New York has early voting that started this weekend. I was out running errands and stopped by a neighboring suburb’s library to vote. It was busy and there were a lot of smiling voters, so I’m sure they were Democrats. Since we are a civilized state, there were no MAGAts standing around harassing voters wearing ballistic armor and open carrying, as there are in Arizona.
Anyway, the place really was full at 10 AM on a Wednesday morning. We’ve also been canvassed twice in the last couple of weeks, so the Democrats in my area aren’t sleeping on this election. If you’re a New Yorker and want information on early voting, you can find it here.
J R in WV
Wife and I early voted yesterday afternoon at a mostly quiet polling place across the street from the county courthouse. 3 or 4 folks ahead of us, very short ballot, printed out by the computerized voting machine, then scanned into a giant container and votes counted right then.
Over 900 voters already we were told since WV early voting started, which is a lot of people in such a rural county. I had sausage gravy and biscuits on the way into the tiny county seat town. Was really good.
Chris T.
WA state is all vote-by-mail and doesn’t tolerate MAGAts blocking ballot boxes (though I live in a sleepy little area outside of town where we have our own area dropbox that wouldn’t be a target anyway, even if this were Aridzona). Still, I’d love to see some video of some folks surrounding the MAGAts and cooing at them: “Oh, look at these cute little boys, all dressed up in their play-soldier outfits!”
Kropacetic
That sounds like a play I’d make if they weren’t so damned scary.
Eta: Early voted in MA 2 weeks ago. I’m hoping this one will be a romp for the Democrats. Shame for the Republicans that’s even in the cards. Our retiring R governor is frequently cited as the most popular governor in the country. What were they thinking or, rather, what’s the Diehl?
rikyrah
I did Early Voting last week
From check -in to finish, took me 20 minutes
West of the Cascades
Isn’t early voting a fairly new phenomenon in New York State?
I’ve been spoiled by living in Oregon for the previous 15 years, where the ballot just magically showed up in your mailbox three weeks before election day, and voting involved sitting down with a nice glass of wine at the computer so I could research any races/ballot measures/etc. I wanted more information on. Since moving to New Mexico earlier this year, it’s just slightly more cumbersome (I had to request an absentee ballot for the primary and general election via an online portal, but no excuse required) … after which I could still vote with my glass of wine and computer handy. I’d like to see a pure vote-by-mail requirement enacted as federal law (I would also like a pink unicorn).
New Mexico also has a lot of early voting locations – individual counties get a lot of discretion in setting them up. I have noticed that my county, which has 27,000 people and two “population centers,” has only two early voting locations (one in each of the population centers) in a county that’s geographically the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined (and has voted for Democrats for President since Mondale in 1984). Otero County, which is about double the area and has 63,000 people, has had eight early voting locations – two that have been “full time” and others that have been available as “mobile voting locations” on weekends and a few that will be open for just three days this week (early voting ends Saturday 11/5). Otero is pretty Republican (last voted for a Democrat for President in 1964), but seems to be making a decent effort to make early voting available – although they are not doing a great job of publicizing it.
Nora
Yes, early voting is great! We haven’t had it long in New York, but my husband and I take advantage of it whenever it’s offered. We were the 4th and 5th voters, respectively, at our polling place the day the polls opened, and there was a line that Saturday morning of people politely waiting to vote.
Hope it’s a romp for the Democrats.
Spirula
Voted by mail last week in the only blue county in North Florida. Checked online and it was counted. Eat it Marco Foolio and Rot DeSepsis.
Another Scott
I filled out my by-mail absentee ballot this morning and will drop it in the drop-box today. Easy ballot – only US House. Go Beyer!! My J will potentially vote in person on Tuesday (she has her absentee ballot too).
It was nice that they included an “I Voted” sticker in the packet this time. I’ll be wearing that Tuesday.
Forward!! Let’s run up the score!!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Barbara
I voted last Saturday, typically a busy early voting day. It wasn’t crowded but there was a steady stream. Here in Virginia there is no Senate race, but some competitive house races, obviously. I love that the state shifted to early voting by right instead of the stupid “you need a good excuse” system that didn’t even recognize out of precinct work obligations as a bona fide excuse (unless you were absent for at least 12 hours or something like that).
Central Planning
We early voted last night here in NY.
@mistermix – I’m pretty sure we live almost across the street (well, a major road). We haven’t had anyone canvas us. Maybe they already know we vote D.
Miss Bianca
Filling out my ballot this morning, over some huevos rancheros and a cappuccino. Drop it into the drop box at the county courthouse, easy peasy.
UncleEbeneezer
Dropped our ballots in the drop-box on Monday here in Altadena. It was before polls had opened so not sure how busy it’s been for in-person, early voting. Easy peasy.
Kropacetic
@Miss Bianca: I think I’m going to start voting by mail or drop box also. When I showed up to the polling place the ballot had several small positions, mainly school board that weren’t on my sample ballot from the Secretary of State website.
wegners shoppers club member mistermix
@Central Planning: Hmm, I live in Pittsford near Mendon Center Elementary and they both knew I was a Democrat when they stopped by.
brendancalling
Got mine in several weeks ago in PA. I made sure to sign and date everything. Ballot has been received and tallied. According to Daily Kos, shit’s getting dicey in PA: Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania House seat left bloodied and unconscious.
I live in PA, and have yet to see this get wide coverage.
Kropacetic
@wegners shoppers club member mistermix: The canvassing software they provide gives relevant details including partisan registration status.
Alison Rose
Just got the text from BallotTrax that my mail-in ballot has been received and counted!
Stacy
Originally from your side Rochester, now in Loudoun County, VA. Husband and I early voted last week and Dems and GOP volunteers passing out sample ballots were chatting amicably and it was pretty busy for a Thursday afternoon and we’ve had early voting for a few weeks now. Also, our Dem congresswoman Jennifer Wexton was on our street canvassing last weekend.
Betty Cracker
@Spirula: Same in my red Florida county. I also set myself a reminder to do another “standing request” for a mail-in ballot next year. Those used to be sticky, but DeFascist changed the rules so you have to re-request it every two years. (Because [nonexistent] voter fraud.)
Ocotillo
I did vote this week in person. Mrs. O is a election judge at the polling place. I pitch in here and there when she needs an extra person. Voting is up, they are doing roughly 1,400 a day and typical in the past has been shy of 1,000 a day. Red part of town though so who knows.
