Post-election survival guide

Almost one week after the election, half of this nation is in a total state of shock and it's only now that I'm absorbing the enormity of the situation. I feel like the inhabitants of Mosul when Isis entered their city of those of Kandahar when the Talibans showed up there for the first time.

Then, this morning, I asked myself, where do I go from that state of depression and move forward. That's when I found this article in the New York Review of Books by Masha Gessen, “Autocracy: Rules for Survival”.

In her article, Gessen, who is Russian and knows Putin well, points to the soft and conciliatory declarations by Clinton and Obama, asking us to keep “an open mind” towards Trump, echoing Neville Chamberlain’s when he declared about Hitler that “We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will.”

This defeatist approach suggests to shut off alternative responses to his minority victory. Gessen's article is both terrific and terrifying; in it, she makes five strong points:

Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. The Wall, the deportations, the hatred

Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality. An autocrat is not normal.

Rule #3: Institutions (constitution, rule of law) will not save you.

Rule #4: Be outraged. If you follow Rule #1 and believe what the autocrat-elect is saying, you will not be surprised.

Rule #5: Don’t make compromises. Stay the course and don't give in.

Rule #6: Remember the future. Nothing lasts forever. The autocrat too will pass.

Most importantly, read the article and act on it...

Twenty years of home internet

In November 1996, we finally got the internet at home. I said “finally”, because I wanted it for at least a year, and couldn't wait to experiment with this world-opening marvel.

I've always been a sucker for novelty and an early-adopter of technology. We had gotten our first home personal computer 13 years before! This time, a new chapter was opening up.

Sure, we had to make do with a frustratingly slow dial-up connection. It would always come off line and was quite unreliable. The websites were crude, few and far between, and I could only email with the few americans I knew that were online at the time.

The situation would rather evolve quickly through the end of the 90's and by the millennium we almost had internet as we know it today, but these precious pioneering moments are now etched in my memory...

From kitchen to politics, you need good ingredients!

We seem to have already forgotten that we had two of the worst candidates vying for the presidency of the United States. If we were expecting a good outcome we simply were all delusional. Just like hoping for a delectable meal cooked with foul ingredients!

Both were despised by a vast majority of the electorate and, in my case, I had to hold my nose to vote for Clinton. She won the popular vote thanks to all the people who hated Trump, but the later prevailed and got the job, thrust by an even larger number of Clinton haters.

When all was said and done, and with a measly 57% voter participation nationwide, Trump got less than 27% of the votes from all eligible voters, hardly a mandate. Now whether we have to cook it with Trump or Clinton ingredients, the food is guaranteed to taste awful and make you sick!

Let's get rid of the Electoral College

In terms of popular votes, Clinton has won this presidential election. Yet, the Electoral College is going to bypass that fact and soon, elect Trump instead.

Eliminating that archaic system would require a Constitutional amendment, so dream on! Another point that shows that the “sacred” American Constitution is badly beyond the times and would need to be fully scrapped and rewritten. This of course is anathema for the gullible, brainwashed, average American citizen, even though it may eventually come to pass when the American electorate grows a tiny bit smarter.

Still, there are other ways to rid the United States of the Electoral College, like convincing state-level legislators to require their electors to cast ballots for whoever wins the national popular vote. This effort would only takes effect if enough states whose total electoral votes surpass 270, pass bills agreeing to participate.

Today, there a petition running around trying to convince the Grand Electors to cast their vote for Clinton instead of Trump when they are called to vote on December 19. I cast my vote, but won't hold my breath...

We deserve the leaders we get!

Eight years ago, Obama and Clinton made a deal after a bitter electoral primary. She'd get the Secretary of State job to round-up her resume.

In the process she and husband Bill high-jacked the Democratic Party (DNC) and started pulling the strings from within. When Bernie Sanders became a threat, they killed his candidacy and in the meantime, the DNC ignored their base, piled up irresponsible decisions, bad judgments, kept on enriching themselves from Wall-Street.

All the campaign time was used to defend her dismal candidacy, in the hope that, despite of all this, they'd “wing” this election just because every long time supporters including black or Hispanics would fall – once more - for the Clinton dynasty. In fact, voters' participation was 54.2%, the worst since 2000.

Now, we've got what we've deserve with Trump and it incumbent upon all of us to get off our ass and start doing something constructive to turn around this catastrophe. Clinton and Obama need to go away for good now. As for me, I don't plan to go to Canada or move back to France yet.

The nightmare that turned to be real...

I was totally wrong in trying to predict a Trump defeat and understand a little bit better why there's a new reality this morning.

First, the Democratic Party picked the wrong candidate in Hillary (she was already “damaged goods”).

Then, she reaped what she sowed with Bernie, her secretive maneuvers painted her into a corner and her opponent was very deft in shining a light on the Democratic Party not walking the talk with the black community.

All these issues resulted into less Democratic turn out at the polls, plus the fact that more people hated Hillary than Trump.

Well, there will be another election in 2 years (Congress) and until then, the opposition will have to cleanse itself, re-invent the way it operates and define a winning strategy in order to make a comeback that deep inside, many Americans want.

Do you crave Duck?

Since today is a super-special day, we're serving duck for dinner.

What kind of duck, you asked? Well it walks like Donald, quacks like Donald, so it's got to be the duck we've gotten to know so well during these past eighteen months!

This kind of fowl is better well done. Well, we've got plenty of time this evening... How do you want yours cooked?