(#5050) The importance of winning this Georgia special runoff Senate election

     As we are now halfway into the early voting for this Senate seat, it is obvious that the Georgia voters are well tuned to its importance. Early voting so far is very high with about 12% of eligible voters in Georgia having already turned in their early ballots. That is more than 833 thousand of the total 7 million eligible voters. It suggests that the turnout for this one seat election may well be on par with the turnout from the general election just concluded. If that is the case then it gives us democrats hope that Senator Warnock will be reelected. The smaller the turnout the better for republicans and their chances of retaking the seat. The larger the turnout increases democratic chances for holding the seat.
     When we get to the end of early voting at the end of this week we will at least see what trends are discernable. As to the importance of this senate seat it is in the number of democratic seats in the senate that will make things more or less likely to happen. We democrats currently have 50 senate seats and adding this one in makes for 51. We democrats also have 2 senators who often enough buck the policies and processes of democratic wishes but not always in tandem. With an extra senate seat we may be able to negate one disapproving senator while keeping the other intact. As well with a win in this special runoff election we democrats will keep our blue wave election momentum alive.
     That importance will show up in special elections that invariably occur to replace sitting house members who for many reasons cannot fulfill their 2 year terms. The importance will also be felt in next years 2 state elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Retaking the state houses in Virginia and holding seats in New Jersey will go a long way toward defining the narrative for the presidential election in 2024. But it all hinges on the holding of this democratic senate seat in Georgia. So this early vote enthusiasm is welcomed with open arms and for now portends good karma for a democratic hold. We shall see but I like how things are progressing with the Georgia electorate.

(#5049) Good Juju, democrats will lead from the minority in the House

      The dust has pretty much settled from the 2022 midterm election. All in all the story of this election is the lack of much gain from republicans despite their overwhelming advantage gained through congressional district gerrymandering. They will have the majority in the House of Representatives but not a large majority like they had thought. The ability of democratic voters to thwart the advantage republicans had built into our political structuring speaks volumes about the wrong direction republicans would take our society. They are still the party of the wild west with no sheriff to interfere.
     So nothing much will get done in the House once republicans take control on January 3rd. It will be worth watching whether the republicans in the House decide to blow up our democracy by not funding critical programs and government entities. We shall see since they have no agenda to be servants of the people. They only serve the wealthy and keeping democracy intact is not their foundational strategy. I know that with democrats keeping the Senate the republican damage will be limited. They couldn't pull of a gerrymandering effect in Senate races so their success in the House is their only undermining democracy accomplishment.
     With President Joe Biden and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer leading the way the republicans may well be muted from doing much to destroy our democracy. There are ways around the worst of the republicans who are in the House and it wouldn't surprise me if a faction of republican House members work with democrats to keep government functioning over the next 2 years. As it stands now there are 213 democrats in the House and with 5 more moderate republicans agreeing with democrats on critical funding for government the concept of republicans uniting to make our democracy crumble is less likely than more likely.

(#5048) Special election for Senate in Georgia

      Over the past weekend Georgia voters began voting for their next Senator in this special runoff election. Somewhere near 200 thousand voters have cast their early vote runoff election ballots already. Nearly 4 million voters voted earlier this month in the general election but I don't expect that total to be reached in this special election. There are about 7 million eligible voters in Georgia. It would be nice if every state would vote at or above the 90% threshold but our nation has a problem prioritizing voting for too many not convincing reasons. However, the likelihood of maybe 3.5 million voting here in this special election is to me expected.
     The election is on December 6th of next month so there is still plenty of time for voters to surprise us with a heavy turnout in the early voting period. However as I understand it, this week including Monday through Friday, will be available for early voting. There will be no voting after that until the election day of December 6th. So getting the early vote out this week will be the most crucial strategy for democrats if we want to keep our Senator Warnock in office. There is one wildcard here and that is the appeal of the republican candidate. Or should I say the lack of appeal. Other republicans overall in the just completed general midterm election drew far more votes than this senatorial republican candidate.
     Which to me makes it logical that fewer republicans will turn out to vote for a person they didn't vote for 3 weeks ago. With the senate majority already decided another reason not to vote for the republican base is a factor. So not only will there be fewer republican voters showing up to vote they are not motivated to do so with no reward of a majority in the senate. For we democrats the real impetus to vote is that we would negate one of the 2 senate democrats who have been obstacles at times to the Biden agenda. I would expect that the more motivated to vote would be democrats since we have an honorable candidate and the opposing candidate cannot be seen as such.

(#5047) We on whole are not who we think we are

      Unfortunately, the majority of us still find our path on the one with superstition and naivete. Our need for religion to save us and the way we fall for any old conman/woman who comes down the pike is still too ingrained into who we are. Instead of us being free thinking knowledgeable citizens we are captured by the most improbable and non scary scenarios. Yesterday I posted about the harsh reality of real life and the need to conquer it as an evolvement of our species but not through fantasy or by disregarding facts. As general rule, trying to make easy every thing hard is comforting but seldom possible. So forcing ourselves to accept an illogical safe harbor paradigm is only delaying our power to become greater than the harshness of reality that won't go away until we overcome our fears.
     I had thought that we were in an age of enlightenment but it would appear after many decades of not much proof that we are still beholden to our happily ending fairy tales. I don't want to get on a religion rant but instead would rather focus on the underlying reason for the need to salve our intellectual vacuum with a sense of illogical reasoning. Taking the easy path is so enticing especially when the harder path of truth requires a level of acceptance that is both hard and painful. But like much of life the hard and painful are just obstacles to be overcome on our journey to forging a reality that doesn't need the fantastical as a psychological dealing tool.
     When we quit on ourselves and our understanding of our existence is when we fall back on the old ways of dealing with reality. We would rather accept the unreal ease of superstition and myth than the hard work of getting to the answer to the question why. It has been shown that those who like shortcuts more than doing things correctly ultimately end up going nowhere while the doing things correctly group find themselves ahead. Life is too short to be wasting on the going nowhere paradigm while falling further behind the evolutionary scale. There is much more to discuss on this subject that involves economics as well but not enough time to dissect it. Just know this, Capitalism does not substitute for intelligence as should be obvious by now.

