Well, shit. CNN called Pennsylvania for the convicted felon. Looks like Republicans will take back the Senate. It will probably be days before we know the fate of the House.
Votes are still being counted, but the nightmare scenario seems to be unfolding. I’m not a doomer, but realistically, it ain’t looking good.
This sucks, and I’m sorry that those of us who did the right thing will have to suffer alongside the morons who are driving us over the cliff.
We’ll need strength and courage in the days ahead to protect the vulnerable among us. People are hurting, so please try to be kind to each other.
Open thread.
JPL
The new world order is going to be ugly
Pharniel
I continue to be grateful for the BJ community.
And this sucks fucking ass, but the only thing to do is get up, take care of your loved ones in the morning, and carry on.
grubert
I don’t remember details, but hope and pray you are with us for years to come, Betty.
Cherish your writing.
ArchTeryx
There may be a whole lot of death coming. Study up on your pre-WWII history. Protect who you can. And buckle up as Sister Golden Bear said. This will not be a pleasant ride.
cain
Americans have decided that a man who has failing cognitive skills is fit to be president..for the longest time we have saved this country. Now we are in new territory.
As liberals we will protect our people.
Kamala ran a flawless campaign. It wasn’t enough it seems.
A lot of bad things are going to happen.
We will protect ourselves but not those who voted for chaos. Fuck them.
mali muso
This feels different than 2016. Then, I did not believe it could happen. I still can’t really believe it’s happening again, but I feel more numb and coldly furious this time.
zzcool
Do you know what Trump voters will get for electing him president?
What they fucking deserve. Good and hard.
Mai Naem mobile
Why do new generations have to learn stupid lessons again? This is just so depressing. TFG isn’t leaving the WH this time. He’ll let his family take over. Oh, and thanks Merrick Garland for nothing, and to the cowardly POS Mitch McConnell who was given a golden opportunity to take care of this problem in Jan 2021 after he knew GA was lost.
rk
I don’t know what to say. I’m not even feeling bad anymore. The wait is finally over at least. I remember the words of a black woman when Biden was out and Harris replace him. She said this country will never elect a black woman. I think she’s right. It didn’t elect a black woman. And it’s not Republicans only. She’s down in blue states significantly. They preferred a monster over a woman who is black. They deserve the monster. Unfortunately people who didn’t vote for him will pay the price.
cain
@ArchTeryx: Ukraine and Gaza .. we are going to see a lot of bad things
Europe is on their own.
We are no longer leader of the free world because we don’t have McDonald’s $1 value menus.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mai Naem mobile:
I mean, I think the immunity ruling in the summer showed that nothing Merrick Garland did or didn’t do would have mattered imo
YY_Sima Qian
I am just beginning to process what has happened. Among all of the ill things to come, the probability of a hot war between the US & the PRC just went up an order of magnitude. An escalation of the trade war, now waged in all directions, is all but certain.
Trump may only be interested in reach deals he could tout & feed his ego, he won’t be able to resist using his leverage just to see his interlocutors squirm, to extract the most lopsided deal possible. Furthermore, while Trump is an incompetent coward, he is vulnerable to influence by foreign parties (be they adversaries, rivals, neutrals, partners or allies) & by those w/in his administration. Some of the former will be looking to take out their geopolitical adversaries to the last American GI, & almost all of the latter will be the worst kind militarist/hegemonists/reactionaries.
ArchTeryx
@cain: I wasnt thinking internationally. We soon won’t care much about Gaza. Or Ukraine. We’ll be too busy playing out a real life version of Schindler’s List.
Betty Cracker
@mali muso: Right there with you.
VeniceRiley
Straight women need to sexcott for at least 3 election cycles.
Nothing else will stop this insanity. I’m glad I don’t live in the USA anymore, or I’d be fundraising Waste coast succession. I’m so done with the fucking south and the motherfucker swing states bullshit. Done, I am saying. It is no time left on the clock finished for NATO, Ukraine, and frankly, and it does pain me to say it and inform you all, EARTH
SiubhanDuinne
@mali muso:
“Numb and coldly furious” describes precisely what I’m experiencing right now. I’m not even grieving yet — time for that tomorrow. In the meantime, numb and coldly furious is marginally better than the physical nausea I had a couple of hours ago.
lowtechcyclist
Well, so much for doing anything meaningful about global warming for the next several years.
They don’t believe global warming is real, but science doesn’t care if you believe in it or not.
The Other Bob
@YY_Sima Qian:
I think a trade war is the best thing that can happen and fast. It will drive up inflation and change the political fortunes of the Republicans quickly.
rk
@YY_Sima Qian:
He’s too far gone mentally I think. I don’t think he’s even capable of even doing a minimum amount of work
John S.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It really doesn’t matter now. Trump will simply drop the cases against himself.
I do not think history will look kindly on Merrick Garland.
B1naryS3rf
Hi folks. Without getting overly personal, I’m one of the people who might not survive the next four years (no, I’m not exaggerating). But I promised myself and my mother and my girlfriend and one of my best friends that I’m not going to give up. It will be hell, but I have to go on. I hope you can too. Last night I watched V FOR VENDETTA. The Valerie autobiography scene, if you know the one I mean, is more relevant than ever now. I won’t link – if you know you know. I wish you well. Thank you for being such smart, erudite and good people, even if we’ve sometimes disagreed. I value your contributions over the many years. See you.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I was just thinking the same thing.
Juju
@zzcool: So will the rest of us.
Chief Oshkosh
Betty, you are so right. We need to protect the vulnerable. And on any given day, that may be you, me, or our neighbor. Today I might have to be the strong one, tomorrow I may need help. We can only strive to do our best. Be kind to one another.
pat
@SiubhanDuinne:
My thoughts exactly. From feeling sick to coldly furious. That this horrible, degenerating psychopath could be elected over a competent woman is disgusting, and if all those women who came out voted for him, I wonder what they will feel when the nation-wide abortion ban passes.
ascap_scab
The good news: He can’t take power until January 20.
The bad news: America, Americans, and the World are fucked on January 21.
Use your time wisely.
Suzanne
I am shocked, but not surprised.
I think Tom Nichols is right: lots of people are just filled with resentment that others are living good lives. They want to punish others.
YY_Sima Qian
There is going to be a lot of geopolitical realignment following the 2nd Trump quake, this time winning the popular vote, too! Every single one of the US’ allies & partners will be looking to “de-risk” from the US, even as they continue to try to “manage” Trump, through multi-alignment. Some of the smaller states may well end up holding short straws (Ukraine, Taiwan, the Palestinians). That is assuming we do not have great power war.
What is Xi’s favorite phrase? “Great changes unseen in a century.” Well, runaway AGW & nuclear fire are “great changes”, too.
Yarrow
Any bets on how long he stays in office before we end up with President Vance?
Tazj
@mali muso: I know. Now we know what he was like as president. We witnessed January 6th. He’s nastier and crazier than he was before. Women have died because of abortion bans. They still voted for him.
I’ve read that it’s a world wide trend to punish the party that was in power because of inflation and people all over fear immigration.
Yet, I can’t really believe so many people voted for him. I’m very angry right now and have little to no compassion for his voters. I’m not proud of this but it’s the way I feel and I can’t see that changing because I can’t see a way out of this.
VeniceRiley
@lowtechcyclist: The scientists say we’re out of time and need to do something now. So, we won’t now. It’s over. Sorry sorry, all you Jackals with kids and grandkids. They’re in for a beating. In the models I’ve seen, northern Scotland and Russia wins. And New Zealand for a bit.
But, it won’t be worth it, this dystopia
prostratedragon
@rk: “They preferred a monster over a woman who is black.”
This makes a proper sense of patriotism a tough lift, but guess I’ll give it a go. Totally different from a capable woman losing to someone merely mediocre, though. This one’s personal.
Rusty
My oldest called me Monday night, recently married and considering trying for a baby. She was upset about thinking about bring an infant into the world if Trump won. I told her the most hopeful thing in this world is a baby, no matter how dark everything may feel. I’m not sure she believed me. Two of my other children are in the LGBTQ community, life is going to get harder for them. My heart breaks for all of them and many others I care about. Our church opened its sanctuary yesterday and today for people to come light a candle, pray, meditate and talk with a pastor in view of the election. I was there last night in hopeful prayer. I’ll be back today to pray and think about what we need to do to protect my family and the vulnerable of our community. There is the time needed to grieve, and then to move on to acting in this now more difficult world.
Peace be with you.
pat
@Yarrow:
6 months?
Yarrow
@Suzanne: Agree with this.
Kay
I’m just sad about it. How can I be mad? This is what people want. There was movement toward Trump in even the bluest states.
I think I need some advice on how to keep sane in a lie- filled environment. That’s what scares me most – how truth just doesn’t matter at all. I don’t know how to function in that.
Quinerly
@Yarrow: are you listening to this “speech?”
I don’t think he will make it to inauguration.
Some guy is now up on stage thanking Joe Rogan….
Quinerly
@Kay:
I am amazed how much ground he made up in Blue states.
Yarrow
@Tazj: You are not required to feel compassion for people who voted for him.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’m doing the five stages of grief out of order, I think. Denial’s gone, I skipped right over bargaining, and now I’m see-sawing between depression and anger.
I think the quote from Foundation goes something like this: “Future historians will draw a line somewhere in the fifty years just past, and proclaim, ‘This marks the end of the Galactic Empire.’ And they will be right, though nobody will realize it for centuries.”
The America we were taught to believe in, at least growing up in my generation, will not survive. The only question left is: what will replace it? And I think that’s up to us. We are, all of us, going to have to fight to defeat the forces that are about to destroy our home, in ways we may not like and may not yet be ready for.
All of America lost last night.
Half of America just doesn’t realize it yet.
VeniceRiley
Who and/or what do you want to help as the world slowly sheds multicellular life? Make your priorities now, like a will.
TBone
I’ll be looking to join the formal Resistance wherever it conglomerates. We have a few months left within which to train up.
I’m not going down without a fight.
And I’m sure as hell NOT going back.
