A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months…
Kamala Harris told us that Donald Trump would end our (beloved) democracy and rule as a (hated) dictator. Today she tells us that it will be her “sacred obligation” to certify the end of democracy and the beginning of the hated dictator’s rule:
In case the above is memory-holed:
Jimmy Carter died today, aged 100. He is most associated in Americans’ mind with raging inflation (unfairly, I think, since it was Lyndon Johnson who indulged in a massive expansion of both the welfare state (Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, taxpayer-funding housing) and the U.S. role in the Vietnam War) and impotence against powerful Islamic foes, e.g., the Iranian Muslims who took Americans hostage in Tehran.
Let’s look at an area where Jimmy Carter was temporarily out in front of fellow Democrats: support for the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”).
In 2006, Carter was on the ground monitoring the election in which Palestinians voted Hamas into power (Hamas should legitimately be the ruler of the West Bank as well as Gaza, but that’s a longer story). Trip report:
On election day, Rosalynn and I visited 25 polling sites, in East Jerusalem and its outskirts, Hebron, Ramallah, and Jericho. It seemed obvious to us and other observers that the election was orderly and peaceful and that there was a clear preference for Hamas candidates even in historically strong Fatah communities. Even so, we were all surprised at the enormity of the Hamas victory.
(Note the incorrect-for-traditionalists use of the word “enormity” to describe something large.)
In 2006, he wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post titled “Don’t Punish the Palestinians”:
The election of Hamas candidates cannot adversely affect genuine peace talks … even if Hamas does not soon take the ultimately inevitable steps of renouncing violence and recognizing Israel’s right to exist.
It’s comforting to know that Hamas will inevitably renounce violence (when they run out of ammo?).
2009: “first of all Hamas has to be accepted by the international community as a legitimate player in the future, and that is what I am trying to do today.” (New York Times)
2014: “Ending this war in Gaza begins with recognizing Hamas as a legitimate political actor.” (Foreign Policy); see also USA Today: “Jimmy Carter calls for recognizing terror group Hamas”
2015: “Carter says Hamas leader committed to peace, Netanyahu not” (Times of Israel): “I don’t believe that he’s a terrorist. He’s strongly in favor of the peace process,” Carter said of Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal. (Wikipedia regarding the same noble peace-lover: “On 3 September 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Mashal for allegedly orchestrating the 7 October attack on Israel”)
From 2007 by Alan Dershowitz, who joined Harvard prior to the institution’s conversion to Queers for Palestine:
By 2021, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and whoever was actually running the U.S. had come to see things Jimmy Carter’s way. “Reversing Trump, Biden Restores Aid to Palestinians” (NYT):
The move will once again make the United States a leading donor to the United Nations agency that assists about 5.7 million Palestinians in the Middle East.
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it would restore hundreds of millions of dollars in American aid to Palestinians, its strongest move yet to reverse President Donald J. Trump’s policy on the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The restoration of aid amounted to the most direct repudiation so far of Mr. Trump’s tilt toward Israel in its decades-old conflict with the Palestinian population in Israeli-controlled territories.
In other words, via the implementation of Carter’s 15-year-old ideas U.S. taxpayers fully funded the October 7, 2023 attacks against Israel (we gave the Gazans hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years, enabling men to refrain from working to put food on their families’ tables, thus freeing them to spend full time on military training).
How did Carter’s pro-Hamas sentiments turn into Queers for Palestine? “Jimmy Carter: ‘I believe that Jesus would approve of gay marriage’” (The Hill, 2018).
(Jesus is quoted by Matthew as saying that “sexual immorality” happens because of “evil thoughts”. A man having sex with another man was proscribed as “an abomination” by Leviticus and Jesus never promulgated a substitute set of regulations for sex acts. I wonder what would happen if we could get into a time machine and go back to Jerusalem in AD 30, show Jesus videos of modern 2SLGBTQQIA+ lifestyles (including, of course, the bathhouse!), and then ask him to bless/approve of these activities.)
Loosely related, a bit more about Carter’s theology (Forward):
Carter continued to teach Bible classes, later released in audiobook form. During one, he stated that Jesus “directly challenged in a fatal way the existing church, and there was no possible way for the Jewish leaders to avoid the challenge. So they decided to kill Jesus.”
