How Can They Think That‽

I still can’t get my mind around the election results; but there’s something that’s nagging at me:  when I see shots of folks at Trump rallies, it looks to me like they believe, immediately and uncritically, everything he says.  How can they not know that he’s a liar?

flex has a comment on Mano’s blog that lists some things that one of their coworkers has said, including “Trump was never convicted of any crime.”  How can anyone not know that he was?

The only thing I can think of is that they get all their information from Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk (or worse).  Is there anything we can do to get the truth out to these people?  (I’m not doing jack shit by posting this on FtB.  I’m “preaching to the choir” as they say; but I don’t know what else to do.)

Spåromr.?

The Sweedish word, “Spåromr.” (possibly an abbreviation) came up on an e-mail list I subscribe to; and somebody asked for a translation because he couldn’t get a reasonable result from Google.  Can anybody translate?

Update:  2024-11-05 07:55−6:

Thanks to dorfl, comment 2. What prompted the question is:

car falling off platform
Photo by Gary Kazin.  Used by permission.

The wavy lines make me think of water though, not railroad tracks.

Ah, a brief respite from worrying about the election. 😎

SCOTUS’ Gang of Six Have Done It Again

From an e-mail from Robert Reich’s Substack:

… the Supreme Court decided today to allow Virginia to resume purging names from its voter registration rolls.  Virginia has purged 1,600 names in the last two months.

…

[The Justice Department argued] that Virginia’s purge violates the “quiet period” of the National Voter Registration Act, a three-decade-old federal law barring states from systematically removing voters from the rolls during the 90 days before a federal election.

Can anyone doubt that these people are totally shameless idealogues who craft opinions given partisan Republican talking points?

Mike the Mad Biologist links to a case of a Trump supporter who got purged in Texas, which gave me a good laugh, but is still something that shouldn’t have happened.

What I’ll Be Voting For

Siggy has a post about the importance of down-ballot voting, and giving examples from his ballot.  I wanted to follow his lead and give some examples of my own; but that turned out to be pretty long; so I decided to use up the space on my own blog instead.

School Boards

This is important.  We seriously need to keep the anti-fact folks off of them; so I always check out the candidates’ websites at least.  In the last school board election I had a vote in, there were five candidates for three positions.  I voted for one who had endorsements from several organizations with some version of “equity” in their names, one who had some version of “inclusive” in several of his issues, and one who likes teachers and thinks they should get a raise.  I declined to vote for a “human resources advisor” and a guy who had “parental rights” as an issue.

About a week from now:

There are 38 candidates in eleven races, U.S. President/Vice President, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative District 2, Governor, Lt. Governor, Sec’y of State, State Treasurer, Atty. General, State Senate District 1, State Representative Distrint 92, St. Louis County Council District 6.  I see more Democratic than Republican yard signs in my neighborhood, so I might actually be voting on the winning side in the last three of those; in the others, almost certainly not.  Three of the races are, maybe, interesting.

U.S. Senator

Five candates.  In addition to the Libertarian and the Green, there’s a guy named Jared Young who’s running in something called the “Better” party.  His website is all about voting for an independent instead of a Democrat or a Republican.  Although I suppose I agree in principle, such a vote is way too dangerous this year.

The real choice is between the odious Josh Hawley and Lucas Kunce, a career Marine officer (now in the reserves), who seems to be a mostly mainstream Democrat with some progressive-leaning ideas.  He’s well-funded and has lots of TV ads that seem pretty effective to me.  Hawley is also well-funded and has lots of TV ads that, unsurprisingly, lie about Kunce.  I can only hope that Young pulls more votes from Hawley than from Kunce.  It would be cool if deep-red Missouri could flip a Senate seat. 😎  (I wouldn’t bet on it, though.)

U.S. Representative

The odius Ann Wagner is opposed by Ray Hartmann, the publisher of a left-leaning weekly newspaper, The Riverfront Times, and a minor local TV personality on our PBS affiliate.  He seems to have very little money; and his one TV ad strikes me as angry and inneffective.  I was hoping that this would be more fun than it turned out to be.

As a result of the last gerrymandering, Missouri’s Second Congressional District changed from leans Republican to safe Republican; and so the chance of flipping a House seat are slim to none.

Governor

The Democrat, Crystal Quade, grew up poor in Missouri’s bible belt, worked several waitress jobs to work her way through college, and eventually became the minority leader in the state House.  She seems to be very well-funded.  Let’s hope.

