I was thankful yesterday for a variety of things.  Today I am still thankful.  Here’s my list:

I am thankful that Donald Trump will no longer be “my President” in two months.

I am thankful for my health, and the health of my loved ones.  No thanks to Donald Trump.

I am thankful that all of my relatives live 2000 (or more) miles away, so there was no pressure to get together for Thanksgiving and “tempt fate” (along with the coronavirus).

I am thankful that almost everyone I know stayed home in intimate gatherings and also did not tempt fate.

I am thankful that everyone in my neighborhood (except one) did likewise.  We took a walk yesterday afternoon after our T-day meal (why is it always at some awkward time like 2:30?), and up and down our rural street I only saw one house where a number of cars were gathered in an obvious get-together (yes, spots out here are known for parking dozens of old cars on the property, but none of the cars were up on cinder blocks).  Sadly, if I had to make a wager on which house on our street would have bucked the sage advice and held such a soiree, it would have been this one.  Sigh.

I am thankful that we don’t participate in the Black Friday hoopla.  Like I mentioned earlier, everyone lives some distance away, so we ship for the holidays, and we start EARLY.  Hell, we have about a third of everything wrapped by now, and the only things we haven’t purchased will be shipped directly from the vendor. 

I am thankful for Republican judges like the ones in Pennsylvania (including one Trump appointee) who still know that we’re a nation of laws and not men (and petty men at that).   Today’s ruling should once and for all put an end to the charade that Trump is playing with the already-decided-get-over-it election.  It’s dangerous, and does not help this country move forward, let alone heal.

I am thankful that Joe Biden still believes he can work with the GOP.  Obviously his eight years as Obama’s right-hand man wasn’t enough to convince him that Mitch McConnell and his cohorts will do everything they can to thwart any cooperation and progress for anything Democrats propose to help average Americans (I haven’t said anything about legally or ethically here, BTW).  Now if Joe starts talking about tax cuts for the rich, they might come on board, but only with additional concessions to corporations and a few more conservative judges.  Otherwise Joe will have to learn the hard way.  I do hope he learns quickly, and makes every effort to get a Democratic majority in 2022.

I am thankful that we have a chance of getting a 50-50 split in the Senate come January.  We're all rooting for you, Georgia - do the right thing.

I am thankful for wife.   I rarely mention her online only to protect her privacy (she’s like that), but she is my rock, my beacon, my everything.  I even hum that Barry White ditty from time to time not because I like it (I was never a fan and that was one I hated to see come up in rotation during my DJ days), but simply because of the lyric, “You're the first, my last, my everything.”  Some of the other lyrics are a bit much.

I am thankful for my health.  Yeah, that’s a repeat, but now that I’ve had cataract surgery in both eyes and new glasses, it’s AMAZING to be able to see this clearly.  It’s been a while.

I am thankful that Donald Trump will no longer be “my President” in two months.  Yes, another repeat, but I am really, really, really thankful we won’t have that fucker to deal with soon.  Very soon.

I am thankful that Donald Trump will no longer be “my President” in two months.  It’s worth repeating again.  And again.  I am thankful that Donald Trump will no longer be “my President” in two months.

Aren’t you?

Thankless Giving

My wife and I are fortunate here in Oregon in that all of our loved ones live at least 2,000 miles away, so we won’t be getting together with anyone but ourselves next week for Thanksgiving.  As you’re no doubt aware, others are defying the obvious and planning big to-dos with lots of food and people and the potential for illness and death.

How lovely.

Some are quite demonstrative in their demands for freedom and turkey.  So those of who realize that the first Thanksgiving was also a time for sharing and caring and spreading deadly viruses to the natives need also to be vigilant and just as demonstrative in our pleading – FOR GAWDS SAKE STAY THE FUCK HOME.

If common sense won’t convince you, perhaps this will.  No doubt you’ve seen or heard about the South Dakota nurse who tweeted her experiences with virus doubters…in the hospital…while sick…continuing to believe it’s all a hoax and not real…up to the very moment of death.  Incredible, but true.  She says they, “…don’t believe the virus is real ... while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm.”  It’s not just an isolated phenomenon, she says, while adding “And their last, dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’ "

Dang.  Talk about a hard sell.

