“Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid. Step out of line the man come and take you away.” — Stephen Stills

I don’t know how much I have for you today. Most of the late evening and morning has been like walking through a fog. I keep telling myself just to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Allow me to tell you a little story I think most of you already know.

In the immediate aftermath when Jesus was crucified, his followers were despondent. Their leader had been executed. They went to his tomb three days later and it seemed that someone had stolen the body. In the immediate intervening years following the crucifixion it was illegal to be a Christian in Rome. So, Christians got by through symbols so they could reveal their intentions without anyone knowing about.

Masses were celebrated in homes at the kitchen table. That tradition in almost exacting detail was replicated through the early 1960s when the second Vatican council changed how the eucharistic prayer and the mass would be said. It wasn’t until Constantine that Christians in Rome felt safe. Most of the apostles were later martyred including Peter (the first pope) who refused to be crucified standing up. He wanted to be upside down because he had denied Jesus during his passion.

I’m not saying that the Roman soldiers are coming to round us up, but many of us will be a lot less boisterous than we used to be. I’ve never felt scared before following an election. I’ve been disappointed. I’ve been angry. I’ve been utterly depressed, but I have never felt quite like I did when I woke up this morning.

There will be time to ask those nagging Monday morning quarterback questions we always ask in these moments. Was Kamala the right candidate? Was there something wrong with her message? Was she hurt by the lack of transition plan from Joe Biden to her? Would the Democrats have been better off having a clean primary process without Joe Biden? Was the “garbage” thing a clear gaffe at the end that cost her a couple of key percentage points?

I don’t have answers to those questions right now and while we should ask them in due time, I am going to ask everyone to take a step back and take a deep breath. This is collectively who we are now. It really is a matter of a few percentage points shifting one way and not an avalanche. I know it must feel like one.

There are still decent and loving people in this world. Perhaps we can develop some sort of signal to find each other in a sea of divisiveness and hate. It is okay to be sad. It is okay to be angry. It is okay to be depressed. I’m not sure which one is winning out in me right now. It might be confusion more than anything else. I still don’t know how we got here yet.

Last year I spent three months waiting to see if I had cancer or not.

The doctors were all pretty sure I had it. And it was going to be the kind that I probably wouldn't survive. Then, they were finally able to complete a test and I woke up from the procedure and ... didn't have cancer. Just totally didn't have it. You can go, the doctor said. We don't need to see you again for ten years.

It took me a week to even process the relief. I'm not sure I still have.

As I noted on Threads, much of yesterday felt a lot like that three months.

I was hoping for a similar outcome.

Hoping I'd wake up and all would be well.

But...

Well, now we know who's who.

Now we know who our real friends and allies are. And who isn't.

I was going to ask: So, what was it this time?

What's the excuse this time?

Was it the price of eggs?

Cost of gas at the pump?

Wait, wait, she didn't have any ground game in swing states wah wah wah? Hated her laugh?

No, it's Gaza? Yeah, it's Gaza isn't it?

What's the excuse this time? 

But, you know what? It turns out I honestly don't care. I mean, when it's terminal cancer, do you really care how you caught it?

I don't care what the excuse is this time around and ultimately, it doesn't matter anyway. Every single thing lefties claim they care about? In the end, none of it mattered enough.

And now, we've lost it all.

Donald Trump will decide our fate.

What? What's that? 

Oh, we'll fight  will we? It's not over! We...

Yeah, save it. 

Just fucking save it, I'm not interested. The cancer is too far along. 

You personally? Sure, you might have cared enough, but it turns out a lot of those we thought were on our side, those we thought would stand up for their own rights, just ... didn't. Not only didn't, but they appear to have thrown their lot in with Trump and are willing to let Elon Musk, Laura Loomer, RFK Jr, and the local Preacher Man run their lives. A lot of those women I saw in line yesterday? Apparently they did vote away their own rights. 

No, no, I'm not blaming women. I blame Americans, all of us. That's who I blame. 

I'm saying everyone knew what the stakes were, there was a record turnout and somehow 20 million less Americans voted this time and so we decided to reelect a twice impeached serial rapist currently out on bail for more than twenty felony convictions. 

Why? I don't know. The reason doesn't much matter now anyway, does it?

