Sunday Salon: Post Election Glow and More

Weather: It is sunny right this moment but we had a rain and wind storm last. It was pretty dramatic.

Post midterm election thoughts: As you know, if you are a reader of my blog, I was delighted by the results of the election which was called a Blue Tsunami. Here are a few points which I'd like to highlight:

• Racism by the republicans was on clear display this election cycle with several states gerrymandering their legislative districts to diminish the chances of Democrats and people-of-color retaining/winning them. In Mississippi people were kicked off the voter rolls because they had low credit scores (I kid you not) and who has the highest chance of lower credit scores? Why poorer people-of-color, of course. But these people all understood the assignment to make sure they were not dismissed. Of all the gerrymandered districts it looks like almost all became dummymanders, with Democrats holding onto almost all of them (a few are still question.) Mississippi is poised to select a Black man, Scott Colom. Take that racists! (Dummymanders)
• New records for women as a result of this election:
• 132+ women will serve in the next House of Representative starting in January. A record.
• In Congress there will be 31 Black women, 26 Latinas, 3 Indigenous women, too. (Rutgers)
• There will be 17 women governors, 14 of them Democrats. Among them: Keisha Lance Bottoms (Black, Georgia), Gina Hinojosa (Latina, Texas), and Deb Haaland (Native American- Pueblo tribe, New Mexico.)
• TEXAS goes blue all the way through (every statewide office is now Democratic, State House flipped blue), Talarico to Senate! Thank you Texans!
• I've been busy doing to opposite of doom scrolling the past week. Still keeping my fingers crossed for Alaska and Mississippi senate. The numbers are too close to call but both of these democrats are in the lead.

Blog posts since my last Sunday Salon:

• TTT: My Perfect Day -- I hope my family members read this because you will recognize the setting.
• TTT: Halloween Freebie
• Review: The Things We Never Say
• Nonfiction November, Week One
• TTT: One-Word Reviews
• In Celebration of the Election Results, Nov. 3rd
• Review: Homestead
• Review: Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry
• Six Degrees of Separation: Novellas

Currently reading:

• Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward. Audio. For Goodreads challenge. 34% complete.
• The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America by David Levithan. Print. For National Book Award Challenge; Nonfiction in November. 25% complete.
• True or Poo?: The Definitive Field Guild to Filthy Animals Facts and Falsehoods by Nick Caruso. Print. Nonfiction November. 60% complete.
• Tree of Knowledge: Poems by Victoria Chang. Print. National Book Award challenge. 80% complete.
• The Land and Its People by David Sedaris. Audiobooks with Don. Nonfiction November. 50% complete.

Recently completed books:

• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones. MG Audio. Loved it. 5 stars.
• Python's Kiss: Stories by Louise Erdrich. Audiobook with Don. Best story collection I remember reading. 5 stars.
• Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry by Ada Limon. Print. Nearly perfect defense of poetry, especially for these fragile days. 5 stars.
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Audio. Classic novella.

-Anne