Many journalists had no problem coming up with convincing analyses of why Kamala Harris lost and what she should have done differently. But if it's all so easy to explain, why didn't they say so a couple of days ago?
I fear we will only in hindsight be able to establish the true size of the loss. It will be a package; democracy and a broadly supported respect for other human beings may well be part of the loss and damage package.
Devastated is the feeling I have. I will never understand how voters were so willing to forfeit democracy to one who violently attacked the seat of US democracy while as President. Then add the additional crimes you list. I believe ignorance is a greater pandemic in this country than the one that took so many lives because of Trump’s ineptitude and ego. And still they voted for him.
By the time he left office the first time, 3000 people per day died of COVID, I don't think any of them would vote for the anti-vax promoter a second time. Lost lives, lost futures, lost votes.
I believe I experienced all the emotions shared in your essay and by your amazing followers in their comments. Sadness was probably the strongest, not so much for myself, but for my daughters and for the most vulnerable (some of whom supported this insane outcome) who will suffer the most from the damage yet to be inflicted by trump and the gop. Despite the sadness, I also found time to celebrate the few bright spots in some of our local elections - 2 excellent female justices to the Michigan Supreme Court, candidates elected to the local public school board who care about educating children more than getting god into the classroom, county commissions turning blue despite the shift to red at the state level, etc. in the end, this inexplicable and terrible outcome has galvanized in me the need to continue to focus on being kind, helping those who need a hand up, working on local environmental restoration projects and activism to protect the beautiful place I am grateful to call home, and helping to develop the next generation of environmental stewards. Wishing you all to find your own sense of peace and purpose through the next 4 years.
Hi Mike, what you write is so beautiful and motivational. If we all follow such an approach we can make this world a better one. I feel like writing more about travel, nature, walking, history, kindness, and art after these months with a focus on US politics. We may all need a bit of that that right now. I'm back on the island with typical Dutch weather but still have lots of stories to tell from Oslo, so I might mix these a bit. There is lots of catching up to do. As you saw in yesterday's post, I even have material from during the Camino that I never shared. I remember trying late at night with bad wifi to make those videos and the frustration when I had to give up.
I was glad the annual carrot market was on today. Took my mind off things a bit. Also a very busy working day. So luckily not much time to doom scroll. Some music and painting to finish off the day. All that helped - because otherwise it would have been really difficult.
Thanks for the Camino videos. I love your animal friends.
I think all American readers of this newsletter would have loved the distraction of something innocent as the annual carrot market. Lot's of music for me too to get me through this moment, fittingly, my favorite requiem (Fauré's) is on.
Thank you as always. I do not accept that a majority of American voters supported the “grifter” and with him Project 2025. The Mandate for Leadership. Ignorance and disbelief payed a large part as did Russian Interference. Naively, I thought we were prepared for such intrusion but when planning years ahead, perhaps it is difficult to assess intelligence failures. We seem to have a history of intelligence failures. Had you noticed? So terribly sad, stuck in a very red state, the United States of America is dead for me as I will not live long enough to see a recovery if one emerges sometime in the future. I have memories of times that seemed better but were they under the surface?
Yes it's very hard to understand what happened. I referred in earlier writing about the people I met in small villages in the countryside of the American West. I have no doubt the overwhelming majority of them voted for Trump, but they were all so kind. The wouldn't bully, assault, lie, and cheat like Trump does. Why vote for a man who doesn't share their values? And why do so many fall for the idea that he would somehow represent working class? It was Kamala Harris who worked in a McDonald's to pay for her studies, even though Trump who lived on family wealth used it recently as a photo opportunity (I read they closed the hamburger place for this 'working man' promotion).
Still reeling too. For me, the writing was not on the wall; I couldn't imagine a majority voting for someone who is so clearly not the right choice to lead the country.
Being inside the country and with the work that I do made it very easy for me to see. It's gut-wrenching nonetheless. The only thing I can say right now is "this too shall pass." Take good care!
