When it comes to blowouts, this guy knows how to enumerate!
Every race. It’s basically been every race.Governors. Mayors. Long-held GOP dog-catchers. School boards. Water boards. Flipped a dungeon master in a rural Iowa D&D club. State senators. State reps. A janitor in Duluth. State justices. Three GOP Uber drivers.Just everything.
— John Pfaff (@johnpfaff.bsky.social) 2025-11-05T05:20:49.393Z
Who knew the Democrats targeted DMs?!?!?
The GOP yapped about the No-Kings demonstrations for a while, but here’s a poll:
The high election interest and focus on Trump also come as millions of Americans have participated in “No Kings” protests against the Trump administration. In this survey, 43% say they consider themselves supporters of the No Kings protest movement — with the group largely composed of Democrats but also including around 4 in 10 independents. [NBC News]
Which, as Steve Benen notes, is better than approval of the MAGA movement. … 4 in 10 independents suggests there’s room to grow, but also that independents are only beginning to pay attention to the role of government in keeping the economy perking along.
But the bluster of various GOP members over simple facts on the ground betrays their basic disconnect from the ways of honest American government, doesn’t it? It’s quite one thing to suggest that IF the other side gets power terrible things will happen, but it’s quite another to deny simple reality, such as the composition of the No Kings demonstrators.
The GOP jumped on the bucking horse, and now they don’t know how to conduct themselves properly to survive it. Zealots busy themselves with wrecking all incongruent with their ideological models, while their leader frantically tries to insulate himself from the consequences of his mis-deeds.
Independents are gradually realizing this, but looking at the Democrats can be a dismal business as well. Will we get new, improved Parties, or will it be a choice between Alien and Predator?
Being behind on my reading does make it easier to report follow-up observations. For example, last week’s gubernatorial election in New Jersey, not a special election but a regularly scheduled election, elicited this statement from Steve Benen:
* In the final round of polling in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill narrowly leads former Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli in the latest Suffolk University poll (46%-42%), Quinnipiac University poll (51%-43%) and Fox News poll (52%-45%).
A real nail-biter, eh? “Narrowly leads” hardly sounds like it. Drum roll, please:
Source: Ballotpedia.
A 13 point victory is not a nail biter. I have no special links to pollsters, so I don’t know the internal chatter, but they have to be discussing these results with some intensity, especially Suffolk University.
Monist:
- Philosophy.
- (in metaphysics) any of various theories holding that there is only one basic substance or principle as the ground of reality, or that reality consists of a single element.
- (in epistemology) a theory that the object and datum of cognition are identical.
- the reduction of all processes, structures, concepts, etc., to a single governing principle; the theoretical explanation of everything in terms of one principle.
- the conception that there is one causal factor in history; the notion of a single element as primary determinant of behavior, social action, or institutional relations. [Dictionary.com]
Noted in “What 350 different theories of consciousness reveal about reality,” Robert Lawrence Kuhn, NewScientist (25 October 2025, paywall):
This first decision comes down to whether a theory is dualist or monist. Dualism, an idea most scientists steer clear of, posits the mental and physical as two deeply distinct substances, neither reducible to the other. For instance, traditional Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – feature a “soul” along with the physical body or brain. On the other hand, monism says that reality in all its manifest forms consists of only one kind of “stuff” at its deepest level. Philosopher Bertrand Russell proposed that a single set of properties underlies both consciousness and the fundamental entities of the physical world.
I admit I tired quickly of this article, which concerned theories of the association between brain and consciousness, and merely skimmed.
It’s been less than a month since my last commentary on DJT, the stock symbol for the company Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., and, if you hold this stock in your portfolio, it doesn’t look good. In those last three weeks, roughly, it’s been an 18% slide in value.
Source: finance.yahoo.com.
This one month chart illustrates the problem for those who appreciate graphs, showing that going back a week or so from previous commentary makes the problem even worse – down 23%.
This suggests investors’ confidence in an offering of a social media platform featuring a President who, in my opinion, has earned the moniker The Mendacity Machine, a cryptocurrency treasury, supporting access to prediction markets, aka betting pools on just about anything you like, the offering of $TRUMP, and a few other things is eroding. It may have to do with the occupants of the C-suites, or doubts about crypto’s long term viability, or the President’s long-term drawing power as the star of a social media platform reportedly struggling. Talk to your favorite investors and you may get as many opinions as you have such friends.
