I almost decided to deliver this second part of my Top 30 list tomorrow, but it just didn't seem right getting into the Valentine's Day movies field.
No, my fans, I decided you needed this in your inbox tonight to maybe inspire some last minute Christmas cheer.
I'm a complete sucker for Christmas movies. I love the saccharine sentimentality. The splash of Christmas magic. How everything wraps up in a nice (pun intended) bow.
Because of Covid and social distancing, my friends have a chat where we watch movies together every Tuesday and Thursday night. These movies are sometimes determined by an actor we want to do a deep dive on (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Channing Tatum) or a seasonal block of films. To determine what movies we watched for the Thanksgiving to New Years season, we built a bracket of all our favorite Christmas movies and had them go head to head.
It pained me to see some eliminated, but we only have 7 weeks to watch movies. I'm going to end up watching most of the losers anyway, but it still hurt.
So, without further adieu, here is my ranking of the best Christmas movies. (That I've seen and remember seeing)
2020 has been a hell of a year to bare.
Trump's America, Covid, incredibly busy work, incredible climate related weather events, the rise of white supremacy and fascism in the United States. It's exhausting just to exist right now.
I've had this sort of stressful anxiety living in my shoulders and chest since around the time I was on the Japan project. The long hours, the isolation of being on the other side of the world for long periods of time, the not being able to just go out and see my friends.
I've started about a billion blogs ranting and raving about how our system is all messed up and there's no difference between Democrat and Republicans, but I know most of you don't want that in written form. If you're interested, buy me a drink and we'll talk.
I've been reading as much as I can about everything on the city ballot. (there will be a few items just for the city) I've been in conversations where my friends and I are arguing whether to protest and not vote for anyone for president or vote for Biden because Trump is so evil. I even joined political action zoom calls and listened to alderwomen in the city debate the finer points of the direction of St. Louis and country.
So, after much consideration, here is what I've learned and where I've landed on some of the key items up for election.
Constitutional Amendment 1 - No
I think term limits are important for executive and judiciary positions, but this would extend term limits to some legislative positions.
There's some theory online (not yet proven and kinda would be hard to prove) that the more freshman and newbies that serve in a state legislature, the easier it is for lobbyist to take advantage of the situation.
Until I have more information to say otherwise, I'm going to vote no.
Constitutional Amendment 3 - No
This is a gross one. A couple years ago, Missouri overwhelmingly voted that we wanted an independent group to draw up districting lines. This is to prevent gerrymandering.
Some clever politicians in Jeff City wrote this amendment up to make it sound like they are making it harder for politicians to get gifts. Really it lessens the gift value by like $5 and repeals the Clean Missouri Act we passed a few years ago. It's a gross way to make people vote against what they are for.
Proposition D - Overwhelmingly yes!
Instead of the City having a Democrat and Republican primary, you would instead vote for everyone you like in March and then the top two vote getting candidates would square off in a run off election in April.
This eliminates spoiler elections like Lyda Krewson winning with only 30% of the vote because the black and progressive votes were split among the 6 other candidates.
This is basically a light version of ranked choice voting. Unfortunately, St. Louis election machines would need about $5 million in upgrades to do true ranked choice voting.
Proposition 1 - No
I know people will argue that we are losing out on great candidates within the City because we require you live in the city to work here, but it is not a good argument. In fact, the police union ran a marketing campaign trying to convince residents that the reason we have crime is because they can't attract enough good talent. But per capita, St. Louis has more cops than almost every other city.
My thought is, if you are going to be a public servant or work for a city, you should have a stake in it. This should be your home so that you have more empathy for the issues and want to do the very best to make it a better place. And the City's tax dollars shouldn't leave the city for the county.
Proposition R - Yes
This would raise taxes very slightly in order to provide funding for smaller early learning and day care centers. Kids whose parents can't afford to send them to expensive daycare.
Proposition T - Yes?
This is a hard one because the way it's written is very lawyery. Basically, your internet provider pays like $2.50 a lineal foot to lay cable. So the cost benefit analysis by Charter and AT&T keeps them out of a lot of low income and sparsely populated areas of the city.
This would restructure how the city charges telecom company to make St. Louis more competive for telecoms to build Fiberoptic internet and would hopefully encourage these companies to start laying high speed internet north of Delmar.
Governor - Mike Parsons (R) vs Nicole Galloway (D) - Galloway
Parsons has largely done nothing. He just skates by. Barely leads. His Covid response has been incredibly laughable. He didn't even win the election, he took over after Missouri's former governor was ran out of town for taking sexually explicit photos of his extramarital affair without permission.
Nicole Galloway seems to actually want to Govern instead of just have power and coast.
President - Trump (R) vs Biden (D) - Biden
I'm voting Biden, and I'm honestly not happy about it. He was like my 7th favorite candidate. He represents everything that's wrong with the establishment.
These establishment Democrats are not much different than their Republican counterparts. Chuck Schumer goes to the same parties in the Hamptons as Kellyanne Conway. Diane Feinstein hugs Lindsay Graham. And Joe Biden wants to have several Republicans in his cabinet.
No progress will happen. We'll continue bombing the living hell out of countries on the other side of the planet. We'll continue our coups in South American countries to try and secure resources for America. We'll continue fracking. We'll continue putting more people in jail than any other country in the world.
But at least Biden can work with other leaders. He can quietly rejoin the Paris Climate Accords, repair our ties to the UN, and at least pretend we are participating in the world.
Trump however, is a vile human being who has encouraged other vile human beings. White Nationalism has been on the rise with groups like the Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys. There's his backing of Birtherism, calling African nations "shithole countries," telling congresswomen to go back to where they came from even though three of the four were born in the US.
Trump ignored reports that Russia put bounties on our troops. He called our troops losers and suckers while touring a military cemetary. And famously, he avoided the Vietnam War by using his family's wealth.
He's had a long history of not paying contractors for work on his giant towers, instead paying them a fraction and telling them he'd reward them instead with more work in the future. There's the bullying of his brother to his ultimate death.
You know what, you've probably already made up your mind about president. This is a useless activity. But please, if nothing else, pay attention to the Amendments and Propositions. Most of us are white and have a decent living. President ultimately won't affect us, but the Amendments and Propositions can really help your neighbors. Put in the work. Research what they are about. Vote in ways that help the most amount of people.
