After John McCain lost his bid to be President he said he went to Washington to change it and it changed him. I signed the petition for his first run but not in his second. The second made him the Republican nominee. The difference for me was he was himself in his first try but he changed his values and stances to get right wing support in the primary. After the loss McCain went back to his former self. He stayed that way until his death. The question is would he have reverted if he had won?

            Seldom does the voter know how the sausage was made. My Brother-In-Law was a Republican who had not been involved in politics when he answered a knock at the door. It was the leaders of both parties. They both offered their parties’ support if he would run to defeat the incumbent. He served three terms as an Illinois State Representative and one term as Senator. He learned how the sausage was made and despised it.

            We were visiting him at his desk one day when the party runner handed him a sheet on how he should vote for four bills that day. He hadn’t had any time to read the bills much less to decide how to vote on them. When I asked why he should vote that way he said in order to get road builders support at his golf tournaments he had to do as he was told by the party leader., Without that money he wouldn’t get re-elected and help his district. He enjoyed helping people but he often had to go against his beliefs.

            Illinois had a Senator who won handily but didn’t run again because he didn’t like how Washington made sausage. Thousands of newly elected people are about to find out how sausage is made at school board meetings to the Senate meetings.

        A black hole is an astronomical body where gravity is so great not even light can escape. It draws in planets, suns, and solar systems within its gravitational reach. There is a point in the spinning around the hole where a body can escape and can’t escape. It is called the event horizon. Once a body is past that point the gravity becomes too strong and the body is pulled into the compacted mass in the center.

            We may have a black hole here in the United States. We have a person here who is at the center of several investigations from his own activities and the activities of cohorts who have acted for him. Many others have given public support for him and therefore tied themselves to his orbit.

            Those who have gotten themselves deeply involved have passed through the event horizon and face legal challenges. Their only way to break free of the gravity is to plea bargain for a lesser sentence. The supporters are at or near the event. Some will figure out a way to get away from the gravity while others will fall into the black hole. The event horizon is near for a lot of elected people and many in the broadcast media and internet. Many have seen the danger and are backing away while others hope for the black hole to become a supernova spreading greatness to them.

        Kevin McCarthy wants to be Speaker of the House when the new congress starts in January. He is currently the Minority Leader and the mouthpiece for the House Republicans. He had been saying his party would have the biggest “Red Wave” in history. As of nine days after election the projections are that he will have a two to four seat majority

            Why a ripple instead of a tsunami? The abortion issue had some effect with women on their decision to vote for a democrat. The increasing revolt against former President Donald Trump’s incompetence and ego turned many Republicans and right-leaning independents to vote for a Democrat.

            As strong as those reasons are Devin McCarthy’s Trump-like rants were the deciding factor for millions of voters. McCarthy put Social Security and Medicare on the block. He said when he takes control he will investigate Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine and impeach President Biden and Vice-President Harris. The Justice Department is already investigating Hunter Biden and McCarthy admits he has no proof of Biden or Harris doing anything wrong. His far right wing discourses turned off millions of votes.

            Many Republican Representatives have decided they don’t want someone like him to be their leader amid the increasing fallout from Donald Trump. For months he has had his staff call him Mr. Speaker and is planning how to redecorate the Speaker’s office. What will Kevin McCarthy do when he isn’t the pick of the people he thought would back him and owed him. The world will be better off if he stomps off and goes back to California. Getting to hold the gavel requires the majority of both parties. Currently the projections are that less than ten Republicans will be siding with all the Democrats to sink his hopes.

        As a news junkie I can see through the screens politicians put out for their advantage to staying in office. They don’t want you to know how enormous the mess is worldwide. Just as in the 1930s Authoritarian governments are slowly eradicating the liberties their people though were inviolable. The “Big Lie” fills the news media and internet to the point people believe lies instead of their eyes and commonsense.

            In the United States one Political party did all they could to help companies move jobs offshore along with the technology? At the same time they blamed the other party which supported the unions and non-union jobs being offshored. Today we have the need for tens and even hundreds of thousands of people to do jobs from landscaping to nursing to technology that Americans are unwilling or can’t do. At the same time one party does all it can to reduce or stop the needed labor from entering the labor market. The immigrants come to work so why not let them.

            Some people in both parties refuse to do what is needed to reduce emissions in hopes of keeping climate change to a manageable amount. They voted against the bill which will put charging units out for electric vehicles to use. The bill includes lots of things we must do to survive but people who voted against it are thinking only of the people who dump millions into their campaigns or their pockets.

            For decades I have heard both parties say we need to pass a big infrastructure bill, yet one party vote against it but took credit for how they got it for their voters.

            Add in the wars in Ukraine, the future war in Taiwan, potential wars in Iran and multiple terrorist ones, and the volatility of fossil fuels, the world is in a huge mess. Perhaps a bigger mess than in the last 50 years.