elections – A Jaunty Little Blog

January 1, 2025January 1, 2025

There’s Never A Better Time Than Now

Friends,

I was excited. I’ll freely admit that I found the prospect of a female president exhilarating. Dudes have had their shot, so it seemed that a fresh perspective would electrify an electorate in deep malaise and a large minority of the country agreed with me.

But it was still a minority.

That means that it’s time for a psychological reset. It’s also time to acknowledge that a majority of the electorate has a short memory and couldn’t be bothered to read or think or look out for their fellows. That’s the product of a half-century long Republican project working as planned, but also the subject of a later post.

My plan for this first post of the new year is to think about how to proceed and what I can do to contribute (you’re probably going to share something about taking better care of yourself, too. – ed Don’t be silly. I’m a paragon of good health and virtuous living.). Here’s a first draft of a list of thoughts that I’m considering to firm up at some point to create something of a plan…

Things to do to make 2025 better

Stop giving artificial intelligence your thoughts for free

The suits consider me a “content creator”, which is as far as I can tell, anybody who fills blank spots on empty pages with words or pictures. Those words or pictures don’t have to be pretty or insightful or memorable or meaningful. They just have to fill the space.

What we need to do first, is stop being “content creators” and return to being writers and authors and artists and photographers and philosophers and scientists. And yes, pundits and cranks and rabble-rousers too. It’s not “content,” it’s perspective and we need more of it. That said, there are better places to do that than social media sites. They have more traffic, but I’m not comfortable with Meta and Bluesky and Google owning what I share on the Internet. That’s why there’ll be more here and that’s why it’s behind a robots.txt file that seeks to block their crawlers.

Also, I thought it’d be fun, even though I don’t know how long it’ll be fun, to just post photos taken on a Handspring Visor with a first generation eyemodule. They’re really awful and it’s a pain to get them from the device to here, but I love how they’re turning out. Lo-Fi pixel slurry that’s sort of a cross between Super 8 and a Fisher-Price PXL2000.

Stop obeying in advance

Yes, the good guys lost the election, but that doesn’t mean we need to kneel in front of a deranged kakistocracy even before it has been installed. They can’t tell you what to do or how to act or how to spend your money or when and how to enforce your laws. Even when their clown car has disgorged its passengers in the District of Columbia, there is every indication that there will be a wide gulf between the evils they want to do and the evils they’ll actually be able to implement.

You can’t build concentration camps and run a mass deportation regime if Congress can’t agree on how to fund it.

Of course, they probably can’t fund the government either, so that’s a different hardship. One thing at a time.

Make somebody’s life easier

Here’s my plan. I know a few things about a lot of things. In the past, I didn’t think too much about this. Everybody has the capacity to learn about stuff and figure things out. Intellectual curiosity is baked in, isn’t it?

Nope!

As the election taught me, sometimes people need more help. That’s a good reason to share more of what I’ve been working on and maybe drop some tips that may have been missing for somebody else. The people who contribute to archive.org are famous for this, scanning old documentation for obscure things or uploading drivers for ancient tech. Speaking of that…

Cut down on buying new stuff

The oligarchs have plenty of dough and don’t need any more of mine. I’m trying to be mindful of where my dollars go since the California insurance market is crushing my finances. I’m patronizing local businesses first, then far-flung small business. Only when neither of them carry what I’m looking for will I resort to Amazon or, well, Amazon.

By the way, now that Fry’s Electronics is gone, where are you sourcing your electronic parts?

Back up your stuff

This sounds paranoid, but I’m seeing a lot of people I trust online recommend full, offline, or air-gapped backups. The US Treasury just got hacked by China, so my Javelin pictures may seem like small potatoes, but they’re my potatoes and I’d like to keep them safe.

Does that mean journaling on a typewriter to keep my memories of this time safe? No, but that seems like fun. I might have to get back to that.

So there it is. The first day of 2025 in the books. I think we’re going to okay, but we’ll need to look out for each other. It’s going to be a rocky few years.

