{"id":2816,"date":"2024-10-24T08:58:10","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T13:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2024-10-26T10:10:21","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T15:10:21","slug":"becoming-an-american","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/becoming-an-american\/","title":{"rendered":"becoming an American"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a freshly minted American, I will be proudly exercising my newly acquired right to vote. Here’s what I plan to do, with rationales (click to see the answers<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
“Should any candidate appearing on the Illinois ballot for federal, State, or local office be subject to civil penalties if the candidate interferes or attempts to interfere with an election worker’s official duties?”<\/h6>
\n

Not sure, how to read this: there is already an Illinois law making this interference a class 4 felony, etc. <\/em>
But, as a feel-good gesture:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YES<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
“Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to create an additional 3% tax on income greater than $1,000,000 for the purpose of dedicating funds raised to property tax relief?””<\/h6>
\n

Yet another attempt to break the flatness of Illinois income tax. A no-brainer:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YES<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
“Should all medically appropriate assisted reproductive treatments, including, but not limited to, in vitro fertilization, be covered by any health insurance plan in Illinois that provides coverage for pregnancy benefits, without limitation on the number of treatments?”<\/h6>
\n

A typical successful IVF procedure (normally taking more than one cycle of fertilization) would cost $40-70K, comparable to the cost of giving birth (perhaps, double that). Hardly an unbearable burden on insurers and taxpayers, so<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YES<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
“FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
(Vote for one)”<\/h6>
\n

Old good Joe during his tenure showed convictions, spine and skills to turn so many things for the better. I see no reason why Kamala won’t be as good, and perhaps even better.
All beliefs and convictions of DJT don’t matter after J6. Besides, he is too easily manipulated.
And RFK, c’est qui? quoi?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HARRIS and WALZ<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
“FOR REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS THIRTEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
(Vote for one)”<\/h6>
\n

Nikki, following IL13 tradition, is avoiding too much attention, doing some reasonable work on the margins (pushing for rural broadband etc). No cringy votes I noticed.
The R contender, Joshua Loyd is a young guy without real agenda (besides the usual: 2nd amendment, vague spirituality, government’s bad). Endorsed by previous IL-13 R representative, Rodney Davis, who finally abandoned the district he loved so much to settle in DC for a seven digit salary as a lobbyist. So:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nikki Budzinski<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
“FOR STATE SENATOR FIFTY-SECOND LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT (Vote for one)”<\/h6>
\n

Paul Faraci is a predictable political small-town politician, doing good work, not much to complain about (well, aside of jumping on the bandwagon of opposing the carbon capture near Mahomed, – but that nonsense is bipartisan).
His opponent, Jeff Brownfield, spent his life working for the State of Illinois, and decided, of course, to run as a stringent opponent of the spending by the State of Illinois. Other than that (and opposition to carbon capture near Mahomed), not much to marvel at. So:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Faraci<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
FOR REPRESENTATIVE IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ONE HUNDRED AND THIRD REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT (Vote for one)<\/h6>
\n

Well, there is just one, Carol Ammons (who is also against the carbon capture near Mahomed). I disagree with some of her stances, but appreciate her bringing order to the previously dysfunctional Democratic Party structures in the county. So, for now:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carol Ammons<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
FOR COUNTY AUDITOR (Vote for one)<\/h6>
\n

George Danos is the current auditor, and boy, the scandals (absenteeism, shirtless in the office, punctured tires, you name<\/a><\/s> google it). Who needs a bizarre<\/a> auditor<\/strong>? The republican opponent, predictably, is a true Tea Partier. Who needs that<\/strong>? So<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave Blank<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
FOR COUNTY CORONER (Vote for one)<\/h6>
\n

Both candidates on the ballot are qualified. However, Steve Thuney was a Secretary of the Fraternal Order of Police. Being too close to the prosecuting branch is a conflict of interest. So:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laurie Brauer<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
FOR CIRCUIT CLERK (Vote for one)<\/h6>
\n