The ballot is very long as in addition to the House race, all statewide offices are up and there a bunch of judges.
Chris T.
@West of the Cascades:
Doesn’t that make you east of the Cascades now?
But yes, by-mail voting is definitely the way to go. It has not been that bad here in WA but in California, the several-hundred-propositions-every-time can really take a long time to figure out. My first CA voting experience was with the annoying punch-card things, too (though later, after I bought a house in the next county up, we had Scantron-style ballots, where you could at least see what you were doing). I had to bring a list of how I’d decided on everything. “Proposition 42-a-section-c-subparagraph-3, what was my position on that one again?”
(OK, a bit of exaggeration for effect, but still. When I first moved to CA I thought all these propositions were fun and exciting! How little I realized, back then…)
Central Planning
@wegners shoppers club member mistermix: Yeah, I’m near the high school. I don’t want to dox myself by putting more info here :)
But like I said, nobody has visited us and I work from home so would expect the doorbell to ring.
UncleEbeneezer
@brendancalling: But some online Lefty said “punch Nazis” so Both Sides!!1
I’m surprised we haven’t seen un-ironic articles about how “Liberals laughed when someone threw a shoe at W” from Greenwald, Tracey, etc. yet
RaflW
We absentee voted last week. My only regret is that it lacks the satisfaction of feeding the ballot into the precinct scanner.
I do need to check the MN S.O.S. site that it’s been accepted.
I’m also very worried that suburban jackasses are gonna split ticket vote and we’ll lose A.G. Ellison. He’s not amazing, but the Republican is a wet behind the ears junior dude who has never argued a case in court! He gave risible answers to easy journo questions.
But he’s white and says ‘crime’ a lot. I expect him to try to indict Gov. Walz on something, and then discover that being A.G. is not like being a Twitter handle. Gonna be a shit show if we have a Dem Gov & Lt., and R’s for A.G. and state auditor. MN S.O.S. race looks ok, at least!
Leto
@brendancalling: same here; Avalune and I received our PA ballots via mail, did the double envelope/sign/date rigmarole, and they were received and tallied. I saw a headline about a candidate being assaulted, but didn’t know it was here in the state. It’s def not receiving air play. Maybe that’s because of the Paul Pelosi attack overshadowing it, but this goes hand in hand with Republican vitriol and how they’re inciting attacks.
mali muso
@Stacy:
I am over the mountain from you and just got redistricted OUT of Wexton’s district this year. Boo hiss.
That said, I did take advantage of no-excuse in person early voting and cast my ballot for Jennifer Lewis last week.
Betty Cracker
@UncleEbeneezer: I’ve totally seen that “both sides” garbage, but they went with Rand Paul getting beat up by his neighbor. And yeah, I admit I laughed about that! But Paul got beat up because he’s a dick who dumped grass clippings on his neighbor’s lawn or whatever. The guy who administered the beat-down wasn’t trying to overturn an election.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Now I feel like I was too hard on the 9/11 terrorists.
John S.
@Chris T.:
WA elections are a breath of fresh air after dealing with FL elections my entire adult life up until 5 months ago.
Central Planning
I wanted to ask the poll worker at the ballot eater which ones were programmed to automatically vote for Democrats so I could put my ballot in one that didn’t do that :D
UncleEbeneezer
@Betty Cracker: Oh yeah, I saw that one almost immediately from Paul and his supporters.
trollhattan
CA ballot dropped off today. Will get a text verifying its receipt, per the state system
See, Confederacy and admiring states, it’s not hard, even in a state of 40 million. Why do you seem to have so much trouble with this whole “voting” thing?
Dragged my feet a full week before inking in judges and utility board and school board because how do you pick? The rest were pretty easy this year.
Eolirin
@Betty Cracker: Even removing the political side of it, Paul got into a fight and lost, he didn’t have someone break into his house and assualt him. They’re not the same category of event.
He didn’t even press charges, right?
peter
Another northern VA voter who took advantage of absentee ballot. My wife and I both sent in our ballots and BallotTrax assures us that they have been received and counted. The “I voted” stickers that came with the ballots is a nice touch.
Taphozous
Voted yesterday. Easy to do here in Olympia, WA as it is vote by mail. I filled out the ballot with the voter’s guide in hand to answer questions I might have had about the various down ballot races. Then my wife and I put on fancy clothes to take the ballots to the drop box. After all, its not every day that you get to cast a vote in favor of democracy! #dressupandvote
Alison Rose
@trollhattan: Regarding the judges, someone here (can’t recall who) told me the way they do is to look them up on Ballotpedia or elsewhere and see which governor appointed them–all of the judges on my ballot here in Santa Rosa were appointed by either Brown or Newsom, so I voted yes on all of them.
sixthdoctor
Voted Saturday in MD (Baltimore suburb). Very fast and straightforward. Dem down the line and yes on Q4 (legalize marijuana).
Steeplejack
I will be voting on election day. I live like 50 feet inside the Fairfax County line, so none of the early voting sites is convenient for me. My sleepy little precinct voting site is a block from Threadkill Lane, and it’s never busy. In and out in no time.
The only “canvassing” I have received is a couple of texts from Karina Lipsman, a woman touting her identity as a Ukrainian immigrant. I had to dig deep on the Google to find that she moved here when she was a very young child and that she is a Republican. Not sure how playing the Ukraine card goes over in the GQP. In any case, I don’t think my rep, Don Beyer, has much to worry about.
zhena gogolia
Here in highly civilized Connecticut, I can’t vote until Tuesday Nov. 8.
Delk
Just got home from voting in Chicago. 45 minutes from walking out the front door and walking back in. Those
long linesvoter suppression actions in other states sicken me.No armed “patriots” anywhere because they would be shitting their underwear if they had to go into a big city.
And why the fuck is Joe Rogan doing anti-Pritzker ads? Fuck him.
Lady WereBear
Waiting for Lord WereBear’s energies to peak this week in NY. Looking forward to our sticker.
Baud
@Lady WereBear:
When did you change your nym?
Professor Bigfoot
Mrs. Bigfoot and I both did the absentee/by mail thing- as of yesterday they were both accepted for counting, so WE VOTED!