You again? What now?  Trump is going to what now? 

LOL. No. Trump isn't going to jail. You can forget that pipe dream. Those who prosecuted Trump? Odds are, they'll be the ones going to prison.

Merrick Garland? You tell me he had to go slow, etc. Well, he went slow and I'm not a lawyer but I goddamn well know politics and I fucking told you so for whatever that's worth. Merrick Garland might have been right, but he still failed us worse and just as deliberately than any Benedict Arnold. Slow. Fuck me. 

Oh, and all those MAGA insurrectionists Garland did lock up? 

They're free on Jan 20, 2025. With a full pardon. Because if we didn't lock up the guy who led the insurrection, well, then nothing else matters and everything Garland actually accomplished is totally moot, erased, never happened, the guy might as well have never existed. He's a nebbish, history won't even remember his name. 

And again, I did tell you so.

I told you so, but I was just pissing into the wind. 

You already knew. 

You knew. 

They're going to ban same sex marriage and lock up LGBTQ people as insane, just like the Germans did back in the 1930s, or worse.

They'll round and deport 20 million people and it's going to leave such a massive hole in our economy that we might never recover, but Elon says you'll be fine after a couple of years of hardship. My dear old mom used to say: you can get used to hanging if you hang long enough. We're about to find out just how true that is.

Healthcare? Social Security? Gone. Hope you got plenty of savings to support you in your old age. What's that? Oh. Well, maybe you can sell a kidney then.

They're going to impose tariffs, give tax breaks to billionaires, give Trump direct control of the Fed, and Elon control of everything else, and utterly destroy the economy. The billionaires won't suffer, but you damn sure are going to.

They're going to put guns in every school right next to mandatory Jesus.

However bad you think it's going to be, it'll be worse.

But, you knew that.

Oh sure, eventually, a decade or so down the road, after the recession and the wars and the riots and the violence, just like those who voted for the Third Reich, those who voted for Trump are gonna get screwed by the very rapist they helped elect.

And, you know, I just don't care about that either.

Sure, they'll have it coming, but if I'm still around to witness their comeuppance (an unlikely event to be sure, but maybe I'll get lucky. If you can call living in that world luck) I'll feel neither joy at their misery nor sympathy for their suffering. Fuck 'em.

See, we're all going to get screwed right alongside them, the undeserving and the guilty alike, The Good and the bad Germans both.

Not just us, but all our friends too.

The war in Ukraine is over, Putin won last night. NATO and Europe are next.

The war in Gaza isn't over and won't be for a while, but the outcome is inevitable now. But hey, at least you have your principles, right?

Taiwan? South Korea? Oh well. So sorry. Sucks to be you.

If it's any consolation, it's gonna suck to be us too.

But again, you knew this.

I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know.

We all knew, but for a lot of lefties yesterday, well... here we are.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. You're mad at me now for saying so.

Be mad. It'll keep you warm when the power goes out.

I wish you were mad enough yesterday to show up.

And so here we are.

Trump isn't just going to be president again. He's going to be quite literally a dictator because there is absolutely nothing to hold him back this time. We handed him the White House, the Court, the Legislature, and total immunity. It's not just this latest election, it's all the ones that came before too.

You need to face what that means.

He's going to take revenge on us. He's going to do what he said he would do. He's going to destroy everything you love. You knew that, and it wasn't enough. You're going to have to face it.

Trump is going to burn down the world and maybe that's what it'll finally take.

That's what the far left progressives shouted at me back in 2016: burn it all down. Burn it all down.

Burn it all down. Burning it all down isn't the moral high ground, it's just arson and people die in a fire, but again here we are and careful what you wish for. Because now it is all going to burn and I hope those who started this fire get everything they've got coming to them. And who knows, maybe they're right. Maybe when we're squatting in the ruins, covered ash, maybe then it'll be enough to get you to show the fuck up. Or not.

What should you do? What should any of us do?

I don't know.

I don't know. I'm out of ideas.

I'm old. I'm tired. I'm worn out from this fight. More, I'm worn out from sounding the alarm and watching it fall on deaf ears.

What to do?

