Nothing they hate more than empathy

Four years ago I knocked on doors and did explainer sessions to help get an amendment passed to the Michigan constitution to put redistricting into the hands of a citizens commission. This week’s election showed that effort paid off. The Michigan House is to be in Democrat hands for the first time in more than a decade. The Michigan Senate will have a Democrat majority (12 women and 8 men) for the first time in nearly four decades. Yeah, the margin is one seat above tied in both chambers. I’ll take it. Add to that the Dem Governor, the Dem Secretary of State, and the Dem Attorney General were all reelected. The state Supreme Court keeps its majority of justices nominated by Democrats, reinstalling two incumbents, though one of those was nominated by Republicans. And our delegation to Congress is 7 Dem, 6 GOP with one notable shift in a district on the conservative Western side of the state. Peter Meijer, Republican, had held the seat and had voted to impeach the nasty guy. He lost the primary and that guy, a 2020 election denier, lost to Hillary Scholten, a woman Democrat. Michigan Advance reported Democrats have already elected their leadership for the next term – a woman to lead the Senate and a black man to lead the House, firsts for both. The redistricting went so well that a few Democrats running for Congress actually had to campaign hard, though they won. Also, a proposal to amend the constitution to loosen term limits to allow members of the legislature to serve 12 years in one chamber with a requirement of financial disclosure passed. A proposal to put more voting rights into the constitution passed. A proposal to put abortion rights into the constitution (and overturn a 1931 ban) passed. In Michigan it was a very good election. And delightfully, very little drama from election deniers and sore losers. Now we wait for results at the federal level. Though control of both chambers is still unknown at least we know this won’t be a “shellacking” that Obama experienced in 2010. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos in a post from Wednesday morning quoted several tweets of races of national importance. That included a measure in Oregon that requires a firearms safety course and other restrictions to buying a gun. It passed. John Fetterman won the Pennsylvania senate seat. Joan McCarter of Kos reported a proposal to ban abortion in Kentucky failed! So did one in Montana! Kos of Kos noted several Democrat talking heads said Dem candidates should talk about the economy and not talk about democracy being at stake. They should not talk about abortion. Yeah, they were wrong. Talking about abortion and democracy carried many Democrats to victory. They also talked about the economy. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, also included results from around the country. He also quoted a few voices that said Red Wave? Didn’t happen. And a lot of candidates endorsed by the nasty guy lost – especially in Michigan. Dworkin included a tweet from Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux who reported that in exit polls in Michigan half of the voters said abortion was the top issue. Chitown Kev, in another pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Matthew Chapman:

Democrats have created FOUR new state Democratic trifectas this year: Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Minnesota. Even if Sisolak doesn't make it and they lose the trifecta in Nevada, that's a net gain of three.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, included a clip from the Daily Show of a woman doing exit polling – not who did you vote for, but was the “EXIT” sign easy to see? My brother suggested I read the Kos Good News Roundup for this morning. He said I would appreciate what author Mokurai of the Kos community wrote because I say many of the same things in this blog.

There is nothing the Wrong-Wingers hate more than empathy. Inequality is to them the highest social good, as it is to all full-on authoritarians. Empathy includes wokeness, real history, and wanting the best of everything for everybody, even for those who would refuse it all because Those People/the rest of us will at last start to get their/our fair share. Have I mentioned that before? Well, repetition is good, and more repetition is better. Empathy was on the ballot on Tuesday, along with Democracy, motherhood, equality, and truth. Apple pie is apparently still OK

. Below more election news were a couple more items of interest. Mokurai quoted a tweet from Assaad Razzouk about an idea I’ve mentioned a couple times:

France just legislated that every parking lot for 80 cars or more must be covered by solar panels That’s 11GW of new solar (same as 10 new nuclear reactors) powering millions of home - zero new land needed Climate action is happening, just not at #COP27

And a tweet from Mike Hudema:

In 3 yrs this #solar installation at a high school in Arkansas turned the district budget from a $250K deficit to a $1.8 million surplus. They're using the surplus to increase teacher salaries.

The video in the tweet shows sidewalks shaded by solar panels and panels in otherwise vacant fields. This school isn’t the only one that is solar powered. Many are joining the trend, and they’re frequently pushed to it by students. Marissa Higgins of Kos reported Republicans in Tennessee, perhaps in retaliation to their missing red wave, introduced a bill to criminalize drag shows. It is both broad and vague, so it could be used to ban Drag Queen Story Hour. And could criminalize being trans, as in, “Well, this person says they’re trans, but they’re really just an impersonator trying to get into the bathroom for some evil purpose.” In a Ukraine update Mark Sumner of Kos reported that according to Russian state media, “Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has ordered a withdrawal of all Russian forces from the west bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region.” There are reports that many towns no longer have a Russian presence. Some of the small towns are under Ukrainian control, though the status of many more is not confirmed. In a second report Sumner wrote that the Ukraine Ministry of Defense estimates there are 30K – 50K Russian soldiers in the Kherson region. This is an enormous force. It will take weeks to move them all out. And Putin has not yet officially said anything about the order to withdraw. So don’t assume Ukraine soldiers will soon walk right in to Kherson. There’s still some fighting to be done.