I'm not ready to doom say and concede that Trump's election means the "implosion of the American system," the end of NATO and an emboldened Russia. It might mean Republican infighting, stalemate and failure within two years. Pete Buttigieg warns: “We cannot be mesmerized by the worst things that we see happening. We will be inclined to react with shock by some things that are done precisely with the intent of shocking us, we need to move very quickly through the shock.”
It points out that people who've been in the struggle for progressive change for a long time know that one election does not necessarily mark real victory or defeat. The U.S. is not so fragile as to collapse or fully lose its guardrails after a couple of bad election outcomes.
In 2008, Dems thought they reached nirvana with the election of Barack Obama. Within a year, the Tea Party emerged. Within two years, the roof fell in, with Republicans gaining 60 seats in the House and almost taking the Senate.
Since 1968, voters have chosen a divided government most of the time. They generally give a new president two years to over-reach, then slap him down.
I’m more concerned about all of those in our government and elsewhere in our society believe that it’s in our country’s best interest to elect someone whom that has shown complete and utter destain to our system of governance. Particularly one that has reaped so much from the system, mostly from what I can see illegally through master manipulation of our system to enhance his own and people like him pockets on the backs of hard working Americans who have placed their blind support for him no matter what! This is what truly concerns me! Politics is a nasty business, but we all owe it to ourselves to pay attention to the ulterior motives of those that we elect, Nationally, statewide and locally!
I applaud the Biden administration for guiding us successfully through the COVID pandemic and setting us on a path for a full economic and healthy recovery. Therefore, we need to stay vigilant paying attention as to how mix the incoming administration make bogus claims that the successful Biden economy is one that they created rather than inherited! Pay attention America!
It could just be that low-info voters who pay little attention to politics, felt inflation -- 38% of voters reported that they were having trouble making ends meet -- they remembered Trump's pre-covid economy and voted against Biden-Harris. This response is happening all over the world in response to inflation. Worrying about democracy or the character of the leader may feel like a luxury when you're paying more for rent and going deeper in debt every month.
Yo can't admonish a person for wanting this horror show of a species to end. I take your point that the timing makes their wish truly aspirational. Yes, by all means, fight the good fight. It is the only honorable way to go. Just don't make it seem that despair is not a rational response to our condition as a nation and a species. Have a good weekend.
I absolutely do think despair is a rational response to our current condition as a nation. I may go back there. But all hope is not lost at this point. And we don't do ourselves or our causes any favor by falling into permanent despair at this point. Trump doesn't even take office until nearly 2 months from today. I did a post trying to predict the future. Even the best that can happen over the next four years is pretty bad. https://open.substack.com/pub/jimbuie/p/we-cant-predict-the-future-but-lets?r=7j6hq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I thought I would, by now, be tired and fed up with the repeating of the Orange Nutjob's choices for the high priority positions in the government. I could not have been more incorrect. As I continue to listen to trusted sources, the truth from sussing out these clowns has come to the fore. This is important in order to thwart the ON's choices for such sensitive positions requiring fully experienced people in each field. As a veteran, the two specific positions that got my full attention are Intelligence and DoD/Pentagon. The third would be the Attorney General of the U.S.
In my opinion, the Orange Nutjob is not bright enough to have come up with a more detailed plan for ruination of America. Along those lines of thought, it dawned on me if this is "unfinished business" he never got around to at the end of his occupation in the WH four years ago. Believing he was going to win round two in 2020, he would pick up where he left off. I think back to that 2-hour closed door talk with Putin back in Helsinki. There was no note-taking, no American reporter, etc during that time. My guess is that Putin did all the talking as to what he wanted the ON to do while occupying the WH. Of course, having legitimately lost in 2020, Putin's expectations did not come to fruition. It comes down to this. Could what had taken place in Helsinki between those two now be the nexus for the next four years? With Putin, anything is possible. I know it's a stretch, but Putin has it in for us for helping Ukraine and our involvement with NATO.
To avoid wringing my hands in despair over the election and subsequent announced appointments, I contacted the group Indivisible and sent messages to two Rpresentatives in Texas to vote No on HR 9495 which allows the Treasury Department to label any non-profit a terrorist organization without any due process or oversight. My concern addressed student organizations and civil liberties organizations. Apparently, the results of the vote helped change in at least one vote. It was not enough, alas, but we neeed to move quickly beyond the despair.
