“And when it rains, there’s a rainbow,
And all of the colors are black…”
Paul Simon, My little town.
*****
As well educated scientist with humble, working class origins, I have:
Valued education and academic scholarship
Derived useful knowledge from reproducible, scientifically rigorous, data
Known that evolution and anthropogenic climate change are data-driven, scientifically valid conclusions
Considered and treated women as my equals
Embraced diversity and equality of those who differed by race, nationality, social standing and sexual orientation
During the past 24 hours, the majority of the American electorate has completely refuted and rejected those values that I hold most dear. My wife tells me not to take it personally. Perhaps that is how Trump supporters have felt for a generation.
I feel that the nation has been whiplashed back half a century.
*****
Every morning the dog chases the car, but never quite catches it. Then, one morning, the car is a little slower, the dog a little more energetic, the dog draws level and bites into the moving tire, “Chomp!!!”
The conservatives just caught the car and, as that old saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for, you might get all you want.”
*****
“It’s the end of the world as we know it,” but I do not feel fine.
Thank you for providing me space to vent and grieve.
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As a "brexited" Brit...I can empathise with your pain .... it would appear that large parts of the western world wants to return to 1958.....
I don't think we are in Kansas any more......I'm not sure that we are in "demoracies" any more,,,,,
it seems we find ourselves in an "idiocracy"
I am full of anger and rage. I wanted to burn the flag, now I hear that you can no longer do that. I thought it was freedom of expression. There is a lot of blame to go around. Hillary fucked up in the rust belt. I am in Michigan, which used to be a blue state. Now red. I have hated the south for most of my life. You can judge a book by it's cover now. What I despise more than trump are the people who out him in!
No this is not the best country to be in. We suck! At least half of us do! I am persecuted for being an Atheist and also a Liberal. Yesterday I found myself cursing that god again. I am not a very good atheist it seems. I am a work in progress I guess.
More than anything I blame the church. trump had people go in and tell them how to vote. How do such ignorant people walk this planet? A lot is hate. I sum it up and generalize it like this. christians, the kkk, bikers, veterans, people that drive pick ups, country music, and other assorted loons did this. I loved George Carlin, ( a great atheist). He advocated in his comedy killing these people because they were so stupid.
Now the new Hitler wants us to heal and come together. Fuck him, no way never! It is over and there is no time machine to advance us four years into the future. Biff from back to the future II is in control and we are fucked! I am going to drink. Peace to atheists. christians? Go jump off a roof top!
Woah, calm down pal, it's not the end of the world. Trump isn't the next hitler, I highly doubt that the church had any significant impact on the election, and I don't think there's anything wrong about desiring unity. You're pissed, I get it, while I don't despise Trump I do wish we had far better candidates. But it is what it is, and the world ISNT going to end, so just take a deep breath.
I'm really hoping that he lied his ass off just to get elected, that he is not seriously intending to do some of the really backwards things he said he would. Like building the wall, revoking the Johnson Amendment, etc.
His victory speech was nothing like his campaign...
It was a great chuckle when the former Mexican President said of Donald Trump: ‘I’m not going to pay for that fucking wall’
My biggest chuckle came when Trump was saying the military wouldn't follow Hillary because she is a woman. One of the joint chiefs denied this and referred to Trump as "the unhinged candidate".
Well, there already is a wall, or series of small walls rather. Not a very good one, but it exists. He probably just meant he wants to upgrade border security, which I don't think is bad at all. I honestly think he's not as conservative as he makes himself out to be, most politicians aren't as conservative or liberal as they say they are.
"I highly doubt that the church had any significant impact on the election."
Are you kidding me? From my perspective as a white guy from the Bible Belt, that is, single-handedly, THE most significant nametag that got him into the whitehouse -- religious. Racism, misogyny, homophobia, fundamentalism and a rejection of science are alive and well in the modern church. I know these people. I was brought up with them and am surrounded by them. These self-righteous a-holes elected a guy who got off on walking in on naked, young beauty contestants just because he could. A bully who never had a new idea in his life. Or course, we will survive but dark days are ahead for truth and the common good.
I meant that I don't think they had a DIRECT significant impact on the election. I live in the same Bible Belt as you, and am well aware of the influence the church has here. But at the end of the day, what politician doesn't identify as Christian? Even good old Hillary believed in the "Mighty Savior" Jesus Christ. I didn't hear much about religion during this entire election in all honesty.
I completely agree with you! I cannot believe the women in my area that voted for him. They all tout strong "christian values" but find nothing wrong with his blatant misogyny. He looks at women as conquests, another notch on the belt. Which is utterly disgusting because he is not attractive physically and has the emotional range of a mushroom. The only reason I can see for his large vote with religious right is Mike Pence. Which is a whole other discussion. His legislative practices are limited to his 1950's values and complete indoctrination. Mike Pence is the one who scares me. He believes that his religion is the right one and that the state can use that religion to legislate morality and reproductive rights. His push was to the pro-lifers and I know just from my facebook feed that they voted to "protect life" which is also another discussion.
