Why are we forgetting what Trump confessed he was doing which would give him a "get out of jail free" card? Please read my "Projection is Confession" -- he has manipulated his opponents, us, his enemies within, into not looking at the election machinery put into place during the last four years, because we don't want to abandon the Rule of Law and American tradition. So like the Germans in 1933, when a slight majority of the party with only a slight majority was allowed to take over, we are not goint to look for cheating. We have been "the cheaters" too long, so what have we got to lose as we were accused anyway? Trump didn't want to run against Biden, so Dems fell into the trap of running woman of non-European ancestry yet. She was great, but he is the greater manipulator. He told us he and the HR Speaker has a secret!
I have thought the same thing. In our county in Ohio, we have local newspaper that openly supported Republican candidates for our local offices while maligning their Democratic challengers. The head of our board of elections was a newly appointed Republican who seemed to come out of nowhere. None of the local Democratic candidates, even the incumbents won their races. That was the way it went with everything in our heavily gerrymandered state. Issue 1, which was the third attempt by Ohio voters to end partisan gerrymandering failed because our Secretary of State changed the language on the ballot to make voting YES on Issue 1 look like a very bad thing for voters. Trump made a comment somewhere that Elon spent 3 weeks "campaigning" in PA. We all know that's not what he was actually doing. Unlike Ohio, Michigan elected a lot of Democratic candidates and now have majorities in executive, legislative and judicial branch. So why didn't Kamala win the state's electorate? We'd heard about voter suppression efforts in Detroit and elsewhere. We also heard about all the bomb threats to polling and counting places on election day that supposedly came from Russia-and I don't know this for sure but would imagine they were in places where Democrats had a better chance of winning than Republicans. These are just a few of the things I noticed yet have heard nothing about any questions about election interference or cheating.
Take care, Ramona. I'm a little younger than you and I wasn't born in the US but I care about this country. It's where I chose to live. I believe this country was built on common sense. It isn't perfect. No place on earth is. Humans are imperfect, so what they build will have cracks. I want to believe this country is stronger than a petty tyrant and his sycophants. They'll try their dirty tricks and people will push back. It's been done before ...
Ramona, I haven't posted anything except comments for the last few days. I too have lost, hopefully temporarily, the urge to write.
I feel like any control I had - which is very minimal given I am a Canadian - is gone completely. I just realized I have theatre tickets to a local music hall for tomorrow and I can't find the energy to go. I haven't seen my youngest grandchild yet and I am making plans to spend some of my precious retirement savings on the trip there, before the inauguration, as I don't think I will be able to afford it again after. That's how far the reach of this election has on the world that this old woman in a different country is feeling profound angst and dread.
We share a border and more importantly, a climate, and we are too dependent on our biggest trading partner, the U.S., to survive his reign. I fear Canada is Austria to HItler's Germany and we will be the first to fall.
I truly hope you’re wrong. I have those same fears, only from this side of the border. The world will feel the repercussions of this election. The pain will be universal.
Hate prevails at the moment, and hate may well own us, at least for a while. We’ll be in damage control mode instead of doing the job of building a country we can still be proud of.
Two steps back for any step forward, not for the first time.
I agree with you as a fellow Canadian! We are not far behind the US and other countries moving and shifting and well-into the far right - it's frightening. All we can do is remain hopeful that the next 4 years show people what it's like under a Trump (and the Canadian counterpart) regime and they choose another way forward in the next election.
Sending love to you. Feeling the same. I worry about my daughter and about my daughter in law (my son just doesn’t get it). I truly hope everything I think will happen will not come to fruition. Trying to manage my incredibly depressing thoughts right now. I could go cure ballots today and help the win for Ruben Gallego against Kari Lake but I just don’t have one ounce of strength to fight… at the moment. Maybe in a couple of weeks. Just not there yet. I am 64 wondering if I will have access to Medicare at 65 or my social security at any point in my future. I have such grief, anger, rage, disgust, sadness, disappointment all at once. Thank you for your post. We have a community of likeheartedness. I think we just have to draw upon that for the moment.
