I lived for 8 years under President Ronald Reagan, a shallow, stupid, evil man who wrecked the economy and laughed as gay men, and others, died of AIDS, who made deals with our enemies to get elected, and I said, “at least it can’t get worse than this.”
I lived for 8 years under President George W. Bush, a bumbling incompetent, a spoiled scion of Texan wealth, a man who got us into a wasteful, pointless war with the wrong country and killed over half a million people, and I said, “at least it can’t get worse than this.”
Then I lived for 4 years under President Donald Trump, a narcissistic grifter, a rapist, a racist, a convicted felon, a misogynist, a man who promised to deport 20 million people, a demagogue who threatened vengeance on Americans who opposed him, a senile monster, and we re-elected him.
I am now wise enough to finally say, “It will get much, much worse.” We have the president the American people deserve.
My deepest apologies to the millions who will suffer and die in the near future.
Really never understood why people — especially those outside America — have always failed to realise this. US public relations have always been highly effective, it seems.
Hi, PZ. I’m 72, first voted 52 years ago, in November 1972, right after the constitutional amendment that allowed 18-20-year- olds to vote. (I remember standing with my 18-year-old sister in a long line of excited young people that snaked down for two blocks from Silly Hall, all of us eager to make our voices heard, at long last, while other young people we knew were fighting and dying in Vietnam.) That year, what I wanted to hear from senators, congressmen (very few women), presidents, was: we were wrong. We’re gonna stop this stupid war, gonna bring the soldiers home, make sure they all get the medical care and rehab they deserve for the rest of their lives, and make sure this country never does anything like this again. And we are going to allocate half of the national budget every year to go to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to pay reparations. And we are going to recruit millions of young Americans to go to those places we destroyed to volunteer for reconstruction, til it’s accomplished. And I waited, and I voted, and I waited and I voted, and I demonstrated and I sat in, and I organized unions, and those unions got broken and–well, all of that. It’s now 52 years later–and, nada. I’m old and sick and crippled now. I think I’m justified by saying, “we told you so.” I’m sick of these idiots. They fucking brought it on themselves, by never doing the right thing, not once.
nomaduk@1 The German left wing and right wing have a long tradition of anti-Americanism. Only our conservatives seemed to be fans of the US.
Of course for the right wingers and a depressingly high number of leftists this anti-Americanism translates as support for Putin and other enemies of the US, and our fascist see Trump as a shining example.
I grieve with you. I lived through all the same bad Republicans and a few more, but this is the worst. I find it very hard to go on,
Biden needs to use the power SCOTUS gave him without restraint and with extreme prejucide to stop Trump.
This election ..is one helluva argument against Democracy especially in a nation with a population as horribly disinfomed, guillible, easily duped and willfully ignorant and .. as the USA.
I’m so appalled, disgusted and horrified;
How the fuck could Americans vote for the criminal, rapist, racist who tried to destroy Democracy in his Jan 6th Coup?
Two things. First, Republicans didn’t give up when they got their asses kicked — they adapted and came roaring back. If they can do it, so can we. And second, Virginia elects a governor next year; and after that there’s midterms.
So grieve, rest, and then start to regroup. Because for many of us, leaving the US isn’t an option. And besides, Trump’s victory is bound to embolden whatever fascist movements already exist in whichever countries we’d be fleeing to — so running away won’t necessarily make anyone much safer.
Biden needs to use the power SCOTUS gave him without restraint and with extreme prejudice to stop Trump.
That’s not going to happen. The Dems are going to roll over and let the fascists take over because they won fair and square. Because that’s what the law and constitution say we must do. Because respecting the Process is holy dogma to liberals, even when it means handing over civilization to right-wing thugs.
The people have spoken, and most of them want fascism.
@ 6
They didn’t adapt. They never do. They just came back with the same litany of racist, paranoid, religious claptrap they always do.
There isn’t going to be a comeback. There isn’t going to be another election.
It’s over for us.
Definitely in the denial stage at the moment. The ramifications are very bad for so many people, and I don’t think I could have worked any harder to prevent the billionaire fascists from gaining political power.
Sorrow is the order of the day, and perhaps some vigorous scrubbing and raking to create an illusion of order and beauty.
Fuuuucckkkk!
Eight years ago at least there were the excuses that nobody knew what he would truly be like in office and he lost the popular vote. Four years ago that led to a shellacking at the polls.
The past four years have been that of a generally competent administration (except for their stance of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians), so the fascist has been awarded with not just the electoral college but the popular vote too?!?!
I’m going to be raging for a while. If I manage to calm down, then I’ll decide if I need a passport or an unending line of protests to attend.
The people who voted for Trump won. Honestly I kind of just want to know what the average middle class or poor Trump voter thinks they’ve won now. Last time a lot of them inexplicably thought the guy famous for being rich (although most of that was gifts from daddy and banks lending to him after umpteen bankruptcies – loans he defaulted on so the rest of us paid for) would “drain the swamp.” I notice that was conspiciously absent this time because he obviously didn’t do that in his last 4 years.
