So You Say You Support BLM

Black Lives Matter is a popular cause, but support for BLM means little if support for suppressing Black votes continues unexamined. Specifically, these practices, which are very popular with Republicans these days: 

• Limiting who counts as a person for census purposes; 
• Gerrymandering targeting “African Americans with almost surgical precision“; 
• Photo/voter ID laws; 
• Restrictions on acceptable IDs; 
• Onerous document requirements for voter registration; 
• Street address requirements for registering in communities lacking street addresses; 
• Limiting days/times/locations for voter registration services; 
• Restrictions on ex-felon registration; 
• Restrictions on voter registration drives; 
• Violating the “Motor Voter” law by state DMVs; 
• Restrictions on early voting times; 
• Siting early voting locations remote to minority neighborhoods; 
• Restrictions on absentee voting; 
• Restrictions on absentee ballot drop boxes; 
• Voter roll purges; 
• Limiting voting machines in minority precincts; 
• Voter intimidation tactics at the polls; 
• “Disenfranchisement by typo“; 
• Decades-long effort to undermine confidence in the election process itself.

Go Easy on Nancy Pelosi

Don't give Nancy Pelosi a hard time about the economic stimulus. The Republicans placed a poison pill in their proposals, and aren't removing it. It's not worth having a deal, even if it leads to an economic collapse. If the GOP wants a deal, they know what to do:

The awfulness of the liability shield is difficult to overstate. As I’ve noted previously, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that theoretically protects workers’ health and safety on the job, has done just about everything in its power to avoid punishing businesses that failed to protect workers from Covid-19. In those few instances where OSHA has leveled fines, the amounts have been laughably scant.

David Michaels, who administered OSHA under President Barack Obama, noted this week in a Century Foundation report co-authored with physician Gregory R. Wagner that OSHA recently levied a $15,615 fine against the JBS beef factory in Greely, Colorado, where 290 workers were infected with Covid-19 and six died. Fifteen grand was not even enough, Michaels and Wagner observed, to cover the cost of the funeral for Saul Sanchez, one of the six who perished. Sanchez worked at the JBS plant for more than 30 years.

Census Enumeration is Over

Yesterday, I surrendered my Census Enumerator gear - bag, forms, and the trusty iPhone. It's been an eventful two months, banging on doors, and collecting information for the NRFU (Non-Response Follow Up) operation for the Census. It was work I enjoyed, even during the August heat wave. It's enjoyable to meet new people one wouldn't ordinarily meet, especially during this socially-distanced year. I'm going to miss the work a lot. 

Most people responded to the Census on line. In order to get on the NRFU list, therefore, there had to be some kind of dysfunction, either big or small. Dysfunctional people are - interesting. 

The iPhone was a big help in collecting information. Apparently the 2010 Census still relied on paper and pen. The iPhone made data collection faster and more efficient. It was heart-warming to assist families with their Census civic duty. That part of the job was the best. 

 The biggest impediment to collecting information was the large, coronavirus-caused gap between Census date (April 1, 2020) and when enumerators actually hit the streets (the middle of August). In the interim, quite a few people changed residences, complicating matters. 

For example, at one house, I tried to gather information from an in-mover - a fellow who had moved into his new rental house in the interim. He did not know who lived in the house before he arrived, but he did have a huge stack of mail addressed to at least a dozen people. "It looks like they were running a credit-card scam. It's possible a few of these identities actually belonged to the previous residents." He gave me the number of the landlord. I called, but suspecting a scam, the landlord immediately hung up the phone. Too many of these informational dead ends. In retrospect, it would have been better, and safer, to have started the NRFU operation in May, as originally scheduled. 

There were other impediments too - lackadaisical respondents, absent respondents, language barriers, hidden residences - but surprisingly-few rude people. I thought maybe it was my age that accounted for the politeness - respect for elders - but I talked to one young enumerator who found the same politeness. I just think people were favorably-disposed to Census enumerators and wanted to help, to the ability their schedules permitted. 

Even the dogs were favorably-disposed. I entered one yard with a "Beware of Dog" sign, and was bowled over by a huge, friendly German Shepherd. 

And, to date, no Covid-19 either. 

Good times!

Vote Yes on Proposition 15:

 Proposition 15 will go a long, long way to correcting the horrifying mess created by Proposition 13 in 1978, and help make California schools like they once were, the envy of the nation:

According to the most recent disclosures filed with state campaign finance authorities, the big spenders on the “No on 15" side include land developers, agricultural interests and golf and country clubs.

