The most important thing to do is to get big money out of politics.  That will make everything else easier (Medicare for all…you know the list).

We also need to find a way to “throw the bums out;” and by “bums” I mean those professional politicians, regardless of whether they have an (R) or a (D) after their names, who are beholden to the oligarchs.  Marginalizing Jeffries and Schumer will be a start, although replacing the latter will probably be more difficult.

As I write this at about 11:30pm, the AP has called Missouri’s 2^nd Congressional District, where I live, for the Democrat, Fred Wellman; and Ann Wagner is out.  Nobody expected this.  This is a district that was gerrymandered safe-Republican.  The last Democratic representative was Joan Kelly Horn who had one term, 1991 to 1993.

Missouri also rejected the anti-abortion Amendment 3 and state Proposition A which would have put in place the Trump-mandated gerrymandering that the Missouri Supreme Court threw out.  Amendment 6, which would make it harder for citizen initiatives to get blocked by Republicans in the State House, is currently leading 60-40 with 95% of the vote in; but the AP hasn’t called it yet.

And there were lots of other wins tonight.  Democrats will control both the House and the Senate starting in January.  *(Trump will certainly challenge the results, but I don’t think anything will come of it.)

I think I’ll go to bed now and get a good night’s sleep.

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*Wednesday morning:  I found out, after posting the above, that Trump has said that he’ll work with the Democrats.  Please forgive me for paying no attention to Truth Social. 😎  (I’ll believe it when I see it.  It’s not like he has never told a lie before.)

The fun thing is that he’s now blaming everybody but himself, never mind that we followed his advice and pretended that he was on the ballot. 😎

And among the “bums” I include right-wingers who happen to have a (D) after their name:  the so-called “blue dogs,” many of whom, as Mano pointed out, are actively supporting Republicans in the mid-terms.

I’m hoping for a progressive wave (not the same thing as a blue wave by a long shot); but as others have said, I’ve been disappointed before.  We’ll see …

Just in time for me to report that I finally got around to the early voting that I mentioned in my last post.  Now I’m eagerly awaiting the results ten days from now.

No storm troupers checking papers.  I didn’t really expect any since I live in a pretty safe Republican congressional district; but I brought my passport with me just in case. 😎

It’s all marked up.  Needless to say, it was easy this time.  We have no-excuse early voting in Missouri, and I plan to take advantage of that on the way to the grocery store this afternoon.  I’ll let you know if I see any goons cosplaying as storm troopers checking peoples’ papers.

I live in Missouri’s 2^nd Congressional District; and there’s an outside chance, although I wouldn’t bet on it, that my U.S. representative, Ann Wagner, could lose to a Democrat, Fred Wellman, this time.  Wagner has really ugly ads all over the TV claiming that Wellman supports “gender mutilation of minors” which he doesn’t, of course.  At least she’s running scared, which is better than nothing.

Also on the ballot is state Constitutional Amendment 3 which would repeal a pro-abortion amendment already passed by citizen initiative.  The TV ads for this one also go full-bore anti-trans trying to scare people into thinking that children are being forced to transition.  “Gender mutilation of minors” is already illegal in Missouri, and in any event, doesn’t, in fact, happen.  The only actual effect the amendment would have is to stop all abortion in Missouri.

I’m also against state Proposition A which would put back in place the mid-term gerrymandering, which the Missouri Supreme Court threw out, breaking the leans-Dem 5^th Congressional District (Kansas City) into two leans-Rep districts.

The one state amendment that I’m in favor of is Amendment 6 which would protect the citizen initiative process that our deep-red state legislature has been trying to eviscerate ever since the pro-abortion amendment passed a while ago.

I just heard on my local TV news that the Misouri Supreme Court has thrown out the Trump-requested electorial maps which changed the 5^th Congressional District (around Kansas City) from leans-Democratic into two leans-Republican districts, the effect being to likely change Missouri’s representation in the U.S. House to 7-1 from the current 6-2.

This is “interesting” because the districts that were in effect for the primary election a month ago will be different from the districts in effect for the general election; and some Republicans are complaining that the candidates that they voted for in the primary won’t appear on their ballots in the general.

It was speculated that the matter might go to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it’s not hard to imagine that SCOTUS’ gang of six could invent some apologetic to the effect that states don’t really have control of elections; but the ballots have to be printed in five or six days.  Stay tuned…