by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
While America's White Nationalists somehow managed to increase their stranglehold on the United States Senate yesterday, the other chamber in Congress, the House of Representatives, fell into the hands of Democratic Party. The Democratic House majority is historic in that it offers up the first real opportunity for any government oversight of the excesses of the Trump administration. But it will also, many fear, offer up the ideal boogeyman for Trump to run against in 2020.
One of the best bits of news came early in the evening when it was announced that Kim Davis, the Republican County Clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky was defeated in her re-election bid. Davis had made international news back in 2015 when she went to jail for five days for refusing to sign the marriage certificates of gay couples who were married in her county. After the novelty of her bigotry waned and Republican politicians quit dropping by to get their pictures taken with her, Davis wrote a book which claimed that she had been working under "God's authority." Well, last night God apparently abandoned the thrice-divorced Rowan County Clerk.
From that point on, however, the news was more of a mixed bag.
Rising Democratic star Beto O'Rourke lost his effort to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, although it has yet to be determined just how many other Texas Democrats O'Rourke pulled across the finish line to victory in his amazingly strong race.
(Another very eloquent candidate lost a Senate race in Illinois to an incumbent in 1858 - and went on to be elected President of the United States two years later. That candidate who inspired a nation through his performance in a series of backwoods debates was Abraham Lincoln. Just sayin . . .)
Democrats moved a couple of major Republican sleaze balls to the unemployment lines including Scott Walker, the two-term governor of Wisconsin, and Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State in Kansas who lost his bid to become the state's governor. The defeat of Kobach, an architect of voter suppression legislation in Arizona and the person who chaired Trump's ill-fated effort to make the movement flourish at the national level, was particularly sweet for progressives.
As of this writing at least two very important races have yet to be determined. Stacey Abrams is apparently trailing Georgia's Secretary of State (and chief vote suppressor) Brian Kemp in a race for governor of Georgia that is still too close to call, and votes are still being tallied in Arizona's Senate contest between two members of Congress: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McSally.
My Kansas grandchildren will soon have a Republican governor and a Republican to represent them in Congress. Kansas, you rock!
And, of course, the big headline of the evening is that Democrats have retaken the House of Representatives. They needed twenty-three new seats for control, and the latest figures indicate that they will have at least thirty. Now, if they could just figure out a way to scoot Nancy Pelosi out of the way, better days would be at hand!
One more "high" note of interest is that Missouri has officially joined with the majority of the nation (thirty-one other states and the District of Columbia) in approving the use of marijuana for medical purposes. There were three provisions to that effect on the Missouri ballot with two failing and one passing with over 65% of the vote. The one that passed is an amendment to the state constitution which puts control of who can legally use pot for medicinal purposes with physicians. A tax of four-percent is included that will be used to benefit veteran's groups. Individuals with a valid prescription will be allowed to grow up to six flowering marijuana plants for their personal use.
A rise in home gardening is predicted!
Staying high might be one way to handle all of the political theatre that is sure to ensue as subpoenas and indictments begin flying over the course of the next two years. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, because it's sure as hell going to be a bumpy ride!
Citizen Journalist
While America's White Nationalists somehow managed to increase their stranglehold on the United States Senate yesterday, the other chamber in Congress, the House of Representatives, fell into the hands of Democratic Party. The Democratic House majority is historic in that it offers up the first real opportunity for any government oversight of the excesses of the Trump administration. But it will also, many fear, offer up the ideal boogeyman for Trump to run against in 2020.
One of the best bits of news came early in the evening when it was announced that Kim Davis, the Republican County Clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky was defeated in her re-election bid. Davis had made international news back in 2015 when she went to jail for five days for refusing to sign the marriage certificates of gay couples who were married in her county. After the novelty of her bigotry waned and Republican politicians quit dropping by to get their pictures taken with her, Davis wrote a book which claimed that she had been working under "God's authority." Well, last night God apparently abandoned the thrice-divorced Rowan County Clerk.
From that point on, however, the news was more of a mixed bag.
Rising Democratic star Beto O'Rourke lost his effort to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, although it has yet to be determined just how many other Texas Democrats O'Rourke pulled across the finish line to victory in his amazingly strong race.
(Another very eloquent candidate lost a Senate race in Illinois to an incumbent in 1858 - and went on to be elected President of the United States two years later. That candidate who inspired a nation through his performance in a series of backwoods debates was Abraham Lincoln. Just sayin . . .)
Democrats moved a couple of major Republican sleaze balls to the unemployment lines including Scott Walker, the two-term governor of Wisconsin, and Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State in Kansas who lost his bid to become the state's governor. The defeat of Kobach, an architect of voter suppression legislation in Arizona and the person who chaired Trump's ill-fated effort to make the movement flourish at the national level, was particularly sweet for progressives.
As of this writing at least two very important races have yet to be determined. Stacey Abrams is apparently trailing Georgia's Secretary of State (and chief vote suppressor) Brian Kemp in a race for governor of Georgia that is still too close to call, and votes are still being tallied in Arizona's Senate contest between two members of Congress: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McSally.
My Kansas grandchildren will soon have a Republican governor and a Republican to represent them in Congress. Kansas, you rock!
And, of course, the big headline of the evening is that Democrats have retaken the House of Representatives. They needed twenty-three new seats for control, and the latest figures indicate that they will have at least thirty. Now, if they could just figure out a way to scoot Nancy Pelosi out of the way, better days would be at hand!
One more "high" note of interest is that Missouri has officially joined with the majority of the nation (thirty-one other states and the District of Columbia) in approving the use of marijuana for medical purposes. There were three provisions to that effect on the Missouri ballot with two failing and one passing with over 65% of the vote. The one that passed is an amendment to the state constitution which puts control of who can legally use pot for medicinal purposes with physicians. A tax of four-percent is included that will be used to benefit veteran's groups. Individuals with a valid prescription will be allowed to grow up to six flowering marijuana plants for their personal use.
A rise in home gardening is predicted!
Staying high might be one way to handle all of the political theatre that is sure to ensue as subpoenas and indictments begin flying over the course of the next two years. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, because it's sure as hell going to be a bumpy ride!
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