Anon. Numbers Guy
I have been crunching numbers in Michigan all night. Harris has been running similarly to Biden 2020 mostly. Trump on the other hand has pulled voters out of nowhere. These seems to be new voters.
Quinerly
@John S.:
Totally agree.
Ramona
@grubert: My first thought too! We need you Betty Cracker!
We have set up a hell of a network and the Harris campaign has set up a hell of an organization. We should keep fighting! At the state legislature level and start campaigning now for midterm 2026.
I didn’t wake up election morning, just slept through to midnight and it has helped to not fall into depression.
This election was simply one chance to fight the decades (if not centuries) long rot of right wing policies. The Harris campaign showed us how to organize. We should keep that momentum going.
Let’s take more lessons from the Civil Rights movement.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
I think it’s insane that only two years ago we did very well in several swing states in the midterms at the state level only for this to happen
Juju
@mali muso: I’m feeling like it’s all pointless.
Fair Economist
@VeniceRiley: Russia doesn’t win. It get staggering problems with permafrost melting
Edit: And Northern Scotland loses the Gulf Stream. Global warming is bad for everybody.
NotMax
Admit I held out hope the odious, vile Robinson being on the ballot would be enough to drag North Carolina into the blue camp this time.
mali muso
Angry with myself for letting the immigration pathway that I had to Canada lapse during the pandemic craziness. Although given the global realignment that is coming, I suppose no place is safe. Where do I go to raise my 8 year old biracial daughter? I’m so disgusted with everything right now.
Kay
@Quinerly:
Cheap food seems to be what Americans value.
The only consolation for me is we’re overdue for a correction on the economy – would have happened under Harris too. They’re about to get a reminder of what a bad economy actually looks like. They’ll have high housing costs AND no job.
Juju
@cain: We are no longer that shining city on a hill.
Yarrow
@Quinerly: I do not ever listen to him speak if I can help it. So no. I also do not look at him. Nor do I watch comedian’s imitating him. I mute, change the channel or close the tab/app.
I have found him creepy and awful since the very first time I saw him on the cover of a magazine while in the checkout line at a supermarket when I was a kid. He disgusts me in every way imaginable. I do everything I can to avoid him. Having him as president was hell for me and this time around it will be worse.
Mai Naem mobile
I can’t comprehend that this POS will very possibly win the popular vote. That just says some awful stuff about this country.
ArchTeryx
I will just leave this here. https://youtu.be/xBCTaippvmY?si=F-yEdyPoxdyaC6xy
Welcome to the future.
Quinerly
Minnesota called for Harris.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
I saw a recent article in The Guardian that said that most Americans weren’t seeing many benefits despite the booming economy
Fair Economist
@mali muso: Canada has its election next year, and the leading candidate for PM is so wrapped up in working for foreigners (probably Putin) he won’t get a security clearance, because he doesn’t want his connections dug up. Not sure Canada’s a good escape.
Mike in DC
Skip the postmortem and despair, go straight to getting fighting mad and start planning for what comes next. We have to fight like hell.
Kay
@Quinerly:
oh I’m glad. That would be humiliating for Walz.
Juju
@Yarrow: Six days.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Fair Economist:
Not to mention we share a land border
SatanicPanic
The constitution is dead, America as we know it is gone. It is over. There is no coming back from this. Many of you won’t see a free America again, none of us might. I hate to be the doomsayer but we are doomed. Fuck you White Americans, Fuck you shitty Boomers who couldn’t just go quietly and let the rest of us take over. Fuck you Joe Biden for failing in the one thing you needed to do and ending the threat of another Trump presidency.
I’m sorry for everyone who is going to suffer. I don’t think I will play any meaningful role in making the world better. Because I can’t, and I’ll be suffering too. Things set in motion today are bigger than any of us and I’m not making a ton of sense and am mostly just screaming into the void now but whatever.
Im done here. A few of you might suggest I was just a troll pestering you over the last three months. But I’m very much a real person and I’ve met a few of you IRL, including one lady I marched with in 2017. But whatever my online reputation doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. I hope you all stay safe. Good luck out there. Take care of the people you love. 🤙🏼
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Yarrow: Trump will never resign no matter how bad it gets for him. That came up when he had COVID and they were talking about how his father was completely out of it before he died and was still running the family business.
If anything we should be taking bets on how long before he forces Vance to resign and simply refuses to appoint a new vice president.
lowtechcyclist
@VeniceRiley:
Yeah, the evangelicals may have finally brought about the End Times after all, just not in quite the way they figured.
Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Can’t write a letter, can’t send no postcard
I ain’t got time for that now
Viva BrisVegas
I don’t comment here often, but I’ve been lurking around since 2004. I just want to offer my commiserations to all the Jackals who put in so much effort only to see it vapourised in a cloud of racism and misogyny.
There will be lots of postmortems over the next few years. The only unoriginal wisdom that I have to offer is that we are now in a post policy world. People now vote on intangibles and those intangibles depend on which algorithm is feeding their social media.
Democracy is not compatible with social media. It rewards the parties most willing to ruthlessly exploit their supporters. I don’t know the solution to this because it’s not going away.
I’m old. I’m not glad to be old, but I am glad I was around for the experiment in Western style democracy, and that I hopefully won’t be around for it’s demise.
Anyway, stay strong.
Internet Dragons
It’s different this time. Voters knew clearly what choices they were making. My understanding of and my beliefs about my country are forever changed. I thought I was a realist but I seem to have missed the fact that so many want a fascist/authoritarian in power. As an acquaintance posted, “no matter what happens, I don’t believe Democrats need to do any introspection. The reality is that half of America is full of hate and is willing to sacrifice women and girls if they think they can save $0.20 on gas.”
And a practical suggestion: people, PLEASE update your vaccinations before Jan. 20. Brain worm dude is talking about banning them.
Steve LaBonne
My heart breaks for all the people who worked so hard to try to get us a better result, and for all the people who will be badly hurt in this ugly new reality. Eventually that will include most of us after the economic crash that Elon longs for.
mali muso
@Fair Economist: Yeah, I’m aware. Seems like we are exporting all of our bad political impulses.
Quinerly
@Yarrow: totally get it.
I am just different. I like to see and hear it all. My nature and my training.
I also don’t pie here.
****
Trump overperforming in MI. Macomb County.
SatanicPanic
@Mai Naem mobile: we had so many chances. There were so many times history could have been different. Every fucking time we lost the coin toss. I don’t know what to say except maybe this is just what we are and this was inevitable. I don’t know.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Sorry, but that’s baloney. The “benefit” was they were all working and wages went up. They understand that a bad economy means high unemployment, right? We had cheap food and housing in 2009. It didn’t matter with 16% unemployment.
They can’t have cheap goods and services and also high wages and full employment. That’s not how it works.
Quinerly
@Viva BrisVegas:
Hugs.
Mai Naem mobile
There’s going to be a lot of second guessing Harris’ pick of Walz vs Shapiro. I think Shapiro would have come across as an elite liberal. I don’t see what she could have done better. <
TBone
@Mike in DC: come sit by me.
Kay
@Steve LaBonne:
Thats always what kills me too – my coworkers losing.
Yarrow
@Quinerly: I don’t pie. I just skim and skip what I don’t want to see. But there is something about him that cuts through everything. I cannot do it. It’s an instinctual visceral response.
Suzanne
@SatanicPanic: You’re one of my favorite commenters here, and I hope you stay.
Kay
@Mai Naem mobile:
it’s bigger than that. It’s a national shift Right. It wouldn’t have made a bit of difference.
Yarrow
@Steve LaBonne: Well, I always figured I’d die penniless under a bridge so here we are.
John S.
@Quinerly:
I’m sure Rep. Tlaib will find President Trump extremely sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians.
Quinerly
@Mai Naem mobile:
Agree.
I am quickly coming to the realization that no one we could have run would have beat him. The country (voters) is seriously fucked up.
mali muso
@Mai Naem mobile: Yeah, I don’t think she could have run a more flawless campaign. The media, Russia, disinformation and an incredibly stupid, racist and misogynist sea of idiots…that’s where I lay the blame.
Gin & Tonic
@Viva BrisVegas: I am old, too, and now resigned to the fact that neither the US, nor, importantly for me, Ukraine, will recover from this in my remaining life on Earth.
Quinerly
@John S.:
Excellent point.
Juju
@Kay: I think the people who switched and voted for him will be sorry about things in about six months, when they remember what he was like. I’m shocked, but not shocked. This was my biggest fear when Biden dropped out. I guess after the bad debate performance by Biden we were screwed. I don’t think we will have a woman president for at least 50-100 years. I am so sad. I hope we don’t have another pandemic, and there is a new virus brewing, and the billionaires will get their tax cuts. Because they need them. I hope the Republicans rein him in a bit. I don’t think even they want the country completely destroyed.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yarrow:
Less than a year. Maybe less than six months. But not, you know, immediately, like a common William Henry Harrison.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
This is the article if your interested. ‘No social life, no plans, no savings’: Americans aren’t reaping benefits of booming US economy
Subhead: While some were optimistic about stabilizing costs, others told the Guardian high prices continue to squeeze finances
A lot of it is just interviews with people. I don’t know what to think, honestly
Repatriated
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I’m dreaming here, but combine that hypothetical with the hypothetical of Dems retaking the House, actual presidential infirmity or worse, and then recall the line of succession…
I’ve just jinxed it, haven’t I?
Anyway
@Mike in DC: Fight what?! We fought like hell this election and this is the result — what’s the point?
Mel
@Kay: The problem is that those of us who were just starting to get back on our feet will be taken down as well. When you have already lost almost everything twice, and felt the terror of not knowing if you’d have a roof over your head, food to eat, or money to buy medicine from one day to the next, the reality of what is likely to happen is very real, not an arm’s length “ what they deserve”.
I really do understand your point, and I get exactly what you are feeling. It’s damn near impossible not to feel “burn it all down” rage right now. Just please know that for so many people who didn’t ask for this, those high prices will mean the difference between staying afloat and going under in every way.
Suzanne
@Quinerly:
Yes this.
