https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/07/kavanaughs-confirmation-gives-gop-its-most-power-since-great-depression/

I don’t think this is a gerrymandering problem. (Well, not JUST a gerrymandering problem.) It’s more a lazy-Dems-don’t-vote-in-off-year-elections problem. Or an unconcerned-liberals-think-3rd-party-voting-is-viable problem.

Yes, I called Dems lazy. 2010 was a disaster. “Demographics is destiny” did NOT help.

«Republicans currently control 33 out of 50 governor’s seats, which is just one shy of the record set briefly last year. That happened after West Virginia’s Jim Justice switched to the GOP but before Republicans lost in neighboring Virginia. Before the last few years, the GOP had never held more than 32 seats.

The GOP also holds complete control of the governor’s seat and the state legislature in 25 states (compared to eight for Democrats). That’s also just one off the record, set briefly last year for the same reasons as above. Before this decade, the GOP had never held more than two dozen.

The GOP controlled 4,104 out of 7,383 state legislative seats as of July, which was just a few dozen seats off its record, also set in recent years.»

https://www.armyrecognition.com/weapons_defence_industry_military_technology_uk/chinese_combat_drones_market_continues_to_grow_in_the_middle_east.html

Drones no longer synonymous with United States.

https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/1048719311559438342?s=17

I Will Never Stop (@leahmcelrath) Tweeted:

Dems = “dangerous mob” is what the GOP is going with for the midterms.

This is language that lays a foundation for use of violent force against opposition, so pay attention to it. https://t.co/buFrmX6wrz

https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1048332962952044546?s=17

southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) Tweeted:

The existence of this unseen and unevaluated evidence is important to keep in mind while Republican senators tweet about doing their “due diligence” this evening. https://t.co/JhxhpwYFsv

Remember in November of…

* 2020, for Tillis

* 2022, for Burr

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kavanaugh-vote-divided-senate-poised-to-confirm-trumps-nominee/2018/10/06/64bf69fa-c969-11e8-b2b5-79270f9cce17_story.html

Interesting. So Murkowski would’ve been a “no” if Daines had been there? So, she allowed a 2-vote margin rather than closing it to a more narrow margin? Not sure what the significance is.

«Saturday’s vote broke largely along party lines, with one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, supporting Kavanaugh, and one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, opposing his nomination.

Murkowski asked that she be recorded “present” in a courtesy to Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who missed the vote due to his daughter’s wedding. That ensured the same two-vote margin that would have resulted had Daines been there to vote.»

Source: https://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/national/national-politics/war-never-ends

«Neither side has cornered the market on hypocrisy. It’s hard to take Republican claims of Democrats operating in bad faith seriously, when Republicans held up the nomination of Merrick Garland for much of 2016. It’s also hard to reconcile Democrats’ universal cries of “I believe her,” with the terrible treatment many showed to Anita Hill, Monica Lewinsky and/or Paula Jones. Meanwhile, voters aren’t making the distinctions on policy or procedure or hypocrisy either. Instead, they rally behind their “team.”»

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1048225287731916800

Well, here’s an original thought on Twitter:

«Not crazy to wonder whether Murkowski might become an independent who caucuses with the Democrats if Dems take back over the Senate at some point.»

Source: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2018/10/04/305-car-registrations-may-point-massive-gru-security-breach/

Cyber warfare. Whoops.

«The address to which the car was registered, Komsomolsky Prospekt 20, coincides with the address of military unit 26165, described by Dutch and U.S. law enforcement as GRU’s cyber warfare department. The database entry contained Morenets’s passport number.»