Surely being at least interested in the politics of another country - let alone one whose politics has such a huge impact on the rest of the world - is a universally good thing. Why would following the US midterms be a bad thing?
The Democrats having control of Congress most certainly has an impact on the UK, and the rest of the world (my Brasilian friends are particularly relieved, for instance).
I will admit and apologise that I have not always always abided by this. Nevertheless, taking an informed interest in the politics of another country neither obliges nor entitles one to comment on them, display one's ignorance or irritate that country's citizens by pontificating from afar about things that really matter to them.
After all, I know how irritating I find it when it happens the other way round.
Back to California, Nithya Raman has ousted Karen Bass in LA. I have almost no idea about any o' that, beyond that the coverage seems to be emphasuzing the novelty of the race being between two main candidates who are both supposedly progressive.
Anyone with better knowledge than me wanna give odds on the Alaska Senate Race? The updates I'm seeing passim always say that Peltola is ahead, but by a narrow margin.
I will say that it will be a sugary-sweet Hollywood ending if the Democratic triumph wraps up with one last cliffhanger victory for a scrappy underdog in the quirkiest state of the union. No idea how the ranked tally will add up, but I'm semi-educatedly guessing that at least the plurality of Libertarians will go Republican.
Anyone with better knowledge than me wanna give odds on the Alaska Senate Race? The updates I'm seeing passim always say that Peltola is ahead, but by a narrow margin.
The New York Times is reporting that:
Senator Dan S. Sullivan is unlikely to make significant gains if the Alaska Senate race advances to ranked-choice tabulation, according to a New York Times analysis of the available ranked-choice data in the state. This holds true despite the fact that the reallocated ballots will come from voters who backed two candidates who ran as Republicans — including one also named Dan Sullivan.
The findings suggest that Mary Peltola, the Democratic nominee, is on track to eventually prevail in the Alaska Senate race. Ms. Peltola currently leads by less than one percentage point, but she is expected to build a more substantial lead once about 60,000 more votes, mostly cast by mail, are counted in the days ahead.
If Ms. Peltola doesn’t win the 50 percent needed to win outright and the race advances to ranked-choice tabulation on Nov. 18, the analysis suggests that Mr. Sullivan might not even claw back half of a point in ranked-choice tabulation, which would not be enough to overcome Ms. Peltola’s expected advantage.
CNN is reporting there are only 55 votes separating Dem Colom from Rep. Hyde Smith. Thing of it is I do not think Mississippi can recount the votes. It is said the vote will not be decided until Nov 10 when absentee vote can come in.
Just looked at a Bing political map of Mississippi. It is amazing to see how many counties there are blue.
Mississippi can recount votes, it’s just a more complicated process than it is in many other states. A losing candidate, as I understand it, can’t simply request a statewide recount because the margin is less than x%. Instead, a candidate has to petition a court to order a recount in a specific county, and there has to be a showing that there is reason to believe the original count is wrong.
Anyone with better knowledge than me wanna give odds on the Alaska Senate Race? The updates I'm seeing passim always say that Peltola is ahead, but by a narrow margin.
The New York Times is reporting that:
Senator Dan S. Sullivan is unlikely to make significant gains if the Alaska Senate race advances to ranked-choice tabulation, according to a New York Times analysis of the available ranked-choice data in the state. This holds true despite the fact that the reallocated ballots will come from voters who backed two candidates who ran as Republicans — including one also named Dan Sullivan.
The findings suggest that Mary Peltola, the Democratic nominee, is on track to eventually prevail in the Alaska Senate race. Ms. Peltola currently leads by less than one percentage point, but she is expected to build a more substantial lead once about 60,000 more votes, mostly cast by mail, are counted in the days ahead.
If Ms. Peltola doesn’t win the 50 percent needed to win outright and the race advances to ranked-choice tabulation on Nov. 18, the analysis suggests that Mr. Sullivan might not even claw back half of a point in ranked-choice tabulation, which would not be enough to overcome Ms. Peltola’s expected advantage.
"Eventually Americans will make the right decision."
---Winston Churchill
No, not Churchill, and this cuts off the rest of the quote ("after exhausting the alternatives").
A full study of the quote was done by Quote Investigator. The general idea of the quote arose in the 1960s and was not specifically applied to Americans until 1970...a little late for Winnie to be a participant.
"Eventually Americans will make the right decision."
---Winston Churchill
Unless shown a citation, my default with pithy quotes from renowned statesmen is to assume they're apocryphal. That one does express a sort of whiggish faith in the USA as a reliable bearer of good outcomes.
"Eventually Americans will make the right decision."
---Winston Churchill
No, not Churchill, and this cuts off the rest of the quote ("after exhausting the alternatives").
A full study of the quote was done by Quote Investigator. The general idea of the quote arose in the 1960s and was not specifically applied to Americans until 1970...a little late for Winnie to be a participant.
