Boom Goes The Dynamite

Remember, remember
The Fifth of November!

So, yesterday was quite a week.

First, and most importantly, my wife won a seat on our town council.  Pray for me a sinner in the hour of my need.

Second, Gordon Sondland - perhaps the only person so far to testify that gave Trump any wiggle room - reversed his previous testimony.  He admitted that Trump was trying to coordinate an "off the books" intervention through Giuliani. Most importantly, he admitted that he found Trump and Giuliani's attempt to pressure Ukraine to probably be illegal.  In other words? Quid pro quo.  Sondland decided that Trump and Giuliani weren't worth jail time.  He won't be the last to make that calculation.

Third, there were elections last night (see point #1), and Democrats did remarkably well. They now control the trifecta in Virginia, and amazingly, they won the governorship in Kentucky. What you see when you look at the map in Virginia and the map in Kentucky is where the battleground has shifted nationally.  Yes, Matt Bevin was an extremely unpopular governor and Andy Beshear is the son of a very popular former governor.  Yes, Virginia has been trending "blue" for several elections. When you look at the maps, however, what you see is that any district with any sizeable population tended to vote for the Democrat. Urban areas have been Democratic for decades now, but it's the suburbs that are starting to flip to parties, and that is likely a direct result of Donald J. Trump.  Trump won Kentucky by 30 points in 2016.

There will be policy implications, of course. Kentucky will likely bring back some form of Obamacare and 150,000 former felons will get their voting rights back.  Virginia might ratify the ERA, which would be the 38th state to do so.  However, the date for ratifying the ERA has passed, so the Supreme Court will need to decide if that counts.  In a state like Virginia, the Democrats will now control redistricting which at the very least will create fair districts, if not ones that lean Democratic.

In Kentucky, Trump tried to make Bevin's reelection about himself and about impeachment.  Bevin was the only Republican to lose his statewide race.  Don't think that hasn't left a mark on Mitch McConnell and other Republicans.