When I finally went to bed late last night, there was a small part of me that hoped I would wake up this morning to find that Donald Trump’s improbable victory had been nothing more than a very bad dream.
Barring that, which I knew was a bit of a long shot, I hoped that I would at least wake up with the inklings of a plan for what to do about this catastrophe. I hoped I could write a rousing blog post sketching out my thoughts on the road ahead– for this blog and for the anti-Trump movement as a whole.
Alas, that didn’t happen either. I’m still processing the bad news, emotionally and intellectually. And I know a lot of you are doing the same.
And that’s ok. Trump will not take office until the end of January. There will be plenty of time to come up with ways to fight back against the orange one.
Right now the important thing is to take care of ourselves and those around us. Give yourself however much time you need. Avoid stress. Don’t beat yourself up for what happened, and don’t take out your anger on others on our side. Turn off the news if need be. Do whatever you need to do to clear your head and keep yourself safe.
In the comments here, feel free to continue the discussion that started in the “VOTE” post yesterday. And please share any self-help and self-care strategies you have — even if all you’ve got at the moment is pictures of cats and videos of hedgehogs.
If trolls show up, or if there is anything else that pops up in the thread that I should know about, please send me an email about it.
We can fight this thing. We can beat this thing. But first we need to get ourselves centered.
@Kobun37
I don’t have any great advice. I’m living in a blue county, so I feel pretty free to express myself in RL.
Does it help when you vent here or other online spaces?
To all of you, love and solidarity.
A relative in New York reports crowds standing around just weeping: something that has now happened 3 times in my lifetime (Kennedy assassination, 9/11, and Trump’s election).
Take care of yourselves and keep out of harm’s way, as far as that’s possible.
The next thing: if Trump attempts to actually fulfil some of his campaign “promises” – (threats) – there will be actual harm done very soon, to many people.
It means there will be much to resist and to oppose and to protect. It also means there will be people from all kinds of backgrounds and political leanings who will be horrified, who will have opportunities to wake up. That’s always grounds for solidarity.
The great storyteller Shonaleigh Cumbers (who learned the Ashkenazi Drut’syla tradition of women’s storytelling from her grandmother, who survived Auschwitz) posted something her grandmother used to say.
“When the world is crying, it doesn’t need more tears. What it needs is a handkerchief.”
So hey, remember how I mentioned that my Latino friend and his brother are also deaf? Which obvs means they need to communicate via sign language?
This will be their future, you shithells who voted for “destroying” Republicans and “not wanting an Establishment candidate” and what the fuck ever you dreamed of as an excuse to dodge guilt.
THIS is what the assnuggets Trump has drudged up and empowered will do to them, if not right now, in near future.
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cw8XNYVUcAAEL-A.jpg
(Source.)
@Kobun37 I don’t know what to tell you. I think that’s something that we are all going to have to figure out for ourselves, depending on our situation and what kind of relationship we want to have with the people in question.
I do know that I have had to block all posts on FB that snarked about people rioting ‘just because their candidate didn’t win’.
@ scildfrja & numerobis
A special person in my life is an immigration lawyer over there. She’s been inundated with calls. Both from existing clients terrified that they’re about to be booted out and potential new clients asking how they can get out.
Ironically another of our friends who’s an immigration lawyer herself is looking at asylum options; she’s (‘American’) Indian and she lives in supposedly liberal Tacoma. She’s still terrified though and this is someone who’s not been afraid to put herself on the frontline for all sorts of causes.
One thing to remember about the well founded fear of persecution test is that it shifts a lot of responsibility (blame?) back onto the applicant. So for example you may be entitled to protection if you’re persecuted for ‘merely’ being gay, but not for being openly gay or living a gay ‘lifestyle’. If you can avoid persecution by being ‘discreet’ then you don’t qualify. Similarly you may also fail to qualify, under whatever reason, if you can avoid the persecution by moving within the country. That’s why a lot of ethnic cleansing cases don’t count. If you’ll be left alone in whatever ghetto you’re forced to flee to then that’s no longer persecution.
