What do you think trump was referring to when he said at MSG:”I think with our little secret we are gonna do really well with the house, our little secret is having a big impact, he and I have a little secret, we will tell you what it is when the race is over.” States not certifying the vote counts and kicking the election to the house? And does it concern you at all? Or is it a narcissistic fantasy?
Personally, I think that if the election is 269-269, then Johnson will be able to overturn the results even if Harris wins the popular vote narrowly is their secret but it could be another coup...
We're in such a terrible place in this country, truly, I don't feel good about this election either way: I personally feel you-know-who will win legitimately, but I haven't ruled out one scenario (only 20% chance imo) either yet...
The only "good" scenario in this case is Trump's personality cult might force Republicans to consider abolishing the electoral college, IF, very unlikely but considering polls.
Sometimes, for me, it comes down to how do we stay afloat in a sea of deception? So demoralizing, discouraging and dehumanizing. All those "D" words. Damn!
How do you recommend engaging with the closest people in your life, "good people", to whom we've learned genocide is not a red line, regardless of who becomes President? Have we lost all "liberals" to propaganda and the Overton Window?
I'm curious how you handle sharing what you know and understand about our political system with your children, and how they take in that info. Thank you for sharing yourself with us this way! --Tracy
I guess the basic question is what realistically we can do if this election is won by Trump. I think his cognitive decline is real and I wouldn’t be surprise to see the 25th amendment invoked. But what do we do in the face of his threats and the mouth breathers ready to drop project 2025 on us?
That was going to be my question as well. If, as seems likely no matter who wins, politicians are not going to save us, what are some things that ordinary citizens can do to protect each other and resist fascism?
Hi Sarah! In your opinion what is the most effective method not being tried to get the American electorate to care about our brutal humanitarian footprint- either through geopolitical action or inaction- and begin to advocate for more action and funding? -Thomas
The public is convinced that voting for 2 ruling class parties that public desires will have no effect on policy/see northwestern and Princeton studies showing statistically negligible effect on policy for public desire
Thanks as always for your essential writing. I was talking with a very old friend yesterday, catching up on our mutual anxieties regarding the election. Afterwards I purchased They Knew and had it sent to him. I am confident you’ll have a new follower.
Meanwhile I am thinking a lot about Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, especially where he wrote, decide now what you will do before it is too late. I’m trying to get my courage together for when the time will demand that we get in the streets. How do you feel about how average people can rise to meet such an occasion?
What are your thoughts on Merrick Garland's "position" if the election results go to Trump, of even if it doesn't? It's energy draining, and hard to speculate, but as you've documented the history of Garland and Gorelick running cover for Trump do you think the DOJ will remain as it exists with no agency? Or do you think Garland will be shepherded in to be part of Trump's Kleptocrat Autocracy?
Aside from his despicable role which brings us to this moment -- and his selling us out in the creepiest milquetoast and "piously" posturing way --- what do you think is his future?
I don’t think Garland would fit in to a second Trump admin. He is too timid and slow for what his commander would want him to do. Garland might go along with anything but that would not suffice.
Yeah, absolutely, I'm positive the real brains of the national GOP are himself, Abbott, and Paxton in Texas that spread all the ideas and viciously cruel policies throughout the nation where the rest in DeSantis, Ivey, Blackburn, and such take their lead accordingly myself: Trump is pretty close to Paxton, so it's why I'm thinking he has a good shot of being AG if he wins the election in 2024 (Kash Patel might be his Chief of Staff, idk).
Thanks Glenn, Yeah, Biden's been perfectly fine with Garland's inaction for 3 years and 11 months. I'm assuming that Kamala's a-okay with that too. I actually have no idea what her policies are, other than protecting Reproductive Rights and continuing to finance the genocides in Gaza, and now, in Lebanon. So does Garland just sort of smudge into whichever administration/regime we're headed toward?
I’m voting for Harris. Assuming she is permitted to be inaugurated, we have a lot of work to do to pressure her to fire Garland and for her administration to change policy. As Jimmy Cliff wrote, many rivers to cross.
