Hey, who else is up and around after 4-5 hours of melatonin-induced sleep, interrupted by various household pets coming in demanding food and to be let out because they are oblivious to what happened last night.
I’m typing this up Wednesday morning, (because no matter that we’re on the verge of America’s experiment with democracy coming to a crashing halt, we need the #content), with the AP having called the Presidential race for Donald Trump, a 34-time felon, a person twice found civilly liable for sexual assault, and a man responsible for a violent coup attempt four years ago.
On the plus side, we likely don’t have to worry about a violent coup this time around. Not like the Democrats could organize a united effort like that even if they were inclined to.
The GOP also grabbed control of the Senate. I don’t know about the House. The Democrats might have taken that back, they also might not have. Frankly I’m not inclined to look it up right now. I can’t do anything about it anyway.
I am fortunate enough to live in Deep Blue Connecticut, and for that matter one of the bluer towns in this fine state.
The right-winger running to represent me in the State House lost by a mere 66%. It looks like the State Senate candidate will win as well, even though she kind of sucks. She and the GOP candidate, (who really does suck), are currently separated by 400 votes, but it doesn’t look like the UConn student vote has been counted yet, and that is not going to go Republican. Fingers crossed, I guess.
Connecticut sent a Democrat back to the Senate, (this one in his 50’s, which is like a toddler in that group), and all 5 Democratic representatives back. And we voted for Harris by, last I saw, 8%+.
In short, Connecticut did its part.
The country, however, largely did not. Why is that?
We all have our guesses: Kamala Harris simply isn’t a very good candidate. Joe Biden should never have run for more than one-term, and his unwillingness to step down until an absolutely disastrous debate performance forced the issue hamstrung the Democrats and resulted in the aforementioned not-very-good candidate being declared the candidate. Harris started out with a bang, then squandered that by listening to the usual consultants who brought you successful candidates like Hilary Clinton, ignored her base and swung to the right to try to get Republicans, who already have their own party.
All of those are fine ideas. Some might even be true. But I think the overriding reason is simply this: This is what we are as a country right now. Looking at things in the best possible light we as a country are, at least a noticeable majority anyway, willing to overlook a dangerously flawed individual and put him in power because it might mean a few more bucks in the paycheck. In the worst possible light, and sadly I think this is at least as much the case, a majority of us voted for Trump and the GOP because he gives them permission to be their worst selves.
So what now? I can only speak for myself, and I’m not going to commit to anything in a moment of anger and frustration, but I think I’m going to pull way back. I think I’m pretty much done with things at the national level. America is simply not where I am right now, I don’t like it, it doesn’t affect me, (again, straight, white, male), and I’m tired of banging my head into things just for shit like this to happen because Connecticut has 7 electoral votes and more people than both Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana combined, but there’s 12 electoral votes in those four states, so fuck me.
I’ll still vote, but I’m not getting emotionally invested in the results. I’m going to focus my time, energy, and money very locally. Town and state, local charities, things that directly affect me and mine. I’m also going to cut way back on social media.
That and really rooting that a certain someone has a massive heart attack in the very, very, very near future.
Your reactions in the comments.
This is what I just don’t understand: Trump had 3M fewer votes than 2020, but Harris had 15M fewer! And this was spread out across the board: sex, race, and age. I know kicking Biden to the curb left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths, but it caused a 20% (not getting out the calculator) drop? I dunno.
Yeah, the part of my brain trying to make sense of it wonders about shenanigans, but the sad angry brain (most of it today) says we just suck that bad.
Misogyny and racism is a powerful one-two punch.
I don’t think it was racism and misogyny. I did NOT want to vote for Harris. She had a bad record in LA and she was anointed, not voted for. That pissed me off. I still voted, but I could see how many people would decide to just not vote.
When these are our options, what’s the point?
That whole ‘anointed’ argument has always seemed pretty silly to me. As long as they go through the process to get a candidate on the ballot parties can pick that candidate however they want.
Voting for party candidates in primaries is relatively new and I’m NPP anyway (yes I know I can request whichever primary ballot I want in CA) so there’s no reason to expect parties to take my opinion into account in what is essentially an internal party process.
The real problem here is the 2 party system. We need all that fundraising, organizing, and admin support to actually run a reasonable presidential campaign nowadays, but the price for all that apparati is getting boxed in as far as candidate choice and policy positions
Anointed in the sense that she was picked in the back room of the Democratic Party Headquarters. None of the other candidates that went through the primary process had a shot after they decided Biden was out.
