Portuguese Drivers.

November14

I’ve written before about the fun of driving in Italy… and how insanely aggressive Italian drivers are. I thought for sure I had found the worst drivers in the world yet I was stunned when I started driving in Portugal. Portuguese drivers are the most unpredictable and crazy drivers in the world. Somehow they even beat the Egyptians.

I’ve seen Portuguese drivers stopped in the middle of the highway.

I’ve seen them park on roundabouts.

They use their turn signal to signal when you should move over.

I’ve seen them stop in the middle of the road to let someone out to mail a letter, turn on their blinkers, and wait…

I’ve seen them drive in the middle of two lanes for miles.

That said, they are more random than aggressive. You just don’t know what they are going to do. I do like that I can count on Italians to both be uber aggressive, but are generally good at staying in the lines. Just this week I had two drivers try to side swipe my bike with a random lane change into me.

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My son came home…

November9

… very angry. And, probably in part because he is hungry. He turns 4 in two months and he wants to do things on his own. He was fighting with his mom over holding her hand to cross the street and similar stuff. Testing boundaries and all that fun :).

Anyway, he apparently went into the bathroom and peed all over the floor because he was “angry”. Like stomping mad and being a little shit angry. Also, it is a kinda hilarious move to pee all over the floor on purpose.

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Wow… how long?

November8

I was showing Lindsey a movie trailer for Yesterday (good movie), and she asked when I had seen it. I told her oh maybe 5 or 6 years ago on a plane… so it turns out it came out in 2019 and I must have watched it on the plane to Europe in November 2019…

But ya, it certainly feels like 5 or 6 years :).

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Van Jones Rocks.

November7

This sums it up, it is hard to be cynical when you hear this and feel this. It made me cry. So well said Van Jones.

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Biden Wins. Yay.

November6

Congrats to Biden, now you get to govern a country where ~70 million people live in a different reality created by Fox “news”, right-wing propaganda, and conspiracy theories. A group of people who would vote for Hitler if he promised to ban abortion, believe the left wants communism despite any evidence, and do not believe in science.

On the left, you have a party that doesn’t know how to play the game, fails to lead the national conversations, fails to accomplish any economic policy that would help people in the bottom 70% of the economic spectrum, and continues to try to fight an idiotic culture war.

This sums up a lot of how I feel about the failure of Democrats.

Democrats = forgot how to talk to normal people. Warren and Buttigieg are better than most.

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Election Day 1 of ?…

November4

Well, this is fun :)

About what I expected… this is going to take weeks to finish counting as it has come down to a few key states.

Biden will most likely still squeak out a win (Trumps odds are up though). The chance of a Democratic Senate is probably finished, meaning nothing is going to change. The Republicans will be Republicans and oppose everything. Meanwhile, on TV tonight an attempted coup by President Drumpf who doesn’t want to count all the votes. We shall see how that goes and if we still have a Democracy by Thanksgiving.

I was really hoping there would be a mandate/repudiation of Trump. I am not seeing that currently. We shall see how counts come in if anything changes. But in completed districts, you can see that he actually gained votes in a lot of key areas.

Just look at the above so far… those people looked at the last 4 years and said I want more of that and I support what is going on. Just think about that. We shall see how the final numbers land.

3 Conclusions (in my mind)…

1. The same conclusion as 2016. The America I thought I knew is over and dead.

2. Propaganda and your ability to spread that virally is what wins elections. Both for blue/red… but especially red. This should not be surprising given the history, but I like to believe people try to educate themselves on key issues. But from conversations with friends on both sides, it is clear ~90% is just the messaging and antidotes. Nobody wants complexity, they just want stories that back up their way of thinking. And, fear/hate work really well.

This seems especially evident when you look at how many “liberal” ballot measures pass and responses from the exit polls. Just look at how Florida passes a minimum wage increase, legalized weed, stricter gun laws, spending on green energy, immigration, etc…

3. As a species I am wary of our ability to overcome climate change. Some good trends showing up, but we are cutting this dangerously close to limits that would protect our future economy and modern survival. I still have a lot of hope, but it is fading fast. I figure in 10 years or so we will know if my son needs to learn to grow gills.

Oh, and some fun posts so far :)

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Election Day 2020.

November3

So here we are… weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

It is like a roller coaster you are not allowed to get off :)

What do I expect for election day? Nothing… most likely nothing will be decided on election day. It will probably take a few weeks, if not Thanksgiving, for all the counting, recounts, legal challenges, and so on.

What do I not want to see? Violence. I am particularly worried about violence by the right to scare off voters. And, I am very concerned about what Trump supporters will do when he loses (especially with his false claims of voter fraud). I also don’t want to see the Courts pick the win for Trump and further subvert the election process. I would also like the USA to remain a democracy.

If I get a magical unicorn wish what do I want to see? An overwhelming win by Biden by 20+ points nationally. That would partially restore my faith in America as a country and ethos. Is that going to happen? No. And, even if it did I think America has broken me. These last 4 years have been long, but I think they are just a more blunt version of the last 20 years. America is just a country, like any other. There is nothing special about it anymore. It is good at a few things, it is really bad at a lot of other things. When you are raised to think a place is special you feel very betrayed when it fails to live up to 90% of those values. And, I am disgusted by the selfish and materialistic culture it has created. Even if Biden wins that is nothing, I don’t expect much out of the Democrats even if they control all 3 houses (including white house). They fail to see how the game has changed and fail to adjust how they play the game.

Some gifs for election day.

There is a good chance Trump will be reelected. A small part of me wants to see that world. I do not think people change without real and persistent pain, and there are a lot of Americans who need 4 more years of Republican pain in order to change their beliefs. Part of me wants them to get their wish.

posted under Dangers To World | Comments Off on Election Day 2020.

This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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