If Trump wins

Nah. It will be because FoxNews and the Evangelicals and the Corporations and Team-Trump did a more effective job than Team-Dem. And because of a startling amount of Cheating.

w
v

wv wrote:

Nah. It will be because FoxNews and the Evangelicals and the Corporations and Team-Trump did a more effective job than Team-Dem. And because of a startling amount of Cheating.

w
v

Yeah, I missed the first part. Good point.

I’m guessing everyone has seen the videos by now, of the Texas yahoos surrounding a lone Biden campaign bus on the highway, knocking cars out of the way, and slowing it down to 20 miles an hour. Trump lied about their intent at his rally, praised them, and now is denouncing the FBI for looking into it.

Trump defends Texas drivers who surrounded Biden bus, while the president’s supporters block traffic in New York and New Jersey.

Another angle, plus video, on the incident in Texas. This is on Trump. He’s encouraged this, praises it when it happens, and bitches at any attempt to hold these people accountable.

Trump cheers supporters who swarmed a Biden bus in Texas: ‘These patriots did nothing wrong’

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Getting back to Waterfield’s original point: Even though I don’t see Trump having any kind of voting majority, I do think there are far too many Americans who revel in cruelty. Of course, this may have always been the case. But because we have so many forms of communication these days, especially the Internet, we see them, and they see each other, gather, organize and that cruelty is weaponized.

Throw in the absolutely insane proliferation of guns in America, and the mass victories by the gun lobby to shut down common sense restraints, and this country has never had so many citizens openly pursuing that cruelty.

In Greg Grandin’s must-read The End of the Myth, he talks about safety/release valves in the past, with the most important being the idea of an “endless frontier.” When Americans believe they have new places to conquer (and exploit, and dominate, and control), they tend not to turn against one another as much. Those endless frontiers are gone.

I doubt the largely illiterate Trump has thought about this, but he, with the help of neo-fascists like Bannon, tapped into this indirectly. They weaponized fear of the Other outside and inside our borders, while fetishizing the Wall. As in, subconsciously, at least, drilling down on the idea that the frontier is gone, now it’s time to turn against one another and those people on the other side of “the Wall.”

The fall of the Roman Empire is going to get nastier and nastier with each coming day.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Billy_T.

wv wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

I’m guessing everyone has seen the videos by now, of the Texas yahoos surrounding a lone Biden campaign bus on the highway, knocking cars out of the way, and slowing it down to 20 miles an hour. Trump lied about their intent at his rally, praised them, and now is denouncing the FBI for looking into it.

Trump defends Texas drivers who surrounded Biden bus, while the president’s supporters block traffic in New York and New Jersey.

—————–

Yeah, its mostly in the red-states. Surreal.

Looks like there’s gonna be violence if Biden wins, for sure.

w
v

Hope you and your family stay safe and careful. Best wishes for the entire board.

So how are you guys keeping up with the election tomorrow? Fox News? Just gonna bounce around the internet? BBC?

w
v

I like others, await.

I tried to vote last week, in person, but the lines were far too long, outside and inside, and the place had rather lax enforcement of Covid rules, so I turned away.

Have to hope it’s better today at our little local place, but I doubt it. Will drive over there to see, but I have a feeling this may be the first election I won’t be able to cast a vote in a long, long time. Have managed Covid primarily by sticking with very quick trips in and out of places that appear to be enforcing good protocols, etc.

(Had a heated verbal altercation in a Costco recently, but that’s a story for another day)

My state is set to defeat Trump fairly comfortably, so I’m not feeling too guilty if I can’t manage this. But I’ll give it a try.

(I should have requested a ballot early on but didn’t.)

Anyway, I’ll be reading Spinoza and a Booker winner by Anna Burns, Milkman, and reading the news now and then. Have champagne reading to pop if we find out late tonight, but tomorrow’s more likely. Or even later, if Il Duce allows it.

;>)

Again, stay safe everyone!!

Zooey,

I’m a bit confused by your proposed way of dealing with today. If you’re going to be singing Irish ballads, in various stages of undress, why the Tequila? Why not Jameson, Joyce’s favorite, or any other kind of true Irish whiskey? At least go for Guinness!!

And to prepare for it all, why not reread The Ginger Man (Donleavy), one of the best prose performances in the English language? I’ve reread it meself five or six times, and while Sebastian Dangerfield’s actions at times are cringe-worthy, and he’s the epitome of an unwoke antihero, I still love it overall. Personally, I’d put the quality of the prose up there with Joyce, Woolf, Wyndham Lewis, Ford Madox Ford, Djuna Barnes, and another grossly underappreciated Irish writer, Sean O’Faolain (especially Bird Alone).

Signed, Puzzled, wish I were in Killarney.

And I just came across this. Can’t be any worse than network coverage, and is probably going to be better.

See you tonight 8 pm EST for live election results! https://t.co/iQOWHHirLh pic.twitter.com/Frs0qKFHLt

— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) November 3, 2020

Well, turns out I did get to vote. Not ideal. But they helped me “curbside,” and it was pretty quick overall. Ten minutes, give or take.

I’m still not getting the point of people wearing one of those face shields without the mask underneath it. Not gonna really stop the transmission of the virus.

Anyway, feels good. Now the long wait. Will it be a night of sorrows, in which case I’ll have to drink up a storm? Or will it be a night of celebration, in which case I’ll . . . . have to drink up a storm?