BEST CASE: Financial meltdown/sex scandal/race riots/financial conflicts of interest lead to societal chaos and impeachment within two years; President Pence then outlaws abortion, homosexuality and masturbation; loses 2020 by a landslide to Elizabeth Warren; Republican brand ruined for generations.
WORST CASE: ISIS attacks Times Square with dirty bomb; Trump retaliates with nuclear bombs in Eastern Syria; World leaders express outrage in UN; Trump unleashes Twitter attack, makes fun of dated hairstyle of Chinese UN ambassador; Chinese demand apology; Trump sends 5th Fleet to South China Sea; China drops nuclear bomb on Mar-a-Lago; Trump unleashes entire nuclear arsenal on China; nuclear winter destroys life on earth.
PROBABLE CASE: Trump fucks up at every turn but blames Democrats; brain dead middle America concurs; elected to second term.

Nate Silver had this little essay  this morning called: “Democrats Need to Win Elections, Not Flip Electors.”

1) First off, false dichotomy. Regardless of the merits of trying to flip the Electoral College, Democrats are not going to stop trying to win elections. It’s not like there’s a huge, expensive effort to flip electors that is sucking resources from the 2018 campaigns.

2) Regarding the merits, the fact that Hillz won the popular vote by suck a large margin means the EC stinks on ice, Nate, so it’s not the worst thing in the world to say, “You know, if this thing actually worked as intended electors would be flipping like Olympic gymnasts.”

3) 538 uses Facebook for comments, and I don’t do Facebook, and if I did, I wouldn’t do political comments on Facebook (those people are cray). So you are stuck reading this here instead. Sorry?

I am having the same sense of unreality I had after 9/11. That whole “What just happened couldn’t have actually happened, could it?” feeling. That sense of walking on eggshells, waiting for the other shoe to drop. That dread of what could come. That horror over what did happen. The feeling of helplessness. The sense that the world, especially my part of it, would never be the same again, and that it would change in ways that would be both agonizing and permanent. The fear that my friend’s children might not live to grow up because a world-ending event might be on the horizon. The dislocation of feeling there was nowhere to run to, because the rest of the world was rocking on its foundations as well. The fatalism. The fear of both watching the news, and not watching it. The feeling that our leadership might not be adequate to get us through intact. The ache to do something, anything, and knowing that nothing would help, nothing would undo what had been done. The agony of knowing Al Gore had actually won the damn election and yet we had a goober sitting in office who very clearly showed he had no idea what to do, and would be easily led to do the wrong thing by people more venal and horrible than even himself. It feels unfair to be going through this again just 15 years later, but grownups know the world isn’t fair, and don’t expect it to be. And yet . . . just this once . . . I want it to be fair. I want to kick and scream and cry and rant and have it work. Have it mean something. The next years are going to be just plain horrible, and the world seems dark and indifferent.

This just continutes to be a shattering shitshow. What I find frightening today is Trump trying to undermine the credibility of the CIA. So the American public will no longer trust the agencies that are meant to protect them. He is destroying our country already and he hasn’t even taken office yet:

“Trump denies CIA report that Russia intervened to help him win election”

“Trump openly mocked the report on Friday evening, suggesting that the CIA had discredited itself by producing faulty assessments about Iraq’s weapons stockpile during the George W. Bush administration. “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” he said in a statement.

“The latest comments appear destined to exacerbate tensions between Trump and the intelligence community, which is already wondering how it will function under his administration given the president-elect’s skepticism of the agency’s expertise and his disinterest in receiving daily briefings.”

So the American public will no longer trust the agencies that are meant to protect them. So what is he planning to replace them with in the name of “protecting” us?

Didja hear that? That was the groan of my blood running cold.

Since 1989 Congress has voted itself 15 fucking pay increases.

Since 1989 not ONE Republican has voted to increase the federal minimum wage.

One of the two presidential candidates was pushing for a minimum wage increase, but somehow a lot of minimum wage workers in search of “a change in Washington” voted for the other one.

It’s what Republican Jesus would want: “Pay a man minimum wage and he’ll eat twice or thrice a week. Teacheth’ him to dumpster dive and he’ll eat every day.” Amen – Trump Bible: Two Corinthians: bk 1

It ain’t easy being liberal in America.

Put simply, liberals appeal to peoples sense of humanity, which Conservatives appeal to our inhumanity and selfishness. Liberals can see a problem or injustice and understand it as such, even if it does not affect them personally. It’s increasingly clear that “Republican” is really just a clinical term for “person completely lacking empathy”. When they call for a small government, they mean “small enough to cover my every need, but no one else’s”.

Empathy lets us care about the well being of others. Empathy allows us to look beyond our own individual and group needs, work towards the common good and is the foundation of Civil Society. I’m a big fan of Civilization and I don’t think you can have a successful civilization without empathy. Empathy makes us fully human and it is is the essential thing that most conservatives apparently lack. I’ve been told there are these people  – “good people” –  who are also right-wing  conservatives. People who really do seem to want good things for other people, not wish anyone ill, but just cannot see beyond what touches them personally, and even then, it’s kind of sketchy. It’s as if they just lack a calculable ability to empathize with others – they cannot seem to get that other people’s experiences aren’t the same as theirs, nor can they imagine that what has benefitted them may have hurt others. I know if they were able to walk even half a mile in the shoes of a black person, a gay person, a poor white family who relies on government to eat, or a non-Christian, they’d understand…but they really do seem blank-eyed in the face of this –  incapable of that kind of imagination or empathy. And they are so willing to buy into this reflexive, vindictive meanness that infects their party. I can tolerate differences of opinion, but I hate bullies.

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