(#5046) Religion as a cudgel

      I would like to think that religion in its varying forms is foundational to all things good and great. Yet my understanding of religion belies that. What religion has been shown to be is more to do with control and boxing in people who otherwise would find different choices. Religion is now the great boogeyman of our time. Just there to scare and intimidate those who are not educated enough to know that myths and superstitions are not factual in reality. What is a cudgel? It is a weapon to strike fear into those who would otherwise feel its painful effect. A stick to herd the masses into a formation that is only relevant to the stick holder.
     Let me be absolutely clear here. There is no god nor a heaven and hell but that doesn't stop about half the world believing it anyway. I get it. Why would anyone not want to believe the fairy tale of eternal life? I mean come on, who doesn't want to live forever in perfection? Well even I wouldn't mind that. Yet I know it is not reality. It is a way to convince so many that doing what they are told is a pathway toward that rich reward. For me I would rather not live the entirety of my life being shown an illusion as my destiny. I would rather live my life in the confines of what is actually real. But I get that many don't. It is hard knowing that this world we live only a short time in is all there is.
     But the point is that if we don't except reality as our way forward we will likely not find answers to evolving into a species that deals with reality, with reality. Our future as a species is being threatened because are too afraid to let go of the religion pacifier. Again, I get it. Fear and trembling over a world without a benevolent god is hard to imagine. Yet that is exactly what our world is. So why not just let go of the binky and start making a life that has value without the shackles of superstition. I have spent the entirety of my life asking the question why? But in the meantime I have come to realize that we humans are born with two perfect traits, wonder and care. I wonder about everything and care about the same.

(#5045) Voting should be mandatory with incentives for voting and penalties for not voting!

      Of the 20 million eligible voters here in California only about 10 million turned out to vote in the November 8th election. It was a midterm election so no president choice to make but the many other offices on the ballot here were crucial in an attempt to keep the majority in the House of Representatives under democratic control. As the margin that republicans appear to have won is clear now the turning of a few more seats back into democratic control would have made this outcome of republican control much less certain. New York also had a hand in not doing what it could have to secure a democratic majority but we here in California surely dropped the ball a bit too much for me.
     Why we democrats fail at the most simple way to protect our democracy is astounding to me. About 10 million here didn't bother to vote when voting in California is simple and easy to do. Besides the ease of voting the critical matter of protecting our democracy didn't seem to be enough motivation for those 10 million to even expend the little energy needed to vote. I am at a crossroads here trying to figure out what it is that makes us specifically here in California and folks in other states so disengaged from participating in our own welfare? Are we so disillusioned by it all or are we so indifferent to the lies and falsehoods republicans spew daily that we just don't care?
     To me it speaks of a disorder of priorities. When the very existence of our species under democratic rule is being threatened and that isn't enough to motivate most all of us to vote then what else will do it? I don't know except maybe paying our citizenry to vote and penalizing them if the don't vote. Something has to change to make sure all eligible voters vote. Under capitalism which seems to be the motivation for everything else it would be logical to make incentives and penalties for the act of voting/not voting. We don't seem to be able to appeal to our nobler instincts of patriotism to democracy as a solution so why not give the carrot and stick a try. Regardless of how one votes, voting should be mandatory!

(#5044) Ukraine slowly taking back its territory

      With the liberation of the key city of Kherson, Ukraine is poised to cross from the north side of the Dnipro River and begin recapturing Crimea, The southern edge of the Dnipro river is currently held by the Russian invading forces. They will not be able to withstand the forces that are about to confront them so retreating further back into Crimea seems their logical strategy. The cities of Mariupol and Melitopol will still need to be liberated but after that the end game for the Ukrainian retaking of their Crimean territory will begin shortly. Whether Russia stays and fights a losing battle to keep Crimea or they simply further retreat out of Crimea is still unknown but the future of Crimea will be under Ukrainian control.
     In the front in the Luhansk and Donetsk region the armed forces of Ukraine are slowly inching forward liberating towns and villages. The Russians have dug in and are trying to mount counter offensives but are being rebuffed at every turn. Russia has resupplied this region with some of the best fighters they have left. Which is beginning to show that the last battle for Ukraine will not be in Crimea, although Crimea is a crucial territory of Ukraine that Russian national pride is built upon; but instead the Luhansk and Donetsk region will be where putin puts his last stand on Ukrainian territory. The problem with that is the morale of the Russian people and fighters is heavily invested in keeping Crimea.
     All in all this invasion by putin is coming around to haunt him to the point that his own replacement is obviously imminent to all but him and his buddies in the kremlin. The Ukrainian people with western help have proven too much for the ill equipped putin and his arrogant psyche. As Russia continues to bomb necessary Ukrainian civilian power structures the will of the Ukrainian people has only become more resolved to defeat putin and his invaders to the last dying breath. If putin thought that the Ukrainian people would cry uncle and surrender to his war crimes inhumanity he has only deluded himself and likely ended his existence in the Russian hierarchy.