No controversy, no opponent, no quandary:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susan McGrath<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
FOR STATE’S ATTORNEY (Vote for one)<\/h6>
\n

Any good prosecutor gets flack from both sides of the political spectrum. Add that no opponent found weaknesses of the incumbent glaring enough to exploit, and the answer is clear:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia R. Rietz<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
FOR MEMBER OF THE COUNTY BOARD DISTRICT 9
(Vote for one)<\/h6>
\n

This is bizarre: an absolutely unknown candidate didn’t bother to do as much as creating a web page for his campaign. <\/em>
On one hand, why should he bother, running unopposed; on the other hand, why should I bother voting for him?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave Blank<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
BALLOT FOR JUDICIAL CANDIDATES SEEKING RETENTION IN OFFICE<\/h6>
\n

“Vote on the Proposition with respect to all or any of the Judges listed on this ballot. No Judge listed is running against any other Judge. The sole question is whether each Judge shall be retained in his or her present office.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a tricky one. On one hand, a retention vote is just a brake to hit when things goes bad. But how do we find that? sieving through court cases and scarce interviews? This is not how a responsive office should work: the judges should find ways to tell us about their positions on key issues. <\/em>
I know the retention of the judges is all but assured, but, to send a message<\/strong>, as they say: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong> to all except Randy Rosenbaum<\/strong>, who seems to have done a great job eliminating capital cases backlog.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
PROPOSITION TO APPROVE SPECIAL COUNTY RETAILERS’ OCCUPATION TAX FOR PUBLIC SAFETY
“To pay for public safety purposes, shall Champaign County be authorized to impose an increase on its share of local sales taxes by one-quarter percent?”<\/h6>
\n

In general, I feel that we are underinvesting in our legal system. But the County Board did not set up a clear mechanism how the allocation of the newly available funds will be decided: the haphazard discussions of what they intend to spend these money on is inauspicious. <\/em>
This is not how one requests a tax increase. Hence:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
ELIMINATE THE OFFICE OF COUNTY AUDITOR
Shall the office of the Champaign County Auditor be eliminated, effective December 1, 2024?<\/h6>
\n

The County Board believe that they will be better off by just having a clerk preparing materials for an outside firm. Given that previous auditors spent most of their working days somewhere else, hard not to sympathize with this viewpoint. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

YES<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
CUNNINGHAM TOWNSHIP QUESTION 1
“Shall the United States federal government and subordinate divisions stop giving military funding to Israel, which currently costs taxpayers 3.8 billion dollars a year, given Israel’s global recognition as an apartheid regime with a track record of human rights violations?”<\/h6>
\n

The Party for Socialism and Liberation and similar organizations hacked the Cunningham Township procedures to insert this insane question. (Turns out, it’s enough to gather a little posse of 40 people at the right place at the right time, and you can push for a referendum on pretty much anything…)<\/em>
The instigators know the US Government won’t notice this (as it ignored Urbana’s 2003 resolution to lift UN sanctions on Saddam Hussein etc): the real purpose of this charade is to insert words about “global recognition as an apartheid state” into the minds of the voters. There is no such thing in existence, and the right answer to this question is not to pay any attention to it:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave Blank<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
CUNNINGHAM TOWNSHIP QUESTION 2
“Shall the City of Urbana adopt a policy whereby the City shall not invest in any fossil fuel
company, or any subsidiary, affiliate, or parent of any fossil fuel company?”<\/h6>
\n

Did they add this to make sure the “QUESTION 1” does not stand there alone, in all its anti-semitic<\/s>Zionist beaty? to dilute a bit the venom? Who knows, – the answer’s the same:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave Blank<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a freshly minted American, I will be proudly exercising my newly acquired right to vote. Here’s what I plan to do, with rationales (click to see the answers).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2816"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2849,"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2816\/revisions\/2849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sabbe.org\/ymb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}