Confirmed in Opposition to Trump and his Acolytes

 In late 2020 a crazy pro-Trump molestation conspiracy theory group calling itself QAnon grabbed news headlines, and I was treated once or twice following the presidential election to a group of those die-hard kuckoos waving at me as I carefully and slowly drove past them on Gainesville' sNW 39th Avenue, past the gentrified bunch of stores there, including Starbucks, called Magnolia Parke.  During the past five electoral opportunities when Donald Trump's name was on the ballot against other candidates, I never voted for him...yet HillaryClinton(2016), Joe Biden (2020), Chris Christie [2024] an Kamala Harris in the2024 general election received my enthusiastic votes...I would have been happy with any of them as my president.  As for Trump's suck-up acolytes...beginning with JD Vance, who I believe wants to sell out Ukraine to imperial Russia,and continuing with Pete Hegseth..I can easily confirm to the reader that I'll never vote for them, not even for dogcatcher. I know that my single, one vote on election day has about the same effect on outcomes as a drop of water in the ocean. I think that right now, DJT should be incarcerated for his 34-count felony convictions, receiving excellent medical care and security at taxpayer expense with all of the power he now exerts permanently removed. I also believe that past reported assassination attempts on him were fake, contrived hoaxes and that he successfully milked their media coverage to create a false public image about himself as a kind of folk hero.  Well, that worked: at large, people are susceptible, gullible schmucks.  But I can still love them despite my frustration, can't I?  Yet they voted for him for president. May God in His mercy look out for my fellow Americans in spite of themsselves...

Early Morning Waking and Activity a New Habit System

 It looks like a new habit has begun with me.  Over the past 3-4 days I have only slept two or three hours during the late evening, with me waking up around midnight and struggling to "nap" until after two in the morning, which I think is an appropriate time for early rising.  Just a half hour ago I got up, went to the bathroom, brewed a pot of coffee and did ten minutes of light running in place.  Tonight I'm going to try going to bed a bit earlier.  Maybe the Parkrun 5K will work out for Saturday morning, maybe it won't.  Shifting topics, I've pretty much had it with Trump and the Republicans about voter eligibility and their repeatedly shifting efforts to roll back voter rights by requiring cumbersome documentation to 'prove' citizenship.  The way I see it, if everyone who was eligible went out to vote on election day, then my one vote would only be one drop in a vast ocean of ballots...and my one filled ballot has NEVER decided an election.  I'm just tired of my 34-count convicted felon of a president going overboard sucking up to his master Netanyahu's agenda...the latter wants to prolong his own war by invading Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, with the USA providing military insurance and backup.  I'm hovering around 181 pounds, using temperance to avoid excessive consumption of sweets while adhering to my living room exercise routine.  I've been up and at it, being awake and active from 3 to 5 each morning.  That's a praise report for sure;  I'm changing habits by adopting a new system of consistent behaviors. Astronomical spring is set to start on this date, and, with a nod to Morgan Freeman, I'd like to enjoy "getting busy" living through it.  If I happen to begin changing a habit today, I want to make it short and sweet and written down and incorporated into an established system...

Day Progresses into Decline

Today, after my early morning rising and activity, progressed more or less into a span of rest and inactivity, me spending much of it in bed or on the living room couch.  I still ran in place for a few more minutes before leveling off.  Tomorrow morning they're staging another Depot Parkrun 5K.  I want to show up there and do at least one lap, with Melissa doing the valuable driving.  We're sitting right now in the dining room while AI Alexa is playing the piano version of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear...very pretty. Equally NOT very pretty is this overbearing missile war happening right now between USA, Iran and Israel...enough of that on the news! I suspect that the president dictator others elected will turn against his own people once he impatiently declares victory and moves on to new perceived enemies that challenge his egomania...he'll use his own handpicked cronies as proxies. I still think that people...especially some of the more creepy ones from Utah...have lost their minds with their violent  rampages against each other. And I include Florida's Dixie and Marion counties in that indictment. Not a nice picture at all.  Now for me to digest my last food of the day.  Either I'll get up tomorrow morning at a good, early time or we'll just put off the next Parkrun until another time...