Carter reiterated this calumny of Jews as Christ-killers, the basis for centuries of antisemitic persecution, in yet another Sunday school lesson about how Jesus was aware that he was risking death “as quickly as [it] could be arranged by the Jewish leaders, who were very powerful.”
Thus contradicts what the PhDs in religion say, e.g., from Frank K. Flinn, professor at Washington University in St. Louis (source):
Full post, including commentsRomans killed Jesus as a political threat, as they had killed many other prophets, brigands, rebels during the first century. Josephus the Jewish historian recounts many examples in his Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities. Had the Jewish authorities been directly involved, Jesus would have been stoned, as Stephen was in Acts 7. Only Roman authorities could authorize crucifixions and they often did so on a gruesome, massive scale.
2024 will be remembered, I think, as one of the best years ever for progressive Jewish American Democrats. Last month’s election could have been improved, of course, but the pain of that loss is more than made up for the fact that Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are almost perfectly aligned this year. The first full day of Hanukkah is December 26, which is also when the Harris family traditionally lit the first candle of the kinara during the 1960s when it became one of the first adopters of Maulana Karenga‘s new holiday (like Donald Trump, Professor Dr. Karenga, Ph.D. beat more women than Doug Emhoff. Because of prejudice against the Black man, however, Karenga was imprisoned for kidnapping and torturing women rather than being elevated to the Presidency).
How about a Christmas wish that Donald Trump will begin the healing process for our divided nation by bringing Kamala Harris into his administration as Kwanzaa Czar? Other than Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett), there doesn’t seem to be anyone better qualified.
What about a job for Doug Emhoff? Claiming to be a victim of domestic violence is one way for a migrant to obtain asylum here in the U.S. (see “Biden administration reverses Trump-era asylum policies” (Politico, 2021)). Mx. Emhoff could be an asylum court administrative judge evaluating tales of who slapped whom in the privacy of a home 8,000 miles away.
Finally, let’s remember how much seemingly different groups of people actually have in common. The following diagram should be helpful and inspiring:
In case the above tweet is memory-holed:
As we celebrate National Pickle Day, let’s look at a 63-year-old Democrat who expects, absent dramatic birth control measures, to become pregnant and crave pickles and ice cream. In the video below, she discusses a first person possibility of being a customer for IVF and abortion care as well:
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has reached the age of a great-grandmother in most human societies, but imagines that she could get pregnant and give birth (the Guinness Book of World Records age for this feat is 59) and also that someone other than a gerontologist is interested in her reproductive system. (The post and video above originally a tweet on JL-D’s official X account, but apparently it was deleted or restricted so that only non-Deplorables/non-Garbage can see it.)
What’s the corresponding fantasy world for Republicans? Deporting undocumented criminals:
“There’s about 4.5 million who would be the first priority for that, people who’ve already committed crimes,” Johnson (R-La.) said Thursday. “They’re in the system now [for] shoplifting, or whatever it is … or [having] done things that are untoward or unlawful.”
This politician imagines that there is a country (or countries) out there, other than the U.S., that is dumb enough to take in 4.5 million folks who’ve been adjudicated criminals. Note that criminality is heritable, so if a country takes in a criminal it will be on track to have additional criminals in the future. (Also remember that nobody can agree on how many of the undocumented are currently enriching us with their presence: “Yale Study Finds Twice as Many Undocumented Immigrants as Previous Estimates” (2018); the estimate of 11 million seems to have been in use by mainstream media for 20+ years, even as the same publications report on floods of new arrivals.)
I think the 63-year-old’s fear of getting pregnant and not being able to secure abortion care might be more reasonable than the Republican expectation of being able to dump migrant criminals on some other nation!
So the good news is that the two parties will be back to governing soon, now that the election drama is mostly over. The bad news is that both parties seem to be living in fantasy worlds of their own creation!