“Harris ran on positivity. She ran on inclusivity.” The question of the past 8 years has been, are we civilized people, or beasts? Democrats believed strongly in the former. They campaigned as if we were. It’s an admirable, perhaps morally necessary, thought, especially if you ARE a civilized person to believe in the overall goodness of people. But we now know decisively who is who, and how many. And it turns out, a hell of a lot of people in this country are beasts. Whatever becomes of the constituents of our side, no progress can ever be made without accepting that fact.
Honestly, that surprises me more than the fact that he was reelected. A replay of 2016 was one the scenarios that, in my mind, seemed likely to happen. I guess I was wrong there but not in the way I would’ve hoped.
Anyway, at least my state, Maryland, did the right thing. We voted for the sane, democratic candidate. We sent a Black woman to the senate over a popular two-term white male governor. We also made abortion access a constitutional right in the state.
Here’s a little quote from Cory Booker, from a CNN postmortem:
Booker said he had already warned his own staff about not giving up.
“We need to get up the next morning and forge forward,” Booker said. “I told them how much I don’t like hearing people say, ‘Oh, if so-and-so wins, I’m going to go to Canada. That’s just not our history. We’ve seen really bad outcomes out of bad historical events in our country, and we’re here because of the resiliency, the toughness, the strength of our country — and people even in the worst of times dug in and tried to do the best for our country.”
This election wasn’t even close.
I feel like giving up and finding something else to care about.
Then realize that this isn’t really an option.
I still have to live here and deal with reality whether I like it or not.
Good luck to everyone and hope you all survive the next 4 years.
@Akira MacKenzie:
We can’t have a win by force. Even without digging really deep into the knock-on effects you can easily see that it wouldn’t work. For a couple big reasons.
When the SCOTUS handed out presidential immunity they decided that they would be the ones to decide what was and wasn’t immune. Do you think SCOTUS will be fair and impartial when they adjudicate something like this? I don’t.
Republican extremists who like guns have been quietly muttering into their beer that elections were stolen from them. For years. What do you think they’re going to do if Biden stops Trump from taking office? For all their claims about being great christians I highly doubt they’d just “turn the other cheek.”
In the end it would leave us with lots of justification for a civil war or at the very least a terrible uptick in domestic terrorism. Trump is awful but sometimes… he’s just an old man yelling at clouds. Civil wars or a lot more domestic terrorism are both on a whole other level of bad.
And yes, I realize most of the people who think they’re ready for a civil war are clueless imbeciles who probably wouldn’t do anything. But I think there are enough of them that are just dumb as a post and would push past a point of no return with it.
This isn’t just rhetoric or drama.
The various incompetent GOP regimes have cost me a lot.
.1. The Bush disaster.
Two friends killed in Iraq.
My 401(k) like millions of others, killed in the Great Recession.
It was resurrected during the Obama years. Thanks, Obama.
.2. People I knew were killed by the Covid-19 virus.
Two people close to me are still suffering from Long Covid syndromes. They will lose years of lifespan because of this.
How much will the Trump II regime cost me, the USA, and the world?
It is anyone’s guess right now, but it will definitely cost a lot.
Good luck all.
I am going to do what I can to help other people in power mitigate the damage Trump will cause.
StevoR @5: Misogyny.
It will be harder but a nation can still be changed under it’s leadership. Bigots are still terrified of wokeness and like the deep rifts, gamergate, and me too the pushback should not end. All that election passion can go other places. Fascism is still ignorant, incompetent, irrational, and illogical. These things can be pressed from many parts of society.
I am not generally cool with violence but at the moment I can’t help wishing for the lumps sudden demise via falling down some stairs or something equally banal. Perhaps an Elvis style undignified death while sitting on his golden toilet?
My partner keeps saying, “I don’t understand” and “Where are the women?” I don’t know what to say to her but my niece, who is just 23, posted a pro-Trump meme on Facebook about him as a “man for God”. I don’t know what to say to her.
I despair.
But to Raging Bee’s point at #6, Heather Cox Richardson wrote the other day about the depths of despair in the nation with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The act effectively overturned the Missouri Compromise and opened the west to the expansion of slavery. Within the next 6 years a new party was formed and its candidate elected to the White House. This spawned a horrible war, of course, but it did finally end of mass slavery.
I despair.
As for midterms… will we get have those? Will they really make a difference? I’m not too confident about that.
And to Akira @ #8, I disagree in part. The GOP did adapt…their strategy. Decades ago they started moving toward controlling state governments. Their strategy has worked. It’s one reason they control so much power.
We’ll see where this goes, of course, and for how long. Trump may die or become incapacitated before the end of his term. Vance is just as much a grifter as Trump, but he’s probably less effective.
America, I know you’re not all like this, but you have no excuse.
You know 100% what Trump is like, you saw him double-down on everything that would normally disqualify or shame people. You saw him lie, and lie, and lie…all driven by racism and pettiness.
And you voted him back. Collectively over half of you decided that THIS is what you believe in. THIS is what represents you.
Well, you got it. We in the world now know 100% that America is NOT the home of the free, NOT the home of the brave, and openly racist and sexist and greedy and tactless. You had a chance to prove us wrong in the easiest election ever…and decided you LIKE the prick that won!
