A political agenda based on the belief that America will only be great again if we deport as many folks as we can is disgusting . These beliefs snack of a period in European history that resulted in untold horrors. Which started out with deportation and evolved into extermination.
Granted, it is a violation of our law to enter this country without the appropriate documentation. The law should be enforced, but without serving political purposes. Focusing on violators, not because they broke the law, but race, religion or ethnic origin only moves us closer to fascism.
Fascism is by definition “an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.”
It usually takes the form of unbridled power, devoid of any oversite as provided for by the “advise and consent” clause of the constitution. Trump has indicated he wants to appoint folks to carry out his policies without any input from congress.
Several GOP legislators are willing to support him in this objective. If he is allowed to accomplish this, we are moving closer to making Trump a monarch. Future leaders will not be chosen by the vote, but who is next in succession. That is what Trump meant by his statement "vote for me and you will never have to vote again." This is not what the founding fathers envisioned.
On Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, I was awakened at first light. It was the morning after the most-consequential U.S. presidential election in our history. It also was the day after our late father’s 110th birthday, which several times during his 70 years fell on Election Day, a fact that pleased him immensely.
My wife of nearly half-a-century delivered the bad news that Donald J. Trump had been declared the winner of the U.S. presidency. Neither of us was surprised by the result.
The news, although not unexpected, produced the saddest day of a long life of studying, following, and writing about politics. The sadness I still feel in my soul from another November day when John F. Kennedy was murdered now is rivaled in my remorse by the election of a convicted felon to the highest office in the free world. As in 1963, something sacred has died in the nation’s soul.
How could people do this?
The country grievously erred eight years ago when Mr. Trump was elected president. He had help from the Russians in that campaign, and there is a sense that the entire story regarding that has yet to emerge. But some voters in 2016 really did not know what they were getting. That cannot be an excuse in this election. They knew exactly what they were getting. They have elected a convicted felon, even though the judicial system now at both the state and federal levels almost certainly will toss convictions and indictments.
It is so sad, and I doubt that I ever will forgive my those who voted for this crook to our most-sacred office. God forgive. God save us, for we are unable to save ourselves.
Well said, Thomas. Unfortunately, he'll be saying "Fuck you!" to the rest of us for another term.
Four years ago, I had a T-shirt made up on the Venice Beach Boardwalk made up that read: I Want To Kiss Every Black Woman in Georgia" I never got so many comments and offers to buy for wearing any T-shirt.
This year, once I get off the couch -- and stop feeling sorry for myself and the World -- I'm going to that same shop on Venice Beach to have another shirt made up. "This one will read: "I Want To Hug Every Black Woman in Georgia." That's haw i feel when I'm not numb.
Well said. My question to all the Trump supporters in NC who have undocumented persons working for them: What are you going to do when the person you hired for your business, or the woman who cleans your home and the man that takes care of your yard is deported??
As I've been thinking over the past two days about the election of Trump. His voters and supporters absolutely do not want a boring, sane, steady, rational and deliberate government with well thought out domestic and foreign policies. They want to get up every morning and say 'what will Trump do/say next'? They LOVE the reality TV Presidency and the surprises and chaos that his actions and rhetoric bring on a daily basis. They also love the toxic masculinity that Trump portrays, especially if it is cruel and violent (i.e. 'eat the cats, eat the dogs, round up 11,000,000 immigrants and put them in detention camps, separate immigrant children from their parents, have a firing squad shoot Liz Chaney in the face, etc etc). They can't get enough of it, and many of the rural Bubbas working blue collar jobs and living blue collar lives wish they could be just like Trump.
Good job explaining just how low the Republicans have sunk. They voted for hate versus love, and autocracy versus democracy. Be careful what you wish for…now you have got it.
Unfortunately, so have the rest of us who voted for Harris-Walz.
Two interviews with trump voters stick in my mind from his first term.