In case the above Instagram post is memory-holed…
I decided to conduct a Scientific poll this evening around our kitchen table. My mom is 90 and came over from assisted living accompanied by an aide. The aide is an immigrant from Haiti via the Dominican Republic. She probably gets paid about $20/hour and lives in the Democrat stronghold of West Palm Beach, Florida (our own town of Jupiter is, unfortunately, majority-Deplorable/garbage). So that the kids might be exposed to a diversity of political opinions, I asked her if she was eligible to vote and, if so, for whom she had voted and if she was happy with the election outcome. “I voted for Trump,” she said. “Harris didn’t do or say anything in the last four years while she was in office.” In other words, by Biden/Democrat standards this Haitian-born lady ain’t Black and ain’t an immigrant.
There’s more bad news… she has a high-school-age son… who is a Trump supporter as well. Could it be that elite Democrats picked such a bad candidate that their choice has caused a Long Republicanism disease among young people?
How about the unionized public school teachers? I would expect them to be reliable Democrat voters. They’re supposed to reveal their personal political views, but our 5th grader suspects at least some of harboring sentiments in favor of smaller government(!) and Donald Trump.
My post-election Facebook post (if only they had a “defriend count” on a per-post basis!):
How much truth is there in the therapy/pacifier angle? “Harvard Professors Cancel Classes as Students Feel Blue After Trump Win” (Crimson):
At 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sophia R. Mammucari ’28 woke up to a phone call from her mom — and the news that Donald Trump had been officially reelected.
“I still had some hope that she was going to win by a small amount. And then I woke up this morning, and that’s not what happened,” Mammucari said. “I probably cried for like an hour.”
Economics lecturer Maxim Boycko wrote in a Wednesday email to students in Economics 1010a: “Intermediate Microeconomics” that the course’s typical in-class quizzes would be optional.
“As we recover from the eventful election night and process the implications of Trump’s victory, please know that class will proceed as usual today, except that classroom quizzes will not be for credit,” Boycko wrote. “Feel free to take time off if needed.”
“At an Upper West Side synagogue, Jews gather to ‘sit shiva’ following Trump’s win” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency):
Congregants at the Upper West Side synagogue B’nai Jeshurun had gathered for a post-election prayer service on Wednesday night, but the congregation’s senior rabbi, Roly Matalon, understood that they had really come together for a different kind of Jewish gathering.
“We’re sitting shiva,” Matalon said to a crowd of about 100, including both members and guests. “Sitting shiva with a sense of loss, of grief.”
The synagogue characterizes itself as “inclusive”. In theory, they’re not “Reform”, but they seem to have two females who call themselves “Rabbis”, one of whom is the author of Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay. (Would one good reason for a Muslim feminist to “stay” Muslim be that leaving Islam is punishable by death?)
Related:
Before looking at Florida, let’s check to see what a correct vote would be:
Our ruling elite picked Kamala Harris more than 92 percent of the time.
How about down here in the Swamp? Thanks to the Lockdown Governors of the Northeast and California, who exported their conservative freedom-oriented residents to our peninsula, Florida is no longer a swing state. So it wasn’t surprising that Donald Trump prevailed over Kamala Harris by 56:43 (NYT):
Bigger government tends to favor city-dwellers and, therefore, it was surprising that Miami rejected the Democrat religion 55:44. Maybe it was a mistake for Kamala Harris to tell the residents “If you don’t vote for me then you ain’t Latinx”?
Who in Florida does love bigger government? The folks who work for the state government! The two counties up around Tallahassee voted Democrat 65:34 and 60:39. Orlando and Fort Lauderdale weren’t too far behind. Palm Beach County was evenly balanced with 49.9:49.2 in favor of the correct candidate.
Our fossilized senator Rick Scott, for whose retirement I pray daily (maybe somehow he can retire and Ron DeSantis can appoint himself to the job? Or DeSantis can quit his job and get Jeanette Nuñez to appoint him to fill the vacant Senate seat?), beat his Democrat opponent 56:43. Our Israel-loving Hamas-hating Congressman, Brian Mast, beat his teenage opponent, Thomas Witkop, 62:38. I’m not sure how political parties get these sacrificial lambs to agree to run in hopeless races.
