I got a haircut. I know that sounds like an odd reply, so I will explain.
Remember those pictures from the 70’s when girls used every tool available for the big hair look and bangs that stood up? I was a high school teacher, and I remember attending a state youth organization meeting and observed an auditorium full of girls with the same hair style. It is still true, most pic’s of teenage girls show a trend toward long straight locks, no bangs.
Adult women are wearing a shorter version. It’s easy to care for and eventually I arrived at my own Kim Reynold’s cut. I could never get comfortable with what I saw in the mirror. Should I stick with it longer, maybe it was just an adjustment that needed time.
I had a hair appointment the day after the election, the results were all I needed to finally settle my debate, I did not want to see that image any longer. I now have a modified Pixie cut that I wore for years. It will take more work to maintain, but I am smiling each time I look in the mirror.
We all need to stay true to ourselves, make our own decisions and stand up for our individuality. So if anyone asks in my red state and rural county of Iowa; or a family member shows up at a gathering with a MAGA hat; I’ll say, “I voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I think you’re going to see why that was the better choice.”
Upon awakening Wednesday morning to news of the election results, I suddenly knew how the Social Democrats in the Weimar Republic must have felt on February 1, 1933, the day after Hitler was elected Chancellor.
Many Americans are religionists of one faith tradition or another, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Great Spirit, Sikh, Bahai, Confucianism or some other major traditional world religion. Many others are believers in some version of deity or spiritual perspective that does not conform to any particular traditional religion. The vast majority of traditional religions honor some version of what we know at the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Many of those who subscribe to non-traditional or New Age belief systems likewise recognize the concept of karma, what we do in the world comes back to us.
Our country was founded by European settlers on land taken, often violently, from native Americans, European immigrants who seldom honored the treaties they made with the indigenous peoples who were here when they arrived. Our national mythology portrays native Americans as savages who scalped their enemies. In reality, European settlers often paid for the scalps of their native American enemies whose lands they coveted. This was true early on in the Colonies and later in the American West. The settling of what is now the United States of America was a very violent business indeed, a protracted genocide, in fact. Slavery, and brutal slaveholder practices, played a role, too.
Some are now asking if Americans, as a nation, and the United States, as a government purportedly of by and for the people, have evolved beyond the commission of genocide. Our government is a signatory of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. (Have you read it? It's a short and remarkably explicit document. Reading it would take less than five minutes of your time.) Both major U.S. political parties have, for the most part, actively supported and armed the ongoing genocidal slaughter in the Holy Land. Who in this land of many believers and many beliefs thinks their God smiles on genocidaires and blesses the slaughter? Who thinks, "Well, we can support that, we can vote for that, we can refuse to vote against that or just not vote at all, because we have our good reasons, and God will go right on smiling on us and on our projects"? Because, after all, our lives and our projects are laudable even though we do genocide to others, support and arm a genocide against others, the wholesale slaughter and starvation of uncounted thousands of defenseless noncombatant women, children, elderly, doctors, medical personnel, aid workers, journalists, etc. in a far away land, no? Who thinks, "That's a graveyard we can whistle past"?
Asking for a friend of Middle Eastern origins whose sister, a Gaza obstetrician, was killed by a bomb made here in the USA. On October 9, Dr. Soma Baroud was the 166th doctor to be murdered in Gaza.
In New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians 1620-1675 by Alden T. Vaughan, we learn that the Puritans did not merely kill their native enemies but savagely mutilated them, too. They frequently set fire to native villages, shooting down those who were fortunate enough not to be burned alive. When they allied with a tribe, the Puritans demanded the body parts of their enemies as proof of the tribe’s sincerity. After battle they often sold captured natives into slavery, and they were not averse to looking on as their native allies roasted and ate the dead. The Puritans viewed themselves as God’s enforcers of law and order, prayed for guidance before setting out to hunt down their native enemies, and justified their own savagery by proclaiming their enemies to be “Satan’s horde” who had “sinned against God and man.” May notes that, “Land rights of native Americans were never taken seriously. Rather, they were seen as obstacles to the colonists’ need for land. The Puritans did not respect the farms of Native Americans. They sought ‘legal’ ways to get their land. If a Native American broke one of the rigid Puritan religious laws, the fine was paid by giving up land. In this manner, some Puritans were able to amass large landholdings through the Massachusetts courts. John Winthrop, for example, obtained some 1,260 acres along the Concord River. . . . When the 1600s ended, most Native Americans in New England had been killed or driven away.”
