Top 10 reasons Kamala lost

I had said some time ago I'd offer a more complete roundup after some earlier posts. This will have to do, so we have something for today to warm the hearts of #BlueAnon even as they pull their pussy hats out of storage for four years.

Some of these will apply to the 2024 election in general, not just Biden.

1? Joe Biden himself, the big picture, mainly the Dementia Joe. Breaking his one-term promise (maybe he forgot he made that) then, until the last week of his term, being Irish Alzheimer's stubborn enough (or maybe just actual Alzheimer's stubborn enough) to insist he would have won had he stayed in the race. By not dropping out MUCH sooner, he (in part) prevented an actual primary cycle.

2? Joe Biden being full of shit up to the very end and Kamala as a Zionist Cop not rejecting that, nor Democratic national leaders in general.

3? Linked in that No. 2, Biden going Cold War 2.0. That said, he wasn't alone; behind the hawks of Tony Blinken and others on the inside, plenty of Democrat Congresscritters signed off on the Ukraine War and on Warmonger Joe stonewalling Putin day and night from the beginning.

4? White House, and Dem Congresscritter, enablers. Some of that's at the link above. More here at the Guardian:

In public, Phillips was ridiculed. In private, others shared his concerns. Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, recalled receiving a call from a Democratic senator in late January or early February 2024.

“I said, ‘Is there any particular reason why you called me? I’d like to know.’ He said, ‘You do realise, off the record, that Joe Biden is not going to be our nominee?’ I was stunned. I said, ‘What, how, why?’ He said, ‘I just was at a meeting with him with several other senators and he couldn’t even function. We can’t run him.’”

Sabato added that the senator in question tried to raise the issue, which angered the White House. “He was punished, as several of them were. They gave him the cold shoulder for a while. The point is that a lot of people had figured it out but they didn’t care. I’m stunned that they got away with it and have produced term two for Trump and it’s going to be the longest four years of our life.”

More weirdly yet, James Clyburn continues to be as much of a true believer in-non Dementia Joe as is Biden himself, as detailed at that link.

5? Media enablers. Here, I'm talking about MSM that many rank and file #BlueAnon thought were picking on Biden early-to-mid 2024, but even more, MSM-like opining sites. Some of these are smaller, but some are big enough they had not only heard the rumors about Biden's competence; whether being gatekeepered by the people in No. 4, or else having personal interactions, they knew the score with Biden. And kept silent. Per that Guardian piece, some of the insiders at these sites were picking up on at least bits of this a year ago themselves. And for "access" reasons like those above, taking a pass. That's detailed:

The administration continued to play down concerns about Biden’s age and gave short shrift to any journalist who dared raise it.

There you are.

That even more includes intra-Democrat opinion media. Like the full-of-shit Akilah Hughes.

6? Dem Party potential primary candidate enablers. Eugene McCarthy, consequences be damned, challenged LBJ while chickenhawk Bobby Kennedy sat on the sidelines. RFK Jr had jumped ship long before this, but wasn't popular anyway. Ditto for Marianne Williamson. But, where was a Gretchen Whitmer, or Cal's Gov. Pothole, Gavin Nuisance, now among 2028 nomination touts? Hell, where was Bernie Sanders? So, you lose a third time as Dear Leader finds a replacement for the late Harry Reid to shiv you. Instead, you stayed silent, too. That said, contra Krystal Ball and Kyle Kulinski, no, you wouldn't have won. But, you didn't even run. You didn't even talk about running.

In other words, even if Biden was stubborn, nobody but backbencher Dean Phillips would challenge him, setting aside Brainworm Bobby and Ms. New Age, until it was too late to do anything but shove Harris forward.

7? Related. Democrat tribalism, infighting and self-preservation that became ever more visible after Election Day started well before.

8? Beyond Biden, the Democrat Party's general national stance on Israel-Gaza. Even the touted, vaunted, full of crap herself AOC couldn't bring herself to vote against much, because her goal is climbing the Dem organizational ladder.

9? Misreading the midterms. This applies a bit in general, but primarily to Biden. Dems' success in Congressional races numbed them to Biden perhaps not connecting to the general public, discussed at that Guardian link by old Clintonista Paul Begala. Democrats as a party misread the 2022 midterms room for 2024 on Dobbs, above all. The fact that red states, even, in more than one state, extended abortion protections while voting Trump at least as solidly as 2022 shows that. OTOH, Dems made up five seats, with vacancies, in the House while holding Republicans to no gains, and lost only two Senate seats. So, here, the misreading was primarily Harris' — and Biden's before that.

10? Kamala Harris is a bad campaigner. It ain't hard getting elected to statewide office in California. You just have to win the Dem primary. But, her 2020 presidential campaign showed she wasn't ready for the big stage, and other than the post-DNC surge last year, nothing in 2024 showed otherwise. Sure, she had the difficulty of Team Biden staff second-guessing her, as did some Obama alums, but her campaigning in places like Pennsylvania was horrible all on its own.

Top blogging of 2024

Just as in my monthly "best of" pieces, not all of these were written in 2024, but all were in the top 10 of 2024 readership.

Not blogged about, but seen by me at 98 percent totality? The April solar eclipse. And, since it's about sun, moon, calendar and related issues, we use it instead of a "2024" graphic.

With that, let's jump in.

As with the monthly, we start from the bottom and head upward.

At No. 10? No, Juan Soto is not a generational talent, I said last April at the start of the baseball season, and said he wasn't worth $500 million, let alone $600, and certainly not what the Mets wound up paying him, a bloated $765 million.

No. 9 is tied to No. 5 and No. 7. All came from December, and we'll start with No. 5.

That was Dustin Burrows' claim to have enough votes to become the new Tex-ass Speaker of the House, and how poorly that claim seemed to face reality.

No. 7 was my laughing thoughts on current (then) Speaker McDade Phelan bailing out on an effort for re-election.

No. 9 was whether or not the Texas Republican Party would officially censure anybody for voting for Burrows instead of David Cook, and whether or not the recently added bar of a two-year GOP primary ban would hold up in court.

At No. 8 was my callout of Genocide Joe Biden's lies about seeing pictures of dying babies in Gaza. My extension, it was a callout of Kamala is a Zionist Cop, too.

No. 6? Even though I'm not a duopoly voter, maybe there was a bit of wishful thinking that ran behind my 2024 election prediction blown claim.

No. 4? A blast from the past, from 2017 in particular, in part because I posted it a few times here and there on Elmo Musk's Shitter aka Twitter. Actual Flatticus aka Alan Smithee in real life Chris Chopin and my savage takedown of the legend of Flatty got hot again.

No. 3 was an Eastertime Texas Progressives Roundup whose header riffed on my post in the roundup about Gaza and my callout of Charles Kuffner, aka Off the Kuff, for not writing about this, not even the DPS' kettling of pro-Palestinian protestors here in Tex-ass in general and even in Houston in particular. See above, Kuff the duopolist, at No. 8.

No. 2? Because I pushed it all election season long, my detailed reporting on how Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was an investments hypocrite, above all related to Israel and Gaza.

No. 1? Perhaps foreshadowing Luigi Mangione — dental care as heath care and the insurance thereof.

Top blogging for November 2024

These are the 10 most-viewed posts in the past month. Not all of them were necessarily written IN the last month, though; those that were not will be noted.

And with that, the usual drumroll ..... and we start at the bottom with ...

