Turnout Matters

To become President of the United States, a candidate must garner at least 270 electoral votes.  In 2016, Donald Trump put together 304.

Of those, five came from "faithless electors",  that is, individuals who changed their vote after the fact.  That left Mr. Trump with about 300 "real" electoral votes.  46 of those were distributed across Wisconsin (10), Michigan (16), and Pennsylvania (20), and represented about 77,000 popular votes.

These states offered 46 electoral votes because the three contain an aggregate of 46 Congressional districts.  They also contain a much larger number of precincts  .  It's been estimated that there are well over 174,200 voting precincts in the United States, each of them serving about 900 voters.  That makes sense to me.  For instance, within a two-mile radius of my home, in what used to be the PA 7th and is now mostly the PA 5th Congressional District, there are four precincts.

Now for some arithmetic.  In 2016, across the three states we've been discussing, we can assume, given the data just noted:

1. an approximate average of (174,200 / 46), or 3800,  voting precincts
2. therefore, an approximate average of 4.22 votes per 900-voter precinct 

That's the stuff of nightmares.  It means that, but for about four votes in every precinct in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, we'd have been spared more than two years of demagoguery, fear-mongering, white nationalism, and xenophobia.

He Can Do It All

If he weren't so scary, and didn't so clearly believe his own mohesh hagu, we could just shake our heads at Donald Trump.  But these days, he's so far out in left field that we can't let it pass without comment.

True to his sterling record of narcissism and self-aggrandizement, yesterday Donald Trump promised to cure both AIDS and cancer.  Very soon.

Has He No Shame?

We all know the answer when that question is asked regarding Donald Trump.

Today, as part of his ongoing feud with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D - MD), the current occupant of the Oval Office mocked Mr. Cummings.

Scroll down the linked page to a response from an individual named Scahill.  I agree completely with his reaction.

Who'll Step Aside?

Haven't seen all of the second Democratic Candidates' debate. But given rounds 1 and 1_1 a couple of weeks ago, and last night's round 2_1, here's my hunch as to who might be about to drop out (in descending order of likelihood):

1. John Delaney
2. John Hickenlooper
3. Michael Bennet
4. Tulsi Gabbard
5. Steve Bullock
6. Kirsten Gillebrand
7. Bet O'Rourke
8. Amy Klobuchar

Just my opinion - no stats to back it up.  But despite what some commentators think, I'll go with my instincts.

One more sidebar that I find intriguing.  Former Rep. Patrick Murphy(D-PA)  has endorsed Mayor Pete.

A Successful Audition

I know almost nothing about specialties in fields other than my own (programming, teaching programming, and writing about programming).  But I assume it's safe to use the same sort of logic, whatever the discipline.  So here goes.

Even after retiring, I flatter myself I've remained competent in the programming language called PHP.  Here's a code fragment in that language.  It determines whether or not an individual will be allowed to use an application.

<?
header("Expires: Monday, February 2nd, 2003 1:00:00 GMT");
header("Cache-control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
header("Cache-control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);
header("Pragmna: no-cache");

$mysql_host = 'localhost';
$mysql_user = 'mysql';
$mysql_pass = '';
$mysql_db = 'xam';
$new_coll_id = $_POST["lname"];
$dt_time = date("Y-m-d h:i:s");
$msg4notconnect = "\n<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><h4 align=\"center\">Sorry; unable to connect to the security server.  Please try again.</h4>";
$msg4notavail = "\n<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><h4 align=\"center\">Sorry; the security database is unavailable at the moment.  Please try again.</h4>";
$msg4notreg = "\n<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><h4 align=\"center\">The security database doesn't show an entry for you.  Please try again.</h4>";


And so on.  Even without programming experience, you can decipher what's going on here.  But for me, with the language called C++, that's not so easy.  For instance:

#include <iostream.h>
int main()
{
int numone, numtwo, numthree, sum, diffone, difftwo, diffthree;
system("clear");
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "Please enter three integers." << endl << endl;
cout << endl << "First integer: " << endl << endl;
cin >> numone;
cout << endl << "Second integer: " << endl << endl;
cin >> numtwo;
cout << endl << "Third integer: " << endl << endl;
cin >> numthree;
sum = numone + numtwo + numthree;
diffone = sum - numone;
difftwo = sum - numtwo;
diffthree = sum - numthree;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "The sum of the numbers you entered is " << sum;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "The difference between the sum and the first number is " << diffone;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "The difference between the sum and the second number is " << difftwo;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "The difference between the sum and the third number is " << diffthree;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
system("sleep 7");
system("clear");
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "Have a great day!";
cout << endl << endl << endl;
return 0;
}

I think you get the point.  I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that John Ratcliffe,  Donald Trump's nominee to replace Dan Coates as Director of National Intelligence, is no better qualified for that position than I am to write code in C++.  Members of the Administration have touted Ratcliffe's experience as a lawyer and prosecutor.  But most of his casework involved contract law.  Call me crazy, but I don't see any parallel between that specialty, and national security.


Of course, one can always return to the theory that folks in effect audition for Mr. Trump.  Certainly Mr. Ratcliffe did so when he questioned Robert Mueller.

To Him, That's Chump Change

In 2018, Donald Trump stopped off at his golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland.  That layover cost the American taxpaying public at least $228,000.00, according to a review by the Inspector General of the U. S. Department of State.

That study documented only expenses for which Mr. Trump did not reimburse the government.  It didn't cover profits his visit might have catalyzed.  Let's try to guess-timate that.  So far during his time in office, Donald Trump  has spent 274 days at a Trump property.  The outing to Turnberry, only two days long, cost the United States $228,000.00, or about $114,000.00 per 24 hours.  It made that same amount as profit for the Trump organization.  274 days?  You do the math re: profit to The Donald  ...  Or, allow me:

(274) ($114,000.00) = $31,236,000.00

AKA thirty-one million, two hundred thirty six thousand dollars.

Feeling Bad for Baltimore

Until the last couple of days, and because of being a to-the-bone baseball fan, I felt sorry for Baltimore, but only for one reason.  The Orioles are in last place in the American League Eastern Division; they're at least 33 games out of first place.  Then, yesterday and today, Donald Trump chose Rep. Elijah Cummings (D - MD) and Baltimore as red meat for the Trump cult.

You heard that here, not first, but clearly.The Republican Party, and in particular its voter base, have been molded into a cult that supports only Mr. Trump.  As I type this, images, visual and aural, of the film The Mummy drift across my mind.  Chants were prominent there too, as was blind obedience to a leader ...

Grandpa Joseph

What would Mick Mulvaney or Donald Trump have said to the gentleman you see here?  Would they have told him to go back where he came from?  Would they have said that Zemplinska was filthy and rat-infested?