Skiriki, if a fat chick with blue hair and a star wars shirt is staring at your friends, I promise I’m just eavesdropping. 😛
@Fishy Goat
Another point of hypocrisy from the Trump crowd: When Trump supporters were threatening an armed insurrection if Clinton won, not a peep. Protests against Trump winning, however? Completely abhorrent and just proving that the left are whiners.
I mean, hypocrisy is one thing when it’s an apples-to-apples comparison, but we’re talking about one side having people threatening to murder other people if their candidate didn’t win. I’ve already had to remind a couple Trumpsters of that, to no response whatsoever.
@Cleverforagirl
😀 LOL.
They’re all bad.
But number 2?
Wut.
5 Things Revealed in Megyn Kelly’s Memoir, ‘Settle for More’
Below are a few takeaways from Kelly’s memoir.
1. Donald Trump threatened her – multiple times. After a segment about him on her Fox News show, The Kelly File, Trump said he wouldn’t show up for his next scheduled appearance on her show unless she personally called to apologize. “I almost unleashed my beautiful Twitter account against you,” she says he told her, “and I still may.”
Trump again came after her when he heard that ahead of the first debate that Kelly had planned to start things off with a “very pointed question directed at him.” Kelly writes in her memoir that she considered that to be “bizarre behavior, especially for a man who wanted the nuclear codes.”
2. Kelly suspects foul play (poison?) ahead of her moderating that debate. She writes that a driver who took her to the debate venue insisted (repeatedly) on getting her coffee, which she reluctantly drank. Immediately afterward, she says, she was ill, vomiting so much that she wasn’t sure she could go on air. She never points the finger at anyone or claims anyone poisoned her, but Kelly does say the incident scared her enough that she told a lawyer.
3. Kelly also experienced sexual harassment at the hands of Roger Ailes. Kelly says that the former Fox News chief “made sexual comments to me, offers of professional advancement in exchange for sexual favors.” She says that he tried to grab her and kiss her on the lips, and when she tried to get away, he asked, threateningly: “When is your contract up?”
Kelly says she talked to a lawyer, “but I knew the reality of the situation,” she writes. “If I caused a stink, my career would likely be over.” Kelly also says that when she refused to publicly support him in the wake of Gretchen Carlson’s allegations, Ailes “engineered hit pieces about me online.”
4. She received death threats after the first presidential debate. Kelly writes that after the event, when Trump mentioned that she had “blood coming out of her … whatever,” “it was like he flipped a switch, instantly causing a flood of intense nastiness.” She received crude voice mails, death threats over the phone, and she says she had to take an armed guard to Disney World with her family.
5. Before all this, Trump tried to buy her good opinion. Kelly writes that before Trump seemingly turned on her, he tried to “shape coverage” of him by trying to buy Kelly’s friendship. He tried to let him pay for Kelly’s weekend at the Trump SoHo hotel. Kelly calls it “one of the untold stories of the 2016 campaign,” that Trump tried to get on the good side of several reporters. “I was not the only journalist to whom Trump offered gifts clearly meant to shape coverage. Many reporters have told me that Trump worked hard to offer them something fabulous — from hotel rooms to rides on his 757.”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/5-things-revealed-megyn-kellys-memoir-settle-more-946488?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_1289689
I hope no one minds if I post a bit of a rant. A former colleague of mine posted something on FB, but I know if I respond there I will get dogpiled by the other people commenting on the post. I can’t deal with that right now and I’m looking for a job, so I’m trying to stay quiet about politics on social media, but I’m having a hard time letting this one go.
This former colleague of mine made a post repeating the threat Trump made about putting Clinton in jail. Someone else later commented that he wanted to basically taunt Clinton supporters. (He actually used the phrase “winner, winner, chicken dinner”.) My former colleague commented back that no, they couldn’t do that because they were being the bigger person.
