non-binary games

 In the past few decades, society at large has been gaining a greater understanding of gender diversity.  While most people fit into the male-female binary, not everyone does. 

Some have the physical built of one gender, but feels like the opposite gender in the inside.  Those people are usually referred to as transgender.

Some were born with the genitalia of both genders. Those people are usually referred to as intersex.

People who are transgender or intersex are usually placed in the larger category of non-binary (because they don't fit into the male-female binary).

Being different doesn't mean you're deficient, just different.

In the larger society, people of various genders can mingle and work together. Well, ideally at least.

But when it comes to sports and restrooms, the genders are still segregated, mostly along the male-female binary.

That becomes difficult for those who are non-binary.

Most of the buildings are built before society was educated on non-binary issues, so it becomes awkward for some to use the only restrooms available which are labeled along the male-female binary.  For those who are non-binary, they face serious harassment (and even physical brutality) when they enter either bathrooms.

Newer buildings are built with one-stall restrooms that could be used with either gender. This not only benefits the non-binary, but also parents with children of the opposite gender, or any caretaker in the same situation. 

I actually know some people who advocate for mixed-gender restrooms, where men, women, and non-binary can be in the same restroom at the same time. That probably won't happen anytime. It's not so much the fear of trans women in women's restrooms, it's more the fear of the average heterosexual male in women's restrooms.

Girls hold in pee, skip school so they won't have to share gender-neutral bathrooms with boys (upworthy.com)

 It appears, however, that the introduction of gender-neutral bathrooms in schools in the United Kingdom has made it difficult for girls to go to the toilet. Reports claiming that girls are shamed into holding their pee or skipping school due to the fear of being teased—not by those in the LGBTQIAP+ community, but by boys—have been released. This may just show that these toilets are not the most inclusive solution after all, The Daily Mail reports.

and

Additionally, girls have claimed that they hold in their pee, refusing to urinate all day, due to the anxiety they feel when utilizing same-sex toilets. In some extreme cases, girls have simply stopped drinking liquids at school altogether.

Unfortunately, many girls risk infections when doing so. As general practitioner Dr. Tessa Katz noted, holding in one's pee for extended periods of time on a consistent basis could lead to an increased risk of urinary and bladder infections. She added, "The psychological effects of girls not feeling safe enough to use mixed-sex toilets [are] also concerning." Therefore, doctors and lawmakers alike have called for schools to reconsider their decisions to establish gender-neutral bathrooms. Tory Member of Parliament David Davies affirmed, "If girls are not comfortable sharing toilets with boys then schools should make provision for them, rather than saying girls have got a problem." 

 

-------------

For sports, this is another complicated issue! 

At most schools, there is no "boy's robotics team" or "girl's robotics teams". There's no "boy's science club" or "girl's science club".  There's no "boy's chess club" or "girl's chess club". There's no "boy's yearbook staff" or "girl's yearbook staff". There's just a "robotics team", "science club", "chess club" or "yearbook staff". Anyone of any gender identity can join. 

Some of those student organizations might have an uneven distribution of genders, but even a student organization with 75% males allow for female and non-binary students who are interested. 

Just like even if a basketball team has a tryout of mostly African-American students, even those of different ancestries can try out for the team.  If you got game like Steve Nash or Jeremy Lin, you're on the team! It would be offensive in this day & age for a school to have a "blacks only basketball team" and a "whites only basketball team". And those who don't fit the black-white binary, where would they go?

When it comes to gender, most sports teams are divided based on a binary.  

Being that most people fit within the male-female binary,  it works fine for most people.

But those who are non-binary who are interested in sports, where would they go?

Those who are trans-women might feel that the girl's team would be the best option. However, many females might feel that would put them at a disadvantage since trans-women still tend to have the physical size & muscle mass of the average male.

Women fighters who have fought transgender fighter Fallon Fox have said that her male body mass gave her an unfair advantage even to the point where they said they've never been hit harder in the ring when fighting other female fighters.

But even in non-contact sports (for example, cross country), there is controversy when non-binary athletes win championships in the women's category.

I'm tempted to say let's have a non-binary category for sports, so that there's male sports events, female sports events, and non-binary sports events.  That might be simple for individual sports like track, swimming, or mixed-martial arts, but it gets more complicated for team sports. At most schools, there's most likely not enough non-binary students to fill a basketball team, and even more unlikely to have enough for a tackle football team. Probably the best case scenario would be to combine non-binary students from nearby schools to make a basketball team. 

