I’ve got another rant which is near complete, but there are some thoughts I’ve got to get out while they’re still swirling around in my head. And, of course, they relate to the recent election of Trump to another four years of destroying as much of America’s fundamental democratic republic as he can. And, if you’ve been paying attention to the initial picks Trump is making for his cabinet it’s entirely possible you’ve realizing what’s on the horizon. I know several “conservatives” who share the church pews (OK, in my church it’s chairs) and who voted for Trump who have NO IDEA what it really is they voted for. Most of them can’t tell you how our government is formed. Just recently I had a conversation (here) who didn’t understand that the Senate is part of the Congress.

And, of course, democrats are scrambling to figure out what went wrong. The answer, of course, is less complicated than they’re making it. The first reason, to me, can be explained in two words: gender and race. The second reason can also be explained in two words: Social Media.

You would have to be someone with your “head in the sand” to fail understanding that there continues to be a significant portion of our society which is bigoted to the point where when looking at a candidate for national office they would need to see a white male in order to give even consideration. Democrats need to understand this. Kamala Harris engineered an incredible campaign considering she had 107 days to pull it off. I do have to add here that back when democrats started falling off the “Biden bandwagon” I pointed out the winner of the 2024 election would be Biden or Trump. Sadly, I was correct.

I did point out at the time I’ve been lamenting democratic party failures for many years. The issue to me is democrats unwilling to campaign on their basic issues and, in the case of Joe Biden, their accomplishments. After democrats forced Biden from the race Ms. Harris was faced with some serious choices and one of them was to run away from the accomplishments of the Biden administration. I believe, when the history of this troubled time in America is written, Biden will be among the greatest presidents in American history. To me, similar to FDR and LBJ. (The LBJ time, of course, is soiled by the Vietnam fiasco) Add to that, I believe, Barack Obama will also be right up there.

Signature legislation from those times include the implementation of Social Security (and numerous “rights” we seem to take for granted) which has kept MILLIONS of Seniors from poverty (likely, including me) during FDR’s time (along with the rest of the “New Deal”) and Medicare, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 during Johnson’s time in office. (Of course, the Robert’s Court has taken dead aim on the Voting Right’s Act – gutting key portions of it) And, if and when Trump succeeds in repealing the Affordable Care Act (i.e. “Obamacare”) the importance of Barack Obama’s time in office will become more OBVIOUS.

Joe Biden’s accomplishments – which largely happened in his first two years and, even then he was working with razor thin majorities in Congress (if you’re not sure that means both the House and the Senate), are historical. Just off the top of my head the accomplishments included the American Rescue Plan of 2021, the incredible accomplishment of getting vaccines for COVID to every location in the country where people could get vaccinated – saving THOUSANDS of American lives. They passed the infrastructure bill which is working on fixing America’s aging infrastructure (If you remember, Trump failed NUMEROUS times to accomplish this).

Biden’s administration got a bill passed aimed at increasing gun safety (even though it SHOULD have been better, but, well…. republicans), they got the cost of (some) prescription drugs reduced by allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices (astonishing to me that Medicare was prevented from doing so), they passed the “Chips and Science Act” which is bringing the manufacturing of computer chips back to America creating THOUSANDS of good jobs in places that need them. Also, they passed the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” which included a provision, the first SMALL step, in dealing with the Climate Crisis – designed to encourage the use of clean renewable energy.

The amount of jobs created in the four years of Biden’s administration was beyond anything on record – meaning the MOST – Trump is also in the “record books” with “job creation” as the LEAST number of net jobs when he left office as opposed to when he inherited the 75 months of job growth from President Obama. So, why would Kamala Harris run away from the Biden administration’s record during the 107 days of her campaign? Well, to me, abandoning Biden because of a poor debate performance (and, by the way, Trump had TWO poor debate performances) caused democratic “advisors” to, I guess, assume that was the direction Ms. Harris should follow.

I say that with my belief that Kamala Harris engineered an incredible campaign under the circumstances. Those democrats who are trying to figure out what happened need to understand the reality of the American public – not only the bigotry but also the level of political ignorance – and, I have to add, many of the “conservatives” I know are good hard working people who don’t even understand they voted for an overt racist. But, there’s a second part of this problem – explaining why we’re once again STUCK with Trump.

This one, to me, should be MORE obvious. For starters, Elon Mush owns the Social Media app Xwitter. Now, I don’t do Social Media (with the exception of – mostly – music on YouTube – but, I can virtually guarantee there was an endless flowing of mis/disinformation across “X” targeted by Musk and his tech savvy acolytes to specific audiences. For example, the war in GAZA was a weight around Biden by people who somehow thought Biden could order Bibi Netanyahu around. My guess is “pro Israel” stuff was sent to Palestinian supporting groups and vice versa. From what I’ve heard “X” has become a cesspool of right wing misinformation since Musk took over.

