The Senate Goes Nuclear

This week, Senate Republicans voted to end the filibuster, Gorsuch will very likely have been confirmed by the time you read this, constituents are threatening me on both sides about the internet bill (SJ Res 34), and people still don't seem to care about foreign affairs unless Putin is mentioned.

In terms of my research, I've spent this week looking at voter statistics. For the last ten years (with the exception of 2014), the voter turnout for Apache County has been between 10-20% lower than that of Maricopa County. Additionally, two-thirds of those living in Apache County are members of the Navajo Nation, so I think that is the group I will focus on for my research. Focusing on a single tribe has helped me to single out specific statistics related to income, poverty rates, urban vs. rural living, and voting patterns. One thing I found interesting about the Navajo Nation was the significant number of its members under the age of 18 (I believe it is something like 30%).

In the upcoming week, I hope to finalize my research on ancient Athens and look more into rural voting patterns in the United States as a whole, as well as the factors that cause these patterns and hinder/lead to increased turnout. I am still debating whether to include a solution in my presentation because that would seem to be a monumental task, but at the same time, at this point, I feeling I am merely compiling information from different areas without contributing.

I'll let the research sit for a while, though. Last Friday night, I attended the Legislative Salute dinner, which included a certain Governor Ducey making jokes about state congresspeople who I didn't know.

But otherwise, it was nice!

I spent my Sunday at Pride (and wasted $20 on a ticket to the festival, where you essentially paid to enter a place where the normal price of any item was doubled--see the $7 pretzel). But I got a big flag and lots of free stuff, so I guess I didn't mind in the end. 

I'll close with a list of my four biggest pet peeves related to office calls:

1. When a person calls to say "I like Flake. He's a good guy, but John McCain really. . ." (the ellipses represent the 10 minutes I spend listening that person complain about another senator)

2. When people accuse me of lying about the call-log. 

Me: Ma'am, we log every call and the Senator looks over that log every night.

Them: I doubt that.

Me: [Awkwardly staring at call-log.]

Them: You still there? 

3. When people tell me the United States is becoming a third world country. (Thinks of Haiti. Thinks of United States. Sighs heavily for the ignorance of our nation.)

4. When people call to complain about Representative Flak. I don't know who Mr. Flak is. Please stop calling about him because this is not his office.