Day 289: Busy day

It’s Day 289 of 15 Days to Flatten the Curve and Day 49 of Ohio’s 21-day WuFlu Curfew (and 17 days ’til our feckless governor extends it again).

Deb and I are ok today.

Let’s deal with The Big News first — the Democrats won Georgia’s Senate runoffs. (One of the races has yet to be called, but whatever.) Around 11pm, with 91% of the votes counted, it looked promising for the Republicans. Then we all went to sleep, a big pile of votes was reported, and two craven socialists passed a pair of GOP candidates like they were standing still.

Have you ever seen anything like that?

Of course you have.

First of all, take a deep breath and think back to 2009. Democrats had The White House, they had the majority in the House, and they had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate — but because of staunch “loyal opposition” and moderate Democrats, Congress wasn’t the rubber stamp the Left hoped it’d be.

I’m not saying that a 50-50 Senate, with Chuckles the Hooker poised to break ties, isn’t a problem — it most certainly is, especially with the likes of Romney and Collins tilting left. I’m just saying that catastrophe isn’t certain.

Second, if you think there was a “3am vote dump” in Georgia — a characterization that earned three of my friends warnings and deletions from Facebook overnight — you’re right. It’s clear that a huge wad of votes reported in the wee hours vaulted the Democrat candidates past the Republicans.

There’s no indication, however, that the “vote dump” didn’t consist of legally cast votes. Not yet, anyway. They came from places where Democrats ran much stronger.

Since this post and its text will be shared to Facebook, my invoking “vote dump” — that’s three times, if you’re keeping score — may get me scolded by my “betters.” Even though that would mar a previously unblemished record (see today’s header image), I can live with that. It won’t change the facts or my commitment to speaking the truth.

While I’m being truthful, I think it’s fair to point out what really led to the losses in Georgia. If this were a football game and we were trying to explain a shocking loss, we’d say that Republicans were outcoached, outplayed and out-hustled.

I said the other day that the GOP candidates were “clumsy and politically inept.” There was nothing exciting about these two and, compared to the energy and passion of the Democrats, they were about as engaging as a couple of lawn chairs.

In the weeks leading up to the runoffs, Republicans were busy complaining about the prospect of out-of-staters voting, and Democrats were busy doing what they do best — getting out the vote. The GOP had fewer than half as many activists on the ground, and it showed. Place the blame, and the credit, at the feet of the national parties.

“But Georgia’s a red state!” wails the Right. Maybe that was true 20 or 30 years ago but it’s not so anymore. Republicans overestimated their home-field advantage. Period.

And then there was Trump, who had a chance Monday to make a difference — but he didn’t, and he may have depressed the Republican turnout. He was there specifically to close the deal for two Senate candidates, yet in 90 minutes he devoted only four minutes to that cause.

During the speech he actually admitted that he didn’t want to be there, that he hates to campaign for anyone but himself. Seriously.

So Trump got robbed in November. Fine — I agree. But in Georgia he had a job to do, and he failed to do it. In fact, he likely did more harm than good.

That’s my take. Maybe you see it differently. Instead of casting blame elsewhere, however, maybe Republicans would be better served by taking a good look in the mirror.

Lessons will come from this. There are always lessons, of course — it’s a matter of taking them. And what’ll be hard for Republicans to do, I think, will be admitting that they have much to learn from Democrats.

No, not lessons of ideology, or principle, or true Americanism. The Right, in general, is way too impressed with its propriety, its dignity, its order and, quite frankly, itself. It needs to take the gloves off and throw them away, adopting the relentless energy, passion and fuck-you anger that’s helped the Left eat its lunch.

Conservatives have to start fighting dirty.

Said another way — and if you’re a student of American history, you’ll get this — the Right needs to be less like John Adams and more like Samuel Adams. Our forebears knew that they wouldn’t get to a Constitutional Convention without Sons of Liberty.

Think about it.

As for the pro-Trump march this morning, which was peaceful, and the protests on Capitol Hill this afternoon, which are not, just a brief word. Shocking as it may be to see images of Capitol security being breached by a mob — and that’s what it is, a mob — honestly, I’m less disturbed by the aggressiveness of the protesters than I am about the motivation behind it.

For example, there’s no basis for saying that the vice president should’ve somehow rejected electoral votes during today’s joint session. Get a grip, People — he had no Constitutional authority to do that, nor is there precedent to support it (in fact, law and precedent support the opposite).

“There’s a big damned difference between a constitutional republic and a cult of personality.”

What’s more, nothing was going to happen in joint session today that would’ve changed the outcome of the presidential election — absolutely nothing. If you know the Constitution, know the law and know your American history, then you know that. Whatever else you were told, by Trump or anyone else, was a lie.

There’s a big damned difference between a constitutional republic and a cult of personality.

I have no problem with a free People storming bastions of power. It’s the “fuck-you anger” I spoke of earlier. That fury should continue, and the powerful should harbor a healthy fear of the People. I simply have no respect for what appears to be behind this particular siege.

Don’t be a tool.

Something else to think about, especially if you’re down-in-the-mouth about how Democrats controlling the federal executive and legislative branches will assault Liberty, is a tactic floated in commentary published last week by the Tenth Amendment Center.

In “Dear Gun People, Follow the Lead of the Weed People,” Mike Maharrey directs our attention to how successful pot advocates have been at the state and municipal levels, despite the feds continuing to press their “war on drugs.” Why?

“You see, the dirty little secret is the federal government can’t enforce its laws without state and local cooperation. When it comes to weed, state and local governments haven’t cooperated. In fact, they have outright defied federal prohibition. … The feds would almost certainly have the same problem maintaining any federal gun control scheme if states simply stopped enforcing it.”

Get it? It’s from Tenth Amendment Center. Here’s your clue:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Sovereignty, thus Liberty, begins with the individual. Our communities are the spheres in which we can have the most influence. As we’ve seen over the course of this “pandemic,” state and local governments have had the greatest effect on our lives — far more than the federal government has (or, by law, could).

While as citizens we should be engaged with affairs at the federal level, we need to direct far more attention to what’s happening in our towns and states. That’s where we can get things done.

The Weed People know that.

Ernie has been conspicuously absent from the blog lately, I know. He’s still here, but Deb and I decided to throttle-back for several days and take a bit of a break. Our hiatus coincided with a run of colder weather, so it worked out.

That all changed early this morning. I unplugged from shore power and fired up the diesel, giving the air suspension time to bring the bus up to travel height. I ran all of the slides out and started the furnaces, and we put everything that was on the floor — ottomans, chairs, wastebaskets — up on the bed, table and counters.

Around 11am a white van rolled up the driveway, and two young men from a local floor-cleaning service set to work on Ernie’s carpet, ceramic tile and cloth upholstery. We’d considered renting and doing the work ourselves, but it really needed a deep cleaning and the difference in cost to have professionals do it wasn’t worth crying about.

These guys did a spectacular job. A lingering stale odor and years-old (presumably) stains are gone. The carpet is shades brighter. The grout between the tiles positively gleams. Having professionals do this job definitely was the right call.

I’ve switched over from furnaces to heat pumps, hoping to move more air, and I put a fan in the rear of the coach. The drying process should be complete later this evening.

Next up will be finishing the entertainment electronics, as well as repairing the signal/brake circuit and windshield washer. But now that the interior is squeaky-clean we can begin stocking the bus in earnest.

Unlike what I see in the news, that’s a very good feeling.

Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free. And be like Weed People.

#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath