2024 Election Postmortem

Since the Republicans won all three houses of the government, and have staffed the judiciary with their operatives, Democrats have engaged in a discussion of why they did so poorly.  Its taken a while for things to become clear, but there is enough evidence to move forward with provisional conclusions.

As an aside, the NY Times revealed today, five weeks after the election, that the Biden administration oversaw the greatest immigration surge in American history.  A little late in the day for a major tool of corporate America to come clean on this issue, dont you think?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/11/briefing/the-largest-immigration-surge-in-us-history.html

Why did they wait until now to say so?  Why did the Democrats not have a policy on both legal and illegal immigration beyond saying "Hey, we dont want to talk about it?"  Or "the Republicans are freaking out about something that is not a real issue".  But the reality turns out to be that immigration is objectively a very real, historical issue and yet I dont even know what Harris' position on immigration is.  The Republican strategy of blocking the bipartisan bill on this topic was clearly a winning move and the Democrats are, as always, too weak to do anything and the American electorate is not interested in the "We tried" excuse.

The Republicans also ran on the economy.  Here, again, the Democrats seem to have been in some weird reality of their own.  They kept saying "The economy is fine, dont worry" but everyone I know who isnt in the top 20% think that prices have exploded in the last few years.  Which makes the incumbent responsible for the economy no matter whose fault it is.

A third issue is the area of competence, or which party seems to listen and then get things done. It is extremely clear that the Republicans have acted with diligence and obstinacy to achieve their goals, from corrupting the judiciary, defunding the government to supporting any authoritarian dictatorship.  The Democrats, not so much.

There are several other explanations that have been proposed for this election result.  It is said that Biden abdicated too late in the cycle for voters to get to know Harris.  It is said that by the very structure of the situation that Harris was essentially the incumbent and that the electorate was in an anti-incumbent mood.  Both of these seem plausible to me although it is hard for me to gauge how important they were.  Beyond that, however, the democrats were clearly the party of identity politics even when that meant active discrimination against white candidates. So why was there any surprise when white people voted against democrats?    The democrats were the party of hard core transexual rights, even for minors without parental approval.  That seems like a really weird policy to me if you want to get people who are parents to vote for you.

The democrats were the party of abortion rights.  Now I keep reading that this is an important issue, and I think it is but clearly it did not win elections.  In fact between two women's issues: abortion and a woman candidate for president, it does not seem as though women turned out overwhelmingly for democrats.  Maybe I wont have to hear too much about the "women's vote" in the future?  No  I think I will be hearing about this for the rest of my life no matter what the data says.

The American people did not seem to object to a leader who is a pig, a rapist, a convicted felon and so forth. A traitor and a pig.  All that stuff from Republicans about "character" has been BS all along.  This is not a surprise to me, and I hope it is not a surprise to you either.   Nixon seems like a fine, outstanding scholar compared to Trump.

So maybe the Republican positions are egregious and offensive.  Maybe they are pandering to the worst segments of the American people.  Maybe so, but they seem to win elections and while there are lots of flaws in the American Republic, and voter suppression, and weirdnesses in the way red states organize and vote in order to keep the people from being able to affect their government, nevertheless they seem to have won, in the aggregate, this last election.

Like all good proto-fascist societies, America seems to be in that phase where only power matters.  That is what the Republicans have proven time and time again since November 2000 and the Democrats never seem to learn.  The democrats will not listen to Bernie Sanders, or to AOC, nor will they fight Trump and all his works.  The Democrats had a chance to make judicial term limits a reality but they could not be bothered.  They do not have the courage of their convictions.

So why bother to elect a democrat?  Whats the point?  They want to rule in some sort of fantasy past where America was semi-bi-partisan, a world very different from today.  So electing a democrat seems to me to have no raison d'etre.

Image courtesy of Midjourney

All the Ways the Democrats Failed

One benefit of the Trump victory is that it may finally put an end to the Democratic party.  I have been tired of these people for a long time now.  Here are just a few data points.

- It was Bill Clinton who started off the whole globalization thing with NAFTA

- The Democrats did nothing to prevent the right-to-work bullshit.

- When McConnell stole the supreme court slot of Merrick Garland, the Democrats did nothing.

- It was Obama who bailed out the financial system in a way that rewarded the rich and left the poor hanging.

- When Hilary ran, it was clear that she was only interested in helping her rich friends on Wall Street.  

- The only reason I voted for her was because Bernie Sanders, the independent I supported, asked all his supporters to vote for her.

- When subsidies and tax breaks destroyed the domestic visual effects industry, the Democrats did nothing. 

- In the first two years of the Biden Administration, we could have ended the filibuster and added term limits to the supreme court but the democrats could not be bothered.

- When the supreme court installed Bush Jr as president, Al Gore and the Democrats did not complain or in any way fight.  They just rolled over.

- When the Republicans were stuffing the supreme court with obviously unqualified candidates, the Democrats did nothing.

- Most of all, Merrick Garland refused to act to prosecute Donald Trump for his crimes.  

- There are many other issues, including climate change and health care.

The Democrats have proven time and time again they dont have the desire to fight for us.  They should have shut the government down rather than just kicked the can down the road.

