The Frankish Reich

Delcious irony - totally lost on the Trumpies - if Lake "comes from behind" through late-counted votes to win in AZ. But this one should've been easy for the Repubs. Ducey (term-limited) was a solid conservative governor. These nutcase fringey candidates are struggling everywhere.

Wow. These are some horrible teams. I hadn't been tempted to watch either one until I got bored tonight. Now I know the truth.

Amazon gave Al Michaels a ton of money to openly mock these Thursday night games. That's the only reason I'm watching.

OK, that's weird. It's ok to be anti-abortion/anti-birth control because a lot of religions encourage procreation? And there were the Shakers, but that's a big reason why they died out. Poor Donny feeling rather irrelevant ...

No, we can't ascribe the absolutely huuuge day on the markets to the surprisingly good Democratic showing on Tuesday alone. Nor is it the relatively good inflation numbers alone. But we can say this: the markets kind of like what's happening. Divided (mildly divided, but close) government makes crazy swings less likely.

So you're saying you've spoken to me. Good point. We do need a rebalancing. It was always said that American politics (as opposed to many European countries) is played between the 40 yard lines. After the last 10 years or so, I'd like to see us go back to that model.

Your point is well taken. The Democratic Party on the national level today bears little resemblance to the very successful Democratic Party of Bill Clinton. But have you looked at the Republican Party lately? How is the Trump 2016 platform - one that was left standing in 2020, the Party leaders being afraid of publicizing it again - related to, say, the Bush 41 platform? The Reagan platforms? As I mentioned elsewhere, there's just one constant: overturn Roe v. Wade. Everything else is different. Free trade? That's so 1986. Balanced budget? Ditto. And on and on. Third parties always fail in our electoral system. But sometimes you need them to carve out a new space in the center and to start dragging the Republicans AND Democrats back there.

What a strange argument. Opposition to Roe has been a litmus test for Republican candidates for at least 30 years. (There were some pro-choice Republicans on the national stage before that, including Bush 41, but he changed too to get the nomination.) The Republican Party has shifted back and forth on almost every other major issue: fiscal austerity was in until Trump, now it's out. Promotion of democracy/human rights in the world was a core principle from Reagan to Romney; now it's out in favor of America First. Free trade was a core Reagan belief that carried on through Romney, but no more post-Trump. But there's been one guiding light for all nominal Republicans: we are against abortion rights, and it all begins with overturning Roe v. Wade. So you won! Congratulations!! And guess what? Now that you can ban abortion in a non-purely symbolic way, it turns out people really don't like that policy at all. Not even in Kansas. To suggest that it's some kind of weird quirk is itself weird. It is a core principle of the Republican Party, ending abortion. Actually THE core principle. The people hate it. That's kind of a problem, no?

The horror! People who might not otherwise vote - or be able to vote in person - actually ... VOTING! Because you eliminated the inconvenience of waiting in a line. Anything worth doing is worth waiting in a long line for, right? If I am walking around town and I see a line, I assume there's something good going on at the end of it and I instinctively stand in it. And if I'm in Anthem, AZ retirement community, I get to combine that line-standing with the culture of complaining. Nothing more American than that. This non-line standing thing? It's downright undemocratic.

But I thought that all those late votes would come in to cement Dem victories. Isn’t this just the opposite of 2020? nevermind. Don’t let that impact anyone’s vote manipulation fantasies.

You’re right. Weird to you and to me. But I think he knows his audience extremely well, and his first order of business is to get enough of that Trump culture war base over to his side. And they eat this stuff up.

I was concerned about Keenum as the backup this year, and nothing has happened to change that. I’d feel much better with Trubisky. I think I just saw too much Keenum with the Broncos. It wasn’t pretty. He’s a standard issue veteran backup, but this team is extremely Allen-centric, and while Trubisky can kind of pull off the Homeless Man’s Josh (can run a little, throw on the run, etc), Keenum just can’t.

Just trying to push this to 100 pages … Kinky Boots Ron strikes me as smart enough to tack hard to the center as soon as Trump is out of his way. If that happens…. Can’t wait for Trump to start spilling the dirt on Ronnie. Should be fun.

Correct. I should note that PA also rejected a fine Democratic Senate candidate, Conor Lamb, in favor of monstrous bozo and future Senator Fetterman.

If I remember correctly, he just dropped 27 bucks on two Red Baron pizzas and a gallon of milk, so … probably making a Kaopectate run?

Oh yeah? If they say we evolved from apes, why’s there still apes? - The Wit and Wisdom of Sgt Valedictorian Herschel Walker, B.A., magna ***** laude, Trump University.

To take a page out of her book: she said it may be rigged. She just didn’t say it would be rigged IN HER FAVOR!

I’ve voted for 3rd party candidates (in fact, I just did for my House rep) as a kind of protest when everyone knows the race is not competitive. But I agree - if the race is truly competitive, don’t throw away your vote.

So I went to sleep at 11:00 Arizona time last night and Katie Hobbs was leading Kari Lake by 5 percentage points in the governor’s race. Hobbs was well on the way to winning. In fact, she DID win. And then I wake up this morning and there’s half a percentage point between Hobbs and Lake. They kept “finding” Lake votes overnight, and they’ll keep finding Lake votes. This election was rigged. It was rigged.* *The United States if Democrats acted like Trump.

They make my kid use VR goggles for a college foreign language class. Something about it lowering your inhibitions in trying to converse in a new language. They all think it’s the stupidest thing they’ve ever had to do for any class since kindergarten. If you’ve lost the 18-21 year olds, who are you gonna convince? The day my job tries to replace the horrors of Zoom calls with Meta VR avatars is the day I retire.

Umm, yes. The good news is this: Justice Alito said “turn it back to the states.” So far every ballot initiative to protect abortion rights has passed or is passing. Even in deep red states like Kansas and Kentucky (so far, by a hair). So here comes the “who said the people of the states should decide? We need a federal law banning abortion.” So maybe it wasn’t about states’ rights and the federal system after all ….

Christian Conservative Lauren Boebert, who somehow believes that when Jesus said “turn the other cheek” he really meant to say “if only I had an AR-15.” Good riddance. Now start your new life as a Fox News special contributor

Gift to The Donald: abandon DeSanctimonious. It never fit, and the majority of your supporters have no idea what the word means. Just call him Kinky Boots. And show that white boot photo any chance you can.

I agree. Once everything was counted, Zeldin surprised. But again: a good old-fashioned Republican (think Pataki) probably wins last night. Zeldin isn’t the worst of the Trump buttkissers, but just enough to give a weak candidate like Hochul the win.

You mean the army veteran, Mehmet Oz? Turkish Army to be precise. You mean the Long-time New Jerseyite? Look, a generic Republican easily defeats bozo Fetterman, stroke or no stroke. But they didn’t nominate a generic Pennsylvania Republican. They nominated (thanks to the Trump endorsement!) a dual citizen of Turkey and New Jersey.