The other thing I’d like to offer in evidence is a thought experiment.  What if I could convince you that if people try to get together for the Thanksgiving holiday (or the upcoming rush of December festivals), that cases are sure to rise?  What if I could SHOW you that this has actually happened?  Sure, the COVID-19 virus wasn’t around for our last Thanksgiving, but did you know we’re not the only country that celebrates such an occasion.  In fact, our neighbors to the north not only have such an event (and they look just like us only more polite), they actually call it “Thanksgiving.”  They do it in October (on the same day we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day aka the Day formerly known as Columbus Day).  Even in Canada where they love hockey and maple syrup and generally do as they’re told, Canadians bucked the good advice and common sense and got together for family gatherings and more for Thanksgiving.

And what happened?

So in the words of my Canadian friend, “FOR GAWDS SAKE STAY THE FUCK HOME, EH?”

Tallying the Non-Voters

Now that almost all the ballots have been counted, it’s time to pat ourselves on the back, somewhat.  Not over who we elected and what ballot issues we voted for or against, but the very fact that we voted.  America has been a piss-poor example of “freedom” when it comes to voting, as our overall turnout for elections is, to put a political spin on it, “sucky.”  The percentages have been going down, down, down for years.  But we turned the tide in 2020.

Overall, more than two-thirds who were eligible to vote in 2020 cast a ballot, either at the voting booth or by mail.  That’s the highest percent since 1900!  Back then, it was 74% compared to this year’s 67%.  And participation by state varied, of course.  Here in Oregon our rate was 75.5%, fifth highest in the nation (take a bow, Minnesota).  In addition, nearly 82% of those registered to vote in Oregon cast a ballot.  Again, compared to previous, these are great numbers.

But think about it another way.  Here in Oregon we have vote by mail, and have had it for more than twenty years.  They mail you both a ballot AND a “voter’s pamphlet” with information on all the candidates and ballot measures.  All you need to do is fill out the ballot and mail it back – POSTAGE PAID.  It’s probably the easiest thing you can do; easier than paying your bills.

And yet, nearly 1 in 5 Oregonians didn’t do this.

The way I like think of it is this:  think about a group gathering, like when you used to get together with family for Thanksgiving (for gawds sake don’t do it this year!).  In the Exinger clan gathering at my grandmother’s this would be about 20 people.  Now I sit and think – of those twenty, FOUR didn’t vote – which ones?  Aunt Marylin, probably.  Aunt Dorcus.  Cousin Karen (natch).  One more…Cousin Kathy’s husband Eric?  He always looks disinterested when we talk politics (Uncle Bill used to work for Governor Milliken a long while ago).  Of course, Eric looks disinterested when we talk about damn near anything except football.

So that’s one group I just don’t get – people who looked around, saw what’s been happening over the last four years and said, “Nah, I’ll sit this one out.”  Or, more likely, “Nah, I’ll sit this one out…too.”

This is 2016.  Don't freak out.

But there’s another group that’s even more puzzling to me.  In 2016 there was the bitching that “Clinton would’ve won had some of the millions of non-voters been interested enough to vote.”  Well, the good news is that many non-voters saw the light and cast ballots this time, and Joe Biden amassed MORE votes than ANY OTHER Presidential election winner.  As of this writing, he has more than 79 million votes, compared to Clinton’s 65.8 million.

The thing is, Donald Trump also received more votes this time.  In 2016, he won despite only receiving just under 63 million votes.  This time around he got 10 million MORE people to vote for him (and still got his ass handed to him in the process).

Think about that – he improved his vote tally by more than 16% - a remarkable achievement – and yet still trailed Biden by almost 6 million voted (and lost the Electoral College by, as they said in 2016, “a landslide”).   And also thing about this – those 10 million “new Trump voters” would have, like their non-voting brethren, considered the state of the union, the higher-than-2016 unemployment, the tax cut that only benefited the rich, the coddling up to dictators, the rising deficit, the continual lying and golfing and tweeting nonsense, and almost 250,000 dead from a disease Trump did little to stop or slow down.  Considered the shit-show we call 2020 and said,

“No more sitting on the sidelines for me – I’m gonna vote for the guy who fucked all this up!”

Yeah, so that’s another group I just don’t get.

Don’t Sing Kumbaya Just Yet

This has nothing do to with the article, but it's funny as hell.

It’s apparent to almost everyone that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be our next President/Vice President come January.  The stock market had a big rally, foreign leaders have been calling them to congratulate, and pretty much the rest of the world has let out a big sigh of relief, “WHEW – thank God/Allah/Jehovah/Krishna/Whomever THAT’S over.”

