Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Election Week 2022 not good for the GOP
Date:	11/9/2022 1:14:53 PM (updated 11/9/2022 1:30:40 PM)

No other way to sugarcoat it but apparently Independents and right leaning Democrats did not hold Democrats accountable for the last two disastrous years.  No doubt the SCOTUS abortion ruling animated the left, which is in itself is a sad statement.  As I predicted in PA, Fetterman won.  He got over 80% of the vote in Philly and over 60% in Pittsburgh which is all they need to win the state.  But any way you look at it, given the fundamentals the GOP should have done much better.  They did not.

Kudos to Stacey Abrams for not making the same mistake of refusing to concede.....not that she had much of a choice.  Warnock-Walker headed to a runoff in early December.  My prediction is Warnock will win but a lot will depend on the turnout and what the Losertarian voters do when they don't have a loser candidate to vote for.  Likely they will stay home or vote for Warnock out of spite.

On a positive note, it appears that the GOP will control the House so DJ Brandon is officially a lame duck.  My prediction is that at best the Senate will stay 50/50 but more likely Democrats by 1 seat.  Amazingly, so far not one incumbent in a state-wide race has lost.  The power of uncumbancy is real and it looks like divided government for the next two years so nothing will improve but the further damage will be limited.

Name:	MrHodja -	Reply
Subject:	Election Week 2022 not good for the GOP
Date:	11/9/2022 2:01:52 PM

DeSantis 2024

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Election Week 2022 not good for the GOP
Date:	11/9/2022 4:30:01 PM

Looks like a 2-man race, Trump and DeSantis.  I will go for the latter in the primary for sure but am pretty sure if Trump runs he will be the nominee.....and we will lose in 2024.  What will ensure a Trump nomination is if 20 others get in the race and split the non-Trump vote.  He will get 30% to 35% minimum from the die hard fans.  As for the midterms, I am of the opinion that abortion was the deciding factor and not the quality of Trump or non-Trump candidates.  I can assure you no one could have beaten the Philly and Pittsburgh vote machine (legal and otherwise).  When I lived there illegal voting was the norm but it was always two Dems vying for the majority of them.  Mostly if you have the Philly machine you were the state-wide winner.

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Election Week 2022 not good for the GOP
Date:	11/9/2022 5:47:27 PM

It was a discouraging result.  I guess a lot of people believe that Joe Biden and his idiotic policies have nothing to do with inflation and gas prices.  Of course, the left dug out Obama and hid Biden as much as they could.  

Republicans would be better off if Trump disappeared into the sunset.  Those he endorsed didn't win and now he is playing around with his big "announcement" -  I don't believe he will get the party nomination.  By then, he will be off the big stage for 4 years and every year he is off, he gets further out.  I don't believe he can beat DiSantis.  The question will be is "who will the Democrats run?"  A friend told me today that she heard a commentary that said Hilary Clinton would be their best shot and of course, Hiliarly is just dying for someone to ask her to run.  

I have to say that I don't know what is going on in PA that they would elect that dumb_ss Fedderman.  Won't everyone be impressed when he shows up in this athle-leisure every day on the floor of the chamber???  As much as I dislike Oz, he was a better choice than Fedderman.  

The only interesting thing now is to see what Nancy will do.  

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	Election Week 2022 not good for the GOP
Date:	11/9/2022 9:49:00 PM (updated 11/9/2022 9:49:38 PM)

"No doubt the SCOTUS abortion ruling animated the left, which is in itself is a sad statement. " It maybe a sad statement to you but not to those who support it. It will be  a hot topic in 2024. Sometimes you win the battle but lose the war.

