October Surprises and…?

The Midterm Election Day is just over three weeks away. Early voting has already started in some states, so if election spoilers have any more tricks up their sleeves, they had best get them out and about pretty soon. Of course, there are always those who try to send their nefarious messages out so late that the other side does not have time to respond. War rooms at campaign headquarters are ready across the country, for just such situations.

But before I delve into this nitty gritty, I thought I would salute the beauty of October with a few lines from a poem by Robert Frost, a famous New England poet.

Frost lived a good, long life (1874-1963) and wrote many volumes of poetry. Some poems were long and epic, while others were thoughts he had while strolling through his beloved New England woods and fields. I heard him read his poetry when he presented a poem at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Today, I present an excerpt from an early poem, written in 1912, called October, but only a few lines to perhaps soften our mood away from politics and strife so much and more into the enjoyment of the world we should take time to view.

October

By Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow,

Make the day seem to us less brief….

Frost continues, suggesting that the leaves pause and allow only one leaf to fall at a time, first from one tree, and then from a different tree, leisurely beguiling the viewer, and allowing the visitor to view it falling slowly through the mist. His words could be useful to us now as fall often brings the sounds of leaf blowers, so noisy that one could never hear a solitary leaf fall to the ground. Sometimes in this hectic world, it is important to not only stop to smell the flowers when they bloom but also pause to watch a twirling yellow leaf drop from the maple tree along your path.

The January 6^th Committee on the Insurrection held an open hearing this week and presented an overview of their findings, making little additional news, aside from information finally obtained from the Secret Service. They showed scenes of Senate and House leaders trying to find someone in Washington who could take control of the situation as the Capitol was being invaded since the President was derelict in his duties. Finally, Speaker Nancy Pelosi got VP Mike Pence to order the National Guard to come into the city and restore order. However, at the end of the hearing, the members announced that the person they believed to be responsible for the insurrection needed to provide testimony. The entire committee voted to require that the former president be subpoenaed to answer committee questions under oath. He has thirty days to respond, then they will determine the next steps. I guess that the British oddsmakers are already taking bets on will he or will he not appear. He lost a request to not appear for a deposition in the NY rape defamation case against a former editor.

Some pundits say that DJT would love the prime-time opportunity, but would probably try to set so many conditions that it will not happen. And, if he does not, would the committee ask for a contempt of Congress ruling? They need to wrap their findings up quickly as Kevin McCarthy has promised that if Republicans are in control after the midterms, he will shut this investigation down. (See, yet another reason to keep Democrats in charge!) The NY Attorney General has now tried to enjoin the former president from moving his businesses out of New York State; a process he started the day after the civil charges against his company were announced.

Investigations continue on multiple fronts. The Washington Post reported the president's valet informed the FBI that when a subpoena for more documents arrived in the late spring, he was told by DJT to move some papers out of the storage area and into the residence. This, according to many, is grounds for obstruction of justice. The FBI has obtained surveillance video that shows this happening. With the Special Master document reviews, the MAGA team appealed to the Supreme Court to circumvent the review due soon from the 11^th Circuit appeals court, but the Justices sent the issue back to the appeals court without comment. So, he has lost there again.

The DOJ is continuing to insist that the security of top secret and other documents cannot be compromised and that these documents must be secured. Although Judge Cannon tried to slow the review process, it appears that this will not happen and the reviews will continue. The Special Master has ruled that his defense team has to pay a document team to categorize and digitize the unclassified materials. DOJ has so far been unable to find a vendor who will do the job, perhaps because the former president has such a history of not paying his bills. The lead defense attorney demanded and received a three million dollar retainer before working on the Mar-a-Lago document case. In the meantime, we watch and wait and hope that our national security has not been imperiled. DJT as recently as last week, told a crowd in a speech that these documents were his to keep.

Now for the mid-terms. 538 is still predicting that the Republicans will win the House and that the Democrats are slight favorites to keep control of the Senate. Unknowns certainly involve the turnout; which side is more motivated? The abortion issue has motivated women of all political persuasions, but will they be enough? The election deniers comprise the base for the MAGA candidates, but is this group large enough to win general elections when the voting pool is more diverse? Social conservatives are turning out on issues such as banned books and against trans rights; hopefully, their numbers will be small.