It just makes me angry that she is trying to claim the moral high ground after repeating a threat against a Presidential candidate. The original post was intended to taunt and threaten and yet she feels that she is being a gracious winner. If this is how they behave when they win, I’m terrified of how they will behave when things start to go wrong.
I was replaying Deus Ex: Mankind Divided this morning, and RNGesus the parallels were disturbing as hell.
I mean, sure, we don’t have the actual Illuminati behind the scenes. But when a random piece of dialogue is about how someone ratted out suspected Augs to protect the real people, you can just play Mad Libs with that sentence.
Hugs, ej. People like that are the absolute worst.
Didn’t a lot of people claim to have voted for Trump because they wanted to shake things up? Now they’re complaining because there are giant protests everywhere? Why? They’re getting their wish! The status quo was relative political stability. That’s gone. Careful what you wish for Trumpkins.
We should compose an archive or something of all those Trump supporters who threatened terrorism if he didn’t win, because there’s being a sore loser and there’s throwing threats of terror around.
In fact, we should make a great list of Trump PRATTs. Because there’s few things more infuriating than ignorance in the Information Age.
I mean, really. These people wanted chaos. Now they can’t handle it for two days?
@Kobun37
I’m in the same situation. For 10 years I have lived in a tiny, rural community in a red state, and being scornful and dismissive of the 70% of my friends and neighbors is a luxury I cannot, for the sake of my son, afford. I have never been able to freely express the full breadth and depth of my liberal self.
I find online places like this blog and one other to be vital outlets. Also, keeping in touch with my real-life liberal, feminist friends through Facebook has been a kind of salvation for me, people I can go to for guidance and to feel less alone.
As for how you treat Trump supporters: you have to decide for yourself. For me, even though I am an atheist, I believe in the principle taught by Jesus – love your neighbors. When the topic comes up, I respond earnestly and sincerely, but as politely as I can muster. I have long had to battle sexism and racism here – Trump being elected didn’t cause that – so I’ve had to pick my battles before this. I avoid posting inflammatory things on Facebook, but I also tend to not log in that much, either. If something is truly egregious – something that did happen yesterday – I will do what I can to call it out (as civilly as possible). I avoid name-calling and hyperbole.
I, personally, am not as angry as some, my emotions run more toward disappointed despair. I, personally, will not be as affected as many of my LGBTQ friends, my black and brown friends, my Muslim neighbors, my poor neighbors. I’ve done as much as I am comfortable with as far a announcing the kind of person I am online and off – liberal, atheist, feminist, supportive, caring. I try to stress that we all care about a lot of the same things – living a good life, providing security for ourselves and our children, being treated with respect and dignity, being afforded opportunities to realize our potential. I will be wearing a safety pin for the next 4 years. I will continue to speak out passionately and as lovingly as I can muster against sexism, racism, and xenophobia, against throwing poor people under the bus, and against enriching the already-far-beyond-rich in this county.
This is only what I do, so I can live with myself, have my self-respect, and still continue to raise a minor child in an area that politically disagrees with me almost completely. I can’t judge how anyone else chooses to respond. If anger and shunning are what work for you, do it. If you can protest, do it.
Life is compromises. I also look to our Madame Secretary’s gracious behavior as a role model (although I am not able to attain quite that level of graciousness myself). I’m trying. Good luck. Feel free to come here and talk to us about your experiences, there are a few of us in similar situations.
re: Megyn Kelly
She knows now what happens to “other”s who try to rock the boat. The temples of power are for white, cis, het, christian (protestant only unless we need a papist for something) MEN. “Other”s can come inside to serve the powerful, but they must sleep OUTSIDE and they can never, NEVER voice ANY dissent.
I tell them that The Cheeto does not give a [I say “rat’s ass”, insert appropriate metaphor] about you, he’s interested in enriching himself and his mega-corporate friends. Now I can point out that he’s already filling his staff with Establishment insiders. I tell them up front that he was elected to normalize hatred again (I’d like to say “you elected him to…” but that’s not always appropriate), and that before his term is up, all his supporters will have left is hatred.
