Objects in mirror…are definitely closer

Oddities with billionaire greed, stadiums, and residents needing help

We turn our attention to the Tampa Bay Rays and their ongoing stadium saga. 

In short, the owner wants a brand new stadium, and wants the city or county to basically give it to him. 

The city of Saint Petersburg had previously agreed to do something like that, had already decided which underserved community to demolish, and was planning to vote on the bonds. 

And then came a hurricane that ravaged the city and the surrounding area. It also damaged the current home of the rays. Which meant that there would have to be repairs made to it in the short term, to be paid for by someone (probably the city), IN ADDITION to paying for the new one. 

The city commissioners took theirs stances on the topic… and wouldn't you know there was an election recently, and two of the commissioners were ousted and replaced with people who think stadium spending is a generally bad idea. And in light of the storm damage, and how peoples lives have been affected, definitely think it is a bad look and worse use of money. 

So there was a commission meeting and on the agenda was stadium funding.  The city councils action were … well, amusing. 

First, they voted  4-3 to approve spending $23 million toward repair of the Tropicana Field roof

Then, they voted 5-2 to put off selling $450 million in bonds for a new stadium and surrounding infrastructure. 

And that's when the owner of the Rays decided to get indignant. He needs that stadium! And if they're not going to vote on it, then he'll move the team. 

A team executive said "our agreement effectively died.  I don't believe we can make the economics around this arrangement work any more."

And that caused the council to vote again, this time 7-0 to undo the vote to spend on fixing the roof, basically giving the ownership the middle finger. 

It's a small (and possibly pyrrhic) victory. 

But it's nice to see a billionaire get a little comeuppance. 

“Anti-Woke” is just drivel

You hear the term "Anti-Woke" bandied around frequently. It's the counter to being in any way fair minded, or inclusive. 

And yet, no one can define "woke."  It's an ideal as much as anything. I don't like it. That's woke!

Anyway, the Washington professional football team had been called "Redskins" since their inception.  

Over the last 30 or so years, that name (and others like it) started to come under some scrutiny for being derogatory toward Native Americans.

And then a few years ago, they elected to change the name to "Football Team" (such an awesome generic name!) and later to "Commanders."

But of course some saw the decision as woke. Because they gave in and changed the name! The horror! 

The team was sold and the new owner was asked if he'd bring the old name back. "Unlikely" was his answer. 

And then this year, as our political landscape heated up, it became a thing again (I would assume mostly because the team is located close to DC, so it gets noticed). "They need to change the name back!"

One senator made the circuit, talking about how he had been in discussions with the owner and the tribes and he believes they can work it out and undo this wokedness!

And that is a sound bite. But does it have any merit?

I would argue, No. it does not. 

Because, it's actually about money. 

What gets lost is that before the name change, a federal judge ruled that the use of the word, and the Native American head used on the helmets were not protected under copyright, because the word was pejorative and the image was actually owned by the tribe. 

So in effect, all of the teams logos and merchandise were in the public domain and anyone could produce and sell it. Cutting off a huge revenue source for the team and the league. 

It doesn't matter what anyone thinks about how woke it might be to lose the name. What matters is the ability to make money on selling merchandise. 

No billionaire owner is going to let just anyone profit on the team name and imagery. That just wouldn't be right. 

It's all about the dolla dolla bills y'all.  

That’s amazing

I mean, you still have to have the grades and get accepted (no small feat!) but it's an intelligent way to combat what appears to be a downturn in education that is happening. 

“We are living a lie”

So says astronaut Ronald Garan. 

From within the ISS he reached an epiphany:

"From space, it becomes painfully clear how our human-made systems treat Earth's vital systems as mere subsidiaries of the global economy," 

In short, we can be better to our planet and do things to help the earth more, rather than always trying to extract its resources.

As I've heard it stated colloquially "there is no planet B"

The real question, though: Is anyone listening?

https://dailygalaxy.com/2024/11/astronauts-lightbulb-moment-in-space-reveals-humanitys-biggest-lie/

Another money maker at Disney World

The back story is that some of the guests who stay at Walt Disney World are not content with the free transportation, especially the bus service.  These guests don't have a car and want to get around more easily.