One was a Hispanic Voter from the Southwest who was in a mixed status hosehold. The wife and their US born children were US citizens but the husband/father was undocmented. ICE picked him up in a raid one day out of the blue and deported him. He wasn't involved in any criminal activity and had been in the US for at least a decade - quite possibly longer. The wife was like "what am I going to do now?" She had voted for Trump, knew all about the build the wall rhetoric, but apparently thought her husband/family would never be personally impacted.
The other was a woman whose family had a farm in the heartland - maybe KS or NE and this was when Trump was in his tough on China mode and put sanctions on Chinese imports. IIRC, he thought it would "fix" the trade deficit. The Chinese retaliated by cancelling contracts on Soybeans. It was near harvest time and prices plunged as farmers sought a buyer - any buyer
and at pretty much any price- to take the soybeans. The Trump voter's response was that "the wrong people were getting hurt!"
I wonder how many times we'll hear similar stories in 2025 from Trump voter's who just love it when someone else is devestated, but are outraged when it is their turn to get shafted!!
Well said regarding Republican deceit. But at least NC voters got rid of some of the worst extremists: Mark Robinson, Dan Bishop and Michelle Morrow and elected some great leaders: Josh Stein, Jeff Jackson, and Rachel Hunt. Granted, the national results are shockingly painful. I have been doing my own analysis, with 16 points. One amazing factoid is that Harris has gotten nearly 14 million fewer votes than Joe Biden in 2020, and Trump has gotten 2 million fewer votes than he did in 2020. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/shocking-painful-2024-election-results
One can make educated guesses about why the Harris campaign fell short, based on what information we can glean from exit polls and the like, the kind of analysis that political science works on every day. These studies will be credible and may be satisfactory to understand what happened. .
However, there is no reason to rule out dirty tricks just yet, either. Trump’s allies in this campaign are famous for finding ways to put their fingers on the scale. We may find out over the course of the next two years that they did it again.
Remember that It took a long time to understand Havana Syndrome, and it may take just as long to understand what happened in the 2024 election.
I hope they get what they deserve. I suspect that Vance will become president very soon and we are so doomed. I agree completely with your last sentences, "Just go fuck yourselves. You have shown us who you are." I just hope that Ukraine doesn't fall, but I think it will and democracy around the world will be in trouble. Republicans have once again shown how sexist and racist they are. And how dare they tell us to be nice to them. My friends in other countries are as scared as I am.
Politicians have often been seen as untruthful. In Tom Clancy's "Red October," a character remarks that while politicians perform public acts like kissing babies, they also engage in dishonorable actions, reflecting common beliefs about political behavior.
In a philosophy class, I recall the professor discussing the pros and cons of lying. One example presented was whether it is ethical for a physician to tell a terminally ill patient that they will outlive everyone else, even though the doctor knows the patient has only a month to live.
Under the circumstances, providing false information may be deemed acceptable and even courteous. However, issues arise when deceit is employed to advance personal interests or achieve individual gain.
Trump is transactional. If he sees an opportunity to gain favor with Putin for a Trump Tower to be built in Moscow, he won't hesitate to cut off military aid to Ukraine. He prioritizes wealth and power over morals. Labeling undocumented residents as criminals to rally voters, despite evidence showing they commit fewer crimes than legal residents, is morally questionable.
This business of seeking revenge against public officials simply because they pursued criminal activities, or his victims sued him for tortious conduct is immature and foreign to the qualities found in a good leader.
The issues at the border of this country require attention. However, characterizing the bipartisan border bill as establishing a quick path to citizenship and rewarding undocumented individuals is inaccurate. The bipartisan border bill primarily increases allocation for more enforcement personnel and permits asylum seekers to be deported without a hearing if the number of crossings exceeds a specific threshold over a measured period.
There have been other inaccuracies that are readily accepted by many individuals in this country. The inclination to critique and question has diminished. If the leader declares it, it is considered the truth. Such an attitude has historically led to the decline of numerous nations. It is hoped that this will not signify the beginning of our own decline.
