Election Misery

 I will be extremely happy when the election is over.   The ads are nonstop and awful and contain blatant lies.

Like the one that panicked me, when I first saw it because I can't pay out more for anything right now.  The ad is for a Republican running against a Democrat and makes a startling claim.   One ad says the democrat voted for it but another makes it out like its already in place---an interstate $5 toll at Wilsonville.  

But a Portland news station who does fact checks on ads fact checked that one and its just not true.  In fact, the opposite is true.  The Democrat voiced concerns over any tolling in a letter signed by many others because of how it would affect her constituents.   Thank goodness its a big fat lie.  Link below.

Fact checking Mike Erickson's claim Salinas wants a $5 freeway toll at Wilsonville.

It's a red flag, to the brain, to know candidates will make false claims where they think it will hit voters wallets big time, to gain support even if its a lie.

On the other side, his opponent ran an ad claiming he was felony charged with drug possession.  Not true but its murky.  He got charged with driving drunk and the cops found a single oxy in his possession, which he later proved was from his wife's prescription and that was dropped and so was the DUI after he did diversion treatment.  But a mistake was made by his attorney in documents for the diversion agreement saying he would not be charged with the felony drug possession.  It would have been a misdemeanor, not a felony.

The governors race is really nasty with three women running, two of whom have a history of disdain for one another.   I think they hate each other.  One's on the far left, one on the far right.  Then there's the unaffiliated candidate running.  She's a go getter, would watch every dime spent and keep every agency accountable.  But she stands no chance of winning.  I think it would be great, for Oregon, for the nation, to have an unaffiliated as governor.  The two party system is just two sports teams whose fans hate one another.   There's no use for such fan allegiance and mentality in running a big company like a state.

Its ridiculous the split down the middle.  Choose your team, one or the other, no matter how ineffectively they play or how nasty they play.  How about we just get the job done?

Someone told me the governors race is really about the mayor of Portland and his failures there.  Probably true.   Homelessness, drug use and crime.   I think drug and alcohol addictions also have been the bane of rural Oregon for decades now.  The elephant in the room.  Its not just Portland.  But if you could believe some of these politicians, rural Oregonians all have these little angel wings and clouds of goodness surrounding them compared to city folk.  Maybe they need to see some of the things I see, when helping cats.  We're all the same, city or country.  

The Portland mayor finally came up with a plan--open four large monitored homeless encampments, ban street camping afterwards, and then service workers could keep the four sites clean and social workers could address needs and try to get people into housing.  

Well, that's not ok, either, with many, even with some homeless advocates, citing how this would hurt this or that group or whatever.  So....they want to keep it like it is?  People defacating on business doorways, doing drugs openly, overdosing? until the city is completely destroyed?   Or you're just afraid of change, because in my humble opinion, anything is better than just letting things go.

The unaffiliated for governor has strikes against her with both sides, like she's a gun collector and she also thinks a woman's body and health care is her business and not anybody else's.  The D's don't like the gun fascination, the R's don't like the idea women should be in charge of their own bodies.  She's perfect for the job!   She doesn't fit into a mold.

Not like Dr. Oz, the Republican running for Senate back east, who in his debate with a Democratic opponent, who recently suffered a stroke, said he thinks a woman's healthcare is the business of the woman, her doctor and local politicians.   That was an OMG moment.   Seriously?   I guess I should call up my local politicians about my knee issues?  Get their ok with what should be done.  Or blessing.  Or whatever.  OMG!!!!  Did he really say that?   Why is it the control of women's bodies is so important to some politicians?   Its government at its MOST intrusive.  Meanwhile another woman, on the news yesterday, murdered by their male domestic partner.  

I'll be ever so happy when the election is over and done with.  No more ads.  No more mailbox stuffed in election slicks.  Like yesterday's load:  

What will be, will be and we'll all have to try to live around the election results and it will be sort of the same no matter who wins.  One team will be mad and sulk and throw insults at the other and there will be swear words to describe their leaders.  And new bumper stickers no doubt.   

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Does anyone notice we're messing up our own world?   Blowing each other up, mowing one another down, drinking and drugging to cover up our unhappiness, pouring chemicals into the earth and air, using up our resources, multiplying like rabbits, that sort of thing?   Little kids are getting chased down and blown to bits in schools with weapons of war.   I'm not talking about Ukraine either, which is bad enough to think about, that that many people, an entire country, would just for no reason follow a tyrant and enter another country and start torturing and killing people to beat the band, even little kids.  I saw on the news about some people in Switzerland was it? trying to save their glaciers from melting off since its their water supply.  They put reflective blankets on them in the summer now.  For gosh sakes.

Are the R's, defending their weapons of war, just itching to start shooting their neighbors, who might be D's?  That's what they claim, that they need them for the Revolution, to defend themselves.   Would you shoot me, I ask them, if I disagreed with you then?   

I'm just a cat trapper, and that's what I'll be til I drop.  Unless one of these crazy as a loon dictators or wannabe's or one of their crazy as a loon followers shoots off a nuke and it by some little twist of weather or insanity, hits my little town and we're all just back to silenced floating particles again. 

 I'm just going to keep helping out cats and cover my ears and eyes if I have to so I don't have to hear people yelling and screaming at one another over nothing really, and then shooting one another because someone pulled out in front of them on an otherwise quiet rural street.  The victim and the shooter probably both have cats at home they love and now will need the help of someone like me or my friends, all too busy for the politics nonsense and general rage.