day two hundred thirty nine (13. 947)

Votes are still being counted in the US midterm elections, but it seems clear already, even observing the cautionary prognosis of some poll-watchers that due to Democrats’ penchant for early voting, a Blue Wave might prove to be a mirage, with the opposition flipping senate seats in South Carolina and Texas, for the first time in thirty-three years (I remember that at a campaign even in Texarkana, then governor Ann Richards wished me a happy birthday, so we know it was long, long ago). Trump admonished people to vote as if he were on the ballot and they are responding in the strongest possible way with an uncensored repudiation of MAGA and his last decade in politics. Democrats are poised to take both houses of congress with majority control—remaining to be seen if that will be a veto proof one. Troy Jackson defeats long serving senator Susan Collins in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed wins in Michigan, despite enormous donations, mostly from Elon Musk, and gerrymandered redistricting. First claiming polling numbers were wrong and fake news and then proceeding to tell Israel that it will no longer receive military aid from America (four billion dollars annually) on election day and launching ballistics at Qeshm island in the Strait of Hormuz as four tankers strike naval mines and are set ablaze, Trump then shifts blame to the Iran war, which he started, for GOP losses.