161 Comments

Candide Finale…

You've been a fool

And so have I,

But come and be my wife.

And let us try,

Before we die,

To make some sense of life.

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good

We'll do the best we know.

We'll build our house and chop our wood

And make our garden grow...

And make our garden grow.

CUNEGONDE

I thought the world

Was sugar cake

For so our master said.

But, now I'll teach

My hands to bake

Our loaf of daily bread.

CANDIDE AND CUNEGONDE

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good

We'll do the best we know.

We'll build our house and chop our wood

And make our garden grow...

And make our garden grow

Expand full comment

Moving forward - was this election actually tampered with, by sophisticated tech opportunists? Paywall-free NYT article https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/technology/democrat-voter-turnout-election-conspiracy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Y04.neOz.Fcx_VPpjKr-o&smid=url-share

Expand full comment

I didn't see evidence of tampering in that article, it was more about how those on both left and right question the integrity of elections, but i recall a long-ago 60 Minutes story that showed how easy it'd be to manipulate electronic vote machines. And you know if Trump lost by the same margin he'd be screaming that the election was stolen.

Expand full comment
Nov 14·edited Nov 14

Yes, completely agree. We Democrats can be too meek and nice. I'll have to read that article again, but i believe in there is the manipulation of the electronic vote machines, in particular mentioning the one that was caught in its half hr of idling, that would have afforded the opening to change/dismiss/manipulate the ballots. I believe that particular machine was noted and the ballots were accounted for. But hundreds of others may not have been.

Expand full comment

On the topic of what’s next and continuing the fight: how about the Democrats organize for a durable “loyal opposition” that proposes coherent and broadly supported policy that counters that of Trump II? The words “shadow government” will have all the wrong connotations for the MAGA crowd, but let’s have Democratic leaders with a tangible endorsement of support out there counter programming the noise from the Rs. Not because progressive ideas will win out in the next two years, but to remind Americans of the likely, predictable outcome of Trumpism policies and that there is a credible alternative to keep in mind as 2026 rolls around

Expand full comment

Sounds good - reach out to elected officials and others? Accountability of Trump and alternative of better options are clear actions and hopefully something all our non-Trump leaders can get behind, even as they united behind Harris and Walz.

Expand full comment

Someone shared this on another substack and I wanted to get the thoughts of people here, if possible - I felt Gore should have fought harder to win his election and instead, he was courteous and conceded and we got 2 admins of Bush plus the Iraq War. I don't want that to happen to our nation again. Here is the comment, posted in two parts - it's long: all replies welcome -

Hi All,

This is going to be a long post and evidently there is a length limit so I'm going to divide it in sections. I won't mince words. It may be my last post here because maybe Simon will ban me. If that's the result then so be it. I must carry out my duty to warn.

Something Simon reposted on Twitter demands attention. I seem to be unable to copy the image here, but I'll provide the link and then explain what it said. It is more important than ever that I talk about this as I read comments below of people calmly discussing Democratic party messaging, media and whatnot.

Here's the link

https://x.com/DeaconBlues0/status/1855029080678359408

This is a screenshot of two posts by Mike Davis, described as the front runner for attorney general. One post reads:

We will build a special gulag for left-wing white women. The laundry ward

The other post reads:

Here's my current mood: I want to drag their dead political bodies through the streets, burn them, and throw them off the wall

<this space is me waiting, while you read this and think about this as a post from a person who could be the attorney general of the United States. He is obviously not worried about failing to get confirmed by the Senate after making such a post - what does that mean?>

One thing that it means is that I hope our leaders seriously disabuse themselves of dreams of bi-partisan whatever with reasonable/decent Republicans. There are NO decent Republicans. If they were decent, they would have left the Republican party. There are only fascists remaining. If I am wrong, I will be utterly delighted to apologize, but HOPING I'm wrong is the way to end up on a cattle car en route to a gulag.

Right about now I expect that some readers will find this so horrific that they will not believe this could actually happen in America, When I was a child I could not understand how six million people could let themselves be rounded up like cattle and exterminated. Now I understand.

First, things were getting bad "but we just have to hang on" thought the early victims. Then later, dark rumors of extermination camps, a thing so depraved that they could not accept it because what human being could be so evil?

You need to know that I exist because my mother's family believed those rumors and sent her off alone at the age of 14 on what turned out to be the last American passenger liner departing from Italy before Pearl Harbor. She was the only one who could get a visa and some relatives here sponsored her.

One moment, she was an ordinary child with an ordinary life - a student trying to get good grades so she could go to university, the only daughter of a small business owner in Milano, an historical city in a civilized country. Then in the blink of an eye, she was fleeing for her life from a hellscape.