I held my nose for one reason and one reason only- to protect women from national abortion bans with no exceptions I expect the GOP will try to ram through if they get a trifecta soon, but I am generally pissed and demoralized now more than in any cycle prior and I have a feeling I'm not alone at all in this.
It feels like sans that issue, the two parties have become a uniparty of corruption on almost every other issue mirroring each other sans nice rhetoric with no actions matching it with the Dems.
Harris' campaign has been abysmal in 2024, I actually even liked the 2019 one more-- that's how awful I think this has been, Jane said my opinion personally.
How do you (we) still maintain and nurture your (our collective) sense of justice when it’s been so betrayed by corrupt political powers? I’m exhausted of feeling like we’re in an anti-gravity chamber with everything floating up side down. I’d just like to be grounded in reality as a collective.
Hello Sarah, writing in from Ukraine once again. I have been here only 12 days on this trip, but that brings me to 102 days spent volunteering in Ukraine this year. Ukraine, one of the major fronts in the Third World War, which, we are already in and have been in for many years already. It is not between nation states as much as it is between authoritarianism and democracy, between billionaire kleptocrats and we, the serfs, the "rabble, the swinish multitude".... of any country, of any place anywhere on the planet. Frankly, I am filled with despair on this cold evening, the busy and hard-working Ukrainians going home from their work, trying hard to make it all go away, whatever it is today. I will join the other international volunteers soon for beer and craic, and many will try to ask about the election and with the media doing such a deliberately bad job of telling us the truth, many, even here, will hear for the first time what is reallly going to happen (((. On November 5th, I will be in Krakow, taking the seven hour tour of Auschwitz..... so that it can never happen again?
This trip has been quieter than Summer, when we were witness to the Czar of All the Russias, blatantly and despicably bombing the biggest children's cancer hospital in Ukraine on July 8th, followed by murdering four out of five of a family, a family with whom I am personallly connnected, in Lviv, on September 4th. Only four alerts this time in the western city of Lviv where across the country, the attacks, the drones and the gliding bombs falling out of the night, carry on regardless of any bleating that the poobahs and apologists of the West can bleat. When do the children of Ukraine, become your children, the ones who the Zelenskaya Foundation say that 1 of every 2 has PTSD .... and some studies say it is near 9 of 10!!?? When???
So the future of this war, the next front being in the US, specifically in PA, WI, AZ, NV, GA and one other fookin state full of ignoramuses who are "undecided" (how in the actual heck are you undecided about...?), will be decided in 8 days - a result one that Trump, Musk, Bezos and countless other sociopaths, proto Nazis, mafiosos and scumbags (I'm looking at you Supreme Court) have already decided.
I have nothing else I can do, I voted in absentee already, I demonstrated my commitment to democracy and the rule of law by coming here and standing with Ukraine, I have given my example of standing with traumatized Ukrainian children in six countries already across the West, with four more still to come...... As Churchill observed: we must "keep buggering on", and I will.
Today I spent the day in a workshop in the suburb of a Ukrainian city and I spent my time, energy and passion making from scrap metal, shrapnel for the antipersonnel drone bombs that the Ukrainian Army can drop on the Russians and oh yes, the North Korean soldiers (Hello? Biden, Jake Sullivan, anyone, what-the-actual-heck?).... that is what I do, besides making food for the Ukranian Army and helping kids overcome their trauma by painting with them..... In what remains of this conflict, I have found my hill to stand on, and my flag to stand under. On my feet, rather than on my knees. For my children, so they do not have to, but I fear they will have to.
So yes, finally Sarah, to my question: What else, what else can we do..... ? As Bernard Hill observed: "What can men do against such reckless hate?"
In The Netherlands we now also have a facist government trying to roll out the Orban playbook. It makes me sad and feel powerless. At the same time I just keep consuming as a dumb capitalist and I am not protesting or anything. I doubt I can start a Greta Thurnberg- kinda movement. What can I do, besides trying to stay sane and taking care of my loved ones?
