What happened?

What happened to #blogaday?

I will get back to them. But at the moment, I've gotten behind. I've been busy at work, not getting great sleep and frankly, this whole Trump fiasco has got me quite depressed. It's such a disappointing mess and I'm a little scared for our collective futures. One article I read says that Russia isn't done with us yet - that if need be, they'll perform some terrorist acts on our soil to keep us off balance and distracted.

I heard that the average Trump voter makes $70,000 a year. That's a decent amount of money. Although I have a theory about that - basically lots of people who make nothing per year were conned by the obscenely wealthy and together they make $70,000 but if you were to look at the median income, it would be a lot less.

I feel like I can generalize Trump voters into a few basic groups:
(1) People who stand to profit financially. Many of them are now getting cabinet positions. / They might also be racist or sexist.
(2) People who will always blindly vote Republican / or will never vote for a party because of those who celebrate values they disagree with (especially abortion) / They might also be racist or sexist.
(3) People who genuinely believe that things are going to get better for them. These people also think that Obamacare and the ACA are two different things. They are grasping for any place (besides themselves) to put the blame for their situation. In some cases, it's their state or the education offered to them or private enterprise that failed them and their situation is not of their own making, but they are going to be sorely surprised. / They might also be racist or sexist.

I also wonder about Trump himself... is he a clueless pawn in all this? Remember those movies where there's a party and the cool kids each bring an uncool kid and the uncool kids don't realize it's just one big joke at their expense?  I feel like that's what's happening here.  I don't really believe for a minute that Trump got where he was without a lot of help, but that he's not in on the joke. I just don't know who brought him and when they'll let him know. A convenient scapegoat for Republicans who will impeach him shortly? Or someone the Russians will assassinate as soon as he becomes a liability?

And speaking of, what about the mood of our nation as a whole?  Is he safe from the people who voted for him once they realize he actually doesn't care about them? Is he safe from some other country he insults on Twitter? If they prioritize strategy over saving face, they'll leave him be because far more damage will be done to our country if he continues to call the shots, but if they're about saving face, I think it's plausible that a foreign country might decide to take him out. I feel like we're in for dark times of uncertainty while the GOP and its supporters get richer and richer at the expense of all of us.

I really do not get it. People are saying that it's time to take the restrictions off of businesses. This will not help the average worker. It will help the business owners but remove the restrictions and you end up with environments that are less safe and pay less.

People are saying that foreigners are taking our jobs and that we should shut down the Visa program, but at the same time, this administration seems hell-bent on destroying our education system.

People are saying NAFTA steals jobs, but the facts are that immigration from Mexico (illegal or otherwise) has actually been going down but destroying NAFTA will eliminate jobs in Mexico and Central and South America, forcing more people to come to the states looking for work.

All the while we seek to privatize prisons (as a whole, for-profit prisons are more violent than government run facilities), education (as a whole, for-profit schools produce lower test scores), health care (as a whole, for-profit nursing homes are far more likely to keep their charges sedated because it's cheaper and easier than keeping them enriched and safe) and basically anything else you some private company wants to profit by doing. (Like the private nuclear waste company that contributed a lot to Perry's campaign while he was in Texas.)

We've got wholly unqualified people who haven't even bothered to learn about the jobs they've accepted. It's appalling. I loved the Esquire article: "As nearly as I can tell, the nominees for the president-elect's Cabinet fall into several different categories. There are the people you'd pretty much expect from any Republican administration. (James Mattis, Michael Flynn, Ryan Zinke). There are the people who understand the mission of their departments and have spent their lives undermining it. (Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, Rick Perry at Energy, Andrew Puzder at Labor). And there are the people who are fundamentally clueless about the general nature of public service. (Rex Tillerson at State.) On Tuesday night, DeVos demonstrated that she is that rarest of Trump administration fauna: Someone who fits capably into all three categories."

This is the last land-grab of a desperate political party that has given up any semblance of compassion - they've said "screw you" to the social contract we all (whether we like it or not) are a part of in this grand experiment of the United States of America.  I wondered aloud of any non-criminals still existed in the GOP and my wife mentioned Senator McCain and one other person whose name I can't recall.  It's slim and even the "good ones" seem unwilling or unable to go against the party. They've either lost their backbone or they were pretending.

