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.

What’s Really Important

I’m on a Robert Reich e-mail list.  His latest missive* entitled How to prevent America and the world from falling into fascism contained eleven suggestions, the first three of which really jumped out at me:

Try not to allow issues such as whether Biden should resign, or his degree of responsibility for Gaza, to get in the way of your determination not to let Trump back into the White House. Regardless of our differences over these issues, they pale compared to the threat Trump poses.

For the same reason, please don’t decide to leave the top of the ticket blank or to vote for a third party or not to vote at all. All make it easier for Trump to win. …

Don’t become so upset with politics that you drop out, stop reading the news, or give up on activism. The stakes are just too high. …

Exactly.  If you don’t like Biden much, I probably agree with you; but the most important thing to do right now is to send the orange narcissist packing.

*This link seems to work; but when I load it directly into my browser without going through e-mail, I get a popup suggesting that I follow me. 😎  I didn’t try the options in the message box, so I don’t know what they do; but when I clicked the X in the upper right corner, the popup went away and I could read the whole thing.

That’s Not Gonna Work!

The possible itinerary I came up with for my November trip has an obvious typo returning from Wrocław on the 26th.  I have no clue why that didn’t jump out at me right away.

Also, checking for what I had really meant to write, I discovered that EuroCity 54 and 57 will be direct trains between Wrocław and the Berlin Hbf which actually works better.

Given my current mobility issues, I might have to skip the Meeting C++ and code:dive conferences, in which case I might be able to fly in and out of Berlin instead of Frankfurt; and the only hassle will be getting between the airport and the central train station.  I can decouple the plane and train legs by spending one night in each direction at a hotel near the Berlin airport, which I did for my Varna trip; so I know the drill.

We’ll see…

Update:  2024-07-12:  I think I have my Wrocław trip figured out.  I was going to give it a quick mention in another post I’m planning; but I mentioned the trip in a message to an Amtrak-related e-mail list; so I stuck the new itinerary out on my website.  Folks who click on the first link above will see the latest and greatest, and some of what I wrote herein might not make any sense.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union …

I’m getting more and more depressed about our current political discourse.  Last night, even PBS Newshour got on the Biden’s-too-old bandwagon.  They weren’t claiming to express an opinion, of course; they were claiming to be simply reporting on things like polls and interviews of random people on the streets.

I can understand the media’s obsession.  Biden’s performance, repeatedly and recently, has been shocking; but Trump’s Gish gallop of lies is just old news.

The discussion needs to move away from Biden to what the alternative is.  I wish Biden would give a speech about the current state of the union in which he spells out, in considerable detail, what we’re likely to see given another four years of Trump and his handlers.  Make it about Trump, not about himself; and he should take the gloves off.

And he shouldn’t shy away from observing what the Roberts court has done nor fail to mention their hypocrisy and sleaziness.  For example, he could point out several horrible things that he could now get away with as a sitting president and then say something like:

But I won’t do these things because, unlike the Gang of Six, I care what the Founders had in mind.

I thought of another line that I’d like to hear:

I do not say these things to shame them:  you can’t shame people who are shameless; that’s a waste of time.  My purpose is to show just how vile these people really are.

But I fear that he’ll just speak loudly, maybe pull an angry face, but otherwise fall into the trap of keeping the discussion about himself.  That strikes me as a losing tactic.