You guys. I’m going to be scarce, or scattered, around here the next few days. For lo, election time is upon our nation and I volunteered to not only be a day-of challenger, but also a pre-processing observer, figuring, I’m retired, what else do I have to do? And not too much was a dumb answer, because chores and jobs are starting to pile up.
This weekend was the monkey wrench. I signed up for lifeguard training, and had to do the whole course again because I let my last certification lapse. It consumed the weekend like a ravenous beast, and isn’t even over. (The pool where we were supposed to do the deep-water stuff had mechanical problems, so that part is TBA.) But. I found time to attend two fun parties Saturday night, and had a couple drinks with a friend Sunday, so it wasn’t terrible. I’m just behind on everything else, relearning the lesson of my youth: Laundry will wait, but a fun party won’t.
I start ballot pre-processing observation this afternoon. And then it’ll be a sprint into Wednesday.
I’m feeling pretty confident about Michigan, a couple of nail-biter races notwithstanding. I’m not feeling good about the rest of the country, though. A doomy friend says these are the last good years in America. I’m increasingly thinking he’s right.
So to fill out the post, some pix from this weekend.
Learning infant CPR in lifeguarding class:
Me with a friend’s real baby and her grandmother at one of the fun parties. (He and his wife bought a convent and have filled it with massage therapists, facialists and artists. No one knew much about the elk, other than he was a native of Saskatchewan.) I’m dressed down because the earlier party was outdoors and extremely casual.
Finally, look what Alan found while vacuuming out a cold-air intake in our foyer. It’s in pretty good shape for having spent half a century in the bowels of our house:
If it’s worth anything, let me know. Otherwise I’m buying a lottery ticket.
Good week, all. I’ll speak up when I next surface.
Dorothy said on November 7, 2022 at 8:45 am
I wonder if any of those baseball players are still around? Wouldn’t they get a kick out of seeing that card!
I was down for the count yesterday with a stomach/intestinal bug and am slowly feeling better today. But I also wrenched my back this morning and I’m gingerly making my way around the house. My first taste of real food was some scrambled eggs. I shared them with Nestle.
I’m nervous about tomorrow – I’m a paper ballot judge – but I’m watching the videos one more time to refresh, and I’m also aware they won’t let a newbie sit all by herself and mess things up to the point of getting put in the slammer (ha ha). The length of the day is also a concern but I knew that when I signed up. Just have to make the most of it!
My grandson had RSV last week but he’s bounced back after breathing treatments and antibiotics. I know a family who had all three sons with it. I can’t imagine how worried they were.
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JodiP said on November 7, 2022 at 9:42 am
We also had a good weekend–caught a show with a local musician who’s ebeen around since the early 90s. She a real rock-and -roller, but began also singing jazz the last few years. The setting was a classy jazz club, the Dakota. Melissa saw her shows in the 90’s and is still very crushed out on her and we got to chat after the show. I got a cute picture of her fan girling!
We had another couple over for dinner last night and made a bunch of robust salad-y type things from Milk Street Magazine. They brought a beautiful, homemade apple tart.
I too, will be election-working tomorrow! Super concerned about how everything will turn out. I know we are are rightfully concerned about repro rights and voter suppression, but as we head into COP 27, if the Republicans win, we can kiss serious efforts to address climate change good-bye. This is unfortunately getting zero coverage, due to short attention spans and the messaging people think will win elections.
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Jenine said on November 7, 2022 at 10:02 am
That’s a fun find, those guys look tough. I looked up one of them, per the Wikip article, Hriniak was “one of the most prominent batting coaches in the game during the last two decades of the 20th century.”
@Dorothy I’m glad to hear your grandson is over the worst of RSV. And all those who are working to make the election work have my thanks.
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Julie Robinson said on November 7, 2022 at 10:03 am
1969 might have been the last time I was engaged by baseball because The Cubs Will Shine in ’69. Spoiler alert, they did not.
Dorothy, make sure to pack some Aleve in your Tuesday go-bag. I’ll have enough for everyone in our precinct. It is a long day but adrenalin will carry you through, and you can collapse on Wednesday.
A snapshot of local voter awareness: a man came into church yesterday to drop off his mail-in ballot. We are a polling place, but do not have a drop off box. When I mentioned it to our daughter she said people had been coming all week to early vote. There are 20 places for that, including all the county library branches, but again, we were not one of them.
After lunch with some family on Sunday, our nephew said he was going to early vote Monday, and we had to set him straight that yesterday was the last day for that. And he’s a college professor! If you think all this suppresses turnout, I would not argue with you.
Best wishes to all our democracy champions for a smooth day tomorrow.
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Peter said on November 7, 2022 at 10:05 am
The Immortal Walt Hriniak didn’t have a long career as a catcher, but he was a coach for many years, including several as the hitting coach for your Chicago White Sox – among other players he tutored was the Immortal Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, and the Immortal Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan.
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Dorothy said on November 7, 2022 at 10:15 am
Forgot to say I have a few colleagues from my old job at UD who’d love to have that dress your friend is wearing!
