VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

The only thing is that with a Republican majority in House and Senate if Clinton wins we’re likely to get another Obama presidency; that is, they will likely block and slow down anything Clinton wants to get done, but hopefully in 2018, people will get their heads outta their asses and actually vote for shit that matters.

Midterm elections matter. You here that my little chickadees that can’t vote yet? 2018. Mark the date.

And remember to vote in your local elections. Those elections will effect you a lot.

Also, I just wanna say, all the propositions I voted on went well. Weed legalization, cigarette tax, better bilingual education–it’s going well.

[CW: burning irony]

I click Scildfreja’s link to Keith Olberman’s “The Closer” for today, first I get the ubiquitous YooToob Ad… for “The Urban Carry G2; concealed carry holster”… (gotta get me one o’ THEM)… with the following “tag” line:

Americans have never faced a threat quite like the one we do today

Oh, Mr. GunGrabScare… you have NO FUCKING IDEA….

Petty venting ahoy…

I can’t believe how many people I’ve had to call out for denying Trump’s racism. And I thought these were good people. I was friends with them FFS.

I know this is absurdly petty in comparison to the problems other people here have, but seeing willful ignorance offline is new for my sheltered self.

I’m somewhat proud of my state today, at the least.

Thank you, thank you all. It helped me so much to know I could count on you.

Gf is awake now, we’re talking and she’s even making the occasional joke. Goddess I could cry with joy.

I send my love and solidarity to all. We’re all in this together and that’s how we’re getting through.

Take care of yourselves, take care of others. Those are the important things right now.

Also this.

preuxfox – being different, even being afraid, makes you a target now, makes us all targets. You are brave by being yourself. Your life can be your activism so long as you go forward despite the fear and stand by the person who is also afraid. And where you find the chance to be active, take it. But you don’t have to do it all the time.

@cynicaloptimist

they have to maintain that cognitive dissonance to allow themselves to support him

Maybe that’s a little bit hopeful, for if they have to deny who he is – then there is a sense of shame.

In Seattle they’re planning a Black Lives Matter Not Black Friday event. I’ve never been shopping on black Friday, but I’m considering going to this.

@rugbyyogi

They didn’t fight me on it after I repeated what Trump said, but I don’t know if that means anything.

@Cynical
I know what you mean. The entire night I had to play professor to my ignorant roommate. I fucking hate Devil’s Advocates when frankly he should get the point by now, that I know more about how fucking terrible this is and he should shut the fuck up with many times I shut down his naive ass views.

“Two wings of the same bird.” What a perfect sentiment for those who want to carry a toxic bag. “We’re all a little bigoted like Avenue Q said.” Avenue Q doesn’t openly advocate gay conversion therapy. “No one said Trump was racist until he ran.” Parker boys, tenants and more links to shut him up. “This is what the people wanted” This was what the uneducated and educated bigoted white men wanted, a damn fascist.

I try not to sound elitist but frankly, in this case between naive ignorance and hateful ignorance I don’t know which I hate more.

Do you think it is cognitive dissonance, in general I mean rather than this specific instance? I used to think that, I don’t any more, I think it’s deliberate, a tactic – ranging from just maintaining wilful ignorance, to lying (they know it makes them sound bad to admit to being racist), to outright gaslighting attempt. They just do it too often, and Trump pulled the same thing watching the debates, and for all it comes across as unpolished, even makes them look ignorant, it’s actually very effective (…can’t beat a pigeon at chess). The fact I’ve seen them understand perfectly when it suits them, even trying to use progressive concepts against us, suggests they do in fact get it, they just pretend not to.

I just think their tactics mirror abusive dynamics too closely for it to be an accident.

Be angry and use it for determination. I left these on Facebook.

I had no idea so many of my fellow Americans were so comfortable with a racist, sexist, molesting, lying, con artist sack of crap.
 
I’ve not once seen anyone close to me offer a remotely good reason to vote for Trump. Either Trump was worse on whatever measure they were whining about, or no one could link to any information that supported what they whining about. I guess a lot of people really respond to someone who talks big and tough but has nothing. His buisness record alone is enough for me to rule them suicidal.

I have lost a lot of respect for a lot of people over this election season. When I see someone try to claim values that support for Trump obviously shows to be a lie I will rub it in. I will not forget.