This is in the context of a market that is setting new records, although I will also state that I think we’re seeing the type of frothy market characteristic of a situation in which there are many unfamiliar factors. The government is painfully, even dangerously, incompetent, run by oddballs who’ve clung to opinions far outside that of the mainstream for decades, and by God, now that they’re in power, they’re going to afflict us with those opinions; they’ll frantically deny they have anything to do with the negative consequences that occur.
Just like their role model, Mr Trump. Think of the troubling labor statistics that accompanied his occupancy of the Oval Office, statistics which the President cut off by firing – perhaps illegally – the lead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Notably, his nomination to replace said leader was withdrawn as the Senate signaled it would not approve him amidst general criticism of and laughter at him, him being E. J. Antoni. I’ve not heard of a new nominee, as Mr Trump practices the old art of obscuring the unpleasant while his spokesperson trumpets his transparency, over and over again.
That must make formerly confident investors nervous enough to withdraw investments from Trump. I differentiate investors, people who separate emotion from investing, from MAGA investors, investors from President Trump’s electoral base, who follow emotion in their investing and have bought DJT. I think the MAGA investors are in for an unpleasant surprise.
I see the market as the Pied Piper these days, attracting money that may never return. But I’m no expert, I’m just an investor who’s feeling suspicious about markets in a nation featuring an absolutely untrustworthy President who may be guided by a morality system based on wishful thinking.
Noted on the way home the other day.
Steve Benen is disturbed by this Politico report, behind a paywall[1], concerning President Trump treating a meeting with the troops as a campaign rally:
Speaking to U.S. soldiers aboard the USS George Washington in Yokosuka, Japan, the Republican did it once again. The New York Times noted, “Trump has been doing this more often at home lately, but it is still striking to see him basically holding what looks and sounds very much like one of his signature political rallies in front of members of the United States military.”
A Politico report fleshed this out in more detail:
In the early hours of this morning, Trump gave another highly partisan speech to the U.S. military, hailing his own political achievements and repeatedly condemning his Democratic opponents and critics in the media. … [W]hat’s most striking is Trump’s willingness to use the troops as a foil for his highly partisan rhetoric. He repeatedly condemned his predecessor Joe Biden, told his audience the 2020 election had been rigged and savaged Democratic governors who resist military incursions into their cities. … Trump also called out the ‘fake news media,’ encouraging the troops to deride the gathered journalists.
It’s worth taking a moment to explore the landscape.
… we must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately. [Benjamin Franklin or Carl Van Doren, Founders Online]
This is more than a meme from the Founding of the United States, it’s an accurate description of the situation: either the British colonies of North America that were in rebellion united, or it was likely that each person would be hung.
But let’s make this a bit more complex. Why is it often old men and women who lead nations? It’s worth a thought on that, especially if my reader is younger and, perhaps, not particularly contemplative.
The answer is not surprising. Experience of all sorts informs judgment, as does having the time for meditation, and even having proper mental models of how humans work.
When I see a group of young people cheering on some old fellow who’s spouting populist ideas of little merit, I’m reminded why we don’t put those young adults in charge. Further, their lack of judgment, a natural condition for folks of their age, make them vulnerable to poor advice and illicit directives.
In a dangerous world, we should be coming together, compromising and looking to the common weal. Instead, President Trump, unlike most leaders, is leading the way into division, risking wrack and ruin, demonizing anyone he sees as a danger to his corrupt and grifting ways. This is a betrayal of the young adults of America.
They should be paying attention to criticisms and not cheering his simplistic and incorrect analyses. They’re getting an up-close look at power-grubbing, and it should sicken them.
1 I approve of paywalls, actually, as I view the ad model of paying for websites to be corrosive as it removes some, or even all, of the social contract influence that a paid subscription implies. Do I have a sub for Politico? No. Being a working dude, I have not the time for reading it properly, nor the interest.
If you’re finding the price of ingredients for pie to be prohibitive, Max Miller of Tasting History is here to tell you all about water pie.
After some upgrade drama…
Not totally resolved …
We have flowers!
All from last summer.
Ectoparasite:
Ectoparasites are defined as parasites that infest the outer surface of their hosts, which can include species that live exclusively on humans, such as lice and scabies, as well as those that are incidental hosts, like fleas. They can cause intense itching and may transmit diseases through their bites. [ScienceDirect]
Noted in this Animalogic video concerning vampire sharks. I shan’t help you find it.
