As much as we may want to, let's not tear ourselves apart too much and over-analyze this election

First of all, it was just a bad cycle for Dems. It's historically hard to hold onto the WH after 8 years for the same party. The sad realization I had last night was how for so many people-- maybe you could call them low information partisan voters-- the only really important thing in this recent election was that their "team" won after they had to put up with the other "team" for eight years.

Second of all, clearly it was a weird year, with Trump. Despite his horrible behavior, he played the media like a fiddle and we definitely under-estimated how much voters would be turned off by him. And he was clearly helped by the media and a lot of unfortunate hacking that was out of our control.

Third, while I strongly think Hillary was massively and unfairly smeared in this campaign, she was just not the best candidate for various historical reasons. We under-estimated how much the email scandal hurt her.

Fourth, there is a lot of chance in elections, and you can't plan everything out. Sometimes you get lucky with a candidate, such as Obama, and sometimes you get totally screwed, such as with Hillary and Al Gore.

Fifth, we are still a very closely divided country politically, between liberal and conservative.

Sixth, this was a close election, mainly decided by a few percentage points in rust-belt states.

Seventh, overall the Democratic candidate did very well in getting votes but lost in the electoral college-- this was not some major repudiation of the Democratic party or "neoliberalism".

Eighth, from other races that occurred this cycle, there's no sign America is ready to shift to socialism (single payer lost HUGELY in CO) or even that this was such a big "change" election (most incumbents voted back in). Americans are perpetually upset by DC and want change, there was nothing new in that, except after 8 years of one president, this was felt more acutely by the right.

The bigger issue right now, I think is, what is the best way for Dems to deal with the incipient fascism from a Trump presidency. I'm not sure working with him is the best idea.

Keith Olbermann starts "The Resistance"

The single biggest thing that killed Hillary was the email scandal

I think it was bogus, most Dems do too.

But MANY people really think she broke the law and got off by being an elite in the government (never mind Trump's own corruption).

Nonetheless, maybe it was a huge mistake for Bernie to blow it off early on in the primaries.

If he'd taken it seriously, perhaps he could've won, or gotten her to have a better explanation for it.

Granted, I think there were so many factors against her, and I think she was royally screwed no matter what-- the election was rigged. But it is ironic that Bernie shot down the one thing that could've helped him and maybe helped us win.

So what is the endgame for Trump?

Autocracy like in Russia?

Pure kleptocracy to enrich himself and his kids?

Or something much darker, like pure fascism or even purging of non-whites?

Is genocide out of the realm of possibility?

Personally I wouldn't put anything past this monster. He's easily the sickest, most sociopathic person elected president in my lifetime.

Election Day Olbermann: A vote for Trump is ‘national suicide’

What's the deal with the Clinton maid printing out emails story?

"Clinton directed her maid to print out classified materials"
http://nypost.com/2016/11/06/clinton-directed-her-maid-to-print-out-classified-materials/

It certainly sounds bad taken at face value, but almost no news outlets have picked it up.

Of course the right is going bananas over it.


My question is-- is it just completely bogus, or is there some element of truth to it? Is there a debunking on it somewhere?

Overall, it sounds kind of hard to believe. My guess is it's disinfo put out by some FBI agents, similar to the wild stories put out during the Clinton WH years.

The dirty little secret of the Trump campaign is that no one really likes him

-- they just hate Hillary a lot.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/clinton-voters-arent-just-voting-against-trump/

The latest ABC News survey reveals that, in fact, Clinton’s voters feel about as positively about their candidate as any candidate’s supporters have felt about their own preferred candidate since 1980. Trump voters are less enthusiastic about him: Since 1980, no group of supporters has been less affirmative in its support for its candidate.

If you like podcasts, "Keepin' It 1600" run by two former speechwriters for Obama

is well worth the time. It's really helped keep me sane this election season. LOTS of good info in this most recent episode.

https://theringer.com/keepin-it-1600-podcast-politics-election-jon-favreau-dan-pfeiffer-220924af4c94#.j5ohy9vqx

Can Trump Read?

Today's Keith Olbermann: they are Fascist Morons!