The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
…I understand Hillary was served a super-sized Basket of Deplorables with a side of crow.
Still, I’m having a hard time understanding the celebration from the Hard Right when Trump is about as far from a Conservative as you can get and not have a (D) after your name.
Looking forward to all those Leftists leaving the country, though, and showing how RACIST™! they are. I mean they’re all talking about moving to the “Great White North.” NOBODY is talking about moving “Brown South.”
I am NOT this Kevin Baker! Never even met the man!
But the Schadenfreude is extra tasty!
Had to repost this one:
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” – H. L. Mencken
But not surprised. Today’s XKCD:
So, here’s my prediction for Election Day – or as I prefer to call it, “Black Tuesday” –
Trump will win the popular vote.
Hillary will win 270+ Electoral College votes.
Some Electors won’t vote the way their states vote, but it won’t swing the election.
There won’t be a 2nd Civil War – people are still too comfortable.
We’re in for four more years of deepening crap, regardless.
My recommendation? Enjoy the decline. What else can you do?
UPDATE, 11/9/16: Well, got THAT exactly backwards, didn’t I?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o65vMUk5so?rel=0&showinfo=0]
One of my Facebook friends is someone I went to High School with. She posted this tonight:
Tonight I decided I wanted to be fully informed about what Obamacare would mean to our family if we chose to pursue it as our health insurance option. I went to the Obamacare website online. That website sent me to an insurance broker who called my home. I told him I wanted to check rates for Obamacare for our family of four. He said, “I can give you a quote but its going to be a terrible plan and more expensive than any other plan because the rates just went up 40% in North Carolina.” I pressed him to give me the rate anyway. He then quoted me a rate of $2195/month with a $14,300 deductible. (That equals basically paying $2195/month with no coverage short of a healthcare catastrophe.) I then asked him how that quote would change if my income was lower. He said that the rate would be exactly the same for anyone over a $40,000/year income. If someone making $40,000/year (only $16,717/year above the poverty level for NC) decided to sign up for Obamacare, they would be paying $26,340/year in insurance premiums plus whatever health care costs they had until they met their $14,300 deductible. (By the way, if this happened, it would mean, at that point, they would have spent more than they make/year on their healthcare.)
Who wants to sign up for that deal?
Nobody. Nobody at all.
I refer you back to February’s post, “American Health Care is All Over But the Screaming.” Read the links. And the links in the links.
If you’re unfamiliar with Brad Thor (I was), he is the author of technothrillers such as his most recent novel Foreign Agent. He was interviewed by Reason‘s Nick Gillespie on current political events (and his new novel). Today’s QotD comes at 25:40 of the interview:
I’m a big believer of Federalism. There’s too much going on in Washington, it’s too disconnected, and we ought to be making decisions… I moved to Tennessee because I didn’t like the decisions in Illinois. I mean, if the states are the laboratories of democracy, Illinois’ a fricken’ meth lab.
The Leading Cause of Electile Dysfunction™
I concluded in 2012 when the Republicans nominated Mitt Romney and then the voters reelected Barack Obama that the public education system had exceeded its Progressive mission and produced a majority electorate unwilling or unable to rub two brain cells together, and the United States as we knew it was essentially finished. It was my hope that what Aaron Clarey terms “the Decline,” what Billy Beck terms “the Endarkenment,” would at least be slowed by avoiding this outcome, but it is not to be. Iceberg? What iceberg? All Ahead, Flank!
So I am free to vote “None of the Above.” And I won’t feel the need to shower with battery acid and a Brillo pad afterwards.
Robert Heinlein wrote, “The worst thing about living in the declining era of a great civilization is knowing that you are.” Sometimes I really wish I drank alcohol.
As Professor Reynolds is fond of saying, “Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debts that can’t be repaid, won’t be. Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be. Plan accordingly.” Yeah. Our “austerity riots” are going to be spectacular.
Plan accordingly.
UPDATE, 10/14/16: Scott Adams concurs, for the same reason. And he’s been predicting a Trump landslide for months.
Last one from the previous debate:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFmLojvnZuI?rel=0&showinfo=0]