Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Even the Trump supporters are looking visibly shocked busy their
success. They were digging in for a long rearguard battle between
now and January 20 against "obvious" moves by Dems to "steal" the
election.
  

    
And really, really not looking close. LBC's lead political presenter
Lewis Goodall just posted on X: Kamala Harris is on course for the
worst electoral college performance for any Democrat since 1988.
  

    
Tony Blair's former communication director Alastair Campbell has
told the BBC: "This is one of the most extraordinary election
victories and comebacks, I think, in any country in history."
  

    
I agree with that assessment in the sense of where Trump was after
Jan. 6th and today, but not in terms of his chances of winning this
election going in. Biden dropped out because he consistently trailed
Trump, and while Harris kept it much closer, she never led him
outside the margin of error. The polls had consistently shown them
in a dead heat for weeks. 
  

    
It's 4am in Texas, I'm awake and finding it hard to get back to
sleep. I have no idea what world I'm in right now.

Rebecca Solnit posted this on Facebook. Someone had reposted it on
Daily Kos and asked if that's okay - she said it's for everyone, so
I think it's okay to repost here.

>>>
They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them
trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not
giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything
does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is
worth saving.  You may need to grieve or scream or take time off,
but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and
good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love.
Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is.
The pain you feel is because of what you love. The Wobblies used to
say don't mourn, organize, but you can do both at once and you don't
have to organize right away in this moment of furious mourning. 

You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in
your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the
flowerpots and call someone who's upset and check your equipment for
going onward. A lot of us are going to come under direct attack, and
a lot of us are going to resist by building solidarity and
sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical ones that are
heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones. 

People kept the faith in the dictatorships of South America in the
1970s and 1980s, in the East Bloc countries and the USSR, women are
protesting right now in Iran and people there are writing poetry.
There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require
you to feel good. You can keep walking whether it's sunny or
raining. Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of
something else is an important part of taking care of yourself,
because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this
single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is
still being woven and mended and washed.
  

    


Just woke up. 

Wish I could be as articulate as Rebecca Solnit at this moment. Half
as articulate. 
  

    
Thank gopod for Rebecca Solnit, but, for the moment, I am just
thoroughly depressed.
  

    
Thanks for posting, Jon. Heartbreaking. 
  

    
I will never understand how this person has been elected twice to any office
at all.
  

    
The Solnit words are pretty but kind of vague and I’m having trouble
figuring out what they actually mean, how they translate into real
life. I think they’re meant to inspire me, but to do what exactly? I
feel lost and don’t have a clue. 
  

    
You know, I blame the sanewashing. And the racism and misogyny. 
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
I don't think it's clear what this means. I don't understand why a
majority of Americans have embraced Trump. Because Trump is so
slippery and full of deceit, I have no idea what he'll actually do
as President. I've considered a lot of possibilities based on what
he's said, Project 2025, etc. Not sure where the guardrails will
hold and where they might break.

However bad things might become from our perspective, we're not
alone. We should especially remember the substantial opposition to
Trump from substantial people who still have a voice - including all
the conservative Republicans who stood against him. His actions
won't be unopposed. And this is still America, with all the American
traditions of freedom and justice for all. 
  

    <scribbled by lperson Wed 6 Nov 24 10:24>
  

    
Yeah, our American traditions are looking pretty tattered right now.
  

    
I have thought up some words:

It is okay to need to catch one's fucking breath. It's okay to be in
shock, to feel dislocated. It's okay to be in dismay or disbelief
that so many more US citizens prefer Trump as president. Probably
millions of people in the Philippines felt this way when Duterte
won, or in Italy with Berlesconi or Meloni, or Brazilians when
Bolsonado won. 

(I choose these comparisons to underscore the recent historical
context, as opposed to vaulting all the way back to Germany in
1933.)
  

    
This chart is disturbing, every state but two slid right by a little
or a lot.


<https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eycg47nc4kycvzgiq3r5h326
/bafkreihmtcqjiznd6d7d62iwa7pdtpl7jjck2h7wgwtxeukns3sw56h4de@jpeg>
  

    
Thanks, Emily. 

I'm in leroy’s position. I can't imagine where we could possibly go
from here. 

I do know this. Hate is a very strong word, but this morning I hate
my country. 
  

    
Huxley was right. We have amused ourselves right into tyranny.

I blame the media.

But I'm also perplexed about the vote totals. Bluto got no more
votes than in 2020; in fact, about 3 million fewer. 

And yet somehow, 15 million people who voted for Biden in 2020
couldn't be bothered this time around. That does not pencil. We need
hand recounts. It's time for Elias and Bookbinder to go on offense.

>this morning I hate my country

This is no longer my nation. I am stateless. Plan B starts now.
  

    
Poor Ukraine. Poor Palestinians. Poor Israelis. Not just us, and the
list goes on.
  

    
I find myself wondering whether it was a "free and fair" election,
or whether it might've been rigged by Trump's crowd. They worked
pretty hard to get control of voting process wherever they could.
  

    
> Poor Ukraine. Poor Palestinians. 

I wonder if those wars were perpetuated by Trump's pals, Putin and
Netanyahu, to support the contention that Biden disrupted peace and
allowed major wars to happen. If so, maybe they'll end now. Maybe
Trump will "heroically" broker "peace deals."
  

    <scribbled by lperson Wed 6 Nov 24 10:24>
  

    <scribbled by lperson Wed 6 Nov 24 10:24>
  

    
Here are a few of the things and people I'm mourning for already. 

What are others grieving for? Maybe it will help to share some of
this together, in our community.


---


After Trump again pulls the US out of the Paris Agreement,
international climate action will get even slower. I will lose the
last bit of basis for hoping that the world jettisons fossil fuels
fast enough in these final few years available to stabilize the
climate.

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented people in the US - many of
them my NYC neighbors - will be living in fear 24/7 of being
imprisoned and deported.

Thousands more Palestinians are going to die, and not even a tiny
shred of a path to reconciliation or justice will remain for them,
or for Israelis.

Millions of Ukrainians will lose their independent nationhood, and
NATO may fall apart when Putin turns towards attacking Poland or the
Baltics.

The safety of my queer friends and relatives — all queer people. 

The peace of mind of knowing for sure that my health insurance will
continue to cover my cancer treatment.