The memo from Legal was penned late yesterday afternoon. It read: “Keep the results thing short, and matter of fact unless something goes kinetic high-order in the night.”

Splash was assigned that part. He agreed to a two-drink maximum at Happy Hour, and had voted weeks ago. So, the election that just ended had been removed from the “action” column and placed low in his “to do” list for the mid-terms in 2026 and the post-Trump General contest in 2028.

He takes a certain distance in both, since he doesn’t accept there to be a certainty he will have to remain on duty to witness either. He does have hope though, which is a measurable change.

The short part? The first calls about the White House verdict were in shortly after the clock turned zero-one-hundred on the Day After. That was the announcement that assured Splash that whatever the margin was likely to be, the popular tally was likely to be significant enough that alteration would be apparent.

So, both electoral college and popular vote seem to agree and the first President elected to non-consecutive since Grover Cleveland.

The Senate appears to have flipped control by a margin of only a seat or two, but enough to preclude opposition to routine appointments in the Executive Branch.

Verdict still out on the House. Red has an edge in the count, slight but real, and the down-ballot details will sort out through the morning.

So, the local perspective? No civic disturbances reported and discussion was whether demonstrations would occur tonight. And since the more violent ones are coordinated with professional protestors compensated for their time, they represent a directed sort of protest. Like the “too big to modify” response to the White House tally, this seems to indicate a concession to peace and orderly transition.

We hope so, anyway. The realization of what this means to an Executive Branch that has been consumed with using a whole-of-government approach to squash opposition to itself is not exactly new. But it has been a little more forthright in application than in previous times.

We suspect the Smart Money has known this for a few weeks and the decision was to permit it to happen without detectable intervention. We can live that with for now.

Splash’s note for the morning meeting summed it up: “Look at the staff work for VP Harris’s last appearances. Her campaign began coming off the rails more than two weeks ago. Second stringers were apparently supporting the last media appearances on the ground. The ones in which the candidate was apparently unaware that the microphones were active, or uncertain about the order of the presentation or how she would have voted on California’s Proposition 36.

It was just an indication that the Smart Money knew this was coming.

Reports from New York are that The Markets were upbeat at the news of peaceful change. What’s next? We hope for peace and something like what we have always expected in America:

A peaceful transition and a chance to pull this mess together and find something that works.

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra,com