Up Early, Exercising, National News

 A day ago I stepped outside into the backyard to check the lunar eclipse's progress.  Turns out the entire sky was overcast, and the entire event was a washout.  I still wrote my blog article and listened to personal development influencer Jim Rohn on YouTube.  Later on Melissa took me down for my chemotherapy infusion.  I read through Chapter 5 in Shadow Magic. I studiously avoided TV updates about the US/Iran missle war.  I didn't start the conflict and have an instinctive aversion to so-called "faiths" that promote violence and whose adherents are only too easy to wear an "offended' pose if someone happens to disagree with their ideology and command structure.  John Cornyn won a close Republican Primary contest for the Texas US Senate seat being contested this year, and Roy Cooper easily won the Democratic nomination for the open North Carolina Senate seat after incumbent Thom Tillis' announced retirement.  I can't vote in either race this November, restricted to my Florida and assigned local districts as registered Republican. If registered Democratic voters actually display some initiative and vote in the general election, they have a chance of flipping those two seats their way, but i'm skeptical.  As for me today, nothing medical is scheduled.  But I'd like to see some progress, at least with little things.  I this were me in 1971 in the 9th grade I guess I'd be assembling my prepared homework for the grueling day ahead.May my eating today reflect an improved sense of judgment...

Take Back That Data Center They're Trying to Build Outside My Door

 In 1987 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers came out with a wonderful, rocking singles hit titled Jammin' Me.  It's still my favorite of his, and I dig the sometimes cutting and always funny lyrics.  That last line about country clubs I just changed to reflect the billings insult that these new AI centers, which consume way too much electricity while often added to customers' bills without their permission, are a blight upon our community.  AI has done very little for me, and I don't see substantial improvement in it for the next two or three years, assuming that God is willing and I'm surviving well.  This morning I got up early and have already performed 20 minutes of floor c-v exercise, including 15 of running-in-place.  I'm still imagining plopping my day's homework on the dining room table to do alongside my nice instant coffee.  I'm determined to enjoy a good day today, practicing avoidance of schteool along with its myriad hassles.  i'd like to check out local bookstores while the Dawg's at Scenthound for foreign language books and change my voter registration to Republican, giving me more real choices during the approaching primaries in this 2026 off-year election.  Looks like i'm going to follow in the footsteps of fellow conservative old geezer voters in faithfully going to the polls! Trump delivered his State of the Union address yesterday evening.  The opposition response was personal and largely condemnatory, with obscenities against Trump freely flying about.  Don't know how that's going to transfer to voting attendance in November.  But get ready for yet another tired old local protest rally in a few weeks..."democracy in action" my ass when folks simply won't vote and then they complain later!   We're looking forward again to today to see Anita and Jim, and some real dining room table foreign language study looks like it is reallygoing to happen...maybe I can use Wikipeida articles in different languages like Russian, German, Spanish and even Chinese. Still, Chatgpt looks good for the moment.  Now time to listen to my TV music, languages and self-improvement podcasts. Oh, it seems like I slept well last night. I am not showing my exercise minutes on the blog,, preferring to write the figures in pen on the inside of a puzzle book...I've done 20 total combined ipf and rock-running minutes so far with some more planned to come.  Y'all have a wonderful day, too...

Atttention-Addicted President on the Warpath Again

  I am not at all looking forward to Donald Trump's next year in power as our 47th president.  The man seems to be doing everything he possibly can to degrade life for Americans like me and to lower my country's standing and status in the eyes of the world.  He s addicted to grabbing for headlines; there's always a deliberately outrageous announcement in the works from him. Early in 2025, just as I was about to get on my OPM website at the start of my postal retirement, h e had his henchman Elon Musk, cynically playing the DOGE role, suddenly show up in Washington with chainsaw and an insane maniacal expression as he invaded the OPM,sending out emailed threats to arbitrarily fire thousands of federal employees...I stayed away from there and Musk quickly became the most hated name in my country with widespread protests, Tesla boycotts and vandalism. Well, we'll see exactly what it will take before people begin to elect some polititionsfrom my own party this fall.My full expectation is that he will boastfully sell Ukraine down the river as it struggles to maintain its independent existence against invading Russia...