No. 10? This was about climate change cheating in Paris, ie, the "overshoot" that nations and corporations of the world could let global temperatures increase more than 1.5°C while finding (usually tech-neoliberal) angles to then pull us back below that mark. I wrote it in mid-November in run-up to COP29, which, like Paris, did shit.

No. 9? Nothing simpler than "The enshittification of Shitter gets worse." That said, the particular issue I was complaining about was ended (for now?) just a day or two after I wrote. Hold on to that "for now."

No. 8? I put out my version of a Texas Progressives Roundup the week after election day, since Charles Kuffner was too foxhole-crushed to do one.

No. 7? Bob Marley-themed snark (which Facebook/Fuckbook/Hucksterman) kept trying to censor, on the 61st anniversary of Nov. 22, 1963: "I shot the JFK, but I did not shoot the LBJ."

No. 6 was more snark, and election-related: "Librul guilt over Palestine." And yes, "librul" is the way you spell it.

No. 5? Yes MOAR snark. MAGA-sized snark! Riffing on Ken Klippenstein's running the Iran-hacked JD Vance "vetting" research, I posted what was allegedly Trump's "hiring interview" with Vance.

No. 4? Krystal Ball and Kyle Kulinski were full of shit with their left-BlueAnon "Bernie would have won" piece, and I had no problem calling them out.

No. 3? Also serious election-related. It's my election wrap, focused on third parties, and taking a look at the Libertarian Party's presidential implosion, something that the likes of Independent Political Report and Ballot-Access News so far refuse (that's the word) to od.

No.2? My look at the Arab-American and Muslim-American "break point" in this election.

No. 1? Actually made the last weekend in October, it's my presidential election prediction. And yes, I got it wrong. And, I added a post-mortem, that included a call-out of Brains, who still basically denies that ethical mutual funds are the ethical thing to do if you're a third-party presidential candidate.

Texas Progressives talk politics, fall, book bans

Off the Kuff showed that in Harris County, Republicans did slightly better than 2020 in terms of votes collected. It was a downswing among Dems that made them competitive.  

SocraticGadfly takes a look at some recent climate science news of concern, especially in light of the upcoming COP29.

John Cornyn lost his Senate Majority Leader bid.

And ... the Observer has now removed the interim tag from Gus Bova as editor in chief. Way to make him sweat a few months.

Joe Biden is not emptying federal death row, sorry, Slate. Dear Leader didn't do it and he didn't free Leonard Peltier. 

Usually, I'm not that big on Steve Vladeck, but his interaction with Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones at a Federalist Society panel is definitely worth a read. That said, had I been him, I wouldn't have participated, because I would have expected the possibility of being sandbagged. That then said, yes, judges are partisan — but basically, within duopoly party bounds.

Frank Strong recapped the school board elections of note.  

Texas 2036 points to higher education opportunities in prison as a way to break the recidivism cycle.

The Fort Worth Report repeats plenty of previous information that turning out office building lights at night reduces the number of fatal collisions suffered by migratory birds. 

The Current reports that Texas enacted the nation's third-highest number of book bans in the last academic year. 

 The Bloggess assures us that she and her progressive bookshop aren't going anywhere.

John Nichols puts himself on #BlueAnon stupidity watch

The header is a pun on being on a "death watch," and post-Nov. 5, I wish I had thought of it sooner.

Nichols, the columnist at The Nation with the most visceral dislike for third parties, using his DSA Rosey fellating as a cudgel at times, yesterday seemed to think it was a big deal that Trump's share of the popular vote had officially fallen below 50 percent. (It had, per Wiki, as of Nov. 18, not 19, but as of yesterday evening when I wrote this, Wiki had Trump back at 50.0 percent.)

So, Wikipedia itself backstops my first callout of Nichols — he's shooting at a still-moving target.

So, this?

Unfortunately, for the president-elect, the United States takes time to count 155 million votes—give or take a million—and the actual result will rob Trump of his bragging points.

Might be a self-own.

And this?

Trump can no longer claim that powerful mandate. By most reasonable measures, the beginning point for such a claim in a system with two major parties is an overwhelming majority vote in favor of your candidacy. Trump no longer has that.

Certainly won't stop Trump from claiming a mandate. Shrub Bush was only a plurality president, if that, in 2000. Didn't stop him.

Nichols even, much later in the piece, admits this.

That won’t matter to Trump, who claimed a mandate even when he lost the 2016 popular vote by almost 3 million ballots. Four years later, Trump refused to accept his defeat by more than 7 million votes, and denied that majority support for Biden in the 2020 election amounted to anything akin to a mandate.

So, why is this being written?

Nichols goes on to note how Harris was better than this, that, and the other candidates of years past, even as Wiki's page notes her EV results were the worst since Dukakis.

He says she did well and thus Democrats shouldn't despair.

He ignores the massive decline in Democratic turnout, the Hispanic shift and other things that can't all be blamed on Harris running a craptacular campaign, worsened by Dementia Joe's failure to drop out sooner. I mean, per Anton Chekhov, the gun from Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign stupidity in Great Lakes states was in the room in Act I. Then 2020 was Act II and here we are in Act III.

That then said, to riff on Corey Robin? Winning by 2 percentage points or more in an America, er Merikkka still frozen in the Sixth Party System, and unlikely to unfreeze in the near future, is something.

I saw this piece because it was trending on Google News. Probably a sign that a lot of BlueAnon other than Nichols need to be put, or put themselves, on that stupidity watch.

Reminder that, speaking of fellation, Nichols also did that long ago with fauxgressive Randy Bryce, aka Iron Stache.

Texas Progressives post-election Roundup: Some bemoan, others are more realistic, detached and more

There IS a Texas Progressives Roundup in this corner this week, even if Charles Kuffner, still in a state of shellshock at Off the Kuff over missed predictions at the state level, isn't initiating it. I know I got the national results wrong in my prediction, and have no problem admitting it, even without Brains dropping in — though he got his response back. (Speaking of, him quitting the Roundup rather than editing what Kuff sent and adding his own material, which I had been doing months, if not a full year or more, before Brains left? OK.)

That said, I'll lead. I offer an early post-mortem (with other things being posted this week) while also focusing on non-duopoly issues, including a big win for the Green Party in Texas, and what also appears to be an implosion, not just here in Texas, but elsewhere, for the Libertarian Party. (I will have a follow-up when we have nationwide popular vote totals for third and minor parties as well as the two duopoly parties.)

The Trib looks at why Texas Dems underperformed again.

At the Observer, Gus Bova talks about "a lost decade"when it's actually been two now, and never mentions Hinojosa's name. True, it was a day before his resignation, but he's still the guy at fault.

That underperformance went beyond statewide races and the GOP gaining a couple of state House seats. Republicans won 25 of 26 contested appeals court races. The Observer looks at the PAC money behind this almost-sweep.

And, Trump took a majority of Latino votes. He even took 14 of 18 border counties. Bova looks at that, too, and manages to mention Hinojosa once, but without attaching any blame to him. In other words, the Observer largely continues to suck, and Bova as its still interim (why does he still have that tag?) editor-in-chief offers little hope for its future, IMO.

The Guardian suggests that nationally, the inflation, or inflation perception, issue was in large part due to Delaware Joe cutting off the tap too much and too quickly on COVID relief.

What happened to Colin Allred indeed?

