Steven Snow, John Buchan, Nevin Spoljaric, Donal Botkin, BN-12 , Ben Delo, Bobby , Chris Chapin, Richard Jenkins, Phil Gardner, Martin, Steven Grimm, سليمان العقل, David F Watson, Colin Millions, Ben Schwab, Saki Comandao, Jason Lewandowski, Marco Arment, Shantanu Raj, rictic , emptymachine , George Lin, Henry Ng, Thunda Plum, Awoo , David Tyler, Fuesu , iulus , Jordan Earls, Joshua Jamison, Nick Fish, Nick Gibson, Tyler Bryant, Oliver Steele, Andrew Bereza, Kermit Norlund, Kevin Costello, Rebecca Wortham, Derek Bonner, Derek Jackson, Mikko , Orbit_Junkie , Ron Bowes, Tómas Árni Jónasson, Bryan McLemore, Kyle Wayman, Alex Simonides, Felix Weis, Melvin Sowah, Christopher Mutchler, Giulio Bontadini, Paul Alom, Ryan Tripicchio, Scot Melville, Julien Dubois, Bear , chrysilis , David Palomares, Emil , Erik Parasiuk, Esteban Santana Santana, Freddi Hørlyck, John Rogers, Leon , Peter Lomax, Rhys Parry, ShiroiYami , Tristan Watts-Willis, Veronica Peshterianu, Dag Viggo Lokøen, John Lee, Maxime Zielony, Elizabeth Keathley, and Nicholas Welna
With the election remaining too close to call as votes continue to be tallied in key battleground states, it’s important to remember one thing: those votes don’t count. In fact, what we’ve seen throughout this race is an attempt by American citizens to steal this election away from Donald Trump by casting votes for Joe Biden, and even worse, expecting those votes to be counted.
These sick individuals (some literally so, on account of the pandemic that Trump has let run rampant) took the time out of their day to stuff ballot boxes with votes for Biden, and nobody is looking into it. Some even went so far as to request mail-in ballots and buy stamps, all to rig this election against Trump. It’s an absolute scam, and these people shouldn’t even be allowed to vote in the first place because they’re biased against the president.
It’s just like the fake news media. They’re so unbelievably biased against Donald Trump, they go on air and tell the American people everything he says and does. It’s an absolute disgrace. The stories that they air on Donald Trump as opposed to Joe Biden are so unbelievably negative because they insist upon accusing him of these terrible things that he has done. That’s probably what convinced these twisted people to go out and try to steal this election. They were brainwashed after hearing all about the awful stuff that Trump did. We can’t let these informed, anti-Trump voters steal this election by trying to make their voices heard.
These dangerous anarchists are out of control, waiting patiently in five-hour lines, egged-on by sick extremists like Paul Rudd handing out cookies, to overthrow the government. We’re talking about groups like Antifa, which fights against good ol’ American values like fascism, and an evil terrorist organization that goes by the name Little Monsters and is led by Lady Gaga, an anti-fracking illegal alien from the planet of Chromatica. These reckless criminals conceal their identities by wearing masks, and they brand themselves with a common I VOTED sticker to recognize their fellow gang members.
And now, as if invading polling places wasn’t enough, they’re demanding that their early votes and mail-in ballots be counted too. Have they lost their minds? Donald Trump is ahead in some of these states, and they’re trying to fraudulently steal his sort of lead away from him by counting ALL the votes. Who has that kind of time? People have things to do; they can’t just sit around and spend their day counting like they’re the vampire muppet on Sesame Street.
Some people might ask why things are so close when we’ve been talking so much about our silent majority and the red wave. Well, in some areas, it turns out that the silent majority may have been so silent that they didn’t even cast votes. But even though things are close, Trump’s base was proven to be alive and well at dozens of his packed rallies over the past few weeks. Well, until they went to the rallies, of course, which ended up directly resulting in 700 coronavirus deaths. So those 700 aren’t alive and well, but still.
And even with these obstacles, we’re confident that we’ll come out victorious the best way we know how: disenfranchising voters. The Supreme Court should’ve done it days ago when we asked them to throw away people’s votes, but they refused because they’re morons.
The fact of the matter is that if these Biden votes weren’t counted, Trump would be winning in an absolute landslide. And for that reason, these Biden votes shouldn’t be counted. Election Day is over, so it just doesn’t make sense to keep counting votes, even if those votes were cast weeks ago.
The good news is that Trump has a stellar team of lawyers, graduates of the Roy Cohn School of Law, who will be hard at work to fight this and protect America from the looming threat of democracy.
How's your day going? Staying calm? Endlessly fretting about whether your candidate of choice will claim the White House? (The 60,000 people who voted for Kanye West may already be disappointed.) Perhaps watching a thrilling live stream of democracy in action is what you need right now.
Thanks to Philadelphia City Commissioners, you can keep an eye on Pennsylvania election workers tallying votes in real-time. Despite the huge stakes involved, the stream is genuinely kind of relaxing. If you didn't know any better, it could be any group of people simply going about their day job.
After Work Cook Book
Better Homes and Gardens
1975
All your 1970s favorites are here for your after work cooking needs. Your Sweet and Sour Chicken Mold will obviously be a family favorite. The yellow/greenish color should brighten up any table. As I look at the recipe I am curious about the sour cream sauce mix. I don’t remember any kind of item like that. Any of my fellow old folks have any idea what this is? The only thing I can think of is a sour cream/onion dip mix. Since it is the first ingredient listed, I would hate to mess up this recipe.
As you can see, there are so many choices for your family. Break out the can opener and go crazy.
" Speaking from the East Room of the White House shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, [Trump] confusingly proclaimed he would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to stop ‘all voting.’" — Politico, 11/4/20
- - -
Well, we knew this could happen. While an election should just be about counting votes and declaring the person who got the most votes the winner, it seems we are headed for a number of states engaging in a Florida-in-2000 scenario, rife with counting errors, bad faith, and lawsuits. Some people are disturbed by this, but I am trying to find the silver lining. Our institutions are still strong, and they are set up to handle this. So let’s put our faith in the process and have the illegitimate Supreme Court decide what’s fair.
The Supreme Court understands democracy. After all, five of them were nominated by presidents who lost the popular vote. In the latest hearings, the confirmed candidate couldn’t even name the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment. Far from clouding their decisions, this robust desecration of democracy has imbued them with a profound and deep respect for our system of injustice. While some would disagree with the Supreme Court’s definition of democracy in Bush v. Gore as “the thing I personally want,” I — along with most people who own large machine guns — actually think that definition is correct.
Bush v. Gore isn’t the only example of the Supreme Court undermining the will of the people for their own good. In decision after decision, the majority of Supreme Court justices have ruled how dangerous it is to pay attention to the majority of people. In matters of voting, it is best to let the minority decide what’s best, the majority said.
And me, well, I think the majority is right when they say that the majority is wrong. That’s why our democracy needs to be tempered by extra safeguards to ensure that the majority never gets too much power. That’s what the majority of Supreme Court justices believe, and, as always, I believe in listening to the majority when they are in the minority.