Yarrow
@Mai Naem mobile: I don’t think there will be as much second guessing of the VP pick as there will be of should Biden have stayed after all and/or did he leave too late and should there have been a mini primary and why was she anointed the candidate. All the same stuff that Dems fought about after the bad debate.
Juju
@Mai Naem mobile: Sometimes you can do everything right and still lose.
Quinerly
@Yarrow:
We all need and should do what is best for us. I totally understand where you are coming from.
lowtechcyclist
@Viva BrisVegas:
I’m hardly young, but I’ve got a 17 year old son. I can’t help but feel we’ve massively failed him, along with the rest of his generation.
SatanicPanic
@Suzanne: oh shit really? Thanks! You’re one of mine! But this has been bad for me. I’ve been rapped up in real life stuff and I think it showed- I was definitely more argumentative than in the past and I think i annoyed a lot of people. I’m just burnt out. We tried so hard for so many years and this is heartbreaking. My dad died three months ago and I feel adrift. I need to grieve. This is all too much, you know?
ArchTeryx
@Anyway: For our families and loved ones, many of whom may be disappeared by brownshirts unless we resist.
TBone
Man the lifeboats, I might be down but I’m NOT out.
Get knocked down twice, get back up three times and always come up swinging! I’m not exhausted, I’m energized.
cain
@The Other Bob:
The GOP are dumb as fuck ..
But I am more worried about women’s health. A lot of death is going to happen.
Betty Cracker
@Mai Naem mobile: Agree about the popular vote. It was a comfort to be able to tell ourselves that if we had a proper democracy without the shitty electoral college, a monster like Trump couldn’t be elected. That illusion is gone now.
Juju
@Steve LaBonne: I am just beginning to feel secure financially. So much for that.
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Honestly, I do think the economy is weird. We’re all working — working our asses off and making money — and yet buying power is not good, Warren and her daughter wrote about in their book years ago, how prices of consumer goods went down, but housing, education, and transportation went way up.
Gracklefeet
Just popping in to say that I appreciate this group of people so much. Glad you guys are here.
I don’t want to respond to this election the way I responded in 2016 — I developed a drinking problem, damaged my health with worrying, and the despair kept me from getting any music or writing done for a long time. This time around I want to focus on my friends who are especially prone to depression and anxiety, and be there for them. I want to take good care of myself so I can keep writing and making music. And I want to hang out with people who can give good advice on other helpful things I can do. Donate, volunteer, be a voice in my very mixed blue & red community. Thanks again all.
Barbara
@Mai Naem mobile: Yes it does.
cain
@Suzanne:
Then let them run it’s course and watch as the slit their own economic throats.
100% tariffs will make this country even more expensive. We will also be still more dependent on cheap labor.
VFX Lurker
Nothing. She raised a billion dollars and pulled together a flawless campaign in three months.
Mel
@Yarrow: Is there room next to your tent for mine? I’ve always thought you were a kind and funny person.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
They just voted for the person who promised tariffs – a tax on half of what they buy.
They have some responsibility to understand this – they cannot have cheap food, cheap housing, low interest rates, full employment, high wages, low taxes and a robust safety net. They have to choose among those things.
Harrison Wesley
I was fast asleep when my oldest friend called me about 10 minutes ago. She was crying and tremendously upset. I didn’t know what to say to her. What is there to say?
la caterina
Thank you for the post BC and to everyone who is commenting. I just woke up to the news. I’m angry and heartbroken. We have to stick together now. We’re all we’ve got. If that sounds trite, so be it.
I agree that the best we can hope for is a trade war and rampant inflation as an object lesson to the “economically anxious.” Will they even let the Orange Menace stay in power that long?
RinaX
Any plans for the future have to start from the reality that people wanted this. Voter suppression has nothing to do with the margins she lost by even in blue states.
We can only win when Republicans are in office when disaster lurks. Otherwise, the Democratic platform on its own does not help us. I wish it did, but the numbers tonight say otherwise.
I don’t know what else Kamala could have done.
Yarrow
@cain: Oh, well. That Eve shouldn’t have talked to that snake and taken the apple. She must be punished. If women die from pregnancy that’s just God’s will. Etc. Etc.
Suzanne
@SatanicPanic: I get it and I hope you do what you need to do for yourself. Grieve your dad. I’m so sorry.
Just know that you aren’t an annoyance. You can come back any time.
Quinerly
@Anyway:
We are all very raw right now. I, for one, am in total shock. More so than 2016. With that said, there’s something seriously wrong with this country that I don’t think can be fixed (at least in my lifetime and I’m 63.) If Harris couldn’t win this, I am not sure who could. Perfectly run campaign. Flawless. On message. No missteps. Strong coalition.
Maxim
@B1naryS3rf: Please hang in there.
Yarrow
@Mel: You’re certainly welcome under the bridge. But I didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to have a tent. Tents are for rich people. Thank you for your kind words.
lowtechcyclist
@Juju:
The problem is, few Republicans anymore actually know what they’re doing. Their main skill is rousing the rabble, getting everyone pissed off at the enemy within, and getting on TV.
Even if they want to do X, they won’t know how to do X in a way that works.
Rusty
With Trump and a Republican senate, Thomas and Alito will retire and be replaced with young ultra-consevatives. We could even lose one of the three remaining liberals. The court is effectively lost for the rest of my life and they will have no restraint to go full bore. Wouldn’t shock me to go back to Lochner at this point.
Suzanne
@cain: I did not say that voting for the shitmonster was the right solution to their issue.
Quinerly
@SatanicPanic:
Please don’t leave us.
princess leia
@Betty Cracker:
Whew, yes.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Theyll turn on Trump immediately though, the moment it becomes clear that he can’t fix all their complaints with a magic wand. They turned on Biden almost as soon as they elected him.
What they want they can’t have, because it’s contradictory and irrational.
cain
@Mike in DC:
We spent a lot of time fighting on people’s behalf. We will now do that with each other at the personal level.
The people have chosen to not have sane healthcare, same fiscal policy or foreign policy.
I don’t have to help those people. I will help my tribe.
Mel
@Harrison Wesley: I don’t know. I think that the only thing you can tell her is that you love her, and that you will be there for her. That’s about the only thing that any of us can do right now, is try to keep one another afloat as best we can.
Yarrow
@RinaX:
Yep. I saw several interviews throughout the campaign with Latino voters – both men and women – who said we need a strong leader and he’s a strong leader. A strong man. They like that stuff. I don’t know how to fight it.
Juju
@Betty Cracker: wait until all the votes are counted, especially California.
Quinerly
@cain:
Just wait until Stevie 3 shirts gets his way about doing away with the dollar as our currency.
frof
@Viva BrisVegas:
It will go away when world trade collapses and we can’t get smart phones anymore. It will be discrete transistors and PDP-11s.
crap. I am “frog”
Kay
@RinaX:
Agreed. All of it. If there’s another election Democrats will win in 2028 but only to fix whatever Republicans destroyed.
cain
@Kay:
Exactly
And they won’t know how to deal with the inevitable rise in prices.
They got exactly what they voted for.
Aussie Sheila
@Kay:
Hi Kay, I’m very very sorry about what has happened.
To everyone here of course, but especially you and everyone who are particularly vulnerable to the repercussions of this electoral disaster.
Everyone worked as hard as they could and Harris/Walz ran what seemed from here to be an excellent campaign.
This result will have domestic political repercussions here of course, but nothing like what you, Ukraine and the Palestinians are going to go through.
A world historical disaster.
Yarrow
@Rusty: Ooh, when will the court decide that the 19th amendment is unconstitutional and women shouldn’t be allowed to vote. That has to be coming, right?
YY_Sima Qian
@Yarrow: Many people have lost their faith in the Establishment, and as such they tend to gravitate toward who they perceive as “strong leaders” who will overturn the stats quo. The US is not unique here. The trend is global, everywhere.
You don’t regain their support by presenting yourself as the Establishment defending a status quo they hate, doing so loses far more votes from those who are disaffected from the status quo than gaining in votes from those that have benefited from the status quo.
Juju
@Harrison Wesley: half of this nation really sucks.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well keep in mind the resulting hypothetical president would rightfully not be considered legitimate, but it would be hilariously on brand for Trump.
Also, worth considering if Trump does go to great golf course in the sky, and Vance is president, again, the same situation, Couch Fucker won’t have the same base of support as Trump has and come across as having a hand in doing Trump in.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
I’m so sick of it. They always want Dems to come fix Repuke messes and then kick us out when things stabalize but are still worse than before
YY_Sima Qian
@Aussie Sheila: I have been reading that Labour in Australia is vulnerable in the next election?
cain
@Kay:
I’m sick of that pattern. We fix shit and then we don’t get rewarded for it. Let them have GOP control for awhile.
So sick of our people fixing things for them. It’s turning into a scam
Quinerly
Popular vote update.
Trump made tremendous gains in the popular vote in NY, NJ, MD, WI, and Illinois.
I can’t comprehend this.
Kay
@Harrison Wesley:
The worst for me was my daughter. She has two little girls. She’s heartbroken. I can stand it for myself – I’m insulated in many ways- but those little girls…ugh.
Suzanne
@Yarrow: So much of what we see as good social behavior in government — listening, consensus-building, responding with relevant facts and evidence, operating within constraints and institutions — is seen as “feminized” by a huge cohort of people.
Yarrow
@Kay: Is she the one in Denmark? She should be okay there.
YY_Sima Qian
@Quinerly: My WAG, anti-Establishment disaffection. In all of these places, Dems are the Establishment. In the red states, the Repubs still market themselves as the anti-Establishment insurgency.
Anyway
@Quinerly: and the bitcoiners and other grifter disruptors have their way …
Tony Jay
Don’t know what to say, guys. Seriously. I didn’t even feel this gut punched and sick in 2019, and that was when a majority of my own country rejected hope and chose a lying, solipsistic traitor to preside over its self immolation.