And who will build that wall? All the construction guys that I see and hear speak Spanish.
The nuclear codes thing scares the shit out of me. I do not want to go to a major city for fear of retaliation from whoever. I have no idea how the sane members of the military are going to be able to stop a genocide from happening if Trump commands something stupid. It is a war crime and they swore an oath to the constitution against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC, and by extension the geneva convention and the rest of international law. They are not dumb and see the problem. Maybe some generals who take shifts at the the pentagon and intercept all codes and only relays them if they make military sense. But that is a gray area of the law at best.
This is what I hope:
Once Trump does something stupid enough and his popularity has waned a little, Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan will cut a deal and remove Trump. It is legal and all of them know it is a good idea.
And for those of you who have lost hope...this democracy has gone through trouble before and somehow managed to get through it. A civil war, a great depression, a world war to fight in two theaters and a dangerous cold war. Keep hope alive.
As much as i despise everything about Trump they shouldn't just depose him. It would be treason and a coup d'etat. How would that differentiate us from some third world country that goes through convulsions everytime their is a change in dictator? Jefferson feared putting too much power in the hands of the masses. He was afraid something like this might happen. Checks and balances? Executive -Republican; senate - Republican; House - Republican; Judiciary - 4/4 split. Soon to be 5/4 conservative.
However the great American experiment has plugged away for 240 years. We'll weather this storm, too. Remember, that which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger.
@dancingfool
I am not arguing for deposing him. While I did not say it I am arguing for removal from office as the constitution provides. It is all very legal. Ryan et al in the house impeach him. McConnell et al in the Senate convict him then Pence becomes president.
The screamer for history would be if Pence casts the tie breaker vote in the Senate.
I'm sure the US has plenty of checks and balances to keep a loose cannon president under control. And if worst comes to worst, he'll probably get invited to ride through Dallas in an open car.
Seriously though, I think the US needs to make its electoral system a bit more proportionate. America's a big diverse country, yet you still have an all-or-nothing approach to elections. There were four candidates in this election. Three of them got nothing, despite polling substantial numbers of votes. Instead of just having two parties, you should create a system that ensures smaller parties get a voice based on their share of the popular vote. Both the Republicans and the Democrats would be improved by having to form coalitions with parties representing minority interests.
And for the sake of sanity, hold your elections on the weekend. F*** the sabbath.
One of those checks and balances is the free press, and by their own admission, they failed miserably to hold DT to account during the past 15 months.
Additionally, he has expressed more than a passing interest in curtailing their powers.
Are you kidding me? The media the entire election focused pretty much only on Trump and his faults. The media didn't fail anyone.
Or maybe just get rid of all parties and run solely on popular vote.
"During the past 24 hours, the majority of the American electorate has completely refuted and rejected those values that I hold most dear". Last I knew, HRC won the popular vote. So as dismal as it seems (and it is), the majority of Americans did vote for sanity.
Hi Sam,
Yes you are correct. When I wrote that it was early and I was in a state of shock. However, if he has cabinet secretaries who anti data based science (e.g. climate change), the damage will still occur.
He had a prime opportunity to demonstrate leadership last night. Instead of calling for all U.S. citizen to work together, of the overnight riots, he tweeted how unfair they are to him.
To the OP, get over yourself. Just for one second consider your high-brow opinion of yourself as cannon fodder for a proletariat who do not need you, nor your opinion, around anymore. They want to rebuild what's important to them and are perfectly aware they'll need to do it organically, without political slight of hand and featherbedding, without a bottle-fed population reared on big government, and are equally aware of the need not to lower the bar to do it but to rid themselves of it completely. Call it national renewal.
It was neither an election, nor a party voted in. It was a revolution for a movement not unlike the Brexit. Abby Hoffman spoke of it many years ago when he strutted around in a shirt tailored from an American flag as he resolved to personally bring a war against an administration that was killing people in SEA.
Liberals, aka the American Demolition Party, brought it on single handedly by their incessant character assassination of a country that hosted their freedom to be vocally stupid, unerringly insulting and economically manifest in allowing a country's manufacturing power to depart with a Bronx Wave. And, the promise of its administration should it have continued would have been more of the same. Whoot...err...good riddance.
It isn't so much a promise of a turn-around in waiting. It's a relief from what proved to be unworkable and self-perpetuating. You don't need to be an atheist or an evolutionist to get a grip on that but you do need to know a thing or two about economics, finance and how it distributes wealth in a system of free enterprise. Few people have that insight and those who do tend to be powerful people who run the political machinery the likes of the out-going administration.
