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.
I’m tempted to use Président Ubu, but the reference is probably a bit too obscure.
I like “Agent Orange.” It suits him on multiple levels.
I have recently found an image that encapsulates my reaction to a hair short of half the population.
http://67.media.tumblr.com/c78d6a33b60a2cc63a82cb162bce1ff5/tumblr_ogblr5eGSC1vphi0io1_500.png
I’m focusing on the many things that make me happy in order to help deal with the bad news. As far as the fighting goes, I’m protesting by wearing all black (gonna donate and/or sell my colored clothes) and I plan to buy a few anti-Trump tees (black, naturally). One will say “America is already great!”, another will say “Make America Goth Again” and still another will say “Impeach Trump!”. (I will have to be careful wearing that last one in public; but, if I get any threats on my life, I can always say “Whoa! Calm down! This is not necessary! Besides, killing me will NOT stop me from voting!” This comeback is in response to the “dead people voting” fuss people were kicking up for a while and sometimes still are)
My favorite nickname for you-know-who is Troompa Loompa
On the one hand, Larfleeze is hilarious, so I hesitate to compare them. On the other, the comparison is too good.
Do I have this right, with the electoral collage system a bunch of politicians are elected to decide who will become president and the peoples vote is just to let these guy know who they would like to be POTUS but they’re still free to elect whomever the want?
@Laugher
Close to home for me, too. I was considering going but I had to stay late at the office and log in from home tonight so I decided it was too much to try and squeeze in. There was another shooting before it, too, but looks like that was gang related.
@Fabe: Technically, yes. But it’s very rare for someone to break ranks (known as a “faithless elector”), and in some states it’s illegal not to.
…I meant, illegal to do so. It double-posted, so I can’t edit the first one.
I’ve been playing Okami for the past several days and will probably continue to but at borderline binge level for a temporary escape and to feel okay for the next day.
Here’s something I can share: Big cats with pumpkins
@Snowberry
We’ve got a couple of Bernie holdout faithless electors in Washington state. It’s apparently just a $1000 fine here.
@snowberry
if the system works like that then it should be illegal in every state. other wise the peoples vote is worthless.
@kupo
A $1000 fine? for a politician I’m guessing that’s not a whole lot. might as well be they have to buy the first round of drinks at the gentlemens club that night.
I’m seeing some despair going around.
If the conservatives continue with vote suppression tactics, then liberals can’t win a majority without overwhelming support. If the dems throw the disadvantaged minorities under a bus, they’ll lose their vote. If they *don’t*, they’ll lose the vote of the small-town white folks with no meaningful job prospects and no real future. They wouldn’t be able to get an overwhelming support without both, at least not until the millennials hit their 30s and start really voting.
Or so some people seem to think. I’m currently neutral on whether it’s true or not. But if it was true, then the solution seems to be to give the small-town whites what they need, but not what they want, and somehow do so while at a severe political disadvantage.
Bingeing on episodes of The Atheist Experience from around the turn of the millennium. I love that show. Also reading the Canadian immigration site, now more out of idle curiosity than fear of the orange menace.
Here’s a few political and celebrity pep talks to help us carry on with the good fight:
http://www.refinery29.com/2016/11/129280/inspirational-messages-celebrity-reactions-to-election?utm_source=email&utm_medium=editorial&utm_content=everywhere&utm_campaign=161109-inspirational-messages-celebrity-reactions-to-election#slide
http://www.refinery29.com/2016/11/129284/inspiring-tweets-us-leaders-politicians-hope?utm_source=email&utm_medium=editorial&utm_content=everywhere&utm_campaign=161109-inspirational-messages-celebrity-reactions-to-election
And if you can’t even think about anything serious or about anything beyond today, here’s this:
http://www.refinery29.com/2016/11/129266/feel-good-movies-on-netflix-to-cheer-up-after-trump-win?utm_source=email&utm_medium=editorial&utm_content=everywhere&utm_campaign=161109-inspirational-messages-celebrity-reactions-to-election#slide
I hope any and all of these will help at least one of the amazing people here on this amazing site.
I wish I could have taken the day off, but I need the money. My job involves watching videos, I’ve had to watch trump gloating and clinton’s concession about a dozen times each today. Just all fucking day. I can expect more of the same all week. I’m getting through it with kitten cuddles and by promising myself something pretty and frivolous with the next pay check.
For some reason I’ve been binge watching Sex and the City for the past several hours. I don’t know why it’s what I need, but it is. Coping mechanisms take strange forms sometimes.
Yay all those weeks of learning japanese through core 2k anki are starting to pay off. I feel like I’m a bit closer to understanding Japanese without subtitles.
I’m currently watching Snow White with the Red Hair. I’m really liking this protag. She not only in the first episode escapes from being a concubine but also in the second episode actively tries to escape when she gets kidnapped. She even uses her skills of herbology to create a paralyzing gas to take out her kidnapper.
I actually instagrammed a picture of my latest shoe purchase (something I rarely do). And of the bottles of Jägermeister and Angostura I was swigging from the other night when the awful results began to come in.
I swore that if the Latino vote came through, I’d buy tequila and maybe some rum for a libation to the Gods. Looks like I can save the booze to just get plastered on.
Just wondering, has anyone been able to make direct email contact with Alinsky and give those leads and tips on medical discounts? I may not be up to date with what’s happened to them, and I’m actually crying now as I’m thinking about them.
I never heard from Alinsky, but my offer stands. 🙂
Thank you so much, Cleverforagirl, for what you did to help them. I still can’t help fearing the worst, but it’s great that you could reach for them and offer help in a way that I couldn’t.
There’s this website going around called National Popular Vote but I’m not sure it’s legit. I think it some sort of petition or bill that is hoping the the electoral college will vote for the popular vote. Anyone know anything about it?
@Jack
I’ve seen two separate petitions for that but not the site you mentioned. A lot of people are fed up after W and now this.
“Tyranny of the masses” yeah the desire to not want the most incompetent blowhard in the White House and the desire to have others be treated equally as stated in the Constitution is fucking tyranny. And no, the irony that the “populist” candidate had the electoral vote win doesn’t escape me.