Tag: dnc

Today’s dilemmas

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy7 Comments

Dilemma the First: I have a student this year who is quite easily the most profoundly disabled kid I’ve ever had in my classroom. Today, somehow in my room without his supposed-to-be-constant paraprofessional– someone else just brought him into the room in his wheelchair and left— he got out of said wheelchair to lie down on the floor and cry about how he wasn’t allowed to use his iPad in his previous class. He has spoken to me a few times. I have only understood perhaps 20% of what he has said to me. I have, literally, no idea how I might educate him, and even less idea why he is in a mainstreamed classroom.

Sub-Dilemma: I haven’t read any of my IEPs yet, including this kid’s, and I am terrified of what I might find in it. I am hoping to find time to read IEPs this weekend.

Dilemma the Second: Kamala Harris is speaking after my bedtime tonight, and I am not sure how I am going to be both asleep and watching her speech. Furthermore, there is a Big Surprise coming tonight, and I am not only not sure what the Big Surprise might be (Taylor Swift will endorse Harris and then announce a new album the day after the election, but only if Harris wins) but I also don’t know when it is, and I bet I’ll be in bed for it too. I have otherwise ignored both conventions this year, although some of the clips I’ve seen on TikTok have made me regret not paying more attention to the Democratic one.

Dilemma the Third: I have too many video games to play and books to read. I need another month before school starts, please. Black Myth Wukong just came out and I’m still not really done with the Elden Ring DLC. Can we redo the calendar?

Dilemma the Fourth: My son turns 13 tomorrow, meaning that I will be the father of a teenager, which is incomprehensible. Unfortunately, he is also his mother’s son in addition to being my son, which means that he doesn’t want anything for his birthday and also won’t commit to making any plans. This is not teenagerdom and wanting to avoid his parents raring its head; it’s his biological destiny. I am the only fucker on either side of my family who it is possible to buy things for. It’s bloody annoying.

Dilemma the Fifth: I have not quite told the truth in Dilemma the Fourth. He would like a “gamer laptop.” He has never touched Windows and does not know a single damn thing about how computer specs work. We’d be looking at $1000 easy and probably $16-1700 for a decent rig (“decent,” not “good”) so that he can play Minecraft.

Dilemma the Sixth: I will likely talk about this more in the future, but my co-teacher in one of my classes sucks. I need her to not suck. I have never actually had to have a “you suck at this and you need to stop” conversation with an adult before and am not sure how to approach it. One presumes I should not actually say the words “you suck at this and you need to stop.”

Dilemma the Seventh: I intended for this to be one or two dilemmas and I have like four more without thinking about it too hard but, again, I’d like to be reading and/or playing video games. So I’m gonna stop now.

One more tiny Biden detail

On By Luther M. SilerIn PoliticsLeave a comment

I don’t have a ton I want to talk about tonight, but I did discover a piece of information earlier today that’s relevant to yesterday’s post and the Biden conversation in general. It occurred to me that we haven’t heard any talk about superdelegates during this primary. Now, on one hand, I wouldn’t expect to hear much about them, on account of there’s only one credible candidate and he’s the incumbent. But the fact that I hadn’t heard anything was interesting.

Well, it turns out the rules changed in 2020, mostly, I assume, because of the vast amount of bitching from Certain Parties in the last several elections about the superdelegates. So here’s how this works: I was correct about the pledged delegates. There’s just under 4,000 of them total and Biden needs a majority of them (which he already has) to be nominated for the Presidency on the first ballot.

On the first ballot.

This is the bit I didn’t know: there are superdelegates this year– 739 of them, to be exact, and technically they’re called “automatic delegates” now, but everyone knows they’re superdelegates– mostly, if you don’t know, elected Democratic officials and Party People. The automatic delegates do not get to vote on the first ballot. But if there isn’t a nominee after the first ballot? They can, which means the total number of delegates increases, which means the number of delegates needed for the nomination also increases.

I pointed out yesterday that even if an unwilling-to-leave Biden didn’t win on the first ballot, the pressure campaign on anyone who voted against him to change their vote in Round 2 would be extreme, particularly if he only missed the majority by a few votes. And to be honest, I feel like the sudden injection of hundreds of superdelegates probably works in the sitting president’s favor, meaning if he didn’t win on the first ballot, he’d likely win on the second. This is a big fucking question mark, though, especially for any scenario where Biden does decide to drop out and not immediately anoint a successor.

I promise, unless something staggeringly interesting happens tonight (Jesus please no) I’ll talk about video games or books or something tomorrow.

In which it’s my Friday and I need advice

On By Luther M. SilerIn Blogwanking, PoliticsLeave a comment

When I left work today everyone said “Have a good weekend” to me, because at my new job no one knows how days of the week work.  But one way or another I have the next two days off.  I intend to spend most of tonight watching speeches at the DNC.  The question: Liveblog?  Or just stay on Twitter the whole time?

I don’t know if I’ve subjected anyone over here to one of my political liveblogs yet.  They were mostly a feature of my previous blog.

Hmmm.

EDIT:  I’m on Twitter.  Come say hi.

In which I pay insufficient attention to national events

On By Luther M. SilerIn PoliticsLeave a comment

2016_democratic_national_convention_logo.jpgI deliberately ignored the entirety of the RNC, and due to my work schedule I’m only just now tuning into a few minutes of the Democratic convention before falling into bed and dying.  I was treated to a few minutes of Jeffrey Lord being an idiot and now the crowd is mostly ignoring a speech by a NYPD detective who was serving on September 11.

And now he’s done, rather abruptly, and there’s a 9/11 survivor talking, and I’m sorta losing interest already.  Bill Clinton is speaking later, but I don’t know what “later” means and I know for sure that i’m probably not going to last to see it.

My understanding is that the speeches yesterday went well, and that Bernie echoed Hillary’s move in 2008, calling for her to be nominated by acclamation, and that a number of his delegates are being jackasses.  I have a half day tomorrow, so I may catch up on some of the stuff I missed; we’ll see.

I spent an hour and a half unloading furniture trucks this morning, guys.  Brain’s turning off.  How was your day?