[Kreuzberger]

A thread which might quietly sink by the weekend. Maybe not.

I'll be brief. He will possibly inherit a country which is riven. A third are in his camp, a third see him as the enemy, and another third which don't engage for their own, myriad reasons.

I'll be brief. Older Mailwatchers will have seen me snogging llamas in Colorado and wielding a Magnum 45. I like these people and it is upon this that I base a few observations.

Rural America feels utterly disenfranchised but, as we have seen over the last few days and hours, still believes that a lying New York property mogul and sex offender is not just their saviour but their only bet. So, I played a wee game and liked a bunch of the masters holding llama farmer's posts and watched the deluge of Facebook sewage roll in. It was breathtaking. They are angrily against everything that will generationally destroy them, especially action upon climate change.

Biden's task will be to challenge a narrative so false and so toxic that it is difficult to countenance such a challenge without the emasculation of Facebook which, to all intents and purposes would be unconstitutional.

As jobs go, I would rather be selling ice dreams in Minsk.

[youngian]

Rural America feels utterly disenfranchised

Rural America covers a lot of bases. An Iowa corn farmer with the world’s highest subsidies is voting for Trump for different reasons as someone in a one horse town shit hole with no safe drinking water. But Trump put an electoral alliance together that got him over the line. If Biden wins the Democrats have four years to figure out their own electoral alliance with a candidate people warm to. Biden attracting pragmatic blue collar voters in swing stars was the only shot the Democrats had this time around. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet but its looking like the right call. Just.

[mattomac]

I think Harris fits the two sides of party quite well, the Republican Party May split and if people feel a system is rigged against them may switch off.

It is now very much town and country, that’s obvious in the places when you watch King ratch up his map.

[Kreuzberger]

A lot of sentiment is now being invested in the Reset button, and well there might be.

The language of Anglosphere politics is ingrained as that of war - campaigns, battles, clashes, and conflict - so it follows that, when unchained, the victors sometimes believe that it is "their turn" to rape, rampage, and reap the spoils of their victories. Like the calling cards in A Clockwork Orange, "You lost, get over it."

I would say that this has to change but, in all probability, it doesn't really.

The collegiate, cooperative way of doing things is very much the norm in Europe and Japan. Totalitarianism is here to stay in China and, instead of starting fights for shiggles, they are printing money and investing the stuff in Belt and Road. The world can turn very nicely, thank you very much, without interacting too much with (i.e. ignoring) old whitey up there in the north-west corner of the map with his pointless culture wars and struggles with a past so often denied or wilfully misunderstood.

America needs to work out how it fits in to all of this, if it isn't already too late to do so, when all it has to offer is a paltry 330m consumers, a tech sector which is only domestic in name, and a dwindling supply of natural resources which, increasingly, no one wants anyway.

Still, their challenges could be worse. They could be an isolated Billy Bunter tribute act that is way past its bed time.

[mr angry manchester]

Im just glad that silly twat Trump is out and hope for something a bit better going forward.

[Cyclist]

I suppose Biden's toughest job will be to convince the American public that police forces deploying their armoured vehicles and grenade launchers against unruly mobs of well-,armed pissed-off Trumpaloons isn't some Democrat plot to wipe out Republican voters. Even if many Repug voters *need* wiping out.

[The Red Arrow]

[Malcolm Armsteen]

This is how it's done.

Been there, done that.

[KevS]

Damn dusty room again...

[crabcakes_windermere]

This is how it's done.

Been there, done that.

I think the most telling thing about that clip is that I can see most political leaders being able to some degree to replicate it, albeit with varying degrees of awkwardness, warmth or sincerity. Even Johnson could probably manage some manly slaps on the shoulder and supportive waffle even if he didn't mean it. But with Trump you know it would be literally impossible. He would be absolutely incapable of this simple act, and I'd go further and say he'd be unable to hide his revulsion at even being approached by someone with Down's syndrome.

[Oblomov]

Trump would call the deceased and their family "losers" for getting shot and nobody could disarm a gunman as competently or bravely as him.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Trump would call the deceased and their family "losers" for getting shot and nobody could disarm a gunman as competently or bravely as him.

Whilst hiding under a table.

[Bones McCoy]

Let's not forget we had Theresa May - who hardly shone in human qualities.

[Samanfur]

Trump would call the deceased and their family "losers" for getting shot and nobody could disarm a gunman as competently or bravely as him.

Whilst hiding under a table.

Don't forget, he went there:

[Oblomov]

Trump would call the deceased and their family "losers" for getting shot and nobody could disarm a gunman as competently or bravely as him.

Whilst hiding under a table.

Don't forget, he went there:

That anecdotal tangent was only a minute long and he still somehow managed to completely lose me by the end of it.