Darkoshi

I didn't find out about the April 5 Hands-Off protests early enough to make plans to go to the one here. But there are more nationwide protests planned for this Saturday as part of 50-50-1.

AFL-CIO and allies plan more mass protests through April 19

Little things make me anxious. I already found the Facebook page for the SC branch of the 50501 group, which does show a protest will be held here in Columbia on the 19th. Yet now I saw that the main site's page doesn't show an event being held here. (Maybe I'll go downtown with a sign and there will be no large group ::dread::) So if you don't see your location listed on the main site's event page either, you may want to do some more searches to be sure.

I need to make a sign. There's hardly any point in going if I don't have a sign, as then I will just look like a random person standing around. So I have to decide something to write on a sign, and then make the sign.

I have to fight against the part of me that doesn't want to go out there and expose myself. There are so many things I could put on a sign, but I am having trouble thinking of something I'll agree to.

I came across this short article yesterday while reading about "Blake" and other names; I thought it was well written:

Why You Should Vote for Kamala Harris

Why is a baby name website endorsing Kamala Harris for President?

Names are at the heart of the issues most crucial in this election. Donald Trump has made a campaign stunt of mispronouncing Kamala’s name. But when he ridicules her name, he’s also disrespecting not just Harris herself but women and cultural diversity in general.

Names are our identity. The names we choose with love and care represent who we are and who we want our children to be.
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I cast my ballot during our early voting period, Friday a week ago. I stood in line outside in mostly full sun for an hour, but was relieved to get it done.

I still haven't figured out the solution word to the Semantle Junior game (#1000) which I started playing on my phone while waiting in line. I haven't played the game often, but this is the first one to stump me so badly.

Time.com: Your Vote Is Safe (2024/10/24)

After my other posts about the Olympics opening ceremony, I feel I should at least mention the Uyghur situation and other human rights abuses by China so it won't seem like I'm ignoring it.

It is horrible; it is akin to Nazi Germany and the 1936 Olympics.

I was ambivalent enough about it to not be particularly interested in even watching the opening ceremony. But Qiao recorded it for me, knowing that I'm usually into such things. And I was curious about it, so I did watch it.

I know that the China situation is not the fault of the athletes or all the many people involved in the Olympics. If we only allowed the Olympics to be held in countries without human rights violations, how many countries would be left, and how many of those would even be capable of hosting such a big event?

Would boycotting the Olympics completely do anything to help the situation? How?
And if so, shouldn't we be boycotting everything from China, not just the Olympics? We depend on China for so many products, I doubt that would even be feasible.

So, like so many other things in the world, I don't know what the "right" or best approach would be.

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Other things that struck me about the ceremony:

Xi Jinping is shown wearing a face mask. If I recall right, he took it off to give his speech, and put it back on right afterwards. Sitting in the stands, he wore it.
Whereas Putin is shown maskless, hatless, gloveless, like the cold doesn't bother him. (And maybe it doesn't, if he's a sociopath and if sociopaths don't feel pain as intensely as others.)
But I wonder if Xi Jinping was at all annoyed that Putin didn't wear a face mask.

In the part where the snowflakes with country names were (virtually) spinning in the air before the lighting of the "cauldron", the one for "ROC" (which Russia is competing under) was shown at least 3 times. Seems odd to me. Would China have done that as a nod to Russia?

While some of the speeches were going on, in the part where you could see 4 or 5 young males in the background holding various country's flags, those flag-holders were smiling so cheerfully, for so long. They even looked like real smiles, not forced. Were those people chosen to stand there because they are good at holding a smile? How much pressure was on them (and the other participants) to keep a cheerful face? (I've wondered that about performers in other events too, but this being China, I wonder if there would be punishment given to performers for failing to meet expectations.)

The soldiers in military uniforms who transferred the Chinese flag before it being hoisted... at first, those slow & quick goose steps they did in unison were disturbing to see. But then again, it also looked very neat.

I've had a realization, after many times noticing how Fox News in almost every "news" story bashes (and/or subtly or not-so-subtly puts down) Democrats and liberals - even when Republicans are/were in charge of the government.

Fox News isn't only a channel geared towards Republicans and conservatives. Its intention is to sway and convince people to *vote* (and keep voting) for Republicans and conservatives.

If you are a very wealthy conservative Republican, how can you influence elections in a democracy? Among other things, you can give money to candidates and PACs, and you can fund advertising in hopes of swaying the electorate.

