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This has been your latest Election '23 update. Now back to our regularly-scheduled blogging already in progress...
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, November 6, 2023
Note: Today is "Marooned Without A Compass Day." Or as Mike Pence calls it: a day ending in y.
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5 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the first day of Hanukah: 32
Days 'til the San Francisco Coffee Festival: 5
Number of electric vehicles on the road in the U.S.: 2.1 million
Percent approval of the new UAW contract with Ford among workers at the first plant to go on strike: 81%
Letters in "nurdle," the name of the blob of toothpaste that sits on your brush: 6
Time it took Australian teenager Sam Sieracki to solve a Rubik's Cube while skydiving from 14,000 feet: 28.25 seconds
Percent chance that Starbucks once again totally snubbed JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND SAVIOR on their 2023 holiday cups: 100%
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Play time…with bonus pootie!
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CHEERS to a sunny preview. In my intro above, I disgorged, at great personal cost and for the benefit humanity, all I know about tomorrow's off-year elections. (You're welcome.) But what about 2024, Billeh? WHATABOUT2024?!! Sorry, I don’t do even-numbered years. For that we'll turn it over to the Daily Kos Elections Team ("The Best in the Business"), which has thoroughly examined the tea leaves, special election results, historical outcomes, tarot cards, and goat entrails (which we assure you were lovingly returned to the goat when they were finished). Their conclusion:
It’s beginning to look a lot like 2018 around here. That’s very good news. […]
So far this year, Democrats in special elections have been doing an average of 7.6 points better than Biden’s margin in 2020 in the same districts and 12.0 points better than Clinton’s margin in 2016.
The MAGA nightmare: Black people voting.
Since Biden won the national popular vote by 4.5 points, and Clinton won it by 1.8 points, that translates to a political environment with Democrats running 12.1 points ahead based on comparisons to Biden and 13.7 points ahead based on comparisons to Clinton. Averaging the two values gives us a figure of D+12.9. […]
As of today, we have numbers showing a great electoral environment for Democrats. And in the recent past, these numbers have not moved dramatically over the remainder of a cycle. There’s plenty of work to be done, but for now…things look good!
Happy Monday, everyone.
CHEERS to more noses to the grindstone. President Biden's Labor Department delivered a happy little gift to Democratic candidates running in this year's elections: more jobs, jobs, jobs! And while the October report wasn't as smashing as previous reports (how could it be?), 150,000 new pairs of hands are now helping build America as we continue the fifth-longest employment recovery in our history, and the unemployment rate remains under 4 percent. My go-to guy for all things economic, Bill McBride, has more at the Calculated Risk blog, including an important, positive caveat:
It should be noted that the professional “expecters” were wrong again. As expected.
CHEERS to compassionate conservatism. On November 6, 1986, mediocre President Ronald Reagan did something decent by signing into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act which, among other things, provided amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants. Or as today's Republicans like to say, "Absolutely nothing happened on this date in 1986 so shut up, shut up, and shut up."
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to the first skinny-guy-with-big-ears president from Illinois. On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Even back then the party had its flamboyant wing. From Joseph Cummins' book Anything for a Vote:
The Republicans held massive rallies and marches several miles long, with hordes of Wide Awakes—Republican faithful who would save the Union—marching with torches and likenesses of "Honest Abe."
People Magazine’s Sexiest Wide Awakes of 1860.
The Wide Awakes wore oilcloth capes and strange black enamel caps to protect themselves from dripping torch oil. In surviving lithographs, they bear a weird resemblance to certain members of the Village People. Boston Republicans organized a rail-splitter's battalion—in homage to Lincoln, every member stood exactly six-feet-four-inches tall. And throughout the campaign, Republican newspapers published countless jokes at [challenger Stephen] Douglas's expense, such as: "Lincoln is like a rail. Douglas is the reverse—rail spelled backwards—liar."
But Republicans got their share of guff, too, as when the New York Herald wrote: "The conduct of the Republican party in this nomination is a remarkable indication of a small intellect growing smaller." The words were wrong as applied to Lincoln...but, as it turns out, spot-on as applied to the party.
P.S. It's also the 162nd anniversary of the day in 1861 when Jefferson Davis was elected to a six-year term as president of the confederacy. True fact: the last two-and-a-half years were the lame-duckiest in the history of lameduckism.
CHEERS to some actual good news from Maine. The massacre in Lewiston stole the thunder from the fact that last week a slew of new laws, passed by our Democratic-controlled legislature and signed by our Democratic governor, kicked in up here. Via email from Maine Senate Democrats:
Fearless prediction: the next legislative session will have some new gun-control bills in it. Call it a hunch. I’m a huncher.
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Ten years ago in C&J: November 6, 2013
CHEERS to the #15 state. It seemed like just another boring day in Illinois yesterday, when…BAM!...outta the blue! A marriage-equality bill passes the Illinois House 61-54, zipped through the Senate 32-29, and sits ready for Governor Pat Quinn's signature. What a terrific surprise:
In addition to giving Minnesota and Iowa some welcome midwest company in the same-sex marriage club, Illinois nuzzles the Mason-Dixon line, and is now perfectly poised to blast gay rays right into the heart of Dixie. Our plan is unfolding perfectly. (Please: no maniacal laughter as it might arouse suspicion.)
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And just one more…
CHEERS to blowing this popsicle stand. Whenever the shit gets too deep here on the bluish-brown marble, I head over to NASA's site to see if our new Space Force is conquering every ball of gas and rock in the known galaxy. Sorry to say the answer is no, so we'll just have to spend our days and nights gazing yonward and dreaming. Here's NASA's Preston Dyches with a preview of what you'll be seeing in November:
YouTube Video
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We now return you to life on Earth. Sorry.
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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