Paved with sedition

       Despite the prospect of appeal, it looks like Stewart Rhodes, the Yale educated insurrectionist will be spending his golden years in federal prison.  Unless of course Cheeto Jesus manages to avoid the same fate and wins the election in 2024.

       Rhodes, a former staffer of Ron Paul was tried and convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6 riot at the Capitol in 2021.   The charge is rarely made and the evidence must be overwhelming to convince a jury the person in the dock actually wanted to overthrow a legitimately elected government.  Assuming the DOJ makes good on Merrick Garland's pledge to hold everyone involved in the insurrection accountable this conviction bodes ill for the twice impeached failed former president.

Kale, politics and advent

      A more diverse trio would be hard to imagine, but yesterday, after some rain and warm weather, I continued to harvest kale in the garden.  After two weeks of freezing temperatures which put everything else besides the collard greens into a season ending swoon, the kale looked none the worse for wear.  As long as it can take up moisture through its roots, kale is good down to temps in the low teens.  Collards are a little more tender, but so far they are surviving also.

     Meanwhile, in politics, Mike Pence can't seem to make up his mind whether to grovel at the altar of tRump or commit sacrilege and go his own way.  Kevin McCarthy continues to try and placate the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene in order to secure enough votes for the Speakership.  Why he wants to subject himself to the humiliation this will eventually come his way is beyond my understanding.

     Finally, tis the season for the Divine Mrs. M and I to sing in our chorus.   This year's concert will feature Handel's Messiah and it promises to be a glorious rendition if I do say so myself.  If you are in Plattsburgh this coming weekend we will be performing at 3 p.m. on Sunday in the Giltz auditorium at Plattsburgh State.  Come one, come all.

Not so mighty

        According to a recent article in the NYT, excessively dry weather in its watershed has left long stretches of the Mississippi River at the lowest levels seen since records have been kept.  The piece goes on to say that shipping will become more expensive for the $17 billion agricultural products which pass down the river to ports on the Gulf of Mexico.  The lower water levels will force shippers to put less weight on barges which will increase traffic on the diminished river.

      The same thing is happening on the Rhine river in Europe.  Even popular river cruises are being interrupted by low water levels.   Much of Germany's industrial production moves on the Rhine, so it will cost more to transport goods, again leading to higher prices for consumers.

     We face an existential crisis as climate change becomes more apparent and starts affecting things like water levels in rivers.  It is a short step from higher freight pricing to water shortages and rationing in cities around the world.   The alarm bells are ringing.   Will we answer them or hit the snooze button one more time?

Will it ever end?

        Sarah Palin lost her bid to "represent" Alaska in the House of Representatives.   Does this mean our long national nightmare is over.  One can hope.  However, her spiritual descendants, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene have Palin's stchick down, so no, the nightmare will continue.  

      How Palin came to represent all the worst impulses of the GOP is fodder for a doctoral thesis,  but to put it in plain terms, Palin was and her ideological soul mates in the 2020s combine the American male fetishization of women with a toxic shout out to the worst, sexist impulses of the white male party members.  Had she been a little more on point during the 2008 campaign, she would have been a heartbeat away from the presidency.  If she was a little less lazy, she could have captured the 2012 nomination.   Fortunately for us, she was and is too lazy to even finish a term as Alaska's governor.

     On such slender threads hang our democracy...

Deja Vu

      Another day, another mass shooting.  Five innocents massacred plus a dead shooter a couple of days before Thanksgiving in Chesapeake, Virginia.  I can hear the thoughts and prayers already.  I get so tired of the pathetic excuses offered by politicians as to why they are unable to formulate policies to end the carnage.  At least stand up and admit you are bought and paid for shills of the firearms industry.

Another day, another hate crime

       Colorado Springs was the scene of yet another mass shooting over the weekend, with 5 people confirmed dead and many injured.   It probably would have been a lot worse if not for quick action by club patrons who disarmed and restrained the gunman until police arrived.  

      The state simultaneously elected Jared Polis, the first openly gay governor in the US and Lauren Boebert, a gun toting right wing crank.  Colorado has been trending more and more Democratic recently, but there are still areas where hatemongers like Boebert can still find support.  Much like New York, Colorado is dominated by a single large city which tends to distort what would otherwise be a fairly red state.

     Right wing violence will continue to be a problem in this country as long as unstable and impressionable people continue to be radicalized and have access to weapons of mass destruction like the AR-15 the gunman was carrying.   It is a problem facing red and blue states and I'm not sure what can be done to curb the violence.

