i went to the walmart here in galesburg, and it actually made me feel better. i know that the vast majority of the people in there are quite conservative, maybe most are trumpers. i can guess that. but among the trumpers there is more than just the usual joy of victory. it's almost like they feel they've righted a wrong, as if trump's declaration that the last election was "stolen from him," is something they bought hook line and sinker.

if anything the election shows that the system works. everyone counted their votes, and they came out in a logical pattern nationwide, i.e. he won the same amount proportionately in each state. there was no state that was out of its pattern, no place where massive fraud could be said to be clear. same as last election, it was counted fairly and accurately by very careful neutral counters.

that shows that he's total bullshit, because remember his whole claim is that he should have won. well yes he would have won if blacks and women weren't allowed to vote, but he didn't, because we have a free and legal system for every adult to vote. this time, americans voted in a total fraud, liar, rapist, pedophile, etc.

my explanation is 1) very high inflation hurt very badly in what were already bad times; 2) we're tired of endless wars that seem to be our responsibility; and 3) racism and misogyny, which i suspect is the main reason. they just don't want to elect a woman who is not only a woman, but also not quite white. let's face it, they knew about the fraud/felon/pedophile thing. the reason i say racism/misogyny is that look at the south, where biden made some ground - georgia, north carolina, missouri - even look at appalachia. it wasn't even close.

there's an unusually high level of stress around the election, but the iowa poll made me optimistic. so i'm optimistic with high stress. everyone i know is very stressed about the whole thing.

meanwhile, it's by far the most beautiful time of year. rain on orange and red leaves; people are less aggressive about actually removing them; the town therefore is carpeted with red and orange crinkly round blankets of them around each tree. it's quite a sight. and above, they turn gently brown and fall with the slightest wind. the air becomes cleaner and the soft rain settles the dusts of summer.

the iowa poll was unusual in that it was thorough and really asked a wide range of people what they were doing and why. it was older women and independents who really swung it, because both groups are going blue and both are good at voting. extrapolating we can see a large advantage for harris nationwide and the possibility of several other states going her way. iowa was a good example of how they took a rather vapid poll early on and just sort of assumed it would go red as it did for trump a few years back. but iowa had actually gone for obama, as did several other red states, and is on the cusp that could be called red-purple. now quick let's think of the red-purple states that could also go harris.

i actually think pennsylvania and georgia will be very close, and harris will not be able to count on either one, though she will probably win both. they will be tied up in lawsuits and accusations of cheating etc. which trump has planned from long ago. she will however win wisconsin, michigan, north carolina, and arizona. i'm not sure about nevada,

but if she wins new hampshire, virginia, and florida, as soon as the polls close, we'll know she's on her way. she could win florida because of a huge independent women population, women who have had their rights snatched from them, as well as a puerto rican population of over a million.

i'm hoping she wins ohio - it'll be close - and she could win tennessee. but we'll see her strength as the clock moves westward. she'll win iowa; she may win kansas, and it'll be very close in indiana and missouri. i think she'll win missouri too. and then, she'll win montana, alaska and arizona. texas will be close. idaho will be close. even wyoming and utah will be close but i wouldn't call any of those for harris. those are places where people can't imagine voting for a democrat.

the problem in appalachia is racism, that simple. that's her problem in general; she's not white, and she's not a man. most everyone dislikes trump or at least sees the danger of voting for him. the vast majority of conservatives, and this country is very conservative, vote for him because they're conservative, not because they like him. i find it incredible that a non-white woman even has a chance but it's very very good if this country can do this, if only to include a vast number of people who comprise it and do much of the work. she will make a way better president than trump, who really has no clue about economy, environment, world politics or leadership.

it's what i call the high holy days - saints' day, souls' day, sadie hawkins day, all the big ones. they are actually big because the weather is better now, in my opinion, than any other time of year. after it's turned cold, cold and a little wet, orange turning to brown, leaves blowing in wind or getting wet and preparing to rot on the ground, i love all this. time to celebrate making it another year.

an unusual color splendor this year; it kind of snuck up on us and at first i said, not so great. then it got better, and still better, until last night it seemed to be at its peak. keep in mind that broad and mary, our corner that i look down on right here from my seat, is halloween central for all the trick-or-treaters. you can include halloween in the above list but i'm rather traditional and say that halloween was there because it ushered in saints day/souls day which are the real holidays, let the kids have their fun, but it's not technically part of the high holy days. same with election day, which tends to muck everything up with television commercials and everyone getting tense about political violence and such, and some of this is inevitable in my view. things will happen here and it may not be good. but what can i do? for high holy days i celebrate life, the end of a summer, the promise to bring spring around again, the peace and clear air of a cold night out in the neighborhood.

the neighborhood was packed; cars were parked all up and down the street, which usually gets no cars parked at all. we being historic district, upper middle class and all, while still in town, have the best candy and lots of my neighbors even go so far as to make a performance, invite children in through a chuppah, put on a show, give them a whole basket of candy, the whole works. we simply drop a smarties and a lollipop in their bag and hope that by having two, it'll be less clear which two but they'll know it was two and be satisfied. it has worked pretty well. but four, five bags of candy aren't enough. we run out two thirds of the way through the night.

let me try to explain what i mean by saints' day and souls' day. i'll say right out that i don't believe in heaven and hell as separate places outside of the world we live in, that somehow some of us are going in a bad direction and some of us are going in a good direction. i believe it is true that we are divided based on the direction we are going in, but we aren't heading to some separate place where everyone's 100% one way or the other. in my observation, very few of us are 100% and that may be why we're here. why should we be going anywhere when the earth has plenty of souls and bodies for us to occupy when we're done with the vessel we are currently using. but we need time to think about what's happening here - we have a soul, the soul is in a body, it's learning or not learning, it occupies that body, then it leaves. that's what we know. it may be impossible for us to leave this particular cycle, but it's silly to imagine parts of it that we somehow hope it will turn into. it's not turning into anything. and we are getting stuck with our own karma repeatedly, both in this life and in whatever life we are moving along into.

so in a way i'm celebrating, or at least recognizing, the possibility of reincarnation, the stuck-in-the-middle nature of life here, the plight we are all here sharing. happy saints' day; happy souls' day, happy sadie hawkins day. carry on.