Election Day

I'm gonna make this quick.

Whatever you choose to do, or have already done, I'm sure you have your reasons. We may disagree on them, but as leftists that's something with which we should be familiar. And no matter what happens, we don't really get any good news–current genocidal administration with a soft veneer over their fasch tendencies or overtly fasch administration that will continue the genocide. So this is pretty much just a bad day we all have to get through.

I recommend not following things. Read a book, catch up on a show, listen to a podcast, talk with friends and family and neighbors about how we're in a tough way but we're not without paths forward. We're not likely to find out for certain who has won until very late today, if at all. (Remember last time it took until the following Saturday. I know–it's my wedding anniversary.)

There are some basic things you can do to make yourselves feel a little better. We're getting cold here in the Northern Hemisphere (in fits and starts–it's currently 80°F in Ohio), so now's a good time to run the kit in your emergency bags, and switch out for cold gear–blankets in your car, layers in your bugout bag, etc. Inventory your stored food and water, make sure you're caught up on rotations. Check any gadgets you may have, and make sure you know how to use them. If you're the kind of person that likes to buy into various products for "survival/camping," I can say that, whatever they're selling, not much beats a Bic lighter. Very, very little beats several Bic lighters.

Eight years ago I had a few things in a hiking bag that stayed there for lack of anywhere else to put them. Eight years ago I opened that bag and added a few spare knives, filled up a Nalgene with water, got a surplus MRE and filled a Zippo with fluid and threw that in, too. I knew in my bones things were changing in the US. I didn't know at all what I was actually trying to prepare for. And I definitely didn't know that not much was actually changing–I was going to start learning all the ways we were and are a corrupt empire, all the ways we were getting our shit rocked by the people in charge. But that was my first step. It feels like an actual lifetime ago–I'm genuinely shocked to realize it's only twice as long as I've been writing this newsletter. I have marched, a lot. I have been teargassed (barely). I've seen military equipment on American streets. And I haven't done as much as I should.

Things haven't gotten better since then–you won't be shocked to hear me say they've actually gotten a lot worse–but, in our favor, I think there are a lot more of us now than before. There's more of us, and we're learning what comes next. That's not nothing. Try and keep that in mind no matter what happens today.