Long live the Queen

       The Queen of Democratic politics, Nancy Pelosi, said yesterday she will not run for a leadership position in the next Congress.  Although she indicated she will remain as a member of the House at least for the short term, I doubt she will stay until the 2024 elections.   Perhaps the most effective Speaker in history, Pelosi became a lightning rod for Republicans who rained down a toxic mixture of partisan rancor and misogyny on her.

      Pelosi's political savvy is unmatched, but at 82 years of age with an ailiing spouse who survived an attack by a nutcase looking to kneecap her if she had been present, it is time to pass the reins to a younger generation.   So, instead of misogyny, the new majority leader, likely Hakeem Jeffries, will have to deal with racism.   Welcome to the world of partisan politics, circa 2022.

Media complicity

      I'm not a big consumer of weekend political TV.  Most of the hosts on the major networks seem to prefer Republicans as guests.   the excuse when the GOP is out of power is we need to hear what the opposition is thinking.  When Republicans are in power we need to hear what they will do with the power.  Funny how that doesn't seem to work for Democrats in either case.  Most Democrats want to talk about boring policy issues, while most Republicans want to throw red meat to their base.  Easy choice.

      Most Mainstream media are fluffing Ron DeSantis, the mini-tRump governor  of Florida.  He is seen as an alternative to tRump, although he projects the same in your face politics as the twice impeached failed former president.   The media is looking for the next Republican Daddy.  Dog help us all.

The Once and Future..

       So, Donald J. tRump promised yesterday to torment us for the next 2 years with his relentlessly anti-democratic brand of politics.  Calling our country a "cesspool full of blood" (does he really believe this stuff?) he vowed to do something about it, although the pundits who sat through the bloviation were not entirely sure what that something was.

      Barring some unforeseen economic catastrophe, America will be in far better shape in 2024 as all the nationwide infrastructure projects kick in, inflation worries recede and the Biden administration continues to support policies helpful to the middle class.  Aside from the 30% of Republican voters who continue to drink the Kool Aid the rest of the country has moved on.  He may well garner the GOP presidential nomination, but his candidacy will be an unmitigated disaster for the party.

A spotty race for Congress

     Despite the lack of a "Red Wave" in the midterm elections, Republicans are poised to take over the House thanks to Democratic missteps in New York.  At least 4 eminently winnable districts were taken by Republicans.   In part, the NY State Supreme court is to blame for banning a Democratic drawn redistricting map which probably would have led to an easier path for donkey candidates.

     More truoubling is the performance of some candidates who took their reelection for granted.  I'm looking at you Sean Patrick Maloney.  After pushing progressive congressman Mondaire Jones out of his redrawn district, Maloney proceeded to alienate the grassroots organizers in the district and spent a couple of the final weeks of the campaign "fundraising" in Europe.   He was outworked by his opponent who won in a Biden plus 5 district.  

      Another part of the problem is the political composition of NY.  The state is essentially Alabama with New York City dropped into the middle.   Birmingham's suburbs are probably more liberal than my congressional district where the execrable Elise Stefanik won by 20 points over a fairly conservative Democrat.  Still, without Maloney's miscues, we might have made the difference in holding the House. 

End of the season

     Except for a few housekeeping chores, it looks like the gardening season is over in the north country.  With temps in the 20s last night, most of the greens looked depressingly frozen.   The exception was the kale which seemed immune from the cold.  I still have to mulch the garlic and clean up a couple of beds.  The forecast for the next 10 days is for below normal temperatures, so most of the golf courses in the area will probably close for the season also.  Here comes the season of my discontent!

A semi circular firing squad

       Democrats are slowly coming to grips with the fact that voters in most cases prefer them over their Republican equivalent.  Promising and actually doing something to make the average American's life better is a popular position.  Who knew?

     In previous elections where Dems were on the losing side, a circular firing squad was engaged with the help of mostly Republican leaning pundits and a bloodbath ensued.  Miraculously, when the next election rolled around and Dems found themselves on the winning side while espousing the same policies as in their previous effort they were at a loss in the blame department.

     This time around, the GOP has become a parody of a political party and its lack of a policy program turned off many Republicans and independents.   Meanwhile, the backlash to the Dobbs decision drove a new coalition to the polls and virtually swamped the so called red wave.  Dems and pundits are looking for someone to blame, but so far the firing squad is silent.

Will young voters and women stay the course

 Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by both parties on the 2022 elections and only a precious few contests were affected by the prolific amounts of cash.   For instance, in Florida, Val Demings raised and spent nearly 72 million dollars and was overwhelmed by Marco Rubio.  Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Mandela Barnes will probably lose to Ron (dumbest man in the Senate) Johnson by less than one point as he was swamped by an October ad blitz which he could not respond to.

