2026 Mid-terms: The Senate

 The thing about the Senate is, you cannot redistrict it ever.  But what you can do is disenfranchise other voters by absurdly partisan gerrymandering so as to energize them to vote where they can be heard: the Senate candidate.

The Current Lay of the Land: December 1, 2025

First off: Blessed are the citizens of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, for they have no incumbent or open Senate seats over which to contest.  It's like drawing a bye in a sports tournament.  There are, with two special elections in Ohio and Florida--both held by Republicans appointed to fill vacant seats; 35 elections in November 2026.  

9 of these seats will have no incumbent to contest them.  The remaining 26 will.  9 of those are held by Democrats, and 17 others are held by Republicans.  The most important thing to know about where the bets are being laid is the Democrats have an unprecedented advantage.  Let's look at the recent Virginia Elections for Governor this past November 4th.  

The change is extraordinary.  Clearly the shifts in Northern Virginia, and in the Norfolk region indicate negative responses to DOGE and DOD policies, but far western Virginia!!  These seismic shifts are not possible without considerable Republican crossover.  Mayor elect Mamdani of New York City can thank Wise County Virginia for Trump's tongue up his ass during their recent White House visit.  Trump knows which way the winds are blowing.

Given this completely sane and predictable backlash that shows no signs of dissipating with an Administration that shows little ability to back down, Democrats are left with the perfect Tsunami on the 2026 midterm horizon.

Of the incumbent seats, much ado has been made about Jon Ossoff in Georgia.  A white, Democratic, Jew.  Given that Georgia just elected two Democratic members to a statewide utilities board because they were the ONLY names on the ballot that they could use to register their anger?  Ossoff is safe.  He'll need to work for it, but he will win, and in so going signal a new "Purple" status for the state of Georgia.

Of the open seats I predict we will take: North Carolina and Iowa.  Add Maine, after Collins goes down, and this will create a 50/50 Senate where the Republican VP still gets to break ties.  But committees are split allowing legislation and nominations to languish without consensus.  In a world so bitterly divided--I can live with that.

But wait, there's more: it only takes one additional win to put the power back in the hands of the Democrats.  I hope that Democrats will use this to push forward Gen Z candidates who can ignite the imagination of voters for a better economic future.  

In proposing such a strategy, I would target 7 states: ALASKA, FLORIDA, KANSAS, KENTUCKY, NEBRASKA, SOUTH CAROLINA, and TEXAS.  All we need is one.  The more conservative the Republicans become to hold their mythical base, the better situated we are to reach the majority of voters.

Chilly Chilli

 

Studio Theatre: The Mother Play

 This production brings together a couple of things that I dearly love.  Paula Vogel and Kate Eastwood Norris.  Both are something of local treasures here in the DMV, and Paula is arguably one of the great living playwrights in America.  My introduction to Paula's plays started at the top with her Pulitzer Prize winning "How I Learned To Drive."  It was a tour de force of family intrigue, of coming of age in a dysfunctional extended family, and--at its powerful, explosive beating heart: Incest.  I was left breathless and silent, and I thought, I've gotta see everything this woman writes.  Unfortunately, in spite of a decent catalog of works, her plays do not get produced that often.  The only other one I've seen to date, "Indecent" was likewise complex and compelling, a fascinating play.

So now, I get another shot of her with her most recent work, "The Mother Play".  Loosely draped in the monikers of the Herman family, this is by her own admission the most auto biographical of all of her works--and after "How I Learned To Drive," that's saying something.  Tethered to geography of a string of apartments and condos that she grew up in with her mother and brother, the story takes us through years of growing up under the wings of an alcoholic, bigoted, homophobic matriarch while both she and her brother were gay.  At 90 minutes, it clips along rather briskly and so it chooses the moments to share offering both the lowest of the low, as well as, an occasional epiphany or two.  Many of which are short lived.  

