Trump was lying, but he lied 'a deeper (& darker) truth' for the majority of voters. They want the world to be different, and Trump actually presents that different world, even if it's not factual. Those facts and all the crazy things he said were superficial (and not all that relevant) for his voters. They discerned an underlying 'truth' that was convincing.
"While probably no former time tolerated so many diverse opinions on religious or philosophical matters, factual truth, if it happens to oppose a given group’s profit or pleasure, is greeted today with greater hostility than ever before." Hannah Arendt (1967)
"Since the liar is free to fashion his “facts” to fit the profit and pleasure, or even the mere expectations, of his audience, the chances are that he will be more persuasive than the truthteller. Indeed, he will usually have plausibility on his side" Hannah Arendt (1967)
"That facts are not secure in the hands of power is obvious, but the point here is that power, by its very nature, can never produce a substitute for the secure stability of factual reality, which, because it is past, has grown into a dimension beyond our reach. Facts assent themselves by being stubborn, and their fragility is oddly combined with great resiliency – the same irreversibility that is the hallmark of all human action. In their stubbornness, facts are superior to power; they are less transitory than power formations, which arise when men get together for a purpose but disappear as soon as the purpose is either achieved or lost. This transitory character makes power a highly unreliable instrument for achieving permanence of any kind, and, therefore, not only truth and facts are insecure in its hands but untruth and non-facts as well." Hannah Arendt (1967)
Sadly, recognising facts too late may have dire consequences (think climate crisis).
The absence of Joe Biden from the political stage during his presidency will have been a major reason this has happened. For most of the last two years, effectively only Trump was talking to the voters, presenting his 'alternative facts'. The Fox ecosystem made many voters unreachable for the Democrats too. Harris did what she could, but she could not come back from that. And the Democrats are less believable protectors of 'ordinary people', having supported the full capitalist free market credos that have been so important in the development of the bad situations people experience, they are a fragmented and weak coalition.
What I expect first is an attack on the fact-driven press.
1) you meant "toe" not "tow" - yeah, I am pedantic.
2) your bullet: "The courts will provide no protection. Alito and Thomas will retire, to be replaced with younger ideological carbon copies of themselves. Conservative activist judges will have a 6-3 Supreme Court majority for at least the next couple decades. And the lower courts will be filled with Trump loyalists as well." needs to be extended. Justice Sototmayor is also likely to age out (retire or pass) so that would mean Trump gets 7 of 9 justices. That is what is horrifying.
In his victory speech Trump stated he won the popular vote in yesterday’s election.
If that is true, will he win the popular vote when the election is re-run without the bomb threats strategically placed by Russia at polling sites serving predominantly Harris voters?
Not sure why people are trying to kill off Sotomayor. She has diabetes, not cancer. Thomas and Alito are too arrogant and power hungry to retire, even for Trump, Republicans or the conservative cause.
I realize that she has juvenile diabetes, so it’s not the same as the type one gets as an adult, but people in my family lived with diabetes well into their 90’s.
Thanks so much for your reflections, Dave! Coming from the campaigning and coms side of politics I am beginning to ask myself whether we miss the main story. We are refining our messages and narratives but in a world where new and legacy media are owned by the billionaire class and Elon is sending push messages to millions of phones, none of this seems to matter anymore.
The dog caught the car. I am here to bear witness to what happens next. The Murdochs and Thiels and Leonard Leos of the world succeeded beyond there wildest dreams. My god it is going to be a shit show. What a mess. Reality truly is stranger than fiction.
This was a voting turnout problem. No one voted. Hardly the mandate for trump it seems at first glance. But boy will he treat it like one. He succeeded in exhausting everyone into giving up. What a strategy. Thank god we still have the filibuster. For now. I imagine that will be gone quickly.
Btw I don't know if trump is a fascist or nazi. But both hitler and trump are demagogues. Read thru the definition on wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogue. It reads like a maga trump playbook and is eye opening. This tactic is very powerful in democracies and super charged by social media and fox news and we are seeing the results in real time. I'm not sure there is any defense against it.
Voter turnout in Wisconsin and Michigan was incredibly high, close to 75% of eligible voters. We were critical swing states and we knew it. He lost by mere fractions of a percentage in both states, and both states elected Democratic Senators by a wide margin. As if a substantial number of people voted for both Trump and Democrats in state seats. Had those people not split their votes In Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Michigan, unless I'm counting wrong, Trump would have lost.
