Last year I spent three months waiting to see if I had cancer or not.
The doctors were all pretty sure I had it. And it was going to be the kind that I probably wouldn't survive. Then, they were finally able to complete a test and I woke up from the procedure and ... didn't have cancer. Just totally didn't have it. You can go, the doctor said. We don't need to see you again for ten years.
It took me a week to even process the relief. I'm not sure I still have.
As I noted on Threads, much of yesterday felt a lot like that three months.
I was hoping for a similar outcome.
Hoping I'd wake up and all would be well.
But...
Well, now we know who's who.
Now we know who our real friends and allies are. And who isn't.
I was going to ask: So, what was it this time?
What's the excuse this time?
Was it the price of eggs?
Cost of gas at the pump?
Wait, wait, she didn't have any ground game in swing states wah wah wah? Hated her laugh?
No, it's Gaza? Yeah, it's Gaza isn't it?
What's the excuse this time?
But, you know what? It turns out I honestly don't care. I mean, when it's terminal cancer, do you really care how you caught it?
I don't care what the excuse is this time around and ultimately, it doesn't matter anyway. Every single thing lefties claim they care about? In the end, none of it mattered enough.
And now, we've lost it all.
Donald Trump will decide our fate.
What? What's that?
Oh, we'll fight will we? It's not over! We...
Yeah, save it.
Just fucking save it, I'm not interested. The cancer is too far along.
You personally? Sure, you might have cared enough, but it turns out a lot of those we thought were on our side, those we thought would stand up for their own rights, just ... didn't. Not only didn't, but they appear to have thrown their lot in with Trump and are willing to let Elon Musk, Laura Loomer, RFK Jr, and the local Preacher Man run their lives. A lot of those women I saw in line yesterday? Apparently they did vote away their own rights.
No, no, I'm not blaming women. I blame Americans, all of us. That's who I blame.
I'm saying everyone knew what the stakes were, there was a record turnout and somehow 20 million less Americans voted this time and so we decided to reelect a twice impeached serial rapist currently out on bail for more than twenty felony convictions.
Why? I don't know. The reason doesn't much matter now anyway, does it?
You again? What now? Trump is going to what now?
LOL. No. Trump isn't going to jail. You can forget that pipe dream. Those who prosecuted Trump? Odds are, they'll be the ones going to prison.
Merrick Garland? You tell me he had to go slow, etc. Well, he went slow and I'm not a lawyer but I goddamn well know politics and I fucking told you so for whatever that's worth. Merrick Garland might have been right, but he still failed us worse and just as deliberately than any Benedict Arnold. Slow. Fuck me.
Oh, and all those MAGA insurrectionists Garland did lock up?
They're free on Jan 20, 2025. With a full pardon. Because if we didn't lock up the guy who led the insurrection, well, then nothing else matters and everything Garland actually accomplished is totally moot, erased, never happened, the guy might as well have never existed. He's a nebbish, history won't even remember his name.
And again, I did tell you so.
I told you so, but I was just pissing into the wind.
You already knew.
You knew.
We're going to see measles, polio, mumps, and the flu ravage our population again. Preventable diseases that were conquered decades ago are going to kill, blind, sterilize, and main our kids again. Me? I'm getting old, I probably won't survive whatever mismanaged pandemic comes next, unless horse dewormer up your ass actually does work this time.
They're going to drill and mine our national parks and frack our water.
They're going to tear down the wind turbines and solar panels and cook the planet.
They're going to ban same sex marriage and lock up LGBTQ people as insane, just like the Germans did back in the 1930s, or worse.
They'll round and deport 20 million people and it's going to leave such a massive hole in our economy that we might never recover, but Elon says you'll be fine after a couple of years of hardship. My dear old mom used to say: you can get used to hanging if you hang long enough. We're about to find out just how true that is.
Healthcare? Social Security? Gone. Hope you got plenty of savings to support you in your old age. What's that? Oh. Well, maybe you can sell a kidney then.
They're going to impose tariffs, give tax breaks to billionaires, give Trump direct control of the Fed, and Elon control of everything else, and utterly destroy the economy. The billionaires won't suffer, but you damn sure are going to.
They're going to put guns in every school right next to mandatory Jesus.
However bad you think it's going to be, it'll be worse.
But, you knew that.
Oh sure, eventually, a decade or so down the road, after the recession and the wars and the riots and the violence, just like those who voted for the Third Reich, those who voted for Trump are gonna get screwed by the very rapist they helped elect.
And, you know, I just don't care about that either.
