Schadenfreude und Freudefreude

 Today, there was a palpable sense of relief among my coworkers over the victory of the Biden/Harris ticket.  The Orange Ogre is on his way out, soon to be replaced by Joe Biden, a decent man and Kamala Harris, a truly transformative figure, being the first woman, African-American, and Asian-American US VP.

There is a pure, unadulterated joy about this victory, and an incipient return of an America that had been stolen from its crib and replaced by a grotesque changeling.  There is also the Schadenfreude of seeing right-wingers, truly members of a cult, melting down.  For all of their talk of liberal snowflakes, they are experiencing true angst.

Meanwhile, the party goes on, with joyous crowds in the streets.  I'm stuck at work, but I'm getting my jollies watching the various reactions to the news. This music video is particularly amusing:

pic.twitter.com/AykVPQrkRG

— J2U (@J2UDIGI) November 7, 2020

It's back to searching for despondent deplorables content now...I can't drink alcohol on the job to celebrate, but I can get drunk off of rightie tears.

PAGA: No MAGA

 I was in the waiting area of a local automotive repair shop while having a tire replaced when I saw the results on the TV- Pennsylvania and Georgia were called for Biden/Harris.  The agonizingly slow vote count was over, and Sleepy Joe (because he won't keep you up at night) had the 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

Women of color, particularly African-American women, saved the day.  The faced the usual voter suppression tactics favored by the GOP: polling sites closed, voting machines in short supply... this year, even the postal service was tampered with.  Nevertheless, they persisted.   In particular, Stacey Abrams played a heroic role in the protection of votes in Georgia.  This is just as much her win as Biden's.  I hereby pledge not to forget the role of these brave, persistent women in the fight against an incipient fascist movement.  I suspect that the mainstream media will spend more time seeking out MAGA dead enders to interview on their interminable Cletus safaris, but I'm a liberal, so I will remember.

The fight is not over, not by a long shot, but the end is in sight.  It's now up to us to stay engaged, to exhort others to stay engaged.  That being said, I think I will take the rest of the evening as an opportunity to indulge in some well-earned Schadenfreude.

Let's Threaten the Guy Best Equipped to Fix this Mess

 I know that Steve Bannon is pretty much on the outs, even among the Trump maladministration, but he still has a following, so this stochastic terrorism is troubling:

Steve Bannon calls for Dr. Fauci and FBI Director Wray to be beheaded "as a warning to federal bureaucrats"@youtube prohibits "inciting others to commit violent acts against individuals"

https://t.co/OECKxxQSzX pic.twitter.com/zBHimpUZT5

— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) November 5, 2020

Bannon doesn't specify Fauci's crimes,crimes so dire that the man deserves to be executed.  I suspect that, if pressed, he would claim that Fauci's adherence to sound scientific principles was due to insufficient loyalty to Covid Commander.  Smut Clyde once wrote that, in a rapidly warming world with rapidly dwindling resources, the last litre of petrol would be used to burn the last climate scientist at the stake... the targeting of Dr Anthony Fauci by Trump dead-enders has the same vibe.

Let's get the vote count finished so Biden can put an end to the influence of these monsters.

Today's One Certainty

 Well, the election has been a shitshow, and its outcome won't be determined until all of the ballots are counted, even though Trump (as we knew he would) declared victory around 2:30 this morning (putting some teeth in the WaPo's 'democracy dies in darkness' motto).

The only thing which is a certainty is that COVID-19 has not gone away after the election, as Eric Trump said it would.  His disgusting father has echoed this lie on numerous occasions: 

 

Trump: "With the fake news, everything is Covid Covid Covid Covid Covid ... Covid, you turn on the news. Covid Covid. You know when they're gonna stop talking about it so much? November 4 ... On November 4, you'll hear we're doing extremely well." pic.twitter.com/rvTmcKNa9u

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 27, 2020

 

I don't expect anyone to stop talking about it- the country approaches a death toll of a quarter of a million Americans.  The Trumps traffic in mendacity, and liars tend to believe that others also lie.  Even if the election results favor Joe Biden, the casualties mount, and it will be a miracle if we don't lose a million Americans (in March, I predicted a half-million deaths in the US)  before this thing runs its course.

Gonna Be a Long Day

 Last night, I wrote about how today feels like Christmas does to a kid... I woke up at 4AM and couldn't get back to sleep.  I had planned on hitting the polls at 6AM, but the line around the school which serves as my polling place was around the block, so I decided to go to work early... part of me was guilt-tripping because I had last night off, so my two subordinates were tasked with prepping the building for voting.

When I arrived, the parking lot was almost full, and there was a line of people out the door of the building.  I entered through a side door, conferred briefly with my co-worker, and fed my beloved Ginger.

I had planned out voting in the COVID-19 era, having voters enter through the front door and leave (handicapped voters excepted) through a side door.  We have a table set up to block one hallway to force people to go around.  To my dismay, the poll worker manning this table isn't being assertive enough in maintaining a unidirectional flow of foot traffic.  I actually had a talk with him about this, and he's putting down an arrow delineated in tape.

I pilfered requisitioned chalk from the children's arts and crafts table in our activity center to mark out social distancing lines, which will be useful this evening when the after work voting crowd arrives.  I won't be around then, I'll be back in Yonkers, among the after work voting crowd.  I'll have a few hours to wait on line tonight.

Gonna Be a Long Night

 Tonight is going to be a weird one... a night of anticipation, like Christmas Eve, but with the possibility that there's a small chance that Santa Claus might leave a biological weapon under the tree.  I believe that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will win- it's hard for an incumbent to run on his record when he's got a six-figure body county on his tiny, reddened hands.

I have the alarm set for 6AM.  I don't have to be at work until 9AM, but I plan on voting before heading out on the road.  I had planned to vote early last week, but the lines to the early polls were wrapped around two sides of the local library.  For the record, I've never had to wait more than ten minutes to vote in my usual polling place, two and a half blocks away.

I don't know what to expect tomorrow- I imagine many of the voters either voted by absentee ballot or voted early.  I don't expect any shuttle buses from the local assisted living community near work this plague year.  

I really should try to get some sleep, but it's not that easy, given the sense of anticipation, and for many people, of dread.  I will vote for the Biden/Harris ticket to ensure that fewer people have sleepless nights.  Maybe Vulgarmort is onto something when he calls Joe Biden 'Sleepy Joe'...it's just not Joe who's sleeping.

MAGA Max: Führer Road

 In an ugly political campaign, I can think of fewer uglier tactics than assembling a caravan of trucks to surround and impede the progress of an opponent's campaign bus:

I flew down to Texas to help with the Biden/Harris bus tour, intended to drum up enthusiasm at polling locations. Instead, I ended up spending the afternoon calling 911. 1/ pic.twitter.com/gKAjv7gv85

— Dr. Eric Cervini (@ericcervini) October 31, 2020

This oddly familiar scene is intimidation, pure and simple, and possibly a prelude to other acts of intimidation at polling sites.  Incidents of voter intimidation have already occurred, but the Main Event is on Tuesday, and Trump called for armed 'poll watchers'.  Trump isn't going to disavow these dogs of war, but unlike the Lord Humungus, Trump is not a reasonable man.