That's how I felt; thus, I looked at photos and videos of a happy time last year. But then I found those unpublished videos, roughly edited them (sorry for the bad quality), and decided to share them with you all. Although I still felt like "no words today," I thought I would write a few lines to my smaller group of supporters on Patreon, but then it got later in the night, and the text got longer, and finally, I had produced a newsletter, even if I hadn't planned for it. History is full of examples where challenging times can -counterintuitively- lead to creativity and beauty.
Thank you, I needed this. My husband and I just finishes the French Camino and I spent last night going through my journal and photos so your two videos are continual reminders that ‘The Camino provides.’ We returned in time to vote (did not trust having our ballots shipped to us and then mailing back) - we don’t live in a swing state but still wanted our votes to count. I don’t understand why there is an 18 million vote difference between 2020 to 2024
I hope you loved the experience! If you scroll back to the summers of ‘22 and ‘23 there are many more Camino stories and videos to revive your memories. Your story of flying back to the US to vote reminds me of an American friend in Sweden. In 2020, he and his wife flew back to the US to vote for Biden which he described as a counter vote against his parents who supported Trump. As an environmental expert, he had proposed to his parents that if they wouldn’t vote, he and his wife would not have to fly back. But the climate change argument he used for not flying to vote worked as a red flag to a bull. So his parents voted and they flew to the US.
Thank you, Danièle, on a day like this, I feel like going out into nature; going for long walks. Unfortunately I too engaged with other work but I will try to share a bit more nature in my newsletter for all who can't spend as much time outdoors as we would like.
I received this today from my HS bestie: Truth and love have been smacked down, so many more times in history before today. Truth because it is often inconvenient and love because it is vulnerable. And we are all still here today, exactly as we were yesterday. Like gravity and carbon and the sun behind an eclipse.
It's not like we didn't know. It's not like we weren't warned. America just didn't care. Their eggs were too high and the price of gas not coming down fast enough. "We", in effect, sold our souls to a cruel conman who has desensitized, bleached and bamboozled America. That doesn't make the loss any more tolerable. The MSM are going through the 5 stages of grief; I think Rachel was still in denial.
Through it all, friends were reaching out, with funny pictures, stories and comfort. I am so glad they did. I am still devastated but a sunset walk and a funny Netflix movie helped. And we are all still here today, exactly as we were yesterday. To keep the faith. To keep our friendships and to keep fighting for what we believe in. The friend's song was running through my head all day: "When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month or even your year......I'll be there for you."
Thanks for the pics, Alex, and the sentiment. Very nice.
We could all use one of those magnificent Arizona desert sunsets now. I have been longing to return to the American West, where I love to travel, but I'm not so sure anymore; I might stay in Europe this year. The quote is beautiful; like you, I received it yesterday from an online friend. It is a text that appeals to many of us.
I got the impression that the New York Times is still coming to terms with the recent events, much like going through the five stages of grief you referred to: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Their reporting is like a typical 'day after,' with an analysis of what happened where and who voted for whom, denying the actual impact that awaits us.
Future historians will someday describe that the world didn't change overnight on November 5-6, 2024. They will refer to today's articles in the NYT to illustrate that we needed time to figure out the ultimate worldwide and national consequences. Geert Mak, the Dutch historian, describes it so beautifully in the chapters about the six weeks in the summer of 1914 between the shots in Sarajevo on June 28 and the roaring of Tuchman's 'Guns of August.' Life continued as usual; newspaper articles were optimistic and focussed on the harvest, art, and further progress. It was like the political developments would not threaten the century of peace, and there was no talk of the war that would soon shape the rest of the century.
But I feel the winds of change, and while not speaking of war like in 1914, the consequences will be enormous. Not least because our last window to effectively tackle climate change is now closed. We will blast through the dangerous 1,5 C threshold. "Drill, baby, drill," and billions will feel the terrible consequences in the decades to come, many of them already much earlier.