For a period of time until around the 2010s, there would be an occasional taxi called to a destination for a ride. Though, mostly they were used to take people to and from the airport, and rarely would be used within the resort.

Then along came ride sharing services, and guests would sometimes call for a ride between destinations within the resort.

Disney didn't like this very much and created a shuttle service called "Minnie vans" where they had cast members drive people around the resort, kind of like a concierge taxi service. 

But having employees do that is costly and requires insurance and other considerations. And there was still the problem of Uber and Lyft being called onto Disney property and taking some of that business (and reportedly charging less).

Then came the pandemic.  The service was shuttered, and Disney sold all the rde share cars. 

Post-pandemic, Disney brought back the service, but with the twist that they contracted with Lyft to run it for them.

In doing so, It removes competition.  Other drivers know it's not worth making themselves available on Disney's property. At least in part because Disney can (and does)l turn them away at various locations.

Which gives paying customers an alternative (but only one) to bus service. and Disney an additional revenue stream.

And some guests who would prefer to feel special get to do just that.  For a not particularly low price, you can have a dedicated car drive you around Disney property. Another case of wealth inequality showing its face. 

In the end, I guess you could assume they might say "Who needs busses? Those are for the unwashed masses."

Amusing football note

The Kansas City Chiefs were the last unbeaten team this season, and they lost to the Buffalo Bills...

The announcer says "You have to love the tradition down in Miami when the last team loses...the Dolphins team from yesterday has the champagne on ice."

Except that (as I've noted before) this was a mostly made up "tradition" but it does work well in football lore.

And consider that most of the surviving players from that era are now into the late 70s, or early 80s.  And most of them don't live in Miami anymore.

But no matter what, those that have passed on may feast in merriment in valhalla with the football gods.

How Legacy-Minded Bob Iger Is Mapping Out Disney's Future - Business Insider



Bob Iger went into the earnings call talking about how things were turning around and there has been a lot of growth. And clearly and unequivocally threw Bob Chapek under the bus. 

Many questioned him saying anything about Chapek, but to me it was clear that he was trying to resurrect his own legacy and assure that this time he'll get succession planning right. 

He half-assed it last time, tapping Chapek as his replacement without helping groom him for the job, and then undermining him as he was set to take over - just as the pandemic was getting started. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/bob-iger-disney-earnings-guidance-succession-legacy-chapek-media-analysis-2024-11

This time, he believes he'll get it right. 

Air travel disruption through a series of events

Here's the story about a travel disruption that happened in the UK through a series of unexpected events. 

It started with a flight between Paris and LA that passed over the UK. Its flight plan had two way points with the same name, and the software couldn't handle that and caused an error to appear, which then disrupted air traffic control. Controllers had to manually manage flights, and as a result they had to reduce the number of flights passing over that area. 

There was a solution for this: an engineer could log in remotely and clear the error. Except that due to "the design and architecture" of the system, the credentials were rejected. 

And it took them more than an hour to manage to log in. 

By now, the complete system was facing a backlog and delays. Flights were being rerouted, departures were held up for hours. Chaos ruled for many hours, affecting airlines, passengers, and scheduling for a while to come. 

And all because of a coding error and not having someone on site who could fix the problem. Oops. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/air-traffic-control-chaos-engineer-login-problem-passengers-disruption-airlines-2024-11

What’s up with that?

I have a lot of beefs with the goings on in the world. 

But one in particular just baffles me. There are some very vocal people who oppose vaccines for spurious reasons. 

And as an aside: if there is a decision made to relax the rules around vaccines, then we will see a resurgence of communicable diseases that modern medicine has effectively eliminated. Measles? Polio? They'll make a comeback. 

Anyway, there's also something strange happening with these same people, who accept that drug companies advertise to them directly for drugs that cure things that somehow people decide they have - in spite of them having side effects like… death. 

And not only that.  People use these drugs in unintended ways. Ozempic, for example, was approved for one thing … but it has a side effect of sorts - that it causes weight loss. 

So people take it as a weight loss drug. Even though (a) that is not its indication and (b) when one stops taking the drug, the weight comes back. 