Six state constitutional amendments or propositions

Amendment 2 legalizes sports gambling, and amendment 5 sets up a new gambling district along the Osage River.  I’m ambivalent about gambling:  I’d like to keep sleazy people out of the state; but it’s probably too late for that; and legalizing it will probably mean more tax revenue.  (The TV ads for it are all about more money for schools, which is a lie.  There’s no requirement that additional revenue must go to schools.)  I’ll probably vote for both of them.

Amendment 3 overturns Missouri’s abortion ban.  I’m for that.

Amendment 6 funds various law enforcement jobs from higher court costs.  I’m against that.

Amendment 7 makes ranked-choice voting illegal.  Definitely gets my “no” vote.

Proposition A raises the minimum wage to $13.75/hour for 2025, and $15.00/hour for 2026.  Yea.

Other questions

There are three St. Louis County propositions.  I couldn’t find anything about them on the Internet beyond the text of the propositions themselves, so I still have no idea what all the legalese means.  I intend to abstain on these.

There are also 24 questions of the form, “Shall judge [name] of [court] be retained in office?”  I have no clue and will abstain on all of them.

OK, the Debate Happened

I watched a live stream on YouTube with some additional commentary by Robert Reich and Michael Lahanas-Calderón.  I described my plan in a comment on Mano’s blog and won’t repeat that here.

Walz is not a skilled debater.  Although I thought he came prepared, he did stumble in small ways a couple of times; and it came out that, some years ago, he had claimed to be in China during the Tiananmen Square uprising when he hadn’t actually arrived until months later.

Vance did much better than I expected.  He actually spoke in complete sentences and paragraphs and didn’t display any of the incoherence, cognitive decline, or terrible-twos lashing out that we expect from Trump.  He’s clearly smarter and more competent than Trump; and I fear that that makes him more dangerous.  Indeed, if Trump wins the election, he might not last the whole four years; so there’s a real possibility that Vance could actually be President.1

Vance repeated all the lies about things being better under Trump than under Biden, even claiming that Trump saved the Affordable Care Act when he actually tried to get rid of it.  (It was McCain’s thumbs-down during the Senate vote that saved Obamacare.)

One thing that jumped out at me and that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else is that Vance would try to tear into Harris on immigration, the economy, or pretty much any subject, by asking, “She’s been in office for over three years now.  Why hasn’t she done anything yet?”  Uh … because she’s the Vice President, not the President, and so not the one in charge?2

The moderators, CBS’ Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan, were mostly even-handed, although I noticed one asymmetry:  O’Donnell did fact-check Vance on one of his many lies about the economy during the Trump years; but Brennan pressed Walz rather pointedly on his misstatement about being in China during Tiananmen Square.  I fear that Walz’ misstatement will be all over TV news while all the lies about things being better under Trump will remain old news that nobody cares about.

1This is a reason to vote for Harris next month.  Don’t abstain, don’t vote for a third-party candidate.  Harris and Trump are the only possibilities, and we really don’t want another four years of Trump (and maybe Vance as president for part of it).

2It occurs to me that it might be fun to start talking about the Vance campaign and possible Vance presidency suggesting that Vance is the one in charge.  That might send Trump over the edge even more rapidly.

Another Possible Joyride

There have been some rumors for a while that Amtrak would replace the Capitol Limited (Chicago-D.C.) and the Silver Star (New York-Miami) with a single train between Chicago and Miami via D.C., the idea being to free up the Capitol Limited’s double-decker Superliner equipment for use on the western trains.  (Why they can’t just run the Capitol Limited with Amfleet coaches and Viewliner sleeers I have no clue.)

I found out today that this will indeed be happening starting in November and continuing for “a year or two”.  This might be of interest to me some time in March because my bucket list includes catching some Cardinals’ spring training games in Jupiter, FL. 😎  IIRC, there’s a hotel just across the street from Roger Dean Stadium that’s less than fifteen miles from the West Palm Beach station.

The new train will have the numbers 40 (mostly westbound) and 41 (mostly eastbound) and be called the Floridian, a train that once ran between Chicago and Miami via Nashville and Atlanta, and will use the single-level equipment normally found on the eastern trains.

Joyride

In my previous post, I mentioned that I might take a joyride on Amtrak; Jazzlet asked in a comment where I might go; and I responded with a couple of ideas, a big loop to the west coast, and a quicker trip to New York City and back.