Nothing I can say. So sorry.
mali muso
@Kay:
I don’t know what I am going to say to my seven year old daughter in a few hours.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Seems likely. I don’t know much about how tariffs are enacted, but my understanding is it’s something the president can do pretty much unilaterally. If that’s the case, Trump will crash the economy in short order.
Aussie Sheila
@YY_Sima Qian:
Yes, it is. Our PM is a ‘manager’ not a leader, and the housing crisis simply can’t be fixed in three years.
Of course the Conservatives here (Liberal/National Party) are promising to ease the housing crisis by reducing immigration.
Same garbage as the UK and US.
Maxim
@Suzanne: A slightly younger old white man, probably. But not anyone else.
Kay
@cain:
I am too. But it is the pattern. Obama won because conservatives tanked everything. Then Biden won be apse Trump killed a million people.
They’re ready to put someone in to fuck it all up again but this time is different – they may not get another election.
Im tired of the petulant childishness. The tantrums. The mood swings. Americans need to grow up.
Chief Oshkosh
I wonder if this changes Biden’s approach to some issues. I don’t have anything in mind specifically. Certainly he needs to do what it takes for national security measures, given Russian bomb threats. Now is not the time to plod along.
Gloria DryGarden
agree
RinaX
@Quinerly: People laughed when he held that NY rally. Now it may be up for grabs in 2028. I wish it was joking. There are resentful people everywhere, and he’s laid the blueprint on how to exploit them, regardless of background.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Aussie Sheila:
How the fuck would easing immigration help housing costs?
Kay
@Yarrow:
No, she’s in NY. My son is in Denmark
I leave tomorrow to meet him and his spouse and daughter for a vacation in Portugal so I should go to bed.
Yarrow
@Maxim: I feel like a good looking man that wasn’t too liberal and presented as “strong” could be seen by those voters as aspirational and might win. It’s really all about vibes and entertainment, not policy and competence.
Splitting Image
@mali muso:
“Numb and coldly furious”. I think this should be nominated. Seems to cut right to the chase. I don’t even want to think about reading Adam’s post tomorrow, but his long-standing sense of pessimism turned out to be entirely justified. As Adam’s thoughts often are, unfortunately.
I just want to say how glad I am that John has kept this place open all these years and that the posters and commenters here have helped keep it going. I’ve been reading since 2007 or so, and have learned an awful lot.
It looks like we have four more nasty years to get through, and even a portion of Project 2025 getting passed is going to be terrible, although we will all have the consolation of watching Trump decay into orange ooze before our eyes.
I agree that J.D. Vance is measuring the drapes as we speak. 6 months might be a high estimate for the length of Donnie’s second term.
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The idea that Trump and Vance have been pushing is that we have a housing shortage due to immigrants. So the idea is to deport them and take their homes.
Yarrow
@Kay: Oh, bummer for her and the kids. Maybe she can move to Denmark with her brother?
Enjoy your trip. It will be good to get away from this mess.
Citizen Alan
@Quinerly: i hate being proven right. I said in 2004 that I thought the nation was on an irreversible course towards fascism. And now I think we’re there, and i’m wondering if I will be safe even in california.
Mel
@Kay: I’m so sorry. Three great-nieces under 15 that I love dearly. What their mothers and your daughter are feeling right now…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I am looking at this like after Biden was forced to resign his candidacy over a distressingly raspy voice during a debate. I move on with Harris because it was the best thing to do in the situation and now Americans simply can’t vote for woman with harsh giggle I am going to just move on to the next best course of action.
And while it’s disappointing that the SCOTUS will be allowed to continue it’s Charles II cosplay, the way I see it.
1) Trump has one foot in the grave.
2) The Spork Fight has already started with his team because Trump is a chaos goblin.
3) I suspect from conversations I have had with younger men that a lot of Trump’s support is 80s nostalgia, and Trump is Mr 80s. Yes, as bizarre as it sounds for us who lived through the 80s it’s become the Golden Age. Vance doesn’t have that.
4) If Trump checks out for good, Vance clearly doesn’t have the affections of the MAGA.
Aussie Sheila
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It wouldn’t but as you can see from your own experience, it sounds ‘logical’ but is completely nonsensical from every angle. A perfect recipe for reactionary resurgence.
In fact reduced migration will mean even more shortages in the construction industry.
But yannow.
Rose Judson
@mali muso:
This.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Suzanne:
….Jesus Christ. And what happens if other countries don’t want to accept them?
frog
@Chief Oshkosh:
Do what he can to extract all the spies the USA knows about. Send out most important secret stuff to I5 partners with instructions to not give it back.
Juju
@Rusty: And that’s what terrifies me. I like my right to vote. I love that my niece and nephew can marry who they love. I adore my niece who started out as my nephew. I have nieces and nephews who don’t want children now because it may be too dangerous. I feel like I will never be able to not worry again. I just don’t understand the hate.
Suzanne
@Yarrow: Nah. I think this cycle was unwinnable.
There’s no policy solutions for what is making people mad (high cost of living, women not fucking them), so they swung the other way.
Quinerly
@RinaX:
Same here in New Mexico…he ran up his numbers here.
Again, I am hearing from MSNBC (Jim Messina) about all the Hispanics breaking for Trump. He used the words “getting our butts kicked.”
Trump gained with EVERY demographic except college women.
Yarrow
@Citizen Alan: The US going in this direction will upend the world order. The post-WWII order is over. Everything will change. Nowhere will be safe, especially given climate change. California is probably as good as anywhere.
Rose Judson
Incidentally, any other UK-based jackals work for a company that might want a marketing contractor to write stuff for them? Trying to diversify my portfolio outside of the US so I can afford to get an immigration lawyer and get my parents over here.
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): This plan has Trump-level logistics planning. I’m sure he thinks he’ll just make a yuge beautiful deal.
Yarrow
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They’ll be sent back to whatever country they came from. It’s not like they’ll be sent to random countries. But even so, they left for a reason and their home countries may not be safe for them.
Maxim
@frog: Good point about the spies. Trump will sell them out in a New York minute, with apologies to New York. Get them all out, and give Ukraine as many weapons as possible.
Juju
@Quinerly: There’s a part of me that would like to think that even the Republicans aren’t stupid enough to go along with something like that.
Ramona
@TBone: Attagirl! I stand by to follow your lead!
Juju
@Quinerly: And that man seriously looks like he needs a flea dip.
Citizen Alan
@Juju: The republicans are evil cowards. There is nothing they will not “go along with.”
Noskilz
This is all so terribly disappointing on so many levels.
A solid candidate didn’t matter; a solid campaign didn’t matter; an opponent who careened from indictments to convictions to weekly if not almost daily scandals didn’t matter; women’s rights and preventable deaths didn’t matter; incredible racism directed at major categories of voters didn’t matter; an impressive economy didn’t matter; student loan relief didn’t matter – etc,,,
It seemed like everyone did their best and had a sound plan that was well-executed against someone who is a cartoonish monster. However too many people just decided cartoonish monsters are what they want to be ruled by, and the world will be a needlessly worse place because of their foolishness.
Best of luck to everyone with whatever lies ahead. I’d usually try to imagine what went wrong, but I had been feeling really good about our prospects up until this evening, so I clearly have no idea what motivates the voting public.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OK, another counterfactual: what the I/P conflict had never happened?
Betty Cracker
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That’s what the camps are for — to house the people rounded up for deportation. I wish I was making a sick joke, but that’s Stephen Miller’s plan.
@Noskilz: All of this.
Juju
@Kay: And then they won’t get credit for it again.
GregB
The plutocrats want it all. Now’s their chance.
Quinerly
@Citizen Alan:
Trump has a mandate. Popular vote is breaking for him. The majority of this country want him. Trump made gains with women voters.
“Democracy under threat concerns”…..1/2 went for Trump and 1/2 went for Harris.
Beyond my comprehension
Yarrow
@Juju: The responsible Republicans have left the building. Who’s going to stop them?
Splitting Image
@Suzanne:
“Aryanization”. Arisierung in the original German.
Tazj
@Splitting Image: Vance. My gawd. I can’t forget how many men on social media were tripping over themselves to praise the way he conducted himself in the VP debate. The other day he called Harris trash. This the guy they wanted. The one who kept on lying about immigrants even when confronted with the truth. Nice, wonderful man that hates women.
Quinerly
@Juju: mmaybe he got a dip in prison….before he was allowed to “teach” in prison.
I read somewhere he was teaching some sort of classes while in the pokey.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Man, I wonder if Omnes knows what’s going on or if he’s asleep? This is even more horrifying than a narrow EC loss. I can’t help but think he kept insisting this would be like 2020 and the blue wall would come through for us
ETA: I’m worried I’m probably gonna flip out on somebody at work tomorrow
Fair Economist
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t think the I/P conflict made enough of a difference. It looks like we lose by about 2%.
cain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
And we will still try to fix it because we have empathy. We have our people who need our help and support.
We will not allow ourselves to turn into Iran.
Eolirin
@Kay: There won’t be another election that’ll matter.
Suzanne
I dunno. I don’t really have the energy for Resist shit. I’m going to focus my energies on my family and keeping them safe and healthy. If others decided they are willing to blow up the world order because they’ve got big mad….. sure, fine, enjoy that.
patrick II
My take is Putin won his bet. Russia has also corrupted elections in Georgia and tried in Moldovia which they only lost 51-49. Putin has found you don’t need aircraft carriers or other weapons, just good propaganda and corrupt politicians willing to trade demonary for power.
RinaX
@Juju: Who’s going to stop him? Seriously, who? Remember all the “statesman” surrounding him when he first took office? What good were they? He’s now going to listen to people like Elon and RFK.
No one is going to save us.
Suzanne
Volodymyr Zelenskyy just congratulated Trump on Xhitter and now I really want to barf.
Barbara
@Suzanne: Even that would have required Biden to back out much earlier. Not sure where we go from here. It just feels like people are voting an unattainable fantasy. Also, men hate women.
I think I am going to retire. I no longer enjoy the daily fight.
cain
@Kay:
And we will create our safe spaces .. but we don’t need to invite the assholes.
It’s the healthcare, social security and what not that we have tried so hard to protect.
