Yes, I’m still here. But until the polls are closed tomorrow I don’t want to write about the polls or the election and what stupid/despicable thing Donald Trump has done in the past few hours, and that’s pretty much what’s in the news.
This week is likely to be a roller coaster, at best. We may still be waiting for results this time next week. My worst fear is that Trump’s thugs will break into election offices and destroy ballots before they are counted, but maybe it won’t come to that.
As the header says, feel free to say whatever is on your mind.
I guess I sharing some of the same feelings. All evidence seems to point to a tRump defeat but wariness of rePuke cheating and wariness of what the tRump federal courts may do keeps me from feeling comfortable.
Maha is right. The next week or more will likely be an emotional roller-coaster. I hope that there will not be major amounts of violence but have my shotgun and pistol ready to defend myself if there is.
My sister and I have a movie marathon at my house. We watch movies on DVDs so that we don't have to listen to election news every hour on the hour. TV and radio are at their most boring on election day.
There's a scene in the first episode of Star Wars (Fourth installment but the first episode.) Qui-Gon Jinn finds himself on the other side of a timed force field, unable to continue the combat with the Sith warrior. Qui-Gon does something in the movie I wish I could do, something almost Buddhist by temperament. He drops to one knee, closes his eyes, and meditates – calmly. This serenity in the face of a life or death struggle (Qui-gon is killed moments later.) is the way we should be.
The 'force field' goes down in about 26 hours. That's the earliest they might begin to call some states. (I said 'earliest' and 'might.') Thirty hours from now is also realistic. For those of us who have voted, we can help others to the polls but mostly we have to wait, gather our serenity (to the degree we can), and mentally prepare for the next phase.
We all need to pace ourselves for a marathon – this is no short sprint. IF we prevail in the election, our task is only begun. Getting Democrats to show enough spine to end the filibuster and expand the court will require mass activism. That's if we win the battle tomorrow.
“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”
Thomas Paine
I have been trying to sate myself with detective show reruns to turn my brain off and I have been trying to ignore the news but we cant. Yesterday my wife went to Costco and on the way back she got Joe Biden Bussed by a Trump rally. It was really scary for her. They surrounded her car and shouted their slogans and generally were reckless driving and endangering everyone round her. She drives a Prius, we do not have any political markers or bumper stickers. She gets a lot of grief for that damn car, I never have a problem; an aging housewife threatens them, I guess. Sheesh, we purchased that car when gas was nearly $4 a gallon and thought we were really smart.
I'm encouraged by the numbers – but discouraged by the big fence Bill Barr is erecting around the White House. I hope that the numbers are good enough that a clear win is obvious to most people. Then we only need to deal with whatever Trump and his goons have got cooked up.
I'm reminded of "Handmaid's Tale", when the country went, overnight, to martial law, and women were immediately made second class citizens. You can't tell me Trump's people don't have something like this planned.
I do think Trump won't prevail, but it's going to be a long grind for this to happen.
Ways I’m Preparing for a Long Vote Count
Here's my toast: May we have a peaceful day tomorrow as we finish this year's presidential election!
And a toast to a peaceful transfer of power after tRUMP loses!!!
I hope America comes to its senses and gets rid of the vile bag of self centered shit.
Unfortunately I don't have the freedom to say what's on my mind where it pertains to Donald Trump. Wisdom advises me that thoughts of that nature should never be committed to the printed word. Let it suffice to be known that there is no love or warm wishes coming from me for the likes of Donald Trump. I do wish for him that just a fraction of the misery he has injected into the lives of so many people is visited upon him and his family.
Not a cult member's comment rang a bell. My wife drives a Prius, and that does seem to single her out. She had an Obama bumper sticker for a while and that seemed to set some of the "local gentry" off. Finally, some kind soul vandalized it in a parking lot and she removed it. She noticed far less tailgating, etc after that.
I expect a rough ride, but, I remember an entry in Howard Zinn's book, "A Peoples' History …" The KKK had surrounded some African American men in an isolated house. They were on horseback, riding circles around the house and shooting guns into it. But, the men inside were armed, and when they returned fire, the "cavalry" quickly turned tail and ran.
Vigilantes show up armed and armored to intimidate peaceful citizens exercising their rights. There is an iconic image of some goons with AR-15s and plate carriers being faced down by three African American teenage girls. It's pretty obvious who has the real courage in that snapshot. It's destined to become a classic.
I've written before about how some of the people in our little corner of the world are living in some imagined Biblical drama that gives their lives meaning. I expect them to take a defeat pretty hard, and if we prevail, a lot of them will have a one way ticket to La-La Land and nothing else to lose. So, wish me luck.
And now for a bit of fun. I had no idea that this show was still on the air, but, it's brutal, in a British satire sort of way.
https://youtu.be/kxHd8JJ8hCU
I'm tired. Tired of Trump and his cheap, grifting, money grubbing family, from Melania on down, all of them. I'm tired of the Trump "kids," the very personification of everything decent parents work hard to make sure their kids are not. I'm tired of all the no account lying grifters working for Trump, who lie as they breath with their stupid grins. May they never find another job again. I'm tired of the click bait media's "breaking news" consisting of the latest idiotic Trump tweet, distractions from the fact that this country is in dire trouble, on several fronts. How insane is Trump's America? In the midst of a pandemic that has affected no other country as bad as it has here, thanks to an incompetent president "we" installed, we're on the verge of taking health care away from millions. These are the things we do. We put children in cages, foment racial violence, watch small businesses die and people go homeless but for the help we refuse them to lavish more money on the few who already have more than the could spend in ten lifetimes. And the one protection we have against this deadly pandemic is made into a political issue, consigning hundreds if not thousands to needless deaths to sate the warped ego of a man who should be in prison instead of the white house. I'm tired of all the veterans who still support a president who paid his way out of service while trashing them for theirs. I'm tired of all the "evangelicals" who are so far from Christianity they make a mockery of the teachings of Jesus, as they not only wear it on their sleeves, but they piously throw their phony "religion" in our faces. For political gain. I'm sick of them and the seed planting, prosperity gospel "preachers" that deceive them. They deserve each other.
We need more than "change." We need renewal, and it starts with ridding the nation of this awful "human being" in the white house. I'm tired, but excited, because I believe that renewal has a chance to start, tonight.