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Election Week 2022 not good for the GOP
Date:	11/10/2022 8:39:59 AM

Right....people have supported objectively evil acts from the beginning of time......doesn't make them right, just acceptable to a lot of people.  Imagine being animated to vote for a party by the desire to kill babies in the womb and even after they are born.  At least I am animated by protecting unborn babies.  I can assure you lots of Chinese citizens find the treatment of Uygurs entirely acceptable.....slavery, sterilization and murder.  A lot of Soviet citizens found the gulags acceptable.....I could go on.  And I can assure you they would justify their approval in exactly the same way pro-abortion people do.....some faux good be it personal choice, protect the state or whatever.

But I am OK with not winning an election cycle the way it was predicted if it protects the unborn.  The real question here is as we move further away from the Dobbs decision and Gen Z starts to grow up and suddenly realizes that SCOTUS did not ban abortion and the country is mired in a recession, more inflation, more crime, more border crisis, more transgender madness and so on will this be the same winning formula in 2024?  DJ Brandon certainly thinks so and will double down.  But not winning this election cycle as predicted is 100% sending the issue of abortion back to the states to decide, where it belongs.

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Election Week 2022 not good for the GOP
Date:	11/10/2022 8:44:32 AM (updated 11/10/2022 8:48:20 AM)

I agree that I wish Trump would not run in 2024.  However, he went 173-9 on his endorsements and I read this morning that Kari Lake is within less than 5,000 votes of winning with lots more to count.  It seems a ton of GOP voters used mail in ballots which is a surprise to me.  The difference is they showed up on election day to deliver them, over 275,000 of them.  If the rest of the vote is split around 50/50 and Lake gets a majority of the hand delivered mail in ballots she will win as will other GOP candidates in AZ.

As for PA, where I grew up, it's all about Philly and to a lesser extent Pittsburgh.  Democrats in those two cities would vote for an eggplant.  It's a cultural thing and a hangover from the industrial days when unions ruled the state.  My grandfather was a Democrat, my fahter was a Democrat, I am a Democrat and by God my kids will be Democrats.

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	GF - for the record
Date:	11/10/2022 8:53:22 AM

I support a women's right to choose- always have.  Not everyone who leans conservative is a right to lifer, and not everyone who is a conservative wants to see Trump back in the WH.  

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Election Week 2022 not good for the GOP
Date:	11/10/2022 8:56:12 AM

Left over from the days when Democrats wwere for the Unions, and the working man.  I buy your logic.

Name:	lucky67 -	Reply
Subject:	GF - for the record
Date:	11/10/2022 10:57:25 AM

Hound-for rape, incest, health of mother I agree BUT I would point out-a great alternative to abortion is ADOPTION--we tried for 8 years, finally gave up--moved to GA to go through parivate adoption -$10k later daughter is now 38 & very successful; we joined a huge group in Atlanta of couples waiting to adopt--

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Some other interesting observations
Date:	11/10/2022 3:42:01 PM

A number of issues have come up that are interesting.  One is about redistricting.  Given the new districting done by both GOP and Democrat controlled legislatures it has become increasingly difficult to see big swings in House seats.  Both parties have gotten very sophisticated in analyzing voters and drawing districts to make seats safe for incumbents.  We saw this in GA-6 which made it more Republican and moved some voters to a district that was safe Democrat.  This is happening all over the place and could best be desccribed as the Safe Incumbent Redistricting Process.  But making districts safe for one party or the other precludes big swings.....something I had not considered.

The second is about the Arizona election.  The more I see from that state the more incompetent they look.  Hobbs, the Guv candidate and current SOS is apparently totally incompetent.  But it keeps getting more interesting and I am now of the opinion that they are slow walking the counting process because they know Kari Lake is going to dominate the mail in ballots that were hand delivered on election day.  Whether it is enough to carry Blake Masters as well remains to be seen but it does not seem so at this point unless they go hard for him.  But as of right now I would not be surprised to see her come out on top and her campaign is very confident and we're not hearing much from Hobbs so I suspect they know as well.  Either way, the state is humiliating itself over the inability to manage an election and quickly count votes.