Fox News is basically an on-going 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week political advertisement, designed to convince and keep people voting for Republicans (or whoever they choose to laud on their shows) and against Democrats. It is only disguised as a "news" channel.

Perhaps that is obvious, and perhaps it has been apparent to me in the background of my mind before. But in general I try to pay as little attention to Fox News as possible because of how much it upsets me when I do pay it attention.

What happens if a U.S. presidential candidate withdraws (or dies) before the election is over?
part 1
part 2

It sounds like it would be a mess. Those pages don't even discuss all possible scenarios, like if both the presidental and vice-presidental candidates die or become incapacitated, or if one or both disappear without a trace.

The section about the 20th amendment in Part 1 doesn't make sense to me, because we no longer have separate votes for the president and the VP. So "if the President shall not have been chosen" then we won't have a "Vice President Elect" yet either. Right?

I'm sure there are some better articles on the topic out there. But the few others I've glanced at also make it seem murky and uncertain.

Trump Facebook Ad Openly Using a Nazi Symbol For “Political Prisoner”

The ad being referenced has this text:

Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem. They are DESTROYING our cities and rioting - it’s absolute madness.
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Please add your name IMMEDIATELY to stand with your President and his decision to declare ANTIFA a Terrorist Organization.

The ad has an image of a big downward-pointing red triangle, which is a symbol Nazis used to represent people whom they had imprisoned for political reasons.
The ad gives no reason or explanation for the red triangle, but given the Nazi association mentioned in the above article, along with the implication that all anti-fascist protesters should be labeled terrorists and imprisoned, it is very disturbing.

Facebook has taken down the ad "because it goes against Facebook Advertising Policies."

The other ads I see posted by the same sponsor, Team Trump @officialteamtrump, do not blatantly display Nazi symbols, but they are likewise repugnant to me. Very negative, Biden-bashing; calling Biden "Sleepy Joe" all over the place; purporting that the Democrats are out to gut Social Security and health care rather than the other way around.

But this "Team Trump" advertiser has spent (only) $1.87 million on Facebook ads during the last year.

By contrast, Donald J. Trump @DonaldTrump has spent $44.5 million on Facebook ads in the last year and $1.2 million in the last week.

The ads from the @DonaldTrump account aren't as vitriolic as the other ones, but they are also unpleasant, and some of the same ads are shared by both accounts, so they are undoubtedly linked.

The red triangle ad was (apparently?) shown on both the @officialteamtrump and @DonaldTrump pages (I'm not quite sure how to interpret all of this yet):
https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=591999094784607
https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=681677109057568

Each of those links shows there are 30 versions of the ad (each with its own IDs for both accounts). But when you scroll through the versions, they all look alike. Most other ads also show multiple identical-looking versions. So I guess the difference must be in to whom they are targeted, or some such.

For comparison, here are Joe Biden @joebiden's Facebook ads.
He has spent $23 million on the ads in the last year and $1.2 million in the last week.


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General Notes on the Facebook Ad Library:

Main link: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/

When you search on a term such as "Team Trump", the drop-down may display many matching pages for that term. This may include pages that haven't done any advertising.

Once you select a item from the drop-down, it will show info on that page, and the ads it has ... (Showed on its own page? Paid for? I'm not sure. Aren't there some ads that are targeted to Facebook users via their timeline, without showing up on a particular page?)

To save a URL to a specific ad, after opening it, click the 3 dots up near the top, by the sponsor's name. The URL will include the ad ID which is also displayed in that top section.

To get information on the entity that paid for the ad, after opening it, expand the "Information from the advertiser" section.

After opening an add, the top shows how many versions of it there are, and has left/right arrows for you to scroll through them.

I don't see a way to search for ads shown during a certain timeframe. If you want to see what ads were shown a month or year ago, it looks like you have to scroll down through all the other ads that were posted since then.

Ads that were taken down because they went against Facebook advertising policies are still listed on the above page, but their images aren't shown until you click the link to open the specific ad. So that's an easy-ish way to find them - keep scrolling down until you find one that doesn't include an image. (Unless this is only for the cases where the image was found to be objectionable, but not the text? I'm not sure.)

Per this page, unless an ad has appeared on your timeline, you can't get details on what demographics an ad was targeted at.

When you open the main ads page for a particular (page / organization/ whatnot), there's a "Page Transparency" section at the top. It's "See More" link gives info on page name changes, the country /region from where people manage the page, and the organizations that manage the page.

Good informational article:
Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance - What the Next 18 Months Can Look Like, if Leaders Buy Us Time

There's a link to a whitehouse.gov petition at the end that you can sign.