While I type this on Thursday morning, it's gray and misty outside, and Spotify, in the background, decided to switch from Fauré to Mozart's Requiem by the Berliner Philharmoniker—Karita Mattila's soprano voice echos through the beams of the century-old top floor of the house. Outside, I see fields of sheep and bare brown trees; inside, I work on the desk that traveled with me for decades, the stained marks of too many cups of coffee around my Macbook. Future historians will conclude that, for once, Spotify beat the NYT in its analysis of world events.
Amazing analysis as usual. The second day may be the worst. We have been waiting for the results of a biopsy and it has come back cancerous and metastasizing. The NYT is now sending out a "Manifesto" in dealing with Trump. I don't need a manifesto. I need friends with empathy and a social conscience to keep speaking out. Public opinion matters. Trump is not preordained to succeed and if his first term is any indication, he will scorch earth pretty fast. And the outcry will come. Maybe Mozart bats last. And sunsets really hold magic.
It's indeed what fascism is; it eats and crunches perceived domestic and foreign enemies exponentially. It metastasizes until there is nowhere to hide, and nobody is left to help you anymore when your time comes. Ultimately, it explodes like a pumped-up balloon filled with nothing more than too much hot air. All that is left is a useless piece of broken rubber—in this distinct case: a tiny piece of rubber.
I came to your post late today mainly because I frittered the day away answering emails trying to get the fog and anger out of my head. I have no answers as to why we’ve suddenly veered right and some really frightening plans are afoot by a president who was unfit for his first term, much less his second.
So I thank you for the refreshing scenes of the Camino‼️I spent some time today looking through my photos of Mt. Hood in
OR (where my daughter lives) and Mt Rainier in WA.
I’d like to climb one of them and look down at the world below pondering what
awful things will happen after 06 January. Where, oh where did all those votes for the orange monster come from ⁉️
I read many comments and saw many posts about people going into nature after America's majority decision to choose fascism in a period that doesn't look in any way like the hardships Germany experienced in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Spending time in nature does have a healing effect on all of us. That must be why I suddenly returned to my Camino photos and felt motivated to write more about those experiences.
If I were you, I would choose Mount Hood. Mount Reinier is a challenging mountain to climb. Some ten years ago, I was traveling in that beautiful area of the northwest and compared the climbing options for both mountains, but I never got to it, especially since I didn't bring the proper clothing and equipment.
What a lovely idea to stand on Mount Hood and escape the toxic mess further down in the rest of the country. The famous battleship HMS Hood, the most beautiful of the Royal Navy, was named after the same admiral. After the dramaticly quick sinking of the Hood, Churchill gave his famous order "Sink the Bismarck." A spectacular three-day hunt followed, which reads like an adventure book (books, I read several), a story starting and ending with reminders of the cruelty of war and why we should always avoid that.
Alex, I always learn something from your replies‼️ I don’t have your vast knowledge of history or I would have known about Mt. Hood and its name! Thank you so much for your thoughtful and sympathetic reply… “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”. We Americans need to get out into nature and the sunlight to “disinfect” ourselves from the fascist we’ve chosen for #47. I’m still reeling😩
We all are. One of the best books on this topic is written by Ludovic Kennedy. That is, on the battleship. I know Lewis and Clark referred to Mount Hood but not yet by that name and they didn't get really near. I suppose that must have been the first written reference, unless the Brits or Spanish came there earlier. (Likely the British must have seen it earlier, perhaps Vancouver, Cook didn't get that far south I think on this third voyage but he may have been there.)
I have never before seen such a list of failures resulting in the largest campaign catastrophe. Thank you for the Camino reels. Much needed 🌻
If these videos helped to focus on something else for a moment I'm glad they did their job.
I am literally grieving for a loss of something precious I haven't yet fully defined, but there is a deep hole. I appreciate the videos, thank you.
I fear we will only in hindsight be able to establish the true size of the loss. It will be a package; democracy and a broadly supported respect for other human beings may well be part of the loss and damage package.