Why is a war with Iran so attractive to so many in the US government? If Iran is allied with russia and the US is loathe to take on russia and, in fact, anticipates a return to “business as normal” with the russian mafia state after its war with Ukraine ends (which is so weird, because I don’t see how russia’s war with Ukraine could end with anything less than (1) the complete destruction of Ukraine or (2) the complete defeat of the russian mafia state), then why target Iran? What do US business interests (since they really run our government) gain from attacking or invading Iran? Also, the axis of evil is unclear to me: Netanyahu and Putin are buddies and Israel and russia use similar genocidal and imperialistic playbooks, so on one level they appear to be aligned (see: the diamond trade). Yet, russia’s shaheed drones come from Iran, and Putin and the Iranian regime appear to be funding Houthis/Hezbollah/Hamas, which antagonize Israel.
The last bit of information that I’m waiting for someone to release regarding Hamas’s Oct 7 2023 attack is that Netanyahu used Iranian back channels to fund Hamas’s attack himself and set them up (by letting Hamas access intel and standing down Israeli forces) to instigate an attack that he could use to justify genocidal retaliation and a complete takeover of Gaza and, eventually, the West Bank. Given how intertwined these criminal regimes are, how does a government, such as the US, decide to attack one of the three, but not the other two? Is the reasoning as simple as being able to sell arms to Israel and buy gas from russia, so Iran loses, but still why Iran?
Is there some sort of collective insanity gripping the world in many nations? Is it a constant barrage of propaganda that has people living in fear and now yearn for a strongman to protect them? Why now? What made us susceptible to the appeal of fascism? Is it simply big money in the right places? It wasn’t like this since the 1930’s.
What do you think trump was referring to when he said at MSG:”I think with our little secret we are gonna do really well with the house, our little secret is having a big impact, he and I have a little secret, we will tell you what it is when the race is over.” States not certifying the vote counts and kicking the election to the house? And does it concern you at all? Or is it a narcissistic fantasy?
Also, thanks so much for this and everything you do! Your writings have been helping me keep “sane” since 2016. Sincerely and truly, Amity
Personally, I think that if the election is 269-269, then Johnson will be able to overturn the results even if Harris wins the popular vote narrowly is their secret but it could be another coup...
Elie Mystal came out with this not great scenario today: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/little-secret-trump-johnson-election/
We're in such a terrible place in this country, truly, I don't feel good about this election either way: I personally feel you-know-who will win legitimately, but I haven't ruled out one scenario (only 20% chance imo) either yet...
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/10/29/trump-election-loss-electoral-college-column-00185866
The only "good" scenario in this case is Trump's personality cult might force Republicans to consider abolishing the electoral college, IF, very unlikely but considering polls.
Which Duran Duran album is the best?
(Yes, hi, I'm disassociating today.)
Sometimes, for me, it comes down to how do we stay afloat in a sea of deception? So demoralizing, discouraging and dehumanizing. All those "D" words. Damn!
How do you recommend engaging with the closest people in your life, "good people", to whom we've learned genocide is not a red line, regardless of who becomes President? Have we lost all "liberals" to propaganda and the Overton Window?
I'm curious how you handle sharing what you know and understand about our political system with your children, and how they take in that info. Thank you for sharing yourself with us this way! --Tracy
I guess the basic question is what realistically we can do if this election is won by Trump. I think his cognitive decline is real and I wouldn’t be surprise to see the 25th amendment invoked. But what do we do in the face of his threats and the mouth breathers ready to drop project 2025 on us?
That was going to be my question as well. If, as seems likely no matter who wins, politicians are not going to save us, what are some things that ordinary citizens can do to protect each other and resist fascism?
Hi Sarah! In your opinion what is the most effective method not being tried to get the American electorate to care about our brutal humanitarian footprint- either through geopolitical action or inaction- and begin to advocate for more action and funding? -Thomas
The public is convinced that voting for 2 ruling class parties that public desires will have no effect on policy/see northwestern and Princeton studies showing statistically negligible effect on policy for public desire
Why Biden’s administration doesn’t go after Elon now? He’s obviously paid by Russian money.