Reprint of 1/7/21 Article 5 Years After Fascist Attempts to OverthrowTrump's 2020 Electoral DEfeat

I looked up the definition of "facism" on Bing..."an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization".  So henceforth, in light of the attempted coup d'état instigated by Donald Trump and carried out by his personality-cult-transfixed worshippers when they stormed the Capitol during Congress's counting of the Electoral College vote certifying Joseph Biden as the next president, I am now classifying those senators and representatives voting to object to the count and thereby overturn our democratic election as "fascist", no longer Republican.  I am also calling Trump, who expressed approval of the defeat of his own party's US Senate candidates from Georgia, a "fascist" along the lines of Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco.  But not Vice-President Pence, who in the final hour has demonstrated courage in the face of God knows how much pressure to conform to Trump's dictatorial agenda.  Here is a link to the list of who I consider to be fascist traitors...including Kat Cammack, my own newly-sworn in (to uphold the US Constitution) representative and my senator Rick Scott: [Congressional Objectors List].  By the way, a poll recorded that 45% of Republicans at large approved of the insurrection yesterday: they're fascists as well, in my estimation.  After a little home exercise, I can report that I have reached 2.0  virtual miles for today...

America (and Florida's) Fascism

Just before the 2024 presidential election took place a year ago, Donald Trump's first White House chief of staff, John Kelly, warned the nation that Trump is a fascist and that people who voted for him are assenting to fascism in the ensuing four years.  Since then I've noted, on the biased FoxNews channel, assorted hacks trying to discredit people who label the current administration as fascist, claiming that they were speaking from ignorance and didn't understand what the term meant.  I don't have a detailed scientific definition of fascism at my disposal, but I recognize when a party or movement emphasizes strongman control of their "territory" over adherence to democratic principles like respecting election results.  I think my current Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, is a fascist for this reason as he seems determined to stonewall the overwhelming result of Gainesivlle's local referendum on returning its utility,GRU, to local administrative management.  They're set to file suit to prevent the utility from returning to city commission control...DeSantis only respects election results that go his way. Still, he has his apologists like current GRU CEO Ed Bielarski, who likes to play the fascist game of lecturing people about the dangers of majority rule.  Likewise, Trump wants to make as a priority the drastic restriction of general voter eligibility so that he can manipulate future elections in his favor...and if he loses, then it's all rigged and he has his pet Proud Boys militia group to go cry to. The dude is a right-wing extremist dictator wannabe, making him a fascist in my mind. Likewise, I'm not convinced that newly elected New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani won't cause trouble if he can't just speak desired law changes into effect with his charming, charismatic voice and smile.  I see these elected politicians as public servants, not MY leaders.  If they get the notion into their heads that I need to get into a kneeling position to be their sycophant, then they represent a disturbing turn in the way politics is practiced in this country.  Is America fascist yet?  We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.  I just don't need some freakazoid with a swollen ego lecturing ME about the proper posture to take toward HIM...

About Texas Redrawing Its Own Congressional Districts

I understand that there's a degree of brouhaha going on in the news about the Texas state legislature's redesigning of their district boundaries, and how it is supposedly all being done in a very devious, gerrymandered manner to deprive Texans of representation by the Democrats.  I viewed the "before" and "after" maps of the Texas districts and, quite frankly, am at a loss to detect any sign of gerrymandering in the new proposal.  The fact is that Texas has become a solidly red, pro-Republican state in the past thirty years.  It's also a known practice in national politics that a state's elected legislature has as one of its functions the periodic redrawing of district boundaries: Texas is no exception.  But now we're seeing Texas Democratic legislators fleeing the state to avoid there being a needed quorum in place to push into law the new map. I'm looking at the world today and ask myself, why should I care about this issue that is being headlined on the television news channels...must be a slow news day.  Although each state is authorized to draw its own district maps, the practice is traditionally done closely following the national census, done in years ending in zero.  This Texas action is different in that Jabba the Trump demanded they do it because he thinks he'll gain five congressional seats in the 2026 election...and, boy, does Trump ever want to stay in complete power!  In response, the New York and California state governors, both Democrats with strong Democratic-majority legislatures, just came out and announced that they would likewise redraw their own state congressional maps to give their own party advantages as well.  Are you indignant about any of this?  Not me, I have better things in my life to be concerned about, and the last thing I've come to trust any more is that the American voter will show any signs of integrity or wisdom in ANY election, no matter how the districts are drawn.  If the right candidate ends up winning one, regardless of where they are on the "map", it's more likely an accident or for the wrong reasons... 