Sure, they'll have it coming, but if I'm still around to witness their comeuppance (an unlikely event to be sure, but maybe I'll get lucky. If you can call living in that world luck) I'll feel neither joy at their misery nor sympathy for their suffering. Fuck 'em.
See, we're all going to get screwed right alongside them, the undeserving and the guilty alike, The Good and the bad Germans both.
Not just us, but all our friends too.
The war in Ukraine is over, Putin won last night. NATO and Europe are next.
The war in Gaza isn't over and won't be for a while, but the outcome is inevitable now. But hey, at least you have your principles, right?
Taiwan? South Korea? Oh well. So sorry. Sucks to be you.
If it's any consolation, it's gonna suck to be us too.
But again, you knew this.
I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know.
We all knew, but for a lot of lefties yesterday, well... here we are.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. You're mad at me now for saying so.
Be mad. It'll keep you warm when the power goes out.
I wish you were mad enough yesterday to show up.
And so here we are.
Trump isn't just going to be president again. He's going to be quite literally a dictator because there is absolutely nothing to hold him back this time. We handed him the White House, the Court, the Legislature, and total immunity. It's not just this latest election, it's all the ones that came before too.
You need to face what that means.
He's going to take revenge on us. He's going to do what he said he would do. He's going to destroy everything you love. You knew that, and it wasn't enough. You're going to have to face it.
Trump is going to burn down the world and maybe that's what it'll finally take.
That's what the far left progressives shouted at me back in 2016: burn it all down. Burn it all down.
Burn it all down. Burning it all down isn't the moral high ground, it's just arson and people die in a fire, but again here we are and careful what you wish for. Because now it is all going to burn and I hope those who started this fire get everything they've got coming to them. And who knows, maybe they're right. Maybe when we're squatting in the ruins, covered ash, maybe then it'll be enough to get you to show the fuck up. Or not.
What should you do? What should any of us do?
I don't know.
I don't know. I'm out of ideas.
I'm old. I'm tired. I'm worn out from this fight. More, I'm worn out from sounding the alarm and watching it fall on deaf ears.
What to do?
Flee maybe. Get out while you can, if there's some place that'll take people who didn't give enough of a fuck about their own fate to change it when they had the chance. Hopefully Europe won't turn away desperate Americans fleeing fascism like we did to the Jews fleeing Germany back in the 1930's. But, hey, if they do, well, you can't really blame them can you?
But, again, again, and again, you knew all this.
Yes, you did. And now? Grim? Depressing? Panic attack? You knew it would come to this if you didn't show up. And it wasn't enough. Why? Why wasn't it enough? What's the excuse this time? Like I said above, I don't know and I don't care, but I'm sure we're going to hear all about it anyway and why those of us who actually did care, who sounded the alarm claxon over and over, and who actually did show up are somehow to blame.
See you in the camps.
I'll be the guy drinking prison wine with Hillary.
I wonder if it's mother nature's way of hastening things along...
ReplyDeleteMDH has long said that humans are a virus on the face of Gaia and one day, She will have had enough and that will be the end of that.
Deletethank you Chief. I am with Her and Her forever.(SunshineSally)
DeleteLargest turnout ever with 20M less votes. Seems a little fishy doesn’t it? :)
DeleteThank you for putting everything I was feeling into words. Most of people who have voted for him have no idea of its future implications and ramifications.
DeleteWelcome to Germany 1934.
DeleteWelcome to Germany 1934,
DeleteThis is different in a more heinous way. Hitler won 34% of the vote in 1932. He came to power via the Night of the Long Knives. Trump doesn’t need a coup, he IS the coup. Like the line in Gladiator, “Rome IS the mob” “He will bring them death and they will love him for it”. More than half the country will cheer his every move. There will be no stopping him. Yes, I voted, but I have had this hollow feeling for months. I just KNEW this was going to happen and felt powerless to stop it. America loves a winner. They worship winning. Until they lose…BIGLY.
DeleteWhere is James Earl Ray when you needed him!
DeleteWhere the hell are all those illegals who were going to be bused in by the radical left wing lunatics? Huh? I haven’t heard a thing about them. Strange. Oh wait. Nope. It’s crickets.
DeleteI want to cry, but I fear that if I start I won't be able to stop.
ReplyDeleteI am crying, and I can’t stop.
DeleteYes, I'm afraid to start crying also. I keep thinking it hasn't hit me - yet - but it will.
DeleteYou won't, trust me
DeleteI've been crying off and on.
