Good morning.
Midweek in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of forty-five. Sunrise is 6:39 AM and sunset 4:37 PM, for 9h 58m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 74.4% of its visible disk illuminated. Counting from 11.9.16 as the first day, today is the {tooltip}three hundred sixty-fourth day.{end-texte}Days since Trump’s election, with 11.9.16 as the first day.{end-tooltip}
On this day in 1942, Britain and the United States undertake Operation Torch, in which those nations began an invasion of French North Africa. On this day in 1870, Increase Lapham issues the first national weather forecast, for “high winds and falling temperatures for Chicago, Detroit and the Eastern cities.”
National Election Roundup —
Anti-Trump Republican Consultant Rick Wilson sums up Trumpism’s influence last night–
“Be more Trump!” is like an oncologist telling you, “Smoke three packs of unfiltered Camels a day and this lung cancer will clear right up.”
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) November 8, 2017
Virginia. Democrat Ralph Northam wins big, exceeding pre-election forecasts, and besting previous Democratic victories in against Virginia:
Axios’s Mike Allen quotes Larry Sabato:
U.Va.’s Larry Sabato told me there’s one explanation: “Donald Trump. He really is deeply unpopular in urban-suburban Virginia. Voter after voter wanted to send him a message, and said so. Of course, he won’t listen, but the message was sent.”
(Beyond that, Democrats did well in the Virginia House of Delegates, including Danica Roem’s legislative victory, where “Virginia’s most socially conservative state lawmaker was ousted from office Tuesday by Danica Roem, a Democrat who will be one of the nation’s first openly transgender elected officials and who embodies much of what Del. Robert G. Marshall fought against in Richmond.”)
Georgia. In Georgia, Democrats pick up three legislative seats in special elections.
St. Petersburg, Fla. Voters re-elected Mayor Rick Kriseman (D). Republican consultant Rick Wilson reminds that his Republican challenger looked strong earlier in the year, but Trump’s unpopularity helped sink another Republican.
Charlotte. Democrat Vi Lyles easily defeated Republican Kenny Smith on Tuesday to become Charlotte’s first African-American female mayor (“Lyles took about 58 percent to Smith’s 42 percent in unofficial returns. She carried precincts throughout the city, including a handful in south Charlotte.”)
New Jersey. Democrat Phil Murphy beat unpopular Chris Christie’s lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno (“As of Wednesday morning, with 99 percent of districts reporting, Murphy led Guadagno by about 13 percentage points — 55.4 percent to 42.5 percent, according to the Associated Press. Murphy was ahead by nearly 250,000 voters — 1.12 million to 859,000.”)
Maine. Maine’s voters decided to expand Medicaid coverage in a ballot referendum. Trump-supporting Gov. Paul LePage (R) had been fighting the effort. Trump’s made the Affordable Care act more popular than ever.
Washington state. Democrat Manka Dhingra won the 45th Senate District seat, and so Democrats take control of both chambers of the Washington legislature.
Democrats now control all the legislative chambers and the three executive offices in Washington, Oregon, and California. The entire west coast is blue.
Last night, Trump tried to reassure his low-information base that “we will continue to win, even bigger than before!” Reporter Daniel Daniel notes that Donald Trump made 32 false claims last week, 835 since his inauguration.
Promising his supporters they will be winning bigger than before would count as false claim # 836.
Here’s how sheep with cameras got some tiny islands onto Google Street View:
The pendulum is always swinging the slowest just after reversal. If last night’s election results are any indication, though, it is picking up speed rapidly. The R-team got clubbed like baby seals, coast-to-coast. I suspect that there is a lot of retrenching going on in Republican 2018 campaign committees right now.
The dilemma that a Republican has to face has horns like a bull moose. Run as a Trumper, basking in the diminishing light of his faded glory, or run as an anti-Trumper (A.K.A.: Sane) and get set upon by Trump, Breitbart, and the anarchist smear-merchants as a comm-symp RINO squish. Neither direction has a happy ending, by the look of it. The Trumpers have a demonstrated nasty streak, yet have the same general popularity rating as shingles. What to do??
I take some hope from last night’s results that a measure of sanity may be returning to our political system. Christie-ism is clearly on the wane in NJ. Maine pushed Obamacare so far up Paul Page’s ass that it is now firmly wedged behind his epiglottis. Perhaps there is hope for Wisco-World as well? I’m daring to dream…
What will really blow the Republican party up, should Kennedy come to his senses and follow thru with his threats, is political Gerrymandering being outlawed. That, if it happens, will be epic.
The gerrymandering challenge is so critical – strangely drawn but partisan districts have allowed Republicans disproportionate power, while simultaneously transforming the GOP into a nativist party. Kennedy has the chance to do something truly right and influential – few people will ever have a chance so significant as his in Gill.
‘The same general popularity rating as shingles’ – yes, closing in on that undesirable metric. There’s a vaccine, I think, for shingles, and the reduction of gerrymandering would work a similar power: an electorate protected from something painful and debilitating.
Ryan, today, after last night’s results, wants to double-down on his tax plan. Good luck. Pelosi lost the speakership and remained minority leader. That probably won’t be true with Ryan – if the House GOP loses (with Ryan retaining his seat), he’ll not likely be minority leader. He’ll be kicked to the curb, and it will have been his own fault for subservience to Trump. Not a single salty tear will be worth shedding.