Home for the Morning

Personal News

The left hip kept me home this morning. It also kept waking me up last night. I called into work for the first time in weeks. What decided me was the trouble I had putting on my pants. Four hours later, I am writing. The hot bag of rocks my sister gave me is between me and the chair. 

Election News: Normal Wins

The crazy Republicans did not win as predicted; democracy did. But as The Bulwark points out, The Knives Are Already Out.

However, Republicans are normal for Indiana:

1. Republicans sweep contested Delaware County races
2. Morales claims overwhelming victory for secretary of state 
3. GOP U.S. Sen. Todd Young claims second term victory over Democrat Thomas McDermott 
4. Unofficial results: GOP dominates in Madison County 

Being gone has left me not knowing the names, and I am too far off into the weeds to have any knowledge of the campaigns run. On the Muncie side, I met Amanda Dunnuck years and years ago; she belongs to a strong Democrat family. I was surprised by this headline, Pierce upsets Austin in House District 36, but even more by the candidates' post-mortem:

She said there was a strong Republican turnout on Tuesday, noting that a recent change in district boundaries had made the area more politically conservative.

“I worked hard to get people to know me,” Austin said. “People were unhappy with the national Democrats.”

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 “All the county Republican candidates worked well together,” Pierce added. “We organized our efforts so as not to duplicate efforts. Our success was because of a coordinated effort."

Considering what happened in other states, it seems Madison County voters must have been extraordinarily annoyed with the national Democrats. Gerrymandering needs attention, but we got ten more years of that. It is the Republican's comment that truly caught my attention - it leaves me wondering how well organized were the Democrats. More proof of the fecklessness of Indiana Democrats? All the same, the race was close, the Republican won by 334 votes.

But the craziness is still out there: Outcry as Republican Nikki Haley says Raphael Warnock should be ‘deported’. Er, Warnock was born here, so deport him where? Or is it this another variation on the racist screed of sending African-Americans back to Africa?

Moving On

Read: The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan review – essays on songcraft, and in light of that:

Feeling a little better.

I added a list of blogs I find interesting and follow. I hope you find something amongst them that will interest you.

I am going to try and strand now. I need to get to the Sheriff's & call the doctor. Maybe I can get to work before noon? It is 10 AM.

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