Now it’s clear why we need to have faith in the process. Because it makes no rational sense.
So what’s next? It’s fairly simple. A team of corporate lawyers, their expressions vacant, their eyes devoid of irises, their every action and utterance an expression of their inner soul-death, will pursue a byzantine network of inane and incomprehensible lawsuits aimed at uncovering whatever version of the truth they are paid to pretend exists. The presence of these disgusting vermin who cast no shadow is an indictment not just of our legal education system, not just the legal profession, not just society writ large, but indeed an indictment of God himself, who engendered these hell beasts with His seed and set them loose on our nation with the reckless confidence of a rabid dog with a gun strapped to its back.
These venal bruisers, these feckless maniacs, these gluttonous graverobbers are indeed the best people to litigate the fate of our democracy. Because without them, who would be arguing on behalf of Trump? Who would be arguing on behalf of Exxon, BP, Amazon, war profiteers, and the arms industry? People with functioning moral consciences? And then what would happen? I’m afraid democracy would gain a stronger foothold, and, like a weed, it would overtake this nation with its unstoppable growth.
With the help of these corporate lawyers, and with the help of these illegitimate Supreme Court justices, we will discover the meaning of democracy. And, like all great stories, we will realize that we knew the meaning all along. Democracy is what most people don’t want.
While people across the country watch election night results come in from legitimate sources, some YouTube channels were trying to earn a buck off of their interest. Insider highlights several channels that kicked off fake result livestreams long before even the earliest polls closed and results started to become available.
They had fake or manipulated Electoral Collage results, and some of the streams found had monetization enabled. In a tweet, YouTube said “...we are removing livestreams that violate our Community Guidelines. We have established policies prohibiting spam, deceptive practices & scams, and we continue to be vigilant with regards to election-related content in the lead-up and post-election period.” It also pointed people toward legitimate results, as well as Google’s live counter.
After careful review, we are removing livestreams that violate our Community Guidelines. We have established policies prohibiting spam, deceptive practices & scams, and we continue to be vigilant with regards to election-related content in the lead-up and post-election period.
Twitter slapped a warning label on an election-night tweet from President Donald Trump, for “making a potentially misleading claim about an election.” In the tweet, Trump claimed that “they are trying to STEAL the Election,” and that “Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed.”
We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!
The label appears in place of the tweet in users’ timelines, though they can still click through to view it. “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process,” the notice says. Users are also blocked from retweeting, though they can still share it with a Quote Tweet.
We placed a warning on a Tweet from @realDonaldTrump for making a potentially misleading claim about an election. This action is in line with our Civic Integrity Policy. More here: https://t.co/k6OkjNXEAm
In a statement shared shortly after the label appeared, Twitter confirmed the tweet had broken its rules around “making a potentially misleading claim about an election.” The company previously said it would label tweets that break its rules around declaring victory prematurely, or making false claims about the election or ballot-counting process.
On Facebook, where Trump posted the same message, Facebook applied a more vague label that says “final results may be different from initial vote counts, as ballot counting will continue for days or weeks.” The social network also labeled another Trump post, which said “I will be making a statement tonight. A big WIN!” That post bears a similar notice that “ballots are still being counted,” and a winner has not been projected. Twitter has so far opted to not label that tweet.
Screenshot/Facebook
Trump’s claims were among the first major test of social media platform’s election-night policies, which both Facebook and Twitter have spent months preparing for. Earlier in the night, Twitter labeled a tweet from Trump’s campaign about the results in South Carolina. Both companies previously said they would not allow either presidential candidate to declare victory before results are clear, and that they would rely on state election officials and national media organizations to make those calls.
Election officials have been warning for months that the influx of mail-in votes this year could mean a longer wait before the winner of the presidency is known.
Puerto Rico has been a US territory for 122 years. It’s the world’s oldest colony. And on Election Day, it held its sixth nonbinding referendum on the issue of statehood.
In 2012 and 2017, the island’s 3 million citizens overwhelmingly backed statehood, but Congress never took further action to admit Puerto Rico into the union. Both those votes, however, were plagued by low turnout — in fact, less than a quarter of eligible voters cast ballots in the 2017 referendum, which was boycotted by opposition parties that support either maintaining the status quo or independence.
That raised questions about the legitimacy of the vote, and has allowed congressional lawmakers to punt on the issue.
This year, Puerto Ricans are hoping to send a clear message to Congress regarding their desire to attain the rights and privileges associated with statehood.
Congress isn’t under legal obligation to abide by the outcome of the referendum, but proponents hope that, particularly if Democrats are able to take control of both Congress and the White House, strong turnout and a decisive outcome will pressure federal lawmakers to finally take up the issue.
2020 Puerto Rico statehood referendum
A yes vote means Puerto Rico would like to become a state.
A no vote means Puerto Rico would like to remain a territory.
The livestream, run by the Philadelphia City Commissioners, is an almost flamboyant exercise in election transparency. It shows masked and socially distanced workers rapidly sorting and opening envelopes, then feeding them into machines to be counted, all in plain view of the cameras. It feels pointed, because it probably is.
The election livestream comes a week after President Trump ramped up his false claims that voter fraud will run rampant in Philadelphia. That’s because last Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that it would not yet decide to reverse a Pennsylvania Supreme Court order allowing mail-in ballots to be counted if they arrive after polls close Tuesday, as long as they were postmarked before Election Day.
Trump appears to have calculated that because Democrats are more likely to mail in their ballots than Republicans are, the more mail-in ballots that are disqualified, the better for him. He also appears to have decided that urban and overwhelmingly Democratic Philadelphia could pose a major threat to his chances of taking Pennsylvania.
The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that its only agenda is to crack down on voter fraud in Philadelphia. But studies show that voter fraud is extremely rare, and there’s no evidence suggesting it happens more in Philadelphia than anywhere else.
In the wake of last Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision allowing mail-in ballots to be counted for up to three days after the election, Trump has repeatedly claimed that “bad things” will happen in Philadelphia, and asked his supporters to watch what happens there.
“Governor, please don’t cheat, because we’re all watching,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Avoca, Pennsylvania, on Monday afternoon. “We’re all watching you, Governor. We have a lot of eyes on the governor and his friends.”
The center of the Category 4 storm, packing winds of 145 mph, is moving toward the coast Tuesday morning. It's expected to dump torrential rains in the country's poorest region.
Good morning. Today is an important day for our republic, the one day a year when two halves come together to create something great. This tradition dates to the 1700s, and people often take time off from work to partake in this custom, walking up to a counter and making their choice around lunchtime. I am speaking, of course, of National Sandwich Day. Also, please do make sure you go vote in our election today, as the weather will provide no excuses.
Election Day
Temperatures this morning in Houston, in the low 40s for inland areas and upper 40s in the city, will probably be the region’s coolest for the next week. We’ll warm up fairly quickly, however, and the weather today will be, in a word, perfect. Highs will reach into the mid-70s, under mostly sunny skies. Winds will be light out of the east. Overnight lows on Tuesday night should be a few degrees warmer.
