Well, I've done my part to make the "blue wave" happen.
I mailed my absentee ballot yesterday, thus representing myself in the USA's next round of elections. Unfortunately Trump himself isn't up for a vote -- not yet -- but I voted a straight Democratic ticket in Congressional and Florida state races, partly in opposition to Trump and his minions. (I've always voted Democratic, to be honest. I can only think of one Republican I've ever supported in an election, and that was Mike Bloomberg as mayor of New York City, back when I lived in Manhattan.)
More difficult were the nonpartisan local races -- county court judges, for example. I had to do some research and consult with knowledgeable friends to make those choices. The Soil and Water Conservation District, at the bottom of the ballot, was the toughest of all because those candidates don't even get endorsements in the newspaper.
And then I had to deal with twelve (!) proposed amendments to Florida's constitution. Some of them were very strange -- one, for example, bans both offshore oil drilling and vaping in public workplaces. What those two issues have to do with each other, and why a ban on vaping has to be in the state constitution, I have no idea. The most critical amendment would restore voting rights to convicted felons after they've done their time, and I did support that one.
Anyway, it feels good to have done my part. (I can still legally vote in the states even though I live in London, because I'm a U.S. citizen and I file taxes and maintain a legal residence there.)
I'm still on my news blackout. It's fabulous. I feel so much better not absorbing the daily burden of horrors doled out even by the responsible media. I skim the headlines just to have some basic awareness but otherwise I'm trying to spend more time with books.
Remember my mom's struggles with Facebook? Well, I called her last night and explained that for the time being, at least, we need to suspend her account. Despite my blocking and reporting more than 1,100 pornographic "suggested friends" and deleting many more, Facebook mysteriously continues to believe that Mom wants to acquaint herself with naked Algerian men. My brother was concerned about the potential for hackers, particularly in light of Facebook's huge recent data security breach, and I can't continue to spend nearly an hour a day trying to eliminate all the anatomically correct profiles from her suggested friends list. (As I've said before, I'm not being a prude -- if my mom wanted them I wouldn't care, but she doesn't!) So for now, Mom is shut down. I don't think she'll miss it, honestly. She only had 16 friends, and even some of those she barely knew.
(Photos: A scene outside school yesterday morning, and the same photo run through the Waterlogue app.)
Naked Algerian men? Perhaps somehow your own Facebook account is mysteriously infecting your mother's account. This needs investigation...but not in school time! I love the Waterlogue version of your picture.
ReplyDeleteLOL -- except I don't even get naked Algerian men on MY account!
ReplyDeleteThat's really awesome that you made sure to cast your ballot, Steve! Thank you. Only a month to go before (hopefully) we start taking this country back and righting some of the wrongs of the past 2 years.
ReplyDeleteVoting seems much more complicated in the USA. Here we vote for one candidate only, in both federal and provincial elections. Locally, we vote for councillors of our municipal unit; in our case, that's our town, and we are divided into three wards, and each ward gets only two councillors to represent it. We don't vote on judges or amendments at all. That *should* make it easier to vote in Canada, but it's not borne out by our voting stats.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your Mom was okay with suspending the Facebook account. An hour a day at a Sisyphus-like task is a recipe for high blood pressure!
Good going. I'm hoping to drown my tears over this whole Kavanaugh hypocrisy in a blue typhoon. Did Dave vote, too? He's in New Jersey, where Menendez needs all the help he can get. Sure, Menendez is a scumbag, but he's OUR scumbag.
ReplyDeleteWow, Waterlogue did a very nice job on your photograph. But it's a very witty photo to start with. I like your sense of humor when you frame all those angles around that funny basketball. It cheers me up.
So happy to hear you voted! The amendments are mind boggling, but in the future you can always check the League of Women Voters for help with that. With Judicial races, the Florida Bar Association maintains a web page with voluntary self-disclosure statements for statewide judicial races.
ReplyDeleteI hope you've solved the FB issue for your mother.
You are a saint, Steve, to spend all of that time on a FB account with sixteen friends on it. And you are a good man to vote!
ReplyDeleteI can't get my head around electing judges. There could be changes every election!
ReplyDeletewell, that's probably the only way to get rid of the porn. and she may not even want to create a new account once she's been off for awhile. I'm trying not to get sucked in since the only thing I can do is vote and early voting hasn't started here yet (I don't think) and continual outrage only harms my immune system (I'm fighting off a cold that Rocky infected me with but so far it hasn't been as bad as he suffered). and to that I'm surprised all those Trump supporters aren't dropping dead from all the hate they internalize.
ReplyDeleteI'm off FB too. one month now. I love it. FB is garbage.
ReplyDeleteI am so looking forward to voting I can hardly wait. October is going to feel like a very long month before election day finally gets here. Good to stay away from this current news cycle, it is absolutely toxic and definitely a stress trigger. I hope things work out with your mom's Facebook account. Makes me wonder why there are so many creeps around all the time. Nice waterlogue image!
ReplyDeleteI've been off of Facebook for the past 9 months and it's been great. The only drawback is that I didn't suspend my account, I just quit going there so Facebook still sends me emails which I delete. I wonder if suspending it would stop the emails.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to get my ballot so I can vote too! It will feel good to get that done.
I love your artistic version of the photo. In fact, it looks like something I might see in a gallery.
Maybe I'll leave Facebook, too. It seems like the departure from it makes people feel better and I'm for anything that does that.
ReplyDeleteThank you for voting from way across the pond. I wish our country had more conscientious people like yourself who actually research issues and the candidates. Like you, I have always voted democratic except for one Republican who ran for our state Senate in California who was a very reasonable and smart fellow. That has never happened again however.
ReplyDeleteI am not on a news blackout but I did log out of my Facebook account because I was simply overwhelmed with the news from the Senate hearings. Triggers, alarm bells, hair pulling head all reached their maximum threshold. I’ve just ordered a couple of books add to my stack that I am currently reading. I’ve only been off of Facebook for three days and I can’t tell you at how much more sane I feel . I’ve been on it for eight years and quite enjoy a lot of the interaction that I get there but the way things are now politically I just couldn’t take it anymore. I want to see what life looks and feels like without the constant or salt of horrific national news.
I really like your post production treatment of the photograph. The image has good bones anyway but the watercolorish treatment is very intriguing and pleasing.
naked
ReplyDeleteAlgerian men might be entertaining, better than Republican BS, which is REAL. Thank you for voting, and voting correctly! I am so lucky to know you! You do inspire!
Thank you for voting. I really hope Gillum wins. I hear he's having huge turnouts at his rallies. I still worry about vote hacking but all we can do right now is show up and vote and hope. I too have backed away from Facebook. It's hard to log off entirely though as its my only way of keeping up with certain people, albeit passively now.
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