By Eric W. Schoen–This Too is Yonkers
Here we go again! The Presidential Election officially kicked off with the Iowa Caucuses. What a mess! People gathered in Schools, community centers, homes basically anyplace warm to discuss the issues of the day and who would be the best candidate to represent the Democratic Party in the Race for the White House this year.
You introduce technology to the process with Apps and computers and great balls of fire you end up in chaos. For years in the Iowa Caucus, Precinct Captains would use the telephone, yes you remember that device that lets you speak to the person on the other end and phone in the results to a central headquarters. All worked well. By the end of the night America would know who the winner was and the other candidates to watch for.
This year Idahoans decided to introduce technology. Mind you this technology has been around a while. The App! We are not talking about appetizers, those little noshes you get before the big meal. We are not talking about appetizing, the term used to describe the lox, whitefish salad or herring in cream sauce back in the days before the word delicatessen became popular.
An app is a software program running on any platform The word “app” is an abbreviation for “application.” It’s a piece of software that can run through a web browser or offline on your computer, and on a smartphone phone, tablet or other electronic devices, including smart TVs and smartwatches.
So you give apps to 75 year old sweet ladies who for years used the telephone to call in their precinct results and what do you have? Chaos. Was a sufficient back up plan in place in case the nice Iowans couldn’t use the apps put in place? Nope.
So instead of hanging chads as we had in Florida, we have hanging corn kernels in Iowa. Rumor has it that the app developer has ties to a former Presidential candidate.
Was it the Russians hacking the Iowa Caucus Elections results? The Chinese. Or did good old Americans screw things up.
You and I will have the opportunity to vote this year not only for President and our Member of Congress but also for races such a judicial races close to home. Do you have confidence that our Election Officials, apps and electronics and everything else in place to supposedly improve the election process will do just that.
Basically if they couldn’t get things right in little Iowa, particularly after the federal government gave millions of dollars to Iowa and other states to improve antiquated systems, how do you think things will go in a big state like New York? Or California? I’m worried. And you should be too!
What I do like in the way Iowans caucus is that they get people together from all walks of life to talk about the issues they have interest in on the international, federal, state and local levels. If one candidate doesn’t get sufficient votes the other candidates have to convince that candidates supporters to switch ships.
Many of us live in apartment buildings. Do we know our neighbors and how they feel about the issues at hand. Even for those in private homes do we know how our next door neighbor feels about the economy? Or Israel? Sanctuary Cities? Frankly do we even know our neighbors name? The last item we learn when the Post Office delivers a package to our address by mistake and like a good neighbor we want to get the package into the hands of its rightful owner.
So caucuses where we can meet and converse with neighbors old and new might not be such a bad idea for New York. Just make sure if we are using Apps they work and the people charged with operating them are fully aware of how to do it. With a backup plan.
Hate to say it but the lever machines that were mothballed gave me more confidence in the integrity of the process than all these fancy new gadgets we current use!
BRIEFS:
Instead of spending time on topics far from the minds of New Yorkers, our State lawmakers should be spending all of their time fixing the bail system they dismantled last year. How many more criminals are going to receive a get out of jail card And go back to committing crimes out in the community. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie seems like the major obstacle to reforming the reform. Call his office at 718-654-6539 and tell him the bail reform is not working by sending those who committed crimes back out into the community to commit additional crimes!
If President Donald Trump is going to call former Mayor Mike Bloomberg ‘little’ Mr. Bloomberg and his fellow Democratic Presidential candidates must take off their gloves and answer back and not look weak. And there are so many names you and I can come up with do describe President Trump. Doesn’t Bozo the Clown register as one of them?
All the signs on our local roads don’t prevent drivers from going in the wrong direction taking lives of wonderful people along the way. Those drivers who do destruction under the influence must be punished. Those that didn’t read the signs? Let’s make sure those signs are appropriately situated and don’t offer the littlest bit of confusion to drivers. Our government has put up lots of signs but if they are not situated properly they can be as confusing as if there were no signs at all!
Were you really expecting our Congressman and Senators of different political parties to Impeach the President?
All I could think of when I saw President Trump refuse to shake the hand of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the State of the Union and Pelosi tear up the President’s speech are these words from ‘I Won’t Grow Up’ in the movie and play ‘Peter Pan’:
I won’t grow up, (I won’t grow up)
I don’t want to go to school. (I don’t want to go to school)
Just to learn to be a parrot, (Just to learn to be a parrot)
And recite a silly rule. (And recite a silly rule)
If growing up means
It would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree,
I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up
Not me! Not I, Not me! Not me!
Trump and Pelosi. They need to ‘Grow Up.’
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