Elect a clown, get a circus. I recently went to the airport to pick up my mother, her plane was late. Obviously politically motivated. Trump's voters did not misunderstand his policies, they groove on schadenfreude any way they can get some. This is why people vote against their own self interests. Here is something everyone should read: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/Douglass%20Full%20Text.pdf. It applies universally as slaves are not just black people.
Why do we keep talking about how clever are the Russians and Trump at exploiting our "low information voters? The "low information" voter and consumer is the ideal for a society that denies its citizens access to real opportunities for self government and self control in general. The debasement of language by commercial hucksterism is a core principle of salesmanship period. It is the Prime Directive of a culture bent on endless consumption and self debasement. The cultural anthropologist Jules Henry spoke to the process of the inculcation of "cultural stupidity" that is at the core of American educational and commercial institutions. We need not look to foreign actors to explain who is poisoning us. Some of us profit greatly from this system of bread and circuses while the majority become more and more incapable of rejecting a moronizing onslaught of fabricated media fantasies about making this society great again. We haven't, as a society, even approached decency as yet. Just saying.
I don’t understand how the Biden administration, still under oath, does not see this as an extreme domestic threat to the constitution and the country.
Thanks Heather. Appreciate you breaking this down. I wonder about the refusal to sign the Transfer of Power agreements. Will you be discussing this, or anyone here know what the impacts are to the (ugh) incoming administration?
At this point Heather I’m less concerned with who gets credit. If it’s working and The felon thinks it’s his idea then so be it. He’s less likely to blow it up.
I really don’t get it. I’m not even sure if I’m responding to anyone but let’s be logical.
What you see is what we have. The only way to gauge the rules is by looking at what the future President has done in the past.
1, We are not a democracy. This isn’t up for debate. It’s a fact. A country isn’t a democracy just because it says it is. It is based on what it does or does not do. Before you jump all over me prove your side first.
2, They played us perfectly from the beginning and when Kamala Harris didn’t force a hand count at gun point if necessary it became checkmate. Done! Over and OUT. Now I know why they didn’t do the count, but does that really make sense when they actually do cheat? A fair election is the base of a democracy and our own party didn’t fight to make sure it was one. And it absolutely was not.
3, Courts, I hear about the courts not letting him ….. or his people ……do this or do that.
Without even needing to go into mentioning the corruption in some of the courts, I’ll explain it like this. Who is going to make any of them go through the courts to do anything? Anything at all? Another way to put it is, who will make them go to court?
Unions - he could scribble on a napkin - no more unions allowed and that is the end and whichever company wants to wait out a strike they can. That’s if the national guard isn’t sent in to stop it right away.
The thing I expect to hear after my comment is this -
“If we don’t have unions the entire system will break down”
I would rather answer this with sort of a formula.
If we don’t have unions _____ will happen.
And Donald Trump will answer that like this SO?
We could use the same formula for almost anything.
California is going to burn to the ground if we don’t send in FEMA.
So? or So What?
Whatever values he has shown you is how he will make every decision. Even more so because we made him beg for his job back.
He is as transparent as they come.
Even though he knows he didn’t win this election he doesn’t see it that way because he cheated and got away with it and THAT is even better. THAT is the biggest win. We are all losers for not cheating. Just like the military. They are all suckers for going to war a dying for their country. He isn’t pretending or just insulting. He MEANS it. They are suckers, they got tricked into going like some slave. Better you than me as he laughs at them.
He thrives on the unnatural jolt he gets out off of cheating people out of something. No matter how badly he hurts them. That is us now.
Since he is the finance minister of the Trump campaign (at $200 million plus taking a giant bath around 20+Billion?) to acquire and destroy Twitter, along with his investors, for the election of his beneficiary, will call him the “DOGelon”: the true next president of the United States, the man not behind the curtain., the new Crypto-government. Can be pronounced either way.
Idk if it's my imagination or not, but it seems like all my liberal audio podcasts have been sped up. Are y'all talking faster, is it me or is something else going on?
I'm not ready to doom say and concede that Trump's election means the "implosion of the American system," the end of NATO and an emboldened Russia. It might mean Republican infighting, stalemate and failure within two years. Pete Buttigieg warns: “We cannot be mesmerized by the worst things that we see happening. We will be inclined to react with shock by some things that are done precisely with the intent of shocking us, we need to move very quickly through the shock.”