One hundred and sixty years later and half a continent to the West, the lot of Native Americans had not improved. In 1864, at Sand Creek in the Colorado Territory, a Methodist lay preacher and U.S. Cavalry officer, Col. John M. Chivington planned and led a liquored-up troop of irregular cavalry in an unprovoked surprise attack against a peaceful and unsuspecting native village. Over 200 Arapahos and Cherokees, mostly women and children, were slaughtered and mutilated. “The women and children were screaming and wailing, the men running to their lodges for their arms and shouting advice and directions to one another . . . Many of the people had preceded us up the creek, and the dry bed of the stream was now a terrible sight: men, women, and children lying thickly scattered on the sand . . . We . . . came to a place where the banks were very high and steep . . . and the older men and the women had dug holes or pits under the banks, in which the people were now hiding . . . Most of us . . . had been wounded before we could reach this shelter; and there we lay all that bitter cold day from early in the morning until almost dark, with the soldiers all around us, keeping up a heavy fire most of the time . . . That night will never be forgotten as long as any of us who went through it are alive . . . Many who had lost wives, husbands and children, or friends, went back down the creek and crept over the battleground among the naked and mutilated bodies of the dead. Few were found alive, for the soldiers had done their work thoroughly . . .” said George Bent, a Southern Cheyenne.“. . . I did not see a body of a man, woman, child but was scalped; and in many instances their bodies were mutilated in the most horrible manner, men, women, and children–privates cut out, etc. I heard one man say that he had cut a woman’s private parts out and had them for exhibition on a stick; I heard another man say that he had cut the fingers off an Indian to get the rings on the hand . . . I also heard of numerous instances in which men had cut out the private parts of females, and stretched them over the saddle bows, and wore them over their hats, while riding in the ranks,” reported First Lieutenant James Connor, United States Army. The Sand Creek Massacre outraged easterners, but it seemed to please many in the Colorado Territory. Chivington took a leading role in a Denver celebration where he delighted audiences with war stories and displayed 100 native scalps.
Later denounced after a congressional investigation, Chivington was forced to resign. When asked at a military inquiry why children had been killed, one of the soldiers quoted Chivington as saying, “Nits make lice.” Chivington had come to Colorado to avoid more hazardous duty in the Civil War battles then raging in the South. He was known as a militant abolitionist, but his views on race seem to have been inconsistent and confused at best, not unlike some Americans’ views today.
I felt badly for all of you when I read Ann Seltzer's poll projection. I felt her firm was elitist perhaps trying to influence the vote. Governor Reynolds took care of the danger of illegals that could have changed the outcome somewhat, sent out a note encouraging everyone to vote. My views are conservative, I have great respect for Julie. I didn't see any data supporting this poll and what it actually did was to push Republicans to vote.
Very good post. I have to agree the Seltzer's poll could have pushed more Trump supporters to go vote. What this does is confirm my thoughts about polls which I take very little heed in. These pollers don't do it for nothing$$. For the media always talking about polls if they don't keep the viewers interest they can't sell advertising$$. Once again quite often follow the $$$.
From Wednesday morning I have been dealing with intense anger at those who voted for anyone who supports DJT and his minions. Trying to determine how to be effective in promoting inclusive world-views, economic policies which lift us all up, and how to channel anger into productive impact.
I’ve come to the sad conclusion that many of our fellow citizens are just not very bright. They have voted against their own best interests. Latino men that trump trash talked about voted largely for trump. The Puerto Rico community in FLA voted largely for trump even after being made fun of at a recent rally. We should be very afraid of the second trump term if he delivers on any of his threats, and I feel he will gleefully do so. It’s a sad day in America; I’m grieving today, will pick up to resist in a day or two.
There is much thoughts in this country that the ultra left liberalism Kamala brought with her was definitely not sustainable. For example, a lot of college grads were really peeved with the present administrations cancelling collage debt, my 3 children included that paid theirs off themselves. The massive giveaways just makes people more dependent on big bro. I'm involved with food pantries, monthly county food distribution and helping people with their monthly expenses. But.... the takeaway is so many won't work because they don't have to.
The left may have become elitist, but trump actively supports tax breaks for the ultra wealthy. He is no friend of the lower middle class. People voted against their own best interests, which is very troubling. If you think you see food lines now, just wait. BTW, one of my biggest contributions go to food banks.