Images courtesy of Midjourney

Vegan Corn Chowder

- saute 1/4 onion, 1 small red pepper and 1 stalk celery in olive oil for 10 minutes, slowly

- add 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp fresh thyme, 1 tsp dry thyme, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 3 garlic cloves and saute for 1 minute  (also 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes if you have them)

- add 5 cups soup stock

- add 5 cups frozen or other corn

- add 10 or so small potatoes chopped

- add 3./4 can coconut milk

- cook for 15 minutes or so

- add salt and pepper

- blend about 1/2 the soup and return to main pot.

Notes on the Situation

 

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, America has chosen a convicted rapist and known nutty boy as president and they did it fully aware of what was involved.  They voted for him (and some of his colleagues) because they want to destroy the country.  It is a beautiful nihilist moment and they could not care less about democracy or women's rights and they really dont care about trans rights, get a fucking clue democrats. 

The supreme court is dead.
The democratic party is dead.
The maniac has a plan and a lot of dedicated morons who want to help.
They think crimes against humanity is just ducky.

I could go on but whats the point.

If I ever wanted to run for political office, the opposition could use my blog and email to destroy me.
I dont have the resources or street cred to run for office.
I know people who could but won't.

My blog has been out there for 12 years and I doubt anyone cares, but neither could I really remove it from archives, or at least it would take effort beyond my skill set.

The good news is that no one could give a rats ass about me or anything I write.
Encryption is too much work at this point beyond perhaps a few flames.

I relied on our elites to prevent this from happening.
They let me down.
They let all of us down.
The democratic party is dead.
The republican party has had its brain eaten by Trump-idiots
The revolution is over.
Now the victorious take control of the internal security forces.

For those who see no difference between the candidates

God only knows we want to help those who live among us but say they see no difference between the candidates such that they could not vote for either one.  This message is here to help.  For those who think this message is a little overly strong my response is no, it isnt, not even a little bit overly strong.

One candidate is a rapist, the other isnt.

One candidate is a convicted felon, the other isn't.

One candidate is recognized as being a sociopath and a malignant narcissist.

One candidate will avoid being tried for his criminal offenses if he is elected.

One candidate probably murdered 250,000 american citizens when in office.

One candidate was impeached twice.

One candidate attempted to overthrow the government of the united states.  

Excuse me, this is not enough for you?

You are nuts, you need help but you will never get it.  You destroyed america.  Congratulations, idiot, you are a dupe who helped murder many people in this world.

Grave Pictures for Nancy St John

Nancy has passed away and nobody I know is willing to talk to me about it.  

We go to the grave alone, I guess.  

In honor of Nancy, here are some pictures I did about the grave.

I recall the eulogy from The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

They told me, Francis Hinsley, they told me you were hung

With red protruding eye-balls and black protruding tongue;

I wept as I remembered how often you and I

Had laughed about Los Angeles and now ’tis here you’ll lie;

Here pickled in formaldehyde and painted like a whore,

Shrimp-pink incorruptible, not lost nor gone before.

Nancy St. John 1954 - 2024

I am still reeling from the news that Nancy St. John is dead.

How can someone be just a few years older than me be (a) so much more accomplished and (b) dead? 

Not her best picture:

https://variety.com/2024/film/people-news/nancy-st-john-vfx-producer-gladiator-dies-dead-1236189089/

Rewriting History about Hamas and Israel

Its fun to see Jew haters and murderers work to rewrite Wikipedia in an attempt to attack Israel.  It will be interesting to see how that battle plays out.  Since the Jew Murderers are well financed by Russia and Iran, will the so called rich jews stand up for their rights and the truth or will they fail?

My favorite is when they delete all references to the Hamas charter or call Israel "Settler Colonization" and deny their history like all good Jew haters.

Columbia One

If Harris wins, it is at best a draw unless the democrites also win the house and the senate.  Assuming they do, there are a list of things they have to do or it was all in vain.

0. End the filibuster.

1. Add term limits to all federal judges and the supreme court.

2. Correct the imbalance of the supreme court.  Contrary to what you have been told, it doesnt matter how.

3. Pass reproductive right legislation.  Let the right wing nuts appeal it to the supreme court.

4. Pass legislation that makes it impossible for Murdock, Musk, Bezos etc to own important media all by themselves.  Make it so that the people own the media.

5. Prosecute Donald Trump for *all* his crimes.

6. Enforce the 14th amendment.  See to it that election deniers are not in a position of power.  

Nothing less than all of these is acceptable. 

Since these wont happen, it is time to accept that we need a second american revolution.  

_________________________

Its fun to see people's negative reaction to these images.... either because they are AI generated or because they hate America or because they hate people like me who are emotional.  It isnt clear.

The Test of Character

In southern literature there is something called "the test of character".  In this trope, the main character, or one of them, has to choose between doing the easy thing and doing the right thing and doing the right thing is much harder.  

Several friends of mine are unfortunately in a situation where they have to choose between doing the selfish thing or doing the right thing and I am sorry to say that they are probably going to do the selfish thing. 

This is my expectation and it makes me sad but then at least I will know.  The cost is that I will be more cynical, but then what did I expect.   

I am already bitter, but maybe not bitter enough. 

If you dont know what I am talking about then nevermind, you will never understand unless you have had the experience.

"The Test of Character"