Washington's Betty Jo Bouvier Misses Old-Fashioned Texas Style Voting

Lately, problems with voting in Texas has made an appearance on the list of things wrong with Texas.

A few days ago I blogged about this Texas problem in Evidence Corrupt Tarrant County Political Machine Steals Elections.

On Monday, September 26 I mailed a Voters Registration Form to the Wichita Falls County Clerk. Weeks later I still had not received my Voter Registration Card.

This morning I emailed the Wichita Falls County Clerk, Lori Bohannon, asking if I am registered. Ms. Bohannon quickly got back to me with the news that no Voters Registration Form from me had been received.

I will be in Fort Worth next Wednesday. I have already checked to make sure I am still registered in Tarrant County, so I will be doing some early voting at my old voting location.

Changing the subject back to Tarrant County voting corruption, that being the harvesting of votes via absentee ballots.

This harvesting absentee ballot votes has perplexed since before I even knew it was a thing, way back in the last TRWD board election when the two incumbents won with a record vote number, with more than half the votes being absentee ballots.  The stench from that obvious corruption was so strong I figured immediate corrective action would be taken.

I figured wrong.

Ever since I have been in Texas I figure things wrong, usually due to seeing Texas through eyes which grew up in Washington.

I don't remember the last time I went to a polling place in Washington. I think I switched to permanent absentee ballot sometime in the early 1980s. Even then it was easy for a voter, any voter, to vote via absentee ballot.

Unlike Texas.

A couple days ago, after reading on my blog about the Texas voting scandal, Betty Jo Bouvier, resident of Sedro-Woolley, Washington, asked about voting in Texas with the following...

"Do they have actual voting locations in Texas?  We don't have that option anymore. I miss going to the polling place and seeing all our neighbors. It was kinda fun."

See how far Texas is behind a modern location in America? Washington voting is via mail in ballots. Or you can drop your ballot in a ballot drop box.

Now, how is Washington able to use such a method without the type fraud which in Texas has elected people, such as Jim Lane and Marty Leonard, and others, due to thousands of bogus absentee ballots voting for them?

I'm think it likely is not rocket science that explains how Washington figured out how to make mail in voting work. I suspect any sort of tampering is a serious crime. Not a simple little misdemeanor like it is in Texas.

Why is it so easy to register to vote in Washington? I only remember doing so once. I do not remember moving to a new Washington location being any issue requiring mailing in a form to get a new Voter Registration Card.

In Oregon one is automatically registered to vote when one reaches voting age. In Oregon you have to opt out of voting if you do not want to be sent a ballot.

Again, why is Texas so backward and difficult with something which is so simple in advanced, progressive modern American states?

Why is Texas so backward that something as malevolent as Vote Harvesting is apparently an accepted practice? Accepted, apparently, up til  now....

After Final Debate Spencer Jack's Thumb Points Donald Trump Down Hillary Clinton Up

Spencer Jack has been intensely following the presidential election process for well over a year now.

Spencer Jack began the election undecided as to who he would vote for, if he could.

Last summer Spencer Jack attended a Donald Trump rally at the fairgrounds in Lynden, a  few miles south of the Canadian border.

Last week Spencer Jack attended a Hillary Clinton rally in Seattle, which is a few miles further south of the Canadian border.

By the time Spencer Jack met Hillary he had figured out something was not quite right with Donald Trump. Even so, as you can see above, Spencer Jack watched the final presidential debate whilst wearing the MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN cap he got at the Lynden Trump rally.

As you can see, the debate was making Spencer Jack feel a bit nauseated.

Spencer was shocked at Trump's claim that Hillary wanted to rip a baby from a mom when it was time to be born. Spencer Jack's dad then had to try and explain that Donald Trump was talking total idiotic nonsense.

By the end of the final debate Spencer Jack visually indicated who he thought won.

Trump spewed a lot of inarticulate nonsense during the course of the debate. At one point Trump caused giggling when he claimed, yet again, that no one has more respect for women than Trump. Later in the debate the respecter of women said of Hillary, "Such a nasty woman."