Just like how an Asian student shouldn't feel left out of a basketball team if his school has mostly students who fit in the black-white binary (that's why it's illegal for teams to discriminate based on race), we wouldn't want a non-binary student to not have an opportunity to pursue an interest in playing basketball.  

There are no simple answers! Non-binary games might still get called "discriminatory" even though I think it's the best answer. And I never want non-binary athletes to feel excluded from the opportunity to play sports and I think if we're going to continue with gender-segregated teams, then non-binary games might be the best answer.

Either that or have all sports have mixed-gender teams!

========

Here are some interesting articles with various perspectives on this issue

(note: inclusion of these articles is NOT an endorsement of everything stated in these articles)

articles advocating for the inclusion of transgender athletes

Sport is a Human Right—So Let Trans Women Compete | by Cait Glasson | Arc Digital

We celebrated Michael Phelps’s genetic differences. Why punish Caster Semenya for hers? - The Washington Post

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from a more conservative perspective, addressing concerns about the ability of females to compete with transgender athletes

Unfair Trans Competition in Girls’ Sports (townhall.com)

-----

on Fallon Fox fighting female fighters

Transgender MMA Fighter Breaks Skull of Her Female Opponent. Are we Becoming too Careful not to Offend any Group of People? - BJJ World (bjj-world.com)

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on an openly lesbian tennis legend Martina Navratilova getting backlash over addressing concerns of transgender athletes compete in women's events.

Martina Navratilova Is Expelled From an LGBTQ Advocacy Group Over Transphobia Accusations | The Nation

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an article advocating for ending gender segregation in sports. The article cites an example of a short female Kanty Canatazaro (only 5 feet tall) beating large males in a televised obstacle course competition that requires strength and stamina.

Stop Segregating Sports by Gender – Reason.com

---

my blog post from 2013 on reforming Title IX

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/09/improving-on-title-ix.html 

--

my 2015 blog post on gender & racial identity, which also address non-binary issues in Western and non-Western cultures

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2015/06/identity.html

bullies get dunked on

 I apologize for not blogging the last few weeks. I've been busy with work and other priorities.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post demanding 98.5 fire their Wake Up Crew. 

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/11/fire-985-wake-up-crew.html

 A few days later,  2 out of the 3 members got fired!

And of course, last month, Donald Trump was put on notice that he too is getting fired from his job.

What the 98.5 Wake Up Crew and Donald Trump have in common is that for too long, they never face any real consequences for their bullying behavior. Yes, they received criticisms over the years, but that's nothing when you continue to have job security despite your repulsive behavior! 

And in Trump's case, he had never been told "No" by anyone with real power over him since his father (also known to be psychologically abusive) passed away.  

With decades of being rich and always having armed security with him, Trump has been safe from poverty and physical threats.  Why treat people with respect when you never face serious repercussions for your bullying behavior? 

So definitely Trump is having a meltdown when the majority of American people told him "no more!" He yells out conspiracy theories about fraud!  No, he got rejected by the public! 

As for the Wake Up Crew, they don't have the resources Trump has, so the 2 out of the 3 will have a harder time post-firing. They have made the type of apologies they never made before getting fired.  They now have time for self-reflection. 

Sure, the Wake Up Crew can just start their own podcast but it won't bring the same revenue they had on radio.  They still have a small market for their style of humor, but it's the style of humor that is getting less and less popular. 

And with having to rely on non-media jobs to pay their bills, they'll learn real quick that their style of humor wouldn't fly in most places. Sure they might make a few co-workers laugh, but it only takes one to file a grievance! 

-------

Look, I used to engage in inappropriate humor growing up. But as I grew older, I learned that it becomes less popular with the people around you. Workplaces don't allow for it!

And when you're pressured to change your behavior, it also pressures you to have a whole new understanding of things!

This pressure is magnified in the education industry (for which I worked from May 2005 to May 2020. This is the first semester in 15 years that I'm not working in the industry). I entered the industry thinking of being "the cool sub teacher". That doesn't work well when you're trying to control a class of students who hardly even know you. So I switched to being a more serious & mature sub teacher. When that happened, not only do my behavior changed, my mindest changes as well.  That's what growing up is. 

And now that I'm 40, I have zero interest in hanging out with people who still engage in the same inappropriate humor I used to be a part of as a kid.  Time to grow up and move on! 

restrain this Miss Lum (the repulsive, racist librarian)

Earlier this year, I voluntarily left my position as a Library Assistant at Kalākaua Middle School!

The head librarian there was Natalie Lum (aka Miss Lum), a  person with really horrible people skills and a negative attitude! 