Non troll question.
How can this election possibly harm feminism? i mean are constitutional protections THAT feeble?
Thanks.
(and no, im not american so i didn’t caused you any harm, thank you very much).
Alan Robertshaw:
Because even if you have well-founded fear, you also need to show that your state can’t protect you. If you can avoid the persecution by moving within the country, that proves your state *can* protect you.
You can still qualify as a refugee if your state could protect you in another part of the country, but you can’t get there — that’s how you can flee Northern Iraq into Turkey and be a refugee, even though you’d be fine in Southern Iraq.
Anyway, it’s going to be a while before there’s any formal refugees out of the US. In the meantime, Canada is preparing to actually receive a taco truck on every corner as undocumented Americans flee or are pushed out: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-mexico-visa-requirement-trump-1.3845957
With so many feeling unsafe, especially in situations where they must go from point A to point B alone through potentially hostile territories, I will be making myself available so they won’t have to be. I can at least do that much to help – we have a small and (sadly they are rightfully so) very worried Muslim community, especially the young women attending colleges in the local area. Orange County, California has had a number of race riot/hate crime incidents over the last few decades perpetrated by whites upon POC and LGBTQ victims. That they might now also decide to victimize religious communities is something we know is very possible behavior from the neo-nazis in the area. The good thing is that I’m seeing there are many of us who aren’t going to just sit at home and let that happen! I fully intend to explore other avenues where I can be an ally and show the fuck up to stand beside those who are most vulnerable.
With the people telling me that this is their country now, and all us liberals need to shut up and put up with it, that they’ll do what they want when they want to who they want….No, that’s not how it’s going to go at all. I will keep reminding them of the facts they conveniently want to forget, that they’ve never been without privilege and everything they’re spouting about the constitution, our laws, and what the framers intended – is utter bullshit. I will remind those 3rd party/conscience voters when they complain about how Trump’s actions as president are impacting them negatively that THIS IS WHAT THEY VOTED INTO EXISTENCE. And anyone who didn’t bother to vote at all? When they could have? They don’t get to complain and have me listen to any of it. Try again next election and vote, don’t and the ignoring will continue. If these assholes blame Obama or Clinton when Trump’s presidency doesn’t give them exactly what they want, I’ll be reminding them that it’s their side at the wheel, so it’s time for them to face that their party is responsible for driving straight off a cliff. And if anyone should go to snake island, it’s the bastards who voted Trump because they wanted to watch the country burn, and as long as the people they don’t like are getting hurt they don’t care that they voted against their interests, that they’re being harmed too.
They know good and damned well that if Trump had lost, they’d be violently protesting in the streets and organizing their right wing hate militia for another civil war in this country. They think they’ve won and we’ll just give in and accept this? No, that’s not how it’s going to go.
I thought you lovely people might find this useful when arguing with the “not racist” Trump supporters.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/11/10/the-cinemax-theory-of-racism/
@ numerobis
On another occasion I’ll relate some tales from my forays into the immigration appeal tribunal here. One story is quite funny and I think I’ve told it before, but there was one example that was so bewilderingly horrific that I would have said you wouldn’t believe it; although in light of how we know the world is, maybe you would.
@ kupo
Argh, I wish you’d posted that an hour ago! :-).
Been going round in circles with someone on Facebook. Gawd knows why. As people who’ve seen my Facebook will know it’s normally just stuff about donkeys. But got embroiled after he posted something on a friend’s page.
@Imaginary Petal
Appreciation. I reread our exchange. You are right. I see it now, but I didn’t then. That blindspot is mine to work on, but I have a huge assist from your clear, direct feedback, and I thank you for that. I am so sorry that my learning is at your expense; you did not need that at all. Best wishes for your recovery and good health.