And he is a terrible, terrible person. I just don’t think he’s as bad as Trump. Although that’s an academic distinction for the LGBT community, I’m sure.
Hardly – Trump is personally despicable but politically harmless. Pence has the expertise necessary to actually sign his hateful beliefs into law. Impeachment would not save us.
Trump isn’t politically harmless at all…he’s been preaching exactly what the GOP Congressional primary electorate believes. They’ll go along with it, they have to if they want any chance of keeping their seats.
This is how I describe it. You need to have surgery do you want the doctor the has been convicted of malpractice or the cook at Wendy’s. Trump has the potential to do genuinely bad things that in retrospect help literally no one simply because he doesn’t know what the fuck he is doing.
He supports “inalienable right to life” — that is, abortion illegal under any and all circumstances, including where necessary to save the life of the mother. He would literally rather the woman die than allow an abortion to be performed.
He supported fully defunding Planned Parenthood.
He voted “No” on every single economic stimulus bill and helped kill every bill which would have helped people avoid mortgage foreclosures.
He supports environmental and business deregulation for, well, everything. He supported stripping the Endangered Species Act of the power to designate “critical habitat.” He has voted against any funding for alternate power sources, and supports opening up all available land for oil drilling. He has consistently voted to dismantle pollution controls, and has supported legislation which limits private citizens’ ability to sue corporations for endangering their lives.
He supports and encourages police “stop and frisk” policies and votes no on everything which has been proposed to help tackle police bias towards minorities.
He has consistently voted to support enforcing prayer in schools, and consistently voted no for funding schools.
That doesn’t even cover all of it.
But I’m serious, if you think he’s less scary than Trump is, you aren’t paying attention. Trump is ultimately relatively stupid. Pence is able to carry through his threats.
This doesn’t even cover the fact that he supports gay conversion therapy. Tearing people down to make them not who they are and rebuilding them in your image. It’s literally programming and/or brainwashing and has caused plenty of people to commit suicide, but the people who do this shit are okay with that because at least they aren’t gay anymore.
Not only does Pence support gay conversion therapy, he actually rerouted money that was supposed to combat and prevent the spread of HIV to groups that carried out the process.
Pence doesn’t “support” completely defunding planned parenthood. That’s not a political issue where he’s part of some sort of coalition supporting existing leadership, or even a political issue where he inherited a leadership role. Mike Pence is the guy behind those bills. He is leading the charge to defund planned parenthood, and it’s the rest of the people on that who are supporting him. On this particular issue (though by no means only on this particular issue) he is on the far right of the far right.
And Pence wants women who have an abortion to hold a funeral service for the fetus.
Trump just wants some vague, unspecified “punishment” to be levied against those same women. And since he is undecided he’ll probably go with the Pence funeral idea.
Then the Speaker of the House becomes president. Paul Ryan has been in Congress since 1999, so he likely has the connections to keep the party together. Trump isn’t that popular with the Republican establishment, so moderates may be more likely to cross the aisle to maintain balance.
You keep believing that. There isn’t going to be any more ‘crossing of isles’ under Trump than there was under Obama. Look at all the frantic back-pedaling of every Republican who voiced a criticism of Trump or revoked their endorsement. A call from a wealthy donor, a thousand emails flooding their office, and suddenly they are on the phone soliciting votes for Trump.
My father, during the primaries, compared Trump to Hitler. Once the primaries were over, he began insisting he’d make a good president. I don’t understand how anyone can go from one of those extremes to the other.
Well, it’s either that or emigrate. The sad thing is that the Americans helped writing the memo “why letting a nationalistic xenophobic megalomaniac fascist wield power is a bad idea” in WWII and were seminal in establishing a multi-party democracy in Germany with considerable safeguards against critical agglomeration of power not actually capable of representing the will of the people with some detail.
But in the U.S. themselves, they still have the original system heavily tilted to preserving power to an incumbent elite which converges to a bad choice.
It still takes a bit of idiocy at each stage to pick the worst alternative, but less so than picking the greatest idiot straight from among a larger set of viable options.
David I’d love to immigrate, I’ve wanted to live in Canada long before this election even began because I’d stayed there for some months and absolutely loved it (in Alberta). It’s not an easy process though, even though it’s easier than it used to be, it’s still a “what do we gain by you living here?” sort of deal, and since I couldn’t afford college and only have experience as an administrative assistant at best, I’m way back in the line for potential immigrants. It could be more than 4 years before I’m able to finally even considered, and then longer before I’m actually able to move. TV stars make it look really easy but that’s because they’re worth so much that they’re gladly accepted.
I wouldn’t say “the voters have spoken”, since Hillary won the popular vote. We officially have the 4th time in U.S. history that the Electoral College results and the population’s results are different.
I’m pretty sure that if Trump behaves as he has in the past he’ll do something that can’t be defended by Republicans soon enough. It’s not they defend his behaviour much as it is; they just ignore it. If it’s something they have to vote on, that’s a different matter.
Yeah, he would have mocked Joyce for having been traumatized, and not worried about making it worse.
“This ridiculous cartoon caricature of a politician comes closer to being a real human being than the man who – at best, if we’re being really optimistic – came a hair’s breadth from the actual presidency” doesn’t actually make me feel any better
One elector vowed not to vote for Hillary, nobody’s made that pledge for Trump. Almost half the US has laws to punish Faithless Electors, several of which have gone red.
Trump’s campaign played heavily on the idea that his supporters were being marginalized. If the electors were to overturn a clear victory on their own initiative, it would only make things worse.
And sadly there is truth in that. Look at small town USA where all those big companies moved out and shipped work off to China etc.,
Yet profits are up, the NYSE is up, so everything is great right?
Nope, joe sixpack cant afford more than a can at a time and his kids school is crap, he has mandatory health insurance but not actual healthcare, Medical costs are out of a cybepunk dystopia, etc etc
And the dems choose the completely wrong option – they ran someone who got beat by a flaming no-name black senator with a Muslim sounding name after 9/11, and who was the wife of the person who signed NAFTA – brexit should have been a warning sign. This was a disaster I saw coming ever since she got the nom – and the fact that non-dems favored the competition should have been a warning sign, instead of something brushed off. They threw away youth enthusiasm and showed off their complete disregard for the deindustrialized in the process, throwing away votes that might have saved lives.
Clinton’s nomination will replace the 1983 manifesto of the UK Labour party as a touchstone for political failure on the left.
And the clintonites are already trying to shift the blame to anyone but their messiah; the fucking dem establishment need to be purged, top to bottom, of her creatures because otherwise we’re seeing a repeat in 2018 and 2020.
They should be resigning en masse after this, because it is not an exaggeration to say that they will have the blood of the queer and black dead of the trump presidency on their hands.
The left establishment across the west has failed completely, and I hope they realize it, because otherwise this is going to be a domino effect.
I was working in the polls all day during the election in California. At 3:00 pm pacific standard time, I heard that Trump “won” the election. 5 HOURS before the polls closed. The big rush that occurred during the primary at 3:30 to 8:00 didn’t show. How many people decided that they might as well not vote because of that report?
What really gets to me is that Hawaii would have gotten that report around NOON. And I think most states had polls closing at 8, some at 7. How many people decided that their voice and vote didn’t matter?
I don’t think Robin is trying to be even remotely funny here. She actually acts like she is concerned about Joyce as she seems to know about the shooting on the campus.
As far as her answer for working with men: as a female tech working with mostly male engineers – I find her answer is about half right. I never tried to be ‘one of the guys, or play the female card. I simply did my job. Dont’ expect respect to be handed to you, male or female, you have to earn it.
Most of the men I worked with were okay, when I had proved myself. I knew I was never going to be one of the guys, but I proved I was good at my job and that was all I expected to prove.
I think Robin is more concerned about her own political career, and just barely smart enough to realise that maybe she shouldn’t add victims of recent horrible tragedies to the list of people publically hating on her.
I honestly don’t read the character as dumb, just absurdly jaded and cynical about the process she is participating in, and more focused on winning first and worrying about policy later. Perhaps she was more like her sister at first, but slowly came to realize that, no, what she’s doing right now is actually the only path to power in her country. The characters would make much more interesting foils in that way, rather than “lol the liberal sister is oh so enlightened and the right-wing sister is a half-wit,” and in the time I’ve spent with this strip that seems more in-line with the kind of messages that Willis likes to communicate.
ANYONE ignorant enough to think Pence isn’t as bad as Trump needs to understand that conversion therapy is basically GITMO for LGBT Teens. FUCKING GITMO! Right down to electric torture, heated copper metal torture, needle torture, and all while being forced to watch gay porn “A Clockwork Orange” style! Not as bad as Trump MY TRANS PANSEXUAL ASS.
To be fair he’s got a 3 plus month buffer of comics. It would be funnier if Trump was currently curled up in a ball, kicking his feet and screaming “It’s not fair, it’s not fair!” at the top of his lungs on live TV. But he had no way of knowing that wouldn’t happen.
Heck, offer him a fashion model job to bolster his ego. Sure, it’ll collapse the fashion industry, but that’s a small price to pay if it means he doesn’t kill people anymore.
Probably not. Mark Cuban already offered him $10M to bow out, and that was during a time when the election looked like it was going to Hillary. Right now Trump’s eyes are just full of the dollar signs he knows he’ll get both during and after his term(s) as President. The combination of that and the huge ego stroking he is no doubt receiving right now probably can’t be bought off at any price.
Yeah, I never heard that one either. Actually, the whole term betrays a warped thinking. What a re you saying that you won’t be “safe” from women at large?
No. Don’t think that.
Bernie would’ve won. Hillary and the Machine conspired to eliminate his long shot by foul means. That’s one of many negatives causing people to vote against her.
At least, now our first female president can be a better person than HRC.
I feel ya newllend. It sucks. I got cocky and figured it’d never happen. And…I guess it has. Oy… I do like Woobie’s optimism though! Here’s hoping we can last long enough to ever elect a female President.
There is no evidence at all that Bernie would have won. The argument “people were annoyed that they couldn’t vote for someone more socialist, so they voted instead for actual modern Hitler” is ridiculous. Don’t make the mistake the UK has of assuming that the left-leaning candidate didn’t win because they weren’t “left-wing” enough. Not unless you want the right-wing to spend the foreseeable future completely unopposed.
Most of the Trump supporters that I know of supported him because they think he is going to “drain the swamp” and blow up the current form of government. He won’t, but they think he would. You know who else was actively calling to tear down the current way of running things? It was Bernie, and unlike Trump he would not repel people with his behavior. Bernie would have won easily. Joe Biden could have won as well if the DNC absolutely had to have an establishment candidate.
Throughout history, when someone distrupts “politics as usual” it’s from the right, not the left.
The argument “they voted for Trump because he was going to tear down the government” needs proof. Polls have been wrong. Predictions have been wrong. Trump got most votes with older, wealthier people. These are not the people who want to shake up the system. Several polls (yes, I know) show that immigration was the main reason people voted for Trump. If that is true, Bernie would be perceived as a much worse candidate that Hillary.
I’m not saying that Bernie would have lost. We don’t know. We likely won’t know. But the left tearing itself in two with a “too left-wing/not left-wing enough” argument had happened in other countries (UK, Iceland) and all it does is empower the right.
Our main parties are colour-coded the other way round in Britain. I found out about the US election result by spotting a graphic on someone’s phone on the bus. For a brief moment I was heartened by all that left-wing red, then…
Colour-coded the same way in Australia, although I was watching from the start and I knew the US colour scheme so I fortunately never suffered this betrayal of hopes – although since Australia’s time zone is suited for watching the votes be counted, I did suffer the whole slow, sickening experience for the full duration of vote counting until Trump was declared victor.
Jack is behind HIMSELF torturing for what he sees as the greater good, but would be dead set against the government doing it. It’s one of those “I do the dirty things and sacrifice my soul so that others don’t have to”. And, being that it’s a TV program, he’s usually right.
(It’s a bit like how Batman is an illegal vigilante despite generally being obsessed with other people following the law.)
You’re probably right that our rapist in chief won’t be a puppet – he’s far too uncontrollable to be able to reigned in by anybody, up to and including the republican party and the rule of law. I expect chaos and collapsing economies within the year as a result.
(If the republicans *can* control him, we’ll probably last eighteen months.)
FDR restored the economy and helped, Obama’s worst accusations were that he is a muslim and that he acts like a professor (he’s not a muslim, it shouldn’t matter even if he were, and I LIKE professors), and I don’t recall Bush asking why using the nuclear arsenal wasn’t an option
Also, Woodrow Wilson tried to establish the UN before WWII (well, League of Nations, but same thing). No, Trump is more akin to Andrew Johnson + George W. Bush with maybe a hint of Andrew Jackson’s temper.
And boy, did that work out well. His other achievements included presiding over the resegregation of several federal agencies, attacking civil liberties in the name of the war effort and spreading the civilizing influence of military invasion and occupation all over Latin America.
FDR’s constant economic tinkering made the Depression far longer and worse. Seven decades after his death, we’re still dealing with problems he created.
Dubya presided over an explosion of spending and resultant debt, not to mention dragging us into two wars that were questionably justified and prosecuted with massive incompetence.
Obama promised “the most transparent administration ever”, then prosecuted whistle-blowers at record rates. He promised to end Bush’s wars; instead he’s dragged us into new ones. He not only continued, but expanded domestic surveillance programs that violate the Constitution while delivering no demonstrable benefits. He claims the authority to order the killing of people (including US citizens) anywhere in the world in the name of the War on Terror, with no meaningful oversight.
Every 30 seconds or so since the hour I clicked refresh, desperate for something to take my mind off of what is happening. Not your fault, but I still feel empty. Best of luck to all of us.
Somebody tried to play a national anthem on the hacked Muzak and it crashed. Sorry, no soundtrack tonight.
*pulls out some fried circuit boards*
Tomorrow might be iffy too.
Habib Fanny, Version 2.0. New, improved, and now with cool socks!
“We put our big girl panties on.
We accept that we’ve lost everything: White House, Senate, House, and Supreme Court.
We organize.
We actually show up to the polls next time.
In the meantime we follow the law and abide by the constitution.”
Between work and this election, I’m broken. Just holding myself away from anything I can hurt myself with and mentally preparing to make the most of every day before I inevitably wind up in a concentration camp.
If it helps, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to offer you political asylum here in Vermont if it comes to it. Or passage through to Canada. We have a pretty good track record on things like that.
I want you to know that a lot of people care bout you and that you mean a lot to so many people. I also want to say that (as I said in my rant below) once I finish spending the next few months giving my three surviving friends as much support as possible, I’m going to be petitioning Prime Minister Trudeau to accept LGBT people from the US as political refugees. Because that’s the only additional thing I can think of to do. I am so sorry this happened. *hugs*
Ooh, that’s a good idea! I’ll write my MP about it, too.
Hey, everyone, if you can get to Canada, I believe all of our border provinces also will perform abortions with no issues (although you may have to stay up here for a while while they get the schedule sorted out). Prince Edward Island doesn’t, but you have to go through Quebec and New Brunswick to get there, so.
You won’t be covered by our medical, of course, but it’ll be cheaper than doing it in the States without coverage, at least. Plus we do them in hospitals rather than dedicated abortion clinics, so no protesters.
Not to dissuade you or anyone else, but there are plenty of other countries whose lgbt citizens need this more than the US, even a US run by Trump/Pence, as sad as that is to consider.
(I know I personally always look forward to seeing your comments in the comment section, though. ;~; It’s not much, like, I know it’s not the same as a friend giving you support right now, but I care about you as a fellow queer person and DOA reader, for whatever it’s worth?)
I just wanted to echo the sentiment of other people caring about you and that you mean a lot to so many people. I don’t really comment but I do regularly read the comments and your posts are always so insightful and moving.
My heart is breaking not knowing what I can do to help people…but I feel like I have to at least try and offer support to you and all the other LGBT members on this board…even if the words of an anonymous stranger probably won’t help much.
Also had to delurk to let you know how much you and your comments have meant to me the past couple of years. You’ve taught me about an entire Universe I never knew existed (I hail from a pretty damn Red state), and I am a better person thanks to your insight and patient teaching. The world really is so much better off with you in it, and I just had to let you know that. I’m so sorry we’ve let you down, but I promise we’re not quitting the fight.
And this is the answer to why Willis might want to end some plotlines. I know that I will find it very, very hard to keep reading as long as the focus is on some political thing.
For the rest, I’m just putting my head in the sand, and ignoring politics forever until I have to vote again. And then turning everything over to God in prayer. Being powerless like this and watching in horror is not remotely helpful.
he has a three month buffer though. probably not worth it to redo that much work just because something in real life happens to coincide with something people are unhappy about.
As a foreign national, I couldn’t vote. I wish to god I could have. I’m ashamed to admit I try to keep out of foreign elections – I don’t like to try to influence foreign politics. I should have posted more. For that, I am SO sorry. I failed. To every marginalized person, that apology goes DOUBLE. Not only did I fail you, so did your countrymen who should have protected you.
I can only imagine how hard this will be for you, but I promise you this is not the end. It ISN’T. Do whatever you have to do to survive. I have faith in you. All of you. Please, please hang on until he gets impeached/the midterms screw him/he dies/whatever. It will get better eventually. PLEASE.
And if you can’t hang on because you believe it, then do it out of motherfucking SPITE.
If Trump tries to o full retard, the Republicans will pay heavily in midterms. Self interest will serve as a brake on the Trump ridiculoussnes.
And the election isn’t over yet.
1) Now is an awful time to use that word. Even referencing that quote.
2) Assuming self-interest and conservatives acting rationally would stop him are why we’re in this mess. This cancerous blot on our democracy isn’t going to excise itself.
Trump has no skin in the game with the Republican midterms – those will not act as a restraint on him. The only restraint the republicans can possibly muster would be to impeach him – assuming he doesn’t just get fasttracked to jail over the sexual assault allegations.
Sadly, that is very unlikely. Criminal charges/jail would require one of his accusers to be 1) within the statute of limitations in her particular state and 2) actually stick it out and go to trial. All the trials and potential trials Trump is facing right now are civil, not criminal. Jail is simply not a possibility at this time, or probably going forward.
this isn’t just one person for four years it’s the entire federal government and oh the orange asshole also gets to pick a supreme court justice because they fucking wouldn’t let obama do it
you are SEVERELY underestimating how fucking dangerous this is
We can only hope the Democrats left in Congress pay back the Republican obstructionists with their own coin. It’s not the best way and it means the country would be stagnant for another four years, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Obstructionism isn’t going to work. They do not have the votes necessary in the House and the Turtle will simply ditch the filibuster in the Senate. The Democrats will be the opposition party with no teeth.
I agree, and we all saw what followed brexit: white people yelling at poc that they were gonna kicked out, being violent, “celebrating” their racist shitty oppinions… this is not gonna end well
“It’s not just him though it’s all the people who were suddenly given a voice for how much they despise people of color and lgbtq and muslims”
This was the exact fallout from Brexit. It’s not “58 million people are massive racists, sexists and homophobes”, but “people who are massive racists, sexists and homophobes now think that 58 million people agree with them.”
I am not giving up until the vote results are actually announced and that orange bastard is sworn in.
Then I am going to attempt to drop off the radar.
I can’t do anything. I’m numb. I had faith in the American people. I assumed we’d not elect the orange maniac rapist racist. But we did. I just…fuck. We put the world’s most powerful military and the largest amount of nukes ever in the hands of a man who throws a tantrum if someone says his hands are small. Fuck it. Fuck the 1845 law that makes Election Day Tuesday so farmers wouldn’t miss church. Fuck the gerrymandered to hell districts. Fuck the political parties. Fuck the electoral college. Fuck the fucking American people cause it turned out that the closeted racists and sexists can run our country. I did my goddamn fucking duty!! I voted! I played by all the fucking rules because I was told “If you work hard you can succeed” and that “America’s the freest country on earth” and all the other fucking bullshit!! I could count ever friend I have on two hands before this fucking bightmare started and now I only need one cause half of them died!! So what I’m going to do is do my damndest to make sure the three people that actually mean something in my life don’t die, then I’m using my citizenship by descent birthright to get the fucking hell out of this piece of shit country, and then I’m going start a petition asking Trudeau to recognize any LGBT or ethnic minority trying to migrate from the US as political refugees!! Then I’m going to buy as much booze as I can and drink until the nuclear holocaust breaks out. I’m fucking done with the US. God bless the Queen!
…
I’m sorry. I needed to rant. This was the only safe place I could. And to Cerberus: I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t help prevent this. And I’m sorry to every other trans-individual in America for this happening. I thought, I thought we were better than this. If there’s anything in that rant I’m going to do it’s that petition to Trudeau and the Canadian government. You, your students, and everyone who’s LGBT deserve better than this. I just, I just can’t apologize or sympathize enough. And please, please be alive to read this. You’re such a support for so many people and I just, just wanted you to know that you’re not alone. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
I know I’m not really anybody to anyone around here but
I’m so fucking terrified, me and my gf are both trans and i don’t know what’s gonna happen, she’s the love of my life like i was literally going to propose to her in two months and now like, what’s gonna happen to us now that the entire federal government will be controlled by people who fucking despise us who were voted in by a majority who fucking despise us
/Hugs to you. I’m having a hard enough time being an American citizen living permanently in Australia – I am afraid to bring my partner with me back to the states to visit my family now (And my family is in San Francisco area. they are great. rest of the country isn’t). I can’t even imagine living there right now.
I don’t have anything useful to say. Not sure that anyone does.
Like, while I read DOA everyday, today I specifically came here to read the comments to see how my fellow commentators (Who i value dearly, even only knowing them through these comments) were holding up. Because you all are amazing, and you deserve better than this.
Don’t wait to propose. That’s my advice.
No telling how the next few years will go, so do what you can now. Let her know you love her. And remind yourselves of that every day no matter how hard it gets.
I don’t know what will happen, but I hope it’s not as bad as your worst fears. Remember the good.
I’m nobody as well. Just… If you can, there are state-level protections on housing and employment against discrimination. If you can make sure you’re in one of those states, you’ll be a lot better off than some of us. I wish you all the best, really.
One party rule with a corrupt, bigoted, racist, egomaniac at the top. Sound familiar? How many decades to undo and how many will die this time. Proving yet again that people don’t learn from past mistakes.
Well, it’s been nice knowing you all.