We voted to self immolate.
But hopefully it will be up to the Republicans to figure it out. They get a pass every time.
Juju
@Quinerly: I think it’s the one two punch of racism and sexism, or misogyny. I don’t understand it either. I haven’t seen as good a candidate since Obama. People are not willing to trust women unless they are in nurturing rolls. That’s all optionI got. The only other thing I can think of is that some people are just plain horrible.
RinaX
@Suzanne: Resist shit is futile. No marches, t-shirts, or pussy hats this time around. Honestly, we have to wait for the world to blow up and exploit it with no scruples.
NotoriousJRT
@SiubhanDuinne: I just feel tense like at any moment I will shatter like frozen glass doused with boiling water that will leavie just smithereens. I guess we will just have to fight the coming battles as they come as best we can. I’ve never considered belief in the devil until now. I don’t see how Trump gets elected this time without turning over his soul to some prince of darkness.
frog
@Yarrow:
Trump has promised to send them back by the millions. There is no guarantee that all those countries will take them back.
After all, Venezuela emptied their prisons and asylums, going to some effort to sneak those thousands into the USA. THEY at least won’t want them back. //
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Fair Economist:
And that’s the scary thing and is mind-boggling to me: that even if the high inflation coming out of the pandemic or the I/P conflict hadn’t have happened, we still might be here in this exact position. It’s incredible to me that states we won well just two years ago shifted so drastically
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker:
I will probably regret this and be pilloried for what I am typing….I am very angry about the strong Hispanic vote for Trump…right now I don’t care if some of these voters suffer when they realize what they have done to their family members by helping elect Trump.
Juju
@Betty Cracker: That’s the case, and you are right, he will, unless there is person who can talk him out of it.
dkinPa
@SiubhanDuinne: In the meantime, numb and coldly furious is marginally better than the physical nausea I had a couple of hours ago.
Agree. I’m feeling that, too. Will try to keep that feeling as long as I can.
me
Remember when polling showed people wanted a younger candidate? What a bunch of bullshit that was.
Gloria DryGarden
@Suzanne: couldn’t he hav3 waited until bites are all counted?
Eolirin
@Yarrow: We’ll have to see how long that stays the case.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Then there’s always the final solution.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Quinerly:
I don’t want to see anybody hurt, but it’s a fucking stab in the back. They’re useful idiots who believe the leopard won’t eat their face.
I want to scream at them and tell them they’ve fucked me and mine over
Quinerly
@Juju:
This country has changed dramatically since Obama. Maybe we need to ponder whether Obama could beat Trump in 2024. Maybe Biden only won in 2020 because of Covid Times.
Fair Economist
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think the fundamental problem is that people are disconnected from truth. Half the population thinks we’re in a recession, most think crime is increasing, etc. The Republicans lie and exploit that freely. Plus they have billionaires to do it surreptitiously. We don’t. I’m not sure if we can, even.
Juju
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Apparently all the immigrants are buying all the good houses.
Citizen Alan
And far too many women hate themselves.
Suzanne
@RinaX:
Co-signed. I’m not really willing to help those who won’t step up for me or my kids. Sounds nasty, and it is, but it’s true.
Latino voters in Texas appear to have swung to Cruz by 35 points. Okay. Enjoy that.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Eolirin:
That what I was alluding to and was afraid of.
Frankly, I’m a white guy and not in any immediate danger like others would be, aside from the economy tanking, but I wonder how far they will go? I’m not married or dating any woman. I suppose I could be punished for that with higher taxes or some stupid shit like that.
Fair Economist
@Gloria DryGarden: No, Zelensky’s job is the welfare of Ukraine and its citizens. Now that it’s very likely Trump will win, he has to butter him up because Ukraine needs US assistance.
mali muso
@Fair Economist: I think this is really fundamental. There is no “truth” anymore, just a firehouse of disinformation and propaganda. Add in the ability to fine-tune the message based on the demographic. It’s really hard to imagine how we get out of this doom loop. Not saying it’s impossible, but we haven’t caught up to the power of the technology as quickly as the bad guys have managed to exploit it for evil.
HeleninEire
@ascap_scab: This. The shock is wearing off and I am beginning to formulate a plan.
Personally I have many options, but I have family members who I am responsible for who do not.
Splitting Image
@Gloria DryGarden:
He’s facing his country’s defeat in a war and his own possible execution once U.S. aid runs out. If he has to suck up to you-know-who to save his country, he’ll do it.
Eolirin
@frog: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that they aren’t going to round up US citizens en masse as part of that.
There won’t be another country of origin to send a bunch of people to. They’ll just accumulate in camps and slowly die, until they make the decision to make people die more quickly.
SWMBO
@Rusty: As I have said in the past, they will revisit and uphold Dredd before it’s over. They want to go back to the fabulous fifties. The 1850s.
Quinerly
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You are a nice person. Me…probably not so much….at least sometimes. I really would like to see certain voting blocks to suffer for their Trump votes….their suffering at a minimum will send a message. This includes White women in NY and NJ who flipped this time to vote Trump. And, yes, there seems to be quite a few of them too.
MazeDancer
Kindness will be hard.
There is nothing greater than kindness. But it feels like kindness died tonight.
America is gone. Truth is kaput.
Maybe big countries always end up valuing money and power over truth and kindness. The best countries are small. Scandinavian countries, for example.
Canada is about it for big countries. But they have a Rotten Right, too.
Not sure what will happen. But coalescing around money and power, history has shown, leads no where good.
But that is what Trumpers will do now.
I will try to choose kindness. Even if it is hard.
NotoriousJRT
@Kay: AND no food if they follow through on mass deportations – unless they harvest it themselves I guess. That might be tough sledding for those in ny age cohort. I doubt they allow scooters out in the fields.
Quinerly
@Suzanne: I’m with you on this.
Yarrow
You can’t reason with this stuff:
And some later posts in the thread:
Juju
@Citizen Alan: You are probably right but one can hope. I don’t know that I feel safe here anymore, given that I am a childless dog woman and I have no value. My only hope is that I may get a better treatment because I don’t have cats.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: Agreed. If I see Muslims in Michigan protesting what’s happening in Gaza my inclination will be to point and laugh. Most likely I’ll shrug. What did they think would happen?
Fair Economist
@mali muso: The weird thing is “do your own research”, the clarion call of the conspiracy nutcases, is the way out. But they don’t know how to actually do it. What they actually do is just massive confirmation bias, plus be vulnerable to manipulation.
In my more pessimistic moments, I wonder if this is the “great filter”, the reason we see no interstellar civilizations even though our (admittedly poor) estimate of Drake equation parameters indicate there should be plenty. Maybe this is what happens to intelligent species once they get computers – they just fall into delusional rabbit holes.
BellyCat
JFC…. This fucking timeline.
That is all.
Juju
@Noskilz: What you said, 100%.
Lily
1980 solicited foreign enemy to hurt opponent
2000 staged riot. egregious cheating
2004 used war, false alarms, cover up in effort to win
2016 solicited foreign influence
—when have they won without illegal tactics or assisted deception/cheating
Barbara
@Citizen Alan: That’s an inadequate response. But whatever, fundamentally, they now get to fix their own problems. My only goal for the next two years is to try to preserve fundamental rights. I am done engaging with every chaotic impulse that’s going to be on display in the coming weeks. I am not going to spend valuable energy “resisting” every latest Trump outrage.
Yarrow
@Lily: But there are no consequences for doing it. Why would they not just keep doing it?
BellyCat
FTFY
Fair Economist
@Yarrow:
Only the most casual familiarity with the way Trump ruthlessly cheats his business partners would tell you this won’t happen. Trump will delight in stripping away their green cards, and the Xtianists will demand it.
Juju
@Yarrow: I don’t know. It was just the thought of a tired distraught woman. Also, if you ever do find yourself potentially living under a bridge or overpass, you can stay with me. I have a spare rooms.
Yarrow
@Juju: Thank you. I theoretically have a spare room at the moment, although it’s not usable. But if the economy collapses I don’t think most of us will have the houses we have now.
columbusqueen
I really don’t know if I can bear this or survive the next 4 years. If Trump’s neonazi administration starts encouraging people to turn in those guilty of wrongthink, I’m cooked. My Trumper FIL hates my guts & will believe he’s doing Mike a favor by getting rid of the older liberal wife with health problems so a younger meek wife can be lined up.
Juju
@Quinerly: The art of layering clothing!
cain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
That’s the thing.. the people who decided to go to Trump is across all racial lines.
Fair Economist
@BellyCat: What’s interesting about the modern world is that religious belief is collapsing – including among the supposedly religious, who are becoming surprisingly clueless about their own doctrines. The morass of attractive YouTube nonsense is driving it out.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Fair Economist: I read the Home Depot reddit, it is mostly HD employees. I do not know how many times I’ve heard folk say we are in a recession, complain about sky high inflation, and make comments about these uncertain economic times. So if you think the economy is in the shitter, why wouldn’t you vote for the out party?
Eolirin
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: They’re about to find out what a bad economy really feels like, only they won’t get to vote for the out party.
Juju
@RinaX: I was thinking house and senate Republicans, but you probably right.
LadySuzy
@Anon. Numbers Guy: The vast majority of people who don’t vote are people who don’t pay attention to news, to politics. They don’t have a damn clue. Many of their frustrations may be legitimate, but they don’t get that they are going to be screwed even more by the GOP policies.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@cain:
Black women too?
NotoriousJRT
@Gin & Tonic: this breaks my heart. I am old, too, and have a short bucket list. One item on it was visiting a free, independent, and at peace Ukraine. If I get there, it will be no thanks to us (U.S.).
cain
@Yarrow:
And anybody else weeping about Palestinians.
Trump never hid what he wanted to do.
They rationalized it to themselves.
Lily
@Yarrow: They do. Who knows what all.
me
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Things were much worse in 2022. Gas prices were double what they are now yet the Dems did decently. Misogyny is the thing which fits the evidence imo.
sanjeevs
@Fair Economist: Even the very religious engage with their place of worship once a week usually.