The majority of Floridians (57-ish percent) wanted to turn Florida into a Massachusetts-style paradise in which abortion care and marijuana were available on every street corner. However, the state constitution amendments (3 and 4) that were on the ballot required a 60 percent vote to pass. (Abortion care in Florida would have been available through fetal “viability”, which is about 21 weeks from a medical point of view but somehow there is a legal fiction that viability occurs at 24 weeks. I don’t think that Florida would have permitted abortion care at 37 weeks if one doctor thought it would improve the pregnant person’s mental health, as is legal in Maskachusetts.) Being a redneck had 67 percent support so a “Right to Fish and Hunt” amendment passed. An amendment to change school board elections to partisan failed, garnering an insufficient majority of “yes” votes at 55 percent. (I’m pretty sure that all school board members in Palm Beach County are Democrats, but it is impossible to tell for sure due to the lack of this kind of amendment.)
I haven’t seen any race in Florida that was decided by one vote and, therefore, it is literally false for anyone to say “Your vote counts” or similar. Any given individual could have stayed home to enjoy Xbox games and the outcome would have been the same.
Unlike in our former suburb of Boston, the public school system here doesn’t seem to be offering grief counseling to students.
As I type this (Wednesday at 3:47 pm), California, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, D.C., and Alaska, at least, still hadn’t counted even 90 percent of their presidential votes, something Florida (population 23 million) managed to do within two hours after the polls closed. There are 52 “not yet called” House races, none of them in Florida.
Full post, including commentsIf the election didn’t provide enough horror and dread… A trick-or-treater who showed up at our house last week:
(note the bandage on his ear)
And here’s my 90-year-old mom meeting a chainsaw killer with Costco chocolates. Mindy the Crippler is ready to provide backup. Not in frame: three of Regina’s grandkids (9, almost 11, and 15), all of whom had an epic evening.
Because political candidates should never plan for defeat, one good use case for ChatGPT is writing a concession speech quickly. I got it to write one on behalf of Kamala Harris:
My fellow Americans,
Tonight, I stand here bearing the weight of a moment that, for many, feels like a Nakba—a devastating turning point that shakes the foundation of all we have worked toward. This campaign was more than a contest; it was a fight for the soul of our nation, a fight for justice, equality, and the promise of true freedom. Although we have not prevailed, I am profoundly proud of every voice that stood up for what is right, every heart that leaned toward hope, and every community that came together in unity. To those in Miami who voted for Trump: if you didn’t vote for me, then you ain’t Latinx. This moment asks us to reflect on the divides we still have to bridge and the work that lies ahead.
To the many Americans who feel fear tonight, who worry that we’re stepping backward into a time when freedoms were more easily denied and voices more readily silenced, know that we will not surrender to despair. We must not forget that we face a man who stands convicted of 91 felonies, a figure unprecedented in American politics for his disregard of truth, justice, and the values that make democracy possible. This outcome is not a testament to his innocence, nor to his worthiness. We know that democracy is fragile, but it will not crumble so long as we stand up for it. We are not characters in The Handmaid’s Tale—we are citizens of a free nation, and that freedom is ours to defend. Our collective resolve will remain unwavering, and our determination to create a just America will not be extinguished.
To President Trump, I extend my congratulations on his victory, but let me be clear: this is a solemn moment, not a vindication. This nation deserves leaders who will serve with honesty and honor, who respect the rule of law and the principles of democracy. I urge every American to remain vigilant and to demand accountability. We face a difficult road, but together, we will press on, refusing to let this outcome define our future. Thank you, and may God bless America.
and one for Donald Trump:
Thank you. Thank you all for being here.
Tonight didn’t go the way we wanted. Believe me, nobody wanted this victory more than I did. But the American people have spoken, and while I may not agree with everything that’s happened in this election, I respect our country, I respect the system, and I respect the will of the people. I want to thank my incredible supporters—millions of you out there—who fought alongside me every single day. You are the heart and soul of this nation, and you will not be forgotten. We’ve created a movement that’s bigger than any one election, and we’ve shown the world that America is strong, proud, and free.
I want to congratulate Kamala Harris on her victory. I hope that she will do what’s right for our country. She has a big responsibility on her shoulders, and I know a lot of you out there—hard-working Americans who love this country, who put faith, family, and freedom first—will be watching. You will be holding her accountable, and so will I. We’ve seen what’s possible when we put America first, and I hope this new administration remembers that and doesn’t let you down.
