Here we are Wednesday, the morning after the night of freak. Although I’d been trying to not become too optimistic the last few weeks with the whole election endeavor maybe looking like a landslide or even a wondrous ‘blue tsuanmi,’ but was blindsided early last evening by a ‘red swarm’ of nationwide assholes.

A huge chunk of this country is truly fucked up in so many ways it’s really insidiously sad. Americans who voted Republican have some way-troubling traits including enormous morality defects coupled with a terrifyingly dumbass-blind ignorance. Or nmaybe are just shitty people anyway.
Just sight of those Electoral Maps with that huge block of red created despair, both last night and again this morning, which induced decidedly decrepit despondency — though, I’m not alone (h/t First Draft):

We won’t know the results of the election tonight, but we do know one thing:

We hoped for a complete and overwhelming repudiation of this monster and everything he stands for—and that does not appear to be happening.

And it’s fucking heartbreaking.

— Leah McElrath  (@leahmcelrath) November 4, 2020

Indeed. The heartbreaking aspect made worse by all the bullshit hype about how Joe Biden was polling, and how the T-Rump was becoming more the tired, whiny asshole. The glossy Biden picture was painted with the throwback sense we coudn’t be fooled again.
Way-apparently way-wrong!
And the implications therefore more pronounced (via this morning’s Guardian live):

"The political polling profession is done," leading Republican pollster Frank Luntz tells Axios. "It is devastating for my industry."

— Ben Tracy (@benstracy) November 4, 2020

And a national fuck-up. Although roots of polling date to the 1930s, the recent/current use has become a fixture of our elections, and the glaring footprint revealed in the last two cycles is horrible:

But the greatest problem posed by the polling crisis is not in the presidential election, where the snapshots provided by polling are ultimately measured against an actual tally of votes: As the political cliché goes, the only poll that matters is on Election Day.
The real catastrophe is that the failure of the polls leaves Americans with no reliable way to understand what we as a people think outside of elections — which in turn threatens our ability to make choices, or to cohere as a nation.

We’re in bad waters. The oft-quoted ‘this is not 2016,’ has turned inside-out. This might be worse than last time — Kate McKinnon’s recital of “Hallelujah” on SNL the following Saturday after the 2016 election now carries even more weight and meaning. The US has really, really deteriorated into warring factions of abnormal (and vicious) vs normal (and decent).
Polls don’t read hearts (h/t link also Guardian live):

We're not final yet of course, but a look at how much Trump overperfomed the RCP averages in swing states:

OH: +7
WI: +6
IA: +6
TX: +5
FL: +4.5
NC: +1
GA: +1
AZ: -2.5
MN: -3

This could end up being a much worse night for polling than 2016, which is pretty remarkable.

— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) November 4, 2020

Again, here we are. Four years ago, we really didn’t fully comprehend the real horror of the T-Rump. Most Americans probably viewed him then as just a TV douchebag-blowhard, as I did, not realizing what a way-nefarious piece of human shit he actually is and the depth of that shit. And many figured the T-Rump would ‘pivot‘ sooner or later into being somewhat presidential — that concept was fucking crazy!
He’s a racist, cold-hearted monster. Add a fawning Republican party and that before-mentioned ‘huge chunk’ of people that support him, the true consequences of this becomes really dire.

In the last few weeks, this cover of 4 Non Blondes “What’s Up” has struck a chord:

Of course, the original is also way-good.

(Illustration: M.C Escher’s ‘Three Spheres II,’ found  here).