Same reason imo they never went after Trump for his first coup, the big donors backing him and backroom deals in secret.
Thanks as always for your essential writing. I was talking with a very old friend yesterday, catching up on our mutual anxieties regarding the election. Afterwards I purchased They Knew and had it sent to him. I am confident you’ll have a new follower.
Meanwhile I am thinking a lot about Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, especially where he wrote, decide now what you will do before it is too late. I’m trying to get my courage together for when the time will demand that we get in the streets. How do you feel about how average people can rise to meet such an occasion?
Thanks for this, Sarah!
What are your thoughts on Merrick Garland's "position" if the election results go to Trump, of even if it doesn't? It's energy draining, and hard to speculate, but as you've documented the history of Garland and Gorelick running cover for Trump do you think the DOJ will remain as it exists with no agency? Or do you think Garland will be shepherded in to be part of Trump's Kleptocrat Autocracy?
Aside from his despicable role which brings us to this moment -- and his selling us out in the creepiest milquetoast and "piously" posturing way --- what do you think is his future?
I don’t think Garland would fit in to a second Trump admin. He is too timid and slow for what his commander would want him to do. Garland might go along with anything but that would not suffice.
I think he'll be replaced with Ken Paxton, personally.
Paxton is a real predator.
Yeah, absolutely, I'm positive the real brains of the national GOP are himself, Abbott, and Paxton in Texas that spread all the ideas and viciously cruel policies throughout the nation where the rest in DeSantis, Ivey, Blackburn, and such take their lead accordingly myself: Trump is pretty close to Paxton, so it's why I'm thinking he has a good shot of being AG if he wins the election in 2024 (Kash Patel might be his Chief of Staff, idk).
Great questions.
Thanks Glenn, Yeah, Biden's been perfectly fine with Garland's inaction for 3 years and 11 months. I'm assuming that Kamala's a-okay with that too. I actually have no idea what her policies are, other than protecting Reproductive Rights and continuing to finance the genocides in Gaza, and now, in Lebanon. So does Garland just sort of smudge into whichever administration/regime we're headed toward?
I’m voting for Harris. Assuming she is permitted to be inaugurated, we have a lot of work to do to pressure her to fire Garland and for her administration to change policy. As Jimmy Cliff wrote, many rivers to cross.
I held my nose for one reason and one reason only- to protect women from national abortion bans with no exceptions I expect the GOP will try to ram through if they get a trifecta soon, but I am generally pissed and demoralized now more than in any cycle prior and I have a feeling I'm not alone at all in this.
It feels like sans that issue, the two parties have become a uniparty of corruption on almost every other issue mirroring each other sans nice rhetoric with no actions matching it with the Dems.
Harris' campaign has been abysmal in 2024, I actually even liked the 2019 one more-- that's how awful I think this has been, Jane said my opinion personally.
How do you (we) still maintain and nurture your (our collective) sense of justice when it’s been so betrayed by corrupt political powers? I’m exhausted of feeling like we’re in an anti-gravity chamber with everything floating up side down. I’d just like to be grounded in reality as a collective.
Thanks for the Painted Desert photo. I loved that place as a kid . I haven’t seen a photo or a reference in many years ❤️
It’s one of my favorite places! I write about it in my upcoming book The Last American Road Trip. The person in the photo is my son.
Hello Sarah, writing in from Ukraine once again. I have been here only 12 days on this trip, but that brings me to 102 days spent volunteering in Ukraine this year. Ukraine, one of the major fronts in the Third World War, which, we are already in and have been in for many years already. It is not between nation states as much as it is between authoritarianism and democracy, between billionaire kleptocrats and we, the serfs, the "rabble, the swinish multitude".... of any country, of any place anywhere on the planet. Frankly, I am filled with despair on this cold evening, the busy and hard-working Ukrainians going home from their work, trying hard to make it all go away, whatever it is today. I will join the other international volunteers soon for beer and craic, and many will try to ask about the election and with the media doing such a deliberately bad job of telling us the truth, many, even here, will hear for the first time what is reallly going to happen (((. On November 5th, I will be in Krakow, taking the seven hour tour of Auschwitz..... so that it can never happen again?