The election, re the Texas House, did NOT eliminate Dade "Dade" Phelan from another shot at Speaker. Stay tuned.

Beside the nationwide post-election text messages to Blacks, especially men, some students at Texas State showed their own lack of enlightenment.

Calling out other stupid Blue Anon hot takes over the election

Sounding like Ryan Grim, even though he's no longer there, per my previous post about Krystal Ball and Kyle Kulinski, The Intercept talked last Thursday about Rep. Rashida Tlaib and how she "bucked her leadership" and stood with her Dearborn constituents. First, on the presidential race in Dearborn, actually, fake dove Trump was first. Harris was third.

Jill Stein was second in Dearborn. Had Tlaib openly announced she was voting Green, THAT would have bucked her leadership. Unfortunately, Stein still finished third, but even the Intercept admits she got 15 percent there.

The reason I said this sounds like Grim even though he's no longer at The Intercept? Ryan himself is sometimes pretty good on investigative journalism, but he's a duopolist on electoral politics and slurps too much on AOC and the Squad Fraud, even in a book. He also slurped on Marianne Williamson a year ago. 

==

That stupidity, though, is far short of the stupidity that says Sonia Sotomayor should resign and that Biden should pull an Amy Comey Barrett and ram somebody else in. First, even less likely to be able to pull it off. Nominal Dems Yachtsman Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema would revolt from the start.

That said, there's also stupidity within stupidity. I present this:

Want to blow Republicans’ minds?

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor retires.

President Biden appoints Kamala Harris to Sotomayor’s vacancy with a lame duck Democratic senate majority.

Supreme Court Justice Kamala Harris. pic.twitter.com/ivCRkG7eEJ

— Protect Kamala Harris ✊ (@DisavowTrump20) November 7, 2024

With my quote tweet.

Oh, fucking barf me. This is the most deluded #BlueAnon idea yet of all of 2024 — having Harris replace Sotomayor.
Damn, you people really WILL never learn. https://t.co/cDxkbsMA5C

— TheRealSocraticGadfly-I Voted Commie 🍉☢️🌻🌲🇵🇸 (@real_gadfly) November 7, 2024

First, Yachtsman Joe Manchin and Silly Sinema wouldn't support this, even if the GOP didn't otherwise obstruct it.

Second, "institutionalist" Joe Bidn would never propose it.

==

Oh, here's a goodie! The shitheads at NBC, lead by top non-Madcow shithead Alex Seitz-Wald, claim that Trump won so bigly that it's actually proof Kamala and the DNC didn't fuck up but that Trump's win was inevitable.

And, Seitz-Wald IS a shithead of long standing.

==

I'm still planning an actual post-mortem, but I'm going to have to wait until the #BlueAnon stupidity dies down on Shitter and elsewhere.

The post-election blame game and cluelessness game, Democrat-style

The long knives started coming out, at least in private, even before polls closed Tuesday night. A lot of Obama operatives like Jim Messina had been off-put by Low-Energy Joe's campaign even before he got pushed aside. Then, when Clueless Kamala / Hollywood Harris took over, and basically, even with the problems of a short campaign, took the skeleton of Biden's campaign staff, sprinkled it with a little DNC fairy dust, went recruiting Republicans, and quite probably had a worse ground game than some #BlueAnon were alleging Trump had pre-election, that heated up.

Last Thursday, Philly DNC head Bob Brady hammered hard, and also reiterated Dementia Joe being pushed out.

Harris spox Brendan McPhillips hammered back harder:

“The Pennsylvania for Harris team knocked more than two million doors in the weekend leading up to Election Day, which is two million more doors than Bob Brady’s organization can claim to have knocked during his entire tenure as party chairman,” McPhillips wrote. “No serious person can say they have an answer to what caused nationwide trends in the electorate less than 24 hours after polls closed. If there’s any immediate takeaway from Philadelphia’s turnout this cycle, it is that Chairman Brady’s decades-long practice of fleecing campaigns for money to make up for his own lack of fundraising ability or leadership is a worthless endeavor that no future campaign should ever be forced to entertain again. The thousands of dedicated staff and volunteers on the Harris campaign should be applauded for their efforts in the face of an unprecedented campaign, and will no doubt be the ones who are going to dust themselves off and get back to work.”

Meanwhile, both Biden and Harris let more Gazans get killed, even if that wasn't a primary reason for Harris' el foldo.

Please, more of this circular firing squad. Please, enough of it that Democrats finally look at the shitty shape they're in and the self-inflicted reasons for that.

Sadly, I'll have to bet 400 quatloos that doesn't happen.

==

The two alleged party leaders won't do that, either. Biden and Harris acolytes are too busy shivving each other, and their opponents' bosses by extension. 

==

Chief shivver? Someone who knows how to wield it well, Nancy Pelosi. She blames Dementia Joe for not dropping out sooner, so that Harris, or whomever, could be primary-vetted.

“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary. And as I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”

But? Why does nobody blame Delaware Joe for breaking his one-term plan (technically not a promise) in the first place?

==

The Ax, David Axelrod, calling today's Dems a "smarty-pants, suburban, college-educated party"? Gee, weren't they already moving that way when your boss, Dear Leader, was in the White House?

==

If I see one more Dem apologist, or national media pundit, say something to the effect of "Maybe American exceptionalism isn't totally true," I'm going to fucking barf. We leftists have always known that. And, your statements are pretendian, anyway; they're premised on "those" Merikkkans being not so noble, not you.

==

Ed Buckner on the cluelessness angle, flying his freak flag. You're a secularist/atheist, and supposed to be some sort of skeptic, and you think Kamala ran a good election? AND that she was "ambiguous" on Gaza? I'd already been thinking about unsubbing, and this may have been the final straw.

==

As for the future? Beyond "deep depression," Axios gets it right otherwise. A Veep who was, if not a DEI hire, someone who walked, talked and quacked halfway like one, especially after Biden promised on the campaign trail to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court? She can't be the party's leading voice and won't be. Dementia Joe won't be for obvious reasons. Dear Leader? Harris didn't listen to him; Team Biden, rightly, wrongly, or in the middle, found him and his alums to be condescending. The Slickster and Madame Hillbot? Yesterday's news, and an inflamer of the Gaza issue.

So, why did I get it wrong on my prediction?

Yes, I got it wrong, on my presidential prediction post last week, as Brains liked to remind me. And yes, you got it right.

Yes, I already knew in Pennsylvania especially, and somewhat in the other "blue wall" states, that her ground organization wasn't that strong. I thought Trump's was enough worse that this wouldn't be critical. I'll get to that thought more below.

I probably could have seen that shifting that Overton Window too far right, namely, in explicit campaigning with Republicans and leaning into their comments would backfire, and backfire too much to be overcome, as lackluster Democratic turnout proved.

I said in a Substack note that, despite Democrats' attempts to avoid 1968 problems, this was like 1968 — at least as far as the actual electioneering. Sadly, this DNC, even though it didn't go fully virtual, had no protests.

Anyway, Harris was kind of like Hubert Humphrey, following a one-term president who unwillingly stepped aside. Of course, the Hump had a three month head start and was at least partially vetted in primaries. And, as Jeff St. Clair notes, unlike the Hump with LBJ, she never even tried to separate herself from Biden. (Scarily, he may be right that Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro — IF he's re-elected in 2026 —becomes a 2028 Democratic favorite.) And, as I already knew, per Sy Hersh, the Hump was a better Veep, and a better retail politician in general. Harris couldn't even see the need to break free from Biden.

