In some years past I typically used this venue to rant and rave about politics and the corruption of our consumer society and all the environmental damage we are causing along the way.  Not uplifting fun stuff, eh?  I have for the most part abandoned that topic to search for sticky eyeballs and butts in seats with a more prosaic if not enjoyable dribbling weblog on travel and Kunst in Zusammenarbeit mit der Industrie based on my own personal adventures about this Great and Storied Land as I try to [redacted] so they can better use [redacted] in [redacted].

However, I have been moved to pen, albeit a keyboard version, some jotted thoughts so perhaps a future me can sneak later into this post and edit it into a more coherent statement with a powerful thesis – such is the revisionism of the electronic age.

These thoughts, of course, Dear Reader, are in reaction to the unelection of Ms. Clinton.

Not since the first salvo and sortie of the Iraq War II (2003-20XX) have I been so wrong about geopolitical events in the real world (I have gotten many things wrong about geopolitics in my imaginary world).  Back before the war, I thought the marches and protests I participated in along with millions of others would have prevented a needless war of aggression clearly built on an Orwellian narrative of false pretenses so blithe in their construction that I assumed anyone with a primary school level of synaptic response could see through them.  I was wrong about the condition of my fellow Wo/Man.  The clearly theatrical lies were made the truth, and a full on 70-80% of the American Public supported the war.  As the first bombs exploded on live TeeVee, I was dejected but pulled up the popcorn and watched the war unfold anyway.  On the street, strangers would yell at me for my stupid “Hey Maybe We Shouldn’t War Much” button. They didn’t agree with me. Violently didn’t agree.

Fast forward to today, about sixteen years since the start of the armed conflict between the United States and the amorphous feeling we have dubbed “Terror.”   The Terror has taken many very real forms, and today seems ever stronger and has saturated our shores in all manner of new places as opium smoke filtering under the dirty door of a tenement and becoming rancid where we least expect to look.

And why should the years of selling this Terror to the American people not have what a book titled Blowback dubbed as ‘Blowback’? In my travels outside of the bubble of the Northeast and those who are friends in the real or only via the Book of Face, I have come upon many supporters of Mr. Trump.  I have seen many signs on lawns, some lawns well kept while others are heaps of trash and used items saved for some unknown if not clinically treatable reason.  For Ms. Clinton, I heard her discussed at the Four Seasons.  I saw signs in support of her in many places such as Southampton, Rheinbeck, Key Biscayne, the neighborhood of Washington DC known as “The Hill,” and anywhere a college or four had been constructed.  However, I did not see many signs in support of Ms. Clinton in cities such as Yonkers, Chicago, in that part of DC I think is called “The Shithole,” the public housing of Miami, blighted rural areas of New York, Iowa, Illinois, or New England, or many other places I was traveling to or through.  Not that I was keeping a tally.  So, this is entirely not scientific.

So what went wrong?  I think the pundits will well explain it – it generally takes them about 24 – 36 hours to come up with a narrative and stick with it as talking points for various articles.  I am sure it will include Russia, Sanders, Sanderussia, Rusanders, and RusSandiaers.  Whatever it is, the PtB (Powers that Be) will make sure this is our escape, our story we can cling to because it is simpler than admitting we were wrong.  We were fooled by the media.  I was wrong.  I was fooled by the media.

I was not happy at the thought of Clinton II.  That is fodder for a much different post.  I was/am certainly not overjoyed at the thought of/impending presidency of Mr. Trump.  I still had many conversations with reasonable people who were voting for Mr. Trump.  I also remarked silently at all the support signs I would see – many of them handmade works with cut out wooden starts and scrollsaw letters that were they depicting anything else would be snapped up by folk art collectors.  However,  I still listened to those pervasive voices on the media telling me what I saw I was not seeing, what I heard I was not hearing, and that Ms. Clinton was the inevitable choice even though I met those who were not choosing Her.  The few control a pervasive narrative, the panopticon is very real.

Today, on the Book of Face, many people are bragging about their de-friending binge, a rage against the unfaithful so as to further bubble oneself into a cocoon of digital safety.   I have three (3) friends and/or acquaintances who have voted for Mr. Trump.  I will not cut these people out of my life.  I need a spectrum of friends to remain grounded. As long as we all can argue politely, I need not agree with them. Diversity is about coming together regardless your differences, not to just celebrate them as a yummy ethnic cake served on a quaint holiday no one celebrates anymore washed down with overly sweet wine at a trendy restaurant before going home to your little bubble and plugging into your safe space.

Mr. Trump is here, and for that I am, I guess we can say, less than stoked.  Why did we get this so wrong?  Perhaps after almost two decades of my adult life taken up by financial instability, lost wealth, war and domestic surveillance, corporate malfeasance, political dynasties, media consolidation and corruption, we may ask … Why have we been getting so many things very, very wrong?

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