Rep traditionally give tax breaks to billionaires; why not forgive student loan? BTW, I put myself through college with scholarships and loans and helped 2 kids and now 3 grandkids. I am not naive about student loans.
Why hasn't the left lowered taxes for all? I always hear over the years the Dems say 'we're gonna take away tax loopholes, we're gonna increase taxes on wealthy'. One reason they don't is they're part of that group!
As my one daughter says 'you gotta have skin in the game' in reference to college loans or many other things in life to really appreciate them'. Good for u putting yourself through college. I commend u for helping family with college, I just don't believe I should be forced to help them. Why not forgive debt to people that have accrued big debt from living beyond their means, or people that have high gambling debt, or run up massive credit card debt?
I feel so very sad and angry and disappointed. I feel like I'm at a funeral. I don't understand how this could happen. How could so many people vote for a vile lying criminal, a demented destructive psychopath and expect him to be a functional president and run a nation. He will now NEVER be held accountable for ALL OF HIS SEDITION AND ALL OF HIS CRIMES. I joked that if he won, I would have to move to a different country. Today, I thought where would I move, truly... I couldn't watch any more on TV. Only Kamala's concession. I can't stand to see Trump's face anymore. How do I get through 4 years of not watching the news and the his planned horror? Will it even end after 4 years? And I'm so afraid of what he'll be able to do - with the band of disturbed, power hungry sociopaths and psychopaths he's amassed. I was so excited for Kamala's plans and I was so sure she was going to win. I just don't know how this could. have happened. It shakes my whole belief system... Thank God for my little Bijoux - who knows I am suffering something really bad and won't leave my side.
I am sad and scared. I worked for Lanon Baccam. I believed he would win. I went to a church gathering with people who are queer, disabled, old, parents of young children, scared.
There will be more, but sad and scared is what I am today.
My dog has been trying to keep us on our regular schedule. How do they know we are frustrated and exhausted? Fascinating that Dudley is high energy but sensitive, too. I really appreciated the Okoboji gathering and being around so many people who were at least mostly center or center left in political views. That was uplifting. In my county in central Illinois, we flipped the county board for the first time in anyone's memory (or maybe the 1940s). Democrats will run the county! We re-elected for the second time a Democratic Congressman, and Democrats in the Illinois House and Senate. We have worked so so hard for his. It is sad that are success is eclipsed by the confusing and heartbreaking Presidential race.
💙 wow!! Your county is an early adopter!! We achieved less, by far, but brought our share of the vote up 10 points from 2020 in every race we contested - and this time contested 4 of 5 possible . Looking for successes where we can find them!! We’ll aspire to central Illinois after we rest up!!
I simply shut down as the polls showed the obvious failures that were strung together as more and more votes dripped in. I couldn't bring myself toeven go and look at the election returns the next morning for the Representative races or the local elections fearing it would drive me even deeper into a depressive state. Fortunately quite time and a scheduled massage took my mind off the worst of it, and then when I got home I looked at my email, some people I don't know from Nebraska had asked if I would take pictures of a cabin that had belonged to relatives years ago, it was going to be sold and the open house was apporching. I happily took the photos and sent them as they had an illness that kept them from doing it themselves. The photos were sent and they responded that they had recieved them. And then they hit me with this:
Last night was a great night. I could not sleep without knowing TRUMP won, so we stayed up late to know the out come. Thanks again for all you have done.
I ripped them a response:
Why in God's name would you want a convicted criminal, a draft dodger, a traitor who communicates with our enemies and a man who was impeached twice, as President! As he said, this may very well be the last election you will vote in; he wants to be dictator like all the other people he looks up to! If you want to live like the people of North Korea or the Soviet Union, you are about to find out that what you voted for certainly isn't going to be what you expected! If he starts to assassinate his "enemies" just remember, many of those "enemies" are people who knew him best and closest as people who were in his cabinet! What they are guilty of is telling the truth of what they know about this madman. This fool had the audacity to call those of us who were fighting for this country in the many wars of late "losers and suckers"and he has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades! All the while he avoided responsibility for his own military service five times and then by finding a doctor who would give him an excuse not to serve! I did two years in Vietnam and I resent the people in this country who support this traitor for President then brag about waiting up half the night to see justice and democracy go down the drain as a result.
I feel much better now that I have unloaded my grivences on someone that deserves to hear my frustration with their ignorance!