This morning I came across someone who went to the bother of transcribing Trump's answer to the Chris Wallace question about Aleppo. Reading the mixed up gibberish is just as confusing and stupid sounding as hearing it come out  of Trump's mouth.

In its entirety, Trump's answer to the Aleppo question...

Well, Aleppo is a disaster. It's a humanitarian nightmare. But it has fallen from any standpoint. I mean, what do you need, a signed document? Take a look at Aleppo. It is so sad when you see what's happened. And a lot of this is because of Hillary Clinton. Because what has happened is by fighting Assad, who turned out to be a lot tougher than she thought, and now she is going to say, “Oh, he loves Assad.” He's just much tougher and much smarter than her and Obama. And everyone thought he was gone two years ago, three years ago. He aligned with Russia. He now also aligned with Iran, who we made very powerful. We gave them $150 billion back. We give them $1.7 billion in cash. I mean cash, bundles of cash as big as this stage. We gave them $1.7 billion.

Now they have aligned, he has aligned with Russia and with Iran. They don't want ISIS. But they have other things because we're backing, we're backing rebels. We don't know who the rebels are. We're giving them lots of money, lots of everything. We don't know who the rebels are. And when and if, and it's not going to happen because you have Russia and you have Iran now. But if they ever did overthrow Assad, you might end up as bad as Assad is, and he is a bad guy.

But you may very well end up with worse than Assad. If she did nothing, we'd be in much better shape. And this is what has caused the great migration where she has taken in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who probably in many cases, not probably, who are definitely in many cases ISIS-aligned. And we now have them in our country and wait until you see this is going to be the great Trojan horse.

And wait until you see what happens in the coming years. Lots of luck, Hillary. Thanks a lot for doing a great job.

_________________________

How many bits of disinformation did Trump spew during the debate that scared children and child-like adults?

On bit of disinformation was Trump's Aleppo answer claim that thousands of bad ISIS-aligned Syrians are in America, constituting a Syrian Trojan Horse. This and the scary abortion rhetoric were among multiple other bits of alarmist, paranoid nonsense frightening children whose parents made the mistake of letting them listen to Trump's vile verbiage.

Verbiage frightening children and those aforementioned child-like adults.

Anyway, I hope Spencer Jack was eventually able to get to sleep last night and his nightmares of being chased by a creepy orange monster with a haystack on his head weren't too upsetting...

Wichita Falls On High Alert For Incoming Rattlesnakes

This morning I saw this disturbing bit of news via the Wichita Falls Times News Record.

The City of Wichita Falls has issued a snake alert.

This is the first time I have found myself living in a town issuing a snake alert.

The warning warns to be particularly careful to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes.

Apparently an increase in the local rat population is the reason snakes have been moving to Wichita Falls.

I have yet to see a snake, rattle type or otherwise, since I have been in Wichita Falls.

I had numerous snake encounters during my years in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Snakes of various unidentified types in Fort Worth's Gateway Park: copperheads, cottonmouths and others in Arlington's River Legacy Park and Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

My one and only rattlesnake encounter occurred in South Dallas on the Cedar Hills State Park mountain bike trail. It was a big one. I had been to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Festival the weekend  prior, so I was well attuned to the distinctive sound of a rattlesnake rattling.

A few weeks ago someone mentioned to me that the rat population of Wichita Falls has increased.

I remember wondering if the town takes some sort of rat census to know such a thing.

I assume an increase in the rat population, if such has actually occurred, is due to the end of the drought and the increase of green foliage and other edibles.

I have not seen a rat, or, like I already said, a rattlesnake slithering about since I have been in Wichita Falls. I hope such continues to be the case....

Evidence Corrupt Tarrant County Political Machine Steals Elections

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Windy Walk To Lake Wichita With Whitecaps & Fish Tales

I had myself a might fine ultra windy power walk  today, leaning against the incoming gale from my abode to Lake Wichita via the Circle Trail.

I do not recollect seeing whitecaps on waves rolling on Lake Wichita on any previous visit to the lake.

The waves had the bridge to the floating dock swaying so much that the handrails were of use.

And the dock itself reminded me of being on Washington Ferry during a big tidal change.

The dock was rocking so much I asked the fishermen and woman if they needed seasick pills. Only one had something to say to that question, that being the fisherwoman, saying no, that the motion got relaxing after about an hour.