Maybe we’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when …
Yes indeed. Hitler wrote a book of his life story, detailing exactly what he was going to do, and he did it.
Indeed, “those who ignore the past are forced to relive it.”
That is my biggest fear, WWIII is very possible at this point in time. And he will help it right along. USSR is already gearing up. China is pushing Japan. Trump has promised to dump Japan and make them support themselves.
If he is allowed to do so, he is going to completely destroy our system of allies.
So, I keep hoping for a miracle and that the vote tallies flip to Hillary Clinton.
I hate to say it but I’ve been saying for years that America is looking headed for a civil war. The extreme right is becoming ever more extreme and the rest are becoming less centrist and more left-leaning. I really hope I’m wrong, but it feels like an irreconcilable schism is building.
I agree. American “left” politics are generally centrist. But it seems to me that the people who identify as Democrats are leaning more towards the left- or perhaps I should say “away from the right”- than they used to. The comparison was supposed to be to America and its recent-ish history, not the entire political spectrum.
That was my point, and I apologise for not communicating it clearly.
To be fair, it’s not like “The Center” is some sort of set in stone line of which you can easily say if someone is one side or the other. “Left” and “Right” are only ever relative terms. So yes, US politics is generally to the right of European politics, but that doesn’t mean they can’t use the terms “left” and “right” as they apply to them.
To avoid talk about THE THING I’m ignoring for the next four years, I wonder if Leslie realizes Robin is entirely okay with playing the rules of misogyny.
To be fair to Robin, it’s not exactly clear what she’s okay with. She may be simply ruthlessly pragmatic, which in combination with the upbeat cheerfulness she’s broadcasting would result in the behavior we see here.
Sorry, we don’t get to ignore it. We need to fight it every way we can.
Even if we can’t oust him from power now, we can fight his message and not let his hateful message spread unopposed, and make sure those he would target they are not alone
I think that this is going to be a hard lesson for the idiot Republicans who hoisted Trump up for a canidate, his handlers who walked him thru the speeches,and the voters who voted for him: because they were so afraid of voting for a woman president.
I do hope you all like what you have done. He will not only take down the US, but anyone else who gets in his way.
And I continue to hope that the still running states will turn over a miracle total and that he loses.
Why? THEY’re not going to be the ones screwed over. To the rich white dudes, it’s no skin off their nose, except perhaps internationally if the dollar goes down like I expect it to. And even then, economy downturns always screw over the more disenfranchised the most.
Puh, OK, Joyce did not seem to take Dorothy’s comment yesterday as badly as I did. And it might have pushed her into asking what seems to be a very important question – at least dramatic enough to warrant a cliffhanger.
Yeah, you sure fucked that one up, aide. This is on you.
And will likely be showing up on Stitcher, iTunes, and TuneIn (TuneIn’s confirmed and I suspect the other two will be confirmed by the end of the week) for those who like to subscribe to their podcasts.
It’s a pleasure to hear the voices behind all the discussion. You two and Bagge are always my top priorities when it comes to scrolling through comments.
I’m flattered as heck that you would put me in the same list as them, but I feel like some sort of secondary list would be more appropriate.
I mean, I’ve only been reading the comments here since about August, but I can definitely say that Cerberus is responsible for me becoming a noticeably better, more enlightened person than I was before.
Many others have contributed to this, including some such as Norton, with whom I’ve often argued with at length. But if I wrote an autobiography, I’d feel obligated to mention Cerberus and Willis specifically in the chapter that covered this part of my life.
I absolutely feel the same way about Cerberus and Willis.
As far as the list of “top priorities when it comes to scrolling through comments” goes, however, my statement remains exactly as is. (there are plenty of others whom I absolutely enjoy paying attention to, as well)
Well, my job is toast, considering my work pertains to how combustion chemistry impacts the environment.
I’m hoping, though, that the electoral college protest and vote Clinton in or send it to the House. A normal Republican wouldn’t be great in most ways, but at least it wouldn’t be Trump.
If not that, maybe some very swift impeaching.
But either way, I’m staying (unless there are literally no jobs left for me here and I have to leave just to keep doing my work), because even though I voted for Clinton, this is still on me and all of us. And as one of the folks who actually can get out, who is in a position to get out, it’s especially important that I don’t.
As an Italian dude, I just want to say my country is always going to give help and asylum to all who need it (the extremists parties are a minority, and will always be). Just… I want to give my support to you guys. Hope it doesn’t go too much to hell.
“The extremist parties are a minority, and will always be.” Please dear god or whatever higher power exists please do not make that mistaken assumption!! Look at the US!! If that doesn’t work look at the Weimar Republic!! If that doesn’t work look your own country eighty years ago!! I cannot stress how much you must not take that sentiment for granted! Because if democracy becomes to relaxed, then demogagues take power.
The leader of Italy up until 2011 has been involved in multiple court cases including tax evasion, bribery, and abuse of office.
I don’t want to do a “my leaders are better/worse than your leaders”, and Italy is definitely in a better place now than when Berlusconi was in power, but as others have said, things can get worse really, really quickly.
it all depends if the Lega Nord has a new leader…
If the ultra right wing roman squatting movement keeps ties with the right wing hools…
If refugees are really welcome…
If EU border countries don’t leave the EU and barricades themselves letting Italy and Spain be the only south gate….
If the economy doesn’t hickup…
Otherway, di anni di piombo are not far…
Unfortunately, that was true in the US until yesterday. G Willow Wilson has just tweeted that Egypt went from business as usual to tanks in the streets in two days. It can happen without you realising.
While googling for the Alison Bechdel cartoon I was referring to, I noticed the words have been taken to describe Trump followers.
Sorry, that was not intentional.
Anybody that’s feeling super alone and surrounded and disregarded tonight, please don’t. Know that you’re loved — even by strangers — and you’re valued.
The only thing I say is to look out for 2018. There’s still a chance to change things.
Also as someone from the UK I apologise in advance for all the dickheads where I’m from acting smug about this in anyway in the near future. It happened in the Bush years. It will probably happen now, even though the worst parts of this Trump and his supporters has its inescapable roots in us. Even after Brexit.
I’m sorry.
There’s still 2018 to make some of a turnaround. Please keep going, even if only out of spite who seek to destroy.
We’re going to have to make a concerted effort to get out the vote in 2018. Turnout on midterm elections has always favored the GOP in the past, and that’s something we’re going to need to start working to change as soon as possible.
Best case scenario is The Don doesn’t live up to 75% of his election policies like most populist politicians do (We have a lot of those in Greece)
Worst case scenario he attempt to, and I have no idea how this will will turn out. I can’t even process it. It’s like asking “What if Cthulu made an army of non-euclidean Metal Gears and invaded earth ?”
This whole elections was stupid. Like, weapons grade stupid. Like stupidity was architecture ? This would be the fucking Parthenon.
So this is funny. Not “ha ha amusing” funny, but sadly funny.
Lots of people know how you feel, America. The UK, really. We know how you feel. We’ve done this rodeo twice recently- not with someone as extreme and awful as Trump, but twice nonetheless.
I was so hoping America would prove better than us. Apparently not.
A few days ago a friend posted a funny thing- at least, it was funny at the time- a chalkboard sign with the following on it.
“America and Britain are having a competition on who can fuck themselves up the most.
“Britain is in the lead, but America has a trump card.”
I guess America just had to take first place… My fear is the way this will affect the rest of the world.
I’m glad that my first presidential election as an adult is one where half the country revealed that my life is worth less than their fucking ideals. where queer, poc, neurodivergent people’s lives are not as important as giving a rapist, white supremacist, orange toe scum the presidency. I am so angry, upset, and scared. The worst part, I can’t be upset and take comfort from my family or “friends” because they probably voted for trump or abstained, and I can’t tell them why I’m so upset, because coming out would put me in danger financially, emotionally, and physically. And that fear is here to stay, as the next four years will be a constant reminder that the country that I grew up in doesn’t give a shit about me, or the people I love.
Stay strong. If not out of hope, do it out of spite.
Trump may have won the election, but he lost the popular vote. That’s still a horrifying number of people voting for hate, but it’s enough to build upon
Dear American DoA readers and Willis — I’m so sorry, I’m so angry, I’m so afraid for you. Rethinking major life decisions about moving to America within a couple of years. Stay strong, hugs from halfway around the world.
Before anyone panics, I want you all to remember one thing; Trump is not a politician. He has never held public office, never made a gov’t decision, and its entirely likely that he wasn’t the one making major decisions at his own businesses. And he’s decided to start off as goddamn POTUS, the most challenging political office in the Western world right now.
And he’s doing so as basically the Western Duerte, for all the confidence and trust any other world leader has for him. (Putin just sees possibly a very attractive lapdog). The same can be said for at home, where moderate conservatives/Republicans are quietly weeping into their bourbon at what their party has become.
Are there hardliners who will stand beside his crazy ass politics because of their constituency? Yes. Are there social conservatives currently jizzing their pants at the idea of using Trump to roll back 50 years of progress until things are “the way God intended”? Sadly, yes. But its the same number as there were before election day, and Obama was never their main obstacle.
So here’s what: Trump will be sworn in (barring last minute coup from Hillary/Congress), if only because the narcissist could NEVER pass up a chance to preen on the global stage. But it’s my honest belief that he’ll resign. Probably within his first year. If he can’t take criticism and doesn’t like being opposed, the Presidency will quickly lose attractiveness for him cause that’s like 90% of the job. Either he’ll drop dead of a stress heart attack or he’ll resign.
Honestly, I think the law is not the largest concern. I could be proven wrong- after all, I didn’t think he would get in at all. But I believe the vitriol that Trump supporters have shown and the overall hostility that has increased towards minorities is the larger concern.
The citizens will make life worse for certain groups than changes to the law will.
And honestly, I’m not sure whether being proved wrong would be better or worse than being proven correct.
Yes. Regardless of anything else (and I anticipate anything from surface business-as-usual with continued and accelerated inequality to major rioting or new wars) the violence and discrimination that already is so prevalent (law only works when you have the ability to apply it) will become much, much worse. How can it not, when all the bigots have the entire government on their side?
“Either he’ll drop dead of a stress heart attack or he’ll resign.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I’d accept that. Not that I wish any kind of early demise onto Mr. Trump, but if something like that *should* happen then that would be an obituary I would take a great deal of pleasure in reading.
Pretty much everyone thinks he’ll basically let Pence run the country, like he promised a different VP choice. He just wanted the prestige, not the job.
Problem is, Pence is not a friend to the LGBT community at all. He supports gay conversion therapy, for example. And the Supreme Court is coming up.
The main thing I pray for at this point is that Trump does what I said, and that none of the other Justices drop dead. The people who voted for Trump/Pence won’t get what they want, and so he’ll be out by 2020.
Pence might actually a bigger danger than Trump. There was always a chance that president Trump would be a loud-mouthed, incompetent buffoon more than actually dangerous, but Pence is a career politician and we know where he stands.
This. Pence is a champion of LGBT reparative therapy, has fought dedicatedly against even the remotest public accommodation for LGBT folks, and has supported groups who have our elimination as a major policy goal.
Not to mention that our carny-handed mango-man president elect has stirred up a whole basket of deplorables who have spent the election season particularly targeting trans folks, jews, racial minorities, and poly folks and actively trying to drive them to suicide for fun, attempting to get them fired, and making endless jokes about gas chambers coming back when daddy’s back.
And well, the worst part is that he ran an openly fascist campaign and it worked. It even countered what most people would have assumed would be deep negatives like his total lack of qualification for president. Which means for the next decades if we survive the next 4, every dedicated white supremacist terrorist in America will think he has a chance to be next. He’s also vindictive and holds long grudges. How long do you think the groups I belong to will stay off his shit list?
And we’ve seen those deplorables be empowered this election, the open anti-semitism of Trump’s followers to the media, the massive increase in “just a troll” serial harassers, the increase in neo-nazi groups openly rallying and believing they have public support, and the amount of violence among Trump supporters against those they perceive to be their enemies.
I’m visibly queer. I fought too hard for too long to hide it. Trump and Pence have promised to try and destroy the health care systems that have kept me alive. Additionally, I’ve fallen afoul of the “deplorable” types too many times in the past simply because I exist with the identities I do and to some people that means target. I’ve nearly been murdered 3 times in the last 4 years simply because of what I am.
And every rapist in America now has proof that America views rape so casually that a man who openly sexually assaults 6 year olds on stage in front of major crowds and admits to enjoying regularly sexually assaulting the women who are unlucky enough to befall his path was handed our most important political seat because he’s not a filthy woman creature.
When I say the physical safety of me and my students are made so much more worse by this election, I’m not engaging in hyperbole. Some of us will be beaten, some of us will be killed, and giving the volatility of the folks who will be running the country with full support for at least two years, who openly flouted the rule of law to prevent black people from voting and who have openly turned on democracy when it hasn’t supported their universal clinging to power… And the stated desires of their most fervent fans as well as the casual way Trump has supported the bringing back of concentration camps for muslim-Americans, latinx folks, and others that fall under his ire means that I know that things are going to get really bad for folks like me.
Like, unspeakably bad and there might be a genuine risk that folks like me will be scapegoated and rounded up. I’m a stubborn old bongo, I’ll endure as best I can, but I’m terrified for the people I’ve fought for so long to keep alive and keep going and right now the only hope I’m clinging to is that when it comes time for me and mine to be sent to the camps, that I’m at least sent to the same one as my loved ones.
Trump’s complete incompetence and the fact that he may not be entirely sure what a president is would be, independently of the fact that the few coherent things he’s said are indescribably evil, be a reason that no decent person could vote for him and he shouldn’t have been let anywhere near even being allowed to run.
But since both are true, the former may dampen the latter. Yay.
Trump cannot handle criticism, but now the nation has handed him control of the mechanisms that can:
A) Violate the 4th Amendment – There is no longer any such thing as illegal search and seizure where the federal government is involved thanks to the Patriot Act and similar legislature.
B) Violate the 6th and 7th Amendments – The various aspects of the Patriot Act allows the federal government to arrest anyone without charging them with any crimes and allows these prisoners to be held without trial indefinitely.
This is particularly troubling since Trump has promised for years now to find ways to also violate the 1st Amendment in many different ways (use the government to impede the free press as well as use the government to promote Christianity). He has also actively promoted eliminating or ignoring the 14th Amendment (birthright citizenship). His party has been finding creative ways to violate the 24th Amendment (banning poll taxes) and he will put in place a SCOTUS that will ignore these violations.
Yeah, this is going to be a complete shit show. I need to seriously consider getting my transgendered child out of this country in order to protect him. Maybe myself and my children will also avoid having our healthcare taken from us since we all have LG-MD and pre-existing conditions is about to become a real thing again. I can’t help protect the other family members that will become second class citizens under Trump (or more accurately, under Pence and the soon-to-be Attorney General Rudy Giuliani). I am legitimately concerned for my two mixed race niece and nephew as they will be subjected to the national stop and frisk policy that Giuliani and Trump have advocated.
Well the comments have already spiraled out of control so here’s my crap. I’m a Caucasian cis female polysexual atheist democrat in her 30s who’s legally disabled and when I found out Trump won, my friend had to talk me down. It’s not something I take lightly, but our future Hitler clone president is the first one that has ever scared the hell out of me. She’s made me promise to call my doctor tomorrow.
Hope? That’s what me a few hours ago had. It’s what I posted about under yesterday’s strip. After being ripped apart by a woman I have looked up to for most of my adult life, hearing the waves and waves of bigotry in my town, and this, I have none left.
I won’t tell you to hold on to hope, but don’t give up. Hope is… optimistic, not giving up can be… other things. You aren’t alone. You have support and people who care for you (hell, even if it’s just the people here, it’s still people). This shit fucking sucks, but don’t let it be an end.
This is probably going to suck for a while, and it will get hard, but you can get through it.
Spite may not be a magic bullet that can replace hope, but I know that it is possible to not only survive, but to be happy out of spite. It can end up being a dark sort of happiness, but it can be enough to get through some rough places.
The world owes you so much better, and you’ll be in my thoughts in the days ahead.
Thanks. I have read all what yall said, but I’m too mentally and emotionally exhausted right now for conversation or proper thanks. Give me a few days all I’ll be able to support and discuss, but right now I can’t.
To all of you US-Americans: I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t believe this would happen.
This is a dark day for the U.S., and probably the world.
Here’s hoping that most of what Trump said was just campaign rhetoric.
Either way, there is still his vice president, who may well be the worse of the two; though as a German, I have an outsider’s perspective, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Also, I’m not sure the Hitler comparisons are adequate. Hitler was, simply put, a mad fanatic. Trump, while an egomaniac, strikes me as more of an opportunist, who will say anything to get what he wants. As I said above, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes back on a lot of the things he said during the campaign.
Even so, I’m inclined to disagree. If Trump starts World War 3 and errects concentration camps, then when can compare him to Hitler – but at that point it will be moot anyway.
Yup, and the worst part is that when Hitler rose to power he didn’t have the support of a majority of German voters. A man who has openly studied and admired Hitler and casually stirred up all manner of anti-semitic bigotry and literally quoted and promoted neo-nazis among his followers, including some to run his very campaign, does.
I’m not sure we’re ready for what occurs when a wannabe fascist leader knows he has the full support of a majority of the country he is about to run and that the country literally does not care what rules or laws he flouts so long as he supports their rabid hatred of everyone not like them.
It’s going to get ugly and I have no idea how I’m going to keep all the people I need to keep safe, well, safe.
This was not a normal election or a normal candidate, despite our media’s attempt to pretend otherwise, and the consequences on our nation will be felt for decades if not longer.
And it’s worth noting that before Hitler came to power, there was the Weimar Republic, which included quite a number of rights for queer folks, including trans folks as well as protections for racial minorities and women.
In some ways, Germany has not fully gotten back to where they were and we lost a whole major chapter of research when they burned Hirschfield’s Institute.
This will get bad and I’m not sure how to get back enough faith and hope to keep reaching out and keeping alive my communities.
Don’t worry too much about Pense; he was Trump’s bribe to the GOP establishment to get them to fall in line. The powers of the Vice President are quite limited (the biggest job he has is managing the giant herd of cats known as Congress and that’s more symbolic than practical) so long as Trump’s health holds out.
He hasn’t hired a talented crew that’s for sure. Newt Gingrich is slated for State Department, which is particularly insane. I doubt if Newt knows the difference between Sunni and Shi’ite, let alone knows where Allepo is. There are nearly 1000 armed groups in Syria. HRC & Kerry had formidable intellects and I suspect they never fully grasped the situation. Newt, otoh.
For all the bellyaching abt Clinton being beholden to Goldman Sachs, he may well appoint Goldman Sachs veteran Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary.
I’m not sure if you’re serious, and I’m not all that familiar with the US political process, but I’m pretty sure no. Brexit was a referendum, and despite some of the politicians saying they’d abide by it, it’s not actually legally binding. From my understanding, impeaching Trump would require a congress majority (I think someone mentioned upthread that it was 2/3?), and since congress also went red, that’s not happening. Even if it did, you’d get Pence, and honestly I’m not sure you’d want that (assuming Pence isn’t going to be making all the policies anyway, which is a reasonably sized assumption). Maybe if congress turns radically blue in 2 years from now, you’ll get a chance.
I’m waiting for it to become known that Russia blackmailed him.
Actually, there are national security experts who had become convinced that Russia’s plans were to use Wikileaks to tear down Hillary, then unleash all the stuff they got on Trump to throw the whole country into disarray. Impeachment might be a very real possibility, and the end result will be at best a dramatic increase in white nationalist groups carrying out more domestic terrorism than they already do.
The notion is that they are sitting on what he has in order to damage him and our country once he does get into office. Don’t you think it is remarkable that all of the e-mail leaks were exclusively about making her look bad? There is no way that so much was found about her without anyone checking his accounts out.
Thinking about it, the next few strips might be Robin’s redemption in the eyes of readers. If she sits down with Joyce and unequivocally condemns Ross’s action as being in violation of all of the principles of the American family or just shows empathy. Lacking a pre-scripted response, we might see the real Robin rather than her speech-writers.
I’m still cautiously optimistic that all his talk is just talk, and I’m hoping he won’t fuck things up too hard. Maybe I’m deluded, but I don’t think it will end up as horrible as we’re all afraid it will. Be prepared, anyway.
It’s been a terrible day. Uncertainty in my success as a freelancer. My boss declaring that she will not compensate me if I obey a subpoena that HER attorney filed (since she claims last minute we won’t be needed until tomorrow).
And then the results.
Here I thought kicking a guy when they were down wasn’t classy.
“Brexit”, we call it here. But yes, hate crime- and non-crime- is a huge concern, probably larger than the actual policies Trump enacts. I would be interested in finding out how much hate crime has increased in America since election talk started.
It’s definitely my number one concern at the moment. This country regardless of whatever policies or statements Trump makes (and we know he has a tendency to lash out and blame minorities every time he hits a setback, see his organized targeting of the “globalist” media in the last few weeks and his promises to do away with Freedom of the Press) has become a much more dangerous one for anyone visibly the other.
And Bob help me, I’m not sure how I’m going to protect all my trans babies when I can’t even stop my campus from actually giving a fuck when they are raped and bullied and driven to suicide attempts.
I dunno, I wish people could somehow make me believe again that I can save them from a world that gleefully wants them dead. That I can carve out one little refuge in my one little corner of the world. That I’m not just pushing around sand and hitting the snooze button on the inevitable.
But that’s a somewhat impossible request to make of folks. Which just makes it a question of finding a means of resetting and continuing the fight, cause the fight is going to get more and more important in the coming years and a lot of rights we took for granted will go away and need to be refought for.
That’s so true, believe me, we are VERY clear over in Europe of how true that is, not only from historical horrors but recent examples as well.
But something I truly believe with all my heart is that even if the clock will ring eventually, hitting the snooze button is worth it. Every time. Each day you keep even one of them – even yourself – safe is worth it. Every time.
For me, this was the day I got in touch with the local office of the green party I vote for and asked when their next meeting is. Obviously we need better politicians. I suppose it will have to be me.
Okay, I’m going to take today to cry and feel like shit and be really scared and then tomorrow I’m going to try and turn this all into anger and use that anger to fight for my students, to keep them alive every minute I can do so, to fight for my people on the streets. To resist and go down swinging.