PAM Dirac
Voted early in-person last week in Frederick, MD. Pretty steady, but no wait. The numbers are hard to interpret. 2016 and 2018 had in-person early, but no mail-in and of course no COVID. 2020 had early in-person and mail-in and COVID. The current early voting numbers are down from 2018, but when you add in mail ins, the overall early voting is up substantially. State wide there’s not much that’s competitive, but it would be real nice to kick out the MAGA county sheriff. He only won by about 4K votes in 2018 and that was when the Rs had a 2.5K registration advantage. This year the Ds have a 8.4K advantage so there is optimism that we can give the guy the boot. Hope the optimism results in good turn out.
The Truffle
I voted early on Sunday. It’s just so nice to be able to do that. Since it was Sunday morning…no line! Wheeeeeee!!!!!
Why New York didn’t have early voting before will forever be a mystery to me. I just felt so happy to have it out of the way.
And I’ve sent lots and lots and LOTS of letters/postcards to NYS residents in swing districts. I grew up in the mid-Hudson Valley, and my mother still lives there. So I focused mainly on that area. Pat Ryan just won a special election in August, so I’m doing my part to ensure he wins a full term.
I really hope all these letters/postcards pay off.
Kristine
@peter:
I wish Illinois would do that. That’s the only thing I miss about voting in person.
As for judicial retention, I took Dorothy A. Winsor’s advice and drilled down until I found party affiliation and voted against retaining Republicans.
Stacy
@mali muso:
@mali muso: I took such pleasure in booting Barbara Comstock out of her seat in 2018. Hope Jennifer Lewis takes the seat this year and you’re just swapping one Jennifer for another lol.
Lady WereBear
@Baud: Day before yesterday, when he and I became Lairds of Scotland.
It’s a fun form of tree conservation. We donated to own 25 square feet of Scotland that is part of a nature preserve, with extra to plant trees all over the world.
Through a quirk in Scotland’s laws, I have the right to use the title. A tiny form of getting knighted for charitable work, I guess
Five by five.
Elizabelle
I voted yesterday in Richmond VA environs. Just Congress (Democratic Congressman Donald McEachin is a shoe-in, thank dog) and four county bond issues for schools, parks and rec, fire stations, and stormwater drainage. Voted yes on all of them.
Steady stream of voters at 2:00 pm; I’d say I saw 20 while I was there. Moved quickly. We fill in circles on a paper ballot, and feed it personally into a machine and see it recorded.
Virginia, so far, runs good and clean elections.
Which is why our nut job GOP attorney general is forming an “election integrity” project. Asshat.
jonas
@PAM Dirac:
Speaking of horrible sheriffs that need the boot, do any LA jackals have any sense of whether they’ll finally be able to get rid of Villaneuva?
Lady WereBear
@The Truffle: It’s like any other nice thing. Once we experience it, we want it!
bbleh
My nearly-96-y/o mother voted today. If she can do it, you can do it!
Baud
@Lady WereBear:
I need to find a quirk in a law that let’s me be the president.
That’s pretty cool, milady.
Matt McIrvin
@zhena gogolia: MA introduced no-excuse early voting in 2016, not that long ago really, and I have often partaken. This time around I voted on the first day of early voting. It’s nice to at least have that done and get the acknowledgement that your ballot was accepted.
There go two miscreants
Registered and voted yesterday here in Wilmington, NC. (Having stupidly missed the mail-in deadline for registration, I was lucky that they have same-day reg during early voting.) Took less than 20 min total.
Lady WereBear
@Baud: [curtsey]
Betty Cracker
Last week (I think), some folks on Twitter were urging the president to give another speech about the threat to democracy and others were telling the first group to shut up because Biden knows what he’s doing. All should tune in at 7 PM ET this evening, according to NBC:
Good! (Also good that he’s mindful of the timing of the next World Series game, which starts at 8:03 for some reason.) I’m sure Biden is righteously outraged at the second attempted assassination of the Speaker inside of two years, and I hope that shows.
Juju
@wegners shoppers club member mistermix: Holy cow!! I went to Mendon Center back when it was called a junior high. I lived on a street of of Marsh Rd. Small world and all that.
Geminid
@Eolirin: It wasn’t exactly a fight, if I’ve got the story right. The guy tackled Paul while he was on his riding mower. But it was neighbor-on-neighbor violence about a property dispute, not a political dispute
I guess some Democrats got snarky about the incident, but it wasn’t anything like the vile slanders right wingers are directing at Mr. Pelosi
Spanky
@Betty Cracker: Has anyone pointed out (I hope not and am kinda reluctant to do so myself, but here goes) George Fucking Will’s “Opinion” piece in the WaPo titled “For the Good of the Country, Biden and Harris should bow out of the 2024 election”? I haven’t read it and don’t need an emetic right now, and I’m surely not going to provide a link.
pat
@Spanky:
And be replaced by..???? Does he have a suggestion?
Betty Cracker
@Eolirin: I’m pretty there was a trial and the neighbor did some time for the assault, plus had to pay hefty civil fines to Paul. But I agree there’s nothing in that case remotely comparable to the attempted murder of Mr. Pelosi and kidnapping plot directed at the Speaker.
Kelly
In 2019 Oregon put the finishing touch on it’s vote by mail program by adding postage paid return envelopes. We received our ballottrax emails confirming our ballots were received and approved for counting. Oregon does not count until election day. Ballots postmarked on election day will be counted up to 7 days after election day. The only time ballot counting has been a mess was this years primary in Clackamas County where there were a lot of misprinted ballots that could not be machine processed and the county clerk drug her feet then utterly botched setting up a hand count.
Chris T.
@Kelly:
Same in WA, they just stack ’em up and run them through the machines on the day.
Baud
@Geminid:
@Betty Cracker:
The better analogy might be the guy that shot Scalise. I think liberals remarked about how he still cling to the Second Amendment, but I don’t recall widespread snark about the incident.
JoyceH
I voted early in person several weeks ago. No wait. The county admin building has about eight parking places designated for voting and several are for curbside. The parking slot has a sign with a number you call and they bring the ballot out to you, like picking up groceries. But I went in just to see the set-up.
Kelly
@Chris T.: I bet voter turnout would go up if ballots were counted and the results announced daily for a couple weeks before election day.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: By the Robert Bork rule, they’re going to be using the Rand Paul incident as justification for any and all future acts of violence against Democrats, up to and including aerial saturation bombing.
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
@Kropacetic: The MA GOP were taken over by lunatics after 2018.