For fucks' sake, news anchors are calmly interviewing Trump figures about deportation camps, how do they plan to round up 15 million people and what will it cost? Private prison CEOs are saying the can hold em if ya bring em while their stock price soars. Capitalists trying to make a buck on concentration camps -- and they made a buck on the Holocaust too.

Meanwhile, the media present interviews with Latino Trump voters who don't believe grandma will be deported because she isn't a criminal. And other people are a little worried about the price of gaming consoles due to tariffs, but hey, they're not Latinos. THIS IS A FUCKING ABOMINATION. FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE LATINOS....

I feel obliged to point out that a "criminal" is anything the people in power say it is. Allow me to tell you about my grandmother --- a criminal. What was her crime? Being a vermin who was trying to escape extermination by hiding in a neighbor's attic. Her neighbor was also a criminal, because she was unlawfully harboring vermin in her attic

Meanwhile, a bunch of seemingly random Black folks in various states have gotten text messages telling them they have been assigned to work at a plantation and a van will be arriving to take them there, where they will be fully searched before their work duty. You may have heard about this. Those, my friends, are the black jobs, the ones in need of doing now that the Latinos have been removed.

One might say it was a prank. I rather think of it as a trial balloon to see how people will react. But it's not the first "van" thing. There were the unmarked vans, grabbing people off the street in Portland during the BLM protests and soldiers with no identifying insignia that also appeared, courtesy of William Barr.

.

If Donald Trump's "Secretary of Labor" sends you a text with your plantation assignment and you don't show up, you are a criminal because now it is the law that you must obey. No Black person reading this is likely to find this far-fetched because been there done that. Maybe you think slavery was outlawed with the 14th Amendment? Not exactly - there is an exception - as punishment for a crime involuntary servitude may be imposed. Chain gang, right? Prison labor, right?

Unlike Anne Frank, my grandmother survived. Do you know what set her free? The United States military. Her freedom was won through war and bloodshed, people willing to kill for freedom, people willing to die for freedom. That is lesson two - unless you are will to kill/die you will not succeed. I am sorry to have to say these things, because you are such nice kind people here, but this seems to me to be the evidence of history. Ask yourself what military is coming to save us?

Expand full comment

Lyn Gerry

1 hr ago

Part TWO

Let me be blunt. Some of you expressed that you are old and tired. I am also old. As an old person I don't have my whole life ahead of me. I'm old and poor, and being even older and poorer is not too exciting. Put a gun in my hand and I will fight fascists. People have made fun of the idea of a civil war. I don't think you should. A serious question I ask you to think about: which do you prefer? trying survive in a fascist dictatorship? Being taken to a gulag? Or fighting by any means necessary which you are capable of?

When does it come to that? When they start trying to take the Latinos, or Adam Schiff, or Letitia James. You do not let them arrest these people and file a court case. (Alexei Navalny.) The rule of law is whatever they say it is. I beg you not to say our institutions will hold. They have already failed us. A Jan6 defendent literally threatened a federal judge the other day not to sentence him because now that the election happened, he'll regret it if he does. How many federal judges will stand up to threats when the DOJ is run by Mike Davis?

Lesson number one: when you see fascists, believe the worst. Mike Davis is a fascist. He is not exaggerating his hate. His hate is real and he will commit atrocities if permitted. What such people deserve is what the Italian partisans did to Mussolini - hung his corpse upside down in the plaza. I can't imagine what my grandmother felt when she came out of her attic and saw it. She died before I was old enough to have the nerve to ask her but I know she knew that it meant she was free. Donald Trump is a fascist and a psychopath. All of them are. That's the job requirement.

Lyn, why are you talking like this? Because this is the only language fascists understand. They only persecute the weak and defenseless; they are sadists. They enjoy. It gets them sexually aroused. They think we are snowflakes, cucks etc whatever nonsense, but fight with fire if you wanna see them melt.

Tim Snyder said don't obey in advance. Nope, disobey in advance.

But Lyn, they'll send the military!!! Maybe. And then comes the question - what kind of military do we have? One that will fire on Americans or not? I don't know. But we can't let them take Black people in vans. THAT CAN"T HAPPEN!

For fucks sake, the sin of this country against Black people is an abomination that has not yet been expiated. We certainly can't let them be re-enslaved at the Elon Musk plantation. He knows about that shit. His family in apartheid South Africa made its fortune that way. It's actually not a second civil, it's the same damn one.

Abrupt transition. In the martial arts they say the best defense is not to be there, so let's talk about the vote counts.

