Donald Trump is a disaster, but Joe Biden's party is democratic in name only. Why this year's election is a vomit milkshake.
My colleagues at Rolling Stone recently endorsed Joe Biden for president:
Biden spent much of 2020 lying about everything from his Iraq War vote to his educational history to a fantasy about being arrested in South Africa with Nelson Mandela. The same press that killed him for this behavior in the past let it all slide this time. Same with the growing ledger of handsy-uncle incidents that had adolescent girls and campaigning politicians alike wondering why a Vice President needs to smell their hair or plant lingering kisses on their heads while cameras flash.
Biden’s entire argument for the presidency, and it’s a powerful one, is his opponent. This week’s election is not a choice between “light or darkness,” but “pretty much anything or Donald Trump,” and only in that context is this disintegrating, bilious iteration of Scranton Joe even distantly credible as a choice for the world’s most powerful office.
Donald Trump is going to be a difficult case for future historians because he’s simultaneously the biggest liar and the most lied-about politician in American history. The standard propaganda lines about Trump are all incorrect. The usual technique involves sticking his name in headlines next to absurd disqualifying descriptors: “fascist,” “traitor,” “dictator,” and so on.
“18 Ways Trump Might Be a Russian Asset” is a typical example of what passed for commentary at outlets like the Washington Post in the Trump years. Such hot takes were a sure way to get TV invites.
Trump may have played cartoon Mussolini on the stump and reached for Hitlerian cliches in his campaign videos, but the dirty secret of the last four years — hidden from the broad mass of voters by both conservative and mainstream media — was that the president’s much ballyhooed strongman leanings were a fraud. Trump the Terrible was great TV, but away from cameras he was a fake despot who proved repeatedly that he didn’t know the first thing about how to exercise presidential power, even in his own defense.
Taibbi subscribers can read the rest of the report here...
The Almost Peace President. Paul Robinson, irrussianality. Nov. 3, 2020.
America goes to the polls today to pass its judgement on Donald Trump’s four years as president. Domestic issues will no doubt determine the choice of most voters, but for a few of them foreign policy will matter too. Among some of the latter there will be a sense of disappointment that Trump failed to deliver what he had promised four years ago.
Back then, more than a few people were more than a little worried about the aggressive foreign policy tendencies of Trump’s rival for the presidency, Hillary Clinton. The chilling video of Clinton laughing about Colonel Gaddafi’s brutal death, and chuckling ‘We came, we saw, he died’, led to fears that her victory would lead to even more wars, with the neoconservative/liberal interventionist lobby riding on Clinton’s coat-tails to push American deeper into futile military adventures overseas.
In contrast to Clinton, candidate Trump, back in 2016, promised peace. He’d restore relations with Russia, talk to North Korea, and bring the troops back from Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. Trump seemed to understand that endless war brought America nothing but harm, and that foreign and defence policy needed a complete rethink. He was thoroughly castigated for it, but he was right. If he’d done what he said he’d do, the United States, and many other places, would be much better off today.
Alas, it was not to be. Trump tore up the nuclear agreement with Iran and assassinated Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The wars he promised to end are all still going strong. Initially, rather than bringing the troops home from Afghanistan, Trump authorized a surge of additional forces. Later he announced that all American troops would leave Syria, only to reverse himself a few days afterwards, and then ended up declaring that American had to stay in Syria to control the oil fields! As for relations with Russia, they’ve gone from bad to worse. It’s not a pretty record.
What happened? One part of the answer is that Trump made some poor personnel choices, surrounding himself first with a bunch of generals and then with hawks like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. It’s almost like he was deliberately sabotaging himself. Another part of the answer appears to be that, at least in some respects, Trump has been a very weak president, unwilling or unable to press his point of view when faced by resistance from the civil and military bureaucracy. Reports say that whenever Trump came up with a plan to reduce American’s military footprint abroad, the bureaucracy would devise some scheme to ‘scare’ him into believing that the consequences of such a move would be disastrous. Again and again, Trump caved in.