Thanks for the context.
The infamous Churchill attribution about Canada is "In a crisis, Canada will give you everything short of help", which has the same emotional structure as the anti-American putdown. I suspect the anti-Canadian one was cooked up by haters of Mackenzie King's recrtuitment policies, but I suppose it coulda been common sentiment in Britain as well.
Are Vietnamese people more or less Republican-leaning than Cubans? Because a dang socialist (not even just a Democrat!) won Miami-Dade. Granted, I get that St Louis is not Miami and that Vietnamese culture is not Cuban culture, but if Angie Freaking Nixon can do what she did in Florida then all is surely not lost.
I'm wondering if you're under the impression that there are a lot of Vietnamese Americans in St. Louis, so them going left would pull St. Louis left? According to Wikipedia they're less than 1% of the population there.
By far the largest groups of Vietnamese Americans are in California, followed by Texas. In California the largest groups are in Orange County, which was ruby red when I lived there 1984-93. Vietnamese immigrants and their descendants are less Republican now than they were 30-40 years ago, one of several reasons why Orange County is purple these days (a bigger reason, I'd guess, is that college-educated whites are way more Democrat than they used to be). Now the congressional district that includes Little Saigon is represented by a Democrat who is the son of Vietnamese immigrants.
St. Louis leans Democrat already, s as does Kansas City MO. It's the rural areas that vote Republican. (Not sure what to say about suburbia.)
Overriding vetos I think requires a 2/3 majority in both House and Senate. The Democrats (+ 2 Indepenedent) will have 54 to 56 in the Senate and I think therefore will need 11-13 more votes to override a Presidential veto. They will have 257 to 259 in the House and will therefore need 31 to 33 to override there.
Am I right? I suppose on some issues those levels of defection could happen. Trump’s latest pronouncements and obsessions seem likely to do further damage to already damaged GOP loyalties.
... CNN is reporting there are only 55 votes separating Dem Colom from Rep. Hyde Smith. Thing of it is I do not think Mississippi can recount the votes. It is said the vote will not be decided until Nov 10 when absentee vote can come in. ...
Does that mean people can send in their postal votes after the result has been declared, still get them counted and that this could change the result? That would seem very weird to anyone here.
You can hand a postal vote in at polling stations on the day, but if it does not get there by post or by the hour when the polls close, that is it.
Nobody knows the result until the Returning Officer makes the declaration.
Postal votes in Mississippi need to be postmarked no later than the election day and received no later than 10 November.
But if the poll does not actually close until next Tuesday, how can anyone know, rather than idly speculate questioning random members of the public, that one candidate is 1800 votes ahead of the other, rather than just 'it looks close'? That still sounds odd?
The vote count to date is published unlike in the UK. The published data shows an estimated 96% counted. There are still some thousands of votes to be counted and there may be some still in the post.
Overriding vetos I think requires a 2/3 majority in both House and Senate. The Democrats (+ 2 Indepenedent) will have 54 to 56 in the Senate and I think therefore will need 11-13 more votes to override a Presidential veto. They will have 257 to 259 in the House and will therefore need 31 to 33 to override there.
Am I right? I suppose on some issues those levels of defection could happen. Trump’s latest pronouncements and obsessions seem likely to do further damage to already damaged GOP loyalties.
At any rate 2027 votes will be interesting!
It will, of course, depend on the legislation, but the GOP leadership certainly knows why their candidates did so poorly in the election. In my area a Republican candidate actually ran on the platform that, if elected, he would work to make things more affordable (while disingenuously suggesting that the Dem incumbent was to blame for high prices). I suspect many Republicans in Congress would get on board with legislation to lower prices in a bipartisan way, and would pressure Trump to allow the legislation to go through so that they can then brand themselves as the people "doing something" to help the voters. They might not go so far as vote to override a veto, but the GOP leadership may work behind the scenes to dissuade Trump for certain vetoes.
(This should be a free link. The NYT describes the article as taking about 15 minutes to read.)
There’s a lot of good stuff in there, but this one bit stood out to me:
Some days, Mr. Trump told advisers privately: “We’ve gotta win. Anything we gotta do.” On others, he sounded as if he couldn’t care less. “It says something very nice about me that they just can’t win without me,” he told aides.
In Trump’s mind, it really is all about him and only him.
Back to California, Nithya Raman has ousted Karen Bass in LA. I have almost no idea about any o' that, beyond that the coverage seems to be emphasuzing the novelty of the race being between two main candidates who are both supposedly progressive.