And these people don't even give THAT a second thought. They take it in spite of everything. 

Because it was marketed directly to them with an happy song, and they see a result. 

Maybe what vaccines need is a better PR campaign?

US Air Force Airmen of Note

There's a backstory about this group of performers. 

During World War II, big band orchestra leader Glenn Miller enlisted in the army air corps in order to go on tour and provide entertainment to the troops. He went to many locations, and sadly, his plane went down in 1945 over the English Channel. 

The band continued to perform for a time without him, then Congress created the airmen of note in 1950 as a kind of tribute to Millers legacy and service. 

The band plays around the world and promotes the Air Force in general. They also play at various events for dignitaries. 

And they tour around and have free concerts for the public.  The big band sound is alive and well. We saw them tonight and I highly recommend seeing them if you ever get a chance. Just Google them to see where they'll be next. 

One note: Their commander made a comment that they played for the First Lady and the Second Gentleman… which legit made me sad. Things will be different soon. 

It’s a coup of sorts

In 2020, you had the insurrection led by the orange menace. By definition it was a coup d'etat, a violent uprising against government. 

Some people thought it was all a part of the game (I would refer to those as the stupid people), some slept on it. But some of us saw it for what it was. 

I have studied coups in history and had a notion that this was just the beginning. And back in 2020, I caught a video from a guy who lived in a central Asian country who provided a perspective. 

He had lived through coups in his country and saw this as no different. He explained why he thought that in some detail (which I won't get into here, but it ticked the boxes). 

And he finished with a few thoughts: that the person behind the coup must be held accountable, and dealt with. That the person (or more broadly the people) responsible for the coup will never stop coming. And that he wanted to tell us what he's told his family during coups … "good luck"

The orange man was not deal with. The wheels of justice were/are excruciatingly slow, he managed to run out the clock, and he got some help from people in other high places. 

He never did stop coming. And now has all the power and intends to act like a dictator. 

So I guess, sadly, the coup did happen. And now it's down to "good luck"

The adults in the room failed at their jobs and we all will pay a price. 

A little good news

The onion bought infowars. Which is pretty amazing news. The site filled with hate and abject stupidity now becomes part of the unserious satirical news. 

And as you'll note in the CEOs comment, they're unsure how they'll use the site. But one of the intended outcomes was to make some peace with the parents of the Sandy Hook victims, as infowars was outrageous toward them. 

https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/

The other thing to note is that the big media companies (like The NY Times and he AP) used a picture of the man that the onion CEO specifically said he wouldn't name, because he's irrelevant. 

Which is the problem with the big media. They give air to things and use salacious headlines in order to get clicks. Rather than focusing on the content and being, I don't know, accurate. 

Which is why I have stopped paying attention to most media outlets. They suck. Maybe the onion, and what it becomes will be better at reporting…

An email I sent to Senator Rubio

He's been nominated for some cabinet post, to go along with the collection of idiots who the orange menace has appointed. 

And yes, I actually sent this:

I wanted to (as sarcastically as possible) thank you for putting yourself over country in acquitting the 45th president during both impeachments, but especially the second one where you KNEW he was guilty of inciting an insurrection. And the fact that it results in a cabinet post position for you underscores how little you care about the nation, and really only think about yourself. 

But at least Florida gets the advantage of you finally leaving the senate, so maybe we can be represented by someone who cares.

Truth

Juno spacecraft returns images of Jupiter

Tell me the new images of Jupiter aren't cool!

The resolution and depth of imaging really does give us a better sense of what's happening on our solar systems largest planet!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2024/11/05/in-photos-see-nasa-junos-jaw-dropping-new-images-of-jupiter/

Transmissions from deep space

You may recall the Psyche mission that launched in 2023. The goal was to create new and more efficient means of transmitting data over long distances. 

Well, the probe is now 310 million miles away and faring quite well. Engineers are able to receive high definition information in a short amount of time!

https://dailygalaxy.com/2024/10/earth-receives-a-laser-communication-sent-from-nearly-half-a-billion-kilometers-away/

Understanding neurogenerative issues

Scientists published some findings that include some pictures from the cellular level that are colored to really see what's going on. 

