FINALLY OVER

• The elections are finally over in the U.S. and the American people are relieved.  The big corporate money was overwhelming this year and the public was fed up with the TV ads weeks ago.  Yesterday here in Bath a couple of my housemates worked at the polls collecting signatures on a petition calling on the city to pass a resolution demanding that the Supreme Court ruling allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections be over turned.  They reported that gathering the signatures was quite easy as voters were eager to make a statement against the big $$$$.
• One thing to watch out for is the calls this morning on national TV for Obama to "move quickly" which to me means to close deals with the Republicans to force major social spending cuts while the public revels in their state of euphoria - cut their throats while they are still cheering. 
• One of the more interesting numbers is that Obama got nine million less votes this time than he did in 2008.  Romney got 2.1 million less votes than John McCain did in 2008.  So that means that about 12 million more citizens sat this election out. 
• Two House races I closely followed were in Florida where Allan Grayson (one of the more progressive members in the Congress) won back his House seat in my old stomping grounds of Orlando with 62.5% of the vote.  In conservative reactionary Orlando!  This I think is one very good example of the growing power of the Hispanic vote as the people who have moved to that city to work in the service industry around Disney have changed the politics there.  The other race was in south Florida where the right-wing tea party black man Allen West, who got elected to the House in 2010, was defeated by 1% of the vote.  West, a retired military man who wanted war everywhere, had created a list of 100 "liberal" Dems in the House who he accused of being Communists.  If it were only true.
• Thought I'd share some of my favorite comments on Facebook this morning.  Here they are:

  - Although I am pleased that Mittens didn't win, I think The Onion said it best with this headline, "Millions Without Power After The Election ."

  -   Rumor has it that President Obama favors a “grand bargain” that trades Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid cuts for tax hikes on top income earners.  Starting tomorrow, the AFL-CIO is holding press conferences and actions across the country. Other networks will be joining them and demanding:
  -no cuts to entitlement programs or other vital social programs
  -create jobs
  -tax the top 2%
  Something’s missing here. The country’s biggest economic justice organizations didn’t include “cut Pentagon spending” in their sequestration solution.

  -  Don't feel bad Republicans.  With 175+ children murdered by drone strikes under Obama and Obama's NDAA signature the police state and war will continue.

  - Voters largely blamed the recession on President George W. Bush, which ultimately helped President Barack Obama in his bid for a second term.

  -  via @CNN: Apparently 18-29 year olds out-voted over-65 year olds today.

  -  With another MIC puppet at the helm the war dollars will keep rolling in.

  - I hope that now, with no more elections, that Obama becomes the president that he pretended to be for the last 4 years.

  - What will be Obama's immediate agenda? We should expect him to move quickly on austerity -- cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and to states for their education and social programs, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and finishing the Keystone XL pipeline.  On foreign policy, U.S. militarism will continue -- the sanctions with threats of all-out war on Iran will continue, encircling China to threaten them (with what, war?), the Syrian civil war will escalate with U.S. support. This is what is coming and coming quickly. Will those who urged support of Obama protest him -- aggressively?  Will the unions protest, the mainstream environmentalists? No honeymoon for Obama.  

  - The saddest part of the whole affair in my opinion, was the unconscionable amounts of money spent in both campaigns and how many children that money would have fed, clothed, schooled, and provided much needed health-care for. It truly shows how skewered our priorities as humans in this country have become.

  - Turns out: rape apologists, anti-choice zealots, and generally regressive misogynists ARE LOSERS, not just in general but very realistically. They lose elections. Which is fitting, since they've lost their minds years ago.

  - I want to congratulate last nights winners Goldman Sachs, Wall Street, Monsanto, big pharma, and the military industrial complex.

  - I love the smell of Brainwashing in the morning!

  - A succinct appraisal of the GOP. Its death is now certain, but complete demise of the rump that's left will be slow and ugly.

  - Let's get off the trickle-down nonsense, let's end the Bush tax breaks, let's recognize that what the Conservatives are calling for is what was going on in Europe over the last ten years, and it hasn't worked-- if anything, it's only pushed the EU closer to the fiscal cliff....It was wrong for Europe and it's a tactic that's wrong for America....Instead, we need to think about investment and moving forward whatever it takes....

  - And people get upset with Venezuela because there are no term limits...Ronald Reagan just got (s)elected for his 9th term yesterday.

  - I now have a new appreciation for John Denver's Rocky Mountain 'High'.....[Colorado voted to legalize marijuana]

  -  There's a war in my office - the right-wingers are angry! That's all Arizona needs - another civil war.

  -  Jill Stein came through this election cycle with integrity intact - more than I can say about the candidates running the duopoly.

  -  Obama² "Four More Years!" .....Didn't drink nor party like I did in '08...I prayed and hope we can move FORWARD....End the Wars...get MORE people back to work...fix the deficit WITHOUT TOUCHING Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid 

  -  To believe that this corporate-financier oligarchy would subject their agenda and fate to the whims of the voting masses is naive at best. They have painstakingly ensured that no matter who gets into office, in whatever country, the guns, the oil, the wealth and the power keep flowing perpetually into their own hands.