The Election Was No Big Deal - Right?
Dipping my toe into politics here - always dicey. I don't follow things political on a consistent basis, so anything I think or say comes with many grains of salt.
That being said, I do have some reliable and intelligent sources to which I defer when I need to understand things political, for whatever reason. Such sources have filled me in on the vote re-counting- and potential game-playing - going on. Now, it's not like I don't care that stuff may be going on which is messing with election results. I do. It's just that such activities don't surprise me any more. In fact, I had a conversation with a family member recently during which said family member reacted to my characterization of what I referred to as "most" politicians. They also reacted to my comments regarding actual and potential vote tampering. The term "conspiracy theorist" was bandied about.
Now, I suppose I could have resorted to the argument that some conspiracies exist. But I didn't. I simply stood by my characterization of most politicians - at least the ones we're surrounded by these days - as some combination of narcissist-sociopath-psychopath.
As for actual and potential vote tampering, my argument began not as an argument, but as a simple recounting of my voting experience last week.
The print on the ballots and the circles to fill in were tiny - as in tiny.
Then there was the failure of the scanners throughout the entire city (NY) - fortunately after I had voted - causing crowding and chaos.
Then there were all those helpers hanging around. One of these was standing by me as I tried to scan my ballot. When it got stuck, he gave me some verbal instructions, which resulted in it being scanned. Meanwhile, I noticed that he could see my ballot and would therefore know how I'd voted. Now I wasn't particularly concerned about this, until professional colleague told me about his voting experience. As opposed to me, he right away identified two issues: 1) loss of privacy - something that existed with the machines previously used before this scanned ballot nonsense; 2) the potential for voter intimidation: someone's watching you and can pass on what they've seen to...well, I haven't thought it through that far, but can you see why the potential for intimidation might have popped into my colleague's head?
What this recollection led to was a comment that there was nothing wrong with the old machines we used to have, followed by a comment that whenever someone changes or suggests changing something that works just fine, its' a red flag. And I'll be darned if I can recall any compelling reason offered for why the old machines had to be replaced by a system that's the farthest thing from tamper proof.
In any case, I think the conversation ended with our agreeing that I wasn't paranoid, that there might be something to what I'd said - somewhat begrudgingly, but there it is.
Setting aside my personal and anecdotal election experience, until yesterday I took the results in stride with the understanding that: 1) mid-term elections commonly result in the flipping of one or both of the House and/or Senate; 2) everyone expected the Dems to take the House. I also nodded in agreement with the idea that markets like a Congress that's divided - the theory being there's less chance they'll screw things up. But yesterday I read an analysis that blew all that up - sort of.
What I read was that the Dem victory would potentially undermine the economy and the markets. This analyst also said that markets won't like the Repub-Dem division of Congress. I won't go into details now, but the arguments were interesting, if not compelling.
So maybe the election was a bigger deal than I had thought.
Note that after the two days of stock market rally after the election, things got ugly. What I'm watching now is where things go from here. Will the (almost inevitable) year-end rally be undermined? Well, that same analyst leaves that open, but said two things that caught my attention: 1) We could have a year-end rally - but that will lead next year (when? earlier? later?) to a more dramatic downturn; 2) If this next downturn snowballs into a full-blown crisis, it will be worse than 2008.
So, again, maybe the election was a bigger deal than I had thought.
That being said, I do have some reliable and intelligent sources to which I defer when I need to understand things political, for whatever reason. Such sources have filled me in on the vote re-counting- and potential game-playing - going on. Now, it's not like I don't care that stuff may be going on which is messing with election results. I do. It's just that such activities don't surprise me any more. In fact, I had a conversation with a family member recently during which said family member reacted to my characterization of what I referred to as "most" politicians. They also reacted to my comments regarding actual and potential vote tampering. The term "conspiracy theorist" was bandied about.
Now, I suppose I could have resorted to the argument that some conspiracies exist. But I didn't. I simply stood by my characterization of most politicians - at least the ones we're surrounded by these days - as some combination of narcissist-sociopath-psychopath.
As for actual and potential vote tampering, my argument began not as an argument, but as a simple recounting of my voting experience last week.
The print on the ballots and the circles to fill in were tiny - as in tiny.
Then there was the failure of the scanners throughout the entire city (NY) - fortunately after I had voted - causing crowding and chaos.
Then there were all those helpers hanging around. One of these was standing by me as I tried to scan my ballot. When it got stuck, he gave me some verbal instructions, which resulted in it being scanned. Meanwhile, I noticed that he could see my ballot and would therefore know how I'd voted. Now I wasn't particularly concerned about this, until professional colleague told me about his voting experience. As opposed to me, he right away identified two issues: 1) loss of privacy - something that existed with the machines previously used before this scanned ballot nonsense; 2) the potential for voter intimidation: someone's watching you and can pass on what they've seen to...well, I haven't thought it through that far, but can you see why the potential for intimidation might have popped into my colleague's head?
What this recollection led to was a comment that there was nothing wrong with the old machines we used to have, followed by a comment that whenever someone changes or suggests changing something that works just fine, its' a red flag. And I'll be darned if I can recall any compelling reason offered for why the old machines had to be replaced by a system that's the farthest thing from tamper proof.
In any case, I think the conversation ended with our agreeing that I wasn't paranoid, that there might be something to what I'd said - somewhat begrudgingly, but there it is.
Setting aside my personal and anecdotal election experience, until yesterday I took the results in stride with the understanding that: 1) mid-term elections commonly result in the flipping of one or both of the House and/or Senate; 2) everyone expected the Dems to take the House. I also nodded in agreement with the idea that markets like a Congress that's divided - the theory being there's less chance they'll screw things up. But yesterday I read an analysis that blew all that up - sort of.
What I read was that the Dem victory would potentially undermine the economy and the markets. This analyst also said that markets won't like the Repub-Dem division of Congress. I won't go into details now, but the arguments were interesting, if not compelling.
So maybe the election was a bigger deal than I had thought.
Note that after the two days of stock market rally after the election, things got ugly. What I'm watching now is where things go from here. Will the (almost inevitable) year-end rally be undermined? Well, that same analyst leaves that open, but said two things that caught my attention: 1) We could have a year-end rally - but that will lead next year (when? earlier? later?) to a more dramatic downturn; 2) If this next downturn snowballs into a full-blown crisis, it will be worse than 2008.
So, again, maybe the election was a bigger deal than I had thought.
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