Your pal,

– bob

August 14, 2024

Softening the Readership

Friends,

I really haven’t seen people in the country and in my circle change their mood so dramatically from dour resignation to cheerful optimism, as when Joe Biden (may the goddess pour blessings upon him) stepped down from the presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris. It turns out that the enthusiasm is not confined to we liberal elites on the coasts. People love her across the country.

There are 83 days until election day (can we talk about always having 100 day elections?) and if we keep this up, we could potentially have a landslide election and win enough down-ballot races to keep the Senate and take the House. Think about that for a moment.

I have.

Your pal,

– bob

October 4, 2020October 4, 2020

The 2020 Jaunty Election Guide – The Rest Of The Propositions Edition

Friends,

Before you dive into the remaining propositions on this year’s California ballot, we recommend that you start with the first part of the 2020 Jaunty Election Guide, then come back here.

A couple notes before we dive back in. First, the president’s doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center hosted a press conference that painted a picture so rosy of the president’s health, you’d think they were talking about Ray Milland. Second, the Vice President of the United States, who is next in line, should the president meet with a sub-suboptimal outcome, isn’t under recommended quarantine for a fortnight but is jetting around, being irresponsible. I guess the GOP really does want to install President Pelosi to complete their next-level 4-dimensional chess strategy that is totally escaping me at the moment.

Well then! Let’s get to the rest of the propositions…

California Propositions

There’s a big list this year, so let’s get to it…

Prop 19 – Changes Certain Property Tax Rules – Legislative Constitutional Amendment: 1978’s Proposition 13 property tax freeze takes another little hit here, but overall, it seems like a nice idea to allow the over-55 set to take their tax rate with them to a new home anywhere in the state. This could hurt non-farm family businesses passing down property though, but there’s no light green color in the palette.
Prop 20 – Restricts Parole For Certain Offenses Currently Considered To Be Non-Violent. Authorizes Felony Sentences For Certain Offenses Currently Treated Only As Misdemeanors – Initiative Statute: Wow. Do you want to incarcerate a lot more people for longer? Do you want to reduce the chances that shoplifters get parole? Do you want law enforcement to collect more DNA samples? Then this one is for you! With so many bad ideas wrapped up in one proposition, it’s hard to know where to begin. By creating new felonies for the state to incarcerate in already-crowded prisons, we’d have to turn to the private prison industry to make up the difference. During a pandemic, that already sounds like two bad ideas. How about limiting parole board discretion when releasing non-violent offenders? There’s a third bad idea for you. We suggest a no vote on this one.
Prop 21 – Expands Local Governments’ Authority To Enact Rent Control On Residential Property – Initiative Statute: I know I’m dating myself again, but there was a time when you could rent a nice apartment in San Diego for less than half of your salary. That’s no longer the case and it’s grinding the entire local economy to a halt. This proposition allows new rent control boards to be established, which is fine, but that might reduce earnings that some homeowners rely on. This one also doesn’t provide eviction protection for tenants living in rent-controlled units, which is bad news. This is a big nope.
Prop 22 – Exempts App-Based Transportation And Delivery Companies From Providing Employee Benefits To Certain Drivers – Initiative Statute: The Uber Protection Act exempts Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and others from providing basic protections and benefits to their workers. The Attorney General has determined that gig workers are employees, the companies disagree and are fighting with this proposition. We think that employees should have unemployment benefits, sick time, health care, worker’s compensation insurance, and protection from discrimination and harassment at work. We strongly urge a no vote.
Prop 23 – Establishes State Requirements For Kidney Dialysis Clinics. Requires On-Site Medical Professional – Initiative Statute: The last time this came up in 2018, it failed. It should probably fail again.
Prop 24 – Amends Consumer Privacy Laws – Initiative Statute: As you open sites on the web over the last few years, those that collect your information (but not this one! – ed That’s right, we never collect your information because our files are already overflowing with information and we can’t possibly store one more bit.) have had to put banners on their home pages to ask your permission. Proponents would like for you to think of this proposition as the California version of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and very well might be. This proposition limits sharing, allows you to correct data, and limit use of your sensitive information with new penalties and a new agency. The problem is that this essentially forces you into arbitration with the privacy agency as your advocate. It also circumvents existing protections and creates new classes of information that are exempt. Probably a good idea to reject this one.
Prop 25 – Referendum On Law That Replaced Money Bail With System Based On Public Safety And Flight Risk: I like the idea of eliminating money bail and am extremely uneasy about the implementation. We don’t have a recommendation on how to vote, but do recommend that you read the text of the referendum.