Here here. I spent yesterday in a fog. Now I am just mad as hell at the ignorance, mysoginy, racism, and general lack of awareness of voters. We will resist Trump until the end.
I think you should have led with the closing. Why shouldn’t we “fight like hell” to save our Democracy. Losing gracefully has always been the Democrat’s way. Maybe it’s time to get out the pitchforks. Rhetorically, at least for now. Who knows, if people saw Democrats were willing to actually fight for them, we’d win a few more elections.
We do not engage in violent conflicts with fellow citizens, damage public property, harm those responsible for maintaining order, fabricate stories, or mislead the public. That is not our way. When Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, "a house divided against itself cannot stand," he was articulating the profound instability that arises from internal conflict. This metaphor, drawn from the biblical saying in the Gospel of Matthew, underscored the unsustainable nature of a nation torn by division.
A politician should never incite violence against citizens; it is immoral, unethical, and illegal. Unfortunately, this is our current reality.
The real proof of this folly will not begin to come for 12 to 18 months in my opinion..... And in my opinion it probably will shake the very foundations of our democratic ways. I weep for the fate of most of our progeny.
All too true. It's amazing how quiet they all are and accepting of the results since they won. The hypocrisy seems to escape them. I have heard rumblings from the Democrats, who are in shock over the magnitude of the win, that they are finding the results suspect, but no call to arms, and seemingly no intent to pursue things. Thanks for your perspective and your coverage of the campaign.
Kamala promised her staffers payment until the end of the year.
She just cut them off because the campaign is $20,000,000 in debt.
Let me restate that:
The candidate who ran on JOY, somehow spent $1 billion in 107 days.
The candidate who ran on JOY, reportedly spent $2,626,110 on private flights alone in the last two weeks of the election.
And the candidate who ran on JOY, just stopped paying her employees at Christmas time, the most JOYOUS time of the year.
And now she's begging donors for even more money, even though the election is over and she lost.
I can't stop laughing!
And people wanted to hand her control of the American economy! 😂
A political agenda based on the belief that America will only be great again if we deport as many folks as we can is disgusting . These beliefs snack of a period in European history that resulted in untold horrors. Which started out with deportation and evolved into extermination.
Granted, it is a violation of our law to enter this country without the appropriate documentation. The law should be enforced, but without serving political purposes. Focusing on violators, not because they broke the law, but race, religion or ethnic origin only moves us closer to fascism.
Fascism is by definition “an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.”
It usually takes the form of unbridled power, devoid of any oversite as provided for by the “advise and consent” clause of the constitution. Trump has indicated he wants to appoint folks to carry out his policies without any input from congress.
Several GOP legislators are willing to support him in this objective. If he is allowed to accomplish this, we are moving closer to making Trump a monarch. Future leaders will not be chosen by the vote, but who is next in succession. That is what Trump meant by his statement "vote for me and you will never have to vote again." This is not what the founding fathers envisioned.
On Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, I was awakened at first light. It was the morning after the most-consequential U.S. presidential election in our history. It also was the day after our late father’s 110th birthday, which several times during his 70 years fell on Election Day, a fact that pleased him immensely.
My wife of nearly half-a-century delivered the bad news that Donald J. Trump had been declared the winner of the U.S. presidency. Neither of us was surprised by the result.
The news, although not unexpected, produced the saddest day of a long life of studying, following, and writing about politics. The sadness I still feel in my soul from another November day when John F. Kennedy was murdered now is rivaled in my remorse by the election of a convicted felon to the highest office in the free world. As in 1963, something sacred has died in the nation’s soul.
How could people do this?
The country grievously erred eight years ago when Mr. Trump was elected president. He had help from the Russians in that campaign, and there is a sense that the entire story regarding that has yet to emerge. But some voters in 2016 really did not know what they were getting. That cannot be an excuse in this election. They knew exactly what they were getting. They have elected a convicted felon, even though the judicial system now at both the state and federal levels almost certainly will toss convictions and indictments.
