Random News: November 9, 2022

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s November 9, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. I have a bunch of things to tell you, so let’s get started.

• Democracy is alive and well in the United States of America.
• Allow me to give you some context.
• Historical voting patterns show that in most Midterm elections, the party opposing the current President does very, very well.
• 1986: Ronald Reagan was wildly popular and the Democrats still gained eight seats in the Senate and five seats in the House. 1994: Bill Clinton was super popular, and yet the GOP completely destroyed the Dems, picking up eight Senate seats and 54 (!) House seats. 2014: Obama was beloved, and yet Republicans won a net gain of nine Senate seats and thirteen House seats.
• The expectation by EVERY pundit was that last night, we’d see a “Red Wave” GOP takeover of the House and Senate. A year ago, congressman Kevin McCarthy predicted that the GOP would pick up 60 seats. For real.
• That did not happen. However, what DID happen is still in flux but I’ll give you a little breakdown.
• As of this morning at 7AM PST, the current “score” of the Senate is 48 Democrats to 47 Republicans (51 is a majority). The remaining undecided races that are too close to call are in Alaska, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Georgia.
• The House, which was predicted to tilt heavily to the right, is still unclear. Many races are till in play, but what’s obvious is that even if the GOP ends up with the 219 required for a majority, it’s going to be super close.
• All six members of the progressive “squad” won. I enjoyed that.
• Many Democrat governors who were predicted to lose did not, and some of the states that held or flipped Dem did so with great people.
• So, as I’ve said many times already, votes are still being counted and many of these are very close races. In some cases, such as the Senate race in GA, it’s 100% headed for a runoff election between incumbent Dem Raphael Warnock and brain-damaged NFL player Hershel Walker. Many states are still counting their House races.
• But a number of wonderful and unexpected things did happen last night, such as John Fetterman beating Dr. Oz for PA Senate.
• I’m one of those guys who, rather superstitiously, doesn’t like to talk about things before they are finished, so I’m not going into the races that are still in play. But I am following trends and vote counts and specifics down to cities and counties that are still being tallied, and I’m VERY optimistic that this was an amazing election night for people who believe in America.
• And yes, there are things that were disappointing. I’d have liked Beto to win Texas. I’d have liked Florida to not be a red swamp. But I truly wasn’t expecting either of those things to happen, and there’s still a huge contingent of people who are under the MAGA spell. It’s tough to get past that, at least right now.
• However, if this tells you anything… from Jim Acosta…
• “Trump is livid” and “screaming at everyone,” after last night’s disappointing midterm results for GOP, according to a Trump adviser. The adviser went on to slam the former president’s handpicked contenders: “they were all bad candidates.” “Candidates matter,” the adviser said.
• And one VERY important note: every single anti-abortion measure in every state in the USA was shot down.
• So let’s hold up on this for the moment. My prediction is that we’re still about a month out from knowing who controls the Senate, but the one thing I can say for sure is that the “Red Tsunami” that many folks were sure would happen is, at very best, a Red Trickle.
• Later on, we’ll talk about the reasons for this Dem performance. For the time being, thank a woman or a young voter… especially people of color. They made the difference.
• And now, The Weather: “Never Here” by Furrows
• The Sports Desk is off today.
• Today in history… Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery (694). Kentucky marshals abduct abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and take him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape (1851). The Great Boston Fire of 1872 (1872). Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country, inspecting progress on the Panama Canal (1906). Cambodia gains independence from France (1953). Garry Kasparov, 22, of the Soviet Union becomes the youngest World Chess Champion by beating fellow Soviet Anatoly Karpov (1985). Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offenses (1998).
• November 9 is the birthday of king George II (1683), condensed milk inventor Gail Borden (1801), philosopher/poet/politician Muhammad Iqbal (1877), actor Ed Wynn (1886), actress/inventor Hedy Lamar (1914), vie president Spiro Agnew (1918), actress Dorothy Dandridge (1922), astronomer Carl Sagan (1934), guitarist Tom Fogerty (1941), actor Lou Ferrigno (1951), politician Sherrod Brown (1952), actor Robert Duncan McNeill (1964), guitarist Susan Tedeschi (1970), musician Corin Tucker (1972), singer Nick Lachey (1973), and MLB player Adam Dunn (1979).

So, if you couldn’t tell by now, let me be clear: I am extraordinarily happy about the election thus far. We will get into some more specifics as these races wrap up. But the worst has been averted. We will still have a democracy when it’s said and done. And the patterns as indicated by the youth vote is that the future of America is bright. I’m a happy dude. Enjoy your day.