And as a result, they think they have some clues as to what happens in diseases like Alzheimer's and ALS where a protein causes loss of transport between axons. 

Further study will be undertaken to understand why, and how it could possibly be reversed or stopped. 

But it's an interesting leap forward. 

https://www.sciencealert.com/award-winning-image-reveals-a-hidden-culprit-behind-alzheimers

Propellentless rocket?

A NASA engineer came up with a new method of propulsion that uses electric fields, and which has no expulsion of mass. 

This was something that was believed impossible, theoretically. But yet he has developed a prototype. 

I look forward to seeing how it will work, once they share more with the public. 

https://www.thebrighterside.news/space/nasa-engineer-developed-a-propellant-less-rocket-that-defies-conventional-laws-of-physics

A long form diatribe about the election.

Thesis 

I am one of the roughly 50% of the population who believes that Donald Trump should never have been president. Period.  He is a blowhard and seemingly mediocre businessman, and not in any way suited to lead. And he proved that in his first term.

The first time, he should never have won,  but he did - mostly by being the "tough guy" and telling people whatever they wanted to hear.  And then he lost re-election, and we were all better for it - even if some people didn't realize it. 

The guy is a conman and a criminal.  And of course a convicted felon. 

But, for some reason, the Supreme Court decided to grant him immunity for many of his transgressions while in office.  That's something that should never have happened. 

And now that he has won again, his past problems simply go away.  I have a lot of issues with that. Probably the greatest is the fact that he has proven that he is above the law. Those 34 felony convictions, those almost 90 charges related to the federal government, the potential that he may have committed some act of treason or something else; all of it just goes away. 

It flies in the face of everything we know and everything we believe in - part of our democracy is the right to a fair trial, and he had multiple fair trials and was convicted - and yet gets to serve as president and essentially forget about all of that. Grumble. He apparently is above the law. Making him a tyrant. 

The Senate had a duty during his first term to convict and remove him from office for his two (!) impeachments, but they chose to be derelict in that duty.  They said "let the people decide" - which they did, and then somehow these same senators still supported him when it came to the next election.  Self-serving ass holes are they. (I'm looking at you Marco Rubio)

Now to be fair, I have to give trump a small amount of credit for something that he pulled off early in his first presidency:  He moved the GOP money under his "Make America Great" banner - so essentially all money that was donated into the GOP had to come through him.  That meant that everyone in the GOP was beholden to him; and it kept everyone aligned on what the message was, what they needed to do, and how they needed to support him.  It is kind of genius in its own nefarious way

And here we are. 

Sadly, he won another term, and will become the second president to have two nonconsecutive terms. On the campaign trail, he said a lot of things that he planned to do early in his administration.  A lot of those things are very harmful to very many people and it's kind of a scary thing.  But whether he follows through on all of them, some of them, or none of them - or perhaps adds new ones - is anybody's guess.

Remember that this is all about him; the grift and being powerful like a king or a tyrant was the goal, so he's gotten what *he* wants.  

That said, I have no doubt that he'll do some things that will be harmful, but what and how far...no one can say.  Though he'll go after things that affect the poor and wealthy alike. 

Climate change? That's a hoax.  Food safety? Who needs it. Regulations that affect every day life in a mostly positive way? Eh, companies can be responsible and don't need to be supervised. 

And legislating from the Oval Office via executive order seems to be in the plan.  So expect the unexpected to come for you. He has no real guardrails and can do as he pleases. Again, see the word tyrant. 

Run up to the election 

For what it's worth, the election itself was kind of....I'll go with interesting. The Democrats in many ways shot themselves in the foot by not having a primary and letting Biden be the incumbent nominee, even though he was fairly old.  

And then he finally decided it was time to step aside, but it was too late to hold a primary, so his vice president became nominee, which is fine, I guess, and a movement formed in backing her. 

Still, both of these were a bit of an issue.

Kamala really did a lot to draw people in - and it was kind of crazy cool to watch how that came together.  But some how, some way, things went awry.