Everyone, that is, except Republicans.

Lead by the “Great Denier,” the GOP just KNOWS there’s been massive fraud at the polls, just like in 2016 (except then, for some strange reason, Trump won).  Despite everything they did before the election (limit voting, limit drop boxes, purge voting rolls, make it harder to register and harder to vote, slow down the Post Office, scare the living shit out of everyone, cause thousands to die of COVID, etc.), Joe & Kamala won.  You can make the case thusly: “Yes, there’s was cheating, but it’s apparent that Trump didn’t cheat enough.”

But instead of a smooth transition to power, we’re stuck.  Trump will not concede and most of the Republican Party is helping him impede any progress to a transition.  Compare what happened in 2016 – Trump squeaks by in three states, loses the popular vote by three million, and everyone moves on (OK, Trump called “foul” and claimed there was massive fraud and set up a commission once he was in office and they found absolutely nothing).  This time Biden won the popular vote by almost 5 million, flipped five states handily (and might do one or two more), and…here we are.  In short – IT’S NOT THAT CLOSE – let’s move on!

Now my purpose here isn’t to talk about the stall and the lawsuits or any of that.  What we know about the lawsuits filed so far (I am certain there will be more) is that they’re a bunch of bunk.  For example – in Arizona they’re disputing a total of 180 ballots in Maricopa County.  That’s it.  Trump trails in Arizona by more than 14,000.  That 180 won’t do squat.  In Pennsylvania most experts believe the suit there is already DOA, a jumbled mess that one expert says, “…has a very 'throw it all at the wall and see what sticks' feel…".  And similar suits in Georgia and Michigan are also expected to fail.

And isn’t it funny that there was ALL THAT FRAUD and the ONLY election affected was TRUMP?  Weird, huh?

Anyway, we can expect the lawsuits to continue, the Republican denial to continue, and their support of Trump and his foolishness to continue, right to the bitter end.  Well, I can.  The GOP has a history of this stuff.  Obama’s birth certificate.  Sixty-some attempts to overturn the Affordable Care Act.  Merrick Garland.  Amy Coney Barrett.  And all the shit happening now.  Trump’s purge of top officials, Pompeo, McConnell, Johnson, Graham, and Barr all throwing their weight behind whatever Trump wants, building more walls around the White House, refusing the start of the transition process and denying Biden intelligence briefings, etc.  They will continue to get away with as much as they can get away with.  Oh, and fund raise off of it until that dries up, too.  Grifters gotta grift.

I do believe that eventually he’ll be gone, Barr will be gone, Devos will be gone, Jared and the boys and even Ivanka will be gone, and Biden and Harris will take over.  And there will be a great amount of damage done to this country.  Horrible debt.  A gaping deficit.  The COVID crisis.  Unemployment.  Foreign relations.  And whatever shit/crisis Trump stirs up between now and then.

And there will be a cry to mend fences, to work together, to help build back the America we all knew and loved.  Democrats are like that, because frankly that IS the best way to do it.  Work together as a team, for the betterment of ALL Americans, to put aside politics and power games and petty grudges and do the “people’s work.”  And even now, as the Presidency remains from Biden’s grasp by Trump and a Republican cabal determined to hold a “coup” of their own and retain the power they no longer legally have, there’s a call to get along with these same heathens of democracy, to coordinate, cooperate, and reach across the divide to work together.

FUCK THAT.

I would be willing to have Democrats work with the GOP provided the GOP gets it collective shit together and owns up to their massive disparaging of the American people.  THEY have to make the first move, and it has to be more than just “words.”  They’ve said things in the past that sound good, but they show their true hypocritical colors soon enough.  Remember how McConnell said, “Of course” there would be a peaceful transition of power?  He said that BEFORE Trump lost.  Now?  Trump “100% within his rights” to question election results.  Asshole.

They’re ALL like that.  Say one thing.  Do the opposite.  They cannot be trusted.

So no, don’t sing Kumbaya just yet.  Cancel the friendly picnic.  Don’t buy into their bullshit.  Fight, fight, and fight some more.  You know damn well they will.

The only way we can eliminate this scourge from American politics is to overwhelm it at the ballot box.  We are not going to “convince hearts and minds” without a complete overhaul of the Republican Party.  They’ve brought it upon themselves, and the sooner the saner minds get to work, the better.

But don’t expect Democrats to help.  They damn well better not, anyway.  Fuck that.