I wrote a blog post and 2 videos about her repulsive ways. They focus on her unclear instructions, her rudeness, and her negative attitude towards Micronesians. 

I was in the middle of writing my 2nd blog post when the police came by the serve a restraining order from Miss Lum.

The TRO petition was full of exaggerations about my imperfections. She acted as if she was a "damsel in distress", nevermind that her actual reputation on campus was one of "The Enforcer" who relishes the confrontation with students no matter how large they are, or even how large their clique is.  She yells in a low voice "where's your IDs?" when 2 classes (circa 25 students each) enter the library. When teachers lose control of their students in the library, Miss Lum jumps into the fray and installs fear into them.  And even off-campus, she has done side gigs as security at public events.

Does that sound like a "damsel in distress" to you? 

I didn't make any threats towards her. Her physical safety was NEVER in danger! She was just sour grapes that someone had the nerve to publicly disagree with Her Majesty!

That was proven come court time when her lawyer said to my lawyer that she'll withdraw her TRO if I took down my social media posts.

If my physical safety was in actual danger, I would actually beg the judge for the maximum restrictions possible on the opposing person!

But Miss Lum was in no actual danger, therefore, she didn't beg for the maximum restriction possible, she just begged me to take down social media posts.

I asked my attorney if Miss Lum was willing to admit her negative comments about Micronesians. My attorney said her attorney said her comments were "taken out of context".  In other words, she actually made those comments and she's sour grapes about being exposed. 

I took down the posts for a while. 

But you know what.  I'm reposting the info  at

https://pwegesen.wixsite.com/kalakaua-ms-library


(and some documents listed on the website)

Document: Note to the school's administration on Natalie Lum's negative comments about Micronesians (09/04/2019)

https://ea0ca297-891e-49d1-bbc9-39760ddd3f6b.filesusr.com/ugd/c8d67a_46092349e8104b3bb93b557bc5b6b7f8.pdf

========

Document: "I'm done with Miss Lum: the repulsive head librarian at Kalākaua Middle School (05/20/2020)

https://ea0ca297-891e-49d1-bbc9-39760ddd3f6b.filesusr.com/ugd/c8d67a_71ac62e771ae4405b25ae69740f8bbb5.pdf

 And the blog post itself: https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/05/im-done-with-miss-lum-repulsive-head.html

 =========

Document: "More on Miss Lum (the repulsive head librarian at Kalakaua Middle School)"

 (06/03/2020) - I was literally typing  this when HPD came by and notified me about Natalie Lum's TRO petition

https://ea0ca297-891e-49d1-bbc9-39760ddd3f6b.filesusr.com/ugd/c8d67a_e65a5f31f0054c61b488f3acd28a06db.pdf

 And the blog post itself:  https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/06/more-on-miss-lum-repulsive-head.html

=========

Document: Pablo's response to Natalie Lum's TRO petition

https://ea0ca297-891e-49d1-bbc9-39760ddd3f6b.filesusr.com/ugd/c8d67a_d082eb26129d41599e231ba39995895c.pdf


and you know what else?


There is NOTHING in what I posted that expresses any violent feelings towards Miss Lum!

Yes, I know these days some people consider disagreement "violence".

But it's not violence.

It's just disagreement.

Miss Lum also considers my response to her "harassment", "stalking" and "cyberbullying".

No, the only thing I did to make Miss Lum uncomfortable was express disagreement with her. 

Miss Lum can continue to be sour grapes about this! 

But there's anything that needs to be restrained, it should be Miss Lum who should practice self-restraint from retaliating against me for exposing the truth about her.

Miss Lum apologizes for nothing. It's time for her to prove me wrong! It's time for Miss Lum to apologize. 

If there's no additional response from Miss Lum, then this would be my last statement.  

===

PS: If Miss Lum wants an external entity to solve this dispute, she should contact a private mediation service (which I'm willing to meet with) to handle this situation instead of wasting the court's time & resources.  The courts should be for real victims of abuse, not so-called "victims" of disagreement. 

PS #2: bonus pics

Fire the 98.5 Wake Up Crew

Back in May 2017, I wrote a blog post about 3 Hawaii talk radio hosts who call themselves The Wake Up Crew, who constantly make mean-spirited jokes about ethnic groups as well as people facing various difficulties in their life. 

