I’m going to bed.
It’s going to be a new world tomorrow.
Monday/ voter turnout is key ❎
Happy Monday. So here we are, with Election Day tomorrow.
About 50% of likely American voters have already cast their ballots. The rest will all vote tomorrow.
(New Hampshire, Alabama and Mississippi do not allow general early voting—an eligible reason is required to vote early, by mail).
Only about 2/3 of eligible American voters vote in presidential election years, and only about 1/2 in mid-term elections.
The turnout percentages have gotten bigger in recent cycles, though.
From pewresearch.org under a page heading ‘1. Voter turnout, 2018-2022’:
The elections of 2018, 2020 and 2022 were three of the highest-turnout U.S. elections of their respective types in decades.
About two-thirds (66%) of the voting-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election – the highest rate for any national election since 1900. The 2018 election (49% turnout) had the highest rate for a midterm since 1914.
Even the 2022 election’s turnout, with a slightly lower rate of 46%, exceeded that of all midterm elections since 1970.
While sizable shares of the public vote either consistently or not at all, many people vote intermittently. Given how closely divided the U.S. is politically, these intermittent voters often determine the outcome of elections and how the balance of support for the two major political parties swings between elections.
Overall, 70% of U.S. adult citizens who were eligible to participate in all three elections between 2018 and 2022 voted in at least one of them, with about half that share (37%) voting in all three.
Make sure you drop your ballot in an official ballot box. 😆
(Garbage can on Capitol Hill’s 15th Avenue East relabeled by graffiti sticker prankster).
Sunday/ back to Standard Time 🌇
We set our clocks back one hour last night. Daylight Saving Time that had started in March, ended.
So all of the United States is now back on Standard Time, and the sun sets a whole hour earlier than it did on Saturday.
This is 3.46 pm, and there is just an hour of sunlight left (sunset is now at 4.47 pm).
Here comes Marine Vessel Puyallup, arriving at the Seattle Ferry Terminal, in from Bainbridge Island.
Saturday/ unity makes strength 🪙
It was November of 1899 in colonial Africa— in what is called South Africa today.
The Second Boer War had already started, on October 11.
The British government had rejected an ultimatum issued by the Boer republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.
The republics had demanded the withdrawal of British troops from their borders, primarily due to growing tensions caused by the discovery of gold in the Transvaal (Johannesburg today) and the influx of British “Uitlander” (foreigner) miners who were denied political rights by the Boer government.
The mint, where the republics produced gold coins for 1899, soon learned that the Kruger Pound dies for the 1899 coins were intercepted by the British in then-Lourenzo Marques in Mozambique (Maputo, today).
On the 2nd day of November 1899 at 10.30am, a single figure 9 was stamped at the bottom of the President’s bust on an 1898 coin, slightly overlapping the design. The coin is known today as ‘the single nine counterstamp’ or simply the ‘Single 9’, and is South Africa’s only one-of-a-kind coin.
Republic gold “9” Pond 1898 MS63 Prooflike NGC, Pretoria mint, KM-Unl., Hern-ZP6.
The indisputable ‘unicorn coin’ in the entire South African series, the “Single 9 Overstamp” 1898 Pond remains unchallenged in its exclusive solitude. A distinct variant of the 130-piece “99” Pond issue, the “Single 9” Pond reportedly changed hands in a private sale in 2010, for a value documented as “multi-million Rand” by Hern. Other industry sources detail a more precise figure of ZAR 20,000,000, which was the equivalent of US$ 2,700,000 at the average 2010 exchange rate. Possibly selected as the candidate for the overstamping for its gleaming ‘Prooflike’ appearance, this rarified treasure has been the prime target of South African experts for over a century.
Translation: ‘Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek’ is ‘South African Republic’ (an area north of the Vaal River and south of the Limpopo River and not to be confused with ‘Republic of South Africa’, which is all of modern-day South Africa and which came about only in May 1961, after the Union of South Africa gained its independence from Great Britain).
The figure on the coin is President Paul Kruger, the leading figure in the movement to restore the South African Republic’s independence, culminating in the Boers’ victory in the First Boer War of 1880–1881. Kruger served until 1883 as a member of an executive triumvirate, then was elected President of the South African Republic.