Well congratulations, the first time you can say he snuck in, but this time he CLEARLY DOES represent you. Over half of you for certain and probably another 1/3rd who just voted because the local rep promised you a road or a gay ban or something meaningless.
I for one will lower my expectations appropriately to rock bottom, and encourage all to do the same. Don’t expect civility, decency, or social help. You decided you didn’t want it in the end, but prefer the clown show instead of a decent woman leading you. You wanted the dick…well baby you GOT a dick running things now. Enjoy!
Robert Kennedy for health chief. Laughable until you realise the number of people who are going to die.
I remember father, I told him Joe Biden will be jimmy carter. My dad said
“I liked jimmy carter” we talk for hours and we bout understood he was bad, we dislike Hillary ciilton, we were both understood that’s what happened when you force a candidate. I love my dad, I hate that trump is president, but it was so predictable because of bad politics.
As good a summary of the last 60+ years as I’m likely to read, PZ. My feelings exactly.
I also wish I could have voted for Bernie, and will never forgive Obama and the corporate Dems for maneuvering the 2020 primary in favor of the two least popular (by a long shot) and least fit (in terms of policies) of the major candidates.
@mamba. i’m in minnesota. we held out for Harris.
i can’t disagree with you.
i am ashamed and pissed off so many fellow americans look at trump’s character and think that’s the kind of leader i want.
stupid fucks.
“My deepest apologies to the millions who will suffer and die in the near future.”
We can only hope that the deranged fascist is among the first to go.
This is America.
I have no interest in blaming anyone, but the voters that caused this.
I cannot disagree with mamba, but I would suggest that the internal opposition in this shit weasel nation will need support. Social support if nothing else. The shit weasel nation will need international opposition, even as the shit weasel attitudes try to spread elsewhere. We may need each other.
Data shows that the reason Harris lost is largely because people didn’t vote, just like with Clinton in 16.
Four years ago, the vote was 81 million Biden vs 74 million Trump.
This year, its 65 million Harris, 71 million Trump.
Once again, Democrats have self-sabotaged.
In my previous town, Kalamazoo, the local GOP ran multiple events every single week for women, veterans, college students, small business owners, seniors, etc. They even did this the week after the 2022 election, when they got creamed statewide. That is how you organize for power.
From the Dems: crickets, except for quadrennial vote shaming and obnoxious fund raising. Oh, and the occasional crumb thrown out with great fanfare – e.g., moderate student loan reduction (a fix for the crisis Biden himself largely created as one of the major proponents of the 2005 Bankruptcy bill) – and last-minute bribes, like the drug price caps (which should have been enacted decades ago).
Bribes may get you short-term compliance (although the Dems can’t even manage that), but they’ll never get you respect or long-term loyalty. Quite the opposite.
To be clear, this organizing discipline should come from the top. But the Dems don’t seem to understand or care about local organizing. Obama disbanded the vast organizing structure that got him elected (and that he told to “Hold me accountable”) soon after getting elected. And Hillary Clinton pillaged the so-called Victory Fund – intended to support state organizations – for her losing campaign.
No matter, mission accomplished: they get to retire in comfort while the rest of the country burns.
I’ll continue to fight and protest. But right now, I’m so tired, scared and angry. I knew this reality was possible but didn’t really expect it. I want to curse this country so badly, I’ve lost hope. Yet I will continue. I won’t be affected that much personally (aside from having a disability so I’m not totally out of the woods) but I’m scared for all the groups that are now targets. The only silver lining I see is that that we will regain the resistance we lost by 2020-21 and see a progressive surge again. That’s all we can do now.
Let’s see if she like Al gore or will she be like trumo
I grieve for the world, and I apologised to my children for bringing them into this mess.
The USA have chosen, enough people by their active vote, enough by not caring enough. We’ll all suffer the consequences.
Just to be clear, we’re all shit weasels scraping the ugly parts of history off in this metaphor. I’m still knocking bits off of me. Maybe some day we’ll just be weasels.
mamba # 24
I hate Trump as much as the next person but your diatribe is just silly. No one was coming from the outside to help us regardless and Americans didn’t expect anyone to do so. And if it’s not clear enough already, Americans, even slightly more couth ones like myself, couldn’t care less what people in other countries think.
What you’re seeing now is America and always has been. The most stepped on groups like Black people and Natives have been saying it for centuries. It just fell on deaf ears. Very few Americans above the age of 30 are surprised by this. Saddened sure. Surprised not so much.
We should console each other and hope for better days. Infighting already won’t get us anywhere, that can wait. The lack of turnout was bad but the messaging and campaigning from the Dems was objectively good. It’s clear now that the age of voting for candidates of the same party in succession may be a thing of the past. Voters have become more fickle it seems. I’m just wondering why young and female voters didn’t show up to defend their rights. Has politics just disillusioned that much people now? I feel like Pandora’s Box has been opened. Even if Trump or his lackeys somehow don’t do anything bad, the foundations for even worse candidates are now open (assuming elections will be allowed). I don’t know how I’ll survive these next 4 years. I’m seriously considering moving to Mexico (I have dual citizenship) or joining a movement to have my state secede from the USA. Maybe I’ll come to terms with the disappointment but right now let’s just help each other.
