I'm shouting to the north and south, 
  singing to the east and the west:

              " V O T E "  

There is no non-Trump faction of any significance in today's G.O.P.  That was established early in the morning of January 7, 2021, when more than one hundred thirty Republican representatives and eight Republican senators voted against certifying Biden's election. If Republicans refused to disavow Trump then, with the Capitol looted and despoiled by his insurrectionists, then why would they disavow him now during the midterms? Whether they admit it or not, Republicans have claimed Trump's me-me-me ideology as their own.    
with attribution to Susan B Glasser, November 3, 2022, The New Yorker.

We have what it takes to hold the Senate and the House,        
             but only if we V O T E.

Democracy was on the ballot.        
Americans recognize we live in a world suffering global inflation.      
Like the rest of the world we have to gut it out,      
we're not about to sacrifice democracy for the dream of lower gas prices.

... Our votes matter ... Our votes matter ... Our votes matter ...
     per the AP:     
             Democrats hold the majority in the Senate.

   Elections are about the future.

   Freedom was on the ballot.

Election Day was a bad day for election deniers and a good day for the rest of us. Across the country, election deniers lost important races; only one self-described "America First" Secretary of State candidates (in Indiana) won his race. The group of would-be chief election officials was defined by baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Candidates who embraced such beliefs also lost gubernatorial races in the Great Lakes states. Election deniers won Senate races in Ohio and North Carolina; Georgia's Senate race will be decided in a runoff election in December.      

All in all Election Day was a good day; local officials were prepared for disorder, but bad weather more than voter intimidation marked the day. Many of the candidates who were election deniers lost and quietly conceded. At least for now, there's a sense of traditional democratic order, despite Trump posting more than 20 messages on his social medium platform since Election Day afternoon. Who knows the impact of Trump's expected announcement tomorrow? Kari Lake, who is yet locked in a tight race against Democrat Katie Hobbs for Arizona governor, has been aggressive promoting unfounded concerns about the vote-counting process. Hopefully that race will be decided by tonight.

"A society without the means to detect lies and theft soon squanders its liberty and freedom."      
-- Chris Hedges

Though for a time, it looked like Kari Lake riding the red wave and playing to the extremes with a personally compelling candidacy would propel herself to instant stardom on the national GOP stage, and though vote counts were way too close, the MAGA movement and their next great hope were stopped. Kari Lake has not (yet) conceded to Governor-elect Katie Hobbs.

Trump announced his 2024 candidacy for president (just one week after the 2022 midterms, before election results are complete and before the runoff in GA).        
Donald Trump is the Republican front runner... as one of my Gen Z grandsons said, "Trump 2 electric boogaloo."

Trump says his presidency went decades without war when he was in office.

More than a year after January 6, protest organizers and election deniers remain in Congress.      
We must remain vigilant to hold radical conservatives accountable to prevent a repeat of the violent attack on our democratic republic.

Anne LaMott reminds us:      
"What the American people have done is to severely injure the dragon, but he is going to smash up a lot more with that huge tail before he is through."

Election Day was but a skirmish (with a better than anticipated outcome). Our Republic faces deep issues in the ongoing battle for the heart and soul of our nation. We will begin to find an answer when we agree an answer needs to be found.

As Thomas Paine wrote: "It is the duty of every man (and woman), as far as (their) ability extends, to detect and expose illusion and error."

"In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the U.S. gun safety debate... once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over."    
-- Dan Hodges, British Journalist. NYTimes

"Across the country, openly carrying a gun in public is no longer just an exercise in self-defense --- increasingly it is a soapbox for elevating one's voice and, just as often, quieting someone else's...to intimidate opponents and shut down debate."      
-- Mike McIntire, NYTimes

It is all too clear, we do not have the collective, moral will to legislate to effectively curtail gun violence in the U.S.

"You can also commit injustice by doing nothing."      
-- Marcus Aurelius

Not rocking the boat can be a good thing - except when it's not.      
Doing nothing often gives permission to those who practice injustice to keep doing what they're doing.

Elon Musk has proven once again that a man is not necessarily wise just because he's wealthy.

Elon Musk spent $44 billion to purchase Twitter, espousing free speech protections. Since then, he has embarked on a nonstop campaign of mismanagement, hate speech, and misinformation. To further promote hate speech and reduce protections for users from abuse, he intends to restore accounts that were previously removed for racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-LGBTQ+ speech.

Barack Obama defeated Alan Keyes for U.S. Senator from Illinois.    
Raphael Warnock defeated Herschel Walker for U.S. Senator from Georgia.

Not only does Nancy Pelosi navigate the marble floors of the Capitol in high heels, she gave an interview while relishing (and recommending) delectables on camera in a Chinese restaurant.

All you who "scream" for ice cream, Nancy Pelosi starts her day not with a cup of coffee, but with dark chocolate (the darker the better) ice cream for breakfast, licking rather than sipping (sugar cones are her thing).

And what is her workday lunch on Capitol Hill?          
a hot dog with mustard and relish in the House Democratic cloakroom