In the words of Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
- If you voted for someone who spews hate and retribution, you didn’t vote for peace and unity in our nation.
- If you voted for someone who demonstrates bigotry, you didn’t vote for racial equality.
- If you voted for someone who has a history of misogyny and assaulting women, you didn’t vote for gender equality or the protection of women.
- If you voted for someone who has cavalierly violated numerous laws, you didn’t vote in support of law enforcement or an equal system of justice for all.
- If you voted for someone who has unabashedly violated most of the Ten Commandments, you didn’t vote for Judeo-Christian values.
You don’t get to launch an atomic weapon and then say “I hope everyone is okay on the ground where it hit.”
If there is any one person to blame, that would be President Biden. He had alluded to stepping down after one term, but once Trump got into the race, Biden let his ego get the better of him. I guess that's somewhat understandable; you don't spend a life in politics without developing a very large sense of importance. A series of primaries might have resulted in a better candidate. That's not a slam of Vice President Harris, but asking a country where Trumpist-style racism is engrained to choose a Black Asian woman as president was a bridge too far. So was asking her to mount a hundred-day general campaign for the job.
But beyond that, if there is anyone to blame, it is the American people. It was clear to all but the most casual observer that the root cause of inflation over the past few years was the billions and billions of dollars that both Trump and Biden had shoveled out to everyone, individuals and businesses, need be damned, to help keep the economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. That money had to go somewhere and it did. I can understand why Biden didn't point that out, he was a part of it, but it might have helped lower the temperature. Trumpers were bleating about gasoline being $1.80/gal in 2020 without acknowledging that the reason it was so cheap was that millions had been tossed out of work and millions more were working from home. There was a contagious pandemic going on and nobody was going anywhere. Supply and demand; there was gas, but few were buying it. MIB said it best, really.
Trump has said who he is and what he wants to do. This time, there are no guardrails. There are no senior Republicans to suggest that he not do something. The Supremes have neutered the courts for him. He has the unchecked power that Nixon could only dream of having. And if he decides to not leave office in January of 2029, there will be no mechanism to tell him no.
A side note: Don't be shocked if there is a mass exodus of senior civil servants who will decide they would rather secure their retirement than put up with bullshit from the MAGA political appointees.
A side note on the ethics tax: Trump lost in 2020 by millions of votes, but that didn't stop him or his core believers from trying to stage a coup and then whining for four years about the election being stolen. Harris lost by millions of votes, yet she's not calling for a "stop the steal"movement or contesting it. Because Trump never plays fair. He's a liar and a cheat at all things, great and small, from politics to business to golf to his marital vows.
Still, the blame here is on the American people who heard all about what Trump said and knew about his past behavior. his criminality, his grifting the Oval Office, his penchant for treason, his love of all things Putin, and his constant lying and dismissed all of it, whether out of fear, anger, racism or disbelief. Pick one or more. Also, this. And this.
It's going to be an even more interesting time. Strap in.
And one final note: Comment moderation is in effect. Govern yourselves accordingly.
17 comments:
Realization of what occurred turned into severe anxiety and some
paranoia. I need to decide if cut and run is a reasonable thing
or hope the very blue state I'm in safe enough.
Two things one being he could serve two terms as the term limit law
is consecutive. That makes for the overall outlook of malaise.
Eck!
Incorrect.
“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
—22nd Amendment, Section 1.
China have replaced all of the technocrats for loyalists. Russia is the same except an economist is running the military. Who are those that will pull Caligula's strings? How long before Vance is running the show?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2IaFaJrmno
The stimulus money may have contributed to the inflation, but other countries that didn't do large stimulus programs also had inflation, in some cases more inflation than we had. The disruption of supply chains had more to do with the inflation than the money given out to keep citizens and businesses afloat.
This election is on the American people, who on the whole don't care enough about how their country is run to find out how it's done, and thus were ripe for the firehose of lies that the goddamn Republicans called a campaign. I remember being that removed from it, but back then I didn't vote very often, so I didn't feel like I was hurting anything. Since I started voting around 2000, I have made sure I knew what I was voting for, kind of like always making sure I knew what was behind anything that I shot at.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Reading this morning Detroit papers there are reasons given for Trump's win in a purple state. One is the Middle eastern population of the Dearborn area went against Harris because of Biden's support of Israel. They seem to have forgotten how Trump wanted to stop any of their fellow's from coming in and deporting the rest while he's at it. I would be sure that Trump will now go full in support for his friend Bibi.The constant bombardment of hatred toward transexuals, like gender changing in grade school without the parents knowledge or "men" playing girls sports and using their locker rooms and restrooms. The stoking of fear in auto workers that they will lose their jobs because of some twisted thinking that electric cars will build themselves. GM engineering was working toward some electric cars when Bush was president.