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2017/05/wake-up-with-brown-privilege.html

This past weekend, at a charity event, when local singer Paula Fuga shared her experiences growing up homeless, the Wake Up Crew made fun of her to the point where she broke down & cried.  They continued laughing when making their obviously insincere apology!

https://www.facebook.com/Pashyn/posts/1289929461364730

 

article from Hawaii News Now:  https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/11/15/comments-by-radio-hosts-draw-backlash-after-musician-shares-struggle-childhood-hunger/

For too long, the people of Hawaii have been too silent about these Wake Up Crew jerks because they're afraid of being accused of "not being able to take a joke"!

I say that 98.5 should fire the Wake Up Crew!

To the island musicians whose music gets played on 98.5, if you own the copyright to your songs, you can notify the station with a "cease & desist" notice telling them to refrain from playing your songs on their station until they fire the Wake Up Crew! 

And the business who advertise on 98.5 should withdraw all ads until they fire the Wake Up Crew! 

These idiots will not change until they face that severity of consequence. They laugh at anyone who believes their phony apologies & will continue to act that way until their bank account gets drained!

To anyone who responds by saying "free speech" and "cancel culture", if I acted the same way these Wake Up Crew jerks act at any job I ever had, I would've been fired!

"Free speech" only means you can't be jailed for expressing your opinions. "Free speech" doesn't mean you're entitled to a job!

I signed the petition to fire the Wake Up Crew at 

https://www.change.org/p/island-98-5-a-wake-up-call-for-the-wake-up-crew

And here's my YouTube speech on this issue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRNFAXocmHc

"Fire the Wake Up Crew"

PS: 

By the way Island 98.5 have been limiting comments allowed to their Instagram page, a link to their facebook page is no longer working, and the Wake Up Crew's social media pages are deactivated! So they're the ones acting sensitive when people rise up against their bullying behavior! 

US national election analysis

 While it's not yet official (the Electoral College still has to go through its process), more than enough people wanted a change from the last 4 years.

Some of the pre-election polls predicted a landslide in favor of the Democrats, but the only poll that really matters showed a much closer margin. 

Donald Trump, the most polarizing president in my lifetime, had so many weaknesses. He is a thin-skinned bully that lashes out at even the most minor disagreement. He didn't even try to hide his cruelty towards immigrants from non-white countries. His trade wars made life difficult for exporters, especially farmers.  He even insulted the military by calling them "babies" and "suckers" when things go wrong. 

Then came the coronavirus crisis. Granted, this was a crisis that leaders in the USA weren't used to dealing with. Most political leaders there don't even think about pandemics when crafting a political campaign. No policy wouldn't come with its imperfections. I admit I was a skeptic of the seriousness of the crisis when it first started, now imagine being a leader of nations with many skeptics who never dealt with pandemics before.

Donald Trump, however, is a person who never admits mistakes. He is "Never Wrong". He lashes out at anyone who questions his majesty! 

While I don't fault him too much for reacting too slowly in the beginning, I do fault him for demanding states to re-open their economies too early, causing a second & now the third wave. When faced with resistance to his demands to reopen, Trump lashes out even more.

His loud demands to reopen the economy fascinated millions who were tired of lockdowns and masks. They had rallies, parties & gatherings which spread the virus at a whole new level.

Meanwhile, other nations around the world were able to control the spread of the virus much faster while the rate in the USA was rising. 

And to top it all off, near the last month of the campaign, Trump had an event in the White House in which hardly anyone wore protective masks. A few weeks later, Trump got the coronavirus and had to stay a few days in Walter Reed Hospital.

Even then, Trump could admit no wrong on his part. He is "Never Wrong".

And because of that, Trump is Never going to have his second term. 

--------

Meanwhile, the Democrats were still in a weak position for most of the campaign. 

Yes, Trump was able to form the largest cult of useful idiots in USA history. 

But for too long, the Democrats couldn't get their acts together.

For the primaries, most of the candidates competed over who could be "woker than thou" and "more socialist than thou". 

Bernie Sanders was on a roll until he was confronted about his past praise of Fidel Castro. Instead of apologizing, he doubled down. This didn't just offend Cuban-Americans, it also made a lot of other people nervous that Sanders would be a liability in Florida which has traditionally the most populated swing state. 

From that point on, Joe Biden got the lead in the primaries. He didn't really have appeal to the "woker than thou" and "more socialist than thou", but he had name recognition and goodwill for being Obama's VP. 

However, people still questioned how an old European-American man can lead a party whose passionate voters were women & people of non-European ancestries. 

To answer that, Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris to be his VP!

That selection was questionable because, during the primary debates, Harris questioned Biden's racial sensitivities, his past friendships with segregationist politicians, and his past opposition to school busing policies meant to integrate schools. 

