"A lot of Americans chose to listen to a guy who's loud and angry, often obscene and many times outrageous. But they reason he survived and became a victim during his campaign. So these Americans might think: 'Maybe he's tough enough and will remember me'" - Mike Barnacle, MSNBC Election Night
"Fear and anger won tonight. George Wallace's 19 percent - in 1968 - has now become the majority in this country. I must try now to find words of encouragement for my daughter, who just voted hours ago, and believed a woman of color could be president." - Jeh Johnson, former Homeland Security Secretary, on Morning Joe
"Every person who voted was at least 18 years old, and responsible for their choice as an adult. The vast, vast majority are mentally capable of making their own decisions. It’s not the Democratic Party’s job to convince the American people to not elect a fascist, racist, rapist, felon, insurrectionist security threat to the highest job in the nation. To imply otherwise is simply to infantilize half the nation. Half the country has decided that the rule of law is arbitrary and political, all politicians are crooks and care not a whit that a convicted felon and man found liable for sexual assault will occupy the office of the Presidency of the United States. They do so because they believe profit-seeking propaganda organs and buffoonish confidence men more than public institutions like governments, courts of law, and honest media." NY Times comment
"A majority of us — a very slim majority, but a majority, with votes still being counted — have declared themselves okay with the vulgarity, the explicit racism, the disinformation, the erratic pronouncements, and the talk of suspending the Constitution, imprisoning critics and using the U.S. military to attack Americans who dissent." - Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 'Retreat is not an option'
"We have clarity. We know what America is and what it wants. Unlike 2016, it's not a mistake. It's not a rogue element which took over the GOP. It's communicated, planned, and executed campaign to get Putin style Fascism into the White House. And Americans signed off on it.
Empires decline slowly, and then quickly, and then all at once. And some sort of dictatorship/Fascism always marks the late stage of any declining empire. Accompanied by public circus and bread and wine (crypto and wine in our case).Americans, who overwhelmingly are disinterested in history, are about to live through real teachable history. Something similar to the Roman empire or Argentina of 1930's."- Washington Post commenter
"The notion that that the voters would ultimately reject dishonesty, vitriol, cruelty, childish name-calling, etc. because "that is not who we are" has been debunked. Apparently it is a lot of who "we" are. It was a quaint notion that went the way of "No man is above the law".- NY Times Commenter
"I think that the people we should be blaming are the ones that:
1. refuse to vote for a woman, and specifically a woman of colour
2. those who voted against women having any reproductive rights at all
3. those who voted for a complete madman and criminal
Yes, the democratic party could have gone through the candidate-selecting process better, and the Harris campaign could have run things differently. However, at the end of the day, it is the people that vote. And it is the people who have these hidden biases and misconceptions. From now on, let's focus on getting through the next four years and finding a sufficient nominee for 2028, without blaming a woman who did her utmost best to spare us four more years of Trump! 'Myra'- NY Times Commenter
"Horrendous damage has been done to the USA and to the world by this result. The reputation of the USA has probably never sunk lower. Meanwhile, one rather suspects that Xi Jinping, Orban, Putin are quietly laughing." - UK Commenter on NY Times
From the moment Kamala Harris entered the presidential race, Black women could see the mountaintop. Across the country, they led an outpouring of Democratic elation when the vice president took over the top of the presidential ticket. But underneath their hope and determination was a persistent worry: Was America ready, they asked, to elect a Black woman?
The painful answer arrived this week.
It affirmed the worst of what many Black women believed about their country: that it would rather choose a man who was convicted of 34 felonies, has spewed lies and falsehoods, disparaged women and people of color, and pledged to use the powers of the federal government to punish his political opponents than send a woman of color to the White House.
Waikinya Clanton, the founder of the organizing group Black Women for Kamala said. “America has revealed to us her true self,” she added, “and we have to decide what we do with her from here.”- NY Times, ‘For Black Women America Has Revealed Her True Self’
"Donald Trump won by turning people against each other instead of the real enemies: price gouging corporations, greedy CEOs, polluters, and so on.
He exploited fears among white conservatives toward immigrants by evoking language Adolf Hitler used against Jews during the Holocaust. Like American fascists in the 1930s, Trump even hosted a closing rally at Madison Square Garden where he doubled down on the divisive rhetoric that colored his campaign." - Tracey L. Rogers, Another Whitelash Election, smirkingchimp. com
This sad and sorry country had one chance last night to get it right. To prove its sanity and commitment to democracy and flunked the test miserably, by letting Trump and his cabal of shit suckers back into power. Indeed, even by 9:45 M.T. (11:45 E.T.) a NY Times electoral votes map showed the 'writing on the election' wall with three of the critical (blue wall) swing states leaning Trump: Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. I had become so enraged and disappointed by then I had to leave the family room, going back to proof reading the galley for a new book. It was simply too much to tolerate, and to have to admit (again!) to Janice, that the majority of my country men were a pack of myopic, low IQ morons for whom pocketbook items and an orange Turd's lies trumped protecting democracy. Instead voting back into power a convicted felon, and twice -impeached traitor.
