Breandan is back, along with Jen, Donald, Rahul and Heather - Triangularians from across the region (not just Cary!!) to lend their experience and expertise to our common Covid-19 situation.

LINKS:

• Jen’s NannyCast: https://nannycast.com/

• Breandan’s Practical Operations Podcast: https://operations.fm/

• This show’s video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/P148nL5Sw_U

• Reddit/Triangle: https://www.reddit.com/r/triangle/

• TTS Web Site: https://TriangleTalkShow.com

• TTS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TriangleTalkShow/

I thought it might be fun to do a podcast with ‘random’ people from around the Triangle to see how they’re coping with the semi-isolation that the area is experiencing. I put a note on the Triangle Reddit sub at about 1 PM Sunday to see if I’d get any takers. I got one! And it turns out he’s another podcasters from Cary - Breandan Dezendorf. We’d never met.

Breandan’s an IT guy who’s been working from home for years, so… no big deal. Still, we had a fun discussion.

I’ll try this again in a week or three and see if I can round up a bigger, more diverse group.

LINKS:

• Breandan’s Practical Operations Podcast: https://operations.fm/

• Antimicrobial properties of copper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_properties_of_copper

• This episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3UymfaS9vJA

• The TTS Web Site: https://TriangleTalkShow.com

As many of us are going virtual and working from home, we could use some expertise to help with better web meetings and conferences. So Gary and Cyndi present some tech and social tips to make everyone look and sound their best.

LINKS:

• This episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vhx4amuAdbU

• TTS Web site: https://TriangleTalkShow.com

Having trouble deciding who to vote for in this Democratic Primary?

Gailya Paliga, President of the North Carolina chapter of the National Organization for Women, sent a list of her personal (not NC NOW) suggestions for candidates in the NC Democratic Primary to a group of friends. In this episode, she shares the list with you. Later on, Gailya and Gary talk about being an activist, and update the status of the ERA.

LINKS:

• NC Now web site: https://northcarolinanow.wordpress.com/

• League of Women Voters ‘Vote411’ North Carolina Voter Guide (2020 Primary, all parties, all races): http://onyourballot.vote411.org/race-index.do?c=21249203

• Indy-Week endorsements (and an interesting comment on how hard it was to make them): https://indyweek.com/news/elections/2020-primary-endorsements-north-carolina-wake-durham-orange/

• YouTube video for this episode: https://youtu.be/2Hp3FOkRZr0

• TTS web site: https://TriangleTalkShow.com
  

While this episode is supposed to be about how Gary is an Undecided Voter in the upcoming North Carolina primary (and a pitch for the League of Women Voters Vote411 voter guide), Gary also lays claim to the Guinness World Record for long pre-show monologue/banter. He didn’t put a clock on it as he was doing it, but it comes in at just under an hour.

One of the things Gary vamps about in the pre-show is his new Google Fiber internet connection. And for the record, it took about 30 seconds to upload the 1.5 GB file for this show’s video to YouTube, at an average of about 360 Mb/s, so even YouTube couldn’t swallow Google Fiber’s near-Gigabit upload speed whole.

LINKS

• League of Women Voters ‘Vote411’ North Carolina Voter Guide (2020 Primary, all parties, all races): http://onyourballot.vote411.org/race-index.do?c=21249203

• NC Legislature’s interactive district map for 2020 current and ‘voting’ US, NC House and NC Senate districts: https://www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislators

• Phoney ‘Erica Smith’ video ad on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y6tT6ktQGw

• Mike Bloomberg ad that makes it look a little (or a lot) as if former President Obama is endorsing him: https://youtu.be/WYW6Efw8b5U

• News & Observer 100 Counties Voices: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article239499133.html (we never got around to mentioning this on the show, but it’s an interesting video to help broaden your perspective about politics in North Carolina)

• YouTube Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/7U-mI5dgcmw

• TTS Web Site: https://TriangleTalkShow.com

It’s true… ish. The Iowa caucus isn’t for a few weeks, but you can vote in North Carolina today…. by absentee ballot. OK, so the headline is click bait. Sue us.

In this episode, Gary discovers that he’s been moved from the 4th to the 2nd Congressional District, and he reviews the crop of Democratic hopefuls who will be on the primary ballot.

That info came from this News & Observer article: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article239389093.html

MORE LINKS:

• Look up your voter info and see your sample ballot: https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/VoterInfo/

• News & Observer These are the Democrats who will try to turn this NC district blue in the 2020 election: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article239389093.html

• Interactive maps of ‘old’ and ‘new’ Congress and Statehouse districts: https://www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislators

• This show on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SgzffyC7V04

• TTS website: https://TriangleTalkShow.com
  

Gary and Cyndi update the status of Gary’s cancer treatment. In great detail.

Then Gary premieres the 2020 Raleigh Women’s March promo video he produced.

Finally President Trump visits to talk about how starting a war with Iran can help a President win re-election.

LINKS:

• Raleigh Women’s March video: https://youtu.be/qqHMYNOinnI

• Stanford study on the effectiveness of protests: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/how-protests-can-swing-elections?fbclid=IwAR3EPm1s0WUpZW4Xl0subbrzgxWmLI5aewauJAXA1FNEOO3dKlx7cXf4H0A

• That Trump video: https://www.facebook.com/Pearce10/videos/2917312928299400/

• This episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iGNGOvHjlt0

• TTS web site: https://TriangleTalkShow.com

The News & Observer has re-launched their Fact Checking Project, keeping politicians on their toes about making claims they can’t support. The re-launch is because the paper has dropped their affiliation with outside groups, and is handling it all in-house. Politics editor Jordan Shrader joins Gary to talk about the project, and they take a little more time to review the state of Gerrymandering in NC.

Note that Gary had some technical difficulty when recording this show. As I result, Jordan’s audio is, um, well, it sucks. It was karma biting Gary in the butt, because near the top of this interview, Gary takes a moment to complain about the technical quality of the N&O’s own podcast, the Domecast, which Jordan hosts from time to time. Shut up, Gary.

LINKS:

• N&O Fact Checking Project: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article236607863.html

• N&O Podcasts (Domecast and more): https://www.newsobserver.com/podcasts/

• Poynter article on Fact Checking projects around the US: https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2019/u-s-fact-checkers-gear-up-for-2020-campaign-with-50-active-platforms/

• This Episode video on YouTube (the audio doesn’t get any better

On his 70th birthday last October, Gary didn’t know he had cancer. Now he does.

It’s one of the most curable types - B Cell Lymphoma. But it’s not going to be fun for the next few months. And there are no guarantees.

• This episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fV-pb8WWivs

• TTS Web Site: https://TriangleTalkShow.com

The North Carolina Board of Elections had a chance to improve security of the systems we use for voting. They blew it… says Lynn Bernstein. Lynn was on the show a few episodes ago, when we hoped the Board would approve a specific set of criterion for voting machines (hand-marked paper ballot, risk limiting audit, and no modem or internet connection). But they ended also approving the machine that prints out a bar code, and it turns out that many of the machines we thought were safe had a modem inside that county officials say they don’t use… or do they?

This particular area of election security wasn’t getting much attention. The important issues of Gerrymandering and Voter ID were sucking up all the oxygen. But last night (Sunday, November 3 as we produce this show), it turns out that John Oliver covered much of the same material, with a lot more jokes, on his HBO program Last Week Tonight. So we’re legit!

LINKS:

• Contact Lynn: [email protected]

• John Oliver’s Voting Machine segment (on YouTube): https://youtu.be/svEuG_ekNT0

• This episode video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FH2zVxMOboE

• TTS web site: https://TriangleTalkShow.com