All told, they and other opponents have assembled a war chest of more than $20 million to fight the measure.

This shouldn’t be surprising, because those are among the business interests that have benefited handsomely from the obstacles to reassessing commercial and industrial properties built into Proposition 13.

On the other side, with contributions of more than $30 million, are teacher unions and others who are eyeing the revenue gains of up to $12 billion a year estimated to flow from Proposition 15, of which 60% would go to schools, community colleges and local governments.

A foundation formed by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, has allocated more than $6.3 million to pass the measure, which they say would redress the “profound inequity” in the state’s funding of public services, especially those important to low-income communities.

A Family Tragedy in Albuquerque

Shocking:

A little before 9 a.m. Monday, a woman was shot multiple times in the parking lot of a Northeast Albuquerque strip mall next to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy, a massage parlor and a chiropractor’s office.

Albuquerque Police Department detectives quickly narrowed in on a suspect – her estranged husband Matthew Montoya – and hours later shot and killed him in a driveway in a Sandia foothills neighborhood.

...Interviews with several witnesses and evidence from the scene quickly led detectives to suspect her estranged husband was responsible, Smathers said.

He said detectives learned that after his wife was shot, 52-year-old Montoya went to their child’s school, Holy Child Catholic School, in Tijeras and tried to pick up the child.

“Diligent school staff were aware of family conflict between family members and denied the suspect any access to his minor child,” Smathers said. “Thankfully, they did not release (the child).”

He said detectives continued investigating and determined Montoya was driving a silver minivan. Detectives consulted with the district attorney and received permission to arrest Montoya.

Around 1:13 p.m. detectives with the Investigative Services Division found him in the silver van in the driveway of a house on Chelwood Drive NE. “Detectives approached that minivan to make the arrest that had been approved by the district attorney, and an officer-involved shooting took place during that contact,” Smathers said. “The suspect is deceased on the scene.”

He said a gun was found in the van but the detectives involved in the shooting had not yet been interviewed, so he could not say what led the detectives to shoot Montoya. He said he could confirm that more than one detective was involved, but he would not say how many were.

Remembering Some Of The Interesting People I'm Meeting at My New Job 7

Thursday October 15, 2020:

Contradictory instructions.  Cases to do, but don't attempt them.  Damned Trump Administration.

 

Wednesday October 14, 2020:

A handful of very widely-scattered reinterview cases in Zone 4.  I headed out shortly after noon and realized later that most of my targets were at work, or at least not at home.  Headed way out on Florin Rd.

Had a nice conversation with a house sitter.  The interviewees were in Reno: at least this guy was pleasant.

Returning on Gerber Rd., there was a massive traffic tie-up - some kind of railroad accident bollixed all the roads. Headed south on Power Inn Rd. too.

 

Monday October 12, 2020 through Tuesday October 13, 2020:

No cases.

 

Monday October 5, 2020 through Sunday October 11, 2020:

Various Reinterview cases. Amused by having to ask for "Biker Dude." 

"Donde esta la mujer?" I repeatedly asked a Spanish-speaking fellow, on two separate days.  The fellow probably thought I was nuts. Lots of near-hopeless cases. Difficult times, but apparently they consider me to be a good enumerator and worth giving these cases to. 

 

Monday September 28, 2020 through Sunday October 4, 2020:   

No cases.

The Neighborhood’s Giant Skeleton is on a Rampage

Is Kayleigh McEnany Sending Secret Messages to QAnon?

 I bet the answer is yes:

Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theorists have been focused on that exact time, and the corresponding date of October 10th, after the account behind the mass delusion tweeted a Mickey Mouse clock stopped at that time, as NBC news reporter Ben Collins has been covering.

The GOP's Unofficial Ballot Boxes

 California Republicans doing what they can to corrupt the vote:

In a since-removed list of “Ballot Collection Box Locations” on its website, the Fresno County Republican Party listed the location of several such unsanctioned drop boxes, including several gun shops, a gas station and the county party’s headquarters.

It’s perhaps a bit ironic that the GOP, currently trying to restrict drop box use in multiple states, has created its own boxes in California. 

The state party has defended the installations, comparing them to volunteers that collect ballots face-to-face to be submitted later — a practice sometimes disparagingly called “ballot harvesting.”

Cougar Stalks Utah Hiker

If this isn't like the scariest video ever! 

Cirque du Soleil's Delirium Album - "Too High"

Liking this song I heard in ballet class.