Cannot believe he is now #47. The only option now is to pray and hope for the best. I still believe the 3 "assassination attempts" were not real. I think he panicked when Harris became his opponent instead of Biden, his numbers were not good, and he had to think of a way to gain sympathy votes. I could be all wet with my theory but I remember all the theories when JFK was assassinated. It was a huge topic in our English Lit class in my junior year.
It's disturbing, to put it mildly. I have felt, since childhood, in Iowa and the US in general - underlying racism, deep misogyny, and an isolationist attitude that doesn't fit or feel morally right in a modern world. These ugly realities are more in the open now. I was born and raised in Iowa, but when I come "home" to assist with my elderly mother and use my out-of-state drivers license, I get negative remarks sometimes in stores from people who don't know me. Same with people who notice my car license plate. The Supreme Court decisions that divide states worsen, in my opinion, what a friend of mine calls "regional fascism" - loving your state and hating your neighbor state. It feels oddly excessive these days. There is a general air of grievance among many middle class and upper-middle class white people I know who have lovely homes, nice cars, a high quality of living, yet voice constant anger at the state of things. They are not hurting for good health care. They are not marginalized in opportunities. Yet they carry an air of grievance that is palpable. What is this all about? The echo chamber of Fox news and its fermenting of fear? Social media's addictive and misleading "guidance"? All of the above? Today is indeed a disturbing day. To put it mildly.
When I think of regional fascism, I think of the South, which today is not the South I grew up in, and a Supreme Court that looks a lot like the Confederacy. I got as far away as I could from Texas and two Texas presidents who presided over hideously destructive and unnecessary wars. Iowa has been a wonderful place to live and raise two children, but it's not what it was. When I arrived a quarter of a century ago, Iowa still led the nation in quality of education and college admissions test scores. No more. Be glad you've still got honest law enforcement.
Americans by and large are sick and tired of wars even if their putative leaders and the billionaires they serve are not. Many Americans still see genocide as a horrendous crime, thank God, and could not in good conscience vote for any candidate who has supported and armed the atrocities visited upon defenseless noncombatant women, children, the elderly, hospital patients, doctors and other medical personnel, UN workers, and journalists in their thousands.
There is plenty of accurate information available to any American who has the inclination and the time to find alternative media journalists and commentators who dare to speak truth to power. "What is all this about?" is not too difficult a question to answer. Prof. Rami Khouri answered it this morning on DemocracyNow! Prof. John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, the acknowledged dean of the realist school of international affairs, answers it several times a week in various alternative media venues as does Columbia University Prof. Jeffery Sachs. So too does Chris Hedges, the Pulitzer award winning New York Times Middle East bureau chief who was forced out for daring to criticize Official Washington's subservience to the bipartisan War Party. Reporter and author Max Blumenthal and his Grayzone co-host Aaron Mate draw huge audiences of younger viewers despite the social media algorithms that are intended to impede their efforts. I've mentioned just a few.
If you're not finding the answers you are looking for, maybe its time to expand the search area.
Thank you for all the good recommendations - I'm a daily Heather Cox Richardson reader, but clearly can expand my reading. The Palestinians are clearly on many of our minds - and not voting at all may have been a number of people's answer to the horror of those unchecked war crimes . I doubt that a large number of the people who voted for trump care at all what he does or doesn't do in terms of that conflict, though.
If you prefer a woman's perspective, Anya Parampil is an accomplished author, journalist, and commentator. Rachel Blevins, a 2017 Texas Tech, graduate, is making waves and headlines. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Karen Kwiatkowski graces Judge Andrew Napolitano's YouTube channel every week. I read Col. Ann Wright who served for 30 years in the U.S. Army and in the Dept. of State as a diplomat in countries such as Nicaragua, Somalia, Uzbekistan, and Sierra Leone. Col. Wright resigned in 2003 protest of the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq. I heard her speak several years ago in Northampton, Massachusetts. She gets it right. Again, just a few who speak truth about our government's hideously destructive and unnecessary wars.
I avoided the news all night except for a small snippet when I first turned on my tv last night. I quickly changed the channel, but I caught the gist. It wasn't until noon when I finally faced the music, so I haven't mustered up the optimism some of us here have. I just can't find it.
I got a haircut. I know that sounds like an odd reply, so I will explain.
Remember those pictures from the 70’s when girls used every tool available for the big hair look and bangs that stood up? I was a high school teacher, and I remember attending a state youth organization meeting and observed an auditorium full of girls with the same hair style. It is still true, most pic’s of teenage girls show a trend toward long straight locks, no bangs.
