I voted

I have cast my ballot for next week's general election, which took less than two hours including reading up on the candidates I didn't already know, walking to the polling place, and pushing all the buttons. Living in bright blue Chicago, the only really difficult votes were for school board. In my district, my choices were (a) the corporate-backed candidate with kids in private school, which is absolutely disqualifying for public school board in my opinion; (b) the Chicago Teacher's Union candidate who would never under any circumstances close a Chicago school even if it had five assistant principals and a full janitorial staff supporting three students; and (c) Angel Alvarez. Alvarez has one kid at Lane Tech, he attended Chicago Public Schools, and he is not endorsed by either the Chicago Teachers Union or the PAC shilling for CPS itself. Guess who I voted for.

Elsewhere:

• Turnout in Israel's election today is the highest in history. It's going to be a long night over there.
• NIMBYs in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood have forced Amtrak back into environmental review for moving its 14th Street maintenance facility to the abandoned rail yard next to Rate Field. This is why we can't have nice transport.
• US Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and I actually agree on something: that moving to year-round daylight saving time is a really bad idea.
• Let's get big money out of politics, starting with the Clown Prince of X.

Finally, Washington Post columnist Michael Coren went to Mexico to try Chinese electric cars that, for now, aren't allowed in the US. He reports,

Many features were merely fun — heated massage seats, wild acceleration, karaoke mode and spa-like cabin settings. But the bigger difference was the amount of technology bundled into shockingly low prices: fast-charging, powerful batteries, sophisticated software and interior luxuries that sometimes came in Western models only at twice the price.

Much American EV technology can still rival or exceed anything Chinese automakers put on the road. ... But every year, the U.S. falls further behind.

Like I said, it would be so nice if we could have real competition in the "market" economy Republicans like to crow about before putting their thumbs on the scale.