[304] Screed City

[304]

11/22/2024 Friday. Papers Box. Crisis HQ. Ridgewood, NY.

Happy Birthday, G!!!

Well, I guess I need to get back on the horse as the bridesmaids say. Brother Luke says the reason the Dems lost the election was because I stopped screeding about politics. He's not wrong, he's just an asshole. Just joking. He's not wrong because burn-out was what did us in. They are already trying to blame the Progressive Movement for what happened. That somehow Kamala campaigning with Liz Fucking Cheney was too woke. No, that is not how it happened. What happened was they made the Democrats the party of protecting the status quo. And not just the status quo for the Democrat party but the status quo for the Republican party as well. Two of the most universally despised parties that have ever existed.

I am not going to switch back to the days of 50/50, if anyone remembers those days. You probably don't because if you were a subscriber back then you UNSCRUBSCRIBED. As one particularly annoyed patron wrote, "What the fuck is this shit? Why don't you just run for congress?" But the, aint it funny rose colored bridesmaids glasses can't exist without context. America is officially Frankenstein's Monster and as such, I feel like it is my citizens duty to at least hover around the edges of what is happening in this very awkward phase of what will either be the downfall of America or the shit show America deserves. Things are not going to be very pleasant though. It's like a close relative started drinking again. Who knows exactly what is going to happen, but what is going to happen will be both predictable and heart breaking. You can expect late night phone calls begging for forgiveness and asking to borrow money. America is sick right now. And we can't just ignore it. Pretending the sickness does not exist is the last thing we should do.

Trans rights are still human rights. Housing is still a human right. Healthcare is still a human right. Reproductive rights are still human rights. None of that has changed. These are things we need to keep fighting for. Abolish Turnstiles.

And here is the thing. The Orange Douche didn't even win a majority of votes. He won a plurality. He won the popular vote count by less than Hilary did when she lost the election eight years ago. Corporate media and the Republicans are going to pretend he has a mandate, but he does not have a mandate. The House is closer to 50/50 than two years ago and even though the Senate is controlled by the right, we always knew that was going to happen. We did. Any idea that we were going to hold onto the Senate was wishful thinking. Like how Texas is finally going blue, or Florida is a swing state again, or somehow North Dakota is suddenly voting for a Black woman. Math is math. It is not ideal that the right has control of all three factions of federal government, but like the bridesmaids say, Hubris is terminal. They are going to act like they have a mandate and they are going to govern like they have a mandate, but they do not have a mandate. Republicans have terrible policies that everyone hates. Nobody wants millions of people rounded up and put in concentration camps. They can't take medicare and social security away any more than the first and second amendment can be supposedly taken away by the left. They will keep coming for women's rights. They will be cruel to the LGBTQ community. Hate crimes will spike. Cops will be given cart blanch to murder again. Corruption will be out of control and any idea of norms will become a thing of the past. Nobody ever went broke betting on the cowardice of Republicans and the fecklessness of Democrats.

I am worried but I am not hopeless. The weakness of the Republican party is when they do what they say they are going to do. They are no more popular than the left. And ironically, when the Democrats do what they say they are going to do they become more popular. It is catering to some sort of middle ground where things fall apart. I truly believe that millions of voters think come January they will get a check for $1,500 in the mail and gas prices will fall to $2 a gallon and their Big Mac Meal will cost $7 again. That will not happen. The economy does not work that way. Exporting cheap labor by force and making all goods more expensive if they come from abroad will not make anything cheaper. Giving tax breaks to corporations and billionaires will not increase your wages. Taking away rights from women and children and the trans community will not inure them. Nobody is going to love that giving Israel extra nukes to bomb Palestine. We may be involved in a cultural shift with regards to whether or not you can say the word retard in polite society, but if you think that a policy of, "Aids kills faggots dead," is coming back, and will be embraced by a majority of the public, you are wrong. What is about to be unleashed on the American public will not be a "Hearts and minds," love fest. It will be a shift in courts and laws, for sure, but they will overreach. Massive overreach. Babies in cages-style overreach. The hubris is simple, the Orange Douche is popular, therefore the right think they are popular. They are not popular. They have never been popular and they will not get more popular. They have garbage policy that sucks.

I apologize for writing about politics. It is either this or I wrap up Screed City entirely, and I don't want to do that. I just need to recalibrate. And as somebody that believes in transparency, [Cue Becca Blackwell saying, "Trigger warning!"] honesty and trust in humanity is paramount, even if Becca is a menace to society.

Where to go from here? I don't know exactly. Invest in local politics. My district in Queens voted a very wonderful person into congress, Claire Valdez, I think I will join her operations. The Dems need a reckoning. That is certain. If their takeaway is to abandon the LGBTQ population and double down on Zionism, well, they will surely have become Republicans themselves and they will lose a generation of voters.

And who knows. The last time the Orange Douche was in power I thought, "If only he did the exact opposite of everything he does he would become the best president we have ever had." I think this time he is going to do that. He is going to give tax breaks to the middle class and the poor. Get the millionaires and billionaires to fund infrastructure, he is going to going to create a Department of Public Housing, promote Universal Healthcare, understand that America is a nation of immigrants and has been such since its inception, he is going to get rid of student debt and pull the troops out of Afghanistan...oh, right. Well.

In summation, drop your socks and grab your cocks, as Scott would say, we are in for a wild ride.

G turned 17 today. They can vote in the mid-terms. Time moves fast.

[insert Jack driving photo]