I am heartsick, as I’m sure most of you are. I had such hope we could move forward. Now we’re about to sink into a muck of corruption and ignorance. You probably know we’ve also lost the Senate. We still don’t know which party will take the House, so there’s still some hope House Democrats can put a brake on some things the MAGAts will try to do.
Tom Nichols at The Atlantic reminds us that Democracy is not over. But we have a lot of work to do to save it.
And I need some time before I can write any more. Do feel free to express yourselves in the comments.
It's hard to find a silver lining here, maybe the fact that he can only serve one term (assuming his apple polishers in congress don't find a way to subvert the constitution)? It's hard to believe but here we are again, we survived his first term I think we can survive his second?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fnJ2uzy98
He may not make it through four years. He's barely functional now. Of course, as I've said, he doesn't care about doing the job, and as long as he can sit at the desk, sign his name and collect the perks he's happy, and the people around him will be running the executive branch. Still, as he gets worse J.D. Vance is going to get itchy to get him out of the way, already.
JD might be an upgrade? He's every bit as corrupt as Stump but I don't think he's insane?
J.D. could well be worse.
Wake me up in four years.
I recently saw "Oppenheimer". The movie did a great job portraying the anguish he felt over the horror he unleashed in the atomic bomb, while simultaneously showing the herd cheering its destructive power. That's how I feel today. The herd wants fascism, and fascism they're gonna get.
I wish I could run away. I continue to work my tail off so I can. The thought also flashed through my mind, that Gulag was pretty smart to leave when he did.
The same thought crossed my mind.
FASCIST TAKKKOVER!!!!
https://www.theroot.com/black-men-overall-voted-for-kamala-harris-but-did-whit-1851690952
I've decided that the best thing to do as always is to try and have a little fun. We are certainly going to live through the biggest political shit show in the history of modern democracy but all is not lost. Much of the next few years will be tragic but alot of it is going to be hilarious (in a scary clown sort of way). There will be pain it's inevitable, but we will be part of history. The level of pain will vary, if they don't fuck with the VA or SSI too much then I'll just suffer the economic slowdown dirty air and water the reemergence of smallpox, whooping cough, measles, polio, thyroid, along with everyone else. I'm sure for some it's too early to move on but at this point we all did what we could do, we voted. Now it's survival time it’s going to make us all crazy but we might as well try to have a little fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBw07yhigrI
Speculative reasons. All or none or bits and pieces, you be the judge.
Three Strikes in a populist world. Strike 1 Obama turning hopey changey institutional. Strike 2 the sidelining of Bernie in favor of institutional Hillary. Strike 3 Biden seen as not leaving institutional behind, enough (suggested by his poor polling despite all the good he did) for all our populists.
Red Latinos. Of all the red turning groups, hispanic males turned the most. Maybe it didn’t have as much to with “Latino communist fears” as it did their fear of being replaced by their own kin.
Putin’s disappearing vote tech. Trump had roughly the same number of votes as 2020. Harris had 15 million less than Biden in 2020, despite all the blue shift reportedly going on from all those various sources pre-election.
(*removes conspiracy cap and decoder ring*)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H49obsV6oZ0
Let's guess that Trump follows through with mass deportation. What areas of the economy will be hit most? I'm guessing agriculture and construction. A lot or crops will rot for lack of a work force to harvest. If we can't bring in crops and Trump lays a huge tariff on imported vegetables, the only food that will be affordable is the crops that are 100% brought in by machines. I'm not an expert, but wheat and corn come to mind.
The housing crisis will get worse – we won't be able to build at the pace we need to without the Latino work force. A housing shortage will translate into higher rents and inflation in home prices.
Fuel prices can't come down much. When the Saudis were in a price war with Russia, there was a glut on the market that threatened to put oil companies in the US out of business. Trump actually begged the Saudis to cut production so US oil prices could rise.
Culturally, Hispanics are going to be appalled at what Trump wants to do (if the courts let him.) The first and most easily identified group of illegals is Dreamers. Out of pure sadism, I predict they will be first. This will send shock waves through the Hispanic community, I think.
