well, at the time of the civil war, Justice Taney opined that the Black man had no rights the White man needed to respect. Essentially you had a whole category of people that the Federal government declared had no rights at all. Black families could be separated and sold to different plantations. Even the election Tim mentioned, Tilden v. Hayes, the net result was the end of Reconstruction. It also meant the beginning of Jim Crow, where the government took away the right to vote, serve in government, declared what occupations the Freedman could hold and where they could live, and keep in mind many of these Freedmen bore arms for the US army in time of war.
I truly want to see the legal fight over this election turn into a Cat 5 Disaster.
Trump is like 0-34 in court at this point, and a lot of these judges were Republican appointees. Conservatives occupy no less than six of nine Supreme Court Justices. If you can't make a credible case under these conditions, there isn't one. The notion that the Democratic party could pull off massive vote fraud and not get caught is laughable. Will Rogers had it right when he would say, 'I belong to no organized political party, I am a
Democrat.'
The reality is that there are more Democrats than Republicans. Republicans don't want to exclude mail in votes because they are less secure, but because they allow democrats to vote more easily. I've never shown an id to vote, I have only ever signed my name and voted. This is the first time I've heard anyone mention it as an issue. For people that live in poverty, they are less likely to have the means to get a photo id and the documentation required to get them. Generally Republicans have put in limited hours to vote in, they don't fund enough polling spots in poor neighborhoods, they strike voters from the rolls if they didn't vote recently, they put as many barriers in front of poor voters as they can because these folks lean towards Democrats.
Back during Jim Crow there was a Black Physician who went to the polls to try and vote. The poll workers said he had to pass a test first and held up some Japanese Kanji and asked if he new what it meant. He said yes, it meant that a Black man can't vote in the South. Same wine, new bottle.
They sent out ballots using a hopelessly out-of-date voter registration list and then accepted the ballots back with nothing more than a signature on the envelope, a signature they were never going to check.
The ballot-opening (as opposed to some of the counting) was always done in the presence of observers from both parties (which is why the process takes days), and if the Republican (or Democratic) observer saw a worker not checking a signature and said nothing, shame on them. Even the counting was always done in the presence of an observer (though sometimes a neutral state official as opposed to party observers).
Sure, some voters can forge signatures of other voters. That's never going to be done on a large scale.
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