Tuesday morning lows are quite cool across the region. (Weather Bell)
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
These will be pleasant days, under the influence of a light east and southeasterly flow. In general, we expect mostly sunny skies, highs in the upper 70s to 80, and lows of around 60 in Houston—cooler inland, and warmer along the coast.
Saturday and Sunday
By this weekend a more pronounced southerly flow will raise humidity levels. Ultimately, high temperatures should hang around 80 degrees, but both Saturday and Sunday nights should be warmer, probably in the mid- or upper-60s.
Next week
This warming trend should continue until around Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, when some sort of front will trundle into the area. I still don’t have confidence in its timing or strength, but there is some hope it will bring us our first real chance of rainfall in quite some time.
A very powerful Hurricane Eta nears landfall on Tuesday morning. (NOAA)
Tropics
If you have not been paying attention to Hurricane Eta, it absolutely exploded in terms of intensity on Monday, and it will come ashore into Nicaragua today with Category-4 or -5 intensity winds. In addition, the storm will deliver devastating flooding in Nicaragua and Honduras. The storm is eerily similar in intensity to Hurricane Mitch, in 1998, which caused more than 11,000 fatalities.
By this weekend, after wreaking carnage in Central America, Eta should reemerge into the northwest Caribbean Sea, after which time it may threaten Cuba, Florida, or possibly the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It’s just too early to say much more.
Years ago, I was overworked and underpaid And hardly ever got to take time off. At one point I got sent to Alaska to meet with an important stakeholder. When I was about to board the flight to Anchorage, I got an email from that person that they would not be available after all and would need to reschedule. I pretended not to get the email until after I got to Alaska and enjoyed a mini vacation paid for by the company, and used my per diem to ride a dogsled.
Then we rescheduled that meeting, I went back to Alaska, it ended up taking 15 minutes and I got a second mini-vacation.
2. The fast food revenge
Ok, this is nothing big in the grand scheme of things but at the time it gave me a moderate degree of satisfaction. I worked at a Burger King in my late teens. One night right before closing a group of about 20 frat guys walk in. They were drunk out of their minds and completely obnoxious. They started trashing the place – throwing napkins and straws all over the clean dining room, etc. Our manager promptly responded by disappearing to the back. His only help was to tell them that they had to get their food and leave before he ran away. As they line up to order, the first guy asks me, “Where are the hot cashiers?” and they all laugh. He then takes a good looonnnggg time to decide what he wants. He kept changing his mind and then asking what other people were getting, etc. I was over it.
Long story short, I ended up giving most of them sandwiches that they didn’t order and had them made weird – like without any condiments, with just extra mustard, with just pickles, just onions, etc. Also gave them the wrong drinks. I tacked on some extra charges here and there and made sure they actually didn’t get those extras in the end. One guy who could not make up his mind at all – I just ordered for him and asked him to pay. He said that he didn’t order yet. I told him that yes, he did. He eventually agreed and paid. When they got their food, some realized that it wasn’t what they ordered but I just acted like they were crazy and of course they ordered what I gave them. They then wandered around asking their friends if their food was right. They were not getting ANYWHERE with me so they eventually left. Did not feel bad one little bit that night. As an awkward, ‘non-hot’ teenage girl, I learned an important life lesson that night – drunk college guys in groups were really really really gullible. And learned what gaslighting was I suppose. But I used it for good, I think.
3. The ass’s comeuppance
I have never breathed a word about this before. But make no mistake I regret nothing.
Years ago, I worked as an admin assistant at a very high-powered, stuffy firm in Manhattan. There was this guy – let’s call him Kavanaugh – who fancied himself the young genius in the office. He was young for a vice president, sure, and could be charming. But he also treated any admin who wasn’t a comely young woman like dirt, talked relentless shit about his “know-nothing” bosses, and never let an opportunity pass to drop the name of his ivy-league school and brand-new VIP father-in-law.
Also, one night after work he cornered me, stuck his tongue down my throat and then had the temerity to be annoyed when I scrambled away from him and fled.
(Pause to say: yeah, I know I should have reported him. But I know a lot of things I didn’t know when I was 25.)
Kavanaugh was also a huge sports fan. Rabid, insane, fan. And every year one of his favorite sporting events is held in NYC, and one of the firm’s clients had made a habit of gifting Kavanaugh ultra-exclusive access to this event. This access was arranged daily – a messenger would arrive with a slim envelope containing that day’s passes. Kavanaugh had been out of the country for work trip and had missed most of the event, the envelopes piling up on his desk. (Because would he allow his assistant to follow common practice and give the tickets to anyone else to use? He would not.) But he returned in time for for the final day of the event, and had planned to use that day’s passes to take his father-in-law and two “young ladies” to the stadium. He was clearly only at his desk that morning to take delivery of that envelope.
Which is why I intercepted it. And put in my purse. And then spent the rest of my day helping him try to track it down, calling the client, scouring the mailroom, visiting the building’s security office to (pretend to) review camera footage as Kavanaugh became angrier and sweatier. When I left work that night I dropped it in a trash can and bought myself a cocktail.
4. The lunch thief
Someone was routinely stealing my dessert out of my lunch bag in the refrigerator, so one day I put a post-it note on top of my peanut butter cup: “I know who you are, and if this ever happens again everyone else is going to know who you are, too.”
The problem stopped. To this day, I don’t know who the real culprit was.
5. The poached assistant
Setting: 1980, legal deposition. My mom was the attorney on one side of the case. Opposing counsel seemed highly disorganized, entirely relying on his secretary, Jane, who was saving his butt. Opposing counsel kept saying things like “Thank you, doll” and other gross things to the secretary.
My mom left the deposition and went straight to her office manager/head secretary since she knew her firm (big one) was understaffed. She confirmed they were hiring. Then my mom called Jane, complimented her work and handed over the phone to the office manager. 30 minutes later, Jane was offered a new job at my mom’s firm. Jane started less than a week later, expressing gratitude to get away from her lecherous boss.
My mom won the case, in no small part because opposing counsel couldn’t function without Jane.
6. The ad sabotage
I worked at an alt-weekly newspaper designing ads. The sales team sold an ad to a gay conversion therapy group, despite the fact that the paper was openly in support of LGBTQ+ rights. After a failed outcry to pull the ad (newspapers need all the dollars they can get these days) I was reluctantly directed to make it.
So I set the headline in in Comic Sans and the body copy in Papyrus at a small enough size to read on a digital proof, but too small to print clearly on newsprint. I also used CMYK black (instead of pure black) ensuring that the entire print would be muddy.
The ad was approved and ran, but they never booked another one.
7. The espresso victory
This is the story of a trick my team and I pulled that turned out to be more self serving than expected. My organization gives everyone a pool of reward points you can give to coworkers as recognition or a thank you. You can redeem any points given to you in a store, for things like gift cards, office supplies, and video games, all the way up to small kitchen appliances like espresso makers. (This will become relevant later.) It’s not a bad system, but small satellite teams like mine don’t interact with that many people outside our group, so we don’t tend to accumulate many points.