Obama at least had the additional excuse of appointing someone older, Whiter, and being perceived as more establishmentarian, to try to defuse at least bits of the “angry Black man” meme that some Democrats, as well as many Republicans, may have had in 2008.

What Biden thought Harris offered the ticket, of any 2020 Democratic candidate, whether those who stayed in primaries or those like Harris who dropped out early, I have no idea. Harris may not have been a “DEI candidate, but, IMO, the perception was going to be there, along with Biden’s other pledges, such as that he would nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court.

I read about Elon Musk's GOTV work and no on-the-ground staff, allegedly. Binoy Kampmark said that The Pustulence Scott Presler actually did some stuff. And, per the second paragraph from the top, Mike Elk was among the people who missed this, and he lives in Pennsylvania, which is where Elk is from. So, Mike, YOU blew it. Great labor reporter, but you veered into cheerleading on election-specific posts. I saw that at the time, on the cheerleading, and probably, because of that, should have been more skeptical about your eyesight otherwise. (Update: Elk NOW links to a Latino vote split post-mortem, but still hasn't offered his own Pennsylvania analysis. And, no, requiring white-collar journalists in office five days a week isn't union-busting. https://paydayreport.com/bezos-cracks-down-on-washpost-union-key-western-pa-county-improves-dem-dems-soul-search-on-latino-voters/

For that matter, Klippenstein dropped a piece after voting for the lesser evilism half of the duopoly. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, which, like Pennsylvania, flipped because of her crappy campaign.

Otherwise? Per your piece, Brains?

You don't think it was the genocide, do you? Nah. Must've been something else, like resentful Black men or sexists/misogynists in general or maybe it was Joe Biden, the most progressive president since FDR, not stepping aside soon enough. It probably wasn't affordable healthcare or the economy or climate change, of course. I'm sure the autopsies performed by the Democratic braintrust will figure it out in the coming days. Or weeks. Or months.

Other than Michigan, no, Gaza probably didn't crush her campaign. Sadly,  no. Maybe you think I'm cynical with such a thought. No, that's just skepticism, from where I stand. Most Americans don't give a fuck about most the rest of the world. I've been called cynical before, when I was just practicing good skepticism.

That said, per the likes of Samra'a Luqman, it appears to have brought a new round of Bernie ⇒ Trump voters, for different reasons than 2016. (I knew then that they were less than PUMA ⇒ McCain voters in 2008; not sure what this year's numbers will say, if anybody even parses them.) As I said there, though, I still perceive people doing this, rather than Bernie ⇒ Stein, as people cutting off their nose to spite their face. In that case, schadenfreude is a bitch and that poisoned chalice is yours. You did vote for Trump, rather than a third-party candidate and Democrats’ lies that you voted for Trump.

Other than the general Overton Window? James Carville, who tried to peddle his snake oil, and yes, I'll admit, may have gotten me to stare at the bottle, though not actually drink, said 32 years ago, "It's the economy, stupid." And, no, the economy isn't as good in many place as some talking heads say. 

As for Biden being the most progressive president since FDR? For all his faults on Vietnam, and other things, no, I'll still take LBJ. We can agree to disagree. Or just disagree. To be honest, I'm surprised you think that. I really am.

Let's take the Inflation Reduction Act. Two years ago, my town was on the list for the first year's buildout of electric vehicle charging stations after the Federal Highway Administration approved TxDOT's buildout plan. Two years later, there's not even been a site chosen, let alone a contract let. And, Brains, you know that the Dems' Green New Deal is pretendian, and that Biden has been letting NEW oil and gas leases offshore as well as on land since then. No federal protection for Roe in the pre-Dobbs first two years of his admin. No minimum wage hike, etc etc.

I should maybe have thought about Harris' support among working-class Black men, since they started to question Dear Leader at his second election run in 2012, as I noted a month ago.

But? I also called you out on Twitter.

You voted for an investments hypocrite. She is, and she was eight years ago, and the hypocrisy is made worse over Gaza. You were wrong then, and you're wrong now. And, we won't relitigate that here. Suffice it to say that, even though I'm not a Commie, that's part of why I voted for one. (The fact that everything leading up to Stein being a three-time retread shows the GP is past its best-buy date is another. Let me know if the party avoids a nominee who plays footsie with antivaxxers in 2028; ditto for Texas Greens not nominating another antivaxxer fellow traveler in 2026, while I'm there.)

Some non-twosider election wrap thoughts, starting with third parties

Cross-posted in moderately shorter version at Substack.

Per the header, and per my voting, we’re going to start at looking at the two third parties in America, the Greens and Libertarians. (Per my verbiage, and that of at least some political scientists, the other parties are “minor parties.”)

And we’re going to start with that subhed.

I’ve not seen the national numbers yet, but here in Texas, yes, the Libertarian party imploded indeed.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein finished ahead of the Libertarian nominee, Chase Oliver. Yes, you read that right.

Stein took 0.73 percent to Oliver's 0.6 percent.

In 2020, Libertarian Jo Jorgensen took 1.12 percent in Texas to Howie Hawkins’ 0.30 percent. The ratio was the same in 2016, and in 2012, with both parties much higher in 2016 because it wasn’t in the middle of COVID, which hurt third parties and minor parties, and it wasn’t apocalyptically shaded by both duopoly parties.

Then, it was 3.16 percent for Gary Johnson vs 0.80 percent for Stein. In 2012, without many voters thinking Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were as crappy as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, it was 1.1 percent Johnson, 0.3 percent Stein, here in Texas.

Average 2012 and 2016 and you get 0.55 percent. Stein outperformed that, despite being a three-time retread with investment ethics problems. Side note: Yes, she whiffed on not knowing the exact number of Members of Congress. And? AOC constitutionally whiffed on wanting to cut Congresscritter pay during a shutdown. Take that, #BlueAnon.

Do that same averaging for Libertarians and you’re at 2.13 percent. Oliver MASSIVELY underperformed that.

I suspect the Mises Mice cuck-up in the Libertarian Party has borne fruit. I have yet to see national numbers, but, I have another state number to reflect that.

Here in Texas, the Greens had just one statewide candidate besides Stein. Eddie Espinoza was running for a spot on the Railroad Commission of Texas. Libertarians also had a candidate, Hawk Dunlap.

Both finished well ahead of their parties’ presidential nominees, but the main comparative takeaway is that Espinoza had 2.75 percent to Dunlap’s 2.6 percent.

The second main takeaway is that, under the stipulations of a 2021 Texas Legislature bill pushed by state Sen. Drew Springer, that requires third parties to break 2 percent in a statewide vote once every five cycles to keep statewide ballot access, Greens, instead of facing a do-or-die in 2026, are now good through 2032.

Will they get a better gubernatorial candidate in 2026? That remains to be seen. They had Brandon Parmer the non-candidate in 2014, ran nobody in 2018, and had gun nut, antivaxxer and more Delilah Barrios in 2022. (I think I held my nose and voted Parmer in 2014; with no Green, I undervoted in 2018; I undervoted in 2022.)

For that matter, will the GP national get a better presidential candidate in 2028? The list of candidates a year ago, at the time the party recruited Cornel West, sucked canal water. (And, given the reality of Cornel West, that “sucked canal water” includes him.) Before Stein bit the bullet / decided to pay off 2016 FEC-incurred debt, and after West stepped aside, no “names” like Margaret Flowers or Matthew Hoh stepped forward.