There are just two things that can be said in Trump’s favour. First, he at least tried to talk with Russia and North Korea, and in Afghanistan with the Taleban (in the latter case, with some success). And second, he is the first US president in 40 years (since Jimmy Carter) not to start a war.
Think of that last one for a second – the first president in 40 years not to start a war. In a way, it’s a real achievement. Perhaps Trump does, after all, deserve the title ‘peace president’. But then, think a bit more. Not starting a war shouldn’t really count as something special. It ought to be the default position. The fact that it is so remarkable tells us less about Trump than it does about the dysfunctional nature of US foreign policy.
In the end, then, the feeling of disappointment is not unjustified. By 2016, the American people were getting fed up with failed military adventures. Trump won a mandate to bring those adventures to an end. But he blew it. He could have been the peace president. Instead, he was at best the ‘almost’ peace president, or at any rate the ‘not war president’. That’s at least better than the alternative, but it’s not what people were hoping for. We’ll have to see what happens next, but I can’t say that I’m brimming with optimism.
Thoughts on Election Day. W. J. Astore. Nov. 03, 2020.
My colleagues at Rolling Stone recently endorsed Joe Biden for president:
Biden’s lived experience and expansive empathy make him not just a good, but an outstanding candidate… This is a fight between light and darkness…Joe Biden is a corpse with hair plugs whose idea of “empathy” is to jam fingers in the sternums of people who ask the wrong questions, or call them “fat” or “full of shit,” or dare them to “try me” — and that’s if he remembers what state he’s in. Is he a better human than Donald Trump? Probably, but his mental decline has hit Lloyd Bridges-in-Hot-Shots! levels and he shares troubling characteristics with the president, beginning with a pathological struggle with truth.
Biden spent much of 2020 lying about everything from his Iraq War vote to his educational history to a fantasy about being arrested in South Africa with Nelson Mandela. The same press that killed him for this behavior in the past let it all slide this time. Same with the growing ledger of handsy-uncle incidents that had adolescent girls and campaigning politicians alike wondering why a Vice President needs to smell their hair or plant lingering kisses on their heads while cameras flash.
Biden’s entire argument for the presidency, and it’s a powerful one, is his opponent. This week’s election is not a choice between “light or darkness,” but “pretty much anything or Donald Trump,” and only in that context is this disintegrating, bilious iteration of Scranton Joe even distantly credible as a choice for the world’s most powerful office.
Donald Trump is going to be a difficult case for future historians because he’s simultaneously the biggest liar and the most lied-about politician in American history. The standard propaganda lines about Trump are all incorrect. The usual technique involves sticking his name in headlines next to absurd disqualifying descriptors: “fascist,” “traitor,” “dictator,” and so on.
“18 Ways Trump Might Be a Russian Asset” is a typical example of what passed for commentary at outlets like the Washington Post in the Trump years. Such hot takes were a sure way to get TV invites.
Trump may have played cartoon Mussolini on the stump and reached for Hitlerian cliches in his campaign videos, but the dirty secret of the last four years — hidden from the broad mass of voters by both conservative and mainstream media — was that the president’s much ballyhooed strongman leanings were a fraud. Trump the Terrible was great TV, but away from cameras he was a fake despot who proved repeatedly that he didn’t know the first thing about how to exercise presidential power, even in his own defense.
Taibbi subscribers can read the rest of the report here...
The Almost Peace President. Paul Robinson, irrussianality. Nov. 3, 2020.
America goes to the polls today to pass its judgement on Donald Trump’s four years as president. Domestic issues will no doubt determine the choice of most voters, but for a few of them foreign policy will matter too. Among some of the latter there will be a sense of disappointment that Trump failed to deliver what he had promised four years ago.