Polls in Wisconsin and Georgia, for example, show close races. In Pennsylvania, the race for Senate between Fetterman and Oz is tightening, although the governor's race seems to favor Shapiro, the Democrat. Maybe he can pull more voters in for the Senate race. Fetterman, who is recovering from a stroke, is being called unfit to serve by Oz who is a surgeon, a claim that is exaggerated, as Fetterman has been in interviews and performed well, considering his rehab issues with speech.

The Washington Post noted that racist appeals, such as those mentioned here last week by the Alabama Senator, are increasing, especially by Republicans. No one in party leadership seems willing to call out these speakers as being out of line. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is touting the immigrant replacement theory, so loved by Fox commentators, while other groups are running ads against crime in the Willie Horton model, and blame the Democrats for the crime in large cities. Of course, Republicans don’t want to restrict gun ownership but claim that they are blameless for gun crimes. In PA the governor candidate Mastriano, who is quite far-right and supports Christian Nationalism, recently attacked his opponent who is Jewish, and sends his children to Jewish schools. According to the New York Times, this attack and other remarks of anti-Semitism have alarmed Jewish voters in the state.

Former Washington Post ombudsman, Margaret Sullivan, monitored the people reporting the news during her years at the Post and has now written a book about journalism and how it has changed and subsequently changed her. She reports on the vitriol, threats, and foul language in letters that she received whenever she wrote something that the MAGA groupies thought was unfavorable to their guy. We used to have civil discourse and disagree without being disagreeable.

She faults the press for not taking a critical look at the recent president when he was still a candidate; too many became caught up in the circus feel and entertainment that he provided on the trail. Few took him to task for his racist remarks about immigrants, “Mexican judges”, misogynistic remarks toward women, or disparaging remarks about people with disabilities. Sullivan notes, “In every way, Trump was a deeply abnormal candidate, but the news media couldn’t seem to communicate that effectively or even grasp the problem.”

She discussed how the media was not used to calling out lies by a president, so it was caught off-guard when he refused to concede, stated he had won, and called Biden an illegitimate president. Journalists have traditionally tried to walk down the middle, with a view from this side and one from the other side, but this no longer works. It is truth on one side and blatant lies on the other side. She also said:

“Those who deny the outcome of the 2020 election certainly don’t deserve a media megaphone for that enduring lie, one that is likely to reemerge in the presidential campaign ahead. But the media should go one step further: When covering such a politician in other contexts — for example, about abortion rights or gun control — journalists should remind audiences that this public figure is an election denier.” 

And….

“Perhaps the most important thing journalists can do as they cover the campaign ahead is to provide thoughtful framing and context. They shouldn’t just repeat what’s being said but help explain what it means. This is especially important in headlines and news alerts, which are about as far as many news consumers get. When Trump rants about the supposed horrors of rigged elections and voting fraud, journalists have to constantly provide the counterweight of truth. We have gotten better at this since 2016. Now we have to stick to it.”

And, finally, I don’t have any surprises up my sleeve, but the Herschel Walker abortion surprise news continues to resonate with each new day. First, he said he didn’t know the woman, then he knew the woman, but never asked her for an abortion, but sent a check and a get-well card, then he is paying child support for the other child she had over his objections. (But he is still 100% pro-life, don’t cha know?) As Monica Hesse wrote recently in her column for the Post, the hypocrisy is not acceptable, especially here, with abortions:

“What’s not fine is the idea that morality — and who it binds and who it protects — is dependent on whether someone is wearing a MAGA hat.

It’s the hypocrisy, stupid. It’s the hypocrisy and the idea that to get what they want, some prominent Republicans are happy to either deny any chance that the story could be true, or to defend the idea of Herschel Walker making use of the reproductive freedom that they want to take away from you.”

 

Last week, Walker and Senator Warnock had a debate. Walker provided little substance and tried to tie Warnock to Biden. Walker pulled some stunt with a fake badge and was admonished for it. Warnock tried to get in some words about policies from Democrats but had trouble being heard above the din.

 

The two Governor’s candidates in Maryland also aired their differences in a testy debate where, according to Maryland Matters, each claimed the other was outside the mainstream. Moore continues to have a strong lead in the polls, but the state is littered with Cox signs.

 

That’s it, folks!

 

“Til next week-Peace!