GOP = Schrödinger's Party

Grab 'em by the Schrödinger pussy!

While we wait for a final POTUS outcome, I thought I’d share a recent thought experiment that proves Republicans, with their tortured logic (and during the Bush Administration, their “torture logic”) are in fact the Party of Schrödinger.

You remember Edwin Schrödinger - He proposed a scenario with a cat in a locked steel chamber, wherein the cat's life or death depended on the state of a radioactive atom, whether it had decayed and emitted radiation or not.  According to Schrödinger, the Copenhagen interpretation implies that the cat remains both alive and dead until the state has been observed.  Of course, Schrödinger did not wish to promote the idea of dead-and-live cats as a serious possibility.  It was just an illustration for his buddy Al Einstein.

The idea that two directly opposite things can both be true even when examined is a hallmark of the Republican Party, especially during the Trump Administration.  Observe:

• Nominating a Supreme Court Justice nine months before an election is a violation of all that is good and decent, but nominating a Supreme Court Justice while an election is taking place is cool.
• Asking “how will we pay for it” and worrying about the deficit when discussing stimulus payments or extending unemployment benefits is totally necessary, but asking that same question when discussing tax cut or war is just silly.
• And, of course, one must count all votes and stop the vote count simultaneously.

All this “Schrödinger-izing” creates a new breed of voter – call them Trumpkins, call them FOTs (Fans of Trump) – I call them “Schrödinger Voters.”  In listening to the babble from Trump and Republican mouths, they exhibit a strange reaction in that they know what they’re hearing is false, and yet, they desperately want to believe it.  Again, observe:

• They know that Hillary Clinton is not a habitual criminal and there’s no basement in the pizza parlor, but…they want to lock her up.
• They know that the wall isn’t being built and Mexico is certainly not paying for it, and yet…they want to believe it’s already built and paid for.
• They know ObamaCare sucks and a shiny new Republican Health Care Plan to replace it is coming in two weeks, but…wait, how long has it been?  Well, two weeks from now.

And they gladly appear in Arizona to support counting all the votes and simultaneously in Michigan to stop counting all the votes.  Look how well that worked out in both states. 

I wonder if we can bus some of them to Philly?

CONFIDENCE LEVEL REVIEW

Tomorrow is Election Day.  Technically, the end of the election.  I don’t try to predict or project winners or losers, because as we saw four years ago, anything can happen, don’t count your chickens, etc.  But there are many things I am confident of, and in 24-72 hours, we’ll see how much of everything ends up.  See if you agree…

• I am 90% confident Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will win the Electoral College vote and be elected President and VP.
• I am 95% confident Donald Trump will try at least two “somethings” between now and the end of the week to remain as President.  This could be court challenges, declaring victory prematurely, outright cheating at the polls, etc.  I don’t know what, and I don’t know if he’ll be successful, but he’ll sure as hell try.
• I am 97% confident Donald Trump will not have a traditional victory party at the White House.  Building an unscalable wall around the place and inviting 250 of your closest National Guard friends isn’t the usual venue.
• I am 98% confident there will not be a simple and smooth transition of power from Trump to Biden.  There’s almost three months between today and the inauguration; plenty of time to gum up the works as far as certifying the election and/or transitioning the administrations.  I shudder to think of all the possibilities, and if I want to sleep at night, I don’t.
• I am 99.56% sure the Republicans in Congress will “say words” about how there are winner and losers and of course we’ll have a smooth transition of power but won’t lift a finger to do anything about it, and, in fact, will work behind the scenes to help Trump fuck it up.  We’ve heard for several leaders including Mitch McConnell (who I am sadly 62% confident will be back in 2021) that they’ll cooperate, but at this point anything McConnell says is worth about a warm bucket of spit.
• I am 80% confident Biden will have a completely Democratic Congress, making Mitch the MINORITY LEADER (if that).  Yes, that number is high, frankly, but I’ll feel so much better about it if it happens.
• I am 99.993% confident that Republicans will begin to bitch about the debt, about the deficit, and about Biden’s response to the COVID crisis beginning about…1/24/21.
• I am 100% confident that everyone did what they could to cause a BLUE TSUNAMI, and if they did, I am 100% confident things will get better.

We’ll see what happens after tomorrow.  If you have yet to VOTE BLUE, DO SO TOMORROW.  And stay safe – it’s going to be a regular shitshow out there.