Right, but that’s the party’s prerogative. Candidates were picked that way all the time back in the day, it’s basically the definition of a contested convention
It’s also what the electoral college was originally meant to be, though now we’ve just turned it into a weighted popularity contest
You’re right but that still left a bad taste in people’s mouths. And I think that led to voter apathy. If one’s vote in the primary was meaningless (btw, I’m independent, so I don’t care about primaries but that’s besides the point), why should one bother to vote in the general?
No Party Preference ftw!
(either acronym meaning works here)
I viewed Biden dropping out almost like him having died after the nomination had already happened – the normal process was for the VP to take the spot on the top of the ticket. And from the way everyone coalesced around Harris I assumed the grumbling about her being “anointed” was driven primarily by the right wing for the purpose of sowing dissent. It looks like I was wrong, though.
What else were they gonna do? The debate was in, what, June? There isn’t time to get the gang back together and run a bunch of primaries. The best they could have done was have a bunch of speeches at the convention, then have every delegation vote, and that would have been a total smoky room decision.
The real villain on this particular issue is that Biden wouldn’t step down after one term. And don’t get me started on the gerontocracy running this country because I will not shut up about that and I suspect everyone’s heard quite enough from me already.
The name Marianne Williamson was never spoken after the debate. Neither was Dean Phillips.
Those were the only two people that got votes besides Biden in the primaries.
It was like they didn’t exist.
Uncommitted got quite a few delegates but they weren’t acknowledged at all
Well, he tends to have a temper when he’s drunk. Oh wait. Uncommitted!
Until Biden had his debate disaster, the only talk about Harris among Democratic leadership was how to get rid of her. She was considered a liability. Then Biden has to back out and suddenly Harris is presented as some kind of messiah, and that didn’t fool anyone except people who wanted to believe it.
EXACTLY!
The more you keep blaming misogyny & racism the less you will understand why Trump won, and therefore you’ll never fix the real problem. Trump was very beatable; look how close it was. Trump didn’t beat them as much as the Democrats lost this election. There was no surprise here.
No one has ever changed their minds on who to vote for because someone called them a racist or a misogynist. I don’t know why we even mention it. Everyone knows.
Squandered enthusiasm from convention by staying quiet for 3 months , then used last month to tie to grabbing Republicans like Chaney. Couldnt/wouldnt allowed to distance self from Biden or even Trump by this strategy. Sen dems even losing outperformed this across the board except for the sunken place of Florida.
Oh, there’s a liberal Q bloc forming the is screaming about 20 million stolen ballots. They seem like fun people that we should all pay deep attention to.
Harris was simply not a great motivator and she did nothing to separate what her policies would be from the policies of a deeply unpopular incumbent, an incumbent who for whatever it might have been worth, did almost nothing to help her.
Although to be fair, (Letterkenny gif goes HERE), I’m not sure he’s physically up to it these days even if he wanted to. Haven’t see much of old Joe lately, and for all I know he’s dead.
He got pushed out. I’m sure he’s cackling and rolling a blunt right now.
I’ve got $50 says he doesn’t even know what happened.
But if he does know I’ll go double or nothing that you’re right about the cackling. Not the blunt thought; he’s a teetotaler and his shitty son ruined any chance of him coming out hard for legalizing marijuana, which would have helped.
Work operating system giving me a hard time like I’m not looking for the slightest excuse to kick everything to the curb and start playing Fortnite while guzzling Scotch.
(Hourglass Curser appears for one second)
Horatio: “I CAN’T WORK UNDER THESE CONDITIONS!”
READ THE ROOM, CLIPPY!! NOW IS NOT THE TIME!!
Replace Fortnite with Contractors VR or Arizona Sunshine and that’s me.
Reading all this after the last few months has been my biennial reminder that Will Rogers had it about right:
“I’m not a member of any organized political party…. I’m a Democrat.”
Okay, with all due respect to our impending doom. let’s get back to serious business.
Is that a squirrel in a tiny cowboy hat?
“Boy, I hate to be that country!”
Joe B., Washington, DC, reading about last night’s election result
Looks like bad news for the… Ited States of America.
Hey how long do you think it’s going to be before the new administration’s FDA makes rohypnol available over-the-counter? Asking for a friend (who I plan to meet for drinks later).
Isn’t the traffic to Balls from you just awful?
Ever since the war in Ukraine started, I’ve kept a Chrome tab open with updates about what’s happening. I just closed it, because I can no longer bear to watch.
Yeah, it’s gonna be tragic.
