Robert McNamara actually made this exact point about the Bush administration and the Iraq War.
We've taken the day off work to watch the US Presidential election. We have hot dogs to accompany the event, complete with some sort of weird "America's favourite mustard". News that probably doesn't have much significance elsewhere but is deeply significant to Melburnians, we've just recorded our fifth consecutive day of zero new CV19 cases. Feels great.
It is so weird hearing from people who have functional or at least not actively hostile towards their own citizens federal governments.
We've been really fortunate. I can't emphasise enough that the Victorian Government has achieved this despite a sustained campaign by News Corp and the conservative opposition to sabotage their efforts. It's been really quite remarkable to me.
It's strange, it feels alternately like this election is both hugely momentous and completely meaningless. In truth I'm not sure which outcome will be worse in the long term. Biden will put the mask back on and eat around the edges, but he's not going to do shit for most people; the systemic issues predate Trump by a long time. While I do think a Biden administration will be less harmful overall, I am concerned that it will put the populace to sleep. We're tired, we want a break, and a Biden presidency seems like a good excuse to do that. I have zero hope of anyone being able to push Biden to the left, but Trump's incompetence and just general terribleness has opened up the Overton Window some. In other words, I think a Biden victory will allow short-term improvement, even if that's just un-doing some of the damage Trump has done, but the long-term effects are far less certain. Trump gave us a chance to actually confront some of our deeper issues as a country, but we've instead spent our time hand-wringing about how he's uncouth in public. As long as the gun is shiny, we don't really care where it's pointed.
Christ almighty this election is taking a toll on me. On the plus side, the state Rep. I canvassed for this fall, who was one of the deciding votes on my state's police accountability bill, looks poised to win his re-election. In other news, things have been a bit less dour since my last update. My wife is still doing well, and got to spend some time with her brother when he came out to visit for a few weeks. I had a blast seeing him too - I taught him the basics of recording 7 or 8 years ago, and he's still going strong. Made some beats together while he was out, which was nice. I'm currently in the middle of job training for my new job, which starts in earnest next week. Pretty mixed feelings about going back to working childcare during a pandemic, but I am really looking forward to consistent insurance coverage again.
It's a common fantasy for certain people to threaten to 'move to Canada' after unfavorable election results. What do folks here think about this method of 'voting with your feet' to move somewhere that is already better aligned with your core principles, as opposed to slogging it out where you currently are?
On an individual level, I think it could certainly improve someone's QOL (although the marginalized folks that would benefit most are also probably least likely to be able to afford that sort of move). I think if everyone who threatened to move to Canada actually did so, the democratic party would be gutted, or at least heavily reshaped, and there would be a lot of suffering in the wake. In a world with open borders and minimal financial/employment barriers to moving? I think that's another question altogether, and I don't quite know how I would answer it.
Part of why I have been considering it more lately isn't even related to the election, but what I want my quality of life to be 20-30 years from now. Global warming isn't going anywhere, vast swaths of the United States will be irrevocably altered. Parts of Canada will, too, but by and large will be in a better place than the United States when it comes to environmental impact. Representation is a factor, as well, there a 7x difference in the Federal level of representation comparing Canada to the US. Somewhere around 760,000 US Citizens per House rep, and 112,000 Canadian Citizens per similar rep. "Slogging it out where I currently am" is me, living in one of the most blue regions of the country, having to somehow deal with the fact that almost half of the country in the interior and SE are diametrically opposed in ways I cannot engage with, participate in, or attempt to influence shy of throwing money at candidates in those states. Those some states are the ones greatly influencing our Federal government and everything that comes with it.
QOL in my old age is the Big Question for me, too. The US is going to basically let my generation die off... we are stuck in the middle of the Boomer, who are going to spend every last cent they can before they die and deplete every federal system, and the Millenials, who don't have a plan, and won't have any real power until my generation is out of their way. So what I do I want to do with the 25-30 years I have left? Fight Y'all Qaida? Or move to a beach and drink mai tais every day?
A very poignant question, this morning. My wife and I have a huge group of friends just over the border in Canada, and even some very close friends over in Halifax. Several people (4 families, 3 other individuals) have relocated to Canada in the last few years. What generally happens is that they settle in to the better way of life there, make local friends, and fade away from the Americans. They just get on with living a productive life, and disconnect from the chaos and myopia of America entirely. My wife and I will look closely at it again, of course. But Vancouver - the easy choice - is INSANELY expensive. Like "Hey Silicon Valley, hold my beer" kind of expensive. Vancouver Island - or any of the network of little islands along its eastern short - is another place where we could easily go. Lots of friends there. But you are committing to the "Island Life", which is largely cut off from the rest of the world... which is an oddly reassuring thought right now. It's over $100 to travel via ferry across the water to the mainland, so once on the island, you pretty much stay on the island. As I have mentioned before, I'm tied to Seattle by my family (Mom, Dad, and Sister), and habit. I used to have a huge number of friends here, but COVID had put the kibosh on that, mostly. My wife and I are super social. And could easily make a home anywhere we wanted to go. I could literally do my job from anywhere in the world. (Except for visa issues, and employment issues.... my company can't employ people overseas. But, I thought I'd set up a consultancy, do the same job for them as a consultant, and then they could get around that issue.) So. ....I've also got friends in NZ and Australia and Sweden, too. And we really liked Scotland... especially Inverness and Islay...