That was a lot, but we did it everybody. Please vote this year. Please tell your friends to get out and vote.

Only 29 days left.

Your pal,

– bob

October 3, 2020October 5, 2020

The 2020 Jaunty Election Guide – Can We Panic Now Edition

Friends,

Remember when our politics were normal? There was a time, wait for it, when we Americans wouldn’t punch each other in the face for supporting the other party. When we wouldn’t bring long guns to protests. There was a time when we wouldn’t have to worry about somebody coughing on us during a pandemic just to prove a political point.

There was a time before the president of the United States was being hospitalized for a deadly illness that he and his administration made much worse. (there was a time when you used to use an initial capital letter when spelling president. – ed Seems like a long time ago!) I remember when inaction by a president that resulted in the death of over 200,000 Americans would have been immediately disqualifying. Have a seat and let me tell you a story about how the nation would be scandalized by a president that used curse words. There was a Vice President who left office in disgrace for tax evasion. A President who left office for campaign violations and another who was impeached for lying to a grand jury. These things happened before the Republicans coalesced on a plan: lie, block, obstruct, and disenfranchise anybody who won’t keep them in power.

You have to give it to them that their project has been very successful. They’ve appealed to the worst impulses of the American electorate, ensuring GOP minority rule for years. Xenophobia, white nationalism, and a vague reinterpretation of public comity into their familiar bugbear they like to call “socialism” has kept their older, whiter electorate coming back for more. I have hope that it ends this year.

That’s why everyone here on The Best Political Team on this Blog™ has been working double-overtime to analyze your choices in this election and to provide you expert analysis so you can make an informed choice in this crucial election.

Candidates

We haven’t picked actual candidates in actual races for a while, but if you’re wavering on who to choose in this election, maybe this’ll help push you over the edge.

President of The United States – Joseph R. Biden, Vice President – Kamala D. Harris
In the primary, I voted for Elizabeth Warren because I wanted somebody to prosecute the case against the 45th president, but the wisdom of selecting Joe Biden as the nominee seems brilliant in retrospect. He’s (almost) everything the current president isn’t—informed, compassionate, gentle, steadfast, and devoted to service. Sounds weird writing that because we’ve been missing those qualities in our current craven, self-serving, grifter government. I’m ready to not have to worry about the next politically damaging tweet or dumb trade war. I’m ready for competence in government.
I’m going to miss Senator Harris’ representation of California, but she’s perfect for Vice President at this moment.
United States Representative, District 36 – Dr. Raul Ruiz
The good doctor is the incumbent and has been doing a remarkable job for the Coachella Valley. In addition to his stewardship of the Salton Sea restoration project, he’s taken on veterans’ health issues, and protections for the workers in the fields who put produce on our tables. There are two groups how don’t like him—GOPs who see a seat ripe for the picking and activists who don’t think he’s moving fast enough. The former need to become comfortable pounding sand for the foreseeable future and the latter need to just cool it.
United States Representative, District 50 – Ammar Campa-Najjar
We don’t know too much about Mr. Campa-Najjar except that he lost in the mid-terms here in California’s deeply red and disturbingly nuts 50th district to indicted, later convicted felon, Duncan Hunter Jr. Now he’s running against carpetbagger Darrell Issa who bailed out of his own coastal district when it was clear he was going to lose to Mike Levin in 2016. Fortunately, Mr. Issa has plenty of cash on hand for a comfortable retirement. It’s only right that we help him do that.
San Diego County Board of Supervisors, 3rd District – Terra Lawson-Remer
The County Registrar of Voters seems to be having a very tough time getting voter information out this year. Ms. Lawson-Remer’s opponent, a weird GOP acolyte, is having no trouble putting out campaign hit pieces and polluting the discourse. We’ve had it up to here with that nonsense and we’re endorsing Ms. Lawson-Remer, who seems to have had quite a history of mixing things up for the good of average Americans. Keep an eye on her.

