Today

I could have put up another adorable picture of Tallulah Mae today, or a beautiful rose, or the sun coming up with some words about "We'll move on," or "Love overcomes hate."

But I just can't. I can't be silent today.

I woke up this morning with no voice at all, literally, some weird sort of stress response. Perhaps it happened because I feel as if my voice has been stolen from me by a group--and NOT a majority, I might add--of ignorant and frightening people, or, as I am chagrined to type, "my fellow citizens."

The fact that so many were so willing to cast a vote for a moronic racist xenophobic bigoted bully is beyond me. Seriously, who ARE you?!? (Many--not all, but many--of you ARE deplorable, by the way.) Because this was NOT an election about Democrat vs. Republican or liberal vs. conservative or urban vs. rural: this was an election all about HATRED. How uplifting for you to pull the lever for HATE. I circled the bubble that stood for progress and compassion.

Many of you HATE anyone whose skin is darker than yours or who wears a turban or who loves someone of the same sex or who makes more money than you do. You HATE smart people...you really do--they frighten you or make you feel dumb or ... I don't know what, but anti-intellectualism in the U.S. is at an all-time high amongst the gee-whiz, "he tells it like it is" yokels.

No, he doesn't tell it like it is: like every good authoritarian autocratic demagogue, he says exactly what YOU want to hear--that way, you can all cheer and wave your pitchforks and chant--hmm, who else did that? Seems as if I've seen newsreels from the 1930s showing huge and devoted crowds cheering on Hitler. How did that work out for the world?

News flash: He won't build a wall. He won't stop immigrants from coming from the Middle East. He won't bring your manufacturing jobs back--those began leaving in the 1980s, when the term "Rust Belt" came into common usage. Guess what? Many of the U.S. companies have left and gone overseas so that they can keep their product prices low enough to be sold in your very favorite store, WalMart. (Look it up--it's true.) And are you all SO dumb that you haven't asked why all of HIS crap--at least the crap that he hasn't stopped selling because no one bought it--is made somewhere else? Perhaps most important for you to know: He won't turn back the hands of time to that halcyon period that many of you seem to crave: 1950s small-town America, where black folks knew their places, the white men ran things, and the ladies were so lucky to catch a husband.

And you all HATE Hillary Clinton with a maniacal glee that is way beyond my even trying to understand. A large part of it stems from the filth-spewing likes of talk radio and Fox News that have filled your heads with untruths and insinuations and outright lies--most of you don't read too well, I understand (many interviews with your fellow voters reveal them saying just that, BTW: "I haven't read anything in a year." Nice.). You believe that people want to take all of your precious guns--no, they don't. You believe that Sharia law is a real possibility in this country (even though most of you have no earthly idea what that even is except that it has something to do with those dirty Muslims)--no, it isn't. You believe every conspiracy-theory LIE about the Clintons; they are not perfect people, but they are also not the devils you and your pious evangelical bible-spouting ilk seem to think they are--oh, sorry, I forgot that a lot of you don't actually THINK.

What a decision it was this election: hmm, let's see, I could vote for someone who is smart and talented and has been in public service for 40 years and who has actual policies and will surround herself with equally smart and talented people...

Or I could vote for someone with a fifth-grade-level vocabulary who, on average, OUTRIGHT LIED 40 times (again, look it up) in every harangue he gave to all of the dumbass crowds wearing ridiculous trucker hats (and sporting those charming misogynistic t-shirts being sold outside the rallies--those guys so proud to wear a "Hillary is a cunt" shirt with their small sons standing next to them...really so glad those people live in this country with me). He'll hire some real doozies: Rudolph Giuliani, who is also really stupid and a liar (and quite possibly has dementia); Newt Gingrich (not so stupid but a really evil power-hungry liar who is just as much of a cheating douchebag as his potential boss). And let's not forget his VP: a religious fanatic who has enacted anti-gay legislation and restrictions on a woman's right to choose. (Everyone get out your copies of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale now.) How wonderful that he got that coveted KKK endorsement--let's all chant some more, shall we?

He is not a billionaire, despite how that word excites your Beverly Hillbillies sensibilities. He has a trail of failed businesses. He won't release his tax returns in part because he didn't pay any while a lot of you subsist on minimum wage--and pay your taxes. He gave everyone he didn't like schoolyard nicknames, like every good bully does. He is really really stupid. Oh, and have I mentioned: HE FUCKING LIES. And he doesn't care about you now--if he ever did, it was to get himself elected, but now he'll forget all about you and your problems, real or perceived. Hey, he gets to hang out with Vladimir Putin now--who cares about YOU?

So good on ya, America. Thanks so much. For those of you with small children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren--ooh, and if they are not 100% white, I'd be sure to hold them extra close--you have now sown something distinctly evil, and they, sadly, will be the ones who will reap the devastating harvest.

This is MY voice today: at least until January, when our new Fuckwit-in-Chief is sworn in--he has an enemies list, I hear...perhaps the First Amendment is on it (freedom of the press certainly is).

Maybe tomorrow I'll do a "love conquers all" post. Or maybe not. I'm thinking that the six million-plus who died at the hands of a cadre of very efficient hate-mongers in World War II quickly realized that HATE does, tragically, indeed sometimes conquer love, for all we wish goodness and intelligence and light will prevail. I fervently hope that will not be the case in "our" (doesn't feel remotely like "mine" today, hence the quotation marks) America; sadly, today, November 9, I am not at all sure.

Hold your loved ones (human and furry) close -- they are what will get us through these dark dark times.