Dark times are ahead and the only thing I know for sure is that whether it's for the PTA or President, I'm never voting for another Republican.  I'm not ready yet to call myself a Democrat, but I'm getting pretty close.

I've spent way too much time reading internet comments lately, but I'm just astounded by all the people who are so excited for this presidency. And who actually read Brietbart (a headline on there for earlier this month: "Dear Mr. President-Elect, Please ‘Pick a Fight’ with California on Behalf of the American People" - I'm not linking to the Fake News, you'll need to Google it) and think it's real news while accusing CNN, NBC News (and even Fox News) of being Fake News.

It's getting to where even the jokes aren't funny anymore and it's getting difficult to even watch pick-me-ups like Futurama. I just see the aliens blowing up buildings thinking how an alien invasion or the rapture would be nice right about now. This isn't a "you lost, get over it" moment -- I didn't vote for Hillary Clinton either - but my state was a lock for her electorally so my vote didn't count - I've been an independent when it comes to my Presidential voting record since 1996 though in hindsight if I was allowed to retroactively vote in the 2012 elections I would have voted for President Obama -- this is true dread.

I do not get it, not at all. How are so many people snowed? There's one thing I really, really want to know.  When will those who voted for Trump know if they made the right decision or not?  When can we poll them and ask "Is your life better off today than it was on January 19?"  When can we start making them uncomfortable by making them use their brains and really assessing if their vote was a wise one or not?

Feed Sift (02/14)

From around the web, five things I wanted to highlight.

-1-

Make People Feel Good About Themselves with Two Questions - asking a question about an area of a person's life that they have control over increases the positivity of the answer to a question about their happiness.

-2-

Olympia’s Whacked Out Transportation Priorities (Part 2) - the graphs alone are a clear indication of how politicians can get out of alignment with the desire of those they represent.

-3-

Virtual & Reality: 15 New York City Data Visualizations - making neat pictures, graphis and maps from data about New York City

-4-

The Top 10 Grammar Mistakes to Avoid Making - Just stop it already.

-5-

How Terrible Does Your Life Have To Be To Get 'Mandatory' Weekends?​ - how is "checking your email" *not* work? Yikes.

522 Redo

I know I try to stay away from a lot of politics because I can't stand politics, but as I watched yet another thing I voted for fail (want something to fail? get me to vote for it), I couldn't help thinking they'd gone at it all wrong.

522 would have required foods in Washington State to be labeled if they contain Genetically Engineered or Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).  It was defeated, in part, by large contributions by Monsanto as well as Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Nestle (hiding with others behind the "Grocery Manufacturers Association" label).  Because frankly, these companies don't want you to look at labels, they want you to remain ignorant. These are the same companies that label their products in other countries where required, and in some cases, even reformulate to avoid having to label at all.

As a parent who has at least one child extremely affected by an unnecessary foodstuff (Red Dye 40), I'm going to be in favor of anything that reduces the amount of, pardon me, unnecessary crap added to our food. So to hear companies like Mars and Kraft produce versions of their products for other countries without these dyes because to use the dyes would require warning labels on the packages, you can be sure I'm going to vote for anything that reduces the inclusion of such unhealthy things in our food, or at least shames companies in choosing not to use it.

Better?

I try stay away from too much that's political - for the most part, politics frustrate me - I don't think we're getting these days what was intended when this country was founded.

But I can't resist this.  Jim Ferrell has been a fixture in Federal Way politics for some time now, either as a council member or as the deputy mayor.  I don't know much about him, but if this is expressing dissatisfaction with the status quo, then he needs to be counting himself in that.

So when I see signs like this, it's embarrassing and frustrating. First off, it's a weak slogan. Just about as weak as "It's All Within Reach" (which implies "None of it is here.")

Worth Repeating: Jennifer Granholm @JenGranholm

Kicking off the TED2013 conference, Jennifer Granholm asks a very American question with worldwide implications: How do we make more jobs? Her big idea: Invest in new alternative energy sources. And her big challenge: Can it be done with or without our broken Congress? More on TED.com...

Why I'm posting: This is awesome.  I would love it if someone actually made this happen.

Belief Systems

The other day I was daydreaming about the next time a pollster came to the door, engaging them and acting crazy and inconsistent and wasting a bunch of their time and then turning the sprinklers on them as they left.  Then I realized that (a) wasn't nice and (b) I'd have to run after them with the hose because we don't have sprinklers set to go, let alone ones so poorly aimed they'd drench anyone who was walking along the path/drive.

