Kamala and Tim: Thanks and Hope

The light of America's promise will burn bright

as long as we never give up and we keep fighting.

--Vice President Kamala Harris

Some encouraging words from Team Blue, down but not out:

What I Say:  We all owe a great debt of gratitude to our two standard-bearers, who suddenly took on a massive, gruelling campaign they never expected to run, and did it with grace, good cheer, and unstinting effort all the way down to the finish line.  Just to think of the sheer physical effort it took staggers me - a stroll through the grocery store wears me out at this late age - to say nothing of the mental and emotional strain they and their families went through in that whirlwind campaign.

It was a damn hard job, and an uphill battle; but they took up the challenge gladly and fought to win against all odds.  That they lost is no reflection whatsoever on their courage and character.  As the old hymn goes, which inspired the likes of Harry Truman:

Dare to be a Daniel,

Dare to stand alone,

Dare to hold a purpose firm,

Dare to make it known.

And I will say this:  the idea that Kamala lost because she was a woman, or a black woman, or any other personal characterstic is utterly false:  weenie-whiney bullshit.  She very nearly did win:  the difference in the popular vote was less than 2 percent.  In my view, she lost because she wasn't selling what a slim majority of voters wanted.  They chose rotgut whiskey instead of bottled water.  It's just real simple.

'

They will have a hell of a hangover, too, when they come to their senses.  It's a damn shame that the rest of us will have to suffer along with them.

It is most interesting to study the eye-opening results of the popular vote, as well as the exit polls, broken down by sex, race, religion, education, income, and much more.  I encourage all my truckbuddies in this country and abroad to do so before you say another word about the election.  Knowledge is power.

Keep the faith, brothers.

-----

Sunday Drive: O God, Our Help in Ages Past

Last Sunday After Pentecost

Feast of Christ the King

-----

Send in the Clowns

Fellas, I just can't bear to blog about the news right now.  It's like a hideous nightmare that I can't wake up from.  Horrible.  Nauseating.  So instead of my thoughts, I'll share those of Father David, who gives me and M.P. some helpful inspiration.  He hits the nail on the head in this sermonette, and says what I want to say but can't.

-----

What Comes Next

-----

Sentimental Journey: Back to Mayberry (2003)

Who wouldn't like to take a trip back to 1960?  That's the year the Andy Griffith Show premiered, beginning an eight-year visitation in the small town of Mayberry that still delights many hearts.  Located in a far corner of the state of make-believe, Mayberry was an old-fashioned place even then, home to many quaint, amusing characters.  It was small-town America with the sad and ugly parts left out; a place where good humor, homely virtues, and common decency still ruled.  How very far away it seems today.

Your Head Trucker swore off broadcast television thirty years ago, so I never saw this reunion special with Andy and company that was made in 2003.  But I'm enjoying it now - maybe you will, too.

 

The Mayberry Special departs at 7 o'clock on Track 1.  I've got my Pullman ticket in hand.  Who else wants to go? 

Bonus:  Marina Coates from Mockingbird Lane Design has done a brilliant job of portraying the Taylor home in 3-D. Check it out: 

-----

Waitin' for the Weekend

Come on in, the water's fine.

-----

Trump Trifecta: Republicans Keep House Majority

Now we know that what we greatly feared would happen, will happen: on January 20th, Republicans will control the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.  In addition, they already have a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, which last July declared that a president has "absolute immunity" from prosecution for any crimes he may commit during his term of office.

Once again, I have no words.

But here are some encouraging words I just came across from John Brideveaux down in South Texas, posted last Wednesday:

And here's today's eloquent commentary:

-----

The Heart of the Matter

Father David is a retired Episcopal priest.  I just came across some of his short videos made before the election.  I think they are still very relevant and inspirational.  See what you think.

-----

Sunday Drive: From a Distance

A couple of Sundays ago, I offered my vision for our country.  Today I offer my vision for the world:

From a distance, we all have enough

And no one is in need

And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease

No hungry mouths to feed . . .

There are many mutterings abroad now of "resistance" in some form or fashion; though it does not yet appear exactly what is to be resisted, or where or how.

.

Your Head Trucker is as dismayed and troubled as anyone else just now; but I am content to trust in the One who said, 

My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

The prayer for peace in the sidebar to the right is a good way to start, I think; at any rate, it's all I have to offer.

-----

The Second Coming

Illustration of the Great Sphinx from worldhistory.org
Click to enlarge.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

--William Butler Yeats

-----

After great pain

 After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –

The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’

And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –

A Wooden way

Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –

Regardless grown,

A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

This is the Hour of Lead –

Remembered, if outlived,

As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –

First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

--Emily Dickinson

-----

NO WORDS

Update, 11/10/24:  Final results

-----

Sunday Drive: Baroque Playlist

I think we all need to take a deep breath, relax, be calm, and know that the power of goodness will continue in the world, regardless of the election.  Believe.

O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

-----

Are the Polls Right?

Use the ABC-538 interactive election map here.
Click to enlarge this screen shot.

The Guardian raises a question that's been in the back of your Head Trucker's mind:  how can it be possible that the American public is so evenly divided between supporters Harris and Trump, and the numbers haven't changed for the last 3 months?

The Guardian writes:  

Large numbers of surveys would be expected to show a wider variety of opinion, even in a close election, due to the randomness inherent in polling. The absence of such variation suggests that either pollsters are adjusting “weird” margins of 5% or more, Clinton and Lapinski argued – or the following second possibility, which they deemed more likely.

“Some of the tools pollsters are using in 2024 to address the polling problems of 2020, such as weighting by partisanship, past vote or other factors, may be flattening out the differences and reducing the variation in reported poll results,” they write.

Either explanation “raises the possibility that the results of the election could be unexpectedly different than the razor-close narrative the cluster of state polls and the polling averages suggest”, they added.

We can't know whether the polls are accurate until all the results are in.  Meanwhile, here are the latest forcasts from ABC/538:

Look how steady their popular vote numbers are - I never recall seeing any poll in any election that looked like this for months at a time.

And here's their probability forecast - more variation but still awfully damn close.

Here's the poll tracking chart from the Guardian itself:

And here's the chart from Wikipedia, which looks very different from the others:

The only vote I'm sure of is the one I cast on Tuesday.  The rest is up to you, my fellow Americans.

P. S. - Of course you know, a president can't get much done without majorities of the same party in the House and Senate.  Look at how often Congress stonewalled Obama when he was in the White House.  But I can't spare the energy to worry about all that just now.

-----

The Choice Is Life or Death

A cold front is sweeping through Texas, bringing us some much-needed rain and cooler temperatures.  Your Head Trucker is a bit under the weather today, taking cough syrup, aspirin, and a hot toddy, and may go back to bed and sleep the rest of the afternoon.

I don't feel like posting all that's been said in the political sphere the last couple of days, but the video below gives a quick summary.  The thing is, the choice is so clear, the outcome so obvious that only a child or a lunatic could waver between the two candidates.  A vote for Trump is a vote for the death of our democracy; anyone who thinks he is just kidding about being a dictator from day one is living in a dream world.  This could be the last election you will ever get to vote in.

I can't believe we are back at the same place we were in 2016, but here we are: and the peril is even greater.  I'm praying for a big blue wave at the polls to sweep the fascist threat away.  God help us all.

Update, 11/2/24:

The New York Times Editorial Board, prohibited by owner Jeff Bezos from printing a presidential endorsement, has instead published this final warning:

Click to enlarge.

-----