Karen Bass had the California Democratic machine behind her, from nearly every member of the LA city council up to the governor. Despite earlier good work, she has been a terrible mayor. She came in as a progressive Black mayor in the wake of the George Floyd protests, but in a budget crunch she supported laying off city workers except for the police department, and she's now aligned herself with the police union and the police chief. The police union endorsed her re-election campaign, so by any rational measure she is no longer a progressive. She campaigned on reducing homelessness (which is insanely bad throughout California), but 40% of the homeless people participating in her program for them have ended up back on the streets, and homelessness in LA has gone up again. After the devastating fires of January 2025, she made the fire chief water down the report about how the city handled it and lied about it, saying she hadn't -- but an LA Times investigation showed she had. A friend's son worked in the mayor's office when she first took over, and he quit in disgust because she was to terrible to work for, saying she's a micro-manager, which does not work in a city of 4 million people. Living in Los Angeles County but not having a vote in Los Angeles is probably a little like living in Canada, where you can't vote in the US -- what happens in that larger entity has a huge impact on your life, but you have no say. As a county resident, I am thrilled to pieces that Bass is gone.
Nithya Raman -- well, God knows what she'll do, but she certainly doesn't. She has changed her mind about multiple things while on the city council and running for mayor. She was against banning homeless encampments in certain places, now she's okay with it. She was for defunding the police while running for council, but voted for increasing their funding. She was in favor of the mansion tax (local tax on real estate sales above $5.4 million) when it was on the ballot, now she's saying it's bad because it makes people not build apartment buildings. She endorsed Bass's re-election, then changed her mind and decided to run. And there are more things -- an LA Times article gives six more examples.
So we'll see! LA hosts the Olympics in less than two years. My partner and I will probably decide in early 2028 whether we want to go out of town for two weeks.
Brilliant link, many thanks. What incompetence. Typical of what happens when the Boss is beyond correction. Out with my favourite quote!
If you put away from you those who tell you the truth those who remain will know what you want to hear. I can think of nothing more poisonous to rot in the stink of your own reflection.
I think I've always associated that quote with American self-criticism in regards to the Vietnam War, and maybe thought it was a lift(*) of some quote by an ancient Greek or Roman military officer. Wasn't aware of the Pogo connection. Thanks.
(*) Pedantic, but "lift" or maybe something like "borrowing" would be a better description of what Kelly did there than "parody", since "parody" implies mockery of the original.
Back to California, Nithya Raman has ousted Karen Bass in LA. I have almost no idea about any o' that, beyond that the coverage seems to be emphasuzing the novelty of the race being between two main candidates who are both supposedly progressive.
Karen Bass had the California Democratic machine behind her, from nearly every member of the LA city council up to the governor. Despite earlier good work, she has been a terrible mayor. She came in as a progressive Black mayor in the wake of the George Floyd protests, but in a budget crunch she supported laying off city workers except for the police department, and she's now aligned herself with the police union and the police chief. The police union endorsed her re-election campaign, so by any rational measure she is no longer a progressive. She campaigned on reducing homelessness (which is insanely bad throughout California), but 40% of the homeless people participating in her program for them have ended up back on the streets, and homelessness in LA has gone up again. After the devastating fires of January 2025, she made the fire chief water down the report about how the city handled it and lied about it, saying she hadn't -- but an LA Times investigation showed she had. A friend's son worked in the mayor's office when she first took over, and he quit in disgust because she was to terrible to work for, saying she's a micro-manager, which does not work in a city of 4 million people. Living in Los Angeles County but not having a vote in Los Angeles is probably a little like living in Canada, where you can't vote in the US -- what happens in that larger entity has a huge impact on your life, but you have no say. As a county resident, I am thrilled to pieces that Bass is gone.
Nithya Raman -- well, God knows what she'll do, but she certainly doesn't. She has changed her mind about multiple things while on the city council and running for mayor. She was against banning homeless encampments in certain places, now she's okay with it. She was for defunding the police while running for council, but voted for increasing their funding. She was in favor of the mansion tax (local tax on real estate sales above $5.4 million) when it was on the ballot, now she's saying it's bad because it makes people not build apartment buildings. She endorsed Bass's re-election, then changed her mind and decided to run. And there are more things -- an LA Times article gives six more examples.
So we'll see! LA hosts the Olympics in less than two years. My partner and I will probably decide in early 2028 whether we want to go out of town for two weeks.
US Senate · Mississippi
From The Associated Press (AP) · Learn more
Scott Colom (D) leads Mississippi
The AP hasn't called this race
96% reporting
Scott Colom
49.04%
Democratic Party
466,775 votes
Cindy Hyde-Smith
48.85%
Republican Party · Incumbent
464,962 votes
Ty Pinkins
2.10%
Independent
20,007 votes
(The software does not allow for me to quote a guote directly)
A short while ago we discussed how it appeared the Alaskan Democratic party worked to find another Dan Sullivan to draw votes away from the Republican Dan Sullivan. Well, reports are Ty Pinkins stayed in the race to draw votes away from Hyde-Smith.