Check this out – my daughter’s pic next to Jeff Bezos’ pic….! First and last time that’s ever likely to happen. And for a good reason.
https://careers.washingtonpost.com/careers/
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Jeff Borden said on November 7, 2022 at 10:27 am
I’m trying to console myself with the memory of how wrong the polls were in 2016. I’m also betting there is a seething anger among women voters about how their reproductive rights have been thrown into the bonfire, but perhaps the high cost of gas and the shortage of Pampers will be top of mind. The only solution for me will be media isolation tomorrow night. Our home will be a pundit-free zone. Wednesday morning will be soon enough to learn just how fucked we are as a nation.
We saw some jazz Friday night and took in “Tar,” the film starring Cate Blanchett. It’s an awfully cold movie about a very cold human being and it clocked in at 2 hours and 38 minutes. What is left to say about Blanchett? She’s amazing, but the movie is a tough slog and we saw it with other film buffs who were also pretty ambivalent about it. If any of you have seen it, I’d be very interested in your takes.
I’m picking up some generic Xanax later today. I’ll probably need a dose or two after tomorrow.
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Diane said on November 7, 2022 at 10:52 am
Dorothy, very impressive about your daughter (not having a pic next to Bezos, but having a cool journalism job with the WP)!
I too am doing election stuff tomorrow, but starting at five pm. The f’ing local Republican Party here sent a text to registered Republicans rand Unaffiliateds (and we have more Unaffilated voters than members of either party) telling them not to vote until Election Day. And voter turnout so far is lagging behind 2018. I hope there is a freakin’ blizzard tomorrow and they are all stuck home!
But I will be doing signature verification of day of ballots tomorrow from five until whenever we run out of ballots or steam.
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David C said on November 7, 2022 at 11:15 am
I’m nervous as hell no matter the outcome. The Rs have fed their looney base the we win or they cheated BS and they’re eating it up. I hear enough from people who should know that it could go better than we fear. But they’re crazy, armed, and primed to explode. I’ll be surprised if the National Guard aren’t called out somewhere.
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Deborah said on November 7, 2022 at 12:49 pm
Nail biting until Weds morning, my anxiety meds aren’t going to be able to handle it, I’m afraid. Lots to be worried about today and tomorrow. Hoping that the polls are wrong.
Diane, sorry to hear that about Boebert’s district, I was hoping the early voting there would be robust.
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jim said on November 7, 2022 at 3:09 pm
Deborah: we in Colorado all get our ballots in the mail. The R’s in Boebert’s district HAVE voted early-they just haven’t dropped their ballots off yet. It is the current demented strategy to thwart “tampering”.
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Jerrie in MidMd said on November 7, 2022 at 3:20 pm
I’ll be thinking of all of us nn.c people at our posts tomorrow and Wednesday. I tripped on a crumpled floor mat leaving the early voting center at night 10/27 and dislocated my right index finger. It’s now velcro’d to its buddy middle finger but I’ll be at set-up tonight and at my polling place tomorrow at 6.
Dorothy, your daughter is one of the good things about the WaPo but I will never forgive them for suspending door delivery here 2 weeks ago and sending it by the USPS. I’ll get yesterday’s and today’s in an hour or so. Most people I know have cancelled and gone solely online, which I’ll do at some point as well.
I’m also scared about the outcome. Julie, thanks for the Aleve reminder.
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Deborah said on November 7, 2022 at 4:03 pm
Diane, I thought that it was usually the Dems who vote early, so if early voting is robust the outcome may be good for Dems? And the Repubs vote on Election Day. Although I think the Rs used to be encouraged to vote by mail because they were usually older folks but 2020 changed that dynamic because Rs claimed early voting increased voter fraud. Or something. I’m confused.
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FDChief said on November 7, 2022 at 4:20 pm
The problem is that self-government is hard and requires work.
And “liberal” government requires hard work like thinking about ideas, being considerate of other people (other than racists, theocrats, and fascists, mind…), being willing to put aside personal wants for greater needs, and in general not being a greedy selfish asshole.
The dark genius of modern “conservatism” is realizing just how many people ARE greedy selfish assholes.
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jcburns said on November 7, 2022 at 4:38 pm
Deborah, I think you go into a nebulous place when you assume that all early voting is D or R.
Me, I don’t care, I just want humans to vote for who they want. Early would be nice.
And I hope (hope!) that the number of those humans out there voting D is a large, large number.
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David C said on November 7, 2022 at 5:49 pm
Like Steinbeck said FDChief “The poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
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FDChief said on November 7, 2022 at 6:42 pm
David: my guess is that poor white people may, instead, value being white more than rage at being poor. Who was it said that if you could convince the crummiest white guy that you would make him more valuable than the most terrific black guy that the dumb cluck would hand you his wallet?
My guess is that most poor non-white people think Steinbeck was full of shit.
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alex said on November 7, 2022 at 6:58 pm
My dad’s turning 95 tomorrow. My hubby and I celebrated with him last night. Tonight he’s celebrating with neighbors who are making him dinner and are supposed to drive him to the polls tomorrow. Neighbors who have been taking him shopping and doing kind things for him ever since he has been widowed.