We must grieve for the rest of the world too. Most immediately for the Palestinians (bad as Biden was, Trump will be worse), Lebanese, and Ukrainians. But Trump’s victory means the end of any but the faintest chance of avoiding global climate catastrophe. Civilizational collapse within the lifetimes of many now living has gone from likely to near certainty.
Him and vance need to die, end of fucking story
Was kind of hoping to hear something reassuring from you, but I get it.
BRING ON THE BIRD FLU!!!
Don’t console each other. It was known but no one wanted to to admit it, democrats suck, they push people down your throat. We say this, “no don’t fight” democrats lose because they are losers. Let see if she what happens, do you care or is it politics
I’m not an American, so I can only watch and shake my head.
I have to wonder what goes through the Democratic Party leadership’s heads, or at least their candidates. For example, if I ever had the chance to talk to Hillary Clinton, I’d want to ask her a few questions: “Were you trying to lose the election? DWS basically torpedoes Bernie Sanders chances, gets fired, and then you immediately hire her for your campaign. Did you understand how that looks? Did you offer Sanders to be the chance to be your running mate, and ride on his popularity? When you saw how close the race was between you and Trump, did you not consider bowing out for the country’s sake so that a better candidate could take your place?”
Similarly, if you want to win an election, you have to give people a reason to vote for you, not just to vote against the other guy. Kamala didn’t make any significant statements other than “I’m different from Biden”, without adequately explaining why.
Best of luck…
I really don’t think Sanders would have been a better or more effective candidate than either Clinton in ’16 or Harris in ’24. He’s always had his own baggage and shortcomings, some of which are similar to those of Clinton and Harris. And while he’s okay as a cantankerous old complainer, he’d never be passable as a leader with energy, focus and a plan.
Don’t console each other.
Spoken like a true Republican.
We didn’t elect Trump, we elected JD Vance. Vance will be force-feeding Trump hamburgers and fries from day one.
It appears the violent dishonest barbarians have won the government, hopefully, just for now. We agree with PZ and grieve all the additional needless deaths these repugnantcant tRUMP xtian terrorist cult members will gleefully cause.
We have said it before but, SOCIETY IS MOSTLY A FAILURE. The success of the drooling ignorant masses and the violent tRUMP xtian terrorist cult members prove that. We plan to continue our long standing community benefit activities. However, we will be much more selective in who we help to prevent aiding and abetting the many evil chaotic elements in our society.
We voted against tRUMP and the vancehole, but we knew what a poor candidate the corporate democrats chose in harris. Tim Walz is much better in all respects than she is.
Raging Bee – you must have forgotten the vast diverse crowds Sanders attracted, also the fact that he won over a Fox News crowd, won every county in WV, won the Latinos in NV, etc.
Also how are the “energy, focus, and plans” of your centrist candidates working out?
No one has brought this up, but what happens to same-sex marriages?
Good question.
That is mostly a state issue, not a Federal issue.
Probably not much.
It was the old Supreme court that legalized gay marriage in all 50 states.
It’s possible that some of the Red states might prohibit same sex marriages again. Just because they are mean and vicious haters.
Who cares any more though?
The reason why gay marriage succeeded is because it doesn’t really affect any one else. If the couple down the block are same sex, so what? Nothing to do with you.
The margins in multiple states are so close, I suspect there may be some automatic recounts once they tabulate all the votes. I’m too disheartened to go gather more info on election results at the moment.
What a crazy plot twist if the AP has called it wrong for the first time, and it’s a tie.
As Doc Bill @48 says, you’ve elected JD Vance. Trump will remain as long as he’s useful as a figurehead but if he becomes too troublesome, he will be dealt with through either the 25th amendment or the 14th amendment.
So many people will suffer and die because of this in the US and abroad. I’m in Canada so will not be the worst impacted but we’re definitely in the splash zone. I also wonder if that will help Poilievre or not. The best thing would be for Trudeau to go now but that won’t happen.
It is time for the autopsy on the election.
The gender gap still exists.
” A 10-point advantage for the Democratic candidate among women (around 54% vs. 44%), but also exactly the same ratio in the opposite direction, in favor of Donald Trump, among men.”
One of the main victims of the GOP are actually not a minority but a majority. Women.
You can be sure that the christofascists of the GOP will persecute and discriminate against women any way they can.
It is what the forced birthers/female slavers do.
@46 I wasn’t proposing Sanders as a candidate for this election. However I have no doubt that he would have won in Hillary’s place. I heard many interviews with people who voted for Trump, because they didn’t like Hillary, but would have voted for Sanders. He was much more popular than Hillary, but he would have shaken things up in the Democratic Party, and they wanted to maintain the status quo.
@43 KathiRick – sadly, yours might be the most accurate prognostication.
Tethys @53: With Harris already conceding the election, does it matter?
I want to say thanks to all the blacks, Latinos and women who voted to eradicate their (and our) future privileges. White men did not disappoint me, I expected this from many of them.