That is the aformentioned fisherwoman you see below.

The fisherwoman reminded me of my Grandma Vera. Grandma liked to fish. Often we'd go up to Lynden to visit Grandma to find a "Gone Fishing" note on the door. We knew Grandma's fishing holes on the Nooksack River, and eventually, usually, were able to find her.

The fisherwoman above is also a grandma. Said she been fishing ever since her granddaddy taught her. Charming lady. Told me all about her kids and grandkids and showed me the cool new fishing pole she'd ordered from TV.

The wind pushed me quickly back to my abode, eventually.

This evening I am expecting to see Elsie Hotpepper at a meeting in the D/FW zone. Trouble is a-brewing in the D/FW zone, with the Hotpepper at Ground Zero, as usual.....

Wichita Falls Wood Memorial Park Tornado Art & Cloud Gatlin Poetry

Yesterday, on my way to ALDI, I rolled my mechanized wheels where they had not been rolled before.

At some point in the rolling I realized I was at the south end of Sikes Lake, with a buffer of homes between Sikes Lake and the road on which I was driving.

As I neared Maplewood Street I came to a park,  which I thought odd, what with this park seeming to be adjacent to the trail around Sikes  Lake, which to me seems like a park, and should maybe be named Sikes Lake Park,

But, I digress.

Let's digress further and back up a few months. Well before I began my Texas exile I was aware that Wichita Falls had been hit by two notorious tornadoes, one in 1964, again in 1979. I clearly remember when the 1979 tornado was a big deal, news-wise, nationally.

A few weeks after my move to Wichita Falls I found myself curious as to where the infamous 1979 tornado hit in Wichita Falls. For some reason I thought it was in the downtown area, a thought reinforced when I explored the downtown Wichita Falls area and saw unusual numbers of vacant lots, some turned into large parking lots. As if at some point in time buildings stood on these empty spaces.

Well, imagine my surprise when I learned the infamous 1979 tornado did its damage a short distance north of my abode. After learning this I wondered if that was the reason for the large, block sized area, grassed and surrounded by fence, at the southwest corner of Taft and Midwestern Boulevards.

I wondered why there was no Texas Historical Marker in the area. I thought, maybe there was, but I just had not seen it. Texas seems to love to stick Historical Markers to mark things that often do not seem all that historic to me.

The F4 Tornado, known to locals as Terrible Tuesday, struck late in the afternoon of April 10, 1979. This was one of 30 some tornadoes which touched down in the Wichita Falls region.

42 people were killed, 1,800 were injured. 20,000 were left homeless. The tornado caused $400 million worth of damage, a record not surpassed until the equally infamous Moore-Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999.

So, back to today.

The park I mentioned earlier is called WOOD MEMORIAL PARK.

What is memorialized in this park?

Well, if you guessed the 1979 Terrible Tuesday tornado, you guessed correctly.

Ever since I began walking around Sikes Lake, months ago, I have noticed the orange thing you see here. I thought it looked like some sort of playground thing, but at the time that made no sense, since I did not know there was a park there.

Today, up close, this looked like a tornado themed work of sculptural art.

In Wood Memorial Park, a short distance from Miller Street, on a grassy knoll overlooking Sikes Lake, there is a small memorial. That is what you see at the top. The memorial has plaques attached to all sides, imparting various bits of information. All of which is hard to read, because, like I said, this is one small memorial.

The side facing east has a list of all who died in the tornado.

On the side facing south there is the following poem....

WOOD MEMORIAL PARK

At Maplewood and Miller Streets
A Memorial Plot Recalls,
Forty-Five Tornado Victims
Who Died in Wichita Falls

It was Chosen for Its Setting
Where the Storm had Vent Its Rage,
And Left the City's Name Impressed
Upon the History Page.

Dedicated to a Couple
Much Acclaimed for Doing Good.
As Pioneers, Philanthropists:
The Beloved Frank and Bea Wood.

And Should One Sapling Wither
Or by Nature be Defaced,
Another One of Stronger Build
Will Quickly Takes Its Place.