Because of this, there are now 3 Republicans in the Senate (of 40 seats) and 29 in the House (of 160).
Diehl is mild, compared to the possibly-psychotic candidate for Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: The lefties I’ve encountered who actually espouse preemptive violence tend to be the type who hate the Democratic Party for being a bunch of capitalist toadies.
Geminid
@Spanky: Redesigning the 2024 Democratic ticket is a popular fallback for op-ed writers with nothing else they want to comment about. And it serves a political purpose by throwing crabapples of discord for unwary Democrats to squabble over.
trollhattan
@Alison Rose: Similar to what I’ve read. We have one Pete Wilson appointment left, so he got a “no.” IDK if judges ever get tossed here–only remember the “Impeach Rose Bird” insanity, which eventually became chiseled into the Republican Playbook.
And, scene.
Baud
@Spanky:
@Geminid:
Say no to Biden/Harris!
Say yes to Harris/Biden!
Matt McIrvin
@Spanky: The latest in a long, long line of essays saying “for the good of America, thoughtful, patriotic liberals should concede every fight to my side in the name of bipartisanship.” About 58% of them were written by Conor Friedersdorf.
Wapiti
Voted last Wednesday; the spouse dropped off the ballots at the drop-box about a mile away. Checking the ballots online, they’ve been accepted (I think that means they made it through the signature screening).
The county (King) has webcams at each step of the ballot handling process. It’s pretty informative.
schrodingers_cat
Oh I got an inflammatory anti-affirmative action flyer in the mail.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: Heh.
@schrodingers_cat: Oh no. You now have legal obligation to hate Democrats.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: There will be a few House races that will take days to resolve, if 2020 is any guide. That year the election wasn’t “called” for Abigail Spanberger in the VA 7th CD until the third day of counting absentee ballots. It took 4 days in the case of Lauren Underwood’s Chicagoland district.
MattF
Maryland offers an option to download PDFs for your ballot, oath, and mail-in envelope. Print them out (six double-sided pages for the ballot), mark the ballot, sign the oath, mail all of it. I was emailed when the ballot was received and accepted, then emailed again when it was counted.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Mmm. Tire rims parmigiana.
//
Steeplejack
At the risk of causing widespread nausea in the jackaltariat, I have got to post this video from Dinesh D’Souza, which I thought was the absolute nadir of the GQP slimefest about the attack on Paul Pelosi.
The post is still up, and D’Souza is still meeping away.
He may have cemented the all-time No. 1 position on my “punchable faces” list.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: There’s some Fall River Republican committee account that likes to spam Democratic Massachusetts politicians’ Facebook posts with comments about how generosity to “illegals” is a slap in the face to Indian-Americans.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: Yep, and IIRC, that contempt for Dems was shared by the deranged Sanders supporter who shot up the congressional baseball practice. Recently some guy who burned down his own camper and vandalized his own house was sentenced for insurance fraud — he’d claimed to be a victim of “antifa” who was targeted for his Trump flags, bumper stickers, etc.
He spray painted pro-Biden and antifa slogans on his own garage door. I knew it was bullshit immediately when the story first broke. Politically motivated thugs carry one major political party’s banner: Republicans. Every time. One party is a cult. One party is…a party.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Why is the Republican party wasting their money on me. I am on the town Democratic committee. Was on the ballot when Biden ran for President.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Most Indian-Americans and indeed most Asian Americans support affirmative action. Its the Dinesh D clones that get the press though.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Was it the backwards “B” that tipped you off?
Matt McIrvin
(If I were a politician I would actually start to wonder whether posting to social media is worth it at all, given that, my Impression is, they’re not really allowed to block comments for First Amendment reasons, and all their posts immediately spawn hate forums entirely devoted to bashing them with lurid accusations.)
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: I for one support them wasting their money on you.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
At some point, decent folks are going to have to learn to be dismissive of toxic right-wing comments.
RaflW
@Spanky: For the good of the country, George Will should retire to a Black Sea dacha and shut the absolute fuck up. These jackasses never suggest that for the good of the country, the Republican Party should be burned to the ground. God damn I’m angry. He helped build the pyre being lit, but wants to walk away from responsibility. Nope.
Steeplejack
Very juicy thread:
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: There is an image out there that Indian Americans are mouth breathing Modi supporters and anti-affirmative action zealots.
They are loud and proud but there is no evidence that they are the majority.
Baud
@Steeplejack: I’ll hand it to the Trump legal geniuses. They were correct that Thomas was their best shot
ETA: It’s also a nice example of the GOP’s oft-used strategy to outsource different aspects of their political efforts to technically “unconnected” parties. Each person does his or her specialized part, and so no single person is held accountable for the inevitable result.
RaflW
@schrodingers_cat: I just watched Hasan Minhaj’s latest on Netflix. When he shows the clip of the Modi fan yelling at him… the punchline is a pitch perfect poke in the eye to all of us who (even minorly) chase clout.
I’ve locked my Mustter account so no more clout for me. That’s fine, it means less traffic and fewer ad impressions for that dipwad.
schrodingers_cat
@RaflW: Minaj’s understanding of Indian politics is superficial at best. I am also not fond of the American (or Canadian)-born progeny of Indian Americans making their parents into a punch line. I am looking at you Mindy Kaling, Russell Peters etc.
Haha my parents speak funny and act funny. They wouldn’t last a minute in their parents’ shoes.
Kropacetic
Diehl comes across as very tailored to the particular audience. I’d like to see his collection of various hymnals.
Honestly, I prefer when they’re more open and honest about who they are and what they represent.
Eyeroller
@schrodingers_cat: Could also be that whoever is behind it just assumed all Asians (broadly defined) are mad about Blacks getting their slots or something argle bargle.
schrodingers_cat
@Eyeroller: Possibly. The minority voices that are pro-R are elevated.
Case in point, Jewish people. As a group they are solidly D but there are many prominent Jewish spokespeople among the Rs. Though now many of them have become never T Republicans.
topclimber
@Matt McIrvin: All Dems should switch to the GQP, thereby becoming the dominant wing of that party and selecting sane Republican candidates.
An added benefit is that all the new Republicans can personally attest to “both sides do it” because they have been in both parties, pushing for sane candidates in each one. Can you feel the happy glow from pundits far and wide?
Princess
@Kristine: I’m in Illinois and we got stickers with our mail-in ballots. Maybe Chicago/Cook Cty is giving out the stickers?