Well, then take Billie’s advice for once (and for the love of God – ONLY this once): Spite can be useful.
And yes, every student, every trans person, every single person who is oppressed right now that you manage to save, just for one more day, IS worth it. That’s the whole POINT.
My favorit example of that is Fadumo Dayib. Who knows, maybe one of your student will be the GOOD president we all hope for one day.
As for me…. yeah, I suppose there can be worse political role models than Dorothy. (Also: Cis privilege textbook example of the day – how Bagge and Cerberus each are affected by the election).
I don’t know if you’ll see this now or if it will help but I want to tell you about about myself.
I am a 29 year old transman. I come from a home which was extremely abusive- leaving me with PTSD that was basically “hardwired” into my mind due to it being in my formative years. I grew up mostly knowing fear and shame exacerbated by bullying at school. I attempted suicide for the first time at 16 after years of self harm.
I am okay. I am better than okay. I am doing incredibly well. I started transition at 20- and despite having a psychiatrist try to sabotage my transition and a gender specialist tell me I “don’t deserve treatment” I persevered. I found a wonderful man six years ago and married him two years ago. And after years of crippling mental health I am now learning to become a counsellor- a very tough thing to learn- so that I can help others. I am actively building my life, my future, day by day. Right now.
I know I’m not in America and I know every person, every experience, everyone is different. But giving young people a memory to hold on to as they take on, overcome and leave behind their challenges will do so much for them. You can’t take their burdens and you can’t give them a perfect world, but never underestimate what that kindness can do for them.
And never underestimate what they can do for themselves. If I’m anything, I’m happy to be proof that we can overcome so much and become strong, loving, wonderful people.
If Cerberus has turned in for the day and doesn’t read it, others will. Thanks for sharing.
What you had to go through was bullshit of the smelliest kind, and I’m glad (as I’m sure all of us are) that things turned out great for you. And good on you for choosing to help others – things in (most of) Europe aren’t as bad as in the US (though I think you’ve posted elsewhere that you’re french? The gloom that is LePen looms, I’m sorry 8( ) but I’m willing to bet they’re still far from easy, and every little bit helps.
I’m English, so we’ve had political bullshit of our own going on recently, yes. And you’re right JBento, things still aren’t easy because of that but I didn’t want to undermine the different experience of those in America.
Thank you for your kind words.
This is something I’ve been thinking about myself. Maybe not running for office (I’m already living in a rather progressive area), but something more protective than I’m doing now. Merely “Not being a hateful bigot” isn’t doing enough anymore.
If we can take ANYTHING positive from this fiasco I suppose it is the insight that it is up to us. There will be lot of people who need our help now, and we can give it to them.
And we can still have Hope.
And we will still make the world Change into a better place.
You will do a lot of good in the arena you chose to do so in.
Now that it’s an excepted thing…In the light of day I don’t think this is the apocalypse. I think we’re stuck with four years of an uniquely unqualified president niave to the circle jerk of uselessness our political system is. It’ll will be four years of bravado but nothing actually happening. No wall, no WW3, no mass deportation or Russian invasion, just four years of ego stroking and loudness with nothing actually happening.
At the very least, we’re looking at rolling back all the liberal measures instigated since the 60s – EPA gone, no medicare, Obamacare gone, Roe v Wade reversed.
Congress should do it’s traditional role of holding back the president but Congress, and the Senate are red, and there’s an open spot on SCOTUS.
The other problem is that Trump is genuinely unpredictable.
He may just glory in being president, and paint the White House gold. He may become bored with the whole show, having less power than he thought he’d get, whatever it is he thought he’d get. The downside is that someone in the shadows will step forward with a darker vision.
Then again, he may take it into his little head to actually do something like dismantle NATO or invade the ME.
He can get a judge on the Supreme Court right off the bat, and probably 1-2 more during his term. Also, unlike most of recent US history, the congress and the president are of the same party. It’s not carte blanche, but it’s a lot of freedom.
Our democracy is run on a system of checks and balances for reasons just like what has happened. We have to rely on them and hope the red party really hates Trump as much as they say they do. It won’t be a fun four years or optimistically two and a half because presidents don’t do anything in re-election years (keep to that trend Trump!) but I think we’ll live and hopefully learn from this.
He openly does not care about the rule of law and the SC slots he is very likely to be set to fill means he can make sure that the SC backs whatever lack of rule of law he wants.
Like, given all Obama was able to use Executive Orders and the DOJ to try and protect at-risk marginalized folks, imagine what a Trump who believes he is untouchable will be able to do.
Things will get way worse than most people think and I just hope it doesn’t get as bad as how bad I fear it will get given Trump’s campaign promises and rhetoric.
Listening to the radio this morning, it sounds like he isn’t going to try and put Clinton in prison.Which is good because that was a horribly bad idea. But on the other hand, so much for campaign promises..
On one hand, that’s the creepiest Momo I’ve ever seen. On the other hand, you could have fucking Nyarlathotep and it still wouldn’t beat current reality, so it’s a toss-up.
guys, dont worry. youll all be fine, okay? im sure trump wont qctually accomplish anything. just stay safe and protect eachother. hopefully trump will die soon anyway
He’ll appoint at least one person to the Supreme Court (if a miracle doesn’t happen with recounts) which, as we’ve seen quite recently, is enough to do things like get rid of the Voting Rights Act. And SC appointed are for life so the damage could last for decades.
like im really worried about disabled people, other trans women of colour, immigrants, really any lgbt person anyone whos gonna be in danger bc of this but this helped w/ the anxiety
The Republicans will be happy to put the suggested ultra-right-wing judges into the Supreme Court.
The Republican-dominated Congress intends to roll back the ACA as Trump promised.
The Republican-dominated Congress intends to tear up all the climate treaties, gut environmental protections, deregulate business, immediately rescind the Iran nuclear deal, and are enthusiastic backers of withdrawing from NATO.
So the idea that Trump’s damage will be held in check is, I now think, hopelessly and insanely optimistic.
Because they will roll back ACA. They can, now. And they will.
He has a recurring cancer. He has spent literally all of his and his family’s life savings paying for treatments before the ACA came into effect. The fact that insurance can’t deny coverage for pre-existing conditions under the ACA is what saved his life. When that requirement disappears, the insurance companies will drop him like a hot rock. And he has no more money. None. He’s still paying off debt from the last surgery.
Without the ACA, he will die. Probably within the next year or so.
So all this “hey guys you’ll be fine” — life is not a Disney movie. There is no guaranteed happy ending. People die too young, and they die hungry or sick and afraid. As long as those are just a backdrop in your life and you’re happy to not think of them as real people who mean anything, you can buy into the “it’ll all be fine, nothing too bad will happen” bs. But people don’t come back from the dead, religious myths and zombie movies aside, and families which are devastated by loss tend to stay that way.
So spare me, okay?
……………..Oh, by the way. I hope you didn’t like the climate much and don’t care too much about endangered species, because there are a few tipping points there, too, that we can’t come back from.
*hugs* Yeah, I have a few friends that are going to die now because of the very likely ACA repeal and I doubt that a lot of things that health insurances have been forced to cover will continue to exist for much longer which will likely put another large swath of friends and myself at risk for death.
Survival is all we have now. Surviving out of spite and the request to humbly die so some old racist fucks can continue believing its 1849 and that all this diversity is somehow a secret liberal plot.
This thread has given me hope. I knew as a Democrat voting in Texas that my state would stay red, but I had really hoped for change in other states. I’m depressed, embarrassed, ashamed and scared to be honest. I have two daughters, and I’m worried for them.
I can’t today, America, I just can’t.
Count me in with the group who is finding it very difficult to be charmed by Robin right now, and it’s usually pretty easy to charm me. :-/
I have already mentally named Trump ‘President Most Likely To Nuke His Own People.’ He’ll have the nuke access and the supply, he’s got the infantile tantrum temper, AND he’s got a thoroughly red Congress to enact whatever insane vengeance his overstuffed ego requires whenever he wants it.
Okay, I can’t even make it to work today, but I believe I can at least do this, because analysis of this wonderful comic is what’s holding me together right now.
Panel 2: So in every hate movement, there’s always one or two individuals with the traits despised by the movement that the movement ducks behind every time they are called out on their bigotry. Phyllis Schlafly for the organized anti-women movement. Peter Thiel and Milo Badbleachjob for anti-gay-rights. Herman Cain for the neo-KKK.
And the reason they are there is because there’s a perceived safety in being the pet. Cause if you’re the pet, you’re not the target and the hate movement will tell you you’re different, that you’re not like the group they hate, and you’ll be given an honorary dominant group designation subject for removal the second you don’t dance perfectly to their tune.
And so that DoA Robin finds herself in such a role makes sense. In the other universe she wanted desperately to fit in, to not care about the issues those like her face, escape the limitations of her origins. And without a caring group of government agencies, retail employees, and the love of a woman that reached through to her like nothing else, Robin can’t work through that.
And so instead she embraces it. As Panel 3 Roz notes, yeah, that’s in the textbook regarding the trap of “the cool girl”, but in the textbook, that’s treated as negative.
Robin doesn’t consider it negative because she has sold her soul to a political movement that hates her, who has now in her universe elected a man who wants to deport everyone like her and whose right hand man would electrocute her if given half the chance.
Her whole sense of self is resting on this just being how girls like her survive. As the only road. Because if there’s no other road, then how could she be blamed for the many wrongs she has committed in her stewardship of this congressional district?
And that’s tragic, heartbreaking.
Even though my sympathy for that heartbreak is limited, because of how she, like so many of her types in the real world, fuck over the lives of the rest of us in their mad rush to be seen as “one of the only good ones”.
Panel 5: Poor Leslie in that panel. I think she’s realizing how unsafe a space she has made her class today in her quest to see Robin again and for this special lesson. And you know that she likely sent a special note on her request a week ago that just went horrendously ignored.
Panel 6: But at least Robin seems to be self-aware in a way that her real-world president-elect counterpart isn’t. Unlike him, she realizes she just done fucked up and that hits home for her. And I think that’s what’s eventually going to break her, though that might be a looooong time coming.
Panel 7: Heh. It is a fascinating situation how many terrible people namesearch themselves endlessly, not to monitor active harassment and keep safe, but simply to find more people to bully and harass. The-fake-goth-TERF I shall not name, Dilbert guy, nazi facebook man, and so on.
It’s a wry smile though because her real-world counterpart will now have unprecedented power to bully using the American government every person he decides to pick a fight with on the internet.
We could be entering a world where like in V for Vendetta, making a joke mocking Trump’s hands could genuinely mean being arrested for treason. Like no joke, that’s a distinct possibility.
And no I’m looped back to despondent again. Fuck this election. Fuck this country. Fuck everyone who shares my skin color.
I think when he wrote this, even Willis in this darkest moments couldn’t comprehend how totally shitty Trump could get.
All the hugs. Hopefully, it’ll take enough time for Trump (or, more likely, Pence) to build momentum on the shittyness that things won’t get catastrophically bad until the next congressional elections, and you manage to turn it blue, so you can get at least some safety net on the whole thing.
Let’s walk through it. What damage is Trump, a Republican Congress, and the resulting Supreme Court going to cause?
Item by item, what can we do to mitigate the damage? Head it off and prevent it? What efforts can we organize to take up some of the slack on the lifting that the government’s going to stop doing? To shield those the government’s going to come down on and shouldn’t? To hold a rearguard against the worst of the changes?
Extremist supporters emboldened by these developments to take wider vigilante actions? What steps can we take to protect and shelter their targets? To undo their organizations without the assistance of the feds?
What changes do WE need to make in how we organize and approach these things to become more effective than we were this year?
And how do we flip the Congress in two years, and the presidency in four?
Well, we can wait for the electoral college vote to see if they actually elect Trump. And if he can keep out of jail and/or immediate impeachment. There’s a very good chance of both, but they’re not guaranteed.
Don’t borrow worries from the future. Be with people you trust. Speak up if you see something wrong, if you can do so safely. Stand between bigots and their victims, if you have the strength. Take breaks to keep your stamina up. More than that, I guess will take some actual organization.
It’s a tight line to walk, but if in doubt it’s better to favor relaxation. It’ll be easier to make specific, practical plans when you’re not panicking anyway.
The second part would get you Pence instead of Trump, which I suspect is going to be make all the policies anyway. I’m not familiar with the US electoral system, so what would happen if they didn’t elect Trump (besides probable civil war)? Do you go another election round?
All the electoral college and immediate impeachment talk is desperate grasping at straws. Neither is going to happen, and I’d argue they would be very bad things if they did.
If the electoral college does not elect a President, it goes to the House of Representatives, which the Republicans control. They’d have a choice of the top three candidates, i.e. Trump, Clinton, and (I assume Gary Johnson, but have not checked). Who do you think they would pick?
Be sure to keep asking “And how has voting for Trump made your life better? Never mine all the vicarious revenge and schadenfreude over the fate of all those terrible people. Have your taxes gone down? Is the public debt lower? Do you or yours have better job prospects? Are you really safer from violence?”
Because they won’t actually be getting any of those things. Except for maybe the first, but only if they are very rich.
For the Environment? It’s looking bleak. You can perform micro-actions like using LED lighting etc, but it really requires action on a government level and Trump has said he’ll renege on the Paris agreement.
I’ve look at Ana Marie Cox’s twitter feed and gleaned these:
GLAAD, possibly local groups that work with immigrants and refugees, children’s organizations.
national or state disability rights advocacy organizations.
One person has already been killed during the election in what seems to be a terrorist attack against Democrat voters. You can expect more people will be killed as bigots, particularly homophobes and transphobes, Pence’s favorites, feel validated in their hate and free to act on it without consequence. Are you sure you want to tell them you find this “entertaining”?
Clinton won the popular fucking vote. Yet again our electoral college has failed us, and this time it will have serious consequences.
Notice what I just said, though. Clinton won the popular vote.
Don’t lose hope, don’t lose faith in America just yet. Don’t get up on that ledge thinking your life is over. We need to stick together, weather the coming storm, and fight back.
Republicans like to read the constitution as if it were a goddamned Bible and they were goddamned Literalists, right?
Well, We the People are fucking pissed. And we are ALL part of “the people”. To those of you out there who might be targeted in the coming years, don’t forget that.
So let’s do something about this. If it comes time to vote on something, vote on it. If a controversy is sparked, make your outrage known. If something happens to YOU, get your STORY out there. Make sure you are heard.
I was born, what, two months? Three months? Too early to vote this year, and that fact will haunt me until this is all over. It’s not like my vote, my singular ballot would have changed anything, but it will still haunt me. I couldn’t control the fact that I was born at the end of December of ’98, but it will still fucking haunt me.
So I’m not going to let my future actions haunt me further. I’m sick of being the temperamental nerd sitting in his bedroom doing nothing, playing Skyrim for hours on end as a method of escaping the world at large, complaining about how much life sucks when I am doing nothing to try and change it.
That fucking ends now.
We can change the world together. I don’t care how goddamned cliched it is, we can do anything we put our minds to, because we all have each other. Let’s make things better.
The stats I get (which may be innacurate) are a percentual tie, with Clinton having the upper hand by 200k out of 125million votes. That’s… not particularly motivating.
But vote. Yes. If you still think your vote doesn’t count, go watch some Brexit reaction videos on YouTube on people who regret how they voted, or not voted. All elections are important. All votes count. Protest votes are abominations. Abstaining says you don’t care about how your country is run. If you think that standing hours in line isn’t worth it to cast your vote, take a look around – nearly half of you that could didn’t vote yesterday. Those hours could have saved you, saved everyone, from 4 years of Trump.
Its a difficult one, my country (NZ) had the same issues for a long time as well, you could lose the popular vote and win enough electorate seats and still govern
We went to MMP as its a fairer system however what we’ve found out with that system is we now have a “tail wag the dog” set up, meaning that one of the parties on roughly 10% is looking like its going to decide who runs the country because we have the right wing parties on roughly 47% and the left parties on roughly 40%
So after the election we’ll have one party hold up the forming of government until they decide (read: bribed) who they’ll go into government with
MMP wasn’t supposed to be like this, it was supposed to make parties work together, MMP is still a better option then FPP but its still not there yet
OH yeah, the electoral college is fucking bullshit and a half. It made sense back when the Constitution was written, but that’s ONLY because trying to collect the votes from everyone in the United States would have been… quite a feat, to put it lightly. Now we have technology. We’re in the Age of Information. We need to get rid of that fucked-up system.
I’m not convinced the EC actually was a good call when it was designed. Local reps as opposed to MPP legitimately were, given a less connected society, but the EC was designed to trigger House runoffs while providing the veneer of a vote to the public, to make sure that society’s betters were picking the president.
I’d rather she not give up just yet. Unlike Trump, Robin shows signs of humanity which could make it possible for Leslie to get through to her.
I’d rather believe people like her can be reached and changed right now. If Leslie can stand her long enough to do it, she’d be doing her and the nation a service.
If so many Americans support Trump now, we can’t afford to wait for those people to get old and die. Those of us who can stand to do so need to reach out and try to put cracks in the shell of ignorance and privilege that allows so many to think they were doing the right thing.
Depicting a wide variety of relationships that are a bad idea is one of the things that makes the characters in DoA and ShortPacked feel real to me. No two work quite the same way, and even the ones that last have issues because the characters are complicated and have flaws and don’t always make good or even healthy decisions.
That’s one of the things I liked best about their arc in ShortPacked. It was unhealthy and unbalanced from the start, until both of them had worked past the baggage that was holding them back, and at the end of that often difficult and sometimes painful road they had something truly beautiful.
Not because that’s how it should work, but because they each had a hangup (Robin’s aversion to commitment / responsibility / acting like an adult, and Leslie’s tendency towards unhealthy infatuation / excessive devotion) that would have made it difficult to have a healthy relationship with anyone. Their relationship somehow ended up being what forced each of them to confront their issues, and came out stronger for it.
My deepest condolences to all the excellent people in the US. This election was beyond parody, and the result would be hilarious if it weren’t horrifyingly true.
To all the people who voted: welcome to democracy. And democracy is about rules. And the Rule of Law. You comply and accept those, and before you can change anything, you need to play by the rules. Cheer up, it´s only four years. You have that pretty “Check & Balances” system that will control with a tight grip that Presidential canditate.
Also, if any choice is bad, ugly or downright dissapointing, you can´t expect that people (and for that, I MEAN a LOT of people) will vote that “evidently preferrable choice- ergo, the lesser malaise” you did calcultate (in as, a completely reasonably train of thought, with your meal on the plate, the job right on your lap, and a cozy home to return to, and your sensible conscience satiated) as the “best possible given the circunstances”. No, people won´t vote like that. It´s visceral, in most cases. It shouldn´t be, but it is. Welcome to democracy, again. There´s a silver lining as to why a lot of people decided to vote for one, and not the another.
P.D. I´m an anti-TTIP european partisan, so it happens, by the way, that at least that will be delayed, and it´s for the better (at least for a while).
note: This got too long, but I don’t have anywhere else in my life I can say this. Sorry… 🙁
I have two young sons (6 & 8); they both learned about Trump at school, and asked me about it. They were scared. My eldest learned the word ‘dictator’ from his friends at school.
I had to explain to him, and my youngest, that America is better than that. Even the most charismatic president is not a dictator, and the peaceful transition of power is our greatest strength. We, as a country, have survived 4-8 years of some truly awful presidents, and we will again. The PRICE we pay for living in a democracy is that sometimes people we disagree with will win elections. And we HAVE to be okay with that, because it’s the way democracy works.
I have to be strong, and steadfast, because I will not give my children the fear. If others are in a position of authority, I feel strongly they must do the same. Acknowledge that it’s bad, but that it’s not catastrophic. We are still a democracy, and that’s not going to change, warts and all.
I find it refreshing to occasionally take a slow, careful read of this list of cognitive distortions and catch myself when I’m making one of them.
I know there’s a VAST temptation to personalize this, but we mustn’t. The people who voted Trump in were not voting against you, or me, or anyone else as LGBTQetc., or PoC, etc… To think that somehow every person who voted for Trump thinks that trans folks shouldn’t exist, or wants to deport all muslims, is what’s called ‘catastrophizing’. The people who voted Trump in were also not all voting for him because they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a woman. That’s not the way people’s decisions are made. These are complex human beings, with all the fears, stresses, distractions and internal battles of every other human being. Allow a few dozen million of them to have motives that aren’t directed at you, or the group you are part of.
From what I’ve seen, they were voting their fear of the inexorable change, their fear of immigrants doing better than them, their fear of being sidelined in economic progress.
A few specific points.
‘Pre-existing conditions’ being excluded from considering by health insurance plans is MASSIVELY popular, even with Republican voters. If they repeal ACA, they will do it with something that preserves that, because getting rid of it is not in their best interests.
Pence is a disgusting jerk, but queer and trans rights are VASTLY more of a states issue. If you live in Indiana, you should know this. 🙁 If you live in California, Washington, or any of a bunch of other very to moderately friendly states, there’s VERY little the government (and ESPECIALLY a Republican government, making noise about states rights) can do to reach down into the state and cause problems.
Trump is uncontrollable and..SQUIRREL!…where was I…oh yeah… and has little impulse control, and he WILL undo a great deal of the progressive works that have been advanced over the last eight years. But that’s okay. It’s survivable. It’s sad, and frustrating, but politics is a pendulum. Sometimes you’re up, and sometimes you’re down. For the last eight years, we’ve been up. That’s a lot; for some folks, that’s as long as they’ve been aware of politics at all. The comedown had to happen, and it sucks right now, but in the long run it’ll swing back. You just have to stick around to see it.
That said, all the important politics are local, so fight the important fights locally.
The last thing I want to say, which is going to be super-unpopular, is that we can’t try or wish to de-legitimize the president-elect. That wasn’t acceptable when Trump and others did it to Obama, and it’s not acceptable now. By the laws of our country, he has been elected. He is now OUR President-elect, and will become OUR president. We don’t get to disclaim him because we didn’t vote for him, or our state didn’t. We’re all in this together.
From what I’ve seen, they were voting their fear of the inexorable change, their fear of immigrants doing better than them, their fear of being sidelined in economic progress.
Damn inability to edit. I wanted to add:
…and even that is oversimplifying the complex motives of nearly 60 million people. I too need to work on resisting the desire to oversimplify the motives of Trump voters. I’m not perfect; I’m a complex and conflicted human being, like each and every one of ALL the voters (and non-voters) in this election.
