Chasing My Ballot

     I live in Branson.  Our community is a "Purple Star Town", and , I fear, an emerging "Qanon Town".  I work at a Senior Care Facility and do not want to stand in line to vote.  It remains to be seen if I can succeed. After the DNC Convention, I put on my Rick Warren "purposeful face" and started.  This is my first report.

1. I called the Taney County Clerk

2. A nice person answered

3. She advised that if I was unsure if I was registered, I could go to the Missouri State website and confirm

4. She did not know the Missouri web address

5. She did inform me that after confirming that I was registered, I could access the Taney County website and download an application for an "Absentee Ballot".

6. She cautioned me that if I had changed my address since last voting I would have to go to another Missouri State webpage to update my address, if I found that I was registered, otherwise I would have to visit another webpage to register anew.

7. I did find the interactive site at Mo.gov and correctly answered 9 questions which resulted in a confirmation that I was registered, but not at my current address.  At another Mo.gov page, I found an input screen described to update my personal information as a means of updating the Mo. State maintained registration role.

8. I completed the Update Page which included a field that accepted a signature by finger with a warning that the signature should be replacatable if requested.  I doubt that it would be. I pressed submit.  I did not get any confirmation that it was accepted.

9. I called back the Taney County clerk, who advised that I call her back in 4 to 5 days and she would check the Mo State data base to make sure my name and SS# matched the address to which she would send the "application for Absentee Ballot"

10. Just to get a headstart I went to the Taney County Clerk site and downloaded the application.  It lists 7 possible reasons which might justify my being sent an absentee ballot. There was a highlighted stipulation that I could only choose one reason.  Of the 7 options, 5 had to be returned with a notarized statement.

11. In faireness one of the acceptable reasons for requesting the absentee ballot was COVID.  The line item starts "I have contracted COVID" and then allows for others to qualify if they are "at risk" pursuant to "Section 115.277.6 RsMo. 

12. At the bottom of the Absentee Ballot Application in bold letters, the application restates that the document is a "Mail in Ballot Request" and explicitly states that "notary required for all mail ballots"

13.  So far, I am just confused.  I will wait a week and then call to seek clarification

I will post a follow up when Ihave confirmed that the Taney County Clerk will be able to consider my request after receiving an update from the Mo. Sec. State.

It is probably not correct that of the 22,000, more or less voter, the Taney Clerk will be sending out 22,000 Absentee Ballots.  My current guest, based on the degree of difficulty....fewer than 100.  I hope mine is one of them.

Kamala says...."Congress must step up"

    

     Please, kind lady, you must know that we are weary of petitioning Congress to alter the "Tragedies of Trump".  Let me count the previously rebuffed Congressional petitions...alas, they are too many.  You must suspect that everyone that you represent, both left and right, would not for a minute, believe "Congress" would have adequate defensive power to stop Trump if he did "shoot someone on 5th Avenue" or indeed burn school children on the White House Lawn.  Congress has come to an ignoble end.  You should not further offer irrational hope to the people.  You should disband.... allowing the primitive power of consensus anarchy to correct what everyone knows can be resolved in an "outside the rule of law" face-off between 300 million wounded souls and the absurd constitutional privilege of 3.

     PS:  Perhaps, one psychopath armed with an AK47 might hold hostage 100, but even a Trump, flanked by McConnell's Senate and Barr's Justice, cannot stand....unless Congress continues to be present but fail to exert power outside the limits of the, well intentioned but obviously flawed, "constitution".  #Kamala  

HiHo, HiHo....it's off to school we go!

 

Onward Christian Children
marching off to schools.
Just do what daddy says,
although he follows fools.

You'll be fine, I'm sure
just keep your mask on tight.
Say your pledge of allegiance
and remember we love alt-right.

Grandma will be waiting for you
with a very tasty snack.
Don't mention "the rona" to her
she's on a very different track.

It's gracious for her to have help us out,
she so wants you to be smart.
We are lucky to have had her
And will be sad to see her depart.

PS: The fbc is the First Baptist Church

"Looting" is just "prepaid reparations"

     This is a Q & A session....no, not that kind of Q & A.  America has lost it's patience with rhetorical questions and fragile answers. This is a Qanon vs. Antifa vignette to mark the trail in our journey toward a 2021 cultural implosion. Those in my close circle who live in a Fox state of mind are literally feasting on the Portland unrest.  Anything less than an overwhelming show of force by authority is ingested, repackaged and media delivered as evidence that "woke bullshit" is destroying our exceptional and blessed country....with de-emphasis on the "our".

     Surely there is a coping stategy that responds to humanities inate hierachical nature somewhere between tear gas for everyone and just leaving the Louie Vuitton store unlocked. 

Regression to the Mean....Not if Trump wins!

     As we start the 4th quarter, both sides are showing bravado and fear.  The two boundary quadrants, far right and far left , are hopelessly marooned in Capitalism Forever and Social Justice Uber Alles, respectively.  The middle quadrants, a meandering blend of emotions and reason, are legitimately terrified about domination by either extreme.  Is there a comparative marker that tips the scale in favor of the least damaging of the disappointing options?  I think so!  And, it has nothing to do with whether next year, we are living in Trump's GNP obsessed reality or Biden's, BLM dictated reality.  My sense is that the "tipping insight" is simply Trump's personality. 

     If Biden/BLM wins, it will be a nightmare to prevent the emboldened Social Justice crowd from selling California to fund a $100 trillion BLM "reparation plan", but like the weather, it will not happen, and we will titrate down from our Social Justice High and settle somewhere near the mean, but

     If Trump wins....well, we would probably be all right if his detractors would let him have his way.  Yes, he might "funeral out" with $100 billion, and Ivanka might step in to pinch hit, and reparations might have to wait a while longer, and we likely would have a lot more prisons, but so what!  We would likely be a cohesive "nose to the grindstone" ranked competitor in the "World Domination Games"....but the more integral elements in our culture, taking expression in the media/press, they will not leave him alone.  And, herein lies the "extinction scenario". They will unrelentingly torment him and he will uninterruptedly counter with authoritarian abuse. Expect a war that can only ends in mutual annihilation.

     A recent twitter comment said it succinctly:  Big picture: we're up against a corrupt vulgarian who will bring it all down to maintain his power and wealth.

IF TRUMP SURVIVES, WE ALL LOOSE