Well, I’m in the Ditch

November 06, 2018 By: El Jefe Category: 2018 Election

NBC News is calling the race for Raphael Cruz over Beto.  It was a good run, and super competitive.  Can you imagine how well we’d do if most Texans actually f**king voted?  Jack Daniels, here I come.

Be social and share!
Tags:

0 Comments to “Well, I’m in the Ditch”


  1. Still counting. Still hope.

    1
  2. Not so fast. I’m a major pessimist, and I’m waiting to see the big city counts tallied (not on the map yet, might be a webpage glitch though…).

    Ted Cruz Incumbent Republican 2,808,592 50.7%
    Beto O’Rourke Democrat 2,694,839 48.7
    Neal Dikeman Libertarian 34,234 0.6
    1,119 of 7,939 precincts reporting (14.1%)

    https://apps.texastribune.org/elections/2018/texas-midterm-election-results/

    2
  3. @ Jefe

    Let me recommend

    https://www.frdistilling.com/

    3
  4. @Sandridge:

    I really hope NBC is wrong. If not, then too many people were again gullible enough to get taken in by odious Cruz .

    Here in AZ the race is very close for McSally and Sinema. It’s thought McSally will win. I don’t know how they can make predictions before all the votes are counted.IMO, EVERY VOTE needs to be counted.

    4
  5. Otoh…. my little bride, sensing my ill feelings cheered me up by informing me that Adam Schiff will soon head the House Intelligence committee and Elijah Cummings will soon head the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

    Devin Nunes, the president’s House d**k holster, hopefully will be re-assigned to a committee responsible for DC’s wastewater and sewer operations.

    5
  6. @ Papa,
    I’m going by the link data below. Only about 26% precincts (todays’ vote) counted in, all EVs(?). Map shows very few big city precincts counted yet. If total breaks like EV and previous big city counts, Beto may yet pull ahead. But the website may just be behind or lying at the moment.
    SoS elections page has it all, but I’m not wading into that one.

    Many of the ‘good guys’ are losing US Rep races: Major MJ Hegar, John Kopser, Gina Ortiz Jones, damn it.
    I’ve got to get out of here, just too damn many fascist fools in TX and much of the rest of the US. They just love RAT45 and his vile family and too many Reptaliban.
    Even if Mueller drops mountain on SOBOTUS’ head, he ain’t going anywhere.

    https://apps.texastribune.org/elections/2018/texas-midterm-election-results/

    6
  7. California here.

    What I don’t get is how all I read about Ted Cruz is so universally hated by “everyone” and does one stupid thing after another. And he is still unbeatable in Texas?

    I have seen pictures of T-shirts that say things like “I would rather be Russian than Democrat” but are there really that many people in Texas that are that kind of stupid?

    I just don’t get it.

    7
  8. @ Alan says: “…but are there really that many people in Texas that are that kind of stupid?”

    Short answer: Hell YES! Millions.

    8
  9. @Sandridge #6
    Yep, I’m there, too. Glad though that the Dems took control of the house.

    AZ has to be third (FL is probably second) to TX for having the gullible stupid people. The retirement community I live in is infested with ignoramuses that are addicted to drinking faux cool-aid. I avoid talking to them like the plague.

    I’ll be glad when I can move to a place that is bluer and has more thoughtful and smarter people.

    9
  10. It ain’t over till the fat lady sings but at worst Beto ran a heck of a race and moved the needle.

    In Misery, it looks like McCaskill is going down to defeat at the hands of the odious, Trump sycophant Josh Hawley. On the plus side a fine young man John Carpenter beat the indescribably racist Steve West 67 to 33 and Missouri has approved a minimum wage hike and Medical Marijuana.

    On the Kansas side Sharice David’s defeated Kevin Yoder, making her the first lesbian, Native American elected to the US House from Kansas. And well known voter suppression superstar Kobach was defeated by the Democratic former school teacher Laura Kelly in the Governors race.

    We lost the Senate, I’m breaking out the scotch.

    10
  11. I’m consoling myself with some Bailey’s on ice, knowing full well that Rump’s life is going to take a turn for worse…

    11
  12. Well, here in Colorado, we swept the state offices, and turned over 1 Rep. seat.

    But we didn’t get the national Blue Wave we needed to dislodge some of Trump’s most dedicated supporters. Worse yet, not enough to refute and discredit his toxic, nationalistic ideology.

