It’s morning in Albuquerque, if not throughout America.
The Donks took the U.S. House, which means, as Charlie Pierce notes, “for the first time in two years, there is an institution of the government that is neither afraid of, nor controlled by, the president*.”
But the Elefinks held the Senate, even padding their slim edge. So, yeah. The Turtle will be with us for a while yet.
Elsewhere, Wisconsin shitcanned Scott Walker, and Kansas told Kris Kobach they’d had quite enough of him and his racist machinations, thanks all the same. “Carried by prayer,” me bollocks. The Lord works in mysterious ways, shit-for-brains. Back to remedial law school wi’ ye.
Up in Colorado, Mike Coffman finally got his. And my former state elected a gay Jew as governor while keeping Lil’ Dougie Lamborn in the House despite his long record of doing not much beyond running his fat yap and cashing checks. As I said, the Lord works in mysterious ways, when He works at all.
Florida was a trainwreck, because, well, Florida, man. The best thing to come out of that hot mess was SNL’s Pete Davidson observing that Rick Scott “looks like someone tried to whittle Bruce Willis out of a penis.”
Something smells in Georgia, too, and it’s not cherry blossoms. Brian Kemp had his fat white thumb on the scales there, and I’d guess that investigation he ordered in the final days of the election is pointed in the wrong direction.
Speaking of odors, a dead Republican pimp won election to the state Assembly in Nevada. I think he should be seated, if only as a wake-up call to the electorate.
Here in New Mexico the Donks crushed it. The hoped-for blue wave dreamed of nationwide may not have arisen, but we had one here. Props to Herself for working the phones and canvassing the electorate. Thanks in part to her hard work, the former federale Melanie Ann Stansbury ousted longtime incumbent Jimmie Hall in our own little state-House contest.
There’s more out there I haven’t yet managed to absorb along with just one cup of coffee, but I’d have to award a qualified “well done” so far. You don’t want to hand the Donks everything all at once and expect them to do anything with it beyond fucking up.
Mad Blog Media 
Unfortunately here in SW VA, the 9th district was taken by the incumbent Griffith, someone who just loves Mr. Trump, and by enough that there are some of us who believe there was real skulduggery at work in the results. Or maybe I just don’t want to admit I live with way more Nazis than honest people.
I’d like to see a breakdown by region within my district.
I am not as optimistic. None of these races, that I am aware of, was decided by the real issues. So, I expect 2 more years of partisan dominance or gridlock at all levels of government, a warming climate, water shortages, food shortages, global population exceeding 8 billion, catastrophic wild fires, more severe weather, pension fund failures, more poverty, record spending, record deficits, record debt, decaying infrastructure, more expensive health care, and endless war. The other countries in the world would be wise to ignore us and move on. Our world leadership is over.
Time for a ride.
Pat, that’s kinda why I am a pretty depressed Democrat this morning. Maybe we better get that next bike ride in before things go further to hell.
I forgot more mass shootings. Brought to you by the fine folks at the NRA.
This guy was an ex-Marine and the gun was legal in A-rated California. Not a fan of the NRA but not sure we can blame the NRA for this one.
Thanks for the link to the article Khal. He had an extended capacity magazine for the Glock 21. Illegal to buy in California, but legal to buy in neighboring states without ID. thanks to the NRA push to rescind the 1994 gun control law. So, I blame the NRA and the politicians who take their money. The US flag hs been ordered flown at half-staff 9 times this year. Five of those times have been for mass shootings.
Extended capacity magazines are illegal in Maryland, but gun shops got around that minor inconvenient law by selling something called an “upgrade kit”. Since it is not a banned product, anyone can extend their weapons impact.
The ’94 law had a sunset provision of 10 years in order to get bipartisan support. So it sunsetted under Bush and a GOP Congress. Back then, there was no real lobbying group butting heads with the NRA. That has changed. Even with a GOP president, House, and Senate, no pro-gun bills were passed since 2016, including ones that might have some usefulness such as creating uniform rules across all 50 so folks can’t drive to AZ from CA and buy those magazines.
