A Better Nation. (Election 2026, Three.)

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits — not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. ~Ronald Reagan

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You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you'll do anything to get your freedom; then you'll get it. It's the only way you'll get it. ~Malcolm X.

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America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American. Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion, and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness. Some seem to believe that our politics can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates appear small. ~George W. Bush

I went to bed around 1:30 AM this morning having already seen that the midterms were an electoral curb-stomping for Republicans.

I stand corrected.

This was Mike Tyson getting his ass beat by Buster Douglas.

Everybody was expecting Republicans to lose.

I don't think anybody was expecting them to lose Texas.

I don't know about everybody else, but I wasn't expecting American History X level of "Bite the curb, bitch." 

This was straight-up Hungarian-grade levels of electoral violence to the regime in a country that's not supposed to have regimes, and America finally remembered that.

Even Trump seems to be in full panic mode.

Good.

I mean, they can't spin this, but I expected somebody to try it.

Such is the world we live in, I guess. I don't have to like that, and I don't.

Republicans have made a freaking point these last couple of years of shitting all over women's rights both politically and socially. This is a sore point with me for a fucking reason, I've got a partner with a daughter to think about. Neither one of them would do well in the kind of Man-centered world current Republicans envision.

Canada, the most affluent of countries, operates on a depletion economy which leaves destruction in its wake. Your people are driven by a terrible sense of deficiency. When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money. ~Alanis Obomsawin, Native American activist and filmmaker.

The American People just rewarded the Republicans for this by electing multiple Native American women to the US Senate (and there weren't any before) including in places I would not have expected Republicans to lose, like Alaska. Minnesota didn't surprise me that way, but Alaska did.

Good.

And of course I saw Nikki Haley on News-max this morning, basically showing the world that Republicans have missed the point of pretty much everything, even as regards their own claimed beliefs.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

Let me specify, saw it on Threads. 

I don't own a TV and if I did I wouldn't be caught dead watching NEWSMAX.

More to the point, the overwhelming Democratic attitude about this seems to be "Hi, I'm here now, let's get at it!"

I live in Michigan, I'm proud that Abdul won.

Can you imagine the utter pomposity of even just the announcement if (for example) Ken Paxton would have defied the conventional odds and won in Texas? Even (or maybe especially) if he'd been the only one to beat said odds??

This is YOUR country, Americans.

America isn't America if we don't all give a damn and do the work.

You don't have to like it, but if you don't do it, they sure will.

Your vote isn't a gift. It's a chess move towards the world you want to live in, and that you want others to live in.

If you want a better nation, you have to be a better citizen. ~Jim Wright AKA Stonekettle.

If you have a job to do, you do it. If you see trash on the ground, you pick it up. If you witness corruption or crimes, you report them. You get what you tolerate, America. In fact, if you tolerate it, that's the only thing you'll get.

My college friend Mohammed posted something similar in February of 2011 when Egypt overthrew Mubarak during the Arab Spring. 

I never thought at that time that I'd be posting anything like that in or about my own country.

But here we fucking are.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

I mean, I get it. I hate people like Donald Trump and Ken Paxton too, but we have to stand for something, also. If we're just against everything...what the hell difference is there between us and the fucking Republicans??

I said what I said. I have spoken.

That said, Mike Rogers can go fuck himself ALL the way back to Florida.

You should never trust a man whose wife's face looks like that all the time. It's not just he's doing it wrong, he been doing it wrong and doesn't care about doing it right in the first place.

I mean for fuck's sake just the stank-ass looks on his or his wife's faces all the time makes me think who the fuck would want these fucking people in charge of anything??

These fucking people are exactly the reason I quote shit like Bill Cosby's "Pound Cake" speech on the regular, they're basically welfare people, but they got rich because they had connections or would say whatever rich people wanted them to say. They're incapable of doing much of anything else, and they don't want to.

It's not even that Republicans don't want to do anything, they don't want anybody else to do much of anything either. 

Remember when your High School History teacher said "The course of human events changes because of the deeds of great men"?. Well the bitch was lying. Fuck Julius Caesar, fuck Abe Lincoln, fuck Mahatma Gandhi. The world keeps moving because of you and me: the anonymous. Revolutions get started because people don't have enough bread. Wars start over a game of checkers. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO Series "Oz" S1, E8 "A Game Of Checkers."

I've been saying some variation of this since at least 2008 when John McCain...despite having every qualification in the book and then some and literally possessing the force of personality, moral force and political stature to pull it off...as a veteran let me tell you one does not get to be a US Navy Captain otherwise...but he somehow managed to be less than the sum of his parts and somehow Sarah Palin became the face of the Republican Party and, I'd argue, stayed that way until Trump came along.

John McCain should have been That Guy, especially against someone very well-intentioned but relatively inexperienced like Barack Obama. 

That's what I thought, anyway.

He should have been, but he wasn't.

At least from a strictly Republican perspective, Mitt Romney should have been That Guy as well. But, again, he failed to take command of the situation and his VP nominee, Paul Ryan, became the face of the Party while Mitt (I think, wrongly in retrospect) earned himself a reputation as an elitist snob because he couldn't keep his mouth shut...and then Paul Ryan did worse because not only could he not keep his mouth shut, he couldn't keep his brain connected.

So Republicans got destroyed, exactly as Lindsey Graham said they would, only about a decade too late in my opinion.

And they deserved it.

Good job, America.

It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for the country in return. ~Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr.

Two

[Kuiil and Mando have successfully repaired the Razor Crest with the parts recovered from the Jawas]

The Mandalorian: I can't thank you enough. Please allow me to give you a portion of the reward.

Kuiil: I cannot accept. You are my guest, and I am therefore in your service.

The Mandalorian: I could use a crew member of your ability. And I can pay handsomely.

Kuiil: I am honored. But I have worked a lifetime to finally be free of servitude.

The Mandalorian: I understand. Then... all I can offer is my thanks.

Kuiil: And I offer mine. Thank you for bringing peace to my valley. [leaves the ship and mounts his Blurrg; to Mando] And good luck with the Child. May it survive and bring you a handsome reward. I have spoken.

~From the Star Wars series; The Mandalorian, S1.E2 "The Child."