The New Yorker has a piece, "The Naivete Behind Post-Election Despair: What sort of reply can one offer to a person who has already decided that the world ends here?" https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-naivete-behind-post-election-despair
It points out that people who've been in the struggle for progressive change for a long time know that one election does not necessarily mark real victory or defeat. The U.S. is not so fragile as to collapse or fully lose its guardrails after a couple of bad election outcomes.
In 2008, Dems thought they reached nirvana with the election of Barack Obama. Within a year, the Tea Party emerged. Within two years, the roof fell in, with Republicans gaining 60 seats in the House and almost taking the Senate.
Since 1968, voters have chosen a divided government most of the time. They generally give a new president two years to over-reach, then slap him down.
I’m more concerned about all of those in our government and elsewhere in our society believe that it’s in our country’s best interest to elect someone whom that has shown complete and utter destain to our system of governance. Particularly one that has reaped so much from the system, mostly from what I can see illegally through master manipulation of our system to enhance his own and people like him pockets on the backs of hard working Americans who have placed their blind support for him no matter what! This is what truly concerns me! Politics is a nasty business, but we all owe it to ourselves to pay attention to the ulterior motives of those that we elect, Nationally, statewide and locally!
I applaud the Biden administration for guiding us successfully through the COVID pandemic and setting us on a path for a full economic and healthy recovery. Therefore, we need to stay vigilant paying attention as to how mix the incoming administration make bogus claims that the successful Biden economy is one that they created rather than inherited! Pay attention America!
It could just be that low-info voters who pay little attention to politics, felt inflation -- 38% of voters reported that they were having trouble making ends meet -- they remembered Trump's pre-covid economy and voted against Biden-Harris. This response is happening all over the world in response to inflation. Worrying about democracy or the character of the leader may feel like a luxury when you're paying more for rent and going deeper in debt every month.
Understood. But does this justify throwing everything away because of hardships visited upon us and the world due to the pandemic? I would hope not!
Dear Sir:
Yo can't admonish a person for wanting this horror show of a species to end. I take your point that the timing makes their wish truly aspirational. Yes, by all means, fight the good fight. It is the only honorable way to go. Just don't make it seem that despair is not a rational response to our condition as a nation and a species. Have a good weekend.
I absolutely do think despair is a rational response to our current condition as a nation. I may go back there. But all hope is not lost at this point. And we don't do ourselves or our causes any favor by falling into permanent despair at this point. Trump doesn't even take office until nearly 2 months from today. I did a post trying to predict the future. Even the best that can happen over the next four years is pretty bad. https://open.substack.com/pub/jimbuie/p/we-cant-predict-the-future-but-lets?r=7j6hq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Things could be worse. Some months back, I was thinking civil war was possible, if not likely after the 2024 election. https://open.substack.com/pub/jimbuie/p/violent-conflict-in-us-soon?r=7j6hq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The New Yorker on Nov. 4 was predicting it imminently. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/11/11/among-the-civil-war-preppers
Then you are delusional 🙄
I hope so.
Rome 465 AD; Germany 1933….
I thought I would, by now, be tired and fed up with the repeating of the Orange Nutjob's choices for the high priority positions in the government. I could not have been more incorrect. As I continue to listen to trusted sources, the truth from sussing out these clowns has come to the fore. This is important in order to thwart the ON's choices for such sensitive positions requiring fully experienced people in each field. As a veteran, the two specific positions that got my full attention are Intelligence and DoD/Pentagon. The third would be the Attorney General of the U.S.
In my opinion, the Orange Nutjob is not bright enough to have come up with a more detailed plan for ruination of America. Along those lines of thought, it dawned on me if this is "unfinished business" he never got around to at the end of his occupation in the WH four years ago. Believing he was going to win round two in 2020, he would pick up where he left off. I think back to that 2-hour closed door talk with Putin back in Helsinki. There was no note-taking, no American reporter, etc during that time. My guess is that Putin did all the talking as to what he wanted the ON to do while occupying the WH. Of course, having legitimately lost in 2020, Putin's expectations did not come to fruition. It comes down to this. Could what had taken place in Helsinki between those two now be the nexus for the next four years? With Putin, anything is possible. I know it's a stretch, but Putin has it in for us for helping Ukraine and our involvement with NATO.
To avoid wringing my hands in despair over the election and subsequent announced appointments, I contacted the group Indivisible and sent messages to two Rpresentatives in Texas to vote No on HR 9495 which allows the Treasury Department to label any non-profit a terrorist organization without any due process or oversight. My concern addressed student organizations and civil liberties organizations. Apparently, the results of the vote helped change in at least one vote. It was not enough, alas, but we neeed to move quickly beyond the despair.