(#5043) I know my limitations

      My personal journey through my life has been one of learning new things almost by the hour. Yet sometimes it takes doing something many times over to finally understand that time waits for no one. This comes to my physical being at this point in my life compared to my younger days when life was still mostly ahead of me. I know that life is not guaranteed to anyone but when you are young you do think that way when peace is more prevalent than war. The thing is that lately for sure I have found the physical boundaries I must exist within if I am to continue to live. I have pushed myself at rates more indicative of me being in my forties than now me being in my later 60's. Which has begun to ring some alarm bells in my health.
     I have no doubt that all who reach a certain age hit this metaphorical wall and then must tell themselves that habits and desires must be tempered to whatever degree is appropriate. I am in the midst of that defining bubble. If I am truly being honest though I have to say that I have been preparing for this over the last decade. Especially with my home needing so much work done before I am not able to do the labor myself. I have decades of professional building experiences behind me so knowing how to do what needs to be done here is not in question, but me actually being able to do the work is. So I have gotten most all of the rough work done and now it is just the finishing aspect of it.
     I am expecting to be able to do less over a longer period of time to finish and that is okay. I feel like I have gotten all I could out of myself before the winnowing down of my physical schedule. When I look out over my property and see how far I have come over the last 10 years I am a bit satisfied. For me who didn't have much money this whole adventure has been purposeful. If I had what I needed I could have gotten this all done in months not many years. Yet that wasn't my reality so I did what I needed to do. Now I am sitting here reflecting on my accomplishments and feeling okay about my progress. I want to travel a bit soon but there is still a little that needs my care and that is what I will do.
     

(#5042) A diagnosis; not enough humility in the world

     The arrogance that is impervious to humility is just rampant enough to make life miserable for most of us. Those who put in the hard work of learning and being taught difficult concepts and realities most often become the most humble. Why? Because the vastness and differing arrays of knowledge and information overwhelms our senses and makes us realize that we are not much of anything when in context of all things. We learn quickly that we are not much of anything at all and thus humbled to be in the presence of existence. I myself am constantly awed by the latest discoveries and intellectual advancements.
     I am no Einstein nor Socrates but I am in a constant state of wanting to know as much as I can understand. Which makes me humble because others throughout time have given us knowledge that I myself alone would never have been able to ascertain without their ability to conclude. There are some simple logical concepts I could have formulated myself but once the logic gets into the complexity I am just a deer in the headlights kind of being. I know my limitations and that is why I see humility as lacking in the world. There are more who are like me and not even at my simple level who think that they know it all. Which is why arrogance is the dominating attitude instead of humility.
     Their arrogance is based upon fallacies, not logic, but they don't distinguish that from the narrative that fits their world view. Many even know this yet will not change because of some advantage they have with their fallacies. Those would be the conmen/women who selfishly exist in their false world. They have no care to be logically honorable in their standing as long as their illogical standing is validated by those who would benefit them. Too many have given up on reality as the only view of life. It is easier for them to live in a dishonest reality so that they can benefit some way from it when the alternative of actual reality is too hard for their minds to consider.

(#5041) Stop being judgmental of other people!

      Okay, I get it that you want your lifestyle to be as plain and simple as possible. So that you can feel comfortable. But others don't want that simple comfortable lifestyle when they have other aspirations and desires. Let them be who they are as they let you be who you are. Real simple here folks. Live and let live is not that hard to incorporate into your lives. You don't need to be an asshole about what someone else chooses as their happiness. It is ignorant and intolerant to be judgmental when your own life is not a picture of perfectness. I have found that being who I am is just as important as you being who you are. Figure it out and move on with your life without being a pissant!
     If you haven't already figured it out that life is real damn short then figure that out too. Because it is and making trouble for folks with the little time we all have is several degrees below what the fuck! If your fear is that other people are different from you then grow up and quit acting like an immature spoiled brat! Because here is a clue, everyone is different no matter how hard they may try to be the same. So enjoy your life with a clear conscience. What others do is what they do and what you do is what you do. There is no right and wrong here only variation. So if you don't like something then stop it! You are no better or worse than anyone else!
     As long as no one else is trying to make you be who you aren't then be happy. Or if someone else is trying to make you who you are not then tell them to fuck off and look to their own lives. No one likes a bully who thinks his/her way is the only way. Life in this existence is not that way. There are no absolutes in this existence that has danger, chaos, and mortality in its resume. We all make the best of what there is in reality so keep your mind on your own evolution as a young person to hopefully older one. Same as everyone else should be doing in their lives. Just stop judging people over how they live or by whatever physical characteristic they are recognizable as. Just stop it dammit!

(#5040) Living day to day is the only way

      It happens every morning so far. I open my eyes and realize that I get another day. I take nothing for granted anymore. I used to take things for granted a lot when I was younger. But life has shown me that my cavalier attitude toward being in existence was foolish and immature. Now I entitled this particular blog post as day to day being the only way but as well I try to plan ahead with the future in mind. But each day has is its own reward and the care that needs to be taken is what it is all about. I guess the easiest way to explain this is that I live in the present moment much of the time and don't allow myself to move from the present time in my head.
     I do not worry about things I have no control over although I fight like a grizzly bear to protect and defend honor and respect noble paradigms. Still though these are in the present and that is where I and a lot of us live. What that does for me is allow me to present myself to the world as a blank slate. I don't bring the past or some hoped for future into my present and that allows me to be objective and balanced. It is as if I am able to see all sides of everything all at once. There is no mystery or confusion to being in the present. It is where we all are in the moment so no amount of trying to deny reality will ever change that.
     I have had days when good things happened and I stayed even keeled. I have had days when bad things happened and again I stayed even keeled. I am a passionate man but knowing how to control that passion is a hard fought victory for me and being in the moment has been the key. That bit of wisdom that I now possess is incredibly important. The reason being is that all things revolve around how I react and not react. Having the ability to discern that judgement with clarity is amazing and lucky I am for learning it. The latter half of my life has been an evolution from my beginnings. I am not the same person by a whole lot. It is because I allowed myself to learn from mistakes, and the corrections taken, while working toward evolving to the better and best I can be.