They engage with their favorite social media sites multiple times a day.
Barbara
@Yarrow: Yeah, this is an obvious example of how voting will have consequences. I deplore what’s going to happen but it is what it is. Honestly, I expect most of the online pro-Palestinian activity to vanish.
frog
@Eolirin:
I was thinking that quite a while ago. My son is a half-half anchor baby poisoning the blood of America. But I didn’t want to put out doom porn.
Juju
@Suzanne: That poor man. I hope Biden gives the go ahead for the missiles anywhere they want.
cain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): black women are the only safe bet we have. We can’t depend on any one else.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I feel guilty to feel fortunate that I’m living in Europe. I want to come home, but…
Trump’s America is not my home.
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: I’ve watched a similar scenario play out here in Florida for a while now. There’s an emerging multiracial coalition in favor of fascism in Florida. I hoped it was just a Florida problem, but evidently not.
It’s not just the majority of Cuban American voters who lean right — and who voted for DeSantis for governor at higher rates than white people. It’s a growing plurality of other Latino groups, including Venezuelan Americans, right-winger voters of Colombian descent and even voters who fled here after Hurricane Maria wrecked Puerto Rico and Trump treated them like shit. Lots of them love Rick Scott and Donald Trump.
There has been plenty of historical support for right-wing strongmen in Latin America, so it’s not surprising those sentiments persist.
That said, it’s important to be mad at the right people, i.e., the ones who voted for this shit, not the entire demographic, which isn’t a monolith. I know YOU know that and am not suggesting you implied otherwise.
But in general, justifiable anger can make people lash out indiscriminately, which isn’t justified. If we’re to regroup and push back, we can’t do that without making things worse.
Barbara
@Quinerly: As I said to my husband, I can’t be required to care for people more than they care for themselves.
Juju
@Quinerly: I don’t think I’ll feel as much sympathy when their family and friends are hauled away off because the powers that be decided to nullify birthright citizenship. I probably have another lightening bolt headed my way for that comment, but I’m angry and somewhat scared.
Fair Economist
@Barbara:
Most of it is IMO false flag, so, yeah. I doubt there will be any Palestinians left in Gaza by 2028 so next time around it will be moot.
Juju
@Quinerly: I don’t know. You might be right.
Enplaned
Joseph Buchanan Biden.
He had one job. It’s right in the oath of office: Protect and Defend the Constitution…
So, does he go after Trump for his obvious crimes? No, because he instinctively hates the idea of prosecuting a former president. Biden wants to be that president who lives in a Washington where Senators from opposite parties go to the same parties thrown by Washington hostesses and yuck it up. He doesn’t want to be a former president who might also be prosecuted. The fact that the institution is in mortal danger – oh well.
He throws gasoline on the inflation fire. He drip feeds Ukraine. Whatever his plan for Ukraine it needed to be done by election day 2024. Between Ukraine and Israel US foreign policy is in tatters. Poor Ukraine. They’re almost certainly toast (unless Europe finds its gonads, and that’s not a bet anyone would take) and it’s Biden’s fault.
And he’s so damn full of himself he runs a second time. It was obvious from the start he’d be lucky to be a one-term president.
Kamala’s biggest mistake was not quickly drawing a bright line between herself and Biden. She was unable to articulate the difference. She needed to wrap herself in change, tell people why things will be *DIFFERENT* and never stop talking about it.
But it’s mostly Biden’s fault. Joseph Buchanan Biden.
People talk about his ability to legislate. But the average American neither knows nor cares about Biden’s ability to pull legislative strings. And those who do – well, that legacy is now toast. Trump will tear it down and then some. Extolling Biden’s Washington moves is like extolling the Weimar Republic for its artistic achievements without noting the way that the Weimar Republic ended. No one will give a fuck about Biden’s legislation, because he’ll always be the guy who turned the country back over to Trump. This time it may be permanent. I’m sure he’s a very nice person, but Joseph Buchanan Biden failed to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and we’re all fucked because of it.
Jesus. The Democrats keep making this easy for Trump. First Hillary, then Biden. Could not have selected two people who played harder into the underlying corrosive narrative that’s helping to destroy the country, that nothing matters, nothing changes, the establishment always arranges things to its own benefit so what the heck. It’s not so much that this creates Trump supporters, but that it creates people who just DGAF, who sit things out, because they don’t think it matters anyway.
Up until a few months ago I thought of him as Joseph Chernenko Biden, but now he’s definitely Joseph Buchanan Biden.
Quinerly
@Barbara:
I am totally at that point.
Unfortunately a lot of people are going to suffer to right this ship if it can be righted. Lots of collateral damage to lots of innocents.
This country is broken. A majority is pro cruelty, pro dictator.
danielx
Those who voted for him are going to get what they were told they were going to get if not exactly what they wanted, and may they have much joy of it.
Too many thoughts to go to sleep this night, but one is overriding all others: the country I loved is dead and gone and only awaiting autopsy. When that’s over, the orange beast is going to do a jig in the entrails.
Tim C.
@lowtechcyclist: This is exactly it. The GOP is no longer a rich-person’s party with a flat-Earth electorate. They have lost the thread and many more are coming along into fantasy land.
And we will all suffer for it before this is over.
This time around, I really am going to be more selfish. Did you do the right thing in 2024? You are my ally and friend and I will help you. Did you vote for the shit stain? Whelp. Sucks to be you.
Unanswered things we will learn:
How much deficit spending will the GOP Congress allow in the next two years?
How much of the economy will tank in how fast a time? Refusing to pay debt interest? Trade wars? Significant inflation from massive increases in deficit spending?
Most of Trump’s promises are expensive ones and will be a drain on the economy even if they were free.
I don’t know, I’m rambling at the moment, though oddly this time around there’s a clarity and calmness to it I didn’t have in 16 or in 20 even. I’ve dreaded this for so long, in a way it’s a relief the matter is settled. The voters have made a choice and now they and the world will have to live with it.
The Audacity of Krope
Id like to thank Adam Schiff and Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown and Nancy Pelosi. None of this would have been possible without you.
Jager
@Splitting Image: I’ve noticed that all of the ’60s and 70s bungalows in SoCal selling for close to a million bucks are being snapped up by illegals.
NotMax
@Fair Economist
Gotta link it once more
;)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Audacity of Krope:
Biden wasn’t going to win either, even if those you name hadn’t have acted
The Audacity of Krope
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Then we would have lost way more honorably. Also you can’t know that.
He had a wonderful record to run on and the last fucking thing we needed was a pageant of no confidence after the primaries were over.
Everyone who wanted Biden to not be President anymore, you got exactly what you wanted tonight.
Bart
I just don’t understand why for instance in Florida 55%+ of people vote for progressive ballot initiatives, and yet 60% vote for Republicans who are blocking those things. Who are the people who vote for abortion protection and for Republicans?
Mai Naem mobile
@Quinerly: over the past few years I’ve dealt with a lot of Hispanics who are trumpers. There’s some Mexican Americans but more central Americsns. In general they seem to be members of evangelical churches although I’m not sure its all about religion. I think they like the law and order strongmen type. They also don’t understand the US government system.
YY_Sima Qian
A few comments from Van Jackson:
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Bart: As you may have gathered from my previous comment upthread, I work retail and you learn after the first week, that people are really fucking stupid.
NotMax
@Tim C.
He’ll run America like a business.
Enron.
//
Quinerly
@The Audacity of Krope:
A wise woman once said to you….”Fuck You.”
The Audacity of Krope
@Quinerly: Go fuck yourself, bro. You’re definitely one of the people who earned a Trump Presidency.
Ramona
@Bart: Dumbasses! That’s who! Although The New Republic anticipated this months ago. Can’t remember the name of the article though, something like People will vote yes for abortion referenda and for Trump.
The Thin Black Duke
@The Audacity of Krope: Not for nothing, but you’re being an asshole, dude.
Mai Naem mobile
@The Audacity of Krope: don’t forget George Clooney. The political instincts of the people who didn’t want Biden to drop out were right. I feel bad for Joe Biden. I hope he pardons Hunter. I honestly don’t care how unethical doing that is. I feel bad for Kamala Harris because I feel this country failed her. She ran a perfect campaign.
Eolirin
@YY_Sima Qian: I’m not so sure it’ll work out for China, since we still have the means to engage in conventional war with them and a lack of restraint on the part of our soon to be leaders.
The rest of the world ain’t even begun to see violent and self serving.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Audacity of Krope:
I recall, even in late ’23, around Thanksgiving, Biden sounded incredibly rough on a Thanksgiving Parade call on TV. I remember being unnerved and surprised, but chocked it up to him having a cold or something. There was a clear physical decline and everyone eventually saw it. He never got much better after that debate, if I’m being honest.
Fair Economist
It’s pretty silly to blame this on the candidate choice. Harris was great. This is because of more fundamental factors – media bias, the death of truth, and whatever the heck is going on with Hispanics.
The Audacity of Krope
@The Thin Black Duke: Democrats’ weakness just doomed human civilization. Yeah, I’m gonna be.
Eolirin
@The Audacity of Krope: Republican malfeasance just doomed human civilization.
It is not the victim’s fault for not stopping the abuser. It’s the abuser’s fault for committing the abuse.
Lynn Dee
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Good point. That’s probably true.
The Audacity of Krope
@Eolirin: A little from column A, a little from column B.
The Thin Black Duke
@Fair Economist: Guys don’t mind bending the knee if it means they get to show those uppity bitches who’s the boss.
Stephen
@Yarrow: A couple of months, at the outside. But I doubt he’ll go without a lot of drama.
Ramona
Trump is close in the current count to winning the presidency but the counting is not yet done. A car crash in Michigan had a bunch of canisters of ballots falling on the roadside. The driver was unhurt or not hurt badly. Election workers gathered the ballots and delivered them. Something else delayed counting in Michigan. AP has yet to call the race and I am glad that Harris has yet to concede.
It is indeed horrible that so much of the voters have swung towards the authoritarian but for now there is a sliver of hope that she pulls 270 in the electoral college. This would mean that Republicans would join in the push to eliminate the electoral college.
