Today is Monday Oct 26, and I voted this morning. We have a pretty brief early voting window in Maryland - just a week. I used to like to vote on Election Day, but that’s because I used to love Election Day. 2016 and 2024 put an end to that. Now I’d rather get it done early just in case I can’t get there on Election Day for one reason or another.
I remember the last week before the 2024 election. I was very hopeful, very optimistic. I thought Kamala Harris could win and during that beautiful first weekend of November, I thought she WOULD win. We all know what happened a few days later (well, we know the official version of what happened a few days later), and so my optimism is tempered with quite a bit of caution, and not a little cynicism. I think the Democrats will win back the House and Senate, and I also don’t think for a minute that Trump and the Republicans and their billionaire friends are going to just accept the will of the voters. It’s going to be chaotic.
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It’s Tuesday Oct 27. Election Day is one week out. I’m going to write about (kind of) the election every day this week so that I have a record.
It’s a precarious time in the United States and in the world. France is roiled by unrest. The Serbians unseated a dictator, and Lula withstood a Bolsonaro Jr. challenge in Brazil. Who knows what will happen in those countries in the wake of those elections - Brazil in particular seems shaky. The Bolsonaro family aren’t known for respecting the will of the people and the rule of law. And speaking of the rule of law, the Department of Justice is vigorously prosecuting criminals like former FBI Director James Comey and Rep Ilhan Omar and Rep LaMonica McIver, while Jared Kushner is apparently out here actually employing paid assassins, and he remains at large. These are the interesting times that the Chinese proverb warned us about. And let me tell you, interesting times are way overrated.
We’re still waiting for the results of the Israeli elections. Trump and Putin and Netanyahu might be the top villains on the planet right now, and if one of them falls, maybe the other two won’t be far behind. Hope springs eternal.
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It’s Wednesday now. Netanyahu did not win, but he did not exactly lose, either. I’m still hopeful that he will not remain as Prime Minister - I’m thinking that other parties might not be willing to join a coalition that includes him, and although I don’t know much about Israeli politics, I do know that no one party has enough support to form a government on its own. They have to build a coalition.
Our own election is six days away and I’m just starting to realize how long those six days might be. Worse is that there’s a two-month gap between the elections and the transfer of power, and the people currently in power are going to spend those two months stirring shit up and doing the most to overturn any results that they don’t like. I can’t concentrate today, and it’s only going to get worse as the week wears on.
*****
I went to my first Capitals game last night, and saw a pretty decisive win against the Flyers. There were anti-Ovechkin protesters outside the Capital One Arena, and they’re not wrong, I guess. And now even hockey is problematic. Putin, Trump, and Netanyahu haven’t found anything that they can’t ruin.
When we were in Seattle, I bought one of those stupid clear plastic purses and even though I don’t like carrying an upcycled Ziploc bag, it was nice being able to carry my stuff to the Mariners game without having to stuff it all in my stupidly inadequate pockets. We went to a concert in Baltimore last week, and I remembered just in time that I had this dumb but useful little purse. Last night, I expected to sail through security at Capital One, but apparently, the little clear bag is too large (the size limit dropped from 5X7 to 4X6) and I had to either store it in a locker for $10 (the purse cost $12) or get rid of it. I took all my stupid stuff and jammed it all into my stupid pockets, and my husband took the purse. He said that he was going to put it in a locker, and I told him not to even bother, and he didn’t. Instead, he stuffed that bag down the back of his shirt, cruised past security, and handed it back to me when we got to our seats. It was awesome.
And let me tell you that my husband is a law-abiding, rule-following, decorated police officer. If he’s sticking it to the Man, then the Man has finally gone too far. If my husband is fighting the power, then the power is fucked.
*****
Someone - CS Lewis, probably - once said something about how mockery is a powerful weapon against the devil, because he can’t bear to be laughed at.
It’s Friday now, the beginning of the last weekend before Election Day. Things seem to be getting crazier by the day. Trump has cancelled his weekend rally appearances, and although the conspiracy theory speculation on the reasons for this seem quite reasonable, I like to think that the heckling is getting to him. The older lady who got dragged out of a rally with both middle fingers still high in the air is my heroine. The Jonestown Massacre guy is an absolute legend. President Obama has been roasting Trump on a spit all week long, and “Shove that ballroom up your fat ass" is a battle cry for the ages. No wonder he can't take it anymore.
“President Trump has cancelled his weekend rally appearances. He has a ballroom stuck up his ass and is seeking medical attention." Jokes like these are the reason why I will never drop social media altogether.