About Saturday's Anti-Trump Rally

When I earlier discovered that a nationwide network of anti-Trump protests, dubbed "No Kings" and scheduled on the same day the president was staging a large Washington, DC military parade to ostensibly honor the US Army's 250th anniversary, I noted that in Gainesville it was being held at Roberson Park near where I do my weekly Depot Parkrun 5K walk/runs.  I thought maybe it would be good for me to attend this first protest rally of my life, and allowed myself the option...once there on the morning of the 14th...to choose whether or not to go.  After the Parkrun, which I ended up running a little harder than planned...coming out of it hot and sweaty...I changed clothes and headed out, not to the protest but rather to the nearby (to my home) donut shop for some coffee and reflection.  While there I got on my smartphone's YouTube and watched a little bit of one of the No Kings rallies on live-stream.  A woman was on stage with the mike and was yelling repeatedly, "THIS IS THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY!", with the shouting audience parroting her in unison. That convinced me I had made the right decision in avoiding my home town's version, in spite of the fact that I strongly oppose this convicted criminal felon of a president. No, I absolutely do not trust Donald Trump, but I have even less faith in my fellow Americans for what they did to my country last November when they voted him back into office.  What constitutes democracy in its higher sense is the quiet, informed dignity of a country's citizens as they perform the regular ritual of making the effort to vote for the leaders they deem responsible, ethical and most able to lead their country into a better future, one that optimizes liberty, prosperity, enlightenment and security.  I don't know whether the United States will continue on its current track into fascism, but even if there is a backlash against MAGA in the 2026 off-year elections I don't trust the electorate's collective reasoning.  Go ahead and wave around a sign or an insulting effigy of the Orange Man...it seems folks have to get just as crazy and irrational as his own adoring personality cult idolaters to get them motivated to actually do anything.  And protest demonstrations won't elect anybody, nor will they, by themselves, toss out the worthless rascals from power.  But go ahead and demonstrate if that makes you feel better.  According to what I heard from my local news after our event, there wasn't any significant level of pro-Trump counter-protesters at the rally, just people standing around with signs and agreeing with the speakers.  Come next election day, guess how many votes that adds up to?  

Trump and Musk: the High Drama Continues

I can't exactly avoid the news that seeps into my life, as much as I would often like to.  Ever since Trump slithered back into office four and a half months ago, he had as his bromance-dude super-wealthy Elon Musk accompanying him everywhere, it seemed.  Trump would threaten fellow Republican lawmakers with supplying Musk-funded primary opponents for their next elections should they ever stray from completely following his line, and ol' Elon would just stand there grinning like it was a big joke and shouldn't we all laugh with the two superheroes.  Well, Musk is actually someone who had a life apart from combining hedonism with the pursuit of raw political power...he started a number of innovative businesses and captured my imagination several years ago with his expressed desire to send people to Mars for exploration...and even settlement.  But somewhere along the line he decided to kiss Trump's ring and endorse his campaign in 2024.  That I didn't like, but his chainsaw-wielding antics with DOGE, or the "Department of Government Efficiency", publicized him squarely as an enemy of ordinary people, and the campaign to run down his business enterprises and wealth...mainly through Tesla...erupted across the country with on-site protests and calls for boycott.  He's backed off his public adulation for the repulsive occupant of the White House, even to the point that the two are now engaging in an online war of words against each other after Musk correctly expressed his opposition to the so-called "Big Beautiful" bill that the House passed by one vote.  Musk didn't like that it would greatly increase the national debt, while I, not liking that either, am much more concerned that it grants the president the ability to ignore judges that rule against him and to cancel election results he disagrees with...making our leader a virtual dictator.  Not that I have any say in the matter: my one vote nowadays means very little as opposed to the millions upon millions of voluntarily-brainwashed Americans that worship Trump like a cult personality idol...funny how so many self-identified Christians don't see this idolatry as sinful...