….Man, no it isn’t. America isn’t better than that. It has never been better. No country is ‘better’. It’s just not doing it now. No country is above voting a dictator into power. Like, this doesn’t mean trump WILL be a dictator. There are still many steps between there and now. Bluntly, many of them are likely not going to be taken, /because he is also lazy/. But even his incompetence is no barrier. Acting like America is ‘better than this’ is the easiest way to be flummoxed when even more proof comes in that no, it fucking isn’t. This isn’t ‘fear’. This is stating the fucking obvious. You don’t have to be ‘afraid’ as such. But you had god damned well better be on guard.
Gay people were poised to actually gain ground, you know? It shouldn’t /be/ a ‘states’ issue. Trans discrimination shouldn’t either. It’s as much a ‘states issue’ as whether or not you should be able to discriminate on the basis of color. It’s only a ‘state’s issue’ because the federal government was paralyzed with indecision (Obama had one desire, and a congress that hated queer rights had another.) It will be no longer.
It’s honestly amazing to me how white liberals will say “we need to take their concerns seriously” motherfucker we are. That’s why we’re scared. They /at best/ don’t care about us. They have /stated this/. It’s not /just/ Trump. They responded to trump /louder/ when he blamed the gays. They responded to Trump /more/ when his campaign talked about deviants. They roared thunderous applause when he talked about building a wall, because ‘mexicans’ who came over here were bad people. And many of them hate queers just as much as they hate brown people. ‘taking their concerns seriously’ also means actually looking at what they did.
AND THEY WON.
And you know, States’ rights aren’t a real thing. It was definitively disproven 150 years ago. The republicans have always known that – they just like having a haven to be horrible people when the federal government isn’t sufficiently terrible.
And don’t talk about how things are survivable like it’s some blase guarantee. I’ll probably make it, but I’m leaving ASAP (And that time table was only marginally nudged by the election. I was already leaving), and I’m still legitimately concerned that the hate crimes – you know like the ones we /already/ had in the election cycle, and which brexit has shown us will vastly increase – will end in my death. And I’m a hermit who only leaves for work and groceries, who doesn’t talk about herself. I’m not the most likely victim, but jesus fuck, I shouldn’t have to be on guard like this – much less for probably more like 10 or 20 years.
And you know… there are people who need ACA. Assuming, bluntly, without evidence (‘oh, the republicans have to do this, it’s popular.’ Fucking christ, Gay Marriage has overall popular support) that pre-existing coverage is kept in… guess what. There’s still people who need that help.
There is no indication of this being a normal down. This is a /massive/ downturn. We’ve had the GOD. DAMNED. VOTING RIGHTS. ACT. Struck down in strong part. Do you not know what that fucking means? I can only hope to christ it is. Meanwhile, I have to gird myself to continue the fight. Denmark’s racists and fascists, and it has them, will only be emboldened by the victory of their American cohorts.
Like, jesus fuck, white people talking about how ‘america is better than this’ is still making me angry. No, it really fucking isn’t. The States have, for a bit less than a century, put a fucking premium on happily installing and maintaining dictators the world over. It peaked in the cold war, and a lot of it’s backfired. Ask a Chinese person, they’ll tell you; Chiang Kai-shek was far more murderous than Mao could ever dream of (I mean, Mao generally preferred exile to backwaters and demotions, but westerners tend to think of him as a huge mass murderer), in /absolute/ terms, and he ruled for a much shorter period with less centralized power. Ask an Iranian, they’ll tell you; we overthrew their democratically elected government because we disliked their policies that would hurt us. Ask a chilean, they will tell you; Pinochet was one of the more murderous dictators, and we installed him specifically as a response to socialist, but democratic, governments acting on their actual campaign promises. We supported and maintained Mugabe right up until it was pretty likely he’d fall no matter what we could reasonably do.
And while we make a lot of noise about liberty, in practical terms we can be really god damned authoritarian. Look at the discourse around Kaepernick! All he’s doing is not displaying reverence during the national-god-damned-anthem (Look at other democracies, see how often they play the national anthem in domestic sportsball games). The very rigid way we expect service personnel is actually another extremely authoritarian holdover we have. One of the things Trump specifically, and in no uncertain terms, promised to do was try to limit the god damned media because they said insulting, but undeniably true, things about him (He wanted to sue CNN for saying THERE WERE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST HIM.) That one’s actually in the cards – his supporters wanted to /hang/ journalists. Like, from a tree, until dead. He swore up and down (though seems to be reneging) that he would jail Clinton as a /traitor/.
When Americans talk like we just so value liberty and love and we can’t have a dictator 🙂 we are doing one of the exact things that lets dictators come to power – we are getting complacent. Again, I don’t think it’s particularly likely we will have a 4th Reich. I don’t think Trump wants to govern enough for that to be likely. But jesus fucking christ. We aren’t some super special country that could never have a dictatorship. Americans are fucking humans. Humans sometimes do evil or stupid things. Watch, and the second he actually threatens a pillar of democracy (Again, since he already did it repeatedly in the election), hue n’ cry. If he doesn’t, great. If he does, you’ll be ready. But you won’t be ready if you keep singing yourself a fairy song about how we /won’t/ do this.
Sorry, but being “massively popular with voters” determines what politicians promise to do, not what they actually do. Especially because popular opinion doesn’t matter for shit unless it translates into actual votes.
Better gun regulation has been popular with the majority of Americans for YEARS now. Notice anything NOT HAPPENING?
Now that they have the power to do it, their extremely fickle base will turn on them if they don’t. From the start the mantra has been “repeal and replace”. That’s not because they need to repeal it to change things. If cared more about results than ensuring a Democrat’s signature bill doesn’t actually get to help people, they could just amend it, or write a totally new Health Care which creates the replacement and removes the original bill at the same time.. But no, they repeatedly and specifically list “repeal” as a separate step, because that’s the part they care about. They want to kill the Democrat’s legacy. They’ll get around to actually helping the American people a couple years later, so it won’t be as easy to directly compare to the ACA.
Maybe they’ll think twice about it, worrying about midterms. One can always hope, but I doubt it. The left is goddamn awful about turnout for midterm elections. We can’t assume that will change this time just because we want it to. It’s going to require a massive effort and a change in strategy.
It also does not matter whether or not all of the people who voted for Trump are complete awful bigots, because they elected one, and he has the backing of the House and Senate. LGBT+ rights isn’t likely going to be one of the issues that he and congressional Republicans fight over.
Even if many of Trump’s supporters aren’t white supremacists, there’s enough of them emboldened by his hate speech to put people at considerable risk. And yes, I mean actual hate speech, not “thinly veiled hate speech” or “barely disguised hate speech”. He stopped in MN the day before the election, just long enough to share how bad he felt about us having a large, thriving population of Somali immigrants. He might as well have been calling for violence against them.
It is also racism that allows the many otherwise nice people supporting him (like the ones in my extended family (ugh)) to be totally blind to his bigotry, or else handwave it away because “he’s going to fix things” and “he doesn’t really mean that stuff, why are you getting upset?”. Just like its sexism that allows them to ignore basically everything about how he interacts with or talks about women.
Democrats (and those Republicans would claim to have a conscience) in congress absolutely have a moral obligation to try and obstruct Trump’s policies to keep them from causing harm. If the GOP tries to actually pass legislation that would help the American people, they should support that, obviously, but I don’t expect a lot of that is going to happen.
There is a road through this, rough as it may be. But pretending we’ve got nothing to worry about does not help us get there.
Heh; while I (obviously) disagree with the gist, I totally should have done what you did, and put up a blog post and linked to it. Also, then I’d have been able to edit it… Yours was a much better choice. 🙂
In a minor quibble (because I ran out of vodka and switched to beer, and apparently alcohol makes me more nitpicky that usual) a quarter of the country voted for marginalising minorities. Half of it just said they didn’t care. Including a non-ignorable part of the minorites themselves, if the stats are to be believed. BEcause everything sucks and people suck in all sorts of ways, and for that I’m glad that alcohol isn’t a controlled usbtance. Fuck it all and burn waht’s left.
It doesn’t matter for THIS election, of course, but realising that half the population didn’t vote might help Democrats do something about congress 2 years from now, and about the presidency 4 years from now.
I imagine with near certainty that a lot of people are drinking much more heavily than usual today. It’s probably a little late to say, but I would like to advise caution, to anyone who might still read this. Please be careful. At least where I am located it is one of the easier substances to obtain, but please don’t let that persuade you that it is safe in large quantities.
No judgments–do what you need to to survive this–but whatever substance or other distraction or coping mechanism you choose, please be as safe as possible with it. Please choose the safest of the coping mechanisms available to you.
Because all of you matter. Some of you specifically say very helpful things frequently enough that I remember your names. (I am terrible with names.) Some of you even if I don’t remember your name have said things that were specifically very important for me to hear at the time and were very helpful. And even those of you who only said one thing ever are important. Or even if you only “lurk”, and read in silence. You matter. You, reading this right now, matter. You are important to me, even if I have not yet seen direct signs of you.
Even if everything is suddenly even more dangerous than it already was, which, for many (or, slightly less immediately, most or all) of us it is. Please do not give up. Even if everything is terrible, there are still things we can do to help it be somewhat less terrible. But only if we survive. We must each practice careful self-care, so that we can survive, and then we must protect each other. It shouldn’t have to be lots of hard work to do, but it is what it is. But if we do what we can, it will be less bad than if we don’t. And we can do more together.
I lack details of *how*, but my guesses from earlier today start with: First, survive. Self-care, etc. Second: find local organizations (or local branches of larger organizations–important part being someone close enough to you that you can effectively help them) already working on important causes that suddenly have even greater need (from those who are able) of time, energy, money, and/or other resources. If they’ve already started work, they already have some structure in place and have already done some of the research, and can probably make more efficient use of resources than someone who has not already done this preparation. Third: any specialized skill that you have, is likely to be useful somehow. Continue work refining these skills. Look for ways your specialization might be leveraged well by the important causes. It is your specialty; you may see ways to use it that others might not.
I see that a couple or few people have already found links to lists of various organizations working on various subsets of important causes. And I thank them all very much for this information; I intend to start looking into several of these within the next few days as I regain my energy.
I am suspecting that rather than spite as others have mentioned, that it is hubris that fuels me. Somehow, (when not paralyzed by fear, at least) I feel unreasonably certain that I will eventually obtain substantial power, which which I will finally be able to fix things. But it has become obvious that it is time to actually *take* that power, rather than waiting for it to fall into my lap. What difference can “just once person” make? Well let’s find out!
As young Tiffany Aching* observed, if this world is mine, I will defend it!
Now who’s got a cast-iron skillet!
*(character from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books)
Pretty sure that between this and Brexit, the good Sir Pterry is spinning so hard in his grave, his body is becoming a drill that bores down to the tunnels of the mole people of Atlantis; where he will be revived, cured of his Alzheimer’s, and spend his days in ignorant bliss of the clusterfuck that’s happening on the surface.
I read much, speak rarely (but when I do, often with huge walls of text). I knew the great author was generally known but it felt weird to not footnote.
Tiffany’s my favorite; I really should read that fifth book.
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all kinds of tragedies going on about now =[
your dorothy icon is how i feel rn
I don’t know, I’m sorta feeling more like my gravatar right now.
you feel like a butt? what do butts feel like?
Squishy mostly. Though do get the occasional hard one.
um…butt hurt?
I think this will be known as one of the most depressing comments section in DoA so far. And it’s for one of the most mundane dram free strips.
At least Alec Baldwin will have something to do for a few years?
I got nothin’. It’s baffling that America chose Biff Tannen over Mom from Futurama.
Well except Biff is a Jennifer Marlowe and MoM a space spider from Orion.
I really really can’t find Robin even remotely funny under these circumstances.
Well, on the bight side, impeachment is a thing.
‘Cause Pence is going to be any better?
Pence is legitimately disgusting but he’s not a literal child rapist who wants to blow up all Muslims.
Or if he is, at least he lies about it.
Pence put a jail penalty on LGBTs applying for a marriage license.
And he is a terrible, terrible person. I just don’t think he’s as bad as Trump. Although that’s an academic distinction for the LGBT community, I’m sure.
Well, yes, on a personal level he probably hasn’t sexually assaulted anyone. From a governing perspective, though, he’s pretty much indistinguishable.
Hardly – Trump is personally despicable but politically harmless. Pence has the expertise necessary to actually sign his hateful beliefs into law. Impeachment would not save us.
Trump may have all the help he needs to accomplish just as much.
Trump isn’t politically harmless at all…he’s been preaching exactly what the GOP Congressional primary electorate believes. They’ll go along with it, they have to if they want any chance of keeping their seats.
This is how I describe it. You need to have surgery do you want the doctor the has been convicted of malpractice or the cook at Wendy’s. Trump has the potential to do genuinely bad things that in retrospect help literally no one simply because he doesn’t know what the fuck he is doing.
This calls for a double impeachment!
Hey, we didn’t get our first female President. That just means we need to find new ways to make Presidential history.
Tell me more about this double impeachment. :X
It’s basically confirmed that Pence will be doing all the actual governance work himself.
He supports “inalienable right to life” — that is, abortion illegal under any and all circumstances, including where necessary to save the life of the mother. He would literally rather the woman die than allow an abortion to be performed.
He supported fully defunding Planned Parenthood.
He voted “No” on every single economic stimulus bill and helped kill every bill which would have helped people avoid mortgage foreclosures.
He supports environmental and business deregulation for, well, everything. He supported stripping the Endangered Species Act of the power to designate “critical habitat.” He has voted against any funding for alternate power sources, and supports opening up all available land for oil drilling. He has consistently voted to dismantle pollution controls, and has supported legislation which limits private citizens’ ability to sue corporations for endangering their lives.
He supports and encourages police “stop and frisk” policies and votes no on everything which has been proposed to help tackle police bias towards minorities.
He has consistently voted to support enforcing prayer in schools, and consistently voted no for funding schools.
That doesn’t even cover all of it.
But I’m serious, if you think he’s less scary than Trump is, you aren’t paying attention. Trump is ultimately relatively stupid. Pence is able to carry through his threats.
This doesn’t even cover the fact that he supports gay conversion therapy. Tearing people down to make them not who they are and rebuilding them in your image. It’s literally programming and/or brainwashing and has caused plenty of people to commit suicide, but the people who do this shit are okay with that because at least they aren’t gay anymore.
@Skorpeyon — oh, yes, absolutely, his hatred of lesbians and gays. Let us not forget that.
Not only does Pence support gay conversion therapy, he actually rerouted money that was supposed to combat and prevent the spread of HIV to groups that carried out the process.
Assuming this nests properly:
Pence doesn’t “support” completely defunding planned parenthood. That’s not a political issue where he’s part of some sort of coalition supporting existing leadership, or even a political issue where he inherited a leadership role. Mike Pence is the guy behind those bills. He is leading the charge to defund planned parenthood, and it’s the rest of the people on that who are supporting him. On this particular issue (though by no means only on this particular issue) he is on the far right of the far right.
And Pence wants women who have an abortion to hold a funeral service for the fetus.
Trump just wants some vague, unspecified “punishment” to be levied against those same women. And since he is undecided he’ll probably go with the Pence funeral idea.
Trump doesn’t have the attention span or work ethic to actually govern. Pence will likely be the Cheney to his Dubya. Only so much worse
Can we chain impeachments? Just to get them over sooner and all.
Then the Speaker of the House becomes president. Paul Ryan has been in Congress since 1999, so he likely has the connections to keep the party together. Trump isn’t that popular with the Republican establishment, so moderates may be more likely to cross the aisle to maintain balance.
You keep believing that. There isn’t going to be any more ‘crossing of isles’ under Trump than there was under Obama. Look at all the frantic back-pedaling of every Republican who voiced a criticism of Trump or revoked their endorsement. A call from a wealthy donor, a thousand emails flooding their office, and suddenly they are on the phone soliciting votes for Trump.
My father, during the primaries, compared Trump to Hitler. Once the primaries were over, he began insisting he’d make a good president. I don’t understand how anyone can go from one of those extremes to the other.
Well, it’s either that or emigrate. The sad thing is that the Americans helped writing the memo “why letting a nationalistic xenophobic megalomaniac fascist wield power is a bad idea” in WWII and were seminal in establishing a multi-party democracy in Germany with considerable safeguards against critical agglomeration of power not actually capable of representing the will of the people with some detail.
But in the U.S. themselves, they still have the original system heavily tilted to preserving power to an incumbent elite which converges to a bad choice.
It still takes a bit of idiocy at each stage to pick the worst alternative, but less so than picking the greatest idiot straight from among a larger set of viable options.
David I’d love to immigrate, I’ve wanted to live in Canada long before this election even began because I’d stayed there for some months and absolutely loved it (in Alberta). It’s not an easy process though, even though it’s easier than it used to be, it’s still a “what do we gain by you living here?” sort of deal, and since I couldn’t afford college and only have experience as an administrative assistant at best, I’m way back in the line for potential immigrants. It could be more than 4 years before I’m able to finally even considered, and then longer before I’m actually able to move. TV stars make it look really easy but that’s because they’re worth so much that they’re gladly accepted.
Needs 2/3 of the Senate…one isn’t happening, let alone more than that.
With a Republican controlled Congress? Fat chance. The voters have spoken and the USA is toast. We had a good run, but times up.
Manchineel anyone?
We only lasted half as long as the Roman Republic. 🙁
I wouldn’t say “the voters have spoken”, since Hillary won the popular vote. We officially have the 4th time in U.S. history that the Electoral College results and the population’s results are different.
Again? I’m out.
Impeachment requires Congress to agree to it.
Congress also went red.
I’m pretty sure that if Trump behaves as he has in the past he’ll do something that can’t be defended by Republicans soon enough. It’s not they defend his behaviour much as it is; they just ignore it. If it’s something they have to vote on, that’s a different matter.
yeah im just kinda
its too real now
i dont know what to say. im just horrified.
Agreed. 🙁
At least the stuff she’s saying right now is stuff the orange menace can’t relate to in any way, shape, or form.
…except maybe the last panel.
Yeah, he would have mocked Joyce for having been traumatized, and not worried about making it worse.
“This ridiculous cartoon caricature of a politician comes closer to being a real human being than the man who – at best, if we’re being really optimistic – came a hair’s breadth from the actual presidency” doesn’t actually make me feel any better
Same. My mother told me to go to sleep, but I can’t.
I told my children to go to sleep, but I can’t.
Faithless electors.
Not something to pin hopes on.
One elector vowed not to vote for Hillary, nobody’s made that pledge for Trump. Almost half the US has laws to punish Faithless Electors, several of which have gone red.
If they have integrity, this could happen. But…
Trump’s campaign played heavily on the idea that his supporters were being marginalized. If the electors were to overturn a clear victory on their own initiative, it would only make things worse.
And sadly there is truth in that. Look at small town USA where all those big companies moved out and shipped work off to China etc.,
Yet profits are up, the NYSE is up, so everything is great right?
Nope, joe sixpack cant afford more than a can at a time and his kids school is crap, he has mandatory health insurance but not actual healthcare, Medical costs are out of a cybepunk dystopia, etc etc
And the dems choose the completely wrong option – they ran someone who got beat by a flaming no-name black senator with a Muslim sounding name after 9/11, and who was the wife of the person who signed NAFTA – brexit should have been a warning sign. This was a disaster I saw coming ever since she got the nom – and the fact that non-dems favored the competition should have been a warning sign, instead of something brushed off. They threw away youth enthusiasm and showed off their complete disregard for the deindustrialized in the process, throwing away votes that might have saved lives.
Clinton’s nomination will replace the 1983 manifesto of the UK Labour party as a touchstone for political failure on the left.
And the clintonites are already trying to shift the blame to anyone but their messiah; the fucking dem establishment need to be purged, top to bottom, of her creatures because otherwise we’re seeing a repeat in 2018 and 2020.
They should be resigning en masse after this, because it is not an exaggeration to say that they will have the blood of the queer and black dead of the trump presidency on their hands.
The left establishment across the west has failed completely, and I hope they realize it, because otherwise this is going to be a domino effect.
I am seeing that at least 8 transgendered kids committed suicide since last night in addition to several others who attempted.
And they won’t be the last. We mustn’t let the folks responsible for this disaster off the hook. Those deaths must be avenged.
I was working in the polls all day during the election in California. At 3:00 pm pacific standard time, I heard that Trump “won” the election. 5 HOURS before the polls closed. The big rush that occurred during the primary at 3:30 to 8:00 didn’t show. How many people decided that they might as well not vote because of that report?
What really gets to me is that Hawaii would have gotten that report around NOON. And I think most states had polls closing at 8, some at 7. How many people decided that their voice and vote didn’t matter?
I don’t think Robin is trying to be even remotely funny here. She actually acts like she is concerned about Joyce as she seems to know about the shooting on the campus.
As far as her answer for working with men: as a female tech working with mostly male engineers – I find her answer is about half right. I never tried to be ‘one of the guys, or play the female card. I simply did my job. Dont’ expect respect to be handed to you, male or female, you have to earn it.
Most of the men I worked with were okay, when I had proved myself. I knew I was never going to be one of the guys, but I proved I was good at my job and that was all I expected to prove.
I think Robin is more concerned about her own political career, and just barely smart enough to realise that maybe she shouldn’t add victims of recent horrible tragedies to the list of people publically hating on her.
I honestly don’t read the character as dumb, just absurdly jaded and cynical about the process she is participating in, and more focused on winning first and worrying about policy later. Perhaps she was more like her sister at first, but slowly came to realize that, no, what she’s doing right now is actually the only path to power in her country. The characters would make much more interesting foils in that way, rather than “lol the liberal sister is oh so enlightened and the right-wing sister is a half-wit,” and in the time I’ve spent with this strip that seems more in-line with the kind of messages that Willis likes to communicate.
ANYONE ignorant enough to think Pence isn’t as bad as Trump needs to understand that conversion therapy is basically GITMO for LGBT Teens. FUCKING GITMO! Right down to electric torture, heated copper metal torture, needle torture, and all while being forced to watch gay porn “A Clockwork Orange” style! Not as bad as Trump MY TRANS PANSEXUAL ASS.
