2016 Elections

[Vrede too]

I've gotten several pro-Burr & anti-Ross militaristic, fear mongering, deceptive mailings from "Rove's Dark Money Conduit One Nation".

NARAL sent me a good pro-Ross & Hillary card - "Make Misogyny Great Again".

"independent" AFSCME sent me 2 anti-Burr cards that are word for word from Ross' TV ads.

[homerfobe]

In case you missed it

[Vrede too]

I got a 3 minute voice mail from the RNC telling me how to cast my absentee ballot and how great the GOP is on the issues, 3 minutes! Not very efficient.

I have been getting tons of calls that don't leave a message - polls, fake polls and robo-pols, I'm sure.

I did hear a robo-call from Mark Johnson for NC Superintendent, automatic disqualification.

[O Really]

You need a better spam filter on that thing. I'm pretty happy with HiYa ... https://hiya.com/

[Vrede too]

It's a landline & I've IDed and not picked up or not been home for scores of calls, 95%+ have not left a message, works for me.

[rstrong]

I have an unlisted number. This doesn't stop sequential dialers, but it stops MOST spam calls.

It also keeps you out of the databases sold to telemarketers. Here in Canada, pre-internet, we had the Henderson's Directories. Think of a triple phone book: One section sorted by name like a regular phone book. One section sorted by phone number, for "who called" lookups. And one section sorted by street address, so that carpet cleaning telemarketers for example could target one area of the city to reduce transport costs.

And they included where you worked, what you did and whether you were a home owner. Telemarketers could target homeowners with good jobs. Polling firms could target specific demographics to get the results the customer asked for. Thieves could look for doctors, computer programmers, engineers and others likely to have expensive toys, find where they worked, phone them at work to ensure that they weren't home, and go raiding.

They'd get this information by going door-to-door, and by giving perks to HR people at companies. They'd claim that the up-to-date information was needed by emergency services. (This was a lie. Emergency services got their information directly from the phone companies.) An unlisted number would keep you out of the directory.

That was pre-internet, but it's a safe bet that they and other companies are selling the same service in electronic form now.

[O Really]

It's a landline & I've IDed and not picked up or not been home for scores of calls, 95%+ have not left a message, works for me.

You use a landline? Like, actually have to be home to catch or ignore a call?

[Vrede too]

Ignoring all calls when I'm not home is a good thing. The cell, finally a smart phone, is for travel only.

[O Really]

Yeah, mine's for travel too. Travels in my pocket everywhere I go.

[JTA]

I pretty much ignore all calls anyway.

[neoplacebo]

Went this morning and voted early here in TN and my old Navy id card was an acceptable photo id even though it expired in 1979 (my drivers license is from NC and doesn't expire until Dec 2022). Also, all you's guys in Henderson County will be glad to know the county election board is on top of things; they sent me a card to mail back to them stating that I no longer live there less than 60 days after I moved to TN.

[Vrede too]

The Henderson County GOP threw a party, too.

[neoplacebo]

The Henderson County GOP threw a party, too.

[bannination]

I pretty much ignore all calls anyway.

Hm... do I know that number? Nope -- not answering it.

Hm... do I know that number? Yep -- What do they want? If it's important they'll call back. I'm not answering that.




Emails on the other hand..... Is it Vrede? Gotta read that shit because the forum must be down! Which means a ton of my more important shit is also down!

[O Really]

Of all the things I use my cell for, actual phone calls don't even make the top 5 or maybe even top ten.

[Vrede too]

My votes:

POTUS:
Nate Silver gives Hillary Clinton a 75.4% of winning the presidency, but only a 60-40 chance of winning NC.
The RealClearPolitics polling average shows Hillary only up by 3% in NC.
Too close here, crap. I'm holding my nose and voting for Hillary, and hereby accept my share of the responsibility for the next 4 or 8 years. This was made a bit easier by Johnson being such a dodo.

Senate, House 11, State offices and State Senate 48:
All Dem except that I'm voting for incumbent Dietz (R) for NC Court of Appeals. Other than being GOP I couldn't find any knocks against him and Rozier (D) doesn't impress me. Not all of my other votes were automatic Dem. I did a bit of research and still settled on them for differing reasons.

NC District 29B Court:
No votes. All 4 seats are uncontested and all 4 incumbents are registered GOP.

NC House 117:
No vote. Uncontested McGrady (R) has gotten my vote in the past, but that was before he became such a nasty GOP drone.

Henderson County Commission:
No votes. Both seats are uncontested and both incumbents are GOP.

Henderson County Board of Education:
Seeking advice from Babs Newton and Eva Ritchey. 4 GOP are running against 4 undeclared incumbents that voted to keep Hendersonville Elementary segregated by race and class. Maybe I'll write in some radical educators. Any suggestions besides Angela Davis and Bill Ayers?

Soil and Water Conservation District:
Uncontested. Wrote in Bernie!

Henderson County Sales and Use Tax:
For. I'm not a big fan of regressive sales taxes, but when they're the only option offered to fund government services . . .

Found this:

The INDY’s (Research Triangle) Endorsements for Council of State

Lieutenant Governor

Linda Coleman

She has political experience, from chairing the Wake County Board of Commissioners to serving in the state House of Representatives, but Linda Coleman's biggest strength might just be the man she's running against. To put it simply, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest is dangerous. He's an embarrassment to the state and a foremost defender of HB 2, who once said that "transgenderism is a feeling." As his campaign slogan—"Run, Forest, Run"—suggests, he is not a smart man. Indeed, if a reanimated corpse were running against Dan Forest, we would probably support it. So, yeah, we're not the biggest Linda Coleman fans out there, but we're damn sure going to vote for her.

[Vrede too]

... Emails on the other hand..... Is it Vrede? Gotta read that shit because the forum must be down! Which means a ton of my more important shit is also down!

Not always.

[O Really]

My votes:
...

I didn't have to work nearly so hard as all that.

[Vrede too]

It didn't take that long, I'm not a masochist.

[Vrede too]

My votes:

... Henderson County Board of Education:
Seeking advice from Babs Newton and Eva Ritchey. 4 GOP are running against 4 undeclared incumbents that voted to keep Hendersonville Elementary segregated by race and class. Maybe I'll write in some radical educators. Any suggestions besides Angela Davis and Bill Ayers? ...

I went with Craven, Absher and Wood. Couldn't decide about a 4th, so I wrote in Angela Davis.