Category: ranting

In last week’s post on the election [confusion.cc] I mentioned how close Trump is to winning made me feel like I am on that boat with Willy Wonka… IFKYK. So. I looked up the “lyrics” (yea apparently it’s considered a song, called Wondrous Boat Ride) to the ride, you can see them here [lyricsondemand.com], and I came up with my own parody for the election:

To the voting booth and home again
That's the democratic way
Faster faster, faster faster

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction this election's going
There's no knowing how swing states are voting
Based on what the polling is showing

Is it red, is it blue
Is a landslide a-coming

No sign of advantage is showing
So the uncertainty keeps on growing
Are the fires of fascism a-glowing
Is the grisly reaper mowing

Yes, the uncertainty must be growing
For the pollsters keep on polling
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are knowing

With a few weeks to go until Election Day the race is close. Very close. In fact it’s been getting closer, according to 538 [fivethrityeight.com] for weeks and their most recent update actually puts Trump ahead for the first time in months:

I have the same feeling I had eight years ago [confusion.cc] sitting in Australia watching the New York Times needle shifting more and more into confirming Trump’s win. I feel like one of the passengers on Wonka’s boat ride… a feeling of “it can’t be real, but…”. I can’t believe that half of America can vote for Trump, again. I get not liking Democrat’s policies or preferring the traditional Republican policies of low taxes and small government. But I can’t understand how anyone with any appreciation for democracy, government or history can consider voting for Trump, want MAGA… again.

The narcissism, bigotry, toxic nationalism of Trump get’s more and more like some B-movie plot showing how the world walks, once again into the all the stupidity that led us to World War II, and all it’s horrors. The rise of protectionism and begger-thy-neighbor trade policy that Trump espouses with his across the board tariffs, something he began in his first term and has been more or less continued by Biden, the normalization of outright bigotry, racism and the ethno- or religious nationalism that goes with it. It’s not just the US… there are literal Nazis winning elections in Germany, and neo-fascist in Italy, to say nothing of racial riots in the UK. Not to mention the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

It’s so depressing.

I said, after the first debate that I would still vote for Biden even if he was mentally questionable, because Trump has proved to me over-and-over, every time he opens his mouth or his sycophants start talking about their plans that he is more unfit to govern then a dementia addled Biden would be. Luckily Biden stepped aside. For good-or-bad Harris quickly consolidated the nomination. I would have liked to hear for others but c’est la vie. I’ve been impressed with Harris in the interviews and in the debate. Too vague on policy but four more years of Biden’s policies would be better than anything I can grasp for a MAGA policy, be it Trumpian nepotistic self-enrichment, narcissistic reality-TV foreign policy or the horror show that is Project 2025…

I was ashamed eight years ago, but even more so this time that the race is even so close, that anyone can genuinely what a second term for Trump is mind boggling.

I got my ballot the other day, I need to send it off ASAP to get their on time. The thing I wanted to point out, when I got it, something that most non-American’s I have talked never understand is it’s actually not just Harris or Trump, Democrat or Republican on my ballot. Even with RFK Jr. dropping out my ballot still has six options, as well as the write-in option this year:

We all know that the Greens, Libertarians, and the independents have no chance of winning even a single state. But they do have an impact, people do vote for them. The number of people who voted for parties other than the Democrats and Republicans was over 5% in 2016. And while I read that it would not have made a difference in the electoral college had they not been on the ballot I can’t help but feel they should take note of how the French center and left wing parties played the recent election there. Even half a percent of votes in the swing states could swing the election. It takes a certain kind of hubris to run for president, it’s amazing that Biden bowed out in the end, I wish the non-mainstream parties would have done the same.

Two decades ago this week I arrived in Singapore. At the time I left DC I was unsure of the long term plan, I only had a a fuzzy idea; ‘maybe I’ll stay in Singapore, maybe I won’t.’ you can see that in my last post [confusion.cc] from the US before I left:

I have a return ticket but I don’t know if I will be coming back next month or next year or ever.

Turns out I traveled back and forth a quite a bit for a while, racking up the frequent flyer miles on the longest flight in the world —SIN to NYC— but by March of 2005 I had an employment pass and planned to stay. Originally I only wanted to stay a few years, I wanted to go and live in different places every few years, to experience a new, alien, culture as a local constantly. But, life had other plans [confusion.cc].

C’est la vie. Singapore is a great place to live and to raise a family. I complain a lot about the things I don’t like, but I would not love here if it was not a great place. We can always want our home to be better.

Interestingly, while drafting this entry I was planning to post it on the fourth —I’ve always said I arrived on the fourth of September— but I looked at the date of my final post from the US and things didn’t make sense… so I dug out my old passport and flipped through it to find my entry stamp for Singapore. And it was on September first… so, I’ve been three days off every year when I fill out my tax forms for the US that ask when I arrived in Singapore. Oh well, I don’t think three days matters there, but it did mean I had already missed the actual anniversary before I wrote this… so I slacked off and didn’t finish this until the end of the week… hence ‘two decades ago this week’ rather than ‘two decades ago today’.

