Despite everything people say about Donald Trump, I get this sinking feeling that he and maybe more so the players around him are always three or four moves ahead of the rest of us. They appear to have this uncanny ability to anticipate reactions and outcomes, and their bag of tricks appears bottomless.

It’s difficult to know if the choices of Miller and Jordan were reactive or planned. Either way, the Republicans are poised to do more battle or at least to stonewall and muddy the water and keep anything constructive from being accomplished. What’s sick about this is that they also appear to care very little about doing the work people elected them to do.

It’s been an unfunny joke from Day 1. Intentionally!! They want to make us poor and dumb and needy, and they are trying to position themselves to be the only ones we can turn to for sustenance. This is where they want to head. It is most certainly sick and hateful, and we can’t let it happen.

They are treating the Blue Wave as mere window dressing. In some ways, it’s just another bump in the road, because they are playing a longer game than most of us can envision.

While Maddow and the rest are over the moon with their assessments of what happened last week, reality has dished up evidence that Trump, at the behest of the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 creators, might have let this happen, or at least didn’t really care that it did.

Now that the euphoria has subsided a bit, such an observation starts to feel more like an accurate read. Think about it—the administration knew people were suffering economically, they knew the Iran war was unpopular and that the Epstein files still loomed, yet there was no attempt at passing any legislation or addressing the concerns of the public.

Sure, Trump traipsed around the country supposedly stumping for candidates, most likely saying that everything is great. But those rallies always ended up being about Trump and the word “dumb” and laced with random streams of consciousness.

There are some who warn that we as a country have this simplistic causal understanding of voting and outcomes, as in we made a statement in the voting booth and now things are going to change for the better. What this misses is the deep-rooted nature of the opposition.

The November 3 results indeed say something about where the voting public currently stands, but even such weighted results don’t mean the nightmarish philosophy of governance behind MAGA magically disappears. We’ve already caught glimpses of what at least the next 8 weeks are going to be like, with Stephen Miller and Jim Jordan emerging to fill key positions. And Trump is offering up the familiar refrain about questionable election results.

The bottom line is that we hold on to the hope of a Blue Congress, but we remain vigilant and realistic about the forces on the other side of the aisle, because they are far from giving up.

Well, the threat of ICE agents at polling places never materialized, from what I can tell. There were observers, poll watchers who were ostensibly present to make sure everything was on the up-and-up.

It appears the elections went off largely without a hitch, though it remains to be seen if Trump and company will put up a stink and call “rigged” or “hoax” or whatever the hell is the gripe of the day.

The bottom line is that people took Donald at his word and considered him on the ballot, which, of course, he was—even as he now claims he wasn’t because if he was the results would have been different…

He is such a child. And we get to watch as he self-immolates in the last weeks of a Republican Congress. It’s liable to get ugly, especially now that his boy Stephen will be let loose.

It must infuriate Miller and Trump and the rest—that the recent midterm results have produced the first Native American governor, a woman; the first Black woman Governor; and the first Muslim Senator, a man who appears to not suffer fools.

Wonder why the decision was made to bring Stephen Miller in as Chief of Staff?

We did the right thing, America. The Trump administration’s cards are on the table, and if it wasn’t clear before now, it’s likely to become crystal clear in the weeks ahead why the whole lot of them needs to go.

These results reflect the American Dream in all its glory. This goes way beyond 2 kids and a house in the ‘burbs and a nice car or two. Way beyond that stuff. These election results have given us a glimpse of that more perfect union, something beautiful, something we should treasure and can be proud of. It might even bring tears to one’s eyes. In a good way.

And to think the Trump administration as personified in Stephen Miller would prefer to deny us such a glimpse and instead stomp all over it.

We’ll call them on their incessant fear mongering, and bid them adieu.

Now we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty. The Blue Wave is more of a tsunami, and it has become apparent that Trump is doing what he does best: doubling down and placing Stephen Miller as his Chief of Staff.

So, buckle up, folks. They have two months left to finish ransacking the place. And maybe two more years to throw wrenches in the works…

At least we finally get confirmation of what this cartoonish administration is all about. Stephen Miller is who they are, in a nutshell: angry, paranoid, disillusioned, affectively stunted, apparently convinced that their way or the highway must work for everyone.

But this has been the issue all along—their constant references to “the American people” have rarely included a majority of the American people. They’ve somehow been able to conceal their real motives by couching them in empty promises and creating bad guys out of thin air, along with a dependence on an apparently gullible and unquestioning electorate.

From now until early January, one must expect the gloves to be coming off, and the essence of this giant turd of an administration will be revealed for all to see.