On Nov 9, 2016, at 2:15 AM, Jack
Jake:
Well, my friend, it seems we are all living in Alabama now. I look forward to seeing your take on this event.
It's late & I've had a bit to drink.
Peace & Good Morning in the new America!
Jack,
Good to hear from you on this darkest of November evenings. Like everyone else I believed the polls. They are just another example of how the media created this problem then failed to address it as anything more than spectacle. People responded to the spectacle, now we all have to deal with the reality of Donald Trump as President.
I want to hope that the bigoted rhetoric of the campaign was only to bring people into the system. I want to hope that he really does rebuild the infrastructure and put millions of Americans to work at decent wages doing it. I want to hope, but I see no reason to do so.
As someone who has lived in a state largely run by people like hose who so passionately supported Trump, I want to assure you that you can survive, even thrive, in an adversarial environment. Arlo Guthrie once said that if we lived in a perfect world we wouldn’t have anything to write about. It appears we’re going to have a flood of resources from which to draw inspiration.
And hey, pot is legal in California!
It may be a new America, but we’re still part of it, and we will continue to exercise the full freedoms of our birthrights as Americans and our occupations as children of boundless imagination.
Take your rest my brother. Tomorrow, like every other day, we have work to do.
Jack:
I went to breakfast at my usual redneck diner at 6 am, everyone was glum, then to the grocery store and stood in line with half a dozen old farts buying lotto tickets, then to the auto parts store followed by the lumber store. It was not until I got back to my studio where the Uzbekistan woman working for me announced the news. Amazing. I guessed wrong and I have to admit my heart sank for a while and the embarrassment for our [electoral] system has risen to a level that should not exist.
Hope you are well.
J:
I encountered a similar response at the local Raley's. Not that I didn't know. I did. We all did. But no one wanted to acknowledge what had happened. We still don't. The people on the streets have broken the silence. I don't know what happens next but I have a sense it ain't good. As Jake says, at least we have food for the creative appetite. Peace be with you brother.
Jack:
It could be that this is the turning point, the kick that finally sends the moderates out? The last man on the skyscraper to jump finally realizes there is a way and he was wrong all the time. Maybe we can realize that the focus needs to be not on the single mindedness of the campaign and realize that what Bernie Sanders grassroots idea was the way to go or like Francis Crick said, "It is the molecule that has the glamour, not the scientists."
Chris
Jack,
Thank you for yet another thoughtful, reasonable response to the debacle in which we live - the American empire. I hope others will read what you have to say and take it into consideration. It is a valuable addition to a conversation that is unfortunately as polarized as the election itself.
Hilary Clinton is a very capable leader, a canny politician and would have brought a wealth of experience to the job. What she apparently could not bring was any new ideas. We were likely to have four more years like the last eight - mostly stalemate. Though Clinton’s version would have been even more acrimonious on both sides. Roughly half of those that chose to vote (which was roughly half of those that could have voted) decided they’d had enough of that particular show and thought they’d give the clown a chance. Unsurprisingly, three days after the election he’s still acting the clown.
It occurred to me today that since 1992 the Democratic candidate has received the most votes in every presidential election except one (2004). More Americans prefer a Democratic president. The problem is that most of them live in the population centers. Obviously people who live in and near cities and those that live in small towns and rural areas have a different idea of what civilization is and how it should be governed.
Now we are left to observe Trump choosing a cabinet. Since no choices have been announced yet I am hopeful that he will choose people that do not have strong loyalties to either political party establishment. If he governed as an independent and forced both parties to restructure according to something closer to a reflection of the actual populace we might at least see some change in the way the work gets done in D.C. If he draws from the usual gang of supply-siders and neo-conservatives no one will gain anything - including the people who voted for him.
As you say, we will survive. Yes. And so will America the empire, unfortunately.
Have you seen the new Adam Curtis documentary, HyperNormalisation? Like his other docs, worth watching: https://youtu.be/-fny99f8amM
See you round the edges,
Jake