I’ve come up with some fanciful itineraries.  I’ll probably do the trip to New York (way at the end of that link) first; but I’ve decided that, rather than take the Lake Shore Limited round-trip, I’ll take the Capitol Limited to D.C. eastbound and head to New York on one of the northeast trains.  I’ve ridden both the Lake Shore and the Capitol numerous times, but the latter not for a decade or more; and that’ll give me a much shorter layover in Chicago.

I’ll probably book a first-class seat on one of the Acelas from D.C. to New York; but weekday fares are over the top; so I’ll want to do that on a weekend, and Sunday gives me more options if the Capitol is late and misses the connection to the train that I book (likely).

I could also take the Capitol round-trip; but the nearest hotel to Washington Union Station is a bit of a hike which might be a problem with my current mobility issues; and the New Yorker Hotel is only one block away from the Moynihan Train Hall, Amtrak’s extension to Penn Station.

The good news is that I won’t have much luggage, just a camera bag and a roll-around laptop case with room for toiletries and a change of clothes.

We’ll see…

I Think My Trip to Wrocław Is Off

I’ve decided that I won’t be going to Wrocław, Poland in November.

First of all, my mobility problems are getting worse.  I’ve been using a walker for a while now because arthritis in my back doesn’t want me vertical unsupported for more than a few minutes at a time, so the walker was something to lean on; but for several weeks now, my hips have been complaining as well, and so the walking itself is also a problem.

I wasn’t worried about the parts of the trip west of, and across, the Atlantic:  all the trains I’d ride in the U.S. (except a couple of shorter rides between New York and Boston) have checked baggage service; all the stations where I’d change trains have “red cap” service (help with luggage); and I’d get wheelchair assistance in all the airports.

European trains generally don’t have checked baggage service; but one of my colleagues on the committee told me about a group called “Bahnhofsmission” that provides help with luggage at train stations in Germany, so that would be OK.

I was also worried about a tram ride from the Hauptbahnhof (central train station) to a hotel in Berlin; but I’ve found out that a taxi ride should cost a good deal less than €30; and since I splurge on these trips anyway, that would be no big deal.

But that leaves the fact that my hearing aids don’t work well in big meetings; and since the real reason for the trip would be to attend a meeting of the ISO standards committee for the C++ programming language, I would mostly be Zooming in from my hotel room*.  I would certainly enjoy the travel itself; but it seems difficult to justify the expense when I can attend the meeting just as well from home.

Oh, well; planning the trip was fun; and maybe I’ll take a joy ride on Amtrak some time later this year.

*I have an accessory called a “TV adaptor” that plugs into a headphone jack and generates a bluetooth signal that feeds my hearing aids.  It gives me just enough quality to understand human speech.

The Upcoming Missouri Primary

My local PBS affiliate just aired a 20-minute debate between two Democratic candidates for governor.  The chances of Missouri having a Democratic governor are slim to none, but I was interested since I’ll be voting in the Democratic primary1 early next month.

Two candidates for the nomination showed up for the debate:

Crystal Quade, a young woman who grew up poor in Southwest Missouri (the Bible belt), worked multiple jobs as a waitress, worked her way through college, and all the way to becoming the Minority Leader of the Missouri House of Representatives.

Mike Hamra, a businessman with no political experience; but he has some detailed plans for what he wants to do as governor.

I couldn’t really tell them apart wrt policies.  Both hit all the progressive talking points:  abortion rights, racial discrepancies in law enforcement, etc.  I expect to vote for Quade since she’s the experienced politician and knows how best to get stuff done.

From the TV ads I’ve seen, there’s only one really contentious Democratic primary race with a good bit of vitriol coming from both sides, the one for U.S. Representative from the First Congressional District2; and since I live in the Second District3, I won’t get a vote.  The incumbent, Cori Bush, currently associated with the “squad” in the U.S. House, is being challenged by Wesley Bell, the St. Louis County Prosecutor.  Bush is screaming that Bell is really a Republican, and Bell is screaming that Bush “has her own agenda”.  It’s not pretty.

Although there’s a rational argument that, in heavily gerrymandered places like Missouri, the only election that actually matters is the favored party’s primary, I won’t be voting in the Republican primary because all the candidates are screaming that the other is insufficiently MAGA.  I couldn’t possibly vote for any of them, and I can’t tell them apart.

1Missouri has different elections for presidential primaries and state/local primaries; and it has open primaries:  you just tell the election official which ballot you want when to get to the polling place.  It’s that simple.

2The City of St. Louis and much of northern St. Louis County where there’s still a good bit of poverty and defacto racial segregation.

3I’m not to blame for Ann Wagner, I promise.