Tuesday, November 5, 2019

 Okay, I'm wore slap out, so we're making this one short. Let's go.

BREAKING: WTVA News is reporting some lulu attacked Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Hood. We don't know why beyond the attacker's a butthole.

BREAKING: At 10:30, The Clarion Ledger is calling the race for Tate Reeves.

 As with the primary and runoff back in August, I helped run the election for the Cardsville precinct all day today. Basically, that's about 300 registered voters with 120 or so showing up. Told y'all I live in a small town. Furthermore, it's held in the volunteer fire station-slash-community center, which basically a Faraday cage. That is, no electronic waves can get in or or and, thus, no cell signal. As with every voting place, we can't have any political advertising around, so no television or radio. 

 Therefore, I'm pretty much in the dark on how things went today, since I just got home and I was going to eat supper before I did anything. So I'm just now getting hip, and since I just got through sitting on a steel stadium chair for 12 hours, I'm pretty crapped out. All I know is, as of right now, there's no need for a runoff, so I don't have to do this again until March. Good.

 So, let's take a look at things for the state of Mississippi. On a local level, my old friend Doug Lesley will be Constable for another term, a gig he's held for close to 20 years. Terry Moore wins as my districts Supervisor, taking over for the retiring supervisor (and my father's old drinking buddy) Steve "Snake" Moore, who's had the job for 20 years and did it damn well. And Chris Dickinson, who's name I remember but I can't call up the face, wins the county sheriff's race. Pretty much all you need to know about Itawamba County, or the only part of it I give a shit about anyway.

 Now, how about the state as a whole. Right now at 10:30 p.m. (*note: see above) with 78.62% precincts reported, sleazy lizard person Tate Reeves has a lead over Jim Hood, roughly 54% to 45%. To the surprise of probably

nobody, the Magnolia State's pretty solidly Republican with Democratic strongholds here and there, mostly in the Delta and the Piney Woods area plus anywhere there's a college or a city worth mentioning. Regardless, it's a tight race and we probably won't know until late tonight or tomorrow morning sometime.

 A quirk of Mississippi voting that's become an issue lately is the rather unique way the governorship is decided. Not must the winner snag the popular vote, they also need to win a majority of the 122 state house districts. If no candidate fulfills these requirements - and they have to do both, keep in mind - the state House of Representatives selects the winner. The House leans fairly solidly Republican. The last time this happened was 1996 with Ronnie Musgrove winning thanks to a Democratically controlled House.

 This rule was written into the state's constitution in 1890 - the last time our constitution was written - and critics say the system "dilutes" the African-American vote in favor of white districts and elected officials, to which anyone with any sense or honesty says "no shit". This was just after the U.S. government left Reconstruction twisting in the wind and Southern states, especially dear old Mississippi, went out of their way to disenfranchise black voters as much as possible, the ones they didn't actually kill.

 Four African-American voters, with the help of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, filed a suit in federal court earlier this year, saying that the writers of the 1890 constitution violated the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, noting that this along with the since-repealed poll tax showed that the 1890 framers made no bones about what they were trying to do, in re: Jim Crowe-ing the shit out of the black vote. Since 1890, no African-American has won state-level, statewide office since the 1890 despite Mississippi having the highest share of African-Americans in the country. So, of course, this past Friday, Chief Justice Daniel P. Jordan III - a Bush Junior appointee - ruled the law would remain on the books for this election.

 Long story short, this really isn't good for black voters or, concurrently, the Mississippi Democratic Party. Now, if you're a complete moron and filthy liar, you'll pretend that the Democratic Party of 2019 is the same one of 1940 while the Republican Party is the same one of 1865. We intellectually honest people, however, know that's horseshit and we know why it's horseshit.

 One of the biggest loads of bullshit the modern GOP peddles is that they're still a party that gives two tugs of a dead dog's ding-a-ling about black people and their lives, and that the only possible reason African-Americans don't vote for them is because the Democrats "give them free stuff" and they're "brainwashed" with a "plantation mentality". Now with that sort of approach, you just have to wonder why back people aren't stampeding each other to run with the Republicans, doncha.

 Anyhow. So far, the GOP is winning across the board state-wide, and Republican Delbert Hosemann has locked up the Lieutenant Governor's spot. Lynn Fitch, another Republican, has nailed down the Attorney General's seat, becoming the first woman to hold the job and ain't that a helluva note. Everything is up in the air and while there's still plenty of time with plenty of precincts in play, we won't know anything for sure until tomorrow probably. Or I won't, because I won't be staying up that late.

 In other races of interest, Virginia Democrats flipped both chambers of the state legislature after 20 years out of power, and in Kentucky Democrat  Andy Beshear is claiming the governorship over incumbent-slash-rat bastard Matt Bevin. As of right now, the race is a squeaker and Bevin is not conceding, probably setting the stage for most Republican losses that happen this year and in 2020.

 It should be noted that in the last five days, Trump has spoken in both Mississippi and Kentucky in support of the Republican nominee, going so far to tell Kentucky voters that if Bevin loses, he'll be blamed. "You can't do this to me," he said. "Shut up, you big baby," I say. Not for nothing, but one of the most irritating parts of the Trump Administration is how big a whiner this guy is. Born sliding into home and he complains Democrats are forcing him to get his pants dirty.

 Anyhow, while I don't fully agree with CNN's David Gregory that "voters are fed up with Trump" and his bullshit (I paraphrase), it is telling that his speaking engagements-slash-rallies-slash endorsements when he could get to it didn't seem to help that much, if at all. Human armpit Donald Trump Jr. is already telling FOX News that Bevin's loss has nothing to do with Trump, so one wonders how Bevin enjoys being under that bus.

 Okay. That's enough for tonight. I am bushed and sore as hell. Middle age is a serious bummer, kids. We'll speak more tomorrow.