What happened yesterday — after first NBC News then the rest of the world finally got on board and declared Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the winners — has never happened before. The result of an American election caused outbreaks of spontaneous joy to erupt not just in America but throughout the world. Church bells pealed in Paris. Fireworks exploded over London. In America, from coast to coast, people felt compelled to take their celebrations from in front of their TV screens to the streets. Sometimes you just feel so good, you have to share it with people.

Now, to be fair, I live in the Highland Park section of LA. It’s Silver Lake Adjacent. In Tuesday’s election, LA (no bastion of right wing sentiment) leaned even further to the left than where we were. We have a homeless problem, you see and LA has decided to lead with its humanity. My point is, while there are parts of LA that did not celebrate yesterday (I hear it was quiet as a tomb in Torrance), most of LA took a massive sigh of relief and felt the need to take that massive sigh together.

Here’s a snippet of the celebration in the Silver Lake neighborhood —

Now, I want to point out one thing about the celebrations: their nature. There was gloating. Absolutely yes there was and I will confess to doing my fair share of it. Boy, did it feel good! And I do not feel one bit guilty. That’s because of the nature of our celebration. It was focused squarely on one person and, for the most part, one person only: Donald Trump.

When I called to celebrate with my 84 year old mom, my first words to her were “Ding dong, the witch is dead”. I wish I knew the number of other people who heard that trill in their head the instant they knew the Age of Trump had reached its end. Ding dong, the witch IS dead — and good bloody riddance!

Take the loathing of Donald Trump that will be eternal out of the celebration and all you have is joy. Pure joy. It felt — being part of it — like a breath of fresh air. A massive invisible weight had been lifted from our head and shoulders. When the news first broke yesterday, I’m not ashamed to say that I wept. It was cathartic. I wasn’t alone in that either.

Aside from Trump, there was no “And let’s rub their noses in it!” Not even after three Hell’s Angels-looking guys on Harleys roared into the crowd on Sunset Boulevard — we were intermittently blocking the street — intent not on hitting anyone, but on scaring people. The crowd — having leapt out of the way — watched the Trumpanistas drive away indignantly. But they did not turn the moment into a “Hey, let’s get them!” That never occurred to the crowd because, well, they were feeling too good about what just happened.

Why wasn’t one hundred percent of America celebrating? Why, — how — could anyone live through the past four years, the pandemic especially with Trump’s calamitous response fresh in your mind, and NOT pull the lever on animal instinct alone for Joe Biden? Ah, well… never forget that on the day Richard Nixon resigned because of Watergate, his approval rating still sat at 29%. That “silent majority” is still out there, seething, hating the rest of us.

Well, aside from their shitty attitude, we’ve never hated them back. We’ve always wanted a way to talk to them without them spitting at us. In the history of modern American politics, the onus has always been on Progressives to compromise — even if it’s with out-and-out fascists. The playing field here has never been level. That’s the thing. Our perspective started out skewed. Hell, our founding document says plainly “All men are created equal” by which they meant if you were a white, Christian, land-owning male, the playing field was level. If you weren’t, tough luck.

But, fortunately, while enshrining their racism, America’s founders allowed for constant revisions to their blueprints. And so we’ve updated the structure as best we could. But you can’t update a foundation with flaws. You have to revisit the foundation — fix it — then build from there.

That’s what America has to do. That’s what they said with their votes. That’s what their joy said. We suddenly saw that an outrageous aspiration maybe possibly could happen.

We were out in the streets celebrating the return of America’s potential yesterday. We’ve got miles to go before we sleep where achieving that potential is concerned. But we demonstrated — clearly — that, when engaged, the real America (diverse and woke as hell) has the potential to realize America’s potential. America and Americans can do anything in part because of who we are: the whole world.

America is the product (once you subtract the Native Americans who the Europeans decimated with their germs) of just about every other country on Earth “sending people” to help build it. Even the English were invaders before they were inhabitants. The English instilled two things — a strong European sensibility (for what it’s worth) and a strong commercial sensibility. From England’s point of view, the colonies weren’t meant to produce freedom, they were meant to produce a solid return on an investment.

Money has always been the draw of America. Money and the potential for self-reinvention. This really was (once emptied of the locals) a wide open space. A blank canvas waiting to be filled with humans and their ideas. That’s the dynamic tension at our core — the struggle between a magnificent idea and the blind spot that racism (among other “isms”) causes. Unless and until the magnificent idea applies equally to everyone, it might as well apply to no one.

Donald Trump was the epitome of what happens to America when love of money drives everything and love of people drives nothing. He epitomizes money’s corrupting influence and power. Money will always corrupt. But, when completely disassociated from all principles — that’s Trumpism. Donald Trump epitomized Republican, profits-above-people ideas taken to their extremes. That’s profits-above-principles, too.

More than half of America hated that that was how America was representing itself when it wasn’t anything like how the MAJORITY of Americans felt. Former Republican Rick Wilson may actually be wrong about one thing. “Everything Trump Touches Dies” with one exception: America. We’re wounded — no argument — but we might yet back back up off the floor and fight our way out of this.

Americans chose by a sizeable majority to deny money’s corruption in favor of human beings: we voted for and on principle.

That’s what the world saw and that’s why they cheered for us.

The 30% of Americans who still love Nixon will never play nicely with the rest of us. We will do everything we can to demonstrate how much we want to include them in every bit of success we want every American to experience. We’ll include them even. Quick reminder — plenty of those Trump lovers also love their ACA (so long as you don’t call it Obamacare). They haven’t thought through what will happen when the SCOTUS guts the ACA and leaves all them all wondering who’ll help them with their heroin addiction now?

We need to be patient. Very, very good things are coming but only after a lot more hard work. We’ve achieved the first goal. That’s it. This is the platform from which we have a chance to launch a better America.

A lot of Americans feel exactly the same way. In fact, they felt so good about the idea as it occurred to them that Americans… if you weren’t there, you shoulda been.

It was AWESOME!

Antonin Scalia — the King of Originalism — should have taken originalism to the grave with him. Not that the worms deserve either. Intellectually, originalism is the quintessential make-it-up-as-you-go-along, “White Guy” argument. “But the rules! But the rules!” says the one who wrote the rules, then broke them repeatedly then got upset when others threatened to write the rules instead. Even on its surface, originalism stinks. Scratch that surface and you unleash a whole sewage system of awfulness.

Never mind the fact that the King of Originalism, Scalia, set originalism aside to write the decision that will most define him: Bush v Gore. Not only did he set originalism aside to write that bit of flaming horse shit, he made Bush v Gore a one-time deal. It followed no rules then made itself unique — all in one neat, corrupt, decision.

Originalism insists the Constitution is stuck in time; therefore so is America. If not for those nasty amendments, America would still be a bastion for rich, white, Christian land owners. Like in the 1780s. The opposite view sees the Constitution as a living, breathing, dynamic document (designed) to serve America’s living, breathing, dynamic population. You know, what that famous Republican president called “Government OF the People, BY the People and FOR the People.”

Originalism is about controlling the mythology and pretending it’s the law. It’s Magical Thinking written in lawyer font.

It’s about pretending words say things they don’t.

It’s all about cynicism.

The only correct response when some right wing nitwit hauls originalism onto the table is “Oh, shut up”. The goal is to make you chase them down their rabbit hole because that’s what originalism is: a damned rabbit hole.

“Oh, shut up.” See? Easy!

I bet Mitch McConnell woke up this morning in his turtle enclosure feeling on top of the world — just like his hero Yertl.

But, just as Yertl ended up in the mud, so too will Mitch and all his grand plans come to nothing. Well, the grand plans weren’t Mitch’s. Mitch McConnell doesn’t do grand plans. He’s a functionary. A politician working for Big Money Interests. The Big Money has the grand plans — an unfair world where they all get richer while the rest of us fall further behind, our debt growing, our health failing. Mitch is their bitch. His job — manifest these terrible grand plans in reality.

That’s why Mitch worked so hard to deny Barack Obama all those federal bench openings. It’s why Mitch denied Obama so much as a hearing for Merrick Garland. Mitch was in the middle of pleasing his masters — of hijacking the judiciary on the sly. Here’s the thing: the popular vote reflects the majority’s voice. Barack Obama was the majority’s voice and choice — to fill every judicial vacancy during his tenure. Our voice and choice was denied us by Mitch McConnell — for the benefit of his masters. That is not hyperbole.

And this is not how our democracy is supposed to work. Not according to the rules or the rule of law.

In addition to destroying the judiciary, Mitch also has destroyed the Senate. Anyone suggesting the Democrats aren’t showing enough comity toward their Republican co-workers needs to shut up. Comity will be reserved for whatever party replaces the Republicans. No one who calls himself “A Republican” can do so without also being a Trumpist. Trumpism & Republicanism are now equal in every way.

Mitch has operated in the shadows for most of his career. He’s about to end his career in the spotlight. That is, his corruption is.

The Democrats are about to retake the Senate. What was a likelihood before is now a dead certainty. RBG’s passing — even without all the additional political baggage — would have moved people to action. It would have motivated tens of millions of women at the very least. Now it’s a question of Legacy. And reproductive rights. And basic health.

What happened in 2018 — that massive blue “wave” — wasn’t a wave. It was the leading edge of a much larger wave. The Trump years have torn every last bit of cover off our various failings. Remember — we didn’t vote for this, this was forced on us. Donald Trump — with massive Russian assistance — stole the outcome of election 2016. Together they stole our intention — what WE wanted this country to do for our benefit and in our name. Their aim is to make that theft permanent.

Their problem: America’s women aren’t down with and aren’t going to be. Ever. That’s Mitch McConnell’s biggest miscalculation of all.