***

I spend a lot of time holding myself back. Maybe it does not seem like that, but I do. That has to change. I don’t come to Facebook much because I don’t like seeing people I care about believe, think and act on such dysfunctional things divorced from reality. I just watched some of those people vote for a candidate that seems to go against what they portrayed themselves as believing in.

The benefit of being a socially impulsive person is that you can set a social tone. A lifetime of controlling intense things gives you knowledge about them. Enjoy the Trump victory party, it’s going to get a lot more unpleasant.

Republicans set their own social tone when it came to throwing a social tantrum and shutting down government processes that relied on a vote (budget, appointments…). The voting and approval process available to them was not good enough so they broke some unwritten social rules. It’s time to break some unwritten social rules of our own. This victory will cost you with every bigoted and xenophobic action that the Republicans and the Trump administration takes.

I’ve not seen any Trump supporter able to defend any specific argument beyond feeling and because the group says so. I will take full advantage of the fact that bigoted rumor-mongering is the way of things among Trump supporters.

If anyone feels the need to defriend me as a result I understand.

 We have work to. I’ve been isolating and processing long enough.

[CW: burning irony]

I click Scildfreja’s link to Keith Olberman’s “The Closer” for today, first I get the ubiquitous YooToob Ad… for “The Urban Carry G2; concealed carry holster”… (gotta get me one o’ THEM)… with the following “tag” line:

Americans have never faced a threat quite like the one we do today
Oh, Mr. GunGrabScare… you have NO FUCKING IDEA….

I laughed bitterly at the end of that video, where he usually says “watch this space” – this time it was “watch your backs.”

I hope that doesn’t mean he won’t be putting out any more commentary because I’d really missed hum after he got fired from MSNBC, but given the Orange One’s scary rhetoric about journalists and his past record of using the apparatus of power to go after those who oppose him, I suppose I couldn’t blame KO for leaving the country and/or going into hiding until 2020 or 2024.

@ Leo;

I think it’s deliberate, a tactic

It is. These people know what they’re doing. The Cheeto offered them something they’ve wanted since the Civil Rights Act… a chance to publicly abuse people who don’t look and act like them, and have it not only be socially acceptable, but be rewarded. Yeah, sure, they’d like them some economic advantage (on the side, of course), or maybe some other advantage, but the primary draw of The Cheeto is bigotry. They see it as a chance to “thumb their noses at Political Correctness” again. Howling Idiot Rush Limbaugh was commenting on the Harvard Soccer Team “scouting report” scandal, saying that treatment of women in that manner is “just human nature” and should be ok. THIS is what the Trumplings get with a President Cheeto.

….I think I have an idea, at least for my campus. It will take work. It will take time. It will take getting OKs to stay out after curfew. It will take chalk.

But everything has to start somewhere.

@Troubelle

Nice to hear that you’ve found a cause to work towards.

Got Catbeast out of the emergency vet and back to his regular vet for the day at less than half the cost of just leaving him at the other place. At least that brought down my blood pressure a bit.

My head is always in a not-so-good-place when my kitty is ill; today it is pounding.

I will hide, cry, and whimper through the next few days and then I’ll be scanning for a group to join in opposition to this travesty. We’ll get by alright, the Beast family enjoys quite a lot of privilege which I hope to leverage in working to minimize damage to those with less of it.

Hugs for everyone who needs/wants them. Stay safe and care for yourselves.

Yeah, I think that’s it. I just read this tweet:
https://twitter.com/prachigu/status/796219846132436992
and this is coming from the *other* side. So gawd knows what the Trumplings are saying among themselves, when they think no women are listening.

Solidarity, sisters over in the US. I think you’re really going to have to stick together and challenge this very firmly, not letting them get away with it and showing we’re onto them, be brave but most importantly stay safe.

@Cynical Optimist

My cause was clear. It’s the execution of the dissemination of information that’s the trick.

@Troubelle

I should have known that, really. Just my vocabulary failing again.

Also – thank you everyone who has had kind words for me today – you have helped, thank you.

@Leo, that tweet made me nauseous. Brogressives are just as bad.

@Cynical Optimist

It’s no trouble. I just like for people to be sure of things.

@Jesalin

Including people who claim that people who consider themselves tolerant must tolerate intolerance otherwise they are intolerant hypocrites.

Oh my god I hate that argument so much, like sometimes it’s’ only reasonable to get angry

@Commas
I meant to attribute that, but I was in a hurry and forgot. That’s from Eco’s Fourteen Ways of looking at a Blackshirt.