Adult women are wearing a shorter version. It’s easy to care for and eventually I arrived at my own Kim Reynold’s cut. I could never get comfortable with what I saw in the mirror. Should I stick with it longer, maybe it was just an adjustment that needed time.
I had a hair appointment the day after the election, the results were all I needed to finally settle my debate, I did not want to see that image any longer. I now have a modified Pixie cut that I wore for years. It will take more work to maintain, but I am smiling each time I look in the mirror.
We all need to stay true to ourselves, make our own decisions and stand up for our individuality. So if anyone asks in my red state and rural county of Iowa; or a family member shows up at a gathering with a MAGA hat; I’ll say, “I voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I think you’re going to see why that was the better choice.”
Upon awakening Wednesday morning to news of the election results, I suddenly knew how the Social Democrats in the Weimar Republic must have felt on February 1, 1933, the day after Hitler was elected Chancellor.
Many Americans are religionists of one faith tradition or another, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Great Spirit, Sikh, Bahai, Confucianism or some other major traditional world religion. Many others are believers in some version of deity or spiritual perspective that does not conform to any particular traditional religion. The vast majority of traditional religions honor some version of what we know at the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Many of those who subscribe to non-traditional or New Age belief systems likewise recognize the concept of karma, what we do in the world comes back to us.
Our country was founded by European settlers on land taken, often violently, from native Americans, European immigrants who seldom honored the treaties they made with the indigenous peoples who were here when they arrived. Our national mythology portrays native Americans as savages who scalped their enemies. In reality, European settlers often paid for the scalps of their native American enemies whose lands they coveted. This was true early on in the Colonies and later in the American West. The settling of what is now the United States of America was a very violent business indeed, a protracted genocide, in fact. Slavery, and brutal slaveholder practices, played a role, too.
Some are now asking if Americans, as a nation, and the United States, as a government purportedly of by and for the people, have evolved beyond the commission of genocide. Our government is a signatory of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. (Have you read it? It's a short and remarkably explicit document. Reading it would take less than five minutes of your time.) Both major U.S. political parties have, for the most part, actively supported and armed the ongoing genocidal slaughter in the Holy Land. Who in this land of many believers and many beliefs thinks their God smiles on genocidaires and blesses the slaughter? Who thinks, "Well, we can support that, we can vote for that, we can refuse to vote against that or just not vote at all, because we have our good reasons, and God will go right on smiling on us and on our projects"? Because, after all, our lives and our projects are laudable even though we do genocide to others, support and arm a genocide against others, the wholesale slaughter and starvation of uncounted thousands of defenseless noncombatant women, children, elderly, doctors, medical personnel, aid workers, journalists, etc. in a far away land, no? Who thinks, "That's a graveyard we can whistle past"?
Asking for a friend of Middle Eastern origins whose sister, a Gaza obstetrician, was killed by a bomb made here in the USA. On October 9, Dr. Soma Baroud was the 166th doctor to be murdered in Gaza.
In New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians 1620-1675 by Alden T. Vaughan, we learn that the Puritans did not merely kill their native enemies but savagely mutilated them, too. They frequently set fire to native villages, shooting down those who were fortunate enough not to be burned alive. When they allied with a tribe, the Puritans demanded the body parts of their enemies as proof of the tribe’s sincerity. After battle they often sold captured natives into slavery, and they were not averse to looking on as their native allies roasted and ate the dead. The Puritans viewed themselves as God’s enforcers of law and order, prayed for guidance before setting out to hunt down their native enemies, and justified their own savagery by proclaiming their enemies to be “Satan’s horde” who had “sinned against God and man.” May notes that, “Land rights of native Americans were never taken seriously. Rather, they were seen as obstacles to the colonists’ need for land. The Puritans did not respect the farms of Native Americans. They sought ‘legal’ ways to get their land. If a Native American broke one of the rigid Puritan religious laws, the fine was paid by giving up land. In this manner, some Puritans were able to amass large landholdings through the Massachusetts courts. John Winthrop, for example, obtained some 1,260 acres along the Concord River. . . . When the 1600s ended, most Native Americans in New England had been killed or driven away.”
