So, tomorrow is Election Day, which first and foremost means I earn a comp day for working, because it’s a holiday for we godless public employees here in NY State. I think the idea is (or at least was originally) that we’d be able to take this day off to make phone calls for candidates or drive people to the polls or whatever. I guess there are probably a lot of state, county, and municipal employees who still actually do that, though I’ve never been one of them. And it’s not because I’m lazy (I am, but that’s not it), but because I have a really hard time calling people on the phone (I hate even calling people I know or making appointments and stuff like that) – let alone going door-to-door. But I’m also not a veteran, and I’ll be earning a day off for 11/11, too.
As for tomorrow, it’s one of those off-year elections where in theory you can make a “real difference” by voting for local offices, but where, in reality, you can’t do shit. At least where I live. We’ve only got a handful of offices up for grabs, and of those, only two are actually contested. And I can pretty much guarantee you the Republicans will in those two because that’s just how it is up here.
Guess I’ll be writing some people in, again.
There are some more interesting races going on in Syracuse (like Mayor, Common Council, etc.) but I don’t get to vote for those.
Here in NY State, though, we have some propositions to vote on. One is on whether or not to hold a Constitutional Convention, which will hopefully get defeated, because if they manage to get one of those going, the rich people will get to buy delegates to it and fuck the people over (and by “the people” I mostly mean me).
The second one is whether or not elected officials who are convicted of a felony (we’ve got a lot of that going on here in NY) should be eligible to receive their pensions. I have a pretty good notion of how that one’s gonna go.
And the third prop eould make it easier for municipalities to fix a road, install public utility lines or add bicycle trails to the Adirondack Forest Preserve, which everybody (including the environmental groups, from what I can find) seems to be in favor of.
In my county, there’s also a proposition to transfer control of the County penitentiary from our County Executive to the Sherriff’s Department. Gee, I dunno. I haven’t been able to find the union’s position on this, which I guess means they at least don’t hate the idea. So, what the hell, I guess I’m in.
It’s a darn shame I can’t just get the ballot ahead of time so I can fill it out and drop it off. I guess I could go the absentee ballot route, but I have a sneaking suspicion they never even bother opening those. At least, not until the election’s long over.
Oh well, at least I know the lines won’t be long.
Well, our civic duty has been done. We were #s 4 & 5 in our district, 11 & 12 overall at our polling place (hard to believe we have more than one district at our polling place, but there you go). I passed on the “I Voted” sticker, because I’m not (yet) senile enough to have forgotten, so I won’t be trying to vote again on the way home. I guess I’m finally used to the fill-in-the-dots voting method. Running the paper into the machine and waiting for it to tell me the ballot was cast successfully doesn’t have that satisfying sense of achievement that slamming over that main lever with the red handle and having the curtains snap open used to have. Feels more like making copies than voting.
But time marches on, I guess. We don’t have the flying cars or jetpacks we were promised when I was a kid. Instead we have these voting machines.
Somehow, it doesn’t seem like a fair trade.
I’ve been voting “absentee” for a year and a half. I hate to watch election results alone. Especially if the result is Trump. So, I make my way to Cornwall (upstate to me) to spend the evening at Jenny’s. I mailed in my ballot last week, but I got brave and watched alone. Mike’s brother and I have taken to watching the news together even though there’s a couple of hundred miles between us. A few criptic texts make for better watching.
Next year that jerk, Zeldin, will be up for election. I hope we’ll get rid of him.
Well, the Con-Con failed miserably, so that’s a good thing. And somebody I voted for actually won. That’s a relatively rare occurence.
Other than that, November has taken a turn for the colder. In fact, they’re saying we get a record low Friday night, and maybe even an inch or two of snow tomorrow.
So that’s exciting.
Just saw that HBO is 45 years old this year.
Sorry, but that’s just not possible.
That is crazy…45 years?
Man, guns are just flying off the shelves since that “good guy with a gun” thing down there in TX.
Guess I better get a few before they’re all gone.
Woke up to a blustery winter wonderland out there this morning.
And so it begins….
It’s 25 here, this morning. No one wants to go out. Dog Lola made a quick dash and cat Clifford, an accomplished escape artist, didn’t even try to get out. Thurday a denim shirt was sufficient, today corduroy and thinsilate are the answer.
Jeebus, these Republicans are even bigger perverts than I thought. I guess the debate’s over what? Fried vs. raw?
Tump has helped pull the rotten GOP out from under their fake moral cloud. They become more and more disgusting by the day. I never thought the bottom could be so low.
At least our state is electing democrats! I think 4 GOP’ers were replaced thus far. One is a lesbian! Now we need the US Senate and House….
Only in America.
‘Thanksgiving Dinner Pants’ Allow You to Engorge Yourself Comfortably
Funny how their ad shows skinny people. Somehow I don’t think that’s their target demographic.
American gluttony. Ah yes…not eating flesh makes Thanksgivings gross for me. I try to tolerate it with my Tofurkey, but it’s still rough knowing 46 millions birds are killed for one day. Happy Thanksgiving fact: The birds on American tables are genetically modified, like chicken fryer birds, to grow supersized and fast so they can be butchered in weeks. They can’t fly or stand on their legs if they live as they’re too big.
Happy early Thanksgiving everyone!