Back then, more than a few people were more than a little worried about the aggressive foreign policy tendencies of Trump’s rival for the presidency, Hillary Clinton. The chilling video of Clinton laughing about Colonel Gaddafi’s brutal death, and chuckling ‘We came, we saw, he died’, led to fears that her victory would lead to even more wars, with the neoconservative/liberal interventionist lobby riding on Clinton’s coat-tails to push American deeper into futile military adventures overseas.
In contrast to Clinton, candidate Trump, back in 2016, promised peace. He’d restore relations with Russia, talk to North Korea, and bring the troops back from Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. Trump seemed to understand that endless war brought America nothing but harm, and that foreign and defence policy needed a complete rethink. He was thoroughly castigated for it, but he was right. If he’d done what he said he’d do, the United States, and many other places, would be much better off today.
Alas, it was not to be. Trump tore up the nuclear agreement with Iran and assassinated Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The wars he promised to end are all still going strong. Initially, rather than bringing the troops home from Afghanistan, Trump authorized a surge of additional forces. Later he announced that all American troops would leave Syria, only to reverse himself a few days afterwards, and then ended up declaring that American had to stay in Syria to control the oil fields! As for relations with Russia, they’ve gone from bad to worse. It’s not a pretty record.
What happened? One part of the answer is that Trump made some poor personnel choices, surrounding himself first with a bunch of generals and then with hawks like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. It’s almost like he was deliberately sabotaging himself. Another part of the answer appears to be that, at least in some respects, Trump has been a very weak president, unwilling or unable to press his point of view when faced by resistance from the civil and military bureaucracy. Reports say that whenever Trump came up with a plan to reduce American’s military footprint abroad, the bureaucracy would devise some scheme to ‘scare’ him into believing that the consequences of such a move would be disastrous. Again and again, Trump caved in.
There are just two things that can be said in Trump’s favour. First, he at least tried to talk with Russia and North Korea, and in Afghanistan with the Taleban (in the latter case, with some success). And second, he is the first US president in 40 years (since Jimmy Carter) not to start a war.
Think of that last one for a second – the first president in 40 years not to start a war. In a way, it’s a real achievement. Perhaps Trump does, after all, deserve the title ‘peace president’. But then, think a bit more. Not starting a war shouldn’t really count as something special. It ought to be the default position. The fact that it is so remarkable tells us less about Trump than it does about the dysfunctional nature of US foreign policy.
In the end, then, the feeling of disappointment is not unjustified. By 2016, the American people were getting fed up with failed military adventures. Trump won a mandate to bring those adventures to an end. But he blew it. He could have been the peace president. Instead, he was at best the ‘almost’ peace president, or at any rate the ‘not war president’. That’s at least better than the alternative, but it’s not what people were hoping for. We’ll have to see what happens next, but I can’t say that I’m brimming with optimism.
Thoughts on Election Day. W. J. Astore. Nov. 03, 2020.
Some thoughts on this presidential election day:
- Trump isn’t running against Biden/Harris. He’s running against a caricature of the Democratic Party. The usual lies: the “radical left” is coming to take your guns; they hate America; they want open borders so that America will be flooded with non-white foreigners; they’re godless socialists; they favor abortion on demand; they want to turn your kids against you by controlling education; and so on. The truth is entirely the opposite: Biden/Harris are in fact the darlings of Wall Street and are without a radical bone in their bodies.
- Trump and the Republicans are running without a platform. It’s rather remarkable that the Republican Party is totally subservient to Trump. Meanwhile, Trump’s “platform” is more of the same, including yet another capital gains tax cut. And if Trump wins, you can count on the “radical” Democrats approving that tax cut.
- Trump still wants ...
- Trump’s rallies ..
- Way back in April 2019, I picked Biden/Harris as the Democratic dream ticket. You know: an elder white guy balanced by a younger black woman, sort of like a network news team that is supposed to show inclusion and diversity while broadcasting steadiness. Yes, the fix was in from the beginning. Biden has said nothing will fundamentally change under his administration, the one promise he will be certain to keep.
- Compared to Biden supporters, Trump supporters are more fired up, more committed to their man and how he makes them feel. ...
