The Tunnel at the End of the Light
Mostly cloudy today. A little rain. A high of 79F.
There will be no end of peop trying to puzzle out what went wrong tonight, people who get paid to do it. They'll cite everything from American misogyny and racism to the allure of the Republican Party among Hispanic men to the chaos created by Jill Stein to the recent bizarre Ivy League infatuation with Hamas. And I don't doubt all those things played important roles. But, in the end, I think the country just hasn't gotten it's fill of the horror clown. And what does that say about us, about our apparent national masochism, xenophobia, and fundamental lack of self preservation. Go figure.
When this happened in 2016, I was a different person. Eight years younger and still believing in an America that clearly no longer exists, if it ever did. Last time I was devastated. This time I was hardly even surprised. That's not a good thing. You could say something in me died in those intervening years, battered to pulp by the first Trump term, the January 6th on the Capitol, and watching Yale, Brown, and Hardvard students embrace terrorists and antisemitism. Or you could just say I became more callused and less idealistic, that I grew up a little. I've always had a nasty paedomorphic streak in me. Maybe it's finally burned away. But this isn't about me, anymore than it's about any single one of you. As Trent Reznor said, "we're in this together now." Again.
And, on the one hand, while Trump did a fuckton of damage during his first term, it almost always fell short of his touted promises and draconian goals. Maybe that'll happen again. But this time is different. The Horror Clown is more deranged and filled with an almost incomprehensible desire for vengeance. He wants to hand science-denier Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. the Department of Health and Human Services. He's promised Elon Musk, a man almost as loony as Trump, the moon and a huge role in shaping foreign policy. There's the theocratic nightmare of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 to spin visions of The Handmaid's Tale. There's the HC's willingness to placate Putin as the Russian dictator struggles against Ukraine. There's the war in Israel and the rising violence through the Middle East. There's a country without the protections of Roe v. Wade to safeguard women's reproductive freedoms. there's J.D. Vance, the Ohio "hillbilly,"* whom I do not doubt will be groomed to follow Trump. There is, in short, a long fucking list of bad shit that the Horror Clown did not have going for his the first time. I feel like I've hardly scartched the surface.
Likely we will survive. We survived last time. But the world was a little safer place last time, so fuck only knows.
It's tempting to say any country that would allow a monster like Trump to become president not once, but twice, really isn't worth giving a shit about. But that's not true. At all. If nothing else, there's the 66,251,503 people who voted for Harris, and they don't have this coming. There are those other countries that will feel the sting of the Horror Clown, and a lot of those folks don't have this coming, either. So, I'm gonna reserve my ire for the people who actually voted for him, or were to lazy or indifferent to vote, or voted third party, and so on. There are guilty parties here. This was not, as Dan Rather told us a year ago, not a normal election cycle, and people should, somehow, be held accountable for the nightmares that will play out over the next four years and, probably, well beyond. We, as a nation and as individuals, knew better. We had the benefit of experience.
I want to wrap this up with something about the supposed banality of evil, but I'm just too damn tired.
I'm updating this at 7:50 a.m. on Wednesday morning, and, as it stands, the Horror Clown as declared his victory and the electoral votes stand at 224 (Harris) to 277 (Trump). Any chance Harris might still win? No. It's done. And American democracy has not faced a challenge like this since the Civil War. And...we knew better.
----
A couple of quick notes and I'm out of here for the night. I'm rearranging my office in to a place more congenial to both my writing and my science, as well as to the fact I spend most of my life in this room. A lot of today was spent on that, staying busy.
It's time to write the second half of The Ultraviolet Alphabet, so Letter N, I'm coming for you.
Please visit the Dreaming Squid Sundries shop. We need the dough. Oh, and a huge thank you to a mysterious benefactor. You know who you are. And Sonya, please call me. Also, fuck the typos. I'm going to bed.
Later Tater Beans (I hope),
Aunt Beast
1:33 p.m.