I can’t wait for us to pull out of NATO and start arming the Russians
And the Iranians!
Maybe give Kim Jong Un an Iron Dome!
Fuck, this is fucking terrible.
Look, the biggest problem facing the world is that the human population is over 8 billion people, up from 3 billion in the 55 years I’ve been on the planet. That’s simply not supportable, so about 4-5 billion people are gonna have to go.
And if there’s anyone who can make that happen within a few weeks of taking over it’s Donald J. Trump.
There are a few details I need to work out, like making sure I’m not one of the 4-5 billion, but in general we’re on a good path here!
You have made this point before. It is still valid.
Good thing the first worlders can afford the pleasures of Mr Musk’s AI.
I’ll keep making it, too. People think things are bad now, but we’re about two generations away from wars over fresh water making wars over oil look like a school yard slap fight.
You don’t think the Category 7 hypercanes will provide enough rainfall?
Those never land where you need them to.
Mar-A-Lago, for instance.
I’m going to the islands where the billionaires are bringing infrastructure.
First off, I agree with Horatio; Kamala did what she could, but I don’t think it mattered. We got what we wanted. So now we deal with it.
Second, I apologize in my stupid irrational confidence yesterday. I really thought “we’re not THAT dumb and shitty” without taking into account that I know a lot of people, friends and family, in my blue state who ARE that dumb and shitty. So of course there are plenty of those nationwide.
Finally, at least Steve Garvey lost.
My daughter is about to earn her teaching credential and a Masters and will start adulting for real soon. She cried most of the night. I have no idea what to tell her, other than do your best, and while she student-teaches (in a brown-people area), try to be upbeat as possible to those kids whose lives are about to get worse. Thanks in part to their fathers.
Today sucks.
“Thanks to their fathers? How could that be possib —
Oh wait — you said brown part of town; not black part.
Budup CHING.”
– Tony Hinchcliffe
I’m guessing 90% of the moderators for social media sites just noped the hell out after last night.
I wonder if Joe has called George Clooney to congratulate him yet…
Banner
Kamala Harris fell into the same trap Thomas Dewey did in 1948. She was told her opponent was unpopular and all she had to do was speak in platitudes, don’t risk pissing anyone off and you’ll win.
It didn’t work then; it didn’t work now.
I’m willing to give Harris a bit of a break because she was thrown in at the last minute because Biden refused to recognize he wasn’t up to the job; had Biden stayed in the results would have bee even worse.
That said, Harris was not a good candidate, probably made a mistake spending so much time reaching out to Republicans instead of focusing on motivating her base, (something the Democrats seem to do with disturbing regularity), and didn’t do enough to separate herself from Biden, who simply was not popular with the electorate.
And again, I’m not sure any of that matter. We are where we are as a country.
I’m sure enough for both of us – none of that mattered. Any mistakes the Harris campaign made were not the kind of mistakes that cost them the election. Even had Biden stepped aside early and the party had gone through a normal primary process, the results would have been the same as 1968 – a fractured party limping to a drubbing at the polls. Sometimes the tides of history are too great to withstand.
“It’s the misogyny, stupid”
(not calling anyone stupid, just paraphrasing James Carville)
(nervously chuckles; looking around defensively) Yeah, me as well.
I mean, yes, but if it were someone else (other than Whitmer) it would have been some other reason. If it had been Josh Shapiro it would have been Israel/Palestine. If it had been Gavin Newsom it would have been the rest of America’s perception of California as a socialist hellscape. All of these are cover for the unvanquishable perception that Republicans are better for the economy.
Which I do not understand, because anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of history will tell you that they are not, unless you’re in the top 5%.
This is a paraphrase of something I read. I do not recall who wrote it, but it was something like “the greatest accomplishment that Republicans ever had was getting a bunch of people making $700,000 a year to convince a bunch of people making $70,000 that a bunch of people making $40,000 a year are the problem.”
If only Trump’s greatest supporters had been snakes instead of…you know, the other guys, maybe Americans would have actually perceived his movement as dangerous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdf_XdDwc-o
Dude, that’s just history. That’s ALWAYS been the strategy.
That fellow happens to be a former high school two-classes-above-mate of mine (and tennis team teammate) He’s always been a good dude, I hope he isn’t one of the first against the wall in the purge.
My 401K is up! This election result was a good thing!
/I’m sure this will last forever and ever and ever and ever
It’s not an unreasonable expectation; the Trump administration will absolutely sell out every other economic fundamental to make sure that line keeps going up.