I have suggested a middle ground for ECMs and ARs but all that has done is get me on the shit list for both sides of this issue. Can be found here. https://mikethegunguy.com/2018/10/31/khal-spencer-do-we-need-a-human-reliability-program-for-certain-kinds-of-gun-ownership/
Sorry to counter most of your critics, but you’re 100% right. My gun friends and I agree that we need pistols for targets, shotguns for ducks and rifles for deer. Not much need for the others.
PTSD? https://www.abqjournal.com/1243883?utm_source=abqjournal.com&utm_campaign=breaking+bar&utm_medium=breaking+bar
Agree completely with Mr. O’Brien – More of the same… Just like the poor saps in Hell, standing around in sh*t up to their necks being told, “Coffee break’s over — BACK ON YER HEADS!” FEH!
The game is rigged, it’s true. The dealer has aces up both sleeves, this hand looks like a foot, and I’m not drinking out of any bottle that doesn’t arrive at the table with its cap still firmly attached. (Some of the other players look like they’ve already made the acquaintance of Mickey Finn.)
But it’s the only game in town.
One pisser above all others: Iowa’s 4th C.D.
When I signed off with my eyelids, Iowa’s Steve King was running in second place but he seems to have won. Shit. To me, J.D. Scholten was just about the perfect “Middle America” Democrat and I would have crawled over broken glass to vote for him.
Larry’s wife nails it…
You really wanna get depressed? Have a look at this Atlantic piece on the diploma divide and racial resentment.
Like Heather says…
Steve King, Ted Cruz, and the new Florida guy are tied for first in the “winners that no one likes” race. Seriously, not a friend in the world between the three of them. It’s crazy how low a Rethug has to go before his base will turn on him.
Re: Colorado’s new guv
Makes me want to find a certain cake decorator and order up a congrats quarter sheet.
Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are.
Rim shot! Thanks, Steve, I needed that. Plus the ride I just finished.
That was the comment of the week!
Rick Scott “looks like someone tried to whittle Bruce Willis out of a penis.”
classic.
And now Jeffy Joe Billy Bob “Mister Magoo” Sessions (corporal, CSA, ret.) gets the old heave-ho. There is no truth to the rumor that he is to be replaced by Sean Hannity.
Not a good day here on the eastern shore of Maryland. Andy Harris is still our rep to congress, and he is lockstep with Trump. Our Democratic state senator lost his seat to a Republican. IMO he didn’t even try hard to win.
A Republican was re-elected to county executive over a progressive independent (endorsed by the donk central committee) because a Democrat that no one knew registered as a candidate at the last moment. He stripped enough votes to skew the election from people not paying attention.
I am a blue guy in a solidly red area.
And now, for a word from our alternate universe.
This is what we have coming next.
Some of these journos are probably going back to the newsroom and saying, “Fuck this White House noise. Send me to Afghanistan where I can’t understand what they’re yelling at me.”
Discussions on this election, and the presidentail one two years ago, make frequent mention of “college educated women”, suggesting that these are a pro-Republican block but that they might have been swayed by Trump’s misogyny.
To us outsiders, any group prefixed with “educated” is typically liberal and left-of-centre and those of the female persuasion even more so. So I would have presumed that “college educated women” would be strongly associated with the Democrats. What am I missing?
From my cousin Lori Bonati, down in Tucson.
https://youtu.be/z88cqwH6bpg
Up here in the country Jon Testor won even with the dumspter visits (4) hi worthless kids and mike the born again butthead pence and lindsya graham. Thank god for missoula county vsaced us from another stupid decision.
Here in Wisconsin, good ole Scot Walker lost when it was pointed out that he was more about political power than roads and schools and health care. After the 2016 election, the Republicans rammed through a bill that says no one with a loss of more than one percent may request a recount. In a tidal wave of karmic irony, ole Scotty lost by 1.2%.