To all my supporters, this is not the end. This movement, this America First agenda—it’s bigger than any one election, bigger than any one president. We’re going to keep fighting for the values that make this country great. We’re going to keep making our voices heard, louder than ever. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
Concession speeches were shorter in the days before broadcast media. Teddy Roosevelt via telegram to Woodrow Wilson in 1912, for example:
The American people by a great plurality have conferred upon you the highest honor in their gift. I congratulate you thereon.
And with that, I concede it is time to go to bed and wait until tomorrow morning to learn about all of the ballots that have been discovered falling off of mail trucks in swing states…
Full post, including commentsDon’t need Nostradamus in this situation, apparently. With 0% of votes in, the New York Times has called Massachusetts for the Candidate of Virtue:
They similarly called VT, CT, and MD with 0% of votes counted. RI was more efficient, apparently, because fully 1% of votes were tallied at 8:19 pm when I checked and the NYT had called the state for Kamala:
(Florida at the same time had 90% of votes counted.)
Looks like Republicans have taken over nearly all of the U.S. Senate, at least measured by floor space, with just one victory:
Could the person who calls himself “Jim Justice” be Jabba the Hutt’s cousin in disguise?
According to official media reports, Tim Walz was the most able of all American governors, yet at 9:47 pm central, nearly two hours after polls closed, his/her/zir/their state had counted just 5 percent of its ballots. Neighboring Iowa’s polls also closed at 8 pm and, despite malgoverance by Republican Kim Reynolds, was able to count 62 percent of the votes.
If Democrats are better at governing than Republicans, why aren’t Democrat-run states able to run elections as efficiently?
Update: the forecast gets darker.
From X: “If this keeps up Democrats are going to have to ask themselves why the hell they voted for this woman in the primaries.”
Full post, including commentsI spent Election Day-1 in Kissimmee, Florida, home to the Monument of States, which includes (I think) a rock from every state:
A closer look at some of the components:
If you’re going to watch election returns on TV and say to your friends, “A lot of these states are sending in a nominee who is as dumb as a rock” then this monument shows you the end result of each state sending a rock!
The definition of “state” seems flexible:
The folks who placed a time capsule here in 1993 for opening in 2043 didn’t factor in Science according to Democrats in the Northeast and California who say that all of Florida will be under water by then.
The city is officially at an elevation of 72′ above sea level so if the time capsule can’t be readily accessed there will be a lot of problems in Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. as well. It would be a shame if these murals were inundated:
The trip to Kissimmee was for aircraft maintenance and, therefore, I spent the whole day interacting with line guys, front desk gals, aircraft mechanics, and waitstaff. I sussed out that nearly all of these working class folks were Trump supporters. They believed that their standard of living had been reduced by Bidenflation and they didn’t want to compete for wages and apartment rent with another 10 million migrants. Democrats’ “tax the rich” promises did not appeal to them, despite the fact that they actually live the inequality that others only talk about. A line guy making $20/hour may be pumping Jet A into a $70 million Gulfstream. Why wouldn’t they be excited about a bigger government funded by taking stuff away from people whom they’ve met and who plainly don’t need it? It’s because they don’t expect to get any money or benefits from the government. Most of these folks earn too little to afford to have kids while maintaining what they consider to be a reasonably comfortable existence and, thus, they’re excluded from many of the most expensive government programs, such as public school and the various child tax credits. At the same time, they earn too much to qualify for the free housing, health care, food, and smartphone packages that recent migrants enjoy.
(The Census Bureau says that 32 percent of the people who live in Kissimmee are foreign-born and that over 70 percent of the residents are “Hispanic”.)
Returning to the election theme, it is understandable that an American might be passionate about who will spend nearly half of our GDP and who will decide whether teenagers get gender affirming surgery. But we shouldn’t let this interfere with our emotional connections to friends and family. I was sad to hear that a nonbinary progressive Democrat resident of Brooklyn found out that his conservative parents in an Upstate New York district voted Trump-Vance. He/she/ze/they said that he/she/ze/they is going to stop visiting their graves.
(Alternative from the same region: The cost of hosting migrants in New Jersey has been so high under the Biden-Harris administration that the Mafia had to lay off three judges.)
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