Neighbors whom I just looked up on Facebook and I’m fucking aghast. Trumpists in the extreme. Posting Sebastian Gorka bullshit. Anti-abortion bullshit. Pretty much every kind of in-your-face offensive thing one is likely to see these days on social media directed toward Democrats and liberals. I hope they don’t get to talking politics tonight or they’ll probably refuse to take my dad to vote. But these look like people who don’t ever put a cork in it, so I can’t imagine it not coming up.
I had hoped I’d get to meet them one day and thank them for all they do for my dad but I’m totally skeeved out.
On edit: FDChief, that was LBJ. I think he said if you tell the lowest white man that he’s better than the highest black man he’ll empty his pockets for ya.
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Sherri said on November 7, 2022 at 6:59 pm
FDChief, that was LBJ.
President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
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diane said on November 7, 2022 at 8:02 pm
Yes, Deborah that’s what I meant by hoping for a snowstorm. Democrats will have already turned their ballots in and Republicans who got that stupid text and waited would be stuck home in bad whether. But it is not supposed to snow until Thursday.
Oh, I must have forgotten to mention, redistricting did the very good thing of moving me from just on the edge inside of Boebert’s district to just inside Neguse’s. I got to vote for Joe Neguse and it felt very good. Of course, the effect of the redistricting was to make both Districts very safe for the incumbents.
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LAMary said on November 7, 2022 at 8:34 pm
My brother in Colorado, a republican no matter who’s running, says that mail in ballots are at least 25% bogus. Dead voters, non existent voters, people who vote multiple times…just like how the Kennedys got elected. And Trump grabbing women by the pussy was nothing compared to the orgies the Kennedy brothers had in the Oval Office.
He’s my brother. I can’t just stop talking to him.
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Sherri said on November 7, 2022 at 8:39 pm
It’s sort of morbidly fascinating watching Elon and his band of merry VCs light $44 billion on fire while demonstrating just how stupid rich men can be.
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Suzanne said on November 7, 2022 at 8:44 pm
Alex, I know far too many people like your dad’s neighbors. People who brought me food when I was down for the count after chemo treatments, who offered to drive me to appointments if my husband couldn’t, people who care for their own neighbors, raised great kids, but who believe outrageous things about Democrats and I know won’t hesitate to vote for people who would happily turn this country into a Christian version of Iran, including the loss of rights for women, and prisons full of political prisoners.
I will never understand it.
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Dorothy said on November 7, 2022 at 8:45 pm
Here’s a good article from two years ago that delves into whether the early mail in voters lean one way or the other:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/us/vote-by-mail-coronavirus.html
At our set up this evening I was told that there were zero people who voted on paper ballots last Spring. They don’t think that will be the case tomorrow, but the VLM said he’d be surprised if we got as many as a dozen. Gonna be a VERY long day. At least there’s another lady, Anna, who is new and the other paper ballot judge like me. So we can keep each other company. I can get a lot of knitting done!
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Icarus said on November 7, 2022 at 9:01 pm
We don’t have early voting here in Mississippi-Stan, but you can do mail ballots for a limited number of reasons. ID is required to vote. I’m old white cis male so I don’t worry that they will dispute my Bona Fides.
Not too many choices on the ballot in this district. State rep between a dem and a republican. Other slots are unopposed non-partisan, which down here might just mean true conservative instead of trumpeter.
The school board is the only one that has what would pass as a progressive trying to defeat an incumbent conservative.
I’m not worried about tomorrow. It’s Wednesday that worries me.
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diane said on November 7, 2022 at 9:21 pm
LAMary, not that it will matter to your brother but there are no bogus ballots in Colorado. Each ballot is mailed with a return envelope. The ballot must be returned (via mail or at a drop box) in that envelope (unless doing in person voting which has different protections in place) and the envelope has a specific, unique individual voter ID number that must be recognized when the enveloped is scanned. The envelope also must be signed and the signature is matched against the signatures on file (voter registration, prior ballots, driver’s license). I’m not saying there couldn’t be some way to do a fraudulent vote but I am saying it would be impossible to do it on any kind of large scale. It could be done by taking someone’s legitimate ballot, them not noticing and requesting a new ballot, and then doing a good forgery of their signature. How many times could that be done?
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alex said on November 7, 2022 at 10:02 pm
Well, the good news is that it’s a different neighbor taking my dad to vote tomorrow. And the Trumpists apparently made nice and my dad had a pleasant evening, even though he thought the dinner they prepared wasn’t very good.
His insurance plan changed and I was trying to help him set up his online account and the web site was vexatious as all hell. We’ll have to get on the phone with someone to get anywhere with it. Honestly, I don’t know how a computer-illiterate elderly person could get anything done with this bullshit.
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Mark P said on November 8, 2022 at 12:02 am
I was brooding about the likelihood of Marjorie Taylor Greene being re-elected and Herschel Walker beating Raphael Warnock here in Georgia, and wondering what the hell has happened to people. And then I thought about 1968, when Georgia stumbled into electing a true clown, Lester Maddox, governor, and gave all its electoral college votes to George Wallace. Then I realized this state, at least, has been wackadoodle for a long time. I think that means that nut jobs aren’t new anywhere in the country, even though it feels like things have really changed in the last few years. Should I feel better, or worse?