The mood here in MS is very high. VERY HIGH indeed.
I really did love the “Pick a new protein? I’d rather pick a new senator” ads. Right up there with Talarico’s “Scanduel” ads.
Yeah, that Ad was GOLD. I've been reminding my Republican friends that Cindy Hyde-Smith and Cruella de Vil have never been seen in the same place at the same time.
Following the midterms, Susie Wiles has been replaced by Stephen Miller as Chief of Staff.
For the next 2 years only super-loyalists will remain long term.
Re Mississippi, Colom’s lead is now up to 2,000 votes. Re @Gramps49 I’d read that Pinkins had said something along those lines but so far as I’m aware there is no evidence of collusion between Pinkins and Colom or his team.
Disgruntled Republicans could stay away, vote Pinkins or vote Colom. Given the massive swing away from the GOP I’m not sure there’s much evidence to support an argument that lots of votes for Pinkins would have gone to Hyde-Smith. Colom was a very effective candidate.
The mood here in MS is very high. VERY HIGH indeed.
I really did love the “Pick a new protein? I’d rather pick a new senator” ads. Right up there with Talarico’s “Scanduel” ads.
Yeah, that Ad was GOLD. I've been reminding my Republican friends that Cindy Hyde-Smith and Cruella de Vil have never been seen in the same place at the same time.
NPR had a discussion on how both parties used AI ads this mid-term. Republicans tended to be more fake. Democrats used AI more in the editing process.
More votes in. Total counted for Mississippi Senate up to 97%. Colom’s lead up to about 2,500. It could still be very close; the GOP aides are saying there are enough uncounted votes in GOP-leaning districts to make a difference. But Colom is arguing there is no longer a winning route for Cindy Hyde-Smith.
There is no written-in recount right for a loser. But a losing candidate may appeal to a judge citing special circumstances.
The mood here in MS is very high. VERY HIGH indeed.
I really did love the “Pick a new protein? I’d rather pick a new senator” ads. Right up there with Talarico’s “Scanduel” ads.
Yeah, that Ad was GOLD. I've been reminding my Republican friends that Cindy Hyde-Smith and Cruella de Vil have never been seen in the same place at the same time.
Her "Let them eat cake" routine echoed Trump's rhetoric in 2025 about how parents don't need to buy kids more than a couple of dolls. It was especially jarring coming from people who'd just come to power promising an instant utopia of consumer gratification.
At least in terns of what people tell pollsters(*), tougher immigration-policy remains one of Trump's more popular stances. For that reason, there is a risk that if Democratic attacks on Miller end up focusing on his immigration record, it pushes the discourse onto terrain in which Republicans have at least a partial advantage.
(*) As opposed to what they think when actually confronted with real-life manifestations of the conflict: "Yeah, I'm all for cracking down on the criminals, but why is the nice lady who cleans our church being deported back to South America just because she overstayed her visa a few weeks? She works hard and contributes to society."
The mood here in MS is very high. VERY HIGH indeed.
I really did love the “Pick a new protein? I’d rather pick a new senator” ads. Right up there with Talarico’s “Scanduel” ads.
Yeah, that Ad was GOLD. I've been reminding my Republican friends that Cindy Hyde-Smith and Cruella de Vil have never been seen in the same place at the same time.
NPR had a discussion on how both parties used AI ads this mid-term. Republicans tended to be more fake. Democrats used AI more in the editing process.
Honestly, if it's still possible to make effective political ads entirely without AI, I think that's what Democrats should do, especially seeing as how anti-data centre expansion is shaping up as a major issue for them.
(And, yes, almost everyone to one degree or another is a hypocritical nimby on AI. I, myself, often use google's AI summations in lieu of reading search results; but no one is gonna be examining my record as a leader of the anti-AI movement.)
(*) Pedantic, but "lift" or maybe something like "borrowing" would be a better description of what Kelly did there than "parody", since "parody" implies mockery of the original.
When it comes to Walt Kelly and “Pogo,” a touch of mockery being at play is quite possible, if not likely. “Pogo” was very satirical.
(*) Pedantic, but "lift" or maybe something like "borrowing" would be a better description of what Kelly did there than "parody", since "parody" implies mockery of the original.
When it comes to Walt Kelly and “Pogo,” a touch of mockery being at play is quite possible, if not likely. “Pogo” was very satirical.
Yeah, I know. But I don't see anything mocking or satirical about the re-working of the phrase in that particular cartoon. It's just the same idea with slightly different wording, like "Give me liberty, or give me death" replaced by "Give me either liberty or death".
(Or is there some humourous difference between saying the enemy "is ours" and saying the enemy "is us"? As far as I can tell, they both express the same basic ironic reversal into self-blame.)
Mississippi rarely gets this sort of attention so perhaps it’s not surprising that their process is both on the slow side and not brilliant on information about outstanding votes.