The original Ghostbusters [imdg.com] was released in 1984. I was six. I don’t remember when I first saw it, maybe as early as 1985, or maybe 1986 or even 1987. In any case I was to young to understand some of the jokes —like Ray’s dream, somehow it was funny but I don’t understand what he was actually dreaming about, and because it was burned into my head from repeated viewing before I was old enough to understand it took a lot longer than it should have to understand that scene. No doubt we rented it from one of the local video stores, maybe the one in Pantops shopping center or maybe the one on 5th Street Extended, of course we also rented a second VCR and setup it up to make a copy. I remember watching that copy it times on summer breaks or on days I was home sick from school.

Sometime between the time Ghostbusters came out and the end of the 80’s an incident occurred at Berry Steam Plant in Alabama where my grandfather worked. Not for the first time an alligator crawled into the discharge pipes to enjoy the warmth on a cold day. I don’t recall all the detail of the story as my grandfather told it but, basically, the plant could not use the pipes with the gator in there and they called animal control or whoever it is you call, but it was taking too long and they needed to use the pipe. So, a bunch of burly steam power plant workers went out and wrestled this alligator out of the pipe and back down to the pond or river.

To commemorate this someone at the plant —I don’t know if it was my grandfather or someone else— had some silk screen shirts made with a Ghostbusters inspired logo of a gator caught in a ‘prohibition’ circle with a slash across it. Around the circle it says “Berry Steam Plant”. And the gator is wearing a hat (I don’t know why, but I imagine it’s just the type of hat a typical burly power plant worker would wear back in the day?).

I remember my grandfather giving us all shorts, I think I had a green one, and there were red ones too. Anyway, I while ago when I was at my mom’s I ran across what it probably the last one of these shirts, a red one. And I brought it back to Singapore to keep.

He didn’t do well. He’s never been an inspiring speaker, and he looked old and out of it during too much of the debate. But it’s him or Trump, that’s how the system works. I can’t see how a decent old man, even with dementia, who’s administration is filled with competent people that are broadly aligned with my political views could be worse than a narcissistic bully who is surrounded by sycophants, christo-fascist and nazi wannabes. I’ll take Biden over Trump. I would take Biden over Trump if Biden was in a coma on Election Day. I wish there was another choice.

I spoke with a friend when I was in the US, long before the debate. They said their objection, or their concern, with Biden was he would die or resign and Harris would be president. They didn’t like Harris —I’m not sure why, we didn’t discuss it— and they didn’t want four years of Harris. I told them they must have failed civics class, I told them that someone who is not the elected president taking over the office in case the president dies or resigns can only server two year as the unelected president (see note below). Then an election must be held. On top of that, two years of Harris is still better than four more years of fake-and-bake Hitler.

In the end, it’s the same to me. The choice boils down to the Trump or Biden, to the Republican candidate or the Democratic candidate. I don’t believe the DNC will replace Biden at the convention. My own ballot from Virginia will have other choices but they are false choices.

In 2020 the Virginia presidential ballot had three choices: Republican, Democrat and Libertarian. This year it may have more, maybe RFK Jr. will be there running with his brain worm for VP. But, to me, even if I agreed with the third party candidates it would be stupid to vote for them. I’m voting against Trump. I’m voting against everything Trump stands for. Any vote other than Biden is a vote for Trump. Not voting is a vote for Trump. An intentionally spoiled ballot is a vote for Trump. There is no room for protest or idealistic votes for third party candidates or spoiling a ballot or not voting.

The choice is black and white, red or blue, republican or democrat, Trump or Biden. Given Trumps disdain for the law and for democracy I can’t imagine a scenario where I would not vote for Biden.

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Note: It seems I’m the one who failed civics, I just read the twenty-second amendment [wikipedia.org], and it says:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

So, it seems that if Biden was elected and resigned on day one, Harris could server out the whole term, but then would only be eligible to be elected once. And if Biden made it half-way and then resigned Harris could server the remaining two years and still be elected twice. So I apologize to the people I may have mislead.

It should also be noted that Donald Trump is on record as saying he would be president for “10 to 14” years. Which would violate the 22nd Amendment. Wikipedia points to other; Truman, Reagan, and Clinton who disagreed with the Amendment. It also notes that there have been 54 resolutions introduced congress to repeal the Amendment.

Personally, I think we need more term limits, not less. I think we need limits on Senators and Representatives too. And maybe even Supreme Court Justices. I think it was a mistake that the constitution does not impose limits as getting congress to vote to limit itself seems like a lost cause.