California Propositions

There’s a big list this year, so let’s get to it…

Prop 14 – Authorizes Bonds Continuing Stem Cell Research – Initiative Statute: 2004’s Proposition 71 caused the anti-choice activists in this state (And there are a lot. Just drive 25 miles away from the coast and you’ll find them.) to writhe on the floor and choke on their tongues. The idea was that the state would support and protect a burgeoning, but legislatively at-risk biomedical industry with the trade-off that the state would share in the profits of any therapeutic discoveries developed with our money. Well, the money has run out and they’d like a new bond issued. We don’t normally support bond issues, but this one seems important. We knew progress wouldn’t be quick, now we’ll need to put up the cash.
Prop 15 – Increases Funding Sources For Public Schools, Community Colleges, and Local Government Services By Changing Tax Assessment Of Commercial And Industrial Property – Initiative Constitutional Amendment: It’s surprising that this proposition isn’t getting more ink, since it’s intended to start unravelling the infamous Proposition 13 from 1978 that essentially locked in property tax rates to a maximum of 1% of values, and annual increases of 2%, prohibiting reassessment unless property was sold. Great news for your grandparents who own their house outright. Bad news for school districts who rely on local property taxes for funding that haven’t kept up with inflation (or the cost of technology, training, removing asbestos, pandemics, etc.) The original proposition was intended to protect homeowners from gouging by evil county tax assessors, but it also included commercial property. The new proposition, firmly treading on the third rail of California politics, seeks to remove those protections from commercial properties worth over $3 million to provide somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 billion in new funding to schools. It’s a slippery slope and could be bad, but we feel it’s worth the risk to provide a quality education to kids in California. Hell, they may even reinstate civics classes. Remember, despots dig low-information voters. Just sayin’.
Prop 16 – Allows Diversity As A Factor In Public Employment, Education, And Contracting Decisions – Legislative Constitutional Amendment: Remember when institutional racism ended in 1996 and California voters approved Proposition 209, which banned consideration of race in hiring? In cart-putting before horse voting, Californians were convinced somehow that we didn’t need to protect minorities and underrepresented groups because something magically happened and there weren’t any racists anymore. This proposition fixes that.
Prop 17 – Restores Right To Vote After Completion Of Prison Term – Legislative Constitution Amendment: I’m all for restoring voting rights for people who have served their time, unless it’s Duncan Hunter, so it’s a toss-up. Not sure how I feel about this one.
Prop 18 – Amends California Constitution To Permit 17-Year-Olds To Vote In Primary And Special Elections If They Will Turn 18 By The Next General Election And Be Otherwise Eligible To Vote – Legislative Constitutional Amendment: Also known as the Expanding The Field And Democrat Protection Act, this one allows kids to vote (for Democrats) before they turn 18 if they’ll be 18 before the general election so they can vote (for Democrats). It’s so crass and blatant if you spend any time at all looking at polls, that you have to love it—or at least you should love it.

Lordy. We’re not even half-way through. Check back in tomorrow when we weigh in on the remaining seven propositions, provide some handy voter information from The Handy Voter Information Desk™, and throw in a couple surprises.

Only 30 days left. We can do this.

Your pal,

– bob

UPDATE: The second part is online now! Just head over there when you’re done here.

July 22, 2020July 22, 2020

Secret Federal Police Squads Making Trouble

Friends,

Remember back when rolling out a secret Federal police force in the United States was illegal? Get this, it still is! The super fun part is that the current president has done it anyway. But why?

The narrative on the pro-fascism media is that the protests against police brutality targeting Black and brown people aren’t largely peaceful, but “destroying our cities.” This leads to chaos, which leads to anarchy, which leads to the unraveling of the social fabric, etc, rinse, repeat.

They play the scenes of a police station and a Wendy’s burning down over and over again to prove to their viewers that society is crumbling and lo! the president steps in to rescue us from societal collapse! Aren’t we fortunate!

