Gawd and Footbawl

I originally started to write this as a blog, then I decided it would be better as a Facebook post,  I tried to go back to bed and decided it was worthy of publishing as a blog. 

I'm up early again and while I don't think that is what is keeping me up tonight..I think I slept for a while....I have something on my mind. I started to write a blog because I thought it would be too long for a Facebook post but I changed my mind. It's something that happens during and after sporting events and has occurred several times during the end of the college football season. It's people, including Clemson coach Dabo Sweeney, thanking God for things that if there is an all powerful omnipotent being, I doubt seriously he or she or they would give a rats rectum about. 

Earlier this month during the halftimes of the college football conference championship games,  the Dr. Pepper tuition challenges took place. College students threw (in most cases chest passed) footballs into a giant replica soda can. The winner got $100K in tuition money and the runner-up got $25K. Twitter erupted with many tweets that contained pointed criticisms about the "hunger games" nature of it. Students were basically competing to not be saddled with massive debt. One winning contest implored people who don't believe in God to change their minds.

I'm a secular humanist for lack of a better term. That doesn't mean I take people's beliefs lightly. Most of my friends attend some type of religious service on Sunday. I have friends who are very open about how finding God saved them from addiction or guides their life in some way. Even though I don't believe that power comes from a magical being sitting on a cloud, I do think that prayer and faith have power in and of themselves. 

If there is a God, however, I doubt that he or she or they hands out athletic abilities like candy at Halloween. I also seriously doubt that a being with that much power and influence over life, the universe and everything (slipped in a "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference there) gives a flying fart about who wins an American college football game. Or the Dr. Pepper tuition challenge for that matter.

2020 Vision

I usually wait until after Christmas to write an end of the year blog, but not being able to sleep in the early morning of a day off affords me the opportunity to get it out of the way.

No bowl game for the Gamecocks this year. I'm not ready to give up on Will Muschamp yet (or have USC pay that massive buyout). The win over Georgia was enough to give him one more year.

In a lot of ways 2019 has been an improvement over 2018. I really struggled financially in the summer of 2018 with huge cuts to my hours. That has not been the case this year and even though I still live pretty much paycheck to paycheck,  I'm getting by better this year.

Lots to look forward to in 2020. Vince McMahon is making another (And I suspect much more serious) run at winter/spring football with the XFL coming back. The only real rooting interest I have is former Gamecock place kicker and diabetic superstar Elliott Fry of the Saint Louis Battlehawks, who I am still massively in love with and proud of.

Summer Olympics in Tokyo which I'm always a sucker for, as much more for the opening and closing ceremonies as the athletic events.  

And then there is the election. Or should I say elections. We will have 5 and maybe as many as 7 opportunities to vote here in Greenville County, SC in 2020.

The past two elections I have voted absentee the Thursday before the election. Both times I probably could have voted on election day, especially in 2018, but all I had to do was mention that I was scheduled to work and no follow up questions were asked.

The first is the Republican primary on January 7th to replace our disgraced sheriff. Now as you know if you follow me, I am a Democrat. With a Capital D. There is however only 1 democratic candidate where as there are 5 Republicans.  As South Carolina is an open primary state, we can vote for the primary of our choice. I plan to vote for Darrius Hall, an African American candidate, not only for diversity but Democratic candidate Paul Guy is also African American and we could make a bunch of "Blazing Saddles" references. I know I'm repeating a joke I made on Facebook but....

With 5 candidates in the primary,  there's almost surely to be a runoff which would happen January 21st.

February 29th, a rare Saturday election, is the Democratic presidential primary, and Mayor Pete is my guy. If I'm honest, however,  ideologically I'm closer to Bernie Sanders (I was the proverbial 'Bernie Bro' in 2016), and I'm really loving Elizabeth Warren, however I believe Mayor Pete may be less scary to more conservative voters. My main problems with Joe Biden are his lack of plans to reform marijuana laws and the fact that I just don't see him energizing the young voters that we will need to turn out to rid us of the orange menace. It's obvious the Republican senators are not going to do their job.

March 10th will be the general election for sherriff where I plan to vote for Democrat Paul Guy. The nice thing is, there are two college baseball games at Fluor Field the week before (I always look forward to college baseball season). Tuesday the 3rd at 6:00 will be South Carolina vs Furman and Wednesday the 4th at 4:00 will be USC Upstate vs Michigan State. I will certainly know my schedule for the following week on the night of Tuesday the 3rd. I'll watch "Days of our Lives" on Wednesday the 4th then go to county square,  where I always park for free, vote and then head to the game. 

June 9th is the Federal, State and County primary elections,  of course I will vote in the Democratic one. I don't know if there will be many contested races, I know I'm supporting Kim Nelson for Congress and Jaime Harrison for Senate (SEND LYNDSEY HOME!).

Any runoff would be June 23rd but I'm not anticipating there will be any 3 way or more races. There were 5 Democrats running for Congress in district 4 in 2018, however (and 13 Republicans).

And then November 3rd, 2020 will be the day. I have voted Libertarian for president every year since 1992, even last year. In October of 2016 I went on a vote trading website and before I knew what happened it said I had agreed to vote for Gary Johnson here in South Carolina if a voter in North Carolina voted for Hillary. I tried to contact the guy with no result and I now think the website may have been a scam. I also felt because of the electoral college,  a vote for Hillary wouldn't mean anything but a vote for Gary Johnson would add to his national total and get him to the magic 5% to get major party status. It didn't  work out that way. Not going to happen this year. I voted straight (or rather 'Gay' heehee) party Democrat in 2018, the first time I had done so.

(As a side note, I know some people question whether we should vote straight party or not. When we had the old punchcard system,  it was a bit of a problem because people would punch that and not select races with no candidate in the party they voted for or for ballot questions. Now with the electronic voting machines,  it simply preselects the candidates for that party and still takes you through the rest of the ballot. I also don't feel it sends any messge like we can't think for ourselves or anything like that.)

Well if you've stuck with me this long, you either enjoyed this or felt obligated as my friend, either way I appreciate it. I do this just for my own enjoyment,  and also sometimes it helps me sleep if I have things on my mind and can't shut it off.

Merry/Happy Christmas/Holidays and a joyous 2020!