What's my point? (I do have one.) The fools with short memories who bought into the claims of a beautiful economy under Trump are gonna get slapped in the face with reality in Trump's term. The effect that's hunting them will be directly caused by what the Trump administration is celebrating. Vance can't distance himself from the Trump policies – but he's gonna run in 2028 when the disasters of the Trump admin have made enemies of the margin that gave Trump a victory?
FDR was the result of the Great Depression backlash. Before things went to crap, voters were sold on the GOP. IMO, Trump intends to control the media this time and suppress any truthful reporting about the chaos and calamities the Trump admin will nurture. If they don't buckle (I think they will not.) and the truth gets out, we'll be back in power in 2028 – if democracy survives.
It's difficult and I haven't gotten there yet myself, but I agree with what commentators who understand how authoritarian autocracies come into being are saying:
The biggest tool would-be autocratic ruler have is instilling despair and fear in the population, and that what we must do is refuse to give up our agency: organize and keep resistance visible; don't make it easy for them by hiding in a burrow; make it clear that we are not going along with their plans.
In fact in her speech today, Harris said similar things. Like I said, I'm not there yet, I'm still working through the shock.
Something caught my eye as the evening unfolded…I think that the total vote counts in the battleground states is fewer total votes than in 2020. The only way I can reconcile that with the long lines we saw on TV is that in 2020 a huge percentage of the votes were by mail due to Covid. I'll have to look at the details when the final numbers are available.
typo: should be "by hiding" not "but hiding". I thought I made that change in edit mode, but it doesn't look like it took.
Day2: I see the other Bernie has beat me to reflections. He is right as usual but that just means it does not pay to argue with him, and he is old and out of touch. Old people lose their listening skills. We know that from developing tests of listening comprehension. The average raw score goes down with age. So, a C level listener becomes a D or F level listener as they get older. At Sanders age he probably does better than the normal old person on a non-inflated grading scale. That is probably due to his above average skills if not advanced level skills at a younger age. The guy the public elected, we know, is also old and deteriorating faster than Bernie. We know Duh Trump can't or won't read, and now has problems with an ad lib. He may have to resort to obscene gestures with the microphone or long musical interludes to get by. Well, he won and HOKCHIAR and that makes him politically correct no matter what. Understand?
I am also old, but younger than both of these guys. The problem with both campaigns is that they were crude and obscene. Duh Trump has people counting his foul language and claim his rate of fouls has increased from his younger days. Harris was not so bad except she kept using those two four letter words that turned off young voters and potential cross-over republicans. She would also often put them back-to-back, sort of doubling down on them. Just work alone is risky, but hard work, now that just won't work. Sure, they complain. and she listens, but that is not the path they want. And to love it and do it with a smile on their face that is just too much. They are not that desperate yet. Best go with the guy with magical thinking doing the weave. Then she talked about solving problems. Best stick with the guy that adopts problems, so you always have something to weave around.
I see the first thing that happened is that they raised stock prices. If you wanted to buy a chunk of Musk debt, he was up 10%. Steel was not as much of a steal today, because republicans like both steel and stealing. You want in it will cost you more up front. This is a capitalist society. If you want in it will cost you. Or better yet, stay out and send money. Come visit it once in a while in a hotel decorated in grandiose gawdy-awful. Bring friends we have large expensive suits. Check with the consigliere for our fast and friendly political connection services or other special needs. Sorry, Jeffery Epstein is not with us anymore.
Don't worry, Transactional is still our middle name.
Should have focused on the voters and their problems instead of Trump. Can we lay down the the pageantry and theatrics, the drama (Democracy dies in Darkness) and DO THE WORK now?!
Please, do NOT do, "Should have…" comments without a time machine that allows you to go back and test your opinion.
Kamala Harris did plenty of focusing on the voters and their problems. Those parts of her speeches didn't get into headlines, I guess. You had to listen to her to know what she was saying.
It's time to bring back those bumper stickers from the last time we had a showbiz republican leader – shit happens!
Oh, what a powerful comment from the WP.
This needs to be read while we still can say it free of retribution.
In 1946 there were people in Germany and Poland who said “we didn’t know”.
Today no one can say they didn’t know. You can only say you didn’t care.
Al Gorhythm