I think all of this is spot on. I see lots of suffering, but also some internecine conflict: evangelicals and conservative Catholics do not always agree, the tech bro viewpoint which is not religious. All said, we will hasten climate and ecosystem destruction, damage our food supply, and remove safety from products. Getting rid of Obamacare as well will make us sicker and have shorter lifespans. Can't imagine loyalists regulating nuclear power and managing nuclear waste. And that's just a short list. Women and minorities will continue to suffer. Transgender people will need to hide or leave the country. The suffering will be immense and really no one is exempt.
Inflation will get substantially worse too. Biden and the Democrats in the house didn't reverse the Trump Tariffs or have enough time to nail large corporations to the wall for price fixing, or properly explain how the war in Ukraine, created by Putin feeling free to do it with Trump leading the US, was raising the costs of everything.
The Biden administration was doing great things for me and other tech sector workers, like stripping corporations of their ability to use non-competes as a blunt instrument to bully us out of starting our own consulting businesses, and cracking down on the abuses of large corporations and billionaires.
Yes, I've been wondering about that internecine conflict too - even between the various religious players. The evangelical protestants and conservative catholics have common cause now, but how long will that last, I wonder.
I heard someone today say "I think I was wrong because I'm an optimist. And I hate the idea of being right pessimistically." Being thoughtful and empathetic regardless of how rich you were used to be a virtue; in fact, once you got rich enough, you were *supposed* to become more thoughtful and empathetic. What a quaint notion nowadays.
"If only, if only, if only.": Having had the misfortune to grow up among American "conservatives", I strongly suspect the "if only" that matters most is the one I commented on here in July: "Kamala Harris is 'a woman with dark-tone skin', as the presumably robot-generated alt text of an image I saw today put it, and the USA is still a deeply misogynist and racist country." Yes, Barack Obama was Black, but he was also male and running against people about whom most "conservatives" weren't enthusiastic. (John McCain and Willard Romney were mere politicians, whereas Donald Trump is a hero - as David Roth put it, "an aspirational brand to the worst people in the United States".*)
Much as I expected Harris would lose, I expect you're correct about what will follow. It's going to be dysfunction and violence, probably on a scale that will make the first Cheetolini regime look tame by comparison. If I were you, I'd be preparing to leave. My partner and I left in 2018, and we're very glad we did. (E.g., the per-capita death rate from COVID-19 was around three times higher in the USA than in Canada, which is where we were then and are still, for now.) Of course, most people who might like to leave can't readily do so, but as a successful academic, you most likely could, somewhat as Albert Einstein left Germany in 1933. (And Cheetolini probably wouldn't dispatch thugs to murder you, as Hitler may have done to Einstein.**)
If you choose to stay and fight in some way, good luck - you'll need it. Keep in mind, you're up against not a cabal but a mob. This is what Americans are, en masse. If there were any doubt about that, yesterday's outcome should put it to rest.
You said much of what I was thinking. But I'm not likely to be here for decades. (I'm a good bit older than you.) Realistically we're talking about the rest of my life. I can look at the Civil Rights Movement and see how many decades it took to get some results for Black people, and this undoes much of that. Be easier to deal with things that take decades if we lived for centuries.
Despite my reaction to decades (and I know you're right), your words were just about the only ones I could face today. Keep doing this newsletter. Your thinking is valuable.
I hate to sound Donald J in 2020 but this was rigged by Russian, China and Musks help. I have felt Donald hasn’t taken any of this seriously because he knows hoe rigged it is and that no matter what he’d win. I’m sick I’ll never vote again it is over for our democracy. Thanks to a shitty press, attention general, a country that can not get over racism, equality. Greedy Billionaire s . All delivered to us wrapped in an American flag with a Cross on Top. Sickening
Yes, it was definitely rigged. Millions of voters purged, a number of spoiler candidates, bomb threats in blue areas of swing states (traced back to RU), Musk offering money for Trump votes, etc. And these are just examples of election interference that we know of! It's infuriating.
In all of this you missed the odds of us going to war with Iran. It was zero under a Democratic administration (outside of defending Israel from missiles), but stands a decent chance of happening under Trump/Vance. There could be consequent Iran/Hamas aligned terrorist attacks against US citizens that Trump/Vance could use both to strengthen the Republican grip on power (e.g. Bush II), *and* demonize the Democrats with (e.g. blaming it all on Biden's border policies that Trump/Vance have claimed allowed so many terrorists into the US).
