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There is a bit of suspense in the air, as so many people are hoping for a big change. Can you imagine that 87.2 million people have already voted and we still have four more days until the polls close? Early voting in Texas ended today at almost on par with California, even though Texas has 10 million fewer people. California still has early voting until the day before the election, so maybe they’ll make it to 10 million early votes. 

Part of me is still feeling very cautious, as nothing is guaranteed, but the stock market is slightly down and that is usually an indicator that the incumbent will lose. These people need to be voted out of office stat! The Vice-President, who is supposed to be in charge of the pandemic task force, has not participated in a meeting for over a month. I am sure he is too busy campaigning to even care about all the people whose lives are at risk. 

Sem problemas em Houston!

 Harris Country, no Texas, o condado onde fica Houston, tem estado a promover o voto. A página do Twitter é @HarrisVotes. Mais de 9 milhões de pessoas já votaram antecipadamente no Texas, o que excede o número total de votos das eleições de há quatro anos. Estou super-orgulhosa de ter vivido em Harris County.

Don't mess with Texas...

 

We're going to need 10 of you to text one ex and ask if they've voted and report back. Thanks. https://t.co/Q6qcYIRIRu #HarrisVotes #GetOutTheVote

— Harris County Clerk (@HarrisVotes) October 30, 2020

So far today, 34,000 votes have been cast in Harris County, including overnight votes. Y'all, that's not enough. Text your friends, your family, your neighbors, your exes, your boss and tell them that today is the last day to #VoteEarly. https://t.co/s3HBl2J9bW #HarrisVotes pic.twitter.com/SJenbheXgM

— Harris County Clerk (@HarrisVotes) October 30, 2020

Version 2.179

Zeta made landfall in Louisiana as a category 2 hurricane: six people dead so far and almost two million without power. This was the 27th named storm this year, even though only 25 had been in the forecast. I am not sure what is up with Republican presidents and massive hurricane seasons. 

We are in the final stretch of the campaign and it is easy to feel complacent. There is still so much support for this President and I am sure today's GDP numbers serve to justify many people's vote, even though GDP is still 3.5% below what it was at the end of last year. But very few people remember past GDP numbers or understand how GDP forecasts work.

Of course, there are also people who are going to look at this and be upset because they will feel that many are better off, while they have been left behind. But what else is new? This is not a tide thay lifts all boats. If anything, this tide routinely sinks a few.

Between the stress of the election, the roaring number of cases, and my workload, I have been feeling super-stressed. My neighbor suggested that I get one of those massage gadgets, so I ordered one today on Amazon. If this thing works, it may end up saving me a ton of money.  Before the pandemic, I used to get one or two massages a month, at least. I guess my dog is well suited for me because he is also a sucker for a massage.

The thing with the economy is that we had evolved to a more labor intensive economy, with many people working in the gig economy in the area of services. This virus has destroyed many of those jobs. It’s hard to imagine when we’ll go back to normal. We still need at least nine more months to see how things are going.

Version 2.178

Anonymous no more. Miles Taylor, the former Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security, during John Kelly's tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security, identified himself as the author of the piece that came out in The New York Times, two years ago, detailing the mess that is the Trump Presidency. He is also the author of the book "A Warning."

It is funny, but there are always these people in the United States that have this idea that you can speak truth to power. Ever since Donald Trump announced his candidacy that people have been coming forward denouncing his shortcomings, a steady drum roll of voices getting louder and louder, which will continue until he leaves office.

The idea put forth is always the same: America is better than this. The future has to be better than this. We, as a people, must come together, despite our differences, and carve a better path for the nation. There is no other way and we will keep on trying until we get it right. That is the debt that we owe those that came before us and those that will come after us.

Our inspiration are the giants on which shoulders we stand. Miles Taylor quoted Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address from a time in which the country also faced a perilous path:

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
~ Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

And Taylor concludes:

"Heed Lincoln’s words. We must return to our founding principles. We must rediscover our better angels. And we must reconcile with each other, repairing the bonds of affection that make us fellow Americans"
~ Miles Taylor, A Statement, Why I'm No Longer "Anonymous," October 28, 2020

Version 2.177

The LA Dodgers just beat the Tampa Bay Rays or, as I'm thinking about it, California, the most progressive state in the federation, beat Florida, the state that gave us George W. Bush. Maybe it is a sign that the stars are aligning. We also learned today that the Trump campaign has cut some of its campaigning in Florida, shifting part of the cost to the Republican National Committee.

Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing and should continue way past the election. Many of the places that are seeing increases are full of people who do not believe that it is real. At this point, if you don't take this seriously and take precautions, you're setting yourself up for failure, but everyone has the right to make a mistake. It's just that sometimes a mistake can be the last.

Version 2.176

I voted Mr. Trump out today. There was hardly anyone in line, perhaps because this was a new venue that is not usually open for early voting. It is a Baptist church. Most of the people that I saw were older folks, including the lady that checked my passport. I always take my passport in case they question my citizenship, but most Americans in Memphis do not vote with a passport and sometimes they don't even know what one looks like. Anyway, I showed the lady my passport, she looked at it funny, typed in a number into an iPad -- did I mention that this was an older woman, maybe in her 70s or older? -- and then asked me for my voter registration card.

Now, the voter registration card is not required to vote, but of course I had mine: I always take mine. And sometimes I even take a utility bill to confirm my address, in case anyone questions it. It's OK, you may think I am crazy, but voting is that important to me. Of course, I don't vote in Portugal. The Portuguese government is not really interested in making it easy for me to vote. Kind of like the Trump administration does with minorities, but I digress.

The point is that I, along with over 64 million people, as of Monday evening, October 26, 2020, have voted. This is more than the early voting that took place by election day in 2016 and we still have 8 more days to go until the polls close. Granted that fewer people will likely vote on election day, but I have seen estimates that maybe 100 million people will vote early this election and overall turnout could be of 150 to 160 million. In 2016, the total number of votes was less than 139 million. It could be a massive turnout.

I cannot really express how amazing it is to live in a place where people vote en masse, when they feel the fate of the nation is at stake. Everyone can make a difference and even homeless people are voting: "My vote counts, you know what I'm saying? I ain't ever voted. This will be my first time to vote.", said a homeless man interviewed on NPR. Maybe that is the silver lining on this massive cloud that is this deadly pandemic.

For the last four years, Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate majority, has been justifying the GOP actions by saying that their majority is a mandate from the electorate to push the conservative agenda. We will see how the people will mandate next, but if he loses, he can always drown in sorrows in Kentucky bourbon. After all, America is the land of opportunity and we would not want this one to go to waste.

Version 2.175

My goal for tomorrow is to go vote. We are allowed to take two hours off work to vote in elections, but I don't know if the line is long and it will take more than two hours. However, I only have four more days of early voting, so I really need to get this done, as I do not wish to wait until the day of the election.

What a strange situation to have an election in the middle of a pandemic, but I suppose we should get used to things of this nature every so often. I hope the next incident is not a nuclear war, but I am not holding my breath.

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the largest newspaper in Arkansas, the state that gave us Bill Clinton, is endorsing Donald Trump. The Las Vegas Review Journal and the Santa Barbara News-press also endorse him. They are all minor newspapers and they all endorsed Trump the first time around, so it is not surprising. Of the weeklies, the Jewish Voice in also on the Trump bandwagon.

People cannot claim this time around and Trump will act presidential once he's in office, so maybe that will discourage some voters. Speaking of discouragement, there is another coronavirus outbreak in the White House, this time in Vice-President Pence's office. This White House is a freaking disaster. We have never had such clueless people in office.

Version 2.174

One of my neighbors is a DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) agent. Over the last couple of days, his house has been under surveillance with at least a police officer always parked in front and there is also a huge machine that serves to film the street. At night, the machine has this blue lights that flicker and give the idea that we're about to have a rave party. I really don't understand how anyone would attack my neighbor's house with such vibrant paraphernalia parked in front of it, but maybe that is the point: to let the future perpretator know that he will likely get caught.

I don't really know that neighbor, although I have been to at least one event in which he participated. He seemed awfully young, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties. He lives with his fiancée and they were about to be married this fall, I believe. A few months ago, the post office dropped off some of their packages at my front door twice and I took them over and left them on their doorstep. I did not knock or anything, as these are not good times to be social.

