Why.

Today is Election Day in the United States. It’s the midterm elections and unless you’ve been living on a rock, you’ve probably been barraged with countless ads with mud being slung everywhere, outrageous lies, craftily edited video, and just gross buffoonery from both sides of the political equation. According to all polls on all networks vying for ad revenue, every race is a 50/50 race and too close to call, even those without opponents.

I’ve shut the television off. I’m avoiding news sites. I’m not talking about it.

It’s not like anyone is going to have an answer anytime soon and most likely if someone doesn’t win their going to throw some stupid hissy fit about compromised polls, illegal activity, and corruption at all levels of the election system, but just you watch, they will have zero evidence to back up these claims.

Our family voted by mail in plenty of time before the Pima County deadline. We’ve done our duty. I hope you did yours.

Some days I completely and utterly and without question identify with Tyne Daly’s “Maxine” in this scene from “Judging Amy”.

I have absolutely no faith in the American public doing the right thing when it comes to voting in the Midterm Elections. None. Not only do I have no faith in the voting public, I have little faith in our voting process. Not because Democrats are going to steal the election, no, they’re really not that clever, but because voting districts are incredibly gerrymandered into forced ridiculous outcomes and there are already election laws in place to make sure the American voter has as little of a voice as possible, especially non-white folks.

Look, the average IQ of American society is plummeting. The young ones couldn’t care less about voting unless it’s going to earn them “likes” and “influence”. The older ones watch the stupidest of the news media outlets (and they’re ALL stupid, quite frankly) and are way beyond their shelf date. We hear both sides of every issue when the other side is so incredibly far-fetched/stupid/ignorant that it’s worth absolutely no air time. The news media doesn’t care about reporting, they care about opinions because it generates controversy which generates ad revenue because of eye balls and pearl clutching. Don’t even get me started on the idiocy of social media. We worship billionaires that were given millions as kids because they work hard(?).

“Idiocracy” was not an operating manual for society, but y’all are hellbent on turning this hellscape into their favorite sci-fi armageddon/post apocalyptic scenario because that gets better ratings.

The likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Bobert wouldn’t get two seconds in any sort of conversation, let alone be taken seriously as a political contender before the 21st century. Never. They’re good for ad revenue for the news media, and therefore we have to hear their uneducated, ignorant, fucked up points of view all the time. They’re STUPID. Why must we elevate and amplify the voices of the STUPID. Let them bark at a carnival or a church or something.

The only faith I have in these midterms is the other shoe is going to drop and it’s not going to be pretty.

I need to go to a shooting range and let my hostilities out.

Pima County here in Arizona is big on early voting. I like taking advantage of this perk and we did our civic duty by voting today. We just dropped our ballots off a the post office.

We often hear that this election is the most important election of our lifetime, and I’m actually feeling that vibe these days. The U.S. government is in such disarray at the moment and voting is our only weapon to actually help mediate this chaos.

I’m not looking forward to the election cycle after these midterm elections are over, because we all know that as soon as the last ballot is cast we’re going to be hearing about the 2024 Presidential Election. And quite frankly, I don’t really want to hear about that. I’m not particularly fond of anyone in office right now, but we’re doing the best we can do with what we’ve got.

Just go out and vote. Please.

It’s way too early for Christmas decorations to be overtaking the retail spaces. I am not in the mood to hear Barbra warble about Kids Wearing Curtains During A Thunderstorm. But yet, my husband must fling us through the Merry Trim-A-Tree department every time we come within 100 miles of said frivolity.

I noticed a new feature this year: super festively gay Christmas trees. The pink tree is sort of a throwback to the 1960s (though it’s not a lead painted aluminum tree). But the rainbow tree? I don’t know what’s happening there. But I’m sure it brings joy to someone in the season shopping audience.

I’m sure we’ll hear something about the War on Christmas, with this tree front and center, some time before the end of this year.

Singer Basia released the track “Prime Time TV” back in the late 1980s. A commentary on what was fed to society on television back then, perhaps Basia should release a new version based on the Internet.

Is it a window?
Is it a mirror?
Is it just for entertainment and for pleasure?
So when it’s over we’re back to people
Just to prove that human touch can have no equal

How about we do this� no elected official can hold multiple social media accounts. They use their official, recorded account or none at all.

Let�s get every spewed piece of vial on the official U.S, government record.

Make it a law.

I know plenty of folk that enjoy the Tik-tok. It’s a great outlet for creative types and those that want snippets of entertainment. I get the appeal, but it’s not my thing. I’m very concerned about the security around the app and the company, and the quick hits tamper with the way my brain works. I just prefer longer videos. As much as I don’t trust Google, I pay for the ad free version of YouTube. I know paying for the service doesn’t exempt me from the privacy invasion but at least I don’t have to watch ads.

I’ve noticed many other social media services have been trying to do the Tik-tok thing; Instagram now favors short videos instead of photos in my stream. This agitates me to the point of avoiding Instagram for days at a time now. This week I noticed YouTube is now putting a decent helping of “YouTube Shorts” in my search results and suggested videos streams.

WHY?

With social media reducing communication down to 280 characters, I know society is losing it’s ability to read anything longer than a paragraph. But just as a paragraph can’t tell the whole story, I feel like a 30 second video can’t tell a whole story either.

Back in the early days of “The Web” I never imagined a world where things would become so erratic and mind boggling. And don’t even get me started on the deception and dishonesty with too many nuggets of information on the Internet.

I guess my vision of the future was short sighted.

I was going to write about today being Independence Day and such, but with the current state of the country, and now another mass shooting during an Independence Day Parade in Highland Park, Illinois, it’s all I can do to not tear up when I think about what this country has become.

We used to do better. We used to be better. It’s heartbreaking to see what this country has become.

Drawing found on Pinterest courtesy of a Google Search.

Work maintains its insane pace and the hours are long. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s not Friday.