    The struggle continues…

    12
  13. The next time I’m asked about Texas elections, I’ll say I’m going to campaign for my cat, Stella, as a Republican. She’ll undoubtedly win, just because she’s a Republican, cat or not. That’s what we saw happening tonight. The good news is that this is the last election when straight ticket voting will be allowed. That’s the killer for the good guys in my county, Montgomery, and throughout the state. The other good news is that Democrats made a good enough showing that good candidates won’t be afraid to run in 2020. They did us proud and they’re winners even if the numbers don’t say so.
    Beto is beyond a doubt my hero forever.

    13
  14. Alan –
    It’s not that they hate Ted Cruz any less.
    They just hate Democrats more.

    14
  15. Let’s face it, Republicans would vote for Satan himself if there was an “R” in front of his name. And just did.

    15
  16. @sandridge
    Congratulations
    Major MJ Hegar lost with your avatar of realpolitic haveing been given the endorsement and money of a “good” d congressman who will continue to stab us in the back.

    Lets stop whistleing past the graveyard.

    Racism won.
    Georgia, Florida King in Iowa, Duncan Hunter etc.

    The D’s lost at least 3 seats in the senate which means shumer will make the d’s even more of a foot wipe for mitchie. which when one counts political cowards and idiots like munchkin in w.v., shumer and others that the r’s just about have a filibuster proof majority, assuming they don’t just get rid of it.

    With as many of the milquetoast nominal d’s who have won in the house, running campaigns against “liberal” d’s and folowing thuglican lead in attacking Pelosi as a radical one cannot expect to see much spine out of them.

    Judiciary will continue to become more reactionary.
    Big iniatitives have lost ( WA Carbon Tax etc).

    Besides a few crumbs the d’s have had their clock cleaned and by next election they will be reduced to being the whigs as the know nothings eat their lunch.

    Enivornment trashed. Unions are history. Safety net reduced to a figment of the imagination. Racism, bigotry, police brutality will be unleashed.

    Meanwhile people can take “comfort” in gracious concession speeches.
    Ignore voter suppression, ignore voter fraud, ignore rigged voting machines just be “nice”.

    For once I would like to see the d’s never conced drag every election through recounts and the courts. Deny any legitimacy to the thuglicans.
    But never happen because that would require a spine and a committment to their constituency rather then worrying about whether they look like “good” losers.

    To ensure they can get a big bucks lobbying/media job they just have to rollover on their backs and assume the submissive posture.

    Racism won.

    16
  17. D’s can NOt even beat indicted thuglicans.
    Collins NY and Hunter Ca both win while under indictment and facing prosecution.

    But I am sure their D oppenents gave polite and gracious concession speeches to these criminals.

    After all leaving with grace is more important then winning or challengeing the vote.

    17
  18. @ k,
    Henry Cuellar had little to nothing to do with MJ Hegars’ loss.
    Hegar faced roughly the same stiff opposition in their high +R PVI districts as Kopser and Ortiz Jones, it was always an uphill fight. They all appear to have lost by similar margins; so there goes your theory. Ortiz Jones is still hanging in there, it ain’t quite over yet.
    I donated a bunch to each one, and Beto.
    Beto, like I stated before, was just too ‘nice’. Most of their ads were all too wishywashy. They all finally toughened it up a little, but too little too late.
    Cuellar himself had no Rethug opposition, only a Libertarian (who got bigger percentage than any other L), he won with 84%.

    Getting back to Cuellar, you might have noticed him right there on stage with Nancy Pelosi at her semi-victory speech. Henry even got a nice call-out & pat on the back (urk) from Pelosi. I can’t stand Shumers’ weakness and incompetence.

    I, in these times, as an ‘issue’, don’t give a ratsass about “racism, LGBQT”, and a few other of those type issues.
    They are meaningless distractions (beyond a certain point) until we can overthrow and completely neutralize the Repukes.
    Democrats cannot utterly defeat the Rethugs until they concentrate on the real issue of raw political power, its’ acquisition and exercise; and sublimate the nonessential crap until it can be dealt with permanently.
    Dems cannot do that because they are always distracted by such shiny and touchyfeely objects, get their feefees hurt, and commence to pouting and whining (and not voting, or voting your ‘party purity’ bullcrap.
    Instead of just paying attention to pure power, putting aside all those typical Dem niceties until they might actually be able to do something lasting about them via raw power.

    The Repukes on the other hand, know what they want: pure raw power.
    They suppress that desire from public view, hide most of their real, actual goals until they can implement them, and please their masses and base (damned easy enough). Then when they are in power, or even just have a hint of it, they strike relentlessly, adding to it, weakening their enemies (us), until they acquire more power. and here we are.

    We’ve managed against steep odds to reacquire a little bit of power, the US House, barely. Can Pelosi manage that power and expand it? Not doing that was Obama’s biggest and everlasting failure, for which we have all paid ever since.

    18
  19. HOT DAYMN!
    TX-23rd US House District:
    Gina Ortiz Jones beat Will Hurd by 0.1%!
    282 votes TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY TWO VOTES! Out of 205,847 cast.
    One tenth of a percent…

    Sonuvabeech

    D Gina Ortiz Jones 100,909 49.0%
    R Will Hurd Incumbent 100,627 48.9
    L Ruben Corvalan 4,311 2.1
    344 of 344 precincts reporting (100.0%)

    YEEHAAAA

    19
  20. Shit
    Now the TT is showing Will Hurd ahead by 689 votes. 0.3% Three tenths.
    WTF is going on? Another Box 13, or Camp Wood?

    R Will Hurd Incumbent 102,903 49.1%
    D Gina Ortiz Jones 102,214 48.8
    L Ruben Corvalan 4,402 2.1
    344 of 344 precincts reporting (100.0%)

    Damn…

    20
  21. Charles R Phillips says:

    One takeaway; state legislatures and secretaries of state.

    Elections will never be fair, nor safe, until those offices are in Democratic hands.

    21
  22. Your vote never counts if you don’t use it… people are stupid.

    22
  23. Charles R Phillips says:

    Brian, your vote never counts if they steal it from you, either. THAT we can do something about.

    23
  24. brian crowder says:

    Charles R P… yes we can, and we will.. as soon as we rid ourselves of the GOP.

    24
  25. ThrowCautiontotheWind says:

    Anyone know of wide swaths of people who never received their absentee ballot? I’m wondering if some voter suppression took place that way.

    My college daughter applied and never received her ballot. Though Travis county has been overwhelmed, they are also fairly efficient. I am hoping it was an oversight rather than someone refusing to send an absentee ballot to a registered Dem whose address (Berkeley) would virtually guarantee a straight-ticket vote.

    25
  26. It shows how weak and feeble the house d’d are that pelosi would even allow a nominal d who votes against the d agenda more then half the time even on the dias much less even give 1 word of praise or acknowledgement, except as a bad example.
    All cuellar did was given “bi-partisan” cover for his fellow thuglican.
    Hope he is proud of his help in torpedoing d candinates.

    26
  27. @ k and K (are you the same person?),
    Y’all keep harping on TX US Rep. Henry Cuellar and his DINO “bipartisanship”. I don’t like it either, but I’m a practical, rational person.

    Nancy Pelosi had him up there on the podium for a reason.
    Do you know that ‘charismatic’ Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke went on a lovy-dovy bipartisan Texas roadtrip with his Republican buddy Rep. Will Hurd (TX-23 R) a year or two ago?
    The Hurd vs Ortiz Jones TX-23 election still doesn’t seem to be decided yet. Might that not be Beto’s fault?

    I’m in Cuellars’ district now. Have been in and out of it before. I went to extreme lengths some years ago, with many others, to try and dump Cuellar in a primary; his Laredo machine won anyway. I held my nose and voted for him a couple of weeks ago (and one local Republican JP, who I knew as a reasonable person, although he may be a raving RW lunatic now, doubt it).

    So, two of the most popular Democrats around, Nancy Pelosi and Beto O’Rourke, are very friendly with TX-28 Rep. Henry Cuellar (D).
    How’s your ‘party purity’ hissy fit handling that little fact?

    (I sure hate to sound like I’m defending Cuellar, but gauzy wishywashy Party Purity Police like y’all are what is, and has been, wrong with the fickle Democratic Party rank and file for far too long. Stop trying to effing “fall in love”, and just effing “fall in line”, like the usually dominant Rethuglikans do.
    They just turn out and vote the Party line, it’s a good part of why they are in control.
    Unlike way too many pomp-ass purity puff Democrats.)

    27
  28. purity would be complaining about him voting against d’s 10% of the time. Over 50% anti d agenda votes isn’t a question of purity it is pointing out that there is no virtue in supporting an individual who, obviously since he votes against you more times then not, has not, and from all indications, will not be anything more then a mole and a sabeuter of your caucaus.
    Just because nancy, a good tame moderate who puts “institionalism over constituents, and beto trying to ensure a political future in a traitor state headed in reverse at high speed, decide to pretend that cuellar, like his tin god demented donnie, is a d to claim that bi-partisan credit from thuglicans who appreciate turn coats.
    But then again texas has a long record of nurturing thuglicans within the d party.
    be phil graham a “good d senator” until he declared his true colors which everyone saw coming.
    Or, was it the last, d majority leader texass house declaring support for w and lieing about his bi-partisan credentials.
    So nothing more then living down to their pitiful traditions.
    As for purity well I feel that if they vote for thuglican agenda more then they do for d agenda they have earned a thuglican label. To continue to pretend otherwise is just plain foolish.
    To allow otherwise is just to permit this individual to smear, distort and discredit d’s.
    So it is with the noble cuellar in his obvious effort to ensure the d label will be smeared by his support of thuglican racist, reactionary policies.

    28
  29. the biggest winner was big oil.
    Defeated carbon tax in wa, defeated fracking limitationsin co.
    Now they will even more money and power to drive the thuglicans, with “moderate” d’s help, to further trash the environment, destroy unions and appoint nice tame jurist’s who will just obey orders.

    29
  30. @Sandridge
    “How’s your ‘party purity’ hissy fit handling that little fact?”
    “….Unlike way too many pomp-ass purity puff Democrats.)”

    I would prefer a few more “pomp-ass purity puff Democrats” throwing a few more “‘party purity’ hissy fit ” then the surrendercrats who call surrender pragmatic ( wasn’t that the arguement for England to surrender in 1940)
    That sort of “pragmatism” is why the d’s approved of iraq fiasco.
    That sort of “pragmatism” is why we have a thuglican sock puppet supreme court.
    That sort of “pragmatism” is why graham was considered a d until he wasn’t.
    That sort of “pragmatism” is why texas d’s endorsed the twit.
    That sort of “pragmatism” is why the d’s laid down and played dead in front of the murder lobby (nra) for too long.
    That sort of “pragmatism” is why the d’s ran away from legislative accomplishments and Obama in 2010
    Any more of that type of pragmatism, which is surrender by any rational definition, and we can kiss this world good by.

    And as I said an over 50% voting record against d’s does not qualify as a d.
    Let us call for some truth in advertising. If you vote with a party over 50% of the time you are a member of that party no matter how shameful that may be.

    30
  31. I found this map interesting. Basically Beto was favored in almost all counties bordering Mexico plus the big cities. Should TX give the panhandle to Oklahoma?

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-texas-elections.html

    31
  32. Hannah, Those border counties are overwhelmingly Hispanic and vote mostly Democratic, however turnout is always quite low (and a ‘surprising’ and growing number of Hispanics vote Rethug).
    The counties with major cities and more diverse populations vote mostly Democratic, and gains were made this cycle.
    The rest of the counties and state remain very Anglo, older, and solid Republican (my own rural county voted its’ usual 74% Rethug, despite being 50%+ Hispanic).
    Unless Democratic turnout can be amped up way above the losses due to extensive gerrymandering and voter suppression by the Rethugs, and overcome the usual Dem voter apathy, the R’s will continue to remain dominant.

    32
  33. Sandridge: thanks for the info. It’s pretty much what I figured, though low voter turnout among Hispanics is puzzling. Do you have a theory about that?

    My own state of Oregon is more purple than people think. I used to live in the “red” part of the state – a huge swath of land larger than many states – that contains small cities and towns but far more sagebrush than people. Still, some really beautiful country. All five members of our members of Congress were re-elected – four Dems and one R – though he had a fantastic challenger in Jamie Skinner-McLeod who would have been elected in many districts, similarly to other fantastic Dems across the country who also lost. Our Dem governor, Kate Brown, had a better than average opponent, and won by about 5% which wasn’t high enough in my estimation. Funny anecdote, that opponent is an orthopedic surgeon who almost did my knee replacement. I went with a different (fantastic) surgeon whose schedule better fit my timetable. Knee is great, even after 10 years and must last many more!

    33
  34. Hannah,
    same thing with Washington state. The cascade curtain separates the educated progressive coast from the ignorant rural punks who can never forgive the federal government for saving their farms with big irrigation projects, paid for by coastal elites they despice, or continue welfare subsidies for roads and infrastructures they refuse to pay for so they go begging to the progressive cities with hat in hand to save them from their penny pinching scam where they refuse to raise local taxes confident they will get another hand out.
    Never underestimate the hypocrisy of rural folk who only exist because of their better educated more ethical urban people picking up the bill.

    34