(#5039) My firewood

      Early this year in January a tree cutting service cut down an old Oak tree in the creek area right behind my property. I lobbied hard for the city not to cut the tree as it was a home to many birds and squirrels. But the tree was growing on the side bank of the creek and some of its roots were exposed. Meaning that if a strong enough wind came blowing it could come down into the power lines. The decision was made to be on the safe side and so down the tree came. I watched each of the 3 days that the tree cutting crew worked. I gave them access to my backyard for them to have an easier time of accomplishing their work. Because I have a man gate to the creek from my backyard.
     So the city representative and the cutting crew decided to let me have the wood from the cutting to do with as I pleased. Well they cut up all the long sections they took down into manageable rounds and the ones they could lift tossed over the creek fence into my backyard. The larger rounds from the base of the trunk were too heavy so they left them near the fence. I was able to go through the gate and split the big rounds into smaller pie like slices so that I could get them into the wheelbarrow to bring them to my back driveway for splitting. It took me a couple of weeks to get all the big rounds left out in the creek area cut into smaller slices and transported but I did get that done.
     Then, off and on, over the course of the year up until this morning I have been slowly splitting the rest of the rounds into overall 2 cords of firewood. I am about to finish the job of splitting and stacking today. I don't burn firewood myself but others around here do so I figured I could make a little money from all that heavy work I am about to finish. I went through a few hatchets, axes, mauls, and sledge hammers plus a small chain saw but the work was healthy and rough which reminded me of my youth, as a logger, miner, and residential/industrial wood and metal framer. I think I have sold them as of tomorrow and the wages I earned will be less than 50 cents an hour for all my efforts. Not much profit but the work was a pleasure.
     

(#5038) My inner motivations

      I guess this post will be about me. I rarely do this but it seems I am today. I have not been able to come up with anything interesting to write about so by default here I am. lol. I really am not that interesting as a person. I get up in the early morning and go about my chores for the my animals and the House. It is only then that I can sometimes think about doing something for myself. In that little bit of information is a world of knowledge about me. I am not considered even by my own self to be a priority. Although lately some physical uncertainties have caught my attention. I am no longer able to labor like I had been used to doing my whole life. Well not as efficiently and as long.
     It is that age has caught up with me and my inner workings are displaying signs that I need to slow down or I will be slowed down or shut down. I do take this serious and have taken steps to get some sort of analysis or prognosis for my future strategies for living. However, I am not concerned too much as I can still do my normal chores without signals to stop. It is the outside yard chores and moving and pushing heavy things that seem to trigger a faintness that is happening all too often. Yet I can stave the faint off. I just need to sit and or kneel for a moment and then I can continue albeit in a much more deliberately slow manner.
     Aside from that though the rest of my day is about how I can improve the conditions around me for others to experience and understand. I have spent the best part of my youth doing the things too many wait to do for retirement. I understood that being alive and vibrant when you are young is much more intelligent than waiting to do when our age has brought us down too many notches. So what is important to me now is what happens to society and the people and animals in it. Persuading the unaware that keeping our existence in an evolving dynamic way is far preferable to maintaining a system that has more flaws than ingenuity.

(#5037) Gerrymandering by republicans almost failed them

      If the republican party had not so egregiously gerrymandered their states into majority rule with less voters we would be talking about how democrats held and added to their house majority. The worst of what we humans do to democracy is evident in how republicans manipulate districts in order to "win" them. Still though, we democrats voted heavily and many independents with us. Almost to the point of negating the gerrymandering republicans so callously implemented. Had it not been for unfairly drawn congressional districts to favor republicans the outcome would be much different this morning.
     Not all the voting is done yet but it appears that the republicans have retaken the House by at least one House seat. We democrats had a 4 seat lead coming into the midterm election so the gain by republicans from their 2020 gerrymandering strategy was very minimal. However that small gain is enough to most likely propel them into the leadership of the House. Through devious manipulations the republican party and their insurrectionist caucus are now third in line to the presidency. They also control whether any legislation will get done for the next 2 years. With Joe Biden as president we may be able to get a minimum of legislation done but not much more than that.
     It is my hope that the rest of the House seats still being contested will turn out to be democratic wins or at least most of them. Keeping the margin razor thin in the House could well turn any unforeseen House seat opening by republicans into a crucial special election that could change the majority of the house during the next 2 years. The disarray coming from republicans will not become resolved overnight so as it stands the next 2 years in the House will be traumatic and chaotic for all who are involved. The best thing that could happen is that the House return to democratic control as soon as possible so that the work on our American democratic agenda may continue.

(#5036) 2024 will be a great election cycle for Democrats

     If the republicans take the House there will be little that is accomplished in our federal government. With a stall in needed legislation on the horizon with republican control of the House the blame for it will fall on republicans who will hold up necessary legislation as blackmail so that they can tear down Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. No one will be happy about that and of course the culprit republicans will be exposed. Of course this scenario is worst case and yet it is stated as the republican intent even before the 2022 election.
     The other factor here is that the Senate will be a bit of a hard task for democrats to hold after the 2024 election given normal circumstances. 23 of the 33 seats in the Senate up for election in 2024 will be democratic ones. In some states where the outcome is in real doubt. But again, the republicans, if they get enough seats in the coming days to reclaim the majority in the House, will through their obstruction, provide a salve for what could have been a rough battle in 2024. Instead of a tough democratic election in the Senate in 2024, the republicans will make it much more palatable for independents to vote for democrats in those tough senate races.
     2024 is also a presidential election and will bring the full force of the democratic party out to vote. So with a possible 2 years of obstructing and generally nasty actions by House republicans, the idea that a blue wave election will be in effect for 2024 is more likely than not. Now I hope we hold the House this year by any margin and then we will be in an even better position for 2024 because legislation will pass that will be historic. But given the alternative we democrats will be in the drivers seat regardless of which way the House goes on January 3, 2023.