One hundred and sixty years later and half a continent to the West, the lot of Native Americans had not improved. In 1864, at Sand Creek in the Colorado Territory, a Methodist lay preacher and U.S. Cavalry officer, Col. John M. Chivington planned and led a liquored-up troop of irregular cavalry in an unprovoked surprise attack against a peaceful and unsuspecting native village. Over 200 Arapahos and Cherokees, mostly women and children, were slaughtered and mutilated. “The women and children were screaming and wailing, the men running to their lodges for their arms and shouting advice and directions to one another . . . Many of the people had preceded us up the creek, and the dry bed of the stream was now a terrible sight: men, women, and children lying thickly scattered on the sand . . . We . . . came to a place where the banks were very high and steep . . . and the older men and the women had dug holes or pits under the banks, in which the people were now hiding . . . Most of us . . . had been wounded before we could reach this shelter; and there we lay all that bitter cold day from early in the morning until almost dark, with the soldiers all around us, keeping up a heavy fire most of the time . . . That night will never be forgotten as long as any of us who went through it are alive . . . Many who had lost wives, husbands and children, or friends, went back down the creek and crept over the battleground among the naked and mutilated bodies of the dead. Few were found alive, for the soldiers had done their work thoroughly . . .” said George Bent, a Southern Cheyenne.“. . . I did not see a body of a man, woman, child but was scalped; and in many instances their bodies were mutilated in the most horrible manner, men, women, and children–privates cut out, etc. I heard one man say that he had cut a woman’s private parts out and had them for exhibition on a stick; I heard another man say that he had cut the fingers off an Indian to get the rings on the hand . . . I also heard of numerous instances in which men had cut out the private parts of females, and stretched them over the saddle bows, and wore them over their hats, while riding in the ranks,” reported First Lieutenant James Connor, United States Army. The Sand Creek Massacre outraged easterners, but it seemed to please many in the Colorado Territory. Chivington took a leading role in a Denver celebration where he delighted audiences with war stories and displayed 100 native scalps.
Later denounced after a congressional investigation, Chivington was forced to resign. When asked at a military inquiry why children had been killed, one of the soldiers quoted Chivington as saying, “Nits make lice.” Chivington had come to Colorado to avoid more hazardous duty in the Civil War battles then raging in the South. He was known as a militant abolitionist, but his views on race seem to have been inconsistent and confused at best, not unlike some Americans’ views today.
Why don't you go to a Republican Central Committee meeting?
I felt badly for all of you when I read Ann Seltzer's poll projection. I felt her firm was elitist perhaps trying to influence the vote. Governor Reynolds took care of the danger of illegals that could have changed the outcome somewhat, sent out a note encouraging everyone to vote. My views are conservative, I have great respect for Julie. I didn't see any data supporting this poll and what it actually did was to push Republicans to vote.
Very good post. I have to agree the Seltzer's poll could have pushed more Trump supporters to go vote. What this does is confirm my thoughts about polls which I take very little heed in. These pollers don't do it for nothing$$. For the media always talking about polls if they don't keep the viewers interest they can't sell advertising$$. Once again quite often follow the $$$.
From Wednesday morning I have been dealing with intense anger at those who voted for anyone who supports DJT and his minions. Trying to determine how to be effective in promoting inclusive world-views, economic policies which lift us all up, and how to channel anger into productive impact.
I’ve come to the sad conclusion that many of our fellow citizens are just not very bright. They have voted against their own best interests. Latino men that trump trash talked about voted largely for trump. The Puerto Rico community in FLA voted largely for trump even after being made fun of at a recent rally. We should be very afraid of the second trump term if he delivers on any of his threats, and I feel he will gleefully do so. It’s a sad day in America; I’m grieving today, will pick up to resist in a day or two.
There is much thoughts in this country that the ultra left liberalism Kamala brought with her was definitely not sustainable. For example, a lot of college grads were really peeved with the present administrations cancelling collage debt, my 3 children included that paid theirs off themselves. The massive giveaways just makes people more dependent on big bro. I'm involved with food pantries, monthly county food distribution and helping people with their monthly expenses. But.... the takeaway is so many won't work because they don't have to.
The left may have become elitist, but trump actively supports tax breaks for the ultra wealthy. He is no friend of the lower middle class. People voted against their own best interests, which is very troubling. If you think you see food lines now, just wait. BTW, one of my biggest contributions go to food banks.
Rep traditionally give tax breaks to billionaires; why not forgive student loan? BTW, I put myself through college with scholarships and loans and helped 2 kids and now 3 grandkids. I am not naive about student loans.