There are some questions and we must take this seriously now, not after the votes are certified. There is increasing volume and talk from people who claim to be IT specialists that something doesn't add up. I have no way to evaluate whether what they are saying is possible, nor do I have any way to vouch for the people saying this - but someone does and can.

The gist of it, (if I understand correctly and forgive me if I don't) is that there is a way to hack vote tabulators, that the vulnerable time occurs during the boot up process. The implication is that the bomb threats requiring the election sites to be evacuated were not just to discourage voters and cause delay but as a cover that allowed the hack to take place. There is one election site in PA where the reboot lost tens of thousands of votes. This was noticed and corrected, but this incident was what got the attention of the IT specialist because it happened right at the point in the process that you'd expect if such a hack were occurring. The type of hack that he is concerned about IS DETECTABLE UNDER EXPERT FORENSIC EXAMINATION. This IT specialist has sent a letter to this effect to Gov. Shapiro that begins with the words: duty to warn. He made it public on the internet.

I certainly hope our leaders are taking this seriously. I have no idea how one deals with this situation - way above my pay grade - but the way not to deal is to ignore it in favor of discussing why the polls were so wrong, etc. If the computers are examined and no evidence of hacking is found, by all means let's discuss that other stuff.

But what I do know is that if a hack like this is possible, then it occurred and I have no doubt the GRU or whatever Putin's hackers are called, did it. We are not dealing with opponents, my dears. We are dealing with enemies and they mean to destroy us.

I have no idea how to end this message elegantly but if you have read to this point, I thank you.

#we won't go back

LIKED (1)

REPLY

Expand full comment

I would slam my hand in a car door before I would vote for Trump, but I have to admit he has something that pleases 70 million voters (+/-). He wins elections, and even James Carville knows it, or should. The people have spoken and all we can do is accept it — which is more than Trump and his MAGA followers did four years ago.

Expand full comment

As I drove from the DC area to the eastern shore today (for a whirlwind attempt to de-dress after the election), I saw Trump signs in many yards. I almost stopped to snap a photo of a handwritten sign that said, “now we can speak freely again - woohoo!” In addition I know progressives who refused to vote for Harris because of the ongoing horrors in Gaza and elsewhere. I don’t think they voted for Trump, which means they either didn’t vote or voted third party (confirmed by one person I know, but I’m not sure how the others voted.) A popular meme shows her saying, “I’m speaking” with the message, “you should have been listening.” That Bernie Sanders explained his support for Harris despite their differences had no effect. That domestic issues such as judge appointments were reasons to vote Dem had no effect. Digital media lends itself to snap judgements and oversimplification. Add in the press mess and underlying biases (sexism, racism), and we have a recipe for disaster.

Expand full comment

Forgot to add that I wish you good luck with the rewilding project. We started doing that in our yard a few years ago and it’s coming together really nicely.

Expand full comment

This morning I was forcibly reminded of a little book called “Our Towns” with the arrival in my inbox of a newsletter from a local political reporter. It seems voters in my state have rid us of most of our Republican culture warriors to form bipartisan majorities in both houses. We might even have fired the actual Nazi. I remember you and Deb made the point that most successful small communities across the country ignore national politics to focus on the local. I don’t know that I can quite ignore DC but I’m going to try.

Expand full comment

There's nothing political I can add to this discussion but I thought some of you might like to know how things are going among a large group of shell shocked artists and their customers in a very blue (78% for Harris) Boulder County, Colorado. I'm well aware it's a place with a certain rep. but it's been my home since 1970 and believe it or not there are still a few middle class, non techie and artistic folk who live here.

Two snapshots. Sunday before the election, I was at two different artist shows at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. The vibe (hate to use that word now) was happy, upbeat. Artists and customers were chatting with each other and to each other. It was noisy and bustling. The talk was about the work on display. The excitement level was high. A few of us were talking with cautious optimism about what would happen on Tuesday but mainly it was about the work.

Fast forward to yesterday and today. I was setting up my booth yesterday at the same location for the Boulder Potters' Guild show. Usually set up is a joyful, somewhat noisy experience with people checking out each others' booths and catching up with each other. Not yesterday. Everyone pretty much stayed to themselves. The mood was very subdued, almost as though a death had occurred in the family. That mood continued into today, the first day of the actual sale. Members shared their fears quietly. Customers also quietly spoke of their fears to members they knew. One member spoke of a trans friend and his fears. A neighbor of mine spoke of fears about social security and medicare and about the expensive medication her husband is on for advanced prostate cancer. A fellow potter spoke of her nightmares.