(#5035) The republican party thinks that poor people are con artists

      I was thinking about how republican voters must see the poor. Like they are lazy worthless con artists who are only trying to live off the government dole. Yet that is insane in the information era we live in. Anyone can go on the internet and find out how capitalism works. It is real simple when you think about how so many are trying to become wealthy. There are not enough smart ideas out there where the marketplace is smitten with a companies product. So with that in mind the only way the majority of capitalists can make the kind of money that would fulfill their dreams is to cut costs on the bottom line. Which for too many is labor costs.
     So when the labor force is forced to accept wage standards that are barely livable wages you can begin to see why the poor are plentiful and the more well off are fewer. Yet republican voters cannot grasp this concept of capitalistic opportunism. The federal minimum wage is still at $7.25 an hour. The republican party has been blocking legislation proposed by democrats for years that would raise that amount. They block that legislation because the republican party is not a party of the working middle poor class. No, they are the party of the wealthy so what the wealthy need is cheap labor. Regardless of what that does to the people who are stuck in defined labor work.
     Again, republican voters cannot understand this simple explanation. They are more likely driven in their disgust of people who are not well off by other factors of race, gender, and objective thinking. So when they try to explain their opposition to voting against policies aimed at giving everyone the opportunity to succeed, they utterly fail to logically impress. However that is not enough for them to question their own thinking. Instead it further infuriates them and adds illogical fuel to the other factors of their debased dislike of we who are in the working middle poor class. The only ones who are being conned into thinking the wealthy need more help than oppressed workers are the republican voters!

(#5034) From Ukraine to the US House races

      My attention is on both of these paradigms. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is not going as planned for putin and his forces are being decimated at a clip that surely should see him deposed. More than 81,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine as of this morning which is a massive amount of lives lost for no practically no gains. Especially since now Russia is being kicked hard in the ass while turning toward their own original borders for safety. Yet putin keeps sending them into battle where daily deaths of Russians are currently averaging over 500 a day.
     A whole generation of young Russian men has been wiped off the face of the Earth for the folly of putin to be an arrogant tyrant. The Russian powers in the kremlin, outside of putin, could depose him but it seems they are just as arrogant as he is. The whole purpose of being a human being is to exist not to be a pawn to be sacrificed without a noble and honorable purpose. That is the criteria for all of us to consider if we are to put our lives in jeopardy. Not the condescending power hungry who care not a whit about their lives. This whole Russian situation in Ukraine sickens me to no end and the sooner the deposing of putin takes place the sooner lives will be saved that deserve breath on our planet!
     As to the US House races the votes have been cast and now in California the counting of millions of ballots continues. It isn't just the counting either it is the verification of all the votes that must be painstakingly accomplished. But that process is well under way and in about 10 key races here the winners will go a long way toward deciding the control of the House of Representatives. It is difficult to diagnose the outcome at the moment as both party's seem to have an edge that benefits them. The republicans have some large leads at the moment but then the democrats historically have a large cache of uncounted votes waiting to be added to their totals. When the counting is done we will know who will be the majority in the House.

(#5033) The end of the trump era was last night

      With the victory for Catherine Cortez Masto in the Nevada Senatorial election the trump influence in our elections has simply ended. I won't recount the many failed candidates he backed this term but just know that the few he did back who survived were not enough to change the dynamic that his days as a king maker are over. His days left in front of him are more to do with criminal and civil allegations. He may still cause a stir in the republican party but that is just nothing to do about nothing. Although it does serve the republican party right that he is still exposing their inherent corrupt inclinations on a daily basis through his own behavior.
     Control of the Senate for democrats is now complete when the republicans thought for sure they would win the Senate. What is even more astonishing is that the House of Representatives is not a foregone conclusion for republican control. There is an increasing chance that democrats will squeak out a majority when no one gave them much of a chance at all. It is because of trump and his acolytes that democrats have a chance at all. The brazen acknowledgements of harm to the working middle poor class through policies aimed at undercutting fairness and equality were fed into the main stream media narrative by trumpian politicians with the arrogance it takes to be an off putting condescending cad!
     I sat and waited patiently on the Internet for the New York Times updating Nevada Senate Election website to post the latest numbers for Cortez Masto to take the lead. I was expecting a 12,000 vote addition with a majority of those votes coming from democratic voters. I figured a 5,000 vote lead as a guess in my head which would have been a 2/3rds percentage add for Cortex Masto, who was down 800 or so votes at the time. Well even I get lucky now and then as that was the way it came to be. Just a few votes short of 5,000 vote lead. At that moment the end of trump became real and now all that is left is his death throes in the republican party and the mess it will make for all republicans who must now decide to either stick with him or grow a pair and step away from him. Either way we democrats have done the deed to end his time.

(#5032) Today will go a long way to determining Senate control

      As the last big bunch of mail in ballots needing to be added to the vote totals the likelihood of Democrat Catherine Cortez Casto overcoming the more than 800 vote deficit to her republican opponent today is extremely high. Not only overcoming it but distancing herself enough for the race to be called in her favor. We will see about the race being called in her favor but her going into a bit of a comfortable lead is logical. Almost all the votes remaining are coming from the two counties she is carrying. Plus they are mail in votes which historically favor Democratic candidates.
     I expect Senator Cortez Casto to be reelected and thus become the 50th Democratic senator. With her winning today the Senate will remain in Democratic control, regardless of what happens in the Georgia Senate special election runoff on December 6th. Their are now nearly 60,000 votes remaining to be added to the totals in Nevada and how many of them will be at the least well over 50,000. Provisional ballots and ballots that need to be "cured" will undoubtedly be eliminated by some small percentage but the vast bulk of the remaining ballots just need to be examined and counted. Instead of watching college football today for the most part I will also be watching this Senate race and the remaining House races.
     By holding the Senate as early as today we democrats are on track to keep Congress as well. There are about 31 House races to be decided and the bulk of them, which are very close now, will be decided by, you guessed it, early mail in votes. Which have been favoring Democrats by about a 2/3rds clip. When all is said and done and with my optimistic viewpoint that we Democrats could hold as many as at least 221 seats Nancy Pelosi could well remain Speaker of the House. Again, we will see but the logic is the same for the Nevada Senate race. We Democrats are big believers in science and logic so if the foundation for our understanding is mathematically and logically correct then today may well be a wonderful day for America and the world!

