Funeral for America: 1776-2016. Requiescat in Pace.
Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Freedom Fighters, and Truth Crusaders -
Again, I come to you with an abbreviated post. I got virtually no sleep last night and am exhausted. I am still reeling from the shock of president-elect trump, as I'm sure you are. Dear Atheist God, what have we as a nation gotten ourselves into?
Don't the people who pushed hardest for this debacle of democracy, this fat hateful ugly orange aspiring dictator, realize that they're going to be the first to the slaughter--first in line to be carved up for their precious cash?
I hope that Comey, Assange, and Putin--what a fine team they all make--are all satisfied with their handiwork. Putin and Assange don't have to live here--they don't have to suffer through the hell they've inflicted on us--but Comey does...unless he skips the country (boy, would that be a tell). I hope he can look back four years from now--assuming trump doesn't get impeached and ousted by then--and be satisfied with all the pain and suffering he will have helped inflict on innocent Americans. Bastards, all of them.
Friends, there are so many moving parts to this issue. There are all the things that the establishment Democrats could have done better--not that Hillary didn't leave every morsel, scrap, and shred on the field because she did.
There are all the failures of the establishment Republicans to rebuke the orange loser once he won the primary.
There are all the failures of all the media to fact-check the orange loser during the primaries--to expose all of his business failures, all of his deadbEEt practices, and all of his lies--and there are all the failures of all the media to protect our democracy from the ruthless, incompetent, vindictive cult figure simply by NOT giving him billions of dollars' worth of free press every time his Twitter finger got itchy.
But before that, there is the setup for failure we inherited from the days of Ronald Reagan, who foisted on us the Christian far right, FUX Noise, and the relentless right-wing propaganda machine that swallowed our media when Republicans bought and stockpiled it all and repealed the Fairness Doctrine, which did so much more for media accuracy than simply insist on equal air time for both sides of any issue.
I'm sure I'll get around to doing a post mortem on any or all of these failings, especially those of the Democratic Party, because although we've had our asses handed to us badly, we can use this crisis as an opportunity to rebuild ourselves into something stronger and more representative of the people we should have been courting in the first place--Bernie's exact audience, who felt ignored by all but trump.
But that's not what I want to focus on tonight.
No, tonight, I want to focus on what we voted for and what we voted against...including whom we voted for and whom we voted against.
In short, we voted for
- a known criminal who's been accused multiple times for fraud
- a known thief who's been sued hundreds of times for stealing by virtue of not paying his bills
- a known racist, who hates Blacks, Latinos, Asians, etc. as evidenced by what he's said in print and on tape
- a known misogynist, as evidenced by what he's said in print and on tape
- a known religious bigot, who's been recorded in print and on tape as wanting to prevent all Muslims from entering the country and perhaps deporting those who are here
- a known sadist, who breathlessly calls for torturing Muslims, whether they be suspected of terrorism or the innocent families of those suspects
- a known reality denier, who wants to execute the Central Park Five even though they were exonerated by DNA evidence and a confession from the offender
- a known anarchist who fully expects to be the law unto himself
- a known liar who lies within the same sentence, paragraph, conversation, day...across days...through the years...and who denies his own words even when played back for him on tape
- a known bully, who calls for violence against and jail for those who offend him by running against him for office or accusing him of breaking the law
- a known business failure who's gone bankrupt six times
- a known deadbEEt who skips out on paying his fair share of taxes
- a known ignoramus who can't be bothered to learn anything new or prepare seriously for serious situations
- a known narcissist whose personality disorders preclude him from admitting ignorance or fault
- a known dictator-wannabe who admires and praises existing dictators
- a known sociopath, psychopath, or both who ridicules the disabled, veterans, and anyone who isn't like himself and who creates false equivalencies in his head to make himself feel better about what a loser he is, like when he equated going to military high school (because he was too much for his parents to handle) with serving in the military and like when he equated employing people to sacrificing a child in war
- a man unworthy of respect except for the respect due him as a living being
- fear
- racism
- misogyny
- hatred
- disrespect
- KKK
- people who think that white people should own Black people
- people who want to drive Black and brown people out of the country and create a white majority
- people who hate progress
- vastly increased, more severe poverty
- xenophobia
- Islamophobia
- ignorance
- authoritarianism
- dictatorship
- repealing social and individual freedoms
- redistributing wealth back to the top
- race to the bottom for everyone else
- denying women their right to bodily autonomy
- denying Blacks their right to vote
- denying Blacks, browns, and women in need of reproductive health care of their right to live
- turning back the clock not merely 50 years or 150 years but back to before the Magna Carta, when torture was the in thing to do
- vengeance against political enemies
- vindictiveness
- bullying
- ruthlessness
- propaganda instead of fair and free media
- extremist activist judges on the Supreme Court
- rewarding obstructionist Republicans for bad behavior
- the dismantling of America, its democracy, its civil society, its civil rights, its freedoms--everything we've worked so hard for for the past 50 years
- the dismantling of Obama's legacy and everything he's worked so hard with us for for the past 8 years
- national suicide--America Brexiting from itself to become a fascist dictatorship--perhaps even a dominionist theocracy
- a decent, experienced, competent, polished, respectable woman who would have made a good, solid, respectable president
- a president who could and would have helped the middle class and worked to close the income gap
- a president passionately committed to lifelong public service in the interests of women and children
- women
- LGBTQ+ people
- Black and brown people
- Muslims
- a united society in a nation united with the world
- opportunity and the ability to support ourselves in reasonable comfort for reasonable work
- sanity
- law and order
- fair pay for fair work
- closing the income gap
- equality
- mutual respect
- protecting ourselves and the planet from global warming catastrophe
- working responsibly in the world
- honoring our commitments as a nation
- international rule of law
- all possibility of peace and prosperity
The fight starts now, tomorrow morning, before we even have these plans together.
