$3.5-Billion for Mail-in Balloting?

Yeah....this is the package that Congress has presented to the President....to hand the $3.5-billion to the 50 states to conduct the mail-in deal.

Why so much?  Unknown.  No one can stand there with a straight face and explain why it's such a nice 'round' number.

The cost of the two stamps (mailing you the ballot and you returning the ballot)?  $1.10. 

The odds here that almost $300-million will be wasted on double or triple voters?  Don't even bother bringing up that problem.

Let's be honest here....probably half of all voters don't trust the mail-in deal and refuse to participate....so they are wasting $1.10 up front for about 70-odd million voters.

If this is not agreed upon?  Well....no $3.5-billion and if you (as a state) get deep into this....you'd have to go borrow at least $150-million minimum....maybe even up to $300-million.  Which idiot bank will loan you that money?  The one wanting a significant interest deal? 

The deeper you go into the mail-in-vote deal....the more corrupted it looks. 

The Odds that Senator Harris Is Already Reviewing a VP List?

I'd give it 50-50 odds.

As Joe steps aside, either in the weeks to come, or after the election 'win'....Harris probably has a list made up already of individuals for her VP choice, and for the cabinet itself. 

I wouldn't even see a problem in admitting such a list exists. 

Would the new VP have to be a white male?  Yes, some idiot probably has already made up the rules list, and it has to be a white male over the age of sixty (figure NY Governor Andrew Cuomo). 

Death Chatter

So this topic came up today and it's worth five minutes pondering.

Primarydoctor.org did the graphic (Colleen Huber, NMD).

Basically, it covers ALL US deaths each year since 2000, set to a limit of the first 32 weeks of each year.  That means violent deaths, cancer deaths, and even suicidal deaths.

Most years, it averages out around 2.5-million to 2.8-million deaths a year.  For Huber to reach a correct dataset.....she cut off each year's data at 32 weeks....in order to compare against 2020.  So you aren't looking at full year data....simply 32-week data for each year. 

2020 numbers?  We are at 1.6-million....NOT 2.5-million as you'd have in a normal number situation.

Yes, roughly a million deaths haven't occurred on schedule. 

(a long, long pause at this point)

We are missing around 1-million deaths, if you look at the plain numbers.

Will it catch up?  Maybe more deaths occur around Thanksgiving and Christmas?  Well....there's no factual data to support that.

So I'm going to suggest four radical thoughts here:

1.  Because of the lock-down business....folks simply didn't travel as much and have car accidents.

2.  Because bars and pubs were shutdown a good bit.....DWI deaths didn't occur as you'd expect.

3.  Because most elective surgery procedures were cancelled into April and still today....folks are hesitant to enter a hospital.  So infections didn't occur, or screw-ups at the hospitals.

4.  Because school events were cancelled out, fewer teen deaths were recorded via car accidents. 

Even with Covid-19 deaths.....it doesn't seem to really help inflate our numbers. At the end of 2020?  It might be the lowest 'death' number year of the past forty-odd years.

Yeah....it's one of those moments when you open up a bottle of fine whiskey, and sit on the patio....sipping, contemplating the numbers, and viewing the strange arrangement we have set up for 2020.