So that Future Generations 
Passing By May Stop and See...
Each Lovely Face Reflected
In the Beauty of a Tree

Mrs. R.E. Cloud Gatlin

I like that name, R. E. Cloud Gatlin. Was Mrs. Cloud Gatlin Native American? Or married to a Native American?

I wonder why Wood Memorial Park is not on the directional signage one finds all over Wichita Falls which helpfully directs people  to that which they are looking to find? There isn't even a sign pointing to Wood Memorial Park off heavily traveled Maplewood Street.

Wood Memorial Park has multiple picnic tables, and, as is the norm for Wichita Falls, unlike the Texas town I used to live in, modern restroom facilities.

Washington Wind Storm Reports From Linda & Jason Including Hillary & Batman

Yesterday afternoon, with yesterday being Friday, Little Miss Linda called me from my old home zone of Mount Vernon in the Windy State of Washington.

When I saw an incoming call from Little Miss Linda I figured she was calling to tell me about the Big Blow blowing in from the Pacific.

I figured correctly.

Yesterday's high wind and rain was a prelude to what is expected to happen today.

Forecasters have been comparing the potential of this current storm with the infamous Columbus Day Storm of 1962. That storm was one of the most powerful measured since the days of measuring storms began.

Anemometers, the wind speed detectors, were wiped out in northwestern Oregon and southwest Washington, the location of the strongest wind.

Wiped out before the wind reached maximum velocity.

While I was talking to Little Miss Linda the incoming call indicator indicated an incoming call from Little Miss Linda's neighbor, two blocks distant, with that neighbor being Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason.

I assumed Jason was also calling to tell me about the storm. I am technically challenged, phone-wise, so I don't know how to switch from one call to another without losing both. I figured Jason would leave a Voice Mail. But he didn't.

But, later in the day I received an email from Jason with the above photo and the only text telling me "Sent from my iPhone".

Via the photo I could tell Jason was in Seattle. I could tell this because through the wind and rain I could see the marquee of the Paramount Theater behind him. I knew Jason was planning to attend the Hillary Clinton Rally in Seattle. I am assuming this took place in the Paramount.

Above is a screen cap gleaned from the Seattle Times of Hillary's Seattle Rally. I do not see either Spencer Jack or Jason in the picture.

Even though Hillary was in the midst of a potentially historically powerful storm I hope she took some comfort in being in extremely friendly territory, a territory with way fewer Deplorables than my current location.

However, I do know some of the muy estupido ilk in Western Washington who are voting for the Orange Menace. I am embarrassed for them and have no understanding how we could have attended the same schools.

Then again, I do remember all those Washingtom Trumpettes, who I know, as being, well, not top tier students, maybe not even middle tier.

D Students for Donald.

That should be a slogan.

Another screen cap from the Seattle Times.

I do not know where in Puget Sound the above wave is crashing. The caption underneath the photo says "Spray flies over Beach Drive Southwest and douses storm watchers Friday". I do not know where Beach Drive Southwest is.

And then the below, seen yesterday via Skagit Breaking News, on Facebook. I thought this was mildly amusing.

Actually, Robin is asking Batman a perfectly sensible question. Umbrellas are of use in a normal Washington rain. However, to speak Washingtonian Robin should have asked if he should bring a Bumbershoot.

What Batman should have said to Robin, rather than abusing Robin with a slap, would be to tell Robin that Bumbershoots are of no use in hurricane level winds, Unless one is hoping to be able to hold on and be airborne....

TRV Boondoggle Transforms Imaginary Bypass Channel Into A True Promenade

A few minutes ago I heard from Elsie Hotpepper, via text message.

Part of that message made mention of the fact that the TRV was propagandizing about something which had someone usually not prone to such being profanely poetic.

For those who do not know what TRV is, those initials stand for Trinity River Vision, also known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The full name of TRV has grown over the decades to TRCCUPIDV.

Or Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Elsie Hotpepper's text message eventually lead me to something I did not know existed, or maybe I did not remember it existed.

A TRV Facebook page.

Click the link and you can experience the propaganda yourself.

Such as that which you see above, which was at the top of today's TRV Facebook page. A congratulations to some entity which had won an award for their work on the London Olympic Park.