(#5031) Ukraine is advancing toward literally taking their country back

      The retreat by Russia from Kherson is a major blow to putin's hopes of keeping Crimea. As strategies go Kherson was a vital link to keeping Crimea secure. Not so much anymore. Now putin is facing a defeat that was unthinkable when this whole murderous invasion began. That Kherson has fallen is a psychological blow that the ordinary Russian will feel. They are as much to blame as putin for the invasion of Ukraine. They also support the invasion of Ukraine evidenced by the about 80,000 dead Russian military personnel that they are not protesting. The Russian people get no benefit of the doubt now that they have shown no impulse to stop putin from murdering at will.
     All the momentum is on the side of Ukraine and the west who supply the most needed weaponry. Ukraine has kept it's promise when they said if you help us with weapons we will fight and beat the Russians. That is a fact now as Ukraine has destroyed so much of the military might Russia had previously thought to possess that now the idea of Russia as a super power is laughable. Sure they have nukes but their fighting armies are decimated and obviously underperforming. Russia is not now considered as a dominating force in Europe and instead Ukraine is becoming that themselves. The democratic nation of Ukraine is a fine example of what motivates people to freedom. Russia does not have that.
     All Russia is fighting for now is not to be totally embarrassed as they keep retreating back to their original borders. That putin is being talked about in terms of replacement is another sure sign that not all is well between him and the power in the kremlin. Soon, as the losses keep mounting daily in the many many hundreds of deaths and equipment loss putin had better watch his back. That is the way with dictators. They must never be shown to be weak or the vultures around them will pounce. Well Ukraine has made a weakling out of putin by retaking Kherson and the forces that are around putin are sharpening their own knives for the time when putin is most vulnerable.

(#5030) The day after the day after

      So here we are more than 36 hours removed from the first election results being reported. I watched all night the Indiana 1st Congressional race since it was one of the very first races that was releasing numbers. As well it was seen as a bellwether race for how well democrats would do in trying to hold the House of Representatives. Of course of the 9 Congressional races in Indiana, this one had problems reporting out. But I kept a tab for it on my computer and watched it during the night steadily hold as the democratic incumbent kept a modest but significant lead. It took until the next morning for the race to finally be called for the democrat but at that point I could already see that things were not going smoothly for the republican effort to take the House.
     Since then I see that we democrats will likely go into the special  Senate runoff election in Georgia with 50 seats already secured. The races in Arizona and Nevada are close but are trending toward democratic victories. The special election in Georgia will be like in 2020, full of all out efforts to win this key Senate seat. However the republican candidate has liabilities and him being able to perform well in the runoff is seen as a dicey proposition. The democratic candidate is well versed in winning a special election as he just did that 2 years ago. Turnout will determine this race and I have no doubt that the democratic turnout will be awesome. I cannot say the same for the republican turnout.
     As to the House outcome, that is still being decided. There are paths for both parties to come out with a majority and at this point considering the projections that is an advantage for we democrats. That we are still nearly 2 days later in the hunt to keep the majority there, albeit with the slimmest of margins is truly a wonderful scenario. Over the next 2 to 5 days we will know how things will finally shake out. A  lot of the outcomes in the House races that have yet to be decided will come down to mail in votes that have yet to be counted. Well we democrats led the mail in voting by quite a percentage so I like the fact that many House races will be decided by mail in voting. Tomorrow I will know more but for now here is to us democrats doing what many thought was impossible, holding the House majority.

(#5029) No red wave last night

      In midterm elections the party out of power most often has the best night. Yet last night was basically a wash for republicans. They had decent night however but the results are not all in. We democrats withstood the barrage of republican votes and still have a good shot at holding the Senate and at least making the House gain by republicans slim to precarious. Democrats picked up some governorships and state legislatures which was much needed. We also had some close losses that took the happiness out of our night somewhat but that just tells me that republicans have set themselves up for a torrential blue wave in 2024 if they do what they promised to do if they gain the Congress or half of it.
     It is a shame that we democrats didn't get the necessary Senate seats to undo the Senate filibuster rule but without control of the House it would have been obstructed anyway by the pending slim republican majority. All in all though Joe Biden limited the damages of turnover and avoided a much worse political outcome. For that we are thankful and hopeful because our cause is a good one. We had hoped to do campaign finance reform to kick dark money and over spending by the wealthy in our elections. We non wealthy are often smothered in our attempt to finance good candidates by overwhelming money going to wealthy republican candidates.
     Overall this election was both discouraging and satisfying so a real mixed bag of outcomes. The most disappointing is of course the House being in jeopardy of being lost. The next disappointment is not getting enough Senators to abolish the filibuster. Yet the State races were and are continuing to be encouraging. There will be a stalemate at the federal level if republicans are able to maintain their current slim leads. So working to make 2024 a real barnburner of an election will be our goal. But for now this is all I will be doing for that for a little bit as I need the physical and emotional rest of pouring my heart and soul into this election.

(#5028) The best way to defeat the insurrectionists is to vote a straight democratic ticket!