Last year, we decided to pool our points by gifting them all to one person, and get an espresso machine for the office. One of my coworkers had already given some points to her new team lead Mike, so Mike became the official Recipient of Points and Conduit of the Espresso Maker. And we thought that was the end of it.
A few weeks later, our manager got a call from an HR rep, who told her very seriously that there were concerns of bullying on her team. After much confusion, my boss realized what happened and explained that no, Mike wasn’t bullying, threatening, or otherwise coercing us for our reward points. To her credit, once the story came out the HR rep thought it was hilarious. To assuage worries, she asked us to write a little justification for why Mike deserved our points. So we all sent her a paragraph or two gushing about Mike (who is legitimately pretty great,) and once again we thought that was the end of it.
Fast forward to the end of the year…and we learn that at the holiday banquet at our company’s HQ, the three ‘most thanked’/most rewarded people get recognized, and receive gift cards. We had no idea that was a thing. The recipients are almost always high up in the organization, managing multiple high stakes projects with lots of stakeholders. Last year, the recipients were two very senior people (one C-suite, one crisis management person)…and Mike, an entry level, remote site field ops lead who’d been with the company 6 months. Apparently there were some ruffled feathers at the banquet, but most people thought it was hilarious.
Mike spent the gift card on a bunch of fancy espresso for our ill-gotten machine.
8. The thwarted jerk
Way back when, I was working in an administrative/quality analyst roll for a customer service center. The office was all open plan with the phone reps, so it was very noisy. Everyone in my role had permission to use headphones to listen to music and we all took full advantage of that.
Then, we got a new boss who was a jerk. One of his favorite “jokes” was to come up behind someone who was deep in their work, knowing they wouldn’t hear him coming between the noise and the headphones, and stomp on one of their chair legs to startle them. After a few weeks of this, we all hated him. So we formed a plan. The person seated closest to him kept an eye out for him getting up to prowl the line for a victim, and immediately IM’d us all that he was on the move. We turned our music off but kept the headphones on, and pretended to be still be engrossed in our work. The idea was that whoever he startled would kick their chair backwards in ‘surprise’ and ram into him.
It worked better than we anticipated – he was in just the right spot that when the first person sent her chair flying back, the corner collided with his groin. He yelped, she earnestly apologized for being startled, and that was the end of that.
9. The ice cream rumor
At my first office job, while I was also a poor broke college student, I may have started a rumor (or two) that I had heard we were having an ice cream party that day. The rumor would go around until someone in management would usually run out and get ice cream and toppings since they assumed someone else had forgot to. In retrospect I realize we were all a food motivated group, and that my attempts to be sneaky were probably a lot less subtle than I thought.
10. The recruiting away of a boss
I knew my horrible boss wanted to move on and exactly what types of jobs she was interested in, so whenever I would get a suitable job posting I’d send it out as a BCC to her, but write as if there were multiple recipients with a message like: “Hey all, my friend just forwarded me this. $Organization is looking for someone for this job. Can you pass it out to your networks? It sounds like a cool opportunity.”
Catrina Day of the Dead Facemask, presumably 2020, designed by Deborah Savage of Bada Bling Digital Art Ltd for Altered Art Bling. Photo credit: Ebay.
The Spanish word catrina means female dandy. The big-hatted, skeletal figure popularly referred to as “Catrina” is a now-ubiquitous character associated with Day of the Dead and with Mexico in particular. This article is the second in an annual exploration of Catrina-related phenomena in art and popular culture written for Glasstire. Find the first one, from 2019, here.
The Catrina image, which is the creation of the enormously influential Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913), originally had satiric intent. It was first published in black ink on a Day of the Dead broadside issued by the Vanegas Arroyo family in 1913. The image was reissued in various formats many times thereafter, and the family still sells it today. Its popularity has grown exponentially, and this image graces every conceivable form of merchandise. As soon as facemasks proved effective against the spread of the coronavirus, I expected that Catrina facemasks would quickly find their way to market. Colorized versions — such as the florid one illustrated above — are very popular, whereas stark black-and-white Catrina facemasks are not.
Adam Sky, Catrina tattoo, 2019, Hold Fast Tattoo Studio, Redwood City, California. Photo credit: Reddit.
I have also noticed a surge in the popularity of Catrina-inspired tattoos. If one were to get a tat like the one pictured above, the recipient could say: “La Catrina has my back.” Its scale reminds me of the enormous Virgin of Guadalupe tattoos that some Latino prisoners get as apotropaic devices: they reduce the chances of getting stabbed in the back, since some prisoners would be reluctant to stab through an image of the Virgin. Could La Catrina have a similar effect? It’s one thing to stare death in the face, but would someone dare to stab death on the face of someone’s back? In any case, after donning a Catrina facemask, the recipient of a tattoo like this could say: “Catrina has my front and my back.”
Working classroom, monumental Catrina painting, 2013, National Hispanic Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo credit: screen grab from “Dia de Los Muertos: A Brief Overview” video, posted Aug. 6, 2013.
Faithful reproductions of Posada’s black-and-white print come in all sizes. This monumental version (the person in the lower right provides a sense of scale) was made in Albuquerque.
Catrina assemblage, Mexico City, 2009. Photo credit: Ruben C. Cordova.
This Catrina, made as part of a Day of the Dead altar in the center of Mexico City, is composed of seeds, flowers, feathers, and lace trim.
Tile version of the lower center of Diego Rivera’s mural, A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park, Tlaquepaque, Jalisco. Catrina is between Posada and Rivera (depicted as a boy). Frida Kahlo is depicted as an adult. Photo credit: flickr user gerrygoal2008.
The big, feathered, European-styled hat that Posada provided to Catrina is a sign of colonization and cause for criticism in Mexico. But muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) changed that narrative in a mural he painted in 1946-47 in Mexico City. In the lower center of his A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park (Museo Mural Diego Rivera), he painted a full-length image of Catrina that fully rehabilitated her. By endowing her with Mexican attributes, which include a rattlesnake boa, an ollin glyph for a belt buckle, a simple skirt like those worn by women from Tehuantapec, and fangs and a bloodied mouth, Rivera essentially nationalized Catrina (these national emblems are visible in the tile reproduction pictured above). Rivera reduced the prominence of Catrina’s hat by enlarging her feathers, which can also be interpreted as an affirmation of the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica, who valued feathers more highly than gold. Rivera endowed his Catrina with so many Mexican emblems that she ceased to be a symbol of foreign domination and imitation. For a detailed analysis of the origins of the Catrrina image, including Posada’s print, Rivera’s complex transformation of it, and later manifestations of Catrina, see my first Glasstire Catrina article, José Guadalupe Posada and Diego Rivera Fashion Catrina: From Sellout To National Icon (and Back Again?).
Felipe Linares, Catrina, papier-mâché. Photo credit: Pinterest.