- I can’t remember a presidential election in which foreign policy has been so infrequently discussed. ...
- A final thought: If you think your vote is worthless, you’re wrong. If it was worthless, various forces wouldn’t be trying to buy it, or block it, or otherwise restrict it. ..
One Trump Voter Explains Why Trump Will Win. Yves Smith, naked capitalism. Nov. 2, 2020.
[This individual demographically would be presumed to be a huuge Biden backer: a professional with an advanced degree, high income, blue city resident, cultured, female, older.]
I’m of two minds in writing this post, since anything short of Trump demonization is bizarrely treated as if it were support. And in the closing hours of the 2020 campaign, it’s managing to get even more fever-swampy out there.
One curious element, at least if you are a news junkie, is how Trump fans don’t seem deterred by his poor poll numbers or the way the new Covid wave seems primed to cut even further into his backing.
So the question then becomes is this seemingly misplaced optimism merely diehards being in their own echo chamber, about to have their fantasy fall apart Tuesday or shortly thereafter? Or might there be some factors in play that the media has missed or is underweighing in its calculations?
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Who Wins If Trump Loses. Michael Tracey. Nov. 2, 2020.
From the moment Donald J. Trump took office, I argued it was necessary that he face a rational opposition — with an emphasis on “rational.” Discerning, targeted, evidence-based criticism would be imperative to counteract against Trump’s worst impulses, I maintained at the time, given his hardly-disguised penchant for blusterous, petty authoritarianism. While of course Trump would be far from the only president whose excesses needed checking — any occupant of the most powerful office in world history would — there was at least some reasonable cause to believe that his regular issuances of impulsive, fly-by-tweet demands could eventually raise unique civil liberties concerns.
In hindsight, I might as well have been arguing for a parade of pinstriped purple unicorns to march down Fifth Avenue. Because the concept of a rational Trump opposition was an utter fantasy.
Instead what we got right off the bat was blanket “Resistance” to Trump, with the concept of “Resistance” turning into far more of a self-promotional branding exercise than any kind of sensible civic-minded disposition. Seemingly every word that came out of Trump’s mouth, no matter how inane or innocuous, prompted wild outbursts of blithering hysteria — egged on by the unholy profit-seeking alliance of social media algorithms and TV ratings. In the imaginations of his most excitable antagonists, it was taken as a truism that the United States was perpetually teetering on the edge of total Trump-induced collapse. Usually because he insulted a cable news host or something.
....
Combine it with the storyline that Trump had been illegitimately installed into power by a hostile foreign government — another profit-generating bonanza for the corporate media — and any prospect of sanity being maintained during the 2016–2020 period was rendered completely hopeless.
As for civil liberties? The preservation of which is what I had originally thought would necessitate a rational opposition? So much for that. If anything, the overt reliance by Democratic partisans and self-styled “Resisters” on officials associated with the CIA, FBI, NSA, and other “intelligence community” has been an unbridled civil liberties disaster.
With some distance from the day-to-day mania of life under Trump, it’s going to be impossible to deny that these agencies intruded to an extraordinary degree in US domestic political affairs over the course of the past several years. But because it was largely done to the detriment of Trump — typically to create the impression that he’s an agent of Russia, or at least benefitting from their sinister so-called “interference” — the long-term consequences of this development have yet to be fully wrestled with.
...
Those of us repulsed by this slew of anti-Trump tactics — despite having no affinity for Trump himself, or the Republican Party, and no reason to support his re-election — will have to reckon with a grim recognition if he goes down to defeat this week. Which is that these tactics will have been successful. All the security state machinations, the blathering media tirades, the incessant waves of phony moral panic, the needless infliction of mass psychological turmoil — the constant fantasies and delusions that obscured far more than they ever revealed about the country’s actual problems — all of it will have been vindicated. Because it will have been done in service of accomplishing the desperately-craved goal that has been forefront in the minds of these hysteria-purveyors every single day for the past four years: removing Trump.