It is so sad, and I doubt that I ever will forgive my those who voted for this crook to our most-sacred office. God forgive. God save us, for we are unable to save ourselves.
Well said, Thomas. Unfortunately, he'll be saying "Fuck you!" to the rest of us for another term.
Four years ago, I had a T-shirt made up on the Venice Beach Boardwalk made up that read: I Want To Kiss Every Black Woman in Georgia" I never got so many comments and offers to buy for wearing any T-shirt.
This year, once I get off the couch -- and stop feeling sorry for myself and the World -- I'm going to that same shop on Venice Beach to have another shirt made up. "This one will read: "I Want To Hug Every Black Woman in Georgia." That's haw i feel when I'm not numb.
Well said. My question to all the Trump supporters in NC who have undocumented persons working for them: What are you going to do when the person you hired for your business, or the woman who cleans your home and the man that takes care of your yard is deported??
As I've been thinking over the past two days about the election of Trump. His voters and supporters absolutely do not want a boring, sane, steady, rational and deliberate government with well thought out domestic and foreign policies. They want to get up every morning and say 'what will Trump do/say next'? They LOVE the reality TV Presidency and the surprises and chaos that his actions and rhetoric bring on a daily basis. They also love the toxic masculinity that Trump portrays, especially if it is cruel and violent (i.e. 'eat the cats, eat the dogs, round up 11,000,000 immigrants and put them in detention camps, separate immigrant children from their parents, have a firing squad shoot Liz Chaney in the face, etc etc). They can't get enough of it, and many of the rural Bubbas working blue collar jobs and living blue collar lives wish they could be just like Trump.
Good job explaining just how low the Republicans have sunk. They voted for hate versus love, and autocracy versus democracy. Be careful what you wish for…now you have got it.
Unfortunately, so have the rest of us who voted for Harris-Walz.
Two interviews with trump voters stick in my mind from his first term.
One was a Hispanic Voter from the Southwest who was in a mixed status hosehold. The wife and their US born children were US citizens but the husband/father was undocmented. ICE picked him up in a raid one day out of the blue and deported him. He wasn't involved in any criminal activity and had been in the US for at least a decade - quite possibly longer. The wife was like "what am I going to do now?" She had voted for Trump, knew all about the build the wall rhetoric, but apparently thought her husband/family would never be personally impacted.
The other was a woman whose family had a farm in the heartland - maybe KS or NE and this was when Trump was in his tough on China mode and put sanctions on Chinese imports. IIRC, he thought it would "fix" the trade deficit. The Chinese retaliated by cancelling contracts on Soybeans. It was near harvest time and prices plunged as farmers sought a buyer - any buyer
and at pretty much any price- to take the soybeans. The Trump voter's response was that "the wrong people were getting hurt!"
I wonder how many times we'll hear similar stories in 2025 from Trump voter's who just love it when someone else is devestated, but are outraged when it is their turn to get shafted!!
Well said regarding Republican deceit. But at least NC voters got rid of some of the worst extremists: Mark Robinson, Dan Bishop and Michelle Morrow and elected some great leaders: Josh Stein, Jeff Jackson, and Rachel Hunt. Granted, the national results are shockingly painful. I have been doing my own analysis, with 16 points. One amazing factoid is that Harris has gotten nearly 14 million fewer votes than Joe Biden in 2020, and Trump has gotten 2 million fewer votes than he did in 2020. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/shocking-painful-2024-election-results
An additional thought about this election.
One can make educated guesses about why the Harris campaign fell short, based on what information we can glean from exit polls and the like, the kind of analysis that political science works on every day. These studies will be credible and may be satisfactory to understand what happened. .
However, there is no reason to rule out dirty tricks just yet, either. Trump’s allies in this campaign are famous for finding ways to put their fingers on the scale. We may find out over the course of the next two years that they did it again.
