In A Sanders Snit, Washington State Electoral College Members Might Throw Election To Trump

Will this Electoral College elector from Washington State
throw the election to Trump even if Clinton wins the
popular vote. There's a slight chance he could, all because
he's still in a snit that Bernie Sanders didn't win the
Democratic nomination. 

Washington State is likely to go with Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in tomorrow's pivotal election.

But if the election is close, two Democratic members of the Electoral College, which ultimately picks the president, say they won't, or might not cast votes for Hillary Clinton, even if she wins the popular vote.  

The most adamant of the Washington Electoral College members is Robert Satiacum, who supported Bernie Sanders during the primary, says the Seattle Times. 

Satiacum is still in a snit because Sanders did not win the Democratic primary, so he won't vote for Clinton if she wins Washington. Never mind that Sanders had repeatedly said those who supported hi in the primary should vote Clinton to ensure Trump doesn't win.

"No, no, no on Hillary. Absolutely not. No way," Satiacum told the Seattle Times. "I hope it comes down to a swing vote and it's me....Good. She ain't getting it. Maybe it'll wake this country up."

Judging fron Satiacum's quotes, he's as arrogant and narcissistic as Trump. Oh, he'll single handedly save the country from itself. Sounds like Trump's famous quote that he alone can save this country.

I guess Satiacum wants Trump to win to really ruin the country in the bonehead theory that everybody will come around to his line of thinking, which is to the left of Clinton.

Satiacum, a member of Washington's Puyallup Native American Tribe, is at the Dakota Access pipeline demonstration in North Dakota. (Native Americans and many others are demonstrating against the pipeline because it threatens drinking water for native Americans and it impinges on burial grounds.)

Satiacum says he doesn't like Clinton because he doesn't trust her on environmental and tribal issues.

He doesn't support Trump, but his actions have the slightest threat of throwing the election to Trump. Trump has said that global warming is a hoax perpetrated by China and strongly advocates the coal and oil industries, which certainly contribute to global warming.

Bret Chiafalo, another Democratic elector from Washington State, is also considering not voting for Clinton, even if the popular vote goes her way.

Interestingly, Satiacum, as noted, is a member of the Puyallup Tribe. The Tribal Council strongly backs Clinton, and has donated $460,000 to her campaign, one of the largest contributors from Washington State, says the Seattle Times.

Washington State has 12 of the nation's 538 electors from the U.S Electoral College, which would finalize the presidential results in December. The winner needs 270 votes from the Electoral College to become president.

The chances that Satiacum and Chiafalo could throw the election to Trump despite the will of the people is slim, but it is just that kind of arrogance that makes me wonder why the Founding Fathers established the Electoral College. 

Sound Of Chicago When The Cubs Won The World Series

The noisiest city in the world was Chicago after the Cubs
won the World Series last week for the first time since 1908

Better late than never:

I came across this video that a guy named Patrick DeCori took from a window of a high rise near Wrigley Field in Chicago in the moments after the Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908.    

Yeah, Chicago was damned noisy that night, but what the hell, they deserved it.

You can hear the pandemonium of shouts, cheers, yelling, fireworks and car horns going off throughout Chicago. You can see fireworks erupting from neighborhoods in the distance.

I also imagine Chicago was the least productive city in the world the day after the Cubs won. But like I said, they deserved it.

It's the most joyous video I've seen in which you can't really see the people celebrating.

Watch:

Drunk Tractor Trailer Driver Tries To Change Pants While Traveling Vermont Highway

Police said this guy crashed his tractor trailer rig on
a Vermont Interstate highway while changing his pants,
drunk and driving at 63 mph.  

In one of the stupidest traffic crashes I've ever heard of, and one thankfully in which nobody was seriously injured, a tractor trailer truck rolled over and crashed on Interstate 89 in Williston, Vermont this week.

The tractor trailer driver, Allen R. Johnson Sr. was drunk, Vermont State Police said, as he traveled along Interstate 89 at aboug 63 mph. While doing so, he was changing his pants. (!!!)

Of course, when you're changing your pants while driving a tractor trailer drunk, bad things will happen, and he tipped over onto the side of the highway. Luckily he hit nobody else, and Johnson suffered just minor injuries.

It is unclear why Johnson picked that moment to change his pants. There is a rest area very close to the crash site where motorists often stop to take breaks. The rest area has a large parking lot where tractor trailer drivers often park to eat, sleep, or, yes, change clothes.

Not sure why he didn't just go to the rest area to change his pants. And we don't know why it was important for him to change his trousers at that very moment. Not that I'm anxious to find out.

In any event, Johnson was charged with driving a commercial vehicle under the influence and negligent operation.

Sadly, the section of Interstate 89 in Vermont is very close to the site of a wrong way driver crash that killed five teenagers last month. 

Dad Dancing With Bride At Wedding Is The Distraction We All Need

Mikayla Phillips and her father, Nathan Ellison
put on an epic performance at Phillips' recent wedding.  

I know there are about three gazillion YouTube videos of people dancing joyously at weddings, some choreographed, some not.

But since we need a distraction from current events, this one shows bride Mikayla Phillips dancing with her father Nathan Ellison at her October 8 wedding in Utah.

The guy has GREAT moves, and is not shy about making a happy spectacle of himself.

ABC News says Phillips is a trained dancer, but her father is not. They rehearsed for just a week before the big day. Not bad for such a short training time.

It's quite a rigorous performance, too, so it's good that Nathan appears to have the stamina to handle it.

The takeaway: When in doubt, dance.