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All the numbers I'm seeing in the U.S., including here in SC, are doubling about every 2 days, just as predicted by the prior articles I'd read.

Today in SC, 173 positive cases and 3 deaths.

I heard a news reporter talking about the increase in numbers for the day being in the tens or twenties (I think they were talking about another state). They said those kind of numbers would likely continue and "we'll need to get used to it". I was thinking, umm no, you don't seem to understand; at this rate it will be in the hundreds within a few days, then in the thousands a week later.

I had hoped that the measures taken so far here would have a positive effect within 2 weeks, even if not noticeable right away due to the amount of testing being ramped up at the same time. But based on the above article, it likely won't be enough to avoid catastrophe without further measures being taken.

I also didn't realize that the lock-downs ("Hammer") done in China and South Korea were only necessary for a few weeks to months and that they were able to ease social restrictions afterwards (the "Dance") while still maintaining control of the virus' spread.

I don't like the sound of pianos. Or at least, I often find myself not liking songs which have a regular acoustic piano (or a digital recreation of that sound) as the main musical instrument. I'm not sure why; the sound of the keys sounds sort of unpleasant to me. Clunky. Muted. Old-fashioned. The sound of each key decays too fast.

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It seems that ucky isn't a word? Hmm. To me, yucky conveys bad-tasting food. Icky conveys dirt or contamination. Ucky conveys some other general unpleasantness. I suppose I should use the word 'unpleasant' instead.

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Nearly every time I use the self-checkout at Kroger, I have my 2 cloth bags with me. After swiping my Kroger card, I always select the option to "Use my own bags", and I always put them on the top shelf. They always weigh the same. Considering that, you'd think that their system could be smart enough to remember that about me, and allow me to continue checking out, rather than EVERY SINGLE TIME giving me the "Someone will assist you shortly" message and making me wait for an attendant to come and verify that my bags are really empty, and I'm not trying to steal anything. Grr.

Several times during each check-out, I also get that "Please remove the unscanned item from the bagging area. Remember to always scan each item" message, even though I *do* make sure that each item has scanned successfully before placing it in my bag. I also get "Please put back the item you removed from the bagging area" fairly often, even though I haven't removed anything. I ignore these nagging messages, and continue scanning.

Yeah, Kroger's computers think I'm a crook. Whatever. It doesn't stop them from sending me coupons.

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SC Congressman-Elect Joe Cunningham Clenches an Historic Win

The Charleston attorney and ocean engineer narrowly defeated first term state house representative Katie Arrington, making him the first democrat the first congressional district has sent to congress in nearly 40 years.
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One of the key issues Cunningham’s camp was able to capitalize on is offshore drilling. He made it clear he was against it while pointing out Arrington supported the president’s decision to lift the ban. The first congressional district runs along the coast from Charleston to Hilton Head and several republican mayors endorsed Cunningham over Arrington on that issue alone.

Here in my district 6, the Democrat incumbent (since 1993) Jim Clyburn won re-election with 70% of the vote.

Reading Facebook posts by people in my family and by acquaintances I've met in person mostly leaves me feeling annoyed, upset, disappointed, or down. Not all posts are like that; some are good, but there are enough of the other kind so that I don't feel like I'm missing much when I go for weeks without checking Facebook. (This is in contrast to my other FB account which is connected to people like you, whom I know from online; although I don't read it very often either due to time constraints.)

But my dad's FB page is a pleasant exception. I've found that he shares a lot of my views, and he seems so sane and wise compared to most other people on FB.

I suppose maybe I got my views from him to begin with, through some kind of osmosis. Though I never realized that while growing up, as my family never talked about politics or history or things like that back then, that I can recall.

The Stein/Baraka Green Party campaign plans to request recounts in 3 states. They are raising money to cover the fees. From refreshing the page a few times, I've been watching the amount raised going up astonishingly fast. They are likely to reach their goal of $2.5 million in a few hours if not by morning. Actually, the $2.5 million is only for the filing fees: The total cost is likely to be $6-7 million. So I imagine they will keep taking donations even after reaching that goal.

One thing mentioned on the page was news to me: "In 2004, the Cobb/LaMarche campaign demanded a recount in Ohio. Because of their efforts, an election administrator went to jail."

So I looked it up, and found this:
Election Staff Convicted in Recount Rig
Elections board workers sentenced to 18 months
Elections board workers take plea deal

More about the current recounts:
Hillary Clinton urged to call for election vote recount in battleground states