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David C said on November 8, 2022 at 5:59 am
It seems like any web site, or anything related to health for that matter, is garbage. I was in Walgreen’s getting a booster when an elderly couple came in and asked for boosters. They were told in ads they saw or heard that they could walk in. The person in the pharmacy said you can walk in when there are no other appointments. He then told the couple that they could get appointments on line. The man told the pharmacist that they didn’t have a computer. The pharmacist told them they could make appointments over the phone. They old guy said “Have you ever tried to use your phone system”. The pharmacist just looks down at his feet and says, “I know”. What’s worse is the just sent them away. Why in the world didn’t he just make them an appointment right then and there? We’re so used to settling for half-assed crap because we know there’s almost nothing we can do about it.
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Jeff Gill said on November 8, 2022 at 6:53 am
Same problem, David C., in trying to get my father-in-law (93) his bivalent. The process is now almost* entirely privatized so they insist on prioritizing
making you go online and either setting up a profile or giving them data which in his case, he doesn’t have. And if you try the old “drop in and see” method, you see an empty pharmacy counter, you’re told to make appointment online, and the next one is some bizarre distance ahead “because we’re not allowed to do more than four jabs an hour.”
*In Indiana & Ohio, you can still go to the county health department, but those options are still relatively constrained and despite their best efforts, involve some waiting in line which he just can’t do, so there I am.
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Diane said on November 8, 2022 at 8:22 am
I had no idea that the vaccine situation had gotten so difficult and cumbersome in some states. But yes having the government do something is evil ‘socialism.’ Let’s elect businessmen to run government and privatize everything! When these people aren’t being incredibly evil, they are incredibly stupid.
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kv450 said on November 8, 2022 at 8:27 am
Dear Nancy – hearty thanks to you and all the other polling place volunteers.
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Mark P said on November 8, 2022 at 8:46 am
We’re not fond of Walmart but at least here you can get Covid and flu shots as walk-ins. The only constraint is whether they have the Covid vaccine available. We use CVS for some prescriptions, and have found their phone interface maddening. Here again, Walmart’s is useable, at least for checking on refills.
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LAMary said on November 8, 2022 at 9:53 am
Older son has a paying job with the county elections board as a tech person. He covers 4 voting locations, checking any reported malfunctions with the I Pads we use to vote and tagging any other voting equipment that’s been reported as malfunctioning or there’s suspicion of tampering.
Sort of like Melissa Carrone but not stupid. He’s been working on this for two weeks, first for training then at early voting centers. For him it’s a combination of wanting the election to go smoothly and making some decent bucks. It pays pretty well.
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Heather said on November 8, 2022 at 10:11 am
I’m feeling resigned no matter what happens. Here’s hoping things go leftwards today though.
I do think sometimes things have to be destroyed for better things to take their place. Unfortunately for us humans, in the case of the government and the world situation in general, that could take decades.
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Suzanne said on November 8, 2022 at 10:18 am
I am reasonably tech savvy but it’s so exhausting trying to figure out how to navigate a million different systems just to get something as simple as a flu shot. So many elderly people have no access to a computer at all. Most businesses & other entities have only an on-line option and 9 times out of 10, their systems are frustratingly cumbersome and awkward. My brother was in a local Meijer store, pharmacy devoid of customers so he asked about getting a COVID vaccine right then but was told to go online and book an appointment. My husband has dealt with The Lutheran Foundation in Fort Wayne which requires every grant application to be uploaded into their insane portal. He has trouble every time but has been told that no, he cannot simply drop off the paperwork to them, it has to go through the portal. Our accountant had a portal that I tried unsuccessfully to use several times but at least, they do let us drop off the paperwork.
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Jeff Gill said on November 8, 2022 at 11:39 am
Everytime they say “portal” I think of that gateway in Star Trek’s “City on the Edge of Forever.”
Bwahahaha. (We all cope in different ways.)
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Dorothy said on November 8, 2022 at 12:18 pm
Quick stop to tell you all how very, very busy we’ve been. I just ran out to eat lunch. Looks like maybe the lines improved while was gone. But my fellow paper ballot judge and I have processed 15 voters so far. And we started nearly 6 hours ago. And I only overheard one woman complain about how the country has gone to hell in the last two years. I smiled at her very sweetly but inside I was hurling everything I could think of to challenge her on that assumption.
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Julie Robinson said on November 8, 2022 at 2:33 pm
We’re into 700 voters here, just have a brief lull.
Suzanne, that Lutheran Foundation portal is pure evil. It made my mild mannered husband curse, which says a lot.
CVS is another that makes you register online for shots. We were the only ones there, but they turned away an older couple who I’m sure couldn’t navigate a website.
Hmm…maybe we’ve hit on a reason for low compliance rates.
Half of what I do for my mom is navigating these systems. She keeps saying she’d be lost otherwise, and she speaks truth.