What happened? I could go off here into a raft of diatribes and digressions but will keep it simple and focused:
1- For whatever reason, insufficient suburban women came out to vote for Harris, perhaps put off by certain Harris ads encouraging them to do a stealth vote for her, i.e. not tell hubby, or lie if he asks. Maybe they believed it was too immoral, or an "intimate" betrayal according to a number of Trump ads. Bottom line here: Kamala lost some 15% of the female vote compared to 2020, which I again attribute to too many white women voting for the avowed 'pussy grabber'. Go figure.
2- Too many Hispanic voters turned stupid and failed to see that the cringe-worthy dumping on Puerto Rico - at the Madison Garden Trump rally - was by extension a dumping on them. The same way that Trump's vile castigating of migrants as "vermin" and also planning to "deport millions of immigrants". Do they really believe they're " immune" from deportation because of a card? Think again and look at fascist regimes through history! But no, they feel because they are nice and 'legal' they can afford to vote against their fellows striving to be free, but perhaps doing it the wrong way by crossing the border. Bottom line here: Kamala lost some 25% of the Hispanic vote compared to Biden in 2020.
3- Too many black (and white) males fell for Trump's stupid come -ons and macho B.S. especially in backing off from casting votes for a female presidential candidate. Obviously ignoring actor Sam Elliot's sturdy case in his ad for Kamala:
4- Too many Palestinians in Michigan believed it preferable to either withhold their vote or vote for Trump (who'd already told Bibi Netanyahu to "do whatever he needs to do" to claim Gaza). They clearly never saw, or if they did - didn't take seriously- John Oliver's case for casting a vote for Harris, e.g.
John Oliver Calls On Pro-Palestinian Voters To Support Harris | HuffPost Latest News
5- Too many Americans see nothing wrong in a presidential candidate making vile sexist jokes about women, including calling them bitches, c*nts and whores, as well as threatening violence - such as Trump did with Liz Cheney - calling for "nine rifles" aimed at her face, and threatening Michelle Obama. As I told Janice, it makes one ashamed to call oneself an American now that so many voters have converted us into a Rogue State.
True, there were third party bad actors that helped this debacle along, namely a corrupt Supreme Court. It had the obligation to disqualify the traitor under Section 3 of the 14th amendment, but chose not to - and actually nixed the effort of the Colorado Supreme court to do so. See:
In Watershed Decision Colorado Supreme Court Merits Kudos For Disqualifying A Traitor From Ballot
Then there was the churlish mainstream media often playing the "both sides" false equivalence card. Demanding endless dazzling answers from Kamala about her policies but letting Trump skate by on his lies and unhinged rhetoric. Add to that cynical billionaires, especially the flaky buffoon Elon Musk, who backed Trump. The latter violating federal election law by holding $1m lotteries in Pennsylvania and other swing states.
"Oh, oh...but that's not who we are!"
Nope, it's exactly who "we" are. Especially given Trump - up to now - has also won the popular vote by millions! Having failed the most basic test to opt for civility, decency and moral character over chaos, wretched self-interest, hatred and violence.
So we now will suffer another four years of this misbegotten orange maggot and his grifting, flouting of laws (thanks to the Supremes) and escape from all accountability - especially if Dems lose the House too. All of which will make the previous four years of Trumpdom look like a walk in the park. In a way, I am glad I have metastatic prostate cancer and may not last another two years - even with the (ADT) treatment I'm getting now.
That a people could blindly and willingly vote into power a convicted criminal, and an insurrectionist traitor who already tried to overturn a previous election boggles the sentient mind. It would also have my Revolutionary War ancestors turning over in their graves right about now, wondering what the hell had become of the nascent nation they freed from an English tyrant. Just to have it fall into the maw of a new tyrant.
That they could freely choose a monster who's openly threatened generals, political opponents and regular citizens with executions while mocking fallen soldiers as "losers" and calling migrants "vermin" - offends every fiber of civil decency. And to put this madman in again, knowing his fondness for tyrants like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un - shows these voters who did it are not so much exposing him (whom we know already), but themselves - as utterly worthless dregs- and yes, garbage. Who'd use their votes to empower a new tyrant.
They are no different from the brain-fouled "good Germans" who hurled Hitler into power, and rendered the entire world a hell hole for over a decade.
