Random Notes from a Crank

An interesting article in The Washington Post relates that some GOP advisors are worried about losing the Senate: "Republicans Grow Nervous about Losing the Senate Amid Worries of Trump's Handling of the Coronavirus."

I've been watching the polling in Senate races for a while now because I am hopeful of the GOP losing a number of those races. The four most talked about are in North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, and Arizona. I am worried about Jones losing in Alabama because, well, it's Alabama. 

I hadn't heard much about the Kansas race (as the article details a bit), but that factor makes sense since the 2016 flipping of Kansas in a number of elections. As a native Iowan, I would love for Ernst to be booted out of office. And I would be extremely happy if Lindsey Graham and Moscow Mitch have to hit the bricks. But those are long shots.  

I've watched a number of Amazon series during the lockdown. 

The Expanse has been a scary, suspense-filled treat. In a lot of these sci-fi novels and television shows though they depict the world as being run by the United Nations, such as in The Expanse and Altered Carbon, which is a bit odd because in our current reality the UN is fairly ineffectual. Regardless, The Expanse has a number of interesting visual representations of the world after climate change. 

I recently finished Beyond the Loop, which is an eerie yet poignant TV series. 

Here are factoids and stats from May's "Harper's Index," which were compiled as of March 2020:

• Percentage of Americans who operate doors and sinks in public restrooms with paper towels to avoid germs: 65
• Who flush with their feet: 44
• Who hover over the toilet seat: 29
• Number of countries that are carbon-negative: 2
• Estimated number of Americans who spend at least three hours commuting each day: $4,300,000
• Percentage of Democrats who believe that their personal finances will improve over the next year: 60
• Of Republicans who do: 83
• Portion of Trump's 2019 tweets that were live responses to Fox New or Fox Business programs: 1/10
• Factor by which Americans go to the library more often than they go to the movies: 2
• Estimated number of dead-end streets in the world: 17,680,000
• Portion of those dead ends that are in the United States: 1/4