There are things that are truth and there are things that are simply belief.  And it comes to politics, there are no absolutes.  I have my beliefs, you have yours. So two scenarios present:

1. We agree.  So no need to talk about it.

2. We disagree.  I don't like confrontation/debate and am not interested in engaging you.  So no need to talk about it.

Odds and Ends 72

-1-

LAST PERSON BLOGGING -- Lose It!

-2-

CROSSCUT -- The Unbearable Lightness of Dino Rossi

-3-

ENGADGET -- iPod foils potential kidnapping attempt in the hands of quick-thinking child

-4-

MASHABLE -- 10 Inspiring "Buy One Give One" Projects

-5-

SETH GODIN -- Problems and Constraints

-6-

LIFEHACKER -- Start Chest Compressions Immediately, Don't Worry About Breaths in Performing CPR

-7-

INHABIT -- Transparent Solar Material Could Lead to Photovoltaic Windows

-8-10- Videos after the break... Baby sea otter, virtual rock band and a guy with a real jet pack...

Odds and Ends 68

-1-

LAST PERSON BLOGGING -- Frustration

-2-

MSNBC -- Carmakers' next problem: Generation Y

-3-

SETH GODIN -- Voting, misunderstood - the argument that low voter turnout is a marketing problem. How about also a scheduling one? Why not move it to another date like Sunday? Countries who've done that consistently see higher turnout. (Don't they?)

-4-

LIFEHACKER -- How a Pulitzer Prize Winner Writes a Job-Leaving Farewell Letter

-5-

ANDY SERNOVITZ -- Don’t make your best customers feel they’re worth less than your newest ones

-6-

ENGADGET -- International Space Station marks ten years of continuous habitation (on Nov. 2)

-7-

SEATTLE TRANSIT BLOG -- The Big Day: SR-99 Bids, SDEIS, and Cost Overruns

-8-10- Videos after the break... October's Epic Win of Fails (or Epic Fails Win?), a Goalie fail, and there's a furry app for that.

As Seen on MSNBC.com

Obama: "I've Got To Do a Better Job"

and

"We must find common ground."

and

Bohner: "Voters sent a very loud message."

and

"We need to listen to the people."

Huh... those are great ideas to think about every day, not just after elections give you bad news.

I'm So Blue-hoo-hoo

It's gotta be annoying sometimes living in the sticks. Although sometimes it feels like the entire state is the sticks.  I am a red island. You probably can't see it, but I drew a red dot where my house is.  18 years ago when Patty Murray first ran, everyone was excited.  Now it's gotta be that people would like her to be outside of the state. I know I've already said this today, but Washington so wants to be California.  It's just about 20 years behind.  But look where California is today.  That ought not be an aspiration.  Fortunately, there is some sanity - 1098's not passing.  This map is Murray/Rossi.  She's ahead by 2% or 23k.  It's a close race in many of the blues, but they're so large counties that's enough to tip to Murray.  Map and more stats on MSNBC.

Vote

Election day. Have you voted yet? If not, run out and do it now. It's your civic duty, man.

While I'm overall opposed to people telling me how to vote (the democrats in this area are smart with their door-to-door campaigns, the republicans are nowhere to be seen and I'm spec'ing a trap door into the front porch replacement), a couple of hypocritical notes.

Federal Way Mayor - to varying degrees, neither front-runner is interested in further extensions to the S. Korean firm raising money to build skyscrapers in Federal Way. Not sure I blame them, but we do need to add some Bellevue-style tall buildings in Federal Way to attract jobs. It will cut down on traffic as we lead more people to FW instead of making everyone who lives here drive elsewhere for work.

1098 - In our race to become California (and look how that's turning out), this would add income taxes to the wealthiest 1.2% of Washingtonians. This is something you can't go back from, friends. Over time it will become the wealthiest 1.5% and then 2% and then soon everyone will be paying income taxes. I've said that Washington is just California minus 20 years. There's hope, it could become a more modern, rational place in 18 years. And an incredibly broke and dysfunctional place in 20. Well, but without the sun, massive agriculture and massive technology and massive entertainment industries. So, yeah... ready for your income taxes, general everyperson resident of Washington?