      The republican party is working hard to disqualify votes all over America. The reason is that they are not the majority and the only way they can keep any kind of power is to disenfranchise democratic voters so that they can keep power. They don't see power as a privilege, they see power as a right! Well the majority of us see what they are doing and although they are trying to disenfranchise democratic voters they are not going to get away with it. I will tell you why. They have no proof of their claims that democrats are voting illegally or through deception. In fact, the most proof of that comes from actual republican voters.
     The republican party is the party of insurrection. They stormed our Capitol on January 6th 2021 in order to stop the certification of the general election of 2020 when democrats won the presidency. The republican party failed to stop the certification that day despite 157 members of the republican party voting no to the actual certification. It was their followers who stormed our Capitol and injured scores of Capitol police officers and defecated in our Capitol building. All the while threatening lawmakers with harm and death. The mob that day was assembled and orchestrated through republican channels by republican operatives for the express purpose of overthrowing our newly elected government by force.
     That is insurrection! That is the republican party! So when you vote today just know that your pledge of allegiance to our way of government is on the line. Are you for the party that would overthrow democracy so that power is preserved in order to force others to a minority will of the brutish and cruel? Or are you steadfast in your pledge to liberty and justice for all? If you believe this phrase in our Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Then your vote today will reflect the choice of every democrat on your ballot!

(#5027) We will win the midterms

      The House will remain with we democrats and the Senate will expand past the number needed to eliminate the filibuster rule. So when these things happen tomorrow, the changes coming after January 3rd, when the new Congress is sworn in, will be sweet! A new law to protect abortion rights for women. Campaign finance reform to get big money out of our elections. Protections and improvements to Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Raising the minimum wage. Gun control legislation that will address immediate concerns. Immigration reform that will give citizenship to Dreamers and allow for historical cross border work permits. The list goes on and on and the Congress is primed to accomplish them.
     This is the vision of the democratic party. To make life more fun, more opportunistic, and more fair. That should be our legacy to America and the world. We are poised to make the kind of changes in our society that will leave a lasting imprint on the soul of the world. Democracy will have prevailed and give hope to nations in the world that want what we have. The impetus to change their societies toward a more fair and equitable paradigm will be overwhelmingly and heartily acceptable. The Russians will be sent back out of Ukraine and China will have learned not to mess the US.
     When we win the midterms tomorrow the happiness that will follow will be undeniable. Those sore losers will of course cry out loud but their shrieks of panic and horror will only make us laugh at their ignorance. We have no time left for the idiocy of stupidity regardless of its form. Democrats and like minded other political party members will do the hard work of making our nation into a new shining city on the hill. I am so happy today knowing that the tide against the willful wrong in the world is growing stronger and stronger as we approach tomorrow and that the disinformation and out and out mistruths have been seen through. Life is going to be good after tomorrow and no one can ever take that away from us again!

(#5026) A flood of fake polling by republicans to psychologically discourage democratic voters

      It amazes me just how foolish the republican party is. As well the national media for biting on the lure. The republican party in the last week or so has flooded news reporting sites with fake polling showing a swing toward republicans. Well that is laughable! It is as obvious as all get out and the media is to be shamed for forwarding that dishonest and despicable narrative. There is no momentum for republicans because they have done nothing to deserve it. They have not changed from exclaiming their insurrection stances, nor there dismantling of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. They are still wanting to end any law that protects a woman's right to choose.
     So where would this mythical momentum come from if it were real? Nowhere is where. It is made up and came from a flood of dishonest polling added into the daily averages of polling that many culpable political reports are forwarding. The logic of republicans getting momentum behind their democracy destroying agenda is the stuff of fantasy! The only wave that is about to crash down on our election is a blue one and the more our base continues to show up to vote the larger the blue wave will be. The national media is corporate owned so don't expect the kind of honesty from them that you would apply to your own life. They have an agenda and that agenda is far removed from being honest and respected.
     There is only one poll that matters and that is the ballot you place your vote on. When it is all said and done the truth is that we democrats and like minded independents/republicans are done with the power hungry republicans and their desire to end democracy as our ruling paradigm. They would take away your vote if they could because they want to design society with no input from the vast majority of us. Their consultants are their donors so the wealthy will not only get all they want but they will decide how little if anything we get. I am done with the republican party and their arrogant deceptions so come November 8th the will of the people will decide our future, not some amateurish tricks by the republican party.

(#5025) Over 75,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine

      Still the kremlin allows the irrational tyrant putin to keep his power. I am flabbergasted at the inaction by the kremlin inaction on stopping the insanity that putin is currently residing under. Last week I thought that finally putin would be put out of power when the kremlin was making moves to keep nuclear codes from putin. But no, they have not done the one thing that only the intelligent and caring of Russian strategists would have done by now. That is to remove putin and then reorganize Russian society to reflect the will of the people and not the will of the internal power brokers.
     I know it is wishful thinking for a democratic form of government to take hold in a country that has steeped it's traditions in authoritarianism but the time for it is now and if the people of Russia will get behind an overhaul of their society it can happen. Especially now that so many of their young men have been lost to the cruel and ambitious dictator putin. There is one man who is currently being held as a political prisoner by putin who could be such a dynamic force as to move the whole of Russian society into a paradigm of freedom and individual rights. Alexei Navalny is that man and if putin is deposed it may be that Navalny is allowed to rebuild Russian society into a productive nation of democratic values.
     Again, 75,000 Russian young men are now no longer and the amount of them dying each day is growing larger. As well the Russian military is being decimated and leaves them vulnerable to all the other nations on their borders who have claims against them. When will the kremlin cut off the spigot of death pouring into Ukraine? It will only happen when putin is put away from power and a rational movement to end the insanity of force by whim! Russia, through putin, has already lost this invasion of Ukraine and the only question left to answer is how badly will the final tally be against them. Right now the war crimes by Russia continue to rise and the payment for them will only result in more calls to end the Russian federation as it currently exists.