But on the actual election. I'm not quite sure what happened, exactly. It would seem that a lot of people, including myself, were deluded into believing that Kamala would win, possibly by a large margin. I admit that maybe I had a bias, but I find it hard to believe that my judgement was that clouded, and that I was that deluded.  No, there had to be more.

The polling - up until the debate between Biden and Trump - showed Biden was probably going to win. It would likely be by a very slim margin, but it seemed to be tilted in his favor.  But, after the debate it was pretty certain that Trump would win but again - but also by a fairly small margin.

Biden steps aside, and Kamala comes in and she starts that momentum I mentioned.  Its a movement!  Polling starts showing that she will win by the same small margin that Biden had, and then its starts to grow into something greater. She's much more dynamic, she's much more engaged, she's got people behind her, she has an enthusiastic campaign built on hope.  Polling shows her up, everywhere.

Now, you can say that the polls were wrong. They are not to be trusted. That there are other factors included in here and maybe you're right. It's hard to know. 

Polling had been a good source of information up until about 2016 when the polling went off the rails.  Then in 2020, they appeared to correct and seemed to be more or less accurate again. So it certainly seemed like this would at least be a close race, even if she might lose it would be by a small margin and the "Swing states" seemed to favor her to a large degree, in any case.

But in the end, she lost by a crushing margin, which makes no sense given everything that we know.  All the swing states went his way, and even some moderately safe states swung much further red.  

How did this happen?

Afterward, Democrats were (and are) going around and blaming a lot of different things, including each other, the polling, what happened during this election cycle, some of the things that were said by someone or anyone, policy decisions that alienated voters, etc. 

But those all feel like excuses, and get us nowhere. Will anyone actually do a post mortem (and this does feel a bit like death, doesn't it?) and figure out how to not let this happen again?

By the numbers. 

This is my presumed starting point, the percent of voting population allocation, based on what I saw in polling:

	support	Notes
Trump	35%	Could be 40%
Kamala / not Trump	45%	Could be 40%
RFK jr	10%
Undecided	10%
Total	100%

By some estimates, somewhere around 35% of registered voters were all in on Trump.  They didn't care, they were never going to change their minds.  

He sold an ideal to people.  Things about how white men matter, how you can say whatever you want, and do whatever you want, and of course how you too can get rich just like him. It's the pyramid scheme in a way.  Or maybe like a cult, because basically if you believe hard enough, you can be like him too!

And on the other hand, you had around 45% that we're going to either vote for Kamala, or vote against Trump. 

Then you had some people in the middle you had some of the electorate who weren't entirely sure what they were going to do, and when RFK Jr came on the scene and started spouting his nonsense a large percentage of that group backed him.

A little later in the campaign. 

	Support	Change
Trump	40%	+5%
Kamala	45%	No change
Undecided	10%	No change
No plans to vote	5%	—
Total	100%

At some point, RFK offered that voter base to Kamala in exchange for something, and she said no.  So he offered that vote to Trump in exchange for something and he said enthusiastically yes!  Now here's the thing - these were mostly people who didn't like Trump or Biden.  They were lukewarm on Kamala.  When interviewed by various outlets, many of them said they were either going to vote for Kamala or simply not vote. 

And then…

	Support	Change
Trump	48%	+8%
Kamala	47%	+2%
Undecided	0%	-10%
No plans to vote	5%	No change
Total	100%

Of the undecideds, many were people who mostly had been Trump supporters in the past, but were looking for a reason to vote for someone else.  And they called themselves undecideds. Perhaps a little more than half voted for him anyway. 

We also heard a large-ish (and certainly larger than the republicans or independents) number of democrat-registered voters didn't vote in the election, knocking her number lower, perhaps.  

In the end, those number may work, and show us what happened in voting.  But it still doesn't feel right. There's more to it.

Other factors?

I'm no conspiracy theorist and I generally don't like espousing conspiracies, but sometimes... you have to wonder just a little bit. 

If we take a trip back in history to the 2008 election - the first time Obama was elected - there were stories that a GOP-aligned group had created some sort of software. They called it some amusing name (like gateway or dominion or some such). Their goal was to disrupt the vote counting, and allow John McCain to win the election. But there was a group of hackers who found this code and were able to disable it; preventing that from happening.

