Friday Potpourri: 1 November 2024

4 Days Out

I came across this terrific article titled Skeptical of Recent Polls? You Should Be... The piece went through the “recall” issue we’ve discussed before, then the error related to moving from Biden-voters to Harris-voters, and finally (and this is the part I loved) they fact checked some polls and found out that when total numbers of voters were added up, the totals were wrong. Stay in school, learn basic math. Sigh.

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Another great read is from the AP. They interviewed six Congresspeople, three from each party, to ask what it’s like when the House is such a place of chaos. Included in the roundup was Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan, MY rep in Congress (and I know, she reps for some of you, too.) The first time I met her was in a local coffee shop back in 2018 before she formally announced her first run. That day, she taught me about “STEAM”. I had only known “STEM”, but she convinced me that the Arts were also important. I am so thrilled at how she has leveraged her previous vocations in the military and business into becoming a truly effective member of Congress. Her offices’ constituent services are first rate, and when you see her in action doing committee work, she’s incredibly impressive.

Too many people think that the ONLY race that matters is the presidential one. Often these people didn’t have the benefit of having taken a civics class in school, but I digress. Congresspeople work for the 650,000 (or so) constituents in their district. Issues are local, and critical to the populace. I sleep better knowing that Chrissy Houlahan is my Congresswoman. She rocks!

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Members of the Gen Z generation are liars. To be more precise, 48% of them have admitted that they lied to people about for whom they plan to vote. Source. By age:

I wonder if people lie about lying.

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We’ve all heard “270 to win”, or else it goes to the House and the House decides. Seems that’s not exactly accurate.

And remember, on January 3rd, 2025, the new House will be sworn in. I’m pretty convinced we retake the House. That, coupled with the Election Reform Act of 2022, means that there will not be nonsense with any challenges on the floor. Once again: VOTE BLUE UP AND DOWN YOUR BALLOT!!!

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Working the WaWa

Honest, my only intention the other day was to run into the WaWa on the way home from getting my hair cut, get a tuna salad, then hit a few undecided voter houses on the way home. But there was this woman checking out, and she had the most beautiful flowing, fall-themed, colorful shirt, so I had to compliment her, and let her know how much I liked her brown shirt adorned with mostly green leaves, plus leaves of gold and rust. She said she liked mine, more. I asked if she was all set for Tuesday, and how many friends she was bringing. She’s bringing one, and will try to bring another.

The check-out girl asked if I knew about voting, and when I said I knew everything except who would win, she said she had some questions. I said I’d wait since there were a couple people in line, and they all said, “help her.” She’s a FIRST TIME VOTER!!!! She had some questions about what to bring, how to fill in a ballot, and what time the polls were open. Quick and easy.

The next person in line asked if I knew what she should do since her mail-in ballot hadn’t arrived yet. Helped her out.

The last person in line asked if I knew how to talk to undecided voters. We had a long conversation, I was able to email her some information direct from my phone, and then I was off to three houses on my way home. None of them were home, but I am undeterred. Sometime between now and Tuesday, they WILL come home, and I will prove to be unavoidable.

Voters are EVERYWHERE. Wear your swag, engage with them… you never know how you might be able to help.

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If you want to keep up with how many people have voted early, by state, use this link.

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People have asked me how anyone could be undecided in this election, and while I understand what I’ve heard from voters, I think that “being afraid of your husband” is one of them. Albeit, MANY attempts have been made to let women know that their husbands will NEVER know how they voted if they choose not to reveal their choices.

This article links to the latest Harris campaign ad (narrated by Julia Roberts) on how women can vote secretly even if their husbands are nearby, and also has some disgusting choice lines from Rethuglicans like:

[I]t's horrible that women would “undermine their husbands” even though the husband “works his tail off to make sure that she can have a nice life.”

“If I found out Emma was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that's the same thing as having an affair.”

Can’t make this stuff up. And a reason that none of US blue voters would ever be in a relationship where our partner would insist on forcing opinions on us. And I don’t care if your relationship is straight, gay, poly, whatever — WE are not those people. The laws of physics are immutable.

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That’s all I’ve got for today. Writing will be sparse the next several days - so long as there are undecided voters, I will be out talking to them, which will cut into my time to write. I’ll do the best I can to keep you informed.

From what I’ve heard, the Substack live feed thing that I couldn’t make work anyway isn’t really ready for prime time. Therefore, if you are interested in my comments on Election Night, I’ll be posting to Facebook. (If you want to friend me there, I use my regular name, and my regular photo of me with the statue of James Madison, my favourite Founding Father).

Lucky for most of you, you won’t be in my house that night, because I clean up what I post. If you were in my house, you’d find out I can curse in 7 languages (English, French, Latin, Hebrew, Yiddish, German and Turkish) and I curse for both good and bad things.