Wednesday
13 December 2017

— hosts of wood doves this sepia colored morning

Good Morning All,

I must say I went to bed last night feeling at least as nervous as on the nights before the 7th game of the World Series in 1967, 1975, and 1986. Which is to say, my stomach felt the size of a very wrinkled walnut trying to come up my throat. For those of you who do not have the results of those games etched into your brains:

1967: Bob Gibson and the Saint Louis Cards slip past Gentleman Jim Lonborg and the Red Sox 7 - 2. Gibson hits a home run. Lou Brock steals a couple of bases. Roger Maris hits a sacrifice fly.

1975: Don Gullett starts for the Cincinnati Reds, Bill Lee for Boston. Tony Perez takes Bill's Leephus Pitch downtown. Ken Griffey walks, steals second, and Pete Rose singles him home. Reds edge past Sox 9 - 5.

1986: Ron Darling starts for the Mets. Because of a rain-out, the Sox start Bruce Hurst, who’d already won two games. Oil Can Boyd, who had been scheduled to pitch, goes into club house, gets smashed, and is in no condition for relief pitching if needed. Sox get to Darling in the third. Dewey Evans and Rich Gedman hit back-to-back homers. Evans cuts down a runner with a rocket from deep right field. Darryl Strawberry homers. Mets manage to stumble past the Sox 8 - 5.

Red Sox Nation goes into mourning wearing its threadbare funeral suits.

And last night I was preparing myself psychologically for not just Red Sox Nation, but the entire U.S. Nation, going into mourning after Roy Moore--world class dirtbag and likely pedophile—won the special election for the U.S. Senate.

And you know what? It didn't happen. It did not happen! My shaking finger hit my mouse to fire up Firefox, I narrowed my eyes (which has sometimes helped win Sox games in the past), Firefox took forever to boot up the Boston Globe home page, and then there—Holy Mary, Mother of God!—there is the headline: Doug Jones tops Roy Moore in Alabama election.

Not to mention it was close to a landslide victory, Jones getting 49.9% to Moore’s 48.4%. How—you may ask--can that be a landslide? Well, there’s not been a Democrat from Alabama elected to the U.S. Senate in twenty years. The Trumpster took the state by 28% last year. And Jones is prochoice. So, yes, a landslide, relatively speaking.

But in case you are tempted to feel too sap-happy elated and optimistic by this Up-Yours-Trump vote, take a long look at this graphic Johs sent: 

Jones Write-In Moore

White Men (35% of Voters:  27% 2% 72%

White Women (31%) 35% 2% 63%

Black Men (11%) 93% 1% 6%

Black Women (17%) 98% 0% 2%

(No, that is not a misprint! More white women than white men voted for the child molester.)

Assuming the leaders of the Democratic Party are paying attention, the strategy for the mid-term elections next year has got to be rallying minorities to get to the voting booths. If that happens, the core members of the Republican Party--i.e., the greedy rich (which is not all, but most of them), the white supremacists, bigots, misogynists, xenophobes, survivalists, klansmen, neo-Nazis, and what have you--will be handily outnumbered. 

Johs also sent this article from The Onion - America’s Finest News Source.

HUNTSVILLE, AL—Scanning his mind for any minority groups he could have demonized more forcefully, Alabama Senate candidate and secret Democratic operative Roy Moore admitted Tuesday that he wasn’t sure what else he could have done to destroy the Republican Party’s reputation. “When Nancy [Pelosi] sent me here, I was convinced that revealing myself as a pedophile would be more than enough, but now I’m just at a loss,” said Moore, who admitted he thought DNC chair Tom Perez was going over the top by suggesting he say gay marriage had made the U.S. the source of all evil, but that didn’t even budge the polls. “I mean, I stood on a stage and wistfully recalled the era in which slavery existed in this country. What else am I supposed to do? I’ve been really digging deep to vilify the GOP and make myself unelectable, but I still might win.” At press time, Moore was kicking himself for not sabotaging himself more egregiously by claiming he supported a ban on assault weapons.

The Onion also supplied the following headline:

Roy Moore Retires From Politics To Spend More Quality Time with Someone’s Kid.

For me one of the most satisfying aspects of this good news is imagining what sort of day Trump will be having when he gets up in a couple of hours. He made Alabama Senator Sessions the AG, almost immediately regretted so doing, and now the GOP has lost the seat. Irony does not get much sweeter.

Go Well and Stay Well,

Bhekaron

P.S. Two Holly snaps: