Coal isn’t coming back

Proposals to end gerrymandering won easily on election night in Michigan, Missouri, and Colorado. The one in Utah was declared passed just a couple days ago after all the ballot counting. It won by 50.3-49.7%. The Utah proposal isn’t as independent and robust as I would hope, for a few reasons. First, the commission is appointed by the governor and legislature, though both parties get seats. Second, it advises. That means the commission can draw up maps and the legislature can substitute their own. Third, the proposal becomes a law that the legislature can repeal. The legislature is heavily GOP. They’re faced with whether they fear a public backlash over such a naked power grab if they repeal.



Mark Sumner of Daily Kos discusses an important cost analysis. First:

For the last several years, it’s been considerably cheaper to build a wind farm than it has been to build a fossil fuel-based power plant.

And then:

But, as reported by CBS, the cost difference between coal and renewables has now passed another milestone. It is now more affordable to build a new wind farm or solar installation, from scratch, than it is to simply operate an already existing coal plant.

So, no, the nasty guy is not bringing back coal jobs.



Nate Silver, the statistics guy at FiveThirtyEight, has another way of discussing the strength of the Democrat win. He compared the number of votes a president got compared to the number of votes the opposition party got for House races two years later going back to 1950. The midterm election is usually seen as a rebuke of the president, even with low turnout. A couple examples: in 1964 Lyndon Johnson won with 43.1 million votes. Two years later GOP House members received 25.5 million votes, or 59% of what Johnson got when elected. That year the Democratic majority in the House grew. In 1968 Nixon won with 31.8 million votes. Two years later with Watergate scandals raging, Democrat House members got 29.1 million votes, or 92%. Again, the Dem majority grew.

And this year… In 2016 the nasty guy won with 63.0 million votes. This year Democrat House members got 60.5 million. That’s an amazing 96%, higher than before.



Democrat Stacey Abrams, in a carefully worded statement, did not concede in the race for Georgia Governor to Brian Kemp. She did, however, say she saw no legal way forward, so was no longer pursuing it. Instead, she will work towards free and fair elections in Georgia.

Mother Jones magazine tweeted what Abrams was up against. And what she will be fighting to change. This tweet was, of course, an introduction to a full Mother Jones article.

This race was a disgrace:
* 1.5 million voters purged by Brian Kemp
* 53k registrations on hold
* 4.5 hour lines to vote
* 214 polling places closed
* Dems falsely accused of cyber crimes
* AND Kemp oversaw his own election

In a Twitter thread, Leah McElrath talked about her daughter expressing doubts about becoming a mother because the world is such a mess and she can’t imagine bringing a baby into it. The daughter is 13, an age of becoming aware of national and international events. The daughter also has plenty of time to reassess.

McElrath’s daughter may have time to change her mind, but commenter Carly doesn’t. She said she was told that due to health issues if she wants a baby she needs to have it quickly or not at all. Again, given the state of the world, should she?

Several others report that Millennials feel they shouldn’t have kids. Beyond the mess, political and environmental, of the world they’re also concerned about job insecurity.