DeleteI haven't got it in me to cry. I'm just so numb. It's a bad dream. The last time I felt like this was when it was clear that COVID was really the pandemic we feared and that people were going to die. I don't think this is coincidence.
DeleteI cried the first time. I have no more tears left to shed. I’m just numb with no fucks left to give either.
Deleteat 74 I feel I been losing this fight since i was 14...
DeleteI will give myself a couple days to grieve. Then I am entering Resistance Warrior mode for the next four goddamn years.
DeleteGood comment to remember from Andy Borowitz, Satirist for the NYT.
Delete“Remaining silent and surrendering to despair is exactly what fascists want us to do. So let’s not.”
Personally,I’m not going to make it easy for them. I’m donating monthly to the ACLU. They will need LOTS of additional lawyers. May be moot once things reach the sheisty Supreme Court, ut I refuse to make it easy for them!
I’m devastated. Flew to PA to vote in person to make sure it counted. Thank you for your work, Jim, including this column. I wish America had more citizens like you.
ReplyDeleteI wish we has more citizens like YOU. Thanks for voting.
DeleteSave some wine for me.
ReplyDeleteYou were right every step of the way. You were also clear in what we should do. We failed at absolutely everything. I'm just trying to remember to breathe at this point. I thank you for trying to help us save ourselves, and I am so very sorry we were not strong enough to do it.
ReplyDeleteWelp, here we are. Turns out common sense isn't as contagious as we hoped. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but watching people roll out the red carpet for a circus act again? Not exactly shocking. I guess it’s all about making America 'great' enough to frack our way into oblivion and bring back medieval diseases. Who needs rights or a planet anyway, right?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I’m just waiting for the day we all get issued matching tin hats and 'Thought Approved by Elon' badges. Maybe they'll throw in a 'Make Dysentery Great Again' starter kit to really complete the vibe. And hey, at least we’ll have 'freedom'—the kind where we’re free to watch everything go up in flames while the billionaires cheer from their private islands.
Guess I'll see you on the other side, wine in hand, while they pat themselves on the back for electing the guy who’ll ensure we’re all living in a Mad Max reboot. Cheers to the apocalypse, I guess!
I've long said that common sense... isn't common.
DeleteYou said exactly what I was thinking. But I don’t know if I’m glad I’m not alone. I always wondered how POWs survived prison camps. I’m afraid I’m too old to find out.
ReplyDeleteSad but true. Belize is nice.
ReplyDeleteI used to say the U.S. should remain united as a counter to Russia and China. Looks like it didn't make a difference. We've just joined the axis of evil. Splitting off the left coast looks like a good idea now. Sorry about the country East of the mountains though. (And yes, we'll keep the Tridents, Gov. Ferguson can be the president with the third largest nuclear arsenal on the planet).
ReplyDeleteAnd here I am in Ohio. They also put every MAGA they could in Congress. There will be no more elections. I have no passport, no where to go and we’ll lose our income.
DeleteYou said it. You said it clearly and accurately for years. YEARS. Thank you for standing up and I'm devastated that the convicted felon was chosen. The Dems ran an excellent campaign and lost because not enough people cared. There is no schadenfreude here, just a weary disbelief. I'm a bit younger, I'll keep fighting. But not today. Nor tomorrow. I'm too tired. (I'll smuggle a bottle of wine in when I visit.)
ReplyDeleteRight again, Chief. And many of us agree with you all the way. I'm too old to plan for a lovely future (age 90), but I sure hope my kids and grands manage to live thru the upcoming apocalypse. I used to think that Americans were smart people; I have changed my opinion completely, and now an ashamed of the really dumb people we have living here.
DeleteYou're right, Jim. I didn't like to read what you wrote, but the truth hurts. I urged others to "vote Blue like our lives depend on it!". Some scoffed but many agreed, and we voted. Today, I am grief-stricken. It feels like a death.
ReplyDeleteYup. Transwoman here, voted early by mail. Grew up in America. Been here my whole life. Never, not ever, did I think I would have to worry about seeking political asylum. Today, I started making plans in case I have to do just that. Odds are that this is less of an if and more of a when sort of situation, and I've been weighing just how long I can risk waiting before rabbiting. Will April be too late? What about February? Just how fast is my existence going to be made illegal?
ReplyDeleteThese are not questions an American should ever have to ask.
God bless you!
DeleteMany of us are now considered to be "the enemy within". I wonder how long it will take trump's Army to reach my home to put me in a concentration camp for re-education as Mao did in 1949.