* You wanna talk cultural appropriation?
There will be no end of peop trying to puzzle out what went wrong tonight, people who get paid to do it. They'll cite everything from American misogyny and racism to the allure of the Republican Party among Hispanic men to the chaos created by Jill Stein to the recent bizarre Ivy League infatuation with Hamas. And I don't doubt all those things played important roles. But, in the end, I think the country just hasn't gotten it's fill of the horror clown. And what does that say about us, about our apparent national masochism, xenophobia, and fundamental lack of self preservation. Go figure.
When this happened in 2016, I was a different person. Eight years younger and still believing in an America that clearly no longer exists, if it ever did. Last time I was devastated. This time I was hardly even surprised. That's not a good thing. You could say something in me died in those intervening years, battered to pulp by the first Trump term, the January 6th on the Capitol, and watching Yale, Brown, and Hardvard students embrace terrorists and antisemitism. Or you could just say I became more callused and less idealistic, that I grew up a little. I've always had a nasty paedomorphic streak in me. Maybe it's finally burned away. But this isn't about me, anymore than it's about any single one of you. As Trent Reznor said, "we're in this together now." Again.
And, on the one hand, while Trump did a fuckton of damage during his first term, it almost always fell short of his touted promises and draconian goals. Maybe that'll happen again. But this time is different. The Horror Clown is more deranged and filled with an almost incomprehensible desire for vengeance. He wants to hand science-denier Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. the Department of Health and Human Services. He's promised Elon Musk, a man almost as loony as Trump, the moon and a huge role in shaping foreign policy. There's the theocratic nightmare of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 to spin visions of The Handmaid's Tale. There's the HC's willingness to placate Putin as the Russian dictator struggles against Ukraine. There's the war in Israel and the rising violence through the Middle East. There's a country without the protections of Roe v. Wade to safeguard women's reproductive freedoms. there's J.D. Vance, the Ohio "hillbilly,"* whom I do not doubt will be groomed to follow Trump. There is, in short, a long fucking list of bad shit that the Horror Clown did not have going for his the first time. I feel like I've hardly scartched the surface.
Likely we will survive. We survived last time. But the world was a little safer place last time, so fuck only knows.
It's tempting to say any country that would allow a monster like Trump to become president not once, but twice, really isn't worth giving a shit about. But that's not true. At all. If nothing else, there's the 66,251,503 people who voted for Harris, and they don't have this coming. There are those other countries that will feel the sting of the Horror Clown, and a lot of those folks don't have this coming, either. So, I'm gonna reserve my ire for the people who actually voted for him, or were to lazy or indifferent to vote, or voted third party, and so on. There are guilty parties here. This was not, as Dan Rather told us a year ago, not a normal election cycle, and people should, somehow, be held accountable for the nightmares that will play out over the next four years and, probably, well beyond. We, as a nation and as individuals, knew better. We had the benefit of experience.
I want to wrap this up with something about the supposed banality of evil, but I'm just too damn tired.
I'm updating this at 7:50 a.m. on Wednesday morning, and, as it stands, the Horror Clown as declared his victory and the electoral votes stand at 224 (Harris) to 277 (Trump). Any chance Harris might still win? No. It's done. And American democracy has not faced a challenge like this since the Civil War. And...we knew better.
----
A couple of quick notes and I'm out of here for the night. I'm rearranging my office in to a place more congenial to both my writing and my science, as well as to the fact I spend most of my life in this room. A lot of today was spent on that, staying busy.
It's time to write the second half of The Ultraviolet Alphabet, so Letter N, I'm coming for you.
Please visit the Dreaming Squid Sundries shop. We need the dough. Oh, and a huge thank you to a mysterious benefactor. You know who you are. And Sonya, please call me. Also, fuck the typos. I'm going to bed.
Later Tater Beans (I hope),
Aunt Beast
1:33 p.m.
* You wanna talk cultural appropriation?