- "And he’s going to pardon the January 6th insurrectionists. What do you think they are going to do when liberals start marching?"
- "The economy will take a bad hit, but only in ways that impact normal people."
Trump's desire to eliminate payroll taxes for tipped workers would have two impacts: 1) Finally fulfilling, for tipped workers to start, the historic Republican desire to eliminate social security and medicare; and 2) Signalling to the landlords of tipped workers who rent that their tenants will be getting more income, and thus can absorb a rent increase. Put these together with tariff-driven stagflation and you can expect that many tipped workers will no longer be able to retire. Even the older tipped workers will only qualify for SS under their most recent pre-Trump income (i.e. the last time they paid into SS).
- "Housing prices will keep rising"
Yes, what many miss with Trump's "deporting the illegals will make housing more affordable" is that immigrants make up a fair share of housing construction crews.
- "What progress we have made on confronting the climate crisis will be undermined."
A natural solution to climate change is probably completely out now. The tech companies will be paid handsomely in the coming decades for multi-trillion dollar technological solutions.
- "Democracy is fragile, then we should also bear in mind that autocracy is fragile as well."
Yes, but as we've seen historically, there's even odds of going from a right-wing autocracy to a left-wing autocracy (or vice versa) as there is from going from autocracy to democracy.
- "And I am despondent today, because I do not instinctively believe we had that time to spare."
Well, guess what. I disagree and support Trump all the way. I am very happy that he looks to get a majority in the House, and has control over the other two branches. The only thing I somewhat regret is the climate crisis, billionaires getting richer, and John F Kennedy getting Health position. The way you speak you call all Trump supporters horrible, but so many strong, courageous people, from all races and both male and female , as seen from the surveys post-exit polls reveal. Perhaps you should not dwell on this 'autocracy' and weeping, blaming everything you can including the American people, and accept that Trump will not bring disaster. His economic policies will bring stability, and he will bring peace. Also, he used to be a Clinton-era Democrat, so I do not know what you're on. He has promised to veto an abortion ban, drifting left in many categories. As for trangender people, well, that's another discussion entirely.
It's fun hate-reading these articles. I used to lean to the left, so did Tulsi Gabbard, and many other people, but then I realised the truth.
What makes you say that Trump's economic policies will bring stability and he will bring peace (presumably on a global stage)? Everything I have seen says his tariffs will raise prices drastically, his tax cuts will hamper social services nationally, and his deportation of undocumented immigrants will undercut industries like construction and agriculture drastically, with spillover effects to other sectors (not that the human rights cost of such a policy is negligible).
Also, I'm just a little confused - how come in your mind, the climate crisis, wealth inequality, and noted anti-vaxxer RFK Jr overseeing public health (the main government department in charge when a pandemic hits) all matter *less* than economic stability? Or are there some other benefits you think Trump provides that somehow outweigh those 3 huge flaws you've mentioned?
I also just have to push back on your faith that Trump saying that he'll veto an abortion ban means anything at all. Abortion may simply be banned if he gets 2 more nominees on the Court and they get the right case. He has also gone back on his promises so many times it's almost impossible to count - why do you believe him here, especially when the administration will be staffed by plenty who want a national abortion ban? There are already plans to use an ancient Victorian-era law called the Comstock Act, that is already on the books, to ban contraception. He wouldn't even need to pass a law to strip women of even more reproductive freedom than before.
Please tell me what truth have you realized that those of us who are concerned haven't been able to see apparently?
You think the Mango Mussolini has the "truth"!? Always amazes me how deluded right whingers are but I'm glad you're going to own the self inflicted immiseration that's coming 🤡👌🏾
I so agree no interest in dissecting the campaign. The hate fueled lie machine has been running full steam for decades (it never shut down not really) and succeeded. It’s a problem we need to solve as neighbors, community members and communicators.
I am a granddaughter of a WW II Gold Star mother. My father's brother, and with him our whole family, gave the fullest measure of devotion to build the world we just lost. I am grieving. And I want the voters who did this to suffer--truly suffer--in consequence of what they have done.
