Something I Do Not Quite Understand

To date, Hillary Clinton has 63.6 million popular votes, which is approximately 1.7 million more votes than Donald Trump has for the 2016 Presidential election.  With so many people voting for Clinton, why is it that only 4.5 million people have made an effort and signed the change.org petition (As of Nov 22st) to have the Electoral College cast their votes for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump?  Is it because the other ~59 million people really don't care about the outcome?

Since nobody really knows why don't we, just for fun, make some guesses:

* 4.5 million voters really are pissed enough to sign the change.org petition.
* 20 million voters just flipped a coin and do not care either way who wins.  They are screwed no matter what anyway.
* 3.25 million voters do not have access to the internet (assuming all adults without internet access voted for Clinton).
* 20 million college student voters are still in their "safe place" which probably does not have internet access (assuming all college students enrolled voted for Clinton).
* 5 million votes are fraudulent (deceased voters, illegal immigrants, multiple votes by the same person, etc).

Where are the other ~10 million voters?  Could it be that the number of people who are really upset at the presidential outcome is much less than the MSM is leading us to believe?  It has been well documented that Hillary Clinton has received more votes in this election than any other presidential candidate other than Barack Obama.  Where are all her supporters now?

My HONEST opinion is that the majority of the people who voted for Hillary Clinton, for a variety of reasons, just don't care enough to continue on with the fight.  Let's face it.  All the constant fighting is exhausting.

As a third party voter, I personally do not like either candidate.  I don't feel like Clinton is trustworthy and that Trump is a spoiled rich kid.  Had this been reversed I would still continue to write about the outcome.

It Is Getting Harder Every Day

Each morning I wake up at 5 AM, take my ALS meds (with no way of knowing if they are helping or not) and head into the master bathroom to get my shower and brush my teeth.  Like most men, my hygiene time is generally less than most women (I don't have to put on makeup, fix my hair or apply oils/lotions to keep my skin soft) but lately I see that time increasing a bit more each day.  Getting ready to leave the house is progressively getting harder each day.

I like long, hot showers but now the amount of time spent in the shower is not because I enjoy it, it is because now it just simply takes me longer to perform the action of getting clean than it did a year ago.  The scary thing is that it is only going to get worse.

For the past year and a half or so I have not had much use of my left hand for fine motor skill activities.  I have compensated by using my right hand more but now I am noticing that is is beginning to fail me at times, mostly in the morning, when it is cold, or when I am hungry.  I cannot even button my jeans in the morning anymore. Usually by 9 or 10 AM (once I have had some coffee and some food) I can but I run the risk of not being able to unbutton them while I am work.  If I wore my jeans "baggy", I could probably mitigate the problem a bit.  I normally wear a 32x32 and moving to a 34x32 does not sound all that appealing but I will do what I have to do.  I guess I need to research to see what kinds of pants are available for people in my situation.

Humbling.

Found this web site.  Looks promising.

Examples of Liberal "Tolerance"

To be fair, both sides are guilty, really.  The bashing and gloating really make social media difficult to look at the past couple of days.

Don't get me wrong...I get it.  Trump really angered a lot of women and immigrants/minorities.  He ran his campaign in such a way that even I was surprised he won. He is not a politician (which in some ways may be a good thing) and speaks whatever is on his mind (not such a good thing), has a ton of money and probably plans on buying his way if it can be done. He is a living cartoon character.  But is he actually worth all the HATE people are spewing? One would think that energy could be used more productively.

This is one example from one of my long time friend' s Facebook wall.  My friend has several other "friends" who are pretty upset at Trump winning the election.  I probably should not have even commented (Don't feed the trolls) but I was just trying to point out that Hillary won the popular vote and her supporters should at least take some solace in that.  One of my friends "friends" had some outdated info they posted regarding the election results.  I politely corrected that person.  That person then went on a tirade on how the independent voters cost Hillary the election, taking away her votes. Again, I tried to politely correct that person. That person went on to call anyone who voted for Trump a redneck.  I did not vote for Trump but somehow I get the feeling this person still wants someone to blame.  I get the feeling the people who are so upset do not understand the system.  Maybe taking a Civics class would help.

Notice that third party voters are not spitting this kind of vitriol and I can guarantee that Trump supports would not be this hate-filled if they lost.  Heck, as mad as the Conservatives were when Obama won, I don't remember this kind of backlash.