Kyle’s true name “Aide.” Lord of time.
Robin has no clue whatsoever.
yikes
ABORT ANSWER I REPEAT ABORT PROMPTING THE BLONDE WITH A WRIST BRACE
Also, @alt-text if there was a classroom at IU that functioned like a classroom in an anime, it would be Leslie’s. Just minus the windows.
But who is the bossy Class President?
Leslie.
Willis, your jokes are good, but they’d be funnier if an orange monster wasn’t about to win the presidency.
To be fair he’s got a 3 plus month buffer of comics. It would be funnier if Trump was currently curled up in a ball, kicking his feet and screaming “It’s not fair, it’s not fair!” at the top of his lungs on live TV. But he had no way of knowing that wouldn’t happen.
Can we get a bunch of billionaires together and have them offer trump 20 billion dollars if only he steps down?
Heck, offer him a fashion model job to bolster his ego. Sure, it’ll collapse the fashion industry, but that’s a small price to pay if it means he doesn’t kill people anymore.
Probably not. Mark Cuban already offered him $10M to bow out, and that was during a time when the election looked like it was going to Hillary. Right now Trump’s eyes are just full of the dollar signs he knows he’ll get both during and after his term(s) as President. The combination of that and the huge ego stroking he is no doubt receiving right now probably can’t be bought off at any price.
Trump is going to rob the U.S. of more than paltry $20billion while in office.
That would be true of anything right now
Thank you Willis I needed that.
*plays Norah Jones on the hacked muzak*
Meh, that’s no good. Try something more upbeat, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGJzMzW3kuY
Viva Presidente Trump!
“The Safe Chick”?
You know, One Of The Guys, Not Like The Other Girls, etc
But not “Macho Man With Tits”?
Nope – guys don’t like competition.
The one who doesn’t call them out on their sexist jokes and always takes their side.
Yeah, I never heard that one either. Actually, the whole term betrays a warped thinking. What a re you saying that you won’t be “safe” from women at large?
As a Florida native who voted for Clinton and watched the state turn steadily red…I am so sorry.
I’m a transplant but…yeah. Same here.
It’s ok, honestly I’m just completely disappointed right now but not because of how the race ended but because of what America chose.
I guess this is just what happens when you put too much hope in people. 😔
No. Don’t think that.
Bernie would’ve won. Hillary and the Machine conspired to eliminate his long shot by foul means. That’s one of many negatives causing people to vote against her.
At least, now our first female president can be a better person than HRC.
I feel ya newllend. It sucks. I got cocky and figured it’d never happen. And…I guess it has. Oy… I do like Woobie’s optimism though! Here’s hoping we can last long enough to ever elect a female President.
Maybe…
Aye, there’s this.
There is no evidence at all that Bernie would have won. The argument “people were annoyed that they couldn’t vote for someone more socialist, so they voted instead for actual modern Hitler” is ridiculous. Don’t make the mistake the UK has of assuming that the left-leaning candidate didn’t win because they weren’t “left-wing” enough. Not unless you want the right-wing to spend the foreseeable future completely unopposed.
Most of the Trump supporters that I know of supported him because they think he is going to “drain the swamp” and blow up the current form of government. He won’t, but they think he would. You know who else was actively calling to tear down the current way of running things? It was Bernie, and unlike Trump he would not repel people with his behavior. Bernie would have won easily. Joe Biden could have won as well if the DNC absolutely had to have an establishment candidate.
I don’t get why it is ridiculous (I’m not in the UK). Wouldn’t there be more opposition when the economical programm actually differ?
Throughout history, when someone distrupts “politics as usual” it’s from the right, not the left.
The argument “they voted for Trump because he was going to tear down the government” needs proof. Polls have been wrong. Predictions have been wrong. Trump got most votes with older, wealthier people. These are not the people who want to shake up the system. Several polls (yes, I know) show that immigration was the main reason people voted for Trump. If that is true, Bernie would be perceived as a much worse candidate that Hillary.
I’m not saying that Bernie would have lost. We don’t know. We likely won’t know. But the left tearing itself in two with a “too left-wing/not left-wing enough” argument had happened in other countries (UK, Iceland) and all it does is empower the right.
They voted for Trump because they would never vote for Hil.
Our main parties are colour-coded the other way round in Britain. I found out about the US election result by spotting a graphic on someone’s phone on the bus. For a brief moment I was heartened by all that left-wing red, then…
Colour-coded the same way in Australia, although I was watching from the start and I knew the US colour scheme so I fortunately never suffered this betrayal of hopes – although since Australia’s time zone is suited for watching the votes be counted, I did suffer the whole slow, sickening experience for the full duration of vote counting until Trump was declared victor.
It’s actually a fairly recent convention. It used to be blue for the incumbent, red for the challenger.
Congratulations to America’s enemies for your tremendous win tonight. Let us welcome our Russian overlords and their puppet, Donald Trump.
Maybe Jack Bauer will come out of retirement to save the day.
And writing that led to the scary thought that Trump will try to recruit Jack Bauer to head the CIA, not realising Bauer is a fictitious character.
Think of all the people Trump would fire when they each fail to present him with Jack Bauer.
Fuck that shit. We don’t need a violent torture harpy monster to “save” the day. Jack would be behind Cheeto Hitler 100%.
Jack is behind HIMSELF torturing for what he sees as the greater good, but would be dead set against the government doing it. It’s one of those “I do the dirty things and sacrifice my soul so that others don’t have to”. And, being that it’s a TV program, he’s usually right.
(It’s a bit like how Batman is an illegal vigilante despite generally being obsessed with other people following the law.)
No. No puppet. No puppet. You’re the puppet.
You’re probably right that our rapist in chief won’t be a puppet – he’s far too uncontrollable to be able to reigned in by anybody, up to and including the republican party and the rule of law. I expect chaos and collapsing economies within the year as a result.
(If the republicans *can* control him, we’ll probably last eighteen months.)
The country survived Woodrow Wilson, FDR, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. We’ll survive this smouldering turd, too.
FDR restored the economy and helped, Obama’s worst accusations were that he is a muslim and that he acts like a professor (he’s not a muslim, it shouldn’t matter even if he were, and I LIKE professors), and I don’t recall Bush asking why using the nuclear arsenal wasn’t an option
Also, Woodrow Wilson tried to establish the UN before WWII (well, League of Nations, but same thing). No, Trump is more akin to Andrew Johnson + George W. Bush with maybe a hint of Andrew Jackson’s temper.
Don’t forget Warren Harding’s inexperience
And boy, did that work out well. His other achievements included presiding over the resegregation of several federal agencies, attacking civil liberties in the name of the war effort and spreading the civilizing influence of military invasion and occupation all over Latin America.
FDR’s constant economic tinkering made the Depression far longer and worse. Seven decades after his death, we’re still dealing with problems he created.
Dubya presided over an explosion of spending and resultant debt, not to mention dragging us into two wars that were questionably justified and prosecuted with massive incompetence.
Obama promised “the most transparent administration ever”, then prosecuted whistle-blowers at record rates. He promised to end Bush’s wars; instead he’s dragged us into new ones. He not only continued, but expanded domestic surveillance programs that violate the Constitution while delivering no demonstrable benefits. He claims the authority to order the killing of people (including US citizens) anywhere in the world in the name of the War on Terror, with no meaningful oversight.
Ahh… that’s a quote, I know it. I just can’t remember from where. It drives me crazy. XD
It’s from the third Presidental debate.
Seriously.
I could swear it’s mirroring something different… Oh, well, I laughed anyway. What else can you do at this point?
ISIL: Wait, Russia‘s puppet? I thought he was our puppet!!
He probably just assumed that ISIL and Russia were the same thing. He’s Trump.
ROBIN: “Why can’t I find you on Google, Aide? I typed your name, and everything!”
AIDE: “Did you try typing my actual name?”
ROBIN: “What is this, some kinda trick question? Look, never mind! I’ll try again. Let’s see… A.. I…”
Every 30 seconds or so since the hour I clicked refresh, desperate for something to take my mind off of what is happening. Not your fault, but I still feel empty. Best of luck to all of us.
I’m not really in a the mood for this…..:(
So Dorothy still is in the running for first female President?
Sigh.
Maybe by the time she is old enough the country will be ready.
you think we can last that long
Well, YMML. 😀
Edith Wilson, Woodrow’s second wife, secretly ran the country after he had a stroke, technically making her our first female president
Somebody tried to play a national anthem on the hacked Muzak and it crashed. Sorry, no soundtrack tonight.
*pulls out some fried circuit boards*
Tomorrow might be iffy too.
*plays Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’ on his Walkman*
G-d, “Lament” is the most appropriate word right now.
Had the same thought. I know Willis enters the alt-text the night before – any chance he also decides the titles then? Cause, you know, that’d fit.
I imagine he chose it when he uploaded it, hoping we’d have no call to notice.
Uh oh.
I got nothing. I am fresh out of jokes. No funny to be found here, just depression.
What do we do now?
Organize. Fight like hell. Make it hard for him to get anything done. Lobby the shit out of anyone we can.
And keep marginalized people safe.
how, please?
This article has a bunch of practical suggestions:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/if-youre-overwhelmed-by-the-election-heres-what-you-can-do-now_us_5822c7d0e4b0e80b02cdf133
I like this quote from Quora:
Habib Fanny, Version 2.0. New, improved, and now with cool socks!
“We put our big girl panties on.
We accept that we’ve lost everything: White House, Senate, House, and Supreme Court.
We organize.
We actually show up to the polls next time.
In the meantime we follow the law and abide by the constitution.”
Oh jeez, the awkwardness in the comic is uncannily mirrored with the awkwardness of this whole night… 🙁
Today is not a day of joy or smiles. It is a day of sorrow and remorse.
This isn’t funny anymore. I recommend that Panel 2 be required reading for all American citizens as of today.
I have no jokes in me right now, I’m just filled with hate.
Between work and this election, I’m broken. Just holding myself away from anything I can hurt myself with and mentally preparing to make the most of every day before I inevitably wind up in a concentration camp.
Make sure you have a valid passport. Then you can get out before they put you in a concentration camp 🙂
Australia will take you, Cerberus. If my government (ugh) threatens to lock you up off-shore, I’ll hide you under my bed.
Cold comfort right now, but I want you to know – you and everyone else in a similar position – that you are valued, and worthy. Hang in there.
If it helps, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to offer you political asylum here in Vermont if it comes to it. Or passage through to Canada. We have a pretty good track record on things like that.
New England should ask to become a Canadian province. We already have a flag and everything. We even have a competent hockey team!
Promise we won’t be as fussy as Quebec…
I want you to know that a lot of people care bout you and that you mean a lot to so many people. I also want to say that (as I said in my rant below) once I finish spending the next few months giving my three surviving friends as much support as possible, I’m going to be petitioning Prime Minister Trudeau to accept LGBT people from the US as political refugees. Because that’s the only additional thing I can think of to do. I am so sorry this happened. *hugs*
Ooh, that’s a good idea! I’ll write my MP about it, too.
Hey, everyone, if you can get to Canada, I believe all of our border provinces also will perform abortions with no issues (although you may have to stay up here for a while while they get the schedule sorted out). Prince Edward Island doesn’t, but you have to go through Quebec and New Brunswick to get there, so.
You won’t be covered by our medical, of course, but it’ll be cheaper than doing it in the States without coverage, at least. Plus we do them in hospitals rather than dedicated abortion clinics, so no protesters.
Canada will do what it can for you guys. 🙁
Not to dissuade you or anyone else, but there are plenty of other countries whose lgbt citizens need this more than the US, even a US run by Trump/Pence, as sad as that is to consider.
*offer of support and care and love and sympathy in any manner you’d like to accept(or reject) it in*
To be honest, I’m feeling. Similar. Haha… ha.
(I know I personally always look forward to seeing your comments in the comment section, though. ;~; It’s not much, like, I know it’s not the same as a friend giving you support right now, but I care about you as a fellow queer person and DOA reader, for whatever it’s worth?)
I just wanted to echo the sentiment of other people caring about you and that you mean a lot to so many people. I don’t really comment but I do regularly read the comments and your posts are always so insightful and moving.
My heart is breaking not knowing what I can do to help people…but I feel like I have to at least try and offer support to you and all the other LGBT members on this board…even if the words of an anonymous stranger probably won’t help much.
*hugs*
Canada probably will, too. And I’m only a few hours’ drive from Cape Breton… :/
Also had to delurk to let you know how much you and your comments have meant to me the past couple of years. You’ve taught me about an entire Universe I never knew existed (I hail from a pretty damn Red state), and I am a better person thanks to your insight and patient teaching. The world really is so much better off with you in it, and I just had to let you know that. I’m so sorry we’ve let you down, but I promise we’re not quitting the fight.
*sympathy via light physical contact*
Hugs all around. Hugs on the house.
Looking at tonight’s electoral maps, I have a molecular biologist cousin to call. He needs to open the Nurgle Box.
I thought Joyce was a brunette.
Yeah me too. Maybe she’s a dark blonde.
Dirty! it’s DIRTY blonde… I say as my hair has fully made the transition to light brown/brown…
I am so sorry for you Americans out there. Sincerely hoping orange hitler still loses, but, wow. What the hell.
My first thought was saying “girl with the wrist brace” was the frowned upon phrase. Not sure how I missed her telling Joyce to shoot…
I had still not understood that, thanks for mentioning it.
And this is the answer to why Willis might want to end some plotlines. I know that I will find it very, very hard to keep reading as long as the focus is on some political thing.
For the rest, I’m just putting my head in the sand, and ignoring politics forever until I have to vote again. And then turning everything over to God in prayer. Being powerless like this and watching in horror is not remotely helpful.
he has a three month buffer though. probably not worth it to redo that much work just because something in real life happens to coincide with something people are unhappy about.
I don’t know what to say.
As a foreign national, I couldn’t vote. I wish to god I could have. I’m ashamed to admit I try to keep out of foreign elections – I don’t like to try to influence foreign politics. I should have posted more. For that, I am SO sorry. I failed. To every marginalized person, that apology goes DOUBLE. Not only did I fail you, so did your countrymen who should have protected you.
I can only imagine how hard this will be for you, but I promise you this is not the end. It ISN’T. Do whatever you have to do to survive. I have faith in you. All of you. Please, please hang on until he gets impeached/the midterms screw him/he dies/whatever. It will get better eventually. PLEASE.
And if you can’t hang on because you believe it, then do it out of motherfucking SPITE.
If Trump tries to o full retard, the Republicans will pay heavily in midterms. Self interest will serve as a brake on the Trump ridiculoussnes.
And the election isn’t over yet.
Ugh, don’t drop ableist slurs under my post, please.
That said, I hope you’re right. Republicans seem to hate him too. And you’re right – the votes aren’t in yet.
1) Now is an awful time to use that word. Even referencing that quote.
2) Assuming self-interest and conservatives acting rationally would stop him are why we’re in this mess. This cancerous blot on our democracy isn’t going to excise itself.
Trump has no skin in the game with the Republican midterms – those will not act as a restraint on him. The only restraint the republicans can possibly muster would be to impeach him – assuming he doesn’t just get fasttracked to jail over the sexual assault allegations.
Sadly, that is very unlikely. Criminal charges/jail would require one of his accusers to be 1) within the statute of limitations in her particular state and 2) actually stick it out and go to trial. All the trials and potential trials Trump is facing right now are civil, not criminal. Jail is simply not a possibility at this time, or probably going forward.
Oh, God, the title.
Fuck Robin. Since she’s the Trump surrogate, fuck her. America’s fucked for at least four years
Bernie 2020!
You think he’ll still be alive? We need new blood.
He will be 79, which means he’d be president till he was 83 or 87.
Frankly, even if his health is good, that will be a negative. This was his last chance.
…Fudge it. Bring it on. I’ve been set on fire before, I can handle four years of this orange butthole.
I like the way you think!
I also realize I may have just quoted the sexy version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
sexy willy wonka? did gene wilder go topless?
It’s not just him though it’s all the people who were suddenly given a voice for how much they despise people of color and lgbtq and muslims
this isn’t just one person for four years it’s the entire federal government and oh the orange asshole also gets to pick a supreme court justice because they fucking wouldn’t let obama do it
you are SEVERELY underestimating how fucking dangerous this is
It is dangerous. I’m sorry the US failed you. Do your best to stay safe and hang on. If not out of hope then out of spite.
We can only hope the Democrats left in Congress pay back the Republican obstructionists with their own coin. It’s not the best way and it means the country would be stagnant for another four years, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Obstructionism won’t improve anything, least of all the GOP.
Yes, but it’ll keep things from getting worse.
Obstructionism isn’t going to work. They do not have the votes necessary in the House and the Turtle will simply ditch the filibuster in the Senate. The Democrats will be the opposition party with no teeth.
I agree, and we all saw what followed brexit: white people yelling at poc that they were gonna kicked out, being violent, “celebrating” their racist shitty oppinions… this is not gonna end well
“It’s not just him though it’s all the people who were suddenly given a voice for how much they despise people of color and lgbtq and muslims”
This was the exact fallout from Brexit. It’s not “58 million people are massive racists, sexists and homophobes”, but “people who are massive racists, sexists and homophobes now think that 58 million people agree with them.”
Also more proof democracy is broken: Leslie is in the bottom three
Rachel isn’t even on the list! Why doesn’t the ballot include third-rung characters? #FullyElectJackson
There’s still hope. Michigan, NH, and Pennsylvania are each within a percentage point right now. If they flip, we win. Don’t give up yet.
I like your optimism.
I am not giving up until the vote results are actually announced and that orange bastard is sworn in.
Then I am going to attempt to drop off the radar.
I’m not giving up until he’s sworn in, but I’m sure as hell not hopeful about it.
Hope is now officially dead. Time to hunker down or move out.
Yeah, I’ve got nothing. Sorry guys.
I can’t do anything. I’m numb. I had faith in the American people. I assumed we’d not elect the orange maniac rapist racist. But we did. I just…fuck. We put the world’s most powerful military and the largest amount of nukes ever in the hands of a man who throws a tantrum if someone says his hands are small. Fuck it. Fuck the 1845 law that makes Election Day Tuesday so farmers wouldn’t miss church. Fuck the gerrymandered to hell districts. Fuck the political parties. Fuck the electoral college. Fuck the fucking American people cause it turned out that the closeted racists and sexists can run our country. I did my goddamn fucking duty!! I voted! I played by all the fucking rules because I was told “If you work hard you can succeed” and that “America’s the freest country on earth” and all the other fucking bullshit!! I could count ever friend I have on two hands before this fucking bightmare started and now I only need one cause half of them died!! So what I’m going to do is do my damndest to make sure the three people that actually mean something in my life don’t die, then I’m using my citizenship by descent birthright to get the fucking hell out of this piece of shit country, and then I’m going start a petition asking Trudeau to recognize any LGBT or ethnic minority trying to migrate from the US as political refugees!! Then I’m going to buy as much booze as I can and drink until the nuclear holocaust breaks out. I’m fucking done with the US. God bless the Queen!
…
I’m sorry. I needed to rant. This was the only safe place I could. And to Cerberus: I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t help prevent this. And I’m sorry to every other trans-individual in America for this happening. I thought, I thought we were better than this. If there’s anything in that rant I’m going to do it’s that petition to Trudeau and the Canadian government. You, your students, and everyone who’s LGBT deserve better than this. I just, I just can’t apologize or sympathize enough. And please, please be alive to read this. You’re such a support for so many people and I just, just wanted you to know that you’re not alone. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
I…I think we’re all sorry
*Maximum amounts of Sympathy and Support offered to absolutely everyone*
I know I’m not really anybody to anyone around here but
I’m so fucking terrified, me and my gf are both trans and i don’t know what’s gonna happen, she’s the love of my life like i was literally going to propose to her in two months and now like, what’s gonna happen to us now that the entire federal government will be controlled by people who fucking despise us who were voted in by a majority who fucking despise us
i’m sorry
Sending love to you! And your girlfriend! And remember all the millions of people who didn’t vote for Trump. Even lots of white people.
No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry this country has failed you.
*hugs*
/Hugs to you. I’m having a hard enough time being an American citizen living permanently in Australia – I am afraid to bring my partner with me back to the states to visit my family now (And my family is in San Francisco area. they are great. rest of the country isn’t). I can’t even imagine living there right now.
I don’t have anything useful to say. Not sure that anyone does.
Like, while I read DOA everyday, today I specifically came here to read the comments to see how my fellow commentators (Who i value dearly, even only knowing them through these comments) were holding up. Because you all are amazing, and you deserve better than this.
I’m sorry this happened. Just know that we’re here to offer sympathy and support.
Don’t wait to propose. That’s my advice.
No telling how the next few years will go, so do what you can now. Let her know you love her. And remind yourselves of that every day no matter how hard it gets.
I don’t know what will happen, but I hope it’s not as bad as your worst fears. Remember the good.
we can only hope that our love is greater than their hate
I’m nobody as well. Just… If you can, there are state-level protections on housing and employment against discrimination. If you can make sure you’re in one of those states, you’ll be a lot better off than some of us. I wish you all the best, really.
*hugs*
You’re somebody to everyone around here.
*hugs*
There are no nobodies here. We are here to give you sympathy and any emotional support we can and we wish you the best.
One party rule with a corrupt, bigoted, racist, egomaniac at the top. Sound familiar? How many decades to undo and how many will die this time. Proving yet again that people don’t learn from past mistakes.
Well, it’s been nice knowing you all.
Maybe we’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when …
Yes indeed. Hitler wrote a book of his life story, detailing exactly what he was going to do, and he did it.
Indeed, “those who ignore the past are forced to relive it.”
That is my biggest fear, WWIII is very possible at this point in time. And he will help it right along. USSR is already gearing up. China is pushing Japan. Trump has promised to dump Japan and make them support themselves.
If he is allowed to do so, he is going to completely destroy our system of allies.
So, I keep hoping for a miracle and that the vote tallies flip to Hillary Clinton.
I hate to say it but I’ve been saying for years that America is looking headed for a civil war. The extreme right is becoming ever more extreme and the rest are becoming less centrist and more left-leaning. I really hope I’m wrong, but it feels like an irreconcilable schism is building.
Left-leaning?
Over here in Europe, Bernie would be counted as a moderate conservative.
I had this discussion with a friend just last Friday. The Democrats are right of our centre-left, let alone our actual left.