Apparently, all was forgiven between them when it came time to campaign for the general.

But Kamala Harris also had liabilities of her own. Just like Biden, Harris supported overly punitive drug policies. Even worse, as a prosecutor, she denied appeals to re-investigate questionable prosecutions of innocent people.

learn more on Kamala Harris as a prosecutor: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html

All this was a liability in an era where people wanted criminal justice reform. Even Trump had a criminal justice reform bill that Obama should've initiated in his first time but was too chicken to do so out of fear of being called "soft on crime".

After the death of George Floyd,  massive racial justice protests occurred throughout the nation & the world.  Some of the protests turned violent, which gave Trump the opportunity to call himself a "law & order" candidate and to taunt the Democrats of being "soft on crime".

Both Biden & Harris condemned the riots. However, the Republicans kept insisting they were "soft on crime", "soft on riots" and even had riot victims speak at the virtual Republican convention. 

The Republicans also insisted Biden & Harris were "socialists" nevermind that real socialists consider Biden & Harris to be corporate stooges blocking progressive change. 

Despite all those challenges, the Biden-Harris campaign was able to mobilize turnout in their favors in various swing states. Biden & Harris were able to keep their composure when faced with aggressive questioning during the debates.

And as I said earlier, the last month of the campaign exposed the weakness of Trump's coronavirus policy, which I believed was the final straw that broke the campaign in Biden-Harris' favor. 

The Democrats didn't put on the strongest campaign possible. The friction between the center-left and radical left is a major weakness for the Democrats that made them vulnerable to a more unified cult of personality that is Trump's Republican party.  

However, Trump has alienated too many people. His "Never Wrong" personality could never attract any support from skeptics.  He has now been humiliated on an epic scale.

The nation didn't turn away from the Republican Party as a whole. The party picked up seats in the House, and could possibly hold on to the Senate. 

People loved the low-taxes promises of the Republicans. Even in the mostly Democrat state of California, the voters opposed additional taxes. They also opposed efforts to force Uber/Lyft drivers to give up their independent contractor status, and they also opposed the reinstating of racial quotas in the state's universities. 

This shows that most Democrats are center-left, not radical left.

However, AOC went ballistic when Abigail Spanberger (a representative from Virginia) stated that accusations of "socialism" and "defund the police" are poison to the Democrats.  AOC continues to insist that the whole country wants far-left progressive reforms even though some of the results show otherwise.

Yes, the minimum wage increases were accepted by Florida voters. Yes, all the states that voted on drug reform policies favored a more lenient drug policy. So in a way, AOC is correct that the nation is being receptive to some left-progressive reforms.

But AOC needs to realize that what worked for her in the Bronx & Queens isn't going to work well everywhere else.  Bernie Sanders called himself a socialist and he couldn't even win the Democrat nomination! That should tell you something! 

50 Cent had some controversy when he stated that he supports Trump's tax policy even as he said "I don’t care Trump doesn’t like black people". He doesn't need Chelsea Handler to remind him he's a black man! Even though 50 Cent likes to say stuff for the sake of getting attention, he can't be the only person who feels that way. Trump did get some increase among African-American & Latino voters.  As 50 Cent himself noted, he didn't care if Trump is a racist, he still wants to pay lower taxes. In other words, some people are willing to vote for someone who is racist towards them as long as they see some economic benefit.

The Democrats have a long history of taking the black voters for granted, and this year, they took the Latino vote for granted. It isn't enough to point out that Trump started his campaign demonizing Mexican immigrants as "bringing drugs", "bringing crime" and "they're rapists". While I was definitely offended by those statements, not all Latinos were. Some seem to be at peace with supporting a president who is racist towards them as long as they feel they'll get some economic benefits from him.

Let's also remember that some Latinos are part of ICE & the Border Patrol and are totally OK with abusing other Latinos who are coming across the border. This is just like how apartheid-era South Africa used black South African troops to counteract anti-apartheid protests. The movie "Bopha"  featuring Danny Glover is a good resource on how people are willing to fight for their oppressors. 

Biden did win the majority of the Latino vote, and this helped him win swing states like Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado & Nevada (all of which both Bushes won for the Republicans). 

However, his campaign could've done more.