That's it. Enough politics. Off to see if I can claim a Foursquare badge for absentee voting.

Banned by the man named 'Stan

My friend writes to inform me that he is no longer able to read my blog in Kazakhstan where he currently lives. Apparently at his home, it along with every other blog on blogspot.com is banned. At his work, situated in a government building (he doesn't work for the government), many blogspot.com sites are accessible (don't you love that? Power to itself, not the people.) but mine is verboten.

Curses, I cried, that cuts my readership in half.

Of course, he still reads my blog in a method completely legal and above board and approved by the powers that be in the KZ. I won't explain the method lest I ruin it for the entire country.

But it does not bode well for my friend living in France and preparing to move to China.

So, dead readers, I'll pose it to you... why am I blocked in Kazakhstan? My pro-Google stance? My anti-United/Sprint/AOL/Blockbuster stance? I think I've reported favorably on rocket launches from KZ. Or possibly my all-too-infrequent nod to my faith in God and Jesus Christ?

Odds and Ends 46

- 1 -

FAIL BLOG -- Juxtaposition FAIL - Oh no

-2-

MSNBC -- U.S. said to plan easing rules for travel to Cuba

-3-

MSNBC -- No bull ... fighting: Spanish region bans sport

-4-

CNET -- NASA eyes tomorrow's passenger planes - Cool gallery of photos and artist renderings of imagined future planes

-5-

ENGADGET -- Leon, Mexico to use biometric scanners in 'all aspects of life' - Creeeepyyyyyy.

-6-

THE BOSTON GLOBE -- Russia - in color - a century ago

-7-

WASHINGTON STATE HIGHWAYS -- Washington State Route 105

-8-

REDISTRIBUTING KNOWLEDGE -- Police and Fire Fighters and Teachers, oh my!

-9-

BBC -- Southern Sudan unveils plans for animal-shaped cities

-10-

MASHABLE -- Philadelphia Tax Code Sparks Big Controversy with Small Bloggers. Stupid Philadelphia.

All Obama, All The Time!

I laughed a few days ago when MSNBC had a headline "Does Obama get a free ride from the press?" 

But now, I have a new theory.  If a headline contains the word Obama, MSNBC.com is forced to place it on their homepage.

Here's a sampling from right now:

Top of Page

Obama: ‘Appalled’ by Iran’s tactics (with video clip/photo)

Analysis: Obama walks fine line on Iran

Vote: Has Obama been forceful enough?

U.S. & World

Obama: World 'appalled' by Iran (Second Headline)

Politics

Obama: World 'appalled' by Iran (Top Headline)
President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared the United States and the entire world are "appalled and outraged" by Iran's violent efforts to crush dissent.

Obama presses his agenda at news conference (Second Headline)

Obama: Health care reform 'is not a luxury'

Obama girls get San Francisco cable car treat

Obama announces drug companies deal

Obama signs sweeping anti-smoking bill

Obama addresses Iran, domestic agenda (Multimedia - with photo!)

Should the GOP lay off Obama? (Multimedia)

Business

Obama: Bernanke doing good job (Top Headline)
President Barack Obama said Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is doing a fine job under difficult circumstances but he declined to say whether he will reappoint the chairman in January.

Honorable Mention

President faces a Kennedy decision on space (in Technology)


I'm really surprised they didn't cross-pop the health ones into the health category, the cable car one into travel.  Maybe he has an opinion on American Idol for the Entertainment category or something about Wimbledon for the sports category.

YES

Hillary

"I believe we should have a gas tax holiday and we should pay for it!"
-- Hillary Clinton

So... we should pay for it. By more taxes later to make up the shortfall?

This was the clip they played after saying that Hillary had the 90% of the popular support in the least educated counties of some state which I'm also assuming is one of the least educated states. The reporter went on to say that she (Hillary) intends to keep it that way. Which way? Uneducated?

I am really impressed with the strategy the Democrats are laying forward. The Republican party has an incredibly weak candidate, yet another old white guy. So instead of just putting forth one candidate, the Democrats continue to allow Clinton and Obama to duke it out in the spotlight.

And just like that, they've reframed the question... come November, who are you voting for? Will our next President be black or a woman? Granted, you really won't get that choice, by then, you'll have completely forgotten about John whatshisname, if you haven't already.