Delete💙
ReplyDeleteYou are correct on all counts. I showed up and did my part and did what I could including voting but it doesn't matter now. This country and this planet are doomed. I wish it weren't so but here we are. Thanks for nothing, Hillary and Kamala haters. We could have had a woman leader but now women will never again be allowed to run, let alone work outside their prisons.
ReplyDeleteI’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that he got more votes this time with the seething, oily, tentacled evil he surrounded himself with. People are crowing about how they’ll be able to afford gas and house payments and my god are they even listening? Trump’s camp is saying the exact opposite.
ReplyDeleteThe damned thing is that he didn't get more votes than 2020. He got like three million fewer. But Harris was left fifteen million short of Biden's 2020 results. This is 100% a result of people just not showing up.
DeleteRegarding the ten to fifteen million people who voted for Biden last time but didn't show up this time, I have no answers. They are people who most likely knew how bad Trump is, but still couldn't be bothered to show up and stop him. I cannot and will not ever understand that.
DeleteRegarding Trump supporters however, they aren't listening because they don't live in reality. They never hear the bad things trump says. They never see his frequent senior moments. They never see anything but the carefully created image of him put out by Fox and other right-wind media. Trump will take away their rights and livelihood but Fox will tell them they're really getting really freedom, America is the greatest country on Earth, and unfortunately they'll eat it right up and ask for more. We can't reach them and I don't think we ever will.
I showed up, I did my civic duty and voted for her. I am leftist and I did the damn thing because I knew it was duty to do so. I am tired too, tired of trying to show people, to explain to people, but they refuse to listen.
ReplyDeleteSad that you're right, sad that this did happen, there will be no bright side to look at. Anyway, I tried and you tried in a superhuman way, thanks once more for trying to give shit and slap around some folks who needed (still do!) it badly.
ReplyDeleteHoney, I'm pretty sure I'm older than you are and I'm immunocompromised. The only good thing about all this is that now maybe I'll just die of covid or something else contagious but for vaccines. That way I won't outlive my Social Security.
ReplyDeleteYup.
DeleteYou were right...I showed up EARLY and I feel like I've been flushed down the bleeping toilet.
ReplyDeleteI can't argue with any of this. I've been sending out the clarion call for 8 years. No, decades. But no one listened. But I will fight, and I'm old, but I figure, like Shindler, if I can save a few, I'll go out with at least that on my heart.
ReplyDeleteTrying to figure out how I can "save a few". Suggestions appreciated. Marsha outside Philly
DeleteDamn right, Chief.
ReplyDeleteFirst they came for the communists, but I did not speak up because I wasn't a Communist....
Yep, and we are the "enemy within" now. How soon will trump's Army come to get us?
DeleteI’m terrified of what’s coming, and I live in that trembling country north of you.
ReplyDeleteNone of this makes sense. Roe/wade was enough, on its own, to secure a win. It didn’t. We just voted in the most dystopian SF horror story… and now we live it. Good luck to all.
It's exactly as you (and I and a few others have) said. If he does even half of what he said before they Article 25 him in favor of Vance and his handlers, we will no longer be a Democracy.
ReplyDeleteYes. Just yes. You have kept me sane over last four years. Am not even American.
ReplyDeleteMay I drink wine with you and Hilary, PLEASE!
ReplyDeleteI've been right there beside you all along.
I'm a 65 year old white woman, and I don't think i have much fight left in me.
We will be homeless, as SS will be gone.
I'm inconsolable!
Me, too. 😢
DeleteI agree with all of you. I've been sharing your posts for years and shouting at everyone I know for years. I talked to all my friends and family especially in the swing states (whose votes actually count) and gave them tons of information and some did go out and vote accordingly. But I know from the ones who weren't forthright and the family members who have been part of the cult since 2016 that they voted to destroy our country. I'm severely disappointed and have already cried many times and will cry some more, even though I know it won't change things. Thanks for helping us keep sane. I hope there is lots of prison wine in the camps.
DeleteI absolutely hate when you are right.
ReplyDelete100% truth. I spent all morning comforting my 22 year old son and 21 year old daughter who DID understand the risk, and the stakes .. but in the end it just didn't matter.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I think American liberals crawl up their own butts and die. Or reinvent themselves like Jerry Rubin did - sell out - hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em right? We're going to find out that Americans are every bit as nimble as the Germans were at adapting themselves under Hitler. It'll be quite a site to see the former rabble rousers getting jobs as clerks in the concentration camps.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jim for saying exactly what I was feeling better than I could have.