This trip has been quieter than Summer, when we were witness to the Czar of All the Russias, blatantly and despicably bombing the biggest children's cancer hospital in Ukraine on July 8th, followed by murdering four out of five of a family, a family with whom I am personallly connnected, in Lviv, on September 4th. Only four alerts this time in the western city of Lviv where across the country, the attacks, the drones and the gliding bombs falling out of the night, carry on regardless of any bleating that the poobahs and apologists of the West can bleat. When do the children of Ukraine, become your children, the ones who the Zelenskaya Foundation say that 1 of every 2 has PTSD .... and some studies say it is near 9 of 10!!?? When???
So the future of this war, the next front being in the US, specifically in PA, WI, AZ, NV, GA and one other fookin state full of ignoramuses who are "undecided" (how in the actual heck are you undecided about...?), will be decided in 8 days - a result one that Trump, Musk, Bezos and countless other sociopaths, proto Nazis, mafiosos and scumbags (I'm looking at you Supreme Court) have already decided.
I have nothing else I can do, I voted in absentee already, I demonstrated my commitment to democracy and the rule of law by coming here and standing with Ukraine, I have given my example of standing with traumatized Ukrainian children in six countries already across the West, with four more still to come...... As Churchill observed: we must "keep buggering on", and I will.
Today I spent the day in a workshop in the suburb of a Ukrainian city and I spent my time, energy and passion making from scrap metal, shrapnel for the antipersonnel drone bombs that the Ukrainian Army can drop on the Russians and oh yes, the North Korean soldiers (Hello? Biden, Jake Sullivan, anyone, what-the-actual-heck?).... that is what I do, besides making food for the Ukranian Army and helping kids overcome their trauma by painting with them..... In what remains of this conflict, I have found my hill to stand on, and my flag to stand under. On my feet, rather than on my knees. For my children, so they do not have to, but I fear they will have to.
So yes, finally Sarah, to my question: What else, what else can we do..... ? As Bernard Hill observed: "What can men do against such reckless hate?"
In The Netherlands we now also have a facist government trying to roll out the Orban playbook. It makes me sad and feel powerless. At the same time I just keep consuming as a dumb capitalist and I am not protesting or anything. I doubt I can start a Greta Thurnberg- kinda movement. What can I do, besides trying to stay sane and taking care of my loved ones?
Why is a war with Iran so attractive to so many in the US government? If Iran is allied with russia and the US is loathe to take on russia and, in fact, anticipates a return to “business as normal” with the russian mafia state after its war with Ukraine ends (which is so weird, because I don’t see how russia’s war with Ukraine could end with anything less than (1) the complete destruction of Ukraine or (2) the complete defeat of the russian mafia state), then why target Iran? What do US business interests (since they really run our government) gain from attacking or invading Iran? Also, the axis of evil is unclear to me: Netanyahu and Putin are buddies and Israel and russia use similar genocidal and imperialistic playbooks, so on one level they appear to be aligned (see: the diamond trade). Yet, russia’s shaheed drones come from Iran, and Putin and the Iranian regime appear to be funding Houthis/Hezbollah/Hamas, which antagonize Israel.
The last bit of information that I’m waiting for someone to release regarding Hamas’s Oct 7 2023 attack is that Netanyahu used Iranian back channels to fund Hamas’s attack himself and set them up (by letting Hamas access intel and standing down Israeli forces) to instigate an attack that he could use to justify genocidal retaliation and a complete takeover of Gaza and, eventually, the West Bank. Given how intertwined these criminal regimes are, how does a government, such as the US, decide to attack one of the three, but not the other two? Is the reasoning as simple as being able to sell arms to Israel and buy gas from russia, so Iran loses, but still why Iran?
Is there some sort of collective insanity gripping the world in many nations? Is it a constant barrage of propaganda that has people living in fear and now yearn for a strongman to protect them? Why now? What made us susceptible to the appeal of fascism? Is it simply big money in the right places? It wasn’t like this since the 1930’s.