Today is Monday, November 28, 2022. Today I learn that the Georgia voter turnout for the U.S. Senate runoff has kicked into high gear over the holiday weekend, with almost 157,000 voters casting their ballots on Saturday and Sunday. This figure was later updated to over 181,000 voters across Georgia, shattering state records, according to officials cited by BayNews9. This hopefully good news is covered in an online article for Daily Caller by Matthew Holloway entitled “MSNBC Anchor: Georgia Voter Turnout Shatters Expectations.”

The chief operating officer in the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, Gabriel Sterling, told the outlet that 87,000 voters turned out on Sunday, a 130% increase over the previous record set in 2020. MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing said voter turnout is “blowing the doors off expectations,” as twenty-seven counties chose to start receiving votes over the weekend, while others began today, according to The Washington Post.

Election officials have reportedly said that the lines have been steady, while wait times in Fulton County, Georgia, are up to two hours long, though some polling places have no wait whatsoever. These long lines have prevailed, despite the repugnant party’s passing voting restrictions at the ballot box.

Older voters have reportedly led the charge in the Georgia race, according to Sterling. Voters aged 55 to 60 cast approximately 23,000 votes, accounting for about 12.6% of the turnout. They were followed closely by the 60 to 65 age cohort with 22,463 votes or about 12.4%. Younger voters in the 18 to 24 demographic amounted to about 10% of the turnout with about 18,000 voters.

The racial breakdown of the ballots show that Black voters are leading every other demographic at the polls, with 46.3% of the turnout compared to white voters with 37.9%.

An AARP poll released before the holiday weekend showed Raphael Warnock ahead of his challenger, Herschel Walker, by a slim 4%, less than the margin of error. But if Warnock succeeds in defeating Walker, he will break the Senate’s 50-50 deadlock, giving Democrats 51 seats. We need this victory, given that ugly repugnicans have a majority in the House by a very slim margin. The actual in-person vote is set for next Tuesday, December 6. I’m crossing my fingers that the worst candidate will be sent home in defeat.

The backlash over the ex-president’s poor judgment in hosting a holiday dinner with two anti-Semites Ye and Nick Fuentes who is also a white nationalist thug, is sparking new criticism from many circles, including just today, the former Vice President Mike Pence, who called on Dumpf to “apologize” for having dinner with Fuentes and Ye. Thus in the Daily Caller, Pence’s call for Dumpf to offer amends for hosting a holiday dinner with two turkeys of a different color is covered in the article by Nicole Silverio entitled “Mike Pence Calls on Pence to ‘Apologize’ for Dinner with Nick Fuentes and Ye.”

Pence offered his remarks to NewsNation host Leland Vittert as Vittert questioned the former Vice President on whether this terrible event should disqualify Dumpf from running for reelection in 2024. Ye came under fire for anti-Semitism after stating that he “going death [sic] con” on Jewish people in an October 9 tweet.

The former Vice President did acknowledge that “anti-Semitism is a real issue in the world today and there’s a rising tide of anti-Semitism in many countries around the world.” Pence admitted that he cofounded the anti-Semitism caucus with the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, a Democrat, the late Tom Lantos. Now Pence reserved his critical remarks for his former boss toward the end of the interview, as he said, “President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an anti-semite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table and I think he should apologize for it and he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric, without qualification.”

Continuing his rebuke of the former president, Pence said, “I think the president demonstrated profoundly poor judgment in giving those individuals a seat at the table, and as I said, I think he should denounce them without qualification.” Pence admitted that “anti-Semitism is a very real issue. We saw anti-Semitic violence during the Trump-Pence years. We saw the Tree of Life synagogue come under fire and other synagogues around the country.”

So has the former vanilla toady to Dumpf finally developed a spine in this denunciation of Dumpf’s hosting that sickening dinner at his Florida compound? He has declared his intention to run in 2024 and he’s now trying to distance himself from his former racist, white supremacist boss. But the base will not be happy over his disloyalty to the Golden One, that’s for sure.

Anyway, the ignorant former president is refusing to apologize for having the dinner with Fuentes and Ye, but we know this bastard will never apologize for anything. Can’t we all admit that Dumpf is disgusting and dangerous already? He’s just been called out on the Senate floor by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for his reprehensible lack of judgment over the holiday.

Today we thought our wonderful cleaning lady “Lareto” was coming to work in the apartment, but we were disappointed by her not showing. Elliot had a 10:30 dental appointment, so I was left waiting in the apartment for Lareto who didn’t appear. Eventually, she was called and she apologized for not remembering the engagement. She did say she would come tomorrow then.

By 10:35 or so, Elliot called to say he was finished at the dentist’s office and asked me to meet him at the Austin Street Diner for breakfast. So I walked over and waited for him in a booth. Eventually, he entered the coffee shop and sat down. At the booth in front of us, we saw the ladies who breakfast. Elliot had to go around and introduce himself to them. One of the ladies, “Arlene,” was very enthusiastic to see Elliot.

Later, I ventured into Manhattan myself without Elliot who preferred to rest at home. Originally I wanted to see a new documentary called Bad Axe at the IFC Center at 4:30. The film chronicles an immigrant family’s experiences living in the red city of Bad Axe, Michigan, and their encounters with the MAGA crowd during the early days of the pandemic. It was rated the best documentary to depict the early events of COVID-19.

I took the F train to Broadway/Lafayette Street (there was only one potential distraction on the train: one young guy was dancing by himself by the window) and went to my bookstore on Crosby Street first. Not many interesting titles there, I’m sorry to say. But I did purchase a two-CD set of various old-time singers singing the oldies.

After this, I walked over to a bistro called Jane, on West Houston Street, where I had a nice brunch consisting of a truffle grilled cheese sandwich, served with creamy tomato soup. I did order some tasty biscuits with jam as an appetizer. As well as coffee.

Now I lost the impetus to see the documentary. I went instead to another bookstore, the Mercer Street Books & Records, around the corner of the Angelika Theater. There I spent about 45 minutes browsing the aisles and settled on a recent Michael Lewis book, The Fifth Risk, which is a critical look at the former Dumpf’s administration botched presidential transition. I’ve already begun the book and I’m already on page 42, and the details of what Dumpf and his lackeys didn’t know about government when forced to stitch together a competent administration would definitely raise the hackles on your neck. Lewis’s book can be viewed as a paean to the American government and how it functions relatively smoothly despite threats toward it from within.

Then I went home and had dinner with Elliot at home.

Tomorrow we hope to do something together in Manhattan after Lareto arrives.

Stay safe and be well.