Paint it Black

I think I’m in mourning. No, no one new has died.

It’s the damn election results that have me doing the dance of gnashed teeth and rended garments.

Chez Pazienza at the Daily Banter had this to say:

Joni Ernst won tonight. The woman whose campaign ads had her pointing guns at the camera and promising to “unload on Obamacare.” She talked about castrating pigs in her ads. And she’s now one of the 100 supposedly exemplary Americans who can call themselves United States Senators. Rick Scott was reelected governor of Florida. Rick Scott was found guilty of 14 felonies for running a healthcare company as a criminal enterprise. He had to pay the government back $600 million he bilked from it — and he’s now been elected to run Florida, twice. Mitch McConnell has spent the past four years doing literally nothing but, well, nothing. He’s basically just sat around with his arms crossed in the hope that it will in some way lead to the President of the United States being punished for his obstinance and incompetence. 

And you know what? It worked. For years now the GOP has deliberately sabotaged the government to the point of near collapse (literally, a couple of times), and it was all done with the idea that the crazier they behaved the more the public they’re supposed to serve would be likely to blame it on the guy in the White House. And motherfuck if that gambit didn’t pay off in spades tonight. The Republicans have been rewarded by the people of this country for refusing to do their jobs...

Go read the rest.

Beloved blogger/artist/craftsman Jim Wright posted this on his Facebook page late last night:

Folks, c'mon.
Some of you are sounding a lot like, oh, you know, Ted Nugent after Obama's reelection. But, see, so far Ted has survived just fine and you will too.
Relax, you're going to be okay. Really.

 I’m trying to relax. Trying to keep from panicking over the fact that my home state of Massachusetts now has a Republican governor. Great. Last Republican to hold that position was Mitt Romney and, yeah, that worked out SO well.

So then, what happens now? Will the Screw-You-I’ve-Got-Mine/Idiot Party now begin taxpayer wasting, insane impeachment hearings over, dunno, Benghazi or the way Obama takes his morning coffee? Will they repeal the Affordable Care Act ensuring that so many of us go bankrupt in our attempts to survive severe illness and then die leaving monster health care debt to our surviving families? Will they eliminate the FDA or, at least, repeal the Food Safety Modernization Act signed into law by, yes, Obama? Are we now returning to an America where big business rules and those of us who lacked the forethought to be wealthy are no more than peasants who must get down on our knees to thank and bless our corporate overlords for filthy, spat on crumbs? Will the American Taliban now succeed in contolling every single woman's reproductive choices from the type of birth control used to criminalizing miscarriage? Is Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale coming soon to a reality near you?

Is there any good news to be had?

Well, Jeanne Shaheen defeated the carpet bagging Centerfold Boy in New Hampshire.

OK, I can’t come up with any other good news, can you? Fill me in if you’ve got something hopeful to share. PLEASE!
Paint it Black — Rolling Stones