A bright point in my campaign, recently:

One hot day when I'm out knocking doors and it's getting towards dusk, a (late middle-aged) (white) woman opens the door, says she heard about me at the VFW and American Legion, and that she'll be glad to vote for me.

:) :) :) :) :)

A story of some Trump supporters.

This week I was talking to my dad on the phone, and both him and his one friend who's a neighbor from around the lake were saying that there's this group of guys in the small town south of where my parents live who are big Trump supporters and who are always talking about how great he is, but this week they were all very quiet after his meeting with Putin came out, and they simply weren't talking about Trump at all.

Both my dad and his friend had noticed this, and both think that that meeting finally got through to them, that something's not right with Trump.

Loud talkers on the subway.

The other week on the subway, there were three college-age loud talkers near me, who all got on the train at the same time.

One was fat and white, in black shorts and a black t-shirt.

Another was thinner and white, in a Grinch t-shirt and khakis and with odd patches of unshaven places on his face, and it had been a while since his last haircut.

The third was Asian-American, and he had on some kind of tighter gray pseudo-athletic top with logos on the sleeve.

They all talked loud, and it made me wonder if that was part of the reason they were all friends.

On graduation (2 of 2): Intra-academic perceptions.

My one (white) friend from Mississippi attended that same graduation where I should have walked in because he wanted to see some people graduate, and though he never talks ill of people, he did mention to me that it pissed him off, to see all the (tenured) profs up there sitting so smugly.

He even used that word, "smugly."

I really don't think (tenured) profs nowadays get the feelings of recent cohorts of grads, who took on debt and sucked up the arbitrary behavior like they were supposed to, only to get an incredibly raw deal and have to start over after a huge period of their lives.  There was always some of that, but there's more than ever, and the larger economy is even worse.

On top of that, the people who get into (tenured) jobs are so random, so often.

I once heard on social media some adjuncts calling academia "the Club," like some kids did back in elementary school.  "Will they let you in the Club?", they were like.

On graduation (1 of 2): Extra-academic perceptions.

Last month was when I should have walked for my doctorate, but I had too much self-respect to do that.

Like someone I know from my program told me, "What are we supposed to do, look happy and pretend that they did their jobs?".

(It's interesting; my one [half British] [half Sudanese] friend also told me a while ago that he decided years ago not to walk when he graduates, and that he's surprised that so many people do, given the widespread discontent at the university.)

My parents were disappointed that I didn't walk, but they reconciled themselves, since I told them this years ago.

I did mention it to them the day after, though, and my mom said she was disappointed, since she wanted to see me walk, and she also said that she wished that I hadn't even bothered to tell her when it was that I should have been walking.

"But Mom," I was like, "They have this part where you kneel and the adviser pulls up the hood over your head, there's no way I can do that."

At that, she paused.

"It sounds like a cult," she was like, finally.

Some GOP voters.

For my campaign, I've met some GOP voters who I did friendly outreach to about common issues, and they were cool, and one (white) guy said it was nice just to have a civil conversation, and me and another one talked about vets and the need for more mental health services in the city.

Others, though, are just wacky.

One (middle aged) (mustachioed) (white) guy, as soon as he found out I was a Democrat, slammed a door in my face, and was like, "I'm a Republican!".

Another (middle-aged) (Italian-American) woman in a big ostentatious house was like, "Oh no, I vote Republican" and got her hackles up, though I was able to talk her down, although she seemed skeptical here and there still.

Another (middle-aged) (white) woman and I were having a normal conversation, then for some reason - and I'm not sure what, we were talking about and agreeing on certain issues! - all of a sudden she snapped and was like, "I hate Democrats," broke off the conversation, and went inside.

For years I've come across Republicans when I've done get-out-the-vote work, and I've simply never seen broad-based anger like that, where people are just demonizing huge sweeping segments of society.  In years past people might say something like "Oh no, I vote Republican," and leave it at that, but not now.

It really does come down to Trump, and it's like he's just working people up to create enemies that they can rage at; my mom said it reminds her of my one great uncle, who she once took to a doctor's appointment and just started speaking to random people sitting around, and then drawing them into a conversation where he just set one against the other, then sat back and laughed.

The other week I heard some comment of Obama's, that some portion of Trump followers are just angry and simply don't have any happiness or joy when they talk, and I think that's right.

Fox News doesn't help, either.

I think I saw this starting when I was doing GOTV work for Clinton in a neighboring swing state and one wacky Republican starting filming me canvassing like I was doing something illegal...

That was the beginning of the internal enemies.

The racist cranks are just more and more out in the open, too.

The other week when I was canvassing, some (old) (white) woman said that her husband was dying of cancer and she didn't care about politics, and it was obvious that she was in emotional distress, so I just apologized and left, but when I was down the steps and out the gate and back on the sidewalk she came out on the porch to talk more and it was obvious that she had something to say and she was using me as an opportunity.

So, she started going off on the Chinese, saying that "this used to be a nice neighborhood," but they all moved in and where did they get their money, she remembers when people would walk down and ask her if the woman next door was still alive, and that her alley was blocked and they didn't care when her husband came back from the hospital, and the guy next door smokes cigarettes one after another sucking them down like they all do and he just throws the butts on her lawn, and the woman next door on the other side is always on her cell phone, SHEE-SHAH-SHEE-SHAH-SHAH very loud, but she doesn't care, she'll move to the suburbs, and she'll show them, she'll sell to a black guy.

She actually said all that.

Such anger, like 110% 24/7.

What the fuck is Trump stirring up in this country.

A resthome resident's desire to die.

One of the resthome residents who's in her 90s has been having some decline, and so on and off for a few weeks since that's started she's been saying that she wants to die.

So, I empathize with her, and say that sometimes it's time, or I just sit quietly with her.

The other week, too, I suggested that maybe G-d was keeping her alive, until the president was in jail.

(She watches a lot of cable news and hates Trump.)

She laughed, and said that she really does want to die

"Well," I was like, "You're one day closer."

That got her.