Election Fires and California Fire Shorts
UCLA fire experts said it is not forest management. We have to have better community planning, and better building materials.
Pictures of the Camp Fire damage show many trees standing and bark protected from fire, next to totally decimated houses and cars. The record and very tragic Camp Fire has taken 42 lives and burned 6,400 structures, mostly homes.
We must note that the President has reversed his tweet, and is sending disaster aid to California for all of its fires.
As a youngster I was inspired by an Isaac Asimov book on math called “1, 2, 3, … Infinity”. Trunp’s attitude is: One Democratic vote, Two Democratic votes, Three Democratic votes … Voter Fraud! Remember in the debate when Trump was asked if he would accept the result of the election, and he answered: if I win?
While Florida has clout for the Presidency with 29 electoral votes, beat by California with 55 and Texas with 38, it still has only the same two Senators as South Dakota, or California does. It is only in the House that Florida has a population to representative influence. Rick Scott, other than being one of the few Senators of whom Trump can remember his name, isn’t going to have any more influence than any other Senator.
Florida’s Broward County Hidden Senate Ballot. So many accusations, so little time. Broward County is a large Democratic urban area in Southern Florida, along with Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. After reading an undoubtedly boring and long instruction column on the ballot, it is easy to jump to the next and vote for governor on the top. In Broward, apparently 26,000 or 3.7% of the voters there did that, without noting that the Florida Senate race was hidden at the bottom of the instruction column. There is no recourse to repair that. A national election commission specifically warns against constructing such a hidden ballot.
As of Monday morning, out of 8.2 million Florida Senate votes, Republican Rick Scott is only ahead by 12,562 votes, or 0.15%, or about one vote in 650.
Then there is the issue that Florida mail-in ballots have to be received by Election Day, not just be postmarked on Election Day, as California has moved to. So that restriction is being challenged legally. Then there are Republican challenges to the exact signature matching. Since I now have a tremor in my signature, I would fail that test. But they are recounting the whole state for the senate seat, since the difference was just 0.15%, automatically requiring a recount. Why is there a Thursday 3 pm deadline? It’s Florida, that’s why. The split is so thin that a hand count could follow.
But Gov. Rick Scott and Trump are calling for any reason to discredit the count. A Republican on TV, when incessantly pressed, did mention one miscast ballot. No evidence has been presented of miscounting. So here is what I think is the endpoint of this. They want one of the legal challenges to go to the Supreme Court, where Trump’s crew will lead to favor Senate Candidate Rick Scott and end a recount. Or, should Sen. Nelson be found the winner, then when he comes up for seating in the Senate, the Senate Republicans might claim a fraud, and refuse to reseat him. Back to the Supreme Court. If you think this is impossible, read the previous article.
Trump should fire the eight year head of the Florida voting system who couldn’t fix this, Gov. Rick Scott.
While Trump blamed California for its wind driven wildfires, who could he blame for Florida’s sandbar settled hurricane whipeouts, for the Red Tide, for the Green waterway algae from pollution, and for the Miami street floods? Not it’s Governor, apparently.