For the first time in a long time, Texas was becoming a swing state, with its large Latino population and the increasing number of Anglos who came from other states to work in the tech industry.  Biden won most of the Latinos in the urban areas of Texas but lost some mostly-Latino counties near the border that usually supports Democrats. This right there showed that the campaign took Latino voters for granted. This also was part of the reason why Trump was still able to win Texas. 

learn more on the Texas Latino vote: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-texas-s-overwhelmingly-latino-rio-grande-valley-turned-toward-trump/ar-BB1aQRSp

But Florida was where the Democrats had the worst failure with the Latino vote. Much of Florida's Latinos were refugees (and their descendants) from Cuba & Venezuela! They already had a bad experience with communism & socialism. Trump was able to manipulate many of them by claiming that the Democrats were "socialists". Many Spanish language ads were run in Miami & the surrounding counties accusing the Democrats of being "socialists". Biden's campaign didn't counteract those accusations aggressively enough. 

It would've been much worse had the Democrats chose Bernie Sanders, Trump would've won Florida by a larger margin. AOC needs to pay attention to this. 

=====

Due to the coronavirus crisis, voting by mail became more popular nationwide.

Democrats encouraged "vote by mail", Trump expressed skepticism about voting by mail.

In my home state of Hawaii, mailed-in ballots are counted as they come in. The results just don't get announced until the last person at the polling place has voted.

However, the geniuses running states like Pennsylvania count the mailed-in votes after the votes from polling places are counted. This is ridiculous! This only encouraged conspiracy theories about "Democrats suspiciously finding votes after Trump's early lead", when it was just that ballots from polling places (which favored Trump) were counted before mailed-in votes (which favored Biden). Pennsylvania should adopt Hawaii vote-counting practices instead to avoid these silly conspiracy theories. 

==============

 As for the third parties, they got a smaller share of the voter in 2020 as compared to 2016. 

Back in 2016,  Gary Johnson got the most votes ever for a Libertarian. He already had experience as a political executive from when he was a governor of New Mexico. Even though he was mocked for his answers about foreign affairs, Johnson was still able to set a good path for libertarians by communicating in a way that didn't scare skeptics. 

In 2020, the Libertarians had a good candidate in Jo Jorgensen, a psychology professor.  She was able to articulate libertarian ideas without scaring skeptics. The only problem was that she was up against voters who feared that any vote that isn't going to Biden will help Trump instead.  If the major political parties had less polarizing candidates, I believed that Jorgensen would've broken Gary Johnson's record for the most support for the libertarians. 

The Green Party had Howie Hawkins, who was one of the founders of the party. He also could communicate his ideas without scaring skeptics. He also was up against the fear that any vote that isn't going to Biden will help Trump instead.  A lot of far-left progressives who were skeptical of the corporate-friendly, too-punitive-on-drugs, center-left Joe Biden voted for him anyways just to keep Donald Trump from having another 4 years in office.

The Constitution Party, which is more right-wing than the Republicans also had decreased support this year, mostly because Trump appeals to those who felt past Republican presidents were too moderate. 

=====

As for 2024, Trump could try again! After Grover Cleveland had 2 non-consecutive terms as president, and Trump could try to do that! Hopefully, the Republicans could have a bold challenger that could weaken him in the primaries.

For the Democrats, Joe Biden promised to be a one-term president who will pass the torch to Kamala Harris.  She will then have to find a VP that could unite both the center-left and radical-left members of the party. As we saw this past campaign, that will be easier said than done.

If the major political parties don't have polarizing candidates, this will allow people to feel free to experiment with third parties. We need the third parties to push for ideas that the major political parties are reluctant to touch.  

Hawaii General Election 2020

 Another general election is now in the history books. 

(note: to learn about the primaries, check out this blog post

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/08/hawaii-primary-election-2020.html)

Being that I'm on Oahu, this blog post will be Oahu-centric, so all apologies for those who live on the other islands. 

All-mail election and still long lines

This year was planned to be the first all-mail election even before the coronavirus crisis changed everything. 

I was part of the team that inspected ballots being printed before they were mailed to every registered voter. We finished by the end of September, and the ballot was mailed out early October, weeks ahead of the November 3rd, the general election day.

The all-mail election has been proven to increase voter turnout, as noted by Honolulu Civil Beat

https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/11/hawaii-casts-record-number-of-ballots-as-election-day-gets-underway/

Voters could mail back their ballots or drop them off at the collection boxes in various areas of the islands. The good news is that there were more collection boxes available as compared to the primaries. 

The not so good news is that we still had only 2 voter service centers on Oahu.

I mentioned the problems with having so few voter service centers in my primary blog post

 https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/08/hawaii-primary-election-2020.html

 

On Oahu, there was only Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale. That doesn't work well with voters who live in Wahiawa, North Shore, or the Windward side.  