I had some guy ask me during an investigation yesterday if an orgy counted as a mass gathering then told me to tell his wife to go vote. He also only referred to his son as "the boy"
Reading the news headlines for the past week, I was fully expecting to walk into a crap show at the polls this morning. Luckily, while it is the longest line by far I have ever seen here, everyone was quietly waiting in line, social distancing, and no protesters or folks waving signs, let alone any intimidation. I live in a safely blue zone of the state, a state that as a whole tends to be blue, but has serious red pockets. We arrive at 6:15 to line that stretched out of the building, and around the large parking lot. It took us about 25 minutes to get into the building, then another 15-20 minutes once in the building. I didn't think to count the actual number of people in line, but guesstimate about 200. The longest line I have seen prior to this was 2018 and there were 7 people in front of me. Whatever I may think of Trump and his politics and behaviors, I have to admit that he has done wonders for getting people out to vote. Form the headlines, Texas had more people vote early this election than voted in 2016 entirely. I wonder how many people are voting this year for the first time in a decade, in two, or more. I don't expect any rioting in my area regardless of how the election turns out, but I can see other areas of the country going bananas. For those of you in the danger zone, I wish you peace, safety, and a quick escape route if needed.
Sorry if I missed it, but which state are you in? Texas? I can’t believe Texas is in the toss-up category. If Biden won Texas... holy smokes.
No, not Texas. I am in the north east. As a follow up: I drove my daughter to the polls after work so she could vote and there was no line. She was in and out of there in less than five minutes. As predicted, my state voted blue. Well, the cities and the areas where people have higher education and job prospects.
It’s awesome that you were able to be there for your daughters vote. We took our kids with us at the midterm elections. It was fun for them to witness.
I voted a week ago. But I just put on all my Biden/Harris gear and drove to our polling place to see if any shenanigans were afoot. It was calm and seemed pretty quiet. That said, we already have 2/3’s the vote in early that we had in total for 2016. Someone posted on FB that there is some intimidation happening in my hometown of Brighton MI. A Trump supporter was ripping up Biden signs. An older women told him he was scaring her and he said, “too fucking bad, it’s my right to do this.” There’s a reason I don’t live there anymore. Vote, people!!! If you haven’t voted and you are a US citizen, please tell me why not? Onward!
I dropped off our ballots on 10/20. Checked that they were received. I hope that MI isn't in play. Trump sure brings out the ugly in people. I just hope we can get through this without more anger and drama. Trump will clearly encourage it if he thinks it will help him.
> I hope that MI isn't in play. I hope you slept well, mk, because I have some news for you.
I've been seeing massive lines for voting in the US. Glad people are putting in the time to get it done! In NZ, we famously re-elected Labour/Ardern and my vote took me less than 2 minutes. No line, staff were almost bored waiting for more people to arrive. Two ticks in the booth and back down the road to work! Gotta love small towns.
I and everyone I know voted weeks ago. Thank you WA State for switching to mail-in voting. This morning I had two thoughts: 1. I always get my hopes up for elections. And I am always crushed by the results. My fellow Americans are truly a vile bunch of shitbags, that are so easily manipulated by the conservative hate machine. 2. I have this weird thought that pops in that hopes Trump wins. Because the only way to exterminate him and his ilk is for them to continue to fail, colossally, so there can be no doubt that everything Republicans do is shit, and their vision of how things should work is doomed to failure. But that is gonna suck for everyone I love. So I guess we gotta fight the long fight, and meet Y'all Qaida in the streets...
Following that train of thought, a horrible part of me hoped Trump would win because no matter what Biden does, without taking the Senate, he will not accomplish a thing. He will be blocked at every turn. In 4 years the right will be complaining how useless he has been, ignoring the fact that they were the ones holding him back. If Trump won, the shit show would continue, then maybe, just maybe, the right will see how little they accomplished with the Senate and the Presidency and the SCOTUS in their hands. But, I know that the rabid right-wingers will still find a way to blame the left for their failure. I can only hope that by midterms people will start to wise up.
Hey, WA generally looks good in federal + state elections except we're totally going to repeal taxes until we force ourselves into a state income tax, which will be hilarious and piss everybody off.
Hello! I've tried very hard to not think about the election and pretty much made it until election day. There's a local lockdown where I live, the city has closed down "everything we can legally close" which honestly isn't very much - they only have a mandate to close the things they run, tenants in the cities buildings can't be forced to close for example. But it sends a message. So no climbing, or swimming, or in person meet-ups for me. The restrictions are in force until November 19th, but might be extended. I try not to think about that either, I wrote a list of things to do at home, and try to think that every moment no matter how poorly spent is a moment closer to loosening of restrictions, and that every day spent at home is slowing the spread of the virus.
Or Friday at the latest, right? Which is Saturday over here in Australia.