Paula is around 10 years or so my senior, and the action starts when she is 12 in the early 1960's.  The mother wants more for her life than the cards she's been dealt, and as she says towards the end of the play, "I never wanted to be a mother."  The evictions occur after the sub-standard condition of the apartments become unbearable, until finally with time and salary bumps, she can afford more live-able digs.  The conflict between her and her children's sexuality leads to the expulsion of her brother from the family altogether.  Living his best gay life in the 1980's leads to his premature death from AIDS.  It is a cause for an uncharacteristic reconciliation that only backfires and get the mother evicted once again out of fear of the disease.  In the end, we are left with a mother in the grips of dementia and a daughter grasping at the straws of forgiveness that this disease drops before her.

It is intimate.  It is moving.  It was wonderfully acted by all three cast members; and held together with the iron fist of Kate Eastwood Norris as "the Mother".  Kate = excellence.  Her timing, her commitment to the integrity of the character no matter what is truly a wonder to experience.

A friend at work asked me what I was planning to do over Thanksgiving break and I mentioned the play and began to tell her about it.  As I did, she surreptitiously googled it and found some theatre critic's review of it.  Practically before I could stop her, she began reading quotes from it.  Thankfully, I was able to cut her off before she said too much.  I explained that I do not want to know what anyone else thinks of any play or musical I go to see.  I'm only interested in forming my own unadulterated opinions.  Which I am more than capable of doing.  The one remark that came through and stayed in my head was that the individual thought the play was "tedious, like watching paint dry."  While that is a great cliche, it didn't mirror my experience in the least.

Finally, the various segments are defined by an announcement of the eviction and the name and address of the new apartment/condo.  Holy Cow!  For a few years in the 1980's she lived with her mother and brother in a condo in a highrise that I can see from my front stoop!  It's just a minute's walk from my home.  Now, that was really cool.

Daughter Martha [Zoe Mann] and Mother Phyllis [Kate Eastwood Norris]

Listening to mother pontificate while she begins her evening ritual of cigarettes and gin.

Martha with her Brother Carl [Stanley Bahorek] discussing their mutual secrets, after he lends her some of his clothes to wear.

A rare moment of detente after the death of a relative.

Abandoned by her children, the Mother is left with her wigs and her gin...

Home

 I love my little home.  On an end of November Saturday morning with the air temps inside a gentle 67F, while outside the blustery wind chills the air to around 27F--there is no better good morning ritual than to make a fire in the hearth before brewing the coffee and setting about to fix a proper breaky!

Red Geranium

 

Autumn Art

 

 The first Randy Awards ends with the announcement of the Bronze, Silver and Gold winning Episodes.  Each of these achieved something exceptional in the cannon of the first season.

The BRONZE winner is "A Quality of Mercy."  Written by Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman.  It is the final episode of the first season, airing on July 7, 2022.  It is the first to profoundly embrace a premise from The Original Series with essential fidelity of design toward a new outcome.  A plot twist that encompasses elements from not only Star Trek: TOS, but also Star Trek: Discovery to great effect.  The introduction of Capt. James T. Kirk is also done in a unique and exciting way.

The SILVER winner is "Momento Mori."  Written by Davy Perez and Beau DeMayo.  The fourth episode of the first season, it first aired on May 26, 2022.  The major accomplishment of this episode is to introduce to Star Trek: SNW's nemesis.  TOS had the Klingons and Romulans; Next Gen had the Borg, Voyager had many from the Kazon and Vidiians to the Borg...  Etc.  Star Trek has always presented a universe filled is US verses THEM.  And the Gorn are the new THEM in ST:SNW.  This episode established their vicious nature, and the Humanities clever superiority.  Great special effects, some pivotal character development and real suspense.  

The GOLD winner comes as NO surprise.  Spock Amok wins as often does the comedic episodes ever since "The Trouble With Tribbles".  Drawing from another one of ST:TOS's finest episodes "Amok Time," this takes the Vulcan courtship ritual to a new delight, while weaving into it three other sub-plots in a seam less, aesthetic masterpiece.  Written by Henry Alonso Myers and Robin Wasserman, it first aired on June 2, 2022.  As the mid-season episode of the first season, it also firmly established this iteration of Star Trek as something truly special.

And with that I turn my attentions toward Season Two...