Anyway, we voted. Yay.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Good point.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I gather the MSM is doing the same crazy stunt they did in 2020; people who have already voted are not “Likely Voters”.
Matt McIrvin
@topclimber: It’s so counterintuitive and nonpartisan it just… might… work!!
JoyceH
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
SERIOUSLY? So if a poll is ‘trending Republican’, that could be because so many Democrats already voted?!
prostratedragon
I votedbymail in Illinoislast week. Got the email notification that it’s been counted yesterday. No sticker, @Kristine? They sent one in the Chicago package. Maybe your county commissioners need a nudge.
Scout211
I don’t know if this has been posted yet, but CNN has some of the juicy details of Eastman’s emails: Clarence Thomas was “key.”
rikyrah
Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) tweeted at 8:09 AM on Wed, Nov 02, 2022:
The credible, close-call attempt to kill or maim Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a second time, and the GOP response, signals how close the US is to the end of the road as a Democracy. It also tells us about what comes after the fall. 1/n
Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) tweeted at 8:09 AM on Wed, Nov 02, 2022:
The GOP has generally treated it as a joke, denied that DePape was conservative, or spread conspiracy theories that it was a gay quarrel during a hookup. There’s been a lot of wink and nudge, “Sure it was bad, but whatever gets Nancy out, amiright?” comments like Youngkin’s. 2/n
Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) tweeted at 8:09 AM on Wed, Nov 02, 2022:
There has been almost NOTHING done to deter other would be assassins from killing Democratic officials. When people protested outside homes of SCOTUS justices, security was immediately increased. Dead silence now. 3/n
Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) tweeted at 8:09 AM on Wed, Nov 02, 2022:
The difference is that Dems and Republicans are willing to protect conservative officials, but Republicans aren’t willing to protect Dems, because they know that actual violence against officials is driven by the right wing base. 4/n )
rikyrah
Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) tweeted at 7:12 AM on Wed, Nov 02, 2022:
Good morning everybody. 6 days of voting left!
Some things I’m seeing:
– Dem overperformance in House specials & Kansas showing up in early vote, Senate polling
– Good youth, Hispanic polls
– McConnell final ad buy not red wavey
– Liz Cheney, Barack 1/
https://t.co/LqolsS8cJC
(https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/1587779668043776006?t=TS4QP5927C5GLptjhAHToQ&s=03)
rikyrah
Nikki Barnes (@NikkiBarnesFL) tweeted at 7:01 AM on Wed, Nov 02, 2022:
Don’t you dare tell a Black person in the South not to vote Democrat from the comforts of your Blue State legislatures & Governors. Y’all are clowns for that! The South is still fighting against an oppressive Jim Crow 2.0 regime without Democrats in power & people are SUFFERING!
(https://twitter.com/NikkiBarnesFL/status/1587777011061297153?t=BUMO1fihgAD6y_S8HWspVQ&s=03)
Ken
@Matt McIrvin: Needs a catchy name. That’s what made the “No Labels” pseudo-party the powerhouse political force it is today.
rikyrah
Acyn (@Acyn) tweeted at 10:48 PM on Tue, Nov 01, 2022:
Obama: You don’t need to take my word it. 14 members of his family announced that they would support Masto. You know, we all have a crazy uncle. But if you have a full Thanksgiving dinner table.. https://t.co/5ZttIgDjk6
(https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1587652738959253506?t=TZk3AcvzkTmO18s8vYBeqw&s=03)
rikyrah
The ‘ change’ to the American Social Safety Net that the GOP wants…
Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) tweeted at 6:41 AM on Wed, Nov 02, 2022:
Let’s just be clear, the “change” is:
— Lower SS benefits
— No SS benefits at all for seniors 65 & 66
— Higher co-pays for Medicare
That’s not a “change.” That’s the shaft for seniors. https://t.co/0OcAvccp6s
(https://twitter.com/WHCOS/status/1587771983714213894?t=PvoA9l1_xWUwEczZmO2cBA&s=03)
coin operated
Got my ballot in the mail last week (NV introduced vote-by-mail during the pandemic) and dropped it off at the polling station. Unfortunately, it’s in Nye County, and we have an interim county clerk who bought into the big lie regarding voting machines. Wanted to count every ballot by hand until 1. he screwed up the numbers on three different occasions and 2. the State Supreme Court told him to knock it off because his counting method violated state law.
I know it’s been received…just hoping it gets counted correctly in the end.
rikyrah
David Darmofal (@david_darmofal) tweeted at 6:41 AM on Wed, Nov 02, 2022:
Biden quietly but clearly prepares a potential reelection bid
The president and his wife have been meeting with a small group of advisers to pave the way for a 2024 campaign
https://t.co/4PdL8oOjoN
(https://twitter.com/david_darmofal/status/1587771832190455808?t=BPXKfAzYlkKozDi12FCH5g&s=03)
trollhattan
@rikyrah: Heh. Still got it.
I do remember some in-law gatherings where crazy was served along with the gravy.
Ksmiami
@trollhattan: we’ll at least there was gravy; now we just get crazy with a side of violence and poor personal grooming
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I don’t remember these stories. And even if there were, they didn’t seem to have much impact on the 2020 election.
Polling has to adjust for early voting and mail in voting, but that’s a technical issue. It also complicates reporting and probably makes punditry more stupid than usual.
Election day projections and exit polls are also affected, but adjustments have been made to account for early voting.
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s really insane to expect people who do manual labor to work until 67. It should be lowered to 60, in fact. They’re often injured in some chronic way by 60.
The majority of Americans don’t have a college degree and a huge group of those people do actual, physical labor. It’s incredibly elitist to pretend they don’t exist.
Conservatives think home health aides should have to work to 70 years old. They will maybe be the same age as the people they are caring for- it’s nutty.
lowtechcyclist
@Steeplejack:
Nah, he needs to be in the way of a 2000-mule stampede.
cain
We are headed for political violence against our people – and the media continues to sleep.
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/yjo07s/candidate_running_for_state_house_seat_attacked/
In the comments, others are also reporting violence – including other candidates.
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s not based on anything either. Life expectancy hasn’t gone up since the last time they took some of Social Security. We’re not healthier. It’s just an arbitrary decision by people who don’t do manual labor that people who DO should have to work 3 additional years. It’s this illusory, made up “progress” – we’ve been stagnant or declining on those measures for years. More fairy tales.