The democratic party is responsible for everything to come. Their failures are obvious to everyone who isn't inside DCs hermetically sealed bubble. i despise joe biden. i despise kamala. i despise the billionaire donor class. i despise the punditry. i despise the constant capitulation to increasingly far right policy. i despise the feigned powerlessness. i despise the cowardice, the empty promises, the inability to even PRETEND they are doing this for anyone but themselves. the lesson will stick with everyone who isn't them--blame racists, blame minorities, blame misogynists, blame americans--not us! ask not what power can do for you, but what you can do for power. they will come back 3 years from now, again unscathed, and begin the process anew. truly pathetic
No. Folks need to stop putting all the blame on the Dem party. It's ridiculous, misplaced, short-sighted, and pointless. Put the blame where it belongs the most: the Republican party, MAGA pols, Putin, ignorant, hateful, bigoted, spiteful voters, a nation full of right wing-backed media, etc.
cannot also forget the whole genocide thing! When you pretend you care about marginalized people and decency, that's not something you can do without everyone immediately identifying the shallow hypocrisy
I love people who can't tell the difference between "pretty bad" and "actually murderous." I'm sure the Palestinians will be thanking you when Bibi's Nazis wipe them out with Trump's blessing.
"When democrats do genocide it is much more ethical and humane". Palestinians have been being systematically wiped out under the current administration for over a year now, they can thank Biden.
As Hillary's embarrassing defeat was 8 years ago, Harris' loss should be seen as the fierce rejection of neoliberalism that it is. Biden only barely squeezed out a win after loosely adopting parts of Bernie's platform out of necessity. He didnt follow through-> people felt cheated and gaslit by "the economy is great" -> Kamala campaigned with fucking LIZ CHENEY?! Sorry you're delusional. People wanted something different, and the best Democrats could come up with was centrism.
Agreed but even more horrur to come, as Simon Tisdal’s piece “Contempt for human rights, trashing allies: the world’s populists are rubbing their hands with glee”
Brilliant editorial elucidates, many facets of the existential threats posed by Trump’s re-election, but missing from this exhortation is how actually, the keys to the Whitehouse and global geopolitical opinion and the subsequent making and shaping of policy, with far-reaching, destructive and seriously deleterious effects, has been handed in essence to another pernicious madman – one who perhaps even trump’s Trump in his nefarious thinking and desire for dominion with the highest human cost, Elon Musk. Musk can and will now preside over decision and policy making not just on the regulatory powers and restrictions of his autonomous driving vehicles, but on even more importantly, determining the extent, or lack thereof, of regulatory governance on social media platforms and their noxious and ruinous effects on children, relationships, the long term dopamine reward pathways and the Internet’c ability to peddle malevolent content passed off as free speech, deeply disturbing, divisive misinformation and ruinous highly additive content algorithms without censure or any inhibitory checks. Additionally Musk’s interest in the development of implantable technology interfaces with his long-term goal to use Neurslalink’s “tertiary level” brain interface that would be linked to artificial intelligence, to “effectively have the option of merging with AI,” despite his apparent oft-repeated concerns over the dangers of advanced artificial intelligence. This combined with promise synthetic biology and its uses in warfare are terrifying and Musk's harnessing and or support of additive manufacturing that will be met and exceeded by PLM, bringing a truly decentralized, zero-length supply chain for many systems and vast possibilities in biotechnology material DNA engineering will allow for utterly devastating and terrifying weaponry, which let's face it could be used on domestic enemies of the new state. The promise of these technologies in the hands of two morally corrupt meglamaniacs should have the rational amongst us quaking with fear and rage, and yet we sit by and do absolutely nothing except moan and despair. It’s time we too took action and demanded more from our leaders before our future and free will are destroyed by the pursuit of power and money.
Trump was lying, but he lied 'a deeper (& darker) truth' for the majority of voters. They want the world to be different, and Trump actually presents that different world, even if it's not factual. Those facts and all the crazy things he said were superficial (and not all that relevant) for his voters. They discerned an underlying 'truth' that was convincing.
