So Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States

I'll be honest that I don't have a lot invested in the 2016 presidential election. I've learned as I've aged that to distance yourself a comfortable amount from politics will help to preserve your sanity and lower your blood pressure. To say that Americans had a choice in yesterday's election between two similar shit sandwiches is extreme but neither did much to excite me or to spark my emotions.

Hillary Clinton has spent her life – at least since the 1980s – in the public eye by way of being married to Bill Clinton. Beginning as Governor of Arkansas, then President of the United States and Hillary's foray into her own political career as United States Senator from New York and on to her role as Secretary of State for Barack Obama. She is the stereotypical career politician. She can promise change and progress until she's blue in the face but when you've spent your entire life focused on advancing your career, you tend to become distanced from those you claim to represent.

On the flip side in Donald Trump. He made a name for himself as a real estate tycoon and businessman who parlayed that into a relatively long career as a reality television host. The fact that throughout his campaign he claimed to represent the average Joe and Jane while the opposition dug up tales of shafting contractors and shirking employee rights screamed of the perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black.

Neither truly rose above mediocre in my eyes. Curious, as election day neared, I took some survey which supposedly would align your values with those of one of the presidential candidates. My closest choice was Jill Stein. That was the first time I had hear of Jill Stein. I'll be honest in saying that when the momentum behind Bernie Sanders was still strong, he seemed like the best choice if the goal was to have a president who truly understood the struggles and needs of the American populace.

The only problem was that the American media deemed him unworthy to face down Donald Trump. That's how the Democrats arrived at nominating Hillary Clinton as their candidate to face down Donald Trump. The only problem being that the length of time she had spent in public office, while it can definitely be viewed as valuable experience into how government functions, became her downfall. She was the establishment even though she was the first female presidential nominee in the history of the United States.

The fact that Americans, in general, are constantly fed up with politics and politicians was her undoing. It wasn't emails on a private server. It wasn't skyrocketing health insurance premiums. It was the views of half of the voting public that they had had enough of career politicians leading this country.

We can view Donald Trump as running an extremely nasty and negative campaign but, like nearly every political before him, he unearthed the dirty little secrets on his opponent which resonated with those who supported him and that message amplified organically.

If Donald Trump's time in office – whether it is four or eight years – is anything like his campaign, we are in for 48 or 96 months of turmoil and further divisiveness. However, if he leads like he spoke during his almost vanilla acceptance speech early this morning, he will be at least a middle-of-the-road president who can at least keep America on track and remaining as the most powerful country in the world.

Maybe I have mellowed, but one person does not change the course of history for better or worse. If you want to worry about something, let's realize the both the Senate and House of Representatives have a Republican majority. If there is an ultra-conservative agenda which looks to roll back the progress made in the 21st century, they'll have an extremely easy road in front of them even if Donald Trump ends up being a reasonable and decent leader. Trump may be the most powerful man in the world come January 2017 but the title of President is nothing more than a figurehead – the real power lies in congress.

Third party candidates - U.S. Senate - Minnesota

I always like looking at the websites for the little-known alternative party candidates for various elected offices. The most interesting to me is the candidates for U.S. Senator in Minnesota.

Michael Cavlan -- Minnesota Open Progressives party

His website runs on the Drupal platform -- a powerful CMS but also a bit too complex for average users. I personally love the platform but leave its use to others.

His statements:
Since PayPal has been directly complicit in aiding the government to attack both Juliane Assange and Bradley Manning- we the Cavlan For US Senate 2012 campaign refuse to use PayPal. We recommend that others standing up for these two heroes do likewise and do it publicly.

So instead- we ask you to mail a check to
Committee To Elect Michael Cavlan...

His stance on issues:
Michael Cavlan is fighting for universal health care (medicare for all, everyone covered), he is fighting to end corporate personhood, avoiding a war with Iran, bringing the troops home, campaign finance reform by taking the big money out of politics, opening the debates, and he is for ranked choice voting, and supports marriage for all.

His stance on the issues sound like a fairly boilerplate response but the marriage for all statement seems to place him in the corner of the DFL party.

Read more about Michael Cavlan

Tim Davis -- Grassroots Party

With a marijuana leaf motif running as the background of his website (an instant site setup powered by GoDaddy [do better]) I can already assume what issues are important to Tim Davis of the Grassroots Party but I will go on anyhow.

His statements:
Tim Davis is a recently disabled and retired blue-collar worker who has been a social justice activist for over 30 years. He first ran for office, as a Grassroots Party candidate in 1988 and 2002 was the Green Party's candidate for U.S.Congress(D5), he has also worked with both Nader('04) and Ron Paul('08) campaigns. Tim is a homeowner in Minneapolis, and lives with his domestic partner and companion animals.
I look forward to speaking to the voters of MN.
Libertarian Party of MN. Endorsed.

His stance on the issues:
END THE WAR ON DRUGS/HALT THE PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
DEFEND AND UPHOLD THE BILL OF RIGHTS
REPEAL THE PATRIOT ACT AND NDAA.
ABOLISH CORPORATE PERSONHOOD/WELFARE
AUDIT (END) THE FEDERAL RESERVE
STOP THE WARS-FOREIGN AID

With his stance on the federal reserve and the war on drugs, it's clear to me why he was endorsed by the Libertarian Party of Minnesota.

Learn more about Tim Davis

Stephen Williams - Independence Party

Stephen Williams has a website that appears to be a straight-ahead HTML setup and based on the html file extensions, the website was created partially on a Mac and partially on a PC.