Suzanne, I understand why you don't have the energy to go cure ballots but maybe you know someone who could go in your place? If we can get control of the House (and avoid a speaker like Jim Jordan or Kari Lake), at least that may provide some guardrails to our federal government.
Annie, thank you. I do have friends going. So, I know it will be handled. I think Sunday is the last day for ballot curing. I’m sure they are making progress. The beautiful thing is I have met a ton of activist friends since 2016. Fortunately, there are some younger and more energetic than me! 💙
Take care Ramona and let's continue gathering the people we love and care about together with the hopes that there will be a better day ahead. The fight ahead may be better left to those younger but it may also be that our wise words will support them and cheer them on over the next 4 years. Be well.
Take whatever time you need, Ramona. Your voice will continue to matter, whether it draws from what you've said in the past or from something new you want to add. You'll never stop caring . It's who you are.
It truly is a grief that we're experiencing. The only hope I can find is in realizing just how many people did not vote in this election. If more of them could be mobilized, perhaps we'd have a chance of electing someone reasonable.
At almost 81 I hear you. I thought this would be my last campaign. Now I'm kind of hoping that if I'm still around in 4 more years that I will no longer be of "sound mind "so that I won't care.
Since you are also on Substack look up Adam Kinsinger's latest writing from Nov. 8 (It's a freebee.)
Namaste-from VT (Where our Republican governor voted for Harris/Walz.)
Dear Ramona, not sure why your email and newsletter showed up in my inbox today but am very glad it did. Thank you for putting into words what so many of us feel in the aftermath of this catastrophic election. Thank you for being here today for those of us who are just coming out of our self-imposed time of detaching from the world to lick our wounds.
The past 3 days, going on 4, have been an emotional roller coaster. Emotions cycle through crushing sadness, panic, anger, paranoia, high anxiety, worry, grief in rapid succession. Sleep is disturbed by nightmares and bizarre dreams. I long for the hopeful person that lived in my mind and body just 4 days ago. I will be 70 next month and was looking forward to a brighter world with Kamala and Tim at the helm.
Today is a better day compared to Wednesday and Friday when it felt like 9/11, the day my dad had a heart attack on the tennis court and never recovered, the day Trump won in 2016 and January 6, 2021-all rolled into one horrible moment. Wednesday was okay because I spent the day looking for alternative places to live and couldn't afford. Today, I found joy walking with my partner and our dog on a nearby greenway. The sun was shining. The dog could be off leash to sniff and run because we were the only ones there. Came home and began to scroll through days of emails that I've not had the fortitude to face since Tuesday.
My reminder to myself and others-we need to allow ourselves the time and grace to move through this awful new reality and refrain from making any life-altering decisions while in fight/flight/freeze mode. This would include selling everything and moving to a Blue state, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Portugal, Denmark, Belize, Ireland-all places discussed with friends and family over the past 3 days. As I mentioned to a friend yesterday, it was never on my radar to be a refugee at 70. But here we are. It may be time to watch the movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel again to hear the line, "Everything will be all right in the end. If it's not all right, it's not the end".
Ramona. Please do not give up hope. When we age, or get sick, or both and we can no longer "do" in terms of activism, we can support those that are able to "do". That might be in prayer or practical support such as making a packed lunch for a younger person who is going on a demonstration or to offer encouragement to those who can "do". You have this wonderful gift of writing, and your years of experience as an activist - there is plenty there to offer those to whom you are now passing the torch. Lots of love xx
Although I suppose that my background could not be more different I feel the same as you do. This election has taken me to very dark place and has reactivated my PTSD from growing up in Cuba just before the Revolution. Our family left in 1961 when we saw that things were turning very dark, very quickly. From 1973 to 1978 I was in grad school in NYC so I know since then what kind of person Trump is. When he was first elected in 2016 I knew it was going to be bad, now I know it is going to be worse. I never thought I would see the USA turn into a banana republic, a vassal state of Russia.
