As I feared, the Trump cult remains strong in the US, strong enough to increase its majority in the US Senate, even as it lost control of the House of Representatives. In Ohio, Republicans won all the statewide elected offices except for incumbent Democratic senator Sherrod Brown who won quite easily. No congressional seats switched parties either, so the status quo in Ohio was retained.
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Kim Davis is the rancid homophobic clerk of a county in Kentucky who shot to fame because of her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, even after the US Supreme Court ruled that all bans on such marriages were unconstitutional. She has been defeated in her effort to retain the office that she seems to regard as a family sinecure, having taken it over from her mother who hired her to work in the office. She has lost to a Democrat. Her replacement is by no means a great friend of the LGBT community but he has promised to enforce the law equally.
This is not a major election, just a small one in a backwater. But the defeat of the awful Davis pleases me a great deal.
While there he talks to Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz and their respective supporters. O’Rourke had the good sense to play it straight but Cruz does not seem to realize that when you try to trade sharp barbs with a comedian, you will always lose because comedians deal with hecklers all the time. This is especially the case when your interviewer has the name ‘Insult’ but Cruz tries anyway and gets drubbed. That happens at the 9:00 mark.
I voted at about 10:00am today. While there were no lines, the polling place was busy and most of the booths were occupied. I met a friend there as she was leaving and she said that there was a line when she arrived. We both felt that the turnout was high for an off-presidential year election but what the means is anybody’s guess, though since where we live is a pretty progressive area, a high turnout should be good for statewide offices and issues.
Election day today will be a good, though not perfect, test of the size of the Trump cult. Since Trump is not on the ballot, it will not be a direct test but since the Republican party has almost unanimously capitulated to him and even shown a pretty disgusting level of obsequiousness towards him (Ted Cruz being the perfect example), any Republican candidate for any office is seen as a surrogate for Trump. The old adage that all politics is local does not apply in this election.
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The laws in Pakistan against blasphemy are an absolute disgrace. They are so expansive and ambiguous that people can use them against their enemies by alleging blasphemy and making their lives intolerable. It seems like charges can be brought easily and religious mobs easily incited who then in turn intimidate authorities into take action against the accused. Hence the decision last week by the Pakistani Supreme Court to overturn the blasphemy conviction of the woman known as Asia Bibi is a welcome development.
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One of the biggest puzzles is how some drivers do not seem to realize when they are behind the wheel of a vehicle weighing several tons, they can cause mayhem on a large scale. Unfortunately, it is mainly those who deliberately want to do so that realize the potential that a motor vehicle has as a lethal weapon. An error or loss of concentration can result in the deaths of innocent people. This is why the use of cell phones while driving has become such a menace. That people actually read things on their phone and send and receive text messages while driving is something I find utterly incomprehensible and so I am glad that more and more states are passing laws that issue stiff penalties for doing so.
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Since the shooter who caused the deaths of two people at a yoga studio killed himself, it is going to be a while before his motives can be gleaned from other sources. But initial signs point to this possibly being another rampage by a racist far-right misogynist, someone who shared the ‘incel’ (involuntarily celibate) mindset of rage against women because they will not have sex with them.
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