Nationally, confirming possible LP meltdown? At Ballot Access News, Winger says the Georgia LP lost state ballot access, falling below 1 percent on the presidential vote. (To be clear, that's 1 percent of actual voters in a presidential election, not 1 percent of registered voters.) Let us not forget that Chase Oliver is FROM Georgia. And, as part of that, let us note that Stein was nearly even with Oliver there. Considering the old Georgia GP getting the boot after 2020, and related issues, for these results to have Oliver at just 0.39 percent, and Stein to be close at 0.35 percent? Horrible, on the Libertarian side. 

Here in Tex-ass, maybe legacy media focusing on Stein gave her a boost. But, in Georgia, a swing state and the post-2020 fallout I noted? No, that's on the LP. That's implosion.

Also, as mentioned in an email discussion with Jordan from IPR? The Libertarian Party's national convention flirtation with Trump probably contributed to the implosion. While it may not have been totally driven by the Mises Mice, it certainly was in part. The New Hampshire LP's early-on actual endorsement of Trump was also an underminer. All the other shenanigans, both by LP National's board and by some state parties, after the convention only added to this. (I will have a follow-up whenever Wikipedia or somebody likes that gets us the nationwide third-party vote count so I can compare to 2020 and 2016.)

I can't help but think that, even though they didn't do as I thought and run a presidential candidate in states where they had a party line ballot access, either directly or indirectly, that the newly formed Liberal Party has plenty of room to build.

Update, Nov. 18: Wikipedia doesn't yet have a state-by state breakout, but with 98 percent of the estimated national vote counted as of this time, we can confirm a Libertarian implosion, per Wikipedia's 2024 presidential election page when contrasted with its 2020 page. Oliver got ONE-THIRD of what Jo Jorgenson got in 2020. And, within this election, he only got 80 percent of Stein's numbers.

As for why? It's of course speculation on the Mises Mice angle. But, it's reasonable and informed speculation based on everything that happened at the LP national convention and after. That includes the Trump dalliance by the Mice at the convention and after, the similar dalliance with Brainworm Bobby, state parties dumping Oliver from their states' presidential ballots and more.

Again, I can't think but that the Liberal Party has room to grow.

Emailing some sites, Richard Winger responded to me from Ballot-Access News. His only comment was to clarify/correct hat for ballot access, Georgia law is 1 percent of registered voters, not 1 percent of people voting in a particular election. (I have clarified, but, Richard chose not to comment on Libertarian turnout and support issues other than to say the LP plans on addressing ballot access issue for the next election.)

Update, Nov. 22: More Greens than Libertarians, 20 versus 18, won nonpartisan elections, per Winger.

Update, Dec. 5: Since the man technically head honcho at BAN, Bill Redpath, is the LNC's treasurer, and a previous national chair, maybe BAN has a vested interest in not commenting? 

Update, Dec. 6: I emailed the LP for comment, and have yet to hear back.

==

To the duopoly-focused side now.

There will be a separate piece on the “blame game” for Democrats at the national level coming up.  Various Democratic intelligentsia are already talking about some failures (and unsheathing long knives for internecine warfare in some cases), while ignoring a whole set of more obvious failures.

One observation, from a note I posted last night, to whet the appetite on that?

One interesting issue is that this election WAS like 1968 in many ways, despite Dems trying to avoid a Chicago repeat. (It’s too bad there weren’t actual protests this time around when Harris and the DNC stiffed Palestinian supporters.)

You have a sitting Veep trying to succeed a one-term Prez who stepped down less than willfully, with the Veep not removing themselves from the president’s shadow. That said, Harris more willingly stayed in line with Biden than Humphrey did with LBJ. That also said, other things aside, the Hump was a better candidate.

Three other observations?

First, Allan Lichtman’s 13 Keys, discussed in my busted prediction of last Saturday, is officially garbage. That said, he’s repeatedly claimed that he actually got 2000 right but Bush v Gore made him wrong. However, he refuses to admit that only the Electoral College made him right in 2016. So, in reality? From 2000-2024, he has a half-right, three rights, a half-right, a right and a wrong. That makes him five for seven.

Second, that Des Moines Register poll claiming Harris was up 3 points among likely voters in Iowa? Obviously, it was totally broken. Interestingly, in multiple “red” states, including Religious Right, but not libertarian, red-state Missouri, abortion protection state constitutional amendments and referendums PASSED. And, support for these issues translated not one bit into support for Harris or state-level statewide Democratic candidates. This type of ticket-splitting, voting for the party that put you in the position where you pass a referendum to contain them? Innnnteresting. Update: NPR talks to a few of these "ticket-splitters."

Pollster J. Ann Selzer said "I'll be reviewing data" after that total bust. She does note what I noted in my busted prediction, that she had neither candidate above 50 percent.

Also, per a number of other pollsters, at this Beeb piece, Selzer doesn't do any "modeling," other than polling likely voters. Had I known that, I would have been more skeptical when I first saw it.

Third? People who I didn’t think would go in BlueAnon attack mode have. I originally was going to run that as part of the cross-post at Substack, just like the first sentence in this paragraph, then thought of an ellipsis-truncated version, then ran nothing. Here, I'm running it, but adding the name of Ken Silverstein.

Fourth? Lots of commenters at Kuff are in denialism about Gaza. And, ConservaDems like Greg Summerlin are just nutters in general. No, Greg, there's no need to comment here any more; I refudiated all your past wrongness.

And another reason to be frustrated with Claudia de la Cruz

If I had wanted to vote for investments hypocrite Jill Stein instead of the Party for Socialism and Liberation's de la Cruz, as I actually did, I would have done so — I would have voted Stein instead.

Now, I see on Shitter that last week (way too late for early voters), her campaign called for an unofficial fusion with Stein's in some states and Cornel West's (gack!) in others.

I told her last night that if she's the PSL's nominee in 2028, she's not getting my vote. This is the last straw in several.

The worst previous straw was her refusing to attend a third-party presidential debate in Los Angeles, to which she had been invited. She would have had to pay airfare from NYC and a hotel, as well as get a day or two off work. But, that would have been it. IMO, it would have been a big visibility boost to the party. But, she didn't show. 

If this were a parliamentary government, we could talk about pre-election fusion for legislative seats. (We still can, in the US.) We could talk about coalitioning in such a parliament after elections. (Independents do that in the US House and Senate.)

But, in a strong-presidential system, even if you admit you're a "spoiler," no, you run as yourself.

A few last pre-election tidbits

The Texas GOP is determined to use immigration bullshit as a hammer to "turn Texas red" in border counties. The Trib and ProPublica have the details from Val Verde County (Del Rio). The Observer looks at larger border politics battles in Cameron County. Isn't that the base of TDP head Gilberto Hinojosa? It also looks Hudspeth County, outside of elections, where the GOP incumbent is pushing back on some nuttery but not all, and other border-county sheriffs.

Even Danny Goeb refudiates Lara Trump and her lies that Tex-ass voting machines are flipping votes.

A&M International student who is relatively uninvolved in local politics (and not a US citizen anyway) gets butt-hurt that Webb County wouldn't make the university a voting site.

T for Texas and T for trans? Anti-trans ads look like Havana Ted Cruz's preferred path to victory. And yes, per the Observer, he's likely to win.

