Yesterday Sen. Joe Manchin (D) announced he would not run for reelection next year … and my concern about the coming election rose another ten degrees. He’s a Democrat from deep-red West Virginia, so it seems likely that his Senate seat will go to a Republican next year. That leaves Democrats within just a seat or two of maintaining control, and those seats rest in the hands of independents.
Worse, Manchin is making noise about running for President as a member of the No Labels party. That’s all Dems need. Yet another third-party candidate taking votes from Joe Biden (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is already running as an independent).
Then there are the recent polls that show Trump ridiculously far ahead of his competitors in the hardly-a-race for the GOP nomination and leading Biden in several states that he won in the last election.
Even if Biden manages to win re-election, he’ll still be getting older by the day. And Kamala Harris will still be his Vice President. Heh, no worries there.
Already in place is Trump’s ultraconservative, ethically-challenged Supreme Court that, with its Dobbs decision, overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively eliminating women’s legal right to make their own health care decisions.
All this while the disfunctional US House of Representatives is in the hands of the Republicans, and its leadership is in the hands one of the youngest, least qualified, most conservative of its members. (That makes him second in the line of succession to the presidency. Yikes.) The deadline for authorizing a new federal budget is just a week away, yet they’ve frittered away weeks in recent months trying to choose a Speaker. And without their authorization, there will be a US government shutdown.
Shutdown? Paralysis? Layoffs and no paychecks a month before Christmas? What about the Post Office? Air travel? Etc., etc., etc?
But hey, that’s just what’s top-of-mind this morning.
Have a nice day.
I believe this is called ‘telling it like it is’.
So many reasons to worry about the USA. So many anti-establishment attitudes. So many disaffected people. So many guns.
So much climate change !!
Same down here, but not in anything like the numbers, of course.
Globalization – that’s my villain.
I try to be optimistic, or maybe oblivious, but it’s hard. Maybe good ol’ Joe will get re-elected and competently serve another four years. Maybe the Dems will retain control of the Senate and even retake the House. Maybe the Justices who’ve misbehaved will get kicked off the court and Biden will name some new ones. Maybe all the states will legalize a woman’s right to choose. Maybe Trump will get convicted and go to prison for a number of years.
And maybe pigs will fly.
Yup. And I ain’t seen any porkers floating past here ..