I agree. American “left” politics are generally centrist. But it seems to me that the people who identify as Democrats are leaning more towards the left- or perhaps I should say “away from the right”- than they used to. The comparison was supposed to be to America and its recent-ish history, not the entire political spectrum.
That was my point, and I apologise for not communicating it clearly.
To be fair, it’s not like “The Center” is some sort of set in stone line of which you can easily say if someone is one side or the other. “Left” and “Right” are only ever relative terms. So yes, US politics is generally to the right of European politics, but that doesn’t mean they can’t use the terms “left” and “right” as they apply to them.
To avoid talk about THE THING I’m ignoring for the next four years, I wonder if Leslie realizes Robin is entirely okay with playing the rules of misogyny.
To be fair to Robin, it’s not exactly clear what she’s okay with. She may be simply ruthlessly pragmatic, which in combination with the upbeat cheerfulness she’s broadcasting would result in the behavior we see here.
Sorry, we don’t get to ignore it. We need to fight it every way we can.
Even if we can’t oust him from power now, we can fight his message and not let his hateful message spread unopposed, and make sure those he would target they are not alone
I think that this is going to be a hard lesson for the idiot Republicans who hoisted Trump up for a canidate, his handlers who walked him thru the speeches,and the voters who voted for him: because they were so afraid of voting for a woman president.
I do hope you all like what you have done. He will not only take down the US, but anyone else who gets in his way.
And I continue to hope that the still running states will turn over a miracle total and that he loses.
Why? THEY’re not going to be the ones screwed over. To the rich white dudes, it’s no skin off their nose, except perhaps internationally if the dollar goes down like I expect it to. And even then, economy downturns always screw over the more disenfranchised the most.
The still running states lost heart around 6ish eastern time.
Puh, OK, Joyce did not seem to take Dorothy’s comment yesterday as badly as I did. And it might have pushed her into asking what seems to be a very important question – at least dramatic enough to warrant a cliffhanger.
Yeah, you sure fucked that one up, aide. This is on you.
It’s definitely a question about LGBTQ+ that’s going to put Leslie and her hopes on the spot too
ALL THE INTERNET HUGS AND SYMPATHY WITH WHATEVER LEVEL OF TOUCH YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH TO EVERYONE!!!!! I’m so sorry, US.
Don’t be. This is gonna end up screwing you over just as much.
(Not sure where you’re from, but it doesn’t really matter.)
Not just us much, but definitely quite a bit.
Let’s all just take a deep breath and realize tomorrow isn’t here yet.
I mean I appreciate the sentiment but it also is definitely November 9 in many places
….I know…:(
I know I’m kind of late to the party, but… yeah. Fuck.
I’m so sorry America.
On a slight positive note, the podcast me and Emperor made has a Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/user-956738444
And will likely be showing up on Stitcher, iTunes, and TuneIn (TuneIn’s confirmed and I suspect the other two will be confirmed by the end of the week) for those who like to subscribe to their podcasts.
That is a definite positive and I look forward to being able to subscribe!
It’s a pleasure to hear the voices behind all the discussion. You two and Bagge are always my top priorities when it comes to scrolling through comments.
Awwwwww 🙂
add Fart Captor to that list and you’ve probably got my top 4
I’m flattered as heck that you would put me in the same list as them, but I feel like some sort of secondary list would be more appropriate.
I mean, I’ve only been reading the comments here since about August, but I can definitely say that Cerberus is responsible for me becoming a noticeably better, more enlightened person than I was before.
Many others have contributed to this, including some such as Norton, with whom I’ve often argued with at length. But if I wrote an autobiography, I’d feel obligated to mention Cerberus and Willis specifically in the chapter that covered this part of my life.
I absolutely feel the same way about Cerberus and Willis.
As far as the list of “top priorities when it comes to scrolling through comments” goes, however, my statement remains exactly as is. (there are plenty of others whom I absolutely enjoy paying attention to, as well)
Well, my job is toast, considering my work pertains to how combustion chemistry impacts the environment.
I’m hoping, though, that the electoral college protest and vote Clinton in or send it to the House. A normal Republican wouldn’t be great in most ways, but at least it wouldn’t be Trump.
If not that, maybe some very swift impeaching.
But either way, I’m staying (unless there are literally no jobs left for me here and I have to leave just to keep doing my work), because even though I voted for Clinton, this is still on me and all of us. And as one of the folks who actually can get out, who is in a position to get out, it’s especially important that I don’t.
But I’m not going to like it. Not one bit.
As an Italian dude, I just want to say my country is always going to give help and asylum to all who need it (the extremists parties are a minority, and will always be). Just… I want to give my support to you guys. Hope it doesn’t go too much to hell.
DO NOT MAKE THAT ASSUMPTION
“Those racists will always be a minority” is one of the foolish lies we told ourselves. Do not make the same mistake. Remain vigilant.
“The extremist parties are a minority, and will always be.” Please dear god or whatever higher power exists please do not make that mistaken assumption!! Look at the US!! If that doesn’t work look at the Weimar Republic!! If that doesn’t work look your own country eighty years ago!! I cannot stress how much you must not take that sentiment for granted! Because if democracy becomes to relaxed, then demogagues take power.
The leader of Italy up until 2011 has been involved in multiple court cases including tax evasion, bribery, and abuse of office.
I don’t want to do a “my leaders are better/worse than your leaders”, and Italy is definitely in a better place now than when Berlusconi was in power, but as others have said, things can get worse really, really quickly.
We aren’t paradise, true, (and Berlusconi is among the biggest pieces of shit to walk the Earth), but we have managed to keep things in check, so far.
it all depends if the Lega Nord has a new leader…
If the ultra right wing roman squatting movement keeps ties with the right wing hools…
If refugees are really welcome…
If EU border countries don’t leave the EU and barricades themselves letting Italy and Spain be the only south gate….
If the economy doesn’t hickup…
Otherway, di anni di piombo are not far…
“we have managed to keep things in check so far”
Unfortunately, that was true in the US until yesterday. G Willow Wilson has just tweeted that Egypt went from business as usual to tanks in the streets in two days. It can happen without you realising.
Me too, Willis.
This…. this is bad… :/
I can’t even,
Wait… Joyce is supposed to be blonde?
Sure. Cue bad jokes about Aryans for the meetimg with her brothers (well, including Jocelyn).
Honey-blonde, I think. As opposed to Leslie’s more golden blonde.
Post-election primal scream
While googling for the Alison Bechdel cartoon I was referring to, I noticed the words have been taken to describe Trump followers.
Sorry, that was not intentional.
Jesus Christ, America.
To Robin’s credit, she did know about the shooting, even though she didn’t recognise Joyce on sight.
Anybody that’s feeling super alone and surrounded and disregarded tonight, please don’t. Know that you’re loved — even by strangers — and you’re valued.
Seconded.
And this is only a setback, not the end. There’s a way through this.
it isn’t the end… until trump feels insulted and the missiles start flying
Russia knows it’s coming, did you hear about their new nuke?
The only thing I say is to look out for 2018. There’s still a chance to change things.
Also as someone from the UK I apologise in advance for all the dickheads where I’m from acting smug about this in anyway in the near future. It happened in the Bush years. It will probably happen now, even though the worst parts of this Trump and his supporters has its inescapable roots in us. Even after Brexit.
I’m sorry.
There’s still 2018 to make some of a turnaround. Please keep going, even if only out of spite who seek to destroy.
2018? the next presidential election isn’t until 2020?
The senate and representatives will be 2018 again as far as I understand. It still matters. Cut trump at the ankles as it were.
1/3 of the Senate. The full House. Every two years.
We’re going to have to make a concerted effort to get out the vote in 2018. Turnout on midterm elections has always favored the GOP in the past, and that’s something we’re going to need to start working to change as soon as possible.
To all my American friends… I am truly sorry for what you will have to endure for the following four years.
Guess I won’t pay any visit to the U.S.A. for a while. Good luck folks.
Best case scenario is The Don doesn’t live up to 75% of his election policies like most populist politicians do (We have a lot of those in Greece)
Worst case scenario he attempt to, and I have no idea how this will will turn out. I can’t even process it. It’s like asking “What if Cthulu made an army of non-euclidean Metal Gears and invaded earth ?”
This whole elections was stupid. Like, weapons grade stupid. Like stupidity was architecture ? This would be the fucking Parthenon.
So this is funny. Not “ha ha amusing” funny, but sadly funny.
Lots of people know how you feel, America. The UK, really. We know how you feel. We’ve done this rodeo twice recently- not with someone as extreme and awful as Trump, but twice nonetheless.
I was so hoping America would prove better than us. Apparently not.
A few days ago a friend posted a funny thing- at least, it was funny at the time- a chalkboard sign with the following on it.
“America and Britain are having a competition on who can fuck themselves up the most.
“Britain is in the lead, but America has a trump card.”
I guess America just had to take first place… My fear is the way this will affect the rest of the world.
I’m glad that my first presidential election as an adult is one where half the country revealed that my life is worth less than their fucking ideals. where queer, poc, neurodivergent people’s lives are not as important as giving a rapist, white supremacist, orange toe scum the presidency. I am so angry, upset, and scared. The worst part, I can’t be upset and take comfort from my family or “friends” because they probably voted for trump or abstained, and I can’t tell them why I’m so upset, because coming out would put me in danger financially, emotionally, and physically. And that fear is here to stay, as the next four years will be a constant reminder that the country that I grew up in doesn’t give a shit about me, or the people I love.
I’m so sorry…
I’m so sorry this is happening to you (and others). I really wish I could offer you something besides Internet hugs.
Stay strong. If not out of hope, do it out of spite.
Trump may have won the election, but he lost the popular vote. That’s still a horrifying number of people voting for hate, but it’s enough to build upon
Hang in there. In a few years, you’ll be in a safer place to come out and we’ll be that much closer to dumping Trump.
I’m struggling to find anything funny at this point. 2016 just keeps getting worse.
Dear American DoA readers and Willis — I’m so sorry, I’m so angry, I’m so afraid for you. Rethinking major life decisions about moving to America within a couple of years. Stay strong, hugs from halfway around the world.
Before anyone panics, I want you all to remember one thing; Trump is not a politician. He has never held public office, never made a gov’t decision, and its entirely likely that he wasn’t the one making major decisions at his own businesses. And he’s decided to start off as goddamn POTUS, the most challenging political office in the Western world right now.
And he’s doing so as basically the Western Duerte, for all the confidence and trust any other world leader has for him. (Putin just sees possibly a very attractive lapdog). The same can be said for at home, where moderate conservatives/Republicans are quietly weeping into their bourbon at what their party has become.
Are there hardliners who will stand beside his crazy ass politics because of their constituency? Yes. Are there social conservatives currently jizzing their pants at the idea of using Trump to roll back 50 years of progress until things are “the way God intended”? Sadly, yes. But its the same number as there were before election day, and Obama was never their main obstacle.
So here’s what: Trump will be sworn in (barring last minute coup from Hillary/Congress), if only because the narcissist could NEVER pass up a chance to preen on the global stage. But it’s my honest belief that he’ll resign. Probably within his first year. If he can’t take criticism and doesn’t like being opposed, the Presidency will quickly lose attractiveness for him cause that’s like 90% of the job. Either he’ll drop dead of a stress heart attack or he’ll resign.
you know what, fuck HTML
Honestly, I think the law is not the largest concern. I could be proven wrong- after all, I didn’t think he would get in at all. But I believe the vitriol that Trump supporters have shown and the overall hostility that has increased towards minorities is the larger concern.
The citizens will make life worse for certain groups than changes to the law will.
And honestly, I’m not sure whether being proved wrong would be better or worse than being proven correct.
Yes. Regardless of anything else (and I anticipate anything from surface business-as-usual with continued and accelerated inequality to major rioting or new wars) the violence and discrimination that already is so prevalent (law only works when you have the ability to apply it) will become much, much worse. How can it not, when all the bigots have the entire government on their side?
“Either he’ll drop dead of a stress heart attack or he’ll resign.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I’d accept that. Not that I wish any kind of early demise onto Mr. Trump, but if something like that *should* happen then that would be an obituary I would take a great deal of pleasure in reading.
I would wish it
Pretty much everyone thinks he’ll basically let Pence run the country, like he promised a different VP choice. He just wanted the prestige, not the job.
Problem is, Pence is not a friend to the LGBT community at all. He supports gay conversion therapy, for example. And the Supreme Court is coming up.
The main thing I pray for at this point is that Trump does what I said, and that none of the other Justices drop dead. The people who voted for Trump/Pence won’t get what they want, and so he’ll be out by 2020.
Pence might actually a bigger danger than Trump. There was always a chance that president Trump would be a loud-mouthed, incompetent buffoon more than actually dangerous, but Pence is a career politician and we know where he stands.
This. Pence is a champion of LGBT reparative therapy, has fought dedicatedly against even the remotest public accommodation for LGBT folks, and has supported groups who have our elimination as a major policy goal.
Not to mention that our carny-handed mango-man president elect has stirred up a whole basket of deplorables who have spent the election season particularly targeting trans folks, jews, racial minorities, and poly folks and actively trying to drive them to suicide for fun, attempting to get them fired, and making endless jokes about gas chambers coming back when daddy’s back.
And well, the worst part is that he ran an openly fascist campaign and it worked. It even countered what most people would have assumed would be deep negatives like his total lack of qualification for president. Which means for the next decades if we survive the next 4, every dedicated white supremacist terrorist in America will think he has a chance to be next. He’s also vindictive and holds long grudges. How long do you think the groups I belong to will stay off his shit list?
And the basket of deplorables are empowered at the moment. They’ve won an election and we know from Brexit that that leads to a massive increase in hate crimes and open fascism as well as bullying of youth that are not cis straight white boys:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/08/homophobic-attacks-double-after-brexit-vote
And we’ve seen those deplorables be empowered this election, the open anti-semitism of Trump’s followers to the media, the massive increase in “just a troll” serial harassers, the increase in neo-nazi groups openly rallying and believing they have public support, and the amount of violence among Trump supporters against those they perceive to be their enemies.
I’m visibly queer. I fought too hard for too long to hide it. Trump and Pence have promised to try and destroy the health care systems that have kept me alive. Additionally, I’ve fallen afoul of the “deplorable” types too many times in the past simply because I exist with the identities I do and to some people that means target. I’ve nearly been murdered 3 times in the last 4 years simply because of what I am.
And every rapist in America now has proof that America views rape so casually that a man who openly sexually assaults 6 year olds on stage in front of major crowds and admits to enjoying regularly sexually assaulting the women who are unlucky enough to befall his path was handed our most important political seat because he’s not a filthy woman creature.
When I say the physical safety of me and my students are made so much more worse by this election, I’m not engaging in hyperbole. Some of us will be beaten, some of us will be killed, and giving the volatility of the folks who will be running the country with full support for at least two years, who openly flouted the rule of law to prevent black people from voting and who have openly turned on democracy when it hasn’t supported their universal clinging to power… And the stated desires of their most fervent fans as well as the casual way Trump has supported the bringing back of concentration camps for muslim-Americans, latinx folks, and others that fall under his ire means that I know that things are going to get really bad for folks like me.
Like, unspeakably bad and there might be a genuine risk that folks like me will be scapegoated and rounded up. I’m a stubborn old bongo, I’ll endure as best I can, but I’m terrified for the people I’ve fought for so long to keep alive and keep going and right now the only hope I’m clinging to is that when it comes time for me and mine to be sent to the camps, that I’m at least sent to the same one as my loved ones.
Trump’s complete incompetence and the fact that he may not be entirely sure what a president is would be, independently of the fact that the few coherent things he’s said are indescribably evil, be a reason that no decent person could vote for him and he shouldn’t have been let anywhere near even being allowed to run.
But since both are true, the former may dampen the latter. Yay.
Trump cannot handle criticism, but now the nation has handed him control of the mechanisms that can:
A) Violate the 4th Amendment – There is no longer any such thing as illegal search and seizure where the federal government is involved thanks to the Patriot Act and similar legislature.
B) Violate the 6th and 7th Amendments – The various aspects of the Patriot Act allows the federal government to arrest anyone without charging them with any crimes and allows these prisoners to be held without trial indefinitely.
This is particularly troubling since Trump has promised for years now to find ways to also violate the 1st Amendment in many different ways (use the government to impede the free press as well as use the government to promote Christianity). He has also actively promoted eliminating or ignoring the 14th Amendment (birthright citizenship). His party has been finding creative ways to violate the 24th Amendment (banning poll taxes) and he will put in place a SCOTUS that will ignore these violations.
Yeah, this is going to be a complete shit show. I need to seriously consider getting my transgendered child out of this country in order to protect him. Maybe myself and my children will also avoid having our healthcare taken from us since we all have LG-MD and pre-existing conditions is about to become a real thing again. I can’t help protect the other family members that will become second class citizens under Trump (or more accurately, under Pence and the soon-to-be Attorney General Rudy Giuliani). I am legitimately concerned for my two mixed race niece and nephew as they will be subjected to the national stop and frisk policy that Giuliani and Trump have advocated.
Don’t discount the SC when it comes to weakening the 4th.
Well the comments have already spiraled out of control so here’s my crap. I’m a Caucasian cis female polysexual atheist democrat in her 30s who’s legally disabled and when I found out Trump won, my friend had to talk me down. It’s not something I take lightly, but our future Hitler clone president is the first one that has ever scared the hell out of me. She’s made me promise to call my doctor tomorrow.
Stay safe. There’s still hope for the future even now.
Hope? That’s what me a few hours ago had. It’s what I posted about under yesterday’s strip. After being ripped apart by a woman I have looked up to for most of my adult life, hearing the waves and waves of bigotry in my town, and this, I have none left.
I’m sorry. No-one deserves that. It’s going to be rough. I think the only thing I think of is the potential for 2018.
I won’t tell you to hold on to hope, but don’t give up. Hope is… optimistic, not giving up can be… other things. You aren’t alone. You have support and people who care for you (hell, even if it’s just the people here, it’s still people). This shit fucking sucks, but don’t let it be an end.
I’m so sorry, honey.
If you can’t hang on out of hope, do it out of spite.
I’m so sorry. Please take care of yourself.
This is probably going to suck for a while, and it will get hard, but you can get through it.
Spite may not be a magic bullet that can replace hope, but I know that it is possible to not only survive, but to be happy out of spite. It can end up being a dark sort of happiness, but it can be enough to get through some rough places.
The world owes you so much better, and you’ll be in my thoughts in the days ahead.
Survival is our victory.
Thanks. I have read all what yall said, but I’m too mentally and emotionally exhausted right now for conversation or proper thanks. Give me a few days all I’ll be able to support and discuss, but right now I can’t.
As a foreigner I can only say…we live in interesting times…interesting times indeed.
Also interesting, #calexit is trending on twitter
To all of you US-Americans: I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t believe this would happen.
This is a dark day for the U.S., and probably the world.
Here’s hoping that most of what Trump said was just campaign rhetoric.
Either way, there is still his vice president, who may well be the worse of the two; though as a German, I have an outsider’s perspective, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Also, I’m not sure the Hitler comparisons are adequate. Hitler was, simply put, a mad fanatic. Trump, while an egomaniac, strikes me as more of an opportunist, who will say anything to get what he wants. As I said above, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes back on a lot of the things he said during the campaign.
One of Anne Frank’s own relatives called Trump worse than Hitler.
Even so, I’m inclined to disagree. If Trump starts World War 3 and errects concentration camps, then when can compare him to Hitler – but at that point it will be moot anyway.
Yup, and the worst part is that when Hitler rose to power he didn’t have the support of a majority of German voters. A man who has openly studied and admired Hitler and casually stirred up all manner of anti-semitic bigotry and literally quoted and promoted neo-nazis among his followers, including some to run his very campaign, does.
I’m not sure we’re ready for what occurs when a wannabe fascist leader knows he has the full support of a majority of the country he is about to run and that the country literally does not care what rules or laws he flouts so long as he supports their rabid hatred of everyone not like them.
It’s going to get ugly and I have no idea how I’m going to keep all the people I need to keep safe, well, safe.
This was not a normal election or a normal candidate, despite our media’s attempt to pretend otherwise, and the consequences on our nation will be felt for decades if not longer.
And it’s worth noting that before Hitler came to power, there was the Weimar Republic, which included quite a number of rights for queer folks, including trans folks as well as protections for racial minorities and women.
In some ways, Germany has not fully gotten back to where they were and we lost a whole major chapter of research when they burned Hirschfield’s Institute.
This will get bad and I’m not sure how to get back enough faith and hope to keep reaching out and keeping alive my communities.
Don’t worry too much about Pense; he was Trump’s bribe to the GOP establishment to get them to fall in line. The powers of the Vice President are quite limited (the biggest job he has is managing the giant herd of cats known as Congress and that’s more symbolic than practical) so long as Trump’s health holds out.
Cheney was Vice President, yet he made himself a secret enclave in the White House.
I suspect some one like Cheney will step forward and have to make policy. Trump isn’t capable of making policy.
you mean like Michael “Electrocute all the Gays” Pence?
Yes, or one of Trump’s sons.
He hasn’t hired a talented crew that’s for sure. Newt Gingrich is slated for State Department, which is particularly insane. I doubt if Newt knows the difference between Sunni and Shi’ite, let alone knows where Allepo is. There are nearly 1000 armed groups in Syria. HRC & Kerry had formidable intellects and I suspect they never fully grasped the situation. Newt, otoh.
For all the bellyaching abt Clinton being beholden to Goldman Sachs, he may well appoint Goldman Sachs veteran Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary.
I’m white… I’m male… but college educated and I’m sorry that my demographic has failed all of us. So drunkenly sorry…
Considering that Brexit is apparently under fire, can we maybe try and get something like that to happen to Trump?
I’m not sure if you’re serious, and I’m not all that familiar with the US political process, but I’m pretty sure no. Brexit was a referendum, and despite some of the politicians saying they’d abide by it, it’s not actually legally binding. From my understanding, impeaching Trump would require a congress majority (I think someone mentioned upthread that it was 2/3?), and since congress also went red, that’s not happening. Even if it did, you’d get Pence, and honestly I’m not sure you’d want that (assuming Pence isn’t going to be making all the policies anyway, which is a reasonably sized assumption). Maybe if congress turns radically blue in 2 years from now, you’ll get a chance.