Anoniminous
In a surprise recent polling for New Mexico CD2 has Hispanics breaking for the Democrat Gabe Vasquez over the POS Herrell. Should Vasquez flip the seat it would continue a trend for the Democrat to win in the off-year election and a Republican in the presidential election year.
Should Gabe cop the seat it will mean the GOP will have to find two seats: one to catch-up and one to add to their overall total, to take the House
Kay
@cain:
It feels to me just like before January 6th. That same grim feeling of seeing the signs everywhere and watching a whole group of people who are invested in pretending it isn’t happening.
He just needs time to accept! They’ll NEVER try a coup! Coups use tanks and only happen in developing nations!
frosty
My college son applied for an absentee ballot online on Saturday 10/29 and the tracker says it was processed the same day. Not mailed yet, 4 days later. WTAF??!!?
rikyrah
CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) tweeted at 5:20 AM on Wed, Nov 02, 2022:
CVS, Walgreens and Walmart have tentatively agreed to pay at least $12 billion to settle a number of lawsuits alleging the retailers mishandled prescriptions of opioid painkillers, according to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters
https://t.co/YLa4dlcHT3
(https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/1587751416592056320?t=ZI1ZQlgSkDPxMuL1rlDYlg&s=03)
Martin
Yesterday’s bike errands were dropping off some return boxes, having coffee with a former colleague, getting a flu shot, and dropping off my family’s ballots. Was a very nice day. Today is a down day – flu shot has me in perpetual ‘I should take a nap’ state.
trollhattan
@Ksmiami: “Check your coat and gun” goes a long way to dinnertime amity.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay,
Say the MSM. That’s who we’re talking about . We certainly aren’t talking about Democrats, who understand what time it is.
It’s the phucking ‘ BOTH SIDES’ MSM.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Why lower benefits? There is no real funding problem for Social Security. And the contribution threshold should be raised. I can’t see the GOP being able to sell this.
Isn’t full retirement age already 67 for many people? How is this an issue?
The GOP already is on record as hating health insurance. What problem is higher copays solving? And many Medicare Advantage plans have low copays and are financially sound.
Paul in KY
@Lady WereBear: Will you now be Lady Lady WereBear here, my lady?
Rileys Enabler
Early voted in Texas. Mid-day line was healthy, but that’s probably due to the long ballot (longest in the US, yay?). Took some time to get through it. Worth every second.
Kay
@Brachiator:
It is 67 now for people 60 and younger. They already cut two years off it for no apparent reason other than they cannot stand that working people might have some small measure of security.
Those freeloading 67 year old home health aides, lollygagging around, they can work 3 more years! Say the conservative members of congress who work maybe 150 days a year.
Pick up a shift at Wendys at 69. They’re hoping to kill them before they collect.
Alison Rose
OT: How do you say “You can’t sit with us!” in Polish?
Poland erects a razor-wire fence along its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad
Paul in KY
@Steeplejack: D’Nerd D’Sucka would make Wormtongue shake his greasy locks at his cravenness.
Kay
@rikyrah:
My theory is it’s because they don’t actually live in far Right areas. They don’t know how bad it has gotten.
Was anyone surprised Pelosi was targeted? No. It was going to happen and it is going to happen again.
Barbara
@Brachiator: I would guess that they have looked at stats showing that a lot of people will retire at 65 and start collecting benefits at the lower rate, rather than waiting. Basically, all schemes to increase the age at which benefits or full benefits become available “cheat” people who have a lower than average life expectancy or who simply cannot hang on until the age of 67 to retire, due to health, job, or lifestyle issues, which might, yes, include taking care of the health issues of even older relatives — parents, spouses or even siblings.
ETA: Or maybe it’s the intense lobbying of the reverse mortgage and annuity industry, two types of organizations that might profit considerably if people are really pushed to the wall.
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: horrendous news. Try getting opioids from a doctor now even if you have a 100% totally legit medical need for them. You can’t. This is bad policy that has gone way too far, and the worse part is it’s going to go a lot further.
My stepfather was given gabapentin and tylenol after his open heart surgery recently. I was given gabapentin, neurontin and ibuprofen after my botched intestinal surgery last year. This is fucking ludicrous.
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: horrendous news. Try getting opioids from a doctor now even if you have a 100% totally legit medical need for them. You can’t. This is bad policy that has gone way too far, and the worse part is it’s going to go a lot further.
My stepfather was given gabapentin and tylenol after his open heart surgery recently. I was given gabapentin, neurontin and ibuprofen after my botched intestinal surgery last year. This is fucking ludicrous.
Barbara
@Alison Rose: I just realized that Kaliningrad used to be Konigsberg — a city with a historically German speaking population, part of greater Germany until after WWII, when its remaining German inhabitants were forcibly exiled.
The post-war migration of Germans apparently resulted in additional deaths on the order of 2 million people, but as you might imagine, they weren’t much of a priority. Anytime I read additional histories of WWII I learn that it was even ghastlier than I had previously understood.
Brachiator
@Kay:
I think you may be wrong here. According to a recent study.
Also, it is insufficient to just look at life expectancy. The proportion of people living to at least age 65 is increasing in all advanced nations. So you have a larger pool of people receiving retirement benefits. For some reason, this is a difficult idea for some people to grasp. I keep seeing pundits get this wrong. Also, this is a function of people living healthier lives.
Not sure about the proportion of retirees with health issues due to manual labor jobs.
Paul in KY
@Barbara: If they were Nazis…fuck em.
Sorry for little kids, who were not Nazis, I assume.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Hell, I have the physically cushiest job imaginable and I’m not at all sure I’m going to be able to do this until I’m 67. I try to keep up and educate myself, but technical brains slow down eventually and I’m not management material.
Kristine
@Princess: I’m in Lake. Unless it got stuck inside the envelope and I missed it, I didn’t see one.
karen marie
@Geminid: Also too, the neighbor wasn’t given a speaking spot at the Dem convention and he hasn’t been a featured speaker at rallies. Both sides, my ass.
cain
@Kay: check this out:https://twitter.com/IsaacHayes3/status/1587575692472074242
It’s an ad that straight tells everyone in Georgia that whites are being discriminated against. Straight up race baiting. You think if Warnock wins that there won’t be race riots? Yeah – we’re heading into some serious shit territory right now.
cain
@Rileys Enabler: I think one way to fuck with the GOP and hteir voters is to arrive really early – and camp and be ready making any late coming GOPs wait for hours because of a long Dem line.