Exclusive! Apparent transcript of Trump's vetting interview of JD Vance

It seems incredible, just 48 hours before Election Day, but, we've received an anonymous copy of what purports to be a transcript of Donald Trump interviewing J.D. Vance before offering him the vice-presidential nomination.

This is NOT the Vance background check dossier, allegedly hacked by Iran, distributed to news media around the country and eventually published by Ken Klippenstein.

No, this is — purportedy — Trump interviewing Vance for the vice-presidential nomination. The transcript is unedited, other than putting Trump's words in italics.

“Usha? Yeah, she’s a Sambo, Mr. President. But, that’s OK. She’s good to me, and she knows her place. You know, they’re as smart as a whip, like darker-skinned Jews ...

"Boy, you got that right. Like my son-in-law. Scary. You'd almost think he's my son, but maybe he got some of that from osmosis with Ivanka. Besides, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to pull a con on a real con man."

... Or like Chinese without the slant eyes. Like Amy Chua. She was smart enough to see that Usha would be an Indian Tiger wife for me.” 

“You’re right, JD. On those Chinese? That Xi Jinping? Almost as smart as me. People who get lots of power do it only by being smart. Hitler was almost as smart as me.”

“Well, the Indians are Aryans, Mr. President.”

“That, what’s his name, Mode?”

“Do you mean Modi, Mr. President?”

“Yes, that’s it, just like I said.

“Smart as a whip. Some people would call him a fascist, I guess. I just think he’s good at keeping Muslims in control. Maybe he’ll build a wall with Pakistan. Wouldn’t be as beautiful as mine, but it might be OK.”

“You know who’s really smart?”

“Besides me? Putin. We talked about it.”

“It’s amazing how many people underestimate him, just like you get underestimated, Mr. President.”

“You got that right.”

“Thank you.”

“Speaking of Indians, why isn’t Commala as smart as a whip? Did her Black genes overwhelm her Indian genes?”

“Boy, that’s a good guess, Mr. President. A good guess indeed.”

"You know, the smart ones know their place. Like Ben Carson at that debate. He knew to wait for me. Or that Donald guy. Not Donald Duck but ... "

"You mean Mr. Donalds? The Congressman?"

"Yes, that's it. Knows who he is and what his place and role is."

"Mr. President, once again, your analysis of people, and how smart people work around you and fit in with you, is impeccable."

“Vance, that’s why I like you and want to offer you this job. You think like me.”

“Mr. President, I’m sorry I wasn’t smart enough to do that in 2016. I’m glad I am now.

“And? You name it, and I’m your point man. Single women, cats, immigration, how immigrants feel about cats? I’ll be on it.”

“You’re my kind of guy, unlike that weasel Pence that some of the Religious Right talked me into.

“And, one final thing.”

“Yes, Mr. President?”

“You’re in the Senate, right? Whatever needs to be done on Jan. 6, 2025, to make sure all those electoral votes are counted correctly, and there’s no Democratic steal, I’m counting on you.”

“I’ll do what needs to be done.”

The Arab-American and Muslim-American "break point" in this election

Mondoweiss has a good piece on that here. Both groups are in the header, because, especially among Lebanese-Americans, many are Christian. (Side note: A big STFU to Nassim Nicholas Taleb with his claims that Lebanese aren't Arabs, or at least, that the Lebanese language isn't Arabic. Per Reddit, he's full of it, and for the reasons he's been called out over it. More on that here. But I digress.)

First, I'm not surprised that, beyond endorsements by various groups, Green Party nominee Jill Stein is getting pledged on the street support — especially but not just in Michigan. (I didn't vote for her, as noted here before, because she's an investments hypocrite, but she's clearly not either Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump on Gaza, etc.)

I get, in a sense, those sticking with Harris because of lesser evilism. (Sidebar: I get, or rather, I "get," the "connected" like James Zogby sticking with her, but in the case of the likes of him, contra the man or woman on the street, I find this odious. He knows better. And could do better.)

I do not get those who see Trump as lesser evilism. And, the Mondoweiss story spells out why they're wrong, based on Trump's past history. That Samra'a Luqman, extensively profiled, is the biggie. Assuming it's the same person who has a lot of non-political hits on Google, she's a professional person and ergo, theoretically, not an idiot in general. But yet, despite being of Yemeni background — a country under Trump's travel ban, as Mondoweiss notes, she's not only supporting Trump, she's active in that support.

I mean, voting for Stein would "punish Harris," which is what Luqman fought to do to Biden in the Michigan Democratic primary. But, it would do so without cutting off your nose to spite your face. Or, if you have relatives back there, cutting off your family's access to the United States to spite your face.

But, wait, it gets worse? She's apparently a butt-hurt Berner who like other Bernie Sanders  ➡ Trump nutters, has decided to take the ultimate deep dive into an empty pool.

 

Update: Luqman is behind the curve. Stein has a slight lead over Harris among Muslim-American voters in the last CAIR poll, whether Arab-American or not. 

Texas Progressives offer last pre-election Roundup

Kenny Boy Paxton has agreed to stop targeting GOTV organizations while a federal appeals court looks at a district court's ruling that the state law he's been relying on is unconstitutional. The related lawsuit is probably part of the issue; if the Fifth Circuit upholds the lower court ruling, Paxton could be facing punitive damages.

What were the odds on a MAGAt assaulting an election clerk?

Meet Sally Duval, the "pot lady" running for the Texas House.

John Whitmire, afraid of pro-Palestinian protestors. Contra most pro-Palestinian issues of the last 13 months, not just inside the borders of Texas but inside his hometown, Kuff actually wrote something about this, but ONLY to talk about the legal issues, not the Palestinian issues.

This longform by the Monthly goes into deep details of the obvious: the solution for "controlling the border" and migration isn't at the border.

This Atlantic piece about BYWho's Jewish quarterback, Jake Retzlaff, almost certainly, without me knowing details of all the alleged instances, fuses antisemitism and anti-Zionism. I saw it via Kuff, which is an additional reason to think that.

Meet the people profiting off SB 4, the law passed in the last special session of the Lege in 2023 that claimed illegal immigration was an "invasion" and thus Tex-ass could supersede the feds in enforcement and punishment. More on that here.

Off the Kuff has a first look at early voting. 

SocraticGadfly took a deep dive on the issue of newspaper endorsements, both at the two big newspapers in question, and also the big picture, including it being known inside the industry 20-plus years ago that presidential endorsements are of little value. He'll have a follow-up later this week, looking more at the two papers in question.

Your Local Epidemiologist considers what we know about the new RSV vaccine. 

  Therese Odell vents some well-earned outrage over Trump's latest garbage about veterans, specifically Vanessa Guillen. 

Nonsequiteuse explains what your goals are if you experience interference or problems at the polls.

Butt-hurt newspaper editorial page staff are either ignorant of or refuse to face reality on endorsements

Gotta love big, or formerly big, newspaper editorial page/opinion editors all butt-hurt that Patrick Soon-Shiong of the LA Behind the Times or Jeff Bezos of the Bozos Post won’t do endorsement editorials. This Axios piece has more on other newspapers' trends on this.

The reality? Endorsement editorials by major newspapers, certainly not in presidential races, realistically not in statewide races like governor or U.S. senator, simply don't swing the needle.