Say what you will, but I can not believe for even a moment that the GOP supporting army just gave up on trying to swing elections their way. 

Of course, gerrymandering, voter registration laws, purging voters from the rolls, and voter influence / intimidation are along the same lines. And are very much in the public eye. 

My question is whether those overt things are just some kind of window dressing to distract from other more nefarious activities that we aren't privy to.

It's nothing more than speculation when we hear hints and whispers about attempts to make voting outcomes that one side wants.  But nevertheless, these rumors happened in each of the subsequent cycles of elections; there was the potential for some sort of hacking or interference.

I emphasize potential. Because there is no evidence whatsoever that it ever happened. And maybe it didn't. 

The possibility of Russian influence. 

And then came 2016. The Russian influence campaign was strong. There were  a number of documented things that Russia was doing - going into the voter rolls accessing information, perhaps doing something more nefarious.  And when the election cycle happened, it looked like Hillary was probably going to win, but then Trump wound up winning - again by a fairly large margin and he (surprise!) took the swing states

There were dossiers, memos, and other pieces of evidence.  But, unfortunately, most of this was never investigated because he became the president.  It was easy for him to just "bury it." And by the time Biden took office, there were so many other things, so many other priorities, that as far as I can tell, he never went back to it.  That's shameful, but the court cases that started were slowly chipping at the edges. 

By the way, after that election, there was some supporting evidence that the vote totals didn't quite align and there were "irregularities" in places. But I must stress that there were no irrefutable facts to support any sort of fraud or manipulation. But do remember the preceding paragraph that Trump could squash any further inquiries. 

That brings us back to 2024.  Trumps campaign gets started up and again we hear whispers about Russia's involvement.

Elon Musk gets involved. 

You also had the Elon Musk factor. Elon controls one of the largest social media networks, and has no moral issues with peddling influence.  He also has a satellite system that he uses for his own purposes and lets people have it or not have it depending on his own whim. That technology could be used in many ways, perhaps even related to an election.

Elon publicly has stated that he wants to become the world's first trillionaire (such an obscene amount of money!).  Getting behind trump meant that he would now be able to control his own future.  No pesky regulations to hold him back - and he'll have access to classified information to gain other advantages. (And don't sleep on the fact that we learned recently that he is essentially an illegal immigrant, and here he is rising in power, rather than being deported)

There were stories that Musk talked to Vladimir Putin.  That may be true or not (we really don't know), but we do know that there was a large volume of Russian propaganda appearing on Xitter.

And of course, he offered the $1 million prize daily for people who pledged to vote for Trump. That's an incentive for a lot of people who were maybe thinking about voting for him anyway - or even some people who might've voted for Kamala but when presented with a get rich quick moment, I would assume some people thought "why wouldn't I do that?"

There was also this very nebulous campaign organization that he was funding.  It was supposedly a grassroots organization intended to go around and help get out the vote for Trump.  

In most campaigns, people do this out of the goodness of their hearts.  They canvas in support of a candidate as a volunteer.  But in Musks organization, people were getting paid to do this. 

Plus, there were stories about offering people cash for their vote, and at least one story about these campaign people being asked to go to very specific individuals and offer them some money for some support - under the guise of it being campaign related.  And yes, this story mentioned the word "bribe." 

In summary, you get a sense of there was WAY more happening than ever met the eye with having a several technology companies could potentially help in some way. 

Back to Trump 

There were also reports that Donald Trump talked to Putin; but whatever conversations happened between them are unknown and undocumented. But keep in mind that this would be illegal because he was not the president and he was not the president-elect at that point.  

But no one chose to do anything about it. Let him run amok. Why not?

Donald Trump came out and said he was going to broker a cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia, and it was already in the works. No doubt that it will greatly benefit Russia, but this did not happen in a vacuum. There has to be some quid pro quo that happened between him and Putin. 

And then came Election Day. 

I find it interesting that in the closing days before the election, Kamala had what at least "seemed to be" a nice lead. But as we closed in on election day, the polls were narrowing in all these different states. But I never heard about a single person who might waver from their belief in Kamala. Where did these people suddenly come from? 