Flee maybe. Get out while you can, if there's some place that'll take people who didn't give enough of a fuck about their own fate to change it when they had the chance. Hopefully Europe won't turn away desperate Americans fleeing fascism like we did to the Jews fleeing Germany back in the 1930's. But, hey, if they do, well, you can't really blame them can you?

But, again, again, and again, you knew all this.

Yes, you did. And now? Grim? Depressing? Panic attack? You knew it would come to this if you didn't show up. And it wasn't enough. Why? Why wasn't it enough? What's the excuse this time? Like I said above, I don't know and I don't care, but I'm sure we're going to hear all about it anyway and why those of us who actually did care, who sounded the alarm claxon over and over, and who actually did show up are somehow to blame.

See you in the camps.

I'll be the guy drinking prison wine with Hillary.

History will be made no matter who wins the presidency.

Harris, if elected, will be the first woman and the first person of South Asian descent to be elected president.

Trump, if elected, will be the first person elected president with a felony conviction (let alone, 34 of them).

The Ann Selzer poll reported in the Desmoines Register released last week that has Harris beating Trump by 3 percentage points in that state has really turned things on its ear. Not considered a swing state by any stretch of the imagination, the Iowa poll has sparked the notion that other traditionally conservative states might follow suit in a similar model. That this news hasn’t created a joyful “Whoop” among D’s is very probably a result of the PTSD that still afflicts Hillary’s 2016 voters. Myself included.

Former LA Dodger first baseman Steve Garvey will “strike out looking” as Adam “Shifty” Schiff effortlessly serves up fast balls and sliders in California’s Senate race. Texas Senator Cruz hopes to cruise to another victory, this time against former NFL linebacker and present US Congressman Colin Allred, who has chipped away at Cruz’s iHeartMedia-fed lead. If Allred has any chance at all to defeat “Cancun” Cruz, he will need a boost by Texas voters who align with the so-called “Iowa Effect.”

California could contribute the most congressional district flips per state (not fair because they have the most districts, but there it is). In CA-41, Will Rollins is neck and neck with 32-year veteran Ken Calvert (R) and is campaigning more aggressively than in the mid-term, where he lost by the least number of votes in decades. In CA CD-22, David Valadao (R) is duking it out with former State Assemblyman Rudy Salas in a toss-up that would elect a Hispanic to a Hispanic-dominated district that always sees victories by minority White Republican candidates because of low Hispanic turnout. Ditto for CA CD-13, another heavy ag area in the Central Valley, where John Duarte (R) is in a rematch with former Assemblyman Adam Gray, who lost to him by 564 votes in 2022.

Overall, I am expecting a Pro-Choice backlash that will upstage the flimsy one we saw in the midterm election in ’22. The horror stories circulating about women being denied care when their pregnancies “go south” (pun not intended) are being repeated, reviled and revisited. Years ago, I read Al Franken’s book “Lies, And The Lying Liars, Who Tell Them” from cover to cover. In a brief discussion of abortion rights, Franken predicted that if (and when) abortion rights are taken from American women, there will be righteous anger and backlash from both sides of the aisle as banning abortion is a political issue for less than a quarter of the electorate.

So now we’ll see…

The SEED School of Washington, D.C. was in the Washington Post yesterday, accused of inaccurate records and wholesale breezing past laws that are supposed to protect students with disabilities.

If the name of this unusual charter boarding school seems vaguely familiar, that may be because back in 2010, they were one of the charter schools lovingly lionized by the documentary hit piece, "Waiting for Superman."

"Waiting for Superman" was a big hit, popularizing the neo-liberal narrative that public schools were failing because public school teachers were lazy incompetents. Every damn newspaper in the country jumped on the narrative. Roger Ebert jumped on. Oprah jumped on. NPR wondered why it didn't get an Oscar (maybe, they posit, it was because one big emotional scene was made up). It helped sustain the celebrity brand of Michelle Rhee (the Kim Kardashian of education, famous despite having not accomplished anything). It was a slanted hatchet job that helped bolster the neoliberal case for Common Core and charter schools and test-centric education and heavy-handed "evaluation" of teachers.

And it boosted the profile of SEED, the DC charter whose secret sauce for student achievement is that it "takes them away from their home environments for five days a week and gives them a host of supporting services."

