Patty Blevins – What happened?

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An incumbent State Senator isn't supposed to lose. An incumbent President Pro Tempore of the State Senate really isn't supposed to lose. It just doesn't happen. So how did Lacey Lafferty's lawyer, Anthony Delcollo (the guy had as the least likely of Dave Burris' "fightin' three young'uns" to win) knock off Blevins? Or, I guess you might ask, how did Blevins let the seat go?

Someone check in on Celia

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There are a lot of politics going down in the First State and she hasn't posted anything since the 8th. A special election in the 1Oth SD? Patti Blevins getting Blovened? And yet, crickets are chirping in her corner of the world wide web. She even passed on writing up something on Return Day, which is like her Christmas. When not writing about Mike Castle or Tom Carper, she maintains what she probably considers an icy, and detached objectivity. Maybe this election was too much for her? It was too much for me, and don't carry the extra burden of feigning objectivity.

Autocracy: Rules for Survival

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Masha Gessen, who grew up in Putin's Russia, has six rules for getting through the Trump years.
Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization. This will happen often: humans seem to have evolved to practice denial when confronted publicly with the unacceptable. Back in the 1930s, The New York Times assured its readers that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was all posture.

Why We Need a New Democratic Party

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"Bill Clinton and Obama also allowed antitrust enforcement to ossify – with the result that large corporations have grown far larger, and major industries more concentrated. The unsurprising result of this combination – more trade, declining unionization and more industry concentration – has been to shift political and economic power to big corporations and the wealthy, and to shaft the working class. This created an opening for Donald Trump’s authoritarian demagoguery, and his presidency. Now Americans have rebelled by supporting someone who wants to fortify America against foreigners as well as foreign-made goods. The power structure understandably fears that Trump’s isolationism will stymie economic growth. But most Americans couldn’t care less about growth because for years they have received few of its benefits, while suffering most of its burdens in the forms of lost jobs and lower wages."

Some thoughts on starting a political blog

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Although "blogging" has been overtaken by Facebook and other social media, there is still a place for political discourse among (mostly) like-minded folks. Especially in an era in which the mass media, and "news" operations have shit the bed and divested themselves of the responsibility of being fact-finding and truthful, we still need warm campfires to gather around. A place where false objectivity does not give all claims equal standing. We need to know that we are not alone and that we are not being gaslighted. So political blogs still have a place. So if I was giving advice to someone just starting one in some place like Arizona, say, I'd say this:
Aaron Sorkin’s letter to his wife and daughter

Aaron Sorkin’s letter to his wife and daughter

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Sorkin Girls, Well the world changed late last night in a way I couldn’t protect us from. That’s a terrible feeling for a father. I won’t sugarcoat it—this is truly horrible. It’s hardly the first time my candidate didn’t win (in fact it’s the sixth time) but it is the first time that a thoroughly incompetent pig with dangerous ideas, a serious psychiatric disorder, no knowledge of the world and no curiosity to learn has. And it wasn’t just Donald Trump who won last night—it was his supporters too. The Klan won last night. White nationalists. Sexists, racists and buffoons. Angry young white men who think rap music and Cinco de Mayo are a threat to their way of life (or are the reason for their way of life) have been given cause to celebrate. Men who have no right to call themselves that and who think that women who aspire to more than looking hot are shrill, ugly, and otherwise worthy of our scorn rather than our admiration struck a blow for misogynistic shitheads everywhere. Hate was given hope. Abject dumbness was glamorized as being “the fresh voice of an outsider” who’s going to “shake things up.” (Did anyone bother to ask how? Is he going to re-arrange the chairs in the Roosevelt Room?) For the next four years, the President of the United States, the same office held by Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, F.D.R., J.F.K. and Barack Obama, will be held by a man-boy who’ll spend his hours exacting Twitter vengeance against all who criticize him (and those numbers will be legion). We’ve embarrassed ourselves in front of our children and the world. And the world took no time to react. The Dow futures dropped 7,000 points overnight. Economists are predicting a deep and prolonged recession. Our NATO allies are in a state of legitimate fear. And speaking of fear, Muslim-Americans, Mexican-Americans and African-Americans are shaking in their shoes. And we’d be right to note that many of Donald Trump’s fans are not fans of Jews. On the other hand, there is a party going on at ISIS headquarters. What wouldn’t we give to trade this small fraction of a man for Richard Nixon right now? So what do we do?

Thought Experiment: Is it time for all good Liberals and Progressives to flood into the Green Party?

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I know, I know. Just read this and hear me out below the fold...
"As the center shifts right, liberals press closer to the center in order (being practical and realistic) to forestall the calamity of finding themselves too far out. As they rush in this direction, the equilibrium of the system necessarily shifts right again--and the cycle repeats...The secret of the whole process is the political vacuum on the left. There is no left opposition in American politics. It is this vacuum which pulls the new Right out of the walls." --Hal Draper, "The Ultra Right and the Liberals" (1962)