It’s called impeachment and he has to do something wrong first. Like, really really wrong.
So that part is accounted for, then.
*chuckles humourlessly* *sobs because, while true, yo. was innaccurate*
Like screw an intern!
Oh, and then lie about it, I suppose.
So, you know. Good odds?
I’m waiting for it to become known that Russia blackmailed him.
Actually, there are national security experts who had become convinced that Russia’s plans were to use Wikileaks to tear down Hillary, then unleash all the stuff they got on Trump to throw the whole country into disarray. Impeachment might be a very real possibility, and the end result will be at best a dramatic increase in white nationalist groups carrying out more domestic terrorism than they already do.
Rumour has it Trump’s servers are leaky unpatched Windows 2003 machines running unpatched IIS.
If someone were to have hack them, we’d’ve had the info by now.
The notion is that they are sitting on what he has in order to damage him and our country once he does get into office. Don’t you think it is remarkable that all of the e-mail leaks were exclusively about making her look bad? There is no way that so much was found about her without anyone checking his accounts out.
Indeed. Wikileaks said that no one had given them anything about Trump, which I find strange.
The Russians have admitted helping wikileaks. The age of hacktivism is over.
They also admitted to “establishing links” with the Trump Campaign team. Why isn’t there more of a fuss over this?
Thinking about it, the next few strips might be Robin’s redemption in the eyes of readers. If she sits down with Joyce and unequivocally condemns Ross’s action as being in violation of all of the principles of the American family or just shows empathy. Lacking a pre-scripted response, we might see the real Robin rather than her speech-writers.
Hue.
I’m still cautiously optimistic that all his talk is just talk, and I’m hoping he won’t fuck things up too hard. Maybe I’m deluded, but I don’t think it will end up as horrible as we’re all afraid it will. Be prepared, anyway.
It’s been a terrible day. Uncertainty in my success as a freelancer. My boss declaring that she will not compensate me if I obey a subpoena that HER attorney filed (since she claims last minute we won’t be needed until tomorrow).
And then the results.
Here I thought kicking a guy when they were down wasn’t classy.
Just been reminded there was a 41% increase in hate crimes in the UK after the EURef.
Take care, guys. Look after each other’s backs.
“Brexit”, we call it here. But yes, hate crime- and non-crime- is a huge concern, probably larger than the actual policies Trump enacts. I would be interested in finding out how much hate crime has increased in America since election talk started.
It’s definitely my number one concern at the moment. This country regardless of whatever policies or statements Trump makes (and we know he has a tendency to lash out and blame minorities every time he hits a setback, see his organized targeting of the “globalist” media in the last few weeks and his promises to do away with Freedom of the Press) has become a much more dangerous one for anyone visibly the other.
And Bob help me, I’m not sure how I’m going to protect all my trans babies when I can’t even stop my campus from actually giving a fuck when they are raped and bullied and driven to suicide attempts.
ALL the hugs, and if there is anything a bunch of internet people can do for you or your students, just let us know.
I dunno, I wish people could somehow make me believe again that I can save them from a world that gleefully wants them dead. That I can carve out one little refuge in my one little corner of the world. That I’m not just pushing around sand and hitting the snooze button on the inevitable.
But that’s a somewhat impossible request to make of folks. Which just makes it a question of finding a means of resetting and continuing the fight, cause the fight is going to get more and more important in the coming years and a lot of rights we took for granted will go away and need to be refought for.
That’s so true, believe me, we are VERY clear over in Europe of how true that is, not only from historical horrors but recent examples as well.
But something I truly believe with all my heart is that even if the clock will ring eventually, hitting the snooze button is worth it. Every time. Each day you keep even one of them – even yourself – safe is worth it. Every time.
For me, this was the day I got in touch with the local office of the green party I vote for and asked when their next meeting is. Obviously we need better politicians. I suppose it will have to be me.
Thanks. That actually helped a bit.
And hooray for Future Candidate Bagge!
Okay, I’m going to take today to cry and feel like shit and be really scared and then tomorrow I’m going to try and turn this all into anger and use that anger to fight for my students, to keep them alive every minute I can do so, to fight for my people on the streets. To resist and go down swinging.
I swear, these last two weeks, I’ve felt more like Ruth than I have in at least a year and a half.
Well, then take Billie’s advice for once (and for the love of God – ONLY this once): Spite can be useful.
And yes, every student, every trans person, every single person who is oppressed right now that you manage to save, just for one more day, IS worth it. That’s the whole POINT.
My favorit example of that is Fadumo Dayib. Who knows, maybe one of your student will be the GOOD president we all hope for one day.
As for me…. yeah, I suppose there can be worse political role models than Dorothy. (Also: Cis privilege textbook example of the day – how Bagge and Cerberus each are affected by the election).
I don’t know if you’ll see this now or if it will help but I want to tell you about about myself.
I am a 29 year old transman. I come from a home which was extremely abusive- leaving me with PTSD that was basically “hardwired” into my mind due to it being in my formative years. I grew up mostly knowing fear and shame exacerbated by bullying at school. I attempted suicide for the first time at 16 after years of self harm.
I am okay. I am better than okay. I am doing incredibly well. I started transition at 20- and despite having a psychiatrist try to sabotage my transition and a gender specialist tell me I “don’t deserve treatment” I persevered. I found a wonderful man six years ago and married him two years ago. And after years of crippling mental health I am now learning to become a counsellor- a very tough thing to learn- so that I can help others. I am actively building my life, my future, day by day. Right now.
I know I’m not in America and I know every person, every experience, everyone is different. But giving young people a memory to hold on to as they take on, overcome and leave behind their challenges will do so much for them. You can’t take their burdens and you can’t give them a perfect world, but never underestimate what that kindness can do for them.
And never underestimate what they can do for themselves. If I’m anything, I’m happy to be proof that we can overcome so much and become strong, loving, wonderful people.
If Cerberus has turned in for the day and doesn’t read it, others will. Thanks for sharing.
What you had to go through was bullshit of the smelliest kind, and I’m glad (as I’m sure all of us are) that things turned out great for you. And good on you for choosing to help others – things in (most of) Europe aren’t as bad as in the US (though I think you’ve posted elsewhere that you’re french? The gloom that is LePen looms, I’m sorry 8( ) but I’m willing to bet they’re still far from easy, and every little bit helps.
I once again find myself agreeing with Bagge completely.
Thank you simply for existing, and please do take care of yourself.
I’m English, so we’ve had political bullshit of our own going on recently, yes. And you’re right JBento, things still aren’t easy because of that but I didn’t want to undermine the different experience of those in America.
Thank you for your kind words.
I think you’ll do great.
This is something I’ve been thinking about myself. Maybe not running for office (I’m already living in a rather progressive area), but something more protective than I’m doing now. Merely “Not being a hateful bigot” isn’t doing enough anymore.
Thanks 🙂
If we can take ANYTHING positive from this fiasco I suppose it is the insight that it is up to us. There will be lot of people who need our help now, and we can give it to them.
And we can still have Hope.
And we will still make the world Change into a better place.
You will do a lot of good in the arena you chose to do so in.
The actual Brexit hasn’t happened yet:(
I expect another shock to the system when it does 🙁
Don’t know the exact numbers, but same here in Poland after 2015 election.
Ouch, yeah, you guys have it rough 🙁
I… I don’t know. What do I do now?
Offer hugs? Condolences? Hard liquor?
i did 6 shots of gin and cried
I may or may not be sorta drunk on vodka right now, but I don’t have much home supply to last me much longer.
I am very sober because I made a personal choice to not drink or do drugs, but i feel like i have a hangover after this trainwreck of an election
Yes.
We’re doomed. I don’t think I can go to school today.
Keeping going is the only victory we have left to us. Hang in there!
Now that it’s an excepted thing…In the light of day I don’t think this is the apocalypse. I think we’re stuck with four years of an uniquely unqualified president niave to the circle jerk of uselessness our political system is. It’ll will be four years of bravado but nothing actually happening. No wall, no WW3, no mass deportation or Russian invasion, just four years of ego stroking and loudness with nothing actually happening.
I don’t think nothing will be an option.
At the very least, we’re looking at rolling back all the liberal measures instigated since the 60s – EPA gone, no medicare, Obamacare gone, Roe v Wade reversed.
Congress should do it’s traditional role of holding back the president but Congress, and the Senate are red, and there’s an open spot on SCOTUS.
The other problem is that Trump is genuinely unpredictable.
He may just glory in being president, and paint the White House gold. He may become bored with the whole show, having less power than he thought he’d get, whatever it is he thought he’d get. The downside is that someone in the shadows will step forward with a darker vision.
Then again, he may take it into his little head to actually do something like dismantle NATO or invade the ME.
We just don’t know.
I encourage people to read this: http://notbecauseofvictories.tumblr.com/post/152935168405/can-you-please-talk-about-those-protections-to while not absolute it does help more realistically shape some of the hurdles before Trump. He can’t just snap his fingers and make things happen.
He can get a judge on the Supreme Court right off the bat, and probably 1-2 more during his term. Also, unlike most of recent US history, the congress and the president are of the same party. It’s not carte blanche, but it’s a lot of freedom.
Our democracy is run on a system of checks and balances for reasons just like what has happened. We have to rely on them and hope the red party really hates Trump as much as they say they do. It won’t be a fun four years or optimistically two and a half because presidents don’t do anything in re-election years (keep to that trend Trump!) but I think we’ll live and hopefully learn from this.
He openly does not care about the rule of law and the SC slots he is very likely to be set to fill means he can make sure that the SC backs whatever lack of rule of law he wants.
Like, given all Obama was able to use Executive Orders and the DOJ to try and protect at-risk marginalized folks, imagine what a Trump who believes he is untouchable will be able to do.
Things will get way worse than most people think and I just hope it doesn’t get as bad as how bad I fear it will get given Trump’s campaign promises and rhetoric.
Listening to the radio this morning, it sounds like he isn’t going to try and put Clinton in prison.Which is good because that was a horribly bad idea. But on the other hand, so much for campaign promises..
(Can’t decide if this is the wrong avatar for today, or the perfect one.)
On one hand, that’s the creepiest Momo I’ve ever seen. On the other hand, you could have fucking Nyarlathotep and it still wouldn’t beat current reality, so it’s a toss-up.
Changed to Evil HanneLord’s Release the virus face as more suitably apocalyptic.
Or would Pintsize’s final form be better?
Hanners is nice. I like Hanners. I mean, not THAT Hanners, but Hanners. The world needs more Hanners.
I hope you’re right.
Recently, hope hasn’t been good indicator of what’s going to happen.
He’s appointing a climate-denier as head of the EPA. Or, as breitbart puts, a “dismantler in chief.”
His first week in office, he’ll cancel all 32 of Obama’s Executive Orders. Even the ones he might happen to like. Because Obama.
Positive, light, and reassuring touches of sympathy to everyone dealing with the blues.
guys, dont worry. youll all be fine, okay? im sure trump wont qctually accomplish anything. just stay safe and protect eachother. hopefully trump will die soon anyway
He’ll appoint at least one person to the Supreme Court (if a miracle doesn’t happen with recounts) which, as we’ve seen quite recently, is enough to do things like get rid of the Voting Rights Act. And SC appointed are for life so the damage could last for decades.
I didn’t realize she had already conceded by the time I wrote this; sure I was checking didn’t update properly.
the president cant do that though nor can he repeal old laws or create new ones http://notbecauseofvictories.tumblr.com/post/152935168405
like im really worried about disabled people, other trans women of colour, immigrants, really any lgbt person anyone whos gonna be in danger bc of this but this helped w/ the anxiety
The Republicans will be happy to put the suggested ultra-right-wing judges into the Supreme Court.
The Republican-dominated Congress intends to roll back the ACA as Trump promised.
The Republican-dominated Congress intends to tear up all the climate treaties, gut environmental protections, deregulate business, immediately rescind the Iran nuclear deal, and are enthusiastic backers of withdrawing from NATO.
So the idea that Trump’s damage will be held in check is, I now think, hopelessly and insanely optimistic.
Yes, he can appoint a Supreme Court judge. The link you provided even days so: “…Even if Trump appoints the worst possible SC…”
And the Supreme Court did rule part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional because they felt it was “no longer needed”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965
So I’m not sure what you mean by “he can’t do that”.
I have a friend who will die.
Because they will roll back ACA. They can, now. And they will.
He has a recurring cancer. He has spent literally all of his and his family’s life savings paying for treatments before the ACA came into effect. The fact that insurance can’t deny coverage for pre-existing conditions under the ACA is what saved his life. When that requirement disappears, the insurance companies will drop him like a hot rock. And he has no more money. None. He’s still paying off debt from the last surgery.
Without the ACA, he will die. Probably within the next year or so.
So all this “hey guys you’ll be fine” — life is not a Disney movie. There is no guaranteed happy ending. People die too young, and they die hungry or sick and afraid. As long as those are just a backdrop in your life and you’re happy to not think of them as real people who mean anything, you can buy into the “it’ll all be fine, nothing too bad will happen” bs. But people don’t come back from the dead, religious myths and zombie movies aside, and families which are devastated by loss tend to stay that way.
So spare me, okay?
……………..Oh, by the way. I hope you didn’t like the climate much and don’t care too much about endangered species, because there are a few tipping points there, too, that we can’t come back from.
*hugs* Yeah, I have a few friends that are going to die now because of the very likely ACA repeal and I doubt that a lot of things that health insurances have been forced to cover will continue to exist for much longer which will likely put another large swath of friends and myself at risk for death.
Survival is all we have now. Surviving out of spite and the request to humbly die so some old racist fucks can continue believing its 1849 and that all this diversity is somehow a secret liberal plot.
I know I’ve disagreed with you a lot in the comments, SKDK, but I’d like to thank you for being positive.
This thread has given me hope. I knew as a Democrat voting in Texas that my state would stay red, but I had really hoped for change in other states. I’m depressed, embarrassed, ashamed and scared to be honest. I have two daughters, and I’m worried for them.
I can’t today, America, I just can’t.
Count me in with the group who is finding it very difficult to be charmed by Robin right now, and it’s usually pretty easy to charm me. :-/
I have already mentally named Trump ‘President Most Likely To Nuke His Own People.’ He’ll have the nuke access and the supply, he’s got the infantile tantrum temper, AND he’s got a thoroughly red Congress to enact whatever insane vengeance his overstuffed ego requires whenever he wants it.
Forget WWIII. We’re looking at nuclear winter.
Winter is coming, Jon Snow
Sorry, America. Remember that we love you and support you, and we wish you all the best of luck in the difficult times to come.
Aren’t we all.
Comic Reactions:
Okay, I can’t even make it to work today, but I believe I can at least do this, because analysis of this wonderful comic is what’s holding me together right now.
Panel 2: So in every hate movement, there’s always one or two individuals with the traits despised by the movement that the movement ducks behind every time they are called out on their bigotry. Phyllis Schlafly for the organized anti-women movement. Peter Thiel and Milo Badbleachjob for anti-gay-rights. Herman Cain for the neo-KKK.
And the reason they are there is because there’s a perceived safety in being the pet. Cause if you’re the pet, you’re not the target and the hate movement will tell you you’re different, that you’re not like the group they hate, and you’ll be given an honorary dominant group designation subject for removal the second you don’t dance perfectly to their tune.
And so that DoA Robin finds herself in such a role makes sense. In the other universe she wanted desperately to fit in, to not care about the issues those like her face, escape the limitations of her origins. And without a caring group of government agencies, retail employees, and the love of a woman that reached through to her like nothing else, Robin can’t work through that.
And so instead she embraces it. As Panel 3 Roz notes, yeah, that’s in the textbook regarding the trap of “the cool girl”, but in the textbook, that’s treated as negative.
Robin doesn’t consider it negative because she has sold her soul to a political movement that hates her, who has now in her universe elected a man who wants to deport everyone like her and whose right hand man would electrocute her if given half the chance.
Her whole sense of self is resting on this just being how girls like her survive. As the only road. Because if there’s no other road, then how could she be blamed for the many wrongs she has committed in her stewardship of this congressional district?
And that’s tragic, heartbreaking.
Even though my sympathy for that heartbreak is limited, because of how she, like so many of her types in the real world, fuck over the lives of the rest of us in their mad rush to be seen as “one of the only good ones”.
At least Phyllis Schlafy is dead. She and Scalia are two of the very few lights in this shitstain of a year.
Comic Reactions (continued):
Panel 5: Poor Leslie in that panel. I think she’s realizing how unsafe a space she has made her class today in her quest to see Robin again and for this special lesson. And you know that she likely sent a special note on her request a week ago that just went horrendously ignored.
Panel 6: But at least Robin seems to be self-aware in a way that her real-world president-elect counterpart isn’t. Unlike him, she realizes she just done fucked up and that hits home for her. And I think that’s what’s eventually going to break her, though that might be a looooong time coming.
Panel 7: Heh. It is a fascinating situation how many terrible people namesearch themselves endlessly, not to monitor active harassment and keep safe, but simply to find more people to bully and harass. The-fake-goth-TERF I shall not name, Dilbert guy, nazi facebook man, and so on.
It’s a wry smile though because her real-world counterpart will now have unprecedented power to bully using the American government every person he decides to pick a fight with on the internet.
We could be entering a world where like in V for Vendetta, making a joke mocking Trump’s hands could genuinely mean being arrested for treason. Like no joke, that’s a distinct possibility.
And no I’m looped back to despondent again. Fuck this election. Fuck this country. Fuck everyone who shares my skin color.
Hugs to you and your students.
I think when he wrote this, even Willis in this darkest moments couldn’t comprehend how totally shitty Trump could get.
All the hugs. Hopefully, it’ll take enough time for Trump (or, more likely, Pence) to build momentum on the shittyness that things won’t get catastrophically bad until the next congressional elections, and you manage to turn it blue, so you can get at least some safety net on the whole thing.
Treat yo’ self:
dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/149400254402/dumbing-of-age-better-megapost
I’m just… sad right now. And I don’t even live in America – just one of the countries that will be most screwed by Trump presidency.
Okay. So what’s the next step?
Let’s walk through it. What damage is Trump, a Republican Congress, and the resulting Supreme Court going to cause?
Item by item, what can we do to mitigate the damage? Head it off and prevent it? What efforts can we organize to take up some of the slack on the lifting that the government’s going to stop doing? To shield those the government’s going to come down on and shouldn’t? To hold a rearguard against the worst of the changes?
Extremist supporters emboldened by these developments to take wider vigilante actions? What steps can we take to protect and shelter their targets? To undo their organizations without the assistance of the feds?
What changes do WE need to make in how we organize and approach these things to become more effective than we were this year?
And how do we flip the Congress in two years, and the presidency in four?
What’s the next step?
Well, we can wait for the electoral college vote to see if they actually elect Trump. And if he can keep out of jail and/or immediate impeachment. There’s a very good chance of both, but they’re not guaranteed.
Don’t borrow worries from the future. Be with people you trust. Speak up if you see something wrong, if you can do so safely. Stand between bigots and their victims, if you have the strength. Take breaks to keep your stamina up. More than that, I guess will take some actual organization.
Borrow worries from? No.
Prepare for? Yes.
It’s a tight line to walk, but if in doubt it’s better to favor relaxation. It’ll be easier to make specific, practical plans when you’re not panicking anyway.
The second part would get you Pence instead of Trump, which I suspect is going to be make all the policies anyway. I’m not familiar with the US electoral system, so what would happen if they didn’t elect Trump (besides probable civil war)? Do you go another election round?
All the electoral college and immediate impeachment talk is desperate grasping at straws. Neither is going to happen, and I’d argue they would be very bad things if they did.
If the electoral college does not elect a President, it goes to the House of Representatives, which the Republicans control. They’d have a choice of the top three candidates, i.e. Trump, Clinton, and (I assume Gary Johnson, but have not checked). Who do you think they would pick?
If they deadlock, well, not sure then.
Yeah, one does desperately grasp at straws to avoid drowning.
Be sure to keep asking “And how has voting for Trump made your life better? Never mine all the vicarious revenge and schadenfreude over the fate of all those terrible people. Have your taxes gone down? Is the public debt lower? Do you or yours have better job prospects? Are you really safer from violence?”
Because they won’t actually be getting any of those things. Except for maybe the first, but only if they are very rich.
Edit: “Is your health insurance cheaper or better now?”
For the Environment? It’s looking bleak. You can perform micro-actions like using LED lighting etc, but it really requires action on a government level and Trump has said he’ll renege on the Paris agreement.
I’ve look at Ana Marie Cox’s twitter feed and gleaned these:
GLAAD, possibly local groups that work with immigrants and refugees, children’s organizations.
national or state disability rights advocacy organizations.
National Association of Free Clinics.
Scarleteen (Sex Ed)
naral.org
At least it will be more entertining with Trump guy than with Hillary.
But it makes you curious how fast he will change all his agenda and will become another one of political normies than rage induced one.
I’m still waiting for that wall.
If he follows the “Brexit” pattern, then he’ll start reneging on his promises any day now.
I don’t think watching marginalized people become even more suicidal is gonna entertain me very much.
I’d prefer it to be boring. Government isn’t supposed to be entertaining
Thank you, yes. This.
+1
One person has already been killed during the election in what seems to be a terrorist attack against Democrat voters. You can expect more people will be killed as bigots, particularly homophobes and transphobes, Pence’s favorites, feel validated in their hate and free to act on it without consequence. Are you sure you want to tell them you find this “entertaining”?
Oh, and eight trans people have reportedly killed themselves today.
Clinton won the popular fucking vote. Yet again our electoral college has failed us, and this time it will have serious consequences.
Notice what I just said, though. Clinton won the popular vote.
Don’t lose hope, don’t lose faith in America just yet. Don’t get up on that ledge thinking your life is over. We need to stick together, weather the coming storm, and fight back.
Republicans like to read the constitution as if it were a goddamned Bible and they were goddamned Literalists, right?
Well, We the People are fucking pissed. And we are ALL part of “the people”. To those of you out there who might be targeted in the coming years, don’t forget that.
So let’s do something about this. If it comes time to vote on something, vote on it. If a controversy is sparked, make your outrage known. If something happens to YOU, get your STORY out there. Make sure you are heard.
