Now that I’ve exhausted the clichés appropriate to this moment, I’ll move on to …
News blues…
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Ironic that I’m preparing to vote absentee from South Africa in the US election. South Africa has a barely functioning postal service, but I can still vote from here (see below for details).
The US Postal Service has problems, but mail is sent and delivered well enough that Trump can’t allow it to do its job. Apparently, he and his enablers will attempt to collapse the USPS to ensure the disenfranchisement of Americans looking for alternatives to Trump and Trumpism.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington warned Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, that: “Recent actions” taken by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who was appointed by Donald Trump in May, “will delay prioritizing mail delivery,” which threatens voting by mail…. The number of Americans voting by mail is expected to surge across the nation as voters seek to avoid the risk of catching COVID-19 at the polls. Yet DeJoy is slashing overtime for mail carriers and prohibiting employees from making late delivery trips, which will slow the mail… DeJoy, who has no experience in the agency, is a prominent Trump donor and the former lead fundraiser for the Republican National Convention. “We have an underfunded state and local election system and a deliberate slowdown in the Postal Service,” Wendy Fields, the executive director of the Democracy Initiative, told The New York Times. Trump is “deliberately orchestrating suppression and using the post office as a tool to do it.”Remember, the United States is a constitutional republic with some decisions - often local - made by direct democratic processes and others - often federal - made by democratically elected representatives.
The president is actually elected by the Electoral College, not necessarily directly by the popular vote.
It’s complicated, but briefly: The Electoral College forms every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president of the United States. Each state has electors based on its total number of representatives in Congress. With 538 total electoral votes, each elector casts one electoral vote following the general election. The candidate gaining more than half – 270 – electoral votes wins the election.
American voters in each state cast hardcopy ballots – in person, by mail, absentee…. The vote is counted and, in nearly every state, the candidate who gets the most votes is supposed to gain that proportional number of electoral votes in the Electoral College - and win.
However, candidates can win the popular vote yet lose the election. Hillary Clinton, in fact, won the popular vote by 3 million but lost in the Electoral College. (Al Gore has a similar history although his case was decided by the US Supreme Court.)
It’s complicated, but briefly: The Electoral College forms every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president of the United States. Each state has electors based on its total number of representatives in Congress. With 538 total electoral votes, each elector casts one electoral vote following the general election. The candidate gaining more than half – 270 – electoral votes wins the election.
American voters in each state cast hardcopy ballots – in person, by mail, absentee…. The vote is counted and, in nearly every state, the candidate who gets the most votes is supposed to gain that proportional number of electoral votes in the Electoral College - and win.
However, candidates can win the popular vote yet lose the election. Hillary Clinton, in fact, won the popular vote by 3 million but lost in the Electoral College. (Al Gore has a similar history although his case was decided by the US Supreme Court.)
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Meidas Touch:
Trump has no healthcare plan (1:00 mins)
Evict Trump from the White House (1:00 min)
Lincoln Project Ad Slams Trump’s COVID-19 Response | NowThis (3:20 mins)
At 8:35pm, she triggered that alarm. I phoned her and heard a muffled call for assistance. One domestic worker and I opened the multiple burglar guards and doors and discovered my mother hunched in her bed and covered in blood. Dogs competed for space around the cumbersome bed set up and licked at blood splattered on the floor. My mother was suffering a severe nosebleed. She’d suffered another, less dramatic bleed two weeks ago and her doctor’s office staff suggested we “wait and see.”
EMTs arrived and worked on her for an hour before deciding to take her to a not-so-local hospital.
Since then, I’ve had one constructive conversation with a nightshift “Sister” (“charge nurse”) who told me, “she’s fine; she’ll be admitted after we get a bed and the doctor sees her.”
Several subsequent calls dead-ended in a “full mailbox” message.
Most recently, I was told, “she’s had her breakfast and she’s still waiting for a bed.” And, “no visitors allowed due to Covid.”
I asked Sister to relate a message, “The dogs are fine.”
Trump has no healthcare plan (1:00 mins)
Evict Trump from the White House (1:00 min)
Lincoln Project Ad Slams Trump’s COVID-19 Response | NowThis (3:20 mins)
Healthy futures anyone?
Focus on Denmark.Denmark’s groundwater is one of the cleanest in the world for a reason. According to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it’s the result of the country’s consistent efforts to purify the country’s wastewater and protect its aquatic environment with the help of more than 1,000 water-treatment plants. Perhaps partially due to the expenses associated with maintaining so many treatment plants, Denmark’s water prices are fairly high, but ultimately, that’s a good thing. Similar to how carbon taxes work, the country’s high water price deters its citizens from using a surplus amount, which allows the cycle of clean water to flow interrupted. Denmark is also home to the “world’s greenest city,” Copenhagen. There are so many things we can learn from this eco-friendly city, starting with its famous landmark, CopenHill, aka Amager Bakke.