Next, I blame Biden and Garland for this. When I was growing up in the projects in Jersey City we had a street rule. You always kicked the man in the head when he was down. You kicked him hard and often in the head, until you were certain he couldn’t get back up and hurt you, or anyone else. Biden and Garland waited until Trump declared he was running again. It took them two years. They let him get back up. Now many people are going to get hurt.
Lastly, I am quitting caring. Fuck the environment, fuck the Jews, fuck the Gazans, fuck the Ukrainians, fuck the poor and homeless. It is now every man for himself. No more reading the news every day, it doesn’t matter. I will continue to sift through the headlines and read health and science pieces but will severely limit all other intellectual information. No more reading political cartoons (a favorite) because it doesn’t matter anymore. Have a nice day.
garydargan @ # 29: We can only hope that the deranged fascist is among the first to go.
Only if the vice-deranged fascist goes with him. Otherwise, we’ll get a more energetic, calculating, and ambitious deranged fascist.
I’ve suspected since Nixon picked Agnew in ’68 that Republicans usually pick veeps as insurance against impeachment. Not that it matters this time, given Congressional proportions, but this year’s ticket further supports my hypothesis.
…you must have forgotten the vast diverse crowds Sanders attracted…
Obama attracted big crowds too, and so did Harris.
Trump will remain as long as he’s useful as a figurehead but if he becomes too troublesome, he will be dealt with through either the 25th amendment…
No, he won’t be. That would have to start with the VP and a majority of the Cabinet, who will all be Trump loyalists. Why would any of them turn on their sugar-daddy? And if any of them did, the MAGA mob would absolutely freak out and it would be “stop the steal” 2.0 and “hang JD Vance” all over again. They all know this, and none of Trump’s cabinet would dare risk it. In fact, the extremists in Trump’s inner circle would profit from the chaos of a chronically incapacitated president, since they could always appeal to him to veto any (relatively) moderate decisions by any responsible officials. Remember how Iran was “governed” under Khomeini? Yes, it can get that bad or worse.
Nah JD is not gonna go anywhere. You guys still don’t understand that MAGA is a fucking cult and they don’t care about anyone else. They would happily hang JD if Trump demands it. JD also had the charisma of a sack of potatoes so he won’t even win nomination in 4 years. Luckily Trump will fucking die soon too. Someone please put more mayonese in the fucking cheese burgers.
Well, since anti-vaxism is part of the new America, one piece of advice to everyone: Get vaccinated and boosted for anything you can. Get your kids vaccinated for everything possible. On as accelerated schedule as medically possible.
Also stock up on masks, gloves, disinfectant etc.
Because measles, polio, pertussis, and who knows what else is going to be made great again. Idaho already made it illegal for the health department to give COVID shots. It will only get worse.
stuffin @59: It is not ‘blacks, Latinos, and women’. It is people without a college education. Also rural people (with much overlap with the former). Biden actually did a lot to improve rural America economically. Unfortunately he failed to talk about what he was doing.
+2.5C is the current lowest achievable target. But we won’t achieve it.
raven@#53:
Trans issues are the same: what does it really matter to you what pronouns someone else uses or what clothes they wear? And yet for some people it really, really matters. Some people just seem to require that everybody else fit into nice neat boxes so they know who’s above them or below them on the social hierarchy, and they can get really realy twitchy and upset with anybody who straddles boundaries, because it calls their entire worldview into question. These people won’t be happy until everybody who isn’t a manly-man or a girly-girl gets shoved back into the closet. Or dies. They may not be the ones throwing the stones, but they absolutely will be turning a blind eye to it because they don’t like being reminded of anything that is outside their incredibly constrained worldview.
No president, no administration, was ever gonna, nor will in the future, save us from this awakening monster. (insert tired trope about Titanic deck-chair rearrangement here)
Trump won because the American Dream got killed by Reagan 44 years ago, and the Democrats couldn’t be bothered to revive it. Some – Clinton and Biden – actively stuck the knife in and twisted. (pro-business free trade deals and the bankruptcy bill, respectively).
Every election, the party that most effectively promises to fix it gets elected, and then thrown out when they don’t. Now we may never have another free election.
Most working class Americans just wanted a fair economy that will let them work hard and get ahead, and we haven’t had that for 44 years. The Democrats didn’t promise this, they’ve promoted give-aways (debt cancellation, subsidies).
True.
My attitude towards Trans people is the same for the same reason.
Who cares?
It doesn’t affect me at all if someone is Trans.
Trans people are also a lot less common than gay people. It’s 0.5% of the population.
I don’t even know any Trans people.
Every once in a while, I run into someone who might be Trans. Might be. How do you tell anyway, run a chromosome or gamete test?
The last one was a very tall, heavy set guy with a long braid who worked at the local grocery store. Who turned out to be a young woman with a cat. One who simply didn’t fit very well into our current gender stereotypes.
It’s all very irrelevant and I’ve got far more serious things to worry about, like me and my friends surviving the next 4 years.
Already got a call from my disabled friend who just had cancer surgery. She wants to know what will happen to her Social Security and Medicare. Without those two socialist programs, she is literally…dead.
@ 68
And if they had tried to revive it, they would have been called “communists” and “socialists” out to strip those hard working American’s money and give it to the “welfare queens.” Face it, Americans are too fucking greedy and stupid to know what’s best for them.