But one thing emerges which provides a reason for Colom’s confidence. Since they started counting provisional ballots Colom’s lead has increased by over 2,400 votes. And 9,000 have been counted to date. Suggesting that Colom has about a 30% advantage on provisionals.
If that continues for the remaining 6,000 Colom’s lead will increase to over 4,000 votes via provisiona ballots. That will be a very tough lead to overcome even if the remaining uncounted ballots are favourable to Hyde-Smith.
It’s hard to be sure how many uncounted ballots are left, apart from provisionals. The districts aren’t providing the data plus the uncertainty over late mailed ballots. So I guess there is still some ground for GOP hope. But the bookies say the chance of a Colom win is over 90%.
(*) Pedantic, but "lift" or maybe something like "borrowing" would be a better description of what Kelly did there than "parody", since "parody" implies mockery of the original.
When it comes to Walt Kelly and “Pogo,” a touch of mockery being at play is quite possible, if not likely. “Pogo” was very satirical.
Yeah, I know. But I don't see anything mocking or satirical about the re-working of the phrase in that particular cartoon. It's just the same idea with slightly different wording, like "Give me liberty, or give me death" replaced by "Give me either liberty or death".
(Or is there some humourous difference between saying the enemy "is ours" and saying the enemy "is us"? As far as I can tell, they both express the same basic ironic reversal into self-blame.)
There’s no irony or self-blame in “the enemy is ours.” The “we” was the United States Navy at the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813; “the enemy”/“they” was the British Royal Navy, who were defeated and who surrendered.
It’s a boast—we have met the enemy, defeated the enemy and taken the enemy. It’s akin to “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
So in the original, “the enemy” is indeed a “they.” In Walt Kelly’s riff on it, we are our own enemy.
But I must with some embarrassment correct myself. What I said was:
That quote in turn parodies a quote from Major General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”
What I meant to say was: “That quote in turn parodies a quote from Major General Oliver Hazard Perry to General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812: ‘We have met the enemy and they are ours.’”
One day I’ll learn not to post before morning caffeination.
And yes, General William Henry Harrison was later President William Henry Harrison.
(*) Pedantic, but "lift" or maybe something like "borrowing" would be a better description of what Kelly did there than "parody", since "parody" implies mockery of the original.
When it comes to Walt Kelly and “Pogo,” a touch of mockery being at play is quite possible, if not likely. “Pogo” was very satirical.
Yeah, I know. But I don't see anything mocking or satirical about the re-working of the phrase in that particular cartoon. It's just the same idea with slightly different wording, like "Give me liberty, or give me death" replaced by "Give me either liberty or death".
(Or is there some humourous difference between saying the enemy "is ours" and saying the enemy "is us"? As far as I can tell, they both express the same basic ironic reversal into self-blame.)
There’s no irony or self-blame in “the enemy is ours.” The “we” was the United States Navy at the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813; “the enemy”/“they” was the British Royal Navy, who were defeated and who surrendered.
It’s a boast—we have met the enemy, defeated the enemy and taken the enemy. It’s akin to “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
So in the original, “the enemy” is indeed a “they.” In Walt Kelly’s riff on it, we are our own enemy.
Ahh, okay. I misinterpreted "...they are ours" to mean "...they are the people on our own side". IOW the Americans had lost a battle due to their own incompetence. Thanks.
(*) Pedantic, but "lift" or maybe something like "borrowing" would be a better description of what Kelly did there than "parody", since "parody" implies mockery of the original.
When it comes to Walt Kelly and “Pogo,” a touch of mockery being at play is quite possible, if not likely. “Pogo” was very satirical.
Yeah, I know. But I don't see anything mocking or satirical about the re-working of the phrase in that particular cartoon. It's just the same idea with slightly different wording, like "Give me liberty, or give me death" replaced by "Give me either liberty or death".
(Or is there some humourous difference between saying the enemy "is ours" and saying the enemy "is us"? As far as I can tell, they both express the same basic ironic reversal into self-blame.)
There’s no irony or self-blame in “the enemy is ours.” The “we” was the United States Navy at the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813; “the enemy”/“they” was the British Royal Navy, who were defeated and who surrendered.
It’s a boast—we have met the enemy, defeated the enemy and taken the enemy. It’s akin to “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
So in the original, “the enemy” is indeed a “they.” In Walt Kelly’s riff on it, we are our own enemy.
But I must with some embarrassment correct myself. What I said was:
That quote in turn parodies a quote from Major General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”
What I meant to say was: “That quote in turn parodies a quote from Major General Oliver Hazard Perry to General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812: ‘We have met the enemy and they are ours.’”
One day I’ll learn not to post before morning caffeination.
And yes, General William Henry Harrison was later President William Henry Harrison.