Why hasn't the left lowered taxes for all? I always hear over the years the Dems say 'we're gonna take away tax loopholes, we're gonna increase taxes on wealthy'. One reason they don't is they're part of that group!
As my one daughter says 'you gotta have skin in the game' in reference to college loans or many other things in life to really appreciate them'. Good for u putting yourself through college. I commend u for helping family with college, I just don't believe I should be forced to help them. Why not forgive debt to people that have accrued big debt from living beyond their means, or people that have high gambling debt, or run up massive credit card debt?
I feel so very sad and angry and disappointed. I feel like I'm at a funeral. I don't understand how this could happen. How could so many people vote for a vile lying criminal, a demented destructive psychopath and expect him to be a functional president and run a nation. He will now NEVER be held accountable for ALL OF HIS SEDITION AND ALL OF HIS CRIMES. I joked that if he won, I would have to move to a different country. Today, I thought where would I move, truly... I couldn't watch any more on TV. Only Kamala's concession. I can't stand to see Trump's face anymore. How do I get through 4 years of not watching the news and the his planned horror? Will it even end after 4 years? And I'm so afraid of what he'll be able to do - with the band of disturbed, power hungry sociopaths and psychopaths he's amassed. I was so excited for Kamala's plans and I was so sure she was going to win. I just don't know how this could. have happened. It shakes my whole belief system... Thank God for my little Bijoux - who knows I am suffering something really bad and won't leave my side.
I am sad and scared. I worked for Lanon Baccam. I believed he would win. I went to a church gathering with people who are queer, disabled, old, parents of young children, scared.
There will be more, but sad and scared is what I am today.
My dog has been trying to keep us on our regular schedule. How do they know we are frustrated and exhausted? Fascinating that Dudley is high energy but sensitive, too. I really appreciated the Okoboji gathering and being around so many people who were at least mostly center or center left in political views. That was uplifting. In my county in central Illinois, we flipped the county board for the first time in anyone's memory (or maybe the 1940s). Democrats will run the county! We re-elected for the second time a Democratic Congressman, and Democrats in the Illinois House and Senate. We have worked so so hard for his. It is sad that are success is eclipsed by the confusing and heartbreaking Presidential race.
💙 wow!! Your county is an early adopter!! We achieved less, by far, but brought our share of the vote up 10 points from 2020 in every race we contested - and this time contested 4 of 5 possible . Looking for successes where we can find them!! We’ll aspire to central Illinois after we rest up!!
I simply shut down as the polls showed the obvious failures that were strung together as more and more votes dripped in. I couldn't bring myself toeven go and look at the election returns the next morning for the Representative races or the local elections fearing it would drive me even deeper into a depressive state. Fortunately quite time and a scheduled massage took my mind off the worst of it, and then when I got home I looked at my email, some people I don't know from Nebraska had asked if I would take pictures of a cabin that had belonged to relatives years ago, it was going to be sold and the open house was apporching. I happily took the photos and sent them as they had an illness that kept them from doing it themselves. The photos were sent and they responded that they had recieved them. And then they hit me with this:
Last night was a great night. I could not sleep without knowing TRUMP won, so we stayed up late to know the out come. Thanks again for all you have done.
I ripped them a response:
Why in God's name would you want a convicted criminal, a draft dodger, a traitor who communicates with our enemies and a man who was impeached twice, as President! As he said, this may very well be the last election you will vote in; he wants to be dictator like all the other people he looks up to! If you want to live like the people of North Korea or the Soviet Union, you are about to find out that what you voted for certainly isn't going to be what you expected! If he starts to assassinate his "enemies" just remember, many of those "enemies" are people who knew him best and closest as people who were in his cabinet! What they are guilty of is telling the truth of what they know about this madman. This fool had the audacity to call those of us who were fighting for this country in the many wars of late "losers and suckers"and he has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades! All the while he avoided responsibility for his own military service five times and then by finding a doctor who would give him an excuse not to serve! I did two years in Vietnam and I resent the people in this country who support this traitor for President then brag about waiting up half the night to see justice and democracy go down the drain as a result.
I feel much better now that I have unloaded my grivences on someone that deserves to hear my frustration with their ignorance!
Cannot believe he is now #47. The only option now is to pray and hope for the best. I still believe the 3 "assassination attempts" were not real. I think he panicked when Harris became his opponent instead of Biden, his numbers were not good, and he had to think of a way to gain sympathy votes. I could be all wet with my theory but I remember all the theories when JFK was assassinated. It was a huge topic in our English Lit class in my junior year.