Surely we can learn to modulate our reactions to places in between exultation and despair for just a few more hours?
Eolirin
I don’t see any reason why Trump would be deposed when he can just be proped up.
Vance will be running things either way. And then he gets to make sure only he can be elected as the next President because he gets to oversee the certification process.
Eolirin
@Ramona: Trump only needs Alaska, which he is going to get.
Harris does not have a path to 270 without PA.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
What’s the TBogg threshold again? 300 comments?
The Thin Black Duke
Good job.
Eolirin
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I thought it was 500, but I could be wrong.
Lapassionara
@Fair Economist: This. Harris ran a great campaign. The electorate blames the current administration for inflation and thinks for some reason that Trump can fix that problem. They will be in for a nasty surprise.
My main worry has been the Supreme Court. Now Trump will get to name the replacements for Thomas and Alito, when they retire, and the Court will drift further to the right. The Federalist Society won’t be satisfied until all of the legal underpinnings of the New Deal are found to be unconstitutional. This won’t be a country with a promising future for ordinary people.
YY_Sima Qian
@Eolirin: Why do you think the PRC has been rapidly boosting its nuclear arsenal? Trump himself is too much of a coward, & JD Vance is just an opportunistic grifter, but some of the people in the new administration (Mike Pompeo, Robert O’Brien, etc.) actually want to fight a war w/ the PRC, sooner better than later.
In terms of conventional warfare, the US no longer enjoys an edge w/in the 1st Island Chain, the advantage w/in the 2nd Island Chain has been substantially eroded.
However, high intensity warfare between nuclear powers are unprecedented, so who knows whether it will go nuclear. There will be no winners coming out of that fight.
Eolirin
@Lapassionara: I’m not actually worried about that. We needed to do court reform before, because Alito and Thomas weren’t so close to being gone that we could have put it off without everything major we tried to do being overturned.
If there’s young replacements for Thomas she Alito, and we’re ever allowed to actually get back into power, we still need to do court reform.
It’s not a harder lift. It doesn’t really change our circumstances.
But also it’s way down the list of concerns now. How do we ever get these guys out of power ever again is now the most pressing concern, because we can’t do anything else at all if we can’t answer that.
The Audacity of Krope
@The Thin Black Duke: Like seriously, I don’t have words for what sick fucks the people banging on that drum were.
Cruel, hateful, shallow cynics; the lot of them.
Ksmiami
@Suzanne: I’m with you there. Just imagine you’re a Roman citizen in AD 475 now retreating to a small refuge near Assisi – the walls are inward facing for protection. Oh and everyone get vaccinated etc because RFK will kill everyone.
Yarrow
@Mai Naem mobile:
One of the intended effects of gutting public education and government/civics classes in particular. People don’t understand how government works so they go with who seems like a strong leader.
greenergood
@rk: Not only will the US never elect a Black woman; I’m convinced the US will never elect a woman, ANY woman, even a fascist-type woman, as long as there’s a male alternative candidate.
matt
prayers for Ukraine.
Ksmiami
@Lapassionara: when enough people are starving and angry, shit changes fast.
Yarrow
@Ksmiami:
I was just thinking I should probably get all the boosters for things like measles and whooping cough and anything else I can now. Who knows if they’ll even be available next year.
matt
@The Audacity of Krope: can we just stop with this motherfucking shit for one motherfucking day?
FelonyGovt
I’m frankly worried about my Social Security and Medicare. And I’m done with politics and with “resistance”. I’m going to do my best to take care of my family, my friends and myself, and I will watch as the awful people in this country get exactly what they just voted for.
Eolirin
@Ksmiami: I’m not so sure. I think they mostly just die when that happens.
The Audacity of Krope
@matt: I stopped for months. Now the fruit is being harvested. Let’s eat.
NotMax
@Bruce K in ATH-GR
500.
A Good Woman
I went to bed with the expectation of a tight race. I woke up about 2 hours ago to this.
I am numb and there is a cold fury brewing.
K-Mo
Welp. Time to review the playbook.
https://www.carnegie.org/our-work/article/twenty-lessons-fighting-tyranny/
Splitting Image
@Mai Naem mobile:
As an ardent defender of Biden staying in, neither group of people had the right instincts in that fight.
Two groups of Democrats were very frightened by very real possibilities. One group was frightened by what they saw as Biden’s inability to campaign properly while also running the country. The other group was frightened by what they saw as the risk of chaos if Biden were to drop out at that late point.
Both groups were right to be afraid, but both groups made the mistake of believing that one path had a better chance of winning than the other. The handover went as smoothly as it possibly could have and Harris did as much as was humanly possible to win. Both parties seem to have entered Election Day believing that Harris was going to win.
She didn’t. There is no reason to believe that Biden would have been able to turn things around either. And a mini-primary would have led to chaos for sure. If Biden had stepped down two years ago, the primary winner would have had to either embrace Biden’s record, and been anchored with it the way Harris was, or run away from it, as Al Gore did in 2000.
I don’t see a path to victory here, or anything that looks likelier than any other.
I don’t know how I feel about that, but that’s the way it is.
MagdaInBlack
@A Good Woman: I just got up to this and I’m still in the barfing phase.
The Thin Black Duke
@The Audacity of Krope: Are you typing this with one hand, dude? You’re really enjoying yourself.
matt
@The Audacity of Krope: ok, here you go: fuck your fruit and fuck you
Fair Economist
I don’t think we should give up on resistance and resistance events. That’s a critical part of how we build a movement to take Congress back in 2026, which we really will need to do.
The Audacity of Krope
@The Thin Black Duke: No I’m fucking pissed. Y’all trying to run a campaign on “protecting democracy” and throwing out election results that suddenly didn’t look helpful because you had the power to.
Democrats did what Republicans failed at. Corrupt assholes.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Splitting Image: The 21st-century GOP spent the last twenty years stacking the deck against us. Really the last fifty years, going back to Watergate.
The last time a world power fell under the thrall of fascism, it took a global war to overcome them, and an entire generation turned to worm food.
I am less angry at the people who wanted to defeat Trump but disagreed on how, than I am at the people who supported and enabled this turn to fascism. As far as I’m concerned, every self-professed Republican will have to answer for what comes next.
Lapassionara
@Eolirin: I’m thinking we get them out of power the same way we did in 2008, after Bush’s incompetence and the tanking of the economy made the Republican Party electoral poison, for that election cycle at least. Of course, we need a strong candidate, and we need to start working on that issue now.
The Audacity of Krope
@Lapassionara: Wait? We’re gonna keep having elections?
The Thin Black Duke
Eolirin
@Lapassionara: That only worked because W didn’t orchestrate a coup to keep Obama from being certified as the victor of the election.
The next Jan 6th won’t fail.
Elections are no longer a solution.
MagdaInBlack
@Lapassionara: If I believed it was just 4 years and then another free and fair election, I wouldn’t be so sick right now. I’ll need to see it happen.
Splitting Image
@MagdaInBlack:
Trump may be able to do so much damage in the first two years alone that the Republicans will be happy to have free and fair elections in time for the Democrats to take over and start getting blamed for everything again. Just like old times.
I know this isn’t exactly optimism, but it’s all I’ve got at the moment.
MagdaInBlack
@Splitting Image: I’m still struggling with the nausea, but thank you
Eta: and I’m pretty damned pissed off at the number of Stein and RFKjr votes I see.
Ramona
@Eolirin: yes, you are right. Let’s hope we flip the House. That will go a long way towards keeping the ACA.
Mousebumples
Not reading most of the comments, but just poking my head up to say fuck, we are a racist and misogynistic country. Even Harris does end up winning (eg premature call of something? I’m not tracking races super close)… Fuck.
I might go MIA for a stretch as a mental health break. And maybe work to cure some ballots in whatever states still allow ballot curing.
danielx
@Lapassionara:
This isn’t 2008, and Trump and Vance aren’t Bush and Cheney, and these guys don’t intend to cede power peacefully – ever.
I’m an old fuck now and I doubt I’ll live to see change for the better in my lifetime, and certainly not without a lot of evil, ugliness and bloodshed beforehand. And yeah, that is a cause for despair.
Chris Johnson
@Ramona: What with the crowd sizes I don’t buy this morning’s news. It’s sketchy, and we knew Trump’s people were going to declare victory no matter what, and some of us have been real noisy about how big chunks of the media are Trump’s people.
I was up at 3 and insisted on watching a video podcast, like I do before bedtime, in the belief that whatever awaited wasn’t worth me jumping up and running to see. And sure enough…
Lapassionara
@MagdaInBlack: I don’t think Trump will last the next four years. He is showing signs of dementia now, and we may well have President Vance sooner than we think. Trump is the person with the cult following. I don’t think there will be the ardent support for Vance there has been for Trump. In any event, elections are run by states, not by the Federal government. So our job is to focus on our state and local governments, to do what we can to keep the fascists out of power there. We need Ben Wikler types in every state.
columbusqueen
@matt: Thank you.
p.a.
Went to bed 9:30 EST, maybe got an hour of sleep. Toss, turn, but stayed in bed and didn’t check the results. I’m a natural pessimist, woke up, and yep, ugh.
Can’t say I’ve lost faith in my fellow citizens because like BillinGlendale I once worked with the public. Never had faith in them.
ETA: I thought she had a shot, but as a woman of color, let’s just say, knowing the people I’m related to and grew up with and around, I’m not that surprised.
TBone
@Ramona: 😍
https://newrepublic.com/article/179389/trump-second-term-resistance-lessons
I’ve been donating to the ACLU for a long while. Since Dubya. They made contingency plans too.
I don’t yet know where the fight will officially begin but I’m looking.
columbusqueen
@The Audacity of Krope: This shit is not helpful for those of us scared about staying alive. Shut up & go sit in the corner.
MagdaInBlack
@Lapassionara: Agree, I dont think trump will last 4 years. But it isn’t just him, its all his people and the fukn Project 2024 crap.
I’m trying to look forward tho, thank you. 🌻
Linda Binda
Hi, all.