If Trump really follows through on his tariff ideas my 401K will have the same worth as my collection of baseball cards.
None.
yeah that and putting social security into crypto NFT scams
Hey I’m sure all the crypto bros donating to Trump and other GOP candidates were doing it purely out of the goodness of their hearts
Really looking forward to the U.S. Treasury being used to bail out bitcoin holders when people finally realize that NOBODY IS GOING TO SPEND AN INTENTIONALLY DEFLATIONARY FUCKING CURRENCY.
Countdown protocol initiated.
Another bright side! I was thinking about our upcoming energy crisis and it reminded me to run the dishwasher during the day!
Really looking forward to climate change denial becoming the official policy of the U.S. government. The upside is that the Confederate states are the ones who are really going to take it on the chin.
Kamala said all along Trump is a threat to the country. I’ll see her as just another lying politician if she certifies this election in the Senate.
Said ceritification (artist’s conception):
I’m out of the country now and the reaction in the UK so far has been shock and pity. Personally, I’m going to do my best to repress my feelings and then eventually decide if I want to channel them into democracy reform (eg gerrymandering, campaign finance, etc) or just say fuck you all and spend as much time on the road as possible.
And bad teeth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrpUSKE9p_M
I’m going with a more selfish version of Horatio’s philosophy. I’m going to join the majority of Americans in the attitude of “fuck you, I got mine.”
I’m not going to follow the news of Trump hiring the worst possible people in his administration. Fuck you, I got mine, doesn’t affect me. When Trump orders the DOJ to dismiss the cases against him, and the courts order a stay of all state court proceedings, I’ll shrug. Fuck you, I got mine, doesn’t affect me. When Trump’s DOJ opens investigations of Hunter and Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Jack Smith, Adam Schiff, and whoever else they’re pissed off at, I’ll shrug. That’s a shame, but fuck you, I got mine, doesn’t affect me.
I’m going to keep my head down, save for retirement, and get the fuck out of this shithole country of nasty people.
Come to Hawaii!
I’m just adjusting my financial planning, I don’t wanna get stuck in the underclass when hyperinflation hits
Any ideas? I should talk to my financial person but the pittance I put into my Roth and life insurance isn’t going to do it. I do have an amout in terms of keeping my powder dry, a lot of it was in terms of getting to August where my car insurance would finally start to drop.
I’m gonna try to make money off the initial boost, then gradually move some money into TIPS or I-bonds. Also might look at foreign bonds middle of next year, and options hedges.
Short term, contemplating taking out a personal loan to invest for the next 6 months
TIPS stands for treasury inflation protected securities btw, I bonds are similar
Pay attention, people. This is how you afford a secret volcano lair.
Which in itself is an excellent investment, because it can provide tremendous returns in the form of serving as a secure base while holding distant cities for ransom.
Not to mention the free geothermal power!
And sugar!!
ELI MANNING: And adding an extra level of versimilitude* to the game of…
OLIVIA MANNING: ELISHA NELSON MANNING YOU GET DOWN FROM THERE IMMEDIATELY!
*one of last week’s vocabulary words
And if you’re expecting an inflationary economy it makes sense to borrow/spend now both because prices will go up and because the interest rate you’re likely to get on a loan won’t keep up with inflation so you repay less in real terms.
Also keep in mind that this is not without risk, especially borrowing to invest
Yeah, I’m moving up the time line on the new furnace we need and likely paying off the home equity line of credit before the interest rates shoot up.
Eh, I wouldn’t be surprised if he politicizes the Fed first, but hey, what do I know? None of us know anything!
It’s definitely on his list, though hard to know timelines
The timeline is pretty straightforward: it’ll happen as soon as he needs a scapegoat for something that has gone wrong.
Going to start accepting applications to rent out my spare bedroom.
Hit me up if you’re interested and what you bring to the table.
Minor nobility and knowledge of Yinzerness?
yes, but how many kids?
The 911 stories you and Mrs GTD can share would be crazy
Booze?
I tried that last time. It didn’t work so well.
I have some small experience brewing beer, which I believe gives me an edge over Sharkbait because eventually his supply will run out. Pick me, pick me!
“You got a futon?”
-48
Too soon
My take:
There’s quite a body of academic research on taste-based discrimination vs statistical discrimination.
Taste-based discrimination is discriminating because you gain utility from the discrimination itself, i.e. you enjoy hurting people in groups you don’t like
Statistical discrimination is discriminating because you think it’s advantageous to do so. Pricing groceries higher in minority neighborhoods is an example, people do this because they know it’s a grocery desert and people will pay more rather than because they want to hurt the people in those neighborhoods.