*In absolute dollar terms. When adjusted for inflation, the early 1980s is still the peak for gold, at some $3,200 per ounce in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Translation: ‘Eendragt Maakt Mag’ means ‘Unity makes strength’.
Friday/ look ma, no hands 👐
November is here. Happy Friday.
One of my favorite functions is the self-parking function. (Tesla calls it Autopark). I pick one of the parking spaces that my car ‘sees’ (it shows it on the console), and then let go of the steering wheel so that the car can park itself.
The parking function only works for perpendicular or parallel parking and not for angled parking. For parallel parking, there must be a vehicle in front of or behind the space you want to park in.
Thursday/ Halloween 🦇
Happy Halloween! We live in scary times.
The skeleton is from a house here on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
Wednesday/ a sinking ship 🛳️
Some 50 million voters have already cast their ballots for the 2024 US Elections (one third of the electorate).
I came across this stamp in my shoebox with on-paper stamps today.
Issued Mar. 18, 1994 by Transkei, from the final set of stamps issued by Transkei*
Perf. 14½ x14 | Litho. | No watermark
301 A62 85c |Multicolored | Oceanos**, 1991
*Transkei was a self-governing tribal homeland in South Africa from 1976 to 1994 in the Eastern Cape province. Transkei ceased to exist on Apr. 27, 1994. It was reincorporated into the Republic of South Africa after the 1994 national election.
**MTS Oceanos was a French-built and Greek-owned cruise ship that sank in 1991 off the coast of South Africa when she suffered uncontrolled flooding.
Friends of my parents were on the ship as she was going under 😱, and came away on a lifeboat with nothing other than the clothes that they had been wearing.
[Sources: Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalog, Vol. 6A, Wikipedia]
Tuesday/ closing arguments 🗽
Kamala Harris Rips Trump As ‘Unstable, Obsessed With Revenge’ At Ellipse
By Kaitlin Lewis for Newsweek.com
More than 75,000 spectators gathered in Washington, D.C., to hear Vice President Kamala Harris’ closing argument speech at the same site of former President Donald Trump’s infamous “Save America” rally that preceded the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Harris’ event at the Ellipse arrived one week before Election Day and followed Trump’s closing arguments at Madison Square Garden on Sunday that received backlash for its inflammatory and racist rhetoric.
*The Ellipse, sometimes referred to as President’s Park South, is a 52-acre park south of the White House fence and north of Constitution Avenue and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
[Posted by Matt Corridoni on X.]
Monday/ the only patriotic choice 🇺🇸
From the New York Times Editorial Board:
It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. He has proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks.
Those disqualifying characteristics are compounded by everything else that limits his ability to fulfill the duties of the president: his many criminal charges, his advancing age, his fundamental lack of interest in policy and his increasingly bizarre cast of associates.
This unequivocal, dispiriting truth — Donald Trump is not fit to be president — should be enough for any voter who cares about the health of our country and the stability of our democracy to deny him re-election.
For this reason, regardless of any political disagreements voters might have with her, Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president.
Sunday/ 19th Avenue 🌳
It rained for most of the day here in Seattle, but there was a break right before sunset (now at 5.58 pm).
The trees lining Capitol Hill’s 19th Avenue East still have most of their leaves.
Nice yard sign (also from 19th Avenue East).
No doubt: there are many millions of girls and women (and men) across the United States hoping that the country elects its first Madam President.
Saturday/ more fall colors 🍁
Leaves near Capitol Hill’s Broadway, revealing their beautiful carotenoids and anthocyanins (orange-yellow and red pigments).
Friday/ Halloween is coming 🦇
Happy Friday.
I was out and about in U-District as night was falling, and saw several people dressed up for Halloween parties.
As I settled in and looked around, I found myself sitting next to a mouse 🖱, a cow 🐮, a tiger 🐯 and a leopard🐆 in the train (young people in their Halloween costumes).
Thursday/ colder ❄
The amigos played pickleball inside at the Sandman’s Courts in Columbia City today.
There was sun outside, but the high was only 55°F (13°C).
Wednesday/ yellow jacket 🐝
I’m still learning to use my phone’s ultrawide lens for macro photos.