(#5024) The blue wave is going to crush republicans on November 8th

      Yes, I said crush! How badly is an unknown at this point but crush it will! The polling has been rigged to make it appear that the republicans had begun to build their own wave. But that is not what is happening. Just like a lie that doesn't produce the correct results, the flood of questionable republican polling will produce no result in their favor. They did the bulk release as a way to influence the polling and give themselves the appearance of a chance. But we see through that and know that our blue wave, which has been building since even before Kansas, is the true wave coming.
     I can tell because of the early vote totals. Especially in Georgia where records are being broken every day. With the national numbers poised to break the 2018 blue wave election record the premise that republicans are going to lose the midterms becomes even more understandable. Whoever is going to win the midterms will be decided in large part by the independents. Well the independents are not insurrectionists. They are not a majority for denying abortion. They are not pro putin nor for ending Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Thus the idea that independents would vote more heavily for republicans than they would democrats is absurd on the face of it.
     I keep going back to early turnout as a major indicator. The fact that more will vote early this midterm than last midterm, a blue wave election, is much more decisive in deciding who has the momentum than a handful of polls just released by republican strategists. Try to fool us republicans and get the boot to your backside because we are voting and that is what is going to supply the force to send you to defeat. Release all the polling you want that is fudged to show you ahead but the final poll is going to be the honest one and in that poll you will find that being dishonest and generally a disgusting political party is not an answer to the solutions we Americans need.

(#5023) The republican party candidates are mostly election deniers!

      Being an election denier in the republican party is real simple, claim election fraud and then never produce any evidence of election fraud. Well the republicans did commit some fraud but that isn't who they are blaming. They are blaming democrats of massive voter fraud without a single bit of evidence. So when you go to vote this November remember that the republican party has more voter fraud candidates running for office up and down the ballot than not. So why would you vote for any person who is so detached from reality to represent you? Why I ask is because I don't understand the logic? I mean I have tried to understand logically but I keep coming back to it being illogical.
     So how has the republican party been able to change the narrative from logic to what, confusion? Because they are not appealing to anything that is ethical or moral. They want to cut Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid for future generations of workers and the poor. I keep saying this and it is always true, the republican party is not for the working middle poor class. They just aren't! They do nothing legislatively to help the human foundation of our society. They only want to help lift the ultra wealthy up to an even higher classification of wealth. I mean what does that do for our democracy? Nothing except to undermine it and eventually change it so that only the wealthy have a say in how we treat each other.
     I don't know about you but I suspect you would agree with the concept of one person one vote. I mean at least we get to have a say in our society. With the wealthy, through republican help, wanting to have the final say in how we live our lives the way we vote for or against them is going to be here in 5 days. So what will it be? Will we preserve democracy by voting for every democrat on our ballots or will we end up with republicans in charge of making our lives even more difficult by only working for the wealthy? Again, logic dictates that the illogical needs to be discarded. So when the vote time comes for you remember that it is democracy on the ballot and the only ones protecting it are democrats!

(#5022) No red wave, just vote and take no prisoners!

      The latest media scare is trying to demoralize democrats from turning out to vote. They are trying to say that republicans are gaining momentum down the homestretch when it is democrats who are gaining momentum. The flood of republican polling that has dubious polling particulars is a tool that the right wing republicans are trying to employ as a last ditch effort to dissuade our democratic party from finishing them off these last few days. I am not listening to any of it because if there is a bad guy out there it is the republican party so trying to tell me that they are winning the swing vote is ridiculous and pisses me off!
     The only ones winning the swing vote are democrats more so than republicans. Because at least swing voters are not all tuned into the lies of fox propaganda not followers of the cult of insurrectionist trump. The republican party has such a long dirty list of bad and deathly behavior that it would take a mindless zombie to vote for them and that is not what makes up the independent group. They would rather avoid controversy thus the no party affiliation. They don't want to be marked as far right or far left so they stay moderately in the middle. Well democrats have tried hard to stay closer to the middle than the far left and the republican party has been the opposite staying closer to their far right more so than the middle.
     Which tells me that the independents will break toward democrats when they vote. As long as our democratic base gets out and votes we will be certain to keep both houses of Congress with the help from a majority of independents. So forget about the polling and focus on getting your vote in. What I am watching are the raw number of early voters and which states are reporting. If we can closely match or exceed the record breaking numbers of 2018, 36 million early voters, 28 million early voters of this morning, then we will triumph on election eve when the votes are released. This weekend will end early voting so expect a lot of votes cast this week to get us to the point where we democrats are leading, not necessarily in the polls, but in the final vote count.

(#5021) The republican party is the insurrection authoritarian party!

      There is no need for me to provide proof of my claim in the header, just listen to most republicans running for office or their handlers. They have decided to come out of the shadows and stand by their narrative of destroying democracy, controlling women, hating on people of color, and cozying up to the perfect example of an authoritarian in putin. For all these reasons, when actually only one would have been plenty, the only votes these people should get are from those who follow them in this line of thinking. So every republican vote is a vote to strip democracy from our society.
     I cannot fathom that this is where we are. I posted something earlier to the effect that I shouldn't have to convince anyone to not vote for republicans. You would have to actually be unable to process their narrative when they speak it so clearly for you to vote for them with a clear conscience. I know way too many who are hung up on the team thing. They have always voted for republicans as a rule without having to weigh the positions of republicans that are grave and self destructive. But those days are over now because if the kneejerk vote for the republicans continue they will soon learn that their inattention to reality will have stripped them of any governing decisions in their future.
     For me in my frustration I have said that I am happy that most of my life has been lived so that I don't end up living much longer under the rule of republicans who would allow democracy all over the world to be taken down. I wouldn't have to live in an American society that keeps taking from the working middle poor class and giving it to the wealthy. I wouldn't have to see the doe in the headlights look from suddenly aware republican voters who would find themselves in shock at the cruel brutality of republican policies in implementation. I wouldn't have to live long in the republican utopia of subjugating the most of us to the whims and fancies of the some of us.