I spent last night setting up a new computer, drinking heavily, and trying not to mourn the death of the republic.

Some rotten kids down the street jeered at me with their hand-drawn Hillary signs as I walked to the polls after work, and I yelled at them that they'd have to live with the consequences of their ignorant foolishness. This morning I spent writing on a project I've been working on since August, every morning more or less - get in a couple of hours, slap together a chapter, and then feed the cats. I get up pretty damn early these days.

 But I was miserably avoiding the dead elephant in the room. I was positive that it was the end of things, the death-rattle in a rictus and a pantsuit. Then I caught sight of a sniveling hipster bewailing fate somewhere online, and I looked up out of my miserable huddle.

The orange clown did it. The horrible harpy conceded. The Senate remains Republican. We may be still crouched upon the edge of an abyss I call "electoral dictatorship", but we're still on the edge. I thought for sure we were plummeting into the depths. Oh, don't get me wrong - he'll screw up from dawn to dusk, and chisel and grift and sleep around with harlots while it's dark out. It's in his nature. Trump will be a monument to bad judgment, ignorance and foolishness. But all of Washington will loathe him with all of their rotten, grasping, arrogant souls, and scheme and plot to undermine every plan, every thing he tries. They'll let him get away with absolutely *nothing*. And Republicans have a proud history of impeaching their own wayward presidents, so rejoice!

 Sing from every mountaintop!

Checks and balances have returned to Washington, torches and pitchforks in hand! I'm listening to 'World Turned Upside Down' right now.

 (I really need to stop campaigning for presidential candidates, it's apparently bad luck. My (loathed, despised, I voted for him anyway) candidate won my state for the first time since I screwed up as a college student and voted for Billy Jeff before the Clintons became a corrupt dynasty-in-waiting.)