ReplyDeleteYou and a few others have helped keep me sane over the last few years. I follow you but just figured out how to comment. Today I appreciate your anger and your words. I've always appreciated your photography. Thank you .
ReplyDeleteI never knew the cancer had spread this far and wide. Kept telling people that I believe Americans are better than that. What bubble was I living in?
ReplyDeleteKnow a well educated university prof who’s same sec partners Palestinian and wasn’t going to vote for Harris because Biden/Palestine/they’re no better than Trump. Adamantly wasn’t going to vote. Protest baby.
ReplyDeleteWell, let’s see how that’s going to work out.
There is a saying in German speaking countries which goes something like:
ReplyDelete"Only the dumbest calves choose their own butchers"
Looks like there are a lot of dumb calves in the USA.
Any bets on how long the Orange Führer is actually on office? They’re going to 25A him after the inauguration and you’ll have President Couch F****r and Vice President Musk Melon
ReplyDeleteAh yup. I needed to clear my head this morning and walked a mile or so to our local town market. It's a very warm November day here. I got to the market around 8:30. Just the staff inside. Quietly going about their tasks. The deli clerk is my neighbor. She's about my age (early 60's). She looked at me, then glanced at the clerk at the other counter, leaned close and whispered "I'm terrified!". I got it. All I could say to her was "The sun rose this morning... we'll move forward." The woman, also about my age, at the checkout counter always talked "liberal" to me; I supposed that she had some wherewithal about her on current events. We chatted for a moment, then she quietly announced that she went for Trump. I paused. She went on that she really did not like either candidate, but "...thought it was time for a bully in the White House". I asked her if she saw Trump's first 4 years, but she just brushed it off with "I'm afraid of what China is going to do to us!". I just smiled, grabbed me bag and left. My head was no clearer than when I went in.
ReplyDeleteAll I can see from this election is: Fear won by people too... stupid? to pay attention. Ignore the man behind the curtain; just tremble before me! Buy the con.
And they did. Across the spectrum. Young, old, male, female, brown, white. They all bought the con.
I have yet to evaluate how badly >I'm< going to be fucked. White, male. Early 62, retired, collecting social security. Legally married to a black man who has 3 more years to go (for the moment) before he can retire.
There is no place to go. No country we can flee to that isn't one toxic vote away from their own destruction of democracy. Canada is teetering. France? Italy? Spain?
Anyhow. I have nothing else. No suggested next steps.
Still processing.
Rad
Yeah. I had at least the consolation of the popular vote in 2016 to know the majority did not vote for him. And divided government. And I know many Republicans 'held their nose' and voted for him with the belief he'd be a lame duck and have a D house to thwart him and then let's do better in 3028. I hope they feel the effects of that choice 1st and hardest.
ReplyDeleteThank you for putting into words that I at this time cannot.....priviledged to be able to raise a glass with you in the aftermath. Good luck~
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry.. I voted for Harris/Walz.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could just curl-up and quit. Maybe fight till the end. Or barring all of that, walk into the fire with my head held high. But I have a trans-son I need to take care of. I listened, I fought, but not enough cared, and my kid will pay the price, is paying the price. I served for 8 years in the Navy, fighting for a better world, a better country. I served for 20 years in law enforcement, trying to make a difference. Now I just need to hold my son and hope I can protect him.
ReplyDeleteI can't reconcile the numbers in my head, and my faith in humans is nearly gone. Your words matter. Am sorry.
ReplyDeleteIs this where we declare the Election was stolen, assemble at the Capital in mobs wearing paramilitary gear, carrying bludgeons, knock a few heads together, set up a gallows and try to overthrow the Election in another "love fest"? Some casualties may occur, but we can assuage our guilt with f*cking blue porch lights to signal our support for the police.
ReplyDeleteDon't risk commenting--my government file goes back to 1965. Maybe even further since Dad was CIA.
Great points all around. One thing is that we didn’t have a record turnout. Fewer votes were cast than in 2020. Which makes sense with all of the mail in votes we had then. Trump is getting around the same number as last time. Harris is millions behind Biden.
ReplyDeleteWhy the F are you blaming those of us that did show up, that voted, that donated, that talked to everyone we could about this??? That's as bad as those asshats who did vote for him. You get some kind of enjoyment out of horrifying people further, and getting to say "told ya so!"??? Shame on you Jim for making it even worse! I'm very angry too, and I'll need several days to simmer down, but I'm not lashing out at anyone, except you.