A Brief Note About the Recent Election

Just a brief note on the recently transpired general election.  Yes, we are all on a runaway train...hopefully it won't crash.  Never before have I felt so alienated from those around me.  I feel that too many of my compatriots are in a state of voluntary self-brainwashing, comfortable in their own designed (by others) social and mass media feedback loops.  The funny thing is that, when politics is factored out of the equation, everyone for the most part seems pretty normal and coherent.  I know many wonderful people in my life who, for some reason, go off the skids when it comes to politics.  Oh well is all I can say, I guess it's part of being a human being in the year 2024.  On the other hand, I don't have to be in a state of voluntary servitude to media.  Just turn it off, or at least pause a moment before settling on a channel or posting.  This is just as important following such an election as it is preceding it.  As I mentioned in a previous article, I'm done with it all.  Sure, I plan to occasionally read up on the issues and candidates and vote in future elections, but beyond that, don't bother me about your political notions, which were probably spoon-fed to you by some mass-media hack or social-media agenda-driven foreign hacker...

About the Tedious Presidential Debates

Everybody in social and mass media is abuzz about the recent debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris...at least that's how they'd like us to think.  I'm guessing that you're not all that much into that kind of nonsense...and I'm certainly not.  I can go back to 2016 when Trump debated Hillary Clinton...and in my estimation, she clearly won and her poll numbers soared.  Then FBI Director James Comey infamously decided to interfere in the campaign at the most crucial moment and, with great fanfare, announced he was reopening an investigation into, of all things, Clinton's emails.  This was happening among the opposition's cries of "Lock her up!", so Comey knew that what he was doing was interference and did it anyway.  Yet in 2024 it's apparently okay for their champion to be a 34-count convicted felon!  So no, I don't care about debates and discount their usefulness, although to be fair the previous one did get Biden to bow out.  I recently listened to someone recount their experiences listening to Tuesday evening's debate after I myself had studiously avoided it...and was affirmed in that avoidance.  If by this time you haven't figured out what you're going to do in this year's presidential election, I don't know what to say to you.  But then again, these elections always seem to hinge on how the stupid, emotion-driven pain-in-the-ass last-minute undecided voters sway, don't they...

Voted in Florida Primary, Among Few Others

This morning around eleven I went down the Senior Recreation Center near my home...not to recreate seniors, mind you, but to vote in the 2024 Florida Primary: it's my precinct's polling site. Well, if you read my article from a few days ago, you'd know by now that I'm a registered Republican, since the only measure on the ballot was the party presidential primary and Biden's running opposed in the Democratic Party, at least in Florida. Melissa went with me and we went through the empty polling area...other than the workers...and bubbled out and inserted our ballots into the machine.  It registered that we were the 23rd and 24th voters in the four hours since the polls opened that morning here...no surprise since the "election" was essentially meaningless with the party's cult idol already assured of nomination without any remaining organized opposition.  Still, the names of some former candidates who dropped out of the race were still on the ballot, and I cast my vote as I had indicated before.  After voting, we went on to the more practical part of the visit, which was to check out the Senior Recreation center.  I could see that many elderly would derive a lot of benefit from it, with the game rooms, exercise classes, limited workout room (monitored by a registered physical therapist), pickle ball courts, and a weekly schedule of programs and activities.  Yet I didn't see anything there that called out to me...yet.  As for the vote, it was obviously just symbolic for me, but it was nice to get out there and vote in person after the COVID pandemic and subsequent mail-in voting...    