Our gay president of the guild shared words written by Toni Morrison and sent to him by his sister who recognized his despair. I'll close by sharing them:

THIS IS PRECISELY THE TIME WHEN ARTISTS GO TO WORK. THERE IS NO TIME FOR DESPAIR, NO PLACE FOR SELF PITY, NO NEED FOR SILENCE, NO ROOM FOR FEAR. WE SPEAK, WE WRITE, WE DO LANGUAGE. THAT IS HOW CIVILIZATIONS HEAL.

-TONI MORRISON

And that's how I will gradually pick up the pieces of my sadness. It won't be easy as these results are only made worse by knowing that my younger daughter shared her feeling with me before the 2020 election that perhaps it was not so terrible to be dying if dying meant never having to deal with Trump as president again. It wasn't hyperbole; it was her truth. Equally, I think of how awful it would be if my family members who escaped from Nazi Germany and the Holocaust were still alive to see this country chose a man who admires Hitler and speaks of immigrants as inferior people who despoil our gene pool. Despite all that, I still have hope even if it's a very diminished hope for this country in the long run.

Expand full comment

To quote a famous guy, we need to hang together or we'll certainly hang separately. Thanks for all you do, Mr. Fallows.

Expand full comment

Thank you for the quote, and the photo of the transformation of your yard. Boston College, not far from where I live, has a labyrinth, and your post inspired me to walk it. It is very calming.

Expand full comment

How to understand the results of the election? The answer is worse than this discussion suggests.

Socrates asked, “How do you know what you think you know?”

To put this in terms relevant to the election: who controls information, controls power.

Most people have greater trust in local sources of information than in national media. Most local news sources, local TV stations, local news, are now controlled by a handful of public or semi-public corporations. Nestar and Sinclair currently own 385 TV stations in over 200 local markets, and most are affiliated with Fox for editorial content. In Pennsylvania, they own and control local news distribution in virtually all markets except Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Nestar and Sinclair have well-known right-wing political views, and their stated corporate strategy is to dictate what local stations can report. If you track the local voting patterns in Pennsylvania, all those local markets gave Trump narrow or large majorities, offsetting the Harris vote in the metropolitan areas.

What does a voter know? Most low-information voters have their views shaped by news sources they trust, mainly local news outlets. (And if you’re younger, social media. Is there any doubt that Musk uses the former Twitter to communicate a political message?)

We can critique the Harris campaign to a fare thee well, but I think that misses the point. It was the control of information in local markets – not just during the campaign, but day after day for years – that yielded this absurd result.

To be clear, Nestar and Sinclair (and other communications consolidators with similar institutional goals) are not journalism: they are instruments of propaganda, and under the Trump Administration they will be instruments of official propaganda. These entities use the mechanisms of free market capital to assume and consolidate power. And they’ve won.

Sorry to be so negative, but I keep thinking about the question Socrates posed. He was right, but I don’t think he fully appreciated the power of state-controlled propaganda to destroy a democratic society.

Expand full comment

Now may we chat as discussed? Know what happened. Root cause.

Eager to connect. We can reminisce re: Carter and I can share science that can help.

Carey in Wilmington, NC

csipp@me.com

Expand full comment

Thank you for being a touchstone to reality with your posts. I am appalled at the outcome of this election, and worried about the future my children will live in. I am most worried that all the guardrails have been taken away, there are no more checks and balances. I am worried about the people who will serve in the incoming administration, who are smarter than the orange man and just as bent on disruption. In that previous term, there were a few key people with ethics, but they will be kept out this time.

I also want to thank you and your wife for the positive change you have brought to your yard. We had a large part of our own suburban yard converted to native plants two years ago, and it is thriving with very little maintenance, supporting a nice variety of insects in particular. A little spot for peace in my life.

Expand full comment

I am a lifelong Democrat, having voted in my first election back in 1972. I have never voted for a Republican and never will. HOWEVER, for many reasons Republicans have been able to successfully exploit the feeling among many Americans, of all races and creeds, that our Party does not welcome and connect with Americans, both male and female, who do not have a four-year college degree, many of whom have been extremely successful in life without that degree or frustrated by their lack of success and visibility in our political system. Either way, fellow Democrats, in the coming months and years, I believe WE NEED TO RETHINK OUR APPROACH TO POLICY AND FIX THIS. The midterms in 2026 will be that first test.

Expand full comment

In 2020 Trump received 74.2 million votes. This year he received 72.3 million (at least to this point). The difference between 2020 and 2024 is the 13 million votes that Biden received and Harris didn’t. I’m not quite sure what to make of this. But I don’t think it suggests that Trump is winning hearts and minds, or that Trumpism is sustainable.

Expand full comment