The depth of field is shallow (the space in which everything will be in focus), and I had to hold the phone so close to my object* that I worried getting stung by it. 😱
*Yellowjacket or yellow jacket is the common name in North America for predatory social wasps of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula.
Tuesday/ two weeks to go ⏳
Only two weeks remain until Election Day.
I was reminded today by someone on the radio that the 2020 election was only called on Saturday Nov. 5— four days after Election Day (Tuesday Nov. 1).
Written for deadline.com by Ted Johnson and Dominic Patten on Nov 7, 2020:
After days of wait over a seemingly glacial pace of ballot counting, CNN‘s Wolf Blitzer called the presidential race for Joe Biden at 11:24:20 AM ET, the first of the networks to declare the winner.
“After four long tense days, we have reached a historic moment in this election,” Blitzer said. “We can now project the winner of the presidential race.”
What triggered it? The latest report of votes coming in from Pennsylvania, which put Biden’s margin over Trump at more than 30,000. Although the trendlines have been in Biden’s direction, network decision desks had been reluctant to make the call until they could better discern the remaining vote.
Analyst Van Jones broke down in tears. “It’s easier to be a parent this morning. It’s easier to be a dad. It’s easier to tell your kids, character matters. It matters. Telling the truth matters.”
Monday 🍂
Fall colors, and a scooter, on the corner of 16th Avenue East and Republican Street in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Sunday/ the comet Tsuchinshan ☄
We have had cloudy skies for most of the evenings here in the Pacific Northwest, so it’s been a challenge to see that wily comet called C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS).
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the Oort cloud* discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China on 9 January 2023 and independently found by ATLAS South Africa on 22 February 2023. The comet passed perihelion at a distance of 0.39 AU on 27 September 2024, when it became visible to the naked eye. [Source: Wikipedia]
*The Oort Cloud lies far beyond Pluto and the most distant edges of the Kuiper Belt. While the planets of our solar system orbit in a flat plane, the Oort Cloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the Sun, planets and Kuiper Belt Objects. It’s like a big, thick bubble around our solar system, made of icy, comet-like objects. The Oort Cloud’s icy bodies can be as large as mountains – and sometimes larger. [Source: science.nasa.gov]
19 Okt 24
Wat wil jy nou nog meer in een foto hê? Daar is die Melkwegkern, Venus, Komeet Tsuchinshan – Atlas en ‘n vrystaatse windpomp!
Translation: Could one want anything more in one photo? There’s the core of the Milky Way galaxy, Venus, comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas, and a windpump from Free State province!
Saturday/ I have my ballot 🗳
My ballot landed in the mailbox today. I walk down to the drop box here on Broadway in Seattle’s Capitol Hill tomorrow, and drop it in tomorrow.
Here’s Ezra Klein writing in an opinion piece for the New York Times called ‘Ignore The Polls’, Oct. 13, 2024:
There are voters who are still undecided, but they are, almost by definition, voters who pay less attention to political news and are either so uninterested in politics or so cynical about both candidates that nothing has yet caused them to make up their minds. There are many more voters whose minds are made up but may or may not actually fill out ballots by Election Day. These are the voters who will decide the election, and they’re not tipping their hands yet.
I suspect, if you’re reading this column, you’re not one of those voters. So give yourself a break. Step off the emotional roller coaster. If you want to do something to affect the election, donate money or time in a swing state — ideally to a state party or down-ballot race, where your efforts will go further — or volunteer in a local race. Call anyone in your life who might actually be undecided or might not be registered to vote or might not make it to the polls. And then let go. There’s nothing more you can do, and nothing more the polls can do for you.
Friday/ ignore the polls 😐
Happy Friday.
Early voting has started across the country.
In Georgia, former president Jimmy Carter (100 years old) has voted for Harris-Walz.
My ballot has not arrived yet, but it should land in my mailbox any day now.
Ignore the polls. And don’t let anything stop you from voting for Harris & Walz.
[Posted by Jon Cryer on X @MrJonCryer]
Thursday/ a little rain ☔
There was a little rain today, and it definitely felt like fall, with a high of only 56°F (13°C).
[Original image shot with iPhone 16 Pro’s Ultra Wide Lens, 13 mm f2.2 equivalent at 3024×4032 pixels (12 MP) which was resized to 1125×2000 for this post]