Guy Speckman

I’m headed to the polls bright and early on Tuesday morning to save democracy. You can thank me later.

Democracy did not end last week, but I think we might have seen the beginning of the end of polling. The most interesting part of this election to me is the death of the polls. You know what replaced it? Gambling. Gamblers, bad and good, know that betting on two sides of an outcome is almost always the universal equalizer and outcome predictor, moving the odds as they bet. Legalized betting markets on the Trump vs. Harris race told us what was going to happen, but only one side was paying much attention.

While the internet is often a cesspool of information and exchange, I stumbled on a data site recently that fascinated me. Seems as though there are people or people with machines that can count the number of words that are spoken by each Supreme Court justice during each term. Seems as though the leading “talkers” on the court are Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson who has belted out 22,718 words as of Nov. 15, followed by Justice Elena Kagan, who had 16,405 words to be heard and then Justice Sonia Sotomayor, with a pedestrian 14,787 words that had to be said.

I have reached the age of religiously reading obituaries. It’s like a task that must be completed a few times a week and it concerns me about me. I have not yet begun to make the “just checking to see if I died joke” to explain my reading of the obituaries, but I can assume that will come in due time.

We don't know much about brown outs in this part of the world, but you might hear that term as these data centers continue to locate in our neighborhoods. My skepticism says that if someone gets chosen to have a “planned brown out,” I suspect it will be John and Jane Doe living in a split level home in Platte County before they shut down Google, Meta or any of the other data divas that rule our lives,

I emailed Sam Graves’ office last week as part of my Christmas wish list. Normally, I’d let Santa Claus handle my gift requests but this year I’m asking for Presidential Inauguration tickets, and the Constitution does not provide those to residents of the North Pole. Instead, you have to get them from your congressman.

Let’s rock this Christmas column. Small town Christmases are like everyone’s doctor, people think theirs is the best. I stumbled upon a nice thread about the best Christmas towns in the United States and one overwhelming choice was Leavenworth, Washington. Apparently, this is a Bavarian village in the Cascade mountains, and it does look pretty, and they have a reindeer farm on the outside of town, which obviously gives them an advantage. Not sure if Rudolph ever did any time there, but it looks possible to me.

Is it just me or do others celebrate the end of the holiday? I’m not trying to be rude to Baby Jesus or you holiday lovers, but that is just a taxing month. Here me out here, but I’d trade any manufactured Christmas moment with my family with a random gathering of family in April or May. Maybe I’m just not normal.

Platte City has placed proposed new taxes on the ballot for hotel stays and marijuana sales and it just screams everything that is wrong with the government in this country.

I can’t afford Donald Trump’s America. Despite the historical significance of the event, $700 a night Hampton Inns are not registering in my mind as a reasonable solution to seeing a “YUGE” inauguration so I’m going to inform Congressman Graves’ office that I won’t be utilizing my ticket allotment for the inauguration next week, unless they offer to let me sleep on the couch in their office.