I'm betting--hoping--that Our Revolution (i.e., Bernie's Revolution) is starting to organize and plan some actions we can take. But don't let that stop you from suggesting something if you have a good idea.
Before I slawg on with the blawg, I need to thank a few people.
First, I have to thank Michael Moore for sounding the alarm that Trump was more likely to win than the media or polls were giving him credit for. Michael Moore lives in Flint, Michigan, and understands the mindset of the trump supporters there, and he saw the state hand Bernie a double-digit win in the primaries over Hillary, who won in the polls.
Second, I have to thank my dad and my work bestie--we all propped each other up last night as the bad news came tumbling in. I don't think I could have handled such a night all by my lonesome. I am grateful to have friends I can trust.
Third, I'm grateful for the few silver linings in these dark clouds. Like the ousting of Sherriff Joe Arpaio--hope the door don't hitcha where the good lord splitcha, Joe. Couldn'ta happened to a nicer guy. A few down-ballot races went our way but not many; still, though, I have to be grateful for the few victories we did win. The more important victory seems to have been the ballot initiatives for things like increasing the minimum wage and legalizing marijuana. These wins seem to suggest that perhaps most Americans really don't agree with the trump-Republican agenda and its wealth distribution to the top and austerity measures for everyone else. I'm also grateful that Hillary won the popular vote. That makes her loss perhaps slightly less bitter, but it also suggests that perhaps we need to ditch or reform the electoral college so that our votes count equally and fairly.
Fourth, I'm grateful to a fellow Democratic friend at work. The mood on the train this morning was stunned silence. It was worse than 9/11 because what we've just inflicted on ourselves is worse than 9/11--it came from within, us destroying ourselves, and it won't take long for a death toll to start accumulating from trump's tax policies, austerity measures, police brutality, torture, and wars. But the Democrats in the office today, despite the glum, despairing mood, all had smiles for each other, and my one particular friend (whom I treat to sugar-free watermelon Glee gum when I can get it) listed some mitigation measures that we may be able to use to help keep some of trump's damage in check. I sure hope he's right!
Lastly, I'm grateful for you, O Dot Calm's readers. Friends, she would have been devastated by the horrific double-whammy of her favorite, Hillary, losing and the monster that is trump winning. But, like Michael Moore, she would have rolled up her sleeves and started fighting as soon as she caught her breath. Friends, knowing you're out there reading this, commiserating, props me up and makes all the effort that goes into this blawg worth it. Your patriotism and passion for what's right would have made Dot Calm proud.
Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:
Daily Kos
AlterNet
Peas, friends. Take care of yourselves for me. Trust me--you're worth it! And most of all, roll up your sleeves and start fighting first thing tomorrow--DON'T LET THE BASTARDS WIN!!!!!
- Dot Calm's shadow
Consider the preemptive Blogger phuqued-up phormatting disclaimer to be in effect. Grrr.
-- Dot Calm's shadow
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Democracy Now!
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Movies!
Since I got virtually no sleep last night, I finally gave up and got up at 5:00 and started watching these vids. You get to be the beneficiary of my election-driven insomnia--yay!
Here's Kyle's take on whom we just elected. Horrible. I hate it when I'm right about crap like this. Don't forget the Central Park Five, whom trump wanted to murder even though they had been exonerated by DNA evidence. And don't forget that trump wants to extricate us from the Geneva conventions and violate other international laws because he's a sadist who wants to torture and kill innocent civilians.
Keith Olbermann: trump is president elect; the terrorists have won
Keith Olbermann: democracy is more fragile than we think. Srsly scary shit.
TYT: why did trump sneak a peek at Melania's ballot?
Samantha Bee: freedom of depress. This is what trump claims he wants. It should scare the shit outta you!!!
Stephen Colbert tries to make sense of it all. Dear ones, this was just painful to watch. Ugh.
Randi Rhodes: "The Nightmare Is Here: President-elect Trump. It Turns Out – We Are Not Better Than This." I'm apparently too tired to paraphrase this title...and I'm too tired to watch the whole thing right now [face-plants on keyboard]. I got as far as a clip of trump's acceptance speech...FUCK YOU, DONALD JOHN TRUMP
--YOU FUCKING LIAR. I wonder...is he laughing to himself as he spews these lies, knowing that his supporters really are gullible enough to believe every syllable?
'Til next time, check out these great channels:
...or, if you just want something mindless and fun, try Tested
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Stick a fork in me, folks--I'm done.
Get a good night's sleep tonight, willya?
Stick a fork in me, folks--I'm done.
Get a good night's sleep tonight, willya?
posted by Dot Calm @ 7:13 PM
