A Few Things | November 12

It feels like the characters from VEEP are about to take over.

One Week Since Election, Two Weeks Since Surgery

Today marks one week since Election Day. Grief is unpredictable. Deep moments of sadness break through when I least expect it. Someone wrote that this doesn’t feel like 2016, it feels like 9/11. And that resonates with me. It’s this realization that the world is profoundly different than I thought it was, in a very bad way.

Today marks two weeks since my surgery. I’m doing much better. The 8 staples are out. The bruising is getting lighter. I haven’t needed pain meds in in five days. The final home visit from a nurse was Saturday. I feel like I’m healing well.

I think I mentioned this somewhere, but when I was trying to take it easy and fill my time while waiting for the surgery, I binged the entire series of VEEP. It’s a brilliant show. Just so dang funny. Every character is horrible and cringeworthy (and so well acted!). This week, I’ve been watching Season 2 of the Diplomat, a political drama starring Keri Russell. Have you seen it? The writing is so good — smart and nuanced. In contrast to VEEP, every character is intelligent and sophisticated (and also so well acted!).

A week ago, it felt like the characters of The Diplomat were about to take the reigns. Politicians with deep experience and knowledge, flawed and human, but who care about what’s happening and understand how governments work. Instead, the characters from VEEP will be in charge. Just the angriest, cruelest, intentionally-ignorant, self-serving people you can possibly imagine.

What a loss.

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A Few Things

Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share with you.

-From Citizens for Ethics — In case you need a refresher on how full of corruption Donald Trump's first presidency was. Including: He accumulated 3,740 conflicts of interest. He held 100 political events held at his properties. He made nearly 550 visits to his own properties.

-From The Guardian — A new era dawns. America’s tech bros now strut their stuff in the corridors of power. “These bros know. They don’t fear journalists any more. Journalists will now learn to fear them. Because this is oligarchy now. This is the fusion of state and commercial power in a ruling elite. It’s not a coincidence that Musk spouts the Kremlin’s talking points and chats to Putin on the phone. The chaos of Russia in the 90s is the template; billions will be made, people will die, crimes will be committed.”

-From Executive Producer Samantha Bee — A short film called Red, White, & Blue. Today is the last day to watch it for free on Youtube. It’s only 23 minutes. I hope you get a chance to watch it.

-From The New Yorker — What Does It Mean That Donald Trump Is a Fascist? "It was predictable that Trump would deny the results of the 2020 election. It was predictable that his Big Lie would change American politics...It is predictable that, in returning to power, he will seek to change the system so that he can remain in power until death."

-From Elizabeth Warren — “Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law. I would know because I wrote the law. Incoming presidents are required to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement. This is what illegal corruption looks like.” CNN article here.

-From Brian Tyler Coen — Marco Rubio was just named Trump's Secretary of State. In 2016 Marco Rubio said, "For years to come, there are many people on the right... that are going to be having to explain and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump."

I confess, I haven’t been interested in his suggested cabinet picks. How many of them will last longer than Scaramucci?

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Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad?

I’ve seen people pushing the idea that Trump and his team won’t be able to do what he has promised to do because there are legal structures in place that will prevent him from doing his worst. I certainly bought that argument in 2016, but don’t really see how it holds up now.

Here are some of the things we were promised he and his team wouldn’t do, or wouldn’t legally be able to to do, but they did them anyway (compiled by Fortunataanile):

-Overturn 49 years of precedent and toss Roe v Wade.
-Incite an insurrection and get immunity.
-Steal classified documents and get a federal judge to throw the case out.
-Accept foreign emoluments and not be held accountable.
-Appoint your daughter and her husband to White House positions.
-Blackmail the president of Ukraine to get dirt on your opponent.
-Collude with Russia then obstruct the investigation.
-Confirm a SCOTUS nominee in an election year.
-Overcharge the Secret Service who stay at your properties.
-Lie about a pandemic resulting in 500k excess deaths and economic collapse and not be held accountable.
-Bypass Congress and appoint cabinet members who haven’t been confirmed.
-Violate the presidential records act by ripping up papers and throwing them on the floor.
-Approve the TMobile/Sprint merger just because they spent $195k at your DC hotel.
-Block Amazon’s $20 billion JEDI contract with the pentagon over a personal vendetta.
-Obstruct an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations of a SCOTUS nominee.
-Separate children from their parents at the border and then lose track of them.
-Owe the IRS $100 million in unpaid taxes and not be prosecuted.
-Hold public office after inciting an insurrection (Amdt 14.S3.1 US Constitution).
-Openly violate the Hatch Act.
-Fire the FBI Director because he refused your demand of loyalty.

It’s true some things he attempted were eventually thwarted, but not before doing enormous damage. Remember the Muslim ban? It was overturned. It was illegal. It also caused lasting harm in the lives of real people. There is major damage even in his failed attempts.

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Why I’m Thinking About AM Radio

Fred Guttenburg said this about AM Radio:

“This weekend while out for lunch at a restaurant near Asheville, NC I sat near two Trump supporting gentleman and close enough to overhear their conversation. I used to think of them as low information, but I was wrong. These men were smart and full of information. Unfortunately, the information comes from another universe from the one that I am living in.

This really was clear when they were discussing the storm and discussing how all of the information about how the Government was directing the storm to this area will come out after Trump is in office. I make this point because they were as certain in what they were discussing and intelligent in discussing it as I am certain of how wrong they are. As they both drove away in their septic tank work trucks, I realized how the Republicans won this group of hard-working Americans and it was on AM Radio.

They will go turn on AM radio and receive their information about America there. I finally understand why Rush Limbaugh and others were paid so much money to work on AM radio. We lost that battle, and we need to figure out how to reengage with these Americans across America with actual facts and in a format that they want to listen to.”

Vintage radio at Target

I don’t know anything about AM radio. But now I wish I had access to an AM station and could just will the airwaves with counter programming. I wouldn’t ever need to trash Republicans, I could just talk on and on about how much money their community will have when they welcome immigrants, and grant citizenship to undocumented folks. Hours and hours of how our country can afford universal healthcare, that it would cost less than our country pays now and would have much better outcomes. Endless programming about how the billionaires are hoarding the resources we, their hardworking employees, earned, and how great it was for building our country when billionaires were taxed properly.

I think I would be really good at this.

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Despite my discouragement, I am making plans. I can’t help it. My brain tries to solve whatever problem is in front of me, big or small. I’m especially thinking about Gen Z boys/men and how to reach them. I think I know how I want to move forward. More on that in another newsletter.

I hope you are taking some time to let your head and heart rest. I’m worried about all of us. Sending so much love, and all the righteous anger I can muster.

kisses,
Gabrielle