While there’s some of both, empirically there is way more statistical discrimination, and that’s what I’m seeing in the Trump victory.
The only ignorance I’m referring to is economic ignorance. People stupidly believe that they’ll benefit from his policies. Harris made progress on economic issues, but that’s one area where she never polled ahead.
People aren’t ignorant of the fact they’ll be hurting people, and that makes them shitty, but that’s not the main motivator, being stupid about the economy is.
My main motivation in reducing social media is that the majority of people there seem to be motivated by hurting people, or at least taking joy in seeing other people hurt. Mostly trolls I’m sure, but why even bother dealing with them at this point? Does nothing for me other than elevate my blood pressure.
Don’t worry, we’ll repost any decent memes and cat pictures here
From the bits and pieces I’ve read before I too tune out of national politics entirely, Democratic voters simply did not show up. I really can’t quite fathom that level of apathy from women (and sympathetic men) when their right to privacy is at stake (really looking forward to the new administration’s FDA declaring RU-486, the morning after pill, *and* most basic forms of birth control illegal), but I guess I’m about to find out, because a fat lot of good caring about it did for me.
I do wonder if the ACA is finally going to get repealed – that actually will affect me personally. Should that happen – and it probably will – I hope that California creates something to replace it with.
Yes. Fewer Trump voters showed up, and a lot fewer voters showed up for Harris.
ACA will probably get repealed if the House doesn’t go Democratic. The Republican party tried to do it in the last Trump administration, with McCain being the only reason it happened then.
*didn’t happen. I’m running on fumes.
“Hey come on man don’t bogart those fumes. Pass it around!” – Todd Marinovich
.
I’m not super sure on this one, it’s not the big issue it used to be and it’s turned out to be really popular in a lot of red states. I suspect they just quietly never mention it again
Or maybe they just repeal it in blue states.
Ciao tutti
Love it!
Having been born in a third world country, let me try to shed a little light on this. The saying in this country is that “all politics are local”. That’s probably a polite way of saying what I’m going to say: The vast majority of the world runs like the Mafia. As long as everyone gets their cut (“the trains run on time”), everyone goes along and no one cares.
Vegas is a perfect example of this. When the Mafia ran it, everything was cheap, people had fun, and there were no issues. People could win money (but not too much) and go home happy. Now that the Mafia is gone, Vegas is crazy expensive and it’s impossible to win anything.
People in the US are sick and tired of not getting their cut. They are paying higher prices while corporations keep getting record profits and not passing the benefits down to them. All under the same people that are telling them Trump is evil.
No one gives a shit about principles when they’re not getting their piece of the pie.
“They are paying higher prices while corporations keep getting record profits”
And if you try to explain why that’s not due to inflation to the mouth breathers that support Trump you will die of dehydration before even a glimmer of reality sets into their dull eyes.
It’s incredibly simple to deflect and shake a set of shiny keys in front of the electorate.
Come up with a couple of scary sounding buzz words, say it long and loud enough, and boom.
People will forget in four minutes, let alone four years, that getting pissed on and being told it’s life-giving horse tranquilizer is gospel.
My grandma was in Vegas for many years — was dealer when she was younger. She lamented how bad (in the 90’s) the casinos has gotten since the mob left. It used to be clean. It used to be controlled. It was a good time and, best she could tell, she and her friends managed to never cross the mob while enjoying their offerings.
But then Disney came to town and all reason went out the window…..
Massachusetts did it’s thing too. Though for some inexplicable reason, the only statewide ballot initiative that is still too close to call is the one allowing Uber/Lyft drivers to unionize. That blows my mind.
Not as much as at the national level, but you’re extremely right. This is where we’re at right now and I’m at a loss for words.
I genuinely think this country does not want a woman President.
Whether or not that statement is ever actually spoken out loud is a different story, but good ol’ fashioned sexism made a difference.
From the very limited info available, this seems to be a factor. Maybe not the factor, but it played a role.
I’m laughing my ass off that MEXICO has a woman president and the US won’t have one for decades, if ever.
Who is currently trying to undermine the Mexican judicial system.
There appears to be a pattern developing.
Which has always been corrupt, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
I mean, fair.
Brick called it.
Deep Elite Conneticut, you mean….
I’m in the northeast. You want the southwest.
Southwest Connecticut (2029)
We haven’t had any rain since mid-August and it’s going to be 75 today, November 6th.
This picture isn’t far off from becoming reality.