There was another factor: some polling organizations were set up specifically to make the polling look better for Trump. But the media never really caught on, and kept talking about the lead narrowing.  On the surface that's not a bad thing because it brings out more people to vote. But there must be a reason they were doing this, right?

And on election night, somehow Trump won, by larger than the margin of error in the polls. It kind of doesn't make sense how that worked out. I'm not saying it's impossible. But it seems unlikely.

He won in places he never led.  He won by margins that made no sense.  I'm not going to try and make sense of it, I'm simply trying to accept THAT it happened.  And shut out the voices that say somehow it was a stolen election of sorts.

Of course, we will never know if any of this is right, wrong, indifferent, accurate, inaccurate, or wildly lying because no one will ever investigate what happened beginning in 2016. Oh sure, in 100 years from now we may find out some truth, but not in my lifetime.

The "beautiful thing" about this anonymity in voting is that no one will ever be able to determine the truth. Those records are behind a wall and we can only rely on the reported vote totals which we have to assume to be accurate. 

And on to the future

Okay I'll say it. This sucks. 

Now we have a very uncertain future ahead.  It's a weird thing that's going on; we know that there are going to be bad things that happen. Some may affect us directly.  Some may alter the nation we love. And some may just make life easier for the über wealthy while making it more painful for average folks. 

But there is one certainty. We know that he's in it for himself. We know that there is no end to the lying. He will say whatever and do whatever he thinks is right, and it doesn't matter if there's truth or not.

And unfortunately, we'll continue as society to not value truth nor science.  To not value anything that's rational and real. It will all be about this mystery this ideal that we can be somehow be "Great" - whatever that means

Sadly, in a way we're getting exactly what we deserve. After all, we are the nation that consumes social media, watches vapid reality TV,  works off of wild conspiracies, and doesn't value reason.

I weep for our future. And hope that the American experiment that our nation undertook, and lasted for nearly 250 years, does not end here. 

Nevertheless, we still have hope! And what's important is to maintain that hope, and be good people. We can fight for democracy in intelligent ways, while supporting others - even if we know that (essentially) that some of them joined the "cult of ignorance"

And thus begins another round of whitewashing history

The national archives museum has made a decision to remove displays that "might inflame the right," and replace them with things that might appeal to that group. 

Yeah. Sure. Why talk about slavery or equal rights, the subjugation of native Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans, or birth control? 

Why does anyone need to know about any of that?

These are dark times, indeed. 

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/national-archives-museum-under-fire-2564854

This story made me chuckle

An organization managed to steal information from a company and then held it for ransom. 

Their demand? $125,000 … in baguettes! 

https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/05/schneider_electric_cybersecurity_incident/

Its election day. Now get out there and vote!

And if you voted early, now is your chance to "vote often" :) 

Seriously, check in with your friends and family and make sure they voted too!

"Vote like your life depends on it, because it does"

Watch "Breakthrough: Voyager 1 “Phones Home” After 40+ Years Using Backup Transmitter" on YouTube

This is a good, short synopsis of the voyager mission. And the piece about the backup transmitter cycling on and sending a message back to earth is really cool! https://youtu.be/jn-rJyZQBjM?si=5pAsuByYSNI4FLIX

What the actual fuck?

The orange menace made a very serious threat to an individual. A citizen he would represent.  Essentially saying she should be killed because he doesn't like her. 

I gotta agree with Kamala here. This should be the end of his campaign. He's not fit to serve. Period. 

How anyone. Any. One. Can vote for him is so far beyond me…

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/2024-election-updates-trump-violent-rhetoric-attack-war/?id=115388990

Here’s to hoping that THIS is the lasting image we have of the trumpster fire

In a garbage truck wearing an orange vest is really a summation of who this dope is. 

And later when he went to a rally and wore the vest throughout (as Colbert said "like a 6 year old who won't take off his Halloween costume") and then danced to the song YMCA by the village people. 

Especially since he has had multiple cease and desists about using that song. AND the song is somewhat of a gay anthem. 

It's kind of perfect.