Democracy died in a dump truck.
My poem for the day after:
I am
That Jack ‘o Lantern sitting on the curb
Hollowed out
Caved in
Bits of black mold
Nibbling my angles
I am just sitting
Slouching into fall’s detritus
Numbly submitting to excessive warmth
An orange gourd
Becoming a pool of black slime.
It's disturbing, to put it mildly. I have felt, since childhood, in Iowa and the US in general - underlying racism, deep misogyny, and an isolationist attitude that doesn't fit or feel morally right in a modern world. These ugly realities are more in the open now. I was born and raised in Iowa, but when I come "home" to assist with my elderly mother and use my out-of-state drivers license, I get negative remarks sometimes in stores from people who don't know me. Same with people who notice my car license plate. The Supreme Court decisions that divide states worsen, in my opinion, what a friend of mine calls "regional fascism" - loving your state and hating your neighbor state. It feels oddly excessive these days. There is a general air of grievance among many middle class and upper-middle class white people I know who have lovely homes, nice cars, a high quality of living, yet voice constant anger at the state of things. They are not hurting for good health care. They are not marginalized in opportunities. Yet they carry an air of grievance that is palpable. What is this all about? The echo chamber of Fox news and its fermenting of fear? Social media's addictive and misleading "guidance"? All of the above? Today is indeed a disturbing day. To put it mildly.
When I think of regional fascism, I think of the South, which today is not the South I grew up in, and a Supreme Court that looks a lot like the Confederacy. I got as far away as I could from Texas and two Texas presidents who presided over hideously destructive and unnecessary wars. Iowa has been a wonderful place to live and raise two children, but it's not what it was. When I arrived a quarter of a century ago, Iowa still led the nation in quality of education and college admissions test scores. No more. Be glad you've still got honest law enforcement.
Americans by and large are sick and tired of wars even if their putative leaders and the billionaires they serve are not. Many Americans still see genocide as a horrendous crime, thank God, and could not in good conscience vote for any candidate who has supported and armed the atrocities visited upon defenseless noncombatant women, children, the elderly, hospital patients, doctors and other medical personnel, UN workers, and journalists in their thousands.
There is plenty of accurate information available to any American who has the inclination and the time to find alternative media journalists and commentators who dare to speak truth to power. "What is all this about?" is not too difficult a question to answer. Prof. Rami Khouri answered it this morning on DemocracyNow! Prof. John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, the acknowledged dean of the realist school of international affairs, answers it several times a week in various alternative media venues as does Columbia University Prof. Jeffery Sachs. So too does Chris Hedges, the Pulitzer award winning New York Times Middle East bureau chief who was forced out for daring to criticize Official Washington's subservience to the bipartisan War Party. Reporter and author Max Blumenthal and his Grayzone co-host Aaron Mate draw huge audiences of younger viewers despite the social media algorithms that are intended to impede their efforts. I've mentioned just a few.
If you're not finding the answers you are looking for, maybe its time to expand the search area.
Thank you for all the good recommendations - I'm a daily Heather Cox Richardson reader, but clearly can expand my reading. The Palestinians are clearly on many of our minds - and not voting at all may have been a number of people's answer to the horror of those unchecked war crimes . I doubt that a large number of the people who voted for trump care at all what he does or doesn't do in terms of that conflict, though.
If you prefer a woman's perspective, Anya Parampil is an accomplished author, journalist, and commentator. Rachel Blevins, a 2017 Texas Tech, graduate, is making waves and headlines. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Karen Kwiatkowski graces Judge Andrew Napolitano's YouTube channel every week. I read Col. Ann Wright who served for 30 years in the U.S. Army and in the Dept. of State as a diplomat in countries such as Nicaragua, Somalia, Uzbekistan, and Sierra Leone. Col. Wright resigned in 2003 protest of the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq. I heard her speak several years ago in Northampton, Massachusetts. She gets it right. Again, just a few who speak truth about our government's hideously destructive and unnecessary wars.
Can't believe I left Brianha Joy Gray out of that last comment.
Very good questions
I avoided the news all night except for a small snippet when I first turned on my tv last night. I quickly changed the channel, but I caught the gist. It wasn't until noon when I finally faced the music, so I haven't mustered up the optimism some of us here have. I just can't find it.