The justification that the acting administrators (Ken Cuccinelli and Chad Wolf, who are political hacks who haven’t been confirmed by the Senate because even Mitch McConnell has *some* standards) have offered seem to change by the hour. The latest, and arguably more egregious than “proactive arrests” is to “teach them a lesson.” That said, this will make your skin crawl…

Acting DHS secretary says federal agents are "proactively" arresting people in Portland. pic.twitter.com/cU1zw0IChz

— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 22, 2020

So here we are. A failed game show host in hock up to his eyeballs to foreign interests has gone full rogue and made a play for the elderly white people already afraid to step outside because of the pandemic: Society would be in ruins if it weren’t for his tiny iron fist.

It’d be a pathetic and transparent play if consumers of the state media outlets took a moment to come up for air, which I don’t see happening until 2021.

Your best pal,

– bob

P.S. Is it just me, or did the name “Department of Homeland Security” creep you out from the day it was introduced? Didn’t it seem like a nod to 1930s Germany? Just me? Okay.

November 5, 2012

The Jeep Election

Friends,

This may be the second election in United States history decided by Jeeps. Let that sink in for a second.

If America’s foremost mink hubcap salesman hadn’t flubbed a news story about Jeep expanding back into China rather than saying at a rally in OHIO that Jeep was moving production to China, the state of the race would be very different. Partisans can talk about all of the other ways external forces have sabotaged his campaign, but this was an unforced error. In fact, it was the result of a lack of basic reading comprehension.

Shouldn’t that disqualify you from the presidency all by itself?

I’ll be up all night tomorrow hoping to find out…

Your best pal in the whole wide world,

– bob

June 30, 2012

It’s Time To Talk About Presidential Politics

A lovely centered picture that might lead people to think a thing that I hadn't intended.

Friends,

There are nitwits out there who are trying to spin the Supreme Court decision yesterday as a repudiation of the President’s position on health care. Those self-same nitwits choose to double down on the dumb and have decided that “the people” have lost their ability to choose whether or not to obtain healthcare insurance, which isn’t entirely true. You should read something about it to figure that part out, but here’s what has driven me to distraction today:

The Democrats, or at least the proponents of the health care law, seem to have lost the debate already. Everybody I’ve spoken to today thinks that jackbooted thugs will knock down their doors and force them to fill out papers and pay four figures to a government insurance plan. Or nearly everybody. The others think that the law itself has raised rates on existing plans. Neither of those things are true of course, but because the partisans on the left are so damn squishy about hurting people’s feelings in general, the argument is never made.

This is because arguments are so confrontational, right? We don’t want to make people, even those who are clearly wrong and arguably (there’s that word again. -ed) dumb as a bag of hair, feel bad. Everybody’s gotta be happy at the end of the day, don’t you think?

Well, no. They’re either misinformed or regurgitating a party line like greeks at a frat party proclaiming that Mickey’s Big Mouth is the best beer ever before letting loose their stomach contents all over your shoes.

Look, it was the Republicans who insisted that their insurance company donors be made whole by an individual mandate before they would sign on to the no pre-existing conditions and no lifetime caps provisions. So to all of you kids on the right who are losing your shit about this, I urge you to shut the entire fuck up. You broke the bill, so you bought it.

Health care costs have risen since the law was passed so insurers have raised their rates. These costs have risen because pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, malpractice insurers, and hospital holding companies among others are charging more now than they ever have. So by the ghost of Walter P. Chrysler, stop with the partisan bullshit. Also, because a very large majority of the people in this country are already insured, they won’t even notice a difference. The people who aren’t insured are very likely to work for or run small businesses who will either get waivers or can enroll in state-run pools for low cost coverage. This enlarged pool of the ensured is supposed to pay for the expansion of Medicaid (or MediCal, for those of us in this particularly golden state) to cover more people, including for the first time, single poor people.

I know that looking after the health of the poor offends a lot of people, particularly in this election year, but I would suggest that those people who are offended take a minute to think. I hear from the right wing partisans that taxes on the rich are bad because someday they might be rich. Let’s say that your fortunes go the other way. Let’s pretend that you end up being the exact opposite of rich. I, and people like me, would like to make sure that you’re fed, clothed, housed and that your medical needs are taken care of. Even though I strongly disagree with your magical economic thinking, I do actually care about your well being. I would very much like for you to indemnify yourself against stratospheric costs should you become ill, but if you can’t afford it, I think we can all get together and help you out until you get back on your feet. This, in a large and still prosperous country like ours, is a very small sacrifice for the greater good.