Update: So let multiple staffers quit both newspapers, like genocidalist neocon Robert Kagan at the WaPost. Let former editor Marty Baron (with his own forever support for forever war) fulminate away, even as Baron claims the paper — where long-time editorial page editor Fred Hiatt saluted every bit of Forever War every American president ran up the flagpole — was once known for "courage." 

In a flip the other way, Soon-Shiong's daughter salutes the Times endorsing nobody, because of the Harris-Biden support for the genocide in Gaza, while specifically noting her statement was not an endorsement of Trump. In turn, The Wrap's Ross Lincoln called her claim "risible," which, maybe it is to some degree, but which also says a lot about where The Wrap is coming from, including on itself maybe running flak for Kamala is a Zionist Cop.

And, with that? I might have to do a second piece off this. Beyond performance theater, we're in the land of hypocrisy.

Update 2: Doctor Daddy later stated that Gaza was a factor in the non-endorsement.

And, this isn't anything new. It's been the case for at least 20 years.

Says who? Says me?

No; so said newspaper industry insider analysts 20 years ago at American Journalism Review. Specifically, author Tim Porter was former assistant managing editor at the San Francisco Examiner and crunched the information, along with noting politicos halfway admit this was the case back then. I remember reading this story in print 20 years ago and getting my eyes opened. Teh Google found it for me anew.

And, to start with, per Porter, if newspapers had limited endorsement reach then, based on older data before the Net started eroding their power further?

Research on the electoral influence of newspaper endorsements is scarcer than a liberal at a Wall Street Journal editorial board meeting. Most of the data was compiled before the burgeoning Internet and the cacophony of cable TV further dulled whatever edge a newspaper endorsement gave one candidate over another.

They've got even less now.

Porter then referenced a heavyweight in the industry who had written a book about that very subject.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote about newspaper endorsements in her 2000 book, "Everything You Think You Know About Politics and Why You're Wrong."

"The direct effect of editorials does not appear to be significant enough to find," Jamieson said in an interview. "The effect of newspaper endorsements is largely created through advertising about them that is sponsored by the candidate."

Even then, Jamieson and others interviewed for this article agree, the impact of endorsements on national or even regional elections – contests in which candidates are well-known among voters – is negligible

There you go. 

But wait, that's not all. Jamieson had boatloads of info:

"Many Americans in 1996 had no idea which presidential candidate their newspaper supported; many more had the wrong idea," Jamieson writes of an Annenberg study of that year's election. "To judge from the responses, many people were guessing." The findings included:

• Among readers of papers that had endorsed President Clinton, "three-quarters reported that fact; 11 percent reported their paper had endorsed Bob Dole; and 14 percent reported their paper had endorsed no one."

• Among readers of papers that had endorsed Dole, "less than one-half" knew that, while one-third thought their paper had endorsed Clinton.

• Of those who knew their newspaper's endorsement, 1 percent said it played a "great deal" and 10 percent said it played "somewhat" of a role in their voting decision. "Of that 11 percent, about a quarter had the endorsement wrong."

More recently, a Pew Center for the People & the Press study released in January, which measured media influences on voters during the 2004 presidential campaign, concluded that "newspaper endorsements are also less influential than four years ago, and dissuade as many Americans as they persuade."

THERE you go. And, that's going back 24-28 years ago.

Well, no, one more. Porter  has a quote from the editorial page head of the Old Gray Lady itself at that time:

"I don't think anybody who has a job like mine," says Gail Collins, editorial page editor of the New York Times, "is deluded that many people change their opinion about who they're going to vote for for president when they see the Times editorial."

NOW there you go.

So, why all the butt-hurt editorial editors and editorial columnists and writers today?

Among the younger set, say, below age 45, maybe below age 50, ignorance may be one factor. They may not even know who Jamieson is.

But, at the same time, they may be the ones who have least internalized how short newspapers' reach is today. 

Maybe they're in denialism? Self-delusion at a conscious level of something they subconsciously know is true.

As someone on the far side of 50, I also think this is the "social media generation," whether Z, Millennial, Post-Millennial, or Post Toasties that has other reasoning behind being butt-hurt.

Kabuki theater.

Now that, said, as Porter goes on to note, with quotes from Collins and others, back then, local and regional endorsements mattered. They may still do so today.

And, not just on people.

I helped kill a bond election in my Dallas suburb in 2006, and it needed to be killed, as it was driven by the infamous Larry D. Lewis. It lost by a 52-48 margin, and both Lancaster ISD Superintendent Lewis and Lancaster City Manager Jim Landon were furious, though they didn't show me that much anger in person. On Lewis' side, he didn't know yet, but soon found out, how much I knew about problems with a school bond from two years prior. He still doesn't know about all the off-the-record personal stuff I was told. On Landon, I already saw the housing bubble coming. He shortly thereafter decamped to Florida's Gold Coast, where it hit him in the face.

Anyway, I have little doubt that my words made for the margin of defeat.

Now, if the two papers above, or the NYT, or whomever, wanted to catch attention, at least in the chattering class? An endorsement of either Libertarian Chase Oliver or Green Jill Stein would do that. Ain't happening.

Another option? Do like Reason magazine did a week or two ago with all its staffers, except confining yourself to editorial staff. Give each one, by name, 2-3 paragraphs to say who they're voting for and why. (Actually, Soon-Shiong allegedly asked for something like that, in a pro-con roundup, and staff refused.)

That itself was interesting. Setting aside one person apparently ineligible to vote as a foreign national, and another who may have moved too recently, the results? Eleven for Oliver, one for Oliver if they vote, two for Harris, four not voting plus one who never votes on principle, one possibly not voting, one write-in for Nikki Haley, one split as of the time of the story between Oliver and Trump (over "the left's" alleged antisemitism — nice to see one open Zionist at Reason, JD Tuccille), one Trump, one protest write-in for a Reason staffer.

To summarize with a bit of math and how I split out a few comments? That's 12 for Oliver, 2 Harris, 5.5 not voting, 1 Haley, 1.5 Trump, 1 true write-in. 

So, first, Reason is lower-l libertarian, but not necessarily Libertarian Party libertarian. Second, several specifically hate the Mises Mice. Of 23 total, Oliver gets a bare majority.

That said, per the above about the AJR story, at its end and local and regional races? Each staffer was asked about one other race they were keeping their eye on. Several mentioned ballot propositions, not personal races by candidates. Of that,several noted ranked choice voting initiatives, several noted abortion issues, and a couple noted Florida's marijuana legalization initiative.

Finally, a bit more thought on the Axios piece. Papers like the Minneapolis Star-Tribune also aren't doing presidential endorsements, but announced this weeks if not months ago. That's the problem with the two big newspapers above — the timing. Even if their owners aren't stopping endorsements for craven reasons, they leave themselves open to that. (And, given both Soon-Shiong and Bezos have lots of federal ties and issues, I think they ARE doing it for craven business reasons.) And, as for the Old Gray Lady in New York no longer doing LOCAL endorsements, but still doing presidential ones, that confirms they see themselves — and their subscriber base — as national newspaper first.

The Gadfly slate for 2024 races

You've already seen my "Vote the Commie" for president, so we'll tackle other races here, with brief explainers.

Statewide races

Senate: Write-in Tracey Andrus. There's no Green, and Colin Allred is a ConservaDem in general and a genocide supporter in particular. Andrus is "interesting," but that is better than undervoting.