"While probably no former time tolerated so many diverse opinions on religious or philosophical matters, factual truth, if it happens to oppose a given group’s profit or pleasure, is greeted today with greater hostility than ever before." Hannah Arendt (1967)
"Since the liar is free to fashion his “facts” to fit the profit and pleasure, or even the mere expectations, of his audience, the chances are that he will be more persuasive than the truthteller. Indeed, he will usually have plausibility on his side" Hannah Arendt (1967)
"That facts are not secure in the hands of power is obvious, but the point here is that power, by its very nature, can never produce a substitute for the secure stability of factual reality, which, because it is past, has grown into a dimension beyond our reach. Facts assent themselves by being stubborn, and their fragility is oddly combined with great resiliency – the same irreversibility that is the hallmark of all human action. In their stubbornness, facts are superior to power; they are less transitory than power formations, which arise when men get together for a purpose but disappear as soon as the purpose is either achieved or lost. This transitory character makes power a highly unreliable instrument for achieving permanence of any kind, and, therefore, not only truth and facts are insecure in its hands but untruth and non-facts as well." Hannah Arendt (1967)
Sadly, recognising facts too late may have dire consequences (think climate crisis).
The absence of Joe Biden from the political stage during his presidency will have been a major reason this has happened. For most of the last two years, effectively only Trump was talking to the voters, presenting his 'alternative facts'. The Fox ecosystem made many voters unreachable for the Democrats too. Harris did what she could, but she could not come back from that. And the Democrats are less believable protectors of 'ordinary people', having supported the full capitalist free market credos that have been so important in the development of the bad situations people experience, they are a fragmented and weak coalition.
What I expect first is an attack on the fact-driven press.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-need-protect-truth-much-more-than-free-speech-gerben-wierda-rewbe
Spot on. two points:
1) you meant "toe" not "tow" - yeah, I am pedantic.
2) your bullet: "The courts will provide no protection. Alito and Thomas will retire, to be replaced with younger ideological carbon copies of themselves. Conservative activist judges will have a 6-3 Supreme Court majority for at least the next couple decades. And the lower courts will be filled with Trump loyalists as well." needs to be extended. Justice Sototmayor is also likely to age out (retire or pass) so that would mean Trump gets 7 of 9 justices. That is what is horrifying.
Will future demonstrations against the Supreme Kangaroo Court, be quashed by US military?
In his victory speech Trump stated he won the popular vote in yesterday’s election.
If that is true, will he win the popular vote when the election is re-run without the bomb threats strategically placed by Russia at polling sites serving predominantly Harris voters?
Not sure why people are trying to kill off Sotomayor. She has diabetes, not cancer. Thomas and Alito are too arrogant and power hungry to retire, even for Trump, Republicans or the conservative cause.
Basically it is actuarial tables, her age and yes, her history of diabetes.
I realize that she has juvenile diabetes, so it’s not the same as the type one gets as an adult, but people in my family lived with diabetes well into their 90’s.
He’s right. Toe, not tow.
Thanks so much for your reflections, Dave! Coming from the campaigning and coms side of politics I am beginning to ask myself whether we miss the main story. We are refining our messages and narratives but in a world where new and legacy media are owned by the billionaire class and Elon is sending push messages to millions of phones, none of this seems to matter anymore.
The dog caught the car. I am here to bear witness to what happens next. The Murdochs and Thiels and Leonard Leos of the world succeeded beyond there wildest dreams. My god it is going to be a shit show. What a mess. Reality truly is stranger than fiction.
This was a voting turnout problem. No one voted. Hardly the mandate for trump it seems at first glance. But boy will he treat it like one. He succeeded in exhausting everyone into giving up. What a strategy. Thank god we still have the filibuster. For now. I imagine that will be gone quickly.
Btw I don't know if trump is a fascist or nazi. But both hitler and trump are demagogues. Read thru the definition on wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogue. It reads like a maga trump playbook and is eye opening. This tactic is very powerful in democracies and super charged by social media and fox news and we are seeing the results in real time. I'm not sure there is any defense against it.
Voter turnout in Wisconsin and Michigan was incredibly high, close to 75% of eligible voters. We were critical swing states and we knew it. He lost by mere fractions of a percentage in both states, and both states elected Democratic Senators by a wide margin. As if a substantial number of people voted for both Trump and Democrats in state seats. Had those people not split their votes In Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Michigan, unless I'm counting wrong, Trump would have lost.