@61 Raging Bee
Obama was a gifted campaigner who pretty much conned everyone, up to and including the Nobel Committee.
Harris’s crowds were mostly desperate anti-Trumpists. When she ran during the 2020 primary she barely made a dent and wound up withdrawing with a pitiful 844 popular votes–orders of magnitude below any of the other serious candidates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries
All I can say is this: To those who voted for this, roast in the hell you created. My sympathy for you is gone.
Disgust and surprise, a landslide for the idiot I was not expecting.
My sympathies to everyone who voted against the idiot, but the facts are what they are – the idiot even won the popular vote, by at least five million it seems, so this can be said to be America’s will: give us the idiot. And you got it.
Also, I am afraid that while we outside the US are in for a crappy four years, for those inside it will be harder still.
Further, I don’t see the dems coming back from this in the medium term (forget short term), some more fixing and gerrymandering will mean bye-bye fair elections ever again.
Good luck, you will need buckets of it.
@70
Like Elizabeth Warren was. She’s basically a reformist Republican in the mold of Teddy Rooseveldt, calling her a socialist was absurd.
@64 anat: I watched the coverage last night; They kept reporting how large Black and Latino counties in the swing states were breaking for Trump by large margins. Also, they questioned how in Florida women overwhelming voted for abortion but then overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Said it was a that cognitive dissonance stuff. Furthermore, you mention Biden, Biden was not running, it was Harris.
@20. billmcd : StevoR @5: Misogyny.
Yes. Among other things a strong element of vile misogny.
@.52. raven :
The people in those same sex marriages. Their friends and families. A lot of others.
Which is the same for Trans people and for abortion and many other issues really. Who does it affect if someone else can have or has had an abortion? Yet the Repugs and the Christianists seek to control and dominate and interfere and get to decide for everyone else based on their own bigoted, narrow, intolerant hateful worldview.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-07/us-presidential-election-live-updates-kamala-harris-donald-trump/104570424
(Scroll down to section headlined ‘How did women who protested in 2016 vote?’‘
What the actual fuck? With their rights on the line so many women stayed home or voted for Trump? I can’t even.. head-desk.
As a child of the Space Age, my observation is that there’s nothing we can do in the short term. We’ve had decades of infotainment replacing news, alternative facts equivalent to actual facts, a softening of educational standards and the development of an American oligarchy as virulent as the oligarchy that took down the Soviet Union. Once upon a time we set a goal to send a man to the moon and return him safely, and, now, we are unable to wear a mask during a respiratory pandemic. Forget climate change. From their high rise apartments the wealthy will watch the trailer parks float away. Over the next four years the grifters, nay, reavers, will fleece the US Treasury to an extent that will make your head spin, as he said. I do feel a pang of sorrow for all the disenfranchised who will be stomped on, but, hey, America is now MAGAmerica and it sucks to be you.
I figure we shall at least get to see how robust the setup is in the USA, and whether the inbuilt separation of powers and frictions in the system will impede the march to self-sustaining kakistocracy.
FWIW, I reckon it’s pretty robust. But it’s certainly a stress test.
Best wishes.
As Carl Sagan said in Demon-Haunted World (1995):
A more scholarly take from Vlad Vexler: The shock of a second Trump term
He’s sick and speaks slowly anyway; easier to speed it up for me.
But he’s got a take I respect and cred with me.
Steve Shives – Now What? ten minutes in length.
@hillaryrettig1, @Michael the idea that Bernie Sanders would have easily beaten Trump in 2016 is naive. In fact I suspect “He’s a Commie!” would have worked even better than “But her emails!’ Trump would have countered the Steele dossier’s claim that he was compromised by the Russians by pointing to Sanders having his 1988 honeymoon in the Soviet Union.
Had he won the 2020 nomination and won the election we probably would have had the same problem as with Biden, his public performance being used to claim he was too old and unhealthy to run. Because every mistake, every stumble would have been under a microscope.
Michael@45:
Dollar signs.
Jean@54:
Or the 2nd.
Oh, we’re indubitably fucked. Oilievre will get in and turn us into Vichy France 2.0, and this time there won’t even be the Ardennes to slow down the Panzers as they roll across the border. Poutine-eating surrender monkeys, they’ll call us.
Everyone else is fucked, too. Ukraine, Palestine, and Lebanon immediately, and after some suitable Reichstag Fire can be arranged and blamed on some scapegoat black trans Antifa member, 20+ million Americans will be thrown into camps while GEO Group laughs all the way to the bank.
That’s when the fun really starts. Russia, seeing no credible threat to it, will not stop with Ukraine and will quickly move to annex every other non-NATO state in its immediate vicinity (China excepted, of course). Then it will take a cautious bite out of a NATO member, maybe Finland since nobody much will notice as it’s just a chunk of ice in the Arctic and nothing really important, right? Then more and more, until finally perhaps the Brits or the French, in extremis, get up the gumption to use a nuke or three. And then it’s Katie bar the door.
Got any SPF#15000000 sunblock?
And if by some miracle the nukes stay in their silos, we get front-row seats as the ecosystem unravels and the Triassic gets to have a do-over.