Trump is routinely decried as a singularly menacing destroyer of democracy. And at least around the margins, there’s probably a kernel of truth to some of that. But the damage his opponents have done — arguably far more significant — will reverberate long after he’s gone.
Please note, to observe this does not amount to making an affirmative case for Trump. Irrespective of the insanity of his haters, Trump as the incumbent had to deliver on the pledges he made in 2016, and then some, in order to expand his coalition and have any hope of re-election. By and large he hasn’t done that. Either way, he screwed up the federal response to a pandemic, so it might’ve been a wash regardless. And just for the record, Trump himself has certainly been more than happy to provoke, troll, and needle his foes, so it’s not as if he’s blame-free in the ensuing miasma of hyper-partisan craziness.
Still, if the “Resistance” is really on course to declare victory tomorrow — barring some unforeseen shift or major polling error — then we’re just hours away from the final vindication of their off-the-wall tactics. Trump may not deserve another term on his own merits. But a loss for Trump is nonetheless a win for the lunatics who’ve spent four years subjecting the rest of us an unceasing tsunami of freakish nonsense.
The Day Before the US Election. Ian Welsh. Nov. 2, 2020.
So, the big day is nigh. Another 4 years of Trump, or four to eight years of Biden and whoever actually runs his administration?
Trump’s domestic record has been pretty bad. The economy was doing well before Covid-19, but his complete bungling of the response has thrown millions into poverty and enriched oligarchs. It was possible to control Covid, countries from New-Zealand to Vietnam have done far better jobs.
In terms of civil liberties Trump is even worse than Obama, which is saying something.
Environmentally he’s a disaster (he just opened up an arctic reserve to roads and thus logging and mining, not his first such action.)
He hasn’t started any wars but he has ramped up droning and other types of bombing, again over Obama’s already insane levels (which were increased from Bush Jr’s.)
In foreign affairs, Trump has pursued a relatively unilateral policy, trade wars and so on. I don’t agree with all of it, and I think he’s pushing the US towards a cold war with China, but while Biden will be more multilateral, he will also push for a cold war with China (China’s not going to submit to American rules the way DC wants, so insisting it does means splitting the world in two.)
Biden’s very aggressive on foreign affairs, and is more likely to start a new war than Trump.
He hasn’t started any wars but he has ramped up droning and other types of bombing, again over Obama’s already insane levels (which were increased from Bush Jr’s.)
In foreign affairs, Trump has pursued a relatively unilateral policy, trade wars and so on. I don’t agree with all of it, and I think he’s pushing the US towards a cold war with China, but while Biden will be more multilateral, he will also push for a cold war with China (China’s not going to submit to American rules the way DC wants, so insisting it does means splitting the world in two.)
Biden’s very aggressive on foreign affairs, and is more likely to start a new war than Trump.
He will be better environmentally though not enough to matter a great deal (his vow to not restrict fracking makes that clear), marginally better on civil liberties but will certainly continue the crack down on Black Lives Matters and other protests.
He will do better on Covid and he will give States relief and not try and cut States off from money the way that Trump is doing if he doesn’t approve of State actions.
While Biden is better on the environment and climate change it’s not enough to change the trajectory of runaway climate change, and he does block the possibility of a good candidate for longer than Trump, since the presumptive next candidate is Kamala Harris.
Both Trump and Biden are senile, but Biden is more likely to let other people run things.
Trump has been doing a fairly significant purge of the civil service over the last year, Biden will end this, and I think that’s overall good. His neoliberal apparatchniks are bad, but they are better than Liberty U grads, though that’s the lowest bar imaginable.
Biden’s likely staffing makes clear this is status quo ante—back to Obama, perhaps a bit more progressive in certain areas.
Because Biden is just status quo ante, he will not change the conditions which lead to Trump, and the next Republican candidate is likely to be a disciplined right wing “populist” and far more dangerous than Trump
As for the campaign, both sides have engaged in voter suppression (Dems against Greens) but the Republicans have engaged in far more of it, and I consider this a red line.