U.S. House, Dist. 26: Ernest Lineberger III may indeed be Ernest. He's environmentally minded enough to drive a Prius. But, his appeal to faith? That floats my boat no more from Democrats than Republicans, even if he's an ELCA Lutheran (I presume) rather than LCMS. And, teh Google says I presumed wrong. He's one of a minority of LCMS Lutherans to be Democrat. There's no Green, no write-in, and while Phil Gray seems to be a generic non-Mises Mice Libertarian, he is a Libertarian. Undervote.

Railroad Commission: Green Eddie Espinoza.

Statewide judicial races: None of the Democrats are ConservaDems, and state courts don't address federal issues, so vote the Democrats. Beyond that, Court of Criminal Appeals Rethuglicans refuse to follow the state's junk science law in cases like Robert Roberson. I mean, it's only 11 years old. When your own party in the state House is exasperated?

Regional races:

SBOE District 12: George King, the Democrat, is a public school teacher. Enough said. Vote him, even if he engages in a high level of veneration for the U.S. Constitution.

State Senate District 30: Dale Frey as the Democrat looks solid. Vote him.

State House District 68: Incumbent Republican David Spiller, while a Paxton impeachment manager, was a flip-flopper on vouchers in Abbott's last special session. In addition to being a wingnut Republican, the flip-flop is an additional issue. Democrat Stacey Swann is running on that issue.

Second Court of Appeals? All unchallenged Rethuglicans. Congrats to Texas Democrats for not running more candidates.

Texas Progressives see Kenny Boy Paxton lose again

The first abortion aid lawsuit enabled under SB 8 has been dropped. And, that shithead Jonathan Mitchell refused to comment. Side note: Will this give ballot opponents of an abortion remains ban in Amarillo more ammunition?

Parts of 2021's SB 1, about voter assistance, were struck down last week. U.S. District Judge Xavier. Rodriguez cited the 1965 Voting Right Act. Unfortunately, it's too late to change forms for this election, which means some voters, and those assisting them, will still feel intimidated, which is the whole purpose. Why it took this long for a ruling to be made? Presumably, dilatory tactics by Kenny Boy Paxton are part of it. (That said, other parts of the bill were already struck down.)

Kenny Boy also had part of a state statute declared unconstitutional on him last week.

The Fifth Circuit has removed Judge Janis Jack from overseeing the long-ongoing case over problems with Texas' foster care system. The plaintiffs' lawyer said they will appeal. No indication on whether or not the ruling can be stayed during the appeal. As for the Fifth Circuit panel and its mindset? Tex-ass deserves getting roasted at times. And, the three? Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee, might seem less wingnut than a Shrub Bush or Trumpy one. Wrong. She's faced allegations of racism and more in the past. Cory Wilson? Authored the Fifth Circuit ruling saying the Congressional ban on people with domestic violence history owning guns was unconstitutional, which was overturned by the Supreme Court; he's a Trump appointee. Edith Clement? Another wingnut of sorts, but one with less in the way of being memorable. Both she and Jones were allegedly on Shrub's shortlist for the SCOTUS seat that went to Roberts.

SocraticGadfly looked at the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023, mainly at much of "mainstream media" giving passes to mainstream politicians.

The Monthly offers a preview of the Cancun Ted Cruz vs ConservaDem Colin Allred Oct. 15 debate, with questions it would like to see asked. Especially on Israel-Gaza, the questions are shit, because Biden's "urging" that the conflict cease is itself shit.

TxDOT is paying a bunch of money to take back the south Houston loop tollway, Texas 288 (not to be confused with the Texas 288 loop in Denton) from the private contractor that built it. When Danny Goeb lies about the benefits of the takeover, you know Texans are being screwed. Of course, per the story, the big lie is about the need for it in the first place.

Off the Kuff interviewed Railroad Commissioner candidate Katherine Culbert and CD14 candidate Rhonda Hart. 

Space City Weather does not want to hear your crap about "controlling the weather".  

Paradise in Hell translates JD Vance. 

The TSTA Blog urges you to join the fight against vouchers.  

El Paso Matters explains why "mass deportation" would be really bad for Texas.  

Nonsequiteuse makes the case against a Steve Radack comeback.  

The Bloggess learns something about wasps while decorating for Halloween.

Third party news roundup, Oct. 11

Although Claudia de la Cruz will be my protest vote within a protest vote, her campaign never responded to me asking by email why she had yet to register to attend a third-party candidate forum, the Free and Equal Elections Debate, to which she had been invited. Other than travel costs from NYC to LA, it's FREE exposure! 

Hey, Claudia? The few bucks I might have given you personally or PSL? Maybe not.

I emailed a second time. We'll see if I hear back.

(Hey, Cort Greene? In 2028, I COULD vote for the SWP cultist party. But won't.)

Next, though I'm protesting against Jill Stein, the Abandon Harris movement, formerly Abandon Biden, has officially endorsed her. That's unlike Lexie Zeidan and fellow DSA Rosey shitheads at the "Uncommitted" movement, whom I originally called "Abandon Biden" but who have no actual connection to any "Abandon" movement. They're "committed" — to keep supporting genocide.

The Democraps are doubling down on the "A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump" bullshit. You don't own my vote, as I said in 2016 and spelled out in 2020 (with a GP skeptical analysis) so fuck off. Reminder: Even in a swing state like Georgia with a large Libertarian Party, you never hear Rethuglicans doing this.

==

Update: For Cort Greene and any SWP cultists he drags here in his train? 

First, there are plenty more things in life to focus on than intra-Trot fights, Trot vs Tankie fights, Trot vs Maoist fights, or pseudo-Trot Zionist fights against all of the above! Remember, that's who today's SWP is. As for Cort's Fashbusters, given that the "about" page really doesn't have anything about it, the simplest conclusion is that it's SWP fellow-travelers/front-group/entryism project. I still haven't forgotten about entryism, dude.

Second, one can oppose what China is doing in Xinjiang, and in Tibet, AND oppose US foreign policy spinning on it AND oppose American stanners for Beijing like Max Blumenthal. Not hard to do.

Third, one can express legitimate concerns about Iran, while calling out blind hatred of Iran that's driven by Zionism.

Fourth, back to the start of the first point? Go hiking. Take a walk in your city park, or in a state or national recreation area. Watch butterflies. Cook something, like a frittata. I've done all in the past four days. In other words, get a life.

Alternet? Worse than Counterpunch on electoral politics

After what is pretty close to the last straw with Counterpunch recently, over the anniversary of the Third Gazan War, as I'm calling it, I thought, let's check other allegedly leftist sites.

First stop? Alternet.

Alternet has a mix of head-fake pseudo-legit critiques of Stein and stuff that's "gotcha" right off the bat.

Among the "gotcha"? Calling out Stein for using a signature gathering firm with connections to Trump and possibly to J6. Is there any callout of Democrats' democracy suppression? No. Worse? It's a fucking reprint of a Salon article. THIS gotcha, signal-boosting AOC in the process, on the other hand? All their own. I'd thought of putting Alternet on my new blogs feed. Nuh-uh. This one, though behind Counterpunch's paywall? An APRIL payment by Stein's campaign (NOT her, technically) to a "Church of Cannabis"? Found for free at MSN, the payment was just $300 and was for renting the building for a speech. The piece, originally at Raw Story, has Russiagate Stein/Putin/Mike Flynn gotcha in it, too.

Candidates to the left of Stein? Not.Even.Covered.