When the next actual recession hits not the one the goobers believe they are in because their right wing sources say so, they will either believe that everything is great under Trump or blame Clinton, Obama, Biden, Harris Pelosi and Soros. They already went into denial of the whole year of 2020.
There is an interesting caveat to the 22nd, in that most readings would also stop Trump from pulling a Putin and running as the VP in 2028 (assuming, unlikely as it is, he’s still alive). He would be ineligible to assume the Presidency (except for less than two years under some readings) and thus ineligible to be the VP.
It actually moot though, as Theil and Co. have their man a heartbeat from power…the Orange Buffoon would do well to dump Vance now, and have his loyalists rubber stamp a replacement less likely to slip and fall while walking behind him carrying a knife.
Preznit-elect Buffoon.
I've been telling people in my circles that a Republican vote was a vote for Vance to become president. At trump's age, he will not be able, either mentally or physically, to complete the term. At the two year mark, expect him to be removed and Vance installed to have the ability to serve for 10 years.
Dale
Good news I was wrong he cant be elected again... then ther is the matter of will there be another election, extremist I know.
He's convicted felon and has not even been sentenced! So 22A.S1 doesn't look like its enforceable by the criminal in charge.
Eck!
Well said. I can't think of anything to add that the other commenter's didn't say but one thing I experienced a while back has stuck to me. While getting gas, the guy next to me was filling up a new F350 power stroke diesel. Also pulling a nice lake fishing boat. He had taken the time to add his identity via bumper stickers. "Jesus is my savior Trump is my president. Trump 2024, This truck runs on liberal tears" etc. Oh and an "I SERVED" bumper stick too. He was talking to another guy and stated " Yeah I got this a month ago really love it. I figured 'cause of the recession I may as well bite the bullet. Can't use it much We're on mandatory overtime at work. I Had to take a sick day just to get a day off" Think about that. A new truck that had to set him back maybe 65 large. Pretty expensive fishing rig. He's working OT complaining about what the Lib's have done to the economy. I think that explains the Trump voter pretty well.
Wow be unto us, this day a king is elected in a once free country. With his immunity, there is no end to the evil he will cause.
w3ski
This time was not as traumatic as 2016 for me as we've now been to this rodeo once and know that it ends. TFG and whoever he hires are all massively flawed people by definition. They will inevitably turn on each other like vultures on a carcass (sucks that we're the carcass but there you go). I'm pretty f'in old so I'm going to tune out the palace intrigue and wait for an opportunity to influence an inflection point. Until that happens, it's just muzak.
Fact is that this time there were no "Anomalies" , no "Statistical impossibilities" , in the ballot counting like last time. I think those who might have been inclined to try to do something like 2020 chose not to as they knew they were under a microscope. People were watching.
The other thing that points so clearly to the claims of fraud in 2020 is that the same patterns of voting choices emerged again this time as 2016. Not exact, but pretty close. Funny how that works.
You claim no fraud, but you are much more intelligent than that. No matter how many times you repeat it, you know, and I know what happened 4 years ago.
You, sir, are a delusional and arrogant troll. There was no meaningful fraud in 2020- You can say otherwise until the cows come hime but your insistence in believing in a fantasy does not make it so and never will.
I don’t know why you persist in clinging to your delusions, but I am not a shrink and, frankly, I don’t give a shit.
Be as irrational as you want on your own blog. Not here.
Begone.
thanks for that.
Dick Cheney is still alive at age 83 and at age 78 was in worse health than Trump is in today. Never underestimate the capabilities of modern medicine to re-animate a corpse if enough money is thrown at it.
I am disappointed but not surprised. It wasn't the Democratic candidate. Joe's polling was as terrible as Kamala's polling, it didn't matter which Democrat was running, the Democrats could have run the second coming of JFK and still lost. They tried a hail mary pass with Kamala and that still didn't work.
The reality is that the majority of Americans, like the majority of Turks and the majority of Hungarians and the majority of Russians and, soon, the majority of Spaniards, simply want fascism. They want government by decree instead of that messy democracy thing. They want to persecute LBGTQ people, the casual bigotry and racism of Trump appeals to them, and if women are dying because of the abortion bans well they should have kept their legs closed. The venality and cruelty of the average American elected Trump.
The majority of Americans have told the world who they are. Now we will all reap the consequences.
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