Because a large minority of the populace doesn’t get this, it becomes an election issue. To my mind, that’s an indictment on the people working for the President who are supposed to be crafting the message, not the issue itself. Yes, yes, yes, little Margaret stubbed her toe and the MRI bankrupted her family. That’s not as sad as a video of a shivering puppy backed by the saddest song Sarah McLachlan has ever sung, so it’s time to change the tune. To wit:

The health of Americans is a national imperative.
It is in everyone’s interest to ensure that the public is healthy.
The productivity of the American economy depends on a robust and healthy workforce.
American businesses lose billions of dollars a year due to sick days.
Our international business competitors rely on government health care as a subsidy to ensure a healthy workforce.
By shifting the burden away from business-supplied health care to individuals, we bolster our global competitiveness.
(I can’t believe I just wrote that. It’s true, but, yikes.)
Our political system will not currently allow for a single-payer health care system, so this is what you get.

Okay, scratch that last one, but we might be able turn the doubters around with the other points, right?

Right?

Yeah, I didn’t think so either.

– bob

June 6, 2012

Election Results – Oy! Edition

A bit of the results page from the L.A. Times.

Friends,

My friends and neighbors in the great state of California may be the most astounding bunch of uninformed nitwits in the history of dopes. To say they’re dim is to insult candles. To infer that they have short attention spans makes the blackest crows blush.

We’re mad about our financial and political situation in this state but people who are not me continue to enjoy bullet holes in their shoes. Good lord, people. Why?

– bob

(h/t LAT)

June 5, 2012

A Jaunty Little Election Guide – Free Will Edition

Friends,

The primary election tomorrow is a giant pile of weirdness. The congressional and assembly districts have been redrawn so in our piney paradise, for instance, our assembly district now includes San Diego County down to the Mexican border instead of the Coachella Valley. The well-funded incumbent from Santee (cripes. Santee.) we’ve never heard of and who may have never heard of us, will likely win. Our U.S. representative is facing a battle from an emergency room surgeon from Coachella, but is also likely to win in the fall with a giant funding advantage. I won’t bore you with these races, but there are two ballot measures that could have significance in the state.

Here’s the language voters will see tomorrow:

PROP 28: LIMITS ON LEGISLATORS’ TERMS IN OFFICE. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
SUMMARY Reduces total amount of time a person may serve in the state legislature from 14 years to 12 years. Allows 12 years’ service in one house. Applies only to legislators first elected after measure is passed. Fiscal Impact: No direct fiscal effect on state or local governments.

PROP 29: IMPOSES ADDITIONAL TAX ON CIGARETTES FOR CANCER 29 RESEARCH. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
SUMMARY Imposes additional $1.00 per pack tax on cigarettes and an equivalent tax increase on other tobacco products. Revenues fund research for cancer and tobacco-related diseases. Fiscal Impact: Net increase in cigarette excise tax revenues of about $735 million annually by 2013–14 for certain research and tobacco prevention and cessation programs. Other state and local revenue increases amounting to tens of millions of dollars annually.

I’ll be brief on both:

Prop 28 violates my rule in that it amends the state’s already absurdly overwrought constitution. Sure, we should revisit term limits, but not like this. Let’s discuss it at our constitutional convention… I know, spoilers.

Prop 29 adds a new tax with the stated intent to engineer society. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimate of additional excise tax revenue of $735 million is for one year and earmarked to do an already well-funded thing instead of towards eliminating the deficit. This is absurd on a policy level and will have consequences in November when the Governor’s tax plan comes up for a vote. But let’s say, just for kicks, that adding a buck per pack tax persuades people to quit. What happens to First 5 funds, that come from other cigarette taxes? How will the legislature make up the tax revenue that would’ve gone to the General Fund? Are you pondering what I’m pondering? (i think so, but then how will the former low-income smokers get health care? – ed)

I love it when we do impressions.

– bob