fake news on the Left

"Even as Trump lost the presidential election decisively,"

On the Right, they keep talking about how President Trump won big and had the election stolen from him.  This is not true.

But on the Left, they keep talking about how President-Elect Biden won a "decisive victory" over Trump.  This is also not true!  Biden won by only 44,000 votes out of 154 million cast.  Very few on the Left are writing about how the 2020 election was even closer than 2016, or about how Trump almost won.  Not only did Trump almost win again, Democrats in the House lost seats, and Republicans are likely to continue controlling the Senate.

Down ballot, at the state office level, Republicans did fine, and as a result will control the Census redistricting process in most of the country, which will mean more gerrymandering of US House districts and a glide path back to Republican control of the US House in 2023.

Given that we're still suffering from the Pandemic Recession, this is a horrible outcome for Democrats.  The Left in the US should be having a soul-searching discussion about what they can do to improve their popularity.

To somebody like me, it is nearly impossible to understand why Trump 2020 did better than Trump 2016 among Blacks, Latinos, and LGBTs.  But we need to figure it out, and we need to change our own positions, slogans, and tactics.  Among the Left there's a lot more willingness to blame Trump voters for being horrible people, than to blame ourselves for adopting unpopular platforms and methods -- and I include myself in this description.  If we want to live in a democracy, we have to listen to the voters better than our opponent does.  The numbers tell me that the median voter in the swing states doesn't see much of a difference between Republicans and Democrats.  Democrats need to figure out how not to suck as much as Trump does.  Telling ourselves lies about how well we did won't help.

Trump is going to run again in 2024, he may announce his candidacy on January 20, 2021 while Biden is taking the Oath of Office.  What will Democrats and the Left do differently to avoid another election with Trump on the ballot decided by fewer than 100,000 votes?

Tuesday stuff

It's windy today.  Yesterday we received a lot of rain at the house, and if we hadn't upgraded our basement, it would've flooded again.  The new drainage system worked, but we could tell what would've happened if it hadn't.

I went to the grocery store on the way home from the condo, for the first time in many weeks.  T had asked me to pick up a couple ingredients he was unable to have delivered -- he was making dinner from scratch!  What a nice surprise, and it tasted super good.  He also offered to make lunch for us today.

I was down in the basement doing my weight lifting exercises, even though I can't show off for Matt from Reddit anymore.  Our home gym is more comfortable now after T put in the new floor covering.  We still have to put all the other stuff in the basement away ... perhaps this coming weekend.

In retrospect I definitely felt a Turkey Day depression of sorts, especially on Saturday, missing my social life.  Perhaps I'll be more prepared for those sorts of feelings later this month when Christmas and New Year's hit.

I'm not hearing any qualms from anybody in DC about approving the two vaccine candidates that have applied with FDA for emergency use.  We'll probably have the Christmas present of knowing that the vaccines are being rolled out.  But it's anyone's guess how long it will take until everybody who wants the vaccine is able to get it.  And then how long after that until restrictions on gatherings and businesses are lifted, and people can return to the office.

To what extent will we continue working from home After the Vaccine?  Surveys show a lot of workers and businesses want to continue with teleworking most of the time.  This could mean a permanent change in where people work and live and how they commute, what kinds of housing people rent or buy.  I think the verdict on schooling is more clear -- everybody wants students to return to schools ASAP.  But a lot of people who do most of their work via computer and phone don't need to be at an office to do that work.

I think as a manager I was more productive working in the office, but that's only if most of the people who work for me are there also.  If they end up working from home most of the time there's no reason for me to be at the office either.  It will be interesting to see whether the federal government decides to save money on rent and transit subsidies by letting most people continue to work from home.

Well, for now -- nothing is going to change in my life for months.  Gotta keep doing my best at getting along with T, keeping in touch with others, staying productive with work, exercising and eating well.  At some point in 2021 there will be an explosion of Bug having sex with people LOL, and maybe it will finally be time for me to go on PREP.