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Deborah said on November 8, 2022 at 3:59 pm
It is astonishing to me how many websites, in person procedures etc for all kinds of necessary offerings are nearly impossible to figure out. Getting LB a state ID when she first moved to NM was one of those experiences for us 10 years ago, renewing it is still a hassle. Getting her signed up for Medicaid took 3 adults to figure out and 2 of those were college graduates and 1 from Harvard. Even something as mundane as ordering a coat on line a couple of years ago had me tearing out my hair. I love the coat and it was worth it but boy howdy. I can’t imagine how people with issues can possibly figure some of these things out by themselves. And sadly, many can’t and suffer because of it. No wonder there are so many homeless, people often have no one to help them navigate the systems even when it may seem simple to the people who design those systems. If you’ve ever spent time in a hospital and you’ve had to figure out how to just turn a light off in your room may know what I mean, sounds ridiculously simple but it can be horribly frustrating.
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alex said on November 8, 2022 at 5:00 pm
My insurance made me drop CVS and change to Walgreens and I can attest that both have maddening phone interfaces and ridiculous web sites too. Rather than letting you select the store of your choice online, they ask you to put in your ZIP code and then they give you a list of stores, none of which is the one you want. Hell, a Mishawaka location came up the last time I tried, and a bunch of others around Fort Wayne, but not the one just down the road from me. Put in the ZIP of the store you want and it still won’t appear.
I swear, if there’s ever a mass shooting at a Walgreens or CVS, the perp’s going to be a disgruntled customer who’s decided to end it all because he’s resigned that he’s gonna die anyway without his fucking meds.
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Dexter Friend said on November 8, 2022 at 5:55 pm
Nice seeing the baseball card. I remember Walt the best as he got a lot of press as a great hitting coach, as noted above.
David C, for some reason the V.A. webpages for health care are so complicated it’s impossible to do business on them. For example, the simple thing called travel pay. Just 8 years ago a man at the clinic filled out a paper and in a few days the money was in the vet’s account. Now it’s maddening to get to the correct form and when you fill it out and submit, nothing. If one form does get through, they deny it…I mean, they sent me to Toledo, but since Fort Wayne is closer, they say I should have gone to Fort Wayne for my doctor appointment…but my doctor is in Toledo: claim denied. Complain I did to some advocate and was told this surefire way to fix the snag: write your Congresswoman!
Think Marcy gives a shit? I dunno…I know Sherrod Brown cares, because I saw him visiting the clinic in Toledo. Ever try to call Sherrod Brown’s office about ANYthing? Your response will be crickets. At least my former Congressman Bob Latta’s staff did respond to me when I asked for him to tell me why my grandson was denied entrance to The Air Force Academy. (He did get into the Space Force Academy on a delayed basis).
Julie, for the few weeks before my baseball season started in 1969, I was at weekend games in Wrigley Field. When I was drafted into the US Army, I left the team I was playing for and had a month left as a civilian and rented a cheap room and went to all the home games for a month in late July and August, and became a Bleacher Bum. I got to know the ringleaders, Ron Grousl, President, Mike Haley, VP, and Mike Murphy, the bugler, and my own teammate, Willy Steinmiller. I got disgruntled after a short while because Grousl was a racist in my book, shouting horrible things of a racial nature to Black players, especially Willie Mays. I backed away from the Bleacher Bums quickly. Haley was a bartender across Waveland Avenue at what was then called Ray’s Bleachers, a bar, very crowded all the time. Ray Meyer, no relation to the DePaul basketball legendary coach of the same name, owned the joint. I was 19 and passed for 21 and the Old Style flowed.
Years later Ray told me Grousl ended up living off a woman’s ADC checks in Denver.
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Dorothy said on November 8, 2022 at 8:18 pm
Alex maybe the trick is to put in the zip code of your preferred store. It just might work!
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alex said on November 8, 2022 at 10:15 pm
Dorothy, the Walgreens web site doesn’t even acknowledge that there’s a Walgreens location in Auburn, Indiana. There is. It’s right across the street from the hospital.
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Joe Kobiela said on November 8, 2022 at 10:48 pm
Uh,there is no wallgreens in Auburn, there is a pharmacy in the hospital and a cvs out on the west end of town.
Pilot Joe
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jim said on November 8, 2022 at 10:49 pm
I loathe Georgia. Sorry to say, but this election has done it for me.
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jcburns said on November 8, 2022 at 11:30 pm
So you loathe all of us who voted for Stacey and Rafael and Bee?
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alex said on November 9, 2022 at 6:15 am
I thought for sure there was a Walgreens at Seventh and Duesenberg on the southeast corner.
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David C said on November 9, 2022 at 6:23 am
Mixed bag here. Tony Evers won reelection. It’s not looking good for Mandela Barnes but it’s close. Our state Assembly candidate won. The scumbag she ran against brought up some legal troubles she had when she was young. His concession had all the grace a Republican can muster. He said “I guess Oshkosh is OK electing a criminal”. What a MFer. We have an election next year for a state Supreme Court seat. If we can flip that maybe we can end the gerrymander, or maybe I’ll just move home to Michigan. You got yourselves a trifecta. Way to go Michigan.
