Great plan. I am not in the US so it is nice to avoid the noise. I did however turn on my USA sim yesterday and got more SMS political messages than I had time to look at. It is silly season every time there is an election in the US, best to avoid. My mom who is 87 now, I think, told me she is so disgusted she won’t even turn on her TV until Christmas. If everyone turned off the “news” and read some good books they’d live longer and be happier. Unless you are a billionaire everything is out of your control anyway.
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I’ll just be glad when it’s over, so MMP stops emailing me doom and gloom letters.
The best part for me will be returning to full-time “Ignore Trump Mode”.
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Hopefully the people who polluted the roadsides with their signs will pick up their trash sooner rather than later. They can’t possibly think they’re influencing people’s votes by putting those up in the first place.
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You don’t think careless people are easily influenced by advertising?
Clever advertising with a hook is one thing. Polluting the roadside with their favorite politician’s name in the middle of a bunch of other signs with other names on them; I don’t see it. As far as people putting them in their yard, now I know who you’re voting for. Yippee for you, who cares.
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I used to think those stupid yard signs had mostly to do with rooting for one’s team & nothing else but have come to the opinion it has more to do with faux enthusiasm & taunting others who have different worldviews. We live in a different home than we did 4 years ago & I was disappointed to see 2 neighbors of opposing political persuasions with yard signs. No one drives down our street except people delivering packages & my neighbors. WTF?
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I remember when politics was not discussed in polite company and who you voted for was your own personal business, not something to be questioned about. Now political affiliation has become almost cult like. People need to get a life and some good education outside of “social media” and TV.
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This is a really intense election. It’s just so close. I’ve been reading the news every hour and I keep flip flopping in between its gunna be a Trump win and then Biden win. I caught myself caring too much about the results and decided to just stop checking until the 5th or 6th when the final results will be in.
In short, dont get too caught up in the moment. Relax and dont stress yourself out.
A couple of days a ago a coworker told me how he was raised by his grandparents who were members of the Greatest Generation. He said his grandmother was the only mother he ever knew & was as close to her as any son could be. He said in the 80’s she came home from voting & he asked her who she voted for & she replied, “That’s my business & not yours.” Now that is a totally different culture than what we have today. I really didn’t know it was like that for some people back in the day. I thought yard signs & talking politics with strangers was how it always was. I bet plenty in my age group & younger have the same misconception.
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Greatest movie!!
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My dad would respond the same way when I grew up. I thought it was because he was career military and he wasn’t supposed to take sides but looking back, people were more reserved.
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This American voting system to make an X in a box on a form for whom you vote for, T or B, is really stupid in my opinion. You need a pen and later, fold the form and put in a box and somebody must later look at the form and note what box the X is in and count all the XX in the various boxes. Much better is a simple ballot with the name of the person you vote for e.g. T or B, which you put in an envelope that you put in the ballot box. At the end of voting all envelopes in the ballot box are opened and all ballots with a T are put in one heap and all the ballots with a B in another heap. And then you count the ballots with T and B. And you have the result. If there are 1000 envelopes/ballots it takes less than an hour! I wonder why USA has another system taking days to count some ballots.
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I wind up watching over and over. A classic for sure. Carroll O’Connor was too funny.
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It wouldn’t be any fun being an MM&P member if it wasn’t for the constant doom and gloom though…
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You are far too kind.
It only takes a long time if you are trying to cheat, this we know from history. Your idea is correct. I wish it were so.
It isn’t about just counting the presidential race, but every ballot has many votes cast for state races and other issues. So I’m wondering how the media (and public) are ONLY thinking the race to count is only the presidential race??? The make up of congress has yet to be determined by congressional seats that are won or loss. Why is everyone ignoring this?
Finally, one party has gone on record as purposely moving away from the oil and gas sector of the ‘overall’ energy industry. That impacts the maritime industry huge. Whether you drill, explore, do seismic work, work on tug/barges or shipping or refineries … if they get their green new deal going, the industry will in fact wind down to a point. Until they realize someday, you will still need combustion engines to run generators on windless days with no sun.
How fast that happens, who knows. I’m like most people. I want clean air and water too. In our industry, more than most, we are all employed to ensure we keep the water clean … OR ELSE!!
How we transition away from fossil fuels is the question. Doing it by initiating punitive measures against businesses does not work. “INCENTIVIZING” businesses to do so with rewards (financial, through tax credits or deductions or any other positive scheme) is a productive and more positive way, I think. Offer people something good if they alter their behavior. Why is tat so hard to understand?
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Watching this election I also find the ballot counting a bit ridiculous, the US is the richest country in the world but they can’t afford to employ people to count ballots for 24 hours per day once every 4 years. Lots of states seemed to stop counting randomly for no proper reason.
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About 20 years ago, a friend ran for (and won) county commissioner. It was September and a group of us were sitting in a coffee shop bullshitting. He was complaining about his 4X8 plywood signs were disappearing in large numbers. I told him, “Think about it. Hunting season is coming up. There are several guys out there that have the interiors of their deer stands and duck blinds chanting Vote for Mickey Brooks”!!
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