Elect a clown, get a circus. I recently went to the airport to pick up my mother, her plane was late. Obviously politically motivated. Trump's voters did not misunderstand his policies, they groove on schadenfreude any way they can get some. This is why people vote against their own self interests. Here is something everyone should read: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/Douglass%20Full%20Text.pdf. It applies universally as slaves are not just black people.
Why do we keep talking about how clever are the Russians and Trump at exploiting our "low information voters? The "low information" voter and consumer is the ideal for a society that denies its citizens access to real opportunities for self government and self control in general. The debasement of language by commercial hucksterism is a core principle of salesmanship period. It is the Prime Directive of a culture bent on endless consumption and self debasement. The cultural anthropologist Jules Henry spoke to the process of the inculcation of "cultural stupidity" that is at the core of American educational and commercial institutions. We need not look to foreign actors to explain who is poisoning us. Some of us profit greatly from this system of bread and circuses while the majority become more and more incapable of rejecting a moronizing onslaught of fabricated media fantasies about making this society great again. We haven't, as a society, even approached decency as yet. Just saying.
Perhaps the CDC was wrong that they know of no pathogen that could make people into zombies. “We have met the enemy, and it is us” (Pogo)
I don’t understand how the Biden administration, still under oath, does not see this as an extreme domestic threat to the constitution and the country.
D(oh)j DOGE as in Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency
Thanks Heather. Appreciate you breaking this down. I wonder about the refusal to sign the Transfer of Power agreements. Will you be discussing this, or anyone here know what the impacts are to the (ugh) incoming administration?
This was a great letter. I'm sad but thank you!
I want written not spoken
At this point Heather I’m less concerned with who gets credit. If it’s working and The felon thinks it’s his idea then so be it. He’s less likely to blow it up.
I really don’t get it. I’m not even sure if I’m responding to anyone but let’s be logical.
What you see is what we have. The only way to gauge the rules is by looking at what the future President has done in the past.
1, We are not a democracy. This isn’t up for debate. It’s a fact. A country isn’t a democracy just because it says it is. It is based on what it does or does not do. Before you jump all over me prove your side first.
2, They played us perfectly from the beginning and when Kamala Harris didn’t force a hand count at gun point if necessary it became checkmate. Done! Over and OUT. Now I know why they didn’t do the count, but does that really make sense when they actually do cheat? A fair election is the base of a democracy and our own party didn’t fight to make sure it was one. And it absolutely was not.
3, Courts, I hear about the courts not letting him ….. or his people ……do this or do that.
Without even needing to go into mentioning the corruption in some of the courts, I’ll explain it like this. Who is going to make any of them go through the courts to do anything? Anything at all? Another way to put it is, who will make them go to court?
Unions - he could scribble on a napkin - no more unions allowed and that is the end and whichever company wants to wait out a strike they can. That’s if the national guard isn’t sent in to stop it right away.
The thing I expect to hear after my comment is this -
“If we don’t have unions the entire system will break down”
I would rather answer this with sort of a formula.
If we don’t have unions _____ will happen.
And Donald Trump will answer that like this SO?
We could use the same formula for almost anything.
California is going to burn to the ground if we don’t send in FEMA.
So? or So What?
Whatever values he has shown you is how he will make every decision. Even more so because we made him beg for his job back.
He is as transparent as they come.
Even though he knows he didn’t win this election he doesn’t see it that way because he cheated and got away with it and THAT is even better. THAT is the biggest win. We are all losers for not cheating. Just like the military. They are all suckers for going to war a dying for their country. He isn’t pretending or just insulting. He MEANS it. They are suckers, they got tricked into going like some slave. Better you than me as he laughs at them.
He thrives on the unnatural jolt he gets out off of cheating people out of something. No matter how badly he hurts them. That is us now.
DoGE. Pronounced like Dogecoin! 😜
Since he is the finance minister of the Trump campaign (at $200 million plus taking a giant bath around 20+Billion?) to acquire and destroy Twitter, along with his investors, for the election of his beneficiary, will call him the “DOGelon”: the true next president of the United States, the man not behind the curtain., the new Crypto-government. Can be pronounced either way.
Idk if it's my imagination or not, but it seems like all my liberal audio podcasts have been sped up. Are y'all talking faster, is it me or is something else going on?
tmi to absorb normally for me
Her posts are so fascinating that it is hard to keep up with the seemingly faster pace of daily events.