If Clinton supporters want to be angry, they should be angry at the DNC, not Trump or his supporters. The DNC decided that Bernie was not a viable candidate and pushed for Hillary, who is as polarizing as Donald Trump.  Had Bernie been the DNC's choice, I think the outcome would have been different.

One of the best reads on this comes from a guy I used to work with "Spork".

Oh, one last note.  This administration will be Republican controlled as the Republicans are in control of Congress, which should make getting legislation passed a bit easier.  Now hopefully Trump will surround himself with smart, knowledgeable people to guide him in decision making.

BTW, some Facebook "friends" (of a liberal bent) have disappeared.  So much for tolerance, love and acceptance.

Post Election Comments

The United States has elected a new president, Republican Donald Trump.  Let that sink in.  His opponent was a lifelong politician and wife to former Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Those were the primary choices the US had to lead our great nation.  Of course we had other options, Independent candidates Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, but they really only served to take votes away from Trump and Clinton. There was no chance they would get elected but nonetheless they received votes from people who could just not tolerate the idea of voting for the Democratic or Republican candidate being offered.   I am not going to hide the fact that I chose Gary Johnson.  In my opinion he was, despite his faults, better than then Democratic or Republican choices being offered.

My father (when he was living) *hated* the fact I voted Independent.  He was a life-long Democrat and said, "a vote for an Independent was a vote thrown away".  I respected his opinion but I did not share it.

Social media has not been a pleasant place today.  SOME who voted for Trump are gloating like poor winners and SOME who voted for Clinton are vitriolic, saying how much they hate those who supported Trump, how America is doomed, etc.  I even read one post where the author condemned ("I hate them all") the third party voters because they cost her the election!  People, please do your homework.

Hillary won the popular vote, albeit not by much (at the time of this post...things could change).  The Electoral votes are what got Trump elected.  To my knowledge no Electoral vote was cast for a third party candidate, hence those voters cannot be blamed!

Many of my friends are conservative voted for Trump and while they never said anything to me about it, I am sure they were disappointed and fearful that third party voters would "steal" votes from Trump.  Maybe, just maybe, they did but again IT DOES NOT MATTER.  The electoral votes are all that matters, so Trump supporters, it is a moot point.

I also have a lot of friends who are liberals and many of them voted for Hillary.  Most of them were not happy when I voted third party.  They were certain it would take away votes  from their candidate.  RELAX, Hillary won the popular vote (at the time of this post and not by much).  The independent voters did not hurt you, in fact they may have actually helped.  If I had only Clinton and Trump to chose from, I probably would not have voted at all.

I can appreciate the passion you have for the candidate you endorsed.  However, all the hate (from both sides) only makes you look like a spoiled baby.  Conservatives lost in 2008 and 2012...they got over it.  For my liberal friends, this to shall pass.  For my conservative friends, be a good sport.  Work towards building bridges.

Rough Night

Rough night last night for me.  Even though I had a glass of tonic water before I went to bed, I fought cramps all night long.  I slept but it was fitful.  I was up 2-3 times in an 8 hour period and was woken up with cramps twice that number.  I don't feel very rested.

I am beginning to feel this condition more and more.  Heck, I did not even want to walk much last night, even though the rain had stopped.  Anyone who knows me knows I love to walk and I just did not have the desire to yesterday.

You Never Really Know Someone

Sometime in June of 2009, I received word that James "Jimbo" Childers, the older brother of my friends Lou Ellen and Jan Childers, had committed suicide. I had (and still do have) friends in local law enforcement who, while not divulging any specifics, told me that the story was beginning to look very dark and sinister and that I would probably be very shocked by what would eventually be released to the media.

While the fascination of whatever dark secrets would later be revealed intrigued me, I really did not give Jimbo's death much thought. While I knew him, I was not close to him and had only hung around with him a few times.On those few times that I was around him, he and I were drinking with his younger brother and sister, both of whom I spent a fair amount of time around.

A few weeks after the news of his death, I learned that just days before he died, Childers mailed an audio cassette tape to the Clarksburg Police Department confessing to multiple murders and arsons. The story was in the local news for a few months and eventually the FBI became involved but since Jimbo had killed himself the police were never able to substantiate his claims of committing five murders.  The have been able to link him to three of them but were never able to find the other two bodies Childers claimed to have buried on his family farm in Braxton County, WV.  Cadaver dogs were unable to locate any human remains on the 96 acre farm.  Without any new leads, the case has gone cold.  

The transcript of his confession was released about a year later in the hopes of discovering new evidence.

You never really know someone, do you?