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Dorothy said on November 9, 2022 at 7:33 am
We were much busier at the paper ballot table than we thought we’d be. On Monday night an experienced poll judge said “You won’t be very busy tomorrow” to me and Ana. But they were wrong. We weren’t swamped but at times it got a little hairy when multiple came at the same time. But over all we did a very good job and I’m proud of the work. We processed 45 voters.
The most astonishing thing that happened, though, was something two different people said to me about 90 minutes apart. The first was a young woman who was voting provisionally. I was explaining how she would fill out her ballot over at a confidential table set up, and then she’d seal the envelope and I’d hold up the green VOTED bag for her to deposit the envelope. Wide eyed she said ‘And that won’t be counted unless the election is close, right?” You know poll workers are forbidden to speak about anything leaning right or left – we take an oath! – so I was careful with my reply. “My goodness no, EVERY vote is counted! I’m not sure why you would think that but no, no no – every vote matters and is included in the totals.”
Then later a man in line to vote at a machine was killing time while waiting, and he got chatty. He asked what we did at our table, and after we told him he fired off “oh yeah, right, those are the votes that aren’t counted unless it’s close!” This time I was ready. “Where in the world did you hear that?!” I asked him. Suddenly he back pedaled and said ‘Uh, oh, I don’t know – someone told me that a long time ago.” “Well they told you wrong” I said, “Every vote is counted. No one separates out one kind of vote from another. They all matter equally.” Of course I know why they had that assumption but Jeez Crickets I am just amazed that SO MANY people are dumb enough to fall for that kind of crap. And that’s what it is. NO common sense and they don’t seem embarrassed to be saying that stuff out loud.
For the first time ever I was recognized as “Olivia’s grandma” while working the polls. And by a 6 year old! All of a sudden this little girl yells at me – HEY I know you! You’re Olivia’s grandma! That capped my day. I don’t ever recall meeting her but apparently she lives in the neighborhood and maybe she was at the Easter egg hunt last April or something like that. I smiled so big it’s surprising my face didn’t break.
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Joe Kobiela said on November 9, 2022 at 8:59 am
Nope veterinary office.
Pilot Joe
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alex said on November 9, 2022 at 9:14 am
I understand Dems’ general tendency toward pessimism anymore, but things are looking pretty good, all things considered. And Michigan will be the new sanctuary state for abortions in the midwest. I bet we’ll have clinics popping up all over the border just like pot dispensaries.
Of course, here in Indiana there’s no good news, but that’s to be expected in a state where Republicans largely run unchallenged in their gerrymandered districts except when they get primaried by other Republicans. But at least in the local school board election I’ve been following, two of the three good candidates won and only one book-burning astroturf douchebag (out of a multitude) made the cut. One of those losers is married to a former teacher who got shitcanned for sexting (and God knows what else) with male students and people were surprised that he had the brass to run with a skeleton like that in his closet.
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Jeff Borden said on November 9, 2022 at 9:30 am
I’m more puzzled than dismayed this morning. Yes, several morons were elected or reelected to the Senate and House, but this was no “red wave.” Most of tRump’s picks flamed out. . .though the hideous fauxbilly J.D. Vance won in fucking Ohio. It’s clear Americans want legal abortion when you see Kentucky follow the lead of Kansas and vote to keep it safe and legal. The next two years are gonna be rough, but perhaps not as terrible as they might’ve been.
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basset said on November 9, 2022 at 9:31 am
I was once again a precinct registrar, checking people in. Two of us processed 422 voters and only one gave us any trouble… old guy walked up to the table real slowly and took up a confrontational posture, I asked for his ID:
“If I was a Mexican immigrant I could vote without any ID.”
“If you were a Mexican immigrant you wouldn’t be able to vote.”
“If I was a Mexican immigrant I wouldn’t have to show you this.”
“We’re not going to have this conversation.”
So he stalked over to the machine and voted, the way ours are set up you vote with a touch screen and that device spits out a paper ballot which you then deposit in another machine which tallies the votes. That one and the “I Voted” stickers are right next to the exit door.
“Would you like a sticker?”
“No, I can remember that I voted. I’m not that senile.”
Have a nice day and GTFO, then. We’ve recently had some polling places change due to a local council redistricting so there were a few remarks about gerrymandering and is this vote gonna count, nothing rude and no armed “patriots” guarding the door though so overall it went pretty well.
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JodiP said on November 9, 2022 at 9:40 am
Feeling some relief today. So sad Stacy and Beto lost. I just think they would do a world of good if elected–or try to because without a legislature to back them up, getting things done would be challenging.
I was an election judge yesterday, and my highlight was registering Zaynab Mohamed, a 25-year-old running for state senate. I thought her name was familiar (not running in my precinct) but eventually it clicked and without identifying her as a candidate, briefly fan-girled. And she won!Lots of great candidates won state seats–young, diverse, progressive folks.
A great candidate won our county attorney seat, too. I was too tired to go to the victory party 🙁 And a black, progressive woman won county sheriff, replacing someone we had high hopes for but turned out to be feckless.
