Well, everything that I hoped would not happen has happened. Harris lost; Trump won.
Americans have shown themselves favoring ignorance and bombast over intelligence and competence. Trump l’Oeil (LARB).
I heard today more than one person say that Harris would ruin the economy even worse than it is.
Right now, the American economy is in better shape than most of the world.
Inflation in the United States is 2.4%.
Russia could experience inflation of 8% or slightly lower in 2024 - Deputy PM Novak
The UK inflation rate was 1.7 percent in September 2024, down from 2.2 percent in the previous month. Between September 2022 and March 2023, the UK experienced seven months of double-digit inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022...
Did we have double-digit inflation in 2022 or 2023?
Americans wanted what they had in 2020, before the pandemic. So does the rest of the world.
Unemployment rate rises to record high 14.7 percent in April 2020
Current Unemployment Rate and Other Jobs Report Findings: The current unemployment rate is 4.1%
I heard more than a few people say that prices were too high, that things were better under Trump. It seems that this feeling was widespread.
'It's simple, really' - why Latinos flocked to Trump's working-class coalition
"It's simple, really. We liked the way things were four years ago," said Samuel Negron, a Pennsylvania state constable and member of the large Puerto Rican community in the city of Allentown.
Mr Negron, and other Trump supporters in the now majority-Latino city, listed other reasons that their community was drifting towards Trump, including social issues and a perception that their family values now align more with the Republican Party.
The most common factor, however, was the economy - specifically, inflation.
"Out here, you pay $5 for a dozen eggs. It used to be $1, or even 99 cents," Mr Negron added. "A lot of us have woken up, in my opinion, from Democratic lies that things have been better. We realised things were better then."
We are now shown to the world as a people without any claim to critical thinking. This is a clear failure of American education, so read This course uses crime novels to teach critical thinking.
Mr. Negron's eggs cost that much thanks to the pandemic. If there are further consolidations of grocery stores and more food deserts, perhaps he will improve his critical thinking.
This becomes harder as the tasks of shared human aspiration and global survival become more decentralized, even as partisan differences show up more and more vividly. The presence of affective polarization in democratic nations has grown perceptibly since the turn of the millennium. This is the term political scientists use to describe negative feelings about political opponents. “Affective” because it is a matter of feeling: that the other side is not just divergent in views but beyond redemption, perhaps insane or evil. Actual policy differences may be less stark, but that does not matter when demonization of the other is the order of the day. People vote with their feelings. More drastically, they shape their worlds to fit those feelings. Division is as division does.
Maybe I will be alive in 4 years, or even 2 years, to see if there is buyer's remorse. Perhaps Billionaires For The Working Class will improve the lives of the workers. Perhaps Trump will put forward the child tax credit, which did much to improve working-class family lives, rather than more tax breaks for the Billionaire Club.
America is now Trump, and Trump is now America. I belong to an America that no longer exists - the one that believes in the Declaration and the law and Lincoln's better angels - where Americans did not whine but thought in terms of can do. We are now a nation of thumbsuckers, a people wanting to be ruled instead of governing themselves. Yep, Americans changed their vote like their overcoats and sent a limousine for Adolf Hitler:
We will see if there are elections in 2026.
If not, then Trump voters, thank you for killing American democracy.
Then we will need to see if there are elections in 2028.
If not, then Trump voters, thank you for killing American democracy.
See, you elected a man who despises the Constitution, violated his oath under that Constitution, and who wants to be a dictator, and has had the United States Supreme Court give him unlimited power. Lincoln thought not fighting secession violated his oath. Not even Nixon wanted to overthrow the Constitution. Maybe Trump is not the bloated bag of gas I see. If not, I will thank you for elevating such a creature to where he can do the most damage to our country.
I leave Mona Charen - not someone I would have once given any credence - the last word:
But those of us who see a second Trump presidency as a hinge moment of history—a fateful departure from what made us a great nation—there is a great deal more to see here. To follow Trump’s behavior closely is to feel that this election is not like any other. This outcome is not just suboptimal (as is every election in which your preferred candidate loses) but unthinkable. With this vote, Americans are turning their backs on basic decency, the founding documents, and the social contract. This lying cretin was seen a few days ago pantomiming fellatio on a microphone. It’s not as if his policy chops somehow counterbalance his vulgarity, cruelty, and self-absorption. His campaign promises consist of ludicrous proposals to magically balance the budget and eliminate the income tax through tariffs, to round up and deport 11 million or more people, and to solve foreign conflicts through his supposed power of intimidation (even as he contradicts this by constantly abjuring war).
The voters have chosen to elevate (for a second time) a cartoon character to the highest office in the land. From that perch, he will close down the federal cases against himself; pardon the January 6th “hostages” or “political prisoners” or whatever he’s calling them these days; appoint a series of toadies, fantasists, and low-lives to head the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Justice, and other agencies; and then set about firing most of the capable, responsible civil servants in the government to replace them with the likes of Steve Bannon, Steven Miller, Boris Epshteyn, and other loyal goblins.
Trump often derides the United States as a Third World country. Now he will start to transform us into one.
To be sure, many of the people who voted for Trump were not voting for what they will get. And still, it’s their fault for not doing their duty to shun him.
Grappling With the Catastrophe (The Bulwark)
Now, I will get to my fiction. I have spent enough time on politics without any sign that anyone has read or approved of what I have written here.
My concern now is with killing my resident rat, and getting on with my writing. I spent my time after work listening to Longmire. with an hour intermission for a nap, and short calls to DM and KH. I need to take a walk down to the convenience store. I am out of RC.
And there was another, more personal rejection, again for "Problem Solving":
Thank you for sharing your writing with Roanoke Review. While we are passing on this submission, we appreciate the opportunity to read your work and wish you the very best.
Sincerely,
The Editors
And I close with an old song from The Blasters:
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