Summary: Biden’s better for most Americans, but definitely not all. He buys people time to make preparations, where Trump will continue the slide much harder. Trump is probably better for non-Americans in countries America is likely to invade, but only marginally. Iranians, for example, will do better under Biden.
Personally if I were American I’d vote for Biden if I were in a swing state, and third party if in a non-swing state (most of them.) In terms of future political activity, I’d probably look into the Democratic Socialists of America; more of the serious activists I respect call that home now than any other party.
Results. There’s no question Republicans are planning on taking this to the courts, preventing ballots from being counted whenever possible and so on, so this may not be determined soon. If it isn’t a blow-out, Trump will declare victory (like Pete Buttigieg did) and fight it out.
As for who will win, polls favor Biden. If you want the argument that the polls are wrong, this is a good version.
I don’t know, I gave up election prediction a while back, I’m bad at it now that I follow politics closely. I do think the odds are with Biden. But if it’s marginal the Republicans will steal it unless Americans take the streets in DC and force them not to.
Best of luck to all, Americans and not. Neither Biden nor Trump will be a good President, but may the one who will do the least harm win.
The US Empire Is A Smiley-Faced Serial Killer. Caitlin Johnstone. Nov. 3, 2020.
He will do better on Covid and he will give States relief and not try and cut States off from money the way that Trump is doing if he doesn’t approve of State actions.
While Biden is better on the environment and climate change it’s not enough to change the trajectory of runaway climate change, and he does block the possibility of a good candidate for longer than Trump, since the presumptive next candidate is Kamala Harris.
Both Trump and Biden are senile, but Biden is more likely to let other people run things.
Trump has been doing a fairly significant purge of the civil service over the last year, Biden will end this, and I think that’s overall good. His neoliberal apparatchniks are bad, but they are better than Liberty U grads, though that’s the lowest bar imaginable.
Biden’s likely staffing makes clear this is status quo ante—back to Obama, perhaps a bit more progressive in certain areas.
Because Biden is just status quo ante, he will not change the conditions which lead to Trump, and the next Republican candidate is likely to be a disciplined right wing “populist” and far more dangerous than Trump
As for the campaign, both sides have engaged in voter suppression (Dems against Greens) but the Republicans have engaged in far more of it, and I consider this a red line.
Summary: Biden’s better for most Americans, but definitely not all. He buys people time to make preparations, where Trump will continue the slide much harder. Trump is probably better for non-Americans in countries America is likely to invade, but only marginally. Iranians, for example, will do better under Biden.
Personally if I were American I’d vote for Biden if I were in a swing state, and third party if in a non-swing state (most of them.) In terms of future political activity, I’d probably look into the Democratic Socialists of America; more of the serious activists I respect call that home now than any other party.
Results. There’s no question Republicans are planning on taking this to the courts, preventing ballots from being counted whenever possible and so on, so this may not be determined soon. If it isn’t a blow-out, Trump will declare victory (like Pete Buttigieg did) and fight it out.
As for who will win, polls favor Biden. If you want the argument that the polls are wrong, this is a good version.
I don’t know, I gave up election prediction a while back, I’m bad at it now that I follow politics closely. I do think the odds are with Biden. But if it’s marginal the Republicans will steal it unless Americans take the streets in DC and force them not to.
Best of luck to all, Americans and not. Neither Biden nor Trump will be a good President, but may the one who will do the least harm win.
The US Empire Is A Smiley-Faced Serial Killer. Caitlin Johnstone. Nov. 3, 2020.
Waiting for the results of the US presidential election is like waiting to find out if you’re going to get hit by the mugger with the bat or the mugger with the crow bar.
...
The fact that war plutocrats are happy with either candidate tells you more about the reality of this presidential race than all the billions of dollars worth of mass media reporting and punditry that’s gone into it over the last two years combined. No matter what happens in the election and its aftermath, this is the real headline.