Suzanne
I will be voting on Tuesday, in person.
I am very much looking forward to this being over.
Steve in the ATL
[redacted]
Barbara
@Brachiator: Well, US life expectancy overall has taken a dip over the last few years, due mostly to opioid deaths and then Covid. However, if you live to the age of 65, your life expectancy had been trending higher until 2020, when it decreased no doubt due to Covid. It went from 16 to 18.2 years between 2000 and 2019, and dropped to 17 years in 2020. It will likely trend upward again. Anyway, this is the amount of time that is used as a basis for funding retirement, and it went from 12.8 to 16 between 1960 and 2000, but it had been hovering right around 18 for a decade before Covid
ETA: In addition to life expectancy, actuaries look at the percentage of workforce participation that pays into the system. SS isn’t really that far off actuarially, but Medicare is and depends on current workers.
frosty
@Suzanne: I will also be voting Tuesday in person. Since the RWNJ PA legislature decided no absentee or mail-in ballots can start being counted before 8PM on Election Day, it will look like the Red Mirage until those votes start coming in. If I vote in person maybe it will help dilute the RM. That’s what I did in 2020.
I want it to be over too but I’m not looking forward to the results. Too fucking much is on the line and we’re going to lose somewhere.
cain
@Barbara: I think with this endemic portion of COVID – we are going to see a lot of healthcare issues at scale across the spectrum of age groups. Sadly, it will likely be those who are anti-vax. Perhaps, as evidence mounts against anti-vaxxing we can put this stupid movement into the ground where it belongs.
frosty
@Steve in the ATL: This is your best comment ever!! Rotating tag material, even.
RaflW
@rikyrah: Steve Scalise has basically said it’d be ok for him to get shot again. Not sure how a political party gets past being that self-abnigating, but the GOP’re trying!
Barbara
@RaflW: On average they believe, probably correctly, that they are in the camp less likely to get shot at.
Kropacetic
@FlyingToaster (Tablet): I just finished reading that article you posted about that Rayla Campbell. What a dangerous, misinformed loon.
Brachiator
@Barbara:
Yep. I hope that Covid will just be a temporary blip. Opioid deaths hit hardest, I think, before retirement age and slightly reduce the pool of retired workers.
Good point. Also, I was reading about the move to over-the-counter hearing aids and see that Medicare doesn’t adequately cover hearing and dental expenses, which may be more likely to be senior ailments.
RaflW
@Kay At the time Social Security was created, fewer than 6 in 10 men who started working even lived to 65. It’s closer to 8 in 10 now.
And those that do get to 65 live on average about 3 years longer than they did when SS was started.
This doesn’t mean people don’t wear out or slow down less by 65, but there are actuarial reasons to raise the retirement age. And if we stay on this anti-immigrant track, we’ll need workers to stay in the workforce longer both for productivity (accepting a capitalist frame, that is) and to keep outlays for SS from ballooning past inflows as soon.
Dorothy A. Winsor
One of the most infuriating parts of the Social Security discussion is that Rs never propose getting rid of the cap on paying into the system. Can’t have that.
Ken
@Alison Rose: Hmm. I think I saw that Russia had pulled all their forces out of Kaliningrad and sent them to Ukraine, where they were nearly wiped out. Nice of Poland to put up the fence and reassure the Russians that they won’t be invading that nearly-undefended city.
oldgold
The DOJ will not indict political figures within 90 days of an election, but the Fed can raise interest rates multiple times within this window?
delphinium
Just got back from early voting in NY, only a handful of people there so went quickly.
WereBear
@Paul in KY: ’tis a single title. I was a mere commoner Jackal previously.
Doubling down on my title would be unseemly.
ksmiami
@oldgold: Jerome Powell is a nightmare. And his rate hikes are killing the economy while doing little to help inflation. JFC He’s not an economist FFS.
Major Major Major Major
Still need to vote… in past NY elections, the lines to vote early were about ten times longer than voting on election day.
Kay
@cain:
Of course they are. Whatever Republicans win next Tuesday, one thing is for sure- they will be more resentful and more miserable than they were last Tuesday.
The well of grievance seems to be endless.
They couldn’t stand that people were celebrating when Biden won so they all had to pretend Trump won. No celebration allowed. All anger, all the time.
Kay
Democrats shouldn’t give an inch on raising the retirement age. Republicans can join us in raising taxes. 67 is old enough.
Baud
@Kay:
If we were the Whos of Whosville, their hearts would shrink three times in size.
topclimber
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Maybe also subject non-payroll earnings (e.g. payroll disguised as a dividend to a business owner in an LLC) to the SSA/Medicare base.
Kay
Thought this was interesting:
That it’s morphing and now is about power, so is attracting more and more conservative politicians. They’re so powerful, so untouchable, they don’t even have to recognize that video exists.
Kay
sorry- link.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
Some people enjoy being angry. A lot of people. Cruelty is the point exactly because they enjoy it.
Suzanne
@Frankensteinbeck: Anger is the acceptable male emotion.
Kropacetic
@Suzanne: Dammit I knew I’ve been performing male wrong this whole time.
Ok, need to be angry. But I need something to be angry about and I got nothing. Better make something up. Furries are grooming our pets! That’ll do it.
Grrrrrr…
rikyrah
@Kay:
We are going to have to agree to disagree here. Their reaction to 1/6 said everything that needs to be said about them.
It’s their unwillingness to tell the truth as to what the Republican Party is.
I understand the politics of how 46 has framed the issue, because Hillary told the phucking truth, and they lambasted her for it.
You’ve got armed muthaphuckas standing near Mail ballot Dropboxes in Arizona, and their refusal to call it for what it is.
Major Major Major Major
@cain:
We got something like that in the mail.
Very gross.
Kropacetic
Oh, they know.
Matt McIrvin
@Major Major Major Major: It’s Jesse Helms’ “White Hands” ad against Harvey Gantt all over again.
John Revolta
rikyrah
@cain:
THAT is one racist azz ad
I disagree about the race riots, though.
