November 14

Here we are at half past November. The cold overnight temperatures have shriveled the top leaves of my hibiscus plants. The rose is still doing ok but I expect it will go to sleep soon. If it warms up I will sweep the remaining leaves off the pavement on the patio. I have a few seeds I want to think about ordering for the spring. My main question is whether I go more for transplants or more for seeds. I noticed higher, often much higher, prices for the seed packets. I expect that the transplants will also be much higher. Many of the plants I might grow are perennials in my zone but whether they can survive on my patio in containers is another question. We'll see what happens.

The post mortems on the election continue and they are as self serving as ever. Rick Scott moaned that they would have won if their pesky voters had just turned up and voted like good little robots. He never asks WHY they didn't. What about the Republican messaging failed to resonate? Was it the fact they had no real program of what they wanted to do if they were returned to office? Mitch McConnell told a reporter who asked to wait and they would reveal that "after we win." Was it that so many of the more extreme position on abortion post-Dobbs came from Republicans? They thought that the heat over the Supremes assholery had passed because women simply couldn't hold a grudge. Well, boys (and it is mostly boys), we can and we have votes and know how to use them. Was it the constant complaints that a past election considered to be the most fair, open and accurate in history (2020) being corrupt and that the one that hadn't happen yet (2022) all delivered without ANY proof at all?

I had another thought after hearing that two election deniers, one who lost big and one who is trailing with votes yet to be counted) have walked their rhetoric back. The one conceded and supported the integrity of the election he lost. The other is softening her claims of corruption in the counting. Question: when were they lying? Were they simply spouting election conspiracy screeds they didn't really believe because they hoped for political advantage? Are they now reversing course because they see advantage to that? What do they really believe? How can anyone trust them?

OMG!!! The latest Democrat to win in Washington State, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, just said what I said yesterday concerning the electoral map. Rural Democrats are an endangered species because the Party has not paid any attention to the needs of rural voters. She addressed those issues and won.