How did I misfire on my forecast yesterday for a massive Harris win? I simply overestimated the intelligence, decency and patriotism of the typical American voter. I also assumed few Americans would have issues with electing a black female candidate, as opposed to a 34-times convicted felon and insurrectionist traitor.
A people who sacrifice their democracy for expedience, racial hegemony and their pocketbooks, believing an unhinged derelict autocrat will help them, deserve neither liberty nor security. Also forgetting, as MSNBC's Mike Barnacle noted, the series of broken promises from Trump in his earlier term, which he washed away with marketing and the help of his propaganda network FOX.
The consequences of this atrocity won't be over for a long, long time, especially as Trump will now be able to stack the courts (including the Supremes) with whomever he wants. But as historian Jon Meacham put it this morning:
"We now get to see if Trump really meant his words that he will be a dictator on day one and he will go after the enemies within - or if they were simply bluffs, as his GOP allies and many backers have claimed.
Adding: "It's all on them to prove the words were bluffs."
I for one will not be placing any Vegas bets.
See Also:
Opinion | How I am coping with the reality of a Donald Trump presidency - The Washington Post
And:
Opinion | Democrats don’t have a working-class problem. America does. - The Washington Post
Excerpt:
The reductive analysis of working-class voters abandoning
Democrats is particularly maddening because it misses what’s actually happening
to them, which is a crisis much bigger than the temporary fortunes of a
political party. This is less a Democratic problem than an American problem —
but Democrats have a fresh chance to try to fix it.
For nearly a half century, and particularly over the past
two decades, corporate America has plunged workers ever deeper into job and
income insecurity. Employers, benefiting from weakened labor laws and lax
enforcement of those that remain on the books, have been forcing workers into erratic schedules, hiring them as
contractors or temporary or gig workers and stealing their wages. It’s no
coincidence that all this happened while labor union membership, which peaked
at one-third of the workforce, shriveled to the current
10 percent.
With the decline of unions and collective bargaining, pay
has stagnated and pensions have disappeared. Wealth inequality has soared,
earnings have become less dependable, and most workers report that they feel stressed, unappreciated, disconnected
and distrustful of their employers. They are surveilled on the job, sanctioned
for expressing themselves and subjected to dehumanizing workplaces...
The financial collapse of 2008 and the coronavirus pandemic only deepened the insecurity and
misery. Voting patterns, not just this year’s but this century’s, reflect the
discontent and instability. In nine of the last 10 federal elections, one party
or the other has lost control of the White House, Senate or House. Voters,
desperate for a fundamental change, punish the incumbent party and then,
inevitably finding no relief, punish the other party two years later. Politics
has become a depressing game of ping-pong, with no enduring wins.
Even some on the right have begun to argue for a revival of
labor unions and New-Deal-style government intervention to undo the damage of
the past half-century of neoliberalism, the era of the unfettered free-market
that began with President Ronald Reagan.
In the short term, Democrats could change nothing and they’d
still probably do well by default in the 2026 midterms as disenchanted voters
once again punish the incumbent party. President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t have much of a popular mandate:
The latest figures show he got below 50 percent of the popular vote, Harris lost by about
1.6 percentage points and Democrats may have actually gained a seat or two in
the House. And he’s already overreaching with outlandish nominations and
announced plans to start a trade war with Canada, and Mexico.
And:
Not much to add to this picture or this song on this bleak morning. Sorry.
The campaign tell: Trumpism wins only by warring against law and order to delegitimize courts
Grist for Trump’s bad faith mill. Giving the finger to judges and prosecutors, to justified convictions, and to "obstructive," suspect institutions, now defines the central Trumpist pitch. Everything is fodder for this hubris– what matters is manipulating his image flow to serve his perceived self-interest. For reasons certain to puzzle historians, the brashness of Trump’s vulgar, gross unfitness hardly impedes seeming forward motion (even if treading water).
Second only to the Big Lie contradiction, the gall of seeking the presidency, above all an executor of laws, statutes, court decisions and the Constitution, signals profound Trump unfitness. What sticks out, and what I consider to be his fatal campaign flaw, is a loudmouth mob boss running to control the rule of law, the only apparatus capable of stopping him cold if it ever adjudicates all his indictments.
- And:
by David Badash | May 22, 2024 - 7:02am | permalink
Political experts, historians, and scholars of fascism are sounding the alarm after Donald Trump posted video Monday afternoon that promised a “unified Reich,” once again echoing language used by Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
“Trump’s continued use of Nazi rhetoric is un-American and despicable. Yet too many Americans are brushing off the glaring red flags about what could happen if he returns to the White House,” former Trump White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews warned. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
The video features made-up newspaper headlines claiming a Trump win of the 2024 presidential election. It asks, “What’s Next for America,” and promotes “the creation of a unified Reich.”
- And:
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