And Dems took control of our legislature!
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Deborah said on November 9, 2022 at 9:45 am
Happy to hear that election day wasn’t violent and there was no red wave, thank god. I’m sad about Tim Ryan and Val Demmings, I gave them money but such is life. At least FL elected the young guy in District 10 that I hoped would win. Good for Fetterman and Shapiro (did OZ concede?). The guv of NM got re-elected and the two Dem representatives there did too. Nothing to nail bite over now except Nevada and Georgia Senate races. I hope Lake doesn’t get elected in AZ, she’s a nut case. Oh and Boebert might actually lose, yesssssss.
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basset said on November 9, 2022 at 9:49 am
“illegal Mexican immigrant,” I should say, but you know what I meant.
Checked one fairly well-known musician in this time, and another probably more famous last election, but this being Nashville the custom is just to be cool and not bother em.
Going shooting this afternoon, with a couple of antique pump action 22s I got from Mrs. B’s dad… 1924 Remington 12CS and 1919 Winchester 06, if that means anything to anyone here but me. Our local range is in a former freestanding movie theater which was remodeled after the big flood… was surprised to learn that when it was built the walls were filled with sand to hold down noise leakage from one movie to another, works for shooting lanes too.
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alex said on November 9, 2022 at 9:55 am
Whitmer’s promising to rein in the cost of insulin in Michigan. People will probably start crossing the border for their pharms too, and I’ll be one of them.
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Dorothy said on November 9, 2022 at 10:34 am
Deborah I just read that at 9:30 this morning Oz called Fetterman to concede.
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jim said on November 9, 2022 at 10:35 am
jc, I love tons of Georgians, just not the state politics. Lived in Indiana for 60+ years and dislike it even more now, and I’m not fond of Ohio. Don’t get me started on Texas, AZ, and the Deep South.
I’m glad I’ve got some years to look forward to in Colorado. At least for a few years things look pretty rational, and the approach to elections and issues is tons more to my liking.
I’m holding out hope for the GA and NV Senate races.
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Icarus said on November 9, 2022 at 11:41 am
Do we need a new thread for post-midterm discussion? I’m glad the red wave was more of a papercut than a gashing wound but did we lose either house? Even if we didn’t, will Manchin and Sinema finally stop bill-blocking?
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Jeff Gill said on November 9, 2022 at 12:08 pm
Very hard not to credit Trump’s irrepressible urge to get out on the stump and campaign and put on rallies in the last two weeks to helping create a countersurge to the anticipated Red Wave. Perhaps in Ohio it felt more real because it’s still so much the case here, but it didn’t seem good for weeks, and then something changed — and lots of “day of” Democratic voters surged to the polls. I think Trump helped remind folks what’s at stake, the ol’ rascal.
I’m curious to see how McCarthy handles rebellious factions in his caucus if the GOP has a very slim majority in the House. As many have said both left and right, it will be a grim pleasure to watch McCarthy’s misery in getting what he’s wanted for so long, and ending up hating it.
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Jeff Borden said on November 9, 2022 at 1:07 pm
The House will be a wreck for the next two years even if the QOP wins the majority with a single seat. Kevin McCarthy is an empty man with no ideas and no spine who has sold his very soul to be the Speaker of the House, so he’ll be easily steamrolled by Jockstrap Gym Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Gangrene, Matt “Pedophile” Gaetz and the rest of the crazies. Hell, he might not even be made speaker.
My hope is the House QOP nuts overplay their hands with all the probes and impeachment efforts. That is all they’re built to do. . .they cannot govern and they lack much in the way of ideas beyond “owning the libs.”
One last point: All this shit is on those of us over 45. Boomers and Gen Xers went for the red hats by substantial margins according to post-election analysis, but Generation Z went huge for the Dems. The kids are all right, indeed. It’s time for oldsters to start giving way to fresh blood and new ideas. The nation is in dire need of their energy and enthusiasm.
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Deborah said on November 9, 2022 at 1:32 pm
I’m having withdrawal pangs from quitting Twitter today. First thing this morning I grabbed my phone to check out my home feed forgetting that I was quitting. I managed to control myself and went to NYT and WaPo to find out what happened. I haven’t figured out how to officially delete my Twitter account so it’s just sitting there taunting me. I will figure it out eventually, I need my life back. I have a design project right now to distract me which I’m thankful for. Is there a twelve step program for Twitter quitting? I wasn’t like this when I quit FB, that was easy. I never posted to Twitter only read other people and occasionally liked someone’s post, once or twice I commented on a post.
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Peter said on November 9, 2022 at 1:34 pm
My election judge experience was pretty bland, but this happened: the local MAGA expert came in to vote at 6:58, as usual, and spent a good twenty minutes going over the ballot and loudly telling everyone his opinion. One of the judges had enough of the show and told him at 7:15 “WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY AND VOTE!”
I am so happy Fetterman won. Crossing my fingers on Kari Lake going down to defeat – people say DeSantis is a new and improved trump, but she’s really the one to worry about. And Ron Johnson – where do you start on that one.