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Saturday morning, 10 AM, and another beautiful day. We have had a run of absolutely gorgeous fall weather - a little bit warmer than normal if normal actually even exists anymore, with abundant sunshine and pale blue skies and vivid fall color on the trees and on the ground.
It’s also Halloween. I’m giving out full-size candy bars this year. I’ve always wanted to be the full-size candy bar house.
And it’s also three days from Election Day. I’m optimistic, but cautiously so. I well remember the beautiful weekend before the 2024 election and how on that Sunday, I was sure - only for a moment, but absolutely sure - that Kamala Harris would win. I do not want to go through that again. I don’t want to relive November 5, 2024, and so I’m keeping my optimism in check. I should try to avoid all news media this weekend, but I definitely won’t do that. Trump and his henchmen could get up to all kinds of shit this weekend, and I’d rather maintain some situational awareness.
*****
“Miss, you’re an angel, for real” - Three Black teenage boys trick or treating at my house, choosing from the selection of full-size Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kit-Kats, Twix, Snickers, 3 Musketeers, and Milky Way.
“Mommy, they have big candy!” - Tiny blond princess running down my driveway waving a Kit-Kat at her waiting parents.
“You’re a legend, Mrs. P” - A gang of neighborhood swim team kids.
*Applause* - A non-verbal Hispanic boy, probably 7 or 8 years old, prompted by his sister, probably 15 or 16, to say thank you. We all laughed together, and the girl was surprised when I insisted that she pick something for herself. “I love Reese’s!” she said.
This is Silver Spring, where I live. Our little neighborhood of single-family houses, which was built by the Levitt Company in the 1960s, is surrounded by apartment complexes, and the kids from the apartments love to trick or treat here. And thank God, most of my neighbors are not assholes, and most of us love seeing all of the kids out together, and most of us love seeing teenagers trick-or-treating because they don’t have much time to be children. They’re all our kids, all of them, everywhere. That’s who I voted for.
*****
Today is Monday, Election Day minus one. It was a big news weekend, with Senator Murphy's stroke followed immediately by Congresswoman Stevens’ cynical and contemptible decision to endorse Mike Rogers over Abdul al-Sayed. That's just the official news. But it's the unofficial reports that Trump is going to drop a nuke on Tehran that kept me awake way into the small hours last night.
I'm checking news feeds and headlines every 20 minutes. It's not healthy but I can't stop myself. In some ways, this time is worse than the last time; because the last time, at least we had a peaceful interregnum and an orderly transfer of power. This time, the transition period is going to be absolutely insane, no matter who wins the election. Hopefully, if the nuke story is true, then JD Vance and the Krusty Kabinet Krew value their own lives enough that they'll invoke the 25th Amendment. I'm not ready for Armageddon.
*****
And today is the day! It’s Election Day! It’s Shove that Ballroom Up Your Fat Ass Day!
I’m working from home. It’s lunchtime, and I’m not hungry, so I’m writing instead. It’s been a long day so far and it’s going to be a long afternoon and evening. We won’t know a darn thing about the results of today’s election until at least 8 PM Eastern, and in some races, a winner won’t be declared until tomorrow or later. It seems a very long time to wait.
And it’s also the first Tuesday of the month, which means that at 7:30, I will be attending our monthly neighborhood association Board meeting. My attention will be elsewhere, and my meeting notes will be a mess. We should really just cancel this meeting, but our governing documents require that we hold a meeting on the first Tuesday of the month, which means that we always have a meeting on Election Day. I’m going to suggest that we stick strictly to the agenda, keep discussion brief, and wrap this up NLT 8:15. All politics is local, but not today.
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Well, that didn't work out. The sticking to the agenda and the keeping it brief part, that is. I was on that call for over an hour, and I wrote a few things in my notes that will not be transcribed for the record.
After the meeting finally ended, I turned on the TV to watch what turned out to be very good news. I would have loved to see Angie Nixon win in Florida but other than that and a few other losses, the Democrats ran roughshod over this election. We now have a Fetterman-proof majority in the Senate in addition to the huge majority in the House, and Democratic governors in places like Iowa and Ohio and TEXAS!
I watched returns until about midnight and then I went to bed and thought about November 5, 2024. I was up all night after that election. I fell asleep immediately last night and I didn't wake up until 5:30 this morning.
We're not out of the woods yet. But the Trump nightmare might be coming to an end. We might have some checks and balances again. We might actually have a constitutional government again.
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