I think all of this is spot on. I see lots of suffering, but also some internecine conflict: evangelicals and conservative Catholics do not always agree, the tech bro viewpoint which is not religious. All said, we will hasten climate and ecosystem destruction, damage our food supply, and remove safety from products. Getting rid of Obamacare as well will make us sicker and have shorter lifespans. Can't imagine loyalists regulating nuclear power and managing nuclear waste. And that's just a short list. Women and minorities will continue to suffer. Transgender people will need to hide or leave the country. The suffering will be immense and really no one is exempt.
Inflation will get substantially worse too. Biden and the Democrats in the house didn't reverse the Trump Tariffs or have enough time to nail large corporations to the wall for price fixing, or properly explain how the war in Ukraine, created by Putin feeling free to do it with Trump leading the US, was raising the costs of everything.
The Biden administration was doing great things for me and other tech sector workers, like stripping corporations of their ability to use non-competes as a blunt instrument to bully us out of starting our own consulting businesses, and cracking down on the abuses of large corporations and billionaires.
Yes, I've been wondering about that internecine conflict too - even between the various religious players. The evangelical protestants and conservative catholics have common cause now, but how long will that last, I wonder.
I heard someone today say "I think I was wrong because I'm an optimist. And I hate the idea of being right pessimistically." Being thoughtful and empathetic regardless of how rich you were used to be a virtue; in fact, once you got rich enough, you were *supposed* to become more thoughtful and empathetic. What a quaint notion nowadays.
"If only, if only, if only.": Having had the misfortune to grow up among American "conservatives", I strongly suspect the "if only" that matters most is the one I commented on here in July: "Kamala Harris is 'a woman with dark-tone skin', as the presumably robot-generated alt text of an image I saw today put it, and the USA is still a deeply misogynist and racist country." Yes, Barack Obama was Black, but he was also male and running against people about whom most "conservatives" weren't enthusiastic. (John McCain and Willard Romney were mere politicians, whereas Donald Trump is a hero - as David Roth put it, "an aspirational brand to the worst people in the United States".*)
Much as I expected Harris would lose, I expect you're correct about what will follow. It's going to be dysfunction and violence, probably on a scale that will make the first Cheetolini regime look tame by comparison. If I were you, I'd be preparing to leave. My partner and I left in 2018, and we're very glad we did. (E.g., the per-capita death rate from COVID-19 was around three times higher in the USA than in Canada, which is where we were then and are still, for now.) Of course, most people who might like to leave can't readily do so, but as a successful academic, you most likely could, somewhat as Albert Einstein left Germany in 1933. (And Cheetolini probably wouldn't dispatch thugs to murder you, as Hitler may have done to Einstein.**)
If you choose to stay and fight in some way, good luck - you'll need it. Keep in mind, you're up against not a cabal but a mob. This is what Americans are, en masse. If there were any doubt about that, yesterday's outcome should put it to rest.
-------
*https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-president-of-blank-sucking-nullity-roth
**https://time.com/5684504/einstein-england/
You said much of what I was thinking. But I'm not likely to be here for decades. (I'm a good bit older than you.) Realistically we're talking about the rest of my life. I can look at the Civil Rights Movement and see how many decades it took to get some results for Black people, and this undoes much of that. Be easier to deal with things that take decades if we lived for centuries.
Despite my reaction to decades (and I know you're right), your words were just about the only ones I could face today. Keep doing this newsletter. Your thinking is valuable.
I hate to sound Donald J in 2020 but this was rigged by Russian, China and Musks help. I have felt Donald hasn’t taken any of this seriously because he knows hoe rigged it is and that no matter what he’d win. I’m sick I’ll never vote again it is over for our democracy. Thanks to a shitty press, attention general, a country that can not get over racism, equality. Greedy Billionaire s . All delivered to us wrapped in an American flag with a Cross on Top. Sickening
Yes, it was definitely rigged. Millions of voters purged, a number of spoiler candidates, bomb threats in blue areas of swing states (traced back to RU), Musk offering money for Trump votes, etc. And these are just examples of election interference that we know of! It's infuriating.
In all of this you missed the odds of us going to war with Iran. It was zero under a Democratic administration (outside of defending Israel from missiles), but stands a decent chance of happening under Trump/Vance. There could be consequent Iran/Hamas aligned terrorist attacks against US citizens that Trump/Vance could use both to strengthen the Republican grip on power (e.g. Bush II), *and* demonize the Democrats with (e.g. blaming it all on Biden's border policies that Trump/Vance have claimed allowed so many terrorists into the US).
