I Will Bear Witness
I will not be rioting, I will be writing..
As an empowered and informed member of society, I’m not surprised that the infamous Donald Trump won the U.S. Presidency in 2024. As a rational and pragmatic adult, who isn’t in a cult - I woke up at 6 AM, checked Drudge Report, took down my Kamala sign and put up a US Flag. I’m going to take the dog for a long walk by the river, I have a stack of books to read, and some amazing sandwich fixings! I had friends who claimed I was going to ‘riot’ if Trump won, nuh. I imagine U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will concede the race, preside over the electoral count without violence, and attend Trump’s inauguration. You will likely see the Obamas, the Bushes, and the Clintons there too. Some folks put Country OVER Party. It was a free and fair election: it wasn’t rigged but it was tilted.
Billionaires, Citizens United, and Unlimited Money in politics If Trump Wins, Blame the Billionaires - More than 60 billionaires have opened their wallets to help elect Donald Trump, with some giving $10 million, $20 million, or more. Billionaires were spiking independent newspaper editorials. Some billionaires paid some voters one million dollars a day. Other billionaires just gave up, and took their toys back home.
Immigration - Asylum - Migrants - Refugees - The GOP has been killing bi-partisan immigration reforms for over 20 years, two decades! Even though asylum was legalized after the atrocities of WW2 - our national and international laws need to be updated to deal with the migration fueled by climate change. When migrants from South America and refugees fleeing Wars and political instability - GOP red state Governors started busing asylum seekers and refugees to blue states and big cities. Even though Congress came closer than they have in decades to reforming and updating immigration laws, Trump killed the bill. It’s easier for him to scapegoat immigrants - for everything! Nonstop lying and propaganda can be effective - as recent polls show a majority of Republicans now agree with language that the Brookings Institute wrote was ‘Nazi rhetoric out of Mein Kampf’
Inflation is a global phenomenon - especially after a worldwide pandemic. In the United States inflation peaked at 8.3 in 2022 and has fallen to 2.4%. Even though Grocery prices have fallen to 2019 levels, the stock market hits record highs week after week, we’re at full unemployment - yet everyone is FEELING sad?
There were the Gaza protests by the ‘Uncommitted’ Faction - and while they had legitimate grievances and concerns - this burn-it-down approach will likely lead to Gaza and middle east being a radioactive parking lot in four years, along with the Ukraine.
You also have Generation Alpha, Gen Z, and the millennials - who are rightly pissed off about a plethora of systematic failures. I tried talking and reasoning with a few young voters this past cycle - they’re apathetic AF - but often agreed with them on the decrepitness of some of our institutions, like ‘Journalism’.
This brings us to - the Epistemic Breach! Over the past 25 years, as the credibility of local and national journalism has collapsed - and with the rise of technology and social media - truth and reality have become malleable in these safe spaces. In 2020 I wrote this blog about an Epistemic Crisis - how local media was more stenography than journalism. It’s gone from a crisis to a full-on breach, a breakdown in reality. 2 + 2 = 5
No American institution has wrought as much damage to our shared civic fabric as local and national legacy journalists. They pat themselves on the back for being fair and balanced to both sides - but reality is neither fair or balanced! #FalseBalance
According to the fortune tellers at the Oakmont Advisory Group and KOB4 - they claim - “the stock market and the economy will continue to grow no matter the president.” I reached out to David Hicks from OAG, the KOB4 News Director Matt Grubs, to ask about how Trump’s proposed tariffs and mass deportations would impact GDP and the markets. They did not have any response.
Trump’s economic plans would worsen inflation, experts say
Trump’s mass deportation and trade war will tank the economy
Elon Musk admitted Trump’s policies will tank the entire economy
In the weeks before the 2024 Election - I had been working on a few different letters. I had reached out to ‘Source NM’ about the story ‘Immigration: Where do Trump and Harris stand’ I reached out to the writer and editor, and asked why all local and national reporting about immigration never makes any historical reference that seeking asylum was legalized after the atrocities of WW2. The horrors didn’t begin with systematic murder but with dehumanizing rhetoric and mass deportations. The editor challenged me to write a 900-word piece, which I worked on for several weeks. I submitted it and was ghosted. You can read it here! I also submitted a letter to the Albuquerque Journal - also unpublished. I think I’m blocked : )
I submitted a letter to ‘The Paper’ which was not published. I also submitted a letter to the Daily Lobo, also not published.
It doesn’t seem to matter if Trump ran the worst campaign in modern history, with the stunts, he won! It’s like Idiocracy. Harris gave a great convention speech, and dominated Trump during the debate with facts and class - she can hold her head up high. Programs, plans, facts, convictions, don’t matter. Kamala Harris may have ran the worst campaign in modern history, but she’ll eat a bag of Doritos and move on with life.
The day after the 2016 Election - I went to Zimmerman Library at UNM and checked out a plethora of books on human Fascism, the fall of the Weimar Republic, and the rise of Nazi Germany. You can read my notes here! Victor Klemperer, Harmann Rauschning, William Shirer, Lars Moen, Inge Scholl..
I will keep writing! I will keep on trying, one day at a time!
Brian Fejer Barelas - Albuquerque - New Mexico - USA - Circa2024
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