Trivia and Easter eggs

The mountain climber, who fumbled the interview question by responding “What's Aleppo?” was of course Gary Johnson, but I forgot that the “someone else” was Green Party candidate Jill Stein, running with Ajamu Baraka who described Bernie Sanders as “media-driven pseudo-opposition” and “an ideological prop… of the logic and interests of the capitalist-imperialist settler state.” Instead of him we got Pence.

D. B. Cooper was, of course, the hijacker. “Power of strength” was part of a notorious quote: “When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak.”

Bitcoin was about US$700 at the time.

44.44N 111.1W is just off a National Forest Development Road inside a small sliver of land where Yellowstone National Park overlaps Wyoming. According to a Michigan State University law professor, any crime committed in this area could not be prosecuted.

The site is gone now, but MakeMineCount.org (motto: “Everybody wins. Except Trump.”) was a real site where one could arrange to swap votes with another voter, to try and push swing states toward the desired direction.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary is a real title.

There were a handful of double-voting incidents in Colorado.

A 2015 report said that Florida election officials had to buy Zoom Pocket Modems on eBay to keep voting machines in order.

Ken Terry, from Allen County, Ohio, told us that he feels like he is living in a technological time warp. When he ordered “Zip Disks” for his central tabulator, the package included literature that was more than a decade old. “When we purchased new Zip Disks in 2012, they had a coupon in the package that expired in 1999.”

The Internet of Things meltdown in October 2016 was apparently caused by a Minecraft scam.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is, to my amazement, real. Participating members of the Electoral College pledge to be faithless when it appears that the popular vote will not be decisive. “I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest.”

The Republic of Texas was a soverign country from 1836 to 1846. The Six Flags amusement park is named to recognize the various authorities in Texas over the years.

“I am in control here” was the famous claim by Secretary of State Alexander Haig when Ronald Reagan was shot.

From the White House it is a short drive down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Old Post Office which, after years of neglect, was converted into a Trump-branded hotel at 1100 Penn.

The Clinton campaign cancelled a fireworks display scheduled for 9:30 p.m.

CIT 0001 is the application for Canadian citizenship.