Mitch, when he’s done, will have finished the hard work of turning America’s women into the most potent, dynamic, unstoppable political force in America. He’ll be shocked by how socialist they are by nature. Of course women are more “socialist” — they care above all about their babies and they KNOW from pure experience that it DOES take a “village” to raise a child — of family members and community members and teachers and mentors and coaches and friends. The healthier and happier that village is, the healthier and happier their babies will be.

Women — and I’m generalizing, but biology does impact us in particular ways — think communally — and seek the group’s wisdom before making a decision while men think they alone can fix it. If we look at the current world leaders and how they’ve handled the pandemic, the women — Angela Merkle in Germany, Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand — did especially well in both protecting their people but also protecting their economies.

I’ll go further onto this limb. Merkle and Ardern’s success relative to Trump’s stems in large part from their political and personal strengths and skills but also, to a measurable degree, from their chromosomes. They have a little more empathy baked into their genetics. That radiates in the form of humanity — and then policy.

America truly stands on the precipice. We will go one way or the other. There’s no middle route.

Either Mitch McConnell will see the rot he introduced succeed or Mitch will fail spectacularly with dire, terrible consequences for every single Republican legislator who had the least inkling what Mitch was up to. Keep in mind — Mitch is a traitor. That’s not hyperbole either. He’s taken gobs of Russian money into his campaign coffers (though legally via his PAC but not-so-legally with added perspective), denied We The People the knowledge that Russia was fixing the 2016 election for Trump, canned the sanctions Obama implemented BECAUSE of that election interference and TO THIS DAY has refused to spend a penny on election security.

Mitch McConnell is one of the biggest traitors in all American history. And THAT isn’t hyperbole.

Like Yertl, Mitch will end badly. Mud will seem like caviar to Mitch. Russian caviar.

It’s important — vitally important — that we not only punish Mitch McConnell for what he’s done but that we punish him to the very fullest extent the rule of law allows. We need to make an example out of Mitch for all time. We need to send the lesson that, perhaps, would have been sent had we punished Richard Nixon instead of pardoning him — abuse of power (especially at the executive level) is wholly unacceptable.

Mitch is already the architect of his own downfall. We owe it to Mitch to see those plans carried out all the way.

By “Treasonous Thieves”, of course, I mean Republicans. Republicans are treasonous — because they conspired with Russia to undermine the integrity of an American election — a thing Russia was doing as an act of Cyber War.

Cyber War is war. Undeclared war is war. Undeclared Cyber War is no different from sitting in Pearl Harbor the moments before the Japanese fleet arrives to surprise attack us. Just because we don’t know war has started doesn’t mean it hasn’t started. Quick note to selves: it always sucks to be the last to know you’re at war.

Thieves. Republicans are also thieves. Treason was the tool they used to steal the true 2016 election result from We The People. It wasn’t just Hillary Clinton who got cheated of the result she won, We The People got cheated too. We got cheated of the policies Clinton would have executed that would have been the diametric opposite of what Trump has done. We got cheated of hundreds of lifetime judicial appointments — reflecting OUR values. That’s THE MAJORITY’S values, not the values of the shrinking white, Christian male minority.

Being the survivor of two sexual assaults when I was 14, I’m kinda hyper sensitive to rapey behavior. I’ve come to realize — now that I’ve put what happened to me into its proper perspective — that rapey people are rapey in everything they do. It’s subtle sometimes, not-very-subtle otherwise. Yet we either look past it or, strangely, don’t recognize it for what it is. Donald Trump, for example, behaves like a rapist in literally everything he does. Everything is about exerting his will upon others. That’s how rapists think and operate.

Well, we don’t have to go along with it. In my mind’s eye, I now turn on the man who sexually assaulted me. I put two hands firmly in his chest and I shove him backwards. I explain to him — simply, directly — that will not be happening. I will not be his victim.

Had I been empowered then, I would not have put up with his shit. Well, I am empowered now — and I’m not putting up with Donald Trump’s shit.

You cannot violate the rule of law to become president. You can’t violate the rule of law to become or do anything. I know: Trump and the republicans don’t give a shit about the rule of law. Doesn’t matter. And it’s beside the point.

WE care about the rule of law. It’s important that we recognize it has always been in effect. That fact’s going to be important for what comes next.

Not only do we NOT have to accept what Donald Trump and the GOP are doing to us now, we don’t have to accept what they did to us in the past. Meaning: we don’t have to accept its legitimacy. We don’t have to accept the intended outcome — because that outcome was achieved ILLEGALLY. See how that works?

We The People did not make Trump president. Russia did. Russia and a criminal Republican cabal that was operating well outside the rule of law.

As we just learned — Rod Rosenstein personally kept We The People from INVESTIGATING what Donald Trump had done to become POTUS. You can’t get much more outside the rule of law than that. First you violate the rule of law, then you do everything you can from preventing us from learning that you violated the rule of law. And all at the service of a hostile foreign power.

Wow. Just wow.

I have no intention of going along with this. You?