Anyone voting today?

LogicIsForSquares

West Virginia is doomed so I stayed home. Any of you guys have interesting local political races?

Westside Steve

not really but I vote anyway. If anyone is running unopposed I don't vote for them. If it's a local issue I don't particularly understand I don't vote.

I do like John Kasich so I will add another vote to his landslide.

WSS

gftChris

Nope.

DieHardBrownsFan

Voted a few weeks ago.

Dste Ace

West Virginia is a wasteland. Two people who aren't qualified to be local dog-catcher

and tonight one of them will be a U.S. Senator. And the pity is that that person will

fit right in with the rest of the Senate.

LogicIsForSquares

The debate between Tennant and Capito was embarrassing. If one of the studio staff was named Cole, both of them would have blown him on camera out of sheer confusion. "OH! You meant C-O-L-E! *wipes mouth*"

gftChris

@dste-ace said:

West Virginia is a wasteland. Two people who aren't qualified to be local dog-catcher

and tonight one of them will be a U.S. Senator. And the pity is that that person will

fit right in with the rest of the Senate.

I was curious, so I'm looking at a couple of videos. Shelley Moore Capito first, sounds stupid. Nathalie Tennant sounds no better. Both seem to be running on the grounds of "we don't want the government to interfere with WV" - well, good luck with that.

gftChris

@logicisforsquares said:
The debate between Tennant and Capito was embarrassing. If one of the studio staff was named Cole, both of them would have blown him on camera out of sheer confusion. "OH! You meant C-O-L-E! *wipes mouth*"

I've watched less than 5 minutes of talk from either of them and I get this joke. That's how bad they are.

LogicIsForSquares

@gftchris said:
I was curious, so I'm looking at a couple of videos. Shelley Moore Capito first, sounds stupid. Nathalie Tennant sounds no better. Both seem to be running on the grounds of "we don't want the government to interfere with WV" - well, good luck with that.

The elections here are just a fight to see who can ingratiate themselves more to the coal companies. So the debates are cringeworthy.

gftChris

Capito: "Obama is BAAAAAAD"

Tennant: Capito is BAAAAAAD"

Neither have actual policies.

LogicIsForSquares

No West Virginia politician does. Their job is to maintain the red carpet treatment for the coal industry and that is all they focus on. The state has a terrible taxation system for all other types of businesses. Small businesses get boned here.

The state hemorrhages college grads and it isn't all of Appalachia who is experiencing that. WV college grads have to move to Ohio or South to find decent jobs.

gftChris

So I'm watching the debate now (I have nothing else to do).

Is there anyone in WV that doesn't work in a coal mine? Presumably diseases like bronchitis and TB (along with longest word in English: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis) are common there? Do you have Geordie lamps instead of street lights?

MLD Woody

A lot of the local elections have crap on both sides. Or worse, only one crappy guy running.

Last Week Tonight did a good piece on this too

gftChris

I'm bored of this now. As described, they're just going back and forth over who can give the biggest shout-out to the coal miners, and not talking about anything else.

About 20k people involved in coal in West Virginia. About 1.8m people in West Virginia. So even if you assume that each of those coal-workers are supporting a family of 6(?) you're still talking to less than 10% of the population.

Osiris

I'm voting for independents.

The Cysko Kid

I'm not voting because I no longer care who wins what

LogicIsForSquares

@gftchris said:

I'm bored of this now. As described, they're just going back and forth over who can give the biggest shout-out to the coal miners, and not talking about anything else.

About 20k people involved in coal in West Virginia. About 1.8m people in West Virginia. So even if you assume that each of those coal-workers are supporting a family of 6(?) you're still talking to less than 10% of the population.

The rest are on government assistance, working retail jobs to supply services to the miners and their families, or working in the small bit of forestry work (me).

LogicIsForSquares

I am in the running for a GIS job in Canton so I will likely be leaving and never looking back.

mohican

for the US House of representatives I have one choice - In person he's a nice guy but as a Representative he is a John Boehner sock puppet. Several of the counties in his congressional district used various tricks to keep Independent and Libertarian candidates off the ballot, and the district is such that the Democrats didn't bother to field a candidate.

Which is meaningless, anyway. Because he represents me, and about 800,000 other people plus his real constitutents, the lobbyists. Representative Republic my ass......

mohican

@gftchris said:

Capito: "Obama is BAAAAAAD"

Tennant: Capito is BAAAAAAD"

Neither have actual policies.

Expecting the political class to have policies that benefit a wide range of people is a recipe for futility. Even very smart people like Herbert Hoover cant manage the totality that is the U.S.