Just took a look at European newspapers. The main mood is that of bafflement. Europeans are wondering why Americans are not more appreciative of the economic miracle worked by Obama in the past six years.

Of course, the answer is that Americans don’t perceive it as a miracle. Anything even a hair-breadth short of paradise counts as hell on this side of the ocean.

Rauner declared victory in Illinois and immediately promised to lower the state tax his predecessor had raised. We are all screwed. The state’s economy only just started crawling out of a hole,  and now this loser will visit his incompetence on us all and destroy these hard – won gains.

For those of you who are not aware of Rauner, the only talking point of his entire campaign was that he wants to abolish the minimum wage. He had nothing coherent to say about anything else whatsoever.

The reason for the Republican win is the major improvement in the economy over the past 2 years. Republicans are notoriously horrible with the economy, so when it is the main issue on the voters’ minds (like in 2008 and 2012), they vote Democrat. But when economic worries recede (like right now, with the lowest unemployment in a very long time, good economic growth,  etc) voters don’t mind bringing in the party that is hopeless on the economy.

These elections are an absolute disaster. Florida has been lost. Rick Scott is governor. Wisconsin is even more insane than we all thought. And Pat Quinn is losing his lead in my state of Illinois.

And obviously, the Senate has gone to the Republicans.

I just heard two brainless creatures at the gym celebrating the Republican win and saying that a third presidential term for Obama will be a disaster. Recipes were exchanged as to how to prevent Obama from becoming president for the third time.

And this is the intellectual caliber of people we are dealing with.

Of course, the race I care the most about is the governor’s seat in my state. Pat Quinn has been great for Illinois, and we really need for him to stay and keep working. Especially since his opponent is an illiterate weirdo.

Young people say they don’t want to vote because they only care about presidential elections. This is sad since the president has no involvement with our university while the governor has a huge impact on whether we even exist.

So it seems like the Dems have been trounced in today’s election, eh?

Of course, the majority of voters didn’t even vote, which is just sad.

I have started to do regular upper lip waxing. Never had to do it before but starting from September I have to do it on a monthly basis.

P.S. “Old” is not a negative word in my lexicon do I’m not looking for the reassurance that I’m not old.

My hair salon was robbed tonight for the fifth time this year. The owner believes it’s drug related.

I’m sorry to be a one – track Clarissa but this is why our university should get more funding and not less. The young people should be in class learning about Spain ‘ s transition to democracy and not drug addicted and desperate. You will say these things are not mutually exclusive but I am convinced that a kid who is successful and happy at school will be less interested in drugs than a hopeless one. I’m sure many – if not most – of my students have experimented with drugs, and that’s absolutely normal. But they have so many interests in life that drugs will not overrun them.

Psychoanalytically,  drug addiction comes from an abysmally low self – esteem, and being successful in school is a great antidote. 

My students made me very happy and proud yesterday. I started recruiting for the position of my research assistant, and the students were significantly more excited about the prospect of getting mentioned in the acknowledgments of the book I’m writing than about the salary. And these are not wealthy students.

Vote-Shaming; or, How Virginia Democrats Dodged a Bullet Last Weekend http://feralgenius.blogspot.com/2014/11/vote-shaming-or-how-virginia-democrats.html

I don’t know what Virginia Democrats are trying to achieve with this offensive strategy but tomorrow the Dems will eat the bitter fruit of their contempt for their voters when both houses of Congress slip far, far away from their reach.