I’ve been lurking here and I’ve posted a few times, off and on since 2004. And…
I don’t know what to do. I keep feeling stupid things like maybe I shouldn’t have restarted ingesting Nicorette again (I was trying to quit) to deal with my chronic intestinal parasite problem that just won’t go away with any drugs — maybe I’m being punished for not having faith? I haven’t had a full-time job since 2016; I tried to work for UPS in October 2021, but I got fired for “being too nervous” — because I was dumb enough to tell my new supervisors that I have an anxiety disorder which was why I was laid off from the Post Office for disability. I can’t qualify for Social Security because the people who assess for it here in Georgia (sorry, I tried — I think most of us black voters tried) keep saying that I’m not disabled enough. I waited too long because I let my mom tell me I’m too young to apply for it, but I can’t get apply for disability retirement from the Post Office anymore. I’m afraid to look for work because I keep feeling like no one will hire me anywhere, and my elderly mom who’s dealing with cancer keeps telling me I’m not trying hard enough, that I need to go back to church (I’m an atheist — she’s a Christian), and she keeps telling me to do nursing, which I don’t want to do — I’m studying English. I also know that I very likely have ADHD and autism and I was never diagnosed for either as a kid. I also have glaucoma and I have to take the latanaprost my mom gets from her eye doctor that she doesn’t want to use because I don’t have health insurance. I can’t finish college right now, which I’ve already been struggling to do since I graduated from high school back in 2002, because I need new glasses (I’m 40 and I need bifocals) and I can’t focus on anything. I was hoping against hope, and I feel misled and lied to by everyone: the pollsters, the “Hopium,” that stupid Iowa poll. I’m sad and I can’t make myself sleep. Even the Animal Crossing mobile game I was playing since 2021 is shutting down at the end of the month. I was getting excited for the new Monster Hunter Wilds coming out in February, my birth month, but I’m not so excited now. I was even hoping that I wouldn’t have to renew my driver’s license (and best part! My car is not safe to drive, and I can’t get it fixed! :) ) with HIM being the president AGAIN. This really sucks.
Sorry to dump all of this on you, but I’m starting to feel like my life is not going anywhere: everyone I grew up with, even the girls I babysat, they’re moving on and getting husbands and kids and I just have my mom and my brothers and the house I grew up in. I’m probably pre-menopausal, too, but I tried to see a doctor for it and I got left with two collection debts for probably the pap smear they gave me. I’m also a little wary of my IRL male friends — maybe they went for Trump since they’re gamers, and at least, despite their being employed, two of them still live in their mom’s house because, hah, we’re millennials and we’re unlucky. I feel like a burden, I feel like my life won’t improve from here, that carrying on is pointless. I can’t even get healthcare — every time I try to do it through the ACA website, I run into stupid prompts to apply for Georgia’s Peachcare which I never qualify for and I see plans go for like $300/month (no medicare expansion in my state — yay!)…. This really sucks.
I need help, and I don’t know where to get it, and I feel like this is probably my worst year, yet. I don’t know what to do. Sorry for the dump, but ..
Lapassionara
@danielx: the Constitution says their term will end at noon on January 20, 2029. I think that’s the date. At any rate, at that point, they no longer have the power of the executive branch.
Can I imagine a scenario where they try to suspend the constitution and just keep on going? Yes, but it sees far fetched even to my pessimistic brain. And if that were possible, then why wouldn’t Biden just do that now? After all, there is plenty of evidence that Putin interfered in this election and also we know for a fact that Trump is a risk to our national security. If ever there was an argument for taking extraordinary measures, it is now.
Ramona
@Chris Johnson: by crowd sizes, do you mean turnout? Eolorin rightly pointed out that with Trump at 267 all he needs are Alaska’s 3 to win so Presidency might be game over. I don’t know whether any states in the 267 are iffy.
sab
Well, looking on the bright side, at least Ohio won’t have JD Vance as one of our senators come January.
TBone
I am glad I celebrated all day yesterday – now I’m all plumped up like a babushka and ready to fight the hordes with my energy reserves stored as fat. I’m not fat, I’m prepared.
Betty
@Quinerly: Which leaves Vance and the Heritage Foundation in charge. It happened here.
Edited for typo.
MagdaInBlack
Oh yay. Even better. Republicans took the Senate, so CNN tells me. oh yay 😐
Lapassionara
@Linda Binda: I’m so sorry you feel so down. You say you’re an atheist, but most good churches will minister to everyone, even those who have no faith. See if you can find a sympathetic minister to talk to about your feelings of hopelessness. And look for a lawyer who will help you apply for Social Security Disability. You have a family and a place to live, so that is a start.
Ohio Mom
@HeleninEire: I know, your sister with DD (developmental disability). Who is dependent on the social safety net that may very well be about to be shredded. And whom no other country wants.
Our county disabilities board had a levy up yesterday. I am very worried about it.
Linda Binda
@Lapassionara: Thank you for your kindness, and sorry for what the youth nowadays would call a “trauma dump.” I’ll look into seeing if getting a lawyer is possible. As far as faith goes, my mother raised us (kinda) as Seventh-Day Adventists. It’s hard to try to go back to that mindset of worshipping and thinking there’s some invisible divine being out there who cares, but at this rate, thinking there’s a heaven for good people when things get this dire and catastrophic sounds a little appealing. Thank you.
I wish I could say that the W. Bush years were bad, too, so we could endure this, but I don’t know. It just seems like, no matter what, this country hates women. I really wish this guy didn’t get a second term. Maybe the divine being will save us? Heh.
Thanks, in any case.
O. Felix Culpa
@Quinerly: While I am unhappy about the Hispanic swing towards Trump–which they may end up regretting deeply–his core constituency remains white men, followed by white women. They are primarily responsible for electing him not once, but two times. I don’t know what we do about them, do you?
The Audacity of Krope
Yeah, I’m in that group. I already had to go through the existential terror in July.
So now for our periodic reminder that appeasement only empowers the Hitlers of the world.
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa:
I have no answers.
He surpassed GWB #s with Hispanic voters. No gains with Black male voters. Gains with White women with no college education.
.
Ohio Mom
@Linda Binda: Find an adult autism support group, preferably in person, or if that isn’t possible, on-line. There is solace in community.
Ohio Mom
@Lapassionara: Lawyers who do Social Security claims usually work on contingency (if that is the right word). If you win your case, they take a cut, else you owe them nothing. So your advice about looking for a lawyer isn’t far-fetched at all.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Safe travels, Kay.
Linda Binda
@Ohio Mom: Thank you. I’ll look into it :). Better than just feeling hopeless, right? I don’t know how people deal with disappointment on this level and resolve to carry onto another day. I usually just go depressed and hide away in my room for several years, but I can’t keep doing that — I’m not getting any younger..
Anyway
@TBone: Prepared for more online scrolling and posting?
Mel
@Linda Binda: I hear every word you are saying, and I an so sorry for not only what you are going through, but what you have been through.
Church/ “god” does not have to be the place you seek support, unless you want it to be. What happened to you is NOT your doing, nor it is a judgment in any way.
I am also disabled. I am every bit as flawed and imperfect as every other person, but tried all my life to be a decent human being. I worked with kids, and then with adults, who had big life challenges. I helped my aging parents, paid my bills on time, helped out my neighbors, tried to be a good friend.
Just like you, I worked hard, did my best to be a good person, and quietly lived my life. If it helps to know, I taught and did counseling at two religious schools, differ denominations. My family was substantially Quaker, with Methodists, a couple of Buddhists, a few Jewish immigrants, a couple of Wiccans and some Catholics and in the mix. None of that shielded me from becoming ill, but it also didn’t stop many of the religious people in my life from looking for ways to try to blame me for or justify it when I became ill. “God gives you what you deserve” was said to me by a woman whose child was disabled as a tiny baby by a severe illness (I was experiencing daily 102 fevers, brain hypoperfusion, and severe autoimmune vasculitis when she decided to drop that bomb on me, so… how Christian of her!”)
When I asked her if that meant that her little girl “deserved” also to be ill and in pain for life, her response was open-mouthed silence. Because, you see, there is no way for zealots to answer that. Their blame -placing comes, I think largely from one of two places.
Some are decent people, but cannot equate the fact of a good person who they love becoming ill with the “only this religion protects you and makes you special” messaging that their religious leaders hammer into their brains to try to ensure compliance.
Acknowledging that their faith relies on a whole lot of smoke and mirrors and magical thinking is terrifying for them, especially if they are older or were “raised in” their faith.
Alternatively, to acknowledge the fact that bad things happen to good people means acknowledging that their religion cannot protect THEM from bad things either, and that is truly a terrifying concept for someone whose whole life has been focused around their religion. It is easier for many people, even ones who aren’t bad at the core, to point the finger rather than look in the mirror and question their lifelong conditioning. The sad part is that it causes additional pain for the other person, who is already going through something that is so very difficult.
Some others are not-so-good people who enjoy the opportunity to blame others under the guise of righteousness.
Please know this: it is untrue that your disability is caused by not going to church. It is untrue that mine was caused by not going to church, or by going to or working with people from “the wrong church”, just as it is untrue that that sweet, wonderful little girl was ever going to be “protected” by being made to attend church. We are simply three of the millions of people who ended up battling a disability through no fault of our own.
Please consider reaching out to any local university to see if they have free or sliding fee scale counseling provided by advanced degree students. If they don’t, they might be able to refer you to good local counselors or counseling organizations who do. There might also be community facing counseling services through your county or township. I know it feels exhausting to make those calls, especially right now, but you matter, and you deserve to have support and to be heard.
My heart hurts for you. You are a good person, and you are amazingly strong for getting through what you have been going through. In the midst of it all, you are still a loving, caring person concerned about the people in your life.
You matter. You belong. Please don’t give up.
Mel
@Ohio Mom: This is a great idea!
TBone
@Anyway: preparing with hubby’s Black ex-military buddy, ya fukn jabroni 😆 making sure the connections are there and ready to go at a moment’s notice! Keeping in touch with IRL people who know what to do when necessary, ya know?