Entry 404: No Moore

Well, Roy Moore is not going to be a US Senator.  That's a very good thing, although the election itself is a glass-half-full-or-half-empty type of thing.  On the one hand, a Democrat, and seemingly decent human being, won in a state where Republicans usually win by 20 points; on the other hand, the candidate most unfit for public office in my lifetime (yes, even more unfit than Trump) came within a sliver of winning.  That anybody voted for an alleged pederast, who said homosexuality should be illegal, Muslims shouldn't be allowed to serve in the US government, and our country was at its best when slavery was the law of the land is highly disturbing, let alone 48% percent of the electorate.

But win he didn't and the political ramifications are not small.  I'm dubious of claims about "momentum" and "waves," but it certainly does seem like Democrats are more motivated to turn out the vote than I've ever seen them before, save for Obama's presidential victories.  Susan Sarandon was widely mocked by liberals for proclaiming before the 2016 elections that a Trump victory might be a good thing because it would incite revolution.  But could she actually have been right?  No, of course not -- it's still an idiotic thing to say.  I wish Clinton had won a million times over.

With that said, if the Democrats can retake the House and/or the Senate in 2018 due to a massive anti-Trump backlash, it would be more than a mere consolation prize.  It would give the resistance actual power -- especially if they take the Senate.  Some of those Supreme Court justices are getting up there in years and having blocking power over Trump would be huge.  One of my fantasies is that Dems win a Senate majority in 2018 and then multiple openings on the Supreme Court open up (let's say people retire; I don't want to wish death on anybody), and then when Trump nominates somebody, Dems give him the Merrick Garland treatment, and then in 2021, newly-elected president Kirsten Gillibrand picks a couple of young, gay, transgender, racially ambiguous, atheist, liberal judges to fill the openings.

That's unlikely, sure, but it's much likelier now that the Dems won a seat in Ala-freakin'-bama!  The way things set up, if they hold all their Senate seats in 2018 and pick-off Nevada and Arizona, definite possibilities, they would have a 51-49 advantage.  Preliminary odds of this happening are right around 50-50 according to a comment I read from somebody at FiveThirtyEight.  I guess other states are in play as well as long shots -- maybe Texas or Tennessee -- but there's also a chance Dems lose a seat they currently hold.  You have to consider that as well.  This is where Franken's happy hands hurt his party.  I don't believe he was up for reelection until 2020.  Now, there is going to be an election in Minnesota, a purple state, in 2018.

And the House is wide-open as I understand it.  I haven't actually crunched the numbers myself or even read a comprehensive analysis on it, but I've heard smart people say that if Dems hold their seats and win in places carried by Clinton, they will win a House majority.  That seems very doable, if -- and this is a big if -- they can turnout voters like they did in Virginia and Alabama.  Everybody needs to be energized and do something for the cause -- volunteer or donate.  Most people have either money or time to spare, some lucky people have both.  Most people in this country are closer to Doug Jones than they are to Roy Moore.  We just need to get those most people to vote.  So, let's do it!

Okay, I'm off my political soapbox...

This will likely be my last entry on this blog for a few weeks or so.  We are headed on vacation for the holidays -- Christmas at the beach!  I'm looking forward to it.  Not Hawaii (the South Carolina coast) so the song below isn't apt, but I like it anyway, so I'm posting.  I gotta say, I can't enough Bing Crosby (Tacoma's own!) come the yuletide season.



Until next time...

Entry 403: The "E" is for Entertainment

Just got back from a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's.  I can't tell if that place has really gone down hill or if I'm romanticizing my childhood experiences there.  I remember it being a mecca of fun and excitement -- it was the place to have a birthday.  (Unless you were my friend who insisted the short-lived ShowBiz Pizza was far, far superior to Chuck E. Cheese's.)  Now, I find the place kinda depressing.  I joked on Facebook that it's a casino for kids, but that's really what its like.  They used to have tubes and nets and pits, so that kids could run and jump and climb, but at the handful of locations I've been to relative recently these funplex type of toys are gone (or drastically scaled back), and it's just all arcade games.  And a lot of them aren't even typical video games; they are literally gaming machines where you feed in money trying to get tickets to redeem for prizes.  And "redeem" is a very generous term -- "get swindled" is more accurate.  We played games for about an hour and earned 26 tickets, which got us two tootsie rolls (the medium sized ones) and four stickers -- and that's only because the worker behind the counter let us round up to 30.  The last time I was there a woman said to me, "I like this because it teaches kids they have to save up if they want to by something.  It's a good lesson," to which I replied, "the only lesson I hope my sons take away from this is what a ripoff these types of places are."  I got a big laugh out of her friend.

Now, I can't be too curmudgeonly.  It was a birthday party, at which we were guests, and the entire bill was footed by the hosts -- we even got a prepaid game card -- so I'm very appreciative we got to go.  I just don't love Chuck E. Cheese's is all.  It definitely was nice to have an activity for the kids though.  S had to go to Côte d'Ivoire for work, so I have both kids by myself for a week.  During the work week it's not too bad (other than my evening commute is worse and I miss my Krav Maga classes), but on the weekend it can get tough to entertain them, so knocking out a few hours with something is always welcome.

The party was a fine little party too.  It was for a kid at Lil' S1's new school, and I didn't even know him or his parents.  So, I got to meet them which was nice.  Although, another problem with Chuck E. Cheese's is that the kids are all off in their own separate worlds playing games, and I had to keep close tabs on Lil' S2, so there wasn't much chance to congregate.  I didn't get more than, like, ten minutes to talk with the grown-ups.  Whatever, though, like I said, it's nice that Lil' S1 is making friends (another parent told me her son was a "fan" of his, which I thought was sweet); I'm thankful we were invited (and they let Lil' S2 tag along, as well).  Plus, the kids seemed to enjoy it (it's pizza, cake, and video games, after all), and they didn't throw a fit when it was time to leave, even though we left on the early side because I didn't want Lil' S2 to go down for his nap too late.

Speaking of which, he's been doing pretty well without a paci.  He hasn't asked for one in a week or so.  But it's just harder to get him down now.  The paci triggered something in his brain that would make him fall asleep.  Now, you have to lay down in bed with him for 15 minutes, pretending to be asleep yourself, as he babbles nonsense (which is super cute, even given the circumstances) and drives a toy truck around his mattress.  When you are counting on that nap time to do things it's difficult to do while he's up, then that 15 minutes is a big deal.  Oh well, it could be worse.  He could not nap at all.  I'm not looking forward to that day.

Well, gotta go -- work tomorrow and whatnot.  I didn't even have time to get to any "real" problems like the decline of our country into outright kleptocracy.  Well, I'm sure I'll have more to say on that another time.

Until next time...

(PS -- I started this entry in the afternoon and finished it in the evening, in case you were wondering why I said I just got back from Chuck E. Cheese's at the beginning of it and then mentioned having to work tomorrow at the end.  I doubt anybody was reading it that closely, but if you were, that's the explanation.)