The Linares family workshop has frequently made Catrinas that closely follow Rivera’s prototype. Although most modern-day Catrinas do not possess the nationalist emblems that Rivera provided to her in his mural, those made by the Linares family usually contain some of them. The example pictured above features a rattlesnake-feathered boa (a reference to the god Quetzalcoatl), and a Tehuana skirt (like the kind worn by Frida Kahlo). The two ostrich feathers seem to have taken on a life of their own.
The ollin glyph (the sign for movement, like the one at the center of the Aztec stone of the sun) appears on the belt buckle of many Linares workshop Catrinas. In this example, it has seemingly been transformed into a cross.
My first Glasstire Catrina article features four details of Rivera’s Alameda Park mural (one of which features a close-up the ollin glyph), as well as a papier-mâché tableau recreation of the central portion of the mural by the Linares workshop (as displayed at the Olmedo Museum in Mexico City in 2014).
Felipe Linares, Catrina, papier-mâché. Photo credit: The Turquoise Door.
This Felipe Linares Catrina features a colorful rattlesnake boa. Note how small the skull is in relation to the hat. As I noted in the first Catrina article, hats like the one Posada portrayed were so massive that they needed a good deal of padding and wigs or big hair to anchor them to the wearer’s head.
Participants at the Catrina Ball (detail), 2017, the first edition of the annual fundraiser for the San Antonio Public Library Foundation. Photo credit: Robert Maxham.
Most Catrinas in art — and the overwhelming majority of Catrina impersonators — are arrayed in bourgeois finery, with no reference to Rivera’s nationalist emblems. Neither of the two Catrinas above feature any of Rivera’s nationalist emblems, though the hat of the one on the right clearly references Posada’s Catrina.
Catrina impersonator, with papier-mâché mask and hat. Photo credit: Pinterest.
One couldn’t be more faithful to Posada’s original print than this impersonator. She sports a feathered boa for good measure.
Helguera, “Tradición modernizada” (Tradition modernized), published in La Jornada, Nov. 2, 1989. Photo credit: Mexico and the Idea of Death.
In Mexico, Day of the Dead and Halloween — especially among some politicians, journalists, and intellectuals — are viewed as warring cultural traditions and competing symbols of culture and nationhood. The former is characterized as native and spiritual, while the latter is deemed foreign, secular, and commercial. Helguera brilliantly synthesized the two overlapping and competing traditions with great economy, by simply capping a stereotypic Jack-o’-lantern with Catrina’s archaic hat. His product is a grinning combination of the two traditions. Claudio Lomnitz, in Mexico and the Idea of Death (2005), says Helguera’s cartoon “alludes simultaneously to the easy syncretism of Halloween and the Days of the Dead and to the higher classes’ tendency to adopt Halloween as their own form of vanity.”
Catrina in T-shirt with pajama-like skull pants, Market Square, San Antonio, 2018. Photo credit: Ruben C. Cordova.
Posada fashioned his Catrina by capping a skull with a big, bourgeois hat. That hat is all that is really needed to crown a Catrina, as demonstrated most dramatically by Helguera, who substituted a carved pumpkin for a skull. The Catrina in the left foreground of the above picture is dressed for comfort. That hat is all she needs to endow her with Catrina-hood.
Sam Rayburn High School Students, Catrina installation, 2010, Lawndale Art Center, Houston. Photo credit: Ruben C. Cordova.
Similarly, the large half-skeleton (clearly influenced by Carmen Caballero’s papier-máché skeletons) in the charming installation pictured above is identifiable as a Catrina by her large hat, which blends almost invisibly into the black background.
Sam Rayburn High School Students, Catrina installation, 2010, Lawndale Art Center, Houston. Photo credit: Ruben C. Cordova.
The hat is legible primarily because it has a row of paper flowers along its rim.
509 Catrinas, Mexico City, 2014. Photo credit: “¡Viva México! Six records to celebrate Mexican independence day” (2016)
A short-lived Guinness world record for the most Catrinas in one place was set in 2014, when 509 costumed impersonators gathered at the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City. This number does not include those who were disqualified, including all the men, and those women who did not have the requisite elements. If the videos I have screened are correct, the Guinness requirements this year were: a hat; white face paint with black eyes and noses; a dress; a boa. For a short Spanish-language film, please click here.
Catrina, procession in Celaya, Guanajuato, where 865 Catrinas and Catrines gathered in 2016. Photo credit: screen grab from “Desfile de Catrinas Rompe Récord Guinness en Celaya” (uploaded March 10, 2017).
By 2016, the Guinness rules were relaxed, and men who dressed as men were allowed to participate (I don’t know to what extent the rules for women were relaxed as well). On Oct. 30, 2016, a new record was set. According to Guinness, the largest gathering of Catrinas and Catrines took place in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico, when the Instituto de la Juventud Guanajuatense brought together 865 qualifying participants. Many later joined the procession pictured above.
World’s Tallest Catrina, certified by Guinness in 2015 at 61 feet, 7.17 inches (18.77 meters) high (this photo is from 2016, when the Catrina measured 20 meters), Zapotlanejo, Jalisco. Photo credit: Traficozmg.com.
As reported by Mexico News Daily on Nov. 3, 2016, the “passion for beating Guinness records” has become “another Mexican tradition.” In my first Glasstire Catrina article, I illustrated “Sofia,” an 8.1 meters high papier-mâché Catrina made in the Federal District.
In 2015, Zapotlanejo’s record-breaking Catrina, fashioned out of three tons of construction materials and 350 meters of fabric, attracted 50,000 visitors during the three days it was exhibited. For a film clip of the 2015 installation, which featured the Catrina in a flower-bedecked black dress with a feathered rattlesnake boa, go here. The Zapotlanejo Catrina was displayed in a dark blue dress for nine days in 2016 (as in the photo above), and the Zapotlanejo Catrina festival (and sometimes the Catrina herself) has continued to grow.
Mayor Héctor Álvarez Contreras proudly noted the construction of a massive, seven-level pyramidal altar, constructed of 5,000 bricks and decorated with 2,000 candles, 150 loaves of bread, 50,000 marigolds, and a ton of sugar cane.
Catrin (male dandy) on one knee before Catrina, who is dressed as a bride, 2019, Zapotlanejo, Jalisco. Photo credit: Ulizes Ruiz /AFP / Getty.
Though she was missing her signature Catrina hat in 2019, Zapotlanejo’s Catrina can be forgiven, since it is her wedding day. She is dressed and posed as if she were taking wedding shots with her groom. For a Spanish-language clip of the 2019 installation, please go here.
Zapotlanejo has continuously renewed its record Catrina statue by creating an entire wardrobe of clothes for her, is if she were a giant Barbie doll. In 2019, the Catrin on bended knee served as her Ken. What will be the next monumental accessory — an oven in which to bake Day of the Dead bread? In 2017, the giant Catrina was endowed with an enormous Tree of Life headdress, which greatly augmented her height. According to Zona Guadalajara, the 2017 version topped out at 30 meters. For a noctural film clip of the 2017 installation, including the pyramid’s dramatic lighting effects, please go here.