    Most of the races Dems won were powered by younger voters and women who see Republicans for what they are, tribunes for the wealthy and those who believe in the culture war issues, namely the evangelical and reactionary base of the party.  The enthusiasm of younger voters will be tested again in two years as the GOP bids for a veto proof majority in the Senate.  Traditionally, aging voters tend to be more "conservative" and Republicans are counting on that and appeals to black and Latino men to bolster their numbers in the face of demographic destiny.  I hope this will hold, otherwise things will become rather grim.

A red trickle

         Staying away from wall to wall election coverage last night made for a lot less stress.  That Democrats outperformed expectations made this morning's TV watching more enjoyable.    The candidate of hate in the NY governor's race was defeated, albeit by an underwhelming margin.  Thanks to an evenhanded state supreme court NY Dems could not gerrymander like some Republican controlled states which has set the stage for several GOP pickups in upstate.  Of course Elise Stefanik won her race in my district.  Absent some major scandal she could have beaten Jesus Christ if he was running on the Democratic line.  

      We won''t know for several days if Dems retained control of Congress or narrowly lost it, but all in all it was a good night for the party and by extension for small d democracy.

Acting out

       Despite most American's protestations they favor democracy, a significant subset of the population have a fairly twisted idea of what government by the people is all about.   Most Republicans support candidates who deny our elections are free and fair, including the failed, twice impeached former president.   It comes down to many, if not most in the GOP wanting a "strong" leader who will tell them what to do and what to think.  

      Writers from George Orwell to Aldous Huxley to Upton Sinclair have warned us of what happens when we put our trust in authoritarian leaders.  Truth is the first casualty when fascists take over.  Individual freedom is next.  

      Today's elections are not a make or break moment in American history, but it may be a turning point.

Blocking the noise

        I have officially muted the sounds of election coverage on TV and newspapers at least until after the elections.   The endless and pointless scorekeeping by the media is so over the top at this point it makes the call of the Kentucky Derby seem tame by comparison.  I will do my civic duty tomorrow and hope a large majority of my fellow citizens do likewise.

Scary times for democracy

       The Republican candidate for governor of Wisconsin stated at a rally that Republicans will never lose another election in the state if he is elected.  The state is roughly split between Democrats and Republicans, but thanks to gerrymandering the GOP is practically guaranteed a majority in the state legislature even if they get less than 50% of the vote.   This is the model Republicans in other states will pursue.

       As former president Obama has stated it is not farfetched to picture the American experiment with pluralistic democracy die in the short term if Republicans gain control of more state legislatures in the run up to the 2024 elections.  Just as the Jim Crow laws in the south led to 90 years of authoritarian rule by white supremacists, voter suppression laws have the potential to lock in GOP majorities for years to come.   The threat is real and we need to take it seriously.

The real crime wave

      In a recent gubernatorial debate in Oklahoma, the Democratic challenger stated the murder rate in that state was higher than New York City's.  On a per capita basis, the data backs up the challenger's assertion.  Instead of engaging with the argument, the Republican just chuckled as if his opponent had made some embarrassing faux pas.

      Rural America is not some iteration of Mayberry RFD.  Awash in guns and drugs, murder and other violent crimes are much more prevalent than Republicans care to admit.  Instead, they yell about Antifa and Black Lives Matter demonstrators and depict big cities as urban hellholes where citizens lives are in constant danger.  Until people begin to agree on basic facts, voters will be treated as ignorant rubes subject to manipulation.

Journalistic Malpractice

       As one pundit noted this morning there are hardly any stories in the mainstream media about the immigration situation at the southern border.   This includes the legendary "caravans of doom" swarming towards the US from Central America during the 2020 elections.  Editorial decisions for many papers and media outlets seem to be made by Republican operatives, not independent editors.  Many claim this is an artifact of the liberal media trope.  Nowadays, most of the media is owned by giant corporations whose agenda aligns more with Republicans than Democrats.  It doesn't take much to slant the news one way or another and it is abundantly clear to any neutral observer which way the slant is going these days.

It's the perception, stupid

        The economy is down, or is it?  Elections are rigged, or are they?  The Republican party has turned to fascism, or has it?   All these topics seem to come down to perception.  Most people, if asked about their own economic prospects are upbeat.  They think the other guy is having a tough time.   Most Republicans profess the 2020 presidential election was stolen, although many Republicans managed to win down ballot races.  Many, if not most non-Republicans feel the GOP has become the party of fascism.  But few in the party now will buy into that statement.

      We are now in an era where social media is the primary source for most people looking for information.   The legacy media; newspapers, television and printed books are falling by the wayside as people remained glued to their phones.   

    It is tempting to go with the flow and believe the truth is a malleable commodity to be determined by individuals.  But no, truth and facts are immutable.   Perception, however is far harder to define and in today's media environment is impossible to predict.