...
Despite all the partisan shrieking and melodrama and hyperbole, Trump is not uniquely evil.
Despite all the partisan shrieking and melodrama and hyperbole, Biden is not uniquely evil.
What’s uniquely evil is the murderous globe-spanning empire which dictates the fate of our species fueled on human blood and posing as a nice guy. Our world has never seen anything quite like it. It is a one of a kind monster.
Only deeply depraved people are capable of serving such a deeply depraved machine, and only deeply depraved people will ever be given an opportunity to. Trump and Biden are not unique in their depravity. They’re not even remarkable. They’re just the next in line to serve at the front desk of the smiley faced murder factory.
This will be the case regardless of who is inaugurated on January 20th. It should remain at the forefront of everyone’s attention above the hysterical partisan fray. Ignore the drama over who gets to be DeathCorp’s secretary and keep your gaze fixed on the smiling killer.
Regardless of who wins, my many libertarian friends and colleagues are correct that the ship of state cannot and will not be turned at this point in any meaningful way.
There are forces at work which will unleash hell on earth if Trump wins, which he should.
If the past four years have taught us anything it should have taught us that.
What’s on the ballot tomorrow is something much larger, however, because hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. and Europe are facing an existential choice on both sides of the power dynamic.
The People sense the closing off of escape routes by an oligarch class that rightly sees their institutional power waning in the face of rapid decentralization of information.
Because of this, an inevitable power struggle has ensued. This election has taken on a quality that transcends the practical nature of elections — who will run the consensual hallucination that is the State.
The Davos Crowd is in full control at the moment in Europe and attempting The Black Revolution here in the U.S. They will enact as much of their Great Reset as they can and play every card in their hand and dirty trick in their bag to achieve it.
This election is a nexus, a singularity, that has become an opportunity for an inflection point in history, one where ideas that were forced into the fringe of the political discourse during the last cycle have the opportunity for a real audience in the next one.
...
Even Obama couldn’t pull crowds like Trump has. This is unprecedented in American politics.
I contend the symbolism of this election far outweighs all other considerations. There’s a spirit animating this election unlike any other I’ve witnessed because not of who Trump is but what he represents.
Earlier in the year, post-George Floyd, the picture was very different. It was much darker. BLM and Antifa, thanks to corporate sponsorship and billions in oligarch money, ran wild in the streets.
...
All of these projects, however, lost their momentum the moment it became obvious Americans weren’t buying any of it. They bought guns instead.
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So, my next question is, “Do you want to be right or do you want to help make a better world?”
If it’s the latter then realize the opportunity is here to direct that energy towards what comes next. What comes after the election will require leadership and skill. It will require patience, temperance and most importantly, courage.
It will require people willing to step up, be better and lead. And if you don’t like Trump’s leadership, fine. What will you do to counter it…. and posting memes on Twitter isn’t an answer.
Because even if we have the right ideas, we won’t be given that opportunity if we don’t first do the smallest thing we can do, stand next to them.
What To Remember. Paul Rosenberg, via zerohedge. Nov. 03, 2020.
... I’ll conclude with a quote from Buckminster Fuller. Please try to keep this passage in mind as the breathless election results come in, followed by highly-emotional commentary. This is how things really are:
If you take all the machinery in the world and dump it in the ocean, within months more than half of all humanity will die and within another six months they’d almost all be gone; if you took all the politicians in the world, put them in a rocket, and sent them to the moon, everyone would get along fine.Stay safe and remember that politics is all about subverting you emotionally and then reaping your production. The rest are details.
Quote of the Day, because of course the mainstream news media totally twisted it around and blamed the driver of the big bad Texan pick-up truck, despite what you could see (and hear) on the video:
"The at-fault vehicle may be the white SUV and the victim appears to be the black truck,"
said the San Marcos, Texas Police Department in a statement after reviewing the crash via online videos.
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