When Wednesday Morning Comes

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When Wednesday morning comes we may know who will be the next president. Or not. It may be close enough for the loser to demand a recount or some sort of intervention.

Whatever transpires, a goodly number of Americans will feel cheated. Those who voted for the losing side may well feel their choice for president was hard done by in the final reckoning. As they move through the Slough of Despond*, they will be concerned for the future of their homeland. And, sad to say, their despair is not without merit, no matter who was their choice.

Since several people have asked what happened to this Quarter’s Fundraiser, now overdue by some weeks, that’s why: November 8th sucked up all the oxygen in the cybertubes, leaving little room for the week of our bleg. Until this current chapter of ugly politicking is over — as of Tuesday, when all the votes are in — there isn’t much point in attempting to ask for donations.

So we decided to wait until the Monday following Afterwards, even with all the electioneering that is bound to continue. The Aftermath will no doubt continue to distract people, but we’ll jump in the Swamp Poodle* anyway, sloshing our way through an octave of fundraising in a time of Come Hell or High Water.

*   There is an old urban myth that Washington D.C. was built on a swamp and that was the reason for its fetid airs. The truth, as usual, is more complicated:

Swampoodle was an Irish neighborhood in Washington, D.C. A geographic approximation of its borders would be K Street to the north, G Street to the south, 1st Street NW to the west, and 2nd Street NE to the east. Through the center of it ran the principal branch of Tiber Creek. The name Swampoodle is attributed to a newspaper reporter covering the ground-breaking of St. Aloysius Church in 1857, who referred to the land at the site on North Capitol and I street as containing numerous swamps and puddles which often occurred when Tiber Creek overflowed its banks.

Swampoodle developed during the second half of the 19th century, providing a place of refuge for Irish emigrants following the Irish potato famine. It gained a reputation for being a lawless shantytown, where crime, prostitution and drunkenness were rife. At the core of the district was Jackson Alley, considered a virtual no-go area for the police. The area was also known for over-crowding and outbreaks of malaria, typhoid and dysentery. But Swampoodle was also a thriving community, whose Irish construction workers helped build Washington DC. As Swampoodle was then on the edge of the city, many of the residents kept goats and cows, sometimes in livestock pens among the alleys dividing their modest houses. This continued up to the early 20th century.

Of course, time moved on, and moved over Swampoodle, too. Eventually Union Station would come to be built there… Can you imagine the graft and cost-overruns that must have plagued the building of the Capital’s train station? I can’t quite grasp it either.

After the votes are counted I’ll give my own prognosis for America’s governance, depending on who wins. We’ll see if anyone else agrees with my prognosis.

In the meantime, gird thy loins for an Octave of Autumn Fundraiser Days starting on November 14th. And by all means, please practice forbearance. The Baron wants to have the Autumn Fundraiser be a real beginning. Thus, donating early will mean your state or province is less likely to be mentioned if you give before the magical beginning day, November 14th.

It will punch holes in his algorithms or summat like. The puir man is already overloaded with work, so please wait till Monday. Otherwise, it’s like opening our Christmas presents before the big day; takes the fun out of it…

5 thoughts on “When Wednesday Morning Comes”

  1. I wondered about the possible outcomes and found something @ http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=2257

    Outlook # 1: Should Clinton win by stealing the election, the electorate will NOT accept it. The American people will NOT permit her to occupy the Oval Office, unless she takes it by force. The Trumpsters, in particular, will rise up and prevent the election theft from being consummated with an inauguration. Just how fierce and determined the Trumpsters will become is not yet known. What is known is that they will NOT let a thieving, lying, corrupt candidate extend the last 8 year Obamanation by another 4 disastrous years.

    Outlook #2: Should Trump win the election by playing fair and square, he will enter the White House, but not without a major campaign of disruption from the Clintonistas. This is where the U.S. citizenry will be treated to the Bolshevik behavior à la #BlackLivesMatter that was graphically displayed throughout the campaign season. These Clinton henchmen are as utterly lawless and recklessly violent as the indisputable evidence has shown them to be. Hence, there is no reason to believe that they won’t pull every trick in the Saul Alinsky playbook to execute a post-election coup d’état.

    Outlook #3: Should the post-election process be thrown into total disarray by both sides, whereby neither is declared a winner, political chaos and social pandemonium will prevail. The extent to which this occurs will be determined by various factors, each of which can intensify or mitigate the predominant national state of affairs. This third scenario is also the most likely to plunge the USA into a period of extreme discontent in which the U.S. Federal Government itself comes under threat of dissolution.

    There are probably limitless possibilities besides these three. What exciting times we live in.

  4. Thank you for the historical tidbit. My Irish friends and in-laws are chuckling into their Guinness.

  5. In the 18th C. a branch of my Middleton-Tear family owned much of the land along the Maryland side of Washington, D.C. The families had come to the area from England in the late 17th C. Well educated and true believers in the Christian faith, the family produced several pastors during the American Revolution.
    They were the cousins of the very wealthy Middletons of South Carolina

    I read one story from archives of a local newspaper of the very early 19th C. about the Maryland Middleton- Tear families who several acres along the river by D.C. to be used for two homes for orphans, a farm and 2 small schools . Well intentioned no doubt!

    And, then the land speculators and greedy folk reared their heads.

    Sometime after the War of 1812, some crooked group of scoundrels managed to STEAL the deed and build-up fine plantations for their families.

    ***Land fraud and graft is nothing new to the DC area I believe. ***

    It seems to me that DC from almost the beginning was a draw for CROOKS and Swindlers who drove the good people out …. still is as far as I can see.

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