How many people did Obama employ? How many people does Trump employ? Does the former deal with all the human factors of a muliti-cultural organization that must co-exist to bring about a common good? No. It has no control over that whatsoever, never has and never will. Does the latter? Yes. A business organization is much more intimately sensitive to such issues and unlike a government that has zero accountability to its citizenry, a corporation lives and dies by the success of its people. Lee Iacocca, who was the godfather of the Ford Mustang and later as the CEO who revitalized the bankrupt Chrysler Corporation once said "Take away my machines and I'll be back within a year. Take away my people and I'm done." He and his ilk, not unlike Trump, are men of action and clear conscience of what people need for their own betterment. Their methods may not be the most politically puffed and stuffed but we're done with that nonsense now.
The machinery of government is not the overriding aspect establishing the success of a people. It's the people themselves ("...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - Gettysburg Address - Abraham Lincoln) who were made subservient to the political machinery that even the vote could not alter away from embedded political norms that were extant and in direct opposition to the good of a nation. The political landscape offered no clear evidence of that relief until Trump bullied his way through it.
Feel better about yourself. Sometimes you gotta break a few eggs to get the perfect omelette.
Wholeheartedly agreed. Though I am probably the only person on the website to do so.
Liberals, the demolition party? Republicans are for de-regulation. Let corporations decide not to pollute. Yea right! Climate deniers, tax the poor and middle class to death, give welfare to the corporations and feed the rich and very powerful. Ever hear of the Koch brothers? Seems like we have some closet conservative here.
If you are not outraged by this, then you are not paying attention. Trump is a sociopathic narcissist, authoritarian NAZI!
Everybody thought Hitler wasn't that bad either. People have been hoodwinked. Don't anyone tell me t calm down! This is some serious shit we are dealing with. No more checks and balances. They have the house, the senate and the white house. The White supremacist house! The KKK and hate groups feel like they have a free pass now, and already hate crimes are all over the place because of this. Impeach him? Why? So Pence, a man who has been imprisoning gay's and lesbians just for applying for a marriage license for a year and a half, a man who wants to pray away he gay. No abortion anymore. A conservative supreme court which will surely change the country and not for the better. Paul Ryan already starting with his medi-care voucher program. Lack of governing is the problem. Not the government, that sounds like a republican talking. YES, the fucking church has had it's hand in politics since Reagan. This places of brain washing should be taxed.
Socialism is what this country needs. If you are for trump, you are the enemy. If you are not outraged and either drinking or depressed, then you either did not vote to keep that sicko out of the white house, or you were for him. We are all fucked. Wake Up!!!!!!
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-Benjamin Franklin
Good quote...
"We will build a great wall along the southern border." - Donald Trump
"I think that we should definitely disallow any Muslims from coming in. Any of them." - Donald Trump
He's surrounding himself with homophobics, anti-abortionists and generally religious nutcases. I don't understand your view on freedom in relation to Donald Trump.
Pitar I wholeheartedly disagree with you. You often wax philosophical even though I think your philosophy flawed. Just because you post with a poetic flair doesn't make it sound intelligence nor wisdom.
Trump is a hardened criminal, self-entitled, that has never answered to anyone or for anything. The people that voted for Trump are brainwashed fools that have been guided against their own self-interest. Trump has stated and there is no reason to not believe him, that he wants to "burn the Fed down". Since this is EXACTLY what ALL conservaturds want, from Ted Cruz to Rick Perry. I am quite sure that Trump will completely ignore the law, and the rest of the repukes that put party over nation, will follow right along and let him do what ever he wants.
As a retired Vet, I am scared that he will jack with MY retirement, MY SS, and other "entitlements" THAT I EARNED AND ARE MINE.
The problem here is the support that Trump will get by the impotent GOP elected. The "people" only have power if they are properly represented. So invoking the Gettysburg Address is mute.
Trump's aim here is to recreate our nation into an oligarchy (a republican desire in the first place).
Rather than the relative merits of conservatism/socialism, Democrats/Republicans/Trump/Clinton, I'd be more interested in a discussion about the role of the church and religion in the recent US election.
Let us start with:
Thou shall not commit adultery,
Thou shall not bear false witness,
Thou shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and
… thou shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is ample evidence that Little Donny violated all these edicts many times, and yet, and yet, millions of good little Christians still voted for him, thereby committing one of the Seven Deadly Sins, namely Hypocrisy.
What does that say about the role of religion?
@Alembe
"What does that say about the role of religion?"
I don't think Christian voters chose Trump because they thought he was a good Christian. He obviously isn't. I'm sure he's covered all of the Deadly Sins with the possible exception of sloth (he's a busy little B, isn't he). DT is very good at appealing to fear and anger. He found some very big angry mobs and started shouting with them. He's also very good at making himself look and sound like an ordinary working man with the same concerns and weaknesses. There must be a big crossover between economically depressed, frightened, middle/working class whites and conservative christians.
But wasn't god on both sides in this election? I recall reading comments here about preachers using their pulpits to to promote Hillary Clinton.
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