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Julie Robinson said on November 9, 2022 at 1:59 pm
LAMary, if your son is tech savvy he could be quite a boon to the election board and maybe make it a career. They seem to be good jobs though part of a big bureacracy.
We processed 2128 voters in our two precincts yesterday, could have been more but that b*tch Nicole starting raising her ugly head with torrential rain and wind. I ended up bringing home a whole load of mop-up towels for the laundry. We aren’t recovered from Ian yet and face a collective weariness. The city hasn’t taken care of our damaged tree or picked up all the storm waste yet, like the fencing the guy three doors down put in the street. Ugh.
Maxwell Frost is our new Congressman!
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brian stouder said on November 9, 2022 at 2:35 pm
Deborah, you got me chuckling! The Twitter/Facebook bug never bit me….but a quarter-century ago, when the IndyCar split happened (CART vs IRL) I was consumed with battling it out on the Indy Star’s racing blog. One side passionately supported CART (ie Penske, Ganassi, Andretti, etc) and the other pledged allegiance to IRL (Tony George – ie ‘the grandson’, and AJ Foyt, and a few other loyalists), and the actual split must have gone on for a year or two. When the Indy 500 ran directly against the US 500 – which was run at Michigan International Speedway – Pam and I were in the grandstands for ‘the stars and the cars’ at MIS….and the lap-1 schlamozzle happened right in front of us, and I told Pam I’d never hear the end of it on-line, and that came true!
Cannot specifically say how many more years I visited that sight, but for the rest of that time, the first-lap schlamozzle at the US-500, and ‘Crybabies At Roger’s Track’ meme remained standard daily fare
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Deborah said on November 9, 2022 at 3:15 pm
Julie, I thought you might be in the district that just elected Frost. He was someone I was watching closely, seems like a great guy, so glad he won.
I was so sorry to hear about Beto and Tim Ryan, such a shame but Beto in particular was a long shot. I hope they keep trying to make Texas more progressive, the school shootings there need to be stopped.
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Deborah said on November 9, 2022 at 3:57 pm
It is just absurd that Grassley won another term, he’s 89 years old. Ridiculous. He and Diane Feinstein need to call it quits. I’m not being ageist since I’m old too, not that old yet though. Let the younger folks have a chance FFS.
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Jeff Borden said on November 9, 2022 at 6:35 pm
I’m 71 and I’m sick of my generation. We marched for Civil Rights and against the Vietnam War. We stood alongside women as they fought for the Equal Rights Amendment. And then we got narcissistic and selfish and self-centered and put garbage like tRump into office, started whining about taxes, complaining about cultural changes, acting like self-entitled shits. It’s time for us to exit stage left.
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Deborah said on November 9, 2022 at 7:44 pm
Amen, Jeff B.
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Mark P said on November 9, 2022 at 8:34 pm
Well, the reverend will be facing the CTE poster boy in a runoff in Georgia. MTG won handily over a sane opponent, which means a majority of my neighbors are drooling morons. The House will be lost for two years, so idiots will run wild holding hearings on Hunter Biden’s laptop. I hope the Democrats can get some lame-duck legislation because come January, Biden’s administration is over. What a wonderful world we live in.
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Dexter Friend said on November 10, 2022 at 1:59 am
I can’t shake the awful feelings I have for the Democratic Party and the rich donors who usually fund campaigns where hope is there, for the win, with some help. Even though I knew Tim Ryan was going to lose because of multiple money dumps into his campaign by billionaires, it is sickening to recall how Obama, Biden, all the hitters used Ohio as flyover country from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania and left Ryan to be eaten by the wolves. It’s time to move on, but this whole episode throws me back to 2004 when the Kerry campaign ignored Ohio in the last month. Now, Ohio is a bright red goddamned cherry-red state.
The dolls pictured in this thread remind me of a line from the cult Bruce Robinson classic, “Withnail and I”
“Danny: My partner’s got a really good idea for making dolls. His name’s Presuming Ed. His sister give him the idea. She got a doll on Christmas what pisses itself.
Withnail: Really.
Danny: Then you’ve got to change its drawers for it. Horrible really, but they’re like that, the little girls. So we’re going to make one that shits itself, as well.”
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alex said on November 10, 2022 at 8:00 am
Jeff at 70:
Tail-end boomer here, just ten years younger than you. I have always found myself in the minority when standing up for social justice and I still do, so it’s not really fair to say that an entire generation went from being beneficent to selfish when roughly half or better of that generation has always been utterly disinterested in the greater good if not actively working against it.
I do find it heartening that the younger generations seem to have a much greater social consciousness than ours ever did.
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Diane said on November 10, 2022 at 9:54 am
Ohio just baffles me. How can the same state send Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance to the Senate?
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Deborah said on November 10, 2022 at 10:13 am
It certainly will be inspiring to see the younger generation cleaning up our messes. They will have to suffer the brunt of climate change, I’m sorry for that. I hope us boomers will be watching from the nosebleed seats where we belong, cheering them on but staying out of the fray.
The young republicans who are politically active are particularly vile though, so for the young with a conscience it may not be a piece of cake.
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