ReplyDeleteTry reading the essay again. Particularly the last few paragraphs.
Delete// Jim
Don’t shoot the messenger, Jim isn’t sinking a boot into those that voted Democrat and the liberals he mentions, like the University Professor in one of the comments that abstained, is neither an act of intelligence or courage. I am so grateful here in Australia we make voting compulsory and election day is on a weekend and voting stations are absolutely everywhere. We have had our fair share of knuckle walking mouth breathers, but what Trump voter have done is completely immoral, and as Jim also said, will effect the world over. Americas pain is everyone’s pain, Jim has just given words to that pain.
DeleteGranddaughters are Gen Z. They all voted for their first time in a Presidential election. One texted me this morning to tell me she's wiped out but is already planning on being active in '26. I'm old, it's unlikely that I will see a female president in what's left of my lifespan. But maybe my daughters and granddaughters will. Thanks for your analysis. I honestly believe the results are due to a combination of misogony and racism. And, yes, even women can buy into misogony.
ReplyDeleteIs there going to be a '26?
DeleteThe results are due to Americans overwhelmingly rejecting woke agenda. It's really that simple.
DeleteI've been echoing you, literally, for years. I read every word of Project 2025 and many more writings by the MAGAt crowds, and tried to warn my friends and family. I guess my name is Cassandra.
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry, Jim. We showed up (husband and me), voted and hoped and prayed. Didn’t work this time either. Have lost faith in the process altogether. We have jokingly talked about moving out of the country, probably won’t but not because we don’t want to. I’m scared
ReplyDeleteI'm sad and angry and fearful, not for me, I know what I look like, but for my kids and grandkids, my nieces and nephews, my female friends, my queer friends...and I will never forget nor forgive my, so-called friends who voted for this fucking travesty. My rage is boundless and also meaningless...fuck.
ReplyDeleteIt won't make one difference but I'm wearing black in mourning for this experiment that's been sold. I did my best to give my kids a better world. Showed up, volunteered, but in the end greed, grift & power won. They'll come for all of us, it's just a matter of time.
ReplyDeleteI'm just going to say thank you for all you have written and done. That's it; that's all. Thank you, Jim.
ReplyDeleteThis Canadian has watched in horror. Sadly people didn't own their situation allowing others to command their ship and now that ship has run the other ships aground. Hope they can swim.
ReplyDeleteWould you please scooch over a bit and let me join you and Hilary on the bench. I'll bring more booze.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to say this, but, I agree with Mr Woodbury. Split off the West Coast, build a wall, and do what we can. It will not save the planet but it might give our children a few more years to live.
ReplyDeleteCan the northeast come too?
DeleteI just read this to my husband. We voted, wrote out postcards, posted stick ups in restrooms, posted online, got friends and family to vote. Still not enough. Today I will console friends who are in disbelief. Like you I also live in a red county in Florida and hoped those long lines of early voters was a positive sign. I dread the days ahead and the future for my grandchildren if there is one.
ReplyDeletePainfully true. I was asked how I feel. I said I think I feel like the smarter German Jews felt in 1933.
ReplyDeleteI was recently diagnosed with cancer, so Trump winning is just devastating! I'm getting old, but I have children and grandchildren who may suffer the consequences of this election more than me. I never thought Americans would election this fascist, wannebe dictator again.
ReplyDeleteThe first time he was elected I had just been diagnosed with cancer. His election was definitely more shocking and stressful. I'm cancer free now (knock on wood), but a few years ago I thought it had come back. I was terrified, not because of the cancer but because I knew the pain of the treatment. I didn't want to go through all that suffering again not knowing if I would survive another round. The first time I just plowed ahead with some fear, but not the overwhelming stress. I didn't know what the next day would bring. Now I do.
ReplyDelete30 years active duty and 14 deployments for this? I guess I am the sucker/loser.
ReplyDeleteI had turned the tv off last nie and was sitting in the dark with a glass of scotch. Trying to sort out my grief and my anger at short sighted people. My newly adult grandchildren all called from their colleges. They love doing a 3-way call to home. They had all had voted for the first time, and had partied with all their friends at voting parties. 1500 miles from home, they were all sitting alone, in their dorm rooms, in the dark. "Gram, we're not gonna make it in this election are we??" I've never once lied to those kids. And I didn't last nite. It broke my heart to have to give them the truth. I would move heaven and earth to keep them from being hurt. I pretty much told them just about everything you wrote Jim. it was a bit shorter. But I ripped off the bandage. We talked until cell phones were losing power on their end. My final words were "sleep, then get up in the morning and do what you have to do, the best you can, one step at a time". It was worse feeling than when I saw on tv those planes go into the towers in New York .... when the Supreme Court turned back Roe v Wade ... and when that POS came down the escalator years ago. Damn it, I hate us all being right ....