The propaganda shows up in the line "They are also the team responsible for transforming our bypass into a true promenade".

What?

Where is this promenade? Prior to the transformation to being a true promenade was this imaginary promenade a false promenade?

Our bypass?

What bypass? All there is is one bridge stalled under construction where a ditch, I mean, bypass, may be dug at some point in the distant future.

And then there was this. A guy appearing to be welding during one of The Boondoggle's construction stalled V Piers. I thought this post on the TRV Facebook page was going to be about the stalled bridge construction. I thought wrong.

The post with the V Piers appearing in the background has nothing to do with The Boondoggle's bridges. It has to do with how to prepare a bid packet with a bang for The Boondoggle's projects. Here I was thinking the Panther Island Bid Opportunities would have something to do with soliciting bids to get those bridge design errors fixed and construction back underway.

And then there was the following doozy. I have blogged multiple times over the decades about The Boondoggle's signage at Gateway Park touting the wonders that would one day appear.

Next time I am in Fort Worth, which is currently scheduled to be in less than two weeks, maybe I will swing by Gateway Park to check on The Boondoggle's upgrade of its propaganda signage. For years this has been a bizarre spectacle to behold.....

Bertha Bores While Fort Worth Bores In A Different Way

This sort of falls into the dormant category of something I read in a west coast online news source which I would not expect to be reading in the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Or the print version of the Star-Telegram.

This time it is, once again, something I read in the Seattle Times.

Well, the obvious thing is that well into the foreseeable future it is unlikely any sort of transit tunnel is going to be bored under Fort Worth's tiny downtown.

While in Seattle a boring lady named Bertha is now well over the halfway mark in tunneling under downtown Seattle, part of a multi-billion dollar project to replace the Seattle waterfront's Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth there is a slow motion public works project known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, or the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island District Vision.

Part of the fuzzy Fort Worth vision is three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Only one of those Fort Worth bridges has begun being constructed, with all three originally scheduled to take four years to build. Longer than many actual complex feats of engineering.

Now I'm getting to the difference between how a public works project is covered by local media in a modern American town and how it is covered in Fort Worth.

From the time Bertha began boring the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has kept Bertha's progress updated on its website. The Seattle Times continually reports on Bertha's progress, or lack of progress, as does other Pacific Northwest media.

When Bertha ran into an unexpected steel pipe, injuring her, causing about a year repair delay, the ongoing status was reportedly regularly in the Seattle Times and other Washington news sources. WSDOT had and has a live camera giving real time video access to the repair operation and Bertha's progress once she began boring again.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, I believe the one and only bridge under construction remains stalled, due to design errors. As far as I know, despite this stall being for over half a year now, the Star-Telegram has not reported on The Boondoggle's latest boondoggle, that being the little bridge not currently being built, which was supposed to take four years to build.

I believe a live cam was installed by The Boondoggle around the time the Roundabout, near the stalled bridge, was being built, along with The Boondoggle's homage to trash cans art installation.

I recollect more than one person joking that what one sees via The Boondoggle's live cam does not seem to change from day to day. As in not much happens.

I suspect with the stalled bridge project maybe the live cam has been turned off.

Then again, no one associated with The Boondoggle has ever given the slightest indication they have any realization of how embarrassingly inept has been the execution of this supposedly vitally needed flood control and economic development project.

So vitally needed that this project is being executed in ultra slow motion, going for some sort of Guinness Book of Records for Longest Construction Project in History. The Boondoggle's boondoggle has already surpassed the construction of the Panama Canal, the Taj Mahal and, well you get the drift.

Anyway, have I missed it somehow? Has anyone read anything in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the stalled bridge construction?

Other than the initial article which said construction should resume in about a month......

Tarrant County May Be Ground Zero For America's Largest Election Fraud Investigation

It has seemed sort of obvious something was not right about an election or two or three in Tarrant County. Vote totals that defy all logic and reason.

What is the end game of this type investigation? I have no idea.

Is there a do over with the races where the election was stolen? I have no idea.

Do the actual winners in those races simply replace the fraudulent winners? I have no idea.

Will criminal charges be brought? With trials, convictions and jail time? I have no idea.

We can only hope....