Remember that It took a long time to understand Havana Syndrome, and it may take just as long to understand what happened in the 2024 election.
I hope they get what they deserve. I suspect that Vance will become president very soon and we are so doomed. I agree completely with your last sentences, "Just go fuck yourselves. You have shown us who you are." I just hope that Ukraine doesn't fall, but I think it will and democracy around the world will be in trouble. Republicans have once again shown how sexist and racist they are. And how dare they tell us to be nice to them. My friends in other countries are as scared as I am.
The Republican party is now the party of Trump and Fascism. I sincerely doubt that many of the people who voted for him know what’s coming.
Politicians have often been seen as untruthful. In Tom Clancy's "Red October," a character remarks that while politicians perform public acts like kissing babies, they also engage in dishonorable actions, reflecting common beliefs about political behavior.
In a philosophy class, I recall the professor discussing the pros and cons of lying. One example presented was whether it is ethical for a physician to tell a terminally ill patient that they will outlive everyone else, even though the doctor knows the patient has only a month to live.
Under the circumstances, providing false information may be deemed acceptable and even courteous. However, issues arise when deceit is employed to advance personal interests or achieve individual gain.
Trump is transactional. If he sees an opportunity to gain favor with Putin for a Trump Tower to be built in Moscow, he won't hesitate to cut off military aid to Ukraine. He prioritizes wealth and power over morals. Labeling undocumented residents as criminals to rally voters, despite evidence showing they commit fewer crimes than legal residents, is morally questionable.
This business of seeking revenge against public officials simply because they pursued criminal activities, or his victims sued him for tortious conduct is immature and foreign to the qualities found in a good leader.
The issues at the border of this country require attention. However, characterizing the bipartisan border bill as establishing a quick path to citizenship and rewarding undocumented individuals is inaccurate. The bipartisan border bill primarily increases allocation for more enforcement personnel and permits asylum seekers to be deported without a hearing if the number of crossings exceeds a specific threshold over a measured period.
There have been other inaccuracies that are readily accepted by many individuals in this country. The inclination to critique and question has diminished. If the leader declares it, it is considered the truth. Such an attitude has historically led to the decline of numerous nations. It is hoped that this will not signify the beginning of our own decline.
Here here. I spent yesterday in a fog. Now I am just mad as hell at the ignorance, mysoginy, racism, and general lack of awareness of voters. We will resist Trump until the end.
I think you should have led with the closing. Why shouldn’t we “fight like hell” to save our Democracy. Losing gracefully has always been the Democrat’s way. Maybe it’s time to get out the pitchforks. Rhetorically, at least for now. Who knows, if people saw Democrats were willing to actually fight for them, we’d win a few more elections.
We do not engage in violent conflicts with fellow citizens, damage public property, harm those responsible for maintaining order, fabricate stories, or mislead the public. That is not our way. When Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, "a house divided against itself cannot stand," he was articulating the profound instability that arises from internal conflict. This metaphor, drawn from the biblical saying in the Gospel of Matthew, underscored the unsustainable nature of a nation torn by division.
A politician should never incite violence against citizens; it is immoral, unethical, and illegal. Unfortunately, this is our current reality.
https://theintercept.com/2024/11/06/trump-harris-election-results-action/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter
The real proof of this folly will not begin to come for 12 to 18 months in my opinion..... And in my opinion it probably will shake the very foundations of our democratic ways. I weep for the fate of most of our progeny.
Our sentiment exactly
Bring it on I say and see how they like it. They want blue state policies and red state autocrats. Can’t have it both ways folks.
And we will no longer support needy Trump voters.
All too true. It's amazing how quiet they all are and accepting of the results since they won. The hypocrisy seems to escape them. I have heard rumblings from the Democrats, who are in shock over the magnitude of the win, that they are finding the results suspect, but no call to arms, and seemingly no intent to pursue things. Thanks for your perspective and your coverage of the campaign.