I would not rule out that the CEO of Ultimate Fighting Champions may very well have a lot of the neccessary skills to be a competent WH press secretary. But the fact Trump is proposing that particular company's CEO for the job clearly indicates he's doubling-down on the shock-jock routine.
@The_Riv, have you seen this interview with Ty Pinkins, the Black independent candidate in MS? He says polling told him back in April that he had no chance of winning, but that 70% of his little group of voters were white. He says he stayed out of the Mississippi Delta area and only campaigned in heavily white areas, hoping to draw votes away from Hyde-Smith (EDIT: as @Gramps noted above). I'd love to believe this, but the stuff he said when actually campaigning sounds like he could run in California, so I'm wondering if he really spoiled Hyde-Smith's chances and not Colom's.
We still do not have a winner in the fifth district of Washington State--my home district. The Republican Baumgardner is leading by 5,000 some votes over Democratic Conroy. There are around 58,000 ballots still to be counted.
In the previous election. Baumgardner own over Conroy by 20 points. This time around the spread will be less than three points one way or the other.
@The_Riv, have you seen this interview with Ty Pinkins, the Black independent candidate in MS? He says polling told him back in April that he had no chance of winning, but that 70% of his little group of voters were white.
I wonder if, as a formally left-wing candidate, Pinkins attracts the same sort of electoral demographic as, say, Ralph Nader or the Green Party. If so, then a 70% white-bloc might just be more of the default showing for him.
I've been watching a few of the post-election "MAGA meltdowns" on YouTube. A repeated theme is that the red states went blue because of blue-staters who had moved to the red states and continued voting Democratic.
Setting aside the obvious bitterness of the complainants, I wonder if this is statistically true. I heard the same thing when conservative Alberta went socialist in 2016, coming both from left-wingers who thought cradle-Albertans were too depraved, and right-wingers who thought they were too virtuous, to vote NDP. But when I tallied up all the NDP voters I knew personally, it was hard to find any who weren't born-and-raised Albertans.
I'm sure if you are eg. a proud Texas conservative who thinks your state is the living embodiment of MAGA-type values, it's gotta hurt to see a sizable majority your fellow Texans vote in a herbivorous wokester like "TalaFreako", so that kinda bias could push one towards scapegoating outsiders.
I've been watching a few of the post-election "MAGA meltdowns" on YouTube. A repeated theme is that the red states went blue because of blue-staters who had moved to the red states and continued voting Democratic.
Another one I just heard is that Republican mothers are too busy raising their kids to go and vote.
Also at least one blue-state Republican says she stayed home because voting in that state will get you doxxed.
I don't understand what you mean, @Sandemaniac. You wish @Nick Tamen's comment had been briefer?
EDIT: Oh, sorry. You were refering to Harrison's brief tenure.
Yes, I was. As one of the few C19th US presidents this brit can name, I'm mildly surprised someone from the US - you are, aren't you, if not I apologise! - missed the reference. Still the shortest serving president, I think?
Comments
After all, I know how irritating I find it when it happens the other way round.
I will say that it will be a sugary-sweet Hollywood ending if the Democratic triumph wraps up with one last cliffhanger victory for a scrappy underdog in the quirkiest state of the union. No idea how the ranked tally will add up, but I'm semi-educatedly guessing that at least the plurality of Libertarians will go Republican.
Full article here.
A friend sent out this meme:
---Winston Churchill
PBS is now saying Colom is ahead by 1800 votes
Thanks.
No, not Churchill, and this cuts off the rest of the quote ("after exhausting the alternatives").
A full study of the quote was done by Quote Investigator. The general idea of the quote arose in the 1960s and was not specifically applied to Americans until 1970...a little late for Winnie to be a participant.
Unless shown a citation, my default with pithy quotes from renowned statesmen is to assume they're apocryphal. That one does express a sort of whiggish faith in the USA as a reliable bearer of good outcomes.
Which, to be sure, is probably a sentiment with significantly wider circulation these past coupla days.
Thanks for the context.
The infamous Churchill attribution about Canada is "In a crisis, Canada will give you everything short of help", which has the same emotional structure as the anti-American putdown. I suspect the anti-Canadian one was cooked up by haters of Mackenzie King's recrtuitment policies, but I suppose it coulda been common sentiment in Britain as well.
St. Louis leans Democrat already, s as does Kansas City MO. It's the rural areas that vote Republican. (Not sure what to say about suburbia.)
Am I right? I suppose on some issues those levels of defection could happen. Trump’s latest pronouncements and obsessions seem likely to do further damage to already damaged GOP loyalties.
At any rate 2027 votes will be interesting!
You can hand a postal vote in at polling stations on the day, but if it does not get there by post or by the hour when the polls close, that is it.
Nobody knows the result until the Returning Officer makes the declaration.
Colom is 1800 votes ahead right now.
Postal votes in Mississippi need to be postmarked no later than the election day and received no later than 10 November.
The vote count to date is published unlike in the UK. The published data shows an estimated 96% counted. There are still some thousands of votes to be counted and there may be some still in the post.
It will, of course, depend on the legislation, but the GOP leadership certainly knows why their candidates did so poorly in the election. In my area a Republican candidate actually ran on the platform that, if elected, he would work to make things more affordable (while disingenuously suggesting that the Dem incumbent was to blame for high prices). I suspect many Republicans in Congress would get on board with legislation to lower prices in a bipartisan way, and would pressure Trump to allow the legislation to go through so that they can then brand themselves as the people "doing something" to help the voters. They might not go so far as vote to override a veto, but the GOP leadership may work behind the scenes to dissuade Trump for certain vetoes.
“‘I Have Seen the Enemy, and It Is Us’: Inside Team Trump’s Historic Collapse.”
(This should be a free link. The NYT describes the article as taking about 15 minutes to read.)
There’s a lot of good stuff in there, but this one bit stood out to me: In Trump’s mind, it really is all about him and only him.
BTW, for those not familiar, the title of the article refers to a line used by Walt Kelly, creator of the comic strip “Pogo,” in a 1970 Earth Day promotional poster. That quote in turn parodies a quote from Major General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Kelly’s riff on Harrison’s boast has become an oft-quoted line in American politics.
Karen Bass had the California Democratic machine behind her, from nearly every member of the LA city council up to the governor. Despite earlier good work, she has been a terrible mayor. She came in as a progressive Black mayor in the wake of the George Floyd protests, but in a budget crunch she supported laying off city workers except for the police department, and she's now aligned herself with the police union and the police chief. The police union endorsed her re-election campaign, so by any rational measure she is no longer a progressive. She campaigned on reducing homelessness (which is insanely bad throughout California), but 40% of the homeless people participating in her program for them have ended up back on the streets, and homelessness in LA has gone up again. After the devastating fires of January 2025, she made the fire chief water down the report about how the city handled it and lied about it, saying she hadn't -- but an LA Times investigation showed she had. A friend's son worked in the mayor's office when she first took over, and he quit in disgust because she was to terrible to work for, saying she's a micro-manager, which does not work in a city of 4 million people. Living in Los Angeles County but not having a vote in Los Angeles is probably a little like living in Canada, where you can't vote in the US -- what happens in that larger entity has a huge impact on your life, but you have no say. As a county resident, I am thrilled to pieces that Bass is gone.
Nithya Raman -- well, God knows what she'll do, but she certainly doesn't. She has changed her mind about multiple things while on the city council and running for mayor. She was against banning homeless encampments in certain places, now she's okay with it. She was for defunding the police while running for council, but voted for increasing their funding. She was in favor of the mansion tax (local tax on real estate sales above $5.4 million) when it was on the ballot, now she's saying it's bad because it makes people not build apartment buildings. She endorsed Bass's re-election, then changed her mind and decided to run. And there are more things -- an LA Times article gives six more examples.
So we'll see! LA hosts the Olympics in less than two years. My partner and I will probably decide in early 2028 whether we want to go out of town for two weeks.
Brilliant link, many thanks. What incompetence. Typical of what happens when the Boss is beyond correction. Out with my favourite quote!
I think I've always associated that quote with American self-criticism in regards to the Vietnam War, and maybe thought it was a lift(*) of some quote by an ancient Greek or Roman military officer. Wasn't aware of the Pogo connection. Thanks.
(*) Pedantic, but "lift" or maybe something like "borrowing" would be a better description of what Kelly did there than "parody", since "parody" implies mockery of the original.
Thanks.
US Senate · Mississippi
From The Associated Press (AP) · Learn more
Scott Colom (D) leads Mississippi
The AP hasn't called this race
96% reporting
Scott Colom
49.04%
Democratic Party
466,775 votes
Cindy Hyde-Smith
48.85%
Republican Party · Incumbent
464,962 votes
Ty Pinkins
2.10%
Independent
20,007 votes
(The software does not allow for me to quote a guote directly)
A short while ago we discussed how it appeared the Alaskan Democratic party worked to find another Dan Sullivan to draw votes away from the Republican Dan Sullivan. Well, reports are Ty Pinkins stayed in the race to draw votes away from Hyde-Smith.
It is the way the system works.
Yeah, that Ad was GOLD. I've been reminding my Republican friends that Cindy Hyde-Smith and Cruella de Vil have never been seen in the same place at the same time.
For the next 2 years only super-loyalists will remain long term.
Re Mississippi, Colom’s lead is now up to 2,000 votes. Re @Gramps49 I’d read that Pinkins had said something along those lines but so far as I’m aware there is no evidence of collusion between Pinkins and Colom or his team.
