Dear Internet:
How to tie in the two major events of the past two weeks? One image.
Tendown 143 was here. This is Tendown 144.
1. We Win.
For the second time in three years, and the second time in their over half a century of existence, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series.
That doesn't mean we were the best team in baseball this season. We weren't. We got into an increasingly watered down playoff system and won the tournament. I'm not going to give it back though.
Tuesday, just about as many good things as is possible on an election day in America happened. Gay marriage and marijuana legalization passed. Tammy Baldwin and Elizabeth Warren (Elizabeth Warren!) became US Senators. The crew who thought turning rape into lemonade might be a potent political message found themselves headed home. I postponed my move to a new congressional district long enough to be part of the 2,000 vote margin that sent Allen West back to private life. The right wing bubble, inside of which evolution is a liberal plot, climate change is a disproven liberal plot, tax cuts to the wealthy create national prosperity and half the country doesn't pay taxes got pierced momentarily when the noise machine made the mistake of adding "the polls are computed in a way designed to lie to Republicans" into their fact free universe. Any Tuesday in November that ends with Karl Rove, having raised 400 million dollars for Romney while simultaneously working as an analyst on Fox, making a "news" network take back its calling the election for Obama because the votes for Delaware County in Ohio weren't fully counted yet is a good Tuesday in November.
Since Tendown 143, you could have seen both of the following
and
What could be more fun than that?
But that doesn't make the Democratic coalition of non white Christian men the permanent majority. And it doesn't make Obama, even though you like his manner, a progressive. It means we're unlikely to bomb Iran and your insurance company (as mine does) won't be able to exclude your pre-existing conditions much longer. It means the bounceback of generally accepted key economic metrics won't be largely credited to the magical free market. It means that a candidate who threw around the phrase "illegal alien" as freely as did Romney is unlikely to make his way through the Republican nomination process in future elections.
It was a good Tuesday in November. But it wasn't forever.
I'm not going to give it back though. I'm glad I was on the correct side of the prognostication Tuesday. And not, say, any of these fine folks.:
[M]y thoughts, my intellectual analysis of this—factoring everything I see plus the polling data—it's not even close. Three hundred-plus electoral votes for Romney. (Nov. 5, Rush Limbaugh, RushLimbaugh.com, “Everything—Except the Polls—Points to a Romney Landslide”)
Barack Obama is toast. This is not something I say lightly. I generally try to remain cautious about predictions, because the prediction business is a humbling one. I have never been especially bullish on Mitt Romney, and I spent most of the summer and early fall arguing that this was basically a neck-and-neck race that would go down to the wire. But in the end, two things stand out: One, Mitt Romney has a consistent, significant lead among independent voters, which increasingly looks like a double-digit lead. … Two, to overcome losing independents by more than a few points, Obama needs to have a decisive advantage in Democratic turnout, roughly on the order of—or in some places exceeding—the advantage he enjoyed in 2008, when Democrats nationally had a 7-point advantage (39-32). Yet nearly every indicator we have of turnout suggests that, relative to Republicans, the Democrats are behind where they were in 2008. (Oct. 26, Dan McLaughlin, Red State,“Why I Think Obama Is Toast”)
How corrupt are all these polls showing Obama leading or in a “close race”? Are they to Obama what that California poll of the Washington Post was for Walter Mondale—an “in-kind contribution”? … How does one explain a president who, like Jimmy Carter in 1980, is increasingly seen as a disaster in both economic and foreign policy? How does a President Obama, with a Gallup job approval rating currently at 49% – down a full 20% from 2009 – mysteriously win the day in all these polls? How does this happen? Can you say “in-kind contribution”? (Sept. 25, Jeffrey Lord, American Spectator, “How Carter Beat Reagan”)
This country was founded upon Judeo-Christian values of free speech and freedom of religion. A tea party revolution launched the Revolutionary War and Americans in the colonies stood up against tyranny and those who attempted to change our beliefs. Obama’s European socialism and his high taxes, high unemployment, high gasoline prices and huge debt are being rejected at each turn. Americans are mad as hell and they are not going to take it anymore! We see, “Romney in a landslide!”(August 4, Editorial Board, U-T San Diego,“Romney in a Landslide”)
I'm also glad not to have to be the side who believes this is a good thing. They were voting at one in the morning on election day in Miami. Uniquely American.
2. Goodbye Congressman West.
My Congressman was Allen West.
Not anymore.
Here's what we'll miss.
1. Progressives are “communists”: At a town hall meeting in April, West saidthat 80 House Democrats were “members of the Communist Party.” He later clarified that the 80 Democrats he was speaking about were those in the Progressive Caucus.
2. Opposed early voting as an “entitlement”: In an interview with ThinkProgress, West objected to early voting in Florida because “people see it as an entitlement.” He ultimately lost his seat, in part, because of high Democratic early voting turnout.
3. Said Obama’s campaign slogan had a “Marxist-Socialist” meaning: West found hidden meaning in Obama’s “Forward” slogan. “They want to bring out an old Soviet Union, Marxist-Socialist theme for their campaign called “Forward”.”
4. Obama’s DREAM initiative was a voter fraud conspiracy: Appearing on Fox News, West saw a more nefarious effort beneath Obama’s deferred action immigration policy. “Is this one of those backdoor opportunities to allow people in the next five months to get the opportunity to vote?” he asked.
5. Food stamps “enslave the American people”: West lamented the rise in available food stamps for Americans. “That’s not how you empower the American people,” West said. “That’s how you enslave the American people.”
6. Social Security enslaves the American people: Appearing on Fox News, Westcriticized Social Security disability benefits. “Once again we are creating the sense of economic dependence, which to me is a form of modern, 21st century slavery.”
