You’re fired!

There's a scene in the movie "the running man" where Arnold Schwartzeneger is being sent into the game. Richard Dawson is the game show host and asks Arnold if he has anything to say:

Arnold "I'll be back"
Dawson "only in a rerun"

Which is kind of how it feels to have trump lose the election.

He was right, though, there is a lot of winning going on. It just took a few years to get here.

Sometimes I just have to laugh at the world

In 2016, there was evidence that Russia had interfered in our election. What they actually did (or didn't do) is a mystery. There were - and are - a lot of questions.

We do know that they ran a sophisticated disinformation campaign on social media. We also know that several voter databases were breached. And we saw some unusual vote totals that couldn't be readily explained. Was there something to it, or not?

There was some investigation done afterwards that suggested that the machines themselves were easily hackable and vote totals could change. But there were hurdles, like the proximity to the voting machines, that needed to be overcome. So this was unlikely.

More likely was the possibility that there could be some shenanigans somewhere along the transmission of votes from polling stations to the state supervisor of elections. Though again this was a bit of a long shot.

So in the end, we simply don't know what they did.

Now I admit to being intrigued by the whole thing, and spent (way too much) time looking into it and following other threads. I was part of a very loosely knit group that was seeing if there was anything there.

Other than the few items I noted in the first paragraph, there was no evidence to support anything. It was all supposition.

But here's where things get funny. Like many that were looking into it, we presented anything we knew to the public.

And immediately got shouted down as being libtards, or grasping at straws, looking for excuses, being sore losers, etc. How can there have been any sort of vote manipulation, interference, or Russian influence?

They couldn't get it.

And then 2020 comes, and Trump loses.

...And suddenly those same people who had accused us - after we had done some amount of research over several weeks after the election - are saying a few days after the election that there *was* voter fraud of various kinds, and that votes were changed. Some people even have said there are devices the cia used to change votes at the polls.

To me it's hysterical. They could NOT accept the *possibility* that there was influence in 2016, even after much investigation. But in 2020 there IS absolutely vote manipulation.

Yeah. People are stupid.

Cult of personality indeed.

Phineas And Ferb Song Were Watching And Were Waiting

This week, it felt like there was a lot of this...

Cult of personality.

Sound familiar?

A cult of personality arises when a country's regime – or, more rarely, an individual – uses the techniques of mass media, propaganda, the big lie, spectacle, the arts, patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.

Rarely an individual. Unless you’re in the US and got sucked up into his gaslighting shenanigans 

Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Zoom Performance "Alexander Hamilton"

We need more great stuff like this!

What? Then they’d have to give refunds...

This scene sticks with me, especially during the pandemic.  All sports had “a plan” for dealing with covid, but most ignore it when it suits them.  We planned to shut down for 2 weeks! We planned to isolate players! We planned to cancel games! We planned to use backups as needed!

But, ya gotta win AmIRight? And refunds? That’s hilarious. 

The Ocoee Massacre

Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the Ocoee Massacre, which is believed to the largest scale voter suppression activity that happened in the US. 

You can read stories about it, like this one

https://theundefeated.com/features/legacy-of-bloody-election-day-lingers-in-ocoee-florida/

Or read a more newsy type report here

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/11/02/ocoee-florida-election-day-massacre/?outputType=amp

Or catch a 45 minute documentary film here:
https://www.wftv.com/news/ocoee-massacre-documentary-film/374fd241-419a-43e7-95ff-4ed007a48d50/

But, the truly remarkable thing is that it did remain essentially unknown, and not talked about, for nearly a century. 

It was not taught in florida schools. I had a vague, very fuzzy, recollection of some mob scene, directed at blacks, somewhere near Orlando. But that's it. 

And in a way, shame on me for not knowing. I lived in another little town very close to Ocoee for a year or so in the early 90s. I went into the rebuilt Ocoee a few times. But didn't know it's history. 

I was aware that in that area, miles from downtown Orlando and the theme parks, racism ran high. There weren't many blacks in the area I was living in, and there weren't many whites in the area around apopka. 

It was strange to me, but I never asked questions. I just went about my business. I guess I assumed that it was somehow a vestige of the old south. 

But now that I'm removed from it for 30 years, and we're at the 100th anniversary of the events, I have to look back on it and shake my head. 

As I said, racism ran high in the area. It bothered me a lot at the time, but I just shook it off. 

Maybe now I'm beginning to understand what it means.

Take a few moments and read about the history and see if you can start to appreciate all that happened there, and what has happened since, and why "Black Lives Matter" is something relevant today.