Traficozmg.comreported in 2018 that it was the tenth anniversary of Zapotlanejo, stating “No to Halloween.” This initiative, which coincided with the launch of the Monumental Catrina project, was motivated by the tendency of children to observe Halloween rather than Day of the Dead. If your goal is to overwhelm Halloween, this is the way to do it!
The U.S.’s largest Catrina is about two-thirds the size of the one constructed in the village of Zapotlanejo. McAllen’s monumental Catrina was initially installed next to the Oval Park pond. In Delicia Lopez’s photograph, it is viewed from midway between two brightly painted, flat-bottomed boats, similar to the ones that ply their trade in Lake Xochimilco. The statue was then transported to the Tecate Catrina Music Fest festival grounds, where it presided over concerts during the latter part of McAllen’s Day of the Dead festivities. Go here for a video produced by the Monitor.
Magicienne and Catrina, 2017, Avenida Madero, Mexico City. Photo credit: Ruben C. Cordova.
It’s late at night on the Avenida Madero, a pedestrian corridor between Alameda Park and the Zocalo, where revelers show off their costumes, especially between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2. Most celebrants have long since departed. A Magicienne waves her wand, to make some final photographic magic with a Catrina, whose variant costume was inspired by the 2014 film, The Book of Life.
It’s four a.m., and Mexico City’s smallest Catrina is curled up, asleep in her stroller. Her mother’s skeletal hand presses the little Catrina’s hat against her plastic Jack-o’-lantern, which was used to collect treats. Quite fortuitously, she has recreated Helguera’s cartoon image in real life. After pausing for this photo, she continues to roll the little Catrina toward home.
Until next year!
****
My 2019 Glasstire article Guide to Day of the Dead in Mexico City features a cut-paper Catrina on an altar at the Museum of Popular Cultures and a painted Catrina in the background of a “singing altar” on the Zocalo.
Anniversaries of a traumatic event are often difficult for people who suffer from Election PTSD. When voting, you may find it especially hard to return to the polls. After all, this is where you last felt that emotion. You know the one, what’s it called? Hop? Hape? Anyway, it’s the last place you felt that thing before it was gruesomely beheaded like an innocent honey bee in the jaws of an invasive murder hornet. Also, NPR says the murder hornets are currently about to enter their slaughter phase, but I’m sure that’s not an omen of anything.
Tell Yourself That Good Things Are Still Possible
Yes, something deeply horrifying happened last Election Day, when Donald Trump actually won the presidential race, but that doesn’t mean it will happen again. Although it totally could. The odds are pretty good, actually. History is full of fucked up shit.
Orient Yourself In Time
William Faulkner once said, “The past isn’t dead, it’s not even past.” Shut up, old bitch. Unlike Faulkner, you’re living in the now! 2016 is super dead. Even deader than Herman Cain. And the other 230,000 Americans who have perished from COVID, which happened because Donald Trump won the 2016 election. It’s almost like the past is reaching its bony hands out of the grave, clawing out the present’s eyeballs, ravenously devouring the present’s brain. Maybe Faulkner was on to something.
Remind Yourself That You Are Safe
While you stand in line at your polling place, gently squeeze your arms and tell yourself, I am safe. Look at all these fellow Americans exercising their rights, even in a pandemic! Wait, is someone taking off their mask and coughing? Who are those black-shirted men in Trump masks hanging around? Do they have guns? Keep whispering, I am safe, as democracy crumbles into a burning heap around you.
Spend Time in Nature
As you leave the polls, gaze upon the golden hues of autumn. Inhale the sweet scent of wild pumpkin lattes. Listen to the cicadas chirping about their imminent deaths. Remember that all human life is ephemeral — even if Trump wins again, you can take comfort in knowing that the sun will swell into a giant ball of flaming gas one day and swallow the entire planet, including Ivanka.
Take Up a Hobby
Remember how empowered you felt voting for Hillary Clinton, who you thought would become the first woman president? The repetitive motions of crocheting will numb your emotional pain. Use soft yarns in soothing colors like cerulean. In no time, you’ll be using your grief to create a beautiful scarf — oh God, have you accidentally crocheted a pantsuit? Weep softly into its sensible but unflattering waistline.
Use a Comfort Animal
Call around to local shelters. Learn that no, they won’t let you adopt an emotional-support puppy this very second, even though Rick Santorum is talking on CNN. Don’t be deterred! Capture an opossum outside and name it Giggles. Cuddle with Giggles on the couch. Listen to the calming rhythm of Giggles’ heartbeat. Scream as Giggles mauls your face with all 50 of her teeth.
Rely On Objective Information
Tune out the hysteria of social media, and look to reliable sources for important questions like What happens if there is an Electoral College tie? and Do possums spread rabies?
Find a Support Person
Invite your friend Danielle over to watch the election returns with you. When Danielle appears trembling on your doorstep, babbling frantically about exit polls, you realize that Danielle also suffers from Election PTSD. That’s OK, good friends support each other! Generously help her find a vein and shoot up Zoloft.
Wrap Yourself in a Blanket
Pull apart the pantsuit you crocheted and make a fluffy, warm blanket instead. Now roll yourself in it to evoke subconscious memories of the womb, where you didn’t care about the Electoral College. Pull the blanket tight over your face. Suffocate yourself so you don’t have to hear Florida called.
Draw On the Wisdom of Others
As the hypoxia sets in, Ruth Bader Ginsburg appears, bathed in glowing light.
“Do not despair, my child,” she says. “Remember what Abraham Lincoln said in his second inaugural address: I want you to touch that lil’ dangly thing that swings in the back of my throat.”
“But wasn’t he literally murdered after that?” you ask.
Before Ruth can answer, you feel something tugging you out of the blanket. Danielle gives you CPR. Giggles sinks her extremely numerous fangs into your ankle. A calm falls over you. Yes, this election could destroy American democracy and plunge the country into an ethno-fascist nightmare as Covid kill hundreds of thousands of people and climate change obliterates the ecosystem services that sustain human life — but with the support of your friends, ghost Supreme Court justices, and possibly rabid pets, you realize everything might just turn out OK.
Good morning. October has come and gone. The first ten days of the month were near normal, in terms of weather, followed by a middle period that was very warm. Many sites recorded record highs in the low 90s. But the last week of the month was much cooler, generally with days in the 70s and lows in the 50s.
All in all, then, the Houston area ended with near normal temperatures. Here’s a map showing departure from normal temperatures for the month along with the rest of the country.
