I Was Slammed Into Virtual Voter Prison For Signing a Petition!

Prison cells in the closed San Quentin facility.*

 Yes. This is happening and to some decent and well meaning folks. Beware and understand it's easy for them to do it to you too.

Tuesday I showed up in the earlier parts of the afternoon at our local polling place as usual in a nearby park.  I went just before most get out of normal work hours to keep the lines down in the early evening for others. I had spent the rest of the day checking on the profiles of and recommendations of the o so opaque judicial elections.  And yes found the best information mostly at the LA Times website.  I didn't actually follow all their recomendations, but found valuable information there.

I showed my id at the entry table to let them know who to check off their list, so far so good. Then I was asked what party I was in. Democrat I proudly said.  A lot of white folk like me in my neighborhood are Republicans, but in all I think there's just as many Democratic voters around here and we're heading for a majority.

Then came the shock.  They couldn't find my name. But I always vote.  "I never miss a major election", I said. They searched diligently under different spellings and couldn't find it.  Then they looked on Independent list, then the Republican list as I rolled my eyes.

They found it. They informed me I was a Republican.

I'm older now and the emotions don't get control that easily, and I reminded myself that Hillary was going to win the state no matter what. I don't think my emotion even showed but it's possible it did because after I voted they gave me a number to call to report being switched without consent.

I was not able to vote for Hillary in the historic and important race for president , but luckily the rest of the races were under the state's top two bipartisan races or I would have been shut out of those as well.

Now Republicans are whining that our two Senate candidates for November are Democrats.

The Rs never got their people the news to vote for one person. And in fact I looked at all the candidates. They had nobodies running. Either their bigger names didn't want to be stomped into the dirt electorally by Kamila Harris or for whatever reason it was like the GOP was playing dodge ball in the middle of a Warriors/Cavaliers game. I mean couldn't they have even tried?  They aren't that much of a minority in the state. It's only been about 6 years since our last GOP governor. Okay it's true that's not enough time to forget that disaster.

I came home and searched online about people being unknowingly switched  to the GOP and sure enough it's being done and ground zero appears to be California with the largest number of complaints coming from Orange County and various other So Cali areas though some areas around San Francisco reporting the same scam happening.  It starts with a request that you sign a petition for a good sounding cause. But the petition in the copious printing of explanation just  quickly mentions you will be requesting a party affiliation change according to reports.

In my case I think I do remember a petition for some worthy change in government. At the bottom of the page (which was a strange method of doing a petition, one person one page instead of a table like structure) there was a check box for joining the GOP.

I was assured that I could ignore that if I didn't want to join the Republican party. But apparently after I signed and left, that box was checked.

This happened last fall, about the time it was becoming apparent that Hillary would be running for the Democratic nomination.  I think I was targeted specifically because I was a middle aged woman. The GOP wanted  to try to keep women  like me from voting in the Democrat and Independnt only races because you know middle aged woman genes. Give them credit. We are wise and yep I would have voted for her if I could have and lived all my voting years registered so I could help the best Democrats win primaries and elections.

It would be easy to profile me to block that vote.

I hope they catch that worm.  After all he had to have turned my name in to some authority. Someone in government could find out who he is.

And no I didn't vote for any of the Republicans.  It's a matter of pride and integrity. (LOL actually it was a matter of piss and repulsion) (It also helped to prove my point to the folks at the table that I was not a Republican, but I didn't think of that until I handed it over.) (I hoped it shamed the man wearing the NRA hat  while he helped voters just a little bit.  Yes, that is a political statement, dude and doesn't belong in a voting location on the head of one of the officials.)

* Picture (at link) used via CC by 2.0 thanks to Flicker user miss_millions who has no connection to this blog or blogger

Funniest Thing on the Internet Today. Affuent White Teen Burning Her Elizabeth Warren Shirt for #BernieSanders

Shell Beach (Just North of Pismo Beach) Sunset showing the beauty of the area not to mention the cool clean air that creates high house prices ( Used via Creative Commons License Attribution 2.0) Thanks to Flickr user Trish Hartman here
 

First of all as a young woman of the 70s my first reaction was "Really? Burning a T Shirt? Girl that's just not enough!" Try the bra, Sweetie, or aren't you old enough to wear one?" The tweet is here if it hasn't been deleted. It was sent out by a #BernieOrBust er account. I do not want to copy or transfer the tweet or picture without permission which I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get). I did save a copy of the pictures to prove my validity if legally challenged.

The account hosting the pictures is called "Bernie Believer" @AmazingBernie and lists a home city as Pismo Beach. Ears pick up. As a Cali lady I knew that was interesting. And in fact looking at the demographics of various areas of Pismo Beach most of them have home values of $650k to $1m dollars. There are a few slices cheaper, but the home in that picture does not look like on of those homes, not in Central Coast California with it's clean air, open space, and moderate climate.

Also most of the Pismo Beach and nearby areas have very high percentages of white residents. A couple of slices have higher minority rates and low income levels, lower property values though not low enough that being in the working class is a very fun life. So basically the Twitter user probably lives in the servant and served community and isn't a servant.

I'm also guessing the Twitter user knows the young woman in the picture, and it might even be a family member. The kitchen and deck the young woman was in and on is very likely a part of a million dollar abode. I"m wondering if there are now burn marks on that fine and finely finished deck.

What I do know is that Pismo Beach is typical of an elitist city with poor people supplying cheap help to families of the people like the young woman in the picture.

The #BernieSanders fanatic that I know similarly lives in one of the most elite cities in our area. Her and her family's attachment to #Bernie is due to his promise to pay off student loans, that they generously took out for their daughters education and of course the fun very affluent college students think is their norm.

They may live in a million dollar abode, but paying back that loan is like slavery!

Who knew?

Nope going into peoples homes and cleaning their toilets, or living in a closet size room to be always at the beck and call, that's like slavery, Chuckles!

Also mowing their lawns, painting their homes, washing their cars for way too little pay to live decently and freely, sweeping up their restaurants and washing the dishes, and busing for tips. That's basically another version of slavery, and increasingly more and more of our working people are forced into those jobs as money continues to flow to the top like it did before the Great Depression.

As I have noted before #Bernie Sanders says he's a socialist, but his biggest promises would make wealthy families wealthier. He then gives vague promises to do "socialist stuff" for the rest of us. From experience I can tell you vague promises never get fulfilled. Increasingly also #Bernie looks more like promise socialist scam artist, someone who offers the working classes a great new world, but mostly uses his/her platform to enrich him or herself as desperate people throw money at their "savior".

 If you like Bernie, you can have him, but please don't be fooled about his Socialism. The man makes 6 figures a year working that scam. He doesn't need your money, too.