@Tragedy of the Comas

I feel like if you didn’t vote for Clinton, you really have to not care about women’s issues (given how strong she is on those and how weak trump is) so if you see women’s health and rights as compromisable that does make you kind of mysogynistic

@Dalillama

I know it is. Orwell and Eco are making similar points, it seems to me. The full context of Orwell’s quote is here. But I guess you meant your point to compliment mine? I took it as a critique. My apologies.

@sparkalipoo

What are you talking about? Where did I say I didn’t vote for Clinton? Do you mean where I said, “And us white people gave it them. Jesus.”? I meant that white people as a whole, because white people overwhelmingly elected Trump. No other demographic turned out for him like white people did. Do you understand the distinction I’m making? I voted Clinton, but that doesn’t absolve me of my whiteness. Or my mistake in thinking that most white people aren’t as racist as what was thought of as Trump’s minority core base. Or change the fact that white people who voted Clinton were in the minority. So, yeah, us white people elected him, even though a strong minority of us–like those of us here on this site–did not. Does that make sense? Maybe it only does to me. I’m clearly lacking in reading comprehension today, so maybe I ought to be quiet as well.

Conversation I had with two guys in drive-thru this morning (from memory):

Them: “Trump!” (In place of ‘Hello’)
Me: “??”
Them: “Are you happy with yesterday?”
Me: “No, not really.”
Them: “Why? Trump will raise the minimum wage for you.”
Me: “Believe it when I see it.”
(Business concludes)
Them: “Trump!” (In place of ‘goodbye’.)

>.<

Them: “Why? Trump will raise the minimum wage for you.”

Right..did they say which dimension they were visiting from?

I’m seeing comments on some of the news sites which are variants of “This is why he won. Because the media lied about him being racist, and now it’s backfiring.”

Trump isn’t racist? With his thing about border walls and internment camps for muslims? Okay then. Well, it’s theoretically possible that he’s somehow a xenophobe and an islamophobe without also being a racist, but that’s an overly smug pedantry even if it were true.

Well, overly smug pedantry *is* one of the many high-quality products I’ve come to expect from television news…

@Scildfreja: I meant comments as in the comments sections of the article, not the article itself.

The analysis of the election results so far seem to indicate that there was a surge of Clinton-voting latinx voters in some conservative states, but not quite enough to flip the vote there. Meanwhile in many of the moderately liberal and tossup states there were a surprisingly low turnout of liberal voters for a presidential election year. Complacency? Vote suppression? Illegitimate ballot tossing? Who knows at this point.

@Snowberry

I’ve read that with Voting Rights Act repealed, there were over 800 polling places less than last election, so that’s definitely a part of it.

@Snowberry

Unrepentant racists hate hate hate when racism is called racism. Denying racism while saying racist things is standard operating procedure, judging by conversations with certain family members.

What LindsayIrene said. One of the tells of racists is that they will attempt to redefine racism so that they fall outside of it.

On another forum I comment on, there was a comment this morning where someone pointed out that white Americans needed to do better, and someone else leapt on this and said “what an ironically racist statement.” There were insufficient facepalms in all the world.

@EJ
I shared an article that blamed white Americans for fostering racism enough to allow this racist to be elected and was told it’s Obama’s fault for making the nation so divided. She literally blamed a black man for racism.

@Hambeast
I hope that all goes well for Catbeast!

@Pho with Beef and Basil

I got annoyed with TYT last night when they made the claim that establishment politicians took take this as a warning because establishment politicians can change there policies but they can’t just change into an entirely new person who’s never held elected office and I do think we need people in the highest branches of government who have political experience.

@Jules

I also feel bad for Hillary, but I’m also worried about her because what if he follows through with arresting her after he takes office?

Obama was asked (or, one of his aides was asked) if he’d issue Hillary a presidential pardon. Official reply has so far been “no comment.”

@sparkalipoo

I think, as with so many of Trump’s statements, it was just bluster and playing into his supporters’ prejudices. He’s being more conciliatory now, he’s known the Clintons a long time and praised Hillary on several occasions. He couldn’t have her arrested just like that even if he really did want to.

I actually don’t think even his supporters want him to, or expect him to do all the horrible things he said. Some of them already admitted as much. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still genuinely racist and misogynistic, and some are truly dangerous, but these types are a lot of talk as well. It makes sense they would be – they can already terrorise women and minorities effectively with talk and threats, and through internalised misogyny. Them going ‘too far’ might actually trigger greater resistance, women would have less to lose, less crumbs to be grateful for being allowed to have, etc. Unfortunately, that also means his supporters won’t get disillusioned that quickly.