But, you have to also look straight at Mark Zuckerberg – another tech “mogul” who can’t seem to get rich enough. He, like Peter Thiel, has his own hideaway place to go (I believe it’s somewhere in Hawaii) when the shit hits the fan – which appears to be happening. Zuckerberg opened up Facebook to the same right wing political mis/disinformation which brought us Trump the first time and, well, my guess is there it was once again. If you remember (or don’t remember) an outfit called “Cambridge Analytica,” back in 2016 STOLE the data from 57 MILLION American households and organized it into “neighborhoods” where these LIES (let’s call mis/disinformation what it is) were spread causing a significant affect on the beliefs of unsuspecting Facebook users. Cambridge Analytica (CA) was a project both Steve Bannon and Robert Mercer were involved with and it used psychoanalyzing techniques to influence potential voters.

In addition to helping to get Trump elected back in 2016 CA was directly involved in affecting the voters who voted to break Great Britain away from the European Union via “Brexit.” Keep in mind, the Russians and members of Israeli intelligence got the data pilfered from Facebook allowing them to target American voters during the 2016 election of Trump #1. CA ultimately was forced out of business, but the damage to America had been done – PLUS the information regarding American voters was still in the possession of Bannon and the republican right wing supporters of Trump. I have no doubt they used this information once again in 2024.

Plus, you had Elon Musk (and who knows who else was involved with him) spreading GARBAGE on his website and, undoubtedly, on Facebook and other Social Media apps. Democrats seem to be woefully inadequate in understanding how all this works – but, clearly, Musk was “investing” heavily into Trump’s campaign via secret “PAC’s.” If you’ve watched the stock market and Musk’s auto company since the election you know exactly why he did it – Musk, like Zuckerberg, (and other American Oligarchs) can’t seem to get enough money – but, Trump’s “win” in the election is going a long way in determining if he has a ceiling.

I read “Proof of Conspiracy” by Seth Abramson which lays out the evidence of the conspiracy of the Trump campaign of 2016 with Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt (I think also Qatar?) to get Trump elected. Well, I have to believe the same “actors” were doing the same thing in 2024. I’ve written several times here that Vladimir Putin has been working for YEARS to use our (the U.S.) open society against us – as he attempts to convince Americans that “democracy” is evil.

Trump has proved he IS “above the law” and, as we await his new reign on America we’re seeing that anyone on his “team” will also be above the law. For example, take what Elon Musk is up to. (and Trump) It’s been credibly reported Musk was not only on a phone call to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine but has also been reported to be having conversations with representatives of Iran. Wouldn’t these by violations of the Logan Act? Of course, there’s no reason to even open an investigation because, well, the new Attorney General just might be Matt Gaetz. (I can’t believe I just typed that) Bottom line, Trump and his sycophants don’t believe in the rule of law. (for themselves)

So, democrats need to stop trying to figure out what Kamala Harris did wrong. True to their tradition they didn’t run on their incredible successes – because they have no idea how to win the messaging “wars” and their understanding, it appears, of Social Media is like boys against men in comparison to republicans. Musk, like Trump, is obviously willing to do whatever it takes to win. His buying votes in Pennsylvania and other “battleground states” was, to me, clearly illegal – almost unbelievably arrogant. But, he was betting he could help Trump win – so, there would never be an investigation.

The result of all this is becoming painfully clear. Trump is now naming some of the most incredible names for his cabinet in, maybe, history. I mean, Gaetz for Attorney General? It was interesting how he avoided indictment for his alleged sex trafficking and illicit drug use. And, RFK Jr. for the head of HHS? OMG! Will he be the one who succeeds in dismantling Medicare? And, his anti vaccine nonsense? Just recently, where I live, (a small county in Washington state) there have been over 400 cases of Whooping Cough and an outbreak in our elementary schools of the measles – mostly with children whose parents agree with Kennedy on opposition to vaccines. And, Tulsi Gabbard as head of the Department of Intelligence? Yikes! But, of course, there’s more: A Fox “News” host as Secretary of Defense?! God help us all!!!

While the finger pointing about “what went wrong” will continue and likely be pointed at President Biden or Vice President Harris – in my view – the fingers should be pointed at “we the people.” It shouldn’t have taken a lot of thought to understand what lies ahead as people were choosing to vote for a 34 times convicted FELON who faced over 50 additional charges, including Espionage, has been adjudicated civilly of committing what the judge equated to rape, and who has a long history of committing FRAUD as our president. No one can claim “ignorance” at this point. Why would anyone wonder why America is no longer a nation based on the “rule of law.” When this disaster permeates the American culture, we MUST be clear where we lay the blame. It should lie at the feet of the American voters. Stay tuned……

Final Thought: Speaking of wondering if America is still a nation based on the rule of law – and, how Trump has destroyed that fundamental value, there’s more. None could possibly compare to Trump’s promise to pardon those who participated in the January 6th, 2021 INSURRECTION, including those convicted of SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY – in essence, an attempt to overthrow our government. Well, Trump is attempting to prove he’s managed to do this via the ballot box. Will republicans in Congress continue to cower in fear of this deplorable man? If Trump pardons those who have been convicted of assaulting the Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers who did battle with them for several hours – with some officers saying the attack was worse than anything they experienced in their military service in Iraq or Afghanistan – will republicans go along?

Sadly, my prediction is: Yes!