7. Obama wants to enslave people: West argued at a campaign event that Obama “does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning and having that title of American. He’d rather you be his slave.”
8. Said Barney Frank should be in a “pink jumpsuit”: West criticized openly gay Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA) congressional tenure earlier this year. “[He's] a guy who for all practical purposes should be in a pink jumpsuit for what he did.”
9. Called undocumented immigration an “invasion”: In a newspaper interview, West likened undocumented immigrants to an enemy force. “You have to repel invasions,” West said.
10. Told congresswoman, “You are not a lady”: West blasted nearby congresswoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) after a dispute, scolding her in a letter, “You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!”
11. Called for censoring news outlets: After Wikileaks released thousands of pages of documents, West argued that “we also should be censoring American news agencies” who reported on the cables.
12. Obama supporters are a “threat to the gene pool: West wrote on a conservative website, “I must confess, when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool.”
13. Religious coexistence “would give away our country”: West blasted“Coexist” bumper stickers at a March 2011 town hall, saying people who have them represent “something that would give away our country, would give away who we are.”
14. Said Nazi leader would be “very proud” of Democrats: In December 2011, West told reporters that “If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat party, because they have an incredible propaganda machine.”
15. Criticized rise of feminism: West told a conservative conference that liberal women “have been neutering American men and bringing us to the point of this incredible weakness — to let them know that we are not going to have our men become subservient.”
16. Told liberals to “get the hell out of the United States”: At a Republican dinner, West had harsh words for his Democratic counterparts. “Take your message of equality of achievement. … You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”
3. Rich, Famous, and Orange
In a time when the distance between the uberwealthy and everyone else has reached levels never seen in recorded history, at the apex of 30 years of policies that have given larger and larger shares of our national wealth to people who look like him - Donald Trump, this week, called for revolution.
Donald Trump calling for revolution is like Honey Boo Boo decrying the coarseness of popular culture; if there were some type of lawless armed anarchy in this country, who does he think is the type of person who gets shot first? Donald Trump is so totally encased in his own bullshit he can no longer smell it.
4. He's Not the Only One.
Do you remember Glenn Beck?
Simple Jack lives in the ugly corners of the fact free bubble. Here was his election eve warning.
On yesterday's radio program, Glenn Beck said that America is on the verge of reaping God's wrath and declared that if the American people are "so dead inside that they can no longer see the difference between good and evil" and re-elect a demagogue like President Obama, then "we have to be destroyed because we will be a remarkable evil on this planet":
If you look at history through a biblical world view, the last step before a nation is completely destroyed is they drive the righteous from among them. If this isn’t a sign of a group of people that will drive the righteous from among them, and that’s the last step before God’s wrath comes, I fear for our country and it is - it cannot be overstated, it cannot be called paranoid ... If you are a God‑fearing person, hear me. Last call, America. Last call. Because the righteous will be driven from among them.They are nasty, divisive and, I'm sorry, but there is no way to describe that quote from Valerie Jarrett other than evil. Warning: Saul Alinsky is just the beginning of these people.But I believe in the American people. I believe that we are not too far gone. I believe that people can watch and see the difference. They can feel the difference. When you watch Barack Obama, you can just see he is angry. When you watch Mitt Romney, you can see he is not. We are not an angry nation. We don’t listen to demagogues like that. It doesn’t work. No matter how much power he has amassed, no matter how many friends in the media he has, Americans know. And if they reject it this time, if they’re so dead inside - that’s a possibility - if they’re so dead inside that they can no longer see the difference between good and evil, we have to be destroyed because we will be a remarkable evil on this planet
5. And now, a Word from the Opposition
Jeff Kent is the 7th greatest San Francisco Giant of all time; his stint with the Dodgers and generally being considered an asshole has caused him to be less embraced by the fanbase than he deserves at this point in his retirement. This week, he was eliminated from Survivor, reminding Giants fans of 2002, and then demonstrated his apparent belief that prior to 2009, game show winners didn't have to pay income tax. Perhaps he should put in a call to Richard Hatch. Or hell, to me.
6. Here is That List.
By my WAR calibration, a combination of the Baseball-Reference and Davenport numbers, here are the 20 greatest San Francisco Giants ever, through the 2012 season:
1. Barry Bonds
2. Willie Mays
3. Juan Marichal
4. Willie McCovey
5. Will Clark
6. Gaylord Perry
7. Jeff Kent
8. Robby Thompson
9. Orlando Cepeda
10. Matt Williams
11. Matt Cain
12. Bobby Bonds
13. Jack Clark
14. Jim Barr
15. Chris Speier
16. Darrell Evans
17. Tim Lincecum
18. Jim Ray Hart
19. Gary Lavelle
20. Jason Schmidt
7. Like the OJ Verdict All Over Again
I enjoyed the images that day too.
8. I Think That's It For Linda McMahon.
The McMahons tried to throw the top of the ticket through a plate glass window late in the campaign. Fortunately, both Linda and Mitt are going to be the Jannetty from this busted up partnership
9. I Watch 4 Star Wrestling Matches
I wouldn't vote for Linda McMahon with your ballot, but I do enjoy graps.
Since last we spoke, here are the 4 star matches I've seen:
PWG September: O'Reilly v. Edwards 4
Elgin v. Richards 4 3/4
Bucks/Cage v. Steen/Generico/Knox 4
DDT October: Ibushi v. Generico 4 1/2
Dragon's Gate October: Yoshino/Gargano v. Fox/Dragon Kid 4 1/2
10. As Clueless as Trump.
Jermaine Jackson wants to change the only thing he has to sell - his last name.
That's all for this time. I'll be back next time. If there is a next time...
Your pal,
Jim