On Runaway Train in Politics

I haven't written much on this blog about politics...I'm not sure what good it would do other than just having something out there on the record.  Sometimes with these elections I feel like someone stuck on a runaway train with no control over my destiny while the rabble swinging these contests in different states and districts are dupes for whatever campaign tactics the candidates and media perpetrate.  It does me no good to see through everything, with my one measly vote per contest. And now, it appears, that one of the major parties sees no wrong with attempting to undo the results of any close election they lose...fascism, pure and simple, and one of their leaders who refused to certified the electoral vote count on January 6th, 2021 is now the Speaker of the House, while the then-sitting president who instigated all of the election denial widely leads in that party's polls to regain its nomination in 2024. Runaway train...and me riding it into the cloudy future...  

Quote of the Week...from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Democracy...of the people, by the people, and for the people...is so fragile that you can vote it out of existence.  Just select candidates who will only accept the election results if they win.

                                                           ---Neil deGrasse Tyson

It's now coming up on three days since the midterm elections that were supposed to determine which parties control the Senate and House of Representatives...and it still is inconclusive, although in all likelihood the Republicans will regain control of the House after just four years of being in the minority.  Supposedly, the tedious time-consuming mail-in ballot counting is continuing across the country, with Nevada and Arizona standing out among the close Senate races and numerous House races still undetermined.  As for me, throughout my adult lifetime I've seen swings between the two major parties and easily accept how voters can run on emotion and ignorance when casting their ballots...I've been known to regret some of my own votes as well.  But implicit in all this cyclic give-and-take of partisan political power is the confidence we have that the losers of elections will accept the results and allow for the peaceful transfer of power.  Ever since the Bush-Gore election debacle in 2000 I've seen an increased amount of election denial on the part of both politicians and people at large, and this is unhealthful for a representative democratic republic as we have.  It reached a head in 2020 when an actual sitting president refused to accept his electoral defeat...and now within one of our parties a large number only accept elections if they win.  So, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the narrator of the great Cosmos series...and someone I follow on Twitter...is absolutely right in his assessment, which he made just before the election.  By the way, in fledgling democracies elsewhere in the world, the same thing has happened and is happening...the people elect someone as leader who uses the system once he is in power to change the laws to ensure that he will remain in power: not cool at all here in the good old U.S.A....

Mass Rallies Creep Me Out

Back in the fall of 2020, when COVID-19 was going full blast, then-Florida Gator football coach Dan Mullen praised the over-full College Station, Texas stadium of his rival Texas A&M following a close loss to them, stating that UF needed to "pack the Swamp [their stadium]" as well.  Soon thereafter the next game against Missouri was moved back because of several positive COVID test results among the team.  Now, although this scourge is still raging unabated, there are no crowd restrictions, and the expectation is full stadiums in every football game out there...at least the college ones.  Just a few months earlier in '20, news outlets like CNN were meticulously filming...often using zoom lenses to distort the effect...beaches that were beginning to draw crowds following their reopening, trying to create the impression that assemblages were still improper.  Then, suddenly, mass protests started after the police killing of George Floyd and, just like the snap of a finger, the emphasis on avoiding crowds changed to embracing them...for the protest demonstrations across the nation, that is.  And so have mass rallies, protests and sporting events been used to manipulate public opinion even to the point of brainwashing people along a certain narrative.  I like to watch sporting events, but the tens of thousands of yelling fans creep me out almost as much as do those Trump rallies with all the head-bobbing grinning zombies pictured together behind the Orange Man as he blathers on.  I have attended a church in which a pastor got up in front of the congregation and acted as if we had all been doing something wrong by previously staying at home and watching online services in 2020, and then pronouncing it all over (even though it wasn't).  Packed churches, rallies, demonstrations, stadiums, concerts, whatever...getting a bunch of people together in a concentrated, noisy mass to parrot whatever happens to be the organizers' intended narrative...is the opposite of democracy, where people can individually calmly, quietly, and anonymously select their own leaders and vote on referenda.  I remember in 2016 immediately following Trump's election (which I recognized although I didn't vote for him), demonstrations against him were organized with the ongoing mantra "NOT MY PRESIDENT!".  I thought that was a bit over the top, but four years later it paled in contrast to Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election and his call to Washington for militant groups like the Proud Boys to swarm the Washington Mall in protest of the Electoral Vote official certification by Congress, resulting in the violent storming of the US Capitol building.  If you derive a sense of legitimacy about anything by seeing masses of assembled people agreeing with you, then I believe you are a part of a serious problem that is only growing in this country.  Sure, I get it at sporting events...it's fun for everybody to get together and root for their team.  On the other hand, I was watching the baseball playoffs the other day and the home crowd, whenever their pitcher was on the mound, would loudly boo whenever the umpire called a ball on a pitch that was clearly far outside the strike zone...there's a difference between being passionate for your cause and being a dishonest, sore loser...did you get that, all you Trumpies?  I didn't think so..

Where I Stand on Voting Rights and Election Reform

In both 2018 and 2020 we had national elections, the latter including a presidential race.  In each election occurred what I see as big problems regarding the integrity of the vote and outcome.  In 2018...in California...ballot harvesting, illegal over most of the country, was in full swing and tipped a number of close congressional elections from Republican to Democratic.  In ballot harvesting, party operatives canvas neighborhoods before the election is over to selectively visit voters in their own party with absentee ballots.  If the voter hasn't mailed theirs in yet, the operatives will let them fill it out and promise to deliver it themselves.  The result is batches of large amounts of ballots dumped into the mix at the end to be counted...I find this highly unethical, rendering election results dependent on the efficiency of political party machines instead of the will of the voter.  In 2020 the notion of automatically sending absentee ballots in certain states to each and every eligible voter likewise gave me pause...I believe that voting at least on some level should require an effort on the part of the voter: the more passive the process is, the more likely abuse will occur.  The worst effect of 2020, though, was Donald Trump's Sore Loser philosophy, transformed from a morally-bankrupt individual's hangup to his entire party, as the Republicans tried to undo the free and fair election results that had elected Joe Biden to be the next president.  Then, in 2021 a number of Republican-controlled state governments enacted laws that tightened their election and voter laws...most of them I'm fine with, but sadly they also codified Trump's Sore Loser creed by enabling the partisan politicians to overthrow any elections that go the "wrong" way...this in my opinion is pure authoritarian fascism...

Now the Democrats in the U.S. Senate are trying to get two recalcitrant senators from their own party, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, to join them in a partisan voting bloc to temporarily suspend that body's filibuster for their voting rights bill.  Although Manchin and Sinema have expressed support for the submitted legislation, they are balking at the notion of suspending the filibuster...I kind of agree with them.  The bill's provisions set Federal standards for voting across the country and supersede state and local laws...that's the problem that Republicans have with it.  I don't know of anything in the proposed 800-page law that prohibits states from engaging in "Sore-Loserism" and overturning elections because of baseless fraud claims, and it allows for universal ballot harvesting...if you have further information on these two points I'd appreciate you letting me know...

In my view, the single most important determiner of election results is voter turnout, and it's interesting to note that the Democratic (my) Party is the one that tends to suffer the most from off-year voter apathy, with state legislatures and governorships...even in so-called "blue" states...going consistently to Republican control, largely because so many Democratic voters simply sit on their hands and won't vote unless it's for president.  The previous two Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton in 1994 and Barack Obama in 2010 saw their congressional majorities drastically swing to Republican control just two years into their respective administrations, hampering their ability to effectively govern...and it was largely due to their supporters refusing to vote in those elections, not because they were being persecuted in some way.  I see the same thing happening in 2022, only instead of decrying voter apathy and irresponsibility I predict the media talking heads will say it was all because of voter suppression....

