Some Memes, And A Broken Glass

Roadside sign spotted in Maine's 2nd congressional district yesterday

Last time Donald Trump won the presidency I was so rattled that I threw my laptop across the room. Not on purpose, I just forgot to zip that compartment of my backpack and inadvertently launched it when I swung the pack onto my back to head out to school.

I'm retired now and we go to bed early around here. The 8pm robo call on election eve from what our answering machine described as "Donald G Tromp" rattled my husband and as I went to silence it I heard his water glass shatter in the living room. I knew the caller was not in Maine, because in my neck of the woods we do not call each other at that time of night, where a late call indicates an emergency.

U.S. national politics are an emergency, but there isn't anything you're going to do about it at the ballot box.

I figured that Trump would carry the 2nd congressional district where I live -- it is covered with strategic yard signs like: TRUMP SAFETY-- KAMALA CRIME; it has gone for Trump every time he's on the ballot (delivering a whopping one electoral vote); and our polling place was so full the clerk had to squeeze me into a makeshift voting booth.

My sister was convinced that reproductive rights were the #1 concern of voters while I remain convinced that the Biden-Harris administration's full throttle conduct of the U.S.-Israel genocide in Gaza was top of mind. What that mostly reflects is where we source our information, and we're probably both a little bit right, but it's murky: Democrats have failed to codify Roe v. Wade every chance they get, and Trump promised to be even more pro-Israel than VP Harris.

People I know in the pro-Palestinian movement debated whether the admonition to elect a Democrat because they are "easier to organize under" was misguided or a bold canard. As an old antiwar protester I can assure you that millions of people who come out into the streets against a Republican war will go back to eating brunch during a Democratic war.

https://x.com/sbg1/status/1854116340337881252

I hate to say I told you so, but I've been predicting for months that the liberal media's obsession with Trump (New Yorker piece above is typical) indicated that we would be getting him again. Elections are mostly about name recognition. Whose name is never out of the headlines? And who ever even heard of Kamala Harris before the Democratic Party undemocratically selected her as VP and then their presidential nominee?

So I am returning to my old ways -- I will no longer be helping the narcissist in chief build his brand and its value. I used to refer to him as "45" but henceforth he shall be known in these pages as "47".

Now back to organizing against U.S.-Israel and the imperial wars that never end. Never stopped under Bush Jr., Obama, 45, Biden -- and won't stop under 47 either.

See you in the streets.