Gotta hand it to the Democrats, a truly brilliant piece of political engineering. (If this isn't intentional, then they're incredibly lucky to have two people willing to burn through other people's money -- practice for being in office -- and an opposing party with a truly lame duck offering.)

Caucus-mamie

Ok, after Hillary last week declared she'd lose Washington because it was a caucus and not a primary, we started doing some research.

First off, caucuses seem incredibly stupid. As bad as the whole electoral college as far as rigged, fraudulent and not representative of the population. I've decided this evening that I support the popular vote, even if it means that Al Gore would have been president. (On the other hand, Cheney wouldn't be. Down with Cheney!)

Apparently in Washington, Democrats rely solely on the caucus. To vote for a Democratic candidate in the Washington primary is simply helping to create a "trend indicator" - a wasted vote that has no impact on who Washington puts its support behind. On the Republican side, it's a half vote, since the votes are split between the primary and the caucuses.

So, diving deeper into Hillary's quote, it strikes me as quite humorous. If people just go to the polls and vote, they would vote for her. If they gather together in small groups and make impassioned speeches, they vote for Obama. That seems to suggest that caucuses are made up of more informed people who are actually more interested in politics (maybe a flaw in my support of popular vote) and that when people are more informed (not voting for someone based on their husband's reputation), they make a better choice.

I was going to vote for Obama in the primary until I realized (a) it means nothing in the Washington primary and (b) the state shares my name and address with the democratic party. So now, I'm left with a dilemma... vote for John McCain or myself as a write-in... either way the republican party gets my name and address or abstain entirely as this is a useless waste of time.

I hate politics. And lately people have been discussing them in morning devotions at work. I don't know if that's worse than the sports discussions that keep erupting at the morning devotions, but it's enough to make me want to just regularly skip them.

Still voting yes on the school levy and the ability to elect our own mayor.

The Passing of Evangelical Christianity

... To a nation filled with intense religious fervor, the Hebrew prophet Amos said: You are not the holy people you imagine yourselves to be. Though the land is filled with festivals and assemblies, with songs and melodies, and with so much pious talk, these are not sounds and sights that are pleasing to the Lord. "Take away from me the noise of your congregations," Amos says, "you who have turned justice into poison." ...

A long, but rather thought-provoking read on the "passing of evangelical Christianity" that questiosn why American Christians seem to be so for the war when the rest of the Christian community is against it.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/id....

The New Religious Right

DALLASNEWS.COM -- A generation ago, one of the most dependable voting blocs in American politics – the labor movement – began to fracture. Union leaders bitterly opposed the presidential candidacy of Ronald Reagan, but a funny thing happened on the way to the voting booth: Many in the union rank-and-file voted for the Republican. Thus were the Reagan Democrats born, working-class voters who abandoned the Democratic Party as cultural issues began to displace economic concerns as the driving force in U.S. politics.

We may be seeing the same thing happening today with the religious right, which, like organized labor used to be for the Democrats, has for nearly 30 years been a solid base for the GOP. More...

Free Speech

MSNBC.COM -- The president of The "Members Only Jacket" Fan Club and President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak Monday at Columbia University in New York in a question & answer session.

There are a lot of people ticked off about this and demanding the school cancel the engagement. But I think that's ridiculous. Let him speak. And if he's willing to actually do Q&A, let him do that, too. (He even asked for permission to place a wreath at ground zero while he was in town but was turned down for "security concerns.")

He's been quoted as saying some pretty outrageous things, but so have many people who live in this country. I think his being allowed to speak celebrates our freedom of speech. The protests, too, celebrate that freedom. But if they prevailed, somehow their freedom of speech (and in some instances, opinion) then end up counting for more than his. (Or should his be less because he's not an American citizen? I could respect that opinion as well.)

By allowing him to speak, I think it speaks volumes to the world about our commitment to our ideals and our freedoms. Our ability to allow you to voice an opinion, even if it's different from our own -- even offensive. (Or in some cases, downright blatently and factually false.) I hope it will also serve as an example to other countries, a chance for us to do something "right" in the world's eyes for once.

The White House, which I've criticized regularly for its failure to be savvy in its marketing/public relations finally nailed it and I'm proud/impressed...

“This is a country where people can come and speak their minds,” said [a White House spokesman], adding, “It would be wonderful if some of the countries that take advantage of that here allowed it for their own citizens there.”

More...