ReplyDeleteUpstairs here in Canada it’s like living over a meth lab. We know we’re okay in the short-term, but our asses are gonna get burned when the lab goes up in flames.
ReplyDeleteY’all fucked this one up, royally. Maybe the Brits do need to take over.
I am flabbergasted that ANYONE would vote for Trump! Can't they see what he is? And JD Vance is even worse, since he's young...
ReplyDeleteFreckles
All of this. Every little bit, because people don't realize how bad this will be. I've voted Dem in every election since Mondale and in tons of smaller elections. I thought about warning people but I don't have the platform and am not a man. No one believed me.
ReplyDelete26+ years , when we moved to the USA I saw what I have always remained to see:: the patriarchy ( boy's sport as important as education) , the bigotry ( sex ed will never teach other than hetrosexuality), the amount of uneducated people so unaware of the world outside this country. I had hopes this would change in the years to come, but when 9/11 happened I realized how out of the world Americans are. They will invade countries, start wars , but somehow they were unable to comprehend the hatred they brought that creates terrorists. I knew this country would never evolve after that. Unbridled wealth has given right wing Christians power to dumb down the masses even more. Can't say they have not learned from history as history has always been taught as a glorification of America . When the amount of flags determine your patriotism you need to wonder what " America" really is. It's not that piece of cloth but the people. People that have failed to adapt to the changes of time
ReplyDeleteThe ancestors of those Indigenous Nations, Countless Black people stolen from their Lands, Mexicans & Asians, their blood & bones were the foundation of this "Nation" - chickens have come home to roost. Ancestors will have their revenge. America is over, the Slave owning Founders are Over, the Constitution stolen from the Iroquois Over, the States stolen from Mexico Over. This Nation is over. Indigenous prophecies coming true. White Men & White Women voted in MASS for the Orange Pig. Republicans for Harris LIED to your face they'll vote for Harris. Even Democratic Women voted for Trump. That's how much Whites hate Black people.
ReplyDeleteOne million percent, all of thisrr and when you can.. Duck and cover, be prepared, help when you can. This is going to suck for everyone; until these jerks faces are eaten by Leopards, they won't learn. Until it happens to someone they care about personally, they won't care. It doesn't feel like humanity, anymore.
ReplyDeleteTrump is old and clearly in bad shape. Is there any betting pool yet on how long we have until Vance takes over the show to push his agenda, either through the 25th amendment or otherwise?
ReplyDeleteThank you for all you've done Chief
ReplyDeleteWhat you did, what so many did, it should have been enough.
And by rights it should not have been needed at all.
I no longer have family as they almost all support conservatives. In some weird twist, I blame them for this, for not seeing what I see. I will not have relationships with people who do not see me as a human being.
ReplyDeleteBeing from beyond the pond, we only have to shrug our shoulders, do business with eachother and stand firm for Ukraine and against Putin (and Xi). Trump have already said what he is gonna do, aka, destroy American economy, change the constution and invoke an everlasting legacy. "If you vote for me you will never have to do it again". Now he can with all the branches of power by his side. We just wonder how can this dumb motherf... get elected? How can anyone vote for a man that lied 33 000 times last time around. How can people vote for a hater of all human. How can people vote for a man that promises a better economy but will create a worse one.
ReplyDeleteHow come people don't understand that the bad economy isn't bad, greater GDP then ever, lowest unemployment in 50 years, salaries growing, inflation down..it is mind boggling that facts do not matter, note even when it is the economy (for the stupid?):
Well, we beyond your border might just don't give a damn in the end. Good luck living in the US if Trump's ideas get done.
Noting the time posted...11:11. I am waiting for thu numb to wear off. Not sure my jaw will ever be lifted off the floor. We left the US several months ago, in anticipation of this potential, now real, travesty. The tears are welled behind my eyes. I feel like I'm in mourning. I served in the Air Force for 26 years...never once thinking we would be taken to this hell by one, single man-child.