Except it turns out that maybe it doesn't do that after all. 

According to the WaPo piece, reported by Lauren Lumpkin, audits of the school suggest a variety of mistreatment of students with special needs.

SEED underreported the number of students it expelled last year. It couldn't produce records of services it was supposed to have provided for some students with disabilities (most likely explanation--those services were never provided). Federal law says that before you expel a student with an IEP, you have meetings to decide if the misbehavior is a feature of their disability, or if their misbehavior stems from requirements of the IEP that are not being provided. 

These have the fancy name of "manifestation determination" which just means the school needs to ask-- is the student acting out because that's what her special situation makes her do, or because the Individualized Education Program that's supposed to help deal with that special situation is not being actually done. For absurd example-- is the student repeatedly late to her class on the second floor because she's in a wheelchair? Does her IEP call for elevator transport to the second floor, and there's no elevator in the building? Then maybe don't suspend her for chronic lateness. 

Founded in 1998, SEED enrolls about 250 students, which seems to preclude any sort of "just lost the details in the crowd" defense. But as Lumpkin reports, questions arose.

But after receiving complaints about discipline, understaffing and compliance with federal law, the city’s charter oversight agency started an audit of the school in July. One complaint claimed school officials had manipulated attendance data and were not recording suspensions.

The audit’s findings sparked scathing commentary from charter board members and questions about SEED D.C.’s practices.

“I’m the parent of a special-needs child, and I’ve got to tell you, reading what was happening in these pages, it’s like a parent’s worst nightmare,” charter board member Nick Rodriguez told SEED D.C. leaders. “I sincerely hope that you will take that seriously as you think about what needs to happen going forward.”

Lumpkin reports that this is not their first round of problems. A 2023 audit found a high number of expulsions and suspensions compared to other charters-- five times higher. A cynical person might conclude that SEED addressed the problem by just not reporting the full numbers. Inaccurate data, missed deadlines, skipping legal requirements--that's a multi-year pattern for the school.

The school is now on a "notice of concern," a step on the road to losing its charter and being closed down (or I suppose they could just switch over to a private voucher-accepting school).

The whole sad story of the many students who have been ill-served by SEED is one more reminder that there are no miracles in education, and no miracle schools, either. 

Knock knock
Who’s there?
Annie.
Annie who?
Annie one not voted yet?

While we are waiting to find out what the voters hath wrought in this latest election, I invite you to partake in this list of one- and two-liner jokes of the political kind. If you’ve heard any of these before, tough. I haven’t.

What’s the problem with political jokes?
They get elected president.

In what state was George Washington born?
Naked and crying, just like the rest of us.

Stop repeat offenders. Don’t re-elect them!

How can you tell the difference between a president and an actor?
One leads the land, while the other lands the lead.

How are presidents like diapers?
They need to be changed regularly and for the same reason.

America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy but won’t cross the street to vote.

What is the fastest way to get Trump to change a light bulb?
Tell him Obama installed it.

What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 100?
Your Honor.
What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 50?
Senator.

The NSA: a government organization that actually listens to you!

I don’t approve of political jokes… I’ve seen too many of them get elected.

There’s a term for a president like Donald Trump, probably not a second, though.

How did Trump respond when he was asked how to deal with Hurricane Helene?
“Pay her the same as Stormy Daniels!”

What’s the difference between a platypus and George Washington?
One has a bill on his face, the other has his face on a bill.

What did George Washington say to his men before crossing the Delaware?
Get in the boat!

Which rock group has four men who don’t sing?
Mount Rushmore

“Because it would be hilarious,” is probably not a good reason to elect someone to be President.

I remember when Halloween was the scariest night of the year. Now, it’s Election Night.

How many congressmen does it take to fix a flat tire? None. They’re all afraid of inflation.

Why did Ted Cruz go to culinary school? To could learn how to cook the books.

We need to show compassion for the mentally ill without letting them run for President.

Why can’t Congress ever be vegan?
Because all the turkeys playing chicken in a beef over pork is pretty fishy.

If Con is the opposite of Pro, then is Congress the opposite of Progress?

The consensus in this election is that 100% of Americans think 50% of Americans have lost their minds.