The third is about demographics.  Suburban women again went for Democrats like they did in 2020.  Speculation is abortion was the issue.  Gen Z, especially unmarried women, also went big for Democrats which is no surprise.  Least experienced, most recently indoctrinated and generally look to govt to fill the role of a spouse in terms of security.  Hispanics shifted toward the GOP but not in the numbers expected.  And don't read too much into Florida.  A large portion of the Hispanic vote, particularly in South FL, are cubans.  They know what life is like under socialism and tend toward the GOP.  To assume this will apply to non-Cuban hispanics is probably not wise.  Blacks did what they usually do, vote for Democrats.

The fourth is that unless Masters comes out on top in AZ it will once again come down to GA for control of the Senate.  Pray for those of us in the state as both parties are going to be all in so we will be inundated with political ads, text messages and robo calls.  I again predict a repeat of the last runoff and Warnock will come out on top.  But since it all comes down to turnout anything could happen.

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	GF - for the record
Date:	11/10/2022 8:43:28 PM

I think adoption is definitely an option, and of course, there are many, many deserving couple who would love to odopt.  But we need to work on the idea taht it is okay to bear and child and then give it up.  I think society still looks down on that.  And I wonder about the emotional bond - so many adopted children seem to feel the need to seek out their birth mother.  

For me, the issue is in the abstract - I've never been pregnant or in the situation.  

Name:	MrHodja -	Reply
Subject:	GF - for the record
Date:	11/10/2022 9:37:07 PM

We had two biological sons and wanted a daughter but were reluctant to roll the dice.  Then the Air Force decided we needed to spend a couple years in Korea and God's plan began to come together.  In Korea there is no stigma associated with giving up a child the family can't support, and if that child is never entered into a Family Registry (the Korean equivalent of a birth certificate, which they do not have)' it can be abandoned, usually at the steps of a wealthy family or a church.  Our daughter was indeed found on the steps to a church one morning with a note pinned to her pajamas containing four essential pieces of information, the lunar birth date, Julian birth date and two other pieces of information that I don't recall.  We had been cautioned that our child might be frail and weak, but she came to us one Saturday and was asleep when she arrived,but after waking up and looking around for about half an hour said to herself "I think I will stay".  Of course she was only 19 months old and spoke no English, but that is what we gathered from her demeanor and body language.  By the time she was 2 she was jumping off countertops like you or I might step off a curb.  She went on to be a stellar athlete, even participating in the Norway Cup soccer tournament, the largest youth soccer tournament in the world at that time, where her team played in the Championship match against a team of Zambians that to the player were at least a head taller.  

Update to November 2022.  She is a college graduate, a prized manager at her retail spot, and trains other managers for her company.  When the subject of adoption comes up there are no expressed desires to find her birth parents but tearful gratitude to he birth parents for saving her from a life toiling in the rice fields or one of the " glass houses" which are Korean brothels.  And we as parents have been so blessed to have her as our child....it just goes beyond words...on her Facebook page she often has the headline "Adoption rocks".

So if there is anyone out there contemplating adoption go for it...you and your adoptive child will both be rewarded.  

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	GF - for the record
Date:	11/10/2022 10:48:12 PM (updated 11/10/2022 11:49:27 PM)

It comes down to a single woman trying to raise a child, work, and be a father too. It is a sad commentary on the culture we have in the USA  where some guy will get a female pregnant and disappear. It is left to the woman. Some refuse to even accept birth control as an option yet will complain about welfare mothers. Abortion is not pretty but I accept a woman's choice with limitations as to the timing. The blame should be with the disappearing father who seems to get a free ride.

As to adoption, it is a wonderful alternative for those woman who elect to carry to term. Hodja, thanks for sharing the story. I often wonder if  we males were the ones pregnant what the law on abortion would be!!!

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Adoption stories
Date:	11/11/2022 9:26:55 AM

I have to say that your adoption stories touch my heart.  Lucky children to have been adopted by such caring people.