Check me on this, but ...

Total US population: 318.9 million people (voters and nonvoters)

Total Registered (voter) population: 251,107,000

Total voting this election: 123,205,123

Total voting for Trump: 61,077,970

Worst case scenario, 1/4 of the registered voting population are Trump supporters. Racists, misogynists, bigots, all of them? Not a safe bet. Cast against all of the US, voter and non-voter, Trump voters represent somewhere around 19% of our population.

So when you go out in public, 1 out of 5 might be a Trump supporter. Of that 1 out of 5, how many are overt racists/misogynists/bogeymen? Not as many as you're being led to believe. And surely many fewer than many online paranoids are imagining. And we have a LOT of online paranoids.

This doesn't help us with Prince Donald of Orange, but it does help those who are afraid to leave their houses. The situation is NOT 50/50. The media wants you to believe this, stay fearful, stay paranoid, drive those ad $'s. They are actively engaging in social-media-induced yellow journalism. STOP READING THE CRAP. It's coming from everywhere. All sources, no matter how "authoritative". THINK FOR YOURSELVES. Read history. Read "The Federalist Papers." Read "The Anti-Federalist Papers" (yes, they exist). Gird yourself for battle with FACTS, not mass-media claptrap. Because we'll need every woman, man and child thinking for themselves. As we've seen very clearly, a college education isn't a panacea. Drill down for sources, test everything. As a near-seventeen year blogger, I've lived this lifestyle the entire time. I make mistakes - hard not to, when the media wants to obfuscate - but I also see more clearly than some others, too.

/ Begin rant /

I said earlier, stop mouthing off on social media, get serious, get organized. Stop posting sh-t after a 30-second read finds you an echo-chamber article that gives you an ideological orgasm. Fomenting hate just makes things worse. Find a cause and volunteer. Defend what you love, don't sit and bitch on Facebook - it's the precise definition of impotence. As effective as putting 'daring' bumper stickers on your g-d car. I actively work for at least three progressive causes. You?

We are in a new era of personal responsibility. Recycle. Reduce energy consumption to combat climate change on your own (if government won't do it, we have to). Get involved in politics at the local level, and participate deeply. Bernie Sanders is right - the only way for the Democratic Party to change for the future is to become powerfully grassroots. Let's start it now, today. The Right is already attacking Sanders, Ellison, the Democratic Party. Don't believe the bullsh-t. America is turning BLUER by the day; you see it in Texas, you see it even in the South. Just because folks didn't come out to vote means we had a less-than-optimal candidate and campaign, not that America doesn't believe in equal rights, freedom, justice and all the rest. If you believe otherwise, you're a cast-iron idiot, worse than the 'racists' so many are afraid of. We know the lackadaisicalness of Democratic voters. Known it a long time. That the Clinton campaign didn't, shows clearly their incompetence. I have no pity, sorry.

I can hear some spluttering already: "But - but - but ..." You want to blame a bogeyman? False equivalence, aided and abetted by a profit-seeking media. That's the beginning and end of this discussion. There's no other place to look, if you stand back and take the overview of the campaign. 0.8% difference in the popular vote. 0.8. Shouldn't have even been in the ballpark. Comey's a convenient scapegoat. Prince Donald of Orange is uniquely unqualified. For heaven's sake, Obama's going to give him PRESIDENT LESSONS. Clinton and the DNC ran one of the worst campaigns in history - should have been a slam-dunk against such an opponent. YOU KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE. What more do you need to know? Time to stop analyzing and start deciding what to do, and how to do it.

I'm losing patience with people being upset online. SHUT UP AND GET INVOLVED. Channel that anger for good. I, for one, am never going to let the media - and social media - ever choose a candidate again.

/ end of rant /