I understand. I’m 75 years old. Take care of yourself
Why are we forgetting what Trump confessed he was doing which would give him a "get out of jail free" card? Please read my "Projection is Confession" -- he has manipulated his opponents, us, his enemies within, into not looking at the election machinery put into place during the last four years, because we don't want to abandon the Rule of Law and American tradition. So like the Germans in 1933, when a slight majority of the party with only a slight majority was allowed to take over, we are not goint to look for cheating. We have been "the cheaters" too long, so what have we got to lose as we were accused anyway? Trump didn't want to run against Biden, so Dems fell into the trap of running woman of non-European ancestry yet. She was great, but he is the greater manipulator. He told us he and the HR Speaker has a secret!
I have thought the same thing. In our county in Ohio, we have local newspaper that openly supported Republican candidates for our local offices while maligning their Democratic challengers. The head of our board of elections was a newly appointed Republican who seemed to come out of nowhere. None of the local Democratic candidates, even the incumbents won their races. That was the way it went with everything in our heavily gerrymandered state. Issue 1, which was the third attempt by Ohio voters to end partisan gerrymandering failed because our Secretary of State changed the language on the ballot to make voting YES on Issue 1 look like a very bad thing for voters. Trump made a comment somewhere that Elon spent 3 weeks "campaigning" in PA. We all know that's not what he was actually doing. Unlike Ohio, Michigan elected a lot of Democratic candidates and now have majorities in executive, legislative and judicial branch. So why didn't Kamala win the state's electorate? We'd heard about voter suppression efforts in Detroit and elsewhere. We also heard about all the bomb threats to polling and counting places on election day that supposedly came from Russia-and I don't know this for sure but would imagine they were in places where Democrats had a better chance of winning than Republicans. These are just a few of the things I noticed yet have heard nothing about any questions about election interference or cheating.
Take care, Ramona. I'm a little younger than you and I wasn't born in the US but I care about this country. It's where I chose to live. I believe this country was built on common sense. It isn't perfect. No place on earth is. Humans are imperfect, so what they build will have cracks. I want to believe this country is stronger than a petty tyrant and his sycophants. They'll try their dirty tricks and people will push back. It's been done before ...
Ramona, I haven't posted anything except comments for the last few days. I too have lost, hopefully temporarily, the urge to write.
I feel like any control I had - which is very minimal given I am a Canadian - is gone completely. I just realized I have theatre tickets to a local music hall for tomorrow and I can't find the energy to go. I haven't seen my youngest grandchild yet and I am making plans to spend some of my precious retirement savings on the trip there, before the inauguration, as I don't think I will be able to afford it again after. That's how far the reach of this election has on the world that this old woman in a different country is feeling profound angst and dread.
We share a border and more importantly, a climate, and we are too dependent on our biggest trading partner, the U.S., to survive his reign. I fear Canada is Austria to HItler's Germany and we will be the first to fall.
I truly hope you’re wrong. I have those same fears, only from this side of the border. The world will feel the repercussions of this election. The pain will be universal.
Hate prevails at the moment, and hate may well own us, at least for a while. We’ll be in damage control mode instead of doing the job of building a country we can still be proud of.
Two steps back for any step forward, not for the first time.
I agree with you as a fellow Canadian! We are not far behind the US and other countries moving and shifting and well-into the far right - it's frightening. All we can do is remain hopeful that the next 4 years show people what it's like under a Trump (and the Canadian counterpart) regime and they choose another way forward in the next election.
Sending love to you. Feeling the same. I worry about my daughter and about my daughter in law (my son just doesn’t get it). I truly hope everything I think will happen will not come to fruition. Trying to manage my incredibly depressing thoughts right now. I could go cure ballots today and help the win for Ruben Gallego against Kari Lake but I just don’t have one ounce of strength to fight… at the moment. Maybe in a couple of weeks. Just not there yet. I am 64 wondering if I will have access to Medicare at 65 or my social security at any point in my future. I have such grief, anger, rage, disgust, sadness, disappointment all at once. Thank you for your post. We have a community of likeheartedness. I think we just have to draw upon that for the moment.