I was born, what, two months? Three months? Too early to vote this year, and that fact will haunt me until this is all over. It’s not like my vote, my singular ballot would have changed anything, but it will still haunt me. I couldn’t control the fact that I was born at the end of December of ’98, but it will still fucking haunt me.
So I’m not going to let my future actions haunt me further. I’m sick of being the temperamental nerd sitting in his bedroom doing nothing, playing Skyrim for hours on end as a method of escaping the world at large, complaining about how much life sucks when I am doing nothing to try and change it.
That fucking ends now.
We can change the world together. I don’t care how goddamned cliched it is, we can do anything we put our minds to, because we all have each other.
Let’s make things better.
It does appear that, in the electoral college system, some votes are worth more others. Something I suspect the founding fathers never figured on?
Not that I’d expect any change in the next 4 years. Well, more vote suppression.
It’s not about what votes are worth more. A bunch of douchebags get together and vote, it actually has nothing to do with our votes. It’s ridiculous.
Considering that the initial plan was to only have white male landowners voting, I’m not sure if that’s a feature or a bug.
I hold out a glimmer of hope that in 2 years time Congress turns blue. It won’t be much, but it’ll be something.
“there are no such things as bugs. They are just un-documented features”
The stats I get (which may be innacurate) are a percentual tie, with Clinton having the upper hand by 200k out of 125million votes. That’s… not particularly motivating.
But vote. Yes. If you still think your vote doesn’t count, go watch some Brexit reaction videos on YouTube on people who regret how they voted, or not voted. All elections are important. All votes count. Protest votes are abominations. Abstaining says you don’t care about how your country is run. If you think that standing hours in line isn’t worth it to cast your vote, take a look around – nearly half of you that could didn’t vote yesterday. Those hours could have saved you, saved everyone, from 4 years of Trump.
Its a difficult one, my country (NZ) had the same issues for a long time as well, you could lose the popular vote and win enough electorate seats and still govern
We went to MMP as its a fairer system however what we’ve found out with that system is we now have a “tail wag the dog” set up, meaning that one of the parties on roughly 10% is looking like its going to decide who runs the country because we have the right wing parties on roughly 47% and the left parties on roughly 40%
So after the election we’ll have one party hold up the forming of government until they decide (read: bribed) who they’ll go into government with
MMP wasn’t supposed to be like this, it was supposed to make parties work together, MMP is still a better option then FPP but its still not there yet
We can start here: By abolishing the Electoral College which has been rigged to give more weight to conservatives, and diminish other voice:
https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petitions/sign-the-petition-abolish-the-electoral-college?link_id=0&can_id=f6f01fd060ac2e899faff14b3bd92664&source=email-sign-if-you-agree-abolish-the-electoral-college&email_referrer=sign-if-you-agree-abolish-the-electoral-college___131682&email_subject=the-surprisingly-realistic-path-to-eliminating-the-electoral-college-by-2020
OH yeah, the electoral college is fucking bullshit and a half. It made sense back when the Constitution was written, but that’s ONLY because trying to collect the votes from everyone in the United States would have been… quite a feat, to put it lightly. Now we have technology. We’re in the Age of Information. We need to get rid of that fucked-up system.
I’m not convinced the EC actually was a good call when it was designed. Local reps as opposed to MPP legitimately were, given a less connected society, but the EC was designed to trigger House runoffs while providing the veneer of a vote to the public, to make sure that society’s betters were picking the president.
Don’t know what to say from over here in Europe.
*hugs* Cerberus and everyone. Never give up.
I’m hoping, in that last panel, that the scales are starting to fall from Leslies eyes
I mean I get lust, I totally understand wanting to Joe someone because you think they’re hot and all but Leslie deserves better
I’d rather she not give up just yet. Unlike Trump, Robin shows signs of humanity which could make it possible for Leslie to get through to her.
I’d rather believe people like her can be reached and changed right now. If Leslie can stand her long enough to do it, she’d be doing her and the nation a service.
If so many Americans support Trump now, we can’t afford to wait for those people to get old and die. Those of us who can stand to do so need to reach out and try to put cracks in the shell of ignorance and privilege that allows so many to think they were doing the right thing.
I get that but I reckon that it shouldn’t have to be Leslie waiting and hoping and getting through to Robin, if she can stand her long enough
It should be Leslie finds someone decent that she doesn’t have to put with until she heals her or whatever
I really disliked the way Leslie was treated in SP and I don’t want to see it happen here as well
Depicting a wide variety of relationships that are a bad idea is one of the things that makes the characters in DoA and ShortPacked feel real to me. No two work quite the same way, and even the ones that last have issues because the characters are complicated and have flaws and don’t always make good or even healthy decisions.
That’s one of the things I liked best about their arc in ShortPacked. It was unhealthy and unbalanced from the start, until both of them had worked past the baggage that was holding them back, and at the end of that often difficult and sometimes painful road they had something truly beautiful.
Not because that’s how it should work, but because they each had a hangup (Robin’s aversion to commitment / responsibility / acting like an adult, and Leslie’s tendency towards unhealthy infatuation / excessive devotion) that would have made it difficult to have a healthy relationship with anyone. Their relationship somehow ended up being what forced each of them to confront their issues, and came out stronger for it.
raise your hand if you’re fucking dead inside.
I’m in my final semester for two Bachelor’s degrees. I’ve been dead for months. This just signified I have no future in my after school life.
Robin is just so… open and genuine. She’s not saying the thing that supports her political platform, she’s describing the reality of her life.
If anyone is thinking of changing their name for whatever reason, I’ve seen warnings that they should do it before January.
After that, it could get trickier.
I think an aide is going to be getting the fusion cannon fairly soon.
My deepest condolences to all the excellent people in the US. This election was beyond parody, and the result would be hilarious if it weren’t horrifyingly true.
“As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.” – Future President Lisa Simpson
What can I do to help?
To all the people who voted: welcome to democracy. And democracy is about rules. And the Rule of Law. You comply and accept those, and before you can change anything, you need to play by the rules. Cheer up, it´s only four years. You have that pretty “Check & Balances” system that will control with a tight grip that Presidential canditate.
Also, if any choice is bad, ugly or downright dissapointing, you can´t expect that people (and for that, I MEAN a LOT of people) will vote that “evidently preferrable choice- ergo, the lesser malaise” you did calcultate (in as, a completely reasonably train of thought, with your meal on the plate, the job right on your lap, and a cozy home to return to, and your sensible conscience satiated) as the “best possible given the circunstances”. No, people won´t vote like that. It´s visceral, in most cases. It shouldn´t be, but it is. Welcome to democracy, again. There´s a silver lining as to why a lot of people decided to vote for one, and not the another.
P.D. I´m an anti-TTIP european partisan, so it happens, by the way, that at least that will be delayed, and it´s for the better (at least for a while).
note: This got too long, but I don’t have anywhere else in my life I can say this. Sorry… 🙁
I have two young sons (6 & 8); they both learned about Trump at school, and asked me about it. They were scared. My eldest learned the word ‘dictator’ from his friends at school.
I had to explain to him, and my youngest, that America is better than that. Even the most charismatic president is not a dictator, and the peaceful transition of power is our greatest strength. We, as a country, have survived 4-8 years of some truly awful presidents, and we will again. The PRICE we pay for living in a democracy is that sometimes people we disagree with will win elections. And we HAVE to be okay with that, because it’s the way democracy works.
I have to be strong, and steadfast, because I will not give my children the fear. If others are in a position of authority, I feel strongly they must do the same. Acknowledge that it’s bad, but that it’s not catastrophic. We are still a democracy, and that’s not going to change, warts and all.
I find it refreshing to occasionally take a slow, careful read of this list of cognitive distortions and catch myself when I’m making one of them.
I know there’s a VAST temptation to personalize this, but we mustn’t. The people who voted Trump in were not voting against you, or me, or anyone else as LGBTQetc., or PoC, etc… To think that somehow every person who voted for Trump thinks that trans folks shouldn’t exist, or wants to deport all muslims, is what’s called ‘catastrophizing’. The people who voted Trump in were also not all voting for him because they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a woman. That’s not the way people’s decisions are made. These are complex human beings, with all the fears, stresses, distractions and internal battles of every other human being. Allow a few dozen million of them to have motives that aren’t directed at you, or the group you are part of.
From what I’ve seen, they were voting their fear of the inexorable change, their fear of immigrants doing better than them, their fear of being sidelined in economic progress.
A few specific points.
‘Pre-existing conditions’ being excluded from considering by health insurance plans is MASSIVELY popular, even with Republican voters. If they repeal ACA, they will do it with something that preserves that, because getting rid of it is not in their best interests.
Pence is a disgusting jerk, but queer and trans rights are VASTLY more of a states issue. If you live in Indiana, you should know this. 🙁 If you live in California, Washington, or any of a bunch of other very to moderately friendly states, there’s VERY little the government (and ESPECIALLY a Republican government, making noise about states rights) can do to reach down into the state and cause problems.
Trump is uncontrollable and..SQUIRREL!…where was I…oh yeah… and has little impulse control, and he WILL undo a great deal of the progressive works that have been advanced over the last eight years. But that’s okay. It’s survivable. It’s sad, and frustrating, but politics is a pendulum. Sometimes you’re up, and sometimes you’re down. For the last eight years, we’ve been up. That’s a lot; for some folks, that’s as long as they’ve been aware of politics at all. The comedown had to happen, and it sucks right now, but in the long run it’ll swing back. You just have to stick around to see it.
That said, all the important politics are local, so fight the important fights locally.
The last thing I want to say, which is going to be super-unpopular, is that we can’t try or wish to de-legitimize the president-elect. That wasn’t acceptable when Trump and others did it to Obama, and it’s not acceptable now. By the laws of our country, he has been elected. He is now OUR President-elect, and will become OUR president. We don’t get to disclaim him because we didn’t vote for him, or our state didn’t. We’re all in this together.
We can and will survive this, together.
Damn inability to edit. I wanted to add:
…and even that is oversimplifying the complex motives of nearly 60 million people. I too need to work on resisting the desire to oversimplify the motives of Trump voters. I’m not perfect; I’m a complex and conflicted human being, like each and every one of ALL the voters (and non-voters) in this election.
….Man, no it isn’t. America isn’t better than that. It has never been better. No country is ‘better’. It’s just not doing it now. No country is above voting a dictator into power. Like, this doesn’t mean trump WILL be a dictator. There are still many steps between there and now. Bluntly, many of them are likely not going to be taken, /because he is also lazy/. But even his incompetence is no barrier. Acting like America is ‘better than this’ is the easiest way to be flummoxed when even more proof comes in that no, it fucking isn’t. This isn’t ‘fear’. This is stating the fucking obvious. You don’t have to be ‘afraid’ as such. But you had god damned well better be on guard.
Gay people were poised to actually gain ground, you know? It shouldn’t /be/ a ‘states’ issue. Trans discrimination shouldn’t either. It’s as much a ‘states issue’ as whether or not you should be able to discriminate on the basis of color. It’s only a ‘state’s issue’ because the federal government was paralyzed with indecision (Obama had one desire, and a congress that hated queer rights had another.) It will be no longer.
It’s honestly amazing to me how white liberals will say “we need to take their concerns seriously” motherfucker we are. That’s why we’re scared. They /at best/ don’t care about us. They have /stated this/. It’s not /just/ Trump. They responded to trump /louder/ when he blamed the gays. They responded to Trump /more/ when his campaign talked about deviants. They roared thunderous applause when he talked about building a wall, because ‘mexicans’ who came over here were bad people. And many of them hate queers just as much as they hate brown people. ‘taking their concerns seriously’ also means actually looking at what they did.
AND THEY WON.
And you know, States’ rights aren’t a real thing. It was definitively disproven 150 years ago. The republicans have always known that – they just like having a haven to be horrible people when the federal government isn’t sufficiently terrible.
And don’t talk about how things are survivable like it’s some blase guarantee. I’ll probably make it, but I’m leaving ASAP (And that time table was only marginally nudged by the election. I was already leaving), and I’m still legitimately concerned that the hate crimes – you know like the ones we /already/ had in the election cycle, and which brexit has shown us will vastly increase – will end in my death. And I’m a hermit who only leaves for work and groceries, who doesn’t talk about herself. I’m not the most likely victim, but jesus fuck, I shouldn’t have to be on guard like this – much less for probably more like 10 or 20 years.
And you know… there are people who need ACA. Assuming, bluntly, without evidence (‘oh, the republicans have to do this, it’s popular.’ Fucking christ, Gay Marriage has overall popular support) that pre-existing coverage is kept in… guess what. There’s still people who need that help.
There is no indication of this being a normal down. This is a /massive/ downturn. We’ve had the GOD. DAMNED. VOTING RIGHTS. ACT. Struck down in strong part. Do you not know what that fucking means? I can only hope to christ it is. Meanwhile, I have to gird myself to continue the fight. Denmark’s racists and fascists, and it has them, will only be emboldened by the victory of their American cohorts.
Like, jesus fuck, white people talking about how ‘america is better than this’ is still making me angry. No, it really fucking isn’t. The States have, for a bit less than a century, put a fucking premium on happily installing and maintaining dictators the world over. It peaked in the cold war, and a lot of it’s backfired. Ask a Chinese person, they’ll tell you; Chiang Kai-shek was far more murderous than Mao could ever dream of (I mean, Mao generally preferred exile to backwaters and demotions, but westerners tend to think of him as a huge mass murderer), in /absolute/ terms, and he ruled for a much shorter period with less centralized power. Ask an Iranian, they’ll tell you; we overthrew their democratically elected government because we disliked their policies that would hurt us. Ask a chilean, they will tell you; Pinochet was one of the more murderous dictators, and we installed him specifically as a response to socialist, but democratic, governments acting on their actual campaign promises. We supported and maintained Mugabe right up until it was pretty likely he’d fall no matter what we could reasonably do.
And while we make a lot of noise about liberty, in practical terms we can be really god damned authoritarian. Look at the discourse around Kaepernick! All he’s doing is not displaying reverence during the national-god-damned-anthem (Look at other democracies, see how often they play the national anthem in domestic sportsball games). The very rigid way we expect service personnel is actually another extremely authoritarian holdover we have. One of the things Trump specifically, and in no uncertain terms, promised to do was try to limit the god damned media because they said insulting, but undeniably true, things about him (He wanted to sue CNN for saying THERE WERE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST HIM.) That one’s actually in the cards – his supporters wanted to /hang/ journalists. Like, from a tree, until dead. He swore up and down (though seems to be reneging) that he would jail Clinton as a /traitor/.
When Americans talk like we just so value liberty and love and we can’t have a dictator 🙂 we are doing one of the exact things that lets dictators come to power – we are getting complacent. Again, I don’t think it’s particularly likely we will have a 4th Reich. I don’t think Trump wants to govern enough for that to be likely. But jesus fucking christ. We aren’t some super special country that could never have a dictatorship. Americans are fucking humans. Humans sometimes do evil or stupid things. Watch, and the second he actually threatens a pillar of democracy (Again, since he already did it repeatedly in the election), hue n’ cry. If he doesn’t, great. If he does, you’ll be ready. But you won’t be ready if you keep singing yourself a fairy song about how we /won’t/ do this.
Sorry, but being “massively popular with voters” determines what politicians promise to do, not what they actually do. Especially because popular opinion doesn’t matter for shit unless it translates into actual votes.
Better gun regulation has been popular with the majority of Americans for YEARS now. Notice anything NOT HAPPENING?
Senator McConnell is already calling for the COMPLETE repeal of the ACA. Repealing ObamaCare has been a part of the GOP platform ever since it was passed.
Now that they have the power to do it, their extremely fickle base will turn on them if they don’t. From the start the mantra has been “repeal and replace”. That’s not because they need to repeal it to change things. If cared more about results than ensuring a Democrat’s signature bill doesn’t actually get to help people, they could just amend it, or write a totally new Health Care which creates the replacement and removes the original bill at the same time.. But no, they repeatedly and specifically list “repeal” as a separate step, because that’s the part they care about. They want to kill the Democrat’s legacy. They’ll get around to actually helping the American people a couple years later, so it won’t be as easy to directly compare to the ACA.
Maybe they’ll think twice about it, worrying about midterms. One can always hope, but I doubt it. The left is goddamn awful about turnout for midterm elections. We can’t assume that will change this time just because we want it to. It’s going to require a massive effort and a change in strategy.
It also does not matter whether or not all of the people who voted for Trump are complete awful bigots, because they elected one, and he has the backing of the House and Senate. LGBT+ rights isn’t likely going to be one of the issues that he and congressional Republicans fight over.
Even if many of Trump’s supporters aren’t white supremacists, there’s enough of them emboldened by his hate speech to put people at considerable risk. And yes, I mean actual hate speech, not “thinly veiled hate speech” or “barely disguised hate speech”. He stopped in MN the day before the election, just long enough to share how bad he felt about us having a large, thriving population of Somali immigrants. He might as well have been calling for violence against them.
It is also racism that allows the many otherwise nice people supporting him (like the ones in my extended family (ugh)) to be totally blind to his bigotry, or else handwave it away because “he’s going to fix things” and “he doesn’t really mean that stuff, why are you getting upset?”. Just like its sexism that allows them to ignore basically everything about how he interacts with or talks about women.
Democrats (and those Republicans would claim to have a conscience) in congress absolutely have a moral obligation to try and obstruct Trump’s policies to keep them from causing harm. If the GOP tries to actually pass legislation that would help the American people, they should support that, obviously, but I don’t expect a lot of that is going to happen.
There is a road through this, rough as it may be. But pretending we’ve got nothing to worry about does not help us get there.
So, I once again have a waaaall of text.
This time, though, I’ll be nice to you, and merely put up the link to it:
https://skepticalclown.wordpress.com/2016/11/10/youll-survive-trump-really/
Don’t forget that in my WordPress can also be found a link to the first podcast made by Cerberus and me.
Heh; while I (obviously) disagree with the gist, I totally should have done what you did, and put up a blog post and linked to it. Also, then I’d have been able to edit it… Yours was a much better choice. 🙂
In this -very comment field- of today, we have people talking about how they are doing all they can to survive just now…
AND YOU FUCKING DISAGREE WITH THAT?
Fuck the hell off!
Seriously ^
Pull your head out of your ass.
I just read your post: good stuff. However, I don’t see the podcast link: can you direct me OR post the link to the cast here? THANKS
It was at the bottom, as the ‘previous’ post: https://skepticalclown.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/podcasting-of-age-episode-1/
In a minor quibble (because I ran out of vodka and switched to beer, and apparently alcohol makes me more nitpicky that usual) a quarter of the country voted for marginalising minorities. Half of it just said they didn’t care. Including a non-ignorable part of the minorites themselves, if the stats are to be believed. BEcause everything sucks and people suck in all sorts of ways, and for that I’m glad that alcohol isn’t a controlled usbtance. Fuck it all and burn waht’s left.
Yeah, I’m slightly in a “fuck that kind of accuracy” mode right now, I must admit. Was not in the mood to look up the actual numbers.
It doesn’t matter for THIS election, of course, but realising that half the population didn’t vote might help Democrats do something about congress 2 years from now, and about the presidency 4 years from now.
Trump means Trump?
I imagine with near certainty that a lot of people are drinking much more heavily than usual today. It’s probably a little late to say, but I would like to advise caution, to anyone who might still read this. Please be careful. At least where I am located it is one of the easier substances to obtain, but please don’t let that persuade you that it is safe in large quantities.
No judgments–do what you need to to survive this–but whatever substance or other distraction or coping mechanism you choose, please be as safe as possible with it. Please choose the safest of the coping mechanisms available to you.
Because all of you matter. Some of you specifically say very helpful things frequently enough that I remember your names. (I am terrible with names.) Some of you even if I don’t remember your name have said things that were specifically very important for me to hear at the time and were very helpful. And even those of you who only said one thing ever are important. Or even if you only “lurk”, and read in silence. You matter. You, reading this right now, matter. You are important to me, even if I have not yet seen direct signs of you.
Even if everything is suddenly even more dangerous than it already was, which, for many (or, slightly less immediately, most or all) of us it is. Please do not give up. Even if everything is terrible, there are still things we can do to help it be somewhat less terrible. But only if we survive. We must each practice careful self-care, so that we can survive, and then we must protect each other. It shouldn’t have to be lots of hard work to do, but it is what it is. But if we do what we can, it will be less bad than if we don’t. And we can do more together.
I lack details of *how*, but my guesses from earlier today start with: First, survive. Self-care, etc. Second: find local organizations (or local branches of larger organizations–important part being someone close enough to you that you can effectively help them) already working on important causes that suddenly have even greater need (from those who are able) of time, energy, money, and/or other resources. If they’ve already started work, they already have some structure in place and have already done some of the research, and can probably make more efficient use of resources than someone who has not already done this preparation. Third: any specialized skill that you have, is likely to be useful somehow. Continue work refining these skills. Look for ways your specialization might be leveraged well by the important causes. It is your specialty; you may see ways to use it that others might not.
I see that a couple or few people have already found links to lists of various organizations working on various subsets of important causes. And I thank them all very much for this information; I intend to start looking into several of these within the next few days as I regain my energy.
I am suspecting that rather than spite as others have mentioned, that it is hubris that fuels me. Somehow, (when not paralyzed by fear, at least) I feel unreasonably certain that I will eventually obtain substantial power, which which I will finally be able to fix things. But it has become obvious that it is time to actually *take* that power, rather than waiting for it to fall into my lap. What difference can “just once person” make? Well let’s find out!
As young Tiffany Aching* observed, if this world is mine, I will defend it!
Now who’s got a cast-iron skillet!
*(character from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books)
You’re new here, right? You’d be surprised how many people here know of Sir Pterry’s works and characters.
Pretty sure that between this and Brexit, the good Sir Pterry is spinning so hard in his grave, his body is becoming a drill that bores down to the tunnels of the mole people of Atlantis; where he will be revived, cured of his Alzheimer’s, and spend his days in ignorant bliss of the clusterfuck that’s happening on the surface.
I read much, speak rarely (but when I do, often with huge walls of text). I knew the great author was generally known but it felt weird to not footnote.
Tiffany’s my favorite; I really should read that fifth book.
Very well said.
God save as all and the country from the ignorant, the biased, the disinterested, the misguided, and hateful. It’s going to be a long 4 years.
Eh, we were screwed either way. Now we know HOW.