Temperature anomaly for October, 2020. (Weathermodels.com)
Monday
A cool front pushed into Houston on Sunday, and this has made for a cool night, with lows generally dropping into the 40s except for parts of the city, and near the coast. As a result, the region will enjoy splendid fall weather today, with highs in the low 70s beneath sunny skies. Expect another clear and cool night, with temperatures perhaps dropping a degree or two cooler than Sunday night.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
We’ll see a slight warmup this week as winds shift to come from the east, and eventually the southeast. Still, we expect three mostly sunny days, with highs in the mid- to upper-70s for most. Nights will warm some, from the 50s on Tuesday night to around 60 by Thursday. This is really fall as it should be in Houston.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
The onshore flow will become a little more pronounced by this weekend, and this should allow temperatures and humidity to creep up somewhat. I still expect mostly sunny skies, and this should allow highs to reach into the low 80s, with nights warming into the 60s. We might even see a slight chance of rain as moisture levels continue to climb in the atmosphere—but the signal for this is fairly weak.
Expect a gradual warm-up this week. (Weather Bell)
Next week
The overall pattern supports the passage of a cold front by around Tuesday of next week—but this is eight days into the future so it’s difficult to have too much confidence in this timing. This front, whenever it pushes through, will probably bring our region’s next real chance of rain with it as well.
Tropics
The season that won’t quit produced another hurricane this past weekend, with Hurricane Eta moving toward Nicaragua and intensifying. The 2020 Atlantic season is now tied with 2005 for the number of tropical storms and hurricanes that formed, 28. Eta, unfortunately, is going to bring plenty of misery to Central America in terms of winds, but the greater threat will come from heavy rainfall due to the slow-moving system. This will cause mudslides, swollen rivers, and plenty of devastation.
Monday morning track forecast for Hurricane Eta. (National Hurricane Center)
By the coming weekend, Eta probably will reemerge into the Caribbean Sea, and over the course of next week it may threaten Cuba, Florida, or elsewhere. This is something forecasters will have to watch for awhile, but it is not a storm that should concern us in Texas or even hard-hit Louisiana.
The decision means about 127,000 ballots cast by curbside voting in the Houston area will be counted. It follows a similar ruling by the Texas Supreme Court on Sunday.
(Image credit: Callaghan O'Hare/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A spike in cases recently led El Paso's county judge to impose a shelter-in-place order closing many nonessential businesses. The Texas attorney general has sued to block that order.
Color Me Beautiful’s Looking Your Best
Spillane and Sherlock
1995
Another color book to make you pretty. We have featured these types of books before: color for your life, color for men, colors for your home, etc. I remember when this was a big deal. This topic was on all the talk shows and I think there were even some Avon like parties where one could get their colors done. I don’t know if it is still as big a deal as was back in the late 1980s/1990s.
I remember trying to understand this process and getting nowhere. I really tried to figure it out and frankly I just didn’t understand the differences. It also sounds like a lot of work. No thanks.
An election worker guides voters in cars at a drive-through mail ballot drop-off site at NRG Stadium on October 7, 2020, in Houston, Texas. | Go Nakamura/Getty Images
Judge Andrew Hanen is one of the most right-wing judges in the country. Even he thought this lawsuit could not fly.
Democrats, and thousands of voters in Houston, spent much of the last few days fearing that a federal judge would order nearly 127,000 ballots tossed out. But they got a moment to breathe on Monday afternoon, after a conservative judge ruled that he did not have jurisdiction over this case.
In a normal world, Hotze v. Hollins would be laughed out of court. But the case was heard by Judge Andrew Hanen. As my colleague Matt Yglesias wrote over the weekend, Hanen “is one of the most right-wing and incautious figures in the entire federal judiciary.”
So there was a real possibility that Hotze, which seeks to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Harris County, Texas, could have ended in disaster for the voters who cast those ballots. Harris County, which includes Houston, is one of the bluest parts of a state that features a competitive presidential race, and a US Senate seat that Democratic candidate MJ Hegar has an outside chance of winning.
When Hanen announced his ruling from the bench on Monday, he determined that the plaintiffs should not have been in court in the first place. Though Hanen said that he would “probably” have agreed with at least some of the plaintiffs’ legal arguments if he has jurisdiction over them, he ultimately concluded that he did not.
Texas law permits early voting places to be located “in any stationary structure” or “in a movable structure in the general election.” Pursuant to this language, Harris County designated some structures that were large enough to accommodate a car as drive-through polling places. The idea was that voters who feared becoming infected with the coronavirus might feel safer voting in a location where they did not need to leave their car.
The plan to establish such drive-through sites was announced in mid-June. After multiple public hearings that the Harris County Republican Party participated in, the county approved its plan to implement these sites on August 25. Early voting took place from October 13 through the 30th, and 126,912 ballots were cast in the drive-through sites, according to the county’s lawyers.
Nevertheless, the plaintiffs in Hotze, who include Republican candidates for public office and a Republican member of the state legislature, waited until October 28 to file this lawsuit. They now claim that more than 100,000 ballots, cast by voters who followed the rules set through a bipartisan consensus among Harris County and state-level officials, should be rejected.
The Texas Supreme Court already rejected a similar claim by these same plaintiffs, the second time the state’s all-Republican Court ruled against parties seeking to invalidate drive-through voting sites in Harris County.
And now they’ve also lost before Judge Hanen. As a general rule, a plaintiff cannot bring a suit in federal court unless they can show that they’ve been injured in some way by the law or procedure that they are challenging. A plaintiff does not have “standing” to bring a suit if they can only demonstrate a “generalized grievance,” meaning that they share the same injury as the public as large.
Hanen ruled that these plaintiffs could not sure that they were injured by drive-through voting any more than anyone else might suffer because these ballots were cast, and thus their case must be dismissed. He also criticized them for not bringing this case in a more “timely” manner.
Hanen’s ruling, however, does not mean that this case is over. The plaintiffs are likely to appeal to the conservative United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and potentially to the Supreme Court.
This case has no business being litigated in the first place because the plaintiffs waited so long
There are a number of doctrines that prevent plaintiffs from waiting until the last minute to file a case — especially if more than 100,000 people have relied on the system that the plaintiffs want to invalidate.
One of these doctrines is known as “laches.” As the Fifth Circuit has explained, “laches is founded on the notion that equity aids the vigilant and not those who slumber on their rights.” Yet the plaintiffs in Hotze didn’t just sleep on their rights; they’ve spent the past several months acting as if they were tranquilized.
Harris County announced its initial plans to use drive-through voting more than four months ago. It’s held multiple public meetings, and these drive-through polling sites were open for more than two weeks before these plaintiffs finally bothered to file a federal lawsuit. If the doctrine of laches has any force, it should apply in this case.
A doctrine known as the “Purcell principle” also warns federal courts not to change a state’s election procedures as that election draws nigh. As the Supreme Court held last April in Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee, “lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election.”
Again, the plaintiffs in Hotze don’t just ask Judge Hanen to alter Texas’s election rules on the eve of an election — Hanen is holding a hearing on this case on Monday, literally on Election Day eve — they ask Hanen to alter those rules after millions of Texans have already voted.
If the Purcell principle means anything, it should apply in this case.
The Hotze plaintiffs misread both federal and state law
The Hotze plaintiffs’ primary argument is that Harris County set up the drive-through polling places in violation of state law. But there are numerous problems with this argument.
