A dark day

I know nobody reads this any more but I need to write this down somewhere - more for catharsis then anything else.

Obviously today, democracy fell to ultra right-wing fascism in America. Harris did an amazing job but she just couldn't make voters see sense. Everyone was angry about high prices and inflation. Yet prices have backed off, inflation is back down to what the 'normal' baseline is, unemployment is down, and wages are up. The economy is actually doing crazy well now - yet people just believed the constant stream of lies they were fed by Trump instead of actually looking in their own wallets

So here we are facing another 4 years (to eternity?) of Trumpism.

• He wants to disband NOAA because he thinks climate change is a hoax. It seems that reporting on things like hurricanes is no longer important to America. Good luck, Florida and the Gulf coast - you'll now have no warnings before all your property is destroyed. And because Trump considers everything to be a popularity contest, you'll also get no FEMA aid if he doesn't like you.
• He wants to put Elon Musk in charge of "government efficiency" (and Elon has already said he's prepared to crater the economy to do so). This means axeing departments that Trump considers to be "surplus to requirements" - like the department of education. You don't want educated kids growing up to be educated voters - that would mean the Republicans could never "win" another election.
• He wants to put RFK Jnr - the poster-child for anti-science and anti-vax, in charge of all of the country's health including food, vaccinations, drug approvals and things like fluoridated tap water. So good luck when the next pandemic comes out - we'll all be directed to drink bleach. And good luck having kids live past the age of 3 if vaccines are all banned. Of course Republican parents who suffer this most heinous of life events will forget WHY this happened to them and somehow find a way to blame anyone but Trump and RFK Jnr.
• He wants to mass-deport all immigrants, and blames them for escalating crime rates and murder rates, despite factual evidence proving that year-on-year, crime is down, as has been the trend for the last 20 years. And despite factual evidence proving that Americans are 14 times more likely to commit crime than any immigrant category.
• He doesn't understand NATO - he thinks it is a method whereby other countries pay America "protection money". He has encouraged Russia to attack any NATO country they want, because "The US will not come to their aid if they're not paying their way". For fuck's sake - this is so super basic that I have to believe he's doing this on purpose. Nobody can be that stupid, surely?
• He doesn't understand tariffs - he thinks that tariffs are fees paid to the US government by oversees suppliers. Of course that's not what they are. They're IMPORT fees paid by the US-based business, for importing those goods. Which then get passed directly on to consumers. 200% tariff on cars built in Mexico? Great - the MSRP of just about every car in America just doubled. 200% tariff on food and drug imports? Great - all your food and medication just doubled in price. Makes 9% inflation look cute by comparison.
• He STILL wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and strip 50M+ Americans of their healthcare, with no plan to replace it. 
• He wants to encourage the sale of state lands to the oil and gas industry to drill-baby-drill, which - apart from being catastrophic to the environment - shields his larger view of hating EVs - so goodbye EV market and fuck anyone who actually wants one, owns one, or enjoys one.
• He wants to roll out an 1873 Law to the whole country that prevents the supply of abortion "materials" to the public. This not only includes abortion pills, but the medical equipment required to safely perform abortions in clinics and hospitals. The repeat of Roe v Wade has already proven to be fatal for hundreds of women with pregnancy complications. This is just going to make everything worse again.
• He has already stated that he doesn't want to support Ukraine any more, so he's basically just gifted Ukraine to Putin, which I can very easily see as being the precursor to a larger war in Europe now.
• He has unwavering support for Israel, meaning we're now basically a state-sponsor of Israeli terrorism and all the misery and destruction that country rains down on it's neighbours.

I just don't get it. How are people SO stupid? How do they believe this constant line of lies and hatred when they can see with their own eyes what it will do to the country? Or maybe that's just it. Maybe they truly are SO dumb that they really don't understand basic economics.

One thing's for sure - it's going to be a lot worse for the next four years. I hope I can come back to this post at some point and prove it all wrong, but I think we all know that's not possible. This is just the tip of iceberg. America should not be trying on 1930's German Fascism for size. It's all going to end up badly, for everyone, pretty much around the world.