November 9, 2016
Putin was among the first to send congratulations after Trump declared victory—by telegram. / Reuters
We read pretty much the whole morning edition of our nation’s top newspaper. Here’s how to make a good start, especially if you’re interested in things to do with President Trump.
1. “Breathe. Exhale. Repeat: The Benefits of Controlled Breathing.” / The New York Times
2. “Mr. Trump will thoroughly reimagine the tone, standards and expectations of the presidency, molding it in his own self-aggrandizing image. He is set to take the oath of office on Jan. 20.” From “Donald Trump Is Elected President in Stunning Repudiation of the Establishment.” / The New York Times
3. “We must hope that he has the wit to be more than a wrecker, more than a demagogue, and that his crude genius can actually be turned, somehow, to the common good. And if that hope is dashed, we must find ways to resist him.” Conservative columnist Ross Douthat stands by all of his Trump warnings. / The New York Times
4. From “Donald Trump’s Victory Promises to Upend the International Order,” “It is hardly surprising that much of the world was rooting for Hillary Clinton over Mr. Trump, who characterized his foreign policy as ‘America First.’” / The New York Times
5. “The polls were off because nobody wanted to admit that they were going to vote for him. But it’s a populist revolt and a lot of people believed in Trump’s message.” Maureen Dowd talks to her Trump-voting brother at three a.m. / The New York Times
6. “If the news media failed to present a reality-based political scenario, then it failed in performing its most fundamental function.” “News Media Yet Again Misreads America’s Complex Pulse.” / The New York Times
7. Roger Cohen somehow still manages to sound superior in all sentences—as always—but not dumb. “If Trump governs as he has campaigned, America and the world face real and present danger.” / The New York Times
8. “If your [financial] goals haven’t changed, resist a knee-jerk reaction based on an election that didn’t go your way.” / The New York Times
9. From a letter to the editor: “What we really need is a revitalized Republican Party that is freed of adherence to the age-old myth that the rich are fit and the poor unfit and is ready to the meet the Democrats halfway in creating a government that works for all Americans.” / The New York Times
10. “CoverGirl Signs Its First Ambassador in a Hijab.” / The New York Times
“The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” Prescient Salena Zito, writing two months ago. / The Atlantic
According to Tyler Cowen, among others to rise and fall: / Marginal Revolution
Should you choose to bug out, here’s a pack-out of a very nice option for a 72-hour survival kit—in case of apocalypse, total freak out, or world-ending event. / Outside
“All along, Trump seemed like a twisted caricature of every rotten reflex of the radical right. That he has prevailed, that he has won this election, is a crushing blow to the spirit.” Not exactly selling his magazine to the Rust Belt, David Remnick calls Trump’s election an American tragedy. “It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety.” / The New Yorker
Michael Moore predicted a Trump win on five factors, from the stunningly sober notion of a “Rust Belt Brexit” to a reminder that once people are in a secret poll, all bets are off. / michaelmoore.com
A black political effort seeking to translate anger over police brutality into electoral politics targeted prosecutor’s offices in four cities with massive SMS-based outreach. / The Washington Post
“The inability of political media to process and communicate asymmetry between the parties is a genuine crisis for the industry and our political culture.” Damn the media and their false equivalences, their horse races, their accommodation of insanity. / The New Republic
A popular sentiment in this morning’s op-eds is how to begin resisting Trump—there were protests last night up and down back-to-rebel-state-status California, for example—but with a mostly injured but clueless air. / Vox, Los Angeles Times
Trump did better with Hispanics than Bob Dole in 1996 (21 percent), and wound up comparable to Mitt Romney in 2012 (27 percent). Que paso? Six reasons Latino Trumpers cited to explain their allegiance. / The Daily Beast
“She’s a woman who stayed so strong for so many years, but who is, after all, only human. And she’s a woman who many of us have grown to love.” A lament for Hillary Clinton, who has always come back stronger after losing. / Slate
Tammy Duckworth and Kamala Harris’s victories mean that there are going to be more Asian-American women in the Senate than ever (three total), and the first black woman in the Senate since Carol Moseley Braun. / HuffPost, NBC News
“Oppressed by weltschmerz in the light of recent events? Staring out at leaden November skies? Then why not listen to a string quartet? So much fine music has been written for the enduring and flexible line-up of 2 violins, viola, and cello, much of it anguished, sombre, and tormented!” String quartets for your Wednesday weltschmerz. / metafilter.com
For what it’s worth: More registered Democrats voted for Trump (9%) than registered Republicans voted for Clinton (7%). / The New York Times
“Women of color are so often told things that aren’t about race, they’re about sisterhood, that we should all stick together, that when women succeed all women succeed.” Why black women saw it coming. See also: 96% of black women voted for Clinton; the majority of white women voted for Trump. / The Pool
Reminder: “Paul Ryan, Reasonable Man,” is a myth. He’s already the most conservative Speaker in decades. / archive.jsonline.com
“Yes, she has an impressive resume; yes, she worked hard on the campaign trail. But she was exactly the wrong candidate for this angry, populist moment. An insider when the country was screaming for an outsider... She was the Democratic candidate because it was her turn and because a Clinton victory would have moved every Democrat in Washington up a notch.” Would Biden or Sanders have won? The Democratic Party’s errors go beyond strategy, to the core of its identity. / Guardian
Photographs from last night. See also: “Nation’s Optimists Need To Shut The Fuck Up Right Now.” / The Atlantic, The Onion
“We can’t just sit back and let a racist and sexist become president.” Across the US, protesters are demonstrating against the election of Donald Trump. / The New York Times
Update: Eliza’s margin was slightly off. According to Bloomberg, “Had only millennials voted, Clinton would’ve won the election in a landslide, with 473 electoral votes to Trump’s 32.” / Bloomberg