Elden

That is messed up indeed. It’s possible that the election from the popular vote perspective will be a blowout for Harris but Trump still might squeak out a legit win due to those elderly white people and our doofy Elector College system. No coup required.

We really might see Harris win the popular vote by 54%+ but still lose. Now won’t that be something.

Knife

The free world teeters on the edge of a knife. If Trump is elected, there will be no liberal great powers left in the world.

I agree with Noah Smith here.

Although itโ€™s not possible to know for certain what the consequences of a second Trump presidency would be, itโ€™s very possible that it would result in the U.S. essentially surrendering its European allies to Russia and its Asian allies to China โ€” thus dramatically weakening Americaโ€™s own ability to resist those enemies in the future.

This is an extremely likely outcome of a Trump victory. And that, therefore, will make WWIII far more likely as well. Either that, or the below — followed by WWIII.

If the U.S. abandons resistance to China and Russia, it will go very badly for Americaโ€™s allies. Europe will probably fracture again, with some states (probably including Germany) falling all over themselves to appease the Russians. Russia will then become a sort of de facto hegemon in Europe. In Asia, China would probably conquer Taiwan, cutting off U.S. semiconductor supplies and establishing Chinese hegemony in East Asia. Japan and South Korea would then be forced to choose between either becoming nuclear powers or becoming de facto satrapies of the new Chinese empire. Essentially, Americaโ€™s major allies would fall to Americaโ€™s enemies.

It is indeed, as Noah observes, a very dangerous time.

Incap

It’s pretty obvious from watching and listening to Trump that he’s gone downhill even more than Biden has. Politics aside, he’s not fit to be president simply for health and mental capacity reasons.

If you vote for Trump, your actual prez will be J.D. Vance whether or not he holds that title officially.

Ryan Air

Everything you love or hate about American politics in the year 2024 is the result of a TV cyborg from the late 1990s.

Regardless of why Jeri Ryan was added to the cast of Voyager, as an actor she was the best part of the show. The eps focused on her were better than all the rest, and she exhibited more range than the rest of the cast except perhaps Katherine Mulgrew (Janeway).

I couldn’t find it on YouTube and it’s been twenty years since I watched it, but there was one episode where Seven was talking about her difficulty in integrating back into human society after the trauma of being assimilated into the Borg and then the further shock of having to leave that behind and adapt to a now-foreign culture. It was just perfect and heartbreaking. Jeri did a lot with a little and I always appreciated how much she gave to what could’ve been just a trivial eye candy part.

Unfortunately, she helped elect Obama by accident. She didn’t mean to, so I don’t hate her for it.

Veeper

People really overestimate the amount of power a Vice President has (nearly none most of the time) and underestimate the amount of power a President has. At least, in the US system.

Offices

I am the worst at political predictions, so take this with a grain of salt the size of Saturn, but I predict that Harris will narrowly defeat Trump, the coup attempt will last a few months but fail as some key Republicans turn against him (and he will have zero military support) and Harris will take office, perhaps a little late.

There will be some political violence but as most Trump supporters are obese 52-year-old white men who can’t run more than 10 feet without keeling over dead, it won’t amount to much.

Chaos Agents

Support Trump or not, it’s clear that the media enables him. They allow his campaign to get away with saying and doing things that would immediately lead to any Democratic candidate being torpedoed and tossed out of the race. There are dozens of examples and they are not hard to to find, so I won’t enumerate them all here.

This is, largely, because doing so makes the media orgs more money. It’s also about fear, too, but for my entire life the Republicans have been held to much lower standards of behavior and policy clarity. That has only worsened with Trump.

Cat-eating Haitians? Come on. It not possible to stoop lower than an attempted coup, but that’s pretty low.

Putin Worship

I find many people’s views on Russia and Ukraine terribly naรฏve and vile. Alas, many of these people are ones I formerly liked and respected.

It’s a terrible thing to realize that those you formerly appreciated as thoughtful and empathetic are just fine with the genocide of Ukrainians and the high likelihood of Russian invasion of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. And then the concomitant multiple scores of thousands of deaths of US citizens as we will be fighting in those countries too.

I cannot say I understand and frankly, I do not wish to.