His statements:
Without a clear, concise statement, I'll instead condense his "About me" section. Williams is a farmer living near Austin, MN. With over 30 years spent farming, he has transitioned from traditional grains to sweet corn sold to Austin-area stores and markets. He seems to be dedicated to improving the land around him and restoring portions of it to natural plants, trees and grasses.

His stance on the issues:
We must be willing to vote to abolish payroll taxes and to provide Medicare for all Americans.
If elected, I will be ready and willing to vote for necessary cuts in military spending
It is imperative that we strive to be better stewards of our resources. Our debt-based, consumer-driven economy has squandered our economic, natural, and human resources. Our nation's economy must evolve into a stewardship economy, conserving and building the resources we will need in the future.
Justice demands that we provide healthcare for all U.S. citizens, from newborns to senior citizens.
We must eliminate the self-serving influence of industries that are corrupting our democracy. Last year alone, the healthcare industry and the financial industry combined spent approximately $1,000,000,000.00
Create Real Jobs and Increase Wages—Abolish Payroll Taxes

Learn more about Independence Party candidate Stephen Williams

Where do I vote in Minnesota?

Finding your polling location as well as who is running for the various elected positions in your respective precinct is so easy that I can't believe it is hidden so deeply within the Minnesota Secretary of State's website.

Click here to view the sample ballot accurate to your specific address and go here to find out where to vote in Minnesota.

It's finally over

After what seemed like four years of presidential campaigning (it was really only two) the presidential race is over. Even more surprising, because the past two elections were much closer, is that the race was over before I went to bed.

Enough looking back, though, it's time to move forward. Our nation's newly elected president, Barack Obama and the members of congress, have some serious cleaning up to do and their every move is going to be heavily scrutinized.

This election symbolized that there is a turning tide in America but there is still plenty of progress to be made. The fact that during McCain's concession speech there were many of his supporters booing at the mere mention of Barack Obama means that the divisiveness we have seen flourish over the past eight years lives on in the general population regardless of what our elected officials say and do.

Let's hope that the populace wakes up and realizes that things will be different and that they need to let go of their prejudices that have become firmly ingrained in many generations of families. There is no way to make everyone happy and I hope that Americans become aware of the fact that unity is better than separation. Remember the phrase "United we stand, divided we fall"? It's still true today and we truly are at a turning point, the direction will be decided shortly.

Get your fix of Minnesota photography at MinnPics. It's not only free but it's less wordy too!

Franken not out yet

Yeah, the Associated Press jumped the gun by calling the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota for Norm Coleman while the votes were just a few hundred apart with nearly 3 million votes cast. They jumped the gun so much so that they have un-called the race. A wise decision due to the fact that a race which is less than 400 votes apart will go on to an automatic recount.

The big question is what this means for Al Franken. If he wins in the automatic recount in Minnesota, Minnesota will have a definitive Democratic majority representing it in Washington, D.C. If AL Franken wins, he can keep his condo here in Minneapolis.

If Norm Coleman wins, as he has already said according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press he has, he can attempt to move further up that list of America's most corrupt elected officials and instead of simply being the fourth most corrupt U.S. Senator as ranked by CREW, maybe he can move to fourth place overall. It's nice to have goals!

As the more up-to-date Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports, U.S. Senate hopeful Al Franken will exercise his right for a recount. Sure, it can drag things out in the election process during a campaign which has lasted a solid two years already but if we've learned anything it's that a more intense examination of the voting numbers can change things drastically.

Of course the biggest news isn't about the Jewish New Yorker (Coleman) being essentiall tied wtih the Jewish Minnesotan (Franken) but it's the fact that the northern Twin Cities is full of clinically insane voters. Yep, they re-elected batshit crazy U.S. Representative Michelle Bachmann. Yeah, that Michelle Bachman.



So, who will Michelle Bachmann feel up during the State of the Union address for the next two years?

Run away to MinnPics if you're sick of politics and in the mood for some visual stimulation!

The ugly side of voting

In some cities, there is a rather ugly side to voting. A heated city council race in Eden Prairie coupled with the highly partisan nature of the city and the divisive and ugly U.S. Congress race between Ashwin Madia and Erik Paulsen doesn't exactly add to the civility. No, the ugliness hasn't devolved in to people dumping pig blood on cars where they see a bumper sticker which they disagree with but instead has taken to the anonymous, faceless internet (look at the comments, you'll find it). This is the one day where people should truly put aside their political biases and, if they are well informed, get out and vote because our vote is part of the political process where a complete transfer of power can occur as often as every four years and the streets don't erupt in bloody riots with people overturning cars, looting businesses, raping nuns and burning kittens alive. The peaceful voting process is what makes this country better than some lesser places such as Canada. (Yeah, maple syrup wars can get ugly)

My voting process was smooth. I showed up around 7:30 AM to my polling place and saw an entire table (6 or 8) full of voters in the process of registering and each and every one of the 12 or so voting booths were full but with voters quickly cycling through. My ballot, when passed into the scanner, was just over number 100. For my rather small precinct, that's impressive and based on the age of the voters registering at that round table, the young voters are turning out en masse this year.

While I won't watch any news coverage until the early Daily Show airs at 9 PM, I am truly excited about this election.

Am I alone in having voted just after sunrise? Are you consuming every morsel of election-related news being published or broadcast today?

MinnPics is your home for awesome photography and with the heated election season nearly over, it's a haven for sanity.