Please help save our democracy and vote as if your life depends on the outcome of this election, BECAUSE IT DOES!!!
Stay well,
Michael
Final Thoughts … Please Help Save Our Democracy!
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I did what I could in PA and now I am out of the country. But what’s on my mind is this: America is essentially a stupid country. America is dumbed down, purposely by the capitalist hierarchy. And, remember, De Gaulle and Anthony Eden begged Eisenhower to sign the Geneva accords but he didn’t and he and his deputies were FOOLS.
The most tragic, the most horrible, the most gratuitous war America fought (AND TOTALLY LOST) but general public has yet to realize this LOSS goddammit by the mightiest and most technology advanced nation, that’s us kiddies, the US.
We LOST THE VIETNAM WAR. And what do young people know of this gift that keeps on giving and affects their lives — NOTHING. And the school books don’t mention anything about it except two or three paragraphs. I know because I have seem what middle school history books in Palm Beach County are like. So here we are. If Trumpism wins, let’s not forget how all this is bound up with Vietnam. And if Harris wins, I hope she becomes the Marxist and socialist that Trump calls her. But a socialism of kind elucidated by Fredrick Jameson, who, by the grace God, I have just learned about in Harper’s. Good for reading great articles on long flights. — Bangkok, Thailand at 30 minutes past midnight, November 6th, with the US election just now just at the East Coast’s noontime.
I have been telling people not to be a one issue voter. I told this to both the right and the left. It doesn’t matter if you say you don’t know enough about “HER”. You do know everything about “HIM”. If you have to, hold your nose, but…VOTE!!!!
P.S. As the esteemed Conservative presidential historian John Meachem said, “if you don’t believe politics is about possibility, then you only believe it’s about power”. Guess who he is talking about.
Paul,
Thanks for checking from the other side of the world! Let’s see how it goes. Unfortunately it’s going to be a long night and next few days.
Best,
Michael
Jeff,
Thanks for both comments and great to see you and your better half this past weekend! You’re right!
I know you won’t be staying up to late but I’ll hold down the fort!
Best,
Michael
Just take this drivel for what it may be worth:
Our Democracy worked (?) Sure with the untold billions poured into the Trump campaign by the likes of the anti-Semite Musk, etc. And you call a system built upon a medieval institution like the Electoral College, democratic? OK, fair enough. But also I’m a concluding that lot of this is about the Old Confederacy[s revenge, which has been at since George Wallace changed from Dem to Repug.
https://www.psrmemphis.org/the-politics-of-rage-from-george-wallace-to-donald-trump/
Also:
What’s clear is that, more than two centuries after it was designed to empower southern whites, the Electoral College continues to do just that. The current system has a distinct, adverse impact on black voters, diluting their political power. Because the concentration of black people is highest in the South, their preferred presidential candidate is virtually assured to lose their home states’ electoral votes. Despite black voting patterns to the contrary, five of the six states whose populations are 25 percent or more black have been reliably red in recent presidential elections. Three of those states have not voted for a Democrat in more than four decades. Under the Electoral College, black votes are submerged. It’s the precise reason for the success of the southern strategy. It’s precisely how, as Buckley might say, the South has prevailed.
So, guys and gals, and whatever else is out there, and by the way I never could figure out why “queer” is now a term of honor, SAVE YOUR DIXIE CUPS . . . .
I ain’t saying that Harris’s campaign was great but I did work for here. The Dems were too quick to dump Biden and if they had to, as Lichtman suggested, Biden could have stepped down for health or whatever reasons and handed Harris the presidency, this bullshit that’s now in the pipeline is most likely going to be anything but democratic. But what your definition of democratic and mine are could be different. I mean it’s not 1856 any more.
But basically, I think that stupidity is the problem. And remember what Sigmund Freud remarked after visiting America: “America is the most grandiose experiment the world has ever seen, but I am afraid it’s not going to be a success.” OK, it had its little run. And maybe there’s a few things good left. But if Donald implodes, we’re gonna have a real ideologue, that Juvenile Delinquent dude.
When you cannot find a place to pee in an American mall, is that democratic? While where I am now there are heads all over the malls and one that I was in at Terminal 21 in Bangkok, had this nifty shitter with a push button system that would get your tuchas really clean. Not a bum gun, a hose, which is good enough but something more advanced. So, how can the US be such an advanced country. I cannot figure this out. And the US is literally swimming under a tons of of toilet paper. I was tickled during Covid when all the Floridians were lining up at Coscto for bottled water and toilet paper. Which brings me to Costco. I worked there in 2022 and I began to see it for what it really is. Gluttony. Sure the big pesto jars might be pretty good, and I did buy a few items. Of course these big box stores can be found in most countries now. But 48 rolls of toilet paper in one go? I surely don’t need much of that here.
And,
And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They’d probably put my head in a guillotine
But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only
So, for the nonce, I am out of the joint. But I am an American and over here they seem to like like us. Even in Vietnam. Well, to the Vietnamese the French and the Americans were mostly niggling annoyances as their sworn enemy is to the north. But it was a mistake to let the French back in, in 1945. All this horror could have been avoided. Guess it was part of “a deal.”
And, finally I am glad I had a chance to spend time with the US Navy, on board eleven ships and two bases for about nine years, helping sailors and marines in the Afloat Education Program. And did I and my shipmates party on the beach.
As Walter Benjamin wrote, “Nothing is more epic than the sea.” And damn, there is a lot of water out there for sure.
Paul,
I think you meant to respond to this week’s post, but no matter. Our democracy did in fact work. A fair election was held and Trump won both the Electoral College AND the popular vote. Now it is up to YOU and everyone else that cares about our democracy to do whatever they can during the next four years to preserve it!
Best,
Michael