CopenHill is a power plant that converts waste to clean energy to produce heat and electricity for tens of thousands of local households, but that’s not all it does. It also functions as an artificial ski and snowboard slope! Copenhagen also makes it easy for its citizens to use eco-friendly forms of transportation. All the city’s buses are electric. One can rent inexpensive electric bicycles as well as ride on electric, solar-powered boats in some of the purest waterways in the world.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Last night, my elderly mother purposefully used the internal alarm system. I’d purchased it despite her poo-pooing the need for such a system – “I’ll never need it!” she said.At 8:35pm, she triggered that alarm. I phoned her and heard a muffled call for assistance. One domestic worker and I opened the multiple burglar guards and doors and discovered my mother hunched in her bed and covered in blood. Dogs competed for space around the cumbersome bed set up and licked at blood splattered on the floor. My mother was suffering a severe nosebleed. She’d suffered another, less dramatic bleed two weeks ago and her doctor’s office staff suggested we “wait and see.”
EMTs arrived and worked on her for an hour before deciding to take her to a not-so-local hospital.
Since then, I’ve had one constructive conversation with a nightshift “Sister” (“charge nurse”) who told me, “she’s fine; she’ll be admitted after we get a bed and the doctor sees her.”
Several subsequent calls dead-ended in a “full mailbox” message.
Most recently, I was told, “she’s had her breakfast and she’s still waiting for a bed.” And, “no visitors allowed due to Covid.”
I asked Sister to relate a message, “The dogs are fine.”
***
Vote! US Consulates in South Africa explain how: Act early and take the necessary steps to vote in the 2020 U.S. elections!
In order to vote in the November 2020 elections, all overseas U.S. citizens need to request a ballot through their state’s online portal or complete a Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) in 2020. Whether you are a first-time voter or have already received ballots and voted absentee in past elections, you must complete this process each year to participate in elections as an overseas absentee voter.
Registering to Vote and submitting a ballot is fast, easy, and can be done from anywhere in the world! Follow a few simple steps to vote in the 2020 U.S. elections:
1. Register to vote: Start by confirming your voter registration with your state. Some states require absentee voters to register annually, so you may need to re-register. Go to FVAP.gov to connect to your state’s voter portal to register to vote, request a ballot, and more.
2. Request Your Ballot: Most states provide the option to request ballots through their state election portals, which you can easily access via FVAP.gov. You can also choose to complete a Federal Post Card Application (FPCA). The completion of the FPCA allows you to request absentee ballots for all elections for federal offices (President, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives), including primaries and special elections, during the calendar year in which it is submitted. FPCA forms that are correctly filled out and include a signature and date are accepted by all local election officials in every U.S. state and territory. FVAP’s easy online assistant can assist you with completing the FPCA. Whether you request your ballot through your state’s portal or the FPCA, we encourage you to select the option to receive your ballot electronically (by email, internet download, or fax) when available. This is the fastest way to get your ballot and ensures you have it in time to return a completed form before your state’s deadline.
3. Receive and Complete Your Ballot: States are required to send out ballots 45 days before a regular election for federal office, and states generally send out ballots at least 30 days before primary elections. Most states allow you to confirm your ballot delivery online.
4. Return Your Completed, Signed Ballot: Some states allow you to return your completed ballot electronically. If your state requires you to return paper voting forms or ballots to local election officials by mail, you can do so through international mail, professional courier service, or through the U.S. Embassy’s diplomatic pouch. The diplomatic pouch provides ballot mail service from embassies and consulates to a U.S. sorting facility. You will need to place your ballots in postage paid return envelopes or in envelopes bearing sufficient U.S. postage, in order for them to be delivered to the proper local election authorities once received by the U.S. sorting facility.
If you plan to use the diplomatic pouch, drop off your completed voting forms and ballots addressed to your local election officials at the U.S. Consulate in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban by October 1, 2020 during the following hours:U.S. Consulate General Johannesburg9:00-15:00 Tuesday-Thursday \ Email questions to: VoteJohannesburg@state.govU.S. Consulate General Cape Town9:00-15:00 Monday-Thursday \ Email questions to: VoteCapeTown@state.govU.S. Consulate General Durban10:00-15:00 Tuesday-Thursday \ Email questions to: ConsularDurban@state.gov
USA! USA!Address and other contact information for each Consulate is below. Please note that all visitors to the Consulates must wear appropriate PPE. It can take up to five weeks for mail to reach its destination if sent by an embassy via diplomatic pouch. All overseas U.S. citizens are advised to submit their forms and ballots accordingly. Ballots will be received and forwarded whenever submitted, including after October 1, 2020, but you may want to consider using a courier service if submitting your ballot close to or after the stated delivery time for pouch mail.For more detailed information please visit our U.S. Citizen Voting Page.
Researching the Candidates and Issues: Online Resources. Go to the FVAP links page for helpful resources to aid your research of candidates and issues. Non-partisan information about candidates, their voting records, and their positions on issues are widely available and easy to obtain online. You can also read national and hometown newspapers online, or search the internet to locate articles and information. For information about election dates and deadlines, subscribe to FVAP's Voting Alerts (vote@fvap.gov). FVAP also shares Voting Alerts via Facebook (@DODFVAP), Twitter (@FVAP), and Instagram (@fvapgov).