- "And he’s going to pardon the January 6th insurrectionists. What do you think they are going to do when liberals start marching?"
At least one family has more immediate concerns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYEmQifgf4A
- "The economy will take a bad hit, but only in ways that impact normal people."
Trump's desire to eliminate payroll taxes for tipped workers would have two impacts: 1) Finally fulfilling, for tipped workers to start, the historic Republican desire to eliminate social security and medicare; and 2) Signalling to the landlords of tipped workers who rent that their tenants will be getting more income, and thus can absorb a rent increase. Put these together with tariff-driven stagflation and you can expect that many tipped workers will no longer be able to retire. Even the older tipped workers will only qualify for SS under their most recent pre-Trump income (i.e. the last time they paid into SS).
- "Housing prices will keep rising"
Yes, what many miss with Trump's "deporting the illegals will make housing more affordable" is that immigrants make up a fair share of housing construction crews.
- "What progress we have made on confronting the climate crisis will be undermined."
A natural solution to climate change is probably completely out now. The tech companies will be paid handsomely in the coming decades for multi-trillion dollar technological solutions.
- "Democracy is fragile, then we should also bear in mind that autocracy is fragile as well."
Yes, but as we've seen historically, there's even odds of going from a right-wing autocracy to a left-wing autocracy (or vice versa) as there is from going from autocracy to democracy.
- "And I am despondent today, because I do not instinctively believe we had that time to spare."
Ditto.
- "This is an ending, but not the end."
https://www.the-sentinel-intelligence.net/the-worst-time-to-be-alive/ - "A Real Apocalypse Takes a Long Time: The world has ended before." A short history lesson on the century following the volcanic eruptions beginning 536 AD.
Well, guess what. I disagree and support Trump all the way. I am very happy that he looks to get a majority in the House, and has control over the other two branches. The only thing I somewhat regret is the climate crisis, billionaires getting richer, and John F Kennedy getting Health position. The way you speak you call all Trump supporters horrible, but so many strong, courageous people, from all races and both male and female , as seen from the surveys post-exit polls reveal. Perhaps you should not dwell on this 'autocracy' and weeping, blaming everything you can including the American people, and accept that Trump will not bring disaster. His economic policies will bring stability, and he will bring peace. Also, he used to be a Clinton-era Democrat, so I do not know what you're on. He has promised to veto an abortion ban, drifting left in many categories. As for trangender people, well, that's another discussion entirely.
It's fun hate-reading these articles. I used to lean to the left, so did Tulsi Gabbard, and many other people, but then I realised the truth.
What makes you say that Trump's economic policies will bring stability and he will bring peace (presumably on a global stage)? Everything I have seen says his tariffs will raise prices drastically, his tax cuts will hamper social services nationally, and his deportation of undocumented immigrants will undercut industries like construction and agriculture drastically, with spillover effects to other sectors (not that the human rights cost of such a policy is negligible).
Also, I'm just a little confused - how come in your mind, the climate crisis, wealth inequality, and noted anti-vaxxer RFK Jr overseeing public health (the main government department in charge when a pandemic hits) all matter *less* than economic stability? Or are there some other benefits you think Trump provides that somehow outweigh those 3 huge flaws you've mentioned?
I also just have to push back on your faith that Trump saying that he'll veto an abortion ban means anything at all. Abortion may simply be banned if he gets 2 more nominees on the Court and they get the right case. He has also gone back on his promises so many times it's almost impossible to count - why do you believe him here, especially when the administration will be staffed by plenty who want a national abortion ban? There are already plans to use an ancient Victorian-era law called the Comstock Act, that is already on the books, to ban contraception. He wouldn't even need to pass a law to strip women of even more reproductive freedom than before.
Please tell me what truth have you realized that those of us who are concerned haven't been able to see apparently?
You think the Mango Mussolini has the "truth"!? Always amazes me how deluded right whingers are but I'm glad you're going to own the self inflicted immiseration that's coming 🤡👌🏾
I so agree no interest in dissecting the campaign. The hate fueled lie machine has been running full steam for decades (it never shut down not really) and succeeded. It’s a problem we need to solve as neighbors, community members and communicators.
I am a granddaughter of a WW II Gold Star mother. My father's brother, and with him our whole family, gave the fullest measure of devotion to build the world we just lost. I am grieving. And I want the voters who did this to suffer--truly suffer--in consequence of what they have done.