Honestly, if anyone is in, I am totally in:
https://commune123.wordpress.com/there-is-no-time-to-waste-lets-make-this-happen/

I haven’t turned on the TV today, I am ignoring all the unpleasantries until I’m in a tolerant mood. What I have done today is made $210 selling some excess stuff around the house, and it’s going straight into the “Commune Jar”.

If anyone wants to go off-grid for a bit, perhaps four years… I’d love the Mammothers to join the effort!

@Leo: We can only hope.

Fuck TYT’s coverage this whole election season. Cenk, Jimmy fucking Dore, and that Jordan guy harped on every little non-scandal and the WikiLeaks bullshit. Jimmy Dore said a million times that it would be GOOD if Trump won. They can say this shit with theit comfortable income while living in a blue state. Whatever respect I had for them, this whole thing made me lose the rest of it.

@tragedy of the comas

when I said “I feel like if you didn’t vote for Clinton…” I didn’t you, tragedy of the comas, didn’t vote for Clinton, I meant you to mean the same as someone. I see how that could have been confusing and I’m sorry, I should have been more clear in my language

@Leo

Hopefully you’re right but it’s possible that he wasn’t lying

@Leo, it really doesn’t matter what Trump’s attitude is anymore. The Republicans have free reign to roll back every advancement we’ve enjoyed since *forever*, and Trump’s picks for important positions are reading like the who’s who of Junta Startups. Giuliani (Fucking stop-and-frisk Giuliani!) as Attorney General, Newt Warlord Gingrich as Secretary of State, Sarah “Drill, baby, drill!” Palin for the Interior and Mike Fucking Pence as VP. Pence was told he’s gonna be the most powerful VP ever, because Trump doesn’t want to deal with actual governing, and he’s a theocratic despot if ever there was one.

Trump could sit in a corner for four years and it’s still a disaster.

@booburry, Jimmy Dore and Jordan Chariton drive me up the wall with their smug we-know-what’s-best-for-you attitudes. Jordan does some excellent reporting on TYT Politics – he’s dug far deeper into the problems in Flint and has exposed some real heartbreaking issues – but he’s gotta stop thinking he knows what’s best.

I still follow them, for two reasons. For every jackass who wanted Hillary to lose, they have one who was rooting for her – Michael Shore and Ben Mankiewitz have had some incredible knock-down arguments with Cenk and Jimmy, and they air it all. They don’t try to present a unified front. They also have Ana Kasparian, who is one of the fiercest fuckin’ feminist media figure I’ve seen. The woman can tear a strip out of someone up one side and down the other, and doesn’t afraid of anybody. (She and Cenk, the sexist ass, butt heads regularly)

Second reason is because they get the numbers right. They were the only media outlet that correctly predicted that the election was practically tied going in. They knew Hillary’s edge was razor thin. At the end of the election, they were 3.5% off in their prediction. They also were the first ones to say that Trump was a threat and could actually win the primary, then the election. I don’t always agree with their opinions, but their numbers are rock solid. That’s useful.

I’m not suggesting you all should watch them, because slogging through some of the asshole opinions can be tough. But they’re usually right. I really value that.

Damn.

I am sorry for those of you who live in USA.

Stay safe as possible, maybe regroup with friends if able.

This defeat reminds me a bit of 2002 french elections, when far right was the second in term of voices at the end of the first round (but we had a second round, when they finally lost (but it was a bitter victory)). Like this election, there had been a big abstention rate (28.4% in 2002 for us, 45.8% for USA this time) which may have played a part in the defeat.

I just hope USA will not become something like a IVth reich.

If some of you want to come in France, you are welcome. We may not be the best friends, especially since the far right here is gaining more and more presence and power, but it will not be said that we do not try.

DJT’s first betrayal of his base. Not that this will calm them down.

Like this election, there had been a big abstention rate (28.4% in 2002 for us, 45.8% for USA this time) which may have played a part in the defeat.

Given the number of polling places that have disappeared from inner cities (over 800 this cycle, similar numbers before), the abstention rate is less and less about Americans being disinterested. It’s more and more about Americans not being able to travel the miles or take the hours to actually go do it. The fact that the Republicans have engineered this to affect the poor and minorities is not an accident.

I get your sentiment though, and thank you

@Nanuqi, not surprised at all.