His house has a sold sign now, but I don't know if that is real. If it is not real, it would be very easy for a bad guy to figure it out, since home sales are public record. Gosh, it would be terrible if anything bad were to happen to this young couple.

Version 2.173

Tomorrow's plan is to give away three books: two because I am trying to convert a friend of mine to reading poetry, so I am going to start her off with two books by Pablo Neruda, as they are bilingual and her mother tongue is Spanish. Then shall give an extra copy of a Portuguese book I have to a new friend who is Portuguese and lives in Memphis. Yes, it only took me almost 6 years to find one and the funny thing is that we have acquaintances in common. I am happy to have someone with whom to converse.

I am grateful that today was Friday and the weekend is finally upon us. This week was exceedingly tiring and there were several days in which I worked a little bit extra, which is problematic for my health. For one, I really enjoy my work and I absolutely lose track of time. I can spend hours on end sitting in front of the computer just playing with numbers. This sedentary life is bad for my mobility, but also means that my eyesight is deteriorating due to dryness. I am rather terrible about putting artifical tear drops in my eyes, since I don't really like how they feel.

As I walked into the kitchen today, I realized that I had made a huge mess. I had so many dirty cups that should've been put in the dishwasher and dirty dishes. I don't know why I was such a slob, but it's hard to be organized when you're always so eager to get back to work. But I need to get better.

The U.S. had 80 thousand positive cases of Covid-19 today, which means we are indeed having a Fall/Winter wave, as I had suspected. Most everything is running fairly well now and there has been tremendous innovation along the supply chain and how people conduct themselves in public. Maybe we will not need to have another national shutdown.

Version 2.172

We are happy to report that the second presidential debate is over. If after the first one people were surprised at what had just happened to the rules of civility, after this people will be surprised at how well Donald Trump performed. Age weighed heavily on Biden, who stumbled on his words and lost his train of thought on multiple occasions. But no harm, no foul: the Biden supporters were happy and equally happy were the Trump supporters. I was mostly disgusted for having to vote in Biden because he is clearly not surrounded by people who can train him properly.

The most jarring moment for me was when Donald Trump listed everything that had been going wrong in America: opioid addiction, suicides, etc. Trump even said that it had never been this bad. Biden did not have the clarity of thought to attack the President, to state the obvious fact that it had gotten worse under his watch and, if he did not prevent it or try to fix it in his first term, then one could hardly give him a vote of confidence to elect him for a second term.

On the Biden side, the stupidest thing of the evening was when he brought up Hitler to the debate. Godwin's law states that as an online discussion progresses, it is inevitable that someone/something will be compared to Hitler or the nazis, at which point the discussion ends. That pretty much did it for me. If he cannot weave a convincing argument without invoking Hitler, then he must have not done his homework.

For example, at some point Donald Trump was talking about how he rescued manufacturing. Manufacturing jobs are lower now than when Trump took office, even though the administration spent a pretty penny trying to subsidize companies to hire more American workers and also staring a trade dispute with China. The tariffs that were imposed on China were passed on to American consumers as higher prices, which Biden failed to state clearly.

You have to assume that most citizens don't know the intricacies of how trade and the U.S. work. They need the background information in a simple form that can be understood. That is one thing that Trump does well: he dumbs stuff down. His supporters think that it's for their benefit, but it has to be dumbed down for Trump and even then he may not fully get it. After all, he does not even know that a full time preganancy is 9 months and men don't have uterus.

According to Trump, the U.S. economy could not support the cost of $100 trillion in environmental regulation over a period of 100 years even if it had the best years of growth. In 2019, the U.S. economy grew $21.4 trillion dollars (American trillion or 10 raised to the 12th power). Trump clearly does not even comprehend how big the U.S. economy is and neither does Biden.

I don't understand how we got here. I honestly don't. It's like we're in a race to the bottom.

Segundo Debate Presidencial

Version 2.171

Another day in the surrealistic Trump Republic. FLOTUS Melania Trump is not campaigning for her husband maybe because she does not enjoy it, maybe because she and their son tested positive for coronavirus, so she doesn’t feel like hanging around people. 