For one thing, the Texas Supreme Court — which is made up entirely of Republicans — has twice rejected lawsuits seeking to invalidate drive-though voting in Harris County. Current rules provide that the Texas Supreme Court has the final word on questions of Texas state law. While several justices have recently indicated that they wish to overrule this longstanding rule, they have not yet done so in a majority opinion.
But even if we accept the proposition that Judge Hanen is allowed to strike down the drive-through polling places if they violate state law, the fact remains that the polling places do not violate state law.
As noted above, Texas law provides that early voting sites may be located “in any stationary structure” or “in a movable structure in the general election.” Nothing in Texas state law provides that a “structure” ceases to be a viable polling place if it is large enough to accommodate drive-through voting.
The Hotze plaintiffs, meanwhile, point to a different provision of Texas law, which governs “curbside” voting. Curbside voting is distinct from drive-through voting. As the county’s lawyers explain, “curbside voting is a practice in which an election official brings a ballot to a voter at a location outside the polling station,” while drive-through voting “allows a voter to enter the polling place in his or her vehicle and the act of voting occurs inside, rather than outside, the polling place.”
But in any event, even if the contested polling places were classified as “curbside” voting sites, there is a strong argument that they would still be lawful. Texas law provides that “if a voter is physically unable to enter the polling place without ... likelihood of injuring the voter’s health, on the voter’s request, an election officer shall deliver a ballot to the voter at the polling place entrance or curb.” In the middle of a pandemic, a voter may reasonably fear that they cannot enter a polling place without risking injury to their health.
Hanen is an extremely conservative judge
Although Hanen is unlikely to have the final word in this case, the fact that he decided not to hear it is a sign that the plaintiffs are unlikely to prevail. If any judge could have ruled in these plaintiffs’ favor, Hanen is that judge.
Hanen is best known as the judge who blocked President Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program, which would have allowed many undocumented parents of US citizens and lawful permanent residents to live and work in the United States. But Hanen did more than simply rule against these immigrants; he conducted himself in a way that raises serious questions about his ability to control his temper — or to separate his nativist political views from the law.
At one point in the DAPA litigation, Hanen accused the Obama Justice Department of deliberately misleading him about an aspect of Obama’s immigration policies (the DOJ lawyers say that they merely misunderstood a question that Hanen asked them). Rather than giving these lawyers the benefit of the doubt, however, Hanen handed down a draconian order sanctioning the lawyers, the Justice Department, and tens of thousands of immigrants who weren’t even before Hanen’s court.
Under the terms of this order, hundreds of Justice Department attorneys — most of whom had never appeared in Hanen’s courtroom in their lives — had to attend a remedial ethics course. Hanen also ordered the Obama administration to turn over the names and addresses of approximately 50,000 undocumented immigrants, and he threatened to turn over this sensitive information to the “proper authorities.” (Hanen later agreed to stay this demand that 50,000 immigrants effectively be doxxed.)
Given this erratic past behavior by Hanen, the Hotze plaintiffs had at least some cause for optimism. Now their hopes rest with the Fifth Circuit or the Supreme Court.
Eur J Sport Sci. 2020 Nov 1:1-21. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2020.1845814. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Home advantage and referee bias are two well-documented phenomena in professional sports, especially in association football. Among the various factors determining them, the crowd noise is considered as one of the most relevant; yet, the majority of previous studies could not isolate its contribution. The possibility to study the effects of crowd noise - or, better, of its absence - in an ecological context was given by the matches played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether home advantage and referee bias still occur (and to what extent) during matches played in absence of spectators. In particular, the focus was on the first and second divisions of the top four countries in the UEFA ranking, for a total of 841 matches behind closed doors. The hypothesis was that, if these phenomena are largely due to the effect of crowd noise, the absence of spectators should reduce their occurrence. Various parameters for each of the two phenomena were considered, and the analyses revealed a reduction of home advantage and the absence of referee bias. The results bring further support to the claim that, among all the factors contributing to home advantage and referee bias, crowd noise has a relevant role. Thus, spectators can significantly contribute to determine the dynamics and the outcomes of professional football matches.
In the eight and a bit years since the first model launched, the Raspberry Pi has traditionally been sold as a modular computer. You buy the board separately, attach your own peripherals, insert an SD card and then get to work on your own computing project. The Foundation watched as third-parties — including Kano — built their own all-in-one PC solutions around the Raspberry Pi, leading it to create its own Desktop Kit, which bundled all of the necessary tech to deploy a fully-functional desktop or coding workstation. Now, it’s going one better with the launch of the Raspberry Pi 400 — a complete personal computer built inside a 78-key keyboard that starts at $70.
The Pi 400 has almost the exact dimensions of the official Raspberry Pi keyboard and hub, but with all of the extra ports and connectors needed to turn it into a PC. The power is provided by the same — albeit slightly tuned — quad-core Broadcom BCM2711 processor found in the Raspberry Pi 4, along with 4GB of RAM, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, Gigabit Ethernet and three USB ports (two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0). There are also two micro HDMI ports, a GPIO header and a microSD card slot for OS and data storage.
The $70 Computer Unit is the no-frills option: you literally get the keyboard and will need add your own power and accessories. However, the $100 Pi 400 Computer Kit includes a localized power supply, mouse, a pre-formatted 16GB microSD card, a Beginner’s Guide and a 1M micro HDMI to HDMI-A cable. It’s very similar to the Desktop Kit but with even fewer parts.
Raspberry Pi Foundation
The inspiration behind the Pi 400 came from “challenges for less-technical users in configuring a device with lots of parts, often without hands-on support because COVID-related restrictions on home visits,” confirmed Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton.
“The all-in-one form factor is about simplifying the setup for people who just want to use their Raspberry Pi as a PC. Fewer components on the desk means less clutter, faster setup and teardown times, and fewer opportunities to misconfigure the device. It actually also brings some cost savings, so the kit is significantly cheaper than the Pi 4 4GB Desktop Kit ($100 vs $120 RRP).”
The Raspberry Pi Desktop Kits will remain on sale for people who want the flexibility of the original form factor, or want to buy models with differing memory capabilities. The company doesn’t currently have any plans to offer a 2GB version of the Pi 400, due to the proportional cost saving being quite small, but may decide to offer a beefier model for “large corporate or educational deployments where the accumulated cost saving is worthwhile” further down the road.
Raspberry Pi Foundation
For those of a certain age, the Pi 400 may look familiar; the '80s was full of all-in-one micro computers like the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Atari 800XL. "I was a BBC Micro and Amiga kid," said Upton, "without those platforms I, and lots of other people like me, would never have ended up in the engineering field." Continuing that push to help young people study computer science has always been a core part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation's mission, and Upton says "this is just the next phase of that journey."
The Raspberry Pi 400 is available to buy from today in the US, UK and France. The official list of resellers can be found here.
Puerto Rico is holding its sixth nonbinding referendum on the issue of statehood. | Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images
An election worker guides voters in cars at a drive-through mail ballot drop-off site at NRG Stadium on October 7, 2020, in Houston, Texas. | Go Nakamura/Getty Images
