I took a few weeks away from this blog because I needed the time and energy to get this new blogging project off the ground - At the grassroots. I've got it to a point where, while it has yet to enjoy the viewing figures that this Stirrings from below
Oh, sorry for hogging comments but allow me add: the one to watch is not so much Trump but his VP elect J D Vance, who is young, extremely ambitious and worst of all has some interesting connections to Peter Thiel of Palantir and the whole tech surveillance crowd.
As we here in America (or at least some of us) have learned over and over since the 1780's is that government is still government no matter which master is running the plantation.
I've sent sympathy to the US trans folk, they will be hit hard. I'm often a UK non voter, though I complete my postal ballot paper loud and clear with "no candidate worth voting for" as I don't want them to think I'm ignoring the matter. The weather is definitely odd at present, and so is the total lack of action/serious concern/observation/change in attitude amongst both media, capitalism, and government once soothing words are excluded. At 76 I won't see the apocalypse, unless nuclear, I guess, but the run up is going to be uncomfortable, and Emma Goldman was spot on about voting being allowed because it didn't achieve anything.
Interesting that the turn out in the UK was lower than usual but in the US higher. I wonder what that's about. Possibly a sign of greater fear of 'the other side' over there, or maybe just the usual rigging?
Regarding the Trump vote, I too was puzzled by people's inability to see it coming. There were several factors that made it obvious, not in least the unsuitability of the "oppositional" candidate. I write "oppositional" because it's obvious from looking at domestic and foreign policies and governmental moves in general that, despite the changing of the figurehead personalities, there has been a continuity of government for years, and not just in the US. From where I'm standing the governmental push of what's called the woke agenda was intended to create a conservative backlash, in the same way as the immigration crisis, again in many countries, also serves to fan the flames of nationalism. A pattern has been seen in Europe of conservative, "far right", governments being voted into power, (I assume nobody reading this associates the Labour party with the Left anymore), so for that to happen in the US shouldn't have been a surprise. In fact this could, and should, in my opinion, be seen as the movement of pieces on the board, prior to what remains to be seen, but it's easy to speculate. Of more note in the US elections is the fact that all three branches of government, Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives look to be now in the control of a single party.
You’re quite right, the reactions to the US elections are more interesting than the results. To all those having meltdowns and existential angst at Trump’s re-election I would say: award yourselves some participation trophies for ‘doing your bit’ by voting, since that’s your normal way of dealing with situations where there would otherwise be winners and losers. What works in the primary school playground might work for tantrums of the so—called adults, seeing as the mental ages and intellectual levels of maturity appear to be similar.
Oh, sorry for hogging comments but allow me add: the one to watch is not so much Trump but his VP elect J D Vance, who is young, extremely ambitious and worst of all has some interesting connections to Peter Thiel of Palantir and the whole tech surveillance crowd.
As we here in America (or at least some of us) have learned over and over since the 1780's is that government is still government no matter which master is running the plantation.
I've sent sympathy to the US trans folk, they will be hit hard. I'm often a UK non voter, though I complete my postal ballot paper loud and clear with "no candidate worth voting for" as I don't want them to think I'm ignoring the matter. The weather is definitely odd at present, and so is the total lack of action/serious concern/observation/change in attitude amongst both media, capitalism, and government once soothing words are excluded. At 76 I won't see the apocalypse, unless nuclear, I guess, but the run up is going to be uncomfortable, and Emma Goldman was spot on about voting being allowed because it didn't achieve anything.
Interesting that the turn out in the UK was lower than usual but in the US higher. I wonder what that's about. Possibly a sign of greater fear of 'the other side' over there, or maybe just the usual rigging?
Regarding the Trump vote, I too was puzzled by people's inability to see it coming. There were several factors that made it obvious, not in least the unsuitability of the "oppositional" candidate. I write "oppositional" because it's obvious from looking at domestic and foreign policies and governmental moves in general that, despite the changing of the figurehead personalities, there has been a continuity of government for years, and not just in the US. From where I'm standing the governmental push of what's called the woke agenda was intended to create a conservative backlash, in the same way as the immigration crisis, again in many countries, also serves to fan the flames of nationalism. A pattern has been seen in Europe of conservative, "far right", governments being voted into power, (I assume nobody reading this associates the Labour party with the Left anymore), so for that to happen in the US shouldn't have been a surprise. In fact this could, and should, in my opinion, be seen as the movement of pieces on the board, prior to what remains to be seen, but it's easy to speculate. Of more note in the US elections is the fact that all three branches of government, Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives look to be now in the control of a single party.
You’re quite right, the reactions to the US elections are more interesting than the results. To all those having meltdowns and existential angst at Trump’s re-election I would say: award yourselves some participation trophies for ‘doing your bit’ by voting, since that’s your normal way of dealing with situations where there would otherwise be winners and losers. What works in the primary school playground might work for tantrums of the so—called adults, seeing as the mental ages and intellectual levels of maturity appear to be similar.