But I doubt I’ll be alive to witness the later stages of this. As a disabled non-neurotypical agender commie I’ll be sent to Dr. Kennedy’s lab for vivisection probably before all of the Panzers have even finished crossing the border; and that’s assuming my fast-declining health (thank you Doug Fucking Ford!) doesn’t get me even sooner, which I’d give roughly even odds (and which fate now actually seems preferable).
Thank you, American electorate, for freeing me from worrying about how I’ll get by when I’m forced off ODSP at 65, on which I barely break even month-to-month, to CPP-D which pays maybe half as much! Now I’m going to be ash (probably radioactive ash) long before ageing out of ODSP! It’s a real load off my mind! You fucking goddamned idiots.
raven@55:
Masculinity needs to die in a fire.
And now it will! Too bad the planet’s population, or the vast majority of it, will go up in smoke along with it.
Lousy good-for-nothing gender norm was never anything more or less than a protection racket for extorting sex. Most of the traits considered “masculine” are bad shit — quick resort to violence, suppressing most emotions except for things like anger and hate, ultra-competitiveness and lack of empatyh, etc. — and what were the positives? “Protector” and “provider”? Well, the former is kind of in the very name, “protection racket”, isn’t it, and the latter is a great way to create dependence so as to further entrap the targets of the whole scheme, women.
Raging Bee@61:
Oh, you don’t have to go that far for an example. Remember how the US was “governed” under Reagan?
jenorafeuer@66:
And also who they can consider fuckable without it meaning they’re gay. Don’t forget that; and that most conservatives, having gayed even inadvertently by feeling lust toward someone who turned out to have the same type bits as they do, go into roblock due to the irresolvable conflict between the First Law of Conservabotics and their actions. Oh, wait, if only they did, no, quite often they go on a murder spree and then invoke a gay/trans panic defense to “excuse” their violence. :/ (The other Laws of Conservabotics have similar consequences if violated. For example, violate the Second by getting fired or racking up a giant gambling debt and it’s family annihilator time! What fun!)
You know, I’m coming to think that that whole “there are ingroups the law must protect, but must not bind, and outgroups the law must bind, but must not protect” thing is too complex and … erudite to be how the average rank-and-file conservative actually uses as a bedrock principle. I think most of them subscribe to the much simpler “hate thy neighbor as thyself”. And yes, they all hate themselves. They were raised to believe they were inadequate-by-default and could only, and then only temporarily, achieve non-inadequateness by proving themselves, thus having to prove themselves continually just to not feel bad, after which layer on the Laws of Conservabotics and all manner of other, more sect-dependent requirements. It gives them a kind of “narcissistic personality disorder by proxy”, where the proxy is whatever the designated ingroup is. Under it all is a deep insecurity and self-loathing that resurges every time anything reminds them of any time they failed to be continually proving themselves (which will have been often). And then they “project the shadow” and hate everyone else, most especially whoever inadvertently reminded them of those failures, and certainly any outgroup member who seems to have “risen above their station” … or whose classification seems ambiguous.
StevoR@82:
I think these guys have the most realistic suggestion:
@84 – Bekenstein Bound
My conclusion is Trump’s election and the four years we are about to endure with take this past the tipping point. The critical point of stopping it has been missed.
May not happen exactly the way you put it, but it will be close. It will be the end of freedom (worldwide) as we know it. What people don’t understand is this type of governing needs an enemy to blame. And the rulers don’t want them to understand so they will continue to feed them bullshit information. When they run out of (primary) external targets, they then have to turn to secondary ones. At this point the targets come from within their own faction. Eventually they end up eating their own. This whole premise is based on stoking and keeping people’s fears at maximum levels. Everybody’s fear, hate and anger will be kept at peak levels, and they will be unable to produce clear logical thoughts. What I’m sensing today is we are close to this worldwide.
@59 stuffin
I’m with you. The first Tangerine Palpatine administration was exhausting with all the grifting, self-serving, outright theft allowed and, perhaps, encouraged by a paralyzed judiciary.
I can’t do that again. I plan to relive my student days, avoid the news, ignore commentary and even give up late night comics because all they’ll talk about is what I don’t want to hear. Like Henry Bemis in the Twilight Zone episode, “Time Enough at Last,” I have stacks of books to read and re-read, and shatterproof glasses!
LOL.
I remember that episode even though I haven’t seen it since I was a kid.
I’m with you on stepping back from the world and the news. I give up on the USA.
I read the headlines and do what I can but without a whole lot of emotional investment. And definitely with no expectations that things will get better in the forseeable future. As a Boomer, I’m almost out of time.
I threw out the TV at the start of the Reagan administration and never got another one. Busy with work and life and didn’t pay a lot of attention.
It helped a lot.
Wherever you are, identify decent people, and help them.
when I was a kid in high school I had a day off some holly day (was a catholic school) and got to watch as well as it was covered the confrontation between the US Navy and Russian ships taking guided missiles to Cuba.
I remember the assassination of Medger Evers the first of many to come.
