“Only a bonehead would try to predict what happens next. So, yeah — ‘Reply hazy, try again later.'”
“What do you think about the election?” the waitress asked.
“I’m glad it’s over,” I replied.
It’s not, of course. And it won’t be for a while yet, maybe not until just before the 188th Congress gets sworn in on Jan. 3, 2023.
When we finally get there, more than a few of the noobs — and plenty of the holdovers — will kick off the session by lying through their artificially brightened teefers as they take the oath of office.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
But before we cross that crumbling bridge over the Styx we have many a long, hard mile to walk, through a wall of sound that even Phil Spector would deem overwrought. Enduring the media’s dissection of the 2022 midterms will be like trudging through an animal shelter that takes in only werewolves, banshees, and howler monkeys, and whose keeper is La Llorona.
The National Kindergarten for the Criminally Insane may change hands after Jan. 3, but you probably won’t get bitten if you keep your hands away from the cage.
If the inmates do wind up in charge of the asylum, Sleepy Joe will get carpal tunnel from ripping their frantically scribbled Crayola fever dreams off the Capitol refrigerator. But he has a generous medical plan. And once he’s past the first few impeachments the rest of his shift shouldn’t be any worse than a casual lunch with Hannibal Lecter.
Speaking of lunch, the green chile chicken enchiladas at El Patio were delicious and the service cheery and superb, all as per usual. I paid my tab, left a preposterous tip, and took the scenic route home through the North Valley, with a brisk autumn wind robbing the trees of their gold.
Tags: 188th Congress, El Patio, Election Day 2022, midterms
Mad Blog Media 
November 10, 2022 at 10:45 am |
Last time we ate at the Harvard St. El Patio, the food seemed pretty “meh”. Hopefully it was just a bad day in the kitchen.
Friend of mine up here had the comment of the day about the Governor election: we were saved from four years of Pepsodent Moments. I still think it was tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber, given neither party seems to be able to pull New Mexico out of its Lantern Rouge status. But I’ve never been a blindly loyal follower of my political party. I prefer the Statler and Waldorf routine.
House and Senate are still sitting too close to call. I hope that in the event the GOP does take the house by a small margin (Grey Lady currently has it as 208 Elefinks and 190 Donks with the rest up for grabs yet), at least a few GOP members are not drinking the Kool Aid. They know an evenly split Senate will never vote to convict Sleepy Joe just as it didn’t convict Orange Hitler. Its all shit-shit show and TV bluster, but why would I not be surprised to see it.
Well, the wind is calming down. Last couple days I kept to the trails around here as one could stick one’s arms off and take off into the wind. Maybe time for a road ride. Meanwhile, I swapped my Stumpjumper tires back to 26x 2.15 as the rear 2.35 is so marginal on clearance that whenever I get a rock caught in the lugs, it grinds itself off on the chainstays. PIA.
November 10, 2022 at 2:47 pm |
We usually hit the Rio Grande location. It’s a straight shot down Comanche/Griegos through one of the older parts of town. Nice patio, so ventilation is not an issue in plague years. Also, Bookworks is right around the corner.
The Repugs need candidates if they want to win in the 505. A former TV weatherman? What did he ever manage besides a green screen and an aw-shucks demeanor? Start with a school board, Skeezix, and work your way up. The GOP’s fascination with TV nitwits while professing to loathe the “elite media” remains inexplicable.
Chilly and windy again today in The Duck! City. I went for a four-mile trail run and had to wear long sleeves, pants, gloves, and a cap. Woe, etc.
November 10, 2022 at 1:26 pm |
I too am glad the election is almost over, but damn near ecstatic about the demise of political ads on the youtube. Wanna sell me a Buick? I can take 15 seconds of marketing bullshit. Political propaganda is another smoke entirely Makes me want to shoot the TV.
So help me god my ass. So help yourself is more their MO.
November 10, 2022 at 3:00 pm |
The texts and phone calls were driving me witless. Somehow the Colorado GOP thinks I’m (a) a Repug, and (2) a resident of Colorado, and the silly shits were just hammering me day and night.
That said, the Donks were worse. Every time I picked up the phone, checked my email, or answered the doorbell I learned of some dire threat to the Republic that could only be solved if a Democrat beat it to death with a sack of Kennedy half-dollars supplied by Your Humble Narrator. They were coming at me from Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Iowa, Arizona, Vermont … pretty much any state I ever set foot in.
Some days a king looks pretty damn good. Oh, sure, you got to deal with his useless concubines, crotch-droppings, and cousins, too, but we already have that problem in our so-called “democracy.”
November 10, 2022 at 4:00 pm |
I read somewhere that the Donks were counting on small donors chipping in to counter the big money folks on The Other Side, which apparently has more billionaires than we do. I think I got about ten emails a day saying that life as we know it would end and the apocalypse would hit unless I immediately sent ten bucks to (fill in the blank). Got tiring. I finally clicked the “unsubscribe” button, traitor to the cause that I am.
The GOP is on a downward spiral in NM. The New Mexican had a good article quoting local political guru Brian Sanderoff extensively. Apparently Dems outnumber registered Repubs by quite a bit, so any GOP candidate has to run to the center and grab the Indies and moderate/conservative Donks away from the CommiePinkoFaggot leaders of my party. But they send out inexperienced wonders like Smiling Jack and people like Herrell. Someone needs to fire Steve Pearce and company and find someone who recognizes reality and comes up with a suitable slate of candidates and a party platform that doesn’t look like it was co-authored by the John Birch Society and Atilla the Hun. Or not.
Was gonna get a ride in but spent the afternoon dealing with a surprise the local rats left under the hood of the Subaru. It was off to the shop to order chewable parts and I spent quite a bit of time under the hood with a HEPA mask on and my air compressor running. Rats. Only thing worse than Trumpists is Rats. But not by much.
November 11, 2022 at 5:30 am |
Every time I “unsubscribed” it seemed like the beseeching came back doubled. But after 2016 I decided that if only 10% of the $$ spent on political elections went into feeding the needy instead, why, no kids would go hungry. So each time I was close to pushing one laptop button or another to help support another Dem in professed dire need, I refrained and kept my powder dry for battles yet to come that will actually help those getting crushed by our lack of action on real world problems.
No wonder POG was pestered so much. Turns out he all but admits he’s got “ a sack of Kennedy half-dollars”. Could it be he’s actually Scrooge McDog lighting up cigars with all those Benjamins he’s squirreled from filching Herself’s eBay proceeds?
November 11, 2022 at 5:51 am |
The last candidate I sent money to was President Obama. None since, and probably none going forward.
November 11, 2022 at 6:43 am |
Most of our Do-Gooder Dollars™ go to organizations that tackle problems the gummint is unable/unwilling to solve: hunger, homelessness, etc.
We have donated to Melanie Stansbury because we like the cut of her jib. She’s a Duck! City gal who did a bunch of staff work around and about before challenging longtime incumbent Jimmie Hall for his seat in the New Mexico House. Ol’ Jimmie thought that seat was an acre of his property, and the 28th District was not exactly a blue paradise, but she beat him by dint of hard labor — your basic door-to-door retail politics.
Melanie won re-election, then stepped down so she could run to replace Deb Haaland in the U.S. House after Sleepy Joe asked Deb to take the wheel at Interior. She won that one, too, and in a big way.
She’s got some water chops, which is good, because we kinda need some of that around here.
November 11, 2022 at 7:54 am |
Jesus H. Now the Rev. Warnock is holding out the collection plate all the way from Georgia. And worse, the rev’ thinks I’m Herself, which makes me wonder whether the Lord has things under control out there.
November 10, 2022 at 2:29 pm |
I’m not sure why we have elections. Our governor was appointed by God.
November 10, 2022 at 3:01 pm |
This God person makes some questionable decisions. F’instance, you ever seen an aardvark? Or Louie Gohmert?
November 11, 2022 at 10:52 am |
I’ll add my “relative” perspective on the midterm elections:
I spent election day doing something a little different. I was collecting a lost Honda CRV. It was covered in snow, had a dead battery and was parked in the field of a rural property located near a little town that is off the beaten path about 120 miles north of my location. The car had been steered there Monday by my wayward mind-altered mother and her faithful little canine friend. After spending the day (Monday) coordinating with friends and excellent multi-state law enforcement help to determine where the lost pair were, I got a call at about 9:30PM that they were found safe, albeit cold and confused. I was able to meet up with the state police and pick her and the mutt up around midnight. We made it back home about zero-dark too early on Tuesday. Later in the day after throwing about 300 miles of carbon emissions into the air we rely on, I was able to get the reliable old Honda home. The car keys are now tucked safely away and an adventure ends with a happy ending. Life can be a cruel beast for some who live long enough.
November 11, 2022 at 11:03 am |
Yikes! Good work by you and the John Laws. That could have ended very differently, as I’m sure you already know.
That’s a lot like how we learned my mom was a bubble off plumb. She got called to jury duty in downtown Bibleburg, a part of town she hadn’t visited on Dog knows how long. She didn’t make the cut, forgot where she parked, and walked home … then called a business partner to say, “Can you help me buy a new car? I can’t find mine.”
He rang me up in Fanta Se and suggested I take hold. And the rest, as they say, is history.
One footnote: When we were having the intervention with her (nobody wants to admit they’re losing it) I dangled the car keys in front of her, attached to their “I Found the Keys, Now Where the Hell’s the Car?” fob, and said, “This isn’t funny anymore.”
It eventually is, of course. Almost everything is, given enough distance. Tragedy plus time equals comedy. But god damn, it takes an awful lot of time.
November 15, 2022 at 4:34 pm |
“a bubble off plumb”? he he. You da man!
November 11, 2022 at 9:12 pm |
I’ve been getting nonstop requests/demands for money pretty much since 2020, the torrent slowed in 2021 but regained volume in 2022 and only slowed to a trickle after the election, but because of GA’s failure to use ranked choice I’m still getting “requests” from that state.
November 14, 2022 at 8:29 am |
Well, the election in AZ went much better than I thought it would. The governor race has not been called yet, and the election denier is already starting her trumpian temper tantrum, but the dem is 26,000 ahead with 93% of the vote counted.
November 14, 2022 at 7:48 pm |
I see the gubnah’s race has been called. The Wicked Witch lost. Huzzah, etc. Though I haven’t heard anything about her conceding as of 7:48 Dog Time.
November 15, 2022 at 5:30 am |
I guess we have to wait and see if her or the other dumpster loyalist concede. Would it be better if they whined and cried like brats and show everyone what they are truly about?