Happy Saturday everyone. Global democracy has had a very good week and the global fascists a very bad one.
To continue deepening our understanding of our historic and promising election we have some new commentary, data-driven analysis, and a fun new interview for you this weekend:
2026 Was Our Best Election Performance In 52 Years - A Post-Election Recap With Tom BonierTrumpism Is A Rotten Deal, And Voters Here And Around The World Are Figuring It Out
I can’t stop staring at this:
Or this (newly updated):
Or this:
We also continue to raise for Scott Colom in Mississippi and Mary Peltola and the Alaska Dems. We start the day still leading in both as votes are counted. Let’s go get two more Senate seats people!
Scott Colom |
Donate| $29,000 raised, $50,000 new stretch goalWinning Alaska |
Donate| $63,000 raised, $82,000 goal | split between Mary Peltola for Senate and the Alaska Democratic Party
Three Saturday morning notes…….
We Dismantled Laboratories of Autocracy And Broke Gerrymanders All **Across The Country - **The combination of a bad 2010 midterm, a failed national redistricting effort in the 2012 cycle, the corrupt Roberts Court enabling outrageous gerrymanders, and a national Democratic Party sticking to a far to narrow national map allowed Republicans to illiberally turn states across the US including Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin into something other than democracies. David Pepper, the next Lt. Gov of Ohio, wrote about this development in his book, Laboratories of Autocracy. On Tuesday we demolished and overthrew many of these corrupt regimes - like Peter Maygar did in Hungary - breaking illicit gerrymanders, and taking meaningful steps to restore democracy to states where it had been denied for many years.
David will be joining us sometime this week to talk about this dramatic and welcome development.
Why Didn’t Trump Challenge The Election Results? - A Big Win, But Effective Deterrence Too - Yes the election became “too big to rig” but we also need to give credit to both the unprecedented * and very public* preparations throughout the party (including our Hopium-state party New Battlefield Project) and the legal success we had countering their late tests of our resolve and capacity. We were “prepared, not scared” and the Trump team came to understand that we were ready and if they were to fight they were likely to lose.
**OMG Stephen Miller **- This is a story running - on checks notes - Fox News:
This week Trump has been scared, not prepared. Facing the humiliation of the election and a clear, powerful rebuke here let’s review what he did this week…..
On Monday he held final “closing argument” event of the election at the Reflecting Pool, and talked about the repairs, the algae, the arch, the ballroom, his golf course, and the Imperial City he fantasizes about constructing.
On Wednesday, he held his first press event after this historic repudiation of his terrible regime in his Imperial ballroom. It was far more Monthy Python than New Trump Golden Age.
On Friday, he appointed Miller, a leading regime advocate of the theory that Trump has in essence unlimited, Imperial powers. Here’s how the NYT covered it today:
In the initial days after the staggering rebuke Republicans suffered in Tuesday’s midterm elections, President Trump appeared subdued — almost conciliatory.
He said he would work with Democrats, claiming as he has over the years that he could forge a deal with them on immigration, perhaps the most polarizing domestic issue of his second term.
But near the week’s end, instead of ceding to the clear evidence of voter displeasure, Mr. Trump pivoted to a familiar move: more MAGA.On Friday, the president ousted his onetime close adviser, Susie Wiles, from the role of White House chief of staff, replacing her with Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff. More than any other top adviser, Mr. Miller encouraged an aggressive flexing of executive power when Mr. Trump returned to office.
Mr. Miller has been the driver of the president’s most muscular actions, including the use of increasingly hostile tactics to capture immigrants across the country and the bombing of small boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean that he and Mr. Trump declared constituted a foreign invasion.
The president’s choice sent a clear signal about the posture he intends to strike in his final two years in office and how little he intends to alter his approach in response to the
[most decisive political rout]in half a century. He also put on center stage a figure who had already been a galvanizing target for Democrats intent on using their new powers in Congress to check the administration.
In the days after Trump’s Venezuela adventure earlier this year Miller was all over television explaining what this “bold” action really meant. Here is what I wrote in January, along with what became an infamous clip of a frothing Miller with Jake Tapper….
All Hail Our New Emperor Of The Americas
Morning all. So here we are. Frustrated by the dramatic failure of his domestic agenda, of his soaring unpopularity, of the stunning blue wave that brought election blow outs of his party across the country this fall and winter, of his struggle to contain the Epstein scandal, of the fraying of his Congressional coalition, of his declining health and ebbing powers, our ailing and unhinged leader has turned his attention abroad, declaring himself Emperor of the Americas, Lord of the Western Hemisphere.
As such, our leader has determined and decreed, that the Constitution, domestic US law, the UN Charter, international law, and Senate ratified treaties with other nations no longer apply in our new Imperial age. The era of law is behind us now. American democracy, the post WWII rules-based order, the Four Freedoms, Pax Americana are now relics of a bygone era. We are entering a new age now. An age of force, of power, of MANLY STRENGTH. Stephen Miller declared the arrival of this new age on CNN on Monday night. Here are his words:
Well, what the President said is true. The United States of America is running Venezuela. By definition that’s true. Jake, we live in a world in which... you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else... but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world.
Here is the video:
Here is how one Italian scholar described Trump unbound and unhinged in the New York Times today (gift link):
There does seem to be one organizing principle, however, said Nathalie Tocci, director of an Italy-based think tank, the Institute of International Affairs. “U.S. foreign policy now is imperial, and consistently imperial,” she said. “It’s not simply pursuing an American empire in the Western Hemisphere, but Trump accepts the very notion of empire, which is why other empires can exist.”
Such a worldview allows for not only an American empire, but also Russian and Chinese ones, she said. They can manage their own regions as they see fit, “and they can coexist without stepping on each other’s toes” or even choose to cooperate, Ms. Tocci said. “Certainly,” she added, “it’s more comfortable for Putin and Xi Jinping to be their imperial selves where that’s the new norm.”
………….
Challenged, weakened, humiliated, failed Trump has chosen to retreat to his imaginary world where is he young and virile, adored and admired, successful and with unlimited powers, having lavish dinners in his Imperial ballroom, driving in circles around his wondrous Arch, being serenaded in the Trump-Kennedy Center with Natalie by his side, divvying up the world with Vlad and Xi, and playing golf on his new world class golf course that is nearby, a few minutes away, not the forty-five minutes his own golf course is.
Miller was a ridiculous choice to lead our government, and an ominous one too for it speaks to Trump’s decomposition, decline, and dangerous descent into a fantasy world where he and Stephen and Russ and Natalie rule without challenge. But that isn’t the real world. And we are prepared, not scared - and even Fox News and what’s left of the Republican Party in Washington are outraged and spitting the bit…….
These next two years are going to be hard, very hard, but we put our heads down these last two years and did what needed to be done. But we are not finished fellow patriots. For now we need to begin focusing on finishing the job and enthusiastically stuffing Trump and MAGA into the dustbin of history where they so clearly belong.
Rest up brothers and sisters for we still have work to do…….
Simon