TaMara
I have no idea where everyone is at. I posted Kindness early because of Biden’s speech tonight and I also put up an open thread. Head thataway ====>>>>>
catclub
@oldgold:
Voting tendencies based on the economy are usually set in the spring. If there is a recession in October the voters will not notice it in time to change their votes. Likewise raising interest rates, I suspect. People won’t be losing jobs from it for 6 or more months.
OTOH Powell is a republican who replaced Janet Yellen becuase he was male and taller. Keeping republicans in jobs ( see FBI chief) by Democratic presidents is usually an own goal.
Brachiator
@Barbara:
Yep. This is another point that some people don’t quite understand. Life expectancy at birth tries to take into account infant mortality, deaths by accident or murder and death from various illnesses. If you reach age 65 you have avoided the traps which did in other people. Covid hit harder with respect to seniors, so it had a significant impact on remaining life expectancy.
bookdragon
@Lady WereBear: This looked great as a gift to my parents – both of Scottish descent – but when I got to the purchase page it had box it wanted me to check saying I understood there was subscription with recurring fee and the info/faq said the fee was monthly.
Do you actually get charged for the Laird and Lady package every month? That might be a bit steep for me for a fun extra holiday gift.
Jackie
@Kay: My at the time 96 yr old Dad had a caretaker who was 30 yrs younger – 67. They had a love hate relationship due to disagreements over politics. Dad was liberal; Ray was cowboy/horse wrangler republican. Dad fired him and saw Ray’s name in the obituaries a year or so later. Dad got a kick out of outliving him. Dad could have an evil sense of humor.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
So what are you saying then?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@catclub:
Why is Powell so bad, according to many of you? I think he’s just doing his job according to the dual mandate. And by the way, the FOMC vote was unanimous
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Also got my flu shot yesterday, just feel like I got punched in the arm, work should be fun.
I also just spent $27 on a water bottle, it has a filter in it so I can collect creek water on my hikes, rather than carrying bottled water in my camera backpack.
Kay
@Jackie:
Take raising the retirement age off the table and then start negotiations on how to make it solvent.
67 is old enough. They got two years. They should be happy with that.
cain
@rikyrah: if you’re stroking white sentiment against others – you have no idea what they’ll do. Just to be clear, this won’t be about just blacks but every PoC is at risk.
I will say this – I will be staying home and working from home when it shows that we’ve won across the board.
Kropacetic
Balloon Juice’s reach is global and its always after dark somewhere.
Seriously, though, you’re right that it may be good to avoid big public places for like a week after the election.
But then that new Black Panther is coming out. No way the dunderheads will find a political reason to go after that, right? I already got tickets.
Old School
@bookdragon:
They appear to have an add-on to join their Tree Planting Pledge at an $8 per month level. Looks like you can avoid that by changing to “No”.
Also, note that there is currently a sale if you click on the right screen.
catclub
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I mostly agree. If the vote is unanimous it is not just Powell.
I do think their response to ‘high’ inflation is much stronger and more rapid than their response to high unemployment.
CatRadio
I voted in Florida, and it was nice to put the oval on the Ds. This is, without a doubt, THE most important election cycle in my lifetime. Cannot worry about things outside my control, at least not today. Also helps that my doc adjusted my anxiety medication :)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@catclub:
Not really. They waited a year too long to start raising rates, thinking inflation would be “transitory”, which has forced them to play catch up
bookdragon
@Old School: Thanks. I must have missed that the tree planting was a monthly.
Ksmiami
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): because he’s shocking the system AND his rate increases aren’t doing much to take care of the real inflation causes such as China Covid zero, the war in Ukraine, oil company profiteering etc. All he’s doing will result in layoffs and recession.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ksmiami:
Of course he doesn’t have control over those things, but the fact remains he’s obligated by law and something has to be done about this high inflation. High inflation would result in a recession, or worse, stagflation, sooner or later like in the 70s. Powell and co are trying to head that off. Inflation is already becoming entrenched in other sectors of the economy
And tbh, the FED’s actions in response to the pandemic were probably excessive and helped cause this high inflation too
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): My criticisms of Powell is that he and the Fed dropped the ball last year. They did not raise rates when inflation was taking off. This year they raised them 5 times. Rate increases take time to take effect. I think they’ve slammed on the brakes too hard, and people are going to suffer from a recession that was probably unneccessary.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Geminid:
I agree, that’s my main criticism of him too. However, Janet Yellen and others like her, along with Powell, insisted inflation was “transitory”. Well, that’s obviously turned out to not be true.
And the problem with a high national debt is probably going to become apparent soon, because when the Fed funds rate is increased, that also increases the amount by which that debt must be serviced. The low interest rates that have become common in recent years is partly because of a high national debt imo. The federal government doesn’t want to pay the interest it did in decades past, even before the 1970s, early 1980s.
Low interest rates are not good for individual investors or institutional ones like pension funds
Ruckus
@Kay:
I retired from a physical work job at age 72. Every job I’ve had since I was 12 was physical. Some more, some less but still physical. The largest thing I worked on was a block of steel that weighed 2800 lbs. The smallest takes a magnifying visor to see. I don’t think it’s all physical labor that does you in, I think it’s genes, how you treat your body and how you look at life.
ellie
We just voted here in Colorado; everyone in this thread inspired me!
We have mail-in voting with drop boxes for those who choose to go that route and I just dropped them in the box. No armed militia around here.
This year we received We Voted stickers for our city with the ballots, too!
Kropacetic
@Ruckus: Sedentary work can do a number on your body too. Repetitive stress, holding the same position for hours.
When I got hired at a new.pharmacy a few months back, I never in my life had as much shoulder and neck pain as when I was learning their production and therefore spent literally all day looking down at trays of pills
There’s a lot more diversity in my typical workday but all sorts of work can cause stress on your body.
Kristine
@prostratedragon: It’s something to ask about. Maybe they didn’t think of it. Or maybe some sort of cost-savings was involved.
It woulda been nice, though.
WereBear
@bookdragon: I opted for the monthly as I recall. And it had a notice that it could be canceled at any time.
They seem nice, I’d ask them to be sure.
We wanted to sponsor another child, but trees are cheaper and thus will be our holiday gift to each other.
Stacy
@Elizabelle: The guy who ran the 2020 elections in Virginia was the commencement speaker at my daughter’s graduation from VCU this past May. Great guy and very inspirational speech. I so wanted to jump up and cheer when he was speaking about democracy and my kids were making fun of my fan-girl behavior.