 

This proved to be a major problem on Election Day! 

Yes, the 2 voter service centers were open for 2 weeks, but the election officials TOTALLY UNDER-ESTIMATED how many would line up on the final day! 

Ronen Zilberman/Civil Beat

Long lines on Election Day in Honolulu

The polls were supposed to close at 7pm on Election Day, but anyone who was already in line had the legal right to vote. The last voter was finished 4 hours later. 

That's how long the lines were, people were in line for at least 4 hours.

Granted, there are some people who LOVE being in long lines. To them, this is fun. Some people also enjoy the rush of doing everything last minute.

Lee Cataluna explains more on those who love to be in long lines in this article https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/11/lee-cataluna-we-dont-mind-standing-in-line-in-hawaii-if-we-want-to/

But this also showed the failure to plan!

Having so many people congregate in one place is a disaster during the coronavirus crisis. Case numbers will definitely increase, and I fear we will have to shut down nearly everything again because of this (plus, we just had Halloween, another popular gathering time)

2 voter service centers aren't enough, especially since Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale aren't easily accessible to those who live on Windward Oahu, Central Oahu, and the North Shore.

I would definitely open up a voter service center in those 3 areas, and for Election Day, open up some school cafeterias to be voter service centers. Maybe not as much as the old days before all-mail elections, but at least enough so that no place has to deal with 4-hour lines at closing time.  I'll just go as far as saying all public high schools should be voter service centers on Election Day, that way each district can handle their share of the slack. 

Honolulu Mayor

As mentioned in my blog post about the primaries, the 2 top candidates for mayor were 2 businessmen who never held political office: Keith Amemiya & Rick Blangiardi.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Keith Amemiya & Rick Blangiardi

Keith Amemiya was mostly known for once heading the Hawaii High School Athletics Association (HHSAA), but was also an insurance executive and a member of the University of Hawaii Board of Regents.

Rick Blangiardi was a recently retired media executive of Hawaii News Now (HNN). As you may tell, his media connections went a long way in helping him in this campaign. 

For city & county offices here, the offices are nonpartisan! (I wish that could be true for every election for every political office)

When you actually compare their proposals, Amemiya & Blangiardi aren't really that different. Their proposals weren't even that detailed, they were just general statements meant to avoid offending anyone.  

However, Hawaii being a mostly Democrat state, Keith Amemiya decided to emphasize that he was a Democrat and to call Blangiardi a Republican, even though Blangiardi said he was a political independent.  To top it off, Amemiya's ads compared  Blangiardi to Donald Trump, even though Blangiardi never campaigned as a Trump-like politician. 

Yes, Blangiardi had the support of Linda Lingle (the only Republican governor in my lifetime), but also had the support of Democrats like Ben Cayetano and Colleen Hanabusa!

Almost everyone saw Amemiya's comparison of Blangiardi to Trump as pure desperation.

If Amemiya wanted to emphasize his opposition to Trump, he should've run for federal office.

But the mayor is a city & county office, where people are more interested in how the leaders will manage transit, homelessness, potholes, parks, and the re-opening of the local economy during the coronavirus crisis. Amemiya should've just focused on that, and let his allies who are running for federal office deal with Trump. 

Here is Lee Cataluna's analysis on Amemiya vs Blangiardi

https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/10/lee-cataluna-the-honolulu-mayoral-race-has-devolved-into-ugly-tactics/

Even though Blangiardi won this time (he did have an advantage as a long-time media executive after all), I think Amemiya does have a good chance of getting elected to another political office, as long as he stays on topic! 

=======

On Twitter, former state legislator Kaniela Ing noted that every mayor of Honolulu, except for Mufi Hanneman (who is Samoan & German) was a "white man".

People don't like to talk seriously about race in Hawaii. When they do, it's all about reverse racism. But I need to say this. Honolulu, the least white city in the nation, has only elected one non-white man since even before statehood: Mufi Hanneman. Wtf is going on?

— Kaniela Ing (@KanielaIng) November 4, 2020

I responded with the following

But if you're born in Hawaii in 1980 (like me) you never lived under white governor until adulthood!

Hawaii racial politics just isn't clear cut as you make it out to be

— Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior (@PabloTheMdTgrWr) November 4, 2020

But if you're born in Hawaii in 1980 (like me) you never lived under white governor until adulthood! 