Devastated is the feeling I have. I will never understand how voters were so willing to forfeit democracy to one who violently attacked the seat of US democracy while as President. Then add the additional crimes you list. I believe ignorance is a greater pandemic in this country than the one that took so many lives because of Trump’s ineptitude and ego. And still they voted for him.
Needed this gift of beauty today. Tough day.
Any distraction was good but this was special. 🙏
By the time he left office the first time, 3000 people per day died of COVID, I don't think any of them would vote for the anti-vax promoter a second time. Lost lives, lost futures, lost votes.
I believe I experienced all the emotions shared in your essay and by your amazing followers in their comments. Sadness was probably the strongest, not so much for myself, but for my daughters and for the most vulnerable (some of whom supported this insane outcome) who will suffer the most from the damage yet to be inflicted by trump and the gop. Despite the sadness, I also found time to celebrate the few bright spots in some of our local elections - 2 excellent female justices to the Michigan Supreme Court, candidates elected to the local public school board who care about educating children more than getting god into the classroom, county commissions turning blue despite the shift to red at the state level, etc. in the end, this inexplicable and terrible outcome has galvanized in me the need to continue to focus on being kind, helping those who need a hand up, working on local environmental restoration projects and activism to protect the beautiful place I am grateful to call home, and helping to develop the next generation of environmental stewards. Wishing you all to find your own sense of peace and purpose through the next 4 years.
Hi Mike, what you write is so beautiful and motivational. If we all follow such an approach we can make this world a better one. I feel like writing more about travel, nature, walking, history, kindness, and art after these months with a focus on US politics. We may all need a bit of that that right now. I'm back on the island with typical Dutch weather but still have lots of stories to tell from Oslo, so I might mix these a bit. There is lots of catching up to do. As you saw in yesterday's post, I even have material from during the Camino that I never shared. I remember trying late at night with bad wifi to make those videos and the frustration when I had to give up.
I was glad the annual carrot market was on today. Took my mind off things a bit. Also a very busy working day. So luckily not much time to doom scroll. Some music and painting to finish off the day. All that helped - because otherwise it would have been really difficult.
Thanks for the Camino videos. I love your animal friends.
I think all American readers of this newsletter would have loved the distraction of something innocent as the annual carrot market. Lot's of music for me too to get me through this moment, fittingly, my favorite requiem (Fauré's) is on.
Thank you as always. I do not accept that a majority of American voters supported the “grifter” and with him Project 2025. The Mandate for Leadership. Ignorance and disbelief payed a large part as did Russian Interference. Naively, I thought we were prepared for such intrusion but when planning years ahead, perhaps it is difficult to assess intelligence failures. We seem to have a history of intelligence failures. Had you noticed? So terribly sad, stuck in a very red state, the United States of America is dead for me as I will not live long enough to see a recovery if one emerges sometime in the future. I have memories of times that seemed better but were they under the surface?
I somehow doubt it. 😢
Yes it's very hard to understand what happened. I referred in earlier writing about the people I met in small villages in the countryside of the American West. I have no doubt the overwhelming majority of them voted for Trump, but they were all so kind. The wouldn't bully, assault, lie, and cheat like Trump does. Why vote for a man who doesn't share their values? And why do so many fall for the idea that he would somehow represent working class? It was Kamala Harris who worked in a McDonald's to pay for her studies, even though Trump who lived on family wealth used it recently as a photo opportunity (I read they closed the hamburger place for this 'working man' promotion).
Still reeling. The writing was on the wall, but that fact makes this no easier.
Still reeling too. For me, the writing was not on the wall; I couldn't imagine a majority voting for someone who is so clearly not the right choice to lead the country.
Being inside the country and with the work that I do made it very easy for me to see. It's gut-wrenching nonetheless. The only thing I can say right now is "this too shall pass." Take good care!
[…] We will have horses, torches and crackling fires to crush the darkness of betrayed dreams.