Disgruntled Republicans could stay away, vote Pinkins or vote Colom. Given the massive swing away from the GOP I’m not sure there’s much evidence to support an argument that lots of votes for Pinkins would have gone to Hyde-Smith. Colom was a very effective candidate.
NPR had a discussion on how both parties used AI ads this mid-term. Republicans tended to be more fake. Democrats used AI more in the editing process.
There is no written-in recount right for a loser. But a losing candidate may appeal to a judge citing special circumstances.
Her "Let them eat cake" routine echoed Trump's rhetoric in 2025 about how parents don't need to buy kids more than a couple of dolls. It was especially jarring coming from people who'd just come to power promising an instant utopia of consumer gratification.
At least in terns of what people tell pollsters(*), tougher immigration-policy remains one of Trump's more popular stances. For that reason, there is a risk that if Democratic attacks on Miller end up focusing on his immigration record, it pushes the discourse onto terrain in which Republicans have at least a partial advantage.
(*) As opposed to what they think when actually confronted with real-life manifestations of the conflict: "Yeah, I'm all for cracking down on the criminals, but why is the nice lady who cleans our church being deported back to South America just because she overstayed her visa a few weeks? She works hard and contributes to society."
Honestly, if it's still possible to make effective political ads entirely without AI, I think that's what Democrats should do, especially seeing as how anti-data centre expansion is shaping up as a major issue for them.
(And, yes, almost everyone to one degree or another is a hypocritical nimby on AI. I, myself, often use google's AI summations in lieu of reading search results; but no one is gonna be examining my record as a leader of the anti-AI movement.)
Yeah, I know. But I don't see anything mocking or satirical about the re-working of the phrase in that particular cartoon. It's just the same idea with slightly different wording, like "Give me liberty, or give me death" replaced by "Give me either liberty or death".
(Or is there some humourous difference between saying the enemy "is ours" and saying the enemy "is us"? As far as I can tell, they both express the same basic ironic reversal into self-blame.)
https://www.npr.org/2026/11/06/nx-s1-6030645/mississippi-senate-results-provisional-ballots
But one thing emerges which provides a reason for Colom’s confidence. Since they started counting provisional ballots Colom’s lead has increased by over 2,400 votes. And 9,000 have been counted to date. Suggesting that Colom has about a 30% advantage on provisionals.
If that continues for the remaining 6,000 Colom’s lead will increase to over 4,000 votes via provisiona ballots. That will be a very tough lead to overcome even if the remaining uncounted ballots are favourable to Hyde-Smith.
It’s hard to be sure how many uncounted ballots are left, apart from provisionals. The districts aren’t providing the data plus the uncertainty over late mailed ballots. So I guess there is still some ground for GOP hope. But the bookies say the chance of a Colom win is over 90%.
It’s a boast—we have met the enemy, defeated the enemy and taken the enemy. It’s akin to “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
So in the original, “the enemy” is indeed a “they.” In Walt Kelly’s riff on it, we are our own enemy.
But I must with some embarrassment correct myself. What I said was: What I meant to say was: “That quote in turn parodies a quote from Major General Oliver Hazard Perry to General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812: ‘We have met the enemy and they are ours.’”
One day I’ll learn not to post before morning caffeination.
And yes, General William Henry Harrison was later President William Henry Harrison.
Ahh, okay. I misinterpreted "...they are ours" to mean "...they are the people on our own side". IOW the Americans had lost a battle due to their own incompetence. Thanks.
Briefly...
EDIT: Oh, sorry. You were refering to Harrison's brief tenure.
In the previous election. Baumgardner own over Conroy by 20 points. This time around the spread will be less than three points one way or the other.
Yes, they have butted heads before
I wonder if, as a formally left-wing candidate, Pinkins attracts the same sort of electoral demographic as, say, Ralph Nader or the Green Party. If so, then a 70% white-bloc might just be more of the default showing for him.
Setting aside the obvious bitterness of the complainants, I wonder if this is statistically true. I heard the same thing when conservative Alberta went socialist in 2016, coming both from left-wingers who thought cradle-Albertans were too depraved, and right-wingers who thought they were too virtuous, to vote NDP. But when I tallied up all the NDP voters I knew personally, it was hard to find any who weren't born-and-raised Albertans.
I'm sure if you are eg. a proud Texas conservative who thinks your state is the living embodiment of MAGA-type values, it's gotta hurt to see a sizable majority your fellow Texans vote in a herbivorous wokester like "TalaFreako", so that kinda bias could push one towards scapegoating outsiders.
Another one I just heard is that Republican mothers are too busy raising their kids to go and vote.
Also at least one blue-state Republican says she stayed home because voting in that state will get you doxxed.
Yes, I was. As one of the few C19th US presidents this brit can name, I'm mildly surprised someone from the US - you are, aren't you, if not I apologise! - missed the reference. Still the shortest serving president, I think?