Quote of the Week...from Winston Churchill

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

                                                                            ---Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill was perhaps the most famous British prime minister in history, presiding first over the course of World War II and later in the early-to-mid 1950s...let's just assume for the sake of argument that his above derisive quote about the "average voter" was only directed at his own fellow countrymen.  Still, I have issues of my own about American voters...or those from any country where people can freely vote for their leaders, for that matter.  In the election my city of Gainesville just held this past Tuesday, there was a vote turnout of 13%,  meaning that 87% of fully registered voters chose not to participate in the election of one of our city commissioners.  The election, among five candidates, was split evenly enough between the top two finishers so that no one received a majority of votes and the runoff will be held January 25th.  In this digital information age it is only too easy to just speak into the Google search engine and all kinds of sources of candidates' records and viewpoints can be found...but only 13% voted.  And during a time when all I hear is how voting is being suppressed.  I know enough about how people who do vote will make their voting choices according to asinine reasons like how their friends and family voted, the symbols the candidates embrace, innuendos, mudslinging...and the like: anything but how, once elected, the officials will affect their lives and futures by their actions on relevant issues.  Add to this the numerous crank news sources, hack media ideologues and conspiracy theories that too many in our Internet and mass media age have embraced to formulate their political orientation.  Finally, there is always the wishy-washy last-minute undecided voter who will hinge their vote on some sensational news story planted just before the election.  But at least these people are taking the responsible action of casting a ballot...I think I'd modify Churchill's quote to read "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average registered voter"...   

My Take on Senator Manchin's Present Senate Role

West Virginia Democratic senator Joe Manchin has lately been receiving his share of criticism...some of it excessively personal...from others in his party, including the President.  Although not addressing Manchin by name, Biden referred to him and colleague Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona as two senators who seem to vote more with Republicans than Democrats...a patently false statement: Manchin votes overwhelmingly with his party.  But in some matters he represents a lone voice, opposing any move to eliminate the legislative filibuster as well as his party's current For the People bill about voting and election reform.  As it is, I think that with just about any piece of legislation there is room of compromise, but in this climate of political gridlock with each party catering to their extreme wing, that word "compromise" is almost always depicted as betrayal instead of the logical result of elected officials recognizing the importance of getting things accomplished in a constructive manner for the American people and passing legislation that won't automatically be rescinded the next time the "other" party gains power...and it always eventually does.  Now Manchin is being depicted as some kind of racist for his principled stands...nothing that I know of the man, though, indicates anything of the sort. What many in his own party don't seem to "get" is that in an overwhelmingly red state he represents like West Virginia, Joe Manchin...its former governor...is nowadays probably the only Democrat they would elect to statewide office.  Instead of running him down, Democrats should be counting their blessings and realizing that his presence in the Senate is the reason they can get Biden's nominees brought to the floor and approved and their bills can be sent through committees and also brought up for votes... 

My overriding concern about voting and elections is the number of laws recently passed by Republican-run state legislatures that transfer the authority of certifying election results to those highly partisan legislatures, meaning that in any close election occurring under their jurisdiction they can let Republican victories pass unhindered while overturning Democratic wins under any pretext of false fraud charges.  The For the People Act doesn't seem to address this threat to our democracy, but rather tends to focus on making the act of voting much more a passive endeavor than one requiring the participant to make any sort of effort.  It also imposes a code of ethics on the Supreme Court and pushes for D.C. statehood, issues that are worthwhile to discuss but not directly germane to the bill's topic.  I personally oppose ballot harvesting, a process that this bill would impose nationally and which grants political operatives the opportunity to canvass neighborhoods for voters in their own party, pick up their ballots and deliver them to the elections office...all sorts of trouble can result from this.  And I'm also not a fan of universal vote-by-mail where the population regularly gets doused with mail-in ballots, as with the recent U.S. Census many of them to incorrect addresses.  To its credit, though, the bill does place restrictions on state officials purging voter rolls just before elections and gives such voters recourse to contest their removal. Senator Manchin has clearly stated that he objects to the For the People Act in its present form...in all likelihood he's seeing some of the same things I am.  There is no way I see him supporting eliminating the legislative filibuster, so the Democratic leadership has a choice: either work with the Republican opposition to come up with bills that can pass (and remain in law when power inevitably changes hands at some future time) or wait until the 2022 election and hope that they retain control of the House and expand their Senate majority to the point that Manchin and Sinema cannot thwart the move to end that 60-vote legislative threshold.  Will Joe Manchin disappoint me in the future by something he says or does? Almost certainly as he's already done so in the past, but unlike the millions of Trump idolaters and those who adoringly "feel the Bern" for Senator Sanders, I question elected officials and don't worship them...