As MLK said: We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope
No words today 😢
That's how I felt; thus, I looked at photos and videos of a happy time last year. But then I found those unpublished videos, roughly edited them (sorry for the bad quality), and decided to share them with you all. Although I still felt like "no words today," I thought I would write a few lines to my smaller group of supporters on Patreon, but then it got later in the night, and the text got longer, and finally, I had produced a newsletter, even if I hadn't planned for it. History is full of examples where challenging times can -counterintuitively- lead to creativity and beauty.
Thank you, I needed this. My husband and I just finishes the French Camino and I spent last night going through my journal and photos so your two videos are continual reminders that ‘The Camino provides.’ We returned in time to vote (did not trust having our ballots shipped to us and then mailing back) - we don’t live in a swing state but still wanted our votes to count. I don’t understand why there is an 18 million vote difference between 2020 to 2024
I hope you loved the experience! If you scroll back to the summers of ‘22 and ‘23 there are many more Camino stories and videos to revive your memories. Your story of flying back to the US to vote reminds me of an American friend in Sweden. In 2020, he and his wife flew back to the US to vote for Biden which he described as a counter vote against his parents who supported Trump. As an environmental expert, he had proposed to his parents that if they wouldn’t vote, he and his wife would not have to fly back. But the climate change argument he used for not flying to vote worked as a red flag to a bull. So his parents voted and they flew to the US.
Thank you very much Alex 👌💯 for these beautiful landscapes🫶, this enriching path of discovery that you generously shared with us...
and with which you gently reconnect us.
“Nature has the gift of reconnecting us with it, as with ourselves, and capturing our full attention. »
A "remedy" to get out of this state of incomprehension, of unease in which current events plunge us...
🙏🌿🙋♀️
Thank you, Danièle, on a day like this, I feel like going out into nature; going for long walks. Unfortunately I too engaged with other work but I will try to share a bit more nature in my newsletter for all who can't spend as much time outdoors as we would like.
😊🌿🍂 !!
I received this today from my HS bestie: Truth and love have been smacked down, so many more times in history before today. Truth because it is often inconvenient and love because it is vulnerable. And we are all still here today, exactly as we were yesterday. Like gravity and carbon and the sun behind an eclipse.
It's not like we didn't know. It's not like we weren't warned. America just didn't care. Their eggs were too high and the price of gas not coming down fast enough. "We", in effect, sold our souls to a cruel conman who has desensitized, bleached and bamboozled America. That doesn't make the loss any more tolerable. The MSM are going through the 5 stages of grief; I think Rachel was still in denial.
Through it all, friends were reaching out, with funny pictures, stories and comfort. I am so glad they did. I am still devastated but a sunset walk and a funny Netflix movie helped. And we are all still here today, exactly as we were yesterday. To keep the faith. To keep our friendships and to keep fighting for what we believe in. The friend's song was running through my head all day: "When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month or even your year......I'll be there for you."
Thanks for the pics, Alex, and the sentiment. Very nice.
We could all use one of those magnificent Arizona desert sunsets now. I have been longing to return to the American West, where I love to travel, but I'm not so sure anymore; I might stay in Europe this year. The quote is beautiful; like you, I received it yesterday from an online friend. It is a text that appeals to many of us.
I got the impression that the New York Times is still coming to terms with the recent events, much like going through the five stages of grief you referred to: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Their reporting is like a typical 'day after,' with an analysis of what happened where and who voted for whom, denying the actual impact that awaits us.
Future historians will someday describe that the world didn't change overnight on November 5-6, 2024. They will refer to today's articles in the NYT to illustrate that we needed time to figure out the ultimate worldwide and national consequences. Geert Mak, the Dutch historian, describes it so beautifully in the chapters about the six weeks in the summer of 1914 between the shots in Sarajevo on June 28 and the roaring of Tuchman's 'Guns of August.' Life continued as usual; newspaper articles were optimistic and focussed on the harvest, art, and further progress. It was like the political developments would not threaten the century of peace, and there was no talk of the war that would soon shape the rest of the century.