Hawaii racial politics just isn't clear cut as you make it out to be

— Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior (@PabloTheMdTgrWr) November 4, 2020

I also mentioned 

 Also depends on who is running. Many of the same people who vote for David Ige (Okinawan) also voted for Blangiardi (Italian). Also Frank Fasi also Italian! so 2 Italian mayors in my lifetime even Hawaii doesn't have nearly as many Italians as NY or NJ 

 Jeremy Harris had many voters who also voted Cayetano! Fasi had many voters who also voted for Waihee and Ariyoshi! 

 Maybe because Oahu residents of non-European ancestries set their goals higher than the mayor and run for governor or Congress instead

Other local races

Big Island also has a new mayor: Mitch Roth,  a former prosecutor. 

For Honolulu prosecutor, the top 2 candidates were Steve Alm and Megan Kau. Kau was one of those people who only has a hammer and therefore thinks everything is a nail! Steve Alm is a more center-left candidate. Hawaii usually favors the center-left and therefore Alm is the winner. 

President

Hawaii being mostly Democrat, voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden with circa 65% of the vote!

Most of us here view Trump as even more repulsive than your average Republican.

But even here, Trump has a share of loudmouth supporters, who drove in long caravans with big flags on their big pickup trucks. They were also loud & obnoxious! Most of them thought they were part of a winning bandwagon. It turned out this backfired big time.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/11/06/hawaii-trump-campaign-chair-says-roving-caravans-worked-against-president/?s=09

“The Trump flag waving that occurred throughout the state, the enthusiasm there, which wasn’t part of the Hawaii Trump Victory Campaign, that was spontaneous ongoings by people who love the president, that I think worked against us,” said Al Frenzel.

Frenzel said he believes the caravans upset and annoyed people, motivating them to vote blue.

That's exactly what happened. All these caravans accomplished was that they irritated the silent majority who didn't engage with these idiots and instead filled out a ballot and turned it in! The secret ballot is the silent majority's middle finger to those bozos!

It isn't just the "mainland haoles" (European-Americans who moved here from the continent) in the Trump caravans, there were some Polynesians too! National Public Radio did note that many Pacific Islanders did support Trump. 

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929478378/understanding-the-2020-electorate-ap-votecast-survey

screenshot by Adam Keawe Manolo-Camp

as noted on

 https://www.facebook.com/adamkmanalocamp/posts/3289793521138187

So according to NPR, Trump's biggest support actually came from Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islands, Native Americans and...

Posted by Adam Keawe Manalo-Camp on Wednesday, November 4, 2020

I did mention this on facebook

those Pacific Islanders who support Trump probably think "Trump don't talk s** about us like he talk s*** about Mexicans & Muslims, therefore Trump likes us"

 

NO, FOOL! To Trump, you're all out of sight, out of mind, not that many Pacific Islander in New York for Trump to notice they exist!

 

But remember this, if someone is racist to someone else, sooner or later, they'll be racist to you too! 

Much of his most rabid supporters in the continent would assume the next Pacific Islander they see as either "black" or "Mexican" and therefore don't even want them in their suburbs and will act as if their lives don't matter!

Some people mentioned religion as a motivator being that LDS (Latter Day Saints) were very successful in recruiting Polynesians. They basically own Laie in the North Shore of Oahu.  I did notice some of their enthusiasm for fellow LDS Mitt Romney back in 2012, but I don't think religion that was the main motivator for the Trump caravan, I think those guys just love Trump's pro-wrestling persona! 

I also wonder how much of it was also xenophobia, especially being that there are tensions between Polynesians vs Micronesians, which replaced the used to be more common tension between Polynesians vs Filipinos & other Asians.

But most of the Native Hawaiian activists that I know lean very left and therefore HATE Donald Trump, as they see him as just another racist imperialist misogynist! They were very happy to see Trump voted out, and many of them really loved Kamala Harris who they see as a symbol of progress for racial & gender justice. 

---

The slight increase in Trump votes in Hawaii did almost nothing for the Republicans in the state legislature. Still a tiny minority. It seems as whoever supported Trump loved his pro-wrestling persona more than they love conservative Republican ideals.  

learn more at https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/11/biden-easily-won-hawaii-but-data-shows-support-for-trump-has-grown/

brief statement on presidential election results!

 Anybody who knows me for a long time (including all my blog readers) knows that I always have been criticizing politicians no matter their political affiliation. So once Joe Biden starts his presidency, I will express disagreement with any of his policies I don't like!

But for now, I will celebrate the fact that Donald Trump will soon no longer be the president! He was the worst person to be president in my lifetime. He was a racist, a rapist, a fascist, and a con artist! Good riddance and be gone!