Suzanne, I understand why you don't have the energy to go cure ballots but maybe you know someone who could go in your place? If we can get control of the House (and avoid a speaker like Jim Jordan or Kari Lake), at least that may provide some guardrails to our federal government.
Annie, thank you. I do have friends going. So, I know it will be handled. I think Sunday is the last day for ballot curing. I’m sure they are making progress. The beautiful thing is I have met a ton of activist friends since 2016. Fortunately, there are some younger and more energetic than me! 💙
Take care Ramona and let's continue gathering the people we love and care about together with the hopes that there will be a better day ahead. The fight ahead may be better left to those younger but it may also be that our wise words will support them and cheer them on over the next 4 years. Be well.
Take whatever time you need, Ramona. Your voice will continue to matter, whether it draws from what you've said in the past or from something new you want to add. You'll never stop caring . It's who you are.
It truly is a grief that we're experiencing. The only hope I can find is in realizing just how many people did not vote in this election. If more of them could be mobilized, perhaps we'd have a chance of electing someone reasonable.
At almost 81 I hear you. I thought this would be my last campaign. Now I'm kind of hoping that if I'm still around in 4 more years that I will no longer be of "sound mind "so that I won't care.
Since you are also on Substack look up Adam Kinsinger's latest writing from Nov. 8 (It's a freebee.)
Namaste-from VT (Where our Republican governor voted for Harris/Walz.)
Dear Ramona, not sure why your email and newsletter showed up in my inbox today but am very glad it did. Thank you for putting into words what so many of us feel in the aftermath of this catastrophic election. Thank you for being here today for those of us who are just coming out of our self-imposed time of detaching from the world to lick our wounds.
The past 3 days, going on 4, have been an emotional roller coaster. Emotions cycle through crushing sadness, panic, anger, paranoia, high anxiety, worry, grief in rapid succession. Sleep is disturbed by nightmares and bizarre dreams. I long for the hopeful person that lived in my mind and body just 4 days ago. I will be 70 next month and was looking forward to a brighter world with Kamala and Tim at the helm.
Today is a better day compared to Wednesday and Friday when it felt like 9/11, the day my dad had a heart attack on the tennis court and never recovered, the day Trump won in 2016 and January 6, 2021-all rolled into one horrible moment. Wednesday was okay because I spent the day looking for alternative places to live and couldn't afford. Today, I found joy walking with my partner and our dog on a nearby greenway. The sun was shining. The dog could be off leash to sniff and run because we were the only ones there. Came home and began to scroll through days of emails that I've not had the fortitude to face since Tuesday.
My reminder to myself and others-we need to allow ourselves the time and grace to move through this awful new reality and refrain from making any life-altering decisions while in fight/flight/freeze mode. This would include selling everything and moving to a Blue state, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Portugal, Denmark, Belize, Ireland-all places discussed with friends and family over the past 3 days. As I mentioned to a friend yesterday, it was never on my radar to be a refugee at 70. But here we are. It may be time to watch the movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel again to hear the line, "Everything will be all right in the end. If it's not all right, it's not the end".
Ramona. Please do not give up hope. When we age, or get sick, or both and we can no longer "do" in terms of activism, we can support those that are able to "do". That might be in prayer or practical support such as making a packed lunch for a younger person who is going on a demonstration or to offer encouragement to those who can "do". You have this wonderful gift of writing, and your years of experience as an activist - there is plenty there to offer those to whom you are now passing the torch. Lots of love xx
Although I suppose that my background could not be more different I feel the same as you do. This election has taken me to very dark place and has reactivated my PTSD from growing up in Cuba just before the Revolution. Our family left in 1961 when we saw that things were turning very dark, very quickly. From 1973 to 1978 I was in grad school in NYC so I know since then what kind of person Trump is. When he was first elected in 2016 I knew it was going to be bad, now I know it is going to be worse. I never thought I would see the USA turn into a banana republic, a vassal state of Russia.