But I feel the winds of change, and while not speaking of war like in 1914, the consequences will be enormous. Not least because our last window to effectively tackle climate change is now closed. We will blast through the dangerous 1,5 C threshold. "Drill, baby, drill," and billions will feel the terrible consequences in the decades to come, many of them already much earlier.
While I type this on Thursday morning, it's gray and misty outside, and Spotify, in the background, decided to switch from Fauré to Mozart's Requiem by the Berliner Philharmoniker—Karita Mattila's soprano voice echos through the beams of the century-old top floor of the house. Outside, I see fields of sheep and bare brown trees; inside, I work on the desk that traveled with me for decades, the stained marks of too many cups of coffee around my Macbook. Future historians will conclude that, for once, Spotify beat the NYT in its analysis of world events.
Amazing analysis as usual. The second day may be the worst. We have been waiting for the results of a biopsy and it has come back cancerous and metastasizing. The NYT is now sending out a "Manifesto" in dealing with Trump. I don't need a manifesto. I need friends with empathy and a social conscience to keep speaking out. Public opinion matters. Trump is not preordained to succeed and if his first term is any indication, he will scorch earth pretty fast. And the outcry will come. Maybe Mozart bats last. And sunsets really hold magic.
It's indeed what fascism is; it eats and crunches perceived domestic and foreign enemies exponentially. It metastasizes until there is nowhere to hide, and nobody is left to help you anymore when your time comes. Ultimately, it explodes like a pumped-up balloon filled with nothing more than too much hot air. All that is left is a useless piece of broken rubber—in this distinct case: a tiny piece of rubber.
Beautiful
I came to your post late today mainly because I frittered the day away answering emails trying to get the fog and anger out of my head. I have no answers as to why we’ve suddenly veered right and some really frightening plans are afoot by a president who was unfit for his first term, much less his second.
So I thank you for the refreshing scenes of the Camino‼️I spent some time today looking through my photos of Mt. Hood in
OR (where my daughter lives) and Mt Rainier in WA.
I’d like to climb one of them and look down at the world below pondering what
awful things will happen after 06 January. Where, oh where did all those votes for the orange monster come from ⁉️
I read many comments and saw many posts about people going into nature after America's majority decision to choose fascism in a period that doesn't look in any way like the hardships Germany experienced in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Spending time in nature does have a healing effect on all of us. That must be why I suddenly returned to my Camino photos and felt motivated to write more about those experiences.
If I were you, I would choose Mount Hood. Mount Reinier is a challenging mountain to climb. Some ten years ago, I was traveling in that beautiful area of the northwest and compared the climbing options for both mountains, but I never got to it, especially since I didn't bring the proper clothing and equipment.
What a lovely idea to stand on Mount Hood and escape the toxic mess further down in the rest of the country. The famous battleship HMS Hood, the most beautiful of the Royal Navy, was named after the same admiral. After the dramaticly quick sinking of the Hood, Churchill gave his famous order "Sink the Bismarck." A spectacular three-day hunt followed, which reads like an adventure book (books, I read several), a story starting and ending with reminders of the cruelty of war and why we should always avoid that.
Alex, I always learn something from your replies‼️ I don’t have your vast knowledge of history or I would have known about Mt. Hood and its name! Thank you so much for your thoughtful and sympathetic reply… “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”. We Americans need to get out into nature and the sunlight to “disinfect” ourselves from the fascist we’ve chosen for #47. I’m still reeling😩
We all are. One of the best books on this topic is written by Ludovic Kennedy. That is, on the battleship. I know Lewis and Clark referred to Mount Hood but not yet by that name and they didn't get really near. I suppose that must have been the first written reference, unless the Brits or Spanish came there earlier. (Likely the British must have seen it earlier, perhaps Vancouver, Cook didn't get that far south I think on this third voyage but he may have been there.)
You’re amazing 🤩 Thank you for an in depth history
lesson 😋