ReplyDeleteI'm inclined to say, "I've never been more ashamed to be an American than I am now," until I remember the sacrifices preceding generations have made in the name of all that's good about this country. Too many people got lazy, crazy, complacent or ignorant of the real world, and so the nation listened to its lesser angels and now here we are. You know who I feel most sorry for, though? Those stalwarts fighting for their own freedoms in Ukraine and other parts of the world, who were counting upon Americans to understand and support their cause. So much suffering and hopes, and now what? Survival mode...
ReplyDeleteI wish I could leave this country, though I'm not sure where I could go. But I have an autistic son to look after. So I guess I'm not going anywhere, at least not until they round me up with the "vermin" and political opposition. The one good thing is that my son is not really able to follow what is going on. So he will stay oblivious and hopefully be spared from watching what happens next.
ReplyDeleteThanks for hanging in there, Jim. That's all I can manage for now.
ReplyDeleteI'll save you a seat in the camps.
You did all you could. Rest easy for tonight, warrior. Tomorrow's fight is for tomorrow. We'll continue to try to support the marginalized and the fearful. I, at least, will continue to proclaim the Gospel as it was before it was bastardized into the travesty presented in the pulpits now.
ReplyDeleteI am very disappointed in my country right now.
I would leave the country if I could afford it.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I'm ready to start reading up on Germany and Hitler to see if there's anything we can do to push back or help ourselves.
It's a lot to realize more than half the country is ok handing nuclear weapons to a demented madman. Welcome to the newest shithole country.
We are witnessing the birth of the Fourth Reich. Like the last one, this one will end badly also. After the dust settles, will the survivors be scrounging around garbage dumps like in some apocryphal movie?
ReplyDeleteI am a lifelong Democrat, 40 years. I voted all red yesterday. I'm a straight, white, male. I'm Christian. I'm tired of hearing about how terrible I am, so I don't listen anymore. Almost everyone I know personally (anecdotal, I'm aware) voted against the Democrat party more than they voted for Trump....myself included. The current Democratic party isn't mine; it doesn't represent me. It's full of hate and it's been pushed so far to the left that it's unrecognizable. You folks sat in a bubble telling yourself how superior you were, and you lost, overwhelmingly. We'll see if you learn the lesson or continue down this same path.
ReplyDeleteIn solidarity. Older person looking at a life probably cut short for me and others like me. People continue to lean into their animal instincts when we could rise up to amazing heights.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing is, the people who voted for a future would prefer to leave but those who brought this catastrophe upon us are perfectly happy to live in a country controlled by these fascists. I'd almost prefer they deport all the Democrats & we could leave them to their fate. I don't know how I'll endure thru 4 more years of bullshit, much less how everyone on the right side of history will cope.
ReplyDeleteI am actually a republican and even I voted for kamala this year as that was how important this was. We failed as a country.
ReplyDeletei have only two things to add, a clarification on LGBTQIA+ and "power goes out".
ReplyDeleteThere was a book I had that talked about being gay in Germany, and about the survivors who made it out of the concentration camps. It was years down the line that a few here and there spoke of their experiences. And the hardest hitting part was that they could never trust their fellow citizens in any real meaning. They'd been betrayed too deeply and lost far too much to fully recover. None of them ever talked about what went on in the camps in any great detail.
The other thing about the power going out. Well, people when Jim says that, he means it. Just look at Texas.
We are all Texas now, when it comes to how government treats its citizens come 2025 onward.
Everything you've said is accurate. I'm tired, too, and old. At 70, it's highly doubtful I'll live long enough to see this ship righted. I hope my son emigrates.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to TRUMPTOPIA. 🤮🤮🤮🤮
ReplyDeleteBack in 2016, I had the sick feeling I was witnessing the death blow to the concept of America I'd always believed in, even if it would take a few years to fall down. Well, last night was the thud...
ReplyDeleteThere may still be a faint pulse, but it could just be rigor mortis setting in.
I have nowhere to go. No money, no job skills. I supported what I could, gave money where I could, voted whenever a ballot showed up. The evil was just too strong, too coordinated, too well funded. My voice is never loud enough to be heard, my words never useful.
I really want to believe there is still something I can do, but right now all I see is a future with no place for me and my family to survive, one I don't think I could stand to experience even if we could... apparently, by not being overtly hateful misogynistic cultists, we are the "enemy within" that will be eliminated.
Chief, I am genuinely disappointed in my fellow Americans. I am at a loss for the appropriate response, so I will resort to silence. Thanks for your understanding sir, I don't like posting profanity laced posts. Even now, where it could be construed appropriate. Come around to my cell block, will share some pruno with you.
ReplyDelete82 years old with coronary artery disease,type two
ReplyDelete