(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kitchen Table Kibitzing: The Midterms [1] ['View Profile', 'Nanny Ogg'] Date: 2026-05-14 A fierce and frigid wind churned around Sausalito last night as I ventured out with Maisie for her last walk of the day. She’d already been for an hour walk that morning, a 20 minute loop in Piper Park, and had played in two dog parks, so I didn’t feel bad about cutting it short. Late afternoon/evening temperatures have been well below normal for the past few weeks, cold enough to warrant wearing a hat and budling in a heavy jacket. Wind is almost always an issue in Sausalito but these abnormally low temperatures are definitely new.I was glad I had turned the heat on and I settled down on the couch to fill out the California primary mail in ballot. The other night I had received the usual text from a friend of mine who routinely over the years reaches out for a blow by blow of how I’m voting on candidates and propositions. This year, for the first time I can recall, the ballot was two pages long, Tom Steyer, my choice for governor was one of maybe 30 names covering the first page. His name was smack dab in the middle, hard to locate. I didn’t even see Katie Porter’s name, didn’t bother to look because I was so frustrated and how cumbersome this process was going to be. Almost every candidate entry had huge list of candidates for the position. The typeface was really small. I realize how important it is to elect Democrats to every one of these positions but in most cases there were so many democrats running and I had only heard of two of them. What’s going on here? Are you finding your primary ballots overloaded with candidates this year? Took me about a half hour to complete and I’ll be honest, in some of the races I just selected a democrat from many on the list. Just so frustrated didn’t even know how to begin finding out which one I truly wanted to support. But the envelope is now sealed and signed and ready for drop off. And with the president’s legislation to ban mail in voting I have to wonder if perhaps this will be the last ballot I’ll be able to fill out at home. Have you voted yet? How is your voting experience this midterm? Mississippi Primary Meanwhile, in the district redrawing sweepstakes, Mississippi governor Tate Reeves just announced the cancelation of a scheduled session to redraw the states’s districts ahead of the midterm, claiming the difficulty involved and his belief it might actually hurt Republican chances. He does, however, expect to do the withdrawing in the future. Mississippi had already held primaries in March ahead of the Louisiana ruling. Redrawing and revoting might make strong Republican areas more competitive, he said. MORE ON EL NINO I wrote last week about the “godzilla El Nino” scientists are predicting could begin this month and this climate event continues to shape news across the country. Inside Climate News writes about the deadly mix of El Nino with an already climate warmed world and focuses on the likelihood of severe firestorms. Hotspots include the Amazon, Canada, the western United States and Australia. Theodore Keeping, a wildfire researcher at the University of Reading in England, said firefighters in those regions are bracing for a severe year, potentially facing some of the most damaging fire conditions seen in recent history. He noted that the combination of El Niño on top of ongoing warming has driven a “whiplash” between extreme moisture and extreme drought in some regions. Grasses and brush thrive during heavy rains, then dry out quickly when the heat returns, turning into combustible fuel. This year, Keeping said, wildfires on several continents have already scorched an Alaska-sized area of land—more than half a million square miles—50 percent more than average over the past 25 years. Almost all countries in West Africa and the Sahel region of North-Central Africa experienced record-breaking wildfires, he added. I have neighbors coming over to make curry tonight so I will be busy but will stop in when they leave. Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share a virtual kitchen table with other readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by to talk about music, your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper…. Newcomers may notice that many who post in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table and hope to make some new friends as wel [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/14/800038320/community/kitchen-table-kibitzing-the-midterms/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/