A couple of days ago The New York Times highlighted the congressional race in California’s CD 41. It’s a pretty good summary of where we stand now almost 2 months until Election Day.

The article details the district’s demographics which is a mixture of the “ruby red” western half and “the gayest city in America” in the east. The new gay constituency in Palm Springs, made possible by redistricting, produced a whiplash inducing U-turn on the part of the R incumbent, Trump- endorsed Ken Calvert. In a recent vote to recognize same-sex marriage at the federal level, Calvert reversed course and joined 46 Rs to vote FOR it. But I don’t think that’s going to help him win this year.

Hard feelings in the Gay community remain. They are still incensed at how Calvert leveled a homophobic insinuation at his opponent, Mark Takano before Takano came out as gay. What makes this particularly poignant is that Takano eventually won a seat in congress that, until redistricting, included the city of Palm Springs.

So see? It’s kind of personal.

So, Northwood Temple Academy is a private Christian school who had themselves some sort of tent revival last week at school. The school is in Lubbock, Texas, home of diddle squat and sand. My dear friend Dirt Janochek say that Lubbock exists because the devil spit it up outta hell. Dirt ain’t far from wrong.

In language worthy of a Republican congressman on the witness stand, the head of the school, Renee McLamb told this story … on Facebook.

“I feel it in my bones, You’re about to move! Today we had over 100 middle and high school students spontaneously declare their faith and get baptized today. We will have more pictures of these powerful moments posted over the next couple of days!”

Three kids were scheduled to be baptized that day. Now whether the holy spirit or teenage hormones were involved, 100 kids got the Jesus itch and that fire needed put out by holy water. Now, I dunno if Northwood Temple Academy are dunkers or sprinklers but water has got the be involved. Lubbock is in a desert and temperatures have been well over 100 degrees all summer.

Okay, some parents were thrilled but some were mad, double mad. Usually a baptism is a big thing with a cake and Aunt Polly’s jello fruit salad and a ham or something.

And then there was another problem.

McLamb said that most of the parents that contacted her were glad, but some were unhappy with the move. Some of the children had already been baptized, and at least one family was concerned that a second baptism could undo the first.

Oh good Lord, why do they even bother with school. It doesn’t seem to be taking.

Before the days of Nate Silver and 538 there was Reader’s Digest. Readers Digest had accurately predicted every presidential election and then came the 1936 election. They proudly announced that Al Landon would be the next president of the United States. In fact, it wasn’t going to be particularly close. They did a simple poll of all of their readers that had a home phone. Oops.

CNN didn’t make as big a blunder as Reader’s Digest, but they are facing the same kind of cruel reality. See, they are beginning to rebrand themselves as a more conservative outfit. Obviously, they can’t outfox Fox News and they certainly don’t want to go crazy like OAN or Newsmax, so they will struggle to find their place in the landscape.

See, most networks focus their attention on the 18-49 demographic group. They are usually the group with the most disposable income, children in school, and make up a majority of the population. Fox learned a long time ago that they weren’t the key demographic to focus on. They focused on the 50+ crowd. Two things are happening that impact the traditional way that television networks look at news coverage. First, the under 50 crowd doesn’t watch nearly as much news. We consume television differently. It’s hard to say whether that will change for us as we approach our fifties. Maybe we will be different from our parents.

The second factor is one area where we will never go back. We cut the cord over ten years ago and is it turned out we were slightly ahead of the curve. As it turns, the under 50 crowd makes up a huge majority of those cutting the cord. Cutting the cord may or may not impact network shows. Essentially, streaming services like Hulu, Paramount Plus, and Peacock offer those shows after the fact.

So, CNN is learning the hard way that there are fewer and fewer people in that key 18-49 group there to watch their network. That leaves the over 50 crowd and the over 50 crowd skews conservative. So, of course they will try to do the same. It’s probably the same reason that talk radio has always been conservative as well. It’s simple demographics.

