Friday, October 30, 2020

Your Halloween/Blue Moon/Fall Back/4 Days Away from Election Day Round-up


How well are you coping?


This Halloween's full moon is also a blue moon. While the moon won't actually look blue, a blue moon refers to the second of two full moons occurring in the same month, which happens once every 2.5 to three years, or "once in a blue moon."

A full moon appears on Halloween roughly every 19 years, so of course tack it up to 2020 for one more rare feat. Take note when the full moon rises on Saturday as it won't happen again on Halloween in many time zones until 2039, 2058, 2077 and 2096.

I'll be ghosting those future dates. Literally.


-- What to watch for, and what you can ignore, as the returns roll in Tuesday night (TexTrib via Progrexas):

Beyond (the) marquee statewide races, there are 12 U.S. House seats being seriously contested by both parties this year -- a far higher number than usual. Two -- Congressional District 7 and CD-32-- are seats Democrats flipped in 2018 and that Republicans would like to win back. The other 10 — CD-2, CD-3, CD-6, CD-10, CD-21, CD-22, CD-23, CD-24, CD-25 and CD-31— are GOP-held seats.

And perhaps the most consequential races on the ballot are the ones that will determine who controls the Texas House. Republicans hold the majority, but Democrats are looking to flip the chamber. If you’re interested in tracking that battle, keep an eye on these seats:

  • The 12 Democratic seats that Republicans hope to win back: House District 45, HD-47, HD-52, HD-65, HD-102, HD-105, HD-113, HD-114, HD-115, HD-132, HD-135 and HD-136.
  • The 22 seats held by Republicans that Democrats hope they can flip: HD-14, HD-26, HD-28, HD-29, HD-32, HD-54, HD-64, HD-66, HD-67, HD-92, HD-93, HD-94, HD-96, HD-97, HD-108, HD-112, HD-121, HD-126, HD-129, HD-133, HD-134 and HD-138.
If Democrats can add a net of nine seats, they will break the Republican monopoly on control of the levers of state government.

-- Definitely put Dan Patrick on ignore. He's as bad as Trump.

-- MAGAts are going to be screaming like banshees throughout Election Night, Wednesday morning, and for some undetermined length of time thereafter. The question is whether some group of significants -- like say, the Supreme Court -- hears them, and worse yet, pays attention.


This is one of the best things about no longer being invested in the status quo; I voted my conscience, my hopes and dreams, not my fears, and while I'm as interested in the outcome as you are, I just won't sweat it (and that has nothing to do with white privilege).



“We have two political parties, and each one is telling us that (if they don’t win) it’s all over,” (American Solidarity Party candidate Brian) Carroll, a former history teacher, remarked ... “If any of us thought that for a minute, we wouldn’t be here tonight."

[...]

“This isn’t about what happens this year. It’s about what happens in the future,” said (independent candidate Brock) Pierce, who is already planning on running in 2024.

“This is really about the American people winning. It’s really about our country winning. Any time that we can hear more ideas from thoughtful, engaged citizens, we should be listening,” he said about why he decided to move forward with hosting the debate so close to the Nov. 3 election.

[...]

“Independents are the majority. We’re bigger than the Democrats and Republicans,” he said. Indeed, 42% of registered voters in 2020 are independent, according to independent political analysis group Gallup.

“I think we’re doomed if we don’t do something different.”

Expanding the pool of viable presidential candidates is something (Howie) Hawkins, the Green Party candidate, has wanted since he was a young voter in the 1960s.

“I’ve been looking for an alternative my whole life,” said Hawkins, who characterized the Commission on Presidential Debates’ requirement that candidates meet a popularity threshold to participate as a “scam.”

Hawkins, whose platform includes implementing the proposed Green New Deal, addressing systemic inequities and cutting military spending, said that even though he expects “Biden to win by a landslide,” he’s still committed to building his party and pushing harder for the policy issues he’s prioritized.

“We don’t have to win the White House to have victories for the Green Party,” Hawkins said. “There’s a historic role of third parties in this country. They put issues on the table that have been excluded.”

(Gloria) La Riva, the (Party for Socialism and Liberation) candidate who called capitalism “unsustainable,” echoed Hawkins’ and the two other candidates’ core message of the evening: “People’s voices need to be heard, whether you can win or not.”


Still so much left to get to, but will pause here for now.

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