In our last podcast we took a few minutes to share with our listeners our views on the U.S. election and who we think they should vote for. Here is the text of what we said. We stand by every word.
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Just days before a very important U.S. election we feel obligated to express our opinion and to let our listeners in the U.S. know who we think they should support.
Some of you will think this is inappropriate -- we
disagree. Several of the long-running
and more recent themes of SolderSmoke are wrapped up in this election:
SolderSmoke is all about global community, the
International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards. Trump just rejects the idea of global
community. He is all about building walls, imposing travel bans, rejecting
refugees, circling the wagons, and blaming our problems on foreigners. This is one of the reasons we oppose him.
SolderSmoke is all about Science and Technology. Trump is
anti-science. He is a climate change
denier. That's another reason we oppose him.
Speaking of science, since the onset of the pandemic we
have been urging SolderSmoke listeners to protect themselves, their families,
and their communities by following the advice of doctors and scientists. We urge them to socially distance, and to
wear masks. We even invented an acronym in support of this -- SITS – “Stay In
The Shack.” Incredibly, Trump has been
pushing in the opposite direction: He ridicules
the use of masks. He calls our leading
doctors "idiots." He stages super-spreader
events at his rallies and at the White House. Look, more than 200,000 Americans
have been killed by this thing. I know
five people who have buried close relatives.
Yet Trump STILL treats this virus as some sort of political hoax. This is one of the many reasons we oppose
him.
We are both military veterans. We have both been offended by the way Trump
-- who is a draft dodger himself -- has disparaged those who have gone into
harm's way for the United States. We
remember what he said about John McCain.
His scorn for veterans and service members is another reason we oppose
him.
There are many other reasons to oppose Trump, but those are
the ones we feel are most relevant to SolderSmoke.
Election day is Tuesday.
PLEASE, for the good of the country and the world, get out there and
vote against Trump. Wear your mask and stay safe as you do so, but get out and
vote. Especially if you are living in
Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona,
Texas, or Omaha, Nebraska, please help vote Trump out of office and please urge
your friends and relatives to do the same.