It makes perfect sense when you think about it. Watch the commercials on network television the next time you actually have access to it. During the day, it is focused at people that likely aren’t working. Why aren’t they working? Personal injury? Need more training? Let’s show a Jim Adler commercial or a ITT Technical Tech commercial. If it’s something like Fox then maybe it’s alternative investing options like gold or reverse mortgages. Maybe it’s one of those apparatus’ that puts on your socks for you. Advertisers have figured it out. It was only a matter of time for CNN.

This is both scary and hopeful at the same time. On the hopeful end, nothing will ever be as bad or scary as it seems. The mainstream media will seemingly have us believing that the world is more dangerous and more right wing than what we think. If the only real options are right wing news then that will be who gets to shape the narrative. The American public is actually more progressive than those sources want you to believe.

The bad news is that people do not remain stagnant. They will change based on the information they receive. If they only receive information skewed to the right then they will also shift to the right. MSNBC has cast their lot. Fox, Newsmax, and OANN have cast their lot. CNN will need to be creative to find their niche in the market. Fox unfortunately has a head start.

The Former Guy went to Pennsylvania to rile up his troops. While there he championed the cause of a January 6th raider who is, according to friends of TFG, an “alleged Nazi sympathizer.”

Okay, see, I don’t know where the “alleged” comes from. It seems to me that if you pose for pictures and put them online of yourself cos playing like it’s the Annual Third Reich Sock Hop over at the gym, you get to lose the “alleged” in your description.

In May Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was convicted of all five counts of law breaking on January 6th. Even after his arrest he claimed that “he looked forward” to a civil war. He shouted anti-Semitic comments to a police woman defending the capitol and frightened co-worker with his other anti-Semitic behavior prior to his arrest.

The information about him was so startling that the judge would not give him bond while he was awaiting trial.

This is TFG’s poster boy.  He wants to pardon this Nazi.

In October of 2021 top US intelligence officials sent a Top Secret cable to all CIA stations around the world warning that an alarming number of agents (informants) were being killed, captured, or compromised.  This unusual warning was sent after the loss of dozens of agents around the world that sharply increased over the last several years, and correspond to the time TFG infested the Oval Office and since. What we didn’t know then, but do now is that he stole thousands of government documents, including Top Secret, Classified, Secret, and Confidential documents.  Some of these documents were marked “HCS”, meaning Human Intelligence Control System, which identifies that this particular intelligence was gathered from clandestine agents in foreign countries.  Worse, over 40 EMPTY classified intelligence folders were found in Trump’s personal office.

It gives me cold chills to think about where those documents ended up, especially in light of last October’s CIA cable and the thousands of documents that had been completely unsecured for over a year and a half.  It’s very likely these documents ended up in enemy hands; it’s not a long leap to imagine that these documents were then used to find and kill or capture clandestine agents working for the US, and that’s the scary part of this whole sordid chapter.  TFG, through his corruption, malignant narcissism, and his negligent disregard for the rule of law is the greatest threat to the US since the Civil War.

True story. On Friday, August 9th 2008, myownself, Juanita and her Bubba went to lunch. The headquarters was opened and manned so we took a lunch break. It was my first time at this Chinese buffet in Rosenberg. But it wasn’t the first time I went to a Chinese buffet that had TVs mounted around the room tuned to the news.

That afternoon, sitting with platesful of buffet dishes, we viewed a news report that John McCain had selected Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

I looked slack-jawed at Juanita then at equally shocked Bubba. And almost simultaneously we all stated the obvious: “Obama’s just won the election.”

And like it was 14 years ago, Sarah Palin is the gift that keeps on giving. Who on Earth could run for the one Congress seat allotted to Alaska, out spend her two opponents by a lot, and get creamed by a considerably less well-known Native American Democrat? Answer: Sarah Palin.

Congressman-elect Mary Peltola, is the first Democrat to win that seat in 50 years. Granted it’s only to complete Don Young’s last term, but the same three candidates will face-off in November for a full term. Only the former half governor could have achieved this feat.

Or am I being too pessimistic? Is this a continuation of the “Sarah Phenomenon” where she stinks up any given room by her mere presence? Or is this a continuation of the trend of the special election results we’ve all witnessed this year, where expectations of being handed a mid-term shellacking by the party not in power, is simply not happening? Is it that simple?