Ye reap what ye sow. Scott got what he deserved. Good for Wisconsin.
Update: Dirty tricks department. The Republican strangulated Wisconsin Legislature is going to call a special session in December, before Scott leaves office. They want to pass legislation to limit the governor’s powers beginning January 2019
A page out of the North Carolina handbook, eh? That didn’t work out so well for those folks as I recall.
I remember with fondness the days of my youth near DC when there was honest discussion of outlawing handguns outright. Now we simply provide whatever for whomever with hardly a check. This is a win for fascists (look up the def if you don’t really know what that means but most here do) as it keeps the money rolling for the gun industry and their owned politicians. Rule by corporation in deed!
I don’t seem to be able to comment on B Lester’s post above so I’ll do it here.
As a 15 year military veteran who saw 3 combat tours in Namibia, you’re wrong. Firearms have one purpose & one purpose only & that is to kill a living thing, be it animal or human.
I am qualified on numerous weapons & I will not touch one of them again.
My wife wonders why I still have firearms, since I will not eat anything that once had a pulse. I don’t know either. I just like going to the range and I enjoy precision shooting. But I respect every point of view here.
The bottom line is that America has gotten awful. I refer to it as Maslow’s Handgun, i.e., the law of the instrument. I sent Mike Weisser that piece because I think with some of these weapons, the trigger pulls the finger.
I’m finding myself more in line with Hurben as the body count piles up.
I still have a few guns, but I haven’t fired one in years — I’ve always disliked ranges, which make bike shops look positively welcoming —and so I’m probably a bigger danger to myself, Herself, and the neighbors than any evildoer climbing in a cul-de-sac window at dark-thirty.
These things really need to go. If I hadn’t been such an incompetent Little Leaguer I might be able to use a baseball bat for home defense. Maybe I could rely upon my barbed wit.
They need to go? Probably, in the long run, traditions and customs not withstanding.
Fer fuck sakes, Gavan Newsom wants to ban the lot of them, but 40 million Californians driving SUVs will swamp half the islands in the Pacific Ocean and create more caravans of refugees. Talk about weapons of war? How about weapons of climate change? When Gavan pulls the keys out of their cold, dead hands he can have my shit too. At any rate, my will says to melt them down so no one crazier than me gets them.
But like I said, you ought to have to pass some sort of sanity test to own some of this shit. Been there and done that for Uncle Sam, so being challenged doesn’t offend me.
Molon labe, burma shave, etc, at nauseum….
Thank you, Hurben. I’ve led a highly sheltered (read: American) existance. No possiblity of even imagining the things you’ve seen. I neither own nor operate firearms. Some of my friends lean far pro-gun. I try to maintain a middle ground amidst the large number of crazees here. In my heart, I know you’re right.
News update: We no longer live in the USA. Still have US passports but don’t plan to live there again…ever.
Arrived in Sicily Friday afternoon to get the keys to our apartment, unpack most of our stuff and then head out for a pizza at our favorite place here on the island https://cycleitalia.blogspot.com/2018/03/schiticchio-pizza-done-right.html
La vita e bella!!!
Larry and Professor: Congrats! Please enjoy la dolce vita.
That said, I expect you’ll find that La Professora (??) is right about people no matter where you are! 🙂
“Everywhere we are witness to the extreme confidence some people have in their stupidities.”
—Jim Harrison, “A Really Big Lunch”
“Life is too important to be taken seriously”. Oscar Wilde
Oh yes, the people here can be just as stupid as in the USA but they generally eat and drink a lot better. Italians even have a boob in power at present who fancies himself in the same way Fat Nixon does on the other side of the Atlantic!
But at least here the government changes much more rapidly than in the USA so that problem could be rectified soon…I hope.
The advantage to having a gummint that changes faster than I change my bike shorts is that it probably can’t do too much damage by getting things done.
Bravo! May you enjoy your new home as much as we envy it.