The polls were wrong, often by double digits.  Voting sites were also way off.  The news media was caught completely by surprise.  Lots of people I know saw the pushback and the enthusiasm, but wondered how deep it went. Now we know.  Also lots of dogs didn’t bark.  No shenanigans (or very few) at the polls.  Concessions came early and quietly from even entrenched Republicans.  And if people spending the money had seen this coming it could (should) have been a bigger bloodbath.  Florida, Mississippi and other states could have easily joined the Blue Tsunami, as it’s being called.  I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like it.  The American People surprise me again, this time in a good way.   I’ll let Heather Cox-Richardson do the analysis.

November 4, 2026

Lots of “firsts” in the elections last night.  I was going to list them here but I would be copying the whole article.  There was some conventional thinking that Democrats should stick to running “old white men” after Kamala Harris’s loss.  Seems that wasn’t at all necessary.  From Al Jazeera.

Firsts for women and minorities in US midterm elections

The AI future is gonna be weird.  From IBM Think newsletter.

Why every AI writes the same story about a lighthouse keeper named Elias Thorne

From WaPo.  Link below from a PDF available on-line.

I went to Mexico to test-drive the electric cars
Americans can’t buy; here’s what I saw

A local story, in the UK press.  We call them The Greggs.  Ads on TV all day and night.  We need to tax these folks if they want to be involved in politics.

New Mexico megachurch endorses Republican candidates, testing federal ban

Today I saw that Gillette razors had plummeted in popularity.  It seems this was all connected to an on-line ad around 2019 leading to a boycott.  I never heard of the ad, never saw it, never heard of the boycott.  I dumped Gillette because their products SUCK.

Let me repeat that.  Their Products were EXPENSIVE and TERRIBLE.

Since 1980 or so, when I started buying my own razors I couldn’t believe how terrible an experience shaving was.  Blades (from Gillette) lasted a few shaves.  Sometimes they came out of the box dull enough to be useless.  And they weren’t cheap.  They were usually locked up at the drug store and had to be retrieved by the store clerks.

Over the years I tried some tempered blades (standard Gillette blades soaked in liquid nitrogen).  They were better, but even more expensive.  Bought a few sharpening gadgets.  Some improvement but not much.

This is going to sound like a promotion but I have no connection to Harrys except as a customer.  My wife bought me some Harrys.  They work great and last forever.  Like months. It’s almost surreal compared to the old Gillettes. I often wondered if it was just me because I never heard a mention about this, either the crappieness of the old Gillette blades or the better quality of Harrys.

I feel I spent decades ripped off by what was more or less a big American monopoly.  Good riddance to Gillette.

Gillette faces backlash and boycott over ‘#MeToo advert’

I always believed Bush’s Iraq War was all about oil company profits.  This Iran seems very similar, down to the nuclear scaremongering.  Anyone else remember yellowcake uranium?  A report from last month from the US Senate.  Some recent statements by the president give this all more credibility.

THE BILLION DOLLAR DEAL:  How the Fossil Fuel Industry Bought the Trump Administration, Cashed In, and Left Americans to Pay the Price

I’ve always liked the movie Donnie Darko.  I know it’s a very popular movie with a slightly younger generation.  I recently connected it to the German time travel series Dark.  Seems I wasn’t the only one.  As it turns 25 I guess it’s time to watch it again.  Lots written about it.  An article from Bright Lights Film Journal.

The Fall of Donnie Darko: Re-Viewing the Myth of a Generation

A long article from the New Yorker magazine about the semiconductor industry. A great read and worth seeking out.  Books have been written about this over the decades but this is a very good modern take.  If you get bored on the technical details, hang in there.  The story is going someplace.  There is also an audio version linked on the page, but it requires a subscription too.  It may be available elsewhere.

Sand Castles: Computer Chips Are the Most Magnificent Things Humanity Has Ever Made

A long, but very good read. Excellent graphics.  From Reuters.

Giant ‘heat storms’ are scorching the Earth. This is the story of the biggest one on record.