Jarrett Interaction Design

Trump and Vance. I can’t imagine a pairing that is more self-serving, power-grabbing, anti-intellectual… and dangerous to everyone.

Neither of them care about any of us or about humanity. Both of them will do whatever it takes to stay in the limelight and take whatever is put in front of them. They are rich white men whose wealth was created and expanded through exploitation and extraction, benefiting from generations of rich white men before them. They will fight to protect that wealth and power through any means.

Yes, they are fascists. Yes, they are white supremacists. Yes, they are racist and misogynistic. Yes, they are sociopaths, possibly psychopaths.

Republicans are the party that made these two grotesque humans. They found them; grew, nurtured ,and fostered them; enabled them. There is no such thing as a moderate Republican anymore. It’s MAGA all the way down.

We need to vote them all out of office. We need to stop giving them airtime in any media. We need to convince everyone that they are a danger to us all.

Ignore all the mess and misinformation about Biden Harris and the Democratic party. They’re fine. They care about humanity. Vote for them all down the ticket and against the GOP.

Project2025 is the end of our republic, of the American idea. Learn about it. Get angry. Get outraged. Tell others about it. Take action. Get them angry. Get them outraged. Get them to take action.

So the midterms didn’t turn out to be as horrible as I had feared. I guess it’s US politics as usual. Make no mistake, politics as usual here is not healthy. Not for individuals, communities, our nation, nor democracy itself. We will continue to struggle to fight off white supremacy and all the power-hungry, charismatic assholes that are structurally enabled by our history and current environment. Climate change will get worse, wealth gaps will widen, superpowers will continue to agitate, pandemics will recur, and each money-controlled election cycle will be scary. Nothing in our current state is helping. We’re barely hanging on.

J.D. Vance is the next Republican candidate for Senator from Ohio.
The same day, a SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked.
It’s been more than a year since the insurrection at the Capitol.
It’s been 5 1/2 years since we elected Trump.
42 years since we elected Reagan.
50 years since we elected Nixon.

The GOP is a corrupt organization with people like Vance that don’t believe anything they say. Today’s Republican party, which has been building to this point for over 50 years, only cares about three things:

Power.
Greed.
Ego.

The visible individuals who lead and control the party use doublespeak, lies, and and prevarication to promote…

Fascism.
White supremacy.
Extractive hyper-capitalism.
Toxic masculinity.
Anti-christian Christianity.

They continue to build on decades of amplification and acceleration of…

Concentration of wealth in a few and the extraction of wealth from, especially, the most vulnerable.
Promotion of violence, locally through guns and militaristic agencies and globally through defense spending and war.
Disenfranchisement, oppression, exploitation, and elimination of Black people, as well as indigenous and other people of color.
Harassment and assault on women and LGBTQI+ people, their bodies, their voices, and their agency.
Erosion, devaluation, and loss of trust in democratic institutions, values, rights, and freedoms.
Deconstruction of regulation and safety nets.
Coopting and subjugation of the media.
Destruction of the environment, ecosystems, and species.

Many of us push back against this. The Republicans pushing this agenda are a minority of the US population. They do not represent the will and desires of us. We need to do more.

Wake up.
Think globally, act locally.
Protest and activate.
Nurture and protect the vulnerable.
Tax the rich.
Prosecute the corrupt.
Get out the vote.
Throw the bums out.
Get elected to local and state offices.
Change legislative and bureaucratic processes.
Pass meaningful legislation.

Metaphorically, we have mutated into a virulent strain of infection in the world. We need powerful antibiotics and more robust immune systems. If we don’t slow and reverse this progression, we’ve nowhere else to go. The host, our Earth, our species and many others, will die out. I don’t want to witness and experience this in my lifetime. Or my children’s or grandchildren’s.

With a violent coup attempt going on right now in our Capitol (uncoordinated, stupid, and useless, but still a violent coup), I still don’t understand how almost 75 million citizens could vote for this gangster… for a second time. Even I didn’t imagine it would get to this level of plunder, criminality, and outrageousness.

Arrest and prosecute anyone involved in this insurrection or this will be a precedent for all future elections. WTF, America?

When I reacted to the 2016 election, I feared for the worst. Even I underestimated the horror of this administration and the damage it could do to our country, our democratic values, and the world.

Our only chance is to get that bastard out of office. Please vote and vote early!

J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita, in an interview describing his thoughts at the Trinity nuclear test.

As I watched the election results coming in last night, a feeling of existential dread began surfacing, and this story of Oppenheimer at Trinity came to me. I rarely discuss my political beliefs openly here, but I have to write something.

We have just elected, at best, a narcissistic sociopath that acts as a mouthpiece for white supremacy, nationalism, racism, anti-semitism, xenophobia, misogyny, fraud, falsehood, ignorance, and a litany of other horrific beliefs and behaviors. At worst, we may have just acknowledged that the United States will follow other formerly-great civilizations into oblivion, Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burns. Not since we invaded Iraq and our son Stephen went to fight there have I felt so anxious about the state of the world. And this choice we have made will have deeper and longer lasting effects than even that endless war.

I don’t worry that the most apocalyptic fears will be realized. Deep and fundamental change takes longer than four years. But I do worry that we have crippled our progress in human and civil rights, science, ethics, compassion, peace, and all aspects of our better natures. I have to hope that our President Elect is ineffective at delivering on his promises and policies, and that Congress will continue its obstructionist ways and prevent further damage. It sickens me that this is the best I can hope for.

What have we done?