The democratic party is responsible for everything to come. Their failures are obvious to everyone who isn't inside DCs hermetically sealed bubble. i despise joe biden. i despise kamala. i despise the billionaire donor class. i despise the punditry. i despise the constant capitulation to increasingly far right policy. i despise the feigned powerlessness. i despise the cowardice, the empty promises, the inability to even PRETEND they are doing this for anyone but themselves. the lesson will stick with everyone who isn't them--blame racists, blame minorities, blame misogynists, blame americans--not us! ask not what power can do for you, but what you can do for power. they will come back 3 years from now, again unscathed, and begin the process anew. truly pathetic
No. Folks need to stop putting all the blame on the Dem party. It's ridiculous, misplaced, short-sighted, and pointless. Put the blame where it belongs the most: the Republican party, MAGA pols, Putin, ignorant, hateful, bigoted, spiteful voters, a nation full of right wing-backed media, etc.
cannot also forget the whole genocide thing! When you pretend you care about marginalized people and decency, that's not something you can do without everyone immediately identifying the shallow hypocrisy
🙄🥱
"genocide is boring" -Democracy defender democrat
Your lazy talking points are boring. ✌️
I gave like 5 specific things that require actual self reflection instead of "blame everyone else" as you did. Incredible lol
I love people who can't tell the difference between "pretty bad" and "actually murderous." I'm sure the Palestinians will be thanking you when Bibi's Nazis wipe them out with Trump's blessing.
"When democrats do genocide it is much more ethical and humane". Palestinians have been being systematically wiped out under the current administration for over a year now, they can thank Biden.
As Hillary's embarrassing defeat was 8 years ago, Harris' loss should be seen as the fierce rejection of neoliberalism that it is. Biden only barely squeezed out a win after loosely adopting parts of Bernie's platform out of necessity. He didnt follow through-> people felt cheated and gaslit by "the economy is great" -> Kamala campaigned with fucking LIZ CHENEY?! Sorry you're delusional. People wanted something different, and the best Democrats could come up with was centrism.
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I'm so sorry I bore you. Enjoy the accelerated institutional decay! Delusional privilege
Agreed but even more horrur to come, as Simon Tisdal’s piece “Contempt for human rights, trashing allies: the world’s populists are rubbing their hands with glee”
Brilliant editorial elucidates, many facets of the existential threats posed by Trump’s re-election, but missing from this exhortation is how actually, the keys to the Whitehouse and global geopolitical opinion and the subsequent making and shaping of policy, with far-reaching, destructive and seriously deleterious effects, has been handed in essence to another pernicious madman – one who perhaps even trump’s Trump in his nefarious thinking and desire for dominion with the highest human cost, Elon Musk. Musk can and will now preside over decision and policy making not just on the regulatory powers and restrictions of his autonomous driving vehicles, but on even more importantly, determining the extent, or lack thereof, of regulatory governance on social media platforms and their noxious and ruinous effects on children, relationships, the long term dopamine reward pathways and the Internet’c ability to peddle malevolent content passed off as free speech, deeply disturbing, divisive misinformation and ruinous highly additive content algorithms without censure or any inhibitory checks. Additionally Musk’s interest in the development of implantable technology interfaces with his long-term goal to use Neurslalink’s “tertiary level” brain interface that would be linked to artificial intelligence, to “effectively have the option of merging with AI,” despite his apparent oft-repeated concerns over the dangers of advanced artificial intelligence. This combined with promise synthetic biology and its uses in warfare are terrifying and Musk's harnessing and or support of additive manufacturing that will be met and exceeded by PLM, bringing a truly decentralized, zero-length supply chain for many systems and vast possibilities in biotechnology material DNA engineering will allow for utterly devastating and terrifying weaponry, which let's face it could be used on domestic enemies of the new state. The promise of these technologies in the hands of two morally corrupt meglamaniacs should have the rational amongst us quaking with fear and rage, and yet we sit by and do absolutely nothing except moan and despair. It’s time we too took action and demanded more from our leaders before our future and free will are destroyed by the pursuit of power and money.
“The truth has no defense against a fool determined to believe a lie,”
— unknown, but certainly not Mark Twain
Especially when the lies are fun because they allow you to be racist, misogynist, a climate denier, anti-immigrant, etc.