Ran across a neat graphic that sums up what it’s felt like waiting for the results of the 2020 Presidential Election results felt like. Updating my old blog, I was surprised at how many links broke over the years. So I decided the image for posterity. When I went to download the GIF, it turned out that Twitter had converted it into an .mp4 video. When I used a website to convert it back, it grew from under 10k to just over 50k. ...
There’s an excellent article in Vox about vote by mail in Oregon, focusing on how it started and how it evolved. It’s difficult to forge someone’s signature on a ballot. Not impossible, not if you have access to something with their signature, but difficult. And it’s hard to see that scaling to any numbers. It’s pretty much impossible to insert fake ballots into the system. There are bar codes on the envelopes mailed out to voters and it’s pretty simple to reject any bar codes that don’t match what was sent out. ...
Something to think about… I have seen a lot of hate spewed in recent days about a man who is a constant winner and overachiever, and that’s what the people who support him like about him. Yes, he’s been caught in some lies and maybe twisted the truth a little but he’s still out there proving his haters wrong time after time. Some people are just jealous of someone who is successful and has money. Throw in a hot foreign underwear model at his side and they hate him even more. You may not have wanted him in his role, but he’s there now and there’s nothing you can do about it. I know it’s possibly just going to get worse over the next several days, but like him or not, Tom Brady is turning things around in Tampa. ...
Gotta love our zero-tolerance society showing up in situations like this: Florida boy, 12, arrested for farting in class Does anyone doubt that if this was the principal’s kid it would be handled differently?
Matt Maroon in Global Warming & Epistemology articulates far better than I can the reasons for believing that global warming is happening, is caused by mankind, and needs to stop as soon as possible. Nobody can be right about everything, and the nature of climate change is that the ultimate decisions have to rest with citizens, the politicians they elect, and entrepreneurs, most of whom can’t be expected to know everything about everything, or even everything about global warming. The best they can do is take the most informed opinions around and act on them. ...
Today is election day. There’s an [article](https: “//replay.waybackmachine.org/20061110231606/https://techdirt.com/articles/20061106/201138.shtml) today in Techdirt referencing a movie about the problems with Diebold (not Deibele) election machines. " I have to admit that I do miss a little bit the tradition of going to the local school or church and voting. Seeing the volunteers, seeing the other people who were motivated enough to make the time to vote. Stepping into the voting booth, drawing the curtain and putting the completed ballot into the box. ...
Lawrence Lessig has a fascinating article on how the State of California tried to simplify preparing taxes. It used payroll information to do a “ReadyReturn” that could be just signed and returned. Or they could use the info on it to make their own return. Of course, the tax preparation lobby started to pressure for the test program to be abandoned. Which is ridiculous. And some lawmakers listened. Which is more ridiculous. ...
The City Council of Portland was very interested in buying Portland General Electric from what was left of Enron. Rate cuts of 10% or more were talked about. With amazing 20-20 hindsight, it’s now obvious what the City should have done: Keep PGE’s rates the same! Keeping them the same would have let them . Give rebates to other cities. Here, Gresham & Beaverton, here’s 10% of the electric bills of everyone in your city boundaries. Now be quiet. . Give money to Portland Public Schools. . Fund the tram . Stop people wondering what would happen when well-paid, unionized private sector workers became well-paid, unionized public sector workers. Did anybody expect there to be fewer people? Less pay?
Bill Gross is the legendary bond analyst/trader at PIMCO. He has strong words about the Economic Report of the President and the state of the US economy. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be anyone out there who’s much interested in trying to solve the problem. We can’t keep spending the way that we have. All the big screen TVs and clothing that we’re buying from overseas is growing their economies as fast as it depletes our resources. It’d be different if we were graduating more scientists and engineers … if we were graduating more people period. ...