E-Cigarettes Safe? Watch This Guy Get Victimized By Exploding One

An e-cigarette explodes violently in
this guy's jacket pocket, in an image from a security camera.

We've all heard of the new Samsung phones bursting into flames, but it turns out e-cigarettes are just as dangerous.

According to Slate, a French nightclub owner was badly hurt when his e-cigarettes blew up in his jacket pocket. Dramatic surveillance video of the incident is at the bottom of this post.  

Amine Britel was outside his nightclub last week in Toulouse, France

Says Slate:

"'All of a sudden I heard a loud band and a noise like a flare had gone off, only ten times louder. After the shock of the explosion, I realized that I had caught fire,' Britel said, according to Ubergizmo. 'I did not really understand what was happening to me. The pain only came afterwards.'"

Britel was hospitalized with severe burns and his fingers melted to his jacket. He plans to sue the Chinese manufacturer of the e-cigarette batteries.

E-cigarette batteries have caused all kinds of mayhem, it turns out.

According to Wired, a Colorado man broke his neck, lost some teeth and had burns and facial fractures when his e-cigarette blew up. Teenagers in California and Tennesee were badly injured by exploding vaping devices.

The e-cigarettes are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which are in many, many gadgets, including the laptop on which I'm writing this.

However, most computer and mobile phone manufacturers have exacting standards for batteries, notes Wired, but not all less sophisticated devices like vaping things are so carefully built.

Plus, some people are altering their e-cigarettes, which makes them more dangerous.

Smoking regular cigarettes is known to be very dangerous. Vaping is dangerous too, for some of the same reasons, and as it turns out, because a few explode. Explosions are dangerous, as the Frenh nightclub owner found out in the video, below.

British Town Overrun By Chinese Tourists

Chinese tourists inspect gardens around an elderly
man's house in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, Britain.

Kidlington, Oxfordshire, England is certainly a pleasant town, though there are plenty of nice old communities around Britain.

However, it appears Chinese tourists pretty much only go to Kidlington, and people there were mystified until recently.

It turns out, Chinese tourists love to see old English gardens in quiet English communities, and the guide books all point to Kidlington, says the BBC. 

Interestingly, the Chinese focus on a nice neighborhood of relatively modern houses, but ignore a historic area with thatched cottages and a church which is a short walk from the neighborhood.

Kidlington residents don't really mind the bus loads of tourists, but finally couldn't stand the mystery and took it upon themselves to learn.

The BBC gave a question sheet to Anne Clifton, who handed it to a woman who turned out to be leading a particular Chinese tourint group.  The BBC then translated the answers.

The tour guide said Kidlington was on the itinerary because "we don't have (these) in China. Here, we are looking for the true sense of the country."

The tour guide said she loved the relatively simple houses and front gardens.

The BBC also said Baz Daniels, who has lived in Kidlington for two decades, got in touch with a friend in China to help solve the mystery.

Daniels said, "Kidlington is apparently being marketed by Chinese tourist agencies as a beautiful English village on the way to Bicester Village shopping centre."

Britains are famous gardeners and lots of villages there have gorgeous flowers and grounds. But for Chinese tourists, Kidlington is the place.

"Jew S.A" Guy Is The Latest To Make Embarrassing National Spectacle Of Himself

This Trump fan really went off the rails at an Arizona
Trump rally, giving him his second 15 minutes of fame. 

Social media is rattling around the past couple of days with the idiot at a Phoenix Donald Trump rally who informed the press at the gathering they were the enemy, and starting chanting "Jew S.A" while making anti-semetic hand gestures.

He was dressed "fashionably" in a Hillary For Prison t-shirt.

Of course, everybody thinks this guy is an idiot, and he is. And he was too stupid to think that the media against which he was railing would have cameras. Imagine! Television reports with camera crews. And print reporters with cell phones equipped with cameras!

What is this world coming to?

The man, identified by the Arizona Republic as George Lindell, wasn't even getting solace from the Trump camp.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway had this to say about the guy while being interviewed on CNN: "(The man's) conduct is completely unacceptable and does not reflect our campaign or our candidate. Wow.....That man's conduct was deplorable. And had I been there I would have asked security to remove him immediately."

Yeah, Conway used Hillary Clinton's word, "deplorable."  So you know the guy was bad.

Years ago, I blogged about this guy in a different context. A much happier one. He very colorfully described a traffic accident he was involved in. It was quite funny.

However, now he's gone viral in a different way, just like some other whack jobs out there who have to face their families, employers and acquaintences with their shameful behavior.  Like the woman who just voted for Trump twice, because "the system is rigged against Trump."

So she tried in her own little way to rig the election in his favor. But isn't Trump supposedly against election rigging? I think this woman is confused.

But maybe they're not ashamed, who knows? But they've gotten their 15 minutes of fame, and I'm sure everybody is proud.

The Trump campaign should have done more to at least try to tamp these extreme Trump fan boys and girls down, because it contributes to the caricature of Trump voters as mentally unbalanced racists who are resistant to the idea of a functioning democracy in favor of some weird authoritarian mess.

Trump supporters are usually characterized in the media as being mostly struggling white working class, uneducated people, but I got a surprise when listening to NPR's On The Media the other day.

It turns out the average Trump supporter has a higher income and a somewhat greater percentage of them have a college education than the average Clinton supporter.

Go figure.

But, we will always be entertained by the side shows of a few Trump fans going off the rails. I guess we need the distraction of sorts.

If you can stand it, here's the video of that idiot at the Arizona Trump rally: