November 10

 Good Morning. The temperature is much more fall like. The leaves are nearly done and down. I have been thinking for several days that I need to get out and sweep up the leaves to mulch the plants I hope will survive the winter. We have had a series of medical appointments lately and a new family physician after several years of disappointments--doctors who don't take Medicare only patients, doctors not taking new patients at all, doctors who didn't listen, and those with whom Mom didn't connect. Those took time and energy. I did go out and pull the remains of the impatiens and dahlias.

The election results aren't fully in yet. Even so some things are fairly clear: the Republicans have a very narrow majority in the House and may (may) get a narrow majority in the Senate but may have another two years of an evenly divided chamber with VP Harris as the tie breaker. Many of the Big-Lie boosters and those who pledged they would invalidate election results (past, present, and future) they disagreed with lost. Three states put the protection of abortion in their constitutions and another refused to put an abortion ban in their's. And so many of the pro-Dobbs candidates lost. The "Red wave" turned into a "Red puddle" for which I am very glad. 

It will be interesting to see what kind of a pretzel spineless Kevin McCarthy will have to twist himself into to get the Speakership (if he gets it at all.) And at least one Senator has come out opposing Mitch McConnell's leadership so that might turn into a donnybrook. There is also a question of how the Democratic leadership will shake out. It might be a good time for Pelosi and the other octogenarians in leadership to step aside and take the role of elder advisors to a younger crop.

This is an interesting development out of the election: Three states have passed constitutional amendments banning "involuntary servitude" (a.k.a., slavery) as a punishment for crime. I didn't realize that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution banned involuntary servitude EXCEPT as punishment for convicted criminals. That is how the infamous "chain-gangs" (e.g., Cool Hand Luke) which provided cheap labor for states and private individuals (a.k.a., large landowners). Evidently four other states have passed similar bans previously. Maybe by the 200th anniversary of the 13th Amendment most, if not all, of the states will ban servitude entirely.

The one thing I draw from the election is that neither party got an endorsement from the electorate. In other words, few people feel any great love for either party because neither is really meeting our needs. And I don't think voters are impressed by screeching about a problem but offering no realistic plan for dealing with it. Or even a bit of humility in noting that, perhaps, the problem did not originate with either party or entirely from within our own country. A big example of that is the "discussion" of inflation. So many of the economic problems are beyond the ability of politicians to ameliorate.

Although I think calling this election over is a bit premature since Georgia has a senatorial run off, and Arizona and Nevada are still counting. However, I agree with almost all of what Infidel753 writes here.