I was reminded of a “hit” song from later “4 dead in Ohio” a few days ago.
wondering if there is not some other Party who might represent my personal ideas better and be not afraid to express them and strive for them maybe some new party a labor socialist green party? The republicans have become the party of the ultra conservative religious and the oligarchs. The dems consistently aim low and fail to stand for the core.
Wednesday I remembered another song that helped me put it in order
I am sad for the few Palestinians that will survive the slaughter that will take place in the coming years. I also hope the Ukrainian people can hold out with what the EU can give them as the American aid will likely dry up come January.
People will suffer and die but that is what people with no power have always done when people with power try to get more.
Patrick:
There’s already been a Palestinian diaspora.
History repeats itself.
The USA is by far the single biggest military and economic donor.
Still: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_aid_to_Ukraine_during_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War
I took 2 days of work, it was so gob smaking aweful.
I learned something though. It doesn’t matter about being riggt about how things should be if you don’t spend time actively convincing the oeople around you.
And its not enough to convince them something is bad. You have to be able to work with them on good alternatives, from their point of view.
#63:
I know it sounds callous, but the anti-vaxx/MAHA movement might actually be a blessing in disguise. Informed people will continue getting vaccines while the anti-vaxxers will have to deal with their choices, just like they did during the COVID pandemic.
…In fact, the contrarians should by all means be encouraged to reject all advances in science and medicine and live as people did in the days of “Little House on the Prairie”. …I say, let ’em forego vaccinations, drink raw milk to their hearts’ content and get their medical advice from TikTok and ignorant politicians instead of qualified professionals. Should we really care at this point?
curbyrdogma, the “contrarians” may have children, or other dependants.
(“Oh, won’t somebody please think of the children!”)
#77:
Because the Trump campaign has been playing a very Darwinian strategy (i.e. pro-fertility, pro-population increase), and Darwinian strategies tend to be quite effective.
…In this case, they harnessed the MommyFear: Brown people will invade your neighborhoods. Crime and danger everywhere. Women who choose career over having kids don’t represent “real women”. Immigrants will eat Rover and Fluffy. Commie liberals will change your little boy into a girl at school. Libraries are “grooming” children if they have a book on the shelf that discusses gender issues. We need religion in schools (see: “Moms for Liberty”). Etc. etc. etc.
#95 John Morales: I know… collateral damage, fewer GQP voters
(Yes, I’m being mean)
It’s not clear what you mean here.
You talk about “biological colonialism”, where one group outbreeds another. Which can be thought of as Darwinian.
Then start talking about cultural issues that have nothing to do with Darwinism and everything to do with installing fear in their base.
Biological colonialism is tried often and rarely works. After a generation or two, the children decide they have better things to do with their money and time than be breeders and drop the whole idea.
My impression from a lot of examples is that large families aren’t all that fun to grow up in.
My friend the ex Catholic came from a family of 6. They were well off but money was always scarce anyway since the parents wanted to send them to private Catholic schools.
Strangely enough, most of them including the parents eventually ended up atheists or Pagans.
The current bad example of humanity is the xian fundie breeder cultists, the Duggars with 19 kids. None of their 19 kids have more than 2 or 3 kids. Several of the kids have broken with their dysfunctional family’s culture.
Ironically, the Trump disaster and the forced birthers/female slavers are probably going to drive our fertility rate down not up.
Right now it is 1.66 children, below replacement of 2.1 children.
.1. My friend is disabled, just had cancer surgery, and lives mostly on Social Security and Medicare. She is upset that the Federal government might try to reduce or eliminate those socialist programs.
We both agree that if we were of child bearing age today, we wouldn’t do it over again. We wouldn’t dare to bring children into this current USA.
It’s not just how dysfunctional it is to elect a monster like Trump.
Everything is harder and costs more than when we were young adults. Especially housing here on the West coast.
High costs, no future = why bother
.2. Ironically, who will be the victims of the female slavers/forced birthers will be the young, poor, and nonwhite. Nonwhite.
One of the major fears driving the GOP vote is the demographic shift from white majority to nonwhite majority.
Which they have just guaranteed will happen faster.
Middle class and above white women know how to deal with an abortion ban. Head for the nearest Blue state.
If it goes nationwide, head for Canada, Mexico, or Europe, do some shopping, and get an abortion.
Leaving the 17 year old Latino woman from a Blue collar family to give birth whether she wants to or not.
It’s already happening that way.
#98: I’m using the term “Darwinian” in a more colloquial sense (sort of like the term, “social Darwinism”). I know actual scientists and students of biology may use more specific terms, but those just don’t sound as punchy.
The basic idea is that they’re trying to (subtly and unsubtly) promote population growth and ensure success of future generations – perhaps so we can better compete with “the Other” populations. …But that’s not just in reference to actual platform agendas. It also refers to their strategic use of ideas (Dawkins’ original 1976 definition of “memes”/”mind viruses” – ideas that compete in the cultural landscape in a similar manner as evolutionary survival strategies).
IIRC the “mind virus” analogy refers to ideas that exploit human psychology, and we have a tendency to favor ideas that appeal to biological needs and drives such as health, safety, reproduction, etc. Use of fear tactics that trigger “protective” feelings in parents would fall in line with that concept.