Ummagumma

  Suddenly, the tree color erupts.  At first, it is mostly yellow with some reds coming out a few days later.  Early in the month we had the hardest rain I've ever seen here, 4.25 inches in less than two hours.  That soaked everything really well, too well at first.  Then this gave way to many days of bright blue skies and sunny days.  The clouds were few and the temperature was cooler but not cold yet.  I wore my gloves while running only twice the whole month. The first half of the month was beautiful with color.  Then those leaves fell and we were left with the mostly red late color sprinkled here and there.  The birds had mostly left us, far fewer cardinals, more crows and buzzards roaming the skies.  I heard a hawk several times but never saw one the whole month. One thing I did see was when I was checking the mail box down at the road one afternoon.  Kudo was with me, sniffing around the tile in t

I have written extensively about the Supreme Court in the past.  I criticized the dehumanizing " money is speech " decision that has led to ludicrous amounts of dollars choking our political system and privileging corporations as people.   I  dreamt of a liberal Court because I think liberal courts are more conducive to the needs of our changing, contemporary society than conservative ones, which basically try to slow the pace of legal and political change at a time when such change is accelerating.   The most important vote by the Court during the span of this blog was its decision on the Affordable Care Act mandate (posted in two parts here and here ).  While I think Obamacare is bad policy , I also believe the Court's interpretation was correct. But I haven't written anything about the disappointing Right-wing turn of the Court, with the tragic, untimely death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which allowed Donald Trump to appoint a total of three Justices to the Court fo

In the end, Pennsylvania did not matter as much as I thought it would.  Biden won in Wisconsin, Michigan , Nevada, and - most especially - in Arizona, called early by Fox News .  That early call turned out to be the beginning of the end of Donald Trump's re-election.  The country did not steer hard Right.  The regressive momentum was tamed, sort of.   The Republicans gained 6 seats in the House, still a minority but the Democrats lost seats.  The Senate, accurately reflecting the polarized nation, is presently at 50-46 in favor of the Republicans (with 2 Independents).  The last two Senate seats will be decided in my home state of Georgia.  Amazingly, not only did Biden flip Georgia in the presidential race, both Georgia Senate races are headed for runoffs and the future of the US Senate will be decided by my vote, among millions of others, in the January runoff.  Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump to become the 46th President of the United States.  In his first semi-official spe

  This is the most likely scenario based on all the various polling I've been following.  Arizona, Georgia, Florida and Pennsylvania are all "in-play."  I assume Biden will win one of these states and Trump will win three, when Trump's mail-in ballot litigation offensive is finally over with.  It might come down to Pennsylvania, specifically, how many vote for Biden in Philadelphia.  But, for the first time in my adult life, my vote might also make a difference in Georgia.  If Trump loses my home state he could be crushed.  See map at end of this post for how that might look.  If Trump wins Pennsylvania then Americans have probably voted to regress to the 1950's and our true colors will show us to be afraid of humanity's future. I made this map on 270towin.com . I voted for Joe Biden in-person a couple of weeks ago.  Originally, I had requested and received an absentee ballot but with Trump's clear strategy of attempting to disqualify as many paper b