President Biden

Every time I go outside I’m reminded that it’s the middle of summer as I get lightheaded and the heat saps my energy and my will to live. So it’s obviously not voting season, yet I find myself obsessively checking the polls and completing the Electoral College map anyway. Sure a lot can happen between now and November 3rd, and the voter suppression efforts are likely to be more significant than we’ve seen in recent memory (see how I avoided saying “unprecedented”?) but the polls are remarkably stable, which I know because I’m obsessively telling you how I obsessively check them.

If the election for President were held today, it would be a definitive victory for Joe Biden, with the potential for being a monstrous victory. Allow me to elucidate my methodology. I let Five Thirty Eight do the heavy lifting and aggregate all the polls. I review each state and give its Electoral votes to the candidate with at least a 3-point lead. If it’s within 3 points, I leave it as “too close to call.” That’s really all there is to it. I don’t worry about demographics and how they’ve changed in the state, or the state’s voting record, etc. For example, I find it hard to imagine Georgia delivering a majority of its votes to Biden, but every poll done in that state in August shows a Biden lead. Even the July polls that showed a Trump lead were under 3 points, so I’m leaving it as a toss up.

This is giving me some measure of hope for a less horrific future (note I didn’t say a brighter future) as Trump may be relegated to being a former President watching TV and rage tweeting instead of an actual President. He won’t leave the American psyche until he’s dead and buried, but at least he may be removed from signing more destructive Executive Orders and spewing inane nonsense from a podium that features the Presidential Seal.

The brighter future would require more than just a change at the top, and while that certainly may happen, I’m not counting on it. The Senate has become a judicial confirmation body vs. an actual legislative body and that’s exactly how the Senate Majority Leader wants it. So the House may continue generating legislation designed to address issues leadership sees as needed, but that legislation will collect dust on the pile of documents already stacked in the Senate closet with a Pending sticky note on it.

But at least a President Biden will be able to reverse some of the dangerous EO’s Trump has signed, and actually put qualified people in Cabinet positions instead of political donors and “acting” department heads who kowtow to Trump or risk being quickly replaced.

In other news, I deactivated my Facebook account this past weekend and deleted my Messenger app as well. I felt gross every time I logged in and when family members mention that I sure post a lot on Facebook, I got that old feeling I mentioned here and decided to stop the madness. It’s early, and I find myself compulsively thinking about checking it until I remember it’s gone. Hopefully that compulsion will fade and I’ll feel better about it over time. I have my trusty blog to pontificate with, and I still have Twitter if I want to shout something meaningless into the void.

Speaking of Twitter, I think I’ve figured out a way to make it easier for me to use so that it feels like a productive way to spend a few minutes. I unfollowed anyone who doesn’t follow me, so my feed is less chaotic. The accounts I used to follow for information, I’ve sorted into Lists I can check when I want to. For example, I have a Baseball list, a News Orgs list and a Reporters list. I have a Fitness list and even one for Politicians. By not following all those accounts, the tweets don’t show up in my feed all the time and I can more quickly get up to speed on current events in whatever area I’m interested in at the moment.

I still have Instagram, which I mostly use to see what my kids post since they seem to like posting stories there. I sometimes do as well, although I’m not feeling very creative these days so my usage is minimal.

And so the days carry on without much variety in them. I still struggle with the same issues around filling my time in a way I enjoy. I miss going to the gym, but I don’t feel safe returning yet. I have started monitoring the change in COVID-19 cases in my town, downtown Charleston, Charleston County and the overall state, as well as the positivity rate. I think I’ll know when I feel the risk profile has declined to a point where I can return, but we’re nowhere near it now, with positivity rates north of 10% and only occasional days of decreasing new cases. It’s a sorry state of affairs.

The Mets continue to lose ball games, but I’m still enjoying watching them. I thank Gary Cohen for that, along with his sidekicks Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling who are a cut above as a broadcast team. Whenever I watch another broadcast I’m reminded of just how good they are. The ESPN Sunday Night game was so bad, I found myself grimacing and talking to the TV. The Marlins broadcast team sound like amateurs. I did enjoy the Blue Jays coverage with Buck Martinez’s unique vocal stylings and extensive knowledge of the game that he seems to put to good use.

Today is Monday, which means I’m not working out right now, which I normally would be. It makes for a very long day that I don’t particularly relish. I work, I eat, I care for my animal roommates, which is as exhilarating as it sounds. I’m going to wrap this post up right here as it’s starting to get me down. Until we meet again blank sheet of electronic paper.