President Trump is being sued for defamation by a woman who alleges he raped her in the early 1990s and the Justice Department has taken over his defense. This is clearly a personal matter, but even if it were not,  the POTUS cannot be sued by defamation, thus it makes no sense for the Justice Department to defend him and yet...

Over these last few months, Trump has used government resources for his campaign, which is a violation of campaign finance law, not to mention that he benefits personally from conducting government business in his own properties, a violation of the emoluments clause in the Constitution. We know where this is going: if he survives the election, there’s plenty of options on how to impeach him again and this time the Senate is not going to save him. 

The overall sentiment is that he is unfit for the job and, at this point, he is no longer an asset for the GOP. I am sure Vice-President Pence would happily pull the rug from under the President, as he has been eager to become President himself. During the impeachment process Pence did his best to act presidential. Still, the way things are going, even if Pence pulls that off, he might end up impeached himself. 

But those are the back ups, the big hope is that Trump loses the Electoral College vote. It is certain that he will lose the popular vote. The GOP will strengthen if Biden becomes President. 

Version 2.170

Portugal continues to puzzle me. The level of nonsense does not seem to wind down. And despite so many saying that they are above it all, come Election Day, the usual suspects will get elected because either people don’t vote or, the ones that do, vote for mediocrity. Mediocrity rimes with poverty and the country is well on its way to become even more impoverished than what it already is. 

Of course, this comes at a time in which the rest of Europe is also poorer, so there will be less money to waste on the folly of helping those who refuse to help themselves. Maybe Portugal will threaten to leave the EU if they don’t pay up, kind of like when Trump threatens to leave the UN, the WHO, etc. Political tantrums usually go a long way.

Version 2.169

I took the morning off so that I could prepare a proper breakfast and say goodbye to my friend who was visiting. I sent her home with some plants and she left with a smile on her face. A few weeks ago, when I stopped by Fayetteville, I was surprised at how quickly she decided to come visit me. 

We usually see each other at least once a year and one could say that this year has been quite remarkable, since we have been together at least three times that I can recall, plus we also saw each other over Christmas. She’s only been to my place once and the rest of the time it was me who visited. Another friend mentioned the other day that she had never known anyone who traveled as much as me. I always think that I am quite sedentary. 

The next big item on my list this week is to vote early. I have just been waiting a few days to allow for the early crowd to get out of the way. 

Jeffrey Toobin, a commentator for CNN, had what I would call a “personal maintenance incident.” He accidentally got caught on camera masturabting during a work conference call. It’s about time that something like this would happen to a famous person. I am sad that he got suspended.

Version 2.168

Today was pretty much a perfect day, even though I had trouble sleeping last night because I was concerned I might not wake up in time to cook. All was good on that front: both the chai tea and the Brazilian cheese bread came out pretty good and we were able to leave on schedule to get to the marina at 12:30 PM. 

If we had custom ordered the weather, we would not have been able to pick a better day. It was warm, but not excessively hot. It was not windy, so the boat ride was rather smooth. We only saw one barge coming down stream, so there was hardly any traffic, not even leisure boats. Along the margin, we saw a couple of barges, one for grains next to a grain elevator, and one for oil. 

When we returned to the dock, the Asian carp were jumping out of the water like crazy. I’d never seen anything like it. They are large little beasts, with heads as big as my hands. Dinner was early and we chatted around two tables put together to allow for social distancing. 

One of my friends has a daughter who is an MD and she is working at one of the hospitals dealing with COVID-19. Every day, she spends about 2-3 hours talking to families, explaining why they cannot be with their loved ones and trying to provide some comfort. The last time she had a day off, she was unable to get out of bed. I suppose one would just wish the brain would shut down for a bit to provide some respite. 

Every one is talking about voting and the best way to safeguard that our vote will be counted. There is an app online that tracks each person’s vote and people can check to make sure it has been accepted. If it is rejected, people can got back and try to correct the problem. 

Still, it is entirely possible that we all live in a bubble; that this drive for change away from the current administration is more wishful thinking on our part, rather than an actual change of course. Soon enough we will know.