Open Thread November 12, 2022

Yesterday, The Colorado District 3 race was still not yet counted. Boebert has moved into the lead by about 400 votes, but there are thousands not yet counted, and many of not most are from blue counties, or counties that went blue. The Frisch campaign is doing what it can to help “cure” votes (i.e. reach out to voters who forgot to sign their ballot envelop or made some other small error – most of these can be corrected by text message, but the voter haas to know it’s needed – and sometimes to be nagged a little. The deadline for that is the 14th, which is also the deadline to receive military absentee ballots.) They are also still in need of funds for the curing task , so if your heart is in it, you can go to Adam’s web page and help. (I did – a very small one – and also to Rev. Warnock.) I also finished up the cartoons for November, and took a look at the Denver NPR radio station’s “Christmas Carol Countdown” – which they are running like sports playoffs, which seems to me to be a good way to make the lmaximum number of people unhappy, but what do I know.  Finally, I solved The New Yorker’s “Name Drop on the first clue.  I almost went to the second clue, buthen I thought, if I’m right, I’ll never forgive myself.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Warning – Tim Ryan’s must-watch political speech
Quote – Tim Ryan is precisely the type of person Teddy Roosevelt spoke of in his speech detailing the obligations of citizenship in a republic…. Tim Ryan inspired people. He did it with conviction, decency and grace. He is not a savior, but he is a man of the highest integrity and character who stood tall…. [The speech] was delivered without notes, and entirely from the heart. This guy is the real deal.
Click through for article (and video – which does have CC, so there’s a transcript if you click on the three dots to the right of the line that has “share” in it.) Personally, I needed a hanky. BTW Robert REich also cited this speech, along with Fetterman’s victory speech.

Press Watch – It’s not a fluke, it’s a rot: Why the political media blew the 2022 election
Quote – Ever since they started handicapping the 2022 election – which means almost all the way back to 2020 – leading political reporters and pundits consistently predicted a midterm shellacking for Joe Biden and Democrats. It’s almost like they were looking forward to it…. After the Dobbs decision, they briefly entertained the notion that things might go another way. But then they dismissed it entirely…